Blog Dis
Smashing the Pumpkin
2024-11-14
No! You're not trapped inside a dream and we are now at the mid-point of November. Summer is in the rear view mirror, despite the slightly warmer-than-usual temperatures we were able to enjoy in the last two weeks of October.
With two weeks of November in the can, it means that bloody winter will soon rear its ugly face. I believe the imagery of a smashed pumpkin is apropos, given that there are many online posts about not wasting your perfectly carved pumpkin, after Halloween, and how they can be fed to the wild animals without fear of poisoning them. I didn't carve a pumpkin, but I do love me some pumpkin seed butter, the pure variety, raw without a trace of sugar. But given how this busy week is shaping up, it also occurred to me how cathartic it would be for me to smash a pumpkin to smithereens.
Manic behaviour has its plus sides, from time to time, because it exemplifies a deep earning to let loose. So does smashing pumpkins or specifically listening to the Smashing Pumpkins. I let my fingers do the walking, through my collection, when I work from home, on the two days a week when I'm permitted to work from home. Playing music in the afternoon should be a requisite for all offices, as music uplifts your mood, the soul and helps to alleviate the stress of demands. The first break out LP for the Smashing Pumpkins was Siamese Dream, the ear-splitting, rough-as-nails hard-driving rhythm guitar licks that were distinctively unique to the 90s Alternative band, for whom I've adored since seeing as the headline act at Lollapalooza in Montreal in 1994, along with the Beastie Boys, L7, The Breeders, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Green Day, and others. I am also fond of their later music too, like Adore, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Gish, too, is their first release that grinds your teeth and leaves your body chattering. Gotta love it!
And so, as I listened to Adore while writing this post, I was reminded of my glorious summer days, and also the summer of 2024 that is now dust, and this includes the high costs of tickets that in some cases had tripled this year, which I can only attribute to the loss of business in the pandemic, necessitating that some organizations had to re-coop by raising prices. I was prepared to shell out for Ottawa's Bluesfest this year to see Neil Young, whose music I also love, only for me to shudder in horror when his ticket prices were in excess of $450 before taxes, so my pocket book politely declined, and then Mr. Young ended up having to cancel his appearance owing to health issues (hope his health has rebounded). Regardless, I have my CD collection, which is convenient, and yes the medium of CDs is long past its prime but lemme tell you something... sales of record albums and CDs are on the rise, as far-fetched as this may seem. The number of record stores in downtown Ottawa has been reduced to one, yet when I drop in to visit, while on my way to another store, you'll come upon the owners of the shop busily sorting through a new shipment of used records. Apparently collectors in the USA have found this store, and they'll place large orders worth thousands, so the owner needs to seek replacements for his local customers; people like me!
CDs too, those vinyl circular discs that would befuddle parents who were challenged to pry open the plastic case 😅are also very much in demand. I'm always on the look out for Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Who - their placeholders are typically empty. But if you belong to the generation that would spend hours in the record store exploring what was up for grabs, or to peruse the offerings in second-hand record stores, consider yourself lucky to have been part of this era, like me, with so many damn fine bands to choose from, rather than the evolution of music which now embraces Rap and Hip Hop but which has left behind good old fashioned rock and roll. The era of rock music has forever burned its memory into my heart and soul.
And if, again, you were one of the lucky ones to have attended Lollapalooza in Montreal 1994, you would've enjoyed listening to the kick-ass music on that hot and steamy day at Mount St. Helene's w/ the throng of thousands of attendees. Not one fight had broken out. And there wasn't one police officer visible that I recall, despite the manic mosh pit and the thumping bodies crashing against each other. I remember my friend, he who is now a fifth degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, tell me that surviving an hour in the mad af mosh pit was harder that surviving a two hour black belt work-out. I believed him. I saw his disheveled state when he finally emerged out of the mosh pit, totally drenched, his clothing soaking wet, his hair tussled, and a wasted look on his face. I stood at the back of the general admission crowd with his girlfriend, which was plenty close for me to get an upfront and personal experience seeing the Smashing Pumpkins play when it was their heyday, their time to wow the crowd, and they surely did.
It shall forever be the right time to make a selection of music from this era.
"If music be the food of love, play on..." [Shakespeare; Twelfth Night]
With two weeks of November in the can, it means that bloody winter will soon rear its ugly face. I believe the imagery of a smashed pumpkin is apropos, given that there are many online posts about not wasting your perfectly carved pumpkin, after Halloween, and how they can be fed to the wild animals without fear of poisoning them. I didn't carve a pumpkin, but I do love me some pumpkin seed butter, the pure variety, raw without a trace of sugar. But given how this busy week is shaping up, it also occurred to me how cathartic it would be for me to smash a pumpkin to smithereens.
Manic behaviour has its plus sides, from time to time, because it exemplifies a deep earning to let loose. So does smashing pumpkins or specifically listening to the Smashing Pumpkins. I let my fingers do the walking, through my collection, when I work from home, on the two days a week when I'm permitted to work from home. Playing music in the afternoon should be a requisite for all offices, as music uplifts your mood, the soul and helps to alleviate the stress of demands. The first break out LP for the Smashing Pumpkins was Siamese Dream, the ear-splitting, rough-as-nails hard-driving rhythm guitar licks that were distinctively unique to the 90s Alternative band, for whom I've adored since seeing as the headline act at Lollapalooza in Montreal in 1994, along with the Beastie Boys, L7, The Breeders, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Green Day, and others. I am also fond of their later music too, like Adore, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Gish, too, is their first release that grinds your teeth and leaves your body chattering. Gotta love it!
And so, as I listened to Adore while writing this post, I was reminded of my glorious summer days, and also the summer of 2024 that is now dust, and this includes the high costs of tickets that in some cases had tripled this year, which I can only attribute to the loss of business in the pandemic, necessitating that some organizations had to re-coop by raising prices. I was prepared to shell out for Ottawa's Bluesfest this year to see Neil Young, whose music I also love, only for me to shudder in horror when his ticket prices were in excess of $450 before taxes, so my pocket book politely declined, and then Mr. Young ended up having to cancel his appearance owing to health issues (hope his health has rebounded). Regardless, I have my CD collection, which is convenient, and yes the medium of CDs is long past its prime but lemme tell you something... sales of record albums and CDs are on the rise, as far-fetched as this may seem. The number of record stores in downtown Ottawa has been reduced to one, yet when I drop in to visit, while on my way to another store, you'll come upon the owners of the shop busily sorting through a new shipment of used records. Apparently collectors in the USA have found this store, and they'll place large orders worth thousands, so the owner needs to seek replacements for his local customers; people like me!
CDs too, those vinyl circular discs that would befuddle parents who were challenged to pry open the plastic case 😅are also very much in demand. I'm always on the look out for Fleetwood Mac, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, The Who - their placeholders are typically empty. But if you belong to the generation that would spend hours in the record store exploring what was up for grabs, or to peruse the offerings in second-hand record stores, consider yourself lucky to have been part of this era, like me, with so many damn fine bands to choose from, rather than the evolution of music which now embraces Rap and Hip Hop but which has left behind good old fashioned rock and roll. The era of rock music has forever burned its memory into my heart and soul.
And if, again, you were one of the lucky ones to have attended Lollapalooza in Montreal 1994, you would've enjoyed listening to the kick-ass music on that hot and steamy day at Mount St. Helene's w/ the throng of thousands of attendees. Not one fight had broken out. And there wasn't one police officer visible that I recall, despite the manic mosh pit and the thumping bodies crashing against each other. I remember my friend, he who is now a fifth degree black belt in Shotokan Karate, tell me that surviving an hour in the mad af mosh pit was harder that surviving a two hour black belt work-out. I believed him. I saw his disheveled state when he finally emerged out of the mosh pit, totally drenched, his clothing soaking wet, his hair tussled, and a wasted look on his face. I stood at the back of the general admission crowd with his girlfriend, which was plenty close for me to get an upfront and personal experience seeing the Smashing Pumpkins play when it was their heyday, their time to wow the crowd, and they surely did.
It shall forever be the right time to make a selection of music from this era.
"If music be the food of love, play on..." [Shakespeare; Twelfth Night]
