w a s t e . t i m e . n o w

You know I’m not the kind of guy who gets into video games. I’m not 20-years old and I don’t live with my parents. But this weekend I caught the fever — rock and roll fever.

You have never seen anything like Guitar Hero. It’s a PlayStation game with a guitar-shaped controller you sling over your shoulder and play like the real thing. It even has a whammy bar.

Choose a character, select a guitar, decide which song to butcher and just give ‘er. To make things a little less embarassing, you get to play with a friend. But it’s way harder than it sounds. Seriously.

Guitar Hero’s soundtrack features all your favourites, from Joan Jett and David Bowie to Sabbath and the Ramones. Rock anthems with only three chords are classified as easy, but my axe grinding through “Smoke On The Water” was still totally lame — and my friend Sarah and I pretty much cleared the room during our unique interpretation of “More Than A Feeling” (which I should point out is a five-chord song).

Now I can’t wait for my friend to get back from NY, so I can try wrangling another guest appearance at the big show. If video game creators ever get smart and make a game where chumps like me can play the drums in the privacy of our homes, I’ll probably end up buying the mother.

Lesley Arfin rocks. Dear Diary kicks ass (and is pretty much the only thing worth reading in Vice magazine these days, aside from the music reviews). Lesley turned 27 this year. She has a blog.

Thanks to a friend, I was turned-on to a country music gem in the most unlikely place today.

Bob Harris hosts what sounds like a top-notch radio program every Thursday — on the BBC of all places. Visit the Bob Harris Country website to hear this week’s program and see who’s appearing in the weeks ahead. You can also check out his playlist to see who and what Bob played on the program.

It’s a little odd to hear a guy talking about western music in an English accent, but (as my friend pointed out) I don’t exactly have a Nashville drawl myself.

Attention Hollywood — nobody has the attention span to sit through your two-hour movies anymore. And we’re tired of nauseatingly flawless actors making us feel badly about our own imperfections.

These days, I watch all my movies at the 30-Second Bunny Theatre, where a troupe of bunnies re-enact Hollywood movies in 30 seconds, more or less. They have yesterday’s classics, today’s blockbusters, and everything in between.

I just watched the 30-second bunny Brokeback Mountain, and have to admit I don’t understand what all the hype is about.

I came across something superterrific while searching for a link to The Golden Girls for the last post.

Check it — a Which Golden Girl Are You quiz! Answer a few multiple-choice questions to find out whether you most resemble Blanche, Rose, Dorothy or Sophia. This little test doesn’t seem very accurate — I highly doubt I’m a Blanche (and you know I wanted to be Dorothy).

I’ve been watching a little too much television lately — you know it’s excessive when you start getting into The Golden Girls. Anyway, I was surprised to recognize one of my favourite artists working on a Discovery Channel show called Mythbusters.

Turns out Kari Byron, in addition to creating amazingly compelling found-object installations, also drops mannequins from airplanes, blows things up and performs all other manner of pseudo-scientific experiments for the small screen. And they said the day of the multi-disciplinary artiste was over…

So Mac and Laura, the lad and lass from Superchunk have had their own record label for like the past fifteen years. Who knew?

Based in North Carolina, Merge Records cultivates a healthy crop of artists, including the Magnetic Fields, Lambchop, Spoon and Destroyer. You know you love all those bands, so check out who else is signed. Drop by the new-ish Merge website for tour dates and the usual, plus free music and video — they also have a podcast you can subscribe to (or download, or hear through streaming audio).

Sub Pop is another label with an impressive rollcall, and a website featuring MP3s and more from Iron & Wine, Wolf Parade, Fruit Bats, etc. `Nuff said.

Here’s something nifty — an American Sign Language Browser from Michigan State University, using Quicktime videos to demonstrate hundreds of English words. Now you know where to go next time you need to sign algorithm.

Microsoft has launched Windows Live, which they hope will become your new Web 2.0 portal. I don’t plan to use other features of the service, but I did check out their search engine — which in fact returned results not found in a Google search for the same criteria.

A joke where I come from goes “there’s only two kinds of music — country and western”.

I was mostly raised on 70s rock, but every now and again I settle into a wicked honky tonk bender. If you’ve ever done somebody wrong, or been done wrong by somebody else, you’ll recognize the sound of the steel guitar.

Honky tonk music started taking shape around the end of the first world war, found its stride through the 40s and 50s, and reached its zenith in the 70s. Henry Horenstein celebrates the sunset age in Honky Tonk: Portraits Of Country Music 1972-1981.

It’s easy to get lost in these pictures — moments frozen in time so clearly you feel yourself there. Horenstein’s photos document famous places and legendary entertainers, but my favourites are the pictures of people like you. So put on some Ernest Tubb, pour some Wild Turkey, and spend some time feeling lonesome for places you’ve never been.

In a national CBC poll last year, former Saskatchewan premier and socialist icon Tommy Douglas was voted the Greatest Canadian. With the federal election now over, the CBC has finally decided to air Prairie Giant: The Tommy Douglas Story on March 12 and 13. Check out the movie trailer here.