Exit cat from bag

If you mill around any Canadian law school, you're likely to find a few copies of a certain magazine amidst law firm pamphlets and unsold Law Revue 2006 DVDs (place your order below!) Your natural instincts would tell you that any free magazine is perhaps not worth the paper it is printed on, but thankfully, that's not the case with National. The CBA's in-house magazine's articles are always topical, and particularly helpful to lawyers and law students alike. Plus, I always liked how they publish in English and French in the same issue - if only for how it irks those out West who hope the French language cannot traverse mountains.

Now I have another reason to like the magazine - I'm in it! Or rather, to my great surprise this morning, on it. The cover. Full page.



A while back I was interviewed by Amy Jo Ehman for the mag about this here blog, and why law students in particular blog. I, of course, imagining that the handful of daily visitors who access this site might jump to a whole two handfuls of visitors, leapt at the chance. And, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. It's not too often that somebody recalls things you said months ago positively. (I also like the title of the piece, LL.Bloggers, which is a pun I'm surprised I hadn't yet employed.)

The guilty pleasure of this whole thing, of course, was that I got to do my first photoshoot. (As if subsequent offers of further shoots are yet to come.) Prominent Vancouver photog Robert Karpa arranged the shoot near the Vancouver waterfront at a streetside cafe - which, don't know you, is where I write every post... Thankfully, the area around Canada Place is a hotbed of pent-up cruise-ship tourist activity, so being photographed like that wasn't such a rare sight.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the piece. I regularly visit the other sites mentioned in the article, so it's nice to be in good company. And perhaps this whole thing might bolster my claim below and elsewhere, that I really sorta look like R.E.M.'s lead singer circa 1983.

What's the Frequency of this bus route, Kenneth?

I've been through 4 of the 5 classes from this term so far and, since I'm not expecting any nasty surprises from Appellate Advocacy, I can say that this term has the best selection of classes I've taken since first year. It's like an artist's supreme return to form, instead of just going through the motions on previous efforts.

The bad news is that somewhere between the classes I managed to lose my bus pass. It's the kind of surprisingly generous benefit from the school that makes average civilians enroll in one university class and dropout just to avail themselves of cheap bus fare. But now it seems that someone may get the opportunity to ring that bell simply by finding my card.

I suppose I shouldn't make too much of it - it's a minor fee to replace it and the card has photo ID, and friends will know that the only person who could reasonably pass themselves off as me is currently in Georgia reuniting with his original band.



Still, in the unlikely event that you see Michael Stipe riding Vancouver transit, tell him I'd like my pass back please, and that I agree New Adventures is immensely underrated.

Then I perambulated up 5th Ave.

Team Awesome is one step closer to achieving a definitive win in the battle royale that is the upcoming moot. I finished my half of the factum today, hopefully overruling what the "learned" trial judge held. Now I'm just practicing my oral argument: "With respect, your honour, is you crazy?!"

For the first real break I've had this week I took a brief jaunt down Vancouver's 4th Avenue. First stop was The Comic Shop to pick up volume 2 of The Amazing Adventures of the Escapist. Now, before you start sounding the nerd alert! alarm, buying this issue has more to do with my admiration of literature than comic books. The Escapist, you see, is the faux-superhero created by Michael Chabon's book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. (Michael Chabon is ever so cleverly credited as Malachi B. Cohen in the comic's liner notes). So, it's meta-comic-fiction! And I'm not so much a comic book geek as a comic book meta-geek... Yeah, that could be worse.

Anywho, next on our tour is a stop at the much ballyhooed Zulu records. And the ballyhooers are right. Great selection, although I didn't pick up anything this time round. I'll be stopping there again next week when the new solo Joel Plaskett album comes out, as well as the new Bloc Party disc (which my brother described in his instant-messaged haste as "wicket!") Assuming no new developments (viz. leaks) in the indie-music blog world, (see: Stereogum, One Louder, and Soviet Panda) getting that new Joel album will mark the first time in several years that I bought a physical album without hearing anything off of it first. What adventure!

Next stop, there was a great magazine store a few blocks up, though its name escapes me. I spent my money on the new issue of Filter (lame magazine title but a great Beck interview), so I was unable to buy and scan in further evidence that I am Michael Stipe's twin. If anyone is around a magazine stand, check out page 72 of the latest issue of Blender. It's Michael circa 1987, but it's also me circa 2002 when I had grown out my hair for eight months. Zounds!

Tomorrow, I plan to check out Stanley Park and visit Rufus' Guitar Shop on Alma Street. I'm curious to see whether guitar store employees are as snobbish and show-offish in Vancouver as they are in Calgary (and what I suspect, as they are everywhere). Try it out yourself, pick any guitar off the shelf and start playing it. No doubt an employee will approach you, worried that it is out of tune. In "tuning" it, he will "treat" you to some unrequested Zeppelin solo or Stones lick. Not that it'll be any good - it'll sound polly wolly crappy.

For the last time, the frequency is 147 MHz!

Well, it's back to the books tomorrow. Actually, not so much books, but unbound, overpriced stacks of photocopied paper that bear no semblance to plot-driven prose whatsoever. But we go to school with the books we have, not the books we want. Any more questions?

Tomorrow also marks a special day. On January 4th, some decades ago, a certain man was born. In his youth, this man was well respected by his peers and teachers, who knew he held a special talent. He persevered and worked towards his goal, and this very day he is doing what he loves. Each day, he goes to work and with a honeyed voice, captivates a world of listeners.

This man's name is Michael Stipe and he plays in REM. (I lost you at the respect part, didn't I?)

Coincidentally I share his birthday. (And, for those who own the band's 1983 debut album "Murmur" and look in the liner notes, we also share an exact likeness. I'm not kidding, it's scary. And here's the proof:



But it does bode well should I ever go bald. That Mr. Stipe gives a good name to baldness.)