Our Tuesday Pick....Not Your Grandpa's Favourite Uncle.

LongMayHe
RunVille


The image above features Mortimer Hearseberg, a 1948 Buick Roadmaster that carried Neil Young and the Squires around central Canada in the mid-60's before it crossed over the great divide in Blind River near Sudbury, Ontario in 1965.

Anyway, these days, especially given that I've cut my caffeine consumption considerably, sometimes I need an aural kick in the pants to get going in the morning.

This, where uncle Neil joins and jams individually with every single member of Pearl Jam, does it every time...

______
Young is running some really great stuff over on his shambolic and massive archive pretty much everyday...I especially enjoy the homespun 'Fireside Sessions'.
Oh, and just in case you didn't know until you dug into it (or you are my brother) like I did....'Mort' is not the same hearse that carried Young to Los Angeles for that fateful meeting with Mr. Stills on Sunset...


.

Our Very Last Easter Weekend Pick....Brawling With The Bunny.

AllTheirEpcotsAreAWeeBit
OffCenterVille


This time last year a fracas broke out on the streets outside the Florida mouse house and the Easter Bunny had to step in:

A man in an Easter Bunny suit hopped to the defense of a woman and started throwing punches during a brawl Sunday night in Orlando, Florida, that was captured on video.

Bunny bystander Antoine McDonald insisted that he had no choice but to join the fray after seeing the woman getting punched...

****

This year, impersonator Frank Caliendo overdubbed video of the 'event' (in which no one was hurt) with play-by-play and colour commentary from Pat Summerall and John Madden, respectively (make sure your sound is on - it's worth it).

John Madden and Pat Summerall Do Play By Play of The Easter Bunny Fight#HappyEaster

TURN SOUND ON!!! pic.twitter.com/Zjvexpi6VM

— Frank Caliendo (@FrankCaliendo) April 13, 2020

That is all.


.

Our Monday Pick....'Unspooled'

AllOurEarsWillSoonBe
TheirsVille


Lots of podcasts cover the blockbusters, or the newest, or the worst, or the artsiest, or even the indyest.

But few dig into the best.

The best movies that is.

'Unspooled' is one podcast that does try to do just that, using the AFI's top 100 as a jumping off point and then riffing all over the place.

It's hosted by the near ubiquitous, just-below-the-scattering-waves comic Paul Scheer, who I know from 'The League' and the later seasons of 'Veep', as well as Amy Nicholson, an actual film critic with a POV so subversive (read: sane)  that the culture warrior-worry-wart-wearers at 'The Federalist' take great offense:

...While many of her hot takes are terrible, it’s her personal politics that really make her unbearable. Nicholson fills in her lack of interesting things to say about movies with incredibly self-righteous posturing as a “feminist hero to the film industry.”

From her soapbox, she often cites the lack of ethnic and sexual diversity in movies on the AFI’s list, with little acknowledgement of the era in which they were created. She has made several allusions to her strong distaste for President Trump, and once referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “the ultimate ringwraith” while reviewing “The Lord of The Rings.” The more she finds confidence in her role as a left-wing crusader, the less she talks about films...

If only for that Ms. Nichoson would be worth listening to, but she's also really good, especially when she acts as the fearless foil to Mr. Scheer's often more old-fashioned, if good-natured, take on things.

Their latest dissection is 1969's 'Easy Rider', which is #.... on the AFI list:

You can take a listen here.


_______
In addition, if your livestream dance card for this evening is not yet quite full you can join in this evening starting at 5:30 pm Lotusland/Pacific time on the 'Earwolf' Youtube channel to hear Nicholson, Scheer and various friends as well as influential aunts and uncles discuss 'Clueless'...
Personally, I'm a little conflicted about what is now the 'Earwolf' auditory sprawl....To be clear, all of their recent stuff is still free and it is not nearly as bad as that stitched-together, ten million megaton cochlear implant that also controls the entire music industry but, still, what was once a scrappy little start-up built on a content-aggregation-by-partnership model soon rolled itself into a mirrored advertiser aggregator before selling the entire chimera to EW Scripps and Co....It's important to realize that, like linear blogging before it, the salad days of a multi-dimensional, free-form RSS-caught podcasting universe were over before we even realized it.



.

Our Late Night Easter Sunday Pick...Nardwuarology.

He'sAGoodOldBoy
HeComesFromTheNorthShoreVille


This just in, five years ago, from Jeff Cardello and his fellow snarkoleptics at 'The Hard Times':

JERUSALEM— Nardwuar, the Human Serviette, known for his well-researched interviews and thoughtful gifts for his interviewees shocked his latest subject, Jesus Christ, with the original pressing of the Ten Commandment Tablets, amazed sources confirmed.

“I opened the interview the same way I always do by thrusting my microphone into my guest’s face and asking, ‘Who are you?’ said Nardwaur following his time with the lamb of God. “So there is Jesus, bearded and gentle-eyed and he responds ‘I am He, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of God.’ You could tell he had no idea what was about to happen.”

Jesus’ fanbase has swelled to billions in the last 2000 years and many people feel like the time is right for his return.

“You know, man, I’ve really just been focusing on my carpentry but, when the time is right, I will come again,” Jesus responded. “Today I wanted to take a break from cleansing the sins of the world and just have some fun. Nardwuar is a really solid dude.”

Nardwuar had an assortment of gifts that he sprung upon Jesus throughout the interview. Things started out slowly, with Jesus not quite knowing what to make of a 7” from the Canadian hardcore group D.O.A. However, the son of God’s level of excitement did grow as Nardwuar revealed each successive gift.

“When I busted out the Shroud of Turin Jesus looked so excited I thought he was about to blow a gasket,” said Nardwaur. “I had to call in a lot of favors to get that, but it was all worth it to see the look on his face.”...


So.

What makes the local iconographicalogical front man of The Evaporators tick?

Well, it turns out that Kevin Sexton of Canadaland first put together an oral history of Snoop Dog's favourite Canadian and then actually got the only decent long form interview I've ever heard from the man previously known as John Ruskin...

Dig It!


_______
Need more?....Here's the most recent Snoop-Nard accord.


.

Our Sunday Long Weekendish Pick...'The Best Show'.

ThreeHoursOfMirthMusic
AndMayhemVille


Tom Scharpling, the guy behind 'The Best Show', which he started on Philadelphia's free-form WFMU back in the earliest days of the millenium and used to archive for on-demand interwebz playback on that old warhorse, 'Real Player', just may be the real godfather of podcasting.

Anyway...

TS, talking to his various and assorted sundry assemblage of wastrels and weirdos, is back!

Except these days Scharpling roams around Southern California with a sterilized 25 foot length of co-axial cable that he throws out his car window so that he can safely talk to his next victim at a distance, which he did recently with that other garage band conversational Joe-Schmoe visionary  (i.e. the Strummer to his Ramone?), Marc Maron and the latter's super-sharp lockdown partner, film director Lynn Shelton.

Dig it!


_______
And, returning to something serious for a moment...As more trial data starts to come in, the hydroxychloroquine story remains as murky as ever...Derek Lowe, a knowledgeable and proven honest broker on such matters, has the latest update.


.

John Prine - We Miss Him Already.

MusicalHeroesNeverMet
AlwaysKnownVille


Ummm, Mr. Spotify, actually, no....

****

As I'm sure you have heard, John Prine passed away last week:

From Fiona Whelan Prine...

Our beloved John died yesterday evening at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville TN. We have no words to describe the grief our family is experiencing at this time. John was the love of my life and adored by our sons Jody, Jack and Tommy, daughter in law Fanny, and by our grandchildren.

John contracted Covid-19 and in spite of the incredible skill and care of his medical team at Vanderbilt he could not overcome the damage this virus inflicted on his body.

I sat with John - who was deeply sedated- in the hours before he passed and will be forever grateful for that opportunity.

My dearest wish is that people of all ages take this virus seriously and follow guidelines set by the CDC. We send our condolences and love to the thousands of other American families who are grieving the loss of loved ones at this time - and to so many other families across the world.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for the outpouring of love we have received from family, friends, and fans all over the world. John will be so missed but he will continue to comfort us with his words and music and the gifts of kindness, humor and love he left for all of us to share...

****

Bigger E. and I had already been working on a particular JP tune for awhile, but now she thinks we should, perhaps, move a little deeper into his catalogue given that just about everyone in the folk world is covering this one now.

Regardless, I really like our ramshackle, mess around version. So, here it is....

______
If you want to hear Mr. Prine talk all about his art, his life and his method, Marc Maron has their conversation from 2016 up right now....Oh, and just in case you missed it, on his latest Maron actually plays Angel pretty much right through on his own guitar, which is the kind of thing he, the noted riff mangler, pretty much never does...
If you want to read about how and why Mr. Prine has become so important to about a zillion, gazillion singer-songwriter types, Jason Isbell tells you all about it in the New York Times...
As for that other tune to cover from deeper into the Prine catalogue?.... E. figures 'Come Back To Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard' just might be the ticket....Stay tuned, because it could show up in our upcoming livestream thingy....


.

Our Friday Pick Of The Good....Sqwabb.

DoYourOwn
ThingVille


Stanley Q. Woodvine, pictured above*,  writes and lives rough by choice in, mostly from what I can tell, the Fairview area of central Lotusland.

And when you read Stanley's stuff, either on his blog or his twitter feed, which he calls Sqwabb, you can see how hard homeless folks have to work just get through the days and, especially, sometimes, the nights.

I mean, so incredibly hard that I can't actually really imagine it.

But you can also see the joy and the beauty and the mundanity and the humanity and the camaraderie and the pathos and the poetry and, sometimes, even the good deeds for no immediately apparent reason at all*...

_______
*The image at the top of the post is from Chris Cheung's excellent profile of Mr. Woodvine in the Tyee in which it is revealed that he has been wiping down/sanitizing the recycling bin handles in an effort to try and help keep other binners safe.
When you read Stanley's stuff sometimes, even though he generally does not trumpet it, you can also see how easily we, the people with walls, etc. can be jerks to those less fortunate.
I get the 'SQW' part of Sqwabb but I have no idea what's up with the 'BB' part...
Oh, and before I (and the new publishers) forget....SQW also writes great stuff for the Georgia Strait as well.
Tip O' The Toque to reader Glen for his long ago heads-up on this one.


.

Our Thursday Pick....Stobe The Hobo.

He'sGotSomeRealEstate
HereInHisBagVille


You want real reality television?

An actual anti-Tiger King as it were?

Well...

Check out the homemade videos that chronicle the away-from-home adventures of 'Jim Stobie', otherwise known as 'Stobe The Hobo', as he hitches trains, sometimes with friends, so that both he and we can all go out to look for America.

Mr. Stobie's story is an odyssey of epic proportions with all of the travails, boredom, spirit(s), joy, music, poetry and, ultimately, the tragedy that a trip like his entails.

He is also just damn fascinating (and addictive) to watch and listen to.

OK?


______
Tip of the treble clef-lined toque to Bigger E for this one.
Subheader earworm need scratching?....This.



.

Our Wednesday Pick....COVID-19 In British Columbia, By The Numbers.

AllTheDataAre
HisVille


In case you haven't seen it, the CBC, Lotuslandian division, is keeping running charts of the (mostly) BC Centre For Disease Control-reported numbers on various COVID-19 parameters.

The chart above shows the overall picture, which many folks are commenting on.

However, it is the chart below, regardless unshown co-morbidities and differences in disease progress, that reinforces age-related risk despite those very loud anecdotal stories to the contrary in various and sundry news media:

****

So.

Who is doing all this data bashing for the MoCo?

Is it a big group with massive big data resources?

Well, actually, no.

It's all the work of one guy, Justin McElroy, who normally reports on all things municipal affairs. He also loves to amass, synthesize, analyze, review and present all data of all kinds that includes local brewery rankings.

And, in case you didn't know it (which I sure as heckfire didn't), his life story is an inspiring one.

He wrote about that story last week in recognition of 'Autism AwarenessDay'.

Here's Mr. McElroy's lede, but we highly recommend you read the whole piece:

I struggle with eye contact, have a flat, slightly stilted way of speaking, and walk with a gait.

I love learning about relatively minor things in great detail, love telling people about those things, and can get bored quickly on subjects that don’t interest me.

Routines or having items in a specific order give me calm. Introducing new things into my life, or being thrust in a large crowd where I don’t know anybody, gives me anxiety.

I have strengths and weaknesses like everyone else, but my strengths are very strong and my weaknesses create real challenges.

Putting together a detailed report with charts and graphs showing whether a government has completed every single promise in their election platform is straightforward for me. Cooking dinner is not.

All of those things have been true in my life as long as I can remember. For much of it, I mostly considered them a constellation of little quirks that made me unique, in a sometimes frustrating but mostly fun way.

Of course — as you probably figured by this point — there’s a little more to it than that.

World Autism Awareness Day, even in a moment as strange as the one we’re all living through, is an opportunity for everyone to learn more of a condition that millions have, but is hard to fully understand because of how multifaceted and complex it can be...



OK?



_______
And just in case anybody was wondering, Bigger E and me (sorry Mrs. Griffiths!) have been playing Mr. Prine's 'Angel from Montgomery' recently....Might be time to do a little recording...


.

Our Monday Pick...'Crackdown' Podcast

EveryOneOfUsMatters
CitizensAllUnitedVille


'Crackdown' is a podcast that focuses on Vancouver's drug war.

And the correspondents are drug users themselves.

Like Nettie Wild did so many years ago, Garth Mullins is the Crackdown field marshal who is humanizing these folks by bringing their stories to life so that regular citizens and politicians alike will pay attention.

Recently the Covid-19 situation has led to both the federal and provincial governments doing the (partial) right thing when it comes to a safe supply.

You can hear all about that story in the most recent podcast.

However, I highly recommend you start at the beginning and hear all the stories that will make it clear that these folks are our brothers and sisters who are doing their best to help each other and have better lives.

It's inspiring  - really.

Go have a listen.


______
Image at the top of the post is the board of the Crackdown pod....It's a real group effort.


.

Our Saturday Pick...A Campfire Song Sing-A-Long, Today At Noon Pacific Time!

AllTheWebzACollective
StageVille


If you're interested, the great 'Choir! Choir! Choir! is having a camp fire-type sing along today/Saturday at 12pm noon Lotuslandian (i.e. Pacific) time at their YouTube channel:

Here's the song list:

1-The Weight
2-Blowin In The Wind
3-Our House
4-Leaving On A Jet Plane
5-Redemption Song
6-Talkin Bout A Revolution
7-Dust In The Wind
8-Cats In The Cradle
9-Wild World

The lyrics, which you can download and print ahead of time if you want, can be found here:

Even if you just head on over to mumble it should be fun.


.

Our Friday Quote....Thunderbolt and Lightning (But Not) Very, Very Frightening.

AlwaysLightButNeverHot
FeetVille


When I got to the grocery store the other day everything was very orderly as we all stood outside and waited in line, spaced six feet apart by little lines of yellow tape on the walkway.

And when we finally got inside there was a surreal calm as folks moved deliberately through the store before arriving at the unhurried checkout line. It was an almost zen-like experience.

Anyway...

While I was standing in line I pulled out my dog-eared copy of Bill Bryson's 'Thunderbolt Kid', which is mostly about the trials, tribulations and good/great/crazy times of his growing up in post-war middle America.

And, just so you know, at that moment in shelter-in-place/spaced-out-in-the-supermarket-line time the following short passages put a big smile on my soon-to-be-buying-carrots-and-frozen-corn face:

"My Dad was a sportswriter for the Des Moines Register, which in those days was one of the country's best papers, and he often took me along on trips through the Midwest. Sometimes these were car trips to places like Sioux City or Burlington, but at least once a summer we boarded a big silver plane - a huge event in those days - and lumbered through the summery skies, up among the fleecy clouds, to St. Louis or Chicago or Detroit to take in a home stand...

{snip}

...Baseball, like everything else, was part of a simpler world in those days, and I was allowed to go with him into the clubhouse and dugout and onto the field before games....Once on a hot July afternoon I sat in a nearly airless clubhouse under the left-field grandstand at Wrigley Field beside Ernie Banks, the Cubs' great shortstop, as he autographed boxes of new white baseballs (which are, incidentally, one of the most pleasurably aromatic things on earth, and worth spending time around anyway). Unbidden, I took it upon myself to sit beside him and pass him each new ball. This slowed the process considerably, but he gave me a little smile each time and said thank you as if I had done him quite a favor. He was the nicest human being I have ever met. It was like being friends with God."


OK?


________
Post title tagline got the guitar-geek earworm going?....This.
And as to the super obscure subheader?....This and, most especially....This!



.

Our Thursday Pick...Walkin' In The Wild West End.

AllYourViewsAre
StreetVille


A small confession.

I've got a wee bit of a 'street view' problem on Google maps.

It's gotten so bad that recently I spent a good hour and-a-half taking the trip from Port Renfrew to Cowichan Lake.

Which, just to be clear, was simultaneously anti-productive and super relaxing in a borderline obsessive/compulsive kind of way.

Anyway, the good folks at 'Open Culture' recently curated a whole bunch of great video walking tours.

My favourite is this one of an eyes-wide-open cobblestone level stroll through London's West End:

Let us know if there are any great walks and/or street view drives we should take (another good one or me is tooling around the streets of lower Manhattan).


______
Header got your earworm wiggling?....This!
Bonus Pick...The Sonic Boomer has done a great job of aggregating all the financial support service links for British Columbians...Here.


.

An Update On Hydroxychloroquine Trials...

I made the following comment in a post-script to a post earlier in the week:

"Speaking of COVID-19... I have not been commenting on this stuff from a scientific point of view because it is not my field....However, regarding the two early 'clinical' trials for hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin from the same French group that many folks are talking about, it is hard to argue with Derek Lowe and David Gorski that a significant issue is the very basic fact that both studies lack a control group."


There is now an update based on a new trial:

"Update, April 1st....A new, not yet peer-reviewed, study reporting on a small scale trial in China suggests some efficacy for hydroxychloroquine when given to patients with mild symptoms...Importantly, this one does have a control group...Here's the NYT report...Here is the study itself."



Please understand that I am not weighing in as an expert here. As I said before, this is not my field. However, I didn't want to leave anyone hanging who read my earlier comment.

The real message here is that it will be important to see what the true experts have to say about this new trial and the results of other ongoing trials when they are released. Derek Lowe has already weighed in here and does not find serious fault with the new study's design or the data generated.

In the meantime, I sure hope a supply of the compound has/is being secured for those folks with autoimmune issues (i.e. lupus) where the drug is known to be effective.



.

The Best Premier We Never Had.

TrueServantsOfThePublicStill
MatterVille


What with all the craziness we are all dealing with at the moment, I didn't want to let this important announcement, from a few weeks ago, pass by unnoticed around here:

Ms. James will be most definitely be missed, but never forgotten.


_______
Why didn't Ms. James win the election when she cleaned-up in the 2009 debates?...Personally, I trace it back to the usual suspects convincing the herd to take the bait and fire up the wurlitzer  that muddied all the waters such that they could then convince a good chunk of the electorate, as well as whole whack of smart people who should have known better, that it was the good Mr. Campbell who was the real environmentalist.



.