Alice and Beethoven

Mon dieu, today I can't stop sharing with you every single interesting thing that comes my way. This is sublime - a stunningly moving 12 minute film about a joyful musician, aged 106. Makes you glad to be alive, with her. Please watch and be transported.

http://www.youtube.com/user/AliceTheFilm

Jon Stewart's rally, Toronto branch

From the website of Democrats Abroad:

On the September 16 episode of The Daily Show, Jon Stewart announced his "Rally to Restore Sanity,"scheduled for October 30, 12 noon – 3 p.m., at National Mall in Washington, D.C., just three days before the U.S. Mid-term Election Day. Stephen Colbert announced his “Keep Fear Alive” rally the same day, time and place as Stewart’s.

To support these dueling rallies, the Toronto chapter of Democrats Abroad Canada will host a satellite rally for American citizens living here, to help Restore Sanity and Keep Fear Alive. One of dozens in the U.S. and around the world, the Toronto rally will be held at Spirits Bar & Restaurant, 642 Church St., just south of Bloor East, west side of Church Street, 11:30 a.m to 4:00 p.m.

A day of fun and serious mockery, Toronto chapter members will be celebrating the fact that 80 per cent of Americans are actually very reasonable people who do not shout at one another. Canadian themed signs include “Canada supports American Sanity-We Have Universal Healthcare” and “Take it down a notch America; we’re trying to sleep up here in Canada.”

(See www.rallytorestoresanity.com and www.saneornot.com)

Did you see President Obama with Jon Stewart last night? There he was on a Comedy Channel mock-news program, a dignified, articulate, extremely intelligent and thoughtful leader, nearly buried in slanderous rhetoric and vicious politics.

Jon Stewart has been voted by the on-line website askmen.com as "the most important man in America."

transcript of CBC interview with our new mayor

This is an actual transcript of Rob Ford, whose campaign manager had requested this interview, talking to the national radio program "As It Happens" the evening of his election.

Carol Off: Mr. Ford, congratulations...

Rob Ford: Thank you. Appreciate it.

Carol Off: People are saying it's a, calling it a stunning win. What do you think that—

Rob Ford: Things are, things are going really well.

Carol Off: What drew so much—

Rob Ford, yelling: Coach, half your juniors aren't even here, eh? Alright. Alright.

Carol Off: Hello, Mr. Ford, are you there?

Rob Ford: Yeah, yeah, I'm here, yeah.

Carol Off: Oh, you're at some event or...?

Rob Ford: I'm a coach. I'm a football coach.

Carol Off: Okay, so you're at football practice, then.

Rob Ford: Yes.

Carol Off: Alright well, okay, we'll continue then. What is it that you think drew so much support to your campaign?

Rob Ford: Yeah, it's just people are sick and tired of the wasteful spending. People are sick and tired of wasteful spending, that's the bottom line, that's what it comes down.

Carol Off: Well there—

Rob Ford: You know, I'm the only one that can go down there [Inaudible, then, yelling:] Just go get changed! Go! Out! And get changed! Don't worry about the water right now. [Pause.] Sorry.

Carol Off: Uh-huh—

Rob Ford: So, um, yeah, no, people are just fed up with, uh, with, you know, uh, politicians squandering, uh, hard-earned tax dollars, and they know that I'm gonna get rid of the sixty-dollar car registration tax and the land transfer tax.

Carol Off: Well you know that your campaign has been compared to Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution, to the Tea Party movement, do you see those comparisons?

Rob Ford: I don't see [inaudible] comparisons [inaudible] what, I don't care [laughs]. I just, I just know, know the taxpayers, uh, want, uh, you know, the gravy train to come to an end, and that, uh, Rob Ford's the guy to do it, and uh [inaudible]—

Carol Off: Do you think there are similarities?

Rob Ford: And, and, I don't, I don't see there's any similarities, I just know that, uh, like I said, uh, I'm, you know, gonna put an end to the wasteful spending, and, uh...you know, stop the gravy train—sorry, I'm being distracted [inaudible] so...

Carol Off: So—

Rob Ford: So, that's pretty well it.

Carol Off: Mr. Ford, do you think that though there's not people that who might think that their taxes are too high, or that too much is being spent on things? There seems to be a division in this city. People, in the, ah, you've seen it in even your voting: people who live in the more of the core of the city have different priorities than people in the suburbs. So when you stop the gravy train, some people want to see more public transportation, more bike lanes...

Rob Ford: Right...

Carol Off: ...others want to see better routes out into the suburbs. how are you going to reconcile that?

Rob Ford: Well the first, well the first and foremost concern with people—is money. That's the first and foremost concern. So, I'm gonna make sure our finances, um, you know, are well taken care of, and then we can deal with all the other issues, but uh, money's the first and foremost concern, and, uh, that's what my uh, what I'm gonna concentrate on.

Carol Off: Well sure, that's everyone's concern, but we're not sure what it is that you're going to save moneyon. Are you going to reduce public transportation?

Rob Ford, interrupting: Well I just told you that I'm gonna get rid of the sixty-dollar car registration tax and land transfer tax, so, um, maybe I'm not making myself clear, but I'm gonna get rid of the sixty-dollar car registration tax and land transfer tax. And we're gonna stop the wasteful spending, and not have $12,000 retirement parties, and you know, all the other nonsense that's been going on for seven years.

Carol Off: Um—

Rob Ford, interrupting: Anyways, I gotta let you go here. And, uh...

Carol Off: Well, can I ask you about public transportation before you go?

Rob Ford: Pardon me? I can't talk to you right now—I'm really, I'm on a really tight schedule, so I hate to be rude, but I gotta let you go, and we can chat another time. Really nice talking to you, all the best, buh-bye.

As the man says, "THAT'S PRETTY WELL IT."

class

If I need something to cheer me up on this gloomy Friday, I'll just look at this - one of my memoir classes (with a few missing.) The picture was taken for a student who has to leave, to deal with cholera in Haiti. As I said to them that night, "Isn't it a marvel that on the first day of class, you sit with a bunch of strangers, and by halfway through, you know each other so well and trust each other so much?"

I was thinking again about fiction and non; how during my decade as a professional actress, it became clear that I didn't want to spend my life pretending to be someone else, some invented character; I wanted to discover my own mind and heart, to explore what I had come to understand. Limited as that focus may be, I still feel that way. And my job is to encourage groups of interesting people, like this, to make the same journey of discovery - not so much into the imagination, though that's part of it, as directly into the soul.

Listen to the idiot, in case you wondered

Waaay worse than I'd thought possible. Listen to the podcast below, my Toronto friends - our new mayor being interviewed by the As it Happens team, who'd been requested to speak to him. He is coaching football as he speaks, and says the same things over and over: end the $60 car registration tax and the land transfer tax, end wasteful spending, stop the gravy train. That is all he has to say, except throw that football harder. He's not only stupid, he's rude. Take a listen, and weep.

Asithappens 20101026 40204
podcast.cbc.ca

And worse - the hateful Mike Harris was at Ford's victory celebration. I had dinner tonight with a man I respect and admire highly - Ben Torchinsky, a multi-millionaire engineer, founder and head of Agra, a vast engineering firm which had a huge role in the Three Gorges Dam, among countless other projects. When asked about Mike Harris at dinner, Ben said, "I hated that guy. What a jerk." Ben dealt with Bob Rae on Highway 407, which Agra built, and then with Harris; he said Rae was fair and extremely astute financially, whereas Harris broke contracts and short-sightedly sold the whole project down the river, cheating the whole province for an immediate return.

Ah well. Let it go. Too stunning a day to get het up. An amazing heavenly day - Wednesday, which means, as you know, Carol's class at the Y. Today, we did the class on the roof. It was sublime - in a tank top at the end of October, in the hot sun with a fresh breeze, stretching and lifting weights and running through the garden and on the track on top of the downtown Y. Unforgettable.

All the yard furniture is put away, the snow shovels are out and ready - and it's hot. And Toronto has Calgary's mayor and vice versa. The world is a mysterious place.

Dinner was good.