Root Canals and Passing Friends...

The last few days have been frustrating. Firstly I found out that a friend of mine had passed away, and secondly my root canal from a year ago is continuing to cause me grief.

My friend Shane Mack passed away a few days ago. He was an interesting fellow. Punk rocker, doorman, drinking buddy, tattoo artist and devout worshipper at the church of Hunter S. Thompson and raving lunatic are just a few of the things that he was.

He was also at his core, a really decent person. The last time I saw him he was making a concentrated effort to change his life. I was totally startled to hear about his death. (As most people are I suppose…)

I will miss him. His antics and hair-brained schemes were always entertaining to me. I hope there is a heaven, because he deserves it.

As for the root canal, I lost the filling. So I went in to get it looked at, only to find out that I have a cyst and that the tooth will have to be removed. That sucks. Just what I needed, expensive dental surgery. Whoopee… sign me up.

Anyway enough of my bitching…

End of Transmission.

Up coming gigs

Well… So far the “My Space” experiment is going well. I’m still not sure how useful it will be, especially given the amount of effort required. I’m still not overly convinced that it’s as good a tool as it could be, but hey every little bit helps.

I have a slew of gigs coming up pretty quickly...

Sylvan Lake – July 27 (with Paul Sveen and Scott Dumas) 8:00 pm

Saskatoon - Aug 11 (with Bob “The Showman” Chomyn) 8:00pm At the Parktown

Regina – Aug 12 (with Bob again…) @ the Ramada 8:00pm

Calgary - Aug 17-19 (with TBA…) @ Yuk Yuks 8pm & 10:30 on Saturday. 8pm Thursday and Friday.

The Dread Pirate Al Gore

I went to see a couple of movies on the weekend. The first of which was the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” It was great. Al Gore should be commended for it. The subject matter was approached in a simple enough manner that it never files above your head, and yet at no point is it insulting to the lowest common denominator.

Gore is eloquent, and manages to deliver the goods with a little southern charm to sugar the weight of the subject matter. The information provided to the viewer was as shocking as it was terrifying. I could see others around me in the theatre looking uncomfortable. . I left the theatre feeling angry ashamed and hopeful. This film did its job.

I was left thinking that it was really too bad that this man didn’t become President of the United States. The world would have been better off for it.

The other movie was “Pirates of The Caribbean – The Dead Man’s Chest.” This one is a renter. The pacing is clumsy, and there are too many plot points unraveling at once. Depp does an okay job, but I’ve noticed that Jack Sparrow is a lot less interesting the second time out. The character is a little tired. Perhaps it’s because it really lacks depth.

It is apparent that this episode was supposed to be more of a character exposition, and ironically that’s where it falls down. This is not a fun film, but it could have been.

Horse Jumping Super Soldiers

Saturday I went to Spruce Meadows, which in one of Calgary’s premier attractions. In show jumping circles, this place is about the best there is. The park itself is jaw dropping in its complexity and in its beauty.

It was a nice warm day, (one might say lovely even…) and I did a lot of walking about. I must have walked about 6 miles. I didn’t get to see much of the horse jumping, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The lush green spaces and carnival atmosphere were fun to take in. (The only real drawback being the mounds of horseshit that you had to dodge with remarkable regularity…) It’s a nice place to go and escape some of the throng of the Stampede.

I did feel a little out of place there though. I’m used to rolling with the Timex set, and this place is very much a Rolex kinda thing.

The Military had set up an exhibit of sorts on the grounds. (Apparently it was “salute to the military day”… or something like that…) They brought a couple of tanks and other dangerous looking things with big guns on them. (You know… for the kids…) I chatted with a couple of the soldiers. They were pretty cool for the most part.

I was peeking inside a Coyote recon vehicle (Which is the kinda of vehicle that makes off road enthusiasts cream their jeans…) and I looked up, and there was General Rick Hillier. He’s the head of the Canadian military. He was talking to the troops in a cool and casual fashion.

“You’re not one of my guys are you?” He said…

“Um no…” as I looked around sheepishly.

“Oh… I’m Rick…”

“Oh yeah… yer the Grand Poobah of the army right?”

“That’s me… The chief cook and bottle washer…” and he extended his hand.

I was amazed that he played along. He really didn’t seem like a General. Mind you, he was the first one I have ever met. (Movies and TV always make them out to be so… Army ish…) I shook his hand, and he returned his attention to the troops.

Apparently this is the year for me to meet really cool people. I wonder who’s next?

Some New Pictures of Calgary

These first three pics are from the Stampede parade that happend this morning. It usually draws about 200,000 people. It's kinda hokey, but it's also lots of fun.


There are two types of Calgarians. Those who love the Stampede and those that don't. Strange as it may seem I love it. Calgary gets the stick out of it's ass for 10 days. Hey... I'll take what I can get.


I was like a kid again. I used to love going to the parade with my family. I had a rush of really good memories this morning.




This picture couldn't be any more telling. Mc Shittys will kill you!(Mind you, one of the drug dealers that hangs out there could have gotten stabed or something... Either way this place is bad for your health.)


I bet John Lennon is rolling in his grave. This is so shabby!

Grrrrrrrrr...

It’s late on Sunday. I’m so tired and yet I cannot close my eyes. I have been tossing and turning for about an hour or so. I hate this. Just once in a while I’d like to be able to conk out without having to deprive myself.

It really makes me miserable. Perhaps I should hit myself in the head with a hammer. It might do more good than help me sleep too.

Fuck you sandman. Fuck you for forgetting about me. I’m not asking for a coma, just a normal nights sleep. Hell I’d even settle for 5 hours. Is that too much to ask for?

Happy Canada Day!!!

Happy Canada Day!!!

Here are some interesting Canadian social statistics. (According to a study done by MacLean’s magazine.)

31 percent of Canadians distrust the police. Interesting enough the same percentage are uneasy about Born again Christians. (I would love to do a cross tabulation to see if it’s the same 31 percent…)

40 percent of Canadians see no problem with gay adoption.

62 percent of the populace believes in angels. (Likely the most popular interpretation of angel is the “pretty Irish girl” type from that TV show… I’m less inclined to think the people think about the type of angel that fucked Sodom and Gomorrah’s shit up!)

65 percent believe in Heaven. Only 48 percent believe in hell…

63 percent believe that recreational use of marijuana is okay. (Maybe that’s where the angels come from… I see shit sometimes myself…)

One a similar note, 57 percent of us believes in ESP and psychic powers. Nearly a third are convinced we can communicate with the dead. (Gimme some of that weed…)

49 percent think that there should be an outright ban on porn.

Nearly 75 percent disagree with this statement: We should worry about Canada and let the rest of the world take care of itself. (I think that’s pretty damn cool.)

Up Up And Away...

“I'm gonna knock down every wall (I find)
gonna spit out bullets
gonna be a hero (the super kind)
can you dig it?
Cause someone needs to clean things up
before things get much worse…” – Superman by Down By Law.

I went to see Superman Returns on Thursday night. It was exactly what the doctor ordered. I had been feeling a little run down, and seeing the man of steel back in action really recharged my batteries.

I thought it was really well done. It had great effects, and decent casting, with the notable exception of the “Lois” character, which fell kinda flat. Kevin Spacey on the other hand, makes a great “Lex Luther.” You could almost call him Saintly evil. (If evil had it’s own set of “Saints” I guess…)

Singer did a great job with the story too. There was less of the hokey “Golly Gee Whiz” stuff and more grit, but it never had to sacrifice any of the humour in the process.

Since I was a kid, I have believed that comics are a near perfect blend of morality tales and mythology. I think we can learn a lot from them. Few things in popular culture hold as steadfast when it comes to stories of definitively right vs. definitively wrong. In comics, it gets laid out for the reader in black and white. Rarely can you mistake it’s message. Marshall McLuhan might be inclined to argue they are the perfect medium. (Because he asserts that the message is the media…)

But perhaps in a way, that’s also where they fall down. There is no subtext to chew over. With so little for the left-brain to process, they become too preachy and stale. (Well for some anyway… it is just a theory after all…) One could argue that they tend to hit you over the head with the message.

It is however difficult not to see them as a mythology. The varied pantheons of Gods and Goddesses from the ancient word are really no different than these modern characters. Hercules and Superman have a lot in common, and not just on the surface. Both are flawed in some fashion, both come from Gods in their own right, and more specifically both were created by humans to teach us something about ourselves.

In the movie, Lois Lane gets a Pulitzer Prize for writing an article titled “Does the world really need Superman?” It’s not too difficult to imagine a point when Greek society asked the same question about their own Gods.

I realize that I’m talking about a fictitious character(s), but I pretty sure I’m not the only one who has ever wished there was a Superman, and more importantly wondered what life would be like if we had such a fantastic protector.

If nothing else, I would argue that this world could really use a Superman. He would be useful to us even If his only purpose were to remind us of one fairly heady and important notion.

“Only when we are no longer afraid, do we begin to live!”

Somewhere along the way our society forgot that. It wasn’t terrorism that made us forget. Nor was it tragedy or religious differences either. Those were just symptoms of the problem. We were told to be afraid and we bought it.

Mind you it was an easy sell. Being bombarded with negative messages that fester in the conscience made us a brilliant tool to be manipulated.

Superman also teaches us another important lesson. Humanity has great potential, but they way we are now demonstrates very little of that.

To bad eh? Maybe if we can asuage our fears, we might see that potential one day.