Shopping? Done.

Economics assignment? Done.

Hallelujah.

“History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes.” –Thomas Jefferson

Merry Christmas, everybody!

Ack. Not only did the Canadiens lose last night, but I was finally knocked out of first place in my hockey pool. My guys have just sucked ass lately.

Today was a nice light pre-xmas day. I took my time getting to work, my right ear still ringing from last night’s Rheostatics concert (which I’ll be talking about on radioDan later tonight). I took care of a few things in the office before my team went out for its holiday lunch thingy. Tried out the Bishop & Belcher down the street, in its new transplanted location (that website still points to their old Queen Street home). It’ll be a nice addition to the local pub choices. Anyway, the snow started during lunch and most people fled the office shortly thereafter; the rest of us who didn’t have to worry about driving didn’t stick around long either.

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Speaking of snow it’s really started to come down out there. Supposed to get 15-20 cm by tomorrow morning, all told. It’s times like this I’m glad we don’t have a sidewalk to salt & shovel.

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Once again the magazine situation has gotten out of hand as my time spent reading economics has increased. I have this week’s Eye and Now, two issues of Spin, Esquire, Toronto Life, Playboy and Stuff. These should be the last issues of Spin, Playboy and Stuff as they were gifts from Nellie and I’m not renewing them; I’ve decided to take a stab at reading actual novels in between chapters of textbooks.

I’ve seen the Rheostatics four times now, I think. The most recent trip was two years ago and it wasn’t as good as the first two visits, so I’d planned to avoid the Winter (nee Fall) Nationals this year. However, M² informed me that Wednesday night was “Whale Music night”, and they planned to play the entire Whale Music album (not the soundtrack) in order. Since that’s one of the best Canadian albums ever made, and my schedule had freed up a bit, I couldn’t resist.

So to the Horseshoe I went, along with Nellie and Stanzi. We met up with M², H² and their friend (who I think I’ll call “Backhander”) around 9:30. We sat, had a drink, debated the existence of ligers* and watched the opening act: Great Aunt Ida. Half of the band members were Rheostatics filling in. It was a little dreary, but I kind of liked it. You can check out her stuff at the New Music Canada site.

After nearly an hour of setup and tuning (during which Martin Tielli wore a giant wig that made him look like Brian May) Dave Bidini popped on stage to introduce Paul Quarrington, who wrote Whale Music (the book, not the album). I liked this a lot; it’s not often you get a Governor General award winner out to set some context for the concert you’re about to watch. Quarrington read a few pages from the book and then called the Rheos to the stage. All seven of them.

Seven, you say? Yes, seven. The usual suspects — Bidini, Tielli, Tim Vesely and Michael Phillip-Wojewoda — were there, but they also brought Dave Clark back to play the drums alongside MPW, recruited Ford Pier to play keyboards and, of course, had Lewis Melville on hand to accompany them as he had on the album. Having seven people made the stage pretty crowded. It also made them very fucking loud.

As promised, they played the entire album start to finish. At least, I trust they did; I split after the tenth song (“Shaved Head”) and they still had seven to go. I just don’t like the last third of the disc that much, and I knew that Nellie was sitting at the back (alone, as it turns out; Stanzi managed to stay almost as long as we did, leaving after about four or five songs) so I decided to head out. I easily felt I got my money’s worth. Highlights:

• “Queer”, as always. When Dave screams “Gonna find me another home!” like that, it gives me the willies, just like it did the first time I heard it.
• Sacrificing my right ear to “RDA (Rock Death America)”
• Dave and Martin staging an extended slide whistle vs. recorder duel during “Legal Age Life.” Seriously.
• “Shaved Head”, because it’s brilliant. When they told us it was recorded for the first time in a dark room, that just made me picture it, and I got completely lost in the song. It was playing in my head on the way out the door, in the cab, and in bed last night. I got up and listened to it twice this morning, and again this afternoon. It’s playing in my head right now.

I’m glad M² found out about Whale Music night and got us tickets. I’d hate to have missed that.

* I told you they exist. Suck it, bitches.

You’ll notice that I turned off the title field. It’s because I hate the title field. Always have.

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Last week I linked to the Ricky Gervais & Stephen Merchant podcast, and today I finally got around to listening to it. I almost broke the chair from laughing so hard during the monkey news in the first episode. Go download it, it’s half an hour well spent.

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I’ve added two more CDs to my wishlist: Rogue Wave‘s Descended Like Vultures and The Rescue by Explosions In The Sky. I’m still mulling over the new Broken Social Scene, and I decided against Raccoo-oo-oon‘s The Cave Of Spirits (though I do love one or two of the songs.

Yesterday I finished watching Last Days (imdb | rotten tomatoes), Gus Van Sant’s loose recreation of the end of Kurt Cobain’s life. And while it was loose, the recreation of Cobain himself was not. Michael Pitt’s hair, the sunglasses, the sweaters, the plaid, the torn jeans, the mumbling…it was like watching the real deal.

True to Van Sant’s recent form, there were long sustained moments of silence or inane chatter or just walking around, but some of those were beautiful. A scene where Blake builds a song from scratch while the camera crawls away gave me chills, and knowing the eventual outcome just gave me a sense of dread for the entire film. I liked it, but as with Van Sant’s other recent work (e.g., Gerry, Elephant) I’d have a hard time recommending it to someone.

Let this be true.

It wouldn’t be the morning after basketball without a bunch of bruises on my arm. One of them has gone bright red. It doesn’t feel so good.

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I’m in trouble in my hockey pool. After leading from the first night of the season and holding a wide margin for over a month, my lead has slowly dwindled. PC is only 2.5 points back, and I should’ve made up a ton of ground last night ’cause I had most of my guys playing. But I actually lost ground (it’s a roto league) so I wouldn’t be surprised if he passed me this week.

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The Canadiens managed a win last night after getting their asses whipped Saturday night. It looks like Koivu and Kovalev will be back this week, and not a moment too soon.

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Going to see the Rheostatics tonight. There’ll be a blurb tomorrow on radioDan. Probably. Friday at the latest.

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Everyone complains about how much gas companies screw you on Fridays just before you need to travel. How about Canada Post screwing you at xmas?

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So tired. Need to take up coffee.

Check out the lyrics to “For Real”:

You watch too many films
Too many films for real
And something else you take too seriously
Your record deal

A record deal pays bills
Pays bills and feeds a family
And your profile is too big
How ya gonna be a crime family

Too many films for real
You watch too many films, too many films for real

Don’t get me wrong, I know you got guns and your not scared to use them
But is there money being made around these guns or lives until you lose them

You watch too many films, films for real

Some of those people have to live that life, for real
I don’t have to, I got a record deal
For real, you heard, I chill and smoke herb
And how about these sexy singers, sex gods, talking about hitting girls in a turn
You’re fantastic, you’re super sperm

Yeah, I’m a player hater, I hate when players can’t take their turn
And when a record company drops me, that’s when I learn
It’s not real, it’s just passing time
It’s not real, all I do is rhyme
It’s not real, it’s just passing time
All I do, all I do is rhyme

You heard, you heard
“You go Romeo” girls say
You look tall in the video
And the color girl sings

Get money
Get money
Get money
Get money

And no one sings the blues and everyone sings the greens
Someone said keep your eye on the prize
How you lose the dream
Who am I to say, I know you need cash… in this hundred yard dash
I moved awhile ago and passed through New York
I’ll be back in a minute, it’s my turn to talk
For real, you heard