Left Toyn At Albacoykie?

Well, I'm off to LA tomorrow, returning in a week. I think I may have computer access at my sister's place, but I'm not 100% certain. So I may or may not be checking emails, and I may or may not be blogging. Even if I do have computer access, I'm not sure if I'll be blogging. It is a vacation after all. Y'know, getting away from your everyday life. But we'll see.

Look after each other in my absence. Try not to fight. And remember to water the cat and feed the plants.

Moronscope

Y'know, international geo-politics is pretty depressing these daysódownright scary in factóbut this is funny.

Chretien's denial is priceless: "He's a friend of mine. He's not a moron at all."

Moroscope

Well, the odd horoscopes keep coming in the Metro subway paper. Today's had this advice: Wear thick-soled shoes when walking. Dangle enticing prospects before heartthrob. Make attempt to deter scary wildlife.

Huh?

Okay, well I got the first point covered. There's snow and ice on the ground here, so I've been wearing shoes and boots with good traction (and, yes, thick soles). Kind of a no-brainer. As for the second sentence, well, it's rather non-applicable at the moment, although I do like to let my prospects dangle when given the opportunity.

And as for the last bit, I guess I'll have to go dig out those rabbit traps.

Old Jackie's Back In Town

Jack Frost, that is. Yes, it's officially winter. LA's lookiní pretty good right now.

Speaking Of Rabbits...

...watch out, ícos this one's dynamite!

Turning The Page

This edition of Canadian Musician magazine marks my swan song as a regular writer for them. I've asked my editor to take me off his rolodex. Just too much work (3,000-word articles) for too little pay (10¢ a word). Plus it just felt like it was time. Time to move on and search out other, more lucrative freelance assignments, hopefully expanding into non-music topics, although I'll probably always write about music in some fashion.

But it's been a good four-year run, and writing for them certainly helped me build up a nice portfolio, that eventually helped me to land my current job at Columbia Houseóa stable, 9-5 day-job writing about music is a fairly rare thing, all things considered. And along the way I got to interview and write stories about almost every major band in Canada, from Barenaked Ladies to Nickelback (then just starting to make a buzz) to Alanis Morisette. My last story was on the babelicious Emm Gryner, which was fun to do, not just because she's a real cutie, but because she's an indie artist who runs her own show and is out there going toe-to-toe with the big boys.

It's also the last installment of my Showcase Page. This one puts the period on it after exactly three full years of writing the page. They'll find someone to take it over, no doubt. Probably one of the other regular contributors. It was kind of hard to walk away from it. Sure was nice to have my own page in a nationally distributed magazine, it helped me get a free media pass for the music festivals in town, and it exposed me to some wonderful music that I may have never heard otherwise. (I have plans to put together a compilation discóThe Best Of Showcaseóprobably a three-volume series, one for each year.)

And I'd like to think that it may have helped increase exposure a little bit for a few unknown musicians and bands along the way, or at the very least helped them fatten their press clippings. I know it always made me feel good when someone I interviewed for the page was really grateful and genuinely excited about being in it. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy. And I even made some friends along the way, like the lovely and talented Colleen Power and Linda M.

It was nice to get my homeboy Nathan Wiley in the last installment, before he gets too big. I'm sure he'll be signed by a major sometime in the next year. And, I think I actually outdid myselfóif I do say soówith this sentence about the Local Rabbits, a band whose members live in both Montreal and Toronto:

Though their bi-local existence makes the Rabbits a cottontail of two cities, like their furry namesakes, when it comes to creativity, they've got a jump on all the rest.

Hee hee.

So, so long CM, and so long Showcase. Thanks for the memories.

Give Me A Ticket For An Aeroplane

Booked my vacation time and bought my ticket yesterday. I'm going to Los Angeles during the last week of this month to visit my sister Anne.

This will be my third LA trip. Anne's been living there for almost 30 years; got recruited straight out of nursing school. My first visit was in the Spring of 1977, when I was 13. Stepping off the plane, the air had felt so different. Such a different climate. Every second song on the radio down there was from an album I hadn't heard of yet: Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours". I hear it went on to do fairly well. The rest of the radio dial seemed to be owned by the Eagles, Joe Walsh, Walter Egan's "Magnet & Steel" (a duet with Stevie Nicks), Warren Zevon's "Werewolves Of London" and other So Cal rock fare of the era.

I went down with my brother Grant, who was just 16, and had only had his driver's license for a few months. But my sister gave us her little Toyota on days when she was working, and Grant and I took off by ourselves for the day to see things like Universal Studios and various theme parks. Now when we talk about that, Anne says, "What was I thinking?" Zooming around the freeways in the LA sunshine with Zevon's "Werewolves" cranked on the radio, Grant and I, 16 and 13, howling along, heads tilted backó"Ow-ooooooo!!"

It was THE time for Southern California rockógreat radio, and an amazing place to two adolescent boys from the Maritimes. It seemed like every second car was a Porche or a Mercedes. And the girls. Oh, California Girls. This was at a time when Farrah Fawcett was the era's pin-up girl. That feathered, í70s Farrah hair was everywhere. Endless summer, indeed.

The second visit was two years ago, when I came down with a case of food poisoning a few days before I was to leave. That grounded me for about the first 4 days of my holiday, but I managed to salvage four days of a visit. It was a quick one, but it felt like it was longer, and it was a nice time. Had done all the Disneyland/Seaworld-type stuff on the previous visit, but we hung out at Venice Beach one afternoon, took a drive up through Malibu to Santa Monica another day and did the Beverly Hills/Bel Air tour of stars homes on another.

This time, even though I'll probably see a few sites, I think I'm just gonna take it as a chance to recharge. I'm happy to get a break and a chance to chill. Been feeling very stressed and burnt out for quite a while now. My sister lives just one narrow block from the strand in Hermosa Beach, so she's practically on the beach and the ocean. May not be warm enough for beach lounging, but it's always nice to get reacquainted with the ocean and the sand. I love the piers in So Cal too.

And I'm happy to be visiting my sis. Her partner of 20-some years, Alex, passed away a little over a year ago, and she's been living alone in the place they had shared, dealing with ghosts and memories. I know she welcomes the company, and having some family around for Thanksgiving is a good thing too.

So, nine days from now, California dreamin' will be becoming a reality...

"If I fall, you will know I did my best..."

Didn't have time to post this earlier today, and it's now technically the day after Remembrance day, but better late than never.

Listening to CBC Radio this morning, they had a feature on The Canadian Letters & Images project. This is a very wonderful project that collects (borrows, actually) letters and other documents from the families of Canadians who served in conflicts overseas, and posts the collections on the web. So you can read letters written from the trenches in France during WWI, and get a feeling for what these soldiers were going through. Some of them were the last letters they wrote to their mothers or wives or children before "going over the top" to join battle, from which they never returned.

This one, below, is from my home province, a letter from Private Herb King to his mother in Charlottetown. It was published in the local paper.

BRAVE SOLDIER BOY WRITES TO HIS MOTHER

Mrs Mary King (Widow) Has Four Gallant Sons Doing Their Bit For King and Country
_______________________

Mrs Mary King, 11 Upper Hillsboro Street, City, has received the appended letter from her son, Private Herbert King, who enlisted in Newfoundland with the first Newfoundland Regiment, and went overseas to the front. Mrs. King has also three other sons in the war, namely, John and William, who went with the First Canadian Contingent from St. John, New Brunswick, and Arthur with the 105th. She is a widow. This family have certainly most nobly done their part for our King and country.

___________________________

Somewhere in France,
September 12, 1916

Dear Mother,

I received your welcome letter to-day, also the box, and you can bet it was a welcome thing to get out here.

Well mother dear, you want me to tell you some of the things I am seeing and through; I would tell you everything, but if I do the censor will take it out; so what is the use of wasting pencil and good paper?

I had a letter from Art; he says he is not stuck on England. He would rather be over here in the trenches, but when he has seen as much as I have, he may not be so anxious to get here, and I have seen nothing compared to what John and Will have seen, who have been here since the war started. I had a letter from John, and he said he had been talking to cousin Bert. Well, they are luckier than I have been, as I have been looking for them ever since I came to France, but could not find them; and now John said they have moved 100 miles further away, so I will hardly ever see them now.

Mother dear, my mind is half on this letter and half on the German shells that are flying over our heads. I don't mind the shells, but when they send over the gas it gets on my nerves. Ask Albert how he would like to be trying to go to sleep in a dugout at night, when a rat as large as a rabbit starts to walk over your body. He will start at your feet, and when he gets to your shoulders and sees the badges, you can hear him say to the rat going over the other chap next to you: "Oh, these fellows are Newfoundland boys, let us beat it," and away they run. Then you can get a chance to have a sleep.

Art said that they were inspected by a general a few days ago. The general said they were the finest lot of men he had ever seen.

The 105th has got to go some if they are better than Newfoundland boys and officers. You can lead them anywhere, but you can't force them. The people of Newfoundland must be horrified at the loss of so many of her brave sons. Good old Newfoundland, she is doing her bit as well as the best of them, don't you think so?

You asked me if you could send some papers. Well, mother, if you can find a paper with peace declared in it that will be the most welcome one; but by the look of things I expect the war will last another year. The Canadians are sending over so many men that they must be expecting it to last some time yet.

I am not worrying about myself, mother, it is John and the rest of them. There are four of us here now and we may not see each other again. Dear mother, do not worry too much; if I fall you will know I did my best. No man can do any more, but I trust Almighty God will spare us to return to you again.

I remain your loving soldier boy.

Mmmm...

... blood suckers.

Oh ... My ... God

I'm still not sure whether this is for real or a very elaborate send-up. But a message was posted on the GTA Bloggers site that Toronto has been selected as the host city for the 2002 International Rock Paper Scissors Championships to be held on Nov. 16, presented by the World Rock Paper Scissors Society.

Either way, it's hilarious, and it's just made my day!

More of those cool promotional posters here.

Truly Scary

The day after Halloween (I guess that would be All Saints Day), I was walking to the subway in the morning, and as I turned down one of the quiet, leaf-strewn residential streets that leads to the station, I was noticing all the Halloween decorations that survived the previous night's activities (does anyone do tricks anymore?). On the corner of one street, I noticed one house had a hand-made bristol board sign fixed to the porch pillar beside the front steps; affixed there, I assume, the night before to greet any trick-or-treating kids. It was about the size of a placard one would carry in a picket line.

At the top was a hand-drawn stop sign with the word "Halloween" slashed by a red diagonal stripeóthe universal "No --------" symbol. Below, in hand-written marker strokes, this is what it said:

Stop glorifying Satan
Father of lies
Glorify God the Father instead

Now that is scary.

Do these people actually believe that Halloweenólittle kids going door-to-door collecting candyóis actually "glorifying Satan"? It doesn't take much research to edumacate oneself about the origins of Halloweenóand it has nothing to do with Satan. Spirits, yes. But the Bible has lots to say about spirits and people rising from the dead, and stuff like that.

And even in the contemporary observance of Halloween, the Devil is no more real a presence than Frankenstein, Dracula, Austin Powers or George W. Characters in a pantomime.

Seems to me the only ones "glorifying Satan" are those who actually believe he exists. And I'm the guy with 666's popping up every time I turn around!

It may have been useful at one time for us to incorporate personifications and anthropomorphizations of Good and Evil into our lives, but we'd all be better off when we realize that Good and Evil aren't external entities to be worshipped and/or feared, but powers and potentialities that live in the hearts of humankind.

Or, as Tom Waits said, "There ain't no Devil; that's just God when he's drunk."

Glenn Live-It

Hey, Glenn Tilbrook has just started a U.S. tour. Tour dates here.

No Toronto gig though. :-(

Miss him at your peril! Even if you're not a big Squeeze fan, or even a casual fan (and who shouldn't be at least a casual fan?), his club shows are definitely the best bang for you entertainment buck, as you may or may not recall from my blog entry about his show at the Horseshoe this past May.

Be-Deviled

Okay, this is getting weird.

I was just flipping through the TV channels, and as I passed by MuchMoreMusic, what video was just beginning? "The Number Of The Beast" by Iron Maiden.

I think I'm being stalked by Beelzebub!

Fun Stuff

Here's some fun stuff I've culled from the web lately, mostly from Blogdex, but some from elsewhere.

Evil Clown Generator

Eric Meyer photography - Stereotypes

ó The Industorious Clock. This is very cool.

ó "I got a fever! And the only prescription is more cowbell!" The Cowbell Project brings you samples of songs that should incorporate this versatile instrument. Also includes an MP3 of the sketch from SNL with Christopher Walken.
[Interesting fact about Christopher Walken: whenever he gets a script, the first thing he does is go through it and remove all the punctuation. I love that! You can really hear it in his delivery.]

ó And for those of you who are superstitious (Not that I am. Nope. Not me.) ó Rabbit Rabbit [courtesy of Silvergull]