Today on my drive to work my phone decided to play some Daniel Romano. He doesn’t pop up too often, even though I own three of his albums¹. His latest album is more country than anything he’s done before. Moving away from the folk of his previous two albums, and the rock of Attack In Black.

The song was “A New Love (Can Be Found).” As soon as he sang the opening lyrics, the most country lyrics you can imagine, I was hooked.

Some stranger is with her for the first time tonight. What’s a man to do when he just can’t win?

I don’t know if this song is positive or negative, and judging by the video below, I don’t think Romano knows himself.

Usually his records don’t pull me in completely, instead two or three songs grab my attention and hold it. Usually not more. On his previous album it was “She Was The World To Me.” The song is much more rooted into the folk world, as he sings “I was nothing to her, but she was the world to me.” He sings his love song to this corpse.

1. Four if you count the Daniel, Fred, and Julie album. [↩]

Way too long ago Mari told me about Telekinesis, I didn’t pay attention. Then one day I showed up to the Horseshoe Tavern where they were promoting their album 12 Desperate Straight Lines. I was giddy at how awesome they were. Last night they came back to Toronto to promote their new album Dormarion. While I’ve yet to listen to Dormarion¹, I absolutely adore their previous record.

1. I’m waiting for Merge to ship it to me. [↩]

Last night Deep Sea Divers opened at the Horseshoe Tavern.

Last night I went to see The Good Family, a band comprised of:

1. Mike Belitsky (of The Sadies)
2. Sean Dean (of The Sadies)
3. Dallas Good (of The Sadies)
4. Dallas’s brother, Travis Good (of The Sadies)
5. Travis’s uncle, Larry Good (of The Good Brothers)
6. Larry’s brother, Bruce Good (of the Good Brothers)
7. Bruce’s wife, Margaret Good
8. Margaret’s niece, D’arcy Good

That’s a lot of band members, and lots of family.

The show made me remember why I used to love the Sadies so much. I haven’t seen them since 2007 or so, and can’t imagine the number of amazing shows I must’ve missed.

I also shot this video. I didn’t do a good job at keeping it steady or focusing, but it shows how awesome the show was.

Here’s a little photo preview from tonight’s show at The Dakota Tavern. The Good Family. I’ll post more later.

I went to see Soulpepper’s performance of La Ronde last night and I really didn’t know what to expect from their description:

First published privately at the turn of the last century, due to its frank sexual content, Schnitzler’s La Ronde was sensationally banned for obscenity, securing the play a place in dramatic immortality. Taking a circuitous route through ten interconnected sexual liaisons, La Rondequestions the nature of human contact, love, and fidelity. Contains explicit sexual content and nudity – recommended for audiences 18+

It doesn’t really say much. Basically the play is a series of ten scenes which are interconnected. We start off in a bedroom with a soldier Charlie (Stuart Hughes) and Sonja (Leah Doz), a sexworker. As each scene ends, the audience watches the cast changing the set in dim lighting, and each scene is linked by carrying over one or two characters from the previous scene. In the second scene Charlie is trying to win back Hannibelle (Miranda Edwards), a refugee he fell in love with in the Congo. Hannibelle is haunted by her violent past and it’s her story which propels the entire first half of the play. While she’s only in two of those five scenes, her life and her story are what propel all those characters.

But that’s where the play falls apart, while the first half of the play is five self-contained stories linked through the story of Hannibelle, the second half has no successful link through its five stories. I’m not sure, but I think it was attempted to link the stories though Zoe’s (Grace Lynn Kung) backstory and tragedy, but there was no real emotional weight. The scene failed to resonate as it was focusing too much on the comedy of Lucas (Brandon McGibbon) and Teddy (Mike Ross) competing for Zoe and less on Zoe herself. Zoe seems to be a prop in both her two scenes, in both she’s a comedic prop either being fought over by men or to illustrate a man’s incompetence at oral sex.

My other thought is that the attempted link in that half is Robert (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) who may be Zoe’s father’s business parter who is mentioned in Zoe’s scene with Teddy and Lucas. It could be, but there’s really nothing to lead one to believe that, other than a wild guess. It’s at this point that it seems cracks in the play open up, as if there’s no real story, and it’s just 10 scenes that stand on their own. If the cracks are opening up, so are the cracks in the set, as one wall suddenly shifts a metre away from others, than another wall, then the backdrop raises as the set stands askew and the audience sees the crew changing the set between scenes.

It’s an interesting play, but it’s not quite there.

I’ve decided to slowly read all the James Bond novels, then rewatch the film, review the two.

The first James Bond novel is “Casino Royale,” while there are numerous films based on this novel, I’m going to focus on the Daniel Craig one. The novel isn’t very good. It’s a quick read, that’s certainly positive, however the negatives are great in this book, such as numerous chapters devoted to informing the reader how to play baccarat, something that’s never interested me. To the point that when I think of baccarat, I think of the scene in A Hard Day’s Night where Paul’s grandfather steal’s Ringo’s casino invite.

The book’s portrayal of women… well Vesper… the only woman, aside from a brief mention of Moneypenny, is ridiculously patronizing. Worse still, the character of Vesper is so one dimensional and serves no purpose in the plot, other than to be the traditional damsel in distress. Passages such as these show how little Fleming cares to include women in his macho fantasy.

She kept on patching up the edifice of her deceit until Bond wanted to spank her and tell her to relax and tell the truth.

Or even better:

“Now in order to tell the difference between good and evil, we have manufactured two images representing the extremes – representing the deepest black and the purest white – and we call them God and the Devil. But in doing sober have cheated a bit. God is a clear image, you can see every hair on His beard. But the Devil. What does he look like?” Bond looked triumphantly at Mathis.

Mathis laughed ironically.

“A woman.”

Worse still, this macho hero, James Bond is a wizard at the casino table, and supposedly one of the world’s best spies, but he gets himself kidnapped pretty easily. There’s a quick car chase which gets his car destroyed and him kidnapped by the Soviets. There he’s only saved from torture and death by pure luck. Then the book carries on for way too long as it follows his recovery. We have chapters dedicated to his hospital stay with no apparent reason. We learn he’s been a dick to Vesper this whole time and won’t let her see him… why she cares, I don’t know, but he continues to treat her like garbage for no real reason. Then she takes him on a romantic getaway.

Bond goes to the beach, Bond swims, Bond gets naked. Bond comes back to the hotel. Bond and Vesper eat. Vesper mothers Bond. Bond is a dick. Bond wakes up the next morning. Bond goes to the beach. Bond goes skinny dipping. He decides he’s going to propose. Bond catches Vesper making a phone call. Their relationship ends. A stranger comes to the hotel. Vesper thinks the stranger is after them. Bond doesn’t believe her. He leaves. She continues to fuck him… you know for Queen and country¹. Stiff upper lip! The stranger comes back. She panics. He tells her he was going to propose. Bow chicka bow wow. She kills herself. Bond calls her a “bitch.” The end.

I didn’t realize the film follows the story of the book so closely. While the film starts quite a bit before the book, giving the viewer much more information about Le Chiffre, the main antagonist, the book delved into this weak plot to gamble him bankrupt, and suddenly he wouldn’t give a shit, and surrender himself… what? Well, that’s in the film, too. The difference being that while the book is dry and boring, the film is exciting and interesting. They were able to tell the story in a manner that really sold the film. It’s still a weak story, but it’s presented in a “flash boom bang” way that keeps you interested.

While the book goes to pains to trap Bond by stopping the chase, getting out of the car, dispatching a carpet of nails from the trunk and watching his car speed over it. In the film, you’re in the middle of a high speed chase, then you see in Bond’s car’s headlights is Vesper tied up and gagged in the middle of the road. You see Bond’s car flying off the road and toppling. It’s little things like that which make it so much more worthwhile.

In addition in the book there’s a much better and convincing reason for Vesper’s death than the book. The line “the bitch is dead” still seems uncomfortable and forced, as if his love is suddenly gone. In the book I never believed Bond loved her, but in the movie they actually seem to have a connection. Also, Bond isn’t a dick. Sure he’s a mechanical killer, but he genuinely cares about Vesper as you can see when he comforts Vesper.

Next time: Live and Let Die

1. Yes, I actually looked up the publication date of the book (1953) and the start of Elizabeth II’s reign (1952) to make sure it wasn’t for King and country. [↩]

I really like Google Drive. I’ve been using Google Docs for years, and when they modified it to Google Drive, I celebrated. Free syncing, all the features of Docs plus Dropbox… sweet.

One of my coworkers started using it intensely, and over the Christmas break it didn’t sync for two weeks. When he got in, Google Drive just plainly didn’t work. He was getting the error message “database disk image is malformed.” Huh? We tested it on another machine, it worked. Reinstalled Google Drive. Disassociated the account, reassociated it. etc etc. Nothing worked. Even deleted the com.google.drive.plist files in the ~/Library/Preferences folder.

When I was on the phone with Google trying to troubleshoot this problem, We tested and saw that it wasn’t working on the main computer. Tested on another where it worked. I then thought “ZOINKS! It MUST be a file sitting in the users’s ~/Library folder!” So I went into the user folder searched for “Drive” and found some files. There was a com.google.drive file sitting in the ~/Library/Caches folder, and also a folder called “Drive” located in ~/Library/Application Support/Google/. Once I deleted those files, woo hoo! It worked!

What happened in 2012? Let’s take a look at picutres…

I spelled a word right:

My bathroom was torn apart, but eventually put back together:

A cute child celebrated her first birthday:

I got the best fortune, ever:

I went to Ottawa with Helen:

I also went to Ottawa with Emily C. & Joseph and toured Canada’s Parliament:

We went to the Diefenbunker… the coolest museum, ever!

Cari wore a hat:

I went to an Apple conference:

I don’t recall why I was playing with Cookie Monster, but I played with Cookie Monster:

There was a byelection in my riding:

I saw Mike O’Neill:

I made pizza with the Millers and Emily W.:

I got my passport… finally:

Saw Martha Wainwright:

Saw The Inbreds:

I saw The Magnetic Fields, and Stephin didn’t look happy:

I toured the UK Parliament:

I saw some cool art:

I saw some depressing things in Germany:

I also drank in Germany:

Alberto’s closed:

I played with Violet… well, I watched her play. I don’t know what to do with children:

Dismissed from Jury duty!

Bought bow ties:

Went to my first-ever toga party:

Got my M1, then my M2:

Created the best superhero, ever:

Hung out with Colleen:

Canoed Emily Provincial Park with Ashley:

Went to Wonderland with Alicia & Nick:

Played the slots with Emily W, and won:

Went to the Island for the chillest music festival:

Spent a LOT of time moving my company into a new space:

Scavenged with Diane:

Threw a BBQ in someone else’s house while they were out of town:

Bought tickets to lots of shows:

Went to jury duty again, didn’t take Emily C’s advice:

Did an Ontario road trip with Emily C., Joseph, and Allegra:

Warmed Jo’s house:

Took ridiculous photos of Nick:

Sold Caroline and bought Mr. Susan:

Found a new cider to love:

Did a day trip with Emily W. and Kristin:

Aaron came back home:

Bank heist with Matt and Rick (also, Carina, Aaron, and Emily W.):

Converted phone system to modern system, farewell Nortel:

Saw The Heartless Bastards:

Turned 31, was drawn a TARDIS by my underling’s lady:

I continued to love beards:

Saw The Rural Alberta Advantage with Jo:

Saw Dan Mangan with Jo… handy that they played the same night and the same venue:

Learned it’s easier to find shoes in my size if they’re women’s shoes:

Celebrated my birthday with Nick and Ashley (photo by someone):

Celebrated my birthday with Alicia (photo by Nick):

Celebrated my birthday with Nick (photo by Nick) and was too inebriated to take pictures:

Made a paper mache baseball mascot… well, helped Emily C. make one… okay she did the vast majority:

Celebrated American Thanksgiving with Anna & Emily W.:

Didn’t want to be the only one in drag:

Ate Mexican with Violet:

Warmed Natalia’s home:

Saw the Super Friendz! OMG:

Did some portraiture for the first time in forever, with Emily C.:

Took photos in my bathtub with Emily C.:

Smoked my first and last three cigarettes, ever:

Celebrated Christmas with absynth. Jesus loves me:

Learned about emotions, with the help of Star Trek:

Ate hot circles of garbage:

Rang in the New Year with Gentleman Reg:

On this, the birthday of William Lyon Mackenzie King, I thought I’d celebrate with a quote from the man’s diary…

There is something in a Jew’s nature which is detestable. The sucking of blood.

Uh…