December 2007 Archives

I haven't watched all of the cable programs devoted to rubbing the public's nose in the fact that not everybody can afford a quarter-of-a-million-dollar wedding. At least, I hope I haven't. I have enjoyed/endured several on various channels devoted to different-yet-the-same demographics (women's lifestyle, other women's lifestyle), however, and at first glance, they seem to be covering The Big Day from admirably disparate perspectives.

There's the one about weddings you'll never have, but may envy from your position among the huddled masses.

Theres the one about weddings of people just like you, provided you've managed to make something of yourself.

There's the one about how the weeks leading up to a wedding apparently turn the woman to be married into a Japanese freakshow allegory for nuclear-age vigilance.

There's the one that seems to imply, more often than not, that Canadians can't budget properly.

If you've never been exposed to Firewater, the sardonic cabaret of the damned founded by ex-Cop Shoot Cop principal Tod A toward the end of the '90s, then you've done your musical snobbery a grave disservice. The band's second genre-ignorant full-length The Ponzi Scheme is one of the best records of the last decade, and in truth, while the group faded into obscurity after its leader embarked upon an extended walkabout of the Near East three years ago, they never made a bad record.

And apparently, they're not done yet. Unsatisfied with simply influencing currently hip acts like Gogol Bordello, Tod A is back in America, signed to Bloodshot Records, and working on a new album for release next April. So maybe there's hope for your poor, poor ears yet.