Warrior for Alternative Conflict Resolution!

Buffy Ste-Marie has a new album. In her 70s or 80s now, and still cool as f***.

CP: I read that you don't like being called a "warrior," though it seems to happen often.

Sainte-Marie: Warrior is one of the words that is quite specific and should be reserved for our veterans and soldiers, who have been or are willing to go kill somebody and get killed — go kill somebody usually because somebody else tells them to. I'm not going to somebody's damn war. I don't want to get killed or be killed for that kind of reason.

When somebody says, "Oh Buffy, you're such a warrior for peace," I stop them and say, "No, I'm not really a warrior for peace." Instead, what I promote is alternative conflict resolution. The word warrior was not thrown around like that in the '60s. It's kind of crept up on us as we've forgotten how horrible the Vietnam War was. For me, both sides are obscene on war. War is just an obsolete, old-fashioned, suicidal thing that human beings have done from time to time. It's a low vibe. We're better than that. [Canadian Press]

Great political songs.


Great love songs.

One of the most celebrated aboriginal bands right now

Tribe Called Red. Great new song!

Happy Birthday Moi!

It's my birthday. I was wondering who to post about on my birthday. I've decided on Harpo Marx.


I remember where I was when I watched my first Marx Bro movie (parents' living room, Ile Perrot, waiting to leave for the airport, 1990s.) I don't remember when my interest in them increased, but at some point I was taking out all the books on them in the library, and read Harpo's autobiography.

He was just a really cool guy. Really kind, humble, loved animals, adopted 4 kids. He hung around with all the great New York wits of the time (Dorothy Parker et al) but never became a snot about it. Was best friends with the famous critic Alexander Woolcott, who was the total opposite--eccentric, insecure, over the top. Woolcott ADORED Harpo. The stories about the two of them are très funny.

Well really the bio is full full of funny stories. Who knows how *true* but great storytelling. Like the time he fell asleep in the theatre and dropped an entire bag full of black jelly beans, causing mayhem and havoc in the theatre; then woke up and accused George Burns of eating them all.

Or playing piano in a whorehouse, but always the same 2 songs, the only ones he knew.

Or during the 1929 crash, he avoided ruin by charming a gangster into lending him the money--by pinchie-winchieing him.

I turned my brother onto the bio, and the two of us became such fans we almost ran out and bought a croquet set. I know a couple people who like the Marx Brothers, but everyone likes Groucho of course. Witty, sarcastic, quick thinking. And really I love all the brothers. But Groucho was an asshole in life. And Chico was a womanizer and gambler. Nice guy, but totally unreliable in re his family.

My brother and I love Harpo. He's a guy you aspire to be like.

Anyway. As I sit here in my midlife crisis, still looking for a better job, just getting back to my actual writing, going through therapy and such... Harpo makes me think about What Matters. What it takes to be happy, to be content with one's place in life.

If you need a little cheering up, a little fun, I highly recommend. It has a 4.3 rating on goodreads.

Ryn Weaver

Starting to like this chick...

Missed 80s, missed Prince

Came across this song. Sheena Easton says it's her favorite, but I'd never heard it. Even though it's a Prince composition! It's very 80s, but in a coolsexy way. Lots of wailing. And a funky keytar player.



And of course, this is the Prince song we all know. Check out those earrings...


Speaking of Prince, he announced a last minute concert last weekend (Hit and Run tour) but I couldn't go. Too broke! Too much debt. :-(   Luckily I saw him when he first started touring with that band (3rd Eye Girl) so I don't feel like I TOTALLY missed out.

The best concert I saw was my first, when he played a last minute concert at the Jazz Festival. It was in a club, first come first stand, so I was in the equivalent of row 11! It was incredible. You don't need to be a Prince fan to enjoy his concerts (I also saw him in an arena concert.) It's where he shines, what he was put on Earth to do. Srsly. You never hear anything but praise about his concerts. I've never read a bad review. (Aside from the Rolling Stone concert goers who booed him when he was an opener!)

The Grand Purge (or the Great Book Eating Outbreak)

I finally got the energy back to start purging/cleaning the apartment. Two weeks ago I did the kitchen and living room. Today was the long-awaited bedroom/office.

We have a queen bed in one room, and then in case Fernando's snoring (or stepmommy comes to town) there's a single bed. And there's my writing desk, and all our fiction books, and my writing books.

In the last weeks I decimated the books. It's like some paper eating virus attacked the bookshelves. Though unfortunately when you have books piled 2-3 piles deep, you can clear out hundreds of novels and not regain that much square footage. And every time I turned around, I'd find another pile of books. This is why I try to discourage young people from book hoarding. Cause you can't read them all in one lifetime, and there will always be new ones you'll want to buy, and one day you'll have to haul them all out of your home and it's LONG and DUSTY and HEAVY.

I also almost totally cleared out the poli sci books from my last degrees. The only couple left are my book case for writing/book research, and my case for Favorites.

I also took out the old bed frame and put in my cute 1940s one that I hauled here from Nanaimo. And my old Ikea writing desk broke, so I took it out, and put in place the vanity I brought from Nanaimo. New sheets on the bed, new mite dust cover on the mattress... it's getting there. Yoopie!

(800 dudes X Mean Jerk Time) / 4 dicks at a time

My two favorite bits of humor right now. I shares with you. Just in case you need.

The computer geeks of Silicon Valley discuss how to jerk off 800 men in 10 minutes. Unfortunately it won't let me embed the video... but I high recommend clicking through.

The show has a Stanford professor to make sure their math-talk is right, and this scene was no exception. All the information on the white boards was written by the professor and one of his grad students.

My other Plaisir du Moment is this music video of Bad Lip Reading what Carl is saying in Walking Dead. I suspect from the youtube comments that you don't need to watch the show to enjoy. This song made me stop hating this character. BECAUSE I FLOW!



...No one wanted your stinky tiara.

We dance so close to the fiyah!

Oh my days, Staying Alive was such a bad movie. Except I was young enough to enjoy it--I remember, my mum took me. I loved whatsherface's long hair.



...If you really want to treat yourself, here's the big dance finale from the movie.



Kaboom!

All this band is missing is a stick bass guitar.


Did you see the band's bass player?

The 80s were very good at androgyny. Reminds of me Charlie Murphy.

"Micki Free was, like, the new cat in Shalamar. And when he joined the group I heard mad cats were like, Yo Shalamar got a new girl in there, that bitch fine like a motherfucker! They was talking about Micki Free, okay? Mickey Free is not a girl, alright?"

Don't turn around!

 Flashback of the Day

If you're blue and you don'tknowwheretogoto!

Never saw this video. Chicks in blackface as background dancers? Not quite a Robert Palmer video.




Too Many Words, Not Enough Notes will be the name of my autobiography. Or maybe Well She More or Less Gets Away With It. And when will they come out with a Georgette Heyer bio called With Due Expediency, Putting on the Regency? I'm beginning to think I should go to Jeeves & Wooster for all my titling needs.

This cracked us up even more than the Jack Wagner

One of our high school French teachers had a pair of jeans with flowers printed on them. But one of the biggest bushes of flowers was right on, well, her bush. For some reason "she's like the wind through my tree" always makes me think of those jeans.



Lord he was a bad singer.

If this isn't love we're making, then I don't know what it is

Flashback of the Day: My high school besty and I watched General Hospital, and this song cracked us up.

Looking at a list of one hit wonders from the 80s...

Hey! Eddy Grant was not a one-hit-wonder!



I legitimately love Romancing the Stone. Three reasons:

1. The melody/arrangement is unusual for a love song. Fast, serious sounding, guitar-ee. And it's got some Mysterious Poetic lyrics.

Oh and in the heat of rapture when I feel the cold winds blow
Through the broken glass I'll see at last the sweet desire in you
I will climb up on my pulpit and I'll preach a sermon you
On the mountain roads in Harlem feel my jeweller's hold.

2. I was 11 when the movie came out--about the age I started really getting into music, finding my own taste. My mother had the album, so I have a very strong "sense" memory attached to the music. Of sitting in my mother's living room, in front of her album collection, poking through and discovering all kinds of goodies. Prince's 1999, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Yellowman etc.

3. Still one of my favorite movies. Looking back at it, and looking at the age I was, I'm pretty sure this movie made me want to be a writer. I was already writing things, enjoyed English class, but I think I fell for the image of Kathleen Turner sitting at her typewriter, writing something funny, and celebrating with her cat.

 Side Note: I only just now noticed that the stone is an analogy for the heart. Um yeah. What can I say, I was 11.

___
More Eddy. Dude wrote a lot of fun love songs.

What on earth is a flying excreta? That's what I've always wondered.

The politics of dancing?

Flashback of the Day (love being reminded of random one hit 80s wonders)

Remember taping off the radio?

Flashback of the Day: Taped this one off the radio one day. Never knew who sang it. I always tried to have a blank tape on hand for these musical emergencies. It was like being a big game hunter.

summer music!

Singalong song!

God forgive my mind

I think it's time we found a way back home
You loose so many things you love as you grow
I missed the days when I was just a kid
My fear became my shadow, I swear it did

Wherever is your heart I call home
Wherever is your heart I call home
Though your feet may take you far from me, I know
Wherever is your heart I call home

You made me feel like I was always falling
Always falling down without a place to land
Somewhere in the distance I heard you calling
Oh it hurts so bad to let go of your hand

Wherever is your heart I call home
Wherever is your heart I call home
Though your feet may take you far from me, I know
Wherever is your heart I call home

Even when you're high, you can get low
Even with your friends you love, you're still alone
We always find the darkest place to go
God forgive our minds, we were born to roam

Wherever is your heart I call home
Wherever is your heart I call home
Though your feet may take you far from me, I know
Wherever is your heart I call home

Oh God forgive my mind, oh God forgive my mind
When I come home, when I come home
Oh God forgive my mind
There's a road that's long and winding, it hollers home
I'm calling home

All the things I did just to be seen

Seems like a more honest/personal song than Madonna usually comes out with.



I lived my life like a masochist
Hearing my father say: "Told you so, told you so.
Why can't you be like the other girls?"
I said: "Oh no, that's not me and I don't think that it'll ever be."

Thought I belong to a different tribe
Walking alone never satisfied, satisfied
Tried to fit in but it wasn't me,
I said: "Oh no, I want more. That's not what I'm looking for."

So I took the road less traveled by
And I barely made it out alive
Through the darkness somehow I survived
Tough love - I knew it from the start
Deep down in the depth of my rebel heart

I've spent some time as a narcissist
Hearing the other say: "Look at you, look at you
Trying to be so provocative."
I said: "Oh yeah, that was me.
All the things I did just to be seen."

Outgrown my past and I've shed my skin
Letting it go and I'll start again, start again
Never look back, it's a waste of time
I said: "Oh yeah, this is me
And I'm right here where I wanna be."

I said: "Hell yeah! This is me
Right where I'm supposed to be"

So I took the road less travelled by
And I barely made it out alive
Through the darkness somehow I survived
Tough love - I knew it from the start
Deep down in my rebel heart

So I took the road less travelled by
And I barely made it out alive
Through the darkness somehow I survived
Tough love - I knew it from the start
Deep down in the depth of my rebel heart

In my rebel heart
In my rebel heart

God Knows

My guilt-free guilty pleasure

Some of my favorite fluff is Flo Rida

Hot 8 Brass Band

A nice counter-point to the overproduced music that dominates the radio these days.