End of Week Pot Pourri

Ford the Kitten is now up on KittenWar and has won 62% of his battles so far. This is an impressive performance for a kitty that is just sitting in a normal pose on a flat surface. Well done, Ford!

Last night, Kathy Cook won the Silver Medal in Politics & Public Interest at the National Magazine Awards for her Walrus Article, "The Peace Wager". (And I believe that Kathy did her writing in a normal pose on a flat surface.

On Thursday night, I made it out to the Avant-Garde and caught a performance by RaBiraBi. They were in town for one night and headed back to Japan on Sunday. The lead singer (who mostly sang eery harmonic notes) began by saying "Yesterday, Montreal, happy! Today, Ottawa, more happy!" A fine illustration of how few words you really need to know in another language to get by. I'm not usually into non-melodic rhythmic groups, but RaBiraBi engaged all of us. After one intense extended accelerating drumming riff, many audience members were gasping because they'd been holding their breath. The lighting wasn't good for taking a picture, so I drew this sketch of the band. They say they'll be back next year. If so, I'll be going out to see them.

Had a fine evening at the Manx last night. Pulled out my notebook to record many things:

• John C visiting from St. John's, Newfoundland, had many stories about his family. He informs us that his eldest daughter is still "crooked as a bag of weasels". The biggest laugh involved an elderly relative at an outhouse saying, "I must be drunk, I can't find me mister." When asked what he did about this, John, said, "let's just say, I wasn't going to help him with that problem and back in the car, I booted it home as fast as I could."
• A discussion about the hokiness of the recent terrorism arrests led to how email is being blamed. Someone suggested that all new communication technologies are vilified when they first come out. I wondered aloud if back at the dawn of time, old people were upset about the introduction of the past tense, and if so, how they would have expressed this. "Before the past tense, everything was perfect," said Jim B.
• Jim B got another good one in when I confessed that I am not always exactly what you'd call a model of discretion. "More like a Model T of discretion," he said.
• Keane managed to entertain us by mentioning Glebe moms and their sport utility strollers. This got Grumpy Guy going for several minutes.
• When we admired Keane's bright turquoise umbrella with the duck handle, Keane said he liked it because on the greyest rainy day, it's like he's got a clear blue sky over his head. He didn't want me to blog that, but I think it's a good lifehack.