a unique perspective on this crazy world

Archive for July, 2012

the politics of the alphabet…

OK, maybe on Sesame Street the alphabet is a big deal.  Most of the time it is something we learn as children and never really pay attention to once we have it memorized.

In prior Olympics I had noted the alphabet a bit but most of the opening ceremonies had not held my attention sufficiently to pay too much attention – and I didn’t have a blog 🙂

Even with the blog I wouldn’t have paid a lot of attention if the show had not been so engaging it was hard to just watch casually so by the time the athletes appeared, I was watching.  It is THEIR show after all!

While not as entertaining as the volunteers mostly (!) directed by Danny Boyle, it was really supposed to be about them and it was fascinating to see the national parade.  CTV also did a great job of providing random facts for every country represented so one could learn a bit if one wished.

First, one got an entertaining dose of British history… and then lots of random facts about geography and history.   Education writ as entertainment – or vice-versa.  A great achievement in either direction.

I’m watching NBC as I type this.  I have been fooling around watching round two but some of the sequences were fascinating and this one was the last to broadcast so I got to see a few things three times.  I’ve already seen CTV’s take – so we will see what the Americans think of it all.

CTV did a great job of giving some context to all 204 countries.  It is actually a great test of your knowledge of geography – and history.  There were even a couple of countries I had never heard of!  Islands somewhere in the South Pacific.  Still, it makes one humble.

What I found more fascinating was the wild dots that get connected when you put countries in alphabetical order.  Canada gets sandwiched between Cambodia, Cameroon and China.  Quite the disparate group!

Our uniforms looked very functional but pretty dull compared to Cameroon 🙂  And we share the colour red with China.  Those small details that normally get missed 😉

Some of the details just confirmed what the world already knows.  I have no idea how well Italy does at the summer Olympics.  They definitely didn’t score many medals on snow or ice.  But at both they win a gold medal for style!  They looked fantastic!  Not a surprise to find out their uniforms were designed by Giorgio Armani.  And maybe even made in Italy…  (really, USA, you would have your uniforms made in CHINA and then gripe about American jobs being lost…)

And then there are the athletes with stories that make them bigger than their national uniform.  I am sure there will more stories told as the medals are handed out but so far Usain Bolt looks hard to beat for that unique combination of athleticism and philanthropy.

And the politics of the world are there.  If you are paying attention.  Or watching an intelligent broadcast (so far NBC looks like they prepped by chatting with other random Americans on the plane over.  Apparently the athletes are marching faster than normal (kudos, Danny 🙂 so reading the crib notes when you know nothing about the world is proving tricky…)

But the politics here are fascinating.  The Olympics are trying to be a showcase for world cooperation – and leave your prejudices at home.  To the credit of IOC Chairman Jacques Rogge, Brunei sent its first female athlete – and she is carrying the flag!  Even Saudi Arabia has sent women.

Sadly some Muslim women need to cover up so much religion may interfere with sport.  Come on, Islam, get with the 21st century.  Religion has never been very female friendly.  And hatred does not make the world a better place…

But that is the nice thing with the Olympics.  While it’s pretty tough in certain corners, politics is officially left off the playing field.  So Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria all showed up – without AK47s.  You do really have to feel for the athletes from some countries where just training amid sniper fire or being allowed to get on a plane to London is an Olympian feat in itself.

And then there are the interesting facts if you are really paying attention… the number of new countries that didn’t used to exist… the strong showing of new countries that used to be part of the Soviet block and its emphasis on developing athletes to prove its might against the evil capitalist empire… the Jordanian women gorgeous and scarfless yet obviously Arab…  Chinese Taipei, not Taiwan, as the rest of us know it…  Norway, likely the most gorgeous team with politicians to match…  Spain, the most entertaining – giving Italy a run for its money in style 🙂

But more impressive Qatar…  a tiny team.  Medal hopes low.  But a woman is carrying the flag.  Another woman without a headscarf is on the team.   Apparently the IOC pressured Brunei, Saudi Arabia and Qatar – who had never sent female athletes – to change their ways… and it worked!

The most interesting alphabetical juxtaposition has to be the USA followed by Vietnam… of course it should have been the USSR in the old days… you gotta love the alphabet!

For NBC, apparently this keeping track of the alphabet is sufficient commentary… Dudes, someone should tell you about Wikipedia and the concept of preparation!  But if your nation only has a fourth grade education, I guess they won’t notice… and will love how you take every country and only comment on how it might impact the AMERICAN team – or if that is not applicable, where you could find it on a world map…

Seriously, people???   Hong Kong and capitalism?  Iceland and some swimmer’s shakedown with Michael Phelps… oh, and India and Indonesia have a huge population.  That’s news?  Not to anyone who  knows ANYTHING about the world… I think you are supposed to telling us stuff we don’t already know…

Anyway, NBC does tons of commercials so I swapped back to CTV and caught the brilliant Arctic Monkeys for a second time.  I’ve never seen them live – even better than on CD.  The symbolic doves and the Arctic Monkeys covering the Beatles (so much better than Sir Paul!)  WOW!

Salt Lake never had ANYTHING like this, Mitt 🙂   I guess that’s partly why the American commentators sound so gauche.  I know Americans think they are cooler.  And they are good at marketing – you can’t take that away.  But the Brits just have that je ne sais quoi.

London is the only city to host the Olympics three times.  It has done it in times of trouble.  The 1948 games far more poignant than 2012.  But one has to focus on the positives I think.  It is easy to diss the Olympics.  And the commercialisation of sport in general.

But you don’t have to pay attention to the advertising (this post has taken far longer cause I switch channels every time advertising comes on!)  And the spirit of the Olympics is the kind of world we should all strive for.

I really like how far Danny Boyle pushed people’s imaginations.  Now we just need to harness that imagination and use it for the greatest good.  That is far more challenging.  But Great Britain is an inspiring place.  Let us hope that what everyone – athletes and spectators – takes away is the inspiration.  And brings home something far more important than medals – a spirit of tolerance, striving for excellence and competition within the spirit of sportsmanship – all the ideals of the games before you could be arrested for wearing a Pepsi (as opposed to Coca Cola) T-shirt…

Let’s bring those ideals back.  And celebrate the real “cool Britainnia”…  the nation that promoted concepts like honour, fair play and literacy as though they were cards we could all play… and win J

Category:

social commentary

putting the Great in Britain!!!

Mitt Romney, shame on you for trying to claim a special relationship with the Brits.  You are not worthy, dude.  As Danny Boyle has shown us all 🙂

Maybe their most glorious days are behind them and Hollywood captures the collective imagination of the twitterish 21st century world but the accomplishments of the British.  It’s really tough to rival – and by comparison they look like the wise grownups while the Americans look like spoiled children.

I recently read a very depressing book called Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle.  There were some interesting points but the author offered no hope or solutions so for me it didn’t live up to its potential.  I am all about hope – and solutions.

I recognize there are no easy solutions.  But that doesn’t mean we should all throw our hands in the air and give up.  And while the world is not developing into a better place in a straight line, there are always positive developments happening every day – and that is what we need to nurture and celebrate.

That is why I was so wowed by Danny Boyle.  Who else could turn the National Health Service into a spectacle worthy of entertaining – but also enlightening.  And celebrating one of the great tenets of British society.

He also showed suffragettes, the industrial revolution (the good and the bad) and the invention of the world wide web.  All incredible advances in the modern world in which Great Britain played a key role.

He also highlighted the cultural achievements of a nation unsurpassed by any other on the world stage.  What other nation can start with Kenneth Branagh quoting from Shakespeare, put together Voldemort, JK Rowling, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh and multiple Mary Poppins in a way that makes sense, flow into a gigantic electronic house party that showcases how Britpop became a word known all over the globe and then showcasing the energy and talent of the Arctic Monkeys.  How many countries have an indie band that good?

From the pastoral bucolic England of William Blake to the high energy multicultural Great Britain ushered in by Tim Berners-Lee’s world wide web, it’s been a place that influenced the world and its history.  There were many history lessons to be learned from Danny Boyle’s spectacle.  A great example of how spectacle can be used to teach, not just to titillate.  I think the most memorable image is the forging of the Olympic rings and their subsequent air flight.

So many things flew!  Or were lit up.  Or sparkled.  Sound, image and motion blended seamlessly from frame to frame, moving so fast, with so much to see, that I know I need to watch it twice to catch everything.

Only two years ago my home city hosted the Olympics.  And we did a great job.  But it was homespun.  We aren’t very famous.  Or rich.  The Queen didn’t come.  We put on a great show for someone in the middle of nowhere.  That’s the thing you gotta learn, Mitt.  You are in one of the most impressive cities in the history of the world, in a country that definitely has its faults (as they all do) but that has also contributed to the world so many of the advances that have made it a better place.

As a Canadian, I share a lot of the British sensibility.  And a lot more than crass Americans like you, Mitt.  We never fled from the mothership.  Even fought for her many times.  Of course King George III was advised by William Pitt to consider trading us for Guadeloupe.  Of course, at the time they had sugar plantations and we just had beavers so you couldn’t totally blame them.

(Discovered some fascinating facts about the American Revolution, the Tea Party (version 1.0) and King George III trying to make sure I had the names of the players right.  Kind of guessing Mitt (and the vast majority of Americans) unaware of these facts (cause Americans appear to hate FACTS… so dull and disconcerting) but definitely fuel for another post…

But tonight we are celebrating the Brits.  Sure, they have some flaws.  We all do, nationally and individually.  But, on the whole, the Brits show many more signs than other nations of being polite to others and worrying about the collective over the individual, valuing literacy and a complex world view and – my personal favourite – having a self-depreciating wit that can showcase humility and arrogance all in the right balance.

You will have to watch the show!  I was privileged to watch it live.  And was shocked by the lack of commercials.  It was hard to even time a bathroom visit 🙂  So much happened I will have to watch it again in prime time.  It was so spectacular it has even inspired a second post 🙂

On a personal note, I’d really like to thank my parents for being such strong proponents of the concept of literacy.  There was lots of flash to the London show and – like any great spectacle – it can be watched on more than one level.  But it was my childhood experience that informed my favourite sequences.

I liked the ones with intellectual content.  With a moral message.  I think my favourite was the tribute to the National Health Service.  Where I also learned about GOSH.

According to Wikipedia, Great Ormond Street is closely associated with University College London (UCL) and in partnership with the UCL Institute of Child Health, which it is located adjacent to, is the largest centre for research and postgraduate teaching in children’s health in Europe.  It is part of both the Great Ormond Street Hospital/UCL Institute of Child Health Biomedical Research Centre and the UCL Partners academic health science centre.  It was apparently the first sick children’s hospital in the world.

Great Ormond Street is known internationally for receiving the rights from J. M. Barrie to his play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up in 1929, which have provided significant funding for the institution.

Watching children reading stories reminded me of MY childhood 🙂  And I know ALL of these stories and characters.  My parents read to us until we could read to them – and finally to ourselves.  Books were revered.  It’s how a great civilization is built.  From the King James Bible to Harry Potter, English books have touched most of the world.  As will the 2012 London Olympic opening ceremonies.

I think they mostly got it all right.  Beckham looked cool and was gracious in his role in the ceremonies, showcasing the best kind of Englishman.  The Queen actually got into a helicopter with Daniel Craig, a few minutes that showed the entire history of the monarchy in a few frames of film, highlighting how she great she is at playing Queen and keeping the monarchy popular when it should be an anachronism.

The only moment that made me shake my head… really, WHO would want to follow those fireworks???  And an aging Beatle with a creaky voice singing “Hey Jude”.  Danny boy, you ended on a low note.  But I guess someone had to pay for all that flash.  And Britain might have the smarts and the talent… but not so much cash.  So I’m guessing Paul flashed some cash and paid for his advertising spot like the other sponsors.

But, hey, London, you have definitely grown up in the last 12 years.  I was there in 1999 for the big Millennium.  It really sucked.  The highlights: Peter Gabriel’s high wire show and Black Adder making fun of English history in the Millennium Dome.  You learned from your mistakes.  A great show by Danny Boyle combining spectacle and intellect.  A very funny Rowan Atkinson as Mr. Bean.  And a real River of Fire on the Thames this time!  You even have the Millennium Wheel working – unlike at the actual Millennium 😉

Now, if you had really wanted to end with a bang, you would have had Paul McCartney sing John Lennon’s “Imagine”.  A song that fits the message the Olympics like to preach at least.  Paul honouring John and saying he is above the rivalry.  And first you would have had a minute of silence for the Israeli athletes killed in Munich in 1972.  That would have sent a message that the Olympics really want to be about more than cash and advertising.

Unlike the American presidency…  Mitt, they kicked ass!  They may make you “eat humble pie”.  That’s “eat crow” to you.  Don’t worry, I don’t think you have to eat actual crows – or offal… but you are in a foreign country so you never know… and there are a lot of pigeons in Trafalgar Square…

 

Category:

artsy stuff, shining examples, social commentary

the lego blocks of self-esteem…

Hopefully life will start to slow down and I can edit the photos from my mom’s 70th birthday and write about it – and start posting more regularly.  And maybe even organize this blog a bit, which has been the intention since the beginning…

But today is what would have been my dad’s birthday.  His 70th would have been last year.  I am a big sucker for birthdays so I will celebrate in my own demented way and he gets a post in honour of his day of birth.

We’ve already talked about him in a few different contexts and no doubt there will be more talk in the future.  He was a larger than life guy, like something out of the movies.   Ours was a complicated, intense child-parent relationship that will supply fodder for thought for the rest of my life.  Some of it was him.  Some of it was me.  Some of it was the generation in which I was birthed.  Fathers played a strange role in those days and many children had complicated, often distant relationships with that parent and suffocating, obsessive relationships with the mothership.  It was just the way it was… but that is a topic for further discussion.

Today we talk about me, my dad and self-esteem.  And it is hardly the easy discussion you might envision.

My father died having never told me he was ever proud of me.  Having spent a good portion of my life criticizing me.  You would therefore likely decide he was bad for my self-esteem.  And, hey, he could have tried a little harder 🙂

But that is not who he was.  And his mother – my grandmother – scared me when I was a child because she was so tough.  So she spoiled him rotten – but teach him how to be touchy-feely with other people… I really doubt it.

My father had a very tough childhood.  He lost his father when he was 10.  All of his other siblings had a different dad.  His was far better but it still must have given him a sense of displacement.  He grew up poor and left school at 15.  He never realized how talented HE was so expecting him to give me self-esteem like an ice cream treat would have just been delusional on my part.

When I was growing up no one worried about children’s self-esteem.  They worried if they had enough to eat and if their parents abused them.  That’s how it still goes down in a lot of the world.  And far too many children DON’T have enough to eat – or are abused.  There is lots to worry about on that front.

But in the west we have all become spoiled in a way no other century could have envisioned.  So we worry about everyone’s self-esteem.  And make it sound like ice cream treats, to be bestowed on others for not acting up.

But this is where we have gone wrong.  How we have created such a crazy sense of entitlement that the western countries are trying to take down the world economically.  We don’t want for anything.  We expect everything.  And yet we still don’t have enough self-esteem if you listen to any random afternoon TV show.

Well… here’s a thought… maybe self-esteem needs to be earned, not given.  My father never gave me any self-esteem treats.  And sometimes he chipped away at it because he wasn’t feeling as confident as he should have.

But what he GAVE me was far more valuable and enduring.  He gave me a simple yet comprehensive life philosophy that comprised the very first lego blocks for building my own self-esteem.

Sure, it’s easy when people tell you they are proud of you.  But, really, that’s a little boring, isn’t it? 😉  And if you really want some solid self-esteem, it is best to collect your own lego blocks and create your own structure.  Everyone will have a different design – and you will need to add and move the pieces as you grow older, to get it just right.

But the starter blocks are someone telling you to be your own person.  That is the invaluable gift that my father gave me pretty much as soon as I could speak.  I was pretty much the only six year old telling all the other kids to just be their own people and not worry about what was popular.  If they liked something or believed in it, that was enough.  Who cared what other people thought?

It was a position that he never waivered on.  And he lived it.  As I got older and he saw me putting it into practice, he supplied the fancy blocks.  It was important to know who you were and what you wanted and not get distracted by the noise of popular opinion or naysayers.  But this did not mean you could use this philosophy to become a dictator.

You needed to be sensitive to other people’s opinions.  You should listen to them – and pay attention.  You should follow your own path without hurting anyone else’s feelings.  And you should make sure your ideas were civilized and good for the whole of society, not just for you.  So you should develop your own personal philosophy, own it, and live it – but make sure it wasn’t a crappy one!

Because, of course, if you got lots of confidence from having a lousy life strategy and bulldozing other people, you would never get any self-esteem.  Because you would be an asshole.

And I wasn’t even allowed to be impolite.

It was all incredible advice.  I have spent my life telling other people about my dad’s ideas.  He had lots.  And many wonderful qualities.  Today we are just nailing the essence of some of the best things he did for the world in his time here.  He gave people the lego building blocks they could use to lead a confident, civilized life – doing interesting things, treating others well and using their brains to try and make the world a better place.

And people, you do that… all of a sudden you realize you have a lot of self-esteem – because you earned it the old-fashioned way, the only way that really works.  Someone should tell Oprah 😉

Category:

life philosophy, shining examples

self-assessing your level of craziness :)

Over a decade ago I thought I was an aspiring writer and attended a writer’s workshop in Toronto where I got to have Roddy Doyle tell me my writing might be publishable – and establish a friendship with a far more promising writer named Stephen.  He was one of those super smart people that I gravitate to and had a dry wit to revel any Monty Python skit.  His parting line to me was “I hope you’ll remember me taller.”

He was also the first person to introduce me to the concept… “if you start to go crazy, how will you know you are crazy?”  A great existential question.

I’m kind of hoping I am NOT crazy but as my ivory top spins around in the washing machine for the second time because of my 3am adventures I’m not as confident as I was yesterday…

Sorry, kids, I know it’s hardly fair in this Fifty Shades of Grey world that my 3am adventures involved me having ALL my clothes on!  Just not really the ideal ones… which is where the “am I turning into a crazy person” dilemma comes in.

I was in a bike room at 3am.  WHY, you ask?  As you should.  WHO decides – after an evening out, the right thing to do is head to the bike room all dressed up?  Somehow it seemed it would be funnier in heels…

It all started a few days ago when I saw a notice by the elevator that said they were doing construction in the P2 level bike room so the bikes would have to be moved.  For most people, that is no big deal.  But, irrespective of whether I am now crazy, I am definitely not normal.  So this small piece of paper almost induced a panic attack.

I’m not sure how it breaks down in the world but there are definitely parts of it where riding a bike is – at most – something you do when you are a kid.  But that is not how things go down in Deutschland.  It’s pretty normal to ride a bike.  And the bike paths are brilliant.  In my adopted hometown of Vancouver, things are much the same – except the bike paths aren’t as brilliant – but we are working on it.

So… when I got married to a German guy and he thought I should have a bike so we could go for bike rides on the weekend, it seemed an all-round good idea.  Of course, at that stage, I spoke practically no German and shopping adventures involved a lot more adventure than I like in my shopping.  I would normally be interested in the specs and the comparisons between bikes.  But this was mostly how fast can I purchase this damn bike and get it out of the store so I can avoid all the disapproving looks that I apparently live in Germany but do not speak the lingo.

Back in 2002 I returned to Vancouver alone.  But I brought the bike – cause, hey, I live a few steps from the seawall and everyone bikes in Vancouver.  Of course most people have a lot more recreational time than I do so the bike got moved from my rental apartment to the P2 bike room in the apartment building in which I purchased – and became a kind of urban legend…

I live in the kind of town where people would ask, “do you have a bike?”  Normal people would simply say “yes” or “no”.  I would say… “theoretically yes.  And I could likely ride it.  But it’s in a bike room somewhere in my building and I can’t remember what it looks like.  But I did lock it and put the key in an envelope… so, again theoretically, if I actually went to the bike room (I think it’s P2, not P1) with the key I might be able to find my bike…”

But, of course, what is the point of going to the bike room to LOOK at your bike?  And the elusive “free time” I have been seeking for a few years now has never materialized.  But it IS a bike.  And, while I have no idea of its specs or virtue, I think it’s likely a decent bike.  It seemed wrong to just leave it to die in the bike room.  And since I locked it, no one could easily walk away with it.

So, this is how we get to the sanity assessment.

Last night I was out with my friend Dora to see some theatre and then drink a great bottle of Chardonnay.  Dora is definitely not crazy!  And very delightful 🙂  And she owns a bike – and rides it!  Like normal, sane people.

I’m not quite sure how the topic of my German bike languishing somewhere in the bowels of my apartment building came up… but I told her about the notice that I had seen… and that maybe that was the sign I should FIND the bike.  God forbid, maybe I should even ride it???

Dora has a great sense of humour so she was amused by my bike story… and understood my thoughts that it would be kind of weird walking around in a bike room with a key trying to see if any of the bike locks worked… maybe it worked for Prince Charming and the glass slipper… but I was a little worried people might think I was some kind of high tech criminal… or at least a crazy person 🙂

Maybe it was the Chardonnay 🙂  Anyway, we decided I should go and look for my bike when I got home… cause it was at least 2am so unlikely anyone would see me in the bike room trying my key on all the bike locks… and somehow it just seemed far more entertaining that I would be doing such a ridiculous task all dressed up in 4 inch heels!

Back in the days when I rode a bike every day I lived on a farm so there was no need for locks or bike rooms.  They are really dirty, people!  And apparently I am not the only one with a dusty bike 🙂

The whole thing was a Monty Python sketch.  First I had trouble even getting into the bike room cause it’s surrounded by mesh so the lock is really complicated.  A good sobriety test for sure!  But I had my envelope that said “bike key” and I got the first door open and stared at all the bikes.  I had no idea where to begin…

I realize that to people who ride their bikes – and spent time choosing them – the concept of having no idea what my bike looked like would seem foreign.  I am pretty sure it is the one object I have purchased where I was just trying to get out of the store and totally didn’t care.  All I knew was that it was a road bike, not a mountain bike.

I guess if I lived somewhere else where bike riding was confined to children, it would have been a lot easier.  But this was a full bike room with all sorts of options.  After I had tried my key in a few random bike locks, I had the eureka moment that I should look for a dusty bike!

That only got me so far though.  It was getting really late and I was wandering around a bike room in heels ready to give up.  But the analytical skills kicked in.  A lot of bikes were locked together so it was unlikely to be one of them – unless it had started having an intimate relationship in the bike room I wasn’t aware of… possible but not likely…  and I had some info on the bike lock in my envelope.  It was Kryptonite.

A little deduction went a long way.  I quit just randomly trying locks with my key hoping to win the lottery and spotted a dusty looking bike in the far corner.  No other bikes tethered to it.  Kryptonite lock.  Dark maroon, purplish shade.  Giant brand…  a vague memory…  I think this might be my bike… and the key fit!

Of course, the tires were so flat I had to basically carry it all the way to my apartment…  Once I had propped it up in the living room I looked at my clothes.  Seriously, what kind of moron stumbles around in a bike room at 3am, touching all sorts of bikes as they see if they will magically unlock, and then practically CARRIES a dusty, dirty bike out of the bike room and up the elevator in an ivory shirt and heels???

Which is why I woke up this morning wondering if I had become insane and was just too crazy to realize?  The second round of laundry finished as I was typing this… and, thanks to Oxi-Clean and the good laundry skills I learned from my mother on the prairie… no one will ever know which top I was wearing when I started to go senile… 🙂

Category:

life philosophy

Tagged with:

Beckham not so bendy these days…

Last night I finally got to see David Beckham play football.  Last year the rumour was he picked a fight so he would get suspended and be able to rest up for the MLS Final so the LA Galaxy came but without Beckham.

For me it likely worked out for the best.  I am starting to get an understanding of the game and can appreciate a lot more what players are bringing to the table than last year when sometimes it just felt like I was watching a bunch of incredibly fit guys in shorts and tight T-shirts run around getting sweaty (which does have its pleasures even if you don’t understand what all the running is about 🙂

At first I couldn’t figure out why the lines for the ladies’ washrooms were so much longer than usual.  It was a sold out stadium thanks to Becks.  But then my friend Rodz pointed out that it was likely not that the female soccer fan population had increased substantially in the last week but that a lot of women had come to the game to watch David Beckham run around and get sweaty!  At the end, he stripped off his shirt and gave it to someone.  Why would you want some dude’s sweaty clothes?  Yuck!  And he was sporting some strange mustache that made him look creepy, like he might take off more than his shirt if he got you in a dark alley…

But he DID get a goal!  And he’s an old guy so you have to give him a few accolades.   But it was Barry Robson who impressed.  We are being invaded by the Scots – and it is a fortuitous thing.  He’s a new addition to the Whitecaps from Scotland.  I am getting better at reading the press releases and understanding more about what they mean but I am still no soccer geek who can yell commentary at the field.  And I think I won’t start doing that… I always wonder just HOW good the people on the benches would actually DO if they were out there following their own advice.

But I do know a lot about business.  And Beckham is a great businessman!  The poor guy got booed every time he got the ball.  But I am sure he knows every boo puts more money in his pocket 🙂  It’s interesting  talking soccer instead of football.  In North America where we call it soccer, Beckham is a demi-god.   I never hear anyone talk about Beckham in Europe.  He got punted for the British Olympic team because other players were better.  In Europe everyone talks about Messi.

So, my first Beckham sighting was underwhelming.  But the guy is smart!  For world class players outside North America, the MLS is the stuff of dreams.  Play in a “real” league, make a name for yourself and then when you get too old to really count against the young kids in the big leagues, sign a deal with a North American team in the MLS where you will look awesome.  Becks developed the prototype.  Apparently he’s not just a pretty boy.  It’s too bad “cheap celebrity” runs so rampant through English speaking culture but Beckham actually seems like a good guy – and his rise from regular East London kid to one of the most famous men in the world is the stuff of dreams.  But he should be famous for being a great football player, not for taking his shirt off and posing through a heavily Vaselined camera lense.

But that isn’t his fault.  He is only capitalizing on the craziness of the culture he inherited.  Barry Robson isn’t nearly as pretty.  Or famous.  So he is going to have to play good football.  His first home match with the new team shows that looks promising 🙂

I don’t know enough yet to be able to analyze one player’s impact on the team but the boys were in fine form last night.  Last year the Galaxy came just before they took the MLS Cup home and we looked bedraggled.  But last night they were on fire!  In the first half it looked like an amateur Spanish team trouncing an amateur Italian team in the EU Final.  We lost our way in the last 20 minutes or so.  But we didn’t lose!  And Barry scored an impressive goal.  And certainly seemed to make the entire team better and brighter.

So, give us your cast-off European football league players.  We can make good use of them – and give their careers a second act.  You should all thank David.  But, please, don’t create your own fragrance!  Just play football… 😉

 http://www.whitecapsfc.com/news/2012/07/highlights-whitecaps-fc-vs-la-galaxy

Category:

social commentary

I’m civilizing you :)

What a concept! 🙂  I have been thinking of plenty of posts but still catching up from my time in Manitoba so not quite sure when they will hit the internet but I just watched episode 4 of “The Newsroom” and it has already inspired one unwritten post before this one so I decided it was time…

I’ve never been much of a TV watcher.  It’s almost always “background” to me… and the sophistication of the plot and dialogue of most TV shows doesn’t require much real attention… but it’s nice to have the comforting noise so I often have the TV on even though I am not officially watching and can always catch more of the details in future re-runs.

But sometimes you stumble across something that arrests your attention and you can’t even just google stuff while watching and actually follow the entire show…  That would be “The Newsroom”, Aaron Sorkin’s newest baby.  I happened to stumble across the pilot in the last week or so.  I was planning to write about it with a heading, “america is not the greatest country in the world.”

I have been in love with Jeff Daniels for a couple of decades… and Emily Mortimer is one of those actresses who should be described as “one of the leading lights of her generation”.  And it has Sam Waterson and even Jane Fonda, for god’s sake.  For those who appreciate great acting and actors who can deliver great writing… well, it just restores your faith in humanity.  It really is trying to civilize us 🙂

The speech that Jeff Daniels (aka Will McAvoy) delivers in the pilot is one of the most intelligent, introspective, inspiring descriptions of the current state of the American nation and the American mindset I’ve encountered.  Both the dialogue and the delivery are astonishing.  At first Will is trying to avoid saying anything because he has become a meaningless rich celebrity without a point of view.  The question is why is America the greatest country in the world.  Not “is.”  Then he thinks he sees his old girlfriend in the audience, a journalist who he thinks is in Iraq dodging bullets.  She is holding up a sign that says, “it’s not.”  It inspires him.  Unlike his fellow pundits who cite something stupid like “freedom” he cites facts (remember those little nuggets, Fox News???), trying to explain to the underliterate audience just what America IS good at…  We lead the world in only three categories: number of incarcerated citizens per capita, number of adults who believe angels are real, and defense spending, where we spend more than the next twenty-six countries combined, twenty-five of whom are allies. 

I am sure there will be more to be said.  As I type this, I am trying to follow Jon Stewart skewering Mitt Romney.  It is pretty sad that all the best news in the United States of America is not really “the news”.  That’s the message of “The Newsroom.”  Pundits and infotainment replacing actual facts and analysis that made us all smarter and better world citizens… Will McAvoy-aka Jeff Daniels-channelling Aaron Sorkin really IS trying to civilize us.  We need it.

Once upon a time I was in an elevator with Rupert Murdoch… back when he was just famous in Australia and there was no Fox News.  I shoulda slugged him.  But that would have been bad for my career 🙂  I made a lot of statements about my dad at his funeral but the one that fits tonight…

He watched Lloyd Robertson every night.  (I actually saw Lloyd in the CTV cafeteria but was never brave enough to talk to him.  I wanted to tell him about my dad.)  He knew way more about the world than George W. Bush ever will and he would have made a far better President.  You would think there should be an IQ test for the leader of the free world.  At least a few skill testing questions… and no calculators!

My dad was the one who taught me about the importance of civilization – and my role in keeping it alive.  Let’s hope “The Newsroom” is a hit – and we all learn how to be more civilized.  America can be great.  Will talks about that too – and it’s worth hearing.  America is your promising child who turned into a drug dealer when you weren’t paying attention.  Maybe the big mistake was giving Murdoch American citizenship?  Apparently points for character are not a big part of the criteria…

http://www.hbo.com/the-newsroom/index.html

Category:

artsy stuff, social commentary

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Star of the East

One of the big highlights of this trip to small town Manitoba for my mom’s big birthday was seeing Elaine.  This is her second tribute in my blog.

I can’t remember what context I gave to my other post but Elaine is in palliative care at the hospital in SwanRiver.  I was really hoping I would be able to see her on this visit.  And sometimes the stars align.  We went to the hospital yesterday.  She isn’t awake that often and she has a lot of difficulty breathing so I knew the chance to interact with her would be a real gift.  But we arrived at just the right time.  Her daughter Jill was there and graciously let us see her as soon as she was awake.

Her physical state is diminished but she is still the same Elaine that played such a fundamental role in my life and who will always have a special place in my heart.  It was such an honour and privilege to be able to talk to her in person.  And hug her.  I tried to convey how important she had been to me.  Elaine is a very humble person though so she would always downplay a message like that 🙂

She and her husband Glen played a big role in my life.  They were always so excited to see me.  They watched a LOT of slides from my trips.  They asked me intelligent questions.  They talked to me about the world – and my place in it.  They both possess this incredibly rare graciousness and warmth that I can only hope to replicate.

A great relationship should involve at least one or two great stories 🙂  My favourite Elaine story goes back to the 1970’s.  My father and Elaine’s husband were both farmers so were in Regina for the Canadian Western Agribition – the big farm show of the year for farmers from that part of the world.  The rest of us came along for the big city holiday.

None of them drank much and the women were pretty much teetotalers.  I have no idea how we ended up in the Italian restaurant.  But my mom and Elaine ordered a carafe of wine along with the food.  I think the men might have been at the exhibitions.  In any event, that evening they were peripheral.  Elaine’s daughter, my sister and I were all teenagers, eager for our lives to be more interesting.

I am pretty sure it was the first time we had seen our mothers a little tipsy.  We all wanted to be staying at the Hotel Regina, with the pool we could see across the street from our hotel room.  So, to console us, they thought they would take us to the bar.  But given that we were underage, that plan didn’t get too far.  And it was likely more fun to just all be cooped up in the hotel room.  I can’t remember if there was a can-can but “Star of the East” was definitely sung.

Both Elaine and my mom have great voices.  And everyone had a great sense of humour.  I was too young to be at the New Year’s Eve dance that year… but apparently my dad (who used to be famous for announcing things on stage) told them he was going to get on stage at midnight and announce they were going to sing “Star of the East” so they hid together in the bathroom until the time was safe.

Whether it was all true, it was great cinéma vérité and it was always one of my fondest childhood memories.

A lot of the time I spent with Elaine – and Glen – was less dramatic.  But that didn’t mean it was less meaningful to me.  I know now how spoiled I was at such a young age to meet someone who taught me so much about hospitality, grace and the beauty of the human spirit.

Elaine is one of those human beings in an elite league of realizing her potential, which the rest of us should aspire to achieve.  And she sings a mean “Star of the East” 🙂

p.s. I finished this late last night so was going to post this morning.  Just before I posted it I found out Elaine passed away last night.  But the legacy of her kindness and compassion will live on.

Category:

life philosophy, shining examples

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