This has to be an April Fools' joke.

http://www.prettygreen.com/about

Yes, Liam Gallagher has started a clothing line. Classic indeed.



http://www.prettygreen.com/

What is Life?.. Why are we alive?

Good lecture on what is life: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/loom/2009/04/01/what-is-life-slides-and-gramophone/

Very basic, but comprehensive... sound isn't great, and if you're not really into this stuff, I can see it being boring... but, still, really cool cuz although it leaves out the details, it is really comprehensive...

More on Leonard Cohen...

Cohen's Live in London DVD was released on Tuesday, and once I find the torrent I'll post it here. I've been told it was on CBC TV tonight, but I missed it... it probably wouldn't be shown complete, and also interrupted by commercials, so yeah, worth waiting for a full version...

Here are some tidbits for now:

Suzanne (from the London DVD)
Loenard Cohen CBC special 2008.11.09: Everybody knows (torrent)
Missed this a few years ago: Bid to Nominate Cohen for Nobel

New Yorker article on environment vs. economy further discussed...

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2009/03/30/090330taco_talk_owen

talked about earlier here: http://brothersgrimmandgorey.blogspot.com/2009/03/presentation-finished.html

Further addressed here: Say It Ain’t So: New Yorker Publishes Misleading Climate Piece and here: The New Yorker (!) parrots right-wing talking points on climate

Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes

Elvis Costello and The Sugarcanes, — featuring Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Mike Compton, Dennis Crouch and Jeff Taylor — are coming to the Beacon Theatre on June 10.



The band's album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, produced by T Bone Burnett, is slated for release on June 2. The album was recorded with a some of America's finest string band players from the world of traditional country music, Bluegrass and beyond.

Unfortunately all weekday shows except the one in Colorado, looking at the short tour...

Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes dates:
06.09.09 - Red Bank, NJ - Count Basie Theatre
06.10.09 - New York, NY - Beacon Theatre [Tickets]
06.11.09 - Vienna, VA - Wolf Trap
06.14.09 - Cary, NC - Koka Booth Amphitheatre [Tickets]
06.16.09 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium [Tickets]
06.19.09 - Telluride, CO - Telluride Bluegrass Festival

Taking a quick peak at one of the band member's websites, it seems like there is gonna be a second run in August... hopefully close during a weekend.



More here: http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/03/24/elvis-costello-returns-with-sugarcane/

Ten of the album's tracks are new Costello compositions, including two written with Burnett. One song, " I Felt The Chill," was written by Costello and Loretta Lynn, while two of the album's tracks -- "Hidden Same" and "Boom Chicka Boom -- were originally written by Costello for Johnny Cash.

http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/news/elvis-costello-teams-with-t-bone-burnett-1003954111.story

Advance tickets go on sale tomorrow, and I'm REALLY tempted for the Beacon Theatre date, despite being a Wednesday...

Listen to Sugarcane here: http://www.myspace.com/sugarcanestringband

Jane's Walk

First I've heard of this... sounds pretty cool, and all really different, so if there's a neighbourhood you won't mind exploring, this could be great!

http://spacing.ca/wire/2009/03/30/lead-a-janes-walk/

Looks like Cheri DiNovo is doing two in Parkdale... and a ton of good ones in the downtown core...

http://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=ca&ie=UTF8&view=map&msa=0&msid=113684215278822476214.00046464dfa50e4cc4db5&ll=43.688232,-79.361115&spn=0.367424,0.617981&z=11


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The plumber..

Got sick enough of the washer flooding over after a large load that I finally got a plumber to the house... cost? $200. Total extortion.

The plumber? An unsavoury Russian fellow about my age who really hates his job. He occasionally speaks out to himself in Russian... some grunting... kinda scary, somewhat lovely.

Anyway, he's gone now. Apparently the tree in the yard has grown into the pipes, and no amount of drain-o was going to unclog that... I tried. Time to slowly start looking for a new place. Lovely. The Russian said he thinks he got most of it, but who know... I'm doing a load of laundry and hoping that at least he knew what he was doing.



While waiting around for him to finish, I stumbled upon this: http://tomgpalmer.com/2005/06/22/an-excellent-polish-tourism-campaign-2/

National Poetry Month?

Who knew?.. Apparently Claire P... April...

The point of these poems
What is the point? These poems I'm writing.
For you? For us? For me I am fighting?
Why do I write them? Sense of atonement?
Do I fear the end? Just a postponement?
For your love? I'd embrace just a moment.



http://www.seenreading.com/30in30/
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/afterword/archive/2009/03/31/five-ways-to-celebrate-national-poetry-month.aspx

Murray Gell-Mann

http://discovermagazine.com/2009/apr/17-man-who-found-quarks-made-sense-of-universe

It is no accident that the quark—the building block of protons and neutrons and, by extension, of you and everything around you—has such a strange and charming name. The physicist who discovered it, Murray Gell-Mann, loves words as much as he loves physics.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Gell-Mann

1001 rules for my unborn son

http://rulesformyunbornson.tumblr.com/

Cool website for perusing...

332. Suck it up.

January 22

331. Be subtle. She sees you.

330. Give credit. Take the blame.

311. Don't date your bartender.

Vaselines reuniting

It is nice that the Vaselines have reunited, if you like the Vaselines, but it raises an important question, which is this: has any band not reunited? The other day I was talking with a friend about rereleases, and how bands are trying desperately to get old records back out as a rationale for hitting the road again, since tours are increasingly the only way a band can make money. But what is it to see the Vaselines in 2009? What does it matter? Sites like YouTube have ensured that all of us can see bands live, even if the quality is poor and the performances are in small doses. Will there come a time when the excitement of tours, too, diminishes?

- New Yorker, Ben Greenman
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/goingson/2009/03/intensive-care.html

The World's Largest Miniature Train Set

Awesome. Starting to look for inspiration for the next project; a coffee table monorail...



http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/astonishing_mos.php

Yes, apparently there is such a competition.

What happens when air show performers get bored during the off-season? They get really, really creative!

I probably could have put these under funny aviation pics, but hey...It's April 1st! Why not go all out! All and all, it was certainly one of the strangest photoshoots I've ever had the priviledge of captuing on film.

Ok, so here's the deal. A Japanese reality TV show came up with the idea of having Jim Cheatham, owner of Verticare; lead pilot for the Showcopters and highest flight time helicopter pilot in the world, compete with another highly qualified Robinson helicopter pilot from Japan.

The Course:
Two 6 foot tall tables with 7 unopened bottles of beer each totalling 14 bottles. Even numbered bottles on right table, odd numbered bottles on left.
One helicopter with a bottle opener attached to the leading edge of the right ski. Pilot not included

The Rules:
Each contestant has 5 minutes to open as many bottles as possible by alternating tables. Bottles must be opened in numerical order.

http://www.fencecheck.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=b3d8d266bbe99c8c69bdd13bc6e211e0&topic=457.0

Constantines and the Weakerthans...

Great concert... although the Constantines clearly blew the Weakerthans out of the water.. just a much more lively band.. Bike ride there was also a test with the winds, but ride back was a great experience... stopped once or twice tops.. There's really not much better than riding with the wind at you back.

Now, going to make myself a bowl of chili (more on that with a later post.. ) and watch an episode of It's always Sunny in Philadelphia before getting to packing, again, for a second, shorter, lovely surprise, trip to Chicago..