Former Anthrax Guitarist and His Wife's Story of Caring for Their Autistic Child

This is from the Palm Beach Post:

Just before Christmas 2011, as Candi Spitz was putting her twin boys to bed, four-year-old Jaden took her face in his tiny hands and said, “Sweet dreams. Mommy loves you.”

Candi burst into tears. These were the first words Jaden had spoken since he and his twin brother Brendan had regressed into autism three years earlier.

“It was my most touching moment,” Candi said. “I knew everything I’ve said to them for the last five years is in there.”

And it gave her the one thing every parent of an autistic child needs: Hope.

Candi’s husband felt it too. Danny Spitz, the twins’ father, is a rock star, Grammy nominee and former lead guitarist for the metal band Anthrax. But none of those accolades mean much when examined beside the arduous daily life of his sons, trapped in a private world of manic meltdowns and rare magic moments.

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I Like This: U.S. Girls

This one has been making the rounds of people involved in the Polaris Music Prize.  Beware that the video is a little NSFW.

U.S. Girls- Work From Home from Chrissy Jones on Vimeo.

Here's a Stompin' Tom Memorial Graphic Making the Rounds

You may find some place to use it.

Top 10 Facts About New Order's "Blue Monday" (Which Turned 30 This Week)

The world's best-selling 12-inch single turned 30 yesterday.  A couple of facts about "Blue Monday:"

1.  "Blue Monday" is about Monday, May 19, 1980, the day that the three surviving members of Joy Division learned that singer Ian Curtis had hung himself.  The Happy Mondays' name was conceived as an antidote to that.

2. The track was designed to be played on autopilot.  Because New Order hated doing encores, they wanted to concoct a track that could be played by machines so they could get backstage and start drinking sooner.

3.  The song contains a mistake:  Gillian Gilbert accidentally left out a note while programming everything into her keyboards so the melody is out of syncy with the beat.  But the result was too much of a bother to fix.  And besides, it sounded pretty good.

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Mapping Stompin' Tom's Songs with Help of Google Maps

No one wrote more songs about Canadian places than Stompin' Tom.  PEI. Newfoundland. Sudbury. Leamington. Elliott Lake.  Timmins.  What would it look like if if these locations were mapped out?  

Like this.  Click on the image to learn more via Canadian Geographic.