Last night I watched Denys Arcand’s Oscar-winning followup to Decline Of The American Empire, The Barbarian Invasions (rotten tomatoes | imdb). What a film. At once a critique of the Canadian (and, specifically, Quebecois) health care system, an examination of American reaction to 9/11, a plea for the right to end one’s own life, and a question of our own ability to evade the fate toward which our parents steer us. On top of all this it’s funny, sarcastic, sardonic, smart, and touching.

Even if you haven’t seen Decline, you should watch Barbarian Invasions. Actually, screw it. Watch both. Doesn’t matter which order.

from Soulshine: C’est What? Comes Out On Top

C’est What? Comes Out On Top
Published: 2004-10-05
Sometimes you just can’t let the man get you down. The owners of one of Toronto’s most beloved music venues C’est What? have found that out for themselves. When the landlord of the building that Nia @ C’est What? is housed in tripled the rent on the music room, the owners were forced to let the space go. The last show at Nia took place on August 21, 2004.

Established for nearly two decades, C’est What? has been the stage for many Toronto musicians to share their talents. An important part of the local music scene, many residents are stunned to hear that Nia is no longer. But thankfully, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Toronto’s local music fans.

With hundreds of letters of support from patrons, C’est What? president George Milbrandt is not going to let one man stop the music from playing. “Landlords should not be the arbiters of our culture,” he said, echoing the sentiment of many of Toronto’s residents. And Milbrandt is taking steps to make that statement all the more true.

One of the rooms in C’est What’s restaurant is set to become the new home of Toronto’s indie artists. Not only is C’est What’s music room back in business, but the venue will be outfitted with a 24-track live remote recording facility. This means that any live show at the club can be transferred to a recording with hi-fi album quality.

C’est What? is even taking it one step further. While Torontonians thought they would be completely without the music venue, the absolute opposite is now true. Every single live performance at C’est What? will be streamed through http://www.cestwhat.com for not only Torontonians to hear, but the entirety of the global community.

On October 12th at 9:00pm, the owners of C’est What are throwing a ‘thank you’ party for all their supporters, with performances by the Ladybird Sideshow. Shows at the new C’est What? music venue are expected to start up in mid-November.

Writer: Jaclyn Arndt

I burned a CD for my father last night, which I plan to ship to him today. As I readied the envelope I had another look at the tracks, all taken from CDs (or MP3s) that I own, that I thought he’d like…or at least find interesting. Here’s the tracklist:

1. Natalie Merchant – Sally Ann
2. The Be Good Tanyas – Reuben
3. Damien Jurado – Window
4. My Morning Jacket – Dancefloors
5. HEM – Half An Acre
6. We Five – You Were On My Mind
7. Varnaline – Hear The Birds Cry
8. The Thorns – Runaway Feeling
9. The Shangri La’s – The Train From Kansas City
10. Raising The Fawn – Gwendolyn
11. The Morganfields – Rainbreaker
12. Mike Ness – I Fought The Law
13. Laurie Styvers – Beat The Reaper
14. Johnny Cash w/ Bonnie Prince Billy – I See A Darkness
15. The Drive-By Truckers – Danko/Manuel
16. Catherine Irwin – Cry Our Little Eyes Out
17. The Black Keys – Brooklyn Bound
18. Bob Mould & Vic Chestnutt – Hickory Wind
19. Son Volt – Open All Night

The fact that my Dad — who’s 61 — will (probably) like songs by The Be Good Tanyas, Damien Jurado, My Morning Jacket, The Black Keys, Bob Mould & Son Volt makes him cooler than 99% of the people half his age.

Well…musically, anyway. 😉

(from The Talent Show)

from The Movie Blog: John Woo is Bringing Us He-Man!

Lots of listening & watching these past few days:

• Bought the new Arcade Fire disc Funeral (metacritic | pitchfork). It’s as good as all the hype would suggest. I’d say it’s somewhere between A Silver Mt. Zion and The Fiery Furnaces, and that ain’t a bad place to be at all. Certainly it’s different enough to warrant the interest it’s getting, and it’ll likely never be on the radio which gives it some extra zippity-zing in my book.
• Also bought the new Black Keys and Mark Lanegan discs a while back. Both’re chock full of bluesy goodness.
• Picked up the Daily Show book, America: The Book (Amazon). It’s…huge. There’s too much there for me to go through anytime soon since I’m reading nothing but global finance textbooks these days, but it’s really funny so far. I’d expect nothing less from the funniest show on TV.
• We watched two movies from Zip this weekend: Matchstick Men and The Crossing Guard. Neither of them great, but neither of them bad either.

I’ve been having tremendous fun with this. It got “grain silo” and “laser pointer”, but I stumped it with “cymbal”. It disagreed with me on how I defined it, but whatever. I was a drummer fer chrissakes, I should know.

Well, I should think so.

From the New York Times: Judge Strikes Down Section of Patriot Act Allowing Secret Subpoenas of Internet Data

A few nights ago I watched Don’t Look Back (imdb | rotten tomatoes), the documentary by D.A. Pennebaker about Bob Dylan. I’d watched parts of it before, but this time, watching it all the way through, I was reminded of two things:

1. Bob Dylan was angry. A few months ago I would have said he was a jackass, but I’m no longer so certain. Of course he was conceited, given how much adulation he was being given, but knowing what we know now about how Bob felt (his recent memoirs have revealed that he didn’t understand the fans who wanted him to be a folk hero, who saw him as the spearpoint of a revolution) I get the feeling that it wasn’t superiority or arrogance coming spewing out of him so much as it was frustration and exasperation. This gave me a completely different view of him. Nearly a tragic figure, except that he seemed to take a fair bit of pleasure in berating the journalists and fans.
2. Bob Dylan was a genius.

After watching the movie I had to put on the Royal Albert Hall CD and listen to “Desolation Row”, then I put in Time Out Of Mind and listened to “Highlands”. After that I put in the DVD of The Last Waltz and listened to “Baby Let Me Follow You Down”.

From CBC: New $20 bill goes into circulation. I got one of these this morning from a bank machine at First Canadian Place.