The magic can be seen in pictures as they traverse Canada, coast to coast, to play music in more than 100 places.
Singer Andrea Ramolo and her one-man band Jason Skiendziel have done this before.
Tis the journey they know.
Thank You For The Ride
(New York - Toronto)
Photos before this journey started.
Andrea's MySpace.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Diary of A Doc
Write it and they will come.
“Propaganda,” is a word I was trying to get out of my head. Said to me, written for me, before I even set foot in this theater.
* * *
“A newspaper is one big ad.”
Joe once said this to me. He’s the most objective journalist I’ve ever met…off the record. He wasn’t referring to actual advertising. He meant the news where we advertise opinions in the guise of objectivity.
A story might have two sides, but a reader often leaves feeling one point of view.
* * *
Toronto Star writes two articles on Pax Americana and gives it three stars.
“Propaganda,” is a word hardly out of my head. I read movie reviews in The Toronto Star, Globe and Mail, Financial Post, and Now. This word was the one knock against Pax Americana, a documentary I was about to see.
They said it was one-sided.
But in this day and age, I wondered what was not one-sided, even if it had two sides. And not a third.
None the less, I will still read, hear, and feel language even if it is biased.
Bias still informs when intelligent or illuminating.
Life is fiction. It’s what you make of it.
We still have a free will to choose what we believe (or not).
Pax Americana, a movie discussing Star Wars (not the movie but for real), was Rated G by the Globe and Mail.
* * *
Strange fact: almost all Canadian films cost more than what the Box Office makes. Canadian success can’t actually be measured by how many people see it.
Canada’s best-selling film all-time is Porky’s or Bon Cop, Bad Cop if you don’t factor inflation.
* * *
Disclaimer – I know very little about Canadian film. But I did nickname a daughter K after Katherine Monk, a national Canadian film critic (and college peer). Her Canadian film book Weird Sex and Snowshoes even became a Canadian film. There are no snowshoes or sex in Pax Americana. And the director is French, living in Spain, after producing this film in Canada. You follow?
Unlike me, movie critic Monk actually went to film school with three notable Canadian directors: Mina Shum, Bruce Macdonald and Lynne Stopkewich. Pax Americana’s narrator once stayed at Lynne’s house.
Early on, I did review a Canadian cult classic“Tales of Gimli Hospital (1988) by Guy Maddin. Small world, in 2008, I met an actress in Guy’s short Heart of the World.
Guy Maddin's first feature. Two decades later, I would see him in person, introduced by the narrator of The Corporation. She lived at his unoccupied Toronto house before narrating Pax Americana.
A door for a mouse in Canadian house
Who is objective who reviews a Canadian film? We’re all joined at the hip. A who’s who.
I’m no longer even in the film industry.
I left in 2002, and last reviewed movies in '93. This I can say though, no cozy relations with a publicist skewed my view today. I am on no press junket. I paid $10 admission. I am technically a customer.
Still, past or present, in Canadian film, everyone knows everyone. Telefilm knows everyone. Everyone knows Telefilm. I like to call Telefilm, Canada's only major studio without an American library. That’s how Pax Americana, which mean’s American peace, got funded. Make sense?
* * *
Disclaimer –I loved The Corporation (2003), Canada’s most successful documentary, a friend’s favourite movie during her university years. A professor there wrote a book – personifying The Corporation as a person.
Pax Americana’s co-writer, narrator and Executive Producer are from The Corporation. This is where the hip is linked to Telefilm.
In Los Angeles, I once had lunch with Jeff Skoll in 2009 who also loved The Corporation. He’s the billionaire philanthropist (a Canadian!) who was eBay’s first President and funded Participant Films where George Clooney found a home. And so did Al Gore. You might remember the Inconvenient Truth.
Oliver Stone was sitting near our table during lunch. Near but not close enough.
Both Jeff and I hadn't seen W.
Narrator for The Corporation presents her new narration for Pax Americana
Jeff just gave a speech at Stanford about making stories that change the world.
* * *
Disclaimer--I once got razzed for over-hyping a documentary. I wrote an unknown guy, after one film, would revolutionize documentaries. His name was Michael Moore.
Michael Moore was allegedly wrongfully dismissed by Mother Jones which allegedly refused to publish his story of GM closing plants down. He settled for $58,000, and used it to make Roger & Me. Strangely, he didn't produce another notable documentary for another 13 years (Bowling for Columbine). My "revolutionary comment" was right for 60 minutes and wrong for 13 years.
That same year, I wrote an animation short would revolutionize animation. I nearly got booted out of entertainment. No one believed me: propaganda. To be fair, it was called The Simpsons. My editor edited out those revolutionary comments. Prime time cartoons barely existed. I lost credibility (but I saw what I saw).
Interviewed producer in dingy art theater - they couldn't even give away tickets. I was a fan of Matt Groening so i travelled across town to see this.
Disclaimer--I know people in tonight’s crowd. There sat my hero from a decade ago – a new media pioneer who worked with HBO and Spike Lee before going to CBC to make ZedTV. He’s now with street TV pioneer Moses Znaimer. To my right sat a man who made a spectacular Much Music Video Awards stage. To my left sat the narrator of Pax Americana, today’s presenter. Two producers for Pax Americana sat near us. A mutual friend sat nearby.
Producer, narrator, and friends, curb-side
Surround sound fan-dom, a jury of peers, could be argued. When someone laughs, it might cause a reflex. Or applause.
They did clap when the narrator’s credit rolled.
Undue influence sat everywhere, but no one said a word to influence. This is really no different than any other story by a journalist. Except I didn’t tell anyone I would write anything.
* * *
Disclaimer--I’ve hung out with many people behind The Corporation. First randomly in 2006, a woman on sleeping next to me on a plane, awoke to tell me she played violin for The Corporation. I remembered that violin. I then met her cousin weeks later randomly. She narrated The Corporation and Pax Americana. That's how I met this crowd (randomly).
* * *
Disclaimer--This is my first visit to Toronto’s Royal Cinema. The grandfather of Pax America’s narrator designed the Carlton Cinema which got restored and just re-opened days ago. I once reviewed films there.
The Royal is beautiful.
She cast a sharp shadow in the Royal spotlight. The torch lights up.
Unlike big-box multiplexes, independent theaters have a sober respect for cinema. Outside, I’ve always wanted to see movies inside. It keeps its age-old marquee. Pax Americana is the first film I will see.
Later that night the marquee changed. Micmacs appeared.
Boy that’s a lot of disclaimers most journalists should write. An apologia no one hears. There’s more…
Disclaimer--A moviegoer or critic is always influenced by mood. For a week, I’ve been questioning two things I posted online. Were they too alarmist or even real? One was about 20% of Bangladesh being poisoned to death by toxic water (arsenic) because of wells improperly set up by charities. Another was about Russian scientists claiming the Gulf of Mexico seabed was fissured more drastically than we are led to believe. Who do we believe? Are charities true? Are government and BP true? The scientists seem invisible. What do the media feed?
Disclaimer--Tonight is sandwiched between July 4 and Canada Day. It’s hot out in Toronto’s Little Italy. There's a heat and smog alert. Humid 30s (Celsius).
G20 protests just happened, leaving a foul taste. Pride is about to start for 1 million people on hot streets. I just went into an Italian deli next door and had a Genoa Salami with Swiss Emmenthal sandwich, without incident. I did have visions of Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing. That’s the mood of Toronto.
I would later see what happened to Ghana in the World Cup via satellite. I don't think i'll ever see another ending like that again. A handball, an illegal play, saved the game, in the final minute. Ghana then missed the penalty kick and lost the shootout.
Disclaimer--I canceled a Friday commitment, to someone’s disappointment, to see this film. And I would guess others did like me. This isn’t a date movie. So you do think about what you cancel to see it. I missed Ghana LIVE. I also missed the Blue Jays vs Yankees game LIVE. We have too many choices on any given night.
Disclaimer—this is the first film that warmed my heart with its last credit (of a person not a corporation). A nameless homeless man is acknowledged for helping.
* * *
Disclaimer--I am a huge fan of JFK, whom I consider the greatest speechmaker in history. His voice opens, and closes Pax Americana. I’ve never heard his voice booming before in a movie theater like this. I was awestruck. It was like he was still alive. One producer later said at first an Eisenhower speech was considered.
“Propaganda” is a word I was trying to get out of my head, before seeing the first minute of this film. And that first minute included the voice of a man I idolized since childhood, whose biography I had read, and speeches I had revered.
Begin Pax Americana coined after Pax Romana, the most publicized period of peace in our time. How do I know this? @GuyKawasaki just tweeted that Roman history coincidentally the day before. The world connects in mysterious ways.
Pax Americana is about America's digital command of the world from outer space - to achieve so-called "Peace." And how that intent could be dangerously converted. Pax Romana didn't last.
* * *
Martin Sheen is right. Nobody wants to hear that the world is worse than it is. That’s hard to do successfully. His words stand out in this film. I still remember him in a powerful final episode of West Wing called Two Cathedrals. He had a “monologue” with God.
You can Google what he said. The world is terrible, and credible.
This is a film about what lies outside the world, in outer space. A place no country owns. A place where Americans send flying objects to operate things on earth and to "keep peace." Purpose depends on "intent." If intent changes, flying objects can be used for security. A shift in language or intent ever so sleight can mean something so opposite.
Noam Chomsky is articulate as expected in Pax Americana. I had also seen him in Manufacturing Consent and The Corporation. But New York Times journalist Tim Weiner refreshingly pipes in opinions you can’t anticipate. He won a Pulitzer Prize for covering black budget spending at the Pentagon and CIA.
Some parts of Pax Americana are fantasized from paranoia – and I don’t mean the eagle flying (eagle eye) or ominous military church and prayer scenes. There’s an apocalyptic fantasy of what would happen if every satellite went down. Very little on earth would be working.
Disclaimer—thought I was done? I’ve known a woman who worked for a Canadian satellite company supplying Hughes. I’ve also known a woman working for NASA, managing citizen scientists, NASA’s online outreach to generate community ideas. I wondered what they would have thought.
Any documentary could use polish (they don’t typically have the luxury of audience testing). I could have done without actual propaganda inserted (commercials from corporations). Creatively, they mixed in awkwardly in style. I am also not so sure about interstitial titles such as The Con or The Path. This isn't a silent movie. The beginning was slow to go but i accepted it later. Amon Tobin's music starts driving the flow.
Keep Your Distance (more from Amon Tobin)
http://www.youtube.com/wat
Pax Americana trailer beats
http://www.youtube.com/wat
I walked away content. And not because I know people you may know.
Biased or not, I did leave with increased awareness (the true yardstick for a documentary):
Space junk orbits our planet faster than a bullet and could randomly hit anything flying into space. This space junk accumulates anytime something is sent into space. Think of it like landfill (but flying). Space junk never downsizes. It’s a man-made asteroid field that just keeps growing, flying around our planet.
There are 3000 satellites and counting orbiting earth.
Photographed at Tiki Bar where the Pax Americana crew went next.
America dominates space but no one really owns space. There are no rules, other than a treaty signed on Earth which only banned weapons of mass destruction (but no other weapons).
A Nazi scientist who invented the V2 rocket became NASA’s first prominent figurehead.
As a child, I’ve always wondered why billions of dollars are spent on a rocket builder’s fantasy (I had a water rocket once). Ronald Reagan answered my question with Star Wars, a space project named after the movie. But not a movie. The project was set up to shoot down long-range missiles attacking America (in theory).
Space is the new “high ground” for weaponry - where so-called Rods from God have been theorized. Nearly all military mechanisms today are operated via satellite to a mission critical degree. Space is base camp for operation anything. But no one owns the territory. If American satellites are shot down, can this really be called an Act of War?
And as Martin Sheen points out, any computer can malfunction once in a while, randomly. That’s a scary thought many science fiction stories have played out.
I told one of Pax Americana’s producers that I liked the doc because this is a topic you can’t see on TV. Full-spectrum domination are words not used in this film. It means global command from space.
These words were used in either Enemy of the State or Eagle Eye. My memory is going on me.
Maybe one day I can see them all again via satellite TV, just to refresh myself.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Call the police: There's a singer on the bus
Q: Who’s the most interesting
person you've met on public transportation? #GOODasks
Omnibus - bus with crash test dummies
Friday night, 6pm, Vancouver, Canada. West Broadway bus, approaching Main St-- Someone sang at the back of the bus, with a harmonica. Some people liked it. Some people wanted to call the police. It was a country-folk sound, with harmony (a bit Celtic). Reminded me of The Weight by The Band. A passenger suddenly walked to the front of the bus and hovered over the bus driver who didn't mind, and shouted: "Why aren't you calling the police!" No rules were being broken, he replied. The singer also replied, you don't call the police on crying babies so why are you doing to this me? He kept singing. One woman who sat for a while, and one man who literally just got on, taunted the singer as he did. I thought a fight would break out (felt like the late Billy Martin kicking dirt at an umpire, close quarters).
If you don’t know, Billy, this is him.
Most passengers were surprised over the commotion over a song. I think this was really about taste in music. His material was actually very good if you like the genre. It made me think just how volatile a world can become over differing tastes... randomly and suddenly on the bus (just like the world outside or in someone's brain). Then i thought of the crying baby.
* * *
making ends meet on a bus
The same week on this same bus, i reunited with an old college friend, Martin Ertl, President of my Alma Mater Society, at University of British Columbia (1989-90). Hadn't seen him in more than a decade. We were once neighbors. It was a happy, random, moment. Random because the bus was jammed and he stood where i was in the crowd. Like life, getting on/off a bus one stop later or earlier, having a seat or standing somewhere else, means we might not have met.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Backwards. Forwards.
Excuses.
I am an old fart.
I get too tired, too poor, to get out.
There’s too much online, I can’t be bothered.
I need to pay my bills.
I don’t know what will make a difference.
I don’t know what can be done to get somewhere.
Prove it.
People are so selfish, I can’t take people anymore. I’ve been screwed too many times.
Do pissy people really get pissy results?
Who says?
* * *
My friends still like me - see.
* * *
Reasons for being.
I have young blood in my veins. I am NEW YORK.
Inspired by music, I go out. I will journey there - a quest for the Holy Grail – to be inspired.
I invested months on Twitter, meeting so many special people. And they made miracles happen.
I reduced my bills to near-zero and it forces me to look at only meaningful things when I spend. My credit card owes me 78 cents (if only I could charge interest).
I want to make a difference.
I go where my passion takes me – one thing leads to another. Belief = change. Vision makes you see it.
Magic arrives when you look for it. I’m learning something I’ve never learned before. To produce more, to be more.
There are some people I know, to whom I would say, don’t change.
Inspiration begets inspiration.
You know it.
* * *
OMG, I can't believe a total stranger just did that.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Life before and after…
Let’s see if I can beat time. I’ve been writing a time capsule for her. Dear daughter…I
I wrote a chapter never published, struggling with format, to beat in time. This was the gist:
1997 – Year before my kid was born
Princess Diana died, changing public photography laws, forever. I got married that day. Analog photos were printed…freezing time.
- I had an analog cell phone and pager. Remember those? My first digital phone was just months away.
- I still had analog cameras (and rolls of film). I used my first digital camera (Sony Mavica) and digital video camera (JVC) in parallel. It seemed odd not to print pictures.
- She was pregnant. We lived in our downtown condo (“Blue Tower”) in Vancouver, Canada.
- I sponsored her immigration successfully: 1) She took a blood test for AIDS 2) She got fingerprinted for a criminal check 3) My boss wrote a letter of employment saying what I earned 4) I shared love letters with the feds and a photo taken when we first met in 1989 – a proof of love – yes it’s true.
- I still used a fax machine.
- I bought my last VCR and analog TV.
- This is also the last year of the cassette tape recorder built in a car.
- I bought my first new car with my first bank loan (paid off by 2001).
- I worked for a charity as a fundraiser on payroll with benefits.
- I raised donations from corporate sponsors, government grants and philanthropists
- I had my first credit card via my first million dollar client (GM partnered with TD). I hadn’t turned 30 yet.
- The Yankees couldn’t defend their World Series title.
- It had been four years since Canada last saw the Stanley Cup home, in Montreal.
- Alanis Morissette (Jagged Little Pill) and Sheryl Crow (If It Makes You Happy) were rising stars.
- U2’s Pop CD played regularly in my car – where I had a CD-to-cassette converter. I once called U2 the last great rock band in 1985.
- I had a 486 computer running Windows 95, on dial-up, and watched a goldfish on Netscape, the main browser of the day.
- I paid $10 a month for an email address with Lynx.net – named after the first text-browser.
- I searched on Yahoo! and browsed Amazon.com every now and then.
- Food was my biggest cost.
- Gas was 29 cents a litre.
- I weighed 165 lbs.
- My eye prescription was –675.
- Bill Clinton was President.
- I took care of two cats – Fat and Skinny.
2010 – Year when my kid enters Grade 7
Princess Diana’s black gown, her first worn publicly while engaged, was just auctioned for $276,621. I am no longer married. She is dead.
- I reduced my digital subscription expenses from an all-time high of $500 a month in 2000 (Blackberry, satellite, long distance, phones etc) down to an all-time low of <$30 a month for a cell phone (I use internet free – shared with others).
- I no longer have anything analog – not even a camera. I only take pictures with my cell phone. My old analog photos are still kept in library archives, timeless.
- We live oceans apart – my Daughter in Tokyo. I live in a house north of Toronto by the woods.
- My ex-wife lost her Canadian immigration status while working in Japan.
- I might fax once every two years. I last sent a fax to file investor evidence to lawyers at a regulatory body.
- I watch HDTV and movies on DVD.
- Most CDs in my car are via friends from live performances. I’ve downloaded more than 3000 songs – and even helped start up a download store. The album is dying. My Daughter uses iTunes cards to buy singles. I once had 100s of vinyl albums and even some 8-track tapes. Dark Side of the Moon somehow survived a basement flood in the house where i grew up.
- While I was away from Vancouver, my car got totaled in 2008, hit by another car running a stop sign. My friend survived, unscathed. Strangely, months later in Toronto, I got into my first serious car accident, black ice. I survived, unscathed. Two cars totaled in one year. I’ve been driving since 1984.
- I have an online arts/cause patronage venture as an entrepreneur. Pledges come from the crowd. I go days, weeks, months, years …without pay.
- I no longer use my credit card (an experiment, more than two years old now), and have never used its points. The balance reads, they owe me 78 cents. A rebate from a class action lawsuit arrived once (they over-charged for US exchange rate). I can’t charge interest on what they owe me. They also reduced the points they originally promised me would never be reduced. GM needed a bailout and I still have thousands of dollars in points to buy a car.
- The Yankees took 10 years to win another World Series after 9/11. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are still waging.
- It’s been 17 years since Canada last saw the Stanley Cup home, in Montreal. This is Montreal’s longest drought without a Cup. They’ve won one every decade but this one.
- Alanis Morissette just got married. Sheryl Crow just adopted a baby.
- U2’s Bono just had emergency spinal surgery, recovering in France. U2 producer Dan Lanois just got into a serious motorcycle accident, recovering in LA. No Line On The Horizon plays in my car. My copy wasn’t even purchased from a record shelf in a record store. It was found behind the counter of a bookstore.
- I use Windows XP on Satellite Internet. I bought my Daughter an iPod iTouch (running on WiFi) and we got her a MacBook where she makes movies. Apple’s come a long way since I first used Mactintosh, Pagemaker, Photoshop and Quark to publish newspapers. Recently Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization – something once considered unfathomable.
- I google, gmail (free), tweet, Facebook, and browse MySpace, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! News, Google News, and YouTube regularly on Firefox. Open source has come a long way.
- Food is my biggest cost.
- Gas is sometimes above $1 a litre.
- I weigh 195 lbs.
- My eye prescription is –800.
- Barack Obama became President on a platform of Change.
- I have no pets. My Daughter has a dog.
I am trying to think of what has stayed the same, exactly the same. I am still 5”10. Outside of that, everything has changed. My hair is not as black as it used to be. Two of my bosses died from heart attacks (they worked harder than anyone I’ve known). My youngest brother lost his battle to cancer at age 29, two years ago (he was the nicest of us). My friend Nicole Vienneau disappeared from her Lonely Planet hotel three years ago. We’re still looking for her.
I got into my first serious car accident a year and a half ago, and somehow walked away with only a bump on the head. Somehow I missed a ravine, trees, telephone poles and oncoming traffic, spinning on black ice. I kept on hearing Vanessa Carlton’s song Home as my life flashed before me. Somehow the car landed rear first (dampening the impact). Though I don’t get to see my Daughter too often – I am grateful she is alive and well.
Launching so many start ups was tough. Human nature is never easy. More than half the people who join walk away, no matter what you do (personal lives), and some may even betray (personal fear). Fame and fortune never made a difference.
Life goes on.
Tempus Fugit. Time Flies. I once transcribed a lost speech by late author Carol Shields and named it Tempus Fugit I heard it when she was alive, live. I transcribed it long after she died. Posthumously.
This is how the speech ended:
As time goes on, I meet more fickle people. But I also meet more inspiring people, who stay inspired a long time. A heart that believes is a heart that beats.
I am wiser now understanding the miracle of the breakthrough.
I wrote a chapter never published, struggling with format, to beat in time. This was the gist:
1997 – Year before my kid was born
A woman was just coming into her own
Princess Diana died, changing public photography laws, forever. I got married that day. Analog photos were printed…freezing time.
- I had an analog cell phone and pager. Remember those? My first digital phone was just months away.
- I still had analog cameras (and rolls of film). I used my first digital camera (Sony Mavica) and digital video camera (JVC) in parallel. It seemed odd not to print pictures.
- She was pregnant. We lived in our downtown condo (“Blue Tower”) in Vancouver, Canada.
- I sponsored her immigration successfully: 1) She took a blood test for AIDS 2) She got fingerprinted for a criminal check 3) My boss wrote a letter of employment saying what I earned 4) I shared love letters with the feds and a photo taken when we first met in 1989 – a proof of love – yes it’s true.
I photographed the Comet Hale-Bopp in analog in 1997. It was visible to the naked eye for a record 18 months, twice as long as the Great Comet of 1811. It became known as the Great Comet of 1997.
- I still used a fax machine.
- I bought my last VCR and analog TV.
- This is also the last year of the cassette tape recorder built in a car.
- I bought my first new car with my first bank loan (paid off by 2001).
- I worked for a charity as a fundraiser on payroll with benefits.
- I raised donations from corporate sponsors, government grants and philanthropists
- I had my first credit card via my first million dollar client (GM partnered with TD). I hadn’t turned 30 yet.
- The Yankees couldn’t defend their World Series title.
- It had been four years since Canada last saw the Stanley Cup home, in Montreal.
- Alanis Morissette (Jagged Little Pill) and Sheryl Crow (If It Makes You Happy) were rising stars.
- U2’s Pop CD played regularly in my car – where I had a CD-to-cassette converter. I once called U2 the last great rock band in 1985.
- I had a 486 computer running Windows 95, on dial-up, and watched a goldfish on Netscape, the main browser of the day.
- I paid $10 a month for an email address with Lynx.net – named after the first text-browser.
- I searched on Yahoo! and browsed Amazon.com every now and then.
- Food was my biggest cost.
- Gas was 29 cents a litre.
- I weighed 165 lbs.
- My eye prescription was –675.
- Bill Clinton was President.
- I took care of two cats – Fat and Skinny.
2010 – Year when my kid enters Grade 7
A gown without a woman
Princess Diana’s black gown, her first worn publicly while engaged, was just auctioned for $276,621. I am no longer married. She is dead.
- I reduced my digital subscription expenses from an all-time high of $500 a month in 2000 (Blackberry, satellite, long distance, phones etc) down to an all-time low of <$30 a month for a cell phone (I use internet free – shared with others).
- I no longer have anything analog – not even a camera. I only take pictures with my cell phone. My old analog photos are still kept in library archives, timeless.
- We live oceans apart – my Daughter in Tokyo. I live in a house north of Toronto by the woods.
- My ex-wife lost her Canadian immigration status while working in Japan.
- I might fax once every two years. I last sent a fax to file investor evidence to lawyers at a regulatory body.
- I watch HDTV and movies on DVD.
- Most CDs in my car are via friends from live performances. I’ve downloaded more than 3000 songs – and even helped start up a download store. The album is dying. My Daughter uses iTunes cards to buy singles. I once had 100s of vinyl albums and even some 8-track tapes. Dark Side of the Moon somehow survived a basement flood in the house where i grew up.
Dark Side of the Moon
- While I was away from Vancouver, my car got totaled in 2008, hit by another car running a stop sign. My friend survived, unscathed. Strangely, months later in Toronto, I got into my first serious car accident, black ice. I survived, unscathed. Two cars totaled in one year. I’ve been driving since 1984.
- I have an online arts/cause patronage venture as an entrepreneur. Pledges come from the crowd. I go days, weeks, months, years …without pay.
- I no longer use my credit card (an experiment, more than two years old now), and have never used its points. The balance reads, they owe me 78 cents. A rebate from a class action lawsuit arrived once (they over-charged for US exchange rate). I can’t charge interest on what they owe me. They also reduced the points they originally promised me would never be reduced. GM needed a bailout and I still have thousands of dollars in points to buy a car.
- The Yankees took 10 years to win another World Series after 9/11. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are still waging.
- It’s been 17 years since Canada last saw the Stanley Cup home, in Montreal. This is Montreal’s longest drought without a Cup. They’ve won one every decade but this one.
- Alanis Morissette just got married. Sheryl Crow just adopted a baby.
- U2’s Bono just had emergency spinal surgery, recovering in France. U2 producer Dan Lanois just got into a serious motorcycle accident, recovering in LA. No Line On The Horizon plays in my car. My copy wasn’t even purchased from a record shelf in a record store. It was found behind the counter of a bookstore.
No Line On The Horizon
- I use Windows XP on Satellite Internet. I bought my Daughter an iPod iTouch (running on WiFi) and we got her a MacBook where she makes movies. Apple’s come a long way since I first used Mactintosh, Pagemaker, Photoshop and Quark to publish newspapers. Recently Apple passed Microsoft in market capitalization – something once considered unfathomable.
- I google, gmail (free), tweet, Facebook, and browse MySpace, LinkedIn, Yahoo! Sports, Yahoo! News, Google News, and YouTube regularly on Firefox. Open source has come a long way.
- Food is my biggest cost.
- Gas is sometimes above $1 a litre.
- I weigh 195 lbs.
- My eye prescription is –800.
- Barack Obama became President on a platform of Change.
- I have no pets. My Daughter has a dog.
Change is not what we think it is
I am trying to think of what has stayed the same, exactly the same. I am still 5”10. Outside of that, everything has changed. My hair is not as black as it used to be. Two of my bosses died from heart attacks (they worked harder than anyone I’ve known). My youngest brother lost his battle to cancer at age 29, two years ago (he was the nicest of us). My friend Nicole Vienneau disappeared from her Lonely Planet hotel three years ago. We’re still looking for her.
Nicole Vienneau - they found her diaries after she disappeared from her hotel on March 30-31, 2007. Her last word on March 30 was "content."
I got into my first serious car accident a year and a half ago, and somehow walked away with only a bump on the head. Somehow I missed a ravine, trees, telephone poles and oncoming traffic, spinning on black ice. I kept on hearing Vanessa Carlton’s song Home as my life flashed before me. Somehow the car landed rear first (dampening the impact). Though I don’t get to see my Daughter too often – I am grateful she is alive and well.
Launching so many start ups was tough. Human nature is never easy. More than half the people who join walk away, no matter what you do (personal lives), and some may even betray (personal fear). Fame and fortune never made a difference.
Life goes on.
Tempus Fugit. Time Flies. I once transcribed a lost speech by late author Carol Shields and named it Tempus Fugit I heard it when she was alive, live. I transcribed it long after she died. Posthumously.
This is how the speech ended:
The poet Rilke tells us to be skeptical about the simple and to trust in the difficult. That difficulty has, in fact, a beautiful face.~ Carol Shields
"Tempus Fugit."
It is November 28, 1996.
Time is passing. The clock is ticking as we sit here. The world is turning. But you will not be overtaken by time if you instead befriend it, taking time in your own hands. Taking your time, your sweet time. Time to listen, to watch, to breathe, to change. Time is yours in all its fullness. Thank you.
As time goes on, I meet more fickle people. But I also meet more inspiring people, who stay inspired a long time. A heart that believes is a heart that beats.
I am wiser now understanding the miracle of the breakthrough.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Be honest. It’s true.
The world was once built around an extended family – that was part of a community – that was part of a religion. That was based on a marriage.
For better or worse, divorce became popular. Religion was shattered. Families if they existed became nuclear. Neighborhoods were strangers.
Teams traded their players for money.
People became single – unable to commit, supposedly independent. But where is the freedom?
In a spun world of PR, weaknesses are intolerable, mistakes are zero, honesty is a forgotten word.
The world’s failed to get along even more. There’s very little practice.
On that note, it’s hard to start a band.
Passions start to fissure, lacking nourishment.
Lies start to flourish to get ahead.
Be honest. It’s true.
Where is the love?
He sang.
Bob Dylan wondered if he was still a son or a brother.
For better or worse, divorce became popular. Religion was shattered. Families if they existed became nuclear. Neighborhoods were strangers.
Teams traded their players for money.
People became single – unable to commit, supposedly independent. But where is the freedom?
In a spun world of PR, weaknesses are intolerable, mistakes are zero, honesty is a forgotten word.
The world’s failed to get along even more. There’s very little practice.
On that note, it’s hard to start a band.
Passions start to fissure, lacking nourishment.
Lies start to flourish to get ahead.
Be honest. It’s true.
Where is the love?
He sang.
Bob Dylan wondered if he was still a son or a brother.
Don't Look Back
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