Roxanne Tellier – Just A Little Respect

The last Monday of May is when America celebrates Memorial Day, a federal holiday which honours and mourns the military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Patriots observe both this holiday, and the other day of note, Remembrance Day, to signify their appreciation and respect for past and present members of the military. These are America’s heroes.

This year, however, that holiday coincides with something that only a tiny percent of a percent of Americans, if any, have ever seen before – the sudden death of nearly 100,000 citizens in just two months, by the novel coronavirus known as COVID 19.

North Americans have been spoiled for the last hundred years. Sure, there were two World Wars, and a Great Depression, but few under the age of 50 even remember those days, let alone recognize the impact these events had on people. As peacekeepers, Canada felt even less of the sting of loss.

Peter Has Band Advice, Festival News, and a Remarkable Young Film-Maker

Summer is finally here….almost. Summer in Canada means barbeques, backyards, balconies, beaches, bathing suits, baseball, beer and badminton. (Enough with the alliteration, already. Get on with it. Ed.)

Summer in Canada also means that the days are growing longer. Gone are the dreary months of only seeing that pale yellow orb in the sky on weekends and sick days. Life moves outdoors as much as possible as we frequent patios, campgrounds and parks, squeezing every possible second of fun that we can out of this fleeting season, for we know that the leaves that shade us in July will need to be raked up and disposed of properly in October. (Mother Nature always bats last.)

Peter Speaks for Old Straight White Men – Not That There’s Anything Wrong With That

Recent events have meant that the column which I was going to write today will appear next week.  In it, I will praise the arrival of summer, talk about some upcoming music and events and introduce you to a budding Young filmmaker.

Today’s column is being written from the perspective of an old, white, straight man, which is the only perspective that I can speak from with any authority.

Pat Blythe – Christmas past, NYC, John Harris, N’we Jinan…and Music!

My house looks like Santa barfed up an entire Christmas store. Lights, decorations, bibs and bobs scattered about, the decorating a work in progress and I haven’t even purchased the tree yet! Chris use to chide me on the amount of Christmas paraphernalia I had accumulated over the years so I decided one year to use the minimalist approach. A week before Christmas day Chris asked me when I was going to decorate? Ya can’t win…. So, five containers, an extensive Santa Claus collection and a couple of supplementary boxes heaved up from the basement, I am now sussing and sorting, banging nails, climbing ladders, walking on the counter to get to the top of the cabinets….letting no space go “unChristmased”. Even my musical Charlie Brown Christmas Tree is back in its place of honour.

Roxanne Tellier – HEY! Give Me Back My Hour!

Happy 100th birthday to a really dumb concept.

Pat Blythe …and The Blues Continue – Big Mama Thornton

Who pops into your mind when you hear the song title “Hound Dog”? How about “Ball and Chain”? Big Mama Thornton? Probably not. However, “Hound Dog” was her biggest hit, selling more than two million copies when it was first released in 1953. “Hound Dog”reached number one on the R&B charts and made Thornton a star. However, her total compensation was the paltry sum of $500. Elvis Presley recorded it three years later and with it (for Presley) came fame and great financial reward. After meeting Big Mama, Janis Joplin recorded “Ball and Chain”  with her band Big Brother and Holding Company, but it was Joplin’s famous performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 that made this song a hit (note Cass Elliot’s face in the crowd) with “bluesaphobes” everywhere, reintroducing the genre to a brand new audience and rekindling interest in Big Mama herself.

JAIMIE VERNON – THE DAVE RAVE CONSPIRACY

Excerpted from the upcoming Bullseye Records 30^th Anniversary book “Bullsography”
I was plugging away on an old Underwood electric typewriter out of a one-bedroom apartment in Pickering Village in the late 1980s putting out a fanzine called Great White Noise magazine when I received correspondence from legendary Pig Paper fanzine guru Gary Pig Gold….

Roxanne Tellier: Music- Like A Prayer

 

In Montreal in the sixties, growing up in a Catholic family, we were always encouraged to use our talents in religious gatherings. Even my Aunt Pat, blissfully unaware that she was tone-deaf, would raise her voice loudly and proudly in song.  I sang at mass, first in Latin as the organ wheezed, and later in folk masses, where the guitar was the instrument of choice.

Roxanne Tellier: Canada, Eh?

JAIMIE VERNON: THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTER

I’ve been posting a steady stream of travel pictures on Facebook both for posterity and to entertain the millions of ‘friends’ I have online who might be tired of my abrasive and often hostile status updates. From these postings came comments from people who dream of traveling or visiting such exotic places as Flin Flon, Manitoba or South Bend, Indiana.