OMG!

Why does this kind of freak me out... just checked itunes and amazon.com and the CD is up there as well... available in whole or by single song download... i guess that something about being a part of the apple empire and actually participating in this 'new economy' is very odd... I had enough trouble with the old economy, much less the new one...

anyway... for those who swing that way - its now searchable, viewable, buyable on

Amazon
Rhapsody
Tradebit
Apple iTunes
GreatIndieMusic
PayPlay
Inprodicon (whatever that is...)

Virtual CD Launch Party

At last the digital age. My first CD goes up on sale for downloads at CD Baby. You can just click on a button and the songs will arrive in your computer - no clumsy jewel case, no CD to get scratched - it is all virtual. I feel so light and modern and new... I'm thinking of following the example of Jane Siberry and changing my name, renouncing possessions and travelling the world with nothing but a macbook and a great set of clothes.... but then I'd also feel a bit too much like a character in a William Gibson novel...

anyway, I digress... the songs are available at http://cdbaby.com/cd/bremner or just click on






it features 14 songs from Weill's early works with Brecht to his last unfinished Broadway show: Huck Finn. The pianist is the wonderful Stan Cramer. This CD came out of a collaboration between Stan and Bremner on a show of Kurt Weill’s songs that has since toured across the world. Critics have said…



"Bremner Duthie has a voice of power and inner beauty that commands the whole space..... One feels seduced by the sheer power and beauty of this performance"
-- Musical Stages Magazine: London, England



“And my god, does he ever sing. Bremner's performance is jaw-dropping-my jaw literally dropped-as he not only sings beautifully but actually performs the songs beautifully as well. " --View Magazine, Hamilton , Ontario



"When he sings, his voice is like a big, dark, sultry room --full of emotive and expressive possibilities. Even when Duthie sings in languages other than English, the passion and subtext come startlingly alive." -- The Georgia Straight, Vancouver



“For many of us, our first exposure to Kurt Weill was on Bette Midler's early albums. Since then, such performers as Ute Lemper and Teresa Statas have become great interpreters of his music. Add Bremner Duthie, the star of 'Whiskey Bars' to that list. He delivers a stunning, stirring rendition of "What Keeps a Man Alive?" and his 'Mack the Knife' is done slowly and seductively, because it's a song for a bad boy. – Stephen Lavigne, Minneapolis Web Reviewer



“Bremner Sings Weill is a 15-song collection of some of the best work of German-born composer Kurt Weill, most famous for his collaborations with writer Bertolt Brecht but who also worked with such lyricists as Ira Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein. Duthie - with fabulous accompaniment by pianist Stan Cramer - savours each word as a succulent morsel. With Duthie's comforting, soothing baritone voice, this is music to satiate the soul.

Thanks to his background in opera, and talent for cabaret and broadway song styles, Duthie "pays close attention to text," as the expression goes. Indeed, he treats every song as a script and each is quite scenic - none more so than his unique and pleasing interpretation of Weill & Brecht's "Mack The Knife". His vocal presentations also range from celebratory ("Bilbao Song") to mischievous ("Apple Jack") to soft and gentle ("Speak Low"), and then immediately to passionate and with gusto for a trio of tunes ("The Song Of The Big Shot", "What Keeps Mankind Alive" and "Alabama Song"). If you're at all interested in the music of Weill, this is a CD to add to your collection. If you're not familiar with his work, this CD would make an excellent primer. Bremner Sings Weill ... he also sings well ... exceedingly well, as a matter of fact."
Robin Chase, Winnipeg Web Reviewer


FEATURING:

Mack The Knife
(lyrics by Bertold Brecht, from Three Penny Opera)

Youkali
(lyrics by Rodger Fernay)

Bilbao Song
(lyrics by Bertold Brecht, from Happy End)

You Gentlemen Who Think You have a Mission
(lyrics by Bertold Brecht, from Three Penny Opera)

Alabama Song
(lyrics by Bertold Brecht, from Mahagonny)

I'm a Stranger Here Myself
(lyrics by Odgen Nash, from One Touch of Venus)

Je ne t'aime pas
(lyrics by Maurice Magre)

Lost in the Stars
(lyrics by Maxwell Anderson and Alan Paton, from Lost in the Stars)

My Ship.
(lyrics by Ira Gershwin, from Lady in the Dark)

Speak Low
(lyrics by Ogden Nash, from One Touch of Venus)

The Song of the Big Shot
(lyrics by Bertold Brecht, from Happy End)

Nowhere to Go But Up
(lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, from Knickerbocker Holiday)

Apple Jack (backing vocals: Stan Cramer)
(lyrics by Maxwell Anderson, from Huck Finn)

Moon Faced Starry Eyed
(Lyrics by Langston Hughes, from Streetscene)

One Life to Live
(lyrics by Ira Gershwin, from Lady in the Dark)

Gators and Chicks

One last post on Florida. Incredible that these two things can co-exist in the same cheezy theme park - unbelievable delicate nesting birds inches from the camera, and huge fat sleepy overfed gators teased into tearing up raw chicken carcasses...

on the way

and a final highway shot ... ah the glorious tackiness of my home country... I'm gonna miss it... 'cause you know, you just can't beat a big plastic lizard..

the South

so everywhere we go they tell us that Florida is not the south... even though it is south of the south, its still the north! OK....whatever.. but its not till we drive five hours north to visit a friend in Savannah Georgia, that I realize that they were right... north of florida is actually the south. The accents change, everything gets slower and older and suddenly you're in Savannah, where a series of garden squares defines the whole of the old town and moss drips off the Live Oak trees that loom over the ornate buildings. Its just gorgeous... and after the sprawling modern city of Orlando, where you can't get anywhere without a car, it was a pleasure to just walk and walk and walk. Our friend Christian took us out to great jazz bars and restaurants and sent us on our way the next morning filled with a fab breakfast of fried peanut butter and honey sandwiches... now that's the south...

Over and Out

So the Orlando Fringe is over. We rushed out of there and were on the road 30 minutes after the last performance, hightailing it for Sarasota to meet up with Lisa's Parents.... ok, ok... we stopped briefly to get some Krispy Kreme donuts... it only seemed right after weeks of dieting to be able to do this damn show in my underwear... It was great to be back on stage with this show. I miss this goofy and angst ridden character. Its interesting to do the show again and again over the course of several years and see how he and I are evolving. Its harder to get the mix of total confusion he had 7 years ago when I wrote this piece, but I think that he has more conviction on stage. I'll be doing a presentation of it as a fund raiser in Toronto at the end of June... and, for what it's worth, here is what one reviewer thought of it in Orlando... I think he captures the show pretty well..




Whiskey Bars, A Kabarette with the Songs of Kurt Weill
May 17th, 2008 by carl-gauze

Whiskey Bars, A Kabarette with the Songs of Kurt Weill
By Bremner Duthie
Big Empty Barn Productions
Yellow Venue
Orlando International Theater Fringe Festival, Orlando, FL

The whole point of cabaret is that seedy decline into nothingness. But just as a drowning man rises 3 times before the end, the true cabaret singer occasional returns to his former glory and produces one heroic heart rendering performance. Bremner Duthie's "Performer" is on that journey, preparing for a self-financed comeback show that feels doomed from the start. We meet him back stage as an unseen theater critic attempts to fill a few column inches with a readable story, and the Performer makes an attempt to win a new and seducible friend for the evening.

Punctuation this bitter sweet story are the songs of Kurt Weill, sung to a recorded accompaniment from an impossibly large boom box. You know some of them, "Mack The Knife", perhaps "Bilboa Song", "You Gentlemen Who Think You Have A Mission" and a few more obscure ones, including two with lyrics by Ogden Nash, the king of 1950's doggerel verse. By the time he reaches "Speak Low", he has complete stolen your soul, and you wouldn't dream of asking for it back.

Duthie dresses as we watch, building his persona on a base of white face, black tuxedo, and a Soviet-sized glass of cheap vodka. His nearly flat but vaguely European accent gives the songs depth, and a happy set of available lighting makes the show incredibly theatrical. All that's missing is a haze of cigarette smoke and our own glassfuls of cheap liquor.

from http://columns.ink19.com/archikulture/

A Cracker Bird Lover's Paradise

So the oldest theme park in Orlando is not Disney's Magic Kingdom - it's Gatorland! When we told our friends we were heading there they called it 'Crackerville' (Cracker of course being slang for poor white trash in Florida). And it lived up to its name - alligator wrestling, alligator jumping competitions (upcoming video on that), alligator tidbits at the greasy cafe... But weirdly enough, it also turned out to be a nesting paradise for all these super delicate beautiful Florida storks and wading birds. And it was breeding season so we got up close and personal with some very new birds.... but first we visited the Gators...

















But round the edges of the swamp where they have the very very fat and very very sleepy alligators (spoiled things get fed tons of Turkey hot dogs by the tourists... ok, ok... I admit it... I fed them turkey hot dogs as well... ) there are the nesting places of marsh birds, which nest naturally over alligators and crocodiles: thus avoiding the possibility of being raided by Racoons or other rodents... smart little birds... They were amazing. Innumerable nests filled with tiny just hatched storks and ducks and herons... and some very protective mama birds.

Flotilla at Sunset on Key West

Sat on the dock and watched the sun go down, then unexpectedly a whole string of spectacular sailing ships went by right in front of us... a great end to the trip to Key West...

Pelican's on Bahia Honda

I had just swum through an immense school of flashing silver fish... felt like a million fish all around me... and then these guys appeared to appreciate the little fish in a different kind of way...

houses and stripes

a few more pics of the amazing houses in Key West...and one of Lisa looking tropical....

the keys

So in my last post (from a month or two ago) I had to force my way through a mountain of snow to take the snap of that car submerged by a blizzard. And now I'm sitting under a fan in Key West watching the palms blow in the sun. Sometimes procrastination works well ... We're taking time between Lisa's research on her Home book and my show in Orlando to visit the Keys. I haven't been down here for oh... since I was seven... I remember beaches and heat and limes and it seems things haven't changed that much... The picture above is from the veranda of Hemingway's house in Key West with a view of the lighthouse that dominates that part of the Island. Below is Bahia Honda national park, where I spent much of my time as a tiny tanned child... absolutely stunning beach...




The architecture in Key West is amazing... the old Conch houses were built by Shipwrights and have stood up to 150 years of hurricanes. The island was spared any wave of renovation in the mid-20th century because the depression apparently hit it quite hard and it stayed depressed until the 60's when people actually began to pay attention to all the historic houses. Now its a bit touristy and bit overdeveloped around the edges, but the historic centre is just stunning with enourmous Key Lime trees hanging over the houses and gardens filled with Palms. We had a great time just walking around and around the island.






One of the surprisingly non-cheesy highlights of Key West is the Pirate museum. We went expecting a good dose of fake and kitchy pirate themed rooms, but it turns out to be the private collection of a billionaire who has been collecting pirate paraphernalia for years and has put it all on public display. Real gold from Blackbeard's sunken ship. Guns and knives that belonged to Pirate kings, maps pulled from pirate ships and (one of the highlights) an actual treasure chest that belonged to a Pirate that was left behind when he left for his final journey, and never made it back... steel plate inside, a huge locking system inside the lid and a secret lock makes it all look very useful for holding pirate treasure...

Yes, well

I'm not sure any comment is necessary for this picture...apart from something like 'Ah, Canada...' (though for those not in the know the info that the immense moose statues perched on this guys roof are also wearing the Toronto Hockey Team and Baseball team jersey might help you appreciate the beauty of the moment....)

A Night out in Toronto the Good, and strange

So, I wandered out to see an Icelandic new music/pop band play at the Drake hotel which a relatively pretentious art hotel that has a couple of venues and they were fine, a little minimalist, but kind of charming, in a artlessly artful kind of way. And then I wandered on over to the Gladstone to see if I could get a burger... well, the kitchen was closed, but it was probably because everyone in the hotel, and most likely the chefs as well, were in the Ballroom, watching a new local sport that's cropped up here - competitive pillow fighting... I'm not sure how much is the lure of sport or how much is the lure of watching girls in pigtails and little kilts whack each other with pillows....





luckily the lakeview lunch was still open on the way home... so I managed to get a grilled cheese and fries in one of it's faded art deco diner booths

Snow Day

We're almost over the 1939 record snowfall! It is spectacular around the city.



This is the kind of winter that I remember as a kid in NYC.

and Ok, I don't drive, so I'm allowed to just enjoy it. However, to get back to an earlier post about the cost of snow removal, CBC broadcast a whole show on the economic and environmental problems with the way we cope with snow in Canada, and its pretty devastating. Apparently in Sweden they don't salt and the snow removal is much more basic, everyone has to have studded tires and the expectation is that in winter you are going to have to cope with the weather and the problems. Currently the cost of snow removal in Toronto is up to 48 Million bucks and they are forecasting going over budget for the upcoming year... They interviewed a guy who'd been given a ticket for parking on a snowy street the day after the big snow storm - his car was out in the street enough to block all the Streetcars and therefore all the public transit. And he was screaming in anger at the City since they hadn't cleared the street enough for him to park conveniently... talk about a feeling of entitlement...

Anyway... rant over... I'm gonna go walk the dog and watch her leap into the snowbanks...

In the Lap of Greatness

One of my Heroes... Glenn Gould sits very (very) quietly in front of the CBC studios on Front St. in Toronto with his trademark gloves and hat and scarf. One of Canada's true, fabulous, brilliant eccentrics. I'd put a link to his foundation's site... but it is so, so dull and he was so wacky and wild and always fascinating....so here's a youtube link to a very young Glenn at the piano... and if you want to hear about his life long obsession with Petula Clark, then click here