Peter Simpson is the Citizen's arts editor at large, and blogs regularly about arts and entertainment, mostly local, but also about non-local things that local people are talking about. You can post responses to any blog entry, or email comments directly to bigbeat@thecitizen.canwest.com
As you may have already read, Ottawa's three-year-old reggae festival, which has long been the subject of rumours about financial problems, collapsed into insolvency on the weekend. The sheriff literally showed up to grab what meagre dollars could be had from the gate and beer tents. You can read a story about it by clicking here. Below is the full statement from the festival's board of directors, issued Sunday night and again on Monday afternoon.
Not sure where all the money went, but it sure didn't go to publicity and marketing. Until The Citizen published a small advance story late last week, I hadn't seen a single news release, advertisement, facebook post, tweet or news story anywhere about this festival. Nor did I hear any of the legions of music fans in the city that I know mention anything about it.
Ottawa Reggae Festival – Official Statement
Ottawa – August 22nd, 2010
The Ottawa Reggae
Festival is run by its’ Board of Directors which sees Benjamin Williams,
the boards Chair, as the festival’s president.
In the role of
festival president, Mr. Williams’ youth and inexperience caused him to
make decisions that were ambitious, and ill advised. His
financial decisions were made without consultation, and ended up
costing the festival its’ reputation, and put him in ‘over his head.’
The team of
volunteers who worked for the festival had no knowledge of Mr. Williams’
financial decisions, transactions, or previous financial issues. As
such, all volunteers associated with this event were blind-sided when
revelations began to surface that there were monies owing, and that
there were financial issues beyond the norm.
Further, the staging of the third day of
this years’ festival was cancelled due the financial strain when vendors
past and present began contacting the festival for monies owed. In
addition, the court judgment against the festival, and the Bailiff’s
seizure of alcohol and gate admission revenues made it next to
impossible for additional revenues to be earned. Volunteers
had conversations with several local and international artists who
expressed concern about performing knowing that their initial deposits
had not been paid on time. Artists managers were further concerned about balances being paid upon the artists arrival for their performances.
Contrary to public perception, Barrington Levy was contracted to perform, and received his deposit. Due
to clerical error at the Canadian embassy in Jamaica, Mr. Levy was
unable to obtain his visa on time which would grant his entry to the
country. Tarrus Riley is in the city of Ottawa today (August 22nd, 2010), and is prepared to perform, however is unable to due to the festivals cancellation. As
for Sean Paul, Sean’s booking agency, Headline Entertainment, received
Sean’s deposit after the deposit deadline was extended several times to
accommodate Mr. Williams cash flow. Sean is not in the city as Headline Entertainment had no confidence in the balance of Sean’s $50,000 performance fee being met.
The volunteers who worked tirelessly to
ensure the festival’s success are disappointed with the outcome, and
stand together knowing that but for the financial decisions of the
president, this years’ staging would have been a total success.
Fans who purchased tickets online or at
ticket outlets and want a refund are being asked to call 613-315-4461,
or send an e-mail to info@ottawareggaefestival.com.
Jonathan Hobin's Pied Piper-inspired portrait of Ottawa musician Lindsay Ferguson, for Portraits of Bluesfest 2. Hobin is printing the photograph on aluminum, and it truly will be unique.
It'll be available for bidding at Thursday's silent auction for charity.
There are two photographers among the 13 artists in Portraits of Bluesfest 2, and they are Jonathan Hobin and Genevieve Thauvette. Their contributions to the fundraiser are above and below.
Watch daily for more pieces that will be available at the fundraising auction this Thursday, Aug. 26.
+++
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest.
The artists include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison.
The original works of art will be sold in a silent auction at Cube
Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26). The
proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the program that
brings professional musicians into public schools to work with children.
Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.
I’ll be writing more about it over the next week, and each day
I’ll post one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at
the auction.
Genevieve Thauvette's self-portrait for Portraits of Bluesfest 2. It'll be available for bidding at Thursday's silent auction for charity.
Here's a look at what's selling in Ottawa record stores. More will be added as they come in . . .updated.
The band that began Bluesfest this year, Iron Maiden, is now the number one seller at the city's biggest CD retailer.
CD Warehouse, 499 Terry Fox Drive, 1383 Clyde Ave., 1717 St. Laurent Blvd.
Final Frontier - Iron Maiden
Suburbs - Arcade Fire
Foundling - David Gray
No Better Than This - John Mellencamp
Recovery - Eminem
God Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise - The Pariah Dogs/Ray LaMontagne
To The Sea - Jack Johnson
Milk - Hawksley Workman
Brothers - The Black Keys
Songs From The Road - Luther Allison
Compact Music, 190 Bank St., and 785 1/2 Bank St.
CD
1. Arcade Fire Suburbs
2. John Mellancamp No better than this
3. David Gray Foundling
4. Ray Lamontagne God Willin and the creek don`t don`t rise
5. Kathryn Calder Are you my mother
6. Sarah Harmer Oh little fire
7. Sting Symphoncities
8. Los Lobos Tin Can Trust
9. Danny Michel Sunset Sea
10. Eli `Paperboy`Reed Come and get it
Vinyl
Arcade Fire Suburbs
Velvet Underground And Nico
Stars Five Ghosts
Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures
Midlake Acts of Man
Ione Thorkelsson at the Lafrenière & Pai Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)
Click here to watch a Big Beat video of Ione Thorkelsson's new exhibition, Corrections.
Glass is endlessly fascinating, a human construct of simple ingredients and techniques that result in a tool, or an ornament, in endless things all around us. Glass can be the shop window, and the work of art seen inside the shop window.
So it is at Lafrenière & Pai Gallery in the Byward Market, where Manitoba artist Ione Thorkelsson has a new show of glass sculptures. It’s a small show, only four new pieces augmented by a couple of earlier works, but they are intense and complex, and they represent the sum total of Thorkelsson’s many years of working with glass.
“It’s not a change in materials, as much as a change in just being able to control it to the point that I can make it do what I want it to do,” Thorkelsson said Thursday during an interview in the Murray Street gallery. “It came to the point where I could control it in different ways, so I could do more with it. I could do a larger piece, I could do a larger mass of glass, and get the small pieces coming of it. That combination wasn’t easy to accomplish. I’m also getting the finish I want on it.”
The show is called Corrections, and each piece is, well, a stump. Thorkelsson and her husband, David (an ever-ready, and much needed, strong hand in her preparatory work), live on the Manitoba escarpment, southwest of Winnipeg. There are lots of oak, poplar and ash, and Thorkelsson searched and gathered just the right stumps for her latest works. What she really wanted were the roots, which “were carefully extracted. It was a long process. David does that for me.”
Anyone who has ever tried to pull a obstinate stump out of the ground by the roots knows that it’s the horticultural equivalent of pulling teeth. Imagine doing it when you want to, as much as possible, keep the roots intact.
Thorkelsson made plaster casts from the root systems and then filled the casts with glass. The “corrections” are her “interventions” into the natural state of the wood. One split, glass stump is held together by turned pieces of painted wood. Another, which has the most spectacular, twisted clutch of roots, is held together by stainless steel, machined into highly polished sleeves that are secured by brass bolts.
“I’m always looking at, or exploring, the sort of interface between humans and the rest of the natural world,” said Thorkelsson, who was in Ottawa earlier this year to pick up a Governor-General’s Award in Visual Arts, specifically, the $25,000 Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in fine crafts. “It’s human intervention into a natural world that I’m looking at, exploring, fussing around with.”
There’s no singular thing she’s trying to say with the sculptures, no “statement” or “particular point of view” that she’s trying to sell.
“Sometimes two or three years down the line you look back and say, ‘oh, I guess that’s what I was doing.’ But there are so many aspects to the ideas involved, to thinking about that kind of thing, that it’s more an opening up than a definition or a statement about something. . . Viewers bring things that I’ve never thought of to the work. You’re starting a conversation in a certain direction in these pieces.”
E.g., I note that the top surface of one piece, Corrections No. 2: with trusses, is so detailed with the fine lines of the tree’s fibre and the saw that cut through it that “it looks like the palm of a hand.”
“Oh, right!” Thorkelsson exclaims, surprised by the observation. Her pleasure in the viewer’s insight, however simple, is sincere. It reflects her open, unguarded personality, which comes forth again in most charming fashion when we we look at an earlier piece in the show — a glass sculpture cast from a porcupine’s skull and a deer’s spine.
“I use a lot of . . . — We collect things on the highway.”
I say, “Roadkill?”
“Yeah, roadkill. Once you start using them, people know you’re using them, and they” — that’s “they,” as in dead animals — “start appearing at your doorway.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“In most cases it’s good,” and she laughs heartily. “Sometimes, it’s a little dubious.”
Connections continues to Sept. 11 at Lafrenière & Pai Gallery, 13 Murray St., simultaneously with the show Meaning and Muse, by jeweler Kye-Yeon Son.
- 30 -
Ione Thorkelsson's Corrections No. 1, at Lafrenière & Pai Gallery. (Photo courtesy Lafrenière & Pai Gallery)
Ione Thorkelsson's Corrections No. 2, at Lafrenière & Pai Gallery. (Photo courtesy Lafrenière & Pai Gallery)
Ione Thorkelsson with her piece Corrections No. 4, at Lafrenière & Pai Gallery. (Photo by Peter Simpson, Ottawa Citizen)
Karole Marois found a sidestage at Bluesfest and brought performer and fans together on canvas. It's one of the pieces that will be available for
bidding at the Portraits of Bluesfest 2 silent auction.
Watch daily for more pieces that will be available at the fundraising auction, Aug. 26.
+++
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest.
The artists include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison.
The original works of art will be sold in a silent auction at Cube
Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26). The
proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the program that
brings professional musicians into public schools to work with children.
Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.
I’ll be writing more about it over the next week, and each day
I’ll post one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at
the auction.
Dan Kanter plays his Gibson guitar, during a Justin Bieber concert. (hand out photo)
Dan Kanter wrote in his yearbook at Sir Robert Borden High School that he’d play “Wembley Stadium one day...” He recently did, in front of 90,000 fans.
Kanter, born and raised in Ottawa, has also performed on David Letterman’s TV show, on Leno (twice), on Ellen (twice), on Oprah, American Idol, performed the Canadian national anthem at an NBA all-star game and, in another dream-come-true moment, been on Saturday Night Live. He’s taken shelter in a limo as it was mobbed by hysterical teenaged girls — who once got so voluminous that police moved in. There’ll be no concert here today, the coppers said, there’ll be no Justin Bieber today.
Kanter is Bieber’s guitarist and co-musical director, and that puts him at the centre of the teenage-heartthrob whirlwind. “His fans are definitely wild,” Kanter says this week, over the phone from Indianapolis, where he’s enjoying a day off from Bieber’s world tour. “They’re really loud, they just scream and scream. It’s really exciting every night, whatever city we’re in. . . I’ve been in vehicles with him where they’re climbing on top of them.”
It’s a long way from Nepean, where he had his own teen band (Hubris) and he co-wrote a musical (Destiny the Musical) that was performed on the school stage. Just how does one get from there to where Kanter is now, at the right hand of one of the hottest young performers in the world?
Dan Kanter on stage with Justin Bieber. (hand out photo)
Go back about a year ago, and Kanter is a student at York University, working on his thesis for a Masters degree in musicology. He has a reputation in the music business, having toured with young Toronto popsters Fefe Dobson and Shiloh. Bieber — already a star, with the most influential hairstyle since Jennifer Aniston redid her do on Friends — is to appear on MuchMusic and needs a second acoustic guitarist. Kanter is recommended. Soon enough, he’s on tour as Bieber’s guitarist and co-musical director.
“Basically,” Kanter says, “we were given the CD and had to make the arrangements and produce them for the live show — decide, sort of, what to embellish, what to stay true to, if we were going to have any reprises, things like that . . . I’m a big fan of a show being a spectacle, more than just music.”
He got that from his father, Jeff Kanter, a high-school English teacher in Ottawa who has directed local theatre. (Kanter’s mother, Julie, also lives in Ottawa and works with children with special needs.)
He works closely with Bieber on tour, writing and arranging. One backstage photo shows the two standing in a large shower and running through pre-show vocal exercises. This propinquity to the star makes Kanter a celeb in his own right. As I type this sentence, he has 81,023 followers on Twitter (a recent post, “Excited that my younger bro @jonahkanter is finally going to see JB live in both Toronto and Ottawa!”).
“There’s a perfect reflection of how much they love him,” Kanter says, “that they care to follow me and read all my tweets about the food I’m eating . . . music I listen to, things like that.”
Bieber’s rise out of Stratford, Ontario has been dizzying. Only three years ago he finished second in a local singing contest. (Who finished first, Bono?) His mother posted videos on youtube, and in a Hollywood moment, the sort that legends are built upon, they were stumbled upon by a record exec.
Barely a year ago Bieber dropped his first single, One Time, and since then it’s been hit after hit, around the world. He even performed for the Obamas at the White House. “It’s really been incredible to see how well he’s been received internationally,” Kanter says. “There’s something about him that strikes a chord with kids of all nationalities.
“He has great music, and it’s music that really does translate,” Kanter says. “His big song, Baby, that’s just a word that everyone in the world knows, whether they speak English or not. The melody is great. But I also think it has a lot to do with him. He’s just such a really nice kid. He’s from a small town in Canada and he’s very humble. He’s very nice and he’s working very hard. A lot of his fans just really support him, and they want him to win.”
They also want to get close to him, like that day earlier this year when the police moved in. “In Australia he was playing a morning show and they thought it would be a great idea if they put him outside so more people could come,” Kanter recalls. “At three in the morning there were so many people that the police decided to shut the whole thing down. That was a scary one.”
But not as scary as that they opened for Taylor Swift in London. “He broke his foot during the last song. He just caught a corner with his heel. We all could see him finishing the last song hopping around, and we knew something was seriously wrong. But he soldiered through that. We never even cancelled a show after that, so he just played with a cast on. . . Later that month we played Madison Square Garden and he did it with a walking cast, and he still did all his dance moves.”
There’s no doubt Bieber is preternaturally professional. Even the indignity of taking a water bottle off the noggin, as he does in a video watched by millions on youtube in recent weeks, hardly seemed to faze him. “Ow,” Bieber says in the video, “that didn’t feel good. I don’t know why she threw that at me, but I love you guys.” Kanter isn’t certain what show it was, and says it wasn’t a big deal for Bieber or the band at the time.
Now, Wembley, that was a big deal. “I used to dream of playing Wembley growing up, watching all those old Elton John performances. It was so surreal to be in front that many people, and (Justin) did a great job,” Kanter says.
Still, the high point for Kanter has yet to come. On Aug. 24 he takes the stage with Bieber at Scotiabank Place, where he fondly recalls seeing shows by Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Elton John, Neil Young and others. His parents and family will be there. “My grandparents have never missed a show I’ve played in Ottawa.
“It’s the most exciting show of the tour, I’m not going to lie. It’s definitely the most exciting show for me.”
That’s a tall statement, considering the ample excitements he’s had on tour — supporting Bieber on Saturday Night Live, “back in April, when Tina Fey was hosting,” and hanging backstage with bona fide rock stars including Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, Trey Anastasio of Phish, and Duff McKagan of Velvet Revolver via Guns N Roses, all of whom have escorted their young daughters to Bieber shows. Even Gibson guitars is getting in on the act, and is making him a custom Les Paul.
“Gibson’s making a Canadian flag Les Paul for me,” Kanter says, obviously thrilled. “With all these countries we go to, that’s the perfect way to show them all where I come from.”
It’s a lot of distraction for a boy from Ottawa, especially one who still has to finish writing that thesis at York U. His topic?
“The process of developing Justin’s pop arena show, from a musical director’s perspective.”
- 30-
Dan Kanter accompanies Justin Bieber during vocal warmups backstage before a concert. (hand out photo)
Dan Kanter with his first (plastic, non-functioning) guitar, at home in Nepean in Ottawa, Ontario. (family photo)
Don Monet's portrait of Bluesfest, "Metric," 24 by 24 inches, photocollage and acrylic on canvas.
Don Monet, the artist and owner of Cube Gallery, went to the Metric show at Bluesfest and took a lot of photos. He used some as the base for his portrait, above. It's one of the pieces that will be available for bidding at the Portraits of Bluesfest 2 silent auction.
Watch daily for more pieces that will be available at the fundraising auction, Aug. 26.
+++
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest.
The artists include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison.
The original works of art will be sold in a silent auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26). The proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the program that brings professional musicians into public schools to work with children.
Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.
I’ll be writing more about it over the next week, and each day I’ll post one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at the auction.
Ottawa's Scott Gibson, as Capt. Ack Ack Haldane in the HBO series The Pacific.
Ottawa's Scott Gibson, who last appeared in the Big Beat when he had a key role in the Hanks-Spielberg HBO series The Pacific, will be in a zombie film, First Platoon. According to movie business blogs, Gibson, who has lived for several years in Hollywood, has taken over a role that was to be filled by Alan Tudyk (Firefly, 3:10 to Yuma, the Ice Age movies). Read more about it here.
Russell Yuristy's portrait of B.B. King, from Portraits of Bluesfest 2. The silent auction is Aug. 26 at Cube Gallery.
B.B. King didn't play Bluesfest this year, but for many fans he's the living soul of blues. He's obviously an inspiration for Russell Yuristy, who contributes this portrait to the Portraits of Bluesfest 2 silent auction. The piece is acrylic on canvas, 32 by 32 inches.
Watch daily for more pieces that will be available at the fundraising auction, Aug. 26.
+++
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created
paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest.
The artists
include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky,
Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell
Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon
Harrison.
The original works of art will be sold in a silent
auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday,
Aug. 26). The proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the
program that brings professional musicians into public schools to work
with children.
Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.
I’ll
be writing more about it over the next week, and each day I’ll post
one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at the
auction.
A band named for a Shakespearean play and writing songs such as Upon Viewing Bruegel’s ‘Landscape With the Fall of Icarus’, is, of course, not making radio-friendly pop.
Titus Andronicus, an indie outfit from New Jersey, plays a fuzzed-out, guitar-driven sound in the post-punk form, and it bursts with impatient energy. They're literary, and at times they remind me of a heavier Hold Steady, with occasional hints of the Clash, the Constantines and And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. I've linked to two videos here, one from their debut disc, The Airing of Grievances, and one from their recent, second disc, The Monitor.
Rolling Stone magazine recently named them one of the seven best new bands of 2010, an endorsement that may be good or bad, depending on your opinion of Rolling Stone magazine.
Titus Andronicus plays Maverick’s in the Byward Market on Monday, Aug. 23, with Free Energy and Ottawa’s Clothes Make the Man. $13 advance, doors 8 p.m. Tickets at Vertigo Records, and www.ticketweb.ca.
Upon Viewing Bruegel’s ‘Landscape With the Fall of Icarus’, from the first Titus Andronicus album.
Gordon Harrison's painting for Portraits of Bluesfest 2.
Here's another image from Portraits of Bluesfest 2. Today's image is by Ottawa landscape painter Gordon Harrison, and it's an oil painting about 12 inches across the top. It shows trees behind the Canadian War Museum, where Bluesfest is held.
Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created
paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest.
The artists
include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky,
Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell
Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon
Harrison.
The original works of art will be sold in a silent
auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday,
Aug. 26). The proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the
program that brings professional musicians into public schools to work
with children.
Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.
I’ll
be writing more about it over the next week, and each day I’ll post
one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at the
auction.
Nico, by Benjamin Rodger (24 by 36 inches, acrylic), one of the images available in the charity silent auction fundraiser, Portraits of Bluesfest 2.
Portraits of Bluesfest is back for a second year, and it’s only a week or so away. Once again, 13 of the city’s best artists have created paintings or photographs that are “of” Bluesfest.
The artists include: Philip Craig, Andrew King, Benjamin Rodger, Michael Zavacky, Jonathan Hobin, Genevieve Thauvette, Don Monet, Jennifer Amenta, Russell Yuristy, Karole Marois, Andrew O'Malley, Dave Cooper and Gordon Harrison.
The original works of art will be sold in a silent auction at Cube Gallery on Wellington Street (7 to 10 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 26). The proceeds will go to support Blues in the Schools, the program that brings professional musicians into public schools to work with children.
Portraits of Bluesfest 2 is sponsored by The Ottawa Citizen, Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest, Cube Gallery, Petit Bill's Bistro and Patrick Gordon Framing. It’s curated by me, the Citizen's arts-editor-at-large.
I’ll be writing more about it over the next week, and each day I’ll post one or two of the images that will be available for bidding at the auction.
The first image, above, is Nico, (acrylic 24 by 36 inches) by Benjamin Rodger.
Watch daily for more images and news on Portraits of Bluesfest 2.
Popped by Ottawa's newest place to buy music, the Record Shaap, and stuck my video camera in the face of Matty McGovern. Click here to watch the short vid and find out what the new place is all about, including why it's called "shaap." The Record Shaap is at 209 Gilmour, just off Elgin and in the basement below Aunt Olive's vintage clothing store and cafe.
You can't say that Ottawa's Tom Green won't step into the line of fire to defend a woman's . . . er, virtue doesn't seem the right word, as the women in question is Tila Tequila.
Tequila is (if you've so far been fortunate enough to have never heard her name) a professional skank. She poses her artificial body in the usual adolescent-bedroom-wall-poster poses, and she hosts a reality show in which she chooses which male or female suitor to "love" and, presumably, have sex with. Tequila makes Pamela Anderson look like Meryl Streep.
Tequila also fancies herself a musician, though why she holds that fancy is inexplicable. Fans at a music festival this weekend weren't so fancy about Tequila taking the stage, so they pelted her with rocks and bottles and assorted filth, and drove her from the stage. This bold stroke for music was captured on video, and while there are clips on youtube, etc., the best vid seems to be at tmz.com. You can watch it here.
Watch for Tom Green to come out on stage in an attempt to distract (one supposes) the fans, who seem enraged by Tequila's humiliating lack of musical talent. Green dances a little jig. It doesn't help. But at least it got him on a stage, somewhere.
A look at what's selling on CD and vinyl in Ottawa record stores. Once again, Arcade Fire, the Montreal band that is half from Ottawa, is tops all over. Local acts are in bold.
Compact Music, 190 Bank St., and 785 1/2 Bank St.
Glebe store
(CDs)
1 – Arcade Fire – Suburbs
2 – J.W. Jones – Midnight Memphis Sun
3 – National – High Violet
4 – Black Keys – Brothers
5 – Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
6 – Budos Band – III
7 – Danny Michel – Sunset Sea
8 – Eli Paperboy Reed – Come & Get It
9 – Guitar Shorty – Bare Knuckle
10 – Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record
(LPs)
1 – Arcade Fire – Suburbs
2 – Arcade Fire – Funeral
3 – Decemberists – Hazards of Love
4 – Bob Dylan – Highway 61 Revisited
5 – Wolf Parade – Apologies to Queen Mary
North store
(CDs)
1 - Arcade Fire - Suburbs
2 - Budos Band - 3
3 - Weakerthans - Live at the Burton Cummings Theatre
4 - Acorn - No Ghost
5 - Los Lobos - Tin Can Trust
6 - Morcheeba - Blood Like Lemonade
7 - Food - Quiet Inlet
8 - Menomena - Mines
9 - Danny Michel - Sunset Sea
10 – Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record
(LPs)
1 - Arcade Fire - Suburbs
2 - Black Keys - Brothers
3 - Sharon Jones - I Learned The Hard Way
4 - Bonobo - Black Sands
5 - Flaming Lips - Embryonic
CD Warehouse, 499 Terry Fox Drive, 1383 Clyde Ave., 1717 St. Laurent Blvd.
Suburbs - Arcade Fire
Recovery - Eminem
Milk - Hawksley Workman
2007: Troubadour Reunion: Live - Carole King/James Taylor
Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, A Paris - Martha Wainwright
Crazy Love - Michael Bublé
Symphonicities - Sting
Le Concert Spirituel At the time of Louis XV - Jordi Savall / Le Concert des Nations
Up on the Ridge - Dierks Bentley
Oh Little Fire - Sarah Harmer