The times are a changin', but in which direction? Ahead? In reverse? Vortexically? (I love using words I'm not even sure are real)

As the self-labeled Littlest Hobo of my school district, I have found out I don't have to change schools at the end of the year if I don't want to. This is a good thing and a bad thing. It's a change in that it's not a change, so... it sheds no illumination on which way things are a-changin'.

Tonight, I am listening to my signed copy of The New Odds' Cheerleader. Thank God a Canadian band that kicked ass is back kickin' ass. While they're looking to the future, I'll still call it a rewind.

Did you watch Test The Nation: Sports on CBC the other night? Chris Murphy of Sloan was the guest player for the Extreme Sports team. No longer did he wear his black Adidas indoor soccer / casual shoe. He casually sported a very similar pair, made by New Balance. Like the new Sloan tune says, "I'm Not A Kid Anymore"... and Murphy's shown it in his footwear choice. As Sloan and I age together, it's a step ahead.

That leaves things all tied up!

I guess it's just a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same. What d'ya think? Notice any change / non-change of note?

I'm stoked about the amount of new music that's out or coming out. I just got my advance copy of Shaun Verreault's upcoming CD, Two Steel Strings. He recorded it during Wide Mouth Mason's trip on the "Holiday Train" going from Montreal to Vancouver last December. It's a little lo-fi, as you can hear the railway sounds here and there (but not just out of nowhere... he made it work), but it helps to convey the closeness of recording in one of the train's cars. It's not quite like you're right there, but darn near. I just hope Shaun can swing out East and play 'em for us! Also, a new WMM CD is in the works, plus another fully-produced effort from Shaun, and a new CD is just about to come out from Earl(WMM's bassist)'s sideband, Mobadass. These alone would be enough to make one giddy. Sample the album's title track here from vanmega.com.

I got a message in my email today about the pre-sale of the new CD by The New Odds. Basically, if you liked The Odds, you'll like this new incarnation, too. Back in the fall, Craig Northey told me it was "all killer, no filler", too, which bodes well. Get it at www.maplemusic.com for $9.99 now, and get a signed copy! Can't beat that.

Sam Roberts has a new CD coming out on the same day, too. www.killthe8.com has signed pre-order copies, but shipping is about $10 per CD, vs. Maple Music's $3-something. Frig that. I have a signed Sammy CD. I'll wait to buy a plain one. Should be good!

Don't forget Sloan has a new one coming soon, too!

Plus, there's always other good stuff on the go... stuff I just never got yet but want... (last CD from Healey, latest Grady, Hey! Rosetta, Tom Fun, Daniel Lanois, etc.), plus a trio of chicks from the library: Shelby Lynne's Just a Little Lovin' (inspired by Dusty Springfield... some goodness, but a little too understated), Alicia Keys' As I Am (what I heard so far doesn't excite too much), and Jully Black's Revival (kinda sounds like a response to Winehouse's Back To Black in some ways. Its upbeat tunes are actually quite good... way better than I had expected, and trumping the beginning of Keys' CD, anyway).

Is it coincidence that the letters of our Island's Latin motto, "Parva sub ingenti" (which means "The small under the protection of the great") can be rearranged to spell "Pin us, brave giant"?

Just seemed pretty appropriate after yesterday's post.

Check out the beer skids!

The other day, Holly sent me a little CBC story link in a Facebook message whose gist was "For reals?" You see, a great big ginormous thing happened to our province over the weekend. We got canned beverages. Again.

Back in 1984, we used to have canned beer and pop. But, in an effort to save jobs at a bottling plant, and, as a measure to prevent litter, the province banned canned carbonated beverages. That meant we could have juice and whatnot, but no pop, no beer, no "energy drinks" with fizz. Really, it did work. The jobs remained, and for the most part, other than broken glass here and there, there wasn't much garbage from drinks. Plus, many folks got their spare change, main change, or fund-raised change from collecting bottles.

Too many short-sighted people in the province whined and moaned about it, though, and this new Liberal gov't (which seems to show inexperience and lack of forethought more and more as time goes by) decided it was time to change. They said nobody would lose their jobs when the bottling stopped. This ended up being wrong, because the minister responsible didn't really talk to the pop people. They just guessed. So, we lost some jobs, and now we have cans.

On Friday, a day before the big popping of the "first" can, the litter was already out. Girls were walking around town with can-shaped Red Bull backpacks, handing out freebies on the street. Of course, since can's don't break, and their deposit isn't worth nearly that of what the bottles were, the cans were left in the street. OK, I saw one, but it was within feet of the girls. I imagine many more lazy folks did the same. On my way to work today? At least one plastic bottle and a box for grape Fanta. This has also turned into a great tax grab for the gov't. Now, things that never had a deposit do. It used to be only pop and beer bottles that had a deposit, but now all drink containers (even tetra packs!) have a ten cent deposit, and we only get 5 cents back. Not much incentive. Make it fifty cents and give us 45 back! Entice people to keep their litter and return it!

Saturday saw a street party with free pop and music, and that ceremonial opening of the "first" can by our environment minister. As the pop was doled out on silver platters, he said, "I want to thank... Pepsi."
Yeah. Nothing wrong with that scene.

So, if you hear about PEI getting cans, and you hear about the hype (I heard people were fighting over it at Wal-Mart on Saturday morning... Why? Bottled always tasted better anyway!), and think that we're awfully backwards, I'd agree. I wouldn't have last week, but I think I might now.