A “new-cycle” sunspot belonging to Solar Cycle 24 is emerging near the sun’s northeastern limb.
SOLAR CYCLE 24 #6
SUNDAY OCTOBER 26/08. 4:00-7:00PM
experimental music Free
GLADSTONE HOTEL
1214 QUEEN STREET WEST. TORONTO
Set One 4:30-5:15pm Nitasha – (guitar and vocals) Emese – (light percussion) Set Two 5:45 – 6:30pm R.G Daniel (electronic toys) – A rock drummer of the
“progressive” school, R.G.Daniel has been pursuing computer-based
composition and recording, as well as indulging a recent (and
psychologically suspect) interest in “circuit-bent” children’s toys. http://www.rgdaniel.com/blog/ Aaron Elie (guitar) Alan Glicksman (synthesizer and cymbals)
Alan organizes solar cycle 24. www.alanglicksman.com
As part of the As It Were series of “live in the studio” recordings, a series that I am just inventing now, featuring avant-garde art-noise mongers R.G.Daniel (www.rgdaniel.com) and Alan Glicksman (www.alanglicksman.com), 54×2 recently entertained themselves and a captive audience of canines at Barkwhistle Studio (my rec room) in beautiful Owen Sound.
This time out, I relied heavily (perhaps too heavily) on my Boss DD-6 Digital Delay pedal, as well as my new circuit-bent tiny drone guitar and circuit-bent Lisa Simpson saxophone. Alan favoured the always delightful vintage Yamaha synth that he played in Durham, along with sundry bells and whistles. The recording was once again via Lynda’s Zoom X4, with no post processing except for normalizing the volumes.
Here is a generous selection of excepts. A CD of the entire audio event is available by contacting me via this website or by stopping me in the street. The cost for the CD will be one million dollars.
Today Lynda flagged down the Hydro crew as they were cutting down trees, and arranged to have them drop off the wood chips in our driveway for use as mulch on our pathways and garden beds. As I stood watching them feed whole trees as big as 8 or 10 inches in diameter effortlessly into the chipper, I was of course reminded of this scene from the movie Fargo. Now we have a pile of woodchips in our driveway the size of a Buick, and I’m hoping I don’t find the remains of anything (or anybody) else in there as we spread it around the place. I do enjoy free stuff though.
(YouTube movie)
As part of the By Chance series presented by Owen Sound visual artist Alan Glicksman, avant-garde art-noise aficionados 54×3 recently entertained a crowd of several in Durham, Ontario.
We recently had the pleasure of attending a small portion of the Third Annual Electric Eclectics Festival near Meaford, Ontario. Described by the Globe and Mail as “Woodstock for the modern music crowd”, the festival took place over three days on the August long weekend, on the site of a working farm atop Scotch Mountain, which is generously named but nevertheless affords a stunning pastoral view of the surrounding countryside.
The first act of the day, just underway as we arrived, were Jeremy Hobbs and Nick Storring, on guitar and cello respectively, though in keeping with the whole point of the festival, these instruments were coaxed and caressed into unlocking sounds and moods beyond their design. Hobbs’ guitar work recalled some of Robert Fripp’s Soundscapes experiments, but the addition of Storring’s cello work, and the modern technologies deployed by both, made them a wholly original act and a promising start to the day.
(YouTube video)
Next up, Feuermusik, another duo. Gus Weinkauf brought tremendous stick control and more enthusiasm and body English to two drumsticks and a couple of paint cans (or something) than probably the instruments deserved, but he propelled things along with admirable energy. Jeremy Strachan playing (I think tenor) saxophone displayed the most bonafide chops of anyone we saw, and proved it by maintaining a breakneck pace throughout most of the set. While primarily in the “free” mode, there was at times uncanny synchronicity between the two players. While relentless, especially in contrast with the previous act, by the end they had made me a believer.
(YouTube video)
Now we come to the act with easily the best name of anyone on the bill. Known as The Dead Are Those Who Have Died, what we actually have is one unassuming fellow, Ryan Clark, playing prepared electric guitar. We never saw his face, as he saw fit to present only his butt to the audience. Punishing his guitar (we assume from the sounds – he was hunched over it with his back to us, preventing visual confirmation) into “channelling the ancestral sounds of nature and the dead” it sounded more to me like he was channeling Fred Frith, only without the discipline and control. A disappointment for me.
(Fred Frith video — note he FACES his audience)
The final act that we were able to stay for, AS IS, were another duo, “featuring percussion and synthesizer by Grey County-based visual artists Steve White and Alan Glicksman“. Alan is a fellow Owen Sounder, whose wife Suzanne (aka “Shalimar”) it turns out is my wife’s belly-dancing instructor. We’re a close community, what can I tell you. Closer still, Steve hails from Walters Falls – which, as he noted, you could practically throw a drumstick to from the stage. And close was a good thing, given the instrument / sculpture he had to haul to the venue. Evoking its agricultural roots and context, this fairly enormous concoction of metal plates and garage door springs gave up a surprising range of quite musical tones. Not quite “tuned percussion” but with a full broad voice all its own. Meanwhile, Alan was busy with drum kit, miscellaneous bells and whistles, and what we heard described only as a “vintage synth”, which looked and sounded suspiciously like an old VCS3 (Think Pink Floyd’s “On the Run” from Dark Side of the Moon). Google and Wikipedia were inconclusive, but that’s my theory for now… This was a terrific set.
(YouTube video)
One final note, there was a fairly cool sound installation in the farm’s silo, which involved capturing the ongoing sound of the nearby stage performances, patching that signal into some digital audio equipment inside the silo, and playing it back through a pair of speakers. What with the natural acoustics of the silo itself, the delay between the source (still audible from outside) and the captured signal, and the subtle and varying digital effects applied to the signal for playback, the experience was surprisingly engrossing.
It’s 1970, the year afterWoodstock. And now, right here in Canada, another sure-to-be-epic rock festival is selling tickets via this very poster. The Trans Continental Pop Festival was a 1970 tour across Canada by some of the world’s biggest rock bands, including The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, and The Band.
It later became known as Festival Express, which is also the name of the documentary film that would eventually emerge.
The bands travelled across Canada on a private train between the gigs, which became a party / jam session of epic proportions. Some of this mayhem — along with actual concert footage — was captured on film, but not seen until Festival Express’s 2003 premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, 33 years after the original event.
I just found this poster in some old papers, and I’m very excited. Also very old, since I was at this show, in both Toronto and Calgary!!
I have several of these, and also a couple of copies of the original newsprint program for the events. I think I may just look into this whole E-Bay thing…
Our favourite contractor, John Marriage, is a funny guy. Maybe a little funny-peculiar (aren’t we all) but mostly funny-haha. He used to be one of those TV-show contractors, but decided he would get a real job instead. As a former rival, he has strong opinions about our favourite TV-show contractor, Mike Holmes . I feel that Mike Holmes has important lessons for homeowners to learn about the renovation process, whereas John feels that he’s a big poopy-head, or something. I dunno, who listens.
Anyway, our bathroom renovation is well underway, i.e. we no longer HAVE a bathroom. Just bare walls and some Ditra. (….mmmmm, Ditra……) After a few days of no progress in moving things forward, it was with a heavy heart that I called John to let him know that I was getting very stinky and wanted my shower…
His return message (we never speak directly, I’m a very busy man, what with the naps and the going out for milk) was informative and his reasons credible, and I am no longer concerned that he has abandoned us for a return to the limelight.
At the end of his message, John said “Gee, I hope you’re not going to put all this in your Blog”.
No John, I would never do that.
If you go to Flickr (arguably the world’s best photo-sharing web site, according to themselves) and Search “Everyone’s Uploads”, “tags only”, using the word “hippie” and sort by “most interesting”, guess who shows up as Number One??
