First the first time in the Cottage Video Series, we have:
- A fox!
- Rock Daydream Nation!
- Fireworks in super slow-mo!
- An Amazon delivery!
- A war for territory: Blue Jay vs. Chipmunk!
- And of course the food and scenery that you expect!
Enjoy!
Animals
#1131: Foxes & Fireworks: Five New Things This Weekend at the Lake
RECORD STORE TALES #1131: Foxes & Fireworks
Five New Things This Weekend at the Lake
After 52 years, it’s not always easy coming up with new experiences to have at the lake. Sometimes it’s a fortuitous mixture of planning and luck. I am always conscious that every second at the lake counts. Unfortunately, my energy isn’t what it was. I don’t remember having so many naps back in those days. I just remember going, and going, and going! Gosh, when Peter Cavan used to come up to the cottage for a weekend, we’d go from one activity to another without taking a break. We’d go from badminton to throwing around a football, to playing a video game to making a stir fry for dinner. Then we’d be in the car to buy some fireworks. We like it easier these days.
New thing #1: Road tunes
Our weekend began on Thursday evening for the first spin of Arkells’ new album Disco Loadout Volume One on the road. It was a singalong success from start to finish, but it only took us as far as Listowel. For the rest of the trip, we played the Moody Blues Long Distance Voyager. Another success. It is always a pleasure to try new tunes for the road. I am happy to report that both albums did very well, and voices were raised.
We settled in quickly for a quiet weekend. Well, quiet for the moment. I inaugurated the weekend with some Deep Purple on the porch. This was done to celebrate Rock Daydream Nation’s excellent Deep Purple Stormbringer episode, which I was a part of. The episode was well received and I had a blast doing it. Of course, Friday night was Grab A Stack of Rock which I always love doing from the lake. There’s only one issue with doing anything on the porch involving a computer.
As another hallmark of my increasing age, my back hurts plenty after a day of rocking out and a night of live streaming from the porch. Writing? Extremely difficult. The deck chairs are very comfortable there, but only for leaning back. For working with a keyboard and a screen, they are not so practical. Not to mention, we just have these small glass deck tables to put my laptop on. I’ve used a number of laptop stands, but none offered the height, position and stability that I needed to easy my aching back. There must be a solution. Enter: Amazon.
New thing #2: Amazon calling
I heard through the grapevine that Amazon were now delivering to the cottage, though sometimes they have problems finding the addresses. Some of these places are not on GPS. However, let’s give it a shot. I picked a new desk that I thought would work on my front porch, and had it delivered straight to the cottage.
Much to my surprise, it worked! The delivery truck backed into the driveway at 3:00 in the afternoon, and I went outside to find a cardboard box on the deck, waiting for me!
The game has changed. With Amazon now offering next-day delivery to the cottage, imagine what things I will waste my money on when I’m bored! When we were kids staving off boredom, we were limited to whatever toys and cassette tapes the local stores had to offer. Not anymore!
Now, time to set up the desk!
New thing #3: I have a desk on the front deck now
The desk was easy enough to assemble, though the included tools were no match for my dad’s ratcheting screwdriver. It would have taken me an hour or more if I used the wimpy little screwdriver that came in the box. Soon, I had my desk set up, and adjusted for maximum comfort. The game has been changed.
I could spent all day typing now. It was like I had my own little porch nook, surrounded by coffee, lego, potato chips and CDs.
With this new desk, I should be able to do more writing and more video editing than ever before. If I want to! That’s the key to remember. The cottage is for relaxing. I must remember to do what feels right, instead of pressuring myself to “produce”. That said, it was great broadcasting Grab A Stack of Rock with such comfort.
I did want to produce a video short this weekend, and that was semi-successful.
New thing #4: Slow-motion fireworks
My mom and dad left us some Roman candles from the May 24 long weekend. Though not as practical as fountains, they would do for my attempt to get some slow motion video of fireworks.
The first one didn’t give me any footage. The problem is the firework is mostly pauses between bursts of colour. It’s hard to hit record at the exact right time to capture anything, and even at super slow-mo, it’s hard to get more than five seconds of footage. Next time we’ll try a fountain, but for this experiment, I was able to get two videos up on Youtube.
I love it when a plan comes together!
The last new thing that happened was complete serendipity.
On the Saturday night, Jen and I went down to the beach after finishing our delicious ribeye steak dinner. It was after sunset, but the glow of the sun lingers for hours, and you don’t need a flashlight at the beach during twilight. I got up to have a pee in the bushes, and after doing my business, I sang a little song and turned around. That’s what I saw him.
The fox was heading straight towards me. He had a gait unlike a dog. He was unmistakable. With absolutely no fear of humans, he walked with intent right past both of us, and on down the beach.
New thing #5: I finally captured the fox on camera
I’ve been trying for four years now, and I finally got him. The pictures don’t do him justice, but you’re never expecting the fox until he’s right there in front of you. I named this one Eric Caravello.
We didn’t even get into the Lego, the steaks, the fish fry! That will eventually make it into the cottage video.
A wonderful weekend of firsts. Maybe the next weekend will just be old favourites!
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#1127: Walter – An Uncle Paul story
RECORD STORE TALES #1127: Walter – An Uncle Paul story
My Uncle Paul loved his “spot”. It was a comfy armchair at the cottage, right next to the patio screen door, and right in front of the TV. The phone was on an end table right next to it, and fridge was never far, with a fresh supply of cold beer. It was cool, shaded, comfortable, and perfect. On many days he’d prefer to sit there than come down to the beach, or playing cards. Who could blame him? Though we were often elsewhere while Uncle Paul did his thing, he was never alone.
He had Walter.
In reality, there was probably more than one Walter. Chipmunks typically only live two to three years, yet Walter, in one form or another, returned to his screen door year after year, looking for peanuts. There was also a second chipmunk that he named Fang. Doctor Kathryn recalls, “the other chipmunk he fed, he named Fang. Fang had part of his ear missing, and looked really banged up!” He probably ran afoul of a cat or Schnauzer.
We always had loads of chipmunks at the cottage. They’re not a pest, but they’re timid and not very brave by nature. If you left peanuts out (always shelled, unsalted), then you could gradually condition them to come closer and closer. Still, many would cower afar, especially since there were Schnauzers about, and Schnauzers and chipmunks are natural sworn enemies. This rivalry has been documented through history, most notably in the German children’s fable “The Chipmunk that Stole the Schnauzer’s Hat” (“Der Streifenhörnchen, der den Hut des Schnauzers Gestohlen“).
Through patience and time, Uncle Paul had trained little Walter the Chipmunk to come to his screen door and be rewarded with a peanut. The little brown, black and white creature would approach tentatively with caution, grasp a peanut his two front paws, stuff it in his cheeks, and dart off! He scampered across the deck, down to the ground and off into the unknown trees. But he’d be back, minutes later, ready to stuff another peanut in his cheeks. Uncle would always have an ample stash of nuts ready to serve.
This year, Jen and I have been visited by a new chipmunk friend on the front porch. It’s our first summer there since Uncle Paul passed in November. I’ve decided to name him Walter 2, in honour my uncle’s original friend.
I think uncle would like that.
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#1125: Purple Rain, Purple Sky – Five New Things at the Lake
RECORD STORE TALES #1125: Purple Rain, Purple Sky
“I want to do something new this weekend,” goes the eternal complaint. Even with Lake Huron in front of us, and a lush green paradise all around, sometimes I still moan about doing the same things every weekend.
There is so much you can do, but only a couple days to do it all. It’s easy to fall into comfortable habits and just…relax. However, the cottage is too special to just relax. Surely, I’ve had some of the best sleeps of my life there, but you don’t want to sleep your day away, as easy as it can be.
As always, we started the trip on the front porch. We always like to listen to music on our night of arrival, as the sun sets. This time, we chose Prince’s Purple Rain, which I didn’t own last year. This music was new to the cottage, and it was an absolutely incredible experience. I danced around the porch to “Computer Blue”, but the sun was setting just as Prince began singing about the “Purple Rain”. It was a surreal experience hearing Prince sing “Ooo, ooo, ooo,” as the orange and pink clouds slowly let the sun sink beneath the horizon. It felt like Prince was there in the forest somewhere, just out of sight.
New thing #1 achieved: “Purple Rain” at sunset.
We always like to experiment with food. Believe it or not, we have not made homemade burgers at the lake in decades. Why? My dad used to hate cooking them, as they’d fall to pieces on the grill. Not anymore. Thanks to a tip from my good buddy Thuss, we now are making our own homemade burgers. The secret: Freeze them. Once frozen, those patties stay together and do no break apart. For our first batch, this was our successful blend:
- Lean beef (Jen wanted extra lean but I said no)
- Ground thick cut bacon
- 1 egg
- Bread Crumbs
- Parmesan flakes
- Salt
- Pepper
- Paprika
- Chili flakes
- Minced fresh garlic
- Minced fresh onion
- Ketchup
- Mustard
- Olive oil
I don’t know how much of that we could actually taste, but it was fun and the result was juicy and perfect. And then next batch is already in the freezer waiting to be cooked up, with a new set of ingredients including local beef.
New thing #2 achieved: Perfect homemade burgers on the grill.
But wait, there’s more! Thanks to a new, deep cast iron frying pan, we also fried our own french fries. No more oven baked fries, or air fries! Only the real deal. They were crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside, and perfect all around.
New thing #3 achieved: Golden brown french fries.
To quote ZZ Top: I AM your burger man.
“My charcoal’s getting red hot,
Put your order in my hand,
Won’t you let me show you what I got,
Sizzling in the pan.”
I woke up on the Saturday morning as I often do, bright and early. It was damp and cold with not a single human to be seen, myself excluded. It’s a good time to spot wildlife. There have been bears in the area, but I did not see one. Instead, I saw a red canid coming up the path from the beach. A fox? I had not seen our local fox up there in at least a year. This animal had the gait of a fox, but not the bushy red and white tail. This animal had a thin, bony tail, and its frame was larger than a fox.
It was a coyote. My first coyote sighting, ever. I’ve heard them at night, but never seen one in the fur before.
New thing #4 achieved: Coyote sighting!
I knew there was no way I’d be able to grab my phone in time. I simply watched the confident, unafraid animal stroll down our little dirt road as if he was the only one in the world.
Of course, all of this would pale in comparison to the Aurora Borealis. I’d never seen the Northern Lights before. I did my best to describe the experience, but words and pictures do not capture the awe. It felts as if we were all under a huge electric dome. It is something I’ll never forget even if I never see it again. It began suddenly and dimly, before the lights were all you could see anywhere, in every direction. The lights reflected off the waters, and created beautiful patterns in the ripples.
New thing #5 achieved: Aurora Borealis
New experiences are not always possible at the lake, nor are they always necessary. Sometimes it’s enough to just sit on the porch and watch the days go by. After 52 years of coming to the exact same location, to have so many new sights, sounds and flavours in one weekend was unexpected.
The cottage is like a box of chocolates – you never know what you’re going to get!
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VIDEO: Turkey Lurkin’
May 25-28 2023 at the Cottage with the Woodpecker from Mars
Music: The Last Train by Tee Bone Erickson.
RECORD STORE TALES #1065: Even the Best Weekends Can Turn to Crap
It started great!
Thursday night, the music on the trip up to the lake was amazing. We began with The Cult’s Fire Woman EP, and moved on to Michigan Left by the Arkells. Jen fell asleep in the car and I was left to sing along by myself. Never a problem!
We came packed with lots of Lego, and plenty of new music to unbox live on Grab A Stack of Rock. We arrived with coffee, treats and tunes! Immediately I set up on the front porch and started playing mellow music. Jim Cuddy’s All In Time is one of the best cottage front porch albums for dancing that I have ever heard. From rockers to tear-jerking ballads, what an album! I used to consider it “just a Blue Rodeo album without Greg” but it’s actually far more than that. Articulating it is hard, but the album evoked emotions and dance moves that Blue Rodeo didn’t. We also played some of Alice Cooper’s more emotional, cinematic tunes that night. It was a magical start.
Friday was a wonderful day! I commenced with some more porch music, and then we hit The Beef Way for our weekend meat! We chose two T-bone steaks, a turkey breast fillet (for Jen) and a beautiful duck breast (for me). It was my first duck breast. I seasoned heavily with salt, pepper and garlic powder to offset that gamey taste. I scored the fat, cooked it skin side down in a frying pan for 10 minutes to get it cripsy, and finished it in the BBQ. When finished, you could have mistaken it for steak, it was that good. The skin was the best part, and I’ll get duck breast from The Beef Way again. Just an awesome lunch!
Of course, Friday night was Grab A Stack of Rock, and an excellent show was had, almost two hours long! I’m calling it the “No More Heels Tour of 2023”. This was my first cottage weekend since August 2022 where I wasn’t making videos and taking pictures for my former friend, Manda. With that friendship now ended, it was hard to be motivated to produce fun nature images. However, one door closes and another opens. I focused on music instead, and Grab A Stack really did rock this time! Lots of new music revealed, to be reviewed in the coming weeks/months, including Journey Through Time.
First thing Saturday morning, I taped an excellent Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, reviewing the new Def Leppard Drastic Symphonies. I cannot wait until this airs! Although we were both kind but critical, I’m sure the Fanboy trolls will be out when it’s released on YouTube. I will of course be posting it here for ease of viewing. It was possibly my favourite Tim’s Vinyl Confessions that I’ve been involved with to date!
We did “Jazz Saturday” morning with Herbie Hancock’s Quartet. By recommendation of Robert Lawson, next Jazz Saturday will be to Pat Metheny’s Bright Size Life. It’s ordered and on its way. Then we switched to the back yard, and built Lego all afternoon. We are both enjoying the Lego “Speed Champions” series of licensed car models. They are all roughly the same scale and although they are similar in design, very few of them use the exact same design techniques. Jen also build a New York City skyline, while I finally finished my knockoff Titanic set. I’ll never buy knockoff Lego again. It looks cool complete, but it was very hard to build with confusing instructions and bags. The final fitting pieces were not up to Lego’s standards. It does look good, but never again.
It was Saturday evening that turned everything to shit.
I made the steaks, damn perfect if you asked me, and Jen proclaimed “I’m gonna eat the whole thing!” I was already half full from snacking on chips so I knew I was keeping leftovers. As she took a mid-meal break, Jen had a seizure.
The coffee spilled. The Coke spilled. I could stop neither because I was busy keeping her from falling off her chair. Eventually I got her safely down, where she soaked herself in spilled coffee. It took some work to get her into bed. More seizures later that night. She fell off the bed, and once again Mike managed to pull off a save. I’ve lost track of the rest of the seizures that night but we figured it was four or five total. Not the most restful night, and I was completely exhausted from cleaning up the spills. I went to bed early and slept in late. Not the way I usually do things at the cottage. I like to stay up late and enjoy the creatures of the night. That didn’t happen this weekend.
I came home Sunday completely exhausted and Jen slept the entire way. Music on the way home was also mellow: Ward One: Along the Way and When the Bough Breaks by Bill Ward. Really good and felt appropriate to my mood.
We will have more Lego to build next time. My Jazz Quartet set looks challenging and interesting. Hopefully the next trip will be less eventful!
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#1063: Life is Like a Lake
RECORD STORE TALES #1063: Life is Like a Lake
Over the course of 51 years on the shores of Lake Huron, I have witnessed the power of nature and the change it brings every season. Change is the one constant in life, isn’t it? For better or worse, everything changes. Nothing can remain static. Things wear and decay, and are eventually replaced by newer, younger things. This is obvious every spring on the shores of Huron. The coast changes, the rocks, the trees, everything. In a way, life is like a lake.
When we returned this spring, much had changed. The seasons are unrelenting. We found several large rocks, freshly cracked, and sharp like blades. Over the summer and fall, water found its way through microscopic cracks in the stones. Over winter, it froze and expanded, breaking rocks clean in half. The remnants are like ancient stone cutting tools, sharp and jagged. In a way, that’s parallel with relationships. Sometimes things set in, year after year, until they eventually expand and crack the relationship in two. I’ve experienced this recently. The edges that cut are still painful.
Things die over the winter. Some young trees do not survive. Older ones fall, only to become firewood for the coming year. Just like life, and the losses we experience more and more as we get older. It never gets easier. It’s a matter of picking up the pieces are carrying on.
The only constant at the lake is change. Eternal change. This is especially obvious when you look back at old photographs. The lake levels change, the beach is covered with rocks one year, and sand the next. The changes cannot be predicted, except that the land will change. Where men once pushed the forest and weeds back, now they encroach again when left untended. It’s quite amazing how quickly nature can retake a patch of land left untouched. Just like life. Neglect an aspect of your life, be it physical or mental, and you will notice the difference. Life must be worked, at constantly, or you will lose what you gained.
Some years, there is more life than others. Some years, wild turkeys. Other years, foxes. Perhaps the foxes scared away the turkeys. Once in a while we’ll have a dear, or a bear. Raccoons, porcupines and skunks are common. When the animals disappear, you can only guess as to why. Kind of like being “ghosted” in life. Sometimes they return unexpectedly. Always a delight. Like a friend returning after a long absence.
One thing that is clear at the lake: You cannot return to the past. The past is gone, like the ghost of a memory. Things only move forwards, not backwards. The massive winter ice sheets we used to get are gone now, likely never to return in my lifetime. The rivers carve away the landscape, leaving different shapes. The cliffs we used to walk as kids no longer exist, or are now on inaccessible private property, built over and paved. There is no return. Those things are gone.
And that’s life in a nutshell.
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Part 71/ REVIEW: Pink Floyd – Shine On (9 disc box set)
Shine On came out in ’92, I got my copy 11 years later. First, the story of how I acquired this exceptional copy, and then the review!
RECORD STORE TALES Part 71: Shine On
I still have the receipt: I paid $199.99 on February 12 2003. New, it’s going for about $440 on Amazon.com these days. I paid a lot, that is true; we did not get staff discounts on big ticket things such as this. However, when I encountered Shine On that day, I’d never seen one in better shape.
The hardcover book, containing 110 large pages of text, photos, artwork and credits, was still sealed in plastic. Nobody had even bothered to open it. The eight artwork post cards were intact in the black envelope. The little black fold-out display box was still folded, and remains so to this day. It’s a very nice touch but I prefer to keep mine as I found it.
The discs, each housed in its own shiny black plastic case, are all mint. Maybe some were never played before I got hold of it. The cases are also nearly spotless. Most of the time, the biggest defect with used copies of this set were broken cases. Each case was unique: The front of the case had a small image of the album, and the spine of the case had a piece of a rainbow embossed. Put all 8 CD cases together in the correct order and you get an image of the Dark Side prism effect. That’s why the set comes with that little cardboard display – in case you felt like showing them off this way.
Lastly, the bonus CD, The Early Singles, is intact. A set in this condition was a rarity and I’d never seen better. Over the years, every set I encountered had a defect of some kind, major or minor:
- The bonus CD would be missing
- One or more discs badly scratched
- One or more cases badly broken
- One or more postcards or pieces missing
- The box itself would sometimes be missing and all you’d get is the discs with the little display case
- Or, just the book would be missing
- Once, the book was warped and damaged from excessive moisture
You can see why I jumped at the chance. A box of this condition, used, well that could not be passed up. Likely I’d never see one again that wasn’t sealed brand new — but as a deleted catalogue item, new copies were upwards of $300 at the time.
So, no staff discount? No problem. VISA to the rescue.
A $200 sale was a good chunk of my daily quota. Head office was in the habit of calling at 5 and checking the sales for the day so far. I read mine off, which was high obviously, but didn’t say why it was high.
“Wow! Good for you Mikey! You’ve been busy, keep it up.”
“Yeah, well, it’s been a good day y’know,” I responded. May as well take the credit for it too, right, hell it was my money.
I was dating Radio Statio Girl at the time. However I was already starting to get cynical about our prospects, having been dumped once already by this time. Our second go-round was pleasant but a bit tense. I was supposed to drive down to her place that night, but I decided to spend the evening with Syd Barrett, Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, and Nick Mason instead.
I called. “Yeah, hey. I’m not feeling well at all. I think I’m going to puke.”
Considering the much bigger lies she tossed my way before and after, I thought my little white lie was pretty innocuous. Especially when I was immersed in Meddle for the first time ever!
PINK FLOYD – Shine On (9 disc box set) (1992)
At the time of release, this was probably the coolest way to get some of the best Floyd discs. Now with Immersion Editions, Why Pink Floyd…?, fresh remasters, and 5.1 mixes all available, this seems pretty basic. Indeed, all albums are simple 1992-ish remasterings, no bonus material aside from the afforementioned The Early Singles disc. And just FYI, you can often find that disc on its own. Somehow it got separated from a lot of Shine On box sets.
As I described in my story above, the box’s contents are elaborate and fragile, and difficult to find complete. This is a heavy, heavy box too — not exactly portable. I find the remastering to be fine, it was 1992 and it’s probably not as loud as more current editions. Picky audiophiles, I have no idea which you will prefer.
The albums included are as follows:
Disc 1: A Saucerful of Secrets
Disc 2: Meddle
Disc 3: The Dark Side of the Moon
Disc 4: Wish You Were Here
Disc 5: Animals
Disc 6: The Wall part one
Disc 7: The Wall part two
Disc 8: A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Disc 9: The Early Singles
So you’ll notice right away that there are some important albums missing. Sure, you can understand why albums like Atom Heart Mother or Obscurred by Clouds were not included in a (merely) 9 disc Floyd box set, if the purpose was to boil it down to essentials. I think it’s a shame that The Final Cut, one of my favourites, is not inside. I would have preferred that or Piper at the Gates of Dawn to A Momentary Lapse I think.
The real bonuses to this set are twofold: The book and The Early Singles.
I don’t know what the current status of these single A and B sides are, in regards to current CD releases. I know the Piper three disc set has some of these tracks. But here’s the contents of The Early Singles:
- Arnold Layne
- Candy and a Currant Bun
- See Emily Play
- The Scarecrow
- Apples and Oranges
- Paintbox
- It Would Be So Nice
- Julia Dream
- Point Me At the Sky
- Careful With That Axe, Eugene
There are no liner notes with this disc. I believe all tracks are stereo mixes.
The book is absolutely stunning and will take days to read. There are extensive interviews from magazine sources, lyrics, liner notes, a nice discography, and loads of old reviews both gushing and nasty. There’s plenty of artwork and photos to look at, too.
I won’t go too deeply into the music. Reviewing these albums each on their own would be a monumental task. Suffice to say that there is much brilliance within. I think both Dark Side and The Wall are complete triumphs while Meddle and Animals come very very close to that level. There is much to love here, and much that will take many listens to penetrate.
As a set, this is not perfect and I think the biggest flaw is the selection of albums. Having said that, for a collector who wants a beautiful deluxe collector’s item, this is easily a:
4/5 stars.
For people who would rather have something with more music on it, you’re better off going with some of the more recent reissues.
mikeladano.com 