I have no idea whose day the music thing was today but we`re not going to miss the last day of the series because of confusion and laziness, so here`s a song: the final song in this inaugural and maybe annual 31 Days Of Music. And really, there`s no better choice than this particular tune by a great local band that blew us all away this year with maybe the best video ever to come out of Saskatchewan.
Happy new year! May you mix memories and melodies throughout 2011.
A young, tastefully-toupeed William Shatner says it was a very good year.
(I’ve seen this before but was reminded of it by BoingBoing, who were on the ball enough to post it today.)
Generally speaking, tax cuts are stupid and evil. I recognize and respect that jiggling tax rates is a legitimate public policy tool and there are good tax cuts that make sense.
But generally, and I stress generally, it’s all just a load of propaganda pushing an agenda to reduce the amount of taxes the wealthiest people pay. Has been for ever.
Taxes pay for hospitals, schools, roads, sewers, food safety inspections, scientific research, universities, welfare programs, the military and (though they cheap out on it) culture. And it’s a safe bet that as economies become wobblier, the line-up for public dollars will grow. (I’m just waiting for the newspaper industry to demand public bail-outs, for instance. I’m not sure this would be a bad idea.)
Since we need these things, tax cuts politics are not sustainable.
In the United States, there’s a different attitude. In the U.S. tax cuts are sacred and government are always bad (that’s why that country is doing so well!). Raise taxes because you can’t pay for even the basics? Can’t happen.
Here’s a great article by economist Paul Krugman that’s partly about this tax-cut madness. An excerpt:
Hypocrisy never goes out of style, but, even so, 2010 was something special. For it was the year of budget doubletalk — the year of arsonists posing as firemen, of people railing against deficits while doing everything they could to make those deficits bigger.
And I don’t just mean politicians. Did you notice the U-turn many political commentators and other Serious People made when the Obama-McConnell tax-cut deal was announced? One day deficits were the great evil and we needed fiscal austerity now now now, never mind the state of the economy. The next day $800 billion in debt-financed tax cuts, with the prospect of more to come, was the greatest thing since sliced bread, a triumph of bipartisanship.
You should read it.
And in 2010, pay attention to calls for tax cuts and to who’s doing the calling. It’ll be an informative hobby — if nothing else, it’ll give you a clear idea who gets invited to the expensive parties.
Happy New Year’s Eve!
That’s what TSN is saying in an on-line report — that early next week current Hamilton defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall (pictured) will be named the Riders’ new head coach. The report also speculates that Richie Hall, who was in the running to replace Ken Miller as the Riders’ head coach, will be named defensive coordinator.
What this means for the Riders on the offensive side of the ball remains to be seen. Will current offensive coordinator Doug Berry remain in that position? Or will Marshall seek to bring in someone from outside the organization? One commentator on the TSN thread observed that former CFL QB Danny McManus, who has ties to Marshall through the Ti-Cat organization, could receive some consideration.
Special teams also has to be a priority. Rider fans, as a whole, would be pretty disgruntled if Jim Daley was retained in that position after a disastrous 2010 campaign.
1 MORE ON RECYCLING The LP’s Joe Couture assembles a nice batch of interviews on the City’s recycling plan for a good follow-up to his report yesterday. The loser of the bunch is Colin Craig of the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation, who says “whine whine expensive what’s wrong with the status quo?” The local rep of this self-important, far-right anti-government organization will have to learn to say more interesting things if he ever wants to get quoted by prairie dog reporters. There are better ways to critique this plan–starting with the fact that it will presumably be painful for low-income households.
2 AUSTRALIA IS HELLA-FLOODED “An area that’s bigger than the size of France and Germany combined” is flooded and authorities warn homeowners to be vigilant for snakes and crocodiles. Meanwhile, the southern regions of the country are dry, scorching and about to burst into flames. Happy New Year, Australia.
3 CANADA’S TOP WEATHER STORY OF THE YEAR IS… The weather at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The city had its warmest winter on record, with an average temperature of 7.1 degress celcius–not the best for ski jumping. Environment Canada released the annual list yesterday. But this is all okay! Global warming isn’t real and it’s not going to get worse and worse and worse and worse and there’s no need to take any action that might hurt the economy even though a global climate shift would turn the world’s economy upside down. La la la I can’t hear anything, climate scientist e-mails hockey stick graph UN socialism etcetera, etcetera. Hey, I hear there’s an outdoor hockey game in Pittsburgh tomorrow and they’re expecting rain. Oh, Saskatchewan was the site of three of the 10 stories on the list.
4 EIGHTY-SEVEN JOURNALISTS WERE KILLED LAST YEAR So says the organization Canadian Journalists For Free Expression.
5 BRAD WALL RENEGES ON HIS DAYLIGHT SAVINGS REFERENDUM PLEDGE Which is fine with me, I like spending half the year on Manitoba time and half the year on Alberta time. Not being sarcastic, I really do. It’s neato!
6 KODACHROME IS DEAD, DEAD, DEAD The venerable camera film will be made no more. From The Globe And Mail:
It served as a kind of celluloid parchment for the baby-boom era, dutifully rendering some of the 20th century’s most memorable images: the Hindenburg airship disaster, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the Afghan girl peering from the cover of National Geographic through those piercing green eyes. Abraham Zapruder used Kodachrome to shoot history’s most infamous home movie, the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy in November of 1963.
Story here. It’s worth a read. And, nostalgic sigh.
WHAT ELSE CAN I TELL YOU? 2011 has begun to arrive. Stephen Harper might get his own undisclosed location. Global warming is changing the taste of tea. The Regina Pats resolve to not suck in 2011. Dude strips in airport protest. Israel has gas. Ivory Coast is teetering on the brink of civil war. Republicans and the U.S. President prepare to do battle over climate change regulations. Gross warnings don’t discourage cigarette addicts. They sure like burning stuff in Montreal. Gold is as good as its name. No more dog custody cases, says judge. Regina’s Ryan Getzlaf has “sinus fractures” (ouch) after a puck to the forehead in the Anaheim Duck’s 3-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Getzlaf is one of the phew non-deadbeats on my yahoo! fantasy hockey team, which is loaded with under-performing wieners like Ilya Kovalchuk, Patrick Marleau and Steve Mason. Speaking of Mason, he helped my beloved Blue Jackets beat the leafs 3-2 last night, haw haw haw. And finally, Bobby Farrell — the one-time frontman of disco heroes Boney M — died in Russia on the same date as Rasputin. Rest in peace, sir.
There’s plenty of ways to ring in the new year, but I’ll confine myself here to events featuring live music. At O’Hanlon’s Pub, Regina hard rockers She Kills Me (pictured) headline with Indigo Joseph.
At the Exchange, Skavenjah are playing with Pile of Bones Brass Band. At Casino Regina, ’80s Can-con stalwarts Glass Tiger are playing with local band Sugar Pie, while Slow Motion Walter is at McNally’s Tavern and Chris Henderson is at the Pump Roadhouse.
To close, here’s video of Skavenjah performing “Girly, Girly” at the Distrikt awhile back.
Seen through a half-consumed bottle of Cruzan Single Barrel Rum, that little ceramic Christmas village sure looks cozy. See how the lights are still on in the church. Must be a little ceramic temperance meeting. (“The demon rum, it looms over our fair village like a tower of sin! We must drive it from our borders! Expel it from the credenza and send it crashing onto the Devil’s own hardwood flooring below!”)
Man, free rum goes down nicely. Especially in that eggnog recipe I included in the Xmas issue.
Yep, a goodly portion of the so-far-consumed press-kit rum was sacrificed to the nog gods. And it turned out better than expected. I did make a couple adjustments to the recipe I cribbed from Dale DeGroff. He called for equal parts bourbon and rum but I’m not a huge fan of bourbon at the best of times and I didn’t want it, with all its icky corn mash, mucking up my drink.
So for spirits, I went with two parts white rum (Bacardi) to three parts Cruzan. Glad I did. The Cruzan has a mellow, butterscotch flavour to it that worked really well. Most eggnog recipes I’ve read call for a spiced rum, though. So, just to be on the safe side, I grated about a teaspoon of cinnamon into the mix.
Beyond that, I stuck to the DeGroff recipe — the folding in of beaten-to-peaking egg whites and everything. It was the most work I’ve put into a drink in… well… ever. But the result was well worth the rigamarole.
Best. Nog. Ever.
Hmm. It’s just occurred to me that most of you will be reading this on Dec 31 and maybe you’re expecting some kind of appropriate drinking advice for New Year’s Eve. Sorry. I’ve always found New Year’s to be a bit of a letdown and, drinking-wise, it’s strictly a lowest-common-denominator affair.
Really, all I’ve got for advice is: Beware the Baby Duck. Cheap sparkling wine beverages give really nasty hangovers.
Yeah, the U.S.’s days as a global economic superpower are numbered. But it’s still capable of making the odd contribution to human well-being.
The story of Christopher Owen’s childhood as a member of a religious cult and his subsequent escape is so fascinating that it threatens to overwhelm the actual music. Which is kind of a shame, since Girls’ latest release is full of effortless, daydreamy pop, the kind of music that goes well with a quiet afternoon. I couldn’t find a video for “Heartbreaker,” but perhaps you’d enjoy looking at a bus full of girls while Chris Owens tells you that he knew he’d break your heart?
1 R.I.P. ARTHUR DIETRICH I should have mentioned this last week …. Steve Landesberg, who played Detective Arthur Dietrich in one of the greatest sit-coms in television history, Barney Miller passed away Dec. 21. (CBC) He was the author of one of the best lines in the history of comedy … “Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is the best defense.”
2 FINALLY Good news: Regina’s finally going to get a curbside recycling system. Bad news: why is it costing once-and-a-half what I pay for a private recycling company? (Leader-Post)
3 IMAGINE WHAT HE WANTS TO DO TO BRETT FARVE Conbot columnist Tucker Carlson says Michael Vick should have been executed. He said that on Fox News Network. Meanwhile Fox will broadcast the next Eagles game … (Globe and Mail)
4 WHAT WILL PAUL SIMON SING ABOUT NOW? The last roll of Kodachrome was produced (New York Times via CathieFromCanada)
5 WELL, IT IS THE FESTIVE SEASON IN AUSTRALIA AS WELL If this woman’s blood-alcohol content were any higher she’d be her own anti-freeze. (news.com.au)
6 A GOOD WAY TO FINISH THE YEAR The stars of The Boondock Saints sequel, A Twilight poster, and the photo of the year (Unreality Magazine)
Anyway, this is a good as time and place as any to wish prairie dog readers, writers and other assorted hangers on all the best in the upcoming new year.
I haven’t seen this movie yet, and likely won’t until it gets released on DVD (or perhaps shows up at the RPL Theatre, although it’s not listed in the January-February schedule). It’s a historical drama based on the story of an Australian-born speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush) who helped the future King George VI (Colin Firth) overcome a debilitating stutter when he was thrust into the royal spotlight after his older brother, Edward VIII, abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry the American divorcee Wallace Simpson.
Even if you’re not a big fan of the British Royal family, which I definitely am not, with England and the rest of the British Commonwealth on the brink of war with Nazi Germany and the Axis Powers, this was a pivotal moment in world history. Here’s the trailer for The King’s Speech.
1. IT COULD BE WORSE FOR OUR CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. According to the Globe and Mail, Canada’s cultural institutions ‘held steady’ in 2010. Although things are going to get rocky in the next couple of years.
2. GAYS NO LONGER CRAZY IN ALBERTA. Our friendly province next door has removed homosexuality from its diagnostic guide of mental disorders. Only 37 years behind the American Psychiatric Association.
3. A REAL-LIFE FROGGER GAME ENDS POORLY. Remember Frogger? That classic arcade game in which you attempt to guide a frog across a traffic-infested highway? Someone tried to play a live-action version of Frogger in South Carolina last Monday but lost to an SUV. Presumably he racked up enough points for an extra life, because the man is in stable condition at an area hospital.
4. LOOKS LIKE BP WILL DO JUST FINE, THANKS. The financial liabilities resulting from BP’s massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill in April of 2010 are not nearly as bad as the company feared. Fines and fees are in excess of 40 billion – but that’s not enough to do any real damage to their bottom line. Which means that they could do this kind of thing again some time. I look forward to BP’s next assault on the environment.
What we think about when we think about Saskatoon: Bridges, green-roofed barns, warehouses, the Shelley-Western parking lot, the St. Louis Blues, the Saturday afternoon blues jam, jam, Meewasin Valley, Friendship Park, Dr. Seeger-Wheeler Park, Silverwood Heights, Christie’s Mayfair Bakery, Nutana Bakery, Doukhobor Bread, the Northern Pikes, the Northern Lights, traffic lights, Traffic Bridge, Penguin Park, Clarence Ave., Jason Wolfe in a pirate shirt (ca. 1991), samosas in Sutherland, catchy dance-pop music.
One of these days, we’re going to have to do a feature on Saskatoon’s We Were Lovers in prairie dog. Nudge, nudge. Hint, hint.
mp3: “Partners in Crime” by We Were Lovers
With both the Club and the Exchange available for this showcase of bands in the Harvest King Records stable, a ton of musical talent will be on display tonight. On the Exchange side, West Port Murders, Kleins96, Royal Red Brigade and Urindump will be featured. On the Club side, Molten Lava, Invasion, The Jump Off and Bright Black are scheduled to play.
There’s a potluck and gift exchange at 6 p.m., with the music starting at 7:30 p.m. Tix are $10 at the door.
So. What if I told you that the coolest release of 2010 was a bizarre concept album about a far-future android visiting the present to lead an android rebellion… or something like that? I know, it sounds like an idea that Platinum Blonde rejected. Let’s just be thankful for the small things in life.
Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid is like nothing else you’re going to hear. It’s kind of earnest and crazy in spots, but Monáe appears to be one of those artists who’s so ridiculously talented that she can get away with nearly anything. “Tightrope”, the first single from The ArchAndroid, is probably the most radio-friendly track on the album.
Matt LeBlanc is staring in Episodes, a Showtime comedy about a couple of Brits who try to recreate their U.K. T.V. hit over in the States but get boned by their network when they’re stuck with your typical, egotistical Hollywood star as a lead. For that role, LeBlanc is playing himself, or rather, a version of himself. If you go to Showtime’s website, there’s a video where a super-sedate LeBlanc explains the whole thing, with only the slightly dash of self-awareness.
He says: “I think this version of is people’s perception of celebrity. I think that’s the best way to describe it. It’s not me; it’s not a documentary. It’s a half-hour comedy. Certain things are inflated,” going on to say that the show’s version of LeBlanc has a private plane. I definitely didn’t think all his sweet Joey money could garner him that kind of luxury.
Matthew Perry is starting a new show on ABC. Mr. Sunshine is a single-camera sitcom about the manager of a sports arena who’s going through a midlife crisis. Just in case Men of a Certain Age wasn’t giving you enough of this, I suppose.
Both of those shows are premiering in January. Courtney Cox’s latest show, Cougar Town, continues to be a show that I should probably check out, a fact bolstered by its inclusion at number ten in the A.V. Club’s 25 best T.V. shows of the year.
Who says the dead space between Christmas and New Year’s is slow on news?
1 LONG-HAIRED, NO-GOOD HIPPIE CREEPS Members of Team Canada at the world junior hockey championship aren’t allowed beards or long hair. Hockey Canada’s senior director Scott Salmond told Postmedia News: “[O]ne thing we said to them is, ‘There’s a reason why you wear a suit to the game — because you’re going to work, and when most people in the real world go to work, they shave.’” In other news, I’m still trying to remember not to wear shirts with cuss words on them to work.
2 THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK IS SAFE FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS The Library of Congress has announced the 25 films that will be added to the National Film Registry this year.
3 CANADA IS LIVING IN THE FUTURE A Globe and Mail article suggests that Canadians are on their Internet game more than many, many other countries. For one, we’re apparently number one in YouTube views per capita. Do your part to help us keep our top spot by watching this video of a Russian baby driving a car.
4 QUACKERY Steve Francis, the three-time NBA all-star who refused to play for the Vancouver Grizzlies when they drafted him his rookie year, has left the Beijing Ducks after playing in only four games. For one of the four, Francis even left the stadium midway through the game.
5 ABOUT AS BAD AS A PERSONAL LAND DISPUTE CAN GO In Italy, a fight between two neighboring families was settled in a way reminiscent of so many Coen Brothers movies.
6 AND THE FUTURE IS HERE Saskatchewan kids prepare themselves for possible lives in politics. No word on potential Riders in their ranks. Side note: I like that the idea of granting citizenship to artificial intelligence is a “light” topic of discussion. With any luck, at least one of these kids will bring up Battlestar Galactica.
BONUS The Comics Curmudgeon pointed out this great Mary Worth panel, really showing why dying newspaper comics are worth following:
I haven’t seen this movie yet, and likely won’t until it gets released on DVD (or perhaps shows up at the RPL Theatre, although it’s not listed in the January-February schedule). Black Swan has been nominated for a pile of Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards. It’s a psychological thriller set in the high pressure world of a New York Ballet Company, and stars Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis as rival ballerinas for the star role in a production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.
Here’s the trailer.
In these days of wine and leftovers, when we begin to fear that we won’t be allowed to board our return flight because we’ve eaten so much Toffifee that we no longer resemble the person we were back when our photo ID was issued, it’s nice to listen to Howe Gelb.
I’m kind of a big Howe Gelb fan, a Giant Stan, if you will. But even I’m shocked at how much music the dude has released this year. Check out his Bandcamp page for more info. “Holiday Eyes” is from Melted Wires, a digital-only release that came out in November, and features guest appearances from several members of Calexico, some of whom are former members of Giant Sand.
1 JULIAN ASSANGE BOOK DEAL The Wikileaks founder inks a £1 million book deal with Knopf and British publisher Canongate to cover his rising legal costs. from The Guardian: “I don’t want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.” That’ll happen when your legal organization is financially strangled by Mastercard, Visa, Paypal and the Bank of America.
2 FAMILY SAFE, HOUSE SHAKEN Three Reginans — two adults and a four-year-old girl — are safe after their north Regina home blew up yesterday, though the youngest has leg injuries.
3 STORM’S A-COMING A massive storm is set to whack Atlantic Canada. Up to 30 centimetres of snow and wind gusts of up to 130 km/hour are expected.
4 ALSO IN MARITIMES NEWS A University Of Moncton public administration prof says that a new era of downsizing could cause social tensions to rise. No shit, Sherlock. Canadians don’t like downsized public sectors. Alas, our leaders keep telling us we always need tax cuts to stay competitive. I suspect Canadians would be more amenable to tax realism if business groups weren’t always stroking the public’s shaft about how tax cuts magically make all our lives better. Yeah, that’s why the gap between the rich and the rest of us keeps widening.
5 RUSSIAN TYCOON FOUND GUILTY Read all about it. Well, almost all about it — the article doesn’t say this but my theory — which is mine, invented by me — is that Mikhail Khodorkovsky was apprehended by a dashing British secret agent following a car/boat/train chase involving a helicopter, a squad of riflemen on skis and a beautiful double agent in an alligator-skin bikini. Isn’t that what always happens with Russian supervillians?
6 I’M REALLY STARTING TO FEEL BAD FOR THE OTHER TEAMS Canada bashes Russia 6-3 at the world junior hockey championship. Up next is the Czech Republic. Most importantly, Columbus Blue Jacket prospect Ryan Johansen scored the winning goal in the third period. Also I got a Columbus Blue Jackets jersey for Christmas. Columbus is my favourite NHL team. Jackets Jackets Jackets! True story: the team has a mascot that looks like a dink. I bet you did not know that.
Annnd that’s it for today. I’ll talk to you loyal readers later this week — right now there’s a press deadline standing behind me, punching my neck and it won’t stop until I pay attention to it. Deadlines suck that way. Ow! It just bit my ear!
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