when your teacher says the word "cool"

that's when you wrap your arms around
your ears, like an autistic having a fit.

I've just been exorcising those demons
from the past. I think I already had
a story about other aspects of this,
but I'll check.

The thing that really got me was
when our teachers tried to use
music to "connect" with us.
They used tunes that were
5 to 10 years out of date, and
ones that we kids did not go
anywhere near.
I was like most kids, pretty
sensitive to musical heresy,
and this is what we were put
through rather regularly.

The teachers were cleaned up
and nicely dressed, but something
tells me that during Woodstock
they would have been unrecognisable.

So, they gave us a bunch of
Woodstock , like Jonie Mitchell
and some post-Woodstock scary
vaudevillian stuff or cumbaya
stuff from the Hispanic world.

Here they are :
Captain and Tennille


and Paloma Blanca


fyeh. puke.

Rush was copying FM

I used to be a big fan of Rush,
and still am, but I was really
disappointed as a teen by
Rush's Signals album.
That's when music meant something
to me. It doesn't anymore, but
I think I've solved a big mystery.
It's about how bands can take a face plant
when copying other bands.

After the HUUUUGE album called

Moving Pictures

even the video was cool, with the snow and all
at Le Studio, Morin Heights, Quebec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moving_Pictures_%28Rush_album%29
How can you even compare this with the screaming
four-bar blues rock crap of that day?

It was both prog rock and yet it 

had a soul, unlike British prog

which was really long winded and technical:

Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes, etc.

vs. Freewill

Anyway, after that big album, I was looking

forward to the next one, only to get a synth album called 

Signals

check this "song":

Subdivisions

[the hydrant symbolises their Signals album]

Cold, passion-less, synth-dominated drudgery.
It's as if somebody abducted their guitarist and
replaced him with C3PO.

Now, with the death of Nash the Slash, I had
 a chance to revisit Nash's old band, FM.
on Wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_%28Canadian_band%29

They were a decent synth band with a bit of
creativity. Their Phasors on Stun song was
big for a while. Here it is. 1978


Nash was on the mandolin. Pretty good schtick.

But, back to Rush. I believe that Rush was trying to copy
the feel of this music. As with every copy, you try to
get the essence, but Rush did a really shitty job, IMO.
Clue #1: (wiki) "In June, Ben Mink from the band FM was invited
 to play electric violin on "Losing It" "

Rush had just stopped writing 10-minute songs about Xanadu,
and had become a solid prog rock band, with two astounding
albums, and then the song above broke my heart.
Wiki says:
"The band underwent another radical stylistic transmutation
with the recording of Signals in 1982." Ya, and lost their mojo.

I can't even bring myself to put up New World Man. stinko
The only song that had any guts was Digital Man.
(now that I've read wiki, this song is heavily Police-influenced,
but is at least a decent job.)
-side note: the ___ Man titles. unoriginal. navel-gazing. sexist

It took Rush years to get their Mojo back. witness:

Red Sector A

A good song, but I had long since moved on to Heavy metal.
what can I say. I was 16. I was looking elsewhere for
meaning and passion in music.

Also, check this frenetic song:

Animate 1993

perhaps their best tune

that's my thesis.
I'll do a story later about how this and other bands
all decided, in the early 80s, to f^*k with their
models for success.
The thing I learned was that bands are just humans,
and humans f&*(k a good thing, just because.
I also learned that bands have good songs, and good albums
even, but no one band is consistent. Some bands are best
right out of the box, while others mature.

 some bands journey through some shit and
come back rejuvenated.

my task was to find righteous tunes. no more no less.

On to the next story.

Newsreaders are just brain-dead automatons

this is particular to the US, but most everywhere
because of the fact that the News are decided
by others, and then spun.
But, when somebody wants to lampoon
the newsreader, all he has to do is
give her some idiot stuff to read.

Watch as this newsreader barely slows
down while reading some

cod-Chinese names

Ho Lee Fuk

that doesn't excuse the racism of the 

joker, but it was probably some 

disgruntled staff member in the 

production room.

Nash the Slash can slash no more

I've been very busy the last few months, and
I have missed writing on this blog.

One of the things that happened while I was
busy was the death of a musician that I was
really impressed with as a young man.

NASH the SLASH

Once you get past the mummy tape,

there was something unique about

the guy. 

He wore the disguise because of 

shyness, and because it worked for his fans.

here's a hint of his personality,  

whooping it up 

with none other than Iggy Pop

I think Igg might have been 

under the influence of 

some pills.

They toured  together!
this show must have been on community tv
in Western Canada, maybe Calgary.
They go ape-shit. nuts

you'll see from this next video that he was
into synths and fiddles. Here's one of his original songs:


I'll add more later

the Eurovision message #beardedlady

coming soon, the whole bearded larceny

Weird Al deposed as President of Ukraine

I was sorry to hear about how the funny guy
who satirised such classics as "Bad" and "Beat it"
(the Wank song) was deposed from his post in
Chicken Kiev, and is now hiding in Kentucky.

Wait a sec.
I've just been told that it's not

Yankovic, but Yanukovich. 

Sorry folks, but I'm going
with what I got:

Yankovic worked for international relations.
His Ode to Canada, my homeland:

Ludwig knows his humour

That's Ludwig Wittgenstein, the philosopher.

I had always thought that philosophy was for
guys whose brains worked so damn much,
at such a high RPM, that
these guys were damned to split hairs and
infinitives for their whole lives, like some
useless monks.

Well, I was wrong, for once. For Luddie
knows the value of humour, in the righteous
protest. He knows that we need to hear wise
words, but not long-winded ones.

so, he said:

"A serious and good philosophical work could be written consisting entirely of jokes"

I was just thinking the same thing about 

Bill Hicks and George Carlin.

These men, rest in peace, were both 

comic and philosophical greats.

Their treatise on existentialism, peace, democracy,
consumerism, marketing and wimpy British gangs

were what made these guys unforgetable.

Witness:

 

Al Quiders are shorting the US

The Onion, my guiding light, and leaders in beleivable
satire, have just declared that Al Quida are setting down
their guns, grabbing the popcorn and watching the US
crash and burn.

I think the Telegraph just wrote how the US middle class
is no longer the richest in the world.
The Ukraine is going to turn from a neo-con trick into
a hot war, pretty soon.
You know the banking thing is going to crash again


But, the Onion says it better
http://www.theonion.com/articles/fbi-uncovers-alqaeda-plot-to-just-sit-back-and-enj,35788/?ref=auto 

a brief quote:

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States
 ISSUE 50•15 • Apr 15, 2014

A recent al-Qaeda video shows a militant training to carry out his mission of lying back and watching America’s status as a superpower erode


WASHINGTON—Putting the nation on alert against what it has described as a “highly credible terrorist threat,” the FBI announced today that it has uncovered a plot by members of al-Qaeda to sit back and enjoy themselves while the United States collapses of its own accord.

Multiple intelligence agencies confirmed that the militant Islamist organization and its numerous affiliates intend to carry out a massive, coordinated plan to stand aside and watch America’s increasingly rapid decline, with terrorist operatives across the globe reportedly mobilizing to take it easy, relax, and savor the spectacle as it unfolds...

I think that, if they were smart, the Quidders would
open a hedge fund and short the US.
They could make Squillions. Just follow Kyle Bass,
boys.

Iniesta as a force for good

Only Iniesta can save Spain from a
Franco-stein future of poverta and miseria.

Update: Mylie Cyrus slowly morphing into Justin Bieber

It was I who saw through all the crotch rubbing and
said that Mylie is becoming Justin. Now, here's a
photo which others have said shows Mylie doing
a Justin pose. I cannot comment, as I do not know
of any such pictures. The proof:

Imagine the retail possibilities