NOTIFICATION: Another place to peep my words at!

Hey all,

So lately I've been writing the same quality goods for a site for writers called Suite101.com. Peep my profile! It's a site with writers from all over the world on 30,000 different topics. Plus it's been around since '96 it's got a readership of 29 million a month. Cool!

So I sent them a couple articles, told them a paragraph about myself where I referred to myself as a "living legend", and voila! I've got a couple articles out so far on Lenny Breau and Jerry. Between you and me, I've got a couple just about cooked on some cool old school hip hop and Mordechai's Barney's Version.

Aight so it's good to have a place to write where I can chill...grateful for the blog again! I'll be back to drop some exclusive blog tings I can't drop anywhere else.

Check ya later, man.

Author: Robertson Davies; Novel: The Manticore

Robertson Davies’ novel The Manticore is a special work of fiction which has received well earned international critical acclaim for its narrative style, psychological insights and the overall lucidity with which the author communicates his understanding of human nature.

The Manticore is the second novel in what’s known as the Deptford trilogy, named for the fictional town where the protagonists grew up. It helps to have read Fifth Business, the book preceding this, but The Manticore can stand up on its own too, as allusions to the earlier book are made throughout.

During a teaching placement in a high school English classroom I was responsible for teaching Fifth Business, and this was my first contact with Davies. At first I had no interest in the author, but as I came to understand the irony in the narrator’s voice this changed. Initially I mistook the character’s rural plainness for that of the author’s! Grievous sin. I also learned about Davies’ fascination with the famous psychologist Carl Jung, and I began to appreciate another layer of meaning in what I was beginning to understand was a complex tapestry weaving together wordplay and psychology realism. Yet, despite the intellectual bent in his writing, the novel fostered the desire in the reader to turn the page. As mentioned, this was Fifth Business, but it’s even truer of The Manticore.

So, I was happy when I found a used copy of the entire Deptford trilogy in a used bookstore for $10: if only alcohol provided that same value and lasting pleasure!

The book’s most enjoyable features were revealed in dialogue, especially between the protagonist and his psychologist. Each character makes psychologically revealing statements which seem to summarize accurately the subconscious motivations behind the behaviour in question. But somehow, the next character obliterates this argument with another of even greater insight and force. They continue upping one another in this vein, each rebuttal more surprising than the last. The final psychological conclusion is all the stronger and more satisfying for having survived such scrutiny. His fascination with psychology and Jungian theory makes him especially equipped to write this kind of dialogue.

His classical education (especially his knowledge of Latin) makes his language remarkably precise, and gives his writing an old school sensibility. Davies has that rare, coveted ability to slap the reader with 1000 pounds of truth in the space of 10 words. But I find Davies’ most charming gift as a writer his ability to marry his old school, classical self with an ironic, humourous tone in his characters. It balances the tone and prevents the solemn, thought provoking themes in his novels from getting too dense or heavy handed. Looking at the author it wouldn’t be hard to confuse his face for a bust of a 5^th century Athenian, but make no mistake, Davies has a wicked sense of humour and at the end of the day he is a modern who doesn’t take himself too seriously.

Plus he went to UCC and was the founding master of Massey College, associated with U of T, so he’s a reaaaal Toronto boy. Legend has it that on campus he challenged his students to throw water balloons at him. As a result, he could be found holding an umbrella on sunny days. A reasonable defensive tactic. Keeping this in mind when reading The Manticore should help bring his irony out in sharp relief. Check him out. More to come.

Artist: Bob Dylan; Album: Bob Dylan

This is a little talked about self titled album. It's a very atypical Dylan album because all the songs are covers. There's also no band. It's just him wailing on these old, traditional songs, and he kills it! Oh, it's also his first recording.

Because he didn't write these songs his prowess as a singer and guitar player is brought to the forefront. He's obviously, and justifiably, most noted as a gifted songwriter. While this is true, his nasal twang and GCD type progressions have a way of preventing people from really hearing the inventive melodies in his singing and his sophisticated accompaniment on his instrument. On this album, both are spotlighted and his talents are impossible to deny.

The layers between his guitar, harmonica, and his absolutely haunted voice, each contain their own bounce. When taken together, it's a a tapestry weaved by an undeniable master of traditional acoustic music.

But Perhaps what's more essential to the album than any technical accomplishments is the range of moods he captures as his songs vary so extremely in character. He convincingly switches from a light-hearted social observer to a desperate man on his deathbed managing that difficult balance, remaining undeniably Dylan without betraying the personality of the character in the song itself.

There are songs I had never heard, and the ones I had are completely transformed here, so in a sense are even newer.

Come to think of it, like the last album I reviewed, me and my buddy listened to this disc over and over on our way driving across the country from Vancouver. It has become a personal classic to me for that reason, but we knew it was special after very short time, so you don't need to have it be associated with a formative moment in your life to have it be meaningful. You also don't need to be a die-hard fan of Dylan or acoustic music to enjoy this, but if you are, don't let it pass you by!

Peace. More to come.

Artist: Talking heads; Album: Remain In Light

This music is some of the most exciting I've heard in years because it's a paradox: rhythmically it's simple but complicated, the melodies are are bizarre but they fit perfectly, and strangely, the music contains elements from lots of styles but it's impossible to classify what style it is.

There are a lot of simple, but sophisticated, layers but they become complex when taken together. Each layer is unique, and in this case, the sum equals more than the parts of the whole. Most bands have their own sound within a genre, which is cool, but here there is one feeling or spirit manifested in every instrument and every word which seems to come from the force of David Byrne's personality, opposed to any musical predecessors.

I was at first too blown away by the strange, unique character of the music to realise they are in fact virtuosos on their instruments. But dwelling on their technical skill isn't the point.

They don't fall into musical cliches without ever giving the impression they're actively avoiding them. There's a tremendous unity in the album, but it's is so different than any music I've ever heard it's hard to believe the album is 30 years old!

I have learned that their sound was called New Wave and they emerged from the New York art scene in the mid 70s and 80s. Figures. The sound is 'out there' but the lyrics are poetic, sensitive, and esoteric, and reading the words in the albums liner does a lot to show you they actually do hail from earth. They're certainly different though!

I bought this album just before driving home from Vancouver to meet a buddy. We drove for about 50 hours home and probably heard this album 30 times without ever getting tired of it. After the first hearing I knew it was great, and over time it's become a very classic album for me personally.

It is adventurous stuff, but I think it'd be a tragedy for serious fans of music to overlook this album. In anticipation of the talking Heads revival I'm predicting, newbies best start with Remain in Light.

More to come

Old Renaissance Man--New Mandate

I'm back! Yes, I have decided to give the people what they have been begging for. Since last post I have realised that in the post-literate age of digital media people like reading short, digestible amounts: a child can drown in an inch of water; for adults, roughly 500 words. As such, shorter posts from now on. I will write more frequent posts concerning my two main interests: music and literature. However, I reserve the right to write about whatever new quirky thing I take up. I plan to tighten the focus towards literature reviews and music reviews. Lucky for you I've been reading and listening to a lot of good stuff.

My first literature review will be about the novel Suder by contemporary author Percivall Everett. But I will do it next blog. In fact, to prove how short the new posts will be, and how honest I was above, this one is over.

Moving the Pieces

Aaron Copeland (not my childhood friend, the composer) once said that “If a literary man puts together two words about music, one of them will be wrong”. With this in mind I’d like to apologize for glossing over so much in my last post! There’s a lot of truths I didn’t get to, and this in itself is a type of falsehood. There's lots more to say about music another day. I’m going to discuss this other small hobby of mine now.

Indian Proverb: Chess is an ocean in which a fly can drink and an elephant may bathe.

You probably don’t think chess is dope. Put simply, you’re wrong. It’s the royal game. If you don’t back it hard maybe you’re not regal enough. Maybe you’re a simpleton. For some reason it has a reputation as a nerdy game. I’m a really cool guy and I back it. If you still need more convincing the words ahead will do it.

It’s an old game. Whether it came from India or an African country is debatable. I don’t remember that far back and neither does anyone else. Lots of old peeps had a game with similar rules. Regardless of time and place the game appealed to everyone. Think about it: civilizations that hated each other and went to war and killed and raped each others babies went home after battle and moved pieces with their loved ones. We all have the game in common!

Chess was always regarded as a past time for nerds until Bobby Fischer talked mad noise about the Russians before going there and personally schooling them. Russians dominated chess more than Canadians killed hockey (I’m being honest, sorry). Fischer would later prove himself to be completely mental (9/11 Jewish conspiracies etc.), and the seeds of insanity were present in his match against Spassky (the top Russian). He lost the first game. There were video cameras taping the match and Fischer thought they were too loud (even when they were turned off), so they put thick blankets over to quiet the noise. This wasn’t enough, so they played in a small back room isolated from everyone! Once alone Fischer beat him 7-1 with a bunch of draws. Top grandmasters don’t get dominated that way!

This explains it all pretty much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6WsuBZfr10&feature=related

The American public followed the match and chess became popular! YAY! This was during the cold war, the same year Paul Henderson scored for Canada to beat the Russians. The US had some beef with the communists too! Canada expected to beat the Russians in hockey. It’s our game. They gave us a real run for our money, but before the Spassky match no American capitalist had a place beating the top Russian in chess!

Personally, I am a logical hombre. I like debating things and understanding them in an abstract way so I can superimpose them in another context. That’s the appeal literature has for me, with metaphors and all that. But chess is at once abstract and finite. No rhetoric convinces the loser the battle is still going; when his King is cooked the game cannot legally proceed. One time in the parks of New York the police tried to arrest people for gambling on chess games, only the judge acquitted them since he determined it couldn't legally be considered gambling. Unlike poker, backgammon or hockey there is absolutely no luck involved in chess! True story. It's one persons brain against the other. No more, no less.

You know what else is cool? Historically, Jews have a habit of whooping ass at chess boards around the world. The greatest world champions have all been Jews: Steinitz, Lasker, Fischer, and Kasparov. I should mention that Fischer has publicly disassociated himself from his Jewish heritage..he’s a real hater. Still there’s no shortage of Jewish chess leaders: Kashdan, Fine, Reshevsky, Tartakower, Flohr, Najdorf, Bronstein, Botvinnik, Tal, and that ultra good looking Halperin! Even that kid Josh Waitzkin who the movie “Searching for Bobby Fischer” was made about is Jewish. Josh actually connects to my next point, the final reason why chess is undisputedly dope.

The Wu-tang back it! They always rap about the pieces. In the Wu-Tang manual there’s a whole chapter on the significance chess plays in the Wu’s whole philosophy. Rza phrases it in a way I just can’t: “At parties chess was considered nerdy at one point. Now it’s considered cool…The other day when GZA was playing Melquan, when he took his queen he said ‘Hey, your bitch chose me’—that is some pimp shit. That’s just how we flip it”. That’s how I feel too.


This connects with Josh since that kid stopped playing serious chess and grew up to be a martial arts champion. He’s practically the RZA’s hero now! They hang out all the time, Josh discusses the links between chess and martial arts at the promotional work he does for http://www.wuchess.com/, an online hip hop chess community the RZA started. I am going to learn more about it because for some reason I have nothing to do with it. In my last two posts I discussed blues and chess and I bet none of you thought I’d bring up Hip Hop/Wu-Tang in both of em!

Anyway, I’m sure you have a lot more respect for the 64 squares now. I’m part Russian and all the way Jew so I can’t really help but love moving pieces. Really with the world wide explosion of chess in the 70s, and especially since the internet, people from all over the world are unreal at chess and games are analyzed the same day they’re played! It’s not just for Russian Jews anymore. That having been said, challenge me. I take on all comers. But beware: I’m into regicide buddy!

One last note: I thought I'd provide a link to what is arguably Bobby Fischer's most famous games from when he was a 13 year old: "The Game of the Century". Check out move 17 where he allows his Queen to be taken in order to unleash a WICKED combination!

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1008361

Man, this is dirty stuff! Peace out ya'll.

Black Music as told by a White Boy

BIG TINGS ALERT: CHRIS BROWN CHANGED HIS FACEBOOK STATUS TO SINGLE!



Moving right along. Have you ever travelled to a place and thought "man this spot has character! There's something about it that's unlike anywhere I've ever been". Switzerland feels like the technology is dope, but it doesn't have explosive culture like Paris. When you walk around Paris you know you're not in Chicago. And not just because you can't understand a thing people say. Every place has an aura. I think it's essential to think about when and where a style of music came from if you want to be an informed listener. Blues didn't come from Sweden! Chicago blues couldn't be born in California.



I'm going to begin by saying I think blues, jazz and hip hop is an evolution of the same thing, extended over time and place: black music! Initially blues was played by a single musician on an acoustic guitar. You might have the image of a man on a porch in Mississippi wearing a straw hat and overalls. Maybe a piece of straw dangles in his mouth. Maybe I'm just thinking about the cover of my Mississippi John Hurt album but I really think I had that image in my head before! The harmonies were simple. So was the melody. The fingerpicking could be intricate but it wasn't conceptually advanced compared to what was to come, even if it was techinically difficult to play. A guy could go to a bar and play the same song for literally 10-15 minutes and just sing/mumble about how his girl left him for another man and took everything he had ( This makes me think of Tom Arnold in True Lies: "What kind of a sick bitch takes the ice tray!"). Perhaps he ran into the devil at an intersection. Crossroads whatever. Cool. Basic. I love it! But I get it.



Moving North to the Windy City. The blues got drummers, electric guitars, and saxophones! BB Kings harmonies/chord structures are virtually the same as Robert Johnson's but the rhythm is BIGGER. This is chicago blues. People in Chicago are more demanding than the Mississippi crowd. Maybe people are dancing to it instead of just bar-fighting. Solo acoustic guitar don't cut it. Different place, different music.



Parallel to this is rag-time piano coming up in the EARLY 20th century in N'awlins. Then Louis Armstrong's trumpet makes musicians around the world cry. In New York, Duke Ellington plays and starts SWINGING the blues with an orchestra! ORCHESTRA! He's most associated with jazz, but he's got tons of tunes based on the 3 chords of blues. One of my favourite albums of his is Blues in Orbit. Listen to Oscar Peterson play Duke's composition "C Jam Blues". It's dope. But his blues is jazz. Just like Jimi Hendrix's blues is rock. More on that.



New York is now the jazz centre. During World War II there's a ban on recording. Several years go by where Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie are playing and playing and playing but nobody's heard it because the vinyl used for records is needed for the war effort (specifically for what I don't know, but it's true). War ends, records are made, Parker takes world by storm! Everything is twice as fast and the harmonies are NUTS! It's BeBop now. Louis Armstrong will give you a blank stare if you ask him what a tri-tone substitution is! People make connections between the atom bomb/war and the change in jazz. It makes a lot of sense to me, but even musicians at the time thought it was ruining jazz. Go to any music store now and any book of "jazz standards" Listen to Parker play KoKo and tell me the world is the same as John Hurt, Robert Johnson or even Ellington. Place and time are different.


Miles Davis travels to New York to find Parker before they had ever met, and he becomes his protege and all that. But he's never happy playing the same way for long. He makes harmonies simple again and people on California love it! It becomes "cool jazz" that fits in perfectly with their laid back, anything goes surfer attitude. Jazz is accessible for people again! Now white people can play it too! Hello Gerry Mulligan/Chet Baker. That's California.


Miles doesn't like the fact that white people are taking jazz back!! He starts playing tunes like Airegin. Yes. This is Nigeria backwards. Tony Williams and Elvin Jones enter the picture and start laying down rhythms that are simply astounding. White drummers everywhere shake their heads! But really so does everyone.


But Jazz starts losing ground. It's not mainstream anymore. James Brown hears Fela Kuti and puts a band together. Sly has a family too (a white and black one). They have horns and electric guitars too! Bitches Brew=the album where Miles goes electric himself. Keyboard, not piano. Electric guitar, not no guitar. Jazz and funk intersect. They're pretty similar right?


Enter Jimi Hendrix. He is a blues player but people call it psychadelic rock. Only he's got a jazz drummer (basically...Jimi called him "my Elvin Jones" who you remember was Miles' drummer for a time but became famous with Coltrane). I said earlier white people couldn't drum like that. I take it back now. White people are cool too! Anyway, that's really why I can't tell the difference between music anymore. Jazz rock and blues have a thin line between em.


Let's just get to hip hop already! Do you know who Ali Shaheed Muhammad is? He's the DJ for A Tribe Called Quest and he's obcessed with jazz. It's not a secret. The sickest track on the album is called "jazz"! Miles Davis' bassist Ron Carter plays on the album. They shout out "Be bop" too. Digable Planets, Guru and Jazzmatazz, and countless others EXPLICITLY take jazz cuts. My favourite jazz guitar player now, Grant Green, is used all the time in break beats. For squares, that's music people break dance too. For real squares, break dancing is one of four pillars of hip hop along with rap, graffitti and DJing. Nas' father was a blues musician. Cool eh? These things come full circle.


Lastly, consider the difference between a Dre beat and WuTang: PLACE! Dre is Westside and his beats sound like. WuTang reflects the cold hard concrete of New York. Dre rolls Sess, Wu is into Kush. Primo is the same way. Time and place forms the creation of music. People all over listen and enjoy no matter where they're from. This didn't use to be true. Before people Chicago heard Chicago blues, etc.But thanks to the interweb, blonde kids named Sved from Sveden can listen to NWA!


Music is for everyone, black white swedish american whatever. I guess those countries that burn American flags are an exception...Maybe Jimi playing the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock? Anyway, an understanding of where it's from is necessary to really get into it. I know I say this but I really will be shocked if people have gotten this far. I will not put you through more! I really could though! I left out a ton. Regards to Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Curtis Mayfield, De La Soul, Art Blakey, Cannonball Adderley, Pigpen (he was sort of black!) and more.

Leafs lost again. They had a lead coming into the third. It was obvious they were going to lose. JERRY LIVES.


J