This one is about the music.

Man. I've heard some cool covers in my day but D A M N ! if this doesn't take the cake. The only thing wrong with the original version of Tom Sawyer by RUSH is Geeedy Lees' terrible voice. With that gone, it's remarkably better, but play it by a Jazz Trio with mad mad skillz and you realize what jazz was meant to be. The excitement of music you know -- of music you've been raised on -- being all fucked with, played better, stronger, faster then ever before, that is what got people into Jazz in the first place. I can feel it here, that feeling they must have felt in the 30s, 40s & 50s. This whole album is loaded with it. Tears for fears, David Bowie... and you would never believe what they did to Chariots of Fire... the baseline, holy moses the base line. Fuck! I might send it tomorrow.

The best news is they are coming to Halifax. I near shit.

This is vibrant and alive, this can engage an audience in the same way Jazz used to and now (mostly) doesn't. This is the way it was and the way it should be... amazing, improvised, reinvention, of our own music, nothing fucking stale about this shit. I'm fucking ready to have my brains blown out by this show, I don't think it's gonna fucking dis-a-mutherfucking-point.

Today's Song of the Day is "Tom Sawyer" by The Bad Plus off their 2007 album "Prog."

Crazy Fact: They are coming to Halifax. (There is so much shit on YouTube, dig it.)

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All that Guff

Though I'm a little sick of the "this historic day" frenzy, there is something I gotta say about this historic day. For all the guff the US gets about its' "main problem" being race, this shows it's true colours and that that's all crap. Lets see the french, german, british, japanese whoever get a black leader. Not bloody likely.

I think there can be no doubt that the US has shown them, that they have turned a corner. Not only in the way that where for the last eight years we have seen the worst the US has to offer, it's ugly, greedy, violent, ignorant, arrogant side and now with a single democratic act shown evidence of change, evidence of a mature people, an accepting people and a choice to step away from that ugly recent past. But also a corner is turned in terms of the history of a country, and for a country that has made such an impact on the history of the world, with such a history of firsts, this first is particularly powerful. If this man who would be king, was born 200 years ago in the United States would have likely been born into slavery, matured into a slave and died unknown. 140 years after a civil war to free all people, 40 years after a civil rights crusade to make all people equal, we have a US president, a black one, elected by all people.

I think this democratic act shows American to be a people more mature than expected, which is nice. Let's hope they've finally elected a government worthy of them, so far, the outlook is good.

Today's Song of the Day is "Bye Bye Badman" by The Stone Roses off their 1989 debut album "The Stone Roses".

Crazy Fact: In 1996, Johnny Squire finally left the band (to form the Seahorses) breaking it up.

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Money buys a better shower.

Everytime I get in the shower I feel like kicking Caleb in the balls. Everytime I get in the shower I know, without a doubt, that progression is a fact. Life is getting better generation after generation, incrementally better.

There are out-of-touch idiots out there (many of them are my friends who I love dearly) who do not think this is so. You can give all kinds of examples like Child mortality rate (burying your child is probably the saddess act in a human life), fucking SOAP! (which is surprisingly new invention, without which... I can't even really imagine the horrible pervasive smell of humanity.. ick) Chocolate!! c'mon! Jesus never ate chocolate, no roman emporers, none of them it's from the 'new world' some with tomatoes, suger, potatoes and corn. What a shitty life! or how no fucking salt on your food. jesus. salt was worth the same as gold for thousands of years... jesus. Forget medical advances... anyway. They all say no no no.. blah blah buh-blah blah...

Get in the fucking shower. That is some Goooood shit. See how happy you are without a shower or any use of indoor plumbing or hot water for a year. Any of us who survive, would bearly survive and it would be an utterly stinky, labour intensive, year.

Well the shower just got better, but you have to be a zillionaire to have one they are 25,000 CND for one of these 'shower cabins'. (go to products, then shower cabins, especially check out image 2 of the 'geo-tray'. OooOOoooh maaaaaaan..

Man-o-man, it's the best reason to sell-out I've seen in my whole G.D. life. 

The future is now people. Again, life just got better (to all those who can afford it.) Of course it's from Italy, of course.

Today's Song of the Day is "Postcards From Italy" by Beirut off their 2006 album "Gulag Orkestar".

Crazy Fact: Zach Condon is the grandson of jazz guitarist Eddie Condon.

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Mad Science Skillz

HOLY HANNA you will never believe the names of the course I'm presently enrolled in... Neurocomputing, Genetic Algorithms, Machine Learning. So, in a nutshell I'm making the terminator, er, I mean, computers which are based on the functions/ behaviours of the human brain (computational neuroscience), programs which can replicate themselves and struggle for survival and dominance in a given environment (genetic programming) and that learn (Machine Learning)... so yeah, give me some miltary funding and I'm building skynet.

I feel like I should be looking out for Sarah Connor's little red laser sight.


Why did I do it? Not because I can. But because it would get me published. Isn't that sad. That would be an awesome answer:

60 Minutes:
Why did you do it? Why did you build the deathray?

The guy who ruined everything:
Well... it was the only Research Assistant position left and tuition these days is a bitch.

60 Minutes:
So you ruined everything for 2000/ month? Was it worth it?

The guy who ruined everything:
no, no. It was only 1500/ month, like I said it was the last RA position I could find.

Well, get your family and friends on the sotd list cuz this list is going to be the "safe list", the "do not destroy list" when I make ED-109 or Hal or Skynet or the Matrix. Fair warning humans.

I'm a FREAKIN' Mad Scientist!


Today's Song of the Day is "Ego Tripping At The Gates Of Hell" by The Flaming Lips off their 2002 album "Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots".

Crazy Fact:  In 1993, They lip-synched performance on the teen soap opera Beverly Hills 90210, where supporting character Steve Sanders (portrayed by actor Ian Ziering) uttered the immortal words, "You know, I've never been a big fan of alternative music, but these guys rocked the house!" (!!!!) Awesome or WHAT!

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