I love songs about places. I love books about places. Movies about places? They also rate highly with me. Maybe...I just like places.I like to hear/read/see about where people live, and how they live there. I like the ambiguity of hometowns. I'm lucky, I have two hometowns, Saskatoon and Regina.
Saskatoon is where I was a child, and in my dreams, that's usually where you'll find me. In my subconscious, downtown Saskatoon is massive and metropolitan, and usually wintry. It's like the Gotham City of the 70s (as seen by young me in used comics bought in a stripmall on 22nd); diamond shops and theatres line wide boulevards below, water towers and gargoyles haunt the skyline above. So Saskatoon's not a real place to me. Not in the way Regina is.
My relationship with Regina is...problematic. The less said the better. I've got a lot to say about it, but not here, not now. I'll always love Saskatchewan, both real and imagined, we just need some time apart.
This has all been a long way of getting around to saying that Cuff the Duke is in Vancouver tonight, playing at Richard's on Richard's. If you're not working, you should go. They're a terrific band, and even more terrific live. I've been listening to their brand new album, Sidelines of the City, for the last week. It's full of songs about places, so how could I resist?
MP3: "Rossland Square" by Cuff the Duke
The above image is inked artwork by Frank Espinosa from the upcoming second volume of his awesome Rocketo series. Rocketo is another example of a comic that doesn't have to be "good" to be great. Espinosa's art is beautiful, and his ideas are epic, but his storytelling skills.... Well, they're less than perfect, but throughout the 12 issues of the first series (collected in two trade paperbacks) the narrative definitely gets better and I'm expecting big things for part two. RIYL: Jules Verne, Tintin, Curious George, Aquaman, Darwyn Cooke
