Transport: New Year's On a Train

Wilson Lau, Dan Garcia, Michael Guy, and Arno Martens of the Toronto Railway Historical Association posed in front of the GO Transit locomotive that carried them to Oshawa, Ontario on 31-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Yesterday, GO Transit offered free service on its commuter trains after 19:00 to discourage drunk driving on New Year's Eve. A group from the Toronto Railway Historical Association decided to take advantage of the policy to mark the turn of the year on-board a Lakeshore East GO Train.

This wasn't the first time I had celebrated the New Year aboard a train. As 2006 turned to 2007, I was aboard VIA Rail Canada's "Canadian" eastbound across northern Ontario. As the "Canadian" is a first-class train (at least in the sleeper section), that was a real celebration, with champagne served as the train rolled through the darkness of the Canadian Shield.

Last night, our group of five people from the TRHA had to develop our own celebration. A vice president brought spanakopita and various other finger foods, another brought homemade cookies, and there was plenty of chocolate to go around. We caught train #934, departing Union Station at 22:13 for Oshawa, Ontario.


Wilson Lau, Dan Garcia and Michael Guy enjoyed a New Year's Eve aboard a GO Transit train to Oshawa, Ontario on 31-December-2010

On the return trip on board train #939, between Pickering and Rouge Hill, Service Manager Louise gave a countdown to the New Year over the Public Address system (which was accurate according to my GPS receiver). Some fireworks were noted in the distance a few minutes later. It may not have been champagne on the "Canadian," but it was a different way to bring in the New Year.

Media: Air Farce New Year's Preview

One of the monitors showed the title screen for the Air Farce's only 2010 appearance, the New Year's Eve show, during a taping on 16-December-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Originally a radio satire show, long a weekly television show, the Royal Canadian Air Farce has been reduced since 2008 to a single annual appearance--an hour-long special that airs on New Year's Eve. When an e-mail went out to past attendees about the 2010 taping, I responded in about 45 minutes and figured I had a chance of getting a seat. I was at least 30 minutes late--the shows had been filled in less than fifteen minutes, and supposedly there were enough ticket requests to fill 21 shows. Yet, the high demand apparently scared potential rush ticket seekers away last Thursday night--there were only five of us, and we were all allowed in!


Original cast members Luba Goy and Roger Abbott chatted with the crowd between scenes during Air Farce taping on 16-December-2010

Not only was I allowed in--I ended up in the front row! I had the best possible photo angles of the set, right in front of the house band when they came on stage, and I was close enough to smell Luba Goy's perfume. Goy, one of three remaining cast members from the radio show still with the program along with Don Ferguson and Roger Abbott, clearly was enjoying doing the show again. All three original cast members made a point of talking to the audience as much as possible between skits.


Alan Park played President Obama and Luba Goy played Secretary of State Clinton in an Old Spice commercial parody on 16-December-2010

For those used to the fast-paced humor of The Daily Show or even the CBC's own This Hour Has 22 Minutes, the Air Farce has a completely different feel. Rather than a series of one-liners, the show takes its time to develop and deliver humor, whether in the form of a long parody of the Old Spice commercials with President Obama in place of Isaiah Mustafa, or a scene about the planning of next year's royal wedding.


Director Pat McDonald spoke with Alan Park between takes of a bed bug skit during the Air Farce taping on 16-December-2010

Attending a taping is so much more interesting than just watching the show not only because of the art of television can be observed, but because the humanity of it can be observed, as things go wrong and re-takes occur, and people have to wait. Nobody on television will see Penelope Corrin trying to hide a recycling bin with her skirt (or Alan Park pretending to be groping Corrin from a distance). At an Air Farce taping, much of that humanity is centered around director Pat McDonald, whose admonishments that "This is still funny" before a re-take, or "This one really made me laugh in rehearsal" delivered in his dry style helped set the tone for the audience. It's hard to imagine an Air Farce show without him.


The "Ground Crew" of David Matheson and Maury Lafoy had donned heavier clothing during taping of the Air Farce on 16-December-2010

There's substantial down time in a live taping while sets are moved and costumes adjusted, and to fill that time for the audience, they play the pre-recorded "Farce Films" to be used during the show. This year, a number were filmed at Roundhouse Park, a treat for me. Most of the time, though, was filled by the Air Farce house band, called the "Ground Crew," consisting of David Matheson and Maury Lafoy. While it is amazing that the whole cast and crew manages to come back together for just one show a year, the consistency of the "Ground Crew" with their old performances from the regular show run was amazing, singing such standards as "Raccoons" and "The Lake's Largest Johnson"--with only holiday songs added to mix to match the time of year.


The final "F-Bomb" of the Air Farce show was dropped during the taping on 16-December-2010

Without giving away the ending, suffice to say that the crew was worried enough about splattering the audience that those of us in the front row were asked to hold a plastic sheet in front of us to catch any flying debris. The camera zoomed in on those of us holding the plastic, so if the footage from Thursday and not the second taping on Friday is used, I will likely appear on television.

The Air Farce New Year's special will air at 8 pm on 31-December-2010 on CBC Television, with a repeat at midnight.

Holiday: Last Year of the Glasses

BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON - Last night on coverage of the New Year's festivities at Seattle, Washington's Space Needle, KING-TV chose to interview Richard Scalfani and David Cicero of Brainstorm Novelties. That local Pacific Northwest company came up with the idea for the glasses that have been appearing at this time of year for a decade--those with the digits "00" covering the eyes and a number dangling off on each side to form the number of the new year.

I first saw such glasses during the nerve-wracking "millennium" celebration as 1999 turned to 2000. This was the part of the era of my life in which my freshman roommate from college, who grew up in Connecticut, would come to visit me for "First Night" in Boston each year. Boston, with its many arts performances and family-friendly "midnight GMT" fireworks at 7 pm in addition to midnight fireworks, was a great place to be on New Year's Eve, never mind the temperatures that were usually below freezing.

On 31-December-1999, my former roommate and I were walking down Tremont Street after the fireworks when we saw glasses spelling out "2-0-0-0" for the first time. After a few seconds to process how clever they were, I made a realization that I expressed verbally: "We're going to be seeing those glasses for the next decade!" Indeed, as easily as 2000 could be formed, so could 2001 through 2009.

It turns out I have little excuse for not having seen such glasses nearly a decade before. According to recent press coverage, Scalfani and Cicero came up with the idea for the "2000" glasses in 1990--and shortly thereafter realized that with minimal modification to form a "99" in the center instead of "00", could be used for the decade of the 1990's as well. The first year of large sales was as 1990 turned to 1991.

In that era, Seattle's local comedy show, "Almost Live!", did a "New Year's Live!" show on New Year's Eve. Host John Keister wore the "1991" glasses (one of only two palindromes in the whole series--the other being 2002--though since the numbers "9" and "2" are not symmetric, the glasses didn't look significantly more stylish than other years) on air during the show, and from there, popularity and sales would take off and last for almost two decades.

Yet, while my premonition of many more years of "200x" glasses certainly did come true, the last of those years, 2009, has arrived. Scalfani and Cicero humorously claim that they do not intend to continue sales "for safety reasons." A run of nineteen years is not bad for a novelty item.