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<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">an<FONT size=4>d this is what I left as a
comment on Bob’s blog, slightly edited and remixed here</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">As romantic as the idea of GG recording
the interviews on the Muskeg Express is, he actually conducted the interviews in
CBC studio in Toronto. One person remembers that he did ask quite intelligent
questiona and was “conducting” during the interview. It would later take weeks
for the whole thing to be cut and pasted together again. What would now be quite
easy with Cubase must have been tedious work back then ! ! </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">It was the first ever broadcast in
stereo by the CBC if I remember correctly and even if some issues are out of
date now it is still fascinating to hear. I also heard that the Muskeg is no
longer in use, so Bob’s Adventure is now History, like flying with Swissair or
going to the post office for stamps.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">If you are new to GG and never heard
IoN before you can do so here:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><A title=http://www.cbc.ca/gould/audio.html
href="http://www.cbc.ca/gould/audio.html"><FONT
size=4>http://www.cbc.ca/gould/audio.html</FONT></A><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"> (60s section) and while you are there please also check
out the other documentaries he did (Memnonites and Newfundland).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">Maybe his idea of mixing IoN the way he
did was remarkable, but hardly revolutionary. Artists like Steve Reich in his
pieces Come Out and It’s Gonna Rain used similar concepts before and I assume
that GG borrowed a few ideas from chaps like Pierre Scheffer, John Cage (Happy
100th !) and if he was aware of what William S. Burroughs was doing with his
sound cut-ups then I would not be surprised this found its way into IoN,
probably more unconcious than not. Avantgarde being absorbed by a highly
conservative musician, but there you have it.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4 face="Times New Roman">The funny thing about IoN is that it
works both as a sort of “ambient” recording but also as a serious, yet dated
documentary and is also quite revealing about GG himself, probably more than he
ever realized.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR>
<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
size=4 face="Times New Roman">These days it is so easy to record and manupolate
sond/sounds/samples, it would be interesting to get the master tapes of the
Opening Trio and try to remix the intro just for fun but that is probably just
me daydreaming...</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
size=4 face="Times New Roman">Our former f_minor list owner MaryJo Watts had a
sort of fantasy of playing IoN full blast in an empty football stadium. I like
that idea, with the NHL walkout that could be tried in a hockey arena with the
chill as a welcome effect...</FONT></DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none"><FONT
size=4 face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV></DIV>
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<DIV
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size=4 face="Times New Roman">Pat</FONT></DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma">
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=bobmerk@earthlink.net
href="mailto:bobmerk@earthlink.net">Robert Merkin</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, September 19, 2012 9:12 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=f_minor@glenngould.org
href="mailto:f_minor@glenngould.org">Discussion of the Canadian pianist Glenn
Gould.</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [f_minor] The Idea of North -- GG's Winnipeg-to-Churchill
MNwilderness train in a few weeks! Polar bears! Aurora!</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
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style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Hi et salut hallo f_minorites,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Been busy lately, pecked about the ankles by
angry ducks ... so I'm sorry if I haven't posted much lately. </FONT><FONT
face="Palatino Linotype">But I faithfully read (almost) every post.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">* * *</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Between the last week of September and the
first week or two of October, (mostly male adolescent) polar bears will make
their annual migration around and through the tiny Hudson Bay freight shipping
port town of Churchill, Manitoba Canada.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">I guess rich pervs can comfortably fly
there, but for Normal Human Beings, you catch a train (diesel, 'cause you're
going Way Off The Electric Grid) in Winnipeg and head North through the vast
gorgeous Canadian forest wilderness for 2.5 days until -- far beyond the Tree
Line, in Arctic permafrost tundra -- it finally reaches Churchill.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">(Like all beach towns, you'll be just a
block or two from the beach, which is the astonishingly otherworldly Hudson
Bay.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">One Human Being who rode this train there
and back again was Glenn Gould. In 1967 the CBC asked what he'd like to
contribute to a big Anniversary, and GG took a tape recorder and talked to the
passengers riding this train to the Canadian North. The result -- after GG's
revolutionary mixing -- was his first radio documentary, "The Idea of
North."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">(If you've never heard TIoN, a little web
shopping or library surfing could get all three radiodocs to your ears in a few
days.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">It's my wish that the world-unique train
trip, the wilderness, and annual polar bear migration might seduce just 1 or 2
or maybe 3 addled f_minorites to investigate buying a round-trip seat or sleep
box on This Amazing Train.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">I promise any GG fan addled and
irresponsible enough (as I once was) only The Adventure of a Lifetime. I promise
nothing more than that. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">(Except up-close-and-personal encounters
with polar bears, polar bear warning signs, barred doors up and down main street
to keep out the poar bears ... )</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">For a week you'll be Less Than No. 1 on the
Food Chain. Running shoes are much better than great wildnerness
boots.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">For whacks like me, this is one of the most
famous train journeys on the planet, the subject not just of TIoN, but of
documentaries that have peppered TV for decades.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Likely, you've waited too long to book this
famous trip -- but it's been my experience that if you want a journey bad
enough, and you whine, and bribe, and lie, and wheedle, and then just show up
waving cash, they usually find space for you and your backpack.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Or for you and a pal, and both your
backpacks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The crammed snack bar car -- this is a
heavy-drinking frontier train, affordable transportation for the people in these
parts -- is possibly the most interesting cage of colorful people I've ever
spent hours in.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">You could semi-officialize something This
Train has never had -- a living, travelling memorial to GG's 1967 trip, what it
meant to him, and what it did to his creative life. By just chatting with
passengers, or lending them flash drives of TIoN, f_minor could treat Glenn to
another train ride to Churchill. Glenn made Hudson Bay his own just as much as
Toronto.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The buzz is that Churchill is the world's
hottest, most active spot to view the Aurora. It sure looked astonishing to me.
The Native-Canadians are mostly Inuit, some Swampy Cree, they have their own
(missionary-introduced) alphabet, and if you are lucky they will share some of
their experience with you. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">The food's very interesting, some of it
stunningly delicious, and unobtainable in civilized regions. (Calling Churchill
"civilized" would be a stretch.)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">In my Amazing Adventure, there was no hint,
no rumor, no whisper that the polar bear -- the largest and best
hunter-carnivore on Earth, mostly it hunts seals on winter ice -- might be
coming to the end of its mellennia as undisputed ruler of the circumpolar
Arctic. The anomolous numbers of polar bear drownings hadn't yet been reported
by US federal scientists. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">GG's earlier trip ditto -- everyone assumed
the great and dangerous wild polar bear migration would be there for humans to
marvel at forever.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">So now, as you ponder a wildly irresponsible
and impulsive adventure, there's an added urgency. We're looking at a future,
some now think in our lifetimes, when there'll still be polar bears ... but only
in the world's zoos. As the polar ice melts, the wild bears will drown trying to
swim to the next ice cake.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">If you are completely impulsive and
irresponsible -- bring me back photos and souvenirs, send me a
postcard!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Bob</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype">Massachusetts USA</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Palatino Linotype"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG><FONT face="Courier New">News, Global
Warming, Mozart, Sports, Intergalactic Travel, sausages, <BR>VOLCANOS!!! opera,
PIRATES!!! Filth in Extinct Lingos, </FONT></STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2 face=Arial><STRONG><FONT face="Courier New">Big Integers &
BOINC: </FONT></STRONG><A
href="wlmailhtml:{5DCCCBC1-9FD4-4643-AE45-6A75B7A13918}mid://00000021/"><FONT
size=2
face="Courier New"><STRONG>http://VleeptronZ.blogspot.com/</STRONG></FONT></A><BR><FONT
size=2 face="Courier New"><STRONG>Remarkable Older Stuph: </STRONG></FONT><A
href="wlmailhtml:{5DCCCBC1-9FD4-4643-AE45-6A75B7A13918}mid://00000021/"><FONT
size=2
face="Courier New"><STRONG>http://Vleeptron.blogspot.com/</STRONG></FONT></A><BR><BR></FONT><FONT
size=2 face=Arial></FONT></DIV>
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