Odds 'n Ends July 17, 2026

I've been meaning to sit down and write a blog for awhile now, putting it off and putting it off.  I might have to put time aside on a certain day every so often and just hammer it out.  I've always got something to say.

I wonder if I should give the video blog thing a try, because it's the last perceptive link to context in physical media.  You can't completely get across your ideas strictly in text like you could a spoken word, with visual aid.  Though text has its advantages.  I can type something, re-read it, and change my mind, whereas when you speak, it's out there, and sometimes you have to retract.  But then the same can be said for text.  

Anyway...

This'll be an odds 'n ends post.

Knowing Nolan

*  Every three years is a Nolan year, last time being Oppenheimer, this year being Odyssey.  I'm looking forward to seeing the show, even though I'm not familiar with the Homer story.  I almost feel kind of uneducated knowing how well known the story is, and I've just never read it.  I went out and got the book American Prometheus that it's based on and only got through the first couple of chapters, simply because the typeface is so small in the book; I had to give it up because of my eye strain.  Not giving up on it though - I've got to get my eyes tested soon!  But anyway, the scale and scope of the story is monstrous, especially for an IMAX screen, which Nolan faithfully champions with all his movies now.  Hopefully we'll be seeing it next week.  There's also Spiderman Brand New Day coming in a couple of weeks that I'm looking forward to a lot.

"Listen..."

*  We did see Disclosure Day on preview day, the day before official release.  I knew that reviews for it would spoil a lot of it and probably be unfavorable to many critics, so I wanted to see it for myself first.  For anyone who's into UFO lore, a lot of the subject matter in the film will be quite familiar, and will 'get it' more, but this is a movie that's going to age not unlike many of Spielberg's stories, that is to say, revelatory as time passes, not unlike Close Encounters of the Third Kind, which Spielberg was way ahead with.  It did moderate box office business, but the real buzz will happen when it's out on VOD and blu ray.  Something it didn't quite touch on, understandably, was much of the religious aspect of disclosure.  I think that UFO theology and spirituality will merge noticeably in the coming months and years.  I recommend to anyone to read a book by Chris Bledsoe called "UFO of God", where Bledsoe really comes across as 'chosen', by something, and he equates his experiences with Godly and angelic characteristics.  He even claims he was healed of serious illnesses with his encounters.  He summons 'orbs', or light beings, at will regularly, and even takes videos of them that he posts online.  Government is paying attention to him, and with the recent spate of people investigating all things UFO disappearing (in some cases, being unalived), I kind of worry about him.  He's quite the gracious, humble guy.  And completely apolitical, which I think is of utmost importance when you approach that kind of subject matter.

Back in the U.S... back in the U.S... back in the U.S.S.A

*  American politics is really screwing up the world lately isn't it?  You have a mentally unstable, dementia ridden, child-raping, cannibalistic, wife abusing (let's face it, he either killed Ivana or had her killed), incestuous, racist, closet gay/homophobe combo, felonious, con artist, criminal-coddling demon in charge of the free world, who's hell bent on taking away said freedom to benefit his ultra-crooked family and friends and tank his country's prosperity in order to succumb to Netanyahu's and Israel's far, far right wishes.  The war he started with Iran, which he's trying so hard to drag the world into, is a constant distraction of the release of the Epstein files, which, when the truth comes out, he knows will absolutely decimate his empire for good.  In fact, it could be so cataclysmic that the political and entertainment industry could collapse under the weight of it all.  And I'm all for it.  If 2025 ushered in the Age of Aquarius and enlightenment, that would mean that the dark corners of society will have light shone in them and the world can begin healing.  It's been happening, and is happening, and will intensify as the days go by.  By the end of this decade, a very different world order will be upon us, and the U.S will not be at the center of it anymore.  The U.S. under Trump has really revealed the demonology at the center of its power, puppeteered by Israel and its motivations.  Notice I didn't say 'Jews', because radical Israeli politicians among the Jewish are grossly misrepresenting them, and most of them know it.  It's interesting how republicans point fingers at Canada saying we're becoming communistic when they themselves are at that forefront, but that's classic republican MAGA projectionism.  And the richer you are, it seems the more conservative you get, because you're holding on tight to that stupidly excess money.  And a simple millionaire isn't really that rich anymore.  But there is no such thing as a billionaire who is not a crook.  

Fungi Friday

*  This'll be a fascinating end to the week for me, as I'm going to embark on a journey with psilocybin, or magic mushrooms.  I'm choosing the Golden Teacher route, which is a 'beginner's' mushroom for the experience, that being it's not as intense or anything like other species of them can be.  I've heavily researched it and am taking all the precautions, and am going into it with eyes wide open.  Magic mushrooms, as a lot of us are hearing now, are supposed to be massive allies for brain function, which can potentially really help people like me with anxiety and neurological issues.  I read a lot of literature saying that they help the brain restore pathways and even actually physically heal it, so, I'm taking the responsible and practical approach to this and am looking forward to the experience.  The one thing that held me back was how emetophobic I am, or extremely afraid of vomiting, which seems to accompany some mushroom users.  So I researched it and found that you can actually make tea with the mushrooms so that you don't have to actually eat them, which is where the problem can be for me.  Watching this video helped in my research.  I may actually take videos of my experience and post them here, because if this really turns out well, I'm going to be championing it for everyone with mental illness, anxiety and depression.  Gemini is also assisting me in tackling this venture.  Note that I'm chiefly doing this for practical purposes and not recreationally, although I don't condemn or condone that.  We'll see where this road leads. 

Yahu for Putin

*  The collapse of Russia appears to be imminent.  For anyone who's truly paying attention, and I don't mean to mainstream media which seem to be cheerleaders for the 'mighty' Putin, it's pretty clear who's in charge of things right now.  If Putin and his cronies fall to the wayside, that opens up gates for other floodwaters to flow.  I believe Russia is subservient to Israel, and are working closely with Israeli hardliners to take down the U.S.  It isn't hard to see.  Clearly, Trump is compromised via the decisions he's making in attacking Iran on Israel's behalf, and Netanyahu knows how soft Trump is in his decision making - not to mention, people may forget that Jared Kushner is clearly beholden to Israel himself and is their Trump whisperer.  So... if Russia falls, eyes will turn toward the middle east, where leverage thru Putin will have vanished, which changes the dynamics of the Iran war significantly.  Without Putin's assistance, Iran may fall as well, but not from the war from the U.S., which is illegal in the ICC anyway.  Definitely potential Hague fodder.

That's a long fuggin' bungee

*  I don't know what to think of my hometown of Moncton these days.  We just had municipal elections that we hoped would set in action some kind of remedial program to deal with the homeless and get to the bottom of the rampant drug use, but absolutely no progress has been made that I can see.  The cost of shelter here is absolutely nuts, and power is the same.  Let me say this... I believe we lost our police force years ago when Camille Theriault was premier, and he and then-mayor Leopold Belliveau didn't do anything to support Monctonians who largely wanted to keep our local police.  In fact there was a campaign across the city to support the city police.  But we got the RCMP anyway... and less policing.  All while the city's population is exploding.  I would bet the RCMP, as they are now known, are frustrated behind the scenes at their lack of preparedness and resources.  I had high hopes Brian Murphy would be elected mayor this year and do something, but apparently he lost by a few hundred votes.  We now have mayor Shawn Crossman, whom I did not vote for because he didn't support a simple request by a friend of mine; and that was enough to lose my trust too.  I'll tell you this... Moncton is a hair's breadth away from becoming a true shithole city.  It's tragic and shameful how far we've dropped, and everyone else is talking about us.  We literally have a bad reputation for our lack of action on our problems.  I didn't vote for Susan Holt, either, because I didn't trust her to do what needed to be done.  And I was right.  Look... all you have to really do if you live here is take a long walk.  Walk downtown in Moncton and head to the bridge and walk across.  Step around the streets there.  Clean.  Hardly any noisy vehicles.  No homelessness.  And more greenery and less concrete.  I mean... I understand Covid hit us hard, really hard.  We have the hospitals, so the impact hit harder near them.  But that's over six years ago, ffs.  Why is this city so slow to bounce back??

I guess that's good for the time being.  If you're reading this, thanks for coming by!  I appreciate you.

We Found What We Were Looking For. Mostly.

From the moment U2 began their set here in Moncton's Magnetic Hill with the opening guitar shrill of "Even Better Than the Real Thing", I knew we were in for a different show than what we witnessed on the U2 360 Blu Ray we bought a few weeks ago.  The rumors were right, they constantly change the show AND the set list.  Which is nice, because I got to hear a lot of songs that I completely didn't expect and wished for.  I wished they would play something from Zooropa, probably my favorite U2 disc, and I got not just one, but two tracks from that album, "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" and "Zooropa".  The latter being the big shock, not expecting that at all.  As soon as I recognized the opening, I freaked.  My beloved Zooropa album was going to be represented by a song I never expected them to ever play again, much less here in Moncton.  There were so many others I was taken aback by, albeit pleasantly, like "Miss Sarajevo", one of the most touching and emotional U2 songs EVER.  A lot of people don't quite get that song, but I do.  I dived into it one day, seeking translation for Pavarotti's part in the song, and then the meaning of it swept into my heart.  Miss Sarajevo, a pageant winner in the midst of bloody civil war going on in Bosnia... is there a time to recognize such beauty during a monumental point of violent history in any country?  Then Pavarotti sings about love.  And it made me think... love conquers everything, including war.  Where love exists, war perishes.  Genious.

"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me".  Wow, just didn't see that coming!  I'm telling you, they threw curve ball after curve ball at my expectations and I loved every single delightful pitch.  Lastly, the finisher of the night, "40" (paraphrasing Psalm 40, for the uninitiated)... I often said to my wife leading up to the concert how much I would love for them to leave the stage after Larry Mullen's climactic beats at the end of that song, knowing that it's not going to happen.  BUT... it did.  A perfect ending to a perfect show.  Almost, anyway... I would have loved to have heard "All I Want Is You" and "Electrical Storm".  But I still wound up with a whole lot more than I expected.  Three hours, some intimate banter from the brilliant Bono, a stage show unlike any other in the history of music and probably none that will ever equal it, and my lovely family at my side.  Even a pair of F-16 fighters flying around the site for over half an hour before U2 came on, putting on a show that brought out the squealing little kid in me.  I must have looked like a 7 year old stuck in a 45 year old's body.  I danced in place in the bleachers, sung and hollered, pumped my fist, just let loose.  It was the release that I needed.  It literally turned me around from the down-in-the-dumps sadsack to a happy-to-be-alive man, friend, father and husband again.  This was the prescription I needed.

Now, not everything was all roses, though.  Let's go back to the beginning.

The day was a washout.  It poured rain out all afternoon, and it looked like this was going to be more difficult to enjoy than it should be.  The three of us waited here at the house for as long as we could, trying to wish away the rain, as the forecasts were indeed saying it should stop by the end of the afternoon.  We bought into the 'Park and Ride' plan that was pitched by the promoters, where you buy a $10 bracelet, park the car at the coliseum parking lot, board a bus and have it take you to the concert site, and you would get back on the bus after the show and it would bring you back.  The buses, we were told, would get to leave the site first.  Sounds like a plan to us.  I was wary of the $30 charges to park the car someplace near the site and having to deal with traffic.  The Casino was offering parking spots for that much, redeemable after the show for a voucher for the same price to play their games inside.  No thanks.

Anyway, we got to the coliseum, parked the car and boarded a bus quite quickly, with no hassles whatsoever.  Although we got to ride on a school bus.  Those things are so cramped, I now feel sorry for the kids that have to travel in them every school day.  It's like something the military should have to endure.  Or not even.  But, we got to the concert site in pretty good time, and we were let off at Mountain Road just by the Magnetic Hill entrance.  Alexandra wasted absolutely no time in slipping on the mud and wiping out, getting her leggings muddy.  Not real bad though, although she had to adjust to that slimy feeling until it dried up a bit.  So we began our walk to the concert site, past the zoo, over the hills and seemingly far away.  From the bus to the site, it had to have been nearly an hour for sure.  But the weather held up, no one needed rain gear from that point on, and the crowd walking there was all very friendly and pumped to see the show.  We watched as we got closer the giant U2 'Claw' that was set up in the distance, everyone peering at it in awe as if the aliens had arrived, which is what it looked like anyway.  It looked like half of Star Trek's Deep Space Nine space station had separated in half and landed.  Everyone, us included, took pictures of the behemoth that was planted adjacent to the Papal Site.  Along the way, the path was muddy at times, which was to be expected.  Not only did it rain like crazy earlier, but that's pretty well how the whole summer has been around here.  It's like spring got held over.

We arrived at the gates just outside the concert site, 1 litre bottles of water in hand, and had our tickets scanned to get in.  From there, we might as well have gotten a jet ski to get to the venue.  We had to trek across the grass and mud for at least another 1/2 km until we got to some solid ground, so our shoes were completely soaked after the first few steps in.  Some kind of rubber track, or even spread gravel, would have alleviated the situation.  But it appeared that the planners didn't entertain the idea that it might rain, despite the fact that it's been virtually monsoon season all summer up to this point.  We laughed and joked about it, and tried to make light of it as best we could.  We didn't want anything to dampen our enthusiasm, and nothing did.  Roll with the punches and get back up.

Once we got to where there was more solid ground, we stood in awe of the Claw, and the enormous bleachers that surrounded it.  We walked about the place first, exploring the phenomenally limited number of concession stands and vendors, and got a hot dog, each one $5.  Not too bad.  I heard nightmare stories about prices, and those were big hot dogs.  There was a stand with merchandise that we each got something from.  Alexandra got her keychain to add to her collection, I got a t-shirt and both of the ladies got a hoodie.  The prices for the stuff were average, maybe a little less, except for the shirt which was $40.  But this is a once in a lifetime event.  We proceeded to our seats in the grandstands.

We were pretty high up, enough to make you a bit queasy if you had issues with heights.  But we were offered a breathtaking view of the stage from our vantage point, as were anyone lucky enough to have a reserved seat.  Just after 6pm, opening band Carney from L.A. took the stage.  We learned quickly that we were indeed seating 'behind' the stage, as no one except U2 themselves actually came to face us.  That was remedied somewhat by the giant retractable cone-like screen hung from the center of the Claw.  Carney was okay.  It's a talented group of young men on their journey to better, more successful days, I'm sure, should they stick together and weather the storms ahead of them, like any band that has to endure trials by fire.  They were quite noisy at times though.  I know I sound old saying that.  But the singer didn't need to scream as much as he did (scream for effect, and it'll be...well...effective, not at every friggin' turn of a song).  They had a pretty long set.  Maybe too long.  Out of five stars, I'd give them two.

A bit of an intermission came before Arcade Fire did their bit to entertain.  Last time we saw them was in Montreal in '05 for U2's Vertigo Tour, itself the highest grossing tour ever up to that point.  We didn't know what to expect from them then, and were so pleasantly surprised that we got their CD after the show.  This time, it was basically more of the same, which is to say extremely good.  This is a band... or maybe it's more accurate to call them a group of people... that will do whatever it takes to entertain you, play any instrument, even make an instrument out of anything (the bottom of a clothes iron was used for percussion at one point).  I don't know the members by name, but they are familiar to me.  Last time I loved watching the girl who was the violin player, this time I had my eye on the sensual babe in the gold dress.  She danced and sang and played (some kind of crank instrument, percussion and drums), and had a ball doing it.  The way she moves is mesmerizing.  The whole group was phenomenal to see and hear, and we danced in our aisles and sung along to the stuff we knew, and even didn't know.  I would certainly give Arcade Fire 4 out of 5 stars.  And I think I might even be stingey there.

Once the whole show was over, Alexandra was just about ready to explode, since she drank her whole bottle of water and needed to go to the bathroom.  We had to go through a maze just to find a porta potty, but we did, and she was treated to the darkness of a bottomless john as she contributed her portion to the honeydippers.  We followed afterward.  Nothing like using one of those things.  It makes you realize how much it must have sucked in the dark ages before toilets.  We began to walk back from whence we came, only to be met by a security guard that said no one was allowed to go that way.  This threw a wrench into our return trip.  We had to basically walk around and try to find where everyone else was going, hoping that whoever was at the front of the line had an idea.  Having no access to the path we used to get there, we were forced to walk uneven, wet, muddy grounds in the dark, climbing over hills and ditches, relying on the kindness of strangers at the peaks of some places to pull us up like we were soldering through the fields of war.  In fact, Janice and me were both remarking how eerily similar the scene looked to Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds", with thousands of people aimlessly wandering their way from the aliens across barren fields.  We would sink into the ground without warning into puddles and mud, take random turns in the hopes of getting on the right track, and searched for the path we took getting to the site in the first place.  None of this is easy in the dark with no lights.  As we looked to the west, were Front Mountain Road lie there empty of vehicles, we wondered why the buses weren't allowed to pick up concert goers there, as it would have shortened the walk, made everything clearer, and alleviated the crowding we experienced as everything bottlenecked once we re-emerged at the zoo grounds.  The whole experience just seemed to get worse.

Finally, after a snail's pace of moving in the enormous crowded lineup, where a lot of cheaters skipped past the waiting crowds and butted ahead in line with security guards doing absolutely nothing about it, we made it back to Mountain Road.  There were the buses all lined up and waiting.  Eureka!!  Finally we'll be able to get on and sit down after such a long, pain in the ass walk that took well over an hour and a half.  Little did we know, we were only halfway through.  The empty buses were lined up on the other side of the road.  On our side, we had to walk all the way up as long as the buses were lined up (at least 30), then cross the road to the other side, and walk all the way to the first bus in line because they were only loading two buses at a time!  Un.  Fucking.  Believable.  An hour and a half later, after a restless crowd was steadily losing its patience at the complete lack of logic exhibited by the 'organizers', we finally got on our bus and were carted back to the coliseum, to get into our car and come home.  The last thing we had to eat was a hot dog.  Any hopes of getting something from a take out joint were dashed because it was well after 3am, unless you were willing to get into even more lineups at drive thrus like Rotten Ronnie's or Burger King.  We cut our losses and made a frozen McCain pizza here at home.

So.... the question is begged:  was it worth it?  Would I do it again?  Yes.  For U2.  For KISS.  Probably Coldplay.  For anyone else, though, not a chance.  I don't know how many shows have been at the Hill now, but I would have thought that they would have things better worked out than this by now, especially for the biggest tour since tours have existed on earth.  But no.  Lights to shine the way back?  Pfft.  Track laid to help guide people to where they're going?  Bahh.  Easier access to the 11,000  that chose to take the 'Park and Ride' scheme that cost each person $10 a pop that were promised an easy go of it?  HEY, once they have your $10, sucker, apparently you're on your own.

I say this:  This does NOT bode well for the Magnetic Hill Concert Site.  For the thousands who have traveled to see this show, for those who live here and close who have not seen a show here before, this was hardly a good sell.  This was a deterrent for future shows.  For fans like me who were on the fence about seeing bands like AC/DC.... I'm glad I waited to see U2 first, because had I have gone to any show beforehand, I likely wouldn't have bothered with this shit.  The papers and the media can sing the praises of the Magnetic Hill site all they want.  IT SUCKS.  Period.  Flat out sucks.  And everyone I have talked to or heard from, whether I knew them or not, said the same thing.  Thank God U2 was so good.  Had we have gotten a lacklustre Beach Boys performance like there was at Parlee Beach years ago, it would have sealed the fate of the place.

You can say what you want about Halifax and how they got their shows, how they acquired the funds to get the acts that they did, but it's far, far superior.  We may have the promotion, but Halifax has the grounds and the organization.  When we saw KISS in '09 at the Halfax Commons, it poured buckets all day.  Nonstop, until KISS came on, when it miraculously stopped.  But the grounds there endured the same kind of precipitation that the Hill did.  But, they were well groomed.  Yes, there was mud.  Yes, there were puddles.  But there were lights.  There were streets surrounding the venue.  Bathrooms and concessions were easily accessible.  And when the night was over, we were in our own car and on the road a half an hour later.  It took over three hours between U2 being done to the time we actually made it home.  With Halifax and KISS, we were actually home, back in Moncton, SOONER after it was over.  What does that say about our beloved concert site?

It says it's overrated.  It sucks.  And it needs work, attention, organization, and a lot of heads to get out of the sand.  In this case, mud, before the sun actually hits it and bakes them in solid.  Maybe that's already happened.

And they can't build the new convention center soon enough.  Can't wait to see what treats we have in store with that.