"Flings of the waistcoat crowd..." (10/19/2026)

...well, this is it for the Alberta independence referendum. Today's voting day, and so I ended up taking a brief detour to go ahead and vote. All the questions were some of the most disgusting, genuine Nazi shit imaginable. Like a solid chunk of them were just about denying the right to healthcare and other services for immigrants. The moment I read them, my mind emerged with so, so many different questions: some less crude examples being "what in the actual fuck?" and "who actually wants this?". May as well just state your real intentions by changing "immigrants" to "non-Aryans" and get it over with, because we all know that's what the people who support this shit are thinking. Sorry for the rant but I felt like it needed to be said. This province is hell.

...on the brighter side, and moving swiftly away from the matter of politics, a record that I ordered late last month finally got delivered to me today. "Kid Marine" by Robert Pollard, a fine record, and one that I believe serves as a blueprint for his future output. Picked it up (well, a repress of it) for like $34 with shipping. What a steal, considering Rockathon would've gouged the fuck out of me with shipping costs if I ordered it direct from them.

...speaking of, now listening to: "Robert Pollard" by Kid Marine no hang on that's not right "Kid Marine" by Robert Pollard: like I just mentioned, I feel like this album, despite being really overlooked, is a "blueprint" of sorts. You can still see and hear the effects this record had on his discography today. This, the first entry in the then-fledgling Fading Captain Series, was Bob's first "real" attempt at independently distributing his records, which he does to this day. About the album itself: it features excellent performances from two of Bob's favoured musicians at the time, bassist Greg Demos and drummer Jim MacPherson. "Submarine Teams" is one of Bob's best anthems while "Powerblessings", "Flings of the Waistcoat Crowd" and "Town of Mirrors" are striking in their beauty.