Former Tree Huggin' Disco Dancin' Rockin' Corporate Wannabes

Whenever my Icelandic uncle (Snidal) met someone (like a friend of mine - Nordal) who had a last name endaing in “dal” he would ask excitedly “Are you an Icelander?” Paul Valdemar Horsdal was born in Ottawa and was better know in folk circles as Valdy.

The guy is an old favourite of mine and still plays from time to time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdy



One of his most famous songs was released around 1972 and was written about his encounter with an audience that was only craving Rock music (he was one of them tree hugger types). Looking back now I realize one of the unique aspects of this song is it represents that pivitol time in the early seventies when there was a concerted effort to “quash” that hippy anti-war, anti-pollution, anti-establishment thing that gained so much strength during the latter part of the sixties. (You didn’t think record labels’ and society’s decision to turn away from issues and songs of ‘social import’ came naturally did you?).

It is simply a great old tune!

Valdy - Play Me A Rock'n'Roll Song 1972
Youtube post by LearnRootsMusic



Original disco sign site

Lyrics: Valdy - Rock N Roll Song

I came into town as a man of renown
A writer of songs about freedom and joy
A hall had been rented and I was presented
As the kind of a singer most folks could enjoy
As I climbed up the stair to the stage standing there
It was obvious something was missing
I could tell by the vibes they wouldn't be bribed

They weren't in the mood to listen, they yelled out
Play me a rock 'n' roll song
Don't play me songs about freedom and joy
Play me a rock 'n' roll song
Or don't play me no song at all

I played them some songs about peace and contentment
And things that I've come to believe in
When I was through to a chorus of boo
Some track star yelled thank God he's leaving

Now someone play me a rock 'n' roll song
I've had it to here with your flowers and beads
Play me a rock 'n' roll song
Or don't play me no song at all

Well if I played you a rock 'n' roll song
How could it be fair 'cause my head isn't there
So I'll leave you with your rock 'n' roll songs
And make my way back to the country

Still I hear play me a rock 'n' roll song
Don't give me music I don't want to hear
Play me a rock 'n' roll song
I should have stayed home with a big case of beer
Play me a rock 'n' roll song

Or don't play me no song at all

Gorgeous painting of Valdy from this site

Blague

Laughing is good for the mind.
The stuff that is going on inside the walls in Copenhagen the past few days is a joke. Enough said.
image credit

My What a BIG Footprint We Have!

Xavier Rudd is a performer who has taken on the topic of our planet's present situation. He also acknowledges the existence of the indigenous people, in particular, those of Canada and his native Australia.
You gotta love the presence of the didgeridoo.

The video uses Xavier's song Footprint as the soundtrack for the images of the granite towers of Gros Morne and the metal and glass towers of Manhattan.
Shortly after Xavier Rudd made a bunch of new fans at the Winnipeg Folk Festival last summer, I packed my bags and headed out to Newfoundland and Labrador (Gros Morne National Park) and then flew into a much larger footprint - Manhattan.
A Dutch guy named Minuit (French meaning "midnight" interestingly meaning end of the day) 'bought' Manhattan from 'the Indians' for the equivalent of $24 or $74 depending on how you calculate the net worth of trinkets and bobbles. "The Indians" never 'sold' the island of Newfoundland but sadly the indigenous people of the island took their last breath in 1829. Victims of European diseases among other things. But the land lives on and the memories of what once was a thriving population is found in museums.
As Joni Mitchell said in song: Don't it always seem to go, that you don't know what you got 'till it's gone......put the trees (and the people) in a tree and people museum.
Compare and contrast.
NYC = Bigfootprint country.

Xavier Rudd - Footprint on West Newfoundland and Manhattan


rsensorat3
Pic of Xavier from here

Growing uppp...

As the human footprint destroys more and more of the earth's natural landscape to make room for more people, the deep thinkers of today's species is looking to the heavens to grow food. It's a solution called "vertical farming" aka creating unnatural (and therefore more profitable) growing conditions when there are no more natural places to grow stuff...

It's a real "Grow Up Operation".

Read article here

Tour vivante - Vertical Farm Living Tower www.eco-tower.fr
YouTube post by soaarchitectes

Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Listen, the really funny thing is that this home’s Christmas decoration is fake.

Tar Paper Scissors

H2oil

Our PM says that the Alberta Tar Sands development is akin to building the pyramids or the great wall. Of course those are monuments that will only disappear through weathering and the effects of pollution. The tar sands project – although proponents claim that they "return" the open pit scars back to a normal vegetative state – is killing the planet through the enormous amount of daily pollution created to process what has been extracted in order to allow the black gold to be pipelined to the United States. There it is refined and shipped back to Canada where we pay as much as twice what the Americans pay.
We are critically injuring the environment (you can see the stripped landscape, toxic lagoons and once pristine waterways from space) and end up paying more for the stuff so that we may harm the environment even more? It’s a lose/lose situation.

But it’s creating jobs you say….and making Alberta rich….and is the engine of our recovering economy you say. Well “the engine” should not be something that kills the living entity called earth.

Stupid people!

Lisez "new window">ici

Or read here

There's a movie on the subject written and directed by Shannon Walsh....H2Oil....

H2Oil Movie Trailer
YouTube post by loadedpictures

Make It Real

Y'know it's OK to dream. In fact, it is a good thing. We have bad dreams and good dreams. Just remember to work towards making the good ones real!

I Had a Dream - Audience - Martin Luther King Jr.- slideo


yt post by rsensorat3