Saxophone! Muppets! (or, Will the Real Miss Piggy Please Stand Up)

Ok, Wednesday happened to be a day where I didn't accomplish many of my assigned "Git 'er done before you leave" tasks, but it was worth it.

I always knew that I'd go to see The Muppets on its opening day (since I was out of town when my dad had an invite to a free screening on Saturday).  I have always been a Muppets fan.  The Muppet Show, the Muppet movies, Muppets Tonight (highly underrated), and more recently their cheeky youtube videos* (I'm repressing the Muppet Wizard of Oz, as my brother has blogged recently here) are all some of my all time favourites. 

In fact, as my parents tell me, The Muppet Movie was the first movie I ever saw.  According to their version of the story, they arrived at the movie theatre (with little 2-year-old me) only to discover that we had missed the intended showing (before the days of online movie listings ... it was 1979, people).  The parental units asked me if I wanted to go home, or wait for the next show.  Apparently, I chose to wait, and thus made my first movie going experience a Muppet one.  I still get teased about being afraid of Animal when he takes the giganto-pills invented by Dr. Bunson Honeydew, but i mean seriously.  A 60 foot Animal would freak out any 2 year old.  And I had never seen a screen that large.

So how was the new film?  Well, since I was going to be downtown (keep reading), I decided to go the AMC at Yonge and Dundas.  The big advantage to these theatres is that they use digital projection.  Mmmmm digital.  Crystal-clear picture.  But anyways, I did love the movie.  I've been a Jason Segal fan ever since I started watching How I Met Your Mother, and while many critics associate him with such raunch-fests as Forgetting Sarah Marshall (only raunchy because he shows the full monty), and Knocked Up, fans of his TV show can see how he's just a gigantic muppet at heart anyways (watch the movie to see just how muppety he is).  I also quite enjoy Amy Adams.  Nuff Said.

Things I loved about the movie: 
- Quirky songs
- Muppets on the Big Screen!
- Chris Cooper's absolutely weird character (maniacal laugh!), and truly bizarre rap number complete with lyrics and bouncing ball
- Cameos (some expected, some unexpected)
- "Say Hello to My Little Friend" (in Swedish)
- Animal gets a character arc
- Stadler and Waldorf get to participate in the story instead of just heckle it

Things I didn't love as much:
- No Frank Oz.  Fozzie and Miss Piggy just didn't sound quite like themselves.....

Here's a big thing I think the movie missed.  I rewatched the Muppet Movie, and, while the new movie nails the overall tone of the Muppets - the innocence, irreverance and hopefulness that the characters inspire - it didn't have the overall zaniness, wackiness and mayhem that the original has (they're not called Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem for nothing).  In a sense, the human characters in Muppet movies have always been just barely keeping up with the craziness that ensues... Segal's character (Gary) is almost more of a leader than someone who's hanging on for the ride.  Additionally, the several scenes where Kermit addresses the Muppets and makes a speech were far too docile for my taste.  Kermit should have to wrangle the Muppets' attention.

Overall, the film was very well done and very enjoyable.

I then chose to walk to Roy Thompson Hall enjoying the lights of the city, feeling its energy around me before I leave.  I did snap a few pictures on my cell phone and when I get to uploading them, I'll post them here.  Highlights were old City Hall lit up at night, and the skating rink at Nathan Phillips Square.

I was downtown in the first place because my friend Christy, who works in the arts scene in Toronto, offered me her extra ticket to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra last night.  What was the program?  Well, none other than jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis performing the Glazunov Concerto, and an arrangement of Schulhoff's Hot Sonate, with the second half being taken up by one of my other favourites, Dvorak's 9th Symphony.

Dvorak's tomb.  Photo from my visit to Prague in 2009

These were interesting selections for Marsalis.  His sound control was wonderful, and his conception of classical saxophone vibrato and tone was actually far better than I had expected. 

The Glazunov Concerto is what I consider to be a gateway on the classical saxophone.  One of the technically easiest concerti, it does require good sound control and an understanding of the musical line to play effectively.  Playing from memory, Marsalis only made a few small and forgivable slips.  However, the orchestra really made a mess of things.  It seemed that the conductor and orchestra wanted to play everything slower than Branford did, and the imprecision made for a muddled mess in the string accompaniment. 

The Toronto Star reviewer Peter Goddard liked the performance, writing that "Marsalis’s controlled but swinging lyricism throughout the concerto would have likely been unimaginable to Glazunov, who might have been surprised by some of the liberties . . . the soloist took with the score."  Perhaps Mr. Goddard should actually look at the score.  The only "liberties" Marsalis took was the dramatically extended cadenza, which I quite enjoyed and found stylistically appropriate.  In addition, Marsalis did play in an idiomatic style.  There was no "swinging."  Goddard should go back to reviewing movies.

As far as the Schullhof went, while I truly enjoyed the orchestration by Richard Rodney Bennett (the piece was originally composed for saxophone and piano), the limited (and, for me, boring) melodic material reminded me of why I've never actually performed this piece, despite a copy sitting somewhere in my (now fully alphabetized and packed away) saxophone music library. 

The Dvorak is one of my favourite pieces.  And there were some nice moments in the orchestra, particularly the english horn solo (and the duet with clarinet) in the second movement. 

All in all, Wednesday was a great day to be in Toronto.  Muppets, Saxophone with orchestra.... what more can a muppet loving saxophone player ask for?

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* Beeker, Animal and Swedish Chef singing the "Habanera" from Carmen has joined the Bugs Bunny cartoons in my tutorials on Romantic Opera.

Counting Down

No, you're not going to get a blog a day as my departure date approaches.  There are WAY too many things to do before I shuffle off to Deutschland and way too many drains on my time to spend the hours crafting beautiful little blog entries each day for your entertainment pleasure.

I'm just going to reconnect with all my loyal blogosphere peoples to give you an update on what's been going on.

I just returned from the Society for Ethnomusicology annual conference in Philadelphia.  The conference is a great way to see what's going on in the wonderful world of ethnomusicology.  I have to say that it's an exciting time for us ethnoids.  With the expansion of the availability and accessibility of the all of the world's music, there's so much to study and so many ways of examining and analyzing the music of the world!

It's always great to see the faces and meet the people behind the names that you read in articles and books along the educational trail.  What astounds me is how NICE all of these people are!  Special shout out goes to Judah M. Cohen from Indiana University.  Brilliant scholar and super nice dude.

As far as the klezzical content of the conference, my paper ("Interculturalism and Musical Hybridity in Early Klezmer" -- sounds brainier than it really is) was on a fascinating panel with papers on Andy Statman (by Benjamin Krakauer), and Swedish Klezmer as played by non-Jews (by David Kaminsky).  It was a fascinating session, and a priveledge to be associated with some great scholarship!

Now on to the rest.  Things have been up and down here.  My grandfather passed away a few days before I left for Philadelphia.  I'm not quite ready to do an "in memoriam" blog yet.  I'll save it for another time, but I will say that he was surrounded by his family, especially at the end, which is the way that we should all go.

My time these days is spent cleaning, packing (well mostly packing, which will then lead to cleaning), writing job and post-doc applications, and soon, writing proposals for other conferences coming up in the new year.  Writing job application cover letters and "statements of research" and "statements of teaching" and other such miscellanea is quite time consuming, but must be done, particularly if i want to find a job!

So thus is my life.  In 6 days (and about 6 hours), I get on a plane for Europe.  December appears as if it's going to be full of travel.  I have 2 chunks of 3 or 4 days that I'll have to be out of the apartment I'm renting in Berlin (due to previous bookings for the 'vacation rental' apartment), and I've already got a trip scheduled to Paris to see my favourite band, Gogol Bordello.  I'll blog more about that in a couple of weeks.

As for the other time that I need to be out of the apartment, I'm investigating some travel possibilities, looking for affordable getaways.  A possibility is to stay in Germany and either visit other friends around the country, or see more of Europe.  Some possibilities include Brussels, Stockholm,and Oslo.  I know.. Why do the cheapest flights have to be to cold places? 

And so, dear readers, this is my final week.  Packing up my life in the place that I've called home since 2003, working to try to find some work beyond the Berlin adventure, and seeing friends before I leave.  I'll try to blog once more before I leave, but the "Adventures in Klezmer" are close to beginning (although any klezmer is an adventure).

Alex Anthopoulos, Ninja*

Well, in 4 weeks today, I get on a plane for Berlin.  Amazing to think how close it is, and how much I need to get done in the interim.  So I decided to blog about some of the things I've learned from baseball, seeing as the World Series (and the baseball season) is now over -- Congrats to the St. Louis Cardinals and the former Blue Jays who play for them!

I play this baseball simulation game called Out of the Park Baseball (2012 edition).  This game allows you to simulate every aspect of being a general manager, from trading players, to signing them to contracts, to managing a complete minor league system, to setting lineups, etc.  Everything.  The game is really deep.  I play mostly in an online league, where there are 30 players, each one acts as the GM for a major league team.  The game starts in 2011, and proceeds forward until we finish playing.

In the ASBA (the American Simulation Baseball Association), I manage the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and we have gotten to the 2011 All-Star break (mid-July).  Normally, every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, the game sims ahead one week, and this weekend was a very eventful one, due to it's being the last "real time" weekend before we hit the trade deadline in this Friday's sim. 

This is kind of a long way of getting to the title of this blog entry.  In my general managing, I try to apply some of the principles that Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos uses.**  The one that was most at play in trade talks was to never dismiss an idea outright.  When another GM proposed a trade, I would think about it, no matter how preposterous it sounded.  I would find ways to make it work for both parties, and if we eventually decided not to make the trade, I gave my reasons for it, rather than just reject it out of hand.

This, is also the way of the ninja.  The ninja were paid assassins, saboteurs, and general stealth operators.  When they were hired for a contract, they would never reject it out of hand, and frequently (as legends have it), they would make what appeared to be impossible possible.  They examined a problem from as many different angles as they could in order to find a way to make things happen. 

This is what makes Alex Antholpoulos a ninja.  This idea - of being able to make the impossible possible - is a result of his ability to examine a problem from many different angles, to assemble information from every possible source, and to seize opportunity when it is presented.  This, combined with the stealth with which he operates, makes the Ninja. 

I present exhibit A:  The Vernon Wells Trade.

The biggest result of this trade was that it rid the Jays of Wells's $20+ million of payroll for 4 years, freeing up the Jays to sign Jose Bautista to a very reasonable $14 million a year contract extension.  From what I've read of the blogs and newspaper articles, the Angels were looking for a big bat, and had lost out on some of their free agent choices.  The desperate GM was under pressure to improve the team, and in sweeps A.A. with Vernon Wells.  The Jays took on the dead weight salary of Juan Rivera (released in June or July), and catcher Mike Napoli, who they traded to Texas for up-and-down relief pitcher Frank Francisco.

Why is this trade "ninja-like"?  Because everyone and their brother thought Vernon Wells's contract was un-moveable, and when news of the trade came, it was unbelievable at first.

Exhibit B: The Colby Rasmus trade.

From what I've read, A.A. has coveted CF Colby Rasmus for a few years.  He just had to wait for him to wear out his welcome with Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa to become available.  Then, rather than give up prospects that he considered key to the future, gave up reliever Jason Frasor and minor league starting pitcher Zach Stewart to the White Sox in order to get the key cog that St. Louis was asking for - Edwin Jackson.  Jackson was then flipped to St. Louis, along with Jays relievers Octavio Dotel, Mark Rzepczynski (I think I spelled that right... thanks, Polish ancestry!) and useless spare outfielder Cory Patterson.  The Jays got back Rasmus, and 3 bullpen arms that may or may not be useful down the road (one has already been released). 

What does this tell us about AA's ninja skills?  Well, by going to the White Sox to get a starting pitcher in Jackson, he was thinking outside the box, examining the problem from a different angle.  He asked himself, "If I don't have the players necessary to get Rasmus in my organization, who does?"  He identified Chicago, got what he needed to make it happen.  Ninja'ed.***

These aren't the only situations where AA picked opponents pockets (Yunel Escobar, anyone?), and I, for one, admire having someone running my favourite team who doesn't just want to be the smartest guy in the room, but could possibly be the smartest guy in the room.  And it's not just that he's smarter than everyone else.  He listens to people, he takes their opinions into consideration, he gathers as much information as possible, and when he strikes, it comes from out of the blue, leaving us all to wonder how the hell he did it.

As a life-long Blue Jay fan (after all, I was born the same year the Jays started playing), even though the team may be a ways from contending, it's nice to know that the Jays have a GM who has a plan, is sticking to it, and knows how to get things done without alienating people.^ 

We can all learn a little bit from Alex Anthopoulos, Ninja.

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* I'm not the first to call him a ninja.  I'm just explaining the metaphor.

** This is my interpretation of his actions.  Obviously I have no idea if he actually uses this principle consciously.

*** For the record, I'm not sold on Rasmus yet.  I love the way he plays center field, but in interviews he seems like big, dumb ol' country boy, who may never figure out the hitting side of things, leaving fans, teammates, and team management exasperated about not using the massive talent he has.  Contrast him with Jose Bautista who figured it out (later than most) to become the most feared hitter in the AL, as well as a smart baserunner and fielder. 

^ Do you think the Cardinals will hesitate to deal with Anthopolous again?  They won the World Series with contributions from the players that they got in the trade.  Win/Win trades make everyone happy, and make other teams likely to deal with you again.

The Academic Sidetrack

Being a PhD student who hopes to someday get a university teaching job, I find myself being pulled in two directions at once. 

Of course, my main concern is to actually finish my PhD dissertation.  This is, of course, important, because these days, with so many freshly minted PhDs out on the job market, prospective employers have an easy time eliminating much of a large applicant pool by saying, "Let's look at the people with PhDs first."  So, in general, just finishing will have the potential to bump up your attractiveness as a candidate for a job.

There is, however, the saying in academia, "Publish or Perish."  Meaning that one must publish to make one's self attractive both in the job market, and on the Tenure Track.  Getting something published (in a refereed publication, of course) is a very time consuming task.

So I'm always somewhat torn as to whether I should be writing the dissertation, or trying to submit proposals to get stuff published, or to present stuff at conferences. 

Right now, I'm even more torn.  After just finishing and submitting a proposal to publish some of my work, I'm now turning to the always fun process of applying for post-doctoral fellowships and teaching jobs.  Those other PhD people out there know just what this is like, and with the prospect of double-digit applications due within the next 6 weeks, it's somewhat intimidating and taxing of my organizational skills.

This is what I call "The Academic Sidetrack."  The non-dissertational work that I'm doing over the next few weeks is very necessary, and (potentially) ultimately beneficial to my career, but unfortunately distracting me from what should be my number one priority. 

So, I take a deep breath, examine the (hypothetical) mountain of deadlines and teaching statements and cover letters and personal philosophies of study and ......

.... and away I go.

To have your mind blown

Years ago, I worked in the music section of an Indigo bookstore (if you're American, think Barnes and Noble).  While the corporate structure was somewhat annoying, it was an amazing place to discover new music and new artists.

There were 3 or 4 of us who generally staffed the section and one of the biggest perks was that we could choose the music that was heard in the store.  Frequently, this had commercial implications, as we were only allowed to play CDs that we had multiple copies of.  However, what it did was make us scour the shelves for interesting things that either a) we had multiple copies of, or b) that we really dug and would order multiple copies of.


Back in those days, a music store actually had music in the store (rather than DVDs and video games) and Indigo had a pretty good selection of stuff that was pretty obscure.  This was my first introduction to the mind-blowing Susheela Raman.

A British singer of Indian descent, she combines south Indian music with popular styles.  Her first two albums (which we had in the store at that time) just blew my mind with the fusion of styles and her powerful voice singing in the microtonal ornamentation style.  Using tabla drums instead of drum set for the most part, some of what she did stuck with me as I began down the road of the creation of own musical fusion.

This blog entry comes from "rediscovering" her, through suggesting her music to a friend, and then learning of her latest album, Vel.  (Click the link to go to the site for the album.)

I felt that Raman had gotten away from the things that really interested me in her first two albums (Salt Rain and Love Trap) on her third offering, Music for Crocodiles.  My feeling was that her sound had become more mainstream, as if she was trying too hard to find a larger audience.  The fact that she recorded a song in French (she appears to perform a lot in France, and has released albums on French record labels), as well as more songs in English than in Tamil.  The melody lines on Music for Crocodiles seemed to be very typical of contemporary popular music, and lacked the original and unique sound of her previous work, and served as an uninspired vehicle for her unique voice and singing skills.

However it appears that she has since shed her record label, and become more adventurous again with her newest album.

On a quick listen, the more funky South Indian rhythms (including tabla) and more interesting microtonal ornamentation are more present on Vel than on Music for Crocodiles.  There is also much more heavy electric guitar as well as electronics, and more of a throbbing, driving rhythmic bent to a lot of the songs on the album from Music for Crocodiles, which seemed (to me at least) to be an attempt to remake herself as more of a coffee-house type singer/songwriter.

Vel, to me, sounds like a place where Raman is more comfortable, using her powerful voice to punctuate and float on top of a darker, heavier, thicker ambient atmosphere. 

If it is true that she is now self-producing and self-releasing (like so many artists are doing today), I highly recommend that you click the link, and buy her music (available on iTunes).

On Occasion, Fortune Smiles

So much in this world is random.  Take fame for instance.  For every famous actor, musician, artist, author, there are hundreds, maybe thousands of equally talented individuals who toil in obscurity. 

What makes those who become famous rise to the top?  Are they any more talented than those who are not famous?  I believe that it is a number of factors that all coincide in the right person at the right time in the right place that lead to fame and success in the entertainment industry. 

Some might call it fate, others happenstance, but nonetheless, a series of seemingly random events need to occur for someone to be discovered, packaged, and promoted in order to "hit it big."

For most musicians who work in non-popular genres (classical music, jazz, world music, etc.), "hitting it big" occurs on a much smaller scale.

What I'm trying to say, is that as a klezmer/world-music-fusion artist, success is relative. 

So . . . what brought on this line of thinking? 

Back in August, I got an email through my band's website (www.klezfactor.com) from the TV production company (Insight Productions) that was putting together the biographical segments for Canada's Walk of Fame induction ceremony.  Veronica Tennant,* the producer of the bio segment to honour author Mordecai Richler's** induction, had heard some of KlezFactor's music on the CBC Radio 3 website and decided that it fit what she was looking for.  The TV producers wanted to know if I would give them the rights to use chunks of a bunch of songs from both of our albums to accompany the video segment. 

As a big fan Richler's writing, my only answer was yes.  Later, I found out that the esteemed Canadian actor Christopher Plummer*** was narrating the segment.  All this will be televised next Sunday (October 23) at 8PM on the Global Television Network in Canada (no, it's not all around the world... that's just the name of the network). 

The result of this is that my music is going to be heard on a national television broadcast (with probable re-broadcasts at some point), reaching infinitely more people that it ever has before. 

It is a huge honour and validation to be associated with this project.  First, to be associated with an author like Richler, whose work I have enjoyed for years, is extremely flattering (although, thinking about it, I can see some similar themes in the approach to Jewish identity between his writing and my music, but that's for another blog).  Second, to have Christopher Plummer's voice over my music is goosebump inducing (although I have yet to see/hear the segment).  And third, it's pretty fucking awesome to have my songs heard on national television.

So far, the widest television exposure I've had was an episode of Kenny vs. Spenny^ where they didn't want to have to pay for rights, so we just played some "traditional" klezmer music.  In the case of Canada's Walk of Fame, it was all above board, with a nice, mainstream cheque to go along with it. 

It's funny.  When people want to you to do something for free, they tell you that it will be great exposure. When it's actually something that IS great exposure, they pay you for it. 

However, I have no illusions that this "exposure" will lead to anything, besides a nice entry on my CV.  The nature of reality is that our music will be heard and absorbed as part of the presentation, and then relegated to a memory.  Perhaps it will influence and become part of the sense memory that people have about Richler and take that away from their watching of show, but at most, we'll have a credit at the end of the show (which will roll by too fast for anyone to actually see).

Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud of the work that I have done with KlezFactor (and plan to do more . . . keep reading over the coming months).  And I'm also very proud that our music was discovered randomly.  I'm very proud that Veronica Tennant, when scouting for music, reacted so strongly to what she heard of KlezFactor on CBC Radio 3. 

After all, that's why we do it.  All of us non-mainstream musicians toiling in obscurity make our music hoping to elicit as strong reactions in others as we get from ourselves.  For us, that's success.  The knowledge that others "get" our music. 

I'm about to experience the biggest "success" of my professional career, and almost no one except for my family, friends and you, dear readers, will know about it.  So while, on occasion, fortune smiles, it's more of a private, only-for-yourself kind of smile.  Like Mona Lisa's.  And that's not so bad, is it?

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* for more on her, click here.
** for more on him, click here.
*** for more on him, click here.
^ Kenny vs. Spenny ran for about 5 years on a variety of networks and was syndicated internationally.  It was very much a niche tv show about two guys who had a (usually gross) contest each week.  Our episode was "Who is the better Jew?"  The show was made in what could be considered a guerilla style - very cheap, very fast and very off the cuff. 

Happy Birthday, Multiculturalism!

As columnist Haroon Siddiqui points out in today's Toronto Star, yesterday was the 40th anniversary of Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau's announcement of the policy of multiculturalism.

Siddiqui notes that the "failures" of multiculturalism in Europe stem from the European policies being dependent on political whim.  Here, multiculturalism is firmly ingrained into Canada's constitution, both in the 1982 Charter of Rights and the 1988 Multiculturalism Act, which reads that "multiculturalism is a fundamental characteristic of the Canadian heritage and identity and that it provides an invaluable resource in the shaping of Canada’s future." 

Canada's legislative commitment to encouraging a place for a multiplicity of cultures to live together is profound in a world where people's commitment to the proliferation and security of "their own kind" resonates strongly.*  Siddiqui traces this multicultural bent to the 1867 British North America Act which recognized the rights of "aboriginal peoples, English-speaking Protestants and French-speaking Catholics on the basis of race, language and religion."  These historically protected rights of minorities** have made Canada one of the most culturally rich places to live.***

As someone who is moving to Germany (one of the countries whose leader pronounced multiculturalism "dead"), I feel that the multicultural nature of Canada, and particularly, Toronto is something that I'm going to miss.  Even now, sitting in a Starbucks in a strongly Jewish neighbourhood in the northern suburbs of Toronto, I have seen and sat amongst Jewish people, black people, brown (south Asian) people, East Asian people (the neighbourhood also has a large Filipino population), and non-Jewish white people.  Riding the subway is another experience altogether, where one can hear upwards of 5 languages in a single subway car. 

Last summer, travelling through Europe, I felt uncomfortable in many of the homogenous European countries, particularly in Poland, Slovenia, and Croatia.  In Slovenia, I actually witnessed people giving a couple of African men dirty looks just for walking down the street.  In parts of Italy, the only black people you would see were Africans selling knock-off handbags on street corners.  It was only when I was in London that I felt more at home and comfortable with the vast array of humanity present. 

So what does all of this mean?  Genetically, the concept of ethnicity has already been disproven.  There is no such thing as "race," as all physical differences between people are merely adaptations to various living conditions around the world.  Therefore, since there is no such thing as race, one should feel just as at home in an ethnically diverse city like Toronto, or New York, or London, as in a much more homogenous one like Cracow, or Ljubljana. 

However similar our DNA is, sociologically, there are differences, with like gravitating to like.  As I've told young umpires as an instructor and evaluator, "Perception is Reality."  If we perceive differences between ethnicities, and thus act upon them, the reality is that there are differences.

That said, one of the things in moving to a new place is to experience a different culture.  Having lived in the United States for a couple of years (at a particularly volatile point in recent history, right around 9/11), I've experienced how two cultures (even as similar as Canada's and the US's) can be subtly different.^ Thus, I'm looking forward to experiencing the differences in German approaches to multiculturalism.

Anyways, to sum up this somewhat rambling blog, I'll just say, Happy Birthday, Canadian Multiculturalism!  Makes me proud to call Canada home.

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* I just finished reading Niall Ferguson's compelling The War of the World, which is a fascinating look at the factors leading to World War II, and the decline of the world empires active at the beginning of the twentieth century.  Ferguson cites ethnic nationalism, specifically the desire to "liberate" a country's ethnic peoples living as minorities in neighbouring nation-states, and to homogenize the country's population, as one of the leading causes to much of the armed conflict around the world since the end of WWI.

** I won't get into the opression and indignities that Canadian governments have inflicted on Canada's First Nations peoples ("native americans").

*** Although this is more true for the big cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver than rural Canada.

^ Even Americans are surprised that things are subtly, yet significantly different in Canada.... as Homer Simpson once called Canada "America Junior."