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Saturday, December 31, 2022

THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE

"What would you do?" 

"They'll back me up: it's just wiener-water."

The Haunting Of Hill House is more depressing than scary, but it is still pretty scary. Not as scary as Hereditary or The Exorcist or as disturbing as The Silence Of The Lambs.  Now that I know where the jump-scares are I will watch The Haunting Of Hill House a second time. And I am a glutton for punishment, so I shall queue up Dahmer. You should read My Friend Dahmer a b+w indy recommended to me by my comic book makin' son. 

Elsewhere: Brian Tallerico sez The Haunting Of Hill House is "essential viewing." What's with all the Horror lately? My theory is that Horror is the only genre that actually deals with declining mental health and suicide. Scout Tafoya doesn't like Ari Aster but loves Rob Zombie.

Thursday, December 29, 2022

What I learned from my hemorrhagic stroke

Nothing. Everything. 

Might as well read a book!

Nothing. Might as well go for a soda. Heck, might as well go for an IPA!

Now we're talking!

Play electric guitar while you're at it (I did!). Use justinguitar.com (I did!). 

Everything. I am slower now, and I talk ugly. Also: high-fructose com syrup -- I used to avoid the stuff, now it's a part of my daily diet and I've lost weight and become a cheap date (I still loves the IPA -- the grapefruitier the better). 

Before movies I used to drink a doppio espresso con panna just to stay awake. Now I drink espresso fed via teaspoon to feel something. 

I used to jump at my own shadow. "Is this cancer? Is that cancer?" Then I disappeared and lost my voice. The doctors all say I'm lucky to be alive. Needless to say I don't jump anymore. 

I'm glad I'm experiencing a hemorrhagic stroke now. Five years earlier I'd be dead. Now I'm on the computer all the time. I love the Internet. The Internet is the bane of people's existence — hey, I get that. But the Internet has been the godsend of my existence, so I am going to defend it.

Links: part 2part 3part 4part 5

Sunday, December 25, 2022

“Merry Christmas!” from WP

I follow Sam Kieth here because I like the way he draws women. That's been only the start, of course. 

Wolverine and friend: Sam Kieth
Kate Winslet: "Men only care that you have a bum." 

My bona fides: Just so you know — I'm so Left I'm crazy. I think taxes should be sky-high. I believe transit should be free and I believe in a universal income. I also believe in Jesus, so good luck to me. "Render unto Caesar," baby!

Saturday, December 24, 2022

Date a Nurse!

When I couldn't speak the question I was most likely to overhear was: 

"So, what time are you taking off?"

The other question I overheard (but not nearly as often) was: 

"What's your training?"

Hospital staff, especially Nurses, want to know if they are beholden to the person they are talking with or some Poindexter in the Halls of Academia. 

Speaking of Nurses: 

  • if you want to date a conservative, date a Nurse. 

It'll look nothing like this -- promise!

Nurses know there is an unspoken liberalist bias in the media, and no place higher (in every sense of that word) than the CBC. 


 Trust Whisky — date a Nurse!

Friday, December 23, 2022

Christmas, 1975, a village on the Canadian prairies

Our family opened presents on Christmas Eve morning. Apparently one Christmas Eve morning I sat and quietly read a Pogo book, oblivious to the gifts in front of me. 

I never made that mistake again. 

I would have pegged this as the Christmas of 1976, but Google puts The Lunar Lander LEGO Kit 565 at 1975. This was my favorite Christmas gift (well, next to Citizen: Steely Dan boxed set of CDs some years later, of course) and I got the year wrong. 

And, no -- these guys don't fit inside the lander. 

I was in grade 5 and twitterpated with the girl next door. She had dark eyes and an orange ski-suit (I called it a "snowmobile suit" once — boy, did I get corrected, and not in a happy way!). We played "Fox and Goose" in her back yard. I once complained about being "poor" and she gave me two dollars in quarters. I spent it all at the Grow Sir, knocked at her back door and gave her the paper bag full of candy. 

I'm still fond of Bottle Caps. 

Tastes about as good as it looks. 

The LEGO was purchased at downtown Eaton's in the city. My pretty aunt from Toronto gave me a Hardy Boys novel that Christmas. I exchanged the book at Eaton's for the Hardy Boys Detective Handbook. I thought the Handbook was a big deal but my aunt called it the "Defective Handbook." When I got back to the village I discovered all the Hardy Boys books had been reprinted. Right — the "Defective Handbook" it was. 

Christmas night I tied on Super Slider Snow Skates over my mukluks. My youngest uncle was over from Alberta and he also had Super Slider Snow Skates. He was in his early twenties. After pyekking up and down the sidewalk we took the toboggan to the lumber yard and slid down a very steep hill. 

In another Christmas or two I'd be asking for sunglasses and a weight set, but in 1975 it was LEGO. 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Spalding Gray's SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA

If Spalding Gray's Swimming To Cambodia is collecting dust at your place why not give it a blow-n-go this season? 

It's just a guy behind a table... 

Elsewhere: WikiRoger EbertPOPmatters

Sunday, December 18, 2022

THE IRISHMAN dir Martin Scorsese writ Steven Zaillian

In many ways The Irishman on Netflix is a typical Martin Scorsese movie. It stars Robert De Niro as a fellla in an Old Folks Home who now realizes he has gained the world and lost his soul. For over three hours I was never bored, in other words. When it comes to old men I would rather watch Scorsese deepfake than other directors and their latex rubber and phony costumes. 

So don't give me this!

I see Goodfellas and The Wolf of Wall Street are streaming. If you haven't already, see those. Then watch The Irishman. 

Friday, December 16, 2022

SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO dir. Stefano Sollima writ. Taylor Sheridan

Three guesses what "Soldado" means (and the first two don't count). Sollima and Sheridan have watched a lot of movies by Sam Pekinpah. The good news is these movies can be streamed from the usual suspects. Failing that Sicario: Day of the Soldado can be streamed from Netflix. 

"Sorry -- did someone say, 'movie'?"

Spend Christmas in the lounge!

Got guests that just won't leave? Put these on your playlist and watch what happens!



Thursday, December 15, 2022

INTO THE WOODS for real!

"I'll bet you've never seen a man put on makeup before."

This was The Centennial Centre in the late-1970s and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra was apologizing for the snooze-fest that had been "The WSO and Ernie Coombs present Prokofiev's 'Peter and the Wolf.'"
This wasn't that. 

That was pretty bad, alright. Even Mr. Dressup was fighting off sleepies, and he was on-stage. Now here was a mild-mannered fella putting on makeup. 

"This is 'stage makeup,' actually. I do this. And this. And suddenly... 

"... I'M A WOLF!!!"

There was a kid in the front who jumped a foot and I swear it wasn't me! But it could've been. I was not expecting that. For the next 90 minutes I got a retelling of The Little Red Riding Hood that made Into The Woods look tame by comparison. 

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Rattling in my brain-pan: the importance of the blog

"1.6 milion"?  Easy-peasy, man! Readers new and old alike are urged to try Vintage WhiskyYearly Selections. I'm playing the long game, alright. "I now find I'm treating this blog the way I treat my private notebooks, as a scrapbook space." Oh, just wait until you start filling your "private notebooks" with "MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY NEW YEAR!" The blog's gonna start feeling really important.  

I looked like this when I started blogging. Today 
monitors are slimmer. I OTOH... 

Wednesday, December 07, 2022

My current roommate

My first roommate in the hospital peed on everything and laughed. The second called the black workers "Boy" and asked the females to give him porn. He was loud and constant. My third roommate was a wrestler who lied like a sidewalk while his wife sent him videos of her naked bum as she tried on jeans. I got the impression during his phonecalls that he didn't much like me. His mother visited every day and did questionnaires. She did one on Bad Language. "I asked the Priest about taking The Lord's Name in vain, but you gotta talk!"

"Oh, Jesus Christ!" Etc

So it's kind of a big deal not to have a roommate at all. Everything else -- the exercises, etc. -- pure gravy

Plus, I keep a tidier desk -- just ask my wife!

Former (better?) WP: my Bible College roommate

Sunday, December 04, 2022

Back in the day

"Where did you get that word?" asked my grade 5 teacher. I was a year or two from seeing Star Wars. But William Friedkin/William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist was the only show in town. This is the original audience: 
Other links: What four flms define you? (No, really) -- wp. I have a list of 15 Film Faves but Gidget is all you really need to know. And I enjoyed speed-reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind (Amazon).

Friday, December 02, 2022

"Goin' Down Jordan"

My late mother-in-law Esther Alice Jost loved this song. She'd put on the Harry Belafonte Christmas (Awhen she was decorating the house and you knew she was really cookin' when this song came on: 

Mr. Belafonte knows the song's narrator doesn't make either Anglicans or Baptists look good. Hey, I like "Goin' Down Jordan" too. It's catchy, and on my playlist

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

"Instaured"

 

OK, that's not the way it's the spelled, but just "stick" around...

I currently subscribe to a number of newsletters. I saw "instaured" used not once, not twice, but thrice by three different people. Hey, maybe "instaured" was exactly right. Or maybe there's an unspoken Substack style -- in which case quit it!

Write your newsletter in longhand, maybe, and read the post aloud -- it's what I do even though I sound like I have a mouth full of tissues (just ask around here). But stop reading Substack just before you hit "send." And stop using "instaured" -- please. 

Monday, November 28, 2022

"Inconceivable!"

I have read a lot of Don DeLillo (including Libra (A);  I recommend Mao II (A, wp)) and seen The Princess Bride multiple times, including way back when.

"'Way back when'? Why that's... !"

So this blogpost by Alan Jacobs is a balm. 

Sunday, November 27, 2022

"Why, it's a major award!"

Donald Fagen did the best protest song, with Todd Rundgren here. And "Century's End" (most sinister musical fade-out ever?) by Donald Fagen is here

But the YouTube winner is Star Wars SC 38 Reimagined by FXtinPost. In fact, I wish it was canon. Given how I'm part of the "Han Shot First" crowd (wiki) I believe my opinion matters. 

Thursday, November 24, 2022

STAR WARS: ANDOR

I got "Andor" just now. It's not as great a name as "Saul Goodman" (wiki) but for Star Wars it's pretty good. 

"Where's the best place for a sniper?"

It's like Star Wars was directed by Stanley Kubrick. "Mikey likes it!" in other words (YouTube). 

Recommended: A Clockwork Orange -- unless you don't like violence. Hey, even Malcolm McDowell got tired of it. But George Lucas must have seen the movie. THX 1138 is full of Stanley Kubrick. THX 1138 -- Wiki A Clockwork Orange -- Wiki

Monday, November 21, 2022

DR. STRANGE AND THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS, dir. Sam Raimi

I suspect Marvel sat down on director Sam Raimi, really hard, because the movie is an incredible mess. I understand it's a Comedy-Horror. But I wished for more Horror. Which is weird because Raimi does Horror; what Raimi doesn't do is Comedy.

It's also weird because prior to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (wp) Dr. Strange (wp) was the best Marvel movie out. 

"Now I will make you cry!"

If you want Horror then I recommend Hereditary. If you want Comedy you still can't do better than Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. As for Comedy-Horror you're on your own (ParaNorman maybe?).

Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness is streaming on Disney+.

Saturday, November 19, 2022

Beach reads

Makes sense (LARB) -- I read A Naked Singularity (Amazon) by De La Pava at Wells Beach, Maine (blog). I also read Tree of Smoke (A) and The Diviners (wp). Not the same year, of course! 

Today I would consult Daniela Blei's nifty survey of beach reads. 

It even looks like a beach read!

Thursday, November 17, 2022

"Now, more than ever, America needed a hero. Was he Norman Mailer?"

"There is,at least on the surface, an insistent buffoonery to [Norman Mailer's] self-projected public image that can be difficult to take seriously."

Norman Mailer has fallen out of favour, for good reason, as has Commentary (at least with my bunch) but I have been thinking about this essay by James Toback. I blog about Mailer here

"
"No, I will make you cry"

Wednesday, November 16, 2022

INSIDE MAN, dir. Paul McGuigan on Netflix

The central tension could have and should have been disbanded by an early disclosure of the Truth. Those who have been around me know this is a deal-breaker with me. But I agreed with the show's writer (the incomparable Steven Moffat) and I like Stanley Tucci. 

Inside Man is a 4-hour miniseries on Netflix. 

HIGH FLYING BIRD dir. Steven Soderbergh on Netflix

Hey -- I was in the hospital in a coma! Don't miss it!  

"I will make you cry!"

91 minutes, on Netflix. 

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Sunday, November 13, 2022

STAR WARS: REBELS — Four reasons why I got hooked!

Full disclosure: I have seen this series and am watching it again. 

First of all, I'm a sucker for the animation. 

Secondly, Rex and Ahsoka

"Now we'll make you cry!"

Thirdly, there's a strong "Be careful what you wish for" ethic. 

Fourthly, it's the only Star Wars to make me cry. 

Friday, November 11, 2022

Remembrance Day, Manitoba, 1980

A person could buy milk and gasoline, but that was all. Remembrance Day in Manitoba, 1980, was incredibly quiet. The bustle of Ontario was a revelation.


Leonard Cohen reads In Flanders Fields here. Tony Hillerman was in Europe and remembers

Tuesday, November 08, 2022

CREATIVE WRITING!

I mention John Gardner the most. I blog about him here. I recommend The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers (Amazon here) and On Becoming A Novelist (Amazon here). I've read and recommend The Sunlight Dialogues (Amazon here).

I also recommend On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (Amazon here — "The adverb is not your friend." The Marginalian here). After that you are on your own with Mr. King and his many books. (I generally don't like him, but here I give him some good press). 

But the best creative writing book of the last 25 years is (drumroll, please) Booklife by Jeff VanderMeer — (Amazon) here. He subsequently wrote and had published a little something called Annihilation (Amazon) here and (The Atlantichere

I've got all three! Image from here

Monday, November 07, 2022

Proof that Alan Jacobs is living my best life

Dostoevsky, Foucault, Pynchon -- and the QAnon ShamanOh my!

*yaaawn*

Friday, November 04, 2022

Brian Eno

Brian Eno is something of a hero because of his wreck. The latest Eno is this YouTube interview

SEX!

I think about it -- I'm slowly recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke, I'm not dead. We used to have sex at least once a month. I would get quite grumpy when this wasn't the case. Then I woke up in a hospital. 

Something has changed.

Would you have sex with this bunch? 

I remember Nelson Mandela being released from prison and saying, "Sex is no big deal." More recently Canadian former stadium rockers Trooper, now relegated to bars, opened up to Toronto's National Newspaper. They weren't at all concerned with the local beauty who was concerned with them. They WERE concerned about the paycheck. 

I associate sex with agency.  I can't even go to the bathroom by myself. So sex is not so much as a thought. 

I'm back to Nelson Mandela... 

Thursday, November 03, 2022

What are we no longer in the "Golden Age" of?

 I expected a lot of avocado toastBut no..


Looks yummy! But then I'm no judge -- EVERYTHING looks yummy!


Saturday, October 29, 2022

Rattling in my brain-pan: T Bone Burnett, plus Daniel Knauf

Before I got sick and disappeared I listened to a T Bone Burnett concert on mp3. These files are much bettermuch, much better than the one I listened to, but if you can help me find it -- yes, Virginia, there IS a Santa Claus!

1985: I  looked younger then, too. 

I'm also digging (re-digging?) this interview with Daniel Knauf (Carnivale) in two parts -- part one and part two

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Monday, October 24, 2022

One thing I learned from STEELY DAN: TWO AGAINST NATURE

Steely Dan kept me alive; the solo work of Donald Fagen keeps me sane. Join the conspiracy, won't you? 

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Liz Truss resigns

Prior to this I would have talked your ear off about the truss rod, but hoo-boy! There goes my image of the British as being Stoical. 

I'm not sure these are "the best" exactly, but #1 is a doozy. If I'd thought of it you'd be reading it here. And Truss was a Conservative PM -- sheesh!

The Sadies COLDER STREAMS/Meshuggah IMMUTABLE/T Bone Burnett THE INVISIBLE LIGHT: SPELLS

Disclaimer: I've already bought the CDs. 

Colder Streams by The Sadies. Dallas Good was taken from us way too soon. You should really buy the whole album. But try: "Stop and Start""Message to Belial""Better Yet"

I went to see Meshuggah live. If you like Metal you'll love Immutable. 

The Invisible Light: Spells by T Bone Burnett. "Critics only call something 'experimental' when the experiment has failed" -- John Gardner. You should listen to these albums. Or listen to Low Country Blues by Gregg Allman and knob-fiddled by Burnett, which I yack about here. Or, you can listen to an album of experimental music. 

Saturday, October 15, 2022

One thing I learned publishing YOUTHFUL DESIRES

The people who make a yearly habit of releasing a book, or album or movie or whatever -- kind of a big deal. 

Medicinal plants not included. 

Relatedthis post; give 'em a reason, woncha?  I read the book aloud over here. Does the link work? No idea. 

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Our honeymoon

We got married in 1994, just days after Kurt Cobain kissed his shotgun, an ending that didn't catch anybody by surprise. I hear anything from these albums and get a litle misty-eyed particularly, but not exclusively,1994. 1994 was pretty good -- for me, and for music, if not for poor Kurt and his family. 

We honeymooned at Daytona Beach, Florida and watched cars get stuck in the sand. Disney World was over an hour away. I loved FM radio. Hey, back then I used to buy magazines for a piece like this. Now I get it delivered to my inbox. Plus ca change....  


Also: we grew up on The Dark Side of the Moon, no? Kids, if ya wanna understand your parents/grandparents... 

Sunday, October 09, 2022

Marvel Entertainment Company: “I’m just a beer salesman.”

 James McMurtry says it like it's a bad thing, but by the end of the evening you will be drinking beer.

Sometime in the late 80s I stopped collecting comics. I realized then that the men-in-tights show was just a Soap Opera. 

The Suits in the room are treated like a bunch of yardsticks, but they are often the smartest people present. I was watching Logan and Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and wondering how Marvel gets the herbs and spices right. I mean it's just a superhero show -- fellas in longjohns beating each other up. And yet DC struggles. 

I think somebody at Marvel knows who the smartest person is in a given room and is paid to keep an eye on that person. And that is the person Marvel hires for less -- they are artiistes, after all. They can't be smart about EVERYTHING. And at the end of the day Marvel has gotta sell soap.

Tuesday, October 04, 2022

One thing I learned from my aunt

The CBC had a one-season show, "The most talented performer" or somesuch. We'll put you in front of a "coach!" was the promise. The performers did their song-and-dance for him. 

"You haven't given me a reason to get out of bed, never mind drive across town."

He was such a jerk. But boy-howdy, did he ever get performances from them!

Similarly David Byrne. I don't doubt that he was an incredible asshole, especially in his last days as a member of the Talking Heads. But there's a reason why Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz are just footnotes to David's show, and it has nothing to do with what amazing musicians Weymouth and Frantz are. (Quick -- whose music did you last queue up?)

It prob'ly wasn't these guys!

A member of the camps who didn't survive but whose posthumous novel was translated and published in the 90s caught the eye of somebody in my aunt's reading group. The book was a dud, and the person who recommended it couldn't understand why. 

"I know why," said my aunt. "Back in the day this was considered cutting edge. But we haven't heard about her until now. Her life was more extraordinary than her fiction. Thomas Mann, Leo Tolstoy, George Elliot, Dante Alighieri -- people get out of bed and want to learn another language to get closer to these writers. We should be reading them." (BTW I recommend the translations of Oxford University Press.)

What I learned: give people a reason. (I'm jealous of people with actual editors for that very reason -- if you can't impress her you can't impress ANYONE.)

Friday, September 30, 2022

One thing I learned from The Eagles

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device."

No truer words were spoken. 

Or sung? 


Thursday, September 29, 2022

One thing I learned from Leonard Cohen

The body -- your body, my body -- is an "engine of grace." Graceful, maybe -- but an engine nonetheless. 

Feeding the engine, 2015. 

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

One thing I learned from my mother

Be forthright. 99% of people are afraid. Don't be -- or at least don't act afraid. 

My mother loved Americans. In America you could be standing in line next to the most interesting person in the world; in Canada you were just standing in line. 

The things we do for love:  My mother playing croquet in the aughts. 

Related: my obituary of my mother. 

Saturday, September 24, 2022

GODLESS, dir. Scott Frank

During the first episode I was afraid this was golng to devolve into another "Woke"-lahoma, in which we were lectured just how bad the white man is. Don't get me wrong, we've got a lot to apologize for -- and apologizing is just the beginning. But if I wanted to feel badly I'd go to church (and I'm a church-goer -- you should be, too (see?)). Hey, I'm just watching TV! 

I needn't have worried. The show is Godless, it's a Netflix mini-series directed by Scott Frank and it's perfectly bingeable. 

"Best consumed on a Sunday morning, acksh-lee,"

Scott Frank also co-created a little thing called The Queen's Gambit. Both can --  and should -- be binged on Netflix. I'll remember this interview; maybe you will too. 

Saturday, September 17, 2022

"Regrets, I've had a few... "

I was fat when they rolled me in here. You wanna lose weight and be a cheap date? I recommend the liquid diet being fed straight into your stomach. But I don't understand the presence of HFCS -- it's not like I have to taste the darned stuff (and what I have tasted ain't very impressive).

I used to love pub food -- salty! I would've been SO FAT. And I wish I'd done more upper-body exercises. There was a week when I was expected to give blood and I just didn't have the veins. And I wish I'd been nicer. But that's about it.  

Hey, when did My Name Is Earl jump the shark? Nobody in this family wanted to watch the fourth, final season. And I, who insisted on Spock's Brain, didn't fight them. But Earl used to be #1, man

"Brain? What is brain?"

Tuesday, September 13, 2022

Rattling in my brain-pan...

 Okay, I have to ask: Norman Mailer on Gilmore Girls

With Adele Morales, whom Mailer stabbed with a pen-knife

I'm spending a lot of time at this site and this site. I ask you, Dear Reader: am I the D-A-D-G-A-D sort

I have a soft spot for Ralph MacchioMaybe you do, too

Influential filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard dead at 91

Looks like I will have to add Michael Scott Moore to my list of surfers-turned-writers. 

Friday, September 09, 2022

Elizabeth II, 1926-2022

Dead at 96. Elizabeth II was a big deal, to my mother and most of her generation. When she was a girl growing up on the Canadian prairies Lois kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings of the Queen. It's where I first saw this picture. 

My mother couldn't wait  to see Helen Mirren in The Queen. Looks like it can be watched on the usual platforms -- I recommend it. When I let my voice be heard I, like Cherie Blair in the film, rather squeekily advocated for the abolition of the Monarchy. I don't recommend that. 

Princess Elizabeth plays "tag" aboard the HMS Vanguard. 

Saturday, September 03, 2022

On the platter

Poor Paul Hewson — he and his band mates have had to wait for me to slowly figure things out. Hey, maybe they’re even, as the kids say, “Your jam. ” Farbeit from me to impinge on the fun. Knock yerself out. Here’s what I’m listening to (Before I go any further — you’re using Firefox with NoScripts, yes? It’s even a Windows thing. And don’t worry — They still keep track of you!): 

Gary Clark Jr., LIVE. The bloke who rather famously inspired Eric Clapton to pick up the plectrum again. No more need be further said

Paul Butterfield Blues Band An Anthology of the Elektra Years. Inspired absolutely everyone, from Bob Dylan on. And I know why “Love March” was included, but it is 60s in a bad way. Skip it, please.

Marvin Gaye, What's Going On?  60s in a GOOD way (technically this was released in May of 1971, but you know what I’m sayin’).

Aaron Parks Little, Big II. Hey, read the book, woncha? And listen to the music

I own three copies, but not this...  yet!


Wednesday, August 31, 2022

What was the last gaming console to have been a "Big Deal" for you?

The Wii was kind of a Big Deal. I remember the Christmas of '06 driving out to Costco, then Toys 'R' Us, then BestBuy before finally surrendering and asking my wife's coworker's son-in-law to call when Wall-E World got stock. That will forever be "R___'s Wii" because she helped us get it. 

And it's got backwards-compatability with the Nintendo GameCube, doncha know? 

The Wii had bowling and Super Mario Galaxy and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. These thoughts (and more!) all come to me as I read this piece. I know I dreamed of gaming again, but hey, I also dreamed of playing guitar. And joining a band of men!

And eating! And shopping! Born to consume, that’s me!

Friday, August 26, 2022

"Prairie Mary" Strachan Scriver, 1939-2022

My last email from "Prairie Mary" Scriver begins, "Alas my 80 years are catching up with me."

I'd never guess it from Mary's typing. She was one of the few I told of Luce's transitioning. She calmed me the fuck down with some straight talk. And then I disappeared. 

This is her picture: 

Mary Strachan Scriver

Mary Strachan Scriver was a Writer. She can be read on Medium and blogspot. Her books at Lulu are here. Bronze Inside and Out  can be had at the University of Calgary Press here. I got this picture from her Twitter feed here

My thanks to Michael Blowhard at 2Blowhards for the introduction. And special thanks to Dave Lull and Cowtown Pattie for keeping me in the loop. 

This is We Want GroOove. “Prairie Mary” might hate this song — I don’t know. But this is my blog and I get to do what I want. And the Mary I remember would love that!

Sunday, August 21, 2022

Of Vox Mini-SuperBeetles and podcast interviews

My brother and I tried the Mini Super-Beetle at Quest Musique in St. Vital. We both had GAS in the worst way, but neither of us was going to take that sucker home -- it broke up far too quickly, and we didn't like that little speaker cabinet.

It looks better than it sounds... 
I've been mulling over this, probably more than I should. Wilson really wants to give it up to the vinyl die-hards. But CDs are what they are, and what they are is good. Wilson also explains the re-mastering process, and why remasters are worth your money and time. This was probably the last, best thing I heard before waking up in a city not my own. (P.S. the Jimmy Page Led Zeppelin remasters are totally worth it.)