February 2012
6 posts
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“I’m all in favour of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools....”
– Frank Lloyd Wright
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Attention
If I haven’t written anything in a long time it’s because I don’t want to share. I’m content to let it ferment in the back of my mind as I hustle and bustle about the end of Obermeyer’s selling season. I am content to keep things to myself for a while longer…
Then funny things happen in Tremblant.
Last weekend Ami & I snuck into the Casino gondola without...
10 tags
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is...”
– Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan
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bea-r asked: Did Ami write those songs? It's magnificent!
8 tags
“It’s the slushed leading the slushed. And right into doom.”
– Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly
January 2012
18 posts
8 tags
“The sport of skiing consists of wearing three thousand dollars’ worth of...”
– P.J. O’Rourke, Modern Manners
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“There is no time for cut-and-dried monotony. There is time for work. And time...”
– Coco Chanel
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“The difference between reality and fiction? Fiction has to make sense.”
– Tom Clancy
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“I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
– Albert Einstein
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“May you live as long as you want, and never want as long as you live.”
– Irish toast
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Random Encounters
Today was a good day. It ended in the snowy woods of Montée Ryan as I arrived at the condo. My home mountain arouses many memories of arriving here.
Once, on a regular Friday night family trek to Tremblant, we came across a ghost deer on the edge of the wood. It’s albino fur was splashed white and its eyes were red. It just stared at us. Then this autumn, on a regular rep trek to home base...
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“The haze of my dream had still to dissolve, and paired with the graveness of my...”
– Chris Ware, Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth
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Teleportation
There’s only thing keeping my dad’s brother Ben from getting to us for tomorrow and Saturday: civil war in Nigeria. It would have to be something that drastic to keep my uncle from being with his family. My mother tried to make him feel better, saying he didn’t have to come back once dad died, but he knew in his chest that would never work.
My uncle Ben is the stronger person I...
9 tags
“Moé j’fais mon chemin dans la foule en espérant qu’une chose...”
– Les Colocs, “Tassez-vous d’là”
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We Need More Stories
Before dad died he told us we needed to have a big party for him. There are going to be two actually. More details can be found here.
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“You and I, we’ve got a lot to be glad to be glad for.”
– Rock Plaza Central
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Jean Luke Mathieu
Dad died. I don’t really want to talk about it.
But two days ago a man in the fever heat of being eaten from the inside out took his wife to his side when she was having a bad moment. She, for days on end, had worked out the endless train of medical supplies and orchestrated the hospital-house for her heart & soul. She made sure the whole family was eating, that her daughter was...
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“Créer, c’est vivre deux fois.”
– Albert Camus, Le Mythe de Sisyphus
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“We’re lucky with this job because we get to visit the Laurentians in the...”
– Jean Mathieu
Anonymous asked: When will you write a book? I want to take your words on airplanes and greyhounds.
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Petits Détails
Même en français il est (anglicisme à l’embuscade!) Dad. Papa, parfois. Père c’est guère. Jean souvent, de plus en plus. Petits changements mais tous la même chose.
“Voici mon associé,” je disais souvent, “et aussi mon père, Jean, qui va tout observer ce que je fais en me jugeant & en prenant des notes… pendant que ma clinique de connaissance du produit...
December 2011
24 posts
7 tags
“Darkness is a harsh term don’t you think?”
– Mumford & Sons, “Roll Away Your Stone”
9 tags
“If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to...”
– E.W. Howe
12 tags
“Now I’m hunched over a typewriter
I guess you’d call that painting in a...”
– Bright Eyes, Another Travellin’ Song
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“I ski down stuff and jump off stuff. It really doesn’t suck.”
– Shane McConkey, 1969-2009
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“The most important thing is that you, your mom and Annie are with him and I know...”
– The Great Jason Finestone
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Less Colour, More Depth
Holidays usually have colours for some reason. Halloween is black & orange, Thanksgiving is all shades of brown, Valentine’s Day is red (but if it sucks it’s blue). What soothing hue comes to mind when you think of Saint Patrick’s Day? And why is Easter in such gay (cheerful) tones when we can’t figure out the meaning anymore? All those Cadbury candies & empty tombs...
9 tags
“…Both deputies, however, laughed.
“You know, Fred,” the...”
– Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly
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“Si je m’arrête un instant
Pour te parler de la vie
Je constate que bien...”
– Les Cowboys Fringants, Les Étoiles Filantes
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“Love is a better teacher than duty.”
– Albert Einstein
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“Once I found out the secret of the universe. I have forgotten what it was, but I...”
– Lord Dunsany, “The Hashish Man”
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Don't Forget to Write
You can’t document while documenting father & son on the road because you don’t have the energy or the time to. Finding that time, or that free hand, is a fourth job in itself. Half the time I filmed when I shouldn’t have, should’ve been concentrating on the road. And when I found the time to write I should be working, best I study up road maps & ski jackets. I...
11 tags
“Cancer is… pure evil. It is a fat little lump that needs to be…...”
– Principal Victoria, South Park 1209 ”Breast Cancer Show Ever”
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“Where you invest your love, you invest your life”
– Mumford & Sons, Awake My Soul
Anonymous asked: Will anyone ever know what we need? Please help!
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Paul Mathieu
Did you know Paul? He was the youngest of the four Mathieu kids, and somehow became the fattest. He yelled the loudest! Ate the most! The only thing missing at his life’s celebration was his loud, rambunctious voice booming around the room. All my cousins heard its absence. He drank like a freaking fish, always had a beer ready for anyone. Sometimes he made about 200 mini Blood Caesars with...
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“Either you do it like it’s a big weight on you or you do it as part of the...”
– Ram Dass, Be Here Now
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Anniversaire Joyeux, Quoi
Il y a précisèment un an, ou même douze mois si vous préférez, le soleil m’a montré l’aiguille du Midi de la base des Grands Montets. Les matins dans le cocon de mes collègues ont été plusieurs après le 4 décembre mais cette première fois était le début du meilleur hiver de ma vie.
À date.
Malgré que Denis & Coco n’ont pas pu me donner la neige que je voulais l’année...
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“Every day is a birthday. We should celebrate birth every day… And then...”
– Klaus Obermeyer on his “official” 92nd birthday
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“The days you don’t ski you don’t get back.”
– Klaus Obermeyer
November 2011
25 posts
7 tags
Anonymous asked: What happened to the one that got away?
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Mountain Time
With a football game ending in 1:38, people are going to start paying attention again. The Denver airport bar is crowded with Thanksgiving hangovers. A woman orders a sauvignon “blank” behind me but I ignore her and focus on the effect of altitude on my sobriety. It is Mountain Time. My flight to Aspen is actually taking place, we won’t have to drive, so I’m going to pass...