I'm Back, or How I Met My First Draft Dodger

Hey y'all. Yeah, I know it's been a while. As Gimpy wrote to me, Blogspot called, and they want their bandwidth back. The last month or so has been a doozy. Work has been pretty crazy, and my father underwent an aortic valve replacement surgery and isn't doing so well.

Anyway, I have a whole list of Canadian-related topics that I'm planning to start working through, and I'll begin with a story from last night....

Last night I went and saw local guitarist Jason Fowler, who was playing in the Acoustic Harvest series in Scarborough. Jason is the teacher of my guitar teacher and a phenomenal player and musician. At the concert, I shared a table with a couple and a friend of theirs, all of whom appeared to be in their mid to late 50s. We struck up a conversation in which I learned that the friend was American and had moved to Canada from Chicago. I asked what brought him here, and he said, "Well, it was 1968, and there was the Vietnam War and the Democratic Convention in Chicago...." Yes, my first draft dodger from the '60s!

Best of 2005

The time has come for pop-culture writers to post their best-of lists for 2005. Because he wouldn't want to deprive anyone, The Texan Canadian brings you the definitive list of his favorites from the year (in no particular order):

• Walk the Line


• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire


• Capote


• Serenity


• The 40 Year-Old Virgin


• Wedding Crashers


• King Kong


• Batman Begins


• Downfall

There you are. Take it or leave it.

Back in the 416

I'm back in Toronto for New Year's Eve. Though the weather was fine when I arrived last night, it's been snowing all day today. Snowy days always look kinda funny from my apartment, because you mainly see a lot of white:



The holidays in Texas were quite nice. My brother cooked up a serious Christmas dinner, we installed a new garage door opener for our parents, and I went to Austin for a few days to see some folks. All in all a fairly relaxing time and a welcome respite from the job.

Merry Christmas

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, and anything else. You know, I just love how someone's seasonal greeting has become such a politicized thing.... Great.

I'm currently hanging at my brother's house in Katy, Texas, for Christmas. I'll head to Austin in the middle of next week for a quick stay before heading back to the Golden Horseshoe for New Year's Eve.

A few things have happened since I last posted. We had our company holiday party at the CN Tower. It was a gorgeous night and a great party. When travelling back from Austin on my last visit (the one with the ice storm), I was on the same plane as Karl Rove and his family. Who knew Turd Blossom flew coach? And I've seen some great movies that I recommend, namely King Kong and Capote.

All in all, I'd say 2005 was probably one of the more eventful years of my life. I suppose any time you make an unplanned move to a new place, it's a pretty big deal. It certainly has been for me.

Brrr...in Austin!

So I'm hanging out in my Austin hotel room with some Canadian colleagues while there's an ice storm going on outside. Nice. It's cold as hell in Toronto, and the frigid air has followed me down here. Of course everyone is blaming it on me ;)

It was good though, for the Canadians to see that it actually does get cold here and that it isn't hot all of the time.

Breathless

One of the real downsides of living on the 36th floor is when the elevators break. That's quite a climb and not a welcome thing after a long day at work.

Thumbs Up

I saw both Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Walk the Line this weekend and highly recommend both of them.

I thought this new Harry Potter was the best of the series. The first two were okay, and I really liked Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, but I thought this one was even better. It was well-paced, beautifully filmed, and dang exciting. Lots of edge-of-your-seat moments and some pretty scary parts.

The performances in Walk the Line were both fantastic. I've never been much of a Reese Witherspoon fan, but she was awesome as June Carter. Joaquin Phoenix was very convincing as Cash, and the fact that neither of them sang before starting work on the film is simply amazing. They both sounded great. I also learned that June Carter wrote "Ring of Fire", a song you can't go to Lovejoy's in Austin without hearing at least twice from the jukebox. Did not know that.