Love it #4: The Mortal Poetry of "Pressure Drop"

The compliment "immortal poetry" seems like a towering honour, but what higher compliment can be given to verse than to call it mortal poetry, the poetry of mortality itself.

Progressives have a habit of highlighting difference, and it is true that oppressions come down asymmetrically, with violence raining in unequal measure according to categories of race, class, gender, sexuality, physical 'ability and other divisions. Justice is not equally available to all, though it should be. While it is important to examine inequality in order to fight it, it's solidarity that gives people the power to change unjust circumstances.

While philosophers and activists examine our differences, mortal poetry points to our similarities, similarities that can act as the foundation of solidarity.

In the photo above, a mist hangs over the Cape Breton cliffs that overlook the meeting point of the Atlantic and St. Lawrence River. Powerful currents and deadly waves mingle together under the cold clouds, in a scene that unfolds thousands of miles north of the Jamaican shores that inspired the song "Pressure Drop."

Pressure Drop, first recorded by The Maytals in 1969 with legendary producer Leslie Kong. Featured on "The Harder They Come" film soundtrack, it has since been covered by many artists, including The Specials and The Clash.

While the song itself is a wonder to behold, the lyrics transcend social and geographical difference by making reference to a sensation that threatens every living mammal on the planet. Immediately before a storm- whether it is an Atlantic hurricane bearing down on Jamaica or Nova Scotia, a tornado touching down in Texas, or a pacific squall, the air pressure suddenly drops, causing the hairs on the back of the neck to stand up, and signaling the need to seek sound shelter. That is the poetry of mortality.

Mortality, the threat of death, the precarious nature of life itself, the need for food and water to stave off the inevitable end, this is the tie that unites, and for all the very real differences that put justice beyond or within reach, there is a thread running through every life in common.

MM

Love it #3: Dana Snell

Dana is one of my favourite drummers. Currently playing with Gentleman Reg, and Sheezer, she also spent ten years with The Bicycles. When she's behind the kit, Dana's in complete control, but she's also clearly enjoying herself, and it's infectious.

Before running into each other at various gigs, Dana and I met in a writing seminar at the University of Toronto, led by Griffin Prize winner (and gifted/gifting educator) A.F. Moritz. While anyone who saw her on tour with the Bicycles or Reg knows what a great percussionist she is, Dana has another gift the world has yet to discover.

In Al Moritz's seminar, now eight years ago, Dana shared a work of fiction she'd been working on that had me laughing out loud with its deft social satire and surreal storyline. It's been eight years since I read the draft she shared with us in the course, but I am still waiting to see her name printed on the spine of a book- I know it's going to happen.

You can see Dana playing with Gentleman Reg every Wednesday night in February at the Drake Hotel in Toronto. The Regidency will feature different musical guests each week.

The above photo is from Dana's tour with Gentleman Reg, opening for The Hidden Cameras in the fall of 2009. The one in the wig is Reg, Dana is on the right.

Love it #2: Bojana Stancic

If you live in Toronto, and you stroll down Ossington or Queen West on occasion, you may have glimpsed this glamorous creature. A millennial soul with a voice as smoky and mysterious as Nico, Bojana is an artist and set designer who frequently collaborates with playwright/director Alex Wolfson.

You can see her set design work in Wolfson's play "And so, the Animal Looked Back" at the Art Gallery of York University (AGYU), an installation running until March 12th, concluding with live performances on March 11th and 12th, each at 7:30 pm. For tickets and information call 416-736-5169.

Love it #1: Waffles

After a century of political disasters- mass movements that lead to murder and war at worst, or disappointment and disillusionment at least, the utopian impulse that lingers in the hearts of dreamers is lacking in the social fuel that turns spark to flame.

Lately, activists and academics seemed stalled in a phase of critique and deconstruction, rather than proposing and constructing, building and bettering. (There are valid reasons for this- but it's a topic for another time.)

In hopes of moving beyond the 'negative turn,' the BB blog is going to take some baby steps towards dreaming big again, by occasionally making post-it notes of pure positivity.

The first 'Love it' note, is this photo of an amazing breakfast. Yes, I confess, there are paper cups, cartons of questionable recycle-ability, but look beyond the clutter, and there is evidence of a big breakfast being shared. "Who will help me bake this bread?" Several people who passed through the kitchen in this photo would be happy to help you bake your bread. Those are veggie sausages, by the way, just in case your eyebrows were wiggling.

Don't Smash Your Teeth on the Punk Rock. We're Touring with Woodpigeon!

Woodpigeon, Mark Hamilton's prolific pop ensemble from Calgary, Alberta, have invited Betty Burke along as openers on their upcoming tour in Ontario and Quebec. Native speakers of Frenglish, we are focussing on improving our French, and polishing off new songs for the adventure.

Just add snow and trees to the photo above, and you will have a sense of what awaits us on the 401 Hwy, as we weave our way from Hamilton to Wakefield to deliver our ballads to your door. In case you are wondering about the dot in the right hand corner of the image, it's a beautiful green tractor. Oh glorious tractor, perhaps a ballad will be composed in your honour.

On February 14th, en lieu of a Betty/Woodpigeon show, I will be playing a gig with my old band The Barcelona Pavilion at the Wavelength 500 festival. This will be our first time playing together in many years, and I am pretty excited.

I broke two of my front teeth with The Barcelona Pavilion in 2003, jumping of a table with a microphone in my mouth. Don't ever do that. Smashing a guitar is a waste of money, but breaking your teeth might cost even more if you consider the price of periodic repairs over the course of your lifetime. That's not jamming econo!

The dates for the Woodpigeon and Betty Burke shows are as follows:

February 11th: Toronto, Drake Hotel
February 15th: Hamilton, The Casbah
February 16th: Sudbury, The Townhouse
February 17th: Toronto, Buddies in Bad Times (Betty only -see below)*
February 18th: Montreal, La Sala Rosa
February 19th: Quebec, Le Cercle
February 21st: Wakefield, Black Sheep Inn (near Ottawa, ON)

On the 17th Woodpigeon will be playing The Mansion in Kingston while Betty plays the opening of The Rhubarb Festival in Toronto. Woodpigeon has a few more Ontario dates lined up that Betty won't be at, but you should go see them if they hit your town.

Darger on the Battery, or "Radio Waves are Alive!"

The little girl daydreaming in this photo sits on a rock on 'The Rock,' Newfoundland. She spends her bleached days under a bakeapple tree in the Battery, overlooking The Narrows between the natural Harbour of St. John's, and the open Atlantic. Not far from her perch, Marconi received the first wireless Transatlantic signal, a repeating beep representing the letter 'S.' Marconi was told many times that it would be impossible, yet, on December 12th 1901, the signal sent from Poldhu, Cornwall in the UK reached Marconi's receiver on Signal Hill.

What strikes me about this little dreamer from the Battery is that she looks exactly like one of Henry Darger's gender defying Vivian Girls, the warrior innocents that populated his Realms of the Unreal, fighting dragons, insects, and adults in the paintings and novel found in Darger's Chicago apartment after he died. The little Vivian Girl from the Battery has left her fictional realm to guard The Narrows where the open, unknown, and undefined realm of the impossible meets the Harbour of what is known, accepted, safe, and predictable.

What we live with today is not all we will ever be stuck with. As my friend Chris Korte often says, quoting the late Zoe Lund, "That which is not yet, but which ought to be, is more real than that which merely is." Or as Herbert Marcuse put it in One Dimensional Man, "...the artistic universe is one of illusion, semblance, Schein. However, this semblance is resemblance to a reality which exists as the threat and promise of the established one." Like this Vivian Girl, and the radio signal that reached the hill behind her in 1901, the impossible things the dreamer sees eventually come to life, interrupting the course of the world we know.

"Are you man enough to be a woman?"

Recently, NME blogger Rae Alexandra asked, "What Happened to All the Ferocious Female Punks?" Joel Gibb, Chris Korte and I were asking the same question recently over a casual cup of tea with the artist G.B. Jones.

A living legend, G.B.'s work has been compared to Tom of Finland (with female cops instead of bears) and was a member of the proto-riot grrl band Fifth Column. She has recently returned to music with the band Opera Arcana, with Minus Smile from Kids On TV and Julie Faught of the Pining.

Between G.B., Joel, myself, and Chris, (a curator who has performed with Norwegian opera creators Vinge and Muller), we thought up a seemingly endless list of amazing women in bands from the 80s and 90s- Chris noted Siouxsie Sioux, Exene Cervenka, Belinda Carlisle (who wore garbage bag dresses before superstardom) and Grace Jones, Joel mentioned the L7 tampon incident, and GB told us stories about the Toronto music scene in the 1980s, which, among other things, was home to Carol Pope, Canada's first (out) lesbian popstar. We also sang the praises of Frances McKee of The Vaselines, and Bikini Kill. And it wasn't long ago that the amazing genderqueer presence of artists like Divine and Jayne/Wayne County demanded of audiences "Are you man enough to be a woman?"

Compare that to the situation today, and it seems like apart from wispy folk and eccentric but non-threatening electro, there's not as much of a female presence as there was ten years ago. We have MIA, we have Peaches, but for the most part righteous anger seems to be taking a nap.

While NME blogger Alexandra partly blames the popularity of Suicide Girls for the dearth of angry women on the proverbial mic, there seems to be a deeper root to this regressive wave in music. I hate to be repetitive, as I recently blogged about cultural devolution that has seen the unapologetic and/or unthinking sexism rise like Phoenix from the ashes of the PC 90s, but it's a topic that won't go away.

It's time to take inspiration from the best of the past- not for nostalgia, but for illumination. The following clip is a love song, but let's think of it as a love song for a revolutionary moment, one we just need to get back to. In the spirit of optimism, here's "Right Back Where We Started From", by Maxine Nightingale.