Hayden live in Victoria Alix Goolden Theatre · Thursday February 14, 2008 by colin newell
It was a great relief as a mid-40 something dude to find that I was not the oldest man in the Alix Goolden Theatre, Victoria for Hayden’s concert tonight.
Hayden, after all is pushing 40. Not that it shows. Because it doesn’t.
The standard uniform at tonight’s Hayden show was plaid for dudes, facial hair and lots of it and a sensitive hang-dog expression.
All the girls (and there were lots of girls) look exactly like the women that I work with at the University; somewhere between 20 and 30, pretty and plain and fitted into clean blue jeans and cotton t-shirts.
The vibe at the Hayden concert was squeaky clean in plaid with youthful freshness.
And If you have never heard of Hayden, do not worry. Most people over the age of 30 haven’t. I think he falls into a music category I call coffee house. He falls dead center in the genre I think.
Hayden’s voice is as brittle as a dried egg shell in the coldest corner of your refrigerator. – His voice as plaintive and vulnerable as an abandoned wet dog whimpering on a country road.
His music defies complexity. His guitar chords and general playing style is (for yours truly – a guitar slinger from the eighties) is aggravatingly simple but evocative in a peculiar kind of way.
To be blunt, I recognized many of his songs from the SUB Cafe at the University where I work – but the lyrics were wrapped, folded and hidden like an unsent love letter forgotten under a sofa… which is to say: When he is singing, I cannot hear or understand a god-damn thing. And as a guitar player and singer, this aggravates the heck out of me.
Which is part of who Hayden is.
For me, a part time musician and producer, there is a lot of stuff or substance in Hayden’s music that appears beyond the audible… perhaps with the imagination of the listener – When he is strumming and working it out with his keening vocal delivery, I can hear French Horns, acoustic bass and a variety of unidentifiable instruments somewhere between my ears. But I wish my ears could pick out the lyrics.
My wife summed it up for me after the concert:
“Colin, you are way more talented than Hayden is… on the Piano and the Guitar and when you sing…”
That might be so but Hayden filled the house and the plaid-clads and pretty girls in the crisp blue jeans were loving him.
Jenn Grant of Halifax opened the show with a half-dozen songs reminiscent of what Feist is currently doing; bouncy, fresh, approachable and organic…
Lyric-wise? I could not understand a damn thing she was singing either.
Soap. We all use it. · Monday February 11, 2008 by colin newell
Soap. It is all around us. I dare to say that there are probably few people that get through the day without a bar of soap. Those that do should probably reconsider their stance.
Me. I am an Irish Spring kind of guy.
And it makes my friend Sheila cringe.
She makes soap. Really good soap.
I photograph it. And the impromptu photo above does not do it justice.
I designed her webpage Wisdomee.com and it has had modest success.
We have come up with some interesting ideas.
Like Coffee Body Scrub.
And if you know me at all, you will know that a fusion of coffee and soap is darn near a perfect combo. Imagine getting clean and buzzed at the same time. And it works.
At some point I will be pushing this product a little more.
Shameless? Maybe.
Tingly and perky and squeaky clean? You bet!
The big time · Friday February 8, 2008 by colin newell
Not sure how this happened…
But somehow we cracked the CBC Radio 3 New Canadian Top 50.
Must be some mistake.
That said. Click on the above image for the full experience.
Heck – being on the same webpage as Cher must deserve some kind of award, Juno or recognition…
Have you bought our CD yet?
Only about 500 left of our first pressing.
bleat
Big obnoxious employer rant #1 · Monday February 4, 2008 by colin newell
I am a solid Union man from way back. At some point in my career I was the Chief Steward and Vice-president of a Union that represented several thousand employees…
at a (in my opinion) very fair employer in Victoria.
I feel Unions totally have a place in large companies that employ hundreds of people or more.
Where I do not feel Unions fit in are small Mom and Pop operations, small businesses in general. In todays economy, there are so many jobs to pick from that most employers live up to their obligations and follow the rules.
Enter The Overwaitea Food Group.
The Overwaitea Food Group, which also runs Save-On-Foods and Urban Fare, made the demand for two-hour shifts as it began negotiating a new contract with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.
2 hour shifts. Where in this economy, in this Province, in this time in Earth history do we need 2 hour shifts for employees? What is the Overwaitea Food Group thinking?
What about the labor code you ask? Shortly after coming into power in 2001, the Liberal government changed the provincial minimum shift from four hours to two hours. Thank-you Gordon Campbell. The same Gordon Campbell that broke international law and Canadian human rights when he tore up legitimate contracts with the Health care industry. This same Gordon Campbell government got walloped in Canadian Supreme court who said: “No, no, no!” to the flagrant and unjustified bend in the rules.
The union representing the food workers also stated that Overwaitea wants union members to pay part of their own benefits, and the grocery giant wants to be able to convert any store to a PriceSmart outlet — with the matching reduction in contract language. Geeze.
Overwaitea and Save-On-Foods are owned by the Jim Pattison Group, Canada’s third-largest privately owned company, with $6.3 billion in sales in 2005, according to its website… Jimmy Pattison was previously mentioned in an earlier blog on outdoor Billboards in Toronto where more than 1/2 the Billboards on the streets of Toronto are unlicensed and illegally installed.
Way to go Jimmy!
Now play fair and make nice with your loyal workers!
