15 answers to creationist nonsense

The next time someone tells you that humans just spontaneously appeared on Earth a few thousand years ago, or that humans used to live harmoniousy side-by-side with dinosaurs, tell them to have a read an essay from Scientific American called 15 Answers To Creationist Nonsense.

So many laws

If you search for a lawyer at the Canadian Law List site, you can enter an area of practice for the type of lawyer you're seeking. There are a lot of them. Here's the list:

Areas of Practice:
ABORIGINAL LAW
ACCESS TO INFORMATION
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
   Inquests
   Professional Discipline Law
   Professional Regulation
   Tribunal Hearings
ADVERTISING & MARKETING LAW
AGRICULTURAL LAW
   Farm Debt Mediation Services
AIR & SPACE LAW
ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION
   Advocacy
   Arbitration
   Mediation
   Negotiation
   Risk Management
ASSOCIATION LAW
BANKING
   Banking & Finance Law
   Banking Litigation
   Investments
BANKRUPTCY & INSOLVENCY
   Bankruptcy
   Insolvency
CHARITIES & NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
   Church Discipline
   Fundraising
   Gift Planning
   Governance
   Provincial Denominational Recognition
CIVIL LITIGATION
   Appellate Counsel
   Class Actions
   Class Action Defendant
   Class Action Plaintiff
   Fatal Accident Claims
   General Litigation
   Injunctions
   Mass Torts
   Partnership Litigation
COMPETITION LAW
   Anti-Competitive Conduct
   Anti-Dumping
   Antitrust
   Competition Bureau Investigations
   Competition Criminal Matters
   Competition Litigation
   Competition Marketing Practices
   Compliance Programs
   Criminal & Civil Anti-Competitive Conduct
CONDOMINIUM LAW
   Condominium Arbitration
   Condominium Mediation
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW
   Charter Litigation
   Civil Liberties
CONSTRUCTION LAW
   Construction Bond Claims
   Construction Liens
   Construction Litigation
CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW
CORPORATE & COMMERCIAL LAW
   Acquisitions
   Asset Based Lending
   Business Succession Planning
   Business Law
   Commercial Litigation
   Corporate Finance
   Corporate Governance
   Corporate Law
   Corporate Litigation
   Corporate Restructuring
   Derivatives-Corporate & Commercial
   Due Diligence Policies
   Equipment Finance & Leasing
   Franchising
   Fraud, Misrepresentation, Deceit
   Guarantee & Suretyship
   Hospitality
   Incorporations
   Institutional Financing
   Lending
   Mergers
   Operational Risk Management
   Partnership Disputes
   Private Equity
   Public-Private Partnerships
   Shareholder Disputes
   Shareholder Oppression
   Structured Finance
   Surety Defence
   Venture Capital
CORPORATE COUNSEL
   In-House Corporate Counsel
CRIMINAL LAW
   Criminal-Appeals
   Criminal Defence
   Criminal-Trials
   Drug Offences
   Impaired Driving
   Prosecutors
   Regulatory Offences-Appeals
   Regulatory Offences-Trials
   Young Offenders
DEBTOR & CREDITOR
   Collections
EDUCATION LAW
ELDER LAW
EMPLOYMENT LAW
   Employer Tax Appeals
   Employment Contracts
   Employment Law-Employee
   Employment Law-Management
   Employment Litigation
   Employment Standards
   Occupational Health and Safety
   Pay Equity
   Wrongful Dismissal
ENTERTAINMENT & SPORTS LAW
   Entertainment Law
   Film Law
   Music Law
   Sports Law
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
ESTATES, WILLS & TRUSTS
   Contested Estates
Contested Representative Appointments
   Dependent Adults
   Estate Administration
   Estate Litigation
   Estate Planning
   Estates
   Fiduciary & Fraud Claims
   Powers of Attorney
   Trusts Disputes
   Trusts
EXPROPRIATION
EXTRADITION LAW
FAMILY LAW
   Adoption
   Child Protection
   Collaborative Family Law
   Divorce
   Family Law Litigation
   Matrimonial Law
FOREIGN LAW
   Chinese Law
   Enforcement of Foreign Judgements
   German Law
GAMING LAW
GENERAL PRACTICE
GOVERNMENT RELATIONS & PUBLIC POLICY
   Government Lawyer
   Government Liability
   Government Relations
   Lobbying
   Public Policy
HEALTH LAW
   Health Care
   Health and Welfare Trusts
   Medical Law
   Mental Health Law
   Private Healthcare Law
HUMAN RIGHTS
IMMIGRATION LAW
   Citizenship
   Refugee Law
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAW
   Computer Law
   E-Commerce
   High Technology
   Internet Law
   Outsourcing
   Technology Law
   Technology Licensing
INSURANCE LAW
   Accident Benefits Claims
   Casualty Insurance
   Disability Claims
   Fidelity-Dishonesty Bond-Defendant
   Fidelity-Dishonesty Bond-Plaintiff
   Insurance Litigation-Defence
   Insurance Litigation-Plaintiff
   Life Insurance
   Property Insurance
   Statutory Insurance Appraisal
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
   Copyright
   Industrial Designs
   Intellectual Property Litigation
   Licensing-Intellectual Property
   Packaging & Labelling
   Passing Off Litigation
   Patents
   Pharmaceutical Law
   Technology Transfers
   Trademarks
INTERNATIONAL LAW
   Customs
   International Strategic Planning
   International Trade
   International Trade Litigation
   International Transactions
   NAFTA Chapter 11 Litigation-NEW
LABOUR LAW
   Collective Bargaining
   Labour Arbitration
   Labour Law-Management
   Labour Law-Union
   Labour Relations
LANDLORD & TENANT
   Commercial Leases
   Leasing
   Residential Leases
LIBEL & SLANDER
   Defamation
   Internet Libel
   Libel & Slander Litigation
MARITIME LAW
MEDIA & COMMUNICATIONS LAW
   Broadcasting
   New Media
   Publishing
   TV Law
MUNICIPAL LAW
   Municipal Licences
   Municipal Planning
   Property Tax Assessment Appeals
NATURAL RESOURCES & ENERGY
   Energy Regulation
   Forestry Law
   Mining
PENSIONS & BENEFITS LAW
   Individual Pension Plans
   Retirement Compensation Arrangements
PERSONAL INJURY LAW
   Motor Vehicle Litigation
   Personal Injury-Defendant
   Personal Injury-Plaintiff
   Wrongful Death
PRIVACY LAW
   Information Protection
PRODUCT LIABILITY
   Product Liability Inquests
PROFESSIONAL MALPRACTICE
   Accountant Malpractice
   Legal Malpractice
   Medical Malpractice
REAL ESTATE
   Commercial Real Estate
   Hotel Sales-Purchases
   Mortgage Enforcement
   Mortgages
   Property Law
   Real Estate Development
   Real Estate Litigation
   Residential Real Estate
RESEARCH
SECURITIES
   Capital Markets & Derivatives
   Public Markets
   Regulation of Financial Services
   Securities Litigation
   Securitization
SOCIAL WELFARE
TAXATION
   Commodity Taxation
   Goods & Services Tax
   Income Tax
   Offshore Tax
   Sales Tax
   Tax Dispute Resolution
   Tax Litigation
   Wealth Preservation & Tax
TORT LAW
   Financial Advisor Malpractice
   Financial Advisor Negligence
   Negligence Law
   Police Liability
   Professional Negligence Law
   Stockbroker Negligence
TRANSPORTATION LAW
WORKERS' COMPENSATION
   Workplace Safety & Insurance Law - Management Side

S$# 035 Beatles | Revolution

One could always depend on a Beatles b-side to be a great song, better than most other artists' a-sides. Revolution, the flip of the monster hit Hey Jude, certainly did not disappoint.

When my sister bought the single in the fall of 1968, I was impressed with both songs - especially the long fade-out on Hey Jude and John's distorted guitars and strident vocal on Revolution. (I had good taste even as a youngster.)

Not to be confused with the slow Revolution 1 (or the sound FX-laden Revolution 9), the single version of this song is for me more powerful than R1, which would appear on the White Album.

As Fab historian Mark Lewisohn wrote:

There were few more exciting, hard rocking Beatles recordings than the "single version" of Revolution. Perhaps the song's most distinctive sound was of two distorted lead guitars... "The guitars were put through the recording console, which was technically not the thing to do" [recalled tape operator Phil McDonald]....

After ten takes, and an overdub onto the tenth, the basic rhythm of Revolution was blistering, with the two distorted guitars, handclaps and two separate and very heavy drum tracks, compressed and limited and generally squahed to sound hard and uncompromising .... John superimposed a venomous lead vocal and, on another take, a second vocal take, manually double-tracking the odd word here and there ... to further force his points across. In this second overdub John also gave the song a screaming introduction.

You have to hear the results for yourself to really appreciate this message song:

You say you want a revolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
You tell me that it's evolution
Well, you know
We all want to change the world
But when you talk about destruction
Don't you know that you can count me out
Don't you know it's gonna be all right
all right, all right

The Hey Jude / Revolution single was released 38 years ago this week. Revolution is also featured on Past Masters Vol. 2 and the 1967-1970 collection.

A$# 035 Beatles | White Album

Of course its official name is "The Beatles" - but to millions of fans, it's known simply as the White Album.

There's much one can say about the massive, sprawling double album - about how it was really the beginning of the end of the Fab Four, how Ringo actually quit the group at one point, how its musical diversity underscores the rapidly diverging musical tastes of the four members of the group, etc.

At its core, though, the White Album is a really great record - or two records in one, if you'd rather. It's been oft told that George Martin wanted to release a single disc, but the Beatles insisted on the two-in-one. (As Paul said many years later,"It's the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up!")

Much of it written during their famous trip to India, and recorded in dozens of fractious (or de facto solo) sessions throughout 1968, the White Album represented a vastly different approach to recording music than Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour did in 1967. As the Summer Of Love had rolled into the past, so too the music changed. Nonetheless, there are some really vital songs here.

George has four tracks - his ingenious While My Guitar Gently Weeps (with its famous Eric Clapton solo), the satirical Piggies, the otherworldly Long Long Long and the rocky Savoy Truffle. Ringo has his debut solo composition, Don't Pass Me By, and closes the album with John's lushly wrapped Good Night.

That leaves a dozen songs each for Paul and John: Paul rips things up with three great rockers - Back In The USSR, Birthday and the blistering Helter Skelter, and calms things down with gentler tracks like I Will, Mother Nature's Son, Martha My Dear and the classic Blackbird. His penchant for showstyle songs comes through on Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da and Honey Pie, and his sense of humour comes through in Rocky Racooon and Why Don't We Do It In The Road.

John's experiences at the Maharishi's ashram come through in Dear Prudence, Sexy Sadie and Everbody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey ("it's such a joy, it's such a joy"). His satirical side also shows in The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill and Happiness Is A Warm Gun. He offers walrus clues in Glass Onion and crashes in I'm So Tired. He delivers with Cry Baby Cry, gets into heavy blues with Yer Blues and offers up a slow-tempo variation of a previous b-side with Revolution 1. Then there is the haunting and naked Julia, imho, John's most confessional Beatles track, and his real gem on the White Album.

That just leaves two tracks that are either, imho, superfluous (Paul's Wild Honey Pie) or dud material (John's Revolution 9).

Anyway you slice it, though, the White Album was an important album in 1968, in the evolution of the Beatles, and for all time.

Track Listing:

Disc: 1
1. Back in the USSR
2. Dear Prudence
3. Glass Onion
4. Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
5. Wild Honey Pie
6. The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill
7. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
8. Happiness Is A Warm Gun
9. Martha My Dear
10. I'm So Tired
11. Blackbird
12. Piggies
13. Rocky Raccoon
14. Don't Pass Me By
15. Why Don't We Do It In The Road?
16. I Will
17. Julia

Disc: 2
1. Birthday
2. Yer Blues
3. Mother Nature's Son
4. Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey
5. Sexy Sadie
6. Helter Skelter
7. Long, Long, Long
8. Revolution 1
9. Honey Pie
10. Savoy Truffle
11. Cry Baby Cry
12. Revolution 9
13. Good Night

Representation abroad

On the web site of th Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, there is a list of Canada's offices abroad. We don't actually have an embassy / high commission in many countries (the ones listed with an asterisk). In those cases, a mission in a nearby country looks after diplomatic relations.

Note: This list contains some international organizations, (such as EU and OECD) and some territories that are not independent states (eg Aruba, BVI).

• Afghanistan
• Albania *
• Algeria
• Andorra *
• Angola *
• Anguilla *
• Antigua & Barbuda *
• Argentina
• Armenia *
• Aruba *
• Australia
• Austria
• Azerbaijan *
• Bahamas *
• Bahrain *
• Bangladesh
• Barbados
• Belarus *
• Belgium
• Belize *
• Benin *
• Bermuda*
• Bhutan *
• Bolivia *
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Botswana *
• Brazil
• British Virgin Islands *
• Brunei Darussalam
• Bulgaria *
• Burkina Faso
• Burma *
• Burundi*
• Cambodia
• Cameroon
• Cape Verde*
• Cayman Islands *
• Central African Republic *
• Chad *
• Chile
• China
• Colombia
• Comoros, Union of the *
• Congo, Democratic Republic of
• Congo, Republic of *
• Cook Islands *
• Costa Rica
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Croatia
• Cuba
• Cyprus *
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Djibouti *
• Dominica *
• Dominican Republic
• Ecuador
• Egypt
• El Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea *
• Eritrea *
• Estonia *
• Ethiopia
• European Union (EU)
• Fiji *
• Finland
• France
• Gabon *
• Gambia *
• Georgia *
• Germany
• Ghana
• Greece
• Grenada *
• Guadeloupe *
• Guatemala
• Guinea *
• Guinea-Bissau *
• Guyana
• Haiti
• Holy See
• Honduras *
• Hungary
• Iceland
• India
• Indonesia
• Iran
• Iraq *
• Ireland
• Israel
• Italy
• Jamaica
• Japan
• Jordan
• Kazakhstan
• Kenya
• Kiribati *
• Korea, Dem. People's Rep. of *
• Korea, Republic of
• Kuwait
• Kyrgyz Republic *
• Laos *
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Lesotho *
• Liberia *
• Libya
• Liechtenstein *
• Lithuania *
• Luxembourg *
• Macedonia (FYRO) *
• Madagascar *
• Malawi *
• Malaysia
• Maldives *
• Mali
• Malta *
• Marshall Islands *
• Martinique *
• Mauritania *
• Mauritius *
• Mexico
• Micronesia *
• Moldova *
• Monaco *
• Mongolia *
• Montenegro *
• Montserrat *
• Morocco
• Mozambique
• Namibia *
• Nauru *
• Nepal *
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Nicaragua *
• Niger *
• Nigeria
• Niue *
• Norway
• Oman *
• Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• Organization of American States (OAS)
• Pakistan
• Palau *
• Panama
• Papua New Guinea *
• Paraguay *
• Peru
• Philippines
• Poland
• Portugal
• Qatar *
• Romania
• Russia
• St-Petersburg
• Rwanda *
• Saint Kitts and Nevis *
• Saint Lucia *
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines *
• Samoa *
• San Marino *
• Sao Tome and Principe *
• Saudi Arabia
• Senegal
• Serbia
• Seychelles *
• Sierra Leone *
• Singapore
• Slovakia *
• Slovenia *
• Solomon Islands *
• Somalia *
• South Africa
• Spain
• Sri Lanka
• Sudan
• Suriname *
• Swaziland *
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Syria
• Taiwan
• Tajikistan *
• Tanzania
• Thailand
• Timor Leste *
• Togo *
• Tonga *
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Tunisia
• Turkey
• Turkmenistan *
• Turks and Caicos *
• Tuvalu *
• Uganda *
• Ukraine
• United Arab Emirates
• United Kingdom
• United Nations (UN)
• United States of America
• Uruguay
• Uzbekistan *
• Vanuatu *
• Venezuela
• Vietnam
• West Bank and Gaza *
• Yemen *
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

no Zep or Doors

I'm not sure if you've noticed, but I haven't profiled any Led Zeppelin or Doors albums or songs in my spotlight.

This statement might make me a pariah of sorts in classic rock circles, but I don't really like either of these groups all that much.

IMHO, the Doors practically invented filler; a lot of their songs had interminable noodling instrumental passages. But mostly, Jim Morrison was an asshole.

As for Zep, they were great instrumentalists, but I cringe when I hear Robert Plant's voice.

But I'm not knocking those who do like 'em.

13

13 can be a lucky number.

Keef on lead vocals

I found an interesting Keith Richards tribute site, The Silver Mine (Mr. D's Keith Richards Home Page. It contains, among other things, a list of Stones songs on which Keith sings lead.

I'm not sure if it's a complete list, as I am not a huge Stones fan. But these are the songs listed:

• You Got The Silver (Let It Bleed, 1969)
• Happy (Exile On Main St., 1972)
• Coming Down Again (Goats Head Soup, 1973)
• Before They Make Me Run (Some Girls, 1978)
• All About You (Emotional Rescue, 1980)
• Little T & A (Tattoo You, 1981)
• Wanna Hold You (Undercover, 1983)
• Too Rude (Dirty Work, 1986)
• Sleep Tonight (Dirty Work, 1986)
• Can't Be Seen (Steel Wheels, 1989)
• Slipping Away (Steel Wheels, 1989)
• The Worst (Voodoo Lounge, 1994)
• Thru And Thru (Voodoo Lounge, 1994)
• You Don't Have To Mean It (Bridges To Babylon, 1997)
• Thief In The Night (Bridges To Babylon, 1997)
• How Can I Stop (Bridges To Babylon, 1997)
• Losing My Touch (Forty Licks, 2002)
• The Place Is Empty (A Bigger Bang, 2005)
• Infamy (A Bigger Bang, 2005)

S$# 034 Electric Light Orchestra | Don't Walk Away

Jeff Lynne has written several fabulous romantic ballads throughout his long career; it's sad that the world at large has not taken notice of this and recognized yet another facet of the man's genius.

My favourite of his love songs is definitely Don't Walk Away, which was one of ELO's contributions to the Xanadu soundtrack album in 1980. DWA was released as single in the UK, reaching no. 21 on the British charts, but did not get airplay on this side of the pond.

What is it about Don't Walk Away that makes it stand out? (It's not that I associated it with a great teenage relationship; for me it was about unrequite, as most love songs were!) There's an atmosphere about the song; one can really identify with the singer as he laments a love that is slipping away.

Jeff's plaintive lead vocal, with multi-layered backing vocals acting almost like a Greek chorus, delivers reptition of certain lyrical passsages. This creates an emotional, almost surreal, aural canvas. The instrumentation, mostly keyboard-driven, takes a back seat in this song, next to such powerful singing.

Why do I say, don't walk away
You'll be the way you were before, when you don't want me anymore

Don't turn around, don't ever leave
A lonely room where empty days
Are gathering to meet me when you're gone, gone
How in the world will I go on?

(Don't walk away) all you gotta do is stay
(Don't walk away) all you gotta do is stay (don't walk away)

Chorus:
Don't walk away (don't walk away)
Don't say goodbye (don't say goodbye)
Don't turn around (don't turn around)
Don't let it die (don't let it die)
When shadows fall (when shadows fall)
When day is done (when day is done)
All through the night (all through the night)
All of my life (all of my life)
Don't walk away

Is it a dream, when will it end?
When everything we've ever known has ended and I'm all alone

Where will I go, where will I be?
The feelings that I've never shown
Maybe I'll find the answer when you're gone, gone
How in the world will I go on?

(Don't walk away) all you gotta do is stay
(Don't walk away) all you gotta do is stay

DWA is available on the Xanadu soundtrack, which is scheduled to be remastered as part of the upcoming ELO-reissue series. It's also been included on several UK ELO compilations.

A$# 034 Electric Light Orchestra | Eldorado

The full title - Eldorado, A Symphony By The Electric Light Orchestra - gives the first clue how this album is different from its predecessors, and how much the scope of Jeff Lynne's vision and genius had progressed in four albums.

Released in 1974, Eldorado marked the first time that ELO worked with a full symphony orchestra and choir to back them, and it is a concept album that allowed Jeff to build a loosely-spun tale of a Walter Mittyesque character who imagines different lives.

The album opens with an overture (Eldorado Overture) that sets the tone for much of what to come - orchestral passages introducing the individual songs, which range from a near-perfect ballad to exciting up-tempo rockers, all the while describing the imagined adventures of the protagonist.

The overture builds slowly, and has a spoken prologue that tells how "the universal dreamer rises up above his earthly burden." The orchestral section segues into the haunting and gorgeous Can't Get It Out Of My Head (which became the first US top 10 single for the group). The protagonist accounts how his dreams are more vital than his ordinary life:

Bank job in the city
Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Lancelot, they don't envy me
Sitting till the sun goes down
in dreams the world keep going round and round

And I can't get it out of my head
no, I can't get it out of my head
Now my old world is gone for dead
'cos I can't get it out of my head, no no

Next up is a rocker called Poor Boy, which Jeff has described as "a song about an all-conquering hero from the Middle Ages". In Laredo Tornado, the protagonist is a grey, urban world, lamenting that the wild has been paved over. But Poor Boy (The Greenwood) takes him back to the pastoral world, this time as a sort of Robin Hood. After CGIOOMH, this is my favourite track on the album.

Mister Kingdom is a mid-tempo number that has our hero wanting to escape the world, fly above it, and to relive "the laughter and follies / that are locked inside [his] head". It has some cool passages where Richard Tandy's synthesizers seem to swirl around and envelop the orchestral accompaniment

Nobody's Child is sort of a seductive song about a painted lady. (About 16 years later, Jeff would play on a completely different song called Nobody's Child, with the Traveling Wilburys.)

Illusions In G Major is an uptempo rocker that gets the heart racing again in the way that his earlier Move song Down On The Bay does, and his later ELO hit, Hold On Tight.

In the title track, Eldorado, our dreamer returns to his ordinary world, but longs to return to his imagined universe:

And I will stay, I'll not be back, Eldorado.
I will be free of the world, Eldorado.

Then finale wraps things up nicely.

The remastered CD contains two bonus tracks - an instrumental medley that explores many of the albums musical themes, and Dark City, a short demo of a song that became Laredo Tornado.

This album set the stage for ELO's soon-to-come mega-success: full orchestral sounds supporting songs that were (and are) pop / rock gems. With this fourth outing, the world was put on notice that Jeff Lynne and co. had arrived.

Track listing:
1. Eldorado Overture
2. Can't Get It Out Of My Head
3. Boy Blue
4. Laredo Tornado
5. Poor Boy (The Greenwood)
6. Mister Kingdom
7. Nobody's Child
8. Illusions In G Minor
9. Eldorado
10. Eldorado Finale
plus bonus tracks on remastered CD:
11. Eldorado Instrumental Medley
12. Dark City

Asimov on religion

Author Isaac Asimov had some strongly held views of organized religion. He made a few memorable quotes:

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

***

Asimov perfectly summed up his religious views by saying "I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time.

***

It seems to me that God is a convenient invention of the human mind.

You can read an essay about Religion in Asimov's Writings, by Michael Brummond, or this piece from a free-thinking site. More quotes are listed at Wikiquote.

Bacon tastes good

Whether it's a slice or a rasher ... I've always thought that bacon is the tastiest form of pork. Maybe it's because of the lipid content and the salt used to cure it.

I don't eat it very often - once in a while on a weekend, with scrambled eggs.

Back bacon. Side bacon. Danish bacon. Canadian bacon....

It's part of the full English breakfast.

You can read more about bacon at Wikipedia and at the Bacon Facts site. There's even a bacon recipe site called The Bacon Show.

=

This is my favourite section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms:

s. 28. Notwithstanding anything in this Charter, the rights and freedoms referred to in it are guaranteed equally to male and female persons.

Because it says "notwithstanding anything in this Charter", this section may in fact override s. 1 (the limitations clause) and s. 33 (the notwithstanding clause). That's pretty strong protection.

It also sends a pretty strong message about the equality of the sexes.

Keeping up with John Carter

When I was a teenager, I enjoyed reading the Mars stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs - all the adventures of the invincible John Carter on the strange world of Barsoom. A lot of the stories are now public domain, and can be downloaded from the Gutenburg Project.

The first one, A Princess Of Mars, is available here.

The passing of a King

It was on this day in 1977 that Elvis Presley met his unfortunate end. This was another day on which the music died.

Pentax ME

My first SLR was a Pentax ME, which I bought on August 15, 1977. It was a great little camera.

I had first learned 35mm photography on a Pentax SP1000 when I joined the photography club at my high school. While that was a totally manual experience, with the older Pentax screw mount, when it came time to buy my own, I selected the newer, more compact automatic ME. I could have bought its heavier-duty all-manual sibling, the MX, but I liked the convenience of the aperture-priority automatic features of the ME.

I took some ribbing from my friends who were into Nikons and Nikkormats (ooh!) because in fact the ME featured only aperture-priority automatic exposure control, with ± 2 stops exosure compensation (and B, of course) or a manual 1/100 (which was the x-sync speed). They razzed me because they said I was giving up too much creative control by not having full manual capability. Well, I was never too creative a photographer, and I figured the exposure compensation gave me enough latitude to deal with situations like backlighting.

The ME had centre-weighted metering, like most SLRs of its day. (I couldn't afford a Leica R3 or Canon F1 to get that!) It had a GPD-based metering system, which made it very nimble in figuring out changing lighting conditions. The LED indicators in the viewfinder meant I always knew what shutter speed the camera would select, and I could change that by choosing another f-stop. (Another buddy of mine preferred the shutter-priority automatic on his Konica; we used to argue for hours (well,
not really hours) about which system was better; I was firmly in the aperture-priority camp. Much of that debate was rendered moot when Minolta introduced the revolutionary XD-11, with aperture-priority *and* shutter-priority control, the following year.)

The ME was very compact. It had the newer K bayonet-mount system rather than the screw mount that the Spotmatic family had used for so long. There was a whole new line of contact SMC Pentax M lenses. I bought the f1.7 50mm lens with my camera. A power winder was available, which I picked up a few months later, and I added a couple more lenses (such as my wonderful lost Vivitar 75-150 f3.8 zoom).

The camera had the Pentax "magic needles" easy-loading system, which made inserting film a breeze. Shutters speeds went from 8 seconds to 1/1000. It would meter up to 1600 ASA - which came in handy when I would push TriX film to its limits.

There are a number of sites where you can find out more about the Pentax ME, including Photoethnography and Camerapedia. You can even download a PDF owner's manual from Pentax.

I had my Pentax ME for several years. I eventually upgraded to a Pentax ME Super. When I started looking for more compact cameras, I had a number of Pentax rangefinders over the years. Now in the digital age, I actually bought a Canon (you shudder),which seemed to have what I needed.

Back on this day 29 years ago, though, the Pentax ME was just what I needed.

S$# 033 Paul McCartney | Sweet Sweet Memories

When Paul McCartney released his 1993 Off The Ground album, he also had a large number of equally strong songs in the vault. He released these as b-sides with the OTG singles.

Sweet Sweet Memories is one of those songs. As many of McCartney's great songs do, it outlines a man's affection for a woman. Yet this one is a little different. Macca seems to have his tongue in cheek, and makes a literary nod too.

I know something you don't know
I want you to listen to the tale
I know a reasonable woman
Handsome and witty, yet a friend
She's got the right amount of passion
She isn't into rumour
Not too serious or too dumb
And equal mixture of good humour
And sweet, sweet memories (ah, sweet memories)

He borrowed a few lines from poet Alexander Pope (1688–1744), who had written some verse for Henrietta Howard, Countess Of Suffolk, in his On A Certain Lady At Court:

I know a thing that's most uncommon
(Envy, be silent, and attend);
I know a reasonable woman,
Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

Not warped by passion, awed by rumour,
Not grave through pride, or gay through folly;
An equal mixture of good humour,
And sensible soft melancholy.

'Has she no faults then,' Envy says, 'Sir?'
Yes, she has one, I must aver:
When all the world conspires to praise her
The woman's deaf, and does not hear!

Sweet Sweet Memories is on the CD single for Off The Ground, and also on the hard-to-find Off The Ground - The Complete Works double CD.

It's one of the tracks I would really like to hear JPM perform in concert.

A$# 033 Paul McCartney / Wings | London Town

Most of the output of Wings, save for a few tunes like Band On The Run and Live And Let Die, seems to be forgotten now, even by Paul McCartney. He doesn't dig out that many songs from that era to perform in concert - just a few of his biggest hits.

Yet London Town, which came out in 1978, had a huge no. 1 hit, With A Little Luck. (The CD has a bonus track which was an even more humungous hit - Mull Of Kintyre - which he does perform, but only in Toronto and Scotland.) It also features a lot of other great songs too.

The album is actually credited to Wings, but in my mind I fit all his post-Beatles stuff under "Paul McCartney". The CD is part of The Paul McCartney Collection, after all.

Yet in some ways this is a very Wings album, but in a much better way than Wings At The Speed Of Sound. Denny Laine's contributions are very significant here. Of the 14 cuts on the LP, five are McCartney / Laine collaborations, with Denny singing lead on two of them. Denny also co-wrote Mull, one of the two bonus cuts on the CD.

I think of London Town as Paul's folkie album, as I would place many of the tunes under that umbrella term. It also features a number of really good rockers too. There's one dud on the album, but the great stuff clearly outweighs that.

The opening song, London Town, sets a great tone for the set, evoking a grimy yet inviting picture of London. Then we're transported to Paris where we enjoy the amenities of a Cafe On The Left Bank.

Then Paul delivers one of his tremendous acoustic numbers that people would rave about if it were a Beatles song - the gentle I'm Carrying, with just Paul on acoustic guitar.

What is Backwards Traveller about? Time Travel? Chemically assisted experience of sailing around on the yacht Fair Carol? It doesn't really matter. Then we get a short freaky instrumental, Cuff Link.

The folkie feel really takes off with Children Children, with Denny delivering a gentle vocal on a track that exudes innocence.

Then Paul does a falsetto on Girlfriend, a song later covered by Whacko. Enough said. That's the dud.

I've Had Enough shakes things up. This rocker expresses the right sentiment for people who don't want to put up with BS any more. That's the end of side 1 on the LP version.

Side 2 opens with one of my favourite Macca songs, With A Litte Luck. This is such an uplifting and optimistic song (a love song, but not a silly one). It was a huge hit. As far as I know, Paul has never done it in concert, not even on the final Wings tour of the UK in 1979.

With a little luck, we can help it out
We can make this whole damn thing work out.
With a little love, we can lay it down
Can't you feel the town exploding?

Famous Groupies has always struck me as sort of an odd song, but I've always found it appealing. Paul comments on the ardent fans who provide support and comfort to rock stars and their entourages.

Denny then does his second lead vocal, on Deliver Your Children, another very folkie track.

Paul does an Elvis impersonation on the retro Name And Address.

This is followed by two rocky Macca / Laine co-writes, Don't Let It Bring You Down and the peculiar Morse Moose And The Grey Goose.

The CD includes Girls' School, another fine rocker. It's the b-side of Mull Of Kintyre, Paul's ode to that slice of Scotland where his farm lies. That giant hit brings the CD to a close.

Here we have a great set of songs that people need to take notice of again. I wish Sir Paul would too.

Track listing:

1. London Town
2. Cafe On The Left Bank
3. I'm Carrying
4. Backwards Traveller
5. Cuff Link
6. Children Children
7. Girlfriend
8. I've Had Enough
9. With A Little Luck
10. Famous Groupies
11. Deliver Your Children
12. Name And Address
13. Don't Let It Bring You Down
14. Morse Moose And The Grey Goose
plus bonus tracks on CD:
15. Girls' School
16. Mull of Kintyre

With a capital C

A youngster I know is quite interested in geography, and the latest fascination is with capital cities. Wikipedia has a nicely compiled list. Here are the countries of the world and their capital cities.

It’s interesting to note that some countries have more than one capital – eg South Africa has three. Some have an official capital, but a de facto one in another town (such as Bolivia). The list also includes the capitals of some dependent territories.

• Afghanistan - Kabul
• Albania - Tirana
• Algeria - Algiers
• Andorra - Andorra la Vella
• Angola - Luanda
• Antigua and Barbuda - St. John's
• Argentina - Buenos Aires
• Armenia - Yerevan
• Australia - Canberra
• Austria - Vienna
• Azerbaijan - Baku
• Bahamas - Nassau
• Bahrain - Manama
• Bangladesh - Dhaka
• Barbados - Bridgetown
• Belarus - Minsk
• Belgium - Brussels
• Belize - Belmopan
• Benin - Porto-Novo (official), Cotonou (de facto)
• Bhutan - Thimphu
• Bolivia - Sucre (official), La Paz (administrative)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - Sarajevo
• Botswana - Gaborone
• Brazil - Brasília
• Brunei Darussalam - Bandar Seri Begawan
• Bulgaria - Sofia
• Burkina Faso - Ouagadougou
• Burundi - Bujumbura
• Cambodia - Phnom Penh
• Cameroon - Yaoundé
• Canada - Ottawa
• Cape Verde - Praia
• Central African Republic - Bangui
• Chad - N'Djamena
• Chile - Santiago (official), Valparaíso (legislative)
• China, People's Republic of - Beijing
• Colombia - Bogotá
• Comoros - Moroni
• Congo, Republic of the - Brazzaville
• Congo, Democratic Republic of the - Kinshasa
• Costa Rica - San José
• Côte d'Ivoire - Yamoussoukro (official), Abidjan (administrative)
• Croatia - Zagreb
• Cuba - Havana
• Cyprus - Nicosia
• Czech Republic - Prague
• Denmark - Copenhagen
• Djibouti - Djibouti City
• Dominica - Roseau
• Dominican Republic - Santo Domingo
• East Timor - Dili
• Ecuador - Quito
• Egypt - Cairo
• El Salvador - San Salvador
• Equatorial Guinea - Malabo
• Eritrea - Asmara
• Estonia - Tallinn
• Ethiopia - Addis Ababa
• Fiji - Suva
• Finland - Helsinki
• France - Paris
• Gabon - Libreville
• Gambia, The - Banjul
• Georgia - Tbilisi
• Germany - Berlin
• Ghana - Accra
• Greece - Athens
• Grenada - St. George's
• Guatemala - Guatemala City
• Guinea - Conakry
• Guinea-Bissau - Bissau
• Guyana - Georgetown
• Haiti - Port-au-Prince
• Honduras - Tegucigalpa
• Hungary - Budapest
• Iceland - Reykjavík
• India - New Delhi
• Indonesia - Jakarta
• Iran - Tehran
• Iraq - Baghdad
• Ireland - Dublin
• Israel - Jerusalem (disputed)
• Italy - Rome
• Jamaica - Kingston
• Japan - Tokyo
• Jordan - Amman
• Kazakhstan - Astana
• Kenya - Nairobi
• Kiribati - South Tarawa
• Korea, North - Pyongyang
• Korea, South - Seoul
• Kuwait - Kuwait City
• Kyrgyzstan - Bishkek
• Laos - Vientiane
• Latvia - Riga
• Lebanon - Beirut
• Lesotho - Maseru
• Liberia - Monrovia
• Libya - Tripoli
• Liechtenstein - Vaduz
• Lithuania - Vilnius
• Luxembourg - Luxembourg City
• Macedonia, FYR - Skopje
• Madagascar - Antananarivo
• Malawi - Lilongwe
• Malaysia - Kuala Lumpur
• Maldives - Malé
• Mali - Bamako
• Malta - Valletta
• Marshall Islands - Majuro
• Mauritania - Nouakchott
• Mauritius - Port Louis
• Mexico - Mexico City
• Micronesia - Palikir
• Moldova - Chişinău
• Monaco - Monaco
• Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar
• Montenegro - Podgorica
• Morocco - Rabat
• Mozambique - Maputo
• Myanmar - Naypyidaw
• Namibia - Windhoek
• Nauru - None (Government offices in Yaren District)
• Nepal - Kathmandu
• Netherlands - Amsterdam (official), The Hague (administrative, legislative, and judicial)
• New Zealand - Wellington
• Nicaragua - Managua
• Niger - Niamey
• Nigeria - Abuja
• Norway - Oslo
• Oman - Muscat
• Pakistan - Islamabad
• Palau - Koror
• Panama - Panama City
• Papua New Guinea - Port Moresby
• Paraguay - Asunción
• Peru - Lima
• The Philippines - Manila
• Poland - Warsaw
• Portugal - Lisbon
• Qatar - Doha
• Romania - Bucharest
• Russia - Moscow
• Rwanda - Kigali
• Saint Kitts and Nevis - Basseterre
• Saint Lucia - Castries
• Saint Vincent and the Grenadines - Kingstown
• Samoa - Apia
• San Marino - San Marino
• São Tomé and Príncipe - São Tomé
• Saudi Arabia - Riyadh
• Senegal - Dakar
• Serbia - Belgrade
• Seychelles - Victoria
• Sierra Leone - Freetown
• Singapore - Singapore
• Slovakia - Bratislava
• Slovenia - Ljubljana
• Solomon Islands - Honiara
• Somalia - Mogadishu
• South Africa - Pretoria (official, and administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)
• Spain - Madrid
• Sri Lanka - Colombo (official), Kotté (legislative and judicial)
• Sudan - Khartoum
• Suriname - Paramaribo
• Swaziland - Mbabane
• Sweden - Stockholm
• Switzerland - Bern
• Syria - Damascus
• Taiwan (Republic of China) - Taipei
• Tajikistan - Dushanbe
• Tanzania - Dodoma (official), Dar es Salaam (administrative)
• Thailand - Bangkok
• Togo - Lomé
• Tonga - Nuku'alofa
• Trinidad and Tobago - Port of Spain
• Tunisia - Tunis
• Turkey - Ankara
• Turkmenistan - Ashgabat
• Tuvalu - Funafuti
• Uganda - Kampala
• Ukraine - Kyiv
• United Arab Emirates - Abu Dhabi
• United Kingdom - London
• United States - Washington, D.C.
• Uruguay - Montevideo
• Uzbekistan - Tashkent
• Vanuatu - Port Vila
• Vatican City - Vatican City
• Venezuela - Caracas
• Vietnam - Hanoi
• Yemen - Sanaá
• Zambia - Lusaka
• Zimbabwe - Harare

Some dependent territories and their capitals

• Anguilla - The Valley
• Andalusia - Seville
• American Samoa - Fagatogo
• Aosta Valley - Aosta
• Aragon - Zaragoza
• Aruba - Oranjestad
• Basque Country - Vitoria
• Bermuda - Hamilton
• British Virgin Islands - Road Town
• Catalonia - Barcelona
• Cayman Islands - George Town
• Christmas Island - The Settlement
• Cook Islands - Avarua
• Corse - Ajaccio
• Falkland Islands - Stanley
• Faroe Islands - Tórshavn
• French Guiana - Cayenne
• French Polynesia - Papeete
• Galicia - Santiago de Compostela
• Gibraltar - Gibraltar
• Greenland - Nuuk
• Guam - Hagåtña
• Guernsey - St Peter Port
• Jersey - Saint Helier
• Madeira - Funchal
• Man, Isle of - Douglas
• Martinique - Fort-de-France
• Mayotte - Mamoudzou
• Montserrat - Plymouth
• Netherlands Antilles - Willemstad
• New Caledonia - Nouméa
• Niue - Alofi
• Norfolk Island - Kingston
• Northern Ireland - Belfast
• Northern Mariana Islands - Saipan
• Pitcairn Island - Adamstown
• Puerto Rico - San Juan
• Réunion - St. Denis
• Saint Helena - Jamestown
• Saint-Pierre and Miquelon - Saint-Pierre
• Sardinia - Cagliari
• Scotland - Edinburgh
• Sicily - Palermo
• Svalbard - Longyearbyen
• Tokelau - None
• Turks and Caicos Islands - Cockburn Town
• U.S. Virgin Islands - Charlotte Amalie
• Wallis and Futuna - Matâ'Utu
• Wales - Cardiff

Lotus Europa

When I was a teenager in the 1970s, I was really into cars. Every month I would buy Road And Track, Car And Driver and Motor Trend magazines to read up on Porsches, Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other cool automobiles. Growing up in the wilds of southern Ontario, though, I did not often actually see exotic cars. So I thought it was cool when I saw a red Lotus Europa in Sauble Beach on August 12, 1978.

The British sports car was first introduced in 1966, a mid-engine coupe with a Renault engine. It underwent a number of changes over the years during its nine-year production run, with about 9,300 being produced in total. According to Wikipedia:

The Europa used Lotus founder Colin Chapman's minimalist steel backbone chassis, while also relying on its fiberglass body for structural strength. The 4-wheel independent suspension was as minimalist as everything else on the car; for instance, the rear suspension consisted of two relatively large trailing arms, one lower link per side, and the axles; very similar to Formula type race cars of that era. Aside from the doors, bonnet (hood), and trunk, the body was cast as a single unit of fiberglass. The Europa was designed and built to be an embodiment of Chapman's oft stated philosophy of automotive design: "Simplify, then add lightness."

There's a neat site at lotuseuropa.org that has a brief history of the car, a new owners' page, links to suppliers and clubs, a knowledgebase, repair manuals and more.

The Europa was not the most handsome of sports cars, but there's still something cool and exotic about it.

BTW, there's a new, totally redesigned Lotus Europa S coming out this year.

58008918

There was a boat. And a buddy of mine. And a young woman (who did not possess the calculatoid quality suggested in the numeric nomenclature of the present missive - rather more like 58008717). There was also a BMW. And a search for cold soft drinks.

There was a lake.

It was 28 years ago.

The post is longer than the title

The post is longer than the title because the post contains seven extra words.

The title is longer than the post

Right?!

S$# 032 George Harrison | I Don't Want To Do It

Between 1982's Gone Troppo and 1987's Cloud Nine albums, we didn't hear much new music from George Harrison. He was keeping busy with his Handmade Films company, and his musical output was limited. He had a few songs in the Shanghai Surprise film, and he played at a Prince's Trust concert, for example. He also released I Don't Want To Do It, a real gem of a song that was plunked into the very excellent soundtrack of a not-so excellent film, in 1985.

Dave Edmunds was asked to produce the music for Porky's Revenge, the third in a series of adolescent sex comedies. He brought together a number of high profile musicians to perform the songs on a soundtrack that fit the early 60s setting of the flick. The roster included Carl Perkins, Willie Nelson, Jeff Beck, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Clarence Clemons, and the quiet Beatle.

Dave also hired a great studio band to play on the tracks. Supporting George on IDW2DI are Jimmie Vaughan and Dave on guitars, Chuck Leavell on keyboards, Michael Shrieve on drums and Kenny Aaronson playing bass.

Rather than write a song for this project, or sing one of the tunes Dave wrote for it, George picked a song that had long fascinated him - a never-before released Bob Dylan song that George had been playing for himself at least since the 1970 sessions for All Things Must Pass. (He does a great acoustic version of the song on the ATMP-era bootleg Beware Of ABKCO.) (It's also been rumoured that Ringo recorded a version of the song too that still languishes on the shelf; Bob may have recorded a version, but it's never been released either.)

IDW2DI is an introspective song; the singer is re-examining his life and reflecting on a love he doesn't want to let go.

Looking back upon my youth
The time I always knew the truth
I don't want to do it
I don't want to say goodbye

To go back in the yard and play
If I could only have another day
I don't want to do it
I don't want to make you cry

To go back on the hill beside the track
And try to concentrate
All in all the places that I want to be
No, it shows you that I could not wait

So come back into my arms again.
This love of ours, it has no end
I don't want to do it
I don't want to make you cry

I don't want to do it
I don't want to say goodbye

I don't want to do it
I don't want to see you cry

To go back on the hill beside the track
And try to concentrate
All in all the places that I want to be
No, it shows you that I could not wait

So come back into my arms again
This love of ours, it has no end
I don't want to do it
I don't want to say goodbye

I don't want to do it
I don't want to say goodbye

I don't want to do it
I don't want to make you cry

The liner notes of the remastered issue of the soundtrack sum up how moving the cut is:

One of the album's standout songs - and the one furthest removed from the project's good-timey focus - is George Harrison's haunting performance of I Don't Want To Do It, a previously unreleased Bob Dylan composition that receives a yearning, heartfelt treatment, with Leavell's elegant organ work underscoring the poignance of Harrison's vocal.

I Don't Want To Do It was released as a single, with a Dave Edmunds b-side, that unfortunately didn't do anything on the charts. The soundtrack CD was out of print for a long time, but was reissued in 2004. It has not appeared on any George Harrison album.

A$# 032 George Harrison | Cloud Nine

Imagine two geniuses coming together and putting out a superb album. When George Harrison hooked up with Jeff Lynne in 1987, the highly successful Cloud Nine was the result.

It was called George's comeback album, though as he reminded reporters at the time, he'd never really gone anywhere. But it had been five years since his last studio album. For Jeff, it was a great opportunity to move beyond the recently disbanded ELO, and a chance to work with one of his musical heroes.

George played guitars and keyboards. Jeff contributed guitars, keyboards and bass. In addition, there was an a-list of stars and session aces helping out. Rounding out the crew were Eric Clapton on guitar; Ringo, Jim Keltner and Ray Cooper on drums; Elton John and Gary Wright on piano; Jim Horn on sax; and Bobby Kok on cello.

Cloud Nine is such a great listening experience because it's got all the right ingredients - great songwriting, memorable hooks, superb production and playing. George, encouraged and supported by Jeff and the others, was definitely in the zone. (Mind you, I'm one of those who think he never was really out of the zone; eg see my earlier spotlight post on 1982's Gone Troppo.) Jeff adds his magic as co-producer - this guy knows how to do the knob twisting and arranging - to get a great sound that was great for the late 1980s, and for all time.

George's voice is perhaps a bit thinner since his Beatles days, but it shows a great maturity and versatility. He's able to bring great strength to the bluesy title song, rockers like Fish On The Sand, and angst to the soul-baring Just For Today. His guitar work shines too, on every song, but especially on faster numbers like This Is Love, Devil's Radio and Got My Mind Set On You, plus slower tracks such as Just For Today and Breath Away From Heaven.

Of course you know the big hits Got My Mind Set On You, a radical reworking of an old Rudy Clark song, and When We Was Fab, a psychedelic revisitation of Beatles themes, which George co-wrote with Jeff. There are lots of other wonderful songs too. The album gets off to a great start with Cloud 9, a blues-tinged number about happiness not always being so happy. That's What It Takes was co-written with Jeff and Gary Wright. It's a mid-tempo track that features some fine guitar playing. Fish On The Sand is a fun song about a man who's hopelessly in love and doesn't know what to do.

Just For Today is something special, because it's so plaintive. It feels like a man expressing a lot of pain. This is not a side of George we heard too often. As he said, "It's generally a reminder just for today to keep cool and don't try to deal with everything all at once and that kind of thing." Piano dominates here, but some low-keyed guitar really strengthens it.

George co-wrote This Is Love with Jeff, and it's one of those tracks where George's guitar playing soars. A great fast song. It was released as a single, and should have done as well as WWWF and GMMSOY.

Fab is a hoot, with its oblique references to the Beatles era, plus the cool cello and other psychedelic touches. (The extended version from the 12-inch single even has a backwards ending.)

Devil's Radio is a fast-paced rocker about the evils of gossip. Then things slow down for the lovely Someplace Else, which George reworked from the original version on the Shanghai Surprise movie soundtrack. (No album was released when that movie bombed.) Then it's another fast cut, Wreck Of The Hesperus, where George sings about being an ageing rocker in a silly world:

Brainless writers gossip nonsenses
To others heads as dense as they is
It's the same old malady
What they see is faulty

I'm not the wreck of the Hesperus
Feel more like Big Bill Broonzy
Getting old as my mother
But I tell you I got some company
(But it's al right)

Breath Away From Heaven is also a re-recording of a Shanghai Surprise song. It's Eastern flavoured, and has a cool pentatonic scale. He then closes the album with the high-energy GMMSOY. It was just the hit he needed in 1987.

The 2004 remaster adds two bonus tracks: Shanghai Surprise and Zig Zag.

C9 was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between George and Jeff, as they went on to form the Traveling Wilburys, plus Jeff contributing to a couple more George tracks in the late 80s. In the 90s, when it was time to produce the "new" Beatles songs for the Anthology series, George, Paul and Ringo turned to Jeff to help them. Later on, George played guitar for a couple of songs on Zoom, the ELO revival album in 2001. Since George's death, Jeff and Dhani Harrison completed George's Brainwashed, and Jeff produced the audio for the Concert For George benefit CD/DVD.

C9 was the beginning of a fruitful collaboration, including the Traveling Wilburys albums, Jeff's solo Armchair Theatre album, the new Beatles songs for the Anthology series, and George's slide guitar contributions to the Zoom, the ELO revival album. It's continued since George's death, with Jeff and Dhani Harrison completing George's Brainwashed, and Jeff producing the audio for the Concert For George benefit CD/DVD.

It all started with the wonderful Cloud Nine. track listing:

1. Cloud 9
2. That's What It Takes
3. Fish On The Sand
4. Just For Today
5. This Is Love
6. When We Was Fab
7. Devil's Radio
8. Someplace Else
9. Wreck Of The Hesperus
10. Breath Away From Heaven
11. Got My Mind Set On You

plus bonus tracks on remastered CD:
12. Shanghai Surprise
13. Zig Zag

Australian Capital Territory

I like reading about enclaves, and one that's long fascinated me is the Australian Capital Territory.

In the US, Washington and District of Columbia are really the same thing, ie Washington occupies the whole of the district. (Georgetown was once a separate city from Washington, but it joined the larger city in 1871.)

The ACT was formed on land ceded from New South Wales in 1911. The territory is 2,538 square kilometres in size. The city of Canberra takes up 805.6 kilometres of that space.

Canberra has the overhelming bulk of the territory's population - about 325,000. Outside the city, there are just a few small villages, such as Williamsdale, Naas, Uriarra, Tharwa and Hall. There is a lot of wilderness territory, including Namadgi National Park (which occupies about 46% of ACT's land area) and Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.

The official site of the ACT government is here.

I hope I get there some day.

I'm fascinated by the place in part because we don't have a federal capital territory in Canada. (I'm not sure we need one. Having been in Ottawa and across the river in Gatineau just recently, I think things probably work pretty well the way it's structured now.)

Seek

Search was cool high-tech secret agent show that ran in the 1972-1973 TV season (following a two-hour pilot that ran in February 1972). Here’s a synopsis of the show:

The premise of the show centered on Probe, a division of World Securities Corporation. Individuals, companies, governments would hire the Probe Division to "search and recover that which was missing." Probe's agents were equiped with miniturized television scanners, which transmitted picture, sound, medical telemetry and anything else the script writers could think of back to Probe Control, where computer specialists continuously monitored the agent's progress, and analyzed the information the scanner was transmitting.

The scanners were small and round and had a magnetic back so they could attach to a ring, tie-tack, locket, or anything with a metal surface. That way the scanner appeared to be an exotic piece of jewelry. The agents also had a small audio receiver implanted behind the left ear, so they could hear sound transmitted from Probe Control. The Control personnel would link up to any data base, government or private, to retrieve information that would help the agent work the case.

Hugh O’Brian, Anthony Franciosa and Doug McClure appeared in the show on a rotating basis as agents. My favourite was Hugh O’Brian’s Hugh Lockwood character. The control folks back at Probe were led by Burgess Meredith.

There’s a great site dedicated to the show at probecontrol.com.

Here’s an episode list.

# Probe (Pilot) February 21, 1972
# The Murrow Disappearance (September 13, 1972)
# One of Our Probes Is Missing (September 20, 1972)
# Short Circuit (September 27, 1972)
# Moonrock (October 4, 1972)
# Live Men Tell Tales (October 11, 1972)
# Operation Iceman (October 25, 1972)
# The Bullet (November 1, 1972)
# In Search of Midas (November 8, 1972)
# The Adonis File (November 15, 1972; AKA The Consortium)
# Flight to Nowhere (November 22, 1972)
# The Gold Machine (December 20, 1972)
# Let Us Prey (January 3, 1973)
# A Honeymoon to Kill (January 10, 1973)
# The Twenty-Four Carat Hit (January 24, 1973)
# Numbered for Death (January 31, 1973)
# Countdown to Panic (February 7, 1973)
# The Clayton Lewis Document (February 14, 1973)
# Goddess of Destruction (February 21, 1973)
# The Mattson Papers (February 28, 1973)
# Moment of Madness (March 14, 1973)
# Ends of the Earth (March 21, 1973)
# Suffer My Child (March 28, 1973)
# The Packagers (April 11, 1973)

Unfortunately, the series is unavailable on DVD.

My Jeff Lynne wish list for the years to come

I've been thinking about what I'd like to hear from Jeff Lynne in the years to come, though I don't expect any of these to ever happen. (If I were a close friend and confidant of Jeff, though, I'd give him a kick in the arse and tell him to get to work.)

Jeff is often accused - and sometimes praised - for being too "posh" in his production style. Sometimes for not being posh enough. It's ok with me if he goes either way. In fact I'd like to hear some of each. Here are some things I'd like to hear from this genius:

* A live album recorded in a club, with Jeff doing stripped down, intimate versions of well known and lots of not-so-well-known tracks)covering his career from the Idle Race to Zoom (the last ELO album), and a few neat covers, maybe.

* (At least) one more ELO studio album, with lots of strings (though not necessarily strings on every song). But I'd like it to be more of a group effort than Zoom was, even if Jeff writes all the songs and tells the others what to play! Sure, I'd like it to be the classic line-up, with Roy Wood guest-starring on a couple of tracks. But that's not bloody likely. OK, how about the Zoom tour line-up plus Bev Bevan? (Those two need to kiss (figuratively, that is) and make up.)

* A live album, put together with the same care as, say, Concert For George, to document the tour that results from the above studio album. It would contain lots of songs in addition to the main set list, because the group would rotate lots of cool lesser known numbers in at various shows around the world - and record them for posterity.

* A true solo album - just Jeff himself, on vocals, plus guitar and piano (only one instrument at a time, though - no overdubbing) doing new original material.

* An instrumental album. This could be Jeff or ELO. Posh or not. Orchestral or not.

* A solo album that does feature other players, with interesting collaborations with, in no particular order, Paul McCartney, Mike Oldfield, Justin Hayward, Roger McGuinn, Randy Bachman and, don't laugh, Robin Gibb. Plus Anoushka Shankar.

But I know. I am dreaming in Technicolor.

PS

Elton John's version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds is not the only studio recording of a Beatles cover with a Beatle helping out.

I can think of two others:

• John played on David Bowie's recording of Across The Universe.


• George played on Jeff Healey's rendition of While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

S$# 031 Elton John | Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds

I'm not usually big on covers of Beatles songs, but when a Beatle helps out a major artist revisit a Fab track, well then I approach it with an open mind.

Of course you probably know that Elton John's rendition of Lucy was a massive hit in late 1974 and early 1975 - and that it features "the reggae guitars of Dr. Winston O'Boogie" ie John Lennon contributing guitar playing to the track.

Of course the lyrics were as bizarrely wonderful in the mid-1970s (and still are today) as they were in the Summer of Love:

Picture yourself on a train in a station
With plasticine porters with looking glass ties
Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile
The girl with kaleidoscope eyes

This is one cover that comes close to the original. It's a happier, poppier presentation of the song, but it still has a touch of that psychedelic warmth and craziness about it.

Besides John's guitar work and Elton on piano, the track includes Elton on mellotron and harpsichord, bass by Dee Murray, drums by Nigel Olsson, guitar and sitar by Davey Johnstone, tambourine and gong by Ray Cooper, and backing vocals by Davey, Dee and Nigel.

Lucy was first issued as a single, backed with a cover of John's One Day At At A Time. It then appeared on Elton's Greatest Hits. Volume II, and has since been featured on several EJ compilations.