1 November 2015

Routine - An Elusive Beast



I only have four Canadian heroes. My dog, who has now outlived the expectations of her veterinarian and is showing no signs of any hurry to join Lassie in the good dog up there; two dead people: George Woodcock and Paul St. Pierre; and the man whose fighting spirit has helped keep me keeping on no matter how dark and cold the day here in the land of the True, North, Strong and Free as long as you do not mind being tailed by the Secret Police - Joe Keithley is taking another shot at political success whenever our sad excuse for a Premier gets around to setting a date for it.

Therefore my return to routine life is already over. There is a by election to be held by early February in Coquitlam if I have my dates straight. I figure Keithley would make the best MLA in BC, maybe Canadian, history - I do not care what party he is running for.

So I am in.

Went to his campaign kick-off Friday night. Never set eyes on that many motherfucking Greens before. They were a pretty well behaved bunch. Just like the NDP I do not think any of them were stepping out into the pub parking lot to smoke dope. Fucking Liberals have that covered for everybody I guess.

I made a donation - nothing too extravagant - I am broke from spending a logger's pay cheque helping my party lose a million votes in the federal election; picked up a green button with Joe's name on it; listened to a few speeches (I liked Joe making it clear Greens are pro-union); shot the shit with several people I had never met before in my life (something I am fond of); listened to Joe sing a few acoustic songs and, as an added bonus, got to listen to Holly Arntzen and Kevin Wright for the first time.

Holly and Kevin, an extremely pleasant pair who I was pleased to speak with briefly before they performed, make some high quality music. Holly played some fabulous dulcimer, Kevin a drum you sit on, and the two of them, singing exactly an octave apart if I am not mistaken, sounded like the Beach Boys back when they had long hair, beards and dropped acid. I am going to have to see a longer set by them and buy their records soon.

Most of the people there chipped in to the campaign too. Enough money to get Joe on his way to victory or death, as Lemmy might say.

I am beginning to think I had better re-think just what my routine is these days. Perhaps there is no going back to my simpler sawmill and beer life.

  

3 comments:

motorcycleguy said...

"shot the shit with several people I had never met before"....in person anyways, says Mrs. Motorcycleguy. Thinkin' Michelle Shocked shares a bit of that Holly vocal style. Thinkin' Joe doesn't share anyone's political style (or at least very few in this Province), he will unreservedly represent his voters before The Party or The Corporation.

Mr. Beer N. Hockey said...

Mr. Keithley's unconventionality is a good fit for a world choking on conventionality in my view.

Never listened to Michelle Shocked. She must have come to the fore back in days new vinyl records were hard to find. I misses a lot of good shit in those days.

motorcycleguy said...

yeah, I'm thinkin' it was near the end all right....my vinyl copy of Short Sharped Shocked says c1988...the cover art will prompt you to listen to all the tracks