Gluemeat

“In Sapporo’s offer, we not only received fair value for shareholders, but confidence that Sleeman has an owner with the financial resources and track record to continue to grow and build Sleeman’s national portfolio of premium brands.”

- John Sleeman, CEO and chairman of Sleeman Breweries Ltd. on the company’s accepted takeover bid by Japan’s Sapporo Breweries Ltd.

There are numerous reasons why many people are looking over to Japan, and not the United States, to see the future of animation. Movie studios can continue to obsess over their CGI wannabe blockbusters and Disney can continue to implicitly claim that traditional animation is dead, but perhaps it isn’t the medium that has died. Perhaps imagination and craftmanship, in our north american lands, are.

Anyone who has ever seen a Studio Ghilbi movie knows exactly what I’m talking about: whimsical and imaginative stories within fantastic worlds where breaking down reality, instead of trying to replicate it, are de rigueur, concocted withpen and pencil in hand, pushing ever forward the possibilities of (what is now called) 2-D animation. And they do it all the while refusing to take children for fart-loving idiots. If you have never been exposed to Ghilbi, the folks over at Lukira have compiled a collection of the 10 first minutes of 10 Studio Ghilbi movies for you to watch, enjoy, and perhaps even get a little excited about. And if you have seen the movies, it’s a great way to remember just how magnificent they are.

It’s a nice list, which glaringly omits one of my favourites, Porco Rosso, but hey, I guess when you have to trim, you have to trim somewhere. No harm done.

Meet Gulnara Karimova: daughter to the current president of Uzbekistan, successful business woman, Harvard-educated, black belt, alledged woman trafficker, wanted in the state of New Jersey, and now… pop star. Tacky pop star.

Dipping their toes in the the realm of vaporous epic rock is Montreal’s Peppetree. Composed of four musicians who have listened to a lot of Radiohead and My Bloody Valentine, their songs are vast and encompassing, the kind which just seem to wrap themselves around you and refuse to let you splice off into a side conversation until it’s done.

Somewhere between the guitar riffs and the electronic sequences rises singer Patrick Poirier’s voice, giving life to both French and English tunes.  Flowing effortlessly from reassuringly soft to clamourously distant in a stanza, it empowers each Peppertree tune with a bold sense of drama. Paired up with the band’s deconstructive techniques, and you get a Hitchcockian feel of urgency, as if something is always on the verge of happening. And, thankfully, it never leaves us hanging.

Score one more for the Montreal music scene.

La cage appât
La bombe dans l’oeil
Wallpaper
Myriads of Stars
Brume en équerre

www.peppertree.ws

Via 3hive.

As many of you know, I produced, directed, wrote and starred in One Giant Jump: The Mike Lacroix Story, a vibrant homage to the human spirit through the introspective look of one man’s personal involvement in an Earth-shattering event. It was stated that One Giant Jump had been “an acclaimed part of the World Jump Day celebrations.” Now, in the minds of some people, such a statement was considered as being unfounded, a self-promoting piece of copy without any actual facts or quotes to back it up. It was implied that I just “made it up” for my YouTube description box.  So for those of you who need “facts” and “proof” to feel more secure about your existence, allow me to shove this one right into your unkempt, smelly face:

One Giant Jump: The Mike Lacroix Story has won the contest for the best World Jump Day 2006 video.

Yes, fellow Gluemeaties, my movie has entered the panthenon of greatness which only a select, visionary few get to join. Forging a place in the collective consciousness is not a prize to be taken lightly, nor should it be ignored. I would propose that everyone screams this one at the top of their lungs for everyone to know. Or, at least, until your fingers bleed from typing it too much on discussion forums. Victory will come when One Giant Jump becomes a question in the Y2K edition of Trivial Pursuit.

Now some buzzkillers will try and ruin our fun by saying that I was not alone in victory; that, in “fact,” there were SEVEN videos which were selected as winners of the contest. Perhaps, but when you look at the winner’s page, look who is leading the pack:

I don’t think my thoughts are so far-fetched.As for my actual, physical prize, I’m getting a T-shirt which I will subsequently bronze and hang on my wall between my 6th grade Schoolympics “Nice Try!” badge and my Metal Edge Megadeth pull-out poster.

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See also One Giant Jump: The Mike Lacroix Story.

I got to hear Oshawa’s Cuff The Duke for the first time at my hometown’s OFF Festival last year. In this city of bureaucrats and sprawling suburbs, it’s hard to get events where the music offerings are adventurous and lacking the variety show format. Like a starving man in a deli, I was ready to swallow whatever the OFF chucked at us. When Cuff The Duke reached the stage at the smallish Pub Saint Alexandre, it blew my mind. With one band, one evening, I was reassured that all was well with Canadian rock. Not since the heyday of the great Halifax “Seattle of the North” era had I heard homegrown talent with such passion, talent, and inspiration.

It came in a really odd package too: Cuff The Duke churns out spacey rock-country fusion which hits you right in the middle class. The 2005 self-titled release showcases their harmonious arrangements and sonic roots with songs like the toe-tapping Take My Money And Run, or the supernal anthem It’s Over. The authenticity of the band’s art is the hook and their craftsmanship is the clincher; it couldn’t be more sound or moving.

The MP3s are tracks from their first album, Life Stories for Minimum Wage (released in 2002), which includes the quintessential Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker.

Blackheart
The Difference Between Us
Ballad of a Lonely Construction Worker

www.cufftheduke.com

Mike’s note: this is a re-post from an other blog of mine with a tiny edit which deserved a place here on Gluemeat.