"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