Just a few days ago, Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper got the support of Canada’s New Democratic Party during a crucial vote for the 40th Parliament’s survival and that of his minority government and staved off the defeat of his government in the House of Commons as promised by the opposition Liberals.
Not only does Harper get by with a little help from Jack Layton’s NDP, but apparently also with Yo-yo Ma.
Harper did a surprise performance during a Yo-yo Ma concert at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa tonight, playing piano and singing the Beatle’s “With A Little Help From My Friends”. Ma backed him on the cello. The crowd went wild.
Here’s a bit of video. It was started well into the song, but it’s the only one I can find. Mr. Prime Minister is on the piano and lead vocals in the centre.
(EDIT: This has been replaced with the official video from the Prime Minister’s Office)
Let the parodies about Minority Government and the song ensue!
If the whole Prime Minister/Calgary-Southwest MP/Conservative Party Leader gig doesn’t work out he definitely has a future singing.
Sorry for not posting in a while. I’ve been working alot and school has been hectic. I have not abandoned you, however! I will be posting soonish with my impressions of Ubuntu 9.10 Beta (which is out now: www.ubuntu.com)
Today I am going to completely ignore the release of Ubuntu 9.04. Yep, ignoring it. Ignorrrriiiinnnngggg… Ok, get it at www.ubuntu.com and use the torrents instead of direct download!
That aside, let’s talk about music.
Earlier this week, I spent a $50 gift card that I got for Christmas at the iTunes store (I’ve been waiting for the DRM to come off and now that’s happened it’s completely worth the wait). My purchases include stuff from Great Big Sea, the Good Lovelies, the Doctor Who Soundtrack, Feist, and one of my favourites: 50 Most Essential Pieces of Classical Music (for $11.99).
But I’d like to look at taste in music and what exactly music is…
First off, what is not music.
Rap.
As I’ve said before, rap is spoken-word that focuses on beat rather than melody and – as I strongly suspect – stands for Retards Attempting Poetry. Rock, punk, country: I can accept this as music (having an issue with the last one, but to each his own) but rap is like the weird uncle in the family of music that no one ever does – or ever should – invite to the gatherings of the music family.
Despite my strong music on this so-called-music, I’m not going to hold any sacred cows. Not all Classical music is up to scratch either.
Now, the Classical style is firmly within the confines of any definition of “music”. However, I hold particular dislike for some of the rambling, lighthearted works of the Romantic era (prefering instead Beethoven’s darker pieces and Chopin’s minor compositions). I would consider myself a Beethoven fan, but there are some of his things that I just can’t stomach (particularly the fluttery bits in the middle of the 5th and 7th Symphonies, which are great, dark, dramatic pieces of music and then have a wish-washy glaze of bleh in the middle)
I would also say that I like big-band (especially Sing Sing Sing) but still some of that I can’t stand unless it’s in the background.
Does anyone else have musical bones to pick? I haven’t even started mine but if you have them poast them!
I am a fan of the Magnatune music label for several reasons. First, perhaps, is their good stock of Classical European music. Another is they let you listen to the full song in high quality with just a little blurb saying it’s from Magnatune at the end. Another is that it is built into the Rhythmbox Music Player for GNOME (default in most Linux distributions using GNOME, including Ubuntu and Fedora Linux). Perhaps the best is that it isn’t evil. They let you do all this and then they let you choose what to pay for an album (minimum $5).
I have not actually ever bought something from Magnatune but that’s for lack of funds, not wanting to.
Anyway, here’s one of my favourite groups called Kitka; they play Central and Eastern European traditional/classical music.
And they let you embed full albums on your site, so courtesy of Magnatune, here’s Kitka after the break!
Recent Comments