"Parliament has better things to do than roll back the clock on equality."
Oh, hot dog. From the Globe: Gay marriage vote coming, Harper says.
“We intend to have a free vote of all MPs on this question during the life of this Parliament,” Mr. Harper told Radio-Canada. “My preference is to do this sooner rather than later, but not this spring.”
Yes, because history shows us that society often benefits from civil rights being repealed.
In which I contemplate my own navel
I saw a preview of Brick (imdb | rotten tomatoes) tonight at the Varsity. I really, really, really liked it. About the only way to describe it is a juxtaposition of noir and high school styles…like an episode of Veronica Mars starring Bogart and Lorre, written by Mamet as he wrestles Hammett to the floor.* Dialogue so dense and fast that you have to work to keep up at first, a plot that expects you to pay attention, a staggering main role played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt…yup, the kid from Third Rock From The Sun who’s become an indie hero. If you like good movies, you’ll like this. At least, you should. Get thee to a cinema.
* side note: Mamet vs. Hammett is a play just waiting to happen. You heard it here first.
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I’ve heard about this before but it’s the first time I’ve seen detail on it: NBC will be releasing 10 internet-only episodes of The Office this summer that’ll feature more of the background characters. More Kelly & Ryan!!
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Scientists claim that “Jesus may have appeared to be walking on water when he was actually floating on a thin layer of ice, formed by a rare combination of weather and water conditions on the Sea of Galilee.” Why would they bother pointing this out? People that actually believe a bearded dude named Jesus walked on water aren’t going to suddenly believe it wasn’t a miracle just because you say so, no matter how sound a theory you throw at them. You can’t reason someone out of a position they were never reasoned into.
[via]
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Sometimes I wonder why I blog. I’m not like most people who have a specific topic for their blog; I throw pretty much everything that enters my mind up here. I’ve owned single-purpose blogs before — radioDan (music & movies), skirl (general stuff that eventually became this blog), and Girlfriend Du Jour (my future wives) — but it gets to be a pain in the ass and so I consolidated the first two into this one. I still post to Girlfriend Du Jour ’cause it’s so much fun. I think being a generalist is more important, or at least more interesting, to me than going in-depth on a topic like music or movies or technology or…I don’t know, maple syrup. Whatever.
I think it has to do with how we were raised. None of my brothers or I focused on any one thing, though we were usually pretty good at a few; we were encouraged to play more than one sport, or learn more than one instrument, or read from a variety of sources. We all seemed to fit in a couple of social worlds as teenagers (at least, that’s what I remember; my brothers were basically out of high school by the time I arrived), so I could hang out with the skids or the jocks or the smart kids. I was on the basketball team, but I was also in the jazz band. I had long hair and played in a bad rock band, but I also knew more about computers than anyone in my school. I grew up on a farm but I feel at home in a city. And so on.
I think I’m still the same now. I feel like I have so many interests that I can’t keep up the way I’d like to, and it comes across in my blogging: scattershot, brief summaries of thoughts that whip through my brain. The categories over on the right are pretty much the breakdown of any given moment inside my head: music, movies, sports and the news are constants, and the hundreds of news feeds I read every day give me plenty of content. Books, food, my friends’ blogs, politics, Toronto goings-on and whatever subject I’m studying for the MBA right now are usually top of mind as well. Work keeps my mind focused on technology, especially developments in how people — the general population, not just geeks — will be using it in the next few years.
And in true Dan form I’ve forgotten why I even started writing this post. Arrrgghhhhuiworuowytwhgkfdnkf. Oop, wait, I’ve got it now: would this blog be better off if I just picked a particular topic and went with it? Or is it ok the way it is? I can tell by the stats that more than half the readers are not friends and family who just want to know what I did last night, but I wonder if my attention span could fuel (tolerate?) a single-topic blog…
OK. Bed now.
Our poor, poor planet.
It snowed all morning, and now it seems to have switched to rain. The forecast for tomorrow is sunny and 13 degrees.
On a completely unrelated note, have you seen the negative user-created Chevy Tahoe ads?
[picture & article via Real Tech News]
Muse Sick N Hour Mess Age
Reading Toronto taunts us with the idea of a high-speed Toronto-Montreal train link that could do the trip in an hour. I’d go for that, especially since we’re facing a half-hour taxi ride and an hour wait in the airport this coming weekend for a flight that only last 75 minutes. If you get it down to an hour, or even two hours, it’d be worth people’s while to take the train, especially if they made wi-fi access free.
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Varsity.co.nz lists the best and worst album titles of all time. My basketball-numbed brain can’t come up with anything worse (and it’s pretty hard to argue with “J to the LO” or “Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavoured Water”) but I think Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Shall Live by Explosions In The Sky should be on the ten best list. As should Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Basically, anything by a post-rock instrumental band.
[via Largehearted Boy]
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If there’s one phrase I’d like to see stricken from common use, it’s “rap mogul“.
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Barry Bonds, Barry Bonds…I don’t know. MLB must really be shitting their pants right now; if Bonds goes on a tear this year, or sticks around (and avoids suspension) for a few more years and breaks the home run record, how big an asterisk would they have to put next to that? I mean, if they put one on Roger Maris’ record ’cause he played a few extra games, how could they not put one next to a guy who’s provoked such controversy and outrage?
meshing
I just registered for mesh. Bring on the geekery.
I plan to wear my new Bomb The Blogosphere t-shirt just to piss everybody off.
"Is there going to be a change in Canadian music?"
Kevin Drew and Leslie Feist made some comments about the Canadian Idol teenyboppers who were nominated Junos. The CTV president of programming got her back up, asking “Why trash somebody else?”, but if you read the comments Drew and Feist made, they don’t seem to be running down the kids…they seem to be taking a shot at the music and tv industries. And with good cause; they’ve basically made music an excuse to have a tv show (or entire channel).
Also: the day when the president of programming at CTV can lecture members of Broken Social Scene about music is the day I teach Al Pacino about method acting.
.:. I won a pair of tickets to see Brick (imdb | rotten tomatoes) on Wednesday. Thanks NOW!
 .:. By now I guess pretty much everyone’s seen the trailer for the Simpson’s movie. I have both high hopes and terrible fears about how it’s going to turn out. I think it would be funny if Marge cussed like a sailor on shore leave. But that’s me.
 .:. More developments, though little progress, in the James Miller case. I wrote about it two years ago, when I saw the documentary, and again about a year ago.
I wanna be, I wanna be like Taik(o)
I’m into exorcisms. Or, rather, movies and stories about exorcisms. The Exorcist kinda freaked me out, I grew up near a town with a well-known possession story, and I liked The Exorcism Of Emily Rose (imdb | rotten tomatoes) even though I probably shouldn’t have. It too often fell into horror movie clichés (though it wasn’t a horror movie) or courtoom clichés (though it wasn’t a legal drama either), and would have been far more interesting had it been more faithful to the actual story of Annaliese Michel, but I find watching psychological/spiritual forces wrack some poor innocent interesting enough that I didn’t mind so much.
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I also watched a documentary today called Touch The Sound (imdb | rotten tomatoes). It’s about Evelyn Glennie, a percussionist who I remember reading about in my drumming days…many, many moons ago. It turns out she’s also deaf, something I didn’t know until I read the synopsis of this film a year or two ago. Watching this film, her skill seems even more remarkable when you think that she can’t hear…but when you realize she can hear, in a way that’s different but no less effective than how you or I do, it’s not surprising at all. After that, the only remarkable thing is how well she can play.
By the way, in my next life, I’d like to be a Taiko drummer.
Ummm…are we, by any chance, in the shit?
From the CBC: Blast at Toronto doughnut shop kills man.
A man died in an explosion at a Tim Hortons outlet in downtown Toronto on Sunday, police say.
This is the Tim’s just around the corner from us. Of course, we’re rather out of it and so neither heard nor saw any commotion.
There’re all kinds of nutty rumours going around, like this one that the Globe is peddling: “Police would not confirm early reports that a man had entered the washroom shortly before the blast with explosives strapped to his body.” Since none of the CBC, the Star or CTV are saying this, I’d say it’s a bit premature for the Globe to be passing on innuendo or stoking fears unnecessarily.
Six + six
We did the Six Feet Under marathon yesterday, finishing the last episode of the series somewhere around 3:30 AM. I don’t want to say too much, as some people who read this haven’t yet watched the last season. I think Big Chris said it best when he said, “It’s been emotional.”
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In between SFU episodes I managed to watch the Canadiens eliminate the Bruins from the playoff race. Even though this is their sixth straight win, they’re still only tied for 6th; I’m really hoping they can nail down the 6th spot so they can avoid the Senators or the Hurricanes in the playoffs, both of whom dominated them during the regular season. The team they’re tied with? The New Jersey Devils. Buying tickets for this Saturday’s game against them is looking luckier and luckier all the time.
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 