How the Book Fool was Trance-Fixed by Music

It has been quite a few months now, thirty and counting ...Long enough for time to have wrought it's wisdom in the tumult of my feelings...

At some point in february 2006 , sometime before my friend John George shed his mortal coil ; leaving this earth, one dares hope , for better clymes ; I wandered the streets of Montreal despondently... I had spent several nights and afternoons in his company as he slowly disappeared before my eyes, battle weary from his fight with cancer...

I sought refuge in a small Urban-Legendary Bistro, the Casa del Popolo on St. Laurent Blvd, Montreal. A hot cup of Café au Lait and a sandwich was all I hoped for... Instead I encountered the healing and soothing sounds of Hunter Eves voice and electronic keyboard... Truth be told I remember little of that night, other than that I left strengthened--I even bought the C.D. as I recall...thought perhaps I purchased it at the next show I was able to go to, a few months later...

In a sense the sequence of events matters little. The weeks up to and following my friends death are somewhat of a blurr... I cannot help but sense that perhaps his otherworldly hand guided me to the Casa not only that first night, but on several others as he patiently waited for death, and after his departure as well... I saw a klezmer band , and a presentation by some master storytellers , as well as some poetry readings...all of which he would have liked . His presence as well as that of his his Bookshop had been a lighthouse ( For he and the Argo on rue Ste. Catherine in Montreal were as one ) and had unfailingly guided me time and again , as They did many others , to safe harbour , through years of my navigating the darkness .

I have forgotten the details of most of that period of time except this : On to the small stage of my life burst the cosmic sounds of Hunter Eves.

What must be underlined is that in the years ending the old millenium and beginning the new , music was not much of a reality in my life... Years ago I had stopped listening to any thing ressembling music... let alone live performances. With the closing of the Golem Coffee house, the sporadic venue wherein I occasionally served coffee and which hosted many fine singers such as Garnet Rogers, Odetta , Rory Block and many others , my encounters with music were suspended ... There followed some years during which John George and his Bookshop remained my lighthouse , during which time I wandered the Dark Night of my Soul.

However , The two concerts of Hunter Eves I saw that year are Bookends to a time in which much happened (perhaps without happening ) in my life, and of which I frankly must say I remember little.

In this world of Sensory Feasting, we are bombarded everywhere by sound and visual stimuli-- much of which is pollution : but the fact That I remember Hunter Eves and her music and that I continue to listen to it, (at live shows whenever possible ) , is precisely the point herein. It may seem trivial to some that I forget much of everything that is thrown at me, this being a mere symptom of this worlds tendeny to create short attention spans and to encourage instant gratification.
That Hunter Eves I did NOT forget then- and do NOT now forget - is not so trivial to me, especially in light of this contemporary tendency -- It means, I think, that her music is qualitatively different from much of what we hear .

My friend was not fond of modernity-- Technology and all it's trappings bothered him. I think that despite his hungry and open mind he was suspicious of all things scientific, considering them faintly touched by Evil. "I don't like all this technology" he said at one point in his last few days, as I tried to distract him from his pain with some sort of CNN documentary... He wisely asked me to instead read to him from the Times Literary Supplement . The electronic music of his youthful neighbour whom he was fond of bemused him...

Yet , I think he would have liked the music of Hunter Eves, for in her style is found a pleasant conjunction of the classical with the new electric sounds of the sometimes alienating Cyber-world that is being brought forth daily. She demonstrates , in her performances, that the Muses of old continue to Be present , although the instruments may change.

Her shows, usually held in small venues are uncomplicated , and do not overwhelm. If her music lulls and soothes you as it does me , then I am sure you will be as enthusiastic a fan as I .

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To see where her next shows are and to hear some of her music visit her MySpace address :

http://www.myspace.com/huntereves

also : http://www.isound.com/hunter_eves

ANIMATED AMERICAN

THE BOOK FOOL GOES TO THE MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL....

I had the good fortune to see a couple of films at this years edition of the Montreal Film festival. One 15 minute short pleased me ... so here is a small tribute to this little work of Directors James Baker and Joe Haidar . Of course , this was a 'HIGH END " big budget" short...[ How else could such eye-catching and breathtaking talent as Bree Turner and such excellent acting as that of Jason Marsden appear--unless they donated their time ? ]
In some ways , it may not deserve attention, as such a budget may perhaps exclude the film from the category of " Forgettable , Insignificant & falling through the Cracks" , the somewhat muddled criterion I use to choose what I write about.
That it was slotted, perhaps intentionally(?), preceding the showing of a documentary film is perhaps what redeems this film and gives it status in the pantheon of the obscure. The film it served to introduce was " The Price of Pleasure " by Documentary producer CHYNG SUN coincidentally also co-creator of the 2001 documentary film " Mickey Mouse Monopoly , Disney, Childhood and Corporate Power" ( Which -perhaps not so strangely - happens to NOT have a page on IMDB, and which Animated American , the subject of this review does ) , [ Visit : http://www.thepriceofpleasure.com/ ] ---

If the showing of the film was as a sly reminder that Comics have the edge on reality- as witnessed by the several Comic Book inspired films from Ironman and The Hulk to Hellboy and Batman that were offered to us for summer viewing by the studios-- then this Reality Denying Fool considers it noteworthy, if only because understanding why these films have such influence is an important exercise in mental gymnastics. ( Though the films were not Animated , they certainly show the power of the Comic and Animé media... Why else would studios spend the big bucks ?]

That said, despite the dominance of the Comic in the Real World , there are definitely conflicts within World of the Comic itself , which the short film obliquely develops.

In this lighthearted film the theme of technology's encroachment on the world of the Cartoon is humorously portrayed.

" TWO WORDS : C.G.I !!! "

shouts Max Rabbit at the arrogant high powered executive who , bewildered , asks

WHY?

as he becomes the disgruntled Cartoon's plaything ...

The Old penciled ' Toon ( and Roger Rabbit understudy ) takes matters into his own hands to save his Two-dimensional existence from the invasion of Digital Life Forms into the world of animation. Devious and cunning tactics , which exploit well known human weaknesses [ the Lust for beautiful property both as brick and mortar and in shaply two legged form] lead to the defeat of the Executive and to a Table-Turning dénouement . The old penciled Cartoon, once the offspring, becomes the new master in an act of castrating parricide.

Reading a satirical subtext into the theme of the film and interpreting it's title as a critique of American self-aggrandizement remains a delicate question of subjective judgment . It does not stretch the laws of probability, though , to see parallels : The conflicts within the American Psyche are certainly reflected in the' Toon world-These Mythic stories are the dark glass of our passions and most obscure motives.

America is definitely very Animated in the Heroic theater of geopolitical hegemony---whether America will in the long run be a Good old Penciled 'Toon, or completely succumb to the C.G.I. Disease ( Technologization , along with Pornification are infectious World-Views ) , remains to be seen-- for the conservative windstorm sweeping the world has not ended it's whiplash .

As the ancient Greek chronicler Herodotus ( No, sadly not Homer, the other illustrious Ancient One ; nor his Geek incarnation as the All American Patriarch of the the 'toon - world ) said :

"...the Gods love to thwart whatever is greater than the rest . They do not suffer pride in anyone but themselves. "

Our modern day Archetypal incarnations of the gods,the beloved Comic Book Super Heroes , will perhaps render judgment on the ones who portray their adventures .

Geek Hubris will only be tolerated so far...



NOTA : For anyone who doubts the power of C.G.I. : I suggest you arrange a screening of The Price of Pleasure above mentioned, in which - amongst other things -the American Supreme Court ruling , on the constitutionality of C.G.I representations ,of Children in Pornography , is carefully exposed - showing how our pornified world view and the Comicalisation of Reality have infested even one of the better institutional examples of human enlightenment to have ever existed.
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you can See the Animated American film web page on IMDB :
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1271967/
and:
The Price of Pleasure
http://www.thepriceofpleasure.com/