FruitBowl 2008: Heavy Metal Rampage

As promised, here is the story of my weekend frisbee tournament. I decided to go to the tournament even though Mt. A didn't send a team - there wasn't enough interest to send a full roster. I ended up subbing for the St. John team, temporarily named "Heavy Metal Rampage".

I hitched a ride with a team traveling from Halifax, and arrived at the field house 10 minutes before our first game. I arrived just in time; the team had only two female players and needed a third to be able to play. (A team fields 7 players: 4 men and three women). I played my first game with no subs - a good initiation into a tough tournament.

Following the game I went with a teammate to his friend's house, where I stayed for the weekend. As we were walking to the front door of the house, my teammate turned around and asked,

"Oh, are you allergic to cats?"
"Yes."
"That's not good."
"No."

It turns out they had three cats -- all of them furry, and one of them fat. With the help of Benedryl I made it through two nights without any problems - surprising given that I have been allergic to my Sackville apartment since arriving in January.

Once inside, the teammate's friend's girlfriend (less complicated than it sounds) greeted us holding a what looked like a paint can with the word "sex" printed accross the label. This all seemed normal to my teammate, so I didn't comment. Later in the evening she asked,

"Oh, do you know what I do?"
"No."
"I host fantasia parties."

It turns out that she is making a name for herself as the top fantasia party hoster and organizer in New Brunswick. She has recruited several other party hostesses, and just earned a trip to the Dominican Republic for her achievements within the hosting company. The penis magnet on the fridge suddenly made much more sense.

We didn't win the tournament, in fact, we didn't come close. But it was fun and I was glad I made the commitment to go.

We played the tournament in the Nashwaaksis field house - an indoor sports complex used by the local middle school and surrounding community. The middle school has decorated the far wall with a row of large paintings - each depicting a 'sport'. Some of the paintings are worth a second look, notably the ones I have included in this entry. At the end of the long row is a painting of the Starship Enterprise. I can just picture the small, nerdy kid who decided that he didn't have a favourite sport, he liked Star Trek, and so was going to paint Star Trek no matter what his art teacher said. And then the teacher had to put the painting up on the wall, and tried to hide it by sticking it at the end.

The sports of bungee jumping, exotic dancing and parachuting

Hace un rato estuve en México...

This weekend I played a frisbee tournament in Fredericton (details to come). In the car on the way back to Sackville, I started to get nostalgic for the time I spent in Mexico - the people, the language, the food, and the frisbee. Frisbee was a big part of my experience there, especially tournaments and long bus/car rides to get there.

When I got home, I had an e-mail from my host family. They heard that the weather in Canada was quite cold, and sent me "un besote y un abrazo de oso polar" - a big kiss and a polar-bear hug. I couldn't have been happier.

The centre of the universe

The Mount Allison/Sackville community radio station (CHMA) hosted a music festival last week called Stereophonic. Throughout the ordeal, Sackville lived up to its reputation as the centre of the universe.

Being from Toronto, recognizing the supremacy of Sackville is hard step for me. But the number of national and international connections to this small town have always impressed me - it is bigger than its 2 stoplights and 5,000 inhabitants.

Since I have been here (2003) a series of celebrity speakers has tromped through town - big names for a small place. Adrienne Clarkson. Craig Kielburger. Steve Wozniak. Stuart McLean. Cindy Sheehan. George Elliott Clark. Gwynne Dyer. Tariq Ali. Peter Mansbridge. David Suzuki. Lawrence Krauss. John Manley spoke the year before I came. Next month, Richard Florida will be speaking here. According to an e-mail from the Mt. A president, he is "one of the most sought after speakers and consultants in North America."

George Staney, designer of our current Canadian flag, is from Sackville. A play was written about him and is periodically performed at historic sites in town.

Apparently, if Canada were to be attacked in a major war, Sackville would be a top target because of the location of 13 Radio Canada International towers on the edge of town. These towers are vital to national communication.

Back to Sackville's music scene - the whole inspiration for this post. Along with excellent speakers, Sackville has attracted the best of independent Canadian music over my 5 years. The Constantines. Joel Plaskett. Sloan. Corb Lund. Cuff the Duke. The Sadies. Final Fantasy. Two Hours' Traffic. Hayden. The Hidden Cameras. Jon Rae and the River. Julie Doiron lives in Sackville, and homegrown Shotgun and Jaybird (now defunct) and Shotgun Jimmie have climbed the national charts. We have a stellar blues society that brings in notable acts each month.

As the 5th annual CHMA Stereophonic festival approached this year, I started to hear a buzz on CBC Radio 3. I download their music podcasts and listen to their online radio, and heard Sackville mentioned 5 consecutive times on different CBC Radio 3 shows in the lead-up to the festival. One show even talked about the CHMA's summer baseball team. Granted, Radio 3 was sponsoring one of the Stereophonic stages, but the level of coverage for the festival was impressive. One show (the R3-30) decided to come up with a sound effect for Sackville because it was getting so much press.

At the end of the day, Sackville is no Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. But for its size I have been continually impressed with its cultural vibrancy. To top it all off, Sackville was named one of the "cultural capitals of Canada" for 2008. This national award gifted the town with up to $500,000 to fund cultural events. Again, impressive.

Icicle! Icicle!

A row of intense icicles has developed outside of my kitchen window, and when the sky turned blue today I decided to dig out my camera.

Since I still have some spare time on my hands, I have learned how to make coffee, soyburgers and refried beans (a little bit of Mexico nostalgia). Today I also matched all of our containers to lids, and was surprised to find that many were without their mates. (Where are the missing lids?)

Also nostalgic was my return to ultimate frisbee. I was a bit disappointed to play indoors after four months of outdoor play in Mexico. The good news is that I am a much better player after so much practice. I will be at a tournament in Fredericton next weekend and playing in the new Moncton league starting mid-February. Frisbee frisbee frisbee.

My roommate has taken off to Ottawa for the Canadian Universities Press national conference - something I attended in 2005 and 2006. It is full of newspaper nerds (like me...) who like to debate fonts and layout over a pitcher of beer.

When I'm not finding lids for my tupperware, I am hopefully going to class or the library. My classes are great - on migration, the EU, resources communities (think Fort McMurray), and the environment and development. I also have a made-up course on Mexican migration that is an extension of my research project from last summer. (I will tell you about this later when I have more to say.) Three of my classes are fourth-year, which means a lot of reading a pre-class preparation - but also means that class is only scheduled once a week.

Weekend plans? Well, this week is CHMA's (community radio station's) annual fundraiser: Stereophonic. This year the music festival has been getting a lot of press - it was just mentioned on the CBC Radio 3 podcast I am listening to. There is a Guitar Hero III competition tonight at Ducky's as a part of the festival, and I just might give it a try.

Back in Bagtown: The introduction

After spending four months studying in Mexico, I am back in Sackville and ready for one more semester. The adjustment has been fairly easy, even though many of my friends graduated last May. I have a few close friends who are still in town to finish up a two-programme degree (e.g. Psych and Chemistry) and others who are back to do an honours thesis. I am back because in my third year dropped down to part-time status (two courses per semester) to focus on editing the student newspaper.

Sackville	Xalapa, Mexico
cold	warm warm warm
Sally-Ann fashion statements	high heels, collared shirts and lots of hair gel
alone time, friend time, and very little family time	a social, family-based culture; being alone is a bit strange
class start on time, essays are due on time	classes start up to 30 minutes late, essays are flexible
a lot of people would rather be in Mexico	a lot of people would rather be in Canada

With one semester to go, a lot of the academic and social pressures have lifted; I am quite comfortable in Sackville, and know how to hold my own. Slowly descending instead are the pressures of post-graduation plans.

This blog is a part of Mount Allison's student blogs programme, and I will update weekly with whatever is new and exciting.

On another note, I googled "back in bagtown" and found the blog of a US soldier who used the phrase to refer to his return to Baghdad.