Cape Horn, here I come!
08.28.07 (12:43 am) [edit]And I hope I will speak those words someday. I have this impluse to sail around Cape Horn... the wrong way... in winter. I may never. This isn't something you just get up and do. It requires a lot of follow-through, and before I could finish any follow-through, I might forget why I wanted to do this in the first place.
It seems so lonely and peaceful down there, doesn't it, down in that belt where there's hardly any land? Actually, for that very reason, that belt is known as the "furious 50s" (being in the 50s°S). Without any land to get in their way, storms race around that part of the world, and then some when the Andes force storm power down to 56°S. This is why sailing around the Horn is such a rush, and half the reason the Panama Canal was dug.
So why would I want to sail through such a treacherous and stormy part of the world? I guess because in some ways it is peaceful down there. It's a part of the world that nobody has much use for, so no one goes there. So, as long as I'm sailing somewhere remote, with no one to bother me, I might as well sail the Mount Everest of boating. Another key reason is that Gordon Lightfoot has a song about it. Now how does it go...
See them all in sad repair
Demons dance everywhere
Southern gales, tattered sails
And none to tell the tales
Randy Bachman, what a flake
08.23.07 (11:40 pm) [edit]I heard Randy Bachman on CBC radio a while ago. He was being interviewed, but I don't know what for. It was probably just for his favourite issues. At one point he was asked about his Mormon past. He went on to talk about his departure from the Mormon church, and claimed that there's this worldwide movement in many churches to leave organized religion and "get into the spiritual thing" and "the earth thing". I suppose it could be true, that a large number of people could be leaving certain denominations for a do-it-yourself kind of philosophy that is vague and groundless--as surely as it could be true that Bachman is full of it! I wish I had some kind of talent that comes off very well on stage, that could make me a household name, then I could say that there's this worldwide movement to... I dunno... play the Ultima games. 'Ever heard of it? Of course not! Because no one with mass media access has ever wanted to over-represent it by dressing up its popularity as an astute obvservation!
This reminds me of the time when I saw Burton Cummings on some daytime TV talk show. As part of a greater point he mentioned that he believed in reincarnation. My thoughts at that point were boy, what a flake! Not that it is necessarily flakey to believe in reincarnation, but the way he said it and the context and everything made me feel like he's bit off more than he can chew in deciding how the world works. Then he played Stand Tall, and I realized just how hollow a song it was, with its vacuous lyrics and overly emotional overtones.
No, the Guess Who should stick to what they're good at, which is making great music. Who cares how they've extrapolated their soft, superstar lives to the supernatural?