A few weeks ago, I noticed AC/DC would be playing Montreal next September. Hmm, I thought. Montreal is very nice in September, and I think I would like to see a 70-year-old-man in a schoolboy outfit once again.
Then I saw the ticket prices, and decided to put any thought of seeing AC/DC out of my mind.
I saw the band twice, during their heyday, both times at the Montreal Forum. I’ve got the tickets in front of me right now. One of them cost me $12.70 (I think; it’s a bit faded) and the other $13.50. They were in the “whites” at the Forum. Pretty good seats.
My first encounter with AC/DC came when a kid in my high school class swung open his locker door, and I saw a Back in Black sticker on the inside. I had no idea who AC/DC was or what Back in Black was about, but it…
A few weeks ago, I noticed AC/DC would be playing Montreal next September. Hmm, I thought. Montreal is very nice in September, and I think I would like to see a 70-year-old-man in a schoolboy outfit once again.
Then I saw the ticket prices, and decided to put any thought of seeing AC/DC out of my mind.
I saw the band twice, during their heyday, both times at the Montreal Forum. I’ve got the tickets in front of me right now. One of them cost me $12.70 (I think; it’s a bit faded) and the other $13.50. They were in the “whites” at the Forum. Pretty good seats.
My first encounter with AC/DC came when a kid in my high school class swung open his locker door, and I saw a Back in Black sticker on the inside. I had no idea who AC/DC was or what Back in Black was about, but it looked cool and I wanted to know more. (The guy with the sticker would later be expelled from high school, but then go on to become a distinguished history professor and world-leading authority in his field.)
I knew there was no way in hell my parents were going to let me go see AC/DC in concert, so in a classic young teen maneuver, I bought a ticket anyway and figured I would somehow manage to go without them figuring it out. Reader, they figured it out. And they let me go anyway.
I have probably listened to AC/DC more than any other band in my life. It’s because of the subtlety of their compositions, the nuance of the lyrics, the depth of the songwriting that just reveals more and more on every new listen.
Well, no. It’s not that. This is a band who have pretty steadfastly refused to evolve musically, whose lead guitarist duck-walks across the stage Chuck Berry style at 70 — something he has been doing for over 50 years. He still puts on a schoolboy outfit, and I presume he still drops his pants and moons the audience.
And the lyrics? My favourite description, which, I believe comes from the book Why AC/DC Matters, by Anthony Bozza, calls them “masters of the single-entendre.”
I can remember mulling over these lyrics as a teenager, trying to suss out hidden meanings. There were no hidden meanings, and I was mishearing the lyrics half the time anyway.
Since I bought Back in Black, it’s been my tradition that it’s the first thing I listen to on any new piece of audio equipment. Paired to a new Bluetooth speaker? Back in Black. Bought a new turntable? Got new speakers? Pull out that decades-old record and drop it on the player.
I thought I was over the idea of seeing AC/DC in Montreal next year. There are so many great newer bands. So many other ways to spend money. And then I started looking at photos and videos from the band’s Australian tour, which wraps up next week in Brisbane. The whole thing seems like a love-in, Australians celebrating the band they call “Acca Dacca.” In Melbourne, 374 bagpipers, one of them 98 years old, got together to play the bagpipe section from AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock n’ Roll).”
The Lord Mayor was plugging the event ahead of time, speaking with one of the pipers who gave singer Bon Scott a few piping lessons ahead of the band’s shooting their video for the song, on the back of a flatbed. He performed both in the video and at the recent mass piping event. Angus Young, just barely older than an actual schoolboy at the time, is there in an early version of his iconic outfit.
So, watching all this, the other night I said to my partner that I was kind of regretting not having bought tickets to the Montreal show. She noted that Montreal is very nice in September, and that we haven’t been for a while. I pulled out my phone and bought the tickets, and I don’t regret it.
I get very emotional at concerts. I’ve cried through so many shows. I will probably shed a tear at AC/DC too. Will it be the same without the late Malcolm Young, rhythm guitarist extraordinaire? No. Will I be glad I went, to see these guys whose music I have listened to far too much one (presumably) last time? Probably.
One last thing. In a post plugging the AC/DC shows in Perth, the band’s Instagram showed a statue of former band frontman Bon Scott, who died in 1980, at age 33. I had no idea this statue existed, and it has a hilarious backstory.
Statue of Bon Scott, by sculptor Greg James, in Fremantle, a suburb of Perth, Australia. Credit: AC/DC Instagram
From the website Public Art Around the World:
[Sculptor Greg] James has depicted the 5ft 6″ Acca Dacca frontman as fans would have wanted him to be remembered, screaming into his microphone (held in left hand), head flung back and jeans so tight it leaves nothing to the imagination!
The statue was unveiled at a concert, in front of 10,000 fans, but did not go into its intended public location at first. Instead, well, read on:
The Bon Scott statue was originally located inside Cicerello’s, a seafood restaurant at Fremantle’s Fishing Boat Harbour, Western Australia. He was standing in a dark corner which was nicely back lit. After much ho-humming by the Fremantle council, Bon was permanently erected just over the road from Cicerellos.
Scott was born in Scotland, where there is another statue of him, which as far as I know, was never in a seafood restaurant.
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NOTICED
1. Psychologist loses licence over inappropriate relationship
Nova Scotia Regulator of Psychology logo
The Nova Scotia Regulator of Psychology (NSRP) has revoked the licence of Dr. Merete Sommerlund for “professional conduct and conduct unbecoming a psychologist.” The decision was announced following hearings held in November 2023 and December 2024.
Sommerlund, who previously worked in the provincial Mental Health and Addictions Child and Youth Program in Kentville, was practicing as a psychologist for CBI Health in New Minas. According to an agreed statement of facts, in 2018 she began seeing a client referred to as Mr. A, treating him for “significant life stressors” including PTSD. The client’s name is protected by a publication ban.
From the NSRP’s hearing committee decision:
During the time she was Mr. A’s psychologist, Dr. Sommerlund failed to maintain appropriate boundaries, or refer Mr. A to another therapist, despite Mr. A’s behaviour becoming increasingly friendly and subtly flirtatious, and despite her developing a fondness for him. She engaged in personal texting with Mr. A and allowed him to plow her driveway and stack her wood in exchange for her pro bono therapy sessions.
After the client confessed strong feelings for her, Sommerlund ended the therapeutic relationship, but “entered into a sexual relationship with Mr. A immediately after terminating the therapeutic relationship.” They moved in together in 2019. Mr. A. was arrested in 2021 and sent to the East Coast Forensic Psychiatric Hospital. It was his psychiatrist at the hospital who lodged the complaint against Sommerlund.
Sommerlund’s registration to practice as a psychologist has been cancelled, and she received a reprimand for “sexual misconduct with a vulnerable adult client.” She can reapply to register as a psychologist after two years.
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2. NSCAD: Don’t talk about Palestine
Sign at NSCAD University, shared on Instagram by @nscadstudentaction Credit: nscadstudentaction
Last year, SUNSCAD, the student union at NSCAD University, planned a two-day teach-in “in solidarity with the Indigenous struggle against the genocide in Palestine.”
As reported by Lauren Phillips in The Coast:
On Oct. 17, SUNSCAD president Owen Skeen requested a space on the NSCAD campus for the two-day event, saying the student union was interested in “pursuing a more educational role in response to the outcomes of some recent student organizing efforts,” and is “hoping to create a space for our student body to engage with an academic discussion of the ongoing genocide in Palestine by platforming and centring Arab and Palestinian academics, as well as professors we have become connected to through Independent Jewish Voices.”
An auditorium at the Granville campus was booked for the event, but then NSCAD cancelled the booking, saying it had been made in error. The Al Zeitoun weekend event went ahead, outdoors.
This year, SUNSCAD tried again. In a letter, Skeen, now national treasurer of the Canadian Federation of Students, recapped what happened:
Al Zeitoun Weekend this year, took place Nov 28th and 29th…Programming included teach-ins by Dr. Neil Balan, and Dr. Jim Brittain. It also included a Tatreez workshop by a Palestinian student at NSCAD. And it included anti-war film screenings, and a discussion of Mi’kmaq land defence.
The Student Union of NSCAD, this year, got written permission from the Manager of Facilities at NSCAD to host Al Zeitoun Weekend in the Student Lounge of NSCAD, which is under the management of the Student Union. The event had been known by NSCAD administration far in advance.
In the hours leading up to the event, NSCAD Admin began taking issue with Al Zeitoun happening at NSCAD (after the planned programming for the event had been posted online). However, it wasn’t until 10 PM on Nov 28th that SUNSCAD Executives received an email from NSCAD Admin saying, in reference to the second day of the event that “By attending this event or signing in guests to attend an unauthorized event cosponsored by an external organization, you are violating university regulations and will be subject to disciplinary actions.”
Skeen notes that this is an even more extreme reaction than last year’s, since students were threatened with disciplinary action for even attending.
In a letter to Skeen, Shawn Tracey, NSCAD’s dean of student affairs and registrar, writes:
CCTV identifies you as entering the campus via Granville Street and security personnel witnessed you attending the unauthorized event.
This letter is a formal written warning that will be placed in your student record.
Mount Saint Vincent University professor El Jones wrote a biting email to Tracey, with the subject line, “URGENT!! Learning breaks containment barriers at NSCAD. Public must avoid the area!”
It is worth quoting at length:
I am relieved that NSCAD is disciplining students for attempting to learn after hours. I am a firm believer that education should be as limited as possible; if it must occur it should be firmly contained to the classroom lest it spill over and contaminate the rest of us. Naturally, as students pay fees to be educated at university, to allow them to share learning with others is essentially theft, if you think about it. These kind of insights can only be offered by one such as yourself who comes to NSCAD from Sobeys business school, and I am glad you are getting these parasitic artists in line.
Might I suggest that you also ban all public lectures and conferences? While disciplining students for booking space for weekend teach-ins on relevant global issues is a good start, I fear that some faculty may still be attempting to spread education beyond the mandated profit motive of the university… I urge you to crack down further…
I am a firm believer that if people are not paying fees they ought not to extract any education. I hate encountering learning as I go about my daily life. It makes me uncomfortable. If we must have universities, let them be places where one studies only the necessities, such as how to gouge the public on their grocery prices.
Who do these students think they are learning about events in foreign countries anyway? We only need to know things in our own back yard is what I always say. None of this elite “global affairs” learning…
In conclusion, I am very happy to see you are getting a handle on the promiscuous learning that students are doing in your institution. Keep it up! I am hopeful that, with a few more years of your firm leadership, students will not dare to so much as open a book without the express permission of their corporate overlords.
In sympathy, Dr. El Jones
It is amazing to watch the willingness of universities to set fire to their supposed values and ethics over student organizing on Palestine.
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RECENTLY IN THE HALIFAX EXAMINER:
Public can have its say on Halifax police use-of-force policy that focuses on de-escalation
Halifax Regional Police Const. Shaun Carvey stands in full riot gear on Aug. 18, 2021. Credit: Zane Woodford
Suzanne Rent reports:
The public has until mid-January to offer feedback on a use-of-force policy drafted by the Halifax Board of Police Commissioners that focuses on de-escalation and use of force as a last resort.
The policy, which you can read here, went to the Board of Police Commissioners meeting on Wednesday. The policy provides direction to Halifax Regional Police (HRP) to update its current use-of-force policy, which was issued in 1996. The only change in that policy was made in 2011, with an addition regarding the use of tasers…
HRP’s current policy on use-of-force, found here, says that “in the majority of cases, some physical force will be necessary.”
Click or tap here to read “Public can have its say on Halifax police use-of-force policy that focuses on de-escalation.”
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IN OTHER NEWS
N.B. Liquor faces outcry over AI-generated ad
Still from an AI-generated ad by NB Liquor. The ad has since been pulled.
Does this image say “festive” to you? It says creepy to me. It’s a still from an AI-generated ad run by N.B. Liquor, before the minister responsible told them to pull it.
Sam Farley at CBC reports:
A spokesperson for N.B. Liquor said in an emailed statement that the use of AI came down to trying to manage costs…
The ad was not received well by Pierre-Luc Arseneau, a freelance filmmaker and graphic artist from New Brunswick, who worked on a Christmas commercial for N.B. Liquor last year.
“It’s something to lose a contract to somebody that’s creating better stuff than you are. But it’s something else to lose a contract to generative AI,” Arseneau said in an interview with CBC Radio’s Shift.
Arseneau said it’s immediately obvious that the ad is made with AI.
“The bottles had some gibberish writing on it, the background looked a little funky, the lighting didn’t make sense at all. The people were acting a bit weird, moving weird,” he said.
Essentially, N.B. Liquor wanted to save money and didn’t care if the results looked like garbage. And one of the things I find insidious is the fake diversity. You could hire Black actors, or you could just create fake ones. And it’s troubling a government organization would choose to go the latter route.
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Government
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Province
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On campus
Dalhousie
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King’s
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Mount Saint Vincent
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NSCAD
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Saint Mary’s
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Literary Events
Monday
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In the harbour
Halifax 04:00: One Madrid, container ship, sails from Pier 41 for New York 05:30: Morning Lynn, car carrier, arrives at Autoport from Philadelphia 05:30: Zenith Lumos, container ship (149,525 tonnes), arrives at Pier 41 from New York 12:00: AlgoBerta, oil tanker, sails from Imperial Oil for sea 12:00: AlgoScotia, oil tanker, moves from Pier 25 to Imperial Oil 13:00: Morning Lynn sails for sea 14:00: Rt Hon Paul E Martin, bulker, sails from Gold Bond for sea 17:00: Tropic Lissette, cargo ship, sails from Pier 42 for West Palm Beach, Florida Cape Breton 07:30: Algoma Value, bulker, arrives at Coal Pier (Sydney) from Norfolk
Footnotes
Nova Scotia Power doesn’t seem to be in any rush to do anything about the tree leaning on the power lines at the end of our driveway.