Hello and welcome to orangebuffalo — a group blog about nothing in particular. We are a bunch of friends spread across several time zones in Canada, writing about whatever pops into our minds.
We were all in the Mountain time zone (UTC -6) when we first started this thing, so that is what's used for all times shown here.
oh man…that’s real.
dangerous. and painful. and heartbreaking.
earthquakes.
i’ve been in two. they fully…rock your world (no puns). change you. break you. traumatise you.
both pretty major ones (7.6 and 8.2, respectively)…enough to give some post traumatic stress.
terrifying.
fear infusing.
the earth…the EARTH…isn’t supposed to move.
it’s our GROUND, our STABILITY, our…dammit, it’s the EARTH.
we walk on it. live on it. depend on it.
Haiti.
like they haven’t been damaged enough.
why is it that those that have the most need, get nailed, screwed, damaged, destroyed so very much?
the loss of life, of homes, of…safety.
give.
Give.
GIVE.
http://www.cbc.ca/haitirelief/
the media?
here’s something to give hope.
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/18/anderson-in-the-midst-of-looting-chaos/
Good Lord.
pray.
PRAY.
and then action.
move.
You know what bugs me?
People who do that “NAME is…” on their facebook status.
This is what I say to them “You are not deep or original because you are stating that you can BE during this moment.
You are not Rene Descartes and you did not look at a table and see the universe. He didn’t even do that…he just drank a whole bunch of absinthe and happened to have a good publisher (albeit it post-humously).
The other one that bothers me is the ones that go way to the other side and overdescribe everything…ie: SoAndSo is making pie and then eating it before climbing the stairs to change into sweatpants and then will pass out on the couch after eating a batch of pickles and scratching their nuts.*
You.
Are.
Boring.
If you can’t think of anything clever to write, than leave the damn thing blank. OR watch M.A.D. TV for some good lines. Gawd.
And then I punch them in their stupid face.
*or boobs. This post is not gender specific. Lame is lame.
In Other News…
Ian Clay Sewall
A dude I went to high school with and worked at Dunvegan Magical Market Gardens with has made something of himself in Hollywood.
Here’s a link to the film he’s in and co-producing…Losing You.
Um…I haven’t seen the film, but the trailor brings to mind:
Garden State” meets “Coyote Ugly” meets “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” meets “Mad Love“**.
Give it a whirl.
I’m strongly digging it.
I’d like to say we made out in teh old school, but…sigh, we didn’t. We just drove around and listened to tapes***, while commenting on the beats and randomly gossiping about our social circle, which may or may not have been directly linked to our feelings of social inadequency.
Best line in the trailor:
leans forward, leeeans fooooorrrrwardddd…“NO”
Here’s to not peaking too early!
**serious soundtrack action here…I LIVED the 90’s to this. So much so that I seriously considered changing my name to Casey.
***cassette tape culture
Alright…so.
It’s time.
It’s TIME!
It’s on our SIDE!
*insert ironic quote from “Almost Famous” here - “If you think Mick Jagger will still be out there trying to be a rock star at age fifty, then you are sadly, sadly mistaken.”
Time that we get the old blog going again (I fully intend to have another one up within the next week, and challenge y’all to do the same - seriously, your lives aren’t THAT important - it takes 8 minutes. And orangebuffalo is WAY cooler than facebook).
And time to get involved in Festive Drinks.
We’re all a bajillion miles away from each other (and by a bajillion, I include distances all the way from 4 km’s to other booming metropolis’ such as Calgary, Lethbridge, Fort Mac for Honourary Members, and the home of it all, the Great GP).
I participated in a bottle of vino this fine evening (yeah, yeah, I fell off the wagon:), and am not only marking it as the beginning of Hannukah, but Festive Drink A Rama 2009.
We may be older and less capable of grandiose amounts of alcohol, but we can still dream…and limp along:)
Get on it.
Drinks AND posting that is.
Dammit, we need to LIVE again*.
Insert trip down memory lane here - Festive Drink Occasion #1
Random, silly, over the top, and general thoughts on the matter are not only encouraged, but expected.
FESTIVE!!!!!!!!1
*cuz we all know that you don’t truly live unless it’s documented on teh internets.
Mmmkay, so…Valentines Day 2009.
I ran out of things to bitch about 2 years ago, and last year nothing went up.
I kinda thought I’d never do this again - I like to believe the angst and disillusionment concerning romance and love has been left behind in the muddled, intoxicated, ridiculous times that were my early to mid twenties. Shit though, what times they were…remember this one? And this?*
Thank god for this blog, or we’d have no way to recall the first half of this century…although that might not be such a bad thing:)
ANYWAY…why the return?
This year is seeing a strange and wonderful occurrence - 3 days that line up with perfect symmetry, a line of intriguing and somewhat coinciding themes that are like a menage a trois of superstition, romance, and vulgarity. Kinda like what would happen if you put Lindsey Lohan in a room with copious amounts of ecstasy, a pile of oysters, Britney Spears, and that dude that invented Penthouse.
And let’s add a sprinkle of Bill Clinton as well, just to make things interesting.
Martin, get your hand outta there - you can go blind you know.
Too much?
Meh.
1) Friday, February 13th, 2009 - that’s easy enough, I think we all get it - but here’s a little blurb, just for fun.
2) Saturday, February 14th, 2009 - here’s a rundown in case that whole Valentines thing has somehow illuded you due to the fact that you are:
a) male,
b) without a vagina, or
c) somehow magically immune to the blessing that is Hallmark (in which case you are a rare, one of a kind, gifted by the gods type person, and I’d like to take lessons from you if at all possible).
3) Sunday, February 15th, 2009 - “That’s What She Said” Day
I mean, come ON! Seriously?
How the hell did those 3 get lined up? It’s better than Jimi Hendrix opening for Bob Dylan opening for Led Zeppelin**.
Talk about a perfect storm.
Anyway…that’s all I got for this one. Time to get into the red wine and the stubbing of toes.
*Mike, we need to talk - where did the pictures of New Years Eve and Adam go, hmmmm?
Not having them accessible for my random blogging whims is UNACCEPTABLE!
**Please note that NEVER happened, but if it did, you’d know for sure, ‘cuz my head would explode simply due to the huge awesome factor such an occurrence would create.
Last time I watched the Juno Awards was in 2005. It was horrible — basically just mainstream media tooting its own horn in an over-commercialized self-indulgence hype-fest.
I entirely ignored the 2006 Awards. Naming Pamela Anderson as the host did not exactly inspire in me any confidence that it would be any better than 2005.
The 2007 Awards should have been called the Nelly Furtado Awards. She was both the host and the winner of practically every award (not counting the untelevised ones that are based on talent instead of sales volume). Fortunately I knew not to bother tuning in to such mediocrity thanks to the ridiculous amount of Furtado pre-show hype in the press.
Needless to say, when it came time for Juno Weekend 2008 in Calgary, I wasn’t all that interested. But I was forgetting that Calgary has something Winnipeg, Halifax and Saskatoon don’t.
CKUA Radio had enough Juno hype to draw my attention. It was a different kind of hype than normal. It was the kind of hype that only CKUA can do. The kind where they actually talk with artists on-air, live, instead of just flashing fancy graphics from their record labels. The kind that live audiences gather around even though, being radio, they can’t wave to their mom in the background. If you’re familiar with CKUA’s annual coverage of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, think smaller version of that.
Now fully engaged, I visited the Juno Awards website to read up. Here, I discovered an amazing secret. Not a real secret — just the kind that results from mainstream media shunning something they’re scared of due to its unpolished appearance.
Songwriters’ Circle is an event put on by CMPA and SOCAN meant to highlight songwriting by pulling songwriters away from their bands and amplifiers and putting them on stage with their acoustic guitars. This year, it was hosted by Joel Plaskett, who was joined at the Jack Singer Concert Hall by AlexCuba, Corb Lund, Jay Malinowski (Bedouin Soundclash), Jeremy Fisher, Serena Ryder, and Tegan Quin (Tegan and Sara). Can you say treat? It was a two-hour show, broadcast nationwide live on CBC Radio One, delayed on CBC Radio Two, and supposedly coming to cbc.ca for download. One can never have too much live music on live radio. It was so phenomenal I peed my pants.
Okay, not really, but it’s awesomeness certainly made it worthy of a good pants-peeing. When it shows up on Intarweb for downloading, you have to listen to it. Have to. MUST. Set aside two hours of time to just listen. Actually, set aside three hours — after you listen you’ll need to go for a walk because you’ll be furious that there are not more live-to-air music concerts.
Oh yeah, the Awards telecast. It didn’t suck. Some of the performances did. None of them were outstanding. The FACTOR advertisement and government horn-tooting by Canadian Heritage Minister Josée Verner and Industry Minister Jim Prentice wasn’t quite as bad as Liza Frulla’s in 2005, but most of the same rant I wrote then still applies to it. Overall, the show was a yawn. It may seem ironic that the most expensive and hyped-up part of Juno Weekend turned out to be the least appealing, but that’s what mainstream media is all about. It’s probably better in person.
Vancouver 2009 anyone?
Well, the Olympics are here, errr less than 2 years from now. Yup, the 2 year pre-anniversary has passed us by and we are left wondering what to expect.
And only 20 years ago Calgary was enjoying their Olympic festivities. Yah that’s right, you remember those Olympics you ageing bugger. And what have you accomplished huh? Got any gold medals there sport? Didn’t think so you no good waste of skin with lack of self respect and motivation resulting in a life that would optomistically score a C- in the high school grading system. Ahem, excuse me…got a little distracted there.
I believe the Olympics are great and are worthy of support. Ferry ride, transportation, lodging, food - $180. Blue, Crown Royal, Jim Beam - $320. Canadian Olympic gold in men’s and women’s hockey - Priceless.
Other than the athletic competition there are other little dirty and dark secrets, whispers in the wind if I may (some not so subtle), of social and economic issues that are influencing the overall successfulness of Vancouver 2010. I would like to throw a few of these rumours out there for discussion on their relevance to the games or their potentially huge cultural consequences.
What have we learned from Calgary ‘88 that will improve these games?
The destruction of natural habitat was not worth the construction of Olympic venues.
The money spent by the federal and provincial governments should have been spent to rectify other more pressing social issues. ie. homelessness, public education, corrections, public health, preserving ecologically important areas, etc.
The resulting construction boom will help the BC economy remain strong with a solid future.
Will the housing market prices drop after the new construction surge (expected end date 2012-2014)?
Are these mascots cute or idiotic?
So…what’s the deal?
Will “Steady Eddie” continue the 37 year rule?
Do Liberals equal a snowflake and Alberta hell?
Do we really need an election to answer the second part of the last question?
Anyway…here are some articles.
Read them, think long and deeply, then post meaningful comments.
Or you can just tell stories about Martin’s birthday weekend and how his getting older is making asses of us all. That and tequila.
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