Justin Pogge

I didn't watch the game, but I will say that he chose a great number.

It's the least I could do

Today, my floor hockey team, The Eulers, had our last game of the term. In honour of Patrick Roy, I was the goaltender. In honour of Wendel Clark, I allowed 17 goals.

Another Great Concert

Last Sunday, a friend of mine invited a group of people, including myself, to watch a concert by "Hey Rosetta." To be honest, I have never heard of them before, but I'm pretty much always up for going out with friends for live music.

The band is from Newfoundland, and as a typical Torontonian, I made the mistake of assuming that we would be hearing maritimer folk music. Well ... I am an idiot. Instead, I got to see one of the best live Rock n' Roll shows that I have ever seen.

The show was at the "Pawn Shop," a bar/club on Whyte Avenue. The "Pawn Shop" is equipped with a dance floor which was packed with about 75-100 people, whenever there was a band on stage. I was actually surprised at how busy the place was considering it was a Sunday night, and the headlining act didn't actually start until abou 11:30pm. Admittedly, university students had the next day off, but this is still Edmonton, and I find most places close really early on Sundays in this city.

I'm not exactly a music critic, but I knows what I likes, and I likes this. They used a variety of instruments on top of the standard drum, guitar, bass, and vocal setup - including the prominent use of the violin. Again, I can't really ask for more from a concert than hearing great music, seeing the band enjoying themselves up on stage, and having most of the bar rocking out with them.

Due to my lack of tact, I had a nice little moment when I went up to the merchandise table near the end of the "Hey Rosetta" set. I was hoping to beat the lineup which was clearly going to build as soon as they were done playing, so I sneaked up near the end of their set. The table was still close enough to the stage and dance floor that I could still see what was going on. What I didn't realize at the time was that each band was selling their own merchandise, and so I would have to wait until after "Hey Rosetta" was done in order to get a CD.

Anyways, I foolishly go up to the two guys sitting at the table and am told that I have to wait. At this point I recognize the two as members of "Two Hours in Traffic," a solid pop rock band from PEI. Me, being the super-smooth guy that I am, went with the following response:

"Oh ... Sorry about that ... yeah ... Anyways, nice set guys ... ummmm .. real good job ... yeah, that was great ... thanks anyways." I then scurried away as quickly as possible. Yup, accidentally implying that I'd rather spend my money on another band right to the face of a few musicians (of which I actually enjoyed) - all in a day's work for me.

Halloween in the City of Champions

Being a suburb kid most of my life, this year marked only my second Halloween in the downtown area of a city.

Most families with children live outside the city so there isn't any trick-or-treating inside Edmonton. The fact that most people who actually live in the downtown area, do so in apartment buildings and condos further dissuades this act. Instead, the bars and clubs step forward as the main driving force behind the celebration. Each venue is decked out in very standard Halloween paraphernalia in order to host a Halloween bash aimed at eighteen to twenty-something year olds - mainly by promising the involvement of women with revealing costumes.

People simply use the day as another reason to party and celebrate, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But if you are into transforming your natural habitat into something more gruesome with the aim of terrifying children into an appreciation for the dark, creepy, and unknown, away from the city is where you want to be.

The Longest Game

Tonight, the Tampa Bay Rays take on the Philadelphia Phillies in the third game of the World Series. All signs point to a long, tightly fought series between two fantastic teams, and yet I'm having trouble bringing myself to actually watch.

Now I love baseball. I listened to most of the Jays games this year using MLB's Gameday Radio service - even when the Jays were out of contention for a playoff spot. And then in contention. And then back out of contention.

My disinterest is not an indictment of the teams. Just because there are no incredibly obvious story lines (curses to break, vendettas, etc.) does not mean that there is no reason to watch. High quality baseball is certainly enough for me.

But playoff baseball can be incredibly frustrating for a number of reasons, with my biggest complaint being that the games take so much longer than they do in the regular season.

Just to illustrate this point, consider that in the years 2006 and 2007, the average regular season game took approximately 172 and 175 minutes respectively (the data is based on game logs from Retrosheet.org). For the 29 games in the current playoffs, the average game length has been 204 minutes long. Even when I remove the two extra-inning games which the Red Sox played - each of which took over 5 hours despite the fact that the games were only 11 and 12 innings long - the average game length is still 195 minutes for a game. While I have no problem watching extra baseball, I do have a problem with having the same amount of baseball take extra time.

Note, these numbers come with some caveats. Twenty-nine games is a small sample size. Unfortunately, I currently can't find easy-to-manipulate playoff game logs and I am not about to look over hundreds of individual game pages on baseball-reference.com (where the current info is from). Another aspect that may be skewing the results, is that certain teams in the playoffs, such as the Red Sox, are also known for having longer games. However, this effect seems to be exacerbated in the playoffs.

Having the pace of a sport decrease is not necessarily inherently evil, but I think it is problematic for baseball. Keep in mind, this is a sport which is played almost every day. With the World Series games starting at 8pm EST, it can be difficult to become personally invested in a series. Not only is an incredible time commitment required of anyone who wants to enjoy as much of a series as possible (almost 3 and a half hours a day), but people also have to work in the morning. Not to mention Mountain Time folk who enjoy listening to games during dinner, and still like having time to accomplish things afterwards (5 o'clock games are awesome).

One of the causes of this problem is very obvious - specifically, the increased length of between-inning commercials that the game is forced to work around. However, there is probably more to the story than that. For example, managers may be making more pitching changes, or pitchers might be slowing down since they are often asked to pitch more frequently in the playoffs. I'll leave the hypothesizing to another post and instead just hope that MLB tries to address the problem.

5 Angry ... Umm ... People

Well that political debate was a lot more amusing than I expected. Perhaps it is just my peculiar sense of humor, but I was laughing pretty much throughout. I'm doubt it is very helpful to force every candidate to distill (in some cases) complex policies into forty-five second soundbites, but it sure provided for some entertainment.

From my uninformed perspective, political parties usually select the safest candidate, which generally leads to having uninteresting leaders. However, between the subtle reminders of the plagiarized speech and the sweater quips, even I must admit that at least this group seems to be of the intelligent and witty variety. Even Harper, playing the stoic, poker-faced incumbent got me to chuckle a few times.

I did appreciate that nobody pretended to be folksy. Instead, each candidate listed artistic endeavours they engage in as a way to demonstrate how much they appreciate culture. I'm not sure which was more amusing: Stephane Dion saying that arts are important partly because they are just plain "fun", or Jack Layton admitting that he is just not very artistic.

My personal favourite of the lot might be Gilles Duceppe. I thoroughly enjoy how he tries to force people to give firm and clear answers to his questions (at least from people with a chance of winning), so as to get them on record. If only he were running for some other party...

On a more serious note, it was a breath of air that nobody brought up a single social issue - unless all of them were settled in the fifteen minutes of the debate that I missed. I hate when politicians add social issues to a platform as the resulting debate never actually convinces anyone one way or another. In the end, it just adds to the partisanship and division that is already inherent in the electoral process.

Well that got a lot more serious than intended. As a consolation, here is the logo Jack Layton used to promote his film festival a few years back. I don't think I will ever get tired of it.

Wherefore Art Thou Edmonton Goaltenders?

If I ever have a kid, I am teaching him/her to be a goaltender. This way, when they try to create an adult hockey league team, they won't be handcuffed by their inability to find someone with some experience to stand between the pipes.

Actually, never mind that. There is more money to be made as a lefty pitcher.

The Outdoors Symphony

On Monday, I was invited to join a friend of mine at Hawrelak Park to watch the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra play live in the third day of the "Symphony Under the Sky" Festival. The performance we saw included a wide range of pieces, from jazzy swing music to the old Hockey Night in Canada theme song. Playing along with the orchestra on several of the pieces was P.J. Perry on the saxophone.

It was an odd experience hearing a symphony outdoors, particular as we had lawn seats. The entire atmosphere was much more relaxed than an ordinary symphony performance with the musicians even wearing long sleeve t-shirts instead of the standard formal wear. It was pretty neat, particularly because it seems like a nice way to introduce a new audience to this style of music.

The outdoor setting can also add an interesting variability as the musicians are forced to deal with the weather. For example, scattered amongst the orchestra pit were quite a few heat lamps that had been used earlier in the weekend to combat low temperatures. However, Mother Nature decided to save something particularly special for the pianist who, in the middle of a solo, was forced to awkwardly and continuously switch between playing and preventing his sheet music from flying away. Eventually, the wind won the battle, and there was nothing more for him to do aside from grin and slump forward in mock despair while paper fluttered around him. At least it got a roar of laughter (and understanding) from the audience.

As mentioned earlier, one of the pieces played was the old Hockey Night in Canada theme song, which was used as a preface for a little fun: an entry into CBC's theme song contest by the ESO's composer-in-residence, John Estacio. As such, the regular conductor, Bob Bernhardt, stepped aside so that John could conduct his own piece, "Powerplay Fanfare." I have to say, I was pretty impressed (but I will say it sounds much better with an actual orchestra). The composer said he was trying to capture the spectacle of sport and competition, and I would say he accomplished that goal. It probably helped that he conducted the piece while wearing an Oilers jersey. Oh, and it was a Ryan Smyth jersey of course.

It will be interesting to see how well this piece does in the competition, because I think most people will want the song to have an identifiable "riff" as most sports theme songs do. For example, consider the Monday Night Football theme (note: it is a crime that I can't find the old TSN Sportsdesk theme on youtube). I think it would be hard to argue that part of the appeal of the old song was how "hummable" it was. Having said that, I do really like this entry.

I do also want to applaud the conductor, Bob Bernhardt, for really getting into the event, and enjoying every second of it. Not only did was his banter with the crowd quite amusing, but he also had a lot of fun with the setting. For example, while conducting the old Hockey Night in Canada theme, he used a mini-hockey stick instead of his baton. He also initiated a second rendition of John Estacio's piece, in which Bob led the crowd to add some extra percussion to the piece by pounding the ground and clapping.

The concert ended with a rendition of Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" which apparently is the traditional way to end the festival. Tthe audience is even encouraged to bring bells to play along with the performance. One of the gentlemen in front of me had brought a saw blade which he held using a screwdriver as its axle. By hitting the saw with a metal hammer he certainly did well to accomplish that church-tower bell sound. The Royal Canadian Artillery also got involved, by firing cannons in time with the orchestra so as to add a little something extra to the performance. What can I say, but that it was pretty cool.

AI and Art

Slate currently has a slideshow that gives a brief introduction into the use of Information Visualization in modern art. Information Visualization is concerned with displaying incredibly large amounts of data in an intuitive way that highlights interesting properties of the data in an easy to analyze format. Due to both the aesthetic quality of these visualizations and the informational value inherent in them, it is no surprise that such work can be interpreted in an artistic fashion.

The image in the slideshow, that particularly piqued my interest - due in no small part to the fact that the application is tangentially related to my research area - is a system that visualizes the reasoning done by a computer chess program called the Thinking Machine 4. In the picture above taken from the system's website, a large number of lines of play are depicted for each player simultaneously, with green arcs indicating the possible movement of players by white (on the bottom), and the orange arcs depict possible plays by the black player (on the top). The lighter the arc, the better the move is believed to be by the program for the white player (and consequently the worse it is believed to be for black). Anyone is free to play the available chess-playing program and watch it "think" in real-time.

From what I can gather from the authors' website, the playing ability of the program has been set to allow it to be easily defeated by reasonable chess players. However, the algorithm at the program's core, minimax search, is just a simplified version of the system which is the basis of all of the strongest chess-playing programs currently out there, as well as the famous Deep Blue.

Essentially, minimax search works by considering every possible state that the board can be in, some number of moves into the future. This number is generally small due to the incredibly high number of possible board states, and the limit on reasoning time imposed by the rules of chess. In the above image, all future board states, up until some depth, are represented simultaneously - each being the result of the combination of some number of arcs.

Each future board state is then evaluated, using expert knowledge about chess that has been programmed in by the system designer. The program then selects the move which pushes the game towards the best board state it can get to, assuming the opponent is trying to oppose this goal.

What is particularly interesting about this image is that it illustrates that the computer is reasoning about the game in a completely different way than any human would. While a human player does in fact peer into the future when constructing a strategy, at each step only a small number of moves are considered for any one player. This is not only because the human is unable to consider such a large number of board states in such a small period of time, but also because the human is remarkably effective at immediately recognizing that most of the moves can be disregarded.

The program, as the image suggests, is much more thorough in its approach. As such, it is forced to consider many unpromising moves because it lacks any intuition, thereby limiting how far into the future it can plan. On the flip side, the computer is more willing to consider unorthodox play, and is never going to mistakenly disregard a line play due to any bias for move removal.

Many people believe that the top human players and the top computer players are about on par in the world of chess. As such, this visualization not only highlights the thoroughness of the computerized approached to chess, but it also provices a beautiful reminder that usually "there is more than one way to skin a cat."

For the sake of brevity, I have kept the description of minimax as non-technical as possible. The interested reader should look into a more complete description of the algorithm and its game theoretic properties. There are also many enhancements which increase the quality of the search, such as alpha-beta pruning and quiescence (both used by Thinking Machine 4), which try to help avoid unpromising lines of play.

Not So Live From Commonwealth Stadium

In a constant attempt to remain obsolete at all times, I thought I would mention my trip to Commonwealth Stadium last Thursday to watch the surprisingly competent Edmonton Eskimos host the league-leading Saskatchewan Roughriders. A big crowd of over 48,000 people showed up, making it the largest crowd I have ever witnessed live at a CFL game.

This was the second time I have been to a Riders-Esks game in Edmonton, and from what I can tell, there exists some natural law ensuring that whenever these two teams tangle it is extremely cold outside. Last time I went, the temperature dropped to -10 Celsius. Luckily, this time it was in the 4-5 Celsius range. Keep in mind it is the middle of August, there is a significant amount of wind in the upper deck (where we sat) and only a couple of days earlier, Edmonton experienced one of the warmest days for the city in recorded history (over 35 degrees Celsius).

The cold weather did not seem to discourage Riders fans from showing up, who probably accounted for more than half of the patrons in attendance (perhaps even 60%). Riders fans have to be described as completely die hard, but generally not in an obnoxious way. I can't even count the number of fans I saw wearing Riders flags as capes, green and white face paint, and half a watermelon on their head. My personal favourite piece of paraphernalia was the fellow wearing a Transformers mask that had been repainted green and white. But while they made more noise during Edmonton offensive plays than Esks fans could muster during Rider drives, the ribbing between the fans was generally good-natured (aside from the few altercations in which, predictably, alcohol was involved).

Commonwealth itself is a pretty nice stadium with a similar problem to the SkyDome in that it is so big that it looks emptier than it is unless the crowd is huge. Having said that, the sight lines for football are excellent, at least from the upper deck. I also find the price at the concession stands to be more reasonable than at any other professional sports stadium I have been to. For example, I had a hot-dog for $4.50 and a beer for $5.50, which is not unreasonable for sporting events.

I was also shocked by the amount of participation in the 50/50 draws. For those unfamiliar with such a contest, it is merely a raffle of which 50% of the ticket price goes to a charity and 50% goes to the winner. I have now been to several different sporting events, and every time am amazed by the prize money that ends up being won. For this game, the winner took home over $38,000 which means more than 1 ticket was purchased on average per person. I have never seen even close to that kind of participation at any other sporting event in any other city I have been to.

After a Long Hiatus, Some Live Music

On Saturday, a friend and I went to the Starlite Room in Edmonton for an Oxfam benefit concert headlining Eamon McGrath and the Wild Dogs. I met Eamon several months ago through Matt, a good friend of mine in Toronto. Eamon was performing a live set at the York University radio station CHRY and as the musical director of the station, Matt invited me along to videotape the performance.

Unlike the CHRY set which consisted of Eamon alone with a mic and an acoustic guitar, the Starlite Room concert involved a full band playing a punk show. In this setting, Eamon and the Wild Dogs just throw themselves into the performance and pretty much completely let go on stage. These guys appear to absolutely love playing live, and the joy they exude is simply infectious. Between Eamon charging into the crowd to dance and sing, and the rest of the band going wild on stage, I was completely in awe of the amount of energy these guys played with.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was particularly interesting to recognize some of the songs from the acoustic set. While the lyricism may be harder to appreciate in the punk show, I loved being able to hear such a completely different interpretation of the songs, particularly "Badlands", a personal favourite of mine.

One of the opening acts, Sam Hate and the Jackals also had a very impressive sound. I'm not sure how to describe it - let's go with hard rockabilly - but I was quite entertained. Of note, the bassist was adding an extra layer of percussion by somehow slamming the strings against the neck of his double bass while playing. At least this is the way he described it to us at the end of the show, but something might have been lost in translation due to the ringing in my ears.

Here is part of the video I filmed from the CHRY set, although I have to give credit to Matt for putting things together and editing the footage. Admittedly, the film is all washed out (that is my fault, not Matt's), but I think you will enjoy it.

First Post, Better Make It Good

I did a little research, and it seems the internet was in desperate need of another random person with a blog. After all the world wide web has given me over the years, I felt that filling that void was the least I could do.

This blog will be a sounding board of sorts, as I am not expecting to hold firm to any one topic - mostly because I am generally unable to do so. I view this blog as a personal sounding board, with my purpose being to improve my writing skill through the exploration of this medium. Expect a mishmash of posts on film, sports, computer science, and my adventures in Alberta. Also, expect me to be quite long-winded.