Thought I'd share some photos

On October 5th, Oliver will have been with us for two years. Time certainly flies.



This photo was taken that first week. We still thought he was going to be a 25-30 lbs terrier cross. He was so small - mostly from almost starving to death - that I could hold the little guy in my arms. He wore a cat collar and slept in a cat carrier.









































This was taken today. He's grown so much, but is still the sweet little puppy at heart. I can't even count how many ways he's changed our lives, but we wouldn't trade him for the world.

Well, because Keira asked nicely, I'll try to do this on my iPod touch. Excuse typos and punctuation problems.

1) The Pumpkin Pie Show: Commencement. Best thing I've seen so far. Amazing.

2) Pitch Blond. The story of comic actor Judy Holliday's run in with the anti-communist movement in the 1950s.

3) Gibberish. Chris Gibbs works a crowd like no one else. If you don't laugh you are a sad, soulless human being. Or a robot.

4) Mal. Clowns are creepy and this show is great.

ADDED

To be honest, there's not much I haven't liked at this year's Fringe. Perhaps that's because I'm choosing most shows by companies I know rather than taking a chance on an unknown product. There's only one show I wasn't keen on, The Unlikely Sainthood of Madeline McKay, and even that wasn't that bad.

Jem Rolls's show, One Man Riot, was great. Rolls's is always good. Keir Cutler's Rant Demon was a solid show. Molly, a one woman show based on a section of Joyce's Ulysses was excellent, though, with it's frank sexual descriptions, not for every one's tastes.

My biggest problem this year has been the reviewers. I'm, frankly, often pissed off at Fringe reviewers (I'm at loss to figure out why Morley Walker goes to the Fringe at all - he hates almost everything). This year, I've notives that a significant number of both the CBC and the Free Press reviews were written about versions of plays performed at the Ottawa or Toronto Fringe earlier this summer and, as a result, don't necessarily reflect the version of the show currently running in Winnipeg. Let's leave aside the idea of theatre being a living art where no two shows are exactly alike. Don't you think that artists will tweak their plays based on the feedback they receive festival to festival?

This morning has been a bit of dramatic ordeal for me. Let me explain...

As I listening to the radio on my weekly drive across town, the deejay announced that he'd just received a text that dog had been hit by a car in the Grant Park area and had run off. The owener was looking for it and if any listeners in the area could help it was much appreciated. My wife came across a similar incident about a year ago: some scared and presumably very hurt dog went into hiding after being hit by a bus.

Now when I hear this, I look in my rearview mirror and see the big brown eyes of my dog, Oliver. If you know me at all you know how much my dog means to me. It broke my heart to think of him.

On my way home, traffic came to an unexpected stop on Osborne just south of Jubliee. I couldn't see what was happening at first. There was a guy on the road, moving back and forth between the street and the curb. After a minute or two cars started moving and I saw the man walking his bicycle with one arm and carrying a recently hit dog over the shoulder of his other arm. I don't know if the dog was dead - it was very limp but appeared to be moving; I don't know if it was his dog - there was another dog (off leash!) walking beside him. The dog appeared to be a grey hound or grey hound mix (which is what Oliver is) and looked to be the same size as my dog. I almost had to pull over...

Traffic again came to an unexpected stop on the bridge across from the Leg: a beautiful labor-doodle was standing in the middle of the southbound lanes. People were trying to coax it off the road. There was no sign of an owner.

http://jam.canoe.ca/PhotoOfTheDay/home.html?&pic=1

You see, ya can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself

So, it seems that that the IOC has decided to investigate the Canadians women's hockey team for their post-gold medal win over the US. After the team won, they celebrated on the ice with champagne, beer and cigars.

So what? The party took place AFTER fans had left the building.

Honestly, there are times when the IOC come across as whiny children. Gilbert Felli, the IOC's executive director of the Olympic Games, said, "It is not what we want to see ... I don't think it's a good promotion of sport values. If they celebrate in the changing room, that's one thing, but not in public." An empty arena is public now? A changing room full of media is somehow more private?

This whole thing stinks of a double standard. When asked what he planned to do to celebrate his gold medal for skeleton, Russell Manitoba's Jon Montgomery answered, "Probably have a pint or two." I have yet to see an interview where he HASN'T been drinking from a pitcher of beer. Can you imagine the men's team doing anything differently if they win gold?

Tiger Woods's press release: better scripted than "LOST."

Oh, oh, oh the sweetest thing

I wanted one as soon as I’d heard they existed. They sounded so good, so decedent, so terribly, terribly wrong. And a few weeks ago I fulfilled my five year quest: I finally had a deep-fried Mars bar.

I can’t remember where I heard about them – probably some Brit comedy – but I was immediately curious. Curious the way people are intrigued by car accidents and the first couple of episodes of each season of American Idol: a combination of shock, horror and awe. And while I can’t remember where I heard about them, I do remember my inner-monologue when I heard: “You mean they take something that’s already not-very good for you and deep fry it, making it really, really bad for you? I must have one.”

I told it was a British thing and so when I found myself in Britain I sought the DFM out. My excited inquiries at were met with expressions vague disgust and contempt (which is only slightly different from a regular “pleased-with life” Britsh expression). “That’s not English,” I was told. “That’s Scottish.”

So imagine my thrill when, out for fish and chips with my in-laws, the waitress tried to tempt us with dessert. The DMF was the last thing she mentioned and I audibly gasped when she said it. My wife looked across the table at me and sighed. Despite the fact that I had just consumed a large deep fried piece of fish and deep fried fries, she knew that she was going to watch me eat a deep fried chocolate bar.

And it was one of the best thing I have ever put in my mouth.

Disappointment, you shouldn't have done

Like most of the civilized world, I saw Avatar over the Christmas holiday. Unlike most of the civilized world, I was pretty disappointed with the whole experience.

Let me just get my biases out of the way: I'm not a huge James Cameron fan. I think he's a largely overrated, under talented filmmaker. The Terminator films (by which I mean, and mean only, the first and second ones) are solid. Aliens is very good. And I'm eagerly awaiting a Pirahna 2 special edition 4 disc DVD box set. But I have no patience for True Lies, The Abyss or Titanic. I didn't even want to see Titanic. Someone made me. His films look good, but his stories are contrived, bland and predictable.

Avatar is no expection. Visually, this film is stunning. The alien world Cameron (and, I guess, a bunch of pasty skinned nerds at computers) creates looks amazing. And if you're going to see this, you should see it in 3D to get the full effect. But the story is so paint-by-numbers that even the kids in the audience could tell you what's going to happen.

Cameron has stated that he's spent nine years developing the technology to make this project work. You'd think in those nine years, he'd have worked on the plot and character development a little bit.