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Why Canada’s Banning of Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing is Bad Policy

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The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) issued a ruling today which censored Dire Straits’ mega-hit song from over 25 years ago, Money for Nothing. The CBSC said the song should either be banned, or suitably edited, for its use of the homophobic word “faggot”, three times. (CBC, Jan 13 2011; CSBC Decision)

(I’d have embedded the actual music video but those *^&*@$ at YouTube have all these copyrights rules now that don’t let them be seen in Canada and other countries).

I understand the principle to censor the song, but completely disagree with the psychology of the action. For the sake of an ideal, the fight against homophobia just took a step backward rather than a step forward.

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Food, Inc. (full documentary)

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If you eat food and you have never seen this documentary, you should.

Even if you’re vegan, this film is of relevance to you for many reasons, including the Monsanto conspiracy to dominate the world soybean market.

The film may be about America’s food industry, but a lot of it isn’t different around the western world, and a lot of it goes around the entire world because the US food exports pretty substantial amounts of food each year. Besides, those that control America’s food system don’t stop at the borders. Greed and crime have no borders.

If the video is a bit slow to load, please pause for 2-5 minutes while you do something else, then come back and viewing should be fine unless something is wrong with the source site.

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In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.

Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin, Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.

Aside from all the insights I’ve gained on the topics of the documentaries I have presented on this site in the past couple of weeks, I have to say I’ve also gained a lot of insight into how people manipulate others in an organizational way. I’ve heard about bribing, having friends in high places, and such, but seeing it in action is something else. The Monsanto manipulation is the perfect example in this film. It’s disgusting enough people do it on their own, but when they find and collaborate, it’s a whole new level of crime as far as I’m concerned, somewhat similar to manslaughter (accidental or in the moment) and murder (premeditated).

It’s really tragic our justice system doesn’t have any punishment that is suitable for the crimes these people are doing.

Visit the Food Inc. website to learn more about the documentary, topics discussed and other related topics.

Colbie Caillat Singing the Best US National Anthem I’ve Ever Heard

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My annual list of Best New Songs I Heard is usually reserved for songs I had never heard before. Sometimes, I throw in songs I had heard before, but never nearly as good that a version I just heard for the first time. This song falls in that second category, though it doesn’t quite have the gap for me to put on my list this year because of how many great versions I have heard in the past. Still,  it was good enough that I know, for me, it was the best rendition of this song that I have ever heard among the many I have heard.

The Star Spangled Banner is played at so many events I watch, on television or in person, that I am sure I have heard over 1000 renditions of it over the years. Naturally, there have been some outstanding versions among them, as well as some pretty grotesque ones. To me, though, Colbie Caillat’s version at the opening game of the National Football League season between the Minnesota Vikings and the New Orleans Saints was the best rendition of the song I have ever heard. Sorry, I don’t know the guitarist’s name.

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She sung it quietly and built it, without having to rely on volume power to peak. She didn’t need more drums or instruments to come in, or additional parts, either. She just rocked it gently a tad more each time and achieved the effect. That’s a hard thing to do!

The television footage of the players and crowd were also inspiring, and credits go to the NBC camera crew for capturing all that. Lots of players and coaches with hands over their heart, standing pretty still mostly, too. I also liked the shot of Jared Allen with the helmet held high. The New Orleans fans deserve credit for being in such solemn attention. A little cheer here or there in the right places can have just as good an impact as a roaring crowd all the way through like at some events. But you know, the right rendition will help you be like that to listen and be proud rather than not pay attention for any number of reasons.

All and all, I thought it was just superb. Too bad the online version I have above had the image and sound timing just a tad off to make it look like Colbie badly lip synced it.

I saw some online articles today on the rendition by Colbie Caillat. She’s got the Net talking about it, that’s for sure. There were likes and dislikes, and loves and hates, as to be expected. However, I’ve got to say the reasonings given for those who didn’t like it weren’t very sound. If the reasonings those people generally gave were valid, they should just go plunk it out on an out of tune synthesizer, or just get their computer to mechanically play it. They should appreciate how flexible their national anthem is that they could think so poorly of such a performance and yet, some people like myself think it’s the best rendition they’ve ever heard!

Leave me a comment with some other favourite renditions of the Star Spangled Banner if you care to share. Thanks!

Meanwhile, I’m going to look up some more of Colbie’s music. I had never heard of her till last night, but man, did she impress and got a new fan for that performance!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 7.5

Find Yourself, by Brad Paisley (Lyrics and Video)

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For the past four years, I have made it a habit to note songs I heard for the first time in those years which I really liked a lot. I share these with friends and family at the end of the year as a personalized gift, but more recently, I have blogged about them as well to share with readers who happen by. This is the latest on my Best Song I First Heard in 2010 list.

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When you find yourself in some far off place
And it causes you to rethink some things
You start to sense that slowly you’re becoming someone else
And then you find yourself

When you make new friends in a brand new town
And you start to think about settling down
The things that would have been lost on you
Are now clear as a bell
And you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

Well you go through life
So sure of where you’re heading
And you wind up lost
And it’s the best thing that could have happened
Cause sometimes when you lose your way, it’s really just as well
Because you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

When you meet the one, that you’ve been waiting for
And she’s everything, that you want and more
You look at her and you finally start to live for someone else
And then you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

We go through life
So sure of where we’re headed
And we wind up lost
And its the best thing that could have happened
Cause sometimes when you lose your way, it’s really just as well
Because you find yourself
Yeah that’s when you find yourself

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Brad Paisley

It’s the first country song that has made my list. Country isn’t my favourite genre of music, to say the least, but this song isn’t typically country. If you look at the lyrics below, you’ll see that the singer doesn’t lose anything. Rather, things were lost on him.

More shockingly, he finds something… and it’s himself!

In all seriousness, it’s a spiritual song, and those work for me if done right and well. I don’t care what genre it’d be in, whether country, rap or Martian Space Age punk.

If you’ve never heard this song, I hope you will like it. It’s easy enough to sing along and learn to play on guitar. I see chords for it are pretty simple. I will learn it and put it in PDF tabs for guitar and ukulele like other songs I have tabbed that way (with notes) on this site.

I came across this song flipping the channels just a few nights before this. It was from the Disney Pixar Cars soundtrack. It stopped me dead in my tracks, that’s for sure.

I wonder, though, is the rest of Brad’s stuff this good? I guess I’ll have to do some research to find out.

The last song which made my Best Song I First Heard in 2010 list was The No-No Song, covered by Ringo Starr. Links to other songs that have made my list this year, as well as my list from some previous years, can be found through those past posts. Enjoy!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 4.4

Guitar and Ukulele Tabs for Goin’ Up Yonder (Walter Hawkins)

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It’s hard to tab gospel music, if you know what gospel music can be like to perform with all its passionate fervour, improvisation and such. This isn’t meant as a tab as much as a starting guide for you to create your own version of this popular gospel. The version below is a relatively quiet version from which I created the guitar and ukulele tabs found below that.

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Walter Hawkins

Going Up Yonder, Walter Hawkins Guitar Tabs Letter Sized PDF

Going Up Yonder, Walter Hawkins Guitar Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

Going Up Yonder, Walter Hawkins Ukulele Tabs Letter Sized PDF

Going Up Yonder, Walter Hawkins Ukulele Tabs Tabloid Sized PDF

If the letter size tabs (8.5″ x 11″) are too small for your eyes, you can either enlarge to tabloid size (11″ x 17″) using an automatic enlarge feature on many photocopiers, or download the tabloid sized versions for printing. The tabloid size tabs can be inserted into a typical letter sized binder on the 11″ size, and folded almost in half to fit. You just open each tab to use it.

Please click here for guitar and ukulele tabs and chords to other songs on this blog.

I picked the choral version above to tab because it was the most “practical” one to tab. You can document something reasonably similar to that version, aside from all the harmony parts you couldn’t sing simultaneously if you were to do this solo. However, if you’re adventurous, you can add your own touches to this song and make it as different from the version above as the version below… all 10 minutes of it! It is soloed by Tramaine Hawkins.

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It’s generally the same style so you should be able to use pretty much the same chords if you sing it using the notes in the tab PDFs. However, it has a complete different swing and swagger. You could add a reasonably facsimile with your singing and some funky strumming if you give it a try.

Enjoy!

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Reading Level: 9.0