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A Generation of Canadian Media Culture
by Melanie Strong
Up here, where the secretive and unassuming Canadians live and breed, generations have been raised on Saturday morning cartoons and after dinner sitcoms. In that, myself and my fellow Canucks are no different than any other Westernized country.
In fact, much of our collective cultural consciousness has been permanently altered by the broadcasted American stations to which we all tune in. Our childhoods and our childrens’ hoods are filled with NBC, HBO and Dan Rather’s eyebrows.
Knowing full well that a country is only as patriotic and tax-paying as its media makes it, a lovely concept called Cancon was created to feed 50-60 percent Canadian content down our collective gullet on any Canadian broadcasting station.
This content often took the form of cheaply produced drama series, hastily concocted news programs and and even sketchier sketch comedy programs. Many of these attempts by our entertainment industry have been largely forgotten. It has become the shorts in between these and other shows which would come to define us as a culture. Our childhoods predominantly featured renditions of the song “Don’t Put It In Your Mouth” and the awareness that drugs are sometimes bad and that we should ask our mom or ask our dad.
Don’t you put it in your mouth / Don’t stuff it in your face / Though it might look good to eat / And it might look good to taste / You could get sick / Real quick / ICK!
Drugs, drugs drugs! / Which are good? /Which are bad? / Ask your mom or ask your dad!
Such sage advice can be attributed solely to an organization called Concerned Children’s Advertisers. The CCA is responsible for over thirty public service announcements that predominated my awareness of the dangers of the world around me. If it weren’t already known that the 1980s were drug-fueled (see: He-Man), I would have guessed it anyway from the amount of anti-drug advertising that seeped into my brain. Speaking of drugs and brains, check out your brain on drugs:
Perhaps, for me, one of the most touching commercials of my youth comes from the CCA and also deals with the effect of drugs. Using The Hollies’ “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, this public service announcement (PSA) shows the difficulties of dealing with a drug-addicted friend:
Still makes me all girly-eyed.
As well as all of these anti-drug commercials mave have worked on us (they didn’t), the PSAs also focused on bullying, self-image and abuse. Check out more here.
Not everything on TV is real.
The War Amps of Canada are an organization originally created to help veterans who had lost limbs in the line of duty. It eventually evolved to provide financial and social support to all amputees. As part of this, the War Amps took it upon themselves to do educational outreach about safety, to hopefully reduce the amount of accidents experienced by Canadians each year.
“I am Astar. I am a robot. I can put my arm back on. You can’t. Play safe.”
Our government, in an effort to prevent obesity and heart disease (so as to not clog up our wonderful universal health care – NB: didn’t work) created a program, in association with Health Canada, called Participaction.
There’s nothing quite like vintage claymation.
Get it?
Keep fit and have fun, with Hal Johnson & Joanne Mcleod!
Aside from warning us of the dangers of our lifestyle, Canadian advertisers and the government decided to educate the toque-wearing masses.
Hinterland Who’s Who catches a frazzled mind’s attention immediately with its haunting lone flute introducing the latest indigenous animal deserving of thirty seconds of undivided attention.
The beaver. We used to hunt ‘em some good.
The Muskox, Canada’s ton-ton.
And, ahhhhh, Canadian history. Heritage Moment quotations can still be heard echoing through drunken kitchen parties from Vancouver to Cape Breton (that is, coast to coast).
“Dr. Penfield, Dr. Penfield, I smell burnt toast!”
Guess what you didn’t know about Canada?
The first wireless transatlantic communication came through Newfoundland to Marconi.
Winnie the Pooh was named after a Canadian black bear named Winnipeg.
We made a crazy airplane that never saw the light o’ day.
We had an Underground Railway for freeing slaves.
Finally, the National Film Board –long a saviour of independent filmmakers and animators nationwide – is responsible for the epitome of the Canadian mythos:
The Log Driver’s Waltz: This is rendition performed by the McGarrigle Sisters (Kate McGarrigle is the mother of solo artists Martha Wainwright and Rufus Wainwright.)
Melanie Strong is the senior contributor to This Recording. She can be found here and here and especially in Canada.
Canadian Content for This Recording:
“Far Away” – Martha Wainwright (mp3)
“Mostly Waving” – Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton (mp3)
“Consumption” – Laura Barrett (mp3)
“Kennedy Killed the Hat (Dance Remix)” – MSTRKRFT (mp3)
“You Can Heal” – The Heavy Blinkers (mp3)
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
Molly explored the fifties TV angle.
We gave you a lil’ mixtape.
When you’re with me, I’m free.
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Ernst Haeckel’s Radiolaria
by Melanie Strong
German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor and artist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919) is not considered a household name by any means. His varied and extensive work gave rise to the terms ecology and First World War, the rise of Darwinism as a valid theory and the discovery and proposal of the Protista kingdom of organisms within biology.
Perhaps his greatest and most enduring work is found in his artistic endeavors, in which he sought to combine his creative vision with his desire for scientific accuracy.
Haeckel’s focus for many years was an intricate, single-celled organism known as a Radiolarian. In his initial work with them, he found, named and depicted over 150 diverse species. He would go on to document thousands more.
Radiolarian are single-celled, oceanic organisms. Their cell is separated by a tiny central capsule into endo- and ectoplasm and it is on this endoplasmic exterior that amazingly intricate mineral skeletons are composed. Their remains comprise the majority of the ocean’s worldwide fossil record, especially in shallow coastal waters.
Explanations for this organism’s intricately patterned silica skeleton are disputed. Most believe that it allows for feeding and buoyancy.
The perpetually symmetrically patterned perforations form gradually as the organism feeds and the leftover skeleton is extracted from a build up of minerals and silica.
The radiolarians’ inherent two-dimensional nature is directly altered by the effect of this process and it becomes an elaborate three-dimensional, microscopic structure.
While Ernst Haeckel was not the first or last scientist to work with radiolarian, his art and his work remain today as a testament to the marriage that can exist between the two. Haeckel believed that all shapes found in nature exist in radiolaria and wondered if God did not use these tiny creatures as a drawing board for further design.
Haeckel’s work, life and the science of the times is outlined extensively in Icarus’ Films award winning Proteus: A Nineteen Century Vision. Drawing on the apparent dichotomy in Haeckel’s life (art versus science and then the twinning of the two), Proteus explores the complex simplicity in radiolarians and in science itself.
Melanie Strong is the senior contributor to This Recording. She also is an asshole on tumblr!
“Öngyilkos Vasárnap” – Venetian Snares (mp3)
“Strange Love (Don’t Be Lazy)” – Brent Randall & His Pinecones (mp3)
“Ping Pong” – Stereolab (mp3)
BEST OF MELANIE STRONG!
Melanie on surrealism
“There is nothing quite like sitting in your underwear“
Spores take control of your brain, Melanie shows you how
Binge and Purge
She controls the five elements of earth
Melanie’s tumblr
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
Molly’s a mindfreak.
Why we are the way that we are.
Frank O’Hara was the man.
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The Two Sisters (Giorgio de Chirico, 1915)
Keeping It Surreal
by Melanie Strong
“To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been.” – Rene Magritte
Cannibalism in Autumn (Salvador Dali, 1936-37)
Reflet (Yves Tanguy, 1959)
The Temptation of St. Anthony (Hieronymus Bosch, 1500)
“Artistic imagination must remain free. It is by definition free from any fidelity to circumstances, especially to the intoxicating circumstances of history. ” – Andre Breton
The Lovers (René Magritte, 1928)
“Surrealism! What is Surrealism? In my opinion, it is above all a reawakening of the poetic idea in art, the reintroduction of the subject but in a very particular sense, that of the strange and illogical.” – Paul Delvaux
Celebes (Max Ernst, 1921)
“Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn’t insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.” – John Lennon
At the Risk of the Sun (Yves Tanguy, 1949)
“Surrealism is born of a consciousness of the derisory condition allotted to the individual and his thought, and a refusal to accommodate oneself to it.” – Jean-Louis Bédouin
The Birth of Liquid Desires (Salvador Dali, 1931-32)
“The mind which plunges into Surrealism, relives with burning excitement the best part of childhood.” – Andre Breton
L’Ange du foyer ou Le Triomphe du surréalisme (Max Ernst, 1937)
The Disquieting Muses (Giorgio de Chirico, 1916)
Close-up of The Garden of Earthly Delights (Hieronymus Bosch, 1503-1504)
Ubu Imperator (Max Ernst, 1923)
“The painting develops before my eyes, unfolding its surprises as it progresses. It is this which gives me the sense of complete liberty, and for this reason I am incapable of forming a plan or making a sketch beforehand.” – Yves Tanguy
Through Birds Through Fire But Not Through Glass (Yves Tanguy, 1943)
La Thérapeute (René Magritte, 1941)
“My painting is visible images which conceal nothing… they evoke mystery and indeed when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question ‘What does that mean’? It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.” – René Magritte
Metaphysical Interior With Biscuits (Giorgio de Chirico, 1916)
Soft Construction With Boiled Beans Premonition of Civil War (Salvador Dali, 1936)
Oedipus Rex (Max Ernst, 1922)
“Ponytail” – Panda Bear (mp3)
“Comfy in Nautica” – Panda Bear (mp3)
Untitled (Wind). Sans titre (Il vent) (Yves Tanguy, 1928)
“Leaf House” – Animal Collective (mp3)
“Did You See The Words” – Animal Collective (mp3)
Hector and Andromache (Giorgio de Chirico, 1917)
“I Am The Walrus” – The Beatles (mp3)
“Strawberry Fields Forever” – The Beatles (mp3)
Melanie Strong is not the senior contributor to This Recording. She cannot be found at Assholes or Our Hell and she certainly doesn’t create surrealism-inspired drawings on MS Paint and post them at Binge and Purge.
The Sensitive Layer (Yves Tanguy, 1933)’
“Psychologically speaking, to discover something mysterious in objects is a symptom of cerebral abnormality related to certain kinds of insanity.” – Giorgio de Chirico
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
Back in middle school.
Hoarse of course.
You might like it there.
The Red Model (René Magritte, 1934)
This Recording does not do drugs, it is drugs.
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From Waxed Moustaches to Ys Being the Best Album Ever
by Melanie Strong
There is nothing quite like sitting in your underwear, endlessly searching for the perfect version of girls dancing to Daft Punk’s Harder, Faster, Stronger. (By the way, it’s a toss up between this one and this one.)
From the lovely toothpastefordinner.com
Let’s share some of the beautiful things I have learned thanks to my love of google images and forum lurking.
:::
Isaac Asimov is perhaps the most prolific writer of all time. He published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (the sole exception being the 100s, Philosophy) and wrote or edited more than 500 books plus at least 9000 letters and postcards. He also made one super fucking hard trivia game.
Onigiri, or riceballs, are adorable as toys and delicious as food.
Yes, Patrick Stewart has always been sexy. And funny.
The medicinal plant, Kava Kava works as an anti-depressant and helps relieve anxiety. If you drink enough, you get really drunk. It is banned in North America. I am sad.
Men can be multi-orgasmic too.
If you are in Japan, and you are underage and you really need to buy cigarettes from a vending machine, you can flash money at the age verifiying camera and get smokes no problem. (But you shouldn’t smoke, it is bad, mmm kay.)
South Park is lovely.
Cyriak is surprisingly talented and surprisingly unknown.
When the Hubble Telescope inevitably breaks down, around 2013, we will be without those awe-inspiring images that give us goosebumps and replace our Milla Jovovich desktop backgrounds for months at a time.
or
Hmmm…
Joanna Newsom and Andy Samberg are pretty much my favorite couple ever.
If string theory were a person, I would want to date it and meet its parents.
Fortune cookies are a Western invention.
I can’t even describe it but this is amazing.
LOL Cats + Sci-Fi = <3
You can download and print off and cut out characters that have lost all resemblance to their natural shape. Then you can give it to your little brother or hang it up in your window to collect dust and spider nests.
Crass, the influential yet largely unliked British anarcho-punk band from the early 80s, concocted a fake recording of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Regan discussing the sinking of the HMS Sheffield during the Falklands War. In it, it was alleged that Europe would be used as a target for nuclear weapons in any conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. This recording was leaked and became known as “Thatchergate.”
There is something called the reactable and it is amazing. It is an electronic music instrument that takes the form of a lit-up table top. Multiple users can interact with it using completely movable controls that represent normal syntheszier functions.
People make cakes that give me wet dreams.
The white space in television static represents unused bandwith that could provide univeral wireless internet.
H.R. Giger was involved in the preliminary set design for the originial Dune movie.
‘
Salvador Dali was going to play the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV.
Neither happened due to lack of funding. David Lynch was finally chosen to direct and it eventually got out in one version or another.
This is my favorite part of Dune. Why? … Do you really have to ask?
You can look up all of your favorite old-timey toy robots and hope that your friends get the hints to buy you a couple for your birthday.
Rachel Brice is a bellydancer who is pretty much single-handely responsible for introducing the Tribal Fusion style into popular culture. It is a seperentine and sexy series of movements that focuses on core strength and serious muscle isolation.
So many things are so funny:
“Sadie” – Joanna Newsom (mp3)
“Bata Motel” – Crass (mp3)
“White and Nerdy” - Weird Al (mp3)
“In My Little Thatched Hut” – The Fiery Furnaces (mp3)
“Temporary Secretary” – Paul McCartney (mp3)
“Qui Est “In” Qui Est “Out”?” – Serge Gainsbourg (mp3)
From the lovely xkcd.com
Melanie Strong is the senior contributor to This Recording. She realizes that this post is full of references to “doing it” and can be found slightly stalking your tumblr or posting her own at Assholes. Also find her at Our Hell and Binge and Purge.
Self-portrait of the author.
MORE JOANNA TO SATE YOUR ADDICTION
Yarn and Glue is the self-distributed second EP by Joanna Newsom. It was released on CD-R in 2003. “What We Have Known” later appeared as the B-side to the “Sprout and the Bean” single and the title track is otherwise unreleased. The other songs were all re-recorded for Newsom’s debut full-length album The Milk-Eyed Mender. Being a limited edition release it is now unavailable outside of file sharing networks and second hand exchanges.
“The Sprout and the Bean (demo)” – Joanna Newsom (mp3)
“This Side of the Blue (demo)” – Joanna Newsom (mp3)
“Yarn and Glue (demo)” – Joanna Newsom (mp3)
“What We Have Known (demo)” – Joanna Newsom (mp3)
“Bridges and Balloons (demo)” – Joanna Newsom (mp3)
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
Peter Asen on Gertrude Stein.
A biblical journey for the ages.
Goddamn you half Japanese robots.
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Something Is Growing Down There
by Melanie Strong
I dream of fungus.
My dreams see me in the in the dark labyrinth of the underground, deep in its secret cortex. The body of the beast spreads out for thousands and thousands of miles. Its network spreads itself across the entire earth.
Fungus DNA more closely resembles animal DNA than plant. Some sources cite at least a 50% similarity between fungi and human genetic makeup.
Something is growing down there.
The largest and oldest creature in the world is a fungus that is the size of 1665 football fields.
In my dreams, I can hear the fungal thoughts. I attribute this to the overwhelming amount of spores seeping in through every space of my body. The entity is calm, peaceful and patient. It is not malicious but still planning our demise.
In the same way that it sucks the water away from the tree roots, killing them so that other species may flourish, it will infect us and destroy us to allow the return of the natural order.
Fungi are classified as their own distinct kingdom, totally separate from plants and animals in their cellular structure, their reproduction and their feeding habits. While animals and plants have two classified sexual genders fungi have no gender, only mating types. Fungi do not use photosynthesis to obtain food but instead act as scavengers or parasites. Feeding on decomposing or sometimes living organisms, fungi ingest their nutrients by excreting enzymes into their food source.
Fungi exist as molds, yeasts and mushrooms as well as morels, rusts and a whole bunch of other adorable names. We commonly think of mushrooms when we think of fungus but fungi live all around us: in our homes, on our food, on our skin and in our bodies.
Fungi travel as tiny spores which are genetic clones of their parent. They take hold and grow tiny threads called hyphae which function as scary feeding tubes. In large numbers, hyphae form mycelium. In this structure, fungi are among the largest organisms on earth. Malheur National Forest in Oregon is home to the most impressive creature, which spans an estimated 8.9 square kilometres (5.5 square miles) or 2000 acres. Conservative estimates place its age at 2400 years but it could be as old as 7200.
Mushrooms and their fellow above-ground buddies constitute the sexual component of a fungus. These fruiting bodies exist only to give off spores and recreate the cycle once more.
It is hungry. It adapts, it destroys. In the dank recesses of the tangled maze I can feel its need. It is not mindless in its desire, but relentless and ruthless.
Aside from the expected soil nutrients, insects and various discarded remains, fungi have been known to consume asbestos, jet fuel, plastics and resins (including CDs), men’s faces, the MIR space station and radiation from Chernoybl.
They are parasitic. The terrifying Cordyceps fungus takes total control of its victims and forces them to their death in order to continue its own life cycle. What if this fungus becomes transmittable to humans? One astute gentleman says:
So what if this fungus moved onto humans? What if there was infact [sic] a whole range of sub species of fungus that turned not only humans but turned the whole place into a veriable zombie apocalypse scenario? Now your going to ask yourself “well why the frick would it be a zombie apocalypse” and I’d awnser [sic] “because it’s better then a non zombie apocalypse”.
Fungi normally found in decaying trees have also been found living in humans. To reiterate, a man lost his face when a strain of fungus invaded his nasal passage. We already live in a world where yeast infections take over our bowels, our genitals and our skin. Fungi live and thrive all over us and we don’t even notice. “Before panicking, it’s worth remembering that even while you’re reading this you’re probably breathing in some fungal spores,” says the same site that also told me about wood-loving macrofungi living in some poor unsuspecting people.
The benefits of Psilocybin mushrooms aside (John Cage, Jefferson Airplane and that time I looked at fractals for six straight hours), fungi are responsible for innumerable allergies, illnesses and deaths (it even killed a man gardening). It only tempts us with its visions of fluid realities and its chewiness in sushi. There is something called a slime mold and it can do this to you. The X-Files had it right.
I cannot deny that fungus has its positives. Penicillin, anti-termite foam and a possible cure for OCD can’t be ignored. I think it has us right where it wants us.
Mold will cover everything. The waters will ferment. Toadstools will spring up while we sleep. The mushroom cloud that destroys us will not be atomic.
“End of the Day” – Beck (mp3)
“Ending Song” – Keren Ann (mp3)
“How’s It Gonna End” – Tom Waits (mp3)
Melanie Strong is the senior contributor to This Recording. She forms part of the Canadian contingent and is doing her best to keep the area immediately surrounding her free of spores. She writes at Assholes, Binge and Purge and Our Hell.
“Evil Urges” – My Morning Jacket (mp3)
“Evil is Coming” – Broadcast (mp3)
PREVIOUSLY ON THIS RECORDING
Journey to the land of Sasha Grey.
Hook-Ups And Gnumbers
Masturbating On Radiators
