Cool photo #3: Strongest guy in Canada!

This photo was preceded by a near-death experience...seriously!

Cool photo #2: 'Imagine all the cowboys...'

Calgary, 7th Av.

Cool photo #1: Mutant Matty!

A creepy photo: Have a look at my left arm. At first glance it appears deformed and grossly extended. Closer inspection reveals somebody walking past behind...

Stampede photos: Rodeo

Stampede photos: Nashville North

Stampede photos: Inside Stampede Park

Stampede photos: Opening day parade

"I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die..."

Well that was a solid month of honest work. Stampede finished a couple of nights ago and we're straight into pull-down/clean-up. It's a shame that when the whole city was partying for two weeks straight I didn't get a chance to be man about town myself. Each night was a midnight finish and a dash to the last bus to avoid a hefty taxi fare. My only vice for the period was oceans of root beer (I also developed a strong relationship with a giant rice crispie square half the size of my head, not unlike Homer's rotten sub sandwich Marge had to kick out of bed!). There's a staff party on this weekend which I'll certainly go to. I worked with some great people.

The guy from our team who was stabbed has pulled through ok. No serious damage. He's incredibly lucky considering the number of wounds he received.

I've failed in my journaliistic ambition to hunt around and report on cowboy culture because besides the occassional eak at the rodeo I just didn't have the time. All I can say is that I was impressed with the little I spied of the chuckwagon races, calf wrestling and the rodeo guys. Photos will be uploaded shortly. The crowds were massive and I noticed how many people seemed to know the names of the competitors. There's a big prize purse for the winners too.

I did get a good view of the trash side of the event though. Alcohol can do some nasty things to people. I saw girls in handcuffs after being removed for fighting. On the final night security dragged past a handcuffed burly great man with a black eye, blood all down his shirt and an hysterical wife in tow. I could go on...

After next week I'll probably head north to the city of Edmonton which is known as the gateway to the northern oilfields. I have a phone interview tonight for a job at the Edmonton Fringe Festival which should be an interesting change of environment.

I'll upload tonnes of Calgary Stampede photos shortly. There are some pearlers.

MG

Stampede stabbing!

A guy from our stock team was stabbed the other night. He'd knocked off work and was waiting for a train at the station right at Stampede Park when apparantly he saw some lady who was in a bad way, laying on the ground. He bent down to give her a hand and somebody attacked him from behind, stabbing him in the back...13 TIMES!!! Unbelievable! Apparantly he's in the hospital in serious condition. It's possible that some internal organs were hit. We're not too sure. Our boss is visiting him in hospital today and we're getting some money together to buy him something. I can't believe it. He was my kinda guy - thoughtful, soft-spoken. We chatted about movies and Indian spirituality during down times. I hope he pulls through.

MG

Stampede day #5

Ever heard of Clamato? Those who has been to one of my Australia Day parties might have tried it. It's one of the drinks they're serving at the bar: Clam juice + tomato juice. Doesn't quite seem right does it. It works though, when served Ceasar-style with vodka, spicey sauce and celery salt. It's probably Canada's equivilant to vegemite.

Nothing of interest to report today. And no time to write. Gotta start a few hours early today. Heading to the gym first. I somehow scored a free 1 month pass to a super-expensive downtown gym. I just mentioned I was only in town for a month and the guy gave me a voucher and told me to keep it hush-hush.

MG

'Keepin' Rednecks innebriated since 2006'

Stampede day #6

Ever heard of Clamato? Those who has been to one of my Australia Day parties might have tried it. It's one of the drinks they're serving at the bar: Clam juice + tomato juice. Doesn't quite seem right does it. It works though, when served Ceasar-style with vodka, spicey sauce and celery salt. It's probably Canada's equivilant to vegemite.

Nothing of interest to report today. And no time to write. Gotta start a few hours early today. Heading to the gym first. I somehow scored a free 1 month pass to a super-expensive downtown gym. I just mentioned I was only in town for a month and the guy gave me a voucher and told me to keep it hush-hush.

MG

'Keepin' Rednecks innebriated since 2006'

Stampede day #4

T-shirt (colour pink) worn by a redneck on a bucks night I spotted in the bar last night:

Front - 'Suck my d**k'
Back - 'My fiance won't'

Lovely eh?

We're the hardest working guys at Stampede! Apparantly some bar staff complained on the first night about a couple of missed orders but we've ironed out the kinks and we're now determined to turn our work into a fine art. We're entitled to a share of the huge tipping pool at the end of the 10 days but it's a little political as to how much we actually get so it's best if we keep all the bar staff as happy as possible, especially the unsmiling fascist ones.

Efficiency also means we have more time to chill and enjoy the atmosphere. Tom our supervisor, who is a school principal by day, has been coming back every year for the last nine years to supervise us stock guys. We all gather round and listen to stories and hopefully gain some wisdom. We were talking last night about cultural differences. I relayed a story about how my Dad, when he first arrived in Australia from Canada, was invited somewhere where he had to 'bring a plate.' It seems this is a uniquely Australian expression. So he mistakenly arrived at the event with just that - a bare plate!

The weather has been bizzare. Mostly fine and stinking hot but I mentioned in an earlier post that I got soaked in a hail storm on the first night. Last night, in the space of about 4 hours, two hail storms thundered in again. The bar is just a big tent so we had some problems with minor flooding. It didn't take us long for our ramshackle team to mobilise and deal with the mess.

It's Monday morning and I've just come back from a free Stampede breakfast. There are free breakfasts dotted all over the city each morning of the ten days. Pancakes, maple syrup and sausage. Damn I love this western hospitality.

Just cashed my first pay cheque since leaving the Australian Public Service over 2 months ago. Thank God for that.

MG

Stampede day #3

Very smooth running night this time. Not quite sure why. The ridiculous line-up to get in was no shorter than the night before and they let the same numbers through the doors. Perhaps we were just better organised. More time to hang around the refers out back and flirt with the cowgirls inside the bar...

One of the workers on our team was fired last night. He showed up first night wearing sandles. Second night he screwed up documentation, sending bar totals out of whack. Then last night he arrived drunk!

I've realised what's wrong with most country music. It's not the vocal twang or the uninspired instrumentation, but the dumbed-down, innane lyrics about driving around in your ute or gettin' drunk or telling your boss where to go. They played a film clip of a song called 'Redneck Woman' on the big screen last night: "I'm a redneck woman, not a classy woman...I leave the Christmas lights on the tree all year round..." and on and on. I looked around and spotted women actually mouthing the words .

Johnny Cash and Neil Young are obviously two artists way ahead of the pack. Neil's more folk/rock/grunge but the countryfied 'Harvest', 'Harvest Moon' and 'Prarie Wind' albums are sublime. Steve Earl, the 'Copperhead Road' guy, has more of a cult following and he's very underrrated. He's been around since the early 80s and still producing hard-hitting records like the recent anti-Bush statement 'The Revolution Starts...Now'. He's also a classic rock n roll outlaw who's had something like 6 wives and addictions to just about everything. They played 'Copperhead Road' last night as well and I wonder how many of the drunken conservatives realised Earl's a long-standing leftist. Sort of like how silly Ronald Reagan used the anti-Vietnam war Spingsteen song 'Born in the USA' as a campaign song in the 80s.

I'm conscious that I'm working in just one little beer-soaked pocket of the Calgary Stampede and I haven't yet experienced what it's really all about - the chuckwagon races and rodeo events. I have free entry to the grandstands but it's just finding the time to get there before work starts that's the hard part. With thousands of tourists decending on the city the public transport is a nightmare. Still 8 days to go though.

MG

Stampede day #2

John, (my work partner from Montreal): 'So do you like country music?'
Matty: 'What are you kidding, it's awful'
John: 'Well you've got no choice this week!'

He's right. The next ten days I'm helping stock Nashville North, the largest bar in Canada and it's packed full of cowboys n cowgirls around the clock, with live country music bands playing on stage. Delightful tunes such as 'Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy' ring in my ears as I haul carts of beverage through the crowds. I tell you what joke get's old reaaaaal quick - it's when I'm straining with a load and some guy points at the flats of beers on my trolley then points at himself and does a drinkie-drinkie motion. Real funny big guy...

I was paired up initially with this guy John from Montreal who came out really strong at the start of the night and seemed to know what he was doing but then sort of disappeared as the night went on. I'm just glad I worked the last couple of weeks on set-up because I've really built up my strength. There's no let up the whole shift. It's exhausting at times but can be quite exhilirating work. The atmosphere in the bar is electric and the punters are really getting into it. The shift supervisor or 'controller' is a school principal. Bit of a control freak but he's alright.

I'm constantly amazed how many people cram into the bar. They line up for hours outside and they're hearded like cattle, literally (to fit the western theme the line up area looks like at cattle runway!).

Yesterday morning I went to the big parade through the city. It was very impressive. I took lots of photos which I'll upload in due course.

MG

Stampede day #1

So last night was my first shift with gates open. From here on in I'm a 'stock-guy'. I'm responsible for helping to keep the bars stocked with drinks so it'll be lots of running around hauling stock out of the 'refers' and carting it around.

I worked in one of the outside bars last night and it was completely dead after this massive hailstorm blew in. I'd just left the main stadium, carting stock to our bar way on the other side of the complex when the storm hit. I got COMPLETELY SOAKED! The hail pelted on top of my head and I froze. The crowds disappeared and I spent the remainder of the night leaning against the bar, shivering and chatting to the delightful girls working behind the tills.

Tonight I'll be flat out though because I'm in the massive Nashville North bar from now on. It's a mad house. The masses line up for 4 hours to get into this place, and then spend fortunes on overpriced beer (that's good for us because we're all part of the tipping pool). The atmosphere is pretty electric though. There's a stage set up for live bands. Most of what I heard while walking by last night was pretty derivative country & western but my ears pricked up when I heard the 'secret band' start their first number. They were called 'Great Big Sea' and they were from Nova Scotia. They had a rollicking folk/rock/celtic sort of sound. Reminded me of the Pogues actually. They were pretty good.

It's friday morning and I'm off to watch the big opening day parade and find one of the free Stampede breakfasts that are dotted all over town.

MG

Rant

It may be the influence of the collection of George Orwell essays I've been reading on the bus each morning, but I've been paying particular attention to the social fabric of Calgary. As I mentioned earlier, the province of Alberta is going through the biggest economic boom it's ever experienced. Bloated oil and gas executives are making fortunes and property speculators are giddy as school girls. Apparantly the city's corporate elite have super expensive box seats at next week's Calgary Stampede. People have been known to flash $100s of dollars at the bouncers out front of the Stampede bar I've been helping to set up, in order to avoid the 4 hour que.

I've never experienced such a money-driven culture (and as far as I'm aware it's a very different environment to elsewhere in the country). Everyone is in on the game. Even those who don't work directly for oil and gas are enjoying the spin-off effects of the hot economy. It's like the polar opposite of 'lil Canberra where I never really felt the feeling of 'possibility'. It's like I could trend my future in the public service and just see a slightly higher pay packet, definately a higher mound of paper to shuffle, a mortgage and a flat at the coast, but that's about it.

I just wish I was one of those sort of people who could just capitalise on this sort of environment. I know however that I'd have difficulty working for some of these people. Case in point: The other night my cousin, her partner and I went to knock some golf balls around at the driving range. Some acquaintences of my cousin came along - a couple of right wing, 4WD driving, oil n gas executive types. And did they sure fill me in on the 'real' Calgary. They were so obnoxious that my cousin at one point actually started crying in embarrasment and apologised to me profously afterward for their highjacking the conversation. To paraphrase, they said to me (in that black & white reductionist way conservatives can talk): Matthew, your liberal education means very little here. Here it's all about making money. If you have the skills you get rich. We in the offices make the plans and the grunts do the work. We get rich and they get rich. The men with the big arms out in the field make big money. You are small and you have no trade. The were *very* blunt.

So while I initially had romantic notions of heading up north to the oil fields to work hard and make a bundle of money, it's quite likely that'd be a dead end of me. And as far as sticking around and working in the corporate world...aaagh, no thankyou! I wonder how sustainable the overheated economy is? Bust always follows boom right..?

I'm still enjoying the Stampede work. It's so physical it's like I'm being paid to work out! You meet a real mix of people at these sorts of things - travellers like myself, yearly regulars and weird drifters of all sorts. I was biting into a cheeseburger at lunch yesterday and this strange woman sitting next to me said, in all seriousness, that I should watch out for the beef for fear of catching mad cow disease. I almost started to wretch before realising it was a foolish thing to say considering that scare ocurred years ago and nobody in Canada actually caught the disease. Most people are cool though. I had drinks tonight with an English chap who's been cycling around the western provinces with a travelling companion from Canberra of all places. He'll introduce me to the guy tomorrow - I may know the him.

Stampede officially starts tomorrow! Flat out work and 1am finishes from here on in...

MG

All aboot Canada

The other night I watched a documentary movie called 'Souvineer of Canada'. It's the creation of an excellent Canadian author named Douglas Coupland. He's the guy who coined such phrases as 'Generation X' (in the early 90s book of the same name) and 'McJob', among others. The doco was his artistic statement of what he feels it means to be a Canadian. Part of the film documented his project called 'Canada House' where he filled an old government house with all sorts of Canadian paraphanalia including a big blow-up picture of one-legged runner Terry Fox's sock, a Wayne Gretzky poster, hockey sticks etc. (The contents of the house were transferred to a London art gallery before the house was demolished.) The film was a timely introduction to Canadian culture for a newbie like myself. The only down side to the film was that Coupland wasn't the best narrator and appeared a bit aloof and superior. I guess it's ok though because he is a genius.

I know very little 'aboot' Canada. It's Canada day today so I bought three different newpapers to try to piece together what the state of the nation is. Like Australia, Canada is a very young country and it has *lots* of space. People are friendly and optimistic. Perhaps because people have it so good it is a slighly hedonistic country and many people are politically apathetic. I've seen very little of the country so I can't really comment on what the different regions are like. Economically though I understand the Western provinces are on fire while the eastern ones are suffering. Canada is officially bilingual and everything is written in English and French. The predominantly French province of Quebec has threatened succession on a number of occasions. Canada seems safer than the US because there aren't as many guns arounds in the general populace and crime rates are lower. Canada also has fewer fundamentalist Christians than the US. Canada's indigenous population were treated terribly by the whiteman but unlike Australian Aboriginals they do have the benefit of treaties.

In general, Canada is a very progressive, freedom-loving and open-mined society. This is reflected in the generous immigration policy, lax attitudes to marijuana and legalised gay marriages. They did just voted in a Conservative government but the PM doesn't appear to be as nasty as John Howard.

I've found some interesting statistics in an article in McCleans magazine which is the major current affairs magazine. The stats are from a big national poll, that was last done 30 yrs ago, in order to trend Canadian's attitudes to various topics.

Here are a few figures:

63% of Canadians say recreational marijuana use is okay.
61% of Canadians approve of, or accept the idea of gay couples adopting children.
40% of Canadians believe there is no one ideal family model.
90% of Canadians value 'freedom' most of all (83% said family, 51% said a rewarding career)

The American author Mark Twain was a prolific travel writer. I think I remember reading some quote of his that referred to the purpose of travel. It was something about *experiencing* for yourself in order to test your own preconceived ideas of a place as well as those thrust at you by others. I'll certainly be forcing myself to experience as much as I can before economic reality and 'resonsibility' catches up with me.

MG