shout, twist and come on

You know you look so good
You know you got me goin' now
Just like I know you would

image

I went to see Gabrielle Shonk in concert yesterday evening. Here is the very circuitous route that transit had me take:

Take the 411 or 405 bus, that's the long horizontal blue line that starts from Home. Then take the green line metro (the green line in the map) and then take the 113 bus to a CEGEP within which is the theatre where she performed. To get home I simply reversed this.

Here is the band:

Here is Gabrielle:

I quite enjoyed the show; she has a nice voice and the songs were often about or related to heartbreak which was very touching. Last night was the first night in a many nights tour that takes her through small venues throughout Quebec, Ontario and into the north eastern US.

image

On a whim last night I went into the city.

I had noticed earlier on in the summer that a 2" width red line had been painted on the sidewalks forming a circuit through the city and so I went into the city to walk that route.

I joined it at the corner of De La Montagne and Ste-Catherine and walked what I thought would be counter clock-wise until later on I realized that the loop turned and crossed on itself. So, I walked south on De La Montagne and followed the route which soon enough took me through Old Montreal and then eventually to the Quartier des Spectacles. Once I go to the QdS construction obfuscated the red line I was to follow and it wasn't clear where I was to go next.

In the mean time, in the QdS I noticed there was an event happening with live music. So I went to check that out.

I did not know who it was that was playing.

In this photo, (click on it to make it bigger) you can see the female artist on stage in the back of her mixing table. I did some digging today to try to figure out who this was and from this site I found this:

Anna Pavlova is a multidisciplinary artist, music producer, vocalist, and DJ working under the alias Softmatter. Originally from Moscow, Russia, she currently resides in Tiohtià:ke Tsi (Montréal, Canada). Softmatter’s sonic methodology explores mutant, discordant electronics, alongside bouncing, stony drums and pitch-shifted vocals that travel between steepled choral motifs.

Indeed, her music was discordant, occasionally had a measured rhythm while at other moments did not seem to have any rhythm at all. I recorded a 30sec video with my mobile device, it isn't great quality, but you can see the light show and more or less hear the music she was playing during those 30 seconds.

There are dozens of festivals that take place in Montreal throughout the year; many of them have been going on for years. This is Mutek's 22nd edition. While this electronic discordant music isn't exactly my cup of tea, so to speak, it was nice to sit down and witness a live show.

NS - me?

Singing in my yacht, what a lot I got,
Happiness is something that just cannot be bought.

I've been in and I'm out, I've been up and down,
I don't want to go until I've been all around.

another year

So last year saw the passing of David Bowie and Prince among many others.

Now Chris Cornell is gone.

I liked the sound of both Soundgarden and Audioslave.

I hope he is in a better place now.

music like a tempest, box kite

In a discussion with a coworker yesterday it came up that in many of the shopping malls in our area, there are more and more empty spots. Likely it is due to more and more shopping happening online.

This is putting people out of work. So while it is convenient to order things online, it is not entirely socially responsible.

Anyhow, with all of this empty retail space I had an idea, though the funding for it presents a challenge. The basic premise is to create small musical performance halls.

In a small retail space have room for single performers with portable instruments. Coordinate with conservatories and other musicians to have single or duet performances during peak times that people are in the mall.

In a larger retail space, have one that has a piano so that piano performances can happen. Have others where quartets have room.

In the largest retail spaces, have room for a band to play. Rock, blues, jazz, fusion, country, ballads, and so on.

In each case, have tables and chairs for the audience to sit and eat. If this retail space that is now a musical performance space is close to a food court, all the better.

Have baskets or bins in various places throughout the musical performance space so that audience members can make fiduciary contributions to the performers.

The only problem is that the retail space would normally have a tenant that is paying rent to the owners of the space and this musical performance use of the space would never be sufficiently revenue generating to pay that rent.

If I was a multi-billionaire, I could set up a fund whose dividend payments could pay for this. Alternatively, if the government had an increase in its Arts budget, it could be the government that pays for it.

siblings and limbs

These mist covered mountains
Are a home now for me
But my home is the lowlands
And always will be

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Yes, I went to the Duran Duran concert last night. It was lots of fun.

Many have given me odd looks, that I could/would do such a thing, as to go to a concert unaccompanied, but I am blessed with the ability to care little to nothing about what people think about what I do. Yes, I went to this concert on my own, but I can share my experience with it here afterwards. If my mobile device actually had a data plan, I could even have shared the experience while I was there, but I don't have a data plan so I don't have 'live feed' capability.

Duran Duran invited two bands to perform previous to their show, the first was Shamir pictured here:

It was neat to see how the stage was set up - Shamir's band's stuff was all at the front, crowding Shamir in a little. Immediately behind Shamir's stuff was Chic's stuff, and finally behind that was Duran Duran's stuff. Prior to Shamir coming on, this is what the stage looked like:

My mobile phone camera can only do so much, as you can see. Probably the above image would be best seen when the ambient lighting is dark.

Shamir's androgynous or countertenor voice carried very well at the Bell Centre. His songs altered between techno and ballad with some crossing both. After Shamir performed it was Chic featuring Nile Rodgers. Chic played a string of disco hits of their own and also played 'Let's Dance' by David Bowie as a tribute to him. They were really good and had the crowd moving. The best photo I got of them is this one:

On the stage, the person that is closest to the front is Nile Rodgers, a little behind him and on each side of him (closest to us she is dressed in white, furthest from us she is dressed in black) are his two main singers who did most of the vocals for the songs Chic performed. Behind them and around them are the rest of the band. I really enjoyed their performance but didn't know their songs too well.

And then finally after clearing off Chic's band equipment it was time for Duran Duran to come on. Here is the best photo of the ones I took of Duran Duran:

Starting clockwise from the bottom, in all dark clothes is John Taylor (bass guitarist), in the back is the drummer (Roger Taylor), just to the right of a suspended speaker set is Nick Rhodes on keyboards, above him to the right are two back-up singers, coming down the front at the top is the guitarist (Duran Duran doesn't have a standing guitarist and I don't remember his name when Simon introduced him) and then finally the lead singer, Simon Le Bon.

Throughout the concert they played four or five songs from their recently released 'Paper Gods' album and the rest were hits from the past. They did not play anything from 'All You Need is Now' their second most recently released album. It was clear that the people sitting around me had not listened to the Paper Gods album which we all got for free for having bought tickets to their concert. When these latest songs played, no one around me knew the words or recognized the songs; they only sang along and danced to the hits. I, on the other hand, had followed their setlist and had created a playlist of it on my mobile device and had been listening to it incessantly since about February. I knew all of the songs that the band would play.

Near the end of the concert the guy to my right called out 'Reflex!' asking for one of their hits, "The Reflex" to be played. I knew, based on their past performances, that this would not be on the setlist, but something happened at this concert that hadn't happened elsewhere. After they played their two encore songs (Save a Prayer and Rio) the audience cheered as one, calling out 'Reflex!','Reflex!' with such a resounding force that the band could hear this unmistakably. I couldn't tell who of the band made the decision, but they never really fully left the stage, though they had left their positions, and then they returned to their positions and played 'The Reflex'.

All in all it was a great concert; the band members still look fit and well, and if bands like Rush or the Stones kept playing, it seems to me this may not be the last Duran Duran concert I go to.

when waxing doesn't wane

A deliberate swing and a miss left the broken bottle empty.

Bad Santa 2 is being filmed here in Montreal and today, likely a very small scene, is being filmed right outside our building.

The crazy thing is that they needed to bring some snow in to make it look more wintery as el nino has made it, oddly, that we haven't very much snow right now.

I didn't see the first 'Bad Santa' movie and this kind of movie is really not one I am interested in seeing, but this one being filmed now I may just see so that I can pick out the city places that I am familiar with.

I may start going to the gym again next week, we'll see if I can do it. As a traditional first trip back to the gym after a long absence, I will attempt to run 5KM. If I can do this in less than 30 minutes I will be pleased.

I never played rugby.

It has been a long time since I've climbed a tree. I may do that this weekend to trim our crab-apple tree. I prefer to do this in the winter when all of the branches are dormant.

The days here are getting noticeably longer now, the sun rose this morning at 7h10 and will set at 17h06.

The method of telling the time in 24hour format with the 'h' in the middle is a very Quebec way of telling the time. Midnight is expressed as 0h00 and noon is expressed as 12h00. I find it to be the cleanest way to indicate time.

My analog watch doesn't tell time in a 24h format.

The Paper Gods tour of Duran Duran is coming in April and I have a ticket to go. I polled a few of my closest friends and no one else was interested, but that has never (and likely won't ever) stop me from going. The band gave to all people buying tickets a copy of their latest album on CD and I have received it already and quite like it. I've got their setlist from the first leg of their tour that happened in Europe - if they play the same set when they come to North America I'll be a little disappointed that their setlist doesn't include anything from 'All You Need is Now', their second most recent album.

It would be coined a 'mocking' had the cerebrally cantankerous belched ignominiously. I should know.

curiouser and curiouser

Market forces do not use 'The Force'.

To be forced is to be compelled.

My son, a Muse fan, very much wanted to attend the Muse concert that is happening tonight. So, my wife and I are going with him to the concert.

I am dreaming of a home theatre in the basement of my house. There isn't a budget for it, however, at least, not in the style or of the vision that I have. Between a new mobile phone and a smart watch, or a home theatre, I think I can only, potentially, have one of these in 2016. Probably it will be the mobile device and the smart watch as we have a big trip this summer that would make it so that the home theatre would lie dormant during those weeks of travel.

Oh well, I can continue to dream.

straight to the content of my pericardium

But they only dealt one card
So for me it is not hard
You're the bright star in my chart
You go straight to my heart

woohoo, got them working again

So a different IT guy stopped by for something else we're working on together when he decided to take a quick look for this browser issue. Turns out something (neither of us know) is blocking firefox.exe and chrome.exe, but by renaming them (could be anything, but I renamed them firefox1.exe and chrome1.exe) they now work.

I think I can sing in the upper half of the bass register and in the lower half of whatever is above it. Where does that put me in terms of a group singing in a choir?

Marzipan is not a word I use particularly often in my vernacular. As I am not a 'foodie' I have had little to do with it in the entirety of my life.

For fun earlier today I clicked the 'Next Blog' button at the top of my blog, and did that again perhaps a dozen times for each blog that I visited. I did not find a single one in that dozen that was posted to more recently than 2013, and most had their last entry in 2012 or 2011. I guess it didn't turn out being so much fun, after all. It would be nice if there was a way to qualify the 'Next Blog' button to show only blogs that have had five or more posts in the last six weeks.

Egregious is another word I do not use particularly often. There is no reason why I shouldn't, however, so I will see if I can work it in over the next few days.

Joyous?

Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof
Because I’m happy
Clap along if you feel like happiness is the truth
Because I’m happy

how loud is quiet?

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming

blue canvas foot wear

You can burn my house,
Steal my car,
Drink my liquor
From an old fruitjar.

lucy who?

You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille
With four hungry children and a crop in the field.
I've had some bad times,
Lived through some sad times,
This time the hurtin' won't heal.
You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.

Yes concert

So Tuesday night Yes came to my town to play a concert that I attended. I was thrilled as they have for the longest time been one of my favourite bands. Jon Anderson was replaced by a younger Jon Davison and that worked out okay. I'd have preferred Bill Bruford (drums) and Rick Wakeman (keyboards), but Alan White (drums) and Geoff Downes (keyboards) did okay. I was thrilled that both Steve Howe (guitar) and Chris Squire (bass guitar) were both there.

The lineup of Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe and Squire was the elite team.

I was in seat B-118 on the mezzanine, a first balcony above the floor of Salle Wilfrid Pelletier at Place des Arts. There was a short intermission after they had played all of the 'Close to the Edge' and 'Going for the One' albums. At that intermission I moved into seat A-120 as it had been empty for the whole time prior to the intermission. After the break they played the whole 'The Yes Album'.

They did an encore playing 'Roundabout'. I listened extensively to all three albums in advance of the concert to remind myself of all of their songs and one song in particular I came to love. Here it is from someone who recorded the exact concert I saw at an earlier event.

yes?

In my mid teen years I somehow got wind of Yes who had started their career some fifteen years earlier. I really liked a number of their songs and ended up going to a few of their concerts as they would sporadically pass through my city. I am going to see them again in July in what could potentially be their last tour. Below is a video of a song from the tour I am going to.

over dreaming?

Now I'm towing my car, there's a hole in the roof
My possessions are causing me suspicion but there's no proof

Would you like some ice cream with that piece of

It's been a long time,
Since you wore your pillbox hat.
It's been a long time,
Since we drove your Po-o-o-o-o-o-ontiac.