Taking off to the great green north

Take Off,

To The Great White North

Take Off,

It's A Beauty Way To Go

I gotta work on my Canadian dialect. Hey hosers! (or is that "un-PC"?). Headin' up to Canada for the Montreal Beer Festival and some well deserved r 'n' r. Which of course gives me an excuse to post some tunes from some of the cream of Canadian artiste's. Sorry folks, I don't have any Triumph or Bryan Adams!


We originally wanted to take the William Shatner tour; but can you believe it, they don't offer one! The shame of our neighbor's to the north is that they have NOT made William Shatner into a national icon. From what I heard, they don't even close the schools in honor of his birthday! At least Canada has it's national "Geddy Lee Day". What? They don't have that either? WTF?

At the very least, we're looking to take in a couple of Expo's games at Jarry Park, so at least we have that going for us. Does this guy still pitch for them?

Well, if you happen to be in Montreal this week and see some drunk guy in a Ramones T-Shirt...well, buy him a beer!

Toonage:
Rush - The Spirit Of Radio (live)
Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach
DOA - All Apologies (Nirvana cover)
Neil Young - Roll Another One (live) (june 18, 1984)
The Kings - Switch Into Glide
New Pornographers - My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism

Memorial Day

Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day,
is a day of remembrance
for those who have died in our nation's service.

Dirge for Two Veterens

By Walt Whitman


THE last sunbeam
Lightly falls from the finish'd Sabbath,
On the pavement here, and there beyond it is looking,
Down a new-made double grave.

Lo, the moon ascending,
Up from the east the silvery round moon,
Beautiful over the house-tops, ghastly, phantom moon,
Immense and silent moon.

I see a sad procession,
And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles,
All the channels of the city streets they're flooding,
As with voices and with tears.

I hear the great drums pounding,
And the small drums steady whirring,
And every blow of the great convulsive drums,
Strikes me through and through.

For the son is brought with the father,
(In the foremost ranks of the fierce assault they fell,
Two veterans son and father dropt together,
And the double grave awaits them.)

Now nearer blow the bugles,
And the drums strike more convulsive,
And the daylight o'er the pavement quite has faded,
And the strong dead-march enwraps me.

In the eastern sky up-buoying,
The sorrowful vast phantom moves illumin'd,
('Tis some mother's large transparent face,
In heaven brighter growing.)

O strong dead-march you please me!
O moon immense with your silvery face you soothe me!
O my soldiers twain! O my veterans passing to burial!
What I have I also give you.

The moon gives you light,
And the bugles and the drums give you music,
And my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans,
My heart gives you love.

Toonage:

Elvis Costello (live acoustic w/ Nick Lowe) - Peace, Love & Understanding
Johnny Cash (live 1975) -Peace In The Valley
Toots & The Maytals - Give Pezce A Chance (Beatles cover)
D.O.A. - War
Discharge - Wars No Fairytale

Happy Birthday - John Wayne!!!!!

This week marks the 100th birthday of John Wayne.

John Wayne is the greatest American of all time!!
This means, he was the greatest human being of all time!
Because, y'know, it's all about America.

He single handedly won World War 2 and was also instrumental in winning the Civil War, The Mexican War (well, we sorta lost that one at The Alamo!), The Spanish American War, The Korean War and The Viet-Nam War (Viet-Nam was technically a tie).

If John Wayne was alive today, the problems in the Middle East would have been solved in 3 days. 4 days at most.
And of course, if it wasn’t for John Wayne, the USA would have never been able to push the American Indians off their land.

More fun facts about John Wayne:

He was a college football star for USC in the 1920’s.
Supposedly, he nailed Mae West while he was a college football star.

There is evidence that his participation as an actor in “The Conquerer” was responsible for the cancer that eventually killed him (over 70 people involved with that movie developed cancer as a result of bomb testing in the area where it was filmed).

Buddy Holly paid tribute to The Duke’s role in the classic western The Searchers with the song “That’ll Be The Day”.

John Wayne had a military deferment due to an ear infection and never actually served in the armed forces.

John Wayne died in only 8 of his movies.

John Wayne turned down roles in the following movies: Dr. Strangelove, Blazing Saddles (both times, Slim Pickens took the role), The Dirty Dozen (Lee Marvin) and Dirty Harry (Clint Eastwood).

He had 2 way mirrors installed in his house and when the workers came to his house, he greeted them in a dress!(courtesy of Repo Man).

All kidding aside, the man was a legend and was active in many charities.

Here’s one-
The John Wayne Cancer Institute

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE DUKE!

Toonage:

John Wayne – Why Are You Marching, Son?
John Wayne – Drunken Speech to college students in the 1960's
The Beatles - Happy Birthday, John
Tennessee Ernie Ford – Ballad Of Davey Crockett
The Stains – John Wayne Was A Nazi
Foo Fighters – My Hero (acoustic)
Willie Nelson - My Hero's Have Always Been Cowboys

Pansy Division – Cowboys Are Secretly Fond Of Each Other

The Who- Day 3- live @ Woodstock

The Who's performance at Woodstock was one of the highpoints of the event. Performing much of Tommy, along with classic covers such as "Shakin' All Over" and "Summertime Blues" (which was featured in the movie), The Who established themselves as mega-stars. And, they almost didn't show up; due to money squabbles (they demanded payment up front).

Here's is the final offering of The Who week, plus a couple of other treats.

Toonage:

The Who - Live At Woodstock

The Who - Leaving Here - BBC Sessions

The Who - 5:15 (live Top Of The Pops 3/10/73)

The Who - Four Faces (Quadrophenia Demo)

The Who Day 2 - Live Quadrophenia

The Story Begins On A Rock...

And so it did. The tragic tale of Jimmy, who's only crime according to Pete Townshend was "bad timing". Somewhat maligned upon release, and originally performed to arena sized crowds who were far from interested in it's story; Quadrophenia has nonetheless become a classic and eclipsed Tommy as the quintessential Who "rock opera". The 1979 movie was great and then, years later, holy crap! The Who break the whole damn thing out in concert in1996! They premiered it with 5 nites at NYC's Madison Square Garden. Your humble narrator got his ass in to the first 2 shows and it was absolutely amazing. The narrative was cohesive (Phil Daniels- the actor who played Jimmy in the movie) did voice overs, the Who were top notch (Entwhistle on "The Real Me"- best bass run. Ever.) and the "guest stars" (Gary Glitter as The Godfather and Billy Idol as The Ace Face) were terrific.

So here is the show. It's two files (and there are some Quadrophenia Demos as filler on cd 2).


Toonage:

The Who - 7-18-96 NYC Quadrophenia cd 1
The Who - 7-18-96 NYC Quadrophenia cd 2