Geezer Rock Revisited...The Fifth Choice.

ItWasn'tAllFagenAndBeckerAllTheTime
SteelierThanTheDanVille


Our last show was about a month or so ago.

And it was a lot of fun, pretty much a beer commercial type scene in a big old cabin in the woods up in the mountains behind Maple Ridge.

The thing is, we pretty much ran through a setlist that we had been using for the best part of a couple of years.

So, the recent jam sessions have been pretty loosey goosey.

And last night, after a little Ramones, Green Day and Rancid (we're almost in the new millenium!) b/w a little Howlin' Wolf, things really got a little crazy when our resident guitar savant, the PhD science-geek lawyer guy, started ripping into Steely Dan's 'Reelin' In The Years' pretty much out of nowhere.

This resulted in much caterwauling from yours truly trying to imitate the vocal stylings of Donald Fagen.

Which really was so bad that no amount of reverb could could even come close to bringing it out of the execrable range.

Still, once we got the hang of the thing the rhythm section wasn't bad and the guitar really was wicked good.

But here's something I did not know.

The signature lick of the thing was not done be either Fagen or Becker or even Jeff Skunk Baxter.

Instead, it was put together by longtime sideman Elliott Randall.

Here's what he had to say about the moment according to the Wikithingy:

...In an article in Guitar Player Magazine (July 2007) Randall was asked what rig he used to record the solo on "Reelin' in the Years". He states, "That was my '63 Fender Stratocaster with a PAF humbucker in the neck position, straight into an Ampeg SVT bass amp. The SVT wouldn't have been my first choice for an amp--or even my fifth choice--but it worked a storm on that recording!"...

Go figure.

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This Day In Snookland....The Ladder Puller-Uppers.

PoorPoorPitiful
SheVille


I think, perhaps, that Mr. Willcocks has a point or five:

Premier Christy Clark scores top marks for hypocrisy in explaining why British Columbians on disability benefits, and their children, should live in poverty.

Clark said this week that she knows the benefits, frozen since 2007, are too low. But British Columbia is just too poor to provide any increase. That will have to wait for some unknown future when it is “affordable,” she said....

{snippety doodle dandy}

...A single parent with one child on disability benefits in British Columbia - someone like Clark - receives $1,272 a month. That’s up to $570 for rent and $672 for everything else. They are expected to raise a child on $15,000 a year.

Increasing disability assistance rates after seven frozen years is impossible, Clark says. Not “affordable.”...

{snippety doodle dandier}

...But MLAs believe that they need up to $1,580 a month for a temporary second home in Victoria to use when the legislature is sitting.

That’s affordable.

They believe a pension plan that requires four dollars from taxpayers for every dollar paid by MLAs is affordable. The taxpayer contribution to fund the plan works out to an average $48,000 a year for each of the 85 MLAs...

{snippety doodle-dandiest}

...(And) Clark believes it’s perfectly affordable to have taxpayers contribute $76,000 a year to fund her pension...



I've said it before, and I'll say it again, treating those that need our help most like crap is not the British Columbia that I grew up in.

****

Of course, all of this is actually much worse than just the 'I've got mine Jack, so screw you (especially if your really poor)'  hypocrisy thing.

Why?

Well, because as Norm Farrell and others, including Mr. Mair and friends, have made clear it really is all about the cronies.

Put another way, we don't need to wait until 2046 for the LNG Sparkle Pony herd to arrive to save us all.

Instead, we could corral the cronies Ponies the are in our midst right now instead of letting them roam free.

Literally.

****

What is most galling about all of this 'belt-tightening-for-the-poor-while-we-get-ours-and-the-cronies-get-everything-else' bullshit is that it can really have a horrible lasting impact on the kids involved.

Again, back to Mr. Willcocks for his last point:

...(G)overnment-mandated poverty is especially devastating for children. It does lasting damage to their health, educational achievements and social adjustment, and damages their prospects in life. Raising the rates now will save money for taxpayers in future, improve their lives and build a stronger province...


Of course, cutting that public subsidy for private schools alone, even if it was only cut in half (from $300 million to $150 million annually), would make it immediately possible for us to really help those kids who need our help most.

Then again, pretty much none of those kids will ever be able to go to one of those private school anyway.

So...

Screw them and theirs.

Cause she and hers have theirs.

Right?


_______
The thing that sends me around the bend when I see/hear/read about how we have to cut public programs because that's the only way to get the government yoke off business' back so that it can fuel and supercharge the economy is that this entire neolib canard wrapped in think-tank rags is nothing more than a myth...The fact is that after a decade of this draconian shite under Gordon Campbell we were no better off than we were after the 1990's on every level quantifiable...And that quantification was actually done....By a group set up by Gordon Campbell...That group was called the 'Progress Board'...And when Ms. Clark became Premier one of the first things she did was kill it....But the Board's last report is still out there...
How to cut that p-school subsidy without starting a flood back into the public system?...More on that later...But here's a hint...'means-testing'...


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Want To Keep Track Of Latest Developments In #BCED?

With context, too?

Follow the old labour reporter who won't quit (he even screams at the herd telling them what questions to ask)...

Rod Mickleburgh


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BCTF v. BCPSEA Negotiations: They Don't Usually Kick The Media Out For No Reason...

....Do they?

It's dinner time Sunday.

I told littler e. not to empty her binders just yet.

She frowned.

_____
Update Sunday 8:30pm...Meanwhile Peter Meiszner of Global reports that 'No news is good news' according to an inside source....And who would that source be you may be wondering?...Why, it's none other than Global's Mr. KeithBaldrey...So, there you have it...The real hard stuff from Global quoting Global...Wow!


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Springtime Jukebox...Tune #3 - Champs Elysee

TheKidIs
AlrightVille


When busking and French immersion schooling collide.

Here is Bigger E. doing her 2014 Granville Island audition tune...

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Poor, Poor Pitiful Keef.

There'sNoTrollLikeA
TeeVeeTrollVille


It would seem that the good Mr. Baldrey decided to troll pretty much all of #bced and #bcpoli late last night:

My suggestion for the between the brackets thingy...

...Stop trying to bully people for stating their opinion on the Twittmachine.

After all, I'm pretty sure they're entitled to it.

An opinion, I mean.


__________
And, in case you were wondering, the trolling worked...As such, the pity party is in full swing over at Mr. Thin Skin's twittmachine feed as we type...
Now is the time at the Gazette when we dance! (to the real Zevon thing)....

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Black Helicopters Rain On The Fraser Institute's Big Economic Freedom Day Parade.

TheDataAreThe
DataVille


The Broadbent Institute's Press Progress is reporting that the UN has issued a report that takes serious issue with the economic fighters for freedom out there who are doing their darndest to make sure we all vote against our best interests and treat each other like cretins.

And that includes the local regiment of the EconoFooPooFreeFightersForTruth:

The report by the Geneva-based International Labour Office (ILO), governed by governments, employers and labour, offers a "critical overview" of labour market regulations' indicators developed by the World Economic Forum, the Institute for Management Development and the Fraser Institute.

The groups all use data from the World Bank's Employing Workers Index, which was suspended in 2009 due to major conceptual flaws.

Pointing to the "trivial aggregation of de jure and de facto measures" and "a strong conceptual bias," the report pokes several holes in the Fraser Institute's Labour Market Regulations and Economic Freedom of the World indexes...


And here is the list of their most serious issues of data discombobulation by the ecofoopoofreefighters:

#1 They double count the same things.

#2 They use data from multiple sources for the same variable.

#3 They mix and match new components with old components to generate "wrong interpretations.

#4 They cherrypick which components they include in their data collection.

#5 De facto data is from Mars while de jure information is from Venus.

#6 "Military conscription" is one of the components the Fraser Institute takes into account in assessing labour market regulations.

****

Look.

All of the reasons above are, essentially, peer-review firing offenses (i.e. grounds for outright rejection) in my business.

But what the heckfire do I know.

After all, I'm just an academic who has do crazy stuff like reveal any and all potential conflicts of interest when I submit something for publication.

But that reason #6 goes above and beyond all that.

Why?

Well...

Because it brings into sharp relief how convinced the fine 'scholars' at the Fraser Institute are.

More specifically, it demonstrates that the 'scholars' are so convinced that they are right that they have deluded themselves into thinking that they can use the ultimate socialist operation (i.e. conscription) to justify their extremist ideology which, at its core, insists that the race to the bottom towards the hardpan splatter landing that is full-blown Corporate Liberterianism is is actually good for you and me.

So...

Nevermind the public education and all that.

Instead...

The time has come for us to tighten our collective belts even tighter while we await the arrival of the Sparkle Ponies!

OK?


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This Day In Snookland...The Bloggodome Strikes Back.

AllYourExams
'RUsVille


I've been on the road, holed up in various and assorted sundry science geek bunkers on the other side of the continent, all week long...

Which means that I'm going to be stuck in the cigar tube, pushing through the jetstream in steerage, when the curtain opens on littler e's big tap show this evening.

But, no matter, because I talked to the nolongerso littler one (she's now in Grade 9) on the phone last night, mostly about how it's actually possible, if you take a trip to New York,  to play one of Louis Armstrong's trumpets and listen to a few of his homemade mix tapes.

In addition, e. told me that she is not the lease bit unhappy that she is not going to be forced to cram for those stupid final exams that were coming up for all of our fine province's high school students during in the next couple of weeks.

****

Of course, kids in grades 10 and 12 are not  as lucky as littler e. thanks to the grandstanding of Peter Fassbender and his totally quislingified BCPSEA that forced the latest ruling out of the Labour Relations Board.

But here's a funny thing....

Nowhere on the LRB's latest bit of paper could I find the name of that GCampbell gov't era classroom composition deciderer/enabler, the good Mr. Longpre, who was put in a wee bit of a conflicty-type position by the Snooklandians when he contributed to that 10% salary clawback decision recently.

Gosh.

Given that, do you think that blogger Norman Farrell has gained just a wee bit of the pundit-clout 'round here these days?



________
Actually, in answer to my question re: Norm's clout, above...In a word....Yes.
And as for the real world 'importance' of these stupid 'teach-to-the-test' cram exams, even in Grade 12....Well...As the full page ad on the back page of Tuesday's Globe from that exclusive private school that our fine Premier's son goes to made abundantly clear - none of it matters  because the younguns that are finishing their last year of small classes at St. George's have already received over 700 university acceptances! (exclamation point all theirs)
And, now that I think of it....Can't help but wonder if the public subsidy to StG's, which runs in the hundreds of thousands (if not more) every year (you know the one that is helping force the families who can't pick and choose and exclude to have their kids sit in classes of a larger size) helped make that splashy ad in the Globe possible?....Or, put another way...Has anybody seen any full page newspaper ads from, say, VanTech recently?

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This Day In Snookland...The Mexican Connection(s).

IsThePastReally
PrologueVille


The old connection, from Keith Fraser in the Province written in the wake of the six million dollar prior inducement (my opinion) in early 2011:

Two former ministerial aides who pleaded guilty in the B.C. Rail scandal were acting without the knowledge of their political bosses, wiretaps suggest.

The wiretaps, newly released by the B.C. Supreme Court, reveal scenes of political skulduggery and backroom intrigue, complete with code names.

Dave Basi and Bob Virk refer to then-premier Gordon Campbell as "Caesar," and Martin Brown, Campbell's former chief of staff, as the "little dictator."

In a statement of facts they admitted that they disclosed confidential information about the proposed sale of the operations of the B.C. Rail port subdivision to Bruce Clark, who was a consultant to the Washington Marine Group, one of the bidders.

Clark, a member of the Liberal Party of Canada's B.C. executive, is brother to Liberal leadership contender Christy Clark.

He's referred to as the "Mexican" or "Mexico City" in the Basi Virk code....



The new connection, from Bob Mackin's Tyee piece on the latest Sparkle Pony investor gaggle:

A team of former federal Liberal backroom strategists has partnered with a technology startup specialist and an executive from a Mexican-owned telecom with a dream of building a $10-billion oil refinery on B.C.'s north coast...

{snippety doodle dandy}

...Mark Marissen, a one-time lobbyist for Enbridge, is listed as executive vice-president of communications and research on Pacific Future Energy Corp.'s masthead. Marissen and Premier Christy Clark were once married, and share joint custody of a son. Marissen worked on Clark's 2013 election campaign, leading Clark to make the extraordinary pledge not to be involved in any cabinet discussion or decision about oil refineries....

{snippety doodle-dandier}

...Roop Virk is the Chilliwack-based chief of staff. The former policy chair for the federal Liberals in B.C., Virk worked with Marissen on Stéphane Dion's winning Liberal leadership campaign. Virk attended a posh Christmas party thrown by Marissen for a close circle of Liberals last December at the Glowbal Restaurant in Yaletown...

{snippety doodle-dandiest)

...On April 3, Virk was registered in B.C. to lobby for Azteca, a telecommunications company which lists its business address in Bogota, Colombia. The subject matter was listed on Virk's form as "information technology" and the intended outcomes were "examining and gathering information on best practices." The target contacts for the March 1-Aug. 1 undertaking are (Premier Christy) Clark and Andrew Wilkinson, minister of Technology, Innovation and Citizen Services. Under B.C.'s lobbyist act, there is no requirement to disclose whether meetings took place.

Azteca is owned by the Mexican conglomerate Grupo Salinas. Azteca's CEO is Samer F. Salameh, who is also executive chair of Pacific Future Energy.


Regarding the 'new' connection, which also includes that most excellent connection destination (i.e. Bogota), please note that the lobbyist in the mix, who works for the fine fellow from Mexico who is the CEO of the whole shebang, has registered to take a run both at Mr. Wilkinson and 'The-Recuser-In-Chief' herself, Ms. Clark.

Not that is really matters, I guess, because if Ms. Clark does meet with said lobbyist I'm sure she will have already received the blessing of the current Conflict(y) Commissioner.



_______
Norm Farrell has another really great post up that details yet another give away of Sparkle Ponies that we have in hand right here and right now....


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This Day In Snookland....The-Recuser-In-Chief.

AllYourConflictyness
'RUsVille


So.

Yesterday we learned that Ms. Clark's former husband, and her former colleague at a public relations firm called Burrard Communications, is deeply involved in the latest Sparkle Pony venture via a syndicate called 'Pacific Futures':

...Another notable participant (in Pacific Futures) is Vice-President Communications and Research Mark Marissen, a longtime Liberal party strategist and public consultation specialist who is also ex-husband of B.C. Premier Christy Clark...


But not to worry, because Ms. Clark really has nothing to do with her Ex and/or his lobby shoppe anymore according to the MoCo:

..."I certainly don't have any business ties or financial ties with my ex-husband, although we do have a child together and share that responsibility," (Premier) Clark said at a press conference Tuesday.

"As premier of the province though, I have another responsibility, and that is to every single British Columbian."

The premier has expressed support in the past for a similar proposal being pitched by newspaper publisher, David Black, which also looks to refine oil in B.C., rather than ship raw Alberta bitumen to Asia...


And, regardless, she's going to recuse herself from this herd of bitumen-smeared Sparkle Ponies which, apparently, is just fine by her Conflict Commissioner:

...B.C. Premier Christy Clark has recused herself from decisions regarding an oil refinery proposal for the province over a potential conflict of interest involving her ex-husband Mark Marissen. (CBC)

Clark said she sought out the opinion of the province's Conflict of Interest Commissioner in, what she called, "an abundance of caution".

"I sought the Conflict Commissioner's guidance and I will continue to seek his guidance," Clark said.

"It is my understanding that this proposal doesn't depend on, or is not linked to, any pipeline proposal...


But, with that as prologue, here is something to consider that was not touched upon in the CBC story above (or any proMedia report on this story that I have read so far).

Which is...

If this venture to 'clean-up' the bitumen by refining it in Prince Rupert was to get big play in, say, the public prints, even if it is not 'linked' to it,  would it not help 'sell' that pipeline thingy that will bring all the dilbit to the coast to the public?

And if that was the (public relations) case, wouldn't such an outcome benefit all of those fine folks at Enbridge?

And didn't Mr. Marissen and his Burrard Communications public relations firm once do a little lobbying for Enbridge?

Why yes, he and his sure did, as the VanObserver's Matthew Millar discovered not long ago:

But just who is this fine fellow by the name of Mr. John Fraser, above, who registered with Mr. Marissen as one of Burrard Communications 'consultants' for Enbridge?

And, as a follow-up, what is the good Mr. Fraser up to now?

Well, Mr. Fraser just happens to be the son of Ms. Clark's current Conflict Commissioner and, currently, he, Mr. Fraser the younger, is employed by The-Recuser-In-Chief, on our dime, as an Assistant Deputy Minister in charge of her 'Strategic Planning Team' as Kai Nagata has noted.

All of which brings me to my real question....

Given all of this (i.e. who is connected to whom and who may benefit from any and all Sparkle Pony initiatives involving the moving and/or processing of dilbit to and/or at the coast ), why the heckfire didn't the Conflict Commissioner 'recuse' himself from giving the Recuser-In-Chief herself advice on this matter?

****

Personally, I am flummoxed by the fact that this 'recusing' business has been going on since the days that the BC Rail deal went down.

Which, finally, brings me to a screed I wrote not long ago the details of a specific job Ms. Clark got before she became Premier, apparently at least in part, because of her  Burrard Comm connections surfaced in a(n only) slightly different context:

Look.

Protestations from Ms. Clark herself, and from Mr. Marissen also, about Ms. Clark's lack of direct involvement with various companies and entities Burrard Communications has worked 'for' and/or 'with' in the past based on when she was 'hired', whether or not she was officially 'lobbying', and/or whether or not she, herself, was 'paid' are not the point.

And neither are the bleatings of press poodles who say that everything is fine and on the up-and-up because of multiple such 'technicalities'.

Because what all of this demonstrates, regardless the technicalities is that these fine folks are now, and/or have been, at some level, all in this together.

And that's what matters.

And that, in my opinion, is what should be followed up and chased down by the local proMedia like it was a thousand million back-decks (built from the product of raw logs shipped back from overseas), coming down the mountains.

OK?


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This Day In Snookland...Nevermind The Bollocks, Here Comes The Conflictyness.

AllThePhantomMegaProjectsThatFit
LastMinuteAgainVille


Well, well, well...

Look who's involved in the latest bit of bigtime bitumen greenwashing (via Jeff Jones' report in The Globe):

...Another notable participant (in Pacific Futures) is Vice-President Communications and Research Mark Marissen, a longtime Liberal party strategist and public consultation specialist who is also ex-husband of B.C. Premier Christy Clark...


Surprised?



______
Seems to me that this latest 'less than zero tarsands refining is great!'-thingy is kinda/sorta like that 'fracking doesn't matter because processing is processing'-business, all over again....Or some such thing.
Meanwhile, Norm Farrell, who refuses to join most clubs that will have him, has the story of some previous close-tie/at-the-very-least-appearance-of-potential conflictyness goin' down in the #bced thing....Here.


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Is It Time To Take The Mangy Old Cur That Was Once The Top Dog Out Behind The Barn...?

AllTheIrrelevanceThatFits
NoForstNoBannermanNoWebsterNoMairNoRealReplacementsNoNothin'Ville



Well, according to the latest Lotuslandian book it just may be.

Harvey O has the story:

"...The old daddy, CKNW 980 A.M. …once the Top Dog … is now a tired, old pooch, judging by the BBM numbers.

NW comes in NINTH with a measly 1.9 ratings points in the 18-49 younger generation of radio listeners … and this surprised me … TWELFTH even in the wider 25 to 54 age category..."


Gosh.

How long will it be before the geniuses at Corus decide to go for a format change - say to an all 'News' format to complete with uncle Ted's non-stop wire-story babble up the dial?

****

Almost as interesting as Mr. Oberfeld's post itself is the comment thread attached to it.

And, after what went down last weekend, I found this one, from 'Michael', particularly interesting.

...The immaturity of the “Producers” on Phil and Bill Show is mind blowing.They are always whining about a self Perceived Injustice in their tiny lives...


To which Harvey responded:

We MUST say it. The Emperors of Radio today are wearing no clothes …and someone has to tell them: certainly wont by the kids they hire!So WE do by dwindling ratings and commentaries and comments …not aimed at being nasty …just keeping it real, trying to help them.And we know they spend lots of doing listener surveys too. But are they listening? When they go from first place to twelfth …we can be forgiven for wondering!


And then there is the matter of how Mr. O's willingness to speak out about the slide of the old guard, both on the longwave and on the TeeVee has gotten him thrown out of the club.

...I have personally paid for my outspoken critiques … like being tossed off the Webster judging panel after I wrote about the media and being persona-non-grata at my old station (26 years there!)...

So.

There you have it.

As our old friend Ian Reid used to say, there really is a club, and not only are you and I not in it but even those that are/were once in like Flynn know that they will be thrown out if they dare speak up and state what the real problem with the proMedia is 'round here.

But, having said all that, here's what I'm really wondering...

When is that ratings book on the Lotulandian linear type pro-pundits going to drop?


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Northern Gateway 'Poll'....Why The (NoLonger) Giant '98 Keeps Shrinking.

TurningCodswallopIntoBlackGold
NotTexasTeaVille


We'll start with the money shot from CKNW and work backwards:

Now....

Where did that actually come from?

Well, our friend Merv Adey asked a 'producer' at CKNW for a citation after she first tweeted it up on her 'personal' feed.

Here is said producer's response:

So, where does the CKNW producer's link take you, exactly?

Why, straight to a post from that infamous oil business-backing 'turf shop called British Columbians For Prosperity:

But.

Here's the (real, actual) thing, from Bloomberg News, who commissioned Nanos to do the (real) poll:

A majority of British Columbians want Prime Minister Stephen Harper to reject or delay Enbridge Inc. (ENB)’s Northern Gateway pipeline amid concern the project could lead to oil spills, a Bloomberg-Nanos poll shows.

Thirty-four percent of respondents want the Canadian government to block the C$6.5 billion ($6 billion) project, which would ship crude from Alberta’s oil sands to the B.C. coast for export to Asia, and 33 percent want it delayed for further review. Twenty-nine percent say they want it approved, according to the poll...


So...

Do you see what the fine folks from 'BC4Prosperity' did there?

Specifically do you see how they turned '33 percent want it delayed for further review'  into '33% are open to the project but think it needs a bit more review'.

And with that wee bit of flim-flammery complete they used a little of the old flyin' Phil shake-a-puddin'-type juju  to come up with the following equation:

 29 + 33 = 62%.

Which equals two-thirds in favour of the pipeline.

When, of course, it is really less than one-third.

All of which is pretty bad, but pretty much par for the course from this bunch.

So....

Why do they even bother?

Because, 7 times out of 10, they are pretty sure they can get some overworked and/or lazy, non-fact checking member of the proMedia herd to buy it.

Which is exactly what the stenographers at CKNW did when they swallowed the codswallop whole and turned it into 'news' on Saturday afternoon?

Small potatoes, I know.

But this is only the first step for the propaganda mongers.

Because, now that things have been set in motion, they will wait and hope that the other shoe drops.

Specifically, now that it has been officially 'sanctioned' by a 'major' news outlet  they will do their best to have it turn up somewhere like, say, in one of Mikey Mike's next columns or seven.

And then the propmongers will really start to crank the wurlitzer when they pull out the results of their very own push poll that they already have tucked away in their back pocket.

Or, at the very least, in the back of their collective amygdala.

Which is the real story here that you will never read in the public prints.

****

Gosh.

I wonder who told the NW 'producer' about the 'story'  in the first place?


Could it, perhaps have been one of Mr. Sean Leslie's guests on his Saturday afternoon radioshow I wonder  (see, for example, tweets, above)


______
Why do we wonder about the 'source' that led to the 'swallowing'?....Because, well.....This.
A link to Nanos' actual poll summary is....Here.

_____
Saturday evening update...It actually gets 'worse' for CKNW if that's possible....Here.


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This Day In Snookland: When Mr. Fassbender Says 'Jump', Look Who Says...

...How High?

First, the 'call':

The B.C. Public School Employers Association has applied to the Labour Relations Board to designate Grade 10 to 12 exams and report cards for secondary students as essential services.

Earlier this week, Education Minister Peter Fassbender promised parents that exams and final marks would go ahead, but he said he wasn’t sure how he would make it happen.

Friday’s letter of application to vary the existing essential service order asks the board to designate supervising and marking exams and recording final marks as essential services...



Next, within hours, the 'response':

Surprised?

If you've been reading Norm Farrell you shouldn't be.


_______
Meanwhile, in the 'credit-where-credit-is-due' department, it looks like Mr. Mason's latest 'source' has has given him a couple of things to read (that actually matter). As such he stops the 'he said/she said' codswallop for a moment and takes a stand (again, on something that actually matters) ....here.



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Springtime Jukebox...Tune #2: Emmylou.

Stockholm's
ColdVille


A while back littler e. told me about the Soderberg sisters.

They're two young kids from Sweden.

And they blew up on the interwebz a few years ago when they did a pretty amazing bit of harmonizing on a cover of the Fleetfoxes 'Tiger Mountain Peasant's Song'.

Which somehow led them to sing more harmonizing cover stuff that made ol' curmudgeon's like Paul Simon shed a tear or two, for real.

Turns out, though, that they had also been doing their own stuff all along.

And somehow, maybe it was because she fell in love with 'Bright Eyes' at the age of 13, the younger of the two, Klara, developed this thing about the cosmic cowboy/alt dot country genre.

****

Now.

Here's the thing.

I never seriously considered covering/recording a First Aid Kit tune (that's their stage name) until a few weeks ago when Bigger E. got me to hum and strum along with her to a wee little mover and shaker of theirs called 'King Of The World'.

And then I did that Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris thing last week.

Which is when I decided to give the Soderbergs' follow-up/go-back tune on the matter of Ms. Harris and Mr. Parsons (and more) a go.

It's called Emmylou.

And it's got way more than just 'technique' in it, I think....

_______
littler e. and her friends are going to see the Soderbergs later this week...At first they were booked for the Rio, but that's been moved up to The Vogue, presumably due to demand...Regardless, I don't think anybody round here will be seeing them in a venue that small for awhile...
And, ya, you do know the world is unfolding like it should when your kids are bringing you new music to listen to and fall for...Next up?...Well, I've got the geezers hooked on a bit of a Jake Bugg follow-up/go-back tune as well...This one's from the 'lectronic division...All of which just means that...The time has come to finally by a telecaster, for real....Kids today...Sheesh.
Photocredit of a simultaneously cold/warm Stockholm...Slight Chance Of Pixels.

_________
Previously, on the Springtime Jukebox...


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