16.12.15

Jamaica or not Jamaica

Jamaica. I sit here in Jamaica. Sort of.

My toes caress white Jamaican sand. Jamaican voices repeat "yeh mon" and "ire ire" to the delight of Harley Davidson clad Americans and Canadians. Bob Marley is everywhere. I am eating Jamaican food and drinking Jamaican beer. The smells of freshly lit cannabis drift easily through calm beach air. This is not Jamaica. It is very nice, very very nice, but it is not Jamaica.

This is the kind of guilt dilemma in which I tend to find myself when I travel to these sorts of places. By these-sorts-of-places, I mean beautiful resorts positioned strategically in very poor warm-weather places. I am not in Jamaica. I am in a sanitized, very comfortable facsimile of Jamaica set up for tourists. Tourists very much like me.

I'm sort of okay with this, but it is weird. For example, much of the resort - as I'm sure is true at most resorts here - is designed in some sort of faux-plantation style. My room has plantation shutters. The main building is, as you might guess, the great house. Like-dressed men and women with black faces are there to serve me endless tropical delights at my every whim. It is weird.

Our orientation guide mentioned that she grew up on a resort that used to be a slave plantation. Her mother was a chef at the resort and the family lived on the grounds. This is weird.

I'm not sure what my obligation as a tourist - and probably foremost as a human being - is here. How much of this resort money improves the lives of Jamaicans? Probably not very much, but maybe I'm being cynical. I met a couple from Brooklyn in the lobby and the gentleman told me that the average worker here is on about $15 a day. Is any of this good for anyone? Is it merely just new colonialism?

I ask these questions while I enjoy a rum and tonic waiting for the rain to clear so I can walk to the pool room without getting wet. The resort provided me with an umbrella, but I think I'll wait it out.

3.11.15

Shirley Manson; Retrospectively still a badass

Once upon a time my friend Adam and I enjoyed a Garbage show at the venue in Urbana now known as the Canopy Club. After the show, this happened.


We are so so so young. So young. Shirley Manson was so excellent, so nice, and so gracious to take a picture with these two idiots. This definitely occurred in late 1997. Adam and I got stuck in the dorms at ISR after this show - I can't remember exactly why, car problems? - and ended up playing Trivial Pursuit with the rest of my floor that hadn't left yet. One failed answer was CYBOT. I don't know why I remember this.

Last night Emily and I had the pleasure of Garbage at Vega. They are currently in the midst of a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their debut, self-titled album. I remember my first play in the Neon...with the side-to-side, Vow works best at full volume in a car. Definitely. 

It was a fun show. I'm at the age now where nostalgia is sort of fun but mostly uncomfortable and not fun, but this was fun. They played songs from the debut album / songs they played live from 95-96. Thankfully this included Trip My Wire!

Things started a little slow - definitely some issues with the mixing, vocals definitely drowned out - but once that was sorted, it was a very strong performance. And loud. Very loud.

Shirley still commands a stage. The pacing. The stalking.

They burned down the set with the album opening Vow and it was spectacular. Shirley punctuating everything with some sort of slow-rising-messiah-arms thing that was just spectacular.

The encore was, as Shirley accurately described, even more obscure b-sides. I dig the intent of coming back out, because that's what you do, but there is no coming back out after that ending. It was perfect.

1.10.15

Massive Apologies to Action Bronson et al

In the previous post I wrongly suggested - with certainty - that Action Bronson would not appear on time. Not only did the show start on time, it started early! Meyhem Lauren aka Laurenevicci? aka someotherstuffIcan'tspell hit the VEGA stage at TEN TO NINE. EARLIER THAN POSTED. After a short break Bronson and his team did their thing - on point, precise, super fun. It was a blast.

As-many-hats-off-as-possible to everyone involved. Fantastic show.

30.9.15

Americans watching Americans

Sometimes the universe sends strange yet apt messages. There's coincidence, and there's strange coincidence, and then there's that sort of coincidence that makes me understand that yes, I am in The Matrix. Let's begin!

Monday night I watched "Weird Al" tear down STOR VEGA and tonight I return to the same venue to check out Queens-ian / Albanian / EpicBeard-ian / HipHop-sensatian Action Bronson. In Copenhagen. Yes boys and girls, dreams really do come true.

I'll start this with a little history about me and Weird Al Yankovic and music in general. This will be shocking to many readers, but I wasn't very cool as a kid! In around '85, I knew next to nothing about current "popular" music. I did know a lot about The Beatles and Elvis and...wait for it...Weird Al! I don't know who introduced me to him, but it stuck to me. Hard. Much as George Michael Bluth attempted to prank-call like the Jerky Boys...


...young Collin attempted - badly - to write parody songs! They were terrible. But I loved Weird Al. So much. 

Shortly after Even Worse - my favorite song is You Make Me! - came out, my "friends" not so nicely informed me that this was neither cool music nor music at all. Real music was cool! Real music was - at this time - hair bands. Music was freaking Def Leppard Hysteria! Comedy was not music nor cool and Weird Al was definitely not cool. This is what it sounds like when Collin - both child and adult - cries. Collin was a nerd and failed the nerd test when he said - *gasp* - I don't like Weird Al anymore! Nooooooo! 

In a very short span I lost both Weird Al and my friends. I chose poorly. So poorly.

So, fast-forward / rewind to Monday! Copenhagen is a fairly homogeneous city, but guess what? There are pockets of weirdness! There are nerds in Copenhagen! Lots of them! They were all at the Weird Al show!

It was a fun show. Costume changes! Video montages! Polka! Star Wars costumes! Weird three man mouth music stuff! I was young again and it was great. Thank you Weird Al. You're the best. 

--

So then, with the Bronsoliño - with his hair slicked back he looks like Rick Pitino! - I'm way late to the party with Action Bronson, but I am a fan. He is currently at the tail end of a world tour. We're excited to find out what sorts of stuff he throws into the crowd! It's just like Oprah! Will Body be there to do Body things?! Will the show start on time!?!?! Who knows!?!! (Note, I know, with certainty, that the show will not start on time. Weird Al started 30 minutes late and Al's a teetotaler! Bronson is, well, not-so-much.) 

Second note, here he is yesterday at WarPigs yesterday...I picked the wrong day not to go to WarPigs.


Fast-forward to the Matrix...today I, looking for reviews of this tour, hit this article from The Guardian. IN THE PICTURE CAPTION IT SAYS THIS!
The missing link between the Wu-Tang Clan and Weird Al Yankovic … Action Bronson.
MIND = BLOWN. Thank you Weird Al. Thank you Action Bronson. Thank you VEGA.

19.6.15

Day somethingsomething

Howdy friends and other characters, it has been a terribly long while.

Today I sit alone in rainy-Copenhagen, still suffering from the cold that SHALL NOT PASS. Emily is off to Toronto and I, for better or worse, am left here alone with my thoughts.

Where to start! I'll start with yesterday's Danish election.

For me - and perhaps many of you USAmericans - foreign elections present a somewhat strange concept of how elections work, how citizens vote, and how folks are elected.

This is my simple - and probably flawed (likely flat-out wrong) - explanation of how the Danish system works. I'll try to simplify this by starting at the a-prime-minister-is-elected point.

Once appointed / elected, a PM has the position for a maximum of four years. At any point prior, the PM can call for a general election. There are many many many many many many many *somewhat* major parties here. They range all over the place, but generally speaking they split up into two distinct blocs or coalitions. Right. Left.

Voters can vote for party or individual. Final party percentages determine the number of votes for PM, and thus the need for a coalition / bloc to elect the PM that those *winners* prefer.

Our current PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt's party actually scored the most votes in yesterday's general election. The Danskfolkeparti finished second. They are sadly part of the bloc / coalition that will elect the next PM.

To familiarize you with the Danskfolkeparti, I'll give you this from their wiki

The party holds that Denmark is not naturally a country of immigration. The party also does not accept a multi-ethnic transformation of Denmark,[43] and rejects multiculturalism.[23] Former party leader Pia Kjærsgaard stated she did "not want Denmark as a multiethnic, multicultural society",[44] and that a multiethnic Denmark would be a "national disaster".[45] The party seek to drastically reduce non-Western immigration, oppose islamisation, and favour cultural assimilation of immigrants. In 2010, the party proposed to put a complete stop to all immigration from non-Western countries, a continuation of a proposal the month before to toughen the 24-year rule.[46] They do, however, make the distinction between immigrants, those who intend to stay in Denmark permanently, and refugees, those that will only be in Denmark for the duration of the conflict, but ultimately intend to return home. The party has stated that it is more than happy to help those in need, but have a moral responsibility to the people of Denmark to keep Denmark Danish.[47]

So yes, a horribly racist, frighteningly nationalist organization grabbed 21.1% of the vote. You might say, what was voter turnout? Maybe this was based on some sort of get-out-the-vote activity? I mean for us lazy USAmericans, in 2012, only 55% of voters came out to vote. Here, in Denmark, we generally approach the 90%.

I get that it's easy to grab Danes on the idea of Danish-nationalism. Immigration is an issue. It's also easy to grab old people on this sort of nonsense - in 2014 approximately 18% of the population was over 65.

Here's the thing that I don't get. Most of the *right* aspects of Danish politics - reduced taxes, less social programs, more room for corporations, more flexibility, more money - they don't apply to the f$%^parti.

This is a party that has sold voters on tons of social stuff, as long as that social stuff doesn't apply to africans and easternblockers and asians and anyone else neither *Danish* nor *Western*.

I've been here for 2 and a half years and this concept of Danish-ness is still ridiculous. I don't know what makes a *Dane*. I don't know what makes a *Westerner*. I'm stupid. I'm an American. I don't even know what makes an *American*. Such is my stupidity.

But, for the Danish *right* to pull this sort of eff-all-nonsense into their voting bloc just to pad their stats for the sake of electing a PM!? Bah. It's garbage. Total garbage.

23.1.15

Happy Birthday

Today, George Kontos would have been 95 years old.


He was a kind, thoughtful, patient, generous man. I miss talking to him on the phone. Talking about what's up. Talking about the Bears. Talking about anything. Talking.

I spent a ton of time at my Grandparent's house as a kid. My Grandparents always took the time with us. Books. Games. Museums. Activities. They did it, despite predicted boredom / aggravation. They did it for us and we're better for it.

One of the books that I always remember from that time was "The Man who Didn't Wash His Dishes".


I just loved the illustrations. Loved them.

Happy birthday my friend. You are missed.