Specialty Items

I came across this curious link over at Rashomon. For those who enjoy niche reading..... here is an entire webpage devoted to Nurse Book Covers. I like the looks of "The Satanic Nurses and Other Literary Parodies".

Stagg after the Government Mule show

staggo, originally uploaded by mister anchovy.

heeheee....here is one of Stagg's drawings I found in a box up here by the computer (you never know where you're going to find a Stagg drawing). Hey bud, how was the show? Be sure to say hi to Jim for me!

Thomas Kinkade subject of an FBI Probe

via Cynical C
This is from the LA Times:
"The FBI is investigating allegations that self-styled "Painter of Light" Thomas Kinkade and some of his top executives fraudulently induced investors to open galleries and then ruined them financially, former dealers contacted by federal agents said."

As a painter, I consider Mr. Kinkade to be sort of the leader of the axis of painting evil.....

When the deal goes down

new tune avec video by good old weird Bob, from his new collection, Modern Times....

Here's a short review of the CD:

First, let me say that I have a soft spot for the strange old fart. That off my chest, I love this album. It has a similar flavour to Love & Theft. His voice is (for Bob) in fine gravelly form. The songs are fabulous, and the album feels like something that's been floating around for 50 years.... Dylan produced Modern Times himself, as Jack Frost. The band is his road band, guys who play with him every night, and it feels that way.

I rate this one: a full case of extra smokey imported salties. Better add this one to your collection.

Shack Nasty

Here's an old painting, just because I was thinking about it today - I may have posted this one once before - I'm not sure. It's from 1996, and it's called Shack Nasty. The title came from a sentence I heard: he's been in the bush so long, he's got the shack nasties. It's oil on canvas and it's a good sized painting, about 7 feet wide.

What happens in a polygamous cult, stays in a polygamous cult

via Radmila, who sums it up.

Bush sees second chance for New Orleans

My guest bloggers last week pointed out that I rarely swear on this blog. Today I'll make an exception. A year after Katrina, that fucker Bush visited Fats Domino's house in New Orleans to try to squeeze a little spin on the whole sordid affair. Check out the article.

Two of Canada's natural wonders Nahanni, Rocky Mountain parks under threat, says UNESCO

From Randy Boswell's Article in CanWest News Service: "The world's top cultural agency has raised alarms about possible threats to the ecological ''integrity'' of two of Canada's natural wonders, the Nahanni and Rocky Mountain national parks".

Don't think for a minute that the big energy companies won't do everything they can to get their paws on those resources. All for a greasy buck.

searches that led to this little place

cosmic runner
ikea catalogue controversy
Ikea Catalogue Dog Picture
"stairwell sisters" blog
Hammond B3 Ontario for sale
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cash and elvis
Ikea Catalogue Controversy
Ikea catalogue dog picture
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Notice a trend? My hit count has spiked since Radmila mentioned the "Ikea Catalogue Controversy" on this blog. I wonder if I keep using the phrase Ikea Catalogue Controversy enough times, the trend will continue. Lo and behold, Johnny Cash (sans finger) was only mentioned once. It seems that the public at large may be obsessed with whether or not Ikea deliberately published a picture of a dog with an unusually big johnson. My question to you is this: would it matter? I mean would you get up one Saturday morning and say, "Honey, let's not go to Ikea today after all....you know that picture and all....let's go to Idomo instead....they just have the dude with the weird beard".

Please weigh in on this one, friends - is this business going to put a dent in your Ikea shopping? Not me. We shop there from time to time and I expect that to continue.

Joel Guzman plays a polka

And here's Joel Guzman playing the hell out of a nice little polka. Notice the Tex-Mex guys don't play the left side. They actually remove the reeds, and play much more on the pull than on the push.

Flaco Jimenez + Oscar Tellez

Here are Flaco Jimenez on acordion norteno-conjunto and Oscar Tellez on bajo at an accordion workshop. Nice.

Lil Wally, polka great - RIP

I heard little news while I was away, and only by accident discovered the passing of polka giant Lil Wally Jagiello.

From The Miami New Tims: "He's like the Muddy Waters of polka," adds Don Hedeker, leader of the Chicago-based polka-punk hybrid the Polkaholics. "He developed the style of polka music that is by far the most popular and the most accessible".

When I was a kid, Lil Wally was my mom's favourite. She had a record where he sang racy songs in Polish. She would laugh and laugh, and they must have been very racy because her face would go fire red. Wally played the German or Chemnitzer concertina, (as well as drums), typical of the Chicago "Push" style polka players. This was not traditional polka in the folk music sense...it was very much American music. Listen and you'll understand that right away. This was music of the Industrial American Mid-west.

Mr. Jagiello was 76. He died of heart failure in Miami. He had over 110 albums under his belt.

From the obit in the Chicago Sun-Times: "Today, Chicago White Sox fans hear Lil' Wally at every home game. In 1959, he co-wrote the "Let's Go Go Go White Sox" fight song, recorded by Captain Stubby and the Buccaneers with the Lil' Wally Orchestra. The song was resurrected just last year. Lil' Wally was invited to this year's home opener but was too ill to make the trip."

In recent years, Polka has been a marginalized form, although some bands like Brave Combo and the Polkaholics have embraced it....and the Mexican Polka has lived on in the Narco-corrido with bands like Los Tigres del Nortes. I think the decline was generational....kids not wanting to listen to their parents' music. I urge readers to buy some Lil Wally music and give it a serious listen and hear how fantastic this music really was.

RIP Lil Wally Jagiello. A great figure in American music has passed.

From the oddball musical instruments department

via The Presurfer
Readers of this blog will know that I love musical instruments, including oddball ones. I even own as "Banjmo", or banjo dulcimer. This instrument, though, the Pikasso, is a beaut. It was commissioned by Pat Metheny in 1984. To me, it doesn't look very playable, but this site lists some songs it is played on, including a cut with Ornette Coleman. Contrary to what you may be thinking, Mr. Metheny doesn't have 8 arms.

The Frank Slide

"In the early morning hours of April 29, 1903, Turtle Mountain collapsed, resulting in the greatest landslide in North American history. In 100 seconds: at least 76 people were buried alive under tons of massive limestone boulders; three-quarters of the homes in Frank were crushed like balsa wood; over a mile of the Canadian Pacific Railroad was completely destroyed; and a river became a lake."

Follow the link to an excellent article on the Frank Slide. One point of correction - it is the Crowsnest River, not the Oldman that flows through Frank. Today, you can take the "Frank Industrial Park" road south of Highway 3 to see the widening of the river known as Frank Lake, caused by the slide.

For more pictures from Southern Alberta, please visit The Southern Ontario Fly Fisher.

On the Castle

A crude (but tasty) breakfast

The boys are enjoying some scrambled eggs, buns, yogurt and cheese before a day on the Castle River. Other mornings, we drove into Blairmore and let the local diner do the cooking.

The Oldman

The Oldman River in the Livingston Gap is one of the prettiest trout streams I've fished.

Trains

Trains are a fixture of the Crowsnest Pass. The tracks follow the river more or less on the north side. I loved being on the stream when one came by. First, I could hear the low rumble in the distance, then the haunting whistle echo through the pass. They are long freight trains and as one passes you can read graffiti on some of the cars: "The Good Die Young".

The little blue and white sign in front of the train in the middle picture says "Use Respect". Underneath, the local landowner has scrawled a warning, saying the if litter continues on his land, and if anglers don't respect his private lane, the access would be closed to visitors. Behind it is a garbage can. In the parking area, I picked up an empty drink cup and a broken beer bottle. "Use Respect" is a reasonable request. Yet there are few streams, even remote ones, where I don't find one sort of garbage or another. On my visits to trout streams in Canada, the most common garbage I've seen is Tim Hortons coffee cups. I want to scream, "hey, care for the land, people!". What are then thinking?

Bear

We regularly fished the stretch of the Crowsnest River managed by Trout Unlimited in the evenings. This is located a couple miles below the photo, which was taken at the Leitch Collieries access to the stream, upstream from the Castle Mountain road. This stretch of the river holds an excellent population of large rainbows, and we found them rising to very small mayflies tight to the banks.

One evening, I geared up before my partners and wandered down the hill to the river. I chose to walk upstream, and stopped at the first run until the boys made it down to the river and headed downstream. I worked up the river slowly, casting at risers, until I passed a big bend pool. I heard a rustling in the brush and saw a snout appear across the river, perhaps 50 feet from me. For a second I thought it was a dog, until it took a couple steps forward out of the brush, and I realized I was looking at a medium sized black bear. As casually as I could, I backed away downstream, slowly and without any sudden movements. I said something like, "It's OK guy, I'm leaving". The bear disappeared into the brush and I continued back downstream. After a couple hundred metres, there was another rustling in the brush across the stream, and there again was the bear. I can't be sure if it was the same one, or a second one, but my feeling at the time was that it was one bear, keeping tabs on me.

I backed into the brush behind me. This was very thick brush, and very difficult to move around in, but I hoped the bear would not follow once I disappeared from his view. I knew that if I could bull my way through about 40 feet of brush, it would open up to a rocky hill. It did, and I was able to scramble up the rock, which rose to overlook the stream. From this vantage I could see the shoreline of the stream, and there was no sign of the bear. I was exhausted and un-nerved - translate that to scared silly. Back to the bridge I walked downstream to the guys - safer in numbers. There, we enjoyed a good evening of trout fishing with no further sign of the bear.

We continued to fish the area throughout the week, with no other encounters. We did see fresh scat throughout the area on both sides of the stream. There are many ripe berries this time of year near the banks of the Crowsnest such as service-berries and choke-cherries that draw the bears down to the river. You can see the scat is full of berries. On closer examination, we could see many berry bushes where whole sections have been ripped off the bear so that he could get at the berries.

We met another fisherman who lives only a couple hours from the river, and who has fished the Crow for many years. He told us he has been run off this stretch by bears twice in the last decade, both during berry season. I feel fortunate to have been able to see the bear in the wild, and have a peaceful, if scary encounter.

25,000

As of this morning, mister anchovy has had 25,000 visitors.....y'all come back now, ya hear

Glad to be back home

I flew home from Calgary last night after a week of camping and fly fishing with the boys. I see mister anchovy has been doing fine without me, thanks to Radmila and *Asterisk. Thanks to you both for bringing your thoughts, humour and imaginations over here while I was gone.

Later, I'll post some pictures from my trip and tell you about my black bear encounter....but first, I have a bag full of stinky camping clothes to deal with.....

It’s been emotional

Ha ha! Radmila beat me to it, but I wanted to extend a big thank you to Mister Anchovy for letting me loose on his blog while he was holidaying. I feel greatly honoured to have been asked, and I hope he'll be happy that I didn't completely trash the place.

I'd also like to give a big shout-out to Radmila for being a great co-host. I've really enjoyed reading her posts here and heading over to her blog, too. I've been lazy at discovering new bloggers of late, so this has been a real find for me and someone that I'm happy to have added to my blogroll of daily visits.

We had some fun, though, didn't we?! YEEEEAAHHHHH!

So, my friends, I'll leave with my inane thought of the day.

A couple of evenings ago I was watching, on TV, an ape giving birth. When the baby came out, I was amazed how much it looked like an old man, and this got me thinking. I'm sure I'm not the first person to have thought about this, but here goes...

What if Darwin got it wrong? Well, not so much wrong as in reverse? What if ape-like creatures have not evolved into humans, but that we will devolve into ape-like creatures? We're killing ourselves on a global scale, along with the rest of the planet. And we're killing ourselves on an individual scale, turning our brains to mush, diminishing our vocabularies, and reducing the amount of contact we have with other humans. How long will it be before we are grunting rather than talking and crawling to the TV because standing up is too much hassle?

I'm so glad we had this time together...

Just to have a laugh, or sing a song.
Seems we just get started and before you know it...
Comes the time we have to say...so long.

I've had a great time over here at Mr Anchovy's place.
I got the opportunity to really read *(Asterisk)'s blog, and now I've got a new link to add on my blog.

So, in the end...I thought I'd just talk for a second about the IKEA PP controversy.
Yesterday I was listening to a talk radio program, and one of the hosts was going on and on about the new IKEA catalogue.
He was saying that on the inside cover of the new catalogue, some disgrunted design employee has photoshopped a rather large male organ onto the family dog.

Now, it's no secret that IKEA promoters have a wacky sense of humour. I mean, just look at their commercials...not just for TV but for radio as well.
I even heard a CBC radio newsreporter interviewing an IKEA representative, who just kept repeating that she couldn't see Yul Brynner in the photo.

Well, everyone gets an IKEA catalogue...I've read that there are more IKEA catalogues in houses across the world than bibles.
When I got home, I went straight for the catalogue.
Photographed the photo and enlarged the area.
See for yourself.
Mr Anchovy is rated PG, otherwise I would have just straight up posted the picture.

So, before I go...I thank Mr Anchovy for thinking of me as someone he would trust to co-host while he and Tuffy P are away, and *(Asterisk)...like Donnie and Marie, we were...and just for fun, here's one of my favourite IKEA commercials:



Bye, Y'all

I Vant to be alone.....

I vant to be lyink on da chaise longue, an smoke da cigarettes.
I vant to boz mai manservant aroun an mek him bring me da bon bons, an bekaz I am lyink down...I vill vear dis shoes.
I vanna ver da silk kimono, mit mai hair an mekap to be perfekt.

I don vanna go to da Valmart, an da grocery stor.
I don vanna clean da hous, an kook da dinne.
I don vanna run da....how yu say.....errands.
I vanna hev, how yu say...."peopl" to do dis for me.

I vanna say "bazz aff, responsibilities!", "Kiss mai tuchas, obligatshons! Go avay! Leave me alon!"

I vanna bi like Greta an Marlena touday.

It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world

I'd say you couldn't make this stuff up, but clearly that would be untrue. Authors such as James Ellroy have carved lengthy and profitable careers doing just that.

Even so, the reality is some some crazy-ass stuff.

It's been all over the news in the UK the past couple of days, but maybe it's not been covered much in North America.

In Austria, an 18-year-old girl has escaped from the house in which she has been held as a sex slave since being kidnapped. She was ten years old when she was abducted. She has been living in a room with an area of just 54 sq ft (5 sq m) in the cellar of her captor's house. The house is less than 10 miles from the girl's parents' house in Vienna.

After Natascha Kampusch escaped, her kidnapper killed himself by diving in front of a train. Natascha told police that Wolfgang Priklopil was "always kind to me", but that she "had to call him 'master' for the first year".

Priklopil taught Natascha basic literacy skills and sometimes allowed her to help him with chores. It seems that she escaped while helping him wash his car.

She is reported to weigh less now, aged 18, than she did at age ten.

Natascha has been reunited with her parents, who I'm sure must have thought they'd never see her again.

* (asterisk) goes to Bollywood

Well, y'all asked for it. Click the pic to see my Bollywood directorial debut.

WTF?!

I've been enjoying my little guest spot over here at Mister Anchovy. The only downside is in creating enough material to go around. I currently blog here (for this week anyway) and at A Blog About Nowt and Catablog of Disasters, as well as putting the occasional review on Six Line Reviews. I also have to find time to work, of course.

One of the things that I have found quite interesting is how much restraint and respect I've shown in my guest co-tenure. Not that I'm a disrespectful type, you understand. Far from it. But I have had little conversations in my head about what level of curse words are appropriate or otherwise.

Over at A Blog About Nowt, I use very strong language. One blog-reviewing website said I would be rated R if I were a movie. I like that. Proud I am. But when guesting somewhere else, what do you do?

I have noticed that Mister Anchovy himself doesn't cuss. At least not here, and at least not that I've seen, and I've been visiting for a few months. So on that basis, I would be inclined to follow suit.

Equally, though, he asked me to guest while he was away, presumably on the basis that (to some extent) he kind of likes what I write over at my place, and that's full of sweary bits. So do I give it some of that?

Ultimately, I plumped for the former, adopting a "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" attitude. Did I do the right thing? What would you have done in the same position? I mean, it's not like I have to curse. I just think it's big and it's clever.

Oldie but a Goodie

*(Asterisk)'s post on language put me in mind of this old joke, that I still find hilarious.

"The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the EU rather than German which was the other possibility.

As part of the negotiations, Her Majesty's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a five year phase-in plan that would be known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion and keyboards kan have 1 less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year, when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like "fotograf" 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be ekspekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible. Governments will enkorage the removal of double letters, which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horible mes of the silent "e"s in the language is disgraseful, and they should go away.

By the fourth year, peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v". During ze fifz year, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and similar changes vud of kors be aplid to ozer kombinations of leters.

After zis fifz yer, ve vil hav a reli sensibl riten styl. Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi to understand ech ozer. Ze drem vil finali kum tru! And zen world!"

Who says we don’t need no education?

Last week, the British government announced that it was going to overhaul the education system. I don't really pay much attention to this sort of news for two reasons:

1. My school days are way behind me;
2. I don't ever intend to have any kids.

However, out of the corner of my eye and ear I took a little of it in.

The main thrust of the campaign is a renewed emphasis on "the Three Rs".

For me, therein lies the problem. You're trying to teach kids via a system called "reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic". Maybe, back in my day and beyond, you could get away with this kind of silly pun, but I hold out little hope for the kids of today. To say they all look like a bunch of screw-ups is to put it mildly. (Of course, I'm generalizing, but you know I'm right.)

I don't believe that this text-messaging generation has the first clue when it comes to spelling, for example (and that's just the tip of the iceberg). You can put the blame on the aforementioned abomination of communication via cell phone; you can blame email; you can blame Web forums. They probably all have a part to play. People seem to think that there is no need to write correctly in these "new media", so they don't. But I suspect this carries over into their real lives, too.

And now we want to go back 20 years or more and imply that "writing" begins with the letter R? If you ask me, that's just looking for trouble. Now, where's Big Bird when you need him?

I Love Sanjeet

I found this a long time ago, and I love it.

Click on Sanjeet for a fun game.

Bollywood Movie Producer

I love Bollywood movies.

In an Indian movie there is everything...love, hate, deceit, parental guilt, betrayal, unrequited love.....and DANCING!!!

That's why it was such a thrill to find this site.

Now you too can make a Bollywood Movie!

Click here for my movie...ACTION!

Is Jared Leto a genius?

According to IMDb and other sources last week, actor Jared Leto has been diagnosed with gout. You might remember Leto from such great movies as Requiem for a Dream, Fight Club, Lord of War, and Panic Room.

Gout has long been associated with drinking, but there is also some not-inconsiderable anecdotal evidence that gout is also associated with genius.

In his 1926 book A Study of British Genius, author Havelock Ellis wrote that gout "occurs so often, in such extreme forms, and in men of such pre-eminent intellectual ability, that it is impossible not to regard it as having a real association with such ability."

Check out this list of famed gout sufferers and tell me Leto is not in with a good crowd: Samuel Johnson, John Milton, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Coleridge, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Joseph Conrad, Francis Bacon, Sir Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, and Leonardo da Vinci. Surely even Groucho Marx would want to be part of that club.

'Tis the End of Summer

What signifies the end of summer for you?
Hey!
I'm Radmila from My2SecondShelfLife.
I'm on the sidebar because Blogger hates me and won't let me link in this post...Grrrr,

Anyhow, I'm sharing the guest blogging with *(Asterisk) while the Anchovies are away having a great time...I hope.

Mr. Anchovy and I grew up in the same neighbourhood, so I thought that I would go there for a bit.

I think every native of any city has environmental markers that signify the end of summer.

All Torontonians will agree that when the C.N.E. (Canadian National Exhibition) opens, it's the beginning of the end.

The fair is a summer staple.
I grew up walking distance from the "Ex" and spent many end of summers either with rolled newspaper at the end of a driveway waving potential parkers onto our lawn, or working at the fair.

My first job was at the "Ex", and you'd be hard pressed to find someone who grew up in Parkdale, hell...in the west end... who didn't work there at least one summer.

The "Ex" was my window to the world.
When I was in my teens, my world was very small, as most kids worlds are. Confined to your neighbourhood, and to your school.
At the "Ex" kids came from all over the city to work, and I made friends from areas of the city I had never even seen.

If you talk to a Torontonian, there are certain things that they remember about the "Ex"...it could be something as obscure as the guy on the Midway who used to shout "DOGGIE, DOGGIEEEEEEE!!!" over and over.
Or it could be (for those who liked to dance), standing in front of the Hymalaya because it was the ride that played the best music.

It could be the ice cream waffle sandwiches, or the tiny doughnuts at the food building. Or it could be the concerts at the Grandstand that brought some of the most famous bands to Toronto.

Is it The Alpine Way? which was a way to get back to the main gates from the Princess Gates.
Once you had walked the whole fair, you could take the Alpine Way, and ride above the crowd all the way back to the Dufferin Gates.

The real glam days of the Exhibition are gone, and the last time that The Mister and me went down to The "Ex", it seemed so much smaller and less exciting than it used to be.
Part of that is because we're adults, but part of it is also what urban planners have done to the fair grounds.

dismantled important elements of what made the C.N.E. special and great to make room for conference buildings, and additions to current buildings for the trade show industry.
I understand that the C.N.E. cannot stand empty, and unusable for the sake of a mere three weeks at the end of the summer, but what the planners have done is taken a part of the feeling of this city, and made it just another roadside attraction.

"Bring back The Alpine Way!", I say.

Finding Neverland

Hello. I'm * (asterisk), and here's the first of my guest posts.

Last night marked the end of Wife's week-long stint working in London. I miss her when she's away. We celebrated with an Indian takeaway and a bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

We watched the news. Hundreds of Lebanese were being buried in mass graves. Of those, 28 were killed in the Qana attack of July 30. And of those 28 from Qana, 16 were children.

Then I turned over to watch the Big Brother "grand" finale. I'm so glad it's over now. I feel I can get my life back. Although it went shit towards the end, by that time I'd already invested so much time in it that I was compelled to see the outcome.

Tourette's-suffering Pete won. He was virtually a dead cert from the off. My fave, ghetto princess Aisleyne, came third, while Wife's fave, gay Canadian waiter Richard, came fourth.

I feel it is beneath me, at 36 years of age, to even dignify the programme makers with my viewing figure.

Besides that, though, it just seems wrong to flick from Lebanese tragedy to puerile "reality-show" farce -- to feel I can finally "get my life back" from the television, while people in Lebanon are burying entire families.

But ours is the generation that never grew up. We left home, yes, and started families of our own, but we still watch crap TV and rent bad movies and buy gadgets and comic books and toys. We've found our own Neverland in which to bury our heads.

Little Miss Sunshine

Saw this film tonight with Tuffy P and Candy Minx.
Hilarious. Excellent film.
I rate this one: buckets of fresh anchovies

I'm off to Calgary in the morning for some R&R. See you in a week....and stay tuned for posts by Radmila and *Asterisk while I'm away.

Hardly strictly bluegrass

Check out the roster for this festival: Earl Scruggs, Hot Tuna Acoustic, Flying Other Brothers, Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Robert Earl Keen, The Del McCoury Band, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Iris DeMent, Four Year Bender, Hazel Dickens, The Steel Drivers, Billy Bragg, Dale Ann Bradley & Coon Creek, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle & the Bluegrass Dukes, Drive-By Truckers, Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands, Tim O'Brien's Cornbread Nation with special guest Mollie O'Brien, Kelly Willis & Bruce Robison, Kevin Welch, Kieran Kane & Fats Kaplin, The Devil Makes Three, Chatham County Line, Alejandro Escovedo, Jerry Douglas & Best Kept Secret, Gillian Welch, Scott Miller & The Commonwealth, Guy Clark & Verlon Thompson, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Allison Moorer, The Austin Lounge Lizards, Alison Brown Quartet, Nashville Bluegrass Band, The Pine Leaf Boys, Dry Branch Fire Squad, Richard Thompson, The Lee Boys, Todd Snider, North Mississippi Allstars, Banjo Extravaganza with Bill Evans, Tony Trischka and Alan Munde, Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin, T Bone Burnett, Bob Weir & The Waybacks, Heidi Clare & AtaGallop, Chip Taylor & Carrie Rodriguez, Willy Mason, The Avett Brothers, Richie Furay, Danny Barnes Collective, Annie & The Vets, SF Opera Bluegrass Dukes, The Stairwell Sisters, Poor Man's Whiskey, Etienne de Rocher, Freakwater, A.J. Roach, Elvis Costello, Barbary Coast Cloggers.

via Information Junk

Going fishing Saturday

Saturday morning, I'm flying out to Calgary. I'm going to meet a couple friends for a week of standing in a trout stream waving a stick.

Here at home, two of my blogging friends, Radmila from My 2 Second Shelf Life and *(Asterisk) from a Blog about Nowt will be making some special guest posts. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the good ship anchovy while I'm away.

Survival Story

Guy Klucevsek

While we're on the subject of accordions, check out Guy Klucevsek, composer and accordionist extrordinaire. I have only one of his recordings, Flying Vegetables of the Apocolypse (thanks Rik), an inventive and very well-conceived CD, but I'm looking forward to hearing more soon.

Cotati Festival Poster

Update on the Ice Cream Wars

King of Cones did the rounds of the street tonight....no sign of mmm mmm good Johnny Junior.

You just have to watch this.....

I love this little video Nancy Drew posted on Sunday....

Searches that found this place

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Virtual Kitchen Party

for the Newfie in all of us

Lifting out the stove

Here is Vince's Triple, a sample from Newfoundland squeezebox player Vince Collins' fabulous CD, Lifting out the stove. This post is for Squeezy. Enjoy.

If you like this music, please support Canadian folk music and buy the CD....

Jerry with a J

Here's Jerry, recovering from a hard day not doing anything..... You can see his skin problem at the top of his front paw. There is a steroid that helps this, but we can't give it to him very often because it's hard on him, especially since he has FIV.

I may have mentioned this before: Jerry is the best cat you'll ever meet!

Ice Cream Wars

We were sitting in the living room this evening when we heard a rukus outside. Tuffy went out to investigate and shortly after, called me. There were two ice cream trucks outside, MMM MMM Good Johnny - Johnny Junior and King of Cones. Several people were blocking Johnny's truck and people were upset and yelling and Johnny was edging his truck forward like he was going to drive away. King of Cones was soaking wet and had his hand on his head and seemed to be in some discomfort - he was calling the police. Witnesses told us that there had been an altercation between the two ice cream guys. Johnny is the guy who usually works our street. Allegedly, he found King of Cones working his route, and (again allegedly) pulled up along side of him, and threw a bucket of water at the King. Some reports from the local kids also had Johnny roughing up the King, either punching or kicking him, or both. You can see in the picture, the chunk of hair absent from King's head where he was struck. Ambulance came and gave the King an ice pack then the police came to investigate. They talked to the King and they talked to Johnny and they talked to various witnesses, including one witness who gave a statement in the police car.

Then the cops arrested Johnny. They asked him if he had anyone who could drive his truck home. The truck, meanwhile was blocking the driveway of Anchovy Headquarters, so I was hoping the answer was yes. Meanwhile, a friend of one of our neighbours showed up - she volunteered to drive Johnny's truck home, while Johnny was hauled off to the big house. Tuffy asked the new driver, "have you ever driven one of these things before?" and she said, "no, but I'm going to find out"......
Once she figured out how to start it up and get the lights on, she was off (with Tuffy yelling, "Turn the music on...." as she sped away.)

You can't make this stuff up.

Andy Warhol Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-1964

We visited the Art Gallery of Ontario this afternoon to see the Andy Warhol exhibition, Supernova: Stars, Deaths and Disasters, 1962-64. This show was picked from a small chunk of Warhol's output. It is a strong and tough show, no doubt about it - not the feel-good exhibition of the year though - the car crash and suicide images were very powerful. The show was smaller than we expected. Given the size of the exhibition, 18 canadianos each seemed over-the-top.

Weird though were the audio devices we were compelled to carry around with us. I asked if I had to carry one and was told that yes, it was necessary for me to have one, but I wouldn't be compelled to use it, although the docent highly recommended I do. It seems the gallery was very strong on this because there were few so-called didactics on the wall. When we entered the first gallery, there were about 30 people in there with these audio devices to their ears. It looked like everyone was more interested in contacting the mother-ship than in looking at the art. I don't like audio devices at art galleries. I don't like having someone tell me how I should be experiencing an art show. I can work that out for myself, thank you.

Backyard BBQ

We had some friends over last night for a wee BBQ....I had no idea Candy Minx was taking photos all night. Visit the link to see some.

Drunken Lullabies

via Squeezy Tunes

Pour me a pint.

Have trunk, will travel

Accordionist Anthony Galla-Rini dead at 102.

A Blast from the Past

Here is an old painting I did in the mid-80s. I have no documentation of the title, and I don't remember it, so I call it the Unknown Painting. It's oil on canvas, about 6' wide. This painting has a frame on it with a strip of a decorative rope moulding on the front which I incorporated into the painting, which is lost in the photo. It also has a really rich, scraped and burnished surface that doesn't reproduce well. It is only hinted at the way light reflects off the surface. I still have this one in storage after all these years.

For those who love lists and bugs....

Vanishing insects of the United States.

Boys of the Island

Here is a Canadian folktune performed by Alan Mills and Gordon Fleming (I wonder if it is this guy? It's called Boys of the Island. As far as I know, it's a traditional Prince Edward Island tune - and it's a beauty.

button box allsorts

There are squeeze-boxes and there are squeeze-boxes. Here is an assortment that includes a bandoneons (from Argentina - for tangos), a chemnitzer concertina, and unidentified concertina, helikon boxes, and a tex-mex box. Enough to keep your local accordion freak off the streets.

100 Highways

We bought a copy of American V 100 Highways today, billed as the last recordings of Johnny Cash.

This is one powerful drug, not to be taken without a prescription. 100 Highways is a fantastic recording. I can imagine Cash, in and out of the hospital, trying to get these songs down. These are his death songs. It is dark, way dark. Not for party listening, that's for sure.

An interesting sidebar here - there are two songs by Canadians on this recording - If you could read my mind, the old Gord Lightfoot tune, and Ian Tyson's great Four Strong Winds.

I'm reminded of the American painter Philip Guston, who like Cash, enjoyed a creative renaissance in his last years, producing tough and ugly and brilliant work. For Cash, this renaissance came about after his meeting with Rick Rubin. Together they reinvented Johnny Cash and produced a remarkable catalogue of work.

A long while ago, I posted this picture of Cash at Folsom Prison. Every day, two or three or four people land on mister anchovy while searching for it......so here it is one more time.

Rating: a full case of salties - fantastic

A Prairie Home Companion

We watched Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion this afternoon. I'm not sure what I expected. The radio show was a favourite of my father's, I enjoyed it the few times I heard it. I wanted the film to be really good. I like the idea of an old-style radio variety show surviving and thriving in St. Paul. In the first 10 or 15 minutes, I thought it reall was good. The film is more or less a behind the scenes look at the live show with a bit of a plot drawn around it. Ms. Streep and Ms. Tomlin were pretty good in the backstage sequences, but in the onstage shots the performance was a little strained. I'm going to say that the film was charming, but nothing great.

2 1/2 salties on the 5 salty anchovy scale.

What did you think?

bbq links

Here are some bbq links, in no particular order:

Garry's BBQ Pit
Dr. BBQ
Ask Dr. BBQ
Memphis BBQ
BBQ Songs
Big Green Egg
An important part of a balanced diet
The BBQ News

Book List

I posted this list in the comments over on The Gnostic World of Candy Minx under her post, 13 Box office flops I love..... I thought I would repeat here. I'd love to hear what books you'd like to read again, too. These are in no particular order.....
13 books I'd like to read again, just because:

1. The Salesman by Joseph O'Connor
2. The Shape of Content by Ben Shahn
3. The Odessa Stories by Isaac Babel
4. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
5. Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad
6. Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino
7. The Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami
8. The Master of Go by Yasunari Kawabata
9. The Success and Failure of Picasso by John Berger
10. Trout Madness by Robert Traver
11. What the Crow said by Robert Kroetsch
12. General Ludd by John Metcalf
13. Gun Before Butter by Nicolas Freeling

Freddy Fender ill with cancer

I read today that Freddy Fender is very ill with inoperable cancer - several tumours in his lungs.
World sends best wishes to Fender
Country Music Star Freddy Fender has Fatal Lung Cancer
Mr. Fender has suffered a number of health problems in recent years, and has had major kidney and liver surgery.

Mr. Fender's real name is Baldema Huerta, and he has recorded under that and a few other names. He started as a Tex-Mex rocker in the 50s, and by the 70s was enjoying huge pop hits with tunes like Before the last Teardrop Falls and Wasted Days and Wasted Nights. In the 90s he joined Tex-Mex supergroup the Texas Tornados, led by the late Doug Sahm and featuring Auggie Meyers and buttonbox whiz Flaco Jimenez. For many, Freddy Fender defined the Tex-Mex Ballad - there are some excellent examples on the first and self-titled Texas Tornados release. If you don't have this recording, by the way, it's time you get a copy. Mr. Fender also sings together with Mr. Jimenez on a fantastic Mexican polka on this collection, called Soy de San Luis, which is sung in English and Spanish.

Fans are hoping for a miracle.

A Russian Accordion Museum

Words are not necessary to describe this gem.

Other accordion museums:
The Cleveland Accordion Museum
The Petosa Accordion Museum
The World of Accordions Museum
The Accordion Museum
The International Accordion Museum

Cajun music in the Netherlands

You go figure.....

Streets of Bakersfield

Last Saturday, I took a break from busking down at St. Lawrence Market to talk to an old friend of mine who is a vendor there. The conversation was about music, and I mentioned Hotwalker by Tom Russell, which has a great tune called Grapevine, that embodies the old Bakersfield country & western sound. My friend said she used to live in Bakersfield, and some of her family had come up from Oklahoma, and they listened to that Bakersfield sound, Merle Haggard and the late great Buck Owens. I suspect that a lot of people who grew up in the generation that only knew Buck Owens from Hee Haw have no idea how good he really was in his heyday with The Buckeroos. Here is Streets of Bakersfield by Buck Owens for everyone out there who is saying, "just what the hell is country & western, anyway?".