Holiday Music

I was having a conversation with a good friend the other day, a conversation which somehow evolved into her hectoring me about how commercialization was deterring from the true meaning of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of our Lord and saviour, Tim Tebow.  Her rejection of 'Commercial X-mas' extended to gift giving and all Santa symbols, as well as a profound hatred of X-mas music.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of getting sonorously pummelled by Christmas music, be it at malls, stores and even pubs, for crying out loud, especially when said pummelling starts in early November.  There is an acceptable time for Holiday tunes, and that is between December 24th and January 1st, inclusively, neither before or after, unless there is a work-related X-mas party involved, as well as alcohol (subject to one other exception noted below).  There should also be an outright ban on crappy, unimaginative commercial 'standards', first and foremost that fucken 'Feliz Navidad' abomination, but also 'I saw Mommy Pegging Santa Claus', Santa Baby' and their ilk.

That being said, there is some great Holiday music which should be listened to and appreciated. These are my favourites...

Favourite X-mas Albums

1. - Christmas in the Heart, by Bob Dylan

This is now one of my favourite albums of all time, whether Christmas-themed or not.  It sounds exactly like what would happen if your Crazy Uncle Bob decided to grab a 26-pounder of rye, do X-mas karaoke for an hour and record the results.  I am guessing that SNL collectively kicked itself when the album came out a year ago for not thinking of doing a ‘Bob Dylan sings Christmas tunes’ sketch.  The album sounds like that sketch would have sounded.  Upon listening, one wonders if Dylan is pulling a fast one on us and in fact mocking or parodying the Christmas genre altogether.  And either despite or because of all this (I really cannot decide), it is addictively listenable.  I do not grow tired of this album; in fact, my buddy Jordan and I will put it on at various times during the year as it is in a category of its own.  The highlight is a rollicking cover of ‘Must Be Santa’, which on top of Dylan improvising on the names of the reindeer, also actually sounds like klezmer influences may have been cleverly worked into the music.  And if you can believe it, Dylan sings ‘Adeste Fideles’, although singing may be an overstatement.  The album is entirely covers of Holiday standards; it would have been interesting had Dylan penned his own holiday songs.

This is a must-own…

2. - The Bells of Dublin, by The Chieftains

Now 20 years old, The Bells of Dublin is a lovely Christmas project by The Chieftains.  Accompanied by numerous guest artists, including Elvis Costello, Jackson Browne and the McGarrigle sisters, the Chieftains cover numerous Christmas classics, as well as some traditional holiday-tinged reels, carols and folk songs.  They are at their peak, using a bevy of traditional Celtic instruments.  A few original songs are included, written for the occasion.  ‘The St Stephen’s Day Murders’, co-written by Paddy Moloney and Elvis Costello, provides an apt description of family holiday festivities gone wrong.  Jackson Browne contributed ‘The Rebel Jesus’ which sounds like most of Browne’s songs, but builds on an interesting concept.  The album is clearly holiday-themed, but is a refreshing departure from the usual holiday schmaltz; it is essentially a Christmas album for adults.

3. - A Charlie Brown Christmas, by The Vince Guaraldi Trio

Growing up in the 70's, in an era when sitting down together to watch television was an essential element of middle-class family life, an important part of my childhood Christmasses were the viewing of the four quintessential TV Specials. The four horsemen of TV Christmas Specials are, of course:

-          Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer;

-          Frosty the Snowman;

-          How the Grinch Stole Christmas; and,

-          A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Each animated in a different classic style, these feature great stories which do not talk down to children and are subtle enough to be appreciated by adults, along with memorable characters, scenes and dialogue.  All four also are also peppered with classic Holiday music and songs, whether they pre-dated the specials (Rudolph and Frosty) or were originals ('You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch...'). Of all four, however, one soundtrack clearly stands out, and that is the Vince Guaraldi Trio's soundtrack for 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'.

Clearly not aimed at children, the album features the Trio's jazzy interpretations of Holiday classics (e.g., ‘O Tannenbaum’, ‘Hark the Herald Angel Sings’) and pieces created especially for the TV special.  Just listening to the numbers, one can vividly picture the various scenes in the special; the music was that much ingrained in how the show presented its story.

4.- Christmastide, by Jessye Norman

Jessye Norman: I love the woman. Here are a couple of Jessye Norman stories.

- On July 14, 1989, the 200th anniversary of 'la prise de la Bastille', the start of the French Revolution, I walk into our den as my Dad is watching the official parade/celebrations on TV.  All of a sudden, the opening lines of La Marseillaise ring out. 'Allons, enfants de la patrie, l'heure de gloire est arrivée.'  I am frozen; I literally cannot move, overwhelmed by the beauty of what I have just heard.  As shivers run down my spine, I manage to turn to the TV screen, and see this beautiful, majestic African-American woman, dressed in a bleu-blanc-rouge dress with a 30-foot train flowing behind her belting out the French national anthem, one of my favourites as it is basically a revolutionary battle hymn.  It was one of those transcendental moments of pure beauty and joy that remain imprinted on one's mind, never to be forgotten.

- In 1997, during the year I spent living in Vancouver, on one of the visits from my then-girlfriend we decided to go down to Seattle for a few days.  While we were planning our visit (booking hotels and restaurants) using the at-that-time-newfangled thingy called the internet, I ended up looking at a listing of upcoming Seattle events.  Shocked was I to find out that Jessye Norman was coincidentally giving a recital on one of the evenings we were planning to be there.  Greater shock ensued when it turned out that there tickets still available.  We spent that Saturday evening having that wonderful, stately voice just rolling over us.  As I remember, the recital included mostly German lieber and some classical versions of American folk songs.

Neither of these stories have anything to do with Christmastide.  The album is a collection of Christmas hymns, operatic versions of traditional songs and sacred pieces.  It is the perfect 'classical' Christmas album, always melodic and equal parts low-key and uplifting.

Favourite X-mas Songs

1. - When I lived in Vancouver, I listened mostly to one particular (classic rock) radio station which created their own novelty songs.  I do not generally enjoy novelty songs, but these were usually topical, pretty imaginative and funny.  They had done a song mocking the travails of Moe Sihota, an embattled provincial NDP minister, entitled ‘Moe Sihota’ and sung to the tune of ‘My Sharona’.  It was pretty funny, but you get the picture.  Most mornings leading up to Christmas, they played the attached song;  I thought for years they had done it themselves, but discovered a few years ago that it was not their creation…

2.- Pour finir, voici la meilleure toune de Noël, interprétée par Noël Denuy avec l’aide de son frère Janvier…

So enjoy, and hopefully these musical selections can play a small part in making your Holidays worthwhile...

(And yes, I unabashedly made a Tim Tebow joke; it's now official, everybody has.)

What Makes Me Appreciate Life

1.- The joyful laughter of little children.

2.- Kittens playfully fighting.

3.- The fact that when the rabid contingent of biased, lowest-common-denominator-serving Francophone reporters who cover the Montréal Canadiens need a coach's quote in French, they have to go to the coach of the Bruins. Now, that makes it all worthwhile...


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What's Going On?

Well, clearly not much, given how little I have been posting lately. There is a simple reason for this, and some of you will already be well aware of this: I'm a lazy schmuck.

I have two brilliant, Earth-shattering posts that are half-written and ideas for two more, one of which is actually seasonal. So, hopefully, if I can roll off the couch at some point, I will actually provide some new, random content in the next few days...


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A Few More Random Comments on the Seger Concert

As mentioned earlier in these here parts, on Tuesday, I attended the Bob Seger concert at the ScotiaBank Place in Kanata.

Backed by a 12-piece band, which included a couple of long-time Silver Bullets as well as the Detroit Horns, a 4-man horn section, Seger played a solid 90-minute set, playing classic rock hit after classic rock hit.  It was exactly what one would expect from a Seger concert, but, you know, sometimes white toast with Kraft peanut butter is pretty satisfying—you know exactly what you’re going to get, but still satisfying.  And that’s pretty much was this show was:  a really satisfying, classic rock show with no surprises.  The Ottawa crowd, of course, ate it up.  By the way, being in that crowd was great; I felt young and I felt thin…

The opening act was Jessica Hernandez and the Deltas, a young band from Detroit.  This was more interesting.  Hernandez has quite the voice, and the 6-man Deltas played some big band infused rock, with Hernandez taking care of the vocals (and some keyboards.)  This was a fusion of two styles that I have never quite heard before and quite a successful fusion.  I did not get the chance to get their CD at the merch table after the show, but plan to download it.  Hopefully, they will play a full set locally at some point in the not too distant future.

What Was I Listening To: Bob Seger (Ottawa)

Tonight, I attended the Bob Seger concert at the Palladium/Corel Centre/Scotia Centre in Kanata, slightly East of Winnipeg.  My views on the concert will follow; I just wanted to point out that Our Glorious Leader, the Right Honourable Stephen (Valerie) Harper was also in attendance tonight, in the private box immediately above where I was sitting.  This was, to me, fairly exciting and I texted the news to several friends of mine.  These were the responses:

• 'Punch him in the face for me please.'
• 'Slug him!'
• 'Spit on him.'
• 'Throw something at him!'; and...

and...

• 'Awesome!'

Now, to be fair, that last one was from a former and now-current-again Conservative Party aparitchik, so it may have been an ingrained reaction on his part.

Otherwise, more 'serious' random comments about the concert itself will follow.

These Are the Beers I Drank, I Drank. These are the Beers I Drank.

Some notes on some of the beers I've consumed over the past several days.
Micro-brews
Stanley Park Amber (on tap at Rangoli). I have to assume that, given the name, this is a local micro. The beer definitely looked like an amber beer, but had absolutely no taste. Surprising for a micro-brewery, unless they're trying to compete with the major labels in the area of non-taste.
Howe Sound IPA (on tap at The Irish Heather). Now there's an IPA. Suitably big and hoppy, with a an after-taste that lingers on the palate. I could drink a lot of these.
Driftwood Pale Ale (on tap at The Irish Heather). Driftwood brewery was recommended to me by one of the waitresses at Salt and a fine recommendation it turned out to be. Somewhat hoppy (not as much as the Howe Sound) and lighter in colour. I was told to look out for their Fat Tug (I think) IPA which I haven't seen on tap yet.
Bowen Island IPA. I bought a 6-pack earlier in the week and I haven't been impressed. Overly carbonated, and not hoppy enough for my tastes.

Brew Pubs
Yaletown Brewery
First off, a strike against them in that they serve baby pints (16 oz.). If you're a real pub, you should serve real pints.
I tried three of their offerings, the UFG Cascadia Ale, their monthly feature, the Brick & Beam IPA and the Nagila Pale Ale. The Cascadia Ale and the IPA were solid, both with a lot of taste and both eminently quaffable. The Pale Ale, on the other hand, was too citrussy for me
Steamworks Brew Pub
I had some Empress IPA, again a nice slightly hoppy brew. Not as good (or hoppy) as the Howe Sound but a solid brew.
It also again goes to prove that it is possible to operate a brew pub that serves tasty, subtle beers. I wish someone in Ottawa would notice. (Yes, I particularly mean you, Clocktower Pub. I'll even repeat it for your privilege: beer that tastes good should be an integral part of a brew pub's raison d'être.)
Other pintage
At Ceili's, for the CFLPA launch party: Guinness
And, at various Grey Cup team functions:
Cans of Canadian, Stella Artois, Kokanee, and Bud. Bud, for crying out loud. Because nothing says Canadian football more than cans of Bud... Oi...
Cheers.
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Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett is a brilliant English fantasy/comedy writer, best known for the Discworld series. The Discworld is a flat, circular world resting on the back of four elephants who, in turn, stand on the back of the majestic Great A'Tuin, a massive space-faring turtle, of course.

In one of my favourite Discworld novels, 'Hogfather', the Hogfather, the Discworld equivalent of Santa Claus, disappears. This creates an imbalance in the overall level of belief on the Discworld. The now-unattributed belief that people had in the Hogfather was being displaced to newly created deities. (Work with me on this; it actually kind of makes sense.). So a spate of new gods randomly came into existence: the god of hair loss, the god of verucas... and the oh god! of hangovers.

Oh god, it's Grey Cup Sunday morning.
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Awesome Grey Cup Moment

Getting Pinball to sign a Dove for Men bar...
Yup, it's now officially Grey Cup!

Day Four: It's All Coming Together

Today was Grey Cup Friday, which means the team parties are officially in full swing and, for the first time since the 95th Grey Cup in Toronto, the Vanier Cup championship game.
I started off the day with dim sum at Dynasty Seafood, named the second... Ah, screw it, let's skip to the chase:
VIJ'S HAS A COUNTER AT BC PLACE!!!
VIJ'S!!!
For $10 or so, you can get a chicken, beef or vegetarian curry, served (obviously) on a bed of rice. At Vanier Cup tonight, I had the beef garam masala. As I wrote earlier in the week about my lunch at Rangoli, the dish was flavourful, yet subtle. This is now by far uncontestedly the best stadium meal I've ever had (surpassing the hot dogs at old Yankee Stadium, I hate to admit). For those of you attending Grey Cup on Sunday, the counter is behind Section 216.
So, as the title says, it is all coming together.
Some other highlights from today:
1.- Despite Vij's, I was disappointed at the lack of concession variety at the revamped BC Place. We scouted out the 200 level concourse and the only two non-standard food stands were Vij's and a fancy hot dog joint, which sold brats and bacon-wrapped dogs. I noticed a local beer sold at only one concession stand and that is only because I asked the barmaid about the strange-looking can in her fridge. There is a trend in stadiums in the US to feature local food vendors and micro-breweries. With the food scene in Vancouver and the number of micro-breweries in the lower mainland, there's no excuse for BC Place to buck this trend. They should be featuring much more local colour.
2.- I hit Touchdown Manitoba and the Lions' Den today.
3.- In all seriousness, I did have dim sum at Dynasty Seafood, which was voted the third best dim sum restaurant in Vancouver Magazine's annual restaurant issue. Conveniently, it is also adjacent to my hotel. I ordered the steamed black truffle dumplings; pork shumai; pan fried eggplant stuffed with fish paste in black bean sauce; and pan fried shrimp and chive dumplings. The quality of dim sum is often dependent on what dishes one orders, but I enjoyed Dynasty much more than Jade earlier in the week.
(For those who are wondering, Kirin finished on top of the survey for dim sum places. It's a local chain. I've never been and do not intend to. I will not trust the wisdom of the crowd on this one.)
4.- The Vanier Cup championship game (an overtime affair) was one of the most exciting football games I have ever witnessed.
Some other really, really cool stuff probably also happened.

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Grey Cup Festival Interlude: Random Observations from Vancouver

1.- Canuck fans are so cute wearing their Western Conference Champions 2011 gear! You just want to lean over and pinch their chubby little cheeks!

2.- Bailey's and coffee is basically the drunkard's equivalent of a speedball.

3.- There aren't enough late night repeats of WKRP in Cincinnati. Or any, for that matter. Bastards.

4.- It's awesome looking at a bill in Vancouver and only seeing one, harmonised, sales tax added on. BC residents have a great thing going.

5.- Someone please explain to me why we don't have light rail in Ottawa yet.

6.- Once in a while, a beer-ordering checklist would come in useful. (Credit goes to Woodrow for that one.)

7.- Worst Playboy pictorial ever: the women of East Hastings. (Again, that's a Woodrow original.)

PC
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Day Three: And So It Begins

Well folks, 11:30 today was the point where this turned from a food venture to a Grey Cup trip. Along with Mr, Mrs and Little Woodrow I tried going to Rain City Grill for lunch, but they had booked a party of 70 for later, and could not accommodate us.

We ended up going to a neighbourhood Indian place, the Ginger Garlic. I had the lamb curry thali, and found out that 'thali' is a word in an Indian dialect which means 'food for a small village'. The lamb curry came with rice, four pieces of naan, daal (sp?) and a vegetable curry. I've rarely seen so much food in one serving. It was also quite good, which reminded me what is amazing about a city like Vancouver: there is a food culture. You can walk into a random restaurant and be fairly certain of having a great meal. I don't miss Ottawa.

Afterwards, the official Grey Cup partying began. We first went to the CFLPA launch party at an Irish pub on Granville. A number of current and former players were in attendance including the guy pictured above, who won't be playing Sunday. (Ha!) We then proceeded to the Spirit of Edmonton hospitality suite, which, as usual, was more of a hospitality ballroom.

And there's more of that on the agenda for today. And tomorrow.

Cheers.

Day Two.1: La suite/The Sequel

Some more food morsels from Day Two...
Woodrow and I hit the two 'mainstream' Vancouver brew pubs: Yaletown Brewing Company and Gastown Beer Works. Once Woodrow headed his own way, I ambled my way to Salt.
Salt is a lovely little hole-in-the-wall in a back alley (Blood Alley) in the historic Gastown neighbourhood. The concept is simple: they have a list of 10 or so cheeses and 10 or so meats. For $15 you can order 3 out of these, in any combination, with 3 condiments (because we should all believe in safe food). For an additional $15, you can get a flight of wine to match your selection. (There's also some menu items, and some special items such as terrines or duck confit.)
The selection of cheeses and meats evidently change regularly. The meats seem to be mostly furnished by local butchers, but I didn't pay much attention to them, as I went in there on a quest for cheese. The cheese board featured 10 cheeses: 3 locals, a couple of US ones and then a mix of French, Spanish (Cabrales!!!), Portuguese and Italian.
I ordered two BC cheeses, an ash camembert from Salt Spring Island and a Tomme d'or, and a Point Reyes, a soft blue from California. I relied on the waitress to bring me suitable condiments and wines.
I won't speak to the wines. I should have specified that I'd eaten (and drank) beforehand. Desert or sweet wines would have been better for my palate at that point in the evening than a sparkly white, a pinot noir or a cabernet; my fault entirely for not pointing that out. Otherwise, the cheeses were excellent. The ash camembert grew in subtlety with every bite. I thought the tomme d'or may have been a bit mis-labeled, because it was much firmer (actually hard) than other varieties of tomme I've had before. However, the waitressn in an inspired choice, matched it with Basque olives (a bit spicier than Italian or Greek olives) which perfectly brought out the Tomme's flavour.
The last cheese was the Point Reyes. Well, dammit, I've fallen in love with a cheese again. A lovely soft blue, with a bit of a kick, which didn't overwhelm the palate. Not the best blue on the baord (Cabrales!), but just an amazing combination of flavours.
I will try to go back this week, if only to try some of the meats. Also, I had a conversation with my waitress about Cabrales!!! I have to go back.
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Day Two: Gin Shots?!?

Woodrow got into town today, which can only mean one thing: it's Grey Cup Wednesday. This, in turn, can only mean one additional, related thing: Grey Cup festivities got launched tonight with, what else, a round of gin shots. Yes, friends, shooters of gin.

The origins of this very honourable tradition go back many eons (or at least to the 96th Grey Cup) and involve a combination of poor liquor planning and bad, truly truly bad, judgement.

So the shots of gin were had at 6:18 PM local time and... we're off to the races! Bring on the hospitality suites, beer, team parties, beer, pancake breakfasts, Pil, cheerleaders, rye, pep bands, pepto, Box J Boys and a football game or two.

In the meantime, some food was consumed today.

I had dim sum at Jade, in Richmond, which was named in Vancouver Magazine's 2011 restaurant review issue the second best dim sum restaurant in Vancouver. I ordered some steamed mushroom dumplings; sticky rice; smoked salmon crispy wraps and pan fried lamb dumplings. Both types of dumplings were excellent and the sticky rice was above average. The smoked salmon dish (pictured) looked quite nice.
It turned out to be a slab of smoked salmon over a prawn cracker shell filled with a mixture of mayonnaise and corn.

I'll give them points for trying, but it seemed like too many flavours and textures to add to a generous portion of smoked salmon.

(More to follow...)

Day One: It's All About the Food

I landed in Vancouver around 10:30 this morning and today has been about culinary delights.

First, I had lunch at Rangoli, the café that is next door to (and run by) the venerable Vij's. From a surprisingly deep menu (roughly 25 items), I had the lamb cumin curry, with onions and red peppers. It was not one of those curries designed to make you cry at how hot it is; rather, the flavour (and aroma) is understated and subtly comes through bite by bite. I had something called 'meeti roti' for desert, custard cream served on top of a cashew and brown sugar crunchy concoction; it was sweet, but not overwhelmingly so.

Speaking of venerable, I had dinner at Tojo's, where the master himself could be seen working the sushi bar. I ordered the 6-dish omakase, along with a bottle of Tojo's Choice sake. The highlights of the six-course meal were the albacore tuna 'appetiser' and the Dungeness crab with cut vegetables and mustard/soy bean dressing, imaginatively served in a crab shell. The principal dish was a selection of sushi, including sea eel, two different combinations of fish and vegetables (one was tuna and spicy asparagus) and a lovely diced clam preparation in a tamago-type wrapper.

The entire 6-course meal (plus dessert), from what I could make out from the descriptions provided by the heavily-accented waitress:

- Albacore tuna appetiser.
- Clam Chowder.
- Dungeness crab with cut vegetables and mustard/soy bean dressing.
- Salmon with mixed vegetables, soy sauce and soy paste.
- A 'vapour dish' of smoked canadian sablefish with asparagus in broth. This is kind of soup; it comes in a bowl that needs to first be unwrapped vapour dish. It's also evidently quite important to squeeze some lime juice into the broth before eating. I don't quite understand the need for the elaborate production.
- A selection of sushi, 10 beautiful pieces.
- A small crème brûlée with berries for desert.

Once in a while, life is good...
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Where Will I Be: Riotville, B. C.

Tomorrow morning, at the ungodly hour of 7:30, I will be flyin’ on a jet plane, heading to Vancouver British Columbia.  The main reason for the trip is to make fun of Canucks fans, because, as a fan of the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins, that will not get old any time soon.  The secondary reason is to attend my eighth consecutive Grey Cup.

Now, obviously, the maxim will have to hold:  Quid occurat ad Grey Vas subsidit ad Grey Vas.  Nevertheless, I will try to do a bit of live-blogging from the week’s activities because if I have to live through countless repetitions of ‘Green is the colour, football is the game…’, then you should also suffer through it.  Obviously, I will have to figure out how to balance my beer while one-thumb-typing on the berry, but I will give it a go.  Names will also have to be changed to protect the innocent, but given that Mr. and Mrs. Roderick and the Brantford contingent are all boycotting this year, it kind of severely narrows down the number of innocents…

I will also post a few quick impressions of some of the finer dining establishments I hope to visit.  At this point, I am considering Rain City Grill, Tojo’s, Rangori’s, Salt and a high-end Richmond dim sum place whose name escapes me.  That may well change, and I will keep you posted.

Go FeLions Lions!

What I'm Reading : Children’s Books.

I have recently finished reading two fantasy/horror novels, both aimed at 10-12 year-olds.  One I read on purpose and the other inadvertently.

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.  I am not entirely sure how I managed to completely miss this novel when it came out in hardcover in 2008, as Gaiman is one of my favourite authors.  (Coincidentally, he was on The Simpsons tonight.)  The book follows the adventures of Bod (short for Nobody) Owens, an orphan raised by the denizens of the local cemetery.  Each chapter stands up generally on its own, and follows a self-contained adventure involving Bod, at various ages, his keepers and/or humans from the neighbouring village.  The last two chapters bring the overall back-story, which had been hinted at in the background of the previous chapters, to a conclusion.

The Graveyard Book is written in a light, sparse and direct style, which is very fitting for the type of modern fairy tale that Gaiman is weaving.  The novel is somewhat different in tone than Coraline, Gaiman’s previous children’s novel, also a gothic fantasy.  Coraline (as far as I remember) was seeking a new, more welcoming family, which led to her adventures, whereby Bod is clearly at home with the village that is raising him.  While lighter in tone, however, The Graveyard Book does veer into a much darker, ‘real-life’ conclusion.

I enjoyed The Graveyard Book, but what I would have rather been reading is a new ‘adult’ novel by Neil Gaiman.  The Doctor’s Wife was great, he is a constant and interesting presence on Twitter and I’m sure he’s enjoying recording and touring with his wife and raising bees in Minnesota, but I really wish he would come out with a new novel…

The Gates, by John Connolly.  I picked this up at the Harvard Coop Book Store when I was in Boston in early October.  There was a write-up posted, supposedly by one of the staff, (the type of write-up that used to seem clever when independent stores started doing this about 15 years ago, but is now clearly a marketing trick as each and every bookstore, whether independent or a chain, now features them) that recommended this book, and described the style as being in line with Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.  That was enough to sell me on the book.  What the write-up cleverly avoided mentioning was that this is a book aimed at 10-12 year-olds.  Only when I picked it up at home and bothered reading the jacket did I notice that many of the reviews quoted mentioned how the book would be a great hit in middle school and with ‘young adults and fans alike’.  Well, I figured at least I could probably get through it…

The Gates tells the story of Samuel Johnson, a clever and somewhat precocious 11-year-old, who discovers that his neighbours have inadvertently opened a portal to the gates of Hell.  Also, some astrophysicists from CERN get involved.  Samuel is a fun character who is much more befuddled by the behaviour of the adults around him than by the events (and the demons) that are unleashed by his neighbours.  I appreciated Samuel, the characters created by Connolly, who are at times quirky, in a very English way and the overall supernatural storyline.  In that way, I can understand how the supposed bookstore clerk evoked Pratchett and Adams, although I would not quite put The Gates in the same rarefied air as their work.  The Gates was well-written and interesting enough that I will, at some point, look into Connolly’s ‘adult’ work, evidently mostly crime thrillers.

Random Rant: How to Lose Me as a Patron

Hey restaurant owners/managers! Here are two simple steps to ensure that my first visit to your establishment will also be my last:

1.- Make sure you pass yourself off as a slightly upper end restaurant offering Mediterranean/tapas dishes at night... only to offer an unimaginative, drab lunch menu featuring 4 burgers and 5 wraps. If I want pub food, guess what? I'll go to a pub.

2.- Please ensure that when there is only 4 other guests in the restaurant, your waiter tells me what my side will be ('Half fries, half salad.). Do not have him, under any circumstance, offer me a choice because, you know, the kitchen staff may get overwhelmed by the six orders they have to prepare.

So there you have it: how to make sure this idiot will not come back for seconds.





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Random Rant : The Singing Bus Driver

Well, OC Transpo finally did the right thing and told ‘The Singing Bus Driver’ to cease and desist.  It’s about time.

I only had him as a driver a couple of times and, let’s be clear, I never put in a formal complaint about him.  As funny as it seems, for some of us a bus ride is quiet time.  It is the last 20 minutes in the morning where we can gather our thoughts, and think of the day ahead.  It is the first 20 minutes after the work day, where we can finally have time to ourselves and catch our breath.  In the few cases where The Singing Fool was my bus driver, I was heading to visit a sick relative, and trying to plan ahead for what I would have to face.  To be sonorously assaulted by someone singing X-mas carols at the top of his lungs was certainly not welcome and a little much.  Also, I cannot understand how this guy can justify forcing a captive audience to listen to him.  It’s not as if the ridership had a choice, other than getting off and waiting for the next bus.

Two elements to this story mystify me.  First, I am amazed that some riders defend him, mostly because, well, ‘he was so much fun…’  I think it probably comes down to the old introvert/extrovert dichotomy, with extroverts not understanding just how much something like this invades our space.  Second, this was a major local story in The Citizen.  Although it should not really be surprising, given The Citizen’s never-ending quest to portray Ottawa a small Valley town… But that’s another rant…

Bad Ideas for Blog Posts.

I haven’t written in a while.  It hasn’t been for lack of ideas.  I’ve been coming up with at least one potential topic a day; they just didn’t seem like very good ideas.  You can you judge for yourself…

1. Writing in Beaker’s voice.
2. Why section 152 (4) (b) (vi) of the Income Tax Act should be amended.
3. Quirky urinal moments.
4. Why the guy at the other side of the bar with the long hair and the grey beard is really starting to annoy me.
5. Why I hate mirrors.
6. Detailed analysis of how I lost the championship in my CFL fantasy league in the last moments of the last game… Nope, still too painful.
7. Great asses I've stared at today.
8. Things I've thrown at my cat.
9. Writing a post whilst not wearing pants.  Wait, I write most of these pantless.  Crap, I'm at Second Cup, aren't I? Oh no...
10. Writing my blog at Second Cup.
11. Justification for Nickelback playing half-time at the Grey Cup.
12. Bad ideas for blog posts.
13. My 12 favourite numbers.
14. A stochastic approach to explain why OC Transpo busses always come in threes.

Random Rant : Infants in Pubs.

Hey parents.  Don’t get me wrong, I am really happy you decided to procreate (assuming it was a decision and you didn’t just forget to use a condom.  Even then, you decided to live with the consequences, so that is still pretty admirable.)  In 20-25 years, I am going to need your progeny to pay taxes to support my CPP and OAS payments and my public service pension.  And to make up for those tax breaks you are getting for being a parent that I am currently subsidizing with my own tax dollars (but that is another rant entirely).

But you know what?  If you decide to bring your infant in a publican’s establishment say, after 6 PM, there are no two ways about it, you are not only bad parents, you are bad human beings.

First, don’t delude yourselves.  It’s not a restaurant; it’s a pub.  You know how you can tell?  Take a good look around;  are there a number of 30-, 40- and 50-somethings, mostly men, sitting around a big wooden structure (‘the wood’), gulping beer or sipping scotch, shooting the shit and fooling themselves into believing that they are impressing the cute 20-something barmaid?  Yup, that should be your first clue:  it’s a fucken pub.

Those guys at the wood?  They came to hang out with their mates, forget their day and to seek a sense of camaraderie and belonging.  They did not come to listen to your infant cry.  Or scream.  Or cutely run around doing cute infant things.  You know, the type of things that your infant did at daycare all day and that you missed.  Or the type of things that the babysitter should be dealing with right now, if you weren’t too cheap to get one.

Not only are you and your child severely disturbing those guys at the wood (and probably countless other patrons), but you know what?  You’re teaching your kid that he/she doesn’t have to show consideration for others and that’s it’s perfectly acceptable to inconvenience people as long as you get to do what you want.  What kind of value is that to be teaching your child?  Oh wait, one you clearly don’t have because, well, you brought your infant into the pub, didn’t you?

And those guys at the wood, believe me, odds are pretty good that at least one of them is thinking right now of phoning the CAS on you...

And you see that fat old guy at the wood nursing his Guinness?  The one with the pony tail and the unkempt beard that looks like he once might have been a biker?  Tell you what, go ahead, bring your infant into the pub… provided he gets to go hang out at your darling’s day care the next day.  Sounds like a fair deal, right?

Right?

Thought so…

Where I Used to Eat: Murray’s Market, Ottawa

I found out today that Murray’s Market, on Dalhousie Street in Ottawa just shut down, after a much too brief six months.  I am truly not happy about this.  The Market has been my main brunch place for the past little while.  The sandwiches one could get there... Man, well, just look at the picture...

A hot turkey sandwich, with a side of their famous potato and [I’ll make a point of figuring out what else is in there at some point, except now I won’t, dammit] hash.

It was the seemingly hip place on the Market where I brought countless friends to seemingly look hip. (OK, well, three.  And two of them were vegetarians.  Damn.  Maybe I should have dragged a different crowd.  Crap…. Although they did both like the grilled cheese with pepper jelly…)

I realized today that I book-ended the place.  Last spring, I walked into Murray's Market not knowing that it was their opening day.  It was brunch, and I ordered an amazing sandwich (fried eggs and some sort of local meat).  Last Sunday, I walked in and ordered an amazing sandwich (fried eggs and fried headcheese!), not knowing it was their last day.  In the meantime, in addition to amazing brunch sandwiches, frozen meals with specific directions as to how to warm up, invaluable directions for this random idiot…

And, on August 6^th, sitting at home, with the walls seemingly closing in, wanting to go somewhere comfortable, Murray’s Market is where I went.  Ordered an amazing sandwich, with no doubt a side of hash, and regrouped… It was like hanging out with an old friend…

Old friend, I’m going to miss you…

Random Idea for a BlackBerry App.

One of the free ‘we are so sorry we screwed up and really hope we don’t go bankrupt soon because our owner is more interested in getting an NHL team than paying attention to us’ applications offered by RIM to blackberry users is shazam.  Evidently, shazam is one of those apps which identify song titles after listening to a few bars.  Kind of like the ‘Name That Tune’ of applications…

If RIM wanted to give me a truly useful application, they would make one that would do the same with voices, so that when I walked into a bar, and the barmaid said ‘Hi Paul.  Do you want a Guinness?’ the app would tell me the barmaid’s name and I wouldn’t have to ask her for a sixth time.

Now that would be a useful app.

Where Did I Eat : Hy’s Steakhouse in Ottawa

Last Tuesday, I had dinner for the first time at Hy’s Steakhouse in Ottawa.  It was not planned and came about after I met friends in the lounge for drinks and found out they had recently gotten engaged.  Even for an embittered, sour old fuck like me, that seemed to be an occasion that called for some sort of celebration.  So that was pretty much the logic behind choosing to eat there:  ‘Well, as we’re already here…’

I will be upfront:  I have never pined to eat at Hy’s.  I have had drinks in the lounge a few times and figured the restaurant to be an old-fashioned, upper end, wood-panelled steakhouse, with a menu that harkened back to an earlier era.  My expectations were met.  The menu reads like a testament to what my parents would have considered a once-in-five-years, special evening out in an upper crust, patrician restaurant:  ‘Look, oysters Rockefeller!’  ‘Ooh, escargot!’  ‘I think I’ll have the shrimp cocktail.’  ‘Oh my, they have lobster on the menu…’ 

And, if you park your foodie sensibilities at the door, there is really nothing wrong with that.  Our meals were solid, if unspectacular, mostly meat and potatoes fare.  I had the beef Carpaccio as an appetizer, which was quite nice and the ‘filet à la Hy’s’, beef medallions drowned in a standard mushroom gravy.  They have an extensive wine list with a wide range of prices.  I was looking to order a British Columbia wine and there was a fair splattering on the list.  We ended up with a bottle of Okanagan Springs Méritage which, once it opened up, was a lovely accompaniment to our various beef entrées.

We had a good time, in great part because of the company.  I was ready to accept that the food, while not overwhelming, corresponded exactly to my expectations, from a restaurant that sells itself above all on creating a particular ambiance, the perfect restaurant where one can have a power lunch or be carried ‘far above the noise and haste of business and political life’… until we ordered the cheese plate.  And that’s when my foodie outrage set in.  I should start with giving them credit, they included both types of cheddar:  white and orange.  Also, some generic blue cheese (possibly Gorgonzola), a brie and, I think, some provolone.  I kid you not.  If a restaurant expects patrons to drop $125 for a three-course meal with wine, then it needs to feature a well-stocked cheese cart.  An assemblage of grocery-store quality cheese slices is just not acceptable.  Heck, I can throw together a much better cheese plate from what’s in my fridge right now.  (And because you are wondering:  Dragon’s Breath from Halifax; Triple Crème du Village from Warwick, Québec; Le Baluchon, an organic raw cow’s milk from Québec; and, one of my favourites, Maroilles from France.)

And that tells you what you need to know about Hy’s.  It is not about the culinary experience; it is about experiencing a throwback era (take your pick: 50’s, 60’s, 70’s?), where going out for a fancy meal would involve a shrimp cocktail, and 1000-island dressing.  If you are looking to get a glance at a politician or a member of the press gallery, pretend for an evening you are an Ottawa power broker or, better yet, have a Mad Men-themed evening, then by all means, Hy’s is the perfect place.

Where I Was : Toronto, Hamilton and Brantford (!), October 21-23.

I just spent three days (October 21-23) in Southern Ontario, to spend some time with some friends and attend two CFL games.  A few thoughts: 

• We attended the Eskimo-Argo game at the Skydome (Rogers Centre) in Toronto on Friday night, and the Lions-TiCat clash at the historic Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton on Saturday night.  This means that we watched half the CFL’s schedule for the week-end.  Now, granted the CFL is a small league, but anytime one can attend 50 per cent of a league’s game over two days, it is kind of cool.

• I had a great time sitting in Box J at Ivor Wynne Stadium.  Ivor Wynne is a pillbox of a stadium, sitting essentially in a working class residential neighbourhood.  One walks past houses to get to the front gate.  The stadium itself, while ancient, is the definition of cozyness, with fans bundled together and overhanging the field.  I was sitting in Row 17 in Box J, on the 35-yard-line and that was the closest I have ever been to the action.  The crowd is loud and raucous, with Pigskin Pete doing the rounds of the stadium leading rounds of ‘Oska Wee Wee’   One of my better CFL experiences.  My Argo fan friends even behaved…

• After seeing Saturday’s night game at Ivor Wynne, I have now attended CFL games at 10 different venues.  The list:  Université de Moncton Stadium; Stade Percival Molson and the Big Owe in Montréal; Frank Clair Stadium/Lansdowne Park in Ottawa; Skydome/Rogers Centre in Toronto; Ivor Wynne in Hamilton; CanadArms Stadium in Winnipeg; Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton; McMahon Stadium in Calgary and BC Place in Vancouver.  So if you’re scoring at home, the only one I am missing is Taylor Field in Regina.  And Grey Cup 2013 should take care of that.

• As for the football, both games were essentially blow-outs, with the difference being that the Eskimos let the Argos back into Friday’s game by allowing three touchdowns in the fourth quarter.  It makes me wonder if they have developed enough of a killer instinct to make it through the West this year.  That being said, with two weeks to go in the regular season, the CFL playoff picture seems wide open right now.  The Lions just rattled off 8 straight wins, but did not look dominant in a win against the Green Riders last week and got manhandled by the Ti-Cat defence.  Calgary just made a QB change with three games to go in the regular season.  While Drew Tate has looked dominant in the past two weeks, he was playing against the league’s two also-rans.  His first real test as a starter will come this upcoming week-end in Montréal.  The situation is not much clearer in the East.  For the first time in years, the Alouettes do not look like a lock to represent the East in the Grey Cup; however, all three playoff teams can look dominant one week and pedestrian the next.  The next few weeks should be fun for CFL fans.
• Accommodation.  On Friday night in Toronto, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency, on King Street W, a few blocks East of Spadina.  The room was large and comfortable, with king size bed.  The room was great, and the hotel is upper-scale and in a great location, next to restaurants, theatres and the Skydome/CN Tower.  I had pre-booked on their website and prepaid $135 for the night, tax included.  This is a good deal, which is evidently not always available.  However, I had to deal with the front desk three times while I was there and twice the attendants were quite haughty and not entirely pleasant.  In addition, their software system appears to be overly-complicated, as both checking in and out took longer than it should have.

Where I was: Boston, MA, October 6-9, 2011.

Highlights of the Trip

1. - Boston Bruins Opening night, October 6^th, TD Gardens

The Bruins raised the Banner.  What else do I need to say?  Fans were on their feet for over an hour, from the moment the Bruins stepped on the ice for their pre-game warm-up, through highlights of the 2011 playoff run, the Cup getting carried around the ice, the official ceremonies, the raising of the banner to the opening face-off.  The joint was loud, but the loudest ovation was probably reserved for the President of the team, former Bruin great Cam Neely, clearly still beloved in Beantown.  A great touch for a fan-boy like me, and a recognition of the history of the franchise was bringing out veterans from the 1971-72 Cup winning squad (Don Marcotte, Derek Sanderson, Pie McKenzie, Ken Hodge, Johnny Bucyk and of course Bobby) along with Milt Schmidt to assist the 2011 team with the raising of the banner.

2. - The Stata Center, MIT

When I travel, I like walking around cities, exploring neighbourhoods.  Sometimes I have a plan and seek out points of interest, other times, I just walk around and hope to run into something worthwhile.  Suddenly rounding a corner on the MIT campus and being hit by a wave of utter joy at discovering the Frank Gehry-designed Stata Center was one of those times.  Between the chrome, the brick, the rounded corners, the off-angled towers and the adjacent receding and protruding walls, the building looks like it was designed by MC Escher in an imaginative fit of drunkenness.  The accompanying pictures will not do it justice;  this has to be seen to be believed.

3. - The Bukowski Tavern, Back Bay

It is a hole in the wall, more precisely, in the wall of a multi-storey parking structure.  In addition to an extensive selection of bottled beers, the it features 20 or so beers on tap, most of which are local or regional micro-breweries, including their own extremely drinkable house brew, an IPA-style beer, with a bit more of a kick to it due to using Canadian rye as one of the grains.  The list of daily specials is entitled ‘The Fucking Specials’.  Whilst I was in there on Saturday (twice), they played the Talking Heads, Etta James, the best of Ike and Tina Turner, and, wait for it… the CD version of The Last Waltz…

So, yeah, now that you ask, one of the best bars I have ever been in.

Accommodation

The Colonnade Hotel, on Harrington Ave in Back Bay. Large room, with king sized bed.  Well located, right on the Green Line (E) and near Mass Ave.  The staff was extremely pleasant and helpful.  Paid roughly $845 for three nights through hotels.com, although I could have cut about $100 off that had I booked a bit earlier.  A good choice.

Food

Dinner on Saturday night at Troquet, a lovely, upscale restaurant on Boylston Street, overlooking the Common.  For connoisseurs, they feature a very extensive wine list.  For those of us who generally dine alone, they have almost 60 wines by the glass.  Every dish on the menu comes with a number of proposed pairings from that list, and the waiter serving me was quite helpful with his suggestions.  The menu is quite diverse, ranging from seafood to suckling pig.  For my entrée, I had the assiette of Vermont lamb, essentially, lamb cooked three different ways and served with fava beans, faro and black mission fig caponata.  It was amazing; I could have had seconds...  The high point of the meal for me was the cheese cart, which had been tantalizingly parked across from my table all night, and included a selection of over 10 types of cheeses.  I settled on a Tomme de Savoie, a fairly standard soft goat’s cheese, I think from Italy, and a lovely ewe’s milk cheese, again from Italy, which was quite strong, but not overwhelmingly so.  (Unfortunately, I forgot to enquire as to the specific name…)  I was a bit surprised at the lack of local cheeses; I do not know what the state of the dairy industry is in New England, but would have thought that there would have been at least a few local selections, rather than it being completely European.  Overall bill for three courses, wine and tip: $145 US, which for that type of restaurant is good value for the cost.

Friday lunch at Neptune Oyster Bar, on Salem Street in the North End.  I was a bit surprised at how small the place was; I think there may be in total roughly 60 seats, including the bar.  Be prepared to wait, but the hostess was taking down cell phone numbers in order for customers to walk around the North End as they waited for the table, a nice, modern touch which has the added advantage of not clogging up their front door with waiting patrons.  The Neptune features an extensive selection of fresh oysters, and a predominantly seafood-based menu.  After looking around at what other patrons were having, I ordered the very popular lobster roll, served warm with melted garlic butter.  I am not a huge lobster fan, but this was extremely tasty, and a quite generous portion to boot.  With a beer (the local Harpoon IPA, on tap), bill came to $40.  I will definitely go back.

I checked out a couple of places for brunch. The Woodward, in the Ames Hotel, downtown near the Old State House, serves a great hash; I had the chorizo and roasted pepper, but they serve 5 other flavours. The Beehive is on Tremont Street in the South End.  I had their signature dish, the Eggs Shakshuka, ‘a real Bohemian breakfast’ i.e., two sunnyside eggs with spicy tomato sauce and polenta.  For week-end brunch, there is a three-piece jazz band, which sounds pretty much like any other three-piece jazz bands.  Both brunches were quite good and a good start to both days of walking around.  (Both these restaurants had been featured in a recent article in the NY Times, ’36 Hours in Boston’.  Incidentally, I have found the ’36 Hours in…’ series invaluable in planning short stays in major US cities.)

Theo Epstein

I am a bit ambivalent about Theo Epstein leaving the Red Sox.

First off, Theo is the architect of the 2011 Red Sox.  The lingering after-taste of watching this team sleep-walk through its September swoon may be somewhat colouring my assessment.  With most players either seemingly not caring or appearing to be physically spent as the schedule entered September, this team ended up being so much less than the sum of its parts.  It’s unfortunate that this becomes his coup de grâce, but Theo has got to wear some of that.

It is also surprising at how little success he had in recent years on the free agent market.  Since 2004, Theo’s signings include the likes of John Lackey, Carl Crawford, Edgar Renteria, Matt Clement, Julio Lugo, Mike Cameron and, oh, did I mention Carl Crawford…  According to Baseball-reference.com, for the cumulative 11 seasons these 6 players spent with the Sox their overall salary dollars were $124.7 million and their cumulative WAR 3.1.  That’s a cool $40 million per win…

So who are Theo’s free agent successes since 2004?  While he never met expectations that came with his $100 million price tag, the Dice-K signing was not an unmitigated disaster either.  He had a couple of decent years in 2007 and 2008, but in the past three years, Dice-K has thrown a total of 250 innings (250.1 to be exact; gotta love those round numbers), and has had below average ERAs.  (His best ERA+ was 93 in 2010).

I also hemmed and hawed about including JD Drew in the above lists of bust, but Drew pretty much delivered what should have been expected five years ago: an overall WAR of 13.0, no smiles, countless 8-pitch ABs which started off 0-2 and ended up with a pop-up to right on a 3-2 count and a grand slam in Game 6 of the 2007 ALDS which went a long way to burying the Indians.  He was also far less brittle than expected; his missing half the 2011 season can be attributed to JD being in his age 35 season, rather than some innate Drew brittleness.  So there's a strong argument that, since 2004, running the franchise with the second or third largest player salary budget in MLB, Theo’s best free agent signing was JD Drew.  JD Drew and Marco Scutaro.  And that's a bit sad.

On the plus side of the ledger, well, obviously 2004 and 2007.  Beyond that, since 2003, Theo assembled teams which were legitimately expected to contend for the World Series every year.  By all indications, he put talent evaluation and scouting on solid footing, which lead to consistently solid amateur drafts yielding key franchise building blocks (Lester, Pedroia, Elsbury, Papelbon) and prospects that were used to trade for stars such as Adrian Gonzalez and Curt Schilling and other mid-season acquisitions as needed.

Some of Theo’s early moves in assembling the ‘Idiots’ were inspired.  In a five-week stretch in early 2003, he acquired four key contributors to the 2003 and 2004 teams (and beyond): signing Bill Mueller and Big Papi as free agents, claiming Bronson Arroyo off waivers and purchasing the contract of Kevin Millar from the Marlins.  Getting these four for next to nothing has got to be as brilliant a stretch of generally managing as there is.  After the bullpen-by-committee experiment did not work out in 2003, Theo changed directions signed Keith Foulke as a free agent in 2004.  And then, on the trade deadline in 2004, he pulled the trigger on the Nomah trade, one of the gutsier (and more correct) moves I’ve seen from a GM.

All in all, despite the free agent failings and the 2011 disaster (which just keeps getting compounded), Theo will be missed.  He restored order to the franchise and along with Terry Francona, he was the face of management.  Now they are both gone.  And given what happened this week, with the callous, anonymous attacks on Francona, there has to some concern that this franchise may be heading towards settling for comfortable mediocrity over the next few years.

What I’m Reading… ‘Star Island’ by Carl Hiaasen

To begin, some clarifications:

1. The title for this post is wrong.  I will not actually be reading the book on which I am posting; I will have just finished it.  ‘What I’m reading’ sounds catchier than the more accurate ‘What I’ve just read’ and far less pretentious than ‘Book Review’. So, for now, I am sticking with it.
2. I generally do not buy hardcovers.  If you are expecting random thoughts about just published books, you are at the wrong blog.  What you will get are random thoughts and observations on whatever book I have just finished and about which I have decided to blog.

So on to ‘Star Island’.

Originally published in 2010, and recently issued in paperback, ‘Star Island’ is Hiaasen’s 12^th and most recent novel about Florida.  How can one tell this is a Hiaasen novel:

• it quite funnily rails against the rape of Florida by unscrupulous real estate developers and politicians, ‘greedy suckworms disguised as upright citizens’;
• one of the main characters is a young, strong, intelligent woman, probably to counter-balance the ditzes, bimboes and other random products of plastic surgery peppered throughout the novel;
• it features an ex-con with a physical quirk.  OK, in this case, a myriad of physical quirks;
• Skink; and
• Carl Hiaasen’s name is in big red letters on the front cover.

So ‘Star Island’ is fairly standard Hiaasen fare.  If you’re a fan, then you’ll be pleased.  If you’re new to Hiaasen, it will give you a taste of what his writing is all about.  Essentially, using a mixture of quirky sense of humour and an almost casual approach to near-cartoonish violence, the novel follows the usual formula.  Characters act with a near-pathological self-interest in seeking out and benefitting from, any and all deals, scams, projects or schemes, whether legal or not, with no regards to the immediate or long-term consequences.  It definitively is a formula, one which has started to feel a bit stale in recent Hiaasen’s recent novels.

That being said, there are two definite plusses to ‘Star Island’:

• The main story revolves around the music industry.  By my recollection, not since creating the seminal punk band Jimmy and the Slut Puppies in ‘Sick Puppy’ has Hiaasen written about the industry and excoriated its managers, publicists, star-makers and star-fuckers.
• Some of the characters seem to have more depth than in previous novels.  Chemo, the afore-mentioned ex-con, and even, on some level, Bang Abbott, the paparazzo at the middle of the main story, while acting with an oft-times unhealthy measure of self-interest, have some moral or behavioural lines which they will not cross.  Hopefully, this is a sign that there is some room to freshen up the Hiaasen formula.

All in all, while I started off a bit apprehensive about whether ‘Star Island’ may feel like it was Hiaasen going through the motions, ‘Star Island’ turned out to be worth a read.