George Jones shows up

To the Massey Hall in Toronto to see George Jones. Known in the business as "No Show" Jones, we take the precaution of phoning the venue to check that he is in fact there. The tour bus out in snowy Victoria Street has "No-Show" written on the front in recognition of his former alcohol-fuelled lifestyle.
The first performance at the hall took place in 1894 and this triple-deck Victorian theatre is a fitting venue for one of the great survivors of country music. His powers may be ebbing but Jones has a few more bullets left in the gun.
We're sat right next to a coach party from Alliston, Ontario who fittingly have been enjoying a few beers on the bus. They complain that the gig is cutting into their drinking time.
The show is opened by the comic Cowboy Bill Martin from Texas - "We just played a gig in Oklahoma City. I'm not saying they're stupid in Oklahoma but let's just say, as a comedian, I came back with a lot more material than I went with."
Now the Jones band is warming up the audience - a seven piece "proper" country band with fiddle and pedal-steel guitar. They are joined by the husband-and-wife singing team of Barry Smith and Sherri Copeland. The band plays Alan Jackson's "Don't rock the jukebox, I wanna hear George Jones..." and you know that the old possum can't be far away.
Suddenly George is here and he receives a standing ovation. He opens with the recent "High Tech Redneck" - it is an unsteady start with the sound and the back projector playing up but George is unfazed.
After "The Race is on" George complains that country radio won't play drinkin' and cheatin' songs anymore - "Hell I'd be out of a job. They're not fallin' off barstool songs, they're sippin' tunes."
He sums up his remarkable life with "Alcohol is OK if you can handle it - I couldn't."
Band member Jim Buchanan is summoned periodically to play hot fiddle, urged on by George while he sips on a mineral water. When he stumbles he counters with "We've been on the road since '56."
Jones pays homage to Roger Miller with "You oughta be here with me" and follows with "Whose gonna fill their shoes" a powerful tribute to the old-time artists whose images flash up on the screen - Elvis, Hank Williams, Tammy Wynette and all the rest. The man who was allegedly trashing hotel rooms when The Who were still in short trousers has outlasted them all. The most remarkable thing about Jones is that he is still here.
"You won't see any smoke in this show, I'm not gonna swing on a rope or run about the stage."
By the time George reaches his signature song "He stopped loving her today" the group from Alliston are getting restless. It is ironic that this mawkish song, that Jones originally thought a dud, brought him his biggest success.
After plugging his new gospel album he closes the show after a full two hours with "I don't need no rockin' chair." There are no encores.
He's corny, he's lowbrow, he's raucous, he's flawed. Yet somehow George Jones is magnificent.

Smart to debut in Mexico

The Smart City Coupe will be available in Mexico from May according to manufacturer Mercedes-Benz. There is still no official word on a launch in the USA and Canada but an announcement is expected at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September. The two-seat car has had favourable market research in North America and M-B hope it will find a niche in the big cities on the east and west coasts.

Barrichello takes pole in Brazil

Rubens Barrichello of Brazil took the pole position in his Ferrari for the Brazilian Grand Prix to be held on Sunday. Second was David Coulthard in his McLaren-Mercedes.
The sensation of qualifying was Australian Mark Webber in the Jaguar-Cosworth who finished in third place. Webber said "We've had a really good week-end. This is a nice reward for us. I'm really looking forward to it."

Two (Green) Thumbs Up for the people of Etobicoke

A leaflet from the City of Toronto brings us the following news under the above headline:

"Congratulations, Etobicoke! You have proven yourselves to be champions of the environment. More than 95 percent of you are participating in the City's Green Bin Program, and you have helped to divert over 250 tonnes of organics every week from landfill. Instead, this material is being turned into good, rich compost for landscaping and agriculture.
Your participation is especially important since the city-owned Keele Valley landfill closed on December 31, 2002, and we are now trucking all our garbage to Michigan. As a result, our costs for waste disposal have increased from $12 per tonne to $52 per tonne. By using your green bins effectively, seven fewer trucks are going to Michigan each week. That's a significant savings, and helps the environment, too.
Many thanks for your support of the Green Bin Program!"

All good stuff but no word on composting at home - saves trucking organics anywhere - as TV gardening pundit Mark Cullen says "No amount of compost is too much."
Check out the Composting Council of Canada here.

Kingston the loyal

To Kingston, Ontario pop. 130,000 for March break. Three nights at the Holiday Inn. Take the 401 highway east from Toronto and turn off onto the Loyalist Parkway in our rented Chevy Cavalier. Suddenly we run out of road and discover we need to take a ferry to continue our journey. Drive onto the M.V. Quinte Loyalist for a short trip through the icy waters of Lake Ontario. A short ride from the dock to downtown Kingston. We don't feel like venturing out in the cold the first night so we have supper at the hotel - a solitary affair on the sixth floor looking out over the lake and the Martello tower at the harbour entrance, a reminder of back home.
Friday morning and off to see what Kingston has to offer - first to the old railway station, now housing tourist information, a stone-built building more substantial than many of its wooden counterparts. There is another old station, less recognisably so, now housing an Italian restaurant further on.
Breakfast at Morrison's at King and Market - traditional cooked breakfast in pleasant surroundings looking out at the stone-built Kingston City Hall with the good 'ol boys enjoying lunch up at the counter. Off to Indigo to browse the books and buy a copy of the Kingston Whig-Standard, Canada's oldest daily newspaper founded in 1834. They report on a pilot project to divert run-off from the old town tip into an ecological "swamp" where plants will absorb the pollutants - I hope it works although they didn't seem very sure.
Kingston officially became a town in 1818, and served as the first capital of the United Canadas in 1841. Stop at Coffee and Company at 53 Princess Street - pleasant reading the local student paper with the usual storm-in-a-teacup controversies, while basking in the window of this old "heritage" building. Purchased some croissants at Pan Chancho across the street; a bakery, deli and eatery housed in an old bank building dated 1833.
In the evening a small pub crawl taking in the Kingston Brewing Company pub on Clarence Street to sample their Dragon's Breath bitter - tasty and strong - and gawp at their collection of mostly British pub memorabilia. Home after a couple of Alexander Keith's at the Old Speckled Hen nearby.
Strolling round the heritage district close to the lakeshore this morning, stopped at the Town Crier, newsagent and coffee shop to purchase the National Post . Good selection of international newspapers if you are homesick. The weather is warming up with spring thaw on the way at last and Kingston is growing on me.

Docklands Light Railway to reach London City Airport

The Scotsman reports on the extension of the DLR to London City Airport. Due to open in 2005.

NOTL in March

To Niagara-on-the-Lake (NOTL) for the week-end. A gentle two hours and fifteen minutes from Toronto in the friday night traffic in our rented Pontiac Sunfire. Stayed at the Angel Inn - an old pub with passable "English" atmosphere and good live music. Four-poster bed and good off-season prices.
This is a tourist town with 13,000 inhabitants and a reputation for theatre with the Shaw Festival stretching from April to November.
NOTL is different as tight planning controls have kept out billboards and there is a pleasant lack of graffiti, all in a "heritage" setting. We visited the old railway station near the Prince of Wales Hotel and had a Creemore beer at the Moffatt Inn before dining at the Angel on Saturday night. We took breakfast (both days) at the Stagecoach on the main drag - eggs with peameal bacon and good strong coffee.
If you want a quiet break away from the strip malls and chain restaurants NOTL is the place for you. I don't know when I've enjoyed doing nothing quite so much.