Promises

All is quiet on New Year's Day
A world in white gets underway
And I want to be with you
Be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's Day
I will be with you again
I will be with you again

Under a blood-red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
Newspapers say, it says it's true
And we can break through
though torn in two we can be one
I will begin again, I will begin again
Oh and maybe the time is right
Oh maybe tonight
I will be with you again
I will be with you again

And so we are told this is the golden age
And gold is the reason for the wars we wage
Though I want to be with you
To be with you night and day
Nothing changes on New Year's day

End The Beguine

R.I.P. Artie Shaw. Quite a dude.

Mavis Lives

The Horseshoe gig last Sunday went pretty well overall. There were a few rough spots, but a few sweet spots as well, including some of our best playing to date, at least from my perspective on stage (we have a DAT recording of our set, so we'll review that at some point). I always seem to play a few bum chords (like, "oops, that was supposed to be a B and I played an A" -- just mental mistakes), and messed up in a few other places, but nothing I'm gonna beat myself up over. Hey, Ronnie Wood is apparently renowned for playing bum notes, and he's doing all right for himself.

But the sweet spots were nice. We played "I'll Be Back" with a more rock-y feel, more of a snarl to it, more aggression--and it sounded great. Felt great. And our version of "Just My Imagination", which always sounds nice in rehearsal, came off equally well on stage, if not better. Nice vibe.

The Tele performed well in its debut. Sounded good, although I still find my sound at times is a bit dirtier than I woud like, so I'll have to work on that. I played the Epi for a 4- or 5-song stretch in the middle of the set which included Run Rudolph Run, I Can't Dance, Fed Up Blues--songs that call for that fuller sound. Felt like such a pro, switching guitars on stage! :-)

So our debut as Mavis came off pretty well, at least from a band perspective, which is key at this point in our evolution. We seemed to be received generally well, although it was impossible to see the small but appreciative crowd behind the bright lights. A couple of people got up and danced, so that's always good. We didn't hit the stage until about 11:45, and apparently by around midnight--our 4th or 5th song--people started leaving. I'll assume that had more to do with the hour than with the music.

And check this out: we got the blessing from THE Mavis. The previous Thursday night, Mavis Staples was playing Massey Hall, and Boag and Tim went to see her. Boag hung out at the stage door and got to meet the lady in her limo. She said she was honoured to have a band named after her, and she even signed the poster!

There's no stopping us now baby!

Jimbuck2's Picks Of 2004

In no particular order...

A Ghost Is Born - Wilco
Smile - Brian Wilson
From A Basement On The Hill - Elliott Smith
House Of Ill Fame - The Trews
Ghosts Of The Great Highway - Sun Kil Moon (late 2003 - you wanna make somethin' of it?)
The Tigers Have Spoken - Neko Case
All Of Our Names - Sarah Harmer
Van Lear Rose - Loretta Lynn
Get Away From Me - Nellie MacKay
Let It Die - Feist

Haven't yet heard: U2, Tom Waits, R.E.M., The Arcade Fire, Paul Westerberg


TOP MUSICAL MOMENTS OF 2004:

The Sweet Harmony Review concert, Detroit
Daniel Lanois, surprise appearance at Rivoli Christmas show
Los Lobos, free show at Harbourfront
Neko Case w/The Sadies at Lee's Palace
Broken Social Scene at the Sloan/Sam Roberts fest, Toronto Islands
Blackie And The Rodeo Kings at the Horseshoe
Wilco at The Mod Club
Bob Dylan at The Phoenix
Greg MacPherson at Healey's, NxNE
Hawksley Workman, Toronto Streetfest, corner of Yonge & Eglinton

Darlings

Look who got the "Best Bet" nod in the NOW magazine music listings for Boxing Day.




And to make it extra-special, we edged out the "punk rockers get their big break accompanying strippers". I've been telling Boag that he needs to show more skin, and now it's fnally paying off.
Before ever playing a note as Mavis, and the critics love us already!

Bloody Irony

Assailants kill 28 in Honduras bus attack

[From CTV.ca News Staff]
At least 28 passengers, including six children, were killed when assailants opened fire on a public bus in northern Honduras.
The shooting happened Thursday night in the city of Chamelecon, about 200 kilometres north of the capital Tegucigalpa.
The bus was driving through the neighbourhood of San Isidro when a car carrying an unknown number of armed attackers pulled in front of the vehicle and forced it to stop, police spokesman Deputy Commissioner Wilmer Torres said.
Torres said the attackers jumped out of the car and began shooting. Attackers in a second car fired from behind and alongside the bus.
Most of those on the bus were coming home with bags full of gifts and food for Christmas, Torres said.
The assailants left a taped sign on the windshield of the bus saying they were part of a revolutionary group against the death penalty.

Boxing Day Blow-Out!

If you're in the Toronto area on Boxing Day, the 26th, and got nothing to do, drop by the Horseshoe. We're headlining the Boxing Day Blow-Out, along wth our friend Heather Morgan and her most-excellently named band, and a solo opening set by Amer Diab. That's us, Mavis!




(Thanks to Greg for the poster design. Great job!)

Coincidentally, Mavis Staples is playing in town tonight, at Massey Hall. Boag's going to try to get her to sign the poster. Apparently though, the name Mavis refers to the songbird known as the Thrush.

ma-vis n. See song thrush.
[Middle English, from Old French mauvis, probably from mauve, seagull, mew.]

mavis n : common Old World thrush noted for its song [syn: song thrush, throstle, Turdus philomelos]

Okay, that's a nice association. It's also a common name in Africa, I'm told.

Running Deep

Because of this, I'm working from home today. This is brilliant! Normally I wouldn't be able to do this, due to proofreading duties which pretty much require actual eyeballs on actual magazine layouts. But the only major thing on my plate for today was writing a few SOMs (Selections of the Month), which I can easily do in Word at home. And I finished those about an hour ago. Woo!

Now I get to go trudging through the snow to get some groceries. But that's all right. Hey, it's Canada. It's winter. Trudging through snow...it's in the script.

Had a wonderful time last night at the annual Rivoli Christmas show, normally hosted by Tamara Williamson, but in her absence this year, guest-hosted by the lovely and talented Mia Sheard. The usual suspects performed: Kurt Swinghammer, Lori Cullen, Mia, Kevin Hearn, and the ever-humble and wonderful Ron Sexsmith, who sang a Chris Rea song called Driving Home For Christmas and his own neo-classic Maybe This Christmas. Kevin Fox did an impressively beautiful rendition of Joni Mitchell's River. But the highlight was a surprise appearance by none other than Daniel Lanois. He was apparently just there to meet a friend, and decided to do a number. He grabbed an acoustic and sang "Still Water" from Acadie. A fine, fine time.

I'll go out to my brother's place in Oshawa on Christmas Day. Will spend Christmas Eve alone at home, and that's exactly what I need. Between band rehearsals, Christmas running around, working late, etc, I can't remember the last time I had a quiet evening to myself. Plan to just chill and maybe get back to writing those songs I started but never got back to. Might be a good night for that. Have to be in the right headspace.

I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday season, and all the best for 2005.
Personally, I think 2005's gonna rock!

Merry Merry Happy Happy and all that!

Me On Tele

I posted a while back about looking to pick up a Fender Telecaster one of these days. Well sir, that day was Saturday.

I am now the proud owner of my first Fender guitar, a lovely four-year-old, black-and-white, American-made jobbie with a rosewood neck. This is her.

It's real nice. I'm kind of partial to rosewood fretboards, over maple ones, I guess just because I've only ever owned guitars with rosewood. The bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan that I assume the previous owner had installed. It's pretty hot, in terms of output, almost like a humbucker, though it has that Tele snap to it. Only problem is, it's noticeably louder than the neck pickup. It's just that much hotter. So if I were to switch to the neck pickup, or the middle position, during a song, there would be a significant drop in volume. Not cool. I'll leave it as is for now, wanna see how it performs at our gig on the 26th, then I'll look into either replacing the Seymour Duncan with a normal Fender Tele bridge pickup, or maybe replacing the stock neck pickup with a Seymour Duncan Tele neck pickup, which would likely have a similar output as the bridge pickup.

I had had my eye on an incredible and purty pink paisley Telecaster that was for sale in the same store when I dropped in last Saturday. I picked it up out of curiosity, and man, did it ever feel nice! Some guitars just have a vibe to them, and this was one. It's a 1990's Japanese-made reissue of the discontinued 1969 model James Burton played with Elvis in the late-60s, early-70s. (I believe that picture is actually of Burton's, which features the older-style bridge. The reissues have newer, modern bridges.) Maple neck, but it felt pretty awesome to me. If it had been in the store when I returned yesterday, I may just have walked out of there with it instead of the one I bought. But, these pink paisley Teles are apparently hot commodities and well regarded by those in the know, and someone had snapped it up during the intervening week. It was even about $100 cheaper than mine. Oh well, I don't know if pink is my colour anyway, and I was a bit hesitant about making that my guitar. Seems like the kind of guitar you can justify playing only if you're a real hotshot guitar-slinger. I don't really see myself like that. I ain't no James Burton. Tim Burton, maybe. Still, if I ever see another one of those pink paisley Telecasters, I might just have to snap it up.

But I'm pretty happy to be a Tele owner. I feel bad for my Epiphone though. It's stood by me and served me well during my first forays into the world of live performance, and now it's relegated to back-up status. I'll probably still play it for certain songs that call for that fuller sound and the bite of humbuckers. Maybe for "The Fever" or for straight-up blues numbers like "Fed Up Blues", or maybe for "I Can't Dance" to conjure that Chuck Berry thing. Great to have two such different guitars though, to cover off different types of sounds and types of music. They complement each other well.

Sorry for the guitar-talk for those of you who aren't axe-inclined.

Dixie Hangover

Had a merry ol' time Thursday night. Our new keyboard player, Roberta, had a Christmas gathering at her place. She plays in a New Orleans-style jazz band called The Happy Pals, so a few of those folks were there, along with some players from another jazz band called The Silver Leaf Jazz Band. After some obligatory socializing, out came the trombone, tuba, sax, banjo, cornet, snare, guitars, with Roberta on piano directing traffic. What a blast! It was a small basement apartment in a house she shares with her sister and mother, who live above, but everyone was down in the basement. Space was at a premium, but thankfully nobody was skewered by the trombone.

I sat in on nylon-string guitar for a few bluesy numbers (couldn't play real jazz to save my life), and then later in the evening (morning by then, actually), I sat behind the snare and had fun holding down the beat or a while. It was a great time. I left around 3 a.m., had to run like a bugger to catch the bus down Coxwell. Woke up at 7:30 a.m. on my couch with my head on the arm rest. My first thought was 'oh my god, I'll be late for work', then remembered with much relief that I had taken Friday off. My ear was numb for the rest of the day and part of the next, where I had slept on it on the couch. My back was killing me, also from the posture I had slept in, my left calf muscle was sore as hell, likely from the sprint for the bus, and I was hung over like a bastard. A hurtin' unit I was.

Got up from the couch, threw some food in the cat's dish to shut him the hell up, and crawled off to my bed. Woke up around noon to a dreary, rainy day. Rest of the day was a write-off while I recuperated, though I had to slog out to buy cat food and groceries. Felt good to get back inside, warm and dry, and spend the evening watching a tape of the Gram Parsons tribute on "Sessions At West 54th" and the "VH1 Storytellers" with Tom Waits. A night to explore one's inner raindog.

iTuning Out

Nice to see that the iTunes Music Store is finally available in Canada, a year and a half after its launch in the US and after launching in various European countries, including Belgium, Greece and Portugal. Apparently Apple felt the Belgian market was a bigger priority. What's up with that?

When I downloaded my first iTunes track last week, I had a brainstorm. I'm in the midst of trying to put together another Christmas CD, and I thought instead of frantically searching the web, downloading "illegally", or buying entire Christmas CDs just to get that one needed song, I could use the iTunes Music Store to find the songs I need, and buy them individually! Oh the joys of the digital commercial age (and the rosy glow of ethical decision-making that it bestows!).

Except...
In reading up on the fine print with respect to computer authorization and Apple's Fairplay encryption technology, I was confused about the number of times I could burn a track purchased through iTunes. So I asked the Apple:

According to your description of Fairplay it "...allows unlimited burning for individual songs and lets you burn playlists up to 7 times each." My question: If I create a playlist comprised of songs from my own CD collection and one or two songs purchased from iTunes Music Store, will I be able to burn that playlist an unlimited number of time, or just 7 times?

This is the response I received:

Dear Jim,

Thank you for contacting the iTunes Music Store.

In accordance with the contracts between the artists, the record companies, and the iTunes Music Store, you may burn unchanged playlists up to seven times each even if they only contain only a single title from the iTunes Music Store.

You may, however, enjoy unlimited synching with your iPods, and you may burn unlimited CDs of individual songs.

For more information about burning CDs from playlists or making new playlists, open iTunes and choose iTunes & Music Store Help from the Help menu. Click Contents, then click Burning CDs or DVDs.

Sincerely,

The iTunes Music Store Team

Well, that's just wonderful. I can burn "unlimited CDs of individual songs." Yes, I love doing that. Who doesn't mind wasting entire CD-Rs by burning only one song on each one? Seems though that the key phrase in their reply is where they say "you may burn unchanged playlists up to seven times each even if they only contain only[sic] a single title from the iTunes Music Store." But what does that mean? If I alter the positions of the last 2 tracks after every 7th burning, can I then burn the playlist 7 more times, then switch them back, and on and on?

Does anyone have any experience with this? Seems pretty stupid to me. If I bought the damn song, I should be able to burn it as many times as I want. I likely would have used their store for several more purchases, but now they've driven me back to the P2P realm. Seems contrary to the whole idea if you ask me.

Whipping Up An Update

Been too bogged to blog much lately. But I'll try some catching up.

Played a gig last Sunday at the Cadillac Lounge out in Parkdale, a cool little bar. Things went okay overall, though we had some tempo issues with some songs. For some reason, we launched into "Men Without Women" at about half-speed. It felt like we were playing on quaaludes. It was kind of funny actually. It was quite a casual gig. Boag was talking to a friend of his who plays in a band called Der Backbeats, and he just said "hey, you guys should come along and open for us." So we did.

But, with every gig we discover things that we need to address, and it's good to learn these things. Plus, to be fair, we've played three gigs with three different fill-in drummers, so it's a bit hard to become a tight combo under those circumstances, no matter how good the drummer-of-the-moment is. This gig we had a great drummer sit in with us, Cam Giroux from By Divine Right, who has also played with Weeping Tile (Sarah Harmer's first band) and Oh Susanna, who showed up with him to catch the show. Cam's also a really sweet guy. A pleasure to rehearse and play with. But our search continues for a full-time drummer.

We have, however, found ourselves a keyboard player, in one Roberta Hunt, who has a background in jazz and boojee-woojee and possibly other stuff as well. We had our first rehearsal with her this past Wednesday, and it sounded great. She'll be adding piano and organ into the mix and it's just what we needed. She's also a very sweet and pleasant person (fed us pickles, cold cuts and beer at the rehearsal at her place), so I think she'll fit in marvelously.

She'll make her debut with us on Boxing Day (Dec. 26). We booked The Horseshoe for the evening, and our friend Heather's band will be joining us, along with another band to be determined. Should be fun. It's always nice to play The Horseshoe, and we'll see if we can get some people to come out and shake off some holiday stress with some good tunes.

Another good thing about having Roberta on board is that she lives relatively close to me--a short bus ride up to Coxwell station and then one stop over to Greenwood. Has a basement pad in a house I used to walk by almost every day when I lived on Greenwood. We'll likely end up rehearsing mostly at her place for practical reasons--her keyboard being less portable than our guitars--so it'll be less of a schlep for me, compared to going to Tim's place on Yonge Street south of Bloor. As much as I Iove my new Fender amp, it's a bit heavy even for the shorter trip. Lugging a 30-lb amp along with a guitar case and a backpack containing pedals and cables and such, is just too much of a hassle. So for rehearsals I'm looking to get a smaller, lighter amp, and I think I found one I like. Tried out a small Fender XLS(?) amp at Songbird. Can't weigh more than 7-10 lbs. Sounds good enough for rehearsal. Has an overdrive dial (which I probably won't even use), and even has reverb. $95 used. Should suit my needs just fine, and save some sore muscles.

We're still playing under the name The Braveyard Whips, but the push is on to come up with a new name for this gig. Tons of suggestions have been flying around, but so far nothing has stuck. Or at least nothing that has gained unanimous support among the band members. Some of the contenders at this point in time include:

The Dick Ellis Revival
The Handlers
Mavis
The Mayfields
The Mercy Patrol
The Tenders

Of some of the others I've suggested, I like:

The Molly Beggars
The Saturday Flyers
The Gonners (or Boag & The Gonners)
The Radio Sweethearts
The Boagarts

Ah, it's a tough business this band-naming thing. I honestly think the name will reveal itself to us, in something someone says offhandedly, or in some serendipitous event. We shall see. Suggestions are welcome.

Greats and Lates

The day after the landmark CBC program announced the crowning of The Greatest Canadian (congratulations Tommy Douglas!), we also witness the passing of another great Canadian.

R.I.P. Pierre Berton.

FYI, here's the Top 10 finalists from the Greatest Canadian contest.

1 Tommy Douglas
2 Terry Fox
3 Pierre Elliott Trudeau
4 Sir Frederick Banting
5 David Suzuki
6 Lester B. Pearson
7 Don Cherry
8 Sir John A. Macdonald
9 Alexander Graham Bell
10 Wayne Gretzky

Perhaps Berton should have been one of the Top 10 finalists. Certainly would have gotten my vote over Don Cherry or Wayne Gretzky. I was kind of surprised Alexander Graham Bell finished so low. I mean, the inventor of the telephone, pioneer of air flight... not a bad resume.

Elvis City Limits

Wanna see a sneak preview of Elvis Costello on a recently taped Austin City Limits?

The show will be airing on PBS tomorrow night (November 20), although according to my local PBS station (Toronto sort of shares WNED with Buffalo). it won't air here until the following Saturday night at 12 a.m. Or is that Friday night at 12 a.m.? I'd better check into that so's I can set the VCR properly. For that matter, maybe it airs in your market tonight at 12 a.m.? Better do as they say, and check your local listings if you're innerested.

Rock on EC!

Cleptomocracy II

See how you feel about electronic voting after you watch this documentary, Votergate (thanks Heather).

It's a 30-minute movie, so be forewarned if you have a dial-up connection. With high speed, it took me about 8 minutes to download it.

Very interesting and disturbing, although I found myself a bit annoyed at their conclusion: If you're worried that your votes aren't being counted accurately, get out and vote? Did these people not watch their own film? That's like saying if you're concerned about automobile safety, get in your car and drive to your closest highway safety office.

And as usual, nobody does it better than the Onion.

But Can It Fly?

Y'know, some musical instruments are just intrinsically funny. Witness the kazoo. Others are not especially funny. Hello, cello.

But I have to giggle like a schoolgirl whenever I see the Mandobird.

Site Seeing

Been one of those weeks when blogging just seems like a chore I could do without. So I'll take the lazy way out.

So...here.

Down For The Count

File under hmmmm.

Does the US electoral system need reforming? I think so. Here's an idea: When the vote for crucial districts is very, very close, and there are more uncounted ballots than the span of the "victory"... count ALL the votes before declaring a winner!

Cleptomocracy

Well, that was a bummer of an election, wasn't it. Looks like George and his crew stole another one. Bush's Eleven.

I won't be surprised if in the weeks and months ahead, stories of election fraud and voter suppression start to trickle into the media. That said, I don't think Kerry really managed to get a clear, concise message to America. But of course, it's hard to do that when you're facing the politics of smear and lie. It's easier to tell a simple lie than to communicate a complex truth.

But here's my question: Is the election officially over once one candidate concedes? Or is it officially over only when the Electoral College declares a winner? In other words, if by some miracle the 175,000 or so provisional ballots in Ohio turn out to be valid, and 75%-80% for Kerry (perhaps due to concerted efforts by Republican cronies to destroy Democrat registration forms, as we saw reported in Nevada and elsewhere), Kerry would end up winning the state. Would he then be declared the president-elect, or is it too late for that once he has already conceded? Not that I'm holding out hope of that happening, but I'm curious about the procedure. Is a concession an official act, or just a speech?

Anyway, the next four years look like they'll be a challenging time for progressive-minded Americans. As much as I would like it if my friends in the States decided to throw in the towel and come north, their voices are needed in their home country now more than ever. But for those who do want to head north, here's a way you can help.

Gone Till November

I'm Baaaack!

Was Back East since last week. Went home to help the family celebrate my mom's 80th birthday, which was on the 31st. Finally able to attend one of my sister's kick-ass Halloween parties. And it was indeed a fine time for all.

Will write more later.

Go Tele On The Mountain

When we rehearse at Tim's place, I usually end up using his nice cherry red Telecaster. Saves me from having to lug my guitar halfway across town. Problem is... now I want one!

I've concluded that a Tele would be the perfect guitar to complement my Epi, and great for the kind of music we play. Get that nice, spanky, single-coil pickup sound, and that rangly bite. (Yes, rangly. It might be a new word. But it's the right word.)

Still not sure if I'll ever get used to a blonde maple fingerboard, like Tim's Tele has. Could be I'm just a rosewood kinda guy. Hafta find myself a decent black Tele with a white pickguard and a rosewood neck. Something like this.

I came across this little feature on Ten Terrific Telecaster® Guitars. Interesting facts about Bruce and his famous Esquire (a Telecaster prototype):

Among Bruce's stage secrets is the application of household sealants over all the guitar's cavities (including the gaps between the pickups and the body) to make it waterproof. This is due to the fact that, during a performance, 'the Boss' contently likes to dip his head in a full water butt (located at the back of the stage) to cool down, saturating his entire upper body. The sealant protects the pickups and wiring from any subsequent water damage. Interestingly, Bruce likes to 'seal' all of his new guitars and tests out their resilience by pouring a two litre bottle of Evian all over the instrument and then plugging it in! The sealant is changed frequently on each guitar, including his trusty Esquire®.

That's crazy! He dowses his electric guitars in water, and then he plugs them in to test the sealant! Bruce, that's what guitar techs are for!

Food That Rocks

Don't wanna go on about it too much. Simply put...

I [heart] artichoke hearts!

Not Crowe-ing; Not Cowed

We survived the gig Thursday night -- the opening slot for Rich Robinson at Lee's. It actually went okay overall, except we got a little sloppy towards the end. I wasn't completely happy about my playing in several songs, but I guess everyone has off nights.

My new amp performed well and I was very happy with it, although I think I was running it with a little too much overdrive, so the sound was a bit dirtier than I wanted for some songs. Thing is, playing at home, I have the overdrive dial at about 5, and the main volume at about 2, which effectively reduces the overall dirtiness of the sound. At the gig, I left the OD at 5 but turned the volume up to about 4 or 5, which made it dirtier than I would have liked. I didn't really notice it while we were getting the levels set, only during certain songs in the middle of the set, and at that point I didn't want to frig with the volume for fear of messing up my levels through the soundboard. Lesson learned. Next time I'll run it cleaner and rely on my Boss Bluesdriver pedal to supply the dirt as needed.

According to friends who were there, the sound wasn't very good. Couldn't hear enough of Colleen's backup vocals or Kenny's harp, apparenty. We did manage to get a sound check, which is not always the case for the lowly opening band. But I don't think the soundman did his best by us, which is kind of disappointing.

Better crowd than for the Gary U.S. Bonds gig. I didn't stick around to hear all of Rich's set, since it was 11pm by the time they came on, and it was a school night for me. But I did catch the first 4 songs or so. It was okay, though I found him a bit of a wanker on the guitar. Lots of riffs flying around, but not a lot being "said", if you will. I prefer players who actually communicate something in their playing, who "say" something, as opposed to those who simply toss off riffs they've learned, regardless of how accomplished they are at said riffage. And the guy must have brought 20 guitars with him. I'm not exaggerating! The little dressing room/alcove that we used last time was unavailable to us because it was stacked floor to ceiling with Rich's guitar cases. His guitar tech stood behind him and his vintage amps for the entire set, just tuning guitars endlessly.

The next day brought some bad news however. Colleen announced to Boag that she wouldn't be playing with us anymore. That's really too bad, because she is a great player and a fine singer. Not sure what her reasons were, but seeing as she is in two other bands, and we weren't really hauling in much money, I can't really blame her. She probably was stetching herself a little thin. And what little money she made Thursday night (Boag and Tim and I deferred our share to her and Kenny and Jim, the drummer) she had to blow on cab fare to get her gear back home (bass amps ain't light). So that's too bad, but there are a few options for replacements. There's also a possibility of adding a keyboard player to the mix. There's a woman who plays blues and boo-jee woo-jee regularly at Grossman's, and Boag had invited her to come check out our gig. She seemed keen on the idea, so we'll see what happens. It'd be great to have a piano/keyboard player on board. That would fill out the sound quite nicely.

It was also the first gig that we had used the name The Braveyard Whips, at least on the billing at the club, if not in the media listings. Still some question as to whether that name will stick.

So, another gig under my belt. Gotta be careful though. The farther I go into this rock and roll life, with its late nights, dens of sin and "boo-jee woo-jee", the greater the chances that I may turn into one of these ne'er-do-wells.

We Got Rich

Yes, it's October, and the gigs are falling from the trees.

This Thursday we'll be opening for former Black Crowe Rich Robinson at Lee's Palace. He's the pouty guitar-playing Robinson brother. Crowe-Brother Chris, the singer, is the one married to Kate Hudson. Since the Crowes split up, neither one of the brother's solo careers has been doing much. But I think this is Rich's first solo album, so maybe I shouldn't rush to judgement. Judging from the streaming clips on his site, his singing is rather limited. But interestingly, he's touring in a power trio format -- guitar-bass-drums -- and the bass player in none other than Big Sugar's Gordie Johnson, no slouch on the gee-tar himself.

Hopefully Rich will draw a few more people than Gary U.S. Bonds did. I assume Rich must draw a lot of the Crowes' fans, and there are probably a few of them who would come out on a Thursday night. The cheaper ticket price may help as well. Gary was charging $25; Rich is asking only $13.50.

We've got Colleen back again on bass, which is excellent. Looking for a drummer, though, as Bones' band just left for a tour of Europe.

We're dropping a few songs from the set list, unfortunately including "It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry", which Rich has been doing it in his set. Too bad. I liked doing that one. But we're adding a few new ones, including a nice little number Tim wrote just last week called "Thelma Jane". Our first original song! Also adding Tom T. Hall's "I Can't Dance", an original of Boag's that he used to do back in the day called "Fed Up Blues", and, I think, either "Baby Let Me Follow You Down" (Last Waltzy-like) or "When I Paint My Masterpiece".

If you're with a Crowe's flight of here, drop on by.

Dick Doc

Very interesting documentary on the CBC investigative news program "The 5th Estate". The Unauthorized Biography of Dick Cheney. Interesting stuff:

- Documents his dealings with Iran and Libya as CEO of Halliburton -- contrary to U.S. law.
- Provides satellite photographic evidence from Russian satellites prior to Gulf War I, when Cheney was Secretary of Defence, that shows no build-up of Iraqi troops or tanks on the Iraqi border, contrary to US intelligence claims. US photos have never been released.
- Details the deliberate use of misleading intelligence prior to the current Iraq war.
- Examines Cheney's role in publicizing the name of an undercover CIA agent, who happened to be married to former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Wilson had been sent by the CIA to investigate reports of Sadam trying to buy nuclear materials in Niger, but reported to Cheney that there was no credible evidence of such activity. When the Bush admin instead used this story as basis for extablishing that Sadam was trying to build a nuclear weapon, Wilson wrote an article contradicting such claims. It was after that his wife's position was compromised, an act described [rightfully so] as "treasonous".

...and so much more. Some of this may be old news, but it sure underscores one more reason not to re-elect George Bush: to make sure that Dick Cheney isn't given a chance to run for president.

Not only should this man not be vice-president or president, he should be in jail.

I love the way this guy operates. He was given the task of finding a suitable running mate for GW Bush, and came to the conclusion that the best man for the job was...him! That's character.

Helen Blows

Mount St. Helens Vents Again

Okay, call me a curmudgeon if you must, but I really think this is taking the whole 80s nostalgia thing a little too far.

Junior, Hi

Welcome the new member of the family.

Say "Hi" to Junior!

The Fender Blues Junior amp, that is.

With the prospect of more gigs on the horizon, I needed a better amp than the little 30-watt Traynor practice amp I had. And even though Junior is only a 15-watt amp, that's 15 watts of tube-powered sound, which makes him a lot louder than you'd think. It's plenty loud for playing clubs, where it'll be miked anyway, and it's actually better for my apartment-dwelling needs. The Traynor, which is a solid state amp, needs to be played at a certain volume level to really get a vibe going (and even then I didn't really like the sound of the overdrive channel or the cheap-sounding reverb), and the amount of volume required pretty much makes it an eviction box. The Blues Junior, on the other hand, sounds nice even at relatively low volume, thanks to the warmth of the tubes and the natural overdrive. So it really represented the best amp for my needs: enough power for gigging -- not too heavy -- but not too loud for apartment-dwelling realities.

And the sound is wonderful. I've never had a tube amp before (never owned a Fender amp before, either), but I've always read and heard about that "classic tube sound", "warmth" and "tone", and I gotta say, I'm now a tube convert. It's perfect for the kind of music I play, and will be playing with Boag: blues, soul, country, vintage rock. I tested it at the store (Ring Music on Harbord near Spadina), playing it through a nice, warm-sounding Gretsch Country Gentleman (the closest thing they had to my Epiphone, though not exactly the same sound) and with a spanky Telecaster, and it sounded great with both. When I brought it home and plugged my Epi into it, I was not disappointed. Beautiful ringing overdrive, just enough nastiness around the edges, nice clean tone, warm. Dial in just the right anount of reverb and you're smack dab in the middle of that classic, bluesy-rock guitar sweet spot.

I'm one happy tube-head.

And get this: all the dials go to 12! Take that Nigel!

Ya Gotta Stand For Somethin'...

Conversation with a little girl selling cookies at the subway station today:

Little Girl: Excuse me sir, Would you like to buy some Girl Guide cookies?

Me: I'm sorry, I don't support paramilitary organizations.

Okay, I didn't really say that. But one of these times I will. Maybe next year.

Train Kept A-Rollin'

Looks like the DVD for "Festival Express" will be pulling into the station in November.

And, as I had hoped, it will offer "more than 50 additional minutes of exclusive performance footage not seen in the theatrical version of the film", as well as "25 minutes of additional interviews."

Woo woo!

TV Alert

Set those VCRs! Tom Waits is to appear on The Late Show With David Letterman, Tuesday Sept. 28.

On the downside, he's only playing two shows in North America in support of his upcoming album, Real Gone: one in Seattle and one in Vancouver. Harumph!

Will Tooter fer fud

Would you send your child to this tutor?

Some time ago I found this poster taped to a bus shelter near my work. It's been tacked to the bulletin board in my office since.

Seeing as a large part of what I do is proofreading and copy editing, we get a good chuckle out of it.

The Onion Forever

I've said it before: God bless The Onion.

Matchbox Twenty Finally Finishes Watering Down Long-Awaited New Album.

Got The Fever

Called in sick today. Don't have the chills and aches I had yesterday, but the cough is still there, as is the...erm...intestinal chaos. Feel weak, tired and depleted. I'm sure this was brought on by the stress leading up to Saturday's gig. Skipped ball hockey tonight, of course.

But I'll take this opportunity to tell you about the weird-ass phone call I received on Sunday.

Yesterday afternoon, the phone rings. I answer it and an unfamiliar woman's voice asks to speak to Rodney. I tell her she must have the wrong number, since there's no one here named Rodney. I ask her what number she's calling, just to confirm that she has the right area code (sometimes people will call a number, but get the area code wrong -- 416 instead of 905, for instance -- and straightening that out avoids having them call you right back again). She tells me that she was calling 416-461-XXXX (my old number before moving to my new apartment), and it forwarded her to my current number (as it should). I tell her that was my old number, but there must be some mistake, since there is no Rodney. She says okay and hangs up.

A short time later, the phone rings, but I am indisposed (see above). A minute later, while I am in the process of becoming re-disposed, the phone rings yet again. I answer it, and it's the same woman. The conversation is as follows:

"I'm calling this number because the number I was given for Rodney and Jen is forwarding me to this number,' she says. "So, do you know Rodney and Jen?"

"I don't know any 'Rodney and Jen'," I state as plainly and clearly as possible.

"But it says 'Jen' on your answering machine message."

[confused pause on my part]

"No, it says 'Jim'. That's my name." [thought bubble: "Do I sound like a 'Jen'?"]

"So you don't know Rodney and Jen."

"I don't know anyone named Rodney."

"But you know Jen."

"NO. I know people named Jen, but I'm sure it's not your Jen, because I don't know any couple named Rodney and Jen."

We go over the number story again. I explain to her that the 461 number was my old number, that I had it for at least five years until I moved to this apartment in May and got the current number that she was being forwarded to. I explain once again that I don't know Rodney and Jen. I don't know why or how she was given that number, but I don't know Rodney and Jen."

There's a short pause, and then she says bitterly, "Well, isn't that convenient for them", and hangs up!

SHE hangs up on ME!

No apology, no thank-you, no nuthin' -- just click.

The nerve of some people.

Maybe Rodney and Jen purposefully gave her the wrong phone number? Moved and gave her the slip? Gee, who wouldn't want the company of someone with such intelligence and good manners.

Gigged

The Gary US Bonds gig went pretty well, I think. At least people were complimentary afterwards. So that's good.

Arrived for the soundcheck at Lee's Palace at the appointed 6 p.m. time. Never got a proper soundcheck, of course. They were still setting up and soundchecking Gary's stuff. So we went out the back door to the alleyway where we could hear ourselves and run through the set. This was important, as our drummer, Bones, hadn't played or rehearsed with us before and didn't know most of the songs. He brought his brushes out with him and banged on a piece of paper on top of an old garbage bin. We ran through the songs with particular emphasis on where the stops and starts were. Kenny, the harp player from Jay Clark & The Jones was also with us.

It was a nice moment, actually; this rag-tag band of old and new friends sitting around on the sun-baked concrete, amid the graffiti in the alley behind the club, in the warmth of the early evening, bashing out the songs. Think Bruce and Miami Steve and the boys might have done that a few times in the early days? I think so. There was a nice feeling of scruffy, ad hoc camaraderie and common purpose.

Gary's band had quite a bit of equipment on the stage. It's not that large a stage to begin with, and they had a tri-levelled keyboard array and a full drum kit. The guy who was setting up the "backline" for Lee's was quite helpful in getting us set up. He suggested that Bones and Colleen, our bass player, might actually be able to use Gary's band's drum kit and bass amp rig, thus avoiding a lot of hassle. The Bonds' band was okay with that, so that's what we did.

My little Traynor practice amp wasn't gonna cut it for this show, and I don't like the way it sounds anyway, so I had to use a loaner. Fortunately, a roommate of Boag's is a gigging musician, and he let me use his little bass amp, which sounded fine. I had just picked up a Boss Blues Driver overdrive pedal, so I didn't need an amp that provided overdrive.

It was also the first gig with my new guitar. Actually the same model as my old guitar -- an Epiphone "Dot" -- except my new one is a limited edition model, and it's a beautiful dark brown with gold hardware. Sort of looks like this (its older brother, the Gibson ES-335), only it's a darker shade and there's no pickguard. It's beautiful. Under certain light it actually looks burgundy. I liked my other guitar, but I love this one. The neck feels great; the frets are smoother and bevelled nicely at the edges, so my hand slides up and down the neck as smooth as buttah. I got it used at Songbird Music. It's four years old. It feels great, sounds great, but best of all -- it's brown! I've always wanted a brown guitar.

The other thing was, we didn't have a name! We ended up being billed alternately as Boag, "Guests" and "More". We'd been tossing a few names around, led by the hotly contested Dick Ellis Revival, The Lastmen, and a few others -- but no decision had been made in time to get it published.

So, the unnamed band took to the stage at 8 p.m. and launched into our set. The set list was as follows:

The Fever
Something You Got - an old R&B song Springsteen does on a mid-'70s bootleg tape of Boag's; I've since discovered versions by Them, Wilson Pickett and B.B. King
(Walk And) Don't Look Back - The Tosh version; my debut on wah-wah pedal
Fast Train - Written by Van the Man for that Solomon Burke CD
It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry
Tupelo Honey
Your Cheatin' Heart
Red-Headed Woman
Men Without Women - A rockin' Little Steven song based on a Hemingway story
Shine A Light - Rolling Stones

As it turned out, and as we had expected, we had to drop a few numbers due to time limits. We ended up passing on, I think, "Your Cheatin' Heart" and "Tupelo Honey". Just as well, since I wasn't really comfortable with any solo I had worked out for "Your Cheatin' Heart". Just couldn't get a handle on it for some reason. Sorry Hank.

I had the little bass amp set up to my left, at the side of the stage, tilted upwards towards me. Tim and Kenny were on the far side and Colleen was tucked away between the drum kit and the mountain of keyboards behind me. The amps were miked, but the sound guy decided not to run our guitars through the monitors, so we had to use our amps as monitors. Learned later that neither Bones nor Boag could hear the guitars very well. I could hear Tim, but Boag was getting mostly just a lot of himself in the monitors, which he isn't used to, and I guess it was making it hard for him to hear the guitars. Considering the sound problems, and the fact that it was Bones's first time playing drums with us and playing these songs, and Colleen had only one rehearsal under her belt (sans drummer), it's not surprising that things felt a bit tentative on stage. There were a few missteps: Boag forgot a part of "The Fever" but recovered okay, and I know I played a few completely incorrect chords and stumbled a little on a few other things. But overall, it went okay. Kenny and Colleen were great.

As I said, people were complimentary afterwards, including the club's booker, who, according to Boag, was genuinely pleased and said he would book us again, and Gary US Bonds, who said from the stage: "I liked that first band. What were they called?" I started laughing. Tim's girlfriend yelled out "Boag!". Gary said: "Vogue?" I yelled out "Dick Ellis Revival", but it didn't make an impact.

As for Bonds' set, it was very good! He's got a kick-ass band, with the requisite Jersey honkin' sax man, a keyboardist, a kid rhythm section, a solid guitarist and the pair of Laurie Andersons (wife and daughter) on back-up vocals. They did "Jole Blon" (an old Cajun song that Bruce also covered), Bruce's "Rendezvous" and "This Little Girl Is Mine", and his hits "New Orleans" and "Quarter To Three", as well as Otis Reddings' "I've Got Dreams To Remember" and "You Are My Sunshine" as a tribute to Brother Ray. They did a great version of a Delbert McClinton song called "Everytime I Roll The Dice". The "Lauries" were smokin the "woo-woos" on that one. There was one unfortunate Casino-rama moment though, when one of the encores consisted of a medley of old rock 'n' roll hits -- Chuck Berry-Little Richard-Elvis, etc. But Bonds is still in great voice, and certainly doesn't look his age.

We hung out afterwards and chatted a bit with Gary. Nice man. He was in party mode for sure. And the guy who was the lead singer of the Kingsmen was there -- yes, the guy who sang "Louie Louie". He was in the audience. Apparently they're old friends. Don't know if he lives around Toronto or Southern Ontario, or if he drove up from Buffalo, or what. Kind of odd.

Anyway, one more gig under my belt. I think this was #10. And I walked away with my first pay as a musician -- $20! Good thing we didn't bring a horn section. Of course, I wasn't doing it for the money, but it's cool that I can now officially call myself a professional musician!

On the down side, I think I'm coming down with something. Been developing a deep-chest cough over the past few days and today I'm getting aches and chills. Thankfully, it held off until after the gig, but we'll see if I make it to the first night of ball hockey tomorrow night.

Rehearsal

Had our third rehearsal tonight, first one with Colleen on bass and back-up vocals. Went pretty well, except I still need to work on some of my solos. I was winging it a little too much for my liking. It's good not to be too "scripted" in one's playing, but I need to at least have a good idea of what I could play as a solo in a given song section. I don't have enough knowledge of the neck or of scales to completely wing it, unless I'm dealing with a basic blues structure or something, so it's best for me to work out what I would ideally play, and use that as a guidepost, so to speak. In other words, I may not keep going down the same streets, but I need to have a fairly solid awareness of the neighbourhood I'm in, if that makes sense. I need to map something out for "Your Cheating Heart" especially (btw, happy birthday Hank!). I'll do that tonight or tomorrow morning.

Colleen is a pro, and fit in very well. Picked up her parts with no problem. I suspect she was a little uneasy with the fact that we're still not as tight with some of the songs as we should be, although she didn't say anything. She's probably used to being a lot tighter with the material she does with the John Borra Band. But she was given a list of 10-12 songs to learn in the space of about five days, so kudos to her in any event.

Plus, we didn't have a drummer on hand, which is a further string left hanging--one day before the gig. Boag finally scared one up today (he had been waiting to hear back from some other guys, who, it turned out, were unavailable), but the new recruit wasn't able to make it tonight. It's a buddy of his from his Kingston days, who apparently has vast amounts of experience and should have no problem, provided we get time to run through a few things tomorrow, perhaps at sound check.

I think we'll be okay though. Having a steady drummer will give us all something to feed off and help provide some glue to keep everything together. Most of the songs are pretty straightforward, so I don't foresee any great catastrophe. I'm sure if we go astray somehow, or forget how to end a song, we'll feel our way through it and improvise something.

I'll also have to get an amp tomorrow, whether a rental or a loaner from a roommate of Boag's. Mine just won't cut it. I've been looking around for a new one anyway, so maybe if I rent one, I'll try to get one that I'm interested in buying, such as the Fender Blues Jr. Only 15 watts, which is plenty of power for a home practice amp, but it's also apparently very good for gigging--projects a lot louder than it should. And it's got that warm tube tone.

Best be getting on with it. The gig abides.

Re-Hearse-al

File under You Know Something's Not Right When...

Dane Squires didn't realize there was any problem until he read his own obituary in the newspaper, his brother said. Then he called his sister's house to let her know he was alive, and found out his funeral was underway.

Bond-ing

By next Saturday night, I will have walked in the shoes of The Beatles...

... as an opening act for Gary US Bonds!

Yes, the Fabs opened for the Jersey shore party rock king when he toured Europe in 1963, and they were mere pre-Fabs. I was probably a mere embryo then. But I've waited for my turn in the sun, and now it's here. 40 years later. Another step in my embryonic musical adventure.

We found out on Friday that we'll be opening for Mr. Bonds at Lee's Palace next Saturday night. It's an early show; our set is at 7:45 till about 8:30. By "we" I mean the same core of musical affiliates who brought you the St. Paddy's Day Massacree, and the much-improved and well-received Fever On Queen Street Shuffle. Boag on vocals and hustle, Tim and me on guitar. And Boag has apparently secured the services of the lovely and talented Colleen Hodgson (John Borra Band), who is an excellent bass player and a fine singer. He's still trying to get a drummer (Don Kerr is touring in Europe or somewhere with Ron Sexsmith) and also possibly a harp or sax player.

Not sure what it is with these Jersey rock and roll stalwarts coming through town lately (we almost ended up opening for Southside Johnny a few weeks back, but that didn't come together). But Mr. Bonds has a new album out called "Back In Twenty", see cuz it's been 20 years since his last album. But, judging from the samples on his website, he's still in good voice. Springsteen appears on the disc, as does Southside Johnny, Dickey Betts and Phoebe Snow. And I'm sure he's got a kick-ass band. His back-up singers are his wife and daughter, both named Laurie Anderson (well, actually one is Laurie Anderson, Jr.), but not that Laurie Anderson.

You may remember Gary US Bonds from such early-60s hits as "New Orleans", "Quarter To Three" or maybe from the Springsteen-penned 80s revival number "This Little Girl Is Mine". He was a big influence on all those Jersey guys such as Bruce, Little Steven and Southside Johnny.

So Boag and Tim and I had out first rehearsal Sunday at Tim's place. Went through about 10 or 12 songs that we wanted to do. Of course, seeing as we only have a week, we'll also revive "The Fever", "Red-Headed Woman" and "Tupelo Honey" from our previous gigs. And most of the other songs are fairly straightforward, so hopefully we won't need to worry about wearing down the batteries on the Fuck-Up Meter. It's a pretty important gig, actually, especially seeing as we don't even play any originals, and we certainly want to make the best of it and not make the bookers regret their choice. So wish us luck, and if you're in the locale, come on by and cheer us on.

Your Friday Yuk

I don't usually do this, but I was so proud of the joke I made at work yesterday, I just had to share.

We were in a layout meeting for one of the magazine cycles we're currently working on (typically there are three in production: one in mid-production, one just starting, and one being put to bed).

Dramatis Personae:

The Copywriter (Me)
Director of Creative Services (My Boss)
The Repertoire Manager
The Marketing Manager
A couple of our graphic artists

The purpose of the meeting was mostly to present the design and layout of various magazine sections so that Marketing and Repertoire (A&R) can approve them, or give feedback on changes. Other issues are usually discussed as well. For instance, on this day there was some question about one of the features (which I am in the throes of writing). It was to be a coupled feature, offering a CD selection with a related DVD selection, typically a soundtrack and a DVD of the film. The A&R Manager was asking the Marketing Manager if she had decided whether we would go with the "Passion Of The Christ" feature or the "Lord Of The Rings" feature.

A&R Manager: "So, Anita (Marketing), what's the story with the "Passion Of The Christ" feature?

Me (in stage whisper); "He dies in the end. ... Well, sorta."

After the hearty guffaws subsided, tears wiped from eyes and ribs taped up, it was decided that we would be going with the "Passion Of The Christ" coupling. At which point I still had one more in me...

"So, I guess that would be a cross-promotion?"


Thank-you! G'nite! Drive carefully and don't forget to tip your waitstaff!

The Other Soul Train

I finally went to see "Festival Express" last night. A film that in 1970 asked the question: what do you get when you put Janis Joplin, The Band, The Grateful Dead, The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Buddy Guy Band, Ian and Sylvia Tyson and others on their very own private CN passenger train with unlimited booze and drugs and send them from Toronto to Calgary with stops along the way to play concerts? Answer: A very good film documenting a very crazy train ride across the Canadian landscape. Metaphor for the sixties? Sure, why not.

I remember reading about this legendary train ride in a Rolling Stone anthology years ago. The film footage had been lost for 30 years, only found recently by the son of the filmmaker or the promoter or somebody, when he was cleaning out his garage, and then it got entangled in legal quagmires. They've done an incredible job restoring the film. It's great to see some of the train jams/parties. There's a scene where an icredibly wasted Rick Danko is trying to lead Janis Joplin, Jerry Garcia and Rob Weir through "Ain't No More Cain". I think Rick's working from a different cosmic metronome there. I'd love to see the footage that didn't make it into the film. Maybe when the DVD comes out.

The concert footage is wonderful. Joplin in particular. It's striking just how powerful she is here. Her performance of "Cry Baby" is just so emotionally potent. It's the power of her singing, the way she throws her entire being into it, but also the sadness at her core--and you see it. You feel it. She just lays it all out, spills it all out right there on the stage. This is my life. I'm a rock and roll mama, superstar, but I can't keep hold of one good man. They just keep leavin'. They just keep breakin' my heart, man.

A mere three months later, she would be dead. Don't anyone try to tell me booze and drugs killed Janis Joplin.

What's also sad is when you do a "split screen" of her performance side-by-side with most of today's popular music. I'd like to think that a singer with that kind of power would be a star in any era, but I wonder if Janis would even be on the radar in today's music industry where female singers don't get signed unless they look like Faith Hill or Jessica Simpson. I'd like to think that if she came along today, she'd break through. Wouldn't she? Please tell me it's so.

Imagine turning Janis loose on the "American Idol" scene! Ha!

There was a boomer-aged couple who had brought their two kids, about nine or ten years old, to see the film. I wasn't sure if that was wise, with all the booze and drugs and craziness in the film, but if those kids left the theatre thinking "okay, so that's what music should be like. Like being whalloped with a 2x4 soaked in heart and soul", then it was a successful history lesson.

You can read more about the film here.

View some trailers here (clicking will open a Windows Media file) and here.

As Janis said, "Next time you throw a train, invite me."

Play It Again Mr. Roberts

Sam Roberts will be appearing on Conan O'Brien tonight, apparently performing the kick-ass song "Don't Walk Away Eileen".

Tune in!

An App A Day

Downloaded a very cool -- and free! -- Mac app called Imagewell.

Minimum Mac OS X 10.2.8 needed.

From their webpage:
ImageWell is the easy way to edit, rotate, crop, and resize your image and upload it to your iDisk (.mac account), FTP server, or WebDAV server. No need to launch multiple applications to add text, labels, thought clouds, talking balloons, drop shadows, watermarks and shapes. At the click of a button, the image is sent and a handy URL is copied to the clipboard.

Very useful for posting pictures and images to my FTP site for Blog use.

Download from the developer's webpage link above, or Download.com.

Let The Bells Ring Out

... COWbells that is!

Y'know, as I think of it, I may have posted that link once before. But no matter. You can never have too much cowbell!

"I got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell!"

How Sweet It Was

There are some things you just can't pass up. For years I'd been telling myself that I have to go see Emmylou Harris play live. Is there a more immediately identifiable voice in the world? Well, maybe a few, but none as beautiful or as awe-inspiring. And I've also been dying to see Gillian Welch since I first started listening to her records a few years ago. I was bummed that the Bluesfest got canceled this summer, because for me, she was the primary attraction. So when I saw tickets were going on sale for the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue, with both Emmylou and Gillian, I wasn't about to miss it. Musical manna from heaven.

I took Thursday and Friday off, rounded up my friends Heather and Greg, who were also jazzed about the show, and went down to my old stomping grounds, Detroit/Windsor, to catch the tour stop at the Meadowbrook music festival. We stayed at my friend Janet's place in Windsor, and she also came to the show.

The show was everything I had hoped it would be and more. Meadowbrook is an outdoor amphitheatre on the grounds of Oakland University in Rochester, MI, about 45 minutes on the other side of Detroit. As a venue, it's smaller and cozier than most outdoor sheds. It has kind of a folky vibe to it. We had seats under the canopy, so we were okay in case it rained, but that was not going to be a concern. It was a beautifully warm night, just perfect for this kind of concert.

Tickets said the show was at 7:30, so we figured we'd be okay getting there sometime between then and 8:00. We arrived at about 7:50, and Emmylou was already onstage! As we walked from the parking field to our seats we could hear her singing "To Know Him Is To Love Him", with at least one other female voice, which was probably Patty Griffin, although it's possible Gillian was in there as well (The sound was a bit muffled at that distance and over the lip of a hill). I heard her say something like "How are you Detroit?", so I assumed this must have been her first song of the evening, second at best.

I stopped just long enough to visit the mensroom and to pick up a $7 jug of beer (that's about $12 CDN - you can almost buy a 12-pack for that!) As I got to the seats, Emmylou was just finishing the marvelous Daniel Lanois song "Blackhawk". What a thrill to hear that voice live in front of me for the first time! She encapsulates everything that's right about beautiful singing: strength, nuance, delicacy, emotion, reserve, poise, abandon, tradition, individuality... Just so beautiful.

I may be forgetting a few songs from her mini-set, but I know she also did "Orphan Girl", joined by Miss Gillian of course, and I'm pretty sure she also did "My Antonia". And there's another thrill: seeing Emmylou and Gillian Welch singing together. Man, how do you top that?

I was soon to find out.

But that was the template for the Revue. Each of the main artists would do a mini-set, often joined by the others in various configurations. It was very fluid.

I'm not sure of the exact order of things, but I think Buddy Miller's set followed Emmylou's. I don't know his stuff very well, but I was quite impressed with his voice. Very distinctive. The highlight of his set came when he was joined by Gillian and David Rawlings for a few numbers, with Rawlings on electric guitar and Gillian on bass!. They were rocking out and having a good ol' time! Great stuff.

It's almost pointless to talk about highlights, there were so many wonderful moments. At some point the stage lights came down, while Emmylou, Gillian and Patty Griffin gathered around one mic under a lone, overhead spotlight to sing the a cappella gem from the "O Brother" soundtrack, "Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby". Absolutely spellbinding.

Patty Griffin's mini-set was next, I think. I've only heard a few of her songs, and only recently. She possesses a marvelous voice. For me, the highlight of her set was her haunting, solo rendition of Springsteen's "Stolen Car" and her closing number, "Mary", which she wrote for her grandmother. For this one, Emmylou and Gillian stood unassumingly on either side and a few feet back of Patty, like any old back-up singers. Their three voices closed out the song, lifting up the grandmother's name -- homage, veneration, benediction.

Gillian Welch's and David Rawlings' set was simply amazing. They started with "I Wanna Play That Rock And Roll", then into "Elvis Presley Blues". We were remarking afterwards how well their voices blend together. There were times when I thought Rawlings' mic may have been off, but when I listened closer, there he was, just blending in as if there were one voice. Gillian broke out the banjo for a few songs, and I think they did "I Had A Real Good Mother", "No One Knows My Name" and "One Little Song", although I may be imagining one of these, possibly heard it in the car on the way over to the show. They also did another song that I didn't recognize; maybe a song from Soul Journey that I'm not so familiar with.

Another thing I had been looking forward to was bearing witness to David Rawlings' guitar playing. This man is an amazing guitarist. There's something about his playing, as if he's almost colouring outside the lines, but not quite. Sort of like what Marc Ribot is to avant pop/jazz, David Rawlings is to roots moderne. He's not in charge of his playing; he just lets it come through and follows where it leads him. It plays him. The last song of their set was "Revelator", and it was just incredible. I think I have bruises on my chin from where my jaw hit the floor during some of his solos.

I think they closed out the main set with an ensemble rendition of "I'll Fly Away". For the first encore, again with the whole ensemble, David Rawlings strapped on a 12-string Rickenbacker, and following a plea from Emmylou that everyone get registered to vote, they launched into a note-perfect intro to the Byrds' version of "Turn Turn Turn". That was followed by what was probably the best rendition of "The Weight" that I had ever heard in person.

They left the stage to another standing ovation (there had been several throughout the evening). I noticed the guitar tech removing one of Emmylou's guitars, and replacing it with her big jumbo Gibson acoustic, so I knew there would be another encore. And something about the way he placed that guitar on its stand at the front of the stage facing Emmylou's mic stand made me think...Gram Parsons. There was just something reverential and near-iconic about the way the roadie placed that guitar on the stage.

They came back out, and Emmylou mentioned that even though it had been such a fun and wonderful experience traveling and playing with these other artists, and how grateful she was to them for doing it, none of it would have been possible for her if it hadn't been for Gram Parsons. Then they closed the book on the evening with Parsons' prayer "In My Hour Of Darkness".

An incredible evening of beautiful music.

Can-do, Can-did, Got The T-Shirt

I'm kinda tardy with this post... again, my deepest apologies.

Two weekends ago I attended the big Sloan/Sam Roberts co-headlining festival over on the Toronto Islands. It was an all-Canadian bill that also included Broken Social Scene, The Constantines, Buck 65, The Stills, Pilate and Death From Above. By all accounts it was a huge success, notable because this summer saw the cancelation of at least two other festivals: Lollapalooza and The Toronto Blues Festival.

I think Eye magazine hit the nail on the head with this story about the festival.

It was a great day. Started out kind of overcast, but as the day went on it cleared up and warmed up. Olympic Island is a very cool place for a show like that. Lots of green space, trees, places to wander off and escape the crowd if you want to, and a great view of the downtown skyline.

Crowd behaviour at these things is always fascinating. Observing real, live flesh-and-blood interaction between masses of people and pop music and pop culture--at the moment of spontaneous(?) consumption--is rife with all kinds of interesting paradoxes and revelations. For instance, there was the moment in Sam Roberts' set when he was performing "Brother Down", and the crowd picks up the refrain (with a little urging from Sam). People have their arms raised, fists in the air, voices jubilently belting it out...

"I think my life is passing me by"

um, yee haw.

And then of course there's Sam's other big sing-along moment in "The Canadian Dream"--part manifesto, part spelling bee...

"S-O-C-I-A,
L-I-S-M is here to stay!"

Gee, suddenly we're standing in the middle of thousands of real live socialists! Who knew? Up to that point they had appeared to be a bunch of students and young urban and suburban 20- and 30-somethings. And me not even partaking in the jubilent celebration of my fellow travellers, even though I was wearing my DJ Guevara t-shirt! (Note the Mao vinyl!)

...speaking of which...

When I was at the concert, I went to get a beer and as I was coming back from the serving area, this guy runs up to me and stops me, saying that his friend is doing a project on Che Guevara, and would I mind if he took a picture of my shirt for the project. I said, sure. So I go over and meet the guy, and he explains that he's a professor at Ryerson University, and his project (which sounded like part research project, part art project) involves investigating uses of Che images; talking to kids--university students, mostly--about why they're wearing the Che t-shirt, what it means to them, etc. A lot of these kids, of course, don't even know much about Che Guevara, other than that it's a cool image, I would guess on a par to them with Jim Morrison, John Lennon or Kurt Cobain. A cool icon. Projection of some kind of fuzzy rebelliousness.

So I was certainly willing to let him take a few snaps of me and my shirt, especially since mine represents a different...spin, shall we say...on the appropriation of the image. He asked me where I had found the t-shirt, and I told him that I had bought it in a little boardwalk store near Cavendish, P.E.I. when I was home visiting a few summers ago. The guy who initially approached me then says that he's from the East Coast, too. Antigonish, N.S. Says he wouldn't have guessed I was an Islander because he didn't hear an accent in my voice. I explain that we moved to the Moncton, N.B. area when I was 13, and I probably lost some of it as a result, plus living in Ontario for the past 14 years likely took care of the rest. He says, "No kidding! I lived in the Moncton area, too. Riverview." I say, "That's where I lived. Went to Riverview High. Class of '81". He says, "I was Class of '83!".

I say, "What's your name"?

"Patrick Decoste."

"Pat Decoste! I know you! ... I think... do I?"

Turns out it was his brother Mark who I knew from high school. He and his then-girlfriend-then-wife-then-ex-wife Sue Ellen (long story) were in several classes with me. And my friend Dan had dated their sister for a short time. But Pat and I had a few common friends, and we spent a few minutes working out the connections.

Too funny.

Che Guevara. Uniting people around the world.

Sunday Papers

For your reading pleasure: My article on Emm Gryner from two years ago.

I didn't realize it was available online until a few days ago when I came across it on her website. Enjoy!

Serenstrippity

Sometimes the right piece of furniture just falls into your lap...so to speak.

Somehow I doubt this coffee table has seen much coffee. More like a tea table...as in T(ea) & A!

Fables Of The Reconstruction

Bless me bloggers, for I have sinned. It's been over a week since my last blog entry.

Sorry, but I've been either too busy or too pooped to peep. But I am happy to report that my CD storage unit did finally arrive on Monday. For some reason it came through Greyhound delivery, not UPS. Maybe that explains why everything went okay.

No shoes were harmed in the completion of this transaction.

Speaking of the wayward shoes, they finally left the building--yesterday! I saw the mailroom guy, Chris, as he was on his deliveries around the office (he bears a striking resemblence to SuperMario, even has an Italian accent), and when he saw me he said "The shoes are gone! It's over! It's finally over!"

Anyway, so I put the CD thing together over two nights. Last night I opened up all the boxes containing my CD collection. Wasn't really sure how to proceed, seeing as I had packed the CDs rather haphazardly; just grabbed clusters and put them in whichever box they fit, although I did try to keep artists together. So my Beatles, Stones, Neil Young, Dylan, Costello collections, for instance, were pretty much intact. I wasn't exactly sure how much of the rack the CDs would occupy, and how much room there'd be for DVDs and VHS tapes, so I just decided to throw everything on the shelves to see how much room there was. It all fit fine, but now, aside from the aforementioned artists, it's all pretty mixed up.

That's tonight's task. Arrange my CD collection into some semblence of order. Now, I'm one of those people who order their CDs quite meticulously. Within Artist, CDs are arranged chronologically going from earliest albums to latest albums, left to right. The major artists and favourites get prominent billing on the top shelves--so Beatles, Neil Young, Stones, Dylan, Costello, etc. Those are also my largest collections, so it's good to have them prominently displayed. I also try to group artists for whom I have fewer CDs by genre or association. Power pop, country, classic rock, jazz, reggae/world music, blues, soundtracks, etc. Then there's usually a shelf or two of Canadian indie artists, maybe female artists. Ah, but there I hit a snag and encounter ethical quandaries.

First of all, is it sexist of me to group female artists together? Shouldn't they simply go with whatever genre they belong to? Perhaps. But there are times when I want to hear a female voice, and when that's the case, I'll know where to look. And besides, isn't there something distinctly female about the way Kate Bush or Jane Siberry or even Patti Smith present themselves through their music? Something that is more than a mere genre? And what genre is Kate Bush exactly?

On the other hand, I have no problem putting Lucinda Willams and Emmylou Harris on the country/alt-country shelf. They can take care of themselves. But what about a group like Starling? Do they go on the Canadian indie shelf, or in with power-poppers like Big Star? And what about Badfinger? Classic rock? Power pop? Maybe they should be orbiting the Beatles shelf somehow?

Maybe I'm suffering from too much shelf-consciousness?

It's a tough chore though. Since 80% of the CDs are all mixed up across the shelves, how do I approach reconciling this CD diaspora? The only way I can figure, is to go through CD by CD, shelf by shelf and start shepherding them into the spaces where they belong. It's "Oh, there's a Tom Waits! That goes over here with the others. Jazz compilation! Let's put that in this stack on the floor. Lemonheads! That goes on the power pop shelf..." I think I'll have to make numerous passes through it all, and each time it'll get a little more organized. Then I'll probably have to make some wholesale shelf swaps. Country gets swapped with classic rock/brit pop/radiohead/coldplay/travis, etc.

I also got Stella back from the shop today, all happy with a new set-up and a new set of flat-wound strings. I'm listening to Wings Over America as I arrange my CD collection. I wanted to hear some good bass playing, and Macca's playing throughout that album always hits the spot. It makes for good CD-collection-arranging music. Not too demanding on the ears or attention span, and enjoyable for the spirit. Wings was the first band I really got into when I was a teeny bopper. These days I wouldn't call Wings a guilty pleasure--more like an innocent pleasure.

All right, back at it! These CDs ain't a-gonna library-ize themselves.

These Shoes Were Meant For Rockin'

Well, the Wilco tickets finally arrived Tuesday morning at work. Whew. Typed instructions on a sticker on the UPS envelope clearly telling the driver to take it to reception, business hours 9-5. Naturally, it was delivered to the warehouse mailroom at the back of the building. I didn't get a chance to see the driver. I was curious to find out which was lower: the knuckles, the slack jaw or the IQ.

And then, just when I thought my long, irrational nightmare was over ... sometime just before high noon ... THE SHOES CAME BACK!

Yes, poor Tracey Kelly's (no relation) wayward shoes landed back in this absurd landscape for a second tour of duty.

I escorted them back down to the mailroom and explained The Mistake II. They said they'd get the UPS guy to take them back. But they wanted to make sure that I was "rejecting" the shoes. The poor shoes. Shunted around aimlessly, and now I have to provide the final indignity -- the coup de grace -- of stating my rejection of them. But I think they could take it. They were cork soles.

Half an hour later, the guy from the mailroom calls me and says that he was talking to the people at UPS, and he wasn't able to explain the situation to them properly because he didn't have all the information -- was this woman related to me? Did I know her? He says I should call UPS and explain it to them.

Fair enough. I call UPS and explain The Mistake III. They say they'll send someone round.

(Y'know, it seems a fairly simple situation. A rather uncomplicated scenario. To wit: "These shoes are not mine. They belong to someone else. They were sent to me by mistake. Please take them away." And yet... somehow I get the feeling I would have had a breezier time explaining quantum physics to a flock of pigeons.)

A little while later, our receptionist calls me, and asks if everything was straightened away, because the guy from UPS is here (seems he's finally found his way to the reception area). I say yes, it's all straightened away, I got my package. I assumed he knew that he was to pick up the box of shoes.

As I was leaving for the day, I passed by reception and the receptionist says, "So, it's all squared away?" And I say, shaking my head and shrugging, "Yes, it looks that way. He got the shoes, did he?" Her face drops. "What shoes?"

Guess Mr. UPS will have to make another return trip. Shame.

Oh... and the Wilco show?

It was great. Getting away from his addiction to pain-killers must have done Jeff Tweedy a world of good. I've never seen the man smile so much! While he's playing and singing! Maybe the migraines are gone too. (He's been tortured for years with severe migraines, which led to the pain-killer dependence.)

Very cool venue too. It was my first time seeing a show at The Mod Club, and it was a treat. Not too big, not too small. Not sure what's up with the whole Mod thing, but anything's better than 80s nostalgia.

The set consisted only of songs from the last two albums. The new members of the band fill out the sound nicely. Sort of like The Wilco Wall Of Sound. Tweedy played a Gibson SG for most of the songs that needed guitar wankery soloing, but I was pleased to see him bring out the lovely, cherry red Epiphone Casino with the Bigsby tailpiece for "Jesus, Etc." Beauty of a guitar.

In the encores, they reached back to Summerteeth for "Via Chicago" and "I'm The Man That Loves You", and came back a couple of times, ending the night with an absolutely gorgeous-as-velvet reading of "The Lonely 1" from Being There.

Maximum soul satisfaction.

Quote of the Week

Just read this interview with Jeff Tweedy in advance of tomorrow night's show. I nominate this for Quote of the Week:

"The guitar became a big voice on the record. It felt right to give it things the lyrics weren't able to get out. I mean, that's why God invented the electric guitar, so you can say things that you can't say with your voice."

Amen Brother Tweedy.

More UPS And Downs

Follow-up from the previous blog entry: UPS did not come through on Friday. If I could've reached through the phone and strangled them, I would have.

I had received nothing from them by late morning, so I decided to call to see if I could find out if the tickets were at least on the truck. The customer rep person told me that the driver had been at my work address at 8:54 a.m. and had been unable to make the delivery. Something to do with "no such receiver" or something, whatever that means. I verified that they had the address right. Yup. The rep asked if there was any other businesses at this address. Nope. It's the only building at this address. Large building on the corner with a huge sign out front. Can't miss it. They said it appeared the driver had been there at 8:54 and had attempted to make the delivery, but couldn't, for some reason. This despite the fact I had told them the previous day that my business hours were 9-5. So the driver shows up at 8:54?

But it gets weirder. I went down to talk to our receptionist, and she said she had been there since 8:30, and hadn't seen any UPS person come in. I checked with the guys in the mailroom, at the back door of the building (even though, UPS always delivers to the receptionist at the front), and they had received nothing.

I called UPS yet again. I was not my usual pleasant self. I expressed my dissatisfaction in very strong terms. They said the driver was on his/her route and there was a chance of a return visit later in the day, but they couldn't guarantee it. The lady I talked to was apologetic, but said there wasn't much she could do. She again offered the option of having me pick up the tickets at their depot way the hell across god's creation. I not-so-politely declined, citing the aforementioned notion that when a person pays for DELIVERY of something, there should at least be some semblance of the concept involved at some point, not requiring the alleged receiver to spend hours on a hot city bus travelling to pick up the "delivery". She said if the driver doesn't attempt a return delivery, all that I could do was wait for Tuesday.

I used my favourite Disgruntled Consumer phrase: "This is completely unacceptable." It's worked for me in the past. Didn't seem to have much of an impact in this instance. The customer rep lady was sympathetic, in a customer rep kind of way, but said there wasn't much else that could be done. There were some prolonged silences on my end, just to let the dissatisfaction soak into the conversation. I told her that since UPS had made the mistake of delivering someone else's shoes to me instead of my tickets the previous day, it was incumbent upon them to try a little harder to fix their mistake. I told her I didn't think they were trying hard enough. She repeated that there wasn't anything she could do. I replied, "Well, I guess I'll just have to be DISsatisfied with that."

We're on summer hours at work, and can leave by 1 p.m. on Fridays. I had work to do that would have kept me there till about 3:00 or so, but I stuck around longer on the off-chance the UPS numbskull returned. I waited until 4:30, and then left. On the way out, I left a note at reception that if there's a UPS delivery for me, to call my extension or leave it at reception. Just trying to cover all the bases. I plan to be there early on Tuesday morning.

But that's not the only bad customer experience of the day. Oh no! You might remember from a previous post that I had ordered from an online store a CD wall unit for my apartment. Shipment was supposedly to occur within 7 to 10 days. I had put the order in two weeks ago. There was supposed to be an email notifying me when the shipment left the factory in Vancouver. I had received nothing from them. I called them last week around Tuesday, got a voice mail, left a message. Heard nothing from them. I called them again on Friday. They looked into the situation and told me that apparently my order had not been downloaded with the rest of the orders from that day. Sigh. I had to give them my credit card info again to get the order processed. So hopefully I'll have that delivered in a week or so.

But here's the kicker: Guess who's delivering it?

Yup. The lovely delivery experts at UPS.

Can't wait to see what shows up at my door this time. Maybe more shoes! Whatever it is, I'm gonna make sure I'm home on delivery day, and I'm holding it hostage until I get what I ordered.

Down With UPS

Three weeks ago I ordered tickets for next Tuesday's Wilco show at the Mod Club. The sale was done over the web, through the band's website. Nice to be able to avoid Ticketmaster--and their service charges--for a change.

The tickets were to be delivered through UPS Worldwide Express. As of middle last week, I hadn't received the tickets. Then I came home Thursday after work, and there was a notice taped to the door in my building's foyer. UPS had attempted to deliver the tickets, but, of course, I was not at home. As is their policy, they attempt delivery for the next two days, and then, if not successful, they hold your order for five business days, and you can arrange to pick it up.

I was kind of hoping UPS would assume that I was not at home at 10 o'clock in the morning two days running because I was at work, and from there, maybe make a logical decision to try the following day's delivery at a different time, like, say after 5 p.m., as is identified on their notice as one of the possible time slots for delivery. No such luck.

But I wasn't worried, because I was sure I could arrange for UPS to redirect the package to my work address. On Tuesday, I called them and arranged just such a thing. But on Wednesday, no tickets. Today, I called them again, and they told me the delivery would be arriving. This afternoon, I returned to my office and noticed a shoebox-sized cardboard box on my desk. It was adorned with UPS stickers and an invoice. Man, I thought, they really go big on the packaging for a pair of tickets. On closer inspection, I noticed the invoice was addressed to one Tracey Kelly (same last name, no relation) in Toronto. Hmmm. Worry began to creep into my mind.

The invoice proclaimed the contents of the shoebox-sized package to be... a box of shoes. I opened the package and confirmed that this was indeed so. Shoes. Tracey Kelly's shoes, apparently. I called UPS again to inform them of the situation. Apparently my tickets were still in their warehouse. I explained that I was getting nervous that my tardy tickets might not arrive in time. The concert is Tuesday night, and Monday is a holiday here. That just leaves tomorrow and (gulp) the day of the show, to get them to me. The first option they offered me was to go and pick them up. Just so happens their office is pretty much as far on the west side of the city as my workplace in on the east side. That means little ol' car-less me hopping on a bus for a trip that would probably take a few hours all told. And this, after I've already paid for the "convenience" of having these tickets delivered to me? No, the pick up is not my first option. In fact, it's pretty damn far down on the list. Like, say, last.

So the UPS woman said she'd send a fax to the warehouse and see if she could get them delivered on Friday, and failing that, she'd authorize a rare "same-day hold" for me, so I could pick them up maybe Friday evening, if need be. Well, we'll see about that. Let's first see if they get them to me tomorrow.

Now, I know there is some sense to UPS's delivery policies, but they didn't really leave me with many options for not being at home during their delivery hours. Seems to me a company that specializes is delivering things should be a little better at it, and maybe have a few more creative solutions to what must be a fairly common situation, i.e., people not being at home during work hours. Like maybe Saturday delivery? And at the very least, if they can manage to deliver someone else's shoes to me, they should be able to find a way to get my tickets to me on time.

As much as I slag Ticketmaster, I've never had a problem getting my tickets by good old postal delivery. Hey Wilco, maybe next time, just send my tickets via the mail?

Life Is Cool

I've made a scientific breakthrough in controlling the weather! I've discovered that if you want to change the weather from hot and unbearably humid (temp. 28+ degrees C, humidex in the 40s) to comfortably warm and breezy (22 degrees, little humidity), all you need to do is go out and buy an air conditioner! It works the same way as the better-known Bring-Your-Umbrella-And-It-Won't-Rain/Forget-Your-Umbrella-And-Get-Soaked theory. Only it's more expensive to implement.

But that's okay, I'm sure August will be hot and sticky. And my guitars are thanking me. My little wooden friends are vulnerable to extremes in humidity. Ideal is around 50% humidity in a room (that's the standard some manufacturers use in their factories). In the winter, the air in apartments and houses is much drier, so I use a humidifier to regulate it. At low humidity, wood can crack (as it did on my acoustic several years go). At high humidity, wood expands, which means glued seals and seams can come undone, bridges can start coming off, etc. The other day, my hygrometer was reading 80% humidity in my apartment. So I hid my guitars back in their cases to protect them, and went out to buy the air conditioner. Within a few hours of turning it on, the humidity was down to 50-60%, which is fine.

Stella was not subjected to this, as she's in the shop getting all gussied up. So when she returns, the room will be nice and cool and I won't have to worry about upsetting her delicate constitution. Hey, ya gotta treat the girls nice!

An Off Week

I've taken this week off. Mostly a get-away-from-work-and-chill week, but also a get-stuff-done-that-I-can't-seem-to-get-done-during-a-normal-week/weekend week. Yeah, one of those. Plus, my schedule at work was showing a very unusual and obvious Responsibility Hole. It was like my desk calendar was screaming at me, "Get out of here! Get away! Save yourself! I got ya covered!" And work has been a very frustrating place over the past few months, so I really needed to escape. Besides, if there's one thing I've learned in my years of employment, it's that when my desk calendar screams at me, I listen.

I was tempted to go back east and visit friends and family, but for that I'd really need two weeks, and I want to reserve two weeks for later in the summer when I may get a chance to visit friends in England.

So I'm just chillin'. I have a mental list of things I want to do while I'm off, but when I started stressing over the fact that I might not get to everything on the list, I revised it. Now the first item is, "Don't be a slave to The List."

But I've been pretty good in as far as balancing the three main elements--chillin', activity and accomplishing tasks. Last weekend started things off with the Celebrate Toronto street fest. Caught a very enjoyable set from the Silver Hearts and later an outstanding performance at Yonge & Eglinton from Hawksley Workman.

Next on the evening's agenda was my friend Chris's annual "Chillin' 'n' Grillin' " party in Kensington Market, which was a low-key but enjoyable gathering. I stayed there till about 3:30 or 4 a.m. or so. Hopped on the Queen streetcar for the ride home, and by the time it got to The Beaches, the sun was coming up. So I strolled down to the boardwalk, took my socks and shoes off and walked along the lake's edge in the sand. It was so quiet and peaceful. Only a few other people around. A girl sitting on a group of rocks jutting out into the lake, writing something. The lake was so calm, you could barely tell where the horizon separated water from sky. The sun was up, barely, but it was still around the bend, so everything was painted in a light golden hue, as if shot through a filter; a purer, clearer place.

I sat on some rocks on the edge of the lake and communed with a group of Canada geese floating just a few feet away. The leader eyed me warily, but soon determined I was neither a threat nor a bringer of food, so they went about their business. I sat there for some time, drinking in the peacefulness.

Enjoying the still of the dawn is a fine thing to do. Going to bed past dawn usually means the following day (well, the present day, actually) is more or less a write-off. Such was my Sunday. But it was pleasantly relaxing.

Monday brought more chillin', but I did do a few things around the apartment. I thought about what to do for the remainder of the week, and seeing that the weather forecast was calling for rain from Wednesday onward, I decided that Tuesday would be the day I spend time over on the Toronto Islands. On Tuesday, I dilly-dallied most of the day, then finally got my ass in gear and out the door by 4 p.m. It was also the first day this summer that I took my bike out, so it was good to finally do that. The day was a beautiful, sunny 28 degrees. My goal was to start off with some heavy pedaling and really get a good work-out, then relax when I get over to the islands.

I took the path through Woodbine park, just south of me, a short jaunt to the beach, where I hooked up with the Martin Goodman trail, a paved pathway that runs along the city's lakefront. It was a good ride. Felt good to get on the bike and really push it. The path follows Lakeshore Drive, then dips south down toward the filtration plant, runs through some heavily vegetated park land, past Cherry Beach, then up through some dockyards, over a bridge and on toward downtown and Harbourfront. I arrived at the ferry docks around five o'clock.

I had been over to the islands a couple of times before, but only to Centre Island and Ward's Island. This was the first chance I had to explore the entire area by bike. I spent a little time in the children's amusement park in Centreville. Great place for kids. Lots of rides, including an antique carousel and ferris wheel, a little farm with animals to look at. Wonderful little place. Then I continued on to explore the other islands. The homes and neighbourhoods on Algonquin and Ward's islands are so beautiful and quaint. It's like a little cottage community five minutes from downtown.

However, the view of downtown (normally something like this) was completely obscured when this very strange mist descended to envelope the entire Islands (and, I later learned, the entire downtown of the city. I was told it was more or less like a cloud came down to earth). I couldn't see a hint of downtown at all. You couldn't see more than maybe 100 feet off shore. It made for some very interesting sights. I cycled across a little wooden bridge to Shark's Island, ostensibly unpopulated, and stopped at a little beachy alcove and peered out into the cloud vapour. I wasn't even sure which direction I was facing, with no horizon, but I assumed I was facing north, toward the city. Then, emerging from the mist, almost indiscernable at first, then slowly taking shape -- a huge, white swan. It floats by, regally, then disappears back into the mist. After that, I half-expected to see King Arthur's funeral barge go drifting by.

No such luck. So I continued on in my quest, passed back over the little wooden bridge (didn't have to submit to any questions), and cycled around Ward's Island, then along the south side, down the Centre Island boardwalk west toward Hanlon's Point. I didn't visit the clothing-optional beach. Too damn cold in that mist. I ended up at the Hanlon's Point ferry dock and waited there about 15 minutes for the ferry back to the city. It was about 7:15, the mist had driven out the warmth of the day, and there I was sitting in my little lycra cycling shorts and yellow cycling jersey, freezing my ass off. It was a bit warmer downtown, thankfully, so I was able to warm up on the ride home.

All in all, a very good day. A bit of exercise, a bit of sight-seeing, going places I'd never been before, and even some weirdness.

Note to self: spend more of the summer on the Toronto Islands!

(I think the descending cloud must have been part of the weather system that brought some pretty intense lightening later that night, and saw a tornado touch down near London.)

Today I went shopping for a flatbed scanner, and began to narrow down my choices. I think I may go for this one. But I found it at another store for a cheaper price.

I've also been shopping around for a solution to my CD storage problem. I have about 800 CDs, some VHS tapes and some DVDs. The problem is, I have nothing to store them in. But this might do nicely. Lots of capacity for a constantly growing collection, and it would look very nice along the now-blank wall where I need it to go, completing the room. Attractive and functional!