Uninhabited Spaces

Police announced Tuesday that they have tentatively identified the remains of a woman found in a farmer's field near Charlottesville, Virginia as those of Morgan Harrington , 20, an education major at Virginia Tech, who had been reported missing after a Metallica concert. Yes, that Virginia Tech . Once solely fabled for its engineering programs and its spirited Hokies varsity program Virginia Tech has been greatly overshadowed by tragedy and grief in recent years and has taken on a more notorious reputation. Most infamously the school of 30,000 students was deeply shocked and traumatized in April 2007 when 23-year old student Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting rampage , killing 32 people and then himself. It remains the deadliest such mass-killing in U.S. history, a terrible badge for a university to have to bear. Surely the good people of Virginia Tech were still recovering and mourning when yet another horrific act of brutality occurred in January 2009, when international gradua...

New York has been the focus of so many great songs over the years, and our recent trip had me so inspired by the Big Apple that I thought I would share some of my favourites... " Empire State of Mind "- Jay-Z & Alicia Keys " City of Blinding Lights "- U2 " The 59th Street Bridge Song " - Simon & Garfunkel " Englishman in New York "- Sting " New York, New York "-Frank Sinatra " The Light Dies Down on Broadway " - Genesis " Summer in the City " - Lovin' Spoonful

Here is a short promotional video for Queen's University that was made in the early 1940s. I am not sure of the exact date but the film makes reference to the "recent" visit of FDR, which was in 1938 and it also features Principal Wallace, who was our fearless leader from 1936-1951. You'll have a good laugh at the music, typical for the time, and snicker uncomfortably at the gender-biased language. Still, for all of the use of "men", "man" and "him", there is a definitely a sense that women were an important part of Queen's during the period. Women are referred to and pictured quite a few occasions in the film, which is not really all that surprising since women were first admitted to degree programs at Queen's in 1878, well ahead of many of our Canadian and American peers (the first 2 women in Ontario to receive university degrees graduated from Queen's!). In any event, "Paths of Learning" is terribly dated in so ma...

Here's a classic SNL sketch featuring Father Guido Sarducci (played by comic Don Novello), whereupon he proposes how he will set up a college that educates and laureates its students all in 5 minutes. Some retro food-for-thought as our universities try and figure out how to solve their nearly immeasurable problems...

When Mark and I were in Tuscany this past August we had a private tour of Il Paradiso Di Frassina winery. Not only was it a special experience for us, as we walked amidst the vineyards nestled in a valley near Montalcino but we were struck to learn that the estate's owner plays classical music to the grape plants. He firmly believes that the plants are not only happier but also grow stronger and are healthier than plants who do not have the opportunity to "listen" to music. Check out a profile on the vineyard on CNN . He is not alone either, as the estate is now home to a serious research study by a couple of Italian universities. All I can say is that after a private tasting in the cellar, we promptly bought a bottle of "12 Uve" (Mark just loved this wine) and also a bottle of the more famous 2004 "Brunello di Montalcino". We drank the first one during our last night in Italy (sniff, sniff) and brought the Brunello home. It sits in our wine cabinet, ...

I wanted to return to a subject I love, and that is the music of U2. As they begin their fourth decade as a band (with the same line-up!) I thought I would take a look at their wonderful back catalogue and select the most underrated (or overlooked) U2 songs. Since there were too many to choose from I elected to share the most underrated from each studio album. Ultraviolet Light (1991) Hard to be a very good song on what it certainly U2's best album, "Achtung Baby". That outstanding record was chock full of era-defining songs so "Ultraviolet Light" ended up being sadly overlooked by many. It is a testament to the song's quality that U2 brought it back from the dead on their 2009 tour. A Day Without Me (1980) Dedicated to the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division, this song appeared on U2's debut album "Boy". Enjoy vintage The Edge guitar and a soulful lyric delivered from a very young Bono. Gone (1997) This song appeared on U2's most maligned...

And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. Genesis 11:1-9 Today the Emirate of Dubai gave the most lavish opening ceremony with the greatest fireworks show ever created to formally announce the (ahem) erection of the world's tallest phallic symbol, the Burj Dubai. Forget Texas. Only Dubai really does it big. There is no one in the tiny emirate that is not obsessed with superlatives. On a day when Dubai gets global media attention for its astounding engineering marvel, it seems we were asked to completely forget the financial troubles of the emirate as well as the questionable labour practices that enabled the tower to be built. Instead, we are to marvel at the world's highest observation deck, inhabited floor, pool, and mosque. Dubai has made bestest, mostest, greatest, biggest, grandest its complete modis operandi , what with the Palm Jume...

As Mark and I closed off 2009 in New York City we really connected with the gay core of the City. We spent time in the heart of historic gay New York, the wonderful Greenwich Village (site of gay liberation in the 1970s and the primary gay area of the 1980s), and then in Chelsea (the new boystown of the 1990s), and finally in Hells Kitchen (the up-to-the-minute gayborhood). In each neighborhood we hit the best piano bars, the locus of gay sentimentality, humour, and wit. It's hard to imagine New York or even the U.S. without the pathos of the Great American Songbook (thanks Cole Porter!) and the dreams of Broadway (thanks Leonard Bernstein!). I am not sure why exactly that gay men were so drawn to write and celebrate torch songs but it was evident that song remains very important for gay men to share, cry, and celebrate. The most moving experience was at Marie's Crisis in the Village, where off-Broadway stars and regulars alike mingle and sing the best of show tunes and standar...

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! We've just returned from four days in New York City. It was a grand adventure and we had a marvellous time with our friends Patrick and Raymond. Highlights include an amazing French dinner at the legendary Chez Josephine in Hells Kitchen, and a superb Italian meal at Bar Pitti in Greenwich Village. Geeks worldwide will be super envious to learn that the absolutely stunning Famke Janssen (Jean Grey/Phoenix in the "X-Men" franchise) was our dining neighbour at Bar Pitti. As she was barely two feet from us, it took all all of our mutant powers not to gush praise but since we are good Canadian geeks...er...boys, we respected her privacy. When we left Mark chatted with her briefly and I said a quick hello. I can honestly report that she is far more beautiful in person. We were star struck and giddy. The next day we spotted Oliver Platt ("2012", "Frost/Nixon","The West Wing") right outside our hotel. As for night life we had ...