Music We Should All Listen to Once in a While

A 2009 track by Timber Timbre; one of the music scene's most interesting, thought-provoking Canadian artists. One of those songs we rarely hear where the lyrics are just as important as the music itself.

Trade Season: Williams for Khadr?

After a few major sports trades I came up with some general Canada-America swaps that would favour team Canada on several different levels. Some are serious issues that deserve serious consideration, and others aren't so serious, but may be far more agreeable.

Like anything else I've blogged about, from politics to pop culture, my only goal is that some passionate thought -- whether shared or not, but preferably shared -- is generated.

1. Colonel Russel Williams <--> Omar Khadr

Omar was just 15 when he allegedly threw a grenade killing an American soldier, and the evidence against him is thinner than the barrier between good and evil in Afghanistan. Even if he is guilty, he was 15. Should have been a minor-niner, should have been studying for his G1 test, touching the skin of his first girlfriend. When you’re 15 in a war, you do whatever you’re told to stay alive. There’s no other side of the story but the side you’re on.

Now Coronel Russel Williams, he’s no boy, he is a fucking man. A great white Williams, a military wasp, a UCC boy, Ottawa resident, murderer and rapist (allegedly). It was reported that the victims in the sexual assault cases were bound naked to chairs and photographed by their attacker. A square-jawed coward who took the tools he was given to protect our country and used them against us. Apparently his dark past began when his parents divorced. Boo-fucking-hoo.

This isn’t a Canadian, this isn’t even a human being, so why does he deserve Canada’s leniency? You don’t want him there either, America? Take him to Kandahar with your Marines; take him to the front lines. Show him what happens to rapists and murderers in this decade’s capital of rape and murder. Torture his psyche beyond recognition. Take him to Guantanamo and clog his pores with sweat and blood.
Sometimes we need that Old Testament sternness, that Hova justice.

2. Adam Giambrone <--> Rahm Emanuel

Americans seem to –eventually— appreciate adulterers (Clinton, JFK, etc.), and our government needs a shit-talker to spice things up. I’m also quite certain that Emanuel can run the TTC more efficiently than Giambrone.

3. Harper <--> Obama

Pretty obvious how we’d benefit, but Obama would just be happier here.

4. All professional Canadian golfers <--> Tiger Woods

I’ll take a sex addict any day if he’ll give us an athlete to cheer for year-round.

5. Curling <--> Base-ketball

Yea, it isn’t a real sport, but anything’s better than curling. Curling’s not a sport, it’s a fucking hobby. I’ll admit to having dreamed about Cheryl Bernard, though. Curling does nothing pleasant for our Canadian reputation.

Lighting Up Bourbon Street

Whether you're into football or not, I think we can all agree that the Super Bowl was a welcome diversion.

For America, January was filled with political doubts and speculation that did little to ease the minds of a population still struggling with a defeated economy, and a 10% unemployment rate. The Super Bowl was the best thing that`s happened this year.

When Tracy Porter intercepted a Peyton Manning pass in the 4th quarter and ran the ball in for a touchdown, he vanished -- if only for 10 seconds -- every nagging issue on the mind of the American viewer.

Iran flexing, Earthquake in Haiti, Rahm Emanuel tirade, Obama's uncertain future, America's uncertain future. Fuck all that, this is Super Bowl Sunday.

Bourbon street. American symbolism. A cool and colourful city until Girls Gone Wild uncovers a lens and the streets are filled with bare tits and beads, and then the tits and beads are washed out with dirty Atlantic saltwater. Katrina stripped New Orleans.

Who knows which nudity got more exposure, but for many they were just two more reasons to avoid a place they had never really planned on visiting anyway.

But nothing lights up a city like a Super Bowl win. Do you think anyone would know about Pittsburgh if it weren't for the Steelers? Pittsburgh is Pennsylvania's Hamilton.

For the first time in recent memory, CNN's tone --if only for 10 seconds-- has radically shifted. This bliss isn't ignorant, it's a mental vacation.

For non-Americans, natural global order was restored. For better or worse, west is best. Almost 2% of the world's population was tuned in to this game. Who says sports are meaningless?

The Super Bowl means infinitely more than any of us would understand. While many see it as a meaningless demonstration for all-American consumerism, I'd argue its preservation of sanity for some North Americans. Who doesn't need to disconnect from reality once a year?

Julian Casablancas: Back to the Future

This is one of those albums that slips through your fingers when it's released, and then you realize five years later that it redefined the music of that decade.

Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) made something strangely original by combining a few different sounds that already existed. It seems like the music of this decade is taking that sort of direction. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just a new form of creativity that builds on old forms.

What keeps his music unique is the vocals. Casablancas' lyrics and sound made Is This It one of the best albums of the previous decade. And while this one won't be making any top 10 lists (other than a few "top 10 albums you never heard" lists), it is a blueprint for a new kind of electric rock.

Yea, Phrazes for the Young was released in 2009, but it's a prophecy for 2010+. Fresh decade, fresh music.

Now this video is pretty fucking strange, and maybe the song is too at first, but give it a chance...listen to it again...and again...blogwin...blogwin.