You know the opponents of gay marriage are fighting for a lost cause when even a bigoted doofus like America's Favourite Plumber tells a Christian publication it's all right if some states legalize gay marriage (not that he'd let homos near his kids). Of course, the best thing about the story I'm linking to are the quotables, like this one for example: "Queer means strange and unusual. It's not like a slur, like you would call a white person a "honky" or something like that."
Full piece here. (AP/Columbus Dispatch)
UPDATE: Helpful Dog Blog reader Observer says I should've posted the link to Sam "Joe the Plumber" Wurzelbacher's actual interview in Christianity Today magazine. Sure, sounds good to me. Observer helpfully posted the link in the comments, but I'll put it right here where it's convenient.
5.07.2009
Speaking of Bunnies....
Here's a picture I took of that previously-mentioned, not-afraid hare I saw munching up a storm yesterday. I was maybe five feet away and as you can see s/he wasn't showing me any of that fear bunnies are supposed to have of humans. Smug, cocky bastard.
For more on Wegina wabbits, check out Seema Goel's article in the new prairie dog.
New Dog!
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(Cover photo by Darrol Hofmeister, sharpshooter photography)
What is it with rabbits this year? There's always rabbits in this town, lots of rabbits, but so far this spring they've been extra-abundant and extra-bold. last week I saw one playing Frogger on Victoria Ave. And last night I walked by one grazing in someone's yard that let me get within five feet of it to take a pile of photos.
The bunnies have grown brave! Here's what you'll find in the new prairie dog:
VIDEO GAMES LIVE The nerds are everywhere and they've gotten into EVERYTHING! Even Regina's Symphony Orchestra! Apparently Victor Sawa, the RSO's conductor, has been a nerd all along--and not just any nerd, but a video game nerd (the most dangerous kind!). Sawa's the driving force behind the sinister plan to bring Video Games Live to Regina. The concert--conducted by video game composer Tommy Tallarico, will reduce our city's once-proud orchestra to lowly video games musicians, playing background music for such tawdry cultural detritus as Super Mario and Prince of Persia. Oh, the horror. Oh, the humanity. Oh, it's on Monday and looks like a lot of fun, judging from Paul Dechene's cover story. By the way, the cover model is Beth Curry, upright bass player with the RSO. I think she might be a nerd, TOO. Eeek!
LIBRARY LAUNCH A few months back the RPL called for developers and architects for the planned redevelopment of the downtown library. Now they've picked their dance partners and the project moves to the public consultation phase. Gregory "Greg" Beatty reports.
TRAILER TRASH 2 Prairie dog's annual summer movie preview is back with reviews of the biggest, boldest and baddest trailers for films of the aught-nine season (except for Terminator: Salvation because a naughty writer--ANG!!!!!!!--missed his deadline). See Stephen LaRose trash the excellent Star Trek trailers because, I don't know, he's crazy! Read Jorge Castillo's comments on the nasty, nasty, nasty yet funny trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds! It'll be good! Really! Check! It! Out!
PLUS! The Sask. Party kills Sask's greenhouse gas targets! Saskatchewan's Green Party gets a new leader! John F. Conway (the "F" stands for Fantastic) discusses the new capitalist crisis! Gregory "Greg" Beatty talks to Saskatchewan author Nicholas Ruddick about his new book The Fire In The Stone about the--how do I write this in A! Punchy! Way?--cultural significance of the "cave-man" to literature, film and other art, and what the different iterations of the caveman (including cavewoman, of course--prehistoric parlance is sexist!) in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Quest for Fire, books like Clan Of The Cave Bear and TV shows like The Flintstones! And Seema Goel talks about bunnies! Cute, baby bunnies that you SHOULD NOT TAKE HOME TO BE PETS! And, as always, more!
The new prairie dog is out today! Look for it at 400 locations city-wide.
What is it with rabbits this year? There's always rabbits in this town, lots of rabbits, but so far this spring they've been extra-abundant and extra-bold. last week I saw one playing Frogger on Victoria Ave. And last night I walked by one grazing in someone's yard that let me get within five feet of it to take a pile of photos.
The bunnies have grown brave! Here's what you'll find in the new prairie dog:
VIDEO GAMES LIVE The nerds are everywhere and they've gotten into EVERYTHING! Even Regina's Symphony Orchestra! Apparently Victor Sawa, the RSO's conductor, has been a nerd all along--and not just any nerd, but a video game nerd (the most dangerous kind!). Sawa's the driving force behind the sinister plan to bring Video Games Live to Regina. The concert--conducted by video game composer Tommy Tallarico, will reduce our city's once-proud orchestra to lowly video games musicians, playing background music for such tawdry cultural detritus as Super Mario and Prince of Persia. Oh, the horror. Oh, the humanity. Oh, it's on Monday and looks like a lot of fun, judging from Paul Dechene's cover story. By the way, the cover model is Beth Curry, upright bass player with the RSO. I think she might be a nerd, TOO. Eeek!
LIBRARY LAUNCH A few months back the RPL called for developers and architects for the planned redevelopment of the downtown library. Now they've picked their dance partners and the project moves to the public consultation phase. Gregory "Greg" Beatty reports.
TRAILER TRASH 2 Prairie dog's annual summer movie preview is back with reviews of the biggest, boldest and baddest trailers for films of the aught-nine season (except for Terminator: Salvation because a naughty writer--ANG!!!!!!!--missed his deadline). See Stephen LaRose trash the excellent Star Trek trailers because, I don't know, he's crazy! Read Jorge Castillo's comments on the nasty, nasty, nasty yet funny trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds! It'll be good! Really! Check! It! Out!
PLUS! The Sask. Party kills Sask's greenhouse gas targets! Saskatchewan's Green Party gets a new leader! John F. Conway (the "F" stands for Fantastic) discusses the new capitalist crisis! Gregory "Greg" Beatty talks to Saskatchewan author Nicholas Ruddick about his new book The Fire In The Stone about the--how do I write this in A! Punchy! Way?--cultural significance of the "cave-man" to literature, film and other art, and what the different iterations of the caveman (including cavewoman, of course--prehistoric parlance is sexist!) in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Quest for Fire, books like Clan Of The Cave Bear and TV shows like The Flintstones! And Seema Goel talks about bunnies! Cute, baby bunnies that you SHOULD NOT TAKE HOME TO BE PETS! And, as always, more!
The new prairie dog is out today! Look for it at 400 locations city-wide.
Trek Of The Day: Hot Vulcan Sex Edition
Tonight the newest Star Trek movie opens in Regina. It's a semi-reboot of classic Star Trek featuring the series' iconic original characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov, all played by new actors (spoiler--and one original actor).
While there's some surly, nitpicky and frankly wrongheaded opinions permeating my personal cabal of nerds, consesus seems to be it's a really good movie. Reviewers say it's fun for people who don't give a rat's ass about Star Trek but is also a good time for the hardcore Trekkies (or "Trekkers" if one has ridiculous delusions of respectability, which I do not).
As of this writing it's pulled in a 94 per cent "fresh" rating on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes (67 reviews, 63 of them positive). And it's scoring a 94 on Metacritic, which is pretty impressive because Metacritic's ratings are based on a composite 1-10 score. (For instance, a mildly decent movie could concievably score 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, because the RT score is either "good" or "bad"--no shades of grey. On Metacritic it'd score a mildly positive 6.5/10 or so.)
On both sites, those ratings makes it the best reviewed movie of the year so far...which not only shows how much fun it will be but also indicates how lame movies generally are these days.
Anyway, in celebration of tonight's warp-factor eight nerdapalooza here's a short film ripped from teh internets. It's an unbelievably accomplished amateur music video by T. Jonesy and Killa, whoever they are, for Nine Inch Nail's very, very, rude song, "Closer". It depicts the brutal unleashing of a hallucinating Spock's repressed sexual fantasies using doctored and sneakily-edited footage from the original series.
WARNING: NIN's song is probably NSFW (not safe for work), depending on your job (it's safe for MY work, but my job is weird). And the video has sexual content (though no nudity).
Tip of the hat to Peakay for first showing me this thing years ago.
While there's some surly, nitpicky and frankly wrongheaded opinions permeating my personal cabal of nerds, consesus seems to be it's a really good movie. Reviewers say it's fun for people who don't give a rat's ass about Star Trek but is also a good time for the hardcore Trekkies (or "Trekkers" if one has ridiculous delusions of respectability, which I do not).
As of this writing it's pulled in a 94 per cent "fresh" rating on the movie review website Rotten Tomatoes (67 reviews, 63 of them positive). And it's scoring a 94 on Metacritic, which is pretty impressive because Metacritic's ratings are based on a composite 1-10 score. (For instance, a mildly decent movie could concievably score 100 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, because the RT score is either "good" or "bad"--no shades of grey. On Metacritic it'd score a mildly positive 6.5/10 or so.)
On both sites, those ratings makes it the best reviewed movie of the year so far...which not only shows how much fun it will be but also indicates how lame movies generally are these days.
Anyway, in celebration of tonight's warp-factor eight nerdapalooza here's a short film ripped from teh internets. It's an unbelievably accomplished amateur music video by T. Jonesy and Killa, whoever they are, for Nine Inch Nail's very, very, rude song, "Closer". It depicts the brutal unleashing of a hallucinating Spock's repressed sexual fantasies using doctored and sneakily-edited footage from the original series.
WARNING: NIN's song is probably NSFW (not safe for work), depending on your job (it's safe for MY work, but my job is weird). And the video has sexual content (though no nudity).
Tip of the hat to Peakay for first showing me this thing years ago.
5.06.2009
Happy Anniversary
Tomorrow, members of the Making Peace Vigil celebrate (or perhaps mourn is a better word?) the second anniversary of their weekly protest against violence and injustice. For two years, they've met every Thursday at the north end of the Scarth Street Mall to hand out fliers championing a host of worthwhile causes from an end to war in Afghanistan, to halting the global arms trade to embracing environmental sustainability. If you're downtown tomorrow from noon to 12:30 p.m. stop by and show your support. You might even score a piece of birthday cake. (World Peace Association)
Live Tonight: Joel Plaskett, Rah Rah
Wednesday, May 6
Joel Plaskett
The Distrikt
You can check out the prairie dog for an interview with Plaskett, where he talks about his new triple album and his three collaborators (Ana Egge and Rose Cousins and his father, Bill). Something that didn't fit into the article was Plaskett on the new Two Hours Traffic record. THT are a sugary-sweet PEI power-pop band, and Plaskett had just finished producing their third album. "It's different. There's a lot of connection points to the last record, but there's also some darker stuff on this record. It turns a few corners that you wouldn't have expected it to. Which is good; they're really evolving and maturing as songwriters. This was a little bit more of a challenge to make because of that, because there's a bit more variety, but it was also really interesting in that respect." THT have been through Regina a few times in the past, and we can probably look forward to them coming back. With any luck, their album will be as good as Plaskett's Three, his most accomplished to date.
Rah Rah, Mt. Royal
O'Hanlon's
Rah Rah frontman Marshall Burns has to be a little conflicted, as Plaskett is one of his favorite artists. It's more likely, though, that his mind is otherwise occupied as Rah Rah is about to embark on a two-month, 28-date cross-Canada tour, that will also include a stop-over in Montreal to track some songs with producer Kees Dekker of Plants and Animals. The new album will be an exciting one, as the new songs they've played live have been remarkably different from their previous material. The addition of guitarist Leif Thorseth is also paying off in big ways. Unfortunately, I can't find any of their new material on YouTube, so the following cut from Going Steady will have to do.
Other concerts going on tonight: Chosen, Decency Dies, Lest We Fail at the Exchange; Paper Moon, Dave Taylor at the Club
Joel Plaskett
The Distrikt
You can check out the prairie dog for an interview with Plaskett, where he talks about his new triple album and his three collaborators (Ana Egge and Rose Cousins and his father, Bill). Something that didn't fit into the article was Plaskett on the new Two Hours Traffic record. THT are a sugary-sweet PEI power-pop band, and Plaskett had just finished producing their third album. "It's different. There's a lot of connection points to the last record, but there's also some darker stuff on this record. It turns a few corners that you wouldn't have expected it to. Which is good; they're really evolving and maturing as songwriters. This was a little bit more of a challenge to make because of that, because there's a bit more variety, but it was also really interesting in that respect." THT have been through Regina a few times in the past, and we can probably look forward to them coming back. With any luck, their album will be as good as Plaskett's Three, his most accomplished to date.
Rah Rah, Mt. Royal
O'Hanlon's
Rah Rah frontman Marshall Burns has to be a little conflicted, as Plaskett is one of his favorite artists. It's more likely, though, that his mind is otherwise occupied as Rah Rah is about to embark on a two-month, 28-date cross-Canada tour, that will also include a stop-over in Montreal to track some songs with producer Kees Dekker of Plants and Animals. The new album will be an exciting one, as the new songs they've played live have been remarkably different from their previous material. The addition of guitarist Leif Thorseth is also paying off in big ways. Unfortunately, I can't find any of their new material on YouTube, so the following cut from Going Steady will have to do.
Other concerts going on tonight: Chosen, Decency Dies, Lest We Fail at the Exchange; Paper Moon, Dave Taylor at the Club
Coyote Imbroglio
Here's a great piece by elite hockey writer and TSN pundit Bob Mackenzie on the Phoenix Coyote situation. Essential reading for anyone who's interested in the topic, it really lays out the situation--specifically the conflicts--clearly. Which could not have been an easy thing to do.
I think, long-term, this fight will take down Gary Bettmen, because despite his delusions otherwise the NHL will never flourish in weak markets in a depressed U.S. economy that'll probably never be what it used to be. A strong NHL needs more teams in Canada, and because Bettman's U.S. growth plan has never been completely successful (Nashville?!), eventually he'll take the fall.
The U.S. will go soccer mad before it buys into hockey hype. You can only make the sport so big down there. Yep, sooner or later, probably later, but not too much later, the NHL is going to have to move teams back to Canada.
I've said it before--it's just too bad Winnipeg's business class isn't in the game on this one. I wouldn't mind being a six-hour drive from the NHL. Sigh.
I think, long-term, this fight will take down Gary Bettmen, because despite his delusions otherwise the NHL will never flourish in weak markets in a depressed U.S. economy that'll probably never be what it used to be. A strong NHL needs more teams in Canada, and because Bettman's U.S. growth plan has never been completely successful (Nashville?!), eventually he'll take the fall.
The U.S. will go soccer mad before it buys into hockey hype. You can only make the sport so big down there. Yep, sooner or later, probably later, but not too much later, the NHL is going to have to move teams back to Canada.
I've said it before--it's just too bad Winnipeg's business class isn't in the game on this one. I wouldn't mind being a six-hour drive from the NHL. Sigh.
Today In Surgery
Dog Blog's shyest member, Carle Steel, sent me a link to this story about North America's first succesful face transplant. (Thanks Carl). The article is interesting mostly as a portrait of the amazing recipient, a woman who lost most of her face after her husband blasted her with a shotgun.
Read the Associated Press story for the feel-good (well, as good as possible) humanity, but maybe do me a favour and remember it the next time you hear some libertarian asshole say there shouldn't be any restrictions on the purchase or ownership of firearms. I'm not opposed to collectors and hobbyists keeping guns, I don't want to take rifles away from farmers and hunters, and I recognize that some of the gun laws in this country might need tweaking. But Jebus Cripes, there are just flat out too many guns out there, and everytime a gun-owning family goes into crisis (a polite way of saying another man goes mental) there's a danger someone will get shot in the face.
And at the risk of sounding like a looney radical, I'm opposed to people being shot in the face.
For people living in cities and suburbs, guns should not be regarded as "household items". They should NEVER be sold in malls, department stores and grocery shops.
Ninety-nine per cent of people have no business owning guns. End of story. Don't shoot the messenger.
Read the Associated Press story for the feel-good (well, as good as possible) humanity, but maybe do me a favour and remember it the next time you hear some libertarian asshole say there shouldn't be any restrictions on the purchase or ownership of firearms. I'm not opposed to collectors and hobbyists keeping guns, I don't want to take rifles away from farmers and hunters, and I recognize that some of the gun laws in this country might need tweaking. But Jebus Cripes, there are just flat out too many guns out there, and everytime a gun-owning family goes into crisis (a polite way of saying another man goes mental) there's a danger someone will get shot in the face.
And at the risk of sounding like a looney radical, I'm opposed to people being shot in the face.
For people living in cities and suburbs, guns should not be regarded as "household items". They should NEVER be sold in malls, department stores and grocery shops.
Ninety-nine per cent of people have no business owning guns. End of story. Don't shoot the messenger.
Six in the Morning
1. RABBLE JOURNALIST ASSAULTED AT LIBERAL CONVENTION: Derrick O'Keefe, an accredited Rabble.ca journalist, had his video camera ripped from his hand and was then knocked to the ground by Mario Cuconato, Paul Martin's former Director of Operations. The reason for the assault? O'Keefe dared to ask Paul Martin questions about his governments involvement in the overthrow of Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. O'Keefe managed to retrieve his camera with its footage of the assault intact. (rabble.ca)
2. NANNY CONTROVERSY UNDERMINES LIBERAL MP: Ruby Dhalla, Liberal critic for youth and multiculturalism, steps down amid allegations she mistreated foreign caregivers and paid them under the table. If true, well then, shame on you Ms Dhalla. Of course, there is the larger issue here of maybe MPs who are parents wouldn't have to hire live-in nannies at all if we had that national childcare program the Conservatives kiboshed. I'm just saying.... (Globe and Mail)
3. POLICE DROP CHARGES AGAINST BULLIED TEEN: Some background: a Korean/Canadian grade nine student in Keswick Ontario was confronted by a bully who insulted him using racial slurs and then punched him in the mouth. The Korean teen, who happened to be a black belt in karate, defended himself. The Korean teen had been trained (by his father) to never fight except in self defence and even then to only use his left hand. He did so: one left-handed punch which succeeded in breaking the bully's nose. (Bravo!) School officials and the police, however, suspended Karate Teen and charged him with assault, respectively. He was threatened with expulsion. The bully who started all this got off scot free. Anyway, after weeks of criticism directed at the police and school board, both have finally backed down and Karate Teen can now go back to school and not worry about going to jail. (Globe and Mail)
4. SEARCH ENGINE MOVING TO TVO: One of my favourite podcasts -- CBC's Search Engine with Jesse Brown -- is moving to TVO. In case you don't know the story of Search Engine, it's a fantastic internet culture and politics show that CBC took off Radio One last year as part of cost cutting measures. The show lived on as a podcast and became CBC's most popular podcast and one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes. TVO is now snapping it up. Hope that doesn't mean I won't be able to download it anymore. (InsidetheCBC.com)
5. CALLS FOR LINGENFELTER TO DROP OUT OF RACE: After some hinky business involving membership sales, Yens Pedersen is calling for Dwain Lingenfelter to drop out of the NDP leadership race. (Leader Post)
6. HARPER TO PENALIZE CZECHS TO KEEP ROMA OUT OF CANADA: To stem the number of Roma seeking asylum in Canada, Harper is threatening to reimpose visa requirements on Czechs coming to Canada. The government is claiming Roma refugees aren't actually oppressed people but rather economic migrants taking advantage of Canada's soft refugee determination system. Hang on a second.... Is it just me or does this sound a little like our Conservative government is saying something along the lines of "we don't want any sneaky gypsies sneaking into our country"? I don't know man, I lived a year in the Czech Republic back in the mid-90s -- so granted my info is a little out of date -- but as I recall the Roma there faced very serious racism. The government at the time was even threatening to revoke their Czech citizenships then force them to relocate to Slovakia. (A clear violation of international law.) I can't think of a more consistently oppressed people for Harper to be picking on, frankly. Way to stick a thumb in the eye of the downtrodden, Stephen. You prick. (Leader Post)
2. NANNY CONTROVERSY UNDERMINES LIBERAL MP: Ruby Dhalla, Liberal critic for youth and multiculturalism, steps down amid allegations she mistreated foreign caregivers and paid them under the table. If true, well then, shame on you Ms Dhalla. Of course, there is the larger issue here of maybe MPs who are parents wouldn't have to hire live-in nannies at all if we had that national childcare program the Conservatives kiboshed. I'm just saying.... (Globe and Mail)
3. POLICE DROP CHARGES AGAINST BULLIED TEEN: Some background: a Korean/Canadian grade nine student in Keswick Ontario was confronted by a bully who insulted him using racial slurs and then punched him in the mouth. The Korean teen, who happened to be a black belt in karate, defended himself. The Korean teen had been trained (by his father) to never fight except in self defence and even then to only use his left hand. He did so: one left-handed punch which succeeded in breaking the bully's nose. (Bravo!) School officials and the police, however, suspended Karate Teen and charged him with assault, respectively. He was threatened with expulsion. The bully who started all this got off scot free. Anyway, after weeks of criticism directed at the police and school board, both have finally backed down and Karate Teen can now go back to school and not worry about going to jail. (Globe and Mail)
4. SEARCH ENGINE MOVING TO TVO: One of my favourite podcasts -- CBC's Search Engine with Jesse Brown -- is moving to TVO. In case you don't know the story of Search Engine, it's a fantastic internet culture and politics show that CBC took off Radio One last year as part of cost cutting measures. The show lived on as a podcast and became CBC's most popular podcast and one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes. TVO is now snapping it up. Hope that doesn't mean I won't be able to download it anymore. (InsidetheCBC.com)
5. CALLS FOR LINGENFELTER TO DROP OUT OF RACE: After some hinky business involving membership sales, Yens Pedersen is calling for Dwain Lingenfelter to drop out of the NDP leadership race. (Leader Post)
6. HARPER TO PENALIZE CZECHS TO KEEP ROMA OUT OF CANADA: To stem the number of Roma seeking asylum in Canada, Harper is threatening to reimpose visa requirements on Czechs coming to Canada. The government is claiming Roma refugees aren't actually oppressed people but rather economic migrants taking advantage of Canada's soft refugee determination system. Hang on a second.... Is it just me or does this sound a little like our Conservative government is saying something along the lines of "we don't want any sneaky gypsies sneaking into our country"? I don't know man, I lived a year in the Czech Republic back in the mid-90s -- so granted my info is a little out of date -- but as I recall the Roma there faced very serious racism. The government at the time was even threatening to revoke their Czech citizenships then force them to relocate to Slovakia. (A clear violation of international law.) I can't think of a more consistently oppressed people for Harper to be picking on, frankly. Way to stick a thumb in the eye of the downtrodden, Stephen. You prick. (Leader Post)
Trek Of The Day
Of course there's more to Star Trekkery than William Shatner overheating under stage lights. There's Spock singing. What's weird to me is how much cooler Leonard Nimoy is than the Shat, even when he's performing material that's every bit as idiotic. And this song--blown right out of a 60s bong--is righteously idiotic.
Tomorrow: the shocking truth beind all those long, smouldering glances between Kirk and Spock.
Tomorrow: the shocking truth beind all those long, smouldering glances between Kirk and Spock.
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