Banda Church Yard (Along Airport Road – July 2009)

I was driving back to Toronto from Collingwood last July and since I was on my own, I was free to stop and take pictures anytime I felt the urge to do so. So I decided to drive down Airport Rd instead of continuing along HWY 26 (which leads to Barrie and the 400 etc.). The Airport Rd route is a straight south line to basically Pearson Airport and its a very enjoyable drive on a nice afternoon.

Not far along my journey, I spotted a quaint little church along the road and stopped for a few pictures. The church is Anglican and a cemetery is also part of the yard. It is surrounded by farmland and I took some pictures of the rolled hay stacks which reminded me of some of Monet’s paintings. The sky was bright but was starting to become half filled with dark clouds and the sun was starting to set in the west. The interior shots were taken against the windows since the church was locked.

Split Personality

A friend of mine was sitting down during his work break when I took a few informal photos of him. This is my preferred way to take portraits. When I got to printing the negatives in the darkroom (and to make the image  more interesting) I took two halfs of two different shots and printed them separately, but on the same sheet of photo print paper. It gave it a split effect, thus I call this one “Split Personality”.

Beatles Anthology

Here is an interesting picture of John Lennon (out of focus) on stage at the Budokan Hall, Tokyo Japan in 1966. (LIFE magazine)

One of my favourite parts of The Beatles Anthology series is the 1966 visit to Japan. It’s a place I’ve always wanted to visit myself. And the fact that John Lennon met his future wife (Yoko Ono) only a few months after that trip, makes it somewhat interesting as well.

The best parts of The Beatles in Japan video clips are the concerts at the Budokan Hall. Watching the video you get a glimpse into an authentic Beatles concert in full colour. The performance was considered by The Beatles to be substandard as it was one of the rare concerts where they could actually hear themselves play. It was only ever officially released as a laser disc in the 1980’s (in Japan of course!) but I have seen bootlegs on VHS and DVD (plus most of the footage can be be found on youtube).

This was the last world tour The Beatles would give and it included Germany, Japan, The Philippines, and finally America. The setlist for most every show was:

Rock n Roll Music

She’s a Woman

If I Needed Someone

Day Tripper

Baby”s In Black

I Feel Fine

Yesterday

I Wanna Be Your Man

Nowhere Man

Paperback Writer

I”m Down

The only new songs to play live in ‘66 were “Nowhere Man”, “If I Needed Someone”, “Day Tripper” and “Paperback Writer”. They also neglected to try to to play anything from their new album, Revolver, although “Paperback Writer” was from the same sessions.

Standards like “Rock-N-Roll Music” and “She’s A Woman” (a great version is on the Anthology 2 CD set, with George’s guitar solo sounding just a bit psychedelic) were still predominant. Or maybe they didn’t want to play anything from Revolver as I remember hearing one interview where George Harrison said they had got fed up with it by the time it was completed. However, the scene in the Anthology where they are revisiting the original master tapes of Lennon’s tone poem “Tomorrow Never Knows” (which closes the album), George, Paul and Ringo are thrilled at the re-listening.

It’s also interesting that this 66 world tour was the last gasp of world Beatlemania. “Strawberry Fields” and “Penny Lane” were just around the corner.

Picture of 1995 Beatles from : www.riprense.com/beatlessong.htm

A Little Less Juxtaposition Please

I was watching a Skydiggers interview last Saturday on youtube (just do a “skydiggers” search on youtube, I forgot the link)and though it was a treat to watch a new interview of the Diggers, unfortunately, it was kind of a wasted opportunity. I can’t remember how many times the interviewer (Jian Ghomeshi of the CBC) tried to complicate the process by sticking in the word “juxtaposition” as many times as possible to make the interview sound “intellectual”(Maybe he didn’t write the questions himself?). I found this approach unnecessary and just plain wrong for the subject at hand…a rock band. All he had to do was ask “So tell me about your new album? What songs do you think are the best on it? How long did it take to record?” pretty simple eh?

Instead he tried to make a point that Skydiggers music, sounding rural, was created by urban folks…an interesting point to make but it kinda fell flat and the two Skydigger’s Andy and Josh were tongue tied for some of the “juxtaposition” questions. So to whoever wrote those questions, keep it simple please…

Photo credit: Danya Hawerchuk

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dhawerchuk

Visit Danya Hawerchuk’s Flickr site for some great concert photography. I like her style.

YES: In the Present Toronto Show

Benoit David has a powerful voice and I was amazed at his resemblance to Jon Anderson as well. This man could give YES another 10-15 years of touring life. The song selection was much better than some recent YES gigs. Adding rarities like “Machine Messiah”, “Tempus Fugit” both not played live since 1980! “Onward” from the 1978 album Tormato and “Astral Traveller” from their second album Time and a Word. Excellent choices in my book. The rest was standard YES concert fare with “Close to the Edge”, “Roundabout”, “All Good People” etc…but the man can sing exactly like Anderson with the same accents and he reaches the high notes. Although his voice did crack during “Machine Messiah”, overall, he was excellent.

Steve Howe was also fantastic changing guitars whenever it suited a particular song (which was often). Chris Squire was on fire and Alan White gave a good solid performance. Oliver Wakeman was kept behind the keys and did his job well with a lot less of the flamboyance of his father. Obviously making sure he played the parts faithfully especially the piano bit on “South Side of the Sky”.

I have to say I walked out very satisfied knowing that YES music lives on…

YES: In the Present Rehearsal Photos

All credit to Paul Silveira who took these shots of YES rehearsing in Hamilton, Ontario for the www.yesworld.com website. These were most likely taken on November 1st. Not enough close ups for me except the nice one of Steve Howe. Perhaps they didn’t want any close ups? I’m looking forward to tomorrow night at Massey Hall and a future DVD from the tour.

Election Day USA

Well, it looks like Barack Obama is going to win the US election today. People want a change. And he represents a big change in US politics. Whether he can fufil even half of his goals will be a challenge. It’s too bad he’s running against John McCain, a person I admire. McCain’s time was 2000, and if he had won that race, perhaps the world would be a different place. Also, Bush and Cheney have been very missing in action during this campaign. Change is in the air, and hopefully for the better. [But enough of that word "change" already!!!]

Jon Anderson: YES, He’s Not Happy

Yes frontman Jon Anderson says his bandmates royally dissed him by announcing they will tour with a replacement singer. Anderson, who is on doctor-ordered bedrest for the rest of the year after suffering acute respiratory failure in June, states he is “disappointed and very disrespected.”

Source: http://www.spinner.com

Well, it’s really a shame that the other guys didn’t contact Jon about this. But I’ve got my ticket for Nov 5th Massey Hall, because, with all due respect, Jon Anderson in Yes does not make it Yes…it’s the sum of many parts which might not include Jon (remember 1980?). I love Jon’s music and maybe the band could have even asked him if he didn’t mind but apparently, he no longer has a corporate stake in Yes, therefore he has less say in the matter. I’m interested to hear this version of the band. I am a fan of the Drama album and this is the first chance in a long time that we might get to hear some “Machine Messiah”.

Nov 4th Update: It seems that Jon has recanted his public disapproval (even though it has now been widely documented) and has made peace with the band over the decision.

Cult of (the) Skydiggers

In the summer of 1990, a Toronto based group called Skydiggers (OK I had to edit this as they are not “The” Skydiggers, but it seems very difficult for me to change it in my mind so forgive me if “the” appears where it ought not to in the rest of the article) came out with an acoustic hit song called “I Will Give You Everything” when heavy metal was still the rage and rap and grunge were in their formative years. I first heard the song on Much Music (Canada’s MTV) as a black and white promotional video. I was smitten with it’s gorgeous harmonies and gritty lead vocal from singer Andy Maize. His goatee was pretty retro back then recalling the 1960’s beat nicks.

This band has gone through a lot of ups and downs since being founded in 1987 by Maize and guitarist Josh Findlayson. They have been classified as roots rock which kind of reminds one of The Band and I think the comparison is fair as they incorporate a lot of country influences as well as folk and rock.

The Diggers have released 8 studio albums in 20 years. One live disc and a rerelease of demos of their second album 1992’s Restless (due to a dispute over the ownership of the master tapes). In 1995, Founding guitarist and songwriter Peter Cash split to work with his Brother Andrew as The Cash Brothers. After that, the Diggers were a trio on the 1997 CD Desmonds Hip City (augmented with session players). In 2003 they released a new album called Bittersweet Harmony in which the album title sums up the overall sound of the Diggers. In ‘04 they did some shows with the Cash Bros. I caught one of these shows on video at the Toronto Street Festival. It was a solid show of many past Digger hits plus some Cash Bros. material. It was the first time I ever caught them live and it was long overdue.

For some reasons whether members coming and going, lack of promotion or problems with record companies etc…The Skydiggers haven’t hit the big time as their contemporaries Blue Rodeo or The Tragically Hip. The Diggers are still a local hit. They are Canadian cult band that brings quality and integrity to their music. Part of me wishes them international fame. Part of me wants them to be the best kept secret. Especially, when you can still watch them in an intimate club rather than at Massey Hall.

Check out this page of photos from another WordPress blog. Look like a very intimate show in a beautiful church.

http://tanyalouiseworkman.wordpress.com/2008/10/08/skydiggers/

Star Trek Episode: “Gamesters of Triskelion”

I was watching an old Star Trek episode last night. I have all of them on DVD. Picking an episode is a serious matter when you have seen each one about 20-30 times each. You want to make sure it’s something that can be watched repeatedly, still leaving you satisfied. The second season episode “The Gamesters of Triskelion” unfortunately doesn’t quite cut it for me anymore. I think this episode has a good reputaion among fans with the still trim looking Kirk and herioc Uhura and Chekov fighting for their lives on a perverse planet the equivalent of a cockfighting ring. Also for the famous silver costume of Shana. So it’s bascially an action packed type of episode.

But for me, it didn’t satisfy. The “comic book” Kirk is in full play here and his attempts
to seduce Shana to escape was typical for Kirk. Chekov’s “chosen one” was some good comic relief but Uhura’s scene was quite disturbing as she resists “selection”. Also sad, Spock and McCoy’s usually entertaining bickering seemed kinda forced and I’m surprised I never noticed that before. Kirk’s “freedom and universal justice” speech was very cut and paste and just a way for him to exit as gracefully as possible in order to put on a fresh shirt (he lost it again!).

On a positive note, Galt (the prison warden guy) is one of the best characters with his cold minimal voice, dusty green skin and glowing eyes which make him quite evil and scary (he would have made a great Klingon!). So “Gamesters” just gets a passing grade for at least making me think about what makes a quality episode.