Winnipeg's Subway System

That's right, Winnipeg doesn't have a subway system, or LRT, underground or any other of that sort of transportation.
But then that brings up the question: "what is John. K. Samson talking about when he wrote the line 'a thousand sharpened elbows in the underground' for the Weakerthans song One Great City?"
I realized this a while ago and I still have not come up with an answer to that.
It really is a mystery and I regret not asking him that when I got the chance to interview him last fall.

ZeitCast #6

Here is your almost weekly podcast ZeitCast for May 30:

ZeitCast Your Almost Weekly Podcast for May 30 Part 1

ZeitCast Your Almost Weekly Podcast for May 30 Part 2

Personal Permission to use music was granted to me by Dallas Green of City and Colour and Wintersleep.

Thank you for listening.

ZeitCast #5

After 2 weeks of no full podcasts, here - finally is a full, two part ZeitCast episode:

ZeitCast Your Almost Weekly Podcast for May 22 Part 1

ZeitCast Your Almost Weekly Podcast for May 22 Part 2

Personal Permission to use their music was given to me by Dala and Okkervil River.
At the end of Part 1 I forgot to do the part saying to listen to part 2 - but there still is a part 2! So when you finish part 1 come back and listen to part 2.
Also, please be patient when loading the podcast. It may take up to five minutes to load.

Blogs

Here a couple new blogs that I've found out about.
One: Alberta: Get Rich or Die Trying
This blog actually found me. They posted a comment a few days ago. This is a very interesting blog which "critically analyses the Alberta enigma."
Two: Daveberta.ca
I've known about this blog for a while know but I've never really checked it out. Many people have probably heard of this blog from the controversy about how he (Dave) got the domain name edstelmach.ca. (It was meant as a joke.)
Also - I am sorry but I do not have a ZeitCast for this week. There will definitely be a full episode next week.

Stupid to the Last Drop

Yes - that's Alberta. We are stupid to the last drop according to a new book by William Marsden. I recently bought this book for myself (much to the surprise to the person at Greenwoods) and so far I have found it very interesting. It talks about the oil sands in northern Alberta and about the environmental damage that they cause. It also of course talks about the stupid plans to bring up oil that people have had in the past. The introduction for instance tells about a man from the USA who all of a sudden had a brilliant plan to get the oily riches underneath the Albertan soil. His plan was this: to place a 9 kiloton bomb far beneath the ground and blow it up. To me - his theory sounded pretty twisted and I'm sure lots of other people thouht that too as that hasn't happened - yet.
I haven't finished it - yet but I already get the sense that the auther is absolutely horrified at what it happening. Because the auther feels so strongly about it the book turns out to be great - because it's real. I'm sure that if you read this book you will feel differently next time you fill up your car.

ZeitCast #4

Hello again!

Here is your almost weekly podcast "ZeitCast" for May 8th 2008.

This was a very busy week for me so, I'm sorry but this will only be a one part edition of ZeitCast.

Here it is: "ZeitCast you almost weekly podcast for May 8th 2008"

Personal permission to use music granted to me by Rollie Pemberton of Cadence Weapon.

All I Need

Many of you have probably heard about the video that Radiohead released for their song All I Need. Well, it's a great video and I thought I'd share it. The video is on the right. Sorry, I couldn't get it just to display one video - but they're all the same!

Listen Bird and Other Links

A couple posts ago I said something about how Cadence Weapon wrote a song called "Listen." (At least that's what I thought it was called) For those of you who thought that this was kind of interesting I found a blog all about the Listen Bird. It's called Listen Bird - isn't that wierd:) I also put this link on the "links" section of my blog.
Also I posted some other links on the "links" section. I posted the Linda Duncan and the Eco-Air website. I also put a cool new blog that I've been following called "Scaledown Windsor."

A Coincidence...?

Yesterday I was going to my swim practice in the morning and I noticed something kind of surprising. As we were going across the Mill Creek Bridge and driving down Wayne Gretzky Drive I saw hundreds of newspapers strewn across the roads and on the boulevards beside the roads. It was so weird, how there were tons of newspapers on many bridges and all across Gretzky Drive. Is this a coincidence? - or what? I don't know. I hope that many people email the Edmonton Journal though and tell them about what happened. Maybe one of the Edmonton Journal delivery vans accidentally dropped a bunch of newspapers across the road? Or - was it someone who did on purpose - to make a statement about something.
Interesting...
Another thing I noticed two nights ago. There was this one person sitting in their big SUV outside my house. Another thing - they were idling. And they sat there for like 1 whole hour! About a week ago I said that I joined a group called "Eco-Air." Their whole thing is that they want to pass a bylaw to stop unnecessary in Edmonton. Well, I really wanted to go up to the people in their car and ask them to stop idling. But you know - it's really hard. It's so hard to go up to a stranger and ask them something serious. So please - if you're reading this - just don't idle so you wont make any kid squirm inside their houses. Please.

Back When We Used to Punch Each Other in the Faces

A couple nights ago I went to my second true concert of my life. (First one was the Weakerthans) It was with Buck 65 and Cadence Weapon.


I hope that everyone who reads this knows who Buck 65 is. But for those of you who don't know who Cadence Weapon is, he's a rapper from Edmonton so he was playing to a home town crowd. Lately he's been getting a bit more publicity and he seems to be starting to make it big. One of his hit songs is called "Oliver Square" and those of you who live in Edmonton will understand why. My favourite song of his at the concert though was called "Listen" - at least that's what I thought it was called. Anyway - once again if you're from Edmonton you'll know what that's about too. For those of you who don't live hear I guess you're out of luck. Just kidding - I think it's actually quite interesting. Well, since a two years ago there have been pray painted graffited birds that say "listen" sprouting up all over the city. I don't think anyone really knows what that's about though...


Anyway, I said that this was my second concert of my life and it was definitely the loudest as well. It wasn't just Buck 65 and Cadence Weapon though - there was also a guy who calls himself Skratch Bastid. He was definitely the loudest part of the performance. He wasn't that bad. I liked some of it but some - not so much. He was all about the scratching and spinning (spin' it!) of records. Sometimes though all I could here were sharp, high pitched squeals that made me cover my ears. the Buck 65 part was awesome though! He played all the songs that I wanted to here. My favourite of all was Way Back When with the line - "Way back when, solid gold that song on the radio's nice!" and "back when we used to punch each other in the faces."


Anyway, it was an awesome concert. The strangest thing of all though was that all these rappers were playing in - a church!

Truly American...

Last weekend I watched the movie "Sicko" by Michael Moore for the second time. It is an extremely good movie - well, obviously because I wouldn't be watching it for the second time if I didn't like it! Anyway - it was very interesting to watch it again. The movie is interesting because some parts are hilarious where others are scary and sad.
This one time (funny) when Michael was walking through a British hospital searching for the cashier to pay when you left. After hours of searching he finally found the spot marked cashier - but when he went up to the desk the person told him that this desk was to actually pay for the transportation that people took to get to the hospital. Michael was absolutely astounded! Another time (sad) was when he showed a place in the states - I think it was in California - where a cab came up to the front of a building and dropped a person off. Seems normal - right? - wrong. The person that they dropped off was someone who couldn't pay for their hospital bill. The person had no idea where they were and they wandered aimlessly down the street until she reached someone who helped her. Now there was one time that was both sad and funny - well funny only because of Mr. Bush's stupidity. (Maybe I should stab Bush with my voodoo too!) George Bush was on some show in the states with a women who said that she was having to work three jobs just to survive. George seriously thought that this was an excellent thing! He also said that this women was truly american! It sounds as if he's expecting everyone in the states to do three jobs! Three jobs!! Some people find it hard just to do one:)
Anyway - that's all for now.

ZeitCast #3

Hello there!
I know I haven't posted anything in a very long time but it's for a good reason! I have been working on ZeitCast #3! So here it is - and I think that this ones my best yet!
Jack Layton - if you are listening to this - I hope you like it!
I'd like to thank all of my classmates who I interviewed in this edition of my podcast.

ZeitCast "Your almost Weekly Podcast" for May 1st Part 1

ZeitCast "Your almost Weekly Podcast" for May 1st Part 2

Personal permission to use music granted by John from Five for Fighting
and Public permission to use music granted by John. K. Samson (3hive.com)

Next week on ZeitCast I will be talking about the all-Canada Music Monday!