For Earth Day: Don’t Panic (maybe)

April 21, 2003

’If you would care,’ said the girl with the strident voice, ‘to examine the agenda sheet…’ ‘Agenda rock,’ trilled the hairdresser happily. ‘Thank you, I’ve made that point,’ muttered Ford. ‘…you ….will …see …’ continued the girl firmly, ‘that we are having a report from the hairdressers’ Fire Development Sub-Committee today.’ (…) ‘Alright,’ said Ford, […]

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Pretty to look at, pretty stupid

April 20, 2003

A while ago, I wrote a piece comparing Eric Blumrich’s animations to Gericault’s 19th century painting, The Raft of the Medusa. But if there’s a modern-day Gericault, there has to be a modern day Bouguereau: he was one of mid-19th century Paris’s el painters supremo, extremely talented and much revered and hyped by the ruling […]

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HaidaBucks in Seattle newspaper

April 19, 2003

Quick update on the scuffle that Starbucks is instigating against HaidaBucks. Click on title article for a link to an April 16 Seattle Post Intelligencer article. The Vancouver Sun had noted that HaidaBucks serves Seattle’s Best Coffee, a Starbucks rival, but the Post Intelligencer reports that on the 16th Starbucks bought that company. It kind […]

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Spinning a democratized Middle East

April 18, 2003

David Olive has a great column in the April 13 Toronto Star that explains how “Not since Vietnam has mendacity so thoroughly characterized both the goals and methods of U.S. foreign policy.” He covers a lot of ground, including a comparison of administration rhetoric to reality. Colin Powell, for example, recently asserted that the US […]

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Abundant Play Dates: Can the Games Begin?

April 18, 2003

Walking at the beach today, a frisky, playful dog I mistook for a puppy jumped all over Jigger, my Cairn terrier, and the two spontaneously struck up a playdate. This happens all the time in the mile-long stretch of Dallas Road that is Victoria’s official off-leash area (there are many unofficial ones). It turned out, […]

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Free (unpaid) labour – free speech = new economy

April 18, 2003

AlterNet has a transcript of the speech Tom Robbins gave a couple of days ago (April 15th) to the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Robbins’s emphasis is on the loss of civil liberties within the US, the dumbing down of the political stakes and rhetoric, the climate of fear this has created amongst the […]

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I hope nomen est omen not

April 17, 2003

In the holiday spirit, I thought I’d share something that has left me feeling rather puzzled and with a bit of an odd sense of discomfort. Some months ago I searched the web to find information about the origin of my surname. I always found it funny that it’s a Dutch word that means “trouble,” […]

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“Bucks? Bucks? What is he talking about?”

April 16, 2003

Thus spoke Mrs. Bullock in My Man Godfrey. Godfrey, a “forgotten man,” had been brought to a fancy dress scavenger hunt as a trophy find by Mrs. Bullock’s daughter Irene, even as her sister Cornelia brought a rival “forgotten man” who was demanding to be paid, in bucks. Godfrey becomes the Bullocks’ butler, then leaves […]

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Funkadelia for the huis clos blues

April 15, 2003

I am so happy as I sit here and listen to Shuggie Otis for the 2nd or 3rd time in a row. I don’t quite know why his music makes me feel so good, but it does. It brings back to me all the best aspects of the 70s (if you can imagine that!), of […]

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What’s wrong with Bush’s “dissing” of Canada?

April 15, 2003

Read this article in today’s Globe & Mail (Toronto) to learn why “in cancelling his [scheduled for May 5 to Ottawa] visit, Mr. Bush is not just dissing Canada. He’s also implicitly negating the importance of his own economy. He’s once again telling the world — as he did by imposing tariffs on European steel, […]

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