There Oughta Be An Entry In The Hall Of Fame Registry For This Long Gun.

SomethingsReallyMatter
AndSomethingsMatterEvenMoreVille


Have I ever mentioned the fact that John K. Samson is a genius?

Interestingly, of late Mr. Samson has been championing the greatest wearer of the white skates of all time...

The Riverton Rifle, Reggie Leach.

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I wrote about the young Mr. Leach and his white skates....Here.
Mr. Samson's song for Reggie, which was 'written in the form of an online petition', is....Here.
And, below is me doing a very bad impersonation of my favourite John K Samson song, recorded at one of the Whackadoodle's favourite beaches (thus the background sounds), which is just about as far away from Winnipeg as you can get and still be in Canada...

And just in case anyone wants to have another listen...All the recent songifying 'n stuff can be found in one place....Here.

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Lullaby Monday....

AllThePickingThatFits

SelfTaughtVille

Back when I was a younger whipper-snapper and I was kinda/sorta fighting with my department head for all the usual reasons that young whipper-snapper junior faculty do, I took a trip to Winnipeg that doubled as one of those 'come and have a look see and see what you think'-type deals..

It was in the early fall.

And the fine folks there took me out to Gimli on the Lake to a retreat where we stayed the weekend, bashed ideas around pretty good (they liked the way I make Christmas Tree ornaments, apparently), and had a marvellous time heading out to watch the birds migrate when we weren't working or otherwise engaged (because even geeks do non-geeky things some of the time).

Boy.

I'm telling you, if I had been single and unattached at the time I might have jumped at the chance to move.

And if I had done so I'm pretty sure I'd be even more of John K. Samson fan than I am now.

I also know that I would really understand him when he says that, for Winnipegers, it is always minus 40 and February somewhere in their soul no matter where they are or what time of year it is.

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Anyway.

As I've made clear in the past, I really love Samson's 'One Great City' which, of course, is about Winnipeg.

But I have never been able to figure out how to play it properly, even with all the online Tab help I could find.

So, finally, a couple of weeks ago I just sat down, made like a young R. Bachman, and watched a YouTube video of Samson playing the thing on an acoustic guitar (which is a rarity apparently) over and over and over again until I finally almost, but not quite really, got what he was doing with his hands.

Then I played it for littler e. at bedtime that night and she gave it her blessing by falling asleep in the dark.

So I recorded my slowed-down version* and sent it Bigger E. to help her nod-off during the mania that was final exam time.

Thus, if you need a little help drifing off yourself on these deepest, darkest and wettest of West Coast nights, well, here you go....

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The video of Samson playing is here....Double bonus is that you get a fistful of John Darnielle at the end explaining, as a native North Carolinan, why the song is so universal and so great.

*Background noise is because I actually recorded it at the beach the next day, which is where I go with the Whackadoodle to figure out new tunes without having to face the cringing faces of family members and/or neighbours....Truth be told, Rosie loves my playing (as long as I have a pocketful of treats, of course).

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Fantasy Baseball At The End Of The World (John Samson-Fellows Cover)

EveryoneElseMustBeA

CrookVille


Mr. Samson Fellows (previously known as John K. Samson to many) wrote this tune in the late 'teens back when the previous US'ian president was still raging, full throttle.

Luckily for all of us, for awhile there the former guy seemed to recede into the background.

But now he's back, hoping like heckfire that the threat of indictments to come will whip his base into a frenzy that will turn Americans against each other in the streets and re-open the fundraising spigots, full blast, once again.

Thus, I figured Mr. Sampson Fellows' brilliant song song of despair, hope and resolve could do with a wee bit of a tweak.

Here's my cover(ish) version...

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Have I Mentioned Recently That...

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....John Samson Fellows is a genius.

Seriously.

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BTW, pitchers and catchers report in six weeks...Hopefully by then we'll all have followed JSF's advice and gone outside, at least once or twice, to organize something better, or beautiful, or both.

Again, if you want to learn a little more about what the Fellows/Samson artistic empire is up to these days go listen to...This.

Finally, if all this has you hankering for the Weakerthans firing on all cylinders, this show, circa 2007, from Berlin, is all killer no filler...


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The Reason YouTube Exists.

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John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats proves that you can never give to much money to the Ace of Base!.....No matter what you do.....

Seriously.



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Here's another, even crazier version, where only the locales change slightly.
Where do I find this stuff?.....Well you can blame this one on Steven Page AND (especially) John K. Samson, nee Propagandhi Guy.

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Your Morning Audio....Longtime Blogging.

49 degrees 17' 59" North
124 degrees 37' 0" West


The first thing I wrote, in this form, was titled "The Gospel According To HR MacMillan".

I posted in June.

June of 2004.

So, why, exactly, has a digital dinosaur like myself been doing this for so long?...

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The tune covered at the end of the audioblog, above, is called 'ThePamphleteer'....It was penned by Winnipeg's John K. Sampson and it was first recorded before the HR MacMillan post mentioned above was penned (i.e. back when the Weakerthans were just getting going)...The girls and I had tickets to go see Samson, solo, back in May of this year...Of course, that was a show that never happened.



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Tuesday Notes...Who Are Those Guys?

AtTheCornerOfMalibuAnd

SunsetVille


Three things up front...

First, the Duo City couple, who have been doing a fantastic job of true civic blogging covering the Lotusland development beat, mostly by covering public consultation meetings, have plans to expand their offerings in 2023. That is great news given that the CoV appears to be, knowingly or not, squelching public discussion of development plans by moving most consultation gatherings online. Personally, I'm very much looking forward to Hannah and Darren's reportage, comments and thoughts on the proposals that are starting to come through the pipeline based on the 'Secured Rental Policy'.

Second, a new (to me) podcast called Kreative Kontrol by a guy named Vish Kanna, who is based in Edmonton by way of Guelph...It's a long form interview format that is kind of like Q if Q was actually good...This morning on the ride in to work I listened to a recent episode with Christine Fellows (the two E's will like this one for all kinds of reasons, including 'Heavyweight' and the fact that the Fellows/Samson cat Virtute is imaginary!)... I've got the latest Steve Albini episode queued up for the ride home (can't wait)....Chances of supporting on Patreon...8.5/10.

Third, depending on whether or not you are sports fanatical or not, you may or may not know that professional American football player named Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field during a game between Buffalo and Cincinnati last night after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest...Mr. Hamlin's heartbeat was restored on the field but he remains in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital....Which is a terrible and tragic story, in and of itself...But the story has been made even worse by some of the worst people in the world who immediatelystarted insinuating, in the absence of any evidence whatsoever, that it was Covid vaccination was a contributing...Meanwhile, the good Mr. Musk has signaled that he is all set to further wurlitzer the wrath of the worst people in the world with the coming release of the 'Fauci Files'.

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OK, so, to the matter at hand...

Just who are those guys pictured, above, at the top of the post?

Why that is Southern California's first Latino DIY punk band 'Plugz' who were plucked from relative 

decline of the western civilization obscurity by Bob Dylan, thanks to Dylan's then teenage kids and/or the fact that the band's drummer's girlfriend was Bob's tour manager's secretary.

This happened when Bob had the boys back him for his first appearance on Letterman.

I referenced this appearance earlier this week when I posted their raucous version of the then just released 'Jokerman' on the show in 1984.

When the time came they did the tune in super-sloppy triple time with a clearly ecstatic Dylan going berserk during the closing harmonica solo despite the fact that the instrument he had been handed was in the wrong key.

So, what became of it all?

Well...

...After the show, Dylan and the band hung out backstage, talking with (fellow Letterman guest) Liberace and having their photos taken by Rolling Stone until Dylan left, explaining he was due at a Knicks game with Keith Richards. (Guitar player J.J.) Holiday says, “Dylan told us he would call us on Monday.” The call never came. “Whenever (bass player) Tony (Marco) and I see each other,” Holiday continues, “we always joke, ‘Did you get that call yet?’”...

Hmmmm...

Despite how much fun Mr. Dylan clearly had during that Letterman appearance, clearly Plugz weren't quite Ronnie's Hawks.

Or some such thing.

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Tip 'O The Toque to longtime reader e.a.f. for putting the burr under the Plugz/Jokerman saddle...

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There Was No 'Gimme, Gimme' For Young Gump Worsley.

AllTheWorld'sAPoint
SearsCatalogueVille


Former New York Rangers, Montreal Canadiens and Minnesota North Stars goalie Lorne 'Gump' Worsley entered the Hockey Hall of Fame a long, long time ago, in 1980.

But it was only this past weekend that Mr. Worsley was finally inducted into his hometown 'Point-St-Charles Hall of Recognition.'

His daughter Lianne told the Montreal Gazette's Stu Cowan that he would have been ecstatic about the latest honour:

“He would have loved this … he would have been really, really happy about it,” Lianne said about her father. “It’s too bad they didn’t do it when he was still alive, because he would have been there with bells on. He loved the Point.”

But here's the thing...

After the Gumper had finally given in to his fear of flying that was made, way, way worse by expansion and ended his playing days in the early '70's he still returned, with his growing brood, to the Pointe from time-time:

...“When we used to get too cocky at home, if it was: ‘I want, gimme this,’ he would say: ‘Get in the damn car.’” Lianne recalled. “So he’d pile the kids in the car and he’d drive us to the Point and then he would tell us how when he played hockey as a kid outside that they had to use road apples and that they had to use Sears catalogues as pads, ‘So don’t you start with the gimme, gimme, or I’m just going to give you a Sears catalogue.’...

All of which got me to thinking about one of my favourite John K. Samson song-poems of all time...

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And in case you were wondering....Stu Cowan also had a companion piece last week explaining how Gump got his nickname.

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This Day In Clarkland...Lost, Leaving & Returning.

TheSlackeningOfAllOfEnnui'sTides
MostComeSometimeVille


We've been away on one of the farthest outermost edges of Lotusland.

So I shut the mojowire down completely for a week or so.

And it was good.

And now, today, I see that our fine Premier has put 'He-Who-Keeps-Promises' at the top of Translink Pops so that he can face-off and/or make-like-Monty-Hall with one of the layers of all that now invisible astroturf that carpets the (toll-goin'-up!) ice bomb bridge.

Or some such thing.

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But nevermind all that.

Because the real news I missed while I ceased paying attention is that the Weakerthans are, apparently...

No more.

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You can get a polished live rendition of most of Mr. Samson et al's catalogue...Here.
Unlike the Two E's, I eschewed the renting of the wetsuit...Not because I wasn't bloody freezing before the numbness came on but more out of homage to my Dad who never would have considered such a thing, especially that time my younger/middle brother made up the fake 'We Are Really From Texas' license plates that we slapped on the microbussed K.Van the time we headed out into the rainforest waves lo those 35 years or so ago...


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