Saturday, March 10, 2007

50 ways to . . . Part 6

#34 (March 5) On Monday night, thanks to Alex Strachan's tv tips, I watched most of the awards ceremony for this year's inductees (oops, English ones only) into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. I missed the very start of the show, so never did figure out which orchestra/band was playing, but whoever they were, they were unbelievably good!

Among those being inducted to the Hall of Fame were Ralph Freed and Burton Lane for their song, "How About You". I'd heard the song a hundred times, but never knew about the Canadian connection. Michael Buble (not one of my usual faves) offered his interpretation of the song and substituted a line that fit neatly -- instead of the usual 'I like New York in June', he stuck 'B.C.' in place of New York. That's the way I intend to hear it from now on. Even though it was the librettist of the team who was born in Vancouver, who knows, maybe those were the original words.

Hosted by Andrew Craig, the show was quite the mix -- performers ranged from the country stylings of George Canyon and Corb Lund, to the jazz piano of Herbie Hancock and even to vocals by Measha Brueggergosman (I hadn't known before, but she's a Canadian operatic soprano).

It's a good thing I was home alone, as I couldn't help singing along with Jim Cuddy and Oh Susanna when they performed Sylvia Fricker (Tyson)'s "You Were On My Mind".

But really, the queen of the evening was Joni Mitchell. She was being inducted for an amazing five songs: "Big Yellow Taxi", "Both Sides Now", "Help Me", "You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio" and, of course, "Woodstock". When James Taylor sang it, he inserted some new lines which I'll also insert when I hear the song again: "We are stardust, we are golden, we are billion-year-old carbon. . . ".

#35 (March 7) There's still time to sign up for this year's 2-day poem contest. Sponsored by CV2 Magazine, I think this is the sixth year the event's taken place. They give you ten words, and you have 48 hours to come up with a winning entry.

Last year, I wrote a completely bizarre piece about me and my buddy, the steer, and how we had to help a drunken pelican. It seems the poor bird had a wound we were supposed to cauterize. Needless to say, my entry did NOT win. Still, it was fun, and I plan to enter again.

You do need to pre-register by March 23rd.

#36 The White Rock Museum, housed in the old train station down at the beach, is holding a show of paintings by Robert Genn. He's probably the best-known painter in the area. All the works in the show are smallish, thus its name, "Small Stuff". It runs until April 8th.

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