At Year's End

Everybody wants a great Christmas or New Year's story - the emotional kiss goodbye, the romantic kiss hello at a landmark, seeing long-gone friends or family members for the first time in years, new beginnings... the works.

And those who are lonely just feel lonelier, particularly if they happen to fall upon Holiday movies, which are usually centered around people finding others they connect with. Worldwide, the Holidays are the most common time of the year for suicides.

I don't have a dog in either race (that I know of), though I know people who will live those types of situations. I was just making the most out of the extended fall season when winter came back with a vengeance.

I usually live my life on the levels - a two-year plan for the ''big decisions'' (job, place to live, things relating to comfort level versus the problems that come with them), and a minute-to-minute reaction to everything else, which at times can involve big decisions (breakups, where friendships are going) but are mostly just paths, left or right, yes or no and the like.

Mid-term plans aren't usually my thing, which is why I'm not a fan of purchasing show tickets months ahead of time, because I'll forget and remember it's taking place at least a dozen times. The Holidays have that for me in droves, planning to go see my family here and there yet forgetting what day of the week we're at when I wake up in the morning (or afternoon, as was the case for the past few days). ''Yeah, let's meet on the 31st''... then ''oh shit, we're the 31st?'' and having ten minutes to do what I thought I would have three days to do them.

I've been putting off going to the grocery store for over a week now. But I watched all of The Boondocks, though... Netflix and sleep.

As I'm writing this, I realize I'm five days away from going back to work, 9 to 5, staring down an abyss of numbers that don't mean anything, listening to some Robert Schimmel CDs. I wish I could hibernate.

2015 was a year. It wasn't all bad (like, say, 2012), but it wasn't spectacularly nice. It had its moments; I had some good times, a few people made me smile a lot, I laughed, I cried. It would have made a terrible B-movie, or a great one if a character actor (John Turturro, Samuel L. Jackson, Paul Giamatti) played me better than I did.

R.I.P. Lou Reed

I mentioned it when J.J. Cale passed away, and now another member of my Sacred Five songwriters has died, Lou Reed. Of all of them (Eddie Vedder, Tom Waits and Renaud are the other three), Reed's vocal delivery and guitar playing (though not his ''ostrich'' - i.e. all-the-same-notes - tuning) was the one I ended up closest to resembling, albeit not on purpose.

Rolling Stone described his singing style thusly in 1971:

Reed's voice hasn't changed much since the early days. Outrageously unmusical, it combines the sass of (Mick) Jagger and the mockery of early (Bob) Dylan, but is lower-pitched than either. It is a voice so incapable of bullshit that it makes even an artsy arrangement work by turning the whole thing into a joyous travesty. Just as arresting as Reed's voice are his lyrics, which combine a New York street punk sensibility and rock song cliches with a powerful poetic gift.

As the tributes rolled in yesterday, you could see that his influence as a figurehead of all things New York- and arts-related still stood unscathed (everyone from Salman Rushdie to Samuel L. Jackson to Iggy Pop to Ricky Gervais had something to say); he was not only as unseparable from New York as Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Spike Lee, he was the city's underbelly, its history of upheaval, fights for gender equality (he even dated a transgendered lady in the 70s), its rampant drug scene.

He died of liver failure, 6 months after a transplant. It wasn't from eating too much citrus.

During his career, many critics noted that he had a tendency to forgo complicated musical arrangements and lyrics, instead opting for a more direct, succinct approach; still, his long list of musical collaborators over the years would leave a jazz and prog-rock fan a mouth-watering sensation: Jack Bruce (Cream), Aynsley Dunbar (Frank Zappa, Journey), Steve Winwood (Traffic, Blind Faith), Steve Howe (Yes, Asia), Rick Wakeman (Yes), Caleb Quaye (Elton John), Steve Hunter (Alice Cooper), Bob Kulick (KISS, Meat Loaf), and jazz great Don Cherry. Among others.

Some of his collaborations were ill-advised, particularly of late (yes, I'm thinking of the double-album from hell with Metallica, but he also could have done 2003's The Raven without bringing David Bowie back into his list of friends). But mostly, he'll be remembered for great songs about 'unclean' subject matter: drugs (Heroin, Waiting for My Man), sadomasochism (Venus in Furs), prostitution (There She Goes Again), the death of a parent (Standing On Ceremony), AIDS (The Halloween Parade), some favourite movies and plays (Doin' the Things That We Want To), racism (I Want to be Black), the electroshock therapy he received as a teen (Kill Your Sons), as well as transvestites and transgenders (Walk on The Wild Side).

But he could also write the perfect ballad, as can be attested by such gems as Pale Blue Eyes and Perfect Day. And while his early solo albums Transformer and Berlin stood as hard acts to follow and are no doubt considered his ''classics'' (especially after the post-dissolution praise for his work with The Velvet Underground), I'm still very fond of some of his later works, notably 1996's Set The Twilight Reeling (whose jewel case came in various colours, mine is purple) and 2000's Ecstasy.

I'll have never seen him perform live.

R.I.P. J.J. Cale

A lot of the folks I grew up reading (Hunter S. Thompson), listening to (Lux Interior) have died, and it was a matter of time before one of my Sacred Five Songwriters (Tom Waits, Eddie Vedder, J.J. Cale, Lou Reed and Renaud) also went down that road...

And yesterday, it was Cale, who died of a heart attack at age 74 in La Jolla, California (near San Diego).

The man whose songs were made popular by other artists - usually just a few years after he'd released them himself - such as Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Petty, Carlos Santana, and Captain Beefheart was widely considered as the pioneer of the Tulsa sound, which was pretty much a cross between blues, bluegrass and country found on either side of Oklahoma, where he grew up.

The only time I was aware that he came to Montréal was around 2003, but tickets had been sold out by the time I had gathered the cash for my ticket. A musician's musician, he was respected by the biggest names in rock, most of whom are in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame:

Clapton, when asked by Vanity Fair several years ago "What living person do you most admire?" replied simply "JJ Cale." Neil Young has said, "Of all the players I ever heard, it's gotta be (Jimi) Hendrix and JJ Cale who are the best electric guitar players."

High praise indeed, but all well deserved.

I've covered three of his songs myself, Sensitive Kind, Magnolia, and Cocaine, usually a heckler-friendly tune to play in seedy bars in the wee hours of the night, though very few people are aware Cale wrote it - as is the case for pretty much all of his songs.

Losing this major talent is a huge blow to great music. I urge you to grab any one of his 14 albums, his 2006 collaboration with Clapton The Road To Escondido, or at the very least, his first hits package Special Edition, which also happens to be how I got to discover him as the CD was given to me by my brother's godfather, Jacques Thériault, on my 13th birthday.

The Sad-Off

Samuel L. Jackson and Anne Hathaway (with a cameo from The Daily Show's Jessica Williams) discuss how sad their upcoming movies are and, in the process,find common ground and some kind of Holiday Spirit.

The Sad Off with Samuel L. Jackson and Anne Hathaway from Samuel L Jackson     

Rejoice, My Friends

I was a bit sad, maybe even borderline depressed when the Habs lost the game 6-5 last night, after holding a 4-1 lead to start the third period.

Then I remembered that there are other things, perhaps even more important things in life than sports, especially when other people are doing the playing for you.

And right away, I started my quest to feel better, looking for something that was mood-changing.

I found it, and I'm sharing it with you.

You're welcome.

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