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November 30, 2006

Canadian Politics: What Are The Conservatives Conserving?

I guess the one positive thing there is to be said about the Conservative Party of Canada is they never cease to amaze me. If not on a daily basis then at least every week those rascals have always got some new thing up there sleeve to announce that can leave me slack jawed with wonder.

For a party with the word Conservative in its title they seem far more intent on tearing down decades of work done by their predecessors than conserving anything. If they are not intent upon preserving a Canada based on respect, compassion, and tolerance, what exactly are their plans for conservation?

They obviously don't include anything to do with:


The environment
reneging on the Kyoto accord
Caring for children
repealing the universal child care program/replaced by non-refundable tax credits maximum of $1200 per year per child
The First Nations people
Allowing situations like the Caledonia blockade to create resentment against natives by letting them get out of hand and not dealing with the treaty issue under dispute.
The rights of women
Cutting five million dollars from under funded Status of Women and closing all but four regional offices across the country
Human Rights and our constitution
Opening debate in the House of Commons on the issue of same sex marriage when the Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled it unconstitutional to prohibit the unions.

While Prime Minister Steven Harper and his buddies had been promising the last item on the list since before even the last election, it's till sort of appalling to see them actually going through with re-opening the debate on same sex marriage.

The wounds have barely healed from the last time and he's giving people the opportunity to get their knives out and open them up one more time. The really nasty part of this is that no matter what anyone says or does the law can't be repealed without the government choosing to invoke the "Not Withstanding Clause" of the constitution. This clause, which was a sop to Quebec so they could have could opt out of minority language protection laws, allows a government to say, "not withstanding what the constitution says, we're going to go against it and deny people their human rights".

Since I believe you need to win a vote with at least a two thirds majority to invoke the clause, the Conservative party wouldn't be able to set same sex marriages aside no matter how much they may want to because they don’t' have the votes. All this debate is doing is sending a message to those who support Prime Minister Harper's party that he's still their guy and can be counted on to conserve the bad old days.

While the Conservative party's action on same sex marriage have been well telegraphed some of their other policy decisions have been receiving far less publicity. But it's going to be hard for people to ignore what they're doing when the federal Liberal party's Women's Caucus accuses them of wanting to keep women "barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen".

Although you might find that rhetoric a little over the top, it's hard to argue with their claim that the Conservative party is attempting to role back the clock when it comes to the level of financial support offered to women's issues by the government. Since 1971 there has been a Status Of Women Canada (SWC) department as an entity within the Canadian government.

The SWC has worked to promote gender equality, and the full participation of women in the economic, social, cultural and political life of the country. The three areas that the SWC focus on primarily are improving and ensuring a women's ability to gain economic autonomy, (in other words not need a husband to pay her way) eliminating the systemic violence against women and children, and advancing the basic human rights of women.

The past twenty-five years have seen women make what appear to be significant gains in all areas but the reality is not as pretty a picture as we're led to believe. What does it matter if a women can get a job if she can't get day care for her children? How come the words "glass ceiling" still exist if they have parity with men in terms of pay and potential advancement? Why is that most murder victims are still the result of domestic violence and the women's shelter's are filled night after night if things have really changed?

Mr. Harper is very quite to condemn places like China over its human rights violations, but his government is cutting funding to programs which work with woman to ensure their basic safety, health, and well being. But maybe he doesn't think slashing nearly 25% from The SWC budget is that big a deal. Maybe reducing the number of regional offices from sixteen to four seemed like a good way to save money, but what kind of message does it send to women?

Now instead of being able to go for help about an issue concerning them, or a loved one, at a placed specifically designed for women, they are being shunted off into the regular bureaucracy. Instead of having a woman who has been trained to help you deal with negotiating the paths you have to travel to get a restraining order, you'll now be helped by the first available operator at the ministry's call centre.

When the government responds to the fact that women still only make 71% of what men make by saying we don't need to separate men from women in this country, but plan for them together, they have an agenda that does not include advocacy for women's rights. In fact one of the reasons for closing the regional offices according to Heritage Minister (for some reason the Heritage Ministry is responsible for the SWC, perhaps because the Conservatives plan on making it part of our heritage instead of a functional part of government) Bev Oda is the fact that they were too concerned with being advocates and lobbying the government on behalf of women.

It seems to me an odd thing to say that an advocacy group doing advocacy work is not doing their job properly. In fact she makes it sound like the fact that they had the nerve to be lobbying on behalf of women meant that somehow or other they no longer cared about their clients. In spite of the government denials, I can't help but think that the opposition has it right; it really looks like they are trying to completely eliminate SWC.

Budget cuts are one thing, but to already start a misinformation campaign aimed at making it sound like the people who work at SWC are out of control and need to be stopped before they can waste all of the taxpayer's precious money is another all together. I wouldn't be too surprised that if the Conservatives hang on to bring in their own budget by the spring, they will either take steps to try and phase it out all together, or completely reshape its focus.

I'm sure that if you asked a Conservative Party of Canada spokesperson what it is they are actually conserving, as they seem to be dismantling so much of what defined Canada as a country, he or she would have some nice set answer. They'd probably mention something about values and standards with absolutely no meaning except to them and their cronies.

Their values and standards are exactly the sort of thing that the legislation that created the Status of Woman Canada was designed to fight, and that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms section of our Constitution was created to defend us against.

The Conservative Party of Canada exists to conserve itself and what it believes in, not the Canada that many people have spent so many years making into one of the most tolerant nations of the world. Let's try to conserve that country instead of one that's based on some being better then others.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:39 AM |

November 29, 2006

Music Review: Andrew Collberg Andrew Collberg

Sometimes the hardest thing about critiquing music for me is keeping my own personal tastes out of the opinion I express. In theory it shouldn't matter if I'm writing about someone who performs disco, heavy metal, thrash, folk, or country. What I try to be concerned with is how well the performer(s) work within the context of their chosen genre.

Of course I know my own personal tastes well enough to avoid reviewing stuff that I can't listen to without either getting a migraine or throwing up. Which is why you'll never see a review of something like Boy George or Poison under my name. It might also explain why I write very few outright negative reviews; a group or performer will have to fail to pretty badly in their attempts at meeting the obligations of their preferred form of expression in order for that to happen.

That being said I also have to admit that I'm still far less easily impressed or easy to please than it seems most people are today, which has led in the past to some disagreements between general consensus and myself. But as I point out to those who question my judgement based on the fact that I didn't love something that everybody else raved about, why should it matter so much if I don't think something's that great if everyone else loves it?

I respect and admire anyone's attempts at real creativity too much to enjoy criticizing their offerings. Especially difficult are those times where an individual obviously has talent and has made a genuine effort at finding a means unique to themselves for their expression instead of merely following an existent formula that would ensure commercial success.

Personal artistic integrity is something to be nurtured anywhere it is found, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be held to account just like any other music. It's a worse crime in my opinion to not offer warranted constructive criticism than to ignore flaws that could continue to develop unchecked to the detriment of the performer. This is especially true in the case of young performers, like the one I'm reviewing today.

Andrew Collberg is a young man, originally born in Sweden, living in Arizona, who at nineteen is already having his music compared to the early work of Bob Dylan and the melodic feel of some of the later Beetles' catalogue. These are some pretty heavy expectations for his first CD, Andrew Collberg to live up to, and it's no crime that it doesn't.
Collberg.jpg
According to the biographical information supplied Andrew has been playing music since he was quite young, and began experimenting with recording techniques while in his early teens. There is no denying his talent as a musician or as a vocalist. Not only does he play all the instruments on this CD, he has also supplied the lead vocals and the harmonies.

Lyrically he also has a good eye and ear for what works as imagery in a song, and is able to utilize that to good effect to offer poetic turns of phrase. He creates the sense of the emotions that are implicit in phrases even when they are not spoken generating a level of real tension that is not often found in a performer twice his age.

All this sounds pretty good so far doesn't it, and it did for the first few songs. I could hear what people meant by his sound having similarities to the Beatles circa Let It Be, the song "Across The Universe" specifically came to mind. While he may not be any Bob Dylan (was Bob Dylan Bob Dylan when he was nineteen?) why should he be? It's a different time and a different place.

But (yes here's the but you've been hearing since I started) as the disc progressed I noticed I was having a harder and harder time paying attention to it. It began to sound like one endless drone. That sounds a lot harsher then I mean it to, but it's a reflection of the effects he's chosen to use on his voice to create that "Across The Universe" sound.

If you're not familiar with the song, the Beatles used a type of echo/reverb on it that lent their voices an ethereal quality. It feels like Mr. Collberg utilized this effect throughout the entirety of his disc so that eventually the songs all sound the same. Occasionally my attention would be caught by the introduction of the banjo or the harmonica into a song, but that diversion would soon pass.

What made it possible to listen to whole albums by people like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen in the days when they were singing unaccompanied and unadorned was the rawness of their sound. Neither man has the most spectacular of vocal ranges, and so there was something very real about them straining to hit the notes at their furthest reaches. There was a human element involved

I'm not saying that Mr. Collberg isn't human, his depth of feeling is obvious in his writing, but to my mind his production values rob his lyrics of their potential. They should be allowed to predominate, and not be so inundated with effects that the songs become indistinguishable. It almost appears that he is unsure whether he wants people to listen to the lyrics at all.

Andrew Collberg is a young man just starting out on what should be a long and promising career. His first disc, Andrew Collberg shows plenty of that promise, but in my mind it also shows weaknesses that need to be addressed. But then again that's my opinion so take it with as many grains of salt as you like. I'd suggest buying the disc and forming your own conclusions.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 09:40 AM |

November 28, 2006

The Music Maker Relief Foundation: Helping Restore The Blues

Throughout the month of November myself and other Blogcritics writers have been reviewing and talking about Blues music. Something that's become clear from writing some of these articles, and from reading them, is the universal appeal of the Blues. Guitar players from Finland and record labels in Germany only confirms the fact, everybody does indeed get the Blues.

But no matter how far flung the Blues has become, there's no doubt in anybody's mind where its roots lie. When Thomas Ruf of Ruf records in Germany wanted to give some of his young European Blues musicians a deeper understanding of the music they played he took them to Mississippi and Memphis to record.

They hung out and played for hours a day with the people who have lived and breathed the music and the life circumstances that created it. Ruf understood that it's one thing for these young people to play the music on a daily basis, but another altogether to experience it. In Europe they lacked the resource that would enable this, the people who've been living, breathing, performing, and creating the Blues for the past few generations.

The roots of Blues music run deep in the Southern United States, and are closely intermingled with the social history of that region. To play the Blues without an awareness of the people and the places it came from is to rob it of the very vitality that has kept it vibrant and alive long after its originators have passed on.
Etta Baker.jpg
When Thomas Ruf took his musicians to record Pilgrimage: Mississippi To Memphis they were only seeing the tip of the iceberg. Beneath the surface is floating hundreds if not thousands of musicians who contributed in one way or another a little piece of the story of the Blues.

These men and women, who ought to be at least recognised for their contributions to the creation and development of American culture, have been living their lives in obscurity and, in most cases, poverty for many years. Unfortunately many still are, but because of the l efforts of one couple a very exiting change has taken place over the last fifteen years.

The way Tim Duffy tells the story of the Music Maker Relief Foundation it sounds like such an obvious thing to do you wonder why no one thought of it earlier. In 1990 he had met Guitar Gabriel, and they began playing together. Through Gabriel Tim began to get to know other older musicians and learned about the harsh realities of their lives.

Initially he tried to organize gigs and recording deals for these musicians in order to help them keep body and soul together. After three years of this he realized that without help he wasn't going to get anywhere. He had made some rough field recordings of many of the performers and in the end they were what started the ball rolling.
Jack Owens recording.jpg
Tim had sent out a general plea for help to people who had been friends of his late father, and one of the first to respond was Mark Levinson a pioneer in the world of commercial stereo equipment. He was the one who got the ball rolling for the Music Maker Foundation by promoting an initial compilation disc through his showroom.

A chance meeting between Mark and Eric Clapton resulted in Eric's interest in the project and the initial bump that the project needed to get publicity and a small distribution deal with Tower Records. They were now able to start generating some funds and booking shows for the artists. It was only the beginning.

Now seventeen years since his fateful meeting with Guitar Gabriel (who ironically died just as the foundation began to bear fruit) The Music Maker Relief Foundation has come quite a distance. With an Advisory board that includes Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Brown, Sue Foley, and B.B. King, and Taj Mahal serving on the Board of Directors public awareness is growing which assures the continued growth and expansion of the programming offered by the organization.
Drink Small At The Piano.jpg
Not only are they now able to provide grants for individuals in need of financial assistance, they are able to produce records, arrange gigs for individual artists, and promote international tours under the Music Maker banner. Slowly but surely they are not only bringing the people who made the music out of obscurity, but generating interest in some of the lesser known styles of the music as well.

There is always the danger that when some performers die that a style or type of music could vanish with them forever. Producing groups like the Carolina Chocolate Drops, three young Black musicians who play the Country Blues of the Carolinas, ensures that music is prevented from becoming either only a memory or a dusty museum piece.

The Music Maker Relief Foundation is not just about recognising the achievements of those who came before, or even just preserving their music like fossils in amber. Now that they have successfully started their grant program to artists in need, their next step is to ensure the music's continued vitality and bring it to new audiences everywhere.

The Chocolate drops are one step in that direction, but Tim Duffy envisions a day when the foundation has its own facilities for recording, performing, and celebrating the people who create the music. He's well aware of how fickle fad and fashion can be, so he knows it will take a permanent effort beyond what he and his wife Denise are capable of as individuals to maintain what has been started.

Not only is the music that the foundation strives to preserve important, the work of the foundation itself must be preserved beyond this one generation for it to be successful. Initially it may have been founded with the humanitarian goal of caring for those who pioneered the Blues, but it has outgrown that impulse. Now it is fast becoming a means of preserving an important aspect of the United States' cultural heritage.

With the permanent location of Tim's realized it will be possible for the music and the people who perform it to have the means to always be a part of the nation's awareness. Nevermore will they become out of sight and out of mind and risk being relegated to the scrap heap of the forgotten.

If you have even the barest of interest in the Blues and the people who were responsible for keeping it alive over the years in all its glorious shapes and sizes than you may want to consider a way in which you can support the efforts of the Music Maker Relief Foundation. They are one of the best and brightest hopes for keeping the Blues alive today.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 08:58 AM |

November 27, 2006

A Government's Priority

It's all a question of priorities isn't it? I know that's stating the obvious, but sometimes it's the things staring us right in the face that we pay the least amount of attention to.

Everybody has their own list of things they consider important; it's simply a means of ordering our lives. When we give activities a value it enables us to decide how and when the duties and responsibilities in our lives will be met and fulfilled.

When someone uses the excuse of "It's a question of priorities" for either not doing something or doing something in an order that an other person doesn't understand they could just as easily be saying "It's a matter of what's important to me". As individuals we are going to differ in what's important in our daily routine. Mitigating factors could range from whether or not you have children, to what appointments you may or may not have scheduled for that day.

While the majority of us will set our priorities based on our individual needs and wants, there are certain areas where the needs of society at large set a value upon our actions. Municipal recycling programs dependant upon individual members of the community sorting through their refuse each week offers a perfect example.

Before programs such as the curb side pick up of recyclables or what ever system an area uses, would anyone have considered it a priority at all to sort through and separate their plastics, metals, and papers from each other? It was only when it became obvious that we were running out of space to our solid wastes that local governments made it a priority to put their energies into convincing us that it was the right thing to be doing.

For most of us it has now become second nature to sort out garbage in between collection dates and put out appropriately coloured receptacles when we are told. But in order for that to come about governments and environmental groups had had to mount an extensive educational campaign. It was made into a priority by appealing to people's sense of public duty; doing their bit for the environment and their neighbourhoods.

Recycling falls into a category of priorities that can be referred to as the societal instead of individual. True we as individuals make it a personal priority to do our recycling each week, but it's not something that would have happened if it had not become a government priority as well.

Of course government priorities are what make the world go round. From Communist to Capitalist it doesn't matter, they have their list of things they want to accomplish and they mean to do it. The difference between their list and yours is a question of who it effects and how, and the motivation behind it.

Of course, even when you know the priorities of your government that may not be of much use in helping you understand how they make their decisions or explain how they decide what's most important. Some government's claim they are guided by the hand of God, others claim that they stand for lofty ideals, another says they are guided by the traditions of their country, and yet another lays claim to a political philosophy.

Yet how is it, if there is so much diversity, that nothing seems to change anywhere in the world? How is it that so many of the world's leaders; so many different people of different backgrounds, beliefs, and philosophies; always end up with the same priorities?

At least if we are to judge by results and the continually screwed up state of the world what other conclusion can we draw. Millions of people, if not billions are starving to death on a daily basis. Millions of people are dying of one pandemic, AIDS, while other ailments that we once though extinct are coming back more virulent then ever.

The water we drink is becoming increasingly unpalatable and in some places undrinkable. The quality of our air has depreciated so badly that every summer sees an increase in respiratory ailments, and an increased number of people with those ailments dying.

While our world is burning our leaders seem to be more concerned with devising ways and the means for killing us through wars, insurgencies, rebellions, jihads, than doing anything about any of those problems. It doesn't matter if they are Muslim, Christian, White, Asian, Semitic, or African none of them seem to have the preservation or the improvement of quality of life as a priority.

It's funny you know, I always used to think that most of the world's faiths believed that life was sacred. There was the whole thou shalt not kill thing as one of the Ten Commandments, with variations through out the faiths. But what I didn't realize was that it meant Thou shalt not kill those who are like you, but go ahead and lop off the heads of anyone who is different.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if we ever decided to work as hard at preserving life throughout the world as we do now at destroying it? If we were to make it a priority that everyone in the world was fed, sheltered, clothed, and went to bed at night feeling secure they wouldn't be killed over night?

How do governments develop their priorities? Did we give them the idea that we want them to be more concerned with killing the people we share the planet with rather then helping them? Or are these just ideas they've come up with on their own?

When you develop the priorities for you family, don't you always do so with their comfort and well being in mind? How often does that include going downtown with a gun and shooting people who may be drug dealers on the off chance they could sell to your children? No usually you'll talk to your children and educate them about any potential dangers they could face.

Our governments have made it their priority to go downtown and not just shoot those they think maybe drug dealers, but blow up the downtown as well. They don't seem to give much thought to our comfort and well being. They all claim they are just trying to make the world better for their citizens, to keep them safe, but it seems like more and more of the world's population dies a violent death each and every day.

Killing another people is no way to guarantee you own people's safety. Perhaps if governments started making it a priority to keep everybody safe, not just the people who voted for them, we all might live and feel a little safer.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:14 AM |

November 26, 2006

Ruf Records: Keeping The Blues Alive

ruf award copy.jpg

Back in the early 1960's something peculiar happened in the world of popular music. The seemingly impregnable wall that had divided two worlds separated by the barrier of race began to develop cracks and fissures. Punching those holes was the music of poor Black sharecroppers from the Mississippi Delta and the electric sound of urban poverty from Chicago.

A small group of country musicians from the southern United States had begun to incorporate Black music into their compositions in the 1950's gaining popularity and notoriety. Sun Records of Memphis Tennessee was the nexus for this hybrid, and with its stable of artists including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis began to integrate Blues music into the mainstream.

But it took a collection of young musicians from Great Britain to really bring the Blues to the forefront of popular music. The Rolling Stones, The Animals, The Yardbirds, The Who, and the bands that followed in their wake like Led Zeppelin and Ten Years After made no secret of their debt to the Blues musicians of the Americas.

Early albums of the Rolling Stones, like The Rolling Stones Now would probably sound unrecognizable to current fans as they are almost strictly Blues albums. Whether covers or originals they made no bones of who their influences were. They delivered their Blues straight with no country filter and provided much of mainstream America with its first exposure to the music of her own people.

For the first time people began to be familiar with names of Muddy Watters, Howlin' Wolf, John Lee Hooker, and other men and women who had toiled in virtual obscurity because of the segregation of Black and White in all aspects of American life. For some the recognition came too late for them to reap any of the fruits of their labour.

Others, like B.B. King, were able to catch the wave and ride it sufficiently to create comfortable livings and careers for themselves. Even today many men and women who were responsible for building the framework on which so much of our popular music rests, have never received proper recognition financially or other wise for their contributions. (In an effort to try and right that balance organizations like The Music Maker Foundation have begun to spring up around the United States with the sole purpose of providing funds for these people to live in dignity and to record and tour their music)

Although there have been individuals who have had success with Blues based recording careers, mainstream radio, and by extension the recording industry, has yet to welcome the genre enthusiastically. While the occasional syndicated radio show exists, the likelihood of ever hearing a blues song show up on popular radio is minimal.

With options for Blues performers still limited in North America looking further a field remains one of the best avenues for the security of a recording contract. A road that is become more frequently travelled these days is the path that beats to the door of one Thomas Ruf of Germany.

From 1989 until 1994 he had worked with Luther Allison as his European agent. Desiring to do more for the man Thomas described as "his rising blues hero" he started his own record label that "offered another avenue to promote the music and career of this extraordinary artist." From such small beginnings great things grow.

For twelve years now Thomas Ruf and Ruf Records has been recording Blues musicians who share his vision and hopes for the music. The company's motto, "Where The Blues Crosses Over" has a multiplicity of meanings. In music parlance when a genre "crosses over" it travels into territory other than its traditionally associated boundaries. Most often for the Blues that crossing over has been associated with guitar driven power rock and roll a la Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix.

But in the case of Ruf Records there is more then one way of viewing that saying. First there is the fact that so many of the artists have crossed over the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel to sign with a German label in order to prosper. From established performers and groups like Omar and the Howlers, Canned Heat, Walter Trout, Sue Foley, and the recently signed Jeff Healy to up and comers like Bernard Allison (Luther's son) Aynsley Lister and Ian Parker from Great Britain, and Roxanne Potvin from Canada.
Thomas Ruf & ruf_people.jpg
But crossing over also works in reverse and Ruf records is beginning to share the treasures of the European Blues scene with North America. Starting with Ana Popovic from the former Yugoslavia, who was the first European nominated for a W.C. Handy award for Blues, followed this year by the release of Aynsley Lister's Everything I Need in North America and Finnish slide virtuoso Erija Lyytinen's newest recording Dreamland which she recorded in four days while in Mississippi during a recent visit.

I can't help but think how appropriate that last listing is for this label. A young woman from Finland recording an album of Blues music back in one of the birthplaces of the sound, could anything be more appropriate for the label that is doing it's best to cross over the boundaries that have separated the music from people.

With that recording there is the feeling perhaps the process of repayment and recognition for all the years of neglect that the originators of the music suffered is finally beginning. Ruff had previously released a CD that was recorded in studios in Mississippi and Memphis with three of his young European stars hoping to recapture the spirit that resided there when the music was first recorded.

Coming back like that with respect and a willingness to learn, listen, and try to understand may seem like small recompense for lost royalties and income. But it is a small step in the right direction as they show an appreciation for who is responsible for there even being music for them to play.

Erija had been part of the label's inaugural Blues Caravan Tour in 2006 with Ian Parker and Aynsley Lister. The three joined forces to make the album Pilgrimage: Mississippi To Memphis which took them through studios across the south, to experience making the music they love where it began and with the people to whom it's second nature.

As you might have already been able to tell Ruf Records doesn't seem to have the difficulties other labels do in believing that a woman can be a guitar player just as easily as she can be a vocalist. This year's Blues Caravan Tour will feature three of the labels women guitar players, Sue Foley, Deborah Coleman, and Roxanne Potvin.

Crossing over this barrier may not seem like as big a deal as other, but even with people like Bonnie Raitt proving that a woman can play a guitar as well if not better than a man, acceptance of a woman playing lead guitar is still far from universal. Ruf records are out to break the stereotype of "chick" lead singer and keyboardist with a vengeance. These women are only a small representation of those who are out there but hopefully there example will encourage other players and perhaps other labels.

Thomas Ruf has guided Ruf Records for twelve years through waters that have not always been the smoothest. In only their third year they faced disaster when their U.S. distributor went bankrupt. There have been other years when cash was tight so new releases were light on the ground and they had to make due with reissues.

But it looks like they have left those days behind them now. Walter Trout's 2006 release Full Circle has already been on the Billboard charts for fifteen weeks and shows no signs of leaving any time soon. Their total sales to date for the 120 albums released in 12 years is 1.2 million and growing, they've been nominated for two Grammy Awards, and ten WC. Handy Awards.

As recognition for the work they do in producing and spreading the word of the Blues, Ruf Records was just informed by the Blues Foundation that they are this year's recipient of the Keeping The Blues Alive award for Record Companies. For a record label not even based in the continental United States to be considered for the award is an honour alone, but to actually win is a great accomplishment.

Twelve years ago Luther Alison challenged his European Agent to put his money where his mouth was, which resulted in the formation of Ruf Records. Thomas Ruf has not only backed his words with money, but even more importantly actions.

Winning an award for keeping the Blues alive sounds like you're helping a patient on life support. In the hands of the people at Ruf records the Blues aren't just being nursed along with survival in mind. They are the healthiest in mind, body and spirit then they have been in a long time. That can only be good news for music fans everywhere.


Posted by Richard Marcus at 07:22 AM |

November 25, 2006

Canadian Politics: Conservatives Sing The Same Old Song - Election Coming?

My goodness you'd think after all these years conservative politicians would find something new to try and sell people. But they've been singing the same refrain since the early eighties, no matter how many times it's been proven to have a detrimental effect on society. Then again maybe they understand human nature and selfishness better than liberals give them credit for.

More then twenty years since it was first introduced the good old trickle down effect still remains the popular economic theory among politicians of the right. Cut taxes and watch the economy grow as those with more spend it and encourage job growth.

Cut taxes and regulations for corporations and watch them create more jobs to hire more people to spend more money to keep making the economy grow, which will create more jobs. At the same time use government's revenues, which somehow still exist in spite of tax cuts, to pay down the nasty budget deficit.

Paying down the deficit, the theory goes will reduce the amount it costs the government to do business, and decrease the need for revenues. Why heck that results in another round of glorious tax cuts because the government won't need your hard earned dollars to pay off its debt.

It all sounds great doesn't it, and in the past has proven popular with the economic pundits; bankers and business men, who have, of course, no vested interest in this type of budget. They in turn can be counted on to make statements to the press about "new economic realities", "global competition", and other dire sounding proclamations predicting doom and gloom if we don't "take our medicine now"

When that stick is combined with the carrot of tax cuts it usually ends up being a pretty fair vote getter, especially when the editorial boards of newspapers can usually be guaranteed to go along for the ride. It's become so good that even parties closer to the centre of things politically have been forced to adopt these "sensible" economic practices or worry about not being competitive where it counts, at the polls.

So it shouldn't really come as any surprise when the Conservative Party of Canada released it's fiscal update outlining that exact program. For those of you not familiar with how Canadian politics work, a fiscal update is sort of like a budget, but it's not. It's doesn't say anything of substance – like how anything is going to be paid for, how much anything will be cut by, what will replace the tax revenues, or any other trying thing that could resemble detailed plans.

They really have very little in common with a budget except for two things; one it is introduced to parliament and must be voted on like a budget as it is considered the financial blueprint for the country's economy, and two the vote taken on the update is always deemed a "vote of confidence". The latter is only important if the government is, like the current one, in a minority position where if they lose the vote they will have to call an election.

So if in the past couple of years these updates have read quite a bit like election promises, or the opening salvos in campaigns it's because they have been. Last year at around this time the Liberal government barely survived the release of their update by giving the New Democratic Party assurances that instead of corporate tax credits in the millions of dollars the statement would outline how that money would be spent on social issues like housing, health care, and education.

The fact that the government went down to defeat shortly after, and very few of the measures in the update were enacted before the election which saw the change in government, meant it was all for nought anyway. But the Liberal party would probably have lost that election no matter what they had promised in their "update" so the document never ended up being of much relevance.

That's a major difference this time around. If the government goes down to defeat in the house on this issue (and that's a very real possibility with the Bloc Quebecois threatening to withhold support unless 4 billion dollars is earmarked specifically for use by Quebec, which has as much a likelihood of happening as ice skating in Hades) it will become a defining plank of the Conservative Party's election platform.

The Conservative Party has already shown it cut programming with the best of them, not only have they reneged on the Kyoto Accord but they have taken steps to eliminate almost every program associated with reducing green house gases. In one of the nastier moves I've ever seen, they are actually have people write reports detailing what saving will be realized by having the program they work for cancelled.

The majority of the programs affected are educational ones like teaching householders how to conserve energy, teaching farmers how to dispose of manures safely and cheaply so it doesn't impact the water table, and other things where the results won't be seen immediately, but will pay dividends in the long term. But all these guys can see is the short term, which means cutting costs today and to hell with tomorrow.

Of course the Conservative Party of Canada isn't alone in that thinking and they are counting on that. They are also counting on the fact that people won't remember what happened when they've lived under governments that practiced this style of economics before. Not only did social services like health care, housing, and education suffer; that more money ended up the hands of the people who already had lots while everybody else stayed in pretty much the same boat; and that somehow or other the debt kept rising.

As it stands right now I can't see any of the other three political parties being able to support this financial update that the Minister of Revenue has just issued. It flies too far in the face of the principles of both the Liberal party and the New Democratic Party, and it contains nothing special for Quebec, which will put the Bloc Quebecois in the opposition as well.

What it will come down now to is timing. The Liberal party is without a permanent leader and their convention is scheduled for January. The Conservatives can risk introducing the legislation now, force the vote, and try to catch the Liberals in disarray coming off a convention with a new leader either in the middle of an ongoing campaign or right at the start.

But the opposite side of that is the amount of publicity that person will have because of the convention. The "bounce" the Liberals receive in the polls could be enough to not only defeat the Conservatives, but also return them to a majority. In fact the worst thing that could happen for the Conservatives would be for a Liberal candidate to join the campaign a week or so late.

The New Democrats and the Bloc would be spending that time hammering away at the Conservatives, not having to worry about defending their plans to govern because neither of them will be have a hope of doing so, and weakening them in Ontario and Quebec where the Conservatives need to retain seats to keep their minority and gain quite a few to win a majority.

When the Liberal candidate joins the campaign, he will come across as a strong alternative to the Conservatives without even opening his mouth because they will have been on the defensive for the previous week In fact he may be able to get away with saying very little of substance his first week or so, as he focuses on introducing himself and slamming the Government.

By that time the campaign will be half over so when he introduce the Liberal, policies no matter how much the opposition chip away at it, they won't be able to erase his bounce unless he breaks the cardinal rule of politics and is found in bed with a dead human or a live animal.

Conservative insistence on playing the same tune over and over again, without even changing the lyrics that much, is beginning to become risky as people start to realize that the savings have to come from somewhere. They have already seen the quality of the Health Care system be eroded, public education be trivialized, and the Welfare Act of Canada be ignored or twisted.

While the federal government can talk all they want about those being provincial responsibilities, the majority of the money to pay for anything in this country still comes from federal coffers. The next election will most likely be fought over if not the direct terms of this financial update, than at least the philosophy behind it.

The Conservatives will play to everyone's baser instinct of more money in their pockets, while the remaining parties will work to remind them of how much that money actually costs. This should be a much more interesting election than last years foregone conclusion of a Conservative minority. It may well decide the future of Canada for a good long time to come.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:46 AM |

November 24, 2006

DVD Review: Grand Theft Auto

If you remember the 1970's because you were a teenager at the time, you probably can't think of those years without wincing over at least one memory. Whether it was the way you wore your hair, you bought a polyester suit, or some similar crime against self it really doesn't matter. The 1970's, no matter what the nostalgia merchants would have anyone think, will go down as the wince of a decade.

It wasn't only people like you and me either; do you thing John Travolta and Debra Winger want to be reminded of Urban Cowboy? Would Ethel Merman want to be remembered for her disco album? I'd hazard a guess and say no to both of those questions.

Ron Howard is another person for who the seventies are most likely seen as a mixed blessing. Although he finally shed the "little" Ronnie image and all the Opie associations that went along with that, it was still hard to take him seriously as an actor when you think of Happy Days. But for the man who has gone on to direct movies like A Beautiful Mind which won an Oscar, what might be the worst memory was his directorial debut.

There is no conceivable reason for Grand Theft Auto being released on DVD except perhaps as a lesson in humility for Ron Howard, and a reminder that even good and gifted directors had to start somewhere. Even as an example of seventies mediocrity it doesn't merit the waste of electricity used to transfer it onto digital media.

The plot, such as it is, involves Ron's character falling in love with a girl from a rich family. Girl wants to marry Ron, but her parents want her to marry other rich guy and forbid her to have anything to do with Ron. Girl steals daddy's Rolls Royce and they elope to Las Vegas in order to get married.

This provides the excuse for an extended car chase to pass as a movie. Providing the scant motivation for all the ensuing "action" is a $25,000 reward posted by girl's jilted rich suitor. As the lovebirds cross the dessert from California to Nevada they gather a variety of stereotypes to chase after them: Rednecks in pickups, low riding Hispanics, a hillbilly evangelical preacher, and of course parents and suitor.

Along the way we are treated to such set pieces as the blowing up of the wooden bridge, dynamite blowing up in the trunk of a police car, as well as a variety of cars rolling, spinning out and driving into ditches. The one spark of originality, having a DJ providing a running commentary on the chase from a helicopter, is overused to the point of nausea.

Instead of providing a point of reference for the action and allowing a respite from the chase, it becomes the sole form of narration by the middle of the movie. Not only is the character so annoying that you are left pining for a rocket launcher, it replaces any attempt at letting the movie speak for itself.

This is such a self – explanatory movie, that having a running commentary adds insult to injury for anyone watching. The DJ spends his entire screen time simply reiterating what a character had said in a prior scene; on the off chance you might have missed them saying they were heading towards Las Vegas.

When the best thing you can say about a DVD is that the 5.1 surround sound at least lets you hear the soundtrack clearly – really good guitar driven instrumental funk – it begs the question why did anyone bother releasing it. Grand Theft Auto doesn't even serve as a good example of this type of seventies road movies. Any of the Burt Reynolds's vehicles from the same time period, even Smokey And The Bandit 2, would have been better.

Grand Theft Auto should have been left being an historical footnote or a quiz show answer to the question of name Ron Howard's first cinematic director credit. As a movie it has little or nothing to recommend it. Even the car chases and pile-ups are pale imitations of other movies from the same time period and genre. I'm sure Ron Howard would rather forget about this, his embarrassing moment from the seventies rather then see it in a new "Tricked Out" version. I know I would have preferred not even knowing of its existence.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 03:02 AM |

November 23, 2006

Quebec Past And Prestent - La Plus Que Change...

Of the many things that Americans find confusing about Canada, after our beer and our incessantly annoying politeness, probably the thing they understand the least about us is Quebec. That's all right, Quebec is probably the thing we understand about ourselves the least as well.

As a service to my American readership I offer this truncated version of the last 350 odd (and very odd some of them have been) years of the history of Quebec in Canada. Although this should by no means be seen as a definitive statement hopefully it will give you a little more of a grasp on how the current situation came about.

The first thing to remember is that the French were the first settlers of the area that stretches from we what know as Quebec to as far West as the Mississippi River and down into the Ohio Valley. If they hadn't actually settled that territory they had explored it and formed trading partnerships with the native nations living there. This of course started to bring them into conflict with the English who were establishing themselves along what is now the Eastern seaboard of the United States.

By the 1700's the conflict between the two nations came to a head in what's now known as the French-Indian Wars, which is sort of confusing as it leaves out all mention of British involvement. The fight ended up being a conflict between the British colonists and their Native allies, the Iroquois confederacy, and the French and their Indian allies, the Huron. (To this day I still hear Iroquois claim that the Huron pretty much ceased to exist as a nation after those wars as the Iroquois were finally able to obliterate their old enemy during this war with the help of the English)

Anyone who has read about any of that conflict will know it was brutal and nasty especially during the wood land campaigns where the British learned the dangers of marching single file through the forest the hard way. Gradually their superior firepower and numbers began to tell, until all that was left was to invade Quebec City.

That turned out to be easier said then done, and it wasn't until the forces of General Wolfe discovered a path from the St. Lawrence River leading up the cliffs to the Plains of Abraham outside the city that they were able to win the day. On September 13th 1759 the British army under the command of Wolfe defeated the army of New France under Louis Montcalm giving England control of the majority of North America.
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In 1763 when the treaty was signed between France and England officially ceding the territory from the one nation to the other, the colony should have in theory become subject to British civil law, Protestant, and solely English speaking. But showing unusual prescience regarding trouble in the colonies the decision was taken by the British government not to tamper with the social and civil structures already in place.

The Quebec Act of 1774 gave the people of Quebec the right to conduct business according to their own civil laws, guaranteed them the right to freedom of religion and to educate their children in French. Before anything else happened in North America, including the American Revolution or the formation of Canada, the British government recognized that Quebec was a distinct society and acted accordingly to ensure it's preservation.

Of course they had a practical reason for their seeming generosity; guaranteeing Quebec's loyalty in the years ahead. Like I said, someone saw the colonies south of the 49th parallel going south, so to speak, and decided that the last thing Britain needed was a large number of irate colonists everywhere. The people of Quebec were bought off with the freedom to hold on to their cultural identity. Something they would have most likely lost had they become part of the new union to their south.

What amazes me is that since everything from the price of oil to the smog in our cities is the fault of Americans, why we Canadians have never held America responsible for the problem of Quebec. If it hadn't been the threat presented by the emerging desire for independence from the crown in the thirteen colonies, nobody would have given a damn about the rights of a few thousand people.

Heck they didn't have any qualms about forcing French speaking people outside of Quebec off their land a few years later to make room for loyal British subjects fleeing the American revolution. They sent them packing to Louisiana, the last French territory in North America and gave their farms in New Brunswick and other Maritime provinces away.

There's no way the British government would have given Quebec those rights in less they felt like they had no other option. So it really is America's fault, what with your independence, and then the War of 1812. If it hadn't of been for any of that Quebec would have been nicely assimilated right off the bat and we wouldn't have all the troubles were having to this day.

Well that's all in the past now, and I guess if your able to forgive us for torching the White House back in the War of 1812 we can forgive you for this. Anyway you're suffering the fall out as much as we are; how many shows has Celine Dion done in Las Vegas now? That's an example of a distinct society raven coming home to roost if I've ever seen one.

It always amazes me that Canadian politicians keep getting up and making big pronouncements about Quebec being a distinct society within Canada. The fact that it's old news hasn't seemed to register on them yet. Yesterday it was Steven Harper's turn, our current Prime Minister, and the leaders of the oppositions parties, to add their names to the chorus of redundancy by calling Quebec a distinct nation within a nation.

If one were inclined to be cynical they might check the polls to see how low the Conservative numbers are in Quebec. There numbers have been on a steady decline since soon after the election, and face the potential for an even greater decline the longer Canada remains embroiled in Afghanistan. (Quebec has the highest rate of opposition of any region in the country to Canada's involvement)

The easiest way for a politician in Canada to try and make points in Quebec without actually committing him or herself to doing anything is make reference to their distinctness. That always plays well in the press. The secret is to learn how to say it without alienating the rest of the country and to get the other political parties to go along with your idea.

Naturally nothing short of separation will satisfy the ardent nationalists, but recognition of the distinct society is enough to satisfy most moderates to give you a bump in the polls sufficient to absorb any minor loss in other provinces. Since without major gains in Ontario or Quebec, Harper and his gang will never have a majority government so he's got to do something.

Since their social conservatism doesn't play well in either province, they need to use something as a hook to establish their power base. Espousing support of Quebec as a distinct society has always been a favoured ploy because it sounds substantial without having any real meaning or committing you to a course of action.

Ever since Canada became a country successive governments have made it sound like they are doing something new and unique by recognising the distinctiveness of Quebec. But in actual fact all they have been doing is reaffirming a position that was taken almost three hundred years ago by the conquering British. Is it any wonder Quebec is looking for more?

Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:32 AM |

November 22, 2006

Yesterday's Idols - Today's Fantansy

I was recently asked who my idol was when I was a kid. What I thought interesting about the question was that it was assumed, correctly as it happens, that I had an idol when I was a kid. It's just one of those things that goes with the territory of growing up, having a person we look up to for some reason or another.

Like a lot of young boys my idol when I was a kid was sports figure. But unlike so many other kids who picked the real popular players of the day, my favourite's best days were long behind him. Henri (don't pronounce the H and make en sound like on and you'll have a good idea how to say his name) Richard's glory days had been in the fifties with his brother Maurice "The Rocket" Richard and the sixties with Jean Beliveau.

By the time I found out that a player on my favourite team had a last name the same as my first name his career was beginning to draw to a close. He did score the game tying and game winning goals in the 1971 Stanley Cup championship against Tony Esposito and the Chicago Blackhawks. But the real story that year was Montreal's rookie goalie Ken Dryden. He'd only played six games in the regular season, before coming in and starting every playoff game and stoning the opposition cold.

Four years later, Henri retired after winning his eleventh Stanley Cup, and his first as Captain of the Montreal Canadians. He had been a small elusive player who could skate circles around the bigger players looking to make him part of the boards. He never had the most powerful shot in the world, but it seemed to be able to find the back of the net anyway. Maybe not with the regularity of his more illustrious brother, but his goals always seemed to be important.
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They were the goals that would put the team back into the game when it seemed the game was lost, or the goal that broke the spirit of the other team in a tight playoff series. His goals always seemed to carry a little of the team's past glory with them, and you could almost see the other team wilt when he scored, as if all of a sudden a Canadians' win was now inevitable.

As a child it was easy to have a sports figure as an idol, especially back in the more innocent days of the late sixties and early seventies prior to endorsement deals, steroids, and all the other disillusionments that have come with the passing of the years. Of course we also didn't know the intimate details of our heroes' lives then as we do now.

I can still look back on Henri Richard's career with the rose tinted glasses of the young kid who thought he was great because I never found out whether or not he drank heavily, beat his wife, or slept around while on the road. There was usually one or two reporters who followed the same team each year from their home town newspaper and they knew if they ever said anything about stuff they weren't supposed to they'd never report on another game again.

Anyway they were just as much a member of the team as the coaching staff and the management. Sharing the train rides and sitting up with the players, drinking and playing cards as they travelled between games. They had as much to lose as the players did by talking; it was a pretty exclusive club in those days and nobody wanted to lose their membership.

As a kid a sports hero made sense, they did something you would like to do, and they did it really well. Your world wasn't cluttered with the things that adults filled theirs with. All that mattered was whether your hero scored on Saturday nights and his team won. It could mean the world in terms of bragging rights at school on Monday, but by Wednesday focus would have shifted onto next Saturday's game.

Henri Richard retired when I was twelve, on the cusp of adulthood, and I don't think that I've had a person who I'd call an idol since. At least not in the same uncomplicated way that he was to my young self. The Montreal Canadians of the later 1970's are considered one of the benchmark teams of the NHL that others are compared too.

Like the New York Islander and Edmonton Oiler teams that followed, they were the class of the league. Each of those three great teams had players on them worthy of idolization, but not one of them seemed able to strike that chord with me. Wayne Gretzkey, Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, and Mark Messier were all gifted individuals whose talent could and did elevate hockey to artistry on occasion but it didn't seem to matter.

It wasn't that hockey had lost its attraction, that would come later; in fact it was watching people like Gretzkey that kept my interest alive for as long as it lasted. Instead it was the fact that my own horizons had expanded. I could see the potential for other people, professions, and skills to be worthy of emulation and respect.

The thing is though it's a lot harder to idolize your doctor or plumber for their skills than it was the athletes who you followed as a kid. There is nothing truly spectacular about what either of them do, no moments when they will show off some particularly incredible move that will leave you with your heart in your mouth and awestruck.

But you also know that you have more practical use in your life for a plumber or a doctor than a professional athlete, pop musician, or movie star and you know which one you can live without. An idol is someone you fantasize about being, not somebody you actually become.

Whether scoring the game-winning goal in the championship game, or wining an acting award, or singing on stage in front of a hundred thousand people, you can look at them and say what if. As a child you can even believe in it for a while, and even as an adult you can hold on to a dream for a time. If you're lucky and talented, or sometimes just lucky, you might even become something akin to those you idolize.

As you grow older though, you realize the chances of that happening are remote, and the fantasy of becoming your idol fades. Some people continue to live vicariously through the lives of celebrities using their experiences to augment their own, but they have mostly stopped trying to be them.

As a child we pick out an idol for any number of reasons, but mainly for the purpose of allowing us to create a fantasy involving dreams of fame and glory. As we age we realize that those dreams are usually beyond our reach, and that is the beginning of the end for our need of idols. There are plenty of people who I respect and admire, but I don't dream of becoming them anymore.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:16 AM |

November 21, 2006

Getting In Touch With Your Inner Goldfish

Welcome everybody to the latest round of getting in touch with your inner qualities. I have to assume since you're in attendance you have successfully touched base with your inner child, opposite gender, guardian angel, spirit guide, plant, rock, star being, musical instrument, surgical instrument, and of course your inner outer over soul?

Good because those are the basic prerequisites for the next stage on the journey to complete self-awareness and personal fulfilment. Each step you have taken has only been in preparation for these two final elements that will bring you the abundance you believe you so richly deserve.

I know, I know – I can feel your frustration, incurred from countless days and nights of fruitless meditation and supplication to various ascendant masters and archangels in the hopes of personal advancement. Yet here you sit tonight still the same old you, no different from the you, you have always been and the you, you now feel fated to remain.

I know that you aren't satisfied with the state of your life. Otherwise you wouldn't be here hoping to find the secret that will be your release from your life as you know it. Desperation and hope have guided your footsteps here tonight. Desperation to break free of the final constraints holding you back from achieving your full potential, and the hope that the key to unlocking your chains will be amongst the words you hear this evening.

Some of you come laden down with the burden of scepticism, who am I to blame you for that. I too have felt the burden of doubt as it has lain across my shoulders before I found release. Proof is what you require and proof is what you shall receive.

There is no need to look far to find the evidence that will set your minds at ease. In fact it is straight in front of you. The fact that you are here listening to me should be all the proof you require. I never dreamed that one day I would be standing in front of a roomful of supplicants, but here I am doing just that. I have gone beyond my own wildest hopes for success and anyone of you can do the same.

I see the realization dawning in your eyes now. If this is what he has succeeded in doing there is nothing I can't achieve. All I can say to you is you're right and don't be limited by your dreams because you are about to learn how to succeed beyond your wildest expectations.

Tonight you will learn the secrets of getting in touch with your inner goldfish and communing with your higher sheep self in order to achieve that final breakthrough you have craved. You will find within yourself the characteristics that will enable you to replicate their behaviours and achieve success beyond your wildest dreams.

What is there about the goldfish and the sheep that make them so unique amongst all the creatures of the animal kingdom? What separates these seemingly lowly animals from their brethren that will provide you with the key to unlock fortune's strongbox so you might abscond with the treasure within?

Two simple characteristics, one from each, will guide your steps and set you free. The goldfish's lack of attention span, and the sheep's state of perpetual surprise properly incorporated into your life will serve to bring you the success you cherish and crave. Of course once you have properly integrated them into your awareness they will naturally augment each other.

But before you can reach that stage of enlightenment you will need to practice the sensations and the reactions until they become second nature. Are you able to forget you are eating between forkfuls of your meal? Can you see the same blade of grass repeatedly and be surprised by it each time?

Once you have mastered that phase can you then combine the two and so that not only do you forget you are eating between forkfuls but your are surprised by the existence of each forkful. Then you will have achieved the enlightened state you need to ensure your success.

When you have the attention span of a goldfish and are able to lose track of what it was you were saying or doing a mere second ago; and when you are as surprised as the sheep is each day by the rising of the sun you will have achieved a state of being ideal to succeed in modern society.

Think of the possibilities for a career in politics when you can honestly not remember a word of what you said thirty seconds ago and you are genuinely delighted to see the people you see every day. Or as a television producer; where an attention span is a deficit and the ability to believe something old is brand new is an asset; think of the success you'll make.

Yes my friends, once you learn how to tap into your inner goldfish and your inner sheep; to never have an original thought again and always be able to say with complete honesty "I don't remember", you will have paved a smooth path to abundance.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 03:19 AM |

November 20, 2006

Book Review: Naming Of The Dead Ian Rankin

Have you ever noticed that no matter how liberal you think you are, or radical you want to be, when you read a really good mystery story featuring police officers as the central characters how quickly you sympathise with them and their lot. Then again the characters who become our favourites do so because they are cops almost in spite of the "cop" mentality.

They don't play by the rules, have little or no use for authority, and can be usually counted on to have some interesting character flaw. Of course also working in their favour is the fact that they generally ply their trade in some far off exotic locale like Edinburgh, Scotland.

It's the streets of this august city that have been home to Detective Inspector (DI) John Rebus, Criminal Investigation Division (CID) for sixteen novels from the pen of Scottish mystery writer Ian Rankin starting back in 1982 with Knots & Crosses. I haven't read all the previous novels, but on every occasion that I've checked up DI John Rebus he's been just as intriguing as he was the first time.

The Naming Of The Dead, newly published by Orion Books, is once again set in Edinburgh and it's surrounding vicinity, and Rebus is up to his neck in it as usual. But this time the stakes are raised, just ever so slightly, by the presence of a few hundred thousand demonstrators who have all come to honour Bob Geldof's request to help eradicate poverty; the leaders of the G8 countries; and the variety of special police, hangers on, and movers and shakers who are as much the camp followers of these conferences as the protesters.

The week of July 5th - 9th 2005 promised to be as tiresome as the horrors of annual August Theatre and Fringe festival combined as far as John Rebus was concerned, and he was quite thankful that his reputation for lacking tact and diplomacy were keeping him off centre stage. It's therefore unfortunate for him that a routine murder investigation that looked like it had gone cold all of a sudden tossed up a clue that thrust him right in the thick of things.

Just a short helicopter's flight from Gleneagles, where all the G8 will be converging, a piece of cloth from the victim's clothing has turned up, along with looks like samples of other victim's clothing. Instead of one victim, Rebus and Detective Sergeant Siobhan Clarke are now looking at a potential serial killer.

Now even Police are allowed to be that close to Gleneagles right about now without someone coming sniffing around. The dog this time is in the shape of a Special Branch operative up from London to co-ordinate security for the Conference and he immediately causes Rebus' own hackles to rise. After a little barking and growling they each return to their own territory.

He still might have been all right if he hadn't developed an unhealthy interest in why a Member of Parliament on hand for the G8 Conference decided to dive off the parapet surrounding Edinburgh Castle during a meeting with a variety of those aforementioned movers and shakers. That it happened the same Special Branch officer who had warned him away from Gleneagles turned up again was just so much bad luck.

As Rebus and Clarke wade their way through the usual quagmire of the Edinburgh underworld, turning up some old friends and new enemies, the city is seething around them with protests and demonstrations. When Siobhan's mother, her parents came for the march, is clubbed and injured seriously during one of the demonstrations, she becomes obsessed with finding the culprit.

As the week marches on both Rebus and Clarke find themselves confronting pieces of their characters they hadn't the nerve to look at previously. For Rebus it had started with the burial of his younger brother and continues with reminders of his impending retirement. When his career is over there is nothing and nobody awaiting him to welcome him back from the wars.

For Siobhan, who has never really questioned her career choices, the possibility that her mother has been brutally clubbed by a fellow officer leaves her desperate to exact punishment and justice. But is she desperate enough to do a deal with the devil in the shape of Rebus' old enemy Cafferty an underground kingpin?

The world sometimes has a way of throwing all of our doubts and fears back in our face when we least expect it. For a police officer the question of why do we do it when: they're out on the street in two weeks, it doesn't seem to make a difference, and who notices anyway can eat away at your resolve, or make you consider alternatives to standard procedure. It's not the temptation of money or material goods that will be a good officer's downfall, but the need to see justice carried out.

Thursday July 7th 2005 and the devastation of London by terrorist bombs would be enough to shake anyone's foundations. For two troubled Scottish police officers it could easily push them over the edge into desperation or despair. There is never an easy answer to the question, do I make a difference, and when faced with such mass destruction and wanton hatred it becomes harder to see.

Ian Rankin is not an ordinary mystery writer, so The Naming Of The Dead is not your normal mystery. Certainly it has all the same elements of as other detective novels as there is a case to be solved, clues to be collected, suspects to be interviewed, and victims to be comforted. But underneath it all runs the lives of the police officers who work and live in a world few of us can hope to comprehend.

It's a fine line an author walks when he allows his characters to expose themselves warts and all to his readers. Push one way too hard and it risks self-indulgence, the other cliché. But Ian Rankin is a tightrope walker of the highest quality and never once falters. At the end of the novel the mystery of the crime may be solved, but our protagonists are still left with questions and looking for answers.

Justice is not always a simple case of who is guilty and who is innocent. There are shadings of grey in between the black and white of a conviction or arrest that is the world that John Rebus calls home. It's not comfortable, and sometimes not pretty, but it's real. You can't get any better then that.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 09:39 AM |

Why I'm Glad To Fail At NaNoWriMo This Year

I'm not going to be making the 50,000 word count this year at the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) contest and it's probably the best thing that's ever happened to me. I should have known after the first week I wasn't going to make it. I was struggling to keep up the pace, but was deluded enough to think that after I caught up by day nine everything was going to be okay.

Heck the signs were there for me to read if I had wanted before the contest even started that I wasn't going to make it, but I didn't want to accept the fact that I wasn't physically, emotionally or mentally up to the challenge this year. Writing may look like a sedentary occupation, but it still requires you to be in good shape physically, or else you will get mentally exhausted from the struggles with your body.

I have talked about my physical problems elsewhere so I won't go into the messy details save to say that I have a chronic pain condition. In mid-October I had to have some minor surgery, a hernia repair, and had not considered how much that would actually take out of me. I had conveniently forgotten the fact that once you have a pain condition not only will surgery aggravate the pre-existing problem; healing from the surgery will take far longer then normal.

There is also the fact that the chances of post-operative complications due to pain are radically increased. Starting from the moment the freezing wore off after the surgery when I was at home and had to be rushed into emergency unable to move because of pain. To my current circumstances of being unable to spend more then a few hours at a time upright, I was no exception to any of those rules.

Since I have a laptop I figured I would just prop myself up in bed and write away merrily and much like last year be well over the 50,000 mark by the end of the third week. Well that time is fast approaching, Tuesday is the 21st of November, and I've not yet even topped 30,000 words.

There's still a chance that I could come up with over 20,000 words in the next ten days, it's only about 2,000 words a day after all, but if I do it will be strictly by accident. I'm no longer shooting for any particular word count on the project I'm working on, instead my goal is to finishing the novel.

I was feeling really depressed this past weekend about the fact that I wasn't able to produce the numbers of words a day that I had last year while taking part in NaNoWriMo. I had even written a long whiney letter to a friend of mine complaining about it. I was afraid that because I couldn't do what I'd done before that I might be losing my ability to write.

At one point in the letter I had written about how aggravating it was that it had taken me four hours to write a simple book review. My friend had very patiently obviously read the whole letter and wrote me back to me remind of something that I'd forgotten. It doesn't matter how much you write or how long it takes; what matters is that you write.

As I was mulling this and some other thoughts over in my head I happened to spot a chunk of rock crystal my wife had picked up for me a few weeks ago. Its a really neat specimen in that you can see the striations that have gone into the rock's making. Literally hundreds of individual points of crystal have grown together to form one shape with a perfect point of clear crystal.

I'm sure you see where I'm going with this. Writing can develop with the same sort of structure as that rock; one layer of crystal building on top of another to form a final perfect shape. It doesn't have to be done all at once like a volcano forming an island, although that does happen on occasion.

Each piece of work you do is a unique individual the same as anything else. If you try to force it to be something it doesn't want to be it ends up rebelling and turning out opposite of what you hoped. So you have to take what it gives you.

Last year when I wrote so much during November it took me three more months to finish. At the time I was inclined to put my inability to finish down to not having a deadline to shoot for. But now, in thinking about past attempts at writing I came to a realization about myself and a bad habit I had developed with my writing.

In the past I have been so concerned with finishing that I would try and write the whole story as quickly as possible. Invariably I would run out of energy or my initial impetuous would dissolve and the project would languish neglected and forgotten in my hard drive. In fact it wasn't until last year that I was able to complete a project of that size.

Although that approach was appropriate for something like NaNoWriMo, it is not conducive to me achieving my own goals as a writer. I need to break the habit of trying to rush through and finish a novel all in one breath and learn to pace myself so that I don't burn out my inspiration.

According to some beliefs there is a reason for everything that happens to you but whether you pick up on it or not is your problem. When it became obvious I would have to take a disability pension for an extended period of time I saw that as my opportunity to write on a full time basis.

So if I follow that logic along it means that the reason I've been given this extra dose of pain is to teach me how to slow down when I write. Although I appreciate the thought behind the lesson, I can honestly say I wish the Universe could have thought of some other way of letting me know.

While I may not finish the NaNoWriMo contest this year, I've learned a valuable lesson that's only going to improve my writing. To me that's even more of an accomplishment then putting up winning numbers.


Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:13 AM |

November 16, 2006

When Not If For American Withdrawal From Iraq

Sometimes you read things in the paper that make you wonder. Yesterday two news stories about Iraq in the Globe and Mail newspaper made me wonder about the fate of that poor country. Now that the Democratic Party controls Congress the withdrawal of American troops is now a matter of how soon not if. But nobody seems to know, and maybe even care, what that means for Iraqis.

Top United States commander in the Middle East General John Abizaid had the gall to appear before the Senate Armed Service Committee and say the situation in Iraq was improving. Only last August he had warned of the potential for a full-scale sectarian civil war as the justification for continued presence of 141,000 American troops in Iraq. Now he was using the opposite argument in an attempt to not only prevent a schedule for troop withdrawals being decided on, but to increase the number of troops in Iraq.

Refuting his claims of improvement another story from the same day had an update on the mass kidnapping of employees from the Ministry of Education, (an unknown number had been rounded up at gunpoint by men in uniform on Tuesday, loaded into vehicles and driven away) and listed the combined civilian and military casualty report for the day.

Twenty Iraqis were killed and forty-seven were wounded. Eleven of those deaths were caused by a car bomb, three by a suicide bomber driving his car bomb into a tent where a funeral was being held, two were Shiites killed by gunmen, a police officer was killed in a drive by shooting, as well as various other individual killings throughout the country.

Journalists continue to be signalled out for special attention as two more were killed yesterday. Since 2003 ninety-one journalists have been killed in Iraq, many of them specifically targeted by killers as both of Wednesday's victims appeared to be. Gunmen intercepted Fadia Mohammed al-Taie's car and she and her driver were shot, while Luma al-Karkhi was also shot on her way to work.

Finally, the American military announced the death of four American servicemen who had been killed in fighting on Tuesday. With the death of a soldier attached to the 1st Armoured division and three Marines in Regimental Combat Team Seven, the number of American war dead in Iraq has now reached 2,856.

If this is a fairly typical day in Iraq, and it is beginning to seem like you can't open a paper without reading about either a fresh grave being discovered or another suicide bomb going off, it wouldn't appear there has been any abatement in violence whatsoever. Given the attitude of the Prime Minister towards the sentencing of Saddam Hussein, (he sounded like he was ready to lead a lynch mob himself) and the threats of retaliation from Shiite Muslims for the death sentence, it appears the divide between the factions is worsening.

But according to General Abizaid that's not the case. While arguing to the Senate Sub – Committee that any attempt to impose a timetable for the withdrawal of troops would impede commanders in the field in their attempts to continue the training of Iraqi troops and police he also claimed the situation on the ground was improving.

While admitting there was still a problem, he claimed that Iraqis were starting to show confidence in their government's abilities. He didn't say what they had confidence in, but guaranteeing their security can't be high on the list. When the government can't even tell how many of their employees were kidnapped, let alone prevent them from being snatched from their place of work as happened on Tuesday, it's hard to image anybody believing in their ability to guarantee safety and security.

It appears the general is trying to walk the fine line between threatening Congress with disaster and promising them success. The problem with this formulae is while there is ample proof of threats to peace and security, there is very little he can offer as proof of success. The newly elected Democratic House and Senate aren't going to be satisfied with vague assurances about almost turning the corner and seeing a turning point.

They were elected in part because of widespread dissatisfaction with the war and the length of time that American troops have been deployed. Barely a third of the American population in a recent poll support the Administration over the war. Even President Bush is saying he'd welcome advice from anybody on how to best find a resolution to the mess.

When the future chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Jack Reed from Rhode Island, (he will become chair in January when the results from Nov.7th election results take effect) asked General Abizaid how much time the was left before the situation is completely out of control and descends into civil war, the response was four to six months. Senator Reed's reaction was that should be the deadline for starting the withdrawal of troops.

He wants the President to force the Iraqis to realize the enormity of their situation and get it together to take care of themselves. He figures the only way to do that is begin the withdrawal of troops. Fellow committee member and Democrat Senator Carl Levin of Michigan summed up his party's position by saying that American's could no longer protect Iraqi's from themselves.

As the Democrats were elected because they promised an alternative to the administration's position, it won't matter what arguments General Abizaid made to them or what any of the other witnesses have to say. They are going to be pushing for the implementation of troop withdrawals from Iraq as soon as possible.

It won't matter to them or the two thirds of the population that support that view, what happens in Iraq after the American troops leave. It doesn't matter that the invasion of Iraq created the situation and that many of those arguing against continued involvement initially supported it. What matters now is that it ends with as few more American deaths as possible

Unless a deal can be worked out with U.N peacekeepers to replace American troops in key places, the chances of Iraq coming through this in once piece are minimal. We are finally seeing the results of the Bush administrations lack of planning when it came to this war. In a country like Iraq with sharp religious divisions it was naïve to think that all the problems would be solved by the overthrow of Hussein.

No matter how you look at it, or what you want, there will be no graceful way out of this mess for the Americans and their military. For the sake of the Iraqi people I hope somebody thinks of something soon or the only thing left to wonder will be what was the point of it all.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:56 AM |

November 15, 2006

Who Speaks For Native Canadians

Twelve years ago I was a guest of Her Majesty's Government of Ontario for a few weekends due to a disagreement we had over the legality of certain activities. I would show up every Friday evening at the local provincial correctional facility (local was obviously relative as I had to travel thirty miles at my own expense) around 5:30 pm to be dressed in overalls of a fetching Orange and be bored silly until Monday morning at 5:30 am.

They would keep us weekend guests separated from the permanent residents for a variety of reasons (it's amazing what can be transported via body cavity or to use the correct parlance "hooping") but we were directly across the hall from the minimum security "bucket" which housed thirty plus guys doing sentences of less then two months. Amongst them there was one guy who stuck out from the rest of the crowd by virtue of his size and his skin colour.

He was a large native guy, easily six foot four and probably well over 250 pounds who wore his hair in a braid that hung like a thick rope too his lower back. He appeared to have some sort of force field around him, because nobody ever seemed to come within a yard of him. Quite an amazing accomplishment when you consider how many guys and bunk beds were crammed into such a small space.

It turned out that he was the friend of some friends of mine (not a great surprise in retrospect) so it was easy to find out his story. He had been the leader of a group who had occupied the band council office of the local Mohawk reserve, Tyendinaga. They were protesting the misappropriation of government money, nepotism, and a variety of other irregularities by the band's Chief that they wanted investigated.

Less then a year later this same man was leading a party of Mohawks from his reserve on a raid of the office of the Grand Chief of The Assembly of First Nations in protest against their inaction on dealing with issues that affected the day to day lives of people living on reserves. While his actions were more extreme then other peoples the frustration behind them represented the split between some people who live on reserves and their elected chiefs.

While the Assembly claims to speak for all native people in Canada, its membership is limited to Chiefs. While on the surface this may give the appearance of adequate representation there is a serious problem inherent to the system. The concept of an elected Chief is alien to the majority of native peoples. The position of Chief had been traditionally earned, appointed, or inherited. For example the female elders, grandmothers, of a tribe, selected the Chiefs of the Mohawk people.

The election of Chiefs was a concept imposed upon tribes as a condition of the Indian Act of Canada in order for them to be accorded "status" and be given a reservation. It has long been a bone of contention between those wishing to live in a traditional manner, following the rules and customs of their ancestors, and those more inclined to assimilate.

With most traditionalists refusing to vote and others not caring enough to vote, the same people repeatedly win election to the band council and position of Chief. It's these people who are responsible for the allocation of funds that the government hands out to reserves for education, housing and infrastructure. Now, that's not to imply that all of them are corrupt, because there are plenty of councils who aren't. But unfortunately there are sufficient numbers of councils where nepotism and corruption are still problems.

Conservative politicians in Canada have made a big deal of this issue, and have often used it to call into question other government's Indian policies. So it was no surprise that when they were elected to power they stalled an accord that had been negotiated between the previous government, the provinces, and the Assembly of First Nations on the grounds there needed to be more accountability for how the dollars would be spent.

When a Conservative government says things like that they are accused of everything from racism to not caring what happens to the native people of Canada. While there may be some basis for those accusations based on things that have been said or done by members of the current Conservative caucus, what can you accuse a Native of for saying the same thing?

I think back to the days when my friend showed me photocopies of his band council's bank accounts. They showed where a check from the government for enough money to build thirty-two houses had been deposited. Somehow or other though only two houses were ever built. Other records showed the chief's brother being hired as the contractor for the job, in spite of the fact he had no previous experience.

The same man who was Chief of the band council in those days is still Chief in Tyendinaga. I have to wonder what my old friend would say about trusting him with money for education and health care on the reserve. My friend isn't the only native person who has raised questions about the integrity of a local band council; there have been others across Canada who have done the same.

Native people of Canada face conditions as desperate as those of people living in some of the world's poorest countries. With a standard of living far below that of the average Canadian there is a desperate need to provide reserves with infrastructure that we take for granted, health care the rest of us enjoy, and the educational opportunities that would allow them to compete on an equal footing with the rest of our population.

But before those issues can be addressed, the issue of who speaks for native people has to be decided. While the elected Chiefs are recognised by the government of Canada as the leaders of their communities, do the communities recognise the Chiefs as their leaders? Do they and their band councils adequately represent the hopes and aspirations of their reserves, or only the minority who vote in the band elections?

There are no easy answers to any of these questions, because you can't make blanket statements like all band councils are corrupt. But that just makes it that much more important the issue be resolved. Maybe now is not the time to address the whole issue of how natives are allowed to govern themselves, but it will need to be dealt with as the drive for self – government progresses.

The Canadian government's responsibility is too all the native people of Canada, not just the Assembly of First Nations. If any of that membership is not speaking for their community that means potentially thousands of people are going to miss out on the benefits of any new programming. That is not acceptable.
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Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:17 AM |

| Comments (2)

November 14, 2006

Ontario Canada: Proof That Poverty And Poor Education Equals Crime

Bleeding heart liberals like myself have been inclined to blame the social ill crime on a lack of educational opportunities combined with poverty among inner city children. Social workers, liberal politicians, and anti-poverty activists have used this argument for years to try and guarantee government funding for education and social assistance programs.

Unfortunately these arguments have been falling on largely deaf ears for the past decade or more, as politicians have become obsessive compulsive in their desire to cut taxes. By creating the picture of honest working people having their pockets picked by the shiftless poor they have justified a scorched earth policy of cuts to social spending in order to pursue their quest for their holy grail of the balanced budget and tax cuts.

People in Ontario Canada were one of the first regions in Canada to fall victim to the blandishments of the snake oil salesmen selling the panacea of tax and spending cuts. In 1995 they elected the Progressive Conservative party led by Mike Harris based on the promises of their "Common Sense Revolution". Included in the revolution was a reduction of the welfare allowance by 21%, standardising the public school curriculum so that every student in Ontario studied the exact same thing, eliminating a municipality's ability to collect property taxes for education without providing a significant alternative source of funding, and closing hospitals that "duplicated" services offered by other facilities in the same geographic area.

Promises weren’t limited to cuts to social programming; every Ministry in the government was forced to slash costs at the expense of jobs and programming. Privatization and layoffs were the favourite means of obtaining goals ensuring that tens of thousands of people either lost their jobs or were forced to do their former job at a highly reduced rate of pay with fewer if any benefits.

From the monitoring of water quality in municipalities to reductions in Legal Aid no area of public service was left unscathed. By the time Mike Harris' first term as Premier drew to a close the face of Ontario was irrevocably changed. He was able to win a second term due to Ontario riding an upswing in the economy, and the support of affluent suburban neighbourhoods that had received short term benefits from his policies.

As early as his second term in office the effects of the massive cuts started to show. Lay offs in the Ministry of the Environment resulted in faked reports on the water quality in the town of Walkerton Ontario to go unnoticed because of insufficient staff levels to double check test results. Because of this a full scale outbreak of E. coli. occurred resulting in the death of seven people and hundreds more becoming seriously ill.

But where we've really begun to reap the results of the Common Sense Revolution has been on the streets of our cities. Ten years ago Toronto Ontario was considered the safest of the major cities in North America. It was big city without the big city problems of urban crime and boasted an active and vital downtown core. Racially diverse, but free of the usual accompanying tensions Toronto was a favoured spot to visit by American's looking to take advantage of their strong dollar. Tourists would marvel at its cleanliness and their ability to go almost anywhere at anytime in safety.

Of course it wasn't as ideal as it was made out to be as there were pockets of trouble throughout the city. But as they were primarily confined to the housing projects of the poor they could be ignored or treated as isolated incidents. Even so the murder rate and violent crime were incredibly low for a city of over three million people.

In the last few years that has all begun to change as the level of deaths by gunfire has increased dramatically. The police say the majority of the problem stems from an increase in gangs and gang related violence. While politicians from all levels of government have blamed everyone from Americans for their lax gun laws to rap music and video games, they seem to have missed asking an obvious question.

Who are these young people in the gangs and where did they come from? Every generation for the past twenty or thirty years has been exposed to approximately the same amount of violence in the media, so why is this generation suddenly the one joining gangs.

Well how about that they were the kids who grew up in the inner city when the education system was being gutted and the welfare rates were being rolled back by 21%. These were the kids whose existence was marginal in the first place and if there ever had been any hope of them breaking out of the cycle of poverty the reductions in their standards of living and quality of education at early ages pretty much destroyed it.

There has been tons written about the sociological reason for kids joining gangs, sense of purpose, a place to belong, and feeling like you matter. Sure nobody's forcing them to become gang members and a lot of kids don't, but the fact remains that the conditions that increased the likelihood of it happening came about due to the policies of Mike Harris' Common Sense Revolution.

It is said of Native Americans that when they made a major decision that they tried to work out its implications for the next seven generations. When Mike Harris proposed his Common Sense Revolution nobody gave much thought to the long-term implications of his proposals. Even when it became obvious that there were some serious problems developing nobody thought to look beyond the individual department that was effected.

In the space of only one generation since Mike Harris first came to power in Ontario life in Toronto, Ontario's largest city, has been changed for the worse. I'm sure there are those who will say that it's only a coincidence that a decrease in the quality of life for the poorest people in the city ten years ago has resulted in an increase in crime rate now. I'm not one of them.

I hate to think what other surprises are in store as legacy of the Common Sense Revolution.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:06 AM |

November 13, 2006

The National Novel Writing Contest 2006: A New Approach To An Old Friend

I suppose I could write about the ongoing fiasco that is Iraq. Or I could rail against the amazing hypocrisy of the Canadian government pledging 40 million dollars in the fight against world poverty and paying for it by cutting spending on programming for the poorest and most at risk citizens of its own country. I could even idly speculate on when the Pope will issue a Fatwa against Elton John for saying that organized religion condones homophobia (I know that the Popes don’t do that sort of thing, but I bet this guy wishes he could – he's the type who looks like he regrets the revoking of the Inquisition's charter.)

But quite frankly that's far too depressing and we've all listened to everybody, including me, enlighten the masses as to our considered opinions on most of those subjects anyway. So instead of boring you to tears with stuff you hear about all the time, I'll take some of your precious reading time today to bore you about a subject dear to my heart, me and my writing.

Okay so I write about that almost as much as I write about anything else, hell I've even written a book on it (Shameless plug/link warning), NaNoWriMo Notes: An Exercise In Creative Insanity, but it's been a while since I've exercised that prerogative so I thought you might be prepared to indulge me a little. (If not, that's why "back" buttons were invented)

For the second year in a row I've decided to participate in the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) contest. For those of you who don't know, the purpose of the contest is to write 50,000 words of a novel during November. While 50,000 words don't a novel make, they are barely a novella these days, they do represent a good start on a manuscript.

The organizers behind the event had wanted to come up with word count that they considered both challenging and reasonably obtainable. For people like me who are able to devote a whole day to writing the challenge isn't quite as extreme as it is for those who have other responsibilities like employment and rearing children, but still it represents a meaningful out put of creative energy.

The problem that I experienced last year was that I had become so focused on the event and producing as many words as possible in November, that even though I finished the month with two thirds of a first draft completed, around 80,000 words, it took me to nearly February to finish the final third. I had concentrated so much energy on the November deadline that once it passed I lost a great deal of my motivation for the project.

In the end I managed to finish the manuscript, and in fact even as we speak its merits are hopefully being debated in the offices of Penguin India. (You take a publisher where you can get one these days and with India having one of the largest English speaking markets in the world its as good as any other market to be published into. Penguin of course has access to pretty much the rest of the English speaking world, so if they choose I can also find my way into the Canadian, British and American markets that way) I had ended that book, tentatively titledThe Paths Life Takes, in such a way that makes a sequel a foregone conclusion. My intent had been that with this year's NaNoWriMo I would attempt to accomplish much the same as I had last year and break the back of part two in order to have a draft ready when the publishers approved book one. (Such an optimist!)

Up until about the week before the contest was to begin I was still sticking to that plan, but I wasn't feeling all that inspired. In retrospect I see that I was resigning myself to write that story because I didn't have any other ideas, not because I was particularly inspired by it at this time. So I guess I shouldn't be so surprised at how easy it was for my mind to be changed.

An author friend of mine has been bugging me for a while to write a fictionalised version of the events of my childhood, my subsequent struggles to recover from the trauma of being sexually abused by a family member, and my more recent adventures in dealing with the resulting physical problems that have only now surface as a chronic pain condition. Although I realized that he had a point and that it had the potential for being a good story if properly written, I had serious misgivings about the idea.

My primary reason for being hesitant had nothing to do with being reticent about talking about the circumstances, but the fact that I questioned the validity of yet another "look at my hard life" story being inflicted upon readers. It just smacked too much of day time talk show fodder, with Oprah being all sincere and her audience clapping enthusiastically right on cue or bursting into tears at appropriate moments.

So when he suggested the idea again just recently I again dismissed it out of hand, but instead of it vanishing from my brain as usual, I found myself turning the idea over in my head. How could I make this work in a way that I would like? So that it wouldn't read like a tell all confessional and would sound like a story and not just a fictionalized retelling of events with names changed to protect the innocent, while at the same time being factually correct. My interest was piqued.

When I mentioned the conundrum to another writer friend (who else am I going to be friends with if not writers, and don't worry there are only two of them) he said that NaNoWriMo sounded like the perfect place to try it out. See what you have at the end of thirty days and if it's got potential to be something keep working on it, if not scrape it. What have you got to lose?

The more I thought about it the more appealing the idea sounded. The great thing about NaNoWriMo is that it doesn't really give you time to think once you get started on the writing and it forces you to write pretty much on instincts alone. Trying to write a finished novel in thirty days is almost an impossibility so you do the next best thing, write as much as you can about your topic in as coherent a manner as possible and see what you end up with. In other words it's the perfect venue for testing out an idea's potential without committing yourself to anything.

Last year I went into the contest with the idea that I would be able to write a novel based on the work I accomplished during the month of November. After a great deal of struggle, much more than what was involved in the initial process, I was able to accomplish just that.

This year I'm taking a different approach and am utilizing NaNoWriMo as my sounding board for an idea. The conditions under which the contest operates are ideal for that as there is no pressure on you to produce a product, only to achieve the objective of meeting a word count. Last year I hadn't appreciated what a luxury that was and got far to hung up on finishing the story.

This year I plan on taking full advantage of the opportunity to experiment and not worry about the results. So far after twelve days I've written slightly over 22,000 words and am having a great time. Who knows, I might even produce something worth reading, but that doesn't really matter. As long as I don't end up sitting on a couch with Oprah exchanging heart felt opinions I'm happy.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:40 AM |

November 12, 2006

Were You Aware Of National Pain Awareness Week?

What do you do if you hold a party and nobody comes? Well there are a couple things you can do as a post-mortem including accessing your own popularity and why people may not have bothered with you. But more importantly you need to know whether or not the people who would actually care about the event knew about it and were given sufficient reason to attend.

The week that just passed was National Pain Awareness Week in Canada. (The official close date is today but I don’t' think this one day is going to increase people's awareness that much) Although I read one of Canada's largest newspapers on a daily basis on line, it took an email from my mother on Thursday for me to even find out about it.

Having a personal interest in the issue of chronic pain, I suffer from it, I decided to check out the web site of the organization that was sponsoring the Awareness Week The Canadian Pain Society, and see what they were doing to mark Pain Awareness Week, as well as what they did on an ongoing basis.

Well according to the only information I could find on their web site when I checked on Thursday November 9th/06 half way through their Awareness week, was that there were three events scheduled to happen. One, whose date and time were still to be announced as of Saturday, was a To Be Announced Gala Reception; and the two with set times were a lecture on pain in Senior Citizens, and a fundraising reception between 7:00 and 10:00pm Thursday evening.

Heart pounding stuff don't you think? Really guaranteed to grab people's attention, build awareness and let people know all about the issues and the conditions that lead to non-malignant chronic pain. (I believe it is important to distinguish between cancer induced, palliative care pain situations and non-cancer related pain. The simple reason is in the former the primary concern should be to ensure the patient's absolute comfort no matter what the cost to cognitive abilities and in the latter circumstances a client's ability to function must be balanced with the need to control pain) They didn't even co-ordinate it with this years Global Day Against Pain – September 12th/06 – which would seem to have been an ideal keystone to have built the week around.

Even the two events they have scheduled won't have done much to spread awareness about the condition where it's most needed, in the general population. I can't see the point in holding such an "Awareness" event if the only ones who are going to be interested are those who are professionals in the field of pain management. Talk about preaching to the converted and being just a little self-congratulatory.

In fact the more I read through the site, the more that I came to realize that this was primarily geared towards health care professionals and others in the field of pain management. The aims of the group only includes as almost an aside a statement that says they will inform the general public about advances made in the treatment of pain.

Now there is nothing wrong with an organization with the goals and objectives as outlined by this group, but what I object to it the fact that their name and the title they gave to this past week, both imply a service they neither offer nor deliver. While there is of course a need for an organization co-ordinating the work of those working with chronic pain patients and those researching the same subject, there is also a need to educate the public at large and other medical professionals about the realties of chronic pain.

The employer with the employee who suffers from chronic pain is less likely to think they are malingering if they understood what the person was suffering with and attempting to work at the same time. (I was incredibly fortunate in this regard having had an employer who was exceedingly patient with me while I was being diagnosed and tying to continue working. They did their best to accommodate the condition and me until the very last day that I worked there.) Even family and friends need to understand that a person with chronic pain is like anybody else with a severe disability that limits their abilities. Because you don't look unhealthy it is very hard for people to get their heads around the fact that you are.

But where education should be a priority is amongst medical professionals who need to be able to treat their clients with the proper medications while they are seeing a specialist in an attempt to find a cure. This includes understanding that there is no crime in prescribing opiates to those who need them for pain control, and the chances of them becoming addicted to them is minimal if properly prescribed.

Drugs like morphine are not addictive as long as they are being used to fight pain because they are merely assisting the body's own abilities. If properly administered the drugs will do nothing more than provide relief from pain, and the need for the drug will vanish along with the pain. How opiates can become addictive is if they are not given in sufficient dosage, leaving the body constantly craving them for relief, or if the drug is of insufficient strength in the first place to cope with problem.

In order for the drug to work effectively a person's body needs to establish a threshold of pain control using a long term or long lasting version of the medication that gradually release the medication into the system. Once the patient has taken enough doses consistently of the right strength his or her need for the much more addictive "fix" of the short-term medication is reduced.

The addictive craving only comes about if there is an appreciable positive result from taking the medication. If the body gets used to "feeling better" from popping a pill every four hours it is going to start wanting that pill, and begins wanting higher and higher doses in order to obtain that sensation as a tolerance is built up. With the long-term medication this craving is eliminated and the short-term drug is used only when the pain spikes and not on a scheduled, regular basis.

There are still far too many so-called medical professionals who will refuse to prescribe morphine because they don't understand how it is utilized and are denying their patients relief that may make a huge difference to the quality of their life. Yes there are people out there who are going to attempt to abuse the system and obtain drugs through false pretences, but that is no reason to make those in genuine need suffer.

I would think any organization that calls itself by the name of The Canadian Pain Society is being remiss in its duties if it does not place equal emphasis on public education in an attempt to ensure that those it claims to speak for are cared for with compassion and understanding. There is nothing worse in the world than being treated like a drug addict by the very people who are supposed to be helping you.

Living with pain is a formidable enough challenge without having to overcome other people's prejudices in order to get the treatment you deserve. The Canadian Pain Society should make it their responsibility to assist those who suffer so they don't feel like they are in this alone. Is that too much to ask?

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:57 AM |

November 11, 2006

What To Remember On Rememberance Day?

It was on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1918 that the armistice declaring the cease-fire the end of the war to end all wars was signed. Now each day in countries around the world that moment in history is kept alive through ceremonies honouring the soldiers who have fallen fighting in the various wars from that moment until now.

We still call it Remembrance Day in Canada, although what it is we are remembering has changed over the years. Initially it was to honour the generation that was devastated in World War One, but as each year has passed there have been fewer veterans of that war living, until today there are only three survivors. Although the ceremony has been expanded to include the Canadian service men and women who have fallen in battle in the ensuing years, the Red Poppy worn in commemoration is specific to that war and those who fought in it.

When the inevitable happens and the last of three survivors passes all that will remain will be the memory of those we are told not to forget about. But what is it we are supposed to remember? The politicians would have us remember their "supreme sacrifice" and they gave their lives for noble causes. Sure we can do that because most of those poor bastards probably believed that they were doing something of value and worth when they signed up to fight in the trenches.

But perhaps we should also be remembering that war to end all wars for the legacy it produced. Out of the ashes of World War One rose all the ingredients for the wars and nationalistic fervour that currently cause the world so much grief. Britain and France controlled the Middle East and although they devolved power to most of the Arab nations, Britain held on to Palestine after "liberating" it from the Muslim Ottoman Empire.

The near and far east, were divided up between: Britain with India (including what is now Pakistan and Bangladesh), Afghanistan, Burma and other territories in that region; France controlled Indo-China which included Vietnam and Cambodia, while the Dutch had Indonesia and surrounding countries. In Africa it was more of the same save that the European masters also included Italy and Belgium among its membership.

The Russian revolution had started before the end of World War One resulting in the Communist rulers of that country having negotiated a separate peace with Germany prior to the 1918 armistice. In 1919 British and American soldiers joined with troops of White Russians to try and overthrow the new regime but were unsuccessful and by 1925 Stalin had established himself as supreme leader.

Although direct confrontation between the West and the East was still a couple of decades away the new government so scared the Western governments that they were willing to appease people like Adolph Hitler and Mussolini as they were seen as defenders against the socialist hoards. It wasn't until they began their own moves against Europe in 1939 that they realized their own danger and almost didn't live to regret their decisions.

In the years since World War Two we have seen almost every former colonial state become a hot spot of some sort or another. India and Palestine were both partitioned into distinct countries along ethnic lines in an effort to curb the very violence that continues to plague them today. In the African countries where colonial authorities had played ethnic tribes off each other in attempts to ensure their rule, their withdrawal resulted in horrible scenes of genocide and deprivation.

From the 1960's and the refugee camps of the Biafrans, through the horrors of Rwanda and the current situation in Darfur that legacy continues. Europe saw her own share of "ethnic cleansing" with the death of Marshall Ttio and the dissolution of Yugoslavia into its distinct parts. Serbians, Croatians, and Muslims began to slaughter each other indiscriminately for no other reason than ethnicity.

Since the end of the war to end all wars, the world has careened deeper and deeper into the embrace of armed conflict. Instead of remembering the horrors that accompany war we have been asked to remember a set of meaningless platitudes that do little too actually speak to the experiences of those we are claiming to remember.

Would we not be honouring their memory further if we were to use these occasions as opportunities to speak against warfare, instead of using them as fodder to justify current follies? In his powerful anti-war novel, Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo creates a character who somehow survives losing his arms, legs, face, and ears. We spend the whole of the book inside Johnny's head sharing his memories and the creeping awareness of how sever his injury is.

When he finally figures out what happened to him, and how to communicate (Using his head to tap out Morse code on his pillow he can spell out demands and questions) he requests to be used as a reminder of how awful war can be. He asks to be put in glass case and taken around to recruiting stations and political rallies – anywhere people are going to congregate – and have a sign hung on him that says this is war.

The reaction to his request is pretty much what you would expect; they drug him and prepare to hide him away. All he wanted he says was to give people the opportunity to see what the flip side of honour and patriotism are, what the true nature of war is.

Remembrance Day in Canada is currently a means of honouring all those who have died in wars occurring in lands far away defending concepts and not their country. But if we truly want to ensure they did not die in vain, we must use this day to remind ourselves of the horrors of war so that we can work towards breaking the cycle of violence that started in August of 1914. Other wise it's all been a waste.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:11 AM |

November 10, 2006

Musci Review: Johnny Action Figure Ask The Room To Please Stop Spinning

When whoever said everything old is new again said it I'm not sure what they were referring to, but it could just as easily been popular music as anything else. For the first thirty plus years the goal in pop music was to write a song between two and four minutes in length – ideally just over three – that combined vocal harmonies with a melodic sound and appealed to as broad an audience as possible.

Inevitably the record companies moved in and began trying to package the sound and ended up diluting the product. With the introduction of more and more electronic equipment like drum machines and workstation keyboards popular music started to turn away from the format that served it so well and became something easy to produce and mass market without much originality or human passion involved.

Thankfully the same technology that was allowing for the mass production of hits was also enabling the do it yourself spirit of Punk rock to thrive. The development of home computers with the power and sophistication to serve as recording studios has made it even easier for small bands to ensure that their music is able to be placed in the hands of their fans without being tampered with by those wishing to make them fit into a formulae.

One of the newer bands that are showing a proficiency in writing popular songs is Johnny Action Figure. There newest release Asks The Room To Please Stop Spinning is a collection of seven wonderfully crafted pop songs. While they won't change the world or raise any deep philosophical questions about the nature of life the universe and everything, they are well written, intelligent and a whole lot of fun.
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What is especially appealing about them musically is the contrasts that appear in their songs. Most bands feel grateful to be able to maintain a consistent style or sound with their compositions. Johnny Action Figure has no problem generating a power pop sound that is less about assault and more about being heard, but what really sets them apart is their vocal harmonies.

They are so spot on and amazing sounding that they balance the aggressive musical sound one always associates with "alternative" pop. They don't even have to pull back on their guitar sound to make the harmonies stand out and smooth the sound out. It's been a long time since I've heard harmonies that work as well together – think of Crosby, Stills, and Nash with out the sappy sentiment and you'll get an idea of how good they are.

It probably doesn't hurt their harmonizing efforts that two of the people handling the vocals are brothers, guitarist Brendan and guitarist and keyboard player Christopher Fullam. Along with fellow guitar player Chris Sheehan they handle the vocals while the really tight rhythm section of bassist Brendan McGeehan and drummer Mr. Wonderful provide the backbone that keeps the songs on track.
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I don't know what it is about family members singing together but they are usually able to create vocal harmonies that sound just a little bit better than other combinations. Listen to the chorus on the opening track "Lose Our Face" as the harmonies punch through the almost Phil Spector like sound of the guitars and keyboard and you'll be amazed at their potency and clarity.

As befits their status as an alternative band the sound on Asks The Room To Please Stop Spinning is stripped down and basic. Two to three driving guitars and base and drums holding it all together. But even within that rather limited attack they are able to generate enough diversity of sound that their songs don't all begin to sound the same like too many other bands of this style.

Not only do they understand the principles of the power pop song perfectly, they also show they know how to work within that genre to be as creative as possible. What I'd personally like to see them do is continue to develop their sound, maybe pulling back from the power aspect a little and bringing in a sound that might do more to exploit their very distinctive vocalization.

Asks Room To Please Stop Spinning isn't in stores or on Amazon yet, but if you wanted to pick up a copy before it becomes readily available you can go to the Johnny Action Figure site at CD Baby and order it. Of all the new power pop bands out there that are once again reinventing the wheel of popular music Johnny Action Figure is one of the few that I have heard that not only have the familiar potency we've come to expect from alternative pop, but adds the vocal dexterity of groups of far more renown.

If you have grown bored with the sounds that emanate from your radio and want to listen to music that is not so wedded to its genre that it's not afraid to diversify than pick up the newest disc by Johnny Action Figure, Asks The Room To Please Stop Spinning

Posted by Richard Marcus at 06:01 AM |

November 09, 2006

Which Way Is Left?

In spite of what some of the more extreme elements of the American conservative political spectrum would have people think, Canada is not and has never been a socialist country. The policies of the welfare state that we implement to this day that might give this impression to some people are merely pale imitations of what is considered the norm throughout Europe.

Universal health care, and other programs are not thought of in most parts of the world as the first sign of an out break of communism. In fact Canada has never had a socialist party form its federal government, and there has only ever been one socialist premier of the biggest industrial province, Ontario, in its history.

The three provinces that have had regular left leaning governments in the form of the New Democratic Party (N.D.P.), Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Manitoba, are as likely to elect a Conservative Party government as they are the N.D.P. Even the N.D.P. are a far stretch from what anybody would call socialist anymore; think Tony Blair's pragmatic progressiveness as envisioned by New Labour but with a bit more of a social conscience and you'll get a fairly good idea where they stand.

As anybody who has read anything I have written politically should be able to guess when it comes to politics my inclination would be to vote for the N.D.P. I should say that I come by that honestly as my mother and father were both active members of the N.D.P. and its predecessor for most of their adult lives. My father's involvement ended with his death, but my mother's has come about due to feelings of disillusionment over the direction the party, and unfortunately a lot of the left are heading in, regarding their attitudes towards the Middle East and Israel.

It was this fall after the N.D.P.'s national convention that she phoned me angry and upset over a statement the party had agreed to endorse condemning Israel's invasion of Lebanon earlier this year. What bothered my mother about the statement was that there was no word of condemnation directed at either Hezbollah or any of the other terrorist groups who carry out routine attacks against Israeli citizens through suicide bombs or random mortar rounds fired into border towns.

My mother's family is Jewish, but her own history, including her time as a child in her parent's home, has never included religion as an important feature. She refers to her Judaism as her history not her faith, meaning, as far as I can tell, that it defines her cultural place in the world, but not what she believes in.

In our phone conversation she brought up the matter of Judaism and wondered aloud how much a part that was playing in her reaction, although in the past she has never let it stop her from being critical of Israel. But it was something about the way in which the communiqué was worded that felt if not intentionally anti-Semitic, at least being far too specific in its singling out of Jewish people for criticism.

Why did the N.D.P. feel compelled to only blame one side in a conflict where there have been a myriad of circumstances over the years that have precipitated actions and reactions from all sides of the border? It's more than just the N.D.P. of course, it seems to be a prevalent attitude among the left these days that only Israel can be to blame for what happens in the Middle East. Terrorist groups or states that have the avowed aim of driving the "Jews into the sea" seem to have nothing to do with and of it.

During the course of our conversation she mentioned that she was considering not renewing her membership in the party as a protest, which she subsequently did about a week later. This had to be very difficult for her. A huge part of her history was tied up in memories of working with the people of that party for things she genuinely believed in as good and true.

Being forced by the party she had worked so hard for since she had reached legal voting age – more then fifty years ago- to give up her membership because of a policy that went against the very principles that attracted her to it in the first place must have seemed like the ultimate in betrayals. She didn't believe she has changed her principles over the years, she still believes in the same things as before, and in fact had become even more hard line on certain issues then when she was younger, yet she no longer felt welcome in the party because of who she is.

What makes it even more difficult is the fact that the N.D.P. has never been a party in power and those who have been involved with it have done so out of a genuine commitment to the ideals of social justice that it has always espoused. For the longest time it was seen as the only real alternative to either the Conservative party or the Liberals who were fairly much politically interchangeable in spite of their appellants.

It has only been recently that the split between the two major parties along ideological lines has become obvious giving people a distinct choice at the polls without having to look for a third alternative. Middle of the road small "l" liberals can now vote for the Liberal party in sort of good conscience because they are not voting for the extreme social conservatism of the Conservative party.

The business community doesn't really care which one wins because they are equally fiscally conservative, although ironically the Liberals are looked upon more favourably by the business elite because of their Old Boy associations, while the current crop of Conservatives are unknowns to the moneyed classes of Ontario.

This means the N.D.P. have been left scrambling to try and find a way to broaden their appeal across the left, now that they can no longer count on the being able to tar the other two with the same brush as effectively. Instead of holding true to their principles and affecting change whenever possible by being the party of the social conscience, they seem to be pandering to whatever trend that will garner them votes in the short term.

But where does this leave people like my mother (and me for that matter) who can't stomach the results of this catering to special interests at the expense of ideological integrity. While the left gets all heated up with moral outrage over the "war crimes" of George Bush and Israel they are spending an almost equal amount of energy figuring out ways of justifying the actions of people who show no more qualms about blowing up women and children as either of the former.

Hypocrisy works both ways folks; sure the right wing are hypocrites for condoning the bombing of Baghdad and other violent acts in support of what they believe in while condemning those which oppose them, but so is anyone who condones violence from those they approve of while condemning it from those who aren't in style anymore.

A terrorist is a terrorist whether he or she are a Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Irish, or other nationality or religion that feels the need to blow somebody up to make the world a better place for imposing their point of view. Violence is the lazy person's answer to communication and conflict resolution, and to condone one group is to condone them all. If there is a quicker way to flush the world down the toilet it's going to be pretty hard to find.

Thankfully people like my mother are not as isolated in their opinions as she first thought, and there is a growing disquiet among the left over the direction things are going within political parties and organizations. Over in England a group referring to itself as a democratic progressive alliance and welcoming people of all political stripes, have come up with The Euston Manifesto as on outline of an alternative political philosophy in response to the types of concerns that have been expressed here.

I've not had time enough to study it thoroughly to either endorse it or not, but I offer it as an example of how people with a social conscience are looking to redefine what has commonly been referred to as the left. While on first glance some of it smacks of the wishy-washy attitudes of Tony Blair's New Labour, there are also elements that were very appealing: no justification of terrorism and an even handed approach to the condemning and condoning of actions for example.

In an increasingly polarized world where far too many people see things in terms of my way or no way, it should be obvious that offering an alternative that is only a variation on that theme is not the answer. As the traditional homes for people who believe in social justice seem to be becoming as alien to them as their political opposites they are moving to shape new responses to the issues that concern them.

With groups like that behind the Euston Manifesto, and others around the world like Alternatives To Violence trying to enact change in a real and personal way, there is reason to think that the "left" might actually reinvent itself back to being what it was in the first place: a voice of hope and reason in a world where those items are in very short supply.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:29 AM |

November 08, 2006

Music Review: Ray LaMontagne Till The Sun Turns Black

After reviewing goodness knows how many books, DVDs, and CDs I have become aware of a very interesting conundrum. The more innovative and original the work, the harder it is to write a review about it. Normally I'm able to develop a frame of reference that I can evaluate a piece within and get on with reporting how well the person, band, or creators have met the needs of that definition.

But when you're dealing with a work that moves outside the familiar you have to develop an unique context in order to properly frame a response to the work. The compensation for this is that on the whole the work is of a much higher quality then normal and well worth the effort. Even when the work ends up being crap, you can revel in the joy of puncturing a balloon or two of pretentious twaddle (like I'm one to talk) and direct people to run as fast as they can in the opposite direction.

The last few years have seen a return in the music industry of something that had vanished for a while – the sensitive male singer who pens songs about his innermost thoughts and feelings. A great deal of it, like the first it came round in the seventies with the likes of Dan Hill, is self-indulgent claptrap. If they have so many problems they need to be in therapy not passing their troubles off as art. If they're writing the stuff because they think it's good music than they really need to be in therapy.
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But amidst all of the schlock there are a couple of performers out there who manage to transcend the self and write songs that are not only musically interesting but also lyrically intelligent and emotionally honest. One of the best of this crop is Ray LaMontagne a singer/songwriter from New Hampshire in the United States.

Ray's debut CD, Trouble sold over a quarter million copies through word of mouth alone as it's combination of musical skill and lyrical integrity struck a chord with audiences everywhere. It seems that no matter what the marketing geniuses would have us believe there is a healthy market out there for music that is more than just simplistic lyrics and a heavy bass beat sung by a half naked nymphet.

For his second disc Ray has shown himself to be both more than just a flash in the pan, and someone who's not content to just sit on his laurels and repeat a successful formulae. Till The Sun Turns Black, if you will excuse the pun, is as different from Trouble as night from day musically speaking. While the first disc was comprised of mainly up-tempo, almost Rhythm and Blues, tracks, for this second effort he has striven to make each song more musically indicative of the themes expressed in the lyrics.

The result is a disc that is less immediately accessible with its atmospheric, almost brooding music in places, but just as satisfying to listen to and think about. Ray is quoted as saying about this new disc that he didn't just want to record another collection of songs. "It's definitely not Trouble: Part Two" is how he puts it. He says that he chose the songs that were the ones that picked at him and wouldn't let him alone; the ones that were difficult to write because they demanded more of an emotional commitment than others.

I've deliberately taken my time with this disc before writing a review of it; often times you can listen to a CD once or twice and know it well enough to write 800 hundred words saying why its good or bad and you feel like you've done justice to what's been created by the people involved in the project. In the case of Till The Sun Turns Black I'm not sure it will matter how many times I listen to it from here on in, but I'll probably always feel like what I've written won't be able to do more than skim the surface based on superficial terms.
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Like a poem that takes on different meanings with each reading, a broader perspective offered, or a different view, dependant on your own feelings that day, Till The Sun Turns Black can't be pinned down easily in terms of good song/bad song except in terms of technical matters because the content will appeal to different people in different ways.

The one thing that should have been paid attention too was the mix down. With Ray's voice singing in a lower register the orchestration on the opening track "Be Here Now" tends to wash out the lyrics in places. On a disc where the lyrics are of such obvious importance to the writer the vocal track needs to be predominate throughout and not subservient to the atmosphere creating music.

Tendencies like that can turn an emotionally honest song into a melodramatic mess. I'm not saying that's the case here, but I could see no reason for having to strain to listen to the lyrics of this song. If production values are sparse, minimal instruments as accompaniment, than a vocal track that blends into the music won't be washed out. But when you start incorporating the full string section of an orchestra it becomes paramount to ensure the integrity of the vocal line.

In other instances the use of a single stringed instrument, like the cello that introduces a later song, is ideal for creating the atmosphere that generates so much of the discs effectiveness. Ray considers his voice another instrument aside from being simply the articulator of a song's ideas, and he is able to modulate the tones and range of his voice to realize that goal and increase the impact of the material without resorting to histrionics.

One of the hardest things for a new performer to do is follow up a successful debut album. The pressure on him or her to repeat the success either commercially or artistically of the first disc is enormous. Given those circumstances it would be understandable if the individual elected to play it safe and produce an album of material similar to what was on the first one.

Ray LaMontagne has elected to ignore the conventional music business wisdom of it ain't broken don't mess with it, and followed his creative instincts instead. The resulting disc is one of the most lyrically intelligent and emotionally honest collections of music I've listened to in a long time.

I have a hard time with people who use the appellant artist indiscriminately in reference to pop musicians. In my mind it diminishes the meaning of the word and elevates the person's work to a status it doesn't deserve. In the case of Ray LaMontagne I have no trouble saying Till The Sun Turns Black is the work of an artist.

You may find Till The Sun Turns Black harder to absorb and listen to than Trouble Ray's debut album, but stick with it. The rewards are worth the labour.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 03:22 AM |

November 07, 2006

The Second Coming Of Daniel Ortega And The Sandanistas

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Nearly twenty-six years after they rode a revolution to power, and sixteen years after they were defeated in an election, the political party that American Republicans love to hate is back. Daniel Ortega of the Sandanista party of Nicaragua looks to have won a commanding enough victory in Sunday's elections to win the Presidency outright, without need of a second round run off vote.

There's quite a bit of history behind this election, and perhaps before a new smear campaign is begun against the Sandanista leader, a quick overview is in order from someone who didn't think of the Contras as kin to the American Founding Fathers.

In the late 1970's a popular revolution in Nicaragua overthrew the reign of the Somoza family. De facto rulers of the country since the turn of the century, either directly as president or the power behind the throne, the Somozas had protected the interests of the elite and American business at the expense of the majority of the population.

The 1979 uprising led by the Sandanista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Leberación Nacional in Spanish or more familiarly known by its initials F.S.L.N.) was aimed at improving the lot of the majority who lived in poverty through an aggressive program of land reform, nationalization of industry, education, and improved health care. Major private landowners – mainly American and British- who used prime agricultural land for ranching instead of food growing were forced to surrender their land for redistribution to the people who had been their former tenant farmers.

After years of seeing American backed governments, like El Salvadore and Chile, in Central and South America oppress and kill its own people, the revolution in Nicaragua became a rallying point for people looking to affect change in the Western Hemisphere. Aid workers from around the world, but primarily the United States and Canada came to the country to help what they saw as building hope.

They helped villages set up agricultural systems that we would take for granted like irrigation, figure out how to maintain the Russian tractors (the United States had imposed a trade embargo in 1985 under Regan so they were forced to turn to anyone who would sell them equipment) they were using, built school houses, and educated teachers in the skills needed to teach young people.

Now I'm not going to idealize them, they were still a single party government in most ways until the 1990 election which saw their defeat, but with the assistance of Cuba and other South American countries they managed to increase the literacy rate to 50% from single figures, and eliminate Polio and other diseases that plague the poor.

Part of the reason for them being unable to hold elections was the Regan administrations creation and funding of armed terrorists called the Contras which placed the country on permanent war footing for most of the 1980's. When the United State Congress refused to fund the Contra's, Oliver North, an American Marine Officer serving with the National Security Council, supposedly set up an arrangement to sell arms illegally to the Iranian government in order to raise money to fund the Contras without anyone else in the Regan administration having knowing about it. (Talking to a Regan staff member about it in 1987 he laughingly said "yeah, everybody knew about it from the secretary pool up – how the hell are you not going to know about an arms deal worth that much money – where do you think he got the weapons from – a pawn shop? But of course none of us knew a thing officially.")

From bases in bordering countries with American friendly leaderships the contras would stage attacks against unprotected villages using helicopter gun ships piloted by "retired" C.I.A. agents and mortar rounds to kill people working in the fields and blow up housing, hospitals and schools.

Friends who were there helping to build school houses in the late eighties tell of coming under fire on almost a daily basis, from small arms and mortar rounds. Whether on purpose of accidentally it seemed that any work they had accomplished the previous day would be destroyed during the attacks. Once a good mortar crew finds the range they can hit the same area day after day without too much trouble, and there just wasn't anywhere else that the school could have been built.

The village was so isolated and near to the border that it took two weeks before a platoon of soldiers from the Nicaraguan army could get there to chase the Contras away. One friend said they were finally able to finish the schoolhouse while the platoon was there, but he has no idea if it survived after the volunteers and the platoon left.

As the civilian casualty toll mounted and the Americans showed no signs of stopping their terrorist campaign against the people of Nicaragua, then President Daniel Ortega entered into negotiations with non-Contra opposition parties to arrange open elections. In 1990, with the promise of restored American aid and the end to terrorist attacks a non-Contra, non-Sandanista President was elected.

But through out their time in opposition the Sandanista's have remained a viable political party always getting at least 35% of the popular vote in federal elections. This year it looks like their time has come again. As in other countries in South and Central America over the past year or so have done, it looks as if Nicaragua is prepared to try a left of centre government.

With more then 60% of the votes counted in the first round of Presidential elections former president Daniel Ortega, the Sandanista candidate, has over 38% of the vote, more then enough to not only win the first round, but guarantee an outright win without the need of runoff elections in January.

Sixteen years after his defeat in the polls Ortega will take power if this lead, as is expected, holds. One of the reasons for his success is the more moderate face he has shown then in previous years. The fact that his running mate is an ex-Contra leader has given people hope that this government will finally be able to unify the country by setting an example of reconciliation at the top.

While the current American administration through their embassy in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua, has made some noise about "voter irregularities" the independent Nicaraguan Civic Group for Ethics and Transparency were responsible for releasing the earliest results showing Ortega's substantial lead at the behest of those running against him. There are over 18,000 international observers monitoring these elections including former U. S. President Jimmy Carter.

While it's obvious that Mr. Ortega will not be as friendly towards the current U.S. administration as his chief rival, a banker, it's too early for people to get hysterical and be painting him with the same brush as Chavez the leader of Venezuela. Even in the days of the revolution he was a reluctant ally of Russia and far less of a Marxist revolutionary he was made out to be. Considering his running mate is Jaime Morales former spokesperson for the Contras, the chances of a Red Flag hanging from the flagpole are relatively low.

The reality that the current and future American administrations must come to grips with is that Central and South Americans no longer want to be part of American Manifest Destiny. For over a hundred years, and longer in some countries, the United States has held undue influence over the internal matters of the sovereign nations of the countries to the South of them.

It's time for the United States to stop forcing countries to put the interests of the United States ahead of their own. If they want to win friends and influence people they should remember what they did in Europe after World War 2 and create a type of Marshall plan to assist the nations of South America to develop their own economies that offer well paying jobs and health care to their employees.

Or at least give them the opportunity to do so without raising insurmountable barriers in front of them in the form of embargos and sanctions. America is looked upon by the poor and the downtrodden of these countries as the enemy because they see them as the friend of the people who have kept them in poverty and ignorance for a hundred years or more. If these people choose to vote for a party that promises an end to that can you blame them?

Communism is not about to take over the world any time soon any more, if it ever were, so don't you think its time to stop worrying about "The Red Menace". Learn how to live in peaceful co-existence with your neighbours and you might be pleasantly surprised at the results. South and Central America are never going to go back to being the personal fiefdoms of the United States and its business community. One way or another they are going to be more and more resistant to that idea.

This doesn't have to a confrontational situation though, but the choice is yours. Use the election of Daniel Ortega and the Sandanistas in Nicaragua as a first step in that new direction. You never know, you could find friends in the most unlikely of places.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 06:02 AM |

November 06, 2006

Music Review: Everything I Need Aynsley Lister

Where's Paul Revere when you need him? Or at least some guy on a horse running pell-mell through the streets yelling: "The British are coming, The British are coming!" Well to be more accurate it would be the Europeans are coming, but it just doesn't have the same ring, and a couple of them are Brits so you can still make a case for Paul and his horse.

Long ago in a land far away there lived some young middle class men who sought the wisdom of the ages from the wise old men of the Blues. And it came to pass that they formed rock and roll bands with names like The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, and The Animals. These young men picked up their guitars, basses, and drums and went out into the world to play their music and the people listened and said that it was good.

They even took their music back to the homeland of the wise old men and the people there were amazed. "Where did this wonderful music come from?" they said not knowing that it had been sung and played for years in their own land. But such had been the law of their land that the music of the wise old men had been kept from their compatriots due to the colour of their skin being a darker hue.

For a time the people of the United States of America "discovered" the blues and the music flourished. But as the years passed it again fell out of fashion with only a few people still listening to it. The brave young men from Britain were now old but still had their faithful followings, but new young stalwarts had limited places to play and be heard.

But something wondrous was happening across the ocean in the lands known as the "Continent" or Europe, the people there had never lost their love of Blues and young people throughout the lands were following in the footsteps of the trailblazers of years gone by. And lo, they were joined by the children of the grand old men and many others from the homeland of the Blues and everyone rejoiced.

And in Britain, where the renewal had begun those many years ago, a new generation was coming of age having listened to those who had blazed the original trail, and were prepared to enter the lists to preserve that legacy. Joining forces with the stalwarts of Europe and the Americas (Canada included) they have made the migration to that new hotbed of Blues: Germany.

Ruf Records had established itself as one of the foremost blues labels in the world for still active musicians, and the new up and coming stars of the blues from all over the world. Men and women of all nationalities are bringing their songs to them in the hopes they will take them to the world. And Ruf records does just that.

One such young lad from England recording on the label is Aynsley Lister. With six recordings under his belt and extensive touring through out Europe, he has established himself as more then just the next big thing enough to settle down into a career where he is able to start finding his comfortable groove.

Along with fellow Brit Ian Parker and Finish whiz Erja Lyytinen, Aynsley recently completed recording the album Blues Pilgrimage: Mississippi To Memphis which saw the three young Europeans soaking up atmosphere and history to record in the birth places of their beloved music. But aside from that he has made little inroad into the American audience base with any releases scheduled for over here somehow just not working out.

But now North Americans will be able to get their first chance to listen to the young man from Britain as Ruf is re issuing his year 2000 release Everything I Need for that audience. In 2007 his seventh album is scheduled for worldwide release, and he will be coming to America for his first tour to show off his material and talent.
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If Everything I Need is any indication of what we can expect from Aynsley Lister, be prepared for a little of everything. He is equally at home with the harder rock versions of the blues as he is with the more expressive acoustic style, the slower and grittier Chicago style electric blues, and even soul and funk as was shown on the Blues Pilgrimage release.

Nine of the eleven tracks on Everything I Need are material that Aynsley has written himself which only proves how at home he is with the blues no matter what form it takes. The title track "Everything I Need" and the rambunctious "Soundman" show that he can rock with the best of them, while his cover of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" shows he can slow down but still play with power.

Not being particularly partial to that type of music myself anymore, although I can appreciate the musicianship and talent involved in writing, creating and performing the pieces, I was much more attracted to two of the acoustic tracks on the disc. His cover of Tony Joe White's "As The Crow Flies" and his own "Without You" prove that his abilities go beyond just being loud and fast.

It takes far more emotional commitment to the music to play acoustically where you have to do more than just belt out lyrics at high volume and can hide behind effects pedals. On these tracks he shows a voice that is comfortable to listen to and expressive without being melodramatic.

Unlike a lot of strictly hard rock performers these songs don't sound like the obligatory slow number to show how sensitive he can be. They sound every bit as natural and honest for Aynsley to be singing as any of the other songs on the disc. I think what I found most appealing about his acoustic numbers is that he genuinely knows how to play an acoustic guitar. There's none of the wild strumming that sometimes marks an electric players forays over to acoustic. In fact he has a nice picking style, which while not flamboyant works well within the context of the songs he's playing.

If there is a drawback to this album, at least as far my tastes in music go, is that he fronts a power trio made up of himself, a bassist, and a drummer. I've always found that particular formation to become musically limiting fast and leads to a certain amount of monotony in the sound, particularly the harder music. The power trio format ends up dictating to the performers what they can and cannot play and can end up being creatively stifling.

This has nothing to do with the individual talents of the musicians involved, just the fact that they are curtailed by their being only so much guitar, base and drums can do without massive overdubbing and introducing pre-recorded material. Sometime of course it's a simple matter of economics; the gate split between three people goes that much further than when split between four, five, or six.

But like I said that's a matter of personal preference on my part and has nothing to do with the playing of Aynsley Lister and his band on the disc Everything I Need. If you are looking for a sneak peak at one of the second generation British invaders prior to Paul Revere needing to make a midnight run when Aynsley shows up our shores than Everything I Need is the perfect disc. And don't worry; he's not here to conquer anything but your love of good music.



Posted by Richard Marcus at 05:52 AM |

November 05, 2006

Saddam Hussein Verdict: Justice Or Vengeance?

Well the least suspenseful trial in history since Nuremberg is about to come to an end in Baghdad today, Sunday November 5th. From the moment American troops pulled Saddam Hussein out of his rabbit hole it was obvious there would only be one verdict in his trial – guilty. If any other verdict could possibly have been returned they wouldn't have had to invade Iraq.

But do you know what the charges are against him that this verdict is being handed down today? He is on trial for his alleged role in the death of 150 people following an attempted assassination attempt in 1982. That's right he and seven co-defendants are on trial for something that happened twenty-four years ago, which was in retaliation for what in most countries is considered an act of treason.

For one second try to remove everything you know about the circumstances of who and what Mr. Hussein was and consider this trial just on the basis of facts. First of all the events in question took place nearly a quarter of a century ago and at the time Mr. Hussein was considered one of America's staunchest allies in the region. The faction that tried to assassinate him were members of the same sect who had recently overthrown the government in Iran and were seen as destabilizing force in the area at the time.

Secular Muslim and Arab nations at the time were cracking down heavily on all groups who posed potential threats to their governments. Remember one such group had just assassinated Anwar Sadat of Egypt shortly before this time and his successor was filling prisons with anybody who even looked like they were willing to support an Islamic jihad.

The other thing to consider is how dependable is evidence from twenty-four years ago. If there is even a shadow of doubt that he is guilty of this specific crime, or if the evidence is only circumstantial, how can he be sentenced to death? I don't know the circumstances surrounding this incident; were these people just rounded up and killed, were they arrested and summarily executed without trial, were they given a show trial and then executed, or were they given an opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law?

The problem with the first two scenarios is providing irrefutable proof that Saddam Hussein had planned and carried out these murders deliberately. The problem with the third is proving that they were just show trials, and the fourth is if they were properly conducted by a judiciary system and he signed the orders for their death sentence to be carried out, how much different is that from any one of the death sentences that George Bush signed when he was Governor of Texas?

All right I know that might be a little bit of an oversimplification, and that any judiciary under Saddam Hussein was going to be rigged. But even so, there are going to be far too many holes in the rationale for finding a death verdict in this instance to make it seem like anything else but an excuse to hang Hussein. Exactly the same thing he is being accused of doing in 1982.

The run up to this verdict has the occupying American army and the Prime Minister of Iraq so nervous that they have imposed a complete curfew on all people, and traffic in Baghdad and three surrounding cities. Nobody is allowed to be on the streets what so ever. The airport has been closed and security at all checkpoints has been beefed up.

It is being assumed that one side or the other will react no matter what the verdict. If he is found guilty and sentenced to hang then Saddam's fellow Sunni Arabs could very well increase the intensity of their violence, which has already seen a horrid upswing in the past week. On the other hand if he isn't sentenced to hang the Shiite Arabs who were in opposition to Saddam could very well have a similar reaction.

The current Prime Minister of Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, hasn't helped matters by interfering in the judiciary process by publicly declaring his hope that Mr. Hussein is sentenced to hang. The fact that he represents the majority Shiite Arab community that was persecuted under Hussein's regime gives the trial more the appearance of an exercise in vengeance then an attempt to obtain justice.

If bringing Saddam Hussein to trial was an attempt to begin the process of reconciling the two sides in what's becoming an ever increasingly violent sectarian battle it's not having the result intended. Instead of the Prime Minister's hoped for taking the heart out of the insurrection, putting Hussein to death on charges like these runs the risk of turning him into a martyr in the eyes of the minority Sunnis.

You would think with the situation so volatile that they would try and hold off on issuing a death sentence, either indefinitely, or at least until the charges Saddam Hussein is on trial for have enough substance to leave no room for doubt in anybody's mind. The mass murder trial he is facing for ordering the deaths of Kurdish villagers that began in August justifies a death sentence far more then the current charges.

A death sentence for Mr. Hussein based on the current charges will be death sentences for many more people aside from him and could well be the first step towards the civil war that everyone fears. Confusing justice and vengeance is a mistake at any time, here it would be a very bloody one.


Posted by Richard Marcus at 03:20 AM |

November 04, 2006

Music Review: Blues Ignited David Rotundo

Sometimes you just get lucky, that's all there is to it. You go to a bar and the band that's playing just blows you away. You'd never heard of them before and you still wouldn't know who they were if you just hadn't happened to decide to go out that night.

Well every so often my wife gets the urge to go out dancing and the hardest part of that is finding music to dance to. She's not interested in going to any of the "dance" clubs with music that will turn your brain into shredded wheat and a night that usually ends in a knife fight out on the street or some other such drunken stupidity.

There aren't many adult bars in Kingston Ontario where we live that have live music you can dance to and where she would feel comfortable with the crowd. Thankfully there is one and when she phoned that Saturday to find out who was playing she was told it was some blues guy who was really good and who played music that you could dance to.

As I'm not physically able to go dancing I didn't go with her and her friends but I was awake when she came home. Now normally she'll just talk about some amusing incident that happened and than just head for bed, but on this night she couldn't stop talking about the band she had seen. She'd even gone so far as to ask them for a CD so I could review it for them.

It takes a lot for her to get that excited about some band she's seen in a bar so I was intrigued and picked up the CD to check out the packaging and see if I knew anyone associated with the band. They were out of Toronto, Ontario where I had lived for most of my life so the chances of me knowing them wasn't too far fetched, but in this case I drew a complete blank, with the only connection I was able to make being they occasionally played with a guitarist I knew of, Jack deKeyzer.

So who was this David Rotundo and what made him so good that my wife wouldn't shut up about him and his band's music for a couple hours after coming home from seeing them. Well the easiest way of finding out was to listen to the CD she brought home and check him out for myself.
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Blues Ignited by David Rotundo and his band is fourteen tracks of really good, electric blues that you don't expect to hear from a bar band. The primary reason is that these guys aren't a bar band of course – they are a blues band who happens to play the bar circuit. Like so many other blues musicians these days there really isn't any other place for them to play.

Before I get caught up in a digression about the stupidity of the music industry for allowing folk like this to remain in the shadows while others of infinite less talent hog the limelight, I'll quickly bring my focus onto the Rotundo's disc. The first thing that you notice is that every single song is an original that he's either written himself or co-written with guest guitarist Enrico Crivellaro. There's not even one traditional title arranged by performer like you'd see on so many other blues discs.

It takes a fair amount of bravery when you are a relative unknown to put out a disc of all original material, especially when you're producing and distributing it yourself. So even before I've put the disc on to play I've got a good opinion of the band and David Rotundo for that reason alone.

Blues Ignited does nothing to change that good opinion except to reinforce and strengthen it. This is classic electric blues played the way it's supposed to be played; with every ounce of the band's energy being put into every note. Recordings aren't always the friendliest of things for a high energy blues band of the type my wife came home raving of, because they usually aren't able to capture the feel the band generates while performing live.

But these guys don't need an audience to feed off of to generate energy. From the opening notes of the first song "Stranger" to the close of "I've Got To Move" fourteen songs latter they keep the energy flowing. It can be a silly little boogie-woogie song like "I Want To Get Lucky" or the harder edge of "Worries & Troubles" and it doesn't matter. They commit themselves to each song like it's the last thing they might ever do in their lives.
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As the front man, vocals and harmonica, the responsibility for making this work rides heavily on the shoulders of David Rotundo, and he rises to the occasion each and every time. He sings with expression and emotion but without the melodrama that marks so many of today's insipid pop stars. On the lighter songs you can hear the smile in his voice that contrasts nicely to the tension he can generate when needed.

What I especially liked about his harmonica playing is that not only does he know how to solo, but he also can become just another instrument in the band. He doesn't dominate the rest of the group when not soloing and uses his harp to counterpoint either the rhythm or support a lead. Not only is he the front man but he's also a member of the band which makes for a much more cohesive unit and a better overall sound.

For this disc the usual band of Shane Scott on bass, Greg Cooper on the drums, and Peter Schmidt on guitar, are augmented by Julian Fauth on keyboards and Enrico Crivellaro on guitar. This is going to sound like a strange compliment to pay to them, but you hardly notice the individual members of the band at all. That doesn't mean their guitar solos aren't solid or their rhythm work sucks, it means that they play for the song not for themselves.

Perhaps that's why they are able to bring so much of that live show feel to a studio album. They play as a unit no matter what the circumstances and so they don't do anything differently on stage then they do in the studio. There's no way anyone can have as much fun in the studio as they do on stage, it's not possible, but these guys sound as if they are trying their best.

Playing the blues on the bar circuit in Canada is not something you do in the hopes of getting famous or wealthy quick, you've got to be doing it for love of the music and love of playing. You're going to be travelling all over the country probably by car and van and having to lug your own equipment on and off stage each and every night. Some nights there are going to be drunken jerks in the bar who will do their best to make your life miserable but still you keep doing it.

You can't play under those conditions for any length of time without having an absolute love for what you're doing, and that love for what you’re doing can't help but shine through in your performance whether it's a live show or a recording. Blues Ignited by David Rotundo and band is as fine an example of that as you're going to find out there.

If you want to pick up a copy of Blues Ignited your going to have to go to David Rotundo's web site or catch them at a gig. Either way it's worth the money you'll lay out.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 03:33 AM |

November 03, 2006

Music Review: Instrumentals 1967 - 1996 Canned Heat

I've always found it rather strange that genres of music so conducive to soloing like blues based rock and roll and the blues themselves, haven't encouraged more instrumental compositions. Maybe it's simply because of everyone's limited expectations regarding the music, especially those within the industry who control what is released to the public, that it is always accompanied by vocals.

Sure there are extended jams sometimes when bands will noodle away at a theme in the middle of a song and pass solos back and forth but that is not the same thing as deliberately writing a song without vocals. It's not as if there was no precedent for popular songs being instrumentals, what with jazz and the big band era both being genres that relied primarily on instrumentals for the majority of their music. But somehow or other rock and blues were confined into the territory defined by a format that wasn't conducive to writing instrumental pieces.

Whatever the reason complete albums of instrumental pieces are as rare as hen's teeth by rock/blues bands. Although Ruf record's Canned Heat release Instrumentals 1967 – 1996 is a compilation of tracks that were recorded over a nearly thirty year period and doesn't really qualify as a band going into the studio with the intent of making an instrumental recording, it is still a collection of fifteen songs that were deliberately written as instrumentals, or tracks where the vocals are a secondary consideration.

The disc has been split up into the different eras of the group, reflecting the changing make-up of the band membership. The first six songs are from the band's original pre 1970 line-up, with the nine remaining being split over three other formations. Songs 7,8 & 9 were in 1971/72, the second incarnation, and of the final six, five are recorded with Junior Watson and one with Robert Lucas playing guitar and all between 1994 and 96.

Musically the most ambitious and varied work comes in the earliest era when multi instrumentalist, falsetto voiced Alan Wilson was still alive. (Wilson died of suicide/drug overdose in 1970 brought on by depression caused by his loss of sight) While a couple of the tracks are what you'd expect, bar band style jam sessions that are indistinguishable from any similar band, there are a couple of real gems within this section.
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The discs opening cut "Parthenogenesis" is an almost twenty minute opus divided into nine short movements featuring different variations around a theme and utilizing instruments that you might not expect from a blues band. For instance Alan Wilson plays two sections on the Jaw harp and uses his chromatic harp for a different harmonica sound on another. While perhaps there are some weak moments in the composition, where a segment like a drum solo just sounds tacked on instead of integrated with its companions, the overall effect is an interesting contrast to your standard rock and roll guitar driven soloing

Alan Wilson again takes forefront on the song Scat, which as the name implies is a cheerful, and upbeat Scat song performed to a lilting jazz beat. Again what is most pleasant about this piece is the way it stands out from the usual turgid excesses of the period.

Unfortunately the good is almost equally balanced by songs like those described above, which while not bad per se, lack the originality of those two pieces. Maybe distortion boxes were new in those days and people were still not over the novelty, because fuzz seems to be a fairly common element of this and the songs from the early 1970s as well.

It might just be me but distortion and fuzz don't just sound that exciting anymore and in fact after a while just becomes so much noise as far as I'm concerned. But there were still some more interesting tracks yet to come, including one track from that period. "Caterpillar Crawl" is distinguished by its interesting rhythmic structure and general good time nonsense feel.

In fact one of the really good things about this disc, and Canned Heat as a band, which eventually rescues even the most boring of songs is the fact that they never seem to be taking themselves seriously. That doesn't mean they are giving the music short shrift, but understand that what they are doing is not rocket science. It's such a refreshing contrast to the pomposity of some of todays over inflated egos that have far to high an opinion of themselves and their importance in the grand scheme of things.

They are so obviously having a good time that even if the piece isn't that original or the greatest song in the world it is still just fun to listen to them. If they can have that much fun in the recording studio these guys must have been a hoot to see live especially when Bear Hite was still alive.

He was the big hulking behemoth behind the microphone until he was felled by a massive heart attack in the early 1980's. Listening to him babble on "Down In The Gutter But Free" using his voice as another instrument is to hear someone that obviously has a great time doing what he does.

Jumping forward in time to the mid nineties with only Fito de la Parra from the original band of 1967 left anchoring the sound it seems appropriate that he has been the man setting the pace and tempo as the drummer since the beginning. The live track "Mambo Tango" carries the stamp of a drummer who knows how to hold the centre and has been doing so for years. It's a fun Latin tinged blues number, as is obvious from the title, that again proves these guys, no matter what the membership, are far superior to your straight ahead, run of the mill blues based rock band any day of the week.

They aren't simply content to stick within the standard formula that has guaranteed the success of bands like The Rolling Stones, The Who, and Led Zeppelin or made a hero out of Eric Clapton. They may never have enjoyed the commercial rewards of those other guys but they sure played a lot more interesting and diverse sounding music.

It is very easy for musicians to play blues music in a certain style and fall into a rut instrumentally. While Canned Heat occasionally will sound like any number of other blues bands on the disc Instrumentals 1967 –1996 they also show that throughout the decades of their existence they have the ability to play outside the box with style and flair.


Posted by Richard Marcus at 04:22 AM |

November 02, 2006

Sudden Indfant Deaths: New Study Finds Cause - Or Merely Symptom?

I don't know if I can think of a worse nightmare for parents then walking into their newborn baby's room and finding their infant dead. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was a horror that first started rearing its ugly head about twenty years ago. At least that's when the medical profession started to categorize the mysterious unexplained deaths of infants under the age of a year; who knows how long it had been occurring in the years prior to that.

Crib deaths, as it is also referred to, are characterized as the unexplained death of an infant under the age of a year while sleeping. A perfectly healthy child was put to bed by its parents and would simply stop breathing in its sleep for no apparent reason. Parents of course would be guilt ridden as well as grief stricken blaming themselves for what they saw as a seemingly preventable death.

Finally there might be at least a partial explanation for this mysterious horror. Researchers in the United States have compared the brain autopsies of 31 SIDS victims over the past ten years with those of ten infants who've died of other causes and noticed an abnormality in their brain stems that might effect breathing. The defect seemed to affect the brain stems ability to regulate serotonin, the chemical that helps to control vital bodily functions.

While this in no way can be seen as conclusive evidence due to the small numbers in the study, it does go a long way to supporting what doctors at Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto Canada have long suspected; that some brain function in these children has been inhibited in order for the deaths to occur. Dr. Ernest Cutz, who has studied the disease, believes that the discovery is one step towards removing the mystery surrounding SIDS, and hopes it will help improve prevention and perhaps even lead to a way of eradicating it permanently.

Aurore Côté of Montreal's Children's Hospital and a specialist in SIDS is the one who cautioned that the sampling in these test results is too small to be conclusive in any way. Besides which she says the two major risk factors involving the syndrome are already established – putting babies to sleep face down and tobacco smoke during pregnancy.

In Canada education campaigns have been highly effective, reducing the number of SIDS related deaths from over 400 a year annually a decade ago to 100. Even in this recent study it was shown that 65% of the deaths were babies that had not been put to sleep on their backs. In other words there is still a worrying lack of awareness of basic prevention methods among parents in the United States.

It seems to me only a question of common sense. One of the first things you are told when handling a newborn infant is to insure that you always support its head. The head is the largest single part of the human body and the baby's neck muscles are nowhere near developed enough to be able to support that weight. If the child is laid face down in its bed it will never be able to move in order to take a deep breath if required.

But that also leads me to wonder about something, and that is has this study found a cause, or have they merely found another symptom? If the weight of a child's head causes the brain stem to be placed under undue strain because the muscles of the neck can't protect it, does this increase the likelihood of the lack of serotonin control? Would the baby laying on its stomach cause its oesophagus to close, resulting in decreased oxygen to the brain, which in turn would cause the brain stem's effectiveness to depreciate resulting in reducing the control of serotonin. In other words, effectively cause suffocation and the failure of the body's alarm system ability to warn of that potential simultaneously.

Might it not be possible that this new study's findings are simply a report of cause and effect instead of being any major breakthrough? The question that the study needs to answer is whether the lack of serotonin control was a pre-existing condition or simply an ancillary result of the cause of death – gradual asphyxiation caused by the collapse of the infant's windpipe due to its inability to support the weight of it's own head.

Was the baby born with the brain defect that allowed for the impairment of the serotonin or did the defect develop because of the causes of death over its short lifespan and influences during gestation? It's easy to say oh look, this number of infants died and they all have X wrong with them and conclude that X is the factor that causes that death. But to do so without ascertaining the cause of X is sloppy science.

Try a simple experiment on yourself: let your head fall backwards so that your chin points to the ceiling and your neck and the spinal column within it are compressed. While your head is in that position do you notice that you're not breathing as deeply as you should? When you return your head to its normal upright position you may experience some dizziness or light-headedness, caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. But you didn't receive any warnings that you weren't breathing normally did you?

The results of this latest study showed that 65% of the infants had not been sleeping on their backs. There has been no report of whether or not there were any other mitigating factors, like smoking during pregnancy or second hand smoke, considered that would have impacted on the other 35%, and that is important to find out. If all 31 infants in the study were exposed to high-risk situations of some sort it would be negligent to ignore that fact.

While it would be wonderful to say that the cause of this heartbreak has been discovered, it seems to me like there are too many question marks surrounding this latest study to raise anyone's hopes. Before we start rushing out to fill prescriptions for infant serotonin regulators I think far more study needs to be done on when the brain defect developed and its cause.

Right now there is as much likelihood that they've discovered a symptom of SIDS as a cause. For real peace of mind about SIDS see your family doctor and get educated on all that you can do to prevent it. That seems to be still the best cure.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 03:44 AM |

November 01, 2006

Music Review: Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry 1891-1922

Most of us take it for granted that African American music made a straight line from the cotton fields of the south until it hit its first crossroads, the church or the tavern. We assume the music either evolved into Gospel or one of Jazz, Ragtime, and Blues. But prior to the 1920's and the rise of those latter three genres there existed a diversity of musical expression on par with those of European descent.

Black men and women alike were performing everything from Minstrel Shows to Operatic Arias on stages and concert halls across North America and Europe. In some ways the popularity of Jazz and the other musical forms we normally associate with African Americans may have cut off some great talent in other fields because they became "black music" and a form of segregation through that delineation.

How many classically trained black musicians had careers stalled because nobody wanted to hear a Black man sing the lead role of Othello in the opera Ottelo or a Black women sing Aida? Were Black pianists refused hearings if they tried to play a Beethoven sonata instead of a Scott Joplin Rag? We might never know for sure, but one thing we do know is that the talent did exist for a far wider range of expression than was generally allowed Black musicians in the twenties and thirties.

One of the reasons for people of our generation not being aware of this amazing talent was of course the dearth of viable recording equipment, and the fact that so many of the performers lacked the means to have their music recorded. But somehow or other recordings from that period, even ones etched into Edison style wax cylinders, survived long enough to be transferred over onto more permanent mediums, and have held on long enough to be salvaged through digital re mastering and made into CDs.

Archeophone Records has gathered together from numerous sources an incredible collection of over 140 minutes of music from this period on a two disc set called Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry 1891- 1922 (Which in turn is a companion to the bookLost Sounds by Tim Brooks published through University of Illinois Press). Over the course of the two CDs Lost Sounds presents not only the music of the period, but attempts to recreate the historical context within which these artists were forced to work.

Instead of simply lumping the songs together chronologically they have divided the disc into four distinct parts: Vocal Harmonies, Minstrel and Vaudeville Traditions, Aspirational Motives, and Dance Rhythms. What they have attempted is to provide us with the two different aspects of what it was like to be Black and a musician at the time.

On the one hand there was the wonderful and amazing talent as expressed by the diversity shown in the first and fourth segments of the disc. But, as they demonstrate with the second and third segments, there were also the demeaning things they used to have to do in order to get their music recorded or performed and the music they were for most part denied access too. I can't even begin to imagine the indignity that Black musicians had to have felt putting on Black Face and performing caricatures of themselves in Minstrel Shows that fit white audiences stereotypes of the shuffling, stupid, black slave who just loved to sing and dance for Massa'.

Listening to tracks fifteen through twenty-six on disc one, Minstrel and Vaudeville Traditions, it's hard to get by the style and content to appreciate the artistry of the performers. The fact that the some of the songs were called "Coon" as a reference to style is hard enough to take, but hearing grown men forced to demean themselves by talking a kind of pidgin slave talk in order to sell their music is enough to make you sick.

Track fifteen is a recording of a Black performer named Charley Case, who received acclaim for his witty and intelligent monologues. "Experiences In The Show Business" is no exception, and one can see the origins of today's stand up comics in his routines. But the underlying irony of these performances that was missing in his day is the fact that Charley Case was "passing".

Charlie's skin colour was obviously pale enough that he could pretend to be white, something that black people would attempt on occasion in order to be accepted as equals in society. People who lived this lie usually did so in constant terror of being discovered especially if like in Charlie's case they were in the public eye. More often than not their lives ended in tragedy and Charlie was no exception as he died of apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds.

But the reasons for trying to pass are only too evident when you listen to what other performers were being forced to do in order for their work to be accepted. Ex slave George W. Johnson was considered the first Black recording star, but from his first recordings in 1891 and onwards the music he was performing bore titles such as "The Whistling Coon" and were classified as "Coon Songs".

Due to the limitations of the recording industry he was forced to record that one song innumerable times because that's what audiences wanted to hear. Although the music may not have been of what we consider the highest quality, Johnson at least opened the door for other performers to be recorded because he proved there was a market for recorded music by Black performers.

On the first half of disc one are performances that represent the earliest attempts at popular music by Black performers. There were toned down gospel numbers, referred to as spirituals, which, as performed by groups like the Apollo Jubilee Quartet, bear little resemblance to what the rollicking, passionate sound we associated with Black gospel music. These songs were far more concerned with showing off the performers' prowess with harmony and vocal technique then imbuing them with the energy that contemporary audiences find so appealing.

Disc two of this set represents the other two characteristics of Afro American music at this time; attempts to broaden the base of what was "allowable" for them to perform, and the other style of music that was considered acceptable for Blacks in this period – dance hall. The latter was a precursor to what we know as the big band sound, and foreshadowed both Jazz and Blues.

As there were very few Black composers at the time those performers wanting to make a name for themselves as serious vocalists were forced to perform material whose lyrical content wasn't the most appropriate. The songs of Steven Foster were popular material with White audiences so that catalogue was drawn upon, even though the titles included names like "Old Black Joe" and their content was about "happy darkies" on the plantation.

Like Paul Robson after them, male singers in these years began to do solo performances of old spirituals showing off the richness of their bass voices to good effect. It was also around the early twenties that women began to have recording careers as well with solo performances of some minor operatic solos. It was during this time as well that various Black musicians began to record instrumental pieces on violin and piano.

These attempts at breaking the stereotype of the shuffling darkie met with limited success and were overshadowed by the beginnings of the dance hall music craze. Prior to World War one the fox trot craze brought White audiences and Black bands together in bars and clubs, so it was only natural that the more popular bands began to record. Jim Europe's Society Orchestra were popular before World War One, and their experiences in the war only served to increase their popularity.

Songs like "Darktown Stutters Ball" were given a more martial beat and a syncopated rhythm that encouraged dancing and generated new audiences for recordings. The young could now pick up their favourite dance songs and play them at home. These recordings immediately preceded the Jazz bands whose popularity really began to soar in the mid to late twenties.

Once Jazz, and subsequently Blues came onto the scene opportunities for Afro Americans to perform any music but those two genres almost completely dried up. A few notable exceptions were able to carve out careers in movies and on stage. But even people like Paul Robson, who were world renowned, were limited to recording spirituals and show tunes like "Old Man River" from Showboat

Obviously the sound quality of a great deal of the material on Lost Sounds is poor at best, but what is surprising, when you consider the sources of so much of this material was wax cylinders that people would find in garage sales or basements, is how good the quality is. Due to the nature of the recording process a lot of the high and low ends were lost in even the originals, but with duplication the sound was even further degraded.

On occasion the sound is very thin, like listening to a voice recorded via a telephone earpiece in the days prior to mobile phones with MP3 players and portable recording studios included. But in some ways it's not the quality that's important about these songs, more the story they tell us about the nature and the shape of African American music at this time.

Segregation and the colour bar might have prevented a lot of these performers from having what success they did manage as their opportunities for live shows would have been limited. The fledgling recording industry provided them with at least some notoriety and at best some money for their efforts.

Lost Sounds: Blacks And The Birth Of The Recording Industry 1891 – 1922 supplies a fascinating glimpse into the lives of musicians prior to the days of the music that we most associate with the modern era of Black music.

Posted by Richard Marcus at 06:15 AM |

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