Mayor Watson: Where are my Timbits?

City Council's swearing-in ceremony was on the evening of December 1, 2010, held at Shenkman Arts Centre in Orléans. Much ado was made about Jim Watson's decision not to have it catered, but instead to get Tim Horton's to provide free snacks.

Since it wasn't open to the public, I made sure to take lots of photos. Here are some highlights of the night:

My one time going to the suburbs and our car got into a fender bender. Remarkably, the car that hit us from behind in stop-and-go traffic had two occupants. A rare suburban non-SOV.

Shenkman isn't that bad a place, once you get there and inside.

As I took a seat, I thought I passed our not-to-be-named former mayor. Thankfully it was just a decoy.

Sally Robinson on the piano accompanying the warm-up choir.

Look, two guys with turbans! The crowd is really representative of Ottawa's vibrant multicultural fabric! Just kidding, it was mostly white guys.

Ever wondered what it would be like for a perky, hyper children's entertainer like Marie Soleil to MC an inauguration ceremony? Neither did I, but we all found out anyway.

Singing cop was hella loud. Kudos for holding that last note and all, but it hurt my ears.

Great speech by Algonquin chief. "Welcome to our territory. We'll talk."

The official mayor's robe.

Philistines in the audience laughed at the soldier's ceremonial stomping as he delivered the Mayor's chain of office. (Seen here stomping after the about-face to exit.)

Councillors sworn in all at once. Four oaths total instead of 48 (two in each language).

Egli is pronounced Keith Egg-lye (as the MC pronounced it), not Egg-lee as I'd have guessed. Didn't get a chance to ask Hubley if MC's "Hubely" was correct. [Edit: it was, as time and the commenter below confirm.]

Couldn't photograph Doug Thompson. Reflection of his white hair oversaturated every attempt.

Musical Interlude with French folk singers/dancers dragging out their set with three (albeit catchy) songs. Rick Chiarelli shows his only sign of interest the whole night; otherwise was pouty.

Jim Watson is crazy mad about Katie Holmes. No, wait. He's angry. No, I think it's just the long exposure.

New trick: Point & Shoot camera + Tripod + Binoculars = half-decent telephoto shots.

See what I mean? Pouty. And this was when everybody was supposed to be singing along to "this little light of mine." Diane and Keith have the spirit.

Jan Harder's shoes were the talk of the evening.

David Chernushenko, Maria McRae, Katherine Hobbs applauding. Peter Clark slouched the whole night, blocking any decent photos of Diane Holmes.

Congratulations, class of 2010. Katherine Hobbs salutes you. Or she's saluting the lighting techs. Ironically, of course.

The refreshment table, provided by Tim Horton's. Those flat discs, by the way, are NOT timbits. I am disappointed that Jim Watson didn't live up to this promise. Aside from coffee, everything else was sugar-based. Sorry, diabetics!

Shenkman centre has a nifty art exhibit of metal fish made of tuna can lids (and similar materials). Tempting to add the treasure label to this post.

To be honest, this actually worked better as a venue than City Hall would have. City Hall isn't big enough for this many people, and these folks will be spending enough time there. As for the catering cut, I'm not a wine-and-cheese guy, but this was pretty chintzy. Note to visiting heads-of-state: Canada's Capital is B.Y.O.B.

Getting Better

I'm continually surprised by Dell.

I purchased a Dell Vostro laptop under the Small Business section of their website a couple years ago, and it's my main machine. I bought it under the Small Business section because you could (and still can) get it with Windows XP installed, and the Vostro because it was cheap, and it was advertised as a machine that does not have all sorts of junk programs pre-installed (which, for the most part was as advertised).

Since buying it, while I've had some troubles (partly because I keep it in my bike bag), which originally made me think not well of Dell.

But in almost every case, I've been able to solve--or at least diagnose--the problem. Instead of hiding behind liability bullshit like Apple does--threatening to cut off your warranty if you try to service it yourself, and designing machines to make it nearly impossible to open up--Dell publishes step-by-step instructions for taking apart your machine. And they'll also sell you parts.

When my laptop was still under warranty, I had sent it in and they swapped out the hard drive because mine was no longer working (I had been able to salvage the data), all without any cost to me.

Non-fatal laptop crash

A few months back, my laptop crashed--as in, I had been balancing it on a glass of water on the kitchen table, and it fell and literally crashed on the ground. It kept working (the Colbert Report video I was streaming didn't stop as the laptop laid in the small pool of water, even), but the hinge on the top broke.

I searched the support manuals that came with my laptop and found a phone number for "Hardware Warranty Support". This was at 9pm, and my laptop was a good couple of years out of warranty. Nevertheless, I spoke with a human, and even though my laptop was out of warranty, he found me the part I'd need, how much it would cost, and whom to phone in the morning to order it. (I ended up having to make a few phone calls and get forwarded along a few times, but each step along the way they told me the phone number they were forwarding me to in case I got disconnected)

Eventually, I spoke with Juan, who sold me the hinge I needed for $10 or so plus $15 shipping. I also picked up a new keyboard for fifty or so bucks, since mine was acting up a bit and if it konked I'd be S.O.L.

To my surprise, the hinge that came was not only compatible with my laptop (which I'd expect), but they had noticeably improved on the design! New hinge at left, old hinge (broken) at right.

This latest time, I bought a new power cable (with a 6' extension so I don't trip on it any more at the office) and speakers. At some point in an earlier repair, there was something wrong with the left speaker, or maybe I didn't realize what it was and, well either way I made it worse.

The pair of $50 or so internal speakers arrived yesterday, and I installed them tonight. I had been worried that the problem might actually be related to the sound jack and that I had wasted my money on the new speakers.

So, for the moment of truth, I chose an album that I knew I would notice if the speakers were still imbalanced: Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which I had ripped it from my original cassette and saved both Mono and Stereo copies in Audacity. And it just so happened that the first song that played was "Getting Better".

Sure enough, music is coming out of both speakers nice and clearly.

It now costs around $150 to get a new Dell with Windows XP instead of whatever they're selling now (and I might actually give in and switch to Windows 7), but I think my next lappy will be another Dell.

- RG>

Rare kudos to the "fucking" Citizen

While I rarely praise the Ottawa Citizen (its fawning over the city's latest Mess Transit plan leaves much to be desired), I must admit that I was impressed when I saw Glen McGregor's article "Aide okay with her dismissal", discussing the dismissal of a Conservative MP's aide after she purchased tickets in the name of the MP's office for a Canadian indie film "Young People Fucking".

The praise goes to the Citizen for not censoring the F-word, as the CBC sheepishly did in their article, "Tory MP's assistant fired over controversial movie tickets".

Furthermore, CBC's article, "Aboriginal protesters freed from jail by Ontario court ruling", abbreviates one of the First Nation's names to "KI" (made further ambiguous by their choice of sans-serif font), where the Citizen (which also prints on paper) has the courtesy to print out "Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug" before referring to the abbreviated form in "Sharbot Lake protesters released from jail".

This of course, is merely a comparison of terminology. I appreciate the CBC's commenting feature, despite the racist, ignorant, egocentric hicks it attracts. If only my browser were compatible with its login feature, I'd show that bluenoser_85 a piece of my--more logical--mind. Where he suggests "if you break the law you should be punished. Plain and simple", I would recommend a law that makes commenting on the CBC website by users named "bluenoser_85" a crime punishable by a 6 month sentence. It's easy for me to obey that law, but if he breaks it he should be punished. "Plain and simple."

Sigh. Ignorami.

- RG>

City's nifty online map system

A few weeks ago, I attended the first lesson of a Planning Primer mini-course that is offered by the City of Ottawa to help citizens become more aware of some of the inner workings of City Hall. While I am a City Hall junkie, I tend to pay more attention to transportation issues than planning and zoning ones, so I had almost no understanding of such matters. I found the course was quite informative and gave a good overview of a lot of topics.

But perhaps the most interesting thing they showed us was merely an aside. It's a new online mapping tool that you can use to compare a variety of municipal overlays. (If the expression "comparing municipal overlays" doesn't get your geek on, you might want to stop reading now.)

To get to the map, go to Ottawa.ca and click on "Maps" on the left, which takes you here. Then click on "eMap". It will take you through a bunch of screens and possibly install a program on your computer, but eventually you'll be brought to the eMap screen. You'll be welcomed by the logo for Autodesk MapGuide, so you'll know whom to curse if the eMap software crashes your browser, as it did for me a couple times.

(click on images for larger screenshots)

So we're brought to a page with a toolbar at the top, a search bar at the left, a layer-selecting feature to its right, and a map of the City of Ottawa on the right side of the screen:


As we zoom in, we get more detail on the roads...


When we zoom in further and click on the "2008 Draft Comprehensive Zoning By-Law" layer, it brings up a bunch of new information. Individual properties are outlined. Bold red lines outline areas with the same zoning. In this particular zoom, heritage areas are shaded in, and not shown are greenbelt and flood plain areas.


The mess of black text is the zoning. Downtown, zoning areas are pretty small, but out in the 'burbs, you can get hectares of the same zoning. In this shot, my cursor is hovering over a property with zoning "R4T[479]". According to my notes from the Planning Primer seminar, the "R" means "Residential" (okay, that one's easy), the 4 means it's the 4th level of density, and the "T" refers to specific zoning provisions (starting at "A", then "B", etc.). The "[479]" refers to specific site exemptions, and according to this page, exemption 479 means it's a multiple use dwelling unit, with provisions for a "rooming house and rooming house, converted limited to 50% of gross floor area of building."

At this point, I tried adding the cycling routes overlay without taking off the zoning overlay, and my browser crashed. But our intrepid blogger sprunges on.

We can zoom in even closer and get to individual properties. This one had an interesting enough shape. You can select the arrow button in the toolbar and click on the site number (alternately, click elsewhere in the zone to select the whole zone to, I assume, get information about that area's zoning).

When you right-click and select "Property Report", it should bring up a PDF with information on that property, including square footage, frontage, depth, ward number, councillor, and even garbage collection date.

Unfortunately, this functionality does not appear to work with my browser.

Other overlays include aerial photos from 2002 and 2005. When we select that overlay, we can see that we're looking at a townhouse development. That explains the odd lot shape.


Turning off the aerial view and turning on the "Topographic Map" overlay, it brings up a bunch more information. In addition to topographic maps, it also shows the outlines of the individual buildings on each site. In retrospect, I should have gotten a similar screenshot of the suburbs and compared the ratio of building-size-to-lot-size to the downtown lots shown below.


Of course, I'm a cyclist, so I naturally wanted to see how it handles the cycling routes. It's a bit dry, but that's Ottawa's cycling network for you. One neat feature is that if you hover over the lines, it indicates what type of cycling facility is designated. Perhaps when the Ottawa Cycling Plan is passed this summer they can add future cycling routes to this overlay as well, such as Albert Street.


Note that NCC-owned pathways and City-owned pathways are designated by different colours (blue and green, respectively). This distinction, lovably brought to you by the City of Ottawa, combines my three favourite pastimes: cycling, politics, and bureaucracy.

(Which reminds me, my copy of Disciplined Minds arrived in the mail today! I should get off the computer and start reading!)

- RG>

Shutting down NYC, with help from the OBJ

As I mention often, I like to read small local and community papers, both for-profit and not-for-profit. The business community is no exception, with the Ottawa Business Journal and its offshoots frequently finding themselves in my stack of papers-to-read.

And I read them for gems like this edition. Meeting in the Capital, which is found alongside the Ottawa Business Journal, has an issue on conventions in Ottawa, including coverage of the upcoming construction on the new Congress Centre, with a nice representation of the pedestrian plaza on the Colonel By frontage. One particular article, "Protest THIS!" gives meeting planners tips on "how not to deal with" demonstrations, with a view to understanding the protesters.

The article relies heavily on the advice of Ken Fairchild, who is described as a "veteran in dealing with protests and demonstrations."

Fairchild recognizes that "many large organizations are invested in things that provoke controversy," and that "demonstrations are designed to attract attention." (Duh on both counts, IMO). He warns that protests might have unintended consequences; for example, unionized convention centre workers might not cross a union picket line. That would explain this clever deal with the trade union council to avoid worker strikes during the Congress Centre's construction.

Fairchild offers a few suggestions on neutralizing the threat of protesters. This includes the basic, like telling reclusive CEOs not to confront demonstrators, and the more counterintuitive, such as sending out refreshments to demonstrators to avoid provocation.

The biggest strategy Fairchild suggests is to establish a dialogue with protesters beforehand to learn what actions they plan to take, and to set up separate areas for demonstrations that keep them out of sight and out of mind of meeting attendees. That pedestrian plaza right outside the front door would make a great Free Speech Zone!


Advance notice is common for most Ottawa protests, including the one mentioned in my most-popular blog post, In Ottawa, Democracy is across the street, where I lamented the restrictions contained in a protest permit.

But not all protests have a preplanned route. As I was leaving Boushey's Fruit Market with my lunch on April 10, I saw a protest go by, chanting "So- so- so-, Solidarité!"



As you can see, there were only about 30 or 40 protesters here. What struck me was the large number of police officers. What you can't see in this picture is the seven marked and unmarked police vehicles following the group, all with their lights flashing. This included vans and armoured paddy-wagons. I was amused, as I usually am, at the ironic fact that these police vehicles were taking up more space on the road than the protesters were!

I later discovered that the protest was so thin and the police so thick because it was actually over. It had originally gone from the Human Rights monument to the Congress Centre, among other places, with no advance plans on where it would go. This last leg was apparently an encore presentation to the police station in response to one protester being unjustly arrested by the police.


The Associated Press reports on an upcoming protest in which these tips from the Ottawa Business Journal's magazine might come in handy. In response to the acquittal of the New York City police officers who shot an unarmed black man fifty times on his wedding day, Al Sharpton has vowed to shut down NYC with protests against this blatant miscarriage of justice.

Finally, a good reason to visit New York!

- RG>

A. Whitney Brown Supports the Troops

Someone pointed this out, and I thought it was most relevant. Watching this video really opened my eyes to something I had taken for granted for my entire life up to this point.

From today forward, my life will be defined as that which came before, and that which came after knowing that A. Whitney Brown supports the troops.

I mean, I thought I supported Motherhood and Apple Pie, but nothing like A. Whitney Brown supports the troops.

I'll let him tell it in his own words:



(Also see the sequel: "I support the Troops Still")

- RG>

The skinny on Parking

So I attended today's Transportation Committee meeting to discuss the surprise change in the City's parking policy.

To recap, the surprise was that the changes to the parking policy were implemented as part of the 2008 budget, with scarcely any consultation. The changes were to eliminate the free evening (after 5:30 p.m.) and weekend parking, and to increase the hourly rate from $2.50 to $3. They would also introduce metered parking to three new areas of the city (on Wellington in Hintonburg, on Beechwood, and in Old Ottawa South).

As a cyclist, I really couldn't have cared less about this decision, except that petitions sprung up everywhere to retain free night and evening parking. I was surprised at how much fire erupted from changes to parking regulations, while the annual transit fare increases never really built up any critical mass of energy. I asked myself, rhetorically, "why aren't there any petitions for free transit service on nights and weekends?"

So two weeks ago, when I learned that there would be a meeting of Transportation Committee to discuss (and possibly reconsider) this move, I immediately e-mailed the committee coordinator and asked to be put on the speaker's list. Even though this was a week before the Committee's agenda came out, I still didn't get a chance to make my delegation until after lunch.

By the start of the meeting, 40 people or groups had registered to make a five-minute delegation, and that number approached 50 toward the remainder of the meeting.

Early on, I could tell that I wasn't going to speak at least until after lunch, so I decided to leave for the morning after the second or third delegation, until lunch. Nevetheless, here are some of my observations:

THE CIRCUS

The meeting started off at around 10:10 a.m. with a fifteen-minute-or-so procedural debate.

One councillor moved a motion to suspend the rules of procedure to consider the item in question (this is because it would be a reconsideration of an earlier decision--the 2008 budget--so required a 3/4 majority to be reconsidered). But another councillor (Jacques Legendre, I believe) wanted to defer this decision until after Committee had heard from the delegations.

Legendre's reasoning for deferral was that if Committee ended up not waiving the rules of procedure, Committee wouldn't be able to hear from the delegations. Of course, if they ended up not waiving the rules of procedure, and therefore couldn't reconsider the parking decision, everybody's time would have been wasted sitting through these delegations.

The motion to defer was defeated, and the motion to reconsider was passed.

Next, City Staff (primarily Michael Flainek of the Traffic and Parking Operations branch) presented their report, which was essentially an exercise in justifying this cash-grab after the fact. (Even though I don't mind the fare raises, I still have to agree that it is a cash-grab, and that it wasn't made democratically)

I didn't pay too much attention to it, but two things caught my ear:
- Apparently, evening parking is nearing capacity (which is a good example of a problem for which fee raises would be a reasonable solution. Revenue generation is a bad example)
- Also, apparently for every 10% raise in parking fees, transit use goes up by 1-2% (I didn't write that one down, but it was along those lines.)

THE DELEGATIONS

I took note of some of the more memorable points made during delegations.

Lori Mellor, Preston Street BIA: (paraphrased)
- "We want people who commute by car to stop by on their way to and from work" (Though isn't the City's vision to discourage people commuting by car?)
- "The problem on Saturdays is attracting more customers ... many of our stores aren't open on Saturdays" (So parking fares on Saturdays is going to scare away the customers who currently don't come to your closed stores?)

Peggy Ducharme, Downtown Rideau BIA, Mr. Blatherwick, consultant hired by DRBIA: (started 13:15)
- This BIA (and the merchants it represents) is actually calling for metered parking to be added to their area. This is what metered parking is all about: discouraging staff and lingerers from parking on the street all day, and encouraging opportunities for customers to park.
- They also want to "Reclaim curbside space", by removing bus bays and taxi stands. They later elaborated that they want more flexible street use outside of peak hours.
- They also commissioned Mr. Blatherwick (didn't get his first name) to do a study on parking in the area. The study started last spring and is ongoing.
- According to this study, there is an even split of people who park less than three hours and more than three hours. 55% of customers for the area arrive by car, 14-15% by transit. 1/3 of businesses have most business on weekends, 1/3 during the week, and 1/3 spread evenly between weekends and the week.

Jasna Jennings, ByWard BIA: (13:41-14:00)
- They had 5,000 people sign their online petition. This comment was immediately followed up by a comment that "tens of thousands of people" were getting involved in this debate.
- Jasna's spirited comments elicited applause from the peanut gallery.
- Jasna commented that the estimated increase in revenues is $4.1 million, whereas the cost to implement the changes is over $6 million. Councillor Bloess's responded with a comment that one is from the Operating budget and the other from the Capital budget, and Mr. Flainek pointed out that the Pay & Display machines (one of the bigger parts of the $6M figure) typically pay themselves off after 5 years, and last 10-15 years. Nevertheless, both are being incurred in the 2008 budget. I still don't understand this.

Rev. David Crawley, St. George's Anglican Church (Metcalfe & Gloucester):
- The church issue was a popular one. Churches' big day is Sunday, and their parking parishioners may now be forced to pay for parking. This is compounded because 60% of this congregation's members are from outside the core, and therefore "must" drive.
- Later on, on CBC Radio's All In A Day, host Adrian Harewood spent a lot of time talking about the Church issue (note to self: contact these people next time I want to do an SMAP event!)
- Crawley pointed out that it's not just a Sunday issue. There are events on all nights of the week, including choir practise.

Jacques Legendre played a really dastardly trick on the Reverend. He asked, roughly, "Do you have any suggestions to remedy the situation, specifically with regard to churches?"

He didn't specify what "the situation" was. But his question assumed that the fare increase and extension of hours would be implemented, and that "the problem" is that this will harm churches. Really, "the situation" is that this shouldn't have been done in the first place, and "the problem" can be solved by reversing it.

Unfortunately, Crawley took the bait and responded based on the assumption. He said he couldn't respond purely based on the church angle, because it was a much larger issue.

Doug Casey, Charlesfort Developments: (started 14:13)
- As a developer, Casey wants more people to move downtown.
- He promoted smart growth, perhaps the only presenter to use the term. I didn't hear the term "global warming" (or its variants) once the whole time.
- He pointed out that Kent and Lyon have become extensions of the Queensway, and it's difficult to get anybody to feel at home there, or to have a pedestrian-friendly retail area on those streets

It's interesting he talks about Smart Growth though, because one of the points of Smart Growth is that you put residents and commercial areas in the same place. One of the assumptions in this whole debate is that we apparently want people to live in the suburbs and travel all the way downtown to shop. Not only that, but we want them to take their cars to do it!

If you ask me, deterring people from driving downtown could actually encourage more places to open up in the suburbs, closer to where suburbanites live. After all, suburban houses aren't going to go away.

Gerry LePage, Bank Street BIA: (started 14:23)
- As much as I hate what this guy's BIA does and lobby's council for, his speech today was awesome. For once, I actually agreed with pretty much everything he said. Gerry gets the RealGrouchy Award for Creative Grouchiness for this speech. It was loud, angry, and didn't hold back for the sake of pleasantries.
- Gerry started off by pinning this move on suburban councillors. I'm too lazy to check the votes, but I suspect he's right. (The counterargument that "suburbanites pay when they park downtown, too! Is bullshit, if you ask me)
- He also questioned the attention paid on such a meagre figure, paraphrased: "You can't make $4 million out of a $2 billion budget and all of a sudden the City will stop?" (Though I've heard similar amounts of debate over a mere $50,000)
- "This is not a parking issue, not a financial issue, but a community issue." (paraphrased)
- "Bad policy, in part or in whole, is still bad policy." (paraphrased)
- Mr. LePage sits on the City's Business Advisory Committee, and the Committee was never consulted about this, other than the general consultation on the budget. If individual businesses were notified, it was by the BIAs, not by the City.
- The $6 million expense to implement the changes is a known figure, but how do we know about the $4.1 million projected revenue? Since we don't currently charge for those times, how are we able to predict the traffic patterns? Are the traffic estimates used for the revenue estimates from weekday counts or weekend counts? (an EXCELLENT point).
- The Innes Road area (where Mr. LePage owns a pharmacy) has a higher density of retail space than downtown. At what point does a built up area warrant meters? People who shop downtown are paying a surtax to shop there.
- This last point spurred some debate with Innes Ward Councillor Rainer Bloess. Bloess pointed out that these suburban stores have their own parking, which they must pay for, and that expense must be passed on to the customer.
- Unfortunately, Mr. LePage didn't respond as I would have: First, the suburban stores have lower property tax assessments, and therefore lower taxes. Second, (downtown) stores that don't provide parking have to pay cash-in-lieu-of-parking fees to the City.

- Diane Deans had a long response to Mr. LePage's delegation. In my notes, I summarized it with "boo hoo, my feelings are hurt by your tone." Technically, councillors are only supposed to ask questions of delegations, not make points. Deans' "question" went on for a couple of minutes, and Chair McRae didn't cut her off, as she should have (and often does for urban councillors). During her question, the person next to me asked where the question was. I replied to him "It's a suburban question; it has a long commute."

LePage's point, which he iterated in response to Deans' hurt feelings, was this: He wants an equitable parking policy. What is presented here is analagous to a surtax on downtown.

When you factor in the Province's recent refusal to address the property tax inequity, I must say that I agree 100% that suburbs are getting a free ride on the backs of downtowners.

THE RESULT:

I left after LePage's consultation, but the meeting disposition (a record of what decisions were made, which is available before the formal minutes) is available on the City's website here. The minutes will be posted on this page when they are available.

I saw them this afternoon, and I laughed out loud:

a. that the 2008 rates and hours for on-street parking be adjusted so that :

i. There is no charge for Sunday parking in commercial areas of the City;

ii. Hours are reduced for on-street parking to 7:00 p.m. Monday to Saturday; and

iii. The rate for on-street parking increase to $3.25/hour beginning October 1, 2008...

So, in order to solve the problem of an unexpected rate increase from $2.50 to $3.00, they raised it to $3.25! That is so hilarious I laughed out loud.

Now, this is just the Committee's recommendation to Council. Council will still have to go through the same rigmarole, but without the delegations.

And at the end of the day, I'm a cyclist who's only paid for parking once in his entire life, and I don't really care how this ends up. So all I can really do is sit back, watch, and laugh at the hilarious hole that Council will inevitably dig deeper.

- RG>

Into the Wild

So last night, after finishing late at work, I headed to the coffeeshop to relax and to catch up on a bunch of work.

No sooner did I sit down with my tea did a friend of mine walk in and invite me to share in her stash of passes to an advance screening of a film--Into the Wild. The film started in less than an hour. Naturally, I went.

Boy did I make the right choice.

Right from the start, I could tell I'd click with this film.

It's based on a true story, starting off at the main character's college graduation, where he laments the artifice of society that has been constructed around him, and the goals that people have to achieve these empty status symbols.

He chooses to cut off all ties, and starts living a life of his own with nothing but the clothes on his back and his own two feet.

In the year or so of time the film covers, he Lives, with a capital L. That is to say, he experiences life far more deeply and truly than I fear I may ever live mine.

About halfway through, he decides that his goal is to go up into the bowels of Alaska, away from all society, living completely off the land. You know he makes it there, because the film switches between his journey in Alaska and his journey to get there.


I am in awe of this film. It reminded me to put things into perspective, to really evaluate the decisions I make as a member of society. To justify the way I live from the ground up, not based on what others have done before.

On my way home, I bumped into a friend of mine who is has been an active participant in the Canadian Friends of Burma for a few years. His committee is organizing Burma related events right now, including a film tonight at Ottawa Cinema Politica, and a demonstration tomorrow at noon on Parliament Hill.

After walking with him to where he was going, I went home, and just laid in the backyard, staring at the stars and collecting my thoughts, reflecting on what I had just seen in this film.

It reminded me that there are risks in life in everything you do. As much as you try to preserve your own existence, you can't eliminate those risks, and when you try to, you keep yourself (at least in part) from Living. You have to balance the preservation of life with the realization of life; you can never be completely in control, so don't try to be.

Now, I'll tell you to see this film, but please don't pay for it. As great a film it was, it was produced by Sony BMG, who has been part of the coalition trying to restrict artistic expression for corporate profit by buying out politicians the world over. (Well, also I don't want to look like a shill because I got a free pass to an advance screening)

- RG>