My musical tastes run the gamut: progressive and old-timey country, folk, Americana, lounge, progressive dance, klezmer, world beat, Celtic folk, Japanese pop, trip-hop, orchestral, urban pop, hip hop soul, rhythm and blues, acoustic, dirty bass south, avant-garde, europop, gospel, house music, dream pop, trance, ambient and downtempo, acid jazz, rock ballads, post-Britpop — and with all that, I’m only scratching the surface of the types, styles and genres of music I love which constitute the soundtrack of my life, the various genres of music which you’ll come to hear through this screen in the days, weeks, months and years to come.
Where I am a listener and an appreciator of music, with some background in piano and guitar — long forgotten, alas — my son Jude, a recording engineer and D.J. creates his own complex, layered, multi-dimensional music, electronica for wont of a better word. Jude records under the name Dj Nameless, as has been the case for well more than a decade now.
I love well-produced, textured music, and remixes, of which you’ll be hearing a great deal more in the time to come. Today, a remix by New York-based D.J. Branchez of Rihanna’s 2012 chart topper, Stay. When this song pops up on my iTunes playlist, through my bluetooth headphones, when I’m heading downtown to a movie, the bus crowded, rain pelting down on the bus, the wetness of the day permeating not just the clothing but the very souls of the people around me, the Branchez bootleg remix of Stay simply raises my mood — see if it does the same thing for you.
As the cinematic year draws to a close, today on VanRamblings — given that it’s American Thanksgiving — we take a fond look back at 2018 and some of the movie-related innovations we have to be thankful for this year.
As we’ve written previously, 2018 marked the year of the return of the romantic comedy — not at the cinema, but on Netflix, where mid-budget smash hits like To All the Boys I’ve Loved and The Kissing Booth, both mid-budget teen romantic comedies, gained massive followings on social media, while re-establishing the rom-com as a genre that should not be underestimated. Good on Netflix for reviving this near forgotten genre.
Far and away the strongest and most affecting independent film of 2018, director Debra Granik’s first outing since 2010’s multiple Oscar award nominee, Winter’s Bone (in which Jennifer Lawrence made her début, gaining a Best Actress Oscar nomination), Leave No Trace tracks a father and daughter living precariously off the grid, introducing us to an incandescent 17-year-old Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, who lives a tranquil life sheltered with her loving, PTSD suffering father, Ben Foster, in an urban Oregon woodland, in perfect harmony with one another, despite all. Uncompromising, authentic, raw, heartbreaking, brilliant, haunting, full of grace, and riveting throughout, Leave No Trace is a multiple Gotham and Independent Spirit Award nominee — including Best Actor, Supporting Actress, Director and Feature — and a must-see film streaming on demand. Netflix Starts to Prioritize Theatrical Releases
For the longest time, Netflix refused to screen their films in theatres, which last year hurt the chances of Dee Rees’ Mudbound winning any Academy Awards, despite its four Oscar nominations.
In 2018, after allowing certain films exclusive theatrical engagements — including the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs a week before it hit its platform, and in 42 select theatres across North America, Alfonso Cuarón’s almost certain Best Picture Academy Award winner Roma, which will screen exclusively in Vancouver at the Vancity Theatre, December 14th through the end of December — while Netflix is still the disrupter it’s always been, 2018 is the year they thankfully realized theatres still matter. The Most Exciting Foreign-Language Academy Award Race in Years
Whether it be Poland’s Cold War, Mexico’s Roma, South Korea’s Burning, Israel’s The Cakemaker, Denmark’s The Guilty, Colombia’s Birds of Passage, Belgium’s Girl, Hungary’s Sunset, Japan’s Shoplifters, Sweden’s Border, or Lebanon’s Capernaum, there is an embarrassment of riches of foreign language films vying for an Academy Award this year. Lucky us.
Buy Nothing Day is an international day of protest against consumerism.
Founded in September 1992 by Vancouver-based artist Ted Dave, and subsequently promoted annually by Kalle Lasn and Bill Schmalz, the founders of Adbusters magazine, Buy Nothing Day was designed as a means to examine the issue of overconsumption.
Early on, a decision was taken to hold Buy Nothing Day on Black Friday, the Friday of the American Thanksgiving long weekend, one of the ten busiest shopping days across North America, the day that signals the beginning of the holiday shopping season, and the day when retailers across North America discount consumer goods by 50% or more.
Although Black Friday is not an official holiday, many American states designate Black Friday as a holiday for state government employees. For many non-retail employees and schools who will celebrate the Thanksgiving long weekend (Thanksgiving in the United States is a more important holiday down south than Christmas), since 1952 Black Friday has marked the beginning of a four-day Thanksgiving weekend — the net result: to both increase the number of potential shoppers and boost the economy.
If you’re like me, your social media feeds are likely rife with posts imploring you to not to buy anything this upcoming weekend, to boycott Black Friday, and not give in to consumerism. God knows we’re a society of waste, we focus far too much on acquisition of consumer goods over building community, and our landfills are laden high with perfectly well-functioning consumer items that have been discarded for no reason other than waste.
Still and all, if you’re a pauper like me, a senior living on a fixed income of under $20,000 annually, or if you’re a minimum wage worker just barely getting by, yet you’ve had your heart set on finally buying the much-talked, and indispensableInstant Pot (on sale all over town at around $65, rather than its usual price of $130), or if you’re looking to make your first foray into Smart Home technology — because, why should the Smart Home be just the preserve of the wealthy? — or if there’s a sweater or a jacket that you see discounted at 70% off that you’ve had your eye on, would it really be an offense against God and all that is right and proper to treat yourself to a consumer good that you have long desired and can now afford.
Not being a particular follower of fashion, and as much as we agree with the principle behind Buy Nothing Day, we also see that there’s a class issue involved. All well and good if you’re earning the average $65,000 median wage for those resident in Metro Vancouver, and whether you pay $129.99 (plus tax) for the Instant Pot, or the one-day Black Friday sale price of $64.99 (plus tax) makes no never mind to you, for seniors and others living on a fixed income, or for the working poor, the $72.80 (including sales tax) saving for the most popular Instant Pot model, the 6-quart Duo, or if you’ve got a large family, the $102.03 (including sales tax) saving on the 8-quart Instant Pot model, that’s a chunk of change in savings for those who’ve been waiting for the Instant Pot to go on sale — and the only day that happens is, you guessed it, Black Friday, in 2018 … on November 23rd.
Word to the wise: if you want that Instant Pot at the sale price, there are some conditions that have to be met. Whether it’s Canadian Tire, Best Buy, Walmart or Real Canadian Superstore, Instant Pots at the sale price are in short supply — retailers bring in only 100 Instant Pots to each store, which means that if you want one, you’re going to have to line up no later than 6am to get one, cuz let us assure you, there’ll be a great many folks waiting in line to purchase their new Instant Pot at a 50% or better saving.
The Breville Smart Oven Pro Convection Toaster Oven, on sale at Best Buy at $240 (a $134.39 saving, including tax), reliable, long lasting, great for seniors and singles, a virtual replacement for your oven & a kitchen appliance people swear by, including me.
Now, we’ve written at length about the Instant Pot, and why it has become an essential kitchen tool — we feel the same way about our Breville Smart Oven Pro Convection Toaster Oven — which, by the way, is on sale for $126 off (including tax) its regular price, at Best Buy, the best deal in town for the Breville, the virtues of which one customer extols here.
Do you remember how we were writing about the Smart Home above?
Well, the Google Home Mini is on saleBlack Friday, all over town for only $35, rather than at its regular $80 price — which makes for a pretty skookum $50.40 in savings (including tax), if your looking to tech enhance your life. Not bad. The Google Home Mini does all the same things the Google Home pictured in the ad above does, and much, much more (because more functionality is added each and every month by Google).
At $40 (last year, on sale), we bought a Google Home Mini during the holiday season — partly because we’re a tech-y guy, partly out of curiosity, and partly because it was on sale, and we are a parsimonious guy.
So, what do we use our Google Home Mini for?
To turn the lights off and on. When we’re away, using the Google Home app to turn up the thermostat while we’re on our way home, and to turn on the lights in our sensuous hovel just prior to opening the door to our home. We listen to BBC News, news from the American networks, CBC news and podcasts, and all of our other favourite podcasts, to check on the temperature and the weather forecast, as an alarm, and to listen to our favourite music or be introduced to new music.
In the holiday season, we use the Google Home Mini to automatically turn our balcony holiday light display on at 4pm, and off again at 8am. We use it as an aide when we’re cooking — and, if we were of a mind, to turn on our 4K TV to the Netflix, or the channel we want to watch or record.
Could we live without our Google Home Mini? Yes. Do we want to? No.
The Sharp 55″ 4K Smart TV, at $450, at the Real Canadian Superstore (also on sale at Visions Electronics, for $448) seems like a pretty sweet deal, if you’re in the market for a 4K Smart TV. Here’s an even-handed review.
Now, we’re not saying that you should purchase items that you don’t need — we’re a firm believer in the stripped down, simple life. Still and all, if you’ve got your heart set on something, and you either need it, or really, really want to have it, and you’ve saved up your sheckles to buy it (we don’t buy anything on credit ourselves), we’re saying “why deny yourself”?
As the year draws to a close, the thoughts of music lovers everywhere is the anticipation of the discovery of new music made extant through the publication of the various year-end lists by respected music critics of the best new, under-the-radar music releases of the previous 11 months.
Such was the case during the holiday season in 2000, when the then not-discredited Charlie Rose had on the then not-discredited longtime New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones on his show to discuss the best albums of 2000. Mr. Frere-Jones found himself able to talk about one artist and one artist alone: Kasey Chambers, a then 23-year-old woman raised in the southern Australian outback who, he insisted, had released the best album of the year, the best country album he’d heard in years. Mr. Frere-Jones could not help himself from extolling Ms. Chambers’ many virtues as a singer-songwriter, going on to insist that Mr. Rose, and his other guests around the table that evening — and everyone tuned into PBS’ The Charlie Rose Show first thing the next morning repair to their local record store to secure, or order, Kasey Chambers’ début album release, The Captain.
Enthusiasm exhibited by a usually taciturn critic is a rare commodity at the best of times — critics being a cynical lot, by nature — leaving the viewer of that evening’s episode of The Charlie Rose Show no option other than to purchase The Captain first thing the next day — which, of course, I did.
Kasey Chambers’ music is timeless, as is the case with every song on The Captain. If you’ve not heard The Captain prior to this, you can listen to each of the songs on the album through YouTube, after which I assure you, you’ll want to download the entire album, and make it a part of your music library, and the soundtrack of your life, going forward. Important, really.
Click or tap on this link to listen to & savour Kasey Chambers’ The Captain in its entirety
Kasey Chambers was born in Mount Gambier, the second most populated city in South Australia (urban population: 28,684) early on the Friday afternoon of June 4th, 1976, the younger sister of brother Nash, who was born in 1974. Kasey’s parents, Diane and Bill, were musicians, itinerant farmers and hunters, who wanted nothing to do with big city life.
Mount Gambier’s crystalline Blue Lake
As money was often tight, on the few occasions when the family came to town, given that all members of the family were fine, well-respected musicians, arrangements were made for the family to play a series of concerts, the monies earned enough to pay for supplies until the next time the Chambers family came to town. By 1986, when Kasey was only 10, the family had formed a band called the Dead Ringer Band, so-named because Nash and Kasey looked like younger versions of their parents.
From the outset, it was clear to anyone that heard Kasey Chambers that she was a preternatural talent, Kasey Jo Chambers providing vocals and writing songs for a series of albums released by her parents between 1987 and 1993. When interviewed by the press — word of Kasey’s talent spread quickly across Australia, almost from the outset — she often cited Emmylou Harris as one of her primary influences, recalling that Harris’ music was frequently played by her parents, ever since she was a child.
Kasey Chambers recorded her début solo album, The Captain in July and August of 1998, with her brother Nash producing, and her father Bill on guitar (her parents were in the throes of divorce, so mother Diane played no role in the recording of the album). Joining the family on the recording were American country musicians, Buddy Miller and Julie Miller, who added guitars and vocals to four tracks. The Captain was released in Australia in May 1999, and worldwide, in June 2000 by Asylum Records.
And, as is often said, the rest is transcendent & salutary musical history. Cry Like a Baby went on to win the country music Song of the Year award in 2000, The Captain winning the same award the following year. The next year, Kasey Chambers toured across the globe as the supporting and opening act for Lucinda Williams, who was touring to support her breakthrough, multi-award winning album, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.
At my insistence, my friend J.B. Shayne (not a fan of country music) and I attended the Lucinda Williams concert at The Vogue in late 2001 — a three-hour concert that blew the roof of the venue — J.B. commenting to me afterwards, “That was like attending a Doors concert. I don’t think I’ve ever heard better musicianship. Lucinda Williams and her band (two drummers / percussionists, two lead guitarists, a rhythm guitarist, a slide guitarist, an organist, and a pianist) are probably the finest band I’ve heard in years. It’s maybe the most stoned concert I’ve ever attended.” And so it was.
Kasey Chambers, of course, was the opening act — and proved to be everything and more that I’d promised J.B. Within minutes, she had the audience in the palm of her hand, clapping, cheering, shouting, and head over heels in love with this Aussie girl who just knocked their socks off, not only performing most of the songs off The Captain, but previewing songs from her new album, Barricades & Brickwalls, produced by her brother Nash, the song Not Pretty Enough going on to win CMA Song of the Year.
