Monthly Archives: October 2008

Oct 31 2008

Dearlove.ca Endorses…

With election day in the U.S. just days away, I thought it was time to formally announce the official dearlove.ca endorsement. This has been a tight race between two electrifying candidates, and after careful consideration, I and my team of pundits and political analysts have finally made a decision.

Now, I know the Democratic Party’s candidate, Mr. Barack Obama, has a great deal of support. He is a charismatic young man with bold ideas and a silver tongue. However, I have become increasingly uneasy with his short-sighted tax plan. I simply cannot support a man who would steal from the rich to pay the poor, especially at a time when the rich are hurting so much. If I wanted to live in a socialist state, I’d move to Canada.

Under Mr. McCain’s plan, the nation’s wealthiest people would be rewarded for their hard work and fortunate birth parents by paying less tax. This would enable the rich to do what they do best – spending ridiculous amounts of money on luxury goods, which plays right into the trickle-down theory of economics.

For example, the Wall Street tycoon could buy another Picasso at auction from Sotheby’s, which directly helps Ohio’s struggling art auction industry. An Upper East Side mom could buy a new diamond tennis bracelet at Tiffany & Co., which would be a big boost for Michigan’s beleaguered luxury jewelry makers. Other sectors that could benefit include Indiana’s mink coat designers, North Carolina’s Fabergé Egg creators, and Missouri’s exotic Italian sports car manufacturers. The benefits are endless.

Let’s not forget about the Vice Presidential candidates. I’m sure Mr. Biden is a fine and competent man, but there’s no drama in waiting for him to serve as President in the case of emergency. On the other hand, wouldn’t it be awesome to spend the next four years waiting in anticipation for Sarah Palin to be thrown into the thick of things as President?

So, dearlove.ca is officially endorsing John McCain for President of the United States of America. I proudly join a long list of formidable McCain endorsers, including Senator Saxby Chambliss, the Bakersfield Californian, the Mountain Valley News, Erik Estrada, and Lorenzo Lamas. With backing like that, he’s got the election in the bag.

Oct 28 2008

Failure to Flush

Allow me to diverge from my usual high-minded subject matter and raise an issue that has been bugging me of late.

There exists in our society a significant number of men who appear either unwilling or unable to flush the toilet after they have concluded their daily constitutional. This is becoming an epidemic of biblical proportions. Based on my recent experience, somewhere in the neighborhood of 30% of toilets in public bathrooms are left unflushed, and frankly, I think it’s gross.

My youngest son has not yet accepted the urinal as the vessel of convenience, so I have been spending more time than usual in public bathrooms. I grimace every time I swing open a stall door, always at the ready to shield my son’s young eyes from potentially horrifying scenes.

I can’t figure out if these men are lazy and can’t be bothered with flushing, or if they get some kind of perverse pleasure from the thought of sharing their creations with unsuspecting strangers. I wonder if they behave like this at home, or if they save their juvenile actions for the general public. Maybe they picture themselves as artists, and can’t bear the thought of erasing their masterpieces without first putting them on exhibit.

I don’t spend much any time in women’s bathrooms, so I’m not sure if this unpleasant phenomenon is shared by both sexes or is strictly the domain of men. Speak up, ladies – have the non-flushers been infiltrating your ranks as well?

Oct 26 2008

Another Orchestra Tour

The orchestra that I used to work for just began a 20-day tour of Western Canada.  In the past week, a lot of people asked me “So, are you happy you’re not going on tour?”.  The answer is kind of complicated.

Yes, for the most part, I am happy not to be on tour.  I found them to be the most stressful part of my job, and in the weeks leading up to the big event I’d be completely obsessed with the minutiae of running a tour – hotel rooming lists, flight manifests, per diem worksheets, visa applications, etc.  At night, I’d have horrible dreams about being stranded with fifty musicians at some run-down motel, unable to get to the next concert.  

What I do miss, however, is the sense of adventure.  For a couple of weeks each year, you get to leave your daily routine behind and embark on something completely different.  There’s a sense of camaraderie that develops during the two or three weeks you spend away from home, and I have fond memories of hanging out with colleagues after a concert or enjoying the hospitality of a sponsor or ambassador at a reception. In particular, I’m kind of sad about not making it to Whitehorse, which should be a highlight.

Last night, the orchestra performed the first of two concerts in Vancouver, and I was happy to see it got a glowing review in the Vancouver Sun.  At the same time, I was sitting in Southam Hall listening to a really great Feist concert, feeling much more relaxed and content than I would have been pacing backstage at the Orpheum.

It’s nice to see that Canadian orchestras are touring more regularly these days.  The Vancouver Symphony just finished a two-week tour to Asia, and they’re heading to Ontario and Quebec for four concerts in the spring.  The TSO performed at Carnegie earlier this month, and the Montreal Symphony has been to Carnegie, Japan, and South Korea this year.  There’s no doubt that touring is expensive and requires substantial financial support from a variety of sources, but I think it’s also incredibly rewarding for musicians and audiences alike.

By the way, my former orchestra has a tour website up at www.nacotour.ca.  I’m particularly interested in the tour blogs – a number of staff and musicians are writing posts, and the results so far make for good reading.  

Hey, if you happen to be in Vancouver, Prince George, Kamloops, Whitehorse, Victoria, Calgary, Saskatoon, Regina, and Winnipeg, you still have the opportunity to catch the orchestra first-hand.  I understand good tickets are still available in some of those cities (unless you’re in Whitehorse, in which case you’re SOL as the concert is SRO).

Oct 20 2008

Rockton World’s Fair

On last weekend’s beautiful Thanksgiving Sunday, we headed off to the Rockton World’s Fair. For 156 years, the fair has drawn crowds from throughout the area to its extensive agricultural displays, baked goods competitions, and games of chance and skill.

For the past year, A has been thinking about the fair and one attraction in particular – the bumper cars. He rode them last year, and it made quite the impression. We were barely through the front gate before we were subjected to non-stop pleas of “Can I go on the bumper cars? Can I go on the bumper cars?”

I headed over to check them out, and my heart sank. The ride required four tickets, and the boys were too small to ride by themselves. That meant we needed 16 tickets to get on the ride, and at $1.25 per ticket, it was going to be a whopping $20.

Under normal circumstances, I would probably not spend $20 for a two-minute ride. However, faced with the prospect of a full-scale meltdown mere minutes into our visit, I decided to bite the bullet and fork out the cash. I ended up going for the 40 tickets for $35 option and was disappointed to find out the tickets were not, in fact, made of gold.

I must say, the actual ride was really fun. A and I drove around the outside, looking for B and K. We spotted them on the far side of the track, so I floored our little car and made a beeline for them. I think everyone was pretty surprised at the force of the resulting head-on collision – especially K, whose face seemed to bounce off the dashboard. I was fully expecting him to end up with a broken nose and a busted lip, but he just gave us a big laugh and kept going.

The highlight of the day for me was the Thrill Show Productions Figure Eight Demolition Derby. We settled into our seats at the grandstand and watched a couple of heats of fast-paced car-smashing action. I’ve always wanted to go to a demolition derby, and I was a little sad to leave when the thick fumes drove us away from our front-row seats.
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There’s a lot to see at the Rockton World’s Fair, and we missed a lot of interesting things. For example, I really wish we could have gone on Monday for the Baby Show. This sounds awesome.

They have five categories for boys and girls – 3 to 5 months, 6 to 8 months, 9 to 11 months, 12 to 14 months, and 15 to 17 months. According to the website, “Babies are judged in their respective age groups on the basis of normal growth and development, sociability, health and beauty.” I’m totally serious.

Those babies who are successful in the preliminary round then compete for the Grand Prize. I don’t know what that is, but the third place contestant gets $15, which won’t even buy his / her family two minutes on the bumper cars.

I’m just glad they don’t have a newborn to 2 months category, because really, you’re not ready to be judged on your beauty until you’re at least 3 months old.
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Although it has nothing to do with this post, I thought I’d post a picture of K being particularly cute. That’s my boy…

Oct 15 2008

The Election According to a Five-Year-Old

The boys and I were lying in bed this morning listening to the election results on CBC. A has taken a real interest in the election in recent days, and he was very curious about the whole voting thing, probably because his school was one of the voting centres.

Anyway, here’s how our conversation went:

A: “So Daddy, who’s the new leader of Canada?”

Me: “Well, it’s the same guy as last time – Stephen Harper is still the leader”.

A: “That’s nice. That’s good that Stephen Harper still has a job.”

Me: “Hmmmmm.”

A: “If I was you, I think I would have voted for Barack Obama.”

Me: “Really? That would have been an interesting choice.”

A: “Yeah. Or maybe I would have voted for God. Voting for God would be even better.”

So there you have the perspective of a five-year-old political junkie: Stephen Harper is O.K., Barack Obama is better, but God is the best choice.

Remember: Vote God in 2010. Or else.