Harvest: another manly album for a manly man

Neil Young's haunting voice rocks this sublime collection of country-tinged rock that feels like a visit from an old friend every time you put it on. Harvest yielded Young's only Number One hit, "Heart of Gold," and helped set the stage for the Seventies country-rock explosion -- both James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt sing on the album. Along with Young, they were in Nashville to appear on Johnny Cash's variety show the week that Harvest was cut with an odd group of accomplished session players that included bassist Tim Drummond, who had played with James Brown. The sound was so manly and gutsy -- steel guitar, slide guitar, banjo -- stripped down and rebuilt with every jagged edge exposed. The standout tracks include "Alabama", "Old Man" and "Heart of Gold"; but every song is satisfying to thirsty ears. Harvest was chosen as the 78th greatest album of all time by the editors of Rolling Stone magazine in 2003. I'd rank this album much higher than that. I was so thankful to get a CD of this album for Christmas after not having a turntable to spin my old vinyl copy on during these last 12 years. Oh, it sounds as fine as ever....thanks heaps to Tara for the bucks:)

A Fine Flick for Manly Men

a man for all seasons is the best film i have seen. if you care for manly things, you should do yourself a favour and view it. thomas more knows what he is and what he lives for; his strong sense of what is important in life guides you through the story. he is no fickle wuss either; he stays firm to what his conscience tells him and he perseveres in honoring what he loves even unto death. now that is manly behaviour; worthy of all commendation.

i saw a film last night with vic and ramone --- i should say i was tricked into seeing a movie last night by vic and ramone (i had wanted to see king kong battle it out) --- however that may be, i had to sit through a brutual chick flick called the family stone. don't see it; my butt was aching as i watched it just from shifting around on my seat so much out boredom. it is the anti-thesis of a man for all seasons. no one knows who they are or what they stand for. it is a movie about wasted lives. oh, it is supposed to get the tears flowing...the way it does so is by appealing to either superficial liberal platitudes or to superficial romance. the drawn out scene of the bus leaving...going...going...going..may be stopping???...no, going....going...won't it stop?....going ...going....(of course it will stop)....but some more of it going...going...and then, voila! it stops and she gets out to smooooooch! ah so original i didn't see that sentimental scene:) again, don't see the family stone: find a copy of Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons instead.

gmail

I would like to offer a gmail account to anyone in the St.Herman's blogging world....even to those more remotely connected to our little online realm. The gmail account affords you 2 gigabytes of storage; so even if you merely send things to yourself it is handy. I strongly urge you to take me up on this offer. If you want an account, send me an email to thomas.wildemanATgmail.com, being sure to remove the AT with @. The best thing about a google mail account is that it is very fast and very secure, provided you don't write your password down anywhere ever.
It is easy as pie to set up your gmail account to be automatically downloaded into whatever email program you use. However I advise against doing this with any email: keep it on the server it is sent to and view it on the web through firefox or your favourite browser. For your own security's sake do all your personal emailing on the web unless you have a closed network and you can trust all the people who have access to it. I don't even view my work related email off of the server it is on. Bringing bad stuff home is most often done by accident; so make it a policy to never download email messages. With your gmail account, you will be able to do as much with your email online as you would if you downloaded it to eudora or thunderbird. As has been my preference to recommend since 2001 or so, if in any doubt about which is the most secure operating system to install on an amd or i386 or macppc architecture use this one and you will be glad. Especially if all you do on a computer is listen to music, watch movies, word process, email and browse the web; puffy the blowfish will guide you safely through a hostile internet and back home:)

Let me know whether you want a gmail account.

O come, let us adore him!

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, Born this happy morning;
Jesu, to Thee be glory given;
Word of the Father, Now in flesh appearing.

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

God of God, Light of Light,
Lo! he abhors not the Virgin’s womb;
Very God, Begotten not created.

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ the Lord.

This is my favourite Anglican Carol; and I have selected two of my favourite stanzas from the song. I sing the first 5 stanzas to my children to wake them up on Christmas morning; it has become something of a custom in our house for me to do this. Of course I can't sing well, but this song is so true and beautiful it can somewhat overcome my lack of ability. May the light of Christmas shine upon you and anyone you love; and may your "...loving heart enthrone Him." Christ is born, Glorify Him! Merry, merry Christmas! Enjoy the feast:)

Some thoughts on the "Denial Twist" by The White Stripes

If you've never heard the white stripes, you've missed some good tunes. This little snippet below is from off of their latest album, Get Behind Me Satan and it expresses a point of view that I think is missing in a lot of popular culture. One of the ironies of feminism is that, in wanting carte blanche equality with males, much of the older unwritten codes of male chivalry had to go. Now no one seriously would fight the old feminist fight for equal pay for equal work, but you might want to ask the modern female aged 16 to 35 if she's joyful at the loss of courtesy, honour, and gallantry toward women? Of course, males experience things differently than women -- and vice versa; but if males are raised to treat women as equals -- that is, as the boy himself would wish to be treated -- then you start to get an increase in date rape and other things where the male was just acting out this type of 'equality'. This song is cool in that it tries to reassert the old, noble of view of women and how a girl ought to be treated differently than a boy would want to be. It would seem that feminism has outgrown its usefulness, and has in fact contributed to the lessening of the nobility in the male human. Men need to relearn what is manly, and women need to diligently guard what is womanly so as not to be thought of as anything other than a woman and to be honored for it. Such are my thoughts on this song by the white stripes; the message it carries is sound and worthy of all ears in our times of confusion about gender roles. Here's the snippet of this funky and pertinent tune:

If you think that a kiss is all in the lips
C'mon, you got it all wrong, man
And if you think that our dance was all in the hips
Oh well, then do the twist
If you think holding hands is all in the fingers
Grab hold of the soul where the memory lingers and
Make sure to never do it with a singer
Cause he'll tell everyone in the world

What he was thinking about the girl
Ya, what he's thinking about the girl, oh

A lot of people get confused and they bruise
Real easy when it comes to love
They start putting on their shoes and walking out
And singing "boy, I think I had enough"

Just because she makes you feel wrong
She don't mean to be mean or hurt you on purpose, boy
Take a tip and do yourself a little service
Take a mountain turn it into a mole

Just by playing a different role
Ya, by playing a different role, oh

The boat ya you know she's rockin' it...

nonis get a goalie!

even the most astute hockey writers and commentators agree that the time is high for the canucks. the canucks are so near to being the best....so close. but a major piece is missing in their line up: a goaltender. the time is nigh, for the canucks will either obtain an expensive tender and ride him to the cup or this otherwise very talented squad will just fade away. the shame is that they are 'only' 3 million dollars or so away if you look at it fiscally. in terms salaries that is not over the top. nonis would be wise to push to get a starter for auld...and to do so within this next month so the team can come together around him by playoff time. the last three games clearly indicate that the canucks need a goalie if they are to go far into the playoffs. who should nonis go for? luongo?

joy and the divine: a logical corollary?

well here is an oil painting of ramone jumping for joy. we are so thankful to christ our god in this present time because he has blessed us so richly. thanks go out to those of you who prayed for ramone to get that promotion to the rank of a loan's officier; she received word yesterday that she was the successful candidate! yippee, christmas has come early to our house. not to put a damper on the joy this news brings, but the tangible financial benefits to this promotion do not actually kick in until june or july. but that is fine; our hearts are joyful and thankful even now. congratulations go out to the ramon0s.baby, and unspeakable gratitude to the lord!!! christ is the sine qua non.

Bohannahs owns Goldie on Mount Seymour

She turns, she links her turns and she goes zooming by! The bohannahs owned Goldie; but she was owned by the rope tow:)

We had a great time. The weather was perfectly sunny. We shred and shred some more, and then we left satisfied with our rides, and our first time snowboarding.

The lukemeister said it best, "it was a fantastic day!" indeed it sure was fun.... we will return again soon to further our skills after our bruises have become less sensitive:)

abide yet a while...the break is coming

well soon we should be enjoying some sort of break from the regular grind of day to day work that keeps most of us from thinking about the one thing needful. sadly that is not the complete truth; for other things serve as diversions from the one thing needful, even if i didn't have work to keep me pre-occupied. in a way work is both a curse and a necessary diversion; for mankind would do much evil if given to being excessively idle.

tomorrow night i will one of the teachers working on my high school's canned food drive. friday i will be so sleepy and weary. but on saturday i plan to put on my snowboard boots and shred with my custom x !!!! argggh, it should be so groovy! hannah and the luke-meister will come along and take a lesson. it will be a tiring first day on the slopes. yet it will be one of those restful kind of quelled tireds. i love the feeling of coming home after a day on the mountain; i sleep so deeply and wake up with sore legs that ache in a good way, as if you did something for the joy of it. check out my boots; you have to be ultra-manly to wear these in bad-ass black with pink laces:) the laces sort of match my friend the krut-meister's lavender shirt...

...and the lavender man can dance a manly river dance :P

be manly

this image comes out of the matrix, a terrific show to watch when you are wanting to learn to fight against the darkness and the demonic. this is agent smith in your face with his weapon, ready to try to take you out. of course this is exactly the way it is; we are at war with these awful unseen demonic forces and they put all their best weapons to work to take us out on a daily basis. and they are very good at what they do; there is no denying it. but the point is to never give in, to keep getting back up and to take another beating, to persevere and be manly.the story of st.george fighting the dragon is useful at times of intense spiritual warfare. just look at this saintly knight driving the demon off, rebuking it in the name of christ, breaking its very heart and knees. we can take strength from this, that in our struggles, too, we are best to fight by fighting for it in the holy name of jesus. i hope that everything st.paul wrote is true and worthy of following and trusting, even the smaller details and hard to grasp lessons on hair and head coverings. but most of all is that bit he wrote about how all ought to bend their knees at the name of jesus. i trust that all knees will bend to that holy name or they will be broken. st.george seems to me like a knee-breaker. for myself, it is high time to crack back at some demonic knees. it is time for me to be ever so manly and pray and fast and continue to war. this advent fast is a tough one for me....and i am not sure why, but i know when i have a demon in my face. arrrgggh! Just be manly...

the light of the face of christ...

well i got up this morning and this was what met me. what an ugly mofo; and he just stayed around, too, the way a bad fart does. all was hazy and lacking in clarity; all was smoky like the ugly mofo's rotten face. as usual i tried to withstand this onslaught without calling my lord jesus. needless to say this unholy face just kept corrupting any good, clear breath; he kept clouding my judgment. then i remembered the right story. in st jude's epistle it is relayed; there we learn about how the archangel michael handled the likes of this demonic presence: he left the rebuke of the devil to the lord, being unwilling to even continue to argue or try to out-wit the deceiver.
it was good to recall that story; it helped me to see the light in that moment. i hope someday christ will grant me to see the light shining from his face; i imagine the clarity of it will be sublime. yes it is the advent to our winter pascha, and this fasting season has been hard for me and my house. the personal demons we all face have been coming upon us, in most vigorous ways: as always at our weaknesses. we are finding the battle getting very bloody. we so long for the light of christmas....until then, let the unholy mofos rage, and rage some more, for we will not cease to resist; the rebuke of the lord will be their final end. amen, o lord come.

listening: american music, the violent femmes

concert memories

i remember seeing the meat puppets back in 1987 at the Town Pump; that was one of the best concerts i ever saw. when i first saw nirvana, they were a dirty and harsh bunch of druggies who lived hard and certainly lived to rock. And they did rock; they were so loud that the solid wood bar at the Town Pump was vibrating like a xylophone key. ales were jiggling as they rested on the surface of that mighty bar. that was in 1988 or 1989; my last year at ubc. a short while later nirvana wouldn't be playing in places like the Town Pump.

i remember seeing rem play the ubc thunderbird stadium in 1985. although michael stipe gave us the finest vocal solo at the close of the concert, it wasn't as close and harsh and intimate as the meat puppets or nirvana concerts. the best concert i have ever been at was the spirit of the west: when they played at the commodore ballroom in 1988. those guys played such fantastic music and they were spectacular as a live act. It was hard to sit down, you just had to get up and boogie. And cutting-a-rug at the commodore is so cool because of the horse hair beneath the hard wood floor: can you say 'bounce'!!? i saw the violent femmes play at the commodore, too. but, sadly, i wasn't feeling well at that concert.

it is weird to think that i went to see the Police in 1983 and 1984, and that ramona, my future wife was there. other memorable concerts i went to include billy bragg in 1986. he was so impressive with just his voice, a guitar and an amp. i remember a sonic youth concert in 1986-7 that stirred my ear drums. during 1985-6 i lived with the bassist for the grapes of wrath, a local vancouver band. i saw many - even too many - of their concerts. yet i did get to see a lot of very good opening acts that were young back then like sarah mclaughlin, 54 40 and my favourites, slow. slow never went on to do much in the recording industry, but they owned my ears.

There'll be a golden ladder reaching down....

This post is to thank my God Christ for helping my friend to sell his truck. It is something I have been praying for over the last three or four months. I think this has been a time of testing for the Krutmeister and his wife. To me it is a sign that Christ wants the Krutmeister to keep proceeding with certain plans. Again, thank God for giving the truck and for letting it sell! Ah the comfort of the Lord, and how it must be worth spilling many tears for.

As a rather anxious Dane once said, it is one thing to stand on one leg and prove the existence of God, while it is quite another to prostrate yourself before the Trinity in thanks. I think he should have added the prepositional phrase 'like a fish' in between the 'yourself' and the preposition 'before'. But not everyone is into holy comedy during prayers. However my feeling is that being able to chuckle at oneself is a means to a deeper holiness. I mean consider for just a moment what The Man might think as I tell him my prayers and plans and all that; it keeps me grounded to realize that I probably make the Trinity chuckle a great belly chuckle. Whatever the truth of this may be, I will prostrate myself like a fish and offer sincere thanks to the most High for being so gracious to my friend. Indeed, the Lord is merciful.

so what is a redneck?

my wife says that rednecks are just people with conservative opinions. given that definition, i am a redneck. but, alas, i wonder am i really a shotgun toting, cheap-beer guzzling, shaggy-pony-tail-haired, willie nelson listening redneck? well, let's see. when i die, i want a hearse like the one below -- but, hey, does this make me a redneck?my wife tells me that rednecks always tell others to screw off in quite an insensitive manner. a few days ago i was out walking in the woods, and i came upon this tree. Take a little gander down-yonder at this nasty and very insensitive redneck tree. if i were a redneck, i'd label this photo as 'clear cut this.'
so as to prove that i am not a redneck, i will show you a copy of my wife's desktop on her windows xp laptop. i set this up for her all by myself and it is the epitome of order and civilization; hardly the stamp of a redneck. again, would you say this is a redneck's desktop? i think this is the Q.E.D. that puts all doubt out of mind as to my redneck status. are conservatives and rednecks just one and the same...that seems a weak proposition. and can a tree be a redneck? check in sometime soon for some tapes of me singing; these will clarify further my lack of redneckiness. oh, i think my liver is diseased even more...

canucks need to trade for a goalie?

i would answer the question in the title in the affirmative. we need to trade cloutier and someone like morrsion or jovo to shake up this team. alex auld is not the go-to man; he is a back-up, nothing more. his performance in the edmonton game tonight was so lame, he was not merely the victim of poor team defense. i was hoping we'd get luongo. no way now. i don't see this current canucks' squad going far in the playoffs; they lack both the grit and the goal tending. perhaps when we get cook back, some grit will swell up from the depths of this team. but the canucks need a proven goalie and they will need to spend the loonies to get him. it is too bad they didn't snag the drama-queen of goalies, hasek, prior to the season start. cloutier has shaky nerves and injures easily and under duress, i.e, during a playoff series. i say it is time for the canucks management and owners to decide whether to stay ok and let the current core age into nothingness over the next two years, or to spend the money and give up a morrison or jovo and get this team its missing pieces: a proven goal tender and some grit. i hope they do the latter.