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Archive for the ‘Science’ Category

Martin MacInnes–“Chemistry” [The 2017 Short Story Advent Calendar #18] (2017)

Posted in Brian Wilson, Canadian Content, Christmas Album, Martin MacInnes, Romance, Science, Short Story, Technology, The Beach Boys, The Short Story Advent Calendar on December 18, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: BRIAN WILSON-What I Really Want for Christmas (2005).

I was never really a fan of The Beach Boys. I mean, sure I liked some of their songs, but to this day I don’t even own Pet Sounds.  Shocking right?

So I was flabbergasted to find out how much I liked this Christmas album.   It’s partly his voice, but also the backing vocals and the wonderful arrangements that really make this disc special.  I also really love that he wrote some originals to go with the traditional carols (and his own earlier songs).

“The Man with All the Toys” Brian updates his own song for this record.
“What I Really Want for Christmas” I really like this new song, written by Brian and co-written by Bernie Taupin.
“God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen” I love the way this is sort of undersung, almost casual and fun for a religious song.
“O Holy Night” I love this song in general, but the production on this is terrific.
“We Wish You a Merry Christmas” I love hearing the bass harmonica on this song.  And of course that they sing about figgy pudding.  The backing vocal notes and flute are also quite lovely.

“Hark the Herald Angels Sing” I love that he doesn’t try to falsetto this song up–his voice is great at the tone he chose.  “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” More bass harmonica and great backing vocals.  “The First Noel” Sung slowly and beautifully with (again) great backing harmonies.

“Christmasey” Written with Jimmy Webb this is my favorite “new” Christmas song.  The music is great and the lyrics are wonderful.  “It didn’t snow but we all agree its so Christmasey.”   “Little Saint Nick” I just like that his voice is deeper–I like this version better than the original even though it’s almost exactly the same.

“Deck the Halls” Guitar and “Wooweeooo” backing vocals make this a fun version of this song.  “Auld Lang Syne” is delightful in this a capella version.

“On Christmas Day” This is fun song with a really catchy chorus.  “Joy to the World” Some great backing vocals on this song and a cool vocal melody at the end of each verse.  “Silent Night” is one final a capella number.

Maybe I should check out this Pet Sounds after all.

[READ: December 18, 2017] “Chemistry”

Once again, I have ordered The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This year, there are brief interviews with each author posted on the date of their story.

Hello. Welcome. It’s finally here: Short Story Advent Calendar time.

If you’re reading along at home, now’s the time to start cracking those seals, one by one, and discover some truly brilliant writing inside. Then check back here each morning for an exclusive interview with the author of that day’s story.

(Want to join in? It’s not too late. Order your copy here.)

This year I’m pairing each story with a holiday disc from our personal collection. (more…)

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Alison Wilgus & Molly Brooks–Science Comics: Flying Machines: How the Wright Brothers Soared (2017)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Airplanes, Alison Wilgus, Alphonse Pénaud, Biography, Canadian Music, Children's Books, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Inventions, Inventors, Kat Burns, Katharine Wright, Leeroy Stagger, Molly Brooks, Orville Wright, Rheostatics, Scholarship, Science, Science Comics, The Black Eyed Peas, Toilets, Wilbur Wright, tagged on December 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 6 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (December 13, 2005).

This series contains the final Rheostatics live shows that are left to write about–except for their “final shows” and their “reunion shows (which I really hope to see some day).” This was the 6th night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.  It was a free Tuesday night.

Note:  After the encore break Ford Pier plays a solo version of Diaphanous Heart and then Dave fortuitously jokes that the band just decided to break up.

As the show opens, Dave says they’d like to that Kat and Leeroy for playing with them tonight.  He then says that this is their fifth night, “lucky number 5.” But it clearly isn’t.

They open the set with a stretched out version of “Fat.”  Mike asks, does that stand for “File Allocation Table?”  Dave: “Of course is does.”  “Aliens” has an unusually heavy riffing opening but then the song is played fairly straight.  During the quiet part, Dave doesn’t play anything else but there’s some pretty twinkling keys from Ford.  The song ends with an unexpected guitar solo.  And as the band starts to play the next song, there’s more soloing–a solo unlike what Martin typically does.  I assumed it was a guest but apparently not.  And yet, it lasts for just a moments before the song becomes “Claire.”  Martin’s got some interesting guitar sounds going on for the lengthy solo.

Martin tries the opening of “Torque Torque” but it sounds wrong–naw it didn’t work.  Dave: “Bit of a clunker.”  The next try is fine although there’s a really ugly moment in the middle of the song where the chord is just wrong.  But they get past it pretty quickly.

Dave announces that that was from the film Whale Music, the soundtrack to which is available on zunior.com, a site that is making our musical available digitally.  “We also just released a recording called Calling Out the Chords Vol. 1 which is a recording of last years’ Fall Nationals.  It’s a 12 song souvenir of that event.”
Ford: “I’m astounded that this is volume one.  What do you need someone to take out a fistful of money and burn it in front of you before you get a goddamn clue?”
Dave: “I thought vol, 1 because you know those albums like Cruisin Vol 1.  No one every goes, ‘Wheres Vol. 2?”
Ford: “I felt that way about Kill Bill.  There’s more? Ew.  A martial arts movie with no martial artists?”

When they start “It,” Martin jumps a ahead to the dinosaurs verse and then says  “Is it the wrong verse?”  Dave tells him to go back and they more or less start over.  This time when he gets to the dinosaurs, he roars.   Next up is “Queer” which rocks.  Before the end coda, Ford take a lengthy jazzy piano solo.  It’s followed by “Pornography” which feels a little rushed. There’s some ugly static on the guitar.

When the song is over Ford asks who watched the Grey Cup.  “Everybody did, naturally.  And you all saw The Black Eyed Peas and enjoyed them very much.  And you know that woman Fergie?  She was one the voice of Charlie Brown’s little sister Sally in the Peanuts cartoons [this is true].  And now, when you watch the special and she says ‘My Sweet Babboo’ you’ll hear her saying ‘My humps, my humps’ and that’s just wrong.”
Dave: “Yeah, but what a band.  And what a great cup.”

After a nice “Sunshine at Night” Dave introduces Ford: “all the way from Edmonton, via Vancouver, via Eastern Europe, that’s Ford Pier on the keyboards.”

Then Dave thanks everyone who donated to Alpha and Huron Schools (Tim’s daughter goes to Alpha and my son goes to Huron, and they’re both co-op and they need it.  You gotta love a new toilet, right?  Everybody remembers their first toilet.  You probably had some pretty crude toilets in Caprino, eh Martin?”
Martin: “oh yea!  Toilet technology is catching up, but in the 70s it was primitive.  In my aunt’s bar, there was a hole and two porcelain footprints.  And it reeked.”

Martin starts tuning and then does a really awful chord–“whoa, I tuned it cool.”  Mike: that’s some serious positive reinforcement…  Shit, I slept in.  Cool.”

Martin says the next song is about a rock musician with a special haircut, a pompadour.  It’s a great version of  “Sweet, Rich, Beautiful and Mine” and it’s followed by a particularly intense version of “The Land is Wild.”  Written by “Dave Augustino Bidini.”  Dave really screams during the “it didn’t have to be” part.  And he has now added the final verse about Fogarty’s death.

There’s a huge reaction when “Here Comes the Image” begins and it features Augustino on the rums and Wojewoda on the synths.

Out of the blue Dave asks, what was your favorite Triumph album, hammer or anvil?  Then Dave says that the band Anvil were from Etobicoke and were originally called Lips.

Dave says the next song is dedicated to Ford’s shirt (someone in the crowd shouts we love you Ford Pier).  It’s “P.I.N.” and this time it ends with them chanting “I love my humps, my lovely lady lumps.”

Dave says that “Mumbletypeg” is one of those jump up and down songs, just like the last one.  They end the set with “Satan Is The Whistler: which totally rocks.  Martin ends it with his robot voice and then go to an encore break.

After the break, Ford comes out to sing a solo song on guitar. It’s his song “Diaphonous Hairshirt” which I’d never heard before.  It’s catchy but also a little odd, with some interesting vocal lines. Then he goes back to the synth and plays some pretty intro music.  Dave says he wants to tell everyone the band wants to break up.  Mike: “And then we can get on with our lives.”  (They would officially break up in January).

Martin starts counting 1, 2, 3, and keeps going up to 18.  Dave says “if my kids heard you do that they’d think you were a god.  How did he remember so many numbers in order?”  They play “Fan Letter To Michael Jackson,” but instead of the “Michael” chant, Dave shouts Autobahn!  Then during the slow part, Dave sings “fun fun fun in the autobahn.”  He continues, “Always defer to the Germans.  Always defer to krautrock when you’re looking for a good rock n roll slogan.”  Martin starts singing “It feels good to be alive” with a German accent.

The end the night with Part 2 of “The Ballad of Wendel Clark” It segues perfectly into Stompin’ Tom’s “Bridge Came Tumbling Down.”  Before continuing Dave chastises, “Stop looking at your camera, sir” and then they end “Wendel” and say good night.

That’s nearly two hours of free music.

[READ: July 21, 2017] Science Comics: Flying Machines

I really enjoyed this book about Flying Machines. When I heard the title (without the subtitle) I assumed it was just going to be a book about various flying machines.  I didn’t realize it was going to be a story of the Wright Brothers (and their competition).

And even better is that the story is told by their sister Katharine Wright.  We get a brief bio of her in the beginning and then a longer (but still brief) sketch of her at the end.  Katharine was the youngest child in the family and when their mother died (when Katharine was 14) she took over the family work.  She was also her father’s secretary as well as Orville and Wilbur’s “public relations director”–she dealt with kings and queens for them.

The story begins with Katharine trying to teach flight to an unruly classroom of kids (including one who needs to go to the bathroom).  And then she flashes back.  I love the way Brooks does this flashback, with Katharine as a kind of blue and white ghost look where she observes the other panels in full color.  The inspiration for her brothers wanting to fly was their father’s bringing home a hélicoptère–a small wooden “bat” that spun and flew.  It was designed by Alphonse Pénaud, he never made one big enough for people to fly, but inspired many.

The Wrights were from Ohio but they drove to Kitty Hawk to test their planes because the place was flatter and windier.

The book shows all of the people who tried to master flight (and the names of their ships) (more…)

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Fabien Grolleau & Jérémie Royer–Audubon: On the Wings of the World (2016)

Posted in Art, Birds, David Greilsammer, Domenico Scarlatti, Erik Satie, Etienne Gilfillan, Fabien Grolleau, Graphic Novel, Guns, Haiti, Hunting, Jérémie Royer, John James Audubon, Owls, Science, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on November 26, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: DAVID GREILSAMMER-Tiny Desk Concert #676 (November 24, 2017).

It has been quite a while since there has been a classical pianist on Tiny Desk.  I’m unfamiliar with the Israeli pianist David Greilsammer, but his playing is wonderful and his selections are quite fun and diverse.

For this Tiny Desk appearance, Greilsammer begins with his muse Domenico Scarlatti, the 18th-century Italian whose 500-some keyboard sonatas are compelling, colorful snapshots of his decades-long service to Spanish royalty. In the “Sonata in E, K. 380” you can hear a little street band processing along with trumpet fanfares.

Greilsammer describes the piece as sounding very contemporary.  Scarlatti lived 300 years ago and his music sounds ahead of its time.  He says it’s almost jazzy or pop-like harmonies.  He says it feels like he is playing a Beatles song.

Greilsammer follows by jumping ahead 175 years to the eccentric Frenchman Erik Satie, who not only owned seven identical gray velvet suits but, with a freewheeling spaciousness and humor in his music, is often thought of as the precursor to everything from minimalism to new age. His series of mysterious pieces called Gnossiennes strike a particularly sedate mood, capable of neutralizing any source of anxiety.

Greilsammer plays “Gnossienne No. 3” which he describes as full of pop and jazz and colors and harmonies.  He was writing these strange short pieces that at the time people in Paris didn’t understand.  Everybody loves Satie now but just over 100 years ago he was completely misunderstood.

I absolutely love the way the final notes ring out in this room–they are quite haunting

Lastly, Greilsammer takes a left turn to Leoš Janáček, the idiosyncratic Czech composer from the early 20th century, acclaimed for his operas. He set one of them on the moon; another, the dramatically taut and emotionally wrenching Jenůfa, is perhaps the most undervalued opera of a generation. But Janáček also wrote in smaller forms. His piano cycle On An Overgrown Path plays out like a diary of musings, nervous tics, simple pleasures and mysteries. Within the claustrophobic tension that pervades “The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away,” you can hear the rustling of wings and the repeated four-note bird call.

Greilsammer says that Janáček lived in the Romantic period and all of his music is enigmatic, with many secretive things.  He wrote things related to dreams and wild scenes with things obsessively haunting him.  In “The Barn Owl Has Not Flown Away” (from On An Overgrown Path) the theme of the owl comes back many times.  Every time you try to get away from it, it comes back.

For Greilsammer, who recently performed in a working crypt in Harlem, threading these disparate musical fabrics together comes as naturally as, well, playing behind a desk in an office building.

These are some really beautiful and nicely unexpected pieces.

[READ: May 31, 2017] Audubon

I have really enjoyed most of the French graphic novels that come across my desk.  This book, translated by Etienne Gilfillan, is no exception.

It is a biographical sketch of John James Audubon (born Jean-Jacques Audubon in Haiti in 1785).  His story, aside from the whole birding aspect, is quite fascinating in itself. He was an illegitimate child (his father has seduced a servant) who was eventuality adopted by his father (!) and called Forgèére (which means fern).  His father wanted him to escape military conscription, so the boy was sent to Mill Grove in he United States in 1803.  He became a US citizen and there met his wife Lucy Bakewell.

The book actually begins in 1820 with Audubon and two other men sailing on the Mississippi river.  They hit bad weather but all he cares about are his drawings.

Then we jump back to 1812 in Kentucky.  Audubon climbs into a tree to study the swallows who are living in it–some 9,000. He took home more than 100 birds to study them.  And then he tagged some others to study their migratory patterns.

As the end of the book points out, Audubon was one of the world’s greatest naturalists who did a lot for birding. Except he was also responsible for the death of thousands of birds.  There’s a section where he kills two ivory billed woodpeckers.  He is so excited at his luck because they are becoming a rarity. (more…)

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Falynn Koch–Science Comics: Bats: Learning to Fly (2017)

Posted in #10yearsof01, 10cc, Bats, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, Burl Ives, Cheap Trick, Children's Books, Falynn Koch, First Second :01, Graphic Novel, Hall and Oates, Jen Foster, Jon Bon Jovi, Kevin Hearn, Led Zeppelin, Nature, Neil Young, Non-fiction, Peter Appleyard, Ramones, Research, Rheostatics, Roy Orbison, Rush, Science, Scientists, The Beatles, The Buttless Chaps, The DeFranco Family, The Imponderables, YA Books, tagged on November 19, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 9 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (November 19, 2004).

The Rheostatics, live at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, November 19, 2004. This was the 9th night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe. This is the final night with a recording.

I compared all of the setlists from the nine shows and was somewhat surprised to see just how much repeating they did (you can see the grid at the bottom with all of the songs for each night).

Kevin Hearn joined them.  And this 2 hour and 45 minute show ended with a Twist competition and a “Whole Lotta Love” jam which went on for 19 minutes followed by Neil Young’s “Powderfinger.”  Two versions are available – Mark Sloggett’s soundboard recording and 8-track files provided by Steve Clarkson.  As with the other shows with these two recordings, the Clarkson one is audience recorded and louder, but with audience noise.

The show starts with a song by Martin and a song by Tim.  There’s no Dave for a full ten minutes!

“Self Serve Gas Station” has loud keyboards that fill out the introduction.  In the middle of the song, when Martin sings “worry about their son?” Tim asks “which one?”  And Martin sings, “What went wrong with Johnny, is he dumb?”  “What about Doug?”  It’s followed by Tim’s “Soul Glue” which sounds great.

Tim seems to be having a lot of fun this night.  When Dave sings “Me and Stupid” Tim is full of backing vocals, including chanting “Gabba Gabba,Hey!” when Dave mentions the Ramones.

“The Tarleks” has a bit of a rough opening, but after a quick tuning, all is well.  “Claire” opens with some interesting washes of keys before the familiar guitars come in.  Tim is still goofy this time singing “horrify me, Claire, roto-till my hair.  Let me see you say a line that isn’t there.”

Tim says they’d like to send “Power Ballad For Ozzy Osbourne” to The Buttless Chaps.  Thanks for coming and rocking.”

During “Four Little Songs” Dave says, “Kevin, Sing us a song.”  He sings his song “This Is It” “There was fresh butter melting on a waffle…”  As the song moves to the fast part Martin sings “who stole the kishka,” a nod to the previous night. It ends and Tim yells, “Someone call the cops” and Martin plays a siren on his guitar.

Dave introduces the Bastard Brass who will play with them for three songs.  They are Brian on trumpet, Alexi on trumpet Alain on the ‘bone and good ol Seth on the saxophone.  Unlike some of the horns they have play with them, these guys are the real deal and they sound great.

They bring a lot of depth to “P.I.N” and I love when they play the riff of “Mumbletypeg.”  However, there is an interruption during the song, which I assume is real.  Tim sounds very concerned, asking if “you know that guy.”  Then he calls for Security.  When the song is over, he says, “It’s okay to have a good time but don’t be gross about it.”   Then…  “This guy’s gotta go.”  Then “Well okay, you can stay.   But seriously mind the person next to you.”  even Mike gets in on it: “You know you’re gonna get turfed it you keep it up, buddy.”  Then quieter: “Granted not by me.”

Things must settle down, because they play “Marginalized” and Tim thanks the guys “that was worth listening to all the practicing in the dressing room.”

They play a beauty couple of songs: “Shack in the Cornfields” and “Try to Praise this Mutilated World.”  Dave explains that “Pornography” is another song about America.

And then Martin says that they are the Rheostatics, but Tim says, “We are the Toronto casts of the Rheostatics.  That’s Mike’s line.  I thought it was good.”

They send “Making Progress” out to Mike Dunne who named the band back in Grade 11 (or earlier).  Thanks, Mike its all your fault.”  Mike: “very new wave.”  Tim: “This goes out to the city of Bolton, Ontario.”  Why is that?  That’s where Mike lives.”  “Well, somebody’s gotta.”

For “My First Rock Concert” they bring back Kevin Hearn.  The Kevin Hearn Revival.  Him and his fancy T-shirts.  Dave says that Kevin and Dave will interweave their songs.  This is Dave and Kevin’s journey of rock and roll awakening.  Dave sings his parts and Kevin’s first shows include: Mr Dressup, Peter Appleyard;   Then Santana (where the guys in front and behind him threw up).  Then playing a gig between Bon Jovi and Cheap Trick.  At the after party, the guys who sing “Everybody Wang Chung Tonight” showed up.  Kevin sings a few choruses and then segues into “Surrender” (with nice harmonies from everyone).

Dave asks if Kevin has any Joe Jackson stories.  Tim interrupts and says he took a full bottle of Heineken off of the stage at a Joe Jackson show, wondering whats in that green bottle.

Kevin follows that with: Once I went to Burl Ives’ house for chocolate cake and he looked out the window and it was almost a full moon and in that Frosty the Snowman voice he said, “Oh look someone’s taken a bite out of the moon.  It’s true.”

When the song is over Dave says, “I imagine the UN General Assembly sitting together with the world on the brink of war and deferring to Kevin and he will tell that Burl Ives story and save the world.”

Tim continues, Dave and I, Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods, Disneyworld in Florida.  Dave and I were both in the crowd.  We did know each other but we were both there.  My first show.”  Dave: “Five seconds of complete bewilderment.  What the hell is that guy going there?”  Martin: “Who is Bo Donaldson.”  Tim: “Remember ‘Billy Don’t be a Hero?’ The greatest protest band ever.  Or was that The DeFranco Family?”

Tim continues, “We’d like to celebrate our ethnic heritage with this next song.”  Jennifer Foster is back on accordion for “Who is that Man, and Why is he Laughing?.”  It’s followed by “Yellow Days Under A Lemon Sun” with verses from Kevin, Tim and Dave.

They play “Aliens (Christmas 1988)” and before the final verse, when the song gets mellow, Tim starts singing “ABC, 123” and then Dave picks up “Michael Jackson.”  But then he says, “Why don’t you just give us some “It feels good to be alive.”  Tim asks what kind?  Phoning it in?”  Dave: “Oh no, big sale. ”  And after doing some of the song in a slightly different way Martin says now I feel like doing the riff, so they rock out.   At some point, Mike asks, “Are we still playing aliens?”  They get into some jazzy chords–merch chords.  Jazz and merch sales go together so well.  Jazzy Swag.  Martin comes out of the jazz with some blistering punk chords to open “RDA.”  They’re having crazy fun now, Dave starts singing “They don’t give a fuck about anybody else.”  After they wail, Mike asks, “Where’s the no solo sign?”

At the end of the song, they thank The Imponderables, and The Buttless Chaps.

After the break, they play “Legal Age Life” and jam it for 13 minutes.  The middle of the song features the Fall Nat’ls annual Twist competition.   Tim asks for gaffer tape to tape up “Wendell.”  It’s gonna be a really great bit when it’s ready.”  Tim: “I want to give Martin a laugh when he comes out.”  When Martin comes out, Tim asks, “Martin is that a Steinberger hockey stick?” (It doesn’t seem to go over well).

When the Twist competitors come up, Tim asks, “You’re not obnoxious drunk guy, are you?”  “No he knows all the words.”  The audience votes for Ann.  And Mike says, “Make that guitar talk for me Martin.”  he does and they have a “conversation.”

Tim asks, Do you know “The Things We Do For Love?”  I just wanna hear it.  Is that Hall and Oates?  It’s 10cc (Mike then explains the origin of that band name).

Martin starts “Record Body Count” by speaking the ending: “Joey stepped up on a block of ice, put a rope around his neck and fell asleep before he fucking died.”  Mike: “What a goof!”

Dave says, “We’re here tomorrow for one more night.  Good night!”  And yet, there’s 25 more minutes of music!  There’s some general jamming fun–in fact this jam (the Whole Lotta Love jam) runs about 19 minutes.  Someone takes a “Vegas walk off.”  And then Dave I think plays the Green Sprouts Theme, but there are washes of chords overwhelming everything.  Then people just start jamming song riffs: “Cat Scratch Fever,”  a Led Zeppelin riff or two, “Daytripper” “Tom Sawyer” Martin does the zooming sounds from “Bullet the BLue Sky” (or “Whole Lotta Love”).  And then someone starts jamming “Whole Lotta Love.”  About 7 and a half minutes into this, Tim says “We’re gonna do this all night long, so you might as well go home and gets some sleep.”  While “Whole Lotta Love” is playing, Kevin begins singing “In Dreams” by Roy Orbison (“Candy Colored Clown”).  Then Tim says, “I’m serous, this shit’s going on all night.  Get the fuck out of here!”

Dave says, “On that note, Good night.  I gotta go to St. Catherine’s Ontario in the morning.  I’m reading in the mall.”  Mike: “Two Vegas walk offs.”

There’s a sample played from Colonel Sanders “This is Colonel Sanders here to tell you about my exciting new chicken..  in addition to herbs and spices there’s  shampoo and dish soap in it, so while you’re eating, you’re cleaning.”

At about 12 minutes, Kevin starts singing “Whole Lotta Love.”  Martin mocks the “every inch of my love” part and Mike and someone else do the moaning.  Then Kevin starts singing “I’ve Been Everywhere” while samples galore play.  Finally Kevin sings a mellow version of “Like a Hurricane.”

And then a proper start to “Powderfinger” which makes up for the depravity of the previous night.  When they finish someone asks, “Hey are you still here?”

It’s not the final night of the residency, but it’s a really fun and kind of loopy night.  Some great playing mixed with some real silliness.

[READ: April 12, 2017] Bats

This has been my favorite Science Comic yet.  I love bats and this was great way to learn even more about them.

The book begins with Little Brown Bat flying through the night sky.  But he is lost.  And he happens upon a group of people in the desert hoping to see the Mexican Long-Tongued Bat and the Lesser Long-Nosed Bat, two nectar eating bats who help to pollinate flowers.

While the nectar bats do their things and the people enjoy it, one of the bats talks to Little Brown Bat about whats’ going on.  Finally the bat convinces Little Brown to dive down to eat all the bugs that the light is attracting–the humans won’t mind.

We learn about bat predators–foxes and snakes (which is why they stay off of the ground), but they can’t do much about owls. (more…)

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Matthew Loux–The Time Museum (Book 1) (2017)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Adventure, Anachronisms, Boredom, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Culture Shock, Dave Bidini music, Dinosaurs, End of the World, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Graphic Novel, John Wojewoda, Justin Rutledge, Ken Babcock, Matthew Loux, Mystery, Ongoing, Rheostatics, Sarah Harmer, Science, Short Books, Summer, Technology, The Buttless Chaps, The Imponderables, Time Travel, Unfinished series, tagged on November 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 6 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (November 16, 2004).

The Rheostatics, live at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, November 14, 2004. This was the 6th night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.  It was a free night and they still played for over 2 hours.

Two versions are available – Mark Sloggett’s soundboard recording and 8 track files provided by Steve Clarkson once again the Clarkson download is crisper and louder but with more crowd noise.

Not a lot of unusual stuff happens in this show.  “P.I.N.” is perfect.  On “Mumbletypeg,” Dave plays a new opening with some sliding notes. It’s a nice changeup, but it seems to mess up Tim–although he falls into place pretty easily.  After the song, Martin notes: “one guitar down, four to go.  Good thing we have a reserve.”  Then he introduces “this next song we’re gonna do is called “Marginalized” by Tim Vesely.”  Dave says,”And we have Chris Stringer on keyboards for the duration.”  Mike: “He’s on everything, it just looks like keyboards.  He’s just as equally on Jews harp.”  Dave: “And very close to being on drums tonight.”

Once again, Martin really into “The Tarleks” especially the loud ending part.  Then he says “More songs about invasions,” as they play “Aliens (Christmas 1988).”  In the quiet part Dave starts singing “Artenings Made of Gold” and then Kevin Hearn comes up on stage to sing “Monkeybird.”  There’s some wild noises and guitar nonsense in the middle.  And as “Monkeybird,” ends as Dave is introducing Kevin Hearn, Martin finishes up “Aliens” right where the song left off.

In the second version, you can hear a request–a big shout “Shaved Head” and a smaller shout for “Record Body Count.”

Dave says “Try To Praise This Ordinary World” which “features a poem by Ken Babstock.”  There’s no accordion this night and once again, you can’t hear the poem n version 2.  Then a surprise of “The Midnight Ride Of Red Dog Ray” which features Chris Stringer on the mandolin with a nice solo mid-song.
Time says “Here Comes The Image” is a song from 2067.  The year.” There seems to be a little trouble with the keyboard at first but it comes back and there’s a lovely solo.

Dave says “here’s a plaintive reading of ‘My First Rock Concert.'”  he also ups the line to “Michael Stipe was distant, he was nice (he wouldn’t let me touch his dog).”  Then he commends: “totally a Saturday night crowd on a Tuesday.  That’s was the Argos going to the Grey Cup will do to a Toronto crowd, I tell ya.”

Whether you listen to our new album in the comfort of your own home or a car or … a boat.”  Tim: “the comfort of your own boat.”  “For those of us who have boats.”   This is the first song you’d hear.  Tim says canoes the best boat.  Dave: “I don’t t know if it’s safe to have a portable CD player in a canoe or kayak.  Tim: “I took my canoe to Hot Rod Jimmy’s and had it decked out.  The subs are so… the ripples are just you don’t want to be camping next to me.”  The first song on that album is “Shack In The Cornfields,”  During the middle Dave says, “Stringer, stop stealing my tambourine or Jews harp.”  Mike: “Crank it” (Jews harp solo).  “Little Bird, Little Bird” has some slide guitar on it and “Pornography” is short and sweet.

Dave says “‘Loving Arms’ was sung by Sarah Harmer on the album and then she went on to be a big star.  So we take full credit for her career.  How many people were here for Jessie Harris and Justin Rutledge?  Thanks for donations tonight for Tim’s childrens’ and my son’s school Alpha Alternative Public School.  Mike: “Martin and I’s unborn children get nothing.”

“Saskatchewan” “reprising his starring role in Green Sprouts Music Week 1980 something: Justin Rutledge.” Justin: “It’s my first time playing the Shoe it’s very cool.”  He sings it with a nice drawl although the song is incredibly slow.

“Dope Fiends And Boozehounds” has a middle section of “Alomar” after which Tim says “wow, I think the sun shone for a minute there.”  After Martin sings “dark side of the moon,” the audience does the howling for him.”  Towards the end, Martin starts playing a lovely “Song of Flight.”

Dave says, “we don’t want to keep you out too late.  It’s a Tuesday night.  We all have cartoons to watch in the morning.”  And then they play almost 30 more minutes of music.

“Making Progress” opens with spooky trippy keys to open.  It’s followed by a really harsh and aggressive “Feed Yourself.”  There’s a long solo section with some spooky keyboards and them Mike says “play the big thing, frighten us, make it do scary shit.”  And there’s this huge build up.  “This is gonna be good. Wait for it.”  Martin:  “I hope it doesn’t blow up.”  Someone jokes: “Can you do any Tragically Hip on that thing.”  But there’s no pay off to whatever was happening.

During the encore break you can hear someone enunciate “Sweet.  Rich.  Beautiful.  Mine.”  But instead, Tim comes out to do “First The Wheel” solo.  Tim says, “personally I’d like to hear “Satan is the Whistler,” Dave if you’re listening.  “When he finishes, he says, “I’d like to welcome back the Toronto cast of Rheostatics.”

Dave mentions “the special guest vocalist night tomorrow with 28 different singers.  And Kevin Hearn & Thin Buckle opening.”  Tim: “That’s definitely worth coming for.  Martin: “Rheo-oke.”  Dave says more like we’re the Blues Brothers band backing up these great people.

Thursday night, Danny Michel is here for a double bill and Mike’s brother John Wojewoda and Bluegrass Nightmare.  Friday night The Imponderables and The Buttless Chaps.

They honor Tim’s request and play a Rocking “Satan Is The Whistler.”  They do it justice and the ending really rocks. The night ends with “Soul Glue.”  Martin still has his robotic voice thing and keeps saying “Soul Glue” as an intro and they play a fun, spirited version of it, with Tim really vamping by the end.

[READ: April 22, 2017] The Time Museum

The story opens with a man traveling through time.  He is with a group of people whom he tells to flee when he sets off the machine.  Cut to 8 months later as the crew is looking for evidence of the man’s success or failure.  They don’t see anything.  Until the man (known as The Earl) appears from behind a rock with a glowing object which he declares “is TIME.”

Then we meet the main character, Delia Bean.  Delia loves science and is a nerd.  The other kids don’t love that so much.  But summer is coming so that’s okay.  And the summer means a trip to Uncle Lydon’s place.  He is the coolest because he is curator of the Earth Time Museum–a place outside of normal time where Earth’s wonders are displayed.

When they get to Uncle Lyndon’s house Delia is in heaven (her brother not so much).  He winds up going to the town pool but Delia does some research in the neighborhood.  While walking round she discovers a (quite frankly adorable) kiwi bird.  It licks her and then runs off.  By the time she catches it (and names him Tammany), it has led her right to the Museum.  The museum is amazing with sights and sounds and smells from the history of the Earth.  And that ‘s when Lyndon reveals a secret.  Yes, he is from Hoboken, but he is actually from the year 5079.  He’s a time traveler. (more…)

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Gene Luen Yang & Mike Holmes–Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences (2017)

Posted in Better Than Ezra, Canadian Music, Children's Books, Clark [Canadian band], Fears, First Second :01, Gene Luen Yang, Graphic Novel, Hebrew School Dropouts, John Tielli, John Wojewoda, Kevin Hearn, Mike Holmes, Paul Linklater, Paul Quarrington, Robots, Science, Selina Martin, Series, Set at School, Smarty Pants, Technology, The Buttless Chaps, The Imponderables, Threats, Unfinished series, tagged on November 13, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-Fall Nationals, Night 3 of 10, The Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (November 13, 2004).

The Rheostatics, live at the Legendary Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto, November 13, 2004. This was the 3rd night of their 10 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.  This show was exactly 13 years ago!

I compared all of the setlists from the nine shows and was somewhat surprised to see just how much repeating they did. Most of the repeated songs are new ones–they played a lot from 2067, which makes sense.  But for a Fall Nationals, there’s really not a lot of “popular” or “rare” stuff.  But the band is in terrific form for all nine shows and the recordings are consistently great.

Over the PA, they’re playing some good music, which Martin says, “That was my brother’s [John Tielli] band, Clark, on the PA there.  We’re the Rheostatics project.

They open the show with “It” which is a fun way to start.  Martin is feeling a little silly and sings “I grew up on dinosaurs” and the rooooars to the delight of all.

You hear Martin say, “Woodstuck?”  They play and Dave sing a line and says “That’s wrong.”  But the rest of the song is right on and at the end after “hippie child,” Martin says “waah.”  Tim tells the story of someone bringing them a 24 track master of that song in Vancouver.  But he felt it was too heavy to bring home.  Although someone (Martin?) says that it is in fact in his basement.

“Happiness” seems to rock along really nicely.  After which Martin says, “It’s Saturday night in Bonertown.  The city where you can’t.” Dave: “But you can, its’ ok to have a boner.”  Mike: “Yeah, but can you smoke it?”

“Mumbletypeg” sounds a little sloppy at the beginning and Dave doesn’t sing the first line.  But they pull it together.  It’s followed by “Marginalized” which opens with a groovy drum before the funky bass and then an introduction of Chris Stringer on the keyboards.

Mike comments, it’s such a lovely extended summer up here.  Holy french fry lights, designed to beautifully bake us.

On “Four Little Songs,” each guy takes his verse: Martin, Tim, but when it’s Mike’s turn, Chris plays some crazy trippy synth noises.  Dave gets his verse and at the end, the fast riff devolves into utter chaos with Martin and Chris just making all kinds of weird ass noises.  They end the song with the bass thumps and state “By Mennen.”

Dave introduces “The Tarleks,” “here’s a song about a super salesmen”  Once again, Martin has a lot of fun singing it.

They play a zany version of “I Dig Music” and in the middle where Mike has to do his slow part (which he seems to really dislike), he says, “For the longest time I’ve been thinking Dave’s ideas were so gay and then he offered me a martini.”  After a sip MPW sings the Seymour Stein line and then they rock the end of the song.   I really enjoy Tim singing the “too bad.” backing vocals.

AS they start “Here Comes the Image” Dave notes the “double keyboard attack, eh?”  It’s really evident in the solo section as the one keyboard plays the solo and the other plays trippy sound effects.  Then up comes Jen Foster on accordion to join them for “Who Is This Man, And Why Is He Laughing?”  Martin is singing something in his robotic voice thing but I can’t tell if it’s just sounds or actual words.  At the end, Martin says, ”That’s a nice walk in the park, doncha think?”

Tim notes: “our heritage gets to shine in that song.  A little bit of Czech, little bit of Italian, little bit of French, little bit of Polish.  No English.”

“Pornography” opens with synths which is a nice change.  coincidentally, Dave says to someone: “You put your shirt back on, I see.  Good idea, sir.”

“We Went West” continues the rather mellow middle section of the show.  At some point Dave, I think says, “while you’re there check out the place mats they’re hilarious.”

Next up is “California Dreamline.”  Dave announces, “We’d like to invite Paul Linklater up for the next song.  He sang this song with us last year on guest vocalist night and we have guest vocalist night next Wednesday.  His rendition is pretty painful.

The next guest is during “I am Drummstein” Ladies and gentlemen, the star of stage and sound in Belleville, Ontario, Mr Anthony Fragomeni:  “Too bad that you quit Vebron, wasn’t working out?  They kind of sucked.”  While they are in the middle grooving section, Tim says, “This is the Better Than Ezra part of the evening.”  In a real coincidence, on this same day in 2017, Barenaked Ladies announced a summer tour with Better Than Ezra opening.  I haven’t thought about them in ten years.

“Satan is the Whistler” is quiet and menacing to start.  Martin gets the fast guitar riff pretty well this time.  But he’s still being a little silly singing “moose away aroo aroo arroo” and then “Satan is the Whistler, Satan Live in Whistler, arooo!!!”

During the encore, they raffle off an item with a ticket.  When Tim reads out the number, someone whoops and Dave says, “There’s always one guy who claims he has won when he hasn’t won.  I wonder what void you’re trying to fill in your life.”  Then after a pause.  “Just kidding.”  No one claims the prize, so Dave says anyone can go to the merch table with it later.

“Little Bird, Little Bird” is insane.  It starts with some silliness when Dave mocks Tim for his hat and then says, “Tim you have to bring popping and snapping to country music.  It hasn’t happened yet.”  They play the song and then midway through the it stops with much laughing.  Dave says, “there’s no room for karate in this song.  Cant believe you re always trying to sneak your karate in there.”

Time retorts, “Wait a second, you guys made that “ho ha”part while I wasn’t in the studio and now it comes time to do it live and I’m the only one doing it?  Dave says: “We’re not going hoo ha and laughing in the middle of it.”
Tim asks the audience, “Who won the debate, Tim or Dave?”
Dave: “There was no debate because you’re not gonna do it any more.”
They compromise: “everybody ho ha and nobody karate.”
Tim mutters, “I hardly even karate’d I can’t believe you saw it.”
Dave: “I couldn’t help but see it, you almost took me out with one of those chops.”
Martin: “He’s feeling sensitive like a little bird.”

They finish the song and then Martin says, “okay we’ll do ‘PIN’ for ya.”  But before the song starts we get a run down of all of the opening acts for the next few shows:

Sunday matinée: Hebrew School Dropouts on at 4.
Monday night Selina Martin with the Formidable Forces of Bigness (Mike: Close enough Faceless Forces of Bigness).
Tuesday is free.  We’ll give about 61%.
Wednesday night Kevin Hearn is opening and it’s guest vocalist night.  Tim: “I’m definitely coming on Wednesday.”  Martin: “I’m going to come for every single night (get the bonus pack).”
Thursday is Killer Thursday Danny Michel.  And apparently John Wojewoda will do some Bluegrass Nightmare.
Friday the Buttless Chaps are flying in from Vancouver.
And Saturday, The Imponderables will be back.

After “PIN,” “Ozzy” sounds even more maudlin with the mandolin and backing vocals, but there’s a pretty wild solo.  There’s a special shout out to Chris Stringer: “you can’t tell but he’s actually playing all our parts for us. “

They end with a lovely ending “Making Progress” which has a wonderfully smooth ending.  Thanks to all the out of towners, out of country-ers and out of mind-ers.

Then the guys come back out to try to get rid of the raffle prize.  Tim runs through a bunch of numbers.  Come on, people get with it.  I wish I had money to burn. I remember when 50 cents meant something.  Finally he says, “Well come and get the fucking t-shirt, Oh. He’s a liar.”  This is so embarrassing… anyone show me half a ticket?

[READ: April 14, 2017] Secret Coders: Secrets & Sequences

Secret Coders 2 ended with a pretty big cliffhanger.  Tabitha and I were a little bummed that there wasn’t more of a recap at the beginning of this book.  We sure hope that book 4 has a bit of recap because we’ll never remember the ending of this one when its time for that book (which just came out).

The kids are able to use the repeat function of the turtles to scare of the mean old rugby players.  In the commotion, it sure looks like the Professor’s nose falls off (what?!).

The next day in school, one of the rugby players calls for a truce, he never realized that Principal Dean was such a bad guy.

The kids learn about parameters–how you can use the same code, but just change a variable to make a bigger object (in this case, triangles). (more…)

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Matin Durrani & Liz Kalaugher–Furry Logic: The Physics of Animal Life (2016)

Posted in Animals, Antarctica, Bats, Bees, Beetles, Birds, Cats, Chameleons, Crocodiles, Death, Dogs, Dung Beetle, Elephants, Fish, Frank Bonner, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Komodo Dragon, Liz Kalaugher, Matin Durrani, Mice, Nature, Noise, Non-fiction, Octopuses, Oddities, Pets, Rain, Research, Rheostatics, Scholarship, Science, Seahorses, Snakes, Squids, Violence, Whales, WKRP in Cincinnati, Yuck!, tagged on September 30, 2017| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS-The Casbah, Hamilton, Ontario (November 6, 2004).

This was a Hamilton show between the 2004 Western Fall Nationals and the 10 night Fall Nationals at The Horseshoe Tavern the following week. The band attempted to play all of 2067 succeeding apart from “The Latest Attempt On Your Life” and “Try To Praise This Mutilated World.”

The recording opens with some wild jazz playing–rather incongruous opening music.  But it quickly fades and you hear the guys plucking away as their noodling solidifies into “Easy To Be With You.”  They seem to be having a lot of fun with the hoo ah hoo ah middle part–making it a bit more rocking, perhaps?

Martin: “This is for Yod’s sister.”  Mike: “And Daryl from Niagara Falls, Happy Birthday.”  Tim: “We couldn’t download the lyrics to ‘Edmund Fitzgerald’ so we’re gonna do this one instead.  Mike: “All the teleprompter rentals were eaten up by the U.S. election.” Martin: “And Velvet Revolver are on tour.”  They play a  stompin “Record Body Count.”

So we have a new record out.  It’s called “twenty one twel–“.  It’s called 2067.  Tim: “It’s our 2,067th release.”  Martin: “We’re a very prolific band.  And we’re gonna attempt to do it top to bottom.”  Mike: “And you know what they say, there’s a fine line between flagship and guinea pig and you’re it.”

The first song is “Shack in the Cornfields.”  Martin introduces it: “This song had a large head. But Mike and I got down to it and made sure it was born.  In the corn.” It sounds good and has a really long percussion ending and then opens up into Dave’s quiet “Little Bird,” a song they have played a lot over the  last year.

Next up is “Marginalized,” which is a bit softer and less angry than some other versions.

Dave says, “We’re gonna do a song we just shot a video for.  We do a video every couple of years.  We got Frank Bonner to co-star in this video with Martin. It’s called The Tarleks and it’s about Herb Tarlke from WKRP in Cincinnati from the late 1970s and 1980s, the heyday of modern American sitcoms.  And one day it will be done and you will see it. But until then you just have to fantasize what it might look like.”  It’s a little slow an angular.  Like much of the show it feels either tentative or like they want the audience to be able to experience the songs fully.

“Power Ballad for Ozzy Osbourne” has the opening stanza which they hadn’t been playing live.  This is slower than usual, I think–although it feels like a real ballad the way it builds.  There’s a buzzy wire as well, which I’m sure bugs the band.  “I Dig Music” is a little goofier and less rocking than other versions.  On the way after the middle section MPW plays the drum fill for Rush’s “Lakeside Park” but not quite right.  For “Here Comes the Image” Mike plays a playful almost bell-sounding keyboard solo–although it does cut out a few times during the lengthy solo at the end.

Dave notes: “The worst part of switching instruments is not knowing which beer is yours.”

Mike says, “This song [“Who Is This Man and Why Is He Laughing?”] has no words.  It’s drifting and mellow.  Next up is supposed to be “The Latest Attempt on Your Life” which they have played live before.  But you hear Martin say he doesn’t want to do it: “Let’s skip that one and do ‘Polar Bears.'”  Mike agrees, “If we were doing Dark Side of the Moon or something we’d stick to it but we’re going to deviate.”  It’s a spare but romping version of “Polar Bears” with some loud “hey hey ho hos.”

Dave: This next song is about yesterday’s football game that Tim wrote, uh, four weeks ago. Two days ago?  Friday night?  What day is it?  That was yesterday I was talking Tiger Cats.
Mike: “Making Pierogies.”  It’s a slow mellow song.  Very pretty, especially the guitar parts at the end

Next week is our 4th annual Fall Nationals at the Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto (corner of Queen and Spadina).  Ten nights in a row this year starting next… the coming Thursday.

Tim: Thanks to Wayne Omaha for playing tonight.  They’re selling their new album back there and if you wanna get their other one Can the Maps. Go For the Beauty, bug them, and they’ll sell it to ya.
Dave: I think those guys should tour prisons. I think it would be really good for the country.  As long as they’re on the right side of the bars.

They skip “Try to Praise This Mutilated World” and go into “P.I.N.”  They play the coda at the beginning and then the songs starts.  Martin sings his verse in a kind of flat deadpan and Dave says Martin Stop rapping and Martin seems to get annoyed or something–he starts singing crazy–more deadpan and then he screams a punky style and then redlines the volume with a scream on the mic–it’s a little disturbing.  They jump into a poppy “Mumbletypeg” and after the first line Dave says “That’s a lot of beer.”  It gets pretty wild by the end.  It segues into a dark “Stolen Car,” with Martin singing “Goodbye suburban motherfuck.”  The middle has a lengthy instrumental section with Tim getting to mess around on bass a bit.

After a relatively long encore break, the come back with “Pornography.”  “We wish that song wasn’t relevant; however, it is.”

Then there’s a slow “California Dreamline.” And they end with a long “Feed Yourself” with a really creepy section of Dave whispering all kinds of things like “me and you in his head.”  The song ends with some wild effects from someone–almost a minute of pinging sounds after which Dave says, Sorry.

[READ: February 21, 2017] Furry Logic

This book came across my desk at work (I’m still bummed that they changed the way we get books at work so I don’t see as many interesting ones as I used to).  It looked interesting, so I brought it home and read it over the weekend.

This is a pop-science book that looks at how animals use physics to their advantage:  “If you’re scared of physics, don;t worry, we’ve kept things simple.”  I enjoyed that the book states right up front that the authors are anthropomorphizing the animals because that makes for a much better story. Even though, in the end, they dismiss this idea.

Chapter 1 is called Heat: The Warm Up Chapter.  In which we learn about gender-swapping snakes, floppy skinned dogs, mosquitoes that wee blood, killer bees, hot-tailed squirrels, vipers that see heat and beetles that hear infrared.

The chapter looks at (using the research of others) how snakes in Manitoba keep warm by piling together in a big clumps.  But more interestingly, there are certain snakes which swap genders (temporarily).  Male snakes secrete female pheromones to attract males for body heat.  We learn that dogs shake the water off of them because the energy they expel from the vigorous shaking is actually far less than the energy they would have to use to keep warm if they were so wet.  The authors talk a lot about just how interesting it is to see their skin flip back and forth (this goes for all mammals since they all seem to shake in vaguely the same way. (more…)

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Chuck Klosterman–But What If We’re Wrong: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past (2016)

Posted in #ITMFA, #RESIST, 17th Century, 18th Century, 19th Century, Advice, Books about music, Books about writers, Brian Greene, Chuck Klosterman, David Byrne, Essays, Football, Gambling, George Saunders, Herman Melville, History, Idiots, Junot Díaz, Music, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Nostalgia, Politicians, Rheostatics, Ronald Reagan, Russia, Science, Seth Meyers, Sports, Superstitions, Technology, The Clash, Video Games, War, tagged on September 25, 2017| Leave a Comment »

klosetrSOUNDTRACK: RHEOSTATICS–Fall Nationals The Horseshoe Tavern Toronto, ON. Night 1 of 13 (November 10, 2003).

This was the 1st night of their 13 night Fall Nationals run at the Horseshoe.  Rheostatics Live has recordings of nights 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7.

 The sound quality of this show is great, although it’s quite disconcerting how quiet it is between songs—must be soundboard with no audience pick up at all.

Dave chats with the crowd of course: “Always exciting on opening night—a tingle in the air.  We’re basking in the glow of David Miller’s victory tonight even if he doesn’t know the words to “Born to Run.”

David Raymond Miller is the president and CEO of WWF-Canada, the Canadian division of the international World Wildlife Fund. A former politician, Miller was the 63rd Mayor of Toronto from 2003 to 2010. He entered politics as a member of the New Democratic Party, although his mayoral campaign and terms in office were without any formal party affiliation. He did not renew his party membership in 2007.  After declining poll numbers, Miller announced on September 25, 2009, that he would not seek a third term as mayor in the 2010 election, citing family reasons.  He was replaced by Rob frickin Ford.

They play a lot of songs from their not yet released album (not until 2004, in fact) 2067.

They open with “The Tarleks” which is follows by 2001’s “Song of the Garden” and then back to 2067 with “I Dig Music.”  The new songs sound similar to the release but perhaps the words might not be solidified yet—there’s also no “too fucking bad” in “I Dig Music.”

Tim’s “In It Now” comes next with that cool opening riff.   It segues into one of my favorite Tim-sung songs “Marginalized” also from 2067.  I love the drums, the guitar riff, everything about it—although they are off-key as they start.

Dave says, “We’re surprising ourselves a little by playing new stuff.   But when Martin asks for requests and people say “Saskatchewan” Martin starts playing it (see, the squeaky wheel…).

“Fan letter for Ozzy Osbourne” (also from 2067)  it sounds a bit more spare and sad (with no wailing vocal at the end).  It’s followed by “a very old song we wrote in 1989, I think, but it still applies on this special occasion.”  He says it’s called “You can’t go back to Woodstock baby you were just 2 years old you, you weren’t even born.”

There’s a quiet “In This Town” that’s followed by a lengthy “When Winter Comes.”  This song features a remarkably pedestrian guitar solo (sloppy and very un-Martin like).

Dave says they were recording audio commentary from a show two years ago (for what?  is this available somewhere?).  He says that night wasn’t a very good patter night.  Good music night, though.

Tim says, “So we overdubbed good stage banter. … Till I sparked up a fattie and giggled like a moron.”
Martin: “till you sparked up a fattie and the ridiculousness of the situation became glaringly apparent.”
Dave: “Martin I can’t believe you just said ‘sparked up a fattie.'”
Martin: “The times they are a-changing.”

Martin introduces “Aliens” by saying “This would be a b-minor chord.  The whole thing seems a little weird–Martin does some odd voices and weird guitar noises—it almost sounds out of tune or like it’s just the wrong guitar.

Back to a new song with “Polar Bears and Trees” and they have fun chanting the “hey hey ho ho” section.

Dave calms things down with some details: We got some stuff planned over the next 13 days. Lucky 13.  Thursday there’s going to be 25 guest vocalists.  We’re gonna mail it in, basically.  And then on Saturday we have “Tim Vebron and the Rheostars.”  According to a review, this “band” is a goof: “Martin was wearing a lei and suspenders, MPW looked like an extra from THX1138.”   You can also get a pass to all 13 shows for $75.  For some good old live live Canadian shield rock.

Dave asks, “Tim did you get a contact high during aliens?  Some wise acre lit a marijuana cigarette.”  Tim:  “It’s just kicking in now.  I’m hungry.”

“PIN” sound great although in “Legal Age Life,” the sound drops out at 58 seconds and comes back on at 1:35.  During the song, Dave shouts G and they shift to “Crocodile Rock.”  It kind of clunkily falls back in to “LAL,” but it’s fun to see them jamming and exploring a bit.

Dave says “Crocodile Rock” was a very complicate dance, but it didn’t catch on.  I think the dance involved implements didn’t it. Tongs?”

“Stolen Car” starts quietly but builds and builds to a noisy climactic guitar solo.  Its pretty exciting.

During the encore break there’s repeated chants for “Horses.  Horses.”

You can hear Dave say, “‘Soul Glue?’ We’re not going to do that tonight, we’re going to say it for a special occasion.”  The audience member shouts, “the hell with you.” Dave: “Ok, bye. Yes I am going to hell.”

What song do you think cleans the palate for the song to come after it—A sherbet?

There’s some amusing commentary between Dace and the audience.  And then a little more local politics: “Did you think that was good speech by David Miller?  I didn’t. I don’t want to be a bad guy coz it’s his night but…”  Then Dave imagines a “David Miller ascension-to-power film starring Ed Begley Jr.”

The encore includes a rollicking “Satan is the Whistler” followed by a solid cover of The Clash’s “London Calling.”  Tim’s a little sloppy on the bass, but the guitar sound is perfect and Dave’s got the vocal sound just right.  As they leave you can still here that guy calling for “Horses.”

[READ: July 1, 2016] What If We’re Wrong?

I have enjoyed a lot of the essays I’ve read by Klosterman.  But I’ve never read one of his books before.  I saw him on Seth Meyers one night and this book sounded cool.  And then I saw it at work, so I grabbed it .

Klosterman is clever and funny and this book is clever and funny.  Although I found it a little long–every section of the book felt like it could have been shorter and it wouldn’t have lost any impact.  However, I loved the premise and I loved all of the examples.  I just got a little tired of each section before it ended.

So what is this book (with the upside down cover) about?  Well, as the blurb says, our cultural is pretty causally certain about things.  No matter how many times we are wrong, we know exactly how things are going to go. Until they do not go that way any more.  “What once seemed inevitable eventually becomes absurd.”  So what will people think of 2015/16 in 100 years?  And while some things seem like they may be obvious about how tastes change, he also wonders if our ideas about gravity will change.

This came out before the horrors of the 2016 election and I read it before them, so the whole premise of the book is even more magnified. (more…)

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G. Willow Wilson (writer) Adrian Alphona (artist)–Ms. Marvel: Civil War II (2016)

Posted in Adrian Alphona, Bob Dylan, Captain Marvel, Feminism, G. Willow Wilson, Graphic Novel, L.A. Salami, Ms. Marvel, Religion, Science, Set in New Jersey!, Spider-Man, Spiderman, Superheroes, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfinished series on September 22, 2017| Leave a Comment »

  SOUNDTRACK: L.A. SALAMI-Tiny Desk Concert #649 (September 13, 2017).

I know about L.A. Salami exclusively from NPR.  They played “Day to Day (For 6 Days a Week),” a while back and I really liked it.  Then L.A. Salami performed an SXSW Lullaby for them.  And now he;s back for a Tiny Desk Concert.

Bob says that Salami is a bit like Dylan.  It’s a fair comparison in one way–particularly Salami’s lengthy narrative style.  But Salami is British and is delivery is radically different–alert and agitated instead of slow and almost disaffected like Dylan.

But here’s the blurb:

Lookman Adekunle Salami, who writes and records as L.A. Salami, is a storyteller and a poet. His songs are deliberate meanderings on the mundane and the poignancy in everyday life. And in the way Bob Dylan took his guitar and harmonica to accompany his rarely repeating ramblings, L.A Salami embraces a similar aesthetic, albeit as a black Englishman instead of a white Minnesotan.

His opening song at the Tiny Desk, “Day to Day (For 6 Days a Week),” runs about six minutes, with over 600 words. He seems to rattle them all off effortlessly, with compelling, complicated rhymes that never repeat and phrases such as:

“Went to work for the NHS –
Mental health, people depressed.
Met Joanne – Scared of living,
Afraid of dying, terrified of being.
Then met Paul, a schizophrenic,
Shaking limbs, paranoid fanatic –
Unwashed 10 days in a row –
So afraid almost paralytic.”

And the blurb is right–he is effortless in the way he sings-speaks these complicated ideas.  The words are sophisticated and the ideas are powerful.  He plays this song on acoustic guitar, a simple, sweet melody that supports the multifaceted words.  When it’s over he says, “that song was dedicated to anyone who has a job, or doesn’t have a job, or anyone who needs a job.”

For the second song, “Terrorism (The ISIS Crisis),” he switches to electric guitar.  He says, “I’m guessing you guys have heard of the terrorist attack in Westminster.  This next song “Terrorism (The ISIS Crisis)” is about this.”  This song has a pretty radically different sound.  Especially in the chorus (the other two songs don’t even have one) which features a loud, ringing, sharp guitar lick and Salami screaming (mostly) “the ISIS crisis.”   It’s effective the first time through but it seems kind of limited after a number of verses.  The verses are, once again very powerful, especially the quiet middle section:

“This song is called ‘My Thoughts, They Too Will Tire open brackets, sigh, close brackets.'”  This song has a lovely melody (the acoustic guitar is on capo 8 so it’s mostly high notes).  It’s another lengthy pointed but meandering song, a style that Salami does very well.

[READ: April 28, 2017] Ms Marvel: Civil War II

I was puzzled as to why this was called Civil War II.  I actually thought that it was a sequel to a book I hadn’t read yet as it seemed to come out of nowhere.  But I don’t think I missed anything in the Ms Marvel universe.

What I did miss out on was an overarching storyline called Civil War II about which Gizmodo has a lot of very negative things to say.  So I gather this series is part of a bigger thing which I don’t care about.  Sigh.  According to Wikipedia:

Functioning as an allegory about the nature of determinism versus free will the story sees opposing factions of superheroes led by Captain Marvel and Iron Man come into conflict when a new Inhuman named Ulysses emerges with the ability to predict the future. The debut of the series was scheduled to capitalize on the release of the 2016 Marvel Studios film Captain America: Civil War.

As the book opens, Kamala and her friends are involved in the Tri State Ultra Mega Science Fair.  They are squaring off against NY and CT nerds.

Jersey starts with Skyshark (a shark in a floating bubble of water) which Connecticut says is cruelty to animals (because CT is full of lawyers, ha).

NY makes the Re-aktron which is able to absorb all of the static electricity in the air and use it to power electrical grids.  No contest.

But for round 2, Jersey brings put the Fusion Master2000 a pocket-sized nuclear generator.  (What could go wrong?)

Well, when it does go wrong, it turns out that Spiderman (in the black outfit–no idea what that means) is already on the scene–we see hes actually one of the kids in the fair) and then superhero Nova arrives–all three there to help out. (more…)

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Eddie Izzard–Believe Me (2017) [audiobook 2017–Eddie Izzard]

Posted in #ITMFA, #RESIST, Acting, Adventure, Advice, Africa, Astronauts, Audiobooks, Autobiographies, Chickens, Christmas, donald tRUMP, Eddie Izzard, Eddie Izzard, Food, Funny (ha ha), Gender, Hippos, History, Hospitals, King Arthur, Kissing, Macaroni in Warm Milk, Marathon, Marriage (Happy), Marriage Trouble, Memoirs, Monty Python's Flying Circus, Morality, NASA, Nazis, Nelson Mandela, Non-fiction, Politicians, Racism, Religion, Running, Science, Sex, Sexism, Soccer, Spike Milligan, Steve McQueen, Technology, The Bible, The Great Escape, Transgender, Translation, Travel on September 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: September 13, 2017] Believe Me

When I saw that Eddie Izzard had a book out I was pretty interested to read it.  I have loved his stand-up since 1997 or 1998 and I was lucky enough to see him on his Circle Tour (on the date they recorded it!).  I have been keeping up with his career and trying to see him in whatever he does (although I like my comedy more than drama and he has certainly made the shift towards drama in recent years).

I thought an autobiography or memoir by him would be pretty interesting (even if he claims to be boring).  But when I saw that he read the audiobook, I knew I had to give it a listen (even if it was 12 discs)!

Amusingly, there was a long delay at the library.  The lady at the counter (who is not the librarian–we librarians know the difference) said if I knew his voice, I could just read the book to myself in his voice.  It was an amusing thought, and I possibly could do that, ….yes, but Eddie’s voice is just so fantastic that it never would have worked properly.  Plus, he throws in easily an extra hours worth of footnotes and rambles that aren’t in the print book!  That’s right, an extra hour’s worth of nonsense if you do the audio.   True you don;t get to see the pictures, but it’s a fair trade-off.

Well the book finally came in and I had plenty of driving time to make short work of this 12 hours behemoth.  And I laughed and laughed.  And cried and cried.

Because while Eddie Izzard is an action transvestite (transgender, now) and one of the best stand-ups around, he is also an extremely warm and thoughtful person. He worked very hard to become the success he is.  And he has used his fame to do some absolutely wonderful things for humanity–including raising millions of dollars.  Not bad for an atheist who is sometimes in girl mode and sometimes in boy mode. (more…)

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