This Is Not Out of the Blue

Heads Held High in All Kinds of Weather

smackdab@gmail.com — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 21:18:29 GMT

In the past, my thoughts at this time of year have been both expansive and tangential, but it seems like the weather is on everyone's mind right now--rain and snow and other climatological calamities seem to be affecting the people I know all over the world.

When that sort of thing happens, it's best to follow the example of someone who's not of this world. As you can see, the Tenth Doctor doesn't let something as slight as having his home snowed in get him down, but rather makes the most of the situation:

Even the Time Lord's greatest enemies know how to get in the spirit of the season, if you prefer to spend your Christmas with a Dalek:

On another note, this is probably my last blog post of the year (and the decade!), although I'll still be around over the weekend to take in the festive cheer before my trip. After that, I'm not sure how much I'll be online whilst in Chicago...

I can check my email from there, but I don't know how often I'll be doing that (and I doubt I'll be reading my friendslist until I get back), so if you want to get my attention, comment with a link if there's something I should know about.

From Earth to Gallifrey to Skaro, and all points in between, Happy Holidays!

Travelled Down the Road and Back Again

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 22:10:26 GMT

It was really hard to make a final decision on where to go for New Year's after getting so many cool suggestions, including some invitations from people on my friendslist here--especially since, as I mentioned before, I'd just like to go ahead with every possible option. ;)

Even though I understand that choosing one option means forsaking the others, it still makes me sad to know about all the festivities I'll miss out on in making that choice...

I did briefly consider Dagobah, thanks to this compelling advert from their Tourism Bureau:

It turns out, however, that costs are prohibitive without any regularly scheduled flights there--unless you're willing to go in some sort of one-seater that you have to pilot yourself--so I had to give it a pass.

Ultimately, it was an invitation from my friend Theresa to visit her in Chicago which won out this time around...amongst other things, the logistics of a single short-haul flight are appealing when the holidays provide their own sort of time crunch. Although I made a habit of it for a few years, it's been a while since I've booked a trip in December, and I'd forgotten what holiday rates were like, so that was also a crucial factor to consider.

This won't be my dream trip to Chicago (that would, of course, be a recreation of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, which can't happen if only because it isn't baseball season), but The Art Institute of Chicago might get a revisit, and I'm sure there are all sorts of things to do in the Chicagoland area at this time of year. Nevertheless, if anyone has any thoughts on what I should be sure to check out in the Windy City (I know, I'm all about asking for advice lately), feel free to tell me in the comments.

As someone who sometimes feels like he's barely come to terms with the fact the Nineties ended, the end of this decade is a weird moment for me, but I'm glad I have the chance to make that moment as memorable as I can.

Softness in His Eyes, Iron in His Thighs

smackdab@gmail.com — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:39:53 GMT

As you should expect by now, after similar experiences with the first season and the second season, I once again encountered quite a bit of potentially homoerotic innuendo in the course of watching Season Three of Star Trek: The Original Series...

Perhaps this is only appropriate for a season, and a series, which ended in '69. ;)

On that suggestive note, I give you:

Top Ten Unusual Slashy Lines (TOS Season Three Edition)

[As with previous lists, "unusual" means that no Kirk/Spock lines were included.]

10) McCoy/Spock: "You've got a...a good bedside manner, Spock."

9) Kirk/Chekov: "He lost control. So did I. We're becoming animal warriors."

8) Hodin/Spock/Scott: "You shall test the skill of your very excitable repairman."

7) Spock/Scott: "That position, Mister Scott, would not only be unavailing, but also undignified."

6) Scott/Spock: "That's it--I've done all I can. There's nothing out there to grab a hold of and bring in."

5) Morg/Kirk: "You are small, like the others."

4) Dickerson/Kirk: "All I know, sir, is what the captain tells me, and he says he'll have the hide of the first man who so much as smiles."

3) Garth/Kirk: "On your knees before me! All the others before me have failed."

2) Alexander/Parmen: "Don't stop me! Let me finish him off!"

...and the most unusual slashy line of the season:

1) Adam/Kirk: "Oh, Herbert, you are stiff!"

Next up: The Animated Series!

His Body Comes in Lots of Different Shapes

smackdab@gmail.com — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:27:06 GMT

After making my way through Star Trek: The Original Series, offering up my thoughts on Season One and then moving on to Season Two, I quickly got distracted by other matters (as you know), failing to offer up any more thoughts despite the fact that I finished watching Season Three back in September.

With the 30th anniversary of Star Trek: The Motion Picture upon us, though, this seemed like a good time to continue my ruminations...

All modern series-revival campaigns are built upon the template formed in 1968, when Star Trek narrowly avoided cancellation through the efforts of many dedicated fans (coordinated by überfans such as Bjo Trimble), who wrote thousands of letters to NBC and finally convinced the network to keep the show for a third season. However, another familiar template soon followed: NBC moved Star Trek to Friday nights and slashed its budget, effectively sealing its fate.

For someone watching TOS in quick succession, the budget-cutting effect is very obvious. Only one episode early in the third season ("The Paradise Syndrome") has any location shooting at all. All of a sudden, landing parties tend to be made up of just Kirk, Spock, and McCoy--without a redshirt in sight--for no particular reason except that they're the three stars of the show. Gone are the one-off focus crewmembers like Doctor Helen Noel, Doctor Ann Mulhall, or Lieutenant Dave Bailey, who show up once to do their thing and are never shown again. (Actually, Mira Romaine is one third-season example of this.) Kirk even stops having as many love interests towards the end of the season.

Where Season Two had many episodes with themed planets based on Earth itself, Season Three had outer-space variations on more traditional concepts. The Enterprise crew had already encountered Space Amoeba in the previous season, but now got to live through Space The Taming of the Shrew, met up with Space Napoleon, and famously encountered a group of Space Hippies.

Most people also tend to think of Season Three as having the lowest quality of writing overall, with cheesier, wackier concepts than what had come before. (This is the season of "Spock's Brain," after all.) Having said that, I think some of the achievements in Season Three are overlooked due to the Fromage Factor. An episode like "Plato's Stepchildren" is often remembered for moments such as Kirk neighing like a horse, or The Kiss between him and Uhura--and it's set on Platonius, yet another Earth-based planet, which might as well be called "Plato's World"--but it still contains one of my favourite lines in the entire series:

Alexander, where I come from, size, shape, or colour makes no difference--and nobody has the Power.

That sort of Roddenberrian concept manages to make its way into these episodes in spite of the cheese, so that even when Kirk meets Space Lincoln, that Abraham Lincoln gets a line memorable enough to be mistakenly attributed to the real one in later years:

There is no honourable way to kill, no gentle way to destroy. There is nothing good in war except its ending.

Ideas like those are what Star Trek is all about, and the ultimate cancellation of The Original Series in 1969 (mere weeks before humanity actually landed on the Moon) couldn't stop them from living on, igniting the passions of people like me who weren't yet born when those episodes first aired--which is why the franchise has been revived in every decade since, right up to this year's feature film returning Star Trek back to its roots.

Fun, Fun, Fun in the Sun, Sun, Sun

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 21:14:37 GMT

I've gotten a bunch of cool ideas and awesome invitations from various people in the wake of my request for New Year's travel suggestions--everything from Chicago to Houston to Sydney to "Hold off and go to the Vancouver Winter Olympics instead."

To be honest, I'd like to take everyone up on their invitations, which could easily book my travel calendar for the next couple of years. ;) That doesn't even count annual events I'm eager to attend again, like Shore Leave and Dragon*Con, or the many other places I'm sure would also be interesting.

I think I need to start planning out travel scenarios if I want to make more of that happen next year.

Barring some remarkable act of patronage, though, I don't expect to be able to travel too far afield this time around, as budget and time considerations will limit me to North American options.

That trip to Antarctica will happen...just not yet.

Let Me Fly Far Away from Here

smackdab@gmail.com — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:05:39 GMT

Where should I travel for New Year's?

I haven't been anywhere of note since my trip to Atlanta for the presidential election last year, and I've been feeling the urgent need to be Somewhere Else for the end of the decade...or perhaps it's just the urgent need to be Somewhere Else in general.

Time is running short already, but I wouldn't be asking if I already had a specific location in mind, so if you're aware of any cool option(s) I can take advantage of to bring in The Year We Make Contact, please feel free to let me know. I appreciate any and all advice you might have to offer.

Any number of different places would be worth the trip, no doubt, and I don't have any particular guidelines in mind, other than the timeframe and the desire not to be in Manitoba then. Beyond that, I'm quite open to suggestions. :)

On My Way to Where the Air Is Sweet

smackdab@gmail.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:01:45 GMT

Celebrations for the 40th anniversary of Sesame Street have really dominated the media lately--from people picking their favourite segments to Cookie Monster wanting royalties for his eating style to books like Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street--and the Muppet characters, in particular, have been everywhere over the past couple of weeks. I can't really add anything to all that, but the many trips down memory lane have made me think back on my own tiny connection to the franchise.

You see, Canada use to have its own version of Sesame Street...sort of.

There are, of course, many international variations on the series, but the Canadian edition of Sesame Street wasn't as homegrown as most of those examples. The CBC originally had a deal with the Children's Television Workshop which let them insert Canadian segments into the otherwise American show, so we would still get the main "street" storylines with Big Bird et al. which are set in New York (as well as many of the American interstitials) while also getting interstitial segments (both animated and live-action) which were more specifically Canadian content. Eventually, Canadian Muppet characters were introduced and the show gradually morphed into the half-hour Sesame Park before being cancelled several years ago.

(Personally, I feel they missed a big opportunity by not creating an actual Canadian street for the CBC version, with bilingual signs and other features which would highlight the differences between Canadian and American urban culture.)

When I was seven, I was in one of those filmed-on-location segments.

It was about firefighters and what they do, and most of it was filmed at Fire Station No 4 on Osborne Street (which has gained more prominence recently for...well, something else) with a couple of CBC producers and a small camera crew. I was chosen along with three other students from my elementary school, and after we'd spent much of the day away from class, our classmates were mainly eager to know if we'd met any of the Muppets. (As a child, I suppose you can grasp the concept of TV production without necessarily realising that multiple locations might be involved...)

Don't go looking for it on YouTube--I've tried, and there appears to be little (if any) of the Canadian Sesame Street content uploaded. For that, I'm actually somewhat grateful, as I didn't really embrace the ensemble spirit of the piece and instead continued to embrace the role of Eager Student (a common role for me at that age) to the detriment of the other kids present. I'd probably cringe (then smile, then cringe again) if the clip were to surface now.

Nevertheless, they continued to reuse that segment for years afterwards, as they did with so many bits from the show (which is why we remember the classics so well, after all)...based on inquiries from curious neighbours at the time, I'd say it was still being edited into episodes until I was fifteen or sixteen. I'm sure there's a copy of it around somewhere.

I'm All Alone, More or Less

smackdab@gmail.com — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 21:05:29 GMT

After all of the planning and the worrying and the hustle and the bustle around Kimberly's visit to Winnipeg since I first brought it up, how did everything work out?

Pretty relaxed, actually.

Thursday, October 1

Armed with a number of options and plans for the visit (thanks in large part to input from amysisson, dontmentionlove, foryoursplendor, ninthscompanion, twinkiegirl, and others offline), but concerned about the cold weather, I picked up Kimberly at the airport on a rainy afternoon and immediately began the Canadian indoctrination process with a visit to Tim Hortons. ;)

Although I already knew that "double-double" was a piece of Canadian slang, I was quickly surprised to learn that apparently, "parkade" is also a uniquely Canadian term, describing what (I'm told) Americans call "parking decks," and I was surprised yet again later when I discovered that using "suck" as a noun (e.g. "she's a total suck") is a Canadian thing. (Despite the rhyme, there are no video games to be played in a typical parkade, but the airport itself does have an actual arcade on the second floor.) Even when you pay a lot of attention to American culture and notice its differences, these little things can still startle you.

Since this was Kimberly's first significant visit to Canada, though, I was conscious of the more obvious differences (like the rampant bilingualism on our signage), and I was aware of Kimberly's linguistic interests, so I'd even gotten her Only in Canada, You Say: A Treasury of Canadian Language in case more background was needed than I could provide.

I took a creative route from the airport which allowed me to give something of an "Edgar Tour" through Winnipeg, featuring notable personal landmarks (like my high school, for example), but once we got to my place and Kimberly unpacked, we had a bunch of time to chill and catch up before heading out to Haunted Winnipeg Investigates, a ghost tour which proved...somewhat less investigative than either of us had hoped.

(While we waited for the tour to start, Kimberly also had the opportunity to try another local delicacy, Old Dutch ketchup chips.)

Another one of those differences I wouldn't normally notice is the predominance of animal imagery to be found around here--from Canadian coinage (of course) to how the levels in the parkade were identified--and as a symbol of Manitoba, the bison is particularly common. (Unfortunately, we didn't see any of the MTS commercials with bison in them during this visit.) When we stopped at the Manitoba Legislative Building during the ghost tour, Kimberly was keen to be seen with the bronze bison who flank the Grand Staircase, but my photo didn't make this especially clear:

After the tour was over, the only restaurant I definitely knew was going to be open for such a late dinner was Papa George's in Osborne Village. (We might've been able to squeeze in a meal at Dessert Sinsations, which had come previously recommended, but I didn't realise at the time that it was open late on Thursdays.) I initially found this option convenient, if unremarkable, but Kimberly was surprisingly impressed with the size of the portions there, especially given the price.

Despite it being later than late by the time we got home, we ended up finding a marathon of different editions of Top Model on Fashion Television: The Channel featuring not just Canada's Next Top Model, but also Britain's Next Top Model and Australia's Next Top Model--all of which I knew would appeal to Kimberly as a reality-television connoisseur--so we ended up watching those in a compare-and-contrast exercise until we couldn't stay awake any longer.

(Canada benefits in general where television is concerned by getting programmes from throughout the English-speaking world, so we often get to see American versions of such series alongside their foreign counterparts, but Canadian editions of reality shows tend to be limited to skill-based competitions. As such, we have Canadian Idol, Project Runway Canada, So You Think You Can Dance Canada, and so forth, but no Big Brother Canada, for example. Two other series Kimberly didn't get to watch were Canada's Worst Driver and Canada's Worst Handyman, adapted from similar British series.)

Friday, October 2

We didn't have specific plans until the evening, and the weather had taken a turn for the decent, so Kimberly and I spent much of the day travelling around on foot, even though she'd sprained her ankle recently--she assured me it was fine and there hadn't been any problems the day before. We started going north on Osborne Street (a main thoroughfare which runs by my place) while I tried to offer some personal or cultural observations about whatever we happened to pass on our way. (Sample Factoid: "Did you know Winnipeg is the Slurpee Capital of the World?") Once we were in Osborne Village again, we stopped in at Gags Unlimited, which was already in full-on Hallowe'en Mode.

Kimberly was taken aback at the row of Barack Obama masks which greeted us as we walked in, especially given that we also ended up seeing masks for both Clintons, Reagan, and Nixon, but not a single mask related to a Canadian politician such as current Prime Minister (and part-time LEGO-impersonator) Stephen Harper. To a Canadian, the lack of such masks isn't going to seem that weird--I mean, would Stephen Harper even want to be Stephen Harper for Hallowe'en?--but the predominance of American culture (including political culture) in this country can seem rather strange when first encountered.

Lunch was at Stella's Café & Bakery, the local eatery recommended most when I asked about restaurants, and large portions were again in evidence--as were "Hardcore Brownies," the first in a number of items labelled with adjectives like "Hardcore" or "X-Treme," which I'd never noticed was such a common thing in Winnipeg. Having said that, I had to tell Kimberly that the number of places offering tattoos and piercings on Osborne is atypical of the city as a whole...we're not that hardcore.

Having reached the Legislature again after lunch, we had the option of going straight downtown or taking the Assiniboine Riverwalk to The Forks, a popular local destination (particularly for tourists), and chose the latter. By the time we got there, we were in the mood for gaming--and my existing board games and such are scattered about rather than centralised in a rec room the way I want them to be--so after doing a general tour and picking up some Canadian items for Kimberly's family back home, I thought we should search for Fluxx, which a lot of local people I know like to play but (for some reason) I've never owned myself.

Usually, I would turn to Kite and Kaboodle at The Forks to solve this sort of problem, given their excellent selection, but when they didn't have any version of the card game, I did something (apparently) very surprising: I consulted a phone book. It seemed so strange and anachronistic that I not only knew where to find one at The Forks but would think of it as a natural option to look for other game outlets that Kimberly took a photo for posterity. I noted a couple of possibilities, but we resolved to halt the quest for the moment because those specific evening plans were rapidly approaching.

Since the only people who expressed interest in joining us for anything after I threw it out there were members of my family, Kimberly and I met up with my brother Tony for dinner before going to see Zombieland, which was actually shot in Kimberly's current home state of Georgia. (The movie is great, by the way, and I've already sat through it twice.) I was grateful for the opportunity to take her to SilverCity Polo Park, the same cinema used for many an übergroup outing--though it occurred to me later that we could've gotten a gaming fix by playing air hockey or some arcade games there, but didn't. Still, Kimberly was suitably impressed by the ability to eat frogurt at a movie theatre.

My favourite part of the actual screening, though? After the (obligatory) trailer for The Twilight Saga: New Moon in front of the movie, one girl near the front applauded, and she was met by a chorus of booing, followed by applause for the booing. :)

Saturday, October 3

Still wanting to get our game on, I phoned around searching for a store that might have Fluxx, but no one I rang had a deck to spare, so we caved and went to Toys "R" Us to look for a possible alternative, eventually coming across the tile-based Carcassonne. ("Especially good for two players!") Since we were right there already, we also stopped in at the nearby Party Stuff to check out possible Hallowe'en gear. Upon returning home, we had enough time to give Carcassonne a try before going out for the evening, and it is a good two-player game--not overly time-consuming, but involving elements of strategy which keep you thinking.

Our main plan, however, was to check out that night's bonspiel at the St Vital Curling Club. Kimberly is a big curling fan, but had never actually seen it live, while Winnipeg has around twenty-five separate curling clubs. Ideally, I would've liked to sign us up for a Learn-to-Curl class, but it was slightly too early in the curling season for that. :/ Nevertheless, I wasn't worried about being able to find some hard-hurrying action to watch as spectators. (This was the view from our seats.) I'm not sure what other people there might have thought about our watching what was basically just a local match, but we had a good time, grabbed some snackage, and then checked out the cover band playing mostly songs from the Sixties--fitting, since the members of the band looked to be in their sixties--in what was possibly the most Manitoban activity we could've chosen on a Saturday night. (As Justin Timberlake would say, this was Classic 'Peg.)

It was still relatively early, even when all that was done, so after Kimberly questioned why I wasn't on a curling team--and I told her she could at least be on a virtual curling team by getting Deca Sports for the Wii--we also stopped in at The Billabong Bar & Bistro, an Australian-themed place in Osborne Village (which there was a certain logic in trying, since we originally met in Sydney), before watching that night's Saturday Night Live (Ryan Reynolds/Lady Gaga) at my place and marvelling at how Reynolds seemed to phone it in despite his comedic chops. I took his performance and threw it on the ground!

Sunday, October 4

Now that we had a ready gaming option, we could start the day off with a couple of Carcassonne rematches at the kitchen table before heading back to The Forks. The weather had started to get chilly again, but there were some (temporary) amusement park rides set up there, so we took a ride on the Ferris wheel (allowing me to point out some more Winnipeg landmarks from the top), nurtured our natural competitive streaks on the bumper cars, and checked out Sugar Mountain Express, a pair of train cars converted into a confectionery store. We didn't get anything there, but eventually managed to score another local food favourite, Clodhoppers, which several people had reminded me Kimberly should try whilst she was here.

It should be clear by this point that I'd endeavoured to have one "headline" event of interest for each evening of the visit--and for the last night, that was A Maze in Corn, a little south of the city, which I hadn't been to in a long time. We got there around dusk, somewhat later than anticipated, so we asked if there'd be enough time to check out both the Haunted Forest and the maze itself (since it costs more to try both). We were assured that there would "definitely" be enough time (possibly because such an assurance meant that we'd pay more), but after waiting quite a while in a strange corral-like structure for the haunted tour to start, we gave up and headed for the maze.

Another disappointment followed when none of the promised scavenger hunt items (each relating to a different town in Manitoba) were anywhere to be found (by us, anyway) in our trek through the corn maze. The maze is admittedly extensive, and it was getting progressively darker, but we spent a good deal of time in there and covered what we considered to be a majority of the maze's tracks, so both of us felt like we'd somehow missed something really obvious about the nature of the scavenger hunt--especially when other people told me later that they'd found the items inside without much of a problem.

Returning to Winnipeg, items unscavenged, I realised that there were only a few hours left before I'd have to drop Kimberly off at the airport, so I stayed up and let her get a few hours of sleep with the knowledge that I'd be awake for the obscenely early departure call.

As you can tell, the visit was laidback, but fun, with the fact that it ended and the absence of Kimberly's husband Scott as the only parts which made me a sad panda. I really hope that his work commitments won't keep him away next time.

As you can also tell (and as I expected), a lot of the trip involved comparisons between many aspects of Canadiana and Americana, most of which I haven't even mentioned yet--everything from the dominance of Kijiji over Craigslist in Winnipeg to the nature of provincial equalisation payments to how companies sneak in a maple leaf on their Canadian logos (the middle of the McDonald's Golden Arches, the apostrophe in "Wendy's," and so on), just in case you forget what country you're in when you're dealing with them.

There was less talk of home redecoration than expected--mostly discussion of potential changes to the apartment rather than actually shopping for new decor or furniture. Kimberly and I seem to be on the same page of ideas, but we never devoted an afternoon to this sort of thing as I'd originally imagined.

On a(nother) side note, I had the rental car for an extra day on either side of the visit, and it becomes immediately clear in that sort of situation how much more oriented Winnipeg is to its entrenched car culture than it is to cyclists, pedestrians, or frequent users of public transit. I was pretty much aware of this already, but the difference in practice is astounding.

All in all, I'm happy with my first attempt at offering some Canadian hospitality here in the new(ish) place, and I can only hope my next opportunity goes at least as well. :)

It's Cold Outside, There's No Kind of Atmosphere

smackdab@gmail.com — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:33:27 GMT

The rental car is being picked up in a couple of hours, and the apartment is on track to getting (somewhat) more organised, which means the pieces are slowly coming together for Kimberly's arrival in Winnipeg tomorrow...

Unfortunately, however, she just sprained her ankle, and the weather forecast for this weekend is colder than I'd hoped, so we'll most likely be taking it pretty easy whilst she's here (and to be fair, she was telling me to take it easy anyway).

Besides feeling that the city puts its best foot forward during the summer--even if the colder weather makes for an (arguably) more "authentic" Winnipeg experience--all of the summertime events I mentioned also nicely provide a built-in environment where a visitor can run into a lot of local people I know. (This was the case with my last visitor, who came during FolkFest, and would be very true for anyone who came during the Fringe Festival.) A lot of the concern coming across in my preparations stems from the fact there isn't really an autumnal equivalent to this, when the nippy climate makes it harder to get people out for things--and of course, it's always a burn when you try to put a social gathering together yourself and it doesn't materialise.

If you're local and not intimidated by the thought of single-digit temperatures, we're planning on going to the late showing of Zombieland on Friday night at SilverCity Polo Park, taking in at least part of the St Vital Fall Classic bonspiel, and probably spending the bulk of the remaining time at the homestead. Feel free to comment here or contact me through the usual channels, and I'm sure we can figure something out...

Stand on Guard, Getting Ready for the Show

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 18:44:53 GMT

The northwest corner of Trafalgar Square in London features the Fourth Plinth, originally built in the 19th century for the purpose of erecting a statue of William IV which never actually went up. Ever since, debate has raged over what to put there (with the usual answer being "nothing"), and for the past ten years, that has led to occasional temporary art installations.

Currently, the Fourth Plinth is being taken up by an art project called One & Other, conceived by Antony Gormley, where a different applicant goes onto the Plinth every hour from July 6 to October 14. They can do whatever they want there, as long as it's legal, and they can take anything up with them, as long as they carry it themselves.

If you go to the project's official website, you can watch a live webstream of whoever is on the Plinth at the moment. (As I write this, a grammar school student is talking on her mobile phone and writing stuff on a stand she brought with her, trying to get spectators to play Hangman.) Each person's hour is archived online for posterity.

After I found out about this (which I thought was rather cool), I started poking around to find out more, and occasionally checking into the live feed to see what was going on...so you can imagine my surprise when I discovered someone I knew had already taken part!

My friend Larina Alick was the designated Plinther from 9-10 AM on September 4, and she dubbed her hour a "Demonstration of Procrastination." Larina is originally from Queensland, but I met her on my (first) trip to Melbourne, and we stayed in touch through her (first) move to London. Seeing her in this particular context had an extra bit of personal resonance, since she and I brought in the year 2000 together in Trafalgar Square.

As I mentioned, you can watch her entire hour online for yourselves. I found the whole thing very entertaining, and Larina remains as awesome as ever.

You're All Invited Back Next Week to This Locality

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 05:51:35 GMT

Trying to make sure Winnipeg doesn't prove to be a massive letdown during Kimberly's visit has yielded better results lately than it did last week--thanks in no small part to the excellent feedback on my original entry mentioning it, along with offline input from a variety of local sources. :)

Many thanks to everyone who was able to contribute.

Amongst the possible events Kimberly will not miss are the artistic mash-up known as Cirque de la Symphonie, a concert by "multi-ethnic Gypsy punk band" Gogol Bordello, A Maze in Corn ("Manitoba's Original Corn Maze!"), and the photography exhibit Yousuf Karsh: Regarding Heroes at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.

Oh, and I was able to find a curling bonspiel we can go to that weekend. ;)

Having mentioned all this, Kimberly (rightly) pointed out that I needn't feel obligated to schedule the trip down to the second--which is good, because I was already dangerously close to pulling a Danny Tanner with my Itinerary of Fun, when hanging out is also a great way to spend one's time. (It's not as if I expect any similar amount of planning when I visit someone, after all.)

On a more leisurely cultural note, then, can someone with more knowledge of such matters give me a rundown of some candies that exist in Canada but not the United States? A glowing reference to this elsewhere in the blogosphere reminded me that (for example) Americans mean something different when they talk about Smarties...

Everything to Prove, Nothing in My Way

smackdab@gmail.com — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 20:33:18 GMT

So far, my efforts at finding local events of interest for Kimberly's upcoming visit to Winnipeg have proven to be an exercise in unfortunate timing. :/

Amongst the events Kimberly will miss by less than a week are the Flashlight Vigil at Lower Fort Garry (and the end of the regular season there, actually), an appearance by a mentalist at The Park Theatre, the Winnipeg International Writers Festival, the opening of the theatre season with 5 O'Clock Bells at the MTC Warehouse, the poetry series Speaking Crow at Aqua Books, and even the uniquely local City of Winnipeg Giveaway Weekend.

Well, at least Zombieland opens while she's here...

Recordatio, Identidem

smackdab@gmail.com — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:21:40 GMT

As I do each year to mark this anniversary, I'll point you to my entry on 9/11 from three years ago, if you're curious about my memories of the event and my thoughts on its aftermath.

Feel free to comment there with your own thoughts if you wish--I invited that sort of feedback at the time, and the invitation still holds.

I certainly feel better about the state of the world in general, and the United States in particular, than I did at this time last year. The change in American leadership has led to an important shift in tone and focus, and for that I'm grateful.

We Make the Whole World Dirty and We Have a Real Good Time

smackdab@gmail.com — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:44:42 GMT

You had to know this was coming (as it were), but in watching Season Two of The Original Series, there was even more potentially homoerotic innuendo to be found than what I'd encountered with the first season.

Because of that, it was harder (so to speak) to narrow down the most suggestive selections and form a proper list. I kept it up, though, and after a bit of a push and some concerted effort, I finished it off, so I celebrate the official 43rd anniversary of Star Trek by giving you:

Top Ten Unusual Slashy Lines (TOS Season Two Edition)

[As with the previous list, "unusual" means that no Kirk/Spock lines were included.]

10) Kirk/Mudd: "Is that the way you're going to do it, Mudd?"

9) Kirk/Garrovick: "Oh, Ensign, meet me in my quarters when you've cleaned up."

8) Kirk/McCoy/Scott/Chekov/Apollo: "If we can wear him out, overwork him, that might do it."

7) McCoy/Kirk: "Just lie there and be happy you're alive."

6) Scott/Kirk: "The best we can do is to maintain thrust against the pull and hold our position."

5) Jones/Bartender: "You won't find a finer stone anywhere."

4) Kirk/Planet-Killer: "I intend to get a lot closer. I'm going to ram her right down that thing's throat!"

3) Chekov/Chekov: "Take off your shirt, Chekov! Roll over, Chekov! Breathe deeply, Chekov!"

2) Sargon/Kirk: "We left our seed behind us."

...and the most unusual slashy line of the season:

1) Chekov/Kirk: "This is going to kill our romance."

Once more, Kirk clearly dominates (to coin a phrase), and that habit is sure to continue when Season Three gets a look...

Then again, it's possible that Kirk just loves a mountain instead.

You Could Be Happy There on Earth

smackdab@gmail.com — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 10:33:01 GMT

Despite my managing to make it through Season One of Star Trek: The Original Series before the new movie came out, my episode-watching pace quickly dropped off after it opened, and I'd gone several weeks without moving past "The Deadly Years," which happens to be the exact halfway point of the series.

The combination of an abundance of free time with a Labour Day weekend Star Trek marathon on Space to provide inspiration, however, pushed me to pick up the gauntlet again and finish off Season Two, where more creative decisions inspired by real-world production issues seemed prominent.

Although TOS never went to 23rd-century Earth (the closest we got was a distant, illusory view of the city of Mojave in the original pilot, "The Cage"), several episodes dealt with time travel into Earth's past, and there seemed to be all sorts of reasons to go to planets that were "much like your Earth." Trying to go for a sense of plausibility, the show codified this tendency by inventing terms like the Class M designation and Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development to explain it away.

Where Season One had started the trend by featuring an exact duplicate of Earth in "Miri," Season Two was all about themed planets: Hallowe'en World! Greek Mythology World! Roman World! Gangster World! Nazi World! Weird Quasi-Cold War World! Season Three would continue this pattern somewhat (with such winners as Native American World), but it was the second season which really embraced it.

This seems fitting for a season whose finale was appropriately titled "Assignment: Earth," another time travel episode that served as a backdoor pilot for a potential spinoff series set on Earth in the present day. It's interesting to speculate on what such a series might've been like (and John Byrne did just that in a recent comic book series), but the alternate Star Trek universe that would've resulted from that development in the franchise would probably be virtually unrecognisable to us.

Speaking of alternate universes, Season Two also featured "Mirror, Mirror" and its evil take on the characters we know and love, leading to decades of further development and speculation on the Mirror Universe (not to mention many an evil-goatee reference in popular culture). Onscreen, at least, Mirror Earth has never been properly visited, either.

'Cause You're There for Me, Too

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:33:23 GMT

We've talked about the possibility for years already, but my very good friend Kimberly (whom I've mentioned in various contexts, including her role as co-founder of Regator, which I've also talked about before) has only just now finished booking her trip to visit me here in Winnipeg! :)

I'm ecstatic about this, of course, but also extremely nervous.

Winnipeg is at its best during July and August (and I feel that the ideal time to visit is during the Fringe), so I've generally had people come during those months, and I worry that there isn't enough of interest for even a first-time visitor after the summer festivals have come and gone--no Fringe, no FolkFest, no Folklorama, just the autumnal city itself. Other than the likelihood of some ghost tourism, I have no idea what Kimberly and I will do when she gets here.

Thus, I turn to you, Winnipeggers and past visitors to this noble city, for advice and reassurance.

Kimberly will be here the first weekend of October, already a desert where any interesting concerts or other events are concerned. :/ I would very much appreciate any insight at all from those in the know as to what leaves a good impression for people coming here in the off-season, as it were.

Some awesome specific advice would include vegetarian restaurant options (the place doesn't have to be entirely vegetarian, just feature some good meat-free menu items), anywhere we can check out (and maybe even try out?) some curling by then, and where I should go to shop for some new home decor (as it occurs to me that the apartment's looking a little bare at the moment).

Thanks in advance for your help...

He Never Gives Up, He's Always There

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 17:27:19 GMT

If you haven't already, you should definitely check out "The Ballad of G.I. Joe," written by Daniel Strange & Kevin Umbricht and featuring an all-star cast, including a brief but welcome appearance by Alan Tudyk:

The Ballad of G.I. Joe from Olivia Wilde

Isn't it sad that The Rise of Cobra has far less appeal for me than this does, especially where the casting is concerned?

It's Time to Raise the Curtain

smackdab@gmail.com — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 09:56:39 GMT

Despite my ambivalent feelings about Winnipeg, there are times when I really love being here, and I feel like this city is never better than it is during the Winnipeg Fringe Festival.

(Yes, yes, they're on Twitter as well...)

Even though I didn't catch nearly as many shows as I have in other years (and nowhere near the number I would've wanted to), I'm happy to say I didn't see a single stinker. One highlight worth mentioning right off the top was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, adapted by local Luke Falconer from the memoir of the same name by Dave Eggers, which stripped down the plot of the book a lot but (thankfully) maintained its tone:

(I really wish my friend Kimberly had been here to take in that show, as she is a huge fan of Eggers in general and said book in particular...)

Other highlights of what I did see include Inviting Desire: A Theatrical Aphrodisiac by Eleanor O'Brien and Dance Naked Productions (not every Fringe show features a triple-penetration story); Breakdance for Solo Cello by Solid State Breakdance (we got served...a really awesome performance); Pig: A Peep Show of Forbidden Acts from the Farm by Cowgirl Opera (perhaps the eleven walkouts at the performance I attended should've taken the show's writeup and the fact it was in a strip club at face value); Schoolhouse Rock Live! by Small Nest Productions (does exactly what it says on the tin, though that bill up on Capitol Hill may not be so applicable to the Canadian kids); and Raunch by Alice Nelson and Jacqueline Russell, inspired by Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy (here's a trailer for it).

This only scratches the surface of what the Fringe had to offer, of course, and there were many more shows I wanted to see but couldn't, such as Lysistrata and The Importance of Being Earnest, both by the Eyewitness Theatre Company; Heebs and Dweebs by Amy Salloway, which I feel especially bad about missing because tinkerspink had recommended it after seeing the show in Ottawa; She's Not There by New-York-to-Winnipeg transplant Alix Sobler; Take You with Me by Aspen Switzer; the remounts of Virtual Solitaire by Dawson Nichols and 52 Pick-Up by perennial Fringe favourite TJ Dawe and Rita Bozi (the current movie (500) Days of Summer sounds so similar to the latter that I feel like Dawe should sue somebody); Like Father, Like Son? Sorry. by Chris Gibbs (whose last performance was "cancelled due to excessive hilarity"); Fidel Castro's Guide to Internet Dating by Adi Sara Kreindler; and...good grief, this is getting to be a long paragraph.

Suffice it to say that what doesn't get seen at the Fringe is always a source of regret.

On the bright side, I did manage to convince my brother to take in a couple of shows with me...and to think, it only took fifteen years of cajoling to get him to the Fringe.

Even though they lacked any true Fringe connection, one of the non-performative highlights of the Fringe for me was unexpectedly meeting and hanging out with a bunch of puppeteers from Walking with Dinosaurs--including Mat McCoy, who also worked on Farscape as an operator for both Rygel and Pilot, and was quite happy to share some tales from the set. :)

Lest you think that would prove to be my last genre encounter at the festival, there was actually a tie-in writing connection, too! While talking to actress Dee Watson on the last night, I discovered that she is friends with Paul Dale Smith, author of the Seventh Doctor/Ace novel Heritage and the Tenth Doctor/Martha novel The Many Hands (amongst other Doctor Who tie-in material)...which was a weird and coincidental thing to learn, since I wasn't exactly looking for anything fannish at the time.

That's the great thing about the Winnipeg Fringe, though--there are so many random things to encounter, in and out of the performance venues. You can start out one night talking passionately about the world of theatre in a pub when all of a sudden, a spontaneous Eighties Dance Party breaks out, followed by a rousing game of Intercourse-Handjob-Farts (a variation on Rock-Paper-Scissors developed by the aforementioned Luke Falconer...I'm sure you can figure it out), before ending up in another conversation where you staunchly defend your favourite critical theorist, without missing a beat.

Twelve days never feel like enough.

Those Dreams Have Remained and They've Turned Around

smackdab@gmail.com — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:29:48 GMT

Having spent the past couple of Canada Days dwelling on fictional Canadian pop stars and Heritage Minutes, I find myself thinking more this year about the vagaries of Winnipeg's specific identity...

Canadians are a needy lot to begin with, constantly depending on external validation to justify their own existence. A Canadian can achieve any form of success you can think of, but they haven't really made it until they've achieved that success elsewhere--usually in the United States.

We celebrate our actors and musicians only when they become American successes, and hold up our authors higher once they're noticed internationally (and often hold up authors as our own when they've moved here from elsewhere, or conversely have left Canada years ago). We don't even feel good about our music unless we can get Barack Obama to listen to it, and it turns out that living abroad actually makes you more Canadian. I agree that being worldly is never a bad thing, but the very fact that we have that back-and-forth debate--how much distance from Canada is enough, and how much is too much?--is quintessentially Canadian.

Winnipeg is a microcosm of that paradox.

Those of us in or from The Peg can be fiercely defensive of our city, and yet there's a part of us that never actually feels good until our feelings are backed up by people elsewhere. (Even the President Obama connection persists...hey, did you know the White House playground structure uses parts from a Manitoba company?) We're so desperate to prove that Winnipeg is incredibly cool that we'll compile a video montage of pop culture references just to show we "exist" outside our perimeter:

(What's that? They didn't seek out enough references? Don't worry, the same company made a second montage.)

I really do love living in Winnipeg and having it as my hometown. I like having people visit, especially in the summer, and I've defended my choice to stay here many times as I've watched the Brain Drain continue and others have argued that I should seek out greener pastures myself.

I can't help but wonder sometimes, though, whether I'm just doing that so I don't end up feeling like a townie.

There are certainly frustrations about Winnipeg culture, beyond the stereotypes about the weather. We seem somehow averse to any significant city development that isn't urban sprawl (as easily evidenced by comparing the Winnipeg skyline to the relatively nearby Minneapolis skyline, considering the latter's similarity in metropolitan population). Much like Hill Valley, once the big mall(s) was/were built out in the suburbs, all of the downtown business evaporated, and we've been unable to bring any vitality back to it, despite constant debates about how that might be done.

It must appear strange to outsiders when something that should be universally appealing, like a national museum devoted to human rights, is still met with complaints from some corners, and there are no less than four different unofficial websites devoted to transit issues in Winnipeg because we can't get Rapid Transit off the ground after decades of talking about it. I'm not sure who these people are, but they come out of the woodwork whenever anything at all is proposed in the city--even something as simple as a restaurant patio or the demolition of an unoccupied building--and complain until things either drag on for years or just stall completely, because some Winnipeggers can never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Things have gotten to the point now that the arrival of IKEA in Winnipeg is a huge news story--probably because we're just so surprised to see something like that actually going forward locally.

Winnipeg often lives in a culture of nostalgia, which is most likely the main reason this tendency crops up time and again. The city clings to the imagined glory days of the past, wanting to recapture that victorious feeling but somehow also feeling like any significant change to our landscape from what came before would take it away. The clash between this imaginary past and what some imagine for our future leads to a weird sort of stasis, even as we flock to YouTube channels devoted to old local television clips and perpetually pine for a return of the NHL to our market.

Remember how awesome we were back then?

Local artists are well aware of these contradictions, and Winnipeg's love/hate relationship with itself, as a lot of art that's about Winnipeg tends to explore these issues. Perhaps the most well-known recent example is Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, where Maddin literally creates a mythology out of the city's history, but any time Winnipeg plays itself, there's a constant struggle with the past--how to get away from it without letting go, how to reinvent yourself without leaving the city--and all forms of art that come out of here show evidence of these things we can't stand about Winnipeg but feel are intrinsic to our identity.

We're constantly encouraged to speak up and invite people back, all while we talk about these mixed feelings amongst ourselves, with no true resolution in sight.

I'm from here and I have no idea what the answers are, as I struggle with all of these issues myself on a personal level--the lack of anonymity, the inability to get away from your past, the concern that your ambitions can only be fulfilled by moving away, the knowledge that you'll eventually run into your ex at the worst possible moment because there are only ever two degrees of separation around here. Obviously, I'm one of the many people willing to bitch and moan and sing the praises of Winnipeg, all at the same time.

I know that Winnipeg will always be a part of me, but is that really all there is to this city?

It's Time to Play the Music

smackdab@gmail.com — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:04:40 GMT

When I woke up today and saw that the nonstop news coverage was still on, I realised it had actually happened.

Michael Jackson died.

He was the first musician I can remember really being a fan of who wasn't specifically making children's music. It was all mixed together in my young mind at the time, of course--original artists and Mini Pops covers held about the same status on my record shelf--but listening to Thriller on vinyl and cassette tape, I managed to make the distinction, because I could tell that Michael Jackson was a Big Deal.

That was also when I started to watch music videos (probably on Video Hits) and truly understand what a music video was. Once again, the videos for songs like "Billie Jean" and the all-time classic "Thriller" (a video so long it has end credits!) are what made that clear to me. Say what you like about that album and that video, but their enduring influence cannot be overstated.

So many of my earliest memories of pop music and popular culture in general are tied to Michael Jackson that it's hard for me to think of one without associating the other.

There've been so many iconic figures lost just in the last little while (Bea Arthur, David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett), but Jackson has already drowned them all out, the only one who could slow down the entire Internet. I imagine this will be another Princess Diana moment, where this is the main event any of us remember about this month in the future--yet another legendary entertainer gone too soon.

For all of the excesses and general weirdness that Michael Jackson became known for over the years (Is it too early to make an Elvis comparison?), my main inclination last night and this morning has been to just listen to his songs, concentrating on that golden period from Off the Wall to Dangerous when (in the realm of song and dance, anyway) it seemed like he could do no wrong.

That's how I choose to remember him.

The Man, He Ain't So Hard to Understand

smackdab@gmail.com — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:18:57 GMT

I'm not exactly a fan of slash fiction (that's a longer discussion for another day), but in the midst of rewatching Season One of Star Trek: The Original Series--with its euphemistic talk of "thinking with your glands" and "unusually strong female drives"--I couldn't help but notice that certain pieces of dialogue seemed closer to homoerotic innuendo than I had previously remembered.

That may just be Pride Month talking, but either way, I give you:

Top Ten Unusual Slashy Lines (TOS Season One Edition)

[N.B. For the purposes of this list, "unusual" means that I didn't include any Kirk/Spock lines in the mix.]

10) Kirk/Christopher: "Feel free to look around, Captain. Don't touch anything, but I think you'll find it interesting."

9) Kirk/McCoy: "He's all yours, plum."

8) Kirk/McCoy: "Sometimes, pain can drive a man harder than pleasure. I'm sure you know that, Doctor."

7) McCoy/Kirk: "That's a boy, keep it up. Work up a little sweat, it'll do you good."

6) Kirk/Kirk: "I have to take him back inside myself."

5) Spock/McCoy: "I had a very strong reaction. My first sight was the face of Doctor McCoy bending over me."

4) Scott/Kirk: "Any way we do it, it means a mighty rough ride."

3) Kirk/McCoy: "He wants to get me down there, afraid I won't swallow it."

2) Cogley/Kirk: "I could get you off." followed by "You can pull out if you want to."

...and the most unusual slashy line of the season:

1) Landru/Kirk: "Landru is gentle. You will come."

This may yet become a (semi-)regular feature, depending on what Season Two has to offer...

There Is Lots to Doodle-Do

smackdab@gmail.com — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:04:36 GMT

When you visit The History of Things That Never Were, you'll find a set of anchor links at the top of the page allowing you to jump to one of the site's timeline sections, which are divided by medium (Television, Movies, Books, Games, and Comics).

After mentioning in my ruminations on the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series that I was rearranging the Star Trek chronology work, though, I realised I never really highlighted the fact that each of the sub-sections under those media has an anchor, too.

At the risk of blatant Google-baiting, here are all the specific sub-sections on the site, in order of appearance:

Star Trek Timelines
Doctor Who Timelines
Highlander Timelines
Battlestar Galactica Timelines
Robotech Timelines
Gundam Timelines
Star Wars Timelines
The Lord of the Rings Timelines
The Wheel of Time Timelines
Cthulhu Mythos Timelines
Wold Newton Timelines
Dungeons & Dragons Timelines
DC Comics Timelines
Marvel Comics Timelines

I've managed to do some tweaking here and there on the site lately, but there is a great deal of work left to be done to bring it up to a level I'd find satisfactory at this point...

Tracking down dead links alone is starting to take up a lot of my time devoted to the site--and between the shutdown of AOL Hometown late last year and the impending demise of GeoCities, this problem is only getting worse. (Timelines hosted at GeoCities make up over 10% of the total links on the site.) It's always sad to see a good timeline disappear, but checking links and thus updating the site properly is a normal part of site maintenance--which in this case means acknowledging how the Web has changed, and having to let go of certain sites which no longer exist. :/ After all, it's counterproductive to have dead links just sitting there, as it undermines the reliability of the site itself.

(Ironically, there are probably just as many dead links to the site out there now as there are dead links on the page itself, since previous URL redirects no longer work...even though it's been at its current URL for the past seven years, or the majority of its existence.)

Certain people have also told me I should "build the brand" by incorporating some sort of social-networking component into the site (or at least its visitors), such as a dedicated blog, but I have my doubts that I'd be able to sustain a dual blogging effort on top of everything else, so I've even (*shudder*) thought about using Twitter for people to follow site updates more closely.

Whatever I decide in this regard, it would be nice to find a way for the site to keep up with the times, Web-wise, and eventually move away from that lovely 1997 design aesthetic. (A long time ago, lampbane came up with a really nice potential redesign which I still have, so I may yet use that as a launching point.)

Then again, there's something fitting about an "historical" website that evokes the online past...

Happy and Gay Like You Wouldn't Believe

smackdab@gmail.com — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 19:20:35 GMT

I did indeed make it to Winnipeg's Pride March on Sunday (as promised earlier), and I'm glad I went, on what turned out to be the first weekend of the year for completely decent-without-qualifiers weather. :) I'm actually pleased to have some sunburn on my neck and shoulders, because it means this "summer" thing everyone talks about is more than just a rumour...

Given the warm, sunny weather, the turnout was great, and I saw a number of people I knew along the way--but fewer than I expected. :/ I'm not sure what's up with that.

Most of my marching time was spent seeking out a float with decent music to walk beside, and it was a decidedly mixed bag until I found a winner in the "Adam and Steve" float. ;)

After that, it was just a matter of hanging around Memorial Park, watching some of the requisite song-and-dance acts, and checking out the display booths before heading home...

Speaking of which, you know the demographics have shifted at an event like this when companies like Investors Group and Sears Portrait Studio make an official appearance. :}

I Grab My Books and I Give Myself a Look

smackdab@gmail.com — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:03:12 GMT

Before I completely neglect to mention it, Zack Morris made an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon this week to update us all on what he's been up to since his days at Bayside:

I was surprised at the attention to continuity in his interview, referencing everything from Zack's (impossible) SAT score to his Wedding in Las Vegas--even addressing the retcon of Good Morning, Miss Bliss (the precursor to Saved by the Bell where some of its characters debuted), which was set in Indiana--and I have to say that The Roots can rock out that theme music rather well. :) It's also a little disturbing how easy it is to make Mark-Paul Gosselaar look the part again...

I'm glad to see Zack's kept his brick of a mobile phone (no text messaging, alas), but sad to learn of his divorce from Kelly Kapowski...although of course, that all depends on whether this appearance could be considered canon. ;)

Straight Ahead and On the Track Now

smackdab@gmail.com — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 15:24:56 GMT

Having missed out on Winnipeg's Pride March over the past couple of years (for a number of reasons), I want to be doubly sure I make it this Sunday...

In the meantime, the status of various GLBT issues in North America is the same mixed bag as it was at this time last year. One (pleasantly) shocking turn of events was discovering that President Obama actually proclaimed June as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month:

I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

There are plenty of places in the States where discrimination and prejudice in this area need to be turned back, too. While same-sex couples there are still struggling to get the same immigration rights and adoption rights as their heterosexual counterparts, and some public schools are blocking pro-GLBT websites, marriage rights continue to be a primary battleground--with the good news out of New Hampshire seemingly cancelled out by the upholding of the same-sex marriage ban in California (and you all know how I feel about that).

Lest we Canadians look upon those problems and pat ourselves on the back for being so much more enlightened, I would remind you that Alberta just passed a law allowing parents to pull their children out of class when lessons on sexual orientation are being taught.

Things might be all right where I'm sitting, but they continue to be worse elsewhere--for our neighbours to the south as well as so many other parts of the world.

And that's why I need to show my support at Pride this year.