[NON BLOG] Busy Sunday

[rfmcdonald]

I picked up the Sunday edition of the Toronto Star and the Economist's excellent The World in 2005 year-end survey. The World in ... is an excellent series; I've bought every one that's come out since 2000. This year's issue is good only because Arnold Schwarzenegger has an article inside on California that refers extensively to his career as the Terminator. Why not? schizmatic's suggestion that we live in the future predicted in the first Robocop movie is as credible and desirable as any clash of civilizations.

1. Today's CFTAG was brief, only two hours. It was good, though, with the central counterfactual question being a consideration of how to strengthen the Carolingian empire (a string of luck like that hitting early China, with a string of good emperors following Charlemagne) and how to assimilate the Vikings (it would be cool if the Vikings were to *Europe what the Qing were to 17th century China, still cooler if the Vikings were the *Europeans' janissaries). Other topics included a discussion of the general political, economic, and geopolitical deritus of our age.

2. appelle decided not to join talktooloose and myself for the Rheostatics' show at the Horseshoe Tavern today at 4 o'clock, with the The Hebrew School Dropouts opening. That's a pity, since the show was good. talktooloose thought that the opening group would need a couple hundred more shows to become really good and for the singer to actually sing to the audience; from my limited experience, I can only conclude that he's right. The Rheostatics were very good indeed, putting on an excellent show that featured (among other guest performers) Dave Bidini's young daughter doing lead vocals on "'Cause It's Almost Saturday Night." I had fun.

3. I managed to make dinner with bitterlawngnome, djjo, and danthered and sundry other guests this evening. koobear made an excellent brie en croute; the main course was good, and the port brought by M. refreshing.