S.o.t.D. - Lightning Between Worlds – Mon0

Lightning Between Worlds – Mon0

Worth watching the video, which the track accompanies perfectly.

Pause for Rest

S.o.t.D. - Self Like Ocean – Depth

Self Like Ocean – Depth

Chilled out...garage? Dubstep? I don’t know where the distinctions fall any more.

S.o.t.D. - Numero Uno – Lisa Lashes

Numero Uno – Lisa Lashes

Stonker of a choon as they say in England.

Bibliophilia: Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun by Paul Barrett

Glock: The Rise of America’s Gun – Paul Barrett

I found this a totally engrossing read. Fascinating how Gaston Glock developed a brilliant pistol and built it into an empire. He had no real knowledge of firearms, but enlisted the help of some smart people along the way, and developed a very successful weapon. What started out as a small workshop blossomed into a major player in the firearms world. All sorts of drama along the way, including assassination attempts, gun industry politics, embezzling executives, messy divorces, marriages to women young enough to be his grand-daughter, etc. And the author does a fairly even handed job of exploring Americas gun culture. Not per se pro, not per se con. Mainly I came away with the idea that Gaston Glock is a piece of work. Don’t think I like him at all, but I have to concede he is a shrewd business man.

Sharpie markers suck.

I have to say it.

I thought it might be a fluke, I got a bad one, but after a whole bunch of experiences, I’m forced to come to the conclusion that the quality of Sharpie markers has gone right in the shitter. 

I got a stainless steel Sharpie marker- dead in no time. I got about a meter worth of line out of it. We got a pack of fine tip Sharpie markers for doing the myriad of marking required on the boat. I swear, each one gave a maybe an inch worth of marking before they shit the bed. Grabbed ones from the sail loft bought at a different time, different batch. No good. Used ones at the tattoo shop. New packet, and dry in a jiffy. Seriously unimpressed.

Jogged down to Mixed Media this morning while I waited for some epoxy to cure, and grabbed two Sakura markers – an IDentipen dual tip and a Microperm 05. Wow, a line that is actually permanent. No wiping off when three minutes later  you inadvertently smudge your arm against it. I like!

Screw you Sharpie, and your shitty markers.

S.o.t.D. - Jericho Dub – Twilight Circus Dub Sound System

Jericho Dub – Twilight Circus Dub Sound System

For my money, the best dub producer going. The sounds he produces are absolutely incredible. Saw this video of Ryan and Kevin working on something in the Subconscious Studio. Synthgasmic.

Kayak Build 9

Flipping her over.

After getting the hull done and fiberglassed and epoxied it was time to flip the kayak over so we could commence the deck. Not quite as simple as it sounds. The molds that were inside the hull had to stay in place, and there was a chance of their being jostled and knocked loose.

The bunjee system we put to such good use in constructing the hull we wrapped around the whole package. Placed on the floor so we could prepare the strongback.

The strongback like we haven’t seen it in a while.

The bow mold.

The hull molds attached to the strong back.

The hull back up on the strongback. Most of the plywood pieces attached to the strongback and attached to the molds so that the whole thing would be raised with enough clearance still attached.

And removed.

Removing rough edges off the hull to ensure that the deck will mate perfectly.

And some more views of the hull. From stern to bow.

And from bow to stern.

Tomorrow we start the deck.

Go here for part 10 of the build.

S.o.t.D. - Melodica – Stimming

Melodica – Stimming

The bit around 1:50 makes me weak in the knees.

Beaver in the Bay

I don’t know for certain, but I think it has been a while since a beaver has been seen in Burlington Bay. Certainly I can’t recall seeing one in the time I’ve lived here.

While walking along the waterfront a few evenings ago I saw something swimming through the water. Hey it’s Canada’s national symbol!

Looks like it might be a lake quite a ways north of here, but in reality, it’s in a major city.

 (Note the merganser sitting on the branch.)

Wander Down To Cootes

Went for a stroll a while ago down to Cootes Paradise. No real purpose, just out for a wander.

Just a gull.

Looking out across the Bay.

Just another gull.

 Cootes Paradise.

 Goose.

Gooses.

Princess Point. This area has had many archeological digs done over the years, as there is evidence here of the oldest known agricultural activity in Ontario.

 Sassafras Point.

S.o.t.D. - OFI (Bullion's Rivertrance Mix) – Model 500

OFI (Bullion’s Rivertrance Mix) – Model 500

I like what all those Detroit guys have gotten up to over the last two decades or so.

S.o.t.D. - (Three Fingers Of) Love – Art of Noise

(Three Fingers Of) Love – Art of Noise

Could listen to this track for hours on end.

Bibliophilia: Peter & Max: A Fables Novel – Bill Willingham

Peter & Max: A Fables Novel – Bill Willingham

A stand alone novel, separate from the graphic novels. Just as good though.

S.o.t.D. - T-Shape – Marko Fürstenberg

T-Shape – Marko Fürstenberg

It’s somewhat cold, clinical Teutonic techno, with a wicked beat, and then it’s offset by the dubby touches. Dig it.

S.o.t.D. - Funky Beat – Kunde

Funky Beat – Kunde

Ahhh...yes it is! A fat, lazy, funky beat.

Moulton Bicycle Company

Nice little film that gives me hope there is still a market for well made items built in first world countries.

The Ultimate Rube Goldberg Machine

You might want to turn the sound on it down cause it does make a cacophonous racket, but the thought and time and effort and money that must have gone into this is breathtaking. I think this video proves that being bonkers and brilliant go hand in hand.

S.o.t.D. - Sirius – Koalips

Sirius – Koalips

Just learned of this artist last week. Thoroughly impressed. Very evocative track, but with bass and beats. And no vocals. What more can you ask for?

S.o.t.D. - Crazy (Phonique Remix) – Ornette

Crazy (Phonique Remix) – Ornette

Okay, I admit it, the picture made me click, but the tune made me stay.

S.o.t.D. - Two Minute Warning – Depeche Mode

Two Minute Warning – Depeche Mode

Haven’t listened to this in far too long. Another of the tracks that proved to me just how fantastic Depeche Mode was. And now with the perspective of time, I realize how integral Alan Wilder was to the sound of these guys. Without realizing it consciously, I haven’t been as enamored of their stuff since his departure.

Bibliophilia: Lore and Legends of Long Point by Harry B. Barrett

Lore and Legends of Long Point – Harry B. Barrett

(Very thrilled to say that this is the first book I’ve featured on here that I had a hand in producing. Originally published in 1977, back in 2000 it was re-published for the 4th time at my old job, the Aylmer Express. I took the old film and re-stripped it for a different press, may have had a hand in making the proofs, may have had a hand in making the plates.)

Goes into the formation of this 40 km long sand bar, some of the native tribes that inhabited the area, early French explorers who wrote about it, some of the United Empire Loyalists who settled this fertile area, the role it played in the war of 1812, the treacherous conditions that caused so many shipping disasters in the area (I think the area around Long Point may have one of the highest concentrations of sunken wrecks in the Great Lakes), the early light houses (the wildly shifting sands made it necessary to build several over the years), the purchase of most of the area by the Long Point Company, a consortium of wealthy businessmen who turned it into a private hunting domain, (which did much to stop the over hunting and logging that threatened to have a very deleterious effect on this fragile habitat), the use of the area by rum runners during the era of prohibition, tales of buried treasure and some murders.

Love books like this. Being a bit of a history and natural history dork, books like this are right up my alley.

Bibliophilia: Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms by Eugenia Bone

Mycophilia: Revelations from the Weird World of Mushrooms – Eugenia Bone

More personal narrative about the authors journey through the many facets of mushroom culture, rather than a dense treatise on mycology. Might be considered a bit light by some peoples standards, but lots of fun facts, and it reinforced why I dig mushrooms so much. (1.5 million species of funghi, second only to insects in number and diversity, and only 5% have been identified. Funghi outnumber plants by a ratio of 6:1 and make up 25% of Earth’s biomass. The biggest single living organism on Earth is a 2200 acre fungus, weighing 6,286 tons in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon. The first terrestrial  creatures may have been fungi, and they are more closely related to us, evolutionarily speaking than they are to plants. We inhale 1 to 10 spores per breath, as many as 300,000 per day. They live on every surface, in every organism to some degree or other, and some can theoretically live for ever. They function as a shadow immune system for all plants, a shadow digestive system for trees. Mushroom cell walls are made of chitin, the same stuff crab shells are made from, and allow mushrooms to push their way through asphalt.)

S.o.t.D. - Cuckoo – Tipper

Cuckoo – Tipper

Tipper is one of those artists like Bluetech or Lusine that I find exceptional. Beyond just anything about a particular track, I really dig their sound. Another magical track.

S.o.t.D. - A Zed and Two L’s – Fila Brazilia

A Zed and Two L’s – Fila Brazilia

Just like, Legion of Green Men and Boards of Canada don’t really advertise the fact, F.B. also don’t shout that they are actually brothers.

S.o.t.D. - Secret Liaison – Source Direct

Secret Liaison – Source Direct

Mind melting track from 96 on Good Looking. Still puts a goofy smile on my face 15 years later. That combo of the soft melodic elements with those totally blotto drums, does it for me every time.

S.o.t.D. - As Possible (feat. Sandra Baschin) – Chris Zippel

As Possible (feat. Sandra Baschin) – Chris Zippel

Impeccably exquisite.

Tragic Loss of Skateistan Youth

I’m pretty hard hearted for the most part, but I fully admit to this making me cry like a child.

http://www.skateistan.org/blog/tragic-loss

Go buy some swag from them.

And Islam is offended? Fuck off!

Bibliophilia: Escapement – Jay Lake

Escapement – Jay Lake

Just couldn’t get into this. Gave it 200 hundred pages. Maybe it has something to do with not reading the one that preceded this, but the world the author created I just didn’t find compelling at all. Earth set in Victorian times, but a huge wall at the equator separates the northern and southern hemispheres, and a clockwork is visible in the sky. Didn’t do it for me.

S.o.t.D. - Flying Fingers – Motorbass

Flying Fingers – Motorbass

I’ll say one thing about those Frenchies: they know how to do really funky house right. 

S.o.t.D. - Space – Seismix & Cahb

Space – Seismix & Cahb

Really digging this ambient dubstep / liquid drum & bass sound. Wonderful track. Just those soft melodic elements and then that rumbling bass - winning formula.

Bibliophilia: The Man with the Iron Heart by Harry Turtledove

The Man with the Iron Heart – Harry Turtledove

I’ve heard about his stuff for years, his alternate history, and decided to try a one off story, rather than one that was part of a larger series. And I really didn’t dig it. The premise is based on a fact – at the end of WW2, there was a half hearted attempt by the Nazis to organize a guerrilla resistance to the Allied occupation. It never really came to much. Despite the fact that there were still die-hard holdouts, by and large, the Germans had been well and truly crushed. The story here is that Heydrich wasn’t assassinated in Czechoslovakia in 1942, and ended up being the leader of this movement, the Werewolves as they were called.

I think my big problem with it was that it tried way too hard to transpose events of today, ie Iraq, to the situation in post WW2 Germany. It came off as hollow and contrived to me. That and I had trouble buying into the idea that people back on the homefront in the USA organized to oppose the continued occupation in Germany. I know, alternate history, it requires a suspension of disbelief, but it just didn’t feel believable to me.

I finished it, and I will give some of his other stuff a shot one day, but this one I didn’t find that satisfying.

S.o.t.D. - Katy Song – Red House Painters

Katy Song – Red House Painters

I listened to this song a lot after a woman named Katy broke my heart. Probably an unhealthy amount. Lyrics summed it up perfectly. Red House Painters will likely be dismissed by uncultured philistines as dour and depressing, but their stuff is achingly beautiful to my mind. And of course, on the awesome 4AD label. 

Bibliophilia: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Good Omens – Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman

Seems to have been more of a Pratchett effort, than a Gaiman effort. Lazy description: the Omen as filtered through Monty Python maybe? Very enjoyable.

S.o.t.D. - Night Sky – Rameses B

Night Sky – Rameses B

Just insanely good.

Kayak Build pt. 8

Fibreglassing and epoxying.

The worst part of this whole process, but has to be done.

Fiberglass laid across the kayak.

I was on epoxy and hardener mixing detail, and Hank was in charge of smearing it on. With his many years of boat repair experience, he knew what he was doing.

As much as it’s a gooey, gluey, goopy mess, the transformation is remarkable.

First coat on.

Applying the second coat.

Waiting to see if it needs a third coat.

After applying a third coat.

If I may be so immodest....wow, that looks hot. That honey colour is something else. The transformation from dull white to that is spectacular.

Go here for part 9 of the build.