At The Intersection Of (My Favourite) Comics And Music

Love this little story about Mark Buckingham, artist on the final issues of Miracleman (among other comic work), who it turns out was intimately involved in the creation of Peter Gabriel's famous "Sledgehammer" video, back in the 80s.  You can't get much closer to hitting all of my fandom buttons at once than that!

The Old Guy Can Still Bring It

Musician Peter Gabriel is 4 years older than my brother Richard (to the day!), meaning that he's in his early-60s now. So it can't be all that easy to run around a stage for a 2-hour show anymore, and yet he's still managing to do that, somehow.

Vicki and I saw PG and his band at the Air Canada Centre on Wednesday night, and were thoroughly entertained. It's not quite the spectacular show it used to be, but I'm willing to give a little on that front, considering the age of everyone involved.  He did all of his fan-favourites, including the entirety of the So album (the tour is actually called "So - Back to Front").  I'd forgotten just how great a song "Digging in the Dirt" is, when played live.

I took some photos during the performance, but most of them are pretty crappy. We were just too far away, or I suck as a photographer (take your pick). Anyway, here's one of the better ones, showing the entire group but highlighting "the big three" (left to right) - Tony Levin, David Rhodes and Peter himself:

That was the 7th time I've seen PG in concert, and the 5th time for Vicki. I think that officially qualifies us as 'fans... don't you?

Shining

Can't wait to see this feel good movie of the year!



(so good I've posted it twice!)

Tuesday Morning Fever

In approximately 36 hours, I'll be attending our regular Tuesday morning yoga class with Vicki, and then we'll head home by way of Future Shop. The reasons for the unusual detour are twofold: Aliens vs Predator (the game) should be out by then, or well as Peter Gabriel's latest CD, Scratch My Back. As I blogged about recently, the latter features Mr G covering a variety of his personal favourites by Neil Young, Radiohead, Paul Simon and others. As much as I wish it were new material instead, I'm still looking forward to hearing his interpretations of each.

As for AvP, about which I've written extensively hereabouts over the past several months, I'm still pumped about its arrival despite the underwhelming demo that came out a week ago. The prospect of playing through three different campaigns, one each as Marine, Alien and Predator, just brings back such good memories from the earlier incarnation of AvP. I still haven't decided which console to buy it for, however, and so that could end up being a "game-time decision", as they say in the sports biz. If it's any fun at all, then you can expect me to inflict my enjoyment upon you right here. And isn't that what blogs are for, anyway?

New-ish Peter Gabriel Music Out Next Week

While it's not as exciting to me as the prospect of a truly-new set of music, I'm still fairly interested in the Scratch My Back project that Peter is set to release a CD under next week. He's doing about a dozen covers on it, but with orchestra and voice only. I heard his version of David Bowie's "Heroes" while flipping around the TV channels during the first few days after the Haiti earthquake, and it was interesting, at least. I'd much prefer that he produce a new studio album with the regular crew (Tony Levin, David Rhodes, etc) but since it's been almost a decade since that last happened, I'll take what I can get.

This one's called Scratch My Back, and it'll be followed up by I'll Scratch Yours, on which the artists whose work Mr Gabriel covered on the first one return the favour by reinterpreting songs of his. Among that group should be Bowie, the Talking Heads (or maybe just David Byrne), Paul Simon, Neil Young, Radiohead, Lou Reed, Canada's very own Arcade Fire and several others. It's an intriguing concept, if nothing else.

I Really Need To Get Some Help

Every week, when we watch Flashforward, I can't get past the fact that one of the actors looks exactly like a 30-ish Peter Gabriel! Jack Davenport, who plays Lloyd Simcoe in the TV show, is a dead ringer for the musical genius not long after he left Genesis. It takes me out of the episode every time because the resemblance is so uncanny. Who do I see about something like this?

I (Still) Go Swimming! *

For what may end up being the last time this year, I went for a long dip in the pool today. I had to warm the water up to about 25 C (~76 F) before I'd venture in, but with the air temperature hovering around 21 C at the time, that wasn't too bad. With the forecast indicating cooler temperatures ahead, I imagine we'll be closing the pool sometime in the next week or so. Always a sad point in the year, but at least I got a whole lot of swimming in during August.

Oh, and before I forget: a big, though somewhat reluctant "Happy Sept 11th" to Dick Cheney! For almost 8 years now, I've thought that he was maybe the worst U.S. Vice President I'd ever see, but if Sarah "Death to Polar Bears" Palin gets into office, I may have to re-think that...

* "I Go Swimming" is a Peter Gabriel song that shows up on his concert album, Peter Gabriel Plays Live.

Peter Gabriel And Wall-E?

Ain't It Cool News is speculating that Mr Gabriel is working on music for the animated feature, Wall-E. He'd just been in the news for breaking his leg while skiing, so I'm happy to see his name showing up unexpectedly in a much better situation!

Speaking Of Radiohead

Thom Yorke and the boys were in the news today. If you care enough to actually follow the link, you can also watch the video for "Nude," from the latest CD (In Rainbows) there.

One of the things I love about new music arriving from artists that you're a fan of is that feeling, when you hear it for the first time or two, of not being sure if you actually like it or not. You'll never get to hear that music that way ever again, so it's something to truly cherish and enjoy to the fullest each and every time it happens, I think. I can still remember listening to the cassette of Peter Gabriel's So, in Cork, Ireland, in the Spring of 1986, on a Walkman that my friend Deborah lent me. The album had just been released that week and she knew how desperate I was to hear it, despite being several thousand kilometres away from my beloved turntable. All of the tracks sounded so strange and unpredictable, and yet now it's one of the most familiar sets of songs that I know.

New Material Imminent From Mr Gabriel?

Thanks to a link from Ottawa's Craig, I got to read this article about a recording studio "in a shed" that Peter's promoting. Of particular interest to me, though, was this paragraph:

"Fans will get to hear some of Gabriel's fondest memories from The Shed soon, as his Real World Records releases Big Blue Ball, a compilation of collaborations from the 1990s with world music acts including Karl Wallinger, Natacha Atlas and Papa Wemba, written in his garden studio."

A new CD from PG? It can't come soon enough for me!

Wired

"Driving 'round the city rings
Staring at the shape of things
I talk in pictures not in words
Overloaded with everything we said
be careful where you tread
Watch the wire"
- Peter Gabriel, "... And Through The Wire", Peter Gabriel 3

Vicki and I have now watched the first seven episodes of The Wire Season One, which was lent to us on DVD by buddy Tim. I suspect he's waiting with bated breath to hear how we're liking it, so I might as well give some early thoughts. After all, he was nice enough to do us the kindness of the DVD loaner.

It's definitely an interesting program. I think the more you like procedurals, the more you'll enjoy it. In other words, if seeing every little detail that goes into something like the drug operation investigation shown in The Wire is your idea of a great time, you'll be all over this. And I suppose Vicki and I do have some love for that genre, as we've been faithfully watching Law and Order (the original series) since Tammy first got us into it more than a decade ago, as well as CSI. Anyone who has no patience for that sort of thing, though, is probably going to be asking, "Why the Hell isn't more happening?" by about the second or third hour!

And by the way, that preceding exclamation would be several shades milder than just about anything said on The Wire! It regularly turns the air blue with the amount of profanity that's employed by every single character on the show, to the point where it really starts to seem ridiculous at times. The scene in which two of the central characters re-examine a murder scene from six months earlier, and realize that it was completely mishandled by the incompetent boob who initially wrote it up, is completely dialogue-free, if you don't count the word "fuck" and all its many variations. I'm sure the writer(s) thought this was very clever, but all I could think about as we watched it was that it seemed really stupid that the two detectives were using profanity at a time when a brand new avenue was opening up in something that had previously looked like a dead-end. It played very 'written' and completely took me out of the scene. And that tends to happen a lot on this show, as the most incidental character shows up briefly, shows off his - or her! - ability to swear creatively, and then exits again. It's probably the worst aspect of the series for me... not because I mind profanity, but because it's so clearly over-the-top. If that's faithful to the way Baltimore cops actually talk - and I have no reason to doubt it - do I really care? The fact that no one I know uses even 1/10th that many "fucks" in conversation, and that anyone using the kind of descriptive insults that lace every episode - most especially by the cops! - would be sued for workplace harassment in a heartbeat, makes it all seem very unreal.

On the other hand, the character development on the show is great, as each person - so far - has turned out to be more than he or she initially seemed to be. That's one of my favourite aspects of Lost, and I really like it here, too. Returning to the comparison of The Wire to Law and Order, one of the biggest differences is in this area, since L&O almost always concerns itself with the crime and the criminals, with little or no attention paid to the regulars. While there are certainly no shortage of unlikable characters in The Wire, at least they're all fleshed out well instead of being simple cardboard cutouts of "the drug dealer", "the drunk cop", "the redneck" and so on. I think without this going for it, we'd both probably have given up on the show by now.

Overall, and with 2/3 of the season still unwatched, I'd say we're liking it quite a bit. Tim likes to call it "the best show on TV" and I'm sure it is.. for him. It must have just the right ingredients for what he's looking for in a great show, whereas I think Vicki and I would, at most, call it a "very good show." Nothing I've seen so far makes me think it'll knock Lost off the top of my list, or even compete with Heroes, 30 Rock or Babylon 5 (from days gone by). But I can definitely see it maybe making it onto my Top 20 list, if it keeps going strong.

Patron Of The Arts

When Peter Gabriel played this part of the world a few years ago (for what I think was the first, and so far only, time) Vicki and I decided to take some of my bonus money for that year and buy a bunch of tickets to the show that we could give away to friends and co-workers. Considering how long I'd personally been a big fan of his - over twenty years, at that time - this seemed like a natural and logical thing for us to do. However, it definitely got some weird responses from people, and in some cases seemed to prompt people to think that it couldn't possibly be even worth their time to accept the tickets being offered. After all, if you're giving them away, they mustn't be worth anything, right? Astonishingly, of the 20 extra tickets we bought, we ended up with a pair that had to be given to the parents of someone we barely knew, as otherwise they would've gone unused! Such is life. Those who took the free tickets, though, and made it to the show, seemed to have a great time, and at the very least got to see an actual 'art rock' concert, complete with theatrics as only PG can deliver!

Today we experienced something similar, but on the receiving end of the generosity. PeterJ arranged a small, intimate concert by his friend and favourite performer, Lenni Jabour. This was apparently something that he'd been thinking about, and organizing, for quite some time. He mentioned vaguely, months ago, that he had plans for his 2006 performance bonus, but wouldn't reveal what. As it turns out, he'd made it possible for Lenni, along with one of her Third Floor bandmates, cellist Alex McMaster, to visit our fair town, and grace a select few of us with an eighty-minute (or so) private concert! Both musicians were fabulous, Jabour in terms of her keyboard playing and vocal range, and McMaster for some lovely accompaniment on the cello.

It was clear from the get-go that Peter has a special relationship with these women, and that it runs much deeper than simply following their exploits from afar (stalker-fan, was how I'd once referred to him!) He's put his money where his mouth is, and made an obviously-heartfelt attempt to both support them, and expand their fan base, which is what patrons of the arts are supposed to do! Kudos to him for his generosity and devotion, and to Miss Jabour and Miss McMaster for a wonderful show! And Vicki and I look forward to listening to the two Third Floor CDs we bought, and possibly even seeing the entire band in concert sometime... as paying customers!

What's Peter Up To Now?

I can always count on music genius Peter Gabriel to be on the bleeding edge of something... At various points in the past, it was interactive content from his music library that you could explore on your PC, as well as a plan for an amusement park-style ride animating his delightful "Kiss That Frog" song from Us.

Now, he's announcing a new Digital Rights Management-free music service that uses pre-song ads to tie revenue to the music. I'll be interested to hear what others think of this. I'm a well-known hard-ass when it comes to people pirating the work of others, but clearly most of the people around me think that's OK. So it's apparent some sort of alternative approach is needed for this broken business model. I wonder if PG's onto something, or just flailing in the wind?

The Feel Good Hit Of 1980

Perhaps you've all seen this already, but I only stumbled across it today while reading Neil Gaiman's blog. This Shining film looks like a lot of fun and I can hardly wait to take my kids and maybe even Reverend Johnson to see it! Also looking forward to the soundtrack, based on this preview, of course!

Says a lot about how trailers can lie...

Today's Peter Gabriel Revelation

It occurred to me, as we cycled through his second album (Scratch) in the car again, that of the four early, pre-So studio releases, the second one is the only one that has no song on it that's survived from the early days. My definition of survival here is simple: any song that he's likely to play in a concert appearance over the past decade, or that shows up as a "greatest hits" offering these days, has survived. When you look at the first four albums, you see each of the other three has at least couple songs in that category:

1/Car: "Solsbury Hill" and "Here Comes the Flood"
3/Melt: "Games Without Frontiers" and "Biko" (and possibly "No Self Control", "Family Snapshot" and "I Don't Remember")
4/Security: "San Jacinto" and "Shock the Monkey"

The closest the second album comes is "D.I.Y.", which he was performing in concert right up until around the time So came out. And it tellingly shows up on the Miss CD of his Hit and Miss collection from a few years back.

When I pointed this out to Vicki and posed the question, "Do you think this means that, for whatever reason, this is just Peter's least favourite of his studio albums?" she offered up the observation that it didn't really seem to contain any concert-like songs on it. I can see her point, but really you could say that about most, if not all, of his CDs! And yet he manages to find ways to make them work brilliantly live, and I'm sure when he was touring in the years immediately after the second album, he undoubtedly performed every song on it at various points. To which Vicki countered that it didn't seem like the songs had quite the same depth of meaning to them as most of his material, and therefore maybe they weren't saying as much, making it less likely that he'd play them as time went on and his catalogue grew. Certainly compared to a "Solsbury Hill", "Biko" or "Games Without Frontiers", I can't argue with that! So maybe that's it. Peter's definitely into getting messages out there for people to think - and, I'm sure he hopes, do something - about. And of course there weren't any A.M. hits on that album, whereas each of the other early ones had at least some small degree of radio play before "Shock the Monkey" put him on the map.

These are the sorts of things I think about while carpooling to and from work with Vicki in the winter months. Funny, huh!

The Secret To Happiness?

We were listening to the 2nd Peter Gabriel album (sometimes referred to as Scratch) on the drive in this morning, and two lines from "D.I.Y." really struck me:

"Everyone wants to be what he not, what he not.
Nobody happy with what he got, what he got."

If that doesn't sum up why some people who have so much in Life don't seem to know how to be happy, I don't know what does. Whether it's wanting what you don't have, or not appreciating what you do have - or both - it definitely gives one pause.

The irony is that we even have a national holiday intended to remind people to give thanks!

Opining On Openers

Recently Vicki and I went to see the Tragically Hip in concert. It was an OK show, considering I wouldn't call myself a big Hip fan (and Vicki's not really a fan, per se, at all) and considering how crappy the sound system was. But what really left an impression was just how unbelievably bad the opening act was.

Notice I didn't say "opening band," as I normally might. There was nothing band-like about "Buck 65". This was two young white guys doing rap. Now, it's no secret that I can't stand rap, and Vicki likes it even less than I do! But I try to be a "live and let live" sort of music fan, since I know that, while my particular tastes are terribly narrow, all types of music should be embraced by those who like it. I have no problem with anyone playing or recording whatever just so long as misguided souls don't try to shove it down my throat. In keeping with that, I think openers should be booked with some consideration of the fans of the main attraction. In other words, having a couple of quasi-talented rappers warm up the crowd for Eminem or 50 cent makes perfect sense. Inflicting them on fans of the Tragically Hip, on the other hand, just seems irresponsible and stupid. For all I know, it was the Hip themselves who arranged this - I have no idea how such things work - but whoever it was ought to have their head examined for signs of activity, cause I'm not sure they'll find any.

I've seen a variety of opening acts over the 30 or 40 concerts I've been to in my life. That includes a few great ones - The Blind Boys of Alabama come to mind - and some good ones, and a lot of bad ones... but until this concert, Vicki and I had never walked out on one before! We actually got up out of our seats, about two minutes into their first song, and spent the next forty minutes wandering the lobby, wishing there was somewhere we could go to better drown out the noise. And we were far from alone, judging by the number of people who poured out of the stands when they realized what Buck 65 was all about. (And the smattering of applause after each selection bordered on silence.)

A co-worker was nice enough to lend me a Tragically Hip concert DVD from a Toronto show not that long ago, which I watched this morning. It was great to actually see the band members, since we were so far from the stage as to render them unrecognizable. And of course the sound on the DVD was excellent, another big improvement on seeing them live.

Now I've got the fairly-new Peter Gabriel: Still Growing Up Live DVD on. Watching Peter in concert always puts everyone else to shame, but I guess when you've got the best music in the world to perform, it does give you an unfair advantage... ;-) And tying it all back to opening bands, he's often had some of the strangest lead-ins of anyone I've seen, but they all play music that's complementary to his own style. Which makes it work. And are there other artists besides Mr Gabriel who routinely invite the openers to come back out on stage and join the main act on a song or two? I've never seen anyone else do it, and yet he seems to always extend that courtesy. Just all part of being a class act, I suppose.

Today's Biking Music...

... was Peter Gabriel's excellent 3rd solo album, sometimes referred to as Melt. I actually ended up listening to most of it on the ride in, and then started it over again for the ride home.

For those unfamiliar with this musical selection, it's a bunch of songs all having to do with various types of mental illness. There's one about a serial killer ("Intruder"), another about a fame-seeker ala John Hinckley (no relation to Jim) who takes a shot at a president ("Family Snapshot"), a dig at nationalism and the wars they lead to ("Games Without Frontiers"), a short little ditty about being locked away in an asylum ("Lead A Normal Life"), the frantic lament of an amnesiac ("I Don't Remember"), and Gabriel's long-time anthem song ("Biko") about the persecution, arrest and murder of Stephen Biko in South Africa in 1977, among a few others. It seldom gets mentioned when people start rattling off "theme albums" but it's one of my favourites. Before So came out in 1986, it was my fave of his first four, as it really just doesn't have a subpar song to be found on it anywhere!

And The Delays Just Keep On Comin'

Still no sign of the PS/3 (tracking info still says it's sitting in the "Mississauga sortation plant.") I was sorely tempted to buy one of the 5 60 Gig PS/3's that Electronic Boutique had in stock when we were there this afternoon, buying a 2nd wireless controller (or 1st, really, since I haven't received the console yet) and Resistance: Fall of Man. Future Shop was pathetically understocked on most things PS/3-related, so the only money of mine it got was for a Peter Gabriel concert DVD and Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the PS/3.

And then we went to the comic store (considerably out of our way), only to discover the comics didn't make it in, despite it already being a day later than normal. Some sort of screw-up on the distributor's part.. that seems to be the theme of the day: those in the delivery business appear to be doing more storing than shipping right now! Maybe the seasonal high volume caught them by surprise, like it does every December!

Me, bitter? OK, maybe just a little.

Quiet! Genius At Work!

After owning them on vinyl for decades, I recently decided to buy CD versions of Peter Gabriel's first three albums (all untitled, but known among fans as 1, 2 and 3, or Car, Scratch and Melt for the images on each of the covers). Each of these is a great collection of music in its own right, but I've tended to listen to his newer stuff more over the last twenty years. (It still boggles my mind that his fifth and best-selling album, So, came out over two decades ago! I consider that to be one of his "newer" releases! That means he and I are both old!)

Although I know his early solo music very well, Vicki's only heard it in fits and starts, since by the time we got together I wasn't listening to it all that often. Unlike me, she listens to a lot of music in her car, so she'll now have the opportunity to re-acquaint herself with the artist she's seen in concert four times (I've seen him on six wonderful occasions!).

Some of this material shows up on the digital music channel I tune the TV to while blogging, like "Here Comes the Flood", "Modern Love" and "D.I.Y." And, to tell the truth, those songs brightening up my day on Ch 722 and jogging my memory, reminding me of just how awesome those early songs were, ended up being instrumental in me wanting to get versions I could play on more than my turntable. (I'll also be putting them on my iPod so that I can cycle to them once I start biking again.)

After twenty-five years of being into his music and considering him one of the best song-writers ever, it seemed like a good time to revisit the raw energy that came forth after he split from Genesis.

"We've tried a handful of bills and a handful of pills
We've tried making movies from a volume of stills
[But] the words fell like hailstones,
bouncing at our feet,
Covering our feelings with a frozen sheet."
- "Slowburn", 1 (or Car)


"Don't tell me what I will do, 'cos I won't.
Don't tell me to believe in you, 'cos I don't.
Be on your guard, better hostile and hard, don't risk affection;
Like flesh to the bone in the no-go zone,
You're still looking for the Resurrection.
Come up to me with your "What did you say?"
And I'll tell you, straight in the eye:

D.I.Y., D.I.Y., (etc.)

Everyone wants to be what he not, what he not.
Nobody happy with what he got, what he got.
You function like a dummy with a new ventriloquist,
Do you say nothing yourself?
Hanging like a thriller on the final twist,
Is it true you're getting stuck on the shelf?
Come up to me with your "What did you say?"
And I'll tell you, straight in the eye:

D.I.Y., D.I.Y., (etc.)

When things get so big, I don't trust them at all,
You want some control, you've got to keep it small.

D.I.Y., D.I.Y., (etc.)"
- "D.I.Y.", 2 (or Scratch)


"I've been waiting for this
I have been waiting for this
All you people in TV land
I will wake up your empty shells
Peak-time viewing blown in a flash
As I burn into your memory cells
'Cos I'm alive"
- "Family Snapshot", 3 (or Melt)