We’re almost there. The Stanley Cup final. Arguably, the most desired sporting trophy in North America. Ice hockey goes a long way to defining Canada’s national identity, yet the last time Canadian team hoisted the Cup was back in 1993 by the NHL’s most storied franchise - the Montreal Canadiens. Last season saw the fairytale run of the underdog Calgary Flames to within one goal of a championship, the first time a Canadian team had made the finals since the Vancouver Canucks in 1994.

Once again, this year’s playoffs have provided many surprises, with favourites succumbing to first round exits and unheralded teams basking in the limelight. Enter the Edmonton Oilers, the eighth-seeded team in the west. They’ve knocked off the number one team in the league, then the next best in the west with all top four seeds ousted in the first round. One game stands between the Oilers and a place in history.

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BGE rating:

This is another book review from the goat! I don’t think that my comments on how good a book is would really cause any ripples, or even get people reading it, but I’m going to give my 2-cents worth anyway.

I must say that I was a little “non-committal” when Freakonomics - A rogue economists explores the hidden side of everything was recommended to me by a dear friend, who despite our relationship only revealed to me lately that he actually majored in Economics (you would never pick it!) I have read my fair share of textbooks in Economics, in fact I find the subject very interesting but this is the only economics book I’d ever label a page-turner. An extraordinary work of social science explanation without oversimplification.

I can’t really pinpoint the key hook that finally got me, I finished the book when I was somewhere over the South China Sea on my way back to Melbourne from HK, so I had time to contemplate the reasons, I came up with 4 possibilities. 1 - Its wacky revisionist title. 2 - Its unsettling take on Roe v. Wade 3 - Its compulsively readable argument that economics does nothing more than study the incentives that drive us or 4 - Just the fact that one of the authors is a mad golf enthusiast like me. Probably all of the above. If you have some time and haven’t read it already then give it a go. On the author’s blog you will find the book has just won the BookSense Award for non-fiction of the year, so there are obviously some people out there who think it’s great. (more…)

So, what do you do when you’ve got a spare afternoon, a disused parking lot and a whole heap of cash lying around? Why not build a giant metallic jelly bean? Created by British artist Anish Kapoor, the work entitled ‘Cloud Gate‘ has been quickly embraced by the good people of Chicago since its final official unveiling last month (uncertain what the bad people think, but who cares about their opinion anyway).

“What I wanted to do in Millennium Park is make something that would engage the Chicago skyline…so that one will see the clouds kind of floating in, with those very tall buildings reflected in the work. And then, since it is in the form of a gate, the participant, the viewer, will be able to enter into this very deep chamber that does, in a way, the same thing to one’s reflection as the exterior of the piece is doing to the reflection of the city around.” - Anish Kapoor

Much has been said about this sculpture but that’s not entirely my reason for posting this. Fourteen years ago, my family took a two month trip back to Vancouver (via Disneyworld) with a stop over in Chicago. I was fascinated by the city, especially its architecture. It was also the first time I’d been inside a Nike store that had more than one level - a defining moment for a fourteen year old kid who worshipped Nike (it was ‘92 and Jordan was king, don’t judge me).

Devyn has a photoblog of Chicago. He lives within the loop area (ask Devyn - it’s his city) and through his blog, strives to show the beauty and uniqueness of his city through sights that people would otherwise find ‘ordinary’. A sentiment I can appreciate… and photos that just blow me away. Check them out here.