More Pop Culture Recommendations, Because I Don't Actually Have a Life

I just realized that it's been a long time since I put any photos on here. Too bad I don't have any to show you. Alison's got her good camera with her in Halifax tonight, and all that's on the point-and-shoot is a blizzard out the back window. It looks kind of cool because I used a flash to freeze some snowflakes, but I can't find the little USB cord to even be able to show you that one. And come to think of it, Alison probably doesn't have anything of us either, since she's generally not home when I'm here.

She was in Toronto last week for her dad's 75th birthday celebration. Then when she finally got home a bunch of work came in, so she's off for a few days again. She'll be back this weekend, but then I have to go into Halifax for a band practice. This crossing paths periodically is for the birds. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," they say, but I find it's more likely to make the brain grow crazier.

I think I'm forgetting how to relate to people properly, for instance. I was introduced to a very likable member of the Acadia staff today whom I had already met once before. I pointed out that we'd already met, and he excused himself by saying that he meets a lot of people in his job, and for some reason I said, "Don't you remember I'm the guy who called you an asshole to your face?"! I thought it would be funny. I don't really know why. It wasn't.

Anyway, all this solitary time is good for getting stuff done, I guess. Last night I did the front cover artwork for the The Lodge CD that'll be coming out in April. And in sorting through old files, I found this gem that I'd forgotten I designed many months ago, which I planned on making into a T-shirt. Think I'll still do that; it'd be a great one.

I've also been listening to a lot of music, probably because my end-of-the-year list felt so ill-informed. I realized that there are a couple of albums that probably should have made it on there, or if not they were very close. One is the new David Byrne and Brian Eno collaboration, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today. It's a collection of pieces Eno had been working on that he then handed over to Byrne to write lyrics and sing over. The songs are harmonically simpler than what David Byrne usually writes himself, and the melodies are catchy and stirring. The words are typical DB fare, i.e. really great, and he sings them as well as he's ever sung, i.e. you'll love it if he doesn't bug the hell out of you.

The other CD that I somehow completely forgot about is Scarlett Johansson's album of Tom Waits covers, Anywhere I Lay My Head. Sounds like a joke, I know. What am I gonna recommend next, the new Hannah Montana klezmer experiment? I think I only checked it out in the first place to hear how much of a trainwreck it was. But it's surprisingly good. She sings in a deep voice with a limited range, somewhat like Nico. A guy named David Sitek produced the album and seems to have done most of the arranging, which is spare and quiet in a spooky, dreamy indie rock kind of way. Sort of like Beach House or something. Maybe I wouldn't have included this in the top ten even if I'd remembered it, and some songs are definitely better than others, but it actually is quite enjoyable, even if, like me, you're a big Tom Waits fan who doesn't relish the idea of someone else trying to interpret such style-dependent music.

Speaking of which, I played some more gamelan music at Ken and Heidi's last night. It's going to be a regular weekly get-together for a small group of devotees. I'm the newest member and still don't know the names of all the funny instruments or the weird rules for deriving parts from the spare score that is given out, but I sure am having fun learning. We would probably sound terrible to a Javanese person, or even anyone with some knowledge of the music, but it sounds fantastic to my exhilarated ears. All bing-bongy and cling-clangy, with lots of counterpoint and weird unresolved heptatonic phrases.

I'll be playing a show with Al Tuck at the Rebecca Cohn on January 28. Have I already mentioned that elsewhere? There'll be an extra large band backing him up and it's all being recorded for CBC radio. Plus, Little Orton Hoggett and the Ten Cent Wings will be opening. I can't wait!

Finally Mad Men: everyone needs to watch this show. You've probably heard about it. People working in advertising in the early sixties? Set aside a few days, because there are two seasons of it, and you won't be able to stop once you start. It's subtle and ambiguous, with lots of great characters and weird unresolved gin-and-tonic tension. I usually am not a fan of the "lovable jerk" archetype, because he is typically either not actually that lovable or not actually that much of a jerk. But these guys all manage to be both sympathetic and completely evil. Cool!

- Andrew