Every night on The National they run the standard four stories covering the party leaders’ tours across the country for this General Election. Here are my impressions after Day One:

• Stephen Harper - Surprisingly relaxed and looking a lot less like a wax museum figure than he usually does; he’s dressing better too. Performed better than I expected, and is doing a good job at covering up the secret “lets ship all the poor people to Australia” agenda that others report him to have. 6/10
• Paul Martin - That blue checked shirt took 10 years off him. Also looked relaxed, but the whole “Stephen Harper is the anti-Christ” approach is already wearing thin, and I predict it will backfire because it makes Harper more credible, not less. The “let’s visit the greenhouse and help the little children plant seeds” was over the top. 5/10
• Gilles Duceppe - He’s not running for the top job, so he can be more relaxed than the other guys. He used to feel a lot like a high school vice principal; he’s a lot friendlier now, more like a that socialist friend of your parents who used to drop by from time to time. 8/10
• Jack Layton - The green hues in the backdrop are nice. The prancing through Chinatown was a little too composed and artificial. The speech was well executed: he got all the righteous indignation out of his system before the campaign, and now he looks like the calm alternative to the warring Harper and Martin. Performed better than I expected. 7/10

Where was the Green Party, by the way? If they’re running a candidate in every riding, don’t they deserve equal treatment? The existing setup means the CBC is an agent of status quo preservation.

Oh no, I’ve been Stevedotted. Firecat rocks!

An off-the-cuff remark on last night’s Beat the Press on WGBH led me to this up-to-date display of front pages of newspapers from around the world from the Newseum — “The world’s first interactive museum of news.” Cool.

From Ann comes a nudge towards Josh Ritter. I’m listening right now. Ann doesn’t recommend lightly, so I will explore.

And via Grassy Hill comes Susan Gibson from Texas. The title track [MP3] of her album Chin Up is fantastic: the kind of music that shoots clean into your diaphragm and enlivens your insides with glee. The rest of the album is great too. Texas demands more of our cultural attention.

By the way, Susan is playing at the 2004 Woody Guthrie Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma, running from July 14 to 18. If there was ever a reason to go to Oklahoma, this is it.

One more music note: the Good Music Recently Heard section that appears at the right of all pages here now has an archives page all its own that lists all the music I’ve been captivated by of late.

Away From My Desk, subtitled “A Round-the-World Detour from the Rat Race, the Tech Wreck, and the Traffic Jam of Life in America,” is a book by Rif Haffar about a motorcycle trip around the world with has girlfriend Tracy.

This is the first round-the-world travelogue I’ve read written by someone with money. I’m used to reading about the adventures of travelers who stay in $5 hotels and spend their days welding together the frame of their broken jeep. I’m used to characters who travel close to the ground, get themselves into trouble, and have a true sense of adventure.

Haffar is none of these things: his travel plan in a new city consists mainly of finding the most expensive hotel that provides the greatest isolation from the teaming hordes of the native population. This isn’t universally true — especially while they’re still traveling by motorcycle, the pair does live slightly more “rough and ready.” But the last half of the book is full of Intercontinentals and Sheratons.

I say “still traveling by motorcycle” because this really isn’t an “around the world by motorcycle” book — the motorcycle was tied up at Indian customs, and the rest of the trip — through Asia, Australia and South America — was conducted by plane, sea, and rented cars, trucks and motorcycles.

Haffar tries to be a witty and entertaining writer. But his primary attempt at humour — wildly exagerating numbers, like “and 1,000,000 mosquitoes” — is quickly tiring, and the balance of the humour rests mostly on making fun of, or pointing out the peccadillos of the locals.

I like reading tales of round-the-world adventures for two reasons: I like learning about the world, and I like learning about what happens to people when they travel. Away From My Desk doesn’t convey much about either topic: we don’t learn very much about the countries visited, and we don’t learn very much about Haffar and his partner, save for their predilection for luxury.

Whereas in First Overland, we learn a lot about the interplay of the expedition team, and Who Needs a Road? is filled with the protagonists getting thrown into prison and hoodwinking themselves through customs, Away From My Desk is really just a mundane travelogue, relating neither a thrilling adventure nor a compelling travel relationship.

If you’re a serious student of round-the-world travel you’ll still get something out of the book. Just don’t expect too much.

I bought Away From My Desk at the The Toadstool Bookshop in Peterborough, NH in the spring of 2004.

• Too many splash pages. These are useless and annoying.
• If you’re going to use your photo, at least have a well-composed, high-resolution photo one taken; a bad photo is worse than no photo at all.
• If the national party is going to link to your site, make sure it’s there!
• Hey, NDP, it’s time to get out of the 1992 web design rut you’re in!

Three websites on the radar this week under the “planet restoration” category (or at least “less planet destruction”).

From my mother comes Meta-Efficient: A Guide to the Most Efficient Things in the World, with information on everything from rain water harvesting to energy efficient televisions. The introduction to the site says:

An average household spends $5000 on utilities and gas per year. Incorporating these tools and techniques can dramatically decrease your dependence on petroleum, electricity, gas for heating and cooling, municipal water and sewage utilities. Once implemented these sources will be available to you perpetually.

From Rob Paterson comes news of Talk Energy, a “new international web-site community geared towards sustainable energy solutions, sharing ideas and showcasing innovative alternative energy products.” Talk Energy is based at UPEI, has broad aims, and seems uncommonly chocked full of practical goodness, like this discussion of measuring fridge energy consumption. It’s having a public launch on Tuesday, May 25th at 1:00 p.m. at the Irving Chemistry Building at UPEI.

And, finally, a re-run of a pointer to a site I’ve pointed to before: Dale, Sandy, Riley and Bailey live in a house that’s off the grid. Their website details how they did it, and what they do about heating, appliances and the like. They’re living the kind of stuff that is coffee shop rhetoric to the rest of us. Bravo.

My friends Bill Coleman (see here) and Laurence Lemiuex are staging a performance of Bill’s piece for orchestra, choir and dancers, Convoy PQ. 17, on June 6, 2004 in Montreal. Details on their website.

Bill’s father Joe Coleman is a survivor of PQ. 17, a World War II supply convoy that ran from North America to Russia. On July 5, 1942, his freighter, the Bolton Castle went down, with eleven other vessels, the victim of German bombing after the convoy’s escorts were withdrawn. He escaped with his life, into one of two lifeboats. Bill’s piece is a requiem for the convoy, and an homage to his father and his comrades.

Convoy PQ. 17 runs one night only, on the 60th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 2004, at the Centre Pierre Péladeau in Montreal. Tickets are on sale now.

Because Province House was built by the same man who built our house (and was designed by his brother), because Bill Reid, from whose family we bought the house, was a clerk of the Legislative Assembly, and, well, because it’s right next door (I once gave directions to our house as follows: “Stand on the water side of Province House. Face the water. Turn to the left. If you were to shoot a canon through the buildings you see, you would hit our house.”), we have something of a proprietary feeling towards the chamber.

Indeed every time I watch Question Period on cable, I get a small tingle in my spine, knowing that much democracy is rambling around so close.

If you haven’t been watching Cable 10’s broadcast of Question Period for a while, you should really tune in: it is rollicking good fun now that there’s an opposition. Last night, for example, there was a very well played — on both sides — back and forth between Richard Brown and several cabinet ministers. And Carolyn Bertram seems to be hitting a good mix of “embarrass the Government” and “working for my constituents” questions.

If it’s the opposition’s duty to watch the government, it’s our duty to watch the opposition.

Faced with mounting deficits, and light traffic at the betting windows of Island race tracks, Provincial Treasurer Mitch Murphy today announced plans to begin selling crack cocaine in Summerside and Charlottetown.

“The additional revenue that crack sales provides will allow us to significantly improve the infrastructure at the Charlottetown Driving Park and Summerside Raceway,” Murphy said on the steps of the Legislative Assembly.

While critics say that the sale of crack cocaine, which they claim is a powerfully reinforcing psychostimulant, will lead to social and health problems, Murphy dismisses these complaints. “Crack is in widespread use in major cities across North America,” Murphy said, “and it would be irresponsible of us not to tap into the potential new revenue source.”

Using funds from the sales of crack, the grandstand of the Charlottetown Driving Park will be rebuilt, a new restaurant and lounge will be constructed, and an underground network of 200 specially constructed “crack dens” will be housed in the area under the grandstand. “Crack users have been crying out for a central, clean, well-lighted place to practise their craft; we’re simply answering that call,” explained Murphy.

Construction of the crack facilty is expected to start after Old Home Week in August, with the crack fully available in early 2005.