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Juneau
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2114
An uneventful trip on the Ferry, the scenery; glaciers and mountains, is beautiful.
There's talks on whale watching, we see none, other passengers report distant sightings of the spume and splashes.
We reach Juneau and it's beautiful - the glaciers behind the city, the way that they've done an amazing job of preserving the older buildings, built up and down mountainsides, there are shops filled with maritime antiquities, old books, it's somehow all very cool.
Our first stop is a hotel, any hotel, and we end up paying $200.00 a night for one in central Juneau. That's life in the big city.
But on the plus side we can walk around and explore, which we do.
The next day we find a place where we can pan for gold (aptly named "gold creek") and show some in the pan - my obligations for the trip are now fulfilled and the daughter has to acknowledge that I was right - although she begrudges me the creek ("It's called gold creek dad....").
We walk out to a point near the city and explore the tidal pools, no great discoveries here, mostly a crusty bed of mussels that the daughter is loathe to step upon, and then it's time to leave again upon the ferry...such is this whirlwind trip of Alaska.
Occupying Wall Street
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
- Hits: 2746
The discontent grows. First the London Riots, then the Americans occupying Wall Street. The police, despite being paid by the people, are not answerable to the people and do as they please, whether it be arresting under age protesters or macing peaceable demonstrators.
This is foreseeable, entirely, as people generally discover that the system is rigged against them, there's that vague discontent that comes from misgovernment and the realization that capitalism by it's nature is evil, that a 2 party democracy is no democracy at all, that corporations have all of the rights of individuals without any of the responsibilities or expectations, that through every crisis that crushes a hundred, a thousand families there are those at the top who still get richer.
It's the French revolution all over again, with the only qualifier being that the difference between the haves and the have-nots in the French revolution was no where near what the difference is now. The rich with their contempt for the mules who've carried them to where they are now, the powerful who make the policies that favour the rich, the police who enforce with cruel zeal and immunity their long held fantasies of policing, and the disquiet grows.
The deficit is overwhelming, this "money as debt" is not working out, the debt will never be paid. It could be paid tomorrow, the wealthiest in the country could pay it down immediately without any impact or notice to their day to day lives, it is, after all, only numbers somewhere held in a computer, but to do so would be to relinquish some measure of control or power, would be to acknowledge guilt or accountability, would be give up what they've so hard won or inherited.
They'll resist, who wouldn't? But this gross inequality could be easily remedied, and people are beginning to sense the injustice of it all.
This diet of candy bars and television, it's made the people weak, it is what, after all, it was formulated to do, education is no longer education - to be educated is to be worried, no, it's all trade-school and employment, keep the wheels of this juggernaut turning, it must be fed. more oil, gas, hours at work, with savings and due diligence you can still get ahead....
The day will come when we lift their heads upon pikes, the rich and the powerful, their money and power, numbers held in a computer, so vast as to be mere abstractions, will vanish, it was after all only an illusion and when this is done we'll be free.
Meanwhile the people are occupying wall street, burning London, and the people are restless, there is that vague, undefinable sense of having been cheated, swindled, but the machinery has grown so large and complex that no one can put a finger on where it all went so terribly wrong....
Resurrect Dead The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 2397
Not only a play this weekend, but a film too.
It's the Calgary International Film Festival, which offered quite a few films that I'd like to see, but unfortunately work and more work suck up nearly all of my time.
But today there's Resurrect Dead The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.
Which is quite interesting. Now I've linked to the Toynbee mystery before, and it's fascinating, and fair to say that the documentary does it justice. More than that, but to explain might destroy the pleasure of watching it. I've taken the liberty of lifting this quote from the Globe and Mail:
...Some of the “dots” they connect include a South Philadelphia street address, a 1980 late-night Larry King radio phone-in show, a one-act David Mamet play, information from local shortwave radio buffs and messages that appeared on bus-stop handbills.
I'd give it a very worthwhile.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Theatre
- Hits: 1773
Saturday night and I've planned something a little different for staff and the boy. I've gotten tickets to the midnight playing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (the play, not the movie) at the Pumphouse Theatre.
So I've picked up the boy and we're at the Pumphouse, I've introduced him to my colleagues, he's met the Nephew last year at the Rocky Horror (the Movie), but G, the salad chef, new hostess, these are all new to him.
G's concerned that "it better not be some sort of gay show", he's getting that vibe from the costumed patrons, but there are enough females present to keep his attention. And the Nephew is telling the boy about how last weekend G and him were on their way to a party after the bar when they walked into the wrong house, they call out for someone, it hasn't dawned on them and this older woman comes out, she tells them they've got the right house, if they'll just stay put she'll change and they can party with her....
And G has somehow taken over the story and is explaining it, translating from the nephew's heavy accent what happened and verifying what happened, the only difference in his telling is that the nephew wanted to stay and party with the woman....
They excuse themselves and leave, finding the real party....
The boy is laughing, these are stories that lose an awful lot during my retelling to get them directly from the source, independent corroboration, it's hilarious, and he's gotten out his iPod to film G telling the story...
***The first half of the play passes, it's exactly what you'd expect from the Pumphouse, a "glee" styled production with modest audience participation, the Nephew and G are not so into it, the Nephew checking his texts, G staring with his jaw-down and a slack, glazed expression on his face.
*** In the intermission G and the Nephew inquire if it would be rude to leave, I assure them that yes, yes it would, they consent to stay if I agree to buy them a couple of beer.
I give in.
Meanwhile the salad and hostess are having the time of their life, this is their cup of tea. Happy now with beer in hand, the boy with his iPod on record, I bait the Nephew "Tell the boy about the transsexual prostitutes...."
He's too happy to oblige. And once again the boy is in paroxysms of laughter, unable to hold the camera straight..."transsexuals, they are the best and the cheapest...", boy bent double, iPod in general direction of nephew, "...and my friends say 'hey, look, she has balls'" and I look...."
Around this point I realize I've just discovered the next Karl Pilkington, that I need to follow him around with a video camera and record his witticisms and observations and my fortune will be made, I ban the boy from posting these things onto the internet, for personal amusement and proof to his friends what an insane world it is, fine, ....
The Rocky Horror, it was what it was, OK, intermittent sound and occasionally monotone lyrics. Exactly what I would have expected. The company, on the other hand, was admirable and just the proof I needed...
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