25th Annual Calgary Folk Festival

Went to Kaffa for breakfast before heading to Sunday's sold-out Calgary Folk Festival. Staked out our territory on the main stage and headed out to our first workshop. The Raices Latin had Fiamma Fumana, who performed on Thursday, combined with flamenco and mexican bands played an uptempo set that had folks dancing on the sides. Caught Steve Earle's rebel mentality, at separate times praising and griping about social causes in both Canada and the US. Had a brash sense of humour too, "The first guy that mentions to play 'Copperhead Road' probably got hit in the head by a hockey puck. Of course, I'm gonna play it... Dontcha think I'm gonna play it !?! Sheesh... If that guy keeps going... I just might not play it..." If I was closer I would have heckled him to "get to the chorus!"

Had some tough choices to make for lunch as there was plenty of variety and then headed towards to more workshops in the afternoon. Saw Spirit of the West for the second time in a month as they combined with the Warsaw Village Band and then the Axis of Whatever which comprised of Nathan (a country-folk band from the 'Peg), Weakerthans (a band that played mellow tunes that didn't allow other artists to jam in), Wil (local solo artist), and aussie Paul Kelly (who brought along a slide guitarist that stole every song he jammed in).

Then everything shut down as the focus went onto the main stage with UK folk artist Thea Gilmore kicking things off with an impressive repretoire of songs that crossed many styles (folk, blues, alt-country). Didn't really get a good vibe from R&BCorey Harris and the african fusion of Youssou N'Dour, but you do have to give the folk fest organizers props for trying different things. We then packed up camp and headed towards the side of the stage away from the sea of tarps & blankets for Lucinda Williams. She had a very humble demeanor, especially when bringing in Steve Earle for a few songs. But her passion came through on my favourite songs 'Those Three Days' and 'Righteously'. So after a long day of music from a variety of genres, we headed out and look forward to next's year lineup.

Upcoming CD Releases

Here are a few CDs that I'm looking forward to over the next few weeks:

• Hives, The - Tyrannosaurus Hives: will it live up to the hype of their last album?
  
• Gavin Degraw - Chariot Stripped: an acoustic re-release (get the original CD as well)
  
• Taking Back Sunday - Where You Want To Be: another emo band but with an edge
  

Can't wait for new albums from the Finn Bros - Everyone Is Here (8/24), Lucinda Williams Live 2CD (9/14), and finally, a Top 10 Album of the year candidate (even tho I haven't heard one song yet), Jimmy Eat World - [title unknown] (October/2004)

Emmy Nominations

Here are a few of my favourite picks from this morning's announcement:

• Drama Series: 24 (So many plot twists! West Wing has resorted to gimmick shows a la E.R. giving Dr Greene a brain tumour)
  
• Comedy Series: Arrested Development (Great cast to go along with the great writers. Haven't caught the latest season of Curb Your Enthusiasm yet tho. We are only into Season 3 in Canada and I got the first two on boxset)
  
• Variety, Music or Comedy Series: SNL (Weekend Update should get its own nom. Wow! No Tonight Show with Leno! Is he gonna fire all his writers? He's dumbed the show down so much in order to beat Letterman in the ratings. Glad the Emmy voters noticed!)
  
• Actor, Drama Series: Kiefer Sutherland "24" narrowly over Martin Sheen "The West Wing"
  
• Supporting Actress, Drama Series: Janel Moloney "The West Wing" (and then they kill her character off!)
  
• Actor, Comedy Series: Larry David "Curb Your Enthusiasm"
  
• Actress, Comedy Series: Jane Kaczmarek "Malcolm in the Middle"
  
• Supporting Actor, Comedy Series: Jeffrey Tambor "Arrested Development" ("You should have seen the face he made when - well, he is my twin brother... I'll show you!")
  

Arrested Development is the freshest new show of the year. Let's hope it does well enough to stay on the air!

Upcoming DVD Releases

Here are a few movies that I missed out on and more TV show boxsets:

• July 20th- Starsky & Hutch, Boomtown Season 1
  
• July 27th- Hellboy, V: The Complete Series
  
• August 3rd- Knightrider: Season 1
  
• August 10th- Kill Bill Vol 2 (I'm waiting for the rumoured unsplit version), The Best of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (I will get this just for the Star Wars clip alone but hopefully they have the Winter Carnivale too)
  
• August 24th- Girl Next Door, Futurama Volume 4

There's plenty more coming up in September, but I've already reserved my copy of the Star Wars Trilogy 4-DVD boxset set to be released September 21st.

Top Five Tunes

Here are a few songs (in no particular order) that I just can't get out of my head (kylie reference):

• Ch-check It Out (Beastie Boys): Check their website out for lyrics to catch all the references (Like Miss Piggy, "Who Moi?"), streamed Just Blaze remix, and even bitTorrent links to the video
• Somebody Told Me (The Killers): It's like Duran Duran got cloned for 2004. Will have to track down rest of this album
  
• All Falls Down (Kayne West featuring Seleena Johnson): Uses a Lauryn Hill hook from her messed-up Unplugged performance. Kazaa for the original version with L-Boogie
  
• My Happy Ending (Avril Lavigne): Can almost imagine her buddy, Chantal Kreviazuk, singing this one instead. Title sounds quite upbeat until you hear the whole chorus
  
• The Reason (Hoobastank): Yeah, have to admit that it's a pretty cheesy song, but hey I'll admit that I like Cheese Whiz too.

Quite the variety, I'll try to list some less popular/more obscure tunes next time...

July 20th Update: Add B-boy Stance by K-OS. More CanCon. Look for his vocals on a track off the Chemical Bros GH.

Ottawa Trip Notes

Tues- tdot flight sat between 2 women: grandmas, one reminded me of the grandma from Malcolm in the Middle. Schwarma. Zaphod Beeblebox: 2 DJs - industrial goth & house trance
Wed- bakery, Museum of Civilizations: totems, french play, Cameron IMAX, Earl Pub: Guiness promo, GG's Party: Shaye (aka 3 hot chicks) & Spirit of the West, Scott Free: figured out finale
Canada Day- bakery again, end of changing of the guard, mountie horses, Maryne, National Gallery: 3 stripes, pub, huge rainstorm, Griffin's pub: Blue promo, more (temp) tattoos, C.O.P.S. - Bad Boys & the bachelor Jessie Palmer, awesome fireworks, Irish pub
Fri- Spidey 2, bad souvenirs, lame photography museum, Asian fusion, Hull Casino: won $160, Zak's: $5 shakes
Sat- Parliament & Jail tours, more Zaphod: britpop, more normal crowd
Sun- Brunch, C.O.P.S. - Bad Boys II, caught Eurocup final - checked in @ halftime, boarded flight @ last call
Hostel- great location. Former jail (site of 3 executions) which was shutdown after 110 years due to inhumane living conditions (but it's fine now as a hostel!?!). Actually slept in a cell, bed felt like sleeping on a buddy's sofa. Electrical socket?

Hate to admit it, but Kel's kris kringle xmas gift, the Man Purse, was quite handy. We finally swapped Tenacious D for Ben Stiller Show DVDs. A few of my fotos turned out quite well. Just short of hitting the 4000 mark with my trusty ol' Kodak.

Final Score: Beaver Tails 3, Rotten Ronnies 0

Update (July 10th): I've posted my fotos from the trip to the travel section. Off to lunch and then the Stampede Grounds!