August Bookends

I went on holiday for a few weeks this month and in anticipation of missing a few episodes of The History of Rome Podcast, I read Donald R. Dudley's The Civilization of Rome. It's from 1962, and half the fun of reading it was catching glimpses of new theories that in some cases have since been accepted and debunked in the intervening forty years. The other bit of fun was the cover's tagline about "The Glory That Was Rome", reminding me of the slogan for this film.

I was also impressed yet again by Graham Greene, as his short novel The Tenth Man was reconstructed from an idea that he had thrown away decades before. Oh to have so many successful ideas that I can just throw a couple away to no loss.

Books Read

Donald R. Dudley, The Civilization of Rome (1962)

Graham Greene, The Tenth Man (1983)

Jeb Brugman -Welcome to the Urban Revolution (2009)

Gerald L. Gutek - Historical and Philosophical Foundations of Education (2005)

Currently reading:

Gary Small - iBrain: Surviving the Technological Alteration of the Modern Mind (2009)

J. Lloyd Trump - A School For Everyone (1977)*

Robert T. Kiyosaki, Sharon L. Lechter - Rich Dad, Poor Dad (1997)*

*I'm in no hurry to finish these, but for different reasons

Books Acquired

Colum McCann - Let the Great World Spin (2009)

Jack Whyte - Order In Chaos (2009)

Sean Caulfield, Timothy Caulfield - Imagining Science (2009)

David Townsend, Pamela Adams - The Essential Question: A Handbook For School Improvement (2009)

Richard DuFour, et al., Learning By Doing (2006)

Beck

Word has it that Beck has recorded an album with Charlotte Gainsbourg, due out in January.

In the meantime, Beck's website has added a bunch of stuff to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Mellow Gold, as well as some colloborative music, such as this little video:

Record Club: Velvet Underground & Nico "European Son" from Beck Hansen on Vimeo.

Beatles Playlist

Spectrum Culture has released their Beatles Playlist feature today, so I thought I would post my the original submission I sent them. Spectrum asked about half a dozen of us to send in a list of our favourite Beatles songs, one song per album. I suppose technically, my list isn't a list of favourites (though to be honest, I found it incredibly hard to choose in some cases and I also believe that "favourites" tend to change over time, based on where you're at in your life); the historian and former DJ in me is unable to look at a Playlist without conceiving it has some kind of premeditated tool. So, with the large pool of my top Beatles songs at hand, I chose a playlist that I felt not only sounded good together, but also told a story of the Beatles.

Quite a few of these songs appear in the article, so be sure to check it out.

1. I Saw Her Standing There - Please, Please Me This was one my earliest favourites and one of the band's earliest singles. The Beatles are so ubiquitous in popular culture that any story of the Beatles cannot help but be a personal one. So why not start at the beginning? Lennon and McCartney built on the rock chassis established in the 1950s and made it a lean three-minute miracle.
2. All My Loving - With The Beatles Beatlemania was as much about young girls screaming for pop idols as it was anything else. Songs like "All My Loving" were novel in that they positioned the listener inside the song as an active participant. You really felt like they were singing to you.
3. A Hard Day's Night - A Hard Day's Night The Beatles learnt their lessons well, and by the time their first feature film rolled around, the bonafide pop icons were capable of writing complex little pop songs. The identity of the opening note to "A Hard Day's Night" baffled fans, musicians, and physicists for decades. Only recently has modern technology been able to reveal that the singular note heard, is actually a composite of five different instruments each playing a single, different note simultaneously, courtesy of George Martin. It's a sign a things to come. 
4. I'll Follow The Sun - Beatles For Sale Day follows night. The Beatles didn't always write love songs and mid-period, pre-psychedlic Beatles finds them struggling to maintain their identity in the wake of their overwhelming success. 
5. Yesterday - Help! Introducing the sad Beatles and perhaps the most covered song in the Beatles songbook.
6. In My Life - Rubber Soul The psychedelic era begins with the Beatles looking forwards and back. The theme to a thousand high school graduations, mine was no exception. 
7. Good Day Sunshine - Revolver The 1960s were such a diverse and wildly experimental time, that it's hard to distill to one moment, image, or song. For the Beatles though, few songs capture the optimism and innocence of the era.
8. With A Little Help From My Friends - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Take an old vinyl recording of this album, if only to enjoy the full effect of the album cover that positions the Beatles with their contemporary pop "friends", and drop the needle at any point on either side and just enjoy what you here. I picked this track really only because the Beatles saw themselves as a part of a movement, but I could have easily picked half a dozen others. Or, simply pointed out that the drum breaks launched a thousand hip hop acts. Or that it was the first concept album. Or that it routinely lands No.1 on Greatest Albums of All Time lists. It's also the bands height and everything else is a downward spiral.
9. Happiness Is Warm Gun - The Beatles (The White Album) My favourite.
10. All You Need Is Love - Yellow Submarine My daughter's favourite.
11. Come Together - Abbey Road After 1968 the psychedelic era was over and all the innocence and optimism was gone. The Beatles try to shed their pop image for something that re-emphases their rock roots and largely succeed with "Come Together". John still manages to make insert some crafty pop sloganeering.
12. The Long And Winding Road - Let It Be Spectrum was pretty split on whether to go with "Let It Be" (which they did) or "The Long And Winding Road". To me, you have to save a special place for the last one. "Let It Be" is a song that many listeners developed intensely personal relationship with. I'm no exception, but the Beatles ended with "The Long And Winding Road" and in any story of the Beatles, that has to count for something. The album was initially conceived as a hard rock back-to-basics follow-up to Abbey Road, but the individual Beatles were just being pulled in too many directions. Phil Spector was brought in as a replacement producer (the band had already parted ways with George Martin some time ago) and Spector ran roughshod over many of McCartney's tracks. At this point, McCartney was the only one left thinking there was something still viable in the group, but his anger with Spector led him to file papers to legally dissolve the band. It's a love song, and a sad one at that, but as a final coda to perhaps the greatest and most influential rock 'n' roll band of the 20th century, it brings a tear to my eye every time I hear it.

The Function of the Hipster

Recently, I reviewed Kaya Oakes' Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture for Fast Forward Weekly, and wanted to take the opportunity to explore a sidebar idea that Oakes' throws out regarding the role and function of hipsters.

For most people hipsters are just the people in "the scene", but Oakes take a rather particular view, separating the hipster from other members of the scene, like artists, writers, and related professionals and businesspeople who contribute some form of work to make the scene what it is. It is the actions of these others that allow for the development of the neighbourhoods and venues. The hipster, on the the other hand, merely consumes these products. Oakes points out that this had led some to argue that the hipster is a blight or leach on the counterculture.

I personally find this an interesting idea, though it has led me to a rather opposite form of conclusion. First of all, much of the counterculture is predicated on some form of active living. Whether we call this D.I.Y. or something else, the focus of the Beats, hippies, and punks, was on cultivating experiences, rather than merely consuming the symbols of these experiences (ie. travelling to a place like France or Hawaii, rather than buying faux-French decor or Hawaiian shirts). The hipster is often looked at derisively even though the hipster is the target audience for most of the manufactured (hand-crafted or otherwise) works of the counterculture. But rather than being viewed as somekind of drain, I think the hipster provides a more important (if understated role):

The hipster provides ballast.

Sure, strains of anti-capitalism run through many aspects of the counterculture, but the hipster adds weight to the crowds at the shows and demonstrations. The presence of the hipster is what allows us to speak of an actual counter "culture" and not just an elitist aesthetic coterie. The hipster also acts as a bridge to the mainstream, providing the vehicle by which countercultural elements "crossover". Hipsters might not adopt the full countercultural programme, but the aspects that they do they carry with them to other parts of society. Theirs is a distributive function.

Open Your Mouth And Say SNFU

Wow, it's been awhile since I thought about SNFU, but some people have been talking to me about this upcoming documentary on lead singer Chi Pig, and I'm very intrigued. Apparently the film is playing in Edmonton and I hope it comes to Calgary.

Also, if someone can make a documentary about early punk in Edmonton, why not Calgary?

More Songs Of The Last Ten Years

Still trying to find that elusive all-decade-defining single. Here are a few contenders:

Gnarls Barkly Live At Mos Eisley

My daughter loves pop music and she's crazy about Star Wars. Guess what we're watching tomorrow?

Sunshine In A Bag - The Search For The Decade's Best Songs

Still trying to think about my favourite song of the past ten years, but here's a sample of what I'm thinking:

For sentimental reasons, I kinda of prefer this one though (they used to sing it in the halls of the high school I worked at):

I'm also a fan of these:

I also have a soft spot for this one (particularly after noticing the diversity of covers):

You can see the real video here.

Your Favourite Song Of The Last Ten Years?

I have recently been asked to pick my favourite song of the last decade. How do you choose? It's not a top ten list, or of best albums, but one song. I listen to thousands of songs a year, to find only one is daunting. I've been going through some of my favourite albums, could it be something by Radiohead? Damon Albarn? Beck? MIA? Cursive? The Weakerthans? Arcade fire? Modest Mouse? Animal Collective? Bon Iver?

Do you pick something catchy and poppy? Or something topical? I guess if we're just talking songs then it doesn't have to be off a particularly good album.

Ten years is a lot songs over the airwaves. Suggestions?

Day-To-Day Living

Someone laughed about my suggestion that I needed to invent an extra hour or two - I chuckled too, but it got me thinking, how many hours in a day do I need? In a way, I am lucky in that ultimately, I like what I do for a living, even if I feel that aspects of it have been rendered archaic and fundamentally flawed. The problem is that I want to do more than just go to work everyday, but I want to do more in a day, not less.

So ideally I guess, here's a rough break down on how I'd spend my day:

Work: 8 hours

Sleep: 7 hours (sure, they say get 8 - I currently get 6 and acknowledge it's not enough)

Reading: 1 hour

Writing: 1 hour

Listening to music: 1 hour

Physical Activity: 1 hour

Meals (and prep): 2 hours

Family time: 3 hours (playing or reading with my daughter, talking with my wife etc)

Errands: 1 hour

Visiting with friends: 1 hour

Total: 26 hours, assuming I only actually spend eight hours working and don't carry stuff home to work on during the evenings like email. You'll also notice there's no TV watching listed. I don't generally watch a lot of TV, except for certain sporting events like tennis and soccer, so of course that changes things too. Currently I save myself time by basically choosing will I read today? write? workout? or listen to music? Generally though working out comes out last, and I really do not feel that I've accomplished much if I don't engage in some degree of reading or writing each day.

Hopelessly Misguided New Year's Intentions

In a few days, my summer holidays will be over and I'll be going back to the office for another ten months. A nice long breaks let you try and gain some perspective on things, hopefully calm down and return to work refreshed.

I claim to have accomplished none of these things, though I did spend the afternoon coming up with the following list:

Things I Will Do To Have A Happier 2009/10

1. See more live music.

2. Read more fiction. Maybe it will help me lighten up.

3. Take more photos of my surroundings. Maybe it will help me feel better about where I work.

4. Go for a swim more often.

5. Listen to the radio in the afternoon instead of my iPod.

6. Invent a longer day the better to accomplish things at a more relaxing pace.

Sports, sports, and more sports.

Really, there is not enough time to watch all the sports that I would have to watch if I had enough television sets. I don't even think a PVR would help much. As baseball winds down, I find my Chicago White Sox trailing the Detroit Tigers by a paltry few games. Since the White Sox are never on TV here in Calgary, I check in every night to see how they're doing. Given how baseball schedules work, this would probably keep me busy enough, however, the women's tennis tournament is in Toronto this week while the men are in Cincinnati. Television coverage is about twelve hours a day of tennis. Furthermore, it is qualifications week for the European Champions League and the new "Europe League" (ex-Uefa Cup), which means that between today, tomorrow and Thursday there's something like sixty quality soccer matches on offering. Only two of which are on regular television.

Factor in the fact that I've just returned from holidays and have a whole bunch of writing to do for various organizations, as well as finding time to type up some of the non-commissioned writing I did. To say nothing of the omnipresent books I'm forever trying to read.

What to do, what to do.

Beatles Playlist

Spectrum Online recently asked me to pick my favourite Beatles tunes, a daunting enough task at the best of times, but Spectrum decided to raise the stakes: one song per album only, twelve albums, twelve songs. I've spent the last thirty-six hours revisiting a lot of Beatles music. Once Spectrum posts the list, I'll write a little justification for what I've done here, since I'm sure people will feel that I've committed some crimes against humanity.

I don't want to spoil my list, but I will say this - "The Long And Winding Road" still brings a tear to my eye.

I'm a sucker, I know.