Pretentious rocker irks

In Lorraine Carpenter’s March 8 interview [“Norwegian mood”] with Kevin Barnes of the band Of Montreal, Barnes states: “We want to create an environment where people can fulfill any twisted, weird fantasy they might have. When they come to the show, they can dress any way they want and be any kind of person that they wanna be. We kind of do that ourselves on stage.”

I really wish I went to the show tonight, but I don’t think Barnes would’ve liked the fantasy that I wished to fulfill, which was that of a rock promoter dressed like a cop shutting the club’s power down on yet another pretentious, corny, Pitchfork band who sound more like Sharon, Lois & Bram than anything worth taking seriously.

Having to read nine sentences devoted to Barnes describing his Georgie Fruit alter ego is two minutes of my life I’ll never get back.

To paraphrase [former wrestler] Mr. Wonderful Paul Orndorff, I think Kevin Barnes has been “drinking too much of his own bath water.”

>> Duane Yow

American ignorance rebbuted

[Regarding Raf Katigbak’s column,” Secretly Canadian,” March 1]: As an American who previously and happily lived in Montreal (and now in Scotland), I can also gladly say that some of us Yanks learned a great deal about our northern neighbors through a few TV exports of your own.

When not watching Sesame Street, I remember lots of good times watching SCTV (Bob, Doug and Jake the Man with the Snake on his face were soooo cool), Degrassi, Ready or Not and Boys in the Hall. Even occasionally the Red and Green Show (though it kinda sucked). And the bargain Molson and Labatts at my American university bars only taught us young’uns more about your great nation.

So we aren’t all as ignorant of Canada as some of you might think, or at least not those of us who read (or watch public television). And I’m proud to say that I know the capital of Quebec is Montreal.

>> Dave Jenkins, Scotland

[Raf Katigbak responds: Ummmm, that’s KIDS in the Hall, there’s no “and” in the Red Green Show, and the capital of Quebec is actually Quebec City. Thanks for proving my point.]

Don’t pee on me

Driving West on Highway 20 a few days ago, I was offended and very shocked at seeing a bumper sticker on a car ahead of me. (I hope the owner of that vehicle reads this.) It was the recognized cartoon character, Calvin from “Calvin and Hobbes” comic, peeing on the Canadian flag. On the other end of the bumper, the arrogant American flag. (Glancing at the licence plate and noticing it was from Quebec bewildered me, as I expected the plate to be from some American state.)

I am a proud Canadian, regardless of what province I belong to, and seeing such an abusive cartoon doesn’t make me laugh. Don’t come to my country and pee on my flag, do it in your own country. It doesn’t make these people any better than the ones across the world burning their stars and stripes. Unless we show some patriotism, next thing we know we’ll have these “not-so-funny” neighbours of ours installing urinals with the maple leaf drawn over.

>> Siddiqa Sadiq, Chateauguay

History is cool

First off, I absolutely love reading Raf Katigbak’s column. It’s incredibly refreshing to read articles that are not censored, laced with PC-ness or camouflaged with some seemingly underlying message. So, thanks!

Regarding his March 8 column, “Canadian history X”, I’m an elementary school teacher and because I teach both the French and English curriculum, I’ve been given the task of teaching history—which I embraced, since I love history.

It wasn’t always like that. I used to hate history because of its stuffing-the-brain-with-meaningless-dates lessons followed by the vomiting-the-dates-back-onto-paper exams. Yup, history sucked. But then in university I had a professor who actually made it alive, significant and substantial. I then vowed to always teach history in that manner and provide the importance that our Canadian history deserves so as to give our past a place in our present. Moreover, I don’t try and hide the fact that some of our pioneers terrorized and slaughtered thousands of aboriginals—Columbus, for example. They deserve to know that history isn’t all pretty, and that many dreadful things happened along the way.

My students tell me they love history because they’re not always pushing a pencil on paper. So far, so good! Cheers, eh!

>> Julie Houle