before i even leave . . .

over the next few days i'm going to turn the blog into a travelogue of sorts. i kept brief notes and took a few pictures on my recent bike journey and so i'm going to assemble, embellish, and share them here for myself and then also for those who know me. i hope you enjoy the journey as much as i did!

it’s been a wish of mine, maybe even a dream to ride a bicycle a fair distance. having read stories about trips across europe, asia, africa, and even across the united states and canada the pump has been primed for a long time. the trouble is i have never had the right combination of time, money, equipment and most importantly the will. so last year i came across an idea - well a route actually - that extends from niagara falls in the west, to montreal (and actually even further if you want) in the east.

i find that planning for anything is more than half of the fun of the whole experience and this trip was no exception. researching on-line and eventually coming across resources that helped me refine my plans was tons of fun. the best resource i came across for cycling across the northern half of lake ontario is the waterfront trail site. the waterfront trail is an ambitious project that connects niagara falls with brockville along a route that follows the shoreline of lake ontario as closely as is practical.

the site provides maps of each section that are detailed enough to include side trips. or you can simply order a copy of the book which contains all the maps and relevant information. depending on your ability, you might want to look at their section entitled itineraries for suggested routes and timelines.

so i went through most of this material and initially i was thinking i’d somehow get to niagara falls and then bike back to cobourg but commonsense prevailed and i decided instead to ride from peterborough down to cobourg. then i would travel on to belleville and end up in kingston from where i would turn around and retrace my steps.

every journey begins with a place you leave. so i’ll begin this story by telling a bit about where i live - peterborough.
i can remember very clearly my first trip to peterborough. it remains burned in my mind, etched in my memory and set the stage for much of what i hold most dear, that i am most proud of, and which i treasure above all else. it was a visit to view trent university - to see what i thought of it. i want you to imagine that you are 19 years old. you have never lived away from home, and you see a university that at that time had 2500 students in total and was in this setting . . . . what would you say?!! i was absolutely gobsmacked of course . . . . it is in my own experience, the most beautiful campus i have seen. i was hooked. but it was the community itself that held the greatest sway over me and even when i finally left the university, i always promised myself that in some way, shape, or form, i would return to peterborough to live.

peterborough is not a big city, in fact at present it includes just over seventy-five thousand people. it is a university town but the university - trent university - is a small liberal arts university valiantly struggling to rise above that descriptor by bringing in science money and also by attempting to double its student population. the university impacts the city financially but more importantly through its drawing together of people from disparate and wide-ranging backgrounds and placing them squarely in a relatively conservative rural city.

as a result, the city has a wonderfully divergent feel about it. it has an amazing array of restaurants that are not only diverse but often really good! it also has a strong cultural core that affects not only the adult population but opens doors for students passing through high school who perhaps “don’t fit” the get-your-diploma, go-to-college/university or get-a-job routine. the downtown streets are filled from august to april with young, cool, thinking, partying people and that can’t help but set a tone.

peterborough’s history goes back 11,000 years to when the glaciers from the last ice age were retreating and first nations groups followed in their path. there is a river that passes through peterborough and within a hundred metres of where i teach called the otonabee river. it is the remnant of a glacial spillway. at one time it was a wild river comprised of massive rapids and was probably a stunning if not impassable waterway. it is now a controlled river, spotted with dams that in some spots slow up the river, in others are used to generate electricity, and in others are a part of the trent canal, a waterway that connects georgian bay with lake ontario.

woodland natives lived in this area between 1000 bc to ad 1000, followed by iroquois and mississaugas. there is still a strong and vibrant native presence in peterborough and area at curve lake and
hiawatha first nation. in 1615, samuel de champlain travelled through the area and stayed for a brief time near the present-day site of bridgenorth, just north of peterborough. here's samuel striking a "looking into the distance" pose . . . and here's a map that explains why he needed to look like that. this boy travelled a long, long way in very difficult territory a long way from home!
in the 1800’s peter robinson (the peter of peterborough) took care of the passage and settlement of over 2500 poor catholic families (mostly from ireland) to settle in lanark county, carleton county (today’s ottawa), and scott's plains which was re-named peterborough in his honour. here's peter . . .
peterborough is now a thriving community situated approximately 125 kilometres (78 mi) northeast of toronto. peterborough is known for many things but among its more famous features are the liftlocks . . .
and the peterborough petes who have supplied more hockey players to the national hockey league than any other team in the world . . . here's a pic of them receiving the ontario hockey league championship trophy . . .
of course there’s lots more history and geography and economic and cultural information i could share about peterborough, but it’s time to get on the bike and leave all of this (and my family) behind and get going!

before we leave, here’s a good link that includes many images of the beautiful city of peterborough. this map gives you a general sense of where peterborough is in relation to some of the communities i’ll mention . . .
the practical sides of the journey including clothing and equipment are pretty uninteresting to be honest but for verity i'll share them all the same. i ride a de vinci nassau retrofitted with a blackburn pannier rack and panniers supplied by mountain equipment co-op. i upgraded the drivetrain to a shimano sora front end and a shimano tiagra backend chiefly because i wanted a little better quality than the bike came with originally and also because that combination gave me bigger gears so i could ride faster. they still aren’t big enough but i hear that that’s a common complaint among many bike riders in general.

other than that, i took the usual little mound of clothes, some energy bars, a camera, cell phone, a book, notebook, maps, tool kit, bike pump, rain gear, and bike jersey and shorts. oh and not to forget the credit card! all of these things were jammed into plastic bags and then further jammed inside the panniers on the back. a couple of water bottles on the bike carried electrolytes and spring water. i wear a garmin gps on my wrist which tells me how far i've travelled, my speed, and my pace. it doesn't tell me where i am.

before i left, i booked ahead to stay in cobourg at my mum and dad’s place and also at hotels in belleville and kingston and then again in belleville for the return ride.

tomorrow - the road to cobourg.

sahara (1943)

the sahara desert is the world’s largest hot desert and the second largest desert in the world after . . . antarctica!
it is the subject of people’s imagination, has been incorporated into countless novels and films and is synonymous with barrenness on an almost incomprehensible scale. and yet, there is much life inside its 9,000,000 square kilometres of admittedly daunting, even unwelcoming terrain.

i haven’t been to the sahara yet, but it has long drawn me as it does a certain type of englishmman, notable among whom has been one of my heroes, t.e. lawrence also known as “lawrence of arabia”, and james richardson, (whose book “travels in the great desert of sahara dated 1845 and 1846 can be read here). here’s an image from this beautifully detailed and riveting text . . .
surprisingly, the sahara was once a much greener place as is evidenced by this article released today by the new york times.

so all this because tonight i’m in the mood for a good old fashioned “war” movie. after a little searching around i came across this gem which i’ve seen once before but which i would love to see again . . . the 1943 version of “sahara” starring humphrey bogart, not to mention lloyd bridges . . .
enjoy!

summer rain

this summer has seen record amounts of rainfall . . . doesn't bother me at all but it bothers many who are near and dear . . . here's what the local rag says . . .

summer rain brings . . . and
and to close out this entry, a lovely piece of music by harold budd and brian eno - "above chiang mai" . . .

a return

hello readers! the actual and real author of the golden fish has returned from six days on the road from peterborough to kingston and back again - on two wheels - propelled by my very own whipcord-like legs, a.k.a. "the engine". a 450 kilometre ride cross hill and dale, through hamlet and city, 'cross county-lines willy -nilly. here is the man and the machine in cobourg, about to set out on the last leg of the journey up the hills 'cross the height of land and on to peterborough.
i notice that readership has plummetted as canny and critically selective blogophiles recognizing the post-dated entries that appeared in my absence, booked it over to more lively and worthy sites peopled by an actual and present person! no bother! they will all return if only to read the day-by-day account of the epic journey with accompanying pics of staggering rural beauty and awe inspiring urban architecture not to mention the pics of the golden fish himself before, during, and after that reveal much of the man - well "reveal" is perhaps too grand a promise - but something will be seen of the man himself and the machine that transported his body through several counties, and several states of mind.

in the interim, here is a link to a bbc article citing a scientific study on the benefits of running (which i think is probably not a lot different than biking or swimming in terms of its benefits) and in particular, the notion that it slows down ageing . . . .

mary cassatt ~ a quieter time

many years ago i was in a used bookstore, scouring through a few tables loaded down with books of all types. one especially large and colourful book caught my attention so i spent some time wandering through it. devoted to the american impressionists it featured some truly exquisite works that depicted scenes along the eastern seaboard of the united states.

american impressionism was a phenomenon that spread across the united states, with schools and isolated pockets of artists ascribing to its use of colour to depict an impression or sense of a moment. to my own eyes though it is the work of those who lived on or near the eastern seaboard that is most pleasing.

gathering in places like cos cob and old lyme (now famous as the namesake of lyme disease), the east coast impressionists had access to a landscape, a coastline and a culture that was (and still is) unique and rich in its subject matter.

one of the more well-known american impressionists was mary cassatt. mary was born in allegheny city, pennsylvania which is now part of pittsburgh. as you might expect, she was born into a life of privilege which freed her up to pursue art as a vocation. much of her adult life was spent in france where she was friends with the impressionists including most notably edgar degas. her paintings typically are of people, particularly mothers and children. she is especially adept at capturing the langurous feeling of a lazy afternoon . . .
if you would like an unpacking of this painting, then a really informative podcast can be listened to here.
here are a few of mary’s paintings . . .
"summertime" (1894) . . . "the boating party" "woman reading"

painting with light

i came across today’s topic (like so many others) quite by chance. i like it that way! light painting and light bombing isn’t really new to me as i remember seeing a doucmentary of sorts in which the videographer had travelled through numerous european cities where people had been planting lights - magetized leds - on buses and sending them on their way. the resultant photographs were like trails in a cloudchamber as the vehicles bounced and lurched along, leaving behind multi-coloured light trails.

picasso famously light-painted as captured in an article in time magazine. here’s an image from that session . . .
last christmas i tried my hand at it with the blue christmas lights in the front of the house . . . yukihiro sato created some lovely black and white images that are almost like scenes from fairyland or from a magical meeting of fireflies. his work somehow softens and elevates the scens he has photographed that would otherwise be unremarkable.
so what is light painting? essentially it involves a light source and a slow shutter speed. either the light source or the camera can be moved - like a paintbrush - to create whatever shapes or lines or marks are desired.

”lightmark” is the creative lovechild of two people - cenci goepel and jens warnecke. here are two stunning examples of their work . . .
to learn more about these two talented people, an excellent and informative interview can be read here at yorkrules.

uk photographer sola runs a site called “lightbombing”. if you visit his site, you will see a very different take on light painting particularly in his “solid trace” series of images which looks at lightpainting in stark environments. the effect of his work is to create a dynamic yet softening effect as scarves of light dance inside metallic structures or in the middle of the air on urban streets.

over on flickr, ”reciprocity” has assembled some truly stunning light painting experiments that you simply have to see.

”burnblue” has a gorgeous set of images created on a beach at dusk and into sunset.

if you’re intrigued and want to learn more about how to create your own lightpaintings then this article is definitely for you. in it, the author shows some of his work and then unpacks the steps and technique and equipment required to replicate his experience. a similar sort of “how-to-do-it” article can be read here.

images of musicians i admire

as has been mentioned in previous entries, i have a somewhat varied collection of music, made by a somewhat varied group of musicians. i am not a "fan" of musicians but there is sometimes something in the image of a musician that underscores their music, lending it additional colour and context. here are a few images i have found that i think speak of the nature of the talented people who create the music that appears most often in the air at golden fish world headquarters.
david sylvian . . . brian eno . . . robert fripp . . . james blood ulmer . . . keith jarrett . . . king crimson . . . nusrat fateh ali khan . . . klaus schulze . . . tangerine dream . . . joe zawinul . . .

bjork and the modern minimalists

i came across this fascinating documentary in which icelandic singer/musician bjork speaks with estonian composer arvo part, finnish musician mika vainio (who is perhaps best known as one half of finnish experimental electronic duo pansonic, and from scotland the glass harmonica player alasdair malloy.

in its simple unpacking of what is powerful about music, and especially what is powerful about music that dares to express the inexpressible - simply - it carries a lot of weight. bjork’s childlike stance and the genuine love and passion each of the interviewees have for their work are a wicked combination that makes this film both informative and fascinating. the most telling and powerful comment in the video for me is when bjork suggests that, “it’s very brave to look complex things straight in the eye and just say . . . .come down.”

in my view, the very best teachers, artists, musicians and thinkers are doing just that in their very best work. bringing the complexity down to a place where it becomes accessible, meaningful and still transformative.

part one . . .

part two . . .

mr. robinson crusoe

i remember as a young boy reading some amazing books. labelled “classics” now, at the time they were magic in their ability to transport me to far-away lands, to share the experiences of people in all corners of the globe, and especially in their ability to completely engage my imagination. one such story was entitled ”robinson crusoe” and subtitled lengthily . . . “the life and strange surprising adventures of robinson crusoe, of york, mariner: who lived eight and twenty years all alone in an un-inhabited island on the coast of america, near the mouth of the great river of oroonoque; having been cast on shore by shipwreck, where in all the men perished but himself. with an account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by pyrates” was written by daniel defoe and first published in 1719. here’s what people saw when they bought a copy . . . and here's the protagonist . . .
for you today though dear reader, here is a highly entertaining version of dafoe’s story . . . . . released in 1932, ”mr. robinson crusoe” stars no less than a very tiggerish douglas fairbanks in his second-to-last film.

mr. robinson crusoe:


wow! i just watched this and i’ve got to tell you, as films go, it’s as corny as they get but honestly, could i push the stop button? nope. not even a hope.

if you have a hankering to read robinson crusoe then you should visit ”dead men tell no tales” which has both crusoe texts ready to read!! for more things robinson crusoe, you really should visit here.

the cloud appreciation society

i have almost certainly already mentioned ”the cloud appreciation society” somewhere else on this blog but they deserve a regular revisiting just because the site is chock-a-block with lovely pictures and stories of clouds culled from around the world.here’s one of my favourites - an absolutely stunning roll cloud - taken in australia by jason cutler.

on this day back in 1957 i was born in manchester, england. so today i gratefully acknowledge the privilege of having travelled 51 times around the sun. i checked into that little piece of trivia and calculated that it means that each year my body has travelled 584,018,150 miles (939,886,400 km) which means that it has now travelled 3 billion 504 million 425 thousand and 650 miles or 47 billion 934 million 206 thousand and 400 kilometres. no wonder i feel tired some mornings!

to acknowledge my beginning my 52nd orbit, i will be leaving tomorrow on a 250 mile round trip by bicycle to kingston, ontario. if everything works as it should - my bike, my body - i'll be gone for six days. i’ll be following a route established by various local and provincial government bodies. it will be what cyclists refer to as a “credit card tour” insomuch as i will be staying in hotels, eating in restaurants and stopping to take photographs and write notes along the way.

this may mean that there’ll be some empty days here on the golden fish unless i figure out the post dating mechanism which i think i can manage. it does mean that witticisms and anecdotes, and cautiously expressed outrage will not be responded to for possibly six days. express yourself regardless. i’m pretty good about getting back to people!!

when i get back, i’ll upload whatever pics turn out and include whatever stories are worth telling!!

see you later!! steven

so long, marianne

leonard cohen was one of those beautiful people of the sixties who true to the zeitgeist of that colourful and dynamic period of human history, carried their poetry and presence through song into the consciousness of the big world.

this morning i came across a cover version of cohen's song "so long, marianne" and while it began with tremendous promise, it was unable to sustain itself and so i went in search of the original which i’ll share here first . . . . i hadn’t heard it for such a long time and when i heard it today, the hairs on my neck went up and i felt shivers as if hearing it again for the first time. if you have the courage of your conviction, live alone, or just plain couldn’t care less and feel like you might want to sing along with leonard, then here are the lyrics:

"come over to the window, my little darling,
i'd like to try to read your palm.
i used to think i was some kind of gypsy boy
before i let you take me home.

now so long, marianne, it's time that we began
to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again.

well you know that i love to live with you,
but you make me forget so very much.
i forget to pray for the angels
and then the angels forget to pray for us.

now so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...

we met when we were almost young
deep in the green lilac park.
you held on to me like i was a crucifix,
as we went kneeling through the dark.

oh so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...

your letters they all say that you're beside me now.
then why do i feel alone?
i'm standing on a ledge and your fine spider web
is fastening my ankle to a stone.

now so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...

for now i need your hidden love.
i'm cold as a new razor blade.
you left when i told you i was curious,
i never said that i was brave.

oh so long, marianne, it's time that we began ...

oh, you are really such a pretty one.
i see you've gone and changed your name again.
and just when i climbed this whole mountainside,
to wash my eyelids in the rain!

oh so long, marianne, it's time that we began ..."



while we’re on the subject of leonard cohen and women . . . "suzanne" was surely one of his biggest hits. its mournful almost desperate tune carries the lyrics like the clouds carry rain . . .
the cbc did a really lovely piece detailing the origins of the song. essentially - “there was a woman named suzanne who was the wife of a friend of mine, armand vaillancourt, who is a great montreal sculptor, still a friend of mine, and his wife was suzanne vaillancourt. she invited me down to her place near the river, and she did serve me constant tea filled with little pieces of orange."

"it was a very private thing that I felt like I had with leonard," verdal recalls. "it was kind of like a very 'sympathical' wavelength thing - that we would read each other's minds. we were very in tune with each other. it was kind of strange to have it blossom into this famous song that everyone was singing."

"suzanne takes you down to her place near the river
you can hear the boats go by
you can spend the night beside her
and you know that she's half crazy
but that's why you want to be there
and she feeds you tea and oranges
that come all the way from china
and just when you mean to tell her
that you have no love to give her
then she gets you on her wavelength
and she lets the river answer
that you've always been her lover
and you want to travel with her
and you want to travel blind
and you know that she will trust you
for you've touched her perfect body with your mind.
and jesus was a sailor
when he walked upon the water
and he spent a long time watching
from his lonely wooden tower
and when he knew for certain
only drowning men could see him
he said "all men will be sailors then
until the sea shall free them"
but he himself was broken
long before the sky would open
forsaken, almost human
he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone
and you want to travel with him
and you want to travel blind
and you think maybe you'll trust him
for he's touched your perfect body with his mind.
now suzanne takes your hand
and she leads you to the river
she is wearing rags and feathers
from salvation army counters
and the sun pours down like honey
on our lady of the harbour
and she shows you where to look
among the garbage and the flowers
there are heroes in the seaweed
there are children in the morning
they are leaning out for love
and they will lean that way forever
while suzanne holds the mirror
and you want to travel with her
and you want to travel blind
and you know that you can trust her
for she's touched your perfect body with her mind."

”suzanne” . . . .

for all things cohen you should visit his website.

simcoe day

it’s simcoe day here in ontario so the little part of the world as i know it is all on holiday! by a happy coincidence, the sky is sky blue and full of little puffy clouds. i’m going to spend part of it digging weeds (a.k.a wildflowers) out of what was euphemistically called “the kid’s garden” when i dug it out and which of course quickly evolved into another garden for dad to care for. the learning i took from that experience is that it is highly unlikely that an inspired idea that has anything to do with work attached to it will be welcomed, unless it originates with the kids themselve.s if it emerges from an adult mind, it has absolutely no hope or chance of either coming to fruition or experiencing any kind of sustained life. it will be conscientiously ignored and/or forgotten.

anyhow, simcoe is a part of ontario’s history so i thought that before i dig around the weedbed, i’d dig around the 'net and see what all the fuss is about that grants this guy a holiday in his honour.

simcoe’s full name was john graves simcoe. john was born on february 25th, 1752. his dad was a captain in the royal navy. his mother catherine had four sons but john was the only one who survived. john’s dad died when he was only 7. i imagine that in those times, dying in infancy, or as in his dad’s instance, dying of pneumonia at a relatively young age was more commonplace but i can’t help feeling some empathy for him.

after a distinguished military career which included several actions against the americans, during which time he was both wounded and captured, simcoe moved back to england only to return in 1791 (after the constitutional act was passed which created upper canada) as lieutenant governor.

here's how things looked when john and elizabeth moved here . . .
john and elizabeth moved first to kingston and then on to newark which is now known as niagara-on-the-lake.

after realizing that newark was very very close to the border with america, simcoe moved the newly established government of upper canada to what is now london. for whatever reason that didn’t last long either and he moved the capital to toronto renaming it york (and of course it has since been renamed toronto).

john’s wife elizabeth was an accompished artist and diarist. indeed it is the legacy of her artwork and writing that informs much of what is known about colonial canada nowadays. to read some of her writing and have a look at a number of her lovely watercolours, go here. i especially love her work from her first visit to niagara falls, seen here as painted on june 29, 1793 . . .
and here as seen the following day from a broader perspective . . .
In july 1796 poor health forced john to return to england. here’s a painting of him as he looked in 1781 as painted by george berthon. by this time, simcoe’s tenure as lieutenant governor had ended . . .
he became colonel of the 81st foot in 1798, but exchanged it for the 22nd foot less than six months later. he later served as the commander of british forces in haiti and commander of the western district in britain. in 1806, he was appointed commander-in-chief of india but died in exeter before assuming that post. he was buried in wolford chapel on the simcoe family estate near honiton, devon.

the toronto city council established simcoe day as a holiday in 1869. simcoe’s legacy across the province is acknowledged in a variety of placenames and natural features that carry his name. unique among those places is castle frank a very wealthy neighbourhood in toronto that takes its name from simcoe’s summer home which was named after his son frank.
if you would like more detailed information about simcoe’s life, the freemasons (of which simcoe was a member) host an excellent overview of john graves simcoe’s life.

simcoe day typically ends with fireworks, which in my neighbourhood are surprisingly commonplace. almost any excuse suffices to blow off a few hundred dollars worth of gunpowder! i don’t mind it at all as it is still total magic to me and my kids!

john tavener ~ the death of athene

that great music, art, poetry, story telling, story writing and even drama is sometimes born out of tragedy is a given. a sad given. in april 1993, british composer john tavener wrote a piece of music in response to the tragic and untimely death of a family friend who was killed in a cycling accident. in reflecting on his thinking before writing the music, tavener said of the woman for whom he wrote this music as a tribute - athene hariades - "her beauty, both outward and inner, was reflected in her love of acting, poetry, music and of the orthodox church.” he had heard athene reading shakespeare in westminster abbey, and after her funeral, developed the idea of composing a song which combined words from the orthodox funeral service and shakespeare's hamlet.

there is in this music a sense of profound purity and truth . . . . john tavener . . . song for athene . . .



this excellent newspaper article details something of john tavener the man, as well as john tavener the musician.

the death of alexander solzenhitsyn

i just noticed that the bbc has announced the death of alexander solzhenitsyn.
the author of several books detailing the nasty side of stalin’s prison system - was there a nice side? - was 89 years old. i still remember the incredible experience of viewing the film version of ”one day in the life of ivan denisovich”. based on the novel of the same name, the story is set in a soviet labor camp in the 1950s, and describes a single day of an ordinary prisoner, ivan denisovich shukhov.

in the film, the title role was played by the talented actor tom courtenay. a scene that remains etched in my mind from that film is of tom eating a soup made from grass. it single-handedly drove home the disparity between me as a suburban north american and the realities of life for so many russians and people in other countries at that time. courtenay’s yorkshire accent (he was born in hull) in no way distracted from the stunning job he did in carrying that role. have a look and a listen here . . .

to read an excerpt from this book go here. it is gripping and unrelenting in its unpacking of the truth of that time.

to describe alexander solzhenitsyn as extraordinary would barely begin to articulate the depth of experience and the courage of this man in detailing the horrible truths of the russian gulag, a labour for which he was awarded the nobel prize for literature in 1970.

four years later, he was exiled for his efforts.

this short film gathers together a series of images and clips of the prison camps. so many lives were wasted or lost in this sad historical remnant of the former soviet union. it is this that solzhenitsyn so bravely exposed and so articulately described to those who lived in the more secure and comfortable parts of the world.


to read solzhenitsyn’s obituary ”go here. lost to this world in body but not in spirit.

david bowie "win"

well, after posting “somebody up there likes me”, i had to give the “young americans” disc a thorough listening through again and i came up with what i think is the best song on the album. interestingly, it isn’t the one that garnered the most attention which is entitled “fame” featuring both the lyrics and the musical contribution of one john lennon of beatles fame.

the song that i think really grabs the character of this album, and in a sense, the time that it was created in is “win”. “win” opens with the fluttering echoplex saxophone of david sanborn, partnered with drummer andy newmark’s gentle tapped stickwork across the splash cymbals that leads into the drop-you-down-to-the-bottom toms and stomach rumbling bass of willie weeks. newmark then leans into an absolute cracker of a rim shot/hi-hat combination that drives the slow pace of the tune slowly but surely along until david’s voice appears and the song opens out with the full band and even some strings.

on “win”, bowie uses his entire vocal range to great effect, driving quickly from a smooth-as-honey crooning bass up into a breathy near falsetto. the backup singers - ava cherry, robin clark, and luther vandross - really carry the last half of the song in a call response section with bowie that drifts back into sanborn’s fluttering sax and newmark’s quickly fading drums as the entire song shuffles off into silence.

“win”

(hey, it ain't over)
me, i hope that i'm crazy
i feel you driving and rolling the wheel
slow down, let someone love you
ohh, i've never touched you since i started to feel
if there's nothing to hide me
then you've never seen me hanging naked and wired
somebody lied, but i say it's hip
to be alive

now your smile is spreading thin
seems you're trying not to lose
since i'm not supposed to grin
all you've got to do is win
(that's all ya gotta do)
(ooh, it ain't over)

me, i'm fresh on your pages
secret thinker sometimes listening aloud
life lies dumb on its heroes
wear your wound with honor, make someone proud
someone like you should not be allowed
to start any fires

now your smile is spreading thin
seems you're trying not to lose
since I'm not supposed to grin
all you've got to do is win
(that's all ya gotta do)
(ohh, it ain't over)

now your smile is spreading thin
seems you're trying not to lose
since I'm not supposed to grin
all you've got to do is win
(thats all ya gotta do, ohh)
all you've got to do is win
(it ain't over)
when your smile is spreading thin
(seek and believe in you)
since you're trying not to lose
(it ain't over, no, no)
since i'm not supposed to grin
(that's all ya gotta do)
all you've got to do is win
(it ain't over, no,,, ohh)
(seek and believe in you)
all you've got to do is win
(it ain't over, no, no)
wo-ohh, all you've got
is all you've got
(it ain't over)
it ain't over...

from philadelphia in late 1974 . . . “win”

somebody up there likes me

there may have been one of those utterly compelling momentary magical insights for david bowie when he put together this absolute cracker of a song incorporating his new-found passion for the philadelphia sound with his own incredible musical sensibilities. i don't know. the song and tune really stand on their own. taken from his 1975 release entitled ”young americans”, (which has one of my favourite album covers by any musician), the song features a very tight group of musicians but the sound you'll take away from it and the reason you'll be drawn back to it is the groundbreaking, genre carving sax of david sanborn.

i first heard this song a year or so after it was released and at the time i mistakenly associated david more-or-less exclusively with glam rock. it came as a welcome surprise to hear well-formed and passionate music clealry informed by luther vandross with all the beautiful call-response and gorgeous back up singing that i associated with the crack bands of philly. it was through "young americans" and especially his later albums "low" "heroes" and "lodger" that i came to appreciate and to some degree develop an understanding for myself of what some of david's music is about beyond the adopted stage presence.

here's the first song of david bowie's that i really liked - and still like to this day . . . . "somebody up there likes me".

he's everybody's token, on everybody's wall
blessing all the papers, thanking one and all
hugging all the babies, kissing all the ladies
knowing all that you think about from writing on the wall
he's so divine, his soul shines
breaks the night, sleep tight
his ever loving face smiles on the whole human race
he says "i'm somebody"
he's got his eye on your soul, his hand on your heart

he says "don't hurry, baby
somebody up there (somebody) likes me"
he's the savage son of the tv tube
planets wrote the day was due
all the wisest men around
predicted that a man was found
who looked a lot like you and me, yeah
everyone with sense could see
nothing left his eye unmoved, he
had the plan, he had to use
he's so divine, his soul shines
breaks the night, sleep tight
his ever loving face smiles on the whole human race

he says "i'm somebody"
he's got his eye on your soul, his hand on your heart

he says "don't hurry, baby
somebody up there (somebody) likes me"
somebody plays my song in tune
makes me, makes me, makes me stronger for you, babe
was a way when we were young, that
any man was judged by what he'd done
but now you pick them on the screen (what they look like)
where they've been

[chorus 2]
he's got his eye on your soul, his hand on your heart

he says "don't hurry, baby
somebody up there (somebody) likes me"
leaders come, they hate all the people know
that given time, the leaders go
tell me, can they hold you under their spell
can they walk and hold you as well as a
smile like valentino?
could he sell you anything?
keep your eyes on your soul, keep your hand on your heart

he says "don't hurry, baby
somebody up there (somebody) likes me"
somebody (somebody) somebody (somebody
yeah, can't remember (somebody) peace so well

oh, space to ramble, (somebody, somebody) space to boogie

soul shine (ooh-ooh)
so divine
somebody (ooh-ooh, somebody)
soul shine (ooh-ooh)
so divine
somebody (ooh-ooh)
somebody, somebody, somebody

marvin ayres - deliquescent music

if you were to unravel the contents of my ipod, you’d see very little rhyme or reason in terms of the types of music you'd find all jammed together inside its scrawny confines. music spanning hundreds of years, across many many genres, ranging from pop to avant-garde (assuming they represent the extremes of the music spectrum), in fact the one common thread you'd notice is that i like music that compels me to change in some way while i am listening to it. you could argue that all music does that in some way, but i think that the kind of change i’m trying to describe has more to do with thought-patterns.

my own experience has been that there is all sorts of music that can change your emotional state, your physical state, even your spiritual state. but music that adjusts your perspective or alters the way that you think is much less common. to have music that is capable of doing this has always been valuable to me.

this has become especially important in the last few years where i have noticed that i am less-inclined to sustained creative thinking. i don’t know if this is a reflection of my age, my stage in life, or if it’s simply my sense of how i should be, given those two conditions. whatever the cause, i find myself gravitating more to music that is textural, layered, more often reflective or considered, of longer duration, and not so much to the more fragmented music of my twenties through fourties. i guess if i had to characterize it with a term i'd say that i listen to more music that has what i know as “flow”.

at the same time, i like music that challenges, that makes me need to listen again and again in order to better understand and appreciate it. today i came across the music of marvin ayres. u.k. music magazine ”the wire” describes ayres as “a serious and thoughtful composer”. astonishingly to me, ayres’ worked through the eighties with such pop notables as culture club, simply red, frankie goes to hollywood, and prefab sprout!

ayres’ music is complex, layered music that wavers between a genre described as “holy-minimalist” and music that would be more properly described as "ambient". at times ayres' music sounds as if it is on the verge of liturgical music and then just as quickly settles back into washes of colour. more detailed information about the music, the composer and about past and present projects can be found at marvin ayres’ website.

if you're not familiar with ayres' music and would like to view and listen to some examples, then you should have a seat and click these up.

this first film was made by pavel rudanovsky.

here is marvin ayres’ music live at the camden festival of electronica . . .

and again at the launch of his album “eccentric deliquescence” . . .
samples of ayres music can be heard at revere nation’s website.

loren webster's "in a dark time"

anyone who spends any time surfing through the ‘net knows the feeling when they turn a corner and see something that leaves them absolutely gobsmacked and breathless. i came across just such a site recently when i ran face first into ”in a dark time . . . the eye begins to see". once you get past the long moniker and slowly scroll down the first page of breathtaking photography and lovely simple but informative text, you know you’ve stumbled across a gem! ripe with poetry and excerpted text as well as some well-chosen descriptive words, this is a site to spend an afternoon enjoying....
here’s one example of the photography you’ll see . . . “summer rain” . . . oh wow!!

radiohead's house of cards

in addition to producing consistently fine and challenging music, radiohead stretches the creative envelope of their work through utilizing cutting edge technology both in the music they create and in the interface between themselves and their listeners / viewers. the latest video from their in rainbows release is entitled house of cards.

the technology used in the making of this video is sufficiently innovative and exciting that a page dedicated to the “making of” can be seen and read here.
from that page, the following snip of techno-advice . . . “radiohead just released a new video for its song "house of cards" from the album "in rainbows".
no cameras or lights were used. instead two technologies were used to capture 3d images: geometric informatics and velodyne lidar. geometric informatics scanning systems produce structured light to capture 3d images at close proximity, while a velodyne lidar system that uses multiple lasers is used to capture large environments such as landscapes. in this video, 64 lasers rotating and shooting in a 360 degree radius 900 times per minute produced all the exterior scenes.”

intriguingly, instructions for manipulating the images in this video are provided here and for creating your own data visualizations here.

but back to the song . . . here are the lyrics . . .
Radiohead Lyrics
House of Cards Lyrics

and here’s the film . . .