“One day everything will crash and everything will burn. Right now all that is burning is the belief that change can occur. We need to put out that fire and start a much bigger one.” – Ezakiah Valentine, from The Limitations of Progress, 1936
October 18, 2006
October 9, 2006
the internet is funny that way
So today during my lunchbreak, I’m flipping through the tv channels idly as my midday meal cooks (I’m back house-sitting for awhile), and what pops onto the screen but Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Whoa, flashback! I can’t help but watch.
A little bit in, I suddenly remember that Joan of Arc (in the movie) is really awesome, or at least I for one always thought so. When it gets to her scene, I’m all flashing back to highschool moviestar crushing. Still no idea who she is, and while I’m not a celebrity hound, I’m curious… Enter the miracle of the internet; Wiki, IMdb, etc., and I find my Joan. Jane, actually.
Turns out that Jane Wiedlin is actually a lot more well-known for her many other exploits, not the Excellent Adventure. But what do I know? I’m now thinking that she’s my new second-favourite 5′-tall chick guitar rocker, after Erin of course.
September 8, 2006
Bookish
Just started Reading “Snow Falling On Cedars” by David Guterson. I saw the movie adaptation some years ago, and quite enjoyed it. At the time, i wasn’t aware that it was based upon a book; feeling that the book is almost always better than the movie, i’m really looking forward to this read!
Propr to this, i re-read Farley Mowat’s “The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float”; only my second read of this great tale, the first being many years ago, before i was much into sailing at all. Also, many years before i had a proper appreciation for the sorts of serious rum consumption that Mowat describes therein…
I’ve also, after much pressure from friends and family, finally gotten around to reading “Siddhartha” by Herman Hesse. It was good, but… After taking in many Alan Watt books, as well as the whole of the Dhammapadha, it was a bit of an anti-climax. Still a very good story, but for me at least, less illuminating that many other readers have found it.
Of course, i’m still regularly re-reading Bob Griffith’s “Blue Water” and Adlard Coles’ “Heavy Weather Sailing”, but it’s nice to get away from my usual diet of technical treatises and sailing manuals.
Bias
On my boat, i’ve taken to listening to the local NPR station quite alot. Now, over these last few weeks, i’ve been house-sitting a place on a weird little hollow of hillside with no radio reception. Furthermore, the utterly basic cable here consists of two New York broadcast tv stations.
Now, my personal politics lean towards the liberal. Still, i like my media as un-biased as i can get it. So many months of listening to NPR programming had left me feeling that it had a definate, if not substantial, left-wing bias.
But just a few viewings of “mainstream” American broadcast journalism has gotten me right back to loving NPR! When the broadcast news isn’t allowing itself to be an outright puppet of the right wing, it simply isn’t covering any issues of actual importance.
Of course, i really like the good ol’ CBC, excepting that in the last few years since i’ve been able to live and listen in Canada, it seems that the guts have really been knocked out Canadian radio.
The next best i’ve found is the BBC World Service, on cable… Which i don’t have on the boat! My cheap MW receiver can’t manage to pick up much either.
Say i manage to get a decent radio and decent antenna… Is there really any media out there worth the bother?