Segarini – Monday Filler

Short and sweet, that’s what this is. With Doug Thompson, Gary Pig Gold, and Darrell Vickers wrapped up for the month of June, it has fallen to me to provide read-y things for the last Monday of the month. I endeavour to do so with The Monday Filler. …and what, exactly, is The Monday Filler? Well, it is this….

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News

The Flag Wars….

The Rainbow one won, The Dukes of Hazzard one lost. Strange thing is, neither one of these things seemed like a monumental event to me.

Having been raised by people and surrounded by people whose lack of judgemental opinions, fear of gender, and misplaced moral outrage, I have gone through life not really thinking about anything when considering another human being, except for my one and only litmus test; Are they nice, or are they assholes or idiots?

So with that in mind, I find it odd that so many people have decided to step forth and tell the rest of us on which side of the love/hate line they stand, regardless of having never said anything before the SCOTUS decision last week. I suppose I could have gone on record and told the world that I am only frightened of and disapproving of assholes and idiots, but no one asked me.

I am curious if everyone who has spoken up about this were asked, and if they were…should I feel left out because I wasn’t? And in the Grand Scheme of Things, why tell people you are an open minded, non-judgemental, can’t-we-all-get-along-er, when it would be better and make more sense to show them what kind of person you are with your actions? They say actions speak louder than words for a reason, you know.

Will your ability to tell people about a bad experience be stifled in the future if you happen to meet an LGBT person who is an asshole? …because a person is much more than their sexual orientation, the colour of their skin, and the religious beliefs they follow. None of those things impact on a person being nice, honest, trustworthy, decent or anything else. Assholes and Idiots come in as many different shapes and sizes as the populace is capable of.

The actions of an individual over time is the only way to know that person, their appearance, gender, and other visible signposts are meaningless in seeing who they really are. Words are easy. Behaviour is not.

…and wasn’t it only one faction of the Deep South who embraced the Dukes of Hazard flag, to use as a banner for the evil that men do in the name of racism and other uneducated pursuits? When I was a youngster, that flag stood for rebellion and marching to your own drummer, and later, moonshine and women who wore Daisy Dukes, had ample bosoms, and went everywhere wearing cowboy boots or barefoot.

At any rate, sincere congratulations to Canada’s Pants for the Supreme Court’s just and over-due decision, and apologies to those to whom the “Confederate” Flag meant something other than the tarnished image it has become in the hands of Assholes and Idiots…and they spoil a lot of things in the name of stupidity.

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Movies

Shut the Fuck Up….

If I were a cow, my tipping point has been reached insofar as Armchair Critics go.

Listen Bub…I am tired of you and your flock of whining experts going o movies to find things to hate. You are NOT experts, you do NOT know how to make a movie, what is consists of, and how the finished product is achieved, no matter how long you have been reading Entertainment Weekly or listening to your equally smug dilettante army agree with your assessment of this actor or that writer or these producers or that director.

Do you actually go to the movie to watch it, or do you go to search for flaws, missteps and factual inaccuracies, so you can unload on it in the comments sections of AICN or Blastr?

I am a consumer.

I consume.

I do not go to movies or concerts or purchase music or movies or any form of entertainment until I ask myself a simple question; Do I think this will entertain me?

I look at the available information, I check out what actual REVIEWERS have to say, and pass over any self appointed “CRITIC” out of hand, because “CRITICS” are paid to criticize…and so what? …and my rules for reviewers are like my interaction with other people in general. In other words, I read them and what they have to say over a period of time, long enough to see what their taste is like, what kind of attitude they have in relationship to their occupation, and how much they actually love the medium they are paid to evaluate for the rest of us, and the genres they most personally love. The reason I do this is simple.

I want to know how seriously to take this person when I am deciding what to do with my valuable leisure time and limited disposable income. Eventually, you realize that there are some writers who will rave about a film encouraging his readers to go see it. Sometimes, if you have done your homework, you realize that the movie this writer is recommending (in this case, Interstellar), will surely either put you to sleep, beat you over the head with a message, or have little or no lightness or humour. How and why would you think that after reading a dozen paragraphs calling the film great?

Because you know this writer’s taste. You know he is a fan of Christopher Nolan because he worships the Batman Trilogy, which means he knows little or nothing about Batman.

He hated Independence Day, calling it childish and scientifically crippled and just a vehicle for Will Smith and the Johnny-One-Note acting of Jeff Goldblum, NOT KNOWING that you LOVE the silliness and si-fi tropes embraced by Independence Day, laughed out loud when they won by uploading a virus from an Apple laptop into the alien system, and cheered at Bill Pullman’s speech and loved crazy Randy Quaid piloting a crop duster with a nuclear weapon tied to it with baling wire into a flying saucer and blowing the fucking thing up…with a CROP DUSTER! So…THIS reviewer just raved about a movie, Interstellar, and in so doing, informed me to avoid it at all cost.

Because I know what he likes.

Because I know what I like.

…and the reverse is true as well. Some critics wil just shit all over a movie (Jurassic World being the latest target of the smug elite hipster crowd) and guarantee my ass in a seat every time.

So Dear Armchair Critics…

If you don’t like the movie don’t talk about it to hear the sound of your own voice. Go to be entertained and you more than likely will be on a scale of 5 -10. If you go to tear it down, you are wasting your money and can only get a 1 – 5 for your money.

And while I’m at it…

Danny Collins is Al Pacino at his best, a story anyone who loves music can relate to, and based on an actual true event which is brought to light at the end of the film. A great movie about the mistakes of youth and how you can grow as a person as you age. Annette Bening shines in this as well.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a fine chapter in this little series of 2 films. For adults, please. There are so many fine actors in the film it kinda hurts.

J.J. Abrams Star Trek movies are LIGHT YEARS better than the old ones, and the new crew of the Enterprise is as engaging and charming as the old one. You can enjoy both, you know. The way JJ did it, means that both realities still exist so shhhhh…you still have your Shat together.

San Andreas is fun. The Rock is still the coolest guy out there though Chris Pratt is gaining fast. San Francisco looks beautiful for a few minutes and then…well, you know what happens, don’t you?

Tomorrowland is a WONDERFUL movie that tanked while the dystopian, post apocalyptic, ugly terrain/people/vehicle dirt-caked, dusty, loud, stupid Mad Max: Fury Road packed ’em in…which ironically, actually proves the point of the film Tomorrowland.

Inside Out is magic. Laugh out loud one minute, tears the next, and honestly should be the template for how school is taught, and what is really important when it comes to knowledge that we need to know and use in real life. My Grandkids are just a little too young to have got the deeper meaning, but were glued to the screen because they were engaged completely by Pixar’s story telling skills. Every parent, hell, everybody needs to see this film.

…and by now you must know what my taste is like and can decide for yourself to either follow my advice…or run screaming in the opposite direction. Easy-Peasy.

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Music

Chris Squire

He gave me the shirt off his back….

The Yes tour sweatshirt I’m wearing in this clip was given to me by Sandy Stagg directly from Chris Squire, who, when Sandy told him what a fan I was, took it off his back and handed it to her. Unfortunately, I lost it years ago, but for the better part of a decade, it was my favourite shirt. RIP, Mr. Squire…and your Ricky with round wound strings is STILL one of my favourite bass sounds of ever. We are now all Owners of Lonely Hearts….

This is a perfect record in every way. Perfect. From the song itself, to every instrumental part, every voice, the engineering and the production. A flawless, perfect, wonderful record.

Yes came to my attention in West Orange New Jersey thanks to a friend I met in New York City who was and still is, as cool as Tony Manero, Al Pacino, and Harold Black all rolled into one. Richie Imprecsia introduced me to Springsteen in a West Orange NJ High School Gym, and a 50 seat folk club in Philly one weekend, turned me on to the Bar “Nobody’s” on Bleeker street in the Village where I got shit-faced with Rod the Mod and the Faces, and Yes via a Ghetto Blaster in an abandoned mansion in Jersey that he and his friends (and me) broke into to have a party. He slipped a cassette of their 4th album, “Fragile” on and played me the song that Chris’s bass part has been isolated for you below. Played with a pick it seems….

We must have listened to “Roundabout” a couple of dozen times that night. As much as I love the original, THIS is my favourite version of the song. Live, acoustic and featuring all the members of a band that proved three chords were just no longer enough….

Rest in Peace Mr. Squire.

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Heard All The Great Bands/No Good New Music Dept.

Just a friendly reminder…that whole ‘Heard all the Great Bands and No Good new Music anymore thing is bullshit. And if you don’t believe me, then you have missed and are missing a lot of great music.

Peter Kashur and I played “Listen to this!” on the You Tube yesterday.

This is a small sample of what we listened to.

…and finally. the World’s Most Entertaining Drummer….

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We’ll do this again next month…in the meantime…

Great entertainment is out there.

All YOU have to do is look for it

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Segarini’s regular column appears here every Friday

Contact us at dbawis@rogers.com

Bob “The Iceman” Segarini was in the bands The Family Tree, Roxy, The Wackers, The Dudes, and The Segarini Band and nominated for a Juno for production in 1978. He also hosted “Late Great Movies” on CITY TV, was a producer of Much Music, and an on-air personality on CHUM FM, Q107, SIRIUS Sat/Rad’s Iceberg 95, (now 85), and now publishes, edits, and writes for DBAWIS, osts The Bobcast every Monday night at Cherry Cola’s, and continues to write music, make music, and record.