Selfish & Perverse

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a risible reading of comedian Bob Smith's new book, "Selfish & Perverse." Although I'm not one to recommend a book without having read it, I can almost guarantee this one will be a page turner -- if his reading last night, and his track record...his "Openly Bob" was one of the funniest books I've ever read (so funny, in fact, I've read it four times)....are any indication. That said, I bought the book and started reading it this morning. I'll let you know how it was!

The highlight of the reading was certainly getting to meet his mom, who jetted in from Buffalo for the event. She was just as Buffalo as I'd pictured after reading about her in the opening of "Openly Bob."

Posted by Sebastian / September 11, 2007 /
 

Jon McLaughlin

I'm thrilled that my new fav singer, Jon McLaughlin, will be performing here in NYC twice in the next couple days (Gramercy Theatre on Saturday, and The Living Room in the Lower East Side on Monday), and I'll be seeing him at least once. If not twice. His rockin' song "Beautiful Disaster" is this week's free download on iTunes.

Posted by Sebastian / April 3, 2007 /
 

City and Colour

I've been in love with the solo act known as City and Colour since I first heard them/him this summer in Vancouver. The St. Catharines, Ont.-based Dallas Green is one of the best crooners I've heard recently. I highly recommend the album, "Sometimes," available on iTunes.

Posted by Sebastian / / September 18, 2006 /
 

Bananarama!

Who knew that Bananarama is back? Last night I had the distinct pleasure of checking out the ladies at Borders in Manhattan with my friend Kenneth. His blog has the full scoop.

Posted by Sebastian / May 17, 2006 /
 

Andrew Bundy

This week in San Francisco I had the pleasure of checking out a performance by my friend Andrew Bundy. Not only is Andy an amazing person, but he is also the only friend I have who can truly sing well. He is a jazzy mix of Stevie Wonder, Tori Amos, and Harry Connick, Jr. -- if you can imagine that.

Download his MP3s from MySpace (I recommend "Where Did I Go Yesterday") and put them on your iPod. Then look for him at a performance at the Virgin Megastore in Union Square May 3. We're both running in Bay to Breakers on May 21--I can't disclose what Andy's costume will be, but let's just say it is not to be missed.

Posted by Sebastian / SF / April 21, 2006 /
 

Vancouverism
 
I'm reading a new urban design book, "Dream City: Vancouver and the Global Imagination." It's great! The book traces Vancouver's development over the past 100 years from a dreary sawmill town to the gleaming city we recognize today. The book focuses on the reasons why Vancouver is constantly being looked to as the model for successful urban planning and livability.

One review explains: "Vancouver does one thing well: We build condos higher and denser than any other spot on the continent, and our global reputation is currently being set by these acts. Because of our downtown peninsula’s love affair with tall, thin towers on townhouse bases, Vancouverism is replacing Manhattanism as the maximum power setting of contemporary city building. By some analyses, the average number of people living per hectare in our central core is now higher than that of the famous island in the Hudson."

But the same reviewer is skeptical of Vancouver's constant boosters: "There is a more serious addiction in this town, one that is talked about even less than crack or crank or smack. Gallons of it are consumed daily by our city planners, developers, designers and media managers, often after a session of hot yoga, or following a light meal of pickled lotus leaves, or even just sitting around swank coffee tables strewn with international accounts of our urban success. They are drinking their own bathwater. What bugs me is that they are calling it champagne."

Posted by Sebastian / Vancouver / January 18, 2006 /
 

Music of the year
 
My top played songs, according to iTunes:
• "Hymn to the Sea," James Horner
• "Pills," The Perishers, Live in Vancouver
• "Perfect Girl," Sarah McLachlan
• "Theme from Harry's Game," Clannad
• "Standing in the Sun," Howie Day
• "Over my Head," Cable Car
• "Let it Go," Ziv
• "Lucky to Know You," Blue Merle
• "You and I (Air Canada theme)," Celine Dion
• "Worn me Down," Rachel Yamagata

Posted by Sebastian / December 31, 2005 /
 

I read that book, but...

No more excuses. Beginning next year, dot mobile will provide its U.K. subcribers with a bit of assistance in English literature by condensing some great works into succint text messages. The company says text-messaging will be re-invented as a valuable learning tool for students of English Literature.

An sample text message:

Lord of the Flies: NuclearWar-2boysRalph&PigyFormGrup2reviveOldCultr.
Jack-oposnLeadrTaksR'sSuportersAway. MystryBeastOnIslandCauzsPanicBt Simon FindsOutTisOnlyAParachute. Jtries2kilRbtR's savd ByShipDat c's emergncySmoke

Translation: Nuclear War – two boys, Ralph and Piggy form a group to revive the old culture. Jack – the leader of an opposing group – takes Ralph’s supporters away. A mystery beast on the island causes panic but Simon finds out it is only a parachute. Jack tries to kill Ralph but Ralph is saved by a ship that has seen the emergency smoke.

Posted by Sebastian / November 19, 2005 /

You Roch my world!

It's a bit shameful to admit, but one of my biggest guilty pleasures is singer Roch Voisine. The often rumoured-to-be-gay darling of Edmundston, New Brunswick, looks as strapping as ever on the cover of his latest album (below, left -- and, well, on his last album cover, too). I've been hooked on Roch since first seeing him perform in the early 1990s, when one of his first English-language songs, which he had clearly struggled to write, was mired in awkward syntax. But never mind. Who cares how well you write well when you're that hunky?

The real story about Roch surrounds his questionable sexuality. Rumours have swirled for years. Though he is married to a woman these days, he was the center of a scandal a few years back when Toronto television anchor Gord Martineau, in between on-air promos, lisped and called Voisine a "homo."



Posted by Sebastian / November 17, 2005 /

Hot music

I'm always being made fun of for compulsively downloading the weekly free track from iTunes Music Store, but I have really found some great music this way. Below are links to the web sites of six of my favourites, as well as the links to the albums on iTunes.

The Perishers: Let there be morning
The Fray: How to save a life
Gaelle: Transient
Blue Merle: Burning in the Sun
Embrace: Out of nothing
Acceptance: Phantoms



Posted by Sebastian / October 26, 2005 /

Book on ex-PM causes furor

The minute I opened the new tell-all book on former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, my tongue began to wag at the unbelievably frank comments the PM made about just about every big name imaginable. The New York Times even thinks the book, "The Secret Mulroney Tapes: Unguarded Confessions of a Prime Minister," merits a bit of attention south of the border by calling the furor that has surrounded its unveiling "Canada's Nixon moment."

The book, which now tops the best-seller list in Canada, "revealed a foul-mouthed, insecure man with an enemies list that sprawls from Vancouver to Halifax," ... a "tale of anger, betrayal and braggadocio so loud and lewd that 'unguarded' and 'confession' are an understatement."

Posted by Sebastian / September 27, 2005 /



Former prime minister sears friends and foes

Today a lot of people are thanking their lucky stars they didn't know former Canadian Prime Minster Brian Mulroney. Those who did are surely cursing his name, and those of us reading all about him in a tell-all book by journalist Peter Newman, who followed the PM throughout his term of office from 1984-1993, find our tongues wagging at some unbelievable tales. Mulroney is portrayed as combative, paranoid, profane, and egotistical, attacking just about everyone in Ottawa -- including the city itself.

Of the capital city, he said, "This place is sick ... They're all married to one another. They're shacked up with one another. Their wives are on the payroll of CBC. It's just awful, the goddamned incest here. Ottawa is a really sick place."

Kim Campbell, the prime minister who now lives in Boston and is surely the city's most famous (if entirely anonymous) Canadian, was said to be "goddamned vain" and speak "awful" French. She had "no political instincts whatsoever, none" ... "The people she wanted to put on the Supreme Court were nuts ... The only thing I didn't do was physically carry her through the doorway of 24 Sussex Drive."

In the end, Campbell failed to make it through a tough federal election not long after she began her term as North America's first -- and still only -- female head of government, remaining PM for just four months because she was too busy "screwing around" with her Russian boyfriend, Mulroney said. Of British Columbians and other westerners like Campbell, who was from Vancouver, the former PM termed them, "psychos" and "crackpots" who should go "go stuff it."

Posted by Sebastian / September 14, 2005 /

San Francisco's innocence before AIDS

Boston aside, there is no American city I've spent as much time in as San Francisco. I've felt a full range of emotions about the place; at times I've been allured and other times almost appalled by San Francisco. It's a beguiling city where dreams and reality have often collided -- sometimes painfully. I can't even fathom what the city was like in the unbridled days before AIDS. A piece in today's Times brings a bit of it to life.



"People could hardly have expected to have safe sex before the concept existed...and this thought is worth keeping in mind when you pick up, 'Let's Shut Out the World'," says the eye-opening feature on Kevin Bentley, a San Francisco author who made it through the excess of the 1970s and lived to tell the tale. His new book is a "diary and a memoir whose substance is, raunchily, bracingly and tenderly sex."

"He is a gay man whose political awakening came second to his sexual one and he is the rare remaining witness of a time when California was still a place of legend for counterculture types and apprentice lotus eaters." He went to San Francisco from El Paso in the '70s to "catch the party." As the piece notes, "He caught the party, all right, and he paid what we now think of as the price of admission."

"I came to San Francisco with a romantic idea," he explained, while seated in a Starbucks that was long ago a gay bar. The idea was this, he said: "Love and passion and intimate love in themselves are a worthwhile quest."

"I was really like any normal guy, normal looking, worried about not finding love, but still very aware how lucky he was to find himself where he was."

"Though little is left of the gay 70's in San Francisco, there are apparently enough people who can recall its effects on the local culture to keep the old spirit alive. Recently a number of attempts have been made to blow the dust off and unearth the raunchy and hopeful time when promiscuous sex symbolized not so much a death wish but counterculture exuberance."

"Like Chelsea or any other tour bus idea of a homosexual haunt, the Castro occasionally has the dated look of a glass-fronted civic cabinet, its shelves arrayed with human souvenirs."

• More on the book from A Different Light, the gayest bookstore in the West

Posted by Sebastian / August 15, 2005 /

Foraging for authenticity

Like every good city dweller/yuppie must when he or she comes into real estate, I spent part of this weekend cruising back roads and small towns in search of authentic authenticity to accessorize my urban abode. What I really needed were really old dining chairs to go with my new -- but old-looking -- dining room table, but my search turned up fruitless.

I have to admit I was egged on in my pursuits after breezing through newspaper columnist Margaret Wente's hilarious book An Accidental Canadian in one sitting on Friday. Among the many topics she writes about are the challenges facing those filling up their country homes: "Once our new country house was finished, we wanted to get it to look old...we wanted a rustic, authentic kind of pioneering look."

"Plain, honest furniture," we agreed...factory-made would not do. We wanted a big homemade harvest table that looked as if a dog had chewed it."

"City people like the aged and weathered look because it gives authenticity to things..it's all a cheat, of course. Authentic authenticity is beyond most people's means."

My favourite line: "The current trend is for the very rich to emulate the very poor, despite the cost."

"In home decor, natural materials are essential to project unaffected honesty. You must have sisal rugs, even though they hurt your feet. Flowers on the table are too contrived these days. Tasteful people have a wedge of grass."

"If you want an outdoor fence or screen, you should make it out of dry stone by Mennonites. If you don't have Mennonites, you could try a fence of willow, which you can learn to harvest and weave yourself. If you're too pressed for time, you can hire the Willow Lady, who lives near us and will weave it for you."

As one reviewer said of the book, it "is hard to put down once started and the pages seem to turn themselves."

ON AIR CONDITIONING: "My husband I have little hope of resolving our differences. His idea of a nice place to visit is Bangkok. He likes strolling through the outdoor markets at midday and eating at the noodle stands as the all-day traffic gridlock emits noxious fumes. My view is, why go all the way to Bangkok when you can just stand inside a blast furnace and suck on an exhaust pipe?"

ON HEALTH: "Healthism has become our new religion. How else can you explain a mass desire to run and run until you use up all your electrolytes and throw up?"

ON 80s FASHION: "Like all working women, I had a closet full of jackets with monster shoulder pads. Everything came with shoulder pads, even underwear. They look arduous now, but back then they made perfect sense. Subconsciously we believed that if we looked like linebackers, maybe it would be easier to crash through those glass ceilings. Everything we wore was oversized. We had giant glasses that covered half our faces."

Posted by Sebastian / July 25, 2005 /

Summer Comes to Boston



Temperatures hovered around 80 degrees today as Boston was inundated with its first blast of summer heat. The esplanade was packed, and so was Newbury Street and the Christian Science Plaza. I kicked my flip-flops off and spent the day writing on my deck; I turned off my phone, computer, and BlackBerry and instead took in the spectacular day (and got some color while I was at it).

Today I also reread Anna Quindlen's petite book, "A Short Guide to a Happy Life," which I pull out once or twice a year to remind me not to take life too seriously. The book is timeless, succinct, and dead-on. In its final and most poignant page, Quindlen writes:

I found one of my best teachers on the boardwalk at Coney Island many years ago. It was December, and I was doing a story about how the homeless survive in the winter months. He and I sat on the edge of the wooden supports, dangling our feet over the side, and he told me about his schedule, panhandling the boulevard when the summer crowds were gone, sleeping in a church when the temperature went below freezing, hiding from the police amidst the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Cyclone and some of the other seasonal rides.

But he told me that most of the time he stayed on the boardwalk, facing the water, just the way we were sitting now, even when it got cold and he had to wear his newspapers after he read them. And I asked him why. Why didn’t he go to one of the shelters? Why didn’t he check himself into the hospital for detox? And he just stared out at the ocean and said, “Look at the view, young lady. Look at the view.”

Words of wisdom from a man with not a dime in his pocket and no place to go, nowhere to be. Look at the view. When I do as he said, I am never disappointed.

Posted by Sebastian / June 5, 2005 /

"A Tale of Diamonds and Mud" in San Francisco

There's a fascinating piece in today's Times about doyenne of San Francisco society, Dede Wilsey, and the new and searing expose written by her stepson titled, "Oh, the Glory of It All." Wilsey, an ultra-rich Pacific Heights blue blood (her great-grandfather was a founder of Dow Chemical), doesn't exactly get positive treatment in the new book, which by turns portrays her as combative, money-grubbing, and homophobic.

As the powerful driving force behind the fundraising efforts to rebuild the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park, onlookers have taken to calling it the "Dede Young Museum."

Posted by Sebastian / May 15, 2005 /



A Book Recommendation and a Family Connection

Will Ferguson, Canada's leading humourist has a new book out titled, "Beauty Tips from Moose Jaw: Travels in Search of Canada" (Knopf, 2005). Not only is it a hilarious account of Canada's diversity, but when I came across it in a Toronto bookstore recently, I was pleased to see that one of the chapters is about my great-great-grandather John Baker (so I definitely think it's a worthwhile read!).

Ferguson recently spoke about the process of creating this book, and about crisscrossing the swath of God's country (for lack of a more fitting adjective) where I spent much of my youth: "We’d been on the road for hours, heading into northern New Brunswick. The wipers sloshed back and forth, barely able to keep the windshield clear. Bucket-throws of water washed across our view. At midnight, we crossed over into dangerous territory. The Republic of Madawaska. A self-proclaimed independent state, Madawaska is wedged between the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the state of Maine. The population is francophone, but the people are neither Quebecois nor Acadian; they are les Brayons. And Madawaska is their heartland: La Republique."

Posted by Sebastian / March 20, 2005 /

Ziv Launches New Album: This Week's Shameless Plug

Since I first saw Los Angeles-based singer Ziv performing on the Promenade in Santa Monica last February, I have been in love with his music. And I think I've told every single person I've met that he is an incredible musician and they need to run out and buy his CD immediately (not to mention the fact that he is terribly attractive, as well). If I haven't told you, please do go out and support this fantastic artist. You won't regret it, and if you do, I promise to buy your CD back from you.  

I remember walking down the street on a beautiful California day last winter, popping in and out of shops along Third Street while in the background was the constant soundtrack of a street musician (and not your average bongo-smacker). I didn't take note until I walked over a bit closer, whereupon I discovered Ziv.

I was on my cell phone with a music connoisseur in New York at the time; she could hear his singing and told me I had to buy his music, because she was sure he would make it big one day, so I went over to get a CD signed, and was so excited about it all I told Ziv I loved him. (And he didn't even act like I might be a stalker!)

Ziv's web site features a fine selection of photos of Ziv himself, as well as numerous free downloads of his music. Check out the downloads to get a taste of his work, but be sure to buy his albums so you can own his complete collection.

This week Ziv launches his new acoustic CD, "Fearless Acoustic Sessions," a steal at $9.99, which features 15 songs, including my favorite, "Let it Go," the song that nearly makes me cry every time I hear it. I'm not sure what it is about Ziv that is so appealing to me -- perhaps a combination of the truth and raw emotion in his voice and his relative anonymity, especially here on the East Coast, where I've yet to meet a single person who's heard of him. 

If you're in L.A., like I cunningly know hundreds of my readers are, check out his performance this Friday at The Whisky in West Hollywood. Tickets are $10 online.

(Thanks Ray Corbett for the hot shot of Ziv)

Posted by Sebastian / March 15, 2004 /

Mom's 'Catcher' Ban Request Unpopular

Portland Press Herald | Dec. 21, 2004

The banned book flap at Noble High School ("Teen's mom rekindles debate over novel," Dec. 9) underscores the hypocrisy of school censorship debates that surface every year in Maine, like elsewhere.

The concerned parent who is trying to bar "The Catcher in the Rye" from her son's school freely admits that she drew her negative conclusions about the book from the Internet before ever reading the text for herself. One can always find the argument against a book - any book, really - if one only looks hard enough.

It seems shameful that this distorted view is dictating what young people are allowed to read. But the Noble case seems all too familiar, reminiscent of the "Bastard Out of Carolina" schism that took place in Maine in 1996.

In that debate, one concerned parent told a newspaper that this was the first book she had ever read cover to cover. And these are parents who feel qualified to speak on what children should read?

Posted by Sebastian / Dec. 21, 2003 /

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