This song has always been incredibly powerful from when it became a worldwide smash in 1990 but it might even be more powerful to hear it now, nearly thirty years later, after Sinead O’Connor has led a life full of controversy and pain.
“Nothing Compares 2 U” – Sinead O’Connor
Shea and I went to see “Book of Mormon” today, one of the most successful, long-running Broadway shows of all-time, written and produced by the same guys who made South Park.
I’ve been a fan of South Park since someone told me about “Rainbows? I hate rainbows!” but I don’t watch it as religiously (pun intended) as I used to.
But watching the very NSFW, very hilarious “atheist love letter to religion” (as Stone called it) play, it got me thinking back about some of the most offensive, controversial stuff South Park has done.
Walking to school…
(This is also the cleanest his room has been in seven years as well since we’d cleared it out while preparing to paint it.)
Shea and I are binging “Handmaid’s Tale” right now and both loving it (while also regularly cringing!) but if pressed, I’d still say “Breaking Bad” is my favourite TV show of all-time. (It’s up there for Shea too but I think she picks “The Wire” as her all-time favourite.)
Anyhow, can’t wait for this…
As someone who loves visiting all-inclusive resorts (and frequently meets overseas guests while there including many who probably traveled with Thomas Cook), I’ve been watching the collapse of the 178 year old travel agency with with great interest.
Some thoughts:
* Some are calling this the first “Brexit Bankruptcy“, a result of uncertainty caused by all the back and forth confusion around Brexit – if and when it will happen and what the terms will be.
* It’s crazy that not just tens but hundreds of thousands of people are affected including many who are currently *in* resorts that haven’t yet been paid so there’s the crazy situation where people who are at a resort are being asked to pay *again* for a trip they already bought since apparently travel companies don’t release funds until *after* the package vacation is over and obviously Thomas Cook isn’t in a position to do that.
* Fortunately, the UK has some sort of national insurance scheme for international holidays that I don’t think we have here (I’ve read different things about whether it applies to all international travel or just package holidays.)
* Thomas Cook hasn’t operated in Canada for thirteen years so it’s unlikely that very many Canadians were affected, at least directly.
* Will be interesting to see how this affects resorts in the coming months – both in terms of prices (will they go up because of less people booking or down to attract more customers from North America?) and inventory, especially at destinations popular with British/European travelers.
* And obviously this is a tragedy for all of Thomas Cook’s workforce who ended up without jobs extremely abruptly.
“You Can Have The Crown” – Sturgill Simpson
It’s referring to the high school he attended, not the private school he taught at.
But the title of the prologue in a recent biography published about Justin Trudeau with his participation is pretty ironic given the recent brownface scandal that broke when a picture of Trudeau wearing makeup to look like Aladdin during an event at that private high school blew up the current federal election.
I just happened to be finishing this book on the day the scandal broke and this title definitely took on more meaning than it did when I first cracked the book!
