New Rah Rah Single, “Good Winter,” from their Forthcoming Album, “Vessel”

Rah RahI was excited to just get an email from a publicist working with one of my favorite bands, Rah Rah, announcing the first single from their new album, “Vessel,” coming out in 2015. The new song is called “Good Winter” and is streaming here. The press release quotes frontman Marshall Burns:

“This song is a romanticized reimagining of being a young adult in a small Canadian city. The overly nostalgic tone is meant to underline the dichotomy between the ‘good winter’ described in the song and the reality of the harsh cold, boredom and loneliness that, in actuality, accompanies a typical winter (particularly in our hometown of Regina, Saskatchewan). The song aims to be a reminder, to ourselves as much as anyone, of the unique and positive aspects of those cold, long winter months.”

Listen to “Good Winter” here on the Soundcloud page of label Hidden Pony. I took the above photo when I heard Rah Rah live in NY at the Mercury Lounge on Nov 3. For a lengthier report on Rah Rah, here’s a post I wrote in 2012, after seeing them open for the Weakerthans. Finally, here’s the art Rah Rah created to go with the single, which can be bought on iTunesRah Rah, "Good Winter"

An Idea So Bad I Hoped it Was a Joke

This morning I listened to a radio program about a proposed monument that prompted me to post twice on Facebook about it within a couple hours of the segment. Please see my posts below, shared in the order I wrote them, followed by pictures of the Cabot Trail, where backers of the monument want to see it erected.

Proposed statue

I visited Cape Breton several times in the 1980s and ’90s, and wrote about those journeys here on this blog. View this pristine landscape and ponder the proposed statue. Given the Harper government’s propensity for reverting to the playbook of the George W. Bush administration, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re looking for a wedge issue here, something that can allow the militaristic prime minister, who will be running for re-election in 2015, to suggest that opponents of the statue are “against the troops.”

A Generous View of President Obama from Canada

Twitter pal @NerdyWonka shared this, a pithy letter to the editor that was published in the Detroit Free Press, from Canadian Richard Brunt about President Obama, Americans, and Canada. Now picked up by other media like the Christian Science Monitor and the website Addicting Info, in only 175 words Brunt summarizes some of the accomplishments of the Obama administration and expresses astonishment at the disgruntlement of American voters with his presidency. As a measure of its virality, note below that Nerdy Wonka’s tweet including a photocopy of the letter has been retweeted more than 8,000 times, after it was earlier shared by a Canadian with the Twitter handle @RickStrandlof, whose message has itself been shared more than 1,000 times. I made a screenshot of NerdyWonka’s tweet, including some of the excellent comments below it. A transcript of the letter is just below.

@NerdyWonka

Richard Brunt’s Letter to the Editor:

Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country’s adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there’s no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money.

America is leading the world once again and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush years. Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden.

So, Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason.

When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?

Richard Brunt

Victoria, British Columbia

Amelia Curran’s Powerful Video on Ending the Stigma of Seeking Treatment for Mental Health Problems

Amelia Curran is a great singer/songwriter from Newfoundland. I bought and love two of her earlier albums, “Spectators” and “Hunter, Hunter.” She has a new album due out this month and has chosen this time to make and release this powerful video advocating for the end of the stigmas attached to treatment for mental health conditions, and for increased funding for treatment. Implicit in her plea is improving efforts at suicide prevention. I tweeted to her that it’s great, and not just for Newfoundland/Labrador, though her plea is specifically for NL. It’s a very moving video with sung parts taken by about two dozen musicians (like Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea) and many local people. It’s crowd-sourced in the best way, and Amelia put it all together with good people. Very eager to hear her new album, “They Promised You Mercy.”


http://youtu.be/nOqbTHl7b1M

The Night Jian Ghomeshi and Toronto Star Investigative Reporter Kevin Donovan (sort of) Ate Dinner Together

In September Toronto Star investigative reporter Kevin Donovan happened to get seated at a TIFF dinner next to Jian Ghomeshi, whom he’d been trying to interview for several weeks about the allegations that JG had abused women. Donovan reports it made for quite a surreal evening, including when Ghomeshi tried to warn him off the story with a not-so veiled threat: “People in this city need to understand that I have a long memory. You need to understand that and be very, very careful.” What’s weird to me is that he evidently thought his threat would be enough to make the report and newspaper back off, the same reporter and paper that had just some months earlier investigated and reported with great detail many scoops on Rob Ford, which elicited many unavailing threats from the Ford brothers.You may read the rest of Donovan’s story via this link.

The Ballad of Crowfoot

A powerful short film about the history of aboriginal people in North America, in relation to white civilization.

The Ballad of Crowfoot by Willie Dunn, National Film Board of Canada