the blog quebecois

I Hear Banjos

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 20:25:17 -0700

He's A Cossack In The Sack, Too

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:25:28 -0700

I don't know why I didn't think of it before, but one of those "Rate My Teacher" sites must have something on Michael Ignatieff. And what do you know? He also attracted comments such as:

His friends call him iggie, I call him Provis hater. He spent three lectures on her. Breaking down her argument for Mexican migration to the Canadian North. I heard he had a think against Ukrainians, I think he has a think out against Provanians. His class was suppose to be about Human Rights, not Provis. Who on a side note, I want to marry.

What that's all about is something of a mystery. I googled "Provis" and "Mexican migration" and turned up nothing of interest. But what's this?

Very sexy. Lets TAs do all the grading. Extremely popular with mid-careers, so classes always oversubscribed. Doesn't particularly care about his students unless they are former political prisoners or attractive coeds

So, a typically grubby horndog. Nothing out of the ordinary there, eh? But think of the possible headlines: "Ignatieff A Flaming Heterosexual -- Has No Plans To Quit; Says He Was 'Born' That Way" This is not going to play well in certain districts. Let the whispers begin!

Bored

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:25:37 -0700

Too-low vocals on most of this, which some might consider a plus. I was primarily concerned with the sound of the guitars, which were clipping the red zone of the VU meters throughout. Later on, we re-recorded this with legible vocals and whatever musical skills we could muster. It's not bad, if not the best thing we've done.

Hallelujah! He's Cured!

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:25:44 -0700

The Telegraph:

The Sunday Telegraph revealed last September that the Libyan government had paid for the medical evidence which helped Megrahi, 57, to be released. The Libyans had encouraged doctors to say he had only three months to live. The life expectancy of Megrahi was crucial because, under Scottish rules, prisoners can be freed on compassionate grounds only if they are considered to have this amount of time, or less, to live. Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary, ruled last August that Megrahi should be freed. Megrahi's release came after Libyan leaders warned that lucrative oil and trade deals with Britain would be cancelled if the bomber died in jail

Gee. Color me surprised.

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:25:35 -0700

An installation for the Barbican in London, England. A description:

French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. Boursier-Mougenot’s installation for The Curve, his first solo exhibition in the UK, takes the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other musical instruments. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a random and captivating soundscape.

Well, whatever. I was taken by the little guy with a twig, doing his best Jimmy Page impression.

Olympics Shocka: Vonn Out/Obama In!

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:28:23 -0700

The International Olympic Committee announced Monday that it has taken back the gold medal previously awarded to American skier Lindsey Vonn and given it to U.S. President Barack Obama.

More.

I'm Getting Tired

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 20:30:46 -0700

So I now had a new instrument to throw into the mix, and this was my first try at writing a song with it. It didn't turn out too badly, and I was pleased with the overall sound, though a bit noisy. The song's a metaphor for struggle -- I wasn't really marching around the basement at the time, though that might have explained my clumsy lead guitar work.

U.S. Economy Grinds To Halt As Nation Realizes Money Just A Symbolic, Mutually Shared Illusion

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:30:46 -0700

"Though raising interest rates is unlikely at the moment, the Fed will of course act appropriately if we . . . if we . . . " said [Federal Reserve chairman Ben] Bernanke, who then paused for a moment, looked down at his prepared statement, and shook his head in utter disbelief. "You know what? It doesn't matter. None of this-this so-called 'money'-really matters at all." "It's just an illusion," a wide-eyed Bernanke added as he removed bills from his wallet and slowly spread them out before him. "Just look at it: Meaningless pieces of paper with numbers printed on them. Worthless." According to witnesses, Finance Committee members sat in thunderstruck silence for several moments until Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) finally shouted out, "Oh my God, he's right. It's all a mirage. All of it-the money, our whole economy-it's all a lie!"

Mississippi Extinguished

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 20:30:02 -0700

metronews.ca halifax:

Shayne Howe returned home from a friend’s 40th birthday party just after midnight Sunday. Ten minutes later, he said there was a two-metre burning cross on his front lawn, and a group of males outside shouting racial slurs at him. "They waited for me to come home," said Howe, who has lived in Newport, just outside Windsor, for the past six years. "It’s like they knew I left to go out." The 31-year-old Howe, who is black, said by the time he went outside to investigate, there was nobody in the yard. "All I saw was flames, there was nothing else around," he explained. "There was no vehicles, no sound, nothing."

Egads! Only a dedicated, well-funded gang of racists -- I'm thinking the Canadian Human Rights Commission -- would have the command of ninja skills to carry out something like this and then simply disappear. And where is Richard Warman these days, anyway? Or maybe they made their escape because there was nobody there to begin with. Sorry, I've got to call shenanigans on this one. These things are almost invariably hoaxes. The credulous MSM is quick to leap on them because it suits their ridiculous fantasy of a society pulsing with hidden racism (and with themselves as Horatio at the Bridge heroically fending off the Tuscan swine). Google "fake hate crimes" and you'll turn up a long list of examples, such as this partial list from 2006-2007. I haven't made a comprehensive study of the phenomenon, but I wrote about a couple of examples, here and here. People have been caught on security cameras punching themselves in the face to later claim a "racist" attack. I was disappointed that both Dave Rutherford and Charles Adler fell for this scam -- Rutherford had some race pimp on, demanding "education" (and money for himself, no doubt) as a remedy. Adler had the man and his wife on -- they were unconvincing, to say the least.

Come Together

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:30:05 -0700

In October of 1981 I bought my first electric guitar from a friend for the grand sum of $25. I can't quite recall the name of it -- I would later call it "a piece of crap," but I don't think that's what was engraved on the headstock. He also threw in a wah-wah/fuzztone pedal, which occasionally made me sound like I knew what I was doing. I brought all my musical expertise to this recording; namely, a bunch of unconnected Beatles' riffs. I think I can hear "Day Tripper" briefly in this, and then a rather psychedelic take on "Come Together." And, yes, that's Fleetwood Mac dropping by at the end, not that they were invited. It was either an incompletely-erased tape -- or more likely, a byproduct of using unshielded guitar and recording cables. Especially when my cousin and I got going early on, our setup was not unlike a Giant Throbbing Antenna (which, now that I think about it, would have been A Pretty Good Name For A Rock Band), sucking in every stray signal around, from AM/FM broadcasts to taxi dispatchers to airplane chatter to police and fire communications. We used to joke that there was no way The Man could sneak up and bust us (for playing completely-innocent, completely drug-free music. I swear.) because we'd hear their radio traffic coming from ten miles away.

Tuxman

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:30:15 -0700

Ross Rebagliati:

"'He [Harper] is disconnected from society. Only an arrogant man can play The Beatles on the piano wearing a tuxedo."

Hmmm. Looks like the lads didn't get the memo. A grateful Ringo Starr salutes Rebagliati from across the ages with a simple hand gesture that says "Well played, Ross!" Or it might be one of those whimsical Liverpudlian things, inviting him to "sit on it and rotate, mate." Via BC Blue

His Sharona

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:30:47 -0700

N.Y. Daily News:

Doug Fieger, leader of the power pop band The Knack who sang on the 1979 hit "My Sharona," died Sunday. He was 57. Fieger, a Detroit-area native, died at his home in Woodland Hills near Los Angeles after battling cancer, according to The Knack's manager, Jake Hooker. Fieger formed The Knack in Los Angeles 1978, and the group quickly became a staple of Sunset Strip rock clubs. A year later he co-wrote and sang lead vocals on "My Sharona."

I've written enough songs to know that they're often only tangentially connected to one's real life. Happy times can lead to sad songs and vice versa. I've written songs about real girls, imaginary girls, and girls whose sole contribution is having a name that makes for an interesting rhyme. So I must say, I'd never given it much thought; but I was somewhat surprised a few years ago to learn that the eponymous star of "My Sharona" does in fact exist. That's the 17-or-so-year-old Sharona Alperin on the right, pictured on (I'm guessing) the 45 rpm single cover. She's gone on to a successful career as a realtor in the hi-end Los Angeles market. She was a lifelong friend of Fieger's and the band, judging by the music that comes up when you load her web page. So R.I.P., Doug. Here's to happier days; March, 1979 at Carnegie Hall: . Update: Well, duh, Sherlock. This wasn't mentioned on any of the sites that I initially looked at, but according to this, she and Fieger were in fact married (just having celebrated their 30th anniversary) and were the parents of two young children. So my condolences to them as well. UpUpdate: I give up. The BBC reports their relationship thus: "The pair broke off their engagement, but remained close. Alperin is now an estate agent specialising in celebrities' homes and spent last weekend at Fieger's deathbed."

The Troubles

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 20:30:28 -0700

You'd never guess it from my name, but I'm 1/4 Scots and 1/4 Irish, from my mother's side. Indeed, my very nom de blog, "gnotalex," is a slight reworking of her maiden name, "O'Gnotalex," the famous Irish clan, or tribe, or swarm, or whatever it is that they call themselves. So with a rich heritage as that, I felt it was my right -- no, my duty -- to comment on the situation in Northern Ireland during the seventies and eighties, culminating with the hunger-strike death of IRA ~~"soldier"~~ thug (I'm also nominally Catholic, so I can name the IRA for what they were --- murderous Marxist creeps.) Bobby Sands in The Maze, a prison for paramilitary-linked criminals outside Belfast. Certainly I had more claim to the topic than, say, Paul McCartney, who wrote what might have been his worst-ever song, "Give Ireland Back To The Irish" (link opens a terrible YouTube video of his band Wings rehearsing it.); or The Police, who turned out the better, but forgettable (I can't remember a note of it) "Invisible Sun"; or John Lennon, who confusedly offered to play benefit concerts for both the IRA and its Protestant foes. Gratuitous literary reference: I stole the first line "Is there a family/Free from sorrow/These days?" from Tolstoy's War And Peace (second line at link). I figured the old buzzard owed me at least that much for the hundreds of hours I spent reading the bloody thing.

Thanatos And Eros

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:30:06 -0700

Via Holy Taco

Obama's Eleven

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 20:31:50 -0700

What a tragedy. Iowahawk is in a terrible rut, monotonously hitting yet another one out of the park. God help us all if he ever discovers steroids.

Spend me to the moon, and let me play around with TARP, Give the folks some stimulus so they can all buy cars. In other words, cut the debt. In other words, fiscal re-spons-i-bility. Yeah! Appropriate that cash, just like you're Johnny Maynard Keynes, We need jobs and health care and some light rail urban trains, In other words, tighten belts. In other words, ef-fic-i-ency. Spend meeeeeee (hit it boys) to the moooo-oooo-oooooon! Look-out-Old-Barry's-back!