Where is Safe?

The crazy life is getting much too close for comfort.

Wednesday night a man was gunned down in a Vietnamese restaurant at 33d and Victoria. I was across the street at a Chinese restaurant about one hour before that incident.

On the same night (Halloween), 5 different assaults took place on the west side of Vancouver (12th & Alma, 4th and Wallace, West Boulevard, etc.).

This is where I live.

I just want to thank the mayor and the Police and the parents and the social workers and the Immigration department for making my world so safe.

Smoke Free Hospitals? That Took a Lot of Thought and Bravery

The day I came out of VGH after having an angioplasty (June 7, 2005) I was waiting by the emergency door for my son to pick me up.

In three minutes, I watched 3 losers with IV drips and casts and the like emerge from the bowels just long enough to light up.

Today, the hospitals announce that they will be smoke-free. Duh? What took these idiots so long?

Hingis Gone - Bye Bye, have a Nice Tantrum

How can you test positive for cocaine and claim "100% innocence."

This is the story of Martina Hingis, the star who has just retired (again) from professional tennis.

Bye, Bye, Baby, Bye Bye.

I have never been able to watch this harridan for a minute.

She has from the beginning been a hateful, smiling, beaming, spoiled brat, who just happens to also be a racist, bigot, homophobe and fascist.

She has famously ragged on about the Williams sisters, who replaced her during those dreadful, dull years when she was No. 1. Her comments were worthy of a Louisiana sheriff, circa 1923.

Then when she was defeated by Amelie Mauresmo, a completely out-of-the-closet lesbian since she was 19, Hingis famously cracked, "Well, it's like playing a man!"

Which is a strange remark from a girl who was specifically named after Martina Navratilova, probably the most boldly "out" athlete of the past century.

I will be so happy to never have to look at this toothy smile again.

How Many Books Will the Loonie Buy Me?

I buy books.

Mostly, these days, I buy from amazon.com.

The price is cheap and the delivery is swift (a week, a week and a half) and reliable.

Otherwise, I usually buy from Book Warehouse. Price, period.

Every so often, I buy from Hager's Books in Kerrisdale, an old-fashioned one-of bookstore, where the ladies who run the shop actually know both their stock and their customers. Imagine that!

Almost never buy from Chapters. Rude, cold, boring, unknowledgeable and they expect me to stand in a line to give them money. Only Safeway gets that concession for me.

But mostly, they are expensive.

The only other exceptions are Munroe's in Victoria, where I feel I just have to bring home a book souvenir and the several wonderful little book shops on Salt Spring Island.

Now Wal-Mart has announced it will recognize the Canadian Dollar in its book pricing. Good.

More Dating

The last time Hollywood writers went on strike, the horror show known as "Reality TV" was born.

Now, TV, ever a wasteland, is now one endless howl of "The Bachelor," (Can someone dare to try to explain this one to me?) and people losing weight and crying.

So, now, the writers are poised for another strike.

The studios will be laughing all the way to the bank and you and I will be renting more videos and reading more books,

Unfortunately, the writers have more than a legitimate complaint.

Hollywood is all about power (My dick is bigger than your dick, Dick.)

And writers have always been at the bottom of the heap.

The classic Hollywood joke goes like this:

When the head of Warner Bros. says to you, "This is the best first draft I've ever read." what he really means is, "You'll never work in this town again."

Shirley Horne

This is a tune I love done by Tony Bennett...but this is so darn good too, isn't it?

Donovan - Universal Soldier

Steve's Comment on Canadian Filmers

Okay, being a filmmaker, this is my OTHER pet peeve (the first being Vancouver drug policy).

This is best explained by example:

The US method
Sam Raimi (director of Spiderman), his brother Ted, and friend Bruce Campbell wanted to get into the movie business. So, they made a bunch of 8mm films to learn how and see what audiences liked, then went around to a bunch of doctors and dentists and friends and family, and collected enough to make Evil Dead, which they sold for a profit and started all their careers.

The US Method Version Two:
Ed Sanchez and Dan Myrick wanted to get into the film industry. So they started creating a buzz about their story online. Then, using borrowed equipment, and cheap hi8 tape, they shot Blair Witch Project, which they sold for a profit and started both their careers.

The Canadian method
Go to Telefilm, Ontario Film, BC Film, the Canada Council, and the CRTC and apply for a Cancon status/a grant/forgiveable loan/interim financing. If the jury deems your project worthy of Canadian Content status, they give you more forms to fill out, and if they think it is culturally Canadian (whatever the hell that means), they might give you some money. Then you can make your film, with creative approval from the funding bodies at every stage, and try to get it on some Canadian broadcaster late at night. Because the kinds of films these juries approve are abysmally unpopular.

Because you've got a bunch of socially disconnected leftist failed artist wannabes who've managed to wangle jury positions, with no oversight or criteria for success, deciding what the public ought to see.


But that's fine. It's their money. They can be as stupid as they want to be about who they give it to.

The real bee in my bonnet is that Canadian filmmakers (with only a couple of exceptions) all buy into this crapola. And make films no one wants to see. And then whine about there being no access to Canadian screens.

And then they apply to the government to create some protectionist legislation to save them.

Arts Groups Want Big Brother???

Canadian arts groups want the government to regulate the Internet.

How dumb are these people?

They don't want government censoring them or telling them what to dance, sing, paint or play. But they want Big Mama to save them from world wide content.

Well, have they ever looked at the NAME? It's not called www for nothing.

WORLD WIDE WEB.

So you don't want to compete with the rest of the world. Open a bakery.

Like the CRTC has done such a fabulous job of protecting Canadian content on TV and radio....hahahahahahaha...

The horse was out of the barn about 18 years ago...the Rip Van Winkles of "Arts Groups" have suddenly woken from their slumber.

I hope they don't hurt themselves going for their morning whizzzzzzz.

Massacre Murderers Martyred at Mosque

It was only yesterday that I posted an item on the mass murderers being praised as "martyrs" in a local religious ceremony.

I was pleased to learn today that a man who lost his wife in the Air India murders is challenging the RCMP to investigate this outrageous glorification of violence.

I think more citizens have to challenge and SUE more government offices more often on more issues until such offices get off their backsides and do something approximating the jobs they are being paid to do.

Like, for instance, uphold the law, or protect and serve the community. Quint old ideas like that.

Google 4th Richest

$700 share and climbing.

Did you buy?

Will you buy?

Check it out...amazing strange bleep on the oscilliscope of financial life....

Progress With a Price

I was driving north across the Granville Street Bridge the other day.

I looked at the landscape, so radically changed in recent years by the blooming of a hundred concrete towers.

I still love Vancouver and am still happy and grateful to live here.

But I don't like much of what I see.

No doubt, this is all very good for the economy.

But it is ugly and I don't like it.

The Ministry of Heartbreak

It is heartbreaking to read the continuing nightmare of neglect to foster children from the Child & Family Ministry.

I feel a particular ache in this regard because my mother, may she rest in peace, took in foster children on occasion. One at a time, not nine. And she provided the most loving care and attention imaginable.

Of course, she didn't have to deal with this government's indifference.

The Ministry has been a rotating graveyard for politicians for at least a dozen years now.

And, while the cement is being poured and the monuments clutter the landscape, Children & Families continues to be underfunded and understaffed.

The priorities of this administration are clear.

It's unfortunate that their vision is so muddy.

Little Martyr on the Prairie

Mass murderers being praised at religious services as "martyrs?" Here in Canada?

This is a detestable example of the worst unexpected consequences of a muddle-headed multiculturalist policy.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Welcome to the New Canada, where Terrorism is sanctioned, stamped and approved.

Stephane Who?

It is one thing to criticise a federal budget; it is quite another to give any notice whatsoever, let alone credit, to a nebish like Liberal "leader", Stephane Dion.

What's with Don Cayo and the newspaper? Are they among the folks who, having forgotten the corruption of the Liberal regime, are still crying about Harper's election?

Guest Comment from John Deserves an Audience

Hi David,

I was a crew member for two of the shows (whole summers in fact) in which you appeared in what was in those days called "Theatre in the Park": "Guys and Dolls: and "The Pajama Game".

In fact, I spent several entire summers of my teen years at Malkin Bowl. I am still friends with many of the people I worked with in those years. Quite a few of us went on to careers in the theatre, including myself.

I am sure you remember the dressing rooms in the bowels of the bowl. My only interest in those rooms was the many hundreds of signatures on the walls of all the people who appeared in shows or worked on them over the decades. Amongst those scrawled signatures was one of "Robert Goulet".

All the signatures were lost in a tragic instance of bureaucratic well-meaning in the '80s when the parks board sent someone in to repaint all the interior walls. We who spent so much of our young lives in that place were devastated at the news.

I still think of that decrepit old theatre as a crucible of learning and sanctuary for a generation of musical theatre people (onstage and backstage) that are still practicing their craft. It was my Hogwarts.

A More Personal Note on Robert Goulet

On a more personal note ( B-flat, I believe), I've always felt a curious and silly connection with Robert Goulet.

It comes from this.

When I was in my late teens, I was sitting in the dining room at the Charterhouse Hotel in downtown Winnipeg. Goulet sat down practically next to me. I remember that he was shorter than me and impossibly handsome. He was already a big star in Canada, but this was before the "Camelot" role that made him famous. We struck up a warm and utterly forgettable conversation. He was pleasant.

Later, I learned that he had starred in at least one show at Theatre Under The Stars in Stanley Park.

I couldn't possibly have predicted, sitting in that booth in the restaurant in Winnipeg in about 1960, that I would star in "Guys & Dolls" (1972), "The Pajama Game" ('73), "Bye, Bye Birdie" ('75), and "Oliver!" ('87), also at TUTS.

Goulet wasn't my all-time favorite singer or actor, but he had a glorious voice and sometimes, with the right song, he was unbeatable.

As well, his famous story about landing the part of Lancelot in "Camelot," opposite Julie Andrews and Richard Burton is the stuff of show biz legend.

Lerner & Lowe had exhausted all usual sources looking for the right singer/actor for this role and were so unhappy with the results, after seeing literally hundreds of men, that they were about to go to Europe to continue the search.

A very sceptical Goulet rushes down from Montreal or Toronto, picks up the sheet music for "If Ever I would Leave You," opens his throat and the rest is history.

Robert Goulet Dead

Robert Goulet, 73

DAISY NGUYEN

Associated Press

October 30, 2007 at 7:48 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES — Robert Goulet, the handsome, big-voiced baritone whose Broadway debut in "Camelot" launched an award-winning stage and recording career, has died. He was 73.

The singer died Tuesday morning in a Los Angeles hospital while awaiting a lung transplant, said spokesman Norm Johnson.

He had been awaiting a lung transplant at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after being found last month to have a rare form of pulmonary fibrosis.

Goulet had remained in good spirits even as he waited for the transplant, said Vera Goulet, his wife of 25 years.

"Just watch my vocal cords," she said he told doctors before they inserted a breathing tube.
The Massachusetts-born Goulet, who spent the majority of his youth in Canada, gained stardom in 1960 with "Camelot," the Lerner and Loewe musical that starred Richard Burton as King Arthur and Julie Andrews as his Queen Guenevere.

Goulet played Sir Lancelot, the arrogant French knight who falls in love with Guenevere.

He became a hit with American TV viewers with appearances on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and other programs. Sullivan labelled him the "American baritone from Canada," where he had already been a popular star in the 1950s, hosting his own show called "General Electric's Showtime."

Since YouTube has changed their format, I cannot simply show you a video. But you can click the link below to see and hear the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lYcaQnALYc

Adrian Mastracci Reacts to the Federal Tax Revisions

KCM, Insight on InvestingPerspective from Adrian Mastracci, Portfolio Manager

"Canada's economic update"For Immediate ReleaseVancouver, BC (October 30, 2007): Some brief comments on today's proposals by the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance:

There are a number of tax incentives that touch everyone: individuals, small businesses and corporations. It's a welcome approach to reducing the tax loads for the long term.

As an example, the lowest personal income tax rate will be reduced to 15% from 15.5%, effective January 1, 2007. The amount that all Canadians can earn without paying federal income tax will be increased to $9,600 for 2007 and 2008, and to $10,100 for 2009.

The Finance Minister estimates that these two measures together will reduce personal income taxes for 2007 by more than $400 for a typical two-earner family of four earning $80,000, and by almost $225 for a single worker earning $40,000.

The markets are likely to applaud the measures as positive steps.

If Canada's economic situation improves from here, look for the Loonie to rise further from current levels. Hence, our exporters may face more challenging times ahead in keeping their costs in check.

Small businesses, who provide the majority of jobs, will be happy to see lower rates. Especially, if the Provinces and Territories join the rate reduction bandwagon.The one caution is that today's measures are only proposals. They must be passed into law first.Of course, tax reductions from any Government in power are really a return of some of the revenues collected by the Government.

I welcome your questions, comments and opinions.

Regards,

Adrian MastracciPortfolio Manager, R.F.P.,KCM Wealth Management Inc."Private-Client" Portfolio Managers & Financial Advisors Suite 1500, Box 1078, 885 West Georgia Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 3E8 Tel: (604) 739-4500 Fax: (604) 739-0234 Visit Our Website: <http://www.kcmwealth.com/>

Let Youth be Served

Just when you're feeling like a dinosaur, a dodo bird, a relic from the junk heaps of the Dodge Cities of Christmases Past...well, along comes the conformation.

Susan Lyne, the former president of ABC Entertainment says, "Anything that is complex narrative story-telling - one-hour dramas, narrative miniseries, character-driven movies for television - advertisers don't believe there is an audience under fifty for these kinds of shows."

O.K. We know what that says about us - we've had the biscuit, we're over the hill, we're done, toast, gone.

But what does it say about the next gen?

Mindless boobs with the attention span of a spaniel.

Lovely.