Blog: A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached

For Column

Oct 23, 2011, 6:33pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Lou Reed My Friend George (HQ)
Simenon Peppard Vanier Vancouver Orwell Benson Chief Dan Seurat Braque Harrison Bernard Shaw Costanza Pelecanos Takei Burns Plimpton Herriman Carlin Gershwin Jones Moroder Romero Bailey Christopher Reeves Lowell Gorgeous
MORE »

For Column

Oct 23, 2011, 6:33pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Lou Reed My Friend George (HQ)
Simenon Peppard Vanier Vancouver Orwell Benson Chief Dan Seurat Braque Harrison Bernard Shaw Costanza Pelecanos Takei Burns Plimpton Herriman Carlin Gershwin Jones Moroder Romero Bailey Christopher Reeves Lowell Gorgeous
MORE »

The way we look to us all

Aug 14, 2011, 10:26pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Smog - The Well
It was a slow day, and the sun was beating on the soldiers by the side of the road... These are the days of tantrums and meltdowns, this is the terrible twos. It's time to leave the park, but she doesn't want to go. It's nearly lunchtime and I still need to pick up some groceries before we settle in at home for the afternoon nap. There was an issue with an older girl who was grabby with the toys in the sandbox which led to a struggle over [...]
MORE »

Since Nobody Asked...

Jul 31, 2011, 9:53am A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Since Nobody Asked... Part of what's exhausted me on most of the DC books that I once enjoyed so much is that they've all become so self-reflexive & insular. Their subtext, if they have any, is themselves. One of the last Teen Titans books I read (circa Infinite Crisis ) involved a literal Revolving Door of Death! And of course, Watchmen and DKR were loaded commentaries on superhero comics (as is Grant Morrison's Batman saga), but they also had loads to say about REAL LIFE! Especially Cold War paranoia, the gift that kept on giving--superheroes as nuclear proliferation; [...]
MORE »

sick of arguing with white dudes on the internet

Apr 27, 2011, 11:05am A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Das Racist - You Oughta Know
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation thinks Ignatieff shouldn't get involved in health policy questions. That's what QMI Parliamentary Bureau reporter Daniel Proussalidis wrote . I quoted it on Twitter , then spent most of yesterday afternoon arguing semantics with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Derek Fildebrandt, National Research Director, chastised the Liberal leader for commenting on Vancouver's [...]
MORE »

5 Simple Rules for Filming My Superman

Feb 1, 2011, 12:49am A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
5 Simple Rules for Filming My Superman They did it. They finally did it. Damn them all to hell, they did it. They cast the role of Superman in the Zack Snyder take on the Man of Steel that will be filming in Vancouver this summer. I dunno, some British guy. But I guess that means that they're actually going to go ahead and make a Superman movie for the 2010s. Okay, look, I thought Snyder's Watchmen was a joylessly pedantic adaptation that mostly missed the point of the Alan Moore/Dave Gibbons series. Patrick Wilson was pretty good as sadsack superhero Dan [...]
MORE »
Artist:Marcellus Hall
Title:Laughing With You
Link Text:Laughing With You
File Name:MH_LaughingWithYou.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps

Red (Tape) Scare

Jan 11, 2011, 11:46pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
I don't usually get into it with people on the Internet. On Twitter, yesterday, I said: So the gov't of Sask would rather take its cues from anti-tax lobbyists than the SK Supreme Court? in reference to the Saskatchewan Party proclaiming "Red Tape Awareness Week" on the same day its Justice Minister said he would try to find a way around the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal's ruling that provincial marriage commissioners may not refuse service to gay and lesbian couples . Okay, Mr. Wall, we get it, you don't [...]
MORE »
Artist:ESG
Title:Dance To The Beat Of My Moody
Link Text:Dance to the Beat of Moody
File Name:esg_dancetothebeatofmymoody.mp 3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Year:2010

Whoop, there it is.

Nov 23, 2010, 11:26pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Last night, on the bus, I saw a kid, maybe 8-years-old. He had a whoopee cushion in his hands, and a first aid kit strapped around his waist like fanny pack. He was clearly an experienced prankster. He was riding the bus with what appeared to be his mother and what appeared to be his older brother. I say appeared to be, because I feel a sense of responsibility to this guy. Maybe it was an aunt and a cousin, maybe just people he knew. The point is, I don't know who these people are, where they were going, [...]
MORE »
Artist:Giant Sand
Title:Fields Of Green
Link Text:Fields of Green
File Name:giantsand_fieldsofgreen.mp3
Bitrate:124 kbps
Year:2010

Hipsters, Craftsmanship & Lattes: the Sinister Spectre of Elitism

Nov 10, 2010, 5:06pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Hipsters, Craftsmanship & Lattes: the Sinister Spectre of Elitism ITEM!: As an incumbent Tory who lost his rural Saskatchewan seat in the last federal election to elect a right wing majority government, John Gormley knows about "the relentless pursuit of mediocrity." After careers in politics and law stalled out, Gormley came to rest as the media mouthpiece for the Saskatchewan Party in 1998, one year after the right wing coalition party's formation. Gormley has regularly used his Rawlco Radio bully pulpit (as well as a weekly column in the StarPhoenix ) to bash gays, immigrants, women, unions and liberals. He supports the pro-business lobby and the social conservatives [...]
MORE »
Artist:Arabesque ft. Maylee Todd
Title:Three's Company (ALBUM)
Link Text:Three's Company
File Name:arabesque_threes_company.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Year:2011
Artist:Masonic
Title:Lifetime Of Deception
Link Text:Lifetime of Deception
File Name:masonic_lifetimeofdeception.mp 3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Year:2010

Rock Shirts Draped My Torso in Leaner Years

Nov 7, 2010, 10:46pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Rock Shirts Draped My Torso in Leaner Years You'd think I would learn. I've written a lot of stuff since that day in July, 1997 when I walked in to the prairie dog offices and told them I was a writer. They were fool enough to believe me, and that's how it started. Probably 90 per cent of what I've written has not been about me--except when it secretly was about me--and that's for the best. In writing about other people (mostly short profiles of musicians), I learned a lot, about writing, about the world, and about myself. That's been [...]
MORE »
Artist:Andre Ethier
Title:Blue Eyes Cryin' In The Rain
Link Text:Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain
File Name:08-blue eyes cryin' in the rain.mp3
Bitrate:104 kbps
Year:2008

What I've been up to lately

Sep 11, 2010, 10:35pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Some advice for the kids going back to school. Rae Spoon has a new album and it is essential. I attended a Geist Magazine writing workshop led by Sheila Heti . The workshop was about making fiction from real life, and I don't know. I'm glad I went. I really enjoyed the passage Heti read from How A Person Should Be , her upcoming novel, and it was nice to devote a morning to thinking about writing. So yeah, I'm still bummed [...]
MORE »
Artist:Rae Spoon
Title:Death By Elektro
Link Text:Death by Elektro
File Name:rae_spoon-death_by_elektro.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Year:2010
Artist:Royal Trux
Title:The Flag
Link Text:The Flag
File Name:02 the flag.mp3
Bitrate:160 kbps
Year:1993

Haters gonna hate.

Aug 26, 2010, 6:28pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Haters gonna hate. Somebody asked me once, when I was still writing for the newspaper, how it felt to write down to a fifth-grade reading level. I didn't punch the guy for two reasons. One, he was a friend of a friend. Two, do you know me at all? Now, I've got nothing against academics, post-modernists and other assorted eggheads, but, likewise, I've got nothing against readers. Writing in plain, everyday, accessible language isn't the cakewalk some might think. Especially when, as many newspaper reporters do, you deal with such enemies of clear language as politicians and public relations officers. Roy [...]
MORE »
Link Text:use shorter words, sentences and paragraphs at the points of greatest complexity
File Name:podcast.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps
Artist:The Roadside Graves
Title:Everything
Link Text:Everything
File Name:roadsidegraves_everything.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Artist:The Roadside Graves
Title:Liv Tyler
Link Text:Liv Tyler
File Name:roadsidegraves_livtyler.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps

Boring people

Aug 12, 2010, 7:07pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
"Only boring people can be bored," my Eighth Grade teacher used to say. About four years ago, I saw those words postered on a wall just outside Blood Alley every night during a string of graveyard shifts in one of Canada's most notorious slums*. It wasn't the first time since 1991 I had reason to think of Mr. C, and it wasn't the most recent. How do you not constantly go back to the lessons you learned when you were 13? Inside and out of the classroom, that's when we shrugged off the final crumbs of our childhood [...]
MORE »
Artist:Gospel Claws
Title:Summer Nights Lakeside
Link Text:Summer Nights Lakeside
File Name:gospelclaws_summernightslakesi de.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Artist:Modern Superstitions
Title:Visions of You
Link Text:Visions of You
File Name:modern_superstitions-visions_o f_you.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Year:19

The record-buying public shouldn't be voting.

Jul 29, 2010, 6:40pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
The record-buying public shouldn't be voting. Kathryn Calder's debut album shares a name with my second favourite P.D. Eastman book. You can read my review of Are You My Mother? here . And because I know that most of you reading this blog are completists when it comes to record reviews written by yours truly, here's one I did a few issues back on the Mohawk Lodge's new album Crimes . mp3: " Arrow " by Kathryn Calder mp3: " Bad News " by the Mohawk Lodge
MORE »
Artist:Kathryn Calder
Title:Arrow
Link Text:Arrow
File Name:kathryn_calder-arrow.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Year:2010
Artist:The Mohawk Lodge
Title:Bad News
Link Text:Bad News
File Name:01 Bad News.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps

Awwww crap!, part two in a series

Jul 28, 2010, 6:27pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Awwww crap!, part two in a series I heard the news today, oh boy (yesterday actually). Regina's Polymaths are calling it quits for quite legitimate, life-goes-on reasons. I haven't even heard their only album, Home Again , so I'm not, y'know, heartbroken. That doesn't mean it's not a loss for music fans and for a Regina pop scene that has surely matured in my absence. Their 2008 EP, So Long, Castle Road , pleased me in so many ways: It's smart, catchy pop full of local references. I'm pretty sure I first learned of their existence by [...]
MORE »
Artist:Polymaths
Title:Wrecking Ball's Kiss
Link Text:Wrecking Ball's Kiss
File Name:03 Wrecking Ball's Kiss.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps
Year:2008

Awwww, crap!

Jul 24, 2010, 2:08pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Big Tree - "Little Brother"
Here's how things were supposed to go: I show up with my moderately wonderful second draft tucked under my arm. Perhaps I am wearing a tweed coat with suede patches, perhaps I am not. It is mid-October, the weather could go either way. I am cordial with Joseph Boyden, perhaps even a bit shy, as I often am with people I admire. But I make an quiet mention of how his Moosenee characters in Through Black Spruce have similar speech patterns to some of the characters ( especially Antoine Batiste ) in Treme [...]
MORE »
Artist:Big Tree
Title:The Concurrence of All Things
Link Text:The Concurrence of All Things
File Name:bigtree_theconcurrenceofallthi ngs.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps

Google Me

Jul 22, 2010, 5:57pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Google Me So, um, the number one search term leading to this blog over the last week was "Bon Jovi Emmet Matheson". Also, a lot of visits have been coming in from Iran. I don't want to jump to any, I mean, I don't think the two are, well, that's one heck of a coincidence. I wrote some words about Bon Jovi for the prairie dog , and also about Das Racist . The Bon Jovi thing is a follow-up to something I wrote last fall . I don't know why I've written more about Bon Jovi [...]
MORE »
Artist:Bigg Jigg
Title:Google Me - Dirty Version
Link Text:Google Me (Dirty Version)
File Name:Bigg Jigg - Google Me - Dirty Version.mp3
Bitrate:128 kbps
Year:2010

now is better than before

Jul 22, 2010, 11:59am A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Wednesday on the swings, a girl, maybe 4 or 5 years old, yells to be pushed higher, harder, faster. "You're boring, Dad," she says to the man behind her. He looks at me and smiles with pride, "She has no idea how hard I work at being boring." mp3: " My Daughter " by Lucky Fonz III mp3: " We Are Still Young " by Lucky Fonz III
MORE »
Artist:Lucky Fonz III
Title:My Daughter
Link Text:My Daughter
File Name:mydaughter.mp3
Bitrate:256 kbps
Year:2009
Artist:Lucky Fonz III
Title:We Are Still Young
Link Text:We Are Still Young
File Name:wearestillyoung.mp3
Bitrate:256 kbps
Year:2009

The city was my teacher, I left an apple on her desk

Jul 20, 2010, 7:01pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
Nicole asked me the other night, "When people ask you where you're from, what do you say?" I usually say I'm from Regina. "But you're not from Regina, you grew up in Saskatoon." I started to get into "Well, okay, I had my childhood in Saskatoon, but I was a teenager in Regina, and that's really what it is to grow up, that's the crucible of youth..." But Nicole was just asking what I say when people ask. And people do ask. Nobody's from Vancouver. Somebody must [...]
MORE »
Artist:Soft Reeds
Title:This Affair
Link Text:This Affair
File Name:soft_reeds_this_affair.mp3
Bitrate:320 kbps
Year:2010

Notes on Tower of Song

Jun 6, 2010, 7:37pm A Bulldozer With A Wrecking Ball Attached
In my previous entry, I listed 100 singer-songwriters supposedly greater than Leonard Cohen and supposedly lesser than Hank Williams. It was inspired by a few things: I. Obviously, Leonard Cohen's aw-shucks humility in "Tower of Song". II. The stereotype of obsessive list-making pop music devotees (exemplified by John Cusack's never-ending Top Fives in High Fidelity ) that I curiously missed out on during my decade of music writing. Despite the fact that I've written (and continue to write) hundreds of record reviews, I don't think too highly of my skills as a critic. I mean, I'm a great listener [...]
MORE »
Artist:The Blue Shadows
Title:When Will This Heartache End
Link Text:When Will This Heartache End?
File Name:the_blue_shadows-when_will_thi s_heartache_end.mp3
Bitrate:192 kbps
Page   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 ... 18 19 Next >