Pat, You Fat Cat

Pat Fiacco, the darling mayor of Regina, seems more disappointed that someone is pointing out that North Central has HUGE problems than he is that there are, you know, ACTUAL PEOPLE IN HIS CITY living in horrible conditions.
From the Leader-Post: MAYOR COMPLAINS MAGAZINE STILL WRONG.

"Well, at least it's not the Detroit Ghetto," the L-P sighs in their editorial, before suggesting a Liberal Media Anti-Fiacco Conspiracy.

I grew up in Regina, and I currently work in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, which formerly held the title of "Canada's Worst Neighbourhood" (and still does to most of the world). I've never been to THE DETROIT GHETTO, but I'd imagine it's pretty similar to the DES, or was in its heyday, give or take a few thousand guns. There's poor people, there's drugs, there's violent crime. But it's still "a neighbourhood like every other" with people who go to work, raise their kids, pay taxes, etc. That doesn't stop it, or Regina's North Central, from being home to people who live in pretty abject misery. For Fiacco to complain that the national media didn't highlight his boxing school, or his bungled housing projects in the face of such horrors as child prostitution is, as someone once said, "small town cheap."

For what it's worth, here's the original Macleans story by Jonathan Gatehouse. It's actually really good.
EDIT: Okay, that link's dead. Sorry.
EDIT AGAIN: That link works again.

As a bonus: Ode To Pasquala mp3 by Rah Rah.

NEXT YEAR IN METROPOLIS

That's right folks. NO ONE has asked me to do a top ten/year's best list at all this year, but I'm doing one anyway. I might even do two! I'm not making any promises, but what the heck, maybe we can even squeeze a third list out these old steam-powered branez before the sun comes up.

Okay, let's start with something easy. Let's start with my favourite 10 comics of the year.
EMMET'S TOP TEN COMIC BOOKS OF 2006

10. Green Lantern Corps (DC) - While I'm pretty much at the breaking point as far as the main Green Lantern series goes, the spin-off has been loads of fun. Lots of aliens, lots of crazy ideas, great art from Patrick Gleason and Dave Gibbons and even new (fill-in?) writer Keith Champagne (best known as the former inker for JSA, and writer of one of the dullest JSA stories ever, and that's saying something!) has managed to keep this series worth reading. Also of note in the DC sci-fi team books category is the new Omega Men series, where Flint Henry is doings some boffo Bisley/Sienkiewicz-esque art.
9. Marvel Tales Spider-Man (Marvel) - Despite the awesomeness Adam Beechen (2007's Dan Slott???) and covers by Ty Templeton, DC's line of superhero comics for kids are too dependent on being Saturday morning tie-ins, and thus being a little too overtly FOR KIDS. Marvel's Marvel Tales line of books don't tie in to anything. They're just fun comics. Kids (hopefully) know when they're being pandered to. (I know, this entry is more of a dis on something else than accolades for MASM, but just go get the Fing Fang Foom issue, okay!)
8. 52 (DC) - It's not actually 52 itself that endears DC's weekly comic to me. It's the weekly format, which has more or less been my only reason to visit the comic shop most weeks, and Douglas Wolk's fantastic companion blog 52-Pickup that makes 52 fun.
7. Superman Archives (DC) - I'm not even sure if this came out in 2006, but I'm including it anyway. This full-color reprint of the first year or so of Superman and Action Comics was nothing less than a revelation to me. The raw energy of the early Man of Steel is exhilerating and almost foreign to someone who grew up with the tail-end of the Curt Swan Era Superman.
6. Tales Designed to Thrizzle #3 (Fantagraphics) - Michael Kupperman's humor mag flops as often as it soars, but that's part of the fun of comedy. He's willing to flop, he's trying out ideas. It's never boring and it's usually savagely hilarious.
5. Absolute DC: The New Frontier (DC) - I spoiled myself with this de luxe edition of Darwyn Cooke's masterpiece. I couldn't help myself. It's oversized and has annotations and sketchs and NEW PAGES OF STORY!
4. "Up, Up and Away" in Superman and Action Comics (DC) - As you've already seen and as you're about to further witness, I got WAY into Superman this year. I daresay that with this storyline, and Kurt Busiek's subsequent stuff in the Superman mag, this is the best the mainline Superman comics have been in my lifetime.
3. Showcase Presents Superman Family (DC) - All of the wackiness unearthed in 2005's Showcase Presents Superman pales (okay, not quite) when Jimmy Olsen takes centre stage in these reprints. After reading this 500+ page tome, I finally understood why Lex Luthor sees Superman as nothing more than an extraterrestrial interloper hindering humanity's maturation from cosmic adolescents and keeping them (us) from being captains of their (our) own destiny.
2. All Star Superman (DC) - OH YEAH! I LOVES ME SOME SUPERMAN! Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely infrequently present some of the most glorious ideas about Superman. Issue #5, where Clark Kent visits Lex Luthor in prison and goes to SUPER lengths to conceal his dual identity just might be the most beautiful Superman comic ever.
1. Action Philosophers! (Evil Twin) - THE GREATEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD. Sassy & irreverent, but also concise and informative. It's like Mad Magazine meets Classics Illustrated. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunleavy are awesome. GET YR COPY NOW!

Merry Christmas

Christmas is here, and so am I! A totally useless post on my otherwise uruseful blog. Enjoy the season, whatever season it might be.

Things To Do In Vancouver When You're Wet

PART ONE: COMPOSED NOV. 23, 2006
Early this morning, as I mopped the hallways in one of the West Coast's most exclusive hotels, I felt the urge to blog. But after sleeping all day, and then getting soaked in the perpetual downpour, I can't remember what it was that I wanted to say. So I'm going to write anyway, because I'm out of practice, and because I might eventually say what I was thinking I wanted to say.

Anyway, it's been, like, 3 months in Vancouver, and what do I think? First of all, don't ever move to Vancouver at the end of August. It's absolutely gorgeous here in the late summer/early fall, and that serves nothing but to set you up for a torrential disappointment come the second week of October, which is when the rain starts.

All the things I liked about the city when I first got here seem kinda moot now. All the places I wanted to go to, all the things I wanted to do...meh, maybe in the spring. For now, all I really feel like doing is going to work and hanging around home, which is pretty much all I did in Regina, only I paid A LOT less for the honour of having a roof over my head.

BUT I'M NOT HERE TO WHINE ABOUT THE WEATHER OR THE COST OF LIVING!

well, maybe just a little bit.

I recently spoiled myself with a very chi-chi comic book called Absolute DC: The New Frontier.
It's Canadian artist Darwyn Cooke's reimagining of DC Comics' Silver Age of Superheroes in their proper historical context. In a lot of ways, this is like an antidote to Alan Moore's Watchmen, which, of course, was the SENSES-SHATTERING 86/87 miniseries that (brilliantly) deconstructed the tropes of superhero comics. Watchmen framed costumed crimefighters against the cold war paranoia of the 80s, tugging on their capes to reveal the flawed humans who wore them (or didn't wear them, as only Ozymandias even occasionally wore a cape). Cynically ambivalent, Watchmen, along with Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns of the same years, began an era of DIMINISHING FUN.
In a recent issue of Wizard Magazine, Grant Morrison (discussing his late-80s run on Animal Man) described Watchmen and other "realistic" takes on superheroes of that era as a "dead end". To a degree, those works cast a long shadow over superhero comics that remains imposing to this day, in terms of a paradigm (or perceived paradigm) that superhero comics that aren't filled
with flawed antiheroes and existential angst CAN ONLY BE mindless pap for emotionally-stunted mouthbreathers. All too often, the stock revamp of a pre-existing superhero comic concent is to darken it up. To insert previously incongruous elements of sex and violence. To prove that, indeed, comics aren't only not just for kids, but not for kids at
all. NOT EVEN REMOTELY. And not just because they deal with mature subject matter, but because they deal with it in an UNIMAGINATIVE AND CREATIVELY BANKRUPT MANNER. Identity Crisis, for example.

THIS PART COMPOSED ON DECEMBER 7th, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD
What the hell is the point of frothing milk? I just made some chai latte things, and frothed milk for them, and now I've gulped down the chai part, but there's this frothed milk at the bottom of my mug, and, like, I don't know what to do with it. I kind of thought the milk would unfroth into the chai solution, but it hasn't. It remains. Like snow on the prairies. Like Ensure on your shoes. Like something you thought was going to be something different, but instead it's just something different again.

This is a song I really like right now: "Thieves of Memory" by the Parlour Steps - It's sort of got elements of Arcade Fire (which I'm indifferent about, but maybe appreciate more, considering this song, which isn't them, but is like them, in a fashion, and thus allows me to like "that kind of thing" with out liking "that thing" whatever that's worth) and Morphine (which I love), which makes for an interesting sound. The Parlour Steps have another song, that I've only ever heard once, but it's an amazing song, and they should put it on their next album and it will be a hit.

Speaking of hit records, my man Andrew Vincent (who isn't in any way or fashion "my man", except that I bought his t-shirt--a t-shirt with his name on it, not the t-shirt he was wearing--like four years ago when he played in Regina) has a new song that's featured in ad for the place I got my spiffy new winter coat. Check it out here (the song, not the coat).

I bought a new winter coat last week, when it was winter. It's kind of a badass coat, only I don't really look that badass in it. See, for some reason, whenever my hair gets to be a little too long, and unpleasant, I start buying new clothes. Because I'm unhappy with the way I look, but I find going to the barbershop something of an ordeal. Maybe I'll get into that sometime. Anyway, I start buying a bunch of new clothes, because I know that I'm not looking the way I want to look. So I buy some clothes, and I like them, but then I own up to the fact that what I really need is a haircut, so I go get a haircut. Then I realize that all the clothes I bought, that make me look so badass and awesome, only suit a shaggy-haired Emmet. Neat and trim Emmet is incongruous with these badass threads.

And that's why I always look goofy.

Baby, How'd We Ever Get This Way?

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I've posted. That probably tells you something, huh?
Saw Bonnie "Prince" Billy the other night (thanks Skye!). It was pretty cool. I was kinda tired and grumpy and not really that into going to a show, but Will Oldham, I mean, come on!
And opening act the Human Bell, or possibly Helium Bell?, from Baltimore, was really awesome. Just two guitars (and a trumpet on one song), no voice, no hijinks. Really, really resonant, especially in the hall, which is also a church. They sort of reminded me of Slayer, but they weren't heavy metal.

Walking the dog with Rufus

So there I was, outside the Continental Cafe, enjoying a fine cup of drip and opening up the paper to gingerly peruse the apartment ads (anybody with any hot tips, PLEASE let me know). Just as I open the paper, I hear a crash, and sure enough, there's a cute little dog tipping over a garbage can and eating from inside. Smart dog. Hungry dog.
A minute later, the dog is panting at my feet. I reach down to scratch behind its ears. It looks unwashed, unbrushed, lost and confused. Or maybe I was just projecting.
I look around, there's no one in sight who seems to belong to the dog. So I check his tags, there's a phone number and an address. And his name: Rufus.
So I pull out my phone and call the number. Answering machine. I leave a message, including my name and number, and explain that I've found Rufus wandering along Commercial Drive eating garbage.
I think about going over the apartment listings and enjoying my coffee, but I don't want to chance Rufus wandering off, especially not in the often frenzied Commercial Drive traffic. So after a few minutes of deliberation, I finally tuck the paper under my arm and call Rufus to follow me. The address on his tag is only a few blocks away, so I'm really not going too far out of my way.
Rufus lollygags behind me, walking pretty slow. Oh, he must be famished and weak, I think. Poor thing.
When we reach the street that Rufus lives on, the dog picks up the pace, and bounds up the front steps to his gate. I open the gate, let him, and then securely lock the gate and leave, waving so long.
Feeling mighty proud of the good deed I'd just done, I head back up Commercial to Broadway, pick up another coffee and a muffee at J.J. Bean, and get on the bus. Most of the places I want to look at today are around B'way and Main, so I might as well situate myself there.
Just as the bus is pulling away from the SkyTrain station, there's a buzzing in my pocket. I didn't recognize the number on the phone, so I hoped one of the places I'd looked at in the last week was calling to tell me I could move in. Ha, fat chance.
"Are you the fellow who found Rufus?"
"Yes, did he stay in the yard where I left him."
"Oh, yes, but you see, I was at Continental with him. He's sort of a regular there. I like to let him off his leash and go romp around in the back alley."
"Oh no! I'm so sorry. I saw him eating out of the garbage..."
"Well, I appreciate your concern, but if you should see him there again-"
"I'll let him be. I'm awfully sorry."

So, I don't know. My intentions were true. My concern was well-founded. Nothing disastrous happened. What's the lesson here?

The Highway Divides: Spo-Dee O'Dee Blows VII

so, there we go, the end of an era. The final Spo-Dee O'Dee (not counting Friday's fill-in on the drive). It's been a blast, and I can honestly say that I never played a song I didn't love. See you 'round the bend.
Here's what I played on August 18, 2006, on 91.3 FM, CJTR:

Hour One

Gotta Travel On - Jerry Lee Lewis
Pirate Cowboy - Deadly Snakes
Bring It On - Rodney DeCroo
Little Jerk - Kyp Harness - holy crap! Kyp Harness wrote a book about Laurel & Hardy! That's cool!
Often Is A Word I Seldom Use - John Prine
Wasn't Born to Follow - The Sadies
Our Love Will Change the World - Outrageous Cherry
The Blood in My Body - JF Robitaille
Faceless - Red Shag Carpet
Bentley Hilss - the Neins Circa
Jonquiere Tonight - Rah Rah
The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Heart - Sufjan Stevens
The Master Has Come Back - Damien JR. GONG Marley

HOUR TWO

Try Love - Cocoa Tea & Freddie McGregor
Ghazal - Niyaz
Beware of the Boys - Panjabi MC
Sunny Gal - John Millard & Happy Day
Old Backyard - Tyler Banadyga - Tyler doesn't seem to have a website, but it seems like he has more important things going on his life right now any way. All the best, T.B.!
Helpless - Buffy Sainte-Marie - Dear Buffy: We love you. Make more records and update your website, please!
Run Myself Right Out of Town - Holmes Brothers
Bellbottoms - Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
Work Out Fine - Joel Plaskett Emergency
Lazy Susan - White Hassle
Don't Blame Me - Snailhouse
Degrassi Theme - Andrew Vincent
Baby Let Your Heart Out - Royal City
The Highway Divides - the Parkas