In her words…:

Tommy is a legend and since I’ll probably never get the chance to play live with him so I’m playing along one of his songs. Having said that that would be a gas to gig with Tommy…Tommy if you watch this and like it, I’m ready to play with you anytime (I’m dreaming I know ! )

Homeless Blues: Suzuki Manji in A

Here’s another: Gary Moore cover. Manji D

Proponents point to the science and the advances in medicine as the sine qua non that predisposes the decision when life should end; that it should be at a pragmatic technical point. That it should end only when no other technical solution is now or likely to be available. Technological innovation has made almost indefinite support of the corpus possible, maybe even inevitable.

Clearly, none of the proponents of technical immortality have ever passed a kidney stone.

Those who have will tell you there is a pain so indescribable (no words can express), so all-consuming (no thought can escape), so soul-devouring ( no penitence will relieve) that death would, truly, be a mercy against the tidal wave of agony that comes from a grain of sand. There is a place where a soul descends that is torment without end. Measured against a life of such torment, death is, indeed, a mercy.

Now, this isn’t about euthanizing kidney stone sufferers (although there can be moments where the choice would be dead, easy). But there are afflictions, cancers especially, where there is little to no relief available from unceasing, unrelenting pain. Modern technology renders the corpus insensible, and in doing so renders the soul entombed. Kidney stone sufferers have had a taste of where that place is. No one should have to live in that place, most especially if their own expressed desire is to escape it. Few will chose to dwell there, and to provide a door through which to pass with dignity is a kinder mercy than than can be found in the nether world of insensibility.

Well, a poet, I’m not… But we finally buried the last of the feeble service that the mighty Bell Canada once was. Sir Alexander would be disappointed. I’m under no illusions that the cable industry is the complete answer – it does cost a bit more, but it offers me 3-6x faster web access with the ability to go even faster if necessary, and the lines are new(ish) in this area, and as a bonus, I can power my HDTV in my office here too…
These changes are especially important to the Ephemerata Weather Radar Project which was completely crippled by the DSL failures.

For the millennium decades, I think that actress is none other than the re-defined, re-invigorated, re-invented character of Lois Lane, as so beautifully portrayed and expressed by the equally stunning and affable Erica Durance.

Erica Durance, as Lois Lane

This past Friday was the concluding episode, after a 10 year run, of Smallville, a quirky offbeat story of the iconic Superman legend, set in his formative years, but with a modern placing. Like many, I didn’t discover Smallville until about the 6th or 7th season. Caught a couple glimpses early on, dismissed it as too coy, and moved on. But for some reason, I started watching a few episodes of the second half of the run a few years ago, and found myself utterly hooked. I started buying the DVD sets, then a complete collection -started at the beginning, and over a 2 year period, ploughed my way through every episode. Quite simply, I don’t ever want this series to end. With regard to the finale, comments from the web are, of course, all over the map. I was satisfied (as much as I can be with a finale), but would have like to have seen at the end, an in-front-of-the-curtain theatrical cast-off, with the actors assembled saying their goodbyes – it would have been a nice touch for a series in which the personalities have become, well, so personal.

Everything in this series is crafted slightly (ok, sometimes way..) over the top, from the stylish and delicious production values, to the suspend-reality-here story lines, but the interplay between the characters always remains grounded and real. While the story may be about the young Clark Kent (played by Tom Welling), the real story is the growth of a collection of very capable teenagers growing into young adulthood together onset – finding themselves, their strengths and their passions. While Alison Mack as Chloe Sullivan has woven whole cloth from a character that doesn’t exist in the print version, and is much revered and loved around the world for her portrayal, and while Lana (Kristen Kreuk) ably evoked all of the angst of teenage and young adult passion, it is Erica as Lois, introduced in season 4, who is allowed to freely evolve a character into full, mature adult romance. And boy, does she pull it off.

It takes more than acting to create a convincing portrayal of true romance, however. It takes a pure and open inner soul to provide the ingenuousness and naivete that characterizes an enduring love story. If you watch Durance’s various interviews, its pretty obvious that the character of Lois is cut from the character of Erica Durance, but Lois Lane is not Erica Durrance. As she admits in the interviews, she personally believes in this love story, and it is that respect that carries her so exquisitely into the role.

Smallville comes with a lot of “stuff”. Its easy to lose focus of the character interplay amongst all of the freaks, gadgets, CGI and special effects that drives the comic book aspects of the story. Having a run of 10 years however, has allowed the writers and actors to build their characters completely. When you are able to strip away the fluff, you are left with something like the following youtube video which unequivocally uncovers a remarkable character, a remarkable actress, and a remarkable performance. I don’t ever want this series to end. Most especially, I don’t ever want this couple to end.

These excerpts from the finale won’t allow embedding, but the opener and the through-the-door scene are quintessential Lois and Clark. The through-the-door scene may be the finest love seen to come along in several decades. Brilliantly executed. This may be fantasy, but God it feels good to watch. (Clois, btw is twit and youtubespeak for “Clark and Lois”)

Arms of Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge

that followed a long and no doubt deeply introspective courtship, Britain (and Will!) has, I think, acquired a most regal, most beautiful, and entirely capable Queen for William V, upon his ascension to the throne.

Watching her closely through the service and in various videos, this is no wallflower and shrinking violet. Kate demonstrated in presence, poise and performance, that while she was the star of the show and this was hers and Will’s wedding, she wasn’t “along for the ride”. She shared the spotlight graciously with all close to her that had a hand in bringing it all together, most especially with her exquisitely presented maid of honour, sister Pippa, and all of the kids. Without question, another jewel has been added to the British crown.

While it is fashionable amongst some to denigrate the monarchy for basically being who they are; these are working royals. Unbeknown to most, in the days previous to the wedding, William as Flt Lt. Wales, SAR pilot, attempted to rescue with his helicopter, a woman who fallen down a cliff, by trying to get a paramedic to her on the heli’s hoist. They were unable to rescue her in time.

As all Search And Rescue personnel know and understand, this is the truly difficult part of SAR – not being able to complete the mission, despite all best efforts, and so, William will depend heavily on his beautiful and capable new bride, to fulfill not only the pomp and foolery that comes with the trappings of royalty, but in those most private of moments, to comfort and sustain him in the other reality in which he lives. My read is that they have chosen each other wisely and carefully, and Britain may come to revere their new queen-in-waiting.

The following video from youtube is an excellent compendium of web images of Kate over time, and makes for a stunning portfolio of a stunning woman. Enjoy.

This version was recorded in 1990 with a sultry and younger Margo Timmins and the band. These guys are a true Canadian treasure. One of the most soulfully intense alternative bands to ever record.

Older Margo may be now, but time has only enhanced her sultry earthiness, even as she acquires a sophisticated maturity that is reflected in her voice. The video below from a couple of years ago offers a rare look at Margo and the band in an uncommon setting: a fashion show, and the easy grace with which she adapts old favourites to an unusual venue.

You can and should spend a couple of hours on youtube reminding yourself how good she really is, then visit the Junkies website, sampling (and buying, ideally:) their latest works. Don’t leave the site without losing yourself in Margo’s corner. If you had any doubt that she still has it, you will be comforted. The new album/series, Renmin Park/Nomad, if Renmin Park is any example, is going to be simply awesome.

I realize this reads like an ad, but there are not many bands and singers that I play and replay for hours at a time, But I could sit and watch and listen to Margo and the Junkies every minute for the rest of my life. Go do it. Step off the planet for a bit. You’ll be so very glad you did.

Introducing the CV – the Coppin-Volk twin neck open-back banjo! It’s a fretless banjo! It’s a fretted banjo! I’ve been wanting to do a banjo for some time, and last fall I decided to jump in. Hank Volk in Indiana machines the pot and fits the rings, and I acquired two identical necks-in-the-rough and finished them off as a mostly matched pair – one done with a fretless fingerboard, and the other with a conventional fretted finger board. Long and tedious work, machining the new fretless fingerboard from suitable material, veneering each peghead and then finishing them off. The veneer, birdseye cherry (I think, never got it confirmed for sure that that what it is, but it looks like it in the raw), was very difficult to use – brittle, requiring several repair cut-ins before it was done due to chipping. It doesn’t sand smooth either, so the finished result has an old gnarly character to it. All in all, I think the pegheads turned out fairly well, and are quite distinctive.

The banjo is a classic open-back pot with a wooden tone ring mated to a pair of modified S.S. Stewart-style pegheads with slim necks. The sound is rich in tone, with good brightness, and a fat midrange, with excellent sustain (not a bluegrasser, so I’m not looking for thunk

The CV Banjo - with fretless neck mounted and fretted neck on the side. No, it's not a lefty, the picture got somehow reversed!

Materials: The pot – Brazilian ebony tone-ring, on top of end-grain South American canary wood. This is not the familiar yellow canary wood found here in Canada, but a denser, oilier wood, something like cocobolo. Standard hardware and a Fibreskyn head. I have a Renaissance head coming which I may swap out, as I’m partial to that head type. Sounds good with the Fibreskyn though.

Open-back - the Brazilian ebony tone ring can be seen under the head

Fibreskyn head

Fretted neck – standard mahogany neck and East Indian rosewood fingerboard, with ordinary MOP dots. I’m not a fan of wild inlays so you won’t find them on my banjos… Peghead veneered back and front with birdseye cherry. Standard nickel plated planetary tuners, standard black plastic tri-ply nut cover. Neck unbound, as I’m not any good at doing that, and I wasn’t up to ruining neck blanks trying.

Fretless neck – Standard mahogany neck, unbound (see excuse above), with a custom Payung rosewood (Dahlbergia sp.) fretboard. This is very interesting wood – almost orange when its fresh, and produces a brilliant red dye with solvents – took a bit of washing to get the oils out. Very hard, very straight-grained. Machines nicely, but you don’t want to have to sand it. The surface is pretty much as it came out of my planer. As with the fretted neck, peghead veneered back and front with the same birdseye cherry. Standard nickel-plated planetary tuners with buffalo horn knobs, and an oiled rosewood nut cover.

Fretless neck peghead

The fretless neck will be a challenge. Still popular with Appalachian pickers (and commonly seen in a unique style called a mountain banjo), the fretless was the poor sharecropper’s instrument. Like a violin, purity of note comes from careful placement of the fingers, without the “safety” of frets. The ultimate sound comes from not only the pickers style, but the scale length as well. Unlike a fretted banjo, the bridge can be put anywhere, and intonation is the work of the fingers, not of matching the frets to the scale length (intonation is making sure the note an octave up is correct on its fret, i.e. an open A still sounds an A on the 12th fret, not A#. The bridge must be carefully placed to ensure this happens. Fretted instruments tend to go sharp as you go up the fretboard).

Almost finished -I have to add an armrest yet, play with the adjusting, but so far it seems stable in tune, and will likely get more so as the wood settles in to the tension. Now to see if I can learn to play it!

Nowhere (other than perhaps Chile) was it more apparent how important it is to live in the moment, as was demonstrated in the final days of the Olympic competitions. Several events come to mind: the falls taken by a few competitors on the slopes and on the speed tracks, Cheryl Bernard’s loss of the gold medal in Women’s Curling, and the all-out battle for supremacy in the Canada-USA men’s gold medal hockey final.

Cheryl Bernard and her team fought, practiced and drilled their way up the ranks to reach the gold medal match against the Swedish team skipped by Annette Norberg. Norberg, a previous two-time gold medal winner, was no stranger to the Olympic final test. Bernard was tasting her first Olympics, and by all accounts, was seriously challenging Norberg for the gold.

This was evident right up to the last end of the extended final set with both teams tied, and with Cheryl having both the strength and the tremendous burden of the last rock. Unlucky enough not to have a house that was secure before her throw, Cheryl had to set aside everything that had been achieved before, to try and confirm the final, last, defining moment of the past four years of her curling life.

Alas, her final rock was good enough, but not fast enough to clear the house. There, but for a push of a muscle, or the sweep of a colleague or God knows what lay in its path, the sum total of all of the years gone before was reduced to an infinitesimal amount of energy in an infinitesimal moment of time, and it wasn’t quite enough.

It would easy to dismiss the loss as “she didn’t make it”, but that would be doing a great disservice to her and her team mates that brought her and the country to that “infinitesimal moment in time”. Bernard and her team mates played as the champions they are, bringing the game, and the medals, down to the moment where she had to let the stone go, and hand the outcome to fate.

I’m not so much feeling sorry for Cheryl as to how it turned out, but rather, comiserating with her that it turned out the way it did. There really was no second place in this particular competition and it was evident that Cheryl felt it as she made her way down the ice after the rock had ended its journey in the house. Everything was riding on that last rock, and fate did not smile on her. It was a gold medal run, but unfortunately there was only one medal to hand out.

Similarily, the Canada-USA men’s gold medal match came down to the same pair of short straws. This time Canada, via Sidney Crosbie, pulled it out of the bag in overtime at the last moment.

But the Olympics are no different than life. The sum total of all you have done may result in no more than a footnote in the history of life, and lucky if it is at least that. The proverbial stepping off the curb to meet the oncoming bus lies in wait for us all. Life happens in the moment, and its in the moment that Canada’s Olympic athletes are obliged to live. That alone, should be the signal metaphor for us all, each and every day.

Paul Coppin

Lost Gander, by Brian Scott, based on an interpretration by Mike Seeger.

And Mike Seeger, in a live performance from 2008: