A Simple Twist of Fate fails to deliver on promise

Review: A Simple Twist of Fate: Bob Dylan and the Making of Blood on the Tracks, by Andy Gill and Kevin Odegard, by Da Capo Press, 2005

By Stephen Pate

Sometimes you’ll read a book twice on purpose when you want to learn the contents. Other times you pick a book up and only realize around the second chapter you’ve read it before.

This was my second read of “A Simple Twist of Fate, Bob Dylan and the making of Blood on the Tracks” by Andy Gill and Kevin Odegard. A slight book at 212 pages, it didn’t seem like a waste of time to read again and it wasn’t; however the original annoyances returned almost immediately.

The early influence of Harold Pinter

The Servant, Joseph Losey (director), Harold Pinter (writer), Dirk Bogarde and James Fox

By Stephen Pate

The world notes with sadness the passing of the great British playwright Harold Pinter. Personally, Pinter was an early influence that I intend to renew. My exposure to him was only through movies. Fortunately Halifax has a strong British culture. One could see almost all of the great British and foreign films with only some diligence to the Sunday art cinema at the Hyland Theatre.

My first Pinter film was “The Servant” with Dirk Bogarde, Sarah Miles and James Fox, a darkly immoral film to my mind at the time. Pinter was the writer from a book by Robin Maugham. I was so intrigued by the plot, character development and cinematographer I saw it numerous times. Losey framed emotionally charged scenes, like the one above, as reflections which was visually arresting.

Nobel-winning playwright Harold Pinter dies at 78

Harold Pinter, the young playwright

By PAISLEY DODDS, Associated Press

Thu Dec 25, 9:44 am

LONDON – Harold Pinter, praised as the most influential British playwright of his generation and a longtime voice of political protest, has died after a long battle with cancer. He was 78.

Pinter, whose distinctive contribution to the stage was recognized with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2005, died on Wednesday, according to his second wife, Lady Antonia Fraser.

“Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretense crumbles,” the Nobel Academy said when it announced Pinter’s award. “With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of interlocution.”

Best and worst Boxing Day Sales

When I was younger a Sale seemed like a spontaneous event. Then my ex-wife worked for Sears in the purchasing department. Tbey were planning sales for a year in advance, including picking the items to “put on sale”.

Boxing Day Sales have become a big part of the Christmas selling season. Stores like Sam the Record Man in Toronto made them a must go event. Door crasher specials are still fun for the young and vigorous. I like mine on the web.

Gibson Dark Fire, if you need the ultimate guitar

By Stephen Pate

Gibson’s ultimate got-to-have for Christmas guitar has arrived, well sort of.

The new Gibson Dark Fire guitar started to trickle out from the factory mid-December.

Of course it’s gorgeous. Rrrrrgh!

The Dark Fire one-two-and-three up’s last years hot Robot Guitar with a new faster robot tuning system that tunes all 6 strings at once.

Lennie Gallant in Rustico Dec 29

Lennie Gallant will be appearing in Rustico on Monday December 29th, 2008 at St. Augustine’s Church. Lennie will be accompanied by Sean Kemp, his longtime violin player.

I attended the Un Noel Acadien concert for the first time in 2003 and it’s always been a very special part of the holiday season for me.

Lennie Gallant is one of the Island’s favourite sons and a world touring singer songwriter.

With Gallant on the bill are Meaghan Blanchard, an up-and-coming singer songwriter and award winning pianist Jeremy Gallant. Other performers include Caroline and Jeannita Bernard, Angele and Christine Hashie Rix.

Tickets are still available at 963 3252 or at Gallant’s Clover Farm 963 2000. The performance starts at 7 pm.

Alan MacPhee attacked at St. James Gate

Souris businessman Alan MacPhee sustains injuries at St. Games Gate

Surprising news about Alan MacPhee at St. James Gate in the Guardian, Businessman seriously hurt in attack at club

A well-known Island businessman says he was seriously injured when several men attacked him on a dance floor in a Charlottetown nightclub. Alan MacPhee says he was dancing with two women at St. James Gate late Friday night when four men jumped him.

Too bad for Alan. We hope he recovers from what would be an unexpected and unpleasant turn of events.

This is pretty alarming considering the Gate is one of PEI’s most popular waterholes and meeting places. While I’ve seen the odd fight break out, the staff were the most efficient in town at separating and removing the belligerents.

Time For Journalists To Take A Lesson From (Smart) Musicians

From TechDirt

These days there are a few types of stories we see and write about consistently: (1) the legacy recording industry’s troubles in adapting to a changing market, (2) the ability of a bunch of motivated, smart musicians, bucking the old way of doing things and finding tremendous success and (3) the legacy newspaper industry’s troubles in adapting to a changing market. Given (1) and (2), you would think that (3) might lead to the obvious (4) of a bunch of motivated, smart journalists, bucking the old way of doing things and finding tremendous success.

And, in fact, that is happening, particularly with upstart blogs, but it’s not getting as much attention. Romenesko points us to what should be a must-read essay over at the Columbia Journalism Review, highlighting the fact that worried journalists should be studying up on the success stories of musicians who are succeeding even as the legacy recording industry struggles.

More And More Students Choosing Journalism As A Major, Even As Newspapers Face Troubles

From Tech Dirt

Thanks to all the fretting and worrying about the financial trouble and potential demise of many mainstream newspapers, it’s become something of a curiosity that more students than ever seem to be going into college journalism programs (found via Romenesko). However, as the article details, it all makes sense once you realize the simple fact: while newspapers may be in trouble, journalism is actually doing quite well.

Man are JW’s in bad mood this week

By Stephen Pate

I know why Mr. Not-Too-Bright is upset. See Kicked out of the Kingdom Hall.

You see Jehovah Witness’s don’t celebrate Christmas cause some mouldy old Babylonian God (1) hit his thumb with a hammer and said “Christ!” out loud.

This royal courtier who was a wise arse said “Christ my ass” and the JW’s point to that as a pagan source for Christmas.

Kicked out of the Kingdom Hall

By Stephen Pate

Tonight we were doing the MacDonald’s drive-through for supper. Hey that new Angus burger almost tastes like a hamburger. My gal has catechism class and the rush was on.

“Why don’t you guys skip that?” I asked. “Isn’t everybody busy enough with Christmas and shopping.”

Whack on the right arm. Man, there’s nowhere to hide in these efficient, little cars.

We were driving down Nassau St. As we got to Queen, I pointed to a rectangular, little building.

“Did you know that used to be a Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall,” I asked ever the font for useless information.

“You mean the daycare?” she answered.

“Yeah, used to be a Kingdom Hall back in the 60’s, one of the few I got kicked out of.”

Snowy Owls on PEI, bad sign

This Snowy Owl relaxes on the Hillsborough Bridge causeway on Monday. This breed of owl, which is normally native to far more northern regions, has been spotted around P.E.I. in recent months. Guardian photo by Brian McInnis

By Stephen Pate

I’ve got to get out more often. The Guardian reported that there are snowy owls at the Hillsborough Bridge, Unusual visitor has descended on the Island this year. Nice photo Brian.

“Large, white, shadowy, deadly creatures have invaded Prince Edward Island.

The Snowy Owl, usually found in more northern regions, has appeared in large numbers on P.E.I. this fall and appears ready to stay here for the winter.

Ghiz Selling the Farm – Five & 1/2 minutes

December 15th,2008 episode

All the scandal and dirt on PEI

• Premier Ghiz selling the farm
• Minister Richard Brown turns his employees into crooks
• Who called the police – watch out Richard
• Can the Council of the Disabled write a paragraph?
• Wes Sheridan filing for bankruptcy
• Readers speak out on CBC and John Jeffery

and more…

Almost ripped on Kijiji Mac Pro

I almost got ripped off on a Mac Pro today. David Cole answered my Kijiji add in Charlottetown with a sweet deal that was a total scam. His email addresses are gloryandpride@msn.com and david.cole@msn.com.

The add from last month, when my XP box was dying, said

Wanted: MacPro or iMac Quad or dual quad is best configuration although I will consider anything midrange and up

Saving emails, is it the law?

A post on Dan James’ CEO Blues got me thinking – is it the law to save your emails?

The answer is yes, if you get sued.

It is a requirement of civil law to retain all documents including electronic docs like email. A Canadian authority on this, with some US links, is Alan Gahtan. He has an interesting blog and encyclopedia of cyberlaw. Makes good reading on long winter nights. Gahtan also has a book published by Carswell called “Electronic Evidence” which makes scintillating reading anytime.

Future Shop and Dell, still lovebirds

My tip on Dell not stocking at FS was wrong.

I got a great Dell XPS box at FS the other day. It works great except Vista 64 is not compatible with my Linksys BEFSR81 3.1 router.

Hard wired the XPS to a Linksys WRT54GS V7 Wireless G router and it works fine. No help from Dell since they don’t support boxes that come from FS – bummer.

Some smart girl helped me.

Now I get to fry my brains out with another piece of electrical gear near my ears.

The weird the whacky mind….

There is nothing left to say…until part 2.

Going out of business sign for Facebook

Facebook is in trouble, serious money trouble and is acting irrationally toward customers.

Facebook disabled - going out of business sign?

Accounts are being arbitrarily deleted, disabled, whatever. You can appeal but who cares. The program has outlived its fun and excitement. It’s almost fascist these days. Don’t do this – don’t do that.

Social media is about freedom and fun not weird unwritten rules that can cause sudden death. 

We’ll all have to get over it.

Facebook is morphing into an ugly thing.

Despite their protests, the company is in dire need of money.

With the current financial crisis, they are out in the cold in Silicon Valley. The consensus is the Microsoft valuation was dumb and careless.

No VC’s will touch them, hence the little trip to Dubai – think about it – that terrorist guy may have your personal information.

Does this look like the end of the American empire or what?

Anyways, wrong train of thought.

When a business attacks their customers it’s called a sign from god – or as Annie Potts said in Ghostbusters

“I’ll tell you what sign it is – a going out of business sign.”

And nothing is truly free is it?

A sign from God.