National Parks Project - Kluane

Okay, so I was away Friday and I didn't have much to say yesterday.

Then this happened. And once again that Canadian gemstone (thanks Gord Downie), the land of the midnight sun, the coldest, brightest, most terrifying place I've ever been, turns dark to light and magics everything there is from bad to good.

The film itself is incredible, but the extra footage, especially the part filmed at Silver City (an abandoned mining town on Kluane Lake), is really something else. Watching this makes me feel like I'm standing on the edge of the Alaska Highway again, knowing that I am just a small blue thing, nothing compared to the place or time around me.

I'm so glad this is happening and we're really starting to celebrate some of these places in ways that involve things other than oddly-designed, inaccessible silver coins and giant, inflatable beavers. I hope this catches on and millions of people watch these films.

Overexcited!

Today I have something to post about that is even blog-theme related! And it's something that I am very excited - overexcited, even - about.

This past Saturday, March 19 the National Parks Project went live with the release of their interactive website and first two films: Looking Around Without Blinking (Gwaii Haanas National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site on the Pacific Ocean) and Wapusk (Wapusk National Park in the Hudson Plains of Manitoba).

I've mentioned this before, but the introduction to the website (narrated by the one-and-only Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip) explains it all, "In 1911, Parks Canada was founded, becoming the first National Parks Service in the world. On the eve of its centennial, Canada's finest artists embarked on an historic expedition to capture the majesty of the landscape in music and film. Thirteen filmmakers, thirty-nine musicians, thirteen National Parks of Canada."

The website itself can probably be considered one of the most creative and beautiful bits of the internet. I've explored the entire thing, film, pictures, artist bios, outtakes. It's really an incredible amount of work. I can always appreciate learning about the story behind the science, or in this case, the artwork.

The first film, Looking Around Without Blinking features some incredible underwater shots and a series of old-growth rainforest shots that are so still and silent you'll almost be convinced you're looking at a photograph or a painting. The cinematography is incredible. My favourite second is when the hiker disappears behind a tree. The film is set to a soundtrack created by Sarah Harmer, Bry Webb (of the Guelph-based Constantines), and Jim Guthrie.

In the second film, Sam Roberts and Kathleen Edwards manage to make the inner workings of a polar bear exclosure, deep in the heart of the Wapusk backland, sound like the most beautiful place in Canada. It's really incredible the things those two can do with a wide-open landscape and a fence full of inspiration. This film also features of couple of park wardens ensuring the protection of the traveling musicians from the park's namesake polar bear population.

Seriously, go check this thing out, you will not regret it. Two new films will be released each Saturday until the end of April. Also, since the music-making was so plentiful, the soundtracks will be released as the National Parks Project Album on May 3. The songs don't seem to be up on the website yet, but I'm going to say I'm pretty excited to hear Wapusk's I'd Lichen it to Moss track.

p.s. The mac and cheese failed today. It needs three hours on high in my slowcooker, not two on low. Probably should have tested that out previously. There was so much food, it didn't really matter. The party was very nice and went really well and my special favourite red mug was a candy-apple hit.

Posted 1.

Here goes. A blog post every day for 30 days. May 20 - April 18. Content to be determined. Length of posts to be determined.

Latest inspirations:

cool indie-art stores in downtown Toronto,
hip, Canadian graphic novels about hockey and rural-Ontario living,


long-term photo-art projects, like Back to the Future by Irina Werning,


and everything the Born Ruffians have ever done.

Blogging about La Blogotheque.

In the spirit of new blog posts, I bring you this:

Go here and waste the rest of your time reading about interesting bands and watching impromptu music videos filmed throughout Paris and New York. Et, pour mes amis bilinguale, allez ici. (I'm not sure if that was correct, I just made it up from what I've been picking up lately in Corntown).

#64.1 - Beirut - Nantes
Uploaded by lablogotheque. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

Hillside 2010.

It was a good year for Hillside.

The turtle image they used for the tickets, lanyards, and promotional material was really cool. I just wish they'd used it more. I think adult t-shirts would have sold really well.

Bronwen and I rented a car to drive up because we had all of our camping gear and our workshop supplies to bring (we both volunteer running hour-long workshops in the Do-It-Yourself tent). Since we had the car, we got to visit Andrew and Louise for french toast breakfast on Saturday. Also, we took some detours on the way home to visit some of my favourite shops in Guelph and my old work site, Limehouse Conservation Authority

It rained a couple times on Saturday, but we were under the Island Stage tent for both of the down-pours, so we managed to stay dry. The ground got really muddy, but we walked around in bare feet and it wasn't so bad. It was actually cool on Saturday night. We went swimming after the music and the water was warmer than the air. Andrew had requested that we deliver him a cone from Mapleton's if there was a cold snap, but it wasn't quite that chilly.

Mapleton's had organized their ice cream stands much better this year, so we went there a lot (well, we always go there a lot, but this year they didn't run out of all the flavours so quickly and the line-ups were tolerable). The Flying Chestnut Kitchen had a stand and they served the most delicious Traditional Indian Tacos. All local ingredients, like Grey County beef chili, Ontario tomatoes and peach salsa and cilantro on Ojibway fry bread.

Our workshops went well. Mine wasn't so busy on Saturday (I was competing with The Acorn at 5:00 pm), but my Sunday workshop was packed and I used up all of the leftover materials from the day before.

My favourite acts of the weekend were: Jason Collett on the main stage Saturday night, The Beauties and what would have been the Japandroids show on Saturday night if security hadn't killed the show, The Acorn and Wooden Sky first thing Sunday morning, and Zeus.

Japandroids rock out in kitty t-shirts.


The Wooden Corn rip a hold in the the plaid universe on Sunday morning. This also isn't a great picture, but you have to admire the seven plaid shirts on one small stage at the same time.


Sarah, Bronwen, and I at the main stage on Sunday night.


Amy Milan's insane glitter dress and Stars.

Glowy red mushrooms we found at Limehouse on our way home.


Some of the native alvar plants I planted in the abandoned Limehouse quarry three years ago. It's nice to see that they are doing so well.


The old draw kiln at Limehouse (just another type of old quarry restoration in action).

Polaris posters!

Canada just got a little prettier. The annual Polaris Music Prize (which I've mentioned a few times) just released the short list posters. Not only does this super-cool organization celebrate independent Canadian music it also brings a lot of attention to the visual artists who work with these musicians. Instead of awarding the short list nominees with an award or trophy, the Polaris Prize finds an artist in the band's hometown and commissions the design of a limited-edition poster. The poster must include the name of the band or artist, the year, and the words Polaris Music Prize. After that, the design of the poster is up to the individual artist.

Patrick Watson's poster. (You can see the rest of them on the Polaris Music Prize site)

Wolfe Island Music Festival

Last weekend Em and I went on a road trip. We had decided to squeeze in one last music festival before I left for my trip. Emily had heard about Wolfe Island Musicfest. It was on the right weekend and it was close enough to her parent's house that we had a place to stay.

We hit the road on Friday afternoon with Daphne (Emily's greyhound) in the back seat. We made it to Belleville in no time and stopped by the house to drop off Daph and have something delicious to eat. Emily's mother makes everything for us to eat and she packed us dinner too. Gillian, Em's sister, was in the process of organizing her yard sale for the next morning. She had all sorts of things out and it was going to be a high-class sale. All of the items were on special for Emily and I at a 100% discount. I picked up a copper-y silver-y scarf. It might actually come to Australia to me as it matches everything I own.

Shortly after our arrival in Belleville we were on the road to the festival. We decided to take the scenic route down across the county. It truly was a beautiful drive. The weather was fantastic and there was plenty to see. I think we drove by at least 7 historical plaques. Someday we will have to return to check out the county more thoroughly. We did make one pit stop in Bloomfield at Slickers Ice Cream Parlour. At Slickers they make really interesting ice cream flavours and use a lot of local ingredients. I had an apple pie ice cream that had whole baked apple pies stirred right into the ice cream. I also had a ginger raspberry ice cream that was so tasty. After our ice cream break we headed on through Picton. Picton is one of the bigger towns on the county island. At Picton we took the Glenory Ferry across to the mainland. The ferries in this area are all free. We had perfect ferry timing and literally drove onto the ferry right before it left the dock. We got out of our car with all of the other people and stood up near the front for the short channel crossing. On the mainland we drove along the shore of Lake Ontario to Kingston. The road along the shore is much nicer than the 401 because it is less busy (at least on the weekends) and is well maintained since there are many large industries along the shore including a quarry, a cement plant, and some other plants. Some of the plants even have their own huge docks out into Lake Ontario so that ships can pick up and drop off supplies.

In Kingston we parked near the arena where the Frontenacs play and walked down the street to the Wolfe Island Ferry. We stopped at Pan Chancho for baked goods. I had a buttermilk banana cupcake with chocolate buttermilk frosting. It was one of the softest, smoothest baked goods I have ever had. Emily had her favourite, pain au chocolat, or chocolate croissant, which was almost as good as the ones she had eaten in Paris. We boarded the ferry with a whole lot of people. These people were mainly Kingston hipsters on their way over to the festival. There were a lot of skinny jeans and vintage high-waisted shorts in the crowd. On the ride over we admired the wind turbine field that has been built across Wolfe Island. From the ferry I counted 76 wind turbines. There are many more, I'm sure. We landed at the ferry dock and walked around the town on the Island. The gates to the main part of the festival weren't open yet, so we went over to the Island Grill where the pre-festival show was being held. We ordered some ceasers that were made in a bar that was literally in a shack. Then we sat on the shore eating the dinner Em's mom had packed for us, sipping our spicy ceasers, and watching for the ferry. We had curry buns, bbq pork buns, snack mix, brownies, and apples that we decided not to eat. We had gotten enough fruits and veggies from the ceasers. yum. Em took a picture of the musician storage area which was where they kept their instruments under a tree by the dock.

When the gates had opened we went into the main festival area. This was the front parking lot for the town hall. The lighting was very cool and we watched The Bahamas as the sun went down. We also happened to be sitting next to Ron Sexsmith. That was cool. We met our friends from Guelph, Laura and Chris. We hung out and drank some beers. And we looked at the merch tent. The t-shirts for the festival were really cool. I liked the grey ones a lot.



We went back to our original spot and Ron Sexsmith dropped his half full beer. Some of it splashed on my feet. He apologized for splashing me, and I said, "no worries, it only splashed me a little bit". We watched Sarah Harmer for a bit. She opened her set with the song, Aglow, which I really enjoyed.

We decided that we needed to get a really good seat for Woodhands. They were playing down the road at the Great Wolfe Hotel. Laura had worked in the hotel one summer as a short-order cook. When we got to the hotel, there really weren't many people there at all. At the bar, I was standing right beside Dan Werb and Paul from Woodhands. We sat and had another beer. Emily had the ginger ale that her Mom had packed. Before Woodhands played we had to sit through P.S. I Love You. They were a rock duo from the Island. The lead singer wore Kiss make-up on his face. It was all very odd. They had a bit of a following, being locals. When Woodhands came on they had some technical difficulties. I suppose that's what you get when you play on 30 year old electronic instruments. The crowd liked their show, of course, but it was nothing compared to the set we had seen at Hillside. Once again, I stood just at the back of the standing crowd up on a bench. It had really spring-y cushions so I just bounced along for the whole show.

After Woodhands, we walked back to the ferry with our eardrums half blown out. It was a chilly ride across and I sat right beside Ron Sexsmith again. Not on purpose, I just came around a corner to empty seats and there he was. We took the 401 back to Belleville and went straight to bed, at 3:00 am.

The next morning we were up bright and early at 10:00 am for Gillian's yard sale. I purchased a pair of beaded deer skin and rabbit for moccasins. They are delightful to wear. I also purchased two tiny pig pencils for my sister. You press the snout and the lead comes out of the tail. Four tiny pottery mugs and a tiny mini Wade Red Rose Tea figurine of a pup. I think the story behind these figurines is very interesting and a special part of late 20th century Canadian history.

That afternoon we headed back to the festival. The main stage had been set up and all of the music was being put on in the baseball diamond outfield that day. We took a blanket and napped, and ate, and I knit mittens for a band, When An Ambulance Needs An Ambulance. Soon after we had settled in a hipster girl from Kingston came and sat directly in front of us. She just happened to be the worst dog owner in the world. Her Basset Hound, Harriet, lunged on me twice, tried to steal my food, growled at me, spilled tea on my mitten, and walked over Emily's head while she was asleep. As my Dad says, there really isn't much clearance between Basset Hounds and the ground. We were thoroughly annoyed within the first ten minutes of this behaviour, so we had to move our blanket. I hope that owner clued in that we were moving away from her because she was obviously attention starved. She told me that she would replace any of my food Harriet ate and that she had had to replace two hot dogs the previous year. Um, my sandwich was irreplaceable unless she was going to drive home to Belleville and have Ching-Bee whip up another one.

Some of the notable acts we say that night included the end of One Hundred Dollars, Ohbijou, Rural Alberta Advantage, Winter Gloves, and, of course, Holy Fuck. I was really happy to see RAA because I had missed them at Hillside and I think they are cool. We also saw Guelph locals, The D'urbervilles. I was actually quite impressed with their new stuff. It was so much more catchy than what I'm used to. Holy Fuck actually closed the show and Em and I snuck up to the very front to see their set. There was an opening between the stage and the speakers and the sound guy actually moved some stuff so we could see them really well. They put on an incredible show, as usual. Unfortunately, Em's camera had run out of batteries and we missed several good photo ops.

We made it back to Belleville around 1:00 am and once again crashed into bed. We were very tired. I'd been on the road for days at this point because I had been in St. Catharine's visiting Nat at her adorable new house the day before we left for Kingston. We got a really good sleep that night, though, and woke up to a delicious brunch of omelettes, baked tomatoes, egg-y bread, and fruit salad.

At noon, we left to return to Guelph. On the way we went through a heavy rainstorm. The sky turned black and luckily Em had stopped to fix the windshield wipers minutes before we entered the downpour. We made it through and decided to stop at the Big Apple. This is a popular tourist trap on the 401 between Belleville and Toronto. They have made over 3 million pies. We bought some dumplings, which were over-sugared. Possibly the sweetest item either of us had eaten. Ate a small portion and tried to go into the big apple. It was closed for maintenance. Em took a good picture of us on her Blackberry in the rain beside the apple. In the restaurant there were pictures of big things from around the world. We decided we would have to make note of these things and try to visit some of them. When we took a closer look we say that these pictures included the big nickel in Sudbury, the big goose in Wawa, the apple, and about 20 other big things in Australia. I'm going to have to keep my eye out for big items on my trip. There was a pineapple, a rocking horse, a really cool big lobster, and a big tangerine to name a few. We also walked through the enormous gift shop that was attached to the restaurant. It was mainly full of walls and walls of REALLY offensive t-shirts. Strange.

Once we were back in town, we headed over to Josh's house for a private show featuring the song the boys had written for me. It is an absolutely fantastic song, very catchy, Louise, Em, and I all agreed that it was our favourite of all the songs they had written. I gave them the mittens and we were headed back to town. We met Kelsey, Mike, and Andrew to go to Pete Kelly's unofficial art opening at Manhatten's and ate fantastic pizza. The night ended with the craziest lightening storm any of us had ever seen in Guelph. It was actually quite terrifying and incredible.

Hillside 2009.

Every year in late July the Hillside music festival is held on the island in Guelph Lake Conservation Area. This year marked my fourth year in attendance. Five years ago I went with Bronwen as paying customers. That was the first year Hillside sold out. The next year we returned as volunteers and I washed dishes as Bronwen sold merch. We decided that the benefits that came with volunteering (free camping, food, playing an important role in the Hillside community) completely outweighed the costs (washing tons of dishes with enviro-biodegradable soap in lukewarm water). The following year I was not able to attend as I was a bridesmaid in Ottawa. However, the past two years I have once again volunteered and have ran crafty workshops. Hillside 2008 was a special year because Hillside celebrated it's 25th year running. I've also volunteered in the Hillside office for the first and second annual Hillside Inside events.

This Hillside 2009 was definitely the rainiest, muddiest festival I have ever attended. It didn't really matter though because I also think this was one of the best festivals I have taken part in overall. I found a bunch of new music, my craft workshop was very successful, Nat's tent kept us dry, we ate a ton of Mapleton's Organic (my flavours: maple chunk, ginger, pumpkin, chocolate, and raspberry), friends came up from out-of-town, and we saw some Incredible shows. O, and one of the best parts was that I had completely handed in all of the paperwork, money orders, and copies of my thesis to Graduate Studies at school the morning before it all started.

On Thursday night, Bronwen, Kristen, and Hamish came to our house. They had driven all the way from Ottawa. With one stop for dinner at Hot Belly Mama's for dinner and a few wrong turns the drive had taken them ten hours. We hung out for a bit, then everyone crashed in the livingroom. I had to get up the next day to completely complete the graduation process.

The next morning I got up and headed out. I left those three to find their own breakfasts (which they did well at the Cornerstone). Then I was back and we packed up their rental car and headed up to the Island. Hamish had to be at his volunteer info session and we wanted to set up camp. Check in was quick and simple. I walked Hamish to his meeting. By the time I was back at the causeway the girls had dropped off our HUGE amount of camping gear. Hillside had arranged volunteers with peddle carts and golf carts to transport our belongings up to the campsite. This was greatly appreciated. We found a vacancy in the Volunteer Village and set up the tents.

Setting up tents with ominous clouds in the background:




I always love the colours tent village makes.

Doug, Kent, and Scotty from Kid Coma were playing in the first timeslot so we went to catch a bit of the Acoustically Yours workshop. We were about ready for Hillside beers and Nat met up with us at this point. We quickly set up her tent and then headed back to the mainstage to catch Xavier Rudd. I've seen him perform several times and this time was jsut as good and dance-y as all the others. Next we headed over to see Rock Plaza Central. I had never seen them before and they put on a good show.

The next morning, I was up and went for a swim. I always like to swim in the morning at Hillside. Breakfast was free with volunteer. I liked the orange slices. Unfortunately, my breakfast pita round was chockfull of raisins. My workshop ran first thing that morning. It went well and I managed to squeeze in about 45 crafters. The tent was quite crowded at this point. We ran over to see a few songs from Green Go before we made our return to the craft tent for Bronwen's book binding workshop. The Hillside ladies really loved her craft and everyone's little books turned out very well. Bronwen had put a lot of work into the covers prior to Hillside. Luckily she had found a box of abandoned National Geographic magazines. Their full-page photos make excellent book covers. Once our volunteer hours were complete for the day (we had missed both Bruce Peninsula performances :() we retired to the beer tent to catch the last few songs from the Bahamas. The cover of Purple Rain really got the crowd going. I'm looking forward to seeing them again at Wolfe Island. Emily and Gillian joined us at this point. They had stopped by Sears to pick up some rain gear. Good thing too. Ohbijou was on next. Their set was beautiful, as usual. Then we went to get food. That was good. I stopped by to see bits of Timber Timbre, Attack in Black, and the Guelph Guitar Project. I was feeling a bit down and all of the songs at this point were about sad things and bleh. So, I walked myself through the craft vendors and thought about buying some merch. At 7:00 pm with the first few chords from Hey Rosetta! my mood was completely lifted. The Saturday evening line-up turned out to be one of the best Hillside has ever heard. Hey Rosetta! was followed by Library Voices, Woodhands, and Sunparlour Players (one of my all-time favourite bands. Period.)

Here is a cool video of Woodhands. You can catch Em and I on front row of the picnic table. I'm pointing at a topless crowdsurfer and she laughs:

After the show, we headed over to the merchandise tent. Sunparlour Players made their way over to continue their set and I ran into Pete Kelly, musician photographer extraordinaire (well, in general photographer extraordinaire, but I love (and he loves, I know it) his musician subjects. See his image, entitled Spontaneity, to get a sense of the energy of this band. After the show I went for a dip with Hamish and then we headed over to the drum circle and campfire for a bit. I like to stop by for at least a few minutes every year.

This is the merch I bought:
-Sunparlour Players new CD called Wave North
-Sunparlour Players grey t-shirt with orange and yellow logo
-Patrick Watson grey t-shirt with creepy clapping robot hands
-Dancehall Free For All green ringer t-shirt
-Sunparlour Players preserves: mustard.

On Sunday, I slept in a bit. I really needed a good sleep because I was feeling tired from my crazy week. We had free breakfast again under the dining tent in an attempt to escape the downpours. O, rainy Hillside Sunday, what can I say? It rained a lot and there was a lot of mud. That's about it. My craft workshop went well again. I had another 40 attendees. Then went to see Dancehall Free For All before meeting up with Bronwen for her workshop (we traded workshop assistantships for the weekend. That helped a lot). Once her workshop was over the rain really started to come down and so did the lightning. Bronwen got shocked a bit because she was wearing a toe-ring and standing in a puddle. Scary!

This is what the lightning strike looked like:

Once that all happened, we were free for the rest of the day. We say Clues and Winter Gloves (love). Then we went to pack up. Once we got to the mudpit of a parking lot we decided we needed to move the cars in order to escape come the evening. I had to push Nat's car and that was quite funny. Luckily I did not get very muddy. Well, my feet got very muddy, but the rest of me was clean. The white car we skidded by was not so clean anymore.

Walking back from pushing out the car. Clean feet from a quick dip in the beach:


Traditional ice cream shot:


I had dinner with Andrew, Tyler, Emily, Nat, Kristen, and Bronwen while watching the end of Great Lake Swimmers, Patrick Watson, and Final Fantasy. Fantastic Sunday night line-up, but my feet were so sore and the rain came down hard once again. Bronwen and Kristen went to find a dry spot under the tent and I headed home with Nat. We were wet to the core and freezing cold, but completely content with our weekend at Hillside. I always love getting into a warm car in the middle of the summer when you're freezing cold.

Final Fantasy:

In the morning we got up and went to Eggcetera. It had been a while since I had eaten there and it was a nice way to wrap-up our weekend. The visitors hit the road and I came home to begin the process of packing up my house. Hillside is one of my favourite times of year and I can imagine I will always come back to Guelph to attend.

Cover-ups.

1. Tiny Cities Made of Ashes

We're goin' down the road towards tiny cities made of ashes
Gonna hit you on the face gonna punch you in your
glasses. Oh no!
I just got a message that said "Yeah hell is freezin' over"
I Got a phone call from the Lord sayin' "Hey boy get a
sweater. Right now"
So we're drinkin' drinkin' drinkin' drinkin' coca-coca-cola
I can feel it rollin' right on down
Oh right on down my throat
And as we're headed down the road towards tiny cities
made of ashes
I'm gonna get dressed up in plastic gonna shake hands
with the masses. Oh no!
Does anybody know a way that a body could get away
Does anybody know a way
Were goin' down the road towards tiny cities made of ashes
I'm goin' to hit you on the face I'm goin' to punch you in your
glasses. Oh no!
I'm wearin' myself a t-shirt that says "The world is my ashtray"
Our hearts pump dust and our hairs all grey
And I just got a message sayin' that hell has frozen over
Got a phone call from the Lord sayin' "Hey boy get a
sweater. Right now!"
Does anybody know a way that a body could get away
Does anybody know a way
Were drinkin' drinkin' drinkin' drinkin' coca-coca-cola
I can feel it rollin' right on down oh right on down my throat
And as we're headed down the road towards tiny cities
made of ashes
I'm gonna lay down in the spa where they coat you
in molasses. Oh no!
Does anybody know a way that a body could get away
Does anybody know a way

-From Tiny Cities by Sun Kil Moon

2. Dark Center Of The Universe

I might disintegrate into the thin air if you'd like
I'm not the dark center of the universe like you thought [x2]
Well, it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am
And I'm real damn sure that anyone can, equally easily work you over
Well, died sayin' something, but didn't mean it
Everyone's life ends, but no one ever completes it
Dry or wet ice, they both melt and you're equally cheated
Well, it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am
And I'm really damn sure that anyone can, equally easily work you over
Well, an endless ocean landin' on an endless desert
Well, its funny as hell, but no one laughs when they get there
If you can't see the thin air than why the hell should you care?
Well, it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am
And I'm really damn sure that anyone can, equally easily work you over
Well, I'm sure you'd tell me you got nothing to say
But our voices shook hands the other day
If you can't see the thin air what the hell is in the way?
[repeated lyrics]
Well, God sayin' somethin', but he didn't mean it
Everyone's life ends, but no one ever completes it
Dry or wet ice, they both melt and you're equally cheated
Well, it took a lot of work to be the ass that I am
And I'm really damn sure that anyone can, equally easily work you over
I'm sure you'll tell me you got nothin' to say
But our voices shook hands the other day
If you can't see the thin air then what the hells in your way?

-From Pickin' on Modest Mouse by Iron Horse

Good tunes.

The Polaris Music Prize is an annual Canadian music award presented for artistic talent and creativity in recorded music. Each year in September a jury of 180 journalists, bloggers, and broadcasters from across Canada convene to select the best album in the country. There is no entry fee, no submission process, any album recorded in the year is eligible for the award. The idea here is to celebrate the complete recorded album as an art form.

The long list of 40 albums is released to the public in early June. The short list of the top 10 albums will be announced tomorrow, July 7. This gives the public a chance to search out these artists and have a listen before the Polaris Gala in September when the top album is announced.

The Polaris Prize has been awarded for the past three years. The top albums each of these three years include some incredible work. 2006, the first year the award was given, Final Fantasy won for He Poos Clouds. The 2007 winner was Patrick Wilson with Close to Paradise. Last year's winner was Caribou with Andorra.

This year's long list contains some fantastic albums. Several of these bands will be attending the Hillside Festival in three short weekends.

O man, I'm excited. I put the album pictures beside my favourites....but I'm biased because I don't know everyone here. I'm going to search them out because you can't go wrong with any of these CD's. Can't wait to see who makes the short list tomorrow!

Arkells - Jackson Square
Hamilton

Jill Barber - Chances
Port Credit

Beast - Beast
Montréal



Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows
Montréal

Bison B.C. - Quiet Earth
Vancouver



Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth
Toronto

Cœur De Pirate - Cœur De Pirate
Montréal

Leonard Cohen - Live In London
Montréal

D-Sisive - Let The Children Die
Toronto

Elephant Stone - The Seven Seas
Montréal



Elliott BROOD - Mountain Meadows
Toronto

Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life
Toronto

Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Toronto



Handsome Furs - Face Control
Montréal

Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
Montréal



Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
St. John's

Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Vancouver



Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
Hamilton

K-OS - YES!
Toronto



K'NAAN - Troubadour
Toronto

La patère rose - La patère rose
Montréal

Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Montréal

Lhasa - Lhasa
Montréal

Malajube - Labyrinthes
Montréal



Metric - Fantasies
Toronto

One Hundred Dollars - Forest Of Tears
Toronto

Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
Vancouver

Joel Plaskett - Three
Halifax

Snailhouse - Lies On The Prize
Montréal

Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project
Toronto

Rae Spoon - superioryouareinferior
Calgary

The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
Montréal

Think About Life - Family
Montréal



Timber Timbre - Timber Tiimbre
Toronto

Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Calgary

Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
Montréal

Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Montréal



Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Montréal

Women - Women
Calgary

Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada C/W Houndstooth Europa
Calgary

One of my favourites.

Every few days the banner on the University of Guelph website changes to show off an important event or information about the school. The most recent banner is one of my all-time favourites. It shows Doug and one of his bands, the GMO's, at the Make it Seven Rally in Hamilton. The GMO's wrote a song about the drive to bring a seventh national hockey league team to Canada and they were picked up by the rally organizers to play on the big day.

Grist Mill, Waterloo Park

Tonight Nat, Pete Kelly, and I are going on an adventure to Waterloo Park. Apparently they have fixed up the old Grist Mill and they hold events and shows there now. Tonight we are going to see a band I have wanted to see for awhile now: Bruce Peninsula. Timber Timbre is also playing tonight, along with Ben Ong from Bocce.



Rumour has it the mill only holds 70-80 people and doors start at either 7 pm or 8 pm. So, we're going to leave Guelph at 6:30 and kill whatever time we may have when we get there. The drive is easy and it's a gorgeous sunny afternoon, so we'll be fine. I suppose I'll take the second sleeve of the sweater I'm knitting today.

So it goes.

Speaking of celebrating people who have had a huge impact on the shape of society as we know it with song....

Last night we went to the eBar to take in a live show. This is a more-than weekly occurance around these parts as our little city has an excellent indie music scene. Em had found out about this 10-piece collective of musicians called Library Voices. They had traveled all the way from Regina, Saskatchewan to play for a smaller-than-average crowd of Guelph locals.



They made us get out of our seats and I started to move. Um, wow they are so good. It must take a whole lot of practice to harmonize with so many other singers and have such clean stops and starts midsong. Anyway, I really really like them and then I fell in love with them when they played one of the coolest, most clever songs I had heard in a long long time: Things We Stole from Vonnegut's Grave.





I tried to throw my money at them in support, but they had been cleared out by a bunch of teenagers whom wanted t-shirts with the f-word on them. This wasn't the t-shrit they had last night, but I couldn't find a picture of it and I'd take this one anyday.

This Man.

The history of science is interesting and important to study. All of our modern thoughts, ideas, and conventions have important connections to the scientists that came before us. One scientist that we talk about a great deal in our lab is this man:



Nikolai Vavilov was born on November 25, 1887 in Moscow, Russia. There he graduated from the Agricultural Institute in 1910 after completing a thesis on the impact of snails on agriculture. He went on to hold many important positions in Russia where he studied botany and agriculture. He was the man who first determined the centres of origins of many of the most important agricultural species we still use today. This work relates to the work that my lab did just previous to my joining which was summarized in the book The Urban Cliff Revolution.



Vavilov collected seeds from all over the globe. He developed the largest seedbank in the world in Leningrad. During the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted from 9 September 1941, to 18 January 1943, Vavilov's research assistants defended the seed collection. As Hitler tried to gain power over the Soviet Union people were dying from starvation, but the edible seeds and potatoes survived for prosperity. Even one of the research assistants starved to death during that time.

Vavilov, himself, was arrested in 1940 for repeatedly criticizing the non-Mendelian concepts of his one time friend and Stalin's protege, Trofim Lysenko. Vavilov died in the German prison in 1943 due to malnutrition, but the entire time he was there he delivered over 100 scientific lectures.

In studying modern agriculture and botany we follow in everything Vavilov laid out for us. The Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry stills maintains one of the largest seedbanks in the world.

The Decemberist's last album, The Crane Wife memorializes Vavilov in one of their songs, When the War Came. His story is tragic, but inspiring at the same time. Every time we talk about Vavilov in the lab or find out new information about his life traveling the world and doing good science we end up laughing and smiling. He would have fit in very well here because, as Doug says, Vavilov captures what is good in all of the best scientists we've known.

Good Design.

Found this cool little blog today. It's called Design Observer. Each Monday one of the authors posts a series of desgin images for their readers to contemplate. His name is Eric Baker and this is the clip from the end of his weekly post:

Eric Baker Design Associates is a Manhattan-based design firm established in 1986. Eric teaches the history of graphic design and corporate identity at the School of Visual Arts, and has twice received National Endowment for the Arts Grants for independent design history projects. He is inveterate collector of books and ephemera.



I'm thinking more about communication outside of my usual styles and I'm feeling very inspired.

Doug is having a "shocking realization" (his words) that the world is moving forward faster than he can keep up. He just spent the last half hour on the phone with the, most likely, only government employee whom keeps track of all of the airphotos of Canada. Apparently, you can't see the 7 million photos online, you need to find the location, e-mail them, and they will snailmail you a letter containing the desired photo. In essence, the government can't afford to provid the service that googlemaps can for free. This is much like the way musicians can't afford to make a CD because noone will purchase it. People will just obtain it from the internet for the low, low price of zero dollars. None of this really makes sense to him and I try to support the indie music scene as much as I possibly can.

Black Cab Sessions.

I'm not exactly sure what this is, where it is, how it happens, but it's really cool. Definitely something to check out. I watched a few of them and my favourites so far are Fleet Foxes and Ane Brun. There are quite a few of my other favourite bands on the site as well. It's interesting to see what they will do outside of the recording studio, off the stage, and in the middle of the day.