TwoBlog

I bought gas at 93 cents today. And with my gas card I worked it down to 88 cents! Long live the recession!

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My brother Luc just informed me that James has a new album on the market. Time to skip out and check it out! More to come on that one.

What troubles me slightly is that I had no idea they were producing again. What has happened to me?

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Our household was very disappointed with the broadcasting of the Olympics in Beijing. The games themselves seemed very good and there were some pretty good events like the 100M and 200M dominiation by Usain Bolt. It’s the broadcasters we loathe.

Sonia (and I agree with her) was very disappointed in what NBC and CBC (and TSN I guess, but who cares about them since they only were able to show basketball and boxing. Whoppeee!) were broadcasting, particularly in prime time. Of the most irritating things: why did they have to spend about 40% of their broadcast time showing profiles on Olympians and docucrap on China? My god, we can do this ourselves on the internet. So, add in commercials and of the ‘billion’ of hours of broadcasting, about 25% was actually devoted to showing the events themselves. And that leads to aggravating point number 2: they were often showing stuff that we just didn’t care to watch. IN PARTICULAR: BEACH VOLLEYBALL. Man, this made up hokey sport for drunken teens to play on spring break shouldn’t even be in the Olympics (nor should a lot of other events like syncro swimming. Table tennis can stay but it should be officially renamed to ping-pong). If you add the amount of time CBC spent on Beach Volleyball, now were down to about 18-20% of the broadcasting time was spent on anything remotely interesting. And get this: Canada didn’t even have any entrants in Beach Volleyball that would have garnered any real interest! But I guess that could be said for pretty much every event (Bah-dum!)

So, grow up you silly excuse for a ‘national’ television station and start using TV a little better. Start getting the real guns involved like Rogers and start offering multiple On-Demand options so that I can watch what event I want, when I want. Boy, I was Jonesing for some badminton or archery, you know, stuff I never see outside of the Olympics but not once did I catch any of that. And don’t give me that ‘how do we make money if we go On-Demand’ crap because there are many creative ways to make a profit going down that path. Though I’m not going to make your life easier by telling you how.

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I’ve been adding (slowly) to my blog page about songs that invoke vivid memories of my past. While I was scrolling through the Nazareth part of my brain, I remembered a couple of funny things that I just have to repeat here:

“You’d think that these memories should come out of high school or even earlier, but they are more about my 2A to 3B terms at UW, most of that time living at Batavia place. The ‘Nazareth Anthology’ came out the term I was in 2A. But it all started in 1A, when I received one of their cassette tapes in the big first purchase from Columbia House (do they still exist?). Yes, cassette tapes. I would listen to this during my walks to class in the dead of winter (1B). “Heart’s Grown Cold” is a big memory maker. It was during this period of purchasing albums from Columbia House that I made the transition to CDs. Wow. My Nazareth Anthology box set was eventually stolen while living on 3rd Street (near Lansdowne) in Ottawa during my third workterm. One day Scott Murphy and I bought a couple of these keg contraptions holding 36 beer equivalent that Labatt’s was trying out for their Genuine Draft product. All day in the backyard we were sitting around listening to old vinyl Metallica albums that the neighbour was ‘introducing us to’. I don’t know how it happened but for some reason 2 absolute strangers joined us in the fun. These guys were shady at best (think mullets, cut off jeans and wife-beater shirts). After drinking a lot of beer with us, they eventually left. They seemed like nice guys. Later that day Scott and I went out to shoot some pool and when we got back, my bedroom window had been broken into and these guys (obviously) were the culprits. But they only took 2 things: my jar of change and my Nazareth Anthology. Now, I say obvious because we had left the keg contraptions in the back yard but not the taps. The kegs were also damaged….as if somebody were trying really hard to get some more of that wonderful Duff they had been drinking earlier that day. True story!”

Oh, and something I’m also proud of: I once went to see Nazareth when they came to the Flying Dog. But it wasn’t called the Flying Dog back then. Does anybody remember what it was called back in the early 90’s?

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I went to a concert last night. The opening band was FictionPlane. The lead singer’s name is Joe Sumner. He has a very strong voice and also plays the bass. The style is bold and aggressive. If you like TEB or Matthew Good you may want to give this band a try. Their latest album is “Left Side of the Brain”
If the name Joe Sumner rings a bell don’t be alarmed. His father’s name is Gordon Sumner, a.k.a Sting. And there’s no doubt that they are father and son. Once you hear a song from FictionPlane you’ll hear it plain as day.

Naturally (nepotism be damned) they were the opening act for the reincarnation of the Police. The original members are back after a 24 year hiatus and they haven’t missed a beat.  Sting continues to have that powerful haunting voice while working the bass like one of the greats that he is.  Stewart Copeland was a drum machine that had several tricks up his sleeve for the concert.  His usual drum set plus in behind a platform would raise up for certain songs (King of Pain, Wrapped around Your Finger) with massive orchestra drums, gongs, various bells and xylophones.  He was displaying his maturity and added his 20 odd years of creativity to the songs that weren’t present in the early days.  And then there was Andy Summers on the guitar.  He’s matured/mellowed over the years and has had similar post-Police experiences akin to Copeland by writing scores to television and movie productions but getting back to his roots has produced a re-emergence of his innovative guitar playing.  Check out Wikipedia to learn more about these truly accomplished musicians and learn how they are considered the masters of their instruments.

What I like most about this concert (and it was excellent) was that they stuck to only Police songs.  I was suspicious as to whether they were going to sneak in some solo post-Police work from each of the members and I was glad that didn’t happen.  It provided for a feeling that it was as if they had never left and were truly just 3 guys in a band, not these 3 ego-hungry guys all coming back from accomplished careers.  It was as if they only ever were just the Police and the last 24 yrs never really happened.

And this brings me to a clarification.  I have stated in the past that I’m not a fan of the revival bands a.k.a the bands trying to re-live their glory.  But I need to elaborate on this.  What I dislike about this notion is that these bands typically have been around the scene too long, have inundated the industry with post-glory-day songs and use this re-union to try to promote new material that just doesn’t fit the current day.  I.e. it’s the out-of-touch, overstayed-your-welcome sort of feeling.

The Police reunion does not meet the requirements of sucky revival band.  They produced 5 albums in the late 70’s and early 80’s and then that was it.  They disbanded at their peak and were never intending to reunite EVER.  So for 24 yrs these guys have flourished on their own but have not produced any ‘Police’ material.  So, there wasn’t any ‘past-their-prime’ songs to be played.  All songs were big hits that everyone associates with a ‘glory day’ mentality.  So after 24 yrs these songs are still fresh.  And that’s how they were played.  With enthusiasm, not with another paycheck or a ‘let’s milk the fame’ sort of feel to it.

The concert flow I felt was very good.  But not a 10 out of 10.  They opened with Message in a Bottle followed quickly by Synchronicity II.  Very high paced renditions.  Showed off all their skills quite admirably and set the tone that this was going to be something to remember.  They may look old but they’re not going to play old.

Great renditions of Walking on the Moon,  Don’t Stand So Close to Me, Wrapped around your finger, De Do Do Do De Da Da Da.  Always a great solo/duet guitar/bass montage in the middle taking what everyone is used to hearing and then twisting it up a bit.

The keynote song was ‘Can’t Stand Losing You’.  Some real power chording and crowd participation.  They cranked up the Reggae big time and was something to hear.  I really hope there’s a DVD release of one of these concert stops for the tour.

Where it got a little disappointing was that they closed the pre-encore set with Roxanne.  That’s to be expected, but the way it was played was not energetic.  It was more of a sombre version that was great for a lot of guitar and drum exploration.  Which they did do.  But that sort of song should go in the middle somewhere to change the pace.  They maybe should have taken a page out of the Echo formula and use that song to explore a medley of other songs the group like but were created by other bands that have influenced them.  That is an Echo mainstay and is often the highlight of the concert.  People love hearing great bands play other great band’s songs with the band’s flavour added in.

Anyway, the encore was King of Pain, So Lonely and Every Breath You Take.  A predictable mini-set that did not take away from the magic.

After digesting the concert I couldn’t stop admiring the talent that each performer has.  And I couldn’t help making comparisons to another great 3 player power band with a lead singer who is also the bassist:  Rush.  And I couldn’t help but see the similarities of each member.  Yeah, I know Geddy Lee’s voice can be grating to some, but ala Sting, he does have a powerful voice, it has not degraded over time, and he is a bass master.  Stewart Copeland is a percussion pioneer with techniques and styles that he invented and are emulated by a vast number of drummers today.  Neal Pert also can add these qualities to his resume as well.  And Alex and Andy are both rock stable guitarists with a lot of charisma and dexterity.   Both bands have extremely clever lyrics to their catchy tunes and you can certainly hear similar beats and progressions in their songs.

What amazes me most though about both these bands is that the lead singer plays the bass.  It’s mind boggling how they can sing the main ‘tune’ of the song and simultaneously (and masterfully) complement the song with the bass which is complimentary yet usually quite polar to the notes being sung.  It is no wonder that not many bands can put this type of product together.

It was a great experience and I don’t care if I’m considered a hypocrite to my no-reunion band policy.

I leave you with one thought.  High praise for the concert but hey, it was not Echo so really, it simply cannot get the 10/10 rating.  I give it 8.5/10.

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I went to Woodbine with Sonia and Brandon last Wed night.  A chilly night it was.  But the races run until Dec so I guess the horses don’t mind.

It was my first taste of Thoroughbred racing.  My previous experiences have all been harness.  Thoroughbred is wayyy much more exciting.  The horses are packed in tighter along the rail since there is no carriage to consider.  And it is a faster race.  The runs down the stretch are more dramatic as there is more possibility for the closers to gain ground.

The gambling result?  I am as poor at picking the thoroughbreds as I am with the harness horses.  Which is to say I suck.  But most of it is due to the fact that I usually bet triactors or superfactors.   Sonia and Brandon opted for the win/place/show type bets and were very successful.  But picking the favourites doesn’t really inflate the wallet.  But the winnings were enough to feed my fruitless risk bets.

I didn’t win a thing.  I came close with the Superfactor in the last race.  But of the 4 horses I selected, it was the favourite that let me down.

One time, and one time only, I bought a show bet.  I bet on a 1st time racer in the 6th called Shy Wit.  I made this bet before seeing the horse.  Which was a shame.  When the horses paraded in front of the stands, I couldn’t believe what a saw.  A short little fellow at least 2 hands shorter than any other horse in the race.  Such a small stature had no chance to win.  He stumbled out of the gate and in the end finished about 5 seconds behind the pack.  At 45-1 I didn’t expect much but thought I’d give the newbie a chance.

A great time all in all.  It was cold enough that we didn’t sit outside up close to the action.  And there weren’t many people there.  Next year we’ll head over in the summer and see what it’s like when there’s a big crowd on hand.

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