We Are The Fanclub

Today's CLASSIC Clip: V is for...

2010-07-29T13:42:00.000-06:00

Zacharius Knight Galifianakis is one funny f*cker... We've all seen The Hangover - actually, one of my friends told me the other day she didn't like The Hangover - she didn't get it... What? Seriously? What's to get? There's the one man wolf pack speech, the naked Asian guy, Mike Tyson singing Phil Collins... I could go on... ok, there's the baby with the sunglasses, the cop car on the sidewalk scene, the 'why aren't roofies called floories' bit...

Right, so you can't credit Zach Galifianakis for all of that hilarity, but I mean look at him - he's awesome:

And then there's Natalie Portman - sigh... so pretty:

You may be a little confused at this point - and I don't blame you... this is a pretty disjointed post, but I am headed somewhere with this...

You've heard of Funny Or Die? Yes, good, well there's a series of short videos on there called Between Two Ferns (hahahahaha) where Zach Galifianakis interviews other movie stars and celebrities in a typically Zach Galifianakis manner... Awesome is really the only word to describe these... The Steve Carell one is great, the Ben Stiller one is pretty funny, the Michael Cera one is classic - but the best one has got to be the Natalie Portman one... OMG! You will pee yourself a little bit guaranteed... V is for what now?

Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis: Natalie Portman from Between Two Ferns

Your welcome.

Today's RAD Song(s): Beastie Boys Remixed

2010-07-28T15:50:00.001-06:00

Why is it that every time I take my clothes out of the dryer, all my t-shirts are inside out? I mean, I understand that my socks will likely be inside-out - cuz they're inside-out when the go in the wash... but not my shirts... I don't get it, and it frustrates me cuz I hate folding laundry to begin with, and the whole inside-out t-shirt thing adds at least five minutes to my folding of the whites load and seven minutes to the darks load...

On a completely unrelated note, I mentioned the Beastie Boys a few weeks back in the blog - great 'driving through a screaming thunderstorm' music - though I doubt that's what they have in mind when they're sitting around the studio writing lyrics and producing loops.

The Beasties are an interesting act, because for people of my generation who remember License To Ill and Paul's Boutique, we've been able to hear the band mature before our very ears. And I'm not talking about a weak-ass foray into disco and then back again a la U2, but a real growing up of content and presentation.

I understand the Beastie Boys are not for everyone; they are loud, obnoxious, opinionated and do still carry that frat boy tag with them (cultivated from the above mentioned albums). It is worth mentioning however, that they are one of the few white hip-hop groups in the history of the genre that are respected by audiences, critics and other hip-hop artists alike.

I suppose - like folding laundry - I find it frustrating that Beasties never seem to get the respect they deserve. They altered a genre that had been heading down a pretty mainstream and pretty boy road in the mid 80's, and along with groups like Public Enemy and Run DMC made hip-hop both cool and culturally significant for an entire generation (whether the state of hip-hop today is a worthy legacy of that rap renaissance is an argument for another day.)

Today's RAD song(s) are two remixes of two of my favourite Beastie Boys songs. The first is by Alex Metric, a UK producer and DJ whose playful approach to his remixes always make me giggle (if not bop my head), and the second is by Yellus, a Swede who I don't know much about but have liked all I've heard from him. Both of these tunes are likely to pack the dance floor - and slip easily into high rotation on your ipod, even if you've never been a huge fan... enjoy.

Sabotage (Alex Metric Remix) by The Beastie Boys

Intergalactic (Yellus Remake) by The Beastie Boys

The Playlist: Music for Folks

2010-07-23T15:02:00.000-06:00

Some say the touring summer music festival experiment has run its course. I would agree with this assertion in regards to the touring behemoths we've seen in recent years; Warped Tour is really the only one of any importance or significance that is still going strong - and though I may not attend annually anymore, I still value it's place in the summer entertainment schedule.

Music festivals in general however, are still cool. The big ones in the US including Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, Austin City Limits and Coachella are more cultural experiences than simply music festivals, and are all well worth the price and and effort to get there. But if you're on a tight budget, I'm positive there's a local music festival that while maybe not as lucrative on the big headliner end of things, can still provide an awesome musical adventure. For a comprehensive list of festivals in your area check out the following links:

Canada:
http://exclaim.ca/festivals/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Music_festivals_in_Canada
http://ibackpackcanada.com/summer-music-festivals-in-canada/

US:
http://matadornights.com/16-us-music-festivals-not-to-miss-in-2010/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Rock_festivals_in_the_United_States
http://www.festivalfinder.com/

In the town where I live, we have a bunch of awesome summer festivals: clickie. Two of the best, IMO are Sled Island, and of course, the Calgary Folk Music Festival.

Yesterday was Day 1 of Folk Fest, and a great first day it was... Co-headliners Stars and The Avett Brothers both put on amazing sets, and Regina, SK's Library Voices did a serviceable job in warming up the late afternoon crowd. We've talked a lot about Stars and the Avetts here at the the Fanclub, so I won't gush too much more about those acts - both current favorites of mine. But there are three days left in the festival, so you might be wondering what else might be worth seeing (considering there's about 50 more bands playing and no matter how organized you may be, you won't be able to catch them all.)

Here is a playlist of bands/artists you should check out if yer heading down to Folk Fest this weekend... you can find a schedule of when the acts are playing here.

Delhi 2 Dublin
This is a band I first saw in a tiny little bar in Brandon, Manitoba (of all places) last October. I didn't have any expectations, but was completely blown away by the frenetic energy and unapologetic uniqueness they offered. They mix Celtic, Bollywood (Indian) and Dub sounds into a wall of sound that you just have to hear to believe:

DJ Logic
Legendary Bronx turntablist fluent in any and all genres of music. Soul-jazz and hip hop abound in his solo work, and this guy is one of the giants in the DJ world - don't miss your chance to check him out.

MAN MAN
Um... this band from Philly is weird... but cool... but weird. What do they sound like? Their website says 'experimental rock, viking-vaudeville, and maniac Gypsy Jazz.' Sure, let's go with that...

Dan Mangan
I posted Dan's song Robots about a month ago. Dan is awesome, a rare talent and a cool dude - drop by and say hello to him after his set and see that I'm not lying

St. Vincent
Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Stevens alum Annie Clark is ethereal, spacious and haunting - well, her music is anyways... a great pick for this kind of festival that will leave fans enthralled and newbies wanting more.

The Swell Season
Famous for their 2008 Academy Award winning song 'Falling Slowly', Irish troubadour Glen Hansard and classically-trained Czech pianist/vocalist Marketa Irglova are the real deal - hoping to turn lightening in a bottle into a bulb you'll never want to turn off

Ohbijou
Orchestral pop, a genre that Canadians excel at, is performed with perfection by this act - so cute, you just wanna pinch their cheeks

Hill Country Revue
Featuring members of the North Mississippi Allstars, these Southern rock n' blues hipsters bring the best of the genre to a town that could stand to inject a little soul into its twang.

Ghostkeeper
Local boy makes good... the great staccato vocal delivery works with the proto-punk-folk arrangements. You'll like it - trust me.

The Burning Hell
I've worked with these cats a couple of times, and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. It's eclectic, it's campy cabaret, it's got damn near every instrument under the sun... it's an adventure - which is what music should be.

Today's CLASSIC Clip: Rainbows Are, Like, Awesome, Man

2010-07-15T16:04:00.000-06:00

It's been a few days since the last post, I know; I've been trying to reintegrate myself into the daily routine of real life - with mixed results to be honest...

My last few days on the road were relatively uneventful - but, in truth, the best parts of the trip were those where time and space were abundant, giving a guy the opportunity to get lost in his thoughts with little chance of interruption - a concept not often possible in our fast paced everyday lives.

Wyoming is a great place to get lost in one's thoughts. It is the least populous state in the union (just over 500,000 people call it home), and 48% of the land in Wyoming is owned by the US government - with most of that being national forests, national grasslands and national parks - which means man-made intrusions are kept to a bear minimum.

For the vast majority of American's distrust in big government, they are in fact very proud of their national parks and monuments systems. I've had the opportunity to spend time in a few of these places over the years and can honestly say they are second to none in terms of conservation, service and natural beauty. Wyoming is the king of of the national park - with two of the US's most famous lying within its borders - Grand Teton and, of course, Yellowstone National Park.

I didn't venture quite that far west in the state this time out, but made it a point of seeing one of the state's most unique and bewildering national monuments - Devil's Tower.

Have you ever seen Close Encounters of the Third Kind? You should - one of the best UFO/alien movies Hollywood has ever produced (E.T., Fire In The Sky and District 9 should also be on your list of must see alien encounter movies). Anyway, in the movie the aliens send a signal to earth that is eventually recognized by scientists as a set of geographical coordinates pointing to Devil's Tower (characters in the movie also inexplicably receive visions of the monument without knowing what it is or what it means). Being such a fan of the movie, I felt compelled (although not in quite the same way as Richard Dreyfuss) to check it out.

Devil's Tower is honestly one of the most bizarre and incredible things I have ever seen. Even geologists can not entirely agree on what created the formation, but it is widely known today as a volcanic neck (essentially a land form created when magma hardens within a vent of an active volcano - overtime the volcano mountain rock erodes leaving the hardened magma rock inside intact). It rises dramatically 1,267 feet above the surrounding countryside and you just have to see it to believe it:

Crazy! I hiked the approximate one and a half mile trail around its base, got a blister and a sore neck, ate a hamburger at the visitor centre and headed north into Montana (in the car, not on foot).

Montana is a nice place. It looks a lot like Alberta - actually it looks almost exactly like Alberta - as anyone whose seen Legends of the Fall can attest. As long as you steer clear of the crazy (and famed) militia type folks in the hills, you'll enjoy your drive through it en route to where ever it is you're going.

Being mountainous in the west and bald prairie in the central and eastern parts of the state, Montana is known for it's wild weather in the summer months. As fate would have it, one of my last memories of this trip will be of barreling headfirst into one of the craziest prairie thunderstorms I've ever encountered.

Montana is one of those places that you can see weather coming your way for two hours before it arrives. And knowing what I was up against, needles to say I way a little nervous. But it's at moments like this where you can either pull over and wait it out (and lose an hour or two in driving time) or, crank the Beastie Boys and giv'r hell. I chose the latter... obviously.

At one point in the height of the chaos - I heard a crackling come through my iPod (which was hooked up to the radio via a receiver). I paused the tunes just in time to hear: "from the weather center in Great Falls... this is a very dangerous storm... If you are in this storm's path, take immediate action to protect life and property... covers the following counties:... Custer, McCone, Garfield..." I couldn't be one hundred percent sure, cuz of the low visibility, but I was pretty sure that the sign I had passed about ten minutes before read "Welcome to beautiful Custer County."

Perfect. This is exactly where I want to be.

Well, everything worked out in the end. There was a convoy of about four or five cars that limped along through it, following just close enough to see the taillights of the car ahead - and though my steering wheel has permanent fingernail marks in it now - we all made it through unscathed.

I have always been a huge fan of that moment right after a storm passes that you can still feel the electricity in the air, the wind cold and crisp on your face and the ground begins to steam as the sun pokes through the clouds. It is absolutely beautiful - and it's at moments like that that you understand why people believe in God - it feels divine and otherworldly. I sat on the side of the road for a little while, smoked a cigarette, drank a beer and just watched the rainbows come and go as the storm disappeared in the distance. It was a neat moment:

And with that, it was all over... I stopped for the night in Great Falls, hit the local Albertson's before leaving town (to get Cherry Coke and breakfast cereal, of course), and before I knew it I was explaining the the border guard why I had driven all the way to Nashville if I wasn't even a musician.

I will need a bit more time to process it all, and we'll come back to moments and stories over the course of the coming months I'm sure. But, it was an amazing trip - I saw tons of amazing things, met tons of amazing people and I'll be glad to return to it all - someday.

For now, I'll leave you with a clip of a guy whose also really impressed with what he's seen and experienced... ('it's so intense'... lol... I need some of whatever he's on)... talk soon - y'all.

Today's CLASSIC Clip: Mount Rushmore

2010-07-10T03:11:00.000-06:00

A funny thing happens when you stay in a different hotel every night... it's kind of like playing Russian Roulette when you make it back to the room: is it 210? Or was that last night... 624 maybe? Shit... On more than one occasion on this trip I've been met with the red blinking light after swiping my key card and been forced to march the walk of shame down to the front desk to ask what room I am staying in.

Tonight was one of those nights... there's not much to do in Deadwood, South Dakota except drink and gamble - so that's what I did... it worked out well for the most part, but alas, I did forget what room I was staying in (but at least I remembered which hotel!)

I stopped for breakfast this morning in Chadron, Nebraska. Breakfast itself was not terribly notable, but the brief stop in at the local Walmart afterward was hysterical. Why was I at Walmart you might ask? Good question... Because I figured it was easier to stop and buy new underwear and t-shirts than it was to find a laundromat somewhere and spend an hour ignoring the guy in the corner with mental health issues talking to his socks.

Walmart in middle-America is awesome. Not because of the deals on unmentionables (though those are good too) but because the people watching is fantastic! I saw at least a half-dozen people that looked exactly like the people featured on this website - just awesome... it's the only way to describe it... honestly.

I was headed for Mount Rushmore in south-western South Dakota - and wow - this part of the country is stunning:

Prairie gave way to rolling hills, lush green forests and sparkling lakes as I got a little further into SD; it was a beautiful drive that I hadn't been anticipating, and I tried to just sit back and take it all in.

The first stop was at the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills area of the state. This is really cool; it is a monument built to honour Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain's smooth, fine-grained granite (the same rock that Mount Rushmore - 13 miles up the road - is carved from).

The carving was begun in 1948, and the face was finished and unveiled in 1998. The larger-than-life rock sculpture has no fixed completion date, and based on how long it's taken them to get this far, it will be quite a long time before it's done. For more info on what the finished sculpture will look like, and more info on the memorial, the Indian Museum of North America, and the Native American Cultural Center click here (the white marks in the photo above indicate where the head of the warriors horse will be carved - eventually).

From there it's a short drive through the Black Hills to Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore - as I'm sure you're aware - is another sculpture carved into the mountainside of the heads of four famous US presidents: (from left to right) George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

Mount Rushmore is also cool (sort of); it rises some 5700 feet above sea level and was the brainchild of sculptor Gutzon Borglum. Construction on the sculpture began in 1927 and was completed in 1941 (though it wasn't officially dedicated until 1991 by then President George H. W. Bush) without a sugle worker casualty. The crowds can be crushing in the summer - as I found out - and I was amazed by the vast array of trinkets and trash that bear the monument's likeness available for purchase in the gift shop. It was interesting to see such an iconic piece of popular American culture up close, but unless you're really into art history or American pop-patriotism, you can probably skip it.

And this is what brought me to Deadwood. The town is the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickok and it is a National Historic Landmark for this reason - I suppose. It is a town of roughly 2000 people and just as many casinos, saloons, gift shops and ice cream parlours. It's not that bad to be honest - the slots are loose and the women - well, actually I have no idea, so let's skip that. Originally it was a mining town, and subsequently a railroad and manufacturing center, and naturally it then morphed into a tourist trap based on a history that may actually be as fabricated as it is widely believed.

But none of that matters now - Kevin Costner owns a casino here - that's neat. And the bikers on their way either to or from Sturgis seem to like it - so let them have their fun... after all, the hotels need fillin' - no matter who's staying in which room.

Today's CLASSIC clip is my favourite scene from the movie Rushmore. It has nothing to do with anything I saw today (other than sharing a name with a mountain) but it is hilarious - almost as hilarious as those people at the Walmart back in Nebraska.

The LeBacle

2010-07-09T19:47:00.000-06:00

I hesitated weighing in on this, and I'm sure that some of you will breeze through this post waiting with bated breath for my next update from the road (yes, there will be one later on tonight).

But... I have long contended that the NBA represents everything that is wrong with professional sports - and the events that have taken place over the last week have reinforced that assertion. And, please - before you say it - this has absolutely nothing with black guys shooting a ball into a hoop vs. white guys shooting a puck into a net.

For those of you living under a rock, LeBron James, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh decided this week to sign free agent contracts with the Miami Heat.

It was fascinating being in Chicago as the world began to assume that the Bulls would be the logical choice for James. People down here in the US have watched with rapt attention as this played out - basketball is a huge deal in the inner city playgrounds and suburban gyms alike. But, I have never seen anything like this in my lifetime as a sports fan.

On Thursday, James was the focal point of an hour long special - disguised as a promo for his charitable foundations - and it was pathetic to watch... not one heartfelt shout-out to the people of Cleavland for the support they've given him over the last five or so years. Not one real statement that would given us any inkling of what was going through his head as this unfolded.

AND THEN, I'm sitting in my hotel room in Deadwood, South Dakota tonight watching the Miami Heat unveil the newly anointed 'Three Kings' in a ridiculously over-the-top media circus introduction at the American Airline Arena in Miami.

This proves to me that the NBA is purely about spectacle, ego and hype. It has little to do with substance - though I suppose time will tell on that - and I worry about the future of professional sport. Why? Because I think this marks a turning point for all the pro sports leagues: the players are now in complete control - they dictate the terms, they call the shots, the make the rules. Previously this has been a fine balance of all stakeholders involved (including the fans), but those days are now gone I fear.

The worm has turned, kids. It's the new world order, and though I'll still cheer for my favourite pro teams - I just lost a little bit more respect for the whole freakin' set-up this week.

Bill Simmons from ESPN.com has once again hit the nail on the head with this one - if you care, please take a minute to get his take on the whole LeBocle (his term, not mine).

I'm out...

Today's RAD Song: Nebraska

2010-07-09T01:32:00.000-06:00

(This is part two of a double post today... if you haven't read part one - you should, it's pretty funny.)

... The Good Life.

That's what the sign says as you enter Nebraska. Kool-Aid was invented in Nebraska and Warren Buffet - the world's second wealthiest man - makes his home here, so based on those two things alone, it's hard to argue with the sentiment.

Nebraska has always existed in a realm of near-mythology for me - I know that's weird, and I'm not 100% certain why I feel that way. It might have something to with the whole middle-American heartland fascination that I've spent the last three weeks trying to quell. It might also be that it represents a somewhat more exotic version of the countryside I spent some of my childhood in (that countryside being my grandparents farm in west-central Saskatchewan). Or, it could be that the state of Nebraska was the inspiration (more or less) for two of my all-time favourite albums.

As with everything in life, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

Everything you've ever heard about Nebraska (and I'm sure that's not a lot) is true: it's flat, it's full of farm and pasture land, it's sparsely populated and it's right smack-dab in the middle of America's bible belt. For some of you, this might not sound so attractive, but it's vast, simple and somber here: it has a beauty to it that's difficult to explain - but if you've ever driven down a dirt road at sunset listening to Bruce Springsteen you're on the right track.

Springsteen's 1982 album, Nebraska, is an unquestionable masterpiece. It wasn't initially intended to be released as it was recorded - at his home with 4-track cassette recorder - but the demos proved so haunting and 'real' that to imagine the songs existing in any other context was absurd. Tracks such as the title track, 'Mansion on the Hill', and 'Reason To Believe' capture vividly the honesty and the tragedy of the working class existence - a theme that the Boss does better than anyone.

The album is, like it's namesake, also vast, simple and somber - it's not an album to play at dinner parties. It is an album to be listened to in either a dim room half-filled with cigarette smoke, or in a car winding down a country road with the windows wide open and the wind providing the orchestra parts.

I love this album...

Mansion on the Hill by Bruce Springsteen

In 2001, The Cash Brothers (Andrew and Peter - the latter of Skydiggers fame), a little known Camadian folk-rock duo released an incredibly well-written collection of songs called How Was Tomorrow. I've loved this album from the first listen too - it has the same kinds of wide-open space and simple textures that the best of Springsteen's albums have; haunting harmony is rampant, and simple three-chord folk tunes have never felt so alive.

A track entitled 'Nebraska' is the standout on this album for me. It is an homage of sorts to the Springsteen album, but uses it as a backdrop for a beautiful heartbreak story. There's a line in it that is so perfect, and so timely that it bears singling out here... I couldn't find a video of the track, but I did find an mp3 link and - truth be told - I think that listening to it with your eyes closed is probably the way it was intended to be heard anyway...

"I've got nothing on my mind, and nothing to do... I'm just driving 'round listening to Nebraska."

Nebraska by The Cash Brothers

Today's CLASSIC Clip: We Built Sioux City

2010-07-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

I have been waiting to post this CLASSIC clip for long time... it just never seemed appropriate 'till now - cuz now I can say I've been to Sioux City, Iowa.

Sioux City is a simply a stop along the way for most people. Located on the Missouri River in western Iowa on the border with Nebraska, it is a place where you stop for gas on your way to Omaha, Minneapolis, Kansas City or St. Louis.

I certainly mean no disrespect by mentioning it in this context, but one of Sioux City's only claims to fame is that it was the final stop for 111 people who lost their lives in the 1989 crash of United Airlines Flight 232, one of the US's worst domestic airline tragedies.

I spent last night in Waterloo, Iowa - nothing special to report - and stopped tonight in Valentine, Nebraska (I don't think there will be anything to report from here either). Sioux City was, yes, a gas stop but also an early dinner stop.

Through no fault of my own, I ended up pulling in at the main night club drag, 4th Street. Sweet Fanny's Pub looked as good a place as any to stop in for a beer and a sandwich - and, OMG, what a sandwich it ended up being.

I wish I'd had my camera with me (and I scoured the internet to no avail for a photo), but this was the most rediculously large open face hot beef sandwich in this history of open face hot beef sandwiches. It came on the plate as a giant brown blob... when I finally ventured into it (after laughing out loud and asking the barkeep if she was serious) I found it to be a 4 inch thick slice of sourdough bread, topped with a 3 inch mound of mashed potatoes, topped with caramelized onions and finally what had to be 2 pounds of thinly sliced roast beef - all completely covered with a thick brown beef gravy!!!

It... was... awesome!!!

I spent most of the drive through Nebraska trying to stay out of the ditch as my body tried to process what had just happened. The most epic sandwich I have ever eaten... so good, so gross, and just way too much.

Now, about that clip I mentioned off the top. This clip first made the rounds on internet blogs about a year ago (but because it is also so awesome, it has persisted as a huge hit ever since). It's hard to imagine what the creators were thinking - or what the producers were trying to capture - but one thing is certain: everyone involved failed miserably.

I won't belabour the point, and I'll spare you any further hyperbolic musings - but you know the original by Starship (a great song for its time and place), and you are gonna LOVE this. Enjoy We Built Sioux City:

I told you.

Part two of today's double blog will be up a bit later on...

In a Lake Michigan State of Mind

2010-07-08T00:06:00.000-06:00

Quick, name all five Great Lakes... Michigan is a gimme... the other four? Got em? Ok, we'll come back to it if you need a hand.

12 million people live along the shores of Lake Michigan - the only Great Lake to lie wholly within the United States, btw - and most of them live in the Chicago and Milwaukee areas.

We started the day with a beautiful view of Lake Michigan (and downtown Chicago), as seen from the top of the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower:

The Willis Tower is a 108-story building, towering 1451 feet over the Windy City. It was the tallest building in the world upon its completion in 1974 and remained so until it was surpassed by the Petronas Towers in Kula Lampur in 1998 (it remains the tallest building in the Americas; fascinating info about the worlds' tallest buildings can be found here, if yer into that kind of thing).

It's really, really, really tall... the Skydeck is the observation deck on the 103rd floor, and it is not for the faint of heart, let me tell you. The elevator takes you to the top in only 60 seconds (and just as many ear-pops) and the $18.00 admission charge was totally worth it, simply for the panoramic view of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and the water.

We then thought it'd be a nice contrast to get a little closer to the water itself:

Most of the Chicago waterfront is beaches and/or parks, and though not so packed in the above picture taken on Tuesday morning, you should have seen it on the holiday Monday - ka-ray-zay! The Lake Michigan coast is often referred to as America's 'third coast' because of the incredibly fine white sand, and it certainly has the feel of Miami Beach (or so my friend says) and it reminded me a bit of the Mayan Rivera, minus the palm trees and hurricanes, of course.

The Art Institute of Chicago lies at the southern edge of Grant Park, and provided a much needed respite from the mid-day heat. It has one of the world's most notable collections of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art, and it's Contemporary American Art collection ain't too shabby either.

Works by Monet, Renoir, Matisse, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Georges Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (of Ferris Bueller's Day Off fame) all grace the walls here... it's actually a little overwhelming to process the historical significance of everything you see as you wander around.

Among the most important works in the Institute's American collection (and three of the most famous American paintings ever put to canvas) are Grant Wood's American Gothic, Edward Hopper's Nighthawks and Mary Cassatt's The Child's Bath. American Gothic is a pop-culture classic, having been spoofed, imitated, and duplicated in more contexts than almost any other work of art... that was a real treat to see up close:

The Institute was an amazing experience all around; a stunning, world class collection that's gotta be on your itinerary if you ever find yourself in the city. Oh... we had classic Chicago deep dish pizza and the White Sox won too, so that was a good day in my books!

So, how in the world could blue collar Milwaukee, Wisconsin stack up to the awesomeness that is metropolitan Chicago, you might ask yourself? Well... very well actually - thank you very much!

Milwaukee is home to over half a million people and is a surprisingly pretty city. Settled originally by French-Canadian fur-trader-type folk in the early-19th century, and populated by large numbers of German and Polish immigrants after that, the city is an interesting cultural mecca in the middle of America's dairy heartland.

We did the obligatory Miller Brewery Tour (which was both really cool and hilarious at the same time - what time did you say it was again? Oh, that's right... Miller Time!) and ended up in the beer garden, naturally, before being rolled on down to the gift shop - where we each spent way more time and money than we would have if we'd not tasted every brand Miller-Coors has to offer (beer marketers have it all figured it out, man - but you probably don't need to be told that, do ya?)

We did manage to stagger our way down the street after leaving the brewery to one of Milwaukee's oldest and best restaurants. Kegel's Inn is the real deal; an authentic, family run German beer hall with delicious, traditional beer and unbelievably good, rich German food. We had the Hasenpfeffer (marinated rabbit) and the house specialty, roasted duck - and, OMG - there are no words to describe either the beautiful flavours, or the severe bloating that both provide.

And, of course, no trip to Milwaukee is complete without a trip to catch the lowly Brewers loose to whomever happens to be in town - this time it happened to be the (also lowly) San Francisco Giants:

This was the last ballgame on my trip, and it was a bit of a blur to be quite honest - what, with all the beer and small animals clouding our heads. Miller Park is a neat park - not the most impressive I've ever seen, but a nice shallow lower bowl that really puts the fan in the game, which is important and not something you see everywhere.

All in all, I dig Milwaukee - it has a cool, laid back vibe; young, sporty and environmentally conscious - a good place to raise a family, which is why the people seem to like it here. I'm not sure you need to go out of your way to see it, but if you have the chance, I'd certainly recommend it - but watch out for the beer, they take it seriously and it'll get to ya (as I found out this morning - what did I bring back from Milwaukee? A hangover).

No song or clip today... I wouldn't even know where to begin to be honest (there's gotta be a song about beer I could use, but that would be beating a dead rabbit - or duck - and there's no need for that).

Oh, and the other Great Lakes... Superior, Huron, Erie and Ontario... but you knew that... *winkie face*

Today's RAD Song: 4th of July in Chicagoland

2010-07-05T23:38:00.003-06:00

In July of 1995 Chicago suffered through 90+ degree weather for over a week (with the humidity index reaching 125), resulting in the heat-related deaths of over 700 people.

I mention this only because Chicago is a definitely a city of extremes. It's winters are bitter cold and it's summers are blistering hot. It is a city known as much for it's historical gangsters and modern crime as it's world class institutions of high culture. And the Chicago White Sox celebrated a World Series victory as recently as 2005... while the Cubs, oh the poor Cubbies, have not won a championship in 102 years - a longer drought than that of any other major North American professional sports team.

My buddy (who flew in for the Chicago portion of the trip) and I were fortunate enough to score primo first row - second deck seats for the 4th of July matinee between the Cubs and Cincinnati Reds at historic Wrigley Field:

Wrigley is an absolutely beautiful old ballpark... intimate and inviting, with a gorgeously lush green infield and the famous ivy trimming the outfield. Along with Fenway in Boston, and the old Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, this park is now certainly in my top three favourite parks in the majors.

The game itself was close until the 8th inning, when in classic Cubs fashion, they surrendered eight runs and ended up losing an unceremonious laugher 14-3.

We then decided to drive down to a fish fry joint on the south side, upon the recommendation of a friend (quite the adventure for a couple of white boys from Alberta I might add) and OMG, am I glad we did. The Calumet Fisheries is a James Beard Award winning American classic. Anthony Bourdain is also a big fan - which is always cool. The fried shrimp was unbelievable - no cocktail sauce in sight, just hot sauce and hotter sauce - and the accompanying slaw was a wonderfully fresh side. If you're ever in Chicago, eat here (there's no seating though - you eat on the sidewalk out front... beside the train tracks... and the freeway).

And then, of course, there was the fireworks... The traditional Chicago 4th of July fireworks held at Grant Park (though this year held at Navy Pier) usually draws well over a million people, and I think they were close again this year (we didn't actually get anywhere near the Pier cuz of the crowds, though we did find a good - albeit packed - spot along the river walk a little further south). Fireworks are fireworks, and are nice and fun, but it was the people watching that really made it entertaining (why do so many Chicagoans wear designer sunglasses at night - is a Lake Michigan area thing?)

Today's RAD song is a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' classic from their self titled debut album. As I mentioned earlier, the summers are extremely hot here in Chicagoland, and all the pretty girls in their summer dresses seem to be eating it up... which makes me smile.

American Girl by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Today's RAD Song: Tattoo Me

2010-07-03T22:16:00.000-06:00

Today was an exciting day - one I'd been looking forward to for a while.

The five lane (each way!) freeway drive into Chicago was intense to say the least... thank God for GPS! I managed my way through the south side onto Lakefront Drive through town, and into Irving Park in the north end. I'm ashamed to say that when I reached my destination, I parked illegally - but there was no other option I could find (I figured that in a metro area of 9.7 million people, they wouldn't ticket a Mitsubishi with Alberta tags just for parking without a permit would they?)

I didn't get a ticket, but I did get a rad tattoo - which I assure you cost me way more money anyway.

Check it out:

This was done by Chris Smith at Deluxe Tattoo. It was his design (I just gave him an idea of what I wanted) and I absolutely love it! Chris is an awesome dude and an amazing artist; thanks to all the folks at Deluxe for a great (if not painful) afternoon.

Today's RAD song is the lead single off of the Rolling Stones 1981 Tattoo You album. It's a great, guitar heavy rock song - and one that just captures my mood today perfectly!

Start Me Up by The Rolling Stones

The Playlist: The Grand Ole Opry

2010-07-03T07:09:00.001-06:00

Nashville is an interesting place; imagine the absurdity that Calgary becomes during the ten days of Stampede if it all took place on Banff Avenue - without the beauty of being in the mountains...

Don't get me wrong - it's a cool town... but it's a little over the top - and not in a good way. Perhaps I'll have to give it another shot someday; the city is in recovery mode at the moment after all, and it seems to be overcompensating - as if to say 'see, I'm fine... *cough*... no really... I'm good'.

My hotel was just off Music Row, an area southwest of downtown near Vanderbilt University. It's the part of town where the business of country music takes place; it's home to literally hundreds of recording studios, publishing companies, record label offices, guitar stores, and anything else you can imagine that makes the country music industry tick. It's a neat place to kick around for an hour or two, but it's also really comical to see guys in suits with cowboy boots and hats typing furiously on their iPhones and Blackberrys as the clip, clop down the street.

I then ventured over to an area known locally as the 'rock block', where - you guessed it - the indie rock clubs are. There were two clubs in particular that I was keen on catching a show at (The End and/or Exit/In). Luckily a local singer/songwriter in the Lily Allen vain, named Natalie Prass was playing at The End and I managed to catch most of her set - really cool, I liked it.

Day two consisted of lunch at Arnold's Country Kitchen (I highly recommend the slow roasted beef), supper at Jack's BBQ - an institution that's been around for years and serves some of the best brisket I've ever eaten - a stop in at Hatch Show Print (one of my favourite authentic silk screen/letter press gig poster producers), drinking in the tourist-packed, flashing-neon honky tonks on Lower Broadway, and - oh yeah - a tour of the Ryman Auditorium, legendary home of the Grand Ole Opry.

The Ryman is why I came to Nashville - plain and simple, and it is as beautiful as any southern belle in the great state of Tennessee. The history of the building, originally built as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892 by Thomas Ryman, is as fascinating as it is long (for a good, quick synopsis click here), and it's supporters and lovers as are passionate as any folks I've met.

Take Grandpa Bud, for instance. Grandpa Bud was my tour guide; a 60 year old, Nashville born and bred walking encyclopedia of a man. His southern drawl was so thick (and authentic) that I swear I was only able to make out half of what he said. He's been working at the Ryman since 1964, first as a concession worker, then as a stage hand, then as an artist handler (before it closed in 1974 when the Opry relocated to Opryland USA) and now as a tour guide (since it re-opened in 1994). His wealth of knowledge was truly a blessing to get to experience.

The Opry itself is - for those unfamiliar - a weekly country music stage show that has hosted the biggest stars in country music since 1925. The legends of country music, including Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Roy Acuff, the Carter family, Bill Monroe, Ernest Tubb, Kitty Wells and Minnie Pearl all became regulars on the Opry's stage. Everyone from Johnny and June Carter Cash to Carrie Underwood have performed, and it's said that you haven't really arrived in country music 'till you've played the Opry. A much more in-depth history can be found on it's Wiki page.

Today's playlist is a who's who of country music pioneers and legends. All grew up or came of age on the Opry stage at the Ryman, and along with Sun, Stax and Graceland it competes my quartet of can't-miss music history stops on this trip. I am a richer person for having been to these places - to experience them in the flesh, and if you have the chance, you really should come see one or all of them for yourself someday.

Hey Good Lookin' by Hank Williams

Walkin' After Midnight by Patsy Cline

Wabash Cannonball by Roy Acuff

Blue Moon of Kentucky by Bill Munroe

Jackson by Johnny and June Carter Cash

Don't Come Home a Drinkin' by Loretta Lynn

El Paso by Marty Robbins

Mama Tried by Merle Haggard

On The Road Again by Willie Nelson

Forever and Ever Amen by Randy Travis

Devil Went Down To Georgia by Charlie Daniels Band

Jolene by Dolly Parton

The Playlist: From Sun to Stax

2010-07-01T17:30:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine told me that he thought Memphis was a bit of a dump - I think my friend is broken in the head. After spending a little time in Memphis myself, I can honestly say it now contends with Austin, San Francisco and New York as my favourite city in the US. There is so much to do here; the people are fantastic, the food is unbelievable, the architecture is beautiful, and it is steeped in rich southern history.

Situated on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, Memphis marks the unofficial northern boundary of the famous Mississippi Delta. The Delta is uniquely tied the origins of all kinds of popular music, including the Delta blues, jazz, soul, and rock and roll. This music, and it's spirit, lives everywhere in Memphis - and I do mean everywhere.

Let's start with the rock and roll. Sun Studio was opened by rock pioneer Sam Phillips at 706 Union Avenue in Memphis in January of 1950. In 1951, Philips recorded a track by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats called 'Rocket 88' that is widely credited as being the first recorded example of what would become rock n' roll music. Philips was electrified by this new sound and sought to find more artists and composers who could write and play it. Not an easy task, until a young Elvis Aaron Presley recorded 'That's All Right' at Sun in 1954 and opened the proverbial floodgates.

So many legendary artists cut their first records at Sun Studio that it actually boggles the mind: Howlin' Wolf, B. B. King, Johnny Cash, Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, and Jerry Lee Lewis just to name a few. To stand in that room - with the original sound baffling panels on the walls ceiling, and the same microphones and recording equipment used by Johnny, Roy and Elvis sitting right there - I can't tell you how amazing that was! I'm still buzzing two days later...

But wait, it gets better - well, just as good anyway...

Founded by Jim Stewart (a white country fiddle player) and his sister Estelle Axton as Satellite Records in 1957, Stax Records is credited as having created the southern soul music sound within it's walls on the east side of Memphis. Closely associated with the rise of the smooth, metropolitan Motown sound (Motown Records was in fact Stax's main competitor), soul music instead reflected the wild and unbridled passion of the same themes as performed by artists who lived south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Booker T. & the MGs, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, and none other than the Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown, got their start in this studio. Richard Pryor and Bill Cosby were also known to bum around the studio when in town, and both recorded comedy albums at Stax.

Stax is now the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, and it's fitting that its a museum... The cultural significance of soul music is undeniable: without soul, there would be no funk and no hip-hop - no Shaft and no Public Enemy - and that's not a world I want to live in, I tell you whut...

Today's playlist is an homage to the great city of Memphis, as performed by some of those legendary artists who helped to put it on the map. If you're ever in the area - or even if you're not - you really need to do yourself a favour and check out this town... I highly recommend it...

Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats

Walk the Line by Johnny Cash

Blue Suede Shoes by Carl Perkins

Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis Presley

Cat Called Domino by Roy Orbison

Great Balls Of Fire by Jerry Lee Lewis

Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs

Sittin on the Dock of the Bay by Otis Redding

Hold On, I'm Comin by Sam and Dave

Mustang Sally by Wilson Pickett

Breakthrough by Isaac Hayes

Papa's Got a Brand New Bag by James Brown

Epilogue:

Oh, forgot to mention... on my way out of town, en route to Nashville, I stopped in at another Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recommendation: Uncle Lou's Fried Chicken.

Now, I love fried chicken... but i ain't never tasted fried chicken like this before - by far the BEST fried chicken I have ever had (sweet, yet salty; crispy, yet melts in yer mouth - and oooohhhhh, the sauce... omg, actually I can't write about it anymore... I'm salivating on my keyboard - gross)... here, watch the clip from the show:

Uncle Lou was actually there and went around and talked with everyone in the place as I was sitting there eating - this guy has it figured out - and when I told him that that was the best fried chicken I'd ever eaten, he just laughed (exactly like in the clip) and said, 'Yeah it was'.

Today's RAD Song: I'm Going to Graceland

2010-06-30T19:11:00.000-06:00

I was less than a year old when Elvis died.

Suffice it to say, I never got to know the King of Rock and Roll in the same way my parents generation did, simply because my interaction with him has always been posthumously. That said, the influence and importance of Elvis - in the years before his death, and since - has been so universal, that it's his image that now far outweighs the man.

There is no grater example of this than the 14 acre estate located at 3734 Elvis Presley Boulevard in Memphis, Tennessee: Graceland.

Presley's first official recording session for Sam Phillips' Sun Records took place in July of 1954. The resulting single, a suped up version of a 1946 blues number by Arthur Crudup called 'That's All Right Mama', was played on-air by legendary Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips a few days later and launched a unimaginable cultural revolution. (We'll talk just a little more about Sun Records tomorrow, btw...)

Now, some claim that Elvis invented rock n' roll. With all due respect, those people are wrong. But, he was the first recording artist to bring what would become known as 'rock n' roll' music to a significantly larger (read 'white') audience.

The rest, as they say, is history... and trust me, I could write 20 blog posts about the history and cultural significance of Elvis and early rock n' roll (and perhaps in time I will), but I'll spare you for the time being - if you need more info on this right this second, click here.

But... Graceland is trip, man... seriously. And, an expensive trip at that! I won't dwell on it (too long), but first you pay $10.00 for parking, then its $35.00 for the basic guided mansion tour and self guided tours of the car collection, Presley's two private airplanes, and a very extensive collection of his movie memorabilia. After you've made your way through the crowds there, you're herded through no less than four gift shops, a burger bar, and a soda shop. By the time you're done you've easily spent $100.00 - what with the obligatory t-shirt, key chain and collectible spoon for grandma!

Is it kitschy as hell and kind of like Disneyland? Well, sure - how could it not be? And the mansion itself - while a treat to wander through - is truly modest by today's standards (even with the stables, garages and racquetball building). In fact, it's the gaudiness of it all that's so impressive; how is it that man with so much musical talent can so obviously lack a good taste in home decor? Have a look here to see what I mean - the Jungle Room is my favourite!

But you know what? It's worth it. It's a glimpse into the life of a king. I like it here.

People make pilgrimages here from all over the world to pay their respects and to bask - if only for an hour or two - in the aura of a legend. A legend that come alive all around you within these walls, and if you're a student of popular history - as I am - this is one of those places you just have to cross off your 'must see' list at some point.

Today's RAD song is that original Sun Records recording from 1954... I'm sure you've heard it, but I'm also sure that you love it:

That's All Right by Elvis Presley

And as an added bonus, a song that says so much more about the hallowed ground that is Graceland than I could ever say:

Graceland by Paul Simon

Today's CLASSIC Clip: I Have A Dream

2010-06-29T19:31:00.000-06:00

My best friend said to me before I left on my trip that she understood why I needed to do it: she said that it would be good for my soul.

This observation really resonated with me; I didn't need to ask what she meant by that, and though I'd not thought about it in that way, I knew instantly that she was right.

It was Voltaire's Candide that taught me - and my friend that reminded me - that we must all 'tend to our own gardens'. It's hard to say if it's what the satirist was getting at, but I take this to mean two things; first, we must look after our own happiness and not rely on others for validation or contentment, and second, we must be mindful of and vigilant in our support of others to fulfill their own pursuit for equality, liberty and happiness.

On May 17, 1954 the US Supreme Court ruled on the landmark case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kans., unanimously agreeing that segregation in public schools in the United States was unconstitutional. Not since the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed slaves held in the Confederate States, had a piece of legislation galvanized the hearts and minds of Americans in such polarizing ways.

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka Kans was followed by other earth shaking and culture defining events in Montgomery, Alabama, Little Rock, Arkansas, and at the University of Mississippi to name only a few that have marked important milestones in the struggle of African Americans to gain equality, liberty and happiness in a place that they have called home for generations.

As I stand and look at the wreath placed on the railing outside room 306 of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm reminded of how much has been lost in this pursuit and of how much there is left to gain.

It was here on April 4, 1968 - a Thursday - that Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed by a lone gunman from the bathroom window of rented room in a boarding house across the street. Dr. King, a man who had spent thirteen years of his life dedicating himself to nonviolent protest against inequality only to be felled by a sniper's bullet, was only 39 years old when he died.

The civil rights movement takes on a whole new depth and texture upon standing here at the National Civil Rights Museum which has built on the Lorraine Motel site (rooms 306 and 307 have been maintained in the exact manner in which they were the day Dr. King was killed - empty coffee cups and unmade beds included).

It's visceral... it's real... no longer something out of a text book. It's impossible not to be moved as you walk through the museum, read the stories, watch the footage and see the looks on people faces - faces of all different colours and backgrounds. My soul hurts as I think about all that has occurred and still occurs in the world as a result of intolerance for differences in race, religion, gender, and sexual preference. But, there is something else that is also very palatable here that lifts every soul that passes through its halls: hope.

I am fortunate to live in a place where these kinds of issues do not permeate the mainstream consciousness as they do here. This is not to say that they don't exist - but here, especially here, hope is the blueprint from which something new is being constructed. Hope makes you feel empowered; it keeps you going, and - if you let it - can show your soul the path to everything it ever dreamed for...

Today's RAD Song(s): From Kansas City to the Ozarks

2010-06-28T00:03:00.001-06:00

Kansas City is a big - well - city (over 2 million in the metro area) but it definitely has the feel of a small mid-west prairie town.

I got as early a jump on the day I could muster yesterday morning after my night in motel hell, but still had to speed through central and eastern Kansas to make it in time to catch game two of the I-70 Series between the Royals and St. Louis Cardinals (I know, I know... no one should ever speed anywhere just to catch a Royals game - seriously, the team is awful). But I did, and I made it, paid 10 bucks for a standing room only ticket and made a B-line for the beer line.

Kauffman Stadium (or 'The K' as it's known in KC) is cool... a classic example of the modernist stadium design movement of the 1970's (Dodger Stadium in LA is another gem from this era). It's intimate, but spacious - if that's possible - and a great place to catch a matinee, even if the humidity index is hovering around 105!

The Royals lost, as usual, and the highlight of the game was spending innings 5 through 8 trying to explain Canada's marijuana laws to a guy who looked like one of the dudes from FUBAR (he couldn't wrap his head around the difference between 'decriminalized' and 'illegal' - honestly, when he found out I was from Canada, the only thing he wanted to talk about was weed!) A quick dinner, a couple of pints and some writing rounded out what proved to be the lowest key day of the trip so far... needed it though...

This morning I scrambled to make it out of the hotel before checkout time (slept until after 11:00 - oops!) and ventured downtown to see a bit of the city. KC is a nice enough city: large and metropolitan, yet sleepy, polite, and well manicured. I headed down to the city's Crossroads Arts District to see some of the grafitti art I'd heard about from somewhere I can't remember - very cool:

I then somehow wound up at the City Market in the River District due to a wrong turn, which turned out to be a nice surprise. I bought some oranges, got a large mocha and sat and watched the people do thier Sunday shopping:

It was a pleasant - albeit brief - stop smack dab in the middle of the continent, and with the contentment of knowing 'I bin there' I bid adieu to KCMO and headed south, bound for Little Rock, Arkansas.

After stopping for gas about 20 miles north of the Arkansas border I thought the sky looked cool and I snapped a few pictures of it:

Ummm, yeah... I ran into this about a half hour later - and while I escaped what I have to assume was the worst of it - it was a little touch and go there for a while (if you've ever passed a tractor trailer on a freeway doing 60 MPH in a driving rain storm, you know what I'm talking about!)

Needing a beer after that I pulled off the highway into a town called Ozark, nestled in the foothills of the beautiful, green rolling hills of the Boston Mountains in north central Arkansas (the southern portion of the famous Ozark Mountain Plateau). Ozark is exactly what I came to this part of the world to see: a tiny, backwoods town filled with simple, hardworking Americans who love their guns, NASCAR and Dancing With The Stars.

I stopped in at a little pizza joint - the only thing open in town on a Sunday, I guess - ordered a Miller Light when I was asked what 'y'all' was havin'... and paid a grand total $3.68 for the two I managed to choke back before the kids in the booth across the aisle (jumping on the seats and screaming at the top of their lungs while their defeated looking parents gummed their pepperoni pie in silence) finally got to me.

I drove through town four more times, looking for something - anything - that caught my attention, or might provide me with some grand middle-American epiphany... the only thing that did was a sign propped up against a dumpster beside what looked to be a taxidermy shop that read "Roadkill Dump Here".

I'm writing this from a Motel 6 room in a place called Conway, Arkansas which is about 20 minutes west of Little Rock (it's amazing the lift a person can get from seeing a blinking sign off the Interstate offering rooms at $49.99 with free wi-fi and laundry). As I stand outside my room smoking a Camel Light and drinking a PBR tallboy I found at the bottom of my cooler, I stare at a Wallmart parking lot - that's the bad news. The good news? There's what appears to be a 'Waffle House' located on the other side of that parking lot - I have no idea what that is, but I plan on finding out in the morning...

Today's RAD song(s) commemorate day 5 of my 'Grand Middle-American Adventure'... enjoy!

Kansas City by Fats Domino

Chicken Train by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils

Today's CLASSIC Clip: Dodge City, The Way I (Really, Really) Wish It Was

2010-06-26T22:10:00.004-06:00

Yesterday started out well enough... a sunny and pleasantly warm Colorado morning, a hearty breakfast of steak and eggs at a cool little diner with a cowboy waving at me from the neon sign that was bigger than the kitchen in the back, and nothing more planned for the day than a leisurely drive east as far as I felt like going.

It ended however, sometime after 3:00 am, having finally fallen asleep - drenched in sweat - as 18-wheelers screamed by less than 10 feet from my motel window, and my hand clenched tightly around the knife I had tucked under my pillow.

Let's back up a bit...

Guy Fieri's never been to Denver (at least not on his kick-ass Food Network show, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives ), but when he eventually does he's probably gonna be stopping at this place:

It's not that the food at Davie's Chuckwagon Diner is particularly special - there are diners all across the continent that serve a plate of breakfast just like it - but it does what it does really, really well and you just can't fabricate this kind of authenticity.

I sat at the bar for over an hour sipping coffee and chatting with a biker dude with the biggest beard I have ever seen and who also claimed to have personally submitted close to 1,500 MLB All-Star ballots with exclusively Colorado Rockies players penciled in (I wanted to call bullshit, but a man with a beard like that won''t lie about only two things in life: his ride and his ball team).

Obama's economic recovery plan is on display for all to see around these parts; the drive east into Kansas that should have taken only about three or four hours took close to six - I swear they're fixing every goddamn highway in the country! I made it as far as Dodge City, Kansas and figured it was as good a place as any to bum around for an evening... I was wrong.

I turned off the highway and stumbled into the first seedy looking bar I could find. It ended up being called the Doctor's Office and it was tucked down a side street paved with lovely but painfully out-of-place red cobblestones and located right next to... yup, a doctor's office. The guy behind the counter (wearing a cowboy hat, gold chains that would make 50 Cent jealous, and a Rush 1992 World Tour t-shirt) turned around and stared at his back-bar for no less than a whole minute when I asked him for a PBR, before finally saying 'I don't think we got that, bro'.... 'Just gimme a Bud' I sighed as I sank into my red leather bar stool.

It's not that Dodge City is a shit-hole per se, it's just that there is absolutely nothing to do in town once you've tootled down Wyatt Earp Drive, bought fudge from the OK Fudgery, and got yerself a fancy new 'wanted poster' t-shirt with your picture on it. Luckily, a new casino had just been built on the outskirts of town and, having already made peace with the fact that I'd made a mistake in pulling off the highway here, I decided to find a cheap room somewhere and kill a few hours playing blackjack before getting a good night's sleep.

I'll spare you the sordid details of my night at the Boot Hill Casino, but at one point when asked by a dealer 'what's Canada like?' I was nearly removed from the premises by security when I replied 'a lot like the US actually, except with free health care and a stable banking system'.

Oh yeah, and the sleeping with a knife under my pillow - it wasn't really that bad (but it was on the nightstand beside the bed). I wish I was lying though when I say that there was no tv or air conditioning, no locks or screens on the windows (which I had to leave open cuz the overnight temperature in southwest Kansas was 80 degrees), garbage that hadn't been cleaned out of the bathroom garbage can, and a parking lot full of those rowdy highway repair workers shouting racial and homophobic slurs at each other and arguing about who was hotter, Sarah Palin or Miley Cyrus (got your attention though, didn't I?!)

So, Dodge City, Kansas - smell ya later... I'd expected more from you really; I thought you'd be a bit more like a Sergio Leone movie and less like a bad Kid Rock video.

I love Sergio Leone movies, btw... his Dollars Trilogy (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly) created and set the standard in the spaghetti western genre, with the latter being one of my favourite movies of all time. Today's CLASSIC Clip is the five minute Mexican stand-off scene near the end of the movie... pure cinematic genius - if you've never seen the whole movie, at least watch the best part so you can join in the conversation at dinner parties:

Today's RAD Song: Rocky Mountain High

2010-06-25T10:11:00.001-06:00

It's been a few days, I know - but I've been busy...

I hit freeway gridlock about 15 miles outside of Denver on the I-25... rolled into town about an hour and a half later - crazy. But, I did make it in time for the Red Sox / Rockies game; got to watch Dice-K pitch and see Pedroia smack three dingers (the first time he's hit three homers in a game in his career) - wicked!

Coors Field is a beautiful ball park - huge, but well laid out and very fan friendly - it gets a thumbs up:

Generally speaking, stadiums and arenas have a tendency to overplay fan-favourite tunes ('Brown-Eyed Girl' and 'Cotton-Eye Joe' spring to mind) - it's no their fault, it's gotta be a tough job trying to entertain 50,000 people in between innings. In this town when you've got to accomplish that, there's only one place to turn: the city's namesake, the country boy himself - John Denver.

The Poet Laureate of Colorado was one of the best selling American recording artists of the 1970's and 80's; those of you my age will remember mom and dad playing Denver in the station wagon on road trips every summer - John Denver and road trips were made for each other (not my rule, just a fact!)

In 1972, Denver released what would become one of his biggest hits and signature songs: 'Rocky Mountain High'. This song is a folk classic and needs little introduction from the likes of me; it always makes me think of summer... now it will also make me think of Dustin Pedroia.

Enjoy today's RAD song:

Today's RAD Song: Robots Need Love Too

2010-06-19T11:58:00.000-06:00

The 2010 Polaris Music Prize long list was released this past week - and a very impressive list it is. What's The Polaris Prize you might ask? Good question...

From Wikipedia: "The Polaris Music Prize is a music award annually given to the best full-length Canadian album based on artistic merit, regardless of genre, sales, or record label. The award was established in 2006 and includes a C$20,000 cash prize. The Polaris Music Prize is modeled after the Mercury Music Prize, which is handed to the best British or Irish album over the past year."

Last year's winner was an act from Toronto called Fucked Up... good band, not my favourite but worth checking out here. Other winners since the award's inception include Caribou, Patrick Watson and Final Fantasy - all incredibly good acts.

Who do you like from this year's list (feel free to comment below)? As I said, there are lots of good albums on the list: The New Pornographers, Greg MacPherson, Ghostkeeper, Hannah Georgas, Crystal Castles and Broken Social Scene all released exceptionally solid albums this year. In fact, I expect one of those artists to take the prize when it's awarded on September 20 in Toronto.

However, my longshot pick this year is Vancouver's own deep-voiced troubadour Dan Mangan. I've had the chance to work with Dan a couple time over the years, and this guy is the real deal - a bankable talent. Catchy songs, well crafted folk-rock, and one of the nicest guys you'll meet - a rarity in this business.

Dan will be on tour all summer including stops at the Glastonbury Festival (no shit!), Ottawa Bluesfest, the Dawson City Music Festival and the Calgary Folk Music Festival - make sure you go check him out if you can. And in the meantime his quirky but beautiful song 'Robots', off of his latest album Nice, Nice, Very Nice, wins the prize for today's RAD Song.

Robots by Dan Mangan

My gut tells me this could be Broken Social Scene's year though; their latest Forgiveness Rock Record is a pretty impressive collection of work. Here's the first single off that album as performed live on Letterman:

Forced To Love by Broken Social Scene

Today's CLASSIC Clip: The Sexiest of the Palsies

2010-06-16T17:12:00.001-06:00

Have you seen it?

Yes? So, ok... come back tomorrow; thanks for checking in.

What's that? Oh, you haven't seen it... OMG...

Not requiring any introduction at all, here it is:

Zach's oprah deal from Zach Anner on Vimeo.

The BEST thing I have seen all week (for all the right reasons, btw) - mind you it is only Wednesday.

As I alluded to above, this video's been everywhere since it blew up over the weekend - Google the guy's name (or click here) for more on him. I happened to have found it on the Daily What, one of my favourite place to waste time.

The best of today from the Daily What: Act of God of the Day.

Today's RAD Song: Sarah's Apartment

2010-06-14T15:00:00.001-06:00

New Sarah Harmer album coming... holler!!!

From Exclaim: "Sarah Harmer hit in big in the first half of last decade, releasing three well-received albums such as 2000's breakthrough smash You Were Here. She's been laying low as of late, however, as her most recent LP, I'm a Mountain, came out in 2005. That’s all set to change, though, as Harmer will return with the new album, Oh Little Fire, this summer."

Wicked news for lovers of one of Canada's best songwriters and most beautiful lyricists - and you can certainly lump me in with that group. The album will be available on iTunes and in stores June 22; the first track is streaming at her website (link above), and it is very good - I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the album.

I first saw Weeping Tile (Miss Harmer's band before she went solo) play with Can-rock icons The Skydiggers in a hotel ballroom for some radio Halloween party back in 1996. I was hooked from the opening chord (the song was 'Cold Snap' from the album of the same name - one of the best opening guitar riffs from a Canadian stadium rock song since New Orleans Is Sinking). I've been sort of in love with this girl ever since...

After a couple of critically acclaimed and respectably-selling albums the group disbanded - a serious personal loss for me. Both Luther Wright and Sarah Harmer went on to release impressive solo albums shortly thereafter, and in hindsight Harmer's solo career has hit heights that I'm not sure the full band would have ever reached - so we'll call that one a win.

Today's RAD song comes from that 2000 solo debut You Were Here (we don't count 1999's duet album with Jason Euringer, Songs For Clem, though that is an excellent album worth a listen too). 'Basement Apartment' was first released by Weeping Tile on their EeePee album in 1995 - it was originally recorded as a rocker, and it certainly works in that context, but I like the rolling, bouncy groove and slight swagger of this version a little bit more - it just seems a little sexier I suppose...

Basement Apartment by Sarah Harmer

It wouldn't be right to leave you with just one Sarah Harmer song in yer head... here's one more - much folkier from 2005's I Am A Mountain:

I Am Aglow by Sarah Harmer

Ok, Ok... you're right - you need to hear that opening guitar riff from 'Cold Snap' too... my bad:

Cold Snap by Weeping Tile

The Playlist: Mash It Up

2010-06-12T19:21:00.002-06:00

Some say mash-ups are so 2007. True, but mash-ups are super fun - you can't deny that.

The advent of digital mixing capability has made an entirely new art form out of fucking with things - and I kind of dig that idea; any idiot with access to Sonic Foundry ACID 7 (which seems to be the industry standard, but I'm sure there are tons of other programs) is able to take existing media and spin it like yarn into something completely new... cool beans.

The results of 'mashing' two or more sources together are often just as entertaining as the originals (if not more so). Genre heavyweights such as Girl Talk and DJ Earworm generally mash upwards of twenty songs in a four or five minute track - using an immense amount of skill and turning out frantic cuts that leave you just trying to catch up as they speed from sample to sample. I'm kind of a fan of a more simplistic approach - taking two, three, or maybe four sources and creating something that is wholly unique, but has a nice groove and isn't so disjointed.

A few good sites to check out for more on mash-ups are:
http://www.mashuptown.com/
http://www.mashup-industries.com/
http://mashupyourbootz.blogspot.com/

These mash-ups are some of my favorites - especially the last one - I think you'll agree. Enjoy the playlist!

DJs From Mars - Enter Telephone (Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce vs. Metallica)

Amoraboy - I Can't Dance On Memories (David Guetta ft. Kid Cudi vs. Genisis vs. Enur)

MadMixMustang - I Got More Than A Feeling (Boston vs. Black Eyed Peas)

Party Ben - Single Ladies In Mayberry (Beyonce vs. Andy Griffith Show)

Dan Mei and Marc Johnce - My Life on the Crazy Train Sucks So What? (Kelly Clarkson vs. Ozzy Osbourne vs. Pink vs. Daft Punk)

DJ Lobsterdust - Funky Smoke (Daft Punk vs. Deep Purple vs. Usher & Ludacris)

The White Panda - Fireflies Goin Down (Yung Joc vs. Owl City)

Go Home Productions - Virgin O'Riley (Madonna vs. The Who)

The Hood Internet - Just A Friendomania (Biz Markie vs. Phoenix vs. Classixx)

Sugamotor - Smile Like Your Bulletproof (The Killers vs. La Roux)

Bastard Bob - The Way I Are Timebomb (Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson vs. Beck)

DJ Schmolli - Rude Boy Resort (Papa Roach vs. Rihanna)

The Illuminoids - L.E.S Spirit Kids (MGMT vs. Soulwax vs. Norman Greenbaum vs. Santogold)

Divide & Kreate - Always With You (Willie Nelson vs. U2 vs. MARRS)

Mashup-Germany - Imagine One Day (Matisyahu vs. John Lennon vs. Blink 182 vs. Bob Marley)

Cut & Paste: X marks the spot

2010-06-10T14:13:00.000-06:00

This edition of Cut & Paste focuses on an exceptionally cool blog, which as far as I can tell is simply called 'X'. The blog itself is void of description, and we know only that the author is someone called carlosdynamo (an outstanding nom de plume I kind of wish I'd came up with myself).

It's cool because of its content - b/w photos of celebrities from today and (mostly) yesteryear. But what makes it outstanding is that it's somehow voyeuristic, without being necessarily creepy; it's simple, but certainly not unafecting...

The photos are, I'm sure, sourced from public domain yet the author gives credit where possible - but I like the fact that there is a real feel of anonymity to this stuff, it' only serves to add to the mystique of the content. The authors descriptions of the photos (some, but not all) are generally very insightful also...

I like this blog - I think you'll probably like it too: X.

Here's a little sampling (see if you can name each person before you click the link):

http://carlosdynamo.wordpress.com/2010/05/31/old-bull-lee/

http://carlosdynamo.wordpress.com/2010/05/24/oh-david/

http://carlosdynamo.wordpress.com/2010/05/15/ring-of-fire/

http://carlosdynamo.wordpress.com/2010/05/06/off-road/

http://carlosdynamo.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/what-the-fuck-have-you-done/

Today's RAD Song: Glory Days

2010-06-08T16:33:00.003-06:00

Perhaps you're unaware, but The Boss is awesome. Seven U.S. Billboard #1 records, 20 Grammys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes - not to mention an inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a Kennedy Center Honors recipient in 2009; kids, this dude is the real deal.

If you still choose to judge Springsteen on the commercial success of his mid-80's high water mark Born In The USA, please - I beg of you - have a listen to some of his other incredible work. Don't get me wrong, USA is a great album, but if I had to do a top ten all time album list there would probably be at least three of The Boss's albums on there and USA isn't one of them: (Nebraska, The River, and Born to Run for sure... and maybe even The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle if I'm being honest with myself).

Perhaps you're also unaware, but Bruce Springsteen songs covered by other artists rarely suck - not necessarily because the artists are of equal pedigree, but simply because the source material is so freakin' solid. Case in point - Today's RAD song.

'Hangin' Out On E Street' is a project that has collected the stories of artists inspired by Bruce Springsteen - and yes, there are a lots of them. You can check out the results on Bruce's website, and trust me, it's cool - like porn for music lovers - hip young artists covering the music of the greatest working class hero of 'em all.

A couple performances really stand out; I've posted videos of a few here for you to have a look at. My favourite is definitely The Avett Brothers' take on Glory Days (somewhat ironically from the USA album released in 1984). And so - never one to turn my back on irony - today's RAD song it shall be:

Glory Days by The Avett Brothers

Dancing In The Dark by Tegan and Sara

Reason To Believe by Against Me!

Today's CLASSIC Clip: Goonies Never Say Die

2010-06-07T19:28:00.000-06:00

If you've been following along at home, then you're already aware of the greatest movie of all time. However, truth be told this is really one of those cases where you've got a number 1A and a number 1B. And what might number 1B well... be?

The Goonies was released on June 7th 1985, twenty five years ago today. I know - crazy! What a big deal this movie was for me as a kid - teen adventure, intrigue, hijinx, fantasy, love and fear - an absolute classic. Spielberg and Donner really set the bar here for this genre of film (seen Kick-Ass yet? I'm not sayin' it's the same movie, but it ain't hard to connect the dots either).

As a matter of fact, I was in a Goonies inspired group of kids myself when I was about 13 called the Slime Balls - all we did was skateboard and watch Gremlins and the Goonies - but let me tell you, I didn't do anything today that was anywhere near that awesome...

Today's CLASSIC clip could have been any scene from the movie - so many (too many) to choose from, so let's go with a classic line from the film:

YES! Watch it again... go ahead - I'll wait...

Now, here's where things get a little eerie - a good friend of mine just got back from LA over the weekend and brought me back a T-shirt; no big thing right - that's what friends do. The T-shirt he brought back for me, however, was a "Goonies Never Say Die" T-shirt, complete with the One-Eyed Willie skull and crossbones and everything! Whoa - freaky timing - just saying! (Thanks Lor!)

Here's one of the original trailers for the film:

And finally, I had no idea it was The Goonies 25th anniversary today until I checked my reader this morning - Slash Film is probably the best feature film movie blog out there. If yer into movies, you should have it in your reader too (thanks Teg for the heads up on that one!)

The Playlist: The First Time Home Buyer

2010-06-05T13:48:00.002-06:00

First time home buyers are so much fun to watch jump through the myriad of legal and financial hoops, mostly cuz it reminds you of when you had to do it yourself. It only happens once in your life - and those of you that have had the experience can attest to the fact that the range of emotion one goes through is damn near nauseating. But it's a moment in your life your not likely to forget... and one you want to savor for as long as you can.

The real pay-off is when everyone leaves (after they've helped you lug all your sh*t across the city and up three flights of stairs) and you crank the tunes and start pulling your stuff out of boxes and putting it all together in your space - that's the magical moment.

So, since a friend of mine is doing exactly this this weekend, might I be so bold as to offer up a simple playlist for the first time home buyer... music to unpack your boxes to. It's happy music - just bop yer head and settle in - it'll take a month to wipe that damn smile off your face :)

The Beatles - I've Just Seen a Face

The Del-Vikings - Come Go With Me

Elton John - Crocodile Rock

Billy Joel - My Life

Lindsey Buckingham - Holiday Road

Paul Simon - Kodachrome

Ricky Nelson - Hello Mary Lou

Sam & Dave - Hold On, I'm Coming

David Bowie - Modern Love

Genesis - Invisible Touch

The La's - There She Goes

Aretha Franklin - Respect

The Clash - Train In Vain

The Beach Boys - Sloop John B

Iggy Pop - Real Wild Child

Today's RAD Song: Fixed

2010-06-03T15:13:00.001-06:00

If you are unfamiliar with the Canadian music collective, Arts & Crafts, you really need to sort that out... A quick scan of just some of the artists they've released records from, including Feist, Constantines, Broken Social Scene, Dan Mangan and the subject of today's RAD song, Stars, practically reads like a who's who of what's relevant right now in the Canadian music scene. Like I said, sort it out...

Stars are one my favorites - beautiful vocals over simple, textured rock arrangements that will seriously bring a tear to your eye: really great stuff. Their upcoming album Five Ghosts (available on iTunes June 22nd) is one of the most highly anticipated Canadian releases of the summer, and the lead single 'Fixed' - which has been at radio for a couple of weeks already - is absolutely killer:

Fixed by Stars

Stars will be on tour for most of the summer, including two sold out shows this weekend in the New York City area, so make sure to check them out if they're coming anywhere near you: myspace.

And, cuz now you know how RAD Stars is, here's a couple of my other favourites by the band, the first from 2004's Set Yourself on Fire, and the second from 2003's Heart.

Ageless Beauty by Stars

Elevator Love Letter by Stars

And finally, a quick shout out to a really cool music blog I've been keeping up with as of late, where I first came across the 'Fixed' video: Off The Radar. Check it...

For Love of the Game

2010-06-02T12:21:00.003-06:00

I'm gonna buck the trend a little on this one - humor me...

Those of you who know me will admit I'm not an overly sentimental or mushy kind of guy. I do however have a soft spot for stories where people go out of their way to do the RIGHT thing. God knows I don't always achieve it myself - but doing the RIGHT thing, as opposed to the easy or popular thing, is something that's pretty important to me.

So, when I came across this story this morning on ESPN it kind of tugged at a couple heart strings (some of the best in pro and amateur sporting blogs can be found here, btw - Bill Simmons and Rick Reilly are two of the best in the business). It's a story about a junior varsity girls' softball game that took place earlier this spring in Indiana.

I won't ruin the story for you, but if you're a sports fan who's tired of defending why you love 'the game', or if you're someone who just doesn't 'get' why team sports are such a big part of our popular culture, read this article.

It's just a well written story, that may just make you feel a little better about the world you live in... In the words of the author: "it's not an important story, just one that squirts apple juice right in your face."

Enjoy: For Love Of The Game

Today's RAD Song: Ahh, the Memories

2010-05-31T14:52:00.000-06:00

Kid Cudi (correctly pronounced kid KUH-dee - spread the word) released his first mixtape, A Kid Named Cudi, in collaboration with New York street-wear brand 10.Deep in July of 2008. But it was the singles 'Day 'N' Nite' and 'I Make Her Say' off of Cudi's debut album Man on the Moon: The End of Day (released in 2009) that propelled him to the forefront of the hip-hop and pop music scenes.

David Guetta, a French house producer and DJ, has been around for quite a bit longer, but also just recently jumped into main stream attention with his 2009 album One Love, which included the hit singles 'When Love Takes Over' (featuring Kelly Rowland), 'Sexy Bitch' (featuring Akon), and today's RAD song.

This song has been everywhere in the last month or two; you're probably sick of it already. But check it - bangin' beat, slick delivery, and an inspiringly care-free (if not overly simplistic) lyrical content - it's so genre appropriate it's sick.

The video shows the pair kickin along Biscayne Boulevard in mid-town Miami (also genre appropriate) and while Cudi looks like he knows exactly what he's doing, what the hell is Guetta up to there - he looks like he's trying way too hard...

Dig it:

David Guetta (feat. Kid Cudi) - Memories

And while we're on the subject of hip-hop, check out the following artists I'm diggin' lately, that you may or may not be familiar with:

Wale (feat. Lady GaGa) - Chillin'

J. Cole - Simba

Mos Def - Casa Bey

The Playlist: The Birth of Cool

2010-05-30T21:39:00.002-06:00

A funny thing happened in 1994. In June of that year I graduated high school (that's not the funny part) and in September of the same year got hired as a DJ at a campus bar (that's the funny part). It's funny because I had no previous experience in 'spinnin' and had no idea what it was that college kids listened to or wanted to hear (it never ceases to amaze me how far one can get on charm alone!) So, like any good fraud, I had to quickly bring myself up to speed on what was considered 'cool' in music in the mid-90's.

No problem, right? I could go with classic 'college music' mainstays such as early REM, U2, Siouxsie Sioux, etc. (essentially new wave spin offs), or punk favorites like Bad Religion, Offspring, and Rancid, or the mainstream radio stuff like Beck, Counting Crows and (lord help us) Ace of Base. So that's what I did - a little from column A, a little from column B, and a little of column C. And, in truth, it could have gone a lot worse - you're never going to go wrong playing that kind of thing for drunk 20 year olds (well, the punk and radio friendly stuff anyway - no 20 year old I know, then or now, knows who the hell Siouxsie Sioux is).

But, then a fascinating thing started to happen - a self education of sorts. As I began to grow tired of the normal Violent Femmes, Green Day, Snoop Dogg type fare, I started to discover a whole host of vaguely related bands with really crazy, and really cool songs. Many I had heard of, but had never before the inclination or opportunity to get into. In hindsight, I have to consider this period as my own personal birth of cool (we'll perhaps get into Miles Davis in a later post, btw - baby steps).

I suppose all of our 'cool' quotients rise exponentially when we first go to college, move out of our parents basements, discover binge drinking and the generally associated morning-after regret. It's a rite of passage I guess, and music isn't everybody's conduit - but it was for me. The songs on the following playlist will always remind me of just how 'cool' I was when I was eighteen.

The Replacements - Left of the Dial

The Pixies - Dig For Fire

Guided By Voices - Teenage FBI

Archers of Loaf - Harnessed in Slums

Pavement - Spit On A Stranger

Teenage Fanclub - Alcoholiday

Built To Spill - Big Dipper

Modest Mouse - Trailer Trash

Beastie Boys - So What'cha Want

Nirvana - All Apologies

The Breeders - Cannonball

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Sebadoh - Skull

Sonic Youth - Sugar Kane

Weezer - Say It Ain't So

Today's CLASSIC Clip: Hello Calgary

2010-05-29T12:17:00.003-06:00

So, it's what - the 29th of May today, and this is what it looks like outside this morning:

OK, maybe it's not quite that bad - but it is snowing - in May.

It's on days like this that those of us who call this city home ask 'why?' Stampede? no... inspiring professional sports franchises? ha... the beautiful seasonal weather year round? pffffttt...

I suppose it's difficult to say exactly why a person chooses to live where they do - and there are as many reasons as people out there. But in almost every case, it all boils down to one thing - they live where they live because its home. Simple.

I live here, because its my home:

And, it is an awesome city. If you don't believe me, check this out: http://calgaryisawesome.com/

And if you need more proof, check out Today's CLASSIC Clip... these were promos that ran on 2&7 (now Global) TV in the 80's; great song, super awesome footage, and Ed Whalen (RIP):

Happy Snow Day!

Cut & Paste: Julia Segal

2010-05-27T20:11:00.006-06:00

Yay! A new post category - I think it's pretty funny, so we're likely to see it with relative frequency here at the Fanclub. It's a fairly simple concept - there are lots of good tumbler/photo blogs out there with some really funny stuff, and it's not right to just steal them all and post them here (that would be like downloading music and not paying for it... um, right... anyway...) So from time to time, I'll pick one that catches my eye or tickles my... well you get the (ahem) picture...

Today's Cut & Paste comes to us from Julia, "a stand-up comedian and writer just trying to make it in New York City (at least until the world ends in 2012)"... check her out at: http://juliasegal.tumblr.com/. If yer lazy, here's a little sampling:

If you don't know why that's funny, I'm disappointed in you, but click here.

If you don't know why that's funny, sigh... click here.

If you don't... what's that? Overkill? Shut the... Wyld Stallyns! Be excellent to each other...

Um... I'm pretty sure that's James and Lars (and maybe Cliff?) from Metallica before they were cool, and way before they were douches... who the f*ck's you, pretty boy - go collect some art or sumpin.

Today's RAD Song:

2010-05-25T22:33:00.002-06:00

We're gonna take a bit of roundabout path to this one, but as the Edge so eloquently stated in Rattle and Hum, "it's a journey," so just stay with me here...

My introduction to music came through my parents. Most of us are introduced to music by an older sibling or other authority figure of some sort; I was the oldest child - so it's natural I came to music through what my parents had laying around the house. At the time that I was about five or six years old my mother happened to be an aerobics instructor, and I can vividly recall her playing snippets of 80's pop music in the living room while developing one routine or another for her class (it was in fact the 80's at the time, so give her a break).

In hindsight, this must have been where I developed my deep appreciation for the simple three chord pop song. My earliest recollection of music is a who's who of 80's greatest misses compilations - Men At Work, Toto, Pat Benatar, Rick Springfield, Human League, etc. From the infectious staccato beat of Stacey Q's only memorable single, Two of Hearts, to the driving back alley swagger of The Stray Cats' Stray Cat Strut, I can recall feeling in absolute awe of what was possible with a just a tiny grain of talent and a Gretsch 6120 (that's an electric guitar - Brian Setzer's favourite) or a TR-77 drum machine (whichever the case may be).

OK, flash forward about eight or ten years - and I had just recently been introduced to the likes of Jane's Addiction and U2 through a high school sweetheart (I must have still been caught up in the whole Bon Jovi, Skid Row fiasco - what can I say...). Anyway, I had asked my mom one day to please, please, please, pick up a copy of U2's latest, Zooropa, for me on one of her outings to the suburban mall. Sure enough I popped it in and - holy sh*t - what the hell is this?

Now, please... I wish I could say I discovered Bowie on my own prior to 1995 and granted, I had been exposed to some pretty intriguing stuff as an adolescent - '91 was a big year, with Nevermind and Badmotorfinger being really genre altering albums (though I admittedly didn't get into those 'till the mid-90's). Zooropa however - at the time - really blew the top off of what I thought rock music was supposed to be about - what I was hearing on this album was just a supped up throwback to what I first heard as a kid in the 80's!

And thus, a valuable lesson was learned: after the Beatles and Stones did it all, what was really left to be created musically (this is an argument for another day - music evolution did not in fact end with the Beatles and Stones - it just sounds that way). Music is simply a recycled, reinterpreted, and redefined prodcut - just like pop cans. This does not, however make it any less meaningful or revolutionary, it just suggests some need for context.

And so, contextually speaking - and in a very fitting, full-circle way - we come to today's RAD song... It is perhaps not the most memorable off the Zooropa album, but it is a beautifully written, wonderful mesh of the old and new U2 - the masters of the simple three chord pop song:

Stay (Faraway, So Close) by U2

Epilogue:

I was reminded of this song as I was watching Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... while eating dinner this evening. Now there is a master! Bono and the Edge were guests on the season finale, and if you've not treated yourself to an episode or two of this show - shame on you (check it out at: http://www.spectacleelviscostello.com/index.php).

One of my favourite Elvis Costello tunes for your listening pleasure:

Today's CLASSIC Clip: Dallas

2010-05-24T11:19:00.001-06:00

Sex, intrigue, power struggles, feathered hair and polyester suits - must be 1983.

This is the show that invented the modern prime time tv cliffhanger and spun-off other prime time heavy hitters like Knots Landing (if you don't remember that one, ask your mom, she will). Every season finale from 1978, through the series finale in 1991 ended with a cliffhanger even more ridiculous than the last... remember the season 9 finale - Pam, on her way home from the doctor's office after finding out she can finally conceive a baby, crashes into the fuel tank of a semi-truck, engulfing her car in a fiery explosion? Awesome...

And, of course, very few TV moments have captured the attention and imagination of millions as the season 2 finale did - the famous 'Who Shot JR' episode. (I still think it was Sue Ellen - Kristin was too nice a girl to do it... or, maybe... hmmm.)

Today's CLASSIC clip is the opening credits theme song from Dallas. I love this song - well structured, conveys mood and purpose, contemporary yet timeless, and catchy as hell - what every good theme song should be:

And then there's that season 2 cliffhanger i was talking about:

The Playlist: The Best of The Burning Ear

2010-05-23T20:42:00.008-06:00

As I’m sure you are well aware, there are about a gazillion music sites and blogs out there on the interweb. Many are very good (Pitchfork, NME, Pretty Much Amazing, and RCRD LBL spring to mind) and many, many, many are crap. About a month ago I stumbled upon a site called The Burning Ear - cool name, right? It’s this dude who lives in Warsaw, of all places, named Brandon – he’s not a friend of mine, though he could be (his taste in music is that good) – and his music blog is quite possibly the best I’ve come across yet.

I have spent a great deal of time thumbing through his archives as I would that of a good used record store finding gem after gem of incredible new music. Now let’s be honest, are there a few misses? Of course. Are there some posts that seem way too obvious? Sure, but aren’t we all guilty of that? (I know I am.) But taken as a body of work, it is truly amazing how plugged-in this guy is.

So, today’s playlist is a tribute to all the Brandon's out there – the world needs more people like Brandon; people who obviously spend an immense amount of time finding and listening to good new music and – here’s the key part – sharing it with anyone who’ll listen.

The following is a playlist of bands and/or songs I discovered on The Burning Ear. Do yourselves a favour and check it out at: http://www.theburningear.com/.

Das Racist - You Oughta Know

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros - Home (RAC mix)

Germany Germany – Symmetry (feat. Jessica Morgan)

http://www.theburningear.com/2010/04/germany-germany-have-at-least-named-themselves-with-symmetry/

Jay-Z & The Dap Kings – 99 Problems (Prince Ballard Royal Edit)

King Charles - Love Lust

The Knocks – Blackout

Lissie – Bad Romance (Lady GaGa cover)

Neon Trees – Animal

Penguin Prison - Worse It Gets (RAC Mix)

The Ransom Dance – Speech Impediment

http://www.theburningear.com/2010/05/the-ransom-dance-speech-impediment/

Sarah Jaffe – Clementine

Swingfly - Singing That Melody

Tunng – Hustle

Nas & Damian Marley - As We Enter

The White Panda - Drake & Diane (Drake vs. John Mellencamp)

Today's RAD Song:

2010-05-21T12:22:00.001-06:00

Heartkiller by HIM

Heard this one on Explore Music with Alan Cross last night... This is the first single from the Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice album released earlier this year. This is a song about love - and loss thereof - more or less, a topic that is a reoccurring theme in frontman Ville Valo's lyrics. HIM, formerly 'His Infernal Majesty', has been one of the leading Finnish metal acts since they formed in Helsinki in 1991 and are the first Finnish band to have a gold album in the US (for their fifth studio album Dark Light).

HIM is RAD - you should like them.

Today's CLASSIC Clip:

2010-05-19T13:37:00.001-06:00

Today's CLASSIC Clip comes to us from The New York Public Library at 42 Street. Well, actually it comes from the dudes over at Improv Everywhere.

As you may or may not know, Ghostbusters is the greatest movie ever made. This is not an opinion, but rather a statement of fact; you've got Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, and Ivan Reitman calling the shots - seriously, I am at a loss as to how anyone cannot call this comedic cinema genius.

So, the opening scene of said film take place at the The New York Public Library, and the guys at Improv Everywhere thought it would be funny to recreate the scene (more or less) during regular operation hours. And funny it was... I love it... love it, love, it love it. Check it out for yourself:

For more genius from these improv bandits check out http://improveverywhere.com/.

And for more Ghostbusters, see below:

Today's RAD Song:

2010-05-18T10:46:00.000-06:00

It wasn't my intention to create a tribute blog for famous people who die, and i certainly never thought I'd be referencing the book of Revelations so early in my blogging career - yet it appears I have done both...

Ronnie James Dio, former lead singer of Black Sabbath and Dio died over the weekend, and metal heads the world over are in mourning. Why, exactly? Well, Ronnie was kinda a big deal - first off, he took over from Ozzy fronting one of the most important metal bands of all time - Black Sabbath. Second, he is actually widely credited as having popularized the symbol "throwing horns" in heavy metal music:

Like I said, kinda a big deal!

Anyway, for Today's RAD Song let's start and end with a Dio classic, 'Holy Diver'. A song about Satan's decent to Hell as described in Revelations 12:9. Deep Ronnie, real deep...

Personally, I like the Killswitch Engage version a little better... but these dudes seriously need to learn how to make videos:

Today's RAD Song:

2010-05-13T10:59:00.002-06:00

May 13, 2005: A beautiful day that I got to share with my best friend in the world, and the inspiration for today's RAD song:

The Girl by City and Colour

The Playlist: Songs To Give Birth By

2010-05-12T19:42:00.002-06:00

So this is a weird one, but there’s a bit of a back-story here, wait for it... A lovely gal I work with – we’ll call her Shelly Vixen (that’s not her name, but I think I’m going to call her that, because it makes me laugh) – is pregnant. She’s not just a little pregnant, but really pregnant – a beautiful, glowing mom-to-be, but I think she’s been pregnant for like a year and a half.

Anyway, she comes in to my office the other day and says, “Hey, you like music…” (silence… blank stare), “um, can you make me a CD of songs to play while I’m having my baby?” I had no idea how to respond to that request so I said, “Sure, yeah I can do that.” (Silence… blank stare).

I didn’t – but in her honour, I dedicate this playlist to her. Shelly, if you read this, I hope you have your baby soon – you look uncomfortable (seriously, she told me she sleeps only three hours a night, because she has to get up and pee every 20 minutes – that’s messed up!)

Kings of Leon - Knocked Up

Knocked Up by Kings Of Leon

More Kings Of Leon music on iLike

Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run

Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen

More Bruce Springsteen music on iLike

Blur - Girls & Boys

Girls & Boys by Blur

More Blur music on iLike

MGMT - Kids

Kids by MGMT

More MGMT music on iLike

No Doubt - Hey Baby

Hey Baby by No Doubt

More No Doubt music on iLike

Michael Jackson - Human Nature

Human Nature by Michael Jackson

More Michael Jackson music on iLike

The Ramones - I Wanna Be Sedated

I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones

More The Ramones music on iLike

Thurston Harris - Little Bitty Pretty One

Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris

More Thurston Harris music on iLike

Dianna Ross & the Supremes - Love Child

Love Child by Diana Ross & The Supremes

More Diana Ross & The Supremes music on iLike

The Rolling Stones - Mother's Little Helper

Mother's Little Helper by The Rolling Stones

More The Rolling Stones music on iLike

Iron & Wine - Naked As We Came

Naked As We Came by Iron & Wine

More Iron & Wine music on iLike

Iggy Pop - Real Wild Child (Wild One)

Real Wild Child (Wild One) by Iggy Pop

More Iggy Pop music on iLike

Guns n’ Roses - Sweet Child Of Mine

Sweet Child Of Mine by Guns N' Roses

More Guns N' Roses music on iLike

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children

Teach Your Children by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

More Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young music on iLike

Green Day - Welcome To Paradise

Welcome To Paradise by Green Day

More Green Day music on iLike

Today's RAD Song:

2010-05-11T12:53:00.003-06:00

Steppin' Out by Joe Jackson

The last track on side one of his 1982 album Night and Day. The album title is from the Cole Porter song, and the album was designed to have the feel of 24 hours in New York City, with the first side representing 'Day' and the second 'Night.. 'Steppin' Out' is a brilliantly crafted tune about gearing up for a night out on the town - you can almost feel the anticipation build as the song reaches it's crescendo. It received a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year in 1983 but lost to 'Rosanna' by Toto... fair enough.

Today's CLASSIC Clip

2010-05-10T11:08:00.000-06:00

Legendary singer, dancer, actress and civil rights activist Lena Horne, 92, died in New York on Sunday night. Horne was 16 when she began her show business career as a dancer at Harlem's Cotton Club. She later became a singer there, playing to packed houses of white patrons, with band leaders Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. Horne was the first African-American to sign a long-term movie contract with a major Hollywood studio when she joined MGM in 1942. Here she is as the headstrong Selina Rogers in the 1943 classic.

Lena Horne - Stormy Weather (1943)

Stormy Weather is "an uplifting and delighful 'Smorgasbord' of music and dance of the highest order." Fans of vintage swing and tap dance, and the big band sound - do yourself a favour and check it out.

Today's RAD Song:

2010-05-09T10:39:00.001-06:00

Your Love by The Outfield

And then there's this... I'm at a complete loss for words:

The Playlist

2010-05-07T23:30:00.002-06:00

This will be a regular posting here at the Fanclub, and it is simply as the title would indicate: a playlist. Each playlist will be different; some will be themed, others just a snapshot of what I happen to be listening to at the time. Playlists that are themed or opinion based are certainly open to discussion and debate, and I suppose you can feel free to praise or flame me for those playlists that aren’t – if you’re that kind of person.

For the inaugural playlist, I guess we’ll just start with 20 songs that I’m diggin' right now. Some of these songs are classics, some you’ve probably never heard before and some will likely leave you scratching your head – in any case, you’ll probably find something you dig, or despise, whatever.

The National – Fake Empire

Fake Empire by The National

More The National music on iLike

David Guetta (ft. Kid Cudi) – Memories

Memories (Feat. Kid CuDi) by David Guetta

More David Guetta music on iLike

The Golden Filter – Solid Gold

Solid Gold by The Golden Filter

More The Golden Filter music on iLike

The Tallest Man On Earth – King of Spain

King of Spain by The Tallest Man On Earth

More The Tallest Man On Earth music on iLike

Free Energy – Free Energy

Free Energy by Free Energy

More Free Energy music on iLike

Sly & The Family Stone – Everyday People

Everyday People by Sly & The Family Stone

More Sly & The Family Stone music on iLike

The Faint – The Geeks Were Right

The Geeks Were Right by The Faint

More The Faint music on iLike

Tiesto (ft. Tegan & Sara) – Feel It In My Bones

Feel It In My Bones by Tiësto

More Tiësto music on iLike

Wild Light – California On My Mind

California On My Mind by Wild Light

More Wild Light music on iLike

Metric – Gimme Sympathy

Gimme Sympathy by Metric

More Metric music on iLike

Modest Mouse – Missed The Boat

Missed The Boat by Modest Mouse

More Modest Mouse music on iLike

The Airborne Toxic Event – Sometime Around Midnight

Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event

More The Airborne Toxic Event music on iLike

Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions – People Get Ready

People Get Ready by The Impressions

More The Impressions music on iLike

Edward Maya – Stereo Love

Stereo Love by Edward Maya

More Edward Maya music on iLike

Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling

Take The Skinheads Bowling by Camper Van Beethoven

More Camper Van Beethoven music on iLike

Bruce Springsteen – Dancing In The Dark

Dancing In The Dark by Bruce Springsteen

More Bruce Springsteen music on iLike

Billy Talent – Try Honesty

Try Honesty by Billy Talent

More Billy Talent music on iLike

Lil Wayne – A Milli

A Milli by Lil Wayne

More Lil Wayne music on iLike

BB King – When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer

When My Heart Beats Like A Hammer by B.B. King

More B.B. King music on iLike

Matisyahu – One Day

One Day by Matisyahu

More Matisyahu music on iLike

It's Festival Season Again!

2010-05-07T15:01:00.000-06:00

Today's CLASSIC Clip

2010-05-07T12:30:00.005-06:00

Another post we'll have with some relative frequency here at the Fanclub is Today's CLASSIC Clip. This is generally something that i find (or have found in the past) to be extremely funny or wickedly irreverent - and more often times than not - both.

Today's CLASSIC Clip:
Kids In The Hall - Screw You Taxpayer

Ah, Kids in the Hall... watching this clip reminds me of Coca-Cola and toast with brown sugar on it... weird.

Today's RAD Song

2010-05-07T11:57:00.003-06:00

Pretty self-explanatory... a RAD song for you to check out. These will be frequent posts at the Fanclub.

Today's RAD song:
Dance With Me by Adam Green

Welcome to the Fanclub!

2010-05-05T22:25:00.003-06:00

If you’re a fan of Chuck Klosterman, the Beatles, Ghostbusters, Bowery Stan, The History Channel, Vans, Wall of Voodoo, fail blogs, Banksy, Puggles, afternoon baseball games, Band of Horses, Wes Anderson movies, Hunter S. Thompson, sugar skulls, rookie cards, Robot Chicken, Warren Zevon, breakfast cereal, The Huffington Post, atlases, turkey dinner, playoff hockey, DJ Shadow, Malcolm Gladwell, California fruit bombs, gig posters, sharpies, 7-11 coffee, the Stones, Christopher Guest, Digg, used record shopping, Thriller, M*A*S*H reruns, the number 8, Girl Talk, Pilsner, Star Wars LEGO toys, Alan Cross, Google Reader, road trips, KEXP, cover songs that are more popular than the original, Douglas Adams, Kids In The Hall, backstage passes, cultural diversity, Juxtapoz magazine, San Francisco, tee shirts, junk food, Blue Harvest, Shit My Dad Says, the Dallas tv show theme song, Joe Strummer, turntables, Top Chef, Timothy Findley, old skool hip-hop, universal health care, McFarlane figures, the Chive, mash-ups, Central Park, iTunes, Kerouac, chicks with tattoos, orange pop, pop music, pop-up books, mom-n-pop shops, Pop Montreal, Hop on Pop, pop art, pop tarts, and pop culture rip-offs… then you’ll probably want to join the Fanclub – I’m just sayin’…

It’s my Fanclub, I suppose – but it can be your Fanclub too.

Long live the Fanclub!

We are the Fanclub.