Music
Victoria Day Doo Dah
by Nick Glossop on May 20, 2013
Happy Victoria Day!
(And to our readers outside Canada, psst, it’s Victoria Day) Queen Victoria: longest reigning British Monarch, first to be crowned Empress of India (a tad presumptuous), last of the House of Hanover, longest-lived British monarch until Elizabeth II recently surpassed her. Victoria’s reign saw 20 British governments come and go, and her name is evocative of the height of Empire, of the flowering of British sciences, letters …
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Maywa Denki – Dedicated To Whimsy
by Nick Glossop on May 14, 2013
Innumerable species play, and many – certainly many primates – laugh and tease and jest. But are we alone in our ability to grasp, appreciate, and delight in the absurd? How stands the octopus on Dada? (On his head-foot, of course.) As this video of the Maywa Denki group illustrates, true nonsense requires a most subtle and flexible mind, and whimsy takes dedication.
Via Laughing Squid
Originally posted May 24, …
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Legendary Maritime folksinger and feminist Rita MacNeil has died, at the age of 68
by Michelle Lovegrove Thomson on April 17, 2013
The Cape Breton singer died on Tuesday as a result of complications from surgery. She recorded 24 albums over her career, and her song “Working Man” will live on as an evocative and emotional tale of mining-culture in the mid-Twentieth century. I would describe her sound as Celtic showtunes, or 80s adult contemporary imbued with local flair. MacNeil’s Christmas TV specials were a delight. At the core of each song—the …
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Tears For Madam Medusa
by Nick Glossop on April 8, 2013
Richard Thompson ~ Mother Knows Best
So you think you know how to wipe your own nose
So you think you know how to button your clothes
You don’t know shit
If you hadn’t already guessed
You’re just a bump on the log of life
‘Cos Mother knows best
She tells everybody she was born in a ditch
She backcombs her hair till she looks like a witch
Wolves in
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Elvis Costello on Margaret Thatcher
by Andrew Loewen on April 8, 2013
Her life’s work long since accomplished, and her ideological legacy our present, it seems the octogenarian biological life form of Margaret Thatcher (unable to attend the Royal Wedding) may not be long for this world. While her death is unlikely to be met by orgiastic throngs of gleeful, flag-waving patriots, many will not be sad to see her go even if her legacy endures. So then, …
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Jerry Jerry ~ I, Showbiz
by Nick Glossop on March 14, 2013
Some talk of Buñuel here at the site prompted me to put this clip together. Luis Buñuel made this strange film L’Âge d’Or in 1930. When I first saw it, I had a eureka moment as I thought I had discovered the cradle in which Monty Python had been birthed. The inception point comes earlier in the movie, when the protagonist becomes enraged at the site of a blind beggar, …
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Happy Birthday, Edward Gorey
by Nick Glossop on February 22, 2013
Born this day in history, the incomparable Edward Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000).
There is no going to town in a bath tub.
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Robbie Fulks ~ A Little Red Bullet
by Nick Glossop on February 18, 2013
The under-appreciated Robbie Fulks keeps his studio releases under fairly strict control; to get a sense of his astonishing abilities on the guitar, and physicality of his playing and singing, you really have to see him live. Here are two clips from a performance in Altadena CA. First a sad but ecstatic anthem of suburban rebellion – the weekend warrior ablaze.
Second a tale of bad decisions and shallow and …
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Dept Of Bad Trip Retro Glam
by Nick Glossop on February 16, 2013
The highly prolific Ty Segall ~
Thank God For the Sinners
Put a little Satan in space and you got the sound.
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Folding And Cutting The Space-Time Continuum (with things you probably have around the house)
by Nick Glossop on February 11, 2013
With paper, felt pens, scissors and some unspecified power tools, the charming mathemusician, Vihart, plays Grinderman with the fabric of reality. Dance, critters!
via Open Culture…
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