Hatrock's Critique

Live blogging Wilco's album "The Whole Love"

2011-10-06T13:00:00.002-06:00

Ok, here we go!

1. "The Art of Almost" - It's got a modern Peter Gabriel feel to it that's for sure--proggy, earthy, innovative, symphonic, drony, but constantly groovy. It's long at over 7 minutes, but you get lost in it somewhere. The raunchy guitar solo work is on another planet. This song is saying, "There's a lot of others songs to come, but you gotta get through this one first." It's like an initiation.

2. "I Might" is a classic Wilco sound. Constant snare keeps it going. Deep thick bass and low guitar play a riff with the verses. Then the chorus opens up louder in a minor seventh. The organ and xylophone join in. Back to the verse. Ooh that low piano on every second bar mimicking the bass riff just rips! This song is all about that riff and instruments and voices come and go taking you on a journey where people get on and off. Almost like a subway with the speed of the song.

3. "Sunloathe" continues from the last song with no break but it's in a different key and slowed right down with ambience and a wavy piano arpeggio. Not really sure where this song is going. Seems like a contrast filler experimental. Very Beatlesesque, especially those vocal harmonies and the drumming is so Ringo it's ridiculous.

4. "Dawned On Me" returns to the classic Wilco sound that we just heard on "I Might". This seems like a better continuation of it. Constant snare again in parts and low fuzzy e-string that builds with instruments and sounds hopping on and off. Ooh, I like the bridge that opens up into the wacked. out. solo. short. Now he's whistling. I can't keep up with everything that's going on. This one will grow on me. The chorus has a memorable melody. Basslines are very McCartney-sounding.

5. "Black Moon" is a dark low picked acoustic guitar drone tone with Jeff and his smokey low voice. I love this kind of music... Sheryl Crow has done stuff like this before. The dojo steel rings and rounds out the whole song and the cellos take over really giving it an earthy feel. I can certainly see me driving through the mountains on this one. The orchestral work is brilliant, subtle, and necessary. The chord arrangements are bang on--kind of Blue Rodeoish at times. A very delicate but strong song.

6. "Born Alone" is a stripped down classic Wilco sounding song. But then the distant electric guitar takes off for a short time and stops. It almost reminds me of Sheryl Crow's "Everyday is a Winding Road"--the verse melodies and two chord timings. Almost. Then it's noisy with everyone joining in into a long one minute fade out.

7. "Open Mind" is a slowed down 6/8 timed countryish waltz. I love the tone of the electric guitar--definitely a Fender Strat and definitely the best part of this song.

8. "Capitol City" is a simple sounding ditty. Almost a British 1920's carnival sound. This song would fit on a soundtrack, with its pulsating strum and back and forth bass line.

9. "Standing O" is an anthemic rocker sounding like it was released by Elvis Costello in '78 with the wanky organ punches. The verses alternate between major and minor and the song rarely has a chance to breathe.

10. "Rising Red Lung" is another quiet acoustic picked tune with Jeff's low voice. It takes it's time to build up, but you get there and finally join. Melodies don't allow you to join in on any singing. It's more like an instrumental. Beautiful though.

11. "Whole Love" starts with a basic guitar riff for four bars then drums and Rhodes piano join in with lyrics and the song continues in a head bobbing riff with acoustic guitar strumming matching the drums.

12. "One Sunday Morning (Song for Jane Smiley's Boyfriend)" is a very acoustically driving song with guitars, piano, and snare brushes skipping along the rhythm. And there's the xylophone accent again! The song could almost be on Blue Rodeo's epic "Five Days In July" (1993) album. The piano work is perfect. Wait, it reminds me more of the Barenaked Ladies version of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers In A Dangerous Time"--one of their first videos where they're on the back of a truck in the Toronto cold driving around. Yeah, that's more like it. Whoa! The song's over 12 minutes! Ok, let's see where it goes after the five minute mark... ... ... Ok, we're at 11 minutes now... it's still going... just humming and droning. Excellent background music.

Now onto the Bonus Tracks!

13. "I Love My Label" is a pretty basic rock song with the metaphor of a girlfriend as a record label. I've heard this type of song a million times.

14. "Message From Mid-bar" is another earthy tune with a cool acoustic guitar riff and dojo ringing in the back. Kind of a depressing song, but intentionally convoluted.

15. "Speak Into The Rose" has a reverbed low electric joined by an old polyphonic synth. This sounds very much like "Kidsmoke"... drony as hell. Drum beat is a weird off-timed thingy then crescendo to the climax and fade out. Blah.

16. "Black Moon (Alternate Version)". Alternate version? Sounds the same so far.

17. "Sometimes It Happens" starts off with the lyrics right away. The title words are memorable. Much simpler and less produced, which is what I'm preferring here. I like this tune. The orchestra coupled with organ coming in is a nice touch to take you to the third verse. A very mature song and one of the best of the bunch.

Overall, I think this album is overproduced. Too many things going on at times and the song gets lost in the noise. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the Wilco noise as a stark contrast to the quiet groove the underlies it, but there's little of that. There are very few chances to sing along to anything. Jeff never really belts it out, almost like he's holding back compared to other albums. Perhaps it's more mature. I love the xylophone accents as always. What really dominates is the low rhythm guitars. The symphonic overlay is well done. I can really see Wilco playing this whole album live with an orchestra. I like about half the songs. It's not that I don't like the other half, but would probably skip them to get to the good stuff.

Hatrock gives Wilco's "The Whole Love" 3 fists out of 5. Not their best work but not terrible either.

Coming soon... review of "Fly From Here" by Yes

2011-08-05T11:38:00.002-06:00

In summary... brilliant! A more detailed review to come shortly.

The Top 9 Most Influential Prog Albums Ever

2011-05-19T15:52:00.000-06:00

If Boobie can do it, then so can I... here are The Top 9 Most Influential Prog albums ever. Not "the best" necessarily, but "most influential", not just on subsequent prog bands but on other pop and metal rock bands too. And why Top 9? Because it's prog, it's supposed to be different. But take note that most of the albums here are between 1967 and 1974 ("..the year rock achieved perfection, it's a scientific fact" - Homer Simpson) also known as the Golden Age of Prog, and all are from the UK except Rush.

9. Yes -- "Relayer" (1974). This album was influential in that no one ever dared to try to go where Yes went with this one ever since (not even Yes themselves), except for the odd hint of chaos here and there. The following is a review from Progarchives.com that defines this album better than anyone ever could.

"...RELAYER gathers all the band's mounting energy at their volatile and explosive creative peak, and blasts it out into space in one supercharged musical rush. I would liken it more to a sun going supernova. In these three pieces of music, there is more fury and beauty than most other "prog bands" could muster throughout their whole careers, and certainly the musicianship of RELAYER has yet to be challenged by anyone. Steve Howe's guitar work throughout is unparalleled within the entire progressive canon, period -- no other guitarist is capable of evoking the range of tones and emotions Steve does in even a single piece such as "The Gates of Delirium". Stinging scalar runs, dive-bombing pyrotechnics, cosmic sustain leads, the most beautiful slide-guitar tones ever -- it's all here. Patrick Moraz replaces Wakeman on keys and proceeds to rip out glorious synth excursions which carry the band beyond the confines of their previous classicism, while CHRIS SQUIRE and ALAN WHITE submit possibly the greatest rhythm section performance of all time. "Sound Chaser" pretty much sets the bar for guitar-driven virtuosic prog, while "To Be Over" manages to be as intensely beautiful as the previous two tracks are aggressive. Although Yes had quite a few more masterpieces ahead of them, never would the otherworldy plateau of RELAYER be fully revisited."

8. Rush -- "2112" (1976). I'd be remiss if I didn't put Rush on here. You know, the band that most rockers themselves secretly love? After the "Caress Of Steel" flop, the record company wanted them to go more mainstream. Rush said "Fuck you, we're doing it our way or we're done" and they ended up sticking to the man so much that it influenced their own music to write about a futuristic man sticking it to the establishment. Exploding back (literally explosion sounds on the song) and resurrecting themselves with a new energy, not only is the title track legendary, but all of the side two songs are excellent (yes, even Tears and the mellotron). I remember the first time I heard this album in 1995 (yeah, yeah, I know..) .. I wished I was old enough in '76 to be there when it came out, with the headphones on in my parents' basement. The super long multipart full side song shows just how tight musicianship they had. And who tunes a guitar in the middle of a song? Alex Lifeson does, that's who. The man vs. priests part with Geddy changing his range to fit is just brilliant. If anything, this album may have influenced Star Wars and all other space movies after that, but most importantly, without this album, there wouldn't be Rush and their brilliant subsequent four albums after that and all great rock drummers after that wouldn't be as good (yes, Mike Portnoy, I'm talking to you). And I'm gonna say it, prog metal was born in the year 2112.

7. Jethro Tull -- "Thick As A Brick" (1971). Seriously? One song? 45 minutes long and fucking goddamn dynamic too? Flute? Sure, why the hell not! Folk prog was born. I have no idea what the fuck he's singing about and I don't care but the vocals in this one compliment the instruments perfectly that it's like another instrument. These guys are still rocking and touring too. They influenced all other whole side songs, but no one had you turn over the album in the middle of the song before.

6. Genesis -- "Nursery Crime" (1971). "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" is a long brilliant flowing song With Peter Gabriel up front, melodic keys from Tony Banks, subtle bass lines from Mike Rutherford, and Phil on drums with Steve Hackett on guitar, this is one of the most influential prog line ups ever who would then influence 80's British pop music like no other.

5. King Crimson -- "In The Court Of The Crimson King" (1969). I had the pleasure of seeing Asia play the title track of this one live in Boston in 2009. Yes, you heard me, Asia, 40 years later, played it. If that isn't influence, then I don't know what is. This album bourne eclectic rock and even influenced later Yes albums. So much so that Bill Bruford left Yes to join them on drums. The album cover alone is well known in artsy fartsy album cover circles and is by far, the ugliest yet most striking. Anyway, back to the music... Robert Fripp is simply an odd songwriter. What goes on in his head? I don't know, but it takes you where you never thought music should go, just where all other proggy eclectic artists picked up from and are still dipping back into.

4. Pink Floyd -- "Dark Side Of The Moon" (1973). It still floors me that this was released in '73. It was waaaaaaaay ahead of its time in terms of production. Psychedelic space rock is born! Not only that, but damn, it DOES make a good soundtrack to "The Wizard of Oz". Oh, and it contains the very very first techno song too... flying beds and all!

3. The Who -- "Tommy" (1969). A rock opera? What the fuck is that? Oh! This was a ground-breaking double album. The movie was wacked out on well, everything... As much as I hate musicals, most of the key individual songs can stand on their own, yet it all flows and blends together. It's basically the original full-length concept album influencing all other blendy concept albums thereafter.

2. Yes -- "Fragile" (1971). This album starts with "Roundabout", still one of the most popular prog songs of all time contains the best Hammond organ keyboard solos of all time (ask Jack Black). All members of the quintessential classic Yes lineup each get a chance to strut their musicianship in a song. "Cans and Brahms" for Rick Wakeman , "We Have Heaven" for Jon Anderson, "The Fish" for Chris Squire, and "Mood For A Day" for Steve Howe. Bill Bruford (who went on to King Crimson) rules on "Heart Of The Sunrise", another lengthy proggy masterpiece. "South Side Of The Sky" is one of their best songs, original, long, cool, dynamic. "Long Distance Runaround" proved they can still stick to short poppier songs, but it's also very tight and how it blends into "The Fish" shows some production wizardry. One thing is for sure, this album is the baseline influence for the next several Yes albums, which gave Rush inspiration for their prog side. This album proved that 5 guys with egos can work together... for a little while anyway. Yes, even as individual band members, would go on to influence well, pretty much everybody after this album because it grabbed more attention than "The Yes Album" before it.

1. The Beatles -- "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (1967). Without this album, none of the above would have existed. With George Martin producing, fans were taken to a whole other world of sound that no one, and I mean, no one ever thought possible. The fab four could have recorded farts and everyone would have still bought it and been influenced by it. You could say "Revolver" as an album was influential indeed, but Sgt. Pepper's has "A Day In The Life", really a two-part song with John then Paul is one of the great orchestral prog productions ever recorded. Symphonic prog was born.

Honourable mentions:

Emerson, Lake, and Palmer -- "Tarkus" (1971). Three-piece organ no-guitar prog is born.
Kansas -- "Leftoverture" (1976). "Carry On My Wayward Son" resurrected the band. Also contains "Cheyenne Anthem" and "Magnum Opus" .. by the titles alone, you KNOW they've gotta be proggy.
Rush -- "Moving Pictures" (1981). Rush even says it's their best album.
The Beatles -- "Revolver" (1967). This is when they started going off into la la land.

The Top 10 Most Influential Metal albums ever

2011-05-19T11:39:00.000-06:00

Former blogger on here, Boobie, just sent me this...

Love ' or hate 'em, here they are: The Top 10 Most Influential Metal albums ever.

10. Marilyn Mason: Antichrist Superstar (he sucks, but this album did influnce everything that happened in U.S. metal in the last two decades. All that shitty Nu-Metal? Thank Marilyn Manson and Hip-Hop for it)

9. Pantera: "Cowboys From Hell" proof that Metal could survive in the 90s. Lots of other bands were doing it, but there hadn't been anything this ANGRY in years. Probably the band most responsible for metal's rebirth.

8. Queensryche: "Operation Mindcrime". nothing that Symphony X, Statovarius, Sonata Arctica, the GREAT Dream Theater and any other "prog" metal act would have amounted to shit if not for this album. Arguably the first prog metal band, and a helluva concept album.

7. Alice Cooper: "Billion Dollar Babies". He put the shock in rock. This is Cooper's classic (pre Nightmare days). This is the one that REALLY put Alice on the map and it changed what a rock concept could be. If he welcomed us to his Nightmare in '75, this is how the bad dream started.

6. Judas Priest: British Steel. It's a classic. It has attitude. It's loud. It's mean. And it has influenced most of the European metal (especially the Germans) that have come after it. The Scorpions, Helloween, even Blind Guardian, owe at least a tip of the hat to this one.

5. Iron Maiden: The Number Of The Beast. for a brief period in time, Iron Maiden was the heaviest band in the world. Hard to imagine now, but it's true. This is what made them great. Bruce Dickinson's first album with the band, and "Run To The Hills" is still one of the most downloaded songs in the world (it's true). It took the sound of metal in a new direction, gave prominence to the bass guitar (go Steve Harris!), and made metal as theatrical as any glam rock band that ever was.

4. Venom: Black Metal. OK. This album stinks. No question. But without it, there would be no thrash metal. They set the bar for GOOD bands like Metallica (back when they WERE good). Megadeath and Slayer to blow everybody out of the water.

3. Slayer: Reign In Blood. 28 minutes of fury. Nothing had ever been faster, angrier, or more intense until that moment.

2. Metallica: Master Of Puppets. My personal favorite metal album of all time. It remains a classic for a reason. Every track is brilliant. It's heavy, mean, and has a point. I wonder if the band listened to it and said "fuck. we're done". After the tragedy of Cliff Burton's death shortly after the album's release, maybe they SHOULD have hung 'em up, consdiering they've NEVER come close to anything this good again, and likely never will.

1. Black Sabbath: Paranoid. It started it all. Not Sabbath's first, or even best, album, but it set the trend for EVERYTHING that came after it. I don't think there's a SINGLE metal, hard rock, or punk act that doesn't pay homage to this album in some way. Not the best metal album of all time, but certainly the most influential.

Who's not on the list?

Megadeth: They ARE, without a doubt, one of the best metal bands out there, but I just don't see them as THAT influential. Sure, Dave Mustaine's ability to play has probably influenced every single good guitar player out there, but has any one album really been THAT INFLUENTIAL? Several are classics (notably Rust In Peace and Countdown to Extinction) but Iwouldn't call it influential.

Anthrax: They just plain suck. They're overrated, and always were. If anything, they influenced Nu Metal more than Marilyn Manson did, but I can't in good conscience include them on my list.

System Of A Down: Great band. Not influential. Why? Nobody else has the balls to sound ANYTHING like them at all.

Helloween: They call them the first "power metal" band. What's power metal? It's thrash that sounds cleaned up. Nope. Great band, but not influential.

Prog bands live and Prog Magazine

2010-12-06T16:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a year and a half since my last post. Since that time, I have been travelling all over the U.S. for work.

And fortunately, while in Boston in July 2009, I was able to catch the Yes/Asia concert in a covered outdoor circus round in Cohasset, MA. Quite the drive to get there, but well worth it. Asia was really good (see below). Before the show, I met up with a bunch of people from YesFans.com website. Nice people and hardcore Yes gurus. Photos from that show here...

In June of 2010, I took in the Iron Maiden / Dream Theater show here at home in Edmonton. Dream Theater blew my socks off. Little did I know that it would be the last time I would see Mike Portnoy play with them. Sad. Their last album is one of the greatest things I have ever heard.

Then in July 2010, while on a work gig in L.A., unbeknowest to me, Yes and Peter Frampton were playing at the Greek Theater in Hollywood, just 10 minutes from my hotel. I zipped over there, got a single 14th row ticket and watched and recorded a lot of the performance on my new camera. Then.. THEN... after the show, I was able to ask a guy for his backstage pass and next thing you know, there I am talking to Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, Oliver Wakeman, and Benoit David, and getting a picture with the group (see below).

Steve Howe, Benoit David, Alan White, me, Oliver Wakeman, Chris Squire

Photos from that show...

Then a month later, I flew down to Vancouver to meet up with an ol' buddy and former bandmate and we drove across the border into Seattle and then a couple hours later, we were at the Rush concert, but missed the first three songs due to the odd venue location and massive amount of single-lane traffic. Won't be going there again, that's for sure. That said, although we had distant seats, the big zoom on my camera allowed me to get some great shots and video of Tom Sawyer and Subdivisions. It was also the funniest concert I have ever been to. Monkeys simply make me laugh and seeing them play Tom Sawyer, well, I pretty much lost it. There were a tonne of other side clips and movies they did, you'll just have to see it for yourself. They'll be in Vancouver next year, so I think I'll go see them again. It's just that good.

Rush - August 2010

So it's been quite the year for me seeing my favourite prog bands. Lots of changes though. With Portnoy leaving Dream Theater and Yes about to record their first album in 10 years and 2nd ever without frontman Jon Anderson, perhaps indicate that nothing good lasts forever... Well, I guess, except for Rush who had one of the best rockumentaries ever released about a band.. ever.

Then in November 2010, I had the chance to see an old, old classic band play for the third time with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, but this time at the amazing Winspear Centre of Music. I'm talking about Procol Harum. Unfortunately, this is the only video on YouTube...

Throughout this period, I have discovered a wonderfully full magazine simply called PROG by Classic Rock Magazine. While expensive, the mag comes with a full CD with all the latest and greatest prog bands. I have about 5 of the CDs now and have been mighty impressed with the quality of the songs on there from some amazing bands. Two that stand out for me are Porcupine Tree--a favourite of the drummer in my band, and Mystery, which is the home band for new Yes frontman, Benoit David. Mystery is from Montreal.

So throughout all of this past year and a half, if not more, my appreciation for prog rock has grown dramatically. There are so many bands I now listen to because of Prog Mag, leaving a lot of other so-called "rock" bands in the dust. You know who you are ... and you'll never compete with the dynamic range and innovation of these bands, and you never have.

What will save rock 'n' roll?

2009-05-20T13:05:00.002-06:00

Little Steven has made some comments about rock n roll lately. I tend to agree with him...

"I want to spend just a minute on a topic that never ever gets discussed in the music business -- the music," the Bruce Springsteen guitarist and "Sopranos" star said in a speech to the SXSW music and arts festival in March. "The reason nobody wants to talk about it is because it mostly sucks!
"Who are we kidding here?" he said. "Nobody's buying records? Because they suck!"
He called the speech "A Crisis of Craft," and implored listeners to get back to rock 'n' roll's roots. Learn how to play cover songs, he said. Get people to dance. Harness your working-class energy. Take pride in craft.
It's been two months since that speech, and Van Zandt is still passionate about the subject.
"[Rock 'n' roll] is a craft that has to be learned," he tells CNN. "There are things you learn by listening to great records, copying heroes." He believes that he said some things that people were thinking, but haven't said out loud.

I would say to Little Steve, that this is definitely a generational thing. This younger generation doesn't have that sense of history. But perhaps one day, they will.

A couple years ago I asked a 21 year old if he's heard of Led Zeppelin. He hadn't. Sad. Years later, he approached me saying that he loves Led Zeppelin. So is it up to the younger generation to know, or us older dudes to teach?

More...

The Wright Stuff

2008-09-15T15:37:00.003-06:00

Richard Wright, a founder member of Pink Floyd, has died at the age of 65 after battling cancer, his spokesman said.
Wright played the keyboard with the legendary band and wrote music in classic albums such as Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here.
[source]

The soft saultry synth sounds of Richard Wright's creation are forever etched on my mind in songs such as "Us And Them" and "Shine On You Crazy Diamond".

When I was in high school, trying to survive through the heavy metal hair bands of the 80's, I searched for a band that was mellower and more mature. I'd just gotten into Rush at the time and when I heard their instrumental epic "La Villa Strangiato" and the middle part with a low bass pad by Geddy and Alex Lifeson's building and wailing guitar, I thought, "Well this certainly kicks ass!" Then my drummer friend had me watch a Pink Floyd video, "Momentary Lapse of Reason", I thought he was on to something here. Mellow progressive music would then forever be a part of my life, leading me to love Yes, and hearing Floyd's influence in Dream Theater, The Flower Kings, and so many other bands.

I do remember Floyd from way back when The Wall came out but musically, I wasn't totally into it. That all changed when "The Division Bell" came out in '93. An absolute masterpiece of an album... dark, dynamic, and full. Wright's piano on "High Hopes" is simple yet remarkable. He sang on "Wearing The Inside Out" adding that true British accent to the band.

In 1994 when I saw them live at Commonwealth Stadium here in Edmonton, Alberta, is still to this day, the greatest concert I have ever seen or heard. It was more than that. It was an experience.

Anyway, Mr. Wright, as a keyboard player myself, thank you for having shared your gift to the world, and making an impact on my life.

Joe Biden for Veep!

2008-08-27T10:54:00.001-06:00

As a libertarian conservative Canadian who is a fan of Obama (not that I don't dislike McCain), I was hoping he'd choose Biden.

Biden is to the right of Obama, but left of McCain.

I think Biden is "biden" his words when he said that Obama was unfit in that debate and the McCain campaign did an excellent job in pointing that out with the TV ad. Perfect actually.

But I also think Biden's been mighty impressed with how well Obama's campaign is run. I'm not sure if Biden will fit into the dynamic campaign as much as a lesser known veep choice, but I think he can tow the line.

Overall, I think Americans aren't choosing the lesser of two evils here but could certainly live with either candidate as president.

The Iraq debate is pretty much over as it appears US troops, for the most part, will be out of there in a few years anyway.

Obama choice in Biden really comes down to who can best serve as president if need be, and Joe Biden has the foreign policy know-how and experience to step in better than most.

I watched Biden closely over his run for the candidacy and was impressed with his opinions on Iraq and the whole region how he recognizes that there are essentially three nations within Iraq, caused by the British drawing odd borders for countries like that, Jordan, and Syria.

Anyway, the issue now is similar to 1992... "It's the economy stupid" and McCain has admitted that he doesn't know much about economics.

With a 7 trillion dollar debt, rumours of defaulting on that, millions of lost jobs, housing credit crisis, and a bloated gov't, the Bush hangover has begun.

It still comes down to which economic ideology and plan will the American people buy into this time?

Soprano's Finale

2008-08-06T12:37:00.002-06:00

I finally bought Season Six Part II of the Sopranos last week and watched it all in a week in great anticipation of the finale. I was lucky to avoid the spoils when many of my friends saw it. Earmuffs!

So my take on the last scene?

The guy who goes into the washroom simply goes into the washroom. Oh my, AJ, Carmella, and Tony all eat an onion ring whole. "Don't Stop Believin'" is playing instead of "Any Way You Want It". "Remember the good times," AJ remarks. Tony agrees. Meadow runs across the street and opens the diner front door, the door bells ring, Tony looks up at her, just as he did with everyone else who walked in except the African American guys, and the screen goes blank at "Don't Stop".

People have concluded many things:

The guy in the washroom comes out and shoots Tony in the side of the head and so just before Tony looked up at Meadow in shock just as she came through the door and the bells rang. But we don't hear anything from AJ or Carmella.
The trucker and guy who went into the washroom are FBI dudes and he gets arrested. Tony mentions that Carlo flipped and is going to testify, so this evidence could have been used against Tony to indite him.
The African American guys were either the same ones that shot Bobby in the eye, that shot up the crack house, or that shot Tony.

My conclusion?

Nothing happens. In all the moments in the episode when you get that uneasy feeling that someone is going to get shot, i.e. Bobby at the hobby shop, Silvio and Patsy running out of the Bing, Phil saying bye bye to his grandkids, all had that suspense, it just doesn't happen with Tony in this scene.

And that's that. Fuggedaboudit.

Top 100 TV shows of last 25 years

2008-06-25T15:46:00.002-06:00

Now this list is more like it. Ones I highlighted in green are ones I watch(ed).

But wait, where the heck is "Cheers" and "Night Court"? Ah, another crap list.

1. The Simpsons, Fox, 1989-present
2 The Sopranos, HBO (1999-2007)
3 Seinfeld, NBC (1989-98)
4 The X-Files, Fox (1993-2002)
5 Sex and the City, HBO (1998-2004)
6 Survivor, CBS (2000-present)
7 The Cosby Show, NBC (1984-92)
8 Lost, ABC (2004-present)
9 Friends, NBC (1994-2004)
10 Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The WB (1997-2001); UPN (2001-03)
11 The Wire, HBO (2002-08)
12 South Park, Comedy Central (1997-present)
13 Freaks and Geeks, NBC (1999-2000)
14 The Daily Show, Comedy Central (1996-present)
15 The Oprah Winfrey Show, Syndicated (1986-present)
16 Arrested Development, Fox (2003-06)
17 The Office (U.K. version), BBC2 (2001-03)
18 American Idol, Fox (2002-present)
19 ER, NBC (1994-present)
20 Beverly Hills, 90210, Fox (1990-2000)
21 Roseanne, ABC (1988-97)
22 The Real World, MTV (1992-present)
23 The West Wing, NBC (1999-2006)
24 Star Trek: The Next Generation, Syndication (1987-94)
25 Miami Vice, NBC (1984-89)
26 Chappelle's Show, Comedy Central (2003-06)
27 Law & Order, NBC (1990-present)
28 The Larry Sanders Show, HBO (1992-98)
29 The Shield, FX (2002-present)
30 Late Show With David Letterman, CBS (1993-present)
31 The Civil War, PBS (1990)
32 Gilmore Girls, The WB (2000-06), The CW (2006-07)
33 My So-Called Life, ABC (1994-95)
34 24, Fox (2001-present)
35 CSI, CBS (2000-present)
36 thirtysomething, ABC (1987-91)
38 Beavis and Butt-head, MTV (1993-97)
39 Six Feet Under, HBO (2001-05)
40 Mr. Show, (HBO, 1995-98)
41 Frasier, NBC (1993-2004)
42 L.A. Law, NBC (1986-94)
43 Late Night With Conan O'Brien, NBC (1993-present)
44 Jeopardy!, Syndicated (1984-present)
45 Curb Your Enthusiasm, HBO (2000-present)
46 Homicide: Life on the Street, NBC (1993-99)
47 30 Rock, NBC (2006-present)
48 Ally McBeal, Fox (1997-2002)
49 Twin Peaks, ABC (1990-91)
50 Baywatch, NBC (1989-90), Syndicated (1991-2001)
51. Melrose Place, Fox (1992-99)
52. Felicity, The WB (1998-2002)
53. Will & Grace, NBC (1998-2006)
54. Moonlighting, ABC (1985-89)
55. Pee-wee's Playhouse, CBS (1986-90)
56. Desperate Housewives, ABC (2004-present)
57. The Amazing Race, CBS (2001-present)
58. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, NBC (1992-present)
59. Battlestar Galactica, Sci Fi (2003-2008)
60. Xena: Warrior Princess, Syndicated (1995-2001)
61. The Office (U.S.), NBC (2005-present)
62. House, Fox (2004-present)
63. Mystery Science Theater 3000, Comedy Central (1989-96), Sci Fi (1997-99)
64. The Osbournes, MTV (2002-05)
65. Family Guy, Fox (1999-2002, 2005-present)
66. Grey’s Anatomy, ABC (2005-present)
67. Planet Earth, Discovery Channel (2007)
68. Jackass, MTV (2000-02)
69. The Colbert Report, Comedy Central (2005-present)
70. Everybody Loves Raymond, CBS (1996-2005)
71. Friday Night Lights, NBC (2006-present)
72. NewsRadio, NBC (1995-99)
73. Oz, HBO (1997-2003)
74. Wiseguy, CBS (1987-90)
75. Project Runway, Bravo (2004-present)
76. In Living Color, Fox (1990-94)
77. The Golden Girls, NBC (1985-92)
78. I'll Fly Away, NBC (1991-93)
79. The Comeback, HBO (2005)
80. King of the Hill, Fox (1997-present)
81. Murphy Brown, CBS (1988-98)
82. The Hills, MTV (2006-present)
83. Absolutely Fabulous, BBC2 (1992), BBC1 (1994-2004)
84. Northern Exposure, CBS (1990-95)
85. The Kids in the Hall, HBO (1989-92), CBS (1992-95)
86. Prime Suspect, ITV (1991-2006)
87. Deadwood, HBO (2004-06)
88. Malcolm in the Middle, Fox (2000-06)
89. SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon (1999-present)
90. Dawson's Creek, The WB (1998-2003)
91. Mad Men, AMC (2007-present)
92. The Ben Stiller Show, Fox (1992-93)
93. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Bravo (2003-07)
94. Married...With Children, Fox (1987-97)
95. Designing Women, CBS (1986-93)
96. The Arsenio Hall Show, Syndicated (1989-94)
97. Party of Five, Fox (1994-2000)
98. MacGyver, ABC (1985-92)
99. The Bachelor, ABC (2002-present)
100. Saved by the Bell, NBC (1989-93)

Prince William

2008-06-25T15:41:00.003-06:00

So apparently Prince William likes rock music. Good for him. Here's what bands he likes from other countries:

Australia: AC/DC. Good! Can't get anymore pure rock than that.
U.S.A.: Bon Jovi. well, ok, not bad, but there's better.
Canada: Nickelback. fuck. The Prince needs a flogging.

Now I don't want him as my king or on my money. Especially the nickel.

The supposed top 100 movies of the last 25 years

2008-06-25T15:36:00.002-06:00

Entertainment Weekly (weakly?) has posted it's top 100 movies of the last 25 years (1983 - 2008).

This is the stupidest list I've ever seen.

No Shawshank Redemption, which many people I talk to believe it's one of the greatest movies of the last 25 years.

And where's The Game? Braveheart? Volver?

Stupid list.

V for Vendetta

2007-11-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

Remember, remember, the fifth of November...

Last night I finally watched "V for Vendetta" by the Wachkowski brothers of Matrix fame. Why I didn't see this in the theatre is beyond me. There wasn't as much hype about it at the time perhaps.

Needless to say, this is one of the best movies I've seen. It is absolutely one of the most riveting, poignant, and politically relevant movies, post 9/11. I thought it would be politically more subtle, but it wasn't. It was direct and in-your-face.

But V used a page out of British history as regards one Guy Fawkes, who on November 5, 1605 tried to blow up the British Parliament but was caught and hanged for treason. Over 500 years later, around 2020 (slightly different than the book's 1990's), an anarchist vigilante named "V" used the facial image of Fawkes as a symbolic mask as he sought vindication for his time in prison and his fiery escape which caused full body burns. Britain was under a totalitarian regime (with similarities to Nazi Germany) due to the increased so-called terrorist and viral attacks on the country.

It reminded me of Star Wars episodes II and III and how the Chancellor/Darth Sidious secretly played both sides in creating a galactic conflict for his rise to ultimate power as Emperor to restore "order and peace". Same goes for Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Castro, Mao, Saddam Hussein, Pol Pot, Milosovich, Kim Jong, and perhaps Putin and Bush to less of an extent, but there are so many more.

One of the best lines was when V used every single word starting with V in one long sentence. His vernacular was very vilifying!

But without giving out too much plot, the few action scenes were excellent and didn't make it the focus of the movie, unlike Matrix to an extent. The focus was the continued political battle between anarchism vs. fascism. As someone who enjoys politics and ideology, one theory is if group think is at the far right, to destroy it, approach from the far left. This movie warns us that if we want to maintain our freedom and democracy, we must not give in to fear in the name of security and so-called peace, but if we do willingly and ungrudgingly succumb to it and listen to leaders who spout rhetoric that actually goes against freedom and libertarian ideals, we are doomed, and only revolution can turn the tide so to speak. And history is rife with such examples. WWII was a revolution against fascism and we won.

Anyway, Natalie Portman was awesome and believable and is there anything that Hugo Weaving can't do?

Ultimately, this movie made you really think. With Britain already having installed surveillance cameras everywhere, much tightened airport and border security, more and more laws, especially in the US, that border on violation of privacy and freedom, the timing of the movie was actually interesting. It was supposed to be released on none other than Nov. 5, but was delayed due to the underground bombings in Britain. How poignant indeed.

Hatrock gives "V for Vendetta" 4.5 fists out of 5.

Blue Rodeo - Small Miracles

2007-10-23T14:53:00.000-06:00

Okay kids, Blue Rodeo's new studio album, "Small Miracles", their 13th, has been out for a month and let me say that it's very good and is an improvement over their last one, "Are You Ready", but it still isn't a "Five Days In July" or "The Days In Between", but is easily in their top five of all time. Let's pick it apart, shall we?

1. So Far Away - This opening track doesn't wow you, but it gets the album going, showing you that the band still has that classic sound we all know and love. Not really a memorable song though.

2. This Town - The starting piano ballad is common sound, yet original and delicate, and Jim's voice beckons out so smoothly. The song builds with a tried and true melody on top of layered instruments, augmented chords, and volume, giving it a nice dynamic. Greg's solo is simple, reminding me of his soul infused solo on "Five Days In May". For some reason, the chorus reminds me of that song, "Our House, is a very very fine house. With two kids in the yard, life wouldn't be so hard ..." Regardless, a beautiful memorable song.

3. Blue House - This is one of those fun, square dance type Blue Rodeo songs that are fun to sing a long to. There's always one of these on every album, yet they're so refreshing.

4. 3 Hours Away - Another classic Jim ballad, but with an upbeat feel added by the drum snare shuffle.

5. It Makes Me Wonder - This song has a southern rock feel with a slight Celtic hint, like Lynyrd Skynyrd meeting Tom Petty in Dublin or something. The chorus doesn't sound repetitive due to every other measure having that minor chord thrown in which darkens the feel of the sound. Greg's voice is earthy, distinct, while the rest of the band, especially the piano, round out the sound nicely.

6. Summer Girls - One of my personal favourites on the album. A pop-rock sound sung by Jim, it has a Beatles/British feel to it as if the sound of the band's song "Somebody Waits" was used as a template. The chorus is just awesome, fun to sing, an once again, an augmented minor is thrown in to keep it interesting. It blows my mind that after all these years and all these songs, the band can pump out an original song like this.

7. Together - This is Blue Rodeo's first bossanova song as far as I know, and they execute it wonderfully. Soft and subtle, yet determined. The jazz guitar chords are absolutely perfect and Greg's delicate voice fills the void while the bossanova drum beat carries it through, like you were on the Riviera waiting for that special someone to walk by.

8. Mystic River - It's these types of Blue Rodeo songs that I really enjoy. Just driving in the car down the highway with a friend, singing along and soaking in the special moments. It's a song that puts a smile on your face. Jim is loving those augmented chords thrown in there, giving it that weird but goofy fun feel.

9. Black Ribbon - A wonderful Canadian-Celtic song; this is true classic Blue Rodeo, with the reverberated guitar reminiscent of parts in "Diamond Mine". Greg's lazy voice rings wonderfully, as though he just had some whisky, and with all his deep passion, goes up on stage and plays a dirge about his darkest feelings. You can hear it in his voice. The chorus opens up the song, then it breaks down, simply setting you up for the darker moments. The song has an oaky-wood feel and thus we can say it was beautifully hand crafted.

10. C'mon - This is definitely the feel-good pop song on the album and probably why it was chosen to be it's first single. Jim's voice is fun, as if he's singing to you, and you feel part of the group... especially with the chorus telling you to "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon down with us." Okay! Sure, don't mind if I do!

11. Small Miracles - The title track is in 3/4 time, like a steady waltz and is in stark contrast to the previous song. A very nice song though.

12. Beautiful - Easily one of Blue Rodeo's "coolest" songs broken into two parts--the first a bit slow, as if it were setting it up for a more modern, Sunday afternoon coffee shop feel with it's funky beat and repeated line, "Almost as beautiful ... almost as beautiful, almost aaas ... almost as beautiful as you..." It's a new sound for the band, one that was surprising that I thoroughly enjoy, but they nail it down showing their vast style repertoire. The bass lines by Baz really round out the song ... I didn't know he could play like that.

13. Where I Was Before - This is a repeat song of "3 Hours Away" but done differently. While the first version was more upbeat, this one is slower. Another interesting concept. It's as if they tried a few ways of playing it, and couldn't decide on which one would be best so they just said, "Let's put both in!" Sure, why the hell not!

Overall, I really like this album and have been listening to it over and over since I bought it. It's the perfect autumn album, with the trees changing colour, several tracks like "Summer Girls" and "Beautiful" reflect this transitional phase which does have an effect on our psyche. The timing of the album's release at the end of summer is timely and appropriate. I'd go so far as to call this a concept album--a soundtrack for autumn, with the band "experimenting" new styles, dynamics, and bringing them together in one seemless band of change fall colours, just like the season itself.

My only critique is that there aren't as many songs I could churn out on the guitar around the campfire with some beer, but rather sit around a piano with a glass of port. The band has obviously matured. At times it's too slow, and lacks the teeth I enjoyed on "The Days In Between", but it's definitely an album I'll add to my driving through the mountains soundtrack. The variety is good enough to keep it interesting.

Hatrock gives "Small Miracles" by Blue Rodeo, 4.29 fists out of 5.

Album sales dropping

2007-08-09T10:41:00.001-06:00

I was recently reading an article in Rolling Stone that showed several graphs of how album sales have been steadily declining over the past 6 years while track downloading/sharing has increased. The music industry always quickly blames listeners for "illegally" downloading music which has put a big $$$ dent in the biz.

While I continue to buy CDs, I don't "buy" into that argument.

In a supply and demand market, people will usually go for the cheaper if they can get it, and in the case of downloading, it's free.

But there's something different about music. You're not buying the physical CD as they cost only a few cents. You're buying the right to listen to the intellectual property in a predesignated format.

I've got a lot of good old LPs, that instead of rebuying that intellectual property, or buying another adapter dealie to transfer from LP to my computer, it's quicker for me to simply download, and then only the tracks that I want (although there are several B-side gems out there).

If there's a good new rock band on the scene, like Wolfmother, I'll buy the CD and check it out. But that has become more rare lately.

There are old bands that have been around for a while that also have a strong fan base, who'll buy their CDs, DVDs, shirts and stuff without a blink, and attend their live shows, no matter what the ticket price. Personally, I have several bands that no matter what, I'll buy their CD, to show my support and appreciation.

How many of the artists in the Billboard Top 100 can say that? Isn't a lot of the music out there just regurgitated variations of the same crap?

Why are so many old bands back together and touring?

As I mentioned, it's called supply and demand. Producers supply the goods depending on the demand from consumers. And in the case of the North American music biz, the goods simply suck, and the consumers aren't buying it.

Artists need to get more creative, originality and variations on their albums. Take bands like Foo Fighters and Green Day, whose recent concept albums won much praise, where songs are long, blend into each other, and an overall theme is generated. The best albums of all time all follow that template and most of those are from the 70's, believe it or not.

Also, take note of album reviews in magazines. Haven't seen too many 4 or 5 star albums out there recently. Most albums nowadays aren't albums anymore. They're a file repository of random tracks of random thoughts.

People are downloading the one or two hit songs from an album, but don't see the need to buy the whole thing, as those b-side gems just don't exist anymore.

So don't feel guilty, you downloaders. It's not your fault. You deserve better and it's obvious you're demanding better too.

Rush - Snakes & Arrows - Live Review

2007-05-08T17:03:00.000-06:00

Live blogging, listening to the new Rush album, "Snakes & Arrows". It's been five years since their last original studio album, Vapor Trails, which was really good and angry, filled with hard, punchy sounds. A couple years after that, they put out "Feedback" which had them for the first time since they started out about 34 years ago, do cover tunes. Let's see if this one matches up, and perhaps blends things together.

1. Far Cry (5:18)
Awesome. Off time full on band riff. I love it when they do that. It's fucking raw Rush. Geddy's bass kicks ass. It's been getting some radio play. This is a much better engineered album already over their last couple. The guitars aren't as compressed and seem to come through much better. Just an excellent mix. I'm excited to hear the rest.

2. Armor and Sword (6:36)
Loving the high bass riff, acoustic guitar, and ambiance. Lyrics razor through. Chorus opens up and lets the song breathe with Geddy's beautiful harmony vocals round it out and Neil's tom tom roll blends well. Excellent song. I look forward to hearing it again.

3. Workin' Them Angels (4:46)
Geddy is missing what he used to do really well, and that is melodies. This is a bit of a filler song that isn't really grabbing me and sounds like some of their other songs. But I like the mandolin there Alex! Almost has a slight Celtic feel with whistle hints. Neil's drums sound really, really good though. And I don't mean his awesome playing, but just the "sound" of them.

4. The Larger Bowl (4:07)
Wow, more acoustic guitar. Liking the riff, Alex! Now we have some melody, Geddy! Ah yes, the bass comes in nicely. I really like this song so far. We got dynamics and a really good groove. I want to learn this on the guitar already. Drums once again, rip through, and the solo intro with Geddy doing what he does best on his bass, and Alex's solo itself are perfect.

5. Spindrift (5:23)
The last song nicely blends into this puppy. And odd erie distant guitar is heard and then it kicks in. What a fucked up riff and chord arrangement. Very progressive. I love how it kicks in and builds up. You know what I like most? The delay on the guitars. Again, an excellent sounding album. The bridge into the chorus is nicely done. Wow, Neil's drumming ... sooo good. You can really tell he had a lot of input on song arrangement. Oh! Just when you thought it was over, they kick you in the nuts with even more delay on the guitars. Very, very cool. Takes me back to Caress of Steal a bit with its weirdness.

6. The Main Monkey Business (6:01) - Instrumental
Oh wicked! More acoustic guitar with a high bass and ambient sounds and Neil giving it an African feel. They are really reaching the never before found riffs. Again, Alex's electric guitar hasn't sounded this good in a looong time. Geddy's using his voice as an instrument. I really, really like this song and glad they're keeping the instrumentals going. They are the masters of it. Oh, listen to Neil get louder and louder there at about 2:50. This is just chalk full of dynamics. This is true progressive hard rock baby! Seven more songs to go too! Oh the drums are just ripping through. Neil is God.

7. The Way the Wind Blows (6:28)
No time wasted between songs. This is a bit of a bluesier feel with a slow steady beat. I'm really hearing some influence from the "Feedback" cover album they did a few years ago. I think they really reconnected with their roots again, because I can realy hear it. This is a very flowing album. Again, lots of acoustic guitar and some beautiful singing combined with some killer riffs. I'm glad they're letting songs breathe by not having it full on all the time. A very earthy song ending on a nice major chord.

8. Hope (2:02) - Instrumental
Alex "Lerxst Lifeson" wrote this one "all by himself". That's what it says in the liner notes. Here we go... AWESOME!!! This has a Jimmy Page feel to it. I've never heard Alex play like this. Acoustic 12 string, flowing, and yet raw with good volume changes. Short and sweet.

9. Faithless (5:31)
This song starts on the same chord the last one ended on, so there's a nice transition. Geddy's high bass riff is really cool here. Again, they tease with a slower beat then Neil kicks in with a steady one kicking up the energy. I most certainly like this tune. Good melodies. And now for the chorus, some more acoustic guitar but with an orchestral pad (or real violins?) on the 7th note in the background, again, letting the song breathe out. I just love the direct talk in the chorus:

I don't have faith in faith
I don't believe in belief
You can call me faithless
But I still cling to hope
And I believe in love
And that's faith enough for me.

Oh, the solo just screams! Wow! The song ends on "and that's faith enough for me" and a minor chord with crazy guitar effects fading out. Cooool.

10. Bravest Face (5:11)
Comes in hard, then quiets down with some cool acoustic guitar augmented chords ... again! This feels like it continued on from the last song.

11. Good News First (4:51)
Cool groove. Sounds like a typical Rush song so far, but with a few accents from Neil. Then it breaks down, which is turning into a common new expectation on this album. The chorus breathes again and then the song ends on a major chord. This is a much more mature sounding album. It feels like they took the best dynamics from their last three albums and added more acoustic, more FEEL, and more SOUL.

12. Malignant narcissism (2:16) - Instrumental
Rush has never put three instrumentals on an album. I know of one other album that does this, but it's from Yes, and it's one of their best--Fragile. Being that it had three instrumentals on it, I can see where they get some ideas. The song stars... oh this just totally fucking kicks ass. Geddy's bass dominates this puppy. And again ... the song really breathes out with some woman in the back talking and Alex wailing , then it kick back in. There's a YYZ feel to it, definitely, with drum breaks for Neil, who obviously delivers. Shit, I wish it went on longer!

13. We Hold On (4:12)
Cool hard edged tune that really grooves with little screams from Alex's guitar.

Artwork
Rush's albums/CD cover art and photography have always been known for their beauty and relevance to the album at hand. Hugh Syme once again, delivers

Lyrics
I don't normally pay attention to lyrics, but with Neil Peart, you just can't help it. Vapor Trails felt like an album for Neil to let out his passion and frustration with the death of his daughter and wife. You can really hear it in his lyrics for "Ghost Rider" of which he wrote a book on his motorcycle travels through North America. But now after going though his healing period, he's doing some soul searching, but he has a good idea of who he is. With lyrics like "No one gets to heaven without a fight", he knows what he has to do, just wants to remind himself to follow through. Songs like "Faithless" tell us he believes in what HE believes in for his own good reasons, not because someone tells him what to believe and have faith in.

Conclusion
This is Rush's best engineered album. Yes, I'm saying it. The sound is impecible. You can hear every instrument, effect, and voice just come right through the speakers.

There are dynamics that I haven't heard from them in a long time, if at all. It is a bit mellower than Vapor Trails, but well written, melodic, beautifully thought out, and overall has an earthy feel to it, something new for them to be consistently on one album. Like I said, they seem to reach back to their roots with added energy, drive, and distinctive collaboration and originality. I'd even almost go so far as to call it a true concept album. I say that because of the three instrumentals, dynamics from song to song, track blending, but most of all from its common dark edgy yet hopeful feel to it all.

Waiting five years for an original studio album is a long time; it was most certainly worth the wait. Overall, this is an excellent album and I'd give it 4.29 fists out of 5.

My only critique is Geddy is doing to0 many harmonies on verses and I'm preferring his mid range voice a lot more, especially with Alex's acoustic strumming along like on "The Larger Bowl". His high voice with the harmonies gets on my nerves sometimes--it's overkill. I prefer it when he uses just one vocal track, with the odd hint of harmony here and there.

Neil's drumming honestly couldn't be better. He doesn't hold back and his arrangements truly compliment each and every bar of every song. Alex's acoustic work has a brilliant sound, he adds some really cool hooks here and there on electric, his guitar never sounded better, and Geddy's groovy bass riffs still blow my mind away.

I'm going to have to listen to this puppy a few more times to distinguish the songs. After that, it'll definitely be an album I can drive to the mountains to and one that'll be in my CD player for a loooong time. There is no other band out there right now that has the mix and style of songs that Rush has on "Snakes & Arrows". Even if you're not a huge Rush fan, this is just a good album overall.

An Army of Anyone Supergroup

2007-03-28T13:21:00.000-06:00

Maybe just call them Army of One, but I gotta tell ya, newly formed supergroup Army of Anyone is currently the only real and true mainstream rock band out there.

Formed by the former singer of Filter and the rest of the boys from Stone Temple Pilots, their current hit "Goodbye" combines the crazy 1/8th note rocker riffs of old STP days and ties in nicely with one of the most anthemic choruses I've ever heard. And guess what? There's a mean guitar solo in there (remember those?) When's the last time you heard a guitar solo in a Nickelback song or any of the mope-rock bands? And the drumming is unfreakinbelievable, especially at the end.

With other supergroups like Audioslave done, Foo fading, Pearl Jam not generating that power they once had, Queens of the Stone Age out for now, and awaiting on Velvet Revolver's new album, there's one band standing right now.

Yet once again, AoA proves that the musicians bourne out of the late-80's/early 90's grunge scene are still 1) way better musicians, and 2) the only ones keeping real rock in the mainstream.

So you're at a wedding...

2007-03-19T13:47:00.000-06:00

Annoying songs from the late 70's and early 80's still played ALL THE TIME in nite clubs and weddings and loved by kids today:

"Oh Mickey your so fine, your so fine, you blow my mind, hey Mickey!" - Toni Basilsagerosemaryandthyme

"I love rock n roll, put another dime in the juke box, baby." - Joan Jettison

"Stayin' Alive" - HeeBeeGeeBees

"Dancin' Queen" - ABBADABBADOO

"YMCA" - Value Village People

"I Will Survive" - Gloria Gaynorstraight (?)

"You spin me right round, baby, right round, like a record baby" - Dead or Alive but Wish They Were Dead

"Billie Jean" - Michael Jackolantern. Me, I'd prefer Billy Dee, as in Lando Calrissian than MJ anymore.

"Paradise by the Dashboard Light" - Meatplow. This usually has the guys and gals on either side "singing" to each other, but no one knows the lyrics, so they mumble it, except for one couple who raise the bar as they've been singing it in the car since 1981 on their annual camping trip to Johnston Lake.

And are you now totally sick of Bran Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Trout" now? Does anyone really get the joke of this song?

This song is ALWAYS followed by "Cecilia" by Simple Simon and Worthless Art Garfunkle. Does anyone know that it's "I fall on the floor and I'm laughing"?

"I knew the bride when she used to rock n roll" - Nick something or other. This usually has a line dance to it and all the women go "Oooah, oooah, wooh-wooh" in unison. Cute, but bloody annoying. When is it going to stop?

This is usually followed by "Wild One" by that skinny old guy and more (*gasp*) line dancing.

And since everyone is line dancing anyway, we often get the country music inserted here:

"Achy Breaky Heart" by Mullet Boy

"Friends in Low Places" by Garth Brooks n Dunn That, which song you'll usually find the drunk uncles at the host bar putting their arms around each other or to their nephews telling them about their lost love.

And let's not forget "Mony Mony" by Billy Idoltry. You know that lyric which everyone throws in there after each line ... "Hey mother____, get __, get ___ed". The kids still do it! We were chanting this at hall parties 20 years ago! What have we done?!

And for the rap "Funky Cold Medina" by Tone Deaf Loc and "Bust A Move" by Wasn't That Young MC are usually on the menu, followed by "Ice Ice Baby" by Vanilla Fudge Icehead aka Rob "Spaz" Van Dam Winkle.

Often some AC/DC "You Shook Me All Night Long" is thrown in there to satisfy the one or two rocker chicks in the crowd.

Then for the oldtimers, they always play a 50's medley with Elvis, Buddy Holly, Bill Hailey and the Comets in there, then a Beatles medley because your aunt Betsy love Ringo Starr and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".

Then when the oldtimers get tired, we gotta keep the teens out there, so we got some J-Lo and "Waiting for the Night ... oh oh ..." blah blah blah. Britney "Shave My Head Baby one more time" yadda yadda.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

Everyone of these songs is played at a wedding, 100% guaranteed and can still be heard everyday in North America at bars, nite clubs, and even on the radio. It's sad really and I blame the DJ companies for subjecting us to this mindless, soulless tripe, year after year, decade after decade.

"Do you really want to hurt me?" goes the song. I think they do. I really do.

We're back!

2007-02-20T13:20:00.000-07:00

After a year hiatus, I've decided to start posting here again. Whether my other cohorts decide to, it's up to them. I'm going to focus on music, movies, radio, television, and culture in general.

So what has happened in rock music in the last year?

Wolf Mother
An Aussie band that's been kicking ass on the award shows and the charts. Influences include The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Who, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, Cream and Styx. So they gotta be good right? Yes, they are. Can they continue where Jet left off?

The Killers
What's The Cure to kill off this band for good?

The Police reunion
They opened up the Grammy's, and have finished recording in Vancouver, and hit the road right away. But will Stingalingadingdong still control the band? Will Stewart Copeland tolerate the repetitive fade out chorus endings? Will Andy Summers find that augmented 67th minor chord he's been searching for?

Milhouse Van Halen
There's a Van Halen reunion with David Lee Roth but sans Michael Anthony. (Is that really a reunion?) I saw them in concert about two and a half years ago with Sammy. Not a great show, but not a bad show either. Sammy kind of ruined it for me. Can Diamond Dave still do the splits at his age?

Chris Cornell leaves Audioslave
The friggin guy doesn't even have the decency to tell his bandmates to their face. They learn it by watching him announce it on TV. Tsk tsk. Regardless, this is sad news, being that I always thought they and only a few other bands like Queens of the Stone Age and Velvet Revolver were keeping true rock alive in this world.

QOTSA
Speaking of the Queens, new album out this year as well.

Metallica
New album out soon. All I know is that Rick "Turning Albums Into Gold" Rubin is producing (well everyone). At least Bob Rock won't be playing bass guitar on the album and hopefully Kirk wants to solo again.

Rush!
Rush's new album titled "Snakes and Arrows" boasts Neil's perception of religion in today's world, comes out on May 1st. There is hope!

Okay, can we now officially declare that "Theory of a Nickelfault" mope rock is now dead?

Votescamsatchewan

2006-01-27T13:41:00.000-07:00

Kate has some news on the Desnethe - Missinippi - Churchill River riding votescam:

http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/003449.html

Looks like they have a case!

New Political Blog ...

2006-01-25T16:59:00.000-07:00

Folks, my two other friends on here haven't been posting anything for some time now, so I think it's best if I moved all of my political blogging to another site, but I will remain here for movie and music reviews.

So go to Hatrock's Cave for all your bloggable political needs:

http://hatrockscave.blogspot.com/

-Snaky

Stupid Federal Election Prediction 2006

2006-01-24T16:12:00.000-07:00

Well I wasn't even close. I'm way too optimistic at these things. As I stated, I based my findings on the Ipsos-Reid poll and that 8% lead factor.

So what did I under/over estimate?

I thought the CPC would gain in B.C. They did get +2% but lost 5 seats. That's poor strategy there. Hats off to Jack Layton for spending the most time there. The NDP ran a very good campaign and did the best they could.

In Alberta, not surprised Mike Lake won. That was a wollup actually. And my good friend Laurie Hawn gained 3 points from 2004 and turned Landslide Annie into a mudslide. (What a party we had afterward. Still recovering...) He won by 3790 votes. That's more votes than Anne won in all previous four elections - combined. She's really regretting that Paul Martin visit now.

My friend Jeremy Harrison, the incumbant Conservative, lost his seat in Churchill River in Saskatchewan by 100 votes. However, there's rumour of massive voter fraud there. Hmmm... Too bad, he's a young, bright guy with a lot of potential. Manitoba was a gain for the CPC .. finally!

Quebec surprised me. Thought the CPC would get 4 seats, but 10 seats! Wow!

I thought the Maritimes would add a few more Conservatives.

Now let's talk about Ontario. I guess I just won't ever understand that big fat province, more particularly, the Greater Toronto Area. I guess corruption, scandal, and entitlement is part of the culture. Pretty forgiving if you ask me. Heck, let's throw Vancouver and Montreal in there. Canada's three big cities still want control over the country while everyone else is tired of it. And I'm not so much talking about wayfare socialists, I'm talking big business. I'm talking about Belinda and Paul Martin. They're big business.

Harper is middle class hockey dad. And that's why he won. He related to the average Tim and Horton Canadian (hat tip to Andrew Coyne for "coyning" that phrase) and soccer mom. Years ago, I suggested to the Harper camp that they show off his hockey dad image a lot more. Very powerful Canadianna there. I'm glad they finally listened.

Well, big business won't have anyone at the cabinet table. The smaller cities are emerging -- Alberta in particular. The middle class is tired of the weight that's been placed on them with the high taxes and shitty programs. It's time we took our country back and it's nice to see that Quebec is agreeing with us again.

And I promise, no more optimistic polls. I'm not even going to mention 2004 or that'll put me into PEDS again (post-election distress syndrome).

And I can't wait until my father gets back from his month long stint in South Africa. He was never a big Harper fan. He even supported Belinda in the leadership race. While I carefully rub this win in his face, I know he'll say it should have been a majority. Then we'll have a talk about Hogtown.

Federal Election Prediction 2006

2006-01-23T10:06:00.000-07:00

Science has shown that today, January 23rd, 2006 is the most depressing day of the year... for Paul Martin that is.

Here's my seat prediction, and I've maintained this for weeks now. Everyone is predicting a Conservative minority, while I'm predicting a Conservative Majority. You see, I've said, it's 1984 all over again. The Liberals are at 27%, just like they were then, their worst defeat ever, when they were reduced to below 50 seats, but I don't think they'll be that low this time, yet close to 3rd place because their vote is concentrated in the GTA. As well, I've seen graphs that show if you have at least an 8 point lead, you get a majority. Well, the polls show a 9-11 point lead for Harper.

A Bloc opposition would be a nightmare for Harper, having to pander to Quebec and answer in French all the time. A Liberal opposition would be ideal, as they would have no credibility in answering questions. In fact, it would be embarrassing for former cabinet ministers to ask questions regarding their old department. All the Conservative minister would have to say is, "Well, we're still trying to fix all the problems you created."

Conservatives: 159
Liberals: 60
Bloc: 58
NDP: 30
Ind.: 1 (Quebec)

So there you have it. It's optimistic. I was optimistic in 2004 and got burned. I'm praying that Canadians aren't as gullable as before.

Snaky's Intermittent Movie Review - "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

2006-01-19T11:28:00.000-07:00

I remember "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" being read to me way back in elementary school, but don't remember the story at all other than there were a few kids in it and some talking animals.

Fellow Threedeker, Boobie, recommended I go see this flick.

The first scene really grabs you -- Nazi bombers over London in WWII. Very well done. Then they show the four kids, an eldest brother, a slightly younger sister, an even younger brother, and a little sister, running from the house, who also show great disdain for each other, then head into a bomb shelter with their mother. The next day they're shipped off to a safe haven away from London under a British program to protect the children from further Nazi bombing attacks. They now live in a large house owned by "The Professor" and while playing hide and seek, the little girl finds the wardrobe and a whole new world. And that is certainly an understatement.

It's a wonderfully told fantasy and I'm told the movie is EXACTLY like the book. The CGI animation of the talking animals work seemlessly with the real actors, which make the fantasy so real in itself.

The soundtrack is top notch, filled with flowing harmonies, much like Enya, but more volume, which beautifully compliments the dazzling winter and summer scenery.

The plot does become a bit predictable, especially for grown-ups who understand Christian symbolism and allegory, but it would be truly shocking for the little ones whose hopes get shattered and "resurrected". I gave that away there because even you should see it coming. The rising phoenix dividing the line of fire truly topped that symbolism and the ensuing battle, while not as dark and gory as Lord of the Rings, politely never showed any sword or arrow actually penetrate anything, and for a General audience, was not necessary anyway.

But the allegory of Narnia goes much deeper than this blatant religious portrayal.

The wardrobe is a representation of that inner portal of our souls where many of us are afraid to step into, to discover our true selves. "For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And the door is opened to everyone who knocks." - Matthew 7:8.

Our curiousity, especially as children, and the wonders of exploration, hope, love, and the great rewards that follow, should continually drive us toward truth and selfawareness. The little girl who plays this role does it perfectly with big eyes, wide smiles, and a dainty glowing personna. She is that inner child we all have and must continue to call upon for our curiousity.

The white snow is our innocence and coldness, although shown with beauty and wonder, begins the journey. Friendship, trust, and sacrifice represented by Mr. Thomas, show us the initial steps toward love and charity.

Finally, although older, the next youngest saunters through the wardrobe into Narnia and meets the Queen of Narnia, a.k.a., the witch and finally, they all end up there, and in search of Mr. Thomas, who was taken away by the witch.

Without going to much further into the plot, the symbol of strength and power represented by Azlan the Lion (with a perfect voice-over by Liam Neisson), is the key. His sacrifice to save the youngest boy from his fall of grace is the ultimate moral of the story. Those who truly understand the "dark magic" know that death is nothing to fear, that a better life is yet to come.

This regeneration and rebirth is a fundamental aspect of our lives. We must continually look at ourselves and reassess whither are we directing our course, to seek for that which was lost, and with courage and fortitude, we hope to ultimately find.

Because of this core moral teaching which lay at the heart of the deep symbolism overshadowed by obvious allegory, this is an excellent movie everyone should see. Not only is it fun for the kids, but it will remind you to tend to your inner self and listen to that inner child begging to be heard again.

I don't have anything really bad to say about the movie, other than some predictability of it. I cried, I laughed, and was in awe of the production. The little girl actor stole the show, while the other three were weaker, and thus a slightly lower rating than you'd expect.

Snaky gives "The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" 4.37 Lion paws out of 5.

1984

2006-01-16T09:37:00.000-07:00

Folks, I'm now convinced that the year is actually 1984. With political correctness at full tilt, the state controlling more of our lives each day, and the likely upcoming federal election outcome, Orwellian theory has slowly risen. This second-rate high-tax socalist state has been double-plus-bad ... er... , I mean, it really sucks.

The realization of Canadian society is that they now face reality. This state-owned dream of Canada - that Liberal vision, is a sham. Canadians aren't Liberals -- they're libertarians, and there's a big difference.

With a week to go in this long election campaign, Stephen Harper has shown himself to the electorate, to a wise, young middle-class regular non-scary guy that people can identify with (I could have told you that years ago). Especially in Quebec, where the Conservatives are polling at 32%, only 11 points behind the Bloc which was ignited by his speech in Quebec a couple weeks ago, the young whippersnapper has single-handedly shattered the separatist dream. There's a bit of Harpermania going on there. Certainly not to Trudeaumania levels, but they like him a lot.

A month ago, we were saying if Martin's Liberals won this election, our hope for Canada was lost, and Alberta's dream was alive. Well, that's been dashed for now. Despite Liberal claims, a strong federal government does not work in this confederation -- but regional respect does. Canada does not need a big strong federal government to keep the country together. Canadians can do that on their own, and we tired of that state-owned pride. We want it back. Quebec federalists want it back--and were ashamed when the Liberals were caught trying to buy it from them.

Now back to 1984, where Prime Minister John Turner, who'd taken over from Trudeau, was up against a well spoken Brian Mulroney. Canadians were tired of leftist-liberalism and a weak economy as a result, and saw an American economy bounce back with Reagan, lower taxes, and hope.

So like good music, in Canada, we tend to mimick our American friends, but are about 4 years behind. In 1984, we were 4 years behind electing a conservative. In 1988, we stuck to it. In 1993, we were a year behind the U.S. electing a liberal. Now we're just over 5 years behind a conservative again. In Ontario, voters tend to balance themselves out. During Conservative Mike Harris' Common Sense Revolution of the 90's, Chretien Liberals were in Ottawa. Now, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals are running that province, and voters are going to balance that out with a Harper Conservative federal government. Turner was a stutterererer -- so is Martin. Nice men, but indecisive. It's too easy!

And as I've said in a previous blog regarding music, shmoltzy rock ballads are back (listen to Nickelback), just like all that crap that began in 1984. The rebelliousness of music was gone -- everyone was happy. It was time to love again. Miami Vice was king. Oh wait! Guess what movie is coming out soon?

I should have seen a Harper government a long while back. But I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it'll be a majority -- not to the extent of Mulroney's 211 seats, but it'll be there, and that result will be double-plus-good ... er ... I mean, really awesome!

Campaign break is over...

2006-01-05T14:16:00.000-07:00

Momentum is now on Stephen Harper's side.

I'm thinking that over the holidays, a lot of Canadians got together in groups, say over dinner, or at a party, and a big topic was politics, and the social norm was to trash the Liberals and support the Conservatives.

Of course, ITScam with Finance Minister Ralph Goodale and Paul Martin dithering once again, and I mean REALLY dithering on who in the PMO and Finance Dep't knew about the leak, "Um, look, uh, um, you see, um, you know, um" is just frustrating to listen to.

While there still maybe some soft-NDP going to the Liberals, methinks the usual Liberal default voters are just going to sit this one out, or punish their own party by voting NDP to split the vote or Conservative to really give it to them.

Liberals exposed!

2005-12-21T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last Friday was the English debate. In summary, most think it was a tie between Harper and Martin.

This campaign is not only turning out to be a clash of ideology between socialism and progressive capitalism on economic lines, but it's also beginning to become a clash of ideology between Trudeau's centralized federalism versus provincial autonomy -- something the old Mulroney PCs used to do well in Quebec on. Harper appears to be playing Brian's old card. And it's working.

Anyway, I wanted to summarize what Paul Martin and the Liberals have been saying and doing over the campaign, and I think it's all going to backfire come January. Watch their war room salvo a massive negative attack against Harper on Jan. 2nd.

1. Quebec Campaign

Martin and Couchon making the Liberal campaign in Quebec about a choice between federalism and sovereignty, saying a vote for the Bloc is a 'Yes' vote in the referendum is not working. Last week, Martin challenged Duceppe to a debate on "any street corner in Quebec", so Duceppe makes such a challenge which Martin declines! Then Harper steps up and offers to debate Duceppe.

Harper is also getting support from Liberal Premier Charest and ADQ leader Mario Dumont on Harper's vision for a decentralized federal gov't. Harper gets credit for saying the Liberals prefer the PQ in Quebec so Martin can look like the saviour. While the Conservative Party's best chance in Quebec is 3 seats -- likely none, they are splitting the federalist vote there, causing the Bloc to shoot way ahead. Currently, polls show the Bloc at 60% and the Liberals dropping to 20%. This could be a Bloc sweep.

2. The Americans

Martin's Liberal war room has been planning to use the anti-U.S. card at the right time in the campaign. At a Montreal international conference on global warming, Martin with Bill Clinton targets the U.S. on not participating in Kyoto, that they're not following the "global conscious" was quickly responded by the American ambassador to Canada. All the while emissions in Canada are up 24% while in the U.S. they're only up 13%. Harper brilliantly jumps in the frey and says Martin is irresponsible to begin a war of words with the Americans during an election campaign with softwood lumber a major trade issue, while at the same time, says the U.S. ambassador shouldn't get involved by staying out of the federal election.

But this was all planned by the Liberals from the get go. Separately released Liberal TV ads show a different message, but obviously recorded with the same people at the same time... I guess they assume Canadians are really that dumb. Speaking of which...

2a. Liberal Ads

In trying to show average Canadians supporting the Liberal record, the truth came out in exposing that the people in the ads were actually Liberal workers, and some relatives of Liberal candidates.

3. Day Care

The "Beer and Popcorn" gaffe by Paul Martin's chief communications guru, on top of Martin saying that they would never suggest that parents don't know how to spend their money, automatically ended the debate and declared Harper the winner. How do I know? Well, Martin's response to this was to lambast Harper on same-sex marriage.

4. Holiday hours! Liberal campaign workers go back to work ... at the gov't.

Over the holiday season, campaign workers paid by the Liberals will go back to work at the gov't, but won't be collecting cheques from the Liberals. Why? The Liberals are broke. Usury?

5. Handguns

Harper points out that Martin's declaration to ban handguns is frugle since THEY ARE ALREADY BANNED! Martin's living in desperate times.

6. "Take your NRA gun loving ass back to the U.S!"

The Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Page: A5
Section: News
Byline: Glen McGregor
Column: Highway 308
Source: The Ottawa Citizen

Guns & Drugs
Elie Betito is known in political circles as the chief spokesman for
generic drug company Apotex, and can often be seen on the Hill helping the
company in its ongoing campaign for changes to patent drug rules. But Mr. Betito
got a splash of ink this week for something entirely different over an e-mail he
sent to Stacey Cherwonak, a sport shooter and forensic firearms expert with the
RCMP in Ottawa.
As a volunteer on Liberal candidate Bonnie Brown's campaign in Oakville, Mr. Betito fielded Mr. Cherwonak's angry e-mail last week over the Liberal announcement about further restrictions on handguns. He closed his e-mail with, "you lying bastards."Mr. Betito e-mailed back: "take your NRA , GUN LOVING ASS BACK TO THE U.S. WHERE YOU BELONG, E. BETITO." Mr. Betito admits the e-mail was written in "a moment of insanity," and says he was provoked into the foolish move by the tone of Mr. Cherwonak's message and his concerns about the Dodge City environment in the Toronto 'burbs. He has resigned from Ms. Brown's campaign and apologized to Mr. Cherwonak.But Mr. Betito says he now feels like he's the one in the crosshairs.
Once his e-mail was posted on a blog, it spread rapidly among the guns 'n' ammo set across North America. He says he has received hundreds of e-mails from the U.S. and Canada, many threatening in tone."I have been bombarded," he said. "I got concerned about my welfare. I never knew the reach and breadth of these groups." Mr. Betito says some e-mails are suggesting a boycott of Apotex's drugs and others were sent to his bosses to demand he be fired.One message confused his gender and began with the salutation, "You Liberal slut." One website posted his home address.
'This is the greatest level of intimidation I have ever seen,' Mr. Betito said, and
that's something coming from someone who regularly picks fights with the most
powerful industry in the world -- the brand-name drug companies.
And Take Your Beer and Popcorn With You
Meanwhile, Mr. Cherwonak is giving some serious consideration to taking Mr. Betito's advice. "I may be taking my gun-loving ass to the U.S. after all," he said. He is reconsidering his future in Canada because of the Liberal approach to gun control. He calls Liberal leader Paul Martin's proposal on new handgun restrictions "a grub for votes in Toronto," that may force him to relocate if he wants to continue competitive sport shooting. The message from Mr. Betito did not surprise him, he said, given the party's past position on guns. It was one of only a few replies he received after blanketing Ontario Liberal MPs with his e-mailed message of protest. One reply from a Liberal campaign worker came with a suggestion: "It said you better practise because Harper's going to send you to Iraq," he said.

That's all for now. Those are the major Liberal blunders, in case you forgot to keep track.

Liberals, Fiberals...

2005-12-12T15:22:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, this election seems to be coming down to an ideological war.

On one hand you have the Martin Liberals, with their "parents will spend the money on beer and popcorn" paternalistic statist view of child care, compared with Harper's Conservatives -- libertarian views that people can make their own choices about how to raise their kids.

Simply put, Liberals would rather that they control and provide for your whole life, from cradle to grave, using your own money.

Methinks the Liberals think government knows how to spend your money better than you can. And when that dirty envelope money gets passed to a Liberal-friendly adfirm under a table at a restaurant which is then passed on to the Liberal party itself, I guess they must be right.

Do they think Canadians are that stupid?

Well, if Ontario votes Liberal again, there's your answer.

Walk [Above] the Line...

2005-11-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

The comparisons between "Ray" with Jamie Foxx and "Walk the Line" with Joaquin Pheonix are out. So striking that the stories of both musicians growing up in the south, from a child who loves music, his brother, his parent, making it in music biz, drugs, wives, the road, groupies, cheating, a mistress, kids, seem to be common for growing stars in the 50's and 60's trying to balance stardom and a normal Christian life.

So, yes, let us compare.

So since both stories are similar and both were delivered in relatively the same manner, I'd say that "Walk the Line" wins out slightly. Why? "Ray" seemed to drag in places, where "Walk the Line" was more to the point, much like Johnny Cash's style.

And "Ray" did very well, as did Jamie Foxx. I expect a bit more success for "Walk".

Jamie Foxx really looked like acted and sounded like Ray Charles, as he did some method acting of being blind to get into the role and hung out with Ray himself.

But did the plot and dialogue carry Foxx's portrayal? Don't get me wrong, Foxx did an amazing job, but now in comparison to Phoenix, I can now see the difference and slight lack on Foxx's part. Slight. But I wish to emphasize that slight made a big difference.

Johnny Cash fully endorsed Joaquin Phoenix's typecasting. Phoenix, in my opinion, is an underrated actor. Not anymore.

I especially wondered if Phoenix poured his own soul and life into the role. He could honestly relate to Cash's life, as he too lost a dear brother to an accident and continually suffers from drug addiction. Now THAT's method acting--when your own life is similar to the person you're portraying. And I believe that aspect, coupled with Phoenix's many talents, gave him a slight edge over Foxx.

The camera production was excellent. When Johnny was drunk and on pills, you could FEEL it and relate to the character as the camera gave you first person view of the blur he felt. Yes, I know, can't really do that with a blind guy. But why not? Why didn't they black out the screen and only have sounds? Instead they went with flashbacks to Ray's childhood as the underlying theme.

You won't find flashbacks in "Walk" and I think it was more effective. Johnny seemed to lock up that pain of his brother dying and his drunken father telling him "the wrong kid died" way way down for a long long time, until decades later when it finally comes out at the Thanksgiving dinner table. But was it yelling? No. You could hear that pain and anger in his voice and see in his eyes.

This is a story about being saved. I didn't get that feel as much from watching "Ray".

Johnny needed saving. He loved his older brother, who was destined to be a preacher, as his best friend and companion. But no matter how successful he got, nothing was good enough for his father. The music that came out of his voice reflected that lament and suffering. He so badly wanted forgiveness. And early on in the tour with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, etc. he met June Carter and realized right there that she understood him like no one else.

So Big kudos to Reeses Pieces Witherspoon for an outstanding performance. Absolutely spot on to June Carter, a strong talented witty woman who saw that special something in Johnny and even after 40 marriage proposals (although he was still married!), dressing room trashing, spending time in jail for drugs, we know she finally says yes.

But before that, when her career wasn't taking off, she married a stock car driver but that relationship wasn't doing well. Johnny and her hadn't seen each other in a while until a music awards ceremony. He asks her to join his tour and says he'll provide for her no matter what. This was the first time Johnny truly offered anything to June and was a big turning point in their unusual relationship.

But while Johnny turned to other substitutes for salvation, he always knew June was the one. It was June and her parents who ultimately saved him from drugs by fending off dealers with double barrel shotguns from his lake side country home. He finally recovers and they get married. While not shown, you can tell his father is finally proud of him.

Phoenix's true and real method acting got to the core and soul of the character so much that I could really feel the emotion and relate it to my own life. And this made me understand Johnny Cash the man.

The only wish I had for the movie was showing more interaction with the other big stars of the 50's, like Elvis. There were a couple scenes, but Johnny's focus was always on June.

Snaky gives "Walk the Line", 4.12 fists out of 5.

Queens 4 -- Nails 2

2005-11-17T15:18:00.000-07:00

When you go see a live band, what do you want to see and hear? You don't want to just hear the album.

The other day I was invited to go the Nine Inch Nails (NIN) with Queens of the Stone Age (QOTSA) concert. I know a few QOTSA tunes, and thought I might recognize a couple NIN tracks and I heard their show was pretty cool, so what the hell. I accepted the free ticket.

So last night, six of us dudes went to Rexall Place. The radio and the ticket said QOTSA started at 7pm and we got their at 6:50 and they were already playing. So I grab a couple beers and we find our seats near the top back of the coliseum. We all then moved up to the standing 'room' part so we could place our beers on the ledge. It was perfect.

The crowd was right into Josh Homme's haunting smooth voice and trying to find the off time rhythms in one of the tightest and original bands I've ever seen live. Unlike Pearl Jam, they weren't jammin'. They were cookin'. While most of us were musicians ourselves, we quickly picked up the timings but by that time, the band was already zooming onto another part. We simply couldn't keep up and I appreciated every nuance. Even one of the guitar players jumped on the keyboards for a very original groove undergroundish rock tune.

They say Josh used to do a lot of heavy drugs. Well, they sure churned out some originality, weird note patterns, lyrics, and textures that you were sure they were probably on 'em during the writing process. Tell you what, if they're pumping out killer progressive tunes like that consistently, I'll let 'em do all the drugs they want on my behalf.

We then hear Josh talking to some dude in the crowd on the floor who was apparently lipping him off or something. Josh showed a lot of class in his responses: "Hey dude, we're just tryin' to have some fun here. Am I right folks?" (Crowd roars.) This "conversation" continued for a few more songs but then Josh steps it up and insults him, his mother, and the whole crowd laughed. Then he says, "Okay, this next is for you, man. It's called 'Little Bitch'". And then of course they go right into 'Little Sister', an awesome hit and they nail it.

I mentioned to one of the boys that most of their songs are about four minutes. Put a shoe in my mouth, 'cause right after I say that, they play a wickedly fast 1 minute instrumental. Good variety.

The sound at the coliseum is wanting, but I was surprised at how good the Queens did sound. I guess it's because they play so tightly that the sounds don't blend into each other when it reverberates on the back wall.

Then they encore with their big hit, which my band also plays, "No One Knows". But the Queens decide to speed it up ... a lot! See, wasn't expecting that. Then they play quieter and quieter (is that a word?) to nothing and Josh beautifully sings out the words ... pause, and finally they kick into the last part. But I was disappointed they didn't do the solo of the song, which is really really freaking difficult for a band to play -- trust me, I know. We've worked on it and worked on it, and Queens decide to not even do it! Oh well, it still kicked ass.

Needless to say, at no point of watching QOTSA was I bored. Actually, I was blown away. They had enough stage lights that complimented the music nicely, flashes in time with the drums, etc., but the music is what was really bright. I would definitely see them again.

Then...

The stage was then box curtained in a transparent white. The lights go off. The music blars and Nine Inch Nails takes the stage in silouette behind the curtain. Very cool stage design, lots of power lights, and a high energy show all 'round.

But I think only a couple songs actually stood out. The rest were all basically the same and the cool light show seemed to be making up for a lot in the lack of originality. Sure NIN is different than the mainstream, but compared with their own music, there didn't seem to be a lot of variety.

Then for about 20 minutes, they refused to play because everyone at the front was pushing forward. It was general admission on the floor. I wanted to skedaddle, but we stayed and I even heard some people chanting "Let's go Oilers!" Funny.

Finally they came back but projected news footage on the front curtain screen for about two songs, showed George W and Laura ballroom dancing. I thought, "Are we at the movies?" "This is CNN." I'm all for visuals, but this wasn't artistic. I really don't like musicians getting involved in partisan politics, because they really don't have any sway, nor do they have anything to say. USE YOUR MUSIC TO COMMUNICATE DUMBASS.

Anyway, then some droning unoriginal and depressing piano part comes on. I sat down. I fell asleep. That's right, I fell asleep. I yelled out "BORING!" But I don't think anyone heard.

Finally at 11:30pm, the show was over.

Keeping in mind I probably recognized 5 songs total that night...

Snak gives Queens of the Stone Age a 10/10 for musicianship, 6/10 for stage show. So an even 8/10.

I give Nine Inch Nails 2/10 for musicianship, and 8/10 for stage show. So 5/10.

But since we were at the coliseum:
Queens 4 -- Nails 2.

The Answer To Life, The Universe, and Everything

2005-11-09T10:41:00.000-07:00

This isn't necessarily a critique, just some deep thoughts about the universe and God. As a Mason, I continually challenge myself to pursue this of all subjects, reading about science, exploring the cosmos, and how religion fit in. Some say science and religion should stay far away from each other. I don't, dogma aside, I think they fit just nicely.

Remember when Einstein used to say things like "God does not play with dice"? He was able to keep God into the scientific mix so well and always made us wonder. He showed that yes, science is limited to what we can observe or theorize based on existing facts and calculations. But what IS beyond that?

Not long after that, Hubble showed that the galaxies were moving away from each other. This gave us the first notion that they must have been closer together and even closer ... and even really really close -- that they formed a singularity and exploded into the Big Bang.

So they've recently calculated that our universe is 13.7 billion years old, that it is expanding exponentially (or perhaps like the Fibonacci sequence ???).

There are theories like Cosmic Inflation that say the universe will continue like that forever into a cold dark spance or that it will reach a point that gravity will pull it all back into the Big Crunch and maybe it all starts over again, because total energy doesn't change.

So in one sense, the universe is finite because it is expanding, in another it is infinite because we'll never know or see the end of it. But that's because of human limit, from our ego, from our limited mind.

So if our universe is finite, then what's beyond that?

What about multiple universes? If there are multiple universes, then they must be finite otherwise they would all be one in the same. Think about a bunch of bubbles that get bigger and bigger, but what's between them? Nothing? Do they collide? Do bigger ones swallow smaller ones? So what's holding all these universes? Another universe? And what holds that? Now were into infinity again. Whew.

Now let's go the other way. Nuclear physics continually explores smaller and smaller things. Everything is made of something smaller. We're made of cells and our cells are made of things like mitochondria, then DNA, which is made of chemicals, which are made of elements, atoms, protons, quarks, ... it just keeps going.

So will we ever come to the end? Science still does not explain everything, and perhaps it never will as long as things are infinitely large and infinitely small. It seems when atheists use science as their mantra, they can only go as far as we know.

Stephen Hawking is another well known physicist whose explanations on black holes, the universe, light, gravity, time, quantum theory, string theory, relativity, are fun to read and understandable. He, much like Einstein, does not count out God in the equation. In fact, he says that's what we're doing with discovering theories and exploring science -- is knowing the mind of God. What motivation!!!

Because when we ask "Why are we here?", who do we expect to answer this question? Is it chance that we're here, or IS there a reason?

So now the question is, "Is God playing with dice, or is He blowing bubbles?"

Report du Gomery Part Un...

2005-11-01T14:57:00.000-07:00

So the report is out.

Justice Gomery puts the blame on Chretien and his cronies. Gee, I coulda told you that!

He also exonerated Prime Minister Paul Martin, yet blames the entire Liberal gov't cabinet at the time of the scandal 10 years ago, when Paul Martin was the Finance Minister.

I'm guessing that Paul Martin knew full well what was going on, but took active steps in making sure it looked liked he didn't know and made sure information was given to him at arm's length. Smart move on his part.

What's interesting is just under two years ago in December 2003 when Paul took the reigns of the PMO, he ordered a full sweeping audit of gov't finances, but this was not done by the Auditor General. To me, that indicates he knew something was up before the AG did her bidding on the gov't who eventually exposed the whole scandal.

Well, with the second part of the report due in February, and Paul promising to call an election 30 days after that, we're now looking at an April election. Isn't it nice for all those post-secondary students to get closed out of participating in the election while they study and write final exams? Isn't that ... oh, I don't know, a bit convenient?

About as convenient as not blaming Paul for gov't finances.

Hallow's Eve...

2005-10-31T16:27:00.000-07:00

I love Hallowe'en, don't you?

As the world gets more populated, countries ever more diverse, and religions of all sorts are further subdivided, North American society has continued general stat holidays for Christmas, but Hallowe'en remains on its own.

While I don't wish to be politically correct by any stretch, Hallowe'en is great because it doesn't matter what religion you are. All the witches and devil outfits fly in the face of religious fanaticism and further proves its what's inside that counts, not what you wear.

And like Christmas and Easter it's about the kids, isn't it? Kids love dressing up. They get to be something else for a day. You see them in a Batman or Catwoman costume, it doesn't matter, as long as it's fun.

And the chocolate. My oh my. Neighbourhoods opening up their doors -- house decorations, scary fun stuff indeed. Kids from all religions take to the streets. They don't know or even care if Sunjit loves Jesus, or if Kwan prayed to Allah today. We can learn a lot from kids.

The kids love the mystery of it all. They love their Harry Potter (well ... so do I!). "What are you going as?" "Not telling 'til you see." Again, it's all about the kids.

Well, I gotta go put on my costume again and head off to a party. I love it!

Happy Hallowe'en!!!!!

Governance by Polls

2005-10-21T16:15:00.000-06:00

We no longer have a democracy in Canada.

This was recently confirmed by an article I read that the federal gov't was going to look into lower and middle class tax cuts due to the upcoming budget surplus (read: the money they owe you).

The Liberals think this is a good idea to quash any backlash they'll get from Gumgate. What's Gumgate? Well, although I made it up, it's a term I'm "coining" (ha!) for former Canadian Mint CEO David Dingwall's crazy expenses, which allegedly included a pack of gum.

So, if there was no Gumgate, then they wouldn't have to look at tax cuts. WOW. That's vision. That's real leadership.

"We'll wait and see what the polls say about this."

Nevermind what you elected them to do based on their platform anymore.

We're being governed by polls. What's the point anymore. We could have a bunch of lackies in ttawa, umm, wait, .... UNELECTED lackies (there that's better, or we could just say bureaucracts I guess) UNELECTED lackies conducting polls to determine the will of the people.

Of course many of these polls are conducted in friendly areas. Do a straight poll here in Alberta and see what kind of reaction the federal gov't would get.

Reason #843 why I'm an Alberta Separatist. (In case you didn't know.)

Full Circle or Highway to Hell?

2005-10-17T12:22:00.000-06:00

Some say that hell is when you repeat the same thing over and over again.

Some say that hell is when you repeat the same thing over and over again.

Some say that hell is when you repeat the same thing over and over again.

Music of today condensed two and a half decades in just two and a half years and we, my generation has been listening to a perverbial hell. Kids today don't know it though. But I do. I remember.

What the h-e-double-hockey-stick am I talking about?

As mopesters Theory of a Nickelfault continued on their guitar solo-less radio friendly 4 chord songwriting careers, I knew this new sound wouldn't last as soon as it started. And it didn't.

People got quickly tired of it and demanded something new and fresh, like buns in bakery.

A couple years ago, when classic rock appeared to be making a comeback, we were inundated with new bands like Jet, The Trews, and The Darkness, rehashing old styles from the 70's, if not blatently plagerising. ("Are you gonna be my girl?" is EXACTLY like "Lust For Life" is it not?) Don't get me wrong, I liked the comeback. I'll take it over moperock any day.

But then what happened? Well, after we had a brief stint with classic 70's rock, I thought, what's next, punk? Yep. Inspired on by Green Day, we had high school "punk" skater revival where every beat was snare drum and every song had 3 chords. Fuck, even Avril Lavigne outgrew all that.

So then I thought? Wait a minute. I see a pattern here. Hmmm, I'm starting to hear more keyboards on the radio? Oh no, not again! Next up was that every freakin' new band was named The Blahs and led by The Killers, 80's retro rock made a comeback. Mod styles were in again, and then there was that day I sauntered down from my office to Holt Renfrew and what doth I see on manakin man? It was like a freakin' time warp where Miami Vice meets Chet the homosexual tennis player and pink alligator shirts were once again the rage. But thankfully, that style ended quickly, the starch thrown out, and the late 60's early 70's hip style (that's why it's the best period in fashion ever) remained. Gee, were sales going to shit?

And as the music got poppier, I thought, "Uh oh, here we go. What's next, 80's glam metal ballad rock?" Sure as shit. But who were the new bands reviving the cheesy hair spray? Well, there weren't any? You know why? YOU FUCKING WANNA KNOW WHY? I'll tell you why. Because a lot of those bands from back then, a whole freakin' 20 years ago, ARE STILL AROUND. And they were touring! And they were selling out! Sometimes TWO SHOWS! Case in point: Motley Crue. Even Quiet Riot came back, then Def Leppard, ad nauseum. Dead horses everywhere!

But then there was the icing on the cake. I couldn't believe it, but wasn't surprised. Nickelback releases their fourth album. How does a band get shitter after each album? What the fuck was Chad thinking? Oh, I know. "Well, it seems 80's glam metal ballad bands are making a comeback. Why don't I write some and fill the void?" What's even sadder is he doesn't even stack up against those shmaltzy songs. I'll put a Whitesnake, Europe, shit even Brighton Rock (remember them?) tune up against Chad "Can't sing higher than middle C" Kroeger. His voice does not warrant it. Hehe, Warrant. Get it? Chad, stick to the gut wrenching growly rocker riffs, or you gettin' soft?

Okay, enough of the Nicklebashing (for now anyway). As I've said in other postings, there are some bands that have transcended and perservered through all this repeated crap and actually sound original, even though some of them are a mish mash of the old . Even then, at least they have vision. Let's list a few, shall we?

- Queens of the Stone Age
- Audioslave
- Velvet Revolver
- Foo Fighters

But let's look at this though. All the guys in these bands were in what bands that emerged after 80's glam metal died? Early 90's grunge! The Seattle alternative sound! I don't need to list all those bands do I? You reading this should know. If you don't then stop reading this blog!

So you can guess what music style is just around the corner can't you? I know, I'm not looking forward to it either. Go pull out your CD collection from 10 years ago and you'll see. Then the next thing you know, Nickelback will make a comeback.

I'm on a highway to hell.

Alberta, Alberta, won't you come on home...

2005-09-09T12:12:00.000-06:00

Well, my home province just turned 100 years old last week. The fireworks were awesome. As I watched, I began to reflect on this province's rich history and all the people involved in building an infrastructure out of nothing. Look how far we've come! There is such great opportunity here. People are moving from all over to be in this great square borderland that had a bite taken out of its corner.

Then I thought, "Hey wait a minute.... It could be better!" A province so rich in oil revenue right now with massive budget surpluses should give back to its citizens, directly, and permanently. No one time cheque. No super spending on a program to bloat bureaucracy. Some simple things.

1. Eliminate the health care insurance premiums. This tax hurts those just above the exemption cut off, which I think is only $12,000. Mine get paid by my company as a benefit, but most who have to pay are students over 25 who haven't landed that cushy job yet. It's tough, I know. I've been there. It's a real pain in the ass. The gov't gets $500 million in revenues from this. We have a surplus of $2.6 billion and growing.

2. Tax cuts. Alberta has a flat tax of 11.5% that was introduced back in the late 90's. It's been a while. Reduce it.

3. Roads and infrastructure. The "Highway to Hell", i.e. the one from Edmonton to Ft. MacMurray needs to be widened. Ft. Mac needs a lot of infrastructure as this is the place that's fueling the gov't surplus in the first place! Workers living in tents is not good. Housing is a huge issue there.

4. Force universities and colleges to cap tuition and force them to find ways to save money. We all know how bloated these bureaucracies are (the U of A is the worst). Tuition goes up not necessarily because of a lack gov't funding, on the contrary, but because the university doesn't have the guts or mindset to eliminate their own waste and mismanagement.

There. If there are any PC leadership hopefuls reading this (ha!), take note. This means you Dinning, Norris, Hancock, Oberg, and Stelmach.

Or maybe Ralph will beat you to it again.

Concert Review: Pearl Jam

2005-09-06T11:03:00.000-06:00

I saw Pearl Jam live for the first time last night. We were sitting in the upper bowl behind and to the side of the stage. They had no back curtain, so my first thought was this show was going to be about the music, not flashy video and gimmicks.

I was impressed with how we could easily see everything on the stage, the lights, the gear, and the band, who would often turn around and rock out to us "behind the scenes". However, while there were a few speakers pointed our way, I could barely make out the in-between song talk from Eddie. No idea what he was saying. The sound in the coliseum sucks to begin with, but if they're going to have a full concert bowl with a quarter of fans behind them, the sound needs way more work.

I didn't recognize a lot of the songs, as I've never been a hard core fan, but I was still expecting a decent mix of tunes, and that they'd play their more popular ones. One of my favourites they play, and our band even plays it, is "Alive". I waited and waited. And after a full two hours, two encores, even playing with the house lights up, they never played it. You could feel the anticipation in the air, and then a lot of disappointment.

I've always said that Pearl Jam picked up where Led Zeppelin left off and this concert reminded me of watching old Zep videos of their long jams and solos, with blues, and the like. However, having two to three guitars at a time, was a bit much, and hard to distinguish the intricacies and detail of these talented musicians. There's no doubt these guys enjoy playing live, lots of movement from the guitar players, but without a doubt, the focus was on Eddie.

So then a song like "Better Man" comes along with a single light pointed Eddie Vedder, long hair and all, and his Fender Stratocaster. I had no idea HE was the one who played it at the beginning and this was a surprise. Then with all the lights out, the crowd inundated the bowl with lighters. Reminded me of the time I saw George Bush Sr. make a speech in the same spot 10 years ago about "A Thousand Points of Light". You could hear the crowd sing along "Waiting. Watching the clock, it's four o'clock, it's got to stop..." while pretending you're floating in space looking at the stars. Truly a moment I won't forget. Then it kicked up with lights on and it was great.

But then they'd play some really slow long drawn out songs, that didn't seem to go anywhere. This was that boring mope rock at it's finest. I could make out some of his political diatribes. I've never been a fan of artists mixing wtih politics. They really have no pull whatsoever. Stick to the music. I don't mind a charitable cause, as Pearl Jam brings needed attention to Crohns Colitis disease. I also like the Free Tibet campaign many artists get involved in, but partisan politics doesn't fly well.

Eddie's a funny guy though. "Tomorrow we're going to Saskatoon. Saskatoon. Do they have electricity there?"

Anyway, I hear that die hard fans loved the show. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. I would have preferred to see them in a more intimate setting at a smaller show. Will I see them again? Sadly, no. Most concerts I go to, there is an element of "WOW!". There were a couple times that almost happened.

Snaky gives Pearl Jam live in Edmonton 2.6 fists out of 5.

Liberals taking in $10 billion more

2005-08-23T11:10:00.000-06:00

$10 billion
$10,000,000,000

That's a lot of money when you think about it. That's about $300 for every Canadian, or $650 per taxpayer. Geez, I sure could use $650 right now. How about you? What would you spend it on? Or would you pay down some of your own debt, or invest it and make it grow? RRSP contribution would be nice. Then you write off some of your income against it and save even more money.

You see how this works now?

And $10 billion is THIS year's "surplus". From the Liberal government who told you last election there wasn't enough for tax cuts.

Well, simply put. Fuck 'em. It's my fucking money and I want it back right fucking now. And why are they calling it THEIR surplus, like they OWN the fucking money. Oh yeah, it's real hard to slave me into automatically taking money off of my paycheques to pay for their stupid programs that don't work; to use MY money to pay for buying votes; scandals galore, the list goes on.

Oh and people say, we should pay down the debt. Well, excuse me, I wasn't a fucking taxpayer when the debt got cranked up during the 70's and 80's, so why the fuck do I gotta wait around until I get my goddamn money back? Give it to me now so I can spend it at businesses which will create better jobs and more taxpayers. THEN you can use those extra taxpayers to pay down the fucking debt.

And it's not a gov't surplus. It's what they owe us this year ... at least! On top of all the bloody waste and mismanagement in the bureaucracy, as pointed out by our Auditor General every single year, there's probably another $20 billion (at least!) kicking around. Then there's the $40 billion EI surplus. Uh, hello? The gov't is obviously taking in way too much. But do we see a reduction on our ..er.. reductions? Fuck no. They think it's their money.

How much money does the fucking government need to not solve society's problems? Apparently, in a country of 33 million, they need $200 billion to figure it out.

Tax cuts now! Give the gov't less money and let them figure out how to reorganize themselves, because well, they keep taking more and more from you, and they don't give two shits how you have to adjust your life.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "The Five People You Meet In Heaven"

2005-08-08T08:53:00.000-06:00

Directed by Lloyd Cramer, starring Jon Voight, who plays Eddie, and 83 year old WWII vet and likeable maintenance worker at Ruby Pier Amusement Park.

Based on the book by Mitch Albom, the movie is very long, but worth it. I don't want to give away any plot lines, but the title obviously indicates what the movie is really about. Jon Voight is an excellent actor and doesn't disappoint showing a range of emotions. You are taken through the life story of Eddie in his initiation into heaven where he is guided by 5 people in his life who have died. The movie seems a bit drawn at times, but as I said, totally worth it in the end. I mean, we are talking about viewing a man's entire life and how he has influenced so many people -- that we are all connected, that your actions and words affect your surroundings, which influence other people, and so on, so the length is understandable.

Interestingly, my friend wanted to see a war movie, and I wanted a religious one. This certainly had both. The longest scenes were Eddie's time as a soldier and P.O.W. and how it greatly affected his life from that point on. The 5 people he meets help him heal and forgive, pointing out that while we are on earth we do have a chance to do the same thing--to love and not to hate, to forgive and not to grudge, and to realize that we were all a "somebody".

The music score was perfect, never seemed intruding, and most of the scenes were beautiful, yet somewhat intentionally surreal, yet I don't think that was the desired effect, so a bit of a drawback. I grew weary of seeing the amusement park, and I wished it showed a few more scenes of children playing and laughing to give it more of that fun feel, but again, perhaps this annoying feeling was intentional, as you then truly sympathized with Eddie having worked there all his life.

While I kept watching, at certain milestone scenes I'd say, "Excellent movie", but it was the ending that really hit home. I mean, big time. I won't spoil it for you, the long wait, like I said, is totally worth it. I knew there was a reason to see this movie and confirmed a lot of things for me at my age and reflecting back on it over the last few years. What will be interesting is to see how it affects your life and what you learn from it. You do affect people positively or negatively everyday. Take your pick and find peace my friends, while there's still time.

Because of the high emotion ending, I can go from a 5 scale down, with the downsides being the movie's length, bad bluescreening, and some draggy moments...

Snaky gives "The Five People You Meet In Heaven", 4.23 fists out of 5. Keep water nearby to get the lumps out of your throat and watch it with a female, even if you are one.

And if I were to compare this movie to the predictable overhyped drivel of "The Notebook", "Five People" is a WAY better movie if you not only want some sappy love, but want and expect much more from a good feel-good story.

The new Rob Thomas album...

2005-07-26T14:38:00.000-06:00

Despite a friend's strong recommendation, this album is crap, unoriginal, and uninspiring. After one listen through, I thought, "Where's the band?" proving that when you have a perfectly great band as Rob does with Matchbox Twenty, you go and get all gung-ho with your big ego from being front-man and lead songwriter with talented musicians that a few years ago recorded one of the best albums out there, get reduced to an overproduced, directionless has-been.

I was really looking forward to the next Matchbox 20 album, Rob spoiled that ideal. The edginess you found on Matchbox's last album is completely gone. The piercing gutty guitars, super groovy walking bass lines, anthemic choruses and choirs, powerful lyrics, all supported by dynamic, sharp, and smashing drums really made that album awesome. You'd think Rob would learn something from it. Did he? Nope.

Gone are all those great things I mentioned. What's left? It sounds like NKOTB trying to be Menudo at times. You remember Menudo don't you? Yeah, Ricky Martin when he had no pubic. It's like Rob was trying to reinvent what he did with Santana, but just fails miserably. The vocals are forced around poor arrangements and bad idealess production centered on "cool beats" from a soulless drum machine with rhythms sounding like they were downloaded for your cellphone.

Needless to say, this album, which I don't know the name of, 'cause well, it's not memorable, is one disappointing effort. There's some not bad songs, but I don't remember how they go.

Snaky gives Rob Thomas' new album 1.52 fists out of 5.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "Wedding Crashers"

2005-07-26T14:08:00.000-06:00

So there I was on the lounge patio with some friends at Edmonton's ritziest, the Hotel Macdonald. Two weddings were on. Was I dressed for such an occassion? Nope. I had my black leather jacket, brown 70's shoes, messy hair, dark faded jeans, and a brown striped untucked shirt. We had a few glasses of pino when it was time to head off.

But as I walked down the deco'd hallway on the east side, wedding guests passed me in their suits, tuxes, and with hotties in their shiny dresses. They stared, wondering, who's this guy?

But then there it was -- the big black Yamaha grand piano tucked into the corner where the hallway did a 90, and it sat there quietly asking me, "Play me! Play me!" So I pulled it away from the wall, sat down on the perfectly provided bench, and started my little jazz/blues on the ivories.

Wedding people began gathering around. I got requests. Played "Piano Man" and everyone sang along, even the father of the bride. Then after some more crooning, I bid them adieu, "I have to go." But they pleaded for me to stay and I replied, "I'd love to stay, but I have another wedding to crash!" Hearing laughter as I walked away I then put my arm around the father and said, "Congratulations sir, she's a beautiful girl." He said "Thanks!" and off I went.

Motivated and inspired? Damn straight.

Wedding Crashers, starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Christopher Walken, is a really fun movie. The first part depicts two divorce mediator attorneys who see no need for the matrimonial institution in their lives go incognito during wedding season, partying, socialising, befriending, and hooking up with every hotty available, even at ethnic weddings.

And you'd think the movie was just about all that right? Of course not. There's gotta be some plot and a change of hearts.

Vince Vaughn is superb and on the money. His adlib comedic acting style shines through and he has the funniest lines. He and Luke Wilson work seemlessly together as partners at work, and partners in crashing. But you see the inevitable breakdown and conflict coming don't you? That part of the movie was a little weak.

Personally, I would have liked to have seen more of their con artist antics at a couple weddings. I think even more laughs could have been generated there and I needed more tips.

The show appears to be a simple fun comedy, but then in the second half, it drifts off into the romantic side and Owen Wilson gets so sappy at times, I wanna puke. But Vince, being the good buddy, sticks by for wing support and falls into countless acts of physical abuse by random happenstance. These comedic parts reminded me of some of Stiffler's antics in American Pie and thankfully at least keep the movie on the comedy side of things. The second half drags on, some scenes could have been deleted.

But if you want a laugh, because there's no other comedies out right now, go see Wedding Crashers, but not with a chick. Even if you are a chick reading this, take a guy. Heck, take me again. That way, I can reminisce about my crashing days and this time, take some notes.

Snaky gives Wedding Crashers, 3.1 fists out of five.

It's the terrorists, stupid!

2005-07-26T13:38:00.000-06:00

With the recent cowardly terrorist bombings in London, Brits were polled asking if they thought the attacks were result of British involvement in the Iraq war. A clear majority says this is true.

Well, they need to blame someone accountable. Tony Blair, you're taking the fall.

But this logic is well, ... completely illogical. With the recent terrorist attacks in Egypt, why aren't they asking that question there? Egypt's not involved in the war at all. They're an Arab nation!

And remember Bali? Oh, but some will say, "Australia's involved in the war and there were a lot of Australian tourists killed." Fits real nice doesn't it?

And Spain.

And of course, Iraq itself. These terrorists are killing innocent "fellow" Muslims all the time there. You can be certain that even if the U.S. pulled out, the new Iraq gov't, military, and police force will still be easy targets for terrorists.

Basically, terrorism is an industry unto itself. Here you have a worldwide secretive organization, with sleeper cells, that when called upon, execute a well oiled plan to kill innocent people. Money flows from donations and other shady means.

When the hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and almost the White House, the U.S. was not at war with Iraq then. Neither were the Brits.

Canada didn't go to Iraq because we simply couldn't afford it financially, nor do we have the resources. We're not the big peace keeping nation either (35th on the list actually), but we still sent our men to Afghanistan.

And as more Canadian troops were just sent there to fight this terrorist haven, are people saying we'll get attacked because we're there? No. Well why not? It's the same reasoning isn't it?

It's just Iraq. So this reasoning really doesn't make any sense. Unless this is all about the battle for Iraqi oil.

But again, why was Spain, Bali, and now Egypt attacked?

Terrorism is terrorism and they'll attack where they think they can. Are there more attacks to come? You betcha. Do we know where? Intelligence tries to figure this out, but when you have young men brainwashed into thinking that by carrying out this great act, Allah will reward him with 70 virgins awaiting in heaven. "Well, my life kind of sucks compared to the Christian, and this sounds like a better deal."

So you think the suicide bomber gives a rats ass where he carries out this most horrific act?

Whether there's a war in Iraq or not, terrorists will still terrorize, threaten, and cause fear. As I said, it's an industry. So don't blame the countries like the U.S. and U.K. for fighting terrorism on different fronts, because Canada is doing it too.

It's the terrorists, stupid!

Slow the Summer Down

2005-06-24T08:51:00.000-06:00

It's been a month since my last post, but I've been pondering our current society and where it's headed.

Are you working 45 hours a week like a crazy ape just to make ends meet while half your tax bill vanishes? You're tired, aren't you? Gas just hit 91.5 cents/litre. All levels of gov't still like to overspend and overtax us. Airfares just jumped due to high oil prices, which are at $60 a barrell. Housing prices are going up and up, people are getting fatter because cheaper food is fattening and healthy food is more expensive. You're in debt aren't you? Big time, actually. The air doesn't seem as clean does it?

You know, despite all this, I remain optimistic. I mean, compared to other places in the world, we do have it pretty sweet here.

But I think we're overworked. Why can't we slow down a bit? What's the rush? Oh right, the money thing. You gotta work to have money, yes, but at what price? Your health? Time with your family? Your sanity?

So this is just a friendly reminder to slow down a bit, enjoy life. We don't get much summer here, so get out there and soak it all in. Spend more time with friends and family -- the dishes can wait.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "Star Wars Episode III Revenge of the Sith"

2005-05-24T15:29:00.000-06:00

If you haven't seen the movie yet, go see it now before you spoil it for yourself. Then when you're done watching the 2.5 hour movie, pull out your Episode IV DVD and watch that. The two movies blend very well together. Just as I expected.

Many of you know I had predicted when Episode I came out 6 years ago that Episode III would become the biggest selling movie of all time. Well, it's on its way. I also said it would be the best of the new trilogy. Well, it is.

This is a very dark and disturbing movie. You go into it knowing the outcome, but how does it all transpire? Well, many months ago I wrote my prediction on this blog site. Let's see how close I was, shall we?

In Ep. III, I predict we will see the clones obviously winning the war --
strengthening Chancellor Palpatine's power.
Well, we see the war in space, which is awesome, and Palpatine gives himself sweeping powers to control the senate away from separatists (which he created) and thus begins the Galactic Empire. He blames this on a Jedi plot to over the Republic.
Anakin and Queen Amidala, who were secretly married, will have a couple of children (who become Luke and Leia). But the Jedi find out (Obi Wan) and shame Anakin for his marriage.
This was obvious. But while the Jedi don't blatantly shun him for his marriage, they don't promote him to Master either, although he could sit on the council.
Amidala is then killed by Darth Tyranus and this fuels Anakin's rage and conversion to the dark side when he kills Darth Tyranus in revenge and because the Jedi basically disown Anakin.
Nope. Darth Tyranus (Count Dooku) doesn't kill Amidala (Padme), Ani does it on his own! But I did predict Anakin killing the Count! Didn't expect Palpatine to be right there ordering him to do it. That was cool and unexpected - especially seeing Dooku's shock of betrayal.
The Jedi then secretly take Leia to Bail Organa - Viceroy and First Chairman of Alderaan and Luke will head off to Tatooine to his uncle Owen by Obi Wan. Darth Sidious then takes on an angry Anakin as his new apprentice and Anakin becomes Darth Vader, who kills many Jedi. Yoda obviously flees to his swampy planet, while Obi Wan becomes a hermit on Tatooine.
Yep. Nailed all of that but not quite in that order. Wasn't expecting Vader to kill the Jedi younglings though. That was very disturbing, but foreshadowed in II when he even killed little sandpeople. But I definitely wasn't expecting "Order 66". That reminded me of a holocaust clip. I was absolutely devistated and shocked. I don't know if I'll recover.

So not bad with the predictions, I'd say.

Okay, here's the nitty. I just didn't find Hayden Christensen's acting convincing enough, did you? He was surrounded by superior actors who carried him - especially Ewan McGregor - great job. Who knew Anakin would take so fondly of having a child. His love for Padme was strong, yes, but so was his love of being a Jedi and being powerful. When he found out Palpatine was the Sith Lord, why wasn't that more shocking to him? He just didn't seem angry enough to convert yet. Yes he violated many Jedi orders, but who knew he'd give up and join the dark side so quickly, even after killing Mace Windu. His dedication to the Republic over the Jedi wasn't as convincing as I'd hoped.

That said, I felt that the scene of Anakin's conversion to the dark side was weak. This was the guts of the movie and the entire raison d'etre of the Star Wars series. The only explanation that can carry this up to original standards was that Darth Sidious' power of the Force was soooo strong that he was able to subliminally convert Anakin. This is backed up by the fact the Jedi, even Yoda, didn't even know that Palpatine was a Sith Lord. While the Jedi Council had suspicions of Palpatine's maneuveres, how could they not figure it out? This should have been played up a bit more in the movie and the one I'm going to have to accept in my own mind.

All in all - it was what I expected, but not what I expected. The scene and set shots were amazing. I truly felt like I was in hell on the lava planet. The many lightsaber battles were excellent. The near end of the movie had the battles you'd always dreamed of: Yoda vs. Sidious, Kenobi vs. Anakin - just unbelievable. Yoda kicks ass.

But hearing swinging Wookies bellow out like Tarzan was too cheezy. Why oh why?

But the scene on the lava planet with Anakin burning and Obi Wan telling him the ways things are is an awesome scene and excellent dialogue - right up there with Luke telling Vader to shove it in Empire Strikes Back.

Then soaking in the scene we've all been waiting for - the physical construction of Darth Vader was an absolutely frightening moment and the haunting soundtrack from John Williams gave me the chills. But even more frightening was Vader's reaction to the Emperor telling him that he was the one who killed Padme. Ouch.

But instead of hearing Hayden's voice for Vader, you get the classic James Earl Jones. Instead of seeing Hayden's boyish cockiness, you get the jet black mask, the cape, and the heavy breathing. Too bad Hayden's acting wasn't as up to snuff as Anakins abilities with the Force, because I, for one, am glad it's now all hidden away.

The final scenes of Yoda and Kenobi going into exile were seemless, especially showing Luke with his aunt and uncle on Tatooine, the two setting suns. Lucas couldn't have done it any better.

Overall, an excellent movie. Not as good as the originals, but better than the new ones. I'm not even sure kids under 10 should see it, it's that disturbing.

But I'm definitely going to see it again, and again, and again.

Snaky gives Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith a big 4.17 mechanical fists out of 5.

May the Fours be with you, always!

Belinda, Oh Belinda

2005-05-17T09:45:00.000-06:00

Belinda Stronach, MP for Newmarket Aurora, former Conservative leadership hopeful, former CEO of Magna, just crossed the floor to the Liberal party. Paul Martin offered her a cabinet post in Human Resources Development. What's odd is that Belinda was instrumental in uniting the Canadian Alliance with the Progressive Conservatives. She donated money to make it happen.

So what does Snaky have to say about this? Whore. She's a blatant whore tied deeply into the eastern elite. Although I always knew she wasn't a true conservative by any means, how anyone can do this only shows she lacks real principle by supporting a corrupt party and government. This says several things about this country:

1) It's controlled by the Mafia. The Liberal sponsorship scandal revealed what many of us already knew -- that the Liberal party has had dealings with the Bonanno crime family. Yes, the Mafia itself. Its deeply rooted in Montreal and has been there since the days of Capone and the like. The Mafia is moving to protect its people during the Gomery Inquiry and is setting up patsies.

2) Belinda's dad and the Ontario elite have been moving and shaking to control the country. That's why she ran for leadership of the Conservatives in 2004. That's why she just crossed the floor. That's why she'll take a run at the leadership of the Liberals some time in the distant future, whenever Paul Martin is done (hopefully soon). Belinda's comments that Conservatives don't understand the size of this country is a slap in the face and an insult to western Canadians. She's the one who doesn't understand that Canada has 4 western provinces who are sick and tired of people like her.

3) The western "provinces" will continue to remain as colonies. We're underrepresented in the House of Commons and the Senate.

4) Proof why we need to keep the Queen as Head of State.

5) Western seperatism just got some more legs.

And I want to remind you that just last week, Belinda voted with the Conservative caucus on a non-confidence vote. That's right, she voted to defeat the Liberals. Then she joins them because Paul Martin is desperate.

"There are no grand principles at play here. Just ambition." - Stephen Harper.

Budget Vote on Thursday May 19, 2005:

So where are we at for Thursday's budget/confidence vote in the House of Commons?

(Liberals + Stronach) + (NDP - Broadbent) + Parrish (independent): 151 seats
(Conservatives - Stinson) + Bloc Quebecois + Kilgour (independent): 151 seats

Chuck Cadman (independent MP from Surrey, BC) is still undecided but will be there for the vote. So it comes down to him. He was a Reform MP from 1997, then Canadian Alliance in 2000. He ran for the nomination in his riding for the Conservatives but lost because it was stacked. So he ran as an independent and still beat out the Conservative candidate.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "The Interpreter"

2005-05-06T11:44:00.000-06:00

Well we got Sean Penn and Nicole Kidman -- two hot actors that can steam up any movie. Sorry, but not this one.

Nicole plays Silvia Broome, a United Nation's interpreter who hails from Muboto, Africa. The movie starts with a security scare at the U.N. in New York, so everyone is evacuated. Silvia then goes back later to get her African flutes that she left behind. Going into the interpreter booth, she overhears a conversation on the U.N. floor about a potential plot to assassinate the Muboto president. But we don't actually hear what they said. We have to take her word for it, or do we? But the next day, she reports it to the U.N.

Sean Penn plays Tobin, a U.N. secret service agent who is assigned to Silvia in the investigation.

Well, I don't want to get into the details of the plot, but basically, Tobin doesn't know whether to believe her or not.

This movie could have been really good, so it was a bit disappointing. There are plot twists, but a keen mind can figure them out. I'm really tired of movies that use blatant foreshadowing. I won't give those bits away, I trust you'll notice them early on. There's so much more that could have been done with these two excellent actors. Either the dialogue doesn't utilize their talents or they just don't put enough effort into it. I'll go with the lousy dialogue. The steaminess just doesn't go anywhere.

There are times where the plot tension is really hot, but it tends to drag, then the cinematography just doesn't make the climax uberexciting.

Political plots are some of the most confusing ones, especially when an individual schemes to play both sides (see Star Wars - Attack of the Clones). This movie makes it difficult to sort everyone out and a better dialogue emphasis would have certainly helped.

Snak gives "The Interpreter" 2.76 fists out of 5.

Next review ... "Kingdom of Heaven". Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson star in this crusader blockbuster about the Christian Knights Hospitallier and Templars who are at war with the Saracens under Saladin. Ridley Scott directs (thankfully). My prediction ... it's gonna kick ass, but not as much as Braveheart.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "Sideways"

2005-04-28T10:53:00.000-06:00

"I'm not drinking Merlot!"

This movie isn't for the boys who read Maxim, Stuff, or skateboard magazines.
This movie is for the men who read GQ, Esquire, "Barely Legal", and Wine Makers' Weekly.
This movie isn't for dads. It's for the men a year or so before they becomes dads.
So it's not a family movie.

And it isn't for women either. It's not for women because women won't ever admit that they don't understand men. Men fully submit to the fact that trying to understand a woman is the greatest mystery.

It's a real guy movie. And I emphasize "real". It's sophisticated and deep. Any man who doesn't understand the movie, is simply not a man, and should go back to the superficial and easy dumb guy movies like American Pie, Road Trip, and Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle.

I really can't think of another movie like Sideways, except for Swingers. Sideways is the sequel. For those who don't understand it, will find it slow, but those who do, will soak up every ounce of it and appreciate the finer qualities.

Ah yes. It's very smooth. The obvious metaphor between the delicacy and preference of a Pinot Noir grape and Miles' middle aged crisis is simple yet brilliant. His description of the grape to Mya on the porch is the crux of that metaphor and part of the script that put this movie at the top of the Oscars.

If you've had Pinot Noir wine, you'll know that it is a very fine rare wine. It's taste is mild and relaxing. If you've had Merlot, you'll know that it is a bolder wine and readily available.

The juxtaposition of the two characters, Jack and Miles, emphasizes their personality differences on the extremities of typical lonely middle aged men. On one hand you have Jack, the extroverted, sexually active, well dressed, party guy with everything going for him including his upcoming wedding, contrasted with Miles, the introverted, shy, bald, fat, drunk, poorly dressed, divorcee and failed writer. Despite these polarized traits, both men have a breakdown. Jack's admission about his true feelings of his fiancee show he too, like all men, have fragile egos. For the man with everything and the man with nothing, the spirit can be shattered by a woman in an instant.

Despite his cheating, Jack does marry and Miles does finally get the courage to hook up with Mya. And notice the similarity in the names? Miles and Mya - both divorcees looking to settle down again, without the pressure.

All men can go sideways from time to time. While they think some happiness lay on a detoured path that satisfies their desires and rubs their ego, they realize at some point of epiphony that this is temporary and should probably get back on the long responsible road of virtue. However, those who never taste the Merlot, and don't explore bold new things, lose a passion for life, and the long road ahead never seems to end.

This is the essence of men and we freely admit it. Women don't. There's no wine to compare them to. Okay, maybe a blush, but there's no small firey red grape that can represent a woman's ego. For that, you'd probably need an orchard the size of California.

The only drawback to the movie is that it could have been funnier. It does have its moments, but I was hoping for a few more chuckles.

But I digress. This movie is great because it makes a man stop and really think. I mean, look at how much I've talked about it already. And I could go on and on about it, but I won't. For now, I think I'll go have a glass of Shiraz. I'm not drinking Merlot.

Snaky gives "Sideways" 4.69 fists out of 5.

The German Shepherd

2005-04-21T10:17:00.000-06:00

I don't think there could be a better short description of the new Pope, Benedict XVI. It describes his nationality, and the common religious metaphor of tending to sheep (ie. Catholics), but it also describes a vicious dog. What about Eggs Benny? Okay, maybe not.

Some Catholics, particularly liberal women, aren't so happy about Cardinal Ratzinger becoming Supreme Pontiff. They don't think there's going to be any progressive change in the church with Benny in St. Peter's chair.

I say ... so what!

Catholicism has rigid doctrines such as no pre-marital sex, no abortions, no gay marriage, no women in the clergy, etc. Pope John Paul II stuck by them and his right hand man, Cardinal Ratzinger, did too. IN fact, Ratzy was known as the "Rotweiller" when it came to this. But why shouldn't they? Who else is going to advocate these things to 1.1 billion people (if not more)?

What if no one had pre-marital sex? There would certainly be very few abortions.

"We should just forget about all those people with the crazy extreme right-wing conservative opinions."

Oh come on already. I live in Canada, I hear that typical liberal mantra on a daily, if not, hourly basis. It's tiring, and most of all it's insulting and intolerant to those who do have the belief, faith, and prinicples of Catholicism -- whether you agree or disagree with them. It's like telling an estout Muslim to start drinking beer. It doesn't wash with them, nor does gay marriage and many other "conservative" similarities.

I can even tolerate with the no women in the clergy thing. I mean, look at how some of these priests get hot and bothered with young boys. Ah, but they didn't follow the no pre-marital sex rule. In fact, priests can't get married, so they shouldn't be having sex at all. End of point.

But I think once you allow women in the clergy, which I agree with, then why can't they all get married? Speaking of marriage, with gay marriage, the Holy See's doctrine is that a gay couple is not God's will. God's will in this sense would side with nature where a man and a woman in love, created by God, is the only means by which procreation, the most wonderful of things, can occur. This is true. Once the Catholic church allows gay marriage, they can kiss the no pre-marital sex rule goodbye. A domino effect occurs. Who knows where it will lead. Polygamy? Oh, that's just around the corner folks. Will you tolerate that?

But the whole gay marriage thing was decided a long time ago when atheist and agnostic heterosexual couples got married. The church had no business here because God wasn't on the invite list.

However, like many things, the gov't should then stay completely out of the debate altogether and let individuals and individual churches to decide. But gov't likes to control marriage and what rights you can have (when you already have by just existing by the way). So why bother?

The answer is simple. Taxes. The gov't likes to control who pays taxes.

The church was one of the first institutions to implement a tithe - a 10% flat tax on everyone. Then they got you to pay so you have your deceased loved ones be moved from purgatory to heaven. Sounds like how the government says you have to pay taxes or the country will fall apart with no central control - you know, because of the separtists and child welfare.

So you're thinking, what does yippin' about the gov't have to do with the new Pope? Well, for those liberals who want the church and Pope to change relieving control over its followers should take a good hard look at their own government and demand the exact same thing - less dependence and control from the government. While I commend their efforts on one hand, they should look at the other side, otherwise their demands and beliefs are wholly (Holy?) fruitless.

However, like the government, don't expect the German Shepherd to obey you.

Movies & TV suck

2005-04-21T09:55:00.000-06:00

We wanted to go see a movie yesterday. But there was fuck all in the theatres, so we didn't go.

Only good shows on TV now:

"CSI"
"Trailer Park Boys"
"Mythbusters"
"Question Period in the House of Commons" on CPAC (ooh, it's getting really nasty - true reality TV)

What happened to the greatest comedy ever - "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on Showcase?

And now that there's no hockey, can someone please tell me why the CBC is still on the air? And don't say North of 60, or the umpteenth Anne Murray special.

Thank God summer is around the corner.

More Kyoto Accord...

2005-04-21T09:43:00.000-06:00

Read the following article and you'll see the proof of why I've been stating that the Kyoto Protocol is a sham, will not curb global warming, and is a UN scheme to create an international socialist system. Sad thing is, Canada just bought in big time - a whole $10 billion dollars worth. And the guy behind it all is Maurice Strong, who's been linked to the U.N. Oil for Food - Iraq scandal. And did I mention that Maurice Strong had Paul Martin as his assitant at Power Corp for many years?

http://www.torontofreepress.com/2005/cover042105.htm

The world is not what is seems. Don't believe the hype. There are other ways and means to control pollution. The Kyoto accord does none of this. It has NOT been scientifically proven that recent global warming is caused by humans. Even my climatology professor said so. The earth was much warmer than it is today many years ago. We should be concerned about POLLUTION and SMOG not natural GREENHOUSE GASES!!!

Canadians will pay on average $30/month for the useless Kyoto protocol to buy international emission credits.

It's amazing that the entire U.S. Senate, Democrat and Republican, voted unanimously to not sign on to the Kyoto protocol. Australia didn't sign on either. But Canada did! Why? Ask Maurice Strong's buddy, Paul Martin.

One Tonne of Bulsh*t

2005-04-18T11:29:00.000-06:00

Yeah, you know what I'm talkin' 'bout. Did you know that the Liberal gov't just spent $10 BILLION dollars on trying to meet the Kyoto Accord targets? $10 billion! First it was a few million, then a few hundred million, then 1 billion, then 5 billion, now 10 billion. Stop the insanity! Looks like another boondoggle, but this one is the biggest in history! Just imagine what that money could have really done for this country rather than buying off to other countries for Kyoto credits (read: international socialism). With about 15 million taxpayers in Canada, that money could have been a simple income tax cut, or forgive some student debt, or invest it and have it grow for a few years.

So you're thinking - "But Snaky, global warming is affecting our future - our children's future." Well of course it will. But the earth has been a lot warmer in the past and a lot colder and a lot warmer, etc. Well listen up, the Kyoto Accord will do NOTHING to circumvent Mother Nature, or smog.

Why? Let's explode some of the myths regarding "Global Warming" shall we? Please visit this website 'Envirotruth.org'

Here are a few myths:

"The hypothesis that rising CO2 levels result in a direct increase in
temperature originated in 1896 with Swedish chemist, Svante Arrhenius. However, the concept was abandoned in the 1940s because global temperatures had not even remotely matched the 1°C rise predicted by the theory. Since then, the rate of global warming has slowed despite the acceleration in industrialization and CO2 emissions."

"Many people support the Kyoto Accord because they believe it is a clean air treaty that will reduce pollution. It is not. Kyoto is a treaty designed to
reduce human production of so-called 'greenhouse gases' (GHG), the recent increase of which has been associated with unnatural global warming by some scientists.

Greenhouse gases include water vapor (99% of all the GHG in the atmosphere), methane, carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, ozone, chlorofluorocarbons, hydrofluorocarbons and perfluorocarbons. Only about 2% of all GHG are produced by human activity; the rest is produced by nature. The first time frame of the Kyoto Protocol requires 38 industrialized countries (including Canada and the United States) to reduce their overall emissions of GHG so that their yearly average between 2008 and 2012 will be an average of 5.2% below 1990 levels (targets vary - for example, Canada's is a 6% reduction; Australia's is an 8% increase). Since most of the developed world's production of GHG is in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2), this means that Kyoto is mostly about reducing CO2.

Many commentators refer to Kyoto and other treaties that address CO2 levels as
'pollution treaties', implying that CO2 is somehow a pollutant. This is incorrect. CO2 is a benign 'trace gas', constituting only about 0.037% of the earth's atmosphere. It is colourless, odourless and not toxic in any fashion.

Besides helping keep the earth from being locked in a perpetual ice age with average global temperatures 33°C lower than they are now, CO2 is a plant nutrient critical to the process of photosynthesis. "

So despite these myths, what's the Liberal's plan? Rick Mercer. That's the plan. You've seen the ads. "Come on Canada! Take the One Tonne Challenge." One Tonne my ass. Seriously, I've probably gassed out one tonne of you-know-what from you-know-where in my lifetime.

The Liberal government has doled out more than $26 million in a dubious two-year advertising blitz to convince Canadians to cut pollution - including an $85,000 commercial fee for comedian Rick Mercer, Sun Media has learned.

Simply put, global warming caused by humans is still not a proven scientific fact - it's a myth. A big $10 billion myth. This "One Tonne Challenge" is one tonne of bullsh*t. Don't buy into it. Oh wait, you already have.

Liberal Corruption is biggest scandal in Canadian History

2005-04-08T17:02:00.000-06:00

HOLY CORRUPTION!

Not like it's really a surprise. We all knew it, but didn't have the proof. The details of what happened are shocking and disgusting. Now that for the first time ever, I don't get anything back on my taxes this year, I'm even more angry. Why? Because my tax dollars in the past went back to the Liberal Party and to the separatists. You heard me! THE SEPARATISTS!

Now that the publication ban has been mostly lifted, we're now getting through the iceberg and finding out who in the Liberal party was behind all this.

Basically, before and during the 1995 Quebec referendum period, the Liberal government handed out grants to advertising firms, like GroupAction in Quebec, often for no work returned, or money and jobs handed to cronies, likely the Montreal mafia (that's right, I said the mafia!), to Jean Chretien's brother, and other scum bags.

We're talking millions of dollars.

Then the firms turn around and donate back a bajillion to the Liberal Party, as well as to the provincial Parti Quebecois! (See... there's the connection). Why do they donate? So they can continue to get contracts?

But it was federal Liberal Party henchmen in Quebec who threatened GroupAction to donate back to the Liberals in the first place or they wouldn't receive the federal advertising contracts. The federal Liberals in Quebec were $3 million in the hole and needed the money for the upcoming federal elections.

Paul Martin, our current Prime Minister, was the Quebec deputy of the Liberal caucus at the time. So this money WOULD have gone to his campaigns directly in 1993, 1997, and 2000.

I don't care if he's mad as hell and is getting to the bottom of it now. He should have put a stop to it 10 years ago.

Taxpayers should get their money back. The Liberal party owes it. Jean Chretien and Paul Martin are the biggest political crooks in Canadian history.

It's time this hegemony ended.

Yes, I want my money back, but more importantly I want my country back.

Remembering Pope John Paul II

2005-04-04T08:31:00.000-06:00

I'm not a Catholic, nor do I ever want to be. The history of the Catholic church is brutal, and to me, in its holy hippocracy actually went against what Jesus Christ was trying to preach in the first place. Jesus spoke out and was crucified. But those who spoke out against the church were tortured and killed. It was a repressive regime upon Europe for many centuries. It stayed quiet during the holocaust. The history of the papacy is no better. Many popes were political pawns, some were dictators, and there's even one who was a gay pedophile. Not pretty is it?

So you're thinking, how is this a way to remember John Paul II? Call it contrast. In my opinion, Pope John Paul II was the greatest man of both the 20th and 21 centuries. He was a deeply spiritual man. His faith enabled him to endure nazism, communism, a tumor, getting shot, and Parkinson's disease. His courage was a symbol for the Polish people especially during the fall of communism. While Sinead O'Connor may disagree, he was highly regarded by leaders of all religions for his openness, tolerance, and warmth.

I remember when I was young and my parents really never explained religion to me. I didn't even know which religion I belonged to, or what made Jesus so great. I thought the Pope was the leader of all of Christianity, when in actual fact, he's only the leader of the Catholics. However, in Pope John Paul's case, I'd say he WAS the leader of all of Christianity, including mine.

I remember when he got shot. I remember the newspaper headlines after the Pope forgave his assailant: "Why Forgive?". What I didn't remember until seeing an old news clip on TV recently was the Pope actually visiting this guy and hugging him. Wow. Who could do that? The Pope could.

I remember when he came to Edmonton. This town was in a frenzy. I didn't know why. Years later, I figured it out and now regret not seeing him.

You've probably already heard how many times he travelled the globe, how many miles, how many people he spoke to, who he met with, etc. He had many "firsts" for a Pope, like the first to step into a mosque. He also moderized the Vatican with regards to communication channels, technology, and openness. He and Ronald Reagan shared a unique bond. Both were leaders in bringing down communism. With balance and grace, he also carefully warned all the U.S. presidents against excessive capitalism and immorality.

What irks me is all the pinko pundits out there right now who questioned his stance against abortion, same-sex marriage, ordaining women, and other things. They say he was too conservative. Oh give me a break already. Whenever these people get a chance to spew their opinion they do it. In this regard, Pope John Paul II was a man who stuck by his prinicples. I don't care if you disagree with them, you should respect them regardless. Could you imagine if he didn't? The entire Catholic Church and other Christian religions would crumble. But that's what some of these pundits want. They're socialists - they believe the government sets the standards for society and many of these governments have been going against what the Pope believes.

Pope John Paul II negated all the historical wrongs of the Church. To say he wasn't modern, is ignorant. He was the greatest of men. When he began his papacy, he was a mover and a shaker, always on the go. He accomplished so much. Even in the last few years, even with severe Parkinson's, he still raised a hand to wave, still said something. I believe it was divinity that allowed him to be with us through Easter this year. It will be a special one no one will forget. Like Christ, as his body deteriorated, his soul grew even more powerful than ever.

I've watched and read stories of people who've met him and how completely humbled they were by his presence -- how he would embrace them and tell them that they are blessed. With his courage, his dignity, and his love, he touched everyone on the globe. He was a beacon of peace and hope. His legacy and his spirit shall be a part of me forever.

I prayed for the Pope in his dying days. I cried when he died. God had a shepard on earth, and now He has a good friend in heaven.

God, make room, John Paul II has risen.

Terry Schaivo

2005-03-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

She died this morning after 13 days without food or water because the courts ruled to take her feeding tube away.

American law has failed. The law is supposed to protect people from injustice. And the greatest injustice has just occurred. She died a painful death - perhaps the most painful of all - starvation.

If Terry Shaivo truly said to her husband that if she were ever in a vegetative state to simply die, I doubt she meant that during the last 13 days. A brain damaged person with no food or water lived for 13 days! To me, it's obvious she was struggling for her life as this is about the normal length for non-brain damaged people.

However, I had a recent experience where my pet cat just decided to not drink water or eat food. I tried to feed him but it was obvious he didn't want to live any more. I probably waited a couple days too long to put him down. So the question remains for Terry is: Was she dying prior to the feeding tube being removed? Because she'd been in that state for a couple years, I'd say 'No' she wasn't dying.

Maybe pets have it easy. When they get put down, they inject them with an overdose of anasthesia. If you've never had a general anasthesia before you simply don't know how wonderfully painless it is. Quite amazing really. I had a double dose when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. You feel a gentle rush coming up to your head and quietly, you close your eyes. It's really the best way to die, rather than suffer the immense pain of starvation. For those who die in their sleep, I guess they're lucky.

The Right To Die issue is a slippery slope. Where is the line drawn for the law to agree that a person has a right to die due to medical pain if they have stated so in a living will? If you had terminal cancer and it was very painful, do you have the right to choose to die? According to American law, you don't. As far as I know though, Terry did not have a living will, just her husband's word. Was it her choice? Her parents would say 'Definitely not.' But perhaps the time has come to draw the line, so the law doesn't fail again.

Many of you know, I'm a God fearing/loving person. But let's leave God out of this one for a moment. Say you're in an uncurable pain every moment and you simply don't want to live anymore. Do you have the right to choose to die?

Now, where do we draw the line between physical pain and mental pain? Maybe the person's physical pain isn't as bad as it is, and they use it as an excuse to relieve them from the mental pain they're feeling. So now is it suicide?

Suicide, in some cultures, is considered a noble act. Some, it is not. So who's right? What if all the bad people in the world decided to kill themselves for the benefit of mankind? Well, that won't happen. But what about suicide or kamikaze bombers?

I've heard of people who knew when their time had come and they go visit family and friends once last time, then the next day they're gone. I don't know about this. Then I hear they drank themselves to death or something - I guess its induced death then.

Survival is an animal instinct and humans are no different. While your body may be about to die, humans have had the tendancy to hang on and struggle for life no matter what. Death can be painful, and our instinct is to pull away from pain. It's a remarkable capability we have. Life wouldn't exist if it wasn't worth it to be alive.

Okay, so now let's bring God back into the issue. God, to me, is the energy force of everything - especially this instinct of life I mentioned. For this, we humans also need emotional, mental, and physical energy to live a good life. For Terry, she had loving parents who gave her that emotional energy at her bed side and they say she communicated it back to them. The feeding tube provided her physical energy. How a person feeds themsevles is irrelevant to the debate. The Pope is being fed in a similar manner right now. Now mentally, who knows what's going on in her mind, so I think it's best to assume that she had mental capabilities -- even if she was in a vegetative state.

The fact of the matter is that her husband was about to run out of the medical money to sustain her and he gave up trying for more. Interestingly, now that the money is gone, he came out saying that she wanted to die. May God have mercy on this man when his hour approaches, because for Terry in her last 13 days, the law knew no mercy as she was obviously struggling for her life.

The issue is simply: respect the life you are given and of the lives of others well.

Terry Schaivo is a hero, not because she's a martyr, but because she struggled to prove the most important thing -- life.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "Following"

2005-03-30T15:53:00.000-07:00

You like da black n white? Good. 'Cause it's better. Colour is so distracting isn't it? And how many characters do you need anyway? Well, only a few for this movie, and it works - to a point.

Think of this concept. You're a 20 something broke and bored writer living in a small flat in London. You need ideas for your writing, so you decide to start following people randomly examining their day-to-day proceedings. Then one day, one person you follow catches you and calls you on it. You deny. But your pathetic, so you fess up and tell the whole truth to this stranger. Then he tells you what he's been up to.

Oh yes, it's an intriguing movie. Have you seen "Momento"? Same good shit on a different pile. It's got one plot line, but once again, you're given bits of the future, the past, all rolled up into one and they're spit upon you cleverly. But that's the thing with only having a few characters in a weaving time plot, you can't make it too complicated. People are only so smart you know!

So the key to figuring out where ... um .. er ... I mean WHEN you are is to notice the lead character's hair. That's right, I said hair dammit!

Are there plot twists? It wouldn't be good if there weren't any right? So yeah, there's plot twists alright, but you can't help but feel for the pathetic 20-something writer. One of the plot twists I figured out, but not the others.

However, that said, those other plot twists weren't presented as shockingly as plot twists usually are. I didn't go, "Holy crap, he sees dead people!" I was more like, "Well, isn't that cleverly typical, no?" So because of that, it drops a whole point.

Would I recommend this little greyscale British mind fuck? Of course! Would I watch it again? Nah. Would I watch Momento again? Of course!

Snakaramadingdong gives "Following" a 3.72 fits outta 5. Hey, did you know this film got a bunch of awards and shit? Well it didn't. Just a bunch of nominations.

Boobie's Movie Review: "Finding Neverland"

2005-03-24T10:16:00.000-07:00

OK...Last night I had the opportunity to EXPERIENCE the film "Finding Neverland". This is a picture that will most certainly NOT appeal to those moviegoers who need violence and wanton destruction in their films to be entertained (not that there's really anything wrong with that). This film is a journey of the heart and soul. It is a story that allows us all to explore the inner child that still lives within us and is sometimes screaming to get out.

"Finding Neverland" is the true story of author J.M. Barie, the English author and playwright who brought "Peter Pan" to the world. Barie gets his inspiration for the classic story when he meets a young widow (Kate Winslet) and her four young sons. The relationships that grow between Barie and this family show us the power of friendship and the power of the human spirit.

The performances in the film are first rate, especially Johnny Depp's flawless and truly human performance as Barie. It is one of Depp's most controlled performances, completely the opposite of his over-the-top Jack Sparrow. He plays the role with tremendous sensitivity and emotion, showing us the conflict within Barie: on the one hand, he knows he must be the responsible adult and active member of London's high society. On the other hand, his inner child is awakened and inspired by these four young boys that he meets and cares for deeply. No, this is not a Michael Jackson thing, although in reality, some speculated it might be. While this potential scandal is touched on briefly in the film, the focus remains on the friendship between Barie and the Davies family.

The direction on this film, provided by Marc Forster of "Monster's Ball", shows a real growth in this young filmmaker. It is a complete reversal from his last film. Where "Monster's Ball" was gritty, dark and downright ugly at times, this film posesses an aching beauty about it. It is clear that Forster took great care with every single frame of the film, and the result is a wonder to behold.

The film is not without a few cliches, but they are easily forgivable. On the whole, anyone who has a soul will not be able to deny the emotional impact of this film on at least some level. It is truly one of the best films I have seen in a while and was richly deserving in its critical praise and all of the (7) Oscar nominations it received. While I agree that it probably didn't quite deserve best picture, I would probably rank it second after the Oscar winner, "Million Dollar Baby". Yes, it's that good. See it, and allow that inner child within you to stir, even if only for a moment.

A Comfortable Conservatism

2005-03-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

The Conservative Party met in Montreal over the weekend for their "first" policy convention. I say "first" because the old Reform Party used to have these every two years and then the Canadian Alliance had one which brought forth some of the old Reform ideas, only not as well thought out. The old Progressive Conservative Party was a bit too top down for my liking and the Reform/CA party was too bottom up. With the mix of these parties now, we have a bit of both and I think it's actually where most Canadians sit as well. While I'm not big on linear political spectrums, this party sits closer to the centre on social issues, but has maintained its economic policy on the centre-right, while also not going too far on the democratic end.

I watched a bit of the convention on TV. I must admit, this new Conservative Party is basically EXACTLY where I like it to be on policy. Here's why...

1. No youth wing. As a former campus Reform Club president we fought hard to maintain the status quo. One youthful MP, Rob Anders, who actually helped me build the club to the largest one in the country, said, "Don't segregate the youth to a sandbox." I couldn't agree more. The youth wing of the old PC party was a party but they weren't treated as regular members. Equality doesn't mean creating all these wings of a party. Once you have a youth wing, you'll have all these other wings, which at this time in the party's growth, it doesn't need factions - it needs unity. This was maintained. Youth have and always will stay involved with the party. In fact, the Conservative caucus is the youngest in Canadian history. Yay on no youth wing.

2. No recall. I've never really agreed with this. If the MP is that bad, the party, media, and constituency association have means to remove an MP is so terrible. Why a party who wants to form government wants to allow recall isn't a smart move. By-elections are expensive.

3. Equal ridings. I'm siding with Peter Mackay and the old PC idea on this one. Each riding, no matter how many members, is allowed to send 10 delegates to a convention. Each riding has one MP, so this makes sense to me. One member - one vote (OMOV) is dangerous in signing up truck loads of people from one region to dominate. It's a national party that needs to act like one. It did.

4. Traditional marriage. I'm a firm believer that a stable male-female marriage for a family is the building block of society. The Conservatives proved they were actually conservatives this weekend. A gay marriage is certainly not a traditional one, but if homosexuals want to get married, go ahead - doesn't affect me none.

5. Abortion. The Party voted down a resolution to prevent late term abortions. While I agree with that idea, for a party to delve into these sticky issues circumvents the democratic principles of free votes - which if a bill like this came forward, likely a private member's bill, would simply be a free vote amongst all MPs - which is the way most votes should be anyway.

Overall, I'm pleased with the direction of the party. Paul Martin's Liberals voted a couple weeks ago to legalize prostitution, but when asked by the media, Martin said he wouldn't legalize it. What was the point of the Liberal convention then? Dither dither dither.

I think Canadians can now find palatable policies in the Conservative Party and Stephen Harper who has stymied the pundits by keeping this conservative movement together. Centre-right Canadians can now stop voting for a directionless gov't such as the Liberals, who have a leader that disagrees with his own party's policies and have no guts to cut taxes and waste.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "Ladder 49"

2005-03-18T14:55:00.000-07:00

So you're new to the troop/ fraternity/ team/ squad/ corps/ tribe/ company/ school/ department/ ward/ engine/ ladder/ terrorist group/ gang/ mafia/ etc ...

Goofy things then happen. Teasing, pranks and mild hazing of the rookie takes place. Then he gets his first crack at the big time and makes it. They celebrate. He sees a new rookie who was just like him and puts him through the "intiation" to keep the tradition going. He meets a woman who becomes his wife and mother to his children. He toils for years learning the ropes. He sees his best buddies get hurt and die. They get mad and frustrated with each other but the leader keeps it all together - that's why he's the leader and they're not.

The team then takes on a big job -- like bombing Germany, no wait, like taking a mass exodus of patients, no wait, like playing against the toughest team in the league, no wait, like conducting covert ops against a gang, well you get the idea. And when it looks likes the end for this lead character/hero/protagonist ... (well, I don't wanna give it away!)

Snak gives Ladder 49 a big ol' 2.94 fists out of 5. Although a typical formula movie, not bad, but not great, it did make me reflect on my life and how little money these firefighters make. Women will cry. Men won't. Okay, now I gotta get back to office work and get the new guy to make coffee. Cheers.

Remembering a comic legend

2005-03-04T10:33:00.000-07:00

While tomorrow is the birthday of the legendary SNAK, it is also a day to be remembered for a rather tragic reason. On March 5, 1982, comedian John Belushi died tragically of a drug overdose. He was 33 years old.

Most young people today know Belushi for two reasons: he's the big fat guy in ANIMAL HOUSE, and he's one of the BLUES BROTHERS. While this is true, Belushi's legacy was more than just that.

Belushi first came to the attention of the media when he became one of the original members of Saturday Night Live, then known as the "Not Ready for Prime Time Players". While with SNL, Belushi created some very memberable characters, including Jake Blues, the Singing Bee, The Thing That Wouldn't Leave and The Samurai, to name a few.

One of Belushi's other talents was his ability to do impressions. He does a brilliant Marlon Brando (as Vito Corleone) in group therapy, a hysterical James T. Kirk, a spot-on impression of singer Joe Cocker and one of my favorites is Belushi playing Elizabeth Taylor, choking on a chicken bone. It's really hysterical.

With his star on the rise, Belushi left SNL in 1978-9 (?) to take a small role in a Jack Nicholson-directed western called "Goin' South". While he had only 3 minutes of screen time, he was, according to most critics, the only thing worth watching in the entire film.

Belushi's breakout movie role, that of Bluto in ANIMAL HOUSE, remains a classic. The fact that he drinks an entire bottle of real Jack Daniels for one scene for some reason makes the scene even more enjoyable. Upon the release of the film, Belushi made the cover of TIME Magazine, with the headline reading: TODAY'S LEADING MAN DOESN'T HAVE TO BE SMART. HE DOESN'T HAVE TO BE GOOD-LOOKING. HE CAN EVEN BE A SLOB. Prototype for Homer Simpson, maybe?

While ANIMAL HOUSE was Belushi's only hit during his lifetime, he did appear in 5 other films, including Steven Spielberg's "1941", the now-classic BLUES BROTHERS, and "Neighbors", directed by John G. Avildsen of "Rocky" fame.

Sadly, Belushi's voracious appetite for drugs and the fast life ultimately caused his undoing. It is reported that on the day of his death, Belushi had not slept in a week and had been partying with such Hollywood giants as Robin Williams and, yes, Robert De Niro. In fact, De Niro and Williams were two of the last people to see Belushi alive. If one good ting has come from Belushi's death, it's that it served Hollywood a major wake-up call. Before Belushi, star drug usage was largely out of the public eye. With Belushi's death and the publication of his Biography, WIRED, written by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward (the same Bob Woodward who broke the Watergate scandal), the drug scene in Hollywood was blown wide open. Now, everybody knows who's sniffing or shooting what.

Had Belushi lived, who's to say what would have become of his career. While he hadn't been flourishing in his last 3 years, he was still considered a major star, and was preparing to work on three films that all became very successful: "The Joy of Sex", "Spies Like Us" and "Ghostbusters". At his height, he had the number one movie, television show, and album AT THE SAME TIME. He was the first star to do this. At his lowest, he was a messed up addict on a downward spiral to destruction. That said, his imapct on the comic world can still be felt today. May he rest in peace. He is not forgotten.

Why I Like The Number 33

2005-03-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

Some of my favourite basketball players wore the number 33 -- Larry Bird and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Both were All Stars and soon to be Hall of Famers. They both won the NBA Championships many times. Larry is white. Kareem is black. Kareem was in Edmonton the other day to give a speech and got paid $33,000 to do it. Too bad he was an asshole. Larry was born in a town called French Lick. It’s in Indiana. Larry went on to coach the Indiana Pacers. He won Coach of the Year. He doesn’t coach there anymore. Kareem was in the movie Airplane as a pilot. When little Billy was in the cockpit, he told Kareem that his dad thought he was lazy on the court. Kareem got mad. Kareem was also in a Bruce Lee movie doing karate. He looked funny trying to kick little Bruce.

Jesus supposedly died when he was 33. Conflicting histories say that he was at least 40 when he was crucified. East Indian mythology says that he didn't die on the cross, was nursed back to health and then he and his mother Mary went to India to a town now called Muree, and Jesus stayed and taught until he was over 80! Yet other stories say that both Marys went to what is now France. They say Mary Magdelene was pregnant with Jesus' child and thus started the bloodline of Christ - the Holy Grail (Sangraal) if you will. But the story of the Holy Grail wasn't published or known until about the 12th century when a guy named Chretien de Troyes wrote it. There are many other versions of the story. It then kind of morphed into the story of King Arthur - drawing from history that occurred at the end of the Roman Empire. I liked the movie Excalibur. First Night was okay, but Richard Gere is a shitty actor. Too contrived he is.

33 is one of those numbers where both digits are the same. Remember how cool it was when you were 11, or 22? Okay, maybe not.

But at 33, you're supposed to be married with children, right? Wrong! But I liked that TV show. Al was so funny. I remember when he couldn't afford to go on a holiday, so he stayed at home and cordoned off the couch and TV area in his living room. Everyone pretended he wasn't home and ignore him. Then he pretended he was in an airplane landing and he even had his luggage! When he got out, his family was waiting to greet him. They were so happy. Great show.

So, um, yeah, 33 -- not a prime number, but an odd number, nonetheless. When I was 16.5, I was entering Grade 11. Ten months later, I got my first job as a produce clerk at Superstore. I got the job because I played rugby. You see with high school rugby, we won the city championship that year. I played second row. I ended up working at Superstore for six years. I took a buyout package because I was making too much money I guess. I didn't know when my last day was, so I just stopped going to work. I remember in the backroom we all talked about what we were going to do on our last day. I said I was going to eat all the kumquats - because they're so expensive and filled with vitamin C. One guy said he was going to ride one of the hand jacks around the store during the day running into people. When you picture that, it's pretty funny. We used to do that during night crew but there was no one to run into. But it was fun regardless. Fucking unions.

Canada lags behind U.S. in standard of living...

2005-03-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

Here's an article on how the recent federal budget only puts Canada further behind the U.S. in terms of standard of living.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050303.wxrliving03/BNStory/Business/

I would also like to make a correction to my previous article on the recent federal budget in regards to tax cuts. It's not $250/per that we're getting back, it's ... check this out ... I know you're excited .. a whopping .. yes, here it comes, .... a ... whole $12. That's right, I'll spell it out -- twelve dollars per year. I know Boobie will be able to buy that one extra CD he complains he never has enough money for. I can buy a mickey of CC.

What a fucking joke this Liberal gov't is! They think that as more and more money is put into social programs that they're helpling the people they tax right out of the middle class! Well they're not. People who earn $10,000 pay taxes, then are supposed to get it back anyway in social programs. Talk about waste. Talk about slowing productivity and preventing money from really flowing in the economy. Talk about preventing people from earning their potential, from paying down their debts. Canadians are in debt more than ever before and this stresses them out, which is at a high, which is not good for one's health. See the cycle? Income and payroll taxes are the cause of all of life's problems. And the one's creating it are the federal Liberals.

I'm so sick of these greedy bastards with their "surpluses". They're not surpluses - they're simply taxing us too much. Rest assured, I hope in the fall, that this minority gov't gets defeated and we're back at the polls to put in place a real budget that seriously eliminates and cuts taxes, say by thousands in a year, not just a meezly $12.

You too Klein! Get your fucking act together.

Federal Dithering Budget

2005-02-24T00:35:00.000-07:00

With the Liberals sitting in a minority gov't situation, they had to play tip toe around ideologies of all the opposition parties, so they can get the budget passed in the House and not be defeated, which no one really wants right now anyway.

Federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale released the 2005 budget today. With most budgets of late, they always announce what they're going to do not just for ONE year, but for the next FOUR or FIVE, so it may seem like a lot of money, but when you divide by the number of years, it amounts to JACK SHIT! And sometimes they reannounce money they're going to spend. Keep in mind the gov't takes in about $191 billion a year and is sitting on at least a $12 billion surplus. Over the next few years the surplus will total $40 billion. There's only 33 million people in Canada. You figure it out. Here are my likes and dislikes.

Likes:

Military spending. Let's face it, our soldiers are some of the best in the world and our pilots are rated number one. But the equipment they use is old and unmaintainable. It's crap really. It has killed our servicemen. It's embarrassing. But what may seem like a $12 billion infusion in one year is really spread out over five years, so more like $2.4 billion a year. Woopdie fucking doo. We'll now have 60,000 in our armed forces - a 5,000 person increase. Yay.

Tax Relief. Any tax cuts of any form are always good. They're not cutting personal income tax rates, just corporate rates from 21 to 19%. They're only raising the personal exemption, which they do anyway to meet inflation increases. So what are you gonna save each year for the next four years? About a whopping $450. But after their usual inflation increases, it's really only about $250. I think I'll buy me a bottle of scotch with that. Woopdie fucking do. Think about how much the gov't wasted in Adscam, in the HRDC boondoogle, the useless gun registry and coming soon to an environment near you...

Dislikes:

KYOTO. What a fucking pile of shit treaty we signed. Does anyone realize that our gov't just handed over $5 billion dollars because we needed credits to pollute? But does the gov't have a plan in place to actually combat smog (which the Kyoto protocol does NOT address)? Nope. Jeez, that $5 billion could have been used to pay some debt down or tax relief for working families couldn't it? COULDN'T IT. Instead, it disappears to some international socialist treaty. So I'd like to formally welcome all Canadians to the first stage of a world socialist gov't. And you can thank Paul Martin's buddy, Maurice Strong, who got him the job at Canada Steamship Lines for putting Kyoto together. Oh did I mention that Strong is U.N. General Secretary Kofi Annan's top advisor?

Child Care. Former hockey star Ken Dryden is in charge of this dep't. Let the provinces run it. Use the money you'd spend on it for tax relief so working families can at least have a parent at home. More socialist programs will only create more useless bureaucracies that the gov't can't seem to keep their spending down on.

Indian Affairs. Now here's a classic example of a funnel system. Tonnes of money goes in at the top and by the time it has to get down to the real needy aboriginals there's nothing left. It's time to get rid of the entire department of Indian Affairs. It does jack shit for aboriginals except waste money and time.

CBC. With no hockey, what's the point?

Health Care. Hello? I'm sick of hearing that we'll never have a private two-tier American style system. Well guess what folks? When you go to the local clinic for a checkup, it's a PRIVATE clinic but your Alberta Health Care Insurance picks up the tab. So why not MRIs or anything else? Is it so hard to figure out?

Oh, you know I could go on and on. Simply put: If you give me more of my money back, you won't be so inclined to waste it. It's human nature, but I forgot, Liberals aren't really human anyway -- they're stuck somewhere between a fossil and an old tree.

A trio of movie reviews

2005-02-22T16:52:00.000-07:00

It has been some time since I've had the opportunity to blog anything, so the resident movie geek is back with three, count 'em, THREE film reviews. And please, I'm not so much of a loser that going to the movies is all I do, I've just been going a lot RECENTLY.

1. Meet the Fockers

It is a rare thing for a comedy sequel to either match or surpass the original. Usually, comedy sequels are nothing more than cheesy retellings of the same old jokes that just aren't as funny the second time around. "Meet The Fockers", in some ways, cannot measure up to the original. However, in other ways, it manages to surpass "Meet The Parents".

The whole premise of the original film is the building of a relationship between Greg (Ben Stiller) and Jack (Robert De Niro). The first film is a really good comedy of errors; Greg just wants to impress his future father-in-law, and mayhem ensues every time he tries. The chemistry that was so good between De Niro and Stiller in the first film just isn't there anymore. Robert De Niro does have a gift for comedy, but he is overshadowed by the other performances in this film. I've never really been a fan of Ben Stiller, and while this is a good film for him, it's still Ben Stiller and he just isn't that funny.

What saves this movie from becoming dismal and a rehash of the first film is the addition of Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand as Greg's parents. Both of them are very funny in this film and steal virtually all of the laughs from Stiller and De Niro. It's truly great to see Hoffman in a comedic role again (I haven't seen him do a really funny comedy since "Tootsie") and it proves that he is a very talented comedic actor. Streisand is absolutely wonderful as Greg's sex-therapist mother, as well. Both of these performers are what make the movie worth seeing. The directing, a la Jay Roach of "Austin Powers" fame, is nothing to scream about, but he manages to get wonderful performances from two Hollywood veterans who really work well on screen together. On the whole, it was worth it. Will it ever be a comedy classic? Nope.

2. Sideways

Finally! A comedy that is an absolutely brilliant combination between witty intelligent comedy and the basest sexual humour. This is one of the funniest movies I've seen in YEARS. It is near impossible for me to see a movie that is so funny I have tears streaming down my face. "Sdieways" manages it. The plot is simple and predictable: two guys set out on a week long trip right before pal A is to be married, and all hell breaks loose. But...it's more than that. Way more.

The script is one of the most intelligent I've seen in a while. The use of language in the film is striking and clever. Director Alexander Payne has a tremendous sense of timing in this film - he knows when to go over the top and he knows when to remain subtle. In the end, he creates a true film EXPERIENCE - I'm already looking forward to seeing it again.

The performances of the four principle actors are each very good. Sandra Oh and Virginia Madsen unfortunately aren't given enough screen time to REALLY shine (I'm not therefore sure if they should have gotten Oscar nominations), but what we do see from both of these women is great - because it's very fresh and very REAL.

Thomas Haden Church's perfoamce of Jack is really good. I can just imagine how much fun it would have been to play this character. Jack is the man's man with sex permanently on the brain and just trying to get schtupped one more time before he gets married. Going along on this trip is his buiddy Myles, the ultra-sensitive wine connoseur played brilliantly by Paul Giamatti. Probably the biggest problem in the entire "Sideways" experience is the absence of Giamatti's name on the Best Actor Nomination list at this Sunday's Oscars. It's a sin that he was snubbed. This is a great film that everyone should see. Predictable? On some levels, yes. Still funny? You bet.

3. Hotel Rwanda

This is one of the most depressing films I've seen in a loooooong time. It's so sad that it almost makes an audience member feel claustrophobic. There were many moments in the film where I almost wanted to leave the theatre. It's like going 15 rounds with Muhammad Ali (at his peak) and you beening a Weeble (Weebles wobble but they don't fall down). It tells the true story of one man (Don Cheadle) risking everything to keep a group of people safe during the Rwandan civil war in the mid 1990s. The film is quite violent (although they managed to make it violent without using a lot of gore and real carnage - kudos) and explores just how far a human being will go to help others.

Don Cheadle's performance is definately Oscar worthy. Will he win? No. SHOULD he win? I would not be upset if he did (he's up against some really tough competition this year). I'm just glad he was nominated. He definately is the heart and soul of the film and his emotional portrayal almost moved me to tears. I did notice that many audience memebers began crying early in the film and some DIDN'T STOP. Is it that emotional? Yes, actually, it is.

It shows how self-righteous humanity can be. Over a million people were needlessly slaughtered during the Rwandan crisis. Who stepped in to help? Nobody. Who knew it was happening? Everybody. The fact is, no one gave a shit. The film shows an entire culture get virtually wiped out right under the noses of CNN, and the world did nothing. However, the ultimate message is one of hope - it's not an entertaining film at all, but it wasn't meant to be. It's one of those films that everyone should see - not because they want to, but because they must.

Book Review - "Deborah Grey - Never Retreat, Never Explain, Never Apologize - My Life, My Politics"

2005-02-18T12:05:00.000-07:00

This autobiography about a woman who helped shape the politics of Canada over the last 15 years could be more aptly titled "A History of the Reform Populist Movement, Sprinkled with Deb Grey's holiday logs". At times she wrote one paragraph about what was happening in Parliament and the next would be about her motorcycle adventures or something about people not related to the political story unfolding. I see the relation, that the need for a politician to escape the silliness of politics and into normalcy. For Deb, it was particularly daunting, because she'd fly back and forth from Ottawa visiting her riding in Alberta every weekend - a true democrat. Without saying it, she's saying being an MP is actually difficult, which it is.

The book begins with Deb Grey describing in painful detail of her young life in British Columbia living with an alcoholic father and her difficult life growing up. What I particularly liked reading about was her path to religious faith - where she had none, to going to a post-secondary Bible school and embracing the teachings of Christ and her relationship with God - which is congruent with my own beliefs - so I had a deeper sense of her mindset. This belief is not in a fanatical way, but a tolerant and respectful view of people and the world. This was an important aspect of the book, as I'm sure many political hacks viewed Deb Grey as somewhat of a right wing religious fanatic, which she clearly wasn't by any means. Her views on the separation of church and state solidified her respect from MPs in all parties. This belief is paramount to being a politician of fortitutde and balance.

During Stockwell Day's new leadership of the new Canadian Alliance Party, he made many grave errors as a leader, a politician, and in policy. The book outlines them all, including stuff we didn't hear about in the news. The internal politics in the party was fascinating to read in 2001, with Deb and a dozen or so other Canadian Alliance MPs renouncing Stock as a leader and that he should step down. Deb really battles with this one before making the announcement. She always thought things over before she acted. She certainly made the right call here.

I thought for sure there was an underlining conspiracy from the "Manningites" (MPs still loyal to former leader Preston Manning), and perhaps there was, as most of the MPs who renounced Day as leader were loyal to Manning, but Deb shows that basically these people were there in the Reform Party from the very beginning and didn't want to see the whole movement go down in flames. They had to do something quickly. During their renouncements I found it interesting that every day or so, another MP would get up and tell Stock to step down. The timing to create a media momentum was perfectly executed - I think these rebel MPs planned it, but Deb doesn't mention it in the book.

They were quickly tossed from the CA caucus and left in limbo as independents.

The whole fiasco basically exposed the hard right socially fundamental religious side of the party, who were die-hard supporters of Day, no matter what. It was like "Blind faith" although he made some serious gaffes. These "Stockaholics" sued Deb Grey and were relentless as a grassroots movement. She of course won in the end.

She goes into a lot of detail during the odd period when these rebel MPs formed the Democratic Representative Caucus (DRC) and a parliamentary coalition with Joe Clark's Progressive Conservitive caucus, forming policy, sharing critic roles, etc. Little do people realize, but this was the real seed planted that helped stem the uniting of the the Canadian Alliance and PC Party. Again, though she's doesn't get credit for it, but Deb was instrumental in building these bridges.

The emergence of Stephen Harper, Deb's former assistant in the late 80's, policy researcher for the Reform Party, MP from 1993-1997, creator of the Clarity Act, then leader of the Canadian Alliance, beating out Stockwell Day, was thoroughly outlined in this book.

Deb, however, leaves a few things out in the book that I know she said on TV about Harper. One was when Stephen Harper threw his hat into the Alliance leadershp race to replace Stockwell Day, she said he'd be okay, but not really great as a leader - something to that effect (boy did he prove her wrong!). She didn't seem enthusiastic about it as I think she was quitely supporting Diane Ablonczy, who didn't fare well in the final results. But the book shows Deb's enthusiasm for Stephen, so I was kind of confused. But then, hey who said politics wasn't confusing!

Then she delves into Stephen's rise as party leader, and then the merger talks with new PC leader, Peter Mackay, and of course, the leadership race for the new Conservative Party. She beams with pride over Stephen's and Mackay's efforts, lack of ego, and negotiation skills. She hacks into Joe Clark a bit -- I really enjoyed that part!

While I don't wish here to detail the history of her political career, I find it ironic that although she was once a Progressive Conservative voter, she rightfully becomes disenfranchised, helps start the Reform Party, then years later is instrumental in "reuniting" the two conservative parties, again - back to where we were 20 years ago ... or are we?

Later she describes the names and relations of everyone she's met and thanks them personally, but they had nothing to do with the political story that obviously underlines the book, so this part was difficult to read and perhaps unnecessary. But for an MP who I've met on several occassions, and even asked her to run for leader (but she refused), and who was instrumental in shaping this country, she can thank anyone she wants.

I wished the book got into more of the grit and grime and backroom deals of politics, but she leaves her mark, knowing that 2004 was the right time for her to move on - as she says, "or you'll rot". This is sound advice. And with that, I'll bump up the book a full point.

If you're into federal politics, overall, this is a great read, a heartfelt story, but seems to intentionally leave out the nitty gritty (perhaps for legal reasons). However, the subtitle of the book is "Never Retreat, Never Explain, Never Apologize", a quote from Agnes McPhail, the first woman MP in parliament, so she kind of proves that.

Snak gives the book "Deborah Grey - Never Retreat, Never Explain, Never Apologize - My Life, My Politics" 3.81 fists out of 5.

The Nickelback sound is officially dead

2005-02-15T13:21:00.000-07:00

Thank you hybrid group Velvet Revolver! Thank you for beating out Nickelback at the Grammy's for (whatever the fuck the category is called - "hard rock" I think). Guitar solos are back! Thank you Slash. Roosters are back. Thank you Scott! And now that VR is coming to town, this only solidfies what I already described that the Theory of a Nickelfault/Chad Kroeger sound was dead as soon as it peaked.

REAL rock and roll, where guitar solos and riffs are abound, drumming is meaningful, bass playing that doesn't just follow the root note, and singers who can actually sing and walk the cock on the block, have returned. I mean, I think Chad seriously ran out of songs to compose in that dull four chord style. The only reason he tuned down to C, C#, or D is so he could hit certain notes in his singing, which sounded like the grinding of my old 100MB hard drive. "I like your pants around your feet"? What genius!

What's ironic is that the true rockers from the early 90's had to come back and show 'em how it's done. Rock on!

A Feline Legacy Comes To An End

2005-02-13T17:58:00.000-07:00

I write this today, to reflect on an old friend. Today, I took my cat, Polo, to the emergency vet and had him put down to end his suffering. Born in October 1983, I got him as a Christmas present that year from my dad who got him from one of his best friends (also my dentist). Older than some of you reading this, he died peacefully on February 13, 2005. So that made him over 21 years old! He was a part of two-thirds of my life and I will miss him dearly. Sadly, he suffered from a kidney failure, and for the past several days, did not want to eat or drink water. He was ready to go. But cats are very proud animals and do not like themselves being seen unclean or suffering. I knew he was ready but kept hanging on for my benefit. May God embrace his little kitty soul.

I will miss him meowing at 6:00am for two hours to get fed when I woke up at 8. Most especially I will miss him sitting next to me on the couch watching TV together while I petted his itchy head. Most of you reading this met him at some point, knew he was a very handsome grey short haired cat with perfect white markings on his face, underside, and paws.

My dad wanted to put him down a year ago, due to his uncontrollable urinary problems, but I refused, and defended his life, as I felt he had about another year left in his spirit. When the west end flood happened in July 2004, I took him to a kitty lodge for four days while I found a new place to live. We moved into my new downtown apartment and he settled in quite well for being an old man. The building actually didn't allow pets, but I received their sympathy when I told them of my dire situation. I was grateful for that.

Granted, he's pretty much peed everywhere, I had to change my sheets several times and now I have to steam clean the carpets -- whole kit and kaboodle (pun intended).

So was it worth it to continue his life for another 7 months after the flood? You bet. I have no regrets about that. Sleeping in a bed with a cat is very peaceful - the purring is scientifically proven medicine. Like a true rockstar, he's been deaf for the last couple of years. His fur was always soft and he wasn't overly friendly, didn't like children much, but loved his head scratched. He hated being picked up like a baby, but loved it when you brushed him.

In 1988, we got another kitten, and I named him Hugo. He was, without a doubt, the greatest pet ever. Sadly, my dad had to put him down ten years later as he suffered from a liver disease. Polo, however, didn't like this new kid on the block, and Hugo, in a friendly way, would play with Polo who was never in the mood for such nonsense. They fought a lot, but Polo still had his claws. So when Hugo got in battle situations with other cats in the neighbourhood, Polo watched to see if declawed Hugo could defend himself. You see, Hugo ate a plant when he was a kitten and after that, could barely meow, a defence necessary in the cat heirarchy. So Polo would jump in, and this took place on the fence usually, and he'd bellow out his best stuff toward the offending cat, who'd quickly be intimidated, and run off. So Hugo adored Polo, but that same love was not reciprocal - or was it?

I remember one day back in 1991 when I came home from school to find a dead rabbit on the front porch. Polo sat there very proud that he killed this animal, guts wide open, and shockingly, a fetus lying there. Well, he was certainly punished for that and never did it again.

But what a great and long life he lived - any human would love it. In cat years, he was about 101! He was fed everyday, stayed healthy, lived in four houses, defended the old neighbourhood and protected one of his friends for ten years. I thought I should give him that same courtesy and protect him.

Am I thinking of getting another cat? Yes. But for now, I lament in melancholy, reflecting, remembering all the great and peaceful times we had together. You see, I believe all living things are connected by a powerful living energy that we transfer between us - plants, animals, nature, and humans. We all depend on each other for our growth, our life, and evolution. When one of these beings gives you unconditional love for 21 years, you can't help but feel a loss in your heart. But as long as you never forget, they never die, and for Polo, his courageous spirit will live on.

Movie Review - Million Dollar Baby

2005-02-07T11:03:00.000-07:00

With this year's Academy Awards fast approaching, and with films such as "Ray" and "The Aviator" in the running, Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a richly textured film that may actually win the big Best Picture Award. If it does, it's well deserved.

The story centers around Maggie, a white-trash trailer park girl whose only outlet in her rather tragic existence is boxing. Through fate and a little good luck, she eventually meets Frankie, who trains her for her shot at the welterweight title. The film is both inspiring and gritty, the acting is absolutely tremendous, and Eastwood's pacing of the film makes it a real winner (for those of you who have seen "Ray" and know how good it was, this one's better).

Clint Eastwood's directing has never been better. He really deserved the Golden Globe he won and I firmly believe he has a more than good chance of winning the Oscar. He paces the film very well, the colours are dark and gritty without being downright ugly, and the boxing scenes are among the best I've ever seen (maybe better than "Rocky").

Eastwood's directing brings really raw emotions from his actors, and if you've seen some of his previous films, such as "Mystic River", "Unforgiven", "The Bridges of Madison County" or "The Outlaw Josey Wales", you know that Eastwood will take his audience on an emotional journey that will range from one extreme to the other.

Morgan Freeman is one of the best working actors in Hollywood, and in this film, he is both subltle and explosive as Scraps, Frankie's friend and former boxer who helps to inspire Maggie. While the role is similar to the one he played in"The Shawshank Redemption", it is no less powerful and a wonderful performance. He should win the Supporting Actor award.

Hilary Swank proves that her "Boys Don't Cry" Oscar was no fluke and gives a stellar performance. It takes a while to get into her character, but once Swank gets going, her performance is truly touching.

Clint Eastwood essentially plays his usual squinty eyed, clenched jaw crumugeon, but he does so with a tremendous amount of sensitivity. Probably the only role where he was more human was in "Bridges of Madison County". His acting his very, very good and I'm not surprised that he, too, has received an Oscar for his acting. It is the most well developed character he has ever played and he executes the role like a master.

Having not seen three of this year's Best Picture nominees, I don't want to jump the gun, but the films "The Aviator", "Sideways" and "Finding Neverland" better be DAMN good if they expect to beat "Million Dollar Baby". It truly is one of the best films of the year, and if it wins big this year, it's because it really deserves it. Is it perfect? No. But pretty damn close.

Hey asshole, you can have your nickel back!

2005-01-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here's an article found in the Edmonton Sun about Hanna's own Nickelback...
------------------
I was betrayed, says drummer
MIKE ROSS, EDMONTON SUN

Former Nickelback drummer Ryan Vikedal would like to set the record straight: His departure from the band was no "departure." He was fired. "I still don't know the reason," he says during a phone call to the Sun yesterday.

"We met with producer Bob Rock before Christmas holidays and everything seemed fine, but when I got back from the holidays, I was told I was fired."

Vikedal says he was taken completely by surprise and had been ready to start work on the next album when he got the news.

He says he wasn't impressed by how singer Chad Kroeger and the other musicians handled it - summoning him to the tour manager's house for a meeting on Jan. 3 only to be told "my heart wasn't in it," the 29-year-old drummer says.

"And then they went on to say that I'm not quite the rock drummer that they were looking for - and this after three albums and 17 million records sold.

"I had to direct the meeting because they kept blabbing about my playing and that I wasn't happy with the band. It was just a bunch of lame excuses because no one could tell me the deal.

"I had to tell them to cut the s--- and get to the point. And even then they couldn't bring themselves to tell me I was done."

Vikedal says his replacement will be Three Doors Down drummer Daniel Adair, who is from Vancouver.

Nickelback and Three Doors Down toured together last year and Vikedal says he figures the change was in the works even back then.

On the prospect of Three Doors Down now needing a drummer, he shoots back, "No, thanks. I'm done with them."

Now, he says, "I feel like there's a weight off my shoulders but I'd like the honest truth to come out.

"I feel pretty betrayed by what was once called a family."

Vikedal says he's going to take a year off to study music in Boston, with teachers from the Berklee College of Music.

Nickelback, meanwhile, will not be working with Bob Rock after all, according to Vikedal, as Kroeger will again produce the band himself for the followup to the multi-platinum selling album, The Long Road.

Following the hit single How You Remind Me in 2001, the former Hanna group became one of the biggest modern rock bands in the world.

Of the snippets of new Nickelback material Vikedal has been privy to hear, he offers a one-word description: "Ballad-y."

A spokesman at Nickelback's Los Angeles management company denied that Vikedel has been replaced, saying he and the band have just "parted ways." The band itself was not available for comment.
-----------------

Now my comments:

Typical.

I predicted after their last album, which was pretty shitty, that it would spell the end of Theory of a Nickelfault. This style of sound was dying before it peaked as there are only so many 4 chord drop D tunes one can do, especially the ballad part.

But the real nail in the coffin is Kroeger not having Bob Rock produce the album. By not having one of the greatest hard rock producers take a band with obvious limited proportions in skill and advance them to the next level (as what happened to Metallica and Tonic), will most certainly spell the end of Nickelback and further Kroeger’s career as a control-freak egotistical asshole (i.e. government politician).

If the next album is ballady, it’ll likely get bought by hairspray 30 something rock chicks, vehemently found in rural Alberta, and sales will be their worst as no sane man who appreciates music will buy it, and it’ll doomed by critics as Kroeger’s ballad voice is about as appealing as Freddy Kruger’s face.

Ryan Vikedal should count his blessings. It's likely he won’t be back. Not even for a nickel.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "The Forgotten"

2005-01-26T09:49:00.000-07:00

Starring Julianne Moore, this movie has a freaky x-files feel to it, but in a cool more clever, what-the-fuck-just-happened sense. Imagine having a son for nine years who then dies in a plane crash after you send him on his way to summer camp. Everyone around you thinks you're crazy for imagining this delusion, but you refuse to believe them, and try to prove them wrong, always on the run.

In fact, this was the only movie that caused me to do my rarely heard male scream/yell, not once, but twice, and really loudly. It gave me the chills. After I watched the whole thing, I had to rewind to several scenes and re-live the excitement.

The cinematography was excellent. A little shaky at times, but this was necessary to create realism. Julianne, the main character, sure can run. Good thing she's fit, 'cause she's always running and out running government agents, but she can't seem to keep with her son. Odd.

The movie has the regular ending and an alternate ending. The former makes more sense and flows better and the latter is cheezy and insulting.

The background music is haunting, but I heard the usual quick random bassy piano, which made me chuckle internally.

I normally don't get shocked that badly and the movie is always moving forward non-stop, but I was always one step ahead of the plot. However, because of the several times I was broadsided, this movie moves up a whole notch.

Snak gives The Forgotten: 4.17 fists out of 5.

Finishing The Top 10

2005-01-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

What the fuck? For some reason, numbers one and two of my list did not get published.

Here they are:

2. Depeche Mode: 101. This album was recorded at the Rose Bowl concert in Pasadena in 1988. Depeche Mode played for more than 100,000 people and the resullts are spectacular. Dave Gahan sounds like he's having lots of fun and Martin Gore soars through the entire set. Whether it's the extended intro to "Stripped" or Martin Gore adding new lyrics into "Somebody", this set is everything good about Depeche Mode, which is considerable. It's a tough one to beat.

1. Led Zeppelin: How The West Was Won. Wow. This is the best live album ever. John Bonham's manic drumming is kept brilliantly under control by John Paul Jones (the unsung hero of the band). Jimmy Page is arguably the best guitarist ever, and I want Robert Plant's voice. If I had it, I wouldn't be writing this, I'd be on a stage somewhere. The strength of this live release has made Led Zeppelin one of my top three favorite musical acts of all time - it's everything a live album should be. It's perfect.

Top 10 Live Albums

2005-01-20T11:14:00.000-07:00

Okay. I'm bored. I'm at "work" with not much to do, so I thought I ought to blog something. The first thing that popped into my noggin was Live albums. So here's my live album rant:

As a kid growing up, I never appreciated live albums. I found them, well, boring because I knew all the songs already and there was nothing new. Over the years, I have gained a real appreciation for live albums. Through the live album, a specific moment in time for a band CAN be captured. Also, it can give the listener a sense of what it would feel like to see the band perform. The mood of the shows are often captured SO well that it almost feels like you're there. Sadly, there have been more shitty live albums than good ones. Like what, you ask? Here's a random list of really CRAPPY live albums

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive. I realize I could be lynched for this, but the fucking thing is overrated. Period.

Metallica - S & M. When are these idiots going to realize that the 80s are over, they suck now, and Michael Kamen can't help them?

The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over. Too self-indulgent.

Iron Maiden - any live album they've ever done. They all sound EXACTLY the same.

Juas Priest - Priest Live. Very poorly mixed. Rob Halford's awesome voice is muddled.

Bon Jovi - One Wild Night. Oh, God what a piece of crap. You can almost picture Jon Bon preening around in your very own living room. That's disgusting.

Cowboy Junkies - 200 More Miles. Zzzzzz....

Ozzy - any live album that isn't the Randy Rhoads Tribute. Dude, get in the studio, already. Not every album needs a live one to accompany it.

The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya Ya's Out. Would somebody please tell me what the hell a Ya Ya is?

AC/DC - Live. It's not awful, but it's really not the same as being there.

Morrissey - Beethoven Was Deaf. Unoriginal, unispired...just sort of plods along...

Fleetwood Mac - Reunion. They just don't sound good live.

Guns N' Roses - Live Era. Oooh...look at me...I'm Axl Rose...I'm a rock star.....oooh...somebody should slap him upside the head. The best thing Slash ever did was leave the band.

Kiss - Alive. Newsflash: it's NOT a live album. It was all done in the studio!

AND NOW...

Here's the top 10 best live albums ever, counted down...

10. The Who - Live at Leeds. This album is everything a Who concert should be. It just FEELS really, really loud. One almost shudders every time Keith Moon slams the drumsticks down, and you can almost feel Pete Townshend's guitar coming right through your speaker, aimed right between your eyeballs. While there are no real standout individual performances, as a whole the album is absolutely FANTASTIC.

9. Duran Duran - Arena. This is the first live album I ever owned and enjoyed. What's truly great about it is the tracks selected on the album. There really aren't many of Duran Duran's hits on the album. The disc shows off the actual musical ability and harmony the band had when they were a five piece and at the top of their game in the early to mid eighties. The standouts on the album are "Save a Prayer" and "New Religion". The album still remains an absolute joy to listen to, especially if you're in your early thirties and want to relive your childhood a little.

8. Blue Rodeo - Just Like a Vacation. While I've been a Blue Rodeo fan for quite some time, I never got to experience them live until about 2 years ago. Watching them perform is like watching a well-oiled machine at work. Each member of the band is SO professional and so very gifted, they make performing look easier than anything in the world. And it's so clear that they do it for the sake of the enjoyment of the music. Listening to Just Like a Vacation is like being there all over again. Their incredible musicianship and professionalism comes through very clearly. The album was recorded while the band was touring "Tremolo", and it's filled not only with hits, but also with other little jewels that we don't hear very often. My personal favorite it the show closer, "Florida". It's soooo good.

7. Rush - Rush In Rio. Rush has released several live albums over the years (I think, including this one, there are five - Snak, could you confirm or deny?). None of Rush's live albums have been of poor quality. I think what makes this one stand out over the others are twofold: you really get the sense that the CROWD is LOVING the show, and I just happened to see that particular tour when it rolled through Edmonton, and it brings back very fond memories. Rush live will always remain one of my favorite concert experiences, and the album allows me to relive some of the best moments. My all-time favorite Rush song, "Red Sector A" is actually on the album, and Peart's drum solo is probably the best I've ever heard (sorry Bonham. You're good, but Peart's better). Even though this is a three disc set (pretty long), you just don't want it to end. That's what makes this so great.

6. Pink Floyd - Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live. I'd almost be willing to cut time out of my life expectancy if I could go back in time and see this show. Esentially, it's Floyd performing "The Wall" in its entirety, but I think it's actually BETTER than the studio version. The fact that "What Shall We Do Now" is on this version (not on the studio version, but in the movie) seals the deal for me. It is true that David Gilmour has stepped up to the plate masterfully after the departure of Roger Waters. However, this album does prove that having Waters in the band gave the band a more rounded, fuller sound. And let's face it, Waters is one of the best lyricists in the world, and "The Wall" is, to me, his masterpiece. Other standouts on this album are "Run Like Hell", especially because of Waters' scathing introduction to the song, proclaiming that the song was "for all the weak people in the audience tonight". Gilmour's playing on "Young Lust" is blistering good fun, and they manage to make "Another Brick In The Wall" really, really creepy. Fantastic stuff, and I'm so glad that the members of the band could agree that it should be released. I know I will be eternally grateful.

5. Ozzy Osbourne - Randy Rhoads Tribute. This is easily the best heavy metal live album that has ever been recorded. It has a pounding energy, all of the songs are good, and most important, it has Randy Rhoads. This guitar virtuoso was still in his early twenties when he died in a tragic plane crash in early 1982. Rhoads was a classically trained guitarist whose fierce, yet incredibly intricate playing style have made him a legend. He joined Ozzy Osbourne after forming the band Quiet Riot and played on Ozzy's first two solo albums before his death. The recordings were taped only a couple of months before Rhoads died, and he is truly at the top of his game. His solos on "Mr. Crowley" and "Revelation" are absolutely stunning, and this album also contains the only live recording of "Children of the Grave" that I'm aware of. This is a live album that is an absolute MUST for any fan of hard rock/heavy metal music. It serves as the best tribute a singer could give his guitarist: allowing the world to experience what it may have been like to see Randy Rhoads perform. Rest in peace.

4. The Doors - Absolutely Live. What makes this album so great is, like Duran Duran's "Arena", the apparent lack of hit singles. There's no "Light My Fire", "Hello I Love You" or "Love Me Two Times". This is Jim Morrison at his absolute peak. His soulful voice sounds almost majestic, and it becomes clear by listening to it, what a striking performer Morrison was. One also gets the sense of being at the show, with the House Announcer issuing warnings to the crowd to settle down - it brings to mind scenes from Oliver Stone's Doors biopic where concerts often became riots. One can almost feel the sense of impending chaos. This albun also includes the notorious "Dead Cats, Dead Rats" introduction to "Break on Through", a sixteen minute version of "When The Music's Over", and the only complete recording of Morrison's epic "The Celebration Of The Lizard". This album literally floors me every time I hear it. Incidentally, the album is available in two forms: it can be bought as a single disc, or it is also the first disc of a 2 CD set called "The Doors: In Concert". The second half of "In Concert" is all of the Doors' hits, but it is "Absolutely Live" that showcases the true ability and showmanship of this revolutionary rock band. It's a classic.

3. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: Live 75-85. This is Bruce at his energetic best. This three CD set is an excellent sampling of ten years of Springsteen's career. The first disc was recorded shortly after the release of "Born To Run" and features Bruce and the band playing in a club in New York. Disc two centers mostly on the tours Springsteen did for "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and "The River", and disc three is taken from the monumentally successful "Born In The U.S.A." tour. The energy of a Springsteen concert borders on frantic, and that is captured very well. Springsteen's electric version of "Johnny 99" is nothing short of intense. The raucus "Badlands" is a real foot stomper, his cover of "War" is electrifying. Some of my favorite moments include Bruce telling a very personal and heartfelt story about his relationship with his father as he prepares to perform "The River". I'm also very fond of the track "Jersey Girl", which does not appear on any other Springsteen album. The very best part is the entire first disc. The energy seems even more intense because he's playing in a club. The set opens with a version of "Thunder Road" that is played exclusively on the piano. His version of "Fire" is absolutely incredible, and the fact that we get some real vintage stuff performed live (like "Spirits in the Night") is a real treat

The Look of Twig

2005-01-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hope y'all like ta new look, mon. Gyotta chyange tyngs up ya know.

And if you think Mischa Barton from "The OC" is hot, you're an idiot. She's about as fat as a praying mantis. Gawd! So skinny. Hugging her must feel like hugging a rake. So why do the tabloids and celebrity mages keep showing her off like a piece of ... er ... lemon grass!? Her eyes make her image look like two blue goldfish bowls held up by a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Talk about disproportionate.

So now Lindsay Lohan is losing a tonne of weight as well. Frankly, she was cuter and more real when she had more lovin' to go 'round.

Hey, wasn't Twiggy that robot that carried Dr. Theopolis on his chest on the show "Buck Rogers"? Man Erin Gray was hot back then eh? I heard they're bringing back the show on Space! Sweet.

Book Review: ISHMAEL

2005-01-17T09:06:00.000-07:00

A man reads an ad in the newspaper classifieds: TEACHER SEEKS PUPIL - MUST HAVE AN EARNEST DESIRE TO SAVE THE WORLD. This is the beginning of Daniel Quinn's novel Ishmael, an incredible novel that explores modern culture and modern society and attempts to discover WHY we as civilized people continually destroy ourselves and our planet. While this is a novel, it is more a philosophical exploration of human nature than a fictional story. The plot is extremely basic - it consists mainly of dialogue between teacher and student. What makes the novel compelling and interesting is that it does offer very plausible explanations for the state of the world and gives very realistic suggestions for how we can all make the world a better place. Don't get me wrong - this novel is not a "touchy-feely let's save the world" kind of experience. On the contrary. It is very frank and very blunt - sometimes to the point of being rather harsh and almost shocking. the message in Ishmael is a positive one: we can change the world if we simply realize what we"re doing to it and accept responsibility for our actions. While I sadly have to cut this review short (I am at work, after all), I highly recommend this novel to absolutely everyone - it definiately ranks among the best novels I have ever read - it is one of the few reads that I can honestly say have, in some small way, changed my life and my way of thinking.

First Movie Review of the Year

2005-01-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

I'm going to keep this short because of limited time, but here's the first Boobie film review of 2005. On Sunday I went to the movies and the only one playing that I hadn't missed was Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. So...here goes.

The film is definately not a BAD film, but it is so bloody strange that I'm not sure if I liked it. For a children's film, it is particularly strange. The plot is rather choppy and at times makes little sense whatsoever. That said, I am under the understanding that the film is actually THREE books rolled into one movie. The film being quite short, I can see why things might appear a little disjointed. The performances in the film...the children's roles were well played and the protagonists (the Baudelaire children) were quite sympathetic. Jim Carrey was delightfully bizarre as Count Olaf - it's Carrey at his manic best with a little bit of his CABLE GUY menace thrown in for good measure (unfortunately, CABLE GUY really sucked). Disappointing was the overly hammed performance of Meryl Streep. While I do believe that Streep is the most talented actress working in Hollywood, she sometimes overdoes it, and this is one of those times.

Unfortunately, I can't say I enjoyed the film as much as you did, Snak. It is, I think, a little on the overrated side, and while Jim Carrey's performance is very good, he is unable to carry this film. So...my end decision on this film is that it was...okay.

Music of 2004

2005-01-06T08:46:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, 2004. A year of political change (or stagnation, you decide), standard Hollywood blockbuster fare, tragedy and disaster, triumphs galore, no more NHL (fucking players) and a really really LOUSY year in music. With nothing original being released AT ALL, music fans like myself were forced to listen to the same rehashed material we've been listening to for the last two years. All the same, I do feel obliged to submit my top 10 album list of the year. Here goes:

1. Morrissey - You Are The Quarry: strictly a personal bias, as Morrissey is one of my favorite musicians. That being said, this is an album that is an interesting combination of his early acoustic sound and his later, more guitar driven sound. A must for Morrissey fans, and with two hit singles, "Irish Blood, English Heart" and "First Of The Gang To Die", this should be the album to put him back on the musical map.

2. The Tea Party - Seven Circles: Easily the best album yet by the band. The best produiced album of the year, this again is a wonderful combination of the Tea Party's early Asian influenced sound and the harder sound that has evolved throughout the band's career. Brilliant album.

3. Green Day presents - American Idiot: Wow. Green Day for grownups. Very good indeed. The critics were right, for a change.

4. Franz Ferdinand: The Clash is back, it seems. It seems that Joe Strummer has returned from the dead. It's a little wild, it's a little weird, and all in all, it's pretty cool.

5. Collective Soul - Youth: ok, so it's nothing we haven't heard Collective Soul do before. However, 2004 being a baaaaad year it was musically, at least this album was FUN. It's happy, it's catchy, it's Collective Soul. Nuff said.

6. Matthew Good - White Light Rock & Roll Review: You were probably hoping something better would make the list. Sorry. To its credit, this album hearkens back to the earlier days of the Matthew Good Band...back when they were still good. The album is largely upbeat, straight ahead rock and roll. Too bad the shitty "It's Been A While Since I Was Your Man" had to be the second single. Matt deserves a smack upside the head for that one.

7. U2 - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb: While not even close to being U2's best album, it's still...not bad. Some songs, such as "Vertigo" and "Yahweh" are absoluetly fantastic, while others just seem to plod along. However, with all the crap released in 2004, at least we can happily say that U2 is back.

8. The Killers - Hot Fuss: While far from perfect, this album is still pretty good. It's very catchy and takes us on a trip back to the 80's with it's "The Cure meets The Smiths" kind of sound. This band holds good promise if they can keep it all together.

9. The Tragically Hip - In Between Evolution: The only reason it's on the list at all is because at least its the best Hip album in over 10 years. Gotta give it that. Well, maybe "In Violet Light" was better. Not really sure. Hip albums seem to blend into one long blur, these days...

10. R.E.M. - Around The Sun: Again, not a stellar album. Michael Stipe's lyrics are beginning to sound a bit forced. Still, some good tracks are on this album, and while it'll never be another "Automatic for the People", it's not as bad as "Monster". Yeeesh.

Well, there you have it. The "best" of 2004. While some of these are in fact deserving (see the top 3 - they actually deserve to be there), let's just be glad this muddled, hippety hop filled year of absolute refuse is now mercifully behind us. Hail, hail, 2005 and may it be better than the 12 month period of shit we've all just escaped from. Being better shouldn't be too hard.

Ranking U2 Albums

2005-01-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

1. The Unforgettable Fire (1984) - A personal favourite. This album was created as a dedication to Martin Luther King Jr. and for it's time, was light years ahead of anything else produced at the peak of poppy crap in the 80's. Songs like Bad, Unforgettable Fire, Wire, Indian Summer Sky really take you to unforgettable places of melancholy, dreamy happiness and for me, memories of junior high house parties. The album title is a theme for me, reminding me of the passion I had for music then and how it impacted me on the rest of my life. This is the album that made U2, U2. Without the experimentation and learning done on this album, The Joshua Tree wouldn't have been as good as it is. I absolutely love The Edge's mega reverbed sound that Brian Eno skillfully produced.

2. The Joshua Tree (1987) - Like The Boss killed disco, with this epic album, U2 put the nail in the coffin for the upcoming death of hair metal and literally eliminated all the potential head bangers from my high school - save a few hardcores. Every song is excellent, memorable, and well produced - once again by Lanois and Eno. The song writing is simple yet the melodies are second to none. This is not only one of the best U2 albums, but one of the best albums of all time. It's a true "driving through the mountains" compilation of tunes as it talks about God quite a bit. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is Shlab's theme song as his journey in search for Godliness. "Running To Stand Still" steadies along so eloquently and passionately - I love the harmonica riff. But I actually prefer the second side of the album (back when there were 'sides'). "In God's Country" is a fantastic song with trademark "chunk-a-chunk" strumming from the Edge. Lots of harmonica from Bono gives it that real earthy feel. It's a dark album full of hope. "One Tree Hill" is one of my faves. The last songs of the album beautifully take you off into the sunset and into a starry night.

3. Achtung Baby (1991) - The band took a hard right turn with this awesome album. I still can't believe it's 14 years old! Absolutely cutting edge when it was made - the Edge got edgier, and Larry's drumming got funkier, while remnants of their old style with "One", "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" remain, "Even Better Than The Real Thing" - an in your face song echoed by their recent release "Vertigo".

4. Rattle and Hum (1989) - Followed up by a movie, this album reminds us of where and how rock n roll all started. It took us back to the roots. The re-made live songs were very well done and every one of the new songs weren't fillers by any means. A very dynamic album - it flows along and ends with one of the greatest songs and videos they've ever done - "All I Want Is You". (Boobie, you gotta give this album more credit.)

5. All That You Can't Leave Behind (2002) - Whew. We thought we lost 'em. But they're back. Although a few songs could have been left behind, the rest remind us what makes U2 so great, and the album title refers to that.

6. War (1983) - A rightful cynical album. It opens with "Sunday Bloody Sunday" - the modern theme song for the Irish conflict. "New Year's Day" has a brilliant piano riff with knife cut guitar, reminding us that in other parts of the world, war is war, and resolutions don't really change us. "Two Hearts Beat As One" has pumping bass and a pounding chorus exemplifying a heart beat.

7. Zooropa (1993) - Obviously an experimental album with hints of genius. I love the song they did with Johnny Cash. Sort of a retro-country tune. "Lemon" is sure a strange song, but catchy. Because I listened to it so much in the summer of 1993, it stuck with me. I sometimes play it again to relive the memories of that year.

8. Pop (1997) - Fun fun fun. I really like this non-U2 U2 album. Riding the mini disco comeback with "Discotheque", their Villiage People antics gave us some nostalgia there. U2's Popmart tour to Edmonton is something I'll never forget. "Mofo" is just a trippy electronica zinger obviously brought forth by producer Flood. Bono said, "We like it up here", and they did for a while, took their fans to new places, but forgot who they were.

9. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (1994). Starts off great with Vertigo, but then it's too much Bono lamenting. This album is a repeat of All You Can't.. but not as good. It may grow on me yet, as a lot of U2 albums do.

10. Boy (1980) - "I Will Follow", a great song, one that will always be played, marks the start of a "musical journey" for the band. The rest of the album is very early 80's kind of stuff.

11. October (1981) - U2's follow-up album, while not quite as good as 'Boy', thankfully wasn't so bad that it killed them.

Overall, U2's peak period was between 4 albums, "Unforgettable Fire", "Joshua Tree", "Rattle and Hum", and "Achtung Baby". The next two albums experimental. And the last two try to match the magic of their peak period. Bono seems tired at times. "All You Can't" is a dynamic album, but sappy at times. They have a bad tendency to write too many two chord ballad filler tunes. They need a cause to write - to bring the rebelliousness back - to rock again. "Vertigo" certainly does that for me - but I want MORE!

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "De Lovely"

2005-01-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

"De Lovely" starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd is a wonderful movie about the life of the irrefutable jazz composer, Cole Porter.

As Cole Porter never met a piano he didn't like, he never met person he didn't like sexually. He was bi-sexual playboy. Sometimes he would swing one way for many weeks, then come back to his wife, played beautifully by Ashley Judd. She knew about his exploits and tolerated it. They got married on that condition. But eventually, it would take its toll on her. They loved each other dearly.

But Cole's pursuit for "what is this thing called love" is emphasized in this story. He loved being loved ... by anyone. The underground gay scene is aptly shown, thankfully without taking things too far.

The story is uniquely told from the point of view where Cole as an old man is dying and his life is flashing before his eyes. He sits in a theatre where another man, indirectly referred to as Gabriel the Archangel, takes Cole through his life after college through to the end. They both sit and watch how wonderful his life really was.

Cole Porter's music is fun, romantic, and sexy. Throughout the movie, his songs are portrayed at all the shows he produced in his career, and it's topped off by guest vocal appearances from Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, and many other familiar faces. (Sheryl's singing was by far the best).

The movie drags on near the end, but you get pulled into the lifeless state Cole's life became in his old age. There's a lot of cigarette smoking, which although probably accurate, got annoying to watch. Cole and his wife probably had fits of rage in argument, but this wasn't shown, and really would have made the movie spectacular. Just when you thought it would finally end, the last scene goes out with a bang number "Blow, Gabriel, Blow". And as they say, "Never open a show with a ballad. Never close a show with a ballad."

The makeup on the actor's faces to make them look old is so very well done as time moves forward, it's seemless.

I recommend this movie if you like Cole Porter's music, which I do, thoroughly. The acting is excellent, direction from Irwin Winkler second to none, and the era clothing, so perfectly done by Georgio Armani himself tops it off.

Snak gives "De Lovely" 3.91 fists out of 5.

December 2004 - What a month!

2005-01-04T09:07:00.000-07:00

Call it God's Month due to their annual celebrations from Christians, Jews, and Muslims, it was also a month replete with anquish, victory, and hope.

Ukraine
The Ukrainian presidential election 2nd time-'round run off vote (which I've commented on several times in this blog) saw a big victory for western friendly liberal democrat Viktor Yushchenko, who was diagnosed as being poisoned by dioxin. Defeated candidate Yanukovych wouldn't concede claiming fraud (hypocrite?). Yushchenko called on his protestors to block the government building to prevent a meeting between Yanukovych (outgoing Prime Minister) and his outgoing cabinet. Brilliant. Finally, after several days, Yanukovych resigned. YAY!

Iraq

19 American soldiers were ambushed and killed. Iraqi security forces are being captured and executed by terrorist insurgents. For anyone who thought Al Queda wasn't in Iraq before the war had better think again. Bin Laden acknowledged Zarqawi as his lieutenant in Iraq.

Tsunami
The worst disaster of our generation has devistated the lives of millions. The outpouring of support from around the world is showing that although we have over 6 billion people now (2 billion more than in the 70's) that the world is getting smaller. Private donations are almost matching governmental aid and that is really good to hear. The survival stories are truly incredible and make any further Survivor TV shows look like a drop in a sandbox. There is hope.

We're pretty lucky. The weather is really shitty. People suffer from seasonal distress disorder (SAD) around this time. Let's think about what we do have here and appreciate the people around us.

Ricky said it best

2004-12-21T11:16:00.001-07:00

"Christmas isn't about shopping, crap, and all that stress - it's about getting drunk and stoned with your family and friends. So fuck it, I'm gonna go get drunk and stoned with my buddy Bubbles. I fuckin' love you, dad." - Ricky

So every Christmas Eve, I have some fine scotch with my dad. On Christmas Day, I have a few more drinkypoos with family. But you stay sober because of all that food.

On New Year's Eve, I have a plethora with my friends. The best part is you can't choose your family, but you can choose your friends. I have the best friends in the world. I love New Year's Eve. I loath the next day.

That's what it's all about.

Helps you sing too! Cheers.

Christmas memories

2004-12-17T09:31:00.000-07:00

As Christmas draws near, I thought I would take a walk down memory lane and visit some of the cool reminders of Christmases gone by. If you are near my age, hopefully some of these things will spark some nostalgia in ya.

Christmas eats- Of course, everyone's favorite the mandarin orange. Remember when Japanese ones were the only good ones, because the Chinese ones had seeds? You would eat so many of them your fingernails would turn orange from all the peal. When I worked at a grocery store I learned to hate these things though. We would sell pallets and pallets of these things and people would make such a mess that you had to always rearrange them. Everyone would open the lid and dig deep inside to see if there was a bad one-It would be the orange that was covered in Kryptonite dust. They would take that out and leave it right on the other stacks of mandarins, and then open another one to find a replacement. Within an hour you had half filled boxes toppling over and one giant orange juice mess.

Chocolates- For a while there, there was only turtles and pot of gold. Then things got innovative, and almondillos came out, along with toffeefe (how do you pronounce that?). Nutchos were always my favorite when I was a kid- it was like they slammed a whole piece of sugar cane in each tiny morsel. Speaking of pot of gold, remember the index card that would explain what each chocolate was by its shape? Some relative would get drunk or forget their glasses, and you would have a big debate over whether the circle one had 1 squiggle on top (delicious nougat) or a line (gross, malty crap yukka). At some point the index card would be misplaced, which would lead to a kind of russian roulette, with people choosing chocolates and everyone in the room waiting for the look on their face when they bite in. It was almost like a westernized-karma-fortune cookie. Good chocolates to those who were good, bad chocolates for those not so good. Maybe Forest Gump was on to something here...

Assorted- Remember those wafers that had mint or crisps in them, I think they were called Andes? How about Quality Street? I always wanted the purple wrapped ones for some reason. And talk about innovative marketing- That circle can always would up as a crayon box or something, serving as a constant reminder all year long to buy Quality Street. How about Advent Calendars? Someone who hates teachers invented that. Let's give every kid on the block a chocolate right before they go to school in the morning- every day for all of December... Turkey dinner and of course, in my household Ukranian food- stories about how you were supposed to set a place at the table for anyone who died, don't eat until the first star appears, a dish of yellow wheat that was supposed to be a sacred dish or somehthing, etc.

Sounds of Christmas- Okay, how about Boney M? Everyone knows those Christmas songs. How about Paul McCartney's "Simply, having, a wonderful Christmas time" featuring the excellent organ playing of his wife Linda. I think she was playing a 24 key Casio on that one. Something I was thinking about the other day is how great Christmas carols are. Regardless of religious denomination, everyone has to appreciate how great these songs are: "I saw three ships", "Good King Wenchipotomus", "Silent Night"... They really are fantastic.

TOYS OF CHRISTMAS- So unless you were an only child you always got a board game of some sort. As the 80's started, the Atari home entertainment system and Intellivision were king, so I remember getting lots of cartridges for that. You would look at the front of the box of a game like Combat and think- WOW 80 different games!!!!! Only after playing it for an hour did you realize they were variations on each other- big plane versus small planes, big plane vs big plane, tanks that can kill each other, tanks that can't kill each other, bullets that go straight, bullets that bounce off walls, etc. Smurfs were big when I was young, but not too guy-like, so we had to turn to Transformers a few years later. Remember the Christmas when you couldn't get Optimus Prime? Everybody was sold out for miles around and my Dad had one shipped in from Winnipeg. Ah, those 'peggers can't keep hockey around but ask for a plastic truck trailer that can repair the other Autobots and they pull through for you. I collected hockey card and hockey stickers, so you always got a ton of that to open and sort through. Everyone always wanted the shiny trophy stickers, but after opening up all the packs you would have to settle for 3 tops of the Lady Bing award and 2 bottoms of the Lester B. Pearson.

Cartoons- Everthing was Rankin-Bass and almost every night there was something good on. The clay puppet ones were awesome- Rudolph kicked ass- and I wonder if Conan O'Brien patterns his hair after Hermie the dentist elf?? Frosty made me sad towards the end when the scary magician turns the heat up and melt's Frosty. Everything turned okay in the end, but I still remember putting a hat on a puddle and seeing if anything would happen. Who can forget the Sesame Street one where Bert wants to buy a soap dish for Ernie's rubber ducky, so he sells his paper clips to buy it, and Ernie wants to buy a paper clip holder for Bert so he sells his rubber ducky to buy it, but Mr. Hooper makes everything okay by giving back their payments and teaching us all something about Christmas. The Grinch was cool- I don't know where to buy an "electro-cardio-snooks" but I wanted one really bad to wake up my family on Christmas day.

In the wise words of Dr. Suess: Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be, just so long as we have we.

Wise words for even non-Christians.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!!!

Snak's 2004 Music Review

2004-12-16T13:00:00.000-07:00

Remember about, oh, 8 years ago when disco made a comeback? There were disco parties everywhere. People raided Value Village just to fit in again. The scary part was that disco style stuck and strong elements are in the latest homme fashion designs. I say, cool, ya dig?

But this is a review of 2004. You know, 2004 was the year of crapolla fuck-all for new original music. That extra day in Feb didn't help one iota either. I spent the year relistening to the 2 year old albums from Matchbox, Sheryl, Blue Rodeo, and Tonic hoping they would have released new material. So I lament.

2004 was the year that didn't know what year it was. It felt like a mass battle of the 80's music styles. On one side we had all those unoriginal punkish new wave bands all called "The Blanks" that merely copied that trend of band names back in the rollerskating days. Plus it reminded us true music veterans of what really made the late 70's and early 80's so unique, so pure, so pre-MTV. In Canada, The Trews came out well last year, and the first time I heard them they were playing live in front of HMV at WEM. I thought I erely heard Michael Hutchence again. I guess I was "stuck in a moment" and I couldn't get out of it.

Then on the other end we have a strong hair metal rock comeback. Old bands from the 80's are cool again, they're touring and the cougars are buying tickets. And because of this, thankfully the classic and memorable single note power guitar riff hooks have returned, swiftly killing all the 4 chord drop-d unimaginative Theory of a Nickelfaults. And to me, the band that did it, ironically, is Velvet Revolver. For its lieutentants in Canada, we can thank The Tea Party for pumping out one of the best power albums in recent memory, "Seven Circles", making Chad Kroeger think about putting more into his RSP, or is that R.I.P.?

Jet is a band that smartly rode the fence like Paul Martin in drag at a business luncheon. A little Iggy Pop here, a bunch of AC/DC there. But how long can they keep regurgitating blended old stuff in a neat little teenage package, only time will tell. I'll give it one more album, then that's it.

I'm not even gonna talk about rap and hip hop - that's not even music to start with. The pop dance music of today lacks ... well it lacks everything. These songs don't last a week. It's a candy sugar high and not worth anyone's time in the long run. More people are worried how Britney's bellybutton looks than her, um, er ... lips, sing(c)ing. Whatever happened to Cathy Dennis anyway? But seriously, I'll put any Nelly Furtado song against all that pop crap out there and quash it, a la Forca!

If "video killed the radio star" well over 20 years ago (side note: aptly written by Geoff Downes, formerly of Yes and Asia), things have come full circle again and will likely loop many times through the generations. Value Village and keyboard synthesizers will have blips of record profits every 20 years or so.

The sad thing is, I just don't see us climbing back up the stairway of heaven, the mega hey day of music - that's right, the 70's (including 69, 80-81). The post-Woodstock pre-MTV zone that people forget. Homer Simpson even agrees: "1974 was the greatest year of rock n roll. It's a scientific fact." Of course, that's the year Rush debuted and Led Zep had already released five lasting albums. Rolling Stone mag, when ranking the top 500 albums of all time, the majority, I repeat, the majority were from the 70's. There was nothing to do but make music then. I was there! I saw my babysitters light up the stove burner and pull out my parent's LP collection. Thankfully, with Internet radio, I can listen to all that amazing psychadelic progressive music again and rediscover that place in the heavens when songs were true works of art. So check out www.radioio.com and go to 70's classic rock.

So there ya go. Call me a purist. But credit should be given where credit is due. The icing on the cake, and proof positive of my diatribe today was recently hearing that Sports World Rollerrink opened up again!!! Now where did I put my Jordache Jeans and Precision Dominions?

The winner in the end? Well, the end of the loop is the beginning of the next generation (what letter are we on anyway?) -- a generation that forgets, that needs the quick fix fed to them by the record companies like a dog on coke. True music lovers will see the whole "moving picture" and appreciate originality, creativity, imagination, and the true artists who take us to the next level, the next rung on the ladder if you will. They are the winners, the explorers, who leave the tireless loop and forge forward to new frontiers, because then, and only then, can we evolve.

Snak's Man of the Year

2004-12-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

While I may be bias toward Canadian Conservative Leader Stephen Harper and his ability to unite two federal parties, run for the leadership and easily win, and come just over 30 seats from becoming Prime Minister, all within 6 months, his obstacles weren't nearly as great as one man whom I admire greatly.

Hands down: Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate, Viktor Yushchenko is Snak's Man of the Year for 2004.

In the past several weeks, the world's attention has focused on the presidential elections in Ukraine. This country, with a rich culture of tradition, compassion, industry and work ethic, has been supressed by Russian Soviet influence, starved to death by Stalin, taken over by Nazi's, and since its Independence from the Iron Curtain in 1991, has been ruled by an autocracy of thugs under the umbrella of quasi dictator of Russia, Darth Vladimir Rasputin.

This event has been earmarked as a defining time of the post Cold War era. It's East vs. West again. The U.S. and Canada declared the election bunk while Putin congratulated fraudulant winner Yanukovych. Putin played his cards badly and now has yiachi juice on his face.

Viktor Yushchenko not only has proven that he has the majority of support of Ukrainians in that country, but all around the world. Orange-clad Yushchenkomania has swept the hearts of all freedom loving peoples, Ukrainian or not. His calls for closer relations with the west, NATO, and the European Union, while continuing strong trade with Russia, make sense for this breadbasket of a country.

He has rallied hundreds of thousands of supports to camp out in the bitter cold to protest in Kyiv for weeks on end. He has gracefully subvered the ruthless propoganda campaign from eastern Ukraine and civil war threats from the Russian northern border. Yushchenko has the entire democratic world rooting for him. Thousands of people from around the world are coming to observe the election, ensuring a fair vote ensues.

The east-west divide you see in Ukraine just simply isn't true - it's propoganda that has become a false reality. Yushchenko supports are now getting in their cars and travelling to eastern Ukraine to connect with those same supporters who have been threatened and beaten for not supporting the other candidate and current Prime Minister Yanukovych, who was appointed by Leonid Kuchma, outgoing president and Putin lacky.

Yushchenko knows how to play the art of politics to the extreme to achieve the result you really desire. His masterful decisions have stymied a propoganda machine propped by Russian dollars.

And to top that off, he has been poisoned by dioxin. The Yanukovych campaign recently said it was a campaign ploy. What crap. Mr. Yushchenko's once movie star face has been badly potmarked and disfigured. He has now proven that good looks aren't what Ukrainians are looking for - they're looking for freedom, democracy, human rights, not continued bullying, and Viktor Yushchenko is the man that's taking them there. He will win this mini cold war on December 26, the date marked for the repeat vote of the presidential election run-off, on behalf of true Ukrainians, and for all freedom loving peoples of the world.

And his charisma reminds me of another man who won the Cold War for all - former U.S. President, Ronald Reagan.

Obsession

2004-12-10T13:49:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday night, a gunman walked into a club where the heavy metal band Damageplan was just beginnign to play. The man climbed onto the stage and shot guitarist "Dimebag" Darell Abbott five times at point blank range, killing him. Four other people (Including the shooter) were also killed in the massacre.

While I am not myself a fan of Damageplan or their style of music, I do understand the sense of loss that fans of Abbott must be feeling. I'm sure they are feeling a lot of rage and anger at WHY this had to happen.

Too often, society loses those individuals who serve as role models to millions of people, young and old. As unfortunate as this is, death is a fact of life. What really SUCKS is when these people are lost because of a vicious, psychotic act that defies all reason.

I have absolutely no sympathy for celebrities who die by their own making (those who commit suicide or die of an overdose). In their own way, they are responsible for their own deaths. What is sad are those who are robbed from the world simply for being who they are. Abbott died simply because he was a musician.

We see so many senseless acts of violence (Columbine, 9/11, the murder of John Lennon) that these assholes responsible become infamous and immortalized. I think there should be a law that makes uttering their names illegal. They should be dropped off the face of the earth and what should be remembered is what the GOOD people left behind and how THEY lived.

It is so tragic that we live in a world where, in some places, there are more guns than people. I believe that handguns should be outlawed altogether. There is no real need for them, and people who disagree with me can kiss my royal butt.

Hopefully some good will come of Darrell Abbott's death. The tragedy is that yet another talented artist (even though I'm not a fan) has been taken simply for doing his job. That, to me, is the real tragedy.

A Pair of Movie Reviews

2004-12-08T15:10:00.000-07:00

Here are two reviews of films I have recently seen.

National Treasure - Nicolas Cage stars in this Disney/Jerry Bruckheimer film about a man whose family is charged with protecting an ancient treasure. The film deals largely with freemasonry, suggesting that the Knight's Templar were charged originally with protecting the treasure. Masonic symbolism abounds in this film, and as a relatively new member of freemasonry, I found this quite intriguing. The masonic elements aside, what I found genuinely surprising was how entertained I was by this film. I was not expecting it to be nearly as much fun to watch as it was, so pleasant surprises were found at every corner. The plot is filled with twists and turns; it is a roller-coaster of a film in the classic INDIANA JONES vein. While the acting is not necessarily noteworthy and the script at first appears rather weak, the writing picks up tremendously as the film progresses and sucks the viewer in. It is a film that truly improves as it moves on, and I was genuinely disappointed when the movie ended. Not because the ending was bad, but because the film was over. Director Jon Turtletaub directs with a certain degree of stlye, and the action is virtually nonstop. This is a great entertainment that actually requires some thought from its audience. It is not the mindless "rah-rah America" film that the trailers suggest. It is actually much more. It has great depth and is fun to watch. I recommend it highly.

2. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers - this interesting biopic stars Geoffrey Rush as the legendary British comic actor who gained fame in such classics as Dr. Strangelove and The Pink Panther series. Rush's portrayal of Peter Sellers is absolutely flawless; indeed, it does not take long to forget that one is watching a performance of Sellers rather than Sellers himself. The film delves into the actor's personal and professional lives, and explores the notion that for the many wonderful characters Sellers portrayed on screen, he struggled with finding any sort of identity at all off screen. The tragedy of his life is that at the time of his death (from a heart attack) in 1980, Sellers still had no sense of who HE was. He began to identify himself solely with the characters he played and lost any sense of identity he may have had. Rush pulls off the tragic role perfectly - it is easily his best performance since he won the oscar in Shine. Equally impressive are the performances of the two great directors who worked with Sellers - John Lithgow brings a quirky warmth to the Pink Panther director Blake Edwards, and Stanley Tucci is phenominal in the small role of megalomaniacal director Stanley Kubrick. Charlize Theron also co-stars as Sellers' second wife, Bond gril Britt Eklund (from The Man with the Golden Gun). A very enlightening, insightful and masterfully acted film that did not receive any of the accalades it so richly deserves. It proves that even HBO can make a good film when the right opportunity presents itself.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review No. 3

2004-12-06T11:40:00.000-07:00

"The United States of Leland" (2003)

Directed and Written by: Matthew Ryan Hoge

Starring: Ryan Gosling, Don Cheadle, Chris Klein, Jena Malone, Lena Olin, Kevin Spacey

Plot Outline: "The United States of Leland" tells the story of a young man's experience in an American juvenile detention centre that touches on the tumultuous changes that befall his family and the community in which he lives.

Snak's take: Well, there were parts when I fell asleep. The very few parts where Kevin Spacey, who plays a famous writer and Leland's estranged father, was of course perfect. The main character, Leland, is a pathetic self-righteous stupid kid. If that's the part he was supposed to play, then Ryan Gosling nailed it. Chris Klein's character, Allen, as an unpredictable seemingly outsider, which, for me put the movie over a 50% grade because I couldn't figure him out. Don Cheadle who plays Leland's teacher in the detention centre, is still an underrated actor, and the only real and believable character in the entire movie. It's a boring movie overall and listening to Leland speak about his thoughts about God and the devil, good vs. evil, is just absolute drivelling nonsense. This character killed someone in cold blood and we're supposed to feel real sorry for him. Just pathetic liberal trash. eg. "Maybe bad things exist so we know what good is." No wonder See Magazine gave it 4 stars. What crap. The only people who can identify with this movie are kids like "Jeremy ... spoke in class today" and Scott "Heroin" Weland. How in the hell the writer got Kevin Spacey dragged (drugged?) into this one is beyond me. (But it was nice to see Sherilyn Fenn though - Leland's description of her was bang on - "electricity in her eyes".) But whatever - a blah movie.

Should be titled: "The United States of Pathetic"

Rating: Yesterday I gave it 2.63 fists out of 5, but now that I think about it, it's not even a 2. So Snak gives this movie 1.91 fists out of 5. Don't waste your time. Watch "Shawshank Redemption" again for the 97th time - that'll make you feel better and pick out a plot point that you hadn't seen or considered before.

The NHL lockout continues

2004-12-04T11:18:00.000-07:00

So we hear that the Players association has a proposal to put forward to the league next week in Toronto. Several questions arise:

1. Have the players removed the "first-born" clause out of the contract, that being the clause that states the average middle class hockey fan need not provide their first born son or daughter as payment for a set of tickets for an NHL game.

2. Why are they meeting in Toronto? Are there any other cities in the NHL universe that care about the average middle class hockey fan LESS than Toronto? Most of their seats are bought by corporations that will continue to buy them regardless of the price. Not quite the most price elastic bunch of folks.

3. Is the Players Association trying some psychological "Christmas Scrooge-making" of the League? A few weeks before Christmas, and if the League walks away from these talks the Players Association believes that public sentiment will brand Bettman a holiday Grinch? I got news for ya, most people have a hard enough time finding extra money at the holidays to give to all their friends in family, I highly doubt this time of year will make the average joe more sympathetic to the plight of the unfortunate players. "Can't buy Anna Kournikova a 10 carat diamond this year because you had to cut back a little"? Too bad asshole.

4. All beer commercials aside, does anyone miss NHL hockey? I watch two games a week for sure, and I don't miss it at all. Okay, let me clarify that- I miss it but I realize we are trying to save the game and I will suck it up in order to preserve hockey in my city for the rest of my lifetime. It is a damn shame that cities like Winnipeg lost their teams, and I don't want that happening to Edmonton.

Take the time to reflect on the season- a giving and sharing time. Give a little extra time to the family and friends around you, and share a little college hockey or junior hockey with your buddies and hope that the NHL doesn't give in.

Another Top 10 List

2004-12-03T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am with nothing much to say, so in an effort to say SOMETHING, I've decided to rank the top 10 film villains of the last twenty five years. Here goes:

1. Darth Vader - this black cloaked, respiratory problemed villain from the STAR WARS films tops the list just because he's so COOL.

2. Hannibal Lecter - never go for a therapy session with this one - especially if it's over dinner.

3. Dr. Evil - the name says it all and I think he's the funniest villain ever created.

4. The Joker - clearly the most fun Jack Nicholson's ever had on screen - the character carries the film and is an absolute riot.

5. Khan - even for those who don't like STAR TREK, this villain is truly monstrous, and well played by Ricardo Montalban (freaky, I know)

6. Commodus - Joaquin Phoenix's villain from GLADIATOR is so slimy, incestuous and almost pitiful, that he definately makes the list

7. Agent Smith - Surprised to see me on this list, Mr. Anderson?

8. The Terminator - from the first one. Arnold's evil Terminator is way cooler than when he becomes the hero. The scene where he kills the first Sarah Conner still cracks me up.

9. Edward the Longshanks - from BRAVEHEART, this villain is just so plain cruel that he deserves to be on the list. Even more tragic is that he's based on an actual English king.

10. Alex - from CLOCKWORK ORANGE - try having a pleasant conversation with this sociopath. If you can decipher his language, you'll understand the basic translation: I'M GOING TO FUCK YOU UP.

So says the self appointed movie geek...I just had nothing else to say today...

Darth Vladimir

2004-12-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Former head of the KGB in the USSR days, current president of Russia, Vladimir Putin reminds me of a certain character in the Star Wars series. No not Darth Vader. Definitely not Luke, Han, or Chewey.

The manner in which he has conducted himself politically for years has been one of caution, diplomacy, and prudence. He had quietly placed his puppet, Leonid Kuchma, to run Ukraine as president for the last 10 years.

Yet when the new Ukrainian presidential elections recently ended amidst massive ballot box fraud, particularly in Eastern, more Russian speaking Ukraine, (Ras)Putin had to have a premature congratulatory statement to the fraudulent winner, current Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych. Then as western countries like Canada, the U.S. and the European Union denounce the elections as fraudulent, Putin tells everyone to "leave Ukraine alone and let them handle their own affairs."

You see, with Putin, who can be considered a political genius (up to this point anyway), is brilliant at saying one thing and doing the complete opposite behind closed doors. So whenever you read or hear something Putin says, like "leave the Ukrainian people alone", he's got tanks on the northern border, he's getting lynchman to bully eastern workers into voting for his new puppet, Yanukovych, instead of pro western liberal Yushchenko, who has been slowly poisoned.

He knows controlling Ukraine again would benefit Russia for trade, labour, as Ukraine is the fastest growing economy in the European area. So Putin needs Ukraine like cars need oil and has done everything he knows to try and win it over. It's like Putin plays both sides for his own gain, but no one knows it. Putin may seem he's all pro western democracy kind of guy, but in reality he's given himself sweeping powers and has created a Stalin-like cult status for himself in Russia.

Again, reminds me of a certain character in Star Wars I and II. That character being Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious/The Emperor. But I'll call him Darth Vladimir.

The Dark Side may seem stronger, but it's always "the good in people" that win. Little did Darth Vladimir realize how the will of the people of Ukraine would remain in their protest camp supporting Yushchenko for days on end. And just 30 minutes ago, the Ukraine Supreme Court ruled the last vote invalid due to fraud and that the run-off vote be repeated before Dec. 26.

The gig is up Vlad, you've been exposed for who you really are. Your lightning bolt shocks on a country that is tired of being oppressed by Russians for centuries won't work anymore. Time to get thrown down the shaft.

The Frozen Clown

2004-12-03T09:44:00.000-07:00

It's been a long time since I had been to The Rose and Crown Downtown. Last night I was there because my sister was in town on business and she invited me out for a 'few' cocktails. What makes the Rose and Crown special is the atmosphere, not so much created by the staff, but it's simply the music and one man who plays the boogie woogie on piano like no one else. He's engaging, he's entertaining, witty, and very talented.

His name is Don Johnson. No, not of Miami Vice fame, but someone with real talent. He's not "searching for a hearbeat", or anything like that. Don plays a variety of songs and styles and has an excellent tenor voice.

You see, the story is this ...

Back in "tha day" (circa 1990-1993), I used to frequent at the Rose with friends and being some of the younger crowd in a mature bar we thought we were kings. We'd sit at the piano bar and listen and sing along with Don, chat it up with any decent looking woman under 30, and have a great time. Yeah, we had successes and misses, but it was all in fun. Don had been playing there regularly from like 1984 to 1995, then he opened up his own bar called "Don Johnson's Piano Bar" on the Boardwalk, then took off to San Antonio for many years. Well, he's back home. And it was great to see him again. He remembered my name.

As many of you know, my half-sister found my mother and me in 1998. Mom gave her up for adoption at birth. All that time, I had no idea she existed. And now she's in my life with her two kids and husband. We've hit it off really well - I think she's amazing.

Okay, here we go ... you see, my sister used to also frequent at the R&C around the same time as me, back in "tha day". She also knows Don from being in the hospitality business with hotels and stuff. (I think you see where this is going.) That's right, ... this is crazy ... there's a pretty good chance that while sitting at the old piano bar crooning with Don, that at one point, I think, I'm pretty sure, that ... that, I hit on my own sister back in 1990! I know, it's crazy - you're crazy man, but I like you.

Well, thank God she turned me down.

So last night, my sister and I had a "reunion" at the R&C because we knew that Don had returned. Don had no idea my sister and I were such, and when we told him our story, he started playing "We Are Family". Then he played the old classics where he'd change the lyrics for more hilarity - "...and the microphone smells like a scotch...", etc.

So my critique today of the Rose n Crown (aka "Frozen Clown" after a few pints) is this: The bar prices are about $1 more than they need to be, but the food is good. They renovated it since last time I was there - now it's very open and a bit more modern. No dart boards anymore, but a neat private room with a pull down screen for presentations, etc. There are several snugs to give it that old English pub feel. The fireplace is still there and the bar is open rounded style - very chic.

But again, there were some old faces -- remants of the "All Virgin Choir" and good ol' Don tickling the ivories. Even the Edmonton Police Piper and Drum band were there. That was cool. Seeing Don play again and hearing the old songs is what makes the Clown that fun, entertaining place it is. Don said to me last night that he kept playing after payroll (without pay) because there were people still having a great time, dancing, and singing. He said especially with all these hospitality people, you want them to remember and return. He's a true ambassador for Edmonton.

So balancing all this out, Snak gives the Frozen Clown Downtown with Don, 4.37 fists out of 5. Without Don, it's like a 2.435.

Don Johnson plays at the Rose and Crown from Tuesday through Friday every week. He plays a mean harmonica as well.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review - "Ray"

2004-12-01T09:33:00.000-07:00

I totally forgot to review this. "Ray" starring Jamie Fox is an excellent movie. The acting, the passion, the story, and the music are top notch. While a bit long (2.5 hours) you do get the feel of his long life. There were no points in the movie that did not add to the plot - in fact, there were certain elements of his life that were missing - his teenage years, his mother's death, and his growth as an amazing piano player (which was likely while a teenager). They do show him learning piano when he was about 6 being taught by a local man at the drug store in his town. I loved that part - reminded me of me at that age.

Starting from his southern roots as a child who lived with his determined mother and younger brother, throughout the movie Ray often has inspirational flashbacks to his childhood -- the time he could see up until 7 years of age. These are the parts of the movie I really enjoyed; the child actors here are what cap the movie - they were adorably excellent and believable. He draws on his mother's advice and strong words of wisdom in these flashbacks - it's very touching.

Ray Charles Robinson lived the typical life of a talented musician constantly on the road - sex, drugs (lots), cheating, run ins with the law, but he gave the world a variety of music styles and combinations that are still admired but not perfectly imitated today. Early in his career, people used and abused his talents for their own gain, which he himself would repeat later in life against the people that helped him get to the top - typical Americanism.

Jamie Foxx is not only believable as Ray Charles, there are many moments when you truly feel Ray is alive again (he actually passed away just after the movie was completed and before it was released). Foxx's method acting, by literally having his eyes glued shut for months, worked. I hope he wins an award for it. The supporting cast is fantastic - lots of personal relationships.

This is one of the most inspirational movies I have ever seen and I highly recommend you see it soon.

Snak gives it 4.73 fists out of 5.

Time To Go...

2004-11-30T10:29:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are at that sad state of events that proves that people are so stubborn that everyone loses. Effective now, I will be unable to communicate due to an ongoing labor dispute that has no sign of slowing down. I would love to vent my frustration with this situation, but I am so frustrated I am quite literally speechless. Those of you who know me well know exactly what I'm talking about. For the time being, therefore, signing off.

Snak's Intermittent Movie Review

2004-11-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

"The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
Starring Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Tom Wilkinson, Froto ("Tofu") Baggins

Recently seen on DVD, this movie is not like other movies you may have seen, except perhaps "Momento" and "Being John Malkovich" because the main story thread is sometimes difficult, yet fun, to find since you really have to pay attention when watching it, and surprisingly, when you eventually understand what's going on inside Joel's (Carrey's) mind as it's being erased, you get caught up in it and get to really experience the deep feelings portrayed by an outstanding performance from both Carrey and Winslet who in the movie play a strange lonely couple.

If you thought that last sentence was a run-on one, then you'll get the idea of what to expect in this movie. It took me a while to figure out what was really going on, and I never felt my intelligence was insulted, which sadly happens in a lot of movies, so snaky gives it 4.4 fists out of 5. There were a few plot lines that didn't seem to go anywhere.

Oh, and watch out for Froto. He acts more like Gollum in this one though.

Ranking Pink Floyd

2004-11-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

PINK FLOYD

1. The Wall (1979) - arguably one of the best albums by any band, anywhere, anytime. This album is Roger Waters at the absolute peak of his abilities as a songwriter and lyricist. The moving and often sinister story of a man whose isolation from the world around him is causing a catastrophic mental breakdown is told in such a poignant manner that everyone can relate to "Pink" on at least one level. Pink's ultimate exposure and the tearing down of the "wall" he has built to protect himself from the world leaves him frightened and vulnerable...hey, we all feel like that sometimes. Tracks like "Comfortably Numb", "Run Like Hell" and "The Thin Ice" are major standouts and I'm grateful that Waters has given us an album that is so good that generations to come will fall in love with this band.

2. Dark Side of the Moon (1973) - Even though this was Pink Floyd's 8th studio release (I haven't included the "Relics" compilation album), this is their breakthrough. This what made them great and it continues to be one of the all time greatest albums, ever! The theme driving the album, "things that make people crazy" are explored musically in such a way as they range from being beautifully subtle ("Any Colour You Like") to raucous and rockin (Money). This album shows all four members of the band at their creative best, with all of them contributing to the album (the last time this would ever happen). There is a reason why it is one of the world's top selling albums, and there it should stay....

3. Wish You Were Here (1975) - This dark look at the music industry's impact on the artist is as much a homage to former frontman Roger "Syd" Barrett as it is a look at the now-successful Floyd's struggle with stardom. In "Shine on You Crazy Diamond", David Gilmour actually makes his guitar appear to cry, while Rick Wright's amazing keyboards hover just underneath the surface. With this album, Pink Floyd masters the idea of the concept album. Again, a real musical jewel that has, and will continue to stand the test of time.

4. The Final Cut (1983) - Despised by many offical fun club magazines, this album is probably the quietest and most subtle of all the bands albums. The album's strong lyrical content does overshadow the music considerably, but the anti-war message that Roger Waters is bringing to the audience is so powerful that anyone with a soul and a conscience cannot help but be deeply moved by this album. The fact that Waters uses the 1982 Falkland Islands incident as the backdrop for this album, strengthens it by giving it political relevance for the time it was released. This album also proved to be Waters' last album as a member of Pink Floyd.

5. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (1967) - This is the first Pink Floyd album and still one of the best. Although it is very different from the classic Floyd of the seventies, it takes listeners on a bizarre journey to the surreal, led by the by-now cracking up madcap character of former frontman Syd Barrett. Barrett's improvisational style of guitar playing and his innovative use of studio equipment have made him one of music's greatest tragedies. Sadly, besides this album, not much of Barrett's work is easily available. Besides, what is available turns out to be nothing more than listening to a man slide further and further into insanity. This is Barrett as his functional best.

6. Animals (1977) - A complex concept album in its own right, this one clearly shows Roger Waters as the dominant force in Pink Floyd. He has almost complete control here, and the results are still pretty good. "Pigs" is the definate standout, where Waters angry political rhetoric is tested, later to be refined for "The Final Cut". This is also the last time we get to see the band in all of their complex musical glory. After this album, the lyrics start to take oveer. This one still has the long solos and the really, really interesting sounds that accompany them.

7. A Saucerful of Secrets (1968) - A very psychedelic album, this one echoes of Syd Barrett, recently fired from the band. It's strange, bizarre, but still absolutely enthralling to listen to. "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" is one of Roger Waters' best early songs and remains a classic.

8. The Division Bell (1994) - This last entry into the Pink Floyd repetoire sees Rick Wright and David Gilmour FINALLY writing together again. Tracks like "Keep Talking" and "Take It Back" were instant rock radio hits and proved that Pink Floyd was still a force to be reckonned with. While the lyrics are sometimes weak, the soul searching feeling in Dave GIlmour's guitar solos make this album one worth listening to. It is also the album that spawned "Marooned", the instrumental track for which Pink Floyd won its only Grammy award. But then again, who cares. Awards are bunk.

9. Meddle (1971) - This one's great for one reason: "Echoes". It's almost twenty five minutes long and it remains THE early classic by the band. "Fearless" and the instrumental "One of These Days" are also absolutely fantastic tracks - so good that the remainign three tracks on the album, "A Pillow of Winds", "San Tropez" and "Seamus" can be easily overlooked

10. A Momentary Lapse of Reason (1987) - If this album accomplishes anything, it proves that Roger Waters was NOT THE BAND. Here David Gilmour is forced to step up to the plate and he does so admirably. Though the album does lag in certain places, it also features some fantastic cuts, such as "Learning to Fly" and "On The Turning Away". This album proves that Pink Floyd are survivors. They weathered the storm of Waters' departure and all the ensuing legal hullabaloo and returned with a truly good album.

11. Obscured by Clouds (1972) - This album is notable for the Dave GIlmour guitar sound. THis is where he masters the art of soloing that would become so much a part of the bands sound in the 70s. Lots of instrumental work here and the standout cut "Free Four" make this album worth a listen or ten thousand.

12. More (1969) - The first of two Floyd albums that year, this one is not very strong. There is some good work by Gilmour on the album, and Waters is clearly learning how to write lyrics, but the band still has a way to go at this point in their career.

13. Atom Heart Mother (1970) - While I believe that experimental albums are good and worthy, there is such thing as going too far. Sadly, Pink Floyd does just that on this album. The horn sections that ultimately become muted add to this albums apparent lack of any real direction. Essentially, it is Pink Floyd figuring out what they're capable of. The one good thing is that the lessons learned on this album clearly result in the creation of "Echoes", one of the most well written Pink Floyd songs, appearing on the next album.

14. Ummagumma (1969) - Simply put, this is Pink Floyd scraping the bottom of the barrell. If there is an album they should be ashamed of, this is it. The term "Ummagumma" is slang for "fucking around" and that's clearly what they are doing on this album. It is very self indulgent and almost pompous. It belongs in a fan's collection only to complete it. Otherwise, it makes a good coaster.

Coming soon...ranking Depeche Mode (I just gotta)

Ranking TWO bands.....

2004-11-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Ranking Blue Rodeo Albums

2004-11-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Okay Boobie, if you're gonna do Floyd (which you're fully qualified for), I must provide my take on another one of Canada's most underrated bands. As I told Jim Cuddy one night, "I think you and Greg are the greatest songwriters -- you're like the Lennon and McCartney of Canada." Jim said, "Oh, thank you very much." A nice guy all around. Here we go...

1. Five Days in July (1993) - I think everybody agrees with this one. This is my deserted island album and the one I MUST listen to whilst driving to Jasper. Why? Because there's a road sign on the way that says "<-- Cynthia 23km" and in Jasper you can visit "Pyramid Lake with you". The greatest song ever is on this album: "Hasn't Hit Me Yet" plus many more wonderfully written, simply produced, and beautifully sung songs like "Bad Timing". Cameos by Sarah Maclaughlin, especially the acapella with Greg on "Know Where You Go/Tell Me Your Dream" are the icing on the cake. Nice to hear some piano on its own in "Dark Angel". This is the kind of album you want to sit in a chair in the shallow water of a lake while watching the sun go down (kind of like the album cover). I can't say enough about this album. It is a must own for anyone. In case you didn't notice, but the drummer never uses drumsticks, just brushes adding to a softer feel. Lots of harmonica which gives it an earthy feel and Greg's softer singing makes the album border on country-celtic music without actually going there. That's exactly what Blue Rodeo is - their own category and this album defines them perfectly.

2. The Days in Between (2000) - Break out the telecaster and the drumsticks! I love the melodies and vocals on this album - "The Seeker", "Andrea", "Always Getting Better", and "Rage" are examples of this. Blue Rodeo are masters at providing a variety of styles of music and this album is no exception. Songs such as "This Road" and "Bitter Fruit" sung by Greg once again are awesome while driving.

3. Palace of Gold (2002) - Break out the horn section! Just an awesome album overall with all sorts of styles - "Cause for Sympathy" and "What A Surprise" are reminiscent of some good old early 1970's AM radio tunes that you'd listen to while driving through Roger's Pass - just some nice reverb hall sound coupled with a mini symphony and staccatto trumpets makes that all happen. "Bulletproof" is one of Cuddy and Keelor's best written songs with a nicely placed augmented seventh chord.

4. Tremolo (1997) - After a couple listens at work, I fell in love with this album. A really gentle album - I can put it on and just sit back, relax, and sing alone. These songs are great for driving to Wainwright - lots of cows and sheep along the way.

5. Casino (1991) - This album shows off Jim's singing really well - especially on "After The Rain". "Trust Yourself" is the best song and has one of the best intros of a song ever. Lots of fun harmonica on this album.

6. Nowhere To Here (1995) - The album starts of slowly with two dark and long Greg songs, but after travelling through this deep forest of lament, you reach a meadow of song reaping with humble regret, frustration, yet hope - "What You Want", "Better Off As We Are", "Blew it Again", and "Get Through To You" indicate deep feelings in Jim and Greg. A very passionate album.

7. Lost Together (1992) - Another fun album similar to Casino. Best listened to with good friends and many beers - "Already Gone", "Lost Together", "Rain Down On Me", "Restless", "Where Are You Now", "Willin' Fool" are excellent examples of this.

8. Outskirts (1986) - "Rose Coloured Glasses" and "Try" are still two excellent songs that will stand the test of time. Other songs hold up pretty well, but "Try" is what made Blue Rodeo in the first place.

9. Diamond Mine (1989) - The title track is actually one of my favourite Blue Rodeo songs, with a Doors-type feel it's got tonnes of passion. "You say that you don't love me ... you talk about the other boys and you laugh in my face." Ouch! The rest of the album isn't really Blue Rodeo to me - more like Malcolm Burn the producer, and seems to ride coat tales of the title track.

Ranking Bruce

2004-11-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Since Snak gets to rank the Rush albums, I am hereby going to rank the albums of Bruce Springsteen. Why? Cuz I can.

1. Born To Run (1975) - this is the one he's best known for and its easy to see why. He made the plight of the average blue collar individual poetry and gave people hope in a time of Vietnam and Watergate.

2. The Rising (2002) - The Boss was back with a vengeance. The energy and passion on the album is what puts it so close to the top. It proves that straight ahead, old school rock and roll is still fun.

3. The River (1980) - Bruce's only double studio album, it contains his first top ten hit ("Hungry Heart"). It's an album full of searching and longing for something better and we're lucky to have it.

4. Nebraska (1982) - Bruce's quiet, acoustic album is filled with sad stories of American reality. "Johnny 99" and "Atlantic City" are still major fan favorites.

5. Darkness on the Edge of Town (1978) - Picks up where Born To Run leaves off - not quite as inspirational, but still a great rockin' album. "Badlands" is one my all time faves.

6. Tunnel of Love (1987) - Not really even a rock album, its definately a kinder, gentler Bruce. But it is different, and that's what makes it good.

7. Born In The U.S.A. (1984) - With all its major hit singles, this album's lots of fun. Fun, fun, fun.

8. The Wild, The Innocent And The E Street Shuffle (1973) - Bruce's second album of that year it good because it shows the beginnings of a real maturation in his ability to write songs that speak to people on a personal level. "Rosalita" kicks ass.

9. Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ (1973) - The first Springsteen album. Listening to it, no wonder the record company execs tried to sell Bruce as the next Bob Dylan. Quite good.

10. Lucky Town (1992) - No E Street Band, and you can tell. Not a great album by any stretch, but it has some good tunes and it's better than Human Touch

11. Human Touch (1992) - Ok...this one borders on garbage. Cheezy, poorly written, and ultimately boring. Well, I guess nobody's perfect.

12. The Ghost of Tom Joad (1995) - Bruce, you've already made Nebraska. Trying to remake something that worked once does not necessarily mean it'll work again. This album is a case in point.

I know that many reading this may not be fans, but if you're curious about the music, there you go. Next time, Pink Floyd.

Ranking the Rush albums...

2004-11-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

Rush is the most successful and talented Canadian rock band ever. They've been around so long and pumped out so many albums, I thought I'd rank and review them for you.

1. Moving Pictures (1981) - Even Neil Peart says this was the pinnacle album. “The Camera Eye” rules - even my dad liked it when he heard it. The album has everything you want - even a mob of drunken people chatting outside the studio in the cold (beginning of Witch Hunt). Crenching lyrics: "The night is black without a moon. The air is thick and still."

2. 2112 (1976) - This epic song, "2112", is divided into parts and tells the story of a man who rebels against an oppressive regime using music. A futuristic adventure plus many other great tunes from hard rock to subtle ballads. This album exploded Rush into the U.S. market.

3. Permanent Waves (1980) - Two tunes make the album awesome and truly Rush: "Jacob's Ladder" and "Natural Science". Of course, "Spirit of the Radio" and "Freewill" are the popular ones, but that's the beauty of Rush, usually their singles aren't the best songs on the album.

4. Hemispheres (1978) - Another album with an epic song of the album title. This continues the song of the story of blackhole of Cygnus X-1 - along with the telling of Greek gods. "La Villa Strangiatto" is the greatest rock instrumental of all time. And like Ricky says "I don't fucking understand Bubble's obsession with Rush. Fucking trees are talkin' to each other. Now Helix - 'Rock You' - that's something I can identify with."

5. Counterparts (1993) - Just a full prog rock album. The band returns to a harder edge and Neil is on fire.

6. Vapor Trails (2002) - Heaviest album. Neil is back after a 5 year hiatus riding his motorbike all over North America after his daughter and wife died. He gets fucking angry with his drumming and lyrics - especially in Ghost Rider - "Pack up all those phantoms..."

7. Presto (1989) - This is the album that got me hooked on Rush. Phonics too. A well produced album with a variety of songs. Many singles off this one.

8. Signals (1982) - Keyboard time - classic new wave '80s. I like the keyboards and can play every song on album.

9. Grace Under Pressure (1984) - Again, lots of keyboards combined with grooving bass lines. Neil goes nuts on electric drums -

10. Farewell To Kings (1977) - Any album that has a song about a black hole ("Cygnus X-1") has to be good. Bubbles' favourite song is on this one too ("Closer to the Heart"), but "Madrigal" has got to go.

11. Fly By Night (1975) - An unofficial Lord of the Rings soundtrack. "By-Tor and the Snow Dog" make the album good.

12. Power Windows - (1985) - It's sequencer time! Perhaps too much sequencer.

13. Roll the Bones (1991) - Rap shit sucks ass, but the rest is a pretty good listen.

14. Hold Your Fire (1987) - Still a lot of keyboards. "Mystic Rhythms" video shows Neil's 360 degree drum set from above. Cool.

15. Test for Echo (1996) - Some songs just don't do it for me. No passion on this album. Songs could be faster and have more groove.

16. Caress of Steel (1975) - With a song called "The Necromancer" you know it's gonna be neat. The band really experiments with epic style song structures and writing.

17. Rush (1974) - "Working Man" is the theme of all theme songs. Still heard on the radio, but I never listen to it at home. No Neil Peart, so it's at the bottom.

If you haven't seen the DVD "Rush in Rio" you must. All the fans in Brazil knew all the lyrics.

My first Top 20 List

2004-11-25T10:47:00.001-07:00

From time to time, I will (because I can) post a Top 10 or Top 20 list of some type. Why? I'm bored and have no life. Here's the first one:

THE TOP 20 MOVIES OF ALL TIME

(these are in no particular ranked order)

1. STAR WARS
For 1977, SO far ahead of its time - it was nice that movies were fun again

2. THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK
Easily the best of the STAR WARS films to date, and I don't think Episode III can top it.

3. SCHINDLER's LIST
Spielberg's most personal film and his best work as a director. The fact that its in black and white also adds to the overall emotion of the film

4. ALIEN
Possibly one of the best films by a first-time director ever. Also, it's JAWS in space. Cool.

5. THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
In the genre of prison based films, this one easily stands alone. Brilliant acting, directing and it proves that Stephen King CAN write when he really, really tries.

6. EDWARD SCISSORHANDS
Tim Burton's best work. A film that teaches a valuable lesson about tolerance and acceptance.

7. THE GODFATHER
I'm gonna make him an offer he won't refuse. Need I say more?

8. APOCALYPSE NOW
Anyone who can't appreciate the depth and scope of this film knows nothing about filmmaking whatsoever. Am I being pompous? You bet.

9. SUPERMAN
Who didn't LOVE this movie as a kid? Still just as much fun, even though when you reach the age of reason, you realize how cheezy it is.

10. LOVE STORY
It's sweet, simple, and the most romantic movie ever made.

11. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY
The greatest western ever made. Long live the spaghetti western.

12. AMERICAN HISTORY X
While Tim Burton may try to teach tolerance in a "cute" way with Edward, this one drives the idea home like a stake through the heart. Ed Norton should have won an Oscar.

13. THE VILLAGE
Why this one? Cuz it's Night's best film. More plot twists, more going on in general, and real feast for the eyes.

14. LORD OF THE RINGS, THE TRILOGY
It was made as one movie, so I count it as one movie. All I can say is: Wow.

15. THE MATRIX
Screw the sequels. This one is the best. Fantastic writing and phenominal special effects make this a movie that people will be talking about for a hundred years.

16. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
Maybe not Kubrick's best, but he deserves to be on the list. Without this film, ALIEN and STAR WARS quite possibly would never have been. Probably the SMARTEST science fiction film ever made.

17. THE EXORCIST
Labelled the scariest movie of all time, and if you put yourself in a time machine and pretend you're watching it in 1973, you'll poop yourself.

18. THE TERMINATOR
For a low budget action film, it actually has brains. This was back when James Cameron still knew how to write. Let the TITANIC sink, already.

19. ROCKY
Wow. An inspirational film that acutally inspires! And made for less than one million dollars. Not bad.

20. GANDHI
The best biographical film ever made. Why? Because they got it right.

Thank you for allowing my self indulgence.

World's Shortest Movie Review (aka: Boobie's Weekly Movie Review, volume 3

2004-11-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW...

It feels like it's still going to be playing the day after tomorrow....please let it end....run screaming as far as you can from this piece of self-indulgent schlock. While the premise and the special effects may be good, it drags on so long that a two hour experience feels like the onset of the end of time. Somebody please give Dennis Quaid a good script. After this, THE ALAMO and that other ridiculous film he recently did, I'm starting to feel genuinely sorry for him and suggest he find a better agent. THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW sucks. Yuk.

Things that make me gag

2004-11-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd take some time this morning (while the kids are quietly reading) to indulge myself in a little written rant. So here goes...

You know what makes me mad?

People who are constantly LATE for everything...get a fucking watch already
People who constantly interrupt others (yes, it even aggravates me when I do it, and I do it often)
Racists (how can you respect others when you obviously don't respect yourself, you knuckle-dragging bottom feeder)
People who prey on the weak (both physically and mentally) - to quote PULP FICTION, I'd like to spend time alone with you with a pair of plyers and a blowtorch - I'm gonna get mideival on your ass
People who watch so much fucking television that they've become totally desensitized to the world around them - grab a brain, you lifeless, souless moron!
Intolerance of other cultures - and the Dutch (sorry, bad AUSTIN POWERS joke)
Seriously, intolerance sucks - do you think you're better than me because you have a fucking Texas flag fluttering in the breeze? Loser!
Gay bashers - hey, they're people, too and probably more human than you are, you senseless twit!

I say, the world has become such an intolerant place that we are forgetting just how much beauty we are fucking up. Even though I rant, I am not a hateful person. I hate people's ACTIONS. It's time to stop destroying ourselves and remember how lucky we really are to be living in a country that does NOT make war, where we have freedom, and where tolerance and acceptance are supposed to be the norm. Give a little more and take a little less, and we will all be the better for it. For those of you about to brand me a bleeding heart liberal, refer to the PULP FICTION reference.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I can actually face the average high school student. Man, they are becoming more frigging ignorant every year.