Author Archives: Rob MacD

I used to love baseball and I used to love the Expos. I remember, as a teenager, meticulously going up and down the radio dial some nights trying to find a broadcast of the games, and watching any game that was on TV. Then, maybe 15 years ago, for some reason I don’t know why, I couldn’t watch baseball anymore. I just found it incredibly boring. I didn’t watch, and didn’t get caught up in it, when the BlueJays won it all, and probably haven’t watched more than a couple of innings total in the past 10 years.
Until this year. I didn’t watch a single game all year, never kept up with the statistics at all, except with a rough gauge as to where the Expos were in the standings. But I find myself, inexplicably, watching this year’s playoffs. I don’t know why. But I’m kind of enjoying baseball again.
Watching baseball yesterday reminded me of my greatest moment as an Expos fan. It was 1983, and I and my friend Rob Kelly went to Montreal to watch a few games in person. At one game, the old veteran Woody Fryman was pitching for the Expos. I think, that year, Woody Fryman, who was 43, had pitched only a handful of innings and his ERA was something like 20. Not good. Anyway, he was out there, late in the game, for a rare appearance. I don’t remember the details of this particular game; who was winning and stuff. But the crowd was quiet. My friend and I, who’d both been enjoying the liquid concessions during the game, decided to start a rally cry for the Woodman. So we stood up and started chanting “Let’s go Woody, let’s go.” Nobody joined us, but we were persistent. Slowly, we began to hear the chant coming from other areas of the Big O. Eventually, most of the crowd was chanting with us. It was a pretty cool feeling knowing we started it. I don’t know if it helped Woody or not. That, quite possibly, may have been the last inning he ever pitched.
That was my greatest moment as a baseball fan. Maybe that’s why I gave up on baseball.

I went into Burger King to buy CB some hashbrowns, because today’s his birthday and that’s what he wanted..
While waiting for them to heat up, I make eye contact with the guy sweeping up behind the counter. I nod, he smiles, seemingly, with recognition of me. Now, I am terrible with remembering people, both names and faces. Since he recognizes me, I assume I should know him, but I don’t. Perhaps he saw me in a show, I think.
“You know what I always think about when I see you?” he says as he continues sweeping. Somewhere in the back of my brain I imagine that it’s something from Annekenstein or 4Play, or something likewise pleasant. But in the front of my brain, I know exactly to what he’s referring.
“It must’ve been about 10 years ago, now,” he adds. Yeah, I know exactly what it is. Here it comes.
“The Peter Pan.”
Sigh.
“Yeah, that’s one I can’t escape,” I say.
“Huh?”
“I took a lot of ribbing for doing that.”
“What is it you said? ‘Peter Pan, Peter Pan, Peter Pan!’, and the high voice.”
“That’s it, pretty much.”
“That was a good one.”
“Memorable, anyway.”
Off he goes to sweep in back. Leaving me with the young girl who was bagging the hash browns, who obviously had no idea what we were talking about.

Someday, people like her will be all that remain. I look forward to that day.

Just on the (not so) off chance that somebody reading this doesn’t know about Loudon Wainwright III, and on the further off chance (or would that be “offer chance”) that reading this would cause somebody who was previously unfamiliar with LWIII to discover him and enjoy his music even a tenth the amount that I do, I’m gonna post this request…

Check out some Loudon Wainwright III songs. The excellent live album “Career Moves” would be a good start.

I was informed that someone was having difficulty reading some of the older posts further down the page, that the first couple of posts were okay but the rest of the page was all ‘orange gibberish’.
Is anyone else having this problem viewing the page? If so, please let me know by posting a comment, or emailing me at sendit2me@myway.com (link to the left)
I realise much of my stuff is nothing more than gibberish to begin with, but I won’t tolerate it being orange gibberish. I just won’t!

Well, every Island blog I go to seems to have Juan post after another talking about the storm and the damage it’s done.
I feel inadequate because I have no stories. No toppled trees on my land. No disappeared deck chairs. No shorn shingles.
Just a loss of power and telephone for a day or two.

Who’s blowin’ down the streets of the city, smilin’ at everybody she sees; uprooting trees and knockin’ down light poles; everyone knows – it’s Juan-dy.

I had vowed that for September, no fast food would be brought into our house. We failed twice in the month, two times bringing home KFC. Both of these days were irregular in that our mealtime schedule went wonky. Also, K never ate the KFC we brought home, since it was her wonky schedule (which included her eating out) that caused our wonky schedule (causing us to bring home the KFC). So, congrats to K for holding out for the month. And congrats to CB and me for cutting way down on our fast food consumption.
The battle continues into October.

CB was so bored last night, with no electrical power for the devices that entertain him, that he willingly agreed that it’d be okay if I played my guitar and sang songs. He fell asleep somewhere between my rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Lipstick Sunset”.
The main thing I disliked in regards to the lack of electrical power was the annoyance of no working plumbing. Everything else was quite tolerable.

I perfectly understand why people don’t like Formula One racing, and call it the height of boredom. Each race consists of somewhere around 70 laps of cars going around a track, sometimes with nary a pass or any noticable action. Checkered flag, and wake up.
I understand that. However, I find that I cannot miss a race.
I find that, to enjoy an F1 race, you have to allow yourself to get excited by the potential of what could happen. You have to find a way to get on the edge of your seat thinking about the possiblity that the lead car will break down, or something out of the ordinary will happen. This despite the fact that in a season of F1 races, such things happen maybe a handful of times. To enjoy F1, you need to ignore the kinetic energy of lap after lap of the routine of no change in standings and embrace the potential nature of the sport. If you are able to do this, an F1 race can be almost entertaining. I’ve been hooked for about 10 years now.

Today is the US Grand Prix in Indianapolis. It’s the second last race of the season and there’s a close battle for both the driver’s championship and constructor’s championship. To many it may end up looking like a parade of cars running around the track, but I’m suspecting that I’ll be totally enthralled by it.

Yesterday, the Karoberon and Keaton (CB’s friend) went to Moncton in a celebration of CB’s birthday, which is next week. We decided that, rather than a party, we’d let CB take a friend to the Crystal Palace, and let them rule the day in Moncton. That meant no parental side-trips to shop for boring clothing, or browse boring electronics. It was their day to waste. Arriving at noon, their first inclinations were something to eat and toy shopping. Both were accomplished at Champlain Place. CB got (after searching a couple of different stores to find his hero, Legolas) two LotR action figures, Keaton got ‘an amazing’ John Deere backloader type toy.
Shopping and salivation satiated, the next item on the agenda was The Crystal Palace. A bracelet on each wrist and away they went. K and I took turns away from the noise and din by escaping to Indigo. After three and a half hours, and confident that they’d exhausted all possibilty of fun from the place, they were ready to leave.
Next on the agenda was supper (or dinner, if that’s what you call it). They didn’t care where we ate. I took this as an opportunity to point the Lumina in a homeward direction and proposed the Big Stop Irving in Aulac. All agreed.
The BSIiA is amazing to me. It’s restaurant is perpetually packed, often with a lineup a dozen deep. The wait-staff is the peak of efficiency and friendliness. They have perfected the art of hustling people in and out of the place without giving people the sense that they were rushed. People always seem happy and contented as they leave.
No lineup when we arrived but only one table was available. The moment we sat down, I noticed a lineup of about ten or so, and growing. How did that happen? “Motor coach” said K.
After dining, we headed home. Keaton soon fell asleep on route, and CB played with Legolas.
Not a great day for the sacrificing parents, really, but a top-notch day for the kids. So, it was a great day for the parents too.

Yeah, I know…lists.
Anyway, here are 5 lovely songs from 5 men.
– Ingrid Bergman, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Mermaid Avenue
– Johnsburg, Illinois, Tom Waits, Swordfishtrombones
– Hallelujah, Rufus Wainwright, Shrek soundtrack
– Lebanon, Tennessee, Ron Sexsmith, Ron Sexsmith
– For What It Was, Roddy Frame, Surf

Next time, 5 songs from 5 women.