Description 15 - The Pursuit of Happiness

A long time coming and a long time listening (almost an hour!), I explain what the deal is with me and Canada's greatest power-pop band, including some exclusive live recordings - not to mention tales of slinging drunk girls over roadies' shoulders, post-show dog-licking and pants that match someone's couch.

Here's where you go if you wanna ride the big wave and subscribe.
Here's where you go if you wanna open up the bomb bay and download directly.
(Don't know those references? Check here.)

Associated links:
Incompletely Conspicuous: The Pursuit of Happiness and the Press (yes, my site)
TPOH @ Maplemusic (buy CDs or downloads of the last two albums and Moe's solo album and book)
Buy Love Junk and When We Ruled from EMI
TPOH with The Management Trust (Jake Gold's agency)
Canadian Indies Hall of Fame
TPOH Loveslaves Yahoo Group
Actually, the first podcast about TPOH was on Zaldor's World.
jazz.fm91 (Brad's beautiful jazz station - go listen when you're done with the podcast!)
The Populars, the great opening band whose beers Kevin stole.
Off the Record on TSN

Seriously, I'm NEVER doing a show that long ever again. But I had to cram about 20 years worth of stuff in one show to get it all over with. Then when I mention one person or another later on, you can check back here and remember what I'm on about.

Renee mentions Tim Mech saving her from a night of debauchery long ago. Tim was the guitar tech for TPOH for most of the time I was going to shows, and he continues working on some of the best crews in this country when he's not working on his own very cool nasty music with Tim Mech's Peep Show - with Ron Koop, who you'll recall from Description 05 at the Monteforte show. Oh, and singing lead with Brad in Monteforte is Tam Amabile, who you hear in this episode singing on the original "I'm An Adult Now". See the tangled web?

Other great people I've met because of the Pursuits include the ones I've met on the mailing list, as we used to call it back in tha day. After a show in '95, Kris suggested I check it out (likely in the hopes I'd find a new outlet other than writing them letters). I didn't have a computer back then, but a couple months later I lived in downtown Belleville a couple doors down from the Quinte Arts Council, who had an ad hoc internet cafe of one computer, so I went over there and took my first steps into the glorious cyberspace. Once I figured out the whole listerv thing, I was part of the Loveslaves mailing list (or listslaves), a global bunch of usually nice and perpetually frustrated people (considering Moe's typical subject matter, that was appropriate) - frustrated because information or promotion of or about the band was always hard to come by. Jaap who ran The Downward Node site and Tina who led the list at the time did their best, but the band was never great at marketing themselves (the initial video aside) and no one else around them was very good at marketing them either (although that was their damn job!). That's one reason why I started my site 4 years later, after Jaap had to quit because life took over and when the band had sort of unofficially finished. I had these articles and reviews that when put together, told an interesting and sometimes maddening story of some nice folks who made amazing music but got screwed around by circumstance, bullshit and the typically Canadian lack of ability to sell one's way out of a paper bag. That series of articles forms the backbone of the site. It's a cautionary tale for young bands (especially Canadian) coming up, although today, there are many more ways to work around the path that used to be the default.

Okay, that's talking about the site out of the way as well.

Description 14 - Michael Ignatieff's First Date

Why the hell would some globally-respected writer and egghead human rights specialist run for Canadian political office? Why the hell would I read one of his speeches in a podcast? Get the answers and some wicked-sexy Danko Jones to boot.

Here's what you click if you want to subscribe for unity among all the podcasts you want downloaded automatically.

Here's what you click for downloading directly, like someone who digs decentralization.

Associated links:
Official site of Michael Ignatieff, MP (with text of the speech, so you can read along!)
Canadian Press story on the speech via canada.com
The reason the anti-torture protesters were there.
Danko Jones!! (and on myspace)
Danko's fabulous radio show The Magical World of Rock (From RocketFM, Sweden)
And the Danko track was graciously provided by the lovely people at the Podsafe Music Network

As I write this, I'm listening to an archive stream of Danko's radio show last year where he's hanging with Jay Ferguson of Sloan, and it's amazing. Jay said when Danko first told him that he'd gotten a radio show where he could play what he wanted, Jay was a bit jealous of him. Jay's radio dreams finally came true: he and his cohort Chris Murphy host a big chunk of CBC Radio 3 on Sirius Satellite Radio and very late on the weekends on CBC Radio 2 online and on plain ol' radio.

I was listening to Daily Source Code last week, and usually Adam Curry starts with some podsafe song. Usually they're okay, sometimes actually very good, sometimes they sound about 15 years old - not that there's anything wrong with that. But this time the song was REALLY good. Ungodly wicked kick-ass. And then in the middle, the guy starts talking, and I think, this sounds like Danko Jones. And I'll be damned, that's just what it was. Adam Curry said their name, and I had some kind of That Thing You Do moment: "HOLY CRAP! I KNOW WHO THEY ARE! I KNOW PEOPLE WHO KNOW THEM! THEY'RE FROM HERE! AND THEY'RE ON THE FRICKIN' DSC! COOL!"

So it'll be interesting to see what good comes of Danko going the myspace/podsafe route. My indie band friends seem to have gotten onto the myspace thing, but aside from CBC Radio 3, they haven't yet gotten their heads around putting out podsafe tracks that podcasts can go nuts on. I've seen Sianspheric on the PMN, but that's about it, though maybe I'm missing something. But EVERYBODY indie knows Danko, so if the podsafe thing does them good, it could start something.

Btw, if you don't know much about Danko Jones, you'll not know that it's weird the song asks if you kiss on the first date. It's the only aspect of the song where they're holding back.

Oh yeah. Wasn't this episode actually about Michael Ignatieff's speech? Uh...well, yeah. But I talk about that in the show for 10 bloody minutes or something, so there's nothing left to put here.

Description 13 - Partial Pussy

What happened to the Canadian Tire Guy? What was I doing under Chautauqua's Athenaeum Hotel? How do you pronounce "athenaeum" anyway? And why should I care if those people in the car see me? Featuring music from National Anthem, true confessions and objects of guidance.

This is what you use to subscribe like the Canadian Tire Guy, who would always employ new and useful technology to make life easier.

This is where you download this one podcast like the new Canadian Tire couple, who just go for what they need for the moment.

Associated links:
CTV.ca story on the Canadian Tire transition
Maclean's beats up on the Canadian Tire guy last fall
Canadian Tire Guy Fan Club
National Anthem @ myspace, and buy the records from notlame!
Athenaeum Hotel at Chautauqua
Ninjalicious obituary from Torontoist

(Update: April 6, '06: Thanks to John in Indiana for telling me that Athenaeum is pronounced "ath-a-nay-um," derived from Athena, Greek goddess of wisdom. Says John: "Athenaea were widespread as meeting places for the discussion and debate of 'great ideas'. We have one in Indianapolis and they are particularly associated with christian denominations which expressed secular attitudes with respect to governing....Like your show." Cool. Looks like the States could use a hell of a lot more Athenea. Anyway, thanks very much, John. Love how it all fits together.)

That Canadian Tire family helped me through many a holiday. It seemed just when I had to come up with something to get my parents (especially my dad) for Christmas or a birthday or something (made more difficult by them not wanting anything), there would be that guy with a cool wrench you can turn like a screwdriver for hard-to-reach places, or an air compressor the size of a lunch box to have in your trunk for emergencies, or - God help us all - that laser level thing. Frickin' brilliant.

The phrase "I ain't no Ninjalicious" was in reference to the man who was at the forefront of "urban exploration" in this town. He would sneak through old and/or abandoned buildings (or "places you’re not supposed to go") as other more plebian explorers would go through caves or caverns in search of ancient civilisations. Unlike many of those other guys, he made a point to leave as small a footprint as possible - it was about adventure and knowledge and appreciation, not acquisition of land or objects. Dude could've eaten that hotel for breakfast. Much of his legacy remains in his Infiltration site.

And holy crap - I was on Dawn and Drew 275! I've dug their show for quite a long time (in podcast years), and something came up where I considered phoning on their comment line about the use of the "C" word, but I sort of let the moment pass. But then Drew started talking about a solar eclipse of the thumb (you had to be there...), and that damn Bonnie Tyler song got stuck in my head. That did it. I changed some lyrics and phoned, and added the bit about the "C" word. A day before my comment ran, they ran some other girl singing the first line of the original song, which then made me seem not quite as original, so I figured I was too late. But then there I was in the next episode! Absolutely bizarre. So thanks, D&D, and hello to any Minions who have happened by.

Another Day Job Plug

While I'm blogging today, a heads up that you can catch a couple other examples of the day job for which the podcast is named: description, or described video, or...whatever. These shows will air on CBC, and that means they'll be streaming on VoicePrint's website everywhere in the world (click here and then click "listen now"). All times are eastern, Toronto time.

Tomorrow night (Thursday) at 8pm, the great Canadian opera Filumena will air on CBC-TV as part of the "Opening Night" show. For our description for the vision-impaired, my voice gets to say stuff like when our Italian-immigrant heroine grabs the gun from an aspiring politician, only to have him grab another one to aim at the constable that may have killed his son with whom she was having an affair. Uh, only I say it more succinctly while the stuff happens.

Then, this Sunday and Monday at 8pm each night, one of my favourite things we've ever worked on: the two-part miniseries Prairie Giant: the Tommy Douglas Story. This is about the guy who won a tv election for "The Greatest Canadian" a couple years back. And why was he voted first? Well, besides the fact George Stroumboulopoulos presented an awesome argument (as he usually does), Douglas helped make happen a lot of social policies that sort of define Canada as a country: universal health care, old age pensions, labour reforms...the list goes on and on. In fact it literally does at the end of the second night; I got to read that list, and I actually found it the most moving part of the show, and that's saying something because it's rife with moving moments. But the establishment of those social policies was the culmination of a pretty amazing story, and Michael Therriault (best known as Leo in the Toronto production of The Producers) does a remarkable job of bringing this tenacious and funny guy to life again. No matter where you're from, this is a great story, but if you're a Canadian living outside the country, you may want to check it out to remind you of where you came from.

By the way, The Tommy Douglas Story was originally supposed to air in January, but when the federal election was called, the CBC postponed it, which I and other people found veeeery suspicious. Here's a movie explaining the events and compassion that led to the establishment for the New Democratic Party. Was anyone actually nervous the NDP could've eclipsed the Tories and Grits with the story fresh in the voters' heads? The world may never know...

Description 12 - Chautauqua On Chautauqua

What is this strange yet painfully quaint place where I spent my birthday? An asylum? A cult headquarters? The model for Stars Hollow on "Gilmore Girls"? I crunch around the melting snow and try to explain my history and Canada's history with the "Institution".

This is what you use to subscribe like an a Gate Pass holder.
This is where you download directly like some visitor who sneaks in off-season like me (that's actually not a good metaphor, but whatever).

Associated links:
The official site of Chautauqua Institution
The Institution in Wikipedia
Heather's Inn
Notes on the Chautauqua Movement (with the answer to what CLSC stands for)
Buckeye Local Schools (my old school district, where, I learned from this site, still has Project Allegro, only it's called "Allegro Enrichment.")

The title is a reference to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, in which a "chautauqua" is an oral essay working through various thoughts and ideas for education and sometimes entertainment. It was sort of a 19th century podcast, now that I think of it.

In this podcast, I didn't finish my story about Project Allegro, the program that took me to Chautauqua in the first place. You'll notice listening that I didn't sound very positive about the program. It did have its merits, and I do appreciate the opportunity I was given to be exposed to some new things. I just had this nagging feeling throughout that these opportunities should have been given to kids who were having a harder time with school, including kids who lived in beat-up trailers in the country and were in the school lunch program.

Anyway, a couple weeks into it, I was riding on the school bus from Kingsville to Jefferson one morning, and it occured to me that it was summer and I was getting up to go to school just like I had during the school year. Why? Sure, it was a good program and everything, but I still had to get up to go to school and I was doing it in the middle of summer. It just felt wrong. If they really wanted to be innovative, they should have started classes at noon or 1pm so we could sleep in like kids are supposed to do in the summer. But no. So I just decided it wasn't worth it, and I quit. I wrote a very nice letter to the director of the program thanking him for the chance and the experience, but that I just wanted to enjoy my summer and pursue what I wanted to pursue on my own time without the schedules and obligations. The reaction was pretty amusing: the people running the program were very concerned that I'd quit because of something that had gone wrong there - perhaps I'd been bullied or abused somehow. Was I okay? :-) I had to get my parents to write a letter saying no, she's just fine, there was no ill treatment, she just doesn't want to have to go to school in the summer.

That's something that sort of annoyed me when I was a kid. Adults, especially those at schools in positions of authority, didn't really give me much credit for thinking and making my own decisions based on my logic and feelings. They knew I was "smart," but didn't really consider what that meant beyond scores and needing to be challenged according to their well-studied ideas of what challenges a smart kid. There's a little human being behind that test score with a network of thought and gut processes that never shuts off (though sometimes wishes it would). Then again, I look at kids the age I was then, and I probably don't give them much credit either. Then again again, one day last summer when I was hanging with Dubber and Spoons, I was lucky enough to also hang out a little with Dubber's son Jake, who is a little older than I was then, but is very bright without being annoying (though that may have changed since he's reached teenage). I found myself talking to him like talking to a normal person, as I'd wished to be talked to back in tha day, and he gave good and often better than he got. So maybe it just depends on the kid...which maybe was my point about the whole Allegro thing.

Description 11 - Riding

The last word (finally!) on the Canadian federal election - could that word be "disapprobation" or "glinty-eyed"? - as the iRiver goes behind the cardboard screen for the voting process. Featuring music by Talladega and a fat guy wearing a blue-and-white wig, and how the new government is related to what's in Scott Feschuk's pants.

This is where you click to subscribe like a forward-thinking NDP'er.
This is where you click to download like a want-it-now Conservative.

Associated links:
Wikipedia on the 2006 Canadian Federal Election
Searching for Scott Feschuk in Macleans (Guess the boy will land on his feet...)
[Update, March 23: He's gone into freelance speechwriting! Hire the guy, will ya? And tell him I sent you, so he'll be reeeeally appreciative...oh never mind. Hire him anyway.]
Talladega @ myspace
Olivia Chow and the NDP

Not surprising that my podcast involving politics has the most wind ever. (rimshot!)

If you aren't from Canada or you don't know anything about parliamentary elections, don't worry about this episode going over your head. It's a painfully basic and partially incorrect primer for anyone.

In the time between the election and posting this podcast, Stephen Harper got his back up with the U.S. about who controls what in the Arctic, which was a pleasant surprise. So who knows?

I wasn't always anti-Conservative, mind you. Back in '84 when I was still in high school in Ohio, I watched the Progressive Conservative Convention on the CBC and was fascinated by Brian Mulroney. It was probably that deep, sweet voice of his at the time, I don't know, but I thought his election held such promise. Crazy teenager I was. Then the U.S. free trade thing happened, and I wised up. Somewhere, I'm sure there are Conservatives/Reformers/Alliancers who do not make me want to tell them to just move down south where they really want to be and see what it's really like. Maybe I lead too sheltered a life to come across them.

While I'm not a card-carrying NDP'er, I have two nice stories about those who lead them.

One isn't really a story: my very first 6 Ross party, there I was walking down Ross Street, not sure what I was getting into, and I approached that old house at about midnight. Rock seeping from the woodwork, a crowd smoking on the porch. When I reached that porch, there was Olivia Chow striding out of the house, smiling. And I thought, "wow, Olivia Chow was here; this could be good."

The other story involves her husband Jack Layton, also quite the personage in this town for a while, and lately the leader of the New Democratic Party. Of course, I'd see him around plenty of times over the years, and it was no surprise to see him front and centre in the first balcony at the Massey Hall CBC Rally featured in Description 6. After the show, everyone packed into the basement bar. The Canadian luminaries were dizzying to me. With the preceding show and whatever dumb anbient stuff I got later, I'd used up all the room on my iRiver. Then I happened to find myself in the same group of chatters as Jack Layton. Being the Torontonian I was, I was cool and didn't really say much of anything, but offered a thing or two. I think I may have mentioned the oddity of that night being the first time I'd ever been inside Massey Hall after years of living in Toronto. Layton asked me if I knew about the long history the venue had had with union events like that night's event (though I was more there to support the people than the union of which they were a part). I hadn't, so he gave me an brief and entertaining lecture about that history, going back to the turn of the last century, not long after Massey Hall had been founded. Our group found ourselves one of the last to leave, and the venue workers said their gracious goodbyes and locked the doors behind us as we left. We kept chatting about the importance of the CBC and the city and whatnot walking out on Gould and approaching Yonge. This is where I can't remember whether he piled in with some co-workers into a minivan, or whether he rode his bicycle home. Either one is pretty good. But I remember going on my way thinking what a nice, smart guy he was, and that I hadn't felt like I had been chatting with the leader of a major political party. No flyer that gets slipped under my door, and no tv mudslinging, will ever do that.

Me on CMHP, and an Election Message

Yeah, I'm here again already. Like I sort of mentioned earlier, I was at another of those podcaster meetups last month, which was very enjoyable, and inevitably there was some guy walking around with a snazzy recorder asking questions and taping us. Actually, there were at least two - another was a writer for The Star, probably that ID section. ANYWAY. This one guy Mark chatted with me for a while about my show and podcasting and whatever, and I blathered my head off. Well, Mark put that chat and others with other podcasters on his own podcast, called CMHP Radio. (Ah, radio - will we never let you go?) He sent me a gmail long ago that he'd put my stuff up, but...uh...I'd forgotten the password of my description gmail and couldn't get in it, then since I have my regular gmail and my life has been nuts I sort of let it go until I realised, "Man, I've got that other address on the blog" and finally got into it. So let me be the last to say thanks, Mark.

I've heard it, and fortunately, it did not make me curl up under my desk (plenty of other things to make that happen). I may go so far as to say that in that interview, I am only half as loud and annoying as I was with Dubber and Spoons. So if you're curious about what I'm actually trying to accomplish with this little podcast (because heaven knows I was curious), then head over there and listen to what Mark calls Isr4. Then listen to the more useful interviews with the other people who were at that meetup.

The next podcast is going to be recorded around the time of the federal election here next Monday, so much of what I'm going to say on it will be pretty much after the fact. So this is what I'll say now: PLEASE GO VOTE! PAY SOME FRICKIN' ATTENTION! I'm of the camp who thinks you should vote for whomever will help your riding be a better place to live (Americans, I'll explain ridings later.), because the Prime Minister's going to screw up one way or another whoever he/she is. However, I must add that I'm also of the camp that is scared of Stephen Harper. Well, "scared" is a strong word, but we've learned in the US that just because a guy isn't threatening in a competent way, that doesn't mean he can't do damage worth your fear. Harper should go down where I come from, stay there and leave us alone. But regardless, all Canadians MUST VOTE. Oh, and though I'm not a big Liberal backer, if you haven't checked out Scott Feschuk's Blackberry Blog yet, you have one more week to go and laugh like you're stoned. Even if you're not. Thank you.

Description 10 - Boxing Day in the USA

Celebrating a great Canadian holiday where no one knows what it is, in my hometown. Ancient sounds, torn-down wonderlands and candy bars gone wrong, recorded with the help of the root beer glass mic stand. With cameos by two horses and the University of Pittsburgh Marching Band.

This is where you subscribe for long-term downloading convenience.
This is where you go if you think long-term is for wusses.

Associated links:
Boxing Day at Wikipedia (finally, the real answer...maybe)
Miniature Pinscher
Kraynak's
Quaker Steak and Lube
Cadbury's Crunchie Bar
Pitt Talking Bottle Opener!

See, I told you I'd come up with a damn show. :-)

Thanks to Ron, Julie and Gord for putting up with me and my root beer mic stand. Julie thought there'd be nothing worth describing at her place for a podcast - while she had all the new presents, baking, work-type stuff (piles of shirts and associated tour merch, which is her stock and trade), cats indoors and out, and a wall shelf full of model horses. Of course, we didn't cover any of this because we got all fascinated with the Crunchie bars. Perhaps another day.

Another month, huh?

Today I saw Tod Maffin's announcement that he's snazzed up and relaunched Canada Podcasts.ca, so I went over there to see if what was up with my listing. [To review, when I first submitted it, the guys listed the podcast as "Valerie In Toronto" without the "Description" part, I noted this to Ryan at Sounds Sustainable at a meetup, and he sorted it with the editors at the time, although it stayed at the bottom of the alphabetical Ontario list. Tod took over again, and the listing lost its "Description" again.] Sure enough, the listing was the same. But then I noticed that I hadn't updated my feed link to feedburner, for which I can't blame any of those guys. So I was about to change my listing, then I saw the bit about how you have to have at least two episodes up and the most recent has to have been put up in the last 30 days.

Whoops.

I have the same lame-ass excuses I had last time, so for a change of pace, here's some of the stuff I have planned for when I actually get new episodes together.

Speaking of Ryan, at the last meetup, I made fun of him for having hours and hours of material recorded but no new shows for a long while. And so now...I have hours of material recorded but no new shows for a long while. (I'll take my crow with peanut sauce, thank you.)

The first show I'll cobble together (and I started, honest - it's on my work computer) is about spending Boxing Day back home in Ohio, a place that of course does not have Boxing Day, at least not in the official paid-holiday actual-term-for-it sense. It'll have my mom (who's called it "packing day") using an ancient contraption to get her bowling league paperwork done and my best American friends testing out a great Canadian candy bar gone horribly wrong.

Then there's the stuff I recorded in the days following back up here during something I called (and the London Free Press stole the term!) Reunion Tour Week, where the nice people I do a website about, The Pursuit of Happiness, promote their new best-of CD by playing five shows in six days for the first time in eons. I try to explain how I got in this wierd situation, hang out post-show in Waterloo, and do a soundseeing tour of Union Station in Toronto before embarking on a train to the London (ON) New Year's Eve show. (A new excuse for not getting any new episodes out is that I had to finish a photo gallery about the week for the website. See? Here's proof!)

But probably before that TPOH ep., I'll do something about the federal election, which is creeping up fast. As I type this, the latest leaders debate is happening, and I've made a point to ignore it. Not that I'm not interested - I've voted in every election here since they let me - but that debate's not going to tell me anything I don't know. I know who I'm going to vote for, and I know it may not have much effect on who becomes Prime Minister. (For you non-parliamentary countries, I'll try to explain all that when I do this episode.) In the meantime, though, I'd like to direct your attention to an awesome blog that involves the election campaign. One of my favourite smart-ass column writers ever, Scott Feschuk, has been a speechwriter for current PM Paul Martin for the last while, and he's been doing a blog on his Blackberry while he's on the road with his boss and their merry band of Liberals (if there's such a thing). Why it's on the official Liberal Party site I don't know, because it's not very deep on the issues, unless your idea of "the issues" are pranks in the back of the bus, the Marmaduke comic, eating copious amounts of ham and matching wits with the "Conservative Spin-O-Matic 3000 Blogging Supercomputer and Water-Pik." Regardless of your country or political system, this thing is freaking hilarious. So please click here and go read it, and while you catch up on Blog Boy's antics, I'll see if I can get that Boxing Day thing hammered out. Uh, after I sleep. And go to work and have to do all kinds of stuff there's no time for. And sleep.

Description 09 - Pillow Fight Flash Mob!

A little bit of everything as I lose my direction and regain it at the same time. Sort of. Chart Magazine's Grist 13 and Shitty 7, music from Memory Bank, and me in the middle of Dundas Square yelping in about 40 different ways as I learn how weak my arm muscles are.

This must be the place to subscribe.
This must be the place to download when patience just ain't your thang.

Associated links:
ChartAttack!
Don Lennon
The Fight Network
A John Waters Christmas
Memory Bank @ myspace
Memory Bank not at myspace
newmindspace (who came up with this pillow fight flash mob and other great stuff)
NOW Magazine on gun violence in Toronto
The Santa Claus Parade (actually, this site scares me a little)

Now in the glory of 44.1 kHz and 96kbps, because God knows you need the best audio quality possible to hear me go "AH!" "ACK!" "OW!" "YIPE!" for about 5 or 10 minutes in the middle of the title event.

The thing I was going to write for this episode that I didn't was about crime in Toronto, inspired by the anti-gun event in Dundas Square the day of the flash mob. Here's the thumbnail: We're now up to 50 gun-related deaths this year, which has been talked about quite a bit. Many people where I come from can look at that stat and shrug. Well, you know Toronto... "it's so safe, it's so clean..." Relatively, it still is. The clean part has started to go slack, and I enjoy blaming that on less federal money for cities or something. But back in university, I lived in Rexdale and had a boyfriend in Jane/Finch (not far from York U.), and before I moved to the Annex, I lived a few years between Moss Park and Regent Park, and you didn't just go traipsing around at all hours alone. You don't really do that anywhere, but I felt especially alert in those neighbourhoods. It wasn't because they were "those neighbourhoods," but because I lived there and I saw what was going on and it made me nervous. So I paid attention and acted a bit psycho when I felt anyone following me (I'm pretty good at that, as you might have figured...) Of course, that isn't fair - we should always be alert in every neighbourhood. My old lame-ass car got broken into 3 times in my old neighbourhood (looking for anything to hock for crack money), but in this neighbourhood, it's still been broken into once. This is a city - bad things happen. Everyone likes to blame someone, and I enjoy blaming the Tories' cuts on education back in the day. But "those neighbourhoods" had and have some great programs; I think communities have become alert to taking control of their futures, and momentum is changing.

I'm sure I would've put some funny and poetic stuff in there too, but again, I didn't have time or the proper focus of mind. People get rushed or lazy or desperate, and that's one reason bad things happen, I guess. But sometimes you find yourself able to deal with it, perhaps even by smacking kids 20 years younger than you with pillows that cost more than they've earned in a week. And one of them finds your purse and reminds you just what city you live in.