Unlike most of the posts here, this isn’t intended for a general audience. If, however, you happen to be visiting from the UK or other areas of the world, and happen to be looking for things to do in the Pacific Northwest or Vancouver area, then this will be helpful.
Seattle
The Underground City of Mystery
Cheri Priest’s entry about the thing is a good place to start to decide if you care about them at all
originally started as ex-Microsoft head Paul Allen’s honouring of Jimi Hendrix and all things musical and roughly Seattle, it’s expanded to be a very broad tent indeed.
It also now has a Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame
site of the very first Starbucks, which hasn’t been re-styled ever as far as I know
people throw gigantic fish around
shopping and fooding galore, a bit like that market near the Golden Hinde in London, betwixt the railway and London Bridge, only bigger (because this is America and they’re like that)
Seattle Science Centre and the Space Needle
well-designed and spacious museum explaining science of oodles of stuff, been there for years, you get to expeience science more than study it.
right next to the big pointy thing, you can’t miss it
Over on Vancouver’s ‘west side’, in the Kitsilano neighbourhood (sometimes simply called “Kits”)
Been there for years, good selection, there should be a sweet shop either next door or very close
At the corner where there’s a traffic light is “Sophie’s Cosmic Café”, which provides good food and North American Diner décor with a soupçon of ‘eclectic’, all of which is popular with the locals
Just down the hill from the shop above, a nice walk away with window shopping in between
Rx Comics (slogan “We’ve got the prescription for your comic book addiction”)
Main Street area – recently taking to calling itself “SoMa”, as in ‘South Main’, aren’t we all la di dah–with a goodly number of little boutiques and restaurants and cafes for those less graphic novel oriented
They used to be at the other end of downtown as Golden Age Collectables, now they’re 1/2-way between Kitsilano and SoMa, but donot walk there from either location unless feeling very fit or adventurous.
How they ever moved is beyond my ken, they have more stock of all sizes and shapes than thought possible
Books galore, graphic novels and single-issues of comics, classic literature and modern, non-fiction… more than enough to make your luggage over-weight in no time
picture a proper big bookshop like Hay-on-Wye under one roof
they have a cat who possibly weighs 87 pounds
Salt Spring Island
Relaxing
recommended
Sex
ibid
Eating
op cit.
for other ideas, ask the locals
Mood: caffeinated Music: oddly, nothing’s playing Book: Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger (Bond #7, Penguin re-issue, ISBN978−0−141−02831−6)
Now it would seem that it’s all over. I have tweeted so dang much that my API has been shut off due to it being used over-much.
Sadly, in my opinion, Harper has been handed a blank cheque to do whatever he wants, with no punishment in the offing. The national voters seem to have said “whatever it takes” in order to get whatever it is that is their individual priority. This makes me sad.
As with the previous post, what follows is a copy of my stream as I “live tweeted” the returns (which is hardly a verb, but I haz not a shit to carez for dat as the LOL-kidz say. This will again be in reverse chronology, so head to the bottom to work your way from start to finish.
oytamarind Brad K — RTby IanAMartin What part of “CONTEMPTOFPARLIAMENT” do you guileless sheep not understand?! #elxn41 24 minutes ago
#elxn41bc Bby Douglas is going to be a very close one again. NDP43% to CPC39%. I smell re-count. 17 minutes ago
JonJennings Jon Jennings — RTby IanAMartin If one good thing comes out of this, it’ll be me finally applying for my citizenship so I can vote against these liars & criminals next time
#elxn41bc Canada has handed Harper a blank cheque. What in blazes are we going to do until someone locks him in jail? 20 minutes ago
@Astrogirl426 The PM + his Gov’t was charged with “contempt” (and that was a new charge to my ears) and out-right lied during campaign. Sad. 22 minutes ago
#elxn41bc Here’s a question: does this mean a resurgence of the Proportional Representation, I wonder? 25 minutes ago
reneestephen Renée Stephe–RTby IanAMartin They used to say that Canada trails the US by about 10 years in terms of trends. We’re right on track, I guess. 26 minutes ago
#elxn41bc Liberals down 44 seats. It’s almost as bad as Kim Campbell taking Mulrony’s drubbing for him. 37 minutes ago
#elxn41bc How odd that the crowd in front of Ignatieff isn’t doing traditional vocal denial of results when he congratulates Harper/Leighton. Well, okay, not odd; telling.37 minutes ago
ounodesign ouno–RTby IanAMartin RT @AndyJukes: Don’t call them Tories. The Tory party is long gone. These people are right-wing lunatics, plain and simple. #elxn41 42 minutes ago
@AnthonyFloyd Pardon? Oh, I suppose that [Elisabeth May is] independent/other until [the Greens] have official status. [Vancouver East MP Libby Davies] got 550 to 235 last I saw. …so that’s something. #elxn41bc44 minutes ago
#elxn41bc BBY-Douglas is now NDP46% to Cons 39%. And it just went there from a wider margin. Eeep! ~ Elizabeth May 566, next one is 543. 45 minutes ago
#elxn41bc @harrietglynn Totally. [The Liberal’s drubbing is] a bullet [Ignatieff] will not dodge. Paul Martin bowed out after a far better position.1 hour ago
#elxn41bc @cbcnewsbc says independent/other in one riding. Please tell me this is Helena Georgis (badly spelled: turfed by Harper for rumours)1 hour ago
#elxn41bc Elisabeth May is in very slim lead by 39 votes. @Herne Ignatieff STILL behind by nearly 1,000 votes. ~ Bob Rae is very tight in the lead. ~ 1 hour ago
EmmeRogers Emme Rogers–RTby IanAMartin What happened with the University Vote Mobs? Please don’t tell me they voted Conservative or neglected to actually vote?1 hour ago
#elxn41bc Chilliwack-Fraser Canyon sees Strahl’s son in with a 2:1 rate. Surprising, given his lack of experience. Vancouver-East: Con high 300, Liberal mid-200. The BQ and Liberals are both down the same amount of popular vote. Ken Dryden is out! KENDRYDEN!!!! Un-be-liev-a-ble. 1 hour ago
#elxn41bc @cbcnewsbc now caling Conservative Majority. I am getting wine now. BBY-Doug NDP ahead by 66%. Conservatives 2nd place, ANDTHEYDIDNOTHINGFORTHAT! 1 hour ago
smuttysteff Steffani Cameron–RTby IanAMartin 1 hour ago Anyone who didn’t vote today, they ever fucking whine to me about this country, NOT slapping them might be impossible.
Herne Herne–RT by IanAMartin Gilles Duceppe is out! Ignatieff is still down by 1,000 votes! #cdnpoli#elxn41
#elxn41bc There are no safe seats tonight. People have abandoned the Liberals and gone NDP? How ARE the Cons getting this support? 2 hours ago
@jpadamson Usually, yes, but [Libby Davies’] lead right now is still very slim.Everything in Canada is up for change from the norm it seems. #elxn41bc2 hours ago
#elxn41bc Bby-Douglas 205NDP, CPC104. Again, close. ~ Vancouver East is 150 to 120 for NDP, but still too early. ~ Kooteney is CPC2:1, Okanagan is CPC7:3, New West-Coquitlam very very close. 2 hours ago
#elxn41bc Vancouver East might not go NDP, but all numbers below 100 ~ Rishmond: CPC4:1 [I swear I hadn’t even opened wine at this point] ~ Okanagan Shuswap: CPC2:1 ~ Delta-Richmond CPC3:1 ~ Bby-Douglas looks like NDP so far. ~ 2 hours ago
@julesjulesjules so very saddening. #elxn41bc#whereIsThatWine ~ South Surry: CPC by 3:1 ~ Cariboo: CPC by 3:1 ~ Too Close to call: Vcvr-Quadra, Vcvr-Kingsway. Both look NDP-leaning 2 hours ago
inkcanadaKaren Walton–RTby IanAMartin Ontario, I never knew ye. You have swallowed the Kool-Aid and yet hate on pre-change US? Really, rural ON. wow. 2 hours ago
@Watcher58 That’s what I thought. It’s like Reagan cleaning-up in California. By today’s standards, Reagan would make a good Liberal leader. #elxn41bc2 hours ago
#elxn41bc Richmond is CPC (Wong) by 151 to 36 for liberals ~ Kootenay is CPC (Wilkes) by 2:1 ~ If there’s oodles of conservative support, why am I living here still? #whereIsThatWine2 hours ago
#elxn41bc According to CBC prediction: Conservatives 153 seats. One more and they’ll have a true majority. Oops! 151 seats now. 2 hours ago
#elxn41bc Duceppe behind by 1/3 in his riding. Harper’s ahead by 500% in his riding. Ignatieff behind by 10% in his. 2 hours ago
CBCStephenQuinnStephen Quinn–RT by IanAMartin Wait… BC could decide on whether it’s a CPC majority. Don’t turn it off yet! #elxn41bc20 hours ago
#elxn41bc Ontario is rejecting the Liberals in droves. I’ve never seen that. I wonder when it last was this way. Duceppe and Ignatieff are both trailing in 2nd place in their ridings. The whole Canadian Political map is being redrawn. The clear message voters are giving is “Harper can do ANYTHING he wants.” So very sad. 20 hours ago
@TheresaLalonde#elxn41bc I suspect that Justin [Trudeau] might actually refuse to run for leader [of the Canadian Liberal Party]. He’s already seen what that demands. 20 hours ago
#elxn41bcCBC predicts NDP as er Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. I can live with that. ~ …okay. Conservatives 138, NDP87, Lib 29, BQ6. Time for wine, I think. ~ What with the results we have now, the desire to start a pool about when @petermansbridge sits down calls to me. 20 hours ago
smuttysteffSteffani Cameron–RT by IanAMartin Don’t know why I’m even planning to watch the election results. I wonder if there’s a hole I can go stick my head in somewhere.20 hours ago
#elxn41bc Volpe is at HALF the CPC candiate’s numbers. What the hell happened? I didn’t think the Conservatives had a chance! I know long-term Tories who refused to vote for the Harper-led party. Ajax/Pickering: CPC ahead by 25%. Ignatieff is ahead by one. ONE vote! Incredible. Totally insane. 20 hours ago
#elxn41bc Things are early still, but CBCTV saying 132 Con, 70NDP, Lib 29, Bloc 5. Missed the radio numbers. Volpe is out, PC replaced him in Eglington. Surprising. So is Soloman waving his arms around. Not normal for him. 20 hours ago
CBCAlertsCBC News Alerts–RT by IanAMartin Cabinet ministers Peter MacKay, Gail Shea re-elected . Defence minister wins in NS, fisheries minister wins in PEI.20 hours ago
#elxn41bcCBC reporting 62NDP seats, Liberals 27, Bloc 5. Liberals looking worst in its history. CBC projecting CPC government with 131 seats (150 for majority). #whereIsThatWine20 hours ago
smuttysteffSteffani Cameron–RT by IanAMartin Global is apparently CALLING the election nationally without even having had polls close on the west? If so, fuck off, Global. Asshats.20 hours ago
#elxn41bc Narduar on TV right now with Ignatief. Thank goodness the signal’s muted. ~ Burnaby-Douglas was NDP last time by 700 votes, CPC2nd place. No campaigning by them this time, so NDP #1 and CPC #3. My guess is that Atlantic Canada will go CPC and Liberal, as those are very tradition-based voting patterns. Multi-gen. traditions #prediction20 hours ago
#elxn41bc I wonder if the CPC candidate for Bby-Douglas ever knocked on a door? *I* never saw him. ~ Polls close in 26 minutes people. VOTEYOURASSOFF (presuming you haven’t yet). ~ Evan Soloman looks so spiffy in his suit and his gigantic iPad. He keeps making smileys on it too. 20 hours ago
#elxn41bc Hey, Harper! You shouldn’t “be in Ottawa dealing with the economy”, you should be dealing with the Contempt Charges!21 hours ago
Currently watching Gloria and New Guy chat… oh, now we’re in commercial. BC feed not picked up on radio yet, polls close in 40#elxn41bc21 hours ago
raincoasterraincoaster–RT by IanAMartin @IanAMartin Personally, I’m thinking watching the election on the big screen at a casino might be a good metaphor #Vancouver#lazyweb21 hours ago
CBCStephenQuinnStephen Quinn–RTby IanAMartin Going Live with our local coverage in 12 minutes on CBC Radio One. Tag your local tweets #elxn41bc and we’ll pull them in to Cover it Live.21 hours ago
Yesterday, being the day before the federal election, I ‘rehearsed’ in my twitter stream, just so as to be ready for later today. Below is the result. Note that the most final, or “most recent one”, is at the top, so you should read them in order from the bottom up to maintain chronological order. Also, that way the punch line will follow the set-up. Always better.
…right. Rehearsal complete. Tune in to see those gaps filled in with actual names and quotes. The fun starts at 7:00pm Pac. #elxn41bc 23 hours ago
Does anyone know where I can get a TV repaired inexpensively? #elxn41bc
The Dextr application which makes your Twitter feed into a screen-filling, one-tweet-per-screen image that you can run on a secondary screen or laptop.
Last September, I complained about how I no longer had any respect for what I felt was an egregiously arrogant attitude demonstrated by the then-Premier of British Columbia, Gordon Campbell.
BC Premier Resigns!!
This resulted, barely over two months later, in the headline on the left: “Premier’s resignation ‘emotional’ for Liberals”. It was also emotional for non–Liberals, but an entirely different and diametrically opposed one, I assure you.
Clearly I have more power than even Stephen Colbert does, and am able to topple reigning governments.
Thus, I now call the attention of the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, QCPC; Prime Minster of Her Majesty’s Dominion of Canada; leader of the Conservative Party of Canada; and Member of Parliament for Calgary Southwest, that he is being called out for being ‘a big poopie head’! He may choose to ignore this, but he is urged to hie his thoughts to the fate of the previous leader to be like engaged on this blog.
I vaguely recall people suggesting that President Clinton ought was to be impeached for merely lying about getting a blow-job in the Oval Office, yet this nit-wit gets to blame the other parties for anything that pops into his head. Why, when refusing to provide simple financial information about budgetary estimates, even after being ordered to do so by a Parliamentary Committee, does he get to ignore the fact and say in the House of Commons that “the Opposition is refusing to negotiate about this budget” and not get bounced on his pointy head on the way into a holding cell?
Stephen Harper, Canadian Prime Minister, at Jan. 2010 World Economic Forum (photo, Remy Steinegger)
Plus, for a Conservative Party Leader, Mr. Harper does a terribly poor job of respecting traditions, I might add.
No matter what your political stripe, and despite your view of the policies of ‘the Harper Government’ (as he’s now decreed the ‘Government of Canada’ is to be referred), you’ll probably agree that a guy who doesn’t follow the rules of his own parliamentary system really ought to give his head a shake.
My principle concern is the seeming ease that Mr. Harper has with ignoring the truth, ignoring the need to rule in an open manner, and to follow the law of the Her Majesty’s House of Parliament.
When Mr. Harper says that a coalition isn’t an acceptable way to form a government – after attempting to form one in 2004, plus the fact that it’s perfectly fine according to the British Parliamentary system – he’s lying.
When he says he was defeated because of the budget – when the motion of non-confidence specifically referenced not just one, but the first two findings of ‘Contempt of Parliament’ for a PM in the history of the Commonwealth – he’s lying.
When he says that average Canadians don’t care about “political manœuvrings” – when, I would like to point out, this ‘average Canadian’ does care about the wording of motions made in the House of Parliament and would damned well like him to start caring about it them as well – he’s lying.
His then standing around and saying “those guys, those other political guys over there, shouldn’t get any help trying to stop my run-away train in its head-long rush to an American-style bicameral governmental structure” just pisses me right off. Here’s something the talented actor Peter New posted on Facebook a few days ago, with his comments coming first, then the newspaper article he’s reacting to just after that.
OK, so what he means here is, “my party can pay our election costs either way due to the support we get from wealthy donators, and if we scrap this subsidy we can win more elections because the other guys are all supported by poor people.” Or am I misreading it?
No, Mr. New, you are spot-on with your assessment. What in blazes does Mr. Harper think he can get away with here? Basically he’s saying “Well, we’re in power now so what you, the electorate, have to do is re-elect us with a proper majority. This way, we can ensure that those other parties will never be able to stage a meaningful campaign ever again, and I can have the ‘PM for Life’ title that God created me for.”
Lest you think that he’s not already of a mind that he’s in a position of superiority, remember that this is the guy who decided that the name of the country wasn’t as important in the Government’s identity as his own name; is of the opinion that ‘marriage’ is something only acceptable between people of opposing genders, despite the fact that ‘love’ seems to be in short supply around the World; decided last year that it was somehow wrong to make the census ‘long form’ mandatory and preserve the usefulness of the data and the money spent to gather it; and declared that there was no actual need to examine any options for new fighter-jets, beyond the asking “which one did the USA opt for?”, thus giving the country a cost currently estimated* at over $264 million for each of the 64 aircraft!
I’m fed-up with the whole lot of political leaders in the country, by the way, but will admit to being most fed-up with Harper; both as a politician as well as a man.
I yearn for those days when the leaders still directly engaged with one another. You know, the “You had an option, sir!” era? Back when we actually had leaders! You know, like Pierre Elliot Trudeau, John Diefenbaker, and even Joe Clark: people who, even if you didn’t agree with their thinking, clearly were making a decision that was based on something other than their own Sisyphean, hubris-stuffed whims.
An illuminating essay by Murray Dobbin about the retrenchment of Canada’s unique governing codes in favour of American ones can be READAND/ORDOWNLOADEDHERE. I admit I’ve not read a word of it, but seeing as the above screed of my own had resulted in me needing a lie-down, the essay of Mr. Dobbin’s would most likely require me to have a coronary by-pass.
Again I will point out to Mr. Harper that the last time I stood up for what I believe in, the result was a party leadership campaign.
ADDEDLATER: Again, thanks to Mr. New for pointing out this development: it now seems that Mr. Harper cares not for even the semblance of accountability, as the media invited to a ‘photo op’ are limited to that activity only, and that any questions of any nature are no longer welcomed.
And now, here’s Stephen Colbert’s version of the fall of the government. Because by this point we all need a laugh.
* We would know exactly what it will be, but that’s one of the things not being provided to the House of Commons [RETURN]
While not entirely confident this means I’m “Famous”, “Canada Famous” or even “CBC Famous”, the following ought to be enough to make TentativeEquinox jealous.
Jann Arden follows ME now! (click to enlarge/close)
I am now accepting the sort of monetary inducements normally offered to Monarchs, Practicing Warlocks, or Influential Bureaucrats. PLEASENOTE: Rick Mercer needs to double any amount he offers, owing to how mean he is to the nice Arden lady and her cute little dog.
Mood: accomplished Music:CBC Vancouver’s “On the Coast” (with Grant Lawrence filling in) Book: Cheri Priest’s Dreadnought (Tor; September 2010; ISBN978−0−7653−2578−5)
Ian Alexander Martin [IAM] is the Proprietor of Atomic Fez Publishing, as well as formerly being an actor and theatre director based in British Columbia, and also was Founding Editor and Publisher of the theatre magazine The Boards. [read more]
Tired of constant campaigns, Harper says he’ll scrap per-vote subsidy
Ian Alexander Martin [
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