Randboro and L'il Buck - b-day party for Johnny & Kim

Kim works at Barfly. John Campbell of (Not So) Idle Thoughts is a Barfly barfly. Their birthdays come a day apart. Their birthday party comes Friday, March 3rd at Barfly (where else?) The venerable all-pro rootsy indie rockers L'il Buck will put together three (count 'em) blow-out sets. And Randboro (my band) is pleased as punch to be playing an opening set in Kim & John's honour.

So if you're in the vicinity of 4062 rue St-Laurent, corner Duluth, come join the party. We've got a bouncy new song to play for y'all. And Jean-Marc might even sing along. You should too! We'll be on around 9:30-ish. Cover charge, schmover charge.

Setlist:

Stickman
Sentimental Institution (tribute to the Replacements)
Emerson & Fortier
Elizabeth
Sandra
Skeleton Key
Spitsbergen
Bail You Out
Untermenschen

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Old news dept.

On tonight's CBC newscast, Peter Mansbridge was among those breathlessly telling us that George W. Bush was warned of the high probability of a levee breach and major flooding on August 28, 2005. I guess it's news today simply because they've got their hands on the video now, but it's strange to see it get play as an "oh-my-God-can-you-believe-it" story when this was already well established like, six months ago.

The CBC even showed footage from Bush's famous Good Morning America interview with Diane Sawyer from the following September 1st, where he quite thoroughly bullshitted the American people with the line: "I don't think anybody expected the levee to be breached." (scroll to the update at bottom of link)

Amazing how similar that sounds to Condi Rice's line to the 9/11 Commission about planes hitting buildings, isn't it? I imagine somewhere in Karl Rove's office there is an official Excuse Template. It's probably tacked up on the walls of many White House staffers' cubicles, with explicit instructions for its use such as:

It is not White House policy to admit any wrongdoing at any time! This could taint the office of the President, after all. But if you are irretrievably cornered in an interview situation, DO NOT PANIC OR FLINCH! Simply employ a sympathetic, slightly pained expression (Dick, you're exempt - we know your limitations in this area) and use this exact phrase: "I don't think anybody expected... [INSERT BAD THING THAT HAPPENED AS A DIRECT RESULT OF WHITE HOUSE POLICY]"

Now let's put aside for a moment that all kinds of news reports were repeating the warnings of the U.S. National Hurricane Center of this imminent possibility on the very day Bush received his briefing. There is nothing new to the story besides the video record, people! If that's the normal turnaround time for a story to "find its legs" in the current media swamp, then I guess everybody will know about this come July...

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Original Song #22: "Untermenschen"

And it all started somewhere in the bowels of the White House
Back in May two-thousand-and-one
Dick Cheney and the boys in the energy industry
Carving up a map of Iraq
Scheming war and oil and Halliburton contracts

And the voices they came shouting out
From the underground
As Billmon said:

Untermenschen, Untermenschen!
If you read between the lies
They’re always fighting for the big guy
Untermenschen, Untermenschen!
You can see it in their eyes
Either shut up or take their side

Then it got heavy on eleven September
We don’t know if they let it happen or not
But they used it as a scapegoat
Just as the neo-cons had always hoped
For another Pearl Harbor
Enter Patriot Act and the War President

And the voices they came shouting out
From the underground
As Juan Cole said:

Untermenschen, Untermenschen!
You can see it in their eyes
Either shut up or take their side
Untermenschen, Untermenschen!
If you read between the lies
A new group of brownshirts is on the rise

And it all unraveled rather spectacularly
At Abu Ghraib and Fallujah
And Ramadi and New Orleans
All the anger they unbridled
All the bloodshed they provided
All the pandering to xenophobes
To the Fundies and the faithful
Who declared to the whole world
They’re just rag-heads
They’re not people
They’re our enemies
They’ve got no souls

And the voices they keep shouting out
From the underground
And they nail it

Untermenschen, Untermenschen!
Better not speak your mind
They’re listening in on your phone line
Untermenschen, Untermenschen!
Yeah you heard him right
The president said our enemies have no souls
The president said they ain’t got no soul
The president thinks you ain’t got no soul

- 30 -

Original Song #21: "Emerson & Fortier (Democracy on the Shelf)"

They voted for
The man who said
He'd be Harper's
Worst nightmare
And when he won
I thought we had
One more MP
Who'd keep those guys in check

So Gilles, give 'em hell
Don't you let them throw our liberties out as well
Give 'em hell
Stand up in the House and scream and shout and yell
Give 'em hell
Let the boys wed the boys and the girls the girls as well
Give 'em hell
Don't you let them put our freedoms on the shelf

Some volunteered
And gave their time
Worked the phones
At Christmastime
They took their ballots
They marked an X
Next to the one
Who was not a Conservative

So Jack, give 'em hell
Shine a light on their hypocrisy and quell
Any bill
Meant to eat away what Tommy Douglas built
Give 'em hell
The far-right Christian Fundies have to be repelled
Give 'em hell
They've already put our democracy on the shelf

I take my lessons
From those who earned my respect
"If you don't vote, don't bitch"
As Steve Earle said
I did my bit
At the polytheque
Now they've betrayed all that
To sit in Cabinet
With the perks and the limos and all the rest

So Bill, give 'em hell
Don't you let them take our rights away pell-mell
Give 'em hell
Stand up in the House and scream and shout and yell
Give 'em hell
Or they'll ban abortions, starve the arts and sell
Us all out
They've already put our democracy on the shelf

- 30 -

Canadian Women's Hockey Team Rocks

You gotta' love it. After the high-priced over-hyped men's team couldn't even get on the scoreboard for two whole games, the women picked up the torch (again) to show us what real dedication looks like. This team has talent, class and embodies everything good about team sport.

Big time congratulations to the Canadian Women's Hockey Team. And a shout out to the Swedes too, for proving they can play with the big girls. In fact, kudos to all women out there showing the men how it's done. Call me a dreamer, but I think sometime within the next 20 years, women will be commonplace on dozens of NHL teams.

I don't even care what the Canadian men's team does anymore. Even if they win the gold, it won't compare with this team's achievement. That's hockey.

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Stoke the Fire (mp3)

For some time now, people have been expressing an interest in actually hearing some of these songs I keep posting. Now seeing as I have only very rarely had a chance to record anything properly, these are in rather short supply.

Furthermore, I have not been able to figure out how to post an mp3 to this site (anyone out there who knows the secret, I'd be much obliged if you dropped me a line).

But finally, my bandmate Jean-Marc Barsalou has been able to upload an mp3 of Stoke the Fire, which can be heard by clicking here. It's a short four-on-the-floor rocker of a demo recorded in 2004 with Jean-Marc on bass and Chuck Duque on drums in an outfit we liked to call Big Red Canoe at the time.

More to come, and thanks for asking.

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Update: Okay, that link doesn't seem to be working anymore. Sorry about that. So I decided to take Zeke's advice and upload the audio file to archive.org. So it's now available here instead. Please comment if you have any troubles.

Original Song #20

The sweet & cheesey one for Valentine's Day

Apple of My Pie

You're the apple of my pie
I'm the sugar and the spice
We could make a flakey crust
Bake it up real nice

You're my star, you're in my stripe
I'd like to fly you high
See you flutter in my breeze
Be a part of my
Star-spangled banner day
Would that be okay?

And I'd like to make you my...
I'd like you to be my
American girlfriend

And I'm standing here at home plate
Swinging wildly
I'm gonna lace one to deep left field
Cause I know that's where you play
That's my position too

And I'm making contact
Why don't you make a good catch

You're the apple of my pie
I'm the sugar and the spice
We could make a flakey crust
Bake it up real nice

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Original Song #19

Valentine's Day songs - today I'm posting one about the darker side. The music for this one was inspired by Husker Du's Flip Your Wig. Tomorrow, I promise a cheesy romantic ditty for those who need an antidote. Cheers

February Rain

Valentine's Day in this frigid town
Some realizations shake me down
I'm in tune with Mother Nature
I'm out of synch with your good nature

February rain
And my contrary timing again
Why don't I feel the same
I've weened myself off you too well

Cheesey commercial romance glyphs
And bubblegum piano riffs
Everyone else coos and cries
I sit and sneer as the world goes by

February rain...

And the web I spun so long ago
Has finally got you in its tow
I want to meet you in the middle
But I can't remember what lines are safe to walk on

Now you breeze in like the wind
Saying I'm the keenest thing again
This shower of affection's teasing
February rain is freezing

February rain

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The 4 x 4 Meme

I have been tagged with a meme sort of thing by Dazzlin' Dino of The Blogging Party of Canada. It appears to go like this:

list four places you've lived
1. Sherbrooke, Quebec (my birthplace), where Conrad Black first got into the media ownership thing.
...the rest are all communities on the island of Montreal:
2. Beaconsfield - suburb without that stripmall look.
3. Notre-Dame de Grace - great place for a Concordia student.
4. Mile End - part of the Plateau, which is where Mordecai Richler and Leonard Cohen grew up. Some of their haunts haven't changed in half a century, and Big Fast Food is nowhere to be found in Mile End, so you know it's a real treasure.


list four vehicles you've owned
(only one motorized, none the least bit hip)
1. My sister's hand-me-down, banana-seated purple one-speed bicycle. But I had no kilt.
2. Canadian Tire ten-speed bike. Not the lightest of bicycles, nor the flashiest.
3. When #2 got stolen, my dad's hand-me-down Canadian Tire ten-speed bike, which also was eventually stolen.
4. A "Pre-owned" 2003 Ford Focus SE station wagon.

list four jobs you've had
1. Montreal Gazette paperboy (3 years and two ice-storms, 1983-85)
2. Beaconsfield Golf Club golf caddy (lasted one day, but inspired the song Back Nine).
3. McDonald's crew, Crew Trainer, Crew Chief, Swing Manager, and Assistant Manager. (It lasted way too long, and never paid better than subsistence wages. That inspired more than a few songs, to be sure.)
4. Production Manager, Swensen's ice cream in downtown Montreal. It was pretty cool making ice cream one summer, until I realized it was wrecking my back - for little better than minimum wage. You had a lot of heavy tubs of ice cream to rotate every day. Like 150 vanilla, 75 chocolate, 23 strawberry, and between 4 and 16 of some 30 others.

list four vacations you've had
1. Tootled around New Brunswick (very pretty) and the Gaspe one summer. La Belle Province is at its most belle in the mountains between Rimouski and NB, IMHO.
2. I was once good friends with an ex-Canadian Navy Newfoundlander. I still haven't visited the Rock, but he and I went to Halifax visiting a career Navy buddy of his. Gorgeous city, Halifax. I'd live there.
3. An old girlfriend and I rented a car and drove around New England for a week one summer. We hit Boston, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Connecticut. The ship-building museum/town of Mystic Seaport blew me away.
4. When I was a kid, our family would go to the Birch Knoll Cabins for two weeks every summer in Ogunquit, Maine. (Looks like they've put in a pool and finished some of the interiors - it's probably ruined for me now). That's where I learned how to body-surf, which is perhaps the funnest sporting activity that requires absolutely no equipment. We used to coordinate our vacation with a few Connecticut families we met there. It provided some of my most vivid childhood memories, and inspiration for the song below.

Tags to:
JohnnyC at (Not So) Idle Thoughts.
Montreal Simon
Cheryl at The Galloping Beaver
Rossk at The Gazetteer
Ivan of Ivan Prokopchuk - Creative Writing (because I suspect he secretly loves these meme things)

Apologies if you have already been so tagged.

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Original Song #18

The Beach

Gonna lie down in the pine needles
Ocean breeze in the starry sky
Gonna get bit by mosquitos
Gonna get sick eating fried clams

And I'm gonna ride the waves
Body-surfing all day long
Moon power pulling me
Let the salt water meet my tongue

I'm going down to the beach
I'm going down to the Birch Knoll
Got friends calling out to me
Called trees and shells and stones

Go running down the beach
And get sand in my shoes
Sit around and do nothing
Like a big shit-eating fool

And I'll go in the early morning
See the sand-pipers skitter and peck
Go back in the afternoon
Like a big shit-eating fool again

I'm going down to the beach
I'm going down to the Birch Knoll
Got friends calling out to me
Called trees and shells and stones
I'm going down to the beach
I'm going down to the east coast
Ocean's calling out to me
It's gonna cleanse my soul

I was born in Sherbrooke
Now I live in Montreal
River valleys I like fine
But give me the ocean
I wanna be at the ocean
Just let me live by the ocean all year long

I'm going down to the beach
I'm going down to the Birch Knoll
I'm going down to the beach
I'm going down to the east coast

Oh yeah
All right
I'll drive
All night

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Original Song #17

Bail You Out

You say you'll hate yourself in the morning
But you'll love yourself by afternoon
Wondering what they put in the water
That keeps the girls from going swoon

Didn't I bail you out
Bail you out another time
Bailed you out again I said
I bailed you out another time

And you're wondering why
You're not the toast of the town
But here you're only toast
You're all stance with no sub-style
Hog the plate and starve the host

Didn't I bail you out
Bail you out another time
Bailed you out again I said
I bailed you out another time

Sticks and stones may break my bones
Words will never hurt me

- 30 -

Uncle?

First Manley, then McKenna, now Brian Tobin all have quickly decided not to run for leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. Three big names, none of whom are particularly wanting in the area of political smarts.

Does this mean they all smell the same scent of right-wing on the air? If any of them thought they had a decent shot of unseating Harper within two or three years, they'd most certainly have put their hats in the ring, rather than run screaming away from it.

That leaves Martin Cauchon, Stephan Dion, Michael Ignatieff, Anne McClelland, Belinda Stronach, Sheila Copps; perhaps Bob Rae, Roy Romanow, Pierre Pettigrew and Ken Dryden? Clearly the three who have bowed out perceive the next Liberal leader to be a fall guy for a CPC majority mandate.

I don't take much comfort from that.

- 30 -

Original Song #16

As a testament to how things change, this song was written years before I met the woman I would later make my wife...

Inveigled

You say it's been going like this too long
Don't want to see it go all wrong
Strings lying together, that's okay
Some knots get tied anyway

It ain't broke so why fix it?
I don't believe that it's illicit
And you say we should make it legal
Why do I feel so inveigled?

Your parents grow giddier by the day
They're marking off their Saturdays
The pressure's mounting, I might cave in
Pretty soon they'll be looking for grandkids

It ain't broke so why fix it?
I don't believe that it's illicit
And you say we should make a change
It's just an addition of names
But I know half the time it don't take
Once you cut that wedding cake
I suppose we could "make it legal"
Why do I feel so inveigled?

You've got to promise not to alter anything
If you want to see me at the altar with a ring

- 30 -

Harperitis

You may have noticed Tattered Sleeve blogging has been scant recently. It's taken a back seat to a nasty bug, working in conjunction with what might be an ulcer (pending test results). It started last Saturday, had me feeling out of the woods by Sunday morning, then came back with a vengeance Monday night.

I can only assume I have a touch of what I will call "Harperitis". Apparently our Prime Minister-designate hasn't been quite up to snuff himself lately.

In the middle of it all, Thursday morning, I had to do a medical test known as a barium swallow. Not too pleasant, but it didn't take overly long. If it could, my toilet would surely be writing a strongly-worded greivance to the Quebec Human Rights Commission after the week we've just had.

Also mid-week, my son Francis had a couple of bouts of diarrhea as well. I have learned that no diaper is a match for such a force of nature. Thank goodness he got back to his usual terrible-two-but-not-even-two-yet self within 24 hours.

But for me, it doesn't appear to be over just yet. And my wife awoke feeling under the weather today too. Fret not. We will return to normal blogging shortly. In the meantime, check this out from Cathie in Canada, and this from Section 15 for my picks for best posts of the week.

And watch out for Harperitis. It's nasty.

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The Great Canadian Sell-Out

[Rumination]

Dateline: September 27, 2006.

OTTAWA--Political analysts have described it as the most tumultuous and bitter Parliament in Canada's history. L'Affaire Lac Mistassini brought it to a clamourous end today with a vote of non-confidence, meaning Canadians will be going to the polls for a second time in 2006.

Amid raucous shouts from the Conservative bench of "traitor" with every opposition member standing to vote down the minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, House Speaker Lee Richardson made several attempts to call for order, but was roundly ignored.

As expected, fledgling New Liberal Party leader Michael Ignatieff introduced the confidence vote that has been threatening since the french-language Radio-Canada-TVA joint exclusive first reported last month on then-secret U.S. military test bases being planned in the north of Quebec, land that is home to thousands of Cree and other First Nations peoples.

Critics say Lac Mistassini could also derail any future plans to expand Quebec's extensive hydro-electric capacity, since the lease agreement is for 50 years, with the United States holding an exclusive option to renew for another 40 years at any time.

Foreign Affairs Minister Jason Kenney received repeated calls for his resignation from oppostition MPs, and was loudly heckled on Monday when he defended the lease agreement as a victory for his team's "tenacious" negotiations, saying the Bush administration had originally requested a one-time 80-year lease on the land.

Harper, with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Quebec Premier Jean Charest by his side in the Parliamentary Press Galery, yesterday made a last ditch appeal to Bloq Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe to save his government, by sweetening the pot of monetary transfers to Quebec from the lucrative deal cut by Kenney.

"We have a deal. It's a good deal for Canada and it's in our shared interest, in this North American fortress, if you will, to keep normal and productive relations with our neighbours, who I think deserve our humble gratitude for their willingness to protect us," Harper said.

But attempts to quell the outrage over the controversial deal, which would see some 14,000 square kilometres in the north of Quebec used as a testing ground for the as yet unproven Ballistic Missile Defence system, could not match the political weight of popular sentiment in Quebec, where massive union protests effectively shut down the province for three days last week, and over 80% of Quebecers say they are against the idea.

"First we had the Liberals trying to buy Quebecers with their own money; now we see the Conservatives trying to buy Quebecers with George Bush's money," Duceppe said to reporters after the vote.

"Mr. Kenney and Mr. Harper were clearly hoping to slip this in under the radar while people were on their summer vacations. Perhaps they thought Canadians would be happy counting the pennies they're saving here and there from the GST cut. But while it's certainly in Canadians' best interests to work very closely with our American allies, this deal, and the ham-handed way it was handled by this neophyte Harper government, just proved today they simply do not have the confidence of the House. That's why we're going back to the polls." Ignatieff said.

An emboldened NDP leader Jack Layton expanded on earlier remarks that the Harper government is a puppet of the Bush administration.

"Nobody wants to be a sell-out, and that's all this is, really, the selling-out of our First Nations, of Quebec and their future, the future of clean energy in Canada, and Quebecers' opportunities to develop their own natural resources. And for what? To help forward George Bush's plans to weaponize space?

"Quebecers won't take that sitting down. All Canadians won't take that sitting down. And it may have Mr. Harper's signature on it, but this sweetheart deal was never brought before the House, and it will not be binding".

Charest has also been under fire for initially signalling his acceptance of the deal, although he has backtracked in recent days, facing a continued slide in the polls that have now put his government's approval rating below 15%.

Governor-General Michaele Jean is expected to drop the writ upon receiving Prime Minister Harper at her residence sometime tomorrow.

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(Mostly) Original Song #15

Never Leaving Las Vegas

(italicized: lifted from Mike Figgis's adapted screenplay)

Just bought a pack of smokes
It was my first one after the last one
I was ever going to buy
Til my last breath

I'll sit around all night
Watching Nicolas Cage say:
"We could get Prime Rib
They've got it on sale for two-ninety-nine
...I love that dress"

I'm never leaving Las Vegas
Digressing til I regress
I'm never leaving Las Vegas

Between the one-hundred-and-one-proof breath
And the occasional drool
Some interesting words fall
Out of your mouth

You always seem so simple
You always become so difficult
You're on a downward spiral
Chasing a spinning room

I'm never leaving Las Vegas
Digressing til I regress
I'm never leaving Las Vegas

Killing myself as a way to drink
Killing myself as a way to smoke
Killing myself as a way to give
Killing myself as a way to live

Take your pick
Of vices and devices
Smooth your snout, smooth it over
Gin and tonic
Vodka vomit
Smooth as silk

I'm a prickly pear

I'm never leaving Las Vegas
Digressing til I regress
I'm never leaving Las Vegas
I'm never leaving
Never leaving
Never never never never never...

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Nothing Irrational about Harperphobia

If you want to read a passionate and witty perspective on what a Conservative victory would (or will) mean to the gay community, look no further than Montreal Simon's excellent site. He has Stephen Harper pegged (and evidently, in his sights as well).

Simon even has an emergency escape plan Obviously the man enjoys a little black humour in the face of doom.

I wish I could say "don't worry", Simon. But I can tell you this: if there's a fight to be joined to protect equal rights for gays and other minorities in this country, we'll be there fighting with you.

No matter what the outcome on January 23rd.

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Grumpy Old Mansbridge

Our first entry in "Online Headline of the Year" for 2006 has to be Martin attacks Layton for not Attacking Harper. Will not even the CBC get off the anti-Martin bandwagon? I have to assume Harper has one of two plans for the public broadcaster. Either:

• starve it of funding, or
• replace all its apparatchiks with right-wingers and a playbook written by FoxNews owner Rupert Murdoch.

On the other hand, Martin had one of his finer moments of this campaign courtesy of the CBC in one of their "Town Hall" segments last Thursday.

I watched the first of the series, with Green Party of Canada leader Jim Harris, last December, and as usual, it was very helpful as a way to see how these leaders do when forced to think on their feet. In short, Harris didn't impress me much.

Last night Layton was on, and Peter Mansbridge, the man who stubbornly insists on having no advertising breaks during his nightly newscast, perhaps with thoughts about Harper's plans for CBC in the back of his mind, seemed particularly crabby. Of course, I couldn't blame him, considering his guest never @&%!ing answers the audience's (or his) questions. Totally ignores the question when he doesn't like it, in fact. So Mansbridge was forced to intervene and cut him off and try to get him to answer the actual question, with varying results.

It was then that I realized I might agree with the NDP leader on a host of policy issues; I might even vote for him; but the man is not over-loaded with charm. He has good ideas and is sometimes quite good at framing issues for the general public's consumption, but he isn't what one would call inspirational.

Then again, neither is Harper; that's for sure. Turns out after initially telling the CBC they weren't interested in being on a Town Hall special, the Harper camp changed their minds and we'll have a chance to see him on Thursday night (no link yet).

Here' s hoping Mr. Mansbridge is just as tough on Harper as he was on Layton last night. Anything to stop the prospect of a Harper majority horror show in-waiting would be welcome.

Practice that grimmace there, Peter. Good on you.

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Original Song #14

The Greater Sloshed

A love this good, this misunderstood
Seems your friends all know, what the hell do they know?
When the great unwashed dis the greater sloshed
What would happen, should they happen?

They say you fight a lot, you’re so overwrought
But something makes you go, something I don’t know
‘Cause again you’re here, and it’s pretty clear
They don’t know you like you know you

He’s a piece of work, he’s the king of jerks
He says he’ll be there, but he’s god-knows where
Again she’s here and it’s pretty clear
She needs you; she believes in you

Well she’s got him in tow and he know it shows
But his happy-go-lucky’s back from happy-go-fucky
Again he’s here and it’s pretty clear
He needs you; he believes in you

Well if you can come up with a better definition
Of what love should be, then I’ll send you out fishing
There’s never going to be another premiere edition
Seems that love exists of its own volition

We don’t know you like you know you
We don’t know you like you know you

A love this good, this misunderstood
Seems your friends all know, what the hell do they know?
When the great unwashed dis the greater sloshed
Look what happens, seems you’ve happened

Don’t listen to the great unwashed
They don’t know about the greater sloshed
Don’t listen to the great unwashed
They don’t know about the greater sloshed

- 30 -

Carbo back with Habs!

Note: Dear Readers,
This blog is being temporarily interrupted to talk about the latest chapter in the most storied franchise in all of sport. This is only a temporary interruption, and there is no need to adjust your URL. We at Tattered Sleeve thank you for your understanding

And there was indeed great rejoicing.

So that's the end of Claude Julien's career as coach of the Canadiens. GM Bob Gainey made the only sensible move on a team that simply wasn't responding to their coach any longer. Gainey will be behind the bench himself for tonight's game against the Sharks, with Guy Carbonneau back in the Habs' fold as Assistant Coach, replacing Rick Green.

Gainey still has lots of support in the office, what with Andre Savard, his very capable assistant, looking after the daily minutiae of running the club, but La Presse is suggesting he won't be in the coach's chair very long before turning it over to Carbo (who just happens to be the last Habs captain to bring home a Cup). I mean, who can forget Carbo vs. Gretzky in the Cup run of '93?

In the '93 Final, the Habs faced Wayne Gretzky and the Los Angeles Kings, and in game one the "Great One" had a goal and two assists and the Kings won 4-1. Carbo approached coach Jacques Demers and requested he be allowed to shadow number 99 the rest of the way. Montreal won the next four games.

So mark Carbo's return as an interesting (and welcome) development, as it had appeared up to now that Doug Jarvis (currently staying on as an Assistant Coach) was being groomed for this. Carbo had been an assistant Habs coach for two seasons when Gainey (then the Dallas Stars' GM) plucked him out to bring him back to Dallas.

One thing about the Gainey/Carbo/Jarvis trio: they are three of the sharpest hockey minds in the game today, and all were known for having a terrific work ethic - with several Stanley Cups under their belts - throughout their illustrious playing careers. If anyone can inspire the current team with all its talent to shape up, work hard and follow the coach's game plan, it's these guys.

I liked Julien a lot, despite his habit of putting too many men out on the ice so often it made me question his ability to handle pressure. But the team's been in a tailspin worse than Martin's Liberals. This move had to be done, and bringing the much-respected Carbonneau back will really boost their chances of making a run at the Cup this year.

Oh and, Mr. Gainey? I know you're probably busy preparing for tonight's game right now and all, but I was just thinking how you will soon need a new assistant coach for the defence corps... and how a big guy like Mike Komisarek - who hasn't really learned how to use his size effectively yet - could benefit from someone who may have a good idea of how to help him out in that regard. Was I daydreaming or did a not-so-little bird just tell me there's just the right ex-teammate of yours out there, and he's available right now?

This is where the Habs season turns around. Sadly, politics doesn't usually work quite like hockey, even in Canada. Well, we'll take what good news we can get, eh?

We now bring you back to your irregularly scheduled blogging.

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