Tag: Waterloo

The Door, Live

I’d heard good things about Kitchener’s free Blues Festival, but had never attended. This year, a free weekend combined with an appearance by Ray Manzarek, best known as the keyboardist for The Doors, prompted me to go.

Classic shot of The Doors

A few weeks earlier I’d seen Holly Cole at Waterloo’s free Jazz Festival. I couldn’t help comparing the Bluesfest experience to that. Holly Cole was the marquee event of the Jazz Fest, but although we didn’t arrive much ahead of time, entry was smooth and quick, and we had no trouble setting up with good sight lines of the stage.

Ray Manzarek on stageBy contrast, we had to line up and wait for entry to the Manzarek show (they gave everyone a wrist band), and it was basically impossible to get a good view. We had to rely on the big screen, just getting occasional peaks at the people on stage. Per a letter in The Record, this was a change from previous years, with “VIP” people (who paid, I assume?) getting access to all the good seats. At any rate, as a festival itself, it did leave me more impressed with the Jazz one.

But back to Mr. Manzarek. He wasn’t there to do a Doors nostalgia performance; he was there to perform music from his new album with partner Roy Rogers, a guitarist, forming the Manzarek-Rogers Band. They were joined on-stage by a drummer, bassist, and saxophonist.

I knew this in advance, and wasn’t sure how I’d like it, but despite not being familiar with any of the blues numbers, they were mostly enjoyable. Blues, after all, isn’t really that different from rock, and a lot of these were pretty rockin’ blues numbers. And he did throw us a couple of bones: an instrumental version of “The Crystal Ship” and encore performance of “Riders on the Storm” (both originally by The Doors, of course). Those ones naturally received the most enthusiastic reception.

Physically, Ray pretty much looks his age, I guess. He has a lot of hair, but it’s all gray, and his face is lined. But he’s certainly lost no manual dexterity, and he has a strong singing voice—actually a bit Morrison-like. (Should mention that partner Rogers was no slouch, either, on vocals and guitar.) And Manzarek is still such a hippie in the way he speaks, though, with his “hey man’s” and his basing songs on the poetry of Jack Kerouac. As the evening was winding down, he said, “But that means you get to go and get drunk, get stoned, and get laid. Now it doesn’t seem so bad that it’s ending, right?”

African Lion Safari

Good thing people sometimes visit. Otherwise you might never your home town’s tourist attractions.

So it was that, after 22 years in the region, we finally visited African Lion Safari. Turns out it’s more than just an annoying theme song. The idea of this “zoo” is that the animals roam free, while people are kept in metal cages (also known as cars). The preserve has had good success in its breeding program for a number of endangered species.

They really do have majestic lions.

Male lion

Female lions

But the most exciting big cat encounter was with the leopard cheetah, who decided to walk over to our car.

Leopard approaching

And hang out right beside it.

Leopard hanging around

The ostriches, who look like living dinosaurs, pecked at the car window, hoping for food.

Ostriches

The baboons often climb on the cars, but ours didn’t prove attractive to them.

Baboons

We discovered that giraffes aren’t overly fond of rain (that it was raining for a change was amazing in itself), as they all huddled together under a shelter.

Giraffes

Rhinos are really big. Fortunately, none of them did any car-charging, that we saw.

Rhino

Some other continents were also features, such as kangaroos of Australia.

Kangaroos

And even deer of North America.

Deer at African Lion Safari

It was fun. Definitely worth a visit, if you’ve never been.

Music as weirdly beautiful as the universe itself

Kitchener Waterloo Symphony’s performance of “Quantum: Music at the Frontier of Science” began with a warning from conductor Edwin Outwater:

Some of the music we’re about to play may drive you nuts. You may not like it.

But that’s OK.

Part of the Intersections series, this concert was meant to explore how the work being done in theoretical physics influenced classical music. It was a collaboration with KW’s Institute for Quantum Computing. It featured a narrative and some visuals giving a brief history of physics, particularly the quantum part, with additions from Outwater explaining how these had influenced the piece we were about to hear. Raymond Laflamme, Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing, also participated.

Quantum Mechanics scoreWe were eased into the whole thing with Newtonian physics, solid and elegant, as represented by the first movement of Mozart’s Symphony No. 29 in A major. Then, it was explained, delving into the realm of quantum mechanics seemed to put all that in doubt. We had particles that could be both here, and there. Elements that didn’t behave in a mathematically cohesive way. Physics theories that no longer aligned.

This uncertainty affected the artists of the times. As an example, we heard an early piece by Anton Webern, excerpt from Langsamer Satz, which was very grand and beautiful in a Wagerian way. Then a later one, in which he starts to explore dissonance—Ruhig schreitend. You wouldn’t guess it was the same composer.

More directly exploring this opposition was Charles Ives’ The Unanswered Question, in which most of the orchestra plays a beautiful melody, but it is interrupted by a trumpe, moved to the back balcony, asking questions that the woodwinds, from the side balcony, then try, but fail, to answer. It was a great piece to listen to, really; I’d like to get a recorded version of that one.

After the break we were introduced to a piece by Henry Brant, On the Nature of Things (after Lucretius). The theme at this point was composers coming to terms with, and indeed embracing, the weirdness of quantum physics. Brant’s contribution was to add another dimension to orchestral interpretation: geographic space. He was very concerned with where the musicians were located in the room. So the piece had some of the symphony in their usual locations on the stage, others were placed above, beside, and behind us.

And it does make a difference, hearing the music in “surround sound”.

Up next was a John Cage piece called the Atlas eclipticalis, which was inspired by the cosmos itself. He created the score by superimposing musical staves over the star-charts in an atlas. Brightness of the stars was translated into the size of the notes in the composition.

Finally, we came to Iannis Xenakis, who was both a scientist and a musician. He would start with mathematical equations, and convert these into stanzas. And he would assemble his pieces with the aid of a Fortran computer, lending the final result a little randomness. The resulting piece, called ST/48-1,240162—did have repeating musical themes, but they didn’t move around the symphony in the expected, “classical” way. It did have sort of computer, sci-fi feel to it. Though it went on for 11 minutes, it was not unpleasant to listen to.

So despite the warnings, it was actually a very enjoyable evening at the symphony, one that worked the brain cells in a new way.

Connect the dots, Kitchener-Waterloo

Last federal election, voters in the riding of Kitchener Waterloo received mysterious phone calls telling them, incorrectly, that their polling station had changed. Commissioner of Canada Elections William Corbett is still investigating the source of those calls, but the targets were identified Liberal voters.

A few weeks ago, voters in Irwin Cotler’s Montreal riding received phone calls on behalf of the Conservative Party of Canada telling them, incorrectly, that Cotler was planning to resign, so who would they support in a byelection.

It turns out that the firm behind the calls, Campaign Research, Inc. also did a lot of work for the Conservatives in the last election. In fact, principle partner Nick Kouvalis described his firm’s mandate thusly: “We’re in the business of getting Conservatives elected and ending Liberal careers.”

One of the Conservatives Nick Kouvalis helped elect was one Peter Braid, federal Conservative candidate for the riding of  Kitchener Waterloo. Kouvalis was Braid’s election day chair. Another member of that same firm, Aaron Lee-Wudrick, was Braid’s campaign manager. Per Wikileaks, the two have a history together: See Conservative Party strategy to take over student unions exposed.

During the last election campaign, on behalf of Peter Braid, Campaign Research Inc. spent over $19,000 on phone calls in the Kitchener-Waterloo riding. One of the highest totals in Canada.

Got it?

You know, I hear there might be a byelection soon in the riding of Kitchener Waterloo. Something about an MP resigning in disgrace?

(With much thanks to Creekside blog for helping me connect the dots: Campaign Research Con cats are out of the bag.)

UPDATE: Today in the Waterloo Region Record, a report that at least one of the calls in Kitchener Waterloo area, illegally claiming polling stations had changed was indeed from a number associated with the Conservative Party of Canada.

The curious appeal of Rock of Ages

Rock of Ages is a musical built around rock anthems of the 1980s. It had a run in Toronto, and is playing at Kitchener’s Centre in the Square this week.

But despite good notices, I’d been dragging my feet about seeing this one. I was a teenager in the 1980s, but musically, I was into the New Wave British stuff: Duran Duran, Adam Ant, Spandau Ballet, Billy Idol, U2, Culture Club, Howard Jones… The stuff in this musical? Journey, Whitesnake, REO Speedwagon, Poison… That would be the 1980s music I didn’t like. At all. The musical even includes possibly the worst rock song of all time, “We Built This City” by Starship.

Finally, though, I was lured in by a package deal involving the show + dinner at Verses. (Though note the advertising for this is deceptive; you don’t get any discount on the ticket, just on the meal.)

As the musical began, it became clear that a big part of the premise was trying to save the Los Angeles Sunset strip from being cleaned up and redeveloped. Seriously? Los Angeles? OK, I’ve never been there, but my impression, and what I’ve heard from people who have been, is that this isn’t a city that inspires great passion for preservation. The place seems like more of a necessary evil than anything else.

Still, I found I couldn’t help but be drawn in by the good-natured vibe of all the whole thing. Take, for example, the horrid “We Built this City”. This plays back as an echo from the chorus from the German developer who wants to tear everything down and start anew. “But we built this city on rock’n’roll!” It’s a short snippet, it’s performed better than the original (how could it be done worse?), and it’s funny.

And that sort of thing just keeps winning you over. It’s not taking itself seriously. One character keeps breaking the fourth wall (rather 90s, that) to comment on the play’s structure and how it plays with the musical conventions. That’s funny, and so are a lot of the other bits. A lot of the singers, particular strip club owner Mother and lead actor Drew, have fantastic voices. Only parts of the songs are performed, then you’re on to another.

And, well, not *all* the songs suck. I do have some fondness for “Hit Me with Your Best Shot”—much more comfortable here than in the original, as sung by male actor Franz, possibly the funniest character of all, and “Cum on Feel the Noize”, soundtrack to an exuberant moment at the rock club, and even “We’re Not Gonna Take It”—even though it’s used to protest the destruction of a sleazy rock club.

It’s also kind of a sexy musical, with the attractive young cast making the most of their assets. Male and female cast, I would add. (Even though I don’t really remember the 1980s as being so sex-drenched, but whatever.) And I did love the unexpected, big gay love story in the middle.

So, I clapped, I cheered, I wished I had bought tickets earlier so that I would have been in better seats. It is a pretty impressive achievement to put together such an appealing show on such an unpromising premise.

These are a few of my favorite tweets

I didn’t get Twitter for a long time. I’d go there and not really see the point. In practical terms, I didn’t really understand how anything of value could be provided in 140 characters. And there was all that talk of people just tweeting about what they had for breakfast.

Now, though, I’m addicted.

I initially signed on based on a friend’s advice to do so just to get a good Twitter-name, even if I didn’t do much with it right away. Turned out she had a point; most variations of my name and my most commonly used web pseudonyms were already in use by others. But I did find an available combination.

Twitter has a bit of learning curve to it. I started by just following a small number of people and trying to figure it out from there. I soon learned that a lot of power is in the link; sure, you can’t say that much in 140 characters, but you can link to those details. (And to photos. And to videos.)

But when I’m say addicted, it’s not to tweeting itself, which I remain a little gun-shy about. (Apparently I have tweeted 28 times in total.) In fact, I’m still not completely clear on who sees what when it comes replies, direct replies, direct messages, retweets, private message… ? All in all, it’s easier to just listen, most of the time.

Currently I follow 59 accounts, some of whom haven’t tweeted in two years, some of whom tweet so frequently, I don’t know how they stay employed.

Among my favorites are the following.

@Elizabeth May:  A lot of the politicians I follow tweet mostly dull platitudes, toeing the party line. Elizabeth May (federal leader of the Green Party, but you knew that) tweets more like a real person would. I particularly enjoy her tweets from Parliament Hill, which give insight into things that wouldn’t necessarily make the media:

I had planned to make a statement marking Remembrance Day. I am shocked the CPC has blocked my chance to speak.

They didn’t like the point I was making. 40 years 1913-1956 closure used 10x; in last 40 days, 7x

Conservatives keep limiting debate. They have the votes. Not sure why everything has to be forced thru.

Ban asbestos motion. First vote to keep asbestos trade, our PM.

John McCallum asked Tony Clement about an answer by tweet! Twitter seems to be Clement’s only forum 4 G8 $ Q’s. Baird takes all Qs in QP.

Though must say it’s not exactly improving my opinion of the Conservative Party of Canada.

@simont400000: He being Simon Townshend, the much younger brother of one Pete Townshend, and who also tours with Roger Daltrey. Been kind of fun “following” him on tour:

Great show in Vancouver. Smokin’ crowd! Two shows left on tour and the TCT charity gig in LA. Come along… 2.5k a ticket. Rock n’ Roll!

And his random tweets are also kind of funny:

@Kimmittable: I’m a real fan of your earlier work.” I said that to Joni Mitchell once and she told me to Fuck off. True!

And if you’re wondering what it’s like to not be famous yourself (though he is himself quite a talented composer and musician), but hanging with the very famous:

Getting home from tour is strange… no daily sheet, no room service, no living from suitcase or doing laundry – no gigs. Not being a pop star

@dizzyfeet: This being the moniker of Nigel Lithgow, producer of American Idol and judge on So You Think You Can Dance. It’s in the latter capacity that I’m interested, but I don’t follow anyone else connected with that show. Nigel’s feed is just hilarious as he so frequently engages in public battles with those who reply to this tweets. There’s a whole “Moron” meme running through his feed that you’d have to read back on to completely understand.

RT @Clamanity: @izzyfeet Emmy voters are morons. [I KNOW. I’VE BEEN HANDING OUT #MORON NUMBERS ALL NIGHT. HA, HA!]

He’s also satisfyingly blunt (not mean) in posting his opinion. He’s recently been listed on “Recommend people to follow on Twitter”, so I’m not the only one to notice the fun to be had here. His response:

Welcome to all my new followers. Thank you#NewYorkPost I felt truly proud. Bring on the#Morons.

Of course!

@karenscian: Who? Right! She makes Simon Townshend seem famous. She’s my city councillor. Who has actually gotten in trouble for tweeting during council meetings.

But her feed covers a great deal more than the goings-on at Waterloo City Hall. She comments on Waterloo news in general, federal and provincial politics, food, family… An eclectic mix that very often seems to jibe with my own interests.

And I’ll leave the last tweet to her.

Oh Twitter, you are such a procrastination-enabler.

Worth the gamble

At our last dinner at Verses, several of us agreed that while Sole restaurant had many fine qualities, consistently good-quality food wasn’t one of them. You could get a pretty good meal there. Or you get a pretty mediocre. It was a bit of a crap shoot.

But, anytime I’ve been there for a special wine-food pairing dinner, they’ve always done an excellent job. So I was willing to try their September local food special, which is as follows:

“Sledgers” Organic Micro Greens
… hemp seed and lemon vinaigrette, fresh peaches, “Pingue” natural prosciutto

2009 Semi Dry Riesling 3 oz

Jumbo Scallop
… beet marinated, sweet pea and mint puree, pancetta cup

2010 Unoaked Chardonnay 3 oz

Tomato Mille Feuille
… roasted “Elmira’s Own” cherry tomatoes, “Woolwich” goat cheese, puff pastry, dill pesto

2010 Pinot Meunier 3 oz

Ontario Duck
… Roasted “Brome Lake” duck breast, zucchini fritter, heirloom carrots, red currant compote, cassis jus

2009 Elevation Cabernet 3oz

“Rosenburg” Blue Cheese
… green apple sorbet, pear chips

2008 Cabernet Ice Wine 1 oz

Five Course Preset Dinner $ 50 per person, Wine Pairing $ 30 per person

I have to say, everything was just delicious. The scallop was perfectly cooked. The mille feuille had a great texture and nice balance of flavors. The cassis jus nicely accompanied the medium-rare duck. The green apple sorbet was a highlight of the dessert.

The wines were lovely, too. I wasn’t that familiar with Vineland Estates, but now I’m interested in checking them out. The off-dry Riesling and the Pinot Meunier (wonderful nose on that one) were highlights, but they all worked well. And I’d never had Cabernet Sauvignon ice wine before.

The service was very prompt and very friendly. We are a little spoiled, though, as we were somewhat expecting a full explanation of each dish, but they don’t really do that at Solé. So we just kept asking questions:

  • What’s the sauce?
  • What are these things on the scallop?
  • Which type of wine is this?
  • What year is the wine?

And so on. Occasionally our waitress could answer, but very often she had to go running back to get the information. She always did, though.

The only other minor complaint was that the serving sizes could have been a tad smaller, for five courses. But it wasn’t crazy sized, and in the end, the only dish that I couldn’t manage all of was the duck.

So, I’d say this one is a good bet (and a good deal) at Solé. You have five more days to try it out.

Music and movie in the park

I’m late in writing about this, but what the heck.

Last Thursday, July 21, was the hottest of the summer so far, and one of the hottest on record ever. (And must say I was surprised to discover that these parts have never registered 40C before. Because, like, Sudbury has…) Nevertheless, we decided to go to an outdoor event: Music and Movies in the Park.

Sponsored by Beat Goes On and Princess Cinemas, these free events take place in Waterloo Park, supporting the food bank. The evening begins with a live band, then as the sun lowers, they put up a big screen and show a movie. We arrived armed with lawn chairs, water, hats, bug stuff (not needed), and a few snacks. Though I couldn’t resist also buying a bag of popcorn.

The band we saw were called The Slacks, and they were a quite decent cover band who did tunes by artists like Neil Young, the Grateful Dead, the Dandy Warhols, and The Who (“Drowned” from Quadrophenia). We had a pretty good viewing spot, and didn’t find the heat too bad. It was evening, albeit still 32C when we left, but the sun wasn’t beating down overhead anymore, and there was a breeze. Plus, we were just sitting there. One thing I did notice was that my feet got really warm, despite my being in little sandals. Guess the ground was just really hot.

RangoThe movie, shown on this big inflatable screen we watched them set up after the band was done, was the animated Rango, starring Johnny Depp’s voice. Interestingly for such a warm day in the middle of our drought, it all takes place in a desert town, centering around lack of water. Pet lizard Rango is thrown from his owner’s car during an accident, and has the cope with being in the real world filled with suspicious locals.

Though nothing you can’t let kids see, this particular animated movie really has more to offer adults, I think. There’s no way kids are going to get all the sly references and tributes to other films (including some of Depp’s, and adult fare like Chinatown), or the jokes about lesbians and peyote and such. But for grown-ups, it’s quite entertaining. (Jean expressed amazement that I finally took him to a movie he liked!)

Then the Saturday after, we escape to Port Stanley where, if anything, it was even hotter and stickier. But we took our time walking around, took refuge in air conditioned shops—which featured some nice paintings, photos, accessories, gourmet foods—and on the beach, including a dip in Lake Erie, which hasn’t overheated. We also enjoyed the very good local restaurants, partaking of Lake Erie fish and nicely priced Ontario wines from the banner 2007 year. Jean put some photos up at Picassa.

The hot ticket: Hitchens / Brummett debate

The Theatre of Humanities at University of Waterloo’s Hagey Hall was the place to be last night as author Christopher Hitchens debated Professor Barry Brummett on the topic of Religion as a positive force in culture. Tickets for this event, in honour of the 50th anniversary of the English department, sold out in a few days, just from the email sent to students and alumni.

About a week before, we found out that Christopher Hitchens’ health would prevent him from attending in person, so he would only be on video. Refunds were therefore offered for those who wanted it, and I’m sure that moved some people from wait list into attendance, but it remained a sold-out event. They even set up an overflow room for people to be able to watch everything on video.

Q’s Jian Ghomeshi was the host. He’s an engaging presence himself, and did a good job of trying to get clarifications of certain points made by each man, and of managing the audience questions.

Both Hitchens and Brummet were very interesting to listen to, though both Robin and I felt the deliberate effort in having to “adjust our brains” to take in the flow of big ideas coming toward us. Once engaged, though, it was pretty easy to stay with that flow. Hitchens had some very funny lines, and some quite profound ideas. He admitted that religion had been behind some great works of art, but pointed out that these were often combined with atrocities. And that there was no real knowing how religious artists of the past really were, since they were not allowed to admit to doubt. Brummet had some provocative comments of his own, like the idea that capitalist ideals may overtake religious ones as a primary cultural force, but mainly argued for rhetorical training as a means for combating religious extremism.

Fundamentally, I don’t think these two gentlemen truly disagreed with each other, so I’m not sure how much this was really a “debate”. Brummett never really said whether he was an atheist or not, but it was clear he was no big fan of organized religion. He just said that people had a tendency to want certainty, to have something greater make the decisions for them, and a need for spirituality. This could lead to dangerous religious extremism unless people learned to think critically.

Hitchens was less interested in how people could avoid the lure of giving themselves over to religious faith; only that they must. He talked about the wonders of the natural sciences, of the cosmos, advanced physics, blacks holes… How could a burning bush compete with any of that?

So mainly, we were just being intellectually entertained on both sides, though clearly Hitchens was the star attraction. He looked and sounded good, considering his state of health (stage 4 esophageal cancer). At one point Ghomeshi suggested they take two more audience questions before wrapping up, but Hitchens requested more. “I don’t really have any other plans for tonight,” he said. So the event took a good two hours in all.

There’s no way I can properly recap the evening, religion and culture both being very large areas, resulting in a wide-ranging discussion. But if you want a sense in 140 characters or less, the Twitter hash tag is #uwdebate.

LRT referendum: My two cents

I totally agree with the featured letter to the editor in the KW Record today:

Mayor should show some leadership

🙂

(And for what it’s worth, I’m in favor of moving ahead with LRT. We just can’t afford to keep building and maintaining more roads, and I think a train system will be a more effective alternative than buses.)