Canada to ban weed & feed products nationwide

This was announced February 2nd and will take effect at the end of 2012. I think this is a step in the right direction.

A Satisfied Mind

Here’s Joe Ely with Joel Guzman

Crazy Heart

How good can a movie about a broken down alcoholic real deal country singer be? In the case of Crazy Heart, it’s pretty damn good, riding on a fantastic performance by Jeff Bridges as Bad Blake. The film reminded me a little of The Wrestler – the characters share a number of similarities. I also thought of some real-life performers like Townes Van Zandt, who sadly died in his 50s, ravaged by years and years of self-abuse.

A special treat for this accordion freak was a brief appearance by Joel Guzman, playing a Hohner Corona II as part of a pick-up band. Fans of Conjunto music will certainly know Mr. Guzman’s work as will fans of other performers he has played with, notably Joe Ely and Tom Russell.

I recommend this one highly.

A Night at the Opera

Thanks to a very generous friend who gave us some excellent tickets, off we went last night with C&A to experience the Canadian Opera Company’s production of Otello. This was quite an adventure for me. I know nothing whatever about Opera. It’s really outside my experience, and I wasn’t sure what to expect.

It was lots of fun. Sur-titles above the stage helped me out a lot, seeing as I know no Italian and aside from knowing the basic story, couldn’t understand what they were singing about. It’s a really complex production. There’s a full orchestra, complete with conductor and who knows how many people in the cast. At some points it seemed as if there were dozens of people on stage.

The whole business seems like a really formal way of telling a story. I think you need stories with big broad themes to make it work. Even though it’s an old form, sung in a language I can’t understand, I enjoyed the experience.

Memphis

Go – the battle continues

I played four games with Vox last night, winning the first two and losing the last two. They were all good, well fought games. The picture is from the second game. I was playing black. I played the circled point, which effectively made it impossible for Vox to achieve two eyes. He captured underneath, not realizing he was doomed, and I neatly stole the eye potential by playing the point the yellow arrow shows. If Vox got to the circled point first, it would have left enough room underneath for eye-shape.

What was the first record you ever owned?

Ok, I know I’m showing my age here. For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, records were those curious vinyl items used to play music before mp3s and before CDs, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth. When I was a little kid, my father came home with a record player for me. It was a previously loved item he bought from Ross’s junk store in the Junction. It was one of those record players that required you to place a penny or perhaps even two pennies on top of the tone arm to weigh down the needle so it didn’t skip over grooves in the record. He also brought me my first ever record. I remember it clearly. It was a 78 from the 40s called Walking the Floor Over You by Earnest Tubb. Here’s Mr. Tubb performing the tune live.

I still remember the lyrics. I listened to that record over and over. Maybe that’s why I still have such an affection for old time country music.

The next record I added to what would eventually become a bit of a collection was by Burl Ives. It was a 331/3 recording. I don’t recall the title of it, but it had on it Mr. Ives version of the great hobo tune, Big Rock Candy Mountain.

I think that song dates back to the 20’s. It may have been penned by Harry McClintock AKA Haywire Mac. The song was all about hobo paradise, where you go after you board the Wabash Cannonball I guess.

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
There’s a land that’s fair and bright
Where the handouts grow on bushes
And you sleep out ev’ry night
Where the boxcars are all empty
And the sun shines ev’ry day
Oh, I’m bound to go where there ain’t no snow
Where the rain don’t fall and the wind don’t blow
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Oh, the buzzin’ of the bees in the cigarette trees
‘Round the whiskey fountains
Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

In the Big Rock Candy Mountains
You never change your socks
And little streams of alcohol
Come a-tricklin’ down the rocks
The hobos there are friendly
And their fires all burn bright
There’s a lake of stew …and whiskey, too
You can paddle all around ‘em in a big canoe
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.

Oh, the buzzin’ of the bees in the cigarette trees
‘Round the whiskey fountains
Where the lemonade springs and the bluebird sings
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains

I’ve also heard a version that talks about “a jerk that invented work” Har!

Remember Records?

I loved records! Here’s Rufus Thomas, Sun Records #188, from 1953, spinning at 78 rpm’s.

The picture above is from later on, when we were spinning 33 1/3 rpms. Remember Walking the Dog?

How come….

Gyms always seem to blast dance music. So many people come equipped to plug their favourite music directly into their skulls, it seems like its mostly an irritant. Some of us would prefer no music at all. Some folks are even ok going through their lives, including their workouts without dance music. I’m one of those. Now it might be different if the dance music we were talking about featured polkas, schottisches, huapangos, waltzes, two-steps, paso-dobles, fandangos and on and on. Last night I went swimming only to find that annoying dance music was being pumped into the pool area. I confess I looked around to see if there was a discreet way of disabling it.

That time of winter…

It seems that every year about this time, knowing full well we have plenty of winter left, I start thinking about spring activities. Recently, I’ve started to consider possible places to look for morels. I’ve been thinking further ahead too, about other mushrooms I might find in our local woods later in the season. Right now, I’m adding to my mycological knowledge by reading Michael Kuo’s 100 Edible Mushrooms.

At the same time the morels will appear in Ontario, trout will become interested in mayflies like the Ephemerella subvaria – the Hendrickson – and others. Soon I’ll clear the accumulated junk from my tying desk and sit down to tie a few dozen trout flies to imitate these little bugs. I wonder how my river will look in the spring. Each year its just a little bit different. Pools and runs change. Spots that have held good trout for years suddenly don’t look so good and other spots, apparently barren previously,  now look very trouty indeed. I always look forward to those first two or three times out at my favourite stretches, getting to know the river again, getting to know the new spots, smelling the river and the forest, taking it all in.

Meanwhile, I’ve shovelled snow exactly once this year and I could have just as easily accomplished it with a broom. The last week or two has been cold, but where is the snow?