SUVs

Okay, so I'm still seeing a lot of SUVs out there on the ol' road. Didn't we learn a long time ago that driving an SUV is horrible for the environment? Didn't we all get the memo like four years ago saying the amount of carbon emissions they produce is just plain unacceptable? Then why? Is this a case of people, even now, being uninformed or, as I suspect, shamelessly self-centred?
I can't think of anyone - save perhaps a seven-man team of miners working out of Coyote Gulch - who would actually require a vehicle so massive. My family owns a cottage up in Nopiming Provincial Park, the way to which includes a hundred kilometres or so of gravel roads engineered by the same crew that did Splash Mountain, and even we don't own an SUV or truck. A Geo Metro has actually been proven to get the job done just fine. When my dad, who actually is a Coyote Gulch kind of guy, needs to bring slabs of wood or other building supplies along, we simply hook up a trailer to our station wagon.
And what exactly do you people still driving Hummers have to say for yourselves? What a statement of sin those things are. Personally I'd be embarrassed to be seen inside one.
The truth is, people who drive vehicles like that know full well that the rest of us would love nothing more than to see them get driven over my their own thirty-two inch tires. They get off on it. And until the owning of a vehicle the size of a small home gets out-lawed (I'd give it another two years), they'll continue to get off on it. I just really wish we were responsible and respectful enough to make the right decision ourselves.

Winter Performance

Last Saturday our band did something really fun: we invited a bunch of friends - mostly fellow Winnipeg musicians - down to a loft on Albert Street in the Exchange and shot a performance video for two songs off our upcoming album. John Paul Peters recorded the whole thing and our friend, Alec, directed it. We'll get it up on YouTube as soon as it's done being edited.
Oh yeah, the "All Empires Fall" video we did in the summer should be watchable soon as well.

Planet Earth

So, the BBC's Planet Earth series may just be the greatest thing ever. Way better than any other nature show I've seen. It's unbelievable the kind of footage they get. Like, they filmed this thing called a Vampire Squid which lives two miles below the ocean's surface. First of all, who's tipping them off as to where to even begin looking for something like this? The ocean is massive and, as it turns out, pitch dark. And as far as I can tell, all they do is hand a camera crew a flashlight, tie sand bags to their ankles and push them overboard. What are the chances of them finding anything, right? Pretty good apparently, because next thing you know, a Vampire Squid - something I've never heard of before - miraculously shows up. Good work, kids.

Of course the narrator could not sound less impressed with the whole ordeal. As if hundreds of these things auditioned for the role and - big whoop - Marty got it.

DIRECTOR: Alright, Marty, looking great so far. I'm wondering though - can those crazy light-up things on your tentacles go any brighter?
MARTY: Like this? HMMMMPPPFFF!
DIRECTOR: Perfect! Hold that! Ooh, but don't look at the camera, big guy!
SHARK: Get it right, Marty! I thought we were drinking tonight!

Another cool thing they do in almost every episode is film a single patch of landscape for what I assume must be months, and then speed up the tape so that the birth, childhood, goth phase, and death of an Amazonian log fungus can be witnessed in a matter of seconds. Personally, I don't think I'd have the patience for that. Duh, I realize there's not a guy manning the camera every second of the day, but even still. You'd probably be stationed somewhere nearby. In a mud hut. With a BBC colleague you don't quite get along with. One and a half days in, you're wishing you'd signed up for the "Ocean Deep" team instead:

DIRECTOR: Okay, Marty, what I'm going to get you to do this time is start further back by where that reef is, and then come toward the camera real scary-like, as though you're about to attack it.
MARTY: Like this?
DIRECTOR: ...Shit, the flashlight broke...Marty? You there, buddy? What's going on? ...Oh Mr. Octopu-AAAAHHHHHH!
SHARK: LMAO! Come on, Marty! Bar closes in forty minutes.