Author: Peter

Top 5 TV shows

In the vein of Matt‘s recent lists, here’s one of my own: what are your favourite TV shows of the past?

I don’t imagine there are many shockers on this list, at least for people who know me:

  1. Babylon 5
  2. West Wing (the Sorkin seasons)
  3. SportsNight
  4. Max Headroom
  5. Slings and Arrows

Hey, what the heck… how about a bonus two-part trivia question, based loosely on a discussion with Matt today, and to welcome James to the ’verse:

  1. What television show featured the adventures of Ralph Hinkley?
  2. To what was the character’s name changed midway through the series? (Bonus bonus: Why?)

Shame-based man (aka Porch Song redux)

For several months I’ve had a tab open with the beginnings of a post called Porch Song Trilogy*. It was going to be about a concert I went to at the Round Tower Pub, the other music venue at the former King’s Inn, featuring Claire Jenkins, her bandmate Treasa Levasseur, and Andrea Revel, who was new to me.

For one reason and another, I’ve never written the actual post, despite loving all three fabulous performers and having a chance to hang out with them and a few others including Allison Brown and Erin Clark. And the evening, and everyone there, deserve much more than this much-delayed post, which is in part prompted by Matt’s gentle prodding. But that’s what we get tonight, and I promise I’ll do right by them in the future.

The clever title of that post wasn’t mine, much as I’d love to claim it. Andrea told me it was Treasa’s contribution. 🙂

About to burst

I learned some exceedingly happy news from a friend today… but I don’t know how widely it’s been disseminated, so I’m not going to spill the beans. Instead, I’ll just say here, publicly, to said friend, thank you, and congratulations!

Reading material

Prompted by a (mild) tweak from Matt—and yeah, there is a certain pattern to the subject matter around here :)—I thought I’d post links representing a tiny excerpt of the online writings that keep me informed, entertained, and occasionally outraged:

Technology

  • Tim Bray never fails to have something of interest at Ongoing. It’s not entirely accurate to list the site under technology (although he is Sun’s Director of Web Technologies), because he’s just as likely to post a review of a great CD in his 5 ✭ ♫ series, or photos of his travels in Vancouver and around the world, or his analysis of the political situation in the Middle East. But technology’s what took me to the site originally, so there ya go.
  • Sam Ruby‘s eponymous blog is generally more tech-oriented than Ongoing, but always as engaging, whether he’s writing about web services, personal projects like Planet Venus, or just pointing to other items of interest around the web. Anyone at work who’s heard me talk (and talk, and talk) about syndication or moan with displeasure at our intraweb (and other servers) ultimately has Sam to blame.
  • Ditto on assigning blame to Eric Meyer, who writes about CSS (and other things) at meyerweb.com.
  • Dive Into Mark, Mark Pilgrim’s recently-restarted blog, is one of the ones I’ve been reading longest, and is almost certainly the first I subscribed to via RSS. He’s big into technological freedom these days, a topic that’s lead to discussions of things from backing up terabytes of data to website accessibility.

Music

  • Lenni Jabour’s petites pensées are a monthly snapshot of the loveliness that can be found in day-to-day existence, if you just know where to look. sigh
  • On the Road is Kristin Sweetland’s occasional journal and a jumping-off point to disparate and distant parts of the web that make perfect sense together once you start to understand a bit of who she is.
  • I came to Scott Andrew’s lo-fi acoustic pop superhero! site for the JavaScript techniques, and stayed for the music and insights into the world of indie musicianship.

Politics

  • Rick Mercer takes few prisoners and eats sacred cows for breakfast. His blog posts are like scripts for the streeters he performs on his weekly comedy show, made only slightly less biting by being in print.
  • Mike Watkins dot net (which is actually a .ca domain) is the blog of a Progressive Conservative—you remember what those were, right?—who I came across during the last Canadian election campaign. He’s very vocal about the arch-conservative turn his party has taken, and also happens to live in turncoat David Emerson’s riding. It’s surprising sometimes how much his opinions match mine, me being a social libertarian on the economic left and all.

Friends and Family

  • Donna’s denim blog has been through a few sites and incarnations, but it’s currently a place where she posts snippets about her life and travels, accompanied by photos taken with her vast array of cameras.
  • I’ve mentioned that brother Ed and sister-in-law Tara both have blogs; as far as I know we’re the only three in the family that do.
  • Coworkers John and Mike haven’t had a lot to say on their blogs recently. Perhaps this tweak of my own will shame them into a post or two. 🙂

A short coda, just for interest’s sake: of the current Technorati Top 100, I read exactly… wait for it… one. And it’s A List Apart, which is really more of a magazine than a blog.

Promising rant

[Y]ears ago I came to the conclusion that there were only two real reasons why politicians break their promises: You already voted for them and you already voted for them.

Jägervorabende

The evening after Lenni Jabour, Harmony Trowbridge and Adam Walters performed at the London Music Club in April, I decided to go down to Hamilton to see them perform at a club called Casbah. Opening for them was a striking young woman named Hunter Eves, a local Hamiltonian who (I learned later) has quite a following. She was good—really good—and when we had a chance to talk after Harmony and Lenni’s sets she mentioned she was coming to London in June to perform with her band.

Well, she did… sort of. Due to some sort of last-minute conflict, the band couldn’t actually come to The Last Drop. Rather than do an acoustic set, though, she spent almost 24 straight hours recording and programming parts for her performance.

Hunter’s touring again throughout November, and I’d hoped to see her in town on the 29th… but the date seems to have fallen off her tour schedule. 🙁 Ah well, I’ve always got her CD, Unopened Box, to tide me over until she’s in the area again.

Halloween update

Some recent events and discoveries of note:

Item: New blogs

My brother has a new domain and a new blog, solar powered sparks. So does my sister-in-law, who’s moved oh my blog over from Blogger. And speaking of Blogger, my coworker Matt is writing up a storm over at Kimota94’s Place.

Item: Work and play

And speaking of Matt and work, he’s posted a couple of times about goings-on at the company, particularly about our adoption of Agile development practices. I don’t have anything quite so salient to put forth, but I thought our work on Project Pumpkin today was sort of clever. I mean, really, we even had burndown charts and a task backlog!

Four iterations of pumpkin development

Sadly, few people in the rest of the company seemed to agree. 🙂

I’m glad that there was some recognition (third place) for Pumpkin Carving, which my friend Vimmy was involved in creating and was my favourite of the lot.

Pumpkins preparing a child to be carved for Halloween

Item: The arts

And what post would be complete without a rundown of the ladies of music and theatre that have kept me out and about? If you’ve been watching the Upcoming.org links in the sidebar you’ll have seen the last two weeks have been jam-packed with visits to see:

  • Angie Nussey. It’s been way too long since she’s been to London, and if Mohammed won’t go to the mountain, the mountain will have to… go to Guelph, apparently! (The mountain also needs to post more about her; she deserves so much more than the three short mentions that have appeared here so far!)
  • Brenda McMorrow and Kristin Sweetland. Two fabulous singer-songwriters in one night, a block and a half from my front door? You bet I was there! Brenda is recently back from a year in Asia, and this was the release party for her love-filled new EP, Infinite Possibilities; Kristin, on the other hand, is currently recording her new CD, which all signs indicate will be even more traditional and mysterious and dark and uplifting as Root, Heart and Crown. Bonuses abounded, including local mandolinisto James Cummins jamming with both ladies and the news that next year’s Ontario Council of Folk Festivals conference will be held right here in London!
  • Briana Brown in Cassandra. Yup, again. I’m not sure what it was about this show—perhaps that heart-wrenching phone call—but I couldn’t get enough of it at the London Fringe Festival, so when I heard Briana and stage manager/designer Katie Horrill were doing one last (?) run I couldn’t resist.
  • Dayna Manning. In Bayfield. Actually, in a really nice venue in Bayfield (pop. 700) called the Black Dog Village Pub and Bistro. I’ve been a fan of Dayna’s for longer than almost anyone else, but I’ve only been lucky enough to get to know her in the last couple of years.
  • Miss Lenni Jabour of The Third Floor. For the most part Lenni’s been performing solo this year, all over Ontario and Quebec and even into the States, in support of Les Dangereuses and in preparation for two more forthcoming CDs; this was the second-last show of her tour, back home at the Drake Hotel Underground. I’ll keep it short and to the point: take everything that I’ve written about Lenni before and double it. Stir in a few hours cavorting around Queen Street West with Miss J and her lovely friends, and you’ve got a recipe for bliss.

Item: No more items

That’s all, folks!

Gloat

The Rick Mercer Report website: because you can’t watch your high-definition TV at work.

Some of us can. 🙂