selected reading from Capote's In Cold Blood

You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learn to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? All right, you think they're fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are drably enemies you carry within yourself--in time destructive as bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim. This other bacteria, permitted to age, does not kill a man but leaves in its wake the hulk of a creature torn and twisted; there is still fire within his being but it is kept alive by casting upon it faggots of scorn and hate. He may successfully accumulate, but he does not accumulate success, for he is his own enemy and is kept from truly enjoying his achievements.

• Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. Toronto ON: Random House, 1965, 43, 44.

the noise blasting from speakers in an abondoned warehouse with equally abondoned kids doped up on E is NOT music

I saw Colin James and band perform last night at the Yates.

F A N T A S T I C !

Staples of a good show:

• venue with seating for under 1000 (the Yates seats 500)


• NO concessions

  (the last thing I want is to smell hot dogs and nachos, makes me think I'm at a hockey game...btw, I refuse to see a band in a hockey rink)



• must have a piano or organ


• must have at least one windwood or brass instrument; if not, then some other abnormal instrument


• each instrument must have at least one solo


• must cover a Bob Dylan song

  (Elvis, Cash, Lennon, or McCartney are optional)

The Colin James Band fit all of the above conditions.

The keyboard guy had 3 or 4 different organs/synthesizers/moogs, plus a piano, and various types of hand percussion instruments which he used when not keying a song. He had a couple of stellar solos on what appeared to be a Hammond B3.

The drummer held his own and provided what was needed from his position.

The saxophonist was superb. A big man with big lungs. Had to be. I had no idea a tenor sax could pull those high notes, and for that length of time!!! We're talking 8 or 10 bars of music, just screaming that thing! Awesome.

Lest we forget the trumpeter. He too was on par with the saxist. However, he wasn't as big, so therefore his lungs were likely smaller, and yet he was able to blow out equally amazing notes for sustained periods of time.

Sax and trumpet had me whirling in memory back to sounds similar to the E Street Band of the 70's.

As for Colin himself, the guy is a fabulous guitarist.

However, one must keep in mind that I have been to a solo Phil Keaggy concert that lasted nearly three hours, so I really can never offer any unbiased evaluation of a guitarist anymore.

Rock. Blues. R&B. Odyssey.

And yes, it was there. Dylan's Watching the River Flow.

photoshop?

The past two, or perhaps three, weeks have been not much more than a blur for me. From the ski trip to three crazy days at work to an insane road trip to Vancouver, Victoria, and back again in 4 days, to another crazy four days at work. I'm pretty much spent, and looking forward very much to sleeping in my own bed and not having an alarm waking me up in the morning.

It is after times like these that I realise the things I appreciate about life.

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I typically don't bring my camera anywhere where someone else will have a camera, and pretty much any digital camera is better than mine, being that it's so old and slow and bulky.

I got to take this photo with a Canon Digital Rebel XT. It's completely real and not photoshopped at all. I think that the lighting as it was, combined with the flash, makes it have that look where the people are not really there, and the backdrop is just a painting, and the foreground is the only thing that was photographed. I'm not sure why exactly, but this is a photo that I like.

B O N U S

I found out today that I will be getting a bonus.

$ $ $

It's for performance in 2005 and somewhat substantial compared to my average after-tax income.

Cannot say what it is, because people I work with may read this.

I can say that it's not a membership to the jam of the month club.

it's a 10

Day 2 - Kicking Horse



The Stairway to Heaven quad drops you off at 8,033'. I can say nothing else aside from: A M A Z I N G ! !

We arrived and it was snowing quite well, and there was about 5 or 7 cm of fresh new fluffy soft white pow-pow for the day. The Stairway to Heaven chair delivered on its namesake today.

"it's a 10" is a snakingly long run which goes all the way to the bottom along a cat-track. The 10 refers to the length: 10 kilometers. My last run was on this 10 km trail. I think it's the longest I've ever skied. I wasn't going too fast, and I think it took about 30 minutes to get down.

Tomorrow is Panorama again. No one has snow in the forecast until Monday.

view of 1000 peaks

Day 1 of the February in Fairmont Ski Trip

Long day. Not much to say. BC knows how to build a ski resort. Panorama is fantastic!

At the top, the Summit, looking east towards Alberta is the view of 1000 peaks. Literally. This view blows away Kingston's 1000 islands. Serioulsy, there should be a new salad dressing for this view.

Just a couple of photos.



This is part of the view of 1000 peaks. Freaking awesome.



That's for SSS. Since his camera batteries died when trying to take a similar photo in Fernie.

if anyone limits freedom of speech, then it is no longer free

I finally found it!



Be offended. With free speech, it is a person's right to be offended.

But in no way is it ever acceptable that your offense be turned into physical violence.

That photo above, though not particularly funny, is really nothing compared to these:

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Freedom of speech ≠ freedom of violence.

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I realise that the unwarranted outlash from Muslims and Islamic dictatorship states (both of which typically contain suppressed and oppressed people), is not entirely contained to the arab-Muslim population of Israel (I do not recognise palestine as a "state"). But what seems strange to me is this: the violent actions seem to be entirely contained within the arab-Muslim population of Israel. Gaza and the west bank are nothing more than welfare zones, relying upon the good will of "the west". If not for "the west" there would be no "palestine", because Israel would have cleaned house by now.

By defacing property of the EU, by threatening kidnappings, by strutting around for the media carrying guns and rocket launchers with the intent to use them, by being a bunch of fucking pigs, you completely lose any credibility you may have had.

And this, on the heels of the Hamas vs. Fatah political whatever. Geez, you don't even have your own country, and you've already started a civil war!! What are you doing?

I think your ski masks and head coverings are missing the pointy tops.

and you don't trust them?!?

This is what voting Liberal, NDP, or Bloc doesn't get you.







Alberta has already stood up for herself.

Now it's time for Canada.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will deliver.

Well, that is, if the others mentioned above don't screw us over still.