David Akin’s On The Hill

David Weinberger (left — in fact, really, really left 🙂 )has just finished the first draft of his new book [Read: Why so long between issues] which means he might be out on a book tour some time early in 2007. (You remember David, don’t you? He and Doc Searls wrote The Cluetrain Manifesto) And if he’s travelling away from his home in Boston, that means he might be visiting a town near you. If he comes to where you live, go see what he has to say. You’ll learn a lot — he’s a smarty-pants who did his doctorate in philosophy at the University of Toronto — but you’ll also laugh a lot. Case in point: David’s list of reasons why vacations are worse than real life. Here’s a few:

• Can't sneak 19″ monitor into your luggage.
• Staying indoors is suddenly considered abnormal.
• Can't claim antisocial tendencies are actually “just a good work ethic.”

[Read the rest of the list]

Dan Sekulich (left)and I first met at high school, John F. Ross CVI in Guelph, and became good friends. He was a much better basketball player than me but despite that, I liked hanging around him because he can be a pretty funny guy — I’d call his sense of humour Pythonesque but with a slightly darker twist. We were also mods — teenagers in the late 1970s and early 1980s who were inspired by the lifestyle, attitude, and fashion sense epitomized by, say, The Jam’s All Mod Consand other punk-era power pop groups — The Buzzcocks, XTC, etc. — who saw ourselves as the rebel descendants of the British mod culture of the mid-1960s, brought to film in Quadrophenia and whose soundtrack came from The Who and the Small Faces. All of this in safe, wonderful but dull old Guelph, Ontario.

Since then, Dan has gone on to lead an incredibly adventurous life, usually with a camera crew in tow for some documentary or other he might be working on, but most recently he’s been armed only with (I presume) a tape recorder, note pad and laptop computer as he explored the zen of being (and being one with) an ocean-going ship. The product of that exploration, and journeys up and down North America’s east coast and to India, is a book— Dan’s first — called Ocean Titans: Journeys in Search of the Soul of a Ship. (right)

A Haligonian who now lives in Brantford, Ont. named Alfred Rushton writes up a review of Dan’s book in today’s Globe and Mail. Rushton never really says if he likes it or not but does a decent enough job of describing what’s in it. And because what’s in it sounds like pretty fascinating stuff, I’ll bet the review moves some copies of store shelves.

Dan had his publisher send me a copy a month or so ago and I’m embarrassed to say, it’s still on the shelf. But as I’m cashing in some vacation days this summer, my promise to Dan is that I will have the time to finish it by Labour Day.

UPDATE: Dan has some slightly different musical teenage memories at his blog.

As you may have heard, Prime Minister Harper decided to take a hands-on approach to the problem of getting Canadians out of Lebanon. He ditched the journalists and his aides that travelled with him to Europe and is en route as I write this to Cyprus. In Cyprus, he will fill up the military Airbus (right) with about 120 Canadian evacuees from Lebanon and fly them to Ottawa.

Harper wanted to free up as many seats on his plane as possible so not even one pool reporter was allowed on the plane. Why doesn’t Harper give up his seat? Security. Prime Ministers do not fly commercial flights for security reasons so the Harpers have to stick with their plane.

Harper is also taking along a “skeletal staff” including Communications Director Sandra Buckler, Press Secretary Carolyn Stewart-Olsen, Deputy Press Secretary Dimitri Soudas, Official PMO Photographer Jason Ransom, a Canadian Forces doctor and Harper’s normal RCMP bodyguards.

But there were only enough flight crew on board for the original purpose: To look after the in-flight needs of about 21 journalists and as many aides and staffers. With a full load on board for the flight from Cyprus to Ottawa, the plane will need more stewards. And so, we’re told, that Buckler, Stewart-Olsen, and Soudas will be handing out pillows, bringing drinks and food and making sure all seat belts are fastened.

And I’d bet my bottom dollar that you might just see Mr. and Mrs. Harper moving about the cabin, as well, making sure the needs of all the passengers are looked after.

 

PARIS – Standing beside French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin and with a sabre-armed French honour guard next to him, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper had this to say about those who have said Canada has acted too slowly to extract an estimated 40,000 Canadian citizens in Lebanon:

“There have been literally hundreds of federal employees working day and night for the past several days to put in place the  largest evacuation of Canadian citizens from another country in our history.”

 

Prime Minister Stephen Harper toured Vimy Ridge this afternoon, the site of
one of Canada's greatest military victories and the one, many say, that
forged our nationhood.
Harper stood in a WWI trench and, with a bevy of photographers in front of
him – all of whom are members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery – said:
“Back then …the enemy had guns not cameras.”
Incidentally, Harper took precisely four questions from English-language journalists and two questions from a French journalist during his three days at the G8. He held a press conference after the G8 communique on Middle East but only to make a statement. He refused to take questions. Not sure about the Italian or Japanese leaders, but the leaders from the UK, Germany, U.S, France and Russia spoke to the media and took questions each day. Putin, in fact, held hour-long ask-anything pressers each night.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel even gave the media travelling with her an hour-long “off-the-record” briefing during which she presented her 'frank' assessment of other leaders and the summit in general.

The PM's entourage landed in Lille, France about an hour ago. Our itinerary
here had us going to the Canadian memorial at Vimy Ridge.
We took a surprise detour, though, heading to the out-of-the-way Barlin
Community Cemetery in Barlin.
A group of about 100 local veterans, dignitaries and students were there to
greet us.
The cemetery contains the graves of 118 Canadians who died in World War I
battles in the area.
One of those who perished was 19-year-old Pte. James Edward Teskey of
Okotoks, Alta., the great-uncle of the wife of the Prime Minster, Laureen
Harper Teskey.
At the cemetery, Mr. Harper laid a wreath to honour all those in the
cemetery and then the he and Mrs Harper moved to her great-uncle's cemetery.
Both were clearly moved by the moment. They spent a few minutes kneeling in
front of Pte. Teskey's grave and Mrs. Harper took a rubbing of the
headstone.
Pics later as I'm pecking this out from the BlackBerry on the way to Vimy.

During a photo op at the G8 Summit here, U.S. President George Bush and UK Prime Minister Tony Blair are caught chatting away. Neither men, it seems, were aware that a microphone was also recording their conversation. And so, as a result, we caught this quote from Bush, which we’e running on CTV Newsnet and which you may see on my report from St. Petersburg on tonight’s national newscast:

BUSH: The irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop this shit, then it's over.

Lots of pics posted in the photoblog here today of our time so far here in St. Petersburg, Russia.  You should find some pictures of the Constantine (Konstantinovsky) Palace here, the building where many of the major meetings are being held; as well as pictures of other scenes from Russia’s G8 Summit. My favourite is the G8 juice they’re handing out around here.

 

We are on our final approach into St. Petersburg, Russia as I peck out this
post on my BlackBerry. We land at about 3 pm local time (7 am Ottawa time).
Harper, as usual is up front. I'm with the journalists in the back of Airbus
001.
On deck today: Harper has a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Together, they are the leaders of the G8 energy superpopwers but have quite different views about how to maximize that position for their
country's benefit.
Time to land the plane …

As blogger Stephen Taylor correctly reported today — scooping all of us in the MSM — former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher met this afternoon in London  with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The meeting took place in the hotel where I am typing this right now — the Renaissance Chancery Court Hotel in London’s West End. This is the hotel where the PM his delegation and the journalists travelling with him are staying.

Mrs. Thatcher was at the hotel for about an hour in mid-afternoon.

We started the day following Mr. Harper and his wife Laureen to 10 Downing Street. Harper arrived sharp at 8 am, followed about 30 minutes later by Laureen. The PM was met by Tony Blair; Mrs. Harper was met by Cherie Blair.

We were then escorted into 10 Downing — it’s a lot bigger inside than it seems from the outside — past black-and-white portraits of every UK prime minister since Walpole and into what’s known as the Pillared Room where, under a giant portrait of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, the prime ministers held a joint conference. Journalists were limited to four questions [read the English language transcript here], two each from the Canadian media and the British media. We asked about Israel and about climate change. The Brits asked about Israel and a growing scandal engulfing Blair and his party over party fundraising.

Harper then went to meet Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace. Their meeting was scheduled to last just 10 minutes but, apparently the Queen was enjoying the conversation enough, that they carried on their conversation for 35 minutes.

Harper is spending the rest of the day preparing to deliver a speech this evening in London to the Canada-UK Chamber of Commerce.

We are overnight here in London before jetting off early tomorrow to St. Petersburg, Russia.