Have to admit, I'm writing this more out of some absurd sense of duty than anything. I just haven't felt like writing recently. Maybe this will kick me out of my current blog-funk, who knows...
So - what has been going on over the last week?
I saw Studies in Motion at the Playhouse last weekend. Absolutely stunning to watch, and unfortunately the last day of the run or I would have been telling you to GO.
Spent three hours with Leonard Cohen last Sunday. The man is a marvel at 74. Or at least he seems more spry than I am. Fantastic concert. I didn't bother taking video footage for once as the whole thing is pretty much reproduced on the Leonard Cohen Live in London DVD that was just released.
I ordered this for my bathroom...step one in the upcoming renovation that you are bound to read about in the coming weeks/months ...
I have finally ordered lighting for the kitchen. This and this to be exact. This unfortunately does not mean that the 2' X 1' hole in the ceiling from the electrical work done 3 years ago will be fixed. It does however mean that I will be less likely to cut myself while slicing vegetables in near darkness.
Starting to get excited about this year's DOXA festival lineup - 10 days, starting on May 22. Book your calendars now!
Speaking of DOXA, we are finalizing our celeb list for Exposed!, our celebrity camera auction. I have my eye on one or two already. Hopefully it will stimulate as much excitement with the fans of these generous people as it has within the DOXA staff.
This hasn't happened quite yet, but it will later today so it still counts - CBC Canada Live is broadcasting a stunning show by Dan Mangan and Danny Michel, recorded in Ottawa. Listen on CBC Radio 2 at 8pm tonight, or if you miss it, listen at your leisure here. (Impatient as always, I have already listened, which is why I know it is stunning ;)
And finally, my eldest brother turned 50 - commemorated by this delightful piece by local artist Boy (yes, I know, a crappy shot, but it was late...). Happy Birthday P!:
This week SFU announced that their new downtown cultural centre would open with Robert Lepage's The Blue Dragon in February 2010. Olympics? What Olympics? THIS is the event Vancouverites should be excited about.
Lepage is by far my favorite playwright/director. Hands down. When I saw his production of Far Side of the Moon in Toronto a number of years back, my whole concept of what theatre could be shifted. He manages to marry very intimate, personal stories with unbelievably creative (and technically mind boggling) staging, without letting the staging become the dominant character. It may just be that the issues he deals with in his plays resonate particularly strongly with me - I spoke to someone else that saw his staging of The Andersen Project here a couple of years back and he felt absolutely no connection with the characters or the story. I felt like checking him for a pulse.
Needless to say, I have tickets already, and am counting the sleeps until February 2010....
You can watch short clips of some of his works (including the Blue Dragon) here - though you really can't get a good sense of it all without actually being there. So - if you can - go.
SO - the saga of the English Beat videos continues. My brother took the memory chip from my camera to his pal Ryan at InterAction, aka North Shore computer-guru land. My understanding is that it was a bit of a slog to retrieve - but he managed it in the end. ("Ryan at InterAction, he's bound to give you Satisfaction"...see, I put it in, I put it in...) Now, it ain't perfect, but I am just very, very happy that it exists at all. There is data loss that I have tried to fix with MPEG Streamclip, to no avail. When I uploaded to YouTube, the data loss gets glossed over (good I guess), but that means that the audio & video get out of synch. And it has ended up being an interesting study in subliminal effects - at 1:49 in the video here , you'll find a flash of Hawksley Workman, sideways; the Breeders pop in at 5:03. Watch, and make a game of it - I'm pretty sure you can find Weezer and Black Mountain if you look closely enough... Thinking about it, I may have ended up with far more interesting video files than I started out with.
I have learned my lesson. I will be careful with that little garbage can that sits, taunting me, from my MacBook doc. And I will soon upgrade the memory in my computer so I won't be so "delete" happy.
Here's Tenderness - the out of synch-ness is not too disturbing on this one...though the fact that Jason Collett suddenly appears at the end of the song is a bit whacky...
I had the good fortune to go see a live taping of CBC Radio's Go! last night. I am a huge CBC Radio fan, and an even bigger fan of Go!'s host, Brent Bambury. In fact, to use my friend T's language, I 'luff' him (luff being that intense, giddy, weak at the knees admiration for someone that - in most instances - you've never met.). You have to understand that Brent has been an integral part of my musical growing up - host of the late night CBC radio show Brave New Waves for years, he brought great alternative music to the air every night. I stopped paying attention to him for a while in the late 1990's, as he moved on to host CBC TVs Midday, and I moved on to my jazz phase. The luff was rekindled with the CBC Radio musical quiz show, "Groove Shinny", and now with the great variety show, "Go!" - the last of a rare breed, the live radio variety show.
I should add that I have actually exchanged a few brief emails with Brent (did I say luff?)- he has graciously agreed to participate in a fund raiser for DOXA. And I do mean graciously - I received an "I'd be delighted, it sounds like fun!" much to my giddy delight. As an employee of the CBC he is keenly aware of the challenges facing arts organizations I am sure, and it is generous of him to help us out.
So - yes, Brent is my desert island CBC host. Some may choose Strombo and his dark good looks, but I'll take Brent any day. I know, I know, if it's a desert island it might be in my best interest to choose a straight guy, but my luff is too strong. I'd have way too much fun talking to him. And heck, I seem to be growing a goatee myself these days so maybe in a few years my gender won't be an issue...
Seeing the show live was great fun - and it confirmed my passion both for the CBC and for Mr. Bambury. The recent budget cuts really sadden, anger, and worry me.
Take a listen Canada. Realize the treasure you have. And do what you can to preserve it.
(And thanks to A. for sharing her photos of the night!!)
A post - very late I'm afraid - about the Great Lake Swimmers show last Sunday. It was one of those beautiful marriages of band and venue (the ex-church St James Community Hall being just where you want to hear this sort of loveliness), and we were lucky enough to be in the front row - not usually what I would choose to be honest, but we figured heck, why not. People started sneaking onto the floor around us which made the atmosphere even more congenial. At least, it did because there was no fire. If there was a fire, their bodies would have provided nice soft things to stampede over...but I digress. Kate Maki opened up for the GLS and she was a perfect choice. Clever songwriting, lovely voice, and a warm, funny personality that quickly won the audience (that I suspect was largely unfamiliar with her music) over. And the Great Lake Swimmers were fantastic - nice selection of material from Ongiara and their self titled album, and a lot of new stuff from their brand new CD, Lost Channels. The new material seems to have moved a bit away from the etherial beauty of Ongiara, but it sounds good ... I did manage to knock off a couple of videos of their new tracks. I swear the stage was lit by one 40W bulb, which made videoing kind of...imperfect...but I was enjoying things too much to fussing with taping anyway. Besides which, sitting in the front row, you end up feeling like you are being invasive, no matter how stealth your camerawork. But I quickly realized my black-plastic-covered camera is far less invasive than the KA-KLICK, KA-KLICK, KA-KLICK of the digital SLR being used by the woman on the floor infront of me. Do digital cameras actually need to make noise or have they added sound just to make them feel more like film cameras? Who knows. Whatever, ultimately nothing could detract from the beauty of the sounds from the stage.
Here is New Light, from their brand new album Lost Channels. Enjoy.
So, the Art Bergmann extravaganza at Richards happened last night. I've been thinking about it all day, my overtired brain trying to sort the experience out. This always happens when I go see bands from back in the day. I'd like to say back in my misspent youth, but truthfully it wasn't all that misspent. At least not in comparison to that of the man on stage last night.
The 'bad': Sigh. Maybe my brain is the 'bad', but it was really ... not right ... to see Art without his guitar - apparently a necessary thing due to very bad arthritis. And weird to see him having to refer to lyric sheets, but understandable really. And his vocals are maybe not what they have been in the past. All yet another reminder to me about how much I would like to put an official ban on aging, and recommend some sort of butt-stamped expiry date that we can all knowingly work towards. I don't know if it was me projecting that Art seemed a bit lost at first as to what to do without his instrument, but he did. Luckily he also figured it out pretty quickly. Or maybe I just relaxed about it all.
And I have to admit, I yearned for some of the Young Canadians stuff - but you can't have it all I guess.
The good:
The hands may have gone, but the attitude remains. It's always my biggest fear when going to see something like this that you are going to find your edgy hero transformed into a pillowy, conformist guy that is trying really hard to pretend he's still got it. Not Art - he's still slurred, snarling, shooter drinking fun.
And truthfully, he was a bit of a train wreck from time to time. But that is also what gives it the edge Art has always had, and what makes it worth coming out for on a school...I mean work...night.And everything came together beautifully at times - Vultura Freeway was fantastic, fantastic.
The stuff I love, just because being judgmental is FUN:
Oooh I do love to watch audiences, and this was a good one to watch. The club was sold out, and packed with a curious mix of under 20's and over 40's. I sort of missed the first opener (name has gone from my head just like their music did) because I was transfixed by a smurf dancing with a member of The Knack. I was happy to see a Tim Harrington wanna-be in the middle of the audience, exposed belly rubbed by those around him. A good mix. Though I must say I did feel a bit sorry for the woman who asked me how the washrooms were - one of the many I am sure who had not been to Richards recently, if at all. I smiled and told her the truth - well, not quite the truth, which is that they look like something out of a japanese horror film, with moisture oozing out of the walls into puddles on the floor, toilets that either don't flush or continuously flush, doors your hands stick to if you aren't careful...you get the picture. Or if you're lucky, you don't.
And my favorite dysfunctional sound guy duo were on site - a strange, master/slave relationship consisting of a anxious-squirrel-like underling (hyperactive, actually gnawing furiously at duct tape on the mic with his teeth at one point, yet inattentive at REALLY key moments), and a larger abusive master. It didn't get to the boiling point I've seen before (where Master got on stage, took over the lead mic, and berated his underling directly to the audience), but there was some interesting bullying going on to the side of the stage anyway. I should feel sorry for the squirrel in the relationship, but I know enough about how a good tech behaves from hanging out with a tech friend to feel much sympathy. And they've been together for years, so they must both enjoy it on some level. And honestly, Art Bergmann has got to be a sound tech's nightmare - tossing liquid waaaay too close to the electronics, throwing mics and stands around the stage - but that's why you've got to be on your toes, squirrel boy.
I have recorded two or three songs that I will post in the next day or so - my camera notoriously struggles with Richard's lack of lighting, but whatcha gonna do. Here's Junkie Don't Care...enjoy (for some reason I uploaded this to a youtube account I didn't actually know I had - don't ask, just know I am tired - but if you want to check later to see if I've uploaded more AB, go here)
Bit of a random post this time around....firstly, a couple of the newer felties - a piccolo porco made for my friend A's birthday (Happy Birthday!), which I couldn't resist posing with a bigger companion; and the newest version of Thomas, which colour-wise is much better than my first effort though I am not 100% happy with his face. I will be replacing his eyes with a slightly more yellow pair when they arrive in the mail (what a weird sentence that is...) I should mention that the real life Thom was suffering from a case of "goopy eye" (official medical term) in his left eye when these snaps were taken, so he isn't showing his peepers off to their full extent.
More importantly this week is Art Bergmann week on the concert front. Really really looking forward to it...though not so sure I'm looking forward to the teenage memories it is bound to rustle up. Here's a taste (very poor quality vids...but hey, remember it was 1980)...can't wait, can't wait.
My favorite home town musician Dan Mangan has just released an EP (Roboteering) and is set to release his new CD in the fall. Can't wait. Something about the tone of his voice gets me every time. A pal who knows Dan accuses me of having a "Mang-on" - but I like to think my admiration is a bit more sophisticated than that.
Here's hoping that the next CD brings him the recognition that he has long deserved.
I'm BAAACK...after a fun few days with Miss T. in San Fran. Weather was stunning. Miss T. trying on grad dresses was stunning. I was less than stunning, but worked hard on my ability to stand outside change rooms and field questions about "my TALL daughter."(for those that don't know, Miss T. is 6" taller than my 5'5" - we are definitely of the same genetic stock, but she is the baguette version, I am the sourdough loaf). Considered making a "she's my niece, and yes we both know she is tall" sign to hold up as I waited by the dressing room doors...
Highlights:
Alcatraz! (you have to read that word with the scary drama it deserves). Fun times - but you know, it's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there...
Hotel Cleaning Staff: We stayed at the Hilton, which worked out well for a whole bunch of reasons. As we walked to the elevators we ran into the woman cleaning the rooms, and she looked at us and started laughing hysterically and saying something that neither of us could understand (thick accent) UNTIL the last sentence "My son is much taller than me TOO!" (followed by more laughter). Decided not to burst her bubble and we both smiled and nodded before cracking up in the elevator.
Canteen: YUM - such a great meal in a really fun setting. Our prix-fixe meal included smoked mackerel with olive butter & a salad of raw artichoke and endive, duck confit with beans and green onion sausage, roast rhubarb with meringue in a strawberry sauce. OH - should mention the meal was accompanied with the most mind blowingly tastey brioche. So good. And fun to do when you are eating with someone who (like me) is fairly foody-open-minded. Particularly when you have a view of the cute chef at work.
Dress shopping: Tiring, no doubt, but a highlight none the less. I would guess that we went to about 8 stores in about the same number of hours, Miss T. tried on about 30 dresses give or take, and after narrowing it down to three finally chose her favorite. The girl has unflagging shopping energy. UNFLAGGING.
Lots of other things were fun too - the cable car (of course), wandering around Alamo Square looking at the amazing painted Victorian houses and the weird display of planted shoes, and lying around in the hotel room watching stupid TV before bed with Miss T's commentary.
And I will end off with a very short pan of San Fran from the boat to Alcatraz
Sick. Bleh. How I hate sore throats. Hopefully it will pass quickly as I am set to accompany my youngest niece on her hunt to find a grad dress next week ...in San Francisco (isn't that where all good grad dresses come from?...)
In other news, Grizzly Bear is coming back! They are at the Commodore ... wish is was the Vogue, as they are a band that needs quiet. And quiet isn't exactly what I'd call the Commodore. Oh well. Here's a favorite Grizzly Bear moment in the meantime ....
So, one my most anticipated concerts of this year has now come and gone, and I'm left with the lingering loveliness of it all.
I might as well bore you with the whole experience - which for me started at 3 am the night before when I woke up plagued by two thoughts: 1) how early should we get in line to get the seats? and 2) perfect seats? what exactly does that mean in the Vogue, and for an event like this? I blame genetics for this sort of obsessiveness. Not sure exactly which parent I can pin it on, but I know my brothers and I all have our own obsessive quirks...damn you brain, damn you.
How do I solve this one then? How would any logical person deal with it? It's obvious isn't it? Firstly by wasting half an hour Googling the venue and studying floor plan of the Vogue in detail (even though I've been there at least half a dozen times for gigs and films), and secondly by talking to a sound engineer type friend of mine who has had a tour of the venue. I pondered. I spoke to my concert-companion brother, which isn't really the place to go if you want to calm your obsessive tendencies. The end decision? We would go for first row balcony - it overhangs the 12th row of the floor, and also is a bit of a sweet spot according to sound engineer type friend. I decided not to go home after work, so I could get in line nice and early - I'm thinking maybe an hour and a quarter before the show. I decide to take a wander by the venue at about 5:05 - 2 hours before doors - and there are already 10 people there. So I stake our claim in line, and my bro shows up shortly thereafter. And we are the first two on the balcony. Now, truth be told, we likely could have showed up quite a bit later and still found good seats, but if an extra 45 minutes means it is pretty much guaranteed, it's worth it to me (and my cold toes).
Now, if you read the above paragraph and just shook your head in bemused disbelief, consider yourself lucky that you don't have my brain to deal with.
As for the show, I couldn't have asked for more. Antony was engaging, funny, and I'm not sure how anyone can not be affected by that amazingly unique voice. The backing band were fantastic - I'm a sucker for strings and they just work so very well with Antony's delicate, soaring vocals. And even the audience didn't get on my nerves - for a group of 1000 they were amazingly well behaved (read QUIET) and respectful. And sitting there I couldn't help but think here is someone for whom life cannot have been easy, how fantastic it is that he has found his place in the world, and how lucky we are for it.
As for videos - well, the security guys tried to put the fear of god into camera holders in the lineup, so I knew it was going to be an issue. Quite frankly, for most of it i didn't want to fuss with a camera - I didn't want to break my own focus. But I did sneak a couple of slightly crap vids in full stealth mode (black plastic covering the viewfinder, the whole slightly pathetic nine yards) - one here, the other here. My brother also filmed one that looks promising, hopefully he will post it on the site sometime soon.
It's been a lo00ng dry spell between gigs. David Byrne woke me out of my no-concert stupor. Such a great show. The man makes it look so very easy. Great set list, great stage show. And it was proof of how very well the music he worked on - both with Brian Eno and without - stands up over time.
I didn't video much this time - too hard to sneak it at this venue, both because of the policing and because of the seating. I did quickly grab a chunk of the second encore - if you get past the first 20 seconds or so it improves in quality as the girl infront of me stops darting into view and messing up the focus.
I remember seeing the Talking Heads "Remain in Light" tour at the Coliseum in 1980. I bring it up not only because like his music, the man himself has stood up ridiculously well over time - he is still just as captivating. I bring it up as a way of starting a short rant about the Evil commonly known as Ticketmaster. For the 1980 concert, my pal and I actually walked up to the ticket window the day of the concert and bought tickets (for $14 - oh how times have changed - I remember because it felt like a lot - so maybe times haven't changed after all). You were faced with the "inconvenience" of calling for tickets, or going to a ticket outlet to get concert tickets. Now, it's all about the ease of online purchases. Scratch that - there is no ease. There is a vendor with near complete control. There is just the anxious hope that perhaps this time the tickets won't all be sold out in presales or flipped to TicketsNow for resale at five times the original price.
When the revolution comes, Ticketmaster will be the first to go.
So I ask you should I cry or laugh Drinking tea in a Kings Cross caff A leather jacket against the cold Gone down to London turning coal into gold Down to London - Down to London Gone down to London to be the King
(Click on the photo of my hotel to hear more about London from Joe Jackson...)
Had a good, busy week in London. Stayed at a hotel near Oxford street, (it's the white facade in the picture, the one with black flags sticking out) all too convenient for spending money. Work was worthwhile. Spare time was spent ... shopping. And taking this in. And out to go through the craziness of Camden Market with my pal of 20+ years, Ian, and his lovely girlfriend Magali, ending up for drinks at the Horse Hospital (now a bar/art/music venue, staffed by girls in riding gear), each stall now made into it's own snug area for sitting and boozing.
Magali (French by birth, moving to the UK a number of years back) came out with one of my favorite statements EVER about cultural idiosyncrasies when we were discussing the differences between Paris and London. I paraphrase I know, but it went something like this: "In London, people are friendly. You have the sense that you are all in the same boat. If you get into trouble, people will step in and help. In Paris, if you get into trouble, people will run away. They won't help. More likely, they will do something to make the situation worse, and then stand back and laugh." Love it.
I'll end off with a list summarizing why I *heart* London:
1) they are kind enough to put "Look Left" and "Look Right" on the roadways. There are so many squares and one way streets and general chaos that I would have been flattened many times over without it.
2) there are still cute young men doing their best to be body doubles for the Gallagher brothers.
3) that finally, after much deliberation, they have banned drinking alcohol on transit (?!?)
4) you can buy good beer at corner stores.
5) you can walk down skinny lanes flanked by the most amazing 4 story, cheek by jowl, ornate wonders.
6) the size. And diversity. And the dignified sense of ... decay.
7) that the boys are, on balance, generally prettier (and prettier is the right word) than their girlfriends.
8) the embarrassment of riches contained in this one city. Amazing.
9) I just feel...comfortable...there.
It is somewhere I would love to live for a few months. I can't imagine how that will ever happen, but I really would.
Yes, one more member. Made out of much rougher wool. Happy enough with the end result, but it is impossible to get the same level of detail or smoothness. I've learned that I prefer my wool carded first, for those of you planning to buy me wool...
And in other news - I'm off to London for a week. Mostly work, but there will be a couple of days of fun wedged in there as well. Of course I would be going during London's coldest, worst weather in recent memory, but there you go. I won't complain. Even more reason to hide in the galleries... :)
I had a special request from my Mum to put the three very cute wee felt dogs she just finished on my blog - some fairly unconvincing logic about adding "balance" to my cat-focused site.
(It's a one time thing, cats. Don't worry.)
Her beasts are sporting some of the new eyes - mini Chobe the boxer has glass, and the mini Dachshund has slightly smaller plastic. Yes I know - obsess much? Apparently ;)
Meet Mini Mags, the newest thing I can pester the cats with.
I have spent the last 20 minutes trying to get that perfect shot of Maggie and her small felt doppelganger. Those that know cats know you can't force a photoshoot. Doesn't stop me from trying.
Maggie's glare in the top shot pretty much sums up how much fun she was having.
Now the tiny glass eyes have arrived, I hope to work on a mini Thom this weekend. You've been warned cats - it's gonna be two against two soon.
Too many posts about crafts, cats, and blood...so here goes my round up of the best from last year. "Best" is a bit of a joke - I'm not sure I've listened to enough to rank what is "best". But this is what I've enjoyed listening to for the last few months.... (DRUM ROLL)
In no particular order:
1. The Dodos - Visiter: (And not only because the band decided to put my bro's stealth video as the only live footage link on their website). Fingerpicking, strumming, percussive good times. A step up from their first album, and their first was good enough...
2. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!: OK, I admit I'm a sucker for Nick Cave - he falls into the rarified ranks of Creative Godliness that I reserve for very few. Great album that carries some of the rawness from last year's alter ego, Grinderman.
3. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago: The winter cabin story of this album is well known, and you can hear the isolation. Loneliness has never sounded so sweet. Best track: The Wolves Act I & II
4. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes: Ya, me and everyone else. I hate to be part of the club, and at first I was fighting their sweet harmonies, but reluctantly I am. Such sophisticated stuff from such a young band.
Thanks for stopping by - though I am still not sure why anyone other than me would find my ramblings interesting :) Comments and questions are very very welcome!
You can also contact me at bunklelife-at-gmail.com
