Pat Blythe – Just stuff…..and music

Saw the hip doc yesterday….time for a checkup. After 14 years my bionic hip is still in rock solid shape. Yes, there’s a little wear and tear but after all this time I can still do the hippy hippy shake. I’m extremely fortunate it’s lasted this long and the doc ….he’s smiling.

I decided to walk from Queen and Victoria over to Sherbourne and Bloor (downtown Toronto). I haven’t strolled around these parts in years. It evolved into a walk down memory lane. Chris and I moved into our first apartment together on Sherbourne between Dundas and Shuter. It had brilliant orange balconies and we were situated on the top floor. Complete with sunken living room, 12-foot ceilings and a huge bedroom we were set. We hunkered down there for two years before we became Beach residents.

Pat Blythe – Jonathan Antoine, Benefit for Bernie …and Music!

I’ve been reminded that things always happen in threes….the cold from hell has felled me, issues with club bookings and now my f**cking roof needs to be replaced!!!!  Actually there’s a fourth, a notice from CRA tells me I owe them a whopping $15.43. I’m finding it difficult to think coherently, my eyes hurt, I’m hacking up a lung, I actually feel like napping and I have to be in London on Friday to drive a pace car in a cancer run. Rant over….let the column begin.

Pat Blythe – MIrror, Mirror, Little Magic Sam, Jeans ‘N Classics …and Music!

So……some asshole, who decided he needed one of my car parts more than I did, expertly stole my passenger side mirror. Parked on Queen St., directly in front of the Cameron House, against a snowbank. F********K!!!! Not a “smash and grab” but carefully popped out, heating wires neatly disconnected and presto, I’m out $80.

Pat Blythe – Rights, Nights, and Music

Okay, we’ll kick this off with the weather…..freezing cold, snowing, raining, freezing rain, sunny, cloudy, pluses and minuses all over the map, exploding pipes, sinkholes, warming trends, arctic air masses, blankets on, blankets off…..we’re screwed! Somebody make up their mind!!!! This keeps up I’m whipping out the 3″ summer sandals…..winter be damned!

Pat Blythe – Openings, Bands and Music…Playing Catch-Up….

Openers…….

Today is a bright but chilly October day. (great opening line huh?) Then there’s Snoopy’s book opening….“It was a dark and stormy night.” Okay, how about “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” (Tales of Two Cities – Charles Dickens) Or, “It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.” (Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen) THAT was a different time….most definitely. Then there’s, “It was the afternoon of my eighty-first birthday and I was in bed with my catamite when Ali announced that the archbishop had come to see me.” (Earthly Powers – Anthony Burgess). I can’t even begin to imagine explaining that one. How about, “I write this sitting at the kitchen sink”. (Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith). That’s sure to grab attention…..and apparently it did. “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs and I don’t know what I was doing in New York.” (The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath). Confused, frustrated, a chronic depressive, Plath committed suicide by sticking her head in a gas oven at the very young age of 30, leaving behind two young children. “You’ve no choice, look back.” (The Story of Hansel and Gretel – Louise Murphy) We must learn from the past. “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.” (1984 – George Orwell) Canada’s pants would do well to pay attention. Apparently they’re not paying attention to Hansel or Gretel.

Pat Blythe – The Stories Behind The Songs – Part Three

Some things just happen for a reason. A parking spot just as you need it. That cheque you’ve been waiting for arrives in the mail at precisely the right time. The job opportunity comes along right when you need it most. Somebody mails you a CD out of the blue while you’re considering what to write for the next column. Well….the latter just waltzed into my mailbox….it’s the most beautiful rendition of this classic I’ve ever heard. The vocalist was only twelve when it was recorded.

Pat Blythe – A Wedding, A Jam, A Concert (or two) and Indie Week Wrap-up

I’m going to start calling this column Pat’s Diary (nope, too blah), or maybe Zippy’s Musical Journey, or maybe….My Life As A Crazy Lady…..  Welcome to my world of music, pictures, and general mayhem. So we begin another 10 days of zipping (get it haha) around this wonderful city of ours enjoying the nightlife. I’m starting backwards…..

Pat Blythe – Tributes, Sarah Smith, Indie Week and Robbie Robertson….

I will start by paying tribute to two remarkable artists. First a true Canadian icon and our poet laureate (in our hearts) Leonard Cohen on Monday, November 7 although the notice of death was not released until the day he was buried. Today (Sunday, Nov. 13), the news informs us of the passing of the unforgettable Leon Russell. Two legends (if I may use that term) in our lifetime that have shared a piece of themselves with all of us. Their minds and their hearts live on in the music and lyrics of our lives.

Pat Blythe – Much Music, Pics and Other Stories…..

Baby’s got a new camera!!!! Chris’s camera finally bit the dust….shutter is stuck in the closed position, the “motherboard” is cooked. Ahhh….the digital age. ….and yet, his two 31-year-old “analogue” Nikons are in perfect working order. Complete with two motor drives, three lenses and a flash. Pop in a film canister and away we go. Planned obsolescence? Good question. Same goes for cars, major and minor appliances….just about everything we use today is all run by computer, and yes, computers run out of gas. That brain we call the motherboard, well….she just stops firing on all cylinders, or maybe, shoots off the wrong command. Her synapses aren’t synapsing (so to speak). I then found out today (being Tuesday) that digital cameras actually have an internal “odometer”. There are only so many pics that can (or should) be taken, then….sputter, sputter….you’re shooting on a wing and a prayer. Those aforementioned Nikons? Odometer? I think not. There is truly something to be said for analogue, vinyl, cassettes, 45s, my mom’s wash machine, stuff that was made to last a lifetime…..literally.

Doug Thompson: CONFESSIONS OF A PROFESSIONAL ROCK AND ROLL INTERVIEWER – LOOK MA, STILL NO WORDS

“Well doggies” (as Jed Clampett used to say on the 60’s TV series, “The Beverly Hillbillies), there were quite a few responses to my last blog about instrumentals.  Most simply wrote to say ‘You forgot so and so’…or ‘what about…’, but hey, if that column sparked discussion about great instrumentals, then I have been successful.

And so, I guess I’m done.  Goodnight!