"Runnin" Lyrics - Frazey Ford (maybe)

I just love this song by Frazey Ford.


Are these right? I tried to find the lyrics to this song, but they are nowhere online, so I submitted these to a lyrics site in hopes someone would jump in to correct me.

Who are the one-eyed? ​(pretty sure this is wrong)
Aha! For Something else ​
I know why no one gets out ​
Cause, you'll find I'll come with you out ​
You'll find that you can do it ​
All by yourself ​
Nothing is just so fine ​
All alone to find ​
Hey yeah 

​​Cause you're the judge (oh yeah) ​
I never doubted you ​
I never doubted you ​
Cause you're the judge 
I never doubted you ​

Hey, you have always 
​Paid to testify
Hold the world beyond destruction ​
So nobody asks a question ​
Cause you're getting tired ​
Everyday that ends
You're alone in your mind ​
Running in circles in your heart ​
Hand over hand

Cause you're the judge (oh yeah) 
I never doubted you 
I never doubted you 
Hey you're the judge 
I never doubted you 

Cause you're the judge (oh yeah)
I never doubted you 
I never doubted you ​ ​

Cause you're the one holding yourself

Playlist: Summer 2013

Some new. Some not. I could listen to each of these on Repeat One for an hour. Probably longer, but I don't want to wreck my favourites.

• Sufjan Stevens: The Transfiguration
• The New Pornographers: Adventures in Solitude
• The National: Pink Rabbits
• Feist: A Commotion
• Atoms for Peace: Ingenue
• Band of Horses: Dumpster World
• Calexico: Writer's Minor Holiday
• City and Colour: The Grand Optimist
• Mumford & Sons: Hopeless Wanderer
• Wilco: The Art of Almost

Motion Picture Soundtrack

Last night I watched the film The Impossible starring Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts about a family who is ripped apart by the 2004 tsunami. I didn't cry once. I cried several times. The film is emotionally driven as loneliness, loss, empathy, and shared humanity feature in every scene. A welling soundtrack accompanies all of those scenes so that I could anticipate a reunion or deep anxiety along with the character - my heart racing with theirs.

Two weeks ago I watched another celebrated film called Amour from Austrian director Michael Haneke (one of my favourites). The film portrays the care an elderly husband shows his now disabled wife and her response to being disabled - a very complex film with extraordinary characters. No where in the film is a soundtrack used added. There is some live and recorded music, but only music that the characters can hear as well. Because of the absence of a manipulating soundtrack, I share the quiet, loneliness, despair, and heartbrokenness of the characters in their space, in their time (it's also a very slowly paced movie).

So, which is better? To have a soundtrack or not? Would Schindler's List have been as powerful without John Williams compositions or Itzhak Perlman's haunting violin solos? The wisdom of a director and producer to know when a scene can be enhanced by music is more intuitive than formulaic and I do enjoy when that wisdom runs deep.

Zaakistan Radio Programming (Episode 001 - Childhood Songs)

[if I were to have my own, self-produced radio show... ]

Good afternoon, this is Radio Zaakistan. I'm your host, Zaak Robichaud. To open this series I'm going to steer you through my early childhood in music and if you listen long enough you'll hear how Joni Mitchell got me bit by a guard dog and why I decided to play the French Horn. As the father of two young children, I marvel at their fascination with music and in particular I wonder what songs they will associate with their childhood when they are adults. As babies, they each had their own goodnight song, but they have all but outgrown those. My son identifies my favourite bands, Arcade Fire and U2, as his favourite bands too. And then he tells us he likes electronic dance music like Katy Perry or LMFAO when it comes on the radio. I'm a little alarmed.


Not unlike my children, I first heard the music my parents listened to. There are two songs that I associate with my earliest preschool years deep in the woods of New Brunswick. From Seals and Crofts in 1975, this is 

Wayland the Rabbit

I had to phone my mother to get that title as it wasn't as clear in my mind as the next song I'm going to play for you. Loggins and Messina's song about Winnie the Pooh and his friends got heavy cassette play in our log house. From the 1972 album "Sittin' In," this is 

House at Pooh Corner

When I hear "... back to the days of Christopher Robin and Pooh," I'm transported back to the pines around my house, back to being a carefree 5-year-old.


Like a lot of people in the 1970s, my parents were hippies. There was a lot of leftist politics, drugs, talk about spirituality and religion and it carried over into popular music. One of the musicians that got a lot of play as my parents newly explored Christianity was Canadian legend Bruce Cockburn. I remember asking my father what a star field was after hearing this song and listening to his explanation. This is 

Lord of the Starfields

When my father picked up his guitar, or any guitar really, the first thing he would play was a Neil Young bass riff. He would gaze intently at the listener, expecting them to enter the groove. That groove was 

Hey hey, My my (Into the Black)

It's funny what you remember. I think he still plays that riff when he picks up a guitar.


Being rather isolated, not just in the woods, but in our faith, our location in the province, in our political views, I was often shocked that we had anything in common with the outside world. As a six-year-old, I went on an errand with my father one late afternoon to Richibucto to look for a used car part at Vautour's Auto Used Parts. My father asked me if I wanted to come in, I declined in favour of listening to the radio. After 15 minutes a song came on that I recognized. Amazed, I wanted to tell papa that a song we knew was on the radio so I left the car and tried to enter the business the way my father had. It was locked. I decided to walk around the building as I knew that all the car carcasses were back there. As I approached the rear of the building I saw two men look up as they released a german shepherd guard dog on a line. The german shepherd saw me too and immediately ran towards me. Unknowingly, as I ran away, I was following the line the dog was tied to and so I was an easy target. He nipped my but and mangled my elbow pretty decently by the time the mechanics got to me to pull the dog off of me. It could have been a lot worse and I still think of it every time I hear Joni Mitchell sing

Big Yellow Taxi

One of the biggest changes in my childhood was the move from New Brunswick to Alberta when I was nine years old. We played this Gordon Lightfoot song in our used station wagon in Northern Ontario as we journeyed west. This is 

Alberta Bound

Much of the music in our family's collection was on dubbed cassettes that were copied from our friends' collections. This meant that as a tape was put into the player I often didn't know who the band was or what the name of the song was, let along have access to the lyrics. I did know that I loved this one instrumental from French traditional band Malicorne. The use of medieval instruments had me intrigued as to how it could be played by me and my elementary friends. I spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to play the different parts and I even shared it with my grade 5 social studies class at some point thinking it was traditional French Canadian music (it isn't).

Branle de la haie

I spent grades 4-6 on a small Christian college campus as my father studied to become a pastor. My family usually didn't miss the monthly musical guests at the Sunday at Seven and Date at Eight series each year. The musical guests were often small chamber groups or classical or folk soloists. It was unique formative part of my life as I learned to appreciate music outside of my parents preferred genres. One of the bands that had a particularly profound effect on me was Danny Greenspoon's band The Romaniac Brothers. They delivered a comedic performance as the four musicians took on fictional characters which were Romanian brothers separated at birth. They all had exotic names (Zoltan Flamingo Romaniac for instance). Some of their songs were original (ie. Let's all go to Moose Jaw), but most were adaptations to classics like the film theme from Amarcord or The Rolling Stones' Paint it Black. I was so entertained that I was moved to spend my paper route earnings on their cassette album Ethno-fusion. I recently checked in with Danny Greenspoon and learned that the album is no longer available since the original tracks are lost and it was never digitized. So, from my cassette player, this is 

The Ecstasy of the Martyr

I regularly visited the Lacombe Public Library with my family. The image of the stacks of vinyl records remains with me today and I remember browsing through them and taking so many of them home. Keeping with family tradition, I would dub many of them onto cassette using our Emerson record and cassette player. One album got heavy play in my bedroom. It was Brass in Berlin with the Canadian Brass playing baroque classics with a brass quintet from Berlin. I was learning to play the french horn in grade 6 hearing some of these songs for the first time brought tears to my eyes. Half of the album comes from J.S. Bach and I was in love. I ultimately bought the album on CD once it was released when I was in high school. The opening track on the album with soaring horns is

Pachelbel's Canon in D

With money in my pocket as a 12-year old, I was now ready to start buying my own music. I found my first tape at a Kresge's in Red Deer, Alberta. I must have paid close to $12 for The Beatles 20 Greatest Hits back in 1988. Side B was far more interesting to me with tracks like Come Together, Hello Goodbye, and Penny Lane, but my favourite track was this stand alone single. I had entered the world of Rock 'n Roll, a few decades late, but I had arrived and I wasn't going to leave. 

Paperback Writer

That concludes today's program. Thank you for listening to what I was listening to from 1978-1988 and what formed my earliest musical tastes. I'll be back again with other playlists.

CPO with Blaise

I took Blaise to his first orchestral performance a couple weeks ago. It was an earlier and shorter performance, a part of the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra's Rush Hour Series, so it worked well for a young lad.

I had to get there early as the parking was about 4 blocks from the Jack Singer Hall and Blaise would have to walk the distance. Once we found our seats - close to the rear, but right in the centre - we figured it would be a good idea to go use the bathrooms before the concert began after I explained Blaise how moving around and talking was not allowed while the orchestra played.

I propped Blaise up on our stack of jackets as people moved into the seats in front of us, but it still didn't give him the view he wanted. Blaise accepted my offer to sit on my knee and that's where he stayed for most of the concert.

The concert was entitled The Red Violin, a title from the film by the same name. The composer of this suite is an American and so they designed the concert as one from American composers:

• Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man 
• Kernis:  Too Hot Toccata
• Corigliano:  Suite from The Red Violin
• Bernstein:  Three Dance Episodes from On the Town 

Donovan Seidle, a local violinist/composer, was the soloist for The Red Violin and as an encore, he played some ridiculously fast piece that blew Blaise away. I thought Copland's trumpets or Bernstein's English horn or Kernis's double basses would be Blaise's favorites. Instead, the violin captivated him as you can see from his journal entry the next day:

I ♥ Calgary

When I first moved to Calgary just over 3 years ago, I was pessimistic and quite negative about the city's maddening sprawl, crazy city parking rates (second highest in North America), lack of urban vibe, unprogressive transit system, and high prices. Since this time, even though I am still irked by all of these negative traits, I have come to appreciate my city.

These are my favourite things about my new home:

1. New Hope Church: I have become quite involved and attached to this small church. It meets in a community centre which means it is not an empty building for most of the week. The pastors are enigmatic, caring, and thinking. It has a great core of volunteers that set-up, run tech, and children's programs. It has a great focus on reading the Creational Text alongside the Bible. The worship music is stupendous because of the great skill of the musicians and because of the great song choices. It is also a socially conscious church that has a community development partnership in Malawi, a fundraising group for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, involvement with Inn from the Cold, etc.
2. The Calgary Zoo: Our family has had year memberships for nearly three years now because it is such an enjoyable outing for our whole family - kids love it and Amber and I do too. The animal population of the zoo is so vast and diverse that each visit can be unique. It is spread out enough that it involves a good walk and leaves you satisfyingly invigorated afterwards. My favourite residents are the tigers, giant anteaters, red pandas, and the andean condor. The new plant conservatory is also especially refreshing in the winter.
3. Dragonfly Cohousing: I know, I blog about cohousing a bit much, but it is indeed one of the most important features of Calgary that I am involved in. The only other completed cohousing projects in Canada are the dozen or so in BC, one in Ontario and Prairie Sky in Calgary. It feels great to be a part of such a good force in this city: raising density, building energy efficiently, inter-generational community.
4. Mayor Nenshi: We have enjoyed the leadership and vision of Mayor Naheed Nenshi for just over a year now. He is an academic with a great sense of what Calgary can become and it has been a pleasure having him at the helm of City Hall.
5. City Parks: We don't get out to the parks nearly enough, but we have explored Nose Hill, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, Baker Park, Edworthy Park, Bowness Park, and Prince's Island during the last three years. Calgary has the two largest city parks in Canada: Nose Hill and Fish Creek which rank 44th and 38th in the world respectively.
6. Concerts: Since Calgary is the largest Canadian city between Vancouver and Toronto, we rarely get skipped over by concert tours (though U2 played Edmonton rather than Calgary back in June). The musical drought I experienced in Guatemala ended when we moved here: Sam Roberts, Leonard Cohen, The New Pornographers, Arcade Fire, Switchfoot, Wilco, Calexico, Mountain Goats, Owen Pallett, etc.
7. Rocky Mountains: Everytime I get in my car and either drive west or south I see the peaks on the Rocky Mountain Range (that is if the sky is clear, which in sunny Alberta it usually is). The mountains never cease to inspire awe.
8. City Skyline: I remember passing through downtown Calgary on the bus just days after coming back to Canada and having my jaw drop. You can not not be impressed by the downtown outline driving down Sarcee South or along John Laurie. The oil industry has fed a great highrise race downtown.
9. CO-OP Liquor Stores: Such fantastic beer selections. They deserve special mention in this list.
10. Specialty Shops: I don't get to shop much, nor do I have much spending money, but I do enjoy the odd outing to Mountain Equipment Co-op, Memory Express (tech supplies), and Fair's Fair (used books). Glad they are there!
11. Friends: We aren't lonely. Ever. Thanks y'all!

Soundtrack of Archived Life

I'm on the cusp of finishing Home Movies Vol. 19 and one of the components I always include is a music montage. I like to use a tune we listened to during that time but that also works (is positive, energetic, etc.).

These are my past selections:

• 2003 Spring in Edmonton: Life is Beautiful (Amy Correia)
• 2003 Fall in Montreal: No Sleep (Sam Roberts)
• 2003 Christmas in Cormier Village: Heaven's Got a Baby (O.C. Supertones)
• 2004 Spring in Montreal: Let Go (Frou Frou)
• 2004 Summer across North America: July (The Innocence Mission)
• 2004 Fall in Spruce Grove: New Slang (The Shins)
• 2005 Spring in Spruce Grove: Falling at Your Feet (Daniel Lanois)
• 2005 Summer across North America: 'Til Kingdom Come (Coldplay)
• 2005 Fall in Tactic: Hard Bargain (Ron Sexsmith)
• 2006 Spring/Summer in Tactic/Montreal/NB: Amassakoul ‘N’ Tenere (Tinariwen)
• 2006-7 Winter in Tactic/AB/BC: A Lot Can Happen in a Year (Riley Armstrong)
• 2007 Summer in Tactic: Your Rocky Spine (The Great Lake Swimmers)
• 2007-8 Winter in Tactic/Mexico: Mushaboom (Feist)
• 2008 Spring in Guatemala: De Ushuahia a la Quiaca (Gustavo Santaolalla)
• 2008 Summer/Fall in AB/BC: Love at the End of the World (Sam Roberts)
• 2008 Christmas in Calgary: Maybe this Christmas (Ron Sexsmith)
• 2009 Spring in Calgary: Between Sheets (Instrumental Version) (Imogen Heap)
• 2009 Summer in BC/AB/NB: This Time Tomorrow (The Kinks)
• 2009 Fall in Calgary: Get on Your Boots (U2)
• 2010 Spring in Calgary: Sweet Talk, Sweet Talk (The New Pornographers)

First, I'm impressed at the high Canadian content there is (and world music too). Second, it is remarkable how permanently the images become related to the songs I've chosen to accompany them; I hear the first measure of any of these songs and I can recall which season and year the song plays against.

R.E.M. is O.V.E.R.

One of my faves since '92, R.E.M. has broken up. Their 80s material was always their best, but I have to say, I really enjoyed all of their albums right to the end.

Cheers to great music for over 3 decades!

MIKE MILLS

"During our last tour, and while making Collapse Into Now and putting together this greatest hits retrospective, we started asking ourselves, 'what next'? Working through our music and memories from over three decades was a hell of a journey. We realized that these songs seemed to draw a natural line under the last 31 years of our working together.

"We have always been a band in the truest sense of the word. Brothers who truly love, and respect, each other. We feel kind of like pioneers in this--there's no disharmony here, no falling-outs, no lawyers squaring-off. We've made this decision together, amicably and with each other's best interests at heart. The time just feels right."

MICHAEL STIPE

"A wise man once said--'the skill in attending a party is knowing when it's time to leave.' We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we're going to walk away from it.

"I hope our fans realize this wasn't an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

"We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It's been amazing."

PETER BUCK

"One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us. It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.

"Mike, Michael, Bill, Bertis, and I walk away as great friends. I know I will be seeing them in the future, just as I know I will be seeing everyone who has followed us and supported us through the years. Even if it's only in the vinyl aisle of your local record store, or standing at the back of the club: watching a group of 19 year olds trying to change the world."

U2 360º Tour, Moncton, NB (with The Arcade Fire)

Well, this was pretty sweet! Two of my favorite bands one after the other with my wife and some great friends in the inner circle just a few feet from the stage.

Amber dropped me off at Magnetic Hill so I could get in line early, which didn’t do much aside from me getting the inside scoop on what was going on. It was pouring rain and I was expecting to be soaked, so it wasn’t bad – the best part of the rain is that it kept the crowds from turning up early. I was number 402 in the line and they wouldn’t give me numbers for Amber, Dallas and Claudia so I ended up waiting for them after getting into the venue (they were in the 900 group if they had numbered the line).

I met some great folks from Fredericton, Halifax, Lévis, Grand Falls, St Johns, Iceland while waiting in line. I was given a seat to use and beer and cherries while waiting in line too!

Sopping wet, we made it easily into the inner ring just 20 feet from the stage. We saw other fans returning from the rear entrance where they didn’t think they could get in, but there were only about 600 people in there when we entered (capacity 2000). Amber gave me a dry shirt to wear as I was soaked (she was dryer). The sun came out briefly and it didn’t rain again from about 5 pm onward.

Carney was the first act. The singer plays Spiderman on the Broadway show that Edge and Bono wrote the music for (and which has notoriously has been postponed for ages). The band has been together for a dozen years, since they were 14 years old. The music was quite good, very classic rock like Led Zeppelin and Queen.

Arcade Fire had a sensational stage presence and their set just lacked a couple of my favorites (Ocean of Noise and Rococo). The entire band put everything into it and got the whole crowd going. I had a perma-grin the entire 12 songs.

The guy beside me noticed Arcade Fire’s setlist taped on a monitor (oops) and got a snapshot of it. He asked if I wanted to see it. I was weak! Great set:

• Ready to Start
• Keep the Car Running
• No Cars Go
• Haïti
• The Suburbs
• Month of May
• Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
• We Used to Wait
• Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
• Rebellion (Lies)
• Wake Up
• Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)

It took an hour to switch up the stage for U2 during which time two Canadian Forces fighter jets (CF-18s) did multiple fly overs – we could feel the heat and it was LOUD! and AWESOME!

The Gigapixel 360° Photo Yellow Shirt Crew came out and started riling up the crowd and taking their picture. I was ready for them this time and made sure I was facing the camera. Here’s the shot stitched together. Miraculously, despite all the hands in the air, we can see our whole crew.

Ushered in by Bowie’s Space Oddity, U2 took the stage. The set was quite similar to the one in Edmonton with some nice additions. The crowd was so grateful in Moncton as U2 had never played a show in the Maritimes, let alone a 2-year tour closing show.

• Even Better than the Real Thing
• The Fly
• Mysterious Ways
• Until the End of the World (with a bit of Leonard Cohen’s Anthem, the song ended right on top of us with Bono and Edge reaching for each other from across the bridges)
• I Will Follow
• Get On Your Boots
• I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (lots of crowd participation on this one, followed by the a cappella first verse of The Ballad of Springhill also known as Springhill Mining Disaster. I’ve been to the Springhill museum just an hour away in Nova Scotia)
• Stay (Faraway, So Close!) (with intro about how the band was close to splitting up before the Achtung Baby! songs were written, Stay was released later on Zooropa, and how the songs kept them together, the crowd went berserk when he sang “Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast and Moncton”)
• Beautiful Day (with the sweet intro by astronaut Mark Kelly in space)
• Elevation
• Pride (In The Name of Love)
• Miss Sarajevo (one of my favorites)
• Zooropa (so happy they’ve included this on their tour)
• City of Blinding Lights
• Vertigo
• I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight/Discotheque
• Sunday Bloody Sunday
• Scarlet (with intro about Aung San Su Kyi)
• Walk On
• One
• Where the Streets Have No Name (with Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah)
• Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
• With or Without You
• Moment of Surrender
• Out of Control (their first single, followed by some champagne spraying of the crowd by Bono)
• 40 (what a sacred way to close a concert and a tour!)

Larry Mullen Jr. closed the show as the crowd sang “How long, to sing this song?” with a drum solo and then walked to the microphone and closed the tour with “Thank you Moncton, we’ll miss you.”

Two summers ago, I agreed to go to splurge and fly Amber and me to Vancouver for a U2 show with my friends Chris and Christy as they had an extra pair of tickets for an October, 2009 show. The morning of that show, just hours before we flew to Vancouver, I bought tickets for a newly announced show in Edmonton scheduled for June, 2010. That concert was postponed until June 1, 2011 and earlier this spring the Moncton show was announced just days before we were planning to buy our flights to NB. Originally, I wasn’t expecting to see U2 anywhere, now I’ve seen them three times in less than 2 years and each experience has been unique and magnificent. What a gift.

Thanks to Claudia and Dallas for coming with us and for their photos. Thanks to Papa and Sandi for watching all four little ones. (secretly, I kind of wanted to put diapers on Blaise and Acadia and bring them too – probably not a good idea eh?, but seriously, how cool of a father would I be?

U2 360º Tour, Edmonton, AB

You see, I'm not as hard core as some, but this was my third time seeing U2. It was a brilliant concert; best I've seen them.

The June 1 show at Commonwealth Stadium was postponed for nearly 12 months when Bono hurt his back last year. I attendedwith my sister Saison, her husband Dean, and my friend Chris who flew to Calgary from Regina to drive up to Edmonton with me. Also in attendance were dozens of Edmonton and Calgary friends. I ran into a few of them and found some on this amazing picture (I'm the orange hat-below left).

So the show, well, it was fantastic! I was on the field with thousands of other general admission fans and I was amazed at how close to the stage we were despite not camping outside the stadium all afternoon. Chris and I took the LRT from Southgate and only got into the venue at 7:15 pm. We found Dean and Saison and watched The Fray for their set (I wasn't too impressed - his voice got on my nerves).

U2's setlist with some brief comments:

Even Better Than The Real Thing (perfect way to get the show going with a classic, one of my favorites for sure)
I Will Follow
Get On Your Boots (one of only four from their last album)
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways (psychedelic video, at least I didn't have a crazy woman holding up a sign "I can belly dance" in front of me this time, one of four from Achtung Baby)
Elevation
Until The End Of The World(such a great performance, again)All I Want Is You (Edge's choice, great participation from the crowd)
Stay (Faraway, So Close!) (this is a late favourite of mine, I didn't like it on Zooropa, but have fallen in love with their live acoustic version)
Beautiful Day (the video for this is fun, and it brought me back to when I lived in Edmonton, I'd listen to this album driving Amber to U of A in the mornings)
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Miss Sarajevo (such a great song, with excerpts from the documentary, it was perfect, even with Bono singing the opera part)Zooropa (this one made the concert for me, one of my favourites that they never do live)
City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
I'll Go Crazy / Discotheque (Their live remix version of I'll Go Crazy is so good and went so well with Discotheque)
Sunday Bloody Sunday (brilliant performance with potent images)
Scarlet (rejoice!)
Walk On (with an updated video message from Aung San Suu Kyi and participation from Amnesty International)
One
Where The Streets Have No Name (great with a little rain, glorious)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
With Or Without You
Moment Of Surrender

Chris and I only got to Calgary at 4:20 AM after 2 hours to get to our car from the stadium, 30 minutes at the Leduc McDonalds and 2 1/2 hours on Hwy 2. So worth it!

Looking forward to July 30 in Moncton. I hope Bono's voice holds out until then.

Photos courtesy of Dean Demitor (and the 360 shot from u2.com)

A Public Service Announcement:

from Gil Scott-Heron (1949-2011)

You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
about a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

2001-2010 Decade in Review

2001: Shave my head for the first time, work as a youth pastor at Red Willow Community Church in St Albert AB (Events: Just Shoot Me, Gerta's Eclipse, and fall retreat in Nordegg), canoe the Mackenzie River in NT, camp at Elk Island National Park, attend plays at the Citadel Theatre, travel to Halifax NS for Peter's wedding and Cormier Village NB after a 7 year absence, wake up to news of attack on twin towers on radio, spend Christmas in Smithers BC.

2002: Amber graduates from U of A, church trip to Guatemala and touring afterward, Pépère passes away, continue pastoring at Red Willow leading prayer meetings, leading worship with Kurt and getting kids to YC, substitute teach and then teach language arts and media part time for Edmonton Public Schools, camp at Elk Island, travel to Hope BC for Tey's wedding and Moscow ID for Bethany's wedding, Christmas in Lacombe AB.

2003: Finish my first year teaching at Winterburn School, Amber teaches for six months in Calgary, taken temporarily by Quixtar, cycle across Canada (5858 km) with 8 friends/family, move to Montreal QC and teach science and math at Greaves Adventist Academy, attend the Lord of the Rings trilogy screening at the Paramount Montreal, spend Christmas in NB.

2004: Travel to VT, CT, MA, and NY in the spring, sponsor school yearbook, begin Zaakistan blog, eat very well at various parties in Montreal, run through NDG, friend Stephanie passes away, teach summer session, buy first iPod, drive across North America with stops in NB, MI, WI, and SK, move to Spruce Grove AB to teach music, band and math at Living Waters Christian Academy, impregnate Amber, take Spanish classes, put on school Chrismas concert, host family Christmas.

2005: Put on school spring concert at LWCA, mail out support letters to work in Guatemala, Amber gets huge, enjoy 4 couples friends meals, begin playing Settlers of Catan, Blaise is born, pack up and move to Red Deer, travel with baby to Hazelton BC, Squamish BC, Moscow ID, Montreal QC, Cormier Village NB, move to Tactic Guatemala with Impact Ministries to manage the child sponsorship program, produce promotional material, and guide short term teams, deliver relief supplies to Lake Atitlan following landslide devastation, sell Ester Buck, buy Kia Rio, travel to Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Antigua, and Copán Honduras.

2006: New school opens in Chicoy, we are robbed while at church, move to house at KM 185, complete first film, turn 30 years of age, visited by Saison, Mom, Papa and Red Willow team, travel to El Salvador, Honduras, Lake Atitlan and Tikal, hike the falls at Chilascó and Pacaya volcano, produce promo video, database, website and slideshows for Impact Ministries, listen to Stanley Cup Edmonton Oiler playoff run online, Amber gets pregnant, screen Strength and Honour: Cycling Canada Coast to Coast at the Montreal International Film Festival, travel to Montreal QC, Cormier Village NB, then Christmas in AB and BC with family.

2007: Two new schools open in Purulhá and Mocohan, we achieve Guatemalan residency, deliver and install 90 ONIL stoves, endure 2 month cough, Acadia is born at home, visited by Will and LWCA team, hike up Purulhá mountain, continue to produce promo videos, guide teams and manage sponsorship program, buy and care for goats with René, join Facebook, Tactic is flooded, take course from Chalmers, deliver 640 pairs of shoes, April spends Christmas with us.

2008: Drive through Petén, Belize, and Quintana Roo to spend holiday with family in Playa del Carmen Mexico, visited by Salomé, Shane, Peter, Red Willow team, Alan and Justin, cycle to Salamá with Garth and Walter, travel to Rabinal, back country near Tactic and with group of friends to Rio Dulce, receive interviews with World Vision Mali and Bearspaw Christian School Calgary, move to AB, buy car and home, niece Abigail and nephew Kai are born, travel to Smithers and Hazelton BC for weddings, teach Bible, Spanish, PE and media at BCS, Amber's sisters live with us.

2009: Begin attending New Hope Church, continue teaching at BCS with math added to the subjects, drywall the basement, spend summer holidays in NB, NS, PEI, BC and AB, buy year passes to Calgary Zoo, attend Leonard Cohen and U2 concerts, start small group, Kylik, Alanna and Indigo winter with us, endure -58 C (with wind chill) in Edmonton, host big family Christmas.

2010: Join Whiskeyjack/Dragonfly Cohousing, begin playing Stone Age, attend Pastor John's book meetings, host Amber's family visit, watch the Vancouver Olympics, Camp with family in Rocky Mountain House, travel to Smithers BC, speak at Katepwa Baptist Camp in SK, celebrate 10 year wedding anniversary in Waterton Lakes National Park, attend several amazing concerts, start teaching Calculus and stop teaching Spanish, cycle to work, April visits from Syria, spend Christmas in Edmonton with my family.

I praise the faithful and ever present God for this blessed decade.

Top Music Discoveries of 2010

I've listened to some great music this year. Much of it has come from artists with which I was previously acquainted (The Arcade Fire, Neko Case, Daniel Lanois, Switchfoot, etc.), but a lot of new (to me) musicians have come across my path, for which I am very grateful!

Mumford & Sons I wasn't a fan to start. I had to listen to these guys quite a bit before I really started to enjoy them. My pastor, by preaching a sermon on this British folk band, had me listening to them.

I'm Not There (Soundtrack) I've been a Bob Dylan fan since I was born, but the cover songs on this album are absolutely gorgeous - in particular Iron & Wine/Calexico's version of Dark Eyes and Mira Billotte's As I Went Out One Morning. Stunning!

Paper Tongues These guys opened for Switchfoot this spring. I picked up their EP and it got some heavy rotation in my car. It's not what I typically listen to, but the vocals are amazing and the band is really tight. Great dancing music.

Calexico This SW Roots/Rock band makes fusion sound good. I saw them open for Arcade Fire a couple months ago and we stood right in front of their brass section. Beautiful melodies and some groovy grooves.

Owen Pallett This Ontario violin virtuoso released an album under his own name this year after several under the name Final Fantasy. He's a strange bird and his music can be stranger, but he's incredibly gifted and the music buried itself deep into my brain. Stuart McLean put me onto him by featuring a song on the Vinyl Cafe.

The New Pornographers I'd heard of this power pop band before and the name kind of put me off so I never paid them much attention. My worship leader invited Amber and I to go see them at MacEwan Hall in the spring and so I listened to their latest album, then bought tickets. It was one of the best shows I've ever seen, and their Together album is definitely worth picking up if you haven't already.

The Mountain Goats This guy opened for The New Pornographers and it could easily have been the other way around. He had some pretty devoted fans. I found his latest album, The Life Of The World To Come is a lot about dying and grief and just plain beautiful. I walked out of the concert with one song of his in my head and it stayed there for months.

Bon Iver I heard a song of his on CBC called Flume and immediately picked up the album. Such soothing and heartfelt acoustic tones!

The National Chris introduced me to these last two bands. The National is all about anthems, dark sing along songs. Precious.

Hayden I listened to this Canadian folkie while I worked on my Escher puzzle last month and I've been addicted to the soothing tones ever since. Message from London is my favorite song at the moment.

Owen Pallett Live

A couple weeks ago I attended a rich musical event: Owen Pallett performing at Knox United Church.

I had heard from a friend that Mr. Pallett was kind of full of himself, a bit pouty, but a superb performer. All of this was true in my experience. He was very gracious towards the opening artist (Little Scream) who came on stage and then asked if anyone had a pick and he developed a great rapport with the audience. But his vibe was kind of that of a spoiled brat.

Musically, the guy is brilliant! Most of the music is produced through loops that he records with his violin and a little synthesizer. Another musician joined him for about half the songs playing drums, doing back up vocals or playing bass. The violin loops were most impressive as the heavy effects that could make a heavy bass or woodwind sound, let alone the multitude of energetic percussion loops.

Mavis Staples Quote

Mavis Staples: "They said I was singing the Devil's music."

Stephen Colbert: "Were you singing the Devil's music?"

MS: "I'm positive, I was not singing the Devil's music."

SC: "Did you ever sing disco madame?"

MS: "The Devil ain't got no music!"

The Arcade Fire - Sept 26

I've seen some good shows in my limited concert attending life. This one will stand forever as a great concert: The Arcade Fire at the Corral, Calgary, AB, September 26 with Calexico.

Amber and I scored tickets through my friend Gary at church. They were on the floor, so I pushed for us to line up a little early so we could get close to the stage. Close we did get - right at the gate, just a couple feet from the stage, just left of centre.

Calexico, a roots/rock/mariachi band from Phoenix, opened. We were right in front of the trumpets. They were a lot of fun, some great music.

Earlier that day at New Hope Church, our pastor John preached on the truths that God speaks through Arcade Fire. A couple dozen New Hopers were at the show that night. It was a great big church party!

“This concert experience was totally different because of what we did at church this morning,” said Kailey, a fellow New Hoper who sat (stood dancing) beside me at the Arcade Fire explosion last night. She’s right. It was… for me too. (from John's Blog)

The theatrics were awesome! Two of the musicians were especially furious in their playing: William Butler (keyboards, percussion, and shouting) and Richard Parry (everything). At one point William beats a drum, but actually beats it into a pulp during Power Out – a song about kids reclaiming life after humankind is found to be dead (empty hearts). There’s a physical response, not just words. Actions, not only faith. Régine Chassagne, the female lead singer and multi-instrumentalist does an amazing job flitting around the stage like a pixie or angel or oracle. Her songs are less angry, more desire – singing about Haiti or about how disappointing the suburban sprawl is. Her dancing evokes new life, rebirth, purity.

One of the big highlights for me: Rococo - a song about today’s kids being entranced by emptiness, lavish materialism, and their fake feral nature. (Rococo is an art era marked by meaningless swirls, gaudy decor and French despotic rule that is beheaded decades later for their disregard for real justice) The song on the album almost seems playful, peppy. Live, it is an ominous experience, an angry trudge. Win asks at one point, shouting “What is this horrible song they’re singing?” I had shivers. He’s singing about deception, lies, being duped and he’s genuinely reviled by it.

The string section in Rococo was arranged to sound like mosquitos biting colonial Frenchmen in Haiti.

Another highlight was catching a drumstick that flew out of William's hand as he pounded the tar out of a tom during Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out).

Tim, the main guitarist was in front of us most of the time at the far left. He is probably the least dynamic of the band, but he was rock solid on his instruments.

At one point Win's mic stand fell on the ground, so he got down and kept on singing into it. Gary snapped this great shot of him.

The set list was brilliant. Not one song was out of place.

The Spirit of God was definitely at the show, not only brought by those of us from New Hope Church, but by all of the desires for something more in all the fans. Brought by the thousands of fans who are drawn not by glamour and veneer, but by the gritty chafe against it. Brought by artists who have forged their talents into magnificence. Brought by a God who asks “What are my children doing, letting their hearts fill with nothing? What are my people doing making religion a mockery of justice?”

This is from their Madison Square Gardens show a couple months ago:

Photo Credits go to Gary who brought his camera to the show. Thanks Gary!

Canmore Folk Music Festival

My mom has been raving about the Canmore Folk Music Festival for a years now and we were finally in province for it this year. I'm glad we were!

The great blues musician Matt Anderson (from NB) played a couple workshops and we were excited to see him. We saw him last at the Vinyl Cafe concert at Christmas. This guy has the voice.

A couple big highlights for me were a traditional Québecois band called Le Vent du Nord. They were reminiscent of La Bottine Souriante who I have been listening to for years. Part of their ensemble is a hurdygurdy player which adds a sweet tone. Also there was Ali Farka Touré's son - Vieux Farka Touré of Mali. Again, I've been a fan of Malian guitarists for quite some time (especially Vieux's father Ali and Habib Koité). Both gave great sets! Too short really.

Some other notables were Dala, Four Men & A Dog, Ruthie Foster, Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett (pictured below), and the legendary Buffy Sainte-Marie (above).

We lunched at the Grizzly Paw Brew Pub where I sampled their 8 lovely brews.

My family got covered in CKUA tattoos. I thought about it, but my belly is pretty hairy.

It started to rain a bit later in the evening, but most people just put up their hoods and stayed.

Next year I'll be making an effort to get the whole weekend in.