Be Good Tanyas? I’ll tell you. They’re Very Very good. Blue Horse is an almost perfect first record, in that style, and Chinatown is due out in a month or so. The worst part is, though, that I’m just figuring this out now. I’ve missed at least three of their shows (that I remember), they shacked up at a friend’s apartment last time they were in Montreal, and I (and friends) drank a LOT with the guy who played drums on their last tour after the show. Never quite managed to listen to ’em before now, at least not straight through. Damn.

winner has been announced, and local writer Yann Martel won this year! No one I’ve ever chatted with over a beer in someone’s kitchen has ever won a major international literary prize.

of cool stuff lately has been my pal MJ, who pointed me to a site called The Enchanted Ear, specifically a story about Edith Fowke, who was a sort of Canadian Alan Lomax. I’m going to try and find some of these recordings – Ottawa Valley lumber shanties are my heritage going back a hundred and fifty years. If you’re interested in roots music of any kind, you’ll love this stuff.

, at least there is one person I’ve had a long, social conversation with on the Booker Prize “long list”. When we met at a party a couple of years ago, Yann Martel struck me as a really nice guy who was very committed to his work.

, Elvis is everywhere! At least today, 25 years since his death, he’s everywhere. I did NOT grow out my sideburns in tribute (as a friend of mine actually did a few years ago), but I did pick up the hated bio by Albert Goldman a couple of weeks ago and have been glimpsing at that now and then.