Hockey fans will recognize the guy in the photo above, but for those not interested in the sport it is Tim Thomas, a goaltender with the Boston Bruins. As a Vancouver Canucks fan it's difficult to look upon his smugly smiling visage, as he is one irritating reason the Bruins took the Stanley Cup over my team in seven games last year. Unfortunately, he's an excellent keeper who not only raised the cup in 2011, but also won the Conn Smythe Trophy for Most Valuable Player of the playoffs, and the Vezina Trophy for the NHL's best keeper last season. As much as I consider him the enemy, then, I must acknowldge his skill, especially when it mattered.
However, beyond the uniform he wears, another reason to dislike him has arrived in the form of his decision to "sit out" next season. He announced on F***book on Sunday that he will take the year off in order to spend more time reconnecting with "family, friends and faith." Now, I cannot knock the fact he wants to devote more time and energy to these areas of his life, but the other side of the story is that he is still contracted to the Boston Bruins. Although he will not get paid for his leave of absence - and rightly so - the rules of the NHL salary cap and his own contract mean that his team, i.e. his employer, will have $5 million less (being Thomas' salary for the 2012-13 season) that they can spend on wages. That could bag them a couple of quality players to add to their roster, but because of Thomas' actions they are strapped to do so.
How incredibly selfish it is to leave his team on the financial hook like this. At age 38, why doesn't he simply do the decent thing and retire? If he so desired he could always come out of retirement (if, after this, any team wanted him) after his year's sabbatical, but no, he expects to come back and play again after his time off! What an ego!
How lovely it would be, would it not, if you or I could march into our boss' office and say, "Sorry, but I don't think I want to work next year, so I'm taking it off. You don't mind do you?" But you and I live in the real world, one where I have been unable to take a proper holiday for nine years.
Thomas should realize that no one man is above a team, that he has an obligation to his employers (and fans and team-mates) within the terms of a contract, and that because of him his team will be financially hindered to the tune of $5 million - which, let's face it anyway, is an obscene amount of money to be paid for what he does in the first place. Not that he cares, I'm sure, as he certainly won't go without during his year-long holiday
I for one hope this break means we've seen the back of this prima donna, a classic example of why the players hold way too much sway in the sport I love.
On June 1st Susan and I welcomed the gorgeous little munchkin you see above into our life. He is 10-weeks old and we've called him Reggie after one of our favourite UK sitcom characters, Reginald Perrin. I could bang on for hours about what a beautiful bundle of energy and cute mischief he is, but it would say nothing that has not been said a billion times before of the joy of kittens. However, in the four days he's been with us he has done one thing that could be interpreted as quite extraordinary. It was an action, however incidental and innocently unintentional, that seems the perfect way to introduce Reggie, but we can't help consider it to be pretty spooky!
As can be seen in the photo, book cases line the wall opposite our bed. On the shelf in line with the edge of the bed sits a knitted figure of a cat. Susan created this a couple of years ago as a representation of our dear Eddie, who passed away a few weeks ago. Susan being Susan, she included some of Eddie's discarded fur in the plush Eddie's heart. On his first day with us, Reggie spotted the yarn-crafted Eddie and sat looking at it for a while. Some time later he leapt from the bed on the bookshelf it sits on, walked up to it and with one tap of his tiny paw, knocked it onto the floor. To date this remains the sole time he has jumped onto that bookshelf, or shown any interest in it.
Isn't that weird? It's so symbolic and, to us, naturally rather sad, but the facts are that Eddie is gone and Reggie is here, so the latter's action, driven only out of curiosity, certainly illustrates the way of things now. And from this intriguing beginning, we embark on what we hope will be a long and beautiful companionship with Eddie's successor.
In the wake of what for one reason or another has been quite an intense week, I slithered from my pit this morning and turned on the PC to check email and the news, just as I do every day. And like every day, the BBC website was loaded with grim news: 90+ people, including 32 children, massacred by government troops in the Syrian town of Houla; a shooting rampage by a teenager in Hyvinkaa, Finland; the ongoing eurozone crisis; murders, destruction, political or religious conflict, and the expected daily parade of human misery and folly. Same shit, different day.
Then, as I sat sighing and sipping forlornly at my bucket of coffee, taking the weight of the world on my shoulders as I can tend to, Susan (in the living room on her iPad) sent me a link to the simply wonderful little film above. It's so beautiful, so uplifting and fun that it made us both cry with joy.
The scenario is simple, one that is played out thousands of times all over the world, every single day: a guy asks a girl to marry him. But the imagination, dedication and love that has gone into how he decided to do it is truly an inspiration.
Yes, it's easy to get cynical about something like this - to say it's cheesy, that the song is awful, that it might be a set-up, that it's all "so American" and over-the-top, but I feel to do so would be somewhat missing the point. Taking it at face value it is simply a guy expressing how much he loves his girl and going out of his way in spectacular fashion to tell her he wants to spend the rest of his life with her. What could be wrong with that? Good on him, and good on everyone that supported him in his vision. The performance is joyous and his girlfriend's reaction as it all unfolds is a delight to behold. To cap it all, every single person involved is clearly having a blast in playing their part. All in all, then, this will make millions of people smile in this dark and troubled world, so what's not to love about that?
I guess there are plenty of things I could choose to ruminate on today. I could, for example, air my views on the sadly predictable North Carolinian Amendment One vote yesterday, effectively deeming gay and lesbian people in the state second class citizens by banning same-sex marriage and civil unions. I could even talk about President Obama's too-little-too-late response today in coming out in support of the general legalization of same-sex marriage. At least he's had the guts to do, I guess, but - as a gay friend of mine in North Carolina predicts - it's a proclamation that will probably ultimately cost him the presidency.
Anyway, no, I'm not going to talk about this, or any one of a number of equally depressing topics I could have riffed upon. I am instead going to talk about the 'thing' in the video above. This extraordinary clip of film was released to the world today and like millions of others around the globe I find myself fascinated by it. The mysteries of the deep are always intriguing, but every now and again something like this weird entity reveals itself to us, yet offers no answers. Whether in the oceans or on terra firma it is always a thrill when a new species is discovered, but as this oddity lacks consistency with any known species, or even theories, it is proving a genuine head-scratcher. If only it knew what a fuss is being made about it!
No one knows what this creature is, if in fact it is actually a creature at all. Guesses range from a discarded whale placenta to some kind of super-rare jellyfish to, would you believe, a fishing net. I have my own theory, being that it is actually quite simply a typical North Carolinian pro-Amendment One voter out for a swim. I'm not sure my idea holds water, though. Not that it's easy to tell, but this beast doesn't seem to be overtly displaying the requisite levels of bigotry, stupidity and Draconian worldview, so I could be wrong. What is consistent, however, is the lack of backbone, so maybe I do have a point...? The debate will rage on, I suppose.
As it's garnered over one million YouTube views already I realize I'm late to the party on this one, but Markorepairs does seem the perfect way to introduce I Love Nerds, an occasional new Drivelarium series. I am indebted to Neil Parsons for introducing me to this eight minutes and one second of nerd-nificent Finnish nerdery just yesterday. It's worth your time for the soundtrack alone, but all in all it's not something you're likely to forget in a hurry.
I am not the first to write about this subject, and probably won't be the last, but I remain so astonished and angered about the matter at hand that I feel compelled to add my three cents' worth. Bear with me, then, or just head elsewhere in cyberspace if you're bored of hearing about it.
Last Sunday, April 1 - surely, it's no coincidence that this occurred on April Fool's Day - something pretty tragic happened to the Canadian music industry. At the Juno Awards, being Canada's equivalent of the Grammys or, to an extent, the Brit Awards, Michael Buble's "Christmas" album was awarded Album of the Year. Yeah, if you have somehow avoided this news, it really happened. No kidding.
This album contains Buble's renditions of Christmas standards that have been recorded a trillion times previously by as many bands and artists, and will continue to be recorded for seasonal releases until the end of the world. This release by its very nature is narrowly restricted in terms of both lyrical expression and sonic palette, and regardless of that, is nothing but a covers album. No more, no less. Yet, according to the utter buffoons that decide these things, it was voted the BEST album to be released by a Canadian musician in the last twelve months. Let me repeat that: the best album out of Canada in 2011. Yikes. How can this possibly happen?
I have absolutely nothing against Michael Buble, or Mickey Bubbles as I like to call him for my own amusement. He's a proud Canadian with a great singing voice, and uses it to do what he does very well, selling millions in the process. He's a fine modern crooner, and whether his music is to my taste or not - it isn't - I happily acknowledge his talent. He's a local boy (that is if, like me, you live in British Columbia), like me an avid Vancouver Canucks fan, part owner of the Vancouver Giants, and from the interviews I've seen, seemingly a really nice bloke. I must add that I have not heard the album in question, nor have any need to, but have no doubt it is impeccably performed by Buble and all the musicians present. I'm sure it is beautifully produced and packaged, and made a fine Christmas present for the so-inclined. Indeed, "Christmas" has to date sold something like 4,500,000 worldwide, so it was a huge success.
But, surely quite obviously, unless the artistic merit genuinely matches a release's commercial success, like, say, Arcade Fire's "The Suburbs," a gargantuan sales figure does NOT equal BEST. It is simply inconceivable that a seasonal release of this nature, one that trots out songs heard by generation after generation since the concept of the Christmas song first took flight, should ever be considered an album of the year. I would apply that to any Christmas release, including the classic Phil Spector collection. It may be that the arrangements or instrumentation are more adventurous than ever previously presented, or that in some way the recording is groundbreaking (3D, perhaps?!), but even fresh approaches make no difference whatsoever to the cold, hard fact that it is NOT original material. In fact, I would go as far as to say that no covers album should ever be awarded such a prize. All this can do is damage, sending a message to songwriters the world over that, however hard they try, they just don't make 'em like they used to!
I'm thinking this travesty could well signal the death knell for music awards ceremonies in general. I do hope so, as they are increasingly irrelevant, and this is your proof. I mean, after this, really, what is the point? The decision to award "Christmas" Album of the Year status is plain embarrassing for the Canadian music industry, and I would bet a couple of bucks that Buble himself is amazed. If the intention in handing out this award was to recognize the impact of a Canadian musical artist on the world stage, that's all well and good if units shifted is all that matters, but it does absolutely nothing to further the reputation of Canadian music in general. This country is blessed with musical talent in all genres, but that those who have striven to deliver original and exciting work are brushed aside in the name of economics is nothing short of a disgrace. Shame on you, Junos!
