Daddy-Daughter Day

Every so often my daughter gets these ideas into her head. She likes to plan things and one of her favourite things to plan is "Daddy-Daughter Day."

I think today's Daddy-Daughter Day festivities began, in part, because my wife decided to wake up early to watch the Australian Open Men's Final (Federer v. Murray). I suppose the hour or two alone gave them time to plan as I found myself waking up to breakfast in bed.

Together my daughter and I did household cleaning chores and grocery shopping, followed by an afternoon of card games, movies, baking snickerdoodles, and dancing to Andrew Bird's album, Noble Beast.

The day concluded with a family picnic in the living room (joined by mommy), and a chapter from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

The Conceit of the Late Modern Author

As I mentioned a few days ago, I had the opportunity to breeze through a translation of Aladdin and Other Stories from the Thousand and One Nights. To be honest, I wasn't overly familiar with the story, only knowing the broad strokes as most people do, and routinely confused The Thousand and One Nights with stories of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, so I'm not exactly in any position to offer a critical assessment about this particular translation.

Save for one little detail that amused me to no end.

Dawood offers his readers a short introduction to help set the tone of for the stories, and his words are encouraging and warm, though he warns his audience that the stories are "the unstudied products of untutored minds," possessing a "vocabularly that borders on the vulgar dialect" and not a part of Classical Arabic literature, but nevertheless a "faithful mirror of the life and manners of the age which engendered them."

Then, having gone to all these lengths to apologize for his subject's folksome roughness, he admits that there was a bit too much "narrative vigour," leading to his decision to excise a "smutty episode" that was obviously "wantonly injected" during a later period, and clealy out of step with the rest of the narrative architecture.

All of which may be true, but writing in 1956, it is probably the last time an author could presume so much, so candidly, on behalf of his or her readers. A decade later Roland Barthes would be announcing the death of the author and the power of the reader, while various post-modern factions would destabilize many of the assumptions that Dawood makes from the notion of a classical canon to the origins of folk tales. It struck me therefore as incredibly ironic that a self-proclaimed rescue mission of one era, inadvertently became a relic of another.

December/January Bookends

This post's a two-fer, since I missed last month. December however, proved to be highly productive from a reading perspective. Who would have thought that travelling with a six-year old would result in so much reading happening? I've mentioned my thoughts on Hobsbawm earlier, and I've got a little thing on Aladdin that'll appear in a day or two, but Zadie Smith and Nick Hornby I discovered to be two peas in a pod, separated by about fifteen years. Somewhere else I mentioned how fantastic I thought it was that Hornby named his latest collection of articles Shakespeare Wrote For Money. I found it equally heartwarming that he didn't publish his first book until he was 35. Maybe I have a chance.

Books Read
Zadie Smith, Changing My Mind, (2009)
Eric Hobsbawm, On The Edge Of A New Century (2000)
Lance Blomgren, Walkups (2000)
N.J. Dawood (trans.), Aladdin and Other Tales from the Thousand and One Nights, (1956)
Nick Hornby, Fever Pitch, (1992)

Currently Reading
Ho Che Anderson, King: A Comics Biography, The Special Edition, (1993-2002,2009)
David Townsend, Pamela Adams - The Essential Question: A Handbook For School Improvement (2009)
J. Lloyd Trump - A School For Everyone (1977)*
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad, Poor Dad(1997)*
*I'm in no hurry to finish these, but for different reasons

Books Acquired
Lance Blomgren, Walkups (2000)
Ho Che Anderson, King: A Comics Biography, The Special Edition, (1993-2002,2009)
Mickey Leigh (with Legs McNeil), I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir, (2009)
Michael Crichton, Pirate Latitudes,(2009

I, January = Suckage

Theoretically Janaury should be a time of bright optimism; a new year, new hopes, a blank slate and the possibility of starting over with everything. The reality is that Janaury sucks. It's a hangover Monday after a three day binge and the realization that all those holiday bills and parties are going to require a whole month to pay off and clean up after. Businessses reset their prices to adjust for inflation and tax deductions like CPP and EI come roaring back, leaving some people with post-New Year's paychecks smaller than the ones they had going forward. In some parts of the country, winter has barely set in at Christmas, but by January, everywhere is locked in, streets are frozen, and everything is barren.

January, you suck. Why can't you be over yet?

Top Sports Memories, 2000-2009

In something resembling chronological order.

2000 - European Soccer Championships, Italy v France, The referre, Anders Frisk grants an (to me) unbelievable four minutes of stoppage time. Sylvain Wiltord of Frances scores in the fourth minute and David Trezeguet scores in overtime to beat a disheartened Italy, 2-1.

2000 - US Open, I went to New York to do research in the fall of 2000 during the middle of the US Open. Watching the night matches, particularly a stunning Gustavo Kuerten v Max Miryni, the lithe Brazillian vs. the extra-large Belarussian. Oddly, I missed the final between Sampras and Safin, and remember reading the headlines the next morning in disbelief.

2001 -Wimbledon, Federer v Sampras, At the start of the match, the commentators mentioned the degree to which the young Federer idolized Sampras, so I really started to feel excited for Federer as he moved closer and closer to victory. Then, at the end, the tears streaming down his face at having beaten his idol. Even though he would lose in the first round of Wimbledon the following year, it was this win against Sampras, on grass, at Wimbledon, that started Federer's transformation into a champion.

2002, Winter Olympics, Ice Hockey Championships, Yes, the Canadian men winning gold was good, avenging their defeat in Nagano, but the outcome of the game never really seemed in doubt. Instead it's the women's match the next day that truly electrified the country and sticks out as my defining memory.

2002, World Cup, Italy v s. Korea. This match had it all. Fantastic underdogs in South Korea, an Italian team of clear superiority but struggling to score goals, a Uruaguyan referree making questionable calls throughout. I don't think I yelled more at the TV at any other point in my life. Then, the pivotal moment came with Totti getting sent off for a challenge that he clearly won. I was stunned. I watched every match of the World Cup, but honestly, I can barely remember anything that happened after this game. The Irish probably felt the same way I did at this point as they did with Theirry Henry's own "Hand of God goal" (and also why that moment isn't on my list).

2003, Wimbledon, Federer wins and it actually feels like a new era.

2004 Game 6, Stanley Cup Final, Calgary v. Tampa Bay, Martin Gelinas, having scored the series winning goal in every round of the playoffs, scores the Stanley cup winning goal. The goal judge rules that the puck hit the goalposts and the game continues without stopping. The Lightening score, and the game proceeds to Tampa Bay for Game Seven where a demoralized Calgary team loses handedly. Post game analysis reveals that the puck struck the inside of the goalpost after clearly crossing the line.

2004 Game 7, World Series Semi-Finals, Boston v. Yankees, Yes, they would go on to win the World Series for the first time in forever, but the series against the Cardinals was a sweep. This was the series, against the Yankees, that would have made the story book ending with Johnny Damon lifting the ball past the outfield wall.

2005, World Series, I cheered for The White Sox throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s when they were always losing out to the Oakland A's. My wife and her familier were huge baseball fans and through them I started watching again. Except, they liked the Cubs. This was a very solitary victory.

2006, World Cup, England v Portugal, England loses on penalty kicks and the TV catches former Calgarian Owen Hargreaves crying. Despite all the pre-Tournment press about Hargreaves not being English enough (born in Canada, played in Germany) and not being good enough (despite winning Bundesliga and Champions League titles with Bayern Munich), he is named Man of the Match. His eventual transfer to Manchester united is greeted with open arms by the British press. Really, I think this is perhaps my top sports related memory of the decade.

Oh yeah, Italy beat France in the final and Zenedine Zidane got sent off for head butting Matterazi and I have a picture of my daughter celebrating while David Trezeguet cries, and I'm a petty, petty man for savouring that photo, but really it's all about Hargreaves.

2006, US Open, Andre Agassi retires at the US Open and I think everyone in my house cried.

2007 Superbowl, My wife was also a football fan, and had been slowly introducing me to the sport since 2005. At that time, the only team I could muster any sort of emotional connection to was the NY Giants. Their victory over the Pats was perhaps the most improbable thing ever, even to me, but man I loved it.

2008 Wimbledon, Federer v Nadal, Nadal wins in the greatest match ever played and everyone wonders if it's the end of an era.

2009 Stanley Cup Final, Detroit v. Pittsburgh, a replay of last year. Throughout the playoffs TSN is playing a commerical with Sidney Crosby. It's a photo of last year's final, the dying moments of the final game, with Crosby standing by the boards, the finality of his loss written across his face. In a voice-over, he states "I never want to be in this picture again." His barely contained intensity in the commercial underscored everything he did on ice during the Final series againts Detroit, becoming the youngest team captain of any professional sports team to win a championship. It is the only record he could set that Gretzky hadn't set first.

Afternoon Kino - The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah, 1969

Today's Playlist - Frank Sinatra

In times of increasing subtext and subterfuge, Sinatra plays it refreshingly straight.

Really Good Albums I Missed The First Time Around

One of the surprisingly nice things about taking a holiday over the Christmas/New Year break was the ability to load up on some really top-notch albums that I was too busy to listen to in 2009 proper. It's a good time of year - all my friends have compiled their Best Of lists and it's a three week period with no new music coming out, so here's a quick list of what I grabbed to help fill some of those quite hotel/airplane/bus hours:

Mos Def, The Ecstatic - This is the album I regret not hearing until the end of the year the most. You should all probably stop what you're doing and listen to it now.

Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus - I initially downplayed this was as "contemporary alternative music for forty-year olds." I guess I just got old.

Girls, Album - The single is catchy as all get out and the album reminds me of the excitement that people used to have about Elvis Costello.

The Antlers - Hospice

Am I Parking My Car, Or Storming the Beaches?

Dear City of Calgary,

I know I said some mean things about your street cleaning policy that left the city side streets full of snow. At the time I was angry, because in my neighbourhood, this meant that two buses got stranded in the snow side-by-side for almost a week, cutting off traffic flow in one of our major exit routes, in addition to the other roads that were impassable due to accumulated snow, or the snow the plows had pushed forward at interactions.

Now however, as the warmer weather hits, I see a new stunning logic to your plan. Those mounds of snow piled up in the middle of interactions have transformed from snowdrifts into hard icy barricades, and the four feet of slush, snow, and ice on either side of the road have turned the parking lanes into a veritable No Man's Land. I often find myself wondering, am I parking my car? Or storming the beaches of Normandy? It really is thrilling to launch my car at a two foot ice ramp in the right hand turning lane, hoping my forward momentum will carry me out of the curious mix of gravel, sand, snow and ice awaiting me on the other side. It used to be finding a parking space was difficult - now there are places aplenty and every time I get back into my car I get the vicarious pleasure of worrying whether this will be time my car gets stuck. The little twinge of excitement and fear as I skid out into the street - truly one of life's little delights.

So thank-you City of Calgary, for making all this possible with your inefficient (if cost-saving) snow removal strategy.

Elvis 75

I picked up a digital copy of Elvis 75, and truth be told, "Viva Las Vegas" had never sounded better to me than in the dying hours of CES on Sunday morning. However it wasn't until I got back into town and looked at the physical album cover, proudly proclaiming Elvis Presley to be "The Once and Future King" that I had cause to shake my head. Really? England gets the mythical Arthur, who will come in their darkest hour to lead the English nation back into the fabled golden era of moral and political unity of Camelot - the Americans get Elvis, to lead them back into the golden glittered hedonism of Vegas?

Quick thoughts from the Consumer Electronic Show

Oddly, this has nothing to do with technology, but rather a book I finished reading while in Disneyworld, you know, that Las Vegas for children. Somewhere in his reflection on the 20th Century, On The Edge of a New Century, historian Eric Hobsbawm casually states that the benefits of extreme wealth are no longer apparent. This isn't to say that it doesn't pay to be wealthy, but rather that a hundred years ago the wealthy and everyone else inhabited the same public sphere. Everyone knew what the wealthy could access and nowadays, many of those luxuries can be enjoyed by members of the middle-class (albeit to varying degrees of frequency). Hobsbawm contends that today's super-rich have absconded from this public sphere, holidaying in secret.

Even as I wandered around CES, I thought about Hobsbawm and the genesis of Las Vegas as the playground of the West Coast's wealthy elite. Where do the wealthy go now? The only place I could think of that might rival Las Vegas for sheer over-the-top-ness is Dubai.

BTW, real CES-related reflections will be posted over at Exploding Beakers since I officially went on Education Business.

Yeah, I'm an addict.

Lust.