BC election predictions, and why I decided that it's not skeezy being Green

In 2001 we elected dicks after a Clark, today we're electing Dix after a Clark.

The NDP are going to win, and they're going to win by a lot. The Greens will not win a seat, neither will the Conservatives, and neither will Christi Clark.

Which means that if you live in a riding previously held by a New Democrat, your riding's outcome is predetermined. I live in the riding of Esquimalt-Royal Roads, which the NDP won last time by nearly 53%. In a 3-way race.

I don't see the point in voting for any of the big parties if the outcome is assured, so I voted Green. I don't expect Susan Low to come close to winning this seat; In 2009 Jane Sterk only won 16.8%, and she had the benefit of being party leader running against a progressive party widely expected to lose. And now that progressives have a real shot at power, some of them will ditch the Greens to vote NDP. A lot of progressives treat the Green Party as a novel place to park their votes until they can get exited about the New Democrats again, which I think does them disservice.

Under Jane Sterk, the Green Party has become a credible force. She is a successful businesswoman, and she's managed to convince industry leaders and Nobel Prize winners to run under her banner. Her party has been consistently principled. While some environmentalists lauded Adrian Dix as a man of principle for his policy switch on the pipeline, Jane Sterk rightly pointed out that the Green Party had been against it all along. 

While I wouldn't want a Green Party government, I think a Green upset in a riding or two would be a very good thing for BC.

A week until the gloriously demented province of British Columbia votes

Squeeee! This will be my very first provincial election, and my very first chance to change... well, nothing really. Ignore all that crap about the election tightening: the New Democrats are still a shoe-in. That's unusually boring for a province whose politics are usually so reliably wacky. No other province's political history can hold a candle to us in the loony tunes department. 

I deliberately chose the word wacky, because in 1952 British Columbians made a guy known as "Wacky Bennet" Premier. He dominated politics for two decades before being defeated by, in his words, "the socialist hordes at the gates of British Columbia." When socialist horde-master general Dave Barrett was informed that he'd won the election, he took off his shoes, performed an electric guitar slide, informed a crowd of supporters that the NDP were "here for a good time", and instated free everything. Three years later, he was thrown out of office by Wacky's son. He continued on as leader of the NDP until 1983, after he had to be physically removed from the legislature for acting like a jackass.

I'm writing this because I just read that the 1994 Liberal Party leadership contest was between incumbent Gordon Wilson, Gordon Gibson and Gordon Campbell. Unfortunately there was a clear and successful winner, so we can't call it a Gordian knot. Damn.

Gordon Wilson was actually in the news recently. He left the Liberal Party after they forced him from the top spot for having an affair with a member of the shadow cabinet, but he eventually forgave them. Yesterday.

Okay I'll shut up.

Hits From the Superunknown—Songs by bands you need to be told are famous

The "Superunknown": a realm that floats just between stardom and obscurity. Bands that find their way there are usually superstars in some circles, but those circles don't overlap with many others. They really are famous, but you have that on someone else's authority.

This one is about staring at your feet. Toes up for rock’n’roll?

The word “Shoegazing” was invented by the British press to make fun of a scene of bands that tended to perform completely motionless, staring at their feet and blankly refusing to engage the audience. They did it partly to make sure no one thought they were making music to be famous, but mostly because it was the only way to keep track of all their damn pedals. Hallmarks of Shoegaze include making sure the guitars don’t sound much like guitars, playing them so that they all blur together, burying the vocals, and turning the whole thing up to 11.

Vapour Trail is the only single from Ride’s 1991 album Nowhere, the second best album in the shoegazing genre. It may seem a bit arrogant to throw in my opinion as fact, but actually, there seems to be some consensus on this. Most people agree that while 3rd place is up to personal taste, the top two are reserved. Unfortunately for Nowhere it was pretty decisively robbed of the top spot when, only a few weeks after its release, My Bloody Valentine dropped Loveless. That’s not particularly fair competition, because Loveless isn’t so much the best shoegaze album as it is the best guitar album of the decade.

THAT was an opinion I arrogantly passed off as fact.

Over time Loveless has grown more and more legendary, and Nowhere sank into the Superunknown. That’s a wrong that needs righting, because Nowhere is still great—especially its closing track, Vapour Trail. Vapour Trail has many of the stamps of Shoegaze, such as swirling guitars and a massive sheet of loudness, but it doesn’t stick to the script; the guitar effects are fairly minimal (just two 12-string guitars), and I can actually understand the lyrics. The lyrics, coupled with the way the sound dreamily winds and whirls, give the weird impression that it’s about a guy serenading a vapour trail. Which is good, because it's about guy serenading a vapour trail. Either that or he's serenading a person by calling them a vapour trail, which makes even less sense.

Vapour Trail is considered Ride’s magnum opus, and one of the greatest tracks in all of shoegaze. That's certainly true, but I think it's also just a classic of pop. And if I can convince someone of that, that means someone's actually reading my blog, which would be weird.

Guess what my name is?

Truth, man. Sometimes, there’s just so much real shit staring you in the eye that all you can do is make a sweet pitch and run. I'm sure he'll be all right, though. It's just a good idea to be a blond, skinny history student named Gabe. In my experience, anyway.