I’m sitting in Fran’s and looking across the street at Massey Hall. The signs outside show that three of the upcoming acts are Gordon Lightfoot, George Thorogood and Emmylou Harris. There’s a good chance that same lineup is in my dad’s stereo at any given point.
[tags]gordon lightfoot,george thorogood,emmylou harris,massey hall[/tags]
From the Quill & Quire’s blog: Mommy’s New Rack.
In the latest sign of the impending apocalypse, ABC News has posted a story about a new children’s book called My Beautiful Mommy, written by the Florida-based plastic surgeon Dr. Michael Salzhauer. The book is an attempt to explain (and to justify) plastic surgery to children.
My soul…it weeps.
“Why are you going to look different?” asks the daughter of her mother in the car ride back from the doctor’s office.
“Not just different, my dear — prettier!” exclaims the mother.
On the outside, maybe.
Actually, not even then. The wonder that is high definition has made it very clear which actors and actresses have had work done, and it just never looks good. Latest exhibit: Mary McDonnell, who’s acquired a Joker-grade rictus for season four of BSG.
[tags]plastic surgery, mary mcdonnell[/tags]
I cannot stop listening to “Floating In The Forth” by Frightened Rabbit. It’s just the kind of lovely, warming song (odd, because it’s kind of about suicide) that makes me want to cry and smile and quit my job and sell everything I own and lie in a field with headphones and sun and listen to it over and over and over again.
I know, because of the way I consume music, that by next week I’ll have moved on to something else. But I’ll come back. And, right now, it’s perfect.
[tags]frightened rabbit, floating in the forth[/tags]
Love affair of the day: The Midnight Organ Fight, the latest album from Frightened Rabbit. I loved this one right from the jump, right from song one. And when song one has a title like “The Modern Leper” and it still hooks you, you know it’s good. Go, find. It’s on eMusic, I’m sure it’s on iTunes as well.
[tags]frightened rabbit, the midnight organ fight[/tags]
The statistics in this Washington Post article just baffle me:
I can offer no insight or perspective. I’m still in shock from that first number.
.:.
The Canadiens held on for a tough win tonight. That game was like a war. The Bruins forced them to play their kind of game, but a superb goalie and a good power play (which finally clicked tonight) was enough to get them the 3-1 series lead.
The Canadiens should finish them off at home Thursday night, and I soooooooo wish I could be in Montreal for it. I wouldn’t even need tickets to the game, I’d be happy just being in the city and absorbing all the energy.
Between work, the NHL playoffs, Hot Docs (which starts Thursday), my assignment and everything else, I’ve kind of forgotten about the Raptors. They’re limping into the playoffs, but will face Orlando in the first round and should have a legitimate shot if they can throw enough big men at Dwight Howard. This is the first time since 2002 that both my teams have made the playoffs in the same year. People…I only have so much attention span!!
[tags]washington post, prison, incarceration, montreal canadiens, boston bruins, toronto raptors[/tags]
From today’s Globe and Mail: Ottawa to pay farmers $50-million to slaughter hogs
In an unprecedented move, the federal government plans to pay hog farmers up to $50-million in total to slaughter as many as 150,000 breeding swine.
Farmers will receive $225 for every hog they kill, so long as they agree to wipe out their entire breeding herd and stay out of the hog business for three years. The government hopes the program will reduce a glut on the market that has helped drive down prices.
I understand that farmers tend not to be experts in economics, but any farmer so oblivious to the market in which they operate that they can’t understand “falling price + rising cost of feed = losing money” deserves to go out of business. Of course, this is the classic argument against bailouts, that they reward the stupid and non-competitive; they’re never done for economic reasons, only political. Apparently Big Pork* swings a big stick in Ottawa.
Another point: if we assume the slaughtered pigs are to be sold for meat, farmers and the government might as well brace for another price drop as 10% of the pork supply (and probably not the highest quality pork either, as I don’t think they’ll cull the best pigs) plops into supermarkets all at once. If, on the other hand, the slaughtered pigs aren’t to be sold as meat but simply done away with, that seems overly wasteful. Starving kids around the world and all that. Just give it to some food banks, for chrissakes.
* if there’s not a lobby called “Big Pork” there really ought to be
[tags]pork farmers, pig cull[/tags]
We watched Planet Terror, the first part of the Quentin Tarantino / Robert Rodriguez Grindhouse double feature. It was ok. Ridiculous, cartoonish, over-the-top violence and gore, but at least a discernible plot to go with all the silliness.
From what I’ve heard, though, Planet Terror is the better of the two, so I shudder to think how bad Death Proof must be. I don’t think I’ll bother with it. I’m so behind on movie-watching that I might have to impose a “nothing below 50% on Rotten Tomatoes” rule on the PVR.
.:.
The Canadiens won last night’s game in overtime to take a 2-0 series lead into Boston. Tonight’s game was a must-win for Boston, and they did. I figured it was 50-50 going into tonight; Montreal’s the better team, but Boston was playing for their lives.
Next up: game 4 on Tuesday.
[tags]grindhouse, planet terror, death proof, quentin tarantino, robert rodriguez, montreal canadiens, boston bruins, nhl playoffs[/tags]
It’s a very Montreal day: St. Urbain bagels for breakfast, the Canadiens game on TV tonight. Of course, that could be any Saturday, but it’s even better during the playoffs.
.:.
While I sit here and catch up on news and such from the past two days, I’ve been poking through my music inbox and seeing what’s what. I’m a little disappointed in the newest Black Keys disc Attack and Release. Part of what I loved about their previous albums was the lo-fi fuzzy blues; the new one is more advanced musically, but less interesting to me.The new R.E.M. isn’t great, but at least it has some crunch. I don’t mind it so far. (metacritic: black keys | r.e.m.)
Recently it’s stopped making sense to me that the album format even really exists anymore. Albums were really only a convenient format under which to release music; they were just groupings of singles before becoming ends unto themselves. Now that the album is no longer necessary, it’s only a matter of time before the increasing popularity of iTunes, etc. makes the album format irrelevant and we just consume individual songs, like we did 60 years ago.
.:.
We watched the season premiere of 30 Rock. Very funny. My love for Tina Fey (Girlfriend du jour!) is really getting quite alarming. It’s distressing, to be honest with you.
[tags]st-urbain bagels, montreal canadiens, black keys, r.e.m., itunes, 30 rock, tina fey[/tags]
Montreal won game one tonight, and quite easily. They take a 1-0 series lead, having won all nine games against Boston this year, and twelve straight going back to last year. In the nine games played against the Bruins this year, the Canadiens have never trailed, not even for a second. Here’s hoping they can put together three more just like this.
[tags]montreal canadiens, boston bruins[/tags]
Earlier today Dan bought a pink Hugo Boss dress shirt. Dan is:
Earlier today Dan also bought a brown Hugo Boss dress shirt. Dan is:
[tags]hugo boss, dress shirt[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 