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Gregory Maguire–Tales Told in Oz (2012) [Madras Press: Series Three, Book One]

Posted in Children's Fable, Funny (strange), Gregory Maguire, Hierophantic Biography, Jimi Hendrix, L. Frank Baum, Madras Press, Marvin Gaye, Monsters, Morality, Phish, Pourquoi Story, Rheostatics, Small Books, Suite of Apothegms, Supernatural, Talking Heads, The Simpsons, The Who, Trickster Tale, Witches, Yuck! on September 9, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Ventura (2013).

Not content to have just one concert on a release, Ventura contains two complete concerts from July 30, 1997, and July 20, 1998, at the Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, California.

It’s an opportunity to compare the band at the same location one year later–these two shows exist in the vacuum between the release of Billy Breathes (1996) and The Story of the Ghost (1998), so there’s a few “new” songs in 1997, but it also doesn’t mean that they are playing the same sets–not by any means.  In fact, between the two shows they repeat only two songs: Water in the Sky (new) and Prince Caspian (from Billy)

1997 sees the band in good form.  After two solid openers with “NICO” and “Wolfman,” they play a wild “Chalk Dust” which has some crazy dissonant soloing in it.  “Water in the Sky” is a slow countryish version with piano and twangy guitar.  There’s a great “Stash” with appropriate audience clapping (I really want to see that live) and then a typically fun “Weigh.”  This is followed by lovely versions of “Piper” and “Cars Trucks Buses,” and the set ends with a slow funky version of “Character Zero.”

Set two opens with a groovy “Pinch You in the Eye” (9 minutes) and a great jamming version of “Free” (almost 12 minutes) with a funky solo.  “Free” is one of my favorite songs by them and I always think of it as “new” because it is rather poppy.  But it’s from way back in 1996 so it’s surely not new. After about four and a half minutes of trippy sounds and echoes. they start “David Bowie” (which includes The Simpsons riff and a Doh!).  The solo is long with a lengthy piano section and a mellow jazzy middle before it turns a little funky and then to a groovy jam to the end.  It runs for just over 21 minutes and the end of the song starts the chords for Talking Heads’ “Cities,” which the band segues into perfectly and then segues back into “Bowie” fop another 6 minutes.  There’s a scorching end of the song with a lot of noise before the end.  Those last scorching solos each have a break where the band sounds like they are collapsing before resuming perfectly.  It is a spectacular 32 minutes of music.  (Their live releases have me believing that they “Cities” a lot more than statistically they do).

They slow things down with a relatively mellow version of “Bouncing around the Room” (as mellow as that song can be anyhow) and then the bluegrass version of “Uncle Pen.”  The end of the second set comes with a mellow jam to start “Prince Caspian.”  Even the jam is mellow for about 9 minutes, but the set ends with a raucous version of Jimi Hendrix’ “Fire.”

The encore is a rollicking run through “My Soul” with a very fast “mymymymymymmysoul oh my soul.”  It’s a great show with lots of perfect peaks and valleys.

There’s a bonus track–a 9 minute soundcheck jam.  There’s some casual singing of some “dah dah dahs” and some high pitched “ooohs.”  A keyboard solo follows and it ends with a noisy section and a scream of delight.

In 1998, the band opened the show with a 21 minute “Bathtub Gin.”  It’s not that often that their opening song is a big ass jam.  (I’m sure someone has stats to back that up).   There’s a lot of piano riffage in the middle too.  After this, the band plays mostly short songs for a while: a mellow version of “Dirt.” Then a  fast and fun “Poor Heart” (in which Trey introduces Mike as the author–which he is).  Then a jazzy “Lawn Boy.”  There’s a romping “My Sweet One” which segues into a rocking “Birds of a Feather.”  By the time the get to “Theme from the Bottom,” which sounds great, they’re ready to stretch out.  It’s about 9 minutes long with a nice long solo.

They repeat “Water in the Sky” from last year.  It’s pretty although a minute shorter than 1997.  There’s a 4 minute jam before “The Moma Dance” starts proper (that will be on Ghost).  The set ends with a 14 minute “Split Open and Melt.”

Set 2 opens with a really long (14 minute) version of The Who’s “Drowned” and a dark moody jam although the reggae chords of “Makisupa Policeman” start long before “Drowned” ends.  And as the reggae jam starts, Trey sings “woke up this morning… SKUNKED” to much cheering.  The song ends with a trippy synth section that segues into “Maze.”  Page continues The Who theme with a solo version of “Sea and Sand.”  It’s interesting that in 1997 their second to last song was “Prince Caspian” (about 9 minutes). A year later their second to last song is also “Caspian,” this time 12 minutes with a rocking solo.  It segues into a stellar set-ending fifteen minute “Harry Hood.”

The encore is a crazy “Sexual Healing” sung by fish.  It’s goofy and it goes on way too long (nearly 8 minutes), but they follow it with a 12 minute jam of “Haley’s Comet.”  I love the harmonies.  The song ends with some rumbling noises as the guys leave the stage.

The bonus soundcheck is a reggae riff with them reciting the lyrics “I’m your Venus, I’m your fire.”  It’s a decent enough jam for a soundcheck although I’m most impressed with how Trey ends with a wrap-up riff instead of just stopping the song.

The bonus soundcheck songs aren’t that great to have–more like special feature on a DVD.  But the main sets are fantastic.  And you get 35 different songs between the two shows.

[READ: November 22, 2016] Tales Told in Oz

I read the 16 Madras Press Books some time ago and posted about half of them.  So here’s the other half coming up.  So what is Madras Press?

Madras Press publishes limited-edition short stories and novella-length booklets and distributes the proceeds to a growing list of non-profit organizations chosen by our authors.

For this particular book, “The author of the bestselling Wicked Years series returns to Oz with a compendium of folktales.  Proceeds to benefit Friends of West Hartford Library.”

I’m probably the only person who would read this book not knowing who Gregory Maguire was.   Well, I’ll amend that.  I knew who he was and I loved Wicked when I read it.  But I forgot who he was (his name  did sound familiar, though).

As I said, I loved Wicked but didn’t read anything else in the series.  I was only vaguely aware that there was a series–evidently there are 4 books and this book is considered 0.5.

All of this is introduction is to set up why I didn’t really enjoy this book that much.  Not realizing that it was part of Maguire re-imagining Oz, I thought it was weird and arbitrary that it was “set” in Oz.  Why not just make up your own world to tell these stories about.

Now realizing what was at stake, I appreciate it more, but since I’m not invested in his series (or really in Oz itself–I’ve never read more than the first book of that series either), these were just amusing tales. (more…)

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Amelia Gray-“Oil and Vinegar” (Lucky Peach, No. 18: The Versus Issue: Spring 2016)

Posted in Amelia Gray, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gender, Lucky Peach, Phish, Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, ZZ Top on September 3, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: PHISH-Slip Stitch and Pass (1997).

After two more studio albums, Phish released their second live album, Slip Stitch and Pass. Unlike the previous live album, this one comes all from one show, although it is not the entire show.  The recording was done at the Markthalle Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany, during Phish’s 1997 European Tour.

This was release on one disc and it sounds brighter than their other live shows.

What I always found strange about this releases is that three of the nine songs are covers.  Obviously, covers are a part of Phish shows, but it seems weird that their second live album is so full of covers, especially when they have now 7 albums to choose from.

The show opens with a rocking cover of Talking Heads’ “Cities” and segues into “Wolfman’s Brother” which has some great funky bass from Mike.  The song slows into a mellow jam of ZZ Top’s “Jesus Just Left Chicago.”  Its slow and groovy, a nice contrast to the other songs.

I love Weigh and am delighted that they played this fun, very silly song: “I’d like to cut your head off so I could weigh it, what do ya say?
Five pounds, six, pounds, seven pounds.”  It leads into a great Jam of “Mikes Song” (one I’ve really wanted to see live but haven’t yet).  After a fun, suitably short “Lawn Boy” they start playing the fun that is “Weekapuag Groove.”  This version teases a bunch of other songs, like: Pink Floyd’s “Careful with That Axe, Eugene,” Rolling Stone’s “Can’t You Hear Me Knocking” and The Doors song “The End.”  They have a lot of fun with The Doors with Fish shouting: “he walked on down the hall” and Trey saying, “Father….   Mother I want to cook you breakfast.”

The jam ends with a very quiet a capella rendition of “Hello My Baby”—it’s a little too quiet for the disc, but their harmonies sound great

The disc ends with “Taste,” a mellow jam with multiple singers. It’s a nice ending to the disc.

The full concert setlist was:

SET 1: Cities > The Oh Kee Pa Ceremony, Down with Disease, Weigh, Beauty of My Dreams, Wolfman’s Brother -> Jesus Just Left Chicago , Reba, Hello My Baby, Possum

SET 2: Carini, Dinner and a Movie > Mike’s Song -> Lawn Boy > Weekapaug Groove, The Mango Song > Billy Breathes, Theme From the Bottom

ENCORE: Taste, Sweet Adeline

[READ: March 21, 2017] “Oil and Vinegar”

I’ve read a few things by Gray, and they have all been short.  This one is also short.  She really gets right to the point with her stories, and I rather like that.

It begins by telling us that Lissa looked forward to her bath every night.  She had recently discovered the trick of putting a few drops of olive oil into her bath.  She loved it so much that she would disrobe as soon as she got into her house.

Lissa was a shower person–never liked baths at all.  She also never cooked.  She  was decluttering her kitchen and was planning on throwing out the bottle of olive oil.  But she decided to give that suggestion from the magazines a try–a few drops in a bath.  It proved to be a luxurious experience, and she was hooked.

She went on this way for months and expanded upon the routine–a  book, some candles, wine.  It was wonderful.

And then she spilled some extra oil in the bath.  If a few drops made her feel good, more was even better.  A quarter cup healed the calloused ridges on her feet and cured the raw skin on her lower back.  The cleanup was kind of a pain, but it was worth it. (more…)

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Eli Horowitz–“The Pickle Index” (Lucky Peach, No. 16: The Fantasy Issue: Fall 2015)

Posted in Acrobats, Canadian Music, CBC Radio 1, CBC Radio 2, CBC Radio 3, CICZ 104.1FM--The Dock, Toronto, ON, Circus, Clowns, Eli Horowitz, Excerpt, Food, Funky Web Sites, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Lucky Peach, Neil Young, Oddities, Pickles, Recipes, Rheostatics, Stanley Cup, The Daily Scrutinizer, Tim Mech, Trooper, Yuck!, tagged on September 1, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Reverb, Toronto, ON (August 29, 1997).

This is the final show Rheostatics show from the 1990s that I haven’t mentioned thus far.

I’m not sure what the band had been doing before this show (aside from making he Nightlines show), but they’ve apparently not played live for a while.  This return to performance seems to have brought out the wildness in them.  This show has all kinds of jamming moments with eight songs lasting over 7 minutes.  There’s also some slower moments or songs played differently.  It’s a cool, unique show–very different from their other shows.

There’s even an “opening jam” with a guitar riff explored around some bass notes.  Then a new guitar comes in with some rums.  The whole jam is about 3 minutes but it doesn’t really turn into anything, it’s just a like a warm up jam–I even wondered if it was just the guys messing around until all four of them were on stage.

They play the opening riff to “Fat” but he only plays a clip of it and then stops (allowing Tim to do some bass fills).  During the “bye bye” section they stop the music a few times unexpectedly as well.  It’s an interesting jamming opportunity and runs a pretty long time.

After the song Dave says, “we haven’t played togetehr in a long time well, we haven’t played live in front of people.  We played together at the CBC.”  (the Nightlines show mentioned later).  “So now we got one under our belt.  We forgot our songs had so many parts.”

Dave continues, “There’s a lot of people from Michigan here tonight for some strange reason.  They think the Stanley Cups is here.  But it’s not.  We’ll send this next song out to them.”  It’s “Aliens” At the end, Martin takes off on a wild solo as the band really rocks out.  There’s also an extended jam with someone singing a “dit dit dit” part while Martin plays along on guitar.

“All the Same Eyes” is pretty straightforward except that there’s some real wailing from Martin throughout.

Someone shouts “Are you looking for some fun?” and Martin says “We’ve got a new version of that song we’re gonna play.”  Then Tim says, “Just write your requests on a plate.  Dave: “There’s a private party upstairs and there’s lots of plates outside the door.”  Martin: “There’s a private party for um the three little boys with sandy blonde hair… hamsum?  handsome?”

Then they play the first known occurrence of “Junction Foil Ball.”  Martin introduces it: “we’ll do a kind of a new song”  Don: “its new and we’re kind of going to do it.”  I’m impressed with the interesting sound effects that Martin gets while playing this song.  During the “acoustic tile” section he even distorts his voice like it has slowed down–is that effect of Martin’s singing.

“Four Little Songs” sounds totally different.  It’s got a kind of swinging opening.  The first part is really heavy.   Dave’s part is interesting because while still in the trippy intro section, he begins singing the lyrics to Neil Young’s “Heart of Gold.”  When he finally gets to the song, people sing along to his first lines!  Martin has crazy fun with the riff at the end–lots of squeaking solo noises.

Dave asks: “How are those chamois working out, martin?” “They’re remarkably absorbent for large quantities of liquid.”  When I saw them Martin was very sweaty.  I wonder if he always was.  There’s a solid, slow version of “Bad Time to Be Poor,” which Dave says was written awhile ago…but it’s still a bad time to be poor.

Before “Sweet Rich” Martin says, so I’m going to do this solo, okay Tim.  Just the first bit.”  It’s a great version.

“Joey II” has a long rollicking jam in the intro with Martin chanting “I’m about to fuck up, I’m going to fuck up.”   During the middle of the song he asks if any musicians in the audience have played at the Royal Albert Hall in Winnipeg–well that’s what this song is about.

They play an early version of “Easy to Be with You” which goes to “California” instead of “Harmelodia.”

Dave introduces “Stolen Car” by saying “We’d like to do another new one for you.  We played this at our last concert but we’re going to play it a little differently.  This is Tim Mech one of North America’s greatest unsigned artists.   Seriously, he won a contest in Musicians magazine and was named one of the ten best unsigned artists.   We recorded this for the last Nightlines program.  We recorded about 32 minutes of music.  Old stuff, new stuff and a version of this song.  Dave’s last show is tomorrow night.  Thats 104.1 FM CICZ-FM in the local area!”

As the song starts he says (I assume referring to Mech’s guitar) “this is a Hawaiian guitar that’s autographed by Ben Harper.”  ( I had no idea Ben Harper was noteworthy back in 1997).  There’s a weird electronic drumbeat through the song, and the music is primarily guitars–gentle and smooth.

Martin shouts, “Its’ been great playing in our home town–Toronto!”  They play a long version of “My First Rock Show” with a lengthy introductory instrumental section.  Near the final verse, he whispers the “many years later” section and someone shouts “bird in a cage” at the right time.  As the song ends they play the chorus of Trooper’s “We’re Here For A Good Time (Not A Long Time).”

“California Dreamline” is quite extended as well.  After the first verse there’s a dance jam before the second verse begins.  The middle has a kind of vocal jam with a light bass and guitar motif and everyone singing different parts in a fugue state.  It’s a weirdly unique version.  At the end Martin says, “That was ‘California Dreamline,’ we’re going to do ‘Record Horse Count’ next.  They do neither and in fact play a really slow almost country-feeling version of “Claire.”  It’s so different sounding that they kind of mess it up here and there.

Things get quiet and then people start clapping along and you can barely hear them playing an acoustic un-mic’d version of “Bread Meat Peas and Rice.”  Dave says the name of the song “for those of you who could hear it.  You kind of understand why you use microphones.”  Tim starts talking about the band Farm Fresh. “They had a similar kind of thing with their Peanuts and Corn record [what?] and apparently they’re supposed to be releasing a new record, is that right?  They’ve made two cassettes and they are both for sale and are both really good.”  Dave: “Whats with that T-shirt, Tim?”  “Free with every cassette sold.”

Someone shouts again, “We’re looking for some fun.”  Dave: “Are you?”  And they launch into “Fishtailin'” which opens with that lyric.

After the song Dave asks “What is the time, late or early or what?  What time do bars say open til  4?  5?  [Shouts of four and Five] Tim: According to the new mega city law they close at 1 [boooos], so we’ve got half a song left.

They surprise ever one with “Bees,” a short quiet song with Martin making bee-like sounds on his guitar.  It leads to a long, quiet intro for “Michael Jackson” with Martin still doing some cool guitar sounds.  The whole beginning is slow and a little odd, with Dave singing “but an auto-bon would be better.”  And later, “Elvis is king because he’s dead.”  In the middle of the song Dave starts “rapping” and he says “I’d like to call Pip Skid (I assume) to the stage.  Pip Skid from Manitoba does a rap that’s kind of hard to hear.  Then there’s some soaring guitars from Martin.  The whole song is 11 minutes long and ends in a vocal jam that grows ever quieter.  Martin sings “It feels good to be alive” (hitting great falsettos) while the others are singing snippets and oh yeas.

They play an 11 minute “Dope Fiends” which has a bass and drum solo in the middle as well as just a drum solo later.  After 8 and a half minutes the band keeps going with some simple rocking.  At the end Martin says, “Thanks guys for giving me a second chance.” [?].

They leave the stage for the encore with a drum machine blipping away.  They come back with the drum machine still playing and someone plays a slow meandering guitar line. Another instrumental jam for 3 or so minutes before Dave says, “We’ll play one more.”  He also says that they’ll have their live album out by Christmas (stocking stuffers!).  And they end the show with a great non-nonsense version of “A Midwinter Night’s Dream.”

This is a wonderfully atypical show for the band.  A real treat for fans and an interesting entry point for fans of jamming shows.

The next Rheostatics show that I’ll mention will be in 2001!

[READ: March 16, 2017]  “The Pickle Index”

This story is written in a fascinating way.  There are newspaper articles from The Daily Scrutinizer (written by Mark Hamper) and with them, there is the Pickle Index, a series of recipes.  In fact, it’s a recipe-exchange network “for citizens by citizens.”   Daily participation is mandatory (though surely that’s unnecessary since the treats within are so tasty).

From the Scrutinizer we learn that the official strike team has captured Zloty Kornblatt,the instigator, conspirator and fomenter. He brought a troupe of “performers” into the village to mock, destabilize and cause anarchy.

The Pickle Index begins with Fisherman’s Dills (by Sarafina Loop)–brine-ing cucumbers in the ocean.  And then comes Hollow Gherkins by Flora Bialy.  Although midway through the recipe, it shifts directions and talks about Zloty.  How he left them last night and the writer, Flora Bialy wonders why–was it their incompetence or was it her?  She says that once, years ago Zloty’s team was a real circus with clowns, a trapeze and roasted nuts, but now they were reduced to an extended residency in Burford. (more…)

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C.P. Boyko–“In the Palace of Cats” (The Walrus, July/August 2017)

Posted in Adventure, Alternate Reality, C.P. Boyko, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, Cats, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Motels, Pink Floyd, Rheostatics, Short Story, Spies, Surreal, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, tagged on August 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Le Colisee, Quebec City, QC (November 30, 1996).

This is the same show that the Double Live version of “Saskatchewan” was taken from. It is also the show Dave wrote about in On A Cold Road.

This is also one of only two shows on Rheostatics Live that was recorded in Quebec.  Once again, they are opening for The Tragically Hip.

The show opens with some recording in French–no idea what it is–a hockey game?

The “Saskatchewan” is of course beautiful.  I love the way it gets really heavy near the end.  It’s also fun to hear a different recording of it (you can really hear them chanting “home Caroline, home Caroline.”

Next comes “Fat” one of the few songs they also played in Buffalo.  And then after a very brief “Digital Beach” they segue into “Claire.”  This version of “Claire” is really pretty on all counts.

As the band introduces themselves: “We are the Rheostatics,” you can hear someone in the audience shout slowly and clearly: “Bad. Time. To. Be. Poor.”  Dave asks what’s that man shouting?  “Bad. Time. To. Be. Poor.”  Martin shouts: “WHAT?”  The guy then deliberately shouts: “We came here to see you guys.”  I don’t think the band ever heard it, which is a shame as it’s such a nice sentiment and well executed.

The band plays “Four Little Songs” which is always fun live.  Afterwards, Martin says, “See four songs in one.”

Don (who is not as chatty as Dave Clark but does talk quite a bit) tells everyone “This next song [Bad Time to Be Poor] is the current single from our new record which you can buy here at the venue.”  Dave: “Well said, Donnie.”

The crowd is quite enthusiastic about the band prompting Dave to advise: “Save a bit for The Tragically Hip.”

This version of “Sweet Rich Beautiful Mine” does not feature Tamara Williamson, but it still sounds good.  Although toward the end of the song things get kind of staticky which is a bummer.  The warpy sound continues for a bit but it clears up near the beginning of “Dope Fiends.”  The song is wonderful.  At the end, Martin repeats “dark side of the moon” first quietly and then a lengthy falsetto on “moooooooooon.”   The guys mutter things during this section: “Pink Floyd,” “Side 2” before launching into the rocking ending.  The roaring song ends with a gentle version of the “You Are Very Star” lullaby, possibly the first version on the site.   There is whistling and falsetto lyrics as the band whispers good night.

It’s like a complete show in miniature.

[READ: June 21, 2017] “In the Palace of Cats”

This is The Walrus‘ Summer Fiction Issue with new fiction & poetry from 6 writers in total.  I won’t be reviewing the poetry, but I’ll be talking about the three short stories.

This story was really fun and weird.  It began as one thing, turned into a few other things and then resolved itself all with bizarre turns without ever losing its internal logic.

The story opens as a teen spy caper with Andrew bringing Hillary a message in secret code.  The message from Andrew is for Hillary so obviously no code is needed,  But they are spies, so everything must be encoded.   She goes off to decipher it–using a dictionary and selecting the word just prior to the word that Andrew wrote.

Greetings Math Princess.  The Candy Ninja is ready to move.

She was amused/dismayed that even copying words out of the dictionary he spelled one wrong: needeled (for needled). (more…)

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Alix Hawley–“My Pleasure” (The Walrus, May 2017)

Posted in Alix Hawley, BB Gabor, Boredom, Canadian Content, Canadian Music, CFNY-102.1 The Edge, Toronto, Cooking, FM, Food, Funny (strange), Goddo, McDonald's, Moist, Pink Floyd, Prawns, Pure, Rheostatics, Short Story, The Tragically Hip, The Walrus, tagged on August 24, 2017| 1 Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Etobicoke Collegiate Institute Auditorium, Etobicoke, ON (October 24, 1996).

This was a homecoming show for the Rheos performing at their old high school Etobicoke Collegiate Institute about a month before heading on the road to support The Tragically Hip on their 1996 Trouble At The Henhouse tour.

They play 6 songs from the soon to be released (in a week and a half) Blue Hysteria.

The band opens with a quiet, almost whispered version of “Self Serve Gas Station.”  The sound cuts out briefly after the “Is he dumb?” line but it quickly comes back up and then the song really takes off.

There’s some long banter.  After some silence, Martin says “Hi, we’re the Rheostatics, we’re playing in a high school.”  He continues, “That was a song about working in a gas station out in Rexdale at night.  I used to work there and bad stuff used to happen.  Tough guys at night.”

Dave wonders where they go know that the self-serve gas station is closed.  They go to the donut shop across the street.  No that’s gone too.

Martin says, No, it’s still there, it’s a little slicker–they franchised it.

Dave: So it’s a bittersweet return.

Martin: we should have built a little more momentum before the banter.

How about two songs in a row–go for two?

The first of the Hysteria songs, “All the Same Eyes” rocks along until a really bad chord right in the middle–but it doesn’t hinder them.  And then a great version of “Fat.”  Then Dave says, “Oh its says right here in the set list: “banter.””

Don, you’re not actually a native Etobicokian?

Don: No, but I did plenty of gigs down in Mimico high.  Tough crowd down in Southern Etobicoke.  The accent is slightly different.  They’re very crude.  And that currency thing.  And those little skirts the guys wear.  [much laughter].

Dave says the new album is coming out in a week and a half.  It’s named after Martins double neck guitar, The Blue Hysteria.

We don’t expect this one to be included in the record of the month club.  It’s a high o honor because all your aunts and uncles across Canada know you’re alive when they see your album in the record of the month club.

That’s all introduction to the title track form the album that was in the record of the month club.  “Introducing Happiness” starts out quietly but gets really rocking–the drums especially.

Someone shouts “Alien Song 88,” Dave replies, “you must be confusing that with “Aliens Christmas 1988.” From Dolphin Music? (Martin does a cool dolphin sound on his guitar).  Dave: “Who’s your favorite dolphin besides Flipper see you can’t name one can you?”

Another new song in “Four Little Songs” which they never get entirely smooth but which sounds good and gets a great response.

Then back to some old songs with a mellow, meandering “Saskatchewan.”

Dave tells a story: The first band I ever saw out of high school was FM–a progressive rock band, they had four albums.  “Phasers on Stun” was their big song.  But this was later FM, their fourth album.  Cameron Hawkins was no longer in the band. They had a Cameron Hawkins look-alike.  More like a tribute to FM.
Tim: It was late in their career when they were playing high schools.
Don: I saw Goddo at my high school.
Dave: Did he have the tearaway suit?  Martin: What was underneath it?  Dave: His big naked body, so it’s probably best that he didn’t have it.
Martin says “I saw Goddo at my high school BB Gabor”

Gabor Hegedus (1948 – 17 January 1990), known by the stage name BB Gabor, was a Hungarian-born Canadian pop singer. Gabor is best known for his 1980 single “Nyet Nyet Soviet (Soviet Jewellery)”, and had other minor hits with “Metropolitan Life”, “Consumer” and “Jealous Girl”.

Don: My friend ate french fries with Greg Godovitch once.  Martin: I met him in New York City in the lobby of a hotel and he said I might go far.
Dave: he said if you can make it out of Etobicoke Collegiate, you can make it anywhere.

Then for “Take Me in Your Hand,” Martin starts by playing and singing a half-assed verse of “My Sharona.”  But it resolved into a very pretty version of “Take Me.”

Before “Bad Time to Be Poor,” Martin says, “this is about scented toilet paper.”  Dave brings it back: we put out a CD pro single.  We sent it to CFNY.  They’ve been playing it a lot between Moist and Pure and stuff so we feel like we’re making progress.

It’s a kind of mellow “Bad Time” but you can really hear the powerful words.

There’s a nice acoustic guitar outro which segues into a lengthy “Claire” intro.  “Claire” is all chords to start–no finger picking.  There’s a rocking middle section with some awesome soloing from Martin–a noisy Neil Youngish solo and then a very mellow return. (Tim is singing kind of funny throughout).

Dave: How many people actually go to this school?  (silence, but presumably a bunch).  Thanks for those who actually go to this school.  It’s a tough call.  You’re in school all day and you wanna actually come back to the school?  (Someone shouts: It was worth it!).  Excellent…well it all down hill from here.

“California Dreamline” Dave misses the squealing guitars during the dolphins line, but no one is bothered by that.  It shifts into a rocking “Feed Yourself.”  The middle gets whispery, but a roaring end segues into “Aliens.”  It’s a little sloppy but it’s got a cool little circular riff in the middle of the instrumental section.

Tim says, “This is our last song, we gotta rush home and watch ourselves on TV after this.”  Dave: “We’re on The National tonight. They filmed us at Algonquin Park and our Group of Seven concert in Vancouver.” It’s an 18-minute documentary.

The final song is “Michael Jackson” which sounds kind of different.  They halt before the “it feels good to be alive” part and the Dave says “Lets do the first verse again.”  There’s a lengthy guitar solo jam at the end (and they do play that last part).

After the encore break, they ask “what would you like to hear?” (Lots of shouts.  Many for “Horses” someone shouts for “Torque Torque.”  And then someone else shouts for “Metropolitan Life” [a BB Garbor song].

Martin says, “Get ready for an onslaught.”  Dave: That’s the band that’s coming up after us.

The National‘s not on for an hour so we have time although we did pick our longest songs–lets hear it for epic rock.

Dave tells a story about going to high school classes to talk about what it’s like to be a musician.  It usually goes pretty well.  Although at Lakeview Collegiate it was a dead class–no feedback.  So he pulled out “my famous people I know thing.”

He smoked a joint with Neil Peart at his house.  He played road hockey with Metallica.  He met Michael Stipe.  Nothing registered Then someone asked, have you ever met Kurt Cobain and I had to say, no I hadn’t. Bummer.

Not a very happy story.

They play a great version of “A Midwinter Night’s Dream” (the first time they’ve played it on this site).

Dave asks: “You guys have school tomorrow?”  Cancelled!”  Cancelled on account of unity!”  A nice introduction to “Horses.”  It rocks.  In the middle they throw in a verse of “Another Brick in the Wall Part 2.”

This is a really great show in front o f home town crowd with decent audio.

[READ: April 17, 2017] “My Pleasure”

I did not enjoy Hawley’s previous story in The Walrus, which I felt was needlessly violent.

This story was far more interesting, but whereas I liked the brevity of the previous story, I felt like this one dragged on (and it was pretty short).

I enjoyed the beginning quite a bit.  Jasper is a twenty-five year old guy working at a McDonalds.  But he has a very distinct memory from when he was a child about a commercial for the short-lived McPrawnster sandwich: Arrrr!  A treasure with kick.

He didn’t like the job but he also didn’t mind it because interesting things happened sometimes. (more…)

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Philip Pullman–The Scarecrow and His Servant (2004) [audiobook 2005–Graeme Malcolm]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Bandits, Birds, C., Children's Books, Corporate skewering, Courtroom, Delusions, Environmentalism, Fantasy, Food, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Graeme Malcolm, Greed, Humiliation, Law, Nature, Philip Pullman, Revenge, Romance, Scarecrows, War on August 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: April 2016] The Scarecrow and His Servant 

I was looking for a story that C. and I could listen to in the mornings when I drove him to school.  I didn’t want it to be too long (our commute was only 15 minutes), but I wanted it to be really enjoyable.

I know Pullman from the His Dark Materials series which I loved.  But I didn’t know much else by him.  This story seemed unusual, to say the least, but it was a perfect length–about 3 hours–for morning drives.

The audio book was read by Graeme Malcolm, and he did an amazing job–he had a great variety of voices at his disposal and he really made the story come to life.

The story is really quite unusual.  It begins with the history of the titular scarecrow.  How a man made him–and gave him a lovely turnip for a head–dressed him smartly and tucked a piece of paper, to show ownership, into his jacket pocket.  Pretty much straightaway, he is stolen, and then stolen again and then one more time until he is very far from home standing in a field.

And then he is struck by lightning and comes to life! (more…)

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Joseph O’Neill-“The Mustache in 2010” (Harper’s, July 2017)

Posted in Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Harper's, Jesus and Mary Chain, Joseph O'Neill, Marriage Trouble, Mustaches, Set at School, Short Story, The Shins, Tiny Desk Concert on July 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: THE SHINS-Tiny Desk Concert #639 (July 24, 2017).

Although this is billed as The Shins, it is actually James Mercer solo (although really The Shins are more or less Mercer’s solo gig anyway).

Mercer plays three songs with just his voice and acoustic guitar: two new tracks and one that reached back to 2003 from the album Chutes Too Narrow.

The first two are slow and very folky–I don’t know the new album yet.

“Mildenhall” has a country flare and is something of an autobiography.  “I thought my flattop was so new wave until it melted away.”  The chorus is nice: A kid in class passed me a tape a later chorus reveals: “a band called Jesus and Mary Chain.”     Started playing his dads guitar and that’s how we get to where we are now.”  I love the unexpected ending chord.

“The Fear” is a delicate, simple song that fits perfectly with his voice.  It’s also quite sad.

“Young Pilgrims” is the recognizable song from Chutes to Narrow (the song even mentions that phrase).  It doesn’t sound that different in this stripped down format–there’ some missing extra guitars bit other wise the acoustic format fits it well. The biggest difference is that he seems to be singing in lower register here.

In fact none of the songs sounded like him exactly and I think that’s why– he usually sings in more of a kind of higher pitch, so it’s interesting to hear it slower and lower.

[READ: June 29, 2017] “The Mustache in 2010”

I really enjoyed the story.  I loved the strange way it was constructed and that even though it didn’t seem to start as a story, it certainly was one.

It begins

Social historians will record that in the early twenty-first century, the fashion for a clean-shaven face lost its dominance in metropolitan North American Bourgeoisie society.

After some lengthy discussion about the merits of various facial hair construction ,we meet Alex, a youngish (36 is youngish in New York City) businessman.  He availed himself of this trend by shaving only every third Monday.  His growth was dense and black.

One morning he realizes that he had left large sideburns, which amused him.  Thereafter he “subtracted facial hair so as to create an amusing residue.”  He never wore the stylized looks outside, they were private jokes for him and his wife.  Although there was always a scream of horror because he would sneak up on her.

This all l leads to some more details about Alex.  He was Québécois living in New York.  His English was fine but “fell just short of the level required for wittiness.”  This left him with an unjustly wooden personality.  So his wife was always looking for nonverbal diversion for him. (more…)

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Javier Marías–“The Curse” (Harper’s, December 2016)

Posted in Books about writers, Canadian Music, Cheap Trick, Curses, Death, Essays, Excerpt, Funny (strange), Gum, Harper's, Jane Siberry, Javier Marias, Neil Young, Rheostatics, The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos, Translation, Travel, Valdy, Wooden Stars, tagged on July 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Ultrasound Showbar [2nd GSMW Matinee Day 3] (February 27, 1994).

Second annual Green Sprouts Music Week held at Ultrasound Showbar Feb 25-March 1 1994. Setlists for all shows were fairly similar in content focusing mainly on the 25-30 songs that they would use for consideration on Introducing Happiness which began recording the following week. Rare performances of Green Xmas, Floating and one of the earliest Desert Island Discs. This is the all ages Sunday afternoon show 3/5.

Sadly there was to be no celebratory party for the Canadian hockey team who lost the final match and took silver (they’d have to wait until 2002).

They’re going to play a lot of new songs and some old songs.  So they start with “Crescent Moon” from Greatest Hits (it’s so synthy!).  Midway through they seem to mess up and Dave says, “We know the new ones well we just don’t know the old ones very well.”

As the start “Green Xmas,” Dave Clark says, “I love Christmas Time so much so that I love playing this song even though it’s not Christmas.”  When the song is over there’s lots of talk about gum–I assume someone had some in the audience: Black Cat, Ton o Gum or Bubbalicious.  He asks what kind and they start talking about Dubble Bubble and how so many bad things happened to Pud (He could never win).  He contends that Ziggy ripped him off.

They get an organized snap going for Fishtailin’.  They play a verse and then hold it, Dave says “We usually play this song in A, Martin.”  However we will employ “capo technology.”

Clark says he enjoys playing that song because it reminds him of …Dave.  And all the good times they had…before the bad stuff happened (ha).  Clark describes how he met Dave when they were kids.  Bidini says he doesn’t remember the meeting and jokes “did you steal something off of me?”  Clark says Bidini’s aunt and uncle got the first in ground pool in the area and that’s where they met.  Bidini asks what he thought of him.  After shouting “Doofus,” Clark says, I thought “he would become a well kempt perhaps overspoken person.”  Bidini says he remembers being in his Delta 88 going for a drivers test in 1981 and picking up Clark and thinking “he has lips as big as mine–we can be square together.”

It’s a good segue into “Me and Stupid” (which they make family-friendly by singing “messed up” instead of fucked up).  For the fish chant at the end “pike, trout, bass, smelt,” Dave says they are the “four fish of the apocalypse.”

Dave apologizes that he “spit on you from afar but luckily I hit one of the Wooden Stars and I think that will bring me good luck in 1994.”  The Wooden Stars are the band that’s playing during the break.

Once again Tim says that “Introducing Happiness” is about having cats–not birthing cats, just discovering them.”

Clark says that they are “one of the laziest bands in rock.”  Bidini says they have inherited the mantle from Valdy.  Then he says I thought you meant “laid back.”   Clark says “I didn’t say lamest.”  But Bidini says that Valdy once paid The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos $1500 to open for them at the Port Credit Arena.  Clark says he wasn’t talking about Valdy, he wrote the Four Seasons.  Tim says he also sells really cheap groceries (I assume he’s joking about Aldi).

For “In This Town,” Martin asks for “Lots of reverb on the intro.”  Bidini says it’s like they’re in a cave.  Then there’s a great “Michael Jackson, ” followed by a rocking “RDA.”  A sloppy intro to “Soul Glue” is fixed and then the song starts for good.  Midway through Bidini tells them to do it nice and breezy, like Valdy would do it, and they make it very smooth.  “Zero angst, Tim.”  The gentle ending segues nicely into “Self Serve Gas Station.”

Clark tries to wax eloquent about the loss of sun, but he can’t get the words out.  So they encourage the kids to dance, which it sounds like they do.

They play the mellow “Row,” which features a really great solo from Martin in the middle.  After a discussion of new wave, they play the rapid, rather odd “The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos.”   They play “Floating” again–one of those songs that has never gotten official release.  It’s pretty cool with a few different parts that complicate the song.

They ask, “Any teenagers in the audience?  I heard that teenagers don’t like to be called teenagers what do they like to be called?”  Someone shouts “Young adults.”  They play “Jesus Was Once a Teenager Too.”

They ask that the lights to go up and they play a song/game called “Desert Island Picks.”  You say three albums you’d take with you if you were stranded on a desert island (in this case New Providence Island).  They walk around singing the folk song and then some people come up: it is really fun and very funny, a great good time is had by all.  They even bring up a little kid and he sings his three favorite things in the world.  When they ask another kid what school she goes to, she says  “uh…what?”  And someone shouts “Must be U of T!”

Someone had picked three Beatles albums, and Martin says “This is from our next album Let It Be…”  He sings “Jo Jo was a…” before beginning “Take Me in Your Hand” properly.  Then they play a lovely version of “Claire” and then a noisy messy sloppy verse of Neil Young’s “Farmer John,” which morphs into the crazy trilogy “Artenings Made of Gold/Cephallus Worm/Uncle Henry.”

Clark asks if they should play longer or shorter, and longer wins.  But he must take a five-minute bathroom break.  So Martin plays a gentle acoustic version of “Record Body Count,” which the crowd loves.   Then, “Oneilly’s Strange Dream” is introduced as “Saskatchewan Part 2”.  And then (despite some apparent crying from children) they play “Horses” (the moaning child actually sounds like a pretty good fit for this intense song).  There’s even a kid who sings the “Holy Mackinaw, Joe” part.  At the end, there’s kids doing the whole ending with them.

And then it’s a couple of covers: Jane Siberry’s “One More Colour” and a rocking rendition of Cheap Trick’s “Surrender.”  They leave the stage and there is a truly wild and rowdy encore cheer (banging things and lots of screaming).

Dave gives away a prize–nightgowns (?) from Sire Records–which Clark says he doesn’t want because he’s ashamed of being on a major label.  I’d love to see those.

It leads to a cool trippy version of “Dope Fiends,” and the end guitar section segues perfectly in to “Earth Monstrous Hummingbirds,” a version which doesn’t ever get really weird but which still sounds fantastic.

I can’t get over how cool it is that Rheostatics played matinee shows like this.  The show lasted over 2 hours, tickets were $6 and it was all kind-friendly.  That’s pretty awesome.

[READ: January 17, 2017] “The Curse”

This is an excerpt from Marías’ recent nonfiction book To Begin at the Beginning. It is a reflection on the art of writing fiction.

This brief section looks at how he writes; he doesn’t know how things are going to turn out when he begins–that would be boring for him.  And if he was bored, it would reflect in his writing and then his readers would be bored.

Just as we do what we do when we’re twenty without knowing that when we reach forty we may wish we had done something else, and just as when we’re forty we have no alternative but to abide by what we did when we were twenty, we can’t erase or amend anything, so I write what I write on page 5 of a novel with no idea if this will prove to have been a good idea when I reach page 200, and far from writing a second or third version, adapting page 5 to what I later find out will appear on page 200, I don’t change a word, I stand by what I wrote at the very beginning — tentatively and intuitively, accidentally or capriciously. Except that, unlike life — which is why life tends to be such a bad novelist — I try to ensure that what had no meaning at the beginning does have meaning at the end. I force myself to make necessary what was random and even superfluous, so that ultimately it’s neither random nor superfluous.

He cites an example.  When Marías’ Cuban great-grandfather was still a young man, he refused to help a beggar. The beggar put a curse on him: “You and your eldest son will both die before you are fifty, far from your homeland and without a grave.”  He wrote about this curse in his book Dark Back of Time. (more…)

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Holly Grant–The League of Beastly Dreadfuls [Book 1] (2015) [audiobook 2015–Rosalyn Landor]

Posted in Adventure, Audiobooks, Boredom, Death, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Ghosts, Holly Grant, Idiots, Lies, Marriage Trouble, Mystery Lumps, Parenting, Rosalyn Landor, Set at School, Unfinished series, Yuck! on July 6, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: December 2016] The League of Beastly Dreadfuls

beastlyI was looking for an audio book to listen to with the kids and I found this one.  I didn’t know anything about it, but the title was interesting.

I never suspected just what a peculiar story this turned out to be.

It is the tale of Anastasia McCrumpet, an otherwise normal 11-year-old girl who suffers from flatulence and a mum who does little more than yell from her bed all day.  Her father is a loving man, but as of a few years ago he has been quite obsessed with vacuum cleaners.  She also has a guinea pig who is quite ill-tempered; when it feels crossed by someone, it takes revenge by pooping in their slippers.

On this particular morning, they were having a funeral.  A funeral for her father’s plant (they wound up tossing it out the window).  And then her father made them his famous waffles (which her mother screamed for upstairs).

But Anastasia was running late for school that morning because of the funeral and she ran out of the house wearing a most unusual outfit (part of a Halloween costume, which was top on the laundry pile). (more…)

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Samantha Schweblin–“The Size of Things” (New Yorker, May 29, 2017)

Posted in Funny (strange), Holly Macve, Megan McDowell, New Yorker, Parenting, Samantha Schweblin, Tiny Desk Concert, Toys, Translation on June 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: HOLLY MACVE-Tiny Desk Concert #630 (June 23, 2017).

If you were to ask me to pick all of the things I dislike about country music and put them into one artist it would be Holly Macve.

Her songs are slow, really slow (her three songs last sixteen minutes and she’s not chatty between them).  She sings with a thick country accent (which is especially strange since she is from England (!).  She’s got a yodeling quality to her singing which I also don’t care for.

I don’t like to bring appearance into a music criticism, but in this video, I can also say that it bugs me that he hair never moves and her mouth barely opens, which I find very disconcerting.

So she sings three songs.  On “No One Has The Answers,” and “The Corner Of My Mind” she plays guitar and sings.  “Corner” also features a slide guitar. For “Golden Eagle” she plays on piano which gives it a slightly different tone–more gospel than country, but good lord it was endless. I thought it was over and saw there were three more minutes left in the song.

She sang a South X Lullaby for NPR a few years back and I was on the fence but favorable.  But I said she might be too country for me.  And I was right.

The band: Holly Macve (vocals, guitar, piano); Tommy Ashby (guitar); Michael Blackwell (bass); David Dyson (drums)

[READ: June 26, 2017] “The Size of Things”

I really enjoyed this story although I found it surprisingly sad.

This is translated from the Spanish by one of my favorite translators Megan McDowell, but I’m not exactly sure where it is set.

The story is from the point of view of a toy shop owner.  He says that he knew Enrique Duvel had inherited a lot of money but also that he still lived with his mother.  He would often drive around in his convertible looking self-absorbed.  But then one night the narrator caught Duvel peeking into the toy store.

Eventually Duvel did come in the store and he bought a model plane kit.  Then he proceeded to come back every few days to buy another kit.  After some more time, Duvel appeared at the door as the narrator was closing up and, looking at he narrator, he said, “It’s best if I stay here.”  Duvel said his mother doesn’t want to see him again and repeated “I’d best stay here.” (more…)

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