Columns

The Mindful Bard – The Human Statues

CD: The Human Statues, The Human Statues Release date: 2008 Label: Independent The Manic-Depressive Fraternal Love-Twins of a Campfire Songster and a Motown Diva If you follow this column you’ll have noticed my weakness for any music that sounds anything like my parents? record collection from the late ?50s, early ?60s, a trove that included… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Merry, Merry Christmas

In less than 10 days many of us will gather in living rooms or basements all across the country to celebrate Christmas. The gathering may be Norman Rockwell-ian in its old-fashioned wholesome sensitivity. Or more likely it will be a collection of souls connected by DNA strands and years of shared (if sometimes disputed) memories…. Read more »

Music To Eat Lunch To – Mobile – Tales from the City

Release date: October 7, 2008 Label: Universal Music Group Canada Tracks: 10 Rating: 9 Tales from the City is a full-length album from Canadian group Mobile, a band that has put some stronger emotions into this record than their previous release. Having a family member deal with breast cancer brought out a few new musical… Read more »

Porkpie Hat – Icebound ? A Winter Tale

Because the couple had rented the house in mid-July, when the mosquitoes were clouding and clotting and droning like nature’s own hurdy-gurdy in the summer air, they never gave a passing thought to the ancient furnace sitting silent and still in the basement, or the single-paned windows throughout. By mid-December, the city was locked in… Read more »

The Mindful Bard – Francesco Casetti, Eye of the Century

Book: Francesco Casetti, Eye of the Century: Film, Experience, Modernity Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2008 Translation by Erin Larkin with Jennifer Pranolo Recovering a Balanced Turmoil “The cinema is exactly this: an experience that vacillates between the possibility of an excitement beyond measure, and an adherence to measures that avoid all risk. It is the… Read more »

From Where I Sit – Choices

Standoffs, stabbings, drive-by shootings. Recession, depression. Inflation, deflation. Layoffs and closures. Global warming, pollution, carcinogens. Coups and coalitions, resignations and coronations. If your head is spinning and your gut is churning, if You’re worried and confused, you are not alone. You may be like me, watching the news and reading the paper, hanging on every… Read more »

Porkpie Hat – Some of the Things That Make You Major

Some of those things they kept from you a good long while. They distracted you with shining ornaments, bendable action figures, flickering screens, dolls with shiny blond hair that drive bright pink cars to the plastic mall. Some of those things they called evil, exorcised them from you with complicated rituals involving rulers and acts… Read more »