Squeeze at the Kool Haus
Picked up my heavily discounted ticket from a Craigslist poster at Yonge & Dundas. Then drove down to what used to be RPM/Warehouse and stood in line outside until the doors were opened just as the first drops of rain began to fall. Waited up front for the show to start, leaning against the fence barricading us like animals from the stage by four or five feet. My age was roughly the median for crowd and fortunately they had whiskey and beer for sale to make us at least a little frisky. Squeeze's performance was flawless and energetic and the setlist was packed with their best songs, nearly all from their first five albums. Quite similar to the set of songs they played at Canada's Wonderland on singer Glen Tilbrook's cake-in-the-face birthday concert in 1985 (Cosi Fan Tutti Frutti tour), or at Massey Hall in 1988 (Bablyon and On tour). A mere 20 years ago. Chris Difford's voice and presence certainly added to last night's performance, yet there was a lack of intimacy and spontaneity as compared to the Glen Tilbrook shows I'd seen more recently. The format of this concert was much more rigid; not even allowing for Aimee Mann (a huge fan and onetime collaborator) to join them for a song, much less to allow for Glen to come into the audience for a singalong.

  posted by John : 10:26 AM

 
Dylan rocked
I wasn't expecting much at all, but was very pleasantly surprised to hear Bob in such fine form - as good as I've ever seen. I'm still playing Most Likely You'll Go Your Way (And I'll Go Mine) in my head five days after the concert. Here's the set list and reviews from some uber-fans which describe the day quite well. Levon Helm band was great, and Glen Hansard really was quite incredible. Wish I had captured a video of his million-mile-an-hour guitar playing for Van Morrison's Astral Weeks. Can't say that I've ever heard anyone do a cover of that song before.
  posted by John : 6:16 PM

 
Wonderful Weekend

Aug 16th 2008

  posted by John : 9:23 AM

 
Old Photos

Denmark 1940s

Denmark 1957

Canada 1957-1964

Denmark 1973

My father was an avid photographer back in his day. Click these to view some photos from his collection. The ones in the 1940s albums I scanned from his 2"x4" negatives, all neatly stored in leather booklets. The others are digital photos taken tonight of his 35mm slides projected onto a screen in my mom's darkened apartment.
  posted by John : 9:01 PM

 
Manitoulin Weekend

Manitoulin 8-08

  posted by John : 8:57 AM