at the intersection of technology, philosophy, and politics (and some other things).
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This is my presentation at the BookNetCanada Tech Forum in March, titled: Time, Love & Books. Sorry, there is 1 slide only, for you Powerpoint buffs.
I talk about audiobooks, time acquisition, LibriVox, Google, the link, and the digital archaeology of love. And Hinton, Alberta.
I went to see The Examined Life last night, a really, really good film about … philosophy. Wonderfully done. Interviews with eight philosophers (Zizek, Cornell West, Judith Butler and more) about their thoughts and work.
It’s no easy feat making an entertaining feature-length talking-head documentary, especially about philosophy, but Astra Taylor succeeds in this one. Not sure if/when it will be available online, or where you can see it, but here is the trailer:
My big question though is when are the action figures coming out? Cornell West vs. Peter Singer throwdown!
John Chambers, CEO of CISCO on what the future holds, from MITWorld. He thinks we are about to see the most fundamental change in businesses and government that we’ve ever seen, moving from command and control to collaboration and teamwork.
Brett’s movie, RIP: A Remix Manifesto on the BBC:
From Oren Lavie:
Oren Lavie’s flash site (sigh).
And a live set on Morning Becomes Eclectic.
[via @mdash]
nfb.ca, the National Film Board’s web site is now live, and open for viewers. Seven hundred documentaries, shorts, animations and general filmy goodness are available in their entirety on the site. I’ve been playing for a while now with the beta, but very happy this is out there in the wild now. I still have some niggles about the navigation and UI, but as long as they keep adding content, I will be a happy man.
The NFB used to make some of the most beautiful films in the world, and was a beacon of experimentation and integrity in the new art of the documentary film. Watch, for instance, this exquisite doc, by the master Gilles Groulx, Un Jeu Si Simple. You don’t have to care a whit about hockey, or speak French for that matter, to appreciate one of the most elegant movies you’ll ever see, a study in brilliant editing. If you are a hockey fan, this is something like uncovering a footage of Greek gods on Olympus.
[Good on ya, Matt]
[via liber.rhetoricae]
David Simon is a former journalist who quit his job because he could no longer do it the way he wanted to do it: the companies that run papers these days don’t want their journalists to ask the most important question out of the famous five Ws + H (who what where when why how) … That is: Why? … It’s the tough one, that takes time and attention and doggedness, and it just doesn’t seem to work well with the “bottom line” (which, for those counting, is looking pretty grim).
Eventually Simon, along with a former cop, and former teacher, created the TV show the Wire,
In this talk at Berkeley, he explains why he is not (or maybe is) the most angry man in television, how the decline of journalism is paired with our disfunctional democracy, how a barge, not a hurricane, caused the floods in New Orleans, lies, damn lies and statistics, systematic corruption, and how we should all pick something to give a shit about and, absurd or not, fight for it.
Here is the video. Watch it. It’s the most compelling bit of web content I’ve seen in a long, long time.
Knitted animation, a music video of the song Les peaux de lièvres, from Montreal band Tricot Machine… wow:
[via Knitguy]
My friend Oana Avasilichioaei recently released her latest book of poetry, feria: a poempark (amazon link):
Oana Avasilichioaei deftly dismantles language and landscape in a whirling collection of poetry. feria is a poetic frolic in Vancouver’s Hastings Park eluding boundaries of landscape, time and narrative. Avasilichioaei writes and rewrites over this image, interpreting its evolving layers. Park and book coincide, and the author finds herself asking what is natural, what is language, and whose voices are we listening to. This is a book that pulls the reader into a wild ride, leaving you breathless but exilirated by the end.
Part of the project included shooting a beautiful film, which was done by another friend of mine, Theirry Collins:
Last Friday, I went to the premier of the fabulous NFB film, Memoire des Anges, by Luc Bourdon (thanks, Matt). The movie is a love letter to Montreal of the 50s and 60s, and to the brilliant film-making that came out of the NFB at the time. It’s made up entirely of footage from NFB, an impressionistic collage of the city in the past, through the eyes & celluloid of the grand men (and some women) of innovative documentary, Gilles Groulx, Hubert Aquin, Richard Notkin, Suzanne Angel, Claude Jutra, Jacques Godbout, Arthur Lipsett, Denys Arcand, Tom Daly and scores of others.
Bourdon avoids all sentimentality, and instead gives us the faces, hands, feet of the people of the city, the roadways, bricks, snow, sun and chairs that define a place. There’s no narrative to speak of, though clever bits of story are peppered into the whole, often by splicing footage from numerous films, black and white to colour, a decade or two apart, to make something coherent, if fleeting.
For Montrealers, there is the added fun of picking out street corners and buildings treasured, hated, or gone. But the film works on its own as a document of a time gone, rooted in the look and sound of a city, the voices and faces of its inhabitants, and as a piece of art beyond all the bits that went into it. It’s really a marvel, not least for the rich sound of Paul Anka melting the hearts of the girls in the audience.
And with all the talk of cutting arts funding, I can’t help look to the NFB of the past, the creativity and innovation that forged in the smithy of our souls the uncreated conscience of our country. More of that please, less mediocre crap.
So to Federal Arts funding I say: less Pit Pony, and more (old school) NFB.
Ah, art, I love you sometimes:
This is a cover of Kate Bush’s 1978 (!) song, Wuthering Heights, about Emily Bronte’s book.
[via spectraversa]
Humans are gone. The city remains. 23 Skidoo is a beautiful and chilling 1964 short, by Julian Biggs, from the NFB’s beta screening room. Wonderful sound track (Kathleen Shannon and Ted Haley) to go along with the lonely images.
For those wondering, “23 skidoo” is a slang term from the 1910s meaning, more or less, to leave suddenly (so says Wikipedia in any case).
The National Film Board of Canada has launched their beta player, with a cornucopia of wonderful documentaries, shorts, animations and abstract films. Established in 1938, and then reincarnated in the 1950s, the NFB was one of those great Canadian enterprises from a time when Canada was interested in doing new and challenging things. The NFB explored new territory and set the standard in documentary-making and animation. So we applaud their efforts to get these treasures in front of people again. Congrats to Matt & the team.
Here are some of my recommendations:
And of course, The Big Snit:
See some more recommendations at MetaFilter.
Youtube has just launched the Screening Room, “connecting films and audiences in the world’s largest theater.” They launched with the truly fabulous NFB short animation, The Danish Poet (what’s not to like about Norway, poets, true love and falling cows?).
I’ve been waiting for more of this kind of thing for a few years now, and very happy that NFB is part of it. I just hope they make more and more available to us.
Dan’s the guy who keeps LibriVox servers running. He loves Rush. It’s his birthday. So:
Rush – La Villa Strangiato (Live at Pinkpop 1979)
Rush: Limelight
Rush: Fly By Night
They’re called turntablists, and Montreal’s has had some good ‘uns over the years.
Kid Koala: Drunk Trumpet
Dj A-Track: at the ITF
Scratch Bastid: Scribble Jam 07
Dante’s Inferno: Cori reads; Gustave Doré illustrates; and lucid videoifies.
Since we were kids, most of us got emotionally attached to things that aren’t real: cartoons, teddy bears, and talking cars, for instance. Usually these attachments are built on the stories that surround, for instance, our teddy bears – stories we create. In the case of cartoons, it’s other people’s stories.
But there’s something different, exciting, and scary happening here. Watch this, and tell me what you feel when a) the guy kicks the machine, and b) the machine slips on the ice.
I found it heartbreaking watching the machine try to keep its balance on the ice. “Go little guy, go!” I thought. And I thought the guy was a real jerk for kicking it… yet I’ve kicked many a machine that hasn’t done what I wanted it to do.
UPDATE: zeke points out that this is a military robot…I know! That’s what’s crazy, but when those feeble feet were skidding on the ice I reacted – involuntarily – with pity.
Here’s another one that really got me emotionally:
The movements of these giant contraptions are so organic that it’s hard *not* to think of them as sentient somehow, and to react accordingly.
Finally, here’s an amazing CGI woman, not quite lifelike, but damn close.
So what’s striking about all this is how important movement is in our emotional reactions to things. Part of that suggests that we’re getting closer to loveable robots. But another thing is to consider the information that gets lost in text-based communication.
When I was at university, I worked as a waiter at the student pub, Alfie’s. We had DJs, but I used to come in a little early for my shifts, and they let me “spin” a bit before things started up. I usually got around to playing jazzy funky stuff, but I’d often start out with a little bit of the rock, as well as some roll; not big anthems, but those kinds of songs that sort of started you off slow and then got you going. Here’s a trio of wax I remember slappin’ on the turntables.
Led Zeppelin: Over The Hills And Far Away Music (1973)
I love when the big guitars kick in at 1:27 … the rest of the song’s a bit of a let down, but worth it for the big three-chord chop that kicks you in the butt.
Bob Seeger: Night Moves (1976)
Hmm. I’ve never seen this video before, which seems to have been made in the 1990s. Can’t say I like it much. And I’m not sure what I think of this song now, but it’s got a nice gravelly sumpin that works in a stinky bar when you’re setting up before the crowds get there (ps: is that Joey from Friends at 2:05? … I think so … )
The Clash: Jimmy Jazz (1979)
I usually played the studio version from London Calling, but this live version’s got a whole other bit of charm going on (from their 16-night Times Square residency in 1980, I think). A song like Jimmy Jazz is great because you can go in so many different directions from it: punk rock, R&B, jazz, reggae, soul. Man, the Clash was good.
The Astronauts: Firewater (1963)
Looks like a good party. Do you think the guy on the couch is gonna score with that girl? From the movie, Surf Party.
Dick Dale & The Del Tones: Surfing/Miserlou (1962)
Intro is the vocal “Surfing,” followed by the instrumental “Miserlou,” which is a traditional Greek folk song, with versions of it common throughout the Middle East. Here it’s reinterpreted by the legendary Dick Dale, who was born in Lebanon to a Lebanese father and Polish mother. You can hear all those influences in this tune (made re-famous in Pulp Fiction).
The Atlantics: Bombora (1963)
Australia’s best-known surf band. Bombora is the Aboriginal term for waves breaking over rock shelves.
Songs about the man of steel:
Laurie Anderson: O Superman (1981)
OK, not really about Superman, exactly…but still, it’s Laurie Anderson.
Crash Test Dummies: Superman’s Song (1991)
The audio’s a bit soft on this one, and I feel like an idiot, but for some reason this tune and video sorta gets me.
REM: Superman (1986)
REM live in 1987, the video’s a bit of a mess, but the sound is OK. That’s Gary Zekley, writer of the original 1969 version, on stage with tambourine.
A good friend of mine is a documentary film maker; more than that. His latest film, about violinist Malcolm Goldstein is a challenging and brilliant work of art in itself, much more than a typical portrait documentary.
The market for a film like that is small – a few festivals, hundreds, maybe a few thousand people will see it in a theatre. TV will never pick up something like this, not even arty cable. Certainly no commercial movie houses.
A movie like this — based so much on sound, and on the scale of the image — ought to be seen in theatre, where the full work of art can be appreciated and experienced as it should be. Big screen, big sound, silence, darkness.
That’s true enough.
Still, as a filmmaker, you are stuck in the constraints of festivals and distributors for your distribution; yet the film is made, and there are people – like me – who would like to see it, but cannot.
This is a ramble, and it’s obvious where I am going with it. But I just watched this beautiful documentary yesterday, on Vimeo – a free service – and what can I say? OK, it’s not the big screen, but it is beautiful, moving, fascinating. If you’re a film maker, put your stuff online, like this [best to watch it full screen]:
POSSESSED from Martin Hampton on Vimeo.
In 2001 a new breed of Velvet Underground-influenced, old-aesthetic rock started rolling out of a few bands. It was old and it was new and it was good again. Here are some of the tunes I remember.
The Strokes: Last Night (2001)
OK, so the Strokes ended up being disappointing. We all wanted them to be gritty kids from the wrong side of the tracks who bashed their guitars together to dull the pain of poverty. Or something. Turns out they’re rich Manhattan kids who went to fancy boarding school in Switzerland, and had drinking problems. Well, what can you do? Who else can afford to be an artist these days? (And for the record, I went to a fancy private school). This video makes things worse: the lead singer, especially, looks like the kind of arrogant prick who continues to be mean to unpopular kids even into his mid-twenties.
And let’s forget for a moment that the Strokes probably exhausted their creativity with that first album. And remember instead what a breath of fresh air it was when it came out, and the sounds of pure, good rock n roll, the likes of which we hadn’t heard since Transformer (maybe), hit the airwaves. It was the rebirth of rock, I was living in New York and it was great stuff.
White Stripes: Fell in Love with a Girl (2001)
While I can’t help feeling the Strokes were somehow phony (even if that first album was and still is a winner), the White Stripes were something else: raw and real and creative in ways hard to believe considering their instruments are limited to a little drum kit, a big guitar, and a crazy voice. Fantastic, challenging yet straight music, wonderful songwriting and a great video by Michel Gondry.
Franz Ferdinand – Take Me Out (2003)
A couple of years later come Franz Ferdinand. I first heard them when they played this tune live on some British awards show: the looked and sounded so sharp, like a mix of the best of ska and good punk (aka Clash), with a new, precise sound to their chops.
Sometimes I wish I was still a kid:
[via: infosthetics.com]
Chris Hughes wins with his entry of Life is Life, by Opus. Truly the worst song in the world.
Beer and cookies will be offered, for free, next time Chris is in Montreal.
Writer/director John Hughes had a string of movies in the eighties that were definitive for a certain-type of middle class North American early-teen (ie. a type like me). They were usually about angsty high school seniors, rich kids (mostly cool jerks) and their less-well-off school mates (alienated music-lovers with soul), and usually a Romeo-Juliet story of love across class that cannot be. Here are a few vids from those soundtracks (somewhere i have a few of these on tape).
Simple Minds: Don’t You (Forget About Me) (1985)
from: The Breakfast Club (1985)
The greatest (?) of all John Hughes films …
Charlie Sexton: Beat’s So Lonely (1985)
from: Some Kind of Wonderful (1987)
Charlie Sexton was, apparently, a guitar prodigy. He pretty much disappeared from public view after this album, Pictures for Pleasure, but continued working with other artists, including David Bowie and Bob Dylan. He also produced my old Blizzarts pal Peter Elkas’ album, Wall of Fire.
Echo and the Bunnymen: Bring on the Dancing Horses (1985)
from: Pretty in Pink (1986)
Pretty in Pink was probably the most alternative of the Hughes movies, and I owned this soundtrack on tape. It had all sorts of great stuff on it, including the Smiths, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, New Order, Suzanne Vega.
Here are my candidates. Please submit your own. A committee of editors from the Friday Mixed Tape team will review and make an Official pronouncement in one week.
Huey Lewis and the News: Hip to Be Square (1986)
Phil Collins: Sussudio (1985)
Starship: We Built This City (on Rock and Roll) (1985)
The amazing this is that this band was once Jefferson Airplane, who performed this. Someone once said to me, which rings true here: much of the eighties can be explained by waaay too much cocaine.
Mmmm, Danish:
[via: ernietheattorney]
Hope you had a good Valentine’s Day. Here’s some tunes to make the moments last:
Sade: Smooth Operator (1984)
Another song I loved as a kid, got embarrassed by as a teen. But now I think Sade was on to something. Smooth Operator indeed.
Barry White: Can’t Get Enough of Your Love Babe (1974)
I knew nothing of the Velvet Voice before this tune was featured on the Simpsons, I think the episode with Michelle Pfeiffer, but not sure. Anyway, after I heard Barry White, nothing was ever again the same.
Marvin Gaye: Let’ Get It On (1973)
This live, lovin performance beat out the slick video for the 1982 hit, Sexual Healing.
I might be wrong, but I don’t think ever in the next couple of generations will we see someone like Fela Kuti, afrobeat legend, rebel, dissident, and one-time Nigerian Presidential candidate. Fela seemed to straddle the harsh present of the sixties/seventies, with something ancient … in a way that no one now would be able to do. With television everywhere these days, there are few if any corners of the world left where ancientness grows naturally – all of it has been touched by the modern. Maybe I’m wrong, and I’m no expert in world culture (and, after all, Fela’s mother was a feminist activist, and his father a Protestant Minister); but regardless, no one making modern afrobeat comes close to this kind of raw power. I’m not sure that there is any musician in the world that has this kind of charisma – brutal, violent charisma, but undeniable (see the second vid, especially).
Fela died in 1997 of AIDS.
Fela Kuti: Army Arrangement
“I have death in my pouch. I can’t die. They cannot kill me.”
Fela Kuti: Live in Calabar
Not sure the title of the song. This footage was filmed for a movie by Cream drummer Ginger Baker (which I believe is the source for the previous clip too). This one is intense, check especially the dancing from about 4′00″ and on.
Fela Kuti: U. Be Thief
Footloose is surely one of the great cinematic achievements of the 1980s, but these years later it’s not Kevin Bacon “dancing away oppression” that we remember most, but rather the searing sounds of Kenny Loggins’ unforgettable theme song, Footloose, which surely was the soundtrack of a generation of youth who were “yearning burning for some/ Somebody to tell [them] / That life ain’t passing [them] by …” I was one of those youths who yearned. Burned.
I always assumed that the great Loggins wrote that song after a long cocaine bender had eaten up all cash reserves and back taxes were due, but it turns out the story behind the classic songsmithing is much, much, much more inspiring.
Here is a documentary film called: Jimmy Buffet & Footloose.
[via: wfmu]
I know Mitch has a youtube music video problem, just like me (in fact, I may have given him his first taste of the sweet sonic tonic of nostalgia). Anyway, a while back I asked if Mitch wanted to guest curate a youtube mixed tape session. He said: hells ya. Took me a while to post it, but here it is, straight from the Man in Black (and by the way, if you want to find the gold, a little hint, it’s at the end):
Wednesday Guest Tape: Eighties Hard Rock
Definitely one of my guilty pleasures and the music I grew up on (there is still some shame in this, I admit). Here are a few that might be more obscure. You have no idea how many hours I’ve burned on YouTube reminiscing. I’ve found some gold and cheese while on my journey. I’ll leave it to you to decide which is which below…
Slaughter – Fly To The Angels (1990)
While Slaughter came after the eighties hair bands (or more like the tail end), you can’t deny that lead singer, Mark Slaughter, had a crazy unique voice as proven in this recent acoustic version of their power ballad hit, Fly To The Angels.
Whitesnake – Is This Love? (1987)
Singer David Coverdale cut his teeth in a later version of Deep Purple before launching Whitesnake. You probably remember the original videos from that era with Tawny Kitaen.
Can’t Wait For The Night – Brighton Rock (1986)
OK, this is not the acoustic version, but when I found this on YouTube it took me waaay back. I think they were from Niagara Falls…
Hear N’ Aid – Stars (1985)
This was the hard rock scene’s response to Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and USA for Africa’s “We Are the World”. There are some great vocal performances and who can deny how metal Rob Halford from Judas Priest is? (look at how he dressed for the studio – really, the metal world had “no idea”?).
Sweet. From New Scientist magazine and Honeywell … comes some fantastic vids of Nobel laureates describing all sorts of yummy scientific stuffs, eg: John C. Mather describing the Big Bang; U of T’s John Polanyi talking about freedom, creativity and science ; and Richard Schrock talking Green Chemistry.
Good for you New Scientist, and good as well to sponsor Honeywell (if they fund this stuff, I’m gonna plug them! I love Honeywell! They make some of my favourite morning breakfast food.)
As we head into the 2008 US Presidential race, here are a few videos to inform the foreign policy debates.
Edwin Starr: War (1969)
The song inspired by the original title of Tolstoy’s War & Peace.
Bruce Cockburn – If I Had A Rocket Launcher (1983)
Apparently, someone once asked Eddie Van Halen: “How does it feel to be the greatest guitarist in the world?” And he answered, “I don’t know, why don’t you ask Bruce Cockburn.” At least that’s the story I’ve heard. I had the pleasure of seeing Bruce in concert in Sudbury once, and it was amazing. Bruce is famous for his lefty protest politics, but he’s also a fantastic song writer, and, of course, no slouch on the ol’ guitar.
This tune is about the dirty war in Guatemala in the 1980s (supported, of course, by the US and Canada); but those face and bodies could be in any number of countries today.
Sgt Barry Sadler: Ballad of the Green Beret (1966)
And, lest I be accused of bias against war, here’s the 1966 hit song, that was number 1 for five weeks on the billboard charts.
Some tunes from my days at university.
Rheostatics: Christopher (1990)
I loved these modern Canadian artrock progsters. I’ve seen them live more than any other band, and I guess I have most of their albums too.
Skydiggers: I’m Wondering (1993)
My roommate Matty used to say, “I don’t get why everyone likes this band, it sounds like girl music to me.” (He liked to smoke hash and listen to Pink Floyd and Sabbath). But I always thought they were the Canadian REM, and their live shows were always great. If you wanted to go to a costume party dressed as a Canadian university student from the 1990s, this would be a good video to study.
Spirit of the West: Home For A Rest (1990)
This is the song that unfailingly got every Canadian human who went university in the nineties out on the dance floor jumping up and down and screaming out the chorus, “I’m so sick from the drink, I need home for a rest … take me home!“. What a weird video … they’re a little bit less rock n roll/pogues than the lyrics would lead you to believe.
This week, TV theme songs.
Greatest American Hero
I can’t really remember this show all that well, but I sure remember the song.
The Littlest Hobo
To meet my cancon requirements. [Also: another shower favourite] … for my international readers, Littlest Hobo was a Lassie-esque show about a dog that wandered around Southern Ontario, solved mysteries, and then, just when the thankful families were about to put out a nice steak for him, they’d turn around … and he’d be gone again.
Knight Rider
Michael Knight & KITT edged out the Dukes of Hazard in the competition, with the Romanian judge awarding Dukes a shocking 3 for technical merit. Dukes is appealing the decision. [On a personal note, I must say I'd forgotten what a bad-assed theme song this show had. No wonder I loved it].
if you are a teacher, you should watch this.
if you are not a teacher, you should watch it too.
I doubt if I’d like most of Ron Paul’s fiscal policies, but he sure as hell talks a good line. Check out his response when a very smarmy-looking debate moderator asks him about his: “electability … do you have any, sir?” (which spurred laughter from his opponents). In the video he gets a huge cheer from the crowd for a neat bit about borrowing money from China in order to finance a dictator in Pakistan so that we can bring democracy to Iraq. I keep thinking that it’s the right that needs to be asking questions of Republicans, not the left. And Ron Paul claims (with some basis) that he is the most conservative candidate in the running:
The eighties were a difficult time for the human race: so lost, so confused. This confusion came out in the music, in the dancing, in the haircuts, and most especially in the rock videos. But throughout those dark days, we were always learning new things, learning old things… learning to spell, for instance. This week, three songs to spell by. I consider this something of a musical sandwich: the worst of the eighties with an interesting musical combination from the nineties in the middle, though that 90s tune is of course a throwback to earlier, simpler times.
Every time I take a look at pop culture in the 80s, all I can think is: too much cocaine.
Hall & Oates: Method Of Modern Love
The hair, the videography, the dancing, the lyrics. The spelling. This song has it all.
John Lee Hooker & Van Morrison: Gloria
A serious interlude in an otherwise … difficult … selection for a Friday Mixed Tape. Irish big-lunged boomer, Ivan Morisson, Van the Man, along with one of the greatest, late bluesmen, John Lee Hooker, singing Van’s song.
Freeze: AEIOU (and sometimes Y)
Watching Hall & Oats in the first video, it is hard to remember that they are actually respectable song writers who knew how to craft a tune – even if they seem to have spent more time crafting their hairdos. Freeze, however, is another thing altogether. I am not sure there are any redeeming qualities to this video, except the strange nod to BMX and breakdancing.
In the year 2000, I split up with my girlfriend, and was going to move to New York City in six months, for a new job. I was twenty-six, and I spent many evenings of those six months hanging out, and occasionally dancing into the wee hours at a bar called Blizzarts, owned by my pal Peter. DJ Bliss and DJ T’cha had a Thursday night residency there, whose name escapes me but will come eventually, that was filled with all sorts of good funky tunes, new and old. I hung out at that time with a variety of characters, including Boris, whom I later “met” again thru the net in 2005 (not knowing who he was), “knew” virtually for about six months, before he posted a pic of himself, and I realized that we used to hang out at Blizzarts togther – tho we’d only been hihowsitgoinfineandyougoodcool pals back then.
Here are some tunes I remember from back in the day:
Mr. Scruff: Get a Move On
If you throw a party, and everyone’s sitting down, and you really want them to dance … this is the tune to slap on the hi-fi.
Jurassic 5: Quality Control
Followed by this one.
Amon Tobin: Verbal (2002)
Amon Tobin lived in Montreal for a while (and I’m told he still does, for part of the year). I saw him play a couple of times at Blizzarts.
Montreal jazz legend Oscar Peterson died this week.
Oscar Peterson & Count Basie: Slow Blues (198? ?)
Brilliant, as Oscar and the Count compete to see who can leave more space for the other genius to fill the room with music; and you have to love the spooning pianos.
Oscar Peterson: Noreen’s Nocturne (1969)
Oscar Peterson Quartet – with Joe Pass: Soft Winds (199? ?)
Kim Carnes: Bette Davis Eyes (1981)
This one held up pretty well, I’d say.
Fleetwood Mac (Stevie Nicks): Dreams (1977)
From the incomparable Stevie Nicks.
(Ike &) Tina Turner: Medley (1966?)
This must have just blown the socks off of the kids in this studio. Tina got more gravelly, and more divaish in later life, and finally turned into a caricature of herself; but there’s something about this old clip – rather than the 80s stuff she did – that gets to the real core. Her mentor and wife-beating ex-husband, Ike Turner, died last week.
We’ve been watching the 1978 BBC series Connections on Youtube at dinner time. It is a history of the world thru technology, demonstrating the chain reactions of incremental and quantum jumps in knowledge and tech, and their impacts on how we live. Fantastic television, and you should all watch it instead of the Knight Rider (or whatever is on TV these days). Here are the links to Episode 1 on Youtube:
> Connections, episode 1, part 1 of 5
> Connections, episode 1, part 2 of 5
> Connections, episode 1, part 3 of 5
> Connections, episode 1, part 4 of 5
> Connections, episode 1, part 5 of 5
I think the whole series is on Youtube; as well as the follow-up series: Connections II, and Connections III.
from BaghdadBrian in the twittersphere:
Alive in Baghdad correspondent Ali Shafeya was killed on December 14th, details are still coming in. He was 24, survived by mom and sister.
and:
but is that worth even one human’s life? We are still not 100% sure its not the assignment we gave that killed him.
and:
We’ve raised $90, can anyone else help Ali’s family pay for the funeral? his brothers and father are all dead. survived by one sis & mother
and:
you can make a donation to suport his family to smallworldnews@gmail.com via paypal, please note that it is for Ali’s family.
for more details, see:
* alive in baghdad
UPDATE: Following brian’s posts on twitter over the past 18 hours or so has been pretty intense. Blow-by-blow of a guy both updating as the info comes in, and struggling with the hard reality of death all around the amazing citizen journalism project that he started in a war zone. Further, he’s been wondering whether the investigative assignment that Ali was on may have been the cause of his death (he was shot 31 times by the Iraqi National Guard). He’s considering closing the project down.
I can’t even imagine. I keep thinking about the safe little projects I work on, imagining what it would be like to have a web project where people started dying. It’s so easy to start good web projects. But it takes so much courage to continue in the face of reality this bloody.
I met Brian briefly at Podcamp Boston. I wish I had met him sooner – I was just leaving. I would have loved to talk more with him – of all the projects at that conference, his is – to me – by far the most important. AiB is exactly why the web changes things – even if it has been mostly ignored.
Whatever you want to say about the sixties, looking back it was a time of the kind of change I don’t think we’ve seen since. All that came before was called into question, and things that came after were different on a scale that has not been approached again. Sometime around 1980, we went into a holding pattern. [note, I think that the networked world will bring the same sort of cultural upheaval, but we haven't quite got there yet]. Here are three videos, all in black & white, where the colour was just bursting thru the tight suits.
Jimi Hendrix: Hey Joe (1967)
Does it get any cooler than this? No.
The Monks: Monk Chant and Oh How to Do Now (1966)
These guys were so far ahead of their time (and it seems from the vid that they were so crazy colour *was* actually bursting out of the B&W). The Monks were doing stuff with pop music – feedback, atonal noise, harmonics and dissonance and other weird musicy stuff that … well … that still sounds crazy. They were five US servicemen stationed in Germany, who shaved the tops of their heads and played pop music that would still make record execs nervous.
The Who: My Generation (1967)
This is a bit obvious, I guess, but the Who made noise like no one before them had. The Who is one band that should have kept the suits. They were much better before they got old. And: oh, Keith, we miss you.
This week, in celebration of the launch of earideas.com, (and the earideas audio challenge) songs about lifting off.
Peter Schilling: Major Tom (1983)
So of course the real song to put here is Bowie’s Space Oddity, where Major Tom first made his appearance. But the Schilling reinterpretation was a big favourite of mine as a kid, and it does have qualities of its own, including a good proto-techo drum/synth track. And the “4-3-2-1 earth below us …” still gives me shivers.
Europe: Final Countdown (1986)
This would get my vote for the worst song in the history of the galaxy.
William Shatner: Rocket Man (Elton John) (live in 1978)
At the 1978 Science Fiction Film Awards, Captain Kirk “sings” Elton John’s Rocket Man. A piece of surreal, otherworldly … genius. Art of the highest caliber.
Some of the great tracks from the kid’s show.
NOTE: I just put up fridaymixedtape.com … for those of you who don’t want to have to wade through the rest of my yammering, and just want pure music video goodness.
Sesame Street: Lowercase N
If I had a rock band, I would cover this song in every live show I did. “The wind is very still for… the lower case ‘n’” … breaks my heart.
Sesame Street: Pinball Number Count
You remember this one. For some reason, this is a favourite in my (limited) shower-singing repertoire.
Sesame Street: Number 9 (cutie)
Do you have any Sesame Street favourites?
As far as I know, this is the first youtube vid using LibriVox audio. This is DE. Wittkower reading Schopenhauer’s Studies in Pessimism. Music is Richard Wagner’s Rheingold. I’m not sure the providence of the images.
Bring on the funk.
Stevie Wonder: Superstition (1972)
One of the best openings in rock n roll. (And check out Stevie playing this tune on Sesame Street)
Curtis Mayfield: Freddie’s Dead (1972)
A very jazzed out version of Freddie’s Dead from the all-Mayfield soundtrack to the blacksploitation classic, Superfly.
James Brown: Get Up (I Feel Like Being a) Sex Machine (1970)
And the godfather.
Some tunes about books.
The Cure: Killing an Arab (1979/80)
Amazing footage of the pre-make-up-and-crazy-hair Cure, in an intimate live show, singing a raw and moving version of the tune, based on Albert Camus’ existential/absurdist book, L’Etranger (the Stranger). This song is not an anti-arab song, it’s a song about Camus’ Mersault, a young pied noir who shoots an Arab on the beach, and then spends the rest of the novel awaiting his trial.
Kate Bush: Wuthering Heights (1978)
From 1978, comes Kate Bush’s ode to Emily Bronte’s book. Kate was still in her teens when she wrote this song and made the video.
Sarah Polley: Courage (1997)
This is a version of the Tragically Hip song, the original title of which includes the parentheses (for Hugh MacLennan). The song reflects some of the themes in MacLennan’s novel, The Watch that Ends the Night; Polley’s version is from the soundtrack to the “Sweet Heareafter,” Atom Egoyan’s (wonderful) film interpretation of the Russel Banks book.
Youtube just launched Youtube.ca (which resolves to http://ca.youtube.com). So in honour of this annoying announcement (here’s what I think of it), this week we present to you fridaymixedtape.ca:
Chilliwack: My Girl
I actually had no idea that this song was Chilliwack, and hence Canadian. Actually a snappy little number. That’s the nice thing about fridaymixedtape.ca … you’ll always get the best Canadian content, without all that other stuff getting in the way.
Gowan: A Criminal Mind
Ah … Gowan.
Platinum Blonde: Crying Over You
Canada’s most embarrassing hair rock band.
Stan Rogers: Northwest Passage
Try to listen to this without getting all teary-eyed. Sung not by Stan Rogers, of course, but the St. Patrick’s Regional Secondary Chamber Choir Men, in Vancouver.
Gordon Lightfoot: Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald
Tragically Hip: Nautical Disaster
I loved these three tunes when I was a kid, in the early-to-mid-eighties. I remember them getting lots of play-time on the morning radio station my parents listened to (the stodgy talk radio station, CJAD). So, here were some of my top music choices from ages eight to ten:
Joe Dolce: Shaddap You Face (1980, age 6)
Made it to #1 in Australia & UK, not sure how it did in the US (or Canada).
Taco: Puttin’ on the Ritz (1982, age 8)
Not strictly a gimmick, this is a remake of a Irving Berlin song, but still … well a gimmick as far as the charts go. Made it to #4 in the US charts.
Weird Al’ Yankovic: Eat It (1984, age 10)
A revelation. Reached #12 in the Billboard Charts in the US. Here’s the original Michael Jackson vid, which was also a revelation.
Bessie Smith: St. Louis Blues
Queen of the 20s blues, in the 1929 film St. Louis Blues.
Billie Holiday: Fine and Mellow
Along with sax great Lester Young, the band here features an all-star line-up of luminaries: Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster, Gerry Mulligan, Roy Eldridge, Doc Cheatham, Vic Dickenson, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, Mal Waldron.
Nina Simone: Ain’t Got No…I’ve Got Life
Not strictly the blues, but great tune/performance by the great Nina Simone.
This week, some guys who look like they might burst a few blood vessels.
Bruce Springsteen: Lost in the Flood
This one is fantastic…what a build-up.
Van Morrison & The Band: Caravan
Check those moves!!
Joe Cocker: With a Little Help from My Friends
Here.
(some familiar faces in there).
After all the rock n roll lately, i thought i should, well try to get some booty on the floor. So this week, three of the big dance anthems from the late 80s/early 90s, when my own distinctive dance style was just coming into its own. These tracks all share an added characteristic: the egregious use of day-glo backgrounds in their videos. Same director?
Technotronic: Pump Up the Jam
What’s in that pouch, I wonder?
Neneh Cherry: Buffalo Stance
Dee Lite: Groove Is In The Heart
Normally Saturday Night Live music performances are pretty terrible (don’t know if the show’s even still on? do they still have bands?) … But I’ve seen a few good/impressive ones.
Sugarcubes: Birthday
This was the first time I’d heard Bjork, and I thought what the hell is this? I’d never heard anything like it.
Neil Young: Keep on Rockin In the Free World
Normally SNL performances were insipid affairs, but check out how Neil just rips it up on this one, just gets more and more intense, till that solo at the end. Man. That’s Rock n Roll. And he was an old man even then (sometime in the 90s I think).
Soundgarden: Burden in My Hand
I was hoping to find the Butthole Surfers, and then Pearl Jam’s crazy performance where Eddy Vedder climbs all over the amps and makes a pro-choice speech, but couldn’t: here’s Soundgarden instead!
The Who: Acid Queen (Tommy)
Frank Zappa: Watermelon in Easter Hay (Joe’s Garage)
Pink Floyd: In The Flesh (The Wall)
Sorry, this is a couple of days late…
Hilly Kristal, owner of the famed CBGBs, where punk rock was born, died last week. In tribute:
Talking Heads: Warning Sign (197?)
Blondie: A Girl Should Know Better (1975)
And, of course:
The Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop (1977)
Hey, sweet. Montreal video maven Casey McKinnon, of Galacticast and A Comic Book Orange, has an article in the (UK) Guardian, How Do You Beat Youtube, about what needs to happen in the online vid platform space.
Congrats.
UPDATE: Mat has an interesting response, from a consumer’s point of view. And he’s right on.
Every time I get a nicely layered Laika coffee, and watch the beauty of that first stir, I think to myself: If I ever make a movie, this will be the opening shot. Today I realized that with my little macbook pro isight camera, I could film it, and get that first shot I’ve always wanted. Now to make the rest of the film…Hmm there’s a nice gimmick boing boing would like: a full-length feature film, made entirely with a built-in MBP isight camera. Who’s in?
Stirring coffee @ Laika from Hugh and Vimeo.
See some static pics of laika coffee at the new photo sharing site, flickr.
Tom Waits: Take Me Home
Randy Newman: I Think It’s Going To Rain Today
Elton John: Tiny Dancer
Things appear to be working fine today, but I guess it was touch and go for a while:
Reminds me a little of downtown Montreal.
I’ve got a lot of activist friends who tell me that when peaceful protests get violent, it’s usually undercover cops *pretending* to be protesters who start throwing the rocks at the cops – which gives the cops just the excuse to come in with batons and break up the protest with teargas and violence and arrest the protesters etc. It seemed logical to me, but I’d never seen any proof – and there *are* some crazy anarchist groups out there, the Black Bloc, who are violent.
Anyway, here’s a vid capturing a bunch of undercover cops (agents provocateurs) in masks trying to start a riot so that a peaceful protest gets broken up; and a union guy confronting them, realizing they are cops, and sending them on their way.
Next is a CBC report about the cops admitting that the masked men with rocks indeed were cops. There to “find and shut down violent protestors.” Sure. Take a look at the videos. (And here is the Surete du Quebec response … including a video of a press release … 2+2=5 … 2+2=5 ….2+2=5).
So, is this legal? Should it be?
The raw vid:
And the news report about the police admitting the guys were cops:
(Thanks to Dan for the tip)
UPDATE: from the police statement (pdf):
Concerning the video broadcast on YouTube, as we confirmed yesterday, the three people in question were indeed Sûreté du Québec police officers performing their duties. They had the mandate to locate and identify non-peaceful demonstrators in order to prevent excesses. They therefore joined a group of demonstrators that contained extremist elements. Those elements identified our police officers, who could not pursue their mandate. It was when leaving that group that they found themselves in a group of peaceful demonstrators. They then asked the police officers assigned to crowd control to leave the premises. Since those officers did not recognize them, they wrestled the Sûreté du Québec officers to the ground and handcuffed them in order to take them aside to confirm their identity. That intervention was never considered or presented by the Sûreté du Québec as an arrest. Furthermore, at no time did the officers in question engage in provocation or incite anyone to commit violent acts. In the framework of the Montebello summit, as after each large-scale operation, the Sûreté du Québec obtains complete feedback on its interventions. If there are methods or procedures to be changed or adjusted, you can rest assured that will done. The goal is always to improve our practices in order to carry out our mission effectively and in keeping with the established legal framework.
When I was a kid I spent summers at my uncle’s farm in Ontario. All my cousins are older than me – and the youngest was Moira, so she spent the most time with me I guess. In 1980 I was 6 years old, and Moira was probably in her late teens, and I remember memorizing (some of) the words to the Billie Joel tune, Still Rock n Roll to Me, which played on the radio all that summer. Later, in 1983-84, another cousin from Ontario, Rose, lived with us for a year in Montreal. When she left, she gave me two tapes, the first I ever owned: David Bowie’s Let’s Dance, and Queen’s The Works.
And so, here are some more musical memories from childhood:
Billie Joel: It’s Still Rock n Roll to Me.
David Bowie: China Girl
[Note: I think this is the stranges video I've ever seen. UPDATE: and that's stevie ray vaughn on guitar, by the way]
Queen: Radio Ga Ga
[Note: as I write this, the radio tells me that guitarist Brian May was awarded his doctorate today in atstrophysics, from Imperial College London, with a dissertaition titled: "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud"]
Video advertising has started on the YouTube website, its owner – internet giant Google – has confirmed. Google said it had designed the way the adverts work on the video-sharing website to be as unobtrusive and undisruptive as possible. The adverts will begin 15 seconds after a user has started to watch a video, but only on 20% of the screen window. Google said the advert would then disappear within 10 seconds if the user had not clicked to watch it.
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In honour of how unhappy I am with Bell Canada for cutting off my phone for a week, telling me twice it would be reconnected without reconnecting, charging me for a long distance plan I did not order, disabling my call answer, and requiring calls to 5 different departments (customer service, credit, technical and repairs, billing, and collections) on 5 different occasions (many departments getting 2 and 3 calls from us, without ever allowing us to get back to the person we were originally talking to – often making us wait, again, in the good old “all our agents are busy” queue … etc etc …), and then having the gall to offer 20 fri**ken dollars for all the headache they caused. Did I mention I am not happy with Bell Canada and their dismal customer service? By the way, today after all the bloody mess they tell us, “Oh the problem is that we are changing billing systems, and half of your account is in one system, and the other half in the other.” Yeah. Thanks for telling me that after a week and a half battling with your idiotic customer service system which insists on telling us that we are at fault. Thanks Bell.
Anyway, here is my heavy metal mix … starting with Hells Bells, in honour of their Customer Service system, and then getting a bit off topic, I guess, but imagine all that Heavy Metal angst focused like a laser beam of pissed offedness directly at the Vice President of Customer Service of Bell Canada, whose name, not surprisingly, is not so easy to find online. But I will find it.
Anyway. Enjoy:
AC/DC: Hells Bells
Iron Maiden: Run to the Hills
(here I like to substitute “Bell Canada” for “White Man”)
Black Sabbath: Paranoid
(for a cheerier mixed tape, Kara did an all-OK-Go mix)
Get your porkpie hats, your stovepipe pants, skinny ties and a nice pair of heavy-frame glasses, and start skanking. Two-tone rules.
The Specials: Gangsters
Madness: One Step Beyond
The Beat: Mirror in the Bathroom
KOS hosts a yearly convention for progressive political bloggers. This year most of the Democratic presidential candidiates attended. If you are sick of the crap that passes for debate in mainstream media, have a look at where all the biggies in the Dem field stand on the issues, courtesy of the KOS event, and PoliticsTV:
Daily KOS Presidential Forum (videos).
Notes:
-a blog brought together all the heavy Democratic presidential candidates for a useful debate. That’s impressive.
-in the long run, I think more and more citizens will seek out this kind of information
-MSM doesn’t want to sell substance like this, but the politicians do … and maybe the net is the only place where we’ll find it
-will the Right have a similar event?
-I was impressed by Chris Dodd, Bill Richardson, and John Edwards … Clinton and Obama seemed pretty light-weight, and the other guys up there (Kucinich and someone elseMike Gravel) are probably too far out of whack for the US, but I agree with most of what they have to say.
By the way, the right-wing blowhard Bill O’Reilly, I guess worried about the influence of the YearlyKOS convention, calls KOS “a hate site worse than the Ku Klux Klan.” Watch an edited vid of Bill’s greatest hits. (Oh, and even Michelle Malkin agrees!).
Bit late for the Friday Youtube Mixed Tape, but here it is anyway. Tacky tearjerkers from mid-eighties, that are still fun to listen to (for a while anyway):
Foreigner: I Wanna Know What Love Is
Corey Hart: Never Surrender
And, of course:
Bonnie Tyler: Total Eclipse of the Heart
This weeks theme: genderbending.
Rough Trade: High School Confidential
Lou Reed: Walk on the Wild Side (Live, Brussels, 1974)
The Kinks: Lola
(Check out how excited the drummer is to be playing. It’s all he can do not to yawn!)
LL Cool J: Mamma Said Knock You Out
(east coast)
Ice T: I’m Your Pusher
(west coast)
Maestro Fresh Wes: Let Your Backbone Slide
(north coast)
The Mirror’s got an article on the Atwater Digital Literacy Project, nicely done. Here’s the lede:
Give a kid a video camera and they’ll fiddle around with the buttons, but teach a kid how to make movies and they’ll be feverishly posting to YouTube in no time—or at least that’s the idea behind the Atwater Library’s Digital Literacy Project.
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Thanks Tracey!
Man, it is a brave new world. What do you get when you mix: Youtube, Second Life, and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr? This:
Here is the text that goes with the interview:
In August 2006, the national, weekly public radio program, The Infinite Mind, made broadcast history as it aired a four-part special taped inside the 3-D virtual on-line community Second Life. Among those interviewed in front of a live, virtual audience was author Kurt Vonnegut. The 40-minute conversation with Vonnegut was the author’s last sit-down interview. The host was The Infinite Mind’s John Hockenberry, who was with Vonnegut in the studio where the program was created. This is a machinima video of Vonnegut’s interview, taped at the 16-acre virtual broadcast center in Second Life built by Lichtenstein Creative Media, which produces The Infinite Mind.
Stay away from Youtube. There is too much good stuff on there.
Canadian 80s new wave:
Canadian 80s garage rock:
Canadian 80s arena rock:
There is no nudity or anything, just good, old fashioned historical facts:
(from BB)
(Peter, Bjorn and John, Link from Molly)
They may be paid by Canadian citizens, and they may work for Canadian citizens, and letting citizens know what they say may legitimately be considered an important component of a functioning democracy … but no no no, you can’t post to the net vids of Candian politicians talking in Parliament, without getting PERMISSION FORM THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS!:
Says Geist:
The Cable Public Affairs Channel (CPAC) is the primary source for Canadian Parliamentary debate and discussions, including the House of Commons Question Period and Committee hearings. CPAC broadcasts hours of Parliamentary hearings each week, yet … it does not assert copyright over the broadcasts. Instead, the broadcaster maintains that copyright in the House of Commons Proceedings rests with the Speaker of the House, while the Senate of Canada owns the copyright in the Senate Proceedings.
(found at BoingBoing)
And, being the shit disturber that I am, I sent this to the Speaker Himself (email: SpkrOff@parl.gc.ca):
Dear Mr. Speaker,
Considering that Canadian Parliamentarians are paid by Canadian citizens, and that they work for Canadian citizens, and that letting citizens know what Parliamentarians say is an important component of a functioning democracy … should we citizens not be allowed, without the permission of the Speaker of the House, to post videos of Parliament to the internet when and how we wish?
How could Parliament reasonably argue that copyright should apply?
see:
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1943/135/Thanks,
etc…
Bill Moyers is a great old journalist from PBS who defends his vision of America in the face of iniquity; Jon Stewart is a young comedian who defends America in the face of absurdity.
Here’s Gonzales answering honestly:
White House spokesperson’s reaction:
Bush’s reaction:
and here is a wonderful Kubrickian remix of Gonzales’ chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson’s difficulties as well: Memory Gap.
Maurizio has a great post about the dismal quality of mp3/ACC audio, and the parallels in crappy video. Actually the problem – for audio at least – is far worse than just the final format:
Dynamic range, warmth and depth have all but disappeared it seems in today’s music recordings. Music is compressed in recording, in mastering, in broadcast; often at all three stages. The loudness effect is ubiquitous. Broadcast audio is so pumped that it never seems to vary more than a few db. What results is music that is shallow, cold, harsh and without any kind of imaging or space.
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Some fellow named “Bopuc” linked to this vid, of
dan le sac VS scroobius pip, which is, really, quite great:
I thought dan le sac (or scroobius?) might change his mind when he got to the Clash, but he didn’t, and i was happy. courage of convictions.
I did a video interview of Montreal hip hop artist Boogat, for the National Arts Centre’s Scene Quebec programme/podcast. SceneQuebec is an arts festival in Ottawa/Gatineau, April 20-May 5.
Here’s the boogat vid.
There are a few more vids by me coming out too, some about theatre, and another about the classical music programming.
You can find the scenequebec schedule & tix here, the podcast here, and check out Alexis O’Hara’s vid – great stuff.
I live in Montreal, where I write, and dream up web projects. Sometimes people help me make those projects happen. Some projects include: Book Oven, LibriVox.org, earideas.com, datalibe.
email: hughmcguire AT gmail D0T com
