Back to our regularly scheduled program.....

So it's been awhile since I have been here pushing my opinions on the 5 people I know read this and any other nameless people that may have trip over this little diatribe of mine in the vastness of cyber space. I had been experiencing a little bit of writer's block but last night I heard something that kind of snapped me out of it, something needed to be said after I experienced what I did last night. What snapped me out of it...Well let's say this...Thank god for the Rolling Stones.

So here's the story..I got to work yesterday and one of the young kids that work for me says "Hey I have something for you...I burnt you a copy of the new RollingStones album "A bigger Bang." He said it was good and I thought sure I'll give it a listen. So that night as I sat to do my end of day paperwork I plugged in the CD player we have a listened to it.........................Sorry that was a long pause cause I was just reflecting on the..Um..crappyness...Yeah that's the word for it..That this album is!!!!!
Now I'm a Stones fan don't get me wrong but this was just bad...Why is it that these once great bands think they should still put out music? It's rather disappointing to think that the band that put out great albums like "Let it bleed" and "Exile on main St." and wrote great classic songs like "Gimme shelter" and "Brown Sugar" put out this drivel. I have no problem with the Stones still touring really from what I've seen they still put on a good show,but don't they realize that they are just a nostalgia show now..People don't want to hear new stuff from them..They want to hear the songs they know and love. On the new album they sing about girls and loss and all this other crap right...Which is good for any other band really but this is the fucking RolloingStones, there all in there 50 and 60 good god....They are past the point when they can sing about sneaking into a girls room...That is just damn creepy. Age, success and knighthood have ruined the stones for today. It's not very often a great artist from that golden era of music can put out good material again...A few come to mind..Neil Young..Bob Dylan..The singer songwriters mostly...but an aging rock band? Come on Mick and Keith accept it you are a nostalgia band don't attempt more albums it's really just silly...There is a great line in High Fidelity that says"Is it wrong to blame a once great artist for there later day sins, sub question is it better to burn out than to fade away?" this is truly a great question, should we blame these great artists for trying?...They need to realize it's not going to happen again the Stones will never write another "Symphony for the Devil" or "Paint it black", live on your past glories..Past the torch, its over fellas...Keep touring but I for one will prefer to remember you for "Happy" and "Shattered"..Not the drivel you pass off on the fans "you care about" as a new album....

Well now....

This post has no real general theme except it is things that have kinda gotten to me or I have noticed and feel the need to shout, applaude, agree to disagree about, in a way I guess it could be a modified version of an "I feel" list fore lack of a better term.

1. First on my hit parade is that god damn Dr.Phil...is this guy famous and have his own TV show simply becasue he's friends with Oprah, who deserves a rant in her honour alone. I am waiting, and I might have said this before so excuse me I if I'm reapting myself, for somebody to lay this guy out!! I know he's all about the tough love and stuff...but this guy is a dick, You want me to add his "show" to my must see tv routine. promise me, gaurantee me that at some point, somebody anybody, will get up and deck this fucker out...that is good tv my friends. If I wanted to be told by an obnoxious, dumb ass texan how to live my life, I would have moved to the states 5 years ago....

2.Next is Fuckin BONO...cause well I hate this guy. I would like to lead a assualt on BONO, and take him down with my rag tag group of mercinaries that are drunk on smore schnaps..just so I can write a letter to some parent and say but don't worry your son did not die in vein..cause..well..i hate that guy...

3. Next are Fucking Moped riders...first lets get this straight..mopeds..are...NOT..cool! Do we all understand this. Although one must appalude the desighn of these things cause they must ahve an amazing load capacity if the people I've seen driving these things are any indication. But they feel they should be in the traffic with the big boys cars and bikes..look if you cant do at least 50 get of the damn road..you are not a vehicle you are a pain in the ass.get out of the traffic lae and take to the damn side walk or something...

4. On the bright side of life is the city of Victoria. I love that city and is easily in my top 5 places that I love, and not just because that is where Jen is. This city has the city aspects I love like a night life that includes live music and culture but still holds on to a small town feel...I could live there and there are those out there that conspire to get me to move there and you know who you are.And the slice of heavan that is Paggliachi's..mmmm...best restaurant ever(for dinner anyway)

5.The beginnings of this post were so negative about things that I dispise that I feel I should end on a good note.*** warning: This is about to turn into a gushing zone, those who continue to read do so at own risk. Further reading results in loss of all rights to comment and give me shit on number 5 on this list...lol*****
The thing that brings me the most and biggest smiles these days is not a cd, dvd or even a movie, but my girlfriend Jen. I feel like I need to go into all the back ground of how we met,how i didn't think I had a chance, and how I had the best Canada Day ever this July. But I think I'll give the over view. I met Jen through a mutual friend( I guess)on my Birthday in May, when I was half cut and had to drink a little more to get the courage to go talk to her as she sat at the other end of the table. I didn't think I made much of an impression..but I guess I did. Jen is amazing, she is smart(big points in my book), as she is in her final year at University(an English and Art HIstory major), she is funny and makes me laugh constantly(agin big points)someone i can talk to constantly never boring and is just so much fun to be around...oh yeah and she's absolutely goergeous(and thats just not my opinion either!) We have such a good time together we can bum around the city for three days like we did this weekend with no real agenda and it turns into the best weekend I have had in a long time(with more to come). I have never met somebody that has met so many of the things that I look for in a girl and I really can't say enough about her..really I can't...I miss her terribly when not around her and can't get enough of her when I am around her...just getting pizza with her is fun. This could go on and on and its not something those out there that I know read this thing haven't heard, but there it is...my first real personal post..told you I could do it Jen..lol...now to post it before I change my mind...lol

I hate this time of year....

AArrggghhh!!!! This is the thought and word that so often enters my mind when looking at the current release schedules for cds and dvds. This time of years sucks ass...with so little on the horizon before the holiday season, save for a few highlights like the tenth anniversary edition of MALLRATS, a new Neil Young album, I have little hope...lol... I also thought that maybe because of the small town aspect of my town that maybe I'm just missing stuff. This apparently is not the case,I spent last weekend at the Pearl Jam concert in Vancouver and nothing caught my eye there. So I had hope for my trip this weekend to spend time with Jen at her new residence in Victoria a city that in my mind is a little more cultured and in-touch than the "Big Smoke"(an awesome trip but a tale for another time...lol...I know, Jen stop laughing...)that maybe I would find something, but noooo all I found was a fat load of nothing. The 2 1\2 hour car ride did however allow me to spend some time with cds that I havent spent time with lately and mearly reminded me how good they are, like the new Beck album"Guero", a healthy dose of The Kings of Leon albums which I cannot say enogh good things about..go out and get them damn it...I did take in an Imax movie while I was there about Whales...yeah thats right I said whales and it was good too...so stop laughing at the educational aspects of the movie, it was amazing to see whales on a six story screen. But in the opening montage of the movie to promote the "Imax Experience" you catch a glimpse of Star Wars on a six story screen...this is now my new goal and dream...to see Star Wars on an Imax screen..I have seen the Matrix Reloaded on the imax screen but there is some thing about seeing Star Wars on a screen that big, the scream of Tie-fighters, Light saber battles, geek central really....but oh well...that's that nothing exciting here..don't worry Jen I'm working on the post that you want me to write...lol...

An early morning drive, A long walk and Eddie Vedder.

Friday Morning September 2, 2005, a morning that I had a a bi-polar, love \hate relationship with. Why you ask?...Well this was the morning that me and the Hetero-life mate were going to see a band that I had long wanted to see, that being the band made up of Mike McCreedy, Stone Gossard, Jeff Ament, Matt Cameron and of course Eddie Vedder...PEARL JAM....This would also mark the day that I would have to say good-bye to seeing Jen on the daily basis to which I had grown accustomed as she was moving back to school which is three hours away...that however is a story for a different time and post...this is about seeing a seminal band in my musical education, a band that I (like alot of people) put just under the Nirvana entry in bands that had an effect on the teenage years of my life, but they are at the same time a band that has in my mind continued to put out interesting music over the last ten years, a band that has said "Fuck you we are doing it this way"..."Fuck you Ticketmaster"..and ..latley "Fuck you Goerge Bush.!!".
I had never counted Pearl Jam out even when people who were just there for the "Jeremy's" and albums like "Ten"and "Vs" had gone away, they were in my opinion still an important, entertaining, prolific band that bucked the trends and I liked that. But I'm getting carried away in detailing my appreciation for this band, a stand that may get some riddicule from others(I see an email from the home office in Newcastle coming my way with the word Fag in it)but I digress....
So I picked the Sidekick up Sat morning and we of course made a bee line for the giver of life in the morning...Tim Horton's. Where we grabbed bagels and extra large cups of coffee and hit the road for the ferry...conversing and joking all the way. We made the ferry with no hastle, had the ferry breakfast grabbed the newest issue of RollingStone and settled in for the ride. The ferry is always great for people watching...crackheads..junkies standup good citizens(which i found isn't me cause I found 5 bucks and put that shit in my pocket pretty fast...it was mine damn it...and if it was some kids allowance I didn't want to know.)loud obnoxious fans of the very same band that we were going to see. But oh well...so we get of the ferry get on the transit bus where we met two guys from our town who were drunk(it was only noon)who kinda thought they knew usand kept goin on about all the "Hot Bitches in this town", the crowning glory was when they started going on about having the "yellow fever."...I felt a reverse hate crime comin on but they got off soon after that, and continued on with their travels..goin on about the yellow fever in Vancouver...crazy kids. So we get to the hotel and check in and such then decide its time to hit the town and check out the scene downtown..check out the Futureshop, comic store other odds and sodds that the city has to offer, it is then decided that beer is now on the menu and is of the top most importance on the priotiy list.One problem...do you have any idea how hard it is to find a fucking liqour store in the heart of downtown Vancouver...pot not a problem..smelt it everywhere, cocaine , crack, heroin, could have gotten it much easier than finding a leagal governement funded LIQOUR store...so off we went on ther trek of treks it seemed. We ended up like what felt like 10 city blocks from our damn hotel(not to mention the walking we did before), but at last we found a liqour store and got us some beer, warm beer but nothing a hotel ice machine and our rooms kitchen sink wouldn't fix. And we headed back to the hotel, this is where some higher power or something got back us for having too good a time....we walk into the hotel and the sign in the hotel lobby for the resturant says..get this.."Off Sales Sold here"....fuck....a hike for nothing and our beer was warm...fuck......
So we went up and had beers and showers to get ready for the concert and went to the restaurant for dinner were more beers were concumed after which we made the five minute walk to GM place. after about a half hour of being out side witnessing a homeless person going off about how he had showered that day to ask us for money we went in side...I was now officially looking forward to this show...then we saw the seats. I didn't buy the tickets some body bought them and they then ended up in my hands, but the seats were the worst I had ever had for any concert,hockey game, or any other event Ihad ever attended at the GM Place. So we passed the time calling those back home(he called the wife, I called Jen) we then decided to place a call to the home office located in the heart of picturesque Newcastle Ontario, shortly after which the opening act came on. A band by the name of the Supersuckers, an ok band with crappy songs. The one High light was the last song of their openiong set, Eddie Vedder dressed in a silver Lame siut and a mask came out to sing a song with them, kinda cool.
The lights went down not to long after and Pearl Jam took the stage. They opened the show with the slow very melodic song from "Ten","Release". Eddie and the boys continued to rock the place for the next 2 1\2 hours, mining mostly "Ten","Vs","Yeild" for the set list but also played songs from "Vitology", and "No code". They also threw in two covers, one being The Whos-"Baba O'Rielly"they played for 1 1\2 hours before the first of THREE encores...they played there hearts out and the crowed loved them for it. It was a truly amazing concert. One I'm finally glad I got to see. Can scratch one more concert of the list of ones to see before I die.(Now if Phish would just get back together..lol...)
After the concert we met the friends I got the tickets from at their hotel but they were boring and didn't feel like wasting our night with them, so we left to get something to eat and drink more beer...it was an extreamly fun filled day and an amazing concert.The only black spot was the damn Denny's...the next morning...arrgghhh....never waited so long in a resturant for breakfast damn it and whats this not offering refills on coffee..what you were busy, then call somebody in damn it, this is why you have staff!!....I am tired now as I had to work this morning at 6 am didn't get much sleep last night....but now it is poker night with the boys and I do plan on coming out on top....