…but at least it wasn’t a majority. Fuck you Alberta.
The 2008-2009 stanley cup champions are off to a slow start…
Starting slow seems like a perennial problem for my favorite team. This year appears to be no different.
After a pair of fairly brutal games against the canucks, the flames finally got their first win of the campaign against a rather hapless looking Avalanche team. This despite (again) giving up a 3-1 lead. I’m finding myself increasingly puzzled with this annual event, and honestly I really, really, hope we can do without it next year.
Team captain Jarome Iginla finally got on the score sheet, but Kiprusoff continued his very spotty play. I still maintain that Kipper can come back and dominate the league again, but if his october slide turns into another year long problem it may be time to look for a replacement. Sadly none of our young goalies are ready to step into the role (though we may have an embarassment of riches in a few years), so a solid aging vet (for a year or two) might be the answer.
Regardless of the slow start, and hey you never know, it might get Keenan fired, the flames will be a force this year. Bertuzzi has been a really pleasant surprise (though hopefully the phantom roughing/boarding calls will stop, how that dive at the end of the canucks game was called a penalty is beyond me) and the rest of the team appears to be showing some heart and grit and (dear god) secondary scoring (5 goals in game 2 with zero points from iginla???). If the defense can step up a bit and Kipper can stop looking like Dan Ellis we might just have a team here.
<3 Aaron Sorkin so damned much.
Despite the somewhat shaky nature of Studio 60 and the what happened to the West Wing when he got all coked up and had to leave… I love Aaron Sorkin. He’s probably my favorite Hollywood writer and the sheer force of oratory that he can write for his characters can leave me weak in my knees.
Recently as part of an interview (with the New York Times I believe, but they charge to read their archives so I can’t read the whole thing) Sorkin gave us a glimpse of how he thinks President Josiah Bartlet would knock some sense into Barrack Obama.
Here’s a choice excerpt:
BARTLET: GET ANGRIER! Call them liars, because that’s what they are. Sarah Palin didn’t say “thanks but no thanks” to the Bridge to Nowhere. She just said “Thanks.” You were raised by a single mother on food stamps — where does a guy with eight houses who was legacied into Annapolis get off calling you an elitist? And by the way, if you do nothing else, take that word back. Elite is a good word, it means well above average. I’d ask them what their problem is with excellence. While you’re at it, I want the word “patriot” back. McCain can say that the transcendent issue of our time is the spread of Islamic fanaticism or he can choose a running mate who doesn’t know the Bush doctrine from the Monroe Doctrine, but he can’t do both at the same time and call it patriotic. They have to lie — the truth isn’t their friend right now. Get angry. Mock them mercilessly; they’ve earned it. McCain decried agents of intolerance, then chose a running mate who had to ask if she was allowed to ban books from a public library. It’s not bad enough she thinks the planet Earth was created in six days 6,000 years ago complete with a man, a woman and a talking snake, she wants schools to teach the rest of our kids to deny geology, anthropology, archaeology and common sense too? It’s not bad enough she’s forcing her own daughter into a loveless marriage to a teenage hood, she wants the rest of us to guide our daughters in that direction too? It’s not enough that a woman shouldn’t have the right to choose, it should be the law of the land that she has to carry and deliver her rapist’s baby too? I don’t know whether or not Governor Palin has the tenacity of a pit bull, but I know for sure she’s got the qualifications of one. And you’re worried about seeming angry? You could eat their lunch, make them cry and tell their mamas about it and God himself would call it restrained. There are times when you are simply required to be impolite. There are times when condescension is called for!
God… this says what I want to perfectly that I’ll just leave it at that, except to say this. If you’re a woman, and you vote republican simply because of Sarah Palin, you are a moron. You’d vote for a woman who doesn’t believe in any real feminist issues and in fact wants to overturn Roe v. Wade and believes that abstinence only should still be taught in schools (nevermind that her daughter got knocked up.) Hillary was a self serving wench who got closer to getting the nomination than she had a right to. Having a man of colour in the oval office is at the very least equally as important as having a woman there. Don’t sacrifice your beliefs just to have a woman there. Wait til next time and a solid viable candidate (Nancy Pelosi maybe?,) because Joe Biden won’t get the nomination even if Obama goes 2 terms.
For funsies I recommend you check out Sarah Haskins over at the current… her consistently awesome Target Women segment did a Sarah Palin profile.
Yikes, what happened there?
Apologies for the interruption, the internet connection in Big Sky was the shit (I was only able to steal wireless from another condo at long range) so updating was so inconvenient that I became lazy. Who wants an update without photos anyway!
Besides which, time was pretty packed while we were there and evening mostly involved hopping in the hot tub then having dinner and flopping down on the couch to watch brutal NBC olympic coverage. I’m pretty sure posts would have been along the lines of “Big Geyser Pretty… water HOT!” anyway.
Old Faithful was fairly faithful, only making me wait a while during which I toured a lot of the lesser but awesome geysers. So many people get out at the parking lot and just see old faithful then leave that they miss a lot of the neater pools. As usual, death by korean or japanese tourbusload was around every corner.
Death was also around every corner on some of the paths, apparently the ground is only a thin crust in places an stepping on some section involves immersing your leg or entire body into water or mud superheated to the point where it can cook the flesh of your bones. To get that lovely mental picture out of your head, here’s a shot of an elk to make you go “awww.”
Also on this point of the trip was my second run at whitewater rafting, which was a blast as always. The river in question is known as the Gallatin, and while it was incredibly shallow at points it still gushed fast enought to be a lot of fun. The cute young lady guiding us was only a bonus.
Not me, but the same spot we rushed through the day before this was taken.
My friend Chris and his girlfriend Jodi came along with us on this ride as they happened to be passing through and we had a blast, I of course was probably the most soaked. This didn’t matter tons at first, but on the ride back to the lodge it became apparent that a recent wearer of my wetsuit had had a serious B.O. issue and the water was bringing back the memories so to speak. Given that this sign was at the top of the run I guess I should be lucky that’s all I smelled.
Got to love the grammar/missing word. I like to believe the missing bit is “is encouraged.”
That more or less wrapped up the trip though, not long after we headed back to Manitoba at full speed, stopping really only to see the Little Bighorn Historic Monument.
This is somewhere I’ve always wanted to go though I was expecting it to be typical American ignore the Native side completely but it was surprisingly fair. Unsurprisingly this is as a result of a fairly recent redevelopment that changed it from the Custer Memorial to the new name. The old views are still seen in some of the markers on the site, but in the tours given (and the audio tour you can buy for a nominal fee [highly recommended] you can hear the modern interpretation.
The classic view of the battle as some form of heroic last stand is without much doubt a total fallacy, the final lines shown by clusters of cartridge casings seeming to show Custer’s group disintegrating into total panic as his overconfidence led to the near total destruction of his command. The sheer cowardice of the cav and the stupidity of Custer in ordering a charge on a village that he had not even reconnoitered properly is really evident and it’s easy to see how an organized resistance from the skilled first nations shooters quickly caused panic in the cavalry troops.
What surprised me most was the Cavalry monument… I believe it was built around 10 years after the battle by the regiment and lists the names of those “who fought and died in battle against the Sioux.” From the years of bullshit and the media frenzy of the time I would have expected it to say something about a massacre or butchery as is far from rare on items of the time. Perhaps the regiment was being honest in saying they new damned well it was a true battle and honestly felt a little ashamed at the way things were being painted.
In any case I heartily recommend anyone checking out. It’s an interesting piece of history and a moment that marked the beginning of the end of any armed resistance of indigenous peoples in North America. It’s also a rather hot place generally, pack some water if you’re doing any of the hiking trails (and ankle boots as there are apparently rattlesnakes) but there is also a car loop that the audio tour covers.
NOTE: I wrote 80% of this on Aug 23, but I haven’t finished and posted it til now, my bad. School starting sucked. Regular updates to resume.
Goats!
Day 4:
I love Glacier Park in Montana it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth and features the “Going to the Sun” highway. This wild trip up to the top of the mountain is a bit rough on the old transmission but it’s worth it for views like this.
Waterfalls and Wanderlust…
Day 1:
The unending crap storm that has been summer 08 has seemed to continue into this trip. Having finally finished our first drive across the unending boredom of western Manitoba and Saskatchewan we pulled in to the bustling metropolis of Swift Current. After 12 hours or so on the road I have to admit I was dying to hit the hot tub. What does the summer of fun have for us next? An ice cold whirlpool and swimming pool that have apparently been freshly filled with water from Lake Superior. Shitty shitty finish to a long boring day.
God of War and Keeper of Water
Direct confirmation of earlier almost-proof as the Mars Phoenix Lander has officially “tasted” water inside its special little soil baking ovens. Scientists are now trying to determine if the water ever thaws to the point where it’s available for any sort of biological reaction. NASA has also extended funding for the mission an extra five weeks giving them a chance to expand on the fantastic results achieved so far.
Efforts to reproduce the experiment using an ez-bake oven and brownie mix were a delicious, delicious failure.
Pre-Holiday Roundup!
It’s finally here!
While nowhere near as fun or blog-worthy as my original plan, starting tomorrow I’m still getting out of this godforsaken city til at least the 20th of August. School doesn’t start until the 4th so I really don’t care when I get back.
As a result updates will likely be sporadic since I have no way of knowing if our hotel(s) in nowhere Wyoming and bumfuck Montana will have reliable wifi. I’m hoping our actual destination resort will, but you never know. In any case I’m planning to spend more time white water rafting than on the net but given the total lack of nightlife I imagine I’ll still be online fairly often when I can.
I really hope so anyway as I’ve been having a crazy run at P-stars lately cashing in most of the (admittedly low stakes) tourneys I’ve played in the past week. Made a solid few bucks at the cheapo PLO tables last night too. Probably my best play last night was check raising a guy all in after I flopped a boat.
I was in the bb with a Patrick Roy (3x 3x) to those who aren’t hockey fans. Blind got doubled at 1st position and about half the table called. I matched and we saw the flop. 3x 9x 9x came out (w/ no flush possibilities) and I inwardly smiled. I had to think I was tops. I checked and it went around most of the table before we saw a bet and a double. I pretended to hem and haw for a second then called and the rest of the table folded leaving just me and the raiser. The turn came out with a Jd (and again no flush help) I played it slow and checked to him.
Now this guy had been really aggressive all night, the moment he sensed weakness he pushed hard and never seemed to consider the possibility of someone slowplaying him. I was counting on this and sure enough when I quickly checked to him he put about 1/4 of his (then cheapleading) stack into the pot. I put him on a 9 with a nice kicker as he hadn’t seemed too aggressive until the flop hit (I also suspected the guy that bet on the flop initially had held the other 9 as he’d been playing any suited connectors all tourney. It was possible however that he had a straight draw so I decided to go hard. All-in (to take me to about 2/3 of his total stack. I imagine he suspected he’d been had but he called anyway and we flipped. Sure enough he had Ad 9d and I ended up just short of being the new chipleader.
It was a nice run, as in the next few hands I saw a QQ and Rockets but got no action both times. My cards ran a bit dry after that, but I still managed to hold on til heads up when another pocket pair ran into a low set and I finished in second. Still a respectable payday though.
Here’s hoping I can keep the run going while on holidays and maybe even play some live poker. There’s got to be an indian casino or two in wyoming/montana right?
Shittiest thing about the trip? Having to watch incredibly annoying and biased American Olympic coverage, not an event where a yank has a chance to medal? Good luck seeing even 5 minutes of it, and if one didn’t medal you’re never going to see the podium. Missing CBC’s final olympic broadcast and getting that silly little shiver when I first hear the music will suck too. CTV/TSN’s coverage will never be as good. I can only hope our resort in the mountains gets satellite with CBC, it happened once in the past on a trip there and my fingers are crossed.
Now dear readers, in closing I leave you with the cutest Darth Vader ever.
Ich bin nicht ein Roboter!
I am a lion!
—
Well, sadly fringe is done for another year. I didn’t get to a record personal attendance (my best is still 24 or 25, I can’t remember) but I did get close with 23 different plays. As usual I went into the festival wondering if there was enough I truly wanted to see, and as usual I enjoyed everything I’d targeted before going out and catching some of the shows with buzz and loving those too.
Best Show I saw?
Serious: Spiral Dive
Comedy: Tie between Sherlock Holmes (S&F) and The Shakespeare Show (Monster) with an Honorable mention to Chris Gibbs for Antoine Feval.
Sketch/Improv: Tie: Outside Joke/Improvision with an honorable mention to Phil van Hest
Genre Straddling Honorable Mention to the hilarious yet tear jerking Testicular Cancer show: Balls.
More wrapup after the jump!
Love the Mall…
Personal fringe attendance has dropped a bit for me at this point in the week. Combination of shitty scheduling and personal tasks always seem to wipe out one or two days in week 2 but this year is worse than most.
Tuesday night I caught my favorite performance poet (not suprisingly a short list anyway) Mr. Jem Rolls at the King’s Head. Jem was in his usual fine form though I imagine I’m easy to please while full of Half-Pints Bulldog Amber and a plate of Scotch Eggs with Curry Fries. His command of language and pure intensity always blow me away and after every performance of his I attend I can’t help but wonder if I would have enjoyed poetry in school if it had been someone like him.
A hearty thank you to the King’s Head staffer who found my Cell Phone after it dropped from my pocket and who announced it to the crowd, and a hearty fuck you to the other staffer who told me that they hadn’t found one even after that announcement.
Unfortunately the vast majority of shows started exactly as Jem ended so we were faced with waiting around a solid 2.5 hours for something we’d actually want to see or going to do something else. We voted to go see Dark Knight which, despite my hatred of Batman Begins, was excellent.
Wednesday was another slow day. With the downpour hitting off and on I decided to take my Mother (who is on crutches) to another show. We voted for The Shakespeare Show at PTE for accessibility reasons and Monster Theatre didn’t disappoint. It wasn’t quite up there with the best of Ryan Gladstone’s plays (Napoleon’s Secret Diary is still my fave) but the quick tempo and mixture of jokes were enjoyable. The woman who played most of the other parts (Tara something… mind blanking) was especially good at playing off of Ryan and swapping between characters. Unfortunately we called it a night after that and hit the BDI on the way home.
Tonight being the Bomber game I won’t be seeing anything either so I’ll have to hope to catch up on the weekend. Here’s hoping I can get a solid four or five in on Friday again