The Arcade Fire’s new CD was released this week, and Neon Bible is, to my mind, better than Funeral.

I got my hands on an advanced release a couple of weeks ago, and the new disc smoulders with tension and anxiety, is layered with textures of sound.

Last night I walked into the Virgin store in San Francisco, and Black Mirror was playing on the store’s internal system. Being in the store made me nostalgic for the old Virgin store in Vancouver, and hearing the Arcade Fire made me proud to be Canadian.

I always become a more devoted patriot when I’m outside my country’s borders.

So I woke up with Black Mirror in my head. It doesn’t fit with the crisp, sunny spring in San Francisco this morning, but it’s an incongruity I’m willing to live with.

I’ve always loved this song, ever since I first heard it at John Knechtel’s place in Edmonton lo those many years ago.

It was newly released back then, I suspect, although I had no sense of music or the music industry at that time.

I was seven and living in Edmonton. I knew hockey and hockey and crappy Saturday morning cartoons (we didn’t have cable) and hockey. I didn’t know music beyond the Boney M cassette tapes that dad brought home as gifts from one of his business trips.

So although I had no idea of the significance of “I Don’t Like Mondays,” I loved the song, even then, and I remember wanting to hear more music like it. There is a sadness, an anxiety, an earnestness to “I Don’t Like Mondays,” and the juxtaposition of the depressing lyric, the upbeat rhythm, and the minor-key melody is a musical quality that appeals to me even now.

Back then, though, I was completely incapable of finding anything else like it. It would be years before I’d discover The Birthday Party, the Pixies, and the Afghan Whigs, and that didn’t happen until later on in life, when I learned music – really learned it – and figured out how to source it (made easier, of course, thanks to the interweb). That’s also when I became somewhat fascinated by this Bob Geldof character who, with his band the Boomtown Rats, had created this song I was so fond of, but who never really seemed to get recognized for it.

But I had never really listened to the opening of the song until Hugh Laurie, as Dr Gregory House, played it on the FOX show last night, in the “Half-Wit” episode.

The opening of the song is a thunderous cascade of notes, from the higher octave to the lower, and is accomplished by literally running the hands down the keys. So the song starts with this cacophony, which shifts into a few chords that are played with force (I forget my piano lessons; what’s the term for this? allegrio?).

Suddenly, the song breaks away from the complexity and becomes simple, and almost quiet, clear, single notes one after another, leading in to the opening line of the lyric:

The silicon chip inside her head
gets switched to overload.
And nobody’s going to go to school today
she’s going to make them stay at home.

I think the device, a ranging piano as part of a rock ‘n’ roll pop song, was quite common in the seventies. It was certainly used by Queen and Kiss, and probably Led Zeppelin. But it was the early punk/new wave sound from the Rats that has stuck with me, and I was quite pleased that “I Don’t Like Mondays” was the song that the writers decided the House character should play in last night’s episode.

The opening ovation echoed through my dreams all night, and accompanied the alarm early this morning, and is with me still.

I’ve been distracted lately, or I would have known about this development long before now.

Word today that production has begun on the filmed version of Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising, from her phenomenal five-novel series of the same name.

Ian McShane will be Merriman, Christopher Eccleston is the Rider, and newcomer Alexander Ludwig is Will Stanton. They’ll be working from a script by John Hodge, who has been known to collaborate with Danny Boyle, although the director on this one is David Cunningham, about whom I know nothing.

The Dark is Rising is actually the second book in the series, but for a studio looking to start strong with a new franchise, it’s the easiest and most dramatic to film.

Presumably, turning the other four books in the series into films will depend on the success of this one.

I’ll risk ruining the experience of seeing the film by setting expectations, because these novels, more than any other, were an important part of my childhood. The fact that the production is being run by English talent, and is being filmed in Romania, gives me hope.

The film is scheduled to release on September 28.

Y’know, it’s a wonder the Oilers have any fans at all.

The first season of 24 was great. At least, that’s how I remember it.

But I lapsed as a fan, and decided this season to try and get back into the show, only to find it not worth my time.

I write about the attempt in this week’s Channel Changer.

Anyone else have an opinion on the subject?