Operation Disc Drop

Dropped a couple of these last week...one at Elmwood High, the other in the Calendar Club kiosk at Polo Park

Straight Outta Compton - Nina Gordon

A kid In the hall told me that he just discovered NWA. Yeah, I'm the teacher that they tell that kinda stuff too.

Betterman (live in South Africa) - Pearl Jam

A great version of a great song.

Number of the Beast - Zwan

Brings back memories...when I taught up North, this was on the mixed cd that we were listening to while we buried a friend's truck in snow.

Redemption Song (live) - Chris Cornell

Really love this one...would've loved to have seen him when he rolled through the 'peg earlier in the fall.

Badfish/Boss DJ - Jack Johnson

Jack doing Sublime... a little bit of a summery vibe that we need in November!

The Pizza Song - The Bouncing Souls

A fun song...I miss being able to buy a good, big slice like I can back home. I wish we could get that one together there Manitoba.

George Jones Talkin' Cell Phone Blues - Drive-By Truckers

Love my Truckers...recently read a Jones biography...this song sums up the most recent years pretty good.

Rollerskate Skinny - Old 97's

Just sticking with that alt-country vibe introduced last track...Rediscovered this one whilse trolling through the archives for a different song.

Local Celebrities - The Paperbacks

My new faves...been listening a lot lately...Winnipeg band. Love what the lyrics say about that fickle finger of celebrity.

Nobody Said It Was Easy - The Four Horsemen

A fave to crank on the iPod on the drive home. Shameless guilty pleasure to sing in the car.

Darling Nikki - Foo Fighters

I got Foos tickets last week! I like popping rarities on a mix like this. (Though I guess since this has been officially released, it ain't a rarity no more.)

Returning To The Fold - The Thermals

One of my musical discoveries of the year. So much fun, and a great show!

True Patriot Love - Joel Plaskett Emergency

Reppin' the east coast...that's all this is about!

Realize - Air Traffic Control

More East coast stuff...a friend's band, check them out!

Plea From A Cat Named Virtue - The Weakerthans

I love this song. I love the fact that it's a narrative from the cat's point of view...so much fun!

I've Got An Ape Drape - The Vandals

Just ponder mullets for a second...now you understand why this was included!

Breakfast Club - Z-Trip

Fun...and I want those Saturday mornings back.

The Maritimes - Classified

Pretty self explanatory...Miss the coast the most!

Drop The Disc

So, the cat on the left here has a great TV show and radio show...takes up about 7 hours of my week. This week, he suggested a project called Drop the Disc, where you make a mixed cd, and drop it for someone to find. So I did that. I dropped it in the city when we went Christmas shopping yesterday. Hopefully, the person that found it is digging it right now. I actually, being time-strapped this week recycled a mix that I used for the International Mixtape Project last month, so I have the notes explaining the song choices. Since I put my blog addy on the disc, I'm gonna post the notes here.

Baby, Come On (acoustic) +44

Just a good song, and I like this acoustic version. It has that fall feel to it, a sense of something lost, which is a very autumn feeling. Also, I live in a summer town, and there's that sense of excitement that goes away when the cottages start getting boarded up.

Streets of Philadelphia - Bettye Lavette

I'm a big Drive-By Truckers fan, and they're backing her up here. I just like the soulful take on this tune, and it has a vibe similar to the first track on this mix.

Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town - Kenny Rogers

The Killers are releasing their inferior cover of this soon. I dunno, there's just something in Kenny's voice as he delivers a story like this one, when he plays a role that a lot of singers today can't seem to reach. (That kind of sounds like American Idol type advice doesn't it?)

He Stopped Loving Her Today - George Jones

On the other hand, this tune is begging for a cover. Maybe that's the problem with the Kenny Rogers tune, and the Killers' cover-wrong artist doing the job. A country cover would probably be too easily done, I'm thinkin' Tim McGraw, but wouldn't a Kid Rock cover of this be huge-or maybe Jason Isbell.

Grown - Jason Isbell

Loved this guy as a Drive-By Trucker, and loved his solo album as well. I dunno, fall also seems to be a time of introspection as well, so this kinda fits in that vein. As well, it's a great tune that I'd release as a single if it were my choice to make.

Fever Dreams - Dashboard Confessional

It's funny, I teach a bunch of kids that hate on emo, and I'm putting Dashboard on mixes. I don't care, I like the song's insistent beat kind of pulling the song along. It's fun, and getting a lot of spins at my house

All I Can Do - Chantal Kreviazuk

This is Canada's best female artist. The hell with Avril, Celine and Nelly, Chantal is the way to go. This one, this is all about my wife. We spend summer with our family, and in the fall, I get her all to myself again. Man, I'm lucky.

Livin' In The Future - Bruce Springsteen

I'm a Boss fan. We just rotate Springsteen albums in and out of the CD alarm clock. We took a special trip to the city, just to buy the new album. Great songwriting, as always, and the way I've been obsessing over Springsteen lately, no mix is coming outta my house without some Bruce.

Band On The Run - Foo Fighters

Love the Foos. I know a lot of people hate on 'em, but I can't. This is what music is about for me, guys who love what they do and have a good time doing it. I popped a cover on here just in case the recipient of this mix has some Foos, and maybe didn't get their paws on the cover. Also, I didn't wanna drop another track onto the mix off an album released this fall, because this mix seems to have a bunch of those.

Civil Twilight - The Weakerthans

I've lived in Manitoba for about three and a half years now, and I'm starting to dig it. I'm slowly discovering what there is to offer musically. This band was probably the first one I discovered. This song, I love it. I love the mention of places I know, I've been. I also love the upbeat music and the kinda sad lyrics - that juxtaposition is awesome.

Institutions - The Paperbacks

A new musical discovery. Opened for the Thermals when I saw them a couple of weeks ago. This song blows me away lyrically. So sad, yet so beautiful. They're a Winnipeg band, so I actually got a chance to tell them that, which I think is nice for everybody involved.

Worker's Song - Dropkick Murphys

I'm a teacher, so the fall means back to work. Not that I'm the blue collar frontline guy of the song, but it's definitely a tougher gig than people think. (Could be the reason I seem to be compulsively late with IMP mixes.) It seems in recent years that more is asked of us, yet less is given, including respect.

Money Honey - State of Shock

Simply on here because the radio station I listen to on the morning commute (iPod on the way home) plays it, and it gets stuck in my head.

All Summer Long - Kid Rock

Catchy. As. Hell. I could explain my enjoyment of Kid Rock, but I've recently come to that point in my enjoyment of music where I feel if I have to justify my decision to like a song or artist, the person I'm justifying it to needs to pull their head out of their ass. Good songs are good songs, and that is judged by the audience - me. Personally, I think this melding of 'Werewolves of London' and 'Sweet Home Alabama' is fun, and sounds like summer. We need that in fall!

New Year's Ex - Air Traffic Control

A friend's band. My mixes usually include an ATC track. I think this one's great, and deserves to be a hit. Support local music! And these guys - www.controltower.ca

Tired of Waking Up Tired - The Diodes

Back to work. Like I said, teaching is a lot of work, a lot of it outside of school hours. This song is how I feel most mornings.

Workshop and Meeting Notes

I've been attending a bunch of workshops and meetings lately. I'm a doodler. Because I don't have as much art time as I'd like, my doodles are a bit more like mini art pieces than mindless doodling.

I was at one workshop about differentiating instruction, and the presenter actually said it was okay to doodle if you were a doodler! That's where the boy in the bottle arrived. Actually, she was a really good presenter, so I was actually listening and taking notes, not just doodling.

The girl on the tire swing is a sketch that may become a larger piece at some point in the near future.

I'm hoping to get some stuff up here. I'm working really hard on finishing some pieces that I've been working on for a while...some prints at work, some tape art, and a couple of paintings at home...Optimus Prime and Cool Hand Luke...

FISH! sketches

Hey there! Just to make it look like I'm doing more arty stuff than I really am, here's four sketches that I scanned to stick on some posters I made for my classroom(s). They're for posters about the FISH! philosophy, this great thing that I learned about during PD up north, and have been reading up on again. The whole philosophy is based on the workers at Pike's Fish Market in Seattle, where the workers just have a ball at work. The four main concepts, as I've sorta illustrated are (in order of the pics) Make Their Day, Play, Be There and Choose Your Attitude. I love the philosophy, as it is more or less the way I feel about life.

Also, I realized that I am fun to draw. Little kids love to draw me.

Finally got something new up here. There wasn't near as much doodle time as I'd have hoped over the summer. I have a couple of pieces from Nova Scotia that nead a few more minutes each that I'll get up here soonish, as well as a chalkboard for quotes that I'm painting for my classroom. That should be done tomorrow, but I may not get it posted until I get my 'puter back from the shop!

This sh.. is Bananas!

I was thinking I needed a logo, or whatever. I doodled this guy up. It's Bananas, our stuffed monkey, who travels pretty much everywhere we do.

I'm hoping at some point to take this, and spiff it up digitally...you know, when I get time.

ArtJumble: Rabbits

Okay, so by staying up really late when I should've been asleep, I found time to finish a piece for ArtJumble this week. Obviously, the theme was rabbits. This guy started as an evil bunny, but he got kind of non evil looking and then I got sidetracked, and wasn't feeling the desire to give him a body. So the original plan was to have this head poking out of grass. Then, I thought of Watership Down, and the grass became water.