Everybody's probably familiar with the sad story of Tori Stafford, the young girl from Woodstock, Ontario who was abducted and killed last year.
Recently, some new detail has apparently come to light but the judge has imposed a publication ban meaning no Canadian media can cover this aspect of the trial.
...the practical reality is that in the Internet age, trying to stop the
dissemination of information revealed in open court is impractical.
Indeed, placing limits on traditional, responsible media may be
counterproductive, as the only information available to the public will
be incomplete and rife with speculation and rumour.
As the Globe & Mail says, all a publication ban does is give free reign for anyone with an Internet connection to add their speculation to the mix (hi! ) or, with a couple carefully chosen keywords, even profit from the lurid interest. Some Canadian media outlets are doing the best they can to work within the ban, hypothetically musing their way through their reports.
A publication ban is doubly useless in the Internet age when a blogger OR a news outlet just across the US border in Buffalo or Cleveland could publish the details without any sanction as was frequently the case during the Karla Homolka trial.
Publication bans are even more useless in less sensationalistic circumstances. In the past, media have been prevented from revealing national election results from the east until polls have closed in the west. But again, anybody with an Internet connection and a modicum of technical knowledge could find out what was going on before going to cast their vote...as if enough people would ever be paying enough attention or change their vote significantly if they *did* see results for it to make a difference.
Finally, just as with the attention drawn by banned books pushing the questionable item to the top of the bestseller lists, a publication ban only serves to shine a light on information that would've likely made little more than a ripple otherwise.
The facts get distorted. This is going to snowball to epic proportions
and disgustingness. Really, I don’t understand how they’ll manage to
enforce hush-hushness. I’ve been going on Facebook all day to see if
anybody has posted anything about it. That’s so easy to do now, just put
up an anonymous page and say what you like. How are they going to stop
that? It’s impossible to keep secrets in this day and age.”
I really miss the used bookstore scene of London, ON. For all the abuse the city takes for its Ugg-centered social scene and lack of cultural amenities, I always thought Li'l London featured lots of great, quirky bookstores. Attic Books on Dundas was one of my faves...and though I didn't need it, here's another reason to like them.
Thought about posting a photo since I just got back from hockey and barely have the energy to do up a single-link, one line post, let alone write something original (although I thought about typing something about the unofficial "rules" of rec hockey since I've had a pretty good run lately - had a goalie jump me last week, had a guy challenge me to a fight tonight - and I'm not a dirty or lippy player by any stretch of the imagination - honest!)
But anyhow, as I clicked over to Shea's Flickr account to see what she's uploaded lately (I have a Flickr account too but hers is the main one we use), I thought it might be interesting to see what Shea's first ever Flickr upload was instead.
Turns out it's a photo that's somewhat appropriate since we're going through a deep cold stretch here of -40 weather and this shot from Niagara Falls seems to fit that mood. (Don't we look photoshopped in as well?)
And the answer is...Ontario-only and specifically SW Ontario and even more specifically rural SW Ontario for the most part.
I first heard the term in London but thought it was like the joint stag/stagettes that have become increasingly popular here (and elsewhere?) for couples who don't want to do their last pre-marriage party apart.
But apparently I didn't glean the full uniqueness of stag & does which are more like pre-wedding fundraisers for the couple with games and drinks at a local hall or whatever. (The similarity to Manitoba's "socials" is pointed out in the thread a couple times but again, I don't think we use that term in Saskatchewan - at least as a reference to parties for engaged couples.)
Anyhow, it was fun seeing a topic on AskMF that never would've caught my eye if I hadn't lived in SW Ontario!
Nothing says romance like going to see an awesome independent country-rock artist like Roger Marin Jr. Check him out on February 14 if you're reading this in London (or click the link to see his other dates around SW Ontario.)
In the course of talking to the performer I've booked for our Summer Reading Club tour, he mentioned that a colleague, Bonnie Logan, will be appearing in London, ON for a similar tour. I said that there are still quite a few people from London and area reading this blog so if he passed along the details, I'd give the performance a plug. So if you're around L'il London, why not go check her out?
Here is Bonnie's schedule at London Public Library.
Toronto has the most Facebook members of any city in the world(that's absolute "most", not even per capita. This means TO outranks much larger cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. Canada has a pretty strong showing in the Top Ten overall as well - Vancouver is #5 and Calgary is #7 and Montreal is #9.
In keeping with the topic of the day over at my other most favourite site on the Internet, LibrarianActivist, here’s a report on internet filtering from the National Coalition Against Censorship
which is admittedly, a bit dated, having been produced in 2001. But it
gives an excellent overview of many of the issues and problems being
discussed in the wake of the LPL's board to look at increasing the use of filters in their library. And an update of the report in 2006 shows that the same concerns with internet filtering software remain to this day.
Here are some examples of what happens when you filter:
CYBERsitter blocked a news item on the Amnesty International
site after detecting the phrase “least 21.” The offending sentence
described “at least 21” people killed or wounded in Indonesia.
SurfWatch blocked the University of Kansas’s Archie R. Dykes Medical library upon detecting the word “dykes.”
X-Stop blocked the “Let’s Have an Affair” catering company
and searches for Bastard Out of Carolina and “The Owl and the Pussy
Cat.”
WebSense blocked a Texas cleanup project under the
category of “sex,” and The Shoah Proj-ect, a Holocaust remembrance
page, under the category of “racism/hate.”
Cyber Patrol blocked a Knights of Columbus site and a site for aspiring dentists as “adult/sexually explicit.”
BESS and SurfControl blocked curriculum materials on
Populism because they also contained information about National
Socialism. Symantec blocked the National Rifle Association and other
pro-gun sites while allowing sites associated with gun control
organizations.
BESS blocked a site on fly fishing, a guide to allergies,
and a site opposing the death penalty as “pornography.” It also blocked
all Google and AltaVista image searches under its category of
“pornography.”
Someone re-posted a mini-review I did on my blog of the Hawksley Workman concert we went to in London last May. They posted it on a message board dedicated to Hawksley Workman but some of the commentors who responded to the post apparently got the impression I was a new fan for some reason.
This is quite far from the truth and since it's a pretty funny story, I thought I'd post the true history of my Hawksley fandom going back to a concert in Waterloo in 2000, probably when some of the posters on that board still thought Raffi was the biggest thing in music </grumpy old man>
(Oh, and nobody ever posts when I put out blatant calls for comments but if you're so inclined, I'd love to hear your stories of how you got into your favourite bands or memorable concert experiences.)
Okay, on with the story...
Through my work, I was sent to a conference in Toronto in June 2000. The person who did the same job as I did but for the Book Publishers Association of Alberta instead of the Saskatchewan Publishers Group, wanted to go to a concert by some guy I think she says is named "Hawkeye".
One catch is it's in Waterloo and we're in Toronto. I keep putting her off all week, trying to get her to find somebody else to go, saying "it's Toronto - there must be ONE band we could see here instead!" and making various other excuses. Finally on the day of the concert, she really starts hammering me. We'd seen LouReed at the Hummingbird Centre the night before and she goes "Okay, that was cool. But now imagine seeing LouReed when he first started with the Velvet Underground. That's what going to this concert will be like. And in twenty years, when Hawkeye's doing a tour like Lou just did, you'll be able to say 'I saw him when...'"
Hmmmm... Maybe she's serious and it's not just some singer she's got a crush on after seeing him once in Edmonton? (She had earlier admitted to me that she tends to do that sometimes!) But now, it's getting later in the day and once we've fulfilled our conference obligations, we get the hotel concierge to help us figure out what we should do - we could take a bus to Waterloo but have no way to get back (unless we happen to find someone driving back to TO), paying a cab a lump sum but that would be WAY too expensive. I even ask the concierge what time he gets off and if he owns a car/wants to go to a concert? No dice. Sophie wants to rent a car and I have to admit this is probably the best option. But another catch - she doesn't drive which is why she's so insistent about getting someone to go with her. "At all?" I ask, seeing maybe an ulterior motive for why she wants me to go so badly. "Okay Jason, here's the deal. If you say you'll drive to the concert, I'll pay for the car rental. I'll pay for the gas. I'll pay for your ticket to the concert. I'll buy you a beer when we get there. And I swear, you will not regret this!"
Holy crap, I think - she's willing to spend somewhere north of a hundred bucks for a $7 concert. Yep, she's serious all right! I finally give in and agree to go with her. By now, it's past 6pm and all downtown car rental locations are closed. (I'm secretly glad because one of the reasons I was so resistant is that I was nervous about having to drive in downtown Toronto and also on the 401 in a rental car. Up until then, driving in Calgary once as part of a long wedding procession was the biggest driving challenge I'd faced. Otherwise, my experience was limited to dirt roads and "Regina Rush Hour" ie. three cars at a stop light at 5 p.m.)
We catch a shuttle to the airport where the car rental agencies are still open. She rents a car no problem and we head off - for Hamilton. Oops, wrong turn immediately after leaving the airport. Finally get to a gas station and get straightened around. Hit the highway and the 401 (with a line from the Tragically Hip running through my head: "You don't fuck with the 401") is everything I'd heard - 120kph is the average speed, people are whipping past me even as I do that, the traffic is super heavy, tons of semis (which I've since learned that people in Ontario call "transports") even on a Saturday night and when we finally get to Waterloo, I somehow manage to miss the proper exit - twice! - and have to keep backtracking.
We're not even sure exactly what time the concert starts and it's now 10pm. Neither of us say it but there's a good chance this whole adventure will lead to us (maybe) just catching the encore. Or worse, turning around when we get there because the concert is over.
Finally finally finally, we get to the Jane Bond Cafe (to my memory, a small house converted into a pub/hangout-type place with seating for maybe 50? Someone who knows it can correct me or expand a bit.) Some performance artist from Montreal is on stage talking about masturbation and why men should have breasts and other similar topics. "What have I gotten myself into if this is the opening act?" I remember thinking, still a fairly sheltered prairie boy (unlike the well-educated world traveler I have become six short years later! )
I'm hoping she's the opening act but who knows? I go up to the bar to ask but Sophie doesn't come with me. I'm already a bit steamed thinking this whole trip was for nothing and this makes me even madder. Now she's embarrassed of me or something?
I order a beer and ask "Has Hawkeye played yet?".
"No, he's up next," the bartender replies, looking at me strangely.
I look back and Sophie is standing by a pillar, just sort of staring at me. She's probably PO'ed, thinking that my hesitation about whether to come or not means we missed the concert. I smile and give her a thumbs-up to show that Hawkeye is still to come.
As I sip my beer, I look around at the crowd in the packed venue. Mostly college-aged kids filling every seat in the house. The performance artist finishes and after a brief intermission where people shuffle around, buy more drinks and the room gets even more full if that's possible, Hawkeye comes out on stage (such as it is - not even a raised platform at the front of the room if I remember correctly) and introduces himself. "Hello, my name is Hawksley Workman..."
I'm carrying my camera (film, not digital in those days). This is a photo of what he looked like that night:
And it hits me - why Sophie didn't join me at the bar, why the bartender looks at me funny when I ask if Hawkeye had played yet. Hawksley was standing at the bar right beside me and probably even heard me! Sophie held back because she was too intimidated to come near her idol so I was left to bask in my own naivity (as usual.)
I don't remember what songs he played first - I think it was "Maniacs" - but from the first notes, I was like "whoa! Sophie wasn't lying. This guy is amazing." The theatrics of early David Bowie. The originality of LouReed. The vocal range of Freddie Mercury. The romanticism of Sinatra. All rolled into one.
I'd never heard of him before but the assembled college kids in the overflowing cafe obviously knew Hawksley well. They sang along to every word and he often stopped singing to let the crowd carry the tune. He went off on wild tangents about the stars and his father, make-up and exit signs, cellular phones and silence. Sophie pointed out her favourite song "Don't Be Crushed" when he played it and I was taken by "Safe and Sound" which perfectly captured for me the feeling I often get on a long drive at nightfall on the prairies with Shea in the passenger side asleep beside me.
Magic - there's no other word. He finished and to top it off, Sophie ended up bumping into somebody she knew from Edmonton and I still remember their exchange.
Sophie: "Isn't that wild that we'd bump into each other here at this show a million miles from Edmonton?"
Him: "Well, when you think about it, not really. You and I are similar ages, we have similar tastes, we have similar backgrounds. Of course we're going to bump into each other - it's not as big of a coincidence as it seems."
(As somebody who's really interested in the concept of coincidences, that's stuck with me.)
So anyhow, we sat and had a drink with him and his friends, gaining entry into this tightknit group of people. We left at closing, me buying the Hawksley CD on the way out. We listened to it all the way home over and over (thanks, rental car with full options!) and even the fact that we get totally lost trying to get back to downtown Toronto to drop off the car (if we'd gone directly, I think we would've been okay. But Sophie's friends gave us "shortcut" directions which are probably great on a weekday to avoid all traffic but not so good at 3am in the dark with no real map in the car) and we ended up driving around till 6am, stopping at more than one gas station and/or doughnut shop to get directions. But this only served to prolong the night (plus I didn't care - Sophie had to work at 9am, I didn't!)
Since then, I've seen Hawksley probably a half a dozen times at various venues - fairly intimate venues like the Aeolian Hall in London and the Exchange in Regina to big folk festival and bar settings. It's always great but I think of a friend who talked about the thrill of going to see a movie "blind" - having heard no publicity or reviews, good or bad, and what a thrill that can be if the film turns out to be a good one. That's how I first saw Hawksley Workman - I had no preconceived notions (you'd think Sophie's raves would've influenced me but until he stepped on stage, I honestly thought I was just being a chauffeur.)
Buffalo was rare to non-existent from what we could tell in Ontario. One of the specialty meat vendors in the Covent Market Garden told us that this was because Ontario didn't have the land to raise them like we did out west.
Made sense to us but if you don't eat a lot of buffalo (yes, I know - properly bison in North America) you are missing out. It's the best tasting meat and on top of that, healthier than pretty much any other meat including chicken, pork and fish (scroll down for the chart.) It's low fat, low cholesterol and low calories. Most bison meat on the market is raised in the wild and organically grown because if there are two things buffalo don't like, it's pens and needles. <groan>
I'm very lucky that Shea's family are part-owners of a herd of about twenty buffalo so we get a regular supply (although our last supply had to be stolen right out of her brother's freezer when he wasn't home - don't tell!) Any cut is good - roasts, steaks, etc. - but I have a special fondness for the plain old burgers because Shea makes them so that they're amazing.
Her recipe is flexible but here's the gist of it: BUFFALO BURGS 1 lb ground bison meat 10 soda crackers made into fine crumbs 1 egg 1 TBSP Montreal Steak Spice Rub (my mother-in-law taught me to put Tablespoon in capitals in recipes so it's obvious. Great tip!) 1 TBSP Bullseye BBQ Sauce Minced red onion to taste (a thick slice or two for us) A few shakes of Worchestire sauce A good few shakes of hot sauce (we're partial to Cholula Mexican hot sauce) Salt and coarse ground pepper
The hardest part is getting the ingredients in proportion so the meat sticks well and doesn't fall apart on the grill but isn't too dry either. Cook on a barbeque and prepare to be amazed. Seriously, when Shea made them the other night, I wolfed down one then another two without even using a bun or condiments. (Er, I shouldn't admit that in public.)
) or, with a couple carefully chosen keywords, even profit from the lurid interest. Some Canadian media outlets are doing the best they can to work within the ban, hypothetically musing their way through their reports. 
) 
