Go Esks Go!
I have to miss the Grey Cup since I am off to the coal mine for another set of nightshifts. Bleh. But I will be sure to sing my rousing version of the Eskimos Fight Song while I drive to Hinton. All together now:

"We're gonna fight fight fight fight Eskimos!
We're gonna march right down to Mexico!
And when all the winning's done
We're uh, you know . . . hey we won!"

My call for the score: 34-28 Esks.

Yay and congratulations to the Gotthammers, who welcomed a Littlehammer into the world the other day! I am sure the troll smiths of Niflheim are busy fashioning a mighty, though small, warhammer for him right this minute.

Here is an excerpt from a poem written in the 1940s by Delmore Schwartz called, "The Kingdom of Poetry":

For it is true that poetry invented the unicorn, the centaur and the phoenix.
Hence it is true that poetry is an everlasting Ark,
An omnibus containing, bearing and begetting all the mind's animals.
Whence it is that poetry gave and gives tongue to forgiveness
Therefore a history of poetry would be a history of joy, and a history
of the mystery of love
For poetry provides spontaneously, abundantly and freely
The petnames and the diminutives which love requires and without
which the mystery of love cannot be mastered.

Pretty cool, eh? What do you think? He also wrote one called "The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me", but it's not really about bears, it is really about his own body.

We saw a robot dinosaur at the store yesterday. Cool, eh? Some sort of carnosaur- likely the mighty Rex. It was walking and roaring and chomping its teeth. Little children were playing with it. Much as I love robots, and dinosaurs, I'm not sure if it's wise to allow young kids to have one. If I have learned anything from science fiction, it is never to trust robot dinosaurs- it's only a matter of time before they run amok. Luckily this one was very small.
Anyways, all you parents out there, my advice to you is this: if you must buy this ticking timebomb for your toddler this Christmas, at least buy this book for yourself while you are at it. Please.

Little Green Jellybean hit 300 000 kms the other day! You can send presents c/o me. LGJ really likes cookies. I missed when we hit 200 000 a few years ago because I was driving home from work, venting about a fight I'd had that night with a coworker to my shop steward who happened to be riding with me. Strangely, we hit the 300 mark exactly when we arrived at work, and I spent a part of that shift venting to my shop steward, who is the same guy I was venting about 100 000 kms ago. The vicissitudes of time, in chunks of a hundred thousand kilometers. I'm sure there are deep lessons to be learned here. Like, make sure to send cookies to cars who've hit 300 000 kms.

So the Poo-playlist is as follows- all the songs which got more than one votes. Which is harder than you think since many songs got negative votes! Thanks for playing!
Milla (Jovovich)- In A Glade 4 votes
Marilyn Manson: The Nobodies 3 votes
Seven Devil Fix- The Burden 2 votes
Andy Stochansky: 22 Steps 2 votes
Send The Pain Below by Chevelle 2 votes
Death Cab for Cutie with Soul Meets Body 2 votes

(Updated often to reflect votes. Use the droppings to nominate new songs and cast + or - votes)
Okay, already there's some good suggestions for the Poo-playlist. Remember, the whole point is to generate (good-natured, clean) debate and ultimately a kickass ten song playlist. Feel free to keep suggestions coming, as well as vote for and against those already put forward. So far, Cass suggests: David Usher- Soldiering
notwist- Solitaire
Radiohead- Everything In Its Right Place
gabrielle suggests: nsync- Sailing with 1-2=-1 votes
Milla (Jovovich)- In A Glade which has 4 votes so far
Emiliana Torini- To Be Free
Seven Devil Fix- The Burden 2 votes
Marilyn Manson: The Nobodies 3 votes
And I suggested: Seven Devil Fix- Tremendum
Tragically Hip: Gus, the Polar Bear From Central Park
Blink-182- Asthenia with 1-1=0
Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush- Don't Give Up
My wife Michelle nominates Andy Stochansky: 22 Steps
Erika says Sigur Ros should be on there with Gosloli, but it gets 2-2=0 votes!
and Death Cab for Cutie with Soul Meets Body
And a classical classic, In the Hall of the Mountain King by Edvard Grieg
Alissa says What Became of the Likely Lads? by The Libertines is good. but Cass doesn't! 1-1=0 votes

The other night at work I had to drive a guy into town since he was sick, so I took advantage of the opportunity to listen to some radio that doesn't suck, which, in Hinton, means the CBC. There was a cool program on called the National Playlist. The premise is basically, what if your iPod only had ten songs and you could only change them once a week? What ten songs out of the gazillions out there would you choose? So of course that generates all kinds of debate. Anyways, I liked that idea and thought I would try a Pooing in the Woods Playlist. The poo-playlist, if you will. I suggest Gus, the Polar Bear from Central Park, by the Tragically Hip- I already gave it the Grizzly Award a few days ago, right? And also Tremendum, by Seven Devil Fix, because it is so heavy and reminds me of a three headed dog when I hear it (you can hear or download it legally by clicking on the link) Now you guys suggest some songs, any song at all, and we will debate and discuss and have ourselves a poo-playlist before long. (Make your suggestions in the droppings.) I will trust to your own ingenuity in finding a way to hear the songs.

Another site I have been enjoying lately is this blog about making a Christmas cartoon: Alien for Christmas. Yum! Turkeys were getting old.

Bean Leaf Press is a brand new independent press that is offering their first children's book. It's a pleasure to visit just to enjoy the beautiful site design, by the book's artist Travis Hanson. The Bean's Song would make a great Christmas present- in fact, I ordered one! Merry Christmas to me! No wait, it's for Michelle. Umm, yeah, for my wife. She likes beans.

Here's a poem I wrote last month, never really came up with a good title for it. Just a little wistfulness, and robots. This picture helped crystallize an idea that's been floating in my head for quite a while.

I remember reading
books with titles like
‘The Year 2000 and Beyond’
that promised
acid rain
from brown skies
at lunchtime
Comforting dystopia
for an alien yet inevitable
civilization
where
through the gloom the
red lights of robot eyes
offer you their umbrellas
and guide you across the street

We are well beyond the year 2000
and I stand at a crosswalk
in the pH-neutral rain
with my robotic suit and tie
the red lights of SUVs blurry in the gloom
while Pod people briskly walk by
safe in their isolation and
dystopian comfort
and I realize I would trade
every crosswalk crossing robot
and shark-shaped submarine
for a chance to go back
and read those crazy books
while my mom made me hot chocolate
and said
“Why don’t you go outside and play?”

By some strange alignment of the stars and work schedules and being either poor or overseas, I have never seen the Tragically Hip live. Weird, eh? Any Canadian of my generation knows the Hip's live shows are legendary, and every Canadian of my generation but me has been to one. Lucky for me they have released Hipeponymous (Hipapotamous?) a sort of box set with a concert DVD on it, and it is currently making me very happy. The live version of Grace, Too (tied for my favorite Hip song ever along with Scared ) is perfect, musically, and Gord Downie's singing on it is fierce- I mean, literally, fierce. Like he's going to bite you or something. I love it!
Plus they sing Gus, the Polar Bear from Central Park, which won all kinds of awards among the ursine set when it was released a few years ago. I think it got the Grizzly for Best Maritimus Music.

Alright, so I've put this off for long enough. It's been an agonizing decision, but I declare the winner of my third bloggiversary contest to be Carmen for her whimsical and creepy take on monsters in the closet. All I have in my closet is mismatched socks and holey underwears, and that's just fine by me. Carmen wins a $25 gift certificate to the online retailer of her choice- congratulations! Thanks to all you others who entered. Seriously. I loved reading and seeing what you created.

One solution I can think of would be to put the parrot down.
And now for some referral log-inspired poetry.

Beautiful green and red feathered avian friend
descendant of carnosaurs and Quetzalcoatl
you have learned to quote the finest poetry
and mimic the sound of symphonies
Why can't you stop pooing on me?

One last contest entry. I know I have been delaying announcing a winner, but I wanted to make sure I could get this up before I did. This was done at my request for those talks I did at the Gathering last month. I thought it was super cool and also fit in well with the whole idea of the contest- whimsical, fun, maybe slightly halloweeny. So this is a picture by my friend Carmen.



Cool, hey? So. The contest entries are, Calving Season by Phil of Introspection's Lair.
"why I gave her my subway seat" by Lydia; The Prophet Sighed, by Seraphim; Berg Finds a Hobby, by Mindy's husband; This Tale, by gabrielle, and of course the picture above. So let me know who you think should win in the droppings, and when I get home from the coalmine, I will let you know who I think should win.

The deleted scenes on the Revenge of the Sith DVD were pretty cool. More Grievous is always a good thing. But a couple of scenes I would have liked to have seen would be some background info on Grievous- back when he was Lieutenant Grievous, you know? And maybe a shot of Darth Vader signing bonus cheques for the Clone Troopers who so ably carried out Order 66. Seeing him struggle with mastering a new signature with his new cybernetic arms would have added a lot to his character development I think.

Palpatine: Good, Lord Vader. But you know 'Darth' is spelled with a 'D', right?
Vader: (shakes fist at sky) Noooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!