"Beer may be judged by just one sip but it is better to be thouroughly sure" Passport to Beer Credo

My friend Gabe Jones is celebrating the 5th Anniversary of his book. He's the only friend I have who actually wrote a book. A book about beer. Many, many beers. The new edition will be on shelves in the week prior to Father’s Day (likely on June 9th)!


They officially launch it at the Mother of All Father’s Day Beer Festival in Seattle on the 14th and 15th. The next major festival is the Canada Cup of Beer on July 5th in Vancouver. Their website is partially under construction but can be found at http://www.passporttobeer.com/.

Gabe Jones has about the greatest job...I'd trade him in a second! He managed to turn his love of beer drinking in to this is. Fuck, wish I had thought of it! Congratulations Gabe!

You should buy his book. One day I would like to travel along with it and hit up all the great places listed!

Song du Jour: Wake Up by Arcade Fire - loving this song.
That link's a version with Bowie...which is amazing!

Picture: Zac (buddy and co-author) and Gabe feeling no pain in a shower of hops after the Great Canadian Beer Festival in Victoria (Canada’s largest).

"I lost myself in the summer rain..."

"It's not where you're born

It's where you belong

It's not how weak

But what will make you strong..."

Song du Jour: Summer Rain by U2

"My old friend...I swear I never meant for this..." ~The Bravery

I've decided that I don't care for the venue formerly known as "Red's" or "Ed's" --what they now call The Edmonton Events Centre --it still really blows, and in a way that borders on comical. We went and saw Cake on Friday night...I was so excited, I have waited so long to see them live, let's just say I was stoked. I got there early, like keener early. I lined up outside the venue, then when I finally got into the venue there was no seating left. So basically we got there early to stand for 6 hours.

It was very "Grade 10 Hall party" drinking Stella from a can and although the music was great I really did not enjoy the experience all that much. I was there with good company and we had many, many beers, but really everything else was a big ole cluster fuck. The constant ringing of the fire alarm was hot.

When Cake *finally* took the stage they were better live than I could have imagined, we danced, we sang, we laughed, we sweated because it had to have been 120 degrees in there! Although I could not hear anything lead singer John McCrea said he did give away a tree at one point. A pretty little cedar...apparently they do that at each concert. They ask a "trivia" question to the audience and then give the tree to the winner to plant in their city. I thought that was pretty cool. War Pigs was my favorite song they performed which surprised me only because I have never been a fan of that song until Cake covered it. I loved Never There too.

The Best of the worse? The Bathroom attendant. They had a lady seated on a stool in the bathroom with crap laid out all over the place (taking up valuable sink, counter and mirror space). She had it all for sale: chocolate, chips, tissues...after you washed your hands she gave you a towel. It was all somewhat surreal. Mostly, it meant there was only one sink for every one to wash their hands in. So picture it...You had to wait in line to go to the bathroom (fire alarm blaring). Then wait in line to wash your hands. Then wait, hands dripping and people pushing, for the lady to sell the high chick in front of you a mini coffee crisp before she hands you your single towel. hmmm...Are you supposed to tip that lady?

It was just awesome! All in all the night could have been spectacular, but the venue managed to fuck it up by just being so retarded.

Song du Jour: An Honest Mistake by The Bravery
This song is very New Order-esque and Depeche Mode-like on the keyboards...sooo 1982.

Photo by Justin D. Renney/Getty Images: John McCrea of Cake performs at Lollapalooza on July 23, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois.

"Bill C-293, no doubt unwittingly, tends to undermine the very objectives that it tries to establish." ~ Hon. Hugh Segal

Last Friday, May 9, 2008, the Canadian government finally passed better aid legislation. It's called Bill C-293. I sent thank you cards to the leaders of each party. Martha would be proud.

Unfortunately Bill C-293 is a perfect example of "too little, too late" and 7 years from now the fact that we are still not on track to meet the Millennium Development Goals, an international obligation we have to meet, will be as obvious as the nose on your face.

I'm not so impressed with our slipping international reputation. We say one thing but we rarely follow through. The bill started out with some lofty goals most of which got purged in the Senate but at least we have a law on Canada's aid spending. It's only 2008. Fricking hell, it was Pearson who went to the UN in the 60's and set the 0.7% goal and we are still pretending we are a country that cares about the poorest of the poor. Clearly our actions would indicate we don't, and we haven't for a long time. More tied aid and broken promises make Canada look bad. And we can barely seem to find an agreement about even the very purpose of aid.

This year, Harper's Conservatives will provide 0.3% of GNI for development assistance. That means Canada now ranks 15th among all advanced industrial states in terms of its aid contributions - and our rank continues to slide. 15th!

I'm tired of the image we try to present to the world because it's a total fake. Parts of the world know it and yet I think most Canadians have no idea because there is no news of this in the media. Canadians have sent the message that Canada is no longer an international good guy because a lot of them support Conservative and Liberal roll backs on international aid. I read a report some time back....I wonder if anything has changed since 2004? We seem to want to look good but not if we have to put our money in to it, or as that report puts it, "Canadians do not appear to be prepared to sacrifice domestic priorities for the greater international good." Simply put, we lack the will to change and our clever disguise is starting to slip.

Song Du Jour: The Con by Tegan and Sara

"The workers are going home" ~ Weezer

So much for my prediction eh? Both the Stars and the Flyers managed to avoid the sweep. Whilst watching the Penguins and Flyers game every time I heard the crowd chant for their Flyers I imagined they were saying Oilers instead. I know...I'm delusional, but it made the game about 100% better. Also I wasn't so angry when Lupul scored because well, Goilers! I like my reality best...

After all my 'beotching' about the Whitemud I thought, "I should take the Henday home...." So tonight I did. Just like about a 1000 other drivers. By the time actually got to the Henday, through all the other delays...someone please explain to me how you can have both 111 Street and Calgary Trail clogged by construction at the same time? That is just such poor planning.
Anyhoo...by the time I got to the Henday I was relieved to have the wind in my hair and cruised along blissfully until 127 Street...holy congestion over the bridge. So it was exactly the same as the Whitemud...

The sad bit? The 20 minutes stuck on the bridge made this ginger kid a tad bit sunburned

...wtf?

It's like that scene from The Core when the sun burns people stuck in traffic in their cars on the Golden Gate Bridge through the hole in Earth's magnetic field...AND it's only the first day of nice weather here...this does not bode well.

I was cursing my luck, or lack thereof, and mulling over moving to the southside when I came crawling to a stop at the lights at Lessard Road. It was hot and everybody was scowling. Ahead of me a girl put her hand out of the car and bubbles floated up. Beautiful bubbles. And just like that my angry drive home was instantly transformed by bubbles...it made me laugh, and really wish I had bubbles too!

Maybe if everybody had bubbles in their car in traffic it would be less tense. Perhaps I should put a bottle in my car just for traffic jam emergencies. And, clearly I'll need a bottle of Coppertone with an spf of 50 too. It was a real Lawrence Welk moment for this lady and made the rest of my journey home much more pleasant. Thanks to the bubble girl.

Song Du Jour: My Name is Jonas by Weezer

Bubbles Photo by Will Koffel with permission.

"Just know that these things will never change for us at all..." ~ Snow Patrol

Driving on the Whitemud to work is like taking your life into your own hands twice daily.
Now construction season has commenced and they have milled the top off both sides of the pavement from 159 Street to just past Fox Drive. On Monday they had up some signs that reduced the speed limit to 50 Km. Today those signs seemed like a cruel joke as we all crept along in bumper to bumper traffic at about 20 km.

Fun times.

The state of the Whitemud was really bad, so part of me is excited to have it fixed. The other part of me wonders why I don't just suck it up and take the Henday every day and avoid the whole debacle. Oh right, the cost of gas is prohibitive, right...oh and construction on the 23 ave interchange means either way I'm hooped.

I think the hardest thing for most people is not knowing what's going on or how long it will take to fix the road. The City of Edmonton has a link to put all your questions to rest.

• Whitemud Drive, 53 Avenue to 170 Street (Major Delays, various lane closures)until approximately July 11. Traffic reduced to one lane in each direction, on ramp/off ramp closures in effect 7:00pm - 7:00am.

Speaking of pylons, I wonder will Dallas pull out one win at home tonight? I sure hope not. I'm pretty excited to watch the Detroit game tonight. Any predictions? Let's see...I'll guess, with Franzen still out, I think it will be 4-0 Detroit to finish the series.

Song Du Jour: Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol

Photo by Greg Southam / Edmonton Journal

"we try, we skate, hard, more, faster... we get zone then puck goes in." - Pavel Datsyuk

Nine wins straight!

And I'm not even a fan of the Wings...but that's some pretty spectacular hockey! Pavel Datsyuk's hat trick last night was pretty impressive so I understand why the media likes to catch him in between periods to interview him but his interviews crack me up. The best part is the reaction of the Sports Dude sent to interview him. I hope he scores more goals in the next game just so he can get in front of the camera again...oh and of course I hope they sweep Dallas.

That would just be so sweet.

Song Du Jour: Into Your Hideout by Pilot Speed

Photo by John T. Greilick / The Detroit News

"Democracy is a device that ensures we shall be governed no better than we deserve" ~ George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

This just in! Gather round nerds...
1,002 Canadians 18 years of age and older voted NOTA when asked to name the most trustworthy federal leader! Raise your hand if you're surprised. Crickets. Tumbleweeds.
Yeah, didn't think so...

Results of the "CPAC-Nanos Poll":
Question: As you may know, Stephane Dion is the leader of the federal Liberal Party, Stephen Harper is the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Jack Layton is the leader of the federal NDP, Gilles Duceppe is the leader of the Bloc Quebecois and Elizabeth May is the leader of the federal Green Party. Which of the federal leaders would you best describe as:
The numbers in parenthesis denotes the change from the previous Nanos Research survey completed in February 2008 (90 day change).

The most trustworthy leader?

Stephen Harper 31 (+1)

Stephane Dion 14 (NC)

Jack Layton 14 (-7)

Elizabeth May 5 (-3)

Gilles Duceppe 4 (-2)

None of The Above 32 (+12)

What gets the masses ignited? Certainly not politics...that doesn't effect us right? No...of course not! What has everybody talking? Rumour has it West Edmonton Mall is going to be getting a Bath and Body Works sometime in the fall! Some local women even started a facebook page for their 'cause'...now that's advocacy! And they were successful if the rumours are true. If only the mothers of the world actually realized the power they hold, eh?

Happy Mum's Day, Ladies!

Song Du Jour: Don't let go by Sarah McLachlan and Bryan Adams
Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2 is the second rare tunes album she has put out and I bought it yesterday...I already love it. You'll hear "Don't let go" at a wedding you attend this summer for sure!
I hope Welke knows Sarah has another album out....

"You were so wrong Weeds..." ~OTC

Last night, before the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado 'Lanch game, we made our predictions. OTC said, "'Blanch will win 4-2 with an empty netter..." A bold prediction!

I said, "pfft...it will be 5-1 Detroit."
At the end of the Franzen Blitz OTC looks at me and says, "You were way off..."

8-2! Hans Franzen there with his $950,000 showing the rest of the millionaires what it takes to win games. They never stopped either...The Wings just kept on coming. The 'Lanch is broken with a capital B so it's unfortunate that we didn't get to see a better hockey series. Secretly, I wish the Sharks would win the series against Dallas. I really don't want to watch "Mike and the Mechanics" anymore. Boooooring! Make no mistake, I'm only in it for the spectacle. The Rangers game last night...now that's good spectacle!

Go Habs Go!

Song Du Jour: I Will Follow You Into The Dark by Death Cab For Cutie

Photo: Colorado Avalanche goalie Peter Budaj looks up after the Avalanche lost 8-2 to the Detroit Red Wings duringGame 4 of an NHL Western Conference semifinal hockey playoff series in Denver, Thursday, May 1, 2008. Detroit beat Colorado 8-2 to sweep the series. (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

"While Frank Sinatra sings "Stormy Weather" the flies and spiders get along together" ~ Cake

Finally it is MAY! Happy May Day peeps. On the 16th I will be going to see Cake in concert. YAY! It's hard to state how excited I am to finally get a chance to see them live...I am already doing the big 15 more sleeps countdown!

I heard on the news last night that the PC's were on a mission to Washington to tell the powers that be down der that our province is environmentally responsible in the oil sands. Some ducks had a mission and a message of their own for the world.

My friend Mike Hudema has been in the news lately (last night on behalf of said ducks) and I find myself defending him. Which is so freaking frustrating. I am not sure why it is that people older than me need to say things like, "one day he'll learn" or "When will he stop fighting against things he has no control over? Doesn't he see what a waste it all is?"

What Greenpeace did at the Conservative convention pissed a lot of people off, I know, but why? I commend those activists for standing up for what they believe in. They are trying make Albertans aware of what nobody seems to want to talk about. Is being aware really that bad? Clearly, a lot of people don't care for awareness.

All I said to those older folks, with their angry, closed-minded bobble heads tsk, tsk, tsking, was, "Mike will fight for as long as he draws breath, that I am sure. What I want to know is why you're not outraged too" Sadly, I lost the taste for hard core activism some time ago and pussied out because fighting against the system is hard work. Harder work than most people do in their life time.

I will be very sad the day Mike Hudema no longer gets up in the grill of politicians and I want to say his willingness to fight has always impressed me. He questions humanity in a way few people do anymore, we just want life to be simple and easy. I know I don't really want to know the real impact of the Oil sands project because it scares the beejebus out of me. What are we doing to our province? I hope he never gives up like I did. He's a very strong advocate and he deserves to be recognized for that. Even if you don't agree with his politics, he's the kind of person who engages people in debate, and in this province we don't have enough of that.

"Don't move
Don't talk out of time

Don't think
Don't worry
Everything's just fine...just fine..."

'Numb' by U2

Song Du Jour: Never There by Cake