the pod bay door

.: What’s up with the Finns? Why are they so cranky? Who cares? These videos are hilarious, and the school children’s song is even better knowing that the class, from the Poikkilaakso Elementary School in Helsinki, wrote the lyrics themselves. The chorus is brilliant. But I think what makes it so funny is that none of the children ever smiles – how could they record this without cracking up? They all look so serious singing these lyrics, and it just makes the video even funnier. Plus, each line of the lyrics doesn’t necessarily fit into the rhythm of the song compared to the previous line but still works somehow, which for me as a musician, just increases the hilarity of the entire production. God bless the music teacher who put this together. Who wants to start a complaints choir? WHY must we take it so easy? I want to learn how to play this song. Can someone teach me how to sing in Finnish?

Then you can enjoy a group of Finnish adults singing out their collective woes. Helsingin Valituskuoro, otherwise known as the Helsinki Complaints Choir.

I didn’t realize there are other such choirs, including:

• Beschwerdechor Wilhelmsburg (Hamburg Complaints Choir)
• Complaints Choir of Birmingham
• St Petersburg Complaints Choir (Russia)

.: I am the guitarist in the Edmonton-based band, Hardy Drew & the Nancy Boys, and this is a basement video of us playing the song, “Heavy Early”, written by drummer David Leigh.

 

.: Edmonton received a big dump of snow on Oct 29, and instead of melting a few days later, it has continued to snow. Yesterday another 10cm covered the region, and the temperature hit -10C today. In other words, it’s miserable weather, and based on recent winters, way too soon for my liking. The City of Edmonton hire private contractors to clear snow from the main routes, but in the booming Alberta economy, most do not respond quickly when called to clear Edmonton roads, because their graders and front-end loaders are usually working elsewhere. So predictably, most of main thoroughfares in Edmonton remain covered in snowy oatmeal. I took a few digital photos of the campus as I left work this evening.

.: The saying that you don’t know how much you miss something until it’s gone snuck up on me today. Imagine my surprise then, while shopping for produce at Sobey’s this evening, I saw a fresh bag of this on sale. I was thrilled! I was not aware that border restrictions on imports from the United States had been relaxed somewhat in late October. Now I can make my favorite kind of salad again.

.: On a work-related note, my secondment at NINT has been extended until January 2008. BTW, the new nano-word I learned this week is nanoscratching. Don’t ask.  A friend recently asked me how the “nanobrarian” work was going.  I checked Google, no results.  Well, maybe now there will be! 🙂

.: The band has a gig on Sunday, 26 November 2006, at The Fox. If you’re in town, come on down and enjoy some tunes.

.: It’s been a while since the last post. I’m taking time to work on a new template, but continue to hit roadblocks because I don’t understand php. It’s very frustrating. Meanwhile, check out the MySpace site for Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys, which is under continuing development.

.: After maybe seven weeks away from any form of exercise, I’ve been at the YMCA the past two days, getting in 40-45 minutes of cardio on the upright cycle. I’ve been in a rut of some sort, unable to find the energy or drive to work out. I’m hoping I can sustain it indefinitely for now. Since I switched to the upright cycle, I’ve been reading while working out. I’ll get back to this later.

I’ve stuck to my resolution to not watch any new television shows this fall, and surprisingly enough, the sun continues to rise in the east every morning. Imagine that. Right now I’m watching Bono and the boys on a DVD borrowed from the library, of the 09 and 10 May 2005, Chicago, performances from their Vertigo tour. This was the same tour I saw twice in NYC last October. The DVD quality is quite good, and includes songs U2 didn’t play in NYC, at least at the two shows I saw, such as Zoo Station, which rocks on the disc.

I’ve ordered three CDs from Amazon, and was prepared to order a fourth, but it wasn’t available for immediate delivery, so am postponing its order for a few weeks. I haven’t bought a new CD since Donald Fagen‘s Morph the Cat was released earlier this year, so to have four new discs from artists that matter to me appear almost simultaneously is amazing. The artists in question are TV on the Radio, Los Lobos, Pete Yorn, and Shawn Colvin. I’ll order Colvin’s disc in a few weeks to coincide with the release of the second season DVD of Harvey Birdman, the most brilliant cartoon I’ve seen in years, which I will order as well at that time.

I’m still working with the band, aka Hardy Drew and the Nancy Boys. It’s still fun, and I get to make lots of loud noise in David’s basement while we rehearse and work on tunes. I think my lead playing has actually improved, which is very cool, considering it was 40 years ago this month, October 1966, that I started guitar lessons in St Boniface, Manitoba, at the age of 13. Time flies when one is having fun, right?

.: I am three days into the NYC trip. Weather has been very warm and humid. .: On Thursday, 17 August 2006, I went with friends to the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater to see the Michael McDonald/Steely Dan show, aka the Steelyard “Sugartooth” McDan – The Man … The Legend … The Tour. The concert was amazing – the Jones Beach Theater is an outdoor amphitheatre on the beach in Wantaugh NY, on the south shore of Long Island. It was a clear night, the temperature was warm, the music outstanding.

Michael McDonald opened the show with a full band, and played an assortment of his solo tunes, a couple from his recent Motown songbook, and his killer Doobie Brothers songs, including It Keeps You Running, You Belong to Me, What A Fool Believes, Minute by Minute, and Takin’ It To The Streets. The intro to Takin’ It To The Streets featured a long piano/organ shuffle between McDonald and his keyboardist, John Deaderick. After some brilliant pianistics, McDonald began the opening chords to Takin’, and the crowd roared its approval. Read more »