Pic 1106
Mussel shells

April 9, 2011

Two years ago:
Pic 765
Peace tower

April 9, 2010

Three years:
Pic 418
Baby

April 9, 2009

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