Francis Bacon Paintings

RIP Pierre Falardeau (1946-2009)

I was to interview M. Falardeau back in 1994 for his film Octobre, a film criticized for it sympathetic treatment of the FLQ. M. Falardeau refused the interview, and rightly so, as I had not been able to view the film at the VIFF. (I had classes that morning and arrived late to the screening) I had wanted to discuss the October Crisis and its legacy in the histories of both English Canada and Quebec, but he was more interested in discussing the film. (again, rightly so) I did have an interesting conversation with Pierre Falardeau about Quebec separatism and the obstacles to independence faced by separatists within the province. It was a conversation I will not soon forget and I feel privileged to have met and conversed with M. Falardeau.
Pierre Falardeau succumbed to cancer after a lengthy battle with the disease on 25 September, 2009.

Caught by Surprise Again

This will be my second Autumn in Saskatoon - my fourth in Saskatchewan - and it has caught me off guard this year just as it did the year previous. My time in Montreal allowed me to see Autumn at its most regal, the rich reds mixed in with the brilliant yellows and oranges. Central Canadian proceeds in its stately way, taking its own time to show off its colours before the end of another season. People embrace the Autumn there in a way I have seen no one else embrace it anywhere in this country.
West Coast Autumns are reluctant affairs. Never so colourful as Central Canada's, Autumn on the West Coast does its best to live in denial until the truth can no longer be denied. Some British Columbians and most of the would-be British Columbians gripe at the end of summer and look at Autumn as an unwelcome visitor. But the ever persistent presence of evergreens helps the various regions within the province maintain is greenery.
Autumns in the southern portion of Saskatchewan is notable for just getting colder. What few trees they have down there tend towards sparsity anyway, and one day they are just simply sparse. The ground is quickly covered over winter becomes the new and familiar reality. Saskatoon has trees, however. In fact the northern portion of the province has far more in the way of greenery.
Autumn arrives and sets up shop quickly while no one is paying attention. Too late for protests, to late for organized dissent, too late for one last day of summer - Autumn has come to do a job and will soon be on its way. Trees that were green and full one day are stripped and near empty two days later. In Spring, the leaves are born reluctantly maybe even grudgingly. Sour from Winter's hold on the landscape, trees are slow to trust the changing of the seasons here. Maybe that is why Autumn needs to work so quickly?
So I am caught by surprise again and probably not for the last time.

Give Us Your Money!!!!

I have joined CFCR 90.5 FM, Saskatoon's homegrown community radio station. I have a show every other Monday (like this coming Monday actually) called Green Eggs & Ham from 6am to 8am. Anyhow, we are 100% listener supported and I am supposed to ask people for money... so basically, if you have money and you know how to get a hold of me give it up! Whatever, I don't know too many people in Saskatoon and am competing against some of the people I do know for funds. If you can spare a couple of bucks and know how to get a hold of me, drop me a line and we can tee things up. However, no pressure.

When Comics Blur the Line and Become Books

I had intended to buy Spitz and Mullen's We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk, however, I was unable to find a copy of it in town and did not feel like ordering one. What to do? Well, Theo at Unreal City had a couple of solutions to my reading dilemmas, namely two crime stories in the graphic format.
The first book is Richard Stark's (aka Donald Westlake) well covered classic, The Hunter put out by comic book upstart, IDW. You may have seen one of the The Hunter's big screen adaptations: Point Blank starring Lee Marvin, or Payback starring Mel Gibson. Part one of Westlake's Parker series, Darwyn Cooke has lovingly adapted and illustrated the book for the graphic format. Set in 1962, the art style resembles the advertising style of the period. It is a beautiful book and anyone who hasn't read The Hunter but seen the films based upon it should pick this up at the very least.
Next up is Brian Azzarello's (of 100 Bullets fame) contribution to the new Vertigo Crime venture, Filthy Rich. Classic pulp tale of the loser, the femme fatale and the plots they become entangled in. It may not be shockingly original, but it makes for an interesting read. Azzarello has a great grasp of the crime genre and knows how to set the pace and keep the reader interested.
Vertigo's other book is Dark Entries, a supernatural entry with a detective twist featuring the character John Constantine. Theo wasn't so crazy about this one, but it is written by Ian Rankin so I will probably be picking it up regardless.

Cynicism, Thy Name is The Conservative Party of Canada

Just a quick note before I go to work - but wow, just watching a government press conference on how the New Conservatives are going to introduce legislation to beef up Employment Insurance, temporarily, to assist certain individuals during this economic downturn/recession/depression. They have used it as an opportunity to slam The Liberals and Michael Ignatieff and the other opposition parties. Aside from the fact that the package does not go far enough, the timing of this package is just too convenient.
Harper must really have a low opinion of Canadians if he believes that the majority of us cannot see through this cynical attempt to save his government from an election. The rhetoric coming from government officials is so thinly veiled and cynical.
Serious change needs to happen within Canada's electoral system.

Firefox, How I Miss Thee

I am back in Vancouver visiting and have to use my Dad's computer. I have many complaints about what my Dad does with his computers. He loads them and clogs them up with too many redundant or useless programs (many of which are nigh impossible to remove) and superfluous secuity features. However, my biggest bone to pick with my Father's computer is that he is still using Internet Exploder... um, Explorer.
I hate Explorer, especially the version he is using. I love Firefox. It blocks banner ads - I cannot believe how much advertising it blocks for me. Firfox runs smoother and looks better. Explorer just down right sucks.

This Is The Face of Ugly

The pink toy, not the cute little girl. I am in Vancouver and decided to get toys for my friends children. I always felt bad because I had never got them anything before so I decided to make it up to them. I decided to get them Ugly Dolls. The ones I bought are entitled "Uppy" (see above), "Ox" and "Turny Burny". ( both sort of pictured) I like them, the parents like them and the kids (for the most part) seem to love them.

Mondays

Wha'dayou Want?! >:(

Bleah, aside from Sunday (hanging out with Geo and J) this has been a terrible weekend. And I do not refer to the fact that it rained almost constantly for two days - I'm from British Columbia after all - it has just been dull and people have been in bad moods. I have today, Monday, off and it is stunning outside. Saskatoon is usually quite beautiful and it is even more so after the weekend wash down. The air is clear, the thing layer of dust is gone - stunning. What isn't so stunning are people's attitudes.
Saskatoon, a very friendly city overall, has the least friendly City Hall I have ever been to. Honestly, they are the crabbiest most inhospitable public servants I have had the mispleasure of dealing with. Generally, though, the attitude of City Hall's ill-mannered employees are not relfected in the population at large. But today people are kind of ill-tempered all over. I have been scowled at, yelled at and abruptly dissmissed most of the day so far. ( was out the door at 8 am, btw)

Free Chicken! Woo Hoo?

I went shopping today and ended up with free chicken. How you ask? The cashier never charged me. I wasn't aware until I got home and was setting my receipt aside - "10.98? That's not right." I wasn't paying attention at the till (too distracted by ill-mannered Saskatonians) and could just as easily have been over-charged. So what to do? I am not going back up to the Safeway today and, as it happens, I am lowish on funds so this comes as a sort of blessing. I was thinking about going up on Friday and letting them know and paying then - but does this get the cashier in any trouble? I was aslo thinking of just taking the sticker up next time I shop, explain it to the cashier and have her scan it and pay for it then. I know, why look free chicken in the mouth? I just feel like a theif.

18 Days Later

No, it isn't a bio-engineered zombie like apocolypse, it is how many days left before I fly back to Vancouver to visit.

There is Nothing Funny About Comics

CD in Play: Isis, Wavering Radiant

Aside from DC's great notion for a weekly summer run of broadsheet comics, Wednesday Comics, things have been a tad slow in comicsland of late. But here are notables:

Criminal: I cannot say enough about this series by Ed Brubaker. Smart, cutting, gritty, low down and sexy. The latest installment collected as Bad Night is taut and surreal. In some ways it reminds me of Rod Filbrandt, a Vancouver artist and writer, work on Wombat and Dry Shave for the Georgia Straight. Again, Brubaker's Incognito is also superlative.

Bone: A friend of mine has a son who doesn't like to read, an oddity given the family in question. I have been hearing over the years how many literacy and child education experts recommend giving comics to children who do not read. One of the titles that has come up again and again is Bone by Jeff Smith. So I have bought the first volume of Bone in the hopes that it may entice my friend's son to read more often> Failing that, I am sure my friend and his daughters will enjoy the book. I like the first book and will probably pick the series up for myself in time.

Heaven's War: I read it, I liked it for the most part but can see why this limited series didn't fly. The book's antagonist is famed occultist, Aleister Crowley. Crowley seeks to turn the tide in Heaven's War in his favour for his own power. The book's protagonist's are The Inklings, or the three men most Identified with The Inklings: J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Charles Williams. (whom apparently also appear as characters in James A. Owen's Here, There Be Dragons) Charles who? Therein lies one of the problems with Heaven's War.
Charles Williams is a favourite of mine. He wrote supernatural thrillers that dealt with Platonic Absolutes becoming manifest upon the Earth, the Stone of Sulieman, the Holy Grail among other concepts. His themes often dealt with the need for communion and take on the burdens of one another. His writing style is nowhere near as polished as Tolkien's, nor his work anywhere as accesible as Lewis' - but his concepts and ideas are where the draw is. However, he is quite obscure outside of edcated Christain circles. Most of us learned about him through his association to C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.
Heaven's War also relies on the dubious book, Holy Blood, Holy Grail for the stories backdrop. Holy Blood, Holy Grail perpetuated the hoax perpetrated on the world by Philippe de Chérisey and Pierre Plantard, in support of Plantard's desrie to place himself as the heir to the Merovingian Dynasty. HB, HG was also the inspiration for Dan Brown's best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code. In fact, the characyer of A.E. Waite is made strikingly similar to Brown's character, Sir Leigh Teabing. I am not a fan of Holy Blood, Holy Grail and its irresponsible legacy of bad history posing as credible scholastics.
Micah Harris, the author of Heaven's War, has done a good job synthesizing Williams concepts and idelas to form the backbone of his story. The concept is worthy of a Williams novel itself and very like his own work. As a Williams fan I can appreciate this, but I can also see how it would loose many other people. Also, Michael Gaydos, if you are reading this - dude - seriously, you need to stop recycling frames as often as you do. Please. You are a good artist, great style, draw just a bit more.

In Addendum

Another comic that was just released this week is Ed Brubaker's The Marvels Project. In celebration of Marvel Comics 70th Anniversary, Brubaker has written a limited series about the birth of the Marvel Universe in WWII. This is something I was always eager to see and it is good to see it being donw by one of the best in the business today.

Whoa-ho-ho...

Been so long since I posted up here. Life has been busy though. I have been covering one and sometimes up to two other people's jobs including my own at work. So i am tired an a bit wared. luckily the long weekend is here and I am just going to relax and try writing a comic i have been drafting up. In the meantime:

Current Favourite Albums: Isis, Wavering Radiant. Very solid disc that just stays with me. I am still unable to commit completely to the new Wilco album. (self titled) I like most of it, but I just don't think it is quite as strong as their previous three albums. I've also been digging up old albums, like Pond's The Practice of Joy Before Death and Sugar's Beaster. (aslo Sugar's song "Gift on their final album) Bob Mould is a very underrated musician and guitarist.

Last Film Seen: I rented The Bank Job recently. I liked it. I like Jason Statham, a wee bit of a one note actor in some respects, but it is a good note. Anyhow, this film was a nice change of pace from his usual fair. if you like heist flicks this is worth checking out. Just rented L4yer Cake so I will see what I think. As for theatre, I just hate seeing films alone so i don't tend to go.

Songs: My Top Ten All-Time Favourites.

I made this list as I was listening to my iPod and thinking about songs I never get tired of. The guidelines I set for myself is that they have to be more than a decade old for me. That means it can't be something from the `60's that I only just discovered. I have to have heard the song prior to the year 2000 and it has to be something I keep going back to again and again - on ethat I don't tend to skip over. The songs are in no particular order, that would be too hard for to organize and judge.

1. The Tragically Hip: "Grace Too"
2. Elvis Costello: "Beyond Belief"
3. Pavement: "Texas Never Whispers"
4. Charles Mingus: "Haitian Fight Song"
5. Black Sabbath: "Black Sabbath"
6. U2: "Out of Control"
7. The Kinks: "Autumn Almanac"
8. The Beatles: "Only a Northern Song"
9. The Rolling Stones: "Gimme Shelter"
10. King Crimson: "Red"

Runner-Ups: Sugar, "Gift". Robert Fripp, "Easter Sunday". The Pixies, "All Over the World". Dinosaur Jr., "Littel Furry Things". Al Green, "You Ought to Be With Me". Tortoise, "Djed". Wilco, "Outta Mind (Outta Sight)" - key to me getting over a women back in 1996. Tricky and Martina Toppley-Bird, "Children's Story". These are just a few of the many soings that I keep coming back to.
In some case I come back to bands or performers (or specific albums by) over and over in general. Some of these are: PJ Harvey, Björk, John Coltrane, Sonic Youth, The Who, Dave Brubeck, Public Enemy, DJ Spooky.
I may have to look at how this list canges in the next decade, say take stock in 2014 and again in 2019.

Running on Empty...

... to steal a line from Jackson Browne. Yes, I have not been posting much here lately, just not much that I have to say at the moment that others aren't saying already and better. Now this isn't to say that I am not writing at all, in fact, I am having quite the creative burst of late and have making copious notes for stories. I submitted a story to Vehicle magazine and am waiting to hear back whetehr it has been accepted or not, if they have an artist attached to it, etc. Have an idea that could take off quite well. The first story features a celebrity death match between a well known proponent of Atheism and a well known Christian apologist.

From Roger Ebert's Journal: I'm a proud Brainiac

Pete Chattaway posted this up on Facebook. It is an interesting piece. I subjected myself to the first Transformers movie and have no wish to see the second. It distresses me that so many people excuse crap in the name of escapism.

Roger Ebert's Journal: Archives

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