Foo

In my opinion, one of the greatest rock bands ever is The Foo Fighters. After the death of Kurt Cobain in 1994, the drummer of Nirvana went into the studio to make an album. According to several interviews he really didn't know what would come of it. Twenty years later, one of the best bodies of work is still growing. That drummer's name is Dave Grohl and I think he is one of the most interesting people in the world.

For me, the turning point of Dave Grohl was many years ago when he appeared on the The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. He sang the Elton John song Tiny Dancer. I have a copy of the performance on my iPod and I never skip the song. It's just a guy strumming a guitar singing off the teleprompter but the honestly in the performance and the how he connected with the audience changed my opinion from just another rock star to someone connects through music.

The latest Foo Fighter project is called Sonic Highways. It's an album and more. The music is great. Attached to the music is an eight part HBO series where the band goes to a different city each episode, talks to some of the local musicians about the local scene and history. From these interviews they write and record each song from the interviews.

The episodes are riveting.

Not only is the series informative but as the series trailer says, it's love letter to American music. It would have been very cool to be a part of the making of the series. The raw honesty and reverence shown by the band as they enjoy the journey jumps off the screen.

Another cool part of this project is during the same week that the HBO episode airs, the band plays a small but important venue from that city. We are talking about cool places like the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville and the Roxy in Los Angeles. Places that matter to music in the cities they stand in.

The Foo Fighters have sold a lot of albums and sold a lot show tickets. I'm sure they have a few extra bucks to take on ambitious and expensive projects. I know not every band out there could do this even if they want to. It's not that they can but that they do things like this. They let us in to see why they love music. Not everyone is prepared to let the public in.

You may not be a fan of The Foo Fighters, you may not have heard of them. That's okay. If you like music and want to see how some seemingly regular guys make it, I suggest you check out the HBO series Sonic Highways. It will grab your soul and not let go. It will make you love music even more. It will teach you something and capture your imagination. It will make you want to create something. It is that good.

I'll be honest, I really liked The Foo Fighters long before Sonic Highways but I find all this so inspiring. It is one of those projects that can change the way people see things. That doesn't come along everyday.

The Long Ribbon of Asphalt

I travel for my job and I make weekly trips to Belleville and Kingston, Ontario. It's a routine drive down freeway highway. There can be a lot of traffic but there is a median, on-ramps, and multiple lanes.

Starting a the beginning of November, regular trips to Sudbury, Ontario have been added to my tasks. Sudbury is about 500 kilometres away down a two-lane, undivided highway. This time of year, a lot of the trip happens at night. It is a very different experience from driving down the freeway.

As I was driving out to Sudbury, I started to think about a long two-lane highway through remote country. I grew up in a small town on the Canadian prairies, I have driven many miles down two-lane highways. Even with traffic all around you, I feel isolated. There are stretches where people don't really live. To access the highway, you simply drive up to the intersection and turn the way you want to go. It has a simplicity you don't experience on the freeway. It reminds me of home.

Although this lifeline for these communities is not at the state of the art, it is still well above a dirt cart path that was probably the first over-land route through this area. When you don't have the width and infrastructure of the freeway, it looks different as you drive between hills and through valleys.

The real key to enjoying a trip like this is to not be hung up on how long it is going to take you to get there. You will be held up by traffic. You will face some weather. You will lose time. However, I have satellite radio and music on my phone, synced to the car. I can find music that matches the mood and enjoy the drive. 

You probably won't be able to use the cruise control for a lot of the trip. For some reason a lot of people in Ontario don't embrace the magic known as cruise control and their speed varies greatly as they travel from place to place. Because you will get trapped behind slower moving traffic, you will have to disengage the cruise control and accept that you will be held up from time to time. 

All that being said, I am nostalgic for the feeling of driving down the two lane highway though vast wilderness. It takes me back to a simpler time and sometimes we need a bit of that in our life.