Category Archives: Media

October 6, 2012 · 6:45 pm

this week in spam

Introducing a new feature (not difficult to do for a new blog). I’ve trolled the Spam folder of my Gmail account to find the best and brightest opportunities for you, the reader. Too often, we dismiss those enticing spam messages without so much as a glance. And why? Because they can destroy everything on your computer and abet faceless figures in identity theft and fraud?

Sure, there’s that. But don’t you occasionally wonder what you’re missing by not opening those all-caps urgent messages?

Well, now you don’t have to. So let’s take a look, shall we? Continue reading →

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September 25, 2012 · 5:33 pm

Polaris predictability

This writer has had the pleasure of contributing to the Polaris Music Prize’s long list on a number of occasions, and is grateful to have been and to continue to be a part of a worthy endeavor. The rise of the prize in stature has been rather remarkable, given that last night’s ceremony was but the seventh in the annual event’s history.

And, as you will have heard/read by now, this year’s winner of the trophy and accompanying cash, is one Leslie Feist. All part of the award’s ongoing mission to reward “albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation or sales history.” Yet, for the second consecutive year, this has resulted in the 10-person panel adjudicating the short list, selecting an album whose sales history, professional affiliation and indeed musical genre are that of an established artist — a household name, if you will. Continue reading →

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September 25, 2012 · 5:11 pm

the intro and the outro

Hello, folk(s). Nice to be back with you. Let’s see where this all takes us, eh?


A few words of introduction may be in order. I’ve been writing about music, the arts and bridge-openings for a number of years here in Capital City. Many words have been spilled, and I am proud of a few things. I have never gushed over an artist, concert or album I did not feel deserved it. I have never chosen coolness over quality. I have never used the prefix über. I have never referred to an album’s being “dropped” unless it was my dad’s copy of Jumpin’ With Jonah, which I did indeed drop. (And, though they knew how to make records in those days, it shattered.) I have never referred to material goods as “swag”, not being a seafarer and all.

I have John Cale’s home number somewhere. I saw Sonic Youth at CBGB. I was once quoted in a Ninja Tune newsletter. And I am the proud owner of not one but two Mrs. Miller LPs.

That’s about all you need to know for now. What say you to my updating this little introductory piece on an as-needed basis? That way we can meet for the first time, all over again.

 

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December 4, 2009 · 12:02 am

Canadian success stories

This afternoon, I dusted off my copy of Bob Mersereau’s 2007 volume The Top 100 Canadian Albums, a nifty effort on the Maritime music-writer’s part to construct a definitive list of nation-defining pop records.
I felt honoured to be among the contributors to Mersereau’s book; though, not one of my five choices — three of which were likely by Kate and Anna McGarrigle and one of which was surely Slow’s Against the Glass — made it into the published Hot-100. (See this blog’s Polaris Prize essay and you’ll begin to see a pattern.) The absence of Kate and Anna’s Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse, for my money the greatest album ever recorded, neither surprised nor bothered me. The fact that other contributors failed to recognize the rock and roll majesty of Slow’s lone LP, did. Continue reading →

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