A pretty common theme on this here blog has been the inevitable marching of time. Any look back is met with some level of incredulity and some other level of amazement to have made it this far. That is an even more common theme this time of year as the clock rolls on and into another year. And this time into another decade. And of course that passage of time is marked by lists, lists, and more lists!. Right now, though, I am remembering where I was 10 years ago tonight. I was at a Phish concert in Big Cypress, Florida, after having driven for 30+ hours in an RV with 8 guys. It was fantastic. We had as much fun as people probably should and then some. It's difficult to find a picture that does it justice but I think the one above comes pretty close. It probably should have marked the end of my childhood but I've heard that 40 is the new 30 which means that I'm the same age now as I was in the photo. Time is elastic!
I'm happy to say that, after a decade, I'm still great friends with all the guys in that picture and all the guys in that RV. It's been a unbelievable run in my rugby world and my club feels like my family. Most importantly, although we lost Diane 5 years ago, the last 10 years were generally good for my actual family and I must say I come from the sturdiest 'broken' home I can imagine. So as I look back I make no lists but just playback the memories of a very fortunate son.
That is a picture of the Pacey boys at the MacAfee's for Christmas Eve Roast Beast dinner. I think it is the only picture taken of me over the Christmas weekend. I'm ok with that, I'm quite certain you would have been able to see the weight gain from Thursday to Monday. It was a good few days off and great time spent with friends and family.
Back in the office today and things were predictably slow. Not too many people bothered to go to work for this stubby week in the US. So I was doing a little surfing and in my virtual travels came across a handy little guide that I will keep for reference under the heading of Papa Don't Preach. You see, Dad is a regular reader of the blog and he sometimes subtly reminds me that I should give my posts more than just a cursory edit before publishing them. And sometimes he points and laughs when I misuse then for than. But only because I've got that one wrong forever and over again.
As for the others on the list; I do, continually, have to use some variation of the tricks described to make sure I've got its or it's correct and almost always put an 'a' in definitely before correcting myself. I have never made the mistake of using loose for lose though. Ever. I hope.
Dad returned from Hawaii last night after being delayed a couple of hours due to the onset of actual winter. So from the land where palm trees sway to the land where the snow-covered pines sway. He came home to a full on winter storm and didn't have a winter jacket packed so when we arrived at the airport (fashionably late) he was freezing. No kidding, he was coming from 31 Celsius on the beach in Maui to -4 in Freddy Beach. Mind you it could have been a lot worse and he could have come home to -30 if he arrived a week ago.
The storm is still raging and there is no doubt that we will get a white Christmas this year. And that means we'll get to hear lots of this classic Christmas song. But with Dad coming home from Hawaii, this song holds special significance:
We're glad you're home dad, we'll keep you warm. We would be open to a Hawaiin Christmas adventure though. I'd be up for getting lei'd at Christmas too!
I took some joy last week in reminding anyone who thought we were having a cold winter thus far that last week wasn't even, in fact, winter. Unofficially it started a few weeks ago when the snow came to stay and was in full swing when we went through a full on deep-freeze for a day or two last week. But officially, Winter starts today, the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year. On the downside the shortest day is not the coldest day - those days are yet to come. On the upside, however, they days are, from this point on, getting longer. It's a slow process with some dark (and fahking cold!) days to come but there is increasing light at the end of the tunnel.
I went and saw Christmas at the Playhouse on Saturday. The show was very good from beginning to end. It helped that Will was one of the baritones in the choir but I don't think my family bias skewed my opinion much; it was very entertaining. They ended the show with a song I wouldn't have associated with Christmas until I remembered Bill Murray's Scrooged. It's a pretty timeless Christmas message so that works for me. And it's light as can be so that works pretty well for the shortest and darkest day of the year.
"Are you ready for Christmas?" they asked. I'm not exactly sure what they meant but I assumed no so that was the answer they got. I don't have a tree, I haven't bought any gifts and I haven't had a rum and egg nog yet. On the flipside the liquor cabinet has been stocked and I spent at least a few minutes enjoying some Christmas music. So I guess the right answer to their question is...partially.
This is the weekend that the holiday season really kicks into gear. Homeboys and girls come home and the fun begins. I may even start my Christmas shopping tomorrow...then again maybe not.
Here is the one surefire way to know that I am getting the spirit of the season:
"Throw your arms around the world, at Christmas time". If you say so Boy George.
This great photo (Ray Bourgeois) appeared in the Gleaner the other day. It is a cool shot, very striking. As I read the caption I realized it was a view I had seen many times walking down MacKay Dr. before is does it's big sweep left to meet University Ave at the UNB gate. It's the exact same view as the top of what was Buchanan Hill. This was the sliding hill of my youth. It is now home to one of the largest construction projects in the city and future home of the Richard J. Currie Center at UNB. The center will be a new (and overdue) state-of-the-art gym and convocation hall whose visitors will enjoy the same view as the construction worker above with better insulation. I am glad it is being built but there is a large, nostalgic part of me that was very sad to see construction start there last year.
When I was young we spent large chunks of our winter bombing down that hill on a toboggan, crazy carpet, intertube, or, later on, Beaver Bogs made out of Beaver Foods cafeteria trays. It was an absolutely fantastic sliding hill. Steep and fast and long but not so long the walk back up was too much. There may have been opposition to the development but it did not come from wistful sliders like me. In fact, thanks to one too many stupid kids slamming into the telepone pole light stanchion in the middle of the hill sliders and their sleds had been banned from the hill for over a decade. I probably hadn't slid down it in the two decades before it was dug up but I am nevertheless sad to see it go and sad to think that local snotnosed kids won't have a place to drag their sleds to when a new snowfall comes every winter. Luckily I still have some good memories. I caught air off an air bump at the bottom of the hill going top speed on a GT Racer and it was the first time I ever felt like I could fly. I landed clean and slid all the way to the fence on the other end of Buchanan Field. I was the king of the snotnosed kids that day.
Nancy and the Gleaner pointed out that this December is a rarity in that there are two full moons that fall within it. Depending on which definition you use the second full moon, which occurs on New Year's Eve, could be considered a Blue Moon. Another definition only considers a moon 'blue' when it occurs for the fourth time in one season of the year. In that case the fourth moon of any season is considered a Blue Moon. For the next instance of that definition you'll have to wait until November 21st next year. A Blue Moon for my birthday, sweet.
The terminology is not literal; it does not refer to a moon that appears blue. The origin of the term 'blue' moon is debated and that friggin' wiki doesn't give me any answers. It did reveal this much though; the Blue Moon, under any of the various definitions, is indeed rare and that is where the term 'Once in a Blue Moon' comes from. The more you know.
And the more you drink the more you think you are as cool as Dean Martin:
This was the house on Henry a week or so ago when we got our first (real) snowfall. At this point, thanks to some poor planning on my part and some slow-ass service from Leachman's Plumbing (grumble, grumble) the Bakery had no heat. Happily, the furnace conversion was completed before the weekend and the house is once again toasty warm. Just in tme for the holiday hosting season! So if you are in the neighbourhood, come on in!
The picture above is actually from a series that Carson took that night and some of them are great: Very cool shots.
Shawn Graham's Liberals have been under all kinds of fire in the last year over major changes in the Education department and most recently and notably regarding the potential sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec. There have been other issues and even some positives. The opposition to the major policy proposals has been so loud though that any positive moves have been almost drowned out. There was some good news this week though; the Crown Reserve salmon leases will remain open and available to the fishing public.
It's been a couple of years since I was last able to take advantage of any of these great spots but I was worried upon hearing that the government was considering privatizing the operation. This is good news.
A few weeks ago I was dismayed (to put it lightly) to see that the Toronto Maple Leafs had added a Canadian flag to their Leaf Nation logo implying, not too subtly, that Canada is Leafs Nation. As an added affront Allen Frew, former lead singer of Glass Tiger(and a Scot), wrote a song Free to Be (a.k.a. The Leafs' Song) which inlcudes the line "Oh, oh, oh, this is Canada's team - Go Leafs Go!". The final straw came while watching the Leafs play the Habs in Montreal last weekend. CBC interviewed Toronto head coach Ron Wilson and asked what his favourite game in Montreal's illustrious history was. He said it wasn't a Montreal game but instead it was when his US team beat Canada in Montreal for the World Cup in '96. The interviewer responded by saying that that wasn't a great memory for too many Canadians. He smirked and said "Well we hope to do it to you again at the Olympics". So the self-proclaimed Canada's Team has a coach that is trash talking Canadians about the ACTUAL Canadian team and this is ok? I think not.
All this lead to me finally pulling some ammo out of my internet cache. Leafs fans in the center of the universe will be sad to see that, as a whole, when polled, Canadians actually named the Canadiens as Canada's team. Look it right here in this article - 'Habs, not Leafs are 'Canada's team' - from the Toronto Star no less. So a big 'up yours' to Allen Frew and any Leaf fan that believes his BS.
A commenter on a related article had it right - no professional team made up of paid professionals from all nations can, or even should, be presumptious enough to call itself Canada's team. That title goes to the National Team and that is that.
This is a little delayed but I needed to offer my review of TNB's It's a Wonderful Life because I consider myself an expert on the movie; simply because it moves me every time I see it.
I'll start out by saying I loved it. I had a good sense that I would when I heard director (and former Calithumpian) Caleb Marshall interviewed on CBC days before. He said this has been one of his favourite movies since childhood "whether I was watching it with family before Christmas or alone up late on Christmas Eve" and that "the last scene gets me every time". If anyone had ever asked, those could and would have been my quotes. That ending gets me everytime too and I had faith he would honour the movie as I would hope.
Their version was presented in an interesting format - "Our production pays homage to the classic film, but doesn't try to recreate it. We are staging the story in part as a 1940's radio drama, complete with live sound effects, radio jingles, and actors playing multiple characters." The story stayed true to the original almost to the letter. To top it off the performances were great as were the stage and sound effects. And yes, at the end, it may have got a little dusty in the theatre. Very cool play. Well done TNB, first rate production.
A few years ago I came across a book called 100 Suns. It was a photography book of a series of images of nuclear explosions. The photos of mushroom clouds from nuclear test blasts were incredibly compelling. Undeniably beautiful and yet undeniably frightening.
I thought of the book today when I watched this amazing clip of Steven Colbert play-acting an atomic blast and ending the clip by saying "Well, you made it ugly":
That's some fine acting right there. Brings those photos to life. so with that as a reach of a segue, I am this evening go to see Theatre New Brunswick's stage adaptation of one of my all-time favourite movies 'It's a Wonderful Life'. I'm very interested to see how true-to-the-original they keep it and whether their version will make me as happy as Capra's. I'm excited to find out.
In another reach of a segue here is this week's flashback song. As we approach the end of the decade I'll spend a little time reflecting on what happened to the last 10 years and some of the things I got to be a part of. One of the best shows I saw this decade was Michael Franti and Spearhead at the Commodore in Vancouver. This is one of the songs he played:
Right now, though, I am remembering where I was 10 years ago tonight. I was at a Phish concert in Big Cypress, Florida, after having driven for 30+ hours in an RV with 8 guys. It was fantastic. We had as much fun as people probably should and then some. It's difficult to find a picture that does it justice but I think the one above comes pretty close. It probably should have marked the end of my childhood but I've heard that 40 is the new 30 which means that I'm the same age now as I was in the photo. Time is elastic! 
