Bakers Best Of

Musings from the mind of JAB

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Who Won the Scene? The Kid vs. Play Freestyle Rap Battle in ‘House Party’

We finally determine the winner of one of the greatest battles in movie and rap history.

I grew up with Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg as the big rap influences and therefore 8 Mile was where I learned about rap battles. 

That being said, I have always loved this rap battle from House Party, even though I have never seen the movie, and have associated my likes with this battle more than anything I ever saw in 8 Mile. Grantland did an amazing breakdown of it.

For an extra treat, the dance video also is a killer. If this dont get your groove bone going, nothing will. 

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Got tickets for these guys at the Rickshaw on Nov 12. Thanks to Stefano and Ashala for the recommendation

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Was at this one, I saw myself in this video. Am I viral yet?

I love the CBC. I love Stephen Quinn and Laurie Brown. My heroes. I dislike strongly, Stephen Harper. PLEASE SUPPORT THE CBC.

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Got tickets for Strand of Oaks at the Biltmore. Look forward to seeing him again, only caught half a set at Sasquatch a couple years back.

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The War on Drugs. Red Eyes. Vancouver. Rickshaw. Loved it

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Royal Canoe. Reinvigorated love for these guys from the Regina Folk Festival.

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Arts Club- Spamalot

I never remember anything about movies. People mention famous references from movies I have seen and I look at them with a blank face and have to say ‘Ive seen it, but I don’t remember it’ to which they are usually flabbergasted. This is not the case from Monty Python. Scenes from the Life of Brian and the Holy Grail are etched into my head despite only seeing each one once. That’s why it was a real treat to see these classic scenes played out in live theatre form at Vancouver Arts Club’s Spamalot.

The Arts Clubs performances are a different scale than our usual $10 Cultch performances, but they rarely disappoint (I would compare an Arts Club to a Cultch performance, like going to see a blockbuster versus an indie film, the blockbuster will definitely entertain and is a lot less likely to be a bust). This Spamalot production had an amazing cast, a new impressive set every scene and a script that kept me on my toes despite having the familiar Python sketches as the backdrop. The way they were able to pull off the classic scenes (like the ‘you shall not pass, fight to the last limb is off warrior’ and fighting bunny) was quite impressive. The musical aspect of it was nice but not great as some of the numbers were a bit drawn out, and like most blockbusters the show could have been about 20% shorter.

Overall, great performance which leaves the audience leaving with a certain lightness and levity which only a combo of Monty Python and live theatre could bring.    

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Music Lessons with Chilly Gonzales

I caught some of Chilly Gonzales on Q last week and was fascinated with his ‘music lessons’ where he went through song structure with Jian. This self-proclaimed and proclaimed-by-others musical genius has helped right numerous pop song hits, including winning a Grammy with Daft Punk this year. As a music lover with little-to-no musical talent or knowledge it was awesome to hear him deconstruct songs and play impromptu tunes to describe a feel or how musicicans attempt to use sounds to generate a certain mood/response. It gives you a better appreciation to what goes into a song, and even a pop song.

I found a few videos of him online doing similar things. I have mentioned before on this how I enjoyed Drakes song ‘Hold on were going home’. It was surprising and revealing to hear that he had a hand in its making and I there is a video below of him talking about it.

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Lucky Now by ryanadams

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Mushroom and Garden Update

Mushroom and Garden Update

I had a pretty poor return on my first batch of starts for my garden. They all worked somewhat but after transferring them it seems like only the arugula and some of the lettuce will prosper. I started another batch of seeds last Saturday morning and proceeded to leave them out while out Saturday night as they got soaked. Soaked may be a bit of an understatement, as they were sitting in…

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Judith Thompsons Watching Glory Die- The Cultch

This one-actress three-character theatre brings to life the story of the imprisoned girl, her mother and her prison guard. By presenting each of the three characters, Judith Thompson not only makes us analyze each of their motives which helped lead to the tragic suicide of the imprisoned Glory, but throws it back at us, the audience and society, for allowing a corrections system which has treated one of our "country's daughters" in this way. She describes bringing us to the shadows of society where none of us want to go or see. The systematic failure is highlighted so brilliantly by exemplifying the young 14 yr old female prisoner as a young cattle/veal in a small pen, who is turned into a crazy fighting bull by the age of 19 when she commits suicide in her quiet therapy cell. The story was based on that of Ashley Smith, a New Brunswickian girl who committed suicide at the age of 19 in a corrections facility in Kitchener Ontario.

Heartaching, emotive, awakening, inspiring, retrospective, powerful and thoughtful are all words which have been used to describe plays before but I think most of them apply to this one. The work started a bit slowly but by the end each word was sinking in with emotion. This may have been the most moving show I have ever seen at The Cultch as I felt I could feel the rest of the audiences somberness when leaving the show. The word powerful may be the most fitting one to describe this production by Judith Thompson.

Just received our season tickets for next year and I think the timing was perfect with tonights reminder of how good live theatre is in East Van!

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The Money Paradox

With most the big decisions in life now somehow revolving around money, despite efforts to make it not, I'm always keen to find new research and ideas which question the money paradox. Loved the TED podcast on this subject (http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast.php?id=510298). Bringing in economists and cognitive psychologists to tell us why the brain works the way it does with money was a great idea and I enjoyed learning about some of the reasons we do what we do with money. Some of the cooler findings were... 1. How much money we feel we deserve is totally based on the status quo. Give a monkey an extra treat (1+1) he thinks he's getting more than when he's given just two directly, despite getting the same absolute value. 2. Language helps control spending decisions. Languages which have future-based grammar worked into it are more likely to save for the future. It works as just a constant little reminder. (But who said saving for the future was the most important thing?) 3. Spending money on others makes you happier then spending it on yourself. Essentially, if you spend your money right, you can buy happiness. All these things are good reminders that our brain is constantly tricking us into thinking we need more money (to compete with our colleagues) to make us happy (only if you do it right). I love it when scientific research confirms all these de-growth principles growing in my head which often seem less fact-based but more whimsical than anything.

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Chad Vangaalen returns

This past week, CBC Radio 3 premiered a livestream of Chad Vangaalens new album, Shrink Dust, one week before its set release. I usually ignore these livestreams for albums I am really excited about, waiting instead, to have full immersion once they are actually released. Having a big work session this past weekend, I needed some tunes to get me focused and through it. I turned on the livestream on R3 and Chad helped me power through a couple of great hours of work. After, I walked from my cafe, two stores down and ordered the album from the local record store. Shrink Dust is good. Cant wait to get it.

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Mushrooms - Cultivating the shade

Mushrooms – Cultivating the shade

A couple years back when farmer Katie started really getting into the gardening I wanted to do something as well to get in the growing spirit. At the time, garden space was at a minimum, and garden space with good sunlight was even more scarce. I’d heard a few things about growing mushrooms, and so I moved into the one place that wasn’t taken up with veggies, the shade.

As I do, I started by…

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Fiddlehead research on Vinyl Cafe

Stuart Mclean can tell a good story, and therefore its no surprise that Vinyl Cafe has become a staple in so many households. My household growing up was no different with most Sunday mornings involving cleaning while listening to Dave and Morleys travails.

Was tuning in this weekend, in my new household, and Stuart had a great ode to the fiddlehead. He highlighted all the greatness of the fiddlehead and even went into some of weird chemical characteristics of the fiddlehead. In the summer of 2007 I had the chance to work with Dr. John Delong who was working on characterizing these wonderful vegetables. Stuart Mclean mentioned this research in his essay on them, which I thought was kind of cool.

Check out Mcleans piece here

http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/podcasts/vinylcafe_20140419_72420.mp3

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Drake

I used to love R&B. If you were anywhere near me showering in grade 10-12 you would of heard some great Joe, Usher and Craig David impressions.

Drake brings me back a bit with this current hit.

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Arkells- Never Thought This would Happen

Cant wait to see these guys again at the CBC Music festival here in BC in June. This is the latest release from the fun group who I rocked with many many times back in Peterborough Ontario. Just catchy groovy tunes. They were rocking Stanly Park last summer, this summer they got Deer Lake Park, expect the same energy and sing-a-longs.