I read a lot of blogs, and music blogs especially. I've rarely seen the spontaneous adulation and joy provoked by the live shows of DJ Champion and his G-Strings.

A sampling from the blogosphere:
"CHAMPION IS GOD"
"INCROYABLE."
"the kind of show you never forget"
"And I danced danced danced danced danced danced danced danced danced ...".
My personal favorite descriptor comes from a French Canadian, invoking DJ Champion to explain what it takes to make exquisite poutine: "Cheese curds that melt on the morsels as the melodies of DJ Champion melt in your ears." I mean really, can you possibly top that?

But then DJ Champion, aka Montrealer Maxime Morin, is no ordinary DJ. His music has the catchy beats and lilting lyrical lines one expects of electronica, but with a twist. It all comes drenched in guitar riffs--as if somehow, stylishly and simply, Champion has managed to throw in the best of ZZ Top. Yeah it sounds weird, but it works. And it seems to work the dance floor into a frenzy.

I admit I'm biased. I love Spartacus Books. I'm part of the volunteer, non-profit collective that runs the store, and every single time I come in to work a shift, I have a surprisingly good time. On my last shift I spent the morning chatting with a co-worker who is brewing mead. Mead! How medieval!!! We discussed all his brews: the "absinthe" batch with wormwood and yarrow; the herbal anti-allergy batch; the cold and flu mead. Then I went about combing through a box of donated records, admiring 70's era Diana Ross, Billy Joel, and Kenny Rogers cover art. It was way more fun than your average shift in retail.

Spartacus has been an integral part of the local activist scene for over 34 years, providing access to books, pamphlets, zines, magazines, and other 'counterculture' sources of information just aren't available anywhere else. After the store burned down in 2004, volunteers put in thousands of hours to rebuild from scratch, eventually renting a new space on the second floor of 319 W. Hastings, one door over from the old location. This week to clear out stock and get the new store on an even financial keel, Spartacus is having a sale. From June 15th till midnight on June 22nd, everything is on sale: 10% off all new books; 30-90% off used books; and, until the store runs out, every kid who comes in gets a kid's book, free.

Look closely at the image on the right. At first glance, it appears to be your typical, computer generated figure. But it's not: it's analog, an image warped out of loops of random feedback on a photocopier. Evolved through a unique "xeroglyphic" technique created by local artist Steve Calvert, this figure emerged from 'inkblots' produced by two photocopiers' repeated replication and distortion. Oddly enough the process created not random blobs but discernable patterns and figures, which Calvert has crafted into 'Daemons at Rest - Id[ol/le] Hands'.

I think Animatron 2007 would be worth it for Calvert's work alone (though he is showing some earlier, non-figurative imagery). But his contribution is just one of the many weird and wonderful stills and short animations that will be on display tonight at Little Mountain Studios. Nineteen artists are taking part, including musician Chad VanGaalen, Ben Jacques, E*Rock, and Hooliganship.

For the next week, UBC radio station Citr is playing host to the National Campus & Community Radio Conference (NCRC), which is the yearly summer gathering of the National Campus and Community Radio Association, Surprisingly enough, NCRA conferences are superfun. Sure, there's business to take care of, like planning strategies for addressing the CRTC, which regulates radio. But for the most part it's a gathering of really cool programmers, broadcasters, and community radio freaks and geeks from across the country.

This year's program includes a 'hands-on' day at Citr, where conference goers can train on the latest in studio equipment, and a full day women's conference-within-the-conference. Additionally, all week the organizers are putting on music shows. They're open to the public, so all can mix, mingle, and greet great new music. As well as indie rock acts (Elizabeth, the Doers, the Evaporators, the Choir Practice, StinkMitt, and Sick Fit to name a few), shows include a hip-hop night featuring No Luck Club, and a world-beat night @ the Anza Club on Thursday.

What is a "Performance Ride"? It appears to be a mass ride of chopper bikes swarming from station to station around the city to greet a series of bicycle dance troupes, freak-bike builders, MC's, musicians and others unleashing one time only, site-specific bicycle-based performance art for the joy of the Margaret Charles Chopper Collective and its associates.

What is MC3? I'm not 100% sure. I just know I was headed down a bikeway one evening three years ago and this fabulous stream of cyclists cruised by me the other way. They were carnivalesque and gorgeous: riders on long lean chopper bikes; wiry men on tiny baby BMXs; ladies with tattoos and polka-dot dresses, beer in the baskets of their stately omafiets (that's dutch for grandma-bicycle). I turned around impulsively and joined their gaggle. It was a great night.

A long, miserable time ago--before myspace, before file sharing, before independent bands could podcast and share their music over the internet--one of the few ways local bands could make it up the music distribution ladder was by being accepted into Vancouver's industry festival, New Music West. If you ever were in a band or knew anyone in a band at this time, you'd know how much this sucked. The fees to participate were high. Many people couldn't get in at all because NMW rejected a lot of great bands in favour of more mainstream acts that industry people thought might be the next big thing.

One day in 1994, some local musicians had had enough. They organized their own event: Music Waste. On and off, Music Waste has happened ever since.

Music Waste is cheap: $5 a show or $15 for a wristband for all venues for all nights. It's local. And it's DIY----no big corporate sponsors, just the folks at Only magazine and their friends busting their asses to pull it all together. This year, bands could even book their own shows and call them a part of Music Waste. No screening process, no rigamarole. And because the venues are so close together, it's possible to wander between them to catch different acts.