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NEW HOTNESS AT SPIKEINTHEBOX:
09/08/03 - Aw, geez, first I have to start school last week for the first time in six-plus years, and now this. We all knew it would happen sooner than later, but, dammit, it's still a shock: Warren Zevon succumbed to his year-long battle with lung cancer. Say what you will about his sometimes crass outsider persona, he was a musical innovator. Let's just let the links speak for themselves, for I think they say it all... :
Zevon's story is as good a reason as any not to smoke...
Oh, and The Northern Wish, my bi-weekly independent Canadian music radio show on the UBC campus station, CiTR 101.9 fm, may be toast -- a victim of the back-to-school crunch. More on that soap opera to come. If you'd care to help the campaign to get The Northern Wish an evening slot (so the indie Canadian tunes can ring through Vancouver's glorious skies forever -- or at least until Spike becomes a part of the Mainstream Corporate Radio Fiasco forever), feel free to email CiTR's Programming Director, Bryce Dunn, at : citrprogramming@club.ams.ubc.ca.
02/14/03 - Crappy Scamentines Day, everybody! A big, wet cheap chocolate-smeared smooch to all you single folk. Now, you know I just pick on February 14 because I'm unlucky in love and wish the same misery on everyone else. But really, go buy your sweetheart all sorts of unnecessary crap in place of actual love because that's what the Hallmark Corporation would really like you to do.
Boy, I've been busier than a chimp in heat this week! The best albums and movies of 2002 selections in Spike's Varied Likes is coming along slowly but swimmingly. It should all be posted by the end of next week. In the meantime, albums one through five have been put up (although album five is, um, wrong...), so go check it out. Also, the very first artwork has been posted on the Arty Spike page... hallucinagins are not necessary, but may prove useful in enjoying this page. More art will be posted soon.
Stuff to see on the web...award shows suck, and the Grammys are the worst of the lot. That in mind, the nominees for one of the few award shows I actually make some sort of effort to watch, the Juno Awards, were announced Wednesday. Here's the list of nominees: http://www.juno-awards.ca/site/nominees/2003nominee01.php.
My boys, Hot Hot Heat, are nominated in the Alternative Album category, along with the always awesome buck65; Kathleen Edwards is nominated for Roots/Traditional Solo Album while Zubot and Dawson and the Bill Hilly Band are in the Roots/Trad Group category; VanCity crew get mass representin' in the Rap Recording of the Year from both The Rascalz and Swollen Members (via Langford, over on the Island, boyyyy); finally Glenn Lewis snagged a nod for R&B Soul Recording. Best of luck to those and all other nominees. By the way, the awards show is on April 6 on CTV at 8pm, if anyone else cares.
And congratulations goes out to Victoria boy Atom Egoyan for snagging best picture honours at the Genie Awards for his fine, fine film Ararat. If you haven't seen it yet, I think it is just about to come out on video. Do yourself a favour and rent it. The list of all the other Genie winners can be found at: http://www.genieawards.ca/genie23/categs.cfm.
Finally, before I sign off for this week, another pair of links which are of a timely nature, which will be posted to Linksinthebox sooner than soon, but require you go visit them. Now. Well, okay, maybe not *now*, but when you're done perusing SPIKEINTHEBOX. The 2010 Olympics plebiscite will take place on February 22, a week this Saturday. So if you live in Vancouver, vote in the friggin' thing if you care about your city, and, dammit, educate yourself a bit before you go to the polls. Since SPIKEINTHEBOX can be, and is, partisan, and because the 'yes' side has way too many high-profile spokespeople already, I, as SPIKEINTHEBOX webmaster, am taking it upon myself to implore you to visit http://www.nogames2010.org/ early and often to educate oneself to the myriad reasons Vancouverites should vote 'no' to the 2010 bid. Also, don't let the government propaganda excuse of 'the federal government has the money set aside for the bid already and they won't commit it toward anything else if the bid fails'. That's bullshit. If the bid fails, the money *will* go back into the general coffers and be committed to things which need to be seen to first, such as healthcare, education and the lot. At least one would hope so.
And, last but not least, a link of note that I meant to make a big deal about a few updates ago, but a stupid spacecraft blew up instead, is for the U.S. Library of Congress's National Recording Registry. The idea is that each year the Library of Congress, under direction of the newly-formed National Recording Preservation Board, will select a number of recordings deemed historical or landmark every year, and preserve the actual physical recording for the use of future generations. This inaugural year, 50 recordings were inducted, including such varied recordings as those from recording artists, such as Grandmaster Flash and (Canadian, and I'm damn proud he is) Duke Ellington and his Orchestra, to Booker T. Washington's Atlanta Exposition speech and Orson Welles' radio play, War of the Worlds. Many of the recordings are first of their kinds (phonograph, rolls) or the only remaining artifacts of its type. The Registry was created to address the fact that many physical recordings are lost forever due to poor preservation. This is an important creation if you hold music dear, like myself, and want to know more about its past. First, a link to the first 50 recordings inducted back on January 27: http://www.loc.gov/rr/record/nrpb/nrpb-2002reg.html
Now be sure to get out to that peace rally this weekend and be safe and have fun. Because like some great person once said sometime: "If I can't dance, I don't want to be a part of your revolution."
02/11/03 - Wow, having that serious face on for so long was starting to hurt. Okay, let's put that face away again for a while. So, Gordon Campbell was officially charged with four counts of dangerous driving and driving under the influence yesterday ... looks like he's up the creek without a bottle, er, I meant paddle.
Anyway, I've been supa bizzay getting more schtuff up on SPIKEINTHEBOX, as will be apparent when you visit Picture Me This, Deep Thoughts and Linksinthebox pages. As you can also see, there's a new Picture of the Month and, although it is over six years old, many folks and acquaintances who have not seen it yet have requested that I share a photo of my meeting with Jimi Hendrix's dad, "Al" James Hendrix, and Jimi's stepsister, Janie Hendrix. I met the Hendrixes -- heads of Experience Hendrix LLC, the group that oversees the Jimi Hendrix estate and legacy -- in 1996, when I was taking the Jimi Hendrix course at UVic (still only one of two credit courses on Jimi in North America; back then, the UVic one was the *only* one). Al died almost a year ago, April 18, 2002, to be exact, at the ripe old age of 82, so I felt it appropos to post the picture sooner than later. Also, before I let you all go running off into the SPIKEINTHEBOX virtual playground for another month of merriment, there's some business to take care of. A reminder that everyone should try to get out to the No War in Iraq peace rallies that will be taking place in Vancouver, Victoria and Seattle, as well as in cities the world over, this Saturday, Feb. 15:
Vancouver rally info:
I have no Web page for the Victoria rally, but if somebody knows of one, please pass it on to me at spike13@island.net on or before Thurs., Feb. 13 and I will post it ASAP all the rest of the Victoria folks know about it if they don't already. The Vancouver march will commence at 1 p.m. from Canada Place, passing the U.S. and British consulates, and will end at the rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which will begin at 2 p.m. Changing gears, big time, my top albums of 2002 are being posted at Spike's Varied Likes as we speak. I had no idea just how time consuming it would be to upload all the album covers and write little observant/witty comments for each album entry. That list, as well as a random selection of movies of the year, should all be up by week's end. Holy crap, this webmaster stuff is hard work...
02/01/03 - Okay, now, serious face for a moment. Our hearts go out to the families of Space Shuttle Columbia cmdrs. Rick Husband and Kalpana Chawla and pilots William McCool, Michael Anderson, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon following the explosion of their craft at 8am PST this morning:
Now, it's always a tragedy when a spacecraft vaporizes, but should we be surprised when it happens? It's only the third time something like this has happened to the NASA program, so it was only a matter of odds, and therefore, time.
I could rant and rave about what I think about the new space race, but I figger this is as good an entry point as any to start the journal entry section of SPIKEINTHEBOX with my thoughts on this... Deep Thoughts
01/15/03 - HAPPY 2005! What? Oh, it's 2003? Whatever. I've been a bad webmaster, leaving you all hanging for that super-important first update to SPIKEINTHEBOX and y'all had to wait almost a whole month. Well, that's likely to be par for the course, so tough titties. Let's see, in the last month, a punk god died (Joe Strummer, heart attack, Dec. 22 at his home in Broomfield, Somerset, England) and a punk goddess's murder seems to be finally solved: http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2003/01/1308.cfm.
And my hair is now blue-green, much to the chagrin of many familial units, and to the snickers of those whose adoration I persue in vain. Maybe I'll shave my eyebrows off next...just kidding, mom.
I've updated SPIKEINTHEBOX's Contact Spike page and added some links to the Linksinthebox page. Also, there is a new PHOTO OF THE MONTH for January, photo #2 in the Spike seduces Stanley series. Enjoy.
12/9/02 - SPIKEINTHEBOX is unleashed upon the world to a resounding chorus of yawns. Little do they know how this little website is about to turn the internet on its ear?...well, maybe not its ear (that'd be quite the breakdancing move, if one could physically do it...) but maybe its ass, on a day when it had beans for lunch. Anyway, for now, it's mostly just this homepage and the inaugural PHOTO OF THE MONTH, depicting Spike and the original Coupe de Stanley, that SPIKEINTHEBOX has for ya at this juncture. But check back over the next week or so, and you'll find more photos, and initial entries for top songs, record albums, movies and videos, and maybe even the odd link or two to keep you entertained.
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