Despite Agoraphobic Ifs and Buts

I know I said the last post was a placeholder for pics of Ultra Ninja on the sweet new ride - we've been enjoying bike too much for me to remember to get photos.  Speaking of placeholders, the Louise Burns post was intended as such.  The switch from the catchy pop to something more serious and melancholy, that was meant as a lead-in for me to talk about Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon.  Not that Louise Burns isn't fantastic enough for her own post, it's just that I've been obsessed with KT Tunstall for years.

I've been listening to the new album for weeks now, and I still don't know what to think.  It's definitely more melancholy than anything that came before.  Also it does not rock, which is a pretty heavy shocker.  Don't get me wrong, if I had to file the album at one of those old-timey record stores, it would go into "rock/pop" but it  just that it wouldn't fit there very well.

And putting it into an old-time record store actually makes sense.  Because it's actually an album and not just a collection of songs.  That's something that took me a bit to realize, probably since I haven't heard such a thing in many, many years.  All of these songs fit together - probably as a result of the circumstances surrounding their creation - but you can distinctly tell a song from this album as opposed to the earlier ones.

So, what's it like?  Wow, I still don't know.  Some folks have said it's her best album yet.  It is undoubtedly the album that she is best on.  These new songs showcase KT more than her previous work did, and that's including the live stuff that's just her and a loop pedal.  And she delivers.  Her voice on these songs is just so much.  If it weren't KT, and it wasn't her fourth studio album, there would be a definite risk of coming off as emo.

But she pulls it off.  She's laying out some very raw emotion in her singing without ever coming close to going over the line.  She forces the listener into this world her songs create and then you buy in wholesale accepting of all the assumptions and perspectives underlying it.  It's aggressively engaging - and this is despite the fact that the songs themselves are really quite simple.

So, KT is absolutely amazing here. Delivering the expectedly excellent execution like the professional she is, all while bringing a whole new level of artistry.  The songs on this album are simple, but by no means simplistic with hooks that set so deep you'll be humming them in your sleep.  And they don't get old, I've been listening to this one album straight through on several long car rides and have yet to reach for the radio. So, why can't I say I love this album?

I can.  I do love this album.  It's amazing and everyone should all be listening to it right now.

But at the same time, this album is a loss.  Not that I ever considered her naive, but there is still a lost innocence associated with these songs.  And since she's so professional about the music, I'd expect she can still deliver the rockabilly and upbeat pop from the older albums - but they just won't be quite the same.  Although, the Hallowed Ground bonus track rocks pretty hard so maybe I'm off my rocker.  But even still, it's not that change is bad - this album definitely marks a growth in her talents and abilities as a musician.  It's just that I don't think I'm ready for it.  I'm personally in a much different place - one that makes listening to these songs challenging in weird ways.  But I will note that I am still listening the hell out of it.

Okay, on to some YouTube embeds.  Invisible Empire is probably the most like the old KT and probably my favourite track (these things are likely related) but as a result it doesn't make whatever point I'm trying to here.  So here's two other tracks instead (the first of which is where the post title came from):


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I Want to Ride My Bicycle

Uh, so I guess I'm bicycling now.  Here's the story - for Father's Day, I got this nifty little thing.  Which, cool and all, was really an excuse for me to get myself a halfway decent bike.  So I did.  Hmmm, I guess it's a short story.

No derailleurs and only two exposed cogs.  Fantastic for the maintenance averse like myself.  The internal gear hub is odd though, you have to lay off the pedals in order to change gears.  Fortunately, I haven't biked much so I am already in the habit after two rides.  It is quiet.  Maybe because I've never ridden a decent bike with quality gearing, but I do remember a lot more mechanical noise with regular geared bikes.

The usual complaints with internal gear hubs are meaninglesss to me.  Apparently there's a bit more drag than in a derailleur system.  I'm no road biker, and I honestly did not notice.  Plus my previous ride was terrible.  I can coast at least an order of magnitude further on the new bike.  Next issue - IGH's have a smaller range of gears than in the usual system. But LEAFS SUCK is pretty flat, and the lowest gear allows me to climb just about anything in my neighbourhood.  The highest gear is too high - I've switched to it a couple times but only to get a feel of what the resistance was.  Plus I don't think I'll ever need to go that fast.  Finally, IGH's make removing the rear wheel more complicated.  But to be honest, if I got a rear blowout or had some other issue that required removing the wheel, I'd be taking it into the shop, whether it was IGH or derailleur.  Heck, I'm not all that comfortable taking the front wheel off and it's a quick release.

And the Kangaroo Carrier?  Ultra Ninja likes it.  Even on a commuter/hybrid bike, which is a stiffer ride than my toddler would like.  This turns out to be a minor issue because with her on I can rarely go fast enough for it to be an issue.

PS This is a placeholder post.  I'll try to get some pictures this weekend - weather permitting.  It figures that the day after I get a new bke, we get a heat wave.

Emeralds Shatter

Confession Time:  It was the poppy Drop Names Not Bombs that hooked me on Louise Burns, and What You Want To Do cemented it, but I have to say that I am not upset or disappointed by the shift in sound.  I guess I got a bit of prep for it from Lodger.

Still Griping About Crackgate - Thankful for Having People to Blame Edition

Remember, this all started when John Cook posted his story of having seen the tape.  He didn't have the tape, he had only viewed it on the mysterious iPhone.  Why did he post his story then, without the tape or any other solid confirmation (other than the photo)?  It's a story with pretty severe implications (as we have seen in the past couple weeks) so you really want to get your ducks lined up before going to press.  Well, as Cook puts it:

The producer, in turn, asked CNN's Canada reporter about it. The Canada reporter—and this was a pretty fucking big mistake—called a source who used to work in Ford's office. Within 40 minutes, word had gotten back to me that "CNN called Ford's office asking about a crack tape."

Thanks CNN.  Who would have thought that the stenographic reflex was so ingrained?

Hey you know who else deserves a shoutout?  Remember at the end of last year when Judge Hackland ruled that Rob Ford violated the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and ordered him out of office?  And then three Ontario Appeals Court justices overturned that ruling on a bizarre and contrived technicality?  Yeah, really served the public interest there guys, I hope you're all proud of your work, bending rational thought into funny pretzels in order to save this guy.

And, of course, I blame Obama.

The Method of Elimination

Well, as the Crack Mayor story festers there are points which get beat to death.  Just about everyone other than the die-hard Ford Nation dead-enders has accepted that a video exists.  Here is the latest news on that front.  How did Rob Ford know where the video was?  The photo.  There's four people in the photo, one of them is Rob Ford, and two of them have been shot.  Granted, there also had to be someone who took the photo, but narrowing down the list of people who might have the tape in their possession sounds like it should be pretty straight-forward.

Speaking of,,, that Star story relies on a leak.  Someone at the May 17 meeting talked.  It was exclusive enough that Towhey wasn't there - which means a pretty short list.  Also, it wasn't leaked until this week.  Since the time of that meeting, three staffers have left the Mayor's Office, and it's confirmed that two of them were not at the May 17th meeting.

UPDATE:  Okay, two more have quit.  Not so clear cut now /UPDATE

BTW, the Anthony Smith case?  Shortly after the shooting, police said they were interested in the location of a certain specific individual.  That guy turned himself in and he was charged with murder.  Well, as is constantly happening in this whole hooferaw, the plot thicks.

Crack Video

So, it's been pretty interesting times. Fired Chief of Staff, the Ford family portrait by the Globe and Mail going to press a few hours before Dougie did his media tour, The return of the mayor to his Sunday AM Talk Radio show, news that the mayor's staff have been interviewed regarding a murder inverstigation, all while the Crackstarter ticks ever closer to its goal ($192K at time of writing).  A lot to sort through, but I'm going to take it from the beginning and in small chunks.  The crack video.

So, is the crack video real?  Firstly, it obviously exists.  Three reporters from two separate outlets have described their viewings.  For this to be some bizarre plot is fake moon landings scale conspiracy theory land.  But just because it exists, that doesn't mean it's real.

What about a fake Rob Ford?  And I don't mean "James Cameron shit" but just some guy that looks a lot like His Worship.  Wait, hear me out.  Suppose someone saw the picture of Rob jogging and thought "hey I have a sweatshirt just like that".  Then they found a lookalike and made the photo - perhaps for teh lulz, perhaps they meant it as a reference letter into the world of "high-end Etobicoke drug dealing" or something. I dunno, but it doesn't seem totally ridiculous.  That said, these hypothetical photo jokers would have to know Anthony Smith.

So, then in the wee hours of March 28, Anthony Smith gets double tapped in the back of the head.  It's a different world now - we're dealing with the possibility of gangland style executions.  Let's say that sometime after that, some intrepid Globe and Mail reporter calls up our hypothetical photo-having-possibly-involved-with-drugs people and start asking about Doug's history of dealing hash. And there, the idea for the video is born.  It's made sometime in April, shopped around for a bit, with the Star actually viewing it on May 3rd after several failed attempts to arrange a meetup.

Since these cons were running a scam video, the plan was probably to take the money and run.  See how much they could milk from the media and relocate.  And now with all of the heightened attention and scrutiny, it makes sense that they would "disappear".

It's kinda crazy sounding, but remotely plausible.  And it's consistent with the observed happenings.  That said, none of this is particularly different if the video were real.  Further, even if the video were fake - that doesn't mean that Rob Ford doesn't smoke crack.  Maybe a fake video was made because knowing that Rob was a crack user, it would be easy to get the media to pay big bucks for it.

But what about Rob and his week-long silence?  Well, that was pretty weird, but if you consider that the Fords were already aware of the Globe's ongoing investigations - coupled with what appears to be their genuine belief that the scums and maggots of LEAFS SUCK's media scene are actually "out to get them".  Let me just say that Rob's actions were totally consistent with the tape being real or fake.  Although a big part of why I'm saying that is because Rob is an unstable mess who is about as predictable as someone high on crack cocaine.

So after all that, where do I stand?  Well basically, I believe that there is still a remote outside chance that my mayor does not use crack.  If I had to put money on it, well Occam's Razor says dude spends most of his time high as a kite.  But I wouldn't be very surprised if I lost that money.

UPDATE:  Press Security and Communications Assistant have both quit.
UPDATE 2:  Crackstarter has broken $200K

Where It All Began.

Your Chief of Staff escorted out of City Hall?  Seriously?   "I did not resign."  Yeah, that is totally going to take the attention away from the crack smoking allegations.  Speaking of which, we can't say we weren't warned.  When Rob Ford took office as Mayor of LEAFS SUCK, he had Don Cherry deliver the inauguration speech.  That speech ended thusly:

And that’s why I say he’s gonna be the greatest mayor this city has ever, ever seen, as far as I’m concerned! And put that in your pipe, you left-wing kooks. 

Thank you very much.