Ron Pollock for Winnipeg Mayor, 2006

Winnipeg has another Civic Election this year, and the mayoral race is in full swing. My favourite challenger is a guy by the name of Ron Pollock. He has the greatest commercials running on the radio right now - in one of them, he hands down promises to bring the Jets back if he's elected mayor. He might as well say "If I'm elected mayor, I'll cure Cancer, fix potholes, and bring Elvis back from the dead". It must be easy to make promises like that when you know you aren't going to win. His commercials are quite possibly the greatest things I've ever heard. He punctuates each draconian sentence with such a deep breath, that I suspect he records his commercials while attempting to drown himself. He relates the OlyWest Hog plant to the loss of the Winnipeg Jets, and proclaims that he's spent 14 years in court fighting for what's right - he doesn't specify what he was doing in court... perhaps he was a defendant! Also making this radio spot a winner is the terrifying background music, which is hopefully not his campaign song, but rather an ominous reminder of what life in this city COULD be like if Ron Pollock is not elected Winnipeg Mayor. Click the image below for the audio track to his first commercial, synchronized with some helpful images (Note that the movie file is NOT part of his campaign, but was done for humorous effect). You will need to have Adobe Flash Player installed, which you can obtain by visiting the Adobe Flash Player Download Center. Let me know if you enjoyed this. I'll try to track down his other two commercials on the net, and post them here. They are quite entertaining. Head on out this October 25th Winnipeg, and help choose your new Mayor! 

Currently playing - Eddie Money - Take Me Home Tonight 

Currently colouring: Chronicles of Conan Volume 11 

Now entering my one-hundred and thirty-second Cola free day!

Portrait of the artist as a young rapscallion.

The summer of 1994 was, for an impossibly large number of reasons, THE worst summer of my life. One bright spot, however, was my second full time job, pumping gas at Gord's Convenience Store, with my good friend, Claire Compton. We had a lot of fun there, and the rest of the staff were great.

We'd always joked about doing a "Men of Gord's" calendar. It really would have been a quarterly calendar, since there were only 3 men who worked there (Excluding Gord - however, as nice of a man he was, you wouldn't want to see him in this publication).

I'd completely forgotten about this idea, until I was reminded of it a few years ago by Claire, who had found the photos after almost a decade. Against better judgement, I'm sharing them on this blog. I've got a bad feeling that these pics are going to rear their ugly heads when I make my run for School Board Trustee, so I'd best come clean with them now!

I'm not sure who was manning the gas pumps this evening, where I got the tiger print satin boxers, where my hair went, or how many years it took for me to learn that white socks are a fashion faux pas, but it was a fun night in a pretty bleak summer.

Thanks to Claire for being the custodian of these photos all this time, and for not using them for blackmail purposes!

Currently playing: Bulletboys - Smooth Up In Ya