Junction Rocks!

Another big-ass spread in this weekends NYT's about Toronto's music scene. The article mostly focuses on Broken Social Scene but it also features Globe and Mail music critic Carl Wilson, Johnny Dovercourt and Steve Kado from The Blocks Recording Club. Can't say it delves too deeply into all that is happening in this city but it does discuss the communal aspect of the big smoke's music/cultural scene. Surfing some of my favourite music blog's today, I was intrigued by the big flame wars (see comment sections) going on re: some harsh criticism of the 'Sloan Tribute Night' at The Boat last week. Certain peeps thought the night was self-indugent and sucked and this caused an uproar as those who attended, organized, or performed in the show had to defend their indie hipster cred. I learned a few things, like, what 'KH' stands for - Kensington Hipsters, that 'Drake Juice' is coffee and 'QSM's' refers to Queen Street Man. It also inspired some interesting haiku poety slams:



I do have to admit there is some good critical conversation going on in the Zoilus (see clarifying Torontopia) thread about community vs exclusivity. It's funny to sit back and watch this unfurl, especially as someone who plays in a local band, who has no indie hipster cred whatsover and is ecstatic if 5 people outside of friends come out to a show...lol...get over yrselves people.

A Brokeback Moment: "I wish I knew how to quit you!"

Prime Minister John Howard caught Hank's wrath during his most recent trip to Australia. On the flight from New Zealand, Rollins said he was reading a copy of Wall Street Journal correspondent Ahmed Rashid's book "Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia." The man sitting next to him took objection to the book and reported Rollins to the Australian government. "The guy phoned me in to their, like, anti-terrorist board, and they found me — they looked me up," he said. "They looked up the flight and found out who was sitting in seat 10A and they got to me. And they said, 'OK, you're now a person of interest. The man next to you does not agree with your politics and he didn't like the book you were reading.' This kind of provocation, I don't respond very well to. I was furious. And so I write back, 'You can tell everyone at your office, including your boss, to go f--- themselves. This book has been read by a ton of people — I am not a threat to your state or any state or any republic.' "

In the actual text of his online response, Rollins added: "Baghdad's safer than my hometown, and your PM is a sissy."

photo from henryrollins.com

WTF?
"As part of the on-going DMCA rule-making proceedings, the RIAA and other copyright industry associations submitted a filing that included this gem as part of their argument that space-shifting and format-shifting do not count as noninfringing uses, even when you are talking about making copies of your own CDs: "Nor does the fact that permission to make a copy in particular circumstances is often or even routinely granted, necessarily establish that the copying is a fair use when the copyright owner withholds that authorization. In this regard, the statement attributed to counsel for copyright owners in the MGM v. Grokster case is simply a statement about authorization, not about fair use."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has the whole scoop.

Destroyer fans now have their own Wiki.

Mission Statement
"Welcome to the Destroyer Wiki. This is an attempt to annotate Destroyer lyrics. However, no attempt is made at describing what a song is about. I don't know what any of them are about. Nobody does." Also, the hightly anticipated 'Destoyers Rubies' is out Feb. 21st. There's been lots of talk in the blogosphere about this disc surpassing 'Streethawk', but after sampling the tracks thus far I have to say, yes, it's very good (3000 flowers rocks), yet it doesn't grab me right out of the gate like 'Streethawk' did. Regardless, I'm gonna give it some time to sink in before I make my final opinion known. Merge is streaming a preview of the entire record here.

It's official, Stockwell 'Doris' Day has been appointed by Dear Leader as our new 'Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness'- don't you feel secure. The Canadain Cynic calls him 'one of the most embarrassing retards to ever stumble through Canadian politics'. Remember when Warren Kinsella mocked Day's disbelief in evolution by saying, "The Flintstones weren't a documentary," and by bringing out a Barney doll, and stating that "this was the only dinosaur ever to be on Earth with humans."

I'm sure Doris is all ready to launch Canada's first Faith-Based Anti-Terrorism Unit. Here she is, patrolling the beaches for suspected terrorists, checking bikinis for IED's. According to Wikipedia, these are a few of the things Doris will be responsible for: RCMP, CSIS, Canada Customs. God help us all.

Selected quotes from this Salon article.

I avoided commenting on this situation earlier mostly because I needed some time to formulate my thoughts on a difficult subject. In my opinion, the publication of the Mohammed caricatures shows a huge lack of sensitivity, especially as they were initially re-published in right wing European newspapers. "The debate now raging over the caricatures has tilted on the defense of free speech but a deep and unflinching commitment to free speech is not really the mission of the paper at the center of the maelstrom, nor of the present Danish government. This all would have been very well if the paper had a long tradition of standing up for fearless artistic expression. But it so happens that three years ago, Jyllands-Posten refused to publish cartoons portraying Jesus, on the grounds that they would offend readers." So, you can offend Muslim readers but not Christian readers?

This situation smacks of something from the 19th Century, when blacks, Jews, Irish, Chinese etc. were routinely caricatured in newspapers, and no one gave it a second thought. The political climate of the Middle East is already at the boiling point thus; it doesn't take much these days too incite anger and violence, especially amongst people who already have a tenuous relationship with the West. Do I believe in their right to protest, yes. Do I believe in violent demonstrations, absolutely not. Unfortunately, the fanatical element of Islam has latched onto this and has intentionally fanned the flames of anger. The point is that these radical groups promoting violence are succeeding because the papers won't acknowledge the sensitivity of the issue and egging these groups on, all the while hiding behind a veil of "Free speech".

So, where are all the moderate muslims? Why aren't their voices being heard? Why haven't Muslims in Canada taken to the streets in large numbers to protest against the caricatures? There's a good article here in yesterday's Globe and Mail, which tries to address some of these questions.

My new fav 'Kat Von D' tat.

Things you can do with a small pet and a piece of citrus fruit. This nifty demo shows how to make a fruit helmet for your cat. I'm def gonna try this out soon. “Today is a great day for the cat freedom movement! The prototype Feline Protection and Enhancement System is ready for testing! The F.P.E.S. v0.0, known as ‘The Zero’, was produced in our top secret, Illinois facility just last week.”

Had a great time at The Session on Saturday night - thanks to all those who came out to support the show - especially as the weather sucked bad! Torrential rain in February - who would have thunk it?
Initially, I was a bit hesitant to play the bar because it's quite small and is mostly known for it's acoustic acts, however, Rue, Melissa and Laila are trying to diversify and book more eclectic bands and The Hemis are never one to back down from a challenge. To start the night off with a bang, there was a hardy frat boy smack down in front of the bar, complete with blood, broken glass, bouncers and cops (think lonely baseball caps, dislodged from noggins, blowing down Queen Street). That mayhem got the adrenalin pumping and after a few technical glitches were dealt with (thanks Kim and Sean) we managed to pull off a couple of energenic and entertaining sets. Pinko Kronkite finished the night off with some raw "Christian Rap". They're a very physical band for a three piece. They like to verbally and physically abuse each other on stage too - their last song ended with the bass player trying to karate kick the singer in the cojones and the drummer diving over the drum kit to beat up on the both of them - somebody almost lost an eye. All fun for the kids. It was that kind of night and a good indication of the potential of The Session to become a viable music venue for all types of artists. Laila has some HEMI pics up at her blog The Lazy Worm and to check out more about Pink Kronkite go HERE.

I can't figure out if this is real or some kind of genius photoshop job, regardless, Super Bowl mania has decended upon my hometown of Windsor (it bordering on Detroit). I've heard various reports about celeb sightings. Rumour has it that Ben Affleck is renting Cheetah's (peeler bar) for a big Superbowl party but that doesn't gel with his new found image as a devoted husband and father. Then I heard it was Jimmy Kimmel - now that makes more sense. Apparently John Travolta was seen eating his way around Erie Street. Erie is Windsor's Little Italy. Mark Walberg was spotted at the Casino. Anyway, I haven't posted much this week because I've been working my hiney off and preparing for our gig at The Session tomorrow. Should be a good one. I hope the 'knob head hat' is still there. Oh, long story.