Listening to the radio on Halloween can be a torturous ordeal. There are only so many times you can hear Monster Mash without wanting to choke someone and Werewolves of London lost almost all of its appeal since I can't hit those high notes to sing along any longer. The list goes on and the fact is revealed that the music industry had never really been able to accurately capture the essence of Halloween, which is really about losing yourself in an alternate persona. Once song does come close to that though but only thanks to it's epic video. I am speaking of course of Thriller. Sometime during the filming Michael clearly lost himself in one of these characters and we've seen the results since.
On the other hand, this groundbreaking video has spawned some of the most interesting viral videos ever spread. Here are my two favourites found on the internets:
And this one really makes you wonder who the joke is:
I hope some kids show up at the house tonight. I need some cheeering up after hearing the news that the source of my '05 Halloween costume passed away today. I wonder if he dressed up like a ghost every year and called himself Rober Ghoulet? I hope so...
Spring Springs; Fall Falls, Summer Sings and Winter Calls...asking for a few minutes of your time for a short survery.
After the trees spring to life and the people follow with their fun in the sun, fall sets in and, despite the beauty of the changing leaves, everyone gets set for the onslaught of winter. The days get shorter, the nights get colder and the power bills start going up. Having said that, turkey dinners abound and rugby games usually mean more. Not to mention it's right in the middle of the NFL season AND hockey starts (and the Habs are still in it). All in all I'm a fan of fall; I just we could switch the order up once in a while. Like this year, summer comes after winter and spring after summer. Just to mix it up...let's ask the Chinese.
Speaking of dirty ground, the skies openned up for our game on Saturday so we played in a mudbowl of a provincial final but we did manage to get the win and play won more week for the Caledonia Cup; my favourite symbol of fall.
With all the talk the government leading the charge for conservation and concern for the environment you'd think that The Man would be all for ideas that are both good for the environment and good for business. That's not the case with the Canadian made electric car. ZENN cars are award winning electric powered cars built by in St. Jerome Quebec that sell for less then your typical gas powered 4-banger. Unfortunately for the Canadian consumer, The Man isn't making it easy for the carmaker.
I'm not sure what the hell this has to do with me, you and Friday but I just thought you should know.
Sometime this week is the Stormer's birthday. I don't know exactly when because he used his mind tricks on my and really threw me for a loop. He had me convinced that it was the 16th but then I remembered that he is a Scorpio so I knew it had to be later. Then he informed me that he was taking off today to go to Boston to soak up Baseball Fever in the heart of the Red Sox Nation.
Normy would like us to think that he doesn't divulge his birthdate because he doesn't want people to make a big deal. In reality, it is a big deal. In the GypNor religion a person's birthday is an intensely private time for reflection and rejoicing. Not to mention that in GypNor mythology Normy's current age is the same age that Cleopatra and Leif Ericson met, fell in love, and united the Kingdoms of Valhalla and Luxor (the sphinx used to have a nose AND a viking helmet - true story), so this is a key birthday for him.
So to celebrate he packed the modern day viking Mikey Edwards into the Viking Jeep Liberty and headed to Beantown to celebrate at the GypNor temple across from Fenway.
I asked him to bring me back a t-shirt and if he does I'll be cheering for the Sox and Papelboner for the rest of the Series.
I've only ever been a semi-interested baseball fan and with the Expos gone and the Blue Jays stuck behind the Yankees and Red Sox in the AL East that interest has gone altogether limp. But, with the Red Sox still in it and the Stormer still living in the house, the playoffs are being force fed to me this time around. It doesn't hurt that I actually do love watching playoff baseball. It also helps that Normy managed to find something that made me laugh enough that I will keep watching. This clip is what did it: Papelbon pitched the last two innings of last night's game but I didn't stay up long enough to see if he did the dance again. Besides that, his name is Papelbon and everytime he does something good I get to ask any Sox fans in the vicinity if he gives them a Papelboner and that's worth 4 hours of my time anyday.
I'm planning on showing this dance to all of my teamates in the hopes that we can do the Papelbon after winning this weekend.
Yesterday, Fredericton's own Goose Lane Editions released Bob Mersereau's book The Top 100 Canadian Albums. The title tells you all you need to know. The author organised a panel of artists and industry and media types to come together to vote on the best 100 albums in Canadian music history. It's a massive task to try and take all of the music of a country and boil it down to the top 100 but, at the same time, it's an incredibly fun exercise. I'm pretty sure we did this in one week at the SUB when I was skipping class in 1993 at UNB. I like the list; I think Neil Young belongs at or near the top of any top 100 Canadian anything list; from greatest artists, to greatest thinkers, and clearly, to greatest burnouts.
More then anything though, this kind of list makes for a wonderful Saturday night debate. Just to add my own twist to the debate here is what I would consider my Top 5 Canadian albums: 1) The Last Waltz - The Band 2) Gord's Gold - Gordon Lightfoot 3) Day for Night - The Tragically Hip 4) Harvest - Neil Young 5) Get Lucky - Loverboy
Allright the last one's a bit of a stretch particularly because I could put all of the Hip's albums in the rest of the slots in the top 10. It is great to see some both new and old local stuff in there too - Stan Rogers to Sloan and Joel Plaskett.
The best part is there is a ton of stuff missing from the list which just goes to show how much good music there is in Canada.
All the best ideas have already been thought of...but not necessarily perfected.
We were watching the news last week and, after learning of more deaths in Afghanistan, an oil spill in BC, another potential election, and two seperate transport accidents, we decided that no news is better then just hearing the bad news and shut it off.
Over the weekend we got to thinking that maybe there is a market for a news show that only shows the good news. Simple enough; we only show stories with positive endings and thereby paint the regular news as the "Bad News". One channel shows our programme at 6 right before by the regular news and another channel shows it at 6:30 right after the regular news. That way everyone is happy. I actually thought we were on to something and I found my purpose in life. Of course someone found it before me.
I was actually intrigued enough with the idea that it was the first thing I looked up when I got to the office this morning, and sure enough, several people beat me to it. This looks like the best of the bunch.
There is still hope though...I think there might still be a market for professionally reported good news. I get the impression those sites are maintained by mental patietns on Prozac or old women with houses full of cats.
One of the joys of having a foreign roommate is that you can tell harmless little lies to him just to see how gullible our brothers in the Old Countries are. I came across a story today and I can't wait tell Dave that "Yes, you are correct, the most common form of traditional transportation for Native Americans was the birch bark canoe, but some other tribes used huge hollowed-out pumpkins as vessels on inland waterways. And, in some places in rural Maine, people still do". I'm pretty sure it's the same as him trying to tell me that they eat sheep's stomach in Scotland.
The word you are looking for is tryptophan and here is the straight dope on what it does - check it.
After working (like a sucker) yesterday we booked of yesterday to Aunt Margie's for a traditional gathering and feast to celebrate thanksgiving. Man, do you I ever love a full spread. There is nothing quite like it and I've never been more happy to learn something as I was to learn that cranberry sauce really does go with turkey. Who knew?
In other news, today is John Lennon's birthday. In honour of this, everyone should listen to a little of his work...start here: Happy Thanksgiving!
Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik-1, the first satellite to be put into orbit. This is significant for a number of reasons. 1) Because it makes you wonder in amazement at how fast technology has moved since then and 2) because it affords me the opportunity to show you an absolutely classic example of non-sensical 80's new age pop. I did alot of bouncing to this song. Good times, good times.
Yesterday was the Annual CIBC Run for the Cure and the Loyalists had a team in the event after a few years being absent. It wasn't a big team but the important thing is that we had a team and that team was able to raise a few hundred dollars (thanks to my friends and family that donated!) for the cause.
It was an absolutely beautiful day, as these days usually seem to be, and there was a huge crowd. Most importantly over $26.5 million was raised nationwide. That's nuts. You can see where it goes here.
I first participated in the Run when Diane was battling cancer and actually spoke at the event. Her friends started a team called Dee's Divas and the highlight of my day yesterday was seeing them strutting into the finish line with her feather boas around their necks. The lowlight of my day was watching both Hunter and Rowney cross the finish line ahead of me knowing they had both played a rugby game the day before. I feel shame...and yet I was just happy to be there and that's the feeling I finished the day with. Good day, good day.
