The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency

An excellent new article on Alternet today: The 10 Most Awesomely Bad Moments of the Bush Presidency by Brad Reed. They are:

10: Bush Gets Re-elected
9: Alberto Gonzales' Congressional Testimony
8: North Korea Conducts a Nuclear Test
7: Colin Powell's Bogus WMD Presentation at the U.N.
6: The Terri Schiavo Affair (why, oh why did I have to be reminded of this sordid affair?)
5: Bush and Condi's Excellent Gaza Adventure
4: "Brownie, You're Doing a Heckuva Job" (of course, that should be on Bush's gravestone)
3: Abu Ghraib
2: 9/11
1: "Mission Accomplished"

And his honourable mentions include: warrantless wiretapping; Valerie Plame; Scooter Libby's sentence commuted; Bush believes Rafael Palmeiro is innocent; soldiers face neglect at Walter Reed; signing statements; the Kyoto treaty ripped up; loyalty oaths; the fake turkey; a staged teleconference with troops, staged FEMA press conference, extraordinary rendition, support for junk science; endorsement of neo-creationist "intelligent design"; inaction against global warming; record oil prices; record budget deficits; record trade deficits; record number of Americans without health insurance; two recessions; no-bid contracts; bin Laden still at large; the Federal Marriage Amendment; stem cell research vetoed; waterboarding ban vetoed; "Last throes"; "Old Europe"; "It's hard work"; "Bring it on"; "Yo, Blair!"; "I'm the decider"; "I'm the commander guy"; "I'm a war president"; "This is the guy who tried to kill my dad"; "So?"; "Let the Eagle Soar"; John Bolton; Kenny Boy; Harriet Miers; John Roberts; Sam Alito; Blair talks Bush out of bombing al-Jazeera; Cheney shoots some guy in the face; the Military Commissions Act; Jose Padilla arrested and held without charge or access to counsel; endless tax cuts for the rich; let's waste a shitload of money by sending people to Mars and let's hire some Heritage Foundation staffers to rebuild Iraq.

I would love to hear a Bush supporter's response to this list, but so far there haven't been any takers in the comments section of the article.

Merry Christmas All! Also, I actually agree with someone at the National Post???

In what (hopefully) promises to be his final aggravating act of the year, Stephen Harper appointed 18 Senators yesterday, including none other than CTV journalist Mike Duffy (who aired the blundering Stephane Dion outtakes during this October's election, a move that most agreed was highly unorthodox by journalistic standards, if not downright dirty).

The National Post actually has a good article by Don Martin, Harper to Senate: IOU reform, that attacks Stephen Harper's appointments, who Martin calls "a trough-full of patronage payoffs for Conservative fundraisers, defeated candidates and party toadies". While I tend not to agree with this characterization of government employees, I do think that Harper should be called out for once again violating his own policies and stated goals (elected Senate?) and pursuing purely political ends. How are we supposed to take him seriously?

On that note, I will sign off. Merry Christmas to all!

Courtney Love's Blog on Myspace

If you haven't already, you really must check out Courtney Love's blog on myspace which is just a huge accumulation of awesomeness, including postings of streams of consciousness (see the November 28, 2008 entry, for example), videos, funny stories, fashion stuff, and most recently, a "visual hot list" that is a list of interesting new bands, web sites, movies, etc. etc. that she recommends.

A Couple of Pictures I Found on the Web

What can Michael Jackson possibly be thinking??? Really.
This picture taken from the Superficial under the heading: Michael Jackson: 'Know who never gets accused of touching kids? Zorro.'

And here's a blast from my past that I found on blogTO in their little tribute to the Roxy Theatre on the Danforth. This theatre was a landmark of my early days in Toronto's "alternative" scene. In grades nine and ten (1986-8-ish, I think) I used to go to the Roxy to see their weekly screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. The crowd at the Roxy (a true dump of a place, in a good way) was made up of a lot of the goths, punks, freaks, and (sometimes) mods and skinheads who were part of the club scene that I got involved in a few years later. And I still know all the words to the movie!

Hurray For Xmas!

So, 'tis the season, and all that, and last night Tyler and I put up a Christmas tree, decorated, and then had our picture taken. Wouldn't you know, my skirt was so short that my butt is showing in all the pictures, but what can you do? Thanks to Wendy Van Weert for doing a wicked job with my hair, and to Nathan Buress for taking the pictures (also thanks to Tyler for my much needed make up job!)

Canadian Political Turmoil!

So, last week the Canadian Parliament was "prorogued" by the Governor General at the request of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Harper was facing a non-confidence vote by an ad hoc opposition coalition. He certainly would have lost the confidence of Parliament, which would have left the unpopular Stephane Dion as Prime Minister. (and in case you want to be reminded of why we should fear a Stephen Harper minority, here's a good article on Stephen Harper's connection to the religious right: http://tinyurl.com/4jc4nb)


Because of the suspension of Parliament, the inevitable ousting of Stephen Harper has been delayed until late-January. This has given time for the coalition to dissolve, but has also given the Liberal party the opportunity to choose a (much-needed) new leader. The two leadership contenders until today were Bob Rae, former NDP Premier of Ontario, and Michael Ignatieff, former Harvard academic and long-time friend of Rae. I like Rae (who was my professor at U of T in 1996) but since the rest of the country usually votes opposite to me, it's probably good to get Ignatieff in, in order to get rid of Harper. This morning Rae dropped out of the race, basically handing the leadership to Ignatieff, who the Liberal party elite seem to have been dying to elevate to their leadership for the past few years anyways.


As someone who has always voted NDP, I considered switching sides to the Liberal party if Rae had won the leadership. Ignatieff may be able to win me over, but I still object to his support of the war in Iraq. For now, I will wait until the next generation of Liberals that will hopefully include Gerard Kennedy, Justin Trudeau, and some more interesting women. Until then I will probably stick with the NDP.


Since finishing God is Not Great, a few weeks ago, I have been going Christopher Hitchens crazy, reading everything he has ever published on the web. Fortunately this is pretty easy because he has his own site with a long list of articles as well as an unofficial site called The Hitchens Zone. I don't entirely agree with him (he's very pro Iraq war, and very anti-Bill & Hilary Clinton), but I still enjoy his point of view.


If you haven't watched True Blood, you really must! It's the best white trash/vampire sex show on tv! Which reminds me, I still haven't gone to see Twilight, though I fear the movie will sully my love (luv?) of the books.


And now for some eye-candy, my favourite actress of this year, Anne Hathaway, who I really like right now:

Puppy Power!

This weekend Tyler and I got an afghan puppy named Ophelia! Already my life has become a non-stop obsession with where the dog is and whether or not she is peeing! I love her though. Here's a picture of her sleeping:

Find Raggedy Andrea on Twitter

I finally submitted and I'm now tweeting away on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/raggedyandrea

I'm still in the experimentation phase! Add me or let me know your twitter address and I will "follow" you! :)

Playlist dot Com!

I have been fooling around with playlist.com tonight, and think I could become an addict. Perfect for a music nerd like myself! Here's the link to my profile: http://www.playlist.com/raggedyandrea and here's my first playlist called Songs for Colder Weather....

Happy Endings New York City

In late July when I was visiting New York City, my former roommate Mars took me to visit a fun club called Happy Endings (or, as I can see from their website, Happy Ending Lounge) down in the Lower East Side. I was just thinking about how fun it was there, and how badly Toronto could use fun/dirty places like this, and realized that I had never really written about my NYC trip until now. Happy Endings was an erotic massage parlour in it's former life, and the basement is still made up of ceramic shower stalls. The place was smokey, and grungey and packed full of hipster types and gays and they played electro and retro music. It was there that we met someone from the band Semi Precious Weapons (who my travelling partner Diane is now in love with, since meeting their singer Justin in Toronto at their last two shows).

Here's a great picture that pretty much sums up the atmosphere at Happy Endings - I found at some stranger's blog:

and another one from the club's myspace page:

Some Random Bits of Life

Last night I went to see the film Religulous - the Bill Maher screed against religion. It was pretty good, though didn't really introduce anything new to the discussion. It's always interesting to see the American Christian fundamentalists do their thing - Jesus Disneyland and Creationism museums....crazy! The Catholics in the film looked sane compared to the Evangelicals, which is saying a lot.

Concurrently, I am reading God is Not Great (How Religion Poisons Everything) by Christopher Hitchens. I have always liked Christopher Hitchens, though kind of parted ways with him over his support of the war in Iraq....or so I thought. I am only two chapters in, but so far this book is very interesting. How can you not like a book with a chapter titled "A Short Digression On The Pig; or, Why Heaven Hates Ham"?

I have also been reading the young adult Twilight book series and have to admit that I am hopelessly addicted. They are like Harlequin romances, with vampires and teenagers. I just ordered the box set from Indigo. And yes, I know I used to roll my eyes at people who were similarly addicted to Harry Potter, but I can't help it!!

I have been listening to MGMT almost exclusively for the past week. I absolutely LOVE their album. Last night I downloaded a bunch of WWII era music for our Halloween workshop party next week. I found an awesome song called "I Didn't Know the Gun Was Loaded" by the Andrews Sisters which is a sickly sweet song about accidentally shooting someone.

Oh yeah, I voted in the recent Federal election for Olivia Chow, the NDP candidate in my riding, who won handily. Another Conservative minority government, which is the least bad we could have hoped for, I suppose. I'm not sure what I'm going to do if the Liberals choose Bob Rae or Gerard Kennedy as their new leader. Could I possibly vote Liberal??

Heather Mallick-Sarah Palin Controversy Rages On!

On September 20, 2008 I wrote a bit about Heather Mallick's September 5 cbcnews.ca column condemning Vice Presidential hopeful Sarah Palin, as well as the controversy that seemed to be brewing over Mallick's criticism of Palin.

Mallick wrote in that column that Palin "added nothing to the ticket that the Republicans didn't already have sewn up, the white trash vote, the demographic that sullies America's name inside and outside its borders yet has such a curious appeal for the right" and that Palin "has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade's woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression". Mallick also referred to Republicans as "sexual inadequates". etc. etc.

From my point of view, it was nice to hear someone who agreed with me about Palin. I had seen the McCain campaign turn around since he announced Palin as his running mate, and was honestly saddened that people seemed to be taken in by her. Thankfully McCain's boost in the polls was short-lived. Recently, we have seen Palin's embarrassing interview with Katie Couric, the funny-yet-scary portrayals of Palin on SNL, her mediocre performance in the Vice Presidential debates, as well as a debunking of the mythology of Sarah Palin by the media. Popular support for Palin seems to be dwindling, and the McCain campaign is suffering as a result of this.

On September 9 an indignant Jonathan Kay posted to his blog at the National Post a rant against Mallick, as well as condemnation of the cbc for being too left wing and anti-American. He posted a follow up to this on September 19th after Fox News picked up the story on September 18.

Now Magazine's Susan Cole weighed in on the controversy in her September 25 column, correctly pointing out that most of the criticism of the Mallick column was based on a lack of understanding of what Mallick actually said:

If you've followed this story without reading the original blog, you'd think that Mallick called Palin white trash. She did not do that, actually. What she said was that by naming Palin to the ticket, McCain sewed up the white trash vote. And, let's admit, there exists some white trash in America.

Also high on the anti-Mallick commentators' list is the claim that Mallick compared Palin to a porn star. Not so. She said that Palin had the porn star look down, a reasonable comment on where her appeal lies and how it might work and not at all tantamount to comparing Palin to Jenna Jameson

On September 29, cbcnews.ca publisher John Cruickshank removed the Mallick article from the site's archives and published a letter explaining this decision (based on the assessment of the column by Vince Carlin, the CBC ombudsman). He stated that:

Mallick's column is a classic piece of political invective. It is viciously personal, grossly hyperbolic and intensely partisan....As a public broadcaster we have an added responsibility to provide an array of opinions and voices to complement our journalism. But we must do so carefully. And you should be able to trust us to provide you with work that's based on solid reporting and free from the passionate excesses of partisanship. We failed you in this case. And as a result we have put new editing procedures in place to insure that in the future, work that is not appropriate for our platforms, will not appear. We are open to contentious reasoned argument but not to partisan attack. It's a fine line.

Finally, on October 6, Mallick posted a column about the situation, writing that:

Extremist right-wingers in the U.S. apparently read CBCNews.ca, and within days of my column's appearance, hundreds of e-mails from Americans began landing on my personal website. Then Fox News took up the cause and it got bigger and worse, not like a rolling stone, more like a dung beetle having a field day...

Two things about the whole debacle are of interest. One is the matter of protecting writers' safety when villagers approach with torches and pitchforks. One of my employers immediately provided me with a security guard. I had offered to cancel a speech I was giving at a Catholic university in Canada - I didn't want to embarrass them - but they refused, on the grounds of free speech, and they had also liked the column.

The other matter is the vexed state of cyberspace. Online has brought instant media democratization as well as the erasure of national borders. And websites have not devised a way to keep online forums civilized. "There's no point debating anything online," writes the columnist Charlie Brooker. "You might as well hurl shoes in the air to knock clouds from the sky".

I find this whole story sad for a number of reasons. I am saddened by the fact that cbcnews.ca censored the article. I am saddened by the personal attacks on Mallick, someone who I admire and respect as a writer. Finally, I am saddened by the fact that, even in Canada, there still seems to be a certain level of support for Sarah Palin. Saddened, but really, not surprised.

Some Political Stuff....

Well, as most Canadians should be aware, we will be having a federal election on October 14. As usual I will be voting for the NDP and dread a Conservative majority - those guys frighten me. I know that they have managed to keep a low profile for the past few years, but with a majority I fear the worst.
Far more interesting to me is the US election, especially with the introduction of Sarah Palin as the Republican VP candidate. Words can not describe my distaste for this woman, but I did find an article written by Heather Mallick who helps clarify my feelings here: A Mighty Wind blows through Republican convention Mallick is currently under fire for this column by those offended by her "personal attacks" on Palin, with all the usual/predictable anti-CBC ranting from the right.
Palin's yahoo email account was hacked earlier this week. Reading through some of the coverage, I was amazed at how the reaction was so clearly split down party lines. Republican supporters are clamouring to connect the hack (which wasn't really a hack) to Barack Obama, while Democrats are quick to point out that Palin shouldn't be conducting government business through a private webmail account. At any rate, I think she will probably pay for this, if only because it makes her look rather stupid. There is a good blog about this posted here: Reactions To Palin E-Mail Hack Follow Partisan Lines
Should make for some interesting pre-debate discussions!

Sotheby's Announce Auction - Damien Hirst - Beautiful Inside My Head Forever

I just received an email from Sotheby's announcing a major auction of Damien Hirst's work called Beautiful Inside My Head Forever. I first learned about Hirst in the mid-1990s when he was connected with the britpop movement and directed a Blur video. Since then, I have always been interested in hearing about and seeing his sometimes controversial work. So, for the tidy sum of several million pounds, I can be the proud owner of something like these - gorgeous work, for sure, but a little out of my price range:

Bloggity Blog Blog

As usual, I have been neglecting my blog since I seem to have been busy lately....doing what? I'm not sure. Anyways, here are some links to some interesting things I have found on the web lately:

I have recently finished a couple of Canadian author William Gibson's books: Pattern Recognition and Spook Country, and I have really, really liked them. I never thought that I would get into Gibson since I classified him as science fiction and therefore unreadable. This morning I went to the William Gibson official site where he has a blog and an active forum. One of his blog entries recommends the new Cory Doctorow book (for young adults) called Little Brother. Doctorow himself has a cool site: craphound.com as well as being responsible for the blog Boing Boing

Confessions from the Velvet Ropes - this is a fun one, a New York City gossip/celebrity/lifestyle blog written by Glenn Belverio. In his most recent entry Belverio links to a Camille Paglia recommended article by Robert Keser entitled "Inside the Hollywood Dreamboat Factory - The Fairy Godfather of Hollywood" about legendary Hollywood agent Henry Wilson who discovered and manufactured the images, careers, and iconic names of many of the gay and bisexual actors of the 1950s including Rock Hudson, Guy Madison, Rory Calhoun, Tab Hunter, and Troy Donahue. This is a fun read, reminding us of the interesting subcultures that make Hollywood so interesting.

Enjoy!

Islands & Todd White Gallery Gala

Last night I attended the Liss Gallery in swanky Yorkville for the gala opening of a show featuring the artwork of Todd White. White is from Hollywood, and has sold his work to celebrities (including Macaulay Culkin!). It was pretty cool to get an opportunity to see his work and meet him.
After that we headed over to the Phoenix to see the band Islands. I know I have raved about Islands in the past, but they were so amazing, I am going to recommend them again! They have a new album out called Arm's Way and there is a little interview with one of the band members at blogTO at this link: http://www.blogto.com/music/2008/05/call_response_islands/

Pete Doherty & Amy Winehouse Home Video

I just read that Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse posted a creepy video on youtube of themselves playing with newborn mice - called Winemouse, of course:



Now I'm a fan of both Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse's music, but this is kinda scary in a "those two are going to die soon" way.

Earlier this week Doherty posted several forum posts on his site French Dog Blues asking if anyone in the Wiltshire area could drive him to Glasgow. He couldn't fly because "The Scrubs still have not returned my passport" but when he realized no one could drive him he said "oh dear it's false 'tash and sunglasses and jump start the jag time again..... mums the word, and bonne chance" and another post saying "this kind of thing makes me so sad... if only you knew the true horror of the media's manipulation.I don't know who to feel more sorry for, myself or you... Don't question your instincys. Go off me, and go away, infinity or nowt my fickle , blinkered part-timer. px"

Sad but also interesting that while complaining about the horror of the media's manipulation, Doherty is fuelling the fire by making these kinds of posts, including the creepy youtube video. On the other hand I have always admired his use of the Internet, including the publication of his songs, journals, and other videos and constant contact with his fans through online forums.

Goodhandys!

As usual, I'm too lazy to write something, but here is an bit from an email I sent about the new-ish club Goodhandys:

Last night I went to the club Goodhandys for a bit, which was hilarious - both retro and progressive, if that's possible. It's a gay bar (where that weird Rocket place used to be at Church and Richmond), but in the old school gay ghetto kind of way, not the yuppie/lacoste shoes/gay-guys-getting-married kind of way. There were naked dancers on stage and lots of explicit porn playing, and cool music. I think I was in my element!

It was kind of like the Boom Boom Room (early-90s Toronto "alternative" club) meets Woody's (Toronto's Gay Sports Bar) meets Boots (early-90s Toronto gay/fetish club). Ok, maybe it was just retro, and not so progressive, but at any rate, it was fun.

Am I Too Stupid to Read Science Fiction?

I just finished reading William S. Burroughs Jr.'s two novels (published as one omnibus book) Speed/Kentucky Ham. Burroughs Jr. is the son of legendary junkie/author of Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs. Burroughs Jr. was born in the late-1940s to a heroin addict father and an amphetamine addict mother. In the early-1950s he witnessed his father shoot his mother to death in a drunken game of "William Tell". By the mid-1960s Burroughs Jr. himself was a drug addict, living with his grandmother in Palm Beach, Florida. These books recount his story as a speed addict, running away to New York City, and his rehabilitation in the Kentucky Federal Narcotics Farm, a sort of prison hospital. The books end with his journey to Alaska, part of an alternative rehab program he participated in. Burroughs Jr. died of liver failure in the early-1980s. His writing was very beautiful and poetic, in spite of the subject matter. There was also a subtext of political commentary concerning race, the prison system, drug addiction and class. I am trying to decide whether to finish up Love in the Time of Cholera (another Gabriel Garcia Marquez book I started in the fall) or to move on.

Too busy to blog....but not too busy to steal....

The Orangeburg Massacre

Sen. Barack Obama is clearly a bad bowler. The networks rolled the video clip of his gutter ball endlessly across our TV screens. It was an Internet favorite. The media served it, and the public ate it up. MSNBC's Chris Matthews, the host of Hardball, hammed it up when interviewing Obama on the campus of West Chester University in Pennsylvania:

Matthews: One of the perks, senator, of being president of the United States is that you have your own bowling alley. Are you ready to bowl from day one?

Obama: Obviously, I am not.

But in fact, it was not too long ago when African-Americans were not allowed in some bowling alleys. In Orangeburg, S.C., three young African-American men were killed for protesting against that town’s segregated bowling alley.

It was Feb. 8, 1968, months before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. It was more than two years before the massacre of students at Kent State University in Ohio. Students at South Carolina State University were protesting for access to the town's only bowling alley.

Cleveland Sellers, a student at the time at that historically black college, was also a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and an organizer of the protests. In a recent interview, he said about that night 40 years ago:

"It was a cold night ... this was the fourth day of activities around the effort to desegregate the bowling alley. ... The students had built a bonfire to keep themselves warm and build morale. They were trying to work out some strategy. What should they do next? Should they go back to the bowling alley, where they had been arrested on Tuesday night? Should they go to the City Hall? Should they go to the state Capitol? And they thought that they were in an area that was pretty safe and secure, and they never expected the police to open fire."

Sellers is now director of the African-American studies program at the University of South Carolina. His memory is vivid: "The darkness turned to light as the police opened fire, nine highway patrolmen and one local police officer firing rifles and shotguns and pistols. It was a shock to many of the students that there was no bullhorns, no whistles, no anything that indicated that this kind of extremely lethal action would be taken on these students."

Survivor Robert Lee Davis recalled the event in an oral history project conducted by Jack Bass, who was a reporter at the time and now is a professor at the College of Charleston: "It was a barrage of shots ... maybe six or seven seconds. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom! Students was hollering, yelling and running. ... I got up to run, and I took one step, and that's all I could remember. I took that one step. I got hit in the back ... this was when I got paralyzed. Students was trampling over me, because they was afraid."

Sellers put the largely unreported and forgotten Orangeburg Massacre in context: "It's ironic that here we are 40 years later, and the issue of poverty and the issue of war are still issues that are pertinent all around America again. And I think that it just says that in 1968, with the assassination of Dr. King and with the decline in the civil rights movement during that period, that a number of issues were left unachieved."

There have been advances in the 40 years since the Orangeburg Massacre. Now, rather than protesting for access to a bowling alley, an African-American man is a leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, his bowling flubs merely the object of ridicule. But the three young African-American men murdered that night in Orangeburg — Samuel Hammond, Delano Middleton and Henry Smith — are not with us to share in the progress. They are hardly remembered at all.

The media this week recognize the one-year anniversary of the deadly shootings at Virginia Tech, in which a lone, disturbed gunman killed 30 students and faculty members. It is an important date on which to reflect.

The Orangeburg Massacre deserves a place in our national consciousness as well. We need media that provide historical context, that offer more than a one-year perspective on our society. Instead, the mainstream media keep throwing gutter balls.

By Amy Goodman - the host of Democracy Now!, a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on 650 stations in North America. article stolen from rabble.ca

My Lack of Blogging, American Idol, and Ultragrrrl...

Well, I haven't been writing too much lately, and totally dropped the ball on this one, but I just noticed that Ultragrrrl recently blogged about my latest favourite American Idol contestant. Oh my god, I can't believe I just admitted to watching American Idol - but it's the first time since season one, I swear. Anyhow, my favourite contestant right now is Jason Castro (you just have to hear this guy TALK and you will love him), and as usual, ultragrrrl sums up exactly why:

Jason Castro is unlike any boy i have ever loved. His hair hasnt been washed in ages, but not in the same way that boys i typically like dont wash their hair -- which is just let that shit get so greasy that it's gonna get processed and turned into a fossil fuel. He's got those dumb dreadlocks. They're so fucking horrible... BUT OH MY GOD, DO I LOVE HIM.

....then goes on to say:

Watching his performance, i swear there were heart shapes flying from my eyes straight to the tv. i want to lay on some grass field with him as he hands me little flowers. I want to trade in my black clothes and wear nothing but flowery bullshit and get rid of my JPG perfume and buy a ton of patchoulie oil.

I want to go back to college and get a bachelor's degree just so I can meet someone like Jason Castro and hang out in his dorm room as he plays me his shitty music and make me listen to his Seal covers.

etc. etc.

As for the other contestants, I love the blonde girl Brooke as well, as well as the Australian guy, and cute David Archuletta.

Alan McGee Blogs About Metric

For some reason I had forgotten about Alan McGee who I wrote about here last April. I just got around to catching up on his blog earlier today. Back in January he wrote a great article about the Canadian band Metric and I was reminded that not only do I love Metric, but also Alan McGee, who is always so enthusiastic about the bands he loves, and who always has such great taste in music. He predicts that 2008 will be Metric's year. In other music news, there are some really great shows coming up in Toronto this spring, in addition to the Verve and Thunderheist, who I blogged about yesterday. Tokyo Police Club are finally playing a normal show here at the Opera House in early May. Their last show was at the open air Nathan Phillips Square on a frigid late-January night. I would have gone, but I was moving. Another band I might be interested in checking out is the Kills, who are at the Opera House on May 6.

The Verve Reunion Show in Toronto May 1st

One of my 1990's cult heroes, Richard Ashcroft, and his band the Verve have reunited and will be playing a show in Toronto this May. The Verve were responsible for the amazing 1997 album Urban Hymns, one of my favourite albums ever, and broke up prematurely due to conflicts between Ashcroft and other band members. After their breakup Ashcroft recorded Alone with Everybody in 2000, another fantastic album. The Verve will be playing at the Ricoh Colliseum in Toronto on May 1st and I am really going to try to make it to that show.

In other concert going news, I just bought tickets to see a new local band called Thunderheist. I was actually eavesdropping on the girl singer from the band on my way home one night, checked out her band on myspace, and really liked them. They are playing Lee's Palace on April 11.

Another Fire on Queen Street West!!!

A six alarm fire tore through several buildings at Queen and Bathurst early yesterday morning. Most notably missing from the streetscape are Duke's Cycle shop (they had been at that location for over ninety years) and Suspect Video (I can only imagine how many rare movies have been lost). I haven't yet walked or streetcar-ed past the scene since the street has been closed to traffic for the past two days, and it's just too freaken cold to walk too much in this god awful weather! Thanks to blogTO for the picture above!

Some more anti-Conservative ranting....

Interesting Heather Mallick article on rabble this week about the anniversary of the Morgentaler decision. Here are a couple of paragraphs that stood out in my mind, highlighting the usual insidious way in which Conservative MPs try to impose their narrow morality on Canadians (see also their rejection of anti-handgun laws proposed after recent shootings in Toronto):

If you ever yearn for the mucky sensation of sticky fingers crawling down your spine, go to Hansard and read MPs discussing Alberta Tory Ken Epp’s proposed Unborn Victims of Crime Act, due for a House vote in March. The private member's (what an appropriate name) bill means murderers should get a lower prison sentence for killing a regular woman than for killing a pregnant woman. Read them say how nice it is when a pregnant lady lets you feel her belly: "I think we've all experienced that," Epp says.
They call the extra murder "fetal homicide" and it's a cowardly way of introducing the concept that fetuses are people. By extension, there would then exist an elaborate grading system for the value of women's bodies, fetus-containing women being the most valued, old women the least.
This kind of thing is subterranean in Canada but very public in the United States. It's odd because the re-criminalization of abortion seems as retrograde as steam-driven typewriters. In a world where we now debate robotic surgery and human cloning, the war against abortion, and not even RU-486 abortion, uses ancient weapons.
Nevertheless, this week you'll be hearing a lot from the Orwellian Anti-Sex League (Senior Division) about sluttish teenage girls and evil abortion clinics and how disgusting people are who don't follow their pinched hateful rules about sex before marriage or during marriage or ever.

I am Pro-Choice, as most people who know me know, but even Pro-Life women should be opposed to such legislation.

Academy Awards/Sundance Film Festival

The nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this morning, and it looks like a big year for Canadian films, and particularly women in Canadian films. Sarah Polley was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay award for her film Away from Her, a film in which she also directed Best Actress nominee Julie Christie. The adorable Ellen Page who recently starred in Bruce McDonald's The Tracey Fragments, was nominated as Best Actress for her role in Canadian born director Jason Reitman's film Juno. And finally, Viggo Mortensen was nominated for his role in Canadian director David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises.

Meanwhile, a new documentary called Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this week. This film looks into the conviction of Roman Polanski over thirty years ago for having sex with a minor. After his conviction, Polanski fled back to Europe where he has remained since. I remember reading an interesting story about this case in Vanity Fair several years ago, and this documentary also sounds really good.

Quick Post to Say that I am Still Alive!

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post! Sorry about that - first of all, work has been very busy, second of all, the holidays were busy, and finally, after over five years in the same place, my roommate and I are moving. Ok, so we're only moving about four blocks, but still, it's a big deal!

I will write more soon! Happy New Year to everyone!!