I’m going to do my best to Tweet the last US Presidential debate while watching the game - but don’t hold your breath because if it’s just the same nonsense then I won’t bother. Plus, there’s the Dodgers-Phillies game as well, which I’m missing because I’m not willing to sign up for the MLB internet package – though I am following along with the MLB pitch-by-pitch feature. The Phillies lead the season 3-1 and, even though I’m going for the Dodgers, I think the Phillies will take it at home tonight.

Just For Laughs…

30 seconds? Who’s she kidding? She’s the hottest television cheerleader of all time. Plus, she can’t die!

Updated:

- Well that was an experience.

Tonight, Les Canadiens de Montréal, this nation’s most storied hockey team, takes the ice to begin their 100th season. It is only fitting that it’s against the Boston Bruins. That said, the puck is being dropped so I’m off to watch. How I’m going to bounce back and forth between the game and the Presidential debate is beyond me.

It’s game time. It’s 1976.

I was just updating a post from earlier today and accidentally deleted it. The new interface has the update and delete buttons pretty close together, and when you’re watching playoff hockey at the same time, hitting the wrong one can certainly become a problem. Anyway, it’s probably still out there in RSS land.

Updated

Now that was a comeback.

It’s almost noon, which means only four more hours until the puck drops in Montreal. How I am going to pass those four hours I don’t know.

After returning home some weeks ago I realized something about my apartment. The concrete floors, like hardwood floors, collect dust at an alarming rate. You could vacuum and dust this place on a daily basis only for it to end up in the exact same state the next afternoon. Meanwhile, you’re breathing all of it in, which, if you’re allergic to dust, makes your sinuses very unhappy.

For years I’ve had to sleep with a fan next to the bed for two reasons. One – the noise it produces drowns out the ringing in my ears. Two – I get hot really easily and can’t stand sleeping in a warm room. Unfortunately, because the fan is pointed at the bed, dust particles are probably being pumped through it, meaning that while I’m sleeping I’m getting a healthy dose of dust – fantastic.

My brain has felt like scrambled eggs for weeks. It’s been hard to concentrate, hard to work, hard to read. I find myself obsessively cleaning, folding laundry, opening recording sessions only to have the feeling of ‘I don’t feel like doing this right now’ pass over me. The same goes for writing for the site, actually.

In truth, that’s one of the reasons we tend to make so many graphic changes around here – because it gives me something to do that isn’t focused on my job or the weight of the world. I suppose that’s why I’ve come to envy blogs and sites that aren’t so serious, because writing them must be a ton of fun every day. After a while, writing about music and geopolitics can get to you, I’ll be the first to admit it. The latter of the two tends to cause a great deal of blog fatigue, even to the extent that I’ll read a great deal every day but fail to even bother posting links to those things that I have read to my del.icio.us page, which is something that I have done on a routine basis for some years now.

In a way I miss being on the road. Out there you know what’s going on, what you have to do, and what your day’s going to be like. Having no real connections at home, beyond the dogs and my immediate family, it’s become something that I miss. While I tend to be somewhat of a homebody while at home, there’s something about being constantly on the move that I miss when I’m not doing it.

Anyway, four hours to kill before game 5.

When it comes to hockey I have a dirty little secret. I’m a Habs fan. And nothing makes a Habs fan more happy than seeing them stick it to Boston in the first two games of the opening round of the playoffs. Granted, last night’s game was won in overtime and was nowhere near the thrashing that game one was, but I’ll take it nonetheless. This season the Canadiens have gone undefeated against Boston, winning all eight encounters, which obviously puts Montreal in a rather advantageous psychological position, even more so now that they have taken the first two games.

The Canadiens have played the Bruins more times than any other two teams in NHL history. In post season play, the have faced the Bruins thirty times, winning twenty-three of their meetings.

Of course, Canadiens history is storied and, when put into historical perspective, utterly ominous. Being that the franchise is currently headed by two of its greats, it’s no wonder that this year’s team has been infused with a sense of what it means to pull that jersey over their heads.

So why am I a Canadiens fan? Well, when my father came to Canada in the fifties there were only six teams in the NHL. Of those six, only two were Canadian. So my father, like any sane individual, became a Habs fan and remains one to this day. Hell, he even watches them in French when they’re spurned by Hockey Night In Canada, which is quite often given that the CBC has a secret arrangement with the Leafs organization to televise all of their games on Hockey Night In Canada no matter how bad they are.

In short, growing up we watched the Canadiens play – which would be prior to the CBC having their tongues up the ass of the Leafs organization. Between 1976 and 1979 the Canadiens would win the Stanley Cup four times in a row with what was, arguably, one of the best teams in hockey history. Only the New York Islanders dynasty of the early 80’s and the Ottawa Senators between 1903 and 1906 have ever matched the Canadiens four in a row record, though no other team has ever won the Stanley Cup five consecutive seasons in a row, which the Canadiens did between 1956 and 1960. And prior to their four consecutive wins in the mid to late 70’s, they would also win the cup in 73, 71, 69, and 68.

While they haven’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993, a fact that Hab-haters like to point out whenever they’re reminded of the fact that the rafters at the Molson Centre can’t been seen because there’s too many championship banners obscuring them from view, there’s simply no questioning the fact that the Canadiens, probably more than any team, embody the spirit of hockey excellence. And personally, you can take your Wayne Gretzky diatribes and go cry in a beer on White Avenue.

To be honest, when this country adopted our current flag in 1965, an immense mistake was made. Let me provide an example.

And guess who won the Stanley Cup in 1965? That’s right, the Montreal Canadiens.

The Truth Vs. The Mainstream Media

It’s good to know that there is a media outlet out there that still tells it like it is. A few examples.

The Truth About Darfur

How Can We Raise Awareness In Darfur Of How Much We’re Doing For Them?

The Truth About 9/11

9/11 Conspiracy Theories ‘Ridiculous,’ Al Qaeda Says

The Bias Of Censorship

FCC Okays Nudity On TV If It2019s Alyson Hannigan

First, my entry last night entitled ‘you see’, was actually a just a test post, so it shares no relevance to this entry.

I didn’t watch the Junos last night. In fact, I don’t own a television. But on this occasion I wish that I had watched, just for the diatribe of host Russell Peters.

If there’s one thing the Junos are known for it’s how utterly painful most of its hosts have been. Last night, from some of the excerpts that I have read, it seems that curse was broken.

Here are a select few…

“I can’t believe they have a post-apocalyptic theme up here. We’ll let a brown guy host, but the world has to end first.”

“South Asians, my people, are now the largest visible minority in Canada. Do you know what that means, Calgary? Pretty soon your cowboys are going to be Indians.”

“I never actually have seen the Junos before, which makes me Canadian.”

“The Junos people have been treating me really well. They actually got me a driver - Chad Kroeger.”

One wonders if that last remark will lead to Kroeger claiming in an interview that Peters is due for a good old fashion country ass kicking.

My Recent Canucks Entry

If you subscribe to the website using the RSS feed then you still have access to it, even though it’s been deleted. My reason for doing so is that I’ve been receiving a ton of email from Canucks fans lambasting me for everything from my lack of knowledge to the fact that ‘my music sucks’. Normally that wouldn’t bother me too much, but when you start to get emails that claim that Rolling Stone voted you the worst song writer in North America, which is a total fabrication, then you know you’re in for a shit storm that’s best avoided. If I’m going to be attacked for anything, let it be for commentary regarding something that’s actually relevant to the state of the world, not a bloody hockey team. At least Hockey Night In Canada analyst Jeff Marek said he liked it.

So I finally got my hands on a copy of Ken Burn’s The War, thus I’ll spend the next 10 hours watching it. So far it’s very good. I especially like how Burns chose to focus on four US towns and various individuals from them with regards to their experiences rather than trying to cover the nation as a whole. It provides an insight that is little seen.

One of the more interesting aspects of the first disc is how Burns goes about portraying US isolationism. While Europe and Asia were already in the throes of conflict, many Americans went about their daily lives contented that it was a world away, and thus did not affect them. I was also glad to see that Burns delved briefly into the fact that prior to World War Two the US military was relatively small, and that following it, because of the economic prosperity the country ultimately enjoyed in its wake, the United States became the most powerful country in the world.

Over 400,000 Americans lost their lives during the Second World War, but the United States itself remained the only major power involved in the conflict untouched at its conclusion. Europe and Asia were decimated; Russia had lost some twenty million people, and yet the United States remained as it was before – intact. While not directly relatable to the content of the documentary itself; that is a fact that shouldn’t be lost on anyone with regards to the birth of the American neo-imperial mindset.

The sacrifices made by Americans (and Canadians and Newfoundlanders for that matter) in a conflict that had no outright impact on this continent are certainly admirable. But as Burns attempts to reveal in the documentary – war is not a proposition that is ultimately about right and wrong, nor the superiority of political ideologies. It is one that is an exercise in those vulnerabilities from which we all suffer, and thus the revelation that despite the reasons for conflict, the base common that must ultimately pay the price for them are, in truth, more alike than not when the uniforms come off and arms are laid down.

Though it might be hard to believe, this generation of North Americans finds itself the product of the result of that war. Our political ideology, like those of many societies that have come before us, has been overwhelmingly employed of late to justify aggression. Democracy itself has become a weapon in and of itself, one that is rarely questioned when used to justify the need for war. In such times we turn ceremoniously to its principles as if a blank cheque, and that is an unfortunate reality that was created by the outcome of a war fought more than sixty years ago. But it is not the reason why that war was fought, and that is something that should not, in the name of those that fought it, ever be forgotten.

First, I’ll admit to being a lukewarm hockey fan. I like watching the Canucks play now and then and, of course, am admittedly a playoff bandwagon jumper.

Second, let me state for the record that in the Premier League, kits are usually changed from season to season, which is the reason that I stopped collecting Arsenal kit tops some years ago, having amassed every one of them from the late 70’s until the early part of this decade. I just couldn’t justify buying into the constant ploy of getting supporters to spend even more money than they already do.

That said – I am about to go off regarding the Canucks new uniforms, so if you like them, step away from your computer.

Photo by Rebecca Bollwitt

Let’s start with the basics. Who in the hell chose the entirely unimaginative designers that came up with this thing? You have to wonder if they just set up a giant pin the tail on the donkey jersey and walked blindly towards it.

The jersey is basically nothing more than our original colours from the 70’s with the current logo plastered on the front and, as an added treat, ‘Vancouver’ awkwardly arched over the logo.

You know who had design skills? Joe Borovich.

Borovich, a North Vancouverite, designed our now legendary rink and stick logo, which is actually the letter ‘C’. Believe it or not, it is considered to be one of the best sporting logos of all time, which might be why it’s still so popular.

So one has to ask the obvious question. Why not just go back to using the original uniforms and do away with that atrocious Orca?

Seriously.

Orca? Cool stick design? Lame Orca? Cool stick design?

Hell, even the Millionaires logo was better than that Orca, and it was just crimson letters sewn into a big white ‘V’.

There’s a reason why I respect the New York Yankees. It’s because in almost 100 years they’ve not only kept their uniforms basically the same, but they still adhere to the tradition of not putting the names of players on the back. And guess who still has some of the most purchased merchandise in all of sports?

With regards to hockey, what is the one team logo that stands out above all others? If the famed emblem of the Montreal Canadiens popped into your head, you’d be right. It has, for decades, remained unaltered. In fact, when it comes to this country, it’s almost as internationally recognizable as our flag.

Now, can you imagine what would happen in Montreal were they to change that logo, replacing it with a set of old-world fur traders hoisting a canoe over their heads with one hand whilst giving the thumbs up with the other, their faces adorned with ridiculous cartoon smiles?

Well, if you can imagine thousands of people willingly throwing themselves out of open windows, you might have a decent picture.