“Shit on top of a boiled egg”

My God, my God, I love reading interviews with the Gallaghers.  Here’s Noel:

How about Miley Cyrus? Are you a fan?
I think there’s a trend, unfortunately, in the game, at the minute, of girls desperately trying to be provocative or desperately trying to – in inverted commas – “start the debate” about some old shit or other. Because, really, they’re not very good. Do you know what I mean? We have it in England regularly, and you have it in the States. I feel bad for ’em. It’s like, “Write a good song. Don’t make a provocative video – write a good fucking song. That’ll serve you better, I think.” She was on TV recently, Miley Ray Cyrus, and it was just like, “What the fuck is all this about?” I don’t know. It’s a shame, because it puts all the other female artists back about fucking five years. Now, Adele and Emili Sande – that music, to me, is like music for fucking grannies, but at least it’s got some kind of credibility.

It’s just embarrassing. Be good. Don’t be outrageous. Anybody can be outrageous! I could go to the Rolling Stone office and fucking shit on top of a boiled egg, right? And people would go, “Wow, fucking hell, that’s outrageous!” But is it any good? No, because, essentially, it’s just a shit on top of a boiled egg. That’s all it is. If I was to go to your office and play you a song that I’d just written that was amazing, that would be better, wouldn’t it?

I think that would be the preferable option there, yeah.
Right. So, you know, I feel bad for the girls. The sisters are not doing it for themselves.

Did you see that [Arcade Fire] have asked people to wear formal wear or costumes at their shows?
[Sighs] Well, what’s the point of that? Do you know what the point of that is? That is to take away from the shit disco that’s coming out of the speakers. Because everybody’s dressed as one of the Three Musketeers on acid. “What was the gig like?” “I don’t know, everyone was dressed as a teddy bear in the Seventies.” “Yeah, but what was the gig like?” “Ah, fuck knows, man, I have no idea. I was dressed as a flying saucer.” “Yeah, but what was the gig like?” “Fuck knows. I don’t know. Seen Cheech and Chong, there, though.” Not for me.

What a genius he is. I must interview him before I die. It’s on my writing bucket list.

 


Fourteen reasons

…we should never give up on eliminating violence against women:

• Geneviève Bergeron (born 1968), civil engineering student
• Hélène Colgan (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
• Nathalie Croteau (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
• Barbara Daigneault (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
• Anne-Marie Edward (born 1968), chemical engineering student
• Maud Haviernick (born 1960), materials engineering student
• Maryse Laganière (born 1964), budget clerk in the École Polytechnique’s finance department
• Maryse Leclair (born 1966), materials engineering student
• Anne-Marie Lemay (born 1967), mechanical engineering student
• Sonia Pelletier (born 1961), mechanical engineering student
• Michèle Richard (born 1968), materials engineering student
• Annie St-Arneault (born 1966), mechanical engineering student
• Annie Turcotte (born 1969), materials engineering student
• Barbara Klucznik-Widajewicz (born 1958), nursing student


Mandela music

Many moving tributes to Nelson Mandela this morning, and many of them describing how he was their spark: to oppose racism, to oppose oppression, to oppose totalitarianism.

I was involved in anti-racism stuff  before I had ever heard Mandela’s name – in the Calgary punk scene, with movements like Rock Against Racism.  I detested nationalism and separatism, and I helped to organize many gigs to express that.

It was later, during my time in law school in Calgary, that a single song persuaded us to learn more about the ANC leader and South Africa’s apartheid.  It was the Special AKA’s ‘Free Nelson Mandela,’ and it was all about what the song’s title suggests.  Jerry Dammers’ little song was so catchy, and so powerful, that I daily walked around in 1983 and 1984 wearing a FREE NELSON MANDELA t-shirt. (It’s long lost, and I would give plenty to replace it.)

Can music change the world? Not really, no – but sometimes, yes.  ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ woke up a lot of white, suburban punk kids in faraway Calgary, Alberta to something important.  Music has the power to do remarkable things like that. So, this morning, I offer it to you here.

Dance in your office.  Make everyone else do likewise!


SFH is number two on CBC Music’s chart!

…well, okay, their ‘Gallery of Songs Inspired by Rob Ford’ chart, that is. But we’re SFH, and we’ll take whatever we can get.

Click on the image to see what else they’ve got on their chart! And buy our Ugly Pop 45 when it’s out!

(And yes, single girls, that’s Steve Deceive off to the left.  Sorry to break your hearts, but he’s taken.  Davey Snot, however, wants me to tell you that he isn’t)


SFH and Rob Ford-related news

Above: the teenaged lead singer of the Hot Nasties, circa 1977-78.
Photo located last night under a pile of old records. Note the rasta handle.

SFH’s fate seems inextricably linked, in myriad ways, to Toronto “mayor” Rob Ford.  We can’t shake him, as hard as we try.  He’s like herpes – once you get him, he goes away for a while, but he never fully disappears.

So, two big SFH and Rob Ford related developments:

If you’re in K-W, c’mon by and say hi.  If you’re not, get ready for the release of Mayor On Crack.  It’s gonna be huge.

Like Rob.


Dear Chief Blair

Dear Chief Blair:

Other folks want to canonize you as a saint. I’ve never felt that way, for various reasons.

Another reason: your guys had the goods on Rob Ford six ways to Sunday. Schedule One narcotic use and possession (as he’s admitted); extortion (threatening the power of his office to get back the cell phone with drug connections on it); participation in a criminal organization (the new offence created, ironically enough, by his pal Stephen Harper).

As others have said, correctly, if a poor non-white kid had been implicated in just one of the above-noted crimes, they’d still be in jail.

But Rob Ford? Again: you had him, and you let him go.  Why is that?

When Toronto gets a new mayor – and if you’re still around, which I increasingly tend to doubt – get ready for some tough questions, Chief.  There’ll be plenty of them.

Sincerely,

Warren Kinsella, LL.B

P.S. The questions will be directed at the Crown Attorney’s Office, too.  They’ve been as negligent as you, perhaps more so.  Kathleen Wynne’s maladroit Attorney-General will need to answer for that, I think.