VERY STRONG - MUST WATCH sent to us by Norman Farrell of Northern Lights

THREE NEW TV SHOWS

Below you will find the three latest SHAW TV shows. We recorded the piece on ACTIVE AGING back in July before our summer break, and the next two items on RESTORATIVE JUSTICE and PROJECT LIMELIGHT over the past two weeks.

On Monday, our guest will be David Moscrop, who believes that men should be active feminists.

Cheers,

David

KIDS AT WORK

JUSTICE FOR ALL?

GETTING ON?

Phyllis Diller

In the mid-'80's, I spent an entire day with Phyllis Diller in her home on Rockingham Drive, right down the street from where O.J. didn't murder anyone.

She was a warm and gracious host.

During the interview, which we were filming for a CTV show called "The Performers," Phyllis made me deviled eggs. The whole piece took place in her bright red kitchen, with her at the counters and me sitting at an old-fashioned work table in the middle of he room.

In the living room, she had a marvelous oil painting of her great friend and mentor, Bob Hope.

I remember especially two moments in our conversation.

Me: Phyllis, when you were writing ad copy for a radio station in Sausalito and supporting five children by yourself, did you have any idea that you had this much ambition?

Phyllis (Slamming down the fork she was using to mash the eggs in a bowl): Absolutely! I wanted it all and I've got it all!

When we finished the interview, she sat at the work table, smiled and said, Thank you, Gregory Peck.  So sweet.

In addition to being one of the most successful lady stand-up comics of all time, she was a movie star, played the lead in "Hello Dolly" on Broadway and on tour practically everywhere, and was an accomplished concert pianist. I first met her when she played with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. I was doing a play at Stage West Dinner Theatre with Norman Fell ("Three's Company's Mr. Roper") and he took us backstage after her wonderful performance.

As often the case, the best place to read an obit when we've lost a good person is the New York Times. Here it is.

ONE, SINGULAR SENSATION

I was sitting in what was then the CBC cafeteria on Hamilton Street.

I saw Marvin Hamlisch walking down the front steps. I dashed out and introduced myself. I was working as a story editor for the evening television news.

Would he do an interview with me please?

"They've already turned me down," he said.

That year Marvin Hamlisch had done the impossible. He won the Oscar, the Tony and Emmy and a Grammy all in one year! Rita Moreno got all four prizes but not in one season as Hamlisch did.

And this was the year that he was here in town to do two concerts with the VSO at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the year that CBC supper hour news had no room for him.

Not to worry, I said. I'll arrange it.

"Only on one condition," was his answer. "Get me a piano."

I got him the piano and we did a terrific piece which included his performing a beautiful new song by him and Carol Bayer Sager called "Two Boys." He also told some wonderful Barbra Streisand stories. (SEE THE VIDEO FOLLOWING.)

When certain people die, the only place to read the obit is in the New York Times. Enjoy and remember the tunes as you go about your business today.

A Little Classic

PALIMPSEST

Gore Vidal, 1925-2012

Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer

By CHARLES McGRATH

Published: August 1, 2012 

There's your headline in yesterday's NY Times. Read the whole story. Vidal was a terrific writer and a wonderful lively character and he will be missed.

fuel to the fire

Thanks, Susan!

CHICKEN LITTLE, HERE

Forget all the other noise passing as news:

The Premier pretends to care about the environment. The Premier has one setting - Snarl. She loves a fight, a contest, running for office or an arm-wrestle. She wouldn't know a pipeline if she fell over it. Worse, she shows her basic values. You want us to carry the risk of this thing? Give us more loot.

It's OK. We have only a few more months of this lack of leadership and vision and then we can start slogging the next guy.

NBC's Olympic coverage is late, pre-empted by the web and xenophobic in the extreme? Try the genius  over at CTV. Last night they spent three or four hours trumpeting a great tennis match between Canadian Raonic and French star, Tsonga. How many times did the granite Brian Williams - clearly the most boring sportscaster in history - tell us that a real treat was on the way?

When the coverage finally arrived - a 3-setter that ended 25-23 in the third for Tsonga - what we lucky souls got to see was a 90 second summary. Thanks, boys. Super coverage.

So forget all that.

There was only one real story and it stretched over at least two days and this was it:

Blackout cuts power to 670 million Indians

This is the future, kids.

 This story, which I expect to see repeated in one form or another on a regular basis coming from every place on earth that may still have the power with which to transmit the tale, is where we are heading.

Between air conditioning, the internet and the colossal inability of governments to do almost anything right, I believe we can predict meltdowns of so-called basic services of this magnitude to appear with frightening regularity.

Canada is a bubble.

We live in an amazing paradise. No mortar shells, no banks run by Bob and his cousin, Neil, an apparent abundance of space and natural resources and governments that may be stupid and annoying, but are not shooting or arresting citizens by the carload for their thoughts or opinions.

How long can it last?

I have no idea.

But I am not placing any bets.

THE WHOLE STORY

The liner notes below are all about the video that follows. Most lovers of jazz could not tell you how many times they have listened to this album. If you don't know it, here it is. So many You Tube pieces are small tastes; this is the whole matzoh ball. Savor it and save it.

Mile Davis - Kind Of Blue Full Album Concert Full HD Kind of Blue is a studio album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released August 17, 1959, on Columbia Records in the United States. High Quality Sound Audio FLAC Which Preserve Quality of Original Uncompressed Audio Sound Recording sessions for the album took place at Columbia's 30th Street Studio in New York City on March 2 and April 22, 1959. The sessions featured Davis's ensemble sextet, which consisted of pianist Bill Evans (Wynton Kelly on one track), drummer Jimmy Cobb, bassist Paul Chambers, and saxophonists John Coltrane and Julian "Cannonball" Adderley.

After the entry of Bill Evans into his sextet, Davis followed up on the modal experimentations of Milestones (1958) and 1958 Miles (1958) by basing the album entirely on modality, in contrast to his earlier work with the hard bop style of jazz. Though precise figures have been disputed, Kind of Blue has been described by many music writers not only as Davis's best-selling album, but as the best-selling jazz record of all time. On October 7, 2008, it was certified quadruple platinum in sales by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It has been regarded by many critics as the greatest jazz album of all time and Davis's masterpiece.

The album's influence on music, including jazz, rock, and classical music, has led music writers to acknowledge it as one of the most influential albums ever made. In 2002, it was one of fifty recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry. In 2003, the album was ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
Accolades

Kind of Blue has been cited by writers and music critics as the greatest jazz album of all time and has been ranked at or near the top of numerous "best album" lists in disparate genres. In 2002, Kind of Blue was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry.In selecting the album as number 12 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, Rolling Stone magazine stated "This painterly masterpiece is one of the most important, influential and popular albums in jazz". On December 16, 2009, the United States House of Representatives passed a resolution honoring the fiftieth anniversary of Kind of Blue and "reaffirming jazz as a national treasure". It is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, described by reviewer Seth Jacobson as "a genre-defining moment in twentieth-century music, period."

Track listing
All songs written and composed by Miles Davis except where noted (see content section for more information). Only six complete takes of the five songs on the album exist:.
No. Title Length
1. "So What" 9:22
2. "Freddie Freeloader" 9:46
3. "Blue in Green" (Miles Davis and Bill Evans) 5:37
4. "All Blues" 11:33
5. "Flamenco Sketches" (Miles Davis and Bill Evans) 9:26
Reissue bonus track
No. Title Length
6. "Flamenco Sketches (Alternate take)" 9:32
Tracks 1, 2 and 3 (side one on the original vinyl release) recorded March 2, 1959; tracks 4 and 5 (side two) recorded April 22, 1959. All tracks recorded at Columbia 30th Street Studio, New York City.
Personnel

Musicians
Miles Davis -- trumpet, band leader
Julian "Cannonball" Adderley -- alto saxophone, except on "Blue in Green"
Paul Chambers -- double bass
Jimmy Cobb -- drums
John Coltrane -- tenor saxophone
Bill Evans -- piano (except "Freddie Freeloader"), liner notes
Wynton Kelly -- piano on "Freddie Freeloader"

MILES DAVIS - KIND OF BLUE (Full Album)

A Little Russian Night Musik

THE UNIVERSAL TONGUES - MUSIC/DANCE

THE GNUS

1. "If the legislative assembly were a public company, it would be delisted."

The Auditor-General's scathing report on the Provincial Legislature's utter inability to keep records of spending tax dollars is more than embarrassing. It's infuriating. 

One of the favorite past times of legislators, politicians and bureaucrats is telling non-profit charities that they must be more responsible and keep better books. In short, they are regularly demanding that people involved on a daily basis with the poor, the addicted, the underprivileged and the dis-empowered should also be CPA's in their spare time - like such front line workers have spare time.

In spite of challenging work loads, most charitable organizations do a great job of accounting for the way they spend money.

Now let's see what the kettle-calling-everybody-else-black can do about cleaning up their own arrogant mess.

2. Why is Post Media, the parent company of most Canadian dailies, spending its dwindling resources having columnist Christie Blatchford hanging out for ages in a Winnipeg courtroom?

The case is about as tabloid sleazorama as they get. A Manitoba judge and her husband may or may not have propositioned a man into three way sex.

YAWN.

Christie Blatchford is a very good writer.

This piece of trash non-story could have been covered by a Winnipeg Free Press intern.

There are no bigger issues in the Canadian fabric these days?

And they wonder why the old business model is collapsing?

Decisions to go on for days on such trivia and gossip like this don't help.

LANGARA GOLF CONDOS? KITS JERICHO SEAWALL, YES!

WOMEN, THE MEDIA & POLITICS

FRIEND VICTOR ON GUNS, GANGSTERS & GOMMORAH

The Colorado massacre, in one of those bleak coincidences, occurred during the same week as the anniversary of the murder of 77 people in Norway. It occurred a week after the shooting of 22 people in Toronto.

These examples, and others, show that crazy, evil people bent on murder, will find the means to do it. Ask the parents of the Jewish kids who died in Belarus last week.

The gun availability in America is of course ludicrous but it has willing, non-american participants. The gun of choice for ghetto gangstas in America is the Glock, a product of Austria. It has been celebrated in the songs of numerous rappers. Lee Oswald used an Italian assault rifle. France was the major supplier of Iraq's nuclear program. Europeans preach peace and sell death.

These events usually result in a having the same bromides trotted out such as the root cause being poverty. Norway has the world's richest economy on a per capita basis. It still produces mass murderers. The shoot out in Toronto did, admittedly, occur at a street party in a government housing project. But organizers of the party bought $1500 worth of cognac to distribute on the sidewalk. Poor in Toronto is upper middle class in Somalia.

What is most worrisome about America is that the lines of hatred are deeply an indelibly drawn. Vast segments in both the Democrat and Republican camps loathe the other side. It is not a friendly policy difference for these folks as it was in the 1950's. It is hatred. It is like Northern Ireland circa 1970. It will not get better. Add to that the class hatreds, racial hatreds, religious hatreds, generational hatreds. It is a pile of tinder awaiting a careless match.

By all means restrict the guns. The hoards of haters will find other ways. Obama recently bragged about hacking Iran's defence computers using Israeli technology. He didn't say much when the New York Times revealed that China had hacked Pentagon computers. On almost a monthly basis, some hacker brings down operating systems in millions of computers.

How long will it be before some embittered computer hacker will over-ride hospital computer systems, changing drug doses to poison and shutting down breathing apparatus? How long before traffic control systems are locked in red lights by mendacious hackers just for the fun of it? Far-fetched. I hope so.I know better.

You cannot have a country that is a cocktail of hatred and technology without the unspeakable happening.

KILLING POLICY

Forget the Movie Massacre Madman.

The world is filled with major league nut jobs lurking in the bushes.

That's not the point.

The point is this:

In the last 60 days, this fellow bought from local shops four guns and 6000 rounds of ammunition, including a drum magazine that fires a bullet every second.

The villain is public policy in America.

We understand the position of the NRA. Cleverly and consistently misreading the Second Amendment, Yankee gun supporters believe in their hearts that they must have the right to own guns, lest they be imprisoned by a totalitarian government.

OK. We get it. Citizens must have the ability to protect themselves from the Official Protectors. Gotcha.

But, tell me this.

When someone walks into a local store and buys automatic weapons and 6,000 rounds of ammo with some loads that will fire with every heart beat, to what party is he heading? A revolution? An uprising? An insurgency?

What is a civilized person in a civilized neighbourhood up to exactly when this is his idea of shopping?

How can a body politic allow the neighbourhood slurpy vendor to dispense this kind of savage fire power like it's Tuscan Chicken Sandwich to go?

No politician in "the greatest country in the world, blah, blah, blah" has to date and to my knowledge had the unarmed courage to stand up to the NRA and its fellow travelers and say, "Enough. We will have guns, but there are some that will not be available and we won't be able to buy Uzi's on the internet."

I look forward to such a day, but I am not holding my breath.