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  • Hang Down Your Head

    Hang Down Your Head

    Tom waits for nobody. This song has been in my brain for a few days, so I figured the best way to purge it is to share it. I’ve always been a Tom Waits fan–and I do mean since my pre-teen years, when a colleague of my father (father’s? Whatever, carry on) gave him the…

  • Marginally Maudlin McCarthyism

    Marginally Maudlin McCarthyism

    Nothing as exciting as communist blacklisting, I’m afraid…just this guy. If there’s one thing I enjoy more than almost anything else, it’s a good memoir, biography, or autobiography.  The more salacious the better.  Reading about the lives of famous and infamous people brings me an extreme amount of pleasure and always has; I think it…

  • I’m Writing!

    I’m Writing!

    It’s like my brain has been completely broiled by the worst season of them all.   …but the only reason I can actually sit down and type something out today is because I actually woke up to some cool, cloudy weather after being slowly roasted to death over the last several days, and so I am…

  • Bitchin’ and Beachin’: A Canada Day Harangue

    Bitchin’ and Beachin’: A Canada Day Harangue

    This Canada flag kinds of says it all about my country: a bit screwed up for now, but eventually it’ll unfold back into admirable functionality. It’s my second annual Canada Day blog entry, and I have to say, the overall energy this year is shockingly different from last year, when everyone felt pretty defeated and…

  • THE FINALE: Tap-tap-tapping on heaven’s floor (I finish what I start, I really do)

    THE FINALE: Tap-tap-tapping on heaven’s floor (I finish what I start, I really do)

    My second year of being in tap lessons. There we were. The “Tap” promotional campaign that involved–oddly enough–tap, and I had made it to the Saturday finals. My rivals were many; their talents were intimidating. I had only been slapping my shoes against hardwood for three years; they had been doing this since they were…

  • Tap-tap-tapping on heaven’s floor

    Tap-tap-tapping on heaven’s floor

    Yes. That is me after winning a musical theatre award for some number called “Vaudeville.” I was about eleven here. This year of our antichrist, 2024–one of the most challenging but transformative epochs to date–marks the 45th anniversary of Coquitlam Centre.  What’s that, you may ask with soaring ignorance?  Why, it’s exactly what it sounds…

  • The Great Grime of Granville Strip [UPDATED ONE DAY LATER…]

    The Great Grime of Granville Strip [UPDATED ONE DAY LATER…]

    I’ve been immersing myself in all sorts of things Vancouver-related, largely because I’m stuck here.  I know, I know: there are worse places to be stuck, and no matter the myriad challenges that life can throw at you (my second cousin, a Saskatchewan boy and therefore one of the most down-to-earth people I know, listened…

  • Celebrating Trudeaustan Day

    Celebrating Trudeaustan Day

    …with my favourite song of all time, by a band that was criminally underrated and should have been massive. And yes, that’s the leader of our country in blackface. Two flawless studio albums, and they then threw in the towel because the world in the very early 90s was too fixated on hair metal (okay,…

  • Gabba Gabba Nope!

    Gabba Gabba Nope!

    The above picture was taken during the construction of my giant wall collage back when I was in teen-dream wonderland, featuring one Joey “Future Husband” Ramone.  You can see a black-and-white portrait of him towards the right, next to the HAIR poster; there’s Ramones stuff on the left concealed by the black chiffon scarf that…

  • TEENAGE LOBOTOMY

    TEENAGE LOBOTOMY

    I want to preface this by saying that this piece is full of music links, and you really need to click on all of them, even if to absorb what they are for a few seconds. The music enhances the entire 90s experience that I am writing about, and I would have been remiss in…