…but I’d much prefer a half-time show like this one:
Here’s a Today show report on how they do it (hint: there’s (even) an app for that!)
(Oh, and full credit to my lovely and way-more-witty-than-I-am wife for that Hedley joke in the title of this post!)
This is really good…
“Remember How We Forgot” – Shane Koyczan and Hannah Epperson
The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band. – Brian Eno
Growing up and living most of my life on the bald Saskatchewan prairie, my opportunities to see certified rock legends have been extremely limited.
Luckily, in June 2000, I was in Toronto for a publishing conference and got to see Lou Reed at the Hummingbird Center in what may have been the biggest name concert I’d seen in my life to that time (er, not counting Billy Ray Cyrus at Craven Country Jamboree of course!)
Lou Reed, whose early influence on music is summed up by the quote at the top of this post, had along with guys like Bob Dylan and Neil Young, become an elder statesman of rock at the time of his passing.
Thinking about that Lou Reed concert after hearing he passed away today, I’d have to admit that it wasn’t even in my Top 5 concerts of all-time (a reviewer at the time agreed in a lot harsher fashion calling Reed “stiff”.) But hey, I got hear “Sweet Jane”, “Perfect Day” and a couple other great Lou Reed tunes in person and, as with any concert, create some amazing memories (who sneaks airplane sized bottles of Grand Marnier into a concert? Publishers do, that’s who!)
So if Lou Reed, doesn’t make my Top 5 Concerts list, who does?
1. Paul McCartney – Mosaic Stadium (Regina, SK)
Sometimes being on the bald Saskatchewan prairie, you *do* still get the chance to see legends of rock. I’ve missed a few of the other big stadium shows that have come through in the past few years – Rolling Stones, AC/DC, Bon Jovi – but there was no way that I’d miss a chance to see a Beatle. And as a friend commented, after the show “Paul McCartney was unbelievable! Its almost sad because now I must go the rest of my life knowing I will never see a better concert.” So amazingly, unbelievably, life-changingly good.
2. Hawksley Workman – Jane Bond Cafe (Waterloo, ON)
Until this summer, a show that was the complete opposite of McCartney’s stadium show – intimate, spontaneous, featuring someone completely unknown to me at the time – was the concert I’d have called my favourite of all-time. And coincidentally, it has a strong Lou Reed connection. It actually occurred the night after the Lou Reed show and one of the arguments a publishing colleague used to convince me to rent a car and risk life & limb driving on the 401 for the first time to go to Waterloo to see it was that it would be like seeing a young Lou Reed when the Velvet Underground was just starting out. She was true to her word and that concert plus everything leading up to it and everything following it – created another incredible experience.
3. Corb Lund & The Hurtin’ Albertans – Bowness Community Hall (Calgary, AB)
I’m not sure if he still does it but Alberta alt-country singer, Corb Lund, used to do a “Merry Xxxmas” tour where he’d hit a bunch of small towns around southern Alberta and Saskatchewan in early December culminating with a show in Calgary just a few days before Christmas.
Shea and I ended up going with a few Fredheads (Fred Eaglesmith fans for those not in the know) including a guy called “Beer Doug” who was a brewmaster for Sleeman’s (he gave us a keg of Sleeman’s Honey Brown for our wedding – definitely the kind of friend you want to have in your life!)
As with the Hawksley Workman show listed at #2, it was the entire experience pre- and post-show that makes this concert even more memorable than it might otherwise be. Beer Doug lived close to the venue so we went to his house early for free beer and guitar picking (others, not me!) His front room was full of musical instruments and just had a great vibe. When we got to the show, even though we were in the middle of Calgary, it felt like we were back in a small town hall – a bar selling Molson Canadian and Coors Light plus shots of hard stuff pre-poured in disposable cups (when Corb sang “It’s time to switch to whiskey/We’ve been drinking beer all night!” halfway through the show, that’s what we did!), long tables with plastic tablecloths and hard wooden chairs, lots of trucks in the parking lot. The show itself was awesome fun – the hilarious Washboard Hank opened the show, Corb Lund had Ian Tyson walk on as a guest halfway through the show for a couple songs (not even as an encore!) and then, for the actual encore, Corb, joined by Washboard Hank, played some of his biggest hits plus covers of Johnny Cash, Stompin’ Tom and more. Maybe the most fun I’ve ever had at a concert!
4. Dolly Parton – Craven Big Valley Jamboree (Craven, SK)
I’ve only attended the annual Saskatchewan bacchanal, the Craven Country Jamboree, a couple times in my life. And yes, one of those years it was indeed headlined by Billy Ray Cyrus as mentioned above. But honestly, the the main person we were going to see that year was Dwight Yoakham. Unfortunately, he was monosyllabic (possibly drunk?) and a bit of a disappointment even if I enjoyed the songs he sang. The true revelation was the person who preceded him on stage – Dolly Parton, who at the time, I saw almost as a comedy artist with the wigs, the twangy accent and of course the big boobs. She was all of that but as I watched her show, I realised that was all secondary to the fact that she was a consummate entertainer – engaging stories that alternated with humour and sadness, amazing talent as a musician and of course, an unbelievable voice. I’ve already identified her show as one that would be in my Top Five in a previous post where I tried to list all the concerts I’ve seen in my life. She retains that position to this day.
5. Sam Baker – Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic (Alymer, ON)
Sometimes the toughest spot to fill in any list isn’t the top one but instead, the final one. There have been lots of shows in my life that have been memorable for one reason or another – from catching Coldplay just as they were graduating to arena shows to various Tragically Hip shows across western Canada to seeing longtime personal favourites, Cake at the Calgary Blues & Roots Festival to Wilco in London Ontario when I was in library school to any of the dozens of bands at the various festivals I’ve attended over the years that have stood out for one reason or another when I’d never heard of them before.
That’s the kind of artist I’m going to give the fifth spot on this list to. And in all honesty, this was a concert I wasn’t paying that much attention to although maybe I should’ve been.
When Shea and I were in London while I was doing my Masters, we were able to attend and camp at the annual Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic near Alymer Ontario. We were surprised on arrival to find our friend, Beer Doug, had flown out from Calgary to surprise the various Ontario-based Fredheads he knew. We were talking about the line-up with him and he said “Sam Baker is great. Easily the best CD I’ve bought in the last year!” (Beer Doug was a major music fan so when he says something like this, you should pay attention.)
But when Sam Baker took the stage to headline on Saturday night, we were tired after a long day. (We’d skipped out on some of the daytime acts to make a quick run to Chatham for a funeral of a distant relative of Shea’s that we’d gone to visit earlier in the year at his nursing home. I suspect we were also still suffering from a Friday night reunion with Beer Doug!) 😉 So we sort of half-watched Sam’s show, moving from our spot near the front of the stage to near the very back of the venue when he came on then wandering around the festival site, visiting with friends, having a drink, and so on.
He had some nice songs but what stood out even more was how engaging he was with his stories – full of honesty and candor and insight. As with so many of the others concerts on this list, the experience was made more memorable by the stuff surrounding it, especially when we ended up in the tent reserved for performers after the show (thanks Beer Doug!) and got to listen in as Sam held court, trading wit and guitars, with the others in the room.
As I said, I should’ve paid more attention. Sam’s now become of of my favourite artists of all-time and whenever I listen to his music, it always briefly takes me back to a very memorable weekend in a nature conservatory in southwest Ontario (and bringing it full circle, Sam even makes a reference to Paul McCartney in his intro to the song in this last link!) 😉
What’s the going rate for teeth these days? I think I used to get a quarter per tooth but there’s probably been some inflation since then! 😉
(On the other hand, if I tried something like this with Sasha, it would turn out like a collapsed swan-towel at a two star Mexican resort!) 😉
So tomorrow is RPL’s annual staff conference and I’ll be receiving my five year pin which officially marks this as the job I’ve held the longest in my adult life since convocating with an undergrad degree in 1996 (although to be fair, I’ve been in four different positions over five years so I’m keeping up my Gen X reputation for frequently changing jobs!)
Here’s the summary: (hard to believe how easy it is to reduce 15 years of your life to a few lines of text.)
1997-2001 – Sask Publishers Group (3.5 years)
2001-2004 – Writers Guild of Alberta (3 years)
2004-2005 – Sask Publishers Group (1 year, 4.5 cumulative)
2006 – (Return to School at University of Western Ontario)
2007-2008 – Southeast Regional Library (18 month contract)
2008-2013 – Regina Public Library (5 years)
Anyhow, to celebrate the big milestone, I thought I’d make a list of…
5 Memorable Moments from My Time at RPL
Anyhow, those are the first few that popped into my head. Here’s to the next five years and further memorable moments!
As part of my new job as Regent Place Branch Head, I now work a few evenings and weekend shifts each month which means at least once a month my “weekend” is on Monday and Tuesday.
This can be a big advantage sometimes when Pace is in school and I can get to appointments I might otherwise not attend or get lots of errands done (trust me – if you’ve ever been to a Costco on a Tuesday, you’ll never go on a weekend again if you can help it!) 😉
Here’s what Shea and I did today…
7:45am – wake up after staying up way too late last night watching a Flames game I’d taped earlier in the evening and surfing around online
8:24am – send Pace out to bus after getting him up and ready for school (breakfast, teeth, hair, lunch ready, etc.)
9:40am – go to get Sasha’s six month needles and catch up on news at the public health office where Shea works. Also pick up another load of probably hundreds of dollars worth of baby clothes from one of Shea’s co-workers which is saving us a *ton* of money!
10:00am – Shea won a piece of art at a nursing conference last year. I don’t know much about art but turns out the guy who painted it is turning into a pretty big deal. Originally from Regina, Andrew Salgado is now based in London, England. His mom is a nurse which is the connection to both Shea and my mom (who was the one who made the initial arrangements for the artist to sign the painting now that he’s back in Regina for a homecoming show in the city where he grew up.) The artist wasn’t home but we were able to drop off the painting to be signed and will get it back in a few days.
11:00am – go for early lunch at Fortuna, one of Regina’s newest restaurants, an Italian place co-owned by Regina’s former mayor. It was a bit pricey for what you got and I’m not sure it’ll become a regular stop for us. But always fun to try new places.
12:00pm – pick up a Christmas gift for Pace (I’m not going to mention it here since I don’t know if he reads my blog yet but I do know he can read!) and a part for our van which is booked into a local garage later in the day.
1:00pm – after dropping Shea and Sasha at home, go into work for a couple hours for a couple meetings – one planned and one spontaneous. Yes, it’s my day off but our workplace allows us some degree of flexibility and so coming in for a couple hours on a Tuesday means I might slip out a couple hours early on a Friday some time which is a pretty decent trade if you ask me! 😉
3:37pm – drop car at home then walk over to pick up Pace at school which is a couple blocks from our house. You can add “seeing Pace’s face when he sees me waiting for him after school” as another great thing about having the odd day off mid-week. It’s only a couple blocks to his school but since we live across a fairly major road, Pace still gets bussed. So it’s nice when I can save him a twenty minute bus ride and get him home in five minutes instead!
4:00pm – load up everybody and take a caravan of vehicles – our van which is booked in for some repairs and our car to get everybody home – to a repair shop that was recommended to us as doing good work at a reasonable price (extra important now that our van’s warranty expired this past summer!)
4:30pm – decide to really spoil ourselves and go out to eat again at an off-the-radar Thai place in a semi-industrial area of the city. It’s not highly rated on UrbanSpoon (although only two reviews so hard to judge) but I remember hearing it called a hidden gem of Regina by someone. Both Shea and I were very pleasantly surprised with the tastiness of our meal.
5:30pm – home and spend some time hanging out with Sasha while Pace plays outside with a friend (and inside once it gets dark.)
6:00pm – I’d seen a post on Facebook that a CBC reporter was looking for pictures of kids having fun in the snow so sent in one I took of Pace in the schoolyard when I picked him up yesterday. They apparently ran it but I forgot to tune in until the telecast was half over so missed seeing it.
7:00pm – in what is a very rare occurrence, Sasha falls asleep in my arms in the living room (most nights, she goes to sleep after nursing in the rocking chair in her bedroom with Shea) so I get to put her to bed.
7:30pm – go for a nice long hot bath
8:00pm – help finish off Pace’s bedtime routine (Shea’s given him his snack so it’s pyjamas, teeth-brushing and flossing and then usually some combination of a story and/or some TV and/or iPad.)
9:00pm – watching a Flames game while typing my daily blog post. Bed to follow soon.
Here are a few pics I threw together in a slideshow to celebrate the first snow of the year.
“Celebrate” might sound like the wrong word but for me, the first snow of the year is always exciting and, as the song says, “I know that by February/My thoughts on snow will be contrary/But this is now and then is then!”
The Guardian recently published an edited version of Neil Gaiman‘s lecture for the Reading Agency.
The Reading Agency’s annual lecture series was initiated in 2012 as a platform for leading writers and thinkers to share original, challenging ideas about reading and libraries.
The lecture is amazingly good.
On the purposes of reading (and specifically reading fiction)…
Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway drug to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going. To discover that reading per se is pleasurable. Once you learn that, you’re on the road to reading everything…And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and look out through other eyes. You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You’re being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you’re going to be slightly changed.
On what children should read…
I don’t think there is such a thing as a bad book for children. Every now and again it becomes fashionable among some adults to point at a subset of children’s books, a genre, perhaps, or an author, and to declare them bad books, books that children should be stopped from reading…It’s tosh. It’s snobbery and it’s foolishness. There are no bad authors for children, that children like and want to read and seek out, because every child is different. They can find the stories they need to, and they bring themselves to stories. A hackneyed, worn-out idea isn’t hackneyed and worn out to them. This is the first time the child has encountered it. Do not discourage children from reading because you feel they are reading the wrong thing. Fiction you do not like is a route to other books you may prefer. And not everyone has the same taste as you.
On why the Chinese have relaxed their ban on science fiction…
It’s simple, [the Chinese official] told me. The Chinese were brilliant at making things if other people brought them the plans. But they did not innovate and they did not invent. They did not imagine. So they sent a delegation to the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls.
Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.
On the librarians he encountered as a child…
They were good librarians. They liked books and they liked the books being read. They taught me how to order books from other libraries on inter-library loans. They had no snobbery about anything I read. They just seemed to like that there was this wide-eyed little boy who loved to read, and would talk to me about the books I was reading, they would find me other books in a series, they would help. They treated me as another reader – nothing less or more – which meant they treated me with respect. I was not used to being treated with respect as an eight-year-old.
I know I’m close to quoting the whole article but again, it’s got so many great points and insights (“Books are how we communicate with the dead.”) I’ll just leave off with one more extended quote…
But libraries are about freedom. Freedom to read, freedom of ideas, freedom of communication. They are about education (which is not a process that finishes the day we leave school or university), about entertainment, about making safe spaces, and about access to information.
…then encourage you to go read the entire article yourself.
