Glenn Kubish

  In the event I want to or have to one day or 20 minutes from now retrace my steps back to happiness and gratitude, I make a record of the three things each week that helped produce those goods. Here is episode 67 of the Three Things podcast.                                               1. Jazz Like olives, tomatoes, scotch whisky and basketball, jazz is one of the good things of life that take getting used to. Jazz strikes me as the kind of music most aware of its being built and rebuilt. When I listen to jazz I feel like I have wandered into a workshop where notes are being split and sounds are being hammered out in new ways on the spot by craftspeople. The trumpet, sax, drums and bass are instruments (as in tools) used to make pieces of music. To the brass, ivory, mahogany, maple, birch, polyester, ebony and steel of those implements, musicians add their bre...

"I could use a little more green," John said as we pedalled across the 142 St bridge over the MacKinnon Ravine yesterday afternoon. The comment was different parts description and defiance. Mostly description: it's still pretty brown and leafless out there. The trees and lawns haven't yet gone all in in the spring photosynthesis sweepstakes. Some defiance: The weather forecast was for snow by morning. The trees and the meteorologists got it white. The brown ground and bare trees have a set of fresh linens today. The reactions are varied. Some people deliver the neutral facts and emojis. Others share the surprise that change brings: Some bemoan and go all first-person singular about it. Others detect a mythology in which Edmontonians are eternally punished for their puny, chorophyll longings . Some offer a tentative, questioning resistance to the negativity. And others are Eric. Eric is out there. Eric is out there on his bik...

Tonight's LA Kings Twitter post won't get as much attention as the infamous spear from last year's NHL playoffs. Remember? It was immediately after the Kings beat the Canucks 4-2 in Game 1 of the Western Conference quarterfinal that we saw and laughed and reacted to this gem: The Internet lit up, the mocking tweet became news, the @LAKings apologized, sort of, B.C. wondered if the rest of the country was, indeed, cheering for them to lose, they lost, and the Kings went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Kings are playing the Canucks again tonight and most of the tweets from the LA Twitter account are pretty typical shots at the manhood of the Sedins and Lapierre. But there was also this one: LA Kings  ‏ @ LAKings Great pass from Burrows and Hamhuis one times it past Quick. Canucks up 1-0 early in the 1st. That's not a tweet you'd see from too many other NHL teams. Really, would the Oilers compliment an Iginla-Cammalleri pass that ended with puck behin...

I have been thinking a lot lately about repetition.  In his morphology of the joke-tale, Berger assigns repetition the standing of one of the 45 enduring techniques of  humour.  Now there is nothing so unlike humour as a rational explanation of the humorous, but this is what he says:  "The humor of repetition comes from the tension created by some kind of series being established. We wonder whether the series will be able to maintain itself or whether some interesting variation will take place."  " The humor of repetition comes from the tension created by some kind of series being established. We wonder whether the series will be able to maintain itself or whether some interesting variation will take place."  Repetition is on my mind as I continue to try to make sense of the Duckett Cookie Episode. As I read Berger's An Anatomy Of Humor, it's not difficult to find room for Duckett, without the harsher name-calling, to wit: ...

I got up and to the kitchen by 6:26 am this morning. It's now 6:48 am. What have I accomplished so far? Well, I don't know how much I have actually accomplished, but it is interesting to watch what I consume before breakfast. First job was to fire up the laptop and check Gmail, where there was a message from Shelagh, then sitting across the table from me, waiting. It was a link to a short video titled Danny MacAskill vs. San Francisco. Very cool, even if he shouldn't have blown through the intersection when there was a pedestrian in it. But, then again, I don't know who's got the right of way in SFO! Interesting that Remington would sponsor the video. Neat sound off the top. Then, put some tea on. While the kettle was  heating, it was back to the laptop where I learned from a quick Facebook check that Susan Hennig and Corey McDonald liked my post to the CTV Edmonton FB page about a recent Paralympic blog post. Then, a quick check of the blog readers...

There is still general harmony in the twitterverse today, at least on the question of how Bill Clinton did in his speech last night to the Democratic National Convention. It was very good. And it was very good for a lot of reasons, some of which I understand, some of which are way beyond me. Many out there agreed the speech was either or all of high rhetoric, a splendid defence-attorney closing statement,  pure music or,  you can see where this is going.... James Fallows  ‏ @ JamesFallows Secret of Bill  Clinton 's rhetorical success? He treats listeners as if they are smart.  http://bit.ly/RduqMB  by me Marc Lamont Hill  ‏ @ marclamonthill I think  Clinton 's speech was a game changer. He made a compelling and persuasive case for a second Obama term. He hit all the notes. Roland Scahill  ‏ @ rolandscahill Bill  Clinton  seduced the entire country last night. That man has got it. But, driven by the folly...