city in progress

+ last saturday, we attended a public workshop at trout lake community centre to discuss the future of the park. see, capital plan question #4 in november asked the city to commit funding towards a new rink and community centre. the question passed, and now the parks board gets to decide how, when, and where to build the rink and community centre. about 50-60 people were there. each table of approx 5-7 people got an aerial photo of the park, divided into sections a-through-h. our task was to discuss how we used the park and recommend the three best sections in which to place the new rink and community centre. we went to defend the status quo. the buildings are now in the far southwest corner, well back from the lake where we walk the dog. i like the isolation, and the relative wilderness of the lake path.

at first i felt somewhat guilty for having a preconceived concept for the park. i should be open; here is an unprecedented opportunity to shape my corner of vancouver for the next 40 years. the park can be anything that i want it to be! then again, when has change for the sake of change ever worked in urban planning? furthermore, i really like the park as it is. the current set up suits my needs perfectly. interestingly, most of the people that came out agreed. the two most popular choices were sections 'a' and 'b', where the current buildings are located. a distant third was 'e', in the under-utilized northeast corner beside grandview highway.

next saturday there will be another meeting, at which the initial plans, based on our feedback last week will be unveiled. there are two important and contradictory considerations that will have to be taken into account. the first is program delivery during construction. if the current site is chosen for the new buildings, as it seems it will, the task will be to effectively rebuild the existing buildings. for 2-3 years, there would be a significant negative impact on the programs currently run out of trout lake, and the clientele base would likely diminish. the second consideration is soil type. most of the park is bog. flat, spongy land, prone to flooding and sinking. very bad for construction. most of the surrounding houses are also built on bog, and many are having severe problems with settling, apparently. the only part of the park that is not bog is the southwest corner, which, like most of the city, is glacial till. so, the only stable land to build on is already occupied.

+ the last 10 songs on my iTunes

1. the lilac time, the darkness of her eyes
   
2. the tragically hip, the completists
   
3. michaelangelo, this bird
   
4. belle and sebastian, i'm a cuckoo
   
5. joni mitchell, the sire of sorrow (job's sad song)
   
6. the sandpipers, never can say goodbye
   
7. kate bush, pull out the pin
   
8. broadcast, papercuts
   
9. stina nordenstam, love hurts
   
10. dire straits, brothers in arms
    

+ i have a new computer now. i have been pumping records into my iTunes all weekend. it is a g5 mac; one of the flat screens with a pedestal. it is a very sexy piece of design. it came with an optical mouse, as well. i've got 1424 songs in now, just over 4 days of continuous music. my last library was of a roughly equal size, but most of it was crappy stuff off of the internet. all of these 1400+ songs are from my own collection. it is absolute bliss to sit back and hear song after song that i really really like. i'm rediscovering a lot of records that i don't listen to often, because they're popping up on shuffle. with my old computer, i'd spend more time listening to albums off of the internet than from my collection, because it was easier. i'm happy now!

+ we have seven different sorts of mustard in the fridge. i will try to go to polonia sausage house this week so that we have something to eat the mustard with.

way of the sun

i go to rock shows alone for the solipsism. i find a rock show alone is an excellent time for intense self-reflection. tonight proved no different. i saw archer prewitt at the media club. i have all of his albums, and i know them note-for-note. with the exception of the one new song he played tonight, i knew everything. i knew the riffs, the swells, the climaxes. i got nervous when he started to play cheap rhyme because i love the trumpet climax so much. then, just when i was waiting for it, the keyboard player picked up a trumpet. hooray! he played almost the entire wilderness album, and several songs from three. i saw archer prewitt before in toronto, in 2002 before i had heard any of his albums, just the song final season. since then i've collected everything.

i listened to archer prewitt's three a lot during 2003's elections. other songs that i associate with spring 2003:
-toto, africa
-gowan, moonlight desires and strange animal
-the cardigans, for what it's worth

and albums from 2003:
-damon and naomi, more sad hits
-beth gibbons, out of season
-kristin hersh, the grotto
-saint etienne, built on sand

for 2004, the bad year, i made an album. the track list is here: i hear a symphony.

the only two songs that i associate with 2005:
-the beatles, and your bird can sing, which i heard in kinkos as amanda, kevin and i were getting our senate posters printed at 3 AM.
-the beatles, she said she said.

this year, i won't associate anything at all with the election cycle. it's a major step. my last three years have been dominated by this event, and i'm taking a pass.

navy blue

films for the week:

• the net
  
• the game
  
• requiem for a dream
  
• insomnia
  
• ghost rig
  

albums, today:

• leonard cohen, songs of love and hate (1973)
  
• kate bush, aerial (2005)
  
• bjork, vespertine (2001)
  
• joe jackson, body and soul (1984)
  
• depeche mode, playing the angel (2005)
  
• stereolab, margerine eclipse (2004)
  
• archer prewitt, white sky (1999)
  
• pat metheny group, american garage (1979)
  
• blue rodeo, casino (1990)

and a song: the tammys, egyptian shumba (1960-something?)

discovery park

a good day. i felt off kilter, but ended up on the top of my game. i feel foolish, because if i don't run for re-election i will be squandering an excellent campaign platform. i feel like writing a campaign speech regardless, just to keep my muscles in shape. i want to know if i can distill my year and future plans into slogans. keeping it to myself and close associate will be a challenge. to run for re-election would be giving in to the worst excesses of my psyche. to step away, knowing that i could likely win a second term will be an interesting trial.

i have never been so neurotic as when i have run for election at sfu. the stress is incredible. huge highs and huge lows; there is no proportion or perspective. there is a huge rush to seeing your face and name on posters all over school, and the faces and names of close friends.

initially, i used foxbase alpha to chronicle wonderful little parts of songs. here are a few:
-the chorus to fleetwood mac's you make loving fun. esp. the guitar line and chimes. the verses are firm and solid, anchored. the chorus goes up and up; it's beautiful.
-neil young's after the goldrush. the whole thing. especially the melody.
-the drum fill that starts fleetwood mac's dreams.

lady bayside

another long busy week. i was chewed out this morning by two dudes from facilities management who aren't actually in a position to chew me out. i'm not sure if they realised that i have a not-bad rapport with their boss. i tried to sound apologetic without apologising: 'well, i apologise if that seemed unclear in any way'. 'i'm sorry about the confusion that may have caused you'. i tagged on to the meeting; they weren't expecting me, but decided to seize the moment and whine that i'd been going over their head. well, in my experience, if a link breaks down, it is better to go higher up the ladder of responsibility to report problems.

my output to return ratio on energy is becoming frustrating. i'm working too much and to hard for too little pay and/or tangible effect. i have no faith in my potential successors, but i'm moving on for myself. just for me!

we'll have dim sum for breakfast tomorrow at the golden phoenix. it's twice the price of bon's next door, but it is tastier and we feel better having eaten it. there is also rarely a wait, and we can grap a plate of food right away. dim sum is a wonderful way to start the day.
my favourites:
-shrimp dumpling
-shrimp and spinach dumpling
-gai lan
-beef dumpling

tomorrow i'll also begin reading everyday stalinism. for good measure, here's a steely dan song: the boston rag (1973)

may my heart be cast into stone

see, i worked for the good guy who lost, and it feels like a punch in the gut for the bad guy who won to turn tail and become a REALLY bad guy, two weeks later. all day people were chatting me up about vancouver-kingsway. when i told them that i'd worked in the riding, for the 2nd place new democrat i got a lot of sympathy.

we joked during the campaign that, if ian lost, we'd get some small comfort in seeing ujjal and emerson on the opposition benches for the first time. in emerson's case, he'd be making less money than he had in 20 years. we'd tell people that emerson had no interest in politics if he wasn't at the cabinet table, and that voting for emerson while martin lost would surely send us into an immediate by-election, as he ran back to some corporate boardroom. we never floated the thought that he'd jump to the conservatives. ever.

i wonder what the frat boy i scrutineered with at tupper thinks of this. i wonder if he's still following federal politics, now that martin's cashed in his chips. jan wants to track down the liberal scrutineer that she met at beaconsfield and talk her into switching parties. our local executive is getting together soon. ian is on the phone with the leader tomorrow. i thought we'd have a nice break, some time to build the provincial riding up and get set for a fight with the boundaries commission. we're back in the thick of it now, though.

we won a minor victory at senate today, as a proposal that we mustered significant opposition to was pulled from the agenda. rather than risk defeat, items that have not reached consensus are commonly retracted, giving the administration time to either retool for broader appeal or muster their troops in favour. if the story is correct, and this was the only window within which to approve this proposal, this delay could result in its end. that's exciting; i got into senate expecting to never win a fight, but i led a lot of the opposition on this issue, and it feels like a victory to see it faltering in the last lap. i think that tonight was only my second opportunity for a real celebratory drink this year. the first was at the cambie, last june. tonight, we all had a drink at the duc before dinner. hot tip: the duc doesn't measure their highballs. they just pour. despite the two gin and tonics, i spoke very well at senate on several issues, and felt more comfortable than i have before in the pseudo-parliamentary setting. i love senate.

i'm feeling more convicted in my return to civil society. i look forward to watching more movies and reading more books.

popsicles and icicles

here: one of my very favourite music writers on what happens when your hard drive crashes, iPop is dead. stylus is the only online music journalism i read, and a lot of it is due to nick southall. my computer is dead, and i have missed very little of the music collected on it. these are the things that i think a lot about.

equally as much analysis as can be put into country songs can be put into 60's girl group songs. try this one: the whyte boots, nightmare.
or this one: joey heatherton, live and learn. there's not much to the second one, actually. just a lovely song. they've got names like 'the angelettes', 'the exciters', 'the goodies', 'the lovelites', 'the tammys', and 'goldie and the gingerbreads'. i've got 2 1/2 hours of this stuff now, and at only 2:30 per song, that's a lot of songs.

the next level

you can tell that BC is different from the rest of the western provinces by the shape of its electoral districts. while alberta, manitoba, and saskatchewan all have lots of straight lines, BC's divisions are all twisted along rivers and the ridges of mountain ranges. the prairies were all plotted out by the CPR, and today's boundaries still run along those old lines. BC was never plotted. you can trace its geography by its riding boundaries.

i had a lengthy discussion about STV today, and it reminded me to finally get my citizens' assembly materials organized. my wealth of information will be worthless if it is not digestable.

in regards to my political future at SFU, i'd been waiting to get advice from two smart people with no connection to the situation but with some interest in my future and records of success in a field i have interest in. the unanimous vote is for me to run for senate and finish my degree. i'll be more flexible once i have a degree done, and might as well speed up the process. if i feel like stepping back into student politics, i can always do an MA at SFU and get back into the swing of things. with a seat on senate, i'll still have a hand in civil society. i may end up like moe sihota or sheila copps, and go back to 'journalism'. i'm excited to be flexible. senate is a marginal committment in comparison, and i'll be able to be a student, rather than an administrator/bureaucrat/occasional advocate. if i take 3 courses per semester, i could be done by fall 2007.

that said, i had an incredibly good week at work.

here's the other trout lake.

the world's strongest man

+ my dad got a major retro cheque, and is buying me a new computer. part of the CBC settlement was retroactive job re-classification; his went back about 10 years or so, and the resulting cheque is substantial. he's offered $1,1000 towards a new beast for me, as my old computer stopped booting several weeks ago. i need to decide how much i can pitch in to get a really nice computer, or whether it would be smarter to just get a servicable computer and save my money.
- i've forgotten how to tie off guitar strings. i was all ready to re-string my squire(the fender cheap line) stratocaster(cherry red!), but had to leave the low E string lying there untied because i've forgotten the knot.
- stress. so much. i feel it all over, all the time. i'm dealing with it by getting excited over almost everything, and crashing every several hours. it is manifesting itself in muscle pains, lack of attention to detail, horrible sleeping patterns, and procrastination. the lack of decent sleep is becoming a positive feedback loop with my stress through the day. i don't know what to do.
+ i'm bringing an article about louis riel to school tomorrow for amanda to photocopy. we're geeking out about canadian history, and i'm remembering how exciting it really is. i take louis riel for granted now, because i've written about him on a yearly basis since spring 2002.
+ the louis riel comic book by chester brown.
+ a party on friday, with some of my favourite politicians.
+ reading douglas coupland's microserfs for the second time. 2 days and i'm 2/3 through. it's like candy; slogans, random impulses and cultural detritus.
+ 7 min. songs that go on forever and ever and ever. esp. guitar instumentals, which make me happy and jealous.
- the heel of my right shoe has collapsed on the left side, leaving my foot lopsided when i walk. for now, it is an annoyance, but if i don't see a cobbler soon i fear that i will have problems in my foot.
- our two red walls got painted white. they had to patch up the nail pops (hammering in new plywood on the outside of the building made all of the nails in the drywall pop out of the wall, leading to little holes all over), and we decided to get the workmen to paint the wall now at no cost, rather than paint it ourselves when we move. now it feels as if we're about to move.
+ scott walker's scott 4. i can't get over it. between morrissey, leonard cohen, and scott walker, i fear that a pattern is developing.
+ people are surprised to hear that i study history. i think that it informs what i do, however. in all aspects of my life, i strive for context before action. it makes me hesitate, but prevents rashness. history is about context.
- the desire for context can become crippling. where does it end? i find it difficult to build slogans when i'm striving to describe context.
+ we can get our barbeque back now, because our balcony is finished and the scaffolding is all down. barbequed chicken thighs with grilled zucchini and salad is the fast, easy, and relatively cheap meal that we've been missing for months. having a barbeque again will drastically reduce the amount of money that we spend eating out.
+ i'm sleepy now at 2.15 am, which is an improvement on the 3.30 am of yesterday.