Bison BC-related gig: Congress, Scarebro and Big Nothing at the ASTORIA (not the Biltmore as I previously wrote)

Bison BC in a former incarnation, by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

Wow: Congress actually kinda reminds me of (sainted faves of my grungy youth) Tad, except they're way uglier - check this stuff out! (Looks like that's Matt Wood of Bison BC and Haggatha on drums, too). They play the Astoria with Bison BC pop/punk sideproject Scarebro and another very cool-sounding band, Big Nothing, on Friday March 16th. Sounds like exactly the sort of cathartic sludgebath that might rejuvenate  exhausted shaggy souls like mine, 'specially with liberal doses of beer... Hmmm...

By the way, click the Tad link above for news on Tad Doyle's upcoming Brothers of the Sonic Cloth album...

Whew!

Man, taking four classes at UBC is taxing! In the last three weeks I've had four papers to write (two major), a few articles to read, several movies to watch, and one presentation to give (which required a fair bit of research). Add in the time I'm spending commuting and I'm pretty pooped. Gonna be kinda absent here for awhile...

Herzog's Into the Abyss to play the Vancity

One of the most highly-praised documentaries of 2011, Werner Herzog's death penalty documentary Into the Abyss, will play the Vancity Theatre March 16th and 17th. Haven't seen the film myself yet, but it sounds like Herzog is taking on some meaty, emotionally powerful material here; and surely the cinephiles of Vancouver (all twenty of us) need no convincing to see this film?

One thing of interest, though: I was thinking aloud in class the other week, after a screening of Steve McQueen's Hunger, that it's kind of curious that the flight of birds seems to be evolving into a signifier of death in cinema. I'm not sure where it came from, but it serves that fuction in Robert Altman's Vincent and Theo and in Kurosawa's Dreams, and then again, a bit more mysteriously, in Hunger. And here again, we have a flight of birds on the Into the Abyss poster. Why do birds taking flight represent death?

Fun with Wikipedia: happy birthday to us!

Things you can do with Wikipedia: look up people who share your birthday! Today's mine - I'm 44; and I share the day (though not the year) with Milton Avery, Piet Mondriaan, Maurice Ravel, Tammy Faye Bakker, Daniel J. Travanti, Peter Wolf, Townes van Zandt, Bryan "Walter White" Cranston, Bret Easton Ellis, Rachel Weisz, John "Alex Cutter" Heard, and Peter Sarsgaard. Happy birthday, folks! Also on this day, the song "We Are the World" had its international release, and Stanley Kubrick, Paul Winfield, Divine, and Alice B. Toklas died. Finally, thems what are still into the Christianity trip celebrate the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas today. How 'bout that...!

Let's listen to a great Townes van Zandt song in his honour, shall we?

The Diagram Prize for improbable book titles

Being wiped out means that I'm particularly susceptible to finding things funny, so I was more than receptive when I stumbled across an anthology of Diagram Prize winners, entitled How to Avoid Huge Ships. Every year, the Diagram Prize is given to the most improbably titled book (it has to be a real book). Flipping through this delightful little tome I found myself laughing uncontrollably, first on campus and then on the bus; it's really the sort of book that you'd best not open on a full bladder. In case anyone else out there feels the need of some laughter, here is a list of past Diagram Prize winners (favourites include The Theory of Lengthwise Rolling, Oral Sadism and the Vegetarian Personality, and, of course Reusing Old Graves), and this year's shortlist (my vote goes to Cooking with Poo).

African bullfrog ant crusher video

Glenn Erickson posted this great video - very, very funny and with a conclusion that he notes is "powerful" and "philosophically rewarding" - with thanks to correspondent Craig Reardon. Where it came from before that, I cannot say (Korea, originally, it seems...).

On my capacity for self-amusement

I am highly amused by my comments on Adrian Mack's recent News for Youse. No one else is, as yet.

Petunia!

Once more with feeling! (I'm actually going to hold off on posting my Petunia interview until after this show, but I'll let y'all know once I have). Again, fans of roots music, rockabilly, gospel, and "real" country music should check this show out (and buy Petunia's LP, if you can - the "long version" of my review of it ran on the No Depression website awhile ago...).

Deicide!

I wonder how many other Vancouverites are excited about BOTH the upcoming Bresson restrospective and the Deicide show at the Rickshaw March 17th? (They haven't updated their Myspace in awhile either - it's like EVERYONE has left Myspace in the dust, suddenly - but at least it registers their most recent album, To Hell with God.) I wonder what Glen Benton does to keep blasphemy fresh? He's been at it for a loooong time now...

Robert Bresson at the Cinematheque

The timing couldn't be better - a major retrospective of Robert Bresson's cinema is coming up this spring at the Pacific Cinematheque, just as I am hungering to expand my awareness of his work. Allow me to confess that I have seen only one Bresson film, Pickpocket, to completion - but was fascinated; for all its restraint, the film is shockingly arousing, with transgressive hands slipping into strangers' pockets all over the place, a sort of subtly Satanic pride in sin and criminality, and an overall sense of excitement in furtive, secret meetings and anonymous transactions that amply rewards, among other things, attempts to queer the film. (Not that you gotta be gay to get stirred up). And all this from a Catholic filmmaker famed for his austerity - it's no wonder Paul Schrader borrows from it so often (Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, Light Sleeper and The Walker all owe something to it, or explicitly quote it, as does the Dardennes' L'Enfant). It's one of those films that everyone who cares about cinema should have under his or her belt, so to speak. Highly recommended.

...and by the way, I lifted the Polish poster for the film, above, off a movie poster website with an entry dedicated to Bresson; do be sure to check the other images out, since they're quite beautiful.

Bizarre Sloganeering

...saw a poster for a protest with the unlikely words "hands off Syria" the other day. What? Shouldn't that read "hands on Syria?" Don't Syrians actually want our help, given what's happening? I mean, "hands off Iran," sure, but...

The Little Guitar Army in Maple Ridge: the best of my bad cellphone photos

Awesome show in Maple Ridge tonight - the first time I've had a chance to see the Little Guitar Army since Mellow replaced Linda. Having my share of issues around change, I hadn't known how I would feel about the switch, but it turns out that it doesn't negatively impact the intensity of the band in the slightest. True, Mellow is a somewhat smaller presence onstage than Ms. Stang, but then, so was Adolf Hitler; and the less show-stealing nature of Mellow's performance has the appealing effect of foregrounding the songs and enhancing the sense of this band being a collective unit, an organic entity, a real army, as opposed to a vehicle for the scarily unhinged fantasies of being (for instance) trod on, whipped and humiliated that followed from their previous incarnation. And Mellow is a strong singer and appealing stage presence in her own right, and the songs remain, while not exactly the same, as awe-inspiring as they ever were. I had almost forgotten how good some of these songs are, actually - world-class rock that will likely never be as widely appreciated as it deserves, truly on par (and I do mean this as praise) with the 70's classic acts (AC/DC, Nazareth, Cheap Trick, Blue Oyster Cult and more) that inspired them. One of Vancouver's very best bands... Cal sported facial hair and dedicated "Can't Fix Stupid" to his ex-wives and parole officers; and Tony Bardach, witnessing my struggles with The Wolf's ATM, kindly bought me a beer - thanks, Tony! Also thanks to the Likely Rads' Jay Raymond for making this happen (I almost got a contact high from his body odor). The keepers of my cellphone photos follow...

Red Herring on Youtube: God is a Crustacean!

One of the most delightfully underrated, kinda unfairly not-so-well-remembered 80's art-punk bands of Vancouver, Red Herring, made a GREAT video for their (very funny, very smart) song about th' politics of consumption, "Taste Tests" - which someone finally stuck on Youtube! Steve Nikleva, currently in Petunia's band (see below) plays guitar! Better, there's a video for "The Crab Song," off the same EP, which I have never SEEN before! (Some very smart lyrics there, too). People inspired to hunt can also find a great Red Herring tune, "If You Work for Me," on the (of course impossible to find) Undergrowth cassette (which some people have obligingly ripped for file sharing on Soulseek - the only Mp3 of Red Herring I've found). They also have two songs on that Shindig! album with Death Sentence on it - you know, the greenish one? Of the various bits of Vancouver vinyl of my youth that have NOT been reissued in any form, I think this and the Animal Slaves' Dog Eat Dog are my top two faves (the Spores Schizofungi! is mostly available on News Weather and Spores, so it don't count). Oh, and then there's Slow... tho' my favourite song of theirs isn't even ON their infamous EP...

Grandma's Boy to screen at the Vancity Theatre!

...on March 14th! (See pictures of the Granville Street ghost sign and links to a description of the film below).

Jess + Moss at the Pacific Cinematheque

Haven't seen it yet, but doesn't this film sound extraordinary? Official site here.

Petunia and the Vipers March 10th!

...Petunia also appears solo at Slickety Jim's Chat'n'Chew 2.0 tonight, at 8pm! More on Petunia later!

More solidarity with teachers, plus BCTF job action news - please read

I had dinner with a teacher friend of mine last night - a very caring, passionate person who has invested  a vast chunk of her heart in taking care of her kids. She has an extremely stressed-out, difficult class this year - kids with attention problems, kids given to acting out, kids that hit, kids that sit slumped and miserable and unresponsive, glowering at her, kids that, in the way of our heartless and stressed-out world, bring all manner of baggage into the classroom and have no way of dealing with it, and who will have less capacity to do so as class sizes grow, programs and resources get cut and special needs children get dumped unhelped into the mainstream. It's already emotionally exhausting as it is, but besides teaching, she strives to reach them, to lift them, to take care of them, to inspire them, to help them feel good about themselves and to get them to be nice to each other, and to fill them with a positive attitude towards learning and themselves. This friend cares enough about her kids that she has saved the more brilliant stories they write and pictures they draw - often in huge, crooked Crayola strokes - and shares them occasionally with me, once even sitting myself and a visiting musician I was hanging out with for a complete storybook narrative that a child of hers had assembled, reading it aloud to us and showing us the pictures. (He was ultimately as compelled as I was - but he has kids himself, and has put their art all over his albums, so that makes sense). Sometimes (I don't ever tell her this, but I imagine she can spot it) it takes a bit of effort on MY part to connect with her passion - she'll be praising things done by her students and I'll be sitting thinking, "yeah, but it looks like a kid did it," requiring her to kinda help me along in SEEING the creativity and potential there, but she always eventually gets me there, because these are skills she's cultivated; she sees in her children's work their developmental potential, the first flourishings of new minds, something it is her responsibility to recognize, reward, and nurture. This person is - I have no hesitation in saying it - EXACTLY the kind of person I would want looking after my children, if I had any; someone who puts her heart into the job, who actually CARES about teaching her kids. THAT, more than test scores, standardization, an appropriately industrialized curriculum, a passion for uniformity, or the strict following of regimental discipline is what I would look for in a teacher, is what I would want for my hypothetical children, is what I think MAKES A GOOD TEACHER: someone who sees her job as a matter of helping her kids become autonomous, fully-realized, self-respecting and creative human beings, and not of presiding over the creation of a society of disempowered worker-units, where only those born with money have a hope of flourishing.

What kind of teacher do you think Christy Clark would wish for your children?

Do you see her brimming over with care for children? Do you honestly think the Liberal government has any concern with the creation of "autonomous, fully-realized, self-respecting and creative human beings?" Nevermind what they're trying to do to the teachers - does their battle against the teachers and schools of this province actually seem like it is being waged in the best interests of the children?

It sure doesn't seem that way to me. It doesn't seem that way to the authors of the following memorandum about the impending job action, either, which I urge you all to read - the deceptively named "cooling off period" being imposed by Bill 22 is all about hamstringing the teachers from being able to take any effective action at all in defense of their jobs or kids. It's imposing, for instance, a clause that there be NO PICKETS - which means in effect that the schools will be kept open so that children can be baby-sat by non-teachers for the duration of any strike. This will make the strike less disruptive; it won't make it more effective. Also imposed are a three-day maximum for the upcoming job action (two days notice required) - three days which will commence on Monday. It's a Draconian, nasty piece of legislation, asserted and imposed as part of a general campaign of destroying unions; it shows, if you look at it carefully enough, just how cold and calculating the Liberals are in their approach to negotiations. Cooling off period my ass - I'd as soon be a miner under Thatcher as a teacher in British Columbia right now.

My friend was crying at some points over dinner last night as she described the current state of things. She's thinking that it may be time to get out. I didn't say it, but all the while talking with her some voice in the back of my head kept echoing, thank Christ I didn't decide to pursue a PDP and get involved in public education. I had considered it, as a natural next step from my ESL teaching, but frankly, I'm not sure what sort of person would WANT to teach in a BC public school system under the Liberals. The message is being sent very clearly by the Liberals that if you have a heart, that if you care about kids, that if you care about education - you'd best stay far far away from our public school system, because its back is about to be broken.

Maybe that's their ultimate aim? Maybe at some point, like our natural resources, our transit system, our liquor distribution, the Liberals envision the privitization of the education system, so ONLY those who pay for it can access the system? (Pause to shudder).

If you KNOW in your heart who in this conflict has the best interests of your kids in mind -  speak up. Send a message to the Liberals that what they are doing to our teachers is NOT WELCOME and is NOT BEING DONE IN OUR NAME. Show support and solidarity with our teachers however you can. SPEAK OUT, because what's happening in this province right now WILL affect you - maybe not immediately, but - do you really think breaking the unions is the final stage in the plan we're seeing unveiled?

Nardwuar and Bev Davies knock it outta th' park!

The Evaporators' new project is so jampacked with joy that it staggers me; no way can I fully do it justice in my present state, but I have to issue at least ONE burst of enthusiasm for it prior to the record release show(s) this Saturday. The LP is only half the project, tho' a splendid half it is - with one side mostly devoted to Vancouver covers, performed by some very cool guests: Franz Ferdinand doing the Pointed Sticks ("Real Thing"), Kate Nash covering Cub ("My Chinchilla"), Fuad and the Feztones doing an early Evaporators song ("Welcome to My Castle" - original here), and the Cribs covering the Dishrags. Andrew WK also guests for an instantly catchy Evaporators work-stress original, "I Hate Being Late When I'm Early" - that's a link to a new Evaporators/ Andrew WK video, showing (presumably) the inside workings of Nardwuar's gig at CITR, with lyrics capturing, among other things, the universal experience of having to move stuff that's in the way so you can get on about your gig; there's genius in capturing small details of life like that, which EVERYONE has experienced, but have never made it into a song before... There's also one side of mostly Evaporators originals and even an Evaporators' cover of another artist, "rockabily truckdriver" Doug Rutledge ("Bring It On Home" - Jill Barber does a guest vocal). I've actually only spun the vinyl once through, to be honest, but the overall impression is that the whole album is energy-raising ear candy, very easy to listen to, and pretty much guaranteed to infect you with its exuberance - just like Nardwuar! And it can be had in white splattered vinyl, too - just like Nardwuar!

The Evaporators by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

ON TOP OF THAT, though - as if you need ANOTHER reason to buy this record - there's also a whole new Bev Davies calendar included (kinda weirdly overlooked in the Straight review) loaded with photos, many of which (Iggy!) I've never seen before, and a new Nardwuar-vs-Bev interview about each pic, as per Nard'n'Bev's developing tradition.

By the by, for any of you who think it might be weird to release a calendar/LP package in March, note that the calendar covers the remainder of 2012 on two pages, illustrated with a pic Bev took during the making of the now-on-DVD Vancouver-lensed punk cult classic Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains - I actually DID NOT KNOW that Laura Dern was in that! - then covers 2013 with a giant glossy B&W photo every month, including the Slits, the Cramps, PiL, and the "fight using your balls" photo of d. boon of the minutemen that Nardwuar and Watt talked about when Nardwuar interviewed him last year. Then - this is a 40 page long calendar, you dig - there's a whole 'nuther two-page spread for 2014, so you can just KEEP THIS CALENDAR ON YOUR WALL FOR THREE FECKIN' YEARS! (which is amazingly convenient and environmentally sound, when you think about it). I won't tell you who-all-else is in it, but it actually OUTDOES the last Mint Records Bev Davies calendar by at least a few hundred yards, and makes me wonder what else I haven't seen of Bev's. I mean, I didn't even KNOW she'd photographed the Gun Club. Or that the Gun Club had ever played the Commodore, for that matter. Apparently Nardwuar made Bev look really hard for that pic - I can see why!
 

The Evaporators by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

Anyhow, its really an awesome package, crammed with delights and deliriousness, and anyone with a love for Vancouver music, or pop-punk, or punk photography, or Nardwuar himself (because he's a pretty astonishing guy, overflowing with passion for music and Vancouver culture - he blew both Eugene Chadbourne and I away by revealing that Boris Karloff helped build the roller coaster at the PNE as a labourer!) should a) go buy it and b) go check out the free Neptoon in-store record release with The Evaporators this Saturday, starting at 2 - though note that Nardwuar's in-stores tend to get PACKED, so you'd best arrive WAYYY early. And then the Evaporators open for Andrew WK at the Venue, proving YET AGAIN, for anyone who might have missed it, that in the smorgasbord of Vancouver culture, Nardwuar is the caffeine.

The Evaporators by Femke van Delft, not to be reused without permission

End burst! ...tho' by the way, while you're at Neptoon, if you don't already have it and are inspired by Nardwuar's release to do a wee bit more shopping, last I checked, they still have copies of their History of Vancouver Rock and Roll volume 4, featuring psychedelic and garage rock bands of the 1960's, some of whom Bev knew when she arrived in Vancouver! Check out this tune (on the comp) by Maple Ridge's own Northwest Company! (It's actually a VIDEO! Wow...).

In other news, the Straight printed a Likely Rads review I wrote, just in time for their gig opening for the LGA on Friday (see below). That's a great release, too, but I got no more mojo to draw on, here. Go see The Evaporators at Neptoon and/or the Venue! Go buy Busy Doing Nothing! You will ENJOY it!

For Davy Jones

...anyone who has missed out on the particular genius of the Monkees needs to spend exactly one minute on this clip, prior to seeing Head. (Yes, it's true, some of Head dates poorly, but there are ample delights to be had. And Timothy Carey is in it!).

This Saturday in Maple Ridge!