Friday, March 30, 2007

Thoughts from the Overflow Bin

Got to get these out before the brotherman forgets!

Actual quote from my cousin who visited us when we first moved to Surrey last year:

She visited us on a sunny Saturday morning. "Yeah, I just saw K-Fed walk across the street at 10:00 AM with his 24 pack of Budweiser . . . welcome to Surrey."

Now for the listening audience. I will admit it . . . I love beer. Not your Coors Light or Trick-a-fob or not even your Stud-visor varieties. I love the local brew-meisters who get it down on the money - the micros . . . "know wha' I'm sayin'?" Anyhow, I've tallied up a list of my favorites so far . . . yes I am deeply infatuated with the pale ale persuasion (and yes they are mostly Canuckian and listed in order of preference) :

Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale (the grandpappy of pale ale's and also unbelievably Canuckian)
Granville Island's English Bay Pale Ale
Henry Weinhard's Blue Boar Pale Irish Ale (Oregonian, props to the motherland!)
Okanagan Spring's Brewery Extra Special Pale Ale (now owned by Sleeman's which is in turn owned by some foreign company); their 1516 Bavarian Lager gets props too
Moosehead Pale Ale (but I must say I "heart" their all malt lager)
Sleeman's Amber, Cream, Honey Brown, Silver Creek (a class of their own, I love 'em all - I am a Sleeman's Man)
Big Rock Brewery's Grasshopper (wheat ale with a wedge of lemon), Warthog (gots to give props to Cow-town)
Whistler Brewing Co. Classic Pale Ale (will admit that this is the lowest rating on my list thus far)

Currently fridgecasting on the I-Pack:

Cooper's Brewery Sparkling Ale (a Southern Australian crew)
Kamloops Brewery Original Pale Ale (same guys who brew the Whistler brand)

And during the summer months I prefer Strongbow with the occasional Corona (stay close to my Cali surf roots). Completely off topic would be my red wine of choice: Henry of Pelham's Boco Noir (2004 wasn't all that bad) - killer on the ribeye boyee! Boy am I ever glad I got that off my shoulders . . . phew!

Tuesday, March 13, 2007

Recent Surge in Canadian Population

Rapid growth - "We’ve been growing faster than we were, and faster than all the other major rich industrial nations, according to Canada’s latest head count."

Click here for the article.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Skit Guys Racist? Naw!

Recently, the blogosphere has gotten buzzed by a recent book put out by the Skit Guys - 2 standup, youth ministry types who are seemingly gifted "skit guys" (nope, I have not yet nor will I anytime soon read the book). Anyhow, there was apparently a Chinese character who was portrayed in a stereotypical manner complete with "ethnically-enhancing" phonetic lines. Aside from the fact, that the main guy representing the response to Youth Specialities is Korean - is there an official Chinese response? - this has caused me to wonder, "what is racism?"

According to Dictionary.com, the word "racism" means:

1. a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

2. a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

3. hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

So let me get this straight, as long as you don't talk trash about the other "peoples" it's all good? Meaning, as long as I keep the trash talk aimed at my own "peoples"? Apparently there are 55 ethnic minorities who are also called "Chinese" - I guess I'm in the tank for my Fukinese jokes since I'm Cantonese, wait that's okay we're all Han. Being a healthy, local-born Chinese (the North American, West Coast variety), I tend to fall in the "belief" category that comedian Russell Peters describes as "we got white people so scared that they are the racists when in fact every other immigrant group that comes to the US is more racist than you will ever imagine." Peters does a great impression of a Honger shop keeper in his standup routine, "be a man!" (I suppose being Cantonese it's okay to refer to my own peoples as "Hongers" - just don't let white guys use that term, we'll lynch 'em; just kidding, no really) If you've seen it, you know what I mean. Anyhow, all the visible minorities in Canada don't think he's a racist for protraying another visible minority group with somewhat uncanny accuracy. Then there is one of my favorite screwball-type comedians, Bobby Lee, who does his regular Asian-typecast character on MadTV - I think he's hilarious. For the record, as someone who is of Chinese descent, I am in no way offended by his impersonation of the "Blind Kung Fu Master". Don't get me wrong, racism is wrong. But when Asians complain about racisim . . . come on . . . if the white folks really knew what we thought.

BTW, I don't know if this sort of thing would fall under the category of "post-colonialism" or something another. Then again, I don't think I really care. Skit Guys, thank you for your apology, no need to go overboard and sign up for sensitivity training or whatever other extreme thing you might think of doing. Food for thought: "the single most discriminated people group in the Los Angeles Area is the single, white male." True OR False?