the pod bay door

:: I leave for Winnipeg in a couple hours, to spend a few days with family and friends, and attend my cousin Barbara’s wedding on Saturday. Yesterday, while packing, I opened the curtains a little in my bedroom, and a bird flew out from behind them, scaring the shyte out of me. Initially I couldn’t tell if it was a bat or a small bird. It flew around the second floor between rooms, until I was able to remove the screen in my master bedroom, and waited for it to fly back in that direction, which it did, and out into the night.

What I couldn’t determine was how it got in, and for how long it was hiding in my bedroom. So far, I haven’t seen any – er – evidenc, to indicate where it might have spent time while in my house. Enough surprises for one night.

:: Cough is 99% gone, today is the first day I’ve not coughed throughout the day since late August. I’m off to Winnipeg on Wednesday for my cousin Barbara’s wedding on Sat, Oct 7, and will make the round while there, visiting friends and family.

:: Check out the Mt St Helens web cam. I went to Mt St Helens in July 1981, a year after it blew its stack in May, 1980. I was at a conference in Portland OR, and my boss and I rented a car and drove to the mountain, or as close as we could. Much of the devestation was still visible.

I was in Vancouver on May 18, 1980, when St Helens erupted the first time. Later that week, I collected some ash from that eruption into a small container – the ash was on the car of a friend of mine who lived in Pullman WA, on the border with Idaho, and had driven to Vancouver a few days later. I still have it somewhere in my house, and it is the finest powder I’ve ever seen or felt.

:: So William Shatner releases a new album, and the buzz is positive. The album was produced by Ben Folds, and features collaborations with Henry Rollins, novelist Nick Hornby and Joe Jackson. He collaborates on Pulp’s song, “Common People“, with Jackson. I really don’t know what to make of this. Is Shatner’s new album kitsch supreme? I hope I have as much energy as he does now when I’m 73 years old.

:: Brian Wilson has finally released Smile – not the legendary album that never was, but a rerecorded version, just released. Legendary rock journalist Robert Christgau gives it five stars. More reviews and news available here, including the Village Voice.

:: Addendum: I forgot the Krispy Kreme update. A newspaper article in the Edmonton Journal on 30 Sept 04 reported that KK will open up a store at South Edmonton Common in the first half of 2005.

:: With encouragement from Derryl, I saw Shaun of the Dead last night, Sept 30, 2004, thus keeping alive the streak of having seen at least one movie a month since sometime in the late 1970s. It would be somewhere in the vicinity of 320-335 months.

Last year I wrote about having attended the Man-Pop Festival in Winnipeg, on August 29, 1970. I still receive comments on that post, and I’m not surprised, since a Google search reveals that very little is available about Man-Pop on the ‘net, which surprises me, actually. One of the respondents to the post, Geoff Nash, still has his ticket stub. He scanned it and sent me the image, for which I am very grateful. As soon as I opened up the .jpg, it brought back memories, and I realized that somewhere in one of my boxes of memorabilia and curios is my ticket stub, too. Well, to date, I can’t find it, but I’m still looking. In the meantime, click on Geoff’s ticket stub and stroll down memory lane one more time.

:: Sore ribs are better, coughing almost gone away. Thanks for the kind messages.