Andrew Bates

electric newspaperman

May 1, 2022
by Andrew Bates
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April writing highlights

Wouldn’t you know it, I’m writing again! After a few years as an editor, they’ve been getting me writing at Brunswick News, and after spending some time covering a vacancy at the Kings County Record in Sussex I have officially signed on to the Telegraph-Journal’s Times-Globe newsroom in Saint John.

It’s been fun writing again! And I thought it might be good to share some of that writing on the blog here so you can see what I’ve been working on. So here are some of my April writing highlights:

‘She can’t wait’: Ukrainians joining relatives in Sussex

After staying with relatives in Warsaw for two months, Mariia Poznakhovska can’t wait to be reunited with her aunt and cousins.

Poznakhovska, 18, her mother Lesia, 40, and sister Cristina, 13, left their homes in western Ukraine when Russia began its invasion of the country in February, leaving behind her father, who chose to join the military. Now they’ve applied for visas, and Poznakhovska said they’re eager to join her aunt in Sussex.

“My aunt who lives in Canada calls us every day. She can’t wait for our arrival, as well as our cousins,” Poznakhovska said by email. 

The Multicultural Association of Sussex has said it is preparing to welcome more displaced Ukrainians as part of the federal government’s Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel (CUAET), including Poznakhovska’s family and another family coming soon. The measure allows Ukrainians and families to come to Canada with streamlined visa and travel requirements and stay as temporary residents for three years, with availability for an open work permit.

Chelsie Nightingale, MAS executive director, said the group is looking to formalize how to handle placing newcomers with verified volunteers, but in the meantime, it’s facilitating cases like Poznakhovska’s where the family and hosts are known to each other. Nightingale said the group will be helping her family with medical items, finding work, and assessing their language needs.

Click here to read more… (Kings County Record, April 27, paywalled)

Rental cap not enough protection for tenants: advocates

Rent control advocates say a dispute involving the province’s proposed rent cap that left two Hampton tenants looking for a home shows lack of protection for renters.

Jennifer Taylor and Michelle Cheslock, two single mothers who had rented out separate suites in a duplex at 27-29 Acadia Crescent, say they were given eviction notices, notifying them their apartments were being turned into Airbnbs. They said the notices came one day after they refused to sign new leases that included rent increases of as much as 40 per cent.

Matthew Hayes, spokesperson for the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants’ Rights, said unless better protections are added with the 3.8 per cent rent cap the province announced this year, including making it permanent, tenants are at risk.

“We’re really seeing that the lack of rights is contributing to housing insecurity and the housing crisis for many, many people,” Hayes said. “If they impose a rent cap without improving tenants’ rights, we are going to be seeing a raft of the same type of evictions … because landlords can do whatever they want to evict tenants.”

Click here to read more… (Telegraph-Journal, April 11, paywalled)

Peter Powning exhibit finally opens after pandemic delay

It’s been a long wait, but an exhibit celebrating one of New Brunswick’s most celebrated artists is finally opening to the public.

Peter Powning: A Retrospective opens Saturday at the New Brunswick Museum location in Market Square in Saint John. Originally scheduled to open in Fredericton in the fall of 2020, the exhibition of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery is curated by John Leroux and features works from throughout the sculptor’s five-decades-long career.

“The New Brunswick Museum is always proud to feature such an important event in the life and career of … one of our internationally-renowned artists,” said Peter Larocque, the museum’s art curator.

The exhibit follows the book of the same name, released in 2020, which featured photos of Powning’s collected works as well as items that were privately held and large public installation pieces. This exhibit represents the works that were available to display in person, such as the ones in the New Brunswick Museum collection, and is organized in chronological order, according to Powning, who has lived in Markhamville, N.B., just outside of Sussex, for over 50 years.

Click here to read more… (Saint John Times-Globe, April 8, paywalled)

‘That’s my cat’: Owner IDs feline lost a decade ago

Alica Henry always thought her cat Louie died more than 10 years ago, but then she saw him on Facebook.

Henry, a 32-year-old former Sussex resident now living in Moncton, said she came across a post from Strays of Sussex (SOS), a group that helps stray or abandoned cats. She says the post, about a cat named Bruce who had been roaming a local neighbourhood for more than three years and was taken in with an injury, seemed familiar.

“When I saw it, I was like, that’s so strange. That looks just like my cat,” Henry said. “I went back through all my pictures from years ago, and I was… 100 per cent was my cat,” she said. “These people are going to think I was crazy if I message them, but she didn’t think I was crazy.”

Terri Peck, a member of the SOS executive board and foster for Louie, said the cat hung around the neighbourhood for three to four years, with herself and another neighbour feeding him and offering him shelter at winter. She said they had a feeling he wasn’t a feral cat.

“Normally, a feral cat, if they see you, they run and hide,” she said. “He would come to the door looking for food, and if you open the door to go out, he would go so many feet away and watch you while you put the food out.”

Click here to read more… (Telegraph-Journal, April 6, paywalled)

N.B. director takes helm Monday for network TV show

A New Brunswick-born director hopes her upcoming episode of The Good Doctor can be a major turning point in her career.

Cayman Grant, from St. Martins, has directed an episode of the ABC medical drama that is scheduled to air Monday at 11 p.m. The award-winning director with 14 years experience says having a TV episode opens doors and can push her career to bigger heights.

“I’ve been directing for a long time and I’ve been around television stuff for a long time, and it’s definitely culminated to this being my time and I’m very excited about it,” Grant said from Los Angeles in an interview with Brunswick News.

Grant said she has had success in her career, including a Sports Emmy for a 2015 ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, but early on it was hard for female directors to find agents and get opportunities, so she turned to writing. Now after getting on the roster of the Creative Artists Agency in 2015 and landing a few previous mentorship programs, she said she’s in a Disney mentorship program which offered her to direct an episode at the end.

“One of the issues you have breaking over into the TV world is that you need an episode. Once you have that episode, things open up for you, but you have to manage a crew of eighty people on set,” she said. “It’s a big undertaking that I’m very grateful for. When this opportunity came up, I jumped on it and didn’t look back.”

Click here to read more… (Saint John Times-Globe, April 2, paywalled)

December 31, 2021
by Andrew Bates
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The spirit of the times: Year-end lists for 2021

Every year by the end of the year I think of making a list of things that moved me and sometimes fail to finally put it together, but This Year Will Be Different, pals. (Plus, this beautiful website of mine needs at least one update while the year still ends in one.) So please enjoy some stuff that I liked in arts and sports this year.

Game(s) of the year

There were two long-awaited games this year that both ended up being free drops: Deltarune Ch. 2, the latest instalment in Toby Fox’s spiritual and literal successor to Undertale and the best game to BE A BIG SHOT and Get In The Car, Loser!, a road trip JRPG with a banger battle theme, “The Spirit of the Times,” that ponders the big questions, like how to respond to creeping injustice and whether or not an angel can cuss. But the game I poured the most time and emotional investment into this year was Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition, a very pretty, very challenging but very rewarding Metroidvania that draws you deeper and deeper into its bug-filled world. I was banging my head against the wall getting the Hunter’s Mark but I DID IT, back in April.

Art piece of the year

This is a year when I really got into Kickstarting projects and the concept of keepsake games and connected-path games, led by Shing Yin Khor and Jeeyon Shim’s Field Guide to Memory. Is it a scrapbook? Is it a roleplaying game? Is it an online community? It’s kind of all three! Every day for four weeks in February, I got an emailed prompt for a diary entry in the story of my erstwhile character Angus Dates, whose cryptid-researcher mentor went missing. It’s a story you’re meant to populate with your own memories, a great reminder of our impacts on nature and the impacts of others on us.

Album/song of the year

Spotify Wrapped can’t control me. This year I dug deep on Bandcamp Friday, trying to scoop records for actual literal money that goes to artists, as well as continuting to pick up vinyl. (Like Humour by Russell Louder, a great synthpop glam-cave dream!) But there wasn’t a song that dominated my year as much as “Paradise (Stay Forever),” a part of Epoch’s soundtrack for the 2020 game Paradise Killer, which splashed city pop and vaporwave across my musical choices and also my YouTube recommendations. The song I hit play on right before taking a shot at the end of the day.

Wrestling matches of the year

Even with some promotions on intermittent schedules, there was still a lot of amazing wrestling to consider this year. Let’s bust out some of my favourites:
5. Shingo Takagi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (G1 Climax Night 1, 9/18)
It’s been an up-and-down year for New Japan. Some of it has turned me off, such as the rise of Will Ospreay in the promotion, but one thing they did right was make Shingo Takagi champion, and turn him loose for banger after banger, including a great match with Hiroshi Tanahashi in the Tokyo Dome. But this is my favourite, a blistering hoss fight with Tomohiro Ishii.
4. Utami Hayashishita vs Syuri (Stardom Tokyo Dream Cinderella, 6/12)
This was an extremely good match which featured great action throughout, a thrilling clash that somehow left the audience wanting more while giving it more at the same time. A match so good that the rest of the year revolved around it.
3. Kenny Omega vs. Bryan Danielson (AEW Dynamite Grand Slam, 9/22)
This match had it all: a complete dream-match setup, with the surreal notion of the pairing happening at all, the unique stadium atmosphere in Arthur Ashe Stadium, and a really compelling story told over 30 minutes — and all on television. The wrestling event of the year.
2. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Grappling exhibition, NJPW G1 Climax Finals, 10/21)
Shibata’s last G1 surprise was simply to announce that he was alive. But this, years after a subdural hematoma against Kazuchika Okada ended his career in 2017, and after his becoming a regular presence as LA Dojo Dad, was the return of Shibata The Wrestler, and it was so lovely, to at least once, have him back again. This, and the sequel grappling-style match planned for Wrestle Kingdom, is so welcome to me because it focuses away from the tragedy of Shibata’s best work coming in the match that almost killed him. We have new Shibata work to consider, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.
1. ASUKA vs. Kagetsu (Hana Kimura Memorial Show, 5/23)
The memories here were still raw a year after the death of Hana Kimura, but the way this unannounced singles match coalesced out of the main event of Hana Kimura’s memorial show, the fact of Kagetsu’s one-night-return from retirement, what Hana meant to ASUKA (as well as Kagetsu) made this match the most meaningful of the year to me. Tears.

Wrestler of the year

In a year with so many momentous comings and goings, the story of a cowboy trying to be the best man he could be was still as compelling as anything else in wrestling. Hangman Adam Page encompassed the values of sincerity, vulnerability, friendship and tenacity, in a roller-coaster story that seemed to bring him close on a few occasions until he finally won the big one at AEW Full Gear. He got back on the horse, and is my wrestler of the year.

Good show of the year

I ventured into the theatre a few times this year, catching the extremely fun, dreamily-staged musical In The Heights and the transfixing Dune, and I’ve also had some great appointment-viewing TV shows such as WandaVision or, again, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. But the best thing I feel like I’ve seen on screen so far is Only Murders In The Building, a comedy murder mystery with Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short. Extremely funny, and it’s to true crime what wrestling is to MMA: it has all the best parts, but fewer people get hurt.

Bad show of the year

There were a lot of opportunities to gawk at glorious messes this year. Cruella offered a delightful-yet-unhinged prequel to 101 Dalmatians that nobody needed, Space Jam 2 arrived but was almost completely without any redeeming points (I just yelled I LOVE BRAAAANDS so much.) I played eighty hours of Cyberpunk 2077 even though it was so flawed it crashed in the ending credits TWICE. But the biggest, worst call, most botched show of the year was the live-action Cowboy Bebop from Netflix. There’s something in there, a funky near-future cyberpunk dystopia which is reminiscent of The Fifth Element, and it’s good to watch John Cho fight. But so many elements of the original anime’s story were misunderstood and poorly employed, with formulaic, eye-rolling changes and a groaner finale twist that seemed to set up a sequel that was cut off when the series was almost instantly cancelled.

Soccer moment of the year

There can only be one team, one match, one win here, and it’s Canada’s gold medal win in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in August. From 2012’s bronze to now, Canada’s team had established itself as an important side, but from the moment it lost to the U.S. in the semifinal in London, the path to a true victory seemed hazy. But the stories of Christine Sinclair, the team’s other veterans, past and present, and its new generation coalesced in the journey past Brazil, the U.S. and Sweden in the final.

February 5, 2020
by Andrew Bates
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Two sides of the same show, and more January wrestling

Photo: WWE

It’s obvious that art is subjective, and wrestling is a performance art, so everyone’s take on a show is going to be different. But the men’s Royal Rumble match January 26 doubled down on one thing: Brock Lesnar, and your desire to see him smash or be smashed, comparatively, and that’s no longer a safe bet.

The match was built around Lesnar, the former UFC superstar in his fifth reign as WWE champion, starting from the No. 1 position. His size and real-world expertise have legitimacy with a mainstream audience, and so he’s a safe bet for the WWE every time they want a name draw for a big event. But there have been 1,997 days since he won the belt in 2014, his first since returning to the company, and he’s held one of the promotion’s two top men’s championships for 1,036 of them (52%). He’s different from everyone around him, but he’s also just the same every time he’s used: thumping German suplexes, knee strikes, and the F5. Kofi Kingston was anointed as the first African-born WWE champion at Wrestlemania 35 last year, but when the show debuted on the Fox network, Brock walked in, hit Kofi with a single F5, and pinned him to retain again. More of the same.

Brock is both the immovable object and the irresistible force, and so it’s hard to find him opponents. So this match is, on paper, meant to make him look like the baddest man possible and then immediately imbue that energy onto another man; someone who can seem even badder by the fact he took Brock out. But because everyone who isn’t the new challenger gets sacrificed, you have to pick him well. And that’s the rub: everyone has their favourites. The man with the most popular support is Kofi, my favourite is Shinsuke Nakamura, the friend you brought to the Royal Rumble party may remember John Morrison. But they all got tossed, fast, and every time it just sucks away your passion for it. Eventually it was a collaboration between Ricochet and Drew McIntyre, combination nut shot and finishing move, that sent Brock packing, and Drew rode that wave to win the match (he unceremoniously eliminated Ricochet, who is the most recent person to be pressganged into the role of Tiny Man Wants To Fight Brock But Can’t, LOL.) But he has had so little momentum heading into the match, so even though you could say it’s a breath of fresh air or something different, it fell flat for me in the moment because I just don’t care about the guy.

So was it good? A booking-ology perspective, that tries to see how best to get wrestlers over and build interest for future shows, would say it was flawlessly drawn up and executed, and it got the desired reaction in terms of the massive pop when Brock went over, so it must have made Drew. If you are tuning in to see big bruisers wreck house, you probably loved it. But if you have an attachment to wrestlers that were in the first half of the list, there’s nothing for you there. And it left me cold. I have been in and out of the product since before SummerSlam, and I hoped for something satisfying, or at least something which didn’t make me feel actively bad for watching (like the Santina segment in the otherwise excellent women’s Rumble, which spoiled my mood for the whole final sequence) and I was left mostly cold.

There was one good thing

It had been widely discussed leading into the Rumble, but Edge’s return during the match was still shocking and emotional! My first thought on seeing the 46-year-old Canadian make his return almost nine years after retiring with cervical spinal stenosis was, is this okay? After Daniel Bryan returned, and Katsuyori Shibata got physical at the G1 Climax Finals last year, Edge always seemed like the outlier, the one who could never come back, on pain of death. So seeing him make his smoke-filled entrance filled me with joy and concern, but he looked good, even if you couldn’t see his first spear back due to a camera cut. Oops. It wasn’t till I looked back on YouTube that I could really see his joy and excitement to be back in the ring and pump myself back up to see someone that was involved in my favourite matches growing up return.

Destino fulfilled

Photo: NJPW

One of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s most ambitious Wrestle Kingdom weekends saw Tetsuya Naito’s long-running chase of that moment in the sun culminate in his Double Gold Dash to becoming double IWGP heavyweight and intercontinental champion. The two-day event was anchored by a tournament of sorts, where on night one Kazuchika Okada defended his IWGP heavyweight championship against G1 Climax winner Kota Ibushi in an excellent match while Jay White lost the Intercontinental belt to Naito, the leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon. Naito’s chase of a big-ticket Tokyo Dome win has seen shock surprises before, namely his 2018 Wrestle Kingdom 12 loss when he was red-hot and the fact that he lost the IC title just months ago at Destruction, so there were arguments for extending Okada’s long run or giving Ibushi his moment, but there seemed little doubt that this is when they would finally pull the trigger with Tetsuya Naito. The win pulled together a tapestry of stories that includes getting bounced from the Wrestle Kingdom 8 main event by fan vote, founding LIJ, trashing the IC belt, hitting the Stardust Press and, silently, wrestling most of 2019 with a serious eye issue that required surgery. Of course, he had only minutes to lap up the win before getting bowled over by the Bullet Club’s KENTA, his New Beginning challenger, because Naito suffering is one of the key tenets of New Japan.

This show also featured the return of another problematic neck: Hiromu Takahashi, who nightmarishly broke his neck in July of 2018 in a IWGP junior heavyweight title match which he FINISHED, made his return to defeat Will Ospreay and I’m just so happy to see that bundle of fluff. Though he kept the flame alive, it looked like it might not ever happen, and he’s just so creative and wonderful to watch that I’m full of relief that we get this version of Hiromu back. He then pinned Jushin Thunder Liger in his retirement match, which fits with tradition, but Liger’s losses in his final matches were mismatched with our desire to see this heroic wrestler stand tall one more time before bowing out. He’s a wonderful person who has left us a legendary career.

Mox is the coolest

One of the biggest stars right now might be Jon Moxley, in line for a shot at Chris Jericho’s AEW world title at the promotion’s February PPV. He’s got just the right mix of humour and violence, and performing at the top level with two great IWGP U.S. title matches at Wrestle Kingdom 14 while also being a weekly presence on Dynamite is fun to watch. He refused to join Jericho’s Inner Circle stable and got a spike in the eye for his trouble, which both helped reinforce his character as someone who does only what he thinks is right, regardless of the outcome, and gave him a kayfabe eyepatch, which he wore even while singing Sweet Caroline on karaoke during the Jericho Cruise. Next up is a match with Minoru Suzuki, my god.

Chris Brookes heads back to Japan

One of the most curious introductions of 2019 was DDT, the comedic Japanese promotion, unveiling British indie star Chris Brookes in an ad meant to spoof Jon Moxley’s NJPW vignette. Brookes went on to totally endear himself to the audience and wrestle in swimming pools, zoos and more; after losing to Masato Tanaka in the promotion’s Jan. 3 Koruaken Hall show, he announced he’ll be spending a year there. His going-away party from the U.K. scene included a PROGRESS title challenge and a pair of Schadenfreude & Friends shows, one of which featured him manipulating a Minoru Suzuki blow-up doll. He’s incredibly creative and fun to watch, so it’ll be exciting to see what he puts together, and who he puts through the ceiling of Gatoh Move’s Itabashi Chocolate Square next. The most frenetic thing I watched all month was an hour-long minigames deathmatch Gake No Fuchi Pro wrestling against homicidal princess Miyako Matsumoto, which included badminton and somehow, human darts.

Kagetsu please don’t go

Photo: Stardom

It’s great how much attention Stardom has been getting since being acquired by Bushiroad, with a dark match at Wrestle Kingdom 14. But the retirement of Hazuki and, sadly, Kagetsu have come after Oedo Tai has seemed a little sidelined compared to Tokyo Cyber Squad and Hana Kimura, as well as newer acquisitions by the company like Giulia. The goodbye gauntlet for Hazuki and Kagetsu’s tag match with Hana Kimura were so warm and showed what a great presence those two were, and I hope both of them are happy and, once Kagetsu heals up, they may want to come back to wrestling. Kagetsu will retire in a self-produced show Feb. 26 in Osaka, with a match against her trainer, Meiko Satomura.

Maritime Wrestling’s next step

I had a great time checking out North Pro Wrestling’s inaugural event at Casino New Brunswick in Moncton, Ante Up! The scene in the Maritimes can feel stagnant sometimes with the same wrestlers popping up constantly and only rare connections to the vibrant stars of the indie scene elsewhere in Canada and to the south. This show, which I suppose represents a continuation of the UCW brand, was a refreshing attempt to present the product in a major-league setting, at the same place where New Brunswickers might go to see the big-ticket rock and heavy metal tours that don’t hit the Avenir Centre or TD Station. They had teased Marty Scurll, in promoting a mystery ROH wrestler with the #woopwoop hashtag, and while it was Flip Gordon instead he had a great match with Matt Angel, being well-received by the crowd, winning a local belt and, shockingly, not losing it the next day in Halifax. Nick Aldis defended the NWA World Heavyweight title against Markus Burke, a real old-school encounter which felt just like the classic formula of the world champion coming to defend against your local hero. The main event was a bruising three-way between Channing Decker, fresh from a tour of Big Japan and bringing that deathmatch energy, Marko Estrada and Saint John’s Dick Durning, who won the belt months after returning from retirement.

ANDREW BATES likes wrestling and will write about it every month maybe? Tweet at me @teambates if you liked this. 

June 9, 2018
by Andrew Bates
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On Bourdain

My first summer working in a kitchen was like acquiring a secret identity. I shook everyone’s hand and said “Hi, I’m Andrew Bates,” nervous and trying not to embarrass my cool friend who already worked there. Almost certainly, within an hour each line cook said “Who’s that green-gilled teenager in the dish pit?” and checked the schedule, where the kitchen manager had scrawled my name as “ANDY” with a permanent marker, so Andy I became.

The cooks cussed and joked and teased each other, drank powdered Gatorade out of squeeze bottles and sang. With our outfit of black jackets with the restaurant’s skull and crossbones logo, checkered pants and bandannas, we felt like pirates. I turned 19 — literally came of age — in that kitchen, and the people I met both on the line and after hours, at the restaurant’s bar and every other bar on the waterfront, taught me how to drink and eat well. I was in awe.

When the ride came to a stop at the end of August and it was time for me to go to college and be Andrew again, it felt like I’d hung up my cape. I cracked open Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain — which I had first seen in the bathroom while drinking at a cook’s apartment — and his lucid, daring, coarse description of starting in Provincetown, going to culinary school and alternately making it in New York, cemented what had entranced me about that life, and confirmed that that summer wasn’t a dream. But it also set the bar for what the profession’s highest levels were like, how much determination was required, the pitfalls that could lead someone to self-destruct and what it took to come back after. The weird, nocturnal culinary underworld and its detachment from ordinary life was seductive, but I also saw the cautionary tale.

Bourdain wrote about the experience of being a chef as an all-encompassing experience, waking up and lying in bed, “in the pitch black for a while, smoking, the day’s prep list already coming together in my head.” I loved the kitchen, but it ended up that I had that kind of devotion for journalism instead, a world where my secret identity and my daylight one became one again. But the kitchen stays with me, long after I stopped working in it, and the lust for life that I saw there and which Bourdain showed the world in his books and shows is a key part of who I am.

I saw that he died of suicide this morning the first thing this morning, lying in the dark and opening my phone to flick through Twitter and the day’s news. That he took his own life was shocking given how well he lived it. When the wrestling and boxing commentator Mauro Ranallo’s new biographical documentary, Bipolar Rock N’ Roller, premiered in Toronto last month, he told the crowd that the film’s purpose was to spread awareness of the impacts of mental health issues, because we’re losing people. “There is so much stigma, still,” he said. “I ask, I implore, I beg you, not one more. Men, especially … we are all in a fight, but we are losing the battle” because of the invisible nature of mental illness.

Bourdain often wrote, as recently as an interview with Air Canada’s in-flight magazine this month, as a man incredulous that he had made it this far at all. “When they’re yanking a fender out of my chest cavity, I will decidedly not be regretting missed opportunities for a good time. My regrets will be more along the lines of people hurt, people let down, assets wasted and advantages squandered,” he wrote in 2000, before true fame. “I’m still here. And I’m surprised by that. Every day.”

I read that quote while looking for a lasting image from Kitchen Confidential that sticks with me to this day. It’s after Bourdain rebuilt his life, on a trip to Japan as the chef of Les Halles to help its Tokyo location establish itself. Between slurping soba, trying not to step on toes and barely sleeping, Bourdain tells the story of an incredible meal in a Roppongi restaurant tucked away and down a nondescript staircase.

“We went on, calling for more, our appetites beginning to attract notice from the other chefs and some of the customers who’d never it seemed, seen anyone — especially Westerners — with our kind of appetites. Each time the chef put another item down in front of us, I detected almost a dare, as if he didn’t expect us to like what he was giving us, as if any time now he’d find something too much for our barbarian tastes and crude, unsophisticated palates. No way. We went on. Calling for more, more. Philippe telling the chef, in halting Japanese, that we were ready for anything he had — we wanted his choice, give us your best shot, motherfucker … our hosts, the chef joined by an assistant now, seemed impressed with our zeal, the blissed-out looks on our faces, our endless capacity for more, more, more…

“After course twenty or so, the chef slit, brushed, dabbed and formed the final course: a piece of raw sea eel. Earthenware cups of green tea were delivered. Finally, we were done. We left to the usual bows and screams of ‘arigato gozaimashiTAAA!!!’ and picked our way carefully, very carefully, up the stairs, back to the physical world.”

I’ve felt that feeling of sublime satisfaction while staggering into the night, a gentle release from an experience that engaged my whole being, in the streets outside of kitchens, newspaper offices, lovers’ apartments, soccer stadiums, the cab from the airport, movie theatres and a thousand other places. I still chase that feeling, of being alive.

August 4, 2016
by Andrew Bates
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Canada starts strong at Rio 2016 with terrifying and terrific win

Christine Sinclair collapsed after her 80th minute goal metres from where she left Australia's Lisa De Vanna flat on the turf. (Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil)

Christine Sinclair collapsed after her 80th minute goal metres from where she left Australia’s Lisa De Vanna flat on the turf. (Rovena Rosa/Agência Brasil)

It was tough, tight and nerve-wracking on the pitch, but a 2-0 shutout on the scoresheet that puts Canada in a power position in Group F.

The current incarnation of the Canadian women’s soccer team has been empowered by the 2012 Olympic bronze medal win, but it’s a newer, less predictable squad that can’t be judged on those results. Lose flatly against Brazil in a friendly on a Saturday, hold them off long enough to get the win the next Tuesday. So the fate of Les Rouges in the opening match of the 2016 Olympics against 5th-ranked Australia was really anyone’s guess for about the first 20 seconds.

Christine Sinclair used veteran experience to catch Australia before they even got on their bikes, burning Alanna Kennedy and Laura Alleway with ease before setting up Janine Beckie for the fastest goal in Olympic women’s history. The game’s first minutes are rarely as important as their last minutes, but this squad needed to define what kind of Team Canada it was immediately.

What’s funny about the game’s first twenty minutes is how they defined the game but were mostly separated from its bulk by the red card to Shelina Zadorsky. The same exuberance that Canada showed in its last friendly against France helped it establish itself early on and it contributed to the foul that saw Canada go deservingly down to 10 players.

But although 4-4-1 is certainly not the formation head coach John Herdman anticipated before the game, the switch answered questions and brought results; Melissa Tancredi, a veteran of 2012 with a diminished role this year, made way like a good soldier for Rebecca Quinn. Her energetic play fit into the defense without missing a beat. It’s the defensive game that maybe gives the team its identity and purpose; a mix of young players and tough veterans scrapping it out as hard as they can to keep the team in the game and provide for the forwards.

Or in this match, just one forward. A transcendent forward in Sinclair whose service helped put Canada in front and who took advantage of Jessie Fleming’s long ball to put Australia away single-handedly. Her touch nudging the ball past rushing Aussie keeper Lydia Williams in midfield was perfect, just enough to leave Williams in the dust and give herself enough time before Lisa De Vanna arrived to send a loping chipped ball through the empty penalty area and into the goal.

Canada were lucky here. They did well after the ejection, but had Australia scored on the resulting free kick, it would have been over. The moments when Steph Labbé was on the deck with a leg cramp brought hearts into mouths. Beckie’s missed penalty in the second half could have been a costly missed opportunity. But with Australia in the middle ground of difficulty between Germany and Zimbabwe, they have got all three of the group stage’s most vital points and they were forced to fight together against the odds. Not a bad way to establish yourselves.

This post republished from Little Rubber Pellets

April 7, 2015
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

The Alberta provincial election is necessary, and the fixed-election-date law isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on

It's hard enough to get voters to the polls, so why would you tell them it's illegitimate and then spend a month trying to get them to care? (Photo k-ideas/flickr)

It’s hard enough to get voters to the polls, so why would you tell them it’s illegitimate and then spend a month trying to get them to care? (Photo k-ideas/flickr)

The premier has changed, the opposition party has lost more than half its MLAs, a new budget has changed the province’s taxation structure and voters haven’t weighed in on any of it. I can’t think of better reasons for an Alberta provincial election.

Everyone is saying that Alberta Premier Jim Prentice is about to call a provincial election tomorrow, and a popular talking point from opposition parties is to refer to it as an “illegal” or “unnecessary” election, because it conflicts with fixed election date laws. Here’s Wildrose Party candidate and former Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Derek Fildebrandt doing it:

And Marie Renaud, the NDP candidate in St. Albert:

And Connie Jensen, provincial secretary for the Alberta Party, back in January:

This rhetoric has been common since the rise of fixed election dates over the last ten years, with the Conservative Party attacking Michael Ignatieff for wanting an “unnecessary election” in 2011. But Canada got its fixed election date law in 2007 and the Prime Minister called an election in 2008. If the federal election does take place as scheduled in October, it will be the first time since then that a Parliament went the distance.

It is clear that election fixed-date laws aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. Last Monday, an Alberta judge dismissed an injunction to limit the next election to the time frame specified in the law–between March and May of next year–on the basis that the law doesn’t actually limit the discretion of the Lieutenant-Governor to call an election. From the Edmonton Sun:

Calgary lawyer Michael Bates acted for lawyer Tom Engel Monday, who filed an injunction application that would require Premier Jim Prentice to call an election within the fixed time frame of March 1 to May 31, 2016.
The PC government passed an amendment to Alberta’s Election Act in 2011 that fixed a time frame for a provincial election to take place every four years.
“We don’t pass laws that don’t mean anything,” Bates argued.
“The premier’s powers exist within that window (of the fixed time frame). There is otherwise absolutely no reason whatsoever to have a window.”
The government’s lawyer David Jones argued the amendment does not restrict the Lieutenant-Governor’s ability to call an election for any reason, including a recommendation from the premier. Jones said the 2011 amendment upheld existing election laws.
Court of Queen’s Bench Judge Ken Nielsen said there is a “very strong argument” that the amendment still leaves the Lieutenant-Governor with unfettered discretion to call an election.

Essentially, the fixed-date laws don’t prevent a premier or Prime Minister from asking the Governor-General or Lieutenant-Governor to call an election, nor does it prevent an election if the government loses the confidence of its legislature. So why was the law passed in the first place? According to the Calgary Herald, the government thought Albertans were very concerned with election timing and didn’t want a premier to schedule a snap election just to catch the opposition unawares.

The fact though, is that in practice, nothing stops a premier or Prime Minister from calling an election whenever he or she pleases. What it does do is give a sitting government a free pass out of being pressured into having an election.

I’m very much in favour of elections. Whether it’s an unpopular policy or a scandal or a newly-minted party leader or just a desire to govern for a little while longer, I feel strongly that the government needs a mandate to operate and it is correct to turn to the voters to ensure that it has one. Fixed election laws give a leader a chance to dodge and coast.

With the shock of the Wildrose Party floor-crossing, I understand that now is not the best time for the opposition to mount a campaign and that might be behind some of these jitters over having an election. But in the last 12 months, major changes have happened with little concern for voters.

I didn’t like that I didn’t get to vote for the premier because I am not a member of any party, I didn’t like that the floor crossers had no respect for the voters that preferred Wildrose policies and I didn’t like that the PCs offered to adopt Wildrose policies that their own voters rejected. The legislature and government that voters chose, with a seat balance of 61-17-5-4, Alison Redford as premier and Danielle Smith as opposition leader, bears little resemblance to the 70-5-5-4-1 legislature Alberta currently has. I have no idea what the outcome will be, but I want a choice.

Both the Wildrose Party and the NDP have said they’ll have full candidate slates ready for a spring election. It would seem, then, that the best reason to attack the PCs for calling an election that’s so sorely needed is just to score points; to make them look that much worse. But why, if you’re trying to increase public participation and voter turnout, would you attack the legitimacy of an election just before you spend a month trying to convince Albertans to pay attention to you and get to the polls?

Regardless of the letter of the law, everyone seems pretty certain that the writs are dropping tomorrow and the courts have no intention on stepping in. If you intend on having anything to do with the election and you know this law doesn’t matter, don’t pretend it does just to make you look good. Though I think it was right that the injunction to block an election call failed because elections are a necessary part of our parliamentary democracy, I like the basis of its argument: that it is silly to have a law that nobody respects.

From the Sun article: “Honour the act, or say it’s a sham and repeal it … let’s be honest with this.” Sounds like a plan to me.

February 15, 2015
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

Media Training: Learning soccer lessons from a kickabout with FC Edmonton

(Photo Michelle Allenberg)

On the left, I valiantly try in vain to stop FC Edmonton academy player Austin Couture.(Photo Michelle Allenberg)

A few weeks ago, I took part in FC Edmonton media training — not training players to speak to the media but training members of the media to play soccer. Mainly, it was a part of their push to promote two regular season games to be played in Fort McMurray this year, but it had a theoretical purpose as well.

Head coach Colin Miller told the four of us at the start that he wanted to give the media an impression of what it’s like to play against players of their calibre; Mallan Roberts, Darryl Fordyce, Albert Watson and Austin Couture joined the media types. I moonlight as a soccer blogger, and although I reject the basic premise that you can’t have an opinion about something like a sport unless you’ve played it, a little understanding can’t hurt. So, media stunt aside, there was a point here, an opportunity to learn something. So, what did I learn?

I think what I took the most notice of is how fatigue limits your awareness on the pitch. Sure, I was a bit out of shape and had the first touch of a brick, but the huffing and puffing isn’t the important part. I’ve been tired when playing soccer before, but the session, which Miller called a fun drill they do with their younger age groups, was structured in a way to start you out tired.

It started out with just controlling the ball, remembering to use the side of your foot and then a short stint of doing that with your weak-side leg. Miller called out to remind the four of us to control with the side of our feet, and not to spend so much time looking down. I felt breezy at that point, as we dribbled around each other. Then the drill increased in intensity as Miller added more elements: on his mark, touch the ball five times with alternating feet. Then four times with the feet and one with each knee. Then all that, and squat onto the ball, touching it with your butt. Then, all of that with a push-up, touching the ball with your chest. Then all of that with a second push-up, this time with a forehead touch.

“When we have kids that are a little unruly, this exercise gets them quiet really quick,” he said.

edmontongif

As I got more tired, those push-ups got a little less crisp, to say the least. What I noticed is that as I juggled tasks and did more drills, my reaction time dropped; the hardest part was actually stopping the ball so I could do touches. (Not the least because I was wearing Converse and not pointed-toe runners, but that was on me.) My fluidity while running with the ball went away as I slowed, as I spent more time focusing on whether or not the “touch” call was coming. “It’s like you’re dancing on a bed of swords, Andrew!” Miller called out.

A short break after, we started a four-a-side game with Couture, an academy player for the club from Fort McMurray, joining the offense team. This is where I started to get the picture about fatigue. Specifically, when people talk about extra time affecting players’ ability, or diagnosed a team as being tired at the end of a road game, I don’t think I was able to actually understand why before.

Basically, it felt like my level of awareness narrowed the more tired I got, and the drills basically guaranteed that I’d start blown up. It helped between plays when Miller shouted out to remember to stay organized, and keep someone back for defense. But still, skills I had when I was more fresh didn’t come as naturally, and it was hard to transition from one situation to another.

All in all, I think I’ll understand those 90th minute blunders a little more. When I see the pained look in a player’s eye, I’ll recognize it. The coaches did. The goalkeeper coach, Darren Woloshen, came up to me after and told me he was impressed, given that I hadn’t played the sport at a high level. I laughed, at myself, mainly, still feeling tired and heavy-limbed. “I mean it,” he said. “You were good out there.”

I think I was; if I didn’t score any goals, at least I got the point.

May 18, 2014
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

How’s it going, by-election candidates? (Week 1)

Conservative candidate David Yurdiga speaks to a constituent at a police BBQ May 14. (Photo Andrew Bates)

Conservative candidate David Yurdiga speaks to a constituent at a police BBQ May 14. (Photo Andrew Bates)

After months of speculation, we’re finally out of the starting gates of the Fort McMurray-Athabasca by-election. This behemoth of a campaign (at seven weeks, it’s more than two weeks longer than the 2011 general election) will be taxing for the candidates tasked with getting around this giant riding. So, in tribute to their efforts and the most banal election question possible, how’re you doing, candidates?

Kyle Harrietha (Liberal)
They’re going great. I’ve been… out door-knocking in Fort McMurray, meeting members of the community as we work through the election campaign.
Phone interview, May 14

Lori McDaniel (NDP)
It’s been crazy actually. I’m not sure if you’ve heard of all the tragic incidents at suncor? I’ve been heavily involved in that for the last while. So sad.
Twitter DM, May 15

Tim Moen (Libertarian)
It’s going great! Enroute to Ottawa right now for our leadership convention.
Facebook message, May 16

David Yurdiga (Conservative)
This week I talked to many Albertans in Fort McMurray-Athabasca that commented on the need for strong, stable leadership and support for our oil sands, and I reminded them that only Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the Conservatives have stood up for their interests when it comes to the oil patch.
Text message, May 17

February 3, 2014
by Andrew Bates
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James Joyce’s first novel began publishing a hundred years ago today. Let’s read it!

portraitjoyce

Last fall, I studied a course taught by UBC Okanagan professor Anderson Araujo on the Imagists, a group of poets that ended up becoming the first wave of modernists that would define 20th century literature. The Imagists were poets, but also they wanted to change the way people wrote, read and thought about literature and art.

In 1913 one of the movement’s major figures, Ezra Pound, trying to put together an anthology of Imagist poetry, wrote to James Joyce, then a little-known Irish author. Joyce had struggled to put his collection of short stories, Dubliners, in print and had tried to write an autobiographical novel called Stephen Hero ten years earlier before abandoning it and reworking the concept.

Pound asked for permission to run a poem, “I Hear an Army,” and said he had the ability get him published in a couple of English and American journals, including the Egoist, which he said “practically can not pay at all,” but “may have a slight advertising value if you want to keep your name familiar.” Joyce sent him permission to run the poem, some scripts from Dubliners and the first chapter of his first novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

The first part of Portrait of the Artist ran in the Egoist on today’s date, Joyce’s birthday, on February 2nd exactly 100 years ago. It ran every two weeks in 1914 and then monthly until September 1915. The journals are now in the public domain, and Brown University has posted them all online.

Why not celebrate together? Let’s start a little book club. Every day a new issue of the Egoist came out 100 years ago, I’ll post on this blog with some words by myself or someone else, if they want to, and then we can all discuss the chapter in the blog comments. It’s the anniversary of not just a book, but the dawn of an exciting time in literature, and not just for a day.

Here’s the first chapter, where we learn of the childhood of Stephen Dedalus. What do you think? Let’s begin.

July 24, 2013
by Andrew Bates
0 comments

Outtakes: New minister on priorities, youth and women in the workplace

New minister of labour Kellie Leitch, pictured left, with Alice Wong, Minister of State for Seniors, in 2011. Photo courtesy KellieLeitchSimcoeGrey/Flickr

New minister of labour Kellie Leitch with Alice Wong, Minister of State for Seniors, in 2011. Photo courtesy KellieLeitchSimcoeGrey/Flickr

I wrote a profile for the Today today on new federal Minister of Labour and the Status of Women, Kellie Leitch. Most of the phone conversation was about the 42-year old Ontario MP’s life and experience growing up in Fort McMurray. But there was some time, as well, to talk to her about her new portfolios as well as the duty of a parliamentarian to recruit the next generation of youth in politics.

On plans for Status of Women ministry:

There are a number of things that we’ll be focusing on, but particularly the government’s work on ending violence against women and promoting economic security for women. That will be the beginning focal point in addition to advocating for an increase in promotion of womens’ leadership and increasing their involvement on corporate and public sector boards.

This is important work, and I think all Canadians recognize it. We need to make sure that we’re focused on developing leadership opportunities for women.

On whether she’s noticed any intersections between gender and her political career:

I haven’t, but recognize, I come from a professional career, where … less than 15% of the individuals in my profession were women. My sister’s a civil engineer, she stands on a jobsite where I think she’s the only woman who’s there amongst literally hundreds of workers.

So I don’t dwell or even think about that: I think that we live in a very free and open democracy where people can aspire to be whatever they like to be, and I want women to take on the same mindset that I have and that I’ve been encouraged to have since I was a child and my sister has the same, which is, you can be whatever you want to be, just put your mind to it.

Plans for labour ministry:

The government’s priorities have been and continue to be a focus on creating jobs and growth, particularly, in the case of labour, focusing on making sure we have a productive workplace to help grow our economy. So the labour portfolio and labour program develop, administer and enforce all the workplace legislation and regulations.

My goal is to make sure that we are focused on having fair, safe and productive workplaces, so that Canadians know, and individuals who are coming to Canada to work in Canada (know) that they have a safe workplace and one where they can be productive and help grow our economy.

Leitch welcomes a class group to Parliament Hill. Photo courtesy KellieLeitchSimcoeGrey/Flickr

Leitch welcomes a group of students to Parliament Hill. Photo courtesy KellieLeitchSimcoeGrey/Flickr

On low youth turnout:

I was fortunate in my riding, just because of the circumstances, we actually had a higher-than-average voter turnout compared to the country and compared to the previous outings of the electorate. I try to encourage all the young people in my riding by going to high schools, going to junior high schools about what a privilege it is to be able to vote. We are very fortunate as Canadians that we live in a free and open democracy where you actually have the opportunity to vote.

I had spent some time in Afghanistan and Lebanon, some other places where young women don’t even get to go to public school, let alone vote. Young men, they find it challenging to get out to vote because they have a different opinion than the government’s leadership …

I do what I can to encourage the young people in my riding to appreciate that they live in a free and open democracy and they can participate, and I encourage them to participate in things with me so that they understand what the democratic process is, and they understand they can be involved at a number of different levels to contribute to public policy and also activism.

On getting youth participating directly as volunteers and candidates:

A little bit of the onus needs to be put on current parliamentarians. We have lived the experience, we know what the component parts of it are, on educating young people, women and men, on how they can participate. A lot of Canadians have no idea what the nomination process is for a specific party. Most young Canadians don’t even know how to contact a political party in their area or who would be the activist.

We have a responsibility, those of us that are involved as parliamentarians, but also those individuals who are involved as party activists, to continually be reaching out and, if nothing else, educating young people so they can make a choice to participate or not. I find that a lot of young people in my riding, they just don’t know where to start. And once they start, they’re fabulous.

My staff on the hill … all of my staff are under 24. They’re young people, they’re active, they’re interested, and I encourage them to go out and recruit and educate other young people so that we can have as many young canadians, whichever party it is, to get involved. I think they way you do it is by leading by example and being active.