Today is the 109th birthday of the Canadian National Park system!
Below is a shot from Quttinirpaaq park on Ellesmere Island - a great place for social distancing.
I Met The Walrus
In 1969 when the Beatles were in Toronto, 14 year old Jerry Letivan used a bit of bravado to score an interview with John Lennon. 38 years later, director Josh Raskin and illustrators James Braithwaite and Alex Kurina created an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack - it was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short and won the 2009 Emmy for 'New Approaches'.
Jayson Hoover And The Epics
Jayson Hoover moved from Alberta to Vancouver in 1964 and never left - he soon became lead singer for The Epics and they became hugely popular spearheading a west coast soul and R&B scene. Today’s video clip is from a “Let’s Go” broadcast from June 1967 complete with groovy intro and some fab footage.
Lockdown
Another summer's passing by
All I need is somewhere I feel the grass beneath my feet
A walk on sand
A fire I can warm my hands
My joy will be complete
Fuddle Duddle
“What Is the nature of your thoughts gentlemen, when you say ‘fuddle duddle’ or something like that?”
Clovis Studios
Norman Petty was a well known American musician and producer, most famous for his work with Buddy Holly and the Crickets in his Clovis Studios located in New Mexico. In the last 60s and early 70s, a number of Canadian acts recorded singles and LPs at Clovis - here’s a couple.
“Sacroiliac Boop” by Happy Feeling from their 1970 LP:
“Life Is A Song” by the Gainsborough Gallery (originally The Skeptics) from their 1970 LP.
Norman Petty: 1927-05-25 to 1984-08-15.
The Privilege
The Privilege was a band out of Edmonton which got started as the A&W Lords (they were sponsored by the drive-in restaurant and used to play live on the roof). The soon changed name to The Lords, and then in 1967 changed again to The Privilege. Like several other Edmonton bands, they ended up recording in Gary Paxton’s studio in Los Angeles - here is the Paxton-penned Happy Loving Time:
By the way, for a brief period The Privilege toured across Canada with vocalist Steve Perry, leaving part way through to join the band Journey.
Stanstead Canada
The always entertaining Tom Scott on the town with the Canada/US border running down the center of the street (Rue Canusa).
Metro-Gnomes
The Guess Who was originally Chad Allan and the Reflections, then Chad Allan and the Expressions - the “Guess Who?” portion was added in 1965 as a publicity stunt which then became the band’s name. Chad Allan left the Guess Who in 1966 and in 1968 he teamed up with singers Karen Marklinger and Corrine Cyca and released Through The Looking Glass, later repacked as the Metro-Gnomes on the Birchmount label. It’s really not very good at all, but one track is somewhat memorable for the horrendous lyrics. Girlfriend, if you find yourself saying “Sorry that I gave you cause to make me say I’m sorry”, it’s a sign to DTMFA. Here is the aptly titled “I’m Sorry”, sung by Corrine Cyca:
By the way, here’s “Ramona’s Hourglass” which Chad Allen released as a single in 1968 with Randy Bachman on guitar:
Another Side of Young
Jim Pirie was a guitar player and session musician who appeared on a bunch of albums starting in the 60s (some jazz albums, Mother Tucker’s Yellow Duck’s second LP, and also discs by Pat Hervey, Anne Murray, and even the Friendly Giant’s first LP with Haygood Hardy).
He put out one single - the Al Rain penned “Another Side of Young” in 1966 and it’s a cute little number which sends a still relevant message to the skeptics and critics that if they have nothing good to say about the next generation they should just rest their weary jaws.
Harmonium
Harmonium’s first album was released in 1974 - it’s more folk oriented than the progressive sound they established on their second and subsequent albums. To celebrate the 45th anniversary, Serge Fiori went back to the 16 track master tapes and remixed the album (Harmonium XLV) which has been released in a nice box set with CD, booklet and LP on coloured vinyl. A reissue of “Si On Avait Besoin D'une Cinquième Saison” (the Five Seasons) is in the works for 2020 which I’m rather stoked about, as “Histoires Sans Parole“ is an astonishingly beautiful piece of music. Here’s the XLV remix of “Pour Un Instant”:
The Zodiac : Cosmic Sounds
It’s somewhat unclear from the cover, but the band name is “The Zodiac” and the album released in 1967 was called “Cosmic Sounds (celestial counterpoint in words and music)”. The music was composed, arranged and conducted by visionary Moog madman Mort Garson and performed by crack west coast session players such as Carol Kaye on bass and Hal Blaine on drums. The 12 astrological tracks have spoken word narration by Cyrus Farwar and it’s all so delightfully bonkers - below is the track “Leo, Lord of Lights” which bursts upon the scene with orange yellow splendour:
Carol Kaye – bass guitar
Hal Blaine – drums
Bud Shank – bass flute
Cyrus Faryar – narration
Paul Beaver – Moog and other electronic instruments
Emil Richards – exotic percussion
Mike Melvoin – keyboards
Two Quick Tips
If you replace “Artificial Intelligence” with the phrase “Stochastic Gradient Descent” it’ll be more accurate and less prone to ridiculous hyperbole.
Don’t snowmobile on a river or a lake do you need me to tell you this?.
Motel Signs
A few roadside motel signs from around and about.
Marriot
Happy new year - this is a picture of the Marriot Hotel in, I think, Anaheim CA.
Christmas
Bob Bryden formed the band Christmas on December 25, 1969. At the time, the average age of the band was 17 years old, although Bryden (19) had put out 2 albums earlier with the band Reign Ghost. They released their first two albums in 1970 - according to Bryden, “although our music is heavy, it’s also optimistic. In part, it’s peaceful, and it is something to get into the spirit of”.
Below is their first track from their first album: Just Suppose.
Bob Bryden (guitars, vocals, piano, organ, harpsichord, celeste, effects)
Robert Bulger (guitars)
Tyler Raizenne (bass, electric zombie)
Rich Richter (drums, embryonic whimper)
Winnipeg
The Human Rights Museum was opened in 2014 near The Forks in downtown Winnipeg. Its mandate is to "explore the subject of human rights with a special but not exclusive reference to Canada, to enhance the public's understanding of human rights, to promote respect for others and to encourage reflection and dialogue”. There in an interior ramp made from Spanish white marble which winds up all 7 floors - the architecture, exhibits and presentation is stunning.
Near the museum is the sculpture “Forever Bicycles” by Al Weiwei (2014) constructed from 1254 bicycles.
Winnipeg continues to impress - the downtown area is a great place to while away a day waiting for the 23:30 departure of the VIA Canadian #2 bound for Toronto.
And they won the Grey Cup.
Churchill MB
There are 3 distinct tourist seasons in Churchill - polar bear season (fall), northern lights season (winter) and beluga whale season (summer). The town pretty much shuts down in between - it’s down to 1 restaurant and the train south was full of seasonal workers heading home for holidays and then back at it for aurora season.
The community center in Churchill houses the hospital, library, sports facilities, swimming pool, the high school and some other town offices. The regional volleyball tournament was held there - on the train ride north we picked up players and coaches at both Thompson and Gillam and they all bunked in at the center for the weekend tournament.
Just recently Polar Bears International opened their new office on the main drag in Churchill. PBI is a non-profit whose mission is to conserve polar bears and the sea ice they depend on. They hosted a talk by U. of T. PhD student Stephanie Penk who is using mathematical methods to predict polar bear survival and reproduction based on their food intake (ie. access to seals). The bears hunt the seals on the ice which is a reason the PBI tracks the number of days the bears have been off ice each year - when on land they roam around trying to eat berries and tourists.
Some shots about town:
Return for beluga season.
Wapusk
Wapusk (Cree for ‘white bear’) is a national park east of Churchill MB on the shore of Hudson Bay. The park is a remote sub-arctic wilderness and access is difficult - there is no road for the last 12 km to the park. At end of season, the buggy tours used to move to Cape Churchill (inside the park), but lack of bears has cancelled it. If foxes are your thing, the area is crawling with them - I opened the door to the hotel one night and a big ol’ red fox went strolling on by.
There’s a lot of colour around the town of Churchill.
Just west of town (across the Churchill river) is Prince of Wales Fort which dates back to 1719. In 1782 it was manned by 39 men when 3 French warships arrived and so fort governor Samuel Hearne surrendered immediately - in 1783 it was given back. The fort is in the background across the mouth of the Churchill river - the shot was taken from Cape Merry Battery just outside Churchill.
Churchill Bears
The number of polar bears around Churchill MB has been on steady decline from about 1200 bears in the 1980’s to about 800 bears nowadays - one significant factor in their survival is access to sea ice (and tasty tasty seals).
In the summer and fall, the polar bears hang around shore waiting for the ice to freeze so they can go hunt seals - they store up that fat to make them through the next fasting cycle - it’s this fasting period that it getting longer, from 107 days back in the 1980s to 130 in the early 2000’s up to 151 days (just recorded this year). Models suggest that 180 days off ice is a tipping point where bears don’t have enough time to fatten. Hungry bears are dangerous bears, and so the town of Churchill has a bear jail which houses up to 26 bears at a time:
They used to feed the bears in jail, but that made them want to come back, and so now they only feed the bears ice & snow. The bears are kept no longer than a month (2 weeks is desired) and released a few hundred klicks north of town.
It’s a rough life doing time in bear jail.