DANCING IN THE CROWD ALL BY YOURSELF

I seem him at every concert. At the Clapton concert I could see several of him from time to time. You've also seen him. Perhaps you are him. The Dancing Alone Guy.

He may not be alone, it's often hard to tell. But there he is, standing at a concert where everyone else is sitting, eyes glued to the stage, bobbing his head and waving his arms and singing the lyrics back ...

This is different from Dancing Alone Girl. You know it is. Don't try to act all cool and politically correct; in this society, at this point, we don't think much of a girl standing up and dancing all by herself but a guy ...

I'm not saying it's wrong. Well, except if I'm sitting behind him. I'm old. I paid a lot for these tickets. I'm not standing up just so I can see over you, now sit the fuck down. And the same applies to a woman, have no doubt. But if he's not blocking my view, well, rock on brother

I just wonder about it, that's all. I have no problem with dancing. Really, I don't. OK, my own dancing may be likened to a one footed chicken given a double dose of LSD then fed a high voltage, but I view dancing as a perfectly acceptable expression of music and emotion. But there are dance floors for dancing, and stages, and the roof of your house when the moon is full and the rain is falling and you just got new underpants and ... OK, that last part may just be me.

But to dance at a concert, not in the aisle with a partner but alone, at your seat, it makes me wonder. And what about the people with Dancing Alone Guy. Why aren't they dancing with him? Are they too staid, too shy, too stoned, too busy recording him for a future You Tube infamy?

Is Dancing Alone Guy's companions laughing, hiding they faces, ignoring him, or saying "This is OK, at least he's not singing"

When did Dancing Alone Guy start this behaviour? Was he once Dancing Alone Toddler? Well yeh, probably, we've all seen little tykes bopping and bobbing and we encourage this behaviour, as a rule. It's only later that he may learn it's just not all cool and macho to suddenly stand up in the food court and start doing the funky chicken. Though I've eaten a lot of funky chicken in food courts, but as always, I digress.

Does Dancing Alone Guy only dance at concerts? Does he do it other places? When shopping for arugula and chick peas, does he lambada with the shopping cart. At work does he try to limbo under his cubicle wall, or does he twist and shout in the library. No, probably not. People may get upset. And he may get a straight jacket and a shot of Demerol. Or just shot.

But a concert is a place where unacceptable behaviours are accepted. You can sit there bobbing your head, clapping your hands, singing out loud .. well OK, you can see that on the public bus too it is just not quite as accepted.

A concert is a communal event where the rules of behavior are altered by the event itself. Perhaps that's why Dancing Alone Guy does it, simply because in this situation, he can. Maybe in his mind or in his heart he is dancing in the supermarket or his cubicle or in the library. But he doesn't want to get melons tossed at him, or get fired, or have Dickman the Library Dick chase him down and call him "funny boy"

It's freedom. And expression. And freedom of expression. So rock on Dancing Alone Guy. But if you do it in front of my seat, you may get a slap in the head. That's my freedom of expression

GOD AND HIS FALLEN ANGEL MELT THE ICE

"Clapton is God" Famous words supposedly scrawled on a London wall after a Cream concert in the 1960's Is Clapton God? Probably not, I think he's too laid back, but he probably could play the soundtrack

If Clapton is God, Jeff Beck is a Fallen Angel. Lucifer? Well, his music is spooky, other wordly, and could easily convert you to a different order of thinking

Both of these musicians are connected. Both played guitar with The Yard Birds, at different times. Both come from that tradition of blues-inspired rock rock that pretty much defined the popular music of the sixties and seventies

And this Sunday both of them took the stage at the Air Canada Centre here in Toronto. The ACC is a hockey arena. The Maple Leafs play there. So it's a big place pretty much used to defeat and disappointment. But we did not leave the place disappointed. We left it in a state of euphoria, perhaps even enraptured ... OK, I'm finished with the cheesy Biblical references, I swear on a ..um .. never mind

This was the first time I've seen Clapton live but I've been listening to his music for a good chunk of my life, due in great part to the influence of my older brother Ed. To Edward, Clapton is God, sucker, and you best get on your knees and pay respect

My love for Clapton is perhaps not quite as resolute. Clapton played with John Mayall and the Blues Breakers and that was a unit that helped turn me on to the blues in the first place. I think his tenure with Cream was Clapton at his most creative. For me, the music that Eric and Jack and Ginger made still stands as some of the most creative rock ever recorded. It was psychodellic music, no doubt, but Clapton brought his blues passion to the band; they covered Spoonful and Crossroads, after all

Clapton's solo career is a bit hit and miss for me. Partly that is due to his eclectic nature. He has never rested on his laurels and he has explored a wide variety of musical styles; even when the style didn't work for me, I have to admire that. But his love for the blues has always been there with CDs like From the Cradle and Riding with the King, an absolute gem of a collaboration with B.B. King.

He has also covered and collaborated with J.J. Cale, another musical idol of mine .. Hmm, B.B. and J.J. Does Clapton have something for initials?

But no matter what style of music Clapton pursued, there is no doubt that the man is a great guitarist. I enjoy his vocals, and lately I've heard more passion in his recorded singing, but I always knew that watching and hearing the man play live would be something special .. and it was

Clapton opened with an acoustic set, including the unplugged version of Layla, which I've come to appreciate over time, and a couple of raw Delta blues. He covered some of his classics, like I Shot the Sheriff and Cocaine (by J.J. Cale) with arrangements that breathed new life into them. And hell yeh, the main can play. A beautiful tone to his guitar, and clean edges and a straightforward lyrical delivery.

Clapton did not open the show. That was Jeff Beck's role. Beck is special. Collette appreciates a good guitar solo, she loves it when B.B. lets Lucille sing, but she likes vocals and rarely goes for anything strictly instrumental. Beck is the exception. But like the King, he has the ability to make his guitar sing, you can almost hear the lyrics. He had a string section on stage with him and you swore that they were backing up a vocalist, not an instrumentalist.

But as good as each man's set was, it paled to what came later .. Clapton and Beck playing together. It was truly something special And in the time honored tradition of blues men, each player let the other take the spotlight, at times Clapton serving as lead vocalist to Beck's guitar, at other times the two players trading off solo's and a few times both guitars playing in tandem .. I swear, my hair stood up on my arms.

As you would imagine, they played some blues, some soul, but what I didn't expect what was their most effective duet: Moon River. No, I haven't gone insane (I've already been there for years) I am totally serious. Moon River. Beck sang this song, not with his voice but with his guitar, yes you could hear the lyrics. Clapton used his voice and he never sounded more soulful. It was a truly special moment in a truly memorable concert.

Is Clapton really God? Is Beck a Fallen Angel? I doubt it. But I'm ready to worship

ADDENDUM:

Since I wrote this post last night I've read some of the "official" reviews of the concert and the tour. It's taking a beating in the press

The main complaint seems to be that the performers, particularly Clapton, were too laid back and there wasn't enough fire works. Really? Each player individually had moments where the guitars got into scary high registries and you could see the Maple Leaf banners rippling. Together, I really thought they were going to tear the roof off the hockey rink

Beck is being criticized for paying too much attention to his upcoming orchestral CD (hence the orchestra) Two points: It's common practise for an artist to feature new music on a tour. Secondly, I loved that stuff; lots of guitarists can play loud and fast but Beck has an amazing lyrical ability to make that guitar sound like a wide variety of instruments, sometimes all at once. It's one of the things I always look forward to hearing (should that be "hear" forward? Never mind)

As for Clapton, yes, he's laid back on stage. Relaxed, composed, not needing pyrotechnics and histrionics to prove his point, he as a Stratocaster to do that for him. After all, he is Slowhand. He pretty much left his firebrand days behind him long ago, it's why he fits so well with J.J. Cale. I love Cale but his music is subtle, nuanced, and takes some attention to appreciate. And Clapton can still play hard, but you listen to him, not watch him; I admit his stage presence is not exactly galvanizing. But the music is there, the skill is there, and I think these two "old guys" together made for a pretty compelling show

TOO RICH FOR OUR BLOOD

THIS SEEMS LIKE A POST ABOUT SPORTS BUT ...

It was just a few weeks ago that I wrote about the UFC brand of mix martial arts fighting coming to Toronto. I wrote that post because it seemed like a pretty sure thing after months, if not years, of speculation. MMA is a ludicrously popular form of sport and is "legal" in 8 provinces here and about 40 states in the US

We know MMA is popular here because Ontario is consistently one of the biggest markets for UFC pay per view events anywhere in the world. There are also MMA events held here, not fights but basically fan expos, that consistently sell out. There are many "home grown" professional MMA fighters from Ontario not to mention at least one genuine UFC superstar, George St. Pierre from Quebec. Which means there is a lot of indigenous interest in this sport here

The UFC wants to come here for those same reasons: The sport is popular here and we have a large home grown contingent. They know there's money to be had here and certainly with Toronto and its obsession with sports, there is lucrative ready made market.

The main official objections to the UFC coming here always seemed to be about its perceived barbarity, somehow more dangerous than boxing, though on paper, MMA is a "safer" sport than boxing, in that no one has ever been killed in a sanctioned MMA event. Most of the objections didn't makes sense, since we have many amateur martial arts events here, during which people are routinely injured.

I always felt that the real barrier to the UFC coming here was organized boxing. Boxing, particularly commercial boxing, hates MMA. It's a competition thing. I don't know the last time a really top flight boxing card was held here, with real stars fighting for a title; for some reason, that seems to have fallen out of favour. But I have no doubt that it would not take long to have a UFC title fought in Toronto, the money leads them.

Well, this week the axe dropped, and the blood that was spattered was the UFC's own. Premiere Dalton McGinty has said no to the UFC in Ontario. Why? Well, he has better things to concentrate on, like the economy and job creation and revenue ...

The UFC has proven that one fight staged in Toronto could generate millions of dollars in revenues. Think of taxes on ticket sales, parking, people using transit, taxes from the venue and then all the spin offs; staff for the venue, business like restaurants that will benefit, it's why Ontario loves sports, and why various levels of governments have always given tax incentives to these kinds of events ... they bring in money, both short term and long lasting

So why the denial to the UFC? My guess is the boxing lobby, a special interest group that is long established here and has lots of politicians on its side ... read that as, lots of politicians on their unofficial payroll. So really ...

... THIS IS A POST ABOUT POLITICS

When I started this blog I told myself that I wouldn't delve into politics. I had no interest in talking about political parties, individual politicians, platforms etc. Well, like a lot of my great ideas, that one had the merit of a wolf at a vegan convention; he could agree all he wanted with the philosophy, but we all know what's going to happen when he gets hungry.

You can't avoid politics. Because politics is government and government is us. But it's an "us" that I don't seem to have any connection to. I mean, ok, the UFC coming Toronto is not a vital decision, but health care is, and education, and public transit and libraries and .. These are complex, ever evolving issues that effect us all at some level and those levels change with the times. Yet the only time we get to have our say is every four years .. It's like the Olympics. And like the Olympics they happen, but I can't control what they comprise of or how they're run and or what happens ...

Maybe MMA should be an Olympic sport. Because you know damn well Dalton would love the Olympics to come here; we'd pay for them, pay more than we were told, a very few people would make a lot of money, and the rest of us would be shilling out for years to cover the cost. Now that's economics a politician seems to understand

AND THE GOLD MEDAL IN WHINING GOES TO ...

One day before the Olympics start in B.C. But the games are already in full swing. The real games, the ones that actually mean something, those being The We're Only In It For the Money Games, and theWhining Games

Let's start with the Money Games. This basically breaks down into two divisions: Money made by athletes and how it affects these "amateur" games and the money generated by the Games themselves, so much money that we really can't pretend that these are truly "amateur" games

CTV is the Canadian network broadcasting the games. They own a local 24 hr news channel that I watch here, so I'm being inundated with their Olympic fervor. Today they were out in Vancouver asking people who they think it should be to light the Olympic flame. Mostly, people didn't care. That drove the reporters into a frenzy; of course you should care! It hasn't been decided yet! This could be controversial ... but it isn't. People really don't care. But CTV really really really wants then to, we all know controversy is good for TV. The same thing happened here as the Olympic torch came through Toronto. CTV treated it as if the torch contained the blood of martyrs or the world's first fat free hamburger, you know, something important.

The other part of the Money Games is the money that athletes make. When professional athletes were allowed into the Olympics, wasn't the facade shattered at that time? Well duh, I guess not, but people still seem to buy in to the Olympic myth ("buy" in, get it? um, nevermind)

Besides athletes who have high paying day jobs, we have the amateur athletes who benefit as well. The Olympics is all about money. In this day and age, it wouldn't exist if it was not.

Then we have the whining game. That is an athlete participation sport. You know, like someone refusing to mount the podium because she didn't win gold, someone accusing another athlete of using performance enhancing drugs .. and there's already been 30 athletes excluded from these games for this very reason

The whining game is off to a good start from the American men's skeleton team complaining that their Canadian counterparts have an unfair advantage due to the fact they had longer access to the facility .. well, duh, isn't that the home court advantage? And didn't the Americans have said advantage at any of the Games they've hosted

I understand why these amateur athletes, who compete just for the glory of competing against the best .. because a gold medal means gold in their pocket. A song from the 80's had this line "all that cash makes a succulent sound"

I think the sound is actually closer to a whine

WINTER CITY 2010: FIRE & FROSTBITE

This weekend Collette and I attended this year's version of Toronto Winter City, our annual winter festival. Most of the festivities took place at Nathan Phillip Square and consisted of a fire installation, an arial troupe from France and, for some reason, a Caribana exhibition. Fire, calypso, partially clothed young ladies dancing to steel drums .. yup, sounds like a good way to warm up a winter night. And cold it was. With the wind -20 C. We were dressed for it, parka's, snow pants, gloves, toques, boots ... yeh nothing says sexy like two people properly dressed for winter. But hey, it's winter in Ontario, what you going to do?

There was an installation called Angels of the Apocalypse that was quite popular. The fact that it involved these giant steel sculptures that breathed fire .. nice, hot, lambent fire .. may have had something to do with it.

The installation consisted of about of dozen of these giant pieces, I'm not really quite sure what they were meant to be, dragon scales maybe, but they reminded me of fangs. I think the whole thing was indeed supposed to represent a dragon. Besides the scales or spines, there was a head, complete with baleful eyes fuelled by burning wood.

Another part of the dragon (or whatever it was) was a big, gently arching metal sculpture, perhaps the body, that kids were encouraged to climb on to, crawl under, and hit with hammers so that the metal would ring. The body was covered with metal levers that reminded me of leaves and when pressed, they would cause fire to spout up through the steel scales. Nothing like a little audience participation.

Some of the other heat came in the form of some Caribana masque performers. I'm not quite sure I get the connection between winter and calypso but this is multi cultural Toronto after all, so you never know what is going to pop up, arts and culture wise.

There was a calypso band, dancers and a king and queen in the elaborate, gilded, over the top Caribana costumes.

True Canadian spirit was shown by the female dancers; yes they had sweaters and mittens and some heavy duty looking hose but still .. it was minus freaking 20 degrees ... and the queen in her costume showed true northern fortitude by forgoing the sweater and mittens. This is, to be sure, northern Jamaican.

The main performance of the evening was an arial show by the French troupe Compagnie Les Passagers. Their show was called Cosmogonia which, according to their press, was based on the book of Genesis. Perhaps. There was definitely a story to the show, how it relates to the Bible I'm not sure, but it was certainly entertaining.

The show consisted of 12 little scenes, held together by the presence of a male and female clown. She may have been God (our deity as a clown, ok, I'll be kind and leave it at that) or certainly Eve and I guess he was Adam. In between were a variety of struggles they must overcome to finally find each other.

The show took place on this gigantic billboard, it had to be a good 60 ft tall, and all the dancers were on wires. Images were projected on the back drop, some still, some motion video and with the powerful trance music, added to the scene and helped you forget you were standing in front of City Hall in the frigid cold.

As you'll see in the video (you knew there was a video, right?) the whole thing works. I loved the music, I loved the backdrop, and the skill of the dancers was evident. Particularly memorable was a pair of female dancers who moved around this huge billboard with a speed and grace that really gave you the impression of flying.

The video is a bit long, I edited the show down a fair bit, it originally ran to around 40 minutes. We enjoyed it very much and although the fingers on my cam controls kind of lost most of their feeling, I really did forget the cold winter weather and was transported to a different place.

And, the show ended with a wedding. Even on a day off, I'm shooting a wedding.

So here's the video, the fire show, the caribean dancers and the aerial show. Hope you enjoy. And bear in mind, this video was powered by video tape and frostbite.

Toronto Winter City Festival 2010 from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.

OOPS: BLOGGER MISORDERED A POST

For some reason, my latest post got bumped down a spot, so it may not be easily noticeable

THE NEW DIVISION

I once heard this phrase: A division between church and state

Hmm

Here we have the sitting party that call themselves Conservative. But that's after they were the Alliance Party. And that was after they were the Reform Party. I remember, years ago, video taping a closed rally for a Reform MP. Closed, mind you. I wasn't working for the media. We were just taping the session for the MP's personal use. He made it very clear that he was talking about things he would never normally discuss in public. One of those things was his insistence that everything he did for his party, everything he did as a politician, had to be connected to the the Church, to God, to his religion. He was quite adamant that he saw an important part of his agenda to bring God into Parliament and into the country

But we all know that the Conservative Party is NOT the Reform party. They don't have the share the same convictions. They have no hidden agenda.

Uh huh

Two quick items

We all know that religious organizations are opposed to abortion. Presently in this country women have that right. A government would be quite foolhardy to openly try to alter that in any way. And doing so would require public debate, a vote in Parliament, etc. It would most certainly become an election issue. But there are many things governments do (besides suspending Parliament apparently) that do not require debate or votes. Like all but demolishing the Canadian Federation for Sexual Health which used to be called Planned Parenthood which means that prenatal health care, emergency contraception and other maternity-related research and education have been gutted. Do we think certain religious groups may be please by this?

Governments can also do things like take the most pro Israel stand of any gov't in the history of this country. And by pro Israel, I mean anti-Palestinian, lumping all of those peoples in with "Muslim extremists" and for the very first time, abstaining from voting on the recognition of Palestine as an independent state. Christians aligning with Jews against Muslims. ... the head of the Canadian Bnai Brith praised Prime Minister Harper for not being an "objective broker" and for his religious convictions

The division of church and state. Let's have another hmmm

Yeh, this is definitely the new division

THE MMA IN ONTARIO: THE BUSINESS OF BLOOD

A couple of events, concerning professional and amateur sports, have recently eclipsed each other in Ontario and it has me thinking. And we all know where that could lead. So buckle up.

Collette and I are big fans of MMA (mixed martial arts) a full contact form of combat sport that combines boxing, wrestling, ju jitsu, kick boxing and other martial arts styles. The UFC is the most popular promotion in the sport but there are others like the WEC and Strikeforce.

At this point in time, MMA, by any promotion, is illegal in Ontario. You can buy a UFC pay per view (and more people do here than any other province in Canada) but you can't go see a live event. The reasons for this are a little obscure, and a little specious. A lot of it has to do with the viewpoint that MMA is "barbaric" and that it's a blood sport, that it is too dangerous for us sorry silly plebes (that would be us, you know, the people that vote these people into office and pay their salary)

That it is a blood sport, there can be no doubt. This is fighting. Real full contact fighting, it is not professional wrestling. The fighters in this sport are skilled in a wide variety of martial arts and they know how to inflict damage. Fighters get bloodied, they get knocked out, in that way it is like boxing which, by the way, is perfectly legal in Ontario. You may see more blood in an MMA bout, partly due to the four ounce gloves (boxing usually uses eight ounce gloves) and the inclusion of elbows and knees as legal weapons; an elbow can cut your scalp like a knife blade and scalp wounds really bleed.

The specious part of the argument is that MMA is ipso facto more dangerous, more violent, more lethal than boxing. Bullshit. There has never been an in ring death in professional MMA. There have been hundreds of deaths in boxing. You can rightly say that boxing is "older" than MMA as we know it, that it's been around a lot longer and it may be logical that over a hundred plus years there may be more deaths. But there are still deaths in boxing, every year, and there never have been in MMA.

Of course there are injuries in MMA. It is a contact sport. Guys get hit, kneed, elbowed, kicked, that get put in submission holds that make you wince just to see it. Guys get cut, shoulders get dislocated, brains get sloshed around and that leads to a knockout ... But of course people get injured in boxing too. And there are rules in boxing, like the standing 8 count, where a guy has basically been knocked out, ,but not unconscious, and is allowed to "recover" for all of 8 seconds and then, still dazed and wobbly and disoriented, sent back into a pair of fists ... Most MMA promotions have stricter rules, the fighters are allowed to tap out of submissions and refs are quick to stop fights if they think a fighter can no longer intelligently defend himself, somethings too quick in my opinion

So MMA is dangerous, no doubt about it. More dangerous than boxing? Almost certainly not. And as for injuries and physical punishment, probably less dangers than professional North American football. Yet boxing is legal in Ontario, as are the CFL and the NFL (the Buffalo Bills play a couple of games a year here in Toronto)

All of that may soon be changing. It seems likely that MMA may soon be legalized in Ontario. It is already legal (and incredibly popular) in Quebec, and Alberta and B.C. I doubt that this has much to do with giving people what they obviously want (judging by the popularity of MMA pay per views in this province) I suspect it has a lot more to do with tax revenues. God know this provincial government, who squander billions on ineptly run programs (E Health, the Ontario Lottery) and their own inflated salaries, need money coming in from somewhere, and I'm sure there are many tax benefits to reap from from MMA shows.

MMA and boxing are not the only blood sports currently being debated in Ontario. Right now there are hearings being held, concerning the violence and danger of amateur, organized hockey in Ontario. Yeh, hockey. You know, Canada's true religion

There have been a lot of injuries to young people playing this sport in recent years. Yes, of course hockey is a contact sport, checking is part of the game, but it seems that more young people are being exposed to harder and harder contact as time goes on. Kids are getting hurt, and I'm not talking about fighting here, just from the "contact" part of the game, to the point that people are beginning are taking note of it.

The head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs was asked to weigh in on this and his basic response was: Hey, it's a contact sport, it's all about rough play, you don't like it, play golf, Nancy... But that is from a man who works for the NHL, which is a commercial entity. Although the NHL made noises, a couple years back about cracking down on overly aggressive play, it doesn't look like they really have. And I understand why. The NHL is not representative of all hockey. It's a business, driven by customer demand. And their customers seem to demand more violence. No doubt that hockey, on the professional level, is also a blood sport

So here you have hockey, which is more than a sport in this country, many people see it as part of our culture. And there is concern that the violence which drives the commercial product is filtering down through the amateur ranks, and effecting the well being of kids. But the answer seems to be: We don't care if the NHL is affecting the health of our children, we need it to be bloody to sell. Just like boxing. Just like MMA And still, the UFC etc are not welcome to set up shop here. One wonders why

Perhaps, in the business of blood, it's perceived that there is only so much blood to go around. And only so much cash to sop it up