greetings

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Let's see... how to catch you up?

Well, I've been to Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City on a road trip, I've been to New York City for a conference (and a performance by my favourite comedian, Mr. Izzard), and last but certainly not least I've been to the old homestead for none other than my sister's wedding. All good fun, with the latter essentially perfect.

Last night I made my first visit to the Opera House, a cool old venue that's quite a bit east of Yonge Street (most of my life takes place west of Yonge Street). My friend and I were there to see the best band from the Kingdom of Denmark, The Raveonettes. Their new record is fantastic, and they sounded great as always (was the fourth time I've seen them). I still prefer them as a five-piece touring oufit (they were three last night), but that's OK... Also made my first trek to the nearby Dangerous Dan's, a great local haunt unless you're vegetarian (I'm not).

Here's a new one from The Raveonettes--"You Want The Candy" -->


Otherwise I'm enjoying another holiday weekend. We had an offsite meeting at the Royal Ontario Museum on Thursday, and no work again until Monday.

Switching gears rather abruptly, I've been reading a lot about the ongoing political stalemate in Belgium. A coalition government is finally in the works, but many believe the differences between the Dutch-speaking Flemish in the north and the French-speaking Walloons in the south will soon be too much to sustain a united country. The new Prime Minister is from Flanders and wants more autonomy for his region, though it has an incredible amount already for a region of a country. As always, the BBC is collecting thoughts on the matter. This quotation from a Belgian really stuck out to me:

We live in a small country and we also have a small mentality. We host the capital of Europe and sadly we do not see beyond the language boundaries of Flemish and Walloon in our own country. Welcome to Belgium. Come visit us before there's no more Belgium.
Catherine, Brussels, Belgium

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