WHISKEY PRIEST with ANNA LINDA SIDDALL and THE FUTURE HAS A SILVER LINING at Sneaky Dee's Rating: NNN

We hit Wavelength 395 in time to catch the tail end of Philly free jazz unit The Future Has a Silver Lining, a trio who don't fit comfortably into the jazz club or indie rock scene. Too heavy and distorted for the beret-and-cigarette-holder set and too skilled (check guitarist Nick Millevoi's two-handed guitar hammer-ons) to impress jaded indie kids, TFHASL are odd ducks on most bills, which is probably how they like it.

The dour-looking, stool-sitting Anna Linda Siddall and her man Colin Fisher followed with a volume-challenged set that came on strong early against the back-of-the-bar chatter but eventually lost the fight midway through. Too bad – those yahoos missed a lovely Paul Simon-inspired original called Let's Go Back To The River and her compelling John Martin cover to close.

After a witless and self-servingly long intro by resident mouthpiece Doc Pickles, Mississauga post-punks Whiskey Priest blazed through a batch of throaty Touch and Go-style Chicago rock numbers. WP are a tight unit, with gruff duelling vocals recalling early Hot Water Music and complex guitar arrangements that are cerebral yet hit you in the gut. Keep these guys on your radar.

http://www.nowtoronto.com/music/story.cfm?c..161352

I was also in the City Paper Culture Shock section:

Esperanto

There's a whole community and subculture on the Internet based around Esperanto, the international language. The people and the language offer a really fascinating story whose major players include Ludovic Lazarus Zamenhof ("Doktoro Esperanto"), China, the micronation of Rose Island and about 100,000 to 2 million fluent speakers (200 to 2,000 of whom are considered native speakers)! One of my favorite fun facts is that "Esperanto" is Esperanto for "one who hopes." And, of course, the flag of Esperanto is an astounding sight to be seen. Quite an ekspozicio de monstroj!

 http://www.citypaper.net/articles/2008/01/17/culture-shock