Picco

Summer's Cauldron

Okay. In the world of the Glob today is the first day of the summer of 2007. Not only because it was a perfect warm and sunny day but everyone is coming out of their winter hibernation. This weekend there is a pow-wow just outside of Ottawa. there will be dancing, drumming crafts and uhm caribou burgers. Over 10,000 attendees from all over are expected. Then there is my first summer BBQ of the season Saturday night. In early June I will be attending the NXNE music festival with an all access pass courtesy of Big Dave the one-time tallest being in Tokyo after Godzilla. Then the cottage season soon follows and then the Blues Festival in July (I think) with headliner Bob Dylan.

I had a long chat with Kirk this evening. It was good to catch up. It's weird but I do hibernate in the dark cold winter months even in terms of using the phone. In a way blogging more frequently is tied into this.

What I Learned from Dr. Suess

Looming over the landscape of some important character building moments in my life is the figure of Dr. Seuss. Here in short is what I learned:

Sneetches: Sociology. Class and social dynamics

The Lorax: Marxist critque. The relationship between unchecked capitalism,industrialism and private ownership of natural resources

Green Eggs and Ham: Independent Thought. What I was 'supposed' to learn was to be open-minded and try new things. What I actually got out of this book was the importance of sticking to your guns in the face of unyielding manipulation.

The Cat in the Hat: Deviancy Theory. That bizarre and wonderful things can happen behind your parent's backs.

Mr.Brown Can Moo! Can You?: Self help. That both Mr. Brown and I can moo.

The Foot Book: Linguistics. One set of phonemes can have semantic references that are at once generic and simultaneously multivalent.

Horton Hears a Who!: Spirtuality. That even the largest of creatures can share sentiments with microscopic beings. Cosmic brotherhood/sisterhood etc...

The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins: Literary Criticism. That when he wasn't rhyming Dr. Seuss was kind of dry and sucky.

and of course

How the Grinch Stole Christmas: Zen. Things are what you make of them.

More strange google maps findings. This is in the middle of the island of " West Papua New Guinea" on the Indonesian side right near the border 0of the actual Nation of Papua New Guinea

The Best Present Ever

For the second anniversary of our meeting in April 2005, Leslie and I returned to Boston where (granted she had to visit Wellesley in any case but the karma factor always has been at play in our trips to Boston)she surprised with what I can only describe as the best present any one has ever given me. Andy Partridge's Fuzzy Warbles box set.



It's a collection of 9 discs of XTC demos, outtakes, experiments and unreleased gems. She is probably the only person on the planet who would have known how excited I would be to get this. The kicker being that I didn't even know it existed.

The packaging is put together to look like a children's stamp collecting book. It took me a few moments to figure out just what was going. on. Is this an Atlas? A game? Wait Andy Partridge? XTC. I flipped the box over and saw the titles of 161 XTC/Andy Partridge songs most of which I had never heard in the form they appear here. That's 498 minutes of music by one of my all time favourites that I didn't even know existed.

What a gem. And I'm referring to Leslie.

Surf's Up

I always wanted a skateboard. When I was twelve I begged my parents to buy me one. Funny thing was that technique worked for so many things but not for the skateboard, or the pet monkey. At some point I realized I wasn't getting a monkey or a skateboard. I resorted to other tactics. Fortune left me with a choice one fine day in the form of a neighbourhood kid's skateboard left in our driveway. Who was I to say no thanks to the gods. Especially after all that praying. I didn't know who to pray to but I figured quantity would prevail and just prayed to the whole darned Universe in an early spiritual version of spam.

So I had a skateboard. I also had access to a can of silver spray paint. Soon I dubbed my new polyurethane board "the Silver Surfer". The biggest problem was that I couldn't use it in front of any other humans. I snuck it out into the parking lot of the Nursing Home when no one was around and learned how not to fall as much and how to avoid breaking my skull in exchange for twisting my ankle.

One day, well a three days later actually, my mother asked me a very significant question: "Have you seen Craig's skateboard?" Craig's mother Mrs. Pitt had called. I did what any child would do. I lied. "No. No I haven't" and left the room in a classic avoidance strategy.

A guilt trip followed. From my mother but also from that annoying little voice in my head. I came up with what I was certain was a clever plan. I waited a day and reported that I may have seen the skateboard in a ditch nearby. Sure enough there it was. It was returned soon thereafter and no questions were asked.

Childhood: the formative years of the criminal mind.

Flat Coated Retriever

I met a new dog in the park on the weekend. A Flat Coated Retriever. It is related to the St. John's Water dog which is the ancestor of the Newfoundland, the Labs and the Golden Retriever as well. A mighty fine pedigree. She was a very sweet dog. She has a bearish head somewhere between a Lab and a Newf. Such good temper and a nice long coat. in brief, I want one.

Watching the Paint Dry

The infamous "They" say that "you" can take an interesting photograph in any setting. I gave it my best shot on the balcony late in the afternoon on Daly Avenue.

Fear and Loathing in Zeller's

Let this post serve as an unnecessary reminder to never live in the suburbs. No offence is meant to anyone who chooses to live there, but they are not for me. I found myself venturing to suburban strip mall land today to buy an ironing board padded cover. I probably could have gone to the Rideau mall which is glamourous and sophisticated when compared to the Zeller's and Dollarama on St. Laurent, but that is too routine. Some of the sites I enjoyed:

• Pushy obese teenage girls
• Piped in 70s music
• Aisles of junk made in China that will end up in the trash or stashed in someone's basement in less than a year
• Screaming children and yelling mothers
• Men with car stereos so loud that their car frames buzz
• Consumer zombies (okay was one too, but that wasn't much fun)
• The smell of fear that permeates the atmosphere (or was that just plastic and sweat?)
  

So, no I won't be going back to soon. Unless of course I need another ironing board cover. Come on, I needed one. I'm a grown up now.

Today the World Went Green

When I write "Today the World Went Green" I mean my world. When I write "my world" I mean Ottawa. This morning the buds popped. By afternoon the were unwinding slow spinning green. This evening they are young leaves, changing the landscape, hiding views, bringing shade from the same sun that drives them out of the wood.

Springtime in Boston