I just watched this great interview with Chuck D. He’s one of the most interesting musicians of his generation and one of the grandfathers of hip-hop.
Category Archives: Culture
Margot Wallström is Heroic for Speaking the Truth
I came across this article tonight on Reddit. It’s worth a read, I was unaware of the story.
It’s a long headline but it certainly doesn’t bury the lede. I only wish that Canada’s Foreign Minister was of Margot Wallström’s calibre.
Wings of Russia
If you’re like me and you have an obsession with aircraft then this series is a bit of a treat. Wings of Russia is sort of a Russian equivalent to the Great Planes/Wings series produced in the United States but focused almost exclusively on the history of Russian and Soviet aircraft.
Check it out! It’s fairly in depth and it’s great to watch a series that doesn’t treat Soviet and Russian aerospace development as simply a reaction to Western aircraft. From what I know about the topic it’s a fairly well balanced presentation.
Putin and the Truth
In light of the latest news from the Vladimir Putin, I thought I’d share this little article I came across a few days ago. It’s an interesting read discussing some of the psychology of the current Russian regime.
Without Sky: How a dystopian short story was Russia’s model for war
Vice: The Giants of Iceland
I watched this last night, it was an interesting documentary and it really took me back to the days when I used to watch Magnús Ver Magnússon.
Life is Beautiful
For some reason when I saw this it really touched me. I used to be a big fan of these sort of shorts, but I haven’t seen a good one in a long time.
Hope you enjoy!
Nathan Rogers
I figured I’d take a quick moment to share some of the music I’ve been listening to lately. Back in October I spent a couple of days in the Eastern Townships on union business. Because it’s so close to the US border and CBC Radio 1 reception can be sketchy I usually find myself tuning into NPR Vermont and while I was driving back to Montréal on Sunday afternoon to catch my train back to Toronto I happened to catch a programme covering modern folk music. I immediately recognized Stan and Garnet Rogers when I turned the radio on, but jammed between them there was a Stan Rogers song I didn’t recognize. I thought that was odd because as far as I know I own everything he ever recorded and the recording certainly didn’t sound like a bootleg. As soon as the host came on after the set he explained my confusion by crediting Stan’s son Nathan for the middle song in the set: “Jewel of Paris”.
To say that he sounds eerily similar to his father is quite an understatement. I’ve done a bit of reading on his background and accomplishments as well as the requisite crawling through Youtube and Google to catch clips of my performing live. I’m sure he’s trying to carve out his own niche, among other talents he is an accomplished throat singer who has studied with indigenous groups in Mongolia and Nunavut, but releasing a first album, “The Gauntlet”, that is reminiscent of his father is not a bad way to start.
I can’t find an online version of Jewel of Paris but here’s a live cover on Youtube of Stan’s famous “Northwest Passage” which is a good sample of his voice. Happy Winter Solstice!
Pioneer One
I came across a link to Pioneer One last week and I downloaded it over the weekend. I finally got around to watching it this evening and I have to say that for a $6000 budget it’s not that bad, in fact I’m sure hoping that it continues, I’m pretty curious about the plot. Anyway I won’t bother repeating stuff you can just read on the site itself, but the idea of micro funded entertainment is really neat. I’ll be following this closely.
A Couple Things
I’m still plugging away at the Aubrey-Maturin series and I’m still enjoying it, about halfway through HMS Surprise. I mentioned it to a friend recently about the series and I agreed with her that it’s probably a bit of an acquired taste but if you’re in to sailing and/or military or historical fiction you should check it out.
Also, you should check out PBS Video if you haven’t recently. Although some of the content is geofenced (and there are ways around that if you’re creative) there’s a lot of good stuff there for the watching. Lately I’ve been enjoying American Experience in particular, oh how I wish we had PBS in Canada.
Diaspora
I just pledged $25 to the Diaspora project on Kickstarter. I won’t repeat all the details here, but it’s in many ways an answer to my complaints about Facebook. I’m still a bit leery of some aspects of social networking regardless of the tools but the idea that I manage my own data directly is incredibly appealing. I urge you to check it out and if you feel strongly about it go ahead and sponsor the project. Anyway, off to Montreal… have a great weekend!