Hard Wear from Rope A Dope

Check out the Hard Wear line from Rope A Dope sold at the recent benefit for Scotty in NY. Limited sizes are now available in Canada from Rich Rabnett. Contact Rich directly at <richrabs@shaw.ca>

The shirts are$30 CDN, and he has the following sizes available:

2 M, 5 L and 2 XL

To hear Rich's music go to http://www.myspace.com/rabnett5

By the way, the latest Rabnett 5 release Leopardism is available from Rope A Dope records and was recorded and produced by Scotty Hard. And the cover for Leopardism is classic and deserves its own shirt. Hear me Rabnett???? Get on it and send me a copy.

Just added-Kinnie Starr to the Hardstock 08 lineup

Who sounds like sade greets neil young while kissing plug one on the lipsand listening to outkast ... who just HAPPENED to be thinking about debbieharry?????KINNIE STARR!I am proud to announce the additioni of Kinnie Starr to the lineup ofHardstock 08.To learn more about Kinnie read on:BIO: from http://www.kinniestarr.com/The Kinnie Starr you already know: MC-singer-poet-actress-beatnik -musicmaker - who was born in Calgary, became her adult self in Vancouver,and was raised on heavy doses of Zeppelin, Sade and De La Soul's DaisyAge.... Discovered she could kick it live one night in NYC (1993), when anopen mic called, and the crowd carried her through three blazing encores("edgy... enchanting," said the New Yorker).... Tidy (Canada 1996; U.S.A.1997) was the first of Starr's four records - her new one is calledAnything, but we'll get there in a minute - which drew critical acclaim fromall corners."An artistic, feminist, angry, well-articulated rant of the highest order,"said allmusic.com; "raw, funny and definitely an original," added the Globeand Mail.... Kinnie was a lead player in the alt-indie film Down and Out with the Dolls(filmed in 2001), directed by Kurt Voss (of Sugar Town fame).... Two yearslater, she lived and worked in Las Vegas, singing for Zumanity, Cirque duSoleil's controversial cabaret production.... and she found a new,comfortable home at MapleMusic Recordings releasing Sun Again in 2003- plusa publishing deal with Last Gang Publishing and their partner company Olé, …the same year Kinnie earned a Juno nomination for Best New Artist.... Alsoin 2003, Starr co-wrote Carmen Rizzo's Beso, a song for the soundtrack ofthe acclaimed film Thirteen... In 2004, U.K. production wizards Hybrid andBlackwatch cut body-rocking club remixes of Starr's song Alright (ReleaseRecords), a Sun Again stand-out.... She performed at the 2005 NationalAboriginal Achievement Awards… Kinnie has toured Japan, the U.K., the U.S.A.and Canada in the past five years - which brings us up to speed with thehere and now.... "A lot of people who love hip hop love what I do, because I'm doing my ownshit," she says. "I try to uphold the old-school MC mentality when I'm onstage - taking the crowd along with me, rather than just playing songs atthem. That's more like a rock 'n' roll mentality, to just slam the songsout."But wait, there's more: Starr has another body of work in progress, acollection of four-track songs that she's self-producing on a well-used,much-loved Tascam 564. "They're quite sparse, sort of Joni Mitchell-ish, butthey're not really folk songs, they're tipped towards jazz and old-schoolMotown ballads." She has twenty songs in progress, and hopes to releaseten - when they're ready.... Kinnie has started writing for the nativepublication Spirit Magazine, and recently interviewed Daniel Lanois for itsupcoming spring issue.... "I write a lot, and very quickly these days, offthe seat of my pants," she adds. "If I'm driving I'll pull over, or I'lltake my sketchbook out and put in on my lap while I drive if I can't pullover."To listen to her music: http://www.myspace.com/kinniestarr

Fish Out of Water??

To Friends of Scotty Hard

Well, last night the big silver gull landed in a cloud of JFK soot , still glistening with Canadian rain and flecks of Fraser River gull poop. Out popped Scott's parents Shirley and Russ, with smiles, hugs, their bags and...a salmon! The Hardings have landed. Except...the customs guys couldn't find the scaly thing for a few nervous moments. A particularly Canadian-ish kind of red tape I'd say. I guess they forgot to look in the salmon tank. In any case, it eventually became clear that Homeland Security had nothing to worry about, and released the dangerous duo quickly. I hadn't seen either for some years and squinted a little while, but there was no mistaking the Harding warm demeanor DNA. Plus, Scott had called me a few minutes before and told me to look for two people intently holding a salmon.
Anyways we all found each other shortly past midnight, and slipped into Manhattan, fish on top. Along the way, we swung by the guardian pillars of Bellevue for a look see at the entranceway, and continued on. All seemed well and quiet for our man with the hospital tan, and as all loving parents do, Shirley & Russ discussed the many differences between their able sons Scott, Brian and Mike, especially who likes to eat what. I learned more about my dear friend then he might like me know, but it was all good Harding fodder. What are parents for? Nothing I hadn't suspected anyway, and well within the tolerance.
In any case, we rumbled down to Cornelia Street to Kathy's waiting guest bunks, put the salmon to bed, and within a half hour Shirley and Russ were nodding off, mumbling recipes for Scott I think.
They will be here visiting Scott for the next 10 days or so, and we're thankful and excited for Scott and his folks to come together at long last since that fateful February day, and glad for the good humor that started the moment Hardings landed.
We'll keep you posted.
Leif.

To Friends of Scotty Hard from Leif

I was with Scott this morning. We heartily drank fresh squeezed smoothies from Liquiteria. He's doing good, freshly shaved and a new haircut. I thought the Marines were going to knock on the door any minute to take him off. The ladies got him dressed in his brace, ready for his daily battle. Scott lead the way with good humor. The ultra-competent Mrs Johnson expertly loaded him into a wheelchair with a special steel 6 cylinder engine-like hoist contraption, cranked him skyward, swung him from the peak in a perfect arc, and plopped him in on both cheeks...bullseye! Scotty sits very straight these days! As I left him he was being wheeled by a lovely young therapist. He was going off to occupational therapy to speed up his fridge opening and pasta cooking skills. He's trying to shave off 5 hours from his best time, which currently is 6 hours. I said Scott, when we come over for dinner, we'll have to get there before breakfast.On another note, the ever burning question continues to be how long Bellevue Hospital will continue to care for Scott. We all hope for as long as possible, but the more Scott stabilizes, the more time shortens to when he must transition to a nursing home for long term rehabilitation, and give up the nest for "incoming". We're all nervous about the change of scenery, and working to understand the best choices possible versus what his condition qualifies for. With no insurance, beggars cannot be choosers so to speak, but Scott seems to be afforded some level of control, and through his network of friends and sympathetic health care professionals that have entered his orbit, the general feeling is that good care giving will continue no matter what. No facility has been decided yet, but it's coming down to 4 or 5 possibilities. As Scott nears the end of his stay at Bellevue, in spite of the ups and downs of his treatment and an uncertain future, it's impossible to have anything by gratitude for the overall great care he has received since that fateful night in February. Through each care decision crisis Scott seems to have been able to get the answers when they are needed most, and so far so good on all fronts. We trust that the continued close attention by friends and family will help him navigate the next phase of his recovery.In the meantime, by the looks of it, the HardStock concert April 25th being planned in Vancouver has all the appearances of rivaling or possibly surpassing the blowout at Highline Ballroom last month. Being a native of Vancouver myself, and having cut my chops as a wee lad on many occasions on the dear flagship Commodore Ballroom, I have no fear. Those incredible old maple wooden floors, bound together by all the nails and souls they've had to bear, including Mr Hard, are in for a mighty beatin'. The list of musicians is a crazy history of Canada. If you're not set to go yet, you betta gitcha tickeehhh!

Beautiful.

Leif.

The Facts as we know them....

This post is from Scott's brother Mike on April 10, to put some of the facts straight.

"...or at least what we really know. An email went out a few weeks ago about everyone in NYC being on the same page as to the so-far known facts of Scott's accident. In relation to this I just talked to Heesok after reading today's Georgia Straight article and he (and Tom and Leif) feel that we should make the same effort here. I want to point out a couple of errors in that article and hopefully we get the agreed-upon information out there from here on.

1. The accident happened at approx. 3am Saturday Feb.16 (Apparently this was wrongly stated in John Mackie's first article in the Vancouver Sun.)

2. Nobody knows how fast the cars were travelling. (150 km/h is 94 mph; that's really fast - I've never heard that number before) All we know for sure is that the other car was going fast enough to completely disable/immobilize both vehicles. (More or less totalled.)

3. It is not an absolutely confirmed fact that the other car was stolen. It was reported stolen the next morning.

4. Right after the crash the other driver tried to re-start their car and having failed, all three youths jumped out and ran away on foot. (As described by witnesses.)

5. The police investigation is on-going. (These things move at their own pace)

This is not meant to be a criticism or complaint about anybody's work or efforts. Just a correction.

Mike

Thanks Mike. My apologies for any spread of inaccurate information. It was purely unintentional on my part. The truth is we have a friend and Mike has a brother who is still in Bellevue Hospital going on two months now. He has a long road ahead of him, and needs our help and prayers.

Dennis

Hardstock 08

April 25
Commodore Ballroom Doors at 7:00 pm Show at 7:30 pm sharp. Look at the lineup.
Special thanks to Nick Jones, and Craig Northey whose help was invaluable, and a special shout out to Gerry Barad- the original punk. Thanks.