Archive, March 2008

27 Mar 2008 Capitalism runs amuck In one of my recent cruises around myspace, I swung by my friend Leela’s page, to see if there was any chance she was gonna grace us with her presence soon. I was very excited to see Calgary on her tour itinerary for a Juno show. At the time, I couldn’t find any info on the Junos website though. I found it today. There are four limited access shows including the Aboriginal showcase, where Leela will be performing. And tickets are only $50 each! What!?!? They also have JunoFest, which takes place at about 15 venues simultaneously. Each venue runs from 10pm-2am showcasing 4 artists and it goes for two nights. So for a measly $30, you can get a wristband that will let you try and figure out how to see your four favorite artists at venues across the city simultaneously. However designed this monstrocity ought to have horrible things happen to them. In the interests of my own sanity and my already large entertainment budget for this month, I’ve decided to skip the whole mess. Ciao! 7:41 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

25 Mar 2008 It wasn’t Easter, but it was sure spiritual I have to start by saying that I’m typing this on my NEW computer at work which is FANTASTIC, but until I track down an adaptor, I’m stuck with this lousy keyboard, on which I pre-emptively blame all typos (and grammatical errors, too. Heck, why not?) Driving from Banff to Calgary is like fast forwarding through humanity’s technological development while being beaten over the head with it’s moral and aesthetic decline. We left Banff on Saturday night around 11:00pm and it was beautiful. Just cool enough to make your pockets inviting, with a giant round moon. (I don’t think it was technically full, but it was close enough for the naked eye.) As we rolled down the highway, the moonlight was like a search beacon, reflecting off the sheets of snow on the mountains and creating a jagged horizon of dark stone against the bluer sky. Making our way out of the mountains and into the foothills, there began to be more evidence of humanity. In the daytime, it’s depressing how many more people are living in that area than I remember from my childhood, but at night, the single porchlights scattered around just seem comforting. And then you come over that last hill and there it is: Calgary. Depending on my mood it’s either the "sodium glow" or the "mutant phosphorescent slime mold". There’s nothing like that orange light filling the sky for as far as you can see to reinforce your understanding that there are too many damn people on this planet. And if we can’t learn to control our prodigious procreating, we should at least learn to live without making the place so depressingly ugly. It’s true that there can be moments of beauty within a metropolis, but as a whole they have nothing to recommend them and we never come close to replacing the cost of what’s lost. Sigh. The reason we were in Banff though, was definitely a high point! Hawksley Workman was playing at the Banff Centre and it was mind blowing. In the past, I’ve always seem him together with Mr. Lonely. This time, he’s put together a band of five, including Jesse Zubot. So we had a flute, sax, alto sax, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, a banjo, a violin, a child’s drum kit, a child’s piano, a full drum kit, several synthesizers and a whole collection of tambourines, rattles and shakers. The high point of the show was still Hawksley’s amazing and always unanticipatable voice, but with that much sound behind it... wow. He did most of the songs off the new album "Between the Beautifuls", plus a very generous handful of old stuff. And the usual segues into other tunes, ranging from Beyonce to Culture Club to Kiss. And no one who was there will ever forget about the Glacier People, gathered together around the enormous margarita! We dragged him back out for two encores - poor guy! Ciao! 8:14 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

19 Mar 2008 Urban nature, pain and music For the last couple of weeks, there have been two pairs of geese perched respectively on the roof of the Health Science Center and the Women’s Health Center. They weren’t there every morning, but quite frequently, they would be squawking at each across the parking lot as people streamed in to work. I wondered if they were considering the rooftops as nesting areas - a bit lacking in water and plant life, but what do I know? Or maybe they’d already nested somewhere and were just time-sharing on the roofs for a change of pace? And then this morning, there was only one pair of geese. It seems early to say for sure, but maybe they were competing for the "choice" roof and now this pair has won? I dunno, but I’ve got to remember to bring my camera with me! In other news, Stuart and I were recently considering our options for backcountry camping this summer - you have to book sites pretty early. We decided on a trip to North Kananaskis Pass and a loop through Waterton parks, and I think they should both be amazing. However, reading the descriptions, I realized that I had to start getting in shape or Stuart was gonna have to bury me somewhere along the trail. His gym membership had expired, so off we went to the University and bought a family membership. Monday was my first real workout and as anticipated, I’m feeling it. My arms were sore on yesterday, but then I gave Stuart a shiatsu treatment. I woke up this morning with a right triceps so stiff that I can’t bend my elbow. Ouch! We go back tonight and I’m going to introduce my legs to this whole concept - if I can’t walk tomorrow, I’ll be sure and blog from home. It’s been a musical sort of month. Last weekend, we got to see Gordie Tentrees open for Suzie Vinnick and Rick Fines. Wow! The next day we went to see a really impressive "brunch theater" version of The Little Shop of Horrors. Saturday we’re off to Banff again, to see Hawksley Workman touring his new album and next weekend Danny Michel is in town. Plus I just discovered that Leela is doing some kind of Junos related performance in April that I need to get more information on. Isn’t life fun? Ciao! 4:40 - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

05 Mar 2008 Life is a soap opera Mom called me last night to let me know that Marghie (The Hair Goddess) is divorcing her husband of 22 years. What?!?!?! It turns out he's been cheating on her with one of her best friends, Jill. Who just lost her partner to brain cancer. I didn't think that stuff like this happened in real life. At any rate, this has all apparently come to light in the last week, so at this stage, Marghie has moved out her stuff and not much else. I'd say she's coping well, except that I doubt it's all had time to sink in yet. In other news, Stuart's sister was back in Emergency last night, after an initial visit on the weekend. We've never had a chance to talk to her, so we're a bit sketchy on the details of symptoms, duration, etc. but so far all diagnostic tests have come up clear. Of course, because of the family history of HHT, Delaine is convinced it's related to that, regardless of the evidence. And from Stuart's end of a conversation I overheard this morning, she's not willing to consider that it might be something as prosaic as stress/panic attack. 'Cause that family doesn't have a history of getting worked up about stuff, oh no... Anyway, must run to another exciting PeopleSoft course. Wheeeeee! Ciao!