Every time I visit New York, I have dinner with my friends, the illustrators Leo and Diane Dillon. Those of you who've been in my house know that my walls are covered with their signed prints and posters. They have won 2 Caldecott Awards, in 1976 and 1977. I have perhaps 40 of their illustrated childrens' books, the complete set of the Ace Science Fiction Special books featuring their cover illustrations from 30+ years ago, and other assorted works. Leo and Diane's son, Lee, is a brilliant artist and designer in his own right. Lee's company, Fusion Designs, is "a Gallery of unique greeting cards, jewelry, prints and original artwork". Please have a look, and perhaps order a few Christmas presents! The Dillons are international treasures.

Rustboy is a short film animation project of Brian Taylor. The film isn't finished, but the site is worth investigating. It's amazing stuff, and Taylor's loaded 13 very short movies of the work he's done so far. The finished project should be worth the wait.

It's hard to believe this is real. I mean, check the lineup and then look at the songs being covered! The soundclips don't work here, but they do on the CD NOW site.

I'm going to Mars. I don't remember signing up for this.

If you are a fan of The Onion, check out this interview with Rob Siegel, editor-in-chief, and Carol Kolb, senior editor. It was featured on the NPR program Fresh Air on Wednesday, 27 Nov 2002. When you're finished, check out Team Onion. Then read Why Journalists Eat Up The Onion.

I have a stack of Onions at home going back 2-3 years, thanks to a friend who works at U Wisconsin Madison. He kindly sends me the paper copies every few weeks. Many people think The Onion is an online webzine, but in fact has always been a newspaper first. It began publishing in Madison WI in 1988. Its website came online in 1996.

Also of interest, a Dec 2000 interview with Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation. The book was a fascinating read, and may influence one's decision on whether or not to eat at McDonald's, for example.

A recent report by Microsoft suggests that efforts to stop music file-swapping programs is pointless. It's interesting to read this, knowing of the efforts of the RIAA to fight it. And as a musician, I'm always conflicted somewhat over the copyright issue. Yet every struggling musician I meet wants nothing more than to make their music available over the Internet, and not necessarily for a fee. There's even an boycott RIAA movement now.

It is fascinating to watch the record companies squirm, especially in light of the recent $143.1 US million dollars paid out by the planet's five largest music companies and three largest music retailers to settle a two-year old antitrust case involving price fixing of CDs. And lest you think that successful musicians aren't interested in this either, check out Janis Ian's thoughts on the subject. Here's her first essay, and the follow-up. Now I am going back to work, preparing my Materials Engineering 343 lecture...

So what will happen when weblogs go mobile?

Two posts below, I discussed altering web sites for colour blind readers. Please see the very interesting commentary by the anonymous CB reader who offers further fascinating insights into that world.

Barring a miracle, the white flag was raised today re: Gallery. My webserver does not support NetPBM, nor does it run PHP in a non-safe mode. I will investigate other photo uploading programs.

From Anne's site comes this hilarious take on self-help books, romance novels, computer manuals, and more. Bust a gut.

I don't know if this is the basis for a Broadway musical, but it's a heckuva start, as they might say in Minnesota. This was staged without the other library patrons having any idea what was about to happen, so it appears; watch their reactions. I love it - it's totally brilliant.

In other news, trying to load Gallery nearly reduced me to tears last night. Tonight I mucked around a bit more, downloading and unzipping binary NetPBM files (it's ok, my brain hurts too), and I did some CHMOD shyte. Finally, I submitted a long message on their user forum. I'm beginning to wonder, is it worth it?

So instead, I built my first PHP page last night. I have no idea what the coding means. And I played on my computer, over and over and really loud, Trusty Chords, by Hot Water Music. This is music to exorcise the demons. Listening wasn't enough - I blew the dust from my Telecaster, plugged it into my AmpCan, took a minute to decipher the chord structure of the song, and played along like I was in a punk band. HA!

Today, people at work reaffirmed my faith in humanity.

Isn't life sweet?

First of all, if you need a laugh, click on a horse or two. How do people come up with this stuff? Also, this is why cows hate winter (requires a movie viewer like Windows Media Player).

Recently one of my readers (God, I can't believe I just wrote that) provided me with feedback about the colour of the links on this site. He's colour blind, and was having trouble distinguishing the links from the other typeface. He suggested I change the colours to darker shades of green or blue. Initially my choices were for appearance only. I made the changes to see if it would help him, and it did. I've worked with a colour blind colleague, and his area of responsibility was maps! Colour blindness also surfaces in the movie Auto Focus.

With his permission, I share with you his comments, which are enlightening in that they reveal some of the problems with which a colour-blind person must deal in today's world:

"Those of us with severe colourblind affliction (I've got it right through the rainbow) sometimes get cheesed with the attention paid to other handicaps.

Until the complete conversion to sodium vapour street lamps in Edmonton, I could not tell the difference between a green traffic light and a lamp post. I detected green lights by their movement against the straight lines of street lamps (the same method used to detect planets).

Solutions are easy: combine colour with shape. In Wetaskiwin, the traffic lights are built thusly: Green = square, Amber = diamond, Red = circle. Who cares about countdown walk lights - just let me know if it is safe to drive through an intersection.

One upside is the ability to detect counterfeit money. Colourblindness allows you to see through dyes. If the mix isn't right, it stands out like a sore thumb. The downside is a list of career choices once considered but doomed: telephone installer (I thought this would be really neat when I was eight - hacker mentality already apparent), pilot, any serious graphic career (from artist to architect to web designer). My application for police lasted 8 minutes.

So when the only blogger I regularly follow accommodates me, I'm tickled pink. I know the 'look' you're after - seamless - but you may wish to include in your blog the reason for the change - quote me verbatim. And yours is not the only site I've discussed this with.

You may wish to include this piece of advice: when a person confides their colourblindness, resist the urge to pick up the nearest object and ask "what colour is this?" Would you ask a wheelchair-bound person to walk?

I have enough trouble trying to get my browser to recognise Java (I wish I had never gone to IE6). It's nice to be able to recognise links with my eyes and not by dragging my mouse."

Another Saturday drifts into history. It was a lazy day. I didn't sleep well, I woke up at 4:00 am with a killer cramp in my right calf, very painful. Had coffee this morning with a good friend, then saw 8 Mile, did Costco for fun, and retired to bed for a few hours. As for 8 Mile, I liked it - what can I say? I am not a fan of hip hop/rap, but Eminem is engaging in this movie, he definitely has a screen presence. The story follows a Detroit rapper named Rabbit, as he climbs the local scene towards better things like a recording contract. Rabbit's final rap in the movie was, I admit, brilliant.

Please welcome Keith to the ranks of (non)blogging.

I'm still working on loading Gallery. But I am losing patience with programs whose downloading and installation instructions are ambiguous and fuzzy at the best of times. In fact, I've been really cranky all week! My head's feeling very heavy tonight.

I'm plowing through Live From New York, by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller. I've watched SNL since its inception in 1975, so all parts of the book are interesting to me. I remember Lorne Michaels and Hart Pomerantz working as a comedy team on Canadian television long before Michaels worked on SNL. The book consists of brief entries describing each time period in the history of SNL, followed by many sets of quotes from personalities relevant to said time period. My only beef so far is that there were no quotes from other than Joe Piscopo and Gilbert Gottfried fof the 1980-81 cast, the only time Jean Doumanian produced the show. I recall many incidents cited in the book, it's a great read.

I had a really nice time visiting with someone last night.

Tomorrow is the Grey Cup. The most exciting thing about it so far is the decision to sign our national anthem in both languages. *yawn*

While on a Boeing 737 WestJet flight to Winnipeg in September, I retrieved a card with information such as:
- on the average, 1,000 Boeing 737s are in the air at any time;
- a 737 takes off every 5.5 seconds;
- there are approximately 367,00 components in a 737-700;
However, this one kinda creeps me out:
- it takes 17 days to assemble the New Generation 737-700 series from one end of the factory to another.

Seventeen days to assemble a passenger jet? That's means one of those 367,000 components is added every 4 seconds! I wonder what kind of quality control Boeing maintains.

While in NYC I went down to the WTC site on November 5, 2002. The site has been emptied of debris, and the subway track for Line 1 in being rebuilt, in addition to a temporary WTC station for the PATH Trains to New Jersey. I'll upload more pictures from NYC soon.

Click on the picture for a larger view. Note on the left the Deutsche Bank building, still covered in netting since September 11, 2001. The three black plaques on the wire mesh fences in the middle show the names of everyone who perished on the site that day.

I've had a day of mixed emotions. Family issues surfaced, so I looked to a friend for kind words, went for a walk at lunch, and fed one of the library squirrels some almonds. It was fascinating to watch the squirrel take each nut from my fingers, assess it for a second or two, then scoot off to bury it, each time choosing a different location and then covering it with leaves. A magpie came by a used its beak to move a few leaves over, but the squirrel chased it away.

After working out tonight, I felt like writing a thousand words about my life, its ups and downs. Maybe another time. Painful episodes can be especially draining - thank God for good friends.

Geoff and I were talking today about issues of privacy on the Internet, specifically how e-mails can be tracked down by bots and spiders, resulting tons of spam. Recently I deleted one of my aliases, lightspeed@telusplanet.net, because I was getting 15-20 spam messages a day on that one. Click on the "Contact" link to the right, and notice the e-mail that appears in the "To" field. It's up to you to make the changes to that address; I don't link to my actual e-mail address, because if I did, it would be one more place for the spiders and crawlers to find said e-mail address, and start spamming me.

Keith also discovered that information on my domain was publically available via a Whois server. This included my home address and unlisted phone number! (Thanks, Keith.) Since then, I've edited this information out from my domain registration site. Within 24 hours, my address and phone number no longer appeared in the Whois db (although my work phone number appears there now).

So why wouldn't that concern me? The answer is simple: I work in a publically funded institution, so even if I had no website, and no other e-mails than my work e-mail, if anyone on the planet wants to find me, they'll find me. A quick Google search will turn up a number of University of Alberta web sites on which you will find my name, office phone number, and e-mail address.

Beyond that, who are we kidding when it comes to issues of privacy, such as our credit card numbers, e-mail addresses, bank accounts, passports, even our salaries? Consider each of these examples, and you know at least a number of other people have full access to any of them, and the information therein. Most often, none of it is abused - it's an honour system. I don't know how many times I've quoted my credit card number(s) over the phone, or sent them over the Internet, to order something.

It isn't 1984 anymore, it's way beyond. But since we're all in it together, when it comes to worrying about privacy issues in 2002, I'll take the Alfred E Neuman philosophy and live by it: What, Me Worry?

Forgive me some random thoughts:

It's an evening of mixed emotions, a draining day at work but one that reaffirmed my faith in being blessed to work with people who care about what they do. In other news, I've lost or misplaced a cheque for $60, and am angry at my own ineptitude - I had the cheque yesterday, and now it's gone. Duh. Since my return from NYC, I've yet to work out, and am feeling frumpy. So I just ordered a pizza.

While I was in NYC, I checked my website on different computers, and was distressed to see how bad it looks on other browsers and machines. In two cases, the right-hand column moves itself to the left, over top of the blog entries. Keith has known this for a while; it will take me sometime to recode the site.

I saw the following in New York :

Movies (9): Last Orders, Secretary, Tully, The Grey Zone, Femme Fatale, Far From Heaven, Bloody Sunday, Auto Focus, Igby Goes Down.

Comedy (3): Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo, Bill Maher.

Music (1): Yes.

Theatre (1): Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.

I awoke one morning last week at The Leo House in NYC to discover I'd left my hotel room key in the door the night before. No one mugged or killed me, as far as I can tell. In the past I've left my car keys in my car overnight twice at Marmot Basin (when I skied in the mid-80s), and have previously left my house keys in the front door of my house overnight as well. One time in the mid-90s I went to work and left the front door of my house open. None of this is a good sign.

Some of you know that two of my cars have been lost in fires, and that last year I backed out of my driveway with my back door, driver's side, open, smashing it into the column holding up the carport. That car went up in flames last February. Yesterday, driving to work in a daze, I entered the Education Car Park and took too sharp a right turn going up the ramp, and scraped the back door, passenger side, something fierce.

I'm fortunate to work with some great people, so when I returned to work, there was no anxiety about having a desk and an e-mail inbox full of paper and e-mails and books and memos and shyte. I survived the day, and am home, blitzed in the head. I won't get back into my regular workouts for a couple more days (daze?).

Here's an interesting essay from Pete Townsend on the future of The Who; thanks to Chris (brother) for bringing this one to my attention.

I want to put notice out that I agree with Geoff, and that he and I and many others blog because it's fun, and for any other reasons that may emerge from the fun doing it, such as learning more code, improving one's writing skills, sharing ideas and thoughts and comments, regardless of how useful or informative they might seem to someone else, meeting other bloggers, developing a new community of contacts and friends, whatevahdafuck, as Tony Soprano would say. The full essay to which Geoff refers is at Library Juice, and addresses the number of "wild librarian" sites that have appeared in the past few years. I don't emphasize on my site that I'm a librarian per se, nor is my profession the focus of the site or the blog. It's a pastime, a hobby, and as Geoff reminds me, a place to vent from time to time. So there. Nyah. Thpppppttt!

I'm home, feels good to be home. The trip was fun, exhausting, memorable. Now it's back to reality. Thanks to good friends Margaret and Keith for rides to and from the airport. Time to shovel snow.

Just left the theatres after seeing Auto Focus, the new movie based on the life of Bob (Hogan's Heroes) Crane. The movie details Crane's descent into a life of sex, sex and more sex, until his untimely murder, which was never solved. Greg Kinnear plays Crane as a happy-go-lucky kinda guy, who dreams of Jack Lemmon-type roles, but ends up doing dinner theatre after the TV series ends. Again, highly recommended.

As mentioned last time, I'm worn out and looking forward to returning home. It's also too humid and warm here right now (yes, I know, I should NOT be complaining about such things). I've seen seven movies on this trip, and plan to see one more tonight. Also picked up a few souvenirs from the New York Transit Museum Store in Grand Central Terminal.

So I'll talk to you again when I'm back in Edmonton. For those of you who read my NY Diary, thanks for following my trip. It's been fun. See you soon.

It's Sunday night, and I am worn out. I have one more day left on my NYC trip, and it has been fun. The past couple days have been warm, and I've been walking about feeling heavy from the humidity and heat. Tomorrow the high is 21C! I need my short pants, I'm sweating way too much.

Last night I watched Bill Maher do 90 mins of standup in support of his new book, When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden. The book considers ways the US goverment might act to help its citizens fight the war on terrorism, and uses as its inspiration posters from WWII. Thirty-three new posters were created by a group of artists, and some are available on his tour. I quite enjoyed his performance, and afterwards he autographed my copy of his book.

Celebrity Sighting 1: Ann Coulter was sitting two seats away from me. I stood next to her when the crowd was leaving but said nothing.

Today I saw two very good and important movies. Far From Heaven is Todd Haynes' new picture, an examination of upscale life in Hartford CT in 1957. Julianne Moore gives perhaps the performance of her career as a supportive housewife and mother, and one of the local society page celebrities among her friends. Her husband, Dennis Quaid, is a successful business man for the local company called Magnatech. They have two small children, a gardener and a maid, and life seems grand. It is the fall, the leaves are shades of golden red and auburn. But all is not as it seems. Moore's life begins to unravel, and she finds herself confiding in not only her best friend, but also her new gardener, played by Dennis Haysbert of 24. That the gardener is black will come to haunt her. The film is also presented in the style of the late 50s films, and is inspired by the movies of Douglas Sirk, including All That Heaven Allows. I've seen none of Sirk's movies so cannot comment on that aspect of the movie. Highly recommended. Moore's performance is so powerful it's almost as if she isn't acting. She inhabits all the movement, behaviour and nuances of The Supportive Wife, wanting nothing more than the best for her husband and children.

Bloody Sunday is a new film that replays the events in Derry, Northern Ireland on 30 January 1972. A civil rights march was organized for that day, and when the march had ended, the British Army shot 27 civilians, killing 13 of them. The writer/director, Paul Greengrass, shot the film as if he was a cameraman on the day of the event. It is hard to believe the movie was made last year, everything looks like documentary or news footage. The film shows both points of view, that of the marchers, specifically the Member of Parliament for the area, and the army commanders. The bias is, as you would expect, towards the marchers, and we are reminded at the end of the movie that no soldier was ever disciplined for killing a civilian. Again, highly recommended. Shot as it is, with hand held cameras, it's also hard to believe that the dialog between all the actors was scripted. It truly appears to be footage shot on location as it all happened.

Celebrity Sighting 2: I was walking back to the Leo House when I looked up and saw Butch Goring walking in front of me with his girl friend/wife. Again, I said nothing, but wanted to say, "Hey Butch, we went to the same high school!"

Tomorrow is my last day here, and I am looking forward to returning to Edmonton to my home and my own bed, and my friends. But it's been a lot of fun to be here again. I think I've had my fill of New York for a time to come.

Last night Lisa and I saw Janeane Garofalo and Zach Galifianakis perform at The Town Hall on 43rd Street. Both were very funny. Garofalo brought out notes which she would use to remind her about what to speak next. She railed against everything: food, the US government, kids' trendoid names, technology, drinking, and had the crowd laughing for almost two hours. Tonight I'm seeing Bill Maher at the 92nd Street Y. Check out Maher's new book, When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden.

The weather has warmed up considerably, and I'm enjoying it, knowing these are the final three days I'll experience such weather until next April at the earliest.

This trip seems to be going on for a long time, doesn't it? I'll be home soon.

In New York today the sun warmed up considerably, and it was great walking weather. Here at 5:45 pm, the sun is down, but it is still warm. A nice change from very cool weather earlier in the week. Today was a great day, and it's not over, but the theme so far has been Edmonton Friends. I had a 90-minute visit with Sekeena in the morning, and in the afternoon, descended upon Macy's to find Jessica, and have a coffee with her as well. Both visits were great, life-affirming (ok, that's corny, but true) and I left both visits energized. Both are doing well: Sekeena is in law school at nights, working towards her degree which she hopes to finish by 2005. Jessica's new album is being delivered as we speak, 1000 pressings of her 5th effort, of which she is justifiably proud (I know, I've heard some of the cuts already). Seeing these two amazing women today was great, and it's not over. In a few minutes, I meet with my friend Lisa (whom I met at the Steely Dan parties in March 2001). We are going for a bite, and are off to see Janeane Garofolo perform stand-up. Later.

I saw two movies today. The Grey Zone is one of the most powerful holocaust movies ever, and one of the best pictures of the year. It is written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, who played one of the brothers in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, and also directed O. The film examines the Sonderkommando, the group of Jews in concentration camps that ushered other Jews to the gas chambers, and then burned their bodies. The Sonderkommando were granted privileges such as food, wine, liquor, cigarettes in exchange for unspeakable acts, and were spared their own deaths, but for a period of four months only. On Oct 7, 1944, a group of them staged an historic revolt at Auschwitz.

The film features a number of memorable performances by Mira Sorvino, Daniel Benzali, Steve Buscemi, Harvey Keitel, Allan Corduner as the Jewish surgeon who reported to Josef Mengele, David Chandler as one of the kommandos, and surprisingly, David Arquette, whose performance as a Hungarian Jew will make you forget his previous personas (of mostly assholes). The most horrifying aspect of the movie is its bleak and basic portrayal of the kommandos actions, which for them was business as usual. the movie is mind-numbing. I left wondering, again, how anyone could ever do this to another human being, and how the Sonderkommandos' own psyches could survive until their own deaths.

I also saw Femme Fatale, the new film written and directed by Brian de Palma. Rebecca Romijn-Stamos plays a jewel thief who double-crosses her partners in a jewel heist of a diamond-studded - er - outfit. She escapes, and seven years later, returns to France as the wife of the US Ambassador. Along the way...well, it gets kinky, and messy, and confusing, and ultimately unsatisfying. Romijn-Stamos won me over as a Bad Girl, but it wasn't enough for me to recommend the movie. Wait for the video/dvd/whatever.

Last night was another NYC ritual: visiting and having dinner with Leo and Diane Dillon in Brooklyn. I first met the Dillons at a regional sf convention I had helped organize, Context'89, in Edmonton that year. We've been friends ever since, and every time I visit NYC, I take the subway to Brooklyn and we meet, visit, and have dinner. Last night was no exception. They signed a number of copies of their books for me, in addition to a few posters and post cards. I love them both a lot, they are wonderful folks and brilliant illustrators. They showed me their current work in progress, another title by Margaret Wise Brown called "Where Have You Been." Wise passed away in 1952, having written hundreds of of books and stories during her short life. The Dillons also illustrated her story, "Two Little Trains".

Today is a runaround day, for lack of a better description. I hope to see The Grey Zone this afternoon, maybe get a half-price ticket to see 42nd Street, wander through a couple record stores, visit the Pop Shop. If there is an emerging theme to this trip, it's laziness.

The one enduring image I have of New Yorkers this time around is that of cell phones: they are everywhere. Every third or fourth person is walking and talking on a cell phone. It's like the plague. Speaking of which, for the first time in 100 years, the plague has hit NYC.

It's Wed afternoon in NYC, cool, some drizzle. The movie Tully was better than I expected. Getting to watch Julianne Nicholson for two hours swayed my opinion, but seriously, it's a fine little film. Tully is one of two sons of Tully Coates, Sr, a midwestern farmer who discovers that he owes $300,000 to the bank, but can't determine why. Nicholson plays a friend of the family. Tully is played by Anson Mount. As the centre of the movie, he faces his family's problems, and his own (as a womanizer without any responsibilities beyond the farm itself). The movie is gorgeous to watch, and the themes at times devestating. Of note is the performance by Bob Burrus as the father, who apparently hasn't laughed or smiled since their mother's death 15 years earlier. Recommended.

Last night I saw Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. I wasn't aware that it had been staged twice before, including a near-two year run before the Pacino/Pfeiffer film version . This play features Stanley Tucci and Edie Falco (The Sopranos) in the lead roles. Following a movie and dinner date, the play opens up with the two of them madly humping as they compete their first sex of the evening. Naked as jaybirds, they begin talking shortly after orgasm (I'm not kidding here). I think it takes some guys to perform naked as they did for the first 15 minutes of the play. The characters begin expressing their feelings, with Tucci the more vocal, and the more annoying. He wants love and thinks he's found it in Frankie. He wants to convince Frankie to fall in love with him, but at times, in Act 1, his behaviour borders on the bizarre, and she threatens to call the cops - I was hoping she'd do it.

I enjoyed the performances immensely. The two actors have great chemistry (and fairly decent bods as well). In the end, I left a little unsatisfied, having had difficulty that Frankie could accept Johnny in one night, especially after his strange behaviours earlier on. I am glad I saw it, and got to see two great performers work their craft.

Today I hoped to get a discount ticket to see the Edward Norton/Catherine Keener play Burn This, but it wasn't one of the plays on sale today. I may change my mind and see it later in the week, althought Keener and Norton leave the cast on Nov 9. Tonight I'm having dinner with Leo and Diane Dillon in Brooklyn.

Just left Joe's Pub, where I saw Al Franken perform an hour of brilliant standup. Most of his bits were related to the US election, which is tomorrow. We applauded afterwards until he returned for an encore, for which he admitted he was not prepared. Backstage I heard him say to someone that maybe one time before in his career did he receive an encore ovation. It was deserved. I'm currently reading his book Oh, The Things I Know, and afterwards he autographed my copy, and allowed a picture to be taken of us both. He's a stand up guy (no pun intended). Now I'm off to see Tully (the movie).

Returned from New Haven last night. Before I left I realized I'd lost my nice cotton sweatshirt, most likely left it at The Oakdale Theater, where we'd seen Yes the night before. *sigh* Once in NY I headed straight to Barbara and Anthony's house to retrieve my suitcase. Anthony invited me to come with him to the guitar shop district on 48th Street, dominated by Sam Ash's stores. I tried a few guitars while he exchanged foot pedal units.

I checked into the Leo House shortly afterwards, settled in, and went to see Secretary, the new James Spader/Maggie Gyllenhaal movie. Gyllenhaal, brother sister of Jake, plays a young woman recently released from what appears to be a psychiatric hospital, recovering from whatever mental problems she has (she likes to cut herself, among other things). She attended typing school, and applies for a job at Spader's law office (he's a solo practioner). From there the movie moves slowly into their mutual discovery of the pleasures of S&M. Spader, the King of Creepiness, never goes over the top into Very Strange Territory, and Gyllenhaal is a revelation to watch, as she slowly discovers a side of her she didn't know existed. These two are made for each other. At times the movie is so quiet (scenes in which Spader literally whispers his commands) that you must strain to hear what is being said. This movie is not for everyone, and while I enjoyed it, it could have been about 20 minutes shorter.

Today I'm wandering about in a bit of a daze. I'm seeing Al Franken tonight at Joe's Pub. I hope to jam sometime with Anthony as well, who's currently a guitarist in the band Bobblehead Po'. Another film I want to see this week is Tully, starring among others, Julianne Nicholson (on whom I have a considerable crush).

I also think I need sleep this afternoon.

David and I attended the Yes concert tonight at the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford CT. The opening band (also from the UK), Porcupine Tree, was inspired by Yes, and a handful of other 70s art-rock bands like Rush and ELP. They wandered on stage at 7:25 pm, and played for about 40 minutes.

Yes walked on stage around 8:40 or so, and played a solid two hour set. The crowd was mostly over-35s, many of whom bought a lot of beer, and screamed their lungs out, trying not to embarrass their kids in many cases. Sitting two seats from us was a guy with his 17-year old kid. The kid told us he was seeing Yes for the 12th time, and his dad was attending his 44th concert. When Porcupine Tree would finish a song, he'd scream, "WHERE THE HELL IS YES??", and after the second time, someone a few rows down yelled, "PUT A CORK IN IT!". We sat in the second balcony, and the seats were fine. Mostly older people surrounded us (yes, I include myself in the definition of "old"), so no one stood up and danced through the 11 songs the band performed. (The set list is below).

Surprisingly, the band rocked through their set. Chris Squire appeared to be having the most fun, walking about the stage with his cordless bass guitar. He offered the audience a 10-minute solo piece with Alan White, which was a much longer version of The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus), from the album Fragile. He received an deserved extended ovation when the song ended.

Rick Wakeman was surrounded by four keyboards, and would often run between two of them so as to not miss a beat. Jon Anderson sang, played guitar on a few tunes, and various percussive instruments on others. Steve Howe stood his ground, alternating between a number of guitars, including one mounted on a unit on wheels that could be moved away from him when he wasn't playing. Howe is one of my favorite guitarists, and after 35+ years, he still has his chops. Both he and Wakeman seemed subdued at times - I think age has taken a toll. But they both worked hard and made great sounds. Alan White sat behind the four and provided solid rhythm throughout.

Set list:

1. Magnification (album: Magnification)
2. Don't Kill the Whale (album: Tormato)
3. In The Presence Of (album: Magnification)
4. We Have Heaven (album: Fragile)
5. South Side of the Sky (album: Fragile)
6. Close to the Edge (album: Close to the Edge)
7. Heart of the Sunrise (album: (album: Fragile)
8. Long Distance Runaround (album: Fragile)
9. The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) (album: Fragile)
10. Starship Troopers (album: The Yes Album)
ENCORE
11. Roundabout (album: Fragile)

Quibbles: When the technicians were setting up the stage and doing final sound checks, one of them played the opening chords to Yours is No Disgrace, perhaps my favorite Yes song. As you can see from above, the band didn't play it, nor did they play Owner of a Lonely Heart, Your Move, or And You And I. But I digress. It was a great show, and I still have my hearing.

David, Susan and I are on the Quinnipiac University campus, in the library where Susan works. The campus sits at the foot of Sleeping Giant State Park, a local mountain covered in trees that are all changing colours as I type. The campus is a private institution, and has lots of money (and Canada geese). The library building is two years old, and is, frankly, gorgeous. The PAC stations are black, with flat screens, and the campus is about to go ubiquitously wireless. (U of Alberta, just watching...)

We are off shortly to take more photos of the breathtaking scenery (not the geese). Then into New Haven for more fun and lattes. Later tonight: Yes.

I arrived yesterday afternoon in New Haven on the train, from Grand Central Terminal. Earlier in the morning, I wandered to the Strand, and picked up a few books. Some of the titles I want are not in stock, no big deal. I realized when I landed that I left my NYC maps and guide book in Edmonton. Perhaps my subconcious is getting cocky in its old age, assuming I know my way around well enough now. Admittedly, when I went to see the Halloween Parade, and then to Strand, it was on automatic pilot. Still, I bought another fold out map which I do need for downtown, beyond the numbered streets and avenues.

In New Haven, David, Susan and I relaxed and visited, and scouted the papers for things to do. I noticed that Yes is playing here tonight, so David called and secured two tix for us to see the concert (Susan passed). We went for Chinese food, then rented the movie, Last Orders, starring Michael Caine, David Hemmings, Bob Hoskins, Tom Courtenay, Ray Winstone, and Helen Mirren. Great movie, hard to understand the heavy English accents in parts. In a while, we are going out to see the gorgeous fall colours here, lots of reds and oranges and yellows.