I Still Love Vermont

This just in from the Associated Press:

Vermont Town Calls For Bush Impeachment
POSTED: 9:06 pm EST March 7, 2006

NEWFANE, Vt. — A small town is urging Vermont’s only congressman to file articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush.

Voters gathered for Newfane’s annual town meeting Tuesday to conduct routine business and vote on the impeachment call, which passed 121-29.

The impeachment item says Bush misled the nation into the Iraq war and engaged in illegal domestic spying.

A justice of the peace said that the town is run by what he calls the “far-left.”

But a local teacher said she can’t tell students “that what happens on the national level doesn’t affect us at the local level.”

U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders, an independent who generally votes with the Democrats and is running for the Senate, issued a statement that says Bush “has been a disaster for our country” and may have broken the law.

But since Republicans control Congress “it would be impractical to talk about impeachment,” Sanders said.

I know there was news last week of young people leaving Vermont, so I worry a little about the future of that wonderful place. Nevertheless, every time I hear a story like this about those old-fashioned town hall meetings, it reinforces my view that the Green Mountain State is one of the saving graces of the US. Sometimes I feel like it’s one of the last.

According to Google maps, Newfane is about 103 miles (or about 161 kilometers) south of our little plot of land in Waitsfield. Here are both. From an almost-Vermonter (in an alternate reality - one of the ones where Bush never made it to the White House, Pam and I are living there) to the folks in Newfane, thanks. I’m sure that you make at least some Americans like me, all over the world, proud.

Follow-up on Fashion, Kathmandu, Oscar, and The Vancouver Movie Drinking Game

Based on some facts I learned today, further clarification is needed on Vancouver Fashion. First of all, my notion that there are 4 different seasons, and that you need different clothes for them is incorrect. Here, there are really 2 seasons. 2 1/2 if you want to be charitable; cold and rainy, and warm and dry. You can get away with one rain jacket year-round if you layer other items of clothing (sweaters, fleece, other jackets(!)) under it. That explains the ‘no leather jackets invited’ element of fashion here. As for the rest, I chock it up to West Coast vs. East Coast. Nevertheless, Matt and I both suspect that there will be a backlash against the ‘every day is casual day’ attitude in the local work force. That said, he thinks it will just be for Telus employees where he works; I think it could be a move province-wide, but don’t quote me on it.

Great Food on The Drive
Speaking of Matt, last night he and Oana introduced us to one of the best little restaurants I’ve been in since we got here, the Nepali Restaurant, Café Kathmandu. How to describe Nepali cuisine for the uninitiated? It’s kind of like Indian, but lighter and with many subtle and fresh ingredients, like mustard greens, or fenugreek. There was a meltingly tasty curried goat, some fiery hot sauces (as condiments) as well as toothsome little vegetable dumplings, which you could dip in either a coriander sauce, or a tomato-based sauce. It was a real treat, and another reason to return to the multi-cultural culinary strip of Commercial Drive (or ‘The Drive’, as it’s sometimes called here). We’d been to a pretty good Vietnamese restaurant when we visited a year ago, and I’d had a nice meal at the bohemian ‘Wasubeez’ Café, but Kathmandu is definitely a reason to return to The Drive again and again. I can’t wait to see what we’ll discover there next time.

The Oscars, West Coast Style
This was my first Academy Awards Telecast that I’d ever seen from this side of North America. Since it is broadcast live, the show starts here at 5 on Sunday, and ends around 9:30. Apart from Jon Stewart doing a fine job (although I’ve noticed that critics seem to already be piling on their cries of disappointment - gee, that didn’t take long), the biggest impression this time shift made on the whole affair was that it felt far more like another big telecast that takes place on a Winter Sunday, roughly from 5 to 9, has a lot of guessing about who the winners would be and has expensive commercials: The Super Bowl! Next year, I think I want to do an Oscar party. Especially if I’ve seen any of the films that were nominated or won (which I hadn’t, this year), and especially if one of the nominees was shot in Vancouver. Statistically, there’s a good chance of that, since so many movies are shot here.

This leads me to my last thought: Is there a Vancouver Movie Drinking Game? (i.e. If you recognize and get agreement that the current shot is from North Vancouver looking at the skyline, take one shot, etc.) Help me folks, because I’d hate to be the one who came up with that one. Thank goodness that office centre (the converted cathedral) in Toronto that shows up in every mid to low budget Science Fiction (Tekwar, Land of the Dead, Mutant X) movie and series since 1985 is not not here or we’d all end up with alcohol poisoning.

What Not to Wear (in Vancouver)

This is what to wear…

Pam has become a real fan of the Learning Channel program ‘What Not to Wear‘. It’s a show in the mold of ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’, only this time it’s Fashion-Eye for the Clueless Girl. Stacy London and Clinton Kelly take some woman who has no fashion sense and maybe a lot of potential, give them a $5,000 credit card shopping spree in NYC, and throw away all of their old clothes (while taking them to task in all manner of zingers as they do so). After a new hairdo and makeup session, the transformed victim arrives to cheers of friends, coworkers and family (this part is the most staged and feels very much like the show is a rip-off of Queer Eye). Unlike the other show, it does not seem to me to have quite as much of a ‘good heart’, but Pam feels she is learning lots of good tips and rules of thumb along the way.
Fast forward to dressing here. All of the rules are backwards. In the world of fashion, Vancouver is Bizarro World (for the non-Superman or Seinfeld-savvy, Bizzaro world is the invention of the aforementioned comics, a place where up is down, good-bye is hello, and wrong is right. You get the idea.

Dressing up in Vancouver is wearing something that isn’t falling apart. As a friend of Matt’s exclaimed during a recent visit, “Everyone looks like they’re about an hour away from snowboarding.” (Which technically we are, if you factor in the drive to Grouse and line for lift tickets). When I go into work, which is in Gastown (a slightly seedy and touristy area that has many panhandlers) and happened to be dressed a little nicer, I stand out, in a way that’s probably not so good (i.e. , I’m approached by more panhandlers, who assume I’m a rich tourist). We’re talking khaki pants, button down shirt and leather jacket here; that’s overdressed.

In practical terms, a leather jacket is fairly useless around here, anyway. When it’s dry and the leather jacket would be safe to wear, it’s too warm. When it’s cold enough for the leather jacket, it’s usually too wet.

The standard jacket here is a windbreaker or alpine jacket, , made of GORE-TEX. usually with a hood, (see above picture) obtained at a Mountaineering or Sports store (The MEC is renowned here.) As for pants, it’s denim, or perhaps cargo pants. The shirt? Long-sleeved or short-sleeved T, sweatshirt (preferably also hooded). To top it all off, if it’s cold outside, finish the whole ensemble with a Toque (the Canadian term for knitted cap, often, but now always with a little pom-pom at the top). Colours can match, but don’t have to. Shoes are Doc Martens, jogging shoes, or those bowling shoes that went in style a few years ago (which I wish I could wear, but can never get in a width that is narrow enough).

So my difficulty here is that much of my Bostonian-centric wardrobe, including half a dozen white button-down shirts, some fancy wool trousers and assorted cardigans and cashmere sweaters is what the fish out of water is wearing here. Today I went out in some old jeans, a grey t-shirt topped with a chocolate brown shirt that has no collar, and wore a hooded fleece sweatshirt. Walking back from the local caf�, I said to Pam “Today, I finally feel like I look like the everyone else.”

The Dollar Also Falls, So-called First Amendment, and Canadian Media

The US dollar hit 1.135 Canadian today. It’s been hovering around the 1.13 mark. Gee, I used to get excited when it went below 1.15.

There are other things descending besides Bush’s poll numbers. Apparently the freedom of speech is descending as well. From the web site of ABC News’s Good Morning America today:

A Colorado teacher who was suspended after making controversial comments about President Bush — which were recorded by a student during class — is filing a lawsuit against the school district in Aurora, Colo., this morning.

On the tape, the student, Sean Allen, repeatedly asks questions, and teacher Jay Bennish actually compliments him. But that may not be good enough for school officials, who will conclude their investigation within the week.

The district says the key question is whether Bennish violated policy by failing to allow ample opportunity for opposing views.

On Thursday, dozens of students walked out of class at Overland High School, picking sides in the debate between the geography teacher and Allen. The controversy started Feb. 1, the day after Bush’s State of the Union address.

“Who is probably the single most violent nation on planet Earth?” Bennish asked his class. “The United States of America.”

He went even further, comparing Bush to Adolf Hitler.

“I’m not saying that Bush and Hitler are exactly the same, obviously they’re not,” Bennish said. “But there are some eerie similarities to the tones that they use.”

Bennish told the class he was only expressing his opinions.

“I’m not in any way implying that you should agree with me,” he said. “What I’m trying to get you to do is to think, right, about these issues more in depth.”

Further searches on the Internet reveal that what Bennish claimed, was that during the last State of the Union Address, Bush said: “It is our duty as Americans to use the military to go out in the world and make the world like us.” Bennish continues (on the tape): “Sounds a lot like what Adolph Hilter used to say.” It turns out that he was paraphrasing Bush, and that those exact words weren’t said per se. At any rate, that’s what’ll get you fired these days in Colorado. Bennish had been teaching at that school since 2000.

By Way of Contrast
I’m continually surprised at how most of the big local news stories here (radio and TV) are usually about the difficulties with trying to fix one of society’s ills. Two recent cases have been:

• The inquest into the death by abuse of a poor aboriginal child, Sherry Charlie in 2002, who basically fell through the cracks in the Social Welfare system, and
• The death a few weeks ago of a frail, 91-year old woman, Fanny Albo, from her husband of 70 years just 48 hours after she was moved against her will (and his subsequent death 2 weeks later - he was 96).

Both stories have received a lot of attention as of late, but I doubt they would have even made page 2 or 3 in papers back in the US. They share the aspects of being about unknown, unglamorous, tragic deaths, perhaps preventable. No sensational tabloid material, no gun violence or pronouncements by pundits, just an outcry over something that went wrong, either through funding cuts or bureaucracy. I notice the distinct difference when I unwittingly tune into the news broadcasts of KOMO or KING in Seattle and start to hear about car-jackings, kidnappings or gang attacks. It’s remarkable how the media just across the border can be so different — and it’s becoming more different every day, it seems, sliding away just like the decent of the currency.

Dear March, Come In!

For those not familiar with the poetry of Emily Dickenson (or the song cycle by Aaron Copland that my parents recorded for the composer back in the 70’s), the rest of it goes:

Dear March, come in!
How glad I am!
I looked for you before.
Put down your hat—
You must have walked—
How out of breath you are!
Dear March, how are you?
And the rest?
Did you leave Nature well?
Oh, March, come right upstairs with me,
I have so much to tell!

I got your letter, and the bird’s;
The maples never knew
That you were coming,—I declare,
How red their faces grew!
But, March, forgive me—
And all those hills
You left for me to hue;
There was no purple suitable,
You took it all with you.

Who knocks? That April!
Lock the door!
I will not be pursued!
He stayed away a year, to call
When I am occupied.
But trifles look so trivial
As soon as you have come,
That blame is just as dear as praise
And praise as mere as blame.

It’s a sweet little poem, and as a kid I was tickled at the thought of someone talking to a month like a long-lost friend at their door.

With the new month has come a bunch of new opportunities for Pam, and I’m glad that she is probably going to be busy with work for the next few months, at the very least. As for me, I’m finally feeling fully recovered from the exertions of the Gamelan concert at the Museum of Anthropology. We’ve both got bus passes now, and we’re not afraid to use them! With Spring indeed arriving (flowers and budding trees showing up everywhere), I’m hoping we’ll get a cloudless weekend day to take a trip to one of the gardens south of us (the Vandusen Botanical Garden on 33rd Avenue or Queen Elizabeth Park, which is nearby there just to the East).

I’m pleased to see that someone finally did a bit of a Google Mashup with some of the major bus stops and lines for Vancouver. Too bad it doesn’t do any of the locals, but it is nice to see where the Skytrain intersects with the other lines to the east of us, as well as where the CanadaLine (Rapid Transit system going in for the Olympics with a great deal of cries of pain and gnashing of teeth) will be in 2010.

written while listening to:
Tubin - Three Pieces for Violin and Piano (1933) - i. Sostenuto ” by Arvo Leibur, Violin, Vardo Rumessen, piano