Oh yeah
Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Iris. Perfect name.
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Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 2:44 pm
It was, of course, inevitable
Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Did they sell out yesterday? I don’t know, and I don’t care, but this is crazy. Some cultists have way more money than brains.
Update, 4:07 PM: Someone must’ve retracted a bid. It was over $2300 Cdn when I first posted it.
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Category: Geekology
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The Adam Brown
Incredible!
Saturday, June 30, 2007 at 4:10 am
I started out regretting my shift choice for tonight, working the four-band - which became five-band - show at the Legion. Spoon and the Constantines were both elsewhere, and Spoon for sure would’ve kicked ass. Then The Paperbacks took the stage at 10:30 (ish), and from then on in, I had no regrets at all.
Every show was awesome, every band played their asses off, and rocked the hell out of that room. Hamilton trio The Marble Index killed, then Ghosts of Modern Man ripped it up (crazy Regina boys), Montrealers CPC Gangbangs were insane, and The Adam Brown (also from Montreal) closed the night with a set that was off the fucking hook.
Oh, and I asked The Adam Brown’s drummer to marry me. She humoured me with a “that’s sweet” or some such, but I was only slightly kidding.
I took about 400 shots, over and above the hundred or so I took at Tim’s surprise 40th birthday bash at the Rose. I just know I’m going to suck up hours upon hours processing all of them, and I hope lots of them turned out, because every single one of the bands were not only great performers, but awesome subjects.
Not least of them my little drummer girl.
You’ll see what I mean.
Now I’m debating a sunrise hike up Nose Hill. Apparently I just missed another electrical storm, but the energy in that old room tonight more than made up for it.
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Category: Concerts
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Holidays = eventful
Friday, June 29, 2007 at 2:58 pm
I’ve been off work since Tuesday, volunteering at and attending Sled Island, and it’s been great so far. Wednesday, I went to pick up my volunteer stuff (t-shirt, wristband et al) then did some walking around and taking photos. Unfortunately, somewhere on my hour-and-then-some trek through Mount Royal and Mission, I lost my glasses. I was wearing my sunglasses and had my glasses in my shirt pocket, but somewhere between Wicked Wedge and the downtown Starbucks I ended up at, they jumped out.
It was awesome, since I’m obviously going to retrace my steps to try and find glasses that cost $550. So… after walking a couple miles in shoes not the best for walking more than a couple blocks (poor support), I had to walk the route again. No luck, though. Some homeless guy is likely sporting some Oakley prescription glasses now. And I’m sporting my original cheapo reading glasses (which don’t work so good now). I did go to the optometrist last week, and have some frames on the way to get new lenses, but until those frames arrive, my eyes are going to struggle.
After not finding my glasses, I decided to try and get into the sold-out Cat Power show at Knox United. After hanging around out front for a while (our volunteer wristbands don’t get us in to full shows, due to obvious space limitations), I scored a ticket for less than face value and got in a few songs into the opening act, locals Jane Vain and the Dark Matter.
Cat Power has a fabulous voice, but I wasn’t aware of the extent of her stage fright and performance anxiety. She was not only visibly nervous, but said so more than once. “I’ll probably screw it up” or “Whenever I do a bad show…” were further proof that she really wasn’t comfortable, and not playing with a full band (she only had a guitarist accompanying her) or being onstage in a quiet church likely didn’t help matters.
She did some great stuff, even covered Tracks of My Tears, New York New York and the Man in Black’s Folsom Prison Blues, but she also trailed off in other songs, even forgetting the words to some. From what I understand, that’s not that uncommon for her, and in the fairly intimate setting, it wasn’t really an issue. Overall, I was glad I went, if the energy level was low for a show that lasted over two hours.
Last night, I worked the Mates of State show at The Grand, with Reily and Rebekah Higgs opening. Since I was the volunteer coordinator, I only got to catch a song or two from each of the three acts, but what I saw was great. I had a great time working with the other volunteers and the venue staff, and the Grand itself is a gorgeous place for shows like that.
The festival commissioned eight artists to create a poster for each of eight headlining acts, and the girl who did the Mates of State poster was there last night selling them. She did an awesome job of the artwork, sold quite a few (the Mates have some serious fans), and was a lovely, lovely girl. She totally deserved to sell all her posters, especially at the bargain price of $15, so hopefully the festival sets up something for the artists to sell the rest of their efforts after the weekend.
Tonight’s going to be a late one. I have to meet up with some friends for an event that must remain undisclosed for now (in case the person being fêted happens to read this). Then I’ll have some time to kill before the 9:30 door at the #1 Legion, where I’m working the four-act night that includes the after-party that gets underway around 1:30 AM. Tonight should be awesome - Ghosts of Modern Man, The Marble Index, Sylvie and The Paperbacks are all performing at the Legion, and they’ve got DJs for the after-party.
I doubt I’ll be home much before dawn, but that’s fine - I may even head up Nose Hill with my camera gear to catch the sunrise if the timing’s right. I even considered it last night, since there was some impressive lightning to the southeast as I came down the street just after midnight, but thought better of it. It’d be just my luck to have it peter out as I finally made my way to a good vantage point.
Tomorrow’s the last day of the festival, and I’m done my volunteer hours after tonight, so I’m going to make full use of my wristband and make the rounds of as many venues as possible. Eric Bachman, Les Savy Fav and Bobby Conn are all up tomorrow night, and I’d like to see all of them, and more. We’ll see how it plays out.
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Category: Concerts, Photos, Blabbing
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Gullwing
Thursday, June 28, 2007 at 4:14 pm
[DROOL]
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Category: Photos
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Can you say “priorities screwed up”?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Wherever this is, they need to focus on something a tad more serious, methinks.
I’m obviously taking full advantage of the first of six days off.
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Category: Blabbing
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Good one, John
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 11:22 am
Shut Up About the iPhone, Already!
What’s especially amusing is the pod peoples’ cavalier attitude toward the price of this phone. Yeah, I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than buy a $600 pocket phone to show off. I’m guessing that kind of idiotic thinking will wear off after they’ve broken the screen more than once.
The more I hear about the iPhone, and the more times I see the TV spots, the less I want one. In fact, despite how geeky-cool it is, my desire to own one has faded to a hair above “not interested”. Not that it’s an issue, since I’m betting it’ll be Christmas at least before Rogers gets in bed with Apple, but even if it was available in Canada on the same launch date, I’d be waiting.
I mean, come on. New technology? From Apple? It’s got “I WILL DIE IN SIX MONTHS” written all over it. I’ll be interested to see the impact on AT&T’s network, too - all the wonderful features being piled on to cell phones these days come at a price, and that price is traffic.
I’ve also read an online piece about how slippery - yes, slippery - the iPhone is. Some beta testers described it as being very easily - and expectedly - flung, due to the smooth, shiny surface, so Dvorak’s broken screen comment might be more applicable than he realizes.
UPDATE:
iPhone Total Cost of Ownership: Up to $5,914.76
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Category: Geekology
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Pearl’s swan song
Tuesday, June 26, 2007 at 10:59 am
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Category: Movies
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inside the nest
Monday, June 25, 2007 at 6:16 pm
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Category: Photos
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