Well not quite, but never give up an opportunity to reference the Cave-man.

I’ll do my best not to just launch directly into some sort of extended political tirade, I will however save that for later.  Got to vote today, a whole couple of days early, oh the privileges of being professionally homeless.  I’ll let all you happy voters in the seat of Berowra into a little secret, if you fill in below the line you will need to be able to count to 79.

Anyways, it was kind of refreshing to not be bombarded with dozens of pieces of propaganda whilst going into vote, and was even more refreshing to not have to wait in line at all to vote.  Just waltzed straight in to a stripped out office on the third floor of the building that houses the Australian Consulate General in Toronto.

Well, when I say I wasn’t bombarded with propaganda on my way in, that isn’t completely true - there was one guy there campaigning for the Labor party so after I had exercised my Democratic "priivilege" I tried to strike up a little bit of conversation with him.

Turns out he’s a die-hard Labor supporter (no surprises there), lives in Toronto and is currently un-employed so decided to spend his day(s) out the front of the polling place spreading the gospel of Kevin.  Something has been plaguing my thoughts of late, and decided to impose the query on him - just what is the deal with compulsory voting?

His response was somewhat expected, he compared it to taxation - you have to pay taxes, you pay for the government therefore you should have to choose the leadership which spends it.  He then referenced what he calls the political crisis in Canada, where in the last election they had only a 40% voter turnout. 

My question is, and the one I can’t shake is, what would you prefer - a 40% presumably informed, intelligent and dedicated vote or a 40% presumably informed, intelligent and dedicated vote and a 60% apathetic, un-informed vote?  Although I have a lot of respect for random Kevin Rudd campaigner guy, this is where he lost me as he started rambling about how he [Howard] aims to disenfranchise the youth of today.  Whilst not completely un-accurate, why is it that so many people confuse complaints about Political Structure or Political Ideology with complaints about leadership?

Anyways, I believe that un-informed voting in Australia is why we see so many politicians re-elected, and part of the reason why John Howard has been Prime Minister for such a long time.  I mean after all, if you don’t know any better, better the Devil you know right?

Doesn’t the whole forcing you to vote go against the whole underlying ideology of freedom that democracy is supposed to provide?  Isn’t not having an opinion on something the same as having an opinion?  I’d feel a lot more confident in the whole procedure if I knew that the people who had been elected to represent what could be a great country were elected by people who were not only passionate about the issues that matter, they actually know what the issues that matter are.

Just in case you were wondering, I voted double Green.  They’re our best chance at having a third major party - a two party system doesn’t work.

But that’s a whole different can of worms.

Finally, finally, finally got to see an Ice Hockey game live.  Didn’t see the Toronto Maple Leafs play, because well, they don’t like poor people - so Aussie Rob and I went and saw the Marlies play - the Minor League affiliates that play in the AHL (as opposed to the NHL).

It was a pretty good game, although the Marlies went down 5-3 loosing only their second game this season.  We had a "die-hard" fan of the opposition behind us, although it really must be noted that whilst he loved to yell out "IDDDIOOOOOOTTTSS" every three minutes or so - he kept referring to his beloved IceHogs as the IceDogs, and liked to break up his "IDDDIOOOOOOTTTSS" with "C’MON DOGGIES".  The ironing was in fact delicious, although a tad over-cooked.

The two bonus features to the game was firstly, that our entry included a Mats Sundin bobble-head doll (read:action figure), and secondly a massive biff with about thirty-five seconds to go.  An Ice-Hog had been hassling this much smaller Marlie all night, being pretty rough, constantly knocking him down behind play - something similar happened just before the final siren, the marlie cracked it and dropped the big fella with about fifteen quick right-hand jabs to the face.

I’d definitely recommend a Marlies game to someone who wants to see some ice hockey in Toronto - they play at the Ricoh Coliseum, expensive tickets are $38 although there really isn’t a bad seat in the place.

Well not exactly, it just seemed like a comic book convention.  I worked a sports memorabilia show last weekend, and the attendees of said Sports Memorabilia show can be summed up with one simple observation.  Just adjacent to our booth was a garbage bin, in the eight hours I was sitting there, bored out of my skull, every single person that tried to throw something into it - be it from one foot or six feet away, missed.  This, and this alone was what helped me (arguably) retain my sanity for the day.

The whole show was kind of interesting I guess, it was mostly hockey memorabilia, and they had a few former pro hockey players and a football player there signing autographs.  I just assumed the way that it worked was that the players were paid some sort of appearance fee by the organisers of the show, and people just lined up and got their autographs.  I thought of it as a way for the players to give back to the fans, and get paid a reasonable amount to travel the continent and talk shit about their careers.  I know, I know, I’m naive and this is of course very far from the case.

Say you both know who Jim Brown is, and desire his autograph.  You wait in line to get into the show, then pay to get into the show ($12, not so bad), afterward you wait in another line to get a ticket to see Jim Brown.  You then pay for said ticket.  Now if you want the illustrious, Hall of Fame Jim Browns autograph, it will cost you the every day low price of $149.  One-hundred and forty-nine flipping dollars.  Speaking to my boss, he claims that someone that has had a decent career could potentially make in excess of a million dollars a year on the autograph circuit.

Flipping crazy.

 Anyways, I doubt I was much help for the day - as most my conversation with potential customers went as follows:

"Hey do you have any <insert random Maple Leaf player from the ’70s name here> posters?"

"Ummm…. Hey Neil did we bring any, sorry, what was that name again?"

Oh well.

Random fact #1 - American’s don’t seem to understand the word surname or family-name.  You have to say "last name" or "the name after your first name that’s not your middle name" for them to understand.

Random fact #2 - Don Cherry, former coach of the Boston Bruins and "Hockey Tonight" tv personality looks kind of like my Dad.  Don’s the cardboard cutout to the right-hand side of the following picture.  Don Cherry/Dad made a brief appearance in the female bathroom at work serving two purposes - scaring the shit out of my boss and making me giggle.

I think I have a new favourite live venue, and the best part is, it’s a fifteen minute walk from my house.  Last night I saw Malajube and D’urbervilles play at Lee’s Palace, and it was a brilliant show. 

D’urbervilles were one of the supports, and reminded me of a happier/poppier Joy Division - the lead singer even broke down some Ian Curtis/Peter Garrett-esque dance moves in the end.  Really solid sound, good stage presence, and are apparently looking for a new drummer - my buddy JJ just got a drum set, I haven’t played it yet, but I figure give me a couple of weeks and I’ll be set.

Malajube came on around midnight, and played for a little over an hour.  They’re from Montreal, sing entirely in French, have some really catchy songs and I like them a lot.  I found the banter between songs really entertaining, because it shifted between French and random English phrases that he knew - "The weather today was good.  Let’s sing for the weather", and "You bastards won today.  I do not care, but it is something to say" (Montreal had lost to Toronto in the ice hockey earlier that night).

Brilliant venue, and some really cool shows coming up - Apostle of Hustle plays there in December, and looking forward to that because I really, really, love this song.

Two posts in less than a week, what a world!

P.S.  Slushy snow forecasted for Wednesday, think I might buy new shoes Tuesday - doubt these will cut it.

Sorry, that’s just my tourettes kicking in. 

I really should make some sort of apologies for not writing anything or perhaps blame my long blogging absence on some sort of serious injury, a result of living the highlife and being hospitalised.
 
Truth is, I just really haven’t been doing anything, and thus had anything to say, so I haven’t written anything (dramatic pause) until now.

Halloween.  It’s good fun, without want to sound like a paedophile - the best part was just walking down the street and seeing kids run back and forth from house to house screaming "Trick Or Treat", and the shy young kids hiding behind their parents legs whilst they say the magic words.

Turns out its not all for the kids though, last Saturday I went to a Halloween house party across the road from where I live, before going to a party at a Pub, ending the night back at the original house party.  JJ was Evil Where’s Wally - or as the poor confused kid calls it Evil Where’s Waldo, Aussie Rob was a beer keg and I was a Monk who was consistently mistaken for a Jedi and on one occasion - Martin Luther.  Truth be told, the Monk costume was simply the cheapest.  If I could do it again, I would put a bit more effort into it - there were some really creative and random costumes about.  One girl was dressed as "Yard Waste", one guy was an "Early 90s era Homosexual" and one group of girls were housewives having just committed suicide.

The thing that I really enjoyed about this particular holiday was how into it so many people were - the excitement of parents getting to dress their kids up, kids getting free lollies and everyone else using it as an excuse to cut loose.

JJ and I carved a pumpkin as well which was entertaining - felt kind of bad for not doing anything with the inside from the pumpkin - it really is a massive waste of food.

So the moral of this poorly told story - next Halloween, where-ever it is that I end up, a Halloween party will be had because Pagan festivals really are fun.