Uninhabited Spaces

Throughout their career U2 have made some surprising cuts to the final track listings of their official album released, relegating some great songs to the B side of singles or, worse, to the great and mysterious archives we hope will one day be opened by proclamation of the Irish government. And so it was with great pleasure I learned today that members of the U2 fan club will be getting a special 2-cd set of rarities and b-sides in the mail shortly. Here's a sample, a fun track called "Levitate" that never made it onto their 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind". More to come...   

Despite living just a block away Mark and I finally went to our first show at the 13-month old K-ROCK Centre this past weekend to see "So You Think You Can Dance Canada" tour. While the show was clearly designed for girls aged 12-16 (the men spent most of their time without shirts on and all dances lasted no more than 45 seconds) it was a fun time, with a handful of stunning routines amidst a cacophany of screeching teens. As it was the last night on the tour the dancers were a little sloppy but the winning dancer, Nico, was truly the star. You not only missed him when he was not on stage you were electrified when he was. There may have been better dancers in the competition but Nico is an extraordinary entertainer with grace and power on stage. Unlike the U.S. verson's Benji, for example, he is not campy and silly but a virile and sexy yet eloquent dancer. He deserves the praise heaped on him, and his good looks and charisma certainly help his star quality. I am so very ...

Here is a picture of me circa 1976. It's my favourite picture of me as a child. I am sitting on the grass in a park in Ottawa with some sort of sailor outfit on. Not sure why my mom had me in this get-up, but I love that she took this photo in black & white. There is something timeless about b&w photography, and this image is a lovely sign post in my story.  When I look at this little guy I can't help but think of that time of my life. I lived alone with my mom in Ottawa and I remember these as very happy times. Of course, I was a kid so my memory of things may have been skewed but I remember her happy and I remember her music more than anything else. My mom had a fantastic record collection and she had great taste in what we now call classic rock and pop. So in a moment of nostalgic reverie I thought I would share the soundtrack of that 1-bedroom apartment in Ottawa in the mid-70s. I can smell Jiffy Pop on the stove top and I can hear some of the following songs: ...

U2's forthcoming album, "No Line on the Horizon" is out worldwide on 2 March. I've been scouring the net for reviews and here's what the critics have to say: Neil McCormack, Telegraph ( London ) “It is a great record, and greatness is what rock and roll and the world needs right now. From the grittily urgent yet ethereal title track all the way to the philosophically ruminative, spacey coda of ‘Cedars Of Lebanon’ it conjures an extraordinary journey through sound and ideas, a search for soul in a brutal, confusing world, all bound together in narcotic melody and space age pop songs.  It certainly sounds like U2 (as do a lot of groups these days) but in its boldest moments is as fresh and ambitious as the work of first timers, not veterans 33 years on the road. But what a place for a band to be, in orbit around their own myth, making music that bounces off the inside of a listeners skull, charged with ideas and emotions, groovy enough to want to dance to, melodic...

After 42 years of service to legions of LGBT folk the world's oldest gay & lesbian bookstore, Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop , will close March 29 due to the financial recession. This store was not only an important piece of modern queer history but also a beacon for countless people searching for books and stories about their lives and identities. Founded in 1967 by Craig Rodwell the bookstore served as a much-needed meeting place, activist hub, and resource in those decades before the internet.   In his recent article in  New York magazine  on the legacy of the bookstore David France writes,  " In 1967, two years before the Stonewall riots, when most gay activists still used fake names to avoid arrest, [Rodwell] took his savings from cleaning Fire Island hotel rooms and opened the nation’s first gay bookstore.   Not that there were many gay books then. The real action was in the cramped back room, where Craig and his staff—he hired men and women in equal numbers—plotted a...

Recent conversations have had me reflecting on  how complicated language can be , with its built-in meanings and assumptions. Nothing seems to me to be more complicated and more political than names. What we call things is so entrenched with power relations that it can be confusing and even absurd. To wit, a fascinating article called " From Negro to Black to African American: The Power of Names and Naming" by Ben L. Martin (1991). 

The 1946 short film "Despotism" provides a scale by which you can judge your community and nation for signs of despotism. It's rather fascinating to apply the author's 63 year-old model of respect/power and economic distribution/information onto the nations of our time. I encourage you to watch the film and think about Canada and the United States with this assessment at hand. You may find some unsettling results...