Local Dundas Musicians

Hey guess what?

I discovered recently that Dundas, Ontario is the home town of an internationally recognised electronic musician by the name of Dan Snaith. He's better known as Manitoba, or now Caribou (after "Handsome Dick" Manitoba threatened to sue for copyright infringement). He's playing at La Luna in Hamilton next Friday and we're going to see him live (if we can get tickets that is...). I'm reading that his recent stuff is more in the 1970's French rock movement (whatever than means) which is less electronic than I would ave liked. Still, I think it will be interesting.

Yay!

B

Sailing!

Yesterday we went sailing again with Alex. It was an evening sail so we just went round Burlington Bay. He took some lovely photos of us with his fancy camera!

Alex got me to steer for a little while (until we neared a race and he decided he'd better take control). I managed to do pretty well at keeping my tickles straight (the tickles are little pieces of string on the sail which let you know which way the wind is blowing).

Here's us with the steel mills in the background.

We were also having fun making faces to show off Alex's camera's high-speed function!
Look! It's Popeye the sailor man!

And my lovely lumpy looking so sweet!

Classic forgi!

We also discovered that ginger-beer + red wine + orange makes a pretty good sangria type drink and we ate warmed Brie with sweet red-pepper jelly on top made by Alex's lovely friend Louise. She is (one of?) his part-time crew and the editor of SNAP Burlington, a community news paper focusing on good news!

(Warmed Brie with sweet stuff, e.g., cranberries, on top seems to be an extremely Canadian dish.)

Benedict Needs

Hey

Shamus Young of Twenty-Sided-Tale fame suggests typing "(your name) needs" into google and seeing what the top ten hits are.

1. Benedict needs to declare the fruitfulness and the multiplication as Mission Accomplished
2. Benedict needs to stop backing Republicans
3. Benedict needs someone to preview his speeches
4. Benedict "needs a Benelli"
5. Benedict needs a large space to address punters of the sort who don't normally frequent the joint
6. Benedict needs major help in the exercise of public relations and diplomacy
7. Benedict needs a few lessons in manners
8. Benedict needs to learn from his error and make peace!
9. Benedict needs to get in front of a camera again and apologize
10. Benedict needs to sell homes the way some people need coffee in the morning

Guess which one isn't about Joseph Ratzinger?

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This post was brought to you by Benedict

Music: Response

I came across the Top 50 Electronic Albums rated by Impreza22B recently and was surprised at how many of the album I owned, or had at least heard or heard about. It is a rare thing to find anyone with even vaguely similar music tastes in my experience (unless your music tastes are "Top 40s" in which case it is vapidly easy to find like-minded listeners).

While I think Impreza22B basically got it right, it inspired me to put together my own list of:

Top 50 Electronic Albums


1. Oxygene – Jean Michel Jarre (1977)
2. Into Deep – LSG (1999)
3. Selected Ambient Works – Aphex Twin (1993)
4. In Sides – Orbital (1996)
5. Beaucoup Fish – Underworld (2002)
6. Second Toughest in the Infants – Underworld (1996)
7. Beyond the Infinite – Juno Reactor (1996)
8. Dead Cities – The Future Sound of London (1996)
9. The Mix – Kraftwerk (1991)
10. Sunday 8pm – Faithless (1998)

11. 100th Window – Massive Attack (2003)
12. Phrases and Numbers – Infusion (2001)
13. Relentless – Pet Shop Boys (1993)
14. Protection – Massive Attack (1994)
15. Snivilization – Orbital (1994)
16. Outrospective – Faithless (2001)
17. Mezzanine – Massive Attack (1998)
18. Brown Album – Orbital (1992)
19. Music Has the Right to Children – Boards of Canada (1998)
20. Blue Album – Orbital (2004)

21. Kid A – Radiohead (2000)
22. Dubnobasswithmyheadman – Underworld (1993)
23. Leftfield – Leftism (1995)
24. Accelerator – The Future Sound of London (1992)
25. The Fat of the Land – Prodigy (1997)
26. Walking Wounded – Everything But the Girl (1996)
27. G-Spot – Speedy J (1995)
28. Orchid for the Afterworld – Sonic Animation (1999)
29. Oxygene 7-13 – Jean Michel Jarre (1997)
30. Behaviour – Pet Shop Boys (1990)

31. Come With Us – Chemical Brothers (2002)
32. Tourist – St Germain (2000)
33. A Hundred Days Off – Underworld (2002)
34. Splinter – Sneaker Pimps (1999)
35. Frequencies Will Move Together – B(if)tek (2003)
36. Geogaddi – Boards of Canada (2002)
37. Freek Funk – Luke Slater (1997)
38. The Hive – LSG (2002)
39. Bible of Dreams – Juno Reactor (1997)
40. Melody AM – Royskopp (2001)

41. Beam Me Up – Space Cat (2000)
42. Music for the Jilted Generation – The Prodigy (1994)
43. The Altogether – Orbital (2001)
44. No Roots – Faithless (2004)
45. Selected Ambient Works Volume 2 – Aphex Twin (1994)
46. Behind the Sun – Chicane (2000)
47. Movement in Still Life – BT (1999)
48. AM/PM – Endorphin (2002)
49. Junk Science – Deep Dish (1998)
50. Decksandrumsandrockandroll – Propellerheads (1998)


The nice thing about finding Impreza22B's list was finding a few new music groups I hadn't heard before, most recently Royskopp (insert umlaut somewhere there) and The Future Sound of London. In the latter, I've struck gold! Actually, I read that FSOL have another album that I'll probably get in the next period that might be even better than the two albums I've included above.

(I'd love for my own stuff to be in this list, but I've got to get famous first... ;-)

B

Bed Lobsters

We have discovered that if you google-search for "bed lobsters" you only find about 10 hits, and 8 or so of these are cheatery along the lines of "...a comfortable bed. Lobsters are served for dinner..." We seek to rectify this so that there is more information on the internet about bed lobsters. We present:

The Great Bed Lobster Discussion Thread

Here are some things we know about bed lobsters:

1. they bite
2. you never actually see them, you only "observe" them (by being bitten)
3. occasionally they are "observed" outside the bedroom
4. they are animals and not vegetable or mineral
5. they don't need seawater to survive as they are not true crustaceans

We are also starting a Bed Lobster Awareness Raising campaign. If you would like to contribute, please send money to us. We will send you a receipt (donations tax deductible*).

Feel free to leave a comment about your experience with bed lobsters! We would love to learn more about this domestic phenomenon.

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*Must be permanent resident of Luxembourg to qualify for tax deduction.