I like my rock and roll the same

Tonight is the one year anniversary of me losing all credibility at my job. We will be taking recruits out for supper and then drinks. Here is to me making it home with a jacket, keys and some sense of self worth.

Peace.

Review the situation, take part, take over

Saskatoon is still there in case anyone was wondering. It is also full of drink pushing jerks like Josh Ronald. Thanks for the hangover you dick. I spent my first night in town being a dirtbag out at Earl’s, then Bacchus, then the Scuz. I remember being at the Sutherland for about one hour, and then waking up in my room at my parent’s house feeling very disoriented. Good times. It was a minor HMD reunion with Brehon and Kirsti, just missing Mark, who didn’t even want any sweet drunken phone calls. What a dork. He was probably mad too.

The next day was spent wandering about the city in an automobile. Quite the novelty for a dude with no access to a car. I was honestly quite surprised that I had no problems driving. Or maybe I did and I was just so rusty that I didn’t notice. My mom will probably call tomorrow and yell at me for wrecking her car. That night was my parents’ birthday party, which was well attended by people I had to make small talk with. I can only tell people that Calgary is fine and I am enjoying my job for so long without my head exploding. I ended up trying to avoid people for the most part. It was probably mostly due to my efforts to not drink anything that night. I was pretty sure one night off would do me some good. That was working out well until I finally had to leave the party and took off to the Crazy Cactus. Good times were had there with two-thirds of the Fjords, and some guy who was an extra in Lord of The Rings 3. If you have never been there, you should check it out. It is the type of place where you get inadvertently drunk.

On Sunday I did tons of exciting things like wandering around and cooking supper. Woo. Upon my return to Calgary I found Tim on the couch, the exact same spot I find him every day after work.

Now this week I am back to the same old shit, with one difference: I actually have plans that don’t involve me being a waste of space and oxygen. On Wednesday I’ll be checking out Metric and the Most Serene Republic. Unfortunately it looks like I am headed out there by myself, as tickets are now sold out, and I don’t imagine anyone wants to come with me enough to pick one up off of ebay. Thursday is some kind of recruiting event for U of S folks at Rouge. I wonder if that chick from Bacchus will be out. I’m sure I made a solid first impression.

Wow. What a wrap-up.

If you have some time you should read this. That is, if you want to be a music nerd you should read it. Otherwise, don’t.

Peace.

So either call my bluff or turn the volume up

(And make noise for the women that swallow stuff)

In this past week I have purchased cds from Propaghandhi, Thrice, Broken Social Scene, Blackalicious and Atmosphere. Were this an ordinary I would be willing to give each one of these a through running down, complete with some type of rating system. Unfortunately, I have some way more important shit to write about so you will have to find out for yourself how awesome each and every one of these cds happens to be. Or skip past this next paragraph. Your call.

In the meanwhile I would like to point out that if anyone sees me in Saskatoon this weekend they should buy me a drink. I could use one. And if you buy me enough I can guarantee a fun time by all. HMD-style. We might even bring out the Red Dragon snowboard team moves, but who knows if we’ll have enough time.

On to shitty music reviews that no one cares about. Maybe more people would read these if I used sweet words like the dudes in Pitchfork. Only problem is they have those fancy English degrees where they have to learn random shit like the name of the main village in Gulliver’s Travels and how that name can be turned into an adjective. Seriously, how was I supposed to learn something like that while taking those ultra useful classes in the College of Commerce. Especially that audit class. Based on all of my recent work screw-ups that class didn’t help me one bit. I want my $400 back you dicks. And a job where I’m at the very least competent.

Propaghandi – Potemkin City Limits : Prop has written some of my favourite music ever. After John left the band they moved to the thrashier side of things with Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes. With that album you could definitely hear the I-Spy influence and this album moves along in the same vein. Harder music with blunter messages. I love this band even though they make me feel horrible for the way I live my life. Third out of the five Prop albums.

Thrice – Vheissu: I consider Thrice’s Illusion of Safety to be one of the greatest albums ever recorded. A seminal recording. As such they have a lot to live up to every time they release something, and while I did enjoy The Artist in the Ambulance, it certainly didn’t surpass their previous effort. I don’t think Vheissu is going to be that album either, but it is still Thrice and it still rocks. This is definitely Thrice trying to be more artistic because there are pianos all over it, and everyone knows that pianos and screaming are artistic. So far this is third out of the four Thrice albums.

Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene: This cd is too complicated for me to deconstruct. I’m glad I figured out how to listen to this kind of music. I can’t compare this to anything because I have only ever listened to You Forgot It In People.

Blackalicious – The Craft: I can’t find this cd, so I haven’t listened to it yet. No opinions, but a prediction. I’ll bet you Gift of Gab kills it. This is guaranteed money. I also heard Xcel uses a lot of live instruments. That sounds nice.

Atmosphere – You Can’t Imagine How Much Fun We Are Having: This is a solid effort, but comes up lacking because I just got the new Slug and Murs cd. When the same producer is on every track it is always more interesting to have two emcees rapping than one. That is my not surprisingly shallow opinion. Not as good as God Loves Ugly, but just as good as Seven’s Travels. Maybe even a bit better.

And that is why I listen to music instead of writing about it.

(And I forgot what other important shit I had to write about.)

And I listened to Pig Destroyer’s Terrifyer all day long at work today.

Peace.

Calls you up drunk at 3 or 4 A.M.

Things I learned this weekend:

- People shouldn’t rely on me to pull through on anything. Sorry about hockey Evan.
- Starship Troopers is the best movie ever. I won’t argue about this.
- The only thing you can do is listen to your heart.

That’s it.

Peace.

As long as I’m alive he’s a millionaire

Well I think the time has passed for writing anything else about the Fuck The Hurricane Tour, simply because I don’t remember anything else to write about. I was looking at the pictures we took to try and refresh my memory, but they all appear to be pictures of four dudes gooned out of their skulls and possibly some topless girls from Bonefish Creek. Real classy stuff. As such, that post is being put off one more time until I can get Tim to confirm whether or not some things happened.

In the meantime I can tell you how pumped up I am for the snowboard season. Someone should remember this and remind me come February when I am too lazy too get out of bed and go to the hill. Plus I am buying a jib board, which is bound to get used 2 times at most. Still it seems like a real good idea right now. The interest was probably sparked by a combination of watching lots of snowboard videos over the long weekend and flipping through the new Forum catalogue and seeing the Street Dweller. This board is a cheap piece of shit with tons of flex, no pop and no edges and the biggest it comes is a 152. It is super cheap and designed to get the shit kicked out of it. I’m talking like $80 cheap. Dirt cheap. I’ve spent way more money on dumber shit, so I figured that was a good deal if it provided me with a few hours of entertainment, and proceeded to look for it online. They are kind of hard to come buy, so I am going to just buy Chris’s old Devun Walsh 153 for the same price as a street dweller. Look for me to have some sweet broken bones this winter. I really hope it doesn't impede my ability to audit the hell out of things.

It also appears that getting time off to go to Montreal and/or Toronto is not going to be happening. Stupid having a job. At least I’m dreaming big these days. It really breaks my balls that Hallowe'en isn't a stat holiday. I would way rather have that as a day off than Thanksgiving or something like that. It's been so long since grade two that I don't even really remember what Thanksgiving is for. What a lame holiday.

I suppose the only other thing I could talk about that may be interesting to select individuals is… actually I have nothing to say. I need another long weekend and a second income. Or some hot old lady who feels like paying me to hang out with her.

Peace.

Run to the hills, run for your life

This title is way cooler when you sing it like Bruce Dickinson. At least I think it is. And I just realized that the lead singer from Iron Maiden has the same name as the Christopher Walken character in the Blue Oyster Cult: Behind The Music sketch, yet I have no idea if that is who he was supposed to be. Actually a quick internet search has revealed that the character is not in fact intended to be the Iron Maiden frontman. The more you know I guess.

I have now completely forgot what I was going to post about. Undoubtedly some lame deconstructions of my latest album purchases (The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike; Slug and Murs – Felt 2: A Tribute To Lisa Bonet; and, Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel the Illiniose). The only problem is that I’ve only listened to two of them all the way through. I was listening to the Sufjan Stevens album yesterday while I ate my delicious supper of grilled cheese sandwiches, but I fell asleep about half-way through. What I heard was nice though. I’ll try again tonight.

I was also going to post some biting rebuttal to Evan’s hockey post, but I really am a half-assed hockey fan. The only thing I will point out is that Evan had to steal the format to come up with an entertaining post. Fucking thief. On that note though, I do still enjoy hockey, but to be quite honest I wouldn’t really plan my night around it. And I certainly wouldn’t be prepared to put off doing something more entertaining just to watch a game on TV. Unless of course I were to be watching said game at a pub, because beer makes things entertaining for me. I think that is the plan for tonight’s Flames game, provided I can coax some cash out of one of my various bank accounts. I figure there should be some money in at least one of them.

This post is retarded. Like it should be wearing a helmet or something.

Oh ya, The Go! Team is playing in Montreal on October 31st. I have been entertaining thoughts of going down just because I have nothing better to do, and in any case all the Halloween partying will be done on the weekend. I also have a couple hundred bucks of Westjet money to spend, so I would only have to pick up another $200 plus some place to stay for 2 nights. Anyone feel like heading to the sovereign state of Quebec to see some band you don’t listen to? I hear there are still tickets available. It also turns out that they are playing in Toronto the night before. I suppose I could swing that too. Is that a more appealing option to anyone or maybe just Dave?

And now one last point. Stern says that ordering a bucket of KFC as a substitute for Thanksgiving dinner is pathetic. I think he’s a dick.

Peace.