Annecy

A shot taken during a two-hour stopover in Annecy, France at the foot of the French Alps in November 1991.

Useless Rain

Rain in October serves no purpose. There is no growing season ahead. There is more than enough snow to provide the moisture needed in the spring. So October rain is only here to set the mood and make the falling leaves stick to everything.

Mind you, I'm one of those nutballs that doesn't have a problem with rainy days. I almost like them as much as sunny days and cloudy days. I like the ambiance. Meloncholy and clean. As long as I've got enough on to keep me warm and I'm not walking ten miles in wet clothing or footwear, I enjoy it. Maybe it goes back to my fascination with water and how it changes the environment and topography.

But in October, all this rain still doesn't make sense.

Tower View

Taken from the observation deck of the Tower of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal in August 2003. I'm a big fan of the stadium even though many native despise it. I like the fluid forms and the sculptural quality. Seems odd that finally thirty years later that unconventional forms like this are really starting to come into vogue.

On the blog awards front, I have been nominated anonymously for Best Personal Blog. Thank you, whoever you are. I'm honored. I have been trying to nominate some other blogs, but I haven't seen them added to the list yet. Voting starts November 15th.

Public Consultation

For those of you not living in Montreal, the hot topic of the last week has been the mayors decision to rename Parc Avenue along with Bleury Street to Robert Bourassa Avenue. Many people are furious for a variety of reasons. Some are upset because they feel Parc is an integral part of the collective memory. Some are upset because another avenue is being renamed for a politician. And others are unhappy because they don't feel Mr. Bourassa was deserving enough to have a major thoroughfare named after of him. But the biggest reason people are upset is because the mayor made the decision without public consultation. He did not consult the general public, nor the local community leaders, nor the local elected officials. He decided it within his administration then announced it to the public as a fait-au-compli.

While I completely agree with this last point, I also feel a tinge of guilt. You see, seven years ago I was on the other side of the coin. One day my supervisors came up to me and asked if I was interested in working on the New Chicago Bears Stadium. Growing up as a Bears fan, it was a dream come true. The only thing that could top it would be a worlds tallest building or work on Wrigley Field. It was very beginning stages so I could have the chance to see the building from start to finish.

As with other projects, it is not always in the best interest of the project for the public to know about it until the development reaches a certain point. Many times the goal is to have a well thought-out project before it goes under the microscope of public scrutiny. While other times it is to advance a project to a point so that the public could not prevent or distort the project from being built. Sometimes this is done for the developers financial gain, and sometimes it is done to prevent a good project from being designed by committee. A perfect example of this is the site of the World Trade Center. Daniel Libeskind designed a wonderful soaring building that has now been completely redesigned by David Childs and pressures from every possible person connected to it. It will still be a good building, but quite likely not a great building.

This was the worry with the Adaptive Reuse of Soldier Field. The concept and design of the project were extremely bold. Gutting a classical lakefront landmark and placing an ultra-modern stadium situated in and spilling over the existing facades. The project was quietly developed over a couple years, then when it was getting close to ready for construction, it was opened for some public hearings. But the mayor and his connections helped get the project approved with some additional funding. Many in the public were furious, particularly those who did not like the mayor to start with. The project went through the wringer of public opinion only after it had been approved and started construction. It was called the "mistake by the lake" and an ultra modern toilet bowl. People were generally polarized as either loving it or hating it. Even to this day.

Personnally, I'm not proud of that aspect of the project. Though I had no part in ramming it through the approval process, I did keep my mouth shut about it for a couple years. Why? I felt it was a great project. Something the city would be proud of. A better stadium than any other in the league. Plus it was so unique with an unconventional layout and design. And I still feel very strong it is a great building. Not only for the spectators, but also the guy walking or driving alongside it.

After it opened, the camps were still divided. But it seemed that many, especially the spectators, liked the new stadium. Though the one thing that remained and remains a sore point with so many was the lack of public consultation. In very rare instances, something good can come of it, but for the most part the public must be able to have their voices heard. Who knows how many more people would like the project had they not felt it was shuffled in behind their backs?

Little Mermaid

This is one of the pictures from the 1991 October travel break. It is the Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen, Denmark.

I have to say that I'm a bit surprised at how much attention some of the photos on Flickr get, while others that I really like get close to none. This is one of those photos that got a lot of attention. I figure it is due to the subject matter instead of the artistic qualities of the photo.

In order to draw more attention to the photos that I like, I have created a set in Flickr that highlights them. Feel free to check them out and comment (good or bad) if you like.

Get Out

I have felt that the US should stay in Iraq until the civil unrest has finished. I don't feel that it was right to go in and take Hussein out of power. But now that the forces were there, they should finish what they said they were going in there to do. To pull out would show that the country would not follow through on what they set out to do. Or an impression could be made that a withdrawal was done solely due to popular opinion.

That was until I read this story.

OK. That's enough. Get out. That behaviour is unacceptable and it is multiple times worse than any occupation or withdrawal. If any group wanted an event as a rallying cry to fight against the US and their occupation of Iraq, this is it. It is such an abhorable act that it staggers my mind. I'm at a loss for words. And 24 hours after it was breaking news, the story is nowhere to be found. My cynical side says the story was shuffled to the side in order not to influence public opinion for the upcoming election. Yes, it is possible this was an isolated incident. But it is more likely that there have been and likely will be more like it. Regardless, I see it as a sign that this needs to be over.

While we are on the topic, the government used to tell everyone that they would only stay long enough for local personnel to be trained to keep control of the country on their own. How long does that take? We have seen zero progress. I've also noticed that they haven't been saying that lately. Now the rhetoric has returned to the war on terror.

Your plans to "finish the job" are not working and no progress is being made. Your "staying the course" is proving to be more detrimental to the so-called "war on terror". Your suggestion that we must not "cut and run" is becoming the less sensible option. Yes, it may mean a civil war with a less than favorable faction taking power. But what is the other option. An endless occupation with no progress toward peaceful democratic rule. It is time to accept that your decision of a military enforced regime change was wrong. Our reputation as a country will be damaged and it will lay heavy on our conscience. But the best action at this point is to pull out and allow the country to find it's own way.

FLW in MTL

Caserne de Pompiers #1 (Firehouse #1) in the Maisonneuve neighborhood of Montreal. Designed by Marius Dufresne after he discovered Frank Lloyd Wright. It now houses a small theater company. Here are a couple more pictures of the building.

Post #300 Renovation

Monday I said I was going to compile another "Best of" for those new to the party and since it has been almost 200 posts since the last one (post #100). I started to compile it and it proved to be a difficult task. Wading through the archives, determining what could be considered the best, and adding links, etc. The whole time I was thinking that it would be so much easier if I could just throw everything into categories. That way I wouldn't have to choose and visitors would still be able to find topics that interest them. For instance, some may be coming to read about my take on Montreal, while some may be interested in me.

Well for the last month or two, Blogger has been advertising a new beta-version. With more flexibility and the ability to add bells and whistles not previously available. The two that interested me the most were the ability to add labels/categories and the other was the ability to control who sees the blog. Now, some of you know that I have been toying with jumping to Wordpress. For the two reasons above and the ability to customize the look instead of using a template. Unfortunately we're short on cash at the moment and it'll have be another day. Of the two reasons to jump, the viewing permissions turned to be a bust. It's a toggle switch where the blog is invitation only or public. There is not the ability to do it on a post by post basis.

So by now, you can see that I took the plunge into beta. It's for the sole reason of being able to categorize my posts. In large part I am really liking the improved version. It's like getting any upgrade like a bigger monitor or a new car. It's not perfect, but there are enough new bells and whistles to make it a fun improvement. The ability to add elements and move them around. And the dashboard makes adding categories quite easy since I can do it in bulk on one page. Instead of doing it post by post. And along the way I learned how to back up this thing.

So there we are. A good chunk of the previous posts have been categorized for easy reference. One knock on it is that you view the whole post in each category instead of just a few lines. It would make it easier to peruse. I hope to have all the posts categorized in the next few days. I did create a "Best of" since there are a handful have gotten tons of traffic. If you feel there are others to add, let me know. I've given the same treatment to the other blog also.

I hope it doesn't bother anyone how I divided up the blogs I link to. Cohorts are people that I've met in the real world or have a well established online rapport. The other three are self explanatory. Though just so you know, I read the blogs that link here also.

So enjoy the new diggs. I hope you like it and feel free to explore the categories.

Rouen Streetscape

One of the pictures I uploaded recently for the European Memoirs blog. Rouen is a very nice city with three impressive gothic churches. A good day trip from Paris, or a stop on the way to Honfleur and the Normandy Beaches.

Canadian Blog Awards

It's that time of year again. Nominations are being accepted for the Canadian Blog Awards. My love of competition, my need for validation, and just plain curiousity has me interested in being a part of it this year. So feel free to nominate me if you feel what you read here is worthy. The only two categories this blog could fall under are Best Personal Blog andBest Blog (yeah, right).
There is also the best post or best post series categories. A couple of my most popular posts have been Snow Removal in Montreal and my most visited blog post ever is Population of Montreal in 2005. Search engines have popularized the second one.

And if any of you are interested in being nominated, let me know. I'll be happy to nominate you. Actually, we could all nominate ourselves, but it doesn't feel quite right doing it that way.

I realize that this is just one big popularity contest and I only have a small chance of getting in the final three. But if it brings in more like-minded people and/or people interested in what's written here, that can only be good. I hope to have a "Best of" coming up soon.

Wrigley Field Scoreboard

Baseball season is over for the Cubs, but I like this shot of the old scoreboard. Although they have tacked a video screen to the bottom, the top is still manually operated with the workers sticking their heads out to watch the game once in a while. I've heard that it's incredibly hot in there and smells like pee. Their only way to relieve themselves is into a funnel with a pipe that leads down to the sewer below.

But it sure is nice to look at from the outside. As long as you are good at addition.

... you know.

Some excerpts from the President's press conference today:

"The speaker's strong statements have made it clear to not only, you know, the party members, but to the country, that he wants to find out the facts,'' Bush said at his press conference outside the Oval Office. "All of us want to find out the facts. I mean, this is — you know, this is disgusting behavior when a — you know, a member of Congress betrays the trust of a… family that sent a young page up to serve in the Congress."

"He's… done a fine job as speaker, and when he stands up and says 'I want to know the truth'… and I believe yesterday he said that if somebody on his staff, you know, didn't tell him the truth, they're gone. I respect that and appreciate that and believe him.''

"I think the elections will be decided by security and the economy. I really do,'' the president said. "You know, I know this…Foley issue bothers a lot of people, including me. But I think when they get in that booth, they're going to be thinking about, you know, how best to secure the country from attack, and, you know, how best to keep the economy growing.''

"We've got to deal with these problems before they come to…our territory… You know, I understand that some are saying, 'Well, he's just trying to scare us.' My job is to look at the intelligence… and I'm going to tell you, there's an enemy out there that would like to do harm again to the United States because we're in a war.''

You would think after six years as president he would have a better way to pause. You know.