nevermind the bricolage

Building With The Bowies

While we are on a bit of an unplanned music jag, I offer up these charming little sketches, available for purchase as posters from Scott C. Whimsical interpretations of some of rock's nearest and dearest doing unlikely things.

Johnny

Well, if I am going to post music on this blog, I might as well go for the funk--Mr. Johnny Taylor--from Wattstax--Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone--believe it and feel the funk my brothers and sisters!!

What Matters Now

Seth Godin is offering a free download of his book What Matters Now, 70 writers/thinkers/creatives offering up thoughts in response to the book's title. Interesting read for free, thank you Seth.

"Do It Jeff"

I have talked to a number of people who, like me, were reminded of how great a guitarist Jeff Beck is by his recent performance at the 25th anniversary Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Concert. Today Stevie Wonder's Looking for Another Pure Love, (Side 2, track 4) from Talking Book popped up on the shuffle and the lovely and tender guitar Beck played on that masterpiece floated through the office--magic.

On another musical note, the new season of Elvis Costello's show Spectacle launched last week with Bono and the Edge as guests, the final musical moment wasn't bad, a mashup of Get on Yer' Boots and Pump It Up.

A Little Bit of Serge

From the Gainsbourg biopic soon to be released in France.

Hackett

Sharp look.

Skullstick

This is the head of a walking stick that once belonged to Charles Darwin.

Ordination

 
We had ourselves a little ordination last night. Mr LaChappelle gave us the front cover and Jamie Reid the idea for the invite. Bishops were present--fully vested, prayers were invoked, poems were preached (courtesy of Dr. Seuss and Gabri Ferrer) much music and much more love. Shepherd's pie and towers of french cream pastry, and Cadbury's chocolates My friends gave gifts--cardinal socks from the Vatican, Robots, scarves from the inimitable Mr. Smith, Ethiopian crosses, books of theology and poetry...and a stole hand-crafted by my friend Tracy who went to great lengths to procure some of my favourite striped fabric and made milagro crosses out of many of my favourite things from the Pistols to the restaurant I love---too much really, I was quite overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of my friends. We dressed the church--coloured china balls all over the floor, fairy lights, candles and a really intimate vibe, it was cool, even if I do say so myself. The coolest thing was being able to do this surrounded by friends from near and far, a reminder of how gifted I have been in that area of my life--I wish everyone I hold dear could have been there. What does it all mean? Well, that's a story for another day.

Corita's Rules

Printmaker Sister Corita ran an art class at Immaculate College--rules for her students to live by. I love the last line.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Skull

The Prize

I happened to watch a thriller called The Prize yesterday. It was made in 1963 and starred Paul Newman as a writer who wins the Nobel Prize for Literature and gets caught up in Cold War shenanigans in Oslo. Today, President Obama accepted his Nobel Peace prize, an action made complex by his recent commitment to send more troops to Afghanistan. I can't speak to all the issues surrounding such a move and I think I am grateful that such choices are not part of my everyday life, but I will say that it does make the whole thing surreal. I realize that Peace prize recipients cover a wide spectrum of global situations and circumstances and Obama is not the first recipient who is being rewarded as much for his potential as for his actions, but it is tough that's for sure. It was very interesting to hear the talking heads going round over this---can America celebrate it's President winning the Prize? "He's no Roosevelt," one guy repeated more than once, well Roosevelt is no Obama either for that matter, we are each held captive and find liberation in our own contexts and who knows how things will play out. I must admit I would have liked less justification for the necessity of war and along with it, some sense of a plan for peace laid out, but I am not in his shoes. One can only hold onto shreds of hope that business as usual is not the case, though I fear it is, and trust that the hype was more than hype, that there was/is substance. But I have also lived long enough now not to put my eggs in the institutional basket, whatever institutional basket that might be.

Evolution of Storage

 

Curtiss Spontelli's infographic offers a vivid look at changing technologies and their effect on or ability to save information. The transition from wax cylinder to digital music devices in the music column is a great example of how the digital expands our capacities. No comments obviously about less is more or quality over content. I remember packing up my portable record player and a box loads of albums and taking the bus to a friends house for an evening of listening and now I carry more songs on my iPhone than I ever could back then

White Rabbit

Cool promotional for Syfy channels, Alice. It's part of a multi-media campaign by Fallon.

Strong Look

My friend Al would call this runway style a "strong look"--not bad on the telephone box, little dodgy on the geezer if you ask me!!

Spoelstra



Narrominded, which is a pretty cool music blog, has released a free download of a Christmas song. Go Tell Them It Is Christmas by Spoelstra is quirky to say the least, especially if you watch the video for the song, which features the usual creche characters plus some Star Wars characters?! Kind of a cool electronic groove that makes the whole thing musically interesting. Of course it isn't Christmas yet, but who's  being picky?