Summer Heat, Summer Memories

It's been unseasonably hot here in Calgary over the last few days. Yesterday set an all-time heat record. Driving across town in the middle of the afternoon yesterday, I overheard this song on CJSW. Not suprisingly, it makes me think of New York. But so do heat waves. In part this is because when I was in New York doing research for my thesis, Tune In, Turn On, Go Punk, the city was in the middle of a late summer heat wave.

It also doesn't help that the heat wave theme turns up in a lot of New York-based movies, such as A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, In America, and perhaps most memorably, Do The Right Thing.

Words and Music

With temperatures breeching thirty degrees celsius almost every day this week, I think it's fair to say that Calgary is in the middle of a mid-summer heat wave. For some reason, the heat has me thinking a lot about the Ocote Soul Sounds' Alchemist's Manifesto, loosely inspired, I think, by Paulo Coehlo's novel The Alchemist, which celebrated it's tenth anniversary this week.

Two other bands I've been thinking about lately are Calgary's Ded Souls and Beyond Possession. I've been making a lot of notes for a story that's partly based on growing up in Northeast Calgary, and these two local bands have been providing the soundtrack in my head. The Calgary Cassette Preservation Society has the Ded Souls available, but I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Melodiya Records-backed Beyond Possession reissue ten years ago. I guess I'll have to console myself with this (and other) YouTube clips. This one was recorded a short bus ride from where I grew up:

And remember kids, Beyond Possession is Beyond Possession!