Still looking for Waldo after all these years...

I normally prefer not to participate in the spread of so called "internet phenomena," but damn!!



Who will join me in starting up a camp to help these poor unfortunates? It would be superfantastic!!!

Let it rain.

Hey, you know what? It's almost September! WTF!!

Actually... since I experience time in a linear fashion... and can portion out that one day = one day no matter when it falls in the month/year... I kinda knew it was coming.

I've been splitting my time between my home-home and my home away from home-home (i.e. house-sitting), and this does make for a sort of disjointedness. Since I'm using Fredericton transit to get back and forth I'm a little hampered by their schedule as far as comings and goings. That just means that if I neglect to bring papers with me to work in the morning for some aspect of work/play/work-play it's about 3 days before I can take another stab at remembering. You know how you end up with all your umbrellas in one spot... not the spot you're in when it starts to rain? Like that but across the board.

As I mentioned last post the computer situation over there is less than idyllic, so I've turned my attention to other pursuits... Playstation on the big screen tv makes your eyes go buggy... so small doses there. There's nothing on tv really except Law and Order reruns... so, no. I've been trying to get into J-Pod by Douglas Coupland, but the 40+ page explication of Pi really gets on my nerves... so, no. Finally I turned my attention to the release of David Lynch's new movie on DVD.



Inland Empire is a 3 hour surrealist smorgasbord funded by revenue from Lynch's website and shot on digital video. Like many of his films there is the hint of a concrete storyline at play somewhere in the middle ground of the narrative, but it is obfuscated by layers and layers of visual metaphor and time-shifted doppelgangers so that balance is always compromised. The bare bones outline is that Laura Dern's character, Nikki Grace, is an actress hungry for a part in a movie called On High in Blue Tomorrows... indications are this will mark a comeback for her. The film, apparently had been the subject of an attempted production some time in the past... derailed when the leads met with an untimely end. Rumours are that the film is cursed. Sure seems so as Nikki disappears into the rabbit hole of the film's history... her identity shifting constantly back and forth between character, actress and other middle steps of self... make you woozy.



I've watched it once in two chunks (I started late one night and my brain only could take 90 minutes before it just... turned off), and perused the extras, a second disc with 75 minutes unused footage, random other weirdness and a vignette of Lynch preparing Quinoa. It'll surely take several more passes to get the lion's share of nuances... then again I'm still piecing together Mullholland Drive.

Even Flo

Sorry I haven't updated in a while. I'm in summer house-sitting mode which throws my routine off... and here at Howard and Linda's the computer, or at least the internet, seems not to like me.

Due to some technical jumbo-gumbo I'm on an older computer that had been disconnected from the internet due to it's ailing CD/DVD burner making it less than adequate for high density torrent shenanigans (those of you who don't know what I mean are really better off for it, trust me). In the meantime the new PC (yeah, PC) doesn't have it's virus repellent bondage program installed. I've temporarily re-connected this older burro to the super-highway, but it gets stubborn and sits still for long stretches when I do something radical like, oh, open a second tab. Although it may also be that the internet has discovered that I'm not using it in the prescribed method. I'm not clicking on the Yahoo! homepage links to win iPods or Plasma TVs or learn more about Britney's battered babies (Mmmm batter...) or Lindsay's Drug Hell... or whatever. I mainly only have store stuff to do, but the slow processing makes doing a simple order hellish and I have no patience left over to do blog stuff.

So here we are----

with some pictures (above and below) from my last Florenceville visit from a couple of weekends ago:




...and what was briefly left of all the trees on Carleton Extension between George and Charlotte after the city got through with them.



According to a street resident the power lines that run along Carleton are feeder lines that carry much higher current that splits off to the rest of the city grid along the way. As a result the trees had become "electrified." I.E. someone climbing them, or even coming into contact with them, ran the risk of electrocution. Apparently there has been a recorded case of this in Nova Scotia.

I'll have more of my Northside zaniness to report soon... such as my run-in with a near dead but still terrifying insect in the bathroom this morning. But for now... ciao

The Piper is Pied

Saturday evening saw a respite from the fears of Southside beatdowns as McKeen St. hosted a short backyard set by the new Piper Perabo line-up. Sadly no footage of this event was captured by yours truly... suffice it to say it was a show befitting hoots, hollers and eventually a noise complaint delivered by the local constabulary.

Afterwards their was much chit chat and fruit flavoured smoke via the hookah circle that broke out. No drugs were harmed during the making of this friendly event.

Cheers

without much explanation.

Over the last couple of weeks I went (by bus) to Quebec, well Ste. Foy if you want to get sticky, because my folks were visiting an aunt for a week or so. It's easier to get out of the province by bus than travel within it, as it turns out. Still, there's pretty scenery in N.B. on the way up such as...
...the river by Hartland and...
...the bus station in Edmundston. Well OK, that's not really scenery... but it paints a picture, right?

On the way up, while I was in Ste. Foy, and on the way back I read:
Dave Eggers' You Shall Know Our Velocity, which I wholeheartedly recommend.

Since then I sold a box of records:
Painted a room which became my new bedroom:
and went to Odell park to play horseshoes:

Horseshoes not pictured

Canada Day

And where better to spend it? Maine... that's where.

M. and I headed down for two days and a night this past weekend... and we kicked things off the night before with an ice cream and milk shake at Skinny's just outside Mactaquac. You owe it to yourself to seek this spot out... it keeps expanding and getting weirder... having turned into a petting zoo of sorts that now includes:

An emu...


A llama...


burros... and tons more.

On Sunday we gathered some camping gear and headed across the border early in the morning. As per my wishes we stopped for breakfast at Denny's in Bangor where the excitement included a drill sgt./bingo caller head waitress, an omelette filled with steak accompanied by home fries and a large stack of pancakes for $5.99, and an unfortunate older gentleman who seemed to be suffering advanced senility, more or less prodded into a window seat by his kids, badgered with meaningless questions ("are you excited for your food? are you excited for YOUR FOOD? ARE YOU EXCITED FOR YOUR FOOD?") only to eventually suffer what may have been a slight heart attack and get taken out by paramedics. I'm sure Denny's have an ambulance on call given the size of their portions (and regular diners).

We headed further south, stopping first at the Big Chicken Barn near Ellsworth. This converted farm building houses an enormous quantity of antiques from furniture to toys to prints and maps to all things great and crappy... as well as a second floor jammed with books and magazines. It was the kind of place that a whole day's worth of digging could be structured around... we spent 3 hours and my head was swimming.

We found a place at the top half of the island that Acadia National Park and Bar Harbor inhabit and set up camp... This is the beach nearby:


..then went in to Bar Harbor to look around. Very scenic... but 96.5% geared toward tourist traffic... which means elbow to elbow people dripping with ice cream/lobster paraphernalia hovering around a downtown made up of restaurants and souvenir shops. Think of St. Andrews times 10.

The next day we mainly checked the rest of the island, hovering around the outskirt of the Park stopping to view

Fishing Villages.


Lighthouses.


Sailboats.




Cliffs.

Then eventually we went into Acadia Park proper, starting with Mt. Cadillac... a 1530 hill with an amazing panorama that, as with most amazing panoramas, was difficult to capture... but here are a few attempts:







Here is also a kinda crappy panorama video I took with my still camera:


Eventually it started raining so we headed back down.


The rain kinda followed us the rest of the afternoon and evening. We left the island as the sky was darkening... stopping at a fish and chip stand to grab dinner. This was nearby:


As we got close to Bangor the sky was very strange and wonderful.









A brief stop for a coffee and we hit the last stretch back to Florenceville. About halfway along we were unlucky enough to see a deer get taken out by a car just ahead of us... kinda bookended the Denny's incident... but alas... such is the way of the long weekend.

Summer in New Brunswick

On Saturday there is the Art Rock at the Charlotte Street Art Center
(Wood Side Burns):

And the Art Rock audience:

Then there is the Saturday night apres show beer and food at Molly's:



Then there is the apres-breakfast Sunday morning bowling at the Bowl-a-Drome on Main Street:



Then there is the Sunday afternoon Kitty Care:


Repeat as necessary

All you need is Hot Turkey and Fries

photo M. Ginson

I'm mindful of lonely people. Especially elderly ones. I do my best to be nice. My parents are older... 77 and 83... and it's my hope that someone is being nice to them from time to time. I will likely be a lonely elderly person... in a couple of years time.

But... old people can be pricks too. I will be nice to you if you're lonely and polite... but if you're pushy and lonely... taste my cold shoulder, yo.

My mid-afternoon post-office/lunch break took me over to King's place where I grabbed a styrofoam enclosed meal of my choice. While I was standing in line this 5 foot tall stumpa stumpa kudzu encrusted hair dye cut ahead of me. I was braced for what came next because I'd been in her proximity during bus trips up to what we refer to as The North Shore. I've so far managed to steer clear of sitting anywhere close by to her then... for the following reason:

Without a "hi" "hello" "excuse me" Little Miss Garden Troll of 1937 she zips ahead of me and opens with: "I'm diabetic... I have diabetes... I'm almost 80... I'll be 80 next month... I'm a senior." All of this with no prompting, no intro and scarcely a breath between.

During the "exchange" that followed I believe the only things I said were, "ah" "yes" and "well."

I also learned: "I got this diabetes bracelet for a dollar... I bought it at a dollar store... I was a waitress at the cafeteria at UNB for ten years... at UNB... for ten years... I met Robert F. Kennedy... RFK... Bobby Kennedy... that was something."

Insert the "ahs" "yeses" and "well" wherever you feel they fit best.

Where I Been

So my friends...

Here is a picture filled resume of the last couple of weeks.

Usually the end of April brings a bit of a lull... a decompression following the eight months of two job overdrive. I'm sure it's akin to how Evel Knievel used to feel right after jumping about twenty schoolbuses full of dynamite... roughly. This year things seem to simply ratchet up as the month closed and reopened on May.

For one, we bid our friend and compatriot Joe Merrick farewell as he set out to offer his very body as food for black flies and bears on the left coast. Our forest filled future depends upon his success to some small percentage.

Next on May 11th the next installment of Surge! rocked the Charlotte St. Art Centre. One thing I learned this time around as a front-of-house/tech person instead of performing is that some people have very large balls. I didn't learn this by cupping groins in the dark, except my own of course. Instead it was revealed as I sat near the entrance, greeting the arriving audience... a full two thirds of which showed up after the show had begun (some up to 40 minutes after), and being informed that admission was "Pay as you will" i.e. based upon your means, a goodly number gave a cow-like gaze and proceeded to their seats. Large. Balls.

On May 14th I was fortunate enough to be invited by Matte and Kora of Vetch (via Andrew Titus) to read for the Governor General of Canada on her brief tour of New Brunswick. I bought fancy clothes... even fancier than my Warrant 3/4 sleeve and Jordache jeans... an actual suit jacket and fancy pants. The rest I had (sorta), and the purchases were mostly second hand. There was a brief moment where it looked like my fellow literary types and I might spend most of the evening at Tim Hortons on King since The Blue Door (where the shindig was held) hadn't saved seating for us... but something soon opened up and we were able to enjoy and spectacular view of... the stairwell going upstairs and a sideview of the stage where the musicians were performing. We could also kinda hear the music. Only when at the mic did I get my first glimpse of Her Excellency and Her Excellent Husband. The reading went quite well and we were treated to an audience with her and her entourage after the entertainment had wrapped. All cynical expectations of quick service of handshakes was dispelled when we had a good half hour of "actual conversation" time... who'd-a thunk?

A couple of days later it was off to the Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville. It's a music festival in Quebec (about halfway between Quebec City and Montreal) that I've covered for Exclaim! for the last 8-9 years. It's extremely well run and a pleasure to attend. This year I went up with M. who had initially planned a three-city multitasking sort've vacation but eventually pared down to just the festival.

We met Marc LeBlanc there... he has been my wingman in all previous years as well... at the residence of the Cegep in Victoriaville. I should say we actually got there about and hour before and went to the residence to find him... but he hadn't shown up yet. So while waiting I went to take a look at our room. Marc had specified in the reservation that he wanted a Suite... basically two small rooms linked by an antechamber that has it's own shower and washroom. When I asked the cardplaying student security in the lobby they looked on their flowchart and said, "No, no, no... we have him in a double bedroom." As is turns out a "double bedrooom" is a bedroom with a double bed... and no bathroom attached... and showers that are stalls out in the hallway. After being told there were three of us staying there the young lady said, "I'll go down and have them install a cot." I backed slowly away and said thanks and see you later and fled the building... bumping into Marc who'd just arrived. We quickly regrouped and headed over the a nearby hotel that thankfully had a room for all four nights of our stay. We bought a Hawaiian Pizza and some beer and briefly celebrated before heading over for the first show:

8pm Cinéma Laurier
Marilyn Crispell, a longtime festival friend performed with a quartet... her on piano, Lotte Anker on woodwinds, Mark Helias on double bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums. It was a nice opener with a mix of free play and composed pieces, often alternating within performance. Cyrille's drums seemed to be a little staid, all similarly tuned and unfocused... but eventually he came around and actually had some of the brightest moments toward the end of the set.


10:00pm Colisée
Corkestra. Led by Cor Fuhler on piano this group featured members of The Ex and ICP Orchestra. They billed themselves, jokingly, as "New Dutch Swing," a tag that wasn't without merit given their intricate and interlocking play of parts that included two drummer / percussionists, a three piece woodwind section, a "Cimbalom" player (seemingly a homemade, prepared xylophone of sorts) and a double bass player that looked like he was hired by central casting to be a "swingin' cat." Push-to-shove this was probably my favourite show of the festival... it featured just the right blend of melody and invention, from the small group excursions into improv that were eventually coralled and brought back to a central theme... it never lagged for a moment.

Midnight Cégep

Not pictured is Jean-François Laporte who performed {{WAVES}}, not in the hall as previously expected, but in a three story stairwell in a wing of the building. His apparatus was a jerry-rigging of pvc tubing, balloon bladders and compressed air that was meant to delivery a body-shaking aural experience. Ultimately it never really amounted to much. The body remained unshaken and the small range of tones overexplored for the duration of the show (40 minutes or so). A short encore featuring a bullroarer-type contraption swung on a rope was much more sublime and effective.
-----------------------------------------

DAY 2

1:00pm Cinéma Laurier
Michael Snow, Alan Licht and Aki Onda. Not an immediately obvious trio. Snow is a Canadian trailblazer in all things avant garde in music, theatre and film... Licht is a NYC (primarily) guitarist who has played indie rock in groups like Run On, large ensemble jazz/noise in Mandarin Movie and released fairly delicate solo works, such as New York Minute on Phill Niblock's XI records... and Onda is a Japanese/Korean artist who's known for his improvisational work with cassettes. Their ability to listen and incoporate Snow's piano sounds and old school electronics with Licht's treated guitar and Onda's on-the-fly loops and washes of noise made for an engaging listen.

5:00pm Cégep













Theresa Transistor. A quartet of Electroacoustic musicians improvising... not something that's usually within their scope of work. Electroacoustic composition usually involves meticulous placement of sounds recorded from "natural" sources (i.e. non-musical) along a manipulated timeline in a kind of narrative. Spontaneity isn't in that job description. Monique Jean, Christian Bouchard, Christian Calon and Mario Gauthier, all Quebec artists, did a commendable job of transporting sound within a multi-speaker, multi-source system... but trying to conjure a distinct memory of the experience seems to pose some problem for me at the moment. The closing moments featured a portable interchange between pocket radio and walkie talkie. I guess that would be a distinct memory

Midnight Cégep










Koenji Hyakkei. Japanese 5-piece led by Ruins drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Yoshida, they bridge the metal, jazz, prog, even opera genres with a heavy precise attack. It's generally the kind of thing that wears on me, but the instrumentation (drums, bass, sax, keyboards and voice) is a little offbeat and overt showmanship is downplayed in favour of fun and group dynamic. A high energy way to end the day.

----------------------

DAY 3

1:00pm Cinéma Laurier
Signal Quintet. Being convened by Cut label boss Jason Kahn this group of European improvisers hypnotized with a minimalist flow of sizzling electronics, stringed drones and occasionals storms of noise. Kahn and For4Ears capo Günter Müller have released a trio of live albums on Müller's label and the sound from those was well represented here. Kahn and Müller have similar approaches in turning organic and percussive sounds into synthetic pulses (Kahn spent a large portion of the show finger tapping a floor tom and loose cymbals).
Tomas Körber follows in the line of European tabletop guitarists who seldom actually touch their guitar, instead manipulating the feedback gently and evocatively through a network of effects. Christian Weber played bowed standup bass for extra drone texture, but also refreshingly did not shy away from occasional musicality... giving the rest of the sound something to hang up from time to time. Shrouded in darkness was Norber Möslang, formerly of Voice Crack, with a table full of homemade electronic toys, some of them light-activated, necessitating his shadowy countenance.

3:00pm Colisée
Victoriaville Matiere Sonore. Sound art seldom makes it's way into the biggest of the venues... but when it does the room's massive sound system makes for an enveloping atmosphere. Curated by Spanish artist Francisco Lopéz (who lives part of the time in Montreal), the source material for this programme was recorded in various public and private spaces in Victoriaville by several of the participants during the previous winter. This sound bank was then used by eight artists to craft their electroacoustic portrait of the town... performed one after another in the large hall. Predictably some pieces were more accomplished than others, but while the artists were introduced by name their unclear order (other than Lopez as the closer) rendered them a little mysterious identitywise. Of those "known" artists Tomas Phillips, Lopez and Chantal Dumas' pieces stood out. Each began with quiet birdsong and went into varied terrain, such as an ambient wash built from the sounds of a hockey game punctuated by referee whistles; layered conversations in malls and living rooms with snatches of interchange made more obviously audible; others, including Lopez, preferred to obfuscate the sources, melding them instead in layers of frequency and complexity to tickle and overload the soundscape.

5:00pm Cégep
Larry Peacock. A difficult bird to name... this "artist" is actually a trio of German women who, for the purposes of performance, take on male personas and multiple roles. Andrea Neumann and Sabine Ercklentz are well respected minimalist improvisers on piano soundboard frame and electronics-enhanced trumpet respectively. In this trio they primarily function as backing band for Antonia Behr's frontman character, Henri Fleur. Through a pastiche of tongue-in-cheek electropop tracks (some featuring pre-recorded music, lip-synching, dance routines, spoken word introductions) they explode issues of gender, nationality and audience expectations in modern music.

8:00pm Cinéma Laurier
Carla Bozulich. Having had a career that dates back a couple decades and crawled out of punk and jazz/metal subgenres through bands like Ethyl Meatplow, Carla became more visible in the early 90s with the high energy alt. country band Geraldine Fibbers. In recent days she's performed in a left of center duo with Nels Cline and solo... gaining notice for her song-by-song cover of Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger and last year's Evangelista on Constellation Records. It was primarily from the latter that the show was drawn... assisted by ladies of the Montreal scene and her right hand bassist Tara. By far the loosest, sloppiest and warmest show of the festival, it was a wonderful counterpoint: the heart taking over for the brain if only for a while.





10:00pm Colisée













Acid Mothers Gong. Did I say the Bozulich show was the loosest and sloppiest? Well this one upped the ante... but given the more jammed-out nature of the set it fit. A melding of Japan's premiere heavy psychedelic collective, augmented here by Tatsuya Yoshida on drums and Koenji Hyakkei saxophonist Komori Keiko, and 70s psychedelic pioneers Gong represented here by three members including founder/leader Daevid Allen. There was plenty of space debris littering the air the whole evening... with the precedings "guided" mostly by Yoshida's forceful drum suggestions or Makoto Kawabata's guitar leads. They managed to bridge the four decade gap fairly well, though the goofiness of Allen and singer/poet Gilli Smyth at time derailed the heaviness.

Midnight Cégep
Magik Markers. Stripped down to a two piece, the best way to explain MM is to suggest a White Stripes where Meg played guitar, Jack Drummed and they listened to Sonic Youth's "Shaking Hell" for inspiration. Pete Nolan keeps things nailed down for Elisa Ambrogio who dresses and approaches the guitar like an angry eleven year old... that is until she opens her mouth and this soulful blues lady voice comes out. But the crux of the show is the tension that builds and explodes into a crush of feedback and wailing... seemingly to be just barely under any control.

---------------

DAY 4

1:00pm Cinéma Laurier
Quasar/Alexandre Burton/Julien Roy. A saxophone quartet and a couple of laptop loopers... Burton and Roy set up digital cameras in the mic stands of the players and grabbed brief moments of their live playing, then would loop both video and audio, projected in tetris blocks on three screens at the stage's rear. The novelty of the process was engaging, but as with most novelty it's capacity was soon met and exhausted. The music, perhaps overshadowed by the technology at the beginning, was competent... but not very memorable.

3:00 pm Colisée
Anthony Braxton
Diamond Curtain Wall Trio. Returning to Victo with two shows after only a year away, Braxton's DCWT project is unveiled, revealing a new interest in technology... here in the form of laptop Supercollider software. The electronics acted as a kind of untreated granular feedback that would normally be manipulated and shaped by a perfomer, but here was left to provide a kind of backdrop the three players bounced off of (hence the name, I suppose). Given this lattitude the trio, Braxton with trumpet player Taylor Ho Bynum and guitarist Mary Halvorson, was able to patiently explore the smaller spaces of sound that existed between them.

5:00pm Cégep













Fine Kwiatkowski/Hans Tammen. Dance isn't usually featured at the festival, but this duo make an argument for its inclusion. Kwiatkowski apparently trained as an acrobat and mime and her dance improvisations reflect this blend of flexibility and expressiveness. Stark and minimal lighting enhanced a gray shaded performance that mixed extremities of force and fragility. Tammen's laptop-channelled guitar similarly went from whisper to scream as the two fed off each other's energy.


8:00pm Cinéma Laurier
Wishart/Kurzmann/Dafeldecker. Originally slated as a quartet with pianist and elder statesman John Tilbury, this was trimmed back to a trio when Tilbury's doctor advised against travel due to health concerns. Perhaps it was his absence that muted the resulting set. Christof Kurzmann's laptop burbling was fairly evocative and Stevie Wishart explored the noise and drone of her hurdy gurdy with skill, but ultimately failed to really connect with a listless Werner Dafeldecker on bowed bass and electronics. Dafeldecker seemed to be attempting a much more restrained and microscopic sound while the other two pulled upwards into a more crowded soundspace. Moments of transcendence aside neither camp succeeded in convincing the other.

------

DAY 5

The drive back... we left Victoriaville around 9:30-10am and headed for the U.S. border at Jackman (we saw no Wolverines... in case you wondered.


Along the way we passed through a few smaller Quebec towns including Thetford Mines (I think) that featured an omninous and towering pile of some mined material dominating it's landscape. I snapped a few pictures on the way by, but it wasn't until I looked at them on the computer that I noticed the word LIBERTÉ had been scratched near the top of the mound. If you click and enlarge it you can see it a little better.


There were a few overlooks that had no real foreground reference points to indicate scale... trust me though... pretty. Why would we have stopped otherwise?


As the day wore on hunger took over so we stopped in Skowhegan at the Empire Grill. Small towns in Maine are reminders that Fredericton turns it's back on it's own small town-ness. In Maine (as in outlying areas in N.B.) places seem more lived in, worn down. Most restaurants in Fredericton look like they might've just opened the week before. Exceptions exist, like The Cabin or Joe's... but they are out of the downtown core. If there was an Empire Grill in Fredericton I'd like eat there 3 times a week.


We stopped in Bangor for a few hours. M. went off clothes shopping and I got dropped off at Bull Moose Records to peruse their surprisingly stocked shelves. Used Cd-wise they more or less follow most new/used store templates with a few hidden gems (I picked up an Early Day Miners disc and passed on a Coachwhips I wasn't sure about and the Animal Collective 2 disc set, Spirit They've Gone/Danse Manatee, because I have the original version of the first disc), but it's their DVD selection that impresses. A lot of cult horror and Asian cinema titles both new and used. I ended up getting a copy of Takehashi Miike's Audition and the Spanish version of Vanilla Sky, Alejandro Amenabar's Abre los oyos. I reconoitered with M. over at Borders. Because Maine doesn't seem to believe in crosswalks I had to dart over highways and even had to startle a woodchuck as I hopped over a stream bed between a strip mall and the Borders building. After a little browsing we headed over to Target to grab a snack, some Italian Soda and then hit the road again.


The tales of what came next will follow... I'm tired and my wrists hurt.

Cheers.