hi all,
we made the huffington post, in the same breath as sarah palin, michelle obama and cindy mccain. probably the closest we’ll ever get to the white house! check it out here! … and then, GO VOTE!!
c.
i am about to send this book, desert solitaire, to a friend, and so thought i would share the opening paragraph, which i have always enjoyed (and actually included in my thesis!). if you haven’t read any edward abbey, track some down and go atter. … doesn’t matter which, it only matters that you read him, be offended sometimes, laugh quite a bit, or at least now and then, and be inspired to connect to something more real and important than that which we normally spend our time fretting about. in his words:
this is the most beautiful place on earth.
there are many such places. every man, every woman, carries in heart and mind the image of the ideal place, the right place, the one true home, known or unknown, actual or visionary. a houseboat in kashmir, a view down atlantic avenue in brooklyn, a gray gothic farmhouse two stories high at the end of a red dog road in the allegheny mountains, a cabin on the shore of a blue lake in spruce and fir country, a greasy alley near the hoboken waterfront, or even, possibly, for those of a less demanding sensibility, the world to be seen from a comfortable apartment high in the tender, velvety smog of manhattan, chicago, paris, tokyo, rio or rome — there’s no limit to the human capacity for the homing sentiment. theologians, sky pilots, astronauts have even felt the appeal of home calling to them from up above, in the cold black outback of intersteller space.
for myself, i’ll take moah, utah. i don’t mean the town itself, of course, but the country which surrounds it — the canyonlands. the slickrock desert. the red dust and the burnt cliffs and the lonely sky — all that which lies beyond the end of the roads (edward abbey, desert solitaire, page 1-2).
if the world insists on disintegrating, or imploding, or whatever it is currently doing, why don’t we just agree to meet in paris tomorrow afternoon with our dearest friends and play music together? you know, one will bring the fiddle, another will play the drums, someone will find an acoustic bass at a pawnshop in the 7e arrondissement, and maybe we can all take turns playing guitar and zylophone? that would make so much more sense, wouldn’t it? making music, for a change, instead of downloading it? walking around with people we like, and acting like living really mattered that much…would that be lovely? let’s promise to meet there tomorrow, then, and maybe pack a lunch too, although i guess we could always grab something as we meander aimlessly through the autumn streets of paris…(for the full itinerary of one possible déroulement out of millions, look here).
alright, i’ve just fallen in love with another website! this is exactly the sort of thing that brings inspirational grins of joy to my face! … and, somehow i think i had already thought about the idea for this site, without ever actually knowing it (in so many words). anyway, i have long dreamt of mixing music and imagery in such poetically translucent ways …
the site is called takeawayshows, and basically it consists of (or started with) a couple of zany filmmakers who like music, and thought it would be fun to film musicians in unfamiliar, unedited moments. elevators, backalleys, and all the rest. they film them live, and raw; they let the tape run, more or less, and try to capture something maybe not seen in a typical musical showbusiness sort of setting. what results is nothing short of gloriously captivating.
here is their own description of what they do:
Every week, we invite an artist or a band to play in the streets, in a bar, a park, or even in a flat or in an elevator, and we film the whole session. Of course, what makes the beauty of it is all the little incidents, hesitations, and crazy stuff happening unexpectingly. Besides, we do not edit the videos so they look perfectly flawless, instead we keep the raw sound of the surroundings. Our goal is to try and capture instants, film the music just like it happens, without preparation, without tricks. Spontaneity is the keyword.
… to give you a couple examples, check out this get-together with arcade fire! … it starts with a stunning rendition of neon bible in a freight elevator, and then moves suddenly into an unexpecting, and chaotic crowd for the strangest version of wake up you’ll ever see!
And, although i am trying to not squeeze too much into such a small amount of space, check out adam arcuragi, and his band of roving troubadours, in some market in nyc.
there are so many great musical moments on this site, so grab un verre de rouge, or a pint of ale, and let yourself be swept away by the idiosyncracies of life in the keys of playfulness and expression.
make sure to watch the above posted videos on their respective pages (here and here) on the take away shows site, because they provide some text and context that adds to the mix.
and, please pass it around!
happy (canadian) thanksgiving, y’all!
c.
i love this image:
hi all !
ya, so the world is panicking about money. argh. money sucks, especially money that doesn’t really exist but just pretends to exist so that we can someday cash it in and make some real money. in the meantime, we should probably turn to more serious matters, like art, love and music — not necessarily in that order, but not necessarily not in that order either!
alright, i am feeling a little silly tonight, i’ll admit it. very tired, but also kind of excited about the music i have been listening to tonight (and for the past month and a half really). you see, cbc radio 2 has recently changed its format from predominantly classical music to a mix of all kinds of tunes. there is a pretty heavy dose of canadian music, but since canada has a great music scene (including folks like arcade fire, the besnard lakes and the new pornographers) you don’t need to worry about a thing.
one of the shows i am enjoying the most is rich terfry’s show, called drive, from 3pm to 6pm every evening (eastern time; but, you can stream online, and since there are like 5 time zones in canada, you can always pretty much find some rich to listen to in the evenings). rich is a kooky kind of guy. he is actually a hip-hop artist from the maritimes known as buck 65, but he has taken to the national broadcaster because he has always had a penchant for ‘radio’. who wouldn’t really? radio is community, open road getaways, and sitting around the hearth, with a coffee and whiskey, playing scrabble and laughing at hikes gone wrong in the rocky mountains of your youth (or something like that, anyway).
he is funny. he has this deep voice, and a measured way of speaking that might turn you off at first. don’t be deterred! he writes poetry to introduce artists; he tells tales of fateful tours across the great white north; and he ponders the existential matters of heart, mind and metaphor. i pretty much really enjoy the guy!
…and, whenever i imitate him in a deep rich baritone, saying: “you’re listening to radio 2 drive, with rich terfry”, my 10-month-old, lil’ guy cracks up like you wouldn’t believe! … it’s gotta be a good sign!
here it is, radio2. enjoy! … check around the site as there are concerts to be had, some video fun, and other interneterly sorts of fare.
see ya soon,
c.
check out this company that will be rolling out its all-electric SUVs and SUTs in 2010, they are called phoenix motorcars.
you can reserve one now, and hopefully if everything goes well you’ll be driving one in 2010!
if you’ve visited this site before, you might have recognized that i am not a fan of the automobile … not in our cities anyway. a fantastic film like who killed the electric car frustrates me from two levels … the first being that we have the technology available to have zero-emission cars, but the car companies don’t want them to roll out … so they keep them from us. if you haven’t heard of this, watch this documentary …
the second level being that electric cars aren’t even the answer! … they are simple the worse-case scenario that we should allow ourselves. there are countless other environmental and social consequences that our car culture contributes to. roads are a huge issue for wildlife and waterways, and in the cities they take up so much space that room for people and their kids is very limited.
if we didn’t have to build so many roads for cars, what would we do with the space filled by roads today? look out your front window and imagine that as a grass (wild grasses, not lawn) covered lane, with more trees, some wildflowers, and maybe a small creek flowing by … the point being: there doesn’t have to be a road there.
not only would such alternate uses of roads make life more enjoyable, it would make being a kid so much wonderous … just run out the door and there is a world ready to explore and run around in, where there aren’t cars zipping by every 2 seconds … kids should catch frogs, not car exhaust when they are playing outside with their friends.
… my very convoluted point being that electric cars are not the answer. the answer is that we need to replan our cities, creating transportation systems that allow us to live without automobiles on a daily basis. we need to do this for the environment (there is no doubt), but also because it will improve our lives, it will bring beauty back into places that are currently rather ugly, and because it is simply a better way to live.
… but in the meantime, we still need to get around while our cities are being reimagined … and to do that, we should only be using all-electric cars (hybrids are not enough).
so, put your name on the list, and drive one off the lot in 2010!!
ps - there are a bunch of electric car options out there, some smaller than these … do some searching and see if you find something that interests you! … this treehugger article might be a place to start …
c.
… for three saturdays in a row, the city will be shutting down some major thoroughfares. the idea being to reconsider the idea of the road … from something used by destructive, ugly pollution machines to something that ressembles a park …
there isn’t a day that goes by that i don’t long for parts of montreal to do the same, although with greater vision. i say pull up the asphalt on some neighbourhood streets, and turn them into green zones, with grasses, shrubs and flowers giving our kids (and adults) places to play.
the time for roads is done in my opinion.
… and yes, there will be adjustments that need to be made … figuring out deliveries for businesses, and helping those with limited mobility and/or large parcels get around … but these are small problems that can be solved …
but first we have to give ourselves the right to solve these problems, and make our lives more liveable.
here is the article on new york’s experiment.
“j’avais envie de répondre à Nayadja Aghatourane, de hurler à travers la nuit chaude que l’étrange est la forme que prend le beau quand le beau est sans espérance, mais je restais bouche close, et j’attendais.” — antoine volodine.
hey, check out this video!
it is of a planned city to be built outside of abu dhabi … all green. carbon neutral, “zero” waste, no cars (more or less), and all made within a futuristic, up-scale (yet traditional) sort of way.
here is the article that goes along with it.
whether you agree with all their plans or not, it is this sort of thinking and imagining that we need to do more of, because ideas like masdar city will only lead to other ideas that will then lead to others …
and in my opinion, that what we need most right now in terms of urban planning. and interesting that this is coming from the middle east.
north america is certainly not the leaders in this sort of thinking, but i sure wish we could be (and i’d love to be on the planning committee!!).
c.
