pics pt. 1

Here are some pics before the drinking started.

The Rolling Stones Weekend

As I type this, I am in the lengthy process of recovering from a hectic weekend that involved seeing the Rolling Stones, hosting karaoke at The Pump, partying with my cousins (Sarah, Dave, Tino, George) and my parents and having a huge Thanksgiving feast with April and her family.

First off, The Rolling Stones put on an amazing show. I was in awe at how good Mick and Keef and company were good live. Un-frickin'-believable. I knew they would be good, but I had no idea that they would be THIS good. Wow. The thing that really impressed me was that their two new songs ("Oh No, Not You Again" and "Streets of Love") are really great tunes. Those old farts can still write some kickass songs. The only thing that put a damper on the show was that we were sitting in a section of people that didn't want to have a good time. These two anal retentive bitches sat behind us and complained that me, April and Sarah were STANDING UP at the concert. Yes... Imagine that. Standing up and dancing at a fricking ROCK CONCERT. The thing that really pissed me off was that they complained to the ushers and the ushers actually made us sit down. At a ROCK CONCERT. I thought the Stones had a song called "Sympathy For the Devil"... not "Symphony For Jesus." My dad even told the one woman to go kindly fuck her self. Classic. So aside from those 20 minutes where I could not stand up and actually ENJOY A FREAKIN' ROCK CONCERT, I had a good time.

Saturday I hosted karaoke at The Pump and Dave, Laura, April, Tino and George were all belting out tunes. George cranked out a heartfelt and very spirited rendition of Meatloaf's epic "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)." However, even after he sang the song I am still left wondering exactly "That" is. Maybe some day I will solve the riddle of that song. And of course Dave did a stirring take on "New York, New York." I also found out that if I want to clear out the basement of The Pump, I just have to do Sid Vicious' version of "My Way." It went over about as good as a fart in church.

Last night we went to McNally's and caught a hodge podge of local musicians called Tumbling Dice performing a few sets of mostly Rolling Stones tunes. Ryan Anderson, Dan Silljer, Stacey, Kevy and a handful of others put on a great show. They even got me up to do "I Wanna Be Sedated." Except I had to keep in the spirit of The Stones and changed it to "I Wanna Paint It Black." So this weekend was one of the funnest weekends I've had in a long time. It's pretty rare to hang out with Sarah, Dave, Tino and George at the same time, so when we do we don't fuck around. So without further ado, here are some pics from last night. As you will see, we were all a tiny bit drunk. It's funny how if you have a few shots of Southern Comfort and a few pints of beer, it makes you a wee bit inebriated. Plus it makes you talk like Borat for extended periods of time. Good time, yes? hemm? I don't think any of us survived unscathed. But here are the pics in all their inebriated glory.

new music

I may hardly leave the house as much nowadays, but I have had time to buy some more new music to provide the soundtrack to my reading and writing.

I finally got my hands on R.E.M.'s I.R.S. best of And I Feel Fine. The reason to buy this package is the bonus second disc with lots of extremely rare demos and outtakes. Most bands don't have songs half as good as songs that R.E.M. leave off their albums. "Theme From One Step Onward" would make a killer album track, and possibly a single, if it was produced nicely. "Mystery To Me" is a great, jangly 2 minute song. It's one of the first songs they wrote, so it's pretty simple and catchy but lots of fun.

I also bought The Killers' new album Sam's Place. I've only listened to it thoroughly a couple times, but it sounds pretty great so far. Not as catchy as their last one and not quite as many synths as their last one, but it might be one of those albums that will stand up better ten years from now. It kind of sounds like Bruce Springsteen (who I guess they were listening to a lot while recording) fronting a New Wave band. "When You Were Young" is a contender for single of the year. Killer tunes. Ouch.

"Satisfaction"???? I KNOW that song! I KNOW that song!

My first really stressful portion of my semester is over now that I finished my first conference paper/seminar. So now I can breathe a bit, not be so much of a hermit and enjoy this long weekend. I'm pretty excited. Sarah and Dave are coming in and we're gonna see The Rolling Stones for the Friday show. I'm going to be honest... I'm not the biggest Stones fan, but I do respect their work and it should be a really good show. I bought their 40 Licks best of CD a couple years and I was blown away at how many amazing songs they have that DON'T get played on the Wolf or Jack every day. They actually do have other songs besides Start Me Up and Jumpin' Jack Flash. And they have even put out albums in the last ten years. Crazy. However, I think it's funny how so many people are so hyped about it simply because it's an EVENT and they can say five years from now that "I was there." Lots of people who could name maybe five of their songs off the top of their heads are suddenly pissing their pants because THE ROLLING STONES(!!!!!) are coming HERE!!!! Myself, I would never pay $100 or more to go to a show where I barely even appreciate a handful of the band's songs. Don't get me wrong, I think it is a great thing for the city, largely because this may possibly entice other large scale bands to play here on their way from Edmonton to Winnipeg. But if people are just going for the EVENT, skip the hundred bucks, hit some bar or pub after one of the shows. That in itself will be an event. It will be a crazy weekend though. Every place in town will be buzzing. And with Sarah and Dave down, things are gonna get pretty nuts.

Emily Haines - "Doctor Blind"

YouTube is an evil, evil site...but you can pretty much find any tv clip, live performance or music video ever made on it. Here's Emily Haines' (of Metric) video for "Doctor Blind." Enjoy.

Amy Millan

Not too much new with me besides being busy with school. However, this past Monday April and I were able to check out Amy Millan of Stars and Broken Social Scene fame perform a solo show at the Exchange, showcasing tunes from her recent country-tinged solo album Honey From the Tombs. Backed by an 8 piece band, Millan put on a really great, relaxed show. It definitely wasn't a show to go to if you wanted to jump around and RAWK out but we had a really nice time. Okay, back to the books. Not my most exciting post, I know.

All hail the King of Regina

As I was walking home from Roca Jack's, I bumped into a local legend... the one, the only, King of Regina. Zubazz's best friend Mr. Bastard once had an ongoing log of the continuing adventures of this king among men on his legendary and irreverant website. It's been awhile since I've seen the King, but he was in fine form. As I approached him on the sidewalk, he was muttering something to a bush on someone's lawn. When he saw me coming his way, he uttered "Stick it up your ass you fuckin' Buddhist Nazi!" And then he walked away still muttering assorted racial slurs to no one in particular. Priceless. He totally made my day.

Fark!!!!!!

I don't mind getting the odd forwarded e-mails, as long as people send them in moderation. Some of them are really funny and worth getting. But I absolutely DESPISE it when someone sends me 10 forwarded e-mails at the SAME TIME. Not cool. If everyone did that I would have a million e-mails to sort through every day. Again, not cool. Most people are like me and realize that not every forwarded e-mail is worth sending. However, others are apparently still clueless. The internet's been around for awhile. The novelty of joke e-mails should be done. Only send the truly good ones please. Thank-you.

New Music to Check Out

Even when I am ultra-busy, I still have to find time to listen to music, even if it is mellow background music while I'm reading. So here's what I've been listening to lately...

Memphis - A Little Place in the Wilderness. I am a huge fan of Stars and Metric, and now these two bands are putting out a series of solo and collboration albums, which is great as a fan, but not so great for my pocket book. Amy Millan of Stars put out an excellent country-tinged solo album a few months ago and now Torq Campbell has teamed up with Metric guitarist Chris Dumont, alling themselves Memphis. This album doesn't leap out at you at first, but it has grown into one of my fave albums of the year. Very atmospheric and dream-like.

Emily Haines - Knives Don't Have Your Back. Emily Haines is the singer from Metric and this album is a big departure from Metric's blend of New Wave synths and crunching guitars. Here, Haines' voice and piano are front and centre, with various other instruments and electronic textures in the background. This album just gets better and better every time I hear it.

Bob Dylan - Modern Times. Zubazz has said his dad would rather hear the toilet flush than listen to Bob Dylan and I must admit that his voice can be an acquired taste. I remember my first impressions of Bob Dylan were when I watched David Spade and Dana Carvey parodying Tom Petty and Bob Dylan on Saturday Night Live. However, over the years I got to appreciate what a great songwriter, and yes... singer that Dylan is. People like Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Patti Smith, etc aren't techically great singers per se, but it's the way they can't sing. Their voices are unique. There are lots of R' n 'B divas who have stunning voices... but when you hear their voices on the radio, can you actually differentiate them? I don't think so. But anyways, Dylan's new album continues his decade long career revitalization following Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. On this album, his band is front and centre, featuring mostly rollicking blues numbers. Plus he name-checks Alicia Keyes, which isn't quite as weird as that sounds.

yada yad yada...

I'm back into the thick of things with school. It is already shaping into one insanely hectic semester so I'll probably be a bit of a hermit for the next three months or so. I'm enjoying all my classes so far but it is going to be a lot of work... TONS of reading as well as writing so I have my work cut out for me. I guess I'll be living on coffee and Red Bull for a little while.

I picked up two DVDs this Tuesday by my two favourite bands and these DVDs really show how truly different these two bands are. R.E.M. just put out a collection of music videos and live performances from their pre-major label I.R.S. years (1982-1987) before they fully broke into the mainstream. During this time, R.E.M. hardly appeared in their videos at all and when they performed on TV they had a very understated, mysterious, nerdy and slightly awkward aura to them. Even when they finally fluked out and sold a ton of records after releasing Out of Time, R.EM. still had that aura of being that Little Band That Could. U2 on the other hand, always seemed ready to take on the world and always seemed ready for world domination. U2 finally released their 1993 Zoo TV concert film on DVD. This concert really shows U2 at arguably their best... a full-blown, sensory-overflow extravaganza. Both DVDs also give an indication of why R.E.M. and U2 are in different stratospheres in terms of commercial success nowadays. R.E.M. are happy putting out whatever music they feel like, even if it is understated, mellow tunes that lack any break-out hit singles. U2 still goes for the jugular attempts to conquer the world with instantly memorable singles like "Beautiful Day" and "Vertigo."

QCM

On Sunday I ran in the Queen City Marathon. This year I decided to "only" do the half-marathon since I didn't feel like being a cripple for 3 months afterwards, which seemed to be the routine the last few years. There's a tendon on the outside of my left knee that keeps getting aggravated every year at the marathon so I decided that this year I would run the half and focus more on weight training and strengthing my leg muscles. I'm also going to go to a sports doctor to get it properly checked out and rehabilitated if need be. As for the actual run, I finished the 21.1 km in 1 hr and 39 minutes, which place me 69th out of 1142 runners so I was pretty happy. And I can even walk fairly normally today! ll want to qualify for the boston Marathon someday but I don't want to fuck up my knee or ligament so bad that I won't be able to run again. I honestly don't know what I would do if I weren't able to run again. There are very few things I absolutely love in life... music, books, and running. I would snap if I lost any one of those.

Back to school

School is back in session and yesterday I had my first class of my final semester. I'm pretty excited to hit the books again. I'm taking a creative writing class which will keep me ultra-busy. I've never taken a creative writing class before so it may be a bit of a challenge but it will be cool to share my stuff with the rest of class and see what others bring to the table. Unfortunately, I have to revisit a book I hoped I'd seen the last of. A few years ago I took a course on the gothic novel, where we studied Charles Dickens' Bleak House. While Dickens undeniably has some classics, Bleak House is the slowest moving book I have ever read. I would rather watch paint dry than have to drudge through this book again. This is a book that takes 30 pages to describe fog in London, but only takes one sentence to mention that a character spontaneously combusts(???), never to refer to this incident again!!!!! But aside from this book, I am pretty hyped to get back into a routine again. I enjoyed this summer, but I had far too much time off aside from hosting karaoke one night a week and doing the odd odd job here and there.

Pt. 3...

Labour Day Weekend, Pt. 2

Labour Day Weekend Pt. 1

Labour Day Weekend pretty much is the death knell for summer, but I had a lot of fun kissing the summer good-bye. My cousins Sarah and Tino, my parents, April and Autumn, Mark, Corey, Nadine, Zubazz, and the guys from B!LF all helped to make Sunday a great night. B!LF closed off a three band set that also included Men Without Shame (or is it Men Without Jason Gervais????). Anyways, here are some pics of the unofficial last night of summer.

The Pump Hip-Hop House?

Last night I hosted karaoke at The Pump. Normally Saturdays aren't too horribly busy but with all the people in from Winnipeg for the Labour Day Classic it was pretty nuts. My cousin Sarah and a couple of her friends were in from Winnipeg so them, my parents and April came out to see me in action. Since I was working I never had a chance to socialize with them a whole lot, but I did manage to almost get into a fight. This one guy kept pestering me to get his buddy up to do some freestyle open mic hip-hop/rapping. I'm not a huge rap fan obviously but I thought if this guy was even half-assed decent it might be quasi-entertaining. Plus I didn't have a whole lot of songs up so I took a chance and let the guy have the mic He got up and he started mumbling some drunken gibberish and then started his "act." The Pump isn't exactly the proper venue for a hip-hop open mic night and I saw that the crowd were not overly impressed to say the least so I cut the guy off and told him that I had to get on with the show. Well that just pissed him off and his handful of friends started flipping out and were acting like the biggest injustice ever just occurred. They were calling me every name in the book and "threatened" that last night would be the last night I ever worked at The Pump again. So I told them to go ahead and plead their case to the owners and managers and see what they would do about it. I wasn't too worried because I doubt that The Poverty Plainsmen would want a "rapper" to open up for them or play at The Pump. Finally a member of J-Roc's posse came up onstage and started telling me that he was "this" close to punching me for disrespecting his friend. At that point I called for the bouncers to come down and kindly escort them upstairs, which they did. Good times, good times.

Pt. 6...

After looking at all these pics I've come to the conclusion that my friends and I should all seek some professional help. Oh well. When in Rome...

Pt. 5...

Pt. 4...

Pt. 3... more shenanigans

Some of these pics really don't need further explanation. But I will anyways cuz that's just how I am. In this set, April is doing her best vampire impersonation on Shades while Mr. Ruda is in udder disbelief of my impersonation of a preacher getting a blow job.