Listening to the canadiana love-in that is the Songwriter's Circle on CBC Radio One. They're broadcasting live from Halifax (where, my sister tells me, the streets are brimming with music and beer) and if you're listening, it's clear that we're all just part one big happy Canadian Music Club. They're all so full of applause and support and they just have to show how glad they are to be there and maybe they're a little smug, but it's not a bad listen. It's so profoundly unslick that it occurs to me that that may be the key to defining Canada:

Deeply and profoundly unslick.

Maybe a little too quick to celebrate the Canadian Celebrity (often existing without any discernible merit [Ben Mulroney?] but! they're ours! Canadian Celebrities! We have them! Really!). I always feel that Canada is divided into two groups - one full of those who just don't know or care about the Canadian Celebrity at all, and the other group full of people who think that if they repeat the same names again and again then the first group will suddenly start to care and money will flow into the CBC coffers a la BBC and all will be well and we can be rid of Ryan Seacrest forever.

greatest find is Alpha Yaya Diallo. I'm even going to put down cold hard cash for that cd. cash! Strongly wishing they got someone other than Alan Doyle(?) from Great Big Sea to host, but i guess i shouldn't complain because it could have been Jian Gomeshi.

It is spring out there! ! ! tiny blue flowers and green sprouts all over my lawn!

2:03 p.m. - 2006-04-02