Pat Blythe – The Blushing Brides and Smooth Jazz

Holy summer!!! The weather is simply gorgeous. Warm and sunny….Mother Nature has apparently had a relapse or she’s feeling a bit guilty about the rather insipid summer we just…..I don’t know…..experienced?  Let’s see…..what else…..day-to-day shit you don’t need to hear about but I will say this, the homemade grape jelly IS AWESOME!!!! Made from my own concord grapes, the vines are now 20 years old. Every year it’s a battle between me and the urban wildlife. Just who plucks the most grapes? The ones left behind or dropped from the vines eventually ferment, providing the neighbourhood with a little late night comical relief as the raccoons waltz about, stumbling and bumbling until they flop over in a deep slumber. The following night is unusually quiet as they nurse their hangovers.

JAIMIE VERNON – BULLSOGRAPHY: Sneak Peek #1

With my ‘True Tales From a Cemetery Cop’  being released October 3 I’ve finally returned to finish writing the book I promised a year ago – the history of Bullseye Records of Canada.

JAIMIE VERNON – 10 STUPID HUMAN TRICKS

They say that memories are built on intense emotional events – happy, sad or frightening. I have very few in the latter category which might be why the few I have are so vivid. Of course, these incidents are always the ones involving acts of, not bravery or heroism, but good old fashioned idiocy. Unlike the current crop of social media Jackass rejects there is no visual proof of my actions…thankfully.

Pat Blythe: Solstice, Petty and Beer

The days are just flying by and we’ve already reached the longest day of the year. Now the days start to get just a teeny, tiny bit shorter but we don’t start to notice it until sometime late August….it just kinda creeps up on you. And so the cycle continues. I contend the longest day shouldn’t be until summer is over but that’s a discussion I need to have with Mother Nature and quite, frankly, I think she’s a little pissed with how we’ve been treating Gaia. I’ll hold off for another day

JAIMIE VERNON – TO THE BOOKMOBILE

Last week I wrote about working on Skip Prokop’s upcoming biography project and how we’re attempting to raise funds to get the thing written and published. https://kapipal.com/projects/skip-prokop-biography-project/

JAIMIE VERNON – MY SUMMER HOLIDAY 1975: Part 3

When last we left our intrepid 12 year-old he was leaving the confines of his home Province for the first time ever with his Grandmother Vernon in her 1972 Skylark; excited and inspired to see what was beyond the moon-like terrain of Ontario on the historic Trans-Canada Highway.

JAIMIE VERNON – TOM HOOPER & THE UNEXPLORED COSMOS

excerpted from the forthcoming book Bullsography: The Bullseye Records Story 1985-2010

Cameron Carpenter: Rock’n’Roll Rewind – In Goddo We Trust

This week we re-wind to June of 1979 and once again to The New Music Magazine. One of the things I loved about writing for them was I could help bring local acts to a cross-country audience. To welcome Greg Godovitz, and his new custom made pair of shoes, back to Toronto (after living in Calgary for the last eight years), I give you “In Goddo We Trust”.

Pat Blythe: Women of Rock – Part Two

Ch-ch-ch-cha-changes

I have been slowly getting to know my fellow writers, conversing with them through Facebook, email and over the phone. A what! Yep, a real live telephone. You know, those devices that allow you to actually hear what the other person sounds like while enjoying honest-to-goodness dialogue. Fingers seem to do more walking and mouths less talking these days. We are no longer an oral society. The world of banter, tete-a-tetes and nattering have gone the way of such foods as pineapple upside down cake. (remember those) Mmmmmm……

Pat Blythe: Women of Rock – Part 1

The impetus, for what has now become a series, was my discovery of an old vinyl record by Maggie Bell. I came across it going through one of my many purge cycles. Suicide Sal, released in 1975, was my introduction to the blues….I just didn’t know it then. I wasn’t in the habit of labeling types of music in my younger years, I just knew what I liked. Greg Simpson, who happened to be managing the now defunct Records on Wheels in London, Ontario, recommended the album, thinking I might like it. I loved it and still do. Thank you Greg!