Tony, Tony, Tony,

Tony Blair hit Calgary a few days ago, like the Red River Flood hit southern Manitoba in the spring of 1997, with a big splash. He was the newly minted fresh faced British Prime Minister installed on May 2 1997. He was young, contemporary, and a breath of fresh air for the British Isles. He seemed to be just the right antidote to the stuffy and stiff John Major Government from the left over days of the Margret Thatcher era. He seemed to have a pulse and vision and the youthful energy to re-vitalize and turn the United Kingdom around for a place in the 21st Century.
His handling of the death of Princess Diane with empathy and grace created an early bond with his fellow countrymen and people of the entire world.
Not since the days of Churchill, did Britain have such an articulate spokesman or master of the English language.The British economy performed well and he helped to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland, after 30 years of conflict. He appointed the venerable Robin Cook as his Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs. Cook announced, to much scepticism, his intention to add "an ethical dimension" to foreign policy. Thus the ship of State that seemed on course, made a swift turnabout when Blair single handily supported United States foreign policy. He encountered fierce criticism as a result, over the policy itself and the circumstances in which it was decided upon. Then Robin Cook resigned from his post, in protest against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Following pressure from his own Labour Party, and the British public, Blair publicly stated he would step down as party leader. Thus a promising legacy in the style of the Kennedy’s vanished forever.
"I often say to people that Canada will become one of the most powerful nations in the world," the former leader of Great Britain said to a crowd of 2,400 people in Calgary. Unfortunaly it is all a little meaningless, when your creditability is shot, Tony.

Rendition

A currently topical subject matter Rendition has now hit the movie screen. It revels the dark, murky, shifting events of the espionage world and their barbaric interrogation methods. The cast consists of Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Meryl Streep, Alan Arkin, Peter Sarsgaard, Omar Metwalley. Through inattention or because of sub tiles, I had some difficulty piecing together the Arab side of the story. The U.S. story was straight forward. It involves an Egyptian American, Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Omar Metwalley), married to Caucasian American (Reese Witherspoon). Anwar is fingered by the CIA (Meryl Streep) as a terrorist on the flimsiest of evidence and flown to a Middle East country to be interrogated. Gyllenhaal plays a CIA analyst who comes to question the U.S. government's sanctioning of the practice, and turns whistle blower. The one high light of the movie is Alan Arkin a U.S. Senator dressing down his subordinate in his office, it is an intense filled moment of reality. Apart from Arkin’s momentary performance it is a rather ho hum film. And “Yes” the U.S. does not torture, it just sub contracts.

Andre Rieu and the Johann Strauss Orchestra.

If you wish a respite from the music of today there is no better cure than the timeless music arranged by Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra. Who’s performance at the MTS Centre on Monday October 15th was amazing. He covers an incredible array of musical ground, from the hand clapping Radetsky’s March to his trademark Blue Danube Waltz. His orchestra and singers are top notch and hail from Europe, Chile, and Australia. The whole orchestra is in formal wear and the ladies in colourful gowns. Between songs Andre keeps up a lively banner with the audience and his performers. They in turn keep the audience amused with their many antics by sipping wine and being frisky with one another while playing. I was captivated by haunting and varied 3rd Man theme arrangement. The performance swept through Opera, Classical, Aria, and Polka works, in a delightful array of sounds. This was all rounded out with 3 female and male opera singers. It was the male Australian that caught my attention. I thought the high water mark was the very creative use of the percussion section. The encore began with Andre playing a sole violin with the Canadian Flag waving on the screens, as everyone rose to stand, for the stirring rendition of O Canada. This was followed by the moving performance of Amazing Grace accompanied by a lady bagpiper and ending in a Baby's Lullaby.
What can I say, it is the most beautiful music, almost heavenly. Long live Andre Rieu and his magical music.

Where’s Waldo? Where’s Terry?

You know who, the Pumphandle’s co-contributor who has been absent from the blog lately. He has taken on the old home renovation gig, so he has been missing from the picture/action. Secretly, he is hoping to be the next Bob Vila, hosting a series called “This broken house of mine,“ débuting for the 2012-13 television season. Should this not pan out, he can always fall back on his quick wit and sense of humour with a Home Improvement series, as that has been long abandoned by Tim Allen. Nonetheless, he must be given a great deal of credit for such a huge undertaking.
Having apprenticed on 2 bathrooms renos, the remainder of the house has become his canvas.
Outbidding hordes of buyers at a flooring auction, he obtained a whole pallet of oak flooring. This then precipated removal of existing floor coverings, walls, kitchen cupboards, and ceiling stipple - a mighty chore in itself.
Under the guidance of Armand Tetreault, chief building consultant & advisor, part timer David (the enabler) Destoop, "Don’t cross" Norma (the benefactor), and Terry himself, the team was now in place.
Subsequently walls and ceilings were mudded, sanded, primed, and boldly painted. The floor was scraped down, cleaned, and cavities filled. Now for the big task - installing the oak flooring. Procedural debate among the team ensued, as to the best method to accomplish this. The decision was made to start in the middle of the floor and work out toward the walls. The first two strips of oak were glued, but this caused seepage, which hardened, and had to be removed so the other strips would fit. An air nailer was used, but that left faint impressions on the oak, so a different attachment (shoe) was tried - and solved the problem! Small hairline cracks appeared on either side of the staple, but this was corrected by reducing the air pressure. As the work continued, the floor began to take on the look of a beautiful dance floor.
So, folks, that is what Terry T is doing, and why he has been missing from the Pumphandle!
Should you meet him, and hear him singing, it’s probably a revision of an old Earnest Tubb tune called “ Walking the floor over you”.

Chorus:
I’m installing this floor just for you
I can’t sleep a wink 'cause it’s true
I’m hoping and praying
That you will love it too.
'Cause I’m going broke
Just installing it for you.

"Away From Her"

I have been eagerly awaiting the much acclaimed Canadian production of “Away From Her“, written by Sarah Polley and staring Julie Christie (Dr Zhivago) and Gorden Pinsent. It had been getting good reviews, but never made it to the local big screens. A few weeks ago the Free Press advised it was now on DVD. Christie's portrayal is the female lead about a long-married Canadian couple coping with the wife's Alzheimer's disease. Based on the Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain". The couple portray a very rational, civil, and proper couple. So much so, that they leave you with a very sterile feeling about their relationship. Although there are many considerate moments, they do not pack any emotional punch. Whereas “The Notebook”, with it’s similar theme starring Gene Rowlands and James Garner, was a much more Kleenex driven film, you felt it. Harvest Moon written and performed by Neil Young was a nice touch, as was Neil’s song Helpless, performed by k.d. Lang. The soundtrack score seemed somewhat inappropriate. It is definitely a Canadian film in the location sense, in it’s sweeping winter and spring scenes. It’s what I would consider a clean movie, no violence, a few bad words, very viewable, it just lacked any compelling emotion.

Nationalism

I found this such a compelling analysis of our time, that I had to post it on the pumphandle.

Nationalism is a wedge to divide people from organizing in the way that multi-national, pan-national and non-national corporations organize. People have been divided-and-conquered by sex, race, creed, religion, age, and — of course — nation.
It’s clear that the large Fortune-100’s have no use for nationalism. One need look no further than their outsourcing, basing themselves in tax-free havens, registering ships to Liberia, obtaining Swiss Bank accounts, basing in the Caymans, Dubai, etc. Our top politically-connected corporations do this. In a nutshell, we have another case of socialism for the wealthy, capitalism for the poor.
Global freedom for the wealthy, nationalism for the poor.
The modern nation-state has become little more than an overgrown plantation or fiefdom. The lord of the manor may come and go at will, but the laborers are bound to it. IT’s perfectly fine for IBM to move to India, Ford to move to China, or Goodyear to move to Mexico and employ foreign labor. But it’s verboten for the world’s laborers to freely relocate themselves.
As a result, “nationalism” is very difficult to define. In practice, nations are little more than economic cartels for the powerful to exploit at the cost of the world’s working population.

Paul Bramscher October 2nd, 2007 2:23 pm
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