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Sitka
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2086
From Juneau it's the ferry for 2 days to Prince Rupert.
The weather is bad, cool, rainy, blowing. I am told by other, more regular passengers, that this is the norm.
We've our own berth, and so retire there to read, occasionally walk the decks, see the inane movies in the lounge.
When the Purser announces that for those interested we'll be stopping in Sitka for a couple of hours and any passengers interested can book a tour, I sign up. Never mind that it's at 2:00 AM, anything beats the monotony of the voyage.
Now the first place we go is the Russian Orthodox Church - St. Michaels, the center of Russian Orthodoxy in North America. And our guide is immensely informative and we are surrounded by Russian Icons, from as far back as the 15th Century, there are artworks and candleabra and there is much to look at and photograph, but I dare not look too distracted....
Our guide is very well informed, and my hopes that we'll have a moment to peruse the collections are dashed, an hour lecture and we're done, on to the next destination.
It's 3:00 AM, black outside, raining, we pass various points of interest - the Salmon run (and here he stops on the bridge and tells us about the millions of Salmon below we can't see, because it's pitch black and raining, finishing with "it's quite a sight...."). There's the old WW2 Army base and there's the totem poles, all of which are nigh on invisible in the pitch black of night.
And eventually, as the sun is beginning to pale the sky and there's a hint of daylight in the east we head back to the Ferry. The girl hasn't found it so interesting, me, I've loved it.
Juneau
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 1782
An uneventful trip on the Ferry, the scenery; glaciers and mountains, is beautiful.
There's talks on whale watching, we see none, other passengers report distant sightings of the spume and splashes.
We reach Juneau and it's beautiful - the glaciers behind the city, the way that they've done an amazing job of preserving the older buildings, built up and down mountainsides, there are shops filled with maritime antiquities, old books, it's somehow all very cool.
Our first stop is a hotel, any hotel, and we end up paying $200.00 a night for one in central Juneau. That's life in the big city.
But on the plus side we can walk around and explore, which we do.
The next day we find a place where we can pan for gold (aptly named "gold creek") and show some in the pan - my obligations for the trip are now fulfilled and the daughter has to acknowledge that I was right - although she begrudges me the creek ("It's called gold creek dad....").
We walk out to a point near the city and explore the tidal pools, no great discoveries here, mostly a crusty bed of mussels that the daughter is loathe to step upon, and then it's time to leave again upon the ferry...such is this whirlwind trip of Alaska.
Resurrect Dead The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1865
Not only a play this weekend, but a film too.
It's the Calgary International Film Festival, which offered quite a few films that I'd like to see, but unfortunately work and more work suck up nearly all of my time.
But today there's Resurrect Dead The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.
Which is quite interesting. Now I've linked to the Toynbee mystery before, and it's fascinating, and fair to say that the documentary does it justice. More than that, but to explain might destroy the pleasure of watching it. I've taken the liberty of lifting this quote from the Globe and Mail:
...Some of the “dots” they connect include a South Philadelphia street address, a 1980 late-night Larry King radio phone-in show, a one-act David Mamet play, information from local shortwave radio buffs and messages that appeared on bus-stop handbills.
I'd give it a very worthwhile.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Theatre
- Hits: 1525
Saturday night and I've planned something a little different for staff and the boy. I've gotten tickets to the midnight playing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show (the play, not the movie) at the Pumphouse Theatre.
So I've picked up the boy and we're at the Pumphouse, I've introduced him to my colleagues, he's met the Nephew last year at the Rocky Horror (the Movie), but G, the salad chef, new hostess, these are all new to him.
G's concerned that "it better not be some sort of gay show", he's getting that vibe from the costumed patrons, but there are enough females present to keep his attention. And the Nephew is telling the boy about how last weekend G and him were on their way to a party after the bar when they walked into the wrong house, they call out for someone, it hasn't dawned on them and this older woman comes out, she tells them they've got the right house, if they'll just stay put she'll change and they can party with her....
And G has somehow taken over the story and is explaining it, translating from the nephew's heavy accent what happened and verifying what happened, the only difference in his telling is that the nephew wanted to stay and party with the woman....
They excuse themselves and leave, finding the real party....
The boy is laughing, these are stories that lose an awful lot during my retelling to get them directly from the source, independent corroboration, it's hilarious, and he's gotten out his iPod to film G telling the story...
***The first half of the play passes, it's exactly what you'd expect from the Pumphouse, a "glee" styled production with modest audience participation, the Nephew and G are not so into it, the Nephew checking his texts, G staring with his jaw-down and a slack, glazed expression on his face.
*** In the intermission G and the Nephew inquire if it would be rude to leave, I assure them that yes, yes it would, they consent to stay if I agree to buy them a couple of beer.
I give in.
Meanwhile the salad and hostess are having the time of their life, this is their cup of tea. Happy now with beer in hand, the boy with his iPod on record, I bait the Nephew "Tell the boy about the transsexual prostitutes...."
He's too happy to oblige. And once again the boy is in paroxysms of laughter, unable to hold the camera straight..."transsexuals, they are the best and the cheapest...", boy bent double, iPod in general direction of nephew, "...and my friends say 'hey, look, she has balls'" and I look...."
Around this point I realize I've just discovered the next Karl Pilkington, that I need to follow him around with a video camera and record his witticisms and observations and my fortune will be made, I ban the boy from posting these things onto the internet, for personal amusement and proof to his friends what an insane world it is, fine, ....
The Rocky Horror, it was what it was, OK, intermittent sound and occasionally monotone lyrics. Exactly what I would have expected. The company, on the other hand, was admirable and just the proof I needed...
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