Back in June, I took part in a Leonard Cohen tribute at the Montreal Jazz Festival.  The audience was huge, thousands and thousands of people outside of the Place des Arts watching a whole bunch of us sing these Master Songs.  They filmed it.  I think I might have made the cut, but I have no idea which song they used, if any.  The info on YouTube says I'm in it, so it must be true, right?  Anyway, it's on CBC this Sunday night at 9pm.  Hope you have a chance to check it out.

 

My radio show, All the Rage, begins tonight on CBC Radio One (it streams live online in a multitude of time zones), at 730pm, and repeats on Saturday at 11am, not pm as the Toronto Star article suggests incorrectly.  It should be on Sirius Satellite Radio 137 at 6:30 and 10:30 EDT and again at 10am and 8pm EDT.  The first episode is on the Swing era, and it was the first episode we did, so, you know, we've grown a bit since then.  But this will be quaint.  The Yellow Tape of All the Rage episodes.  Without Fight the Power.
Oh, also, I just got this email: "Make sure to set your DVR's or tune in Wednesday, June 27th at 10 p.m. to CNBC's "Business Nation" to catch BNL/ Nettwerk feature segment!"  Breath duly bated.

Well, you caught me. I found myself sitting, drooling in front of American Idol tonight, where I was struck by two things: 1) Chrissie Hynde is a fucking amazing songwriter. I always knew it, but now and again I'm reminded of her genius. For such a tough gal, she writes the most convincing love songs. Tonight, they played someone (not the Pretenders) singing I'll Stand By You as Phil Steacy got kicked off the show, but other songs like Thumbelina and Message of Love and sexy ones like Tattooed Love Boys come on my iPod and I'm always transfixed. 2) Everyone on tv has bleached teeth. The youth of today may not even know what teeth are supposed to look like anymore. Add it to the list alongside soft breasts and unruly pubic hair. Sigh.

Just finished my kids' March Break up at the farm.  One of the few things about being up there that I truly dislike is the fact that the closest place to buy anything is Wal-Mart.  Yech.  So, while picking up some necessities, I also tossed the DVD of Fast Food Nation into my cart.  I thought buying Fast Food Nation at Wal-Mart was ironic. Like a death-row pardon two minutes too late.  I also thought it might assuage my guilt.  It didn't.

Greetings from our nation's capital (I had to look up how to spell that, after being so influenced by staring at the Capitol Records logo as Beatles records spun on the turntable as a child). Tonight we're doing a runner, which is what we call shows when we walk right off the stage onto the bus and start driving. Though many fancypants rockers do this regularly, we only do it when we're in a big hurry, and we still get excited about it, like we're impersonating Rod Stewart or Evanescence. We're doing a runner because we're driving down to NYC for the David Letterman show. We're on it tomorrow (Thursday, to avoid any miscommunication or late rss-feed issues), and we're singing Sound Of Your Voice. If we screw it up, Kev's going to be pissed. Hope you watch it.

How exciting to see that Apocalypto is the number 1 film in America this week.  See, you can say whatever you want and people will still flock to your movie.  And, besides, Mel really showed us Jews who REALLY runs Hollywood:  Sugartits.

Just posted the last bit, and checked my news.  I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Robert Altman.  Altman is far and away my favourite director; even his worst films (Popeye, Pret a Porter) still carry his trademark style, wit, misanthropy, embarrassment, and joy.  His best (Short Cuts, Nashville, MASH, McCabe and Mrs. Miller) will live on as some of the best films ever made, but I also encourage you to watch some of his lesser-known (or lesser-liked) movies, like Dr. T and the Women, The Company, Come Back to the Five and Dime, The Long Goodbye, and Streamers.  I think all I need to do is list off all of his movies to remind myself what a great impact he has had, and how much he will be missed.

Congratulations to my friends over at Concrete, for winning Applied Arts magazine's Best CD/DVD Design Award, in the Dec. 2006 issue!  Oh, and it was for the Vanity Project, even!

Three brief things:
1. Finally watched "Reds" the other day, after years of reading the mythology surrounding it.  I just want to say thank you to Warren Beatty for this incredible look into the birth of American Communisim.  Well, it's much more than that - it's an intensely political film that deals with big ideas with tenderness and insight, but it's also about men and women, and egos and art, and it's really truly essential viewing.  It ran for months at the Cedarbrae Cinemas near my house when I was 11, but I was much more into Raiders of the Lost Ark and Mel Brooks' History of the World, Part 1 that year.  Glad to see it's finally on DVD.
2. Check out this video interview we did with Rolling Stone.
3. Fin, that is unfair to say that I like Skyline Chili.  I also like Gold Star.  And Graeter's Ice Cream.