Eat My Shorts

There's a fun thing on the Simpsons Movie website that's going around the net. Click on the Create Avatar button, and you can make your own character. Here's what I've come up with for me - they don't give you options to change your clothes, only their colors, but you have a fair bit of stuff you can do with the face. There's a further link you can use that will supposedly create a Simpsons character based on a submitted photograph, but I have yet to get it to work. I would have done something about the sideburns, too - they're not quite right. The quality, therefore, of the finished image, leads to this terrible pun of a segue:

Badly Drawn Boy - Spitting in the Wind



This being the single of Pissing in the Wind, from the Hour of the Bewilderbeast. I always preferred this single version to the album's, mostly for the saloon style piano and the heavier harmonica. Plus, the video features Joan Collins, in a brilliant set of casting.



You can get the album here. You should have already done so a long, long time ago.

Shrimp with Pesto Penne Salad

Feeling a bit inspired today, I decided to make a cold pasta salad for dinner. H had informed me that we had a couple pounds of frozen shrimp on hand, and when at the produce shop yesterday, i wound up with the biggest bunch of basil - say that one three times fast - that would likely go bad before I used the thing up. Enter inspiration - why not a pesto sauce for the shrimp, make it earlier in the day, so when H gets home, the dinner is cool, and so is the kitchen. Ah, you say, H does not eat milk products, so what about pesto, then? Well, I searched high and low for a pesto recipe sans cheese, only to find one and realize that you just leave the damn cheese out, and then there you go.

I keep meaning to document my cooking fun in the manner of Paul the Feeder, but typically I'm all hot and sweaty and cranky from making a mess and tripping over the damn cats and the fact that we have the most retarded sink in the world - seriously, what is that point of a double sink if neither half is large enough to hold anything? - but I got lucky with this one. Since it is meant to be a cold salad, I was making it early enough that I would be chilled and relaxed myself by dinner time, but I would also have time to screw around with the camera and document it. Up above you'll see a rather arty shot, if I do say so myself. I even made a little video of the finished product so you can see how it turned out. And yes, that weird background noise is a cat purring - that would be Buster, chat numero zwei. He hasn't made a visual appearance here yet, so he may as well get to talk.



Shrimp with Pesto Penne Salad
1 pound (uncooked weight) penne, cooked, drained, chilled
1 c pesto (see below)
1 lb cooked, peeled, chilled shrimp (31-40 count okay)
splash red wine vinegar/white wine vinegar
1 pickling size cucumber, thinly sliced
1 lb asparagus, cut into 1" segments, blanched in salted water, drained, chilled
3 tomatoes, wedged (I prefer what they market as 'vine ripened tomatoes' here - usually they still have stems attached. Don't eat those.)
1 green pepper, seeded, loosely diced
2 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tsp kosher salt

Pesto
1 cup basil leaves, packed tightly
1/2 packed cup flat leaf parsley, packed more loosely
1/4 cup pine nuts - roasting them is up to you
3 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt

1. For the pesto, take the above ingredients and run them through your food processor or blender. The yield for this should be 1 cup and pesto paste - exactly what you need.
2. Separately, cook, drain and chill the penne, shrimp (unless you are using frozen as I did) and asparagus. Don't overcook the asparagus, as it will get mushy.
3. In a large bowl, combine pesto with all other ingredients. Stir well, and chill in the fridge for a couple of hours if you can.
4. The use of vinegar, and which style, I would say is optional. I only added a little as most of the recipes I was using for input called for some. I put in so little I didn't notice its presence, and as such I think you could skip it altogether. I would also, next time, skip the cucumber, and perhaps add some other types of peppers, and maybe some mushrooms.
5. For the cheese eaters, sprinkle some Parmesan or Asiago into the individual's bowl.
6. Add bacon bits if you must, you philistines.

Perfect From Now On

They finally made it - Built to Spill played their first-EVER Toronto shows last week, and it was worth the wait, almost. I say almost because really, would it have been that hard over the years to play the odd show here? If you're going to come to Buffalo, and if you're coming to Rochester, what's a little trip across the border? They have played Vancouver and Victoria, so I have always wondered what the issue was with Toronto. And none of the Toronto papers thought to cover last week's shows, so no one got to ask. I have rather hoped to run into Doug out front before the gig but missed him, otherwise I certainly would've.

Lee's Palace was the perfect venue - decent sound, great sight lines and a small enough space that even at the bar you had a decent view. H and I and the rest of our friends stood near the middle, right behind the sound guy, which also let us have a sneak peak at the set list. Doug didn't veer from the list at all, so the inevitable shouted requests went nowhere; but he was scheduled to play most of them anyway. He covered material from most of the albums - my own prejudice is that I would have preferred to have seen a bit more from Perfect From Now On, but that's just me - and he did most of the bigger ones.

Car was one of the few stripped down songs - Doug played it almost solo, with the drummer - but everything else was, well, big. Carry the Zero, Strange and my all-time favorite Velvet Waltz were each on their own well worth the price of admission. The thing with Doug Martsch is that he will find these great riffs and build on them and build on them, and he likes to find these series of ascending chord patterns that feel so incredibly perfect; so when you get a song that lasts for 8 minutes, well, that sounds just about right.

Someone has very helpfully posted the performance from that show of Velvet Waltz on YouTube. Oh, Internet, what will do you for me next?



Oh, and then he came out for an encore. He only played one song, Broken Chairs, but he played it for over 20 minutes. The only thing missing was the whistling at the end. Over all, I have to say that this show was better than the show we saw in Milwaukee a couple of years ago, mostly due to the sound. Eagles in Milwaukee had a pretty cavernous ceiling, which ate up a lot of the treble and detail. You also can still smoke in clubs in Milwaukee, and I never really noticed how much of a nuisance that was in a club until they stopped letting you do it - it made it more enjoyable certainly. (We bailed during the encore last time when H couldn't take the smoke anymore.) I haven't spoken to anyone who attended the Wednesday night show, but if you heard anything about it let me know. It was pretty much a full house, so I'm hoping that Wednesday was just as good as Tuesday.

And here's the original album version of what is one of my favorite songs ever (listen for the cello on the second verse, it kills me every time):

Built To Spill - Velvet Waltz



Get Perfect From Now On at amazon.com

I in the sky

Recently in my You Tube travels I came across this nugget from my childhood, possibly my all-time favorite Sesame Street bit:

The great thing about this bit is that you learn absolutely nothing about I and what it stands for. I also used to wonder just how they got that ladder inside, and where did they keep it?

Here's a rather obvious, yet strangely unrelated musical link to go with it.

Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky

Streetcars or... or... or... subways??

Just a follow-up to my earlier post on the new streetcars Toronto is seeking.

When I attended the info session at Yonge and Dundas, I crossed paths with a gentleman who was just giving it to one of the volunteers - his argument basically boiled down to: "it's all fine and dandy to make the streetcars wheelchairs accessible - what about making the street wheelchair accessible?" If we are truly going to emulate the euro model as Minneapolis did, we'd be looking at converting major streets into ROWs - I don't see the merchants of Little Italy allowing this for the 506, for example. What makes the Minneapolis line work is that among other things they took entire blocks in the downtown and converted them to ROW combined with pedestrian ways. Now, I'm all for it, but I don't see how that would fly on some of our major routes.

This same gentleman was also passionately arguing against streetcars in the downtown, period. He asked the billion dollar question, "Why aren't we building subways instead?" Naturally, I piped up that no one exactly has $20 billion floating around, and his response was basically, find the money. Now, I know this has been beaten to death here, but he had what sounded like intriguing ideas about funding that I am simply too ignorant of the basic laws of economics to refute, so I thought I would try and recall them here as best as possible and see what you might have to say.

His main example cited the city of San Francisco in the Depression, wanting to build one of the bridges that crosses the Bay (it wasn't clear to me which one). No one had the money for this, but the city secured an interest-free loan from the State - possibly the Federal level too, this was after all a conversation in a crowded mockup of an LRT - that they were able to pay off by 1960. I'm sure there are all sorts of reasons why this wouldn't work here - but could it? The other thought he had was that the City could sell bonds to raise the capital funding. Again, it strikes me as improbable, but I'm not in a position to say.

The reason that I felt it worth sharing this at all (and didn't chalk it up to the ramblings of some nutter) was that the gentleman in question identified himself as the owner of a well-known restaurant downtown that has been there for years. So, fine, he knows a little about money. He also said that he has a disabled son, which is why he's more passionate than some on the issue of accessible streetcars. I suggested to him that he's the one with the ideas, he should be contacting City Hall with them, but he didn't seem to think it was worth trying. So what I'm wondering is, whether we're talking about subways or streetcars, do his funding ideas hold any water? With the recent threatened budget cuts, it would seem that thinking outside the box is overdue anyway.

A Smashing Time Was Had By All

Saturday was once again Roller Derby night in Toronto, this time the Gold Digger Grudge Match, in which the Chicks Ahoy! simply crushed the Bay Street Bruisers. (I really ought to start writing down the scores at the end of the matches - you can get the scores at Toronto Roller Derby.) Penny Whistler, as usual, was superb as a penalty ref. The game got a little sloppy later on, with plenty of wipeouts - but still nothing deliberate - and to everyone's great disappointment the manager of the Bruisers did not get thrown out for repeatedly arguing with referees about scoring and penalties. Most of us in the crowd were certain that the manager was performing some sort of theatrical bit to fire up his team, or was trying to get himself "thrown out" for fun. Penny assured me that no, he was pretty serious, and that Sir Refs-A-Lot came pretty close to tossing him.

We did a pretty good job of representing - between H and myself, we managed to bring 17 or 18 people, including my folks, as it turns out that the whole family thinks this is pretty cool. My father videotaped some stuff to show to Grandma, and even got himself quoted in a news article. (I guess I wasn't engaging enough as a boyfriend of a ref. Hmph.) Also in attendance was our friend, Paul the Feeder, from Diary of a Feeder. (I have feeling he will not be writing up the arena's French fries, which another friend described as the worst fries in the history of fries.) I have already had a couple of suggestions from friends that I sign up as a ref next season, supposing that H will move out of the ranks to become a competitor. Well, we'll see. Right now I'm very happy supporting her in this thing, which after all is her thing, not mine. But I'll keep it in mind. I will accept suggestions for derby names as well.





Here's Penny with our newest convert to the Derby crowd, Alex. The derby schedulers have very helpfully scheduled the next 2 matches on either Saturday that straddles Alex and Meredith's wedding, so we can all still go, and all still go to the next derby event!

The next match will be Saturday July 28th, again at 8 PM at George Bell Arena, featuring the Death Track Dolls versus the Smoke City Betties. I know Paul will be sporting his Dolls' shirt to support the team - I think he just liked the logo, but why not? Pick a team! Come one, come all, cum on feel the noize. Be there!

Ed is dead.

Ed Mirvish was a hero to Toronto, a mover and shaker and builder of the city, but also a man who loved its people, especially the newest citizens, its immigrants who helped make it great. His life's story and achievements have already been extensively catalogued elsewhere, but I'd like to talk a little about his best-known achievement, Honest Ed's Bargainhouse.

At Honest Ed's, you could get just about anything. Clothing, light bulbs, candy, tablecloths, electric fans, you name it, he had it. You knew when you walked in the door that you were about to have a no-frills shopping experience. You knew going in that there was a no ifs ands or buts No Refund policy, which was no doubt part of what kept the prices so low. Most things could be purchased for garage sale prices. Unlike Sam's, which recently shut its doors for good, I can recall the first time I set foot inside Ed's. I was 11 or 12, and going to school across Bathurst Street - it is now a girl's high school. Trust me when I say that it wasn't back then - and after school went in through the side entrance on Bathurst, which was later moved to the Bloor Street side. You walked up a long slanted walkway, and either side was the record section - he had as many vinyl albums as, well not Sam's, but definitely more than they had at Eaton's. I think that the first record I bought there for myself was Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms, which no doubt is still kicking around at my folks' place.

My first apartment was 2 blocks south of Ed's, and anything that wasn't parental surplus came from places like Ed's - the neighborhood also featured then a Bi-Way, which was more like a giant dollar store, although you could get remaindered Levi's there for $20. But Ed's was responsible for blankets, T-shirts, glasses, can openers, Christmas lights (at $2 a string, even if they didn't work you didn't really mind) and a still have at least one tie I got there - it too was probably less than $3. With its kitchy hand -lettered signs that advertised everything as a potential "Ed's Gift Idea" - one Christmas someone had set up a window display with a pyramid made of boxes of tampons with such a sign, leading me to imagine some twisted version of Gift Of the Magi, well, anyway... Ed's was an institution, and still is today.

His death last week at the young age of 92 notwitstanding, I believe that, unlike Sam's, the store will go on, as will the rest of the Mirvish empire, including the theatres - I suppose we have them to blame for the Lord of the Rings musical last year. But I have no doubt that this Christmas, David Mirvish will still be there, as Ed was for many years before, handing out free turkeys. And it will still be possible to get a DVD player, a bust of Elvis and a jumbo pack of diapers all for under $35 for years to come. Ed's idea was to let a young family, new Canadians, or whoever needed it, get the help necessary to get on their feet in the first place. I think he firmly believed that given the chance anyone could work their way up to be who he was, a man loved by his city and his customers alike. The past week there have been a lot of photos of Ed Mirvish in the paper, and you'll notice that in everyone he is beaming, and I think that is perhaps how he will be best remembered, for his infectious smile. Ed is dead - long live Ed Mirvish.

And, no, it would not be appropriate to post that song by the Pixies.

Back in 5 minutes

So, I've been away for a little bit here, got a little busy with life stuff, and also got a little busy fighting a computer virus. (yay limewire) So I may be laying off the music posting for a little bit while I sort of my business. Something seems to have infiltrated my Internet Explorer, and while I'm hoping I can get rid of it, it's such a drag messing around with software... I almost toyed with the idea of Firefox, but I don't really like the interface on that one. So, anyway, I'm back in spirit anyway, and with any luck there will be some more music soon. I also need to sort out a better embedded flash player than what I've been using. If anyone can show me where to find a better one, by all means point me in the right direction. And now, on with the show.

Happy Canada Day

Well, hi there everyone, and a happy 140th birthday to dear old Canada. I know, if you'd known you'd have baked a cake. Well, you're here, I'm here, Canada is here, let's all sit down together and have a little music party.

I've put together a handful of some very Canadian songs for your listening pleasure.

Stompin' Tom Connors is definitely a legend - let's call him a Canadian Johnny Cash without the drugs and the booze. There's nothing more Canadian than combining Tom with that other Canadian passion - hockey.


Stompin' Tom Connors - The Hockey Song



I don't know much about these guys, but this would definitely qualify as Canadian Classic Rock.


The Kings - Switching To Glide



Great band from the late 80's, early 90's - The Grapes of Wrath. Think they're still out there somewhere - look them up on Google.


The Grapes of Wrath - You May Be Right



The last time I saw these guys was at a movie theater downtown - literally, the lead singer and lead guitarist were going in to see a flick. This is the original of a song ruined by Hootie & the Blowfish. No one sings like Neil Osbourne.


54-40 - I Go Blind



Larry Gowan's Strange Animal album was huge when I was 14. It is worth tracking down a video for this song on You Tube - oh, hell, I'll show it you myself. Check out his earring.



In a very odd development, Larry Gowan is now the lead singer for Styx. No, seriously.


Gowan - Strange Animal



And what would a Canadian musical tribute be without the greatest of Canadians himself?


William Shatner - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds



ps ... welcome to Canada Alex!