Category Archives: music

Rocking and rolling

22 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by in Canada, fun, music, photography, trains, Travel

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Running Red Lights on Via Rail: Rock and rolling

If you’re on Via Rail’s western transcontinental train, “The Canadian”, keep your eyes — and ears — open for two members of Toronto-based band Running Red Lights, who will be performing aboard the train that leaves Vancouver on Tuesday, April 26, 2013.
I had the pleasure of enjoying Scarlett Flynn and Kevin Howley’s music as I travelled westbound with them through much of last week.
Check out their website to learn more about the whole band and to see blog entries recounting their epic cross-country journey.
They’re also all over social media:
Facebook — http://www.facebook.com/RunningRedLights
Twitter — http://twitter.com/rrlmusic
YouTube — http://www.youtube.com/user/rrlmusic

Top photo: Kevin and Scarlett performing in the second Skyline car aboard Via Rail’s “The Canadian”.
Below: A little boy listens intently as Scarlett and Kevin perform a quick gig at Winnipeg Union Station.
Bottom: Scarlett and Kevin entertain the crowd at Jasper train station.

Running Red Lights in Winnipeg: Capturing his undivided attention

Running Red Lights in Jasper, Alberta: Mountain melodies

Smells like teen spirit

23 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in art, music, photography, Seattle, Travel, urban

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Teen spirit

Another great attraction in Seattle is the EMP Museum, which focuses on popular art and music.
The museum, housed in a building designed by Frank Gehry, covers topics spanning modern music and popular culture.
The photo above is in the first display in an exhibit on the emergence of punk and grunge, focusing on Nirvana. The guitar is a Mosrite Gospel, played by Kurt Cobain during the Seattle show in which the song Smells Like Teen Spirit was performed publicly for the first time.
Other parts of the exhibit include such seminal artifacts as Nirvana’s first demo tape and the original photo that would become the cover art for Nevermind.
It’s a fascinating journey through the first days of the Pacific Northwest punk/grunge scene, all the way through its popularization and its acceptance by mainstream media.
Nearby are a historical guitar gallery and an exhibit on Jimi Hendrix.
Elsewhere in the museum are exhibits on horror movies, science fiction and the art of video games, the museum’s newest installation, whose opening I missed due to timing, unfortunately.
If you’re in Seattle for a visit (and especially if you call Seattle home), do make time for this museum.

Music to my ears … and eyes

01 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by in Apple, Internet, iPad, iPhone, music, technology

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I’m a little late to the party with this review of the latest version of TuneIn Radio, which was rolled out shortly before Christmas.
You see: I mainly use TuneIn on my smartphone while commuting or travelling and so didn’t notice the massive redo of the interface on the tablet version until the last few hours.

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The general look of the app is more polished than in the last iPad version and it doesn’t result in any apparent loss of features.
Although some of the logos and fonts got a refresh, features (especially quick access to recent, related, favourites) introduced in 2012 remain.
There’s handy access to the timer/recording function right in the player and a new button from the station info screen (at least I haven’t noticed it before) to navigate streams forward. Oddly, there is no ‘last stream’ button, just a ‘back’ button that takes you back to the main interface.

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The only thing I wish the iPad version of the app could do, is to allow users to swipe across any station to immediately choose which sub-stream to invoke. (Many channels offer streams of varying bandwidths to suit your requirements.)
The app remains a very enjoyable way to enjoy streaming talk radio and music, despite its handful of flaws.
All in all, a great effort to refine an already great app.

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Copyright concerns

18 Friday Jan 2008

Posted by in music, random

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The federal government is expected to bring forth legislation this year to revise Canada’s copyright regulations. Let’s hope the Tories are listening to those voicing concerns that the proposed law would be too sweeping.

There are clear cases of copyright infringement: people who sneak video cameras into movie theatres to record films for redistribution or sale, for example.

But it appears that under the proposed law, making copies for your own use would become illegal as well. Things as mundane as PVRs and iPods would make you a criminal because you made a copy of a television program or a song without the explicit consent of the content creator. Ditto if you burn DVDs onto your computer to avoid having to haul a bunch of discs with you on a long train trip or flight.

It is also unclear to me what effect the new law would have on authors and researchers who need to quote extensive passages of text for their projects.

In any case, I draw you to this post by Ottawa-based blogger Howard Knopf, a lawer who deals with intellectual property. A good read, with lots of information.

We should all learn about the potential copyright headache we’re facing so that we can do our best to prevent it.