Timber Timbre, Toronto, ON tario

1. This is a musical revelation. Thick with wild grasses and wonderfully enchanting. The beauty of the forest can't help but instill an eerie hum, and Timber Timbre embodies that so, so well.

A year ago, my brother-in-law gave my brother and me several lectures about life, while we were staying with he and my sister for a few days.

He felt we were "sleepwalking through life," since we did not yet understand the day-to-day workings and effects of the stock market on our lives. I suppose he felt that if we did not understand this, then we must not have a care about it; and so, we must not have a care for much else, except for our own entertainment and pleasure.

I believe he was wrong, to an extent. We didn't have much care or interest in the market system, that was true. But that did not mean we were uninterested in other "meaningful" things, like current and global events.

He would rag on us from time to time throughout our stay, all the while, teaching us and explaining how a company on the stock exchange can be watched just by following their pricing schemes in the retail world. He used Sony and their price cuts on the PSP and PS 3. That was pretty interesting.

According to Rob (that's his name) price cuts mean that the product is probably not selling. And since the PS 3 was such a large investment for Sony and at least 2 other major companies (see Cell Microprocessors, IBM), this meant lots and lots of bad.

When the product doesn't sell, the company doesn't do well, he told us, and so their value to share holders and investors wavers. Which isn't good. A bad enough state of affairs for a company can mean that investors will leave, taking their money elsewhere.

All by looking at price tags, Rob explained, we could come up with a fairly accurate theory about how Sony is doing, if I wanted to invest.

But then, later that evening, Rob remembered that Sony also owns the rights to the Spiderman franchise, which was cleaning up at the box office that summer. So this changed things. Sony didn't have to rely only on their huge electronics-division investment to make money.

This debunked our theory. Which is fine, since I can't afford to invest in anything, especially Sony.

But this experience made me more interested in other sections of the newspaper, so to speak.

These days, as I'm sure most people agree, the business and finance section is much more interesting, as life as we know it will, very very soon, become a lot harder and a lot more expensive to live.

NYTimes.com has a story online about the cost that we as "Taxpayers" will have to burden. I believe the title is,

Ignoring Reality Has a Price.

Here's a quote:

Despite everything, the biggest fiscal problem remains, far and away, health care. Based on the rate that medical spending has been rising, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts that Medicare and Medicaid will take up 10 percent of G.D.P. within two decades, up from about 4 percent now. In today’s terms, that would be the equivalent of adding at least $900 billion to the deficit every single year, in perpetuity. It makes the cost of the bailouts look like a rounding error.

When it comes to health care, we have a situation that is blatantly unsustainable. With the right choices, we can prevent that. But so far, we instead seem to be hoping that the situation will magically resolve itself, which is a recipe for big problems and perhaps even a crisis.

Let’s see. That doesn’t sound familiar, does it?

-DAVID LEONHARDT (nytimes.com)

note: Image from wikipedia.org

I stand corrected. (See further Below)

Yesterday I placed a post about Katy Perry. That she may be one of those pop-singers of note. Maybe not.
Lets suppose that this writer may or may not have been taken away by her cuteness.
That she may in fact simply be a pop-singer, with a great production team.

They've worked with Korn (now their records make sense!), Robbie Williams, and Avril Lavigne. Cool.


pictured: Scott Spock, Lauren Christy, and Graham Edwards [photo: fan myspace page]

Katy Perry + Jools

Photo from katy.perry's photostream

So I'm surfing YouTube for Later...
videos because I don't live in the UK and can't afford BBC two here (if it is at all available).
So I'm watching videos of bands (good bands in their own right) and artists playing, and I come across Katy Perry on the show.

You know her, the lady who kisses girls with cherry chapstick (via thetapeisnotsticky.com)? Rock Star Journalist has some links to articles critiquing that song.

Now, I'm a big fan of Later... with Jools Holland, and I've noticed that pretty much all the acts on that show have some sort of musical and artistic merit that is appreciated by Later's music and talent directors/producers.

I thought that "I kissed a girl" was simply a pop hit, a very big pop hit. But I guess Later seems to feel that there is more to this chick that one may think. Cool.

She's cute, granted, and the music is definitely well crafted pop, thanks to a group called The Matrix.

If you Live in W. New York

..and enjoy NPR/Wbfo (88.7)
Check out On the Border
Its a local music and arts show. It's pretty good, if I do say so myself. I'm a volunteer correspondent for the
weekly show, Buffalo Avenues. And I like what they are doing. Take my word for it.

There's also a Flickr page. Look, see?

Tomorrow (well actually tonight, it's tomorrow already) is On the Border's bestest music show, Buffalo Avenues. Check it out.