Calvin's Weblog

So much to talk about, so little time..

Wow, it has been a newsworthy few days, but there are so many topics I doubt I've got enough time to mention 'em all, let alone tell you what I think about everything...
Yesterday morning, I was going to write about how the mercury dipped below freezing for the first time on Saturday - actually getting to negative one - wow - cold! But then, I didn't get a chance to write it, and blammo, yesterday we got our first snow. WAY more interesting than our first day below zero!!!

So I was going to mention that today, but then Bush came to Ottawa, and there were all those cool protests, and I wanted to write about that - even thought I was REALLY torn between writing about that and the "Greatest Canadian" contest, which I have been following for weeks, and which finally ended last night...

But THEN, Pierre Berton died - and I was like, "Man... that guy had like, 50 books about Canada... he was the most proud and patriotic Canadian EVER - writing about him would be way cooler than the Greatest Canadian, OR the Bush protests... and then a segment came on the national about how Canadian values are actually drifting away from American values even though we're so afraid of becoming Americanized and that really got me thinking about how polorized things are becoming, and I thought it would be cool to write about the fact that when asked the question "Do you think the father should be master of the house", 20% of Canadians said 'yes', while 52% of Americans said 'yes'... very interesting...

So I ran upstairs to start writing, and I got write to about here when Carole yelled "Calvin! Amazing Race is starting right now!!!" So I pressed the "Publish Blog Article" button as fast as I could, and ran downstairs to see if that stupid blue-haired guy gets booted from the race yet.

Geez, there was so much to talk about and I've got an opinion on all of it, but alas... no time - gotta press "Publish!"

Megadeth and Exodus at the Commodore

Back to the Commodore again! No better place to spend a Friday night...
As much as I wanted to checkout 7th Sunn at Endoplasmic, and OmegaCrom at Studio 54, I already had tix to see Megadeth at the Commodore Friday night, and the show turned out to be absolutely amazing!
Exodus lost their singer to a fatal stroke (at age 41) a while back, and had gone through a few replacements (including Chuck Billy of Testament) so I had no idea what they were going to sound like. As it turns out, HEAVIER was the answer. They were great - it's awesome that they're still kickin' it after all these years... as Dave Mustaine pointed out later, The original five Nu-Metal bands were Exodus, Anthrax, Metalica, Megadeth, and Slayer. I got to see two of 'em in one night!

On to Megedeth... considering that Mustaine was told two and a half years ago that the would never play guitar again, it was one hell of a show - scratch that... even if Dave hadn't OD'd on heroin and passed out on his left arm for two days, killing all the nerves, collapsing all the veins, and leaving all the muscles in atrophy, it was still one of the best Megadeth performances I've ever seen - and this was the 6th time I'd seen 'em!

After the ministry show the other week, I thought I had seen the Commodore at capacity - but for Megatdeth, they somehow managed to squeeze another 500 - 600 people in. I've been to a lot of shows there, but I've never seen such an amazing crowd.

When the dust had settled, Megadeth had played for nearly two hours and twenty minutes - performing all their staples, a hefty swath of tunes from the new album, a few of their soundtrack only tunes, and a surprise rendition of "Back in the Day" with all the members of Exodus returning to the stage to sing along.
Considering that the only original member of Megadeth in this lineup is Dave Mustaine, the rest of the guys did an amazing job at keeping true to the sound and style that the rock gawds are so famous for.

It was a great time, it was great show - it's just too band that this is the end of Megadeth. The band was dispanded three years ago, and this last album would have been called "The Dave Mustaine" project, were it not for label obligations... they owed one more Megadeth album, and "The System Has Failed" was it.

Not exactly exciting, but...

Since I haven't updated the blog since last week, I figured I'd spend a couple minutes jotting down what I've been up to for the last while, even though it's not very exciting...

I've spent pretty much every spare minute over the last week creating a website for the Vancouver Indie Band Collective. This 'as yet un-named' Collective is a group of about 24 bands that have decided to work together to help get the word out about local music. It's VERY much in the planning stages, but we needed a web portal where we could communicate and share ideas, so I volunteered my skills.

It's really rough, but it's at http://collective.sed.ca right now. Once we come up with a name, we'll get a real hostname, and once we've got a logo, we can design the site to look a little cooler...
But for now, I say 'pretty damn good job so far' ... that is, if I may say so myself...

Other than that, Scarecrow Balcony had a couple really productive rehearsals where we wrote one new song, and learned a new surprise cover, which _may_ even get played live at The Marine Club this Saturday...

Finally! Pictures from my Hike up the Chief this summer

This is funny - this hike was actually the reason I bought a digital camera... I was frustrated that I went on an awesome hike, took half a roll of cool pictures, and then let the camera sit around for a month, waiting to finish the roll before taking it in for developing. So anyway, I just finally finished off the roll and got it developed - and here are the pictures!
That's Bob Dog and Scotty Dogma with me - Bob's the one hanging off the edge of the Chief...

Ministry Concert last night

Another night at the Commodore - it's becomming a habbit...
Last night it was Ministry and whooooweeee what an awesome show it was. Ministry was amazing - I expected that. What I din't expect was to be blown away by the opening band Hanzel und Gretyl from Germany. Absolutely killer music - loved it, loved it, loved it. I'm gonna buy one of their albums for sure...

So I know this is a short entry, but after getting in at 2AM and getting up at 6AM for work, I'm a little groggy - head spinning - ears ringing - but totally psyched to have been at that show.
Gonna be back in a week to see Megadeth ... super psyched for that too!

Tropical Monday?

They say this is a 'tropical storm' that's hitting us right now...
This is Canada... we're at the 50th parallel, and yet, although RAIN is exactly what we'd expect on November 15, we certainly wouldn't expect the temperature to be hovering between 15 and 20 degrees at 6:30AM. Between 2 and 8 would be more likely...
If it were sunnier, I'd expect this sort of temperature on June 15th - not November 15th! Strange indeed.

Yes, so it's 18 degrees in the valley ( that's 64 yank-degrees) and 15 in the city (59 in yank)... kinda kewl, I suppose.

On another note, Scarecrow Balcony played an awesome show on Saturday night - I posted pictures in the Scarecrow Balcony Journal and a couple of videos in the VIDEO section, if anybody's interested...

Pub 340 Pics

Here are a few pictures from the show last night - I'm working of the video now...

**Photos by Carole Quaite

Anybody want a gmail account?

I've got six to give away - apparently they're quite the hot commodity... like I care - I've got my own mailserver...
BUT, instead of letting them go to waste, just let me know if you want one and I'll send you and invite. Otherwise maybe I'll put 'em on e.Bay.

I don't know why I even bother...

It's not like it's going to make a difference now, and besides - I already said I was giving up on America. But when I see SOOOOO many examples like those below, I get really pissed off and I wanna say something about it!!!!!

E-voting machines caught switching votes
InfoWorld
"U.S. voters calling in to a toll-free number had reported more than 1,100 separate incidents of problems with electronic voting machines and other voting technologies by late Tuesday during the nationwide election. In more than 30 reported cases, when voters reviewed their choices before finalizing them, an electronic voting machine indicated they had voted for a different candidate... In a majority of cases where machines allegedly recorded a wrong vote, votes were taken away from Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, or a Democratic candidate in another race, and given to Republican President George Bush or another Republican candidate, said Cindy Cohn, legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation... 'We're only hearing from people who caught it,' Cohn said during a press conference... 'It gives us this uneasy feeling we're seeing the tip of the iceberg.'"
Read article... and This... and This...

Computer Glitch gave Bush extra votes in Ohio
CNN
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.
Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry's 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.
Bush actually received 365 votes in the precinct, Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, told The Columbus Dispatch.
Read Article...

E-voting machines lose 4,531 votes in North Carolina precinct
WNCT-TV 9 Greenville
"Ed Pond says when the numbers didn't match up, manufacturers told him: 'Of the votes we have, 3,006 is all we can recover. We said, "What do you mean?"' What that means is: of 7,537 voters, every one made after 3,005 were not saved in the computer memory. The Carteret county board of elections say their electronic voting system is owned by Unilect. Initially they told the board 10,000 votes could be stored in these computer systems. In actuality, it was 7,000... Luckily, Pond says this slip up was not large enough to change elected leaders... Both sides agree a backup or alert system should be in place for next election."
Read article... and This article...

E-voting machines lose 37 votes in Florida precinct
Bradenton Herald
"Nine voting machines ran out of battery power and nearly 40 votes may have been lost in Palm Beach County, the first major problem reported on Election Day... The nine machines at a Boynton Beach precinct weren't plugged in properly, and their batteries wore down around 9:30 a.m., said Marty Rogol spokesman for Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Theresa LePore. Poll clerk Joyce Gold said 37 votes appeared to be missing after she compared the computer records to the sign-in sheet. Elections officials won't know exactly how many votes were lost until after polls close... U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat, unsuccessfully sued to add a paper trail to the machines, which he says cannot meet a state requirement for manual recounts."
Read article...

E-Voting machines lost 245 votes in Florida precinct
St. Petersburg Times
"Rob MacKenna, Democratic challenger for supervisor of elections, accused incumbent Buddy Johnson Friday of providing an 'inaccurate and misleading account' of his office's loss of 245 votes in the August primary and suggested Johnson 'should be drawing a paycheck elsewhere.' In a noon news conference, MacKenna backed his charges with evidence from an internal report on 245 votes lost when an elections worker mistakenly left a touch screen voting machine in the 'test' mode. The report and a Friday St. Petersburg Times story detailing it say the Supervisor of Elections' staff looked for the lost votes for 13 days without ever informing Johnson or state election officials of the 245-vote discrepancy... It was inaction by Johnson' office, MacKenna said in calling for Johnson's resignation, that allowed a statutory 10-day period for challenging an election to expire while his staff was still trying to hunt down the missing 245 votes." Read article...

Stupid Americans. Serves them right for not banning all computerized voting machines outright.

An Open Letter to [Middle] America

Bravo America, you've shown your true colour. In true democratic fashion, you flocked to the polls with purpose, and with a vengeance. Voter apathy four years ago was at it's all-time low ... but yesterday, voter participation hit it's all-time high. This is no small feat! You've spoken loud and clear, and your voice has been heard.

Both major campaigns told you that this vote was going to be one of historical significance, and they were right. You listened to them, and you believed them. Yesterday you had a chance to show the entire world what Americans are made of, what America stands for, and what "freedom" means to you. And you did!!!

When it comes to the quest for Liberty, Justice, and Freedom, American history is full of some of the greatest and most inspiring stories in the world, so it's no surprise you felt the strong patriotic duty to participate and make your voice heard. It's truly a great and wonderful thing you did. It's something that most people in the world aren't even allowed to do, which makes what you did all the more special. It's awe inspiring, it really is.

In 1620, a group of 102 separatist men, women, and children fled from British religious persecution in The Mayflower and founded what later became New England. A new, better land, where they were FREE to practice their religion and had LIBERTIES unlike anything ever heard of in old England. They formed a fair new justice system, and their small colony grew rapidly as Europeans, who knew in their hearts that the human spirit was not meant to suffer under oppression and tyranny, flocked to this new (comparatively liberal) paradise.

In 1682, William Penn set sail for America with the dream of founding a utopian city, Philadelphia, where not only like minded Quakers, but ALL citizens, regardless of race, creed, or religion would be free from tyranny and persecution, have equality, and civil liberties. To this day, his "City of Brotherly Love" and all his accomplishments stand as a testament to the righteousness of free, liberal, forward thinking. The signs are everywhere - from the Liberty Bell, to the constitution of the United States of America, to the declaration of Independence - everything that America holds dear, stemmed from William Penn's Charter of Privileges, a guarantee of religious and civil freedom for all citizens.

In fact, your country's entire history is riddled with great stories a free thinking men and women who have forged westward, whether it be on the Oregon Trail in the 1840s or on the road to California a decade later - brave, freedom loving, forward thinking Americans have never been afraid to leave economic hardship, persecution, and the staunch 'old thinking' bureaucracy and governmental oppression behind as they push the frontiers in search of a new land, where they can be free to live their lives as they chose.

And that's really what it's all about, right? Freedom? The basic, fundamental human right to dignity and respect with freedom from oppression and persecution? Everything else stems from that - whether it be freedom from slavery, or prejudice, or taxation without representation, or your right to vote, to be heard, to peaceably assemble, to bear arms, to worship as you chose?

Yes, freedom.
And it's nice to see that the citizens of New England, and Pennsylvania, and Oregon, and California, and the District of Columbia, and host of other states still remember what their forefathers fought for, what brought them to live where they do. The real reason why America even exists. What freedom really means. It’s true, many Americans still know in their hearts what it means to be free, but they're obviously not the majority.

As for the rest of America, well, you've forgotten. And that's too bad. But for the rest of the world, as shocked and disappointed as we are, at least we know exactly what's going on in your minds. We don't need to make excuses for you any more. We don't have to ponder: "maybe it's just voter apathy?" or "maybe they don't get to see the world news that we get to see?" or "maybe we're only hearing the vocal minority?" or "maybe they're just too afraid to stand up for what's right?"
Nope. No more excuses. It's loud and clear now. We can stop shaking our heads in disbelief, you spoke - we heard - we believe you.

You told us America (by and large) is a nation of dolts. Close minded, backward thinking, religious fundamentalist, ruthless, greedy, tyrannical, oppressive, war mongering, self righteous, expansionist holier-than-thou dolts. You believe that you're right, and the rest of the world is wrong. You think that since you live in the greatest (read: strongest) nation in the world, it's therefore your duty to make the rest of the world think the way you do. A vote for George Bush was an endorsement to the rest of the world that "We know exactly what we're doing, and we're all for it."

What? 100,000 innocent civilians have died in Iraq since we invaded? Fuck 'em. They shouldn't have flown airplanes into our building then. Huh? It wasn't Iraqis that did that? Fuck 'em. They're all A-rabs. They're all to blame. What? They're not all A-rabs? Well, they all speak the same language and worship the same false god of evil, so fuck 'em. Huh? They don't all speak the same language or worship a false god? What do you mean their god is the same god as our God? Well, they're so backwards anyway, and besides, they all hate America and everything we stand for, so fuck 'em. Huh? What do you mean Iraq used to be a highly industrialized, prosperous and modern nation before Saddam, and that even after all the death and destruction we've caused, over 70% of the (still living) Iraqis actually approve of the removal of the dictator? Well fine - so it looks like we did them a favor then, doesn't it... fuck 'em if they don't appreciate that!!! We're America, dammit! It's our right! Ain't y'all never heard of Manifest Destiny?

Oh, but it's so much more the illegal invasion of Iraq. It's so much more than the crimes against humanity in Abu Ghraib, the genocide at Fallujah, the false pretense for war, or the deliberate and unlawful attack without U.N. consent... it's the little things too ... after all, many nations have been deceitfully led into wars by unscrupulous leaders before - that's nothing new, and it's not beyond the realm of reason that the American propaganda machine could work it's magic its citizens. There's all the stuff that hits closer to home that the American people seem to agree with too - like, even though you're the land of the FREE, founded on freedom from persecution and freedom to live your life however you chose, you still vote to make gay marriage illegal. You vote to make stem cell research illegal. You vote for racial profiling, you vote for fully automatic assault weapons, you vote for no health care, no pensions, and no future. You vote to keep everyone that's not like you OUT, and everyone that is like you IN. You voted that oil really IS worth your sons and daughters lives.

Your economy is floundering. Four years ago, your country was as prosperous as it has ever been, and now it's worse than it has ever been. You could have voted to fix that, but instead you voted to make it worse - and it's going to get worse, much worse. Trust me.
Your unemployment rate is skyrocketing. Your pension fund is nearly bankrupt. 70% of you receive less health care than the citizens of Cuba, India and China. Your literacy rate is the lowest of all G8 industrialized nations, and you infant mortality rate is the highest. Your household income, standard of living, and life expectancy are all the lowest too. But you still voted for more of the same. Why? Because you obviously think your way is better, that's why. After all, you are "America"- greatest (read: most militarized) nation on earth.

25,000 of you die needlessly in senseless gun deaths every single year and nothing is done about it - yet 2,948 Americans die on September 11th, and another 1,100+ during the war in Iraq, and no price (dollars or lives) is too high to prevent that from ever happening again. $143 Billion dollars and counting. Imagine if that much was spent - just once, to get rid of all the guns in America. I'm certain it could be done, and I'm certain it would save 25,000 live a year... but that's different - that's Americans killing Americans. That's your right. Foreigners have no right to kill you, and they've gotta pay - regardless of the cost. Even if your children and your children's children have to pay off the debt. No cost is too high.

Don't get me wrong. After September 11th, the world rallied behind America. An injustice had been done to one of our brothers. We cried for you as if it had been done to our own sons and daughters. We shared your pain, and your rage. The world was united in their condemnation of the atrocity, and we were behind the toppling of the Taiban and the crushing of Al Qaeda. If you recall, practically every nation that could put together a boat full of troops wanted to be a part of that fight - for you - our brothers, and for us - the free world - because the while the attack may have taken place on your soil, the target was OUR way of life. I myself flew 3,000 miles shortly after 9/11 - when it was still a very scary time to fly - to pay respects in person, at the World Trace Center site. Thousands of ‘free' people from around the world, like me, wanted to show our solidarity. But something went wrong... somehow this great disaster became the reason for everything. Somehow the stock market, the economy, your child's education, the price of milk, gasoline, and airline tickets, wars in Iraq, tensions with Iran and Korea, corporate scandals, layoffs, paycuts, EVERYTHING bad in America was being attributed to it... not to the crappy leadership of George W. Bush, but to the maniacal madman Saddam Hussein (cough, cough, er, I mean Osama Bin Laden). An even though America had made it through Peal Harbour and Viet Nam and WWI, and a Civil War, a war for Independence, and countless other tragedies okay, for some reason, this single blow was responsible for the most crippling effects ever known in the US economt.. Sure - sounds believable... so you bought it.

And now you've willingly given up your civil liberties. You've jumped into the Patriot Act feet first and said "Yes! I'm willing to live in a police state as long as that means no terrorist is going to kill me!" You've sent a loud and clear message that "We LIKE having no healthcare and we LIKE having no clue how we're going to survive after we retire! We LIKE paying quadruple what any other industrialized nation pays for prescription drugs and we LIKE the fact that our per capital oil consumption is triple that of the second highest consumer in the world. We LIKE the fact that only four countries in he world have worse air quality, and we LIKE the fact that over 95% of our water is unfit for consumption, fishing, or swimming. We are, after all, America! And that makes us better than you, despite the fact that you have all that stuff!"

I used to feel really bad for you. As recently as yesterday, in fact. I honestly thought you'd snap out of it and make the one simple easy choice that could make you prosperous and respected again. But you didn't. Were you duped? Nope. You just showed your true colours. You knew all along what you were doing. George Bush really DOES represent America. The way he's viewed in the world is how you WANT to be viewed by the world. I'm now convinced of that. It's a real shame. But things are going to get really bad for you now, and you're just going to have to live with it. It must suck to be you.

PS - Thanks, by the way! The rest of the world would really like to thank you for having such a crappy economy... it's making our economies look GREAT! Our dollar is worth the highest it has been in my entire lifetime - our economy is the strongest it has ever been! My house has doubled in price in a mere three years, and my stock options have doubled in the last ten months! I put more money into my retirement savings every thirty days than the average American MAKES in a month! Every time Dubya makes another enemy, all the investors that pull out of America go to straight to robust, bustling economies like ours with their money. You don't wanna buy French wine? Fine! We'll buy it - we've got lots of disposable income, and great taste - it is, after all, the best wine in the world... You don't wanna buy our softwood lumber or beef? Fine! There are plenty of other countries willing to pay a lot more for it than you ever did - but we HAD to sell it to you because of trade agreements ... Besides, all your meat processing plants are closing down and moving up here anyway, now that there aren't enough cows in the US to keep them in business. You get to pay more for our beef, and we get all your jobs to boot. Oh - you want some of our extra flu vaccine? You know, the ones that we get for free because that's what "HealthCare" means? Sure no problem - we'll send over a free box with each cow you buy. You want some of our fresh, clean drinking water? No problem - we'll tanker it down to ya, towed behind each softwood lumber truck. You want all our extra electricity? Well, we DO have more than we know what to do with - one of the added benefits of being a 'green' society I guess... sure, no problem - if you promise to stop letting all your PCB laden coal-burning smog drift north of the 49th parallel, we'll sell you all the clean, natural hydro power you can afford... assuming of course, you don't go bankrupt in the next 4 years...

We're just nice that way, neighbor. You made your bed, now you've got to sleep in it. Good luck with that president of yours, see you in 2008.