DFA79 Says, "Checkmate!"

The counter for the three cash registers is in the shape of a large U, and the bottom of that letter faces the door. The floor is linoleum, large square tiles. What to do on a slow day, and nothing lined up? 32 empty one-gallon cans turned upside down on the floor, symbols scrawled on the upturned bottoms. The white side went traditional. Spiky crown for king, splintery crown for queen, armless footless little boys in dresses representing pawns. The black side drew skulls for pawns, a 666 for the queen, and a pentangled hand for the necromantic king (hey, Riddick!). Oh, there was a LOT of detailing. Yeah, it was a bit awkward walking from till to till when there were customers in the store. Best part was when one burly customer started giving me chess tips. Maybe it was due to him, but someone won both games, and it wasn't the bad guys. Does this make me the biggest nerd ever? Napoleon, like anyone can even know that! I am now the Only All Time World Champion in the store-floor chess league!

Elsewhere, us men should put our face-knives away, because the moustache is back! Maybe these boys'll become superstars over here, too. Death from Above 1979 finally gets a little official recognition with two video awards from the MMVAs. Let's not get carried away—DFA79's videos are (so far) bland chunks of footage, their video for "Romantic Rights", for instance, not half the goodness that is The Killer's version of that bright-lights concept. But the pictures are getting the muzak out there, right? Me, I fell for DFA79, hadn't even heard the music, after I heard they'd played in some living-room in the UK, dropping a huge show for a bunch of 13-year old kids who happened to win a contest. Because DFA79 are sincere like you don't know. Read on some site somewhere that our boys are huge in Britain, but barely known outside of indie circles here in Canada! Check that, ra! What the writer forgot was that indie IS mainstream now. We've got Nickelback, yeah, and Beyoncé, and hip-hop banging around huge, but the buzz is gone, friends, the buzz is gone. What will all the cliques do now? Pity the poor hipsters.

And you know, I still love Great Big Sea.

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

Reading: the second last paragraph, the second-last line of it—"For it is the End of the dominion of IMPOSTURE (which is Darkness and opaque Firedamp); and the burning up, with unquenchable fire, of all the Gigs that are in the Earth." Read The French Revolution + Thomas Carlyle (see previous post for links)

Listening: "Blood On Our Hands" + Death from Above 1979