In honour of the passing of ‘Big’ Tom this past week, and that it’s Saturday in the Shed day, I thought I would pass along a video I found on YouTube on the various escapades of Big Tom with K-Rock. I don’t know how many of you out there listen to K-Rock, but Big Tom was one of the best. Great sense of humour, great knowledge on rock and from what I hear, a great person overall. He’ll be missed.
The votes are in from the first round of our Nintendo Music tournament and now we’ve moved on to round two. Check out the tournament bracket to see who’s made it and send in your votes before April 30th.
Click here for a full-size version of the tournament bracket.
My 3 year old daughter, Addison, is continually telling us what she desires for Christmas this year, having no idea that Santa won’t be coming for quite some time. I pulled down a wall calendar, thinking to show her the number of sleeps from now until then, only to realize how unintuitive the nasty multi-page grid would be for a child.
To solve this problem I built the following wall calendar with a more intuitive display of all things ‘Time,’ things I suspect I’ll be teaching her over the coming years. If you want to explain to someone how something works, time/calendar/seasons related, this baby should at least help start the conversation.
Some points of note:
The rest is fairly straight foward. The main calendar has a few popular holidays marked, with lots of blank space to add birthdays and other holidays. To our household copy I’ve added family birthdays as follows:
To get one:
Terry (zievo)
p.s. Thx to Nick Murray and Michael J(ackson) Bricout for advice and ideas.
Welcome to our first Nintendo Music Tournament. The first round has begun a quest to find the best old-school Nintendo music. You can send your picks to gtgeeks@gmail.com or leave them in the comments before April 22th. You’ll find all these games on youtube if you need to refresh your memory as well. Let the battle begin!
Click Here to download a full version of the graphic
The roots of folk music run deep in Newfoundland, producing various branches of traditional, country, and modern-influenced styles. When discussing “folk music” in this province, it’s easy to accidentally limit the choices to the familiar traditional genres so frequently heard in Irish pubs and gift shops. However, the folk scene in Newfoundland has sprouted a colourful foliage of genres spanning from the traditional stylings of Harry Hibbs, and the Dardanelles, to the folk-rock of Great Big Sea, and The Fables, and the Americana-style folk of artists like Ian Foster, Matthew Hornell, and Ron Hynes. These artists only represent a small fraction of the styles of folk music the province has to offer, especially as it continues to grow.
Fitting well within this array of folk is newcomer Nick Ryan. This 26 year old singer/songwriter hailing from Grand Falls-Windsor, has only lived in the city of St. John’s for just under a year, but in this short period of time he has made quite an impact. Since moving to the city from Nova Scotia, where he studied and taught music, Nick has stormed the downtown music scene with his folk-pop act the Elizabeatans and hasn’t looked back. This coming Friday, Mar. 30th, 2012, to celebrate the one year anniversary of his return to Newfoundland, Ryan will be releasing his first solo album entitled Side-Saddle Flower.
I have had the privilege of being able to listen to this album for the past week, and I have to say I’m impressed. Yes, it’s true: he is a personal friend of mine, but don’t let my biases deter you from giving it a listen. Nick is a brilliant songwriter and poet. Add to that his musical sensibilities and you have, in my opinion, one of the strongest albums to come out of St. John’s in 2012. I’m quite confident that after this coming Friday, I won’t be alone in that assertion.
Side-Saddle Flower is described by Nick as a “minimalist folk-pop album” in which he pays homage to some of his favorite artists: Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and John Prine. He exclaimed that for him this album “is a love letter to the folk music I grew up with”. Not only did he use a similar recording style to those performers, but he also let the guitar and harmonica play more of a supportive role, allowing the lyrics to come first. While sitting down with Nick to discuss the album, he said while growing up, his mother stressed that “the lyrics were just as important as the key of the song”, and in paying respect to that idea he wanted to emphasize his songwriting on these recordings.
Upon first listen, it is obvious what he means by “minimalist”: the whole album consists primarily of vocals and guitar, with only a few appearances from a harmonica. Though sparse in instrumentation, the album is definitely rich in feeling, poetic word play, and poignant story lines. As is synonymous with this style of folk, Nick takes on the part of the storyteller, guiding the listener through various situations involving love, loss, and lamentation from start to finish. In total, the ten tracks clock in at just under a half an hour, which makes for a very short, yet sweet listening experience.
The first song I listened to from this album was the title track, “Side-Saddle Flower”. To give this title some context, a side-saddle flower is more commonly known in Newfoundland as a pitcher plant. When I asked Nick why he decided to give the song that name, he simply replied with smirk saying “because ‘pitcher plant’ is a horrible phrase to use in a rhyme scheme! What the hell rhymes with that?”
After some laughter he continued on to explain that in this song he uses the beauty of Newfoundland to describe his adoration for the muse in the song. He stated that it wasn’t something he learned to appreciate until he lived away from the island while studying music and art at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. Again he makes a joke: “I really hope this album is the artistic reciprocal of my painting ability.”
It’s easy to tell that Nick is slightly nervous about the release of this album. Upon asking him how he felt about it as a whole, he replied “I felt terrified at first. The whole thing was recorded in one evening, with over half of it done in one take… it has its mistakes, and is far from perfect, but I’m probably the only one who hears those.” He went on to say that even though the album was completed fairly quickly, that it was Justin (Davis of Heavy Weather fame) who made the whole process very easy for him. “Recording these songs must be what it’s like to let go of your children. With a lot of the takes, Justin would just hit the record button and I’d play. He said it would’ve been funny to hear the album if it was recorded a day before or after we had, as they songs could’ve come out completely different”. After listening to the album it’s easy to tell that Nick definitely hit his stride in the studio that night, and is more than apparent on songs such as “If Love Falls Down” and “Leonardo, Giorgio and King Francis I”.
“If Love Falls Down” is a retelling of playwright David French’s Saltwater Moon. During our conversation Nick noted that Newfoundland literature never really stood out to him until he read this play. It had such an impact on him and was an easy story to turn into song. He continued to say that this tune has many different forms, and when he plays it live he picks from 5 additional verses, only keeping the beginning and the end the same. So, much like folklore of days gone by, this song has the ability to change with each telling.
The next track we discussed “Leonardo, Giorgio and King Francis” is a different beast altogether. Unlike the love songs littered throughout this album, this one is more of an abstract narrative. In this song, Ryan takes three historical figures, Leonardo Da Vinci, Giorgio Vasari and King Francis I, and turns them into the cowboys in a western-style story line, where they venture to France chasing women, eventually plotting to help King Francis beat up Michelangelo. As off-the-wall this story may seem, it’s definitely an enjoyable listen. Ryan explained that he wasn’t originally going to include it on the album, but decided to record it upon the insistence of his younger brother Nolan. “I throw all my ideas past him. He gives me the Caesar’s thumb of approval, determining whether any songs live or die, and pushes me to play songs I never would’ve considered myself”.
album art by Ian MacDonald
The official release date for the album is set for Mar. 30, 2012. Unlike many local recordings though, this album is not available as a CD. Embracing technology, Nick is releasing the album as a free download on his website (nick-ryan.bandcamp.com). He stated that he wanted to make the album accessible, so people can listen to it without feeling obligated to pay, or to have to go out of their way to get it. “If they want to pay for it, the option is there. All they have to do is type in the website to get a copy. They don’t even have to pay if they don’t want to. I know what it’s worth to me. I’m just putting it out there for people to listen to and enjoy.”
The album release will be at The Ship Inn this coming Friday, where Nick will share the stage with special guests Joanna Barker, Clayton Saunders, Paddy Byrne, the Elizabeatans, and myself. Doors open at 10:30pm, and cover is $10.00. See you there!
“How Sweet Thy Rose” – Nick Ryan
Due to the constant complaining about the weather in Newfoundland, I propose a new rule of Provincial Seasoning. Each province will be given it’s own set of seasons based around the usual weather that’s expected for the time of year, thus ending the disappointment when one province is experiencing summer-like weather while another is still stuck in winter. So for my formal proposal, I have prepared an infographic for our new set of seasons.
Provincial Seasoning - Newfoundland Edition
A story showed up in my news feed this morning that I found interesting. The Geroge Street Association are looking for ways to increase security downtown St. John’s on George Street, and among the different ideas, there is one particular one that has caught my eye:
“The George Street Association was in Las Vegas this week investigating systems, including capabilities for information sharing that would allow bars to exchange information on troublesome patrons.”
The general idea is that as every patron enters a bar or pub on George Street, the person on the door would scan their ID into a system that is then shared amongst all the other bars on the street. The idea is that not only will it filter out fake id’s, but also if one troublesome patron gets booted from a bar, all other bars are notified of the booting as well giving them the option to deny service on the spot.
This is an interesting one. On one hand, I understand that entering into a business is not a right, and they probably have full right to doing something like this. But, on the other hand, I don’t know how keen I am on every bar on George Street knowing when I walk into one. I also don’t like the possibility of tracking my comings and goings downtown, and what they could possibly do with that information. As one commenter stated on The Telegram article, this is nothing new and other bars in other places do this, but I still don’t personally like the idea of it.
This is not set in stone yet, they are only investigating the possibility of doing it, so nothing may come of this in the long run. But the fact that they are looking into it alone worries me a little.
What are other people’s thoughts on it?
Source: The Telegram
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