Five for Friday 2

[photo stolen from Mike Nason's Facebook page]

Five songs, chosen without a plan, brought together to see.
Download and enjoy:

01 "Roman Candle"
Bedhead - Beheaded (Trance Syndicate/1996)

02 "Femmes Damnées"
Geoff Farina - Already Told You (Southern/2005)

03 "Écologie + Histoire part 3"
Vitaminsforyou - I'm Sorry Forever And For Always (Intr_version/2003)

04 "Blankets & Shields"
Canyon - Empty Rooms (Gern Blandsten/2001)

05 "Fields and Parks of Easy Access"
Town & Country - Up Above (Thrill Jockey/2006)

Duration: 14'03" / Size: 20 Mb
Download

Five for Friday

Five songs, chosen without a plan, brought together to see.
Download and enjoy:

01 "Afraid"
Nico - Desertshore (Reprise/1970)

02 "How Much Progress One Makes"
Pan.American - White Bird Release (Kranky/2008)

03 "Walking and Falling"
Laurie Anderson - Big Science (Warner/1982)

04 "Come Close My Eyes"
Flying Saucer Attack - Further (Drag City/1995)

05 "Two Blue Lights"
Songs:Ohia - Didn't It Rain (Secretly Canadian/2002)

Duration: 15'30'' / Size: 22 Mb
Download mp3

CHERRY (2009)

Lady in the Radiator

via If We Don't, Remember Me

“In Heaven, everything is fine. … You’ve got your good things, and I’ve got mine.”
Eraserhead (1976)

A Sequence of Lines Traced by 500 Individuals

via Roomthily

A Sequence of Lines Traced by Five Hundred Individuals from clement valla on Vimeo.

Tasnafanuary

I hope everyone is having a great Tasnafanuary.  If you haven't already I encourage you to get a tattoo of a snake on your face in support of Hepatitis C research.

High Resolution

This may sound like a peculiar statement, given what most of you know about me, but I'm making a pledge to listen to more music in 2011.

OK. Maybe that needs some clarification.

It's Xmas (merry xcetera, btw), and since I find myself at home in Fredericton for the holiday for, I think, the first time (?), I've been spending the morning cleaning and organizing. Don't ask me why, but holidays make me want to do anything but relax... which is what I do the rest of the time, I suppose. Of the elements needing organization in my life the most constant is my music. Besides the fairly well stored already sorted collection there are always stacks and stacks (and stacks) of CDs that have come in since the last mass alphabetization. Usually I try to keep these intervals down to a month or two at most, but 2010 has been a year of fairly constant crisis and/or minor distraction. As a result there are approximately 200-300 CDs that have accumulated in piles both minor and major all over the house.

Here is a break down of the stacks and their specific species designation.

(1) CDs that I bought and/or got as play copies at the store. [these need only to be inserted into the collection]

(2a) CDs that I received from Exclaim! to review [as yet unreviewed]
(2b) CDs that I received from Exclaim! to review [reviewed and vetted to keep]
(2c) CDs that I received from Exclaim! to review [reviewed and vetted to dispose of either through sales at the store or some other manner]
(2d) CDs that I received from Exclaim! to review [not reviewed and past deadline, but still need listening to determine whether they are keepers or not]

(3) CDs that I received from labels and/or services for the Surgery podcast. These are not usually divided into subsets as quickly, but are currently in need of a good purge of the titles that likely won't get any further listens.

(4) The big pile on the hallway bureau that is a weird combination of all the other types and sits gathering accusatory energy beneath my mittens and toques.

These stacks have been built and dismantled and scattered and recombined multiple times since late Spring. And now I'm taking another run at it. Today. Xmas day. Simultaneously I am compiling my top 50 for 2010 in preparation for both the Backstreet Blog and the NYE party next week. Other than a co-mingled sense of pride, accomplishment, shame and panic it occurs to me that of these few hundred CDs I've not really given even half of them more than a cursory perusal. So the question I ask (and have asked previously in truth) is "what's the point?"

So I come back around to the resolution: to make next year a time to listen... actually listen... like for pleasure rather than critical evaluation or utility... to more music.

Right now I'm listening to John Fahey's The Yellow Princess... a CD that I purchased to put into my collection sometime back in July, I think. It's a good sunny December day album (Xmas music is not my thing). What's up next? We... shall see.

My First Dragontape

---
UNCUFFED
(00:59:55)
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1. Sparklehorse "Home Coming Queen" (03:36)
2. Sam Amidon - 'Saro' (04:04)
3. Juana Molina (05:52)
4. Helado Negro- Dahum (03:46)
5. Castanets - Cathedral 4 / Sway - A Take Away Show (05:21)
6. cLOUDDEAD 'Dead Dogs Two' (BOC mix) Music Video (Unofficial) (05:01)
7. The Notwist "One With the Freaks" Director: Keith Schofield (03:40)
8. MEGAFAUN - Impressions of the Past (05:33)
9. Sleater-Kinney Modern Girl Burn To Shine (03:13)
10. Parts & Labor - "The Gold We're Digging" Jagjaguwar Records (03:01)
11. Telekinesis - Call All Doctors (Live on KEXP) (03:21)
12. Nina Nastasia - Cry, Cry, Baby - Fatcat Records (04:03)
13. Scout Niblett (Feat. Will Oldham) - Kiss (06:09)
14. Palace Brothers - You will miss me when I burn (03:15)

---
Created by surgeryradio (Thu Dec 16 04:09:42 UTC 2010)


Make your own: www.dragontape.com

Well, maybe not every day.

Did you know that it's ANIMATED_GIF_A_DAY week?

Did you know that the ANIMATED_ GIF_A_DAY week starts on Wednesday?

Now you do.

Welcome December

One of THESE days:

Fredericton, my Fredericton

While it's true that I haven't lived in very many places... and therefore my opportunities for comparison are slim... I feel like Fredericton has more than its fair share of peculiarities that make it an alternately fascinating, wonderful, frustrating and sometimes truly fist-clenchingly dumb town.  Let's throw light on a few of them over the next few posts, shall we?  OK.

King's Place Lines and Service.

The straightest route between home and work takes me through King's Place each morning.  The businesses I frequent there most often are the Scotiabank (bank machine only), The Dollar Store, The Smoke Shop (or whatever it's called), Shopper's Drug Mart, The Key Cutting Place (or whatever it's called) and the Food Court.  What all these places have in common are frequent long lines and nearly-as-frequent dubious service.

The Scotiabank:  while this is not uniquely true of it's bank machine, there always seems to be someone at the front of the line that (a) is trying to do something very, very complex through their apparently dozens of accounts than (b) requires finding at least three banking cards, none of which they though to start looking for until they begin the process at the machine itself.

The Dollar Store:  I have no real complaint about the staff here.  Some of them seem quite funny and charming despite what must be a daily exercise in self-flagellation.  But while many Dollar Stores are cramped this one is truly claustrophobic, with aisles so tight they cannot contain their often doublewide customer base.  It was yesterday's peculiar moment that gave me the idea for taking a look at the duality of our fair city.  I dropped in to buy a new chord for the store's phone handset... I was a little bit in a hurry it should be said... and so when I was wedged at the counter behind two native ladies in their late 50s perusing the Dollar Store nose rings... ... ... ....  I mean... Dollar Store... NOSE RINGS!!!  WTF!!!

The Smoke Shop (or whatever):  I know this is, again, not uncommon elsewhere... but how many times have I been making steady progress towards my working day only to be derailed at this little hemorrhoid of a "convenience" store by a queue of pensioners either checking their losing 6/49 tickets or chosing $27 worth of scratch tickets while their cats go hungry at home?

Shopper's Drug Mart:  No I don't have a fucking Optimum Card... why don't you just lower all your prices by 5% and call it even, ok?

The Key Cutting Place (or whatever):  Generally is totally fine... innocuous... benign... but yesterday (the other half of my Dollar Store debacle/progress halter)... I needed three keys cut.  Now the shop owner and all-the-time counterman was not in for the first and only time I've ever witnessed.  Instead there was a gentleman I would often see hanging out at the counter (Fredericton... and especially King's Place... specializes in human fixtures... the omnipresent loafer that's graduated to malingerer.)  But today he was my cutter of keys.  He got 2 of the three more or less right (many of the duplicates the shop make seem to share the same flaw... a need to sing them fully into the lock then pull slightly back out while turning in order to unlock the door)... but the 3rd would not even go into the keyhole.  I went back over and let him know... and he confessed that he was lacking in key cutting experience and that the owner would be back on Friday (this was Tuesday).  I tried to think if there was another place downtown to get this done right away... but while I was coming up empty he decided to have another crack at it.  I volunteered that the owner had made another copy of this same key a little while back and that he had to consult a guide since the original make was no longer available, but that there was an adequate substitute that had worked.  I also mentioned that the key head was oval... that much was very very definite in my memory.  Rather than confine himself to this information he cut two more keys, both with diamond shaped heads, and said confidently, "I'm sure one of these will do the job."  Neither did.

The Food Court:  I logically know that I shouldn't buy food at McDonald's.  I know this.  Still.  I do.  So I look at the break time death marches and counter incompetence as my punishment for going against my better judgement.  McDonald's offers free refills on coffee and soft drinks and this often makes up 75% of the liners up... so the line usually progresses fairly quickly.  Except of course when the Fredericton-style confusion sets in and certain persons-of-the-line decide to express their individualism by, for some reason, positioning themselves 8-10 feet abreast of the actual line.  Now it's important to make the distinction here that they are not starting or standing in another imagined line... they are really somehow in the same line you are a part of, only... you know... really to the left or right of it.  Puzzling.  On the other side of the counter it always seems that the King's Place MacDonald's is the Australia  to all the other MacDonalds's Victorian England.  The long-time staff mostly are confined, Oompa Loompa-like, to a behind the scenes role of labor while the front of house staff is a rotating cast of young folk and seniors banished from the high profile Prospect or Regent Mall locations.  They routinely run out of things like... you know... cups, napkins, burger wrappers.  They will forget to make coffee, put fries or hash browns down.  Generally the "fast" notion is downgraded to "moderately rapid" food.  Serves me right, though.

So that covers the first small segment of the Fredericton Experience through my own private lens.  Maybe next we'll cover how there are several dozen hair cutting places, massage therapists and tattoo shops but only two bookstores and one record store downtown.  OK?  ok.

Weird Discoveries

Did you know that actress Kyle Richards:

whose most recent role was a stint as Nurse Dori on ER (not counting her current appearances as herself in Real Housewives of Beverly Hills), is not only Paris Hilton's Aunt:

but also starred as one of Jamie Lee Curtis' terrified babysitting charges (Lindsey) in the very first Halloween:

The Bananas Split

Early Monday morning, August 9th.  I'm in the store doing a little prep work for the week.  So the phone rings... so I pick it up, as I'm trained to do.

Me: Backstreet
He: Backstreet?
Me: Yes.
He: Oh, hey, yeah... I'm hoping you can help me.  I'm looking for a Deep Purple album and I'm having a hell of time tracking it down.
Me: OK... what's the title?
He: It's one I had a long time ago, then I loaned it to someone and, yeah, well [chuckles], you know...
Me: OK... what's the title?
He: Oh... yeah, man... it's called Bananas.
Me: Bananas? I'm not familiar with that one... we definitely don't have it in stock at the moment.
He: Well I did have it at one point... I think I bought it at the record store in the Fredericton Mall, when there was a record store at the Fredericton Mall.
Me: Was it an older title, or a live one... it might have been an "official bootleg" or something along those lines.
He: Well I don't know... I don't have a computer and I'm on disability... so I can't really check...
Me: All right... well, I don't actually work today, I'm just in setting up the store for the week, but give me your contact info and I can check and get back to you later in the week.
He: Cool... I'd really like to get me hands on that album.

Information is provided.

Later in the week... I've done the research, but because I wrote the contact and album info on a piece of scrap paper and not in our order book... and that piece of paper is somewhere in a stack of semi-connected pocket detritus in my apartment... I'm unable to call him back on Wednesday and Thursday... but he calls back on Friday morning, August 13th.  In the meantime I've found this out about Deep Purple Bananas on Wikipedia:

Bananas is the 17th studio album by English rock band Deep Purple,^[1] released on October 7, 2003.^[2] It includes "Contact Lost", a short, slow instrumental about the Columbia astronauts, written by guitarist Steve Morse when he heard the sad news of the crash.^[3]
This is the first Deep Purple album to feature Don Airey on the keyboards, replacing founding member Jon Lord.^[4] The album was recorded in Los Angeles during January and February of 2003.^[1]
It is also notable as being the only Deep Purple album that features Ian Gillan being backed by vocals other than his own, with the song "Haunted" featuring a female backing singer, Beth Hart.

Me: Backstreet
He: Hey, Backstreet, yeah... I called earlier about a Deep Purple album...
Me: Oh yeah... I looked into that... it does actually exist after all.  It's not a bootleg, but it's fairly recent... from 2003.
He: I don't think so man... the album I had was from the 70s...
Me: Well all the information I have seems to indicate it's from 2003.
He: Well, sure it was probably reissued in 2003, but it's a 70s album... it has all the guys from the 70s on it.
Me: [double checking on the official Deep Purple site... confirms the 2003 release date, I read this paragraph from the "History" section over the phone]:

“Bananas,” the first record following Lord’s retirement from touring and his replacement by exquisite ivory-tinkler Don Airey, brought elements of pop to the table, grafted on some of “Purpendicular’s” ambition, and encapsulated the ensemble-riff power of “Abandon.” Tours behind both of these albums revealed this still-young band’s continued growth as a performing unit. By the end of the "Bananas" marathon, Airey had marked his apotheosis, from "replacement" to fully-integrated band-member.

He: That's bogus, man... I had that album on vinyl in the 70s and then I bought it on CD sometime around 2003 to replace it... then I loaned it out... or brought it to a party... or something...
Me: Well... I don't know what to tell you, all the information I have says it's a 2003 release, featuring most of the original line up, but still a new album.  Are you sure you're not mixing up two different albums?
He: No man... like... I know the cover... it's a shot of a dude sitting in a truck full of bananas, right?
Me: Let me check... [checking]:

Me: Yup, that's the cover at Amazon... but they say it's a 2003 release too.
He: Well that's just not right, man... I held that album on vinyl in my hands in the 70s... and then I had it on CD later on then I loaned...
Me: ...it to someone, or brought it to a party... yeah, well I can only go by the information all these sites have... and well...
He: Yeah, man, totally... but it's a 70s album.  Can you get it in, though?
Me: [anticipating that this whole thing could turn into months of trouble ending up in mutually dissatisfaction... I lie] No.
He: No?
Me: No. It looks like you could get it as an import from Amazon, but no one we deal with in Canada has it.
He: I figured it might be hard to get... yeah.
Me: Yeah... maybe you could get someone to get it for you online?
He: ...yeah, but you said you had a picture of the cover there?
Me: ...the one on Amazon, yeah?
He: Well, I actually have the tracks from the album saved on my Xbox... but I just don't have the cover... do you have a printer there?
Me: [started to get a little freaked out by all this] No I don't have a printer.
He: Do you have access to computers with a printer anywhere?
Me: Not at the moment... and the picture's kind of small to print off...
He: But you can see the dude in the picture... you can see his eyes?
Me: Not really well... it's a small picture.
He: Too small?  There's something about his eyes, though, man... you know?
Me: Not really, no...
He: Yeah... I really need that cover to check out those eyes... I remember it from the vinyl I had in the 70s.
Me: ...um, ok.
He: And you can't get it in?
Me: No, sorry.
He: And you can't print the cover off... cause I'd give you dollars, man, dollars.
Me: Can't do it, maybe someone else you know with a computer and a printer.
He: That seems unlikely right now.
Me: ...
He: Well whatever, man... I'll get it somehow, I suppose.  I'll be in sometime to take a look around, buy something else from you.
Me: Cool.  Have a good day.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Orko

 Orko

born 1980s in the Trolla dimension (not to be confused with the Trololololololo dimension). 

Most likely because the beneficiary of his sidekickerage had no real need for it, Mr. Orko could be classified as one of those helpers who actually hindered the hero's progress.  Accidentally ending up in Eternia during some cosmic flimflammery Orko saved young Prince Adam and his pet cat Cringer from a tar swamp.  While this was fortunate for Prince Adam, who later in life took on the mantle of He-Man, it also seemed to be one of the few helpful attempts that didn't backfire for Orko.  Combining a lack of control over his magic powers with a zest to help and a curiousity about life in Eternia, Orko was the source of iritation to others like Man-at-Arms and of laughter for we the viewers.

Interesting tidbit:  the original character prototype for Orko was called Gorpo, but because animaters often would flip cells to double their usefulness a non-symmetrical character like "G" would produce continuity problems.

Lou Schemer (credited as Erik Gunden) provided the voice of Orko.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Pamela Hensley

Pamela Hensley

Born October 3, 1950 Glendale, CA

Proving that Sidekickology is not restricted to either men or shady characters, Ms. Hensley served as aide du camp to Matt Houston, titular protagonist of the ABC series that ran from 1982-1985.  Lee Horsley played Matlock Houston, a billionaire Texas oilman who, for some reason, also worked as a private investigator in his ample spare time.  Ms. Hensley played his lawyer, C.J. Parsons, who provided sage advice, someone to become imperiled very frequently and a Commodore VIC20 that seemed to have an anachronistic amount of networking/database capabilities.

Ms. Hensley is perhaps better known (especially to young men now in their 30s and 40s) for her previous role as the mischievous Princess Ardala on the 1979-80 series Buck Rogers in the 25th Century.

Matt Houston seems to have been the venue for Ms. Hensley's last onscreen activity.  Wikipedia reveals her more recent activities have included the 2004 publication of a small cookbook called The Jewish-Sicilian Cookbook authored under the name Pamela Hensley Vincent.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Thom Bray

Thom Bray

Born April 30th 1954

80s television crime dramas saw the rise of pastel casual wear, colourful and exotic locations and a sidekick culture that ran  parallel to the tried and true ex-con / small time hood paradigm.  It was the hour of the nerd.  On Riptide Mr. Bray played Murray "Boz" Bozinsky, a scientist / computer hacker who sidekicked Vietnam vets-turned private investigators Cody Allen and Nick Ryder, played by Perry King and Joe Penny.  Boz himself had a sidekick of sorts: a non-verbal robot dubbed "Roboz."  The name of the show was also the name of the boat the trio used as homebase in King Harbor Marina.  The show ran from 1984-86 on NBC.

His post-Riptide credits include stints as writer and producer on shows such as Designing Women and Nash Bridges.  He is currently a drama teacher at Five Oaks Middle School in Beaverton, Oregon, and also teaches Television Studies at Portland State University.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Charlie Callas

Charlie Callas

Born December 20. 1924 in Brooklyn New York

As a stand-up comedian Mr. Callas' defining moment was, perhaps, getting banned permanently from the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson after shoving Johnny on-air in a desperate attempt to generate laughs.  That was frowned upon, apparently.

His sidekickerage came at the service of Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert for three seasons of Switch, a CBS series that ran between 1975-78.  Wagner and Albert were a crimefighting duo, the latter playing a retired cop and the former an ex-conman who threw together to form a Private Investigations office (as was the way in the 70s) whose speciality was "out-conning the cons."  Callas played Max Argos, another former con-man and associate of Wagner's character, Pete Ryan.  His concurrent function, other than providing ex-con-man insight, was running a restaurant where the crew could meet.

Mr. Callas, apparently also an avid photographer and astronomer, just wrapped production (a cameo appearence) in the as-yet-unreleased 3-D movie Horrorween which also features appearences by Jenna Jameson, William Shatner and Donald Trump.


Here he is with Dom DeLuise.

Forgotten Sidekick Week: Bart Braverman

BART BRAVERMAN


Born Februrary 1st, 1946 in Los Angeles, CA

Mr. Braverman is best known/best forgotten for his role as Bobby "Binzer" Borso on the ABC televsion show Vega$.  His sidekickery was in the service of Robert Urich who played the leading role of P.I. Dan Tanna. He appeared in 21 episodes between 1978-81.  Wikipedia describes Binzer's character arc thusly:  a college student who did Dan Tanna's leg work and usually provided comic relief. In the beginning of the series, Binzer was a petty thief who fled to Vegas to escape his former partners in crime from back east, as described in one episode... Tanna seemed to have taken him under his wing and used his knowledge and connections of the street.

In those halcyon days Mr. Braverman also made several appearences on pre-Reality Show degradation programs like Match Game, Hollywood Squares, Love Boat, and Fantasy Island... the last of which featured segments titled Cyrano/The Magician where Mr. Braverman played a character called Timothy Potter.  Potter... Magician... sound familar???  That Fantasy Island episode also featured a guest appearance from Judy Landers who coincidentally was also a recurring character on Vega$.

Mr. Braverman continues to work in Hollywood, most recently in a 2007 appearence as "Ambassador" on "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody"