Hello! This post took me an entire month to write.

No, it didn’t.  But, in any case, I’m sorry I haven’t been posting so much.  I know that you check this site everyday, anxiously awaiting whatever piece of blog gold will light up your screen. So, I’m sorry.

I stumbled upon Mike Evin’s Youtube channel and I can’t believe it doesn’t have more hits.  It’s amazing stuff and really interesting to watch this guy play a tune right after writing it, to get access into the writing process.  If you’ve never heard of Mike Evin, check him out.  He’s a Montreal guy and a friend of friends.  I think I met him once very briefly after a show of his in Montreal.  Anyway, his music is great and you should listen to it.

Just an example of one of those videos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt4Q_KPQfn8

An in-concert tribute to the Chatroulette piano improv guy.  Fantastic.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfamTmY5REw

The orginal:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vpgNiAH60

Contrary to what you’re thinking, I’m not actually an expert on Georgian politics.  But I did hear about this story last night on Q and I couldn’t believe it:

Over the weekend a fake—though, apparently real enough-loooking—news broadcast showed Russian forces invading Georgia and on their way to the capital of Tbilisi. They also said that Saakashvili, the president, was dead.  Mind you, this is the country that, in real life, just underwent a crisis with Russia. Anyway, the program, though only on one channel, created widespread panic across the country, everyone thinking that their country was falling apart… … … Ha ha ha! …Oh? What’s that?  That doesn’t sound funny or entertaing at all?  It sounds absolutely terrifying? Yeah, that’s probably right.

I should add that apparently the program started with a warning, saying that this was fake.  Anyway, you can read more about the story here or just do a little Google News research.  People suspect that the ruling party in Georgia was somehow behind this because of the way the opposition party was portrayed and because there’s a few important elections coming up and so on.  The idea is that, even though the population would now obviously gather that this was fake, a certain sense of fear of instability would remain and this would benefit the ruling party. In any case, I don’t know what I’m talking about and I won’t really go into all that because, again, I clearly do not know shit about this country and its internal politics.

But, how messed up is this story? Out of curiosity, I’d like to see the program. Apparently, they used footage of Obama and other international figures with fake voiceover condemning Russia in the “attack”.  It must’ve looked pretty damn real.  Which is nuts.  What entertainment value could this have? What point could this have been making?

In the news, they’re relating this story to Orson Welles and War of the Worlds, which, at the time, a lot of people were pretty upset about.  But that was about a fake Martian invasion of earth, which is decidedly different than a fake broadcast about Russians invading your country when it seems like that’s an actual possibility.

War of the Worlds on the radio was an innovative and creative use of its medium, telling a sci-fi story in a new way. (I think… Was that kind of thing done before?  Had others done a fake news broadcast like that? I guess at least not to that extent.)  But maybe it’s more cool in retrospect… I guess if you tuned into the show in the middle of the broadcast, and this kind of fictional, very real-sounding news broadcast hadn’t happened before, and you were nervous about the approach of WWII, and you were a little stupid, then you might think that that shit was real.  In any case, the broadcast retrospectively makes for a great story in itself, even if it at the time it may have been sensational and purposely deceptive in its realness.

But, this thing in Georgia?  Oh man. Russia is scarier than aliens.  And, again I haven’t seen this thing, but I doubt that the guy who made this thing is going to become some kind of Georgian Orson Welles.

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I forgot to post this puppy when I found it. I have to admit: I’d never thought of dealing with my anxiety this way. I should have.

Anyway, this is probably a joke. But maybe it isn’t?

(Click on the image to view it in full.)

This video just posted yesterday by OKG is absolutely brilliant. It’s hard to believe this is all one shot. Also, notice that at one point the music cuts out and it’s just the machine playing. Anyway, for many reasons, it’s awesome. Watch.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

…from Chicago days.

It’s over for two old friends.  Featuring Joe Phillips and Chas Fries.

Baggage from Jordan Roth on Vimeo.

My anxiety level was out of control during that game.  I feel like I was in labour or something.

A few people commented on my post from a few days ago about the Canada-U.S. hockey rivalry (In person. They neglected to comment on the blog post itself…).  Anyway, in short, I said that the Americans didn’t really pay much attention to what was dramatically touted in Canada as a huge hockey war.  I didn’t mean we shouldn’t get really into a game and feel great national pride and so on; I was suggesting ever so delicately that we should take into account that our arch nemesis, for the most part, didn’t even know that they were embroiled in all out war.

In any case, I’d like to take that back.  Many Americans, and NBC, seemed to pick up on what an historic match-up tonight’s game was.  The game was huge; that was obvious on either side.  But, really, it doesn’t matter.

This was such a great moment and there couldn’t have been a better story to this win. There’s a lot of Canadian national pride happening right now, a big sense of community, and it’s a great feeling.  And it’s definitely not because Americans gave a shit about this game.

Photo: Globe and Mail

www.youtube.com/watch?v=oavMtUWDBTM

Is this ad still showing up for you?

I don’t know why I have Google ads on this site. Someone told me to do it and I don’t think I’ve made enough money from their placement to warrant it. The amount I’ve earned just nearly covers the coffee I’m drinking. I also don’t know if posting something like this goes against the contract I agreed to when I signed up for Google advertising.

I’m not sure what exactly on my site screams interracial dating—not that there’s anything wrong with having this ad up. I don’t have issues with having this ad up, okay?  I’m just saying I don’t if it’s such great targeted advertising. Or maybe it is. I don’t know.

Here’s another one that showed up just as I was posting this (and is now probably showing up still at the side of this post’s page):

This is great because I was thinking that the seven readers of this blog might not really be enjoying their horses enough, let alone expanding their dating horizons.