Better Beer by Rush

A friend passed the news on to me recently that Canada's own Rush has released a beer bearing their name and iconography. As a long-time fan of the legendary prog-rock trio, I was curious to see this. And taste it. First, take a gander at the striking colours and design on the can. Pretty, eh?

The famous man-in-the-star (2112) image is depicted in black and red on a shiny gold background. The Rush word-logo is cast in the same font as appears on the cover of their Moving Pictures album. Above that, in a script font, it reads on Side A: "Beer is for genuises" (I did not mispell "geniuses" there; it appears exactly like that - on purpose, I can only assume - on the can), and on Side B: "Books are for tourists". Down below the big star logo, under the black "Canadian Golden Ale" banner, is a small crown symbol. Is this a reference to the A Farewell to Kings album? Could be....

Then, as I scrutinized every inch of the product, I found more neat little Easter eggs. On the side/edge of the can, there are four small symbols, which any good Rush fan will be able to decipher. From top to bottom, there are: the wavy arrow road sign from the Snakes & Arrows Live album cover; a tidy Better Beer symbol, referring to the line in the lyrics of the song Territories; the three floating balls from the front cover of the Hold Your Fire album; then the floating rabbit in the top hat from the Presto album cover. And on the other "edge" of the can, beside the Henderson  Brewing Company logo, is the original Rush logo from their very first album from 1974, a lifetime ago. Nice presentation, classy and fun in the tradition of the band Rush themselves. 

Now, looks aside, lets get to the beverage itself. This is a Canadian Golden Ale, featuring a barley and rye recipe that has a distinctive, but not overly hoppy, taste that lingers nicely on the palate. It's smooth and flavourful, and I found it difficult to stop at just one drink. I'd say it's a winner. 

If you'd like to investigate further, wander over to the Henderson Brewing Company website for details. At this moment, the Rush beer is temporarily sold out, testament to the popularity of all things Rush to its massive global fan base. Cheers!

New Additions to the Record Shelf

I'm trying to relax on spending on records, but it's not really working out. Mind you, I did find some albums at a nearby thrift store for only about a buck apiece. Then I paid a proper, but still very reasonable, amount for a long wished-for record. More on that in a moment.

So... last weekend, a little bummed out that my flea market trip a week earlier was a bust (absolutely no record sellers there at all!), I ventured to the Salvation Army thrift shop just up the road. They have a few big stacks (not piled, actually... just sensibly standing on edge in a nice display unit that I wouldn't mind owning myself) of resident LPs, pretty much all of which have been there for the past five years. Like the whole catalogues of artists like Anne Murray, Zamfir, Perry Como, and other similar un-sellable stuff).

Anyway, nothing I got was outstanding, but the one that I do truly like is Rhinestone Cowboy by none other than that cheesily-white-garbed Glen Campbell. Awful album cover aside, the music is quite cool, of you like 70's country-pop crossover music. I've always liked his Rhinestone Cowboy song, even way before I ever liked a single other country tune. And the rest of this album is quality stuff, so no wonder this was the one that put Campbell on the map big-time, allowing him to cross over from the country charts to pop... so, more record sales and cash for everybody (and hopefully Glen, too). At times on this album, I get an Elton John vibe, and that's not a bad thing. Paid just one dollar for this.

In addition to the Campbell record, I also grabbed a 1968 country and western collection called, well, Country and Western. All big names on there, just a couple I didn't know, singing songs I don't think I ever heard before. So it's good music, just not familiar hits. It'll take some time to get to know it. There are Jim Reeves, Dolly Parton, Chet Atkins, Hank Snow, Waylon Jennings, Charlie Pride, and some others. One dollar.

The third and final album I got at the shop was a 1974 K-Tel album featuring a bunch of artists I'd heard of (big, big names) plus several I'd never heard of before in my life. So I wonder if some of those songs were actually "hits", as claimed, or maybe they were one-hit wonders. It's possible.

Anway, the long and the short of it is that this record skipped A LOT. Most of the songs needed manual assistance to continue playing. No fun at all. The one and only song that I really really liked that played fine was 70's rock gem Free Ride by The Edgar Winter Group. Very cool, and since I've known very few of Winter's tunes, I may seek out more by him. Olivia Newton-John appears here, too, with her crystalline vocals over strings and country twang on Let Me Be There. S'okay, though not a highlight. Kool & The Gang provide a smokin' performance on Jungle Boogie... yeah, gotta find more by that funk group, er, gang. Barry White's epic R&B soul classic Never Never Gonna Give You Up is a cool track, but sadly, it suffers from skip-itis on this defective disc. I might hunt for another K-Tel collection or even the artists's proper studio albums for the music that I do like from this mangled sampler. Strangely, this LP was two bucks. I guess they priced it without listening to it first.

My trusty old Clockwork Orange cassette tape,

bought back in the early 80's. Still in one piece.

Then... a little something arrived in the mail that I'd finally located for a decent price, and from a fellow Canadian seller, a 1972 vinyl pressing of the A Clockwork Orange movie soundtrack. Somebody had the good sense to take care of the record and its outer sleeve so that decades later, a mook like me could own and enjoy it further. And boy, oh boy, it sounds very nice. From the title music to the variations on Beethoven's 9th Symphony, and from choice pieces by Rossini (like The Thieving Magpie and William Tell Overture) to Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance, and on to the electronic segments by pioneer Walter Carlos... it's all pure gold to me. I bought this soundtrack on cassette tape back in the early 80's, after seeing the movie for the first time, and played it on a regular basis for years and years. I never did upgrade to CD, though, so a vinyl purchase seemed to be the logical thing to do. Clockwork is among my favourite movies of all time, and the music of the film, especially the Beethoven, is among my fave of all time, too.

The week was a success then, if you consider this little record haul. Other than that, well, work sucks and life is generally "meh". But good music will get me through. Keep spinnin' those records!

Dream Book-to-Movie Adaptations

 I have long been a fan of books, especially fiction. I have also long been a fan of movies. In recent months, I've been turning over in my mind what favourite books of mine I'd like to see finally adapted to film. When I re-read my post about my fave novels of all time (here), I noted that a handful of them had been adapted to the big screen, but not always to my satisfaction. I will address that in this little discussion.

Elric of Melniboné, a sorcerer-warrior created by British

author Michael Moorcock, finally deserves a film treatment...

or maybe a series, with the right people on board

First up is the Border Trilogy, written by Cormack McCarthy. Yes, there was a 2000 film of the first book in that set, All the Pretty Horses. It was okay, but forgettable. As someone else accurately assessed the movie, it lacked the "poetry" of the great western novel. An author's way with words depicts the story's mood and the chemistry between characters... and that does not always come through in film adaptation. Some books brought to film don't translate successfully, despite best intentions and quality cast and direction. Though some big name actors (Matt Damon and Penelope Cruz, to name just a couple) appear in Pretty Horses, they don't resonate or really own their characters, and something is clearly missing in the portrayals and in the pacing of the movie. So I would like to see something more faithfully rendered to the silver screen, with much more care and respect for the source material. Or just leave it alone, so I can simply enjoy McCarthy's written word, picturing the characters and locations in my imagination.

I thought I heard rumours about a possible Netflix film version of The Three-Body Problem, but I believe production has been on hold for some time now. The book, the first in what is called the Remembrance of Earth's Past Trilogy, was written by Liu Cixin. That and its sequels comprise what I think is the best modern sci-fi I've read. An animated series of some sort was created in China on a shoe-string budget, and what little I saw on Youtube doesn't do the story justice. I recommend the book (the whole trilogy, really) to all science-fiction fans out there. Some of the greatest writing and ideas out there, ever.

Yet another trilogy comes to mind, the Deptford Trilogy, originally written by legendary Canadian author Robertson Davies. But let's just start with book one, Fifth Business. I'd love to see this tale in visual form, with just the right people behind and in front of the camera (I haven't taken the time yet to line up actors, directors, etc) to make it the dark and twisted drama that it deserves to be. Davies blended themes of spirituality, psychology, religion, morality, myth and history... all to intriguing effect in his story. I wonder if the now-denounced director Roman Polanski, given his film-making style, would be the right choice to helm such a production.

Then on to another favourite author, China Miéville, who penned Perdito Street Station and its two sequels in the Bas-Lag trilogy. The Perdito book was incredibly bizarre and engaging; I just couldn't get enough of Miéville's far-out world of dark urban fantasy. So how about a visual translation to capture our imaginations in the cinematic realm? It's been years since I've read the book, and yet I feel like Willem Dafoe might fit quite well into the story, not sure which character yet though. He just has a look and acting style that could be a perfect fit for the freaky and edgy tone. And maybe David Croneberg directing? His penchant for the weird and disturbing, plus his pioneering of the body horror film genre would be pedigree enough to earn him the chair. 

I was bowled over by the 1989 novel Hyperion, by Dan Simmons, when I read it a couple of years back. Considered a science fiction classic (even though it's only just over thirty years old), Hyperion covers a lot of ground, relating several characters' personal stories, as told to their fellow travellers while on a pilgrimage to an historic galactic event. One actor I thought of while reading was Gina Carano, of Mandalorian fame. The role I'd assign her in Hyperion would be obvious to anyone who has read the book.

And how about finally putting the fictional fantasy warrior Elric of Melniboné onto celluloid? Author Michael Moorcock concocted a cool and fun series of novels about the sword-and-sorcery adventures of a "doomed albino antihero", the emperor of an alternate Earth. I first read the Elric books as a teenager, then after many decades, I came back to them in recent years and re-discovered Moorcock's mastery of storytelling, world-building, and character development. It's not high fiction but it is top-notch work in the genre, highly influential and yet curiously lacking in any cross-over to other media (except music, where dozens of rock/metal bands have incorporated Elric themes and stories into their songs). Both TV and film adaptations were discussed over the years but all were shelved.

I may have some other ideas about books to film, but I'll ruminate on them and possibly write something more in a future post. So.... keep on reading, and keep on watching!