The 1900s
Cold and Kind
Most breakups result in tubs of ice cream, not creative epiphanies; fortunately, for the seven-member The 1900s, emotional disaster has turned into a pretty, and pretty cohesive, record. Employing various boy-girl vocals, the album mines the same personal wreckage as Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours, while adding enough surprises to separate it from the 70’s lite-rock cannon. If there’s one thing The 1900s share with their idols, it’s the fact that they’ve made an album, album – from the urgent piano of the first tracks, to the gospel-ish choir in the middle to the aching coda at the end, Cold and Kind is best experienced, for all its beautiful ebbs and flows, as a whole. Highlights: The whole thing…(also: Wool of the Lamb, Georgia, When I Say Go)
The Foals
Antidotes
The Foals are their own genre, and that genre should be called divisive listening. If you hate kinetically-charged math rock with a Battles meets Brit-rock aesthetic, then you’ll hate the Foals; if you love lyrics that repeat every third word because it sounds cool and random thrown-together subject matter that came freshly picked out of a hat, then you’ll love the Foals. Antidotes is simply a frustratingly, enjoyable, unbearably, wondrous album. Highlights: Red Sock Pugie, Olympic Airways, Cassius
Al Green
Lay it Down
You know the drill – trot out former all-star, dominate the record with “supporting” new all-stars and let everybody collect a cheque. Well, Al Green isn’t going down so easy – Lay it Down might “feature” John Legend and half of The Roots, but it’s still Green’s show. Green’s falsetto still has its stunning wattage, and it basks in the syrupy sweetness of the AM radio horns, old-school Hammond organ buzz, and fat bass lines. Of course it’s not Green’s best work (that’s Call Me), but it is his best work since returning to recording in 2003, and it captures the essence of satin soul better than anything else released since Green retired the first time around. Highlights: Lay it Down, Just for Me, You’ve Got the Love I Need
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Balzac Mall Maul
Who puts a mall in Balzac?
Somewhere right now there is a group of people, probably seasoned professionals, sitting around a table. These people are agreeing that building a mall in Balzac is a good idea. Not only do they think that a mall is a good idea, they think it should be a super-mall ala West Edmonton Mall.
No doubt they have charts, they have research and they have statistics that support this idea. These people not only think that a super-mall is financially tenable, but that it’s likely to turn some kind of profit. While I’m no expert, my gut feelings says no, they’re totally wrong.
The news of course, sounds like a regurgitated press release and states that most of the retail space is already leased, that the mall will feature wondrous shopping and entertainment and will take advantage of a booming Alberta market. They’re forgetting the most important thing though – will anybody go there?
I realize Calgary’s exponential outward growth makes Balzac pretty close to the city limits, but unless you actually live on the northwest/northeast corner of the city, it’s not a convenient location. One of the things that makes West Edmonton Mall appealing for its core shoppers, Edmontonians, is that it’s reasonably fixated within the city. A Balzac mall is a drive for someone relatively central and is almost Odyssey-an for anyone living in the deep southwest or southeast.
And, unless you can get Calgarians to go there regularly, you’re not going to turn a tidy profit. Tourists alone won’t be enough to carry a mall of this size.
I’m all for ambition, but this venture already has a bad location on its side. If Canada (and partly Alberta) ever slides into recession like the US, we could be looking at one of the biggest and most expensive financial disasters in Calgary, or not quite-Calgary’s, history.
Somewhere right now there is a group of people, probably seasoned professionals, sitting around a table. These people are agreeing that building a mall in Balzac is a good idea. Not only do they think that a mall is a good idea, they think it should be a super-mall ala West Edmonton Mall.
No doubt they have charts, they have research and they have statistics that support this idea. These people not only think that a super-mall is financially tenable, but that it’s likely to turn some kind of profit. While I’m no expert, my gut feelings says no, they’re totally wrong.
The news of course, sounds like a regurgitated press release and states that most of the retail space is already leased, that the mall will feature wondrous shopping and entertainment and will take advantage of a booming Alberta market. They’re forgetting the most important thing though – will anybody go there?
I realize Calgary’s exponential outward growth makes Balzac pretty close to the city limits, but unless you actually live on the northwest/northeast corner of the city, it’s not a convenient location. One of the things that makes West Edmonton Mall appealing for its core shoppers, Edmontonians, is that it’s reasonably fixated within the city. A Balzac mall is a drive for someone relatively central and is almost Odyssey-an for anyone living in the deep southwest or southeast.
And, unless you can get Calgarians to go there regularly, you’re not going to turn a tidy profit. Tourists alone won’t be enough to carry a mall of this size.
I’m all for ambition, but this venture already has a bad location on its side. If Canada (and partly Alberta) ever slides into recession like the US, we could be looking at one of the biggest and most expensive financial disasters in Calgary, or not quite-Calgary’s, history.
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