Garter Snake
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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Cedar Chair
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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While recently visiting friends at their cottage on Sauble Beach, where I haven't been in about 40 years, I was surprised by a couple of things. The first was how little it seemed to have changed, at least in the area just south of town, where the land is still under lease from the Saugeen Nation. Lots of small, folksy cottages right on the beach, or a short walk away.

The second surprise was that you can drive on the beach. I guess I must have known this, but had forgotten. Our hosts explained that this makes for great entertainment. There is a small stream that empties onto, and spreads out over the beach, right in front of their place. When we were there, it was only an inch or so deep, maybe ten feet across. But at certain times a year, it can be deceptively deep, as much as a foot, and look pretty much the same. Lots of vacationers leave with stories they never planned on telling...

Historically, the First Nations people policed the beach, and by all accounts did a fine job of it. Speeding, drinking, fires, all strictly prohibited on the beach, and effectively enforced. Then, for some reason, the job of policing the beach was turned over to the Ontario Provincial Police. Now the OPP do (let's say) a fine job of patrolling our province's highways, but when faced with enforcing speed limits on a beach, they must have struggled with the concept. Their solution was to erect signs. Speed limit signs and No Parking signs, all along this hitherto unspoiled stretch of the world's second longest freshwater beach. (After Wasaga, also right here in Ontario -- not sure what the OPP are up to there these days)

Photo by Lynda Chiotti.

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So long Ed McMahon. You kinda sucked, but whatever -- you were on The Tonight Show, that's gotta count for something.

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Bunny
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

Bunny
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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Put a Lid On It
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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Framing Coming Along Nicely
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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Garage workshop extension (BEFORE)
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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My first reaction was "Hey Loreena McKennitt, kiss my ass" but maybe that's a bit harsh...

It seems my modest little home movie from our 2003 vacation to Alberta and BC, entitled "Misty Mountain Hop", has incurred the wrath of the copyright police. Not from the Led Zeppelin camp, despite my naming the piece directly after the Zeppelin song, but due to the use of Loreena McKennitt's song "Ancient Pines" in the soundtrack.

Are You KIDDING Me??

I don't even mention the names of the soundtrack songs in the description on YouTube, they're only credited at the end of the movie, in the barely legible credits... so it wasn't searchable in the traditional sense, there's some high-tech text-recognition technology going on here, or maybe audio-recognition, not sure...

Here's the message attached to my video (not sure when this happened, I just happened to notice it today when poking around):

Your video, Misty Mountain Hop - September 2003, may have audio content from Ancient Pines by Loreena McKennitt that is owned or licensed by WMG. As a result, your video has been muted.

So how exactly is the artist protected here? Was I expected, in the production of my little home movie, to pay for the privilege of promoting her song? Doesn't this just make the artist look petty, vindictive, self-aggrandizing, and ridiculous?

Musicians deserve to be paid for their work. No question. And I am not unaware of the irony of me getting up on my high horse, given my immense collection of ill-gotten MP3's downloaded from the Interwebs. But we're not talking about counterfeit CD's eating into legit sales, we're talking about a stupid little home movie in 320x240 fer crying out loud. And I actually do own the song legally.

So, upon further reflection, my revised position is now "Hey Loreena McKennitt and/or WMG, kiss my ass".

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I've been having great fun digitizing some old basement tapes from 1976-1977. In the case of this particular bunch, I mean that literally -- several were recorded in the basement of the family home.

These are samplings from 1976, from the period before the band "Auspex" was formed. More on that in a future post. Some notes on each track appear below the player. Each track is one or two minutes long at most, in order that you should not become bored...

Song notes and credits:

These are all multi-track recordings, made on an old Akai reel-to-reel... We had to "bounce" tracks to create overdubs, whereby some quality is lost from the previous take. That said, these are fairly bright recordings for the most part.

Aftaglid (clip) - This is a loose cover of a Steve Hillage (Gong) track. This one was recorded at Monte's apartment. Somebody had some nifty finger cymbals, or something, which is what I'm playing. A fun riff to stretch out on.

Bob Daniel - percussion, recorder
Monte Horton - keyboards
Steve Vickery - guitar

Space Blues (clip) - Starts with a section based on a nifty 7/4 bass riff by Steve Vickery, moving into a more traditional blues structure in the second half.

Bob Daniel - drums, Roland Space Echo (!)
Monte Horton - electric guitar
Steve Vickery - bass guitar

Earth Blues (complete) - No overdubs on this one. I show off my mad recorder skills, using a singing-while-playing technique I stole from Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) who in turn stole it from Roland Kirk. I remember this is the one my mother liked.

Bob Daniel - recorder
Monte Horton - acoustic guitar

Time for All (clip) - Cheesy title. This one is in three sections (gots to have sections if you wanna be progtastic). Starts with a quirky 10/8 section, then into a brisk 6/8 thing, ending in a lovely 7/8 theme. Nice acoustic playing from Monte.

Bob Daniel - drums, "string machine" (poor man's mellotron)
Monte Horton - acoustic guitar, synth leads

Voyage (clip) - A stately, bombastic 3/4 march of doom in the grand progressive rock tradition, or one of them. Originally called "Voyage/Arrival" but I omitted the second half -- sometimes the journey is more important (and way less cheesy) than the arrival.

Bob Daniel - drums, string machine
Monte Horton - electric guitar

Mental Midget (complete) - This is a really fun number, named for its obvious debt to Gentle Giant, whose bags we were not fit to carry, but we could dream. In an intentional mind-f*ck, the jerky 4/4 of the opening reveals itself, when the tambourine changes, as a brisker, triplet feel with some nice mod-ring synth licks from Monte. The middle section is a peculiar pattern of alternating bars of 11/8 and 14/8 which had to be my doing. A rather splendid drum break (if I do say so) leads to the final section, a bouncy triplet-feel 4/4 that carryies the fun to the end.

Bob Daniel - drums, percussion, keyboards
Monte Horton - electric guitar, keyboards

Thanks for listening!! Your gratuitous praise, or your harsh, uncalled-for criticisms, are welcomed.

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Please visit my new website:

Haiku du Jour
They're bad, but they're short

For example:

Each day a new verse

Crafted in the haiku style

Five, seven, and five

Subscribe by email or RSS!!
Lots of pretty pictures and fascinating videos!!
Join the fun today!!

www.haikudujour.com

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The Silent Film Ensemble
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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If you had ever hoped to someday see drummer Bill Bruford perform live, again or for the first time, your chances of that happening are now pretty much zero.

From allaboutjazz.com:

After 41 years spent first in the art rock arena with everyone from Yes and King Crimson to Genesis, in addition to his own inestimable forays into fusion with his critically and popularly praised '70s group Bruford, then turning to things more jazzy from the '80 onwards with various incarnations of his much- heralded Earthworks group and his equally acclaimed improvising duet with pianist Michiel Borstlap, veteran drummer Bill Bruford has announced he's hanging up his sticks and and retiring from public performance, effective January 1, 2009.

As Bruford told AAJ's Managing Editor John Kelman, "41 years of me is quite enough for anybody, and especially me!" though he thankfully clarified that he's not retiring from recording.

Here are a couple of photos I took of Bruford in performance with King Crimson in 1974.

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The Great Lakes Musicians' Collective presents the 1922 silent film documentary "Nanook of the North" directed by Robert Flaherty, with an original live soundtrack by the Silent Film Ensemble, featuring: Charlie Glasspool, Tara MacKenzie, Jon Cox, Pat Dorfman, Jon O'Leary, Bob Daniel, and Josh Richardson.

Saturday, February 7th @ 7PM
Downtown Bookstore, Owen Sound.
$5 Admission. Advance tickets are available at the Downtown Bookstore.

"'Nanook of the North" follows an Inuit hunter and his family as they struggle to survive in the Hudson Bay Arctic region in the 'traditional' manner idealized by Western European civilization. In fact, much of footage in 'Nanook' is staged - despite this, it is a fascinating document of the Western European objectification of a people it still knows so little about.

More info: IMDB ... WIKIPEDIA
Film clip posted at theOwen.com

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Rest in peace, buddy...

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Photography and music by Robert George Daniel, who is me. This cost $3 to make. Not counting all the cameras and film and computers and travel expenses and what not. Hope you enjoy. // created at http://animoto.com

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TV Stand
Originally uploaded by rgdaniel

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And it's portable too. Just like an iPod.

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