Summer Indulgences

It's summer and I'm on holidays the next few weeks and that means late nights playing video games with my wife, quiet mornings reading books, Illy espresso, cherries, gelato, and an almost constant stream of music.

Dirty Projectors v. Nico

The full-length debut from Brooklyn's Dirty Projectors has captivating me of late, in particular their song "Two Doves", which borrows from Nico's Jackson Browne-penned "These Days", one of my iPod's most played songs.

For your pleasure:

Now compare:

*Live version of Dirty Projectors can be viewed here:

Father, Daughter, Rock n' Roll

Last night I took my daughter to her first rock n' roll show. It was part of the CJSW Outdoor Summer Concert Series at Olympic Plaza and featured The Stables, Gunther, Jay Crocker, Hot Little Rocket, and Dojo Workhorse. She was very excited about going to the show and didn't want to miss a single song, even though she could barely keep her eyes open during Dojo Workhorse's set. One of the reasons I thought about taking her to this particular concert was the opportunity to introduce her to Andrew Wedderburn of Hot Little Rocket who I knew well from our days together at CJSW. The other reason I brought her was that I want her to grow up thinking that music, regardless of whether it's rock n' roll or whatever, is made by regular people, singing about stuff that happens to them in their daily lives. It's not made by fantastical celebrities who live in mythical modern castles, but normal people like Andrew Wedderburn, Dojo Workhorse's Dan Vacon who I went to high school with, or Woodpigeon's Mark Hamilton who lives down my street.

One of the odd moments of the evening came between sets. Those of you not from Calgary may not be aware that the Olympic Plaza is made from bricks, and people could pay to have their names engraved on the bricks as part of the project's attempts to raise funds. Looking around, I saw that my daughter and I were standing on this particular brick:

While I have no idea if this brick actually belongs to Kara Keith, ex-of Calgary's Falconhawk, Earthquake Pills, and many other local bands I grew up on in the 1990s, but it was certainly fun to think that maybe, ten years from now, my daughter will feel comfortable being the next Kara Keith (if she feels like it).

(For the record, Kara Keith is now living in Montreal and her latest project Your Dignity was recently listed on the Polaris Prize's Extra-Long List).

Society of the Spectacle, on YouTube

One of my favourite books, Society of the Spectacle, was made into a "movie" by it's author Guy Debord. Debord was part of an artistic collective called The Situationist International and they influenced folks as diverse as Abbie Hoffmann and Malcolm McLaren, manager of the New York Dolls and Sex Pistols.

I had given up hope of ever seeing the movie version of Society of Spectacle, assuming that the film was ultimately lost and forgotten, but here it is, on YouTube. You can check out the opening parts below:

June Progress Report

In his latest collection of The Believer columns, entitled Shakespeare Wrote For Money, Nick Hornby suggests that if you can write 500 words a day, you can write a novel within a year. Of course, he leaves it unsaid that you should probably dedicate those 500 words to a single project. Even if he had deliberately spelt it out like that, I probably wouldn't have listened since starting too many things at once has become my hallmark.

Here is June's Fiction Writing Progress Report:

Short Stories:

"Out of Time" - in revision*

"Of Light and Darkness" - in revision*

* these make up part of my Twilight of the Idle short stories "Labellypock" and "A Night on the Fronde"

"How My Uncle Faught The Spanish Civil War" - 1000 words

"Il Brute" - 700 words, a short story about living in Bridgeland

Novel Ideas (and working titles):

A Saturday Afternoon By The Slurpee Machine - 2000 words, growing up in NE Calgary, circa 1990

Games of Chance - 1000 words, quasi-related to the current economic downturn

The Last Days of the Daily Wenzel - 8150 words

Father Borsato di Sangi - notes only, about a priest in small town Alberta, circa 1910,

Mt. Pilatus Calls My Name - notes only, a corporate satire

Good Ideas At The Time (Whole draft novels):

joculatores domini - in revision, a novel about parking attendants and the Calgary Stampede

The Liminal Trip - in revision, backpacking through Europe,

June's Total Word Count: 12850

Theoretically, Hornby would suggest that by August 1, my word count should be approaching double what it is now, though I confess I'd be happy to finish off some of these "in revision" projects.

The Future of Canada Day

Canada Day is pretty good, but let's make it great! Here's how:

July 1 is the traditional Dominion Day celebrating the creation of Canada's Constitution and official recognition as a quasi-independent unit within the British Empire. It also works well with the majority of Canadians because it coincides with the end of the K-12 school year. Here in Calgary it also unofficially kicks off the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede. People get together and frolic outside, families host BBQ's and block parties. It's great - there's poutine, beer, maybe some lacrosse, but no hockey.

What's Canada Day without hockey? I'm surprised no one has thought about it before.

Let's make Canada Day June 1.

Not only will we make it June 1 but we'll also strong-arm NHL Commissioner Gary Bettmann into confirming June 1 as the mandatory end of hockey playoffs. Imagine one of Games 4 - 7 of the final series being played on a national holiday in Canada! It'd be like the Super Bowl! It'd be like the '02 Olympics every year! If June 1 fell on a Friday we could make it a long weekend and have an extra game on Sunday night. Nothing would get, a nation would shut down, and the people would cheer!

Wimbledon Recap

For me, today marks the start of seven weeks of holidays and what better way to celebrate than a national holiday and the chance to watch Wimbledon quarter-final action. The last two weeks of my nine-to-five life prevented me from staying abreast of all the action, but luckily, I was able to sit down this morning with Lucy from Good Grief Lucy fame. While she might have put her blog on the backburner, her love of knitting and sports still remains strong, and she was quick to bring me up to speed.

Week 1 of Wimbledon was dominated by the crafty play of the veteran men. Later today Lleyton Hewitt will play Andy Roddick, having made it farther than anyone expected. It seems like Hewitt is drawing more inspiration from Nadal's absence than anyone else and why not? Apart from Federer, Hewitt was the only other Wimbledon Champ who showed up on the men's side this year. The big shock though has been the play of the tournement's oldest man (at 31), Tommy Haas. As I write this, Haas is battling Novak Djokovic in a second set tiebreak to try and go up two sets to love against the former Australian Open champion.

On the women's side, things are overshadowed by the possible return of Kim Clijsters in time for the US Open. Echoing her statements from last year, Lucy argues that the current women's game is beset by inconsistent play and mental consistency. Only the Williams' sisters, who met each other in the final last year, have demonstrated anything close to professional form. Barring a major meltdown by one of the sisters, this year could very well be a repeat of last year.

The men's game however could play out very differently. While Hewitt and Haas are playing above and beyond, Andy Roddick has been rolling through opponents, liking nothing better than to meet Federer again in the final. What he'll do there is anyone's guess, since he hasn't shown any knew weapons in his arsenal, and Federer has shown in the past that he knows all about Roddick. Andy Murray, the Andy that most are cheering for, remains potentially the biggest wild card. Expectations are high for the young Scot to do well at Wimbledon, and Britain as whole is holding it's breath waiting for the next British champion to appear.