Category: Music

I Do Have Weapons

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I “bought” two more albums from eMusic yesterday: Mogwai‘s soundtrack (pitchfork) to Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait (imdb | rotten tomatoes) and Okkervil River‘s The Stage Names (pitchfork | metacritic). The ‘gwai album I listened to last night (I find their music perfect to listen to while working) and it’s fantastic. I haven’t listened to the OR disc yet, except for the excellent first track “Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe”.

Speaking of working, I pretty much need to finish this assignment tonight. I’ve long since stopped caring about doing a good job. Everyone in the program that I’ve talked to has complained about how ridiculous the assignment is. I feel I’ve put the amount of effort into it that it deserves…which is to say, not much.

[tags]mogwai, zidane, okkervil river, emusic[/tags]

Yea and verily, we need a no-Speedo bylaw

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A rooftop pool near where I live. It always looks so great when someone’s swimming and the sun’s hitting it. I took a few pictures of “rooftop life” today, like this one, and stuck ’em on Flickr.

.:.

Oooowheeee. After working on a stupid assignment all day (seriously, this may be the first time that I’ve hated school, rather than feeling simply annoyed or overwhelmed) it felt good to run a few miles. I spent too much time sitting on my ass this week. Why didn’t I buy an Aeron chair when I started this 3 years ago?

.:.

Songs that won’t leave my head today: “Bridges” by L’Spaerow and “The Girl Who Lives On Heaven Hill” by Husker Du.

[tags]rooftop life, mba, running, l’spaerow, husker du[/tags]

My slow descent into the weekend

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Some lads playing cricket in Moss Park. Click on the picture to get the larger sizes.

.:.

Today were a looooong one. Got up early to hit the bank and then the lawyer’s office where we signed over our bank accounts, our various chattels and the rights to any future screenplays we may write. In return we’ll have our very own crushing debtload come Tuesday. Huzzah!

Didn’t leave work until 8:00, by which time Nellie was happily nibbling away on something delicious at Fieramosca with her friends. They called a few minutes ago; even Mennie (the hostess) said hello. She missed me. I could tell.

Right now I’m enjoying my alone time and the clean apartment and my efficiency at catching up on stuff. I’m blasting the New Pornographers and gettin’ shit done. It may qualify as a lame Friday night, but goddamn it feels nice.

.:.

BlogTO had a couple of great island-related features earlier this week: a detailed description of a first trip on Porter Air (who fly from the Toronto Island Airport) that pretty much removed any doubt I had about using them the next time I felt to Montreal, Ottawa or Halifax, and an explanation of why the gradual extension of the Leslie Street Spit is causing (or, rather, not preventing) the erosion of the Toronto Island beaches.

.:.

Every time I listen to Radiohead‘s Kid A I’m struck by how good it is. Every time.

[tags]moss park, mortgage, fieramosca, new pornographers, blogto, porter air, leslie street spit, radiohead, kid a[/tags]

First rule of order: no more tuna

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No matter how shitty a day you have — and believe me, I had a shitty day — these two things can make it a little bit better:  “No Pussy Blues” by Grinderman and a little lolcat action.

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Man alive, it’s hard to function without your thumb. Buttoning a shirt, signing your name, tying your freaking shoes…all nigh unto impossible. Seriously, I’m convinced that our development of opposable digits is the only thing that’s keeping us in control of the planet right now. If dolphins (or even Jack Russell terriers) ever get thumbs, we are in serious trouble.

I, for one, welcome our delphinine overlords.

.:.

Britain has asked Israel to re-open the case of James Miller, a reporter who was shot by an Israeli officer while filming in Gaza four years ago. I blogged about this three years ago after watching a documentary about Miller on the first anniversary of his death. It was one more tragic story from a region rife with them. This appeal will surely cause an outcry in Israel, but one has to admire Britain’s doggedness in seeking justice for one of her citizens.

[tags]grinderman, lolcat, opposable digits, james miller[/tags]

A song will lift as the mainsail shifts

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That lovely shawl you see up there is, in fact, my new cast. Pretty, no? I didn’t have a choice of colours, so they gave me the clown motif. I’m thinking I’ll need to cover that up.

Good news, though: I should only have to wear it for four weeks, not six or more. It’s also far more comfortable than that blasted splint (so far, anyway) and gives me more use of my fingers…though my thumb is basically useless now. And you know what’s hard to do sans thumb? Tying your shoes. Try it tomorrow. You’ll curse like you’ve never cursed before.

.:.

Quick hits:

  • MC Rove is hiding behind his mommy’s skirts.
  • Irish singer Tommy Makem died. I know very little of Tommy Makem, only that he was a singer and that he performed a beautiful rendition (along with the Clancy Brothers) of “When The Ship Comes In” at Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary concert several years ago. If you haven’t heard it, you really should. There’s nothing quite like a protest song sung by old Irish men.
  • I want a pair of Joe’s new running shoes. Wish I’d thought of that before my birthday…

[tags]broken wrist, gaudy cast, karl rove, tommy makem, saucony[/tags]

The sweetest beep that ever there was

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Well, the gas leak saga seems to be nearly over. Today some people from the building came by with a new dude. This new dude had an actual piece of gas-detecting equipment…how novel. Anyway, he climbs up on the stepladder and sticks the device into the wall panel…nothing. The other three get smug looks of satisfaction, and comment on how there’s no smell so there’s clearly no leak. But then the new dude turns on the gas (the shutoff valve has been closed), puts the device back in the wall and…oh, what’s that, a beep? A FUCKING BEEP? Yeah, a beep. Within seconds this thing went off. Then the guy did the “soap test”, where you spray a little soapy water on the pipe to see if it bubbles. This is the test the building guys have been doing for the last few weeks, swearing up and down that there’s no leak. The new dude does it once and five seconds later has bubbles. The other guy gives it a try…nothing. The new dude explains that it’s because he just emptied half a bottle of water onto it and temporarily sealed it up. Twenty seconds later…beeeeeeep. Hooray for technology.

It was all I could do not to go put on a track suit and do a Will Farrell style cheer. For the last month these people have ignored us, talked down to us, bitched at us, told us we’re wrong and, let’s face it, put us in danger. Seriously, I couldn’t even look at them; I wouldn’t have been able to refrain from just giving them the finger at close range. But I didn’t want to be that guy. I figured I’d just blog about their snotty incompetence instead.

The one time I wasn’t able to contain myself was when the new dude told them the leak was on the trac pipe adapter to the supply line. I said, “Oh really? Cool. ‘Cause that’s exactly what it says right here on this notice from Enbridge. You know, the big red one labeled ‘WARNING’ that’s been stuck to the wall by the access panel? That’s dated June 18th? That says, ‘MSA POS AT TRAC PIPE FITTING ADAPTER ON SUPPLY LINE’? Yeah, that one.”

One of the ladies from customer service, who’s been pretty bipolar about this whole thing (one minute she seems helpful, the next she seems annoyed) couldn’t even stay after new dude discovered the leak. She just left. Who knows, maybe she had somewhere to be, but I think she just couldn’t handle being that stupendously wrong. I hope she went downstairs and told the rest of them how colossally they’ve fucked up for the last month. I hope they’re all scared for their jobs. Not because we’re the kind of people who would try to have them fired, but because it might convince them to actually give a shit the next time someone complains about a problem with their unit. Especially a gas leak.

Anyway, the guy came up and fixed it. Took him less than half an hour. He probably spent more time in here spraying it with Palmolive for the last month than he did actually fixing it, but it’s done. He got the new dude to test it again, and it seemed fine.

To celebrate, we barbecued. And every bite tasted like triumphant morsels of fuck you.

.:.

Other good news: my computer’s almost back up to speed. Still no sound card, but the USB is 2.0 again and the internet connection’s back. I used said connection to download two new albums tonight: Spoon‘s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and Stars‘ In Our Bedroom After the War.

.:.

Also, after the disaster that was last week, it’s felt good to do three things today: 1) go for a run; 2) get home by 6:30; 3) not do a scrap of work or school tonight. None…on a weeknight! Truant! Truant!

[tags]spire condominium, gas leak, enbridge, spoon, stars[/tags]

"And chew…and chew…8 more…7 more…"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

If you’re a Battlestar Galactica fan and you’re reading this article over on the TV show blog, you might be thinking to yourself, “Who knew Katee Sackhoff was such a girly-girl? And where did THOSE come from?!!!?!” *

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I managed to run about 1.5 miles this morning and then just barely made it work on time. I have an 8AM meeting tomorrow, so clearly there will be no early morning run. I think my only workout of the day will be PowerEating at Fieramosca.

.:.

 

[Brilliance from Indexed, by Jessica Hagy]

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I think that if I were to somehow narrow down my all-time favourite songs, “NYC” by Interpol would be on there.

.:.

* You would probably only think this if you’re a guy. Or my wife, who has a girlcrush on Starbuck.

[tags]battlestar galactica, katee sackhoff, indexed, jessica hagy, interpol[/tags]

Sheer quality

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I forgot to blog about this on Monday. I support the cause behind Live Earth, but I also support Barry’s right to slag the Black Eyed Peas and James Blunt. To wit:

Since the Live Earth concert the other day, everything has changed. In these 2 days since the concert the environment has apparently regenerated up to 68% of the damage done by humans because of the sheer quality of the music played by David Gray and Black Eyed Peas. When Madonna played, the ozone layer hole sealed up, probably to keep the great music from leaking out into space!
Most amazingly of all though, I woke up this morning to find 3 new full grown trees in my back garden with a note from James Blunt which read,”I’m planting trees in your area for the environment’s sake, stay beautiful”.
How good is that?

From Mogwai.

[tags]mogwai, live earth[/tags]

The gathering storm

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A thunderstorm rolled in over Toronto in the early evening. It came in over the lake, providing this awesome contrast. There was crazy lightning too, as well as a giant rainbow (picture to come another time).

By the time, the title is also the name of a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song. Well, part of a 20-minute song called “Storm”. You should really download it. It’s brilliant.

[tags]toronto, thunderstorm, godspeed you black emperor[/tags]