Month: August 2016

Flower Powers (Brendan Canning, Home Wrecking Years review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Have you ever jumped into a pile of leaves dear readers? Fallen into a snow drift? Tumbled into a pool? Slipped in the mud?

Yeah I have too. Nature has a surprising amount of built in padding for both kids and adults alike. And yet we never seem to take advantage of it – Especially in summer. Consider this idea for a second… What if you were to dive into a bed of flowers?

I bet it would feel a lot like this album.

 

 

 

Brendan Canning – Home Wrecking Years
released August 12, 2016
******** 8/10

brendandhomewrec

Brendan Canning has been making indie music for a long time – 24 years to be exact. I know this because the year that he became active is the same year that my baby brother was born. Which in music years, means he is old as fuck. Just kidding Brendan! Anyway, Canning is a co-founder of Arts & Crafts sweeties Broken Social Scene, yay for Canadian content! Canning has also been a part of such acts as Blurtonia, By Divine Right, hHead, Len, and Vally of the Giants.

Yeah that Len, the Len that performed Steal My Sunshine.

But this isn’t a group record, it’s a one man show. Speaking of which, Canning has now made three solo albums, the most recent being Home Wrecking Years.

It is immediately accessible and feels like an album you should listen to on vinyl with some incense, hummus, and your most breezy shirt. You shouldn’t expect anything less than a comfortable and heartwarming experience with this record. That is, if you’re familiar with Broken Social Scene’s experimental, shoegazing, and noise infused sounds. Because most of the guest spots feature regular BSS members Sam Goldberg and Justin Peroff

It’s not quite as epic in scale of course; But that combination of guitars, horns, woodwinds, and string instruments is definitely there for you get a good feeling about.

Now, I could spend time picking apart each individual track and tell you the strengths and weaknesses found on the songs contained within this album, but to be perfectly honest, that’s not the way that I ultimately took this album in. I listened to it in my car throughout the week, on the way to work, on the way home, going to see friends, onto a date, taking my brother to the medi-centre, basically just out living life. I tried to set it down and pay really close attention to it, I swear, but it never felt right to do so.

As I mentioned already, this is music you put on to feel good about yourself and your unfolding story.

It’s a weird thing, as much experimentation as Canning puts us through in his shoegazing efforts, that’s okay. It’s allowed. We have music so many kinds of music out there on the market, it’s nice when an artist pulls back some of his cords and unplugs. And that’s what Home Wrecking Years is a raw and simple record, which is experimental for this artist. Ever heard the expression, hiding in plain sight? Yeah, pretty much that’s what this is. A great album, hiding in plain sight.

 

 

 

People get so concerned about stopping to smell the flowers, that they never think to dive right in. But I bet you that if you did take that chance, you’d find Brendan Canning just hanging out in your neighbours flowerbed, hiding in plain sight. A notion of summer well remembered.

I’m out of musical theories for now my friends, but you should check back tomorrow, when I share a movie review about another natural occurrence.

Tim!

Quality Control (Cross Talk Ep. 8)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

My day job is interesting, dear readers.

I work for a major Canadian retailer, at their corporate office, coordinating marketing efforts. To be more specific, I’m responsible to ensure all of the product photography, marketing related images, online product catalogue, and any written content associated with the brand stays on track and keeps on keeping on.

Though I am ultimately a creative being at heart, and my major life interests lie with the arts, my unique skill set also features analytical abilities of project management, planning, organization, leadership, and communication. And so I’ve made decisions to use those skills to get paid.

play-get-paid

What this means is that quality control and process development are in my bones.

And while it’s my job to contribute to a healthy brand image to the company I work for, I also believe in that ideal, and so I have internal and external alignments. But just because these types of development inevitably lead to consistency and then business maintenance, that does not mean that innovation is without energy spent and emotional investment.

Some elements of quality production and process lend themselves to automation, but still others will always need vigilance in attention.

Which conveniently gets us on track for this month’s episode of Cross Talk. I think that quality movies all demand a certain level of attention the first time you view them, but over time, some movies fall into the camp where they become rewatchable and part of our pop culture slang, whereas other movies are definitely necessary for the experiences they can provide, but you can’t easily queue them for repeated viewings, and this is for a myriad of reasons.

To give you a more concrete example of a rewatchable movie, I would say that 21 Jump Street is a great example because the laughs and content are memorable, fun, and the chemistry between its leads is insane.

Whereas an intense movie like Requiem for a Dream cannot be watched every couple of weeks because it is so visceral, full of dark themes, and difficult to stomach. Darren Aronofsky refuses to pull any punches and thusly we can only stay with his vision for a short while.

What this means for the audience at home is that Chris and I recognize there are solid examples of both movies, but it’s not always obvious which is which, and so episode 8 of Cross Talk is a conduit for the difference between a quality movie and one that turns into a rewatchable one.

As always, I’ve included a direct link to the full video for you here, but I want you get your hands on the video ASAP, so we’ve harnessed the power of technology to embed the video directly below. Please sit back and enjoy Episode 8 of Cross Talk!

I’m out of theories for now, but please check back tomorrow for an album review that features arts & crafts. It should be a good one! Please comment, subscribe, and share this with friends. We want to hear your feedback!

Tim!

Theatre Adventures (Fringe Festival)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

When I was a kid my siblings and I used to love running around the department store, hiding from our mom, pretending we were ninjas, royalty, spacemen, and all kinds of other imaginary characters.

At the time, it made sense to shuffle through the crowd of shoppers and challenge our mother’s patience, but as we grew up we started to challenge that creative energies into various pursuits. I was interested in drawing and video, Ryan was excited about music and drama, Katrina was a poet and a piano player, and Neil was a lover of comedy and performance.

We didn’t know it at the time, but Neil was eventually going to participate in something much larger than himself, and become a member of a society of performance artists where his love of comedy and acting would make perfect sense for him. And now he is a regular on the Fringe circuit.

What the heck is Fringe timotheories?

The Surrey With The Fringe On Top

Well, every summer during the month of August a group of artists, performers, and curators get together to organize an international event that hosts over 800 creative types in something north of 200 shows across a 10 day period. That event is known as the Edmonton International Fringe Festival or simply Fringe for short. It is quite seriously the oldest and largest fringe theatre festival in all of North America.

It takes place in the heart of Old Strathcona and features a chain of participating permanent theatres of the area. For instance, The ATB Arts Barns, The Walterdale Playhouse, the Varscona Theatre, and the Catalyst Theatre are all staples of the event, but neighborhood churches and restaurants like El Cortez take on their share of performers in the system – which is designed to provide artists with a venue, technicians and ticketing services, all in all a great opportunity for those types of artists to get some more exposure.

The major goal of the festival is to promote theatre, but all kinds of artists put in bids to participate in the festival via the lottery system. Which is why the crowd is always so diverse every year, you aren’t guaranteed the same set of performers every year. The second goal of fringe is to promote the spontaneity available in exploring the festival and trying out all kinds of shows. There are festival guides available for purchase, show listings online and at the the venue ticket stations, and of course, festival maps to help you find your way.

The Edmonton International Fringe Festival can be found all throughout the Old Strathcona area from August 11-21 inclusive. Consider taking public transportation to get there as parking is limited and the streets will be PACKED! And if you want to check out my brother’s show, it’s called Drinking In America, presented by Ronin Theatre, and takes place at The Backstage Theatre. I’ve dropped the link for you here.

That’s all I’ve got for the week my friends, I hope you have an excellent weekend and I’ll see you on Sunday with a new Cross Talk episode!

Tim!

The Truth Is Out There (Neil Strauss)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

So how many of you remember when I wrote that post a couple of months back about one of my personal goals for the year? Nope, not the one about my movie watching goals (The Watch List), and also not the one about my music reacquiring goals (The Back Catalogue). Want a hint?

It has something to do with reading. Reading via that dying form of book learning.

It’s a tough one to accomplish for sure, in a world where working 40+ hours a week is the norm, exercise, food, and sleep are required, and social relationships must exist in order to be a contributing member of society proper, where does an artist fit in time for absorbing artistic endeavours in tactile paper and ink objects AND find time to produce his own work? Well, obvs you have to have a schedule and a game plan.

Which is what I came up with. I wonder if you know what I’m eluding to just yet.

I’ll share a snippet from the post I have in mind to give you a reference point –

Buying a new album and film every week is a start, and participating in social media to build an empire is a good for discipline, but I’ve always found that reading is the best way to spark ideas. Which is why I’ve decided to start The Reading List. It’s ambitious for sure, but it’s the only way I know how to flesh out a process, by dreaming big and digging in.

My goal for the rest of the year, and then for the rest of my life as I know it, is to read one book a month in a packet of categories. I’m going to start slow though.

…

I will read one book a month from the 5 groupings below, slowly expanding the number of books read so that I reach the point of 5 books a month. A book for each group:

  1. LIFE – Biographies/Art/Music
  2. LOVE – Classic Fiction/Non-Fiction/Graphic Novels
  3. LEARN – Business/Leadership/Self-Help
  4. LABEL – Philosophy/Sociology/Psychology
  5. LEET -The Internet

If I can get to the point where I read a book from each topic a month, I’ll be flying pretty high. You see, dear readers, if I can embrace the 5 L’s of LANGUAGE (my own idea), then I can contribute proper to your own education and personal growth in the age of the Internet – Hence the LEET grouping.

The great thing about having a reading list is that it continuously reminds me that I should be consuming books, not because they make me smarter, but because I should be participating in culture and sharing what I learn back with you, my dear sweet readers.

The Truth About Neil Strauss

This month I decided to reach out into the LEARN section of my 5 L’s of Language and look at a book by one Neil Strauss. The book I decided to read is called The Truth, An Uncomfortable Book About Relationships. If you have been around for the past ten years, you’ll probably recognize his breakout bestseller The Game: Penetrating The Secret Society of Pickup Artists.

Now before I receive a bunch of boo/hiss comments, because as much as I don’t want to get into apologetics for pick-up artists, I’d rather do that defending thing and say that Neil Strauss is something of a pioneer in my opinion, then have you shut er down “just because”.

Bold talk timotheories, but go on.

He saw how social cues and dating etiquette was evolving in the early 2000s and because he had never had a serious relationship, he was sick of living in a victim mentality, and he went out and learned some skills to better himself and gain confidence.

We’d all be incredibly naive if we didn’t think that sex, attraction, dating and relationships didn’t have something to do with skillfulness and ability. Just like literally everything else in life.

So many of us expect romance and love to just happen for us, but we have to gain emotional intelligence and sexual prowess if we want to find that person (or persons) that compliment us appropriately and with who we also compliment.

The Truth is a book about Strauss’ realization that while he had learned how to seduce women and how to better understand what women wanted from a sexual partner, what he didn’t learn was that in order to have romance, and then healthy commitment, we have to understand our upbringing and the challenges we carried with us into adulthood. Otherwise we have half the necessary skill-set to be a functioning sexual being. Yes, the book explores themes that demonstrate how some people can live a single life, others can get polyamorous, and most of us go monogamous, but it’s our individual responsibility to figure out for ourselves what defines our intimate nature and then mature into a healthy adult.

This book taught me, that no matter what kind of sexual identity I take on, my personal happiness is still my responsibility. Whatever physical or mental imperfections I am faced with, I choose to be defined by them OR to work with and through them, especially at a pace that is manageable.

And that’s a heavy topic for an artist to tackle, whether you’re a writer like Strauss, a musician, an actor or a visual artist.

I highly recommend this one. Give it a shot, you’ll likely learn something about yourself.

Tim!

Adventure Time (Mississippi Grind review)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Have you ever read the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? It’s more than 100 years old at this point. In case you haven’t read it, it’s a story that explores the subjects of race and identity. It has been studied over and over, because while it digs into the the existence of slavery, it also exists within the context of the time period and so there are a number of racial slurs and stereotypes played out in the story.

Odd then that I find myself watching a movie about the Mississippi and identity, but without the issues of race, well mostly.

 

 

 

Mississippi Grind (2016)

Cast: Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Yvonne Landry, Sienna Miller, Analeigh Tipton
Director: Anna Boden, Ryan Fleck
released on blu-ray Dec 1, 2015
******** 8/10

mississippi_grind

IMDB: 6.4
Rotten Tomatoes: 89%, Audience Score 54%
The Guardian: ****/*****

Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are American film directors that have a habit of working together. They have co-directed Have You Seen This Man, Gowanus Brooklyn, Young Rebels, Sugar, It’s Kind of a Funny Story and now Mississippi Grind. Boden also co-wrote Half Nelson with Fleck while he directed that film.

It probably helps that they have been romantically involved, which as we all know if fostered probably leads to committed love, and whether they are still together or not (I don’t know and couldn’t figure it out), they obviously have a lot of love and respect for each other, which allows their stories to play out organically and realistically. It’s Kind of A Funny Story is one of my favourite movies after all.

Now, Mississippi Grind is the typical story of an odd couple, but rejuvenated with modern beats on gambler road movies. Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn), is a professional gambler who is on hard times, and definitely in a state of addiction to the sport. Upon visiting a casino in Iowa, he meets Curtis (Ryan Reynolds) in a game of Texas hold’ em. Curtis is a bit younger, extroverted and friendly. Curtis beats Gerry in a hand and then buys him a premium glass of Bulleit bourbon, instead of Woodford. They become fast friends and leave on good terms.

Later in the evening, Gerry runs into Curtis at a bar, while Curtis plays darts. After discussing their views on life, Gerry learns that Curtis is successful at cards because he doesn’t care about winning and just likes to play. After a night of heavy drinking, they crash at Curtis’ place and then decide to hit the dog track. They initially win a lot of money, but because Gerry is unable to walk away, they end up losing it all. Afterwards they head to another bar where they test the waters on playing pool and try to bet the local sharks on a game of $1000. The men are not impressed and the odd couple are booted from the bar. Curtis decides it’s time to leave town, and on his way to his car, Gerry is threatened at knife point by a guy who overheard the $1000 bet. Not realizing that Gerry was bluffing, the man stabs him and then runs.

The following day Gerry meets up with a lady he owes money to, and she expects repayment immediately. Gerry lies and states that he was robbed and shows the knife wound. Gerry then runs into Curtis again at another bar, and decides that it is fate and that Curtis is his good luck charm. Gerry proposes a trip down the Mississippi, consisting of several major gambling destinations, and a final game of poker at New Orleans with a $25K buy-in. Curtis agrees, stakes him $2K and Gerry agrees to drive.

But if I share too much more, you won’t watch, so let’s split the pair.

Pros: An excellent portrayal of the nature of the gambler, and how mideast America is still full of these locales. Gambling culture has probably not been this well showcased in a decade or more. Reynolds and Mendelsohn are lovable and disgusting at the same time.

Cons: Some of the characterizations are a little textbook and the backstories of our two leads aren’t really fleshed out in a deep and meaningful way.

Runtime: 1 hour 48 minutes

Points of Interest: Tony Roundtree, the gentleman that runs the New Orleans poker game, is played by James Toback, the guy that wrote The Gambler. The tattoo on Curtis’ leg is the same as the combination to his and Gerry’s hotel safe.

Mississippi Grind might come across as a boring and pathetic examination of addiction, but at the heart of it there is a lot more love between it’s characters and the nuances of their interactions with each other and their supporting cast is something to behold. The landscape of the film is rather sparse and washed out, but I think that it is intentional, to show that these guys are struggling against the typical humdrum of midlife.

 

 

 

Mississippi Grind fits itself right into the region in which it depicts, though it never quite addresses its reference to Huckleberry Finn and Jim directly. It is a spiritual exploration of two men from different worlds that become friends and fight against their environment and shortcomings in an attempt to escape to better circumstances. Does the movie achieve this end? In a word, yes. But you’ll just have to watch it yourselves to find out if I’m lying.

Tim!