Catching Tigers in Red Weather

funeral song

2009-06-10T21:41:00.004-04:00

I found the song I want played at my funeral! You know how people sometimes write that down for reference? Well this is it.
I discovered Laura Nyro in high school and when I did, it was as though someone was saying "Girl, why so weak? Holler! Let it out! Holler! Bellow to the silver moon!". Laura Nyro never held back. And her positivity radiated from almost every single song.

So She's invited to the funeral. Which won't be for a long time. Just sayin'. Funeral song!

maybe I should just become a gardener

2009-06-04T17:10:00.007-04:00

SUMMER TOUR!

2009-05-31T16:52:00.002-04:00

Beef Tongue & Podcast #3

2009-04-13T22:59:00.003-04:00

My friend Drew turned thirty this past weekend and in honour of his aging pallet, we ate an assortment of wigged out meat between us.

Drew - Lentils & Testina (rolled pig face)
Joel - Raw Horse Sammy
Rachelle - Pork Belly
Valery Gore - Beef Tongue
As well we had a sampling of head cheese, and other strange consistency meats.

It was delicious. But I have to say (and I'm not over-dramatic about these kinds of things) that my stomach killed afterwards.

Podcast Number Three is posted on my official website. Click on the image above to have a listen (scroll to bottom of Media page)!!!

reading e.e. cummings

2009-04-02T18:12:00.003-04:00

sometimes i find life extremely frustrating and other times i don't let it bother me. but dreams can really get me down. mostly because they seem so distant, some tiny dead planet with a spark. and you have only to wonder if you're really aligned.

so on that thought, i read and liked this poem while sitting in the kitchen, waiting for the chicken to marinade.

XIX

i will cultivate within
me scrupulously the Inimitable which
is loneliness,these unique dreams
never shall soil their raiment

with phenomena:such
being a conduct worthy of

more ponderous
wishes or
hopes less
tall than mine"(opening the windows)

"and there is a philosopy" strictly at
which instant(leaped
into the

street)this deep immediate mask and
expressing "as for myself,because i
am slender and fragile
i borrow contact from that you and from

this you sensations,imitating a few fatally

exquisite"(pulling Its shawl carefully around
it)"things i mean the
Rain is no respecter of persons
the snow doesn't give a soft white
damn Whom it touches

-e.e. cummings

2009-03-29T19:32:00.007-04:00

then maybe we
will kiss
for things gone

disappearing

and things happened to the pace
of present happening

I'll leave a necklace
strung around
and beads that bind
to the backs of other beads

and we'll be living proof
of a reaction
a reply to the words
that send us

back to basics

2009-03-27T11:37:00.005-04:00

I wish there were ample hours to each day, to get back to the routine scales. Around the circle of fifths, or climbing-by-semi-tone-hypnotic-mahinery-fingers, whizzing by four octaves, working up the grit under keys. A great way to dust my favourite piece of furniture.

I think I can I think I can

2009-02-17T21:32:00.009-05:00

Well, hello there.

In honour of the weather shaping up ever so slightly, we took our ice skates down to the rink for the first time....for me it had been two years. Small children falling down all around us, you could see the funny effects of city living on people's ability to skate. Unlike my man Joel who played hockey and glides around the ice like a gazelle. A very tall one at that.

I ventured around my parents' yard this winter and shot through the viewfinder of an old Kodak Duaflex I bought off eBay. I miss taking pictures.

Winter is on its way out, and many new things are stomping along the eaten up pavement. Do Right Music, my record label is throwing a Remix Contest for Shoes of Glass. More info is at http://www.valerygore.com.

Last week my very talented film savvy friends and I put together this EPK for Avalanche To Wandering Bear.

JAGA JAZZIST - A LIVING ROOM HUSH

2009-01-22T12:33:00.004-05:00

I am listening to this album for the first time. It is kick ass. I first heard Jaga Jazzist when I picked up their newest album (2005) What We Must. I never knew they had an album before The Stix, and just discovered that they have plenty of other music. This song in particular is making me turn it up full blast on my headphones. What a groovy lil bass line!!!!!!!

Airborne - Jaga Jazzist

Horseshoe - January 28th - Toronto

2009-01-13T16:29:00.001-05:00

December Vacation

2008-12-23T10:25:00.015-05:00

Wow, I've been so very lame at keeping up with my blog as of late! It's the last day of work before I head out into the barren, snowy fields of Ridgeway, Ontario for some family and fun.

December was a great month.

Photo by Leo Araujo

The company I work for sent us on an amazing holiday cruise to the Bahamas. The festivities started off with a trip to New York for two nights and then a very early flight to Miami. We boarded The Imagination cruise ship, destination Nassau, Bahamas. Funnily enough, the very boat I rode on was the office of none other then Devon Henderson, my handsome bassist. He cruised around on that boat and played upright for pretty well a full year after college. In fact, so many of my friends played on these boats. I heard No Woman No Cry and Waiting In Vein at least twice a day, and many brave covers of Michael Jackson! That's no easy man to cover!

Photo by Leo Araujo

There was a water park, mini put, disco, and of course, hot tubs.

There's my friend Leo! He looks very small next to the imagination!

We roamed around Nassau, Bahamas, found an old prison dungeon under the city libary, walked along the water to a seafood restaurant where Leo and I ate Lobster Tail. Later that night, the entire company went to a local restaurant on the water where Marcin and I went kayaking in the very high winds. Afterward we had dinner on the beach, followed by local entertainment. Fire eating woman, flaming stick limbo-man KING BARACHA, as well as a brass band dressed in costumes playing while we took our congo line around the bar.

On the day we had to fly out of Miami, we spent time at a penthouse on the 43rd floor along the ocean. The view was amazing. We ordered food and drinks without having to leave our lounge chairs and Marcin was attacked by fifteen seagulls. Good times.

I enjoyed sitting around and doing nothing so much that I'm going to take a week in January to travel to Cuba! Start 2009 off right! (i.e. enjoy the calm before the storm of 2009). I am very very excited for the next year. Happy holidays everyone! And all the best for the new year!

v

I love you Sarah Vaughan

2008-12-04T13:31:00.004-05:00

Video: Perdido

Yesterday all day I had the song Jump For Joy, sung by Sarah Vaughan in my head (I recommend you download it on iTunes). This song is absolutely infectious. It makes me want to dance and freak out. It allows me complete loss of control!

Oh Sarah Vaughan. I can't imagine sitting in your front row.

Video: You're Not The Kind

Podcast #2!

2008-11-28T12:28:00.005-05:00

Avalanche To Wandering Bear is off to a good start, with fantastic reviews and smiling faces. Therefore as a toast, here is the Val Gore PODCAST #2. Click the image below and scroll to the bottom of the Valery Gore Media page.

B for Bama | T for Teary

2008-11-11T12:26:00.005-05:00

Barack and I are side by side this week in the Japan iTunes store. Anyone from Japan can download Shoes of Glass for free as Single of The Week. But I recommend the entire record. I am biased, though.

While we're on the topic of Obama, I will list a few things that moved me to tears in the last couple weeks! Why not?!:

- Obama's mention of 106 year-old Ann Nixon Cooper and the changes she's seen in her country....

- I also get teary eyed when I think of my dad. For the past three months, he has invested his spare time, money and sanity on fixing up a 1991 Toyota Tercel for me, while my Cutlass Olds stood on its last legs. Right down to the paper work, numerous trips to the stale MTO office, and us turning the key for the first time to reveal a full tank of gas, my dad did an amazing thing at helping me out and showing me how much he cares and supports what I'm doing. My Papa Gore was also extremely helpful in getting the body work and painting done. It looks brand new! And zips around like a mosquito! I am very grateful to have the family I do.

The man at the wreckers took my '88 Oldsmobile off our hands and asked if we'd like it to have a nice burial. My dad exclaimed "Drive it off a cliff". Then the man told me my car would be a tin can in three weeks and horrific images of it being shredded flashed through my mind. My dad asked if we'd ever been through a wrecker lot. I peered back at it and my curiosity heightened! What an eerie place it is! All the dead end stories. Such finality, that last car hug in the parking lot.

Mama Luchetti

2008-11-07T16:19:00.005-05:00

I haven't laughed so hard in weeks. Click on the below image and on the right side of the page, click "Play Blender". They're all pretty funny, but this one is hilarious.

2008-11-04T23:03:00.002-05:00

I am so excited for America, as I watch the thousands of little US flags and beaming faces, bouncing around in the rally crowds. They just announced that Obama will make it to the white house.

It's as though for once in a handful of years that the right thing is happening for them. And for all of us.

Almost unbelievable really.

Album Release

2008-10-28T11:20:00.004-04:00

It is a great feeling opening my online store, stocking my office shelves with fresh from the manufacturer CDs. And let me tell you - they are slick. No plastic. And 100% crazy artwork.

I have to say that there needs to be an upcoming post that saves me from the fact that my blog is starting to dictate my website. I think life has been throwing me so many things at once that I have no clear vision of it. Insight is required if I'm going to talk about absolutely anything on this blog.

Have a good day!

The Wait

2008-10-16T16:32:00.001-04:00

It is life in slow motion,
it's the heart in reverse,
it's a hope-and-a-half:
too much and too little at once.

It's a train that suddenly
stops with no station around,
and we can hear the cricket,
and, leaning out the carriage

door, we vainly contemplate
a wind we feel that stirs
the blooming meadows, the meadows
made imaginary by this stop.

poem by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by A. Poulin

Harper the green booger

2008-10-15T11:10:00.001-04:00

me moh. Stephen Harper you are the cream in my coffee. I hate cream.

Podcast #1 - A Sea of Wannabe Green

2008-10-09T21:42:00.004-04:00

Friends! I made a podcast! It brought me back to the mixed tape; the hours upon hours organizing two sides of songs with hidden messages for a boy in eleventh grade. And optimizing those two sides by writing down the length of each song and figuring out how to fit them all within two sets of 45 minutes. I am so addicted to music, a podcast is just where I needed to put that energy!

Of course, I don't have much practice at the talking part. But feel free to have a listen and then come back here and comment about what a loser I am.

think the thinking thoughtful - side tracked

2008-10-08T22:24:00.003-04:00

Silence on my street
Darkness in my yard
Ticking of the clock
The dogs have all gone indoors

There is time

I think the thinking thoughtful
I am snowed over by its warmth
And of other thoughts that shed themselves -
The overheated cloth

montreal

2008-10-07T15:31:00.006-04:00

Montreal was pretty fun. Except that Montreal seems to cloud over any time I cross its borders. And unfortunately, the following things did or did not happen:

-Dan vomited over vitamins. I never knew that was possible! But the dude got sick on vitamins. Guess that's why they tell you to take them with a meal.
-traffic happened. lots of it.
-Valery attempted the Dodos show four times and was refused each time and wound up sitting in Sala Rosa, drinking a terrible margarita and crying, but just a little...
-Valery and band saw a really bad band instead.
-Dan was forced to eat samosas after having just eaten dinner because apparently this one bar has a law that each drink has to come with 400 additional calories of deep fried food.
-we ate at every other wendy's truck stop on the 401 heading home. Additionally, we also ate at the one KFC.
-no smoked meat sandwiches. no poutine. you ask, 'what the hell were you eating then'. wendy's. kidding.

All in all though, Montreal is a beautiful city. For the rent we pay in Toronto, we could have a palace in Montreal. Our friend Jo Ann put us up in said palace, a real nice place with a cute, weird cat.

We also really enjoyed The Lovely Sparrows from Austin. Really cool guys, very sincere. I got their record and am digging it. http://www.myspace.com/thelovelysparrows

I just recently found a guy named Jonathan Wilson on myspace. I think he's great: http://www.myspace.com/songsofjonathanwilson

I also just got the new EP from Josh Reichmann Oracle Band which is cool. He used to go under Jewish Legend, but was also the frontman of the Tangiers. Woo!
http://www.myspace.com/joshreichmann

In other news, I will be creating a series of podcasts to post on my website leading up to and during the release of my new record. I hope you'll check them out and make fun of me and my inability to podcast properly. Oh and myspace has finally decided my songs should show up on my page after having uploaded them two weeks ago. You can check out new material there or on www.virb.com

Pop Montreal / The Border / Avalanche

2008-10-01T23:01:00.003-04:00

My band and I are heading to POP Montreal this Friday, October 3rd to play an 8pm set at Cagibi. Hi Lonely Oak and The Lovely Sparrows will also be performing that night. More info if you click on the POP logo.

My song "CBC" will be played during CBC's The Border, airing this Monday, October 6 at 9pm. I know, how bizarre of a situation. Oh CBC, you've done it again!

My second album titled Avalanche To Wandering Bear will be in stores in Canada and around the world digitally on November 4th. Due to Myspace being slightly messed up right now and them holding my mp3's in purgatory, please check out four new songs off the record on my VIRB space virb.com/valerygore. CLICK the cover to go there!

The CD RELEASE PARTY will be on Friday, November 21st at Supermarket. A bunch of shows will be coming up before the Christmas holidays, and more Canadian touring throughout the early new year. Announcements will be posted periodically so check back! Happy fall.

2008-09-17T21:16:00.004-04:00

I'm the master of second catastrophe
I lag into my position, ankle wound with the
iron anchor of security
when you are all
loose and light
with loss

my mouth becomes paper
thin
an origami muscle
contraption, shut
for words to accompany
the end to a day

losing is the lightning
striking force and hitting
born from the second
before: the having
and then never again

I call my family
as though verbalizing
vulnerability
saves us

I choke on the words
to my father
I gather myself
for my mother

my mother:

all things golden
and tempered

cheese

2008-09-16T23:41:00.004-04:00

photo: I would love to go back to this exact moment in my life and get inside my head; consider how easy it was for me to wear pink socks with white sandals. To wear pink at all, and to just stand and smile. Because pink was never really my thing, but as a kid you are able to grin and bear the complexities of life, the chosen tack colours of the day.