Remember when it was fun to fly?

Two things Canadians love.  Their BlackBerries and hockey.  They testify about both, because they’re homegrown.  Funny that all the teams are south of the border, because the passion up north is palpable.  I’m on the shuttle to the airport and the woman with an unidentifiable ethnicity starts speaking with the driver.  Are you Russian?

And this twentysomething starts waxing rhapsodic about Russian hockey players.  She’s got two passions, fashion and hockey.  At least she admitted there was no nexus, but I remember when people said the same thing about music.  But music no longer drives the culture.

Get old enough and everything changes.  The country turns Republican, it’s not what can I do for the country, but what can it do for me, even though I don’t want to pay it.  And everybody’s got a smartphone.  And suddenly, the fashion shows in Paris and New York are more important than the new record releases.

When did the music business become the movie business?

You know the movie business…  We know if a flick’s a hit in a day and no movie plays for more than a week or two.  It’s an endless tsunami (sorry for the use of that word on this sad day) of crap that you end up ignoring. They keep raising the prices, fewer people are going to the theatre.

And it seems like fewer people care about the overhyped crap albums put out by our so-called stars.  You mean you really want me to listen to seventy minutes of music by someone who probably doesn’t even have one good song in him?  The whole music industry has become presumptuous and out of touch.  A gig is an overpriced vacation.  And all the execs and acts can do is complain the public isn’t paying more.

People would rather work on their style than buy music.  Hell, the music’s meaningless.  Ever listen to the Black Eyed Peas?

So in just a handful of minutes, five?, we’re at the terminal.

Or so I think.

I mean yes, it’s close to downtown.  But when I go to check in, the attendant (at a Mac!), says I’ve got to get on the ferry.

Huh?

And the water is roiling.  I feel like I’m getting on the Edmund Fitzgerald.  And it’s only a two minute trip, but the boat rocks enough to make me feel a bit seasick.  But I’m lovin’ it, and I’m not talking about that jive burger stand hyped by Justin T.  (You want me to believe in you after you sold out to McDonald’s?)  I mean going to new places is all about the adventure.  And I’m feeling it strong up in the Great White North where it’s raining but there are still traces of snow and the places the planes go to most Americans could not pick out on a map.

And when I emerge on the other side of the river, there’s a plethora of attendants.  Friendly!  And they don’t charge me for my overweight bag.  And everything’s clean.  And the flight attendants are dressed up like it’s still the sixties.  And when I get through security, which is tight, but also friendly, I go down the escalator to this lounge where the wi-fi is free and so are the refreshments…  Coke, orange juice, apple juice, coffee, cookies…

And there are more seats than people.  And they’ve got tables to eat and work.  And the guy next to me is Skyping.  And it makes me wonder why everyone says the United States is so great.

I mean I’m at dinner last night and Tanya’s talking about going to the doctor and it’s FREE!  Whereas in America people don’t get medical help because it’s too expensive and end up in the overpriced emergency room or die.

Travel really opens your eyes.

But what opens my eyes most is a company believing in giving you more, being nice, focusing on service.  I didn’t want to fly into Newark, hell, when I booked I didn’t even know I was going into Newark, but I’d take Porter every time in the future.  Not only because it’s close to downtown Toronto, but because they make me feel like a human being, like I deserve respect, like we’re all in it together.  And I haven’t felt that way in the United States for a very long time.  The bankers have got all the money and the corporations have got all the influence and unless you’re connected you can’t get a good concert ticket and even the crummy ones are overpriced.  How did we go so wrong whilst telling ourselves we were going so right?