moderation in excess

so, banff can best be summed up i think by employing the title of my favourite Deep Dark United song: Downhill is Downtown. If i have learned anything in my small little life it is that I always trust myself too late; scuttling about the foot of alberta's mountains, this came through to me yet again, clear as the air. sometime as i get older i hope that i will be able to figure out an appropriate blend between conviction and humility.

anyway, i realized too that while i love my neighbourhood and the three generation roots of my home here in hogtown, i prefer even more the feeling of being a stranger in a strange land. Though how strange banff, eh? Laugh if you want but sometimes exotica isn't a requirement for inspiration. Just changing apartments can be enough. I don't want to belabour the whole 'wow are mountains' thing, but when you've schlepped around on the canadian shield for a decade or two, vertical nature can really pop.

a sidenote: I realize of course for DDU purists, 'Downhill' is the poppiest and therefore least trustworthy of the oeuvre. Mr. Lukashevsky I hope will forgive me this populist plucking of his catalogue. Of course, many will not recall DDU; a shame indeed considering the emergence of subsequent local collectives who have parlayed the esoteric genius of Mr. Lukashevsky's quixotic ensemble into mellow, easy festivals and sales catalogue success.

Moving on. Much was made during the conference of 'social networking' and the collectivization of culture, thought and creation, especially via 'the tubes of cybernettick' as my new swiss friend would say. i am not entirely sure i know what she meant by that. I do know that i continue to instinctively doubt the popular. I have explored this contrarian element of mine to determine if perhaps it is more a by-product of envy than an intelligently configured thesis. no verdict. Occasionally you snap awake in the night with the answer to all these questions and more; The Hollingshead-ian 'supreme knowledge of everything'*. But it doesn't last.

As always, at the end of all digital discussions, the big question: what happens then when the power goes out? I hope for all our sakes (most especially bran's sake), we're sufficiently backed up.

*see, Ian Brown's What I Meant To Say