1. When I was in New York City at the beginning of the month, transit boss Roger Toussaint was being released from jail. He spent 3 days of a ten day sentence for leading an illegal transit strike.


    Toussaint began serving a 10 day sentence for his part in leading a walkout that stopped city transit in New York City. The walkout brought the city to a halt just before Christmas last year and violated a state law banning strikes by public employees. He was accompanied to jail by thousands of supporters in a walk from the Brooklyn Supreme Court across the Brooklyn Bridge.
    As well the union was fined "2.5 million dollars and suspension of automatic due deductions to all members for striking."

    Dear Bob Kinnear: You should be so lucky.
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  2. Confession time. I don't own an i-pod. (If anybody knows a better name for this feature, I would like to hear it). I use the term as a generic to mean MP3 player. I own an RCA Lyra 40 gig MP3 player. At least I did, until about 6 weeks ago when it stopped working. Two days ago, I plugged it in to my computer, smacked it on the desk a few times and voila! I am back in the MP3 business. For the past 6 weeks, I have been using a Sony portable CD player, although in fairness, it plays MP3s. So for the last while it has really been, this week in my CD player, which is an alright title. In that time I bought a few new CDs, four I think. The first thing I did when my MP3 player started working was not back it up (which I cursed myself daily for not doing in the past six weeks), but burn those new CDs onto my MP3 player. It makes no difference to you, I'm sure, but I felt like offering that story.

    One of the CDs, the first one I burned, has been my favourite the past two weeks. It is the Bachman Cummings Songbook, a collection of songs from Randy Bachman and Burton Cummings' three main careers: The Guess Who (Both), BTO (Bachman) and Burton Cummings solo material. The funny thing is, this collection works great because it fails to bore. By the time you are thinking, that's about all the Guess Who I can take for one day, your listening to BTO. Nice change. Tired of BTO five songs in? That's OK, here comes Burton Cummings. Simply put, the gear changes effectively keeps this CD interesting.

    For a review, I offer this, which I did a few weeks ago on my Canadian music blog. In this spot, I'll offer a few more random thoughts.

    Guitar players often talk about the song, the one song that started it for them. Jimmy Page has Elvis's Baby, Let's Play House as the song that made him say "I have to be able to do that!" For me, it was BTO's Takin' Care of Business. Thus, Randy Bachman was my first guitar hero and I have been a Randy Bachman fan since I was 12 years old. This set then, brings back a lot of memories. There was these two guys in a band who lived up the street from me. They borrowed my copy of Four Wheel Drive and learnt to play Hey You in half an hour. First Rock song I learnt to play on my own? Let it Ride. (For that matter the only piano song I have ever learnt by ear is Cummings My Own Way To Rock.)

    It strikes me, however, how much better these guys are separately. The BTO music is far better then the Guess Who stuff, as is the Cummings stuff. Songs like Break It To Them Gently, I'm Scared and I Will Play A Rhapsody are wonderful songs, that eclipse the best of the Guess Who stuff (and as I lament in my review, Dream of a Child is both gorgeous and missing). What is more remarkable is that the Guess Who stuff is excellent. And that, at the end of the day is what is so good about this collection. The weakest material is better than the best of most artists. And it's Canadian eh? Who could ask for more?
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    Labels: This Week on my I-Pod
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  3. I have been enjoying the Stephen Harper Ottawa Press Gallery cat fight in a very visceral way. It has been amusing, especially amusing is how out of joint the press guys noses have gotten about not being catered too. Imagine if you will, the pile on that would occur if a politician complained about losing privilege the way the press gallery has. Don't even imagine; think back to David Dingwall's entitlements. That's exactly what the press sounds like.

    But on another level, I think this is good for our country, although probably ultimately bad for Stephen Harper.

    For years the Liberal's have been spoon feeding the media soundbites, little stories that they could print and look like they are doing their job. Journalists are just like garbagemen, who are just like auto workers, who are just like teachers, accountants &tc. They want to get their job done, and get home/to the bar/to wherever they want to go. Feed them a story, they can write it up, get their job done efficiently, and get on with what they want to get done. Stephen Harper has made it harder for them to do that.

    The media would tell you that two contradictory things about their job: a) it is, out of necessity, adversarial; b) the people they cover ought not be adversarial with the press. I happen to believe 'a' is correct. But when press gallery and politician get too close, what happens? It is harder for the press to take on an adversarial role. Ask any sports reporter who covers a team and they will tell you, they cannot spill the beans about what a jerk Tie Domi is, or they lose access. Reporters are not learning about Barry Bonds steroid use now, the rumours have always been there. Report them, and lose access.

    So it goes in politics. Like the Barry Bonds steroid story, which would have been reported ten years ago if an adversarial relationship occurred between the press and the players/teams they cover, so it is with politicians. While the press gallery in Ottawa was getting along nicely with
    Jean Cretien in the foyer, the real news was happening in the parliamentary broom closets. Shouldn't we have known about Adscam years ago, shouldn't reporters, doing their job, have sniffed this one out.

    I have always believed something like Adscam, or HRDC wouldn't have happened in the US, simply because their press would have been all over these stories. I also happen to believe that once the press gallery gets used to not having access, they will go sniff out the real stories. And that is good for our democracy, but probably bad for Stephen Harper.
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  4. When I started this blog, I promised myself I was going to ignore negative celebrity slurs - I don't care if Madonna wants to crucify herself for her art, I merely wish she would do it all ready and leave the rest of us alone. I don't want to bad mouth Teri Hatcher, and not because I understand how hard it is to be that beautiful and that rich. Today, I violate my rule; forgive me, it is meant in the spirit of fun (as in, there where just too many jokes to hold in).

    It is being reported that, Britney...(came) home to find him guzzling booze and smoking pot.
    Let the Jokes Begin:

    Why is the wife always the last one to know?

    What did she think he was doing, working?

    Kevin Federline smoking Pot, this is so disappointing. Next thing someone will be suggesting Keith Richards had some drink in him before climbing the coconut tree.

    When you go husband hunting in a trailer park, don't be surprised if you catch trailer trash.

    Maybe he was celebrating his successful career.
    Whew, they're out. I feel better!
    Feel free to use the comments section to add your own Kevin and Britney joke.
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  5. Ever notice that we give our government controlled monopolies motherhood titles in Canada. The CBC is The Mother Corp., Bell Canada is Ma Bell. I'm surprised Rogers isn't The Cable Matron or Ontario Hydro the Power Dowager. Why these motherhood titles to monolithic entities?


    I suspect it is to make them feel good, so that if someone comes along and wants to gut them it will become a motherhood issue. And of course, you must elect the Liberal's if you want to protect the Mother Corp., and by extension motherhood.

    It's like the neighbourhood brothel: the whore masters yell motherhood hoping you won't notice the real business they are in.
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  6. "Go ahead-make my day"

    Today in the London Free Press yet another article ("PM shoos press gallery") about the playground battle between the Parliamentry Press Gallery and PM Stephen Harper.

    All conducted to the sound of Raging Canadian Indifference.

    Perhaps we might be more interested if the headline were to read:
    "PM shoots press gallery"

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  7. There have been so many people in rock and roll the past forty years. Thousands of artists and groups making records, making us dance. So many artists, yet so few who can credibly say they changed the way rock and roll is played.

    Bob Dylan changed the face of folk music the day he picked up a Fender Stratocaster, and in so doing changed rock and roll.

    For that, for Tangled Up In Blue, for Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, and for giving us The Band...

    Happy 65th Birthday Bob Dylan.
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  8. Close your eyes.

    Imagine this.

    You have a 1.5 Million dollar Bugati Veyron with an 8,000 CC quad-turbocharged 64 valve W 16 aluminum engine and a top speed of over 250 miles/hour.

    How's that working out for you Tom Cruise?
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  9. When I started blogging, Richard over at Cannuckistan Chronicles (now Let Freedom Reign) was looking for some contributors. I was hmmming and hawing about starting a blog, and thought it would be a good way to see if I enjoyed it, was any good at it, had any time for it. Three other people joined the fray, KnightofGoodMrIronMan, Pete in Midland and Wonder Woman.

    Wonder Woman is funny, sexy, controversial and one of the great female writers of the Blogging Tories (we have a bunch). Upheaval and, apparently, contentment in her personal situation has led her to give up her blog, A North American Patriot.

    It is with heavy heart that I say farewell to one of my daily reads. Always funny, always intelligent and always with a great picture to illustrate her story, Wonder Woman is a habit, and I'm sorry I shall have to kick it.

    Good Luck Wonder Woman: I wish you every happiness.
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  10. I took a Dan Brown Fan to see the movie rendition of The Da Vinci Code Sunday night. The movie was playing at 6:30, 7:00, 8:00, 9:00, 9:30 and 10:00. For all those showings, the viewing I went too was as full as any movie I have been to in years; it was, in fact, full.

    The critics have, of course, universally panned this movie. The one star and one and a half star reviews are patently unfair. This may not be Citizen Cane, but it's not a bad movie either.

    I had a couple of small problems with the film, and both of them where technicalities: On two or three occasions they put in a scene where something jumps at a character unexpectedly, creating a quick shock. This is effective movie making - in Carrie when the hand jumps out of the grave sane people poo their pant's. It's dumb, unnecessary and cheap in the Da Vinci Code.

    The Da Vinci Code is a great drama, and most of the movie is very effective as a drama. However, director Ron Howard throws action scenes into the mix, and often milks them as though a James Bond movie just occurred. It is awkward and, again, unnecessary.

    But these complaints are, in truth, quibbles. The movie is well acted, well shot and well interpreted. It is not a clear case of "the book was soooo much better." This was of comparable quality to the book. It has been a while since I read the book but I could think of no points in the book that was cut.

    Bottom line, this was a pretty good book, and if you enjoyed the book you will probably enjoy the movie. If you've never read the book, you could do worse than see this movie this spring.

    I leave the last word to Lady Hespeler, the Dan Brown fan, who said the following as soon as we got in the car after the movie:

    "I don't care what the critics say; it was a great movie."
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