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January 31, 2007 - Like my friend Jim, I am reluctant to give publicity to someone so clearly seeking publicity for a book. But when they call me - as Jim paraphrases - "lonely, isolated, melancholy, socially withdrawn, powerless self-deluders who are comparable, at least on some level, to terrorists" I say:
"Heck! Get it right, doc! Don't forget that we pick the wings off flies, have halitosis, and enjoy latter-day Michael Jackson albums, too!"
January 31, 2007 - Last day of January! Three quick items:
- Whenever I refer to Daisy on this site I get a flood of CVs. I, and we, are honoured by that. So we'd like to try an experiment. We are looking for someone to add to our growing team: some political experience (we don't care which party), some consultant experience, good organizer, good client-side skills, and bilingualism (as the cliché goes) would be an asset. Need to be willing to live in the Big TeeOh, obviously. Send your CV to me at wkinsella@hotmail.com. And thanks in advance!
- Interesting. This, too. And another woman joins the fray!
- Why aren't there more women at CBC in Ottawa? This may be why. A must-read. I feel a Post media column coming on.
January 31, 2007 - Interesting email received this morning, with identifying information removed:
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Warren,
I visit your site every few days. Really enjoy it. Entertainment, opinion and provocation wrapped into one!!
I agree completely with your piece concerning fundraising. I have a similar situation with our daughters...in Calgary (although somewhat the opposite situation). They attend private schools in Calgary and the braintrust at the school thinks that fundraising for the school should take the form of casinos. These charity casinos in Calgary tend to be populated by people that can ill afford to lose the dough. My daughters go to a school that the parents can generally afford to foot the bill.
It makes me sick that this type of fundraising takes place. Calgary is growing quickly (I know you spent years here) and the school infrastructure is falling behind. My wife and I made the choice to use private schools.
The parents that are involved with our school do not need this fundraising. Although, this is different than your example of holding fundraising at an exclusive club (Toronto Hunt, methinks) it is another example of people not thinking before they act.
I do not want to take advantage of people in my community that cannot afford to gamble in order for my daughter to have a better basketball court...
****From Calgary
...
January 30, 2007 – Somebody needs media training. Dude, your pals at the Daisy Group are just a call away. Call collect.
January 30, 2007 - My observation (and lament) that
Canada needs more smart female bloggers - as opposed to the two who, while arguably Canadian and female, aren't smart - produced a big, big response, here, and here. Among other places. It's terrific.
This being the blogosphere, some folks are of course being deliberately obtuse, and suggesting I wanted to be arbiter of the resulting discussion. That's crap, of course. You want a list? Make your own list. The blogosphere is all-DIY, 24/7. I predicted a discussion about my picks, and a discussion we have. A positive one, too.
(Besides, anyone who knows me knows also that my long-held view is that the blogosphere is undeniably, depressingly, suffocatingly white angry male [something I have deplored, for years, in Google-able speeches, interviews and on this here web site], and that totally sucks.)
I just am not familiar with all that many high-quality blogs run by Canadian women - and, believe me, I've been looking. Just take a gander at Jim Elve's blog list, here. It's overwhelmingly male! Tribe has written, yesterday, that he estimates only 17 per cent of the relevant blogs are overseen by females; I don't know if that is accurate, but it seems to reflect my own experience.
In any event, it's been a good discussion, and I hope (a) that it continues and (b) it results in the correction of the gender imbalance. Here are some of blogs I have now read, or which have been brought to my attention. I plan to add some of them to the Top Ten list, but now (hopefully) it'll be a Top Twenty list.
January 29, 2007 - Better late than never, I suppose. My latest top bloggers list, here. Needs a Hell of a lot more Canadian women on it, if you ask me.
I will be up in Ottawa to give some speeches next week, so I expect to encounter no shortage of complaints about my selections.
Oh, and don't forget this!
January 28. 2007 - Before heading back to Richmond Hill for our daughter's swim meet, I note:
- Phil Marchand studied under McLuhan, I am told, which made this a fascinating conversation. A good read in the always-fabulous-looking Sunday Star.
- Attack ads? Now? Just because you've got money to spend, fellas, doesn't mean you should just spend it. (And, as per the Bar Brawl Code of Ethics, the first guy to throw a suckerpunch is usually the first guy to get in trouble.)
- What a disgraceful, appalling thing for a self-professed "Christian" to write. Everyone should condemn this woman's racism.
- I am told that Norm "Bitch" Spector is insinuating conflicts of interest without - typically - having the balls to come right out and say it. Poltroon. Apropos of nothing, I wonder if any Globe writers had been willing to be an advisor to Judge Gomery while simultaneously writing about the Gomery Commission? Hmm?
January 27, 2007 – Was a guest on this guy’s various radio shows over the past few years. We got along well enough, but I recall thinking – more than once – that the word “intense” did not begin to describe him. Full-body-contact talk radio.
In any event, I hope that the victim in this case is okay
January 25, 2007 - Today's Post column. Because I always write a lot more words than I should, this quote isn't in the final product. It adds some useful context, I think:
...
"...as jury consultant Richard Gabriel wrote in an analysis of the O.J. Simpson trial, media coverage "has a profound effect" on the attitudes of citizens and jurors. High profile trials are reduced to sound bites on television, he writes - and the resulting coverage is replete with subjectivity and "winner-loser" analyses, as in sporting events. An ABA Poll taken at the time of the Simpson trial, Gabriel observes, found nearly 80 per cent of respondents stating that blanket news coverage made a fair trial "impossible."
"The media create a series of unconscious pressures on a juror in a high-profile trial. Jurors know that they are being watched by the world," writes Gabriel, almost anticipating what has taken place in B.C. this week. "This elevates their verdict to a level beyond the evidence."
...
January 24, 2007 - Mother, fetch the smelling salts! Where's the
defibrillator?
Kinsella just declared on his damned web site that Stockwell Day is doing a
good job, and deserves everyone's support!
Mother, the End Times are near! Time to prepare to meet our maker!
January 23, 2007 - I'm doing a thing on MTV tonight, at six or something. I've never been on MTV before, although 'Pimp My Ride' was an important part of my life, at one point.
January 23, 2007 - She's only been with us for 24 hours, but Megan Harris is already making headlines - here you can find her on the indispensable Daily Canuck, where a few of us debate the Clinton and Obama candidacies.
January 22, 2007 - Daisy continues to grow! (The firm, not the flower.)
Today, we are proud to note, our team grew to include Megan Harris. Who is Megan, you ask?
Well, she's been a strategist for one of the country's top leading financial institutions - along with a senior public servant at Ontario's Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. She was a senior consultant in the office of Urban Economic Development, and later on she managed the Secretariat of the Business Climate Deputies Committee. She's also done the political side of
the equation, and was senior policy advisor to the Ontario Minister of Science and Technology, and then the Minister of Finance. In 2004, she ran as a candidate for Member of Parliament in the federal election. She didn't win, but I seem to recall I didn't, either, back in 1997. It builds character.
Is she busy? Yes, she is: she's the host of a show on I Channel, writes for everybody from daily newspapers to magazines, and knows all about media training, good writing and strategic communications counsel.
We are delighted to have her here. We need adult supervision, and she's it.
January 21, 2007 – Not to malign a fellow columnist and all that, but when this guy is against you – trust me – you’re in exceedingly good shape. He is, after all, the same pundit who also regards Rob Anders as the finest elected representative in the history of forever.
Calgary Sun columnists notwithstanding, my growing suspicion is that the Tory and NDP war rooms are scratching at entrails, trying to find something to tag Dion with. And finding, to their growing concern, that there's nothing that will work. Buying headlines on the Internet ain't the same thing as changing peoples' minds, fellas.
January 20, 2007 - Quickie bits and pieces, this and that:
- Sorry, but Obama's my favourite. Never count out a Clinton, however.
- Rented that M. Knight Shamalamadingdong guy's The Lady In The Water. It was really good. He's an amazing storyteller, that guy. Two digits up.
- This is why he reminds me of Chrétien, sometimes. Winning isn't everything, but it's almost everything.
- Biggest tune with me and the kids at the moment - the Bouncing Souls' 'Sing Along Forever'. Amazing.
- I like Coderre, but this is not the assignment he should have received. It won't be helpful in attracting Jews back to the Liberal option - and it sends a potentially unhelpful signal about Afghanistan. (You know, the mission the Liberal Party conceived, initiated and expanded when in power.)
January 19, 2007 - Yo.
This iz da funniest letter ta da editor dis here year. Got others, word, pointing out dat Easy E wuz not da guy rapping da bit about da .44 on da aforementioned video.
Got one letter from uh guy pointing dat half da pimpz in NWA wuz doin' uh gangsta pose, an' weren't da real thin'. I told him I knew dat, an' it made it worse. What 'chew thinking man?
Letter:
...
Letters
We're down with it
Laura Rosen
National Post
132 words
19 January 2007
National Post
National
A11
English
(c) 2007 National Post . All Rights Reserved.
Re: Glorifying The Gun, Warren Kinsella, Jan 18.
Yo yo, how phat is it to have a 40 or 50 somethin white Liberal partay dude 'scribing bout gansta rap and gunz? Are you serious? That is way ridonculous, bro. Who cares what fancy pants professors and authors say. Dude, I don't care about inter gangsta wars and how they had bad-assed childhoods in the hoods, and about who dissed who when and whose making dollars from singing and whining about it on crazy gansta labels.
I'd rather hear from the po-lice, yah, that's right, our boys in blue, about how they are stopping this gansta mega dumbness and keeping our city safe.
Word!
Laura Rosen Cohen, Toronto.
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January 18, 2007 - As I write this in a wee Starbucks near the office, half the starting line of the Jazz are ahead of me. I am starstruck.
January 18, 2007 - His heart is in the right place, although not necessarily
his noggin:
...
Layton in SARS, BSE switch
Speech gaffe attracts laughter, scorn
BRANDON, Man. (CP) - It was all acronym soup at a speech by Jack Layton at Manitoba Ag Days on Wednesday.
The federal NDP leader left agricultural producers looking at each other in wide-eyed wonder after a speech about farm issues in which he repeatedly referred to the "SARS" crisis which affected the Manitoba cattle industry.
"Another important issue is SARS," said Layton. "I was just talking to a cattle producer today who said the situation is worse now than when we were in the middle of SARS."
As Layton continued his speech, Manitoba Agriculture Minister Rosann Wowchuk loudly whispered, "It's BSE, not SARS," from her seat at the front of the audience.
BSE is the acronym for bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, while SARS stands for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, the respiratory illness that paralyzed Toronto for several months in 2003.
However, Layton didn't hear Wowchuk and kept going, saying SARS several more times, until producers in the audience chimed in to point out his error.
Finally he got the message and stopped his speech.
"I'm sorry, did I say SARS? I meant BSE. SARS is a Toronto problem," Layton said, to laughter from the audience.
But the joke was lost on some.
Don Neufeld, who raises cattle near Boissevain, Man., said that politicians of all stripes "just don't understand what's happening at the grassroots" and suffer from an overall ignorance of farm issues.
...
January 18, 2007 - Today's Post column, intact:
...
If you believe that artists should continually seek to improve the human condition, we do not recommend that you immediately go looking on the Internet for NWA's 1991 video, 'Alwayz Into Somethin.' It is only likely to leave you feeling depressed.
NWA - short for Niggaz With Attitude - has been described as "The World's Most Dangerous Group," but they probably weren't (one founding member, Ice Cube, even went on to be the star of blockbuster family films, like 'Are We There Yet?'). 'Alwayz Into Somethin,' however, has been described as one of the most violent music videos ever made, and it probably is.
A bloody store hold-up kicks off the video, and a bloodier gang shoot-out ends it. In between, NWA's members point guns at the screen and fire at the viewer, over and over and over. "I got 44 ways of getting' paid," snarls Eazy E, holding up a .44 calibre handgun. "Sittin' in my lap as I roll off the Compton blocks... So I grab the nine [millimetre] and the clip, and go to murder motherfuckers at night..."
After a while, the violence in NWA's video - like not a few other hip hop offerings - almost denudes one of feeling. As with much of Hollywood, it serves up violence as entertainment, and glorifies gun culture. Does it have real-life implications?
There are plenty of studies to suggest that it does. One 1995 University of North Carolina paper, which examined "deleterious effects of rap music," exposed control groups of young men to violent and non-violent videos. Those shown the violent material "expressed greater acceptance of the use of violence [and] reported a higher probability that they would engage in violence." There are many more studies that have reached similar conclusions, many times.
Rodrigo Bascunan - a co-owner of the foremost Canadian hip hop magazine Pound - is not one to argue with the social scientists. In the writing of his fascinating new book with his co-author, Christian Pearce - Enter The Babylon System: Unpacking Gun Culture From Samuel Colt to 50 Cent, to be published next month by Random House - Bascunan heard the same excuses, repeatedly, from record company executives. And from hip hop artists themselves.
"When it served them, they would say that they were role models, and that they have positive influence," says Bascunan, an articulate and diminutive writer who lives in Toronto, and resembles a rap artist himself. "And when it was going to be used in some negative manner, it became: 'Oh no, it's just entertainment. You need to raise your own kids.' But you can't have it both ways."
The book is unlike any other recently published, because the two young Canadians do not seek to whitewash the harmful side-effects of the culture they write about bi-monthly in their popular magazine. "Few would deny that rap music plays a role in the problem with guns - especially not us," the pair writes. "[But] whatever blame is due some emcees for gun violence, at least as much is due outside of hip-hop."
Among these, they write, are gun manufacturers, governments, and media companies which "take financial advantage of a profound fascination with the image of guns."
Enter The Babylon System - which takes its title from a 1979 Bob Marley lyric, decrying those who "suck the blood of the sufferers" - is a gripping compendium of hip hop's irrefutable "fascination with the image of guns." For example, a list is provided of nearly 60 rappers whose names refer to guns, like Three Glock, or AK-47. One chart details seventeen rap songs with the word "Glock" in its title. Another one lists thirteen songs titled, simply, 'Bang Bang.' It is simultaneously riveting and repulsive.
So does hip hop deserve to be censored, as Tipper Gore and others proposed in the mid-1980s, when the Gangster Rap genre was scandalizing Middle America? Bascunan opposes that, pointing out that censorship will simply make violent hip hop more attractive to the white suburban males who listen to it the most. It won't work.
Possibly. The question became somewhat more than hypothetical in Toronto, this week, when local rapper Alias Donmillion pleaded guilty to three firearms charges, and was sentenced to more than two years' imprisonment. Alias - with a new album, a new single, and a new video in rotation on MuchMusic - pleaded guilty to firing a .380-calibre semi-automatic handgun on a downtown street. When caught by police, he had the gun, spent shell casings and almost 11 grams of crack. It was, he told a reporter over a phone line at the Don Jail, a "dumb" thing to do.
If art imitates life, one can only continue to hope - some days - that the reverse proposition remains much more elusive.
[Warren Kinsella blogs for the Post and at www.warrenkinsella.com]
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January 17, 2007 – This one is on a weekend night, so you working stiffs don’t have an excuse anymore: come on by and see us attempt to warm the Rancho stage for DeSadist, who – with Hamilton’s punk gods, the Forgotten Rebels – opened for no less than The Saints, The Ramones, The Clash, The Cramps, Iggy Pop, The Dead Boys and even The Sweet! And now WE’RE opening for HIM! It’s like, it’s like…we’re almost MEMBERS of the Clash and the Ramones!
Um, yeah.
January 17, 2007 - Feeling that hot breath on the back of your neck, Mr. Hampton? That would be Messrs. Kormos and Prue, waiting for you to stumble.
Not a good time to be Howie:
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NDP needs to find self
Brantford Expositor (ON)
Wed 17 Jan 2007
Page: A6
In eight months, hard and soft supporters of Ontario's New Democratic Party may well say to themselves: OK, we're democratic and we're a party, so where's the new?
The apparent trend towards strategic voting has not been kind to the NDP over the past two elections, both with current leader Howard Hampton at the helm.
Add to this the growth of Green Party support, at least in opinion polls, and the NDP has as much or much more at stake in the Oct. 4 election than either the Progressive Conservatives under new leader John Tory and the Dalton McGuinty-led Liberals trying to get re- elected.
For Hampton and the NDP, their survival as an official party is again at stake. Three straight elections with fewer than 10 MPPs elected would mean a major reinvention of the party is needed and almost certainly a change in leader.
Hampton, who was in Brantford Tuesday showing support for striking Nova Vita workers, has been leading the Ontario NDP for 10 years, the third longest tenure for a CCF/NDP chief in the province behind Donald C. MacDonald (17 years) and Bob Rae (14 years).
Hampton has very little to show for it.
The 16 seats the NDP has won over the last two elections - not including byelections - is one seat short of the total won by Rae in 1995 when voters ousted his unpopular government.
The two sub-15 per cent showings for the New Democrats in the last two elections mark the two lowest electoral totals for the party since 1937.
Hampton and the NDP have blamed the results on soft NDP supporters migrating to the Liberals in a strategic attempt to try to solidify opposition to Mike Harris and his hard-right government.
With the Harris-Ernie Eves regime a fading memory, this is no longer a legitimate excuse.
If Ontario is to remain a three-party province - it's the only province in Canada to give all three major national parties a crack at governing over the past 20 years - the NDP has got to prove it still belongs.
It's not like Hampton and the elected members have performed poorly at Queen's Park. The concerns he raised Tuesday while in Brantford about the public service importing workers to replace those on strike are legitimate and reaffirm the party's place as a friend to labour.
The paradox facing the NDP, however, is that the public's newfound concern and the party's longtime preoccupation with environmental issues seems at odds with its traditional base of support - labour - which in Ontario often means workers for industries not known for their friendliness to the planet.
So the party seems to lack a clear definition and that makes it ripe to have votes siphoned off by the Green Party, which got less than three per cent of the vote in 2003, but hit as high as eight per cent in an October SES Research poll.
The NDP had 20 per cent in the same poll, which would suggest the Greens are not necessarily gaining at the expense of the New Democrats.
Losing votes to the Greens, who have had the same leader, Frank de Jong, since 1993, would signal a failure by the NDP to effectively communicate the party's policies and capture a place in the public's mind.
Is the NDP a perpetual third party? The potential holder of the balance of power? A government in waiting? The fading voice of the province's social conscience? Do they still call themselves social democrats?
The NDP has proven it can be relevant in other provinces, notably in Saskatchewan and Manitoba where it's currently governing.
In B.C., where the NDP was reduced to two seats in 2001, the party bounced back in 2005 under new leader Carole James to regain official opposition status with more than 40 per cent of the vote.
The comparisons may not be perfect since these three provinces essentially operate under two-party systems, but the NDP elsewhere has proven it can govern and stage electoral comebacks. Now it's time for Hampton and the NDP to prove that the party can still be relevant in Ontario.
© 2007 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved.
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January 17, 2007 - Weasels spotted in New Brunswick. It's just a matter of time until we figure out who you are, Trenchcoat.
"Trenchcoat." You can't make this stuff up, eh?
January 16, 2006 – Interesting.
It was a very good speech. The place was packed. He got a standing O at the start and the end. Interesting.
Afterwards, I saw Sinclair Stevens and we had a nice chat. Asked him why he was there. He said he was “interested” in the new guy, which was certainly interesting.
I don’t know anything about politics, but Dion sure sounded like he was ready for the challenge that lies ahead (ie., an election in a few weeks) and the issue of the day (ie., the environment). Both of which are quite noteworthy and, indeed, interesting.
As I say, all very, very interesting. I left in a state of interest, with my interest piqued.
And, um, banks charge too much interest.
January 15, 2007 – Stop! I beg you! I have received almost two dozen emails – enough of them to suggest it is no coincidence – asking why I have been suddenly delisted by Pierre Bourque on his “Pundits” links on his main page. Shock! Horror! Did you notice, Warren? Aren’t you upset?
I was taken off there long ago, so I doubt very much, folks, it has anything to do with the headlines controversy that Canadian Press has written about today. Why was I taken off the main page? I don’t know. Ask Pierre. It’s his web site, after all. For the time being, I am still on his “Top Bloggers” list, which is here, and which is fine by me. What-ever.
And, since we are playing question-and-answer, do I actually care when I am delisted on someone’s blogroll, ever? No, I do not. Other folks (SDA comes to mind) obsess about “traffic” and that kind of crap, but I don’t: thus the lack of RSS feeds and the like. If folks read it, great. If they don’t, great. This ain’t how I make a living, believe me.
And, do I think that political parties and companies should be buying “headlines” and then covering that up? No, I still don’t. In life, as in politics, you always end up getting found out – and then you look bad. Like I always say: it’s never the break-in. It’s always the cover up.
Now stop sending me emails, and go play a sport or something!
January 14, 2006 - On this blog, I don't ever name our children, or post photos of them, or do anything like that. I don't want to make things easier for some of the hands-on haters out there (cast a glance over last week's postings, and you'll see what I mean). There are a lot of crazy people in this sad old world, and I want to keep them away from my family as much as possible. I'm certain you feel the same way.
That said, I just wanted to pass along that our daughter became, on Saturday, the youngest person ever to receive a big-deal award for delivering hampers of food to people who need help in East Toronto. She got a standing ovation at the ceremony, and she was beaming. Meanwhile, I was so proud of her I thought my heart was going burst.
So I will not name her, or ever write anything here that would tend to identify her, but I just wanted to say how much I love her, and how I am proud of her.
That's it. That, and that she and her brothers and mother are as good a reason for living as you'd ever hope to find.
January 12, 2007 - It's a rock'n'roll week!
Wednesday night, I interviewed Paul Rachman, director of American Hardcore, which is all about Minor Threat, Black Flag, DOA and a zillion other hardcore punk bands. It was like watching a bloody, sweaty, fist-swinging documentary of my teenage years, that film. Amazing. Then, yesterday afternoon, I interviewed Rodrigo Bascunan, the scary-smart co-author of the new book, Enter The Babylon System: Unpacking the Gun Culture from Samuel Colt to 50 Cent. It's a great book, one that takes it title from a famous Marley lyric - about those who "suck the blood" of those who suffer.
Then, a rollickin' SFH session last night, in preparation of our gig with Mickey DeSadist, formerly of the Forgotten Rebels, on February 3 at Rancho Relaxo (poster to follow). This morning, I ran into a producer of Teenage Head, and he told me Frankie is doing, um, not so well, but that the band is amazing and ready to return to their former greatness (we hung out with them in the winter of 1979 in Edmonton, which gave rise to the Sturgeons' album, The Yellow Sea Eel Hunt, but that story is too disgusting and too sordid even for this blog). It involves the albino porn star, a toilet and a dead eel. In Deadmonton.
And then, this morning, I'm interviewing Paul Simonon about The Good, The Bad and the Queen. And if you have to ask who Simonon is, just go away. Never read this web site again. You don't belong here.
January 11, 2007 – This makes a lot of us very, very happy. I hope to God Stephen Harper doesn’t appeal.
...
Feds' appeal dismissed in Pelletier firing
Updated Thu. Jan. 11 2007 1:03 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
The federal government has failed in its attempt to overturn a court ruling that invalidated the firing of Jean Pelletier as chairman of Via Rail's board of directors.
The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed Ottawa's motion on Thursday.
But it remains unclear what effect the decision may have on a motion by Pelletier to invalidate his second firing.
Pelletier was initially dismissed from the Via Rail board by the Paul Martin government in March 2004. That move came after Pelletier made insulting remarks about Myriam Bedard, a former Olympian and former Via staffer who had made a series of damaging allegations about the operations of the rail company.
In November of 2005, a Federal Court judge overturned the dismissal, saying Pelletier had been fired without being given the chance to defend himself.
The government then fired Pelletier again in December -- two days after he returned to work -- saying this time it had followed proper notification procedure.
Pelletier served as chief of staff to Jean Chretien during most of his time as prime minister. Pelletier's was one of a series of firings of Chretien associates after Martin took office in December 2003 just as the scope of the sponsorship scandal was becoming apparent.
Pelletier was later harshly criticized by Justice John Gomery for failing to provide adequate oversight to the sponsorship program during his time as chief of staff.
Bedard has made headlines in recent weeks after being charged in of breaching a custodial order. Her former husband alleges she took their 12-year-old daughter to the U.S. in October in contravention of their custody agreement. She was arrested in Maryland just days before Christmas.
Bedard, who won two gold medals at the 1994 Olympics, has said she was forced from her job at Via Rail because of questions she raised about payments made to Quebec ad firms during the sponsorship scandal.
...
January 11, 2006 - The headline reminded me of BC punks No Means No. That completely irrelevant observation now made, here is one of those helpful Internet links to today's column.
January 10, 2006 - We get letters! Hoo boy, do we ever get letters!
...
From: Mark Bourrie
Subj: RE: Re: Kinsella v. Bourrie et al
Date: 1/11/2007 1:24:24 AM
Kinsella,
By the way, I'm shopping myself around to Earnscliffe, Reid, Navigator, et al as a free witness in their libel actions against you. I will get up in front of a jury and tell them about all the evil shit you've done to me, going back ten years now, how you've tried to "ratfuck" me, tried to ruin my life, etc. It will show what an evil, obsessive psychopath you are. I'll stand there, with my cute little kids watching, and tell about how you tried to paint their dad as an anti-semite, and they'll cry, I'm sure, when I remind the court that their great-grandfather was murdered in a Nazi camp. And I'll do all that to you before my case gets to court. You've been warned.
Mark
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January 10, 2006 - I just did a CFRB show about this story. Will Justin run? I don't know - but I do know that he would make a tremendous candidate, in any riding. He'd win, too.
I also know something else: Stephane Dion needs to condemn - right now, right out in the open - the people who are attempting to smear Justin anonymously. That's the old Martin-era way of doing things. The Liberal Party doesn't need to see it starting all over again - to Justin Trudeau or anyone else.
Dion needs to say that Trudeau - who has been living in Outremont for three years, and who even bought his Liberal membership from Lapierre, no less - is entitled to run. And he should shut down the cowardly anonymous-source types, right now.
Will he? I don't know. I hope so.
January 10, 2006 - I pay my own legal bills. Other people should do likewise, don't you think?
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PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2007.01.10
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A4
BYLINE: Tim Naumetz
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen
WORD COUNT: 420
Martin-Chretien feud lives on in aides' lawsuits: Chretien loyalist's lawyer says taxpayers paying legal cost of ex-Martin adviser
Taxpayers are footing the legal bill for one of former prime minister Paul Martin's closest aides in a $350,000 libel action launched by another Liberal backroomer after the internecine wars between Mr. Martin and Jean Chretien, says a lawyer involved in the battle.
Former Martin aide Scott Reid has apologized to onetime Chretien aide Warren Kinsella for calling him a liar over comments Mr. Kinsella made about Finance Department contracts under Mr. Martin.
But Mr. Kinsella's lawyer, Brian Shiller, said yesterday Mr. Reid refuses to settle a claim for damages in the same action and the fees for his lawyer, prominent litigator Harvey Strosberg, are being reimbursed by the federal government.
Mr. Shiller said he does not know the rate being charged by Mr. Strosberg, who was part of a legal team that negotiated a $1.5-billion compensation package for victims of tainted blood in the late 1990s.
He added, however, that Mr. Reid should be paying the bill, since he has admitted he was wrong and the fight now is over damages to the reputation of Mr. Kinsella, who is a lawyer as well as a political pundit and communications consultant.
"Scott Reid can continue to go ahead defending a case where he has already admitted wrongdoing, because he has the federal government's purse strings," said Mr. Shiller.
"Whatever the rate is, why are they paying his legal fees for him calling somebody a liar while he's being sued for libel?" said Mr. Shiller. "He accused a lawyer of lying under oath; he accused a lawyer of perjury."
Mr. Reid and Mr. Strosberg did not return telephone calls yesterday.
The legal action stems from comments Mr. Kinsella made when he testified at a Commons inquiry into the sponsorship scandal in 2005. Mr. Kinsella made several allegations about contracts that had been awarded to the Earnscliffe consulting and research firm while Mr. Martin was finance minister and several of his closest friends and advisers were principals at Earnscliffe.
While Mr. Kinsella took Mr. Reid to court over statements Mr. Reid made about Mr. Kinsella after the testimony, Earnscliffe and Terrie O'Leary, a top aide to Mr. Martin when he was finance minister, sued Mr. Kinsella.
Mr. Kinsella this week settled the legal battle with Ms. O'Leary with an entry on his Internet blog saying he regrets any harm done to Ms. O'Leary and that he had no evidence Ms. O'Leary was involved in improper contracts.
Earnscliffe is continuing its lawsuit against Mr. Kinsella, and Mr. Shiller said he expects that case to go to trial.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications director referred questions to Mr. Reid. "If in fact this decision was made, it would have been made by the previous government," said Sandra Buckler.
January 9, 2006 - I am assuming that I have not received an email from the real Tommy Douglas, here.
"Tommy Douglas" is asking a real question, however, and one that perhaps ended up on the Globe's cutting room floor. Why is the federal government paying a certain someone's personal legal bills? It's not
like his lawyer works for free. My understanding is the public service didn't want to pay for thousands and thousands in personal legal costs, but were ordered to do so by the former "Chief of Staff" to the former "Prime Minister." In a letter, no less.
So, to "Tommy Douglas" - I don't know the answer to your question. It doesn't make sense to me, either.
Maybe it's time for me to start another Internet petition, Tommy!
...
-----Original Message-----
From: TommyDouglasLives@XXXXXXXX
Sent: January 9, 2007 5:05 AM
To: "Warren Kinsella"
Subject: WHY IS THE TAX PAYER PAYING FOR SCOTT REID'S LEGAL BILLS IN THIS CASE? IT IS A DISGRACE!
Kinsella settles one lawsuit
DANIEL LEBLANC
OTTAWA -- Former Liberal staffer Warren Kinsella settled one of the lawsuits yesterday stemming from his 2005 attacks against supporters of former prime minister Paul Martin, expressing regret for any harm caused to former Liberal official Terrie O'Leary.
Mr. Kinsella is involved in two other lawsuits against key Martin supporters. First off, he is being sued by Earnscliffe Strategy Group after he alleged that federal contracts had been rigged in favour of the politically connected firm.
Earnscliffe took issue with statements that Mr. Kinsella made at a parliamentary committee two years ago.
As well, Mr. Kinsella is suing Scott Reid, former director of communications for Mr. Martin, who alleged that Mr. Kinsella was a liar in relation to his testimony on Earnscliffe.
...
January 9, 2006 – I want to clear something up, because it seems to me that some bloggers are possibly barking up the wrong digital tree.
Pierre Bourque – whom, full disclosure, I have known for years and like a great deal – has never hidden the fact that he offers up a "headline" service on his much-read website. Click here. As Pierre notes therein, which has always been found at the top of his page, he sells space on his site, in the form of banners, ads, and – yes – headlines. As he advertises: "Banners - Headlines - Pop Polls - Email Blasts – More." Quite a few people and companies knew that, as his lengthy advertiser list makes clear.
The issue, if there is one, is whether political parties should be purchasing headlines – headlines that promote their opponents' shortcomings, or promote their successes. It's certainly legitimate to pay to promote certain messages during election writ periods, as I wrote in this book. But in any political ad, in any democracy I am familiar with, one is required to disclose that it is a paid political message. That allows voters to weigh the reliability of the information being broadcast.
The issue, to me, isn't Pierre Bourque, at all, at all. He sells space on his site, and he doesn't hide that fact. The issue, instead, is whether political parties – specifically, the BC Liberal Party, the federal and Ontario Conservative parties – shouldn't be disclosing that they are spending taxpayer-subsidized dollars to get the coverage they could not otherwise obtain in traditional ways. That's the question.
The answer, in my view, is yes. They should admit that they are doing that. They shouldn't be hiding it.
(And, to save the usual suspects and web haters some time, nobody has ever paid me a cent to write something, or not write something, on this web site. Not a red cent. I don't ever write critically about clients, past or present, but lawyers tend to be that way, whether blogging or not.)
Okay. No-holds-barred honesty session complete, we now return you to our regular programming of cheap shots, ad hominems and bad jokes. God bless us all!
January 8, 2006 - Interesting. Interesting-er. Interesting-er-est.
I hope it isn't true.
January 8, 2007 - Didn't get the link to this one, but was sent the article by a West Coast correspondent. See? Chretien and Martin people can get along, if they want to.
...
A west coast power player:
By taking underdog Stephane Dion to the Liberal party's top job, Mark Marissen has proven himself as a shrewd campaign strategist and shown his past successes were no fluke
Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun
2282 words
6 January 2007
Vancouver Sun
Final
C1 / Front
English
Copyright (c) 2007 Vancouver Sun
It's after midnight, last call approaches and the evening's final drinks are being downed by a small group of Vancouver journalists, most bleary-eyed and a bit woozy. Not Mark Marissen, the quintessential Liberal backroom boy, as the conversation turns to his favourite topic: plotting the path to power.
The man now regarded as one of the best political strategists in the country sat at the table, calmly listening to the predictions of those who had streamed out of the annual Jack Webster Foundation awards in Vancouver for their traditional nightcap.
As he listened, many offered up their predictions of who would win the federal Liberal leadership race, then still weeks away. An amused look crossed Marissen's face.
Most in the bar predicted easy victories for Michael Ignatieff or Bob Rae as the next federal Liberal leader, the prevailing conventional wisdom. Not Marissen. He eagerly began spinning, for anyone who would listen, an alternative scenario that most, other than a perceptive few, deemed a
political fantasy from a guy who had seen better days.
"We want to be third on the first vote at the convention," insisted the campaign manager for Liberal leadership candidate Stephane Dion. "If we're third on the first vote, Dion is going to win the leadership. Just watch."
"Sure," responded a listener, not buying that improbable scenario. Aiming for third place in politics is a bit like settling for best man at your sweetheart's wedding, hardly the ideal outcome. "Maybe that will work, Mark. But I don't think Dion has a chance."
That night, the prospect of the 40-year-old Vancouverite leading the charisma-challenged Dion to victory over Ignatieff or Rae for the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada was widely regarded as a long shot. In fact, so did the idea of Marissen emerging as one of the most powerful backroom boys in Canada. His political trajectory, to say the least, had been less
than spectacular.
First, Marissen had lost what made him a powerful and sometimes feared figure in Liberal circles -- his privileged access to a prime minister. Paul Martin had gone down to defeat in the last election, and Marissen, who led Martin's last campaign in British Columbia, seemed to be on the way out. It may have been the only place where Liberal support went up, but Marissen
seemed part of a clique that had lost its influence.
Secondly, and worse, was his humiliating loss on his home turf: Marissen's supposed magic touch in the backroom failed abysmally in his attempt to lead his wife, former B.C. deputy premier and cabinet minister Christy Clark, to the Vancouver mayor's office. She didn't even win the nomination.
And finally, Marissen was now running the leadership campaign of a dark horse, a wannabe prime minister many Liberal insiders didn't think had a hope of winning. It seemed a desperate, under-funded bid on a shoe string. Dion had to stay in Marissen's own home on his western campaign swings.
"Running a leadership campaign, or election campaign, out of the west had never been done before," said Warren Kinsella, a Liberal organizer and political pundit. "Kim Campbell was from Vancouver and she ran hers out of Ottawa. I was skeptical."
But Marissen was dead right. The race scenario he had spelled out that night in Vancouver did play out on the floor of the Liberal convention: Dion snuck up the middle, knocked out Bob Rae and then handily defeated Ignatieff. Even though he thought it would happen, Marissen seemed stunned by how right he was.
"I'm still on an adrenalin high," he said just a few days after the convention, fresh off a plane from Ottawa. "It was an incredible convention. Well, at least it was incredible for me."
No exaggeration there. By taking an underdog to the Liberal party's top job, Marissen has proven himself as not only a shrewd campaign strategist but also shown his past successes were no fluke. Twice in a decade, Marissen has effectively put himself inside the inner circle of a Liberal party leader.
"Mark Marissen," said Kinsella, "is now one of the most influential people in the Liberal party of Canada."
And if the Liberals win the next federal election, a contest that could be called in just a few months, the boy from St. Thomas, Ont. is likely to become one of the most powerful and plugged-in backroom players in Canada.
As a breed, the political backroom boy -- and it's almost always the Y chromosome that wins out in the profession -- needs an unusual skill set: Cunning, worldliness, the suave glad-handing of a Las Vegas casino greeter and a ruthless streak that means not turning the other cheek, unless there is going to be political payback for the favour. Not the stuff you learn in Sunday school.
Which is why Mark Marissen's upbringing seems an unlikely start.
Picture his hometown, St. Thomas, in southwestern Ontario: His parents were Dutch immigrants, religious people who saw to it their son followed their Dutch Reformed faith. He went to church twice on Sundays. He attended the Christian school his father founded. It was a town where the Christian Heritage Party would eventually find some of its most ardent followers, many of them the friends Marissen shared pews with on Sundays.
"You've heard of St. Thomas?" asks Marissen, somewhat surprised that a guest at breakfast even knows his hometown, which is two hours from Toronto and Detroit.
"The only thing that St. Thomas is known for is Jumbo the elephant," he says, referring to P.T. Barnum's famous pachyderm. "Actually, St. Thomas is famous because Jumbo died there [in 1885]. He got hit by a train. That's about the biggest thing that ever happened in St. Thomas."
He had a Norman Rockwell-like upbringing, with a heavy dose of the Bible, not a boyhood that would seem to nurture liberal tendencies. Within the god-fearing Dutch Calvinist community Marissen recalls that even teaching dancing to children was frowned upon. Yet he was drawn to politics and his parents, less conservative than their peers, encouraged his early ambition.
"The political bug started early," recalls Marissen. "Raymond Pennings [an early backer of the Christian Heritage Party] and I started a school newspaper in Grade 8 at Ebenezer (Christian school) and ran against each other for prime minister. We tied, and I got the 'parliament' to break the tie in favour of me. Parliament was made up of the Grade 8 boys -- they met while the Grade 8 girls were in sewing class."
There were no party labels that really mattered in that junior high school political contest. But Marissen would soon choose one.
"I joined the Liberals to support Pierre Trudeau," says Marissen. "It seemed about the most radical thing you could do from St. Thomas, Ontario."
His parents embraced his choice. (Indeed his father, two decades later, would be a Dion delegate at the Liberal convention.) Others in the close-knit Dutch community were aghast and thought he had fallen from grace.
"When I came back to St. Thomas in 1988 to help the Liberal candidate, one of the well-meaning church ladies stopped me on the street to tell me that she was praying for me because I was not supporting the Christian Heritage Party," recalled Marissen. "It was that kind of place."
But some of the major players in the Liberal party quickly saw the potential in this driven, small-town boy with a taste for the backroom, not the glamour of being the star candidate. Senator Keith Davey, the legendary "rainmaker" of the Trudeau years, soon became Marissen's mentor. After the obligatory door-knocking in early campaigns, Marissen found himself rising
in the party, eventually to a plugged-in leader of young Liberals that gave him a taste of national campaigns. Other young Liberals noticed he was different.
"He is unusual for this business, a quiet person," said Kinsella, who first met Marissen when they were both young Liberals. "I don't find him to be a showoff, or the alpha-dog type you run into in politics. He is quiet and as a consequence more observant than many other political advisers."
"You'd look up in a meeting, and he'd be over in the corner, quiet, instead of kind of showing off as some of us do."
But Marissen was also an organizer who would take no prisoners in the effort to win. In fact, some found him ruthless. In the internecine battles that took place between the warring camps of prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, Marissen -- and the party machine he ran in B.C. -- did whatever they had to win, even if it meant taking on the old guard.
Consider Kinsella's bitter complaint, at the height of the feuding between the Chretien and Martin camps, when he says he almost burned his party card over a 2002 political brawl on the West Coast under Marissen's watch: "It was the night that Mr. Martin's British Columbia apparatchiks took over the riding association of former cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal, knowing (a) Mr. Dhaliwal was out of the country, and (b) his wife was dying of cancer.
"I've witnessed a lot of political thuggery, but I had never before seen anything as disgusting as that. It was only a friend in Ottawa who talked me out of quitting the Liberal party, on that night."
But politics makes for strange bedfellows. Kinsella is now a supporter of Dion and finds himself allied with Marissen, who he says he likes. As for Marissen, he now believes the party has moved beyond its infighting stage, something that just may be true with the detente that seems to have been brokered between Dion and Ignatieff. The man who came from Harvard to be leader recently signalled he will work with the underdog who trounced him on the convention floor.
On the fridge, there is a letter, scribbled in a scrawl that's almost illegible, a memento that Marissen says he just may now need to frame. Its author is Dion, who scribbled it shortly after being at Marissen's downtown Vancouver home, where Marissen and Clark had hosted the aspiring Liberal leader so he could meet other B.C. Liberals.
"Dear Mark and Christy, I thank you very much for having hosted me in your beautiful home," Dion wrote. "It was a beginning of a long journey in which we will accomplish a lot for Canada together."
It's a letter that Marissen's proud of but not one he likes outsiders to see, fearing it will make him seem self-serving. But it begs the next question: Will Marissen move deeper into Dion's inner circle, perhaps more deeply into the Liberal party's nexus of power than he's ever been?
"I'm not sure he's that kind of guy," said Peter Donolo, a former top aide to Chretien, who has known Marissen since his days as a young Liberal. "He might feel kind of constrained in the Prime Minister's Office. He likes to operate on the ground. I don't think he's the type to do it from the executive suite."
Maybe. For his part, Marissen seems to agree for the moment. He has recently been appointed by Dion to co-chair the Liberal party's national election campaign, the biggest challenge of his career.
Marissen, who does not speak French, will share the job with Nancy Girard, another Dion loyalist who will be closely involved with the crucial battleground of Quebec.
Marissen says he intends to do his part from Vancouver, saying that technology makes it possible to live thousands of kilometres away and still be in the political mix.
"The two biggest changes in my world are the BlackBerry and the conference calls," he said. "You can run a national campaign from Vancouver in today's world. You really can."
Still, if he steers Dion to victory in the next federal election, which could begin in months, the pressure will surely mount to go to Ottawa, to help run a Liberal government. Will he succumb?
Donolo believes a big part of that decision is because of Marissen's wife, Christy Clark, a woman with political ambitions of her own -- perhaps even the job of Premier Gordon Campbell. Her political future, say both Donolo and Kinsella, is in British Columbia.
"I'm not going anywhere," says Clark. "Vancouver is home. I'm staying."
To which Marissen echoes: "I'm staying."
At least for now.
...
January 8, 2006 - Linkless, contextless observations on this and that:
- Our daughter plays in the all-girls league in Leaside (yes, where hockey author Stephen Harper grew up; see below). The girls have to beg and plead to get ice time - while the boys leagues never have any such problem. It is completely unfair, and there is no rational explanation for it. Any Ontario hockey Dad-or-Mom lawyers who feel as I do should email me at wkinsella@hotmail.com. I have an idea.
- Speaking of hockey, do you ever wonder why some parents holler at the kids? I mean, it's not like the kids can hear you, 99 per cent of the time. It's like people cheering at Nascar races, when souped-up cars scream past at 250 mph and 200 decibels. I can't quite imagine the driver saying: "Hey! I can hear lots of people are cheering me! I think I'll go faster, now!"
- Jeepers, those anti-Dion "headlines" sure show up with great frequency and prominence on certain blogs and web sites, these days, don't they? Geez, you don't think a certain political party is PAYING for those "headlines" to appear, do you? (I'm not involved in the federal Grits, at all, but I can't think of anything more stupid than one of their opponents allowing a REAL headline to be printed: "PAYOLA SCANDAL: POLITICOS CAN'T GET GOOD NEWS COVERAGE, HAVE TO PAY FOR IT.")
- Hey, the Wikipedia-vandalizing, lawsuit-losing, Rachel Marsden-obsessing former "journalist" has an anti-Kinsella website. It’s pretty good. Will link to it shortly.
- Global Warming Watch™: spring flowers are starting to show up in the garden at the front of our house. In Canada. In January. In gardens. We are not making this up.
- Is it wrong that my kids love 'Dragula' by Rob Zombie, and we leap about to lyrics like "Dead I am the dog, hound of hell you cry…Devil on your back, I can never die…"? Naw. It’s all good.
- This is a long one, but it reminds me of the good old days – getting a politician out there to talk to real people, about something other than politics. It was on TSN the other day:
James Duthie (TSN): 3-0 Canada after one period of play. One of the biggest hockey fans in the country, the prime minister, the right honourable Stephen Harper. Did you get much of the first, and what are your thoughts?
Stephen Harper: I saw enough to see all three goals. It's very exciting. A great start for team Canada. Look, they got the offence going. They have the power play going, which everyone said they had to do. I think now the challenge for Hartsburg is to keep the energy high, keep them excited but disciplined. And if they keep doing what they are doing they should be fine.
James Duthie: Strong analysis. We don't need McKenzie anymore. I know you are a hockey historian v you embraced the idea of the shoot-out to decide games as important as that Canada USA semi-final.
Stephen Harper: I have to be honest. I was a tough sell on the shoot-out. I was a historian and a purist. I still prefer overtime. I warmed up to the shoot-out over the years. I guess part of what kind of had me reluctant about the shoot-out for a long time wasn't just that it kind of wasn't our history but also being a little bit after soccer fan as well I hated shoot-outs in soccer. I think the shoot-out in hockey is a lot more about skill, a lot less about luck. So I think -- I would still prefer an overtime, I don't mind the shoot-out.
James Duthie: What about the WIHF version where they can have repeat shooters like we saw the other day?
Stephen Harper: If you are like Craig Hartsburg you can throw a guys like Toews that thread the needle time after time you like it. I have to admit, as a purist I would prefer a team approach. So you have to keep putting different guys out. At this point we just want to win the gold medal.
James Duthie: Listen, I want to say this, if there perhaps is a one-day economic slowdown because everybody is supposed to be working is watching TSN we profusely apologize.
Stephen Harper: Yeah. Well, I appreciate your apology. I'm suspecting I’m going to have trouble getting my phone calls returned today as well.
James Duthie: Thank you. Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Stephen Harper: Thanks for having me.
January 8, 2006 - I provided testimony to the Standing Committee on Public Works (PAC) in April of 2005. I also authorized and presented to the Committee various documents. I regret any harm these statements may have caused Terrie O'Leary. At no time in any dealings involving myself and Ms. O'Leary or at any other time did I observe any evidence of any kind that Ms. O'Leary was ever personally involved in improper contracting activity.
January 5, 2006 - Bits and pieces, this and that:
- I'm sorry, but this reminds me of my adolescence, so I accordingly
found
this funny enough that I coughed up a lung. I'm from Calgary, guilty as charged. So shoot me.
- And people made fun of us for calling our company "Daisy." We don't
feel so bad now. H/T Samantha.
- Funny. I particularly like getting mocked for my physical appearance by the Constipated Catholic, who gives a wholly new dimension to the phrase "unsightly gnome." Get back under your toadstool, you hateful dwarf, or
we'll get Gandalf to cast a spell on you!
- Sure. And thanks for the shout-out, Maclean's cats (the web site is bitchin' these days, by the way, Adam). But if I'm right, what will
Greenpeace make of John Baird? We'll see soon enough, I guess.
- Further to this week's Post column, linked to below, another slice
of disturbing cell phone vérité. I see a few civil rights violations in this one, but what do I know.
- A column in tomorrow's Post - on cabinet-making! A sample: "A
former Chief of Staff to a former Prime Minister - a Conservative one, not a
Liberal - once made an astute observation in a private conversation: 'All
that PMO staffs do is plan their next international trip - and talk about
the next cabinet shuffle.' That seemed a tad simplistic, so the theory was
floated past a few Liberal PMO staffers. Said one, in an
uncharacteristically humble moment: 'Sounds about right.'
- John Tory on Global TV last night: "I don't think winning is everything."
I’ll bet his campaign team was delighted by that!
January 4, 2007 – Baird, Solberg, Nicholson, Hill, Van Loan, LeBreton up? Wow.
This leftward shift says to me that (a) if you voted for same sex marriage at some point, in some way, and (b) if you were at some point, in some way, part of the anti-Stock Democratic Representative Caucus, or (c) you are in some way a younger, urban, Progressive Conservative red Tory type waffler, then...Stephen Harper thinks you deserve a promotion.
(Urgent memo to social conservatives: You may think Stephen is your guy, but he
ain’t your guy. We now have proof that he never was your guy. He just let you
THINK he was.)
Like I always say about this fellow University of Calgary grad: he goes to where the puck is going to be, not where it is.
Smart.
January 4, 2007 – Today’s Post column, on the voyeurism of violence.
January 3, 2007 – I am a wanker, and I am disappointed.
In past years, I have been as high as number two on Frank magazine’s annual “wanker” list. This year, I am a pathetic 25.
Here is what the boys wrote about Yours Screwly:
“25. Warren Kinsella – Grit’s [sic] heavily calloused in-house fluffer. Portly couch punk just has a lot of love to give – is that a crime?”
After my colleagues and I had a number of good laughs about that – particularly the insinuated gay designation, which I accept with, um, pride – I became offended. Not only had those Frank bastards dropped me on the wank rank – they had even called me “portly”!
I’m not! I’m not! I weigh what I did ten years ago, if not less. Besides, to remain a profitable “fluffer”, one needs to keep in shape. As it were.
January 3, 2006 – We’ll post this one as a Muse until Boris gets back from wherever the Hell he is. Until then, here it is.
PARENTAL WARNING: lots of cuss words ahead! Lock up your daughters! Hide the silverware! Christly God, it’s a Satanic rock’n’roll list!
TOP TEN ALBUMS OF 2006
Usually, I write this one up before year’s end. But I started to suspect that, apart from Scott Sellers, nobody reads the fucking thing. I mean, who cares what I think, right? Some days, I don’t, either.
My lack of enthusiasm for list-making was also compounded by my growing suspicion that rock’n’roll is starting to suck again. It’s not the Seventies disco era, or the Eighties hair band era, or whatever. It’s not that bad, yet. But it’s getting depressing again, boys and girls. Perhaps that’s why, in my forties, I’m only excited by the music that excited me in my teens – punk rock. (That, or the mid-life crisis thing. Take your pick. Some guys get trophy brides, some buy Porsches. Me, I start punk bands called Shit From Hell.)
Anyway, I digress. I figured I’d better do up the list when one of my partners leaned into my office, yesterday, and said something like: “Where the fuck is your best of 2006 list?” He looked peeved, and he’s a big Tool and NIN fan, so I don’t fuck with him.
Here goes. And remember, kids: don’t download, unless it’s someone who’s a millionaire already. Millionaires are fun to torment.
- Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam: I love the word eponymous. Love it. Love saying it, too: “Eponymous.” The Merriam-Webster folks say it means “of, relating to, or being the person for whom something is believed to be named.” Mostly, you only see it in the context of reviews of rock’n’roll records. In this particular context – Pearl Jam’s eighth studio album, in a stellar fifteen-year existence – it fits. Is this the record that Vedder and Co. actually intended to be their first? It certainly sounds like it. ‘Pearl Jam’ throbs with anger and intelligence and talent, like all first-time rock’n’roll albums should. ‘World Wide Suicide’ got most of the air play when the record got released, because it succinctly summarized the angst that most of us feel about the world, these days. But the rest of the record – as with ‘Yield’ and ‘Binaural’ – sees Seattle’s finest refusing to play it safe, and taking plenty of risks. It is like they (and me, who love them) are younger again, and recording their first-ever album. Eponymous.
- Towers of London – Blood, Sweat and Towers: The fucking Towers Of London are the most important fucking new rock & roll band on the fucking planet. I am not fucking with you. It's not entirely of their own doing, this exalted status they now enjoy. Casting a glance over the pop charts, one can readily see why the five boozing, cursing, brawling, skirt-chasing delinquent Towers are more than hugely important - they are, in fact, utterly necessary. They are vital. They are what quite a few of us have been waiting for a long time. As far as the eye can see, piles and piles of aural dreck: Justin Timberlake, Nickelback, Christina Aguilera, the Pussycat Dolls. It goes on and on and on. Corporate-sized, focus-grouped, over-priced, glossy, glitzy CRAP THAT IS BORING AND WITHOUT ANY MERIT WHATSOEVER. Rock & roll has become, as it often does, terrible again. It is tiresome. It is self-obsessed. It is fucking awful. That is why God invented the Towers of London. And it is why you must buy this album, right now. It will save your life.
- Rise Against – The Sufferer and The Witness: Don't ask me how or why, but there I was at the tail end of September – in a jacket, slacks and a dress shirt outside MuchMusic, beside people in black T-shirts and who are half my age (at least), waiting to catch a glimpse of Rise Against. They were here for some promo thing. My wife said I'm "a weirdo," and she'll get no arguments from pretty much anyone we know, and quite a few of those we don’t. But I stuck it out, because I admire these young guys so much – straight edge, passionate, melodic, filled righteous fury. Listen to ‘Ready To Fall,’ as I did on that sidewalk that day, and consider whether the world still doesn’t need changing. The place is so fucking bleak and cruel and evil, most days, but these guys give me hope. They’ll do the same for you, if you let ‘em.
- Artic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not: The good news (if you're one of Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys) is that Britain's influential New Musical Express has decreed your first album to be one of the greatest of all time - up there with the Beatles and so on. The bad news (if you're an Arctic Monkey) is that the NME has decreed your first album to be one of the greatest of all time, et cetera. Why is this bad? Why is it bad that this record - which is great fun, and well worth a try - sold faster than any debut album in the history of British pop? Well, for starters, it creates expectations for the quartet that they cannot possibly hope to satisfy on either side of the Atlantic. And on this side in particular, every review of the Monkeys' first waxing mentions the NME hysteria - and accordingly treats the band with pronounced suspicion. It's too bad, actually: its rollicking, tuneful pop-punk, with a sharp eye for social commentary as part of the bargain. But the irony remains: the NME helped lift the Arctic Monkeys out of obscurity - and they may send them right back there, too. (So far, however, the Monkeys are defying my predictions. Good.)
- Clap Your Hands Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Have you heard ‘The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth’ by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah? You must before you die. You must! I linked to it on my web site back in February or something, and a girl in England wrote to me and said it changed her life (the tune, not the web site) and she flew to see them play in France. Then again…maybe it was Against Me! and not CYHSY. Whatever. Me, I have now found a way to fill the hole in my life left by Pavement. Time to die.
- Against Me! - Americans Abroad!!! Against Me!!! Live in London!!!: They released it in August, and it is mainly live versions of stuff taken from ‘Searching For a Former Clarity’ and ‘As The Eternal Cowboy.’ Despite the lack of newness, this record should demonstrate to you why the likes of Spin called them one of the best live acts on the planet – and why Warren now lists ‘Clarity’ as one of his Top Ten Records Of All Time, So Help Me God. And that’s why I wrote this, a year ago: “Based on the strength of this record, Against Me! have the ability to change punk, and rock'n'roll itself. They are literally that good.” They are.
- The Briefs – Steal Yer Heart: So there we were, spinning through the XM satellite radio dial, one sunny Summer day, 2006 A.D., and we came across the pristine punk-pop brilliance of The Briefs’ ‘Normal Jerks.’ Sample lyric: “Normal people do what they want to…Normal people do what they like…They go out shopping and they go to fix their hair…When I walk by them, oh yeah, they just stop and stare…I say so what, I don't care what you do…At least I'll never, ever be a normal jerk like you.” It’s not Dylan, sure. Who cares (thank Christ, actually). Our four-year-old loves this band – in all of their Old School Punk New Wavey nuttiness, complete with Devo-like shades and goofy stage moves – with intensity is truly frightening. He sings their lyrics in school, and the teachers disapprove, which his Old Man (typically) loves. Added CanCon bonus: Stevie Kicks of the New Town Animals from Vancouver is now a member of the band, and they let him sing. Pogo!
- Magneta Lane – Dancing With Daggers: The Japanese and Canadian releases came late, late in 2005, verging on 2006, so it’s legit to place this record – which, like the band itself – on a best-of-2006 list. The record itself is near-impossible to define, but captivating as Hell. An all-female trio (which is only relevant insofar as rawk’n’role is still a male-dominated game, and the women who make it to the front of the line – like Sleater-Kenney, like Hole, like Brody Armstrong, like all the great ones – fucking well deserve to be there) comprised of French (bass), Nadia (drums) and Lexi (vox and guitar), the gals got together back in 2003 and – here’s the best part, and call me a petty nationalist, I don’t care – THEY ARE ALL-CANADIAN! THEY ARE FROM TORONTO, EVEN! Now, if I hadn’t told you that, you’d figure they were from NYC or London or something – Magneta Lane are that cool. They are that great. Give ‘Bridge To Terabithia’ a spin – it is one of the best tunes of 2006, hands down. Huge things await these three. Brilliant.
- Greg Graffin – Cold As The Clay: Picked this up at his solo show in Toronto, a few months back, when he was on a mini-solo-tour, backed by most of the Weakerthans. It was amazing. The lead singer of punk rock giants Bad Religion singing roots stuff, and actually pulling it off. On reflection, I shouldn’t continue to be amazed by the guy: as I wrote in the Anglican Journal this week, Graffin is a brilliant and fascinating person, and just not because he’s a punk legend and a celebrity. I mean, Graffin possesses a Ph.D in zoology – he wrote his doctoral dissertation on evolution, atheism and naturalism – and he is exceptionally intelligent. No punk caricature here, Virginia. ‘Cold As The Clay,’ produced by Bad Religion co-founder Brett Gurewitz, carries echoes of Gram Parsons, Neil Young and the Band, and that’s not a bad thing. It was recorded and mixed in seven days – just like in the good old days, before ProTools and computers and whatnot. And it’s terrific.
- Shit From Hell – Stunned Shit Blunders: Well, okay. We haven’t been in the studio, as yet. Been delayed by the usual stuff. And I’m not sure that’ll be the title, either. But we’ve got more than a CD’s worth of stuff, including thoughtful crowd-pleasers like ‘Avril Lavigne Must Die.’ The record will makes us huge rock stars, we will quit our jobs, be chased by Paris Hilton, and I won’t have to do this fucking blog stuff anymore. I’ll be able to pay roadies to do it for me. Get ready, world! SFH is here!
January 2, 2007 - And, as 2007 commences, my first published work is in... the Anglican Journal. I'm an ecumenical kind of guy, what can I say?
January 1, 2007 - My Top Ten predictions for 2007, over on the Post blog.
January 1, 2007 - Happy New Year. Unless you are in an emo band, in which case I hope you have a lousy year. Ontario Progressive Conservatives, too.
It is sunny and about ten degrees in Toronto right now. Anyone who persists in the view that global warming isn't happening is on crack.
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