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The Cecil Hotel
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
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Growing up every town had one.
And always, without fail, the most dismal, decrepit and depressing bar or hotel around. Even when I was young.
The Calgary Location, open from 1912 until 2008, when - being a cornerstone of the cities drug and murder trade, was finally closed down.
View Gallery: Calgary Cecil Hotel
Then there was the Edmonton Cecil Hotel, which apparently opened in 1906, and closed in 2003 due to building and health code violations.
Video: Remembering the Edmonton Cecil Hotel
Then there was the Cecil Hotel in Lethbridge which first appears in my searches for 1953 (but probably built before and rebranded later as a Cecil Hotel); demolished in 2002
Link: Photo Lethbridge Cecil Hotel
And the Medicine Hat Cecil Hotel, which opened in 1912 and is still open, the bar at least, the building around is said to be crumbling down.
Of course, there was a Moose Jaw Cecil Hotel as well, opening in 1907 and burning down in 1975. A brief history here.
...
This list could grow formidably long. I guess the question is - Who in the hell was Cecil? I mean - I have yet to come across a congruent reason why so many of the hotels were named after this one - enigmatic? person...
Murder on the Plains - R.G. Evans
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 541
Canadian history, found as a small leaflet (64 pages) - type book, published in 1962, "Frontier Books No. 2", the kind you would pick up for your kids in gift shops or gas stations while on vacation in the day. Similar still abound. Not a bad writing style, full of the prejudices of my childhood, when Natives could be accurately described as "Bloodthirsty" and prisoners could be held in "Durance Vile". Noteworthy as while all of the crimes reference the more unsavory details of rape and murder it would be a highly dubious book to give to kids nowadays. Many of the cases were set in the Edmonton and Calgary region.
Worth all of the 25 cents I paid for it.
Incidents in the Yucatan Volume II - John L Stephens
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
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I got lucky and a week after enquiring after it found it in the bookstore.
Similar to the first, more ruins, explorations into caves, cenotes, underground temples, references to the history of the area - from Bernal Diaz to Diego López de Cogolludo, rumors of Jean LaFitte the Pirate, of good reputation and reported upon by fishermen and locals who knew him, tales of buried treasure on the islands around Cozumel, what in this is there not to enjoy?
And the illustrations, by the accompanying travel artist F. Catherwood - perpetually in a fever yet his pictures perfectly capture the ambiance of the ruined and decaying cities.
Pastoral prints, romantic ruins overgrown with trees, pyramids, fantastic statuary, view a few of his prints by following the link above.
Exploring, the caution with which the natives regard most of the ruins and underground spaces, possibly as a consequence of bad air or gas, they are forever trying to give context to the scale of ceremonial architecture that seem grotesquely out of place with the current circumstance of the population, the customs of the current people described through the lens of a rather white filter; our author regarding them largely as the piteous remnants of Spanish colonization & brutality - which, while true doesn't realize that the real depopulation of the area took place via smallpox and other introduced diseases.
Descriptions of the vast networks of cisterns, wells, cenotes, most filled in with rubbish, but to clear a pond is to discover that it was once actually a purpose built reservoir, built at huge scales to save up the rains for the dry seasons (Climate change - even a brief period of a few years - is credited by many current archeologists as responsible for the collapse of the Mayan Empire), and always there is always the realization that they are in the presence of vanished civilization, the architecture, art, agriculture, speaks of a vast, lost empire, possessed of a high degree of sophistication.
Noteworthy is when the author discovers the "Builders Mark" on the great buildings, a red handprint, symbol (presumably) of the architect that designed the place, or chief builder, these marks still visible to Stephens even hundreds of years since their ruin, and his speculations as to it's universality - seen on horses, Tee-Pees of tribes across North America, on rock walls in Australia and in the caves of France - the hand - red hand especially - is the symbol of creation, the proof of action, an idea brought to fruition in the material world.
And there are the perpetual descriptions of the biting insects, the garrapatas (ticks) that would blacken the incautious explorer and his horse, the mosquitos and biting ants, fleas and sand fleas; all in hordes, at scales a thousand times what would have driven me mad. While (to me at least, oddly enough), there are no mentions of giant or venomous snakes, tarantulas, or jaguars, they are instead besieged constantly by the nuisance of invisible enemies that keep them feverish their entire expedition.
Finished, and there are a few other books by him, exploring in other regions, so I will have to keep my eyes peeled.
Xmas Movies
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 517
Xmas Eve, Day, Boxing Day, today even, as Xmas Day was on a Sunday and nobody wants to pay overtime.
I'm trapped in somebody else's Christmas dream. Worse yet, they are most probably trapped, however well intended, in my Xmas nightmare...
Netflix, the TV, on 16/24 hours, playing inane Netflix Christmas Movies. And - as there's no place to go, everything is closed, I'm obliged to sit around and watch them.
This is spiritual suicide.
The first movie, something about a couple getting married, the families names "Christmas" and "Hope" and so following the wedding it becomes "Christmas-Hope".
I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.
"Starring" Kelsey Grammer, Elizabeth Hurley, John Cleese...
I'm surprised at the Elizabeth Hurley because the last movie on Netflix I watched - "Glass Onion - A Knives Out Mystery" - 'starred' Hugh Grant as the sexually ambiguous housekeeper designed to lend emotional/personal depth to our protagonist Benoit Blanc. I shudder to think that this is Daniel Craig's retirement.
Now this movie, not nearly as well written, merely hashing up stereotypes, setting the Xmas in a "quaint" English Village with beautiful, homogenous people, it's setting the type. The themes.
And it's inane. Beyond belief. You watch it like you'd watch a train-wreck. You can't look away. A beautiful estate, worth in the tens of millions of pounds, millions of pounds a year on the upkeep alone...these comprise our "relatable protagonists".
And dialogue, acting - well...this was filmed in one take. The stars, 'stars' how they've fallen, and I can't figure out why they're here.
I google "Kelsey Grammer". Why is he fucking here? Ooops. He lost 2 of his half brothers to a shark attack. I'm not making this up. And this - THIS - is probably the least traumatic thing you can say about him, look him up if you dare. The drugs, alcohol, rehab, they've got nothing on his life. Bloody hell.
Obligatory Black Guy driving Rolls-Royce he presumably didn't steal and Lesbian waiting to pounce from the closet.
The plot meanders in every predictable way towards it's happy ending. I mean, it stoops lower than most, but it gets there.
Summary, probably filmed in "1 take", over a weekend (rental of the mansion - expensive), feeble, appalling humor, the "stars" were probably on-set for no more than 2 or 3 hours and then paid off with $20,000 or $30,000 paychecks. I mean, how else?
Next up: "Holidate", about a girl that finds a date for the holidays and then ends up with him. Hallmark? I dunno But you could see the ending from the beginning .
Another predictable "fall-in-love-with-the-guy-I-was-meant-to-fall-in-love-with" film.
Starring some actresses that resemble famous actresses and actors that resemble famous actors only with enticing accents - is 'he" meant to be Australian or English? Or merely retarded? I can't tell anymore....
Anyways, it comes to pass that Aussie Chris Pratt finds true love in the love interest he's had all along.
Fucking hell. Day one of Xmas. I'm being held hostage and I don't know who to call...
It goes on and gets worse. Much worse. I'm going out for walks, bailing in every conceivable way on the shows being offered. But nothing is open and they're always there playing when I get back.
The next one, about an idyllic small town in which a dying village is lent a helping hand by the unexpected appearance of "Bigfoot". A "Jon-bon-jovi" production.
And yet again, a couple of stars I recognize, him, from "Shape of Water" and her, from the secretary in "Arrested Development".
And Lovejoy (Ian McShane), or - more widely known as the concierge in "John Wick".
How, how, how did this ever get made? What does it add to the Christmas Canon? My God!!!!
The idiocy continues. All of it, wholesale, a "Very Murray Xmas Special" which uses Bill Murray and friends, including George Clooney and the entire SNL cast - all to very bad effect, then comes the "El Camino Xmas", which only got 3 stars because everyone was hoping they would be getting a Merry Xmas update Jesse from Breaking Bad, starring Tim Allen, and then a "Bad Mom's Christmas" starring Kristen Bell and Susan Sarandon, and - like how - how? HOW HOW HOW?
Like fucking how.
The generic ideas of beauty (applicable only to women, never or seldom to men), the small town idylls portrayed by people who clearly have never set foot in one, the contrived and predictable plots, the "filmed entirely in a single take" aesthetic, never a "take 2", the cast and crew is as bored with the formula as the audience, this, this is hell.
Scripted inclusivity, every show a written in minority, funny/rich black sidekick/groom/suitor, alternative (lgbt) subplot, characters scripted into a loveable "Disney" utopia that would never have them, a vanilla enclave that has rejected them from time immemorial, yet - here they are, funny, witty, "ha-ha-ha", fooling no one and yet - clearly - fooling enough.
This is bullshit.
And I still can't figure out "how", I mean, even if every star's an idiot, wouldn't they still realize how shite this stuff is and give it a pass? They have agents...
Then I realize, they're committed, it's part of the "we give you good role, we give you bad role, you take what you're given...", few actors have the clout to escape the clauses that bind them to their studios. And, to be frank, most of these "films" take longer to watch then they do to film, and so - well - small investments for mediocre returns still=profit or money laundered.
Anyways, looking forward to my luddite, Netflix-Free Xmas next year, wherever that might be...
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