I have long been fascinated by Picasso’s portraits of his first wife, Ballet Russes dancer Olga Kokhlova. Not so much the sculptures and pictures at the end of their relationship, when he hated her for interfering in his latest affair and portrayed her as an ugly, evil animal – but
Continue readingAuthor: Yappa
Yappa Ding Ding: Musings on Robocalls
At this point, can we avoid falling into a state where political power is seized rather than awarded by the public? The only way we can maintain good governance is to soundly reject the many corrupt practices of the Harper government: but how do we do that with three years
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Ads on Radio 2? No thank you!
The Globe is reporting that, in response to the $115M funding cut in last week’s federal budget, the CBC will start advertising on CBC Radio 2. (link) Lovers of CBC Radio 2, you have to speak up now to protest this move. Contact information is here: http://www.cbc.ca/contact. CBC has a
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Note to Bob Rae: Get a little tougher
We have been hearing that the Liberals won’t take any more crap from the Conservative attack machine: Rae has said that he is prepared to give as good as he gets. Rae is such an effective and feisty politician that I believed him. Then we had our first Conservative attack
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Cross-party cooperation
The leader of the NDP is a former Liberal, and the leader of the Liberals is a former New Democrat. Both leaders joined their new parties within the last six or seven years. Tom Mulcair is to the right of the NDP; Bob Rae is to the left of the
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Rallly against voter suppression by robo-calls
Sunday, March 11, 2-5 Here’s the Toronto rally’s facebook page: http://www2.blogger.com/img/blank.gif (Yonge and Dundas)
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Robert Lepage Wrecked the Ring Cycle
He had help. CostumesThroughout, the costumes were an unfortunate distraction. They didn’t enhance the characterization or help to set a tone or place. They were unflattering. Poor Waltraud Meier, who played a thrilling Waltraute in Gotterdammerung, had a bodice about three inches too low for her age, and the typically
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Reflections on Activism
People keep saying that 2012 will be the year of protest in North America – the year when ordinary people rise up and demand better treatment from government elites. I’m all for that. I think it’s crazy that Canada doesn’t have stronger employment laws to protect employees, that we don’t
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Press Release for Canadian-Americans
Press Release: Isaac Brock Society Posted by Petros — January 10, 2012 Caution to U.S. Citizens and U.S./Canada dual citizens who are residents of Canada about the IRS announcement (IR-2012-5) January 9, 2012, regarding Offshore Voluntary Disclosure On January 9, 2012, the IRS announced a renewed Offshore Voluntary Disclosure program.
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Conflicts of Interest, or: Be Careful What You Wish For
There were a lot of raised eyebrows over conflicts of interest claimed by local politicians in the LRT decision. For example: The driving force behind LRT, Regional Chair Ken Seiling, spent nearly a decade ramming LRT down our throats and then claimed a conflict just before the final debate. His
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Canada is a Better Place with Pat Martin in Parliament
I’m a Liberal, but there’s a lot about the NDP that I like. Foremost is the straight talking approach of some of their MPs. In the few televised committee hearings I’ve watched (such as the Mulroney graft inquiries), Pat Martin stood out as someone who asks intelligent, incisive questions. Over
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Pop
I went to see Jian Ghomeshi speak at Kitchener’s TheMuseum last night. His topic was pop culture. It seemed a rather contentless talk (at the time the word I was thinking was “vacuous”), but he’s a smart guy – he gave a funny introduction and a very in…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Remember When There Wasn’t So Much War
I was listening to the CBC the other day (normally a benign sort of radio experience) and a newscaster was describing, with some enthusiasm, bombs being dropped by Canadians or our allies on some hapless nation. At the end of his description he threw i…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Devolution of the Corner Store?
I’m in San Francisco (for BlackBerry DevCon) (and yes I just felt an earthquake – what a cliche – and yes it freaked me out) and I went into a CVS Pharmacy near my hotel today. They don’t have checkout counters at that store: it’s purely self checkout….
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Esperanto is Old School
Wittgenstein described language as a city. Three’s the Old Town with its twisted streets and the new suburbs that are neatly organized. The entire city is constantly changing and growing.That’s the way it’s supposed to be, but is language evolving enou…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Representative democracy, public participation and social media
There was an interesting controversy in Waterloo this week. A city councillor, while sitting in Council listening to a delegation of residents who were concerned about a proposed development in their neighborhood, tweeted disparaging things about the d…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: A Failure of Leadership
I am disappointed that American politicians, pundits and economists, on both the left and right, are condemning Standard & Poor’s for lowering the US debt rating. It’s like being arrested for a crime that you committed and then calling a press conferen…
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: The Case for Free Transit
Here’s my main reason for making transit free. We have to have transit for people who can’t drive or can’t afford to drive. But currently, transit is worse for the environment than driving, and the reason is that transit vehicles are frequently nearly …
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: Spring Floods
As my Aunt Sandra said on Sunday, “Always newsworthy is when the river gets to be one mile wide. It is now three miles wide.”Today it is wider.There is some speculation that this year’s flood might cause the Mississippi to change its course just north …
Continue readingYappa Ding Ding: The Future of King Street
I spent the weekend in Toronto, and this morning I needed to head cross town in my car. I decided to take St Clair, thinking it would be quicker. Those days are gone…The recently-completed St. Clair LRT, like other Toronto LRTs, is very different fro…
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