TriumphAnt

"No… when I said, 'Keep in touch', I meant…"

A couple months back, we bid adieu to a co-worker who transferred to a different government department. One of the last things I said was, “Keep in touch”.

Now, about every third day or so, I get an e-mailed note with an embedded link either to an “Odd News” media article or a You Tube video. The actual message text is almost always a variation on “LOL – this is SO cool!” (On the odd chance that you’ve just emerged from a cave or are actually a 20-year cicada who last appeared in 1987, “LOL” is a “netcronym” that stands for “Laughing Out Loud”. It’s a three-letter way of saying, “I found this to be somewhat amusing and am sending it along by e-mail to share with you on the odd chance that you, too, might find it to be funny.” It’s also a chuckling version of the netcronym "ROTFLMAO", which literally means “Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off”. Translation? You can change the “somewhat amusing” in the above explanation to “really hilarious”.)

I think I was hoping for more of an occasional brace of sentences that ventured a description or an opinion of some part of the new job. But I can’t grouch too loudly, because I have to confess that I also do it myself.

Which leads to today’s question o’ de day: Has the Internet improved or wrecked the process of the kind of communication we used to conduct by means of letter-writing? There’s an essay in there somewhere… I’m just not sure that a blog I routinely fling into people’s e-mail is the best place in which to make that ramble.

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If anyone is polling bloggers about the RCMP’s tasering Robert Dziekanski, that disoriented Polish visitor in the Vancouver airport, and subsequently causing his death, here’s where I am (after viewing the actual video several times and reading an enormous amount of print reporting of the story, editorial and columnists’ reaction to it, listening to “talking head” discussions on both radio and TV and the RCMP’s official responses beginning with the very first pack of CYA (cover your ass) lies they spun out to the Vancouver Sun just hours after the man died):

- The RCMP has been wrong, probably criminally so, every single step of the way from the moment those four officers first entered the passenger waiting area.

So on the sliding scale of satisfaction, you’ll find me right at the end under “strongly dissatisfied”. Just for the record.

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I guess the Globe and Mail’s sports page readers are… uh… less fiscally astute than their wider business readership, as evidenced by this golf-related stream that appeared in a recent sports story:

“The championship also would include an annual $10-million bonus pool. The winner will receive $1.66 million.
The Order of Merit will be renamed The Race to Dubai, with the player finishing No. 1 at the end of the season receiving $2 million.
If a player wins both the Dubai World Championship and the overall season title, he will earn a total of US$3.66 million.”

(That last sentence seems to have been for the benefit of those incapable of adding 2 + 1.66. Which the Globe, I guess, assumes describes its sports news readers.)

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Random musical notes based on recent acquisitions:

Really, really, REALLY lovely blues album: Suitcase, by Keb Mo. A voice like a satin curtain brushing a varnished mahogany window sash in a light breeze on a warm summer evening. A way with a guitar that makes it sound ridiculously easy… until you pause and really listen to the complexities of what he’s doing. Accompanying beverage of choice? A rich smoky single malt scotch.

Really, really, REALLY rip-em-up blues album: timeBomb, by the Blues Caravan (Sue Foley, Deborah Coleman, Roxanne Potvin) I saw two of these three live a few months back and they simply owned the Centrepointe Theatre stage for two fantastic hours. Blues with a thumping drive and voices that suggest way more living than these youngsters have actually done. And who knew the lyric, “Don’t start the car if you ain’t gonna drive”, could be rendered with such a sexual intensity?

And speaking of lots o’ living… Really, really, REALLY excellent new stream of fan loyalty: “Washington Square Serenade” by Steve Earle. I don’t know where Steve’s music all comes from, but it’s been coming from there for years and it’s still wonderful stuff! Physically, he has just uprooted himself from Nashville and moved to New York City. I saw him interviewed recently by CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos and his politics have lost none of their anti-Bush edge. But this album is more about his music and, in that, he is still utterly true to self. (That, I realize, will say nothing to someone who doesn’t know him, but his fans will go, “Great!”) He may well be on the verge of having a whole genre named after his style – Nashville Soul. All I need to hear is that there’s a new Steve Earle album (Thanks, Angela!) to send me off to buy it.

Really, really, REALLY excellent retro album: DYLAN. 18 of Bob’s best, slung out in order from “Blowin’ in the Wind” to “Forever Young”. For some reason, Columbia spun off this single album from the larger, more complete three-disc compilation but unless you’re a hard-core Dylan career follower, these 18 are the only ones you need and it’s about a third of the price of the three-disk set. (Although I would also suggest adding his “Highway 61 Revisited” on the shelf beside “DYLAN“ because… well, “Desolation Row” is because.)

Really, really, REALLY big piece of disappointing self-indulgent claptrap (well, besides this blog, I mean): Led Zeppelin’s “Mothership”. Guys, guys, guys. Wishing it was 1972 again doesn’t make it so. Long whiny guitar solos are nice, for one or two tracks. Just to remind us what was once really meaningful after overindulging in the reality-altering substance of our choice, then nesting in a near-fetal position in a corner beside a four-foot tall stereo speaker and murmuring “Oh wow!” as our eardrums sought desperately to evolve swiftly and sufficiently to fold over on themselves. But, well, we’ve kind of moved on and were hoping “re-mixed” meant “emphasis on the music”. (Of course, the Internet is partly to blame here. Try, for example, to listen to “The Immigrant Song” without flashing on the Viking Kittens video -- You Tube-able, I suspect -- someone made of it a few years back. Maybe that’s where LedZed assumes their fan base lies now.) But how can Jimmy Page compile a two disc, greatest hits collection and not include “Living, Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman)”? Feh.

The really, really, REALLY great reminder that behind the big hair, some folks in the 80s could still spit out some hard rocking pop: “Best of the J Geils Band”. You-Tube yourself on over to “J Geils Band, Centrefold” and try to sit still (admittedly while snickering at the parade of big-haired, bird-of-prey-eyed beauty that was the eye candy of the 80s). But the album also displays a much wider versatility than just their two monster hits: “Centrefold” and “Freeze Frame”. Great fun!

And finally, if you never, ever thought that Country and Western could work a successful fusion with Rhythm and Blues, well not only need you wonder no more, you could have stopped wondering in 1970, and don’t click “stop” on this one until the very last second. (With apologies to anyone not yet video linkable. But that’s just so 2006! Get with the program already. … :-) … )

LOL! C-U L8R.