The internet has been a source of ongoing frustration for me, especially when it comes to researching an article. I find I am faced with pages and pages of useless urls, and after the 14th attempt at word monopoly, and by the 20th page of a ‘fruitful’ topic search, I may be fortunate enough to have gathered a couple of factual notes.

Despite my annoyance, the internet also allows me the odd plum now and again. For instance, while searching information for ‘The Sorrows of Young Werther’, I inadvertently stumbled across these gems:

Dumbfoundry

woods lot

Take a look, if you enjoy poetic blog entries and websites, this is the url for you.

Former National Film Board animator Ryan Larkin died of lung cancer on Feb. 14, 2007.

Larkin's work included the Academy Award nominated short 'Walking' (1969) and the acclaimed 'Street Musique' (1972).

Larkin quit the NFB in the late 1970s as his life spiralled out of control due to drug and alcohol abuse. He became homeless and supported himself by panhandling. He later was the subject of Chris Landreth's Academy Award winning short 'Ryan'.

More recently Larkin had been back at work, first on the 2005 piece 'Spare Change', and in December of 2006 on three 5 second bumpers he did for MTV.

See Terry's piece on the film 'Ryan' for more information. Link:

Ryan

Visit Mark’s Home Site

In a perfect example as to how to make the best of a bad deal, the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambrige (UK) - my personal favourite museum - has launched a jigsaw postcard. "So what?" you may be thinking to yourself: well, the genius behind this is that the two priceless Chinese vases (I forget which dynasty) were accidentally shattered into hundreds of pieces by a clumsy/unlucky visitor. This pratfall hit the headlines in the UK (particularly as there was CCTV footage of the incident), and I think it is a masterstroke to allow visitors to buy a postcard so that they can piece the vases back together again themselves...!

As an additional note, if you are ever in Cambridge, do drop into the Museum, it has a great Hogarth before/after painting, a beautiful Picasso drawing of Lydia Lopokova, and many other treasures.

[UPDATE]: It's Qing dynasty, and you can purchase the cards at the museum shop online!

image fromwww.cambridgevisitor.com

Visit Sashi’s Home Site

Have you ever felt that, despite all you tell yourself, and all others tell you, and despite everything you deny and accept in equal measures, despite all that, your reality is still skewed?

Sometimes you feel so lost… and in desperate need of guidance… and yet you know where the map of life is headed, but still you can’t bring yourself to take the recommended route.

So you go round and round in circles, hoping somewhere down the line, a new path makes itself clear, so that you can go down it and reach that destination for which you’ve been yearning.

But sometimes, you’ll just need to accept that the path is open only to a select few - and you’re not on the list.

And yet, here you are, still going round and round and round…

image from/static.flickr.com

Visit Mike’s Home Site

The sleepless cougar.

She's the lateshift sorceress at the crackiest all-night greasy spoon in the borough.

Her skin like leather and her fingers more deep fried than the perogies.

Her cleavage an inhumanly tanned and wrinkly blackhole that only her gawdy streetmarket necklaces can withstand.

She never sleeps, moving mechanically but without grace. She's steam powered. Maybe coal. Unthinkable furnace.

Her jeans cut from the denim of Plague-era Europe and her top the skinned remains of a helpless sofa she's murdered in the night.

I'd peg her age as somewhere between 39 and infinity. not so much born as congealed.

Prick her and she'll bleed nicotine and old coffee.

She's hard lookin'. And probably hard living.

If she hasn't killed anyone, she's dated a guy who has and it shows.

Her eyes and smile are about as warm as the dashboard heater of a 1985 Toyota hatchback in a frozen landfill on a cloudy day.

The kind of woman you look at and wonder if she was beautiful when she was young, but know that she wasn't, which means tonight could quite possibly be the most beautiful she's ever been.

Relatively speaking.

She doesn't have a library card but she knows more about processed meat and drunk people than you and your book club combined.

I imagine kissing her neck. I imagine it feeling like kissing a chicken wing and tasting like kissing the skin from a neglected dish of gravy.

I hope she calls.

Thanks to Kelli at House Of Blues, I finally got to see Wolfmother and without paying scalper’s fees.

Was my third time trying the charm? Most definitely!

As Jeff O’Neill from CFOX radio station informed us, this was the largest crowd Wolfmother had played to; the first stop on their North American Tour, and the largest crowd the 75 year old PNE Forum has experienced in over a decade. Wolfmother has visited Vancouver three times in the last year, having sold out each venue.

For anyone who knows my musical tastes, Wolfmother’s self titled cd was selected as my number one pick for 2006 (although actually released in October of 2005). After the opening act, The Icarus Line , finished their set, I was concerned about the acoustics in the Forum as I found most of Icarus’ set was sound like one song blended into another. However, their theatrical showmanship made up for the poor sound. The singer strutted, full scarf ensemble a la Steve Tyler, and did the hands on hips swagger channelling Mick Jagger. As well, there is nothing more humbling than having to be your own roadies at a big gig. I think Wolfmother chose well for their opening act as The Icarus Line definitely warmed up the crowd with their antics. (As well, the crowd seemed familiar with their songs Up Against the Wall, and Party the Baby Off.)

The energy in the room prior to Wolfmother taking the stage was palatable. The bass sound system was turned up to the point where I could feel it in my throat as if eating it. Then when the three unassuming men took the stage, the audience lost it. Body/crowd surfing ensued, and I was crushed to the front (which reminds me - the blue stage lighting/smoke has got to go as none of my pictures turned out!). Kudos to security who only got physical with one clearly out of control fellow - they put up with spilled drinks, tossed water bottles, thrown clothing and helped each of the crowd-surfing kids down at front and off into the crowd again.

The audience was an eclectic mix, with mostly younger fans attending as this was an all ages show. I even managed to glimpse some white unicorn getups and full afro wigs in honour of singer, 31 year old Andrew Stockdale. (I swear, I have never seen a hairier band than this - when the lead singer would smile, all you saw were white chiclets amidst wild hair.) Chris Ross was clearing favouring one leg and I was curious what injury he had experienced. (Later found out that While playing a gig in Copenhagen, Denmark, Feb. 17/07, he injured his foot.) He limped over to his keyboards and had a seat - playing both bass and keyboards (although he semi stomped on his bass when it was not performing as he wished - roadies quickly fixed the situation). He is also very physical with his keyboard, often playing it on a slant or in some distorted fashion. Myles Heskett on drums is mesmerising to watch, whether he waves a Canadian flag or not. These three Australians have clearly been adopted by Canada and I believe the feeling is mutual.

The fact that the band plays a Led Zeppelin tribute was not lost on me as they are so similar to Led Zeppelin, it is almost too comfortable (for me) - ha, intimating my age range here.

All the songs , White Unicorn, Mind’s eye, Dimension, Woman, Love Train, and Joker & the Thief draw huge audience approval, and Andrew kept thanking the crowd, almost self-consciously, for the adulation. He also strutted and stomped across the stage during songs - almost a dual personality - arrogant rock star during songs, humble musician between songs.

This is what surprised me - despite the Forum being horrible for live acts - Wolfmother’s set was seamless. The vocals were crisp and I could hear every word. It was a terrific gig, one that I will remember, and the audiences’ enthusiasm for this young trio will stay with me. I have to laugh when I think about Faith No More’s producer going on about how much Wolfmother ‘suck’, well, Matt Wallace, if only your band had ‘sucked’ this much...

Wolfmother continues rocking its way across Canada, selling out venues in the first four provinces. Don’t be surprised if their next tour involves larger and more crowded venues.

The first image is from Wikipedia and the latter is from my sad set. Ah well...

Heads or Tales,

For those of you who take an interest in my activities because of their literary pedigree, consider this the hip-hop issue. It's 2007 and I'm on the same grind that I've been percolating for the past four years, travelling around rapping the Canterbury Tales and other stories, taking my message of poetical and cultural evolution to the world. It stays fresh because I keep pushing it into new frontiers, new incarnations. I will briefly tell you about some of them.

I just got home from Project Blowed, a weekly open-mic night near Crenshaw Blvd in Los Angeles. I got to perform directly after rap veteran and underground legend Aceyalone, who came with some of the livest live hip-hop I've ever heard. I freestyled with back-packin' L.A. rappers and performed my song "Symptom", and made some good connections with with the help of a magazine article.

Which article? XXL is either the top rap magazine or one of the top two, depending on who you ask, and the April issue currently on shelves features platinum N'awlins rapper Lil Wayne on the cover proclaiming "I Am Hip-Hop", and me on page forty four proclaiming that rap is poetry. I don't claim to be hip-hop in the article, (hardly an original statement from a rapper), but the author does describe my latest album as "straight hip-hop", saving me the trouble. This full page spread with photos in the top rap mag was my ghetto pass in L.A. tonight, not that the cypher was a hostile environment, and not that my lyrics weren't pass enough; it just made a hell of an ice-breaker. If you're interested in mainstream hip-hop's take on me, you can find XXL on any magazine stand in the industrialized world.

The other new development that has given me a boost recently is the appearance of all three of my albums on the iTunes Music Store, including The Rap Canterbury Tales and the recently pre-released "straight hip-hop" LP entitled "Lit-Hop". This gives anyone anywhere with an internet connection the ability to get my music instantly, but only if they already have an interest in it. The problem of accessibility is now elegantly solved, and all that remains is to spark everyone's interest everywhere. I'm working on it.

So go ahead, treat yourself to some passionately intricate lyricism, guaranteed to make you smarter while you listen. Be my viruses, write reviews, tell your friends: I've got mad style disease, infectin' a thousand MCs like spirochetes; I've got a sonically-transmitted disorder of rhyme all of the time.

Here's the link to iTunes: itunes Site

Next week I head up to Fresno for the Rogue Festival, then back to Vancouver to work on the first major release from my newly-founded record company, Lit Fuse Records Inc. Yes, on top of all this, I now own a limited corporation as well. And the beat goes on. The first release will not even be from me; it will be from a certain singer and next-big-thinger named Aaron Ross, with production by none other than Simon Kendall. If you want to hear Aaron's chops, check out the song "Oh No!" on my myspace page:Visit Baba’s Site

In April I'm returning to the UK for two months of touring and recording, including a stint in Canterbury, followed by the Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto Fringe Festivals in June/July, followed by... something impressive-sounding, you can be sure of that. But I'll save it.

Spreading love and roguish behaviour,

baba

image from www.mcnallyrobinson.com

And I have to admit, I loved how his dig about Il Divo and the Teletubbies made Simon Cowell squirm.

Scheherazade is a ballet that I first saw in its world premiere in 2002. With choreography by Ballet BC's artistic director John Alleyne, it tells the one of the famous stories from the Arabian Nights. This version has since been reworked by Alleyne, with new choreography and an extra movement.

I really appreciated the minimalist sets and costumes, as well as the use of light. The dancers made the most of the set by dancing in the negative spaces created by a large silk backdrop. While the story does not have a strong narrative element to it, it is still very pleasing, although I feel that I prefer the shorter version. The music in the introduction is by BC musician Michael Bushnell, and that later gives way to the more classic sounds of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov for the balance of the piece.

After the intermission we saw Carmen. My friend knew the story of Carmen from the opera; my knowledge of Carmen was limited to what I had learned from Gilligan's Island (in other words, not much - the Gilligan's Island version uses the music of Carmen to perform Hamlet).

I enjoyed the piece. I felt it was more strongly narrative than Scheherazade, and the costumes were fantastic. Stephana Arnold was great in the title role (although I had a bit of trouble getting past her body builder physique), and I loved Donald Sales as the Matador. I felt the set could have been a bit more elaborate - it was almost more minimalist than the one used in Sheherazade, and I think that's where my friend had problems. She couldn't follow the story at all. But I guess the plot used in the opera is slightly different.

The other thing she didn't like was the overt sexuality, but that's the part I loved. Love, loss, desire, lust - it was all there in a very in your face sort of way. And I felt it was done well, very well. Different strokes...

Anyway, once again the choice of piece, the performance of the dancers, and the support given by the VSO musicians has helped to create another great day for Ballet BC.

Image from trashotron.com

I was not allowed to continue going to the gym (as my workout always involved heavy weights) so I have essentially been sitting around doing nothing but change a channel and drive to and from work for over a year.

Something/ someone took over my body on Thursday night and registered me for the Multiple Sclerosis Run/Walk on April 22nd. I donated my cash and signed up. I intend to walk the course, but even that idea is daunting, given that I get winded walking up my stairs!

So I plan to ‘train’ slow and steady. Try to walk a few blocks a night, gradually working my way up to complete the 10k course.

So on April 22nd, send your thoughts (and energy) my way ... and a donation to MS would be nice...

Christine

April 24th Release Set For A Tribute To Joni Mitchell

The First Major Album Honouring the Artist

’A Tribute to Joni Mitchell', the first major tribute album to the legendary artist, is set for release on Nonesuch Records / Warner Music Canada April 24th. Musicians from many genres are represented on the 12 tracks of both rare and quintessential songs from the revered and influential singer/songwriter's expansive career.

Each performer's distinct takes on 'A Tribute to Joni Mitchell' are true to their own artistry, proving Mitchell's universal appeal and versatility as a songwriter. Mitchell becomes the thread linking together these otherwise very different musical styles into a cohesive and brilliant creation.

Executive producer and Nonesuch Records President Bob Hurwitz, a longtime admirer of Joni Mitchell, came across the project upon Nonesuch's move to Warner Brothers in 2004. It was started in the late '90s, but never completed. He says:

"I loved much of what I heard from the first group of recordings; the best of the tracks, at least to me, sounded like these artists were singing for an audience of one: Joni Mitchell. They knew she would hear their recording of her song, which has to be one of the most daunting tasks any musician can face.

In moving forward, I thought that there should be a purpose to every track: each should be a reinvention or an homage, or be performed by an artist who was a part of Joni's life or whom I knew she admired, or whose life was changed by Joni. Listening to them all, one can only be struck by the incredible craft she brought to these songs, all written as intensely personal statements, yet having the expressive resilience that allows other great artists to find part of their own musical life in her creations."

A TRIBUTE TO JONI MITCHELL' TRACK LIST:

1. Free Man in Paris Sufjan Stevens

2. Boho Dance Björk

3. Dreamland Caetano Veloso

4. Don't Interrupt The Sorrow Brad Mehldau

5. For The Roses Cassandra Wilson

6. A Case Of You Prince

7. Blue Sarah McLachlan

8. Ladies Of The Canyon Annie Lennox

9. Magdalena Laundries Emmylou Harris

10. Edith And The Kingpin Elvis Costello

11. Help Me k.d. lang

12. River James Taylor

My brother and his girlfriend went out and bought a ring together just before Valentine's Day. Then they made reservations for a nice dinner on Valentine's Day. Then he phoned me just before picking her up, to say that although he had bought this ring, he had decided to give it to her this weekend rather than on Valentine's Day. To which I thought, huh? I hope he let her in on the big secret, otherwise the poor girl would be sitting all through dinner in great anticipation - for nothing. And he wonders why his first marriage failed...

If you can top that Valentine's Day disaster, then maybe you might be interested in attending the Post Valentine's Day Pity Party on Feb. 20 at Cafe Deux Soleils on Vancouver's Commerical Drive.

The party could probably more correctly be described as comedic cabaret. It's a celebration of singleness that features different performers throughout the evening, including Bliss (a Dom-Clown), Joe MacLeod (of the YTV show Ghost Trackers) singing love ballads, and slam poet R. C. Weslowski.

Image from www.pixiport.com/

Me- Hey, Internet!

Internet - Hey buddy! how was work?

Me- Great! I got a lot done today.

Internet- Awesome!

Me- We talked about you.

Internet- Uh oh! All good I hope.

Me- Of course, dude! We talked about that video you have of the water-skiing monkeys.

Internet - I love that one!

Me - Me too! Thanks for showing it to me!

Internet- Anytime bro! Oh yeah!....I've got something for you.

Me- Really? Is it more junk mail?

Internet - lol! No way! something cool... the new Dinosaur Jr. album!

Me - The new Dinosaur Jr. album!!! omg!!

Internet- I knew you'd be stoked! Wanna hear it right now?

Me - Shit yeah! Heeeeyyyyy....Wait just a darn second here. I read that the new Dinosaur Jr. album isn't coming out until May. How did you get a copy, Internet?

Internet - (Acting all cool)... I know some dudes.

Me - Internet, you're the fucking best. I fucking love you man.

Internet - ha ha! It was nothing.

(Me and Internet rock out to the new Dinosaur Jr. for a few minutes)

Internet - Hey......wanna see some naked chicks doin' stuff?

Me - ha ha ha! Oh Internet! you're so crazy.

Internet - Go close the door.

Me - Ok.

Visit Mike’s Site

(Not that I'm dying or anything, or ever will die; I'm just putting this out there so folks know what they're in for.)

After the orc attack or whatever goes down, and after a certified doctor has pronounced my body as no longer living, a group of my closest friends and lovers will be assembled to build my casket.

It must be built only by my friends and only while said friends are heavily liquored.

Any so-called friend who chooses not to participate will be made to feel bad by my special Post-Living Project Coordinators.

I obviously won't care what the casket will look like so try to have fun with it.

Some racing stripes would be pretty sporty.

Maybe drink holders.

A little bird house....whatever makes you happy.

Some time the next afternoon, or whenever people wake up from the drinky-buildy party, my non-cremated remains are to be placed in the casket in a hilarious manner (like with no pants on, or in a wig or something) and dragged into the woods.

The casket is NOT TO BE BURIED.

You guys worked hard on that, let the world enjoy it.

Burying is for cowards, veterans and once beloved household pets, of which I am none.

Anyway, after the dragging and dumping maybe you guys could say a few words, do a J if you want, you know, just hang out a bit.

Ideally, someone would have the foresight to bring a ghettoblaster and a casette that starts with 'Pet Sematary' by The Ramones followed by 'Louie Louie' repeated for however many times it fits until the tape is full.

After the tunes just leave me to rot I guess.

Let the city deal with it.

Image from www.crazycoffins.co.uk/

Image from Burt Convoy’s myspace page

danakelly/bridezilla.jpg

I just completed watching an episode of, Bridezillas (on Life Network .)

The premise of the show is to follow generally normal, ‘nice’ gals and watch as they evolve into these horrible, demanding, arrogant, self-centred diva-for-a-day, brides.

Weddings aren’t a new concept for me. Having been the centre of attention at two myself; acting as a bridesmaid in five, and having attended nuptials, too numerous to count - I am quite at home with the circus, uhm, I mean ritual.

My first wedding occurred outside at the Queen Elizabeth Park (Vancouver), around 7:00 pm, on a Monday, in the lovely month of June. (Total cost: approximately $650; $400 from my husband and I, and $250 from my Father and Mother as afterwards, they treated 20 of the 30 guests to dinner at a local restaurant ).

10 years later, my next marriage occurred in a small, beautiful chapel in the Interior. (It was one of the original churches of the town where I grew up, and it was the church I attended.) We married at 4:00 on a Friday afternoon, with surprisingly beautiful weather for March).(Total cost: approximately $2100; $1500 from my husband and, again, $1600 from my Father and Mother as they treated 45 of our guests to dinner.) (NO - not fast food!!) However, I had never even heard the term, Bridezilla, until I read of the show’s popularity on Life Network.

After 30 minutes, I was shocked that the Bridezillas’ fiancees would even go through with the marriage (Then again, I supposed there is an element of fear involved, having been exposed to the ‘Bridezilla personality’ of his future wife.) There was not one girl who (If I were the fellow) I would stick around for, after that ‘lovely’ display of potential future personality disorder, or I would resign myself to sleeping with one eye open. Anyone familiar with the movie, The Exorcist, would get a kick out of the resemblance between the green-pea-soup scene possessed character of the movie, and a typical Bridezilla.

One gal, who become engaged after four days of dating some fellow she accidentally dialled on the phone, actually planned her marriage to occur within thirty days of the aforementioned dates. Her head started spinning around when what she wanted was not available and/or wasn’t being arranged properly. Hello? Come on - do these gals honestly feel that they are the only ones to marry, at that given time, on that given day (and perhaps, in their lifetime)? How delusional can one become?

And the costs...! I consider it fiscal insanity to pay out, for one day, weddings expenses that rival a potential mortgage down payment, or a luxury car purchase. Then I discovered one stark raving, lunatic bride wasn’t even footing the bill for her ‘day’ - her parents were! And darling daughter/ Bridezilla was causing her mother grief at ever step of the way. $#!@#^@#$$^*! I TOLD YOU I wanted the scalloped hemmed veil you $#!@#^#$^*!

Heck, if that were my child, I would be sneaking into the invitations a request for cash gifts (written out the the Mother of the Bride) instead of the usual wedding fare. Forget etiquette - hand over some cheques, please! (Funny thing, my friends would totally agree, whereas my family would probably exchanged those,God’s she’s gotten cheap and tacky with age, all-knowing looks!)

Whew, glad I got all those Bridezilla trauma images out of my system. I didn’t realize how strong an aversion I had to people behaving badly towards: seamstresses, fiancees, mothers, florists, bakers, caterers, wedding planners, etc.

First question of the moment for the fiancees: Was your bride always one of those crazy, very scary, don’t-let-her-play-with -sharp-objects kind of gal? Was she always a perfectionist to detail and ‘symmetry? Did your bride end up having a meltdown at the reception because some doily colour was wrong, and it was her day! Damnit and she wanted things perfect! Did the date of expiry on everything (usually dated for that day) expire a little too quickly? And why did you, as a fellow and having finally seen the good, bad and ugly, stick around with this potential nut? Or, are you one of those few, who actually called it off from the get-go after seeing what sort of long-term mess you were getting into?

Now one last, silly observance... please humour me... why are people now using the response, “I do”, when it used to be,”I will”? Now, I know I am not that ancient, but come on, when did this change? I think I have had my fill of weddings for awhile.

Queen Elizabeth Park Image:l.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/

Interior Church from: anglicanimages

On Saturday we went to UBC's Museum of Anthropology. I've been there before, and I've always been impressed by what I see. Not only are the exhibits great, but the building itself is breathtaking.

The Museum was designed back in 1971 by Vancouver's premier architect, Arthur Erickson. Completed in 1976, the museum underwent an expansion in 1981. Total cost for the project: $6.1 million. In today's dollars, that's a drop in the bucket.

The Museum is housed across the road from the university itself, and sits perched atop a cliff face overlooking the Pacific Ocean. You approach the museum from the parking lot down a long, low exposed aggregate staircase that swoops its way in a long arc around the cedars that tower around the museum. The effect is somewhat like walking down a dry riverbed, and that sensation continues into the museum as you walk downwards, if if traversing the rapids. The floor dips under you and flattens out only to dip down again, over and over, as you make your way down into the Great Hall. On either side of you totem poles tower, until finally you find yourself in the glass enclosed Great Hall amidst a forest of totem poles. The stunning 40 foot high glass wall lets in enough natural light that it seems as though you are outside in the forest. Through the glass wall you can see the continuation of the dry riverbed as it ends in a dry lake bed, surrounded by totem poles and a recreated Indian village.

Erickson has been quoted as saying, "Architecture doesn't come from theory, you don't think your way through a building", and this building bears testament to that. The building very successfully blends in both with the surrounding landscape, while at the same time complementing the landscape itself; it also does a fabulous job of reflecting the purpose of the museum. The front of the museum is reminiscent of a First Nation’s longhouse, and throughout both the interior and the exterior there are nods to the First Nation’s emphasis of the site.

We were there just to see the great collections that are housed there of Pacific Northwest and Canadian First Nations’ art and artifacts. The totem poles are particularly stunning, but the collections of masks are also visually very appealing. My own personal interest area of First Nations’ baskets is very well represented with the best collection of containers that I've ever seen.

Starting today, Feb. 6, the museum has a new exhibit opening called 'The Village is Tilting: Dancing AIDs in Malawi', which runs from Feb. 6 to Sept. 3 and is a collection of African masks collected by amateur anthropologist Doug Curran. Doug Curran will speak about his travels and experiences on Feb. 20 at 7 pm at the Museum.

Images 1 google.ca/imgres?imgurl

Image 2 sfu.ca/retirees/2002/rearview

Have you ever experienced a big letdown? I'm talking something that leaves you out there, like you're lost on an island and you don't know how to save yourself?

I'm not talking about one of those seriously life-changing events like a loved one dying, but rather something that shakes you to your social or cultural core.

Me? I've experienced it twice; the first time was when my all-time perennial favourite nightspot, The Luv-A-Fair, closed down. That shook me in a deeper-than-deep way because, it turns out, I had a lot of my identity wrapped up in that place. Which is kind of a sad statement, when you think about it - no?

But it's true. Luv-A-Fair was a place - well, really, the only place in Vancouver - where one could go to hear the 'new music'. Go anywhere else and you were subjected to 90 decibels of mainstream drivel, but at the Luv-A-Fair, you would NEVER hear anything REMOTELY mainstream. It was so fresh, so hip, so new - even when it was old. And I went there for about ten years, religiously. And beyond the music, Luv-A-Fair was known for its patrons being well ahead of the curve, fashion-wise. It was pretty well the only place in Vancouver where one could go to and see street fashion that were on par with that of any other major cultural or fashion centre. Sadly, I quit going to Luv-A-Fair because I thought it would always be there for me - but then suddenly, it wasn't. It has since been replaced by a high-rise condo, a sad casualty of Vancouver's building boom.

More recently, Dave and I went to our perennial favourite restaurant, La Masia. It has always been rich with old world charm, serving continental cuisine and the best made-at-tableside caesar salad that I've had anywhere. They also had the most fabulous Chateau Briand that we ordered each and every time we went there... until last week.

Well, before we even got there, my radar was up because I saw an ad for La Masia in a magazine. I've never, ever, in the fifteen years I've been going there, seen an ad for the restaurant before. And then, when we got there - a different wait staff. And a slightly different menu - with no Chateau! And when we asked, we found out that there was also no more caesar salad being made at tableside (you could order it from the kitchen, but their excuse was new Health and Safety regulations from the fire marshall). Well, having dealt with the fire marshall at work, I could just about believe that he could be that devious, but I knew there had to be more to it...

And sadly, there is. It turns out that the original owner of La Masia, one of the original 'Big Three' (along with Umberto and the chef at William Tell) to bring continental cuisine to Vancouver over forty years ago, recently passed away.

And so we have the end of an era.

The Letdown - painting found at http://klaudiamarrgallery .com...

Image source merchnow.com/

Full of twisted riffs and powerful rhythms, Monochrome hearkens back to Helmet's most popular album, Meantime. All the elements are here, and Page Hamilton's writing and guitar work is as enjoyable as ever. The riffs are huge, the grinding dissonance cuts through like a rusty blade, and the wacked-out guitar solos add just the right amount of extra personality and ugliness.

Some moments are more about pounding the grooves (the snappy drumming driving Hamilton's riffs that much further) and some are more about a twisted sort of dissonant atmosphere. Sometimes there's even an actual melody or two, a sort of deranged metallic pop sensibilty floating above the mangled riffage.

Monochrome isn't a knockout, but it is a very enjoyable slab of grind and balls for your metal-pleasure.

Image source: www.matthewcorozinestudio.com

You can win two tickets to The Desperate Party, an event sponsored by Lighted Fools Equity Coop. This party celebrates both love and the west coast premiere of 'The Maiden Prayer' by Nicky Silver. Music is by KABOOM, Writlarge, Johnny Contrast and DJ Lewis.

The location is Ginger62 (1219 Granville Street, Vancouver). The party will start at 8 pm on Thursday, Feb. 8. Cost is $10 (this includes on drink) - or you can win tickets for two by going to the link below before 10 am, Feb. 7.

Good luck!

The first real rock’n’roll song I ever heard was ‘No Time Left For You’ by the Guess Who, probably around 1965, on the car radio. I loved that electric guitar sound (provided by Randy Bachman), and wanted more. “No, leave it ON...” I pleaded when my Dad changed the station. He didn’t, so I got my own Westinghouse transistor radio from somewhere, and stashed it beneath my pillow at night, when I could pick up stations from exotic windswept places like Minneapolis or Chicago. I can remember far enough back when Elvis was still on the Hit Parade, hey now.

* Born To Be Wild - Steppenwolf. First record I ever bought, back in ye olde days of 12" vinyl LPs. I was just a kid, and this was the first rock’n’roll record ever in our house. It was not met with much parental approval.

* Stuck Inside of Mobile (With the Memphis Blues Again) - Bob Dylan. Still just a kid, and wondering, “What on earth is he talking about? And why do I LIKE this weird shit so much? Who IS this guy? What is going on here?” Those are all good questions for youngsters isolated in small towns to ask.

* School’s Out - Alice Cooper. An immortal anthem for the immortal snotty adolescent in all of us. Those opening guitar licks that sound like a fire alarm still send thrills and chills down my spine. Ah, fleeting youth. That feeling was briefly regained the first time I heard London Calling by the Clash, but that was years later and The Clash were not at all snotty. I think Alice was the first punk. I digress...

* Walk on the Wild Side - Lou Reed. So sultry with the double bass guitars and the saxophone at the end. I was still a naive adolescent living in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and the decadence in that song seemed SO attractive.

At the time, I’d never heard of Eric Burdon and the Animals. I didn’t know We Gotta Get Outta This Place (didn’t have a girl, either). Had I, that would have been our theme song. My loss at the time, but I was delighted to see that song resurface decades later, covered by DOA and Jello Biafra. I digress again, oh my.

* Peaches en Regalia - Frank Zappa (first track on the 1969 ‘Hot Rats’ album; I was a latecomer). Opened up a whole new world, that of instrumental music that could be both cool and interesting at the same time. I owe FZ a lot for that: it led directly to Duke Ellington and Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis and Charles Mingus, and an understanding of what sultry and cool really sounds like.

* Key To The Highway - Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, on some old Vanguard blues anthology. Opened up another whole new world: How can two old guys (one playing harmonica and the other playing a six-string acoustic guitar) sound so good? “Time to get outta here and find out,” I thought, and did.

Despite all those wild youthful rock’n’roll influences, I turned out to be not wild, nor decadent, but instead rather quiet and thoughtful. Being young is usually difficult; I certainly wouldn’t want to do it again. Music helps, and that which helps most is what you remember the longest and most fondly (yes, even Alice Cooper).

About ten years ago we rented an animated feature film - whether or not it was on the basis of a recommendation from someone, I can't remember - but whatever the case, once we got the movie home and watched it, we fell in love, big time. We have, quite conservatively, watched that film about a hundred times. Or maybe more. The film I'm talking about is 'Kiki's Delivery Service' (1989).

Now, I was used to the Japanese animation that came out of the seventies, specifically for the TV market that had a really cheap and hurried feel to it - very much mass produced. So to say I was amazed at the quality of animation in this film would be something of an understatement. The backgrounds are beautiful and very painterly; the main characters are full and rich and wonderfully drawn. And beyond that, the story was fantastic, a wonderfully optimistic coming of age story with a confident little witch at the helm. The film was ripe with humour and struggle and joy and all the other things that make life grand.

We found out that the artist, Hayao Miyazaki, had done some other films, so we immediately went out and got 'My Neighbour Totoro' (1988)- which immediately became a new favourite in our house. While it too, had beautiful scenery and richly drawn characters, its protagonists had quite a bit less control over their lives than the main character in Kiki's Delivery Service did. While Kiki boldly set out on her own at the tender age of 13 to make her new life as a town witch, she did encounter a few minor problems, but for the most part her life was pretty ideal: she immediately got a job, learned her craft, met some friends, found a nice place to live, and was well on her way to her goal.

In 'My Neighbour Totoro', the two main characters Mae and her older sister are deposited at the beginning of the movie in a new home far out in the country. Their father is off at work all day at the university while their mother is off in the hospital with an undisclosed illness. The girls are left on their own, and have to learn to cope in their new home, which, it turns out, has a variety of strange beings living in or near it. Whereas nothing in 'Kiki's Delivery Service' could be construed as ominous or threatening, in 'My Neighbour Totoro', the viewer initially has to question the safety of the girls in light of these strange creatures. But, as with Kiki, both Mae and her sister prove to be brave and strong female characters - a theme that runs through most of Miyazaki's work. (And, the creatures all turn out to be good guys!).

In addition to his strong female characters and the spirit of optimism that pervades most of his films, other common themes in Miyazaki's work include flying and pigs (sort of an odd combination, but...).I'm sure here in North America, Miyazaki is best known for his Academy Award winning feature film, 'Spirited Away' (2001). Oddly enough, this is my least favourite of his films, as it has much more of a nightmarish quality to it. The main character Chihiro, like Mae and her sister in 'My Neighbour Totoro', is also moving to a new home, but becomes separated from her parents before she gets there - and then everything around her changes and melts into a surreal version of her old surroundings, complete with parents who morph into pigs and giant blobs she has to clean for a living. Like I said, its a nightmare.

I prefer the earlier films, like 'Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind' (1984), 'Laputa: The Castle in the Sky' (1986), and 'Porco Rosso' (1992), for their lighter and more optimistic outlooks. There are also a few more Miyazaki films on my 'to see' list: 'Princess Mononoke' (1997) and 'Howl's Moving Castle' (2004). Apparently, 'Tales from Earthsea' (2007) has already been given an early release in France, and will be released elsewhere in March. Rumour has it that Miyazaki is already hard at work on his next feature, which will be based on the Chinese story, "I Lost My Little Boy."

Miyazaki works closely with Isao Takahata and most of his work is done for Studio Ghibli. But even prior to Studio Ghibli's inception, Miyazaki was working in animation on feature films such as 'Wolf Boy Ken' (1963), and he continues to draw manga - both 'Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind' and 'Porco Rosso' are based on Miyazaki's manga.

When watching his films, there have always been a few things I wondered about - like where exactly did his stories take place? Obviously, there is a large element of fantasy to them, and for some of the films ('Spirited Away', for instance, or 'My Neighbour Totoro') the location (Japan) is pretty clear. But in 'Kiki's Delivery Service'? Just where exactly is that? It always looked like Europe to me. Well, it turns out that in his early years, Miyazaki did location work in Switzerland, Italy and Argentina, and so the influence of those countries is clearly seen in the backgrounds of some of his work.

Likewise, I wondered who influenced his work. Apparently, Miyazaki does not like Disney at all (except for some of the early work) - it seems he has trouble with the story lines, primarily. Obviously, Japanese artists have influenced Miyazaki, but he is also a very big fan of Canadian animator Frederic Bac (who did ‘Crac!’).

Finally, I always wondered about the nature of the illness of the girls' mother in 'My Neighbour Totoro' - she had been in hospital for at least a year, and the story revolves around her being granted permission to come out of the hospital a number of times, only to have that permission rescinded at the eleventh hour, once again leaving the girls parent less, in effect. We never do find out what ails the mother, but, coincidentally, Miyazaki's own mother was confined to hospital with spinal tuberculosis from the time Miyazaki was 6 until he was 14. And, regarding the flight imagery - Miyazaki's father was the director of Miyazaki Airplane, a company that produced airplane parts. Well. That explains everything!

Now, even though I'm a big fan, I have not been able to convince my friend (the Disney fan) to convert to Miyazaki. She just cannot see what I see. I guess something was lost in the translation?

Image from gallarotti.net/

I often post our contributors' articles to various blogging sites, depending upon the content and interest level. Today, I went to the three spots where I post different articles and I was again reminded that tblog has the best posts, more 'educated' responses, the least amount of putdowns, and just general writing proficiency that surpasses other blog spheres.

Thank you tblog community for being you - entertaining, articulate, enlightened, and so interesting! Reading your posts makes me actually want to meet you (don't worry - I won't stalk you ;)). And most of all, thanks for not responding to some of my posts with a U SUCK! or Who cares (even if you may think it). I come to tblog to become reenergized and remind myself that not everyone in cyberspace is rude and overtly dysfunctional (we are all allowed to be a bit dysfunctional, otherwise we would be dull, dull, dull).

Christine