Last Thursday I spent the day at a knitting workshop led by Brandon Mably, including lunch and an evening with Kaffe Fassett. These two men have a wonderful (or, in their words: glorious, exciting, delicious) sense of colour and of the benefits of simplicity. I am a big fan of simplicity (or as mathematicians like to say, elegance) and an appreciation of the aesthetics of everyday things. It was interesting hearing what Brandon had to say about choosing and integrating colours into his works, because it was (almost) word for word what I’ve heard many musicians say in general about constructing melodies and in particular, constructing jazz solos. I found the synaesthetic (sensory cross-over) aspect intriguing.
It was also interesting to be able to spend 6 hours just knitting. Nothing else. Very zen. I’m not a big knitter (unlike some) but I enjoy both the tactility of the process and the end result. It was a little weird being the only straight guy in a house filled mostly with women past a certain age but not that big a deal, and I did win a nice door prize that included some nice hand-turned rosewood needles and I did get to model one of Brandon’s sweaters on stage with Kaffe in the evening.
First off, I’m going to grumble again about my hosting provider. It seems they’re “100% uptime” guarantee uses a different sort of math than the one I studied in school. It’s closer to 97% by my calculation, and they don’t even update their status page.
Anyways, on to todays topic. The election.
I watched the leaders’ debates last week. I am exposed to paid political messages on television and radio. I receive print literature from candidates in the neighbouring ridings (none in my own, hmmm…) and I read various statements form candidates in the local weeklies. Each and every time, the message is the same.
They tell me not to vote for the other guy.
Nobody wants to tell me what they stand for, what they would or will do, what they think about issues. Nobody wants to tell me why I should vote for them. They, one and all, tell me what their opponents stand for, think, and would do and why I should not vote for them.
It’s just stupid.
And still the pundits are surprised by how cynical the voters have become.
Try, just try, giving me something to vote for instead of to vote against. I’d rather standa a chance of getting what I want rather than not getting what I don’t want.
I watches the Election 2008 Leaders’ Debate on television last night.
I was incredibly disappointed.
The participants engaged in constant ad homined attacks, particularly on the Prime Minister. The media pundits loved it, just as they loved it when there was just unintelligible noise when everyone was talking at the same time. I do not recognise either situation as debate.
What I was hoping for was for each leader to articulate their party’s policies, and for some sort of discussion on the relative merits and faults of these policies. What I got was a bunch of kids calling names and trying to get the last word in edgewise, accompanied by obvious and sordid attempts at image manipulation.
I feel the world was left a little worse after the debate rather than a little better.