Hey, my dad made the local newspaper. He’s like a farming celebrity or something.
[tags]david dickinson, amherst daily news[/tags]
Category: Family
Richard Thompson = White Bear
A few days ago I talked about how certain songs have particular — and often irrational — connections to certain places in my mind. Another one just came to me as my Zen is on random: “1952 Vincent Black Lightning” by Richard Thompson, for some reason, makes me think of an English pub called The White Bear. My brother, his girlfriend, Nellie and I stopped there as we drove north to Scotland, and they had amazing food, a stunning view, great ambience and charm…none of which have anything to do with Richard Thompson or vintage motorcycles.
I have no idea why my brain makes that connection, but hearing the song just puts me back in that seat, eating a huge feast of duck in black cherry sauce, sipping whisky, ducking low ceiling beams, laughing with my family, surrounded by misty English hills as we started our European adventure two years ago.
I am a puzzle wrapped in a mystery inside a music-and-food-associating enigma.
[tags]richard thompson, vincent black lightning, white bear pub[/tags]
The musical meat grinder, um, grinds on
In the last few days at work I’ve had a few periods of uninterrupted work at my desk (!), allowing me to screen some music that’s been sitting in my “inbox” for months, including:
- apostle of hustle . national anthem of nowhere
- dalek . abandoned language
- low . drums and guns
- ted leo . living with the living
None of them exactly set my world on fire, though each has a few good songs.
Listening to Ted Leo always makes me think of Ottawa, and for an odd reason: I always think of his song/album “Hearts of Oak”, which always makes me think of the Royal Oak (caution: site has loud & cheesy embedded music), an Ottawa pub my brother and I frequented when I lived there for a summer. In fact, we went there on the day that Keith’s was first introduced to Ontario. Anyway, yeah, that’s Ted Leo for me. My brain strolls in weird directions like that.
.:.
Last night was the second episode of the latest season of The Shield (aired here in Canada anyway; the season’s already done), which I’ve always said is one of the best shows on TV. It made me appreciate The Sopranos even more; without the success of The Sopranos, shows like The Shield (and characters like Vic Mackey) wouldn’t exist, let alone entire networks like F/X.
[tags]apostle of hustle, dalek, low, ted leo, royal oak, the shield, the sopranos, f/x[/tags]
The night shift lullaby
I just made my dad a CD, which I shall stick in the mail tomorrow. He likes getting them every now and then, and I like making them; it’s inspiring and reassuring to know that my 64-year-old father likes good music. Here’s the tracklist:
- cat power . “kingsport town”
- r.l. burnside . “old black mattie”
- amy millan . “blue in yr eye”
- magnolia electric company . “the night shift lullaby”
- black keys . “you’re the one”
- yo la tengo . “my little corner of the world”
- jessie mae hemphill . “standing in my doorway crying”
- old crow medicine show . “minglewood blues”
- ox . “1913”
- broken west . “down in the valley tonight”
- great lake swimmers . “i could be nothing”
- pablo . “wall street”
- william elliot whitmore . “does me no good”
- avett brothers . “shame”
- kings of leon . “the runner”
- sufjan stevens . “amazing grace”
I suspect he’ll especially like the songs by R.L. Burnside, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Ox (since it’s a Woody Guthrie cover), William Elliot Whitmore and The Avett Brothers. The Yo La Tengo, Pablo and Kings of Leon are stretches, but you have to keep the old man on his toes.
[tags]mixed cd[/tags]
The conscientious objector
Attention, everybody who keeps sending me Facebook invitations: I will not do it. I don’t want to join the club. I didn’t like the club when it was called Myspace or even Friendster, and I don’t like it any better now just because they’ve fixed the style sheet. I sure as shit don’t want to “catch up” with 99% of the people I went to high school with, and I don’t want to take part in the online clique-building. If you want to keep a blog or post your pictures, please use a site that doesn’t require membership in a cult just to view it. I decline. I forestall. I abstain.
Thank you.
.:.
This blog post by Matt Brown sounds almost exactly what was going through my mind the first time I visited Vancouver. I left miserable weather (and a fairly unhappy life) in Toronto to visit Vancouver on business. As I flew there I read The Water In Between by Kevin Patterson, a book about a guy who leaves his shitty life behind, moves to BC, buys a boat and just starts sailing. When I got to Vancouver it was sunny and warm, and I sat in my hotel room overlooking English Bay, wishing I had Kevin Patterson’s guts. I had my phone in my hand, ready to make my resignation phone call.
Of course, I didn’t. I returned to Toronto a few days later, and stuck it out there, even though I pretty much had a job offer in Vancouver. In the end, of course, my life turned out pretty well indeed. I don’t for a second regret staying here in Toronto, but I can absolutely understand what Matt’s feeling.
I guess I’ll just keep living Vancariously through Stanzi.
.:.
It’s my mom’s birthday. I’d point you to her blog to leave a congratulatory comment, but she doesn’t roll like that. Given the current trend she’ll no doubt be on Facebook soon though, so maybe y’all can say bonne fete next year.
[tags]facebook yawn, vancouver, english bay[/tags]
What's not to like?
We just had dinner with my brother at Jump; he had a 16-hour stopover on his way back from Chicago. It’s too bad his job forces him to travel so much, but on the plus side we get to see him every few months as he flies to/from somewhere in the midwestern US.
Food review: Cragganmore: good*; spinach salad: good; ricotta ravioli: good; bottle of zinfandel: good; Lindt molten chocolate cake: gooooooood.
* when I say “good” you have to imagine Joey from Friends, specifically the trifle episode
[tags]jump cafe[/tags]
b Profitable
Here’s how today went:
- Got haircut
- Rousted Nellie out of bed and got some breakfast (well, brunch; it was after 12 by this point) downtown at b Espresso Bar. I like it there
- Stopped in at Henry’s to see if they have the wide-angle lens we’vebeen looking for. They do. We shall go back soon and see if they’ll take our old camera on trade
- Went to the condo sales centre. We just wanted another look at the model suite similar to our unit, but Nellie was convinced they wouldn’t show us if they knew we’d already bought, so we pretended to be in the market for a new condo. We had a look around, and also got an updated price list. This was interesting, as the one remaining unit like ours listed for $53,000 more than we paid, and our particular unit’s much better (much higher, 400 sq. foot balcony, higher ceilings, better finishings, etc.). Nice to know that 3 years of waiting has paid off fiscally…so far
- Watch Montreal lose to the Islanders
- Tried to nap
- Bought groceries
- Worked on paper for MBA course
- Wrote this
.:.
After giving the Arcade Fire‘s Neon Bible several listens, I’m convinced it’s at least in the same ballpark as Funeral and has the potential to be just as good, if not as…I don’t know, epic. It has two brilliant songs, “Intervention” and “Antichrist Television Blues”; are they as good as “Neighbourhood #1” and “Rebellion (Lies)”? I’ll need a few hundred more listens to know for sure.
.:.
How cute is my wife? Tonight, while I finished up a paper for school, she watched Pretty In Pink in the other room. Wait, wait, that’s not the cute part (in fact, I find everything about that movie fairly repulsive, especially Molly Ringwald). Here’s the cuteness: when I took a break and went into the bedroom to watch a bit of the Raptors game, she slid a piece of paper under the door that said, in huge letters, “Je t’aime”.
Awwwww.
[tags]b espresso bar, henry’s camera, spire condominium, arcade fire[/tags]
Which reminds me: Le Gourmand is selling whisky-filled chocolate now…
Guinness Marmite? My brother is going to lose his mind.
.:.
Bought three DVDs today. Well, I didn’t really buy them; I sort of won them, kinda-like. Anyway, here’s what I picked up:
- Brick
- The Departed
- Heat (special edition)
Between the special edition sound level and my fancy-pants stereo, I can actually hear what the hell Jon Voight’s saying in this movie. Speaking of Heat, every time I watch it I’m amazed by how many good actors are in it: Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Natalie Portman, Dennis Haysbert (President Palmer!), Amy Brenneman (Judge Amy!), Ashley Judd, Ted Levine (Buffalo Bill!), Mykelti Williamson (Bubba!), Wes Studi (Magua!), Diane Venora, Danny Trejo…plus Jeremy Piven (Ari!), William Fichtner, Hank Azaria (Moe!), Henry Rollins, Tone Loc and Xander Berkeley (Mason!) in bit parts. Amazin’.
[tags]guinness, marmite, brick, the departed, heat[/tags]
Happy Nellie day!
It’s Nellie’s birthday. If you like you should drop by her blog and wish her a happy one.
In three hours we’ll be sitting at Splendido, preparing to devour a sumptuous feast in her honour.
[tags]wife, birthday, splendido[/tags]
A gurgling stomach is "one of the signs" of My Lunch's imminent return
First of all, some big news: my oldest brother is now engaged!!! Everybody pop over to his blog and say congratulations to TimmyD and She Who Must Not Be Named.
Needless to say we’re extremely happy for both of them. We adore SWMNBN, and love how happy she makes my big brother, so we couldn’t be more pleased. Huzzah!
.:.
We tried a new place for Winterlicious last night: The Savoy. T-Bone joined us once again, along with her friend AS. We had a MUCH better experience this time than we had at 1055. My wine (can’t remember what it was…something Tuscan) was really good, my starter salad was excellent, my mushroom risotto wasn’t bad (I don’t like mushrooms, but even then…pretty decent) and my creme brulee was just right. The service was also very good, and best of all our table was in an enclosed booth, so the four of us felt very private and cozy during our meal. To top it off, it was actually cheaper than the typical ‘licious meal — $25 instead of $35 — so we definitely felt like we got our money’s worth.
The Savoy could very well become a neighbourhood joint once we move into our new place.
.:.
I seem to have buggered up my knee somehow. Tried to run on it Sunday afternoon and had to hobble to a stop after 45 seconds. This happens occasionally; hopefully a day with the knee brace should fix it up. But of all the weeks not to be able to exercise: Winterlicious week. Deadly.
.:.
This post on the Showcase Sideshow blog makes an interesting observation: the quality of Mexican directors right now is pretty impressive. It’d be pretty tough to find a better trio of films than Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo Del Toro), Children Of Men (Alfonso Cuaron) and Babel (Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu) in theatres right now.
.:.
Holy blessed mother of hotpants, this Washington Post story takes climate change denial to a whole new level of silliness:
Hardison, a parent of seven here in the southern suburbs of Seattle, has himself roiled the global-warming waters. It happened early this month when he learned that one of his daughters would be watching “An Inconvenient Truth” in her seventh-grade science class.
“No you will not teach or show that propagandist Al Gore video to my child, blaming our nation — the greatest nation ever to exist on this planet — for global warming,” Hardison wrote in an e-mail to the Federal Way School Board. The 43-year-old computer consultant is an evangelical Christian who says he believes that a warming planet is “one of the signs” of Jesus Christ’s imminent return for Judgment Day.
His angry e-mail (along with complaints from a few other parents) stopped the film from being shown to Hardison’s daughter.
The teacher in that science class, Kay Walls, says that after Hardison’s e-mail she was told by her principal that she would receive a disciplinary letter for not following school board rules that require her to seek written permission to present “controversial” materials in class.
Seriously…if you’re the school how can you discipline a teacher for that? You’ve opened the door for teachers to be disciplined for discussing anything, since there’s always some nutbag parent who’ll get their knickers in a twist. Teaching evolution? Sex ed? Geology? Astronomy? Prepare to be disciplined. Hell, if a kid’s parent works for Verizon they’re even likely to complain about the math.
[via Cinematical]
[tags]engagement, savoy restaurant, winterlicious, climate change, inconvenient truth, frosty hardison[/tags]
Skirl | Dan Dickinson 