Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell tour

Clearly I have been down on music for some time after a long period of locking antlers with the "what and why" with respect to my relationship with my music.  In fact I haven't made much effort to seek and see music in this period.

Well a few months ago my neighbour came down and asked me if i wanted to go see Sufjan Stevens, and being a big fan of the album Illinois and Michigan i sad yes and we bought some tickets and i kind of forgot about it.

Now a couple of days ago i was reminded of the show and checked out the new album "Carrie & Lowell".  I was actually painting that day and i hit the album about 4x in a row.  By about the third listen i was hooked,  you know that thing when you know you have a new favourite album, and you are going to get the chance to fall in love with it.   It's moments like this is why we seek music... that high one gets becoming obsessed with a spectacular piece of art.  I was warned that it is a "bummer"... but so is "Blue" by Joni Mitchell... i rest my case.  I make this comparison not casually... but I'll put it there.  Was i crying listening to it?... Yep, but it was a good cry, a beautiful cry, much like that time i was driving to the ferry on New Years eve listening to "river".

So i was primed for the show... the new album like a strong burning fire in my soul, and he played the whole thing.  He didn't just play it, he killed it... probably one of the best shows i have ever witnessed.  Clearly this show had special significance being that it was in Oregon, and that wasn't lost for a moment on the nearly three thousand absolutely enthralled audience members.  Spectacular Oregon images broadcast on church window like screen panels and a minimal yet very effective light show.  Five were on stage, but many times only Sufjan was playing ( basically any instrument and singing), and the others altered instruments and came in expertly when it was time for optimal effect.  It was one of those shows that will go down for the ages, i have no doubt about that. It's not something that is easy to describe because sometimes words fall short or define too singularly.

If i had to I'd say... it was a heavy "love in" that demonstrated in no uncertain terms the power of music, and the possibilities within.

So i played some music today and for a while rediscovered the soul that drives the engine... And what's a bummer about that?

Open stage

So i played open stage tonight... it was a good reminder to never do that again... will i heed my advice? Time is the hunter and it will show the truth.  Perhaps i met a person that i might play music with... time will tell.

What did i learn from this open stage? The Cavilers can't score in overtime, and the catcher from the Tampa Rays wears a hockey goalie mask.  Everything else i had already learned but needed to remind myself.  Nobody gives a shit about about any artistic creation you may have made... and in the end it's all just memories.... right Mule. 

It's unfortunate that music making has been turned into this 15 minutes of time to sell beers.  But that is the game, if you don't like it leave it, like i did years ago.  I needed to go back like salmon who spawns.  It's more like a  biological imperative... you have songs and you think you want to play them but in the end you are just a disturbance to the chaos that is happening in the bar.  Whatever, I am more of a scientist checking out the moment rather than a songwriter trying to create a big break.

One thing i know for sure is that it is the storybook parade tomorrow for the elementary school.  A chance to cheer the kids on in their costumes and everything will be OK.   If the storybook parade was an open stage then nobody would go home with a sense of importance because nobody gives a darn about anything that they they are doing... it's the beauty of elementary school... you get cheered on for having cat whiskers and walking down a road.

This is good don't get me wrong, i can get behind cat whiskers, as long as they are not in my garden taking s shit. 

I'm not a "this animal is cute" kind if guy... if the animal is a pain in the ass i hate it...  it's a big picture kind of thing.

Obviously not everybody see's it this way, as i have seen from being on social media, but i can live with that. 

There is a book out now called "your band sucks" by john fine... Smash sent me the link and Mule will soon review it... i haven't read it but it sounds like a book i am trying to write although i would shy away from the negative.   My attack is more on the idea of the struggle of being in a band rather than attack the idea of somebodies band sucking.  There is lot's of fodder there and as somebody who is less inclined to attack the notion of a band sucking but rather question the parameters of what a band is expected to do, I'll stick to my guns.

Imagine the idea of me hanging in a bar for 3 hours to play for 15 minutes to a crowd that has no interest in listening... and i did it to myself.

Leafs report 2014-2015 season... for JK

Fiasco

that's it.

It would probably be best to just stop there, for comedy and simplicity sake... a wise man once told me good writing is the most condensed version... i believe we were talking about poetry, and of course i had that saying once, that was kind of harsh and negative... it was "poetry is a jackass sport".  The saying itself came to me while suffering an insipid poetry night, where the contestants were trying to "one up" each other in over descriptive, flowery word monologues drawing pictures i couldn't really see, and when i did see them they made me angry.  Kind of like a pompous competition where everybody in the room is the loser and it just goes on forever... kind of like the Leafs season this year.

After an epic collapse in game 7, and then the following season where the "18 wheeler went off the cliff", there was hope that this season had to be better.  The good news is that the leafs are drafting 4th, and then i think 26th.  The other good news is that all of the scouts have been fired and Mark Hunter, an apparent scouting master is at the helm to rebuild the foundation of the drafting team.

Now there is a new coach, who comes with some excellent credentials: Mike Babcock is a trained sports psychologist and he has won a lot of things in his career.  Indeed he took Team Canada to back to back Olympic gold medals... sure a team loaded in talent, as were the Red Wings when the won the Cup, but we have seen plenty of talent loaded teams underachieve and not play like a team.

In Toronto you probably need a sports psychologist running the team, because you know if they lose the first game of the season the Toronto media will be calling for heads and replaying and dissecting mistakes made by the players and questioning their commitment to the city, their team and the game in general.

Fragile is the word one would use to describe the Leaf team's confidence over the last few years, and rumors are that players don't want to come to Toronto to play.  There is a saying in sports... there is always lots of room on the bandwagon... of course that's when things are going good.  I would say that there is always lots of room under the bus in Toronto when things are going bad.  They have this saying "he threw that player under the bus"...  If a someone were to say "well a bad effort from this player cost them the game"... that would be throwing that player under the bus.  In Toronto everybody is driving buses and there is like a big funnel in front of all of the buses trying to scoop up as many players to get under the bus.  Angry arrogant experts, many with "little man syndrome" selling copy or airtime with their views on what's wrong and who is to blame and constantly speculating on who needs to go, and who needs to come to save the day.  It's a whole other disease in itself, Toronto Maple Leaf-itus .  So of course i was pleased to hear Coach Babcock say that he was going to work to make it "safe" to play here, which is a tall task, but it speaks of a real culture shift with respect to a rebuild.  It appears also that the people running the show will be here to stay for the long haul, and they seem to be on the same page, and i would imagine they will bring in the people they want and have a real shot to build something.


The turnaround with respect to Leaf GM's, Coaches, Presidents... you name it has been far to rapid over the last  decade.  You can't build something and grow it if you keep replacing parts, mind you the parts they had didn't seem to be making things better.  Perhaps knowing that the guillotine is set to come down on your head made people make foolish decisions to "speed the rebuild".  We could list examples, but there is no point salting the wounds.

JK has been a solid addition to Leaf's Nation, even though Leaf's nation doesn't know about JK.  It's coming up on half a decade that JK has been coming up with opposition team metaphor heckles, and this year when heckles weren't working JK thought perhaps it was the heckles that were not working and changed to haiku's to see if that could work.  Given the considerable effort JK has made to the OMEN power one has to give JK some serious credit.  I never mentioned the heckles or the haiku's over the past few years because i thought it might be bad luck... but perhaps that was the problem in the first place.

JK could be the greatest unsung Californian Leafs fan... read em and weep.

Way to San Jose? 
Take 880, through that traffic. 
Really not worth it.

Kick them in the crown jewels. Burn their castles down. Revolt. Just some ideas.

Stuffed hawk for dinner, should be the plan Leafs. Poultry Tradition, X-MAS

Down the Flyers. Not The planes I'm on today please. The hockey team, Leafs. 

In Dallas, the leaves are still green. Thrive, Leafs in the warm sun of north Texas.

now for a JFK haiku:

Ask not what you team can do for you but what you can do for your team