My goodness, my Nomad’s being nice to me…two of my favourite songs in a row: Tom Waits‘ “The Fall Of Troy” and Ted Leo‘s “The Ballad Of The Sin-Eater”.

Every time a Joe Satriani song comes on, I know I shouldn’t like it, but I do. Especially “Crushing Day”…hell, anything from Surfing With The Alien.

Ah, shredding guitars from 1987…how you shame me.

[update] The next song the Nomad played was “Jump Around” by House Of Pain. It’s like it wants me back in high school…

[update2] Aah! Now it’s playing “Daniel” by Juliana Hatfield. This is getting creepy…my Nomad’s making it personal!!

Hello, brand Canada.

According to the Anholt-GMI Nation Brands Index, which measures perceptions on Tourism, Exports, People, Governance, Culture & Heritage and Investment & Immigration, Canada ranks #2 worldwide.

[via]

I like Alan Cross’s daily podcast. It’s 60 seconds of inane & fascinating rock and roll chatter from a guy who can probably dispense about 60 years worth.

Strange…I’d never heard of IRN-BRU until our recent trip to Edinburgh, so I assumed it was an exclusively Scottish [ahem] delicacy. But I just saw a pile of it in our local grocery store.

And in the same visit, I had a common Maritime myth shattered (or at least modernized): King Cole tea in Toronto. I’d always thought you can’t get it outside of Atlantic Canada (since that’s what the ads used to say), but there it was…boxes of it.

Things change. Economies globalize. Tastes travel.

Shit, I guess when we live in an era where bank tellers discuss Jeff Jarvis’ problems with Dell in a Toronto food court, it’s time to acknowledge that the world has shrunk.

There’s just nothing that prepares me for the day like Tricky‘s cover of “Black Steel”.

I just picked up Season 5 of Oz on DVD.

I ordered me a “music + science = sexy” t-shirt from Questionable Content. Along with the WM3 t-shirt that Stanzi & T-Bone so lovingly acquired for my birthday and the latest batch of American Apparel rags that are coming, I daresay I’ll be experiencing something of a t-shirt renaissance soon.

These went on today.

• The Most Serene Republic – “Content Was Always My Favourite Colour”
• The Organ – “Memorize The City”
• Phosphorescent – “Aw Come Aw Wry”
• Slow Dazzle – “Fleur De Lie”
• Circa Survive – “The Great Golden Baby”
• Goldrush – “Wait For The Wheels”
• The Hold Steady – “Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
• Jason Collett – “Bitter Beauty”
• Jennifer O’Connor – “The Color And The Light”
• The Kaiser Chiefs – “I Predict A Riot”

Good news and bad news on the condo front:

[good]: Everything’s on schedule, which for a condo, is really being ahead of schedule.
[bad]: This still means that, since we’re halfway up the building, it’ll be almost two years before we can move in.
[good]: Since we bought on spec about 18 months ago, our unit has already appreciated by 10%.
[good]: We got to see a near-exact model of our kitchen yesterday and Nellie’s very, very happy.