Broken Area

From Rome to Naples and from Classical times to the “Cosmic Rot,” Italy has always been a shaper and driver of the Western World. Our discussion led us to fascism, the Vatican, the Garbage strike in Naples, a philosophical-like debate over “civilizations,” the ability of the Italian people to adapt, and a short discussion about the designs of Daniele Lago. All that from our home, complete with our son Jonathan’s very talkative state and Leap Pad. This discussion will no sure continue onto our next podcast: FRANCE... Finalement!

This time we are off to Tahiti, an island, well the most important island probably, in French Polynesia.

French Polynesia is a self governing territory of France. Indeed, there is talk of a referendum to allow independence from France. This will probably eventually happen. Historically the islands were annexed to France without France even knowing about it, which says something about global communications in the early 1800s. We have a (somewhat distant) connection to Tahiti, as Capt James Cook explored the island, and he also explored the region where Corner Brook NL is today. We lived in CB, so there you are...

We talked quite a bit about Paul Gauguin, who famously moved to Tahiti. We were looking forward to discussing his work in Tahiti, then, well, we saw the book (his journals) that Isabelle ordered. He married a 13 year old child while there, then if that was not bad enough, he turned around and left her. This lead us to a discussion of moral relativism, and well, a discussion of how disgusting we thought Guaguin was as a human. What do you think?

We recorded this one just after Christmas, so we would like to pass on holiday (whatever holiday you celebrate) greetings to all of our listeners.

Don’t forget to visit Bring Da King to bring James Whittingham to PAB 2008.

Next time it is off to Italy!

We tried a little experiment in our recent Praguay recording session, we just set the mics up and recorded live, with special guest star Madeleine (and a little Jon for good measure).

Paraguay has a somewhat tragic history, the Chaco War, the War of the Triple Alliance, the brutal military dictatorship of General Stroessner and the general unstable (though improving) situation. today. Stroessner, BTW, was a bad guy. He gave safe haven to Nazi War criminals, and led a long dark time in Paraguay’s history. That said, the country has probably the highest number of Indigenous people (as compared to Europeans) of any country in the Americas.

As this is a recently democratic country there are issues, the press is not overly free, this is bound to get better, you have to remember that democracy is a relatively new phenomenon in modern South America.

Oddly enough, (at least to us) there is a decent sized Mennonite community in Paraguay. There is a small Jewish community, but really for the most part Paraguay is a Catholic country.

Paraguay is unranked by the IIHF. Next time, it is off to Tahiti!

Another in our fine series of road episodes.. In this one, Dave had just returned from Toronto. While he was there he went to the Futureplay conference (where he was the official blogger) and attended the Toronto Podcast Meetup.

The conference was pretty cool, and there were people there from all over the world, including a video game design team from Sweden that made a game for the DS where you serve drinks to bar patrons (seems they know Dave well....) This was probably the first year where someone mentioned that there might be a darker side to games. That said, the conference focussed on the positive.

The podcaster meetup included Sage, Katherine, Scarborough Dude, Jay Moonah from Uncle Seth, John Meadows and Mark Blevis (among others). The meetup was a blast, and a great time was had by Dave and the crazy left wing nuts in the Canadian podcasting community....

Next tim eit is off to Paraguay, honestly. Oh, Canada is still ranked number 2 by the IIHF, but we do have the Hockey Hall of Fame which Dave walked by each time he went from his hotel to the conference, so really, we are better than Sweden...

Ahh Sweden, home of social democracy, a King that is modest, meatballs and ABBA.

Yes, we could not help talk about ABBA. Now, really ABBA were and is huge. Dave is not a fan, Dave likes the Hives. Isabelle, well she likes ABBA, and that is fine, if you like that sort of thing.

They have, in Sweden, a couple of interesting philosophies. One is basically “shut up and don’t bother anybody” (jantelagen) and the other is ‘you don’t need to overdo it” (Lagom). The second one sounds better to us than the first, but hell, we are not Swedes....

Sweden is very liberal with social policy, and the sort of classic example of a mixed economy. In many ways it is quite Canadian. They are usually pretty quiet but seem to do the right thing (see Raoul Wallenberg for example).

Well next it is off to Paraguay (sorry Scarborough Dude...).

Sweden, sadly, is ranked one ahead of Canada by the IIHF, at number 1. That is until the upcoming world championships this spring in Halifax and Quebec CIty...

Ahh Egypt, a mysterious land, the Nile, the Pyramids, the Sphinx, Pharaohs and of course Belly Dancing and really lame actors.

Egypt is one of those Muslim countries in the Mid East that may give us in the West a little hope, as they no longer officially want to destroy Israel and they are relatively prosperous.

Of course the biggest export culturally from Egypt, besides the King Tut exhibit, is probably Belly Dancing. Now some of these people are really good at it, others have a more sensual style, and still others are really horrible...

As with most TV and movies from non Western countries Egyptian TV seems to have a style all of its own, a style that is downright horrible... This clip of the actor Adel Emam is the one we talked about, check out how the guy kicks the girl in the butt. Unreal. Plus, what fine acting.

Egypt is unranked by the IIHF.

Next time it is off to Sweden, who are ranked by the IIHF.

I was a traveller again these past few days. Iza la voyageuse ! This episode is a phone conversation between Dave and myself describing my stay in “Ottawa-The-Respectable” to meet Mark Blevis and Andrea Ross of the Just One More Book podcast (- and many, many other podcasts) at the Wild Oat Cafe. I felt like royalty spending time with Lord Blevis and Lady Andrea and their two beautiful and talented daughters. Their 6 yr old and 9 year old both speak French and English and each play the violin and the flute. Plus, they are incredibly smart and vivacious. This show is about my two days in Ottawa. The days were filled with various spheres in my life intercepting one another: history, art, podcasting, food, books, family, friends, life with a big L.

Mark and Andrea made me feel part of the family by including me in their lives. I read stories with the girls and helped with French homework. What a delight it was to get to be a part of the everyday organized chaos that represents family life. I also enjoyed the company of Mark and Bob as I was a guest on the Canadian Podcast Buffet and I discussed podcasting at the Ottawa Meetup at the Arrow and Loon bistro with a bunch of rowdy people. Some of the podcasters, I had already seen at the Podcasters Across Borders Conference but for the most part, I did not know anybody. (You have to hear this guys’ story about the band Kiss... I still have cramps from laughing so much. What was that guys’ name? Was it Andy?)

I apologize for all the mistakes I made with names in this episode: I am making sins of inexactitude. You will forgive me, as I was on my way to my Dad’s funeral and my head was in another dimension. Thanks again Mark and Andrea! Merci de tout mon coeur. Et bonjour aux deux petites etoiles qui vous accompagnent.