journal features

hey, remember the NHL

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2012.10.05

Looks like the NHL is having some sort of strike or lockout or who gives a crap. I stayed home from my high school graduation ceremony to watch my home-town Calgary Flames win the only Stanley Cup in their history. I went to games.

But as the years have dragged on and as Canadian teams left for better "markets" and all parties involved descended into squabbles over ego and money, and as the Stanley Cup, a trophy designed to be awarded to the "top team in Canada" became property of a league bent on holding fans hostage, I stopped watching. Then I stopped caring at all.

Now I'm just embarrassed. Embarrassed for them, and embarrassed for having cared for something so clearly not meant for me but for the aggrandizement and enrichment of the thing itself.

It's just like the "recording industry".

rand()m quote

It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart.

—Anne Frank