This Calgary Flames music (and I use the term loosely) video from 1987 is one of the most godawful things I’ve ever watched.

[via Mighty MJD]

I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I WANT ONE OF THESE!!!!

Just got back from the doctor. Good news, all in all. All the bloodwork was good. Total cholesterol was very good; good cholesterol was not great (need more fruit & vegetables…no surprise there) but bad cholesterol was excellent.

I actually assumed it would be kind of high, given my past love for the fried & fatty.

Oy and argh. I finally got around to setting up the new computer last night. I took the 120 GB drive out of the old PC and tried to put it into the new one…unfortunately, it’s not compatible. At all. Doesn’t fit in the slot, uses different connections, etc., etc. I was well and truly pissed off for about 20 minutes there.

Luckily the new one comes with an 80GB hard drive (not 40 as I’d originally thought) so I can move everything I have onto the new machine. I hooked it up to the router and transferred everything over, so now it should just be a matter of plain old setting up a new machine. And I have to say, I love me some 19″ Ultrasharp LCD. It’s also pretty sweet that this bad boy has 7x the processor speed and 4x the memory of my old one. That’s what happens when you go 6 years between purchases.

In unrelated news, anybody out there need a Western Digital 120GB hard drive? Less than a year old. Just askin’.

.:.
Nellie, rock star that she is, got most of the xmas shopping done yesterday. Hooray for wives on their days off.

Get it.

If you want to have some new music thrown at you head over to 75 Minutes. I’ve been downloading their “podcast” (still hate that word) for a few months now and it’s usually good for a one or two good songs. I’m a few weeks behind right now but the last few episodes I’ve reviewed have turned up some good stuff:

• The Decemberists convering Joanna Newsom’s “Bridges & Balloons”
• “Wake Up, Ma and Pa Are Gone” by Bound Stems
• “Werewolf” by Cat Power
• A band from the American midwest called Raccoo-oo-oon with an amazing song called “Stick Eaters”. I’ll be looking into this band some more, but they’re pretty obscure so…c’mon internets!
• A L’Spaerow song called “Bridges”
• A band called Ufomammut with a song called “Hellcore”. Or it could be the other way around, I’m not 100% sure.

Angels Twenty is another source for good music; not as prolific as 75 Minutes, but less random.

Another CD that I’ve made for my father. Now that I’ve made it I’m pretty sure I’ve put the Neko Case song on another disc for him, but oh well…it’s Neko and it trashes WalMart, so hooray.

1. Maria Taylor . “Song Beneath The Song”
2. Iron And Wine . “Free Until They Cut Me Down”
3. Black Rebel Mototcycle Club . “Devil’s Waitin'”
4. Neko Case . “Thrice All American”
5. Mirah . “Exactly Where We’re From”
6. Mark Lanegan . “Strange Religion”
7. Ben Lee . “In My Life”
8. Joel Plaskett . “Happen Now”
9. Detroit Cobras . “I Wanna Holler (but the town’s too small)”
10. FemBots . “Count Down Our Days”
11. William Elliot Whitmore . “The Buzzards Won’t Cry”
12. Neil Young . “A Dream That Can Last”
13. Black Keys . “My Mind Is Ramblin'”
14. U2 . “Springhill Mining Disaster”
15. Rev. Peyton’s Big Damn Band . “Aberdeen”
16. Jason Collett . “Honey I Don’t Know”
17. Richard Thompson . “1952 Vincent Black Lightning”
18. White Stripes . “I’m Lonely (but I ain’t that lonely yet)”

We spent last night at C’est What for CB’s birthday. Their microbrewed rye beer is awfully yummy.

.:.
I can’t get over how dumb some people are when it comes to recycling. Our building has several bins for paper and several more for bottles/plastic/cans, and yet every week I find a paper bin overflowing with wine bottles, or a glass bin full of newspaper. Worse yet, people take things down that don’t belong in a recycling bin at all. Golf clubs? Skis? Lamps? People stuff shit like that in the bins all the time. Are they raging morons? Or just inconsiderate assholes?

After watching bits and pieces all week we finally finished watching Russian Ark (imdb | rotten tomatoes) this afternoon. I kept it on the PVR because I think we’ll need to give it another go, hopefully uninterrupted this time. I suspect it would be even better on DVD (the version we recorded on CBC has commercials). The reason continuity in viewing is so important is because of the way the film was made: it’s actually one long, stunning shot (in first person) moving through the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It’s hard to believe what you’re seeing as you watch it, especially when you consider the hundreds, thousands maybe, of actors and the fluid way in which they interact with the camera. The only thing more remarkable than the skill used in making the film was the museum itself, and the art it contains.

I can’t recommend Russian Ark enough.

It’s been a busy 24 hours.

Last night after watching The Daily Show and Oprah’s appearance on Letterman I was trying to fall asleep when my tooth (the one that got worked on last week) started throbbing in pain. I took some advil to fall asleep, but then some assclown in another apartment started hammering nails into walls. At 12:30 AM! And it kept going for an hour! Needless to say I did not sleep well. I got up and called the dentist, asking for a look on short notice. They got me in for a quick look and a scrip for some antibiotics in the hopes that it’s just infected and we can ward off a root canal; I left, fought my way through the morning surge coming out of Union Station and headed off to work, picking up a croissant from Holt’s and some hot chocolate from Second Cup along the way.

I finally got away from a busy morning at work — mostly finishing up a group project for school that’s due Monday — for lunch, and found that my computer had arrived. I carried the boxes upstairs, built a fort for the cats and went back to work.

Since I’ve barely seen Stanzi in three weeks I met her for hot chocolate (yes, another one) after work. We chatted for a bit, then went to m0851 to look for an xmas present for her brother-in-law. She found a pretty good one and I found a spring/summer jacket that I think I’ll buy tomorrow. I headed back to the drug store to pick up my prescription and head home. Someone from the pet sitting service that we use to look after the cats when we’re away came by to introduce herself, so we had to do some hasty cleaning. The boys put on a show…until Nellie took out the carrier bags (just in case the lady has to take them to the vet while we’re away), which freaked Michael out (’cause, to him, the bags = the vet = needles and rectal thermometers) and he hid behind the bed. As would I.

Finally, we were able to order some food, watch the Raptors squeak out win #2 and watch Weeds on the PVR. We’ll take it easy the rest of the night, maybe watch a movie and fall asleep early with advil for the tooth, and earplugs lest the hammering resume. Tomorrow’s going to be even busier, I think: lots of xmas shopping, personal shopping, errands, reading, maybe hanging out with friends if we can arrange it.

And at some point, I’ll want to get that new computer fired up. Mmmmmm, 19″ ultrasharp LCD…