Ten acts to see at Bluesfest

I am going to assume that everyone, by now, knows the Bluesfest lineup. If not, you can click here for a full rundown:

http://www.chez106.com/more.jsp?content=20090422_061813_8256

And further, I am going to assume that everyone will want to go see the big ones - Jeff Beck, Joe Cocker, KISS (by the way - I have now taken down that vote-for-KISS link because they are already coming to town - well done, Ottawa, we finished ninth), Styx, Jackson Browne. And I would be loathe to recommend all of those artists, since I don't plan to go see Styx or KISS myself. But here are some lesser-known acts worth checking out:

8. Local acts: JW Jones might be the most fun of all the local acts, but Jeff Rogers, Becky Abbott, Tara Holloway, Steve Mariner and Ken Workman & the Union promise to be terrific shows as well. There is a ton of great local music out there, and Bluesfest is a great chance to see some of it before the headliners come on.

7. LeE HARVeY OsMOND: Tom Wilson's band. You know, Tom Wilson of Blackie And The Rodeo Kings? It should also be noted that Colin Linden, Wilson's Blackie bandmate, will be playing Bluesfest too. Here's a video:

LeE HARVeY OsMOND-Queen Bee


6. Brian Setzer Orchestra: I don't know if Setzer is better known for his work solo or with the Stray Cats. Either way, a huge talent, an awful lot of fun, and an influential player who has inspired, among others, Trevor Finlay. Here is a video:



5. Divine Brown: My girlfriend is into all kinds of pop music R&B nonsense, which mostly drives me crazy. But when she picked up Divine Brown's CD, I was amazed. Old-school style, beats and melodies that could have come straight from the early 60s, and a fantastic voice. This Canadian singer is worth seeing.



4. Gov't Mule: A band featuring the Allman Brothers' star guitarist Warren Haynes. Here they are on late night TV.



3. Hubert Sumlin: One of the all time true Blues legends, Sumlin was the guitar player for Howlin' Wolf. I have included an interview with the man, because I couldn't find any great playing videos:



2. Ornette Coleman: Because they don't come much more legendary than this man. One of the greatest free-jazz artists of all time. And to this day, one of my favourite concerts ever was Sonny Rollins at the Jazzfest about eight years ago.



1. Toots and the Maytals: And lastly, the one act at the Bluesfest for which I would gladly skip my own wedding (and, depending on the day they play, I may have to). The Otis Redding of Jamaica, Toots Hibbert still has an amazing voice, and the Maytals are perhaps the greatest of all backing vocalists. Absolutely legendary Jamaican reggae artists, and - perhaps even more importantly - a really, really fun time. Here is a clip of them in the studio from the legendary Jimmy Cliff Jamaican movie The Harder They Come.



There are, of course, other big acts. I might check out Green Day, Stone Temple Pilots, maybe even Ludacris. Ah, who am I kidding? I have a wedding that week. I won't be seeing anyone. Enjoy Ornette Coleman for me!

Best written smackdown...ever? Well, in a long time.

Not a lot of people know this, but Roger Ebert is an absolute master of the written smackdown. Not just the world's foremost movie critic, but also a scathing wit who has delivered some of the greatest jabs against those with inflated egos of all time. (The title of one of his books, Your Movie Sucks, is taken from perhaps the greatest of them all, his slam of Rob Schneider for Deuce Bigalow.) Now, he has come up with yet another brilliant smackdown of another inflated egomaniac, Bill O'Reilly. Love O'Reilly (and I hope you don't) or hate him, you must read this:


http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090407/COMMENTARY/904079997/-1/RSS


References to Conrad Black are nice and poignant, but Squeaky the Mouse? Fantastic.

More Genie photos. And exactly what is wrong with the Genies and the people covering them. Yes, I include myself among their number.

This couple showed up on the red carpet. Immediately, people began talking to the guy in the fur coat - no one in Canada, and few in the media, know what any of the stars at the Genies actually look like, so they asked him who he was. His name is Biz, it turns out, and he is a rapper from Montreal. They said, of the woman beside him, "is this your girlfriend?" and he said no, she is just a friend, also from Montreal. And he then had his picture taken by everyone, with everyone, including Larry O'Brien. The girl patiently waited, off to the side, while Biz did his thing in his fur coat, then accompanied him down the red carpet until they reached the backstage area.

Here is "Biz"'s just-friend, not-girlfriend, Chloe Bourgeois. She is standing with Yves-Christian Fournier, who has just accepted the Claude Jutra award for directing his first feature film, the magnificent Tout Est Parfait. Which starred Chloe Bourgeois, in a fantastic performance. And no one interviewed her.

I must admit, I fell into the category of the rest of the media, who largely ignored Ms. Bourgeois. I saw her in the film, but she looked nothing like she did on the red carpet, and I did not recognize her. I am kicking myself now, because she is one of the few people there I would love to have interviewed. Then again, I clearly wasn't alone. Besides, the guy she was with was wearing a fur coat!

Evil Dead: The Musical!

Normally, I would post this only on the Cynical Cinema website. But because that website is currently undergoing some kind of switchover that I don't really understand, I am posting it here. The link on this blog to Cynical Cinema works, but not the link on the CHEZ page. The new CC website has been updated, but not everything is there yet. Right now only the reviews up to January 29th of this year are available. It should be back to normal within a week, at which point there will be a huge amount of new content, since I have been saving reviews for a week already. But not knowing whether it will be up and running by the time the next series of shows for Evil Dead: The Musical are happening, I thought I would post this here.

Doc and I had a bit of a bet going. I said that Evil Dead: The Musical would be of more interest to more people than Spamalot. He thought that was ludicrous. The reason I said this was that more people know Monty Python than Evil Dead, certainly. But Monty Python fans are not ALL going to care about Spamalot. In fact, many casual Monty Python fans will not even make the connection between the few movies they know and the musical. However, there are no casual Evil Dead fans. If you know the movies, and love the movies, then you are in all the way. And you will (like me) rent My Name Is Bruce, the new movie starring Bruce Campbell as himself, and you will buy Bubba Ho-Tep, and you will read If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B Movie Actor, Campbell's autobiography. (Which, by the way, is absolutely hilarious, and kicks off with a brilliant forward that was supposed to be written by Sam and Ivan Raimi, and that in itself is worth the price of the book.)

At any rate, the bet was going to be paycheques. Doc's paycheque versus mine, on whether Spamalot or Evil Dead would be bigger. In the end I chickened out and didn't take the bet, because if I lost one of my paycheques I would lose my house. Never bet more than you can afford to lose, right? Well, I'm kicking myself now. I took my girlfriend and my sister to the showing of Evil Dead: The Musical at Carleton University's Kailash Mital Theatre on Saturday night. I called a few hours ahead, hoping to reserve tickets for the show. I was informed that for the first three nights of the procuction, there were no more reserve seats to be had. They had all been reserved. So we would have to take our chances at the door.

We figured we had better go early. Like, really early. If all the reserved seats were taken, the tickets available at the door were likely to be snapped up fast. So we got there at 7:00 for the 8:00 show. Judging by the pile of tickets on the table, there were about nine left at that time. And then we were directed to go downstairs, where the line began. And we followed the line of people through the lobby, and then down the stairs, and then around the corner, and then down the length of a very long hall to the outside door, and then back along the wall in the other direction, almost back to where we began. And this is an hour before show time. Everyone who had a ticket for this show had lined up an hour before show time. They all wanted to sit in the first few rows, where there WILL be some splashback. Of course, we ended up at the back of the theatre. It isn't a huge theatre, so that isn't a problem, but I would have liked to be in the splatter zone. And I wish I had taken that bet.

The show itself is just about what I expected. Terrifically campy, silly, and fun. Some of the funniest moments were the ones where the cast called attention to the low-budget nature of the production. The premise is great, the satire of horror movies and Evil Dead in general is funny, and the songs are absolutely terrific. The highlights are "Housewares Employee", with Ash and Linda, "It Won't Let Us Leave", with Cheryl, and "All The Men In My Life Keep Getting Killed By Candarian Demons", with Annie, Ash and Jake. Jake is the funniest character in the musical, perhaps because he reminds my of my buddy Trevor. And Cheryl gets most of the best lines - the cheesy, ludicrous and often terrifically stupid horror-movie puns that make movies like Evil Dead such campy fun.

There are some very funny references as well - for example, when Cheryl sits down to read a book, it's If Chins Could Kill. That made me laugh. The only problem I have with the musical is that it is catered almost entirely to fans of the movie. I guess that should have been obvious to me, but it really stood out that most of the big laugh lines were those taken directly from the movies - "this is my boom-stick", "well hello Mr. Fancy Pants", "gimme some sugar baby", and so forth. Just saying those things doesn't make me laugh. I get it, fine, but at least the guy playing Ash could have infused it with a little bit of Bruce Campbell's sardonic stone-faced humour. Instead, every time he delivered one of those lines, I felt like I was watching one of my not-funny friends who think they're being hilarious when they quote, at length, a funny passage from a movie. I tell those friends it was funny when it happened in that film, but not when it's coming out of their mouth. That's how I felt often.

An unfortunate aspect of Saturday's show was when Ash's microphone started cutting out, and we missed just about all of his final song. The chorus carried on loudly, and the song was still funny, but we didn't get half of it. But it certainly is a good time, it's campy and fun, and you can tell the actors really enjoy doing this show. There are three more dates for Evil Dead: The Musical at the Kailash Mital Theatre, at Carleton University - March 19th, 20th, and 21st. I recommend it to fans of the movies. And only to fans of the movies. But then, I know they are going anyway. Here's how to get there: http://www.carleton.ca/ims/alth05.html

Springsteen's The Wrestler video

First, he was snubbed by the Oscars for what might be the very best song, ever, written for a movie. Then, that song was left off the soundtrack to The Wrestler in favour of some Whitesnake tune from 1986. But try watching this video and then shaking the song from your head. This is not only the best song ever written for a movie (having seen the movie puts it in much more poignant context), this video is also the best trailer for a movie, ever, and it's a really good promotional video for "Mickey Rourke as Best Actor".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6smwWg8bc

Personally, I'm still pulling for Richard Jenkins for Best Actor. But nothing I've seen has made me think about changing my mind quite as much as that video. A reminder of what an amazing movie that is, and what an amazing songwriter Springsteen is. And now I have to pull for M.I.A. to win Best Song for "O Saya".

Operation Go Home.

OK, it's that time of year where I get preachy again, only this time I'm preachy with more of a purpose. For the past three years I have done Operation Go Home's 24 Hours of Homelessness challenge just off Rideau Street in that Sugar Mountain - Scotiabank mini-mall. I can't remember what it's called. We'll be back there this year, doing it again. In the past, we have solicited minor donations from passers-by, but it has mostly been an event to raise awareness of Operation Go Home as they kick off their fundraising drive for the year. This time, we want to raise as much money as we can on that first day, to get the ball rolling on what hopefully will be a major fundraising campaign. The event takes place from Thursday, February 19th at 4:00 p.m. to Friday, February 20th at 4:00 p.m. Hopefully this year won't be like last, where it was -25 and my sleeping bag came apart. With any luck it will be -10 and not snow.

This is the point of the event, however. It's supposed to be cold, it's supposed to be unpleasant. This is the life for many kids in the Ottawa area, kids who live on the streets. And there are lots of them, make no mistake, this is a problem in this region. There are no shelters for kids. There are just homeless shelters for adults. Kids are allowed to go there, but they never do. It's too dangerous for them, and the threat of violence and other horrible things is all too real. So if they can't find a warm place for the night, they are left with no recourse but to sleep outside. We'll be doing it for 24 hours, but this is a reality that could happen for these kids on any given night of the winter time.

Operation Go Home is a charitable organization, with no government funding whatsoever, that seeks to get these kids off the streets. Their mission statement is basically to help the homeless kids before they become homeless adults. Over the past three years, I've seen their operation in detail, and I have met many of these kids. They are out on the streets for a variety of reasons. Some of them just hated living at home, and the streets seemed glamorous. Others became addicted to drugs and wound up homeless and broke. But most seem to have fled from home to escape abuse. OGH tries to reunite kids with their families across Canada as much as possible. Those who can go home, hopefully will. And for those who can't, the drop-in centre provides them with some education, a few meals a day, and help getting back on their feet.

For a homeless kid, that is harder than it seems. Most don't have any ID of any kind, not even a birth certificate. Which means they can't become employed, which means they will never be able to afford an apartment. OGH helps them get the identification they require, helps them set up job interviews and helps them get apartments to get them off the streets before it's too late. This year, the fundraising season kicks off today, and I'm putting the link up here so people can make donations if they so choose. There are ads running on CHEZ right now, talking about the event, and they say to go to http://www.chez106.com/ to make a donation. I think that page will be up fairly soon, but until it actually exists, here is the link:

http://www.canadahelps.org/CharityProfilePage.aspx?CharityID=s24828

Here is the link to their website, which explains everything OGH does in the community:

http://www.operationgohome.ca/

Any amount helps, any amount is greatly appreciated. Last year, people came up to me for months after the event, giving me five dollars here, two dollars there. Including one very sweet little boy who brought me a loonie and some nickels at a concert event. Of course, I'm happy to take donations in that form and deliver them to Operation Go Home at the next event. But hopefully this pledge form will make it easier, and you can always stop by and see us at the William Street Mall. There - I remembered what it's called!

Rush still sucks...too bad their fans kick ass.

It's too bad I like Rush fans. I enjoy trading barbs, entering into deep discussions concerning the merits of various bands and artists, and exchanging opinions about all kinds of things, both musical and otherwise. If Rush fans were by and large obnoxiouis, like Leaf fans, it would be much easier to dislike all things about the band. As it stands, their fans seem to be, for the most part, well versed and very knowledgeable about music in general. This means that all I can do is agree to disagree concerning Rush, and most of the other music Rush fans tend to like. But I do like the Rush fans.

I got a chance to meet several of them Thursday night, when I was forced to conduct the listening party for their new album, Snakes and Arrows. The Rush fans seemed to like it, I did my best not to listen at all. There's something amazing about Rush, and that is the kind of fanaticism they seem to engender. Rush fans are Rush fanatics. They live and breathe this band. One of our winners that night was a man who had once been in a coma for 43 days. And then in the hospital for a further three months. When he got out of the hospital, he went home, showered, changed, and attended the Rush concert in a wheelchair that same night. You don't catch too many Styx fans doing stuff like that.

Overall, it was a fairly enjoyable evening. The people were great, we all had a good time, and I was able to ignore the album as best I could. The big prize was actually really good, for the Rush fans. It was a giant book full of every program from every tour Rush has been on since they first formed in the 70s. It went to a big Rush fan, as it should have. Too bad they're decent folks.

I'm slowly learning to "blog"...

This is a test, to find out if I am in fact as technologically savvy as I ought to be. What with having no cell phone, no home internet access and no capacity to do simple tasks like programming a VCR. I have been told that "blogging" is easy. I still find myself incapable of typing "blog" without quotation marks. I feel that makes me less nerdy, since using quotation marks indicates my lack of familiarity with the process. Once I lose the quotation marks, however, that will signal the end of the Eric I once was, and announce to the world that I have succumbed to the inevitable pressure of becoming a part of the E-world. Until then, this is my "blog".