A Rusticated Perspective

There are a plethora of musical genres encompassed by the expression "folk music" and why not; it is all music by folk, right? But at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival this year, it was country(ish) music that caught my ear the most. Which was a little surprising to me, but maybe it shouldn't have been.

Saturday was a long day for Glory and I, but we were intent on staying for at least part of the closing act, Old Crow Medicine Show. They didn't take the stage until nearly 11 pm, but opening up with two high-energy renditions of songs about cocaine, of all things, really enervated the crowd, us included. They were "Cocaine Habit":

Well, that cocaine habit is awful bad
The worst doggone habit that I ever had
Hey, hey, honey take a whiff on me

And "Tell It To Me":

Tell it to me, tell it to me
Drink your corn liquor, let the cocaine be
Cocaine's gonna kill my honey dead 

Glory was convinced that live-wire frontman Ketch Secor had to be speaking from experience due to a dynamic 110% effort that would put most pro athletes to shame, but that is neither here nor there...

In the weeks afterwards I would often prompt music from the Google Home speaker by requesting "Cocaine Habit" or Tell It To Me and then seeing what sort of selections might follow them up, a technique we call "seed music." Sometimes it would be old-timey country from my "Rusticated" playlist, at others more modern but non-mainstream artists like Corb Lund that I have listened to previously, but on occasion it would pull something delightful from way out in left or right field, or possibly underneath the bench in the dugout.

And I was surprised and delighted to find these slices of Americana incorporate all sorts of themes beyond the truck-driving and freedom-cheering that dominates C&W radio. Consider the environmental apocalypism outlined by The Devil Makes Three in "Allelu":

What will it take to have this place on bended knee 
You run to the forest, you can bet I'll burn the trees 
I will poison the water 'cause it's only getting hotter 
And we came for sons and daughters 

Hallelu

(chorus)
Hallelu, Hallelu, praise the lord and pass the ammunition too 

They say Jesus is coming, he must be walking, he sure ain't running 

Who can blame him, look how we done him, Hallelu 

Or the lament of poor choices by Billy Strings in "Dust In a Baggie", performed here at the Grand Ole Opry (wait, for real?):

I ain't slept in seven days, haven't ate in three
Methamphetamine has got a damn good hold of me
My tweaker friends have got me to the point of no return
I just took the lighter to the bulb and watched it burn

(chorus)
This life of sin has got me in
Well it's got me back in prison once again
I used my only phone call to contact my daddy
I got twenty long years for some dust in a baggie

I mean, the Opry has a long tradition of musical exceptionalism, but I was not expecting something so - I dunno, sordid? - from a genre so strongly associated with conservatism, y'know?

Before Old Crow Medicine Show took the stage at folk fest, we had our first chance to hear Nick Shoulders, probably my fave artist of the whole weekend. In addition to being a tremendous vocalist, whistler and yodeler, he also took pains to share his educate his audience about just what "country" music is, and it might not be what most of us think.

The cartoons permeating this post are from his comic-style essay "Country Music History" which I highly recommend. His position that what was once called "hillbilly music" has more of its roots in geography and poverty than it does with rurality is real food for thought.

Hearing these other "hellbilly" artists talking about the squalid underbelly in rustic settings makes me think of Albertan Corb Lund who has described his style of music as "agricultural tragic" as opposed to country, despite his upbeat and generally humourous takes on that lifestyle.

And some of the darkest musical corners appear to be in Saskatchewan, courtesy of artists like The Dead South:

My life's a bit more colder 

Dead wife is what I told her 

Brass knife sinks into my shoulder 

Oh babe don't know what I'm gonna do 

I see my red head, messed bed, tear shed, queen bee 

My squeeze 

The stage it smells, tells, hell's bells, miss-spells 

Knocks me on my knees 

It didn't hurt, flirt, blood squirt, stuffed shirt 

Hang me on a tree 

After I count down, three rounds, in hell I'll be in good company

...or Colter Wall, who sounds maybe 30-40 years older than he actually is:

Well the raven is a wicked bird
His wings are black as sin
And he floats outside my prison window
Mocking those within

And he sings to me real low
It's hell to where you go
For you did murder Kate McCannon

Of course, every genre of music has its sub-genres (and sub-sub-genres, ad infinitum) and his kind of boundary-crossing is hardly unprecedented, even within country & western music; it is amusing now to recall how Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash were once the standard bearers for "outlaw country."

But hearing twangy music that discomforts more than it typifies, and that sometimes brings an honest outsider's perspective is a great reminder that honest, heartfelt expressions don't need to be pigeonholed or boxed up - just listened to and appreciated.

Like Nick Shoulders said on stage when we saw him, "If you ever wonder why so many punks and goths and metal heads and weirdos seem to be getting into country, don't forget that the fiddle was once referred to as the Devil's instrument. This genre has its roots in rebellion and we are never going away." Or as he sings in "All Bad":

I grew a little into deafening rage 

Every hometown is a well built cage 

Be it high iron, highway or stage 

Don’t let it be all bad 

I’ve been indebted to a surgeon’s blade 

Probation officers and nerves that frayed 

Only the choiceless every gladly stayed 

Refuse to be all bad

Two Great Films, But An Even Better Dinner Party - Autumnal Geekquinox 2023

Yesterday afternoon at Pete's, we geeks graciously gathered to go over a gastronomic agglomeration of gourmet goodies themed around this summer's two most popular films, Barbie and Oppenheimer. 

Yes, this was the Barbenheimer Geekquinox.

A pop culture icon undermining the patriarchy and the surprisingly saucy life of the architect of the first atomic weapons might seem like both a strange combination and unlikely theme for a dinner party. Thankfully, in addition to being an excellent cook and wonderful host (ably aided and abetted by his lovely wife Ellen (gosh it feels good to type that)), he is also an uncannily clever and creative fellow. 

With only a moderate amount of stretching, he was able to create a menu that linked effectively to the theme (if a bit tenuously in places!):

With both of the kids now at university, Pete & Ellen's festivities start much earlier in the day - noon, to be precise. A late departure meant Audrey and Totty and I got there closer to 1 pm, but still in time for the "Pink just looks so good on toast"; tasty smoked salmon and sliced avocado on toasted baguette rounds. A fantastic amalgam of tastes and textures, as well as a light and refreshing staft to 10+ hours of focused ingestion.

Washing these tasty bites down with sips of a Luscious Barbie(TM), a re-labeling of the Luscious Lizzie cocktail developed by Ellen's daughter, got a wonderful day off to an immense start.

This was followed by the moistest chicken breasts I have ever had. Like, ever. They came hot off Pete's Big Green Egg but I presume they had also been pre-cooked a bit in his sous-vide rig. Notwithstanding the overcoming of chicken breast's greatest weakness (dryness), the crispy skin with rosemary and a bit of salt made them completely scrumptious as well.

Better still, having failed a coin check at XCOM the previous weekend, Scott was only too willing to build me an exemplary and photogenic Crown Float.

Atomic Buffalo Turds are a perennial favourite, and I believe this might be the 4th appearance of these bacon-wrapped, sausage-topped, cheese-stuffed jalapenos at Geekquinox. It is important to note here that absolutely no one appears to be tired of these, and they disappeared off the tray with astonishing swiftness, which is always the case.

Trying to follow the menu as best I could I washed down the spicy ABTs with swallows of Ichorous Stout from Blindman Brewing in Lacombe. This may be the best non-barrel-aged imperial stout brewed in Alberta, actually, and while the wisdom of washing down spicy food with a rich, dark ale that clocks in at 11% may be debatable, my enjoyment was indisputable.

Next up were delicious mushroom caps stuffed with garlic cheese; so tasty, in fact,  that our resident fungi skeptic Earl found them reasonably delectable as well. 

Pete and Ellen called an audible on their next play, opting to serve the stuffed potatoes as an appetizer instead of saving them as a side for the main dish. This was great for a few reasons, not the least of which was pacing the rate at which we were adding delicious food to our bodies, but even more importantly, keeping the evening on schedule. Getting even a precursor to the main before 8:00 was unprecedented! And the potatoes themselves, stuffed with brie, goat cheese and cream cheese were absolutely delicious, and a perfect balance of starch and creamy stuffing.

The main itself was a pork belly chicharron burnt ends that was unbelievably tender and flavourful, with a tasty, crackling-like topping. I asked Pete if he had sous-vided this as well, and his grinning reply was, "36 hours, baby!" My only complaint was that the richness of the earlier dishes forced me to exercise more restraint with this succulent pork than I really liked, but the servings I did have were absolutely luscious, and could have been eaten by a man with no teeth and sore gums without a problem.

For dessert: a scratch-made angel food cake with raspberry buttercream icing. Yes, it was tremendously tasty, but all the more so in light of the fact that a) angel food is notoriously finicky to make and b) Pete himself has almost no discernible sweet tooth. Scrumptious and a perfect capper to the evening - and it was not even ten o'clock yet! Truly unprecedented.

Sadly, the early start had also impacted our energy reserves, and our ability to carouse into the wee hours is greatly diminished compared to when Pete began hosting these biannual bacchanalias a dozen years ago.

But hearts were still light as we finished our nightcaps and said goodnight and thank you to our friends and immensely talented host and hostess for a wonderful time of fellowship yet again!

XCOM - A Boardgame with More X and Less Calm

So, if I told you I had played XCOM this weekend, you might have asked, "what the heck is that?"

But if you were somehow familiar with that tortured acronym (which supposedly stands for Extraterrestrial Combat), you might think I was playing the XCOM Legends game from 2021 on a mobile device.

Or maybe I was playing the XCOM: Enemy Unknown game on my Playstation, even though it came out -wow, in 2012? -  or the PC game that inspired it from 1994.

But in fact, I was playing a board game based on all those things (but mostly Enemy Unknown) that came out in 2015. And not just me - I had help from Scott and Jeff...and my iPad.

One of the reasons I had purchased the game (besides really liking Enemy Unknown and being a fan of the publisher Fantasy Flight Games and knowing their production values are rock solid) was because it was one of the first app-assisted games I had ever heard of. A decade later, I am actually surprised there aren't more of them.

Plenty of games have applications (usually third-party) that can help with record or scorekeeping or providing a rules reference, but XCOM uses its companion app to randomize events and limit player turns with a timer. It also makes great use of music and some sound effects to add a bit of drama.

In every iteration of XCOM, you are responsible for a defense agency trying to repel an invasion by aliens in flying saucers. The video game alternates between strategic planning including research and development and budgeting, and tactical missions where you equip a small team against an initially unseen enemy. Soldiers that survive get increased skills and improved equipment from R&D as you try to gain ground against the invaders.

The cooperative board game takes the same tack, with 1-4 players dividing four roles among them: Commander, Central Officer, Chief Scientist and Squad Leader. 

During the timed phase, the app directs each role, in a random order, to go about their various tasks - assigning scientists to projects, soldiers to base defense and other missions, satellites and interceptors to combat the saucers themselves, all while maintaining a limited budget. 

Sure, a deck of cards or a dice-table might accomplish the same thing, but having the app do it is not only faster, it is more dramatic. You must finish your task within the time allotted, or the next task will have its time reduced.

Some cooperative games lend themselves too well to "quarterbacking", where one player asserts themselves over the others, and their suggestions eventually become proxied orders, making hapless players wonder why they were needed at all. The timer pretty much precludes that as a possibility, and leaves each role-holder responsible for their portfolio, with just enough time left over for kibbutzing and groupthink.

"Ugh, both of these two crises are bad, which one should we take?"

"Doesn't matter; I am tasking two soldiers to Skyranger with this card and you can discard whichever one you do take!"

"Awesome, thanks!"

If the game has a flaw, I think it is in the tutorial, which quickly overloads the board with saucers, increasing global panic and eventually costing you the game. But when we played an actual game, we were able to manage the saucers much more effectively (especially once we developed Stealth Satellites that could kill one each turn without even rolling a dice). Honestly though, the tutorial should not discourage you from playing the actual game, right? Or is it perhaps meant to mirror the video game, where the first mission (with conventional military) goes so poorly (through no fault of the player) that XCOM itself is formed in the aftermath? Hmm...

Research, saucer destruction and tactical actions are completed using a simple but terrifyingly random push-your-luck mechanic and some custom dice. Each dice you roll has a 1 in 3 chance of generating a success, but if you roll a low number on the red Alien dice, you not only lose all the soldiers or Interceptors on that task, but the unlucky number gets larger as well - insidious!

At any rate, for a game that has so much resource management at the heart of it (hello again, Starfleet Battles!), XCOM is a surprisingly tense and fun game. With five different invasion plans that impact the types of attacks as well as the order in which they are presented to players, there is a ton of replay value even without increasing the difficulty level.

We had a great time earning our victory (even on the Easy level!) and look forward to defending our homeworld again in the future!

Summer's End 2023

Autumn doesn't truly begin until the equinox later this month (Sep 23 here in Edmonton), but the real emotional transition seems to begin when you flip the calendar after August 31 and get the first of those 'months with R'. 

Back-to-school time still has an inordinate impact on our family; Audrey meets her new 4th-grade class tomorrow but has already been busy with teachers at Education Station, while Glory starts her third-year of nursing classes on Wednesday. In Toronto, Fenya is settling into her new role with the Community Care Centre for the Student's Association at George Brown College, while Bobby will start his first lab rotation for his doctorate at the U of T Molecular Genetics faculty. 

I am the only one in our immediate family not headed back to class or campus in some fashion, but that is okay with me. The Labour Day long weekend is no less appreciated.

Smoke has made a lot of activity unfeasible for us asthmatic types, so I have been getting in a little painting, and we had a lovely visit with our friends from Red Deer and their daughter, who is now in an apartment here in town while attending U of A.

After they left, Audrey, Glory and I took advantage of a rare opportunity to lie-in on the next morning, drank a few shooters and played some games. The enormous Sequence board Audrey got me for Christmas last year is great for such an occasion, requiring attention but very little in the way of actual cognitive processing power. We also got in a game of Trivial Pursuit X, a more adult version of the classic game featuring slightly ruder questions and punishing incorrect answers with an X stamped on one's forehead.

Through a combination of deductive reasoning and absurd levels of luck, my forehead somehow remained unscathed...

This morning presented a rare opportunity to cook a nice big breakfast (albeit for a slightly smaller crowd than I have been used to) which presented more nicely than usual (despite basically being a hash with chorizo and bacon).

And this afternoon I varnished a few projects that got painted in the last week or so after Glory innocuously asked if I had any crafts we could do.

Hopefully she and I will get some time to paint together this week so she can finish the purple worms she started on...

Our new temporary minister started at church yesterday to a warm reception, Geekquinox is right around the corner, and I am hoping to get our Call of Cthulhu back under steam this coming Saturday. The gutters have been cleaned and patches of lawn clover killed in anticipation of the cooler weather and the status quo of shorter days begins to reassert itself.

Which is probably as it should be!