Back in the 1970s, I lived in Hamilton, Ontario. Despite it's reputation as a working-class steel town, or maybe because of it, Hamilton had a flourishing folk music scene.
David Bradstreet was a regular on the folk circuit and I saw him perform several times. He is a first-rate cong writer and guitarist whose song "Renaissance" was made a hit by Valdy. In recent years, he's been performing around Ontario and this week's music treat is a concert recording from London, Ontario in 2025. He performed with his long-time musical partner, bassist Carl Keesee. It's a lovely album and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
If you live in the Toronto area, he'll be performing with Keesee at Hugh's Room in Toronto on May 9. I'm hoping to be there.
Locus, the newsmagazine of the science fiction and fantasy field, has published its recommended reading list for 2025. The list includes novels, short fiction, collections, anthologies, non-fiction, and illustrated and art books, and is an unofficial long list for field's major awards.
I'm way behind on reading current fiction (reading anything actually right now, though my eyes are improving), so I've only read one book on this list: Where the Axe Is Buried, by Ray Nayler, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I will be starting Anna Lee Newitz's Automatic Noodle in the next few days.
Broken Social Scene are an indie Toronto band and musical collective who've been performing since 1999. Depending on where and when they're playing, there can be anywhere between six and nineteen members on stage. I've been lucky enough to see them four times since 2004, when I took my tween daughter to her first big concert at Harbourfront and we became fans for life. Parts of their July 2009 concert. again at Harbourfront, was featured in the film, This Movie Is Broken, and was of of the best concerts I have seen in this century.
They've just released Live at Pickathon, recorded at their appearance on Ausust 4, 2018, on Bandcamp. It's an excellent performance and beautifully recorded. It's free to listen to; I'd gladly pay for it if there was a way to download it. I recommend it highly.
For the fans, here's the setlist.
Pacific Theme Play Video 7/4 (Shoreline) (featuring Reid on sax) Cause = Time Shampoo Suicide Hug of Thunder Sweetest Kill Gonna Get Better TBT (La Force cover) Skyline Almost Crimes Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl
It's getting harder and harder to find objective news. It seems that almost every site now is pushing an agenda and trying to get you to think their way or make you do something.
To avoid falling into the manipulation trap when consuming media, I like to remind myself of the first two tenets of journalism ethics:
Seek the truth as fully as possible
Seek to minimize harm
Anyone who isn’t doing these things isn’t performing ethical journalism.
More practically, when someone tells you a story, look for an attempt to fulfill these two elements—seeking the truth as fully as possible, and seeking to minimize harm. If you don’t see it, you should be skeptical of what you’re being fed. And you should use it as a trigger to employ extra critical thinking.
There are lots of ways to manipulate people with storytelling. But there are three big ones right now in mainstream news and social media that, once you start noticing them, you’ll have more power to see when you’re being manipulated—and hopefully, help others see too.
Here's a chilling warning from historian Timothy Sbyder about what might happen in Springfield, Ohio later this week.
In a conincidence, both Vance and Snyder came up for discussion at a lunch with some friends last week. Some thought that Vance would be an improvement over Trump, shold he become president.
It's clear they're wrong.
Update: Yesterday, a judge stayed the order revoking the Temporary Protected States of the Haitians until their court case is decided.
Short reviews of movies and TV shows that I watched in January.
Movies
The Velvet Underground: A so-so documentary. I wish it had focused more on the music and less on how they looked. (Apple TV)
Galaxy Quest: This is still the best Star Trek parody and better than most of the Trek movies. (Blu Ray)
Sinners: There was a lot of buzz about his movie and I can see why. It was very well done in every respect and also very unconventional. Buddy Guy at the end sealed it for me. One of the best movies I've seen in a long time. (Crave)
Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere. This biopic looks at Springsteen's life between the release of The River in 1981 and Born in the USA in 1984, a period of reflection that led to the release of Nebraska. It's well done, reasonably accurate, and quite watchable but marred by a made0-up romance subplot. (Disney)+)
The Thursday Murder Club: A cozy mystery about residents of a retirement home solving murders. Light but worth watching for a high-powered cast. (Netflix)
K-Pop Demon Hunters: We watched this just to see what all the fuss was about and did enjoy it. Not much of a stpru but the animation and music are the point. (Netflix)
TV Shows
Antiques Road Trips (season 14-15): Our treasure hunt through Britain's villages continues. After these, we will have to find a new comfort watch.. (BritBox)
Stranger Things (season 5): The final season was about twice as long as it needed to be. I still think the show should have ended after the third season. (Netflix)
Pluribus: One of the best SF shows that Apple TV has produced. It manages to be both funny and terrifying. (Apple TV)
Beyond Paradise (Christmas special): Nice to see a plot that didn't revolve around a murder. (BritBox)
Death in Paradise (Christmas special): Only for fans. (BritBox)
Unforgotten (season 5): Still one of the best British police procedurals with an especially twisty plot that neither of us figured out. (BritBox)
Starfleet Academy: If it's intended to be a comedy then it's a disaster. (Paramount+)
Bookish: A light mystery series about a gay bookseller in post-war London. The best thing about it was the evoication of the period. (PBS)
Down Cemetery Road: We only got through one eopisode of this. Too contrived and not believable. (Apple TV)
Seven Dials: Another Agatha Christie mystery. Contrived yes, but we didn't expect any more. (Netflix)
The Night Manager (season 1): A rather good adaptation of a John Le Carre novel. One of the best series we've watched in a while. (Amazon Prime)
This week's musical treat is another single: "Streets of Minneapolis" from Bruce Springsteen. He wrote and recorded it in a matter of days after the shooting of Alex Pretti by ICE thugs a week ago.
Here's the lyrics for the first verse.
Through the winter’s ice and cold Down Nicollet Avenue A city aflame fought fire and ice ‘Neath an occupier’s boots King Trump’s private army from the DHS Guns belted to their coats Came to Minneapolis to enforce the law Or so their story goes Against smoke and rubber bullets By the dawn’s early light Citizens stood for justice Their voices ringing through the night And there were bloody footprints Where mercy should have stood And two dead left to die on snow-filled streets Alex Pretti and Renee Good
For a look at the song in the context of the protext songs of the 60s and 70s, see this article in The Atlantic (archive link)
Today's musical treat is short but sweet, a new single from the Tedeschi Trucks Band. "I Got You" is the debut single from their forthcoming album, Future Soul. It has a distinct Allman Brothers vibe and I really like it.
They'll be going on tour this summer, but unfortunately it looks like they won't be coming back to Toronto this year. You can read more about the album and tour in this Relix article.
Yesterday, Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a historic speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Carney received a standing ovation from the audience; something that, as the moderator observed, is not common at Davs, and he deserved it. If you have a few minutes, watch the speech. I am not being hyperbolic when I use the word "historic" here. It was a speech that clearly defined the current state of the world. the place Canada has in it, and where Canada and its allies can do to cope with the chaos that we see around us and build something better.
By, contrast, Trump's speech today was at the very least an embarrassment, and in reality, a disaster. The contrast between the two men could not have been starker. If you have the stomach for it, here it is.
I'm going to quote Dean Blundell here, who describes it much better than I can and in more details than I have the stomach for.
ot strength. Not leverage. Not “strategic ambiguity.”
It was confusion, grievance, racism, lies, and visible cognitive decline, delivered in a raspy, slurred, low-energy mumble to a room that had clearly already tuned him out.
The contrast with Mark Carney — whose historic speech the day before calmly described the real world Trump has helped break — could not have been more brutal.
Carney spoke like a statesman preparing allies for reality.
Trump spoke like a man yelling at ghosts.
If we are very lucky, Trump's performance at Davos, and the contrast with Carney's, will increae the pressure on the Repubicans in Congress to finally break Trump's hold on them.
I've been struggling with using VLC as a music player on my Pixel phone. While it's very versatile and will play almost any format, the interface is clunky and it lacks some basic functionality, like easily playing all songs in a folder or an album.
I've found a good alternative if you are looking for something to play local file, IOW files that you've transferred to your phone. Musicolet is fast, has no ads, a clean interface, all the options you are likely to need for playing music, and it's free.
About the only thing I've found missing is an option to increase the text size in app. That aside, it's exactly what I was looking for.
There's no IOS version, so iPhone owners are out of luck.
UPDATE: Finally, VLC has dark mode. It's been added to the Preferences dialog in version 3.0.23 and seems to be working fine. This is good, because the hack that I mention below stopped working and VLC has been a real strain to use without dark mode.
I generally use VLC for media playback but it's been a struggle because it doesn't have dark mode, which with my vision problems is essential. Well, it does now if you download the latest nightly build, version 3.0.22.
The current stable version seems to be 3.0.20, which the Check for Updates option says is up to date. Version 4.0 is in development but I'm not going to try that one for now..
Instructions on downloading it are in this blog post by Gordon Glas. Note that Windows Defender will probably give you a warning about installing it, but considering it's coming from the developer's website, you can ignore that.
Given that the build is still under development, it may not be stable, but so far I haven't noticed any major issues. The dark palette could use some tweaking for better contrast in places like the Help > About dialog and the playback buttons , but it's still far easier on the eyes than the previous version.
It's winter here in the Great (and very) White North. We had a heavy snowfall on Wednesday, about 40 cm. or 16" for you US folks. That's a rare snowfall; the last one like that was about four years ago. Fortunately, it was light and fluffy, and we didn't have to go anywhere that day.
This is a picture of the rain barrels in our backyard, taken with my Pixel 8 Pro when I went out to clear a space for the dog to do her business.
Although he was best known as the rhythm guitarist for the Grateful Dead and their later offshoots, Bob Weir had a flourishing career with his own bands (Ratdog and Wolf Brothers) and as a solo artist. In 2016 he released a lovely folk country album called Blue Mountain and toured with a crackerjack band to support it.
This is the Blue Mountain album, one of the best solo albums from any member of the Grateful Dead. The band includes Steve Kimock and members of The National.
To follow it, here's a concert from the Capitol Theatre on October 16, 2016. I watched the webcast at the time and was blown away and I still am. (The date on YouTube is wrong, by the way; it was definitely 2016, not 2017, which I verified on Setlists.fm.)
If you liked that, here's another show from the same tour, on October 10. This one is an audience recording but it's very high quality and I think I prefer it to the webcast.
I was deeply saddened to hear the news of the death yesterday of Bob Weir at the age of 78. The Grateful Dead have been a big part of my life ever since I heard their first album sometime in 1967. I saw them perform eight times between 1970 and 1992 and Weir with Ratdog twice in the early 2000s and I have a large collection of thwir music that I still explore.
Jerry Garcia may have been the spiritual core of the Dead but Weir was their rock and roll heart. After Garcia died, his music took a turn into Americana and a jazzier mode with Don Was in Wolf Brothers. He wrote some of his best songs outside of the Dead and this are two of them, "Two Djiin" into "Ashes and Glass", performed with Wolf Brothers in his TRI Studios in 2011.
Over the last few years, Phish have continued a tradition that was started by Bill Graham at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco by performing a theatrical New Year's Eve production. They have become quite elaborate and this year was no exception, running for almost an hour starting with the song "It's Ice Cream".
I don't think it was the best music of the 4-night run, but it is certainly fun to watch. This is an official band video so the sound and video quality are first rate. Enjoy.
So Trump is claiming that the ICE agent who shot and killed Rene Nicole Good in Minneapolis yesterday was run over when the videos clearly show she was driving away from the man who shot her. From Heather Cox Richardson:
This morning, a federal agent from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) shot and killed 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good as she was driving away from ICE agents on a residential street in Minneapolis, Minnesota. According to Minneapolis leaders, Good was a legal observer: a volunteer trained to observe police conduct in case of future legal action.
Three videos taken at the scene show a maroon SUV perpendicular on a snowy street. A silver SUV driving up the street stops. Two officers wearing badges that say “police” and body armor get out of the vehicle and walk toward the maroon car.
One of them says, “Get out of the f*cking car,” and the other reaches through the open driver’s side window while trying to open the door. The driver backs up the vehicle, and straightens the wheel as if making a three-point turn. Then she starts slowly to accelerate along the street.
A third officer who has been standing on the side of the road pulls out a gun as the car is turning away. He shoots three times. The maroon car does not hit anyone as it rolls up the street, hitting another vehicle and then a utility pole. The shooter walks briskly away, apparently uninjured."
Clearly Trump and his minions are living in an alternate universe.
I had intended to read more books in 2025 than in 2024, and I was on track todo that until I developed an eye problem (complicatioons from dry eye) that are making it difficult to read. Right now, I've started using the assisted reading features on my phone and tablets, as well as the text-to-speech reader on my Windows 11 PC. They're not ideal but I've been getting some reading done, though at a much slower pace than I like.
These were the books I managed to read in 2025.
Failed State, Charles Brown
Escape from Yokiland, Charles Stross
Been So Long, Jorma Kaukonen
Stealing Worlds, Karl Schroeder
The Year's Best Science Fiction: 35th Edition (2017), Gardner Dozois
A Conventional Boy, Charlie Stross
Infinity Gate, M. R. Carey
Echo of Worlds, M. R. Carey
When the Moon Hits Your Eye, John Scalzi
The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler. This was my favourite book over everthing I read last year.
The Winds of Fate, S. M. Stirling
Roots Reggae Traveler, Syd Perry. I did a bit of editing on this. It will be published soon.
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 12 (2017), Jonathan Strahan
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 13 (2018), Jonathan Strahan
I am currently reading The Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year Volume 4 edited by Neil Clarke containing stories from 1
18 and Inventing the Renaissance by Ada Palmer, a wonderful and entertaining history of the renaissance. Up next in the queue are the next Neil Clarke anthology and Ray Nayler's Tusks of Extinction.
My vision problems have forced me to cut back on my involvement with social media, but I have been trying to get back to reading more magazines using both Apple News+ and Libby. Both work well for me on the iPad Air with its bigger screen.
Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in November. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory.
Movies
Jay Kelly: I've enjoyed most of George Clooney's movies in the past, and enjoyed this one, but it didn't quite work. It kept reaching for something more than it was, and falling short. It's quite watchable but just not very deep. Being a shorter and edgier would have helped (Netflix)
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The third, and I think the best, in the franchise. The portrayal of the charismatic priest and his congregation was the best part of the movie and very well done.
The Princess Bride: Our Christmas comfort watch. (Blu Ray)
TV Shows
The Last Detective (seaons 1-4): DC Davies is a nice guy, which doesn't make his life any easier as a detective. Well written and acted. Light but with an edge to it. (BritBox)
The Wild Ones: A natrue documentary/reality show about endangered species. The episodes about Caucasian leopards and Atlantic right whales were particularly good. (Apple TV)
Antiques Road Trip (season 13). Our journey through England in search of treasure continues. (PBS) Episode 4 sets a new record for an auction item on the show.
Silent Witness (Season28): The best of the forensic shows returns with a new lab head. I suspect this show was an inspiration for NCIS, though it's much better. (BritBox)
Man vs. Bee: Outright comedy, silly and implausible, but very funny if you like that sort of thing. (I don't). (Netflis)
Bad Sisters (season 2): A bit darker than the first seaon and not as much humour, but still very watchable. (Apple TV)
Blue Lights (season 2): A gritty police drama set in Northern Ireland. Best when it stays away from a tendency to soap opera. (Amazon Prime)
