A couple years ago, my friend Craig took a great picture of me and Tina pretending to make out. Unfortunately, I lost that picture so Zubazz thought it would be great to recreate it. However, this time Tina's boyfriend Gianni decided to take her place. And Gianni decided to skip the "pretend" part. Just kidding. Bruhahahahahahahaha. 

Here's a funny pic that Zubazz took at McNally's a couple weeks ago. Zubazz is the master of taking funny pictures... mostly because he just randomly takes pics of people when they aren't expecting it. In this pic, me and Mr. Zubazz are telling the viewer "You are #1!" 

Tom Waits

Last night I went to La Bodega to see a performance by Mark Radford. He is a singer/songwriter but includes lots of cool covers in his set by the likes of Tom Waits, Lucinda WIlliams, Lyle Lovett and Steve Earle. This was the third or fourth time I've seen him play and he never fails to disappoint. I'm a huge Tom Waits fan so he made it a point to play a couple extra Waits tunes for me. Unfortunately, most people in Regina have no clue as to who Tom Waits is. If you look under the dictionary under "Cult Artist" I bet there is a picture of Tom Waits there. He is one of those artists that don't sell too many records, but those that do are completely hooked. His only real "hit" song was "Downtown Train"... Unfortunately, it only became a hit after Rod Stewart recorded it (and butchered it I might add). The Ramones also did a killer cover version of "I Don't Wanna Grow Up. In turn, Tom Waits did a great version of "Return of Jackie & Judy" on the Ramones tribute album.
Tom Waits is definitely what you would call an acquired taste. It took me forever to get into his music because his rough, raspy voice is definitely startling at first. But I relate it to finally acquiring the taste for Guinness or Scotch. It tastes disgusting at first, but once you get used to it, you realize it is ten times better than drinking a Canadian or vodka special. So if anyone is willing to try some classic, timeless music that won't get stale in 2 years, I would highly recommend taking a chance and buying a Tom Waits album. He has two "best of" albums out. His first album Closing Time and Mule Variations are probably my two favorites of his, perhaps because they are the most melodic. My cousin Dave is the one responsible for getting me into this amazing artist, and I have to thank him a lot because by some strange circumstances, it turns out that Tom Waits will play a big part in my Jack Kerouac thesis.

The "L" Word

Well folks, it's finally happened. I've experienced many things over my 29 years of existence, but that elusive "L" word has always eluded me. I've had crushes, I've been completely indifferent, I've been smitten, I've been in deep lust, I've been in deep like, but I have never been in love. Until now. And it came out of the blue. And it came during a time when I was totally content and happy enjoying the many fruits of being single. And it came from a girl who rejected me three times before. We have been hanging out nonstop for over a month and have only been officially dating for approximately three weeks, but we have completely clicked over the last few weeks. For all intents and purposes, she lives at my place right now and I wouldn't have it any other way. For the last week or so I've been putting off telling her the big "L" word because I think it is a word that is overused in society. For instance, lots of people say "I loved that movie!" or "I love that song!" or people get in that drunken "I love you, man" stage. So I've been using every other word I could think of for the last couple weeks. We have both been implying it more and more in the last few days so I finally broke down, threw caution to the wind and told her that I love her last night, and she told me the same thing right back, which made me a bit relieved because I would've felt like a bit of a tool if she would've just said "Well, that's...uh...great...". :) Yesterday was our first whole day to hang out from start to finish and it was amazing. We've hung out every day, but it was so nice just to veg out and go for a walk and grab some supper and hang out with close friends and uh...play cards...yeah...play cards. Not to sound too corny, but I've been walking on air the last couple of weeks. I really can't get her out of my head. And the best part is that right from the start she has just completely fit in with all my best friends. Tina, Mark, Zubazz, Mr. Real, Kev etc all think she's great..and rightfully so [Nice suck-up points eh?]. I also like how Tina told me "Don't fuck this one up JJ! She's a keeper!" To quote Dieter from SNL's Sprockets "It is spring time, and I am as giddy as a little girl." It is nice to date a girl where you can totally be yourself and I definitely feel completely comfortable being my goofy self around her. We burn and jokingly insult each other so much that others must think we're weirdos or something. [At least I think she's joking ;) ]. And her endearing pet name for me is Shithead... awwww isn't that sweet? And me being me, just as I go and commit to a girl, I go out and buy a shirt that says "DO NOT COMMIT" on it. So ladies of Regina, sorry to say, but I am now officially off the market. I know, I know... you all must be devestated, but there are other great guys in Regina. You'll just have to settle with one of them for now ;). I feel so great in the situation I'm in because I went into this relationship happy with myself. I was happy being single. So I'm in it for all the right reasons. So many people I know cannot stand being single. They feel out of place if they don't have a warm body beside them so they continue to do rebound after rebound with the next available person they see. I think it's important to have a strong sense of who you are yourself before you can seriously date someone. Otherwise if you are suddenly single, you look in the mirror and ask yourself "Who the fuck am I?" I also hate it when people cut off all their friends when they start dating someone because if the relationship ends, it looks bad to your friends to come scurrying back and begging them to hang out with you again. I would never date someone just for the sake of dating someone and having that warm body beside you. So right now I am definitely in a good place. So April, your shithead says thanks :) You definitely rock.

Jack White

Today I bought the new White Stripes album Get Behind Me Satan. I have three of their four earlier albums and I continue to get amazed at the genius of Jack White. Jack White is by no means an original or innovative artist, but this guy can write and record some kickass tunes. Working with a strict guitar and drums setup should be extremely limiting, but White has been able to use this as a road to musical freedom. By just having himself and Meg White in the band, he is able to add any kind of textures he wants to his songs, whether it be piano, banjo, Led Zeppelin riffs, or easy-going bluegrass. Jack White produced Loretta Lynn's last album, which is one of my fave albums in recent years. It's unfortunate that the White Stripes get lumped in with other "garage" bands like The Hives and The Strokes because these three bands sound nothing alike. But I am a big fan of all three bands and I like how they have started a retro-garage rock revival. I was getting so sick of hearing nothing but teeny-bopper boy bands, Britney/Christina ripoffs and nu-metal bands. Even though The White Stripes and The Hives and The Strokes are definitely not inventing the wheel, I think they are all important bands. Every few years it is important for rock music to revert back to it's raw roots. In the early 90's, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and The Smashing Pumpkins etc brought back the whole punk/underground energy back to rock music after too many years of hair metal. While I have lots of respect for bands like Radiohead and Tool and the like, I generally prefer rock that is raw, simple, melodic and full of energy. A song has to be pretty frickin' amazing for me to not get bored after 4 or 5 minutes.

extra extra!

Yesterday, me and Tina got to be extras in a made-for-tv sci-fi/action movie called 2 Human. This movie apparently stars Joey "Whoa!" Lawrence from Blossom, although he was not on set yesterday. However, Chris Jericho, the Ayotallah of Rock n' Rolla, the Highlight of the Night, and the greatest wrestler since Bret Hart was in the scene, so I got to see him film some fight scenes over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. I had lots of fun, but it was a very gruelling day since we had to be on set at 6:15 am and never finished filming until 9pm. 15 hrs is a lot of time to be standing and trying to be extremely hyper and cheer on two fictional fighters. I'm surprised I was still able to sing karaoke after yelling "Fight! Fight! Hit him! Kill him!" etc. It is also hard to maintain your entusiasm when filming scenes where the main actors are recording their dialogue. During these scenes we had to mime , so we could not actually yell...just lots of lip-syncing. This was the second time I've been an extra and although the day can definitely drag at times, I find it very fascinating seeing the whole process of how a movie is made. 3 minutes of film can take up to 16 hours to film. Plus it wouldn't take much to rack up a huge budget. We had to get fed every 3 hours. So for one day of shooting, that's a hefty bill for 50 extras plus all the movie staff. Thios was a low budget film so the food was not as extravagent as it was for Just Friends... Breakfast yesterday consisted of Burger King and our final meal was bolied hot dogs. Not exactly gourmet!