Sometimes people like having their picture taken. You just have to ask. This Ottawa U student was cramming for an exam in Confederation Park.

I’m more used to this kind of reaction. What a couple of sourpusses.

I liked the guy with the umbrella. He looks so well-prepared.

Sometimes this place really looks like Disneyland. This is from the Somerset foot bridge.

There is a contest to name that bridge, but it’s a little late. I saw a petition to name it the “Corktown Bridge,” after the early Irish canal-workers’ settlement, which might have been a good idea if the bridge didn’t already have a name and if there weren’t already a Corkstown Road elsewhere in the city.

Here’s a progress report on the development at Lebreton Flats. Yup, looks like they’re really going to build it.

The drunk building was complaining to the lion. The lion’s heard it all before.

Hockey

I missed Game 5 but I caught the highlights on the news. Go Sens go!

[Final score: 3-0 Senators. Ottawa wins the series over Pittsburgh 4 games to 1]

Joanna Newsom, part 2

I gave “Ys” a try. In my opinion it isn’t good.

Newsom has an inventive imagination and a good ear for a line, but she has no idea what a song is. Stringing a lot (a LOT) of lines together doesn’t make a song, it makes undergraduate doggerel. Her voice would be ok too, if there weren’t so much of it; but she doesn’t leave any spaces for your ear to get a rest.

That sums up my criticism. These songs are just way too crowded. I find it incredible that this CD has done so well. I’m trying to find her first CD, The Milk-Eyed Mender. I have a feeling it might be better. At least it doesn’t have Van Dyke Parks on it. (Parks is responsible for drowning Newsom’s harp in swooshy layers of strings.)

Updated April 22, 2007:
I came upon a fan site called “Milky Moon” that has quotes from Joanna Newsom about this and that. Here’s one:

“I’m not part of some epic, bracelet-clanking, eyes-rolled-back, blase, nihilistic scenester cult or anything.”

Marry, the lady doth protest too much!

The reason I got so interested in Joanna Newsom is because I read a quote in an interview with a musician I admire, someone famous and venerated like Pete Townsend (although I can’t remember who it really was), and they said they were listening to Newsom. Naturally I had to check her out.

Now I’m listening to Danny Michel and Jim Bryson. And Jann Arden’s covers album, “Uncover Me.”

(Sigh) Updated a little later on Sunday, April 22, 2007:

Here’s a video. This is from Newsom’s earlier album Milk-Eyed Mender. I like it more than the songs from Ys. Actually I like it a lot. (I had to right-click, save to my computer to get it to play. It’s in .MOV format.)

I guess I’m really trying to like Joanna Newsom. If so it’s because I think sometimes it’s hard to get something new if you don’t really give it a chance. I don’t want to miss out on something really good.

Here is a list of some things I almost missed out on because I couldn’t stand them the first time I heard them:
1. The Incredible String Band
2. Jimi Hendrix – “Are You Experienced” album
3. Neil Young’s voice
4. Van Morrison’s voice
5. The Wizard of Oz

Joanna Newsom

Joanna Newsom is a 23-year-old musician from San Francisco who plays a full-size concert harp and sings at the same time. The songs are intricate and dense, and very long. There are only five of them on this album.

Her voice is a bit hard to take. You won’t be humming along. Most reviews mention caterwauling and helium, although many of the reviewers like her anyway and this CD has done very well for her.

Newsom has been photographed wearing an animal on her head. What, she’s a warrior princess? Maybe she needs to learn to say no to the marketing department.

So far, I don’t know if I like her or not. I admire her originality. I’ve got her on my iPod in heavy rotation. I think she’ll either grow on me or drive me crazy.

Newsom reminds me of a band from the 60s called The Incredible String Band. They were two guys who performed a kind of pagan backwoods British folk-music-sounding stuff, using weird instruments that they didn’t seem to know how to play. They couldn’t sing either, but I came to love them. Here’s the cover of an album of theirs called The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter.

Christianity

I’m not a Christian. It just seems too complicated to me. If somebody didn’t tell you about it, you’d never guess any of that stuff.

I think if a religion were true it would seem inevitable. Maybe even obvious. Most likely there’d be a thunder god.

But I came across this quote from C.S.Lewis (author of the Narnia books, among others), whose thoughts on this are the opposite of mine:

“That is one of the reasons that I believe in Christianity. It is not a religion you could have guessed. If it offered us just the kind of universe that we have always expected, I should expect that we were making it up. But in fact it is not the sort of thing that anyone could have made up. It just has that queer twist about it that real things have.” -C.S. Lewis

I’m inclined to say “Hmmph.” By that logic you might as well believe in anything, such as Scientology or the tooth fairy. Or gravity! ;)

Hmmph.

Hockey playoffs

It’s a 1-1 tie in the 2nd intermission of game 4 with the Penguins. This one is making me nervous because tonight the Senators don’t look as good.

I hate how they don’t seem to be able to come through with enough grit when it really counts. That’s what everybody says, but maybe it’s true.

During the intermission I zipped over to check out Sanjaya on American Idol. He’s really terrible. Back to hockey!

Oh I hope they win this. I can hardly stand to watch it. The Senators are such a hard team to be a fan of.

Volchenkov scores! 2-1 Ottawa with 10 minutes left to play.

[Final score: 2-1 Senators]