cottage rock

#1120: Coming Soon: Opening Season…

RECORD STORE TALES #1120: Coming Soon: Opening Season…

 

Opening weekend rarely goes as planned!

Soon we will be returning to open up the cottage for another season of sun, sand, swimming, and Grab A Stack of Rock!  We hope this season’s opening day goes without a hitch.  The last two didn’t!  Shall we recap?

2022

 

2022’s trip up was serenaded by John Williams’ soundtrack to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.  This was appropriate because we first saw that film in 1989 at the cottage.

It was a lovely opening day.  The drive up (just my dad and I) was uneventful.  Our arrival was marked by peace and quiet.  Sunny, warm, and a perfect morning to spend outdoors.

I never accompanied the family to open the cottage in my Record Store days.  Usually I was working.  If I wasn’t working, I was spending my free time going on dates with girls.  That was pretty much it.  Work and dating.  The cottage wasn’t interesting to me in those days.  It’s a different story today.  Now I spend my whole winter dreaming of opening day.

In 2022, we made good progress and by late morning, I started burning up old scrub and branches that had fallen during the winter.  I gleefully wandered around, scooping armfuls of pine needles and twigs into a roaring fire.

There was only one issue, and it was one I should have dealt with long before.  My glasses were loose.  I had them adjusted once, and they slowly loosened again over time.  They were prone to falling right off my face if I looked down.  I should have had them fixed long before, and I should have been more careful about what happened next.

I scooped into my arms another pile of pine needles for the fire.  My glasses dropped into my arms as I tossed the flammables into the fire.  My glasses went with them.  They melted in seconds, though I frantically searching the ground in futile hope for several minutes before giving up.

The panic set in shortly thereafter!

I phoned Jen at home to see if she could locate my old pair.  No luck.  I sulked on the couch for a while, dreading the coming days with no glasses.  Then I thought to check my car’s glovebox.

Behold!  An old pair of glasses were still in the glovebox, thank God.  I was able to drive home, and continue to live my life relatively normally.

Dad and I drove to the sounds of Jon Lord, with his Concerto for Group and Orchestra, featuring Bruce Dickinson singing the second movement.  After this, I selected Johnny Cash’s American III: Solitary Man.  My dad could have driven in total silence, though I never could.

2022’s trip was salvaged.  How did 2023 go?

2023

 

April 15, 2023.  My dad and I returned, with Jen in tow.  The music selected this time was Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of the Worlds.

I had a bad feeling this time.  Joelle the California Girl had promised to be my support over winter, as I dealt with seasonal affective disorder (S.A.D.).  She had a “Ragnar” marathon from April 14-16 2023. In the weeks preceding, video and audio messages from her all but dried up, even though I was still creating them daily for her.  She sent a video message from the marathon on the Saturday, but there were a number of red flags.  There was something wrong with the video message she sent, and the two that followed. None of them began with her customary “Hi Mike!”

“Is she sending these video messages to everyone?” I asked myself. Things began falling apart from that point.  My spider senses would not stop tingling, and even though she had promised to show up for the Grab A Stack of Rock shows from the cottage, she didn’t attend or even watch one of them.  Not even one.  This shadow loomed heavy over the season as it began in 2023.

The bad vibes continued as we drove home.  I almost got a speeding ticket, my first in over a decade.  As he was pulling us over, the cop got a call for an urgent accident.  He told me I got lucky, as he returned my license to me and drove off.    I switched up the music, first to Gordon Lightfoot – Complete Greatest Hits.  I had no way to know that Gordon would be gone a mere two weeks later.   I followed Gord with the Goo Goo Dolls – A Boy Named Goo.

Fortunately these bad omens did not impact the incoming cottage season.  2023 was as good as ever.

2024

 

And now, we we plan our return in 2024, we have plenty of new music from Judas Priest, Bruce Dickinson, John Williams, the Arkells, and much more to enjoy at the cottage.  What will the first album be as we drive up again?  We’ll see soon enough!

See #1120.5 for the answer!

 

#1087: View From the Front

RECORD STORE TALES #1087: View From the Front

Although our back porch at the cottage is arguably nicer and more comfortable, the front has its advantages.  What it lacks in privacy, it makes up for in a huge front awning that has protected me from in in every storm, and even broadcast Grab A Stack of Rock in the rain.  It has the best view, with the bright blue of Lake Huron peeking through the trees, right in my eyeline, no matter what I’m doing.

But I’ve always had a preference for the front, even at home when I was a kid.  Despite the privacy of the back, I was usually playing in the front.  I always wished I had a bedroom with a front window.  The back didn’t give me much to look at when I stared out the window.  Which I did a lot.

Was I trying to see, or be seen?

Like my dad, I always have this sense of…keeping watch?  If I hear a loud motor coming down the road, I usually look.   We used to make fun of my dad for this, but I have become my dad.

I have a sense that I’m partly keeping an eye out, but am I also intentionally making myself visible?

Back then in my youth, I’d be playing Lego in the front yard.  Then, G.I. Joe and Star Wars.  The grass and twigs were great for fort building.

Later, it would be ghetto blasters, guitars and music.  A lot it would happen on the front patio.

I’m a shy guy by nature and I prefer to let neighbors walk by as I focus on whatever I happen to be focusing on.  Sometimes writing, sometimes listening, sometimes just watching cartoons.  I like to play the music at a decent volume, and yes, you can usually hear it from the road.  (Sorry.)  So why do I draw this attention to myself?

I think there’s a part of me who still thinks, “Hey look at me, listening to 80s Styx on the front porch like a bad ass,” even at age 51.

I don’t know what to think about that.

 

Top 11 Cottage Rock Albums with Mike & Jex with bonus Rob Daniels list!

A huuuuuuuuge moustache-sized thank you to Jex Lasso…err…Jexit Stage Left…errr…Jex Russell!  Taking more than an hour out of your weekend to spend with me at the cottage!  I hope you had a good time on your visit!  We got to see a pesky chipmunk, live on the show!

Chippy really liked that Journey cassette that Tim Durling got me!  Yes, Durling bought me In The Beginning by Journey, the compilation I refused to shell out for.  And he got it for me on a cool US cassette!  Let’s just say when Tim wants you to have something for your collection, he ensures you have it.

Today’s theme was our first list show in OVER A YEAR.  The Nigel Tufnel Top Ten is back with a bang, baby.  And huge kudos to Jex and Rob Daniels for some truly excellent, diverse, surprising, and satisfying lists of albums.  Top 11 Albums to Play at the Cottage.  And we had only one repeat album in the whole list.  Certain years seemed to dominate our lists – 1981 and 1988 in particular.  Several artists made repeat appearances, and Jex and I both had the same band at #1.  There was even a weird coincidence involving music and CANDU nuclear reactors.

And Rob?  I’ll always be grateful to you for introducing us to…Jack Shit.

Tune in next Friday at 8:00 PM as we go back to another favourite band:  Iron Maiden.  Mr. Books and Harrison Kopp will be there to bring your daughter to the slaughter, and talk up Eddie and ‘Arry and the boys!  I have lots of Maiden stuff…what would you like to see most?

Thanks for watching.  We’re back, baby.  We’re back!

11. PETER CRISS – Peter Criss (1978).  Uncle Meat once questioned this selection.  “What makes this album perfect for the cottage porch?”  It’s mellow, it fits the vibe, and most importantly, I got it for my birthday in 1987 (with the other three solo albums) and played it the first 2-3 times right there at the cottage.  The important thing is that adult-oriented rock vibe really jives with cottage memories.  Peter Criss sounds like the kind of stuff we’d hear on the radio at the lake.  In fact I know I forced my parents to play it in their car deck with us at least once!

10. QUEEN – Classic Queen/Greatest Hits (red) (1992).  Cheating here by included two, but there are box sets that include both, so na na boo boo on you.  Classic Queen dominated the bedroom during the summer of ’92, and Greatest Hits took its place in ’93.  This was the kind of music I could play with my parents.  In fact, I brought Greatest Hits down to the beach with us to listen to for an afternoon of swimming.  Today, Jen loves the Queen on the porch.  Best track for porching:  “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”.  Perfect for summer dancing and air guitar.

9. HERBIE HANCOCK – Quartet (1981).  Not what you’d call an “easy” listen, but having tested this double album on the porch, I can vouch for its veracity.  My quote from my review:  “Well You Needn’t” –  It’s a nice laid back smoky barroom jazz, piano occasionally stealing the spotlight from the muted trumpet.  This song has me seeing black & white, like an old movie.  It picks up halfway through, with trumpet un-muted, and drums throwing cool beats out left right and center.”  Jazz Saturday was a great success due to this album and I look forward to more jazz on the porch.  In the old days, CBC would play jazz on Sundays on the living room radio.  Before I even knew what jazz really was!

8. OASIS – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? (1995).  “Please don’t put your life in the hands of a rock n’ roll band, who’ll throw it all away.” Oasis do not get enough love on the Nigel Tufnel top ten.  In the late 1990s, I had to look elsewhere to find new rock music that had the spirit of the old.  Oasis were one of the first bands of the 90s that hit the spot for me.  It sounds great with the lake in front of us, and the green all around.  Reminds me of coming here in the 1990s, going on long walked with earbuds in my ears, playing the best of 90s rock, and hoping to run into a girl that would talk to me!  Awesome mellow tracks and some fun bangin’ rockers.  Just fits that happy summer vibe, even though some of these songs are really about the down and outs of rock and roll.

7. JOHNNY HORTON – The Battle of New Orleans (1990).  This country classic has several cottage staples, that we sang loud and proud almost every weekend, as we drove into town to watch the piper band parade, and to get ice cream and candy.  “The Battle of New Orleans”, “Sink the Bismarck”, and “Honky Tonk Man” in particular were the three big ones.  As kids, we didn’t care for “Comanche (The Brave Horse)” or most of side B.  As adults, it’s all good.  Such vivid memories, driving around in the dusk with Johnny Horton on the car stereo speakers.

6. JOHNNY CASH – Greatest Hits, Vol 2. (1971).  Back in those days, there were so many hits tapes available, so we’d order one from Columbia House that had the songs we recognized most.  Greatest Hits 2 had the legendary San Quentin version of “A Boy Named Sue”, plus a bunch of other standards that we would sing along to.  “Daddy Sang Bass”, “If I Were a Carpenter”, “Sunday Morning Coming Down”, so many greats!  Cash only wrote four of 11 tunes on this compilation, but did anyone care?  Heck, those old tapes didn’t even come with liner notes!  Hearing those songs take us all right back to the old days.  They remind me of when Grampa Winter would have his turntable out back, and he’d spin records by the fire all night.

5. THE TRAVELING WILBURYS – Vol. 1 (1988).  The Wilburys entered our lives thanks to Roy Orbison, who once upon a time made my mom’s own list of Top Concerts.  There were only two songs on this album we didn’t like back then, both Dylan:  “Congratulations” and “Tweeter and the Monkey Man”.  Of course, time changes all perspectives.  The Wilburys will always have a place here on the front porch.  They were enjoyed here as a family on a regular basis.  The acoustic rock of the Wilburys truly fits the wood and pine vibe.

4. JUDAS PRIEST – Priest…Live! (1987)  Bought at Stedman’s in July of 1987, the first time I ever heard “Livin’ After Midnight”, “Metal Gods”, “Heading Out to the Highway”, and more!  This was my introduction to the British Steel and Point of Entry songs.  I must have played this double live album a dozen times or more at the lake that summer.  I was really starting to collect Priest on cassette and this opened the floodgates.  I had to get…them all!  It brings back all the right vibes here on the porch, volume be damned.  They always shouted at me to turn it down…

3.  GORDON LIGHTFOOT – Complete Greatest Hits (2002).  Rhino knows how to put together compilations.  This one has both the early stuff and “Edmund Fitzgerald” which is a cottage staple.  The acoustic music is a lovely accompaniment to the creatures of the night, but when that stinging guitar from “Edmund Fitzgerald” kicks in, it is like a herald.  Here’s Gord.  He’s at the cottage and he’s here to stay.  Rest in peace Gordon – we played him here on the May 12 weekend shortly after he passed.

2. BLUE RODEO – Tremelo (1997).  This might be the legendary band’s most mellow album.  As such it works great with the quiet vibes here at the lake.  “Frogs’ Lullaby” can’t compete with the actual wildlife here on the porch, but it sure hits the spot.  “Shed My Skin”, “Moon & Tree”, “Me & Baz”, “Dragging On” and “Disappear” all put goosebumps on the arms.  But then…But then!  “Graveyard” kicks it in the ass as we go fast and heavy for one final 2:26 blowout, sung by Greg Keelor.  “And I love these nervous breakdowns, and I love these new skins, and I love that you were brave enough to sleep with all my friends…”

1. KISS – Alive! (1976).  KISS Alive as cottage music?  What the…?  Back in the old days, I used to pack up my turntable and bring it to the lake with me.  Live After Death and Kiss Alive were two of the most important live records enjoyed here in this environment.  Summer of ’86, KISS Alive was spinning on my original turntable in this very environment, and even though it ain’t exactly live, it sure did sound like it to my 14 year old imagination.  I even played it backwards.  All here, all those years ago!  The end.

 

RUNNERS UP

Alice Cooper’s Greatest Hits (1974) – Thanks Uncle Don

Kiss – Rock And Roll Over (1976)

Poison – Open Up and Say…Ahhh!  (1988)

White Lion – Big Game (1989)

Extreme – II Pornograffitti (1990)

 

Cottage Rock at a special time: The Nigel Tufnel Top Ten returns! Jex Rambo and Mike count down the top 11 albums for porch rockin’ at the lake!

GRAB A STACK OF ROCK With Mike and Jex “Rambo” Russell

Episode 23:  Nigel Tufnel Top Ten albums to rock on the cottage porch!

After more than a year…it is finally time for the return of the Nigel Tufnel Top Ten!  And here for his very first Tufnel list is today’s co-host Jexcalibur Russell!

The concept today is a simple one.  Jex and I will count down our top 11 albums to play at the cottage on the porch!  This is something I have a lot of experience with, but narrowing the list down to a top 11?  Is it even possible?  Of course it is – this is Grab A Stack of Rock after all!  My eclectic list is ready and it won’t be what you expect, unless you’re a regular follower here!  As for Jex, one can only imagine what gets played on the Jexciter’s cottage porch in the summertime….

I have some mail to unbox.  We will have a look at the new double-sided Grab A Stack shirt as available on Teepubic.com!  And, of course…DURLING MAIL!

There will also be an “Ask Jex” question from series regular Jeff Taylor.

SPECIAL TIME!

Friday June 9 at 3:30 P.M. E.S.T.  Enjoy on YouTube or on Facebook!

 

#1065: Even the Best Weekends Can Turn to Crap

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 friend, the California Girl.  With me putting our friendship on a break, it was hard to be motivated to produce fun nature images.  I miss her.  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!

 

 

#1018: Surfing the October Colours (Cottage Video)

RECORD STORE TALES #1018:
Surfing the October Colours (Cottage Video)

 

The last cottage weekend before closing was totally maxed out!  And I don’t mean Max the Axe!

Life is too short.  It must be lived to the fullest.  When you and I first met here at mikeladano.com, I was 10 years younger.  Spending four hours on a Saturday pounding words into a keyboard was nothing back then.  Today I’d rather be experiencing life.  So that’s what we did.  From music to food to photography, we enjoyed our last weekend at the cottage before closing, to the max!

The music for the road was top notch.  Ghost’s new album Impera received another spin.  It’s as good as the day it was released.  Then while hanging out in the “G” folder, we rocked out George Lynch’s debut solo album, Sacred Grooves.  Better than any of the Lynch Mob albums.  It also enabled me to teach Jen a little bit about the mighty Glenn Hughes.  His struggles and triumphs.  On the road home, we rocked David Lee Roth’s Eat ‘Em and Smile and Your Filthy Little Mouth.  A pretty solid selection of guitar rock.

The fall colours were spectacular.  Orange, yellow, deep maroon.  As you are all well aware, I am not usually a “fall guy”.  This year has been a little different.  I have a friend in California who finds all this Canadian weather beautiful and fascinating.  For her, I enjoyed documenting the weekend with video tours and personal messages.  It totally made this fall weekend a different experience for me.  It was like seeing the place through new eyes.  And this is now going to be part of my wellness plan for winter.  She wants me to continue sending her fun videos and pictures of the Canadian landscape during the snowy months.  I checked my phone — do you know how many pictures of snow I had from past winters?  Two.  TWO.  I have photos on my phone going back to 2014, and I only have two with snow in them.  With her enthusiasm and encouragement, I’m going to have fun documenting the winter of 2022-2023!  I’ve never had this before — a friend in a sunny climate who has requested Canadian snow videos!  On the condition that I stay safe and don’t crash my car or break my neck!  This gives me a whole new project to do this winter, that I never had before.  I feel very positive about going into the cold, dark winter months.

I’m recovering well from my dental surgery and ate two steaks this weekend!  They were awesome!  As were all the fish and mushrooms I cooked up.  No A5 wagyu in stock at the butcher’s shop though.  That will have to wait until next year, I suppose.

We did something else different that we haven’t done in recent years.  We went into town!  I took some video of the big waves, a daring surfer, and some quaint streets.  Something new for this video.

Please enjoy this last cottage video before we close — all to the music of Tee Bone Erickson and Max the Axe!

VIDEO: Max the Axe – “Randy” Remix – August 25-28 at the lake

I am pleased to present to you a work in progress by Max the Axe: a new remix of “Randy” by Robi Banerji. This remix veers wildly from the original album version of the song.

There are lots of dogs and cats in this video for you pet lovers.

You’ll notice we saw our UFO at the lake again on that August weekend. And weirder than ever. Explain this to me, people. See for yourself!

#1002: The Best of the Best of the Best

RECORD STORE TALES #1002: The Best of the Best of the Best

It has been unknown numbers of years since the last time I had a four-day summer vacation.  Long overdue! Full of great music, great visuals, and so hard to come back from. My heart aches, but I have been diligent and made a video of the memories, as I always do. The theme of this week’s video:  wildlife!  Lots and lots of animals. 18 minutes of video paradise: the best of the best weekend I ever had.

As usual, we departed the hot city on Thursday night, to the sounds of great rock and roll.  Heavy metal, in this case.  This time I chose Iron Maiden’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Son for the trip.  The entire album plus the B-sides bonus disc.  Musically genius, lyrically dicey.  I used to think the words were so deep.  “Seven deadly sins, seven ways to win, seven holy paths to hell and your trip begins…”  I used to imagine Bruce’s lyrics were so deep.  Now I think he was just making up cool sounding phrases.  We all know what the seven deadly sins are, but there are no “seven ways to win”, nor “seven holy paths to hell.”  I used to give him credit for knowing the exact meaning of everything he sang.  What are the seven ways to win?  Don’t ask Bruce, I don’t think he knows!  But it all sounded cool, and I must have spent childhood memorizing this whole album, because I sang the whole way to the lake.  I conclude the concept is fun, but without depth.  If there is any depth to the album, it comes on the last song, Steve’s “Only the Good Die Young”.

So I think I’ll leave you,
With your bishops and your guilt,
So until the next time,
Have a good sin.

That resonates, but the overall album is just a tale.  Just a comic book.  On the other hand, I could be like Liam Gallagher with Oasis lyrics.  “Just because I don’t know what they mean, doesn’t mean there’s no fookin’ meaning in them fookin’ words!”

80s Maiden continued on the porch all Thursday night. All 80s, all Bruce. Nothing but. Then we watched Thursday Night Record Club with Brent Jensen and Alex Huard, talking about Judas Priest’s British Steel.  Switched over to Priest on the front deck the following morning.  And then to Journey, for an upcoming episode of Tim’s Vinyl Confessions, on the excellent new Journey album Freedom.  I used my show notes to complete my upcoming review.  It will be ready shortly after the show debuts.  And you’re going to love the show we taped.  Trust me!

As the days meandered on, we encountered all sorts of wildlife. There was a cheeky chipmunk that was climbing all over us each day, looking for treats. There was a raccoon hanging around the back door, smelling the blueberry pancakes I just made. Birds, birds, and more birds. And Schnauzers! We saw the return of our UFO!  We kept our eyes on the skies, and there may have even been a flying squid!  (What?)

Indoors and outdoors, there was plenty to do.  No wonder four days flew past.  We did retro gaming, watched Ant Man, had a belated birthday party, and cooled off in Lake Huron. We observed the sun set, and then the moon a few hours later.  We have photos and video of it all.

By the time Monday rolled around, nobody wanted to go home.  I spent my final four hours on the front deck editing away.  It took that long to edit down 95 minutes of footage into the awesome 18 seen below.

Please enjoy the lengthy but entertaining video, and the awesome memories that go with it. I wish we could stay forever. At least with the videos, the memories remain and will not fade.  The accompanying music comes from Tee Bone Erickson, Dr. Kathryn Ladano, Max the Axe and the Seagram Synth Ensemble.  And it’s all good.  I worked damn hard on this, because making videos like this does a lot of good for me when my seasonal affective disorder eventually kicks in.  I worked hard on it for me, but also for you, because beauty is universal.

The best sun (and moon) sets in the world.  Magical music.  Awesome animals.  The best, of the best, of the best weekend ever!

#999: Slo-Mo Schnauzers, Stop Motion Autobots, and UFOs? Oh My! (Video)

RECORD STORE TALES #999:
Slo-Mo Schnauzers, Stop Motion Autobots, and UFOs? Oh My!

Nothing really went as planned when the internet went out.  So, we did what we could.  We pretended it was 1989 and had fun in old fashioned ways.  Good thing no LeBrain Train show was planned!  And boy, did we take advantage of the break.  Fortunately music was not an issue, so I warmed up the laptop and dug into the hard drive for some albums that reminded me of the old days.

To a soundtrack of Kiss, Kim Mitchell, Max Webster, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, and many more, I grabbed the comic books and the Yahtzee.  It was too cold to swim (weird for July) so we had to do other things.  Jen worked on her adult colouring books.  I made food.  I also took plenty of video.

The wildlife this weekend was captured for your viewing pleasure.  Plenty of gulls, eating multitudes of beach insects (which were so plentiful you can clearly see them on camera).  We had a brave little chipmunk who seemed to enjoy the sounds of Aerosmith.  I think I’ll name him Joe Perry.  There were two cute doggos (one Schnauzer and one Miscellaneous), which I filmed in slow motion.  The visuals this weekend were unrivalled!  A pretty epic night fire, and sunsets that kill any you have seen yourself.  All captured and carefully edited to a soundtrack of unreleased Max the Axe music, and classic Tee Bone Erickson tunes.  Although the finished video is on the long-ish side, your reward is unreleased Max tuneage (one live, and a preview of a coming remix of “Randy”) and plenty of stunning visuals in HD slow motion.

We talked last time of being bored at the lake as a teenager.  If I had this kind of technology as a kid, I’d never had been bored.  That’s the truth.  There’s always something worth documenting.  The fact that I can have it finished and edited at the end of the weekend is actually pretty mind blowing.

The weirdest thing that happened (besides hearing a coyote calling at 11:30 at night, and then screaming at 5:00 AM), was the UFO.

Now, I’m not saying “aliens” when I say “UFO”.  Let’s be clear on that.  However the object was flying and none of us could identify it.  There were minimum three witnesses each time.  On the first night, the UFO appeared at sunset as a quickly brightening star, which eventually faded or was hidden by clouds.  It didn’t move.  My camera didn’t reveal much, although it looked like a blocky shape.  Our working theory was the International Space Station.

The second time, the object appeared in the same place at the same time, still motionless.  It looked like a flame in the sky, a frozen flame.  That’s the best way I can describe it.  It stayed in the sky until we eventually left the beach about half an hour later.  When I returned later at night, it was too cloudy to be seen.  Two examples below, and you can see more in the full video.

Internet outage aside, the only crappy thing about the weekend was that I did not get to visit Sausagefest as I’d hoped.  The internet outage disrupted Jen’s routines a bit and I elected to stay home and make sure she was OK.  As it stands I’m glad I made that decision, as she needed a little help doing a few things.

Otherwise, it was a delightful weekend of music and doing things differently.  I wish I had written down all the albums we listened to, but with no movies and no TV, music was the obvious dominant force.  A lot of Kiss this weekend, folks.  A lot of Kiss.

The video may be long but it’s worth it.  Slo-mo Schnauzer is your payoff!

 

#997: De-Programming

RECORD STORE TALES #997:  De-Programming

 

On July 8, there was a massive nation-wide service outage in Canada.  No cable, no cellular, no internet.  As stinky as this situation was, it did create a time machine of sorts.  Jen and I were already celebrating the summer of ’89 with albums such as Pump and Dr. Feelgood.  The internet outage really took us back to 1989 (and earlier) in a specific way.

I’ve written in glowing terms about childhood and cottage life.  Rose coloured glasses, my friends.  Rose coloured classes.  For this service outage reminded us of the before-fore times when we had two channels on TV and nothing else.

So here I am, writing this in the middle of the outage, into a word document.  These are the fresh thoughts as they happen.

Thought the first:  Boy, am I ever glad I have my music collection meticulously backed up on hard drives.  Otherwise, I’d have no music.  To continue the summer of ’89 feel, we listened to the “Fire Woman” EP by The Cult.  Then, Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich by Warrant.

Second thought:  I remember I had something of a catchphrase at the cottage back then.  “I’m boooooored.”

Indeed, it is all coming back to me now!  I was bored a lot up here.  I had my music (on cassette) and some books with me at all times, but that wasn’t enough to stave off the boredom of a pimply teenager with hockey hair.

I think it’s worse today because we’ve been conditioned to be able to look stuff up on demand.  As I listened to The Cult, I wanted to read the lyrics.  I wanted to look up the production personnel.  I’m conditioned to be able to do that.  I’m constantly distracted by wanting to look stuff up.

Additionally, I am always used to a steady stream of messages through the day, be they emails or comments.  I’m trained to look at my phone every so often to glance at notifications.  That reflex is there even now.  I’m trying to de-program myself today.

The summer of 1989 was the year that I declared Warrant to be my favourite new band.  So let’s go where the “Down Boys” go, and figure out what was so boring about this place to the teenager with nothing to do.

The most exciting thing to do for me back then was to go to town.  Then I’d have the opportunity to buy a new rock magazine or perhaps a tape at the Radio Shack or Stedman’s stores.  Some candy too if we were lucky.  But a teenager needed a family to take him to town, and they didn’t always want to go to town.  And if they did, it was on their terms, which meant a lot of waiting around as they tried on shoes or looked at knick-knacks.

I’m boooooored.

We usually split into groups.  The ladies (my aunt, mom and sister) would go to the knick-knack stores.  My dad and I would go to Radio Shack, Stedman’s and Leisure World.  And then we’d sit around waiting for the others.

I’m boooooored.

We’d play games, but you’d have to wait for everybody to be ready.  Mom had to make her coffee.  Sister had to dry her hair.

I’m boooooooored!

I enjoyed helping my dad cook dinner.  Always a cottage highlight for me.  I’d season the steaks, make the fire, and let my dad take it from there.  We made a lot of good steaks over cedar fires in 1989.

I enjoyed when my friend Bob, who had a license and a car (Pontiac Fiero), would drive up for a visit.  His family had a trailer about 30 minutes south.  His trailer park even had girls!  There were never any girls to meet at the cottage.  The isolation here was a lot to deal with for a teenager.  No MuchMusic, no VCR, no music videos at all.

Just now, I wanted to Google how far away his trailer park was, to get the details right.  No internet.  Must de-program.

It’s not like I was meeting any girls at home, but at least I could go to the mall and run into school friends.  At the cottage I couldn’t even call them.  Today I have Jen with me, and my sister is right next door, so the isolation isn’t really an issue.  While I wish I could message Harrison or Meat with my latest thoughts, they’ll just have to wait.  And if I can’t remember the thoughts to message them, then they couldn’t have been all that important.  De-programming!

Compared to yesteryear, I have more freedom.  Here I am on the front porch, rocking to Warrant and nobody’s telling me to go to my room or turn it down.  If I want to go make a fire, nobody will tell me not to.   I don’t have to wait for anyone else if I feel like swimming.  If I want to barbecue a steak for lunch, good on me.

One thing that never bored me:  a cottage project like putting on a new deck.  It was always a communal effort with all of us contributing to cutting and nailing wood.  Maybe I’d even be allowed to bring my ghetto blaster outside to listen to music (at a reasonable volume).

Sometimes we’d play baseball (not easy with all the trees in the way), badminton, frisbee, darts.  Pellet guns were always stocked with ammo and tin cans were kept for target practice.  It’s not that there was nothing to do.  It’s that I didn’t always want to do that stuff because I’d rather be bored.

Sometimes we’d be so bored we’d count the seams in the ceiling planks.

This deprogramming stuff is hard.  We’ve been heavily conditioned to be connected.  I’ve written all I have to say at the moment, so I’m going to pick some more tunes to play, and go make a fire.  Fascinating weekend, this will be.