MB's so bored with the USA

I took a brief venture to Atlanta last evening to see the ultra fab space rock duo Windy & Carl. It was all very cosmic and something that will probably be expanded upon at a later date. In the meantime, let me get back to detailing MB's trip to Toronto that I didn't go on. When I left off, her and hubby Alfredo had just settled down to nap after testing out the wash basin in their basic Polish bed & breakfast room.

Though it seemed as though they slept for a few hours, MB and Alfredo actually slumbered for less than 15 minutes. Not really enough time to do much of anything save give them the energy to head down the street and find some coffee/beer. That's something one instantly notices in Canada: the beer. Sort of like wine is to France, I suppose. The golden nectar flows freely everywhere up there. McDonald's, libraries, even churches have been known to hold "beer day" at random. Days which are quite popular since everyone, regardless of age, is required to drink instead of doing much of anything.

The rest of the world call this Monday.

Inevitably, once the beers get in then talk of revolution and finally breaking free from all that British tyranny is begun. It lasts long enough until everyone sobers up, goes home and remembers that the Queen means even less to them in Canada than she does in England. And then the anger turns to the Australians. Who, in turn, direct their anger right back. A couple of times, the war of words has escalated to the point of impending battle. Then the other realizes that their opponent is on the other side of the bloody world and all that travel time could be better spent boozing. So it goes.

That is all neither here nor there, since MB was perfectly content to nurse a single Moosehead and Alfredo stuck with some St. Pauli Girl, which is not Canadian. That Alfredo can be such a contrarian. Since beer is such a large part of the culture, they were able to carry on with the sightseeing, brews in hand. First free health care and not open drinking. The Canadians really do think of everything.

As there wasn't a whole lot to see in Little Poland, they ventured somewhere towards the center of town. The sight where most tourists would head to see all the big sights of this fine city (CN Tower and um, the CN Tower). But figuring once you've seen one Space Needle, you'd kinda seen them all, MB suggested they bypass the view and revolving restaurant atop the CN Tower. In other words, the went downtown to see the sights and ended up seeing FA.

I once saw a news clip about the guy who has to change the bulb on the light at the top of the CN Tower. One would figure such a fellow would have an interesting story to tell or at least have a story that could be made interesting. In his case, this was not true. Super dude that he probably is, our bulb changer must also be the most boring bloke on the face of the earth. How hard is it to make the story of working 800 stories in the air, with only a cable keeping you from landing face first into the recurring nightmares of bystanders, interesting? Apparently, quite when there's really nothing much to work with. Why they couldn't have embellished that he is also an ace ornthologist or helps spot the odd missing child/dog is beyond me. See, media folk, it's not that hard.

Nevertheless, figuring that if the most exciting job available at the CN Tower is filled by such a snoozer, the Tower itself probably wasn't worth seeing. They skipped out. Alfredo flipped the Tower off as they went by just because it sucked.

The evening's entertainment was to be provided by an Australian group known for some reason as Youth Group. They are vaguely a group and at one point were youth so there you go. I guess. Being a band that MB has seen several times in Australia, her expectations for greatness were perhaps a little high for the Toronto show. They were not met and her comment that the lead singer acted "a douche" was taken by me to not be much of compliment. This could be one of those "bad meaning good" phrases, I don't know. I'm not up on hipster speak. I will say, however, that being in Toronto and playing at a place named Lee's Palace and not performing any Rush tunes is a pretty douche-y move.

I forgot to mention, in addition to the moose at the border, they also give all comers a Rush cd so Youth Group can't use that as an excuse. I'd imagine that Youth Group regretted the omission when the powers that be, i.e. Rush, made sure there were only about 25 people in attendance. Coming all the way from Melbourne, methinks they lost money on that gig.

Hell hath no fury like Geddy Lee scorned.

To be continued...