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  • Andrew 8:42 PM on May 1, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: , Satire,   

    A Satire Less Subtle 

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    A couple of centuries ago playwright John Gay caused somewhat of an uproar with his Beggar’s Opera, a thinly-veiled satire about the social inequities of the time.

    Fast-forward to last Saturday night, where Stephen Colbert‘s star-making turn was to publicly criticize the President of the United States and the assembled White House Press Corps to their faces on live television.

    It was a gutsy move and a relentless attack on American Government and media, and if there was ever a reason to learn how to use BitTorrent, this is it.

    I watched my copy of the video as soon as it finished downloading, and what struck me most was that it seemed equal parts comedy and activism—I guess when society moves so far to the right we bleeding-heart liberal-types have to move as far in the other direction.

    There are already reports that big media is turning a blind eye to Colbert’s performance—it certainly wasn’t anywhere on my local news station. Maybe this is the future of comedy, to take a cue from terrorism and hit people where they live with the ugly truth.

    And with that, I give you this…

     

    • Andrew Currie 10:26 PM on May 2, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      If you’re BitTorrent-tarded (I’m talking to you, Al Howell!) you can watch the videos and leave your kudos here:

      http://thankyoustephencolbert.org/wordpress/

    • Chris 12:53 PM on May 3, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      I watched it today and all I have to say is… Brilliant. Colbert has nerve like no other man. Just wondering if you caught the similar function they have hear in Canada (I forget what it’s called). But for the first time it was televised and I saw something I never thought I could imagine. Brian Mulroney said something funny. It was pre-taped and the basics are as follows.

      Wide shot of Mulroney in an office.
      Shot closes in.
      Mulroney speaks.
      “Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Newman go f#(k yourself”
      (I’m paraphrasing the dialog)

      It was brilliant and surprising, the point is I think to some degree politicians have a sense of humor and I think they know what people think of them some of the time. I’m sure Bush has seen the Colbert Report and I’m sure he’s laughed at it too.

    • Andrew Currie 10:16 PM on May 3, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Mainstream media’s latest take on Colbert? “He wasn’t funny.”

      http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/05/03/correspondents/

      Or in other words, “the truth hurts.”

    • Andrew Currie 11:09 AM on May 5, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Here’s a telling gallery of reaction shots from George Dubya:

      http://journals.democraticunderground.com/EarlG/52

      Enjoy!

    • Andrew Currie 1:22 AM on May 9, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      And we’re done—apparently C-SPAN has asked that the video be pulled from popular sharing sites:

      http://www.wired.com/news/wireservice/0,70849-0.html

  • Andrew 9:04 PM on April 2, 2006 Permalink
    Tags: , , , Neutrino,   

    Live from the Drake 

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    …. Wish you were here!

     

  • Andrew 1:32 PM on March 13, 2006 Permalink
    Tags:   

    Like a World’s Fair, with Hicks 

    Last Saturday some friends and I ventured into deepest, darkest Vaughan to see an old high-school chum play at Windy O’Neill’s Irish Pub. I knew the area fairly well, having visited Vaughan Mills Mall on several previous occasions. This, however, was my first time parking on the other side of Highway 7.

    The cluster of buildings down Interchange Way is alternately known as either “The Interchange Retail Power Centre” or just “The Interchange”. Whatever the case, It’s huge, and includes an IKEA, an AMC Theaters complex and the hilariously-named restaurant Sam and Pete’s Cocktails ‘N’ Chow.

    “Hi, and welcome to Sam and Pete’s… Can I start you off with some cocktails or are you ready to order some chow?”

    Classy.

    Back at Windy’s the chow was deep-fried and the band was rockin’… The only low point of the evening came when a friend of the keyboardist was invited to guest on lead vocals for everyone’s Blues favourite “Mustang Sally”. The mulleted fellow who took the mic managed to sing all the notes around the right ones and terrify the 416-ers in the audience with his sudden James Brown-style splits. I swear to god that if three more guys just like him appeared on the dance floor I would have tripped the fire alarm and ran for my dear life. Apologies to the band, but that guy was creepy!

    But as it happened, I got only a taste of suburbia, and before you knew it was safely tucked in to my downtown bed with the soothing sounds of fire engine sirens and drunken clubbers lulling me to sleep…

     

    • milan 10:53 AM on March 14, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      He was definitely an extremely extroverted individual, albeit tone deaf!!! Hey, would you and you guitar player friend (does he do vocals?) you mentioned from the Fringe project be interested in putting together a power trio?? Let me know. What genre of music did you play on that exhausting gig?
      Get back to me. Your friend Milan “Miles” (the Bass Man) Latincic.

    • Andrew Currie 11:40 AM on March 14, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Milan,

      It would be a blast to jam with you and him, but he’s a new dad and doesn’t have much spare time… As for the exhausting gig, you can read all about it here:

      http://acurrie.wordpress.com/2005/11/14/gigging-in-hamilton/
      8-)

    • Lord Wat 12:34 PM on March 14, 2006 Permalink | Reply

      Power trio? I hear David Lee Roth is available… and he’ll work for food!

  • Andrew 10:52 AM on December 8, 2005 Permalink
    Tags:   

    Hamilton Double-Header 

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    So I’m back on the road to Hamilton this weekend, for a two-night stand at the same crazy downtown Irish pub. I’ve found out its name, at least—Sláinte, pronounced Schlan-tay, either because it’s Gaelic or more likely because its patrons so drunk that every word they speak is slurred.

    Anyway, if you’re in Hamilton this weekend and can tolerate a vast sea of frat boys and squealing girls, come up upstairs and check it out!

    … Yeah, I didn’t think so.
    ;)

     

    • Ian 2:52 PM on December 8, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      Ooh ooh, I know this one. “Sláinte Mhathe” is a common Gaelic toast meaning “to your good health”. Mostly people would just say “Sláinte” as a shortened version. In Halifax people used to toast at bars with this, but over the years It’s morphed from being pronounced “Slan-chevah” to “Sociable”. Seriously, yell this out in a bar in Halifax and everyone will toast back at you.

      (This message brought to you by the East Coast Ex-Pat Society)

    • Andrew Currie 3:15 PM on December 8, 2005 Permalink | Reply

      “Sociable”, eh? That makes sense… Our band leader kept toasting the audience with that very word last time we were there—I just thought he was wasted!

  • Andrew 11:42 AM on November 14, 2005 Permalink
    Tags:   

    Gigging in Hamilton 

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    For about nine hours this past weekend yours truly was a professional musician, on the road in lovely Hamilton, Ontario. Here’s how it went down…

    At about 7pm I was picked up by my buddy Dave Young and a tall, gaunt and friendly Serbian fellow by the name of Dragoslav Tanascovic. Together we loaded my drums into the back of Dave’s rock and roll van, and after picking up bassist Duff, we headed down the QEW to our show.

    Sadly, I can’t remember the name of the bar we played at—in was in Gaelic, after all—but apparently it’s not that different from the many other Irish pubs that dot the downtown core. And I have to be honest, here… My first set sucked. Many of the Irish drinking tunes in the bands repertoire required a specific country-shuffle beat that I’ve never really played before, and as I hadn’t unpacked my drums since the Fringe show I did last July, it took most of that first set to get my bass drum foot warmed up.

    During our first break I walked through the audience on my way outside for some fresh air. The room was filling in quickly from a long line-up outside the front doors. Everybody looked fourteen to me, the girls all tarted-up and squealing with delight at the longing looks they were getting from the scores of identically-dressed frat boys. And everything appeared to be kept in check by the watchful eyes of bouncers, the type you’d find at your typical strip joint.

    Somewhere in the middle of the second set things clicked, probably because we switched to more memorable rock anthems, and Dragoslav switched from accordion to electric guitar. The frat boys loved it, and so did we—I think the high point of the evening was our rendition Bon Jovi‘s “Dead or Alive”… Hilarious!

    And suddenly, it was all over. The house lights came up and the kids were ushered out onto the street. I packed up my kit and waded through a sea of broken glass and spilled beer back out to the van. After a quick stop for pizza we were back on the road home, and my night of musical celebrity was over.

    I’d gladly do it again, hopefully without so much folky stuff. When all was said and done, last Friday night proved firsthand that kids still wanna rock!
    8-)

     

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