Last call for Martini's Bar

Friday afternoon wanes and thoughts turn to quaffing a pint of beer at the local, Martini's Bar & Grill in Edmonton. But as the raven would croak, that will happen "Nevermore." On May 30, the staff were laid off and Martini's closed its doors for good.
The closing of a bar is perhaps not all that important in the grand scheme of things. Certainly Martini's end has produced hardly a ripple in the city's consciousness. Unlike that of El Nivel Cantina in Mexico City, forced to shut down in 2008, which prompted a large demonstration and received international news coverage.
Well, also unlike El Nivel, opened in 1855, Martini's isn't the oldest bar in the city, nor has it been the haunt of world-historical figures such as Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
As drinking establishments go, Martini’s is neither old nor historic, having opened in the 1990s, but for those of us who were regular patrons-- and those who enjoyed working there -- its loss is a wrench.
Done up in a style somewhere between a New York bar and a London pub, with brass-railed mahogany-finish bar and elaborate mirrored back-bar displaying the bottles in their glittering array, it was a place with engaging staff and an assortment of regulars who were generally friendly and interesting, and where you could generally get into a good conversation over a drink. Lively without being overbearingly noisy, it was also a true local whose patrons attended the funerals of other regulars, took part in sports pools, regular crib tournaments and a lottery syndicate. The Big Rock Traditional Ale on draft was usually very good.
That Martini's was on the ropes had long been rumoured. But it took some time for the predictions of the local Cassandra to come to pass. "At one point there were dire predictions that the days were numbered for my current local, Martini's, but a shift in ownership seems to have warded off that danger -- and the charming and accomplished staff, including Mary, Nancy, Barb, Deb, Shyla and Heather will be keeping the customers happy there for a while yet," I wrote in a May 6, 2008 blog about the closing of some San Francisco bars. And so it was, although by that time longtime châtelaine Kara had already gone and Martini's had already seen its best days.
In recent times Martini's had been plagued with declining staffing difficulties -- which at one point resulted in an Industrial Workers of the World picket line -- and maintenance problems. The final straw is said to have been the landlord's raising the rent when the lease came up at the end of May, although that might not have been fatal if there hadn't been other ongoing issues.
Rumours are now going around among former Martini's habitués that its is now being looked over by potential saviours who may be interested in reopening the bar.
That may be so. Meanwhile the refugees from the wreck of Martini's are seeking another congenial drinking spot to take its place. As one commented plaintively on his Facebook page, "Men without locals. we wander the streets in search of inviting venues. In short, we are lost."

Day's end for “At the end of the day”?

Is it the end of the day for “At the end of the day”?

It’s seems that even advertising and marketing executives hope so.

A recent survey of 200 Canadian industry executives named “At the end of the day” as one of the most annoying of current buzzwords.

Who can argue with that?

The execs were asked, "In your opinion, what is the most annoying or overused buzzword in the creative/marketing industry today?"

Not surprisingly, “Think out of the box,” another endlessly repeated business cliché, was also among those picked.

I would have ranked then higher than the 14 and 12 spots (out of 15) they achieved.

However there are apparently other buzzwords that the marketing and advertising types (along with people in government and other business spheres) have to hear ad nauseam that rankle them more.

These include, in the number two spot, the dreaded “Synergy,” followed by “Innovative/innovation,” and “Extra value/value added.” Other concepts they no longer want to hear about are “ROI/return on investment,” “Culture Change,” “Multitasking,” and, interestingly, “Going green” and “Free.”

And the number one buzzword that made them squirm: “Social media.” That seems a bit of an odd one. It isn’t as if Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn et al aren’t a reality they’ll have to continue to deal with – I guess they’re just very tired of talking about it all the time.

The daily hubbub in which we are immersed contains all manner of annoying utterances, from racism and sexism to grammatical and usage errors.

Business-related buzzwords are often particularly irritating because they are imposed on us in situations where we have no choice but to listen, and imply that there are other things (what exactly?) we could and should be doing better.Considering that it is the marketing execs who create and popularize many of these buzzwords that afflict us, it is rather satisfying that at the end of the day they grate even on them.

The 15 Authors (Extended Version)

The Fifteen Authors was a Facebook meme that appeared in October 2010.

The invitation guidelines: “Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who've influenced you and that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.”

These (in alphabetical order) were the 15 I chose, although not necessarily the first 15 and not necessarily within 15 minutes. I have included a quotation from each – these were put up daily as Facebook status posts during the last two weeks of October. Some comments follow.

Margaret Atwood (1939- )

"You fit into me
like a hook into an eye

a fish hook
an open eye"

-- “You fit into me”

Comment: Atwood’s The Animals In This Country, from which this is taken, was the first collection of poems I read, and opened my eyes to contemporary poetry.

Karen Blixen/Isak Dinesen (1885-1962)

“I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the north, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet.” – Out of Africa

Comment: Evocative and beautiful, this is the one to beat as far as memoirs go.

Walter Burkert (1931- )

"It's not so much the limits of our knowledge as the superabundance of what can be known that makes an attempt to explain man's religious behaviour an almost hopeless enterprise." -- Homo Necans

Comment: The quotation is from Homo Necans, but it was his book The Lore and Science of Ancient Pythagoreanism that gave me a sense of what good historical scholarship looks like.

Constantine Cavafy (1863-1933)

"And greater honour is due them
When they foresee (and many foresee)
That Ephialtis will show up in the end
And that the Medes at last will come crashing in."

-- “Thermopylae”

Comment: The work of this Greek poet living in Alexandria, with its sad nostalgia combined with moral courage and defiance, is lastingly resonant.

Raymond Chandler (1888-1959)

"I never saw any of them again -- except the cops. No way has yet been invented to say goodbye to them.” -- The Long Goodbye

Comment: Chandler is the master of the detective story as quest, with Philip Marlowe the knight errant.

Noam Chomsky (1928- )

“The propaganda model does not assert that the media parrot the line of the current state managers in the manner of a totalitarian regime; rather, that the media reflect the consensus of powerful elites of the state-corporate nexus generally.” – Necessary Illusions

Comment: Intellectually fearless, Chomsky provides incisive analysis of the contemporary political/ideological scene, and is scrupulous about sources. In holding up to scrutiny the version of events put forward by the political authorities and the mainstream media he performs a vital function.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)

"And indeed, I will ask on my own account here, an idle question: which is better -- cheap happiness or exalted sufferings?" -- Notes From Underground

Comment: Notes From Underground, my introduction to Dostoyevsky, first gave me the real sense I was dealing with Great Literature – deep, difficult and riveting.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930)

"Under such circumstances I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained." – “A Study in Scarlet”

Comment: Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories left me with a feeling for the wide variety of life, in London and beyond, although in many of them Watson and Holmes don’t stray far from their lodgings at 221B Baker Street.

Norbert Elias (1897-1990)

“The concept of civilité acquired its meaning for western society at a time when knightly society and the unity of the Catholic church were disintegrating.” – The Civilizing Process

Comment: A substantial scholarly work, Elias’ Civilizing Process fascinated me with its detailed demonstration that much of the social behaviour we take as given and fixed is actually the result of a long process of development.

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932)

"‘Heard the news?’ he said. ‘There's nothing else being talked about, all along the river bank. Toad went up to Town by an early train this morning. And he has ordered a large and very expensive motor-car.'" -- The Wind in the Willows

Comment: My favourite book for young people (although I’m also awed by Alice in Wonderland). Along with the story, I love the illustrations of E.H.Sheppard.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

“At the lake shore there was another rowboat drawn up. The two Indians stood waiting. Nick and his father got in the stern of the boat and the Indians shoved off and one of them got in to row.” – “Indian Camp”

Comment: Hemingway was a master of narrative. This quotation is particularly striking in context, because these are the first two lines of the story, collected in The Nick Adams Stories.

Jack Kerouac (1922-1969)

"We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one and noble function of the time, move. And we moved!" – On The Road

Comment: No one has better portrayed the exhilaration of heading out on the road and going just to go. I responded to Kerouac’s sympathy for the underdogs and marginalized.

Kate Millet (1934- )

"Sexual politics obtains consent through the 'socialisation' of both sexes to basic patriarchal polities with regard to temperament, role, and status. As to status, a pervasive assent to the prejudice of male superiority guarantees superior status in the male, inferior in the female." -- Sexual Politics

Comment: I was wowed by the clarity and strength of Millet’s arguments in this major work of feminism, although I had major differences with her political approach and think many of her later notions nonsensical.

Sei Shonagon (c. 966-1017)

"In the winter, when it is very cold and one lies buried under the bedcovers listening to one's lover's endearments, it is delightful to hear the booming of a temple gong, which seems to come from the bottom of a deep well." -- The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon

Comment: Sei Shonagon was a court lady in Japan of the Heian Period, distant in all respects. But although the topics are often “exotic,” her vivid pillow book, or journal, reveals a personality by no means alien – an elegant reminder of how much we all share throughout history.

Leon Trotsky (1879-1940)

“The permanent revolution, in the sense which Marx attached to this concept, means a revolution which makes no compromise with any single form of class rule, which does not stop at the democratic stage, which goes over to socialist measures and to war against reaction from without…” – Permanent Revolution

Comment: Trotsky’s thought has provided a valuable frame of reference for understanding the world.

No. 19, May 18, 2010

From the Maverick to the Yellowhead

The Yellowhead Brewery opens its doors for business in Edmonton tomorrow following a blessing by the Reverent Neil Gordon, dean of All Saints Anglican Cathedral. St. Arnold, generally considered to be the patron saint of beer, would no doubt approve.  

The new micro-brewery is located in the historic H.V. Shaw Building at 10229-105 Street, and the adjacent glass-fronted addition. Built in 1914 by Henry Shaw as the site of the Edmonton Cigar Factory, the Shaw Building most recently housed Maverick Brewing.

Maverick opened in 2005, billing itself as "the first destination craft brewery in Alberta," with a private function room that was used for promotional and fundraising events. The brewery ran into supply and marketing problems, and in the fall of 2006 its assets were seized by landlord Five Oaks Ltd., owned by architect Gene Dub (who was also a 10 per cent shareholder in Maverick) for rental arrears.

 

Maverick later went into receivership, with the firm Meyers Norris Penny Ltd. being appointed interim receiver in July 2007.  After a somewhat complex series of transactions involving Five Oaks and a numbered company, they negotiated the sale of the brewer's assets of Maverick to English Bay Enterprises for $200,000 on September 2007, followed by a distribution to the creditors.

While the brewery was in operation they made only one type of beer, Maverick Supreme Lager, a self-described pale American-style lager. The beer apparently had its fans, with enthusiasts posting to the Beer Advocate site rhapsodizing about its "aroma of multi-grain bread and light lemon tone," "biscuity snap" and "nice lace down the sides of the glass."

I wasn't one of those fans, however, and didn't find it much better than insipid U.S. mass-market products such as Budweiser or Miller. Or perhaps a less-enthusiastic Beer Advocate poster got it right in describing the beer as having a flavour of "cooked peas" and a "metallic" aftertaste.

It seems curious for a micro-brewery to produce a type of beer very similar to many other beers on the market. People interested in micro-brews are usually in search of something that differs from the norm. Although local patriotism ("This beer is produced right here in your hometown!") will result in some sales.

Yellowhead Brewing too is starting off with a lager. Many beer aficionados  are looking forward to brewmaster Scott Harris, who trained in brewing at the Doemens Technicum in Munich, having crafted a tasty one. It's planned to have the brewery space serve as an arts and live music venue, and it may also be rented out for community events and public, private, corporate and charitable functions. Good luck to this new venture.

Interestingly, this is not Edmonton's first Yellowhead brewing concern. The Yellowhead Brewing Company started producing beer in the river valley in 1894, as Lawrence Herzog notes in his column in the April 3, 2003 edition of Real Estate Weekly.  It was operated by brewer Tom Cairns, from Manitoba, with partners Kelly and Myover. The Yellowead later became Sick's, then part of Molson's.

Checking out the Crescent City

Linda and I got back Wednesday from several days in New Orleans. It was a very enjoyable trip although the weather was a bit chilly, with highs mainly in the middle to upper 50s, somewhat below average for there. Our French Quarter hotel, the Prince Conti, turned out to be in an excellent location and quite pleasant.

We did a fair a bit of strolling around and checking around the historic architecture in the French Quarter and the Garden District, and took a guided tour of the St. Louis #1 cemetery, which dates back to the 1780s. Took a cruise on the Mississippi aboard the Natchez, an actual sternwheeler steamboat. On the Thursday after we arrived, we had our culinary tour, which took us to seven restaurants and food shops. The samples were good, the guide's commentary was excellent, and we got to see some restaurant kitchens and private rooms that we most likely otherwise wouldn't have.

We wound up having just about all the classic dishes, including seafood gumbo, jambalaya, turtle soup, red beans and rice, shrimp remoulade and oysters Rockefeller, plus various po' boy sandwiches including fried oyster and fried soft shell crab. Top restaurants we had supper at were Galatoire's (in business since 1905, I believe), Cochon and Commander's Palace, where I had what I felt was the best meal: an appetizer of shrimp with pickled okra, followed by grilled sheepshead (the fish that is). Linda particularly enjoyed the souffle bread pudding with whiskey sauce there. She was also a big fan of the sugar-coated beignets, a sort of deep-fried holes doughnut, served with cafe au lait at the Cafe du Monde.

It will come as no surprise that there are a lot of bars in New Orleans. I had a drink or two in 10 of them (Linda rather fewer), mostly in the French Quarter. They ranged from the elegant Arnaud's French 75 Bar (where we indeed ordered French 75 cocktails -- a fine drink indeed) to hole-in-the-wall Johnny White's. The Erin Rose across from our hotel proved quite welcoming. We tried the famous Sazerac cocktail at a number of places; I felt the best rendition was at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Monteleone and the worst at Galatoire's. Mostly though I drank Abita Amber, a tasty beer produced by a microbrewery in nearby Abita Springs.

The Mardi Gras season had begun, and many businesses and shops were decorated with purple, green and gold, the carnival colours. Though the biggest events don't take place until the last few days before Fat Tuesday itself, we saw the parades of the Krewe of Cork and Krewe of Pontchartrain, and accumulated a fair number of the bead necklaces thrown to the crowds by the paraders. The Superbowl win by the New Orleans Saints while we were there was a bonus. Bourbon Street was wall-to-wall revellers following the victory, and the whole city was in great spirits. "Who dat say dey gonna beat dem Saints!"

Definitely plan a repeat visit, and what I'd really like to do is take the train -- either from Chicago or New York City.

No. 17, August 18, 2009

The roots of fundamentalist rage

Displays of rage, even hysterical rage, were seen at recent U.S. town hall meetings where Democratic congress members sought to put forward the case for President Barak Obama’s healthcare reform proposals.

Angry people showed up at these meetings to scream about the health care plan because it would allegedly set up “death panels” to eliminate the elderly and infirm, and they compared Obama with Hitler.

According to the media coverage, most of them were white and working class. Most are also probably fundamentalist or evangelical Christians.

Where did such an obviously false idea come from and why are people willing to believe it?

Frank Schaeffer has an answer for that – he says he himself helped start the myth 30 years ago as part of the campaign against abortion rights.

In an article posted August 12 on Alternet, Schaeffer describes himself as having been a Republican far right activist and evangelical from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. He was involved in the formation of the evangelical-led wing of the anti-choice movement.

Movement propaganda claimed that legalization of abortion would lead to legal infanticide and euthanasia, and pointed to the Nazis’ killing of the disabled and mentally ill on eugenics grounds.

“We successfully (and as it turned out completely mistakenly) linked legalized abortion to a ‘slippery slope’ that would inexorably lead to an American Holocaust against the elderly and infirm,” writes Schaeffer, now a supporter of Obama and healthcare reform.

The lobbying groups, the insurance industry and the far right wing of the Republican Party have now seized on these ready-made arguments with “cynical cleverness” to frame their “anti-healthcare reform tirade,” he states.

The anti-healthcare furor in the U.S. is fuelled by other particular elements such as the pervasive American distrust of government, along with the pressures of job losses, home foreclosures and debt resulting from the economic crisis.

But this kind emotionally charged, religiously based politics is also to be found elsewhere in similar social contexts. The point is made by American scholar Barton Stein in The History of India (Blackwell 1998).

“Communalist politics in India, like fundamentalist politics in the Middle East and the United States, reflect the interests and fears of the large segment of the lower-middle class whose economic and social security is ever at hazard and is so perceived,” he writes.

Members of the lower-middle class or working class are one the hand in danger of being crushed by the forces of modern capitalism, Stein states, while on the other hand they are threatened by the demands of the poor for social justice.

“The lower-middle classes in India, as everywhere else it seems, wrapped the vulnerability of their economic position in religious symbols – saffron, here, black there. In India, in Iran and in Texas, these symbols signify conventional righteousness and the preservation of things as they are.”

Politicians in India, Iran and elsewhere exploit these sentiments with the same “cynical cleverness” that those in the U.S. are demonstrating, and outbursts of savage violence can be the result. Schaeffer acknowledges that the anti-abortion movement’s rhetoric has led to murders of doctors and acts of violence against clinics, and fears what might follow.

No. 16, July 14, 2009

Keyboard in Dongba hieroglyphs

The Naxi are an ethnic minority people, about 300,000 strong, who live mainly in China’s Yunnan and Szechuan provinces. Their language, of the Tibeto-Burman family, is partially written in a script called Dongba, which is pictographic or hieroglyphic – it uses stylized pictures of objects to represent them and related concepts. A Wikipedia contributor states that it is “without doubt the only mainly pictographic script used today.”

Now Zmnsoft has released Edongba v6.00, a Windows application that enables users to create documents and messages using Dongba hieroglyphs, using them in text editors, word processors, and graphics programs.

According to a Zmnsoft press release, “While Egyptian hieroglyphics tell us about a fascinating culture, they talk only of an unreachable, vanished past. By contrast, Dongba is still evolving and adapting. It tells us who we were, in human stories and wisdom that is centuries old. It also tells us who we are, in a smooth, unbroken line from the earliest writing to today's unprecedented transformations.

“The Naxi language is expressed in a combination of Dongba hieroglyphs and Geba symbols. Edongba makes it easy to select the proper symbols, and build messages in the program's unique Dongba font. The font includes 1,561 Dongba hieroglyphs, 661 Geba scripts, and a 50-character international phonetic alphabet for the Naxi language.

“It's fun to use Edongba's character selection tools to select hieroglyphs and symbols. The program pronounces each character aloud, enabling you to become familiar with the spoken version of Dongba.”

Actually learning the language may seem daunting, but there are other uses:

“Students can enjoy creating artwork and symbols for their clothing using Edongba's engaging characters. The specially-crafted font that comes with Edongba is in True Type format, allowing computer users to enlarge each character with no loss of quality.”

Edongba v6.00 runs under Windows NT4/2000/2003/XP/Vista/7, costs $30(US) for a single-user license, and is available for secure online purchase on the Edongba website, http://www.zmnsoft.com/edongba/En/. You can download a trial version from the same web site.

The site also includes information about the history of the Naxi people and their language.