I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: MIKE FORD: Satellite Hotstove (2007).

I was going to say I didn’t know what the name of this album meant, but then, while looking for a photo of it, I discovered it’s a part of Hockey Night in Canada. Shame on me for not knowing that.

Anyhow, Mike Ford is a member of the fabulous Moxy Fruvous.  He has released a few solo albums, and this one I just picked up from MapleMusic.

This is a very solid folk album.  Mike wrote some of these on the Trans-Canada train, so as you might expect there’s a lot of Canada packed into the 8 songs. Although Ford and Fruvous liked to throw humor into their songs, there’s no much of that here.  “Huge on the Luge” being the exception, which is very funny and quite silly (and was actually written in 2001).

The rest of the album deals a lot with Canadian water images: The Eastern Gap in Toronto, The Credit River in Ontario, The Seaway in the St Lawrence, and The Fraser River in BC.  And, there’s the rather obviously titled Saskatchewan (not a cover of the Rheostatics song).

I’m very fond of the song “Late of October,” a sweet celebration of Autumn, which is probably my favorite season, too.  There’s not a lot more to say about this record.  Mike has a great voice, perfect for folk songs, and his lyrics are thoughtful.  If you’re looking for good folk music by someone you may not have heard of before, definitely check this one out!

[READ: July 5, 2008] “The Eagle Has Landed”

The Walrus is a magazine I’ve subscribed to since Issue 2. It’s a great general magazine from Canada. They cover everything from politics to the environment, to arts and culture, and they don’t only cover Canadian issues.  It’s one of my favorite magazine.   They write about things that I don’t think I care about and then I find my self totally engrossed by it. However, because I like to read every article in the magazine, I often find that I don’t get around to reading them because I don’t have the time. I’m something like seven months behind in this magazine!

When this latest issue came, I saw the teaser for this story: “Bush and Cheney Hit the Road” and had to read it right away. This story reminded me just how much I enjoy the Walrus. I have since read two of my back issues, and enjoyed each piece in them.

Anyhow, back to the story.

Boy did I love this story. In it, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are hanging out. Bush did not win the election because Al Gore, using the strong support of an unimpeached Bill Clinton cruised to victory. In Gore’s America, things are the inverse of the USA circa 2008 as we know it. The terrorists were caught using Gore’s “Pound of Prevention plan” and global warming is less of an issue.

The bulk of the story concerns the road trip that Dick and W take in order to change this unholiest of Americas. Things have turned South for W.  Laura has divorced him (just as a headline on The National Examiner [there’s no website for the National Examiner?  Really??] I saw in the 7-11 told me: Laura Seeks Divorce!  (I’m paraphrasing since I couldn’t find it online).  Back to the story: W’s living in a trailer with his new girlfriend.

They proceed to unveil a cunning plan using time travel.  They think of the only way to destroy Clinton’s impeccable presidency: his weakness for women.  They know they can’t change history, or just go back and make him have an affair, so they try a subtle plot: get an intern hired who might effectively ensnare President Clinton.  And their plan is hatched…one tiny event causes the entire world to change.  And really, it is the only way to explain the last eight years.

Boy, did I enjoy this story.  I’m not sure if it’s great literature, but as catharsis, it couldn’t be beat.

The story is available here.