Month: October 2005

Weisblott’s Back!

There’s been a bit of a void in the Accordion City blogosphere since Marc Weisblott’s local news/gossip/opinions-and-rants blog, Better Living Centre (named after the big building at the Canadian National Exhibition), went off-line. Although he’s been blogging at Fifty Most Toronto and the city is well-represented through the Toronto-focused blogs BlogTO and Torontoist, I’ve missed his hyperkinetic blogging “voice”.

That’s why I’m glad to report that he’s back with Paved, a new blog with the same old Weisblott touch and another spiffy logo created by Brett Lamb, a man to whom I shall pass the title of “Toronto’s Most Eligible Bachelor”. Welcome back, Marc!

(Brett: I have a Playboy “Little Black Book” just for you! Drop me a line and it’s yours.)

Accordion, Instrument of the Gods Music

Turner’s Take on the Clark Hall Pub Hitlist

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date October 6, 2005
No Comments on Turner’s Take on the Clark Hall Pub Hitlist

Inspired by both his wife Ashley’s take and my quick post on the tunes on his Clark [Hall Pub] Standards playlist, Chris “Turner” Turner has written up notes on his selections. He’s very kind to me in his writeup for Sloan’s unrequited university love anthem Underwhelmed and has one of the most bang-on summaries of Nine Inch Nails’ Head Like a Hole (which at the time, had probably never been played on accordion):

This was a mainstay of the Clark setlist during my first two years at Queen’s and my introduction to industrial. I liked it. It was far heavier than most of the hair metal I grew up on, but (at least on this track) much smarter and more insightful. Plus no clumsy references to Norse mythology or motorcycles.

It Happened to Me Music

Clark Hall Pub Hitlist

Ashley Bristowe writes up Chris Turner’s Clark Standards Songlist, a compilation of the big hits at Clark Hall Pub, the engineering student-run bar at Crazy Go Nuts University where Turner and I used to DJ. The list covers Ashley’s stay there, 1991 through 1996, which overlaps significantly with mine (1987 – 1994; I DJ’d at Clark from 1989 through 1994). On the list:

Jesus Built My Hotrod – Ministry
Head Like a Hole – Nine Inch Nails
Debaser – Pixies
Cannonball – The Breeders
Elephant Stone – The Stone Roses
There’s No Other Way – Blur
Loser – Beck
Sabotage – Beastie Boys
Jump Around – House of Pain
Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe – Whale
Been Caught Stealing – Jane’s Addiction
Big Time Sensuality – Bjork
Underwhelmed – Sloan
Supersonic – Oasis
Basket Case – Green Day
Miss World – Hole
Homeboy – Adorable
Supernaut – 1000 Homo DJs
It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine) – R.E.M.

The list is pretty good, but needs Ween’s Push Th’ Little Daisies, Front 242’s Headhunter 3.0, Rick James’ Super Freak, KMFDM’s Godlike and They Might Be Giants’ Birdhouse in Your Soul for good measure.

In the News

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In the News

When News Organizations Go Unstaffed

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date October 5, 2005
2 Comments on When News Organizations Go Unstaffed

[Dave Edwards from Big Story

IM’d me to point this out] The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, still

in the throes of its employee lockout (a tentative agreement was signed

yesterday), has been making do with other employees filling in for news

writers, and it’s showing:

A screenshot of the CBC story on the film based on

Edward R. “Morrow”. The highlighting is mine. Click the picture to go

to its web page.

It’s sad when a news organization gets the names of its heroes wrong. The gentleman in question is actually Edward R. Murrow.

Never heard of the man? Don’t feel bad; apparently the folks currently

running the CBC haven’t either. He’s notable for his reporting in World

War II (especially the then-shocking way he covered the liberation of Buchenwald) and his instrumental role in taking down Senator McCarthy (who, in these debased times, is being held up as a hero by some total wingnuts). You might want to see his Wikipedia entry.

In the News

Pandemic Flu Awareness Week

Post author By Joey deVilla
Post date October 5, 2005
1 Comment on Pandemic Flu Awareness Week

“Not to rain on your honeymoon parade and all,” Liz “I Speak of Dreams” Ditz wrote to me in an email, “but this is a pretty big issue.” (No problem, Liz. Part of my mission statement is to use my blog powers for good!)

The week of October 3rd through 9th is Pandemic Flu Awareness Week on the Flu Wiki. The flu, epsecially avian flu, is an issue big enough to garner headlines on CNN today.

Here’s what the Flu Wiki has to say about this week:

The purpose of Pandemic Flu Awareness Week, and the Flu Wiki, is to allow the dissemination of information down to the local level so that everyone can use each others’ experience, planning and ideas so as not to be left unawares should an actual pandemic occur. Like hurricanes, when a pandemic occurs can not be accurately predicted.

Nonetheless, that which can be done in advance should be done, because eventually something will happen. Planning can only help, even if at the local level it can’t prevent.

Liz also pointed me to a page of Pandemic Preparedness Guides and Tara C. Smith’s blog, Aetiology (“Discussing causes, origins, and implications of disease and other phenomena”).

I’ll have to ask my sister more about this. She’s the assistant director of health for Peel Region, which includes a big vector for diseases: Lester B. Pearson International Airport, which some of you baggage tag-watchers know better as “YYZ”.

It Happened to Me