Regina Folk Festival 2006

I just read in the paper last night that this upcoming Folk Festival will feature Steve Earle, Feist and Ani Difranco. I just about shit my pants when I heard because Steve Earle is hands down one of the best songwriters ever and Feist is one of my fave new artists. Plus Ani Difranco is a pretty damn cool singer/songwriter/independent record label owner. Last year had a great lineup with Sarah Harmer and Sarah Slean, but this year will be kickass. August can't come soon enough.

Break out the champaigne...

Wow, time really flies. It has now been a year since I started my blog and what an adventure it's been. There have been tears, laughter, paper mishaps, whip cream incidents, strippers, live shows, road trips, the single life, the almost-married life, shorn scalps, ass slapping, friends coming and going, and everything in between. I started this blog at first for mere shits and giggles but it has now become a nice way to document my life and perhaps amuse a handful of readers. So I raise a toast to a wonderful year and many more to come. Cheers.

The Return of the Princess

Last night Tina came into town so a bunch of us went to McNally's for a fun night of karaoke. The whole rowdy gang was there... me, April, Tina, Gianni, Mark, Zubazz, Shelene, Rude Dude, Shades, Craig, Mr. Real, Jai Mo, Ryan, Dan Silljer, Kevy and Stacey. It was an eventful night to say the least... It was a night full of shameless mugging for the camera, interpetive dance, and paper mishaps... and some things that will just remain unsaid. Without further ado, here are some pics.

Spring is finally here

A few days ago, Spring officially arrived. Yesterday and today, it finally felt like Spring. I've gone for my first two runs of the year in just shorts and a t-shirt so I finally get to show off my pasty arms and legs. I can't believe how white I've gotten. April used to glow in the dark but now she is more tanned than I am. That is just wrong. I like Spring way more than summer because even though we just had a mild winter, it still affects everyone's mood. Spring feels like a renewal or a rebirth. I'm not a huge fan of 30 plus degree weather so I am a big fan of the milder 15-20 degree weather that comes with Spring.

Today I am also pretty excited because Tina is coming in from Calgary for a few days so tonight a few of us will be doing the karaoke thing at McNally's and tomorrow we might check out the acoustic jam at McNally's as well. I'm also counting down the days until April and I go to Winnipeg to see Franz Ferdinand with Death Cab For Cutie. I've been getting more and more into Death Cab lately so it should be an amazing show in a nice, intimate venue. I've also been introduced to a new singer-songwriter by my dad of all people. His name is Xavier Rudd and he sounds like a cross between Paul Simon, Dave Matthews, Ben Harper, and Neil Young. You can check out his stuff at myspace.com/xavierrudd. I guess he is pretty much a one man band when performing live. He is coming to Saskatoon next month so I guess my dad and I are gonna make a road trip to see him. Should be interesting.

Schoolwise I've been getting quite a bit done, but I'm my own worst critic when it comes to rereading my thesis proposal and my first chapter. I keep editing and re-editing. Maybe I'm just making this too seriously or something, but I want my final work to be unique and I want to be happy and proud of the final result. I just wanna get this damn thing done so April and I can hop on that plane and do the overseas thing for a year or two and get on with our lives. While I'm glad to be done with Safeway, I'm getting tired of the whole starving student life pretty quickly. Okay, enough procrastinating. Back to Kerouac....IT...IT...IT...must find IT.......

Ashley MacIsaac for PM?

So I was reading today that Ashley MacIsaac, Cape Breton's eccentric fiddler extraordinaire wants to put his name in to be the next Liberal top dog. Should he go on to become this country's next Prime Minister, I believe he would be the first to have openly admitted giving the golden shower to young men. And to have gone on Late Night With Conan O'Brien sans undergarments.

Happy belated St. Paddy's Day!

This past Friday was St. Patrick's Day, a day where every liver on the planet takes a collective gasp, clinches it's teeth, and braces for 2am to finally come. This St. Paddy's Day was relatively low key for me. On the Friday, April and I relaxed at home, listened to some Pogues and Spirit of the West and I had a couple cans of Guinness. However, Saturday I went on a pub crawl with April and her sister Autumn (who just turned 19). This was not so low key. We hit Bart's, The Distrikt, The Pump and....uhhh...errrr...JD's. Fortunately, Autumn's first time at JD's didn't exactly astound her so we cabbed it back to The Pump and did some karaoke downstairs while Zubazz was hosting. 5pm til 2am is definitely a long time to drink consecutively but I survived it relatively intact.

It's been a while

Yeah, I know... I've been slacking with this whole blog thing. So I suppose I should update this for all my loyal fanbase out there. A couple of weekends ago it was Brandy's birthday, so a few of us went out to McNally's to see BILF in action. It's been awhile since I've seen Brandy and Trevor so it was nice touching base with them again. It's weird going from being roommates with someone and seeing them everyday to hardly seeing them at all anymore, but I guess that's how life goes. People get caught up with their daily routines of work, school and relationships that it becomes easier and easier to lose touch with people. Oh well. That being said, it was a fun weekend and here are some pics from the weekend of Mar. 11.

a whole lotta blah

The past two weeks I've been adjusting to life post-Safeway, and I'm quite enjoying it. Now I'm wallowing in a sea of Jack Kerouac and Tom Waits lyrics. It's nice to be able to focus on school without having to stress out about paying rent and bills and not feeling like a puppet on Safeway's strings. It was definitely very weird and somewhat surreal walking out of the store for the final time in my uniform. Of course for my last shift they had to give me a closing office shift, but it was kind of nice training someone else to take my spot. I poked my head in the store a couple times since my last day and all I see are all these new, young faces. Safeway is definitely phasing out the experienced workers who actually know what they are doing in favor of highschool kids who make nothing and could give two shits about their job. Safeway got their bodies. There's that old adage that if you pay with peanuts then you get monkeys. Well, Safeway can have fun with their monkees now. Okay, enough venting about Safeway... Serenity now! It has been so nice these last couple weekends to actually feel like a normal citizen and enjoy a normal Sunday activity like Sunday brunch. I can't remember the last time I've been able to partake in the brunch experience. It may be a simple pleasure that lots of people take for granted, but I've been pretty hyped about it so far.

Things have been going fairly well in my other aspects of life. Although April and I had a pretty big fight last night, but we survived it relatively unscathed and I do believe it has made us stronger. Fighting can actually do some good sometimes. I think last night about a year's worth of minor and major pet peeves finally came to the surface and and we had quite the verbal bruhaha, but after the smoke all settled we both realized that we still do really love each other and that although our relationship may not be perfect, it is still pretty damn amazing most of the time and that it would be foolish to throw it away over a few odds and ends that easliy fixable. I have to thank Mark and Mr. Real for helping me with some good advice last night and helping me realize that I do have an amazing girlfriend that loves me to death. I wasn't in a very good frame of mind yesterday before the blowout and I was dwelling on all the negative aspects of our relationship and I was allowing my frustrations to override my better judgement. I think the fight had a cathartic effect on April and I. It's like a big weight has been lifted and April doesn't seem as stressed as she was and I feel a lot more relieved and happy with our whole situation. I have a renewed zest for making this IT with April. I really do feel like the luckiest guy in the world again. It is an amazing feeling that I hope everyone can experience at some point.