Britain Sends Soldiers On A Trip

In the news today, the British government has apparently agreed to compensate three soldiers who were given Acid (the hallucinogenic drug) in the 1950's, as part of an experimental research program.

Senior citizen Don Webb, one of the volunteers who received an extra week's pay for the tests, said he and a colleague began to hallucinate after being given a clear liquid to drink. He told the CBC that during the experience, "His face melted and opened so that I could swear that I could see his skull beneath the skin. The walls and floor of the room seemed to be covered by a clear liquid that was moving about and writhing. I was surrounded by a cell of moving writhing things inside an ordinary room."

Rumours are that news of the payments is prompting thousands of British youths to sign up for the Armed Services, in hopes of being paid for more of the same.

The Love Parade

What is probably the techno world's most known and loved event, Berlin's annual Love Parade, is back! It was started in 1989 and its popularity grew to estimated audiences of over 1.5 million people in the late 1990's. Last year, the event had to be cancelled due to a lack of corporate sponsorship, but McFit (Germany's largest fitness studio chain) has recently signed on to ensure that it will take place as hoped this coming summer.

The date for this year's Love Parade is one week after the World Cup ends, on the weekend of July 15th, 2006. I wish I could be there to participate!

Valentine's Day Massacre

Today is the 77th anniversary of gangland's most famous bloodbath, when Al Capone's men killed seven of Bugsy Moran's men in a shootout in a warehouse in Chicago.

It's also one of the busiest days of the year at my restaurant. I'll be putting on the chef's coat in a few hours and getting ready to cook up a storm.

Speaking of love and guns, the biggest news this past weekend was that the US Vice-President, Dick Cheney, accidentally shot one of his friends, mistaking him for a quail (George W. Bush's VP was a Qayle too, come to think of it).

Anyway, I think that in honor of the incident, I am going to try to remix an Aerosmith song. I can call it, "Cheney's Got A Gun."

Conduct Becoming 2006

Well, the recording sessions for the Conduct Becoming 2006 album got started here at my studio this evening. Conduct Becoming is a series of CD's produced at our university, designed as a cancer fundraiser (and by that, I mean a fundraiser for cancer research, not trying to help out the disease itself).

The whole project was started by Marc Carnes & Drew Dudley & myself about six years ago, after the sudden death of one of my staff members at the club due to stomach cancer. His name was Jason Abraham, a fourth year commerce student and member of the varsity hockey team. In January of 2000, he was saying that his stomach was bothering him a lot, so he went to the doctor to get it checked out. In early February, he was diagnosed. Six weeks later, on March 27th of that year, he passed away.

The following year, Marc & Drew had apparently been talking about a music project that they wanted to do at the university. Independently of them, I suddenly decided one night that there were a lot of really talented student musicians at the university, and that I wanted to put together a CD of music that was solely written and performed by Mount Allison University students. I called Drew up to talk about my idea, and he mentioned the ideas that he and Marc had, and we quickly amalgamated everything into a project to be done in memorium for Jason.

The project has grown from there, and the sixth annual album will be released this year, with Mike Allison as the executive producer. Ian Allen, who works with me at the bar and who worked with Jason several years ago, is another key figure who has kept the project alive for the past year or two during a difficult transition phase. The project has been featured on CBC and all kinds of national media, and copies of the CD's are available on Amazon.

Check out the website: www.conductbecoming.ca

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

So I just saw on CNN that there was a grilled cheese sandwich eating competition. The winner triumphed by eating twenty-six grilled cheese sandwiches in ten minutes. And SHE weighed only 100 pounds!!

Damn. And I thought I was a cheese-eating machine, snacking on 12-16 sandwiches for a day of tree planting - I have been humbled! But I do love cheese.

"You are what you eat."