Merry Ho Ho

So I'm back home with the parents for Christmas, and, suffice to say, things are quite quiet around these parts. I guess I'm glad to be back. Beats the alternative: hanging around Ottawa on Christmas Day alone. It looks as though things will be a little busy for me next week as I continue to make some story pitches, as I contemplate a return to freelance journalism. We'll see how it goes. In 2010, more or less.

Getting back to Barry's Bay was a bit of a hassle. The bus station in Ottawa was a zoo, mostly as people formed a huge line-up for Toronto to head back there for the holidays. I felt sorry for the poor suckers. I'm glad I got there early as the Renfrew-Pembroke line, which I took, was a little on the long side too.

Once one the bus, I had the misfortune of having a young man sit beside me with an "electronic cigarette" that emits water vapour. He asked the bus driver if he could smoke it, and of course he got an answer of "No." So what does this dude do? He smokes it anyway all the way from Ottawa to my stop in Renfrew. Nice. I guess he was just looking for attention. But I couldn't help but note what a doofus this guy was. Only I get to sit beside the kooks, I guess.

So that's it for me for now. Merry Ho Ho and Happy New Year and all that!

Stuart Hickox

This is a post about Stuart Hickox, who is running a non-profit organization in Ottawa called Project Porchlight / One Change. Basically, trying to get people to replace their regular light bulbs with the CFL variety.

He was recently interviewed on Newsworld about whether or not these bulbs cause UV radiation, which you can watch here. He handles himself quite well, and I couldn't take my eyes off him during the interview. He also (infrequently) writes a blog called Walden Cabin, which you can read here.

He and I met up a number of years ago when I was on the wane of my freelance journalism career, and he was just getting started -- by being published in both Reader's Digest and Macleans, the lucky son of a gun. We were both members of the Professional Writers Association of Canada for a while, and I think we were both running the Ottawa chapter for a very scant short time.

I've kind of lost touch with Stewie since I wound up moving to Toronto in '07. But he's gone onto some great success with Project Porchlight, which I'm quite envious of. How does he do it? I don't know. But I wish him all of the best, and hopefully I might be able to reconnect with him sometime -- if he has the time. I was thinking of getting more involved with volunteer work, and it would be cool to deliver light bulbs.

Speaking of which, I'm really digging those funky new light bulbs. I use them on a lamp I bought from IKEA this year in my living room and I figure I'm saving about $2 or $3 a month simply by using them, instead of the regular bulbs in my kitchen area. Cool stuff that this guy is doing, then. I hope he can keep up the good work.

A Vinyl Haul From Legend Records

One of the great vinyl stores in Ottawa is Legend Records. I use to frequent there all of the time when I was living in the west end, as it used to be in the Lincoln Fields shopping mall. Well, they've moved to a new store on Wellington Street since I moved to Toronto. And today I decided to give myself a little treat and check it out.

The new store is, quite simply, huge. There's at least four anti-chambers in the place, which is a big improvement over the old store -- where some of the records were crammed into cupboard beneath the shelves in the tiny space that they used to have. The guy who runs the place now has dividers noting what artist is in that section along the shelves, which makes it a lot easier to find what you're looking for.

So here's what I picked up:

I got the Carpenters' Now and Then album. Cheesy, I know, but one of my aunts used to have this on 8-track and I gave it a good wearing out as a kid. Eager to see if the record still holds up to my memories.

I'm on a bit of a Blue Oyster Cult kick lately, and while I know that their first four or five albums are probably the best, I picked up the Some Enchanted Evening live set, and Imaginos, which I'm curious to hear as I understand it is a bit of a return to form after the horrendous Club Ninja.

I also managed to score Chicago's V and VII, which pretty much rounds out my collection of said band. (I still have a few gaps post-Terry Kath but I'm not too interested in filling them in.) I now own pretty much everything they did from 1969 to 1978, which are the key years.

That's pretty much it, though I was tempted to scour for more. Early Christmas gift to myself I guess.

I should mention that the rarities in the store are amazing. The dude who runs the place happens to have a rare promo copy of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" on 7-inch. As many of you may know, the group decided to forgo releasing that song as a single at the last minute, so that's a particularly cool thing to have in stock. I didn't really go rummaging, but there's a section of Beatles vinyl ... both in mono and in stereo!

When I was buying the records, I mentioned that I hadn't been there in awhile as I had moved to Toronto for two years. It turns out the owner's daughter moved there, and doesn't like it too much. She's having a hard time making new friends down there, and kind of misses Ottawa. That's sort of parallel to my story, I guess. Funny how these things line up.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some vinyl to listen to. :-)

PopMatters Reviews

Since I took some time off from blogging, I've missed out on posting some links to PopMatters books (and a lone CD) reviews that I've done over the past few months. I thought I would rectify the situation and put a bunch of them up:

I Am A Genius Of Unspeakable Evil And I Want To Be Your Class President

Chronic City

Brilliant Colors: Introducing (the lone CD review I've done so far)

Going Away Shoes and Ferris Beach

Her Fearful Symmetry

It Feels So Good When I Stop

People I Miss In Toronto

I was cruising through my analytics and see that someone in Spain has found my blog. How cool. It seems as though it must have been by accident, as they didn't stay for very long. Still, it is nice to know that my blog has a global reach.

Trying to keep up my pace here and I don't really know what to blog about, so I though I would do some "grass is greener" belly-gazing and blog about all the people I miss in Toronto. I didn't really hang out much with people, which if I could do all over again, I would have maybe gotten a little more social during my time spent there. So many good people that I worked with, and would love to see again if I had a chance. These include:

Jason Ainsworth -- My friend in T.O. who was originally from L.A. We hung out a lot in 2007, and went to a lot of movies and went on a lot of ROM walks on Sundays. We didn't really see too much of each other when he started dating, but he was a good friend. I am looking forward to the mix CDs that he is reportedly working on and will send me.

J.P. Casino -- This guy helped me out a lot when we both got laid off from Critical Mass at the same time, by providing me a list of contacts that I should hit up. I wish I hung out more with him. He's a really cool guy. Glad to hear that he's been super successful at his new job.

Jennifer Vetterli -- Probably my favourite person I follow on Twitter as she's unafraid to tweet about all of the frustrating things that happen in her life, without fear of judgment from others. She's super-smart and does an excellent job as an Information Architect (now, Senior IA, I'm told). Always a good person to talk to in the office, and she has a helluva good taste in music. I, too, wish I hung out with her a little more often.

John McArdle -- We would sometimes take time off lunch at CM to go vinyl shopping at Rotate This! Ah, those were the days. He, too, has an incredible taste in music -- he introduced me to F***ked Up and Oneida -- and he is an incredible photographer to boot. Just as I'm typing this, he tweeted me, in fact, to thank me for complimenting him on some of his photos, which he posted to Flickr earlier today. I, too, really wish I had hung out with him more often. We were supposed to meet up at a No Age show at The Horseshoe Tavern in 2008, but that never transpired, alas. We were, though, both at the same show! I guess we just got our wires crossed or something, or maybe I got there too early to find him as I took a plum spot at the front of the stage/mosh-pit. I forget.

Tyler Lockyer -- He was the go-to-guy for all of the social events in the CM office, who, alas, got laid off on the same day as I did. I should probably thank him for the trip to the casino in Niagara Falls, as I won $600 as a result of that office social outing. The last I saw of him was the day after the lay-off earlier this year, as we met up for coffee at the neighbourhood Starbucks. He was going on a trip to Cuba during the upcoming days, as I can recall. Was never really super-close with him, probably because he was a bit younger, but I should have hung out more with him. (I sense a recurring theme here.)

There are probably other people that I miss, and there's always of course Matt Milan (but that's another blog post), but I think those are the major ones. I really should have gotten out more in Toronto, and realize that there were so many people around me that I could have been a bit more social with. I guess I found making new friends to be a bit awkward for me. Maybe I just enjoyed the company of my vinyl collection at home a bit too much. But there are loads of good people that I left behind and I'm glad to have known them. I, of course, have great friends in Ottawa, which I am thankful for.

UPDATED TO ADD: How could I forgotten about Patricia Storms, the writer of children's books and author of Booklust? We knew each other before I went to Toronto -- I commissioned her to do the artwork for a book of poetry that never saw the light of day -- but we met up a few times when I moved to T.O. She was always funny, and great to talk to. She even tried to help me line up a job when I found myself unemployed. I hear that she's been very successful with her new book, The Pirate and The Penguin, and hope that she's doing alright. (She hasn't updated her blog in a month.)

Also, David Mills, another IA at Critical Mass. We talked a lot about books when I was working there, as his wife runs a bookstore, and he even Secret Santa'ed me a vinyl copy of the Grateful Dead's Workingman's Dead album. (I knew it was from him as he was really the only Deadhead in the office.) We didn't hang out after work as he was a family man with kids, but he was a really cool guy and I miss him greatly.

Disappointing Records of 2009

So it is the time of year for Best of 2009 releases at the usual suspects like Pitchfork and PopMatters, the latter of which I write for. It's pretty obvious what Record of the Year is, at least at Pitchfork. If the new Animal Collective full-length doesn't get it, as it was something like No. 14 in the Best of the Decade poll, I will eat my hat. (I expect a high showing from the new Grizzly Bear album as well, which may, just may, play spoiler.)

So I decided to do something different. Compile a list of disappointments from 2009, and, boy, were there a lot this year, as far as I can tell. Here are a list of the most notable ones from me:

Peter, Bjorn and John -- Living Thing

Is this the same band that brought us Writer's Block? What gives? This album takes a turn away from the baroque pop of the former album, and replaces it with a glitchy technological sheen. The only really memorable song is "It Don't Move Me", which was also the first single. The lyric sheet is especially embarrassing: "Hey, shut the f*ck up boy, you're starting to p*ss me off, take your hands off that girl, you have already had enough." (Cringe.) I'm not against new directions, but after almost completely abandoning their old sound, this band really alienated this listener. And Rolling Stone gave this four stars? What were they thinking?

The Fiery Furnaces -- I'm Going Away

This is not really a bad album, per se, but it is a bit disappointing as it is more straight-up and less discordant than their previous releases. There's not a lot on this one that grabbed me from the outright, and it just seems kind of bland and boring compared against Blueberry Boat, which is one of my favourite "weird" releases.

The Decemberists -- The Hazards of Love

This one gets my vote for Worst Album of the Year. While the Fiery Furnaces stepped away from the prog rock, these guys all but embraced it on this release. The problem is, there is hardly a proper song on this thing to be heard. It all sort of just blends together into one big mess, and the "concept story" really doesn't make a lot of sense. My eyeballs hurt just looking at the lyric sheet. I was really disappointed with this one, particularly since their former album, The Crane Wife, is so good and varied.

Bob Mould -- Life and Times

This is actually a pretty not bad album, but it just seems that Mould is sort of resting on his laurels and is just trying to rote rock out these days. Better this than the garbage he had to offer up on Modulate, I suppose, but I haven't really fully embraced a Mould record since The Last Dog and Pony Show, which came out 11 years ago. Perhaps people change and their tastes might grow, as my seem to have, but wouldn't it be nice if we could get another Warehouse: Songs and Stories out of Mould? Just one more like that one? Pretty please?

The Flaming Lips -- Embryonic

I would suppose that this is not a bad album, either, but it seems like such a comedown after Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots. The songs pretty much blend together, and it goes on and on for about 70 minutes. I admire that they were trying to make a "double album", but it would have been nice if they had a few more proper songs, and not noise collages and off-beat experiments on this one. Maybe that makes me a hypocrite, considering what I said about the Fiery Furnaces above, but I just haven't been able to get into this one at all. Maybe it's a grower?

Yo La Tengo -- Popular Songs

Again, not really a bad album, per se, but I really haven't dug into the second half of the record at all, considering that it is nothing but three long, mostly instrumental pieces. I could have done with just one. Another album that I haven't really revisited much, but, then again, maybe this one is a grower ... .

Good Times

I had a very busy and productive weekend, in that I met up with three groups of people during the course of it.

I met up with my friend Wes yesterday and it was a very early start. I met him at the Elgin Street Diner at nine in the morning. Very early in the morning for me, especially on the weekend when I'm prone to sleeping in. Breakfast was alright: I could have done without the beans on the side that the ESD seems to serve. But the conversation was good and veered from Tom Waits to Touch of Evil to Wes' skin grafts on his teeth. I enjoyed hanging out with him, which is hard to do these days considering he has two children now. Hopefully, he'll have some more time for me during the Christmas-New Year's break.

I then rushed over to Moxie's Bar and Grill in the Bayshore Shopping Center (which was a zoo!) for lunch with my aunt and grandma. I had some calamari salad, which was very yummy, and even indulged myself in a white chocolate brownie -- which I wondered about afterwards considering that I'm trying to lose weight.

Then, this morning, I went over to my friends Anita and James' place for a brunch that consisted of yummy cheese scrambled eggs and medallion sausages. The breakfast was yummy, and the conversation was good too. It's hard to meet up with these friends, as well, considering that they also have a small child. (I have to admit that during the breakfast I was wishing and alternatively not wishing that I had one of my own.) We, too, will hopefully see more of each other in the New Year, as there is talk of starting up a games night. This is not to speak of the Horror Movie Club that James usually hosts. (UPDATED TO ADD: Thanks for the cookies, Anita!)

All in all, it was a very satisfying weekend. I wish more of them were like this one.

Matthew Milan, Boy Genius

So, instead of being down about my lack of work right now, I thought I would blog about something more positive and upbeat: my experience working with one of the design world's most genius innovators: Matthew Milan. I don't want to be a sycophant, but I thought that maybe some postive posting might go a long way for my positivity.

Matthew and I go way back: all the way back to elementary school. We were in the same Advanced Learners class, even though we were in separate schools. (The class was held every week at St. John Bosco in Barry's Bay, Ontario, which I attended so I didn't have to go anywhere ... unlike poor Matthew who would have to hop a bus each week just so he could take part). I don't remember an awful lot about those classes, except for the occasional talk about Edward de Bono, which Matthew would bring up in conversation when I went to work for him at Critical Mass in Toronto.

We then played together, in high school, on the same Reach For The Top trivia team. Matthew was a monster at the game, frequently scoring more than 200 points in televised matches, which were taped in Pembroke, Ontario. I even saw him answer a 40-point question with maybe just five words of the question given. I remember the answer to this day: Cassius Clay. Seems that Matt had practically memorized all of the old trivia questions in former games -- which I guess the powers-that-be sometimes recycled -- and was able to answer the question based on memory. It was crazy. The guy just completely dominated trivia.

We lost contact after awhile when we moved onto university. But, when I posted to a Toronto newsgroup a few years ago that I was looking to move out of Ottawa and try life in a different city, Matt answered the call. He basically asked me for my résumé and walked it over to the HR department at Critical Mass when I e-mailed it to him. Two job interviews later, and I got the job as an Information Architect (IA), which was a completely new field to me.

Life in Toronto was very difficult for me to adjust to in the beginning. But Matt was patient -- the whole organization was very patient with me, in fact. When I started contributing a bit more, Matt became something of a mentor, showing me how to use Visio to make wireframe mockups -- one-on-one. I was completely amazed at his skill using the program, and just his general thinking altogether. He was, again, a monster in the role. He claims that when he first started out as an IA, that he had to sometimes phone other people to help him solve the occasional design problem. I don't believe it. Nothing fazed the guy, at least in my working experience with him. I never once saw him crushingly fail at whatever he put his mind to. The guy, in short, was a genius. No problem, big or small, fazed him. He might have (minorly) kvetched the odd time about something he had to solve, but when it came right down to it, with time, he always found a solution. And that solution was usually the right one.

Matt even tried throwing me extra responsibility in my role by having me develop a series of training courses for other staff in the office. Unfortunately, while I did all of my research and put together a number of PowerPoint decks to this task, these courses never came to pass -- for whatever reason. (I think it was because we just got generally busy with our major client, and these courses sort of just slipped to the back burner, alas, as "billable work" was more important to the company.) I look back on that and wish that I was able to complete that work, but I appreciated the opportunity to be able to do it in the first place. I think Matt was right in putting me on that task: he knew that I was a skilled researcher and could complete it without much in the way of supervision.

The thing that I appreciate now, looking in the rear view mirror, was that Matt was always pushing me to be better. And the thing that I particularly appreciate was Matt usually had the time for me to answer my questions, no matter how insignificant they might have seemed. (Well, per se, I suppose.)

Not everything was rosy, and I include this section just to make it look like I'm not unnecessarily kissing up to the guy. (Also, it's probably the journalist in me.) I recall that on one of the Spyglass research projects -- basically, a forward-thinking exercise about pitching certain ideas and products to our clients -- we had to come up with something about geo-tracking technology. (Or along those lines ... .) This was a field that Matt had an education in, but much of the information was so bleeding edge that there wasn't a lot of stuff to find online. That make the project incredibly challenging and frustrating, and Matt was there pushing us to keep looking ... and maybe make a few inferences between the lines. I like hard-cold facts, not coming up with something out of nothing. (Again, it's the journalist in me.) So I found that aspect a little difficult to deal with. How do you impress someone who might know all of the answers but doesn't want to give them up? But I guess that was part of the deal; Matt kept on pushing, and encouraged people to come up with their own ideas, rather than ape his own.

Still, I generally enjoyed working with Matt. And the day that he announced that he was leaving Critical Mass, I sort of knew that it was the beginning of the end for me in the organization. (He was my champion there, and was always vouching for the work that I did. With him gone, I no longer had that.) I could turn to him for anything, even the most personal of things that I might of had a crisis with.

Matt has gone onto bigger and better things. He owns his own design studio in Toronto these days -- Normative Design -- and things, by all accounts, seem to be mostly positive there. Even though I have doubts about my skills as an IA, when he Twitters about all of the good things going on for him, I can't help but wish that I was working there as an IA, too. I don't know how he juggles life at work with an active life at home. (He has a kid, now.) But he does it.

Matt has still been there for me. He was the first person I called after getting laid off from Critical Mass. Whenever I need some job advice, he's been there -- even going so far to talk to me on speakerphone making the long drive from Toronto to the Combermere, Ontario, area where he grew up and has parents. (That was a bit weird, as I could hear my own voice echoing through the car as I was talking.) There's even talk of doing a special project with him -- non-work related, and I probably shouldn't mention it yet as A) it might not even come to pass and B) I don't know if he wants to make it public just yet.

All in all, though, working with Matt was a big pleasure. I can only hope that I get lucky enough to work with someone like him again.

Rogers = Epic Fail

I know a lot of people like to harp on about the poor service offered by Rogers, but I've experienced exceptionally poor service from the telecommunications giant since last month, in various incarnations.

It all started, as I said, last month, when my Internet went out. It seems that my neighbour in Apt. 804 was receiving free service that she wasn't paying for -- I guess the last guy in her apartment didn't bother to disconnect the service or something -- and so Rogers came to "fix" that problem. Problem is, in disconnecting her, the service dude seems to have disconnected me by accident, and, realizing his mistake, re-jammed in my cable to the box in the cable room and broke the cable connector. Honest mistake, maybe. but you'd think the guy would be more careful.

The issue is that it took Rogers four days to fix the problem. During this time, I got a few meaty job requests from agencies in Ottawa that I couldn't apply for as I had to resubmit my résumé to some of them. Couldn't do that with my Internet service out. So, thanks a lot Rogers, thanks a lot. You cost me a few job interviews, or potential ones.

Last week, I got a call from Rogers ironically asking me to take a survey on customer satisfaction. The bloke on the telephone not only couldn't get my name right, but he was calling me during peak hours -- eating up valuable minutes on my wireless phone bill. Can't Rogers, you know, send out a survey by e-mail? It's a lot less intrusive and doesn't really cost me a thing, Internet service notwithstanding.

Then, today, I got an automated phone call from Rogers claiming that I hadn't returned the DVDs that I had rented from them. This was b.s. as I'd returned them yesterday at 4 p.m. by putting them in the drop box slot inside their store. Maybe I should have taken the extra steps and returned them to the front counter, because when I went to ask one of the sales clerks about it, he was less than enthused about helping me.

I told him I had returned the DVDs yesterday, and his response to me was, "That's impossible." Seriously!

I told him I returned them to the drop box, and he decided to go and check. Lo and behold, all the DVDs I returned were there. I guess someone didn't clean out the drop box this morning, and they got "lost" in the shuffle.

What ticks me off is that he then told me, after the discs had been found, that "I never doubted you." Yes, you did, you freaking twit! You told me that it was "impossible" that I had returned them and that would indicate doubt, wouldn't it?

Seriously, I might just start renting from Blockbuster. And maybe I should go with Bell for all of my services. I can't believe that a company just continuously drops the ball ... every time. Rogers, you fail epically in customer service. Epic fail.

Feeling a Bit Better

Had a better day today, pretty much snowed in with the storm. (Do you think I was going to go anywhere when it was a blizzard outside? Oh no!) I waited for my aunt and grandma from Deseronto to show up, as they were apparently going to take me out to lunch, but that didn't happen. Probably due to the snow, I guess. I wonder if they even bothered to make the trip to Ottawa.

Got a Christmas card from my mother, so that kind of put me in a better mood. I wonder how many Christmas cards I'll get back from all of the ones that I sent out? Hmmm.

Also have booked a Sunday brunch with my Ottawa pals, James and Anita. So I'm certainly looking forward to that.

All in all, it was a pretty quiet day, though. Did my laundry. Big excitement there. (Note the slight touch of sarcasm.)

Away

Sorry that I've been away from this thing for awhile. I just got busy with work, and then, last month, found myself unemployed again. The last thing I wanted to do was get on here and moan about how bad things seemed to be in my life. (Getting laid off twice in one year, etc...). I think I honestly have come to a point where I don't know what to say about myself without seeming to whine and kvetch, if not feel sorry for myself. I am hopeful, however, I will have positive news to post here soon. Been getting a few nibbles at least in my job hunt. So that's a good thing. Other than that, things have been pretty quiet over here. Nothing new to report, really. It'd be nice if things did pick up, though. Here's hoping.

Tired and Sore

I'm a bit tired and worn out from biking nearly 25 kilometers yesterday. I went out to the RealDecoy BBQ at Andrew Haydon Park near Bayshore, and it nearly killed me. My legs and behind were sore all over from biking out there, and I had trouble falling asleep last night from the pain in my legs. I had to take a couple of Motrin just to attempt to fall asleep. Needless to say, I was pretty dead tired this morning, and could have used some extra hours of shut eye.

But I did have fun at the event. I even won a $20 gift certificate to Best Buy, which is cool considering I usually never win anything in draws and raffles. It was a good, relaxing time with the coworkers, and while I can't say that I bonded even more closer with anyone, it was good to get out of the house, I guess.

I also have some cool news. My first short story in eons is about to be published in A New Spin, a Web zine put together by a high school acquaintance, DeeDee Sanderson. It's actually a piece I wrote maybe about a year and a half ago in Toronto, and has been sitting on the back burner for awhile. I got an e-mail from DeeDee today, and this is what she had to say about the story:

"I read your story, I liked it, it's kinda of twisted, as you probably know. The interesting thing is, is that the story is even better after a few days rattling in your head. (I read it a week ago). I really laughed hard at the 2nd or third paragraph. Howled."

That's probably the nicest thing I've ever heard an editor say anything about my work. Cool!

What's up with the new Blogspot design? I can't do a spell check on this post thanks to the new design. Boo. Hiss.

The National

So I went and saw the National last night at Bluesfest. They were very, very good. Well worth the $60 I spent on a ticket. They only played about an hour, and didn't play "Daughters of the Soho Riots" or "All the Wine" but I was generally happy with the show. I could have listened to the lead singer's baritone all night long.

I didn't really stick around for KISS. It was too much of a zoo, and I overheard one woman say upon entering the grounds that "This is like a carnival, but for adults." It was too much of a one for me. I sort of felt like I was back in Toronto with all the crowd of people. I saw KISS take to the stage, and the music immediately felt canned. I felt a little bit ripped off as well, as, if I didn't check the Bluesfest website beforehand, I would have missed that the National got moved back to 7:45 p.m. instead of 8 p.m., to make way for an extra half-hour or so of KISS. I don't know what people see in KISS -- I didn't really recognize the first four or so songs that they played, and it just felt like a mass influx of sheepies being lead to whatever the media feeds them. Is Ottawa this starved for attention whenever a major act comes to town? I wonder.

My First Day of Work

So, I'm finally home from my first day of work at Real Decoy (or RealDecoy, which I have to get used to spelling). It was a bit of an overwhelming experience, considering all the new faces and names I need to know. It was a pretty good experience, though. I spent much of the day researching case studies, which will be a new thing for me to write. I've never done them before. I've gotten a lot of help, though, from my PWAC colleagues, and the job should prove to be challenging and exciting. I'm feeling a bit wiped out at the moment from my first day on the job, granted. I guess this means no more watching The Price Is Right in the mornings. :-) I'm glad to be working again, though, and it seems like there's a lot of work for me to do over there at Real Decoy. Plus, I have a genuine respect for the people working there. So I guess we'll see how it goes in the long run, but right now I'm feeling quite content and satisfied. I can only hope the feeling lasts ... .

I had also written a bit about Broken Social Scene last night, but lost it in a version edit. Don't feel like typing it in again, so all I'll say is that the show was just OK.

Starting Work Tomorrow

Well, I guess that my six-month "vacation" is about to come to an end. I start work tomorrow as a Writing Practice Lead at Real Decoy tomorrow morning, and I'm not sure how to feel about it. A little elated? Yes. A little nervous? Yes. I honestly don't know what to expect, so I guess I'll just go in there tomorrow and wing it.

I'm going to go see Broken Social Scene play Bluesfest tonight for free. I'd gladly go pay to see them, but they're playing some Bluesfest in the Byward Market kind of deal. I have "Lover's Spit" kind of stuck in my head right now. I wonder how much they'll play from You Forgot It In People, and how much new stuff they're going to play. It's been nearly five years without a new album from them, save solo projects, so it should be an interesting show.

Another Popmatters Book Review

Hi all. Just a short post to let you know that I have another book review at Popmatters online. You can read it by clicking here.

The Move

Sorry for not being more active here lately. I just finished moving to Ottawa, and, for the most part, things went smoothly. Nothing really new to report there, and I don't want to get into a blow-by-blow account of how things went. I'm happy to see that my cat is finally warming up to the new place. She was one stressed out kitty when we did the move, meowing all the time.

I'm under a little bit of stress, though, as Rogers has bungled my e-mail account. I've been told to wait 24 hours in order to process things, but I wonder if that's really the problem or someone screwed up on Rogers' end. I'm tempted to think it's the latter. So I'm currently without my e-mail account. Grrr.

I'm also trying to get ahold of the folks at EI by phone to get my address changed in their records. You'd think that with so many people on EI, it'd be easier to reach them by phone. But no. I keep getting that same message to try my call again later. Maybe I'll finally reach them by Thursday at this rate. It's stupid. You'd think you'd be able to do this all by the Net, but no. It's a screwed up process.

I'm hungry. Maybe I should get something to eat.

Ottawa Bound

Hi all. Just a short note here to note that I'm going to be away from my desk for the remainder of this week. I'm going to be jumping a train to do a little apartment hunting in Ottawa as I'm now, officially, the Writing Practice Lead over at Real Decoy in Ottawa. I hope the apartment hunt goes well, and that I can get something for July 1 or thereabouts. I'm a wee bit excited about this, and also a little overwhelmed. I'm not looking forward to packing up my stuff and moving again, but I'm happy to have a job in Ottawa. It seems to be a big leap forward for me professionally, and I'll get to show off my writing chops in a professional setting. I guess my first order of business will be to get people in the office to read George Orwell's Politics and the English Language essay, one of my favourites. All you need to know about writing is in that 10 pager.

So it looks like I'll be down until the weekend, unless I find something in O-town, and hop on at an Internet cafe. See ya on the other side.

New Popmatters Book Review

Just a short post here to let you know that my latest book review for Popmatters is up here. It was a tough one to write, but I think it turned out alright.

It Began With A Train Derailment, And It Ends With One, Too

Sorry for not being around. I was up in Barry's Bay visiting my grandmother. More on that in a minute, but first ...

I was coming home on Friday, and noticed that traffic was backed up on the 401 going eastbound. It turns out that it was probably blocked because of a train derailment in Oshawa. I have to laugh a bit. When I first moved to Toronto, I experienced a train derailment (and I was travelling by train) that sent me scurrying to the GO Transit line as an emergency back-up in, wait for it, Oshawa. There's something about those tracks there I figure. I don't know whether to look at this as an omen, a foreshadowing, or not. Is my life truly that off the rails every time I contemplate a move to another city? Weird.

My grandmother is doing OK, and is now out of the hospital. She's on oxygen, though, and family is staying with her at home until she gets back on her feet. When I first visited her in the hospital, she looked so ashen and gray. I really didn't have a lot to say to her, which is about par for the course, and then she accused me of not being lively enough -- of being inside my own head too much. I was a bit offended, though I suppose I have a lot on my mind these days. She shook hands on me on my second visit, even though I had a bit of a cold and she could have gotten sick again. (I had gone to the hospital this time wearing a mask, and she ordered me to take it off. So I did.) Anyhow, it's good to see her doing well, or reasonably so. I guess time will tell how things go.

I'm now a few steps closer to moving back to Ottawa. It looks like that job is looking like it is going to pan out. That's all I'm going to say about that for now.

Not much else is new here. I went out and saw the new Disney/Pixar movie Up on Friday night and nearly blubbered like a baby through it. Maybe it was because I'd just gone through an experience with my grandmother (the movie's about an old man who realizes his dream to fly to South America via a houseful of balloons), but there's a very moving montage sequence near the start of the movie that chronicles, in about five minutes or so, a couple moving through their youth to old age. Suffice to say, I nearly lost it at that point. Such a romantic at heart, I guess. Chalk it up to a stupid Disney/Pixar movie to have me close to being reduced to a mass of blubber.

I also got a few new records on the weekend. I scored a copy of XTC's Beeswax, a collection of B-sides from 1977 to 1982 that I'd been looking for for a long time. I also got the latest compilation from The Vaselines, which is fine at three albums long, and the new Grizzly Bear which I listened to this morning and also liked very much. So all in all, it's been a bit of a productive week.

Trip Is Cancelled

Well, it looks like my trip to Newfoundland is cancelled after all. We're not going, on account of my grandmother's illness. So it looks like I'll head up to Barry's Bay on Monday instead, to check in on things. I can't say that I'm not disappointed, but I completely understand. I just feel bored and listless though. I was looking forward to being out of my own skin for a week. I guess maybe next year.

Trip May Not Be Cancelled?

Well, it's day to day on the Newfoundland trip front. I'll find out finally tomorrow is the trip is on or not. It appears that my grandmother is doing better, but is still in the hospital. I shouldn't sound so selfish about the Newfoundland trip -- I guess I just naturally assumed that my grandmother is the Keith Richards of grandmas and that she will ultimately pull through this one.

In fact, I'm no longer really looking forward to Newfoundland. I'm wondering if my place really is in Barry's Bay for the next few days. If my grandmother is indeed on her last legs, it would be good to see her one final time.

Cancelled Trip

Well, it looks like my trip to Newfoundland next week with my parents is looking like it is cancelled. My grandmother in Barry's Bay has taken ill and it seems serious. She could even pass away, from what my mother is telling me. Naturally, I understand why the trip would be cancelled, but I can't help but feel a bit disappointed. I was looking forward to the trip, and getting out of the apartment for a week. It really sucks.

I can't believe it has been nearly a week since I boarded a train for Ottawa. Time sure flies by at times, doesn't it?

Not much new to report here. I picked up the recent debut albums by Wavves and Japandroids on vinyl. I'm not too sure if the Wavves warranted a glowing review in Pitchfork, it is a little too garage-y for my likings. But the Japandroids is great! Good to see a nice Canadian band (by way of Vancouver) making exceptional music, and only with drums and fuzzed out guitar.

Plan B (or An Interesting Thing Happened To Me In Ottawa)

Writing this missive from the wilds of an Internet cafe here in Ottawa, which is sunny and beautiful. I couldn't be happier, and I'll have more on the particulars in a minute.

I rolled into town on Thursday and stopped by my friends' place, Anita and James. They were very welcoming and even had some mixed CDs that I'd made for them a number of years ago playing in the CD player. A nice touch. We had pizza for dinner and caught up on old times. Unfortunately, their son Dylan is teething, so he was a little crankier than usual. Poor guy. But, all in all, I had a good time with them.

Got to Jen Bruce's place, and we had a few drinks on the patio in nice weather and chatted for about two hours. Then I went to bed.

I woke up to a phone call from Geoff Waddington at an Ottawa company called Real Decoy, who wanted me to meet with him at 3 p.m. or so that afternoon. It was rather weird, because I wasn't expecting a call. I had e-mailed him that I'd be in town, but had gotten no response, so I naturally assumed he was busy.

After meeting with a few temp agencies and Sarah Brown at Ottawa magazine about freelancing in town, and getting the dirt there, I scooted over to Real Decoy. Geoff and I scooted to a nearby bar and had a few drinks. We caught up, and Geoff was interested in what I planed to do with my life if I moved back.

It was here that I got a bit of a shock. We were joined by fellow Real Decoy-er Richard Issac, and the pair of them offered me what they called a "Plan B".

Now I don't want to get too descriptive here, as A) I know Geoff reads this thing, B) I don't want to jinx things before they happen and C) it's probably not my place to say too much about things in a public forum. But, essentially, Geoff and Richard put a potential (and I say potential) job opportunity on the table. It wouldn't be permanent, but it would last awhile and allow me to eek out a living while I either freelance on the side or look for something a little more stable. There's a gentleman's agreement that if I do find something better that I would be able to shake hands with Geoff and Richard and leave without any hard feelings. Which is good.

So, needless to say, this is all rather preliminary and who knows what will happen. But I've been on a natural high ever since this meeting. Real Decoy is one of the companies I'd love to work for in Ottawa, and I even was in line for a job there last August (which I didn't get, as I wasn't qualified enough). I highly respect the people who work there, and really hope that if I do get the job and move back to Ottawa that I'd be able to do exceptional work for them. I want to really rock the joint and do kick ass work. Which I know I can do.

So that's all really exciting. I come to Ottawa to scope things out, and something lands in my lap. Nice!

Today was a bit more quiet. I had a two-hour coffee with the lovely Heather Ferrier, and we caught up on old times. Then I went to Jen's place and sat on the balcony for a few hours, having a few beers and generally just feeling good about myself. Tomorrow, I'll talk to Catherine Lawson of the Ottawa Citizen to see how the freelance market is there, and then I'll catch the five o'clock train home.

Things are really looking up. Hope everything works out!

Even More Ottawa

Hi all. Well, tomorrow's the big day. I go to Ottawa to spend time with my friends and a few contacts. That means that this here blog will go silent for a few days. Hopefully, I'll have something new to report once I get back. Talk to you all later.

The 12:42 mile

Hi all again. Just wanted to (breathlessly) tell you that I ran a mile in 12:42, thus shaving 18 seconds off my old best time. I would have done the mile in 12 minutes, too, if I didn't have to slow down at the nine-minute mark. Who knows? Maybe tomorrow I might just smash this record. Here's hoping.

Ottawa, Yet Again

Well, it's two more sleeps until I make my trip to Ottawa, and I'm started to get a bit excited. Maybe a bit apprehensive, too. Will my friends be glad to see me, or will I just be treated like a nuisance? I guess we'll see.

Got some good news though. Just got a phone call from AltisSPR in Ottawa (!) about a possible contract to do Web content writing that is now on hold until, perhaps, mid-June. It might not be a big deal, but it might give me some hope that there's actually jobs for writers in Ottawa where you don't have to speak French. As always, I guess we shall see.

St. Lawrence Market Sundays IV

Well, today is Sunday and you know what that means. Time for the St. Lawrence Antiques Market Sundays. This time out, though, I didn't pick up anything. I was sort of eyeing a New Order collection, but the cost was a whopping $30. I figured my money is best spent next week in Ottawa, where I plan to pick up a few slabs of vinyl from The Turning Point on Cooper Street. I want to get some Chicago stuff and Todd Rundgren that they have there. So I keep my money in my wallet today and conserved.

Not much else is new today. Just watched the Jays beat the Chicago White Sox for their third straight win. Hoping that they do as well tomorrow. Basically, I'm just waiting for Thursday to arrive, when I can go to Ottawa and see some of my old friends and hit up some of my old contacts. I've been thinking about a return to freelance journalism and I'm rather excited by the prospect. I know a lot more media in Ottawa than I do in Toronto, so it just seems to be a non-started that I might move back there and eek out a career for myself. I was even looking at some of my old clippings today and was fondly remembering some of those stories. I have to wonder if I was a better writer then than I am now. After all, being out of the game all of these years might have made me a bit rusty. I used to be good at puns and turns of phrase. If you've been reading this blog, you'll know that my writing has become more workman-like. Just the straight facts, and no hefty turns of phrase or matrix-style leads. Still, maybe I'll warm up if I get back to it. We'll have to see.

Can things hurry up and go till Thursday? Argh! I can't wait.

Ottawa, Again

So it's finally a week away: my trip to Ottawa. I've already lined up many social engagements during my three day stay. I'll also be meeting up with some people who can point out how the Ottawa job market is. Should be a good trip. God knows, I've got to get out of Toronto for awhile. I'm just dying here.

Today was my last session at the gym with my personal trainer for three weeks. She's going on a vacation of her own: to Denmark and Africa. Should be an interesting trip for her. Now, the only challenge for me is being honest and going to the gym to work on my cardio. I'm trying to get the 12 minute mile on the treadmill, but all I've been able to work up lately is to the 15:40 mark on two occasions this week. It's hard getting to run at a speed of 5.0 on the treadmill. I usually crank her down to 3.0 for a few minutes rest before cranking it up again. So we'll see how it goes from here on out.

Ottawa Part Deux

So I'm really excited about my looming trip to Ottawa. I called a good friend of mine up there, Jennifer Bruce, and she has agreed to provide me with shelter once I get there. It was a bit of an awkward conversation, I hadn't talked to her in about nine months, but she's a really dear friend. Helped me through a really dark time in my personal history back in early 2007. I can't repay her enough for the help.

I barely got to sleep last night, I was that excited. More excited about this than my looming Newfoundland trip. That maybe tells you something, I don't know. Anyhow, I guess I'm off to buy my train ticket to Ottawa. I'm looking forward to being up there again, seeing all of my friends again. I hope they're able to see me, and are free that weekend. I kind of wish I was going this weekend, but with the long weekend and all, I thought that maybe nobody would be around. Argh. The wait. The agony.

Ottawa?

I didn't go to the St. Lawrence Antiques Market today, mainly because I'm still working my way through the past two weeks worth of vinyl hauls. I also wanted to sleep in a bit today.

I've been giving some thought to moving back to Ottawa, and will be possibly going there for a mini-vacation in a couple of weeks. Just to feel out the market. Truth is, I don't think I'm going to find work in Toronto with the way things are going. Plus, all of my friends are really in Ottawa. The one thing that is holding me back from just dropping stakes and moving back is the whole bilingualism thing, which could prohibit me from getting a job there. However, I might be happier there. There's tons of bike trails, my friends and vibrant poetry scene happening there. I might be able to go back into freelancing. I have some contacts in the media scene in Ottawa. I also just generally have more contacts there than I have here. I feel anonymous in Toronto, which was what I was looking for when I moved here initially, but I know people and businesses in Ottawa. So it's starting to make sense to move back there.

We'll see how it goes, I guess, in a couple of weeks.

Star Trek

So I went and saw the new Star Trek movie this afternoon and it was awesome. I have to profess to not being a fan of the original series, or its spinoffs, but the reboot was solid for those who aren't being a fan. The special effects were great and seamless, Zachary Quinto of Heroes makes a good Spock, and all around it was just good fun. Certainly beats Wolverine last week.

Tonight I might go out to the Renaissance Cafe for their big closing bash. Their final day of operation is tomorrow, and I went to a few poetry events there in 2007 when I was just getting my feet wet in Toronto. Should be fun.

One of Those Days ...

I had a bit of a crappy day today. I met with a recruiter, and, suffice to say, it didn't really go all that well, in my opinion. Since I've decided to not get too personal here, lest anyone mentioned in my posts be reading this, I'll spare the gory details.

Things then just got maybe not progressive worse, but not better. I went to the gym to do some running, and found that I just couldn't do it because I was angry at myself for the way that things had gone earlier. Then, when I was in the change room putting on one of my few pairs of nice khakis, the button that holds my pants together decided to pop off. Thank God I was wearing a belt, or else I would have been holding the front of my pants together all the way home.

I'm hopeful that things will get better, and that I'll find a job soon. Things are starting to look dicey around these parts, and I've decided that finding a job in Toronto is about as hard as trying to find a girlfriend here. Lots of little nibbles, but no concrete bites.

In an unrelated note, I might be doing a music piece for Popmatters.com about the making of Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. I have it on vinyl, and it is so opulent that the inner sleeves actually have inner sleeves. I'm sort of looking forward to writing a piece. It'll get to show off my music writing chops, and get positioned in a main section of the Web site. Should be fun.

Nothing New

Sorry for not being more proactive with my blogging. Not much is new around these parts. Still unemployed. Still looking. Still banging my head against the wall. (Ouch! That hurts!)

I met with a recruiter yesterday, and he had some good advice for my resume and some glowing things to say about it. I meet with another recruiter tomorrow to talk about maybe finding work in PR. Hope it goes well. Truth be told, I'm a little nervous about this one, perhaps because she has said up front that she doubts she can place me. (She's more, from what I can understand, of an executive recruiter.)

I should have taken the afternoon off and gone to that Jays game. I think we won by a score of 10-6. Beats that drubbing we got last night. We were one strike away from winning that one. It was painful to watch.

St. Lawrence Market Sundays III and more

So I went to the St. Lawrence Antiques Market again today. It was a nice day, so they had it outside the building (assuming that the Toronto Book Fair took up the interior space).

Got a lot of stuff. Pink Floyd's The Wall. Siouxie and The Banshees' Once Upon A Time (which I'm listening to as I type this). The very first Psychedelic Furs album. Some more Johnny Cash. Bruce Springsteen's first album. The Who's Tommy. And I also picked up Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde, but, disappointingly, I'm going to have to pitch that one. The first record has a warp in it, that I missed upon my inspection of it.

Other news: I went to the Jays game at the Rogers Center yesterday. Had a good time. The game went into extra innings so I got an extra bang for my $11. And we won. Again. How about those Jays this year?

On Friday, I went out and saw the new X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie. I was quite disappointed by it; it's maybe on par with last year's The Incredible Hulk reboot. Some of the CGI looked half-finished, particularly on Wolverine's claws in one scene in a bathroom. It just looked cartoony. Hugh Jackman does a good job, but he doesn't have much of a script to work with. I knew we might be in trouble when the first credit announced that it was taking place in Canada in 1845. Um, Canada didn't exist as a country until 1867. Obviously dumbing it down for the American audience. Either that, or someone in the script writing department didn't do their homework. And we're meant to believe that Wolverine has been around for some 160 years, but still manages to look like a buff 40-year-old guy. I know all about suspension of disbelief, but that was a little too much. And the ending is rather anti-climatic, with two extra post-credits scenes just tacked on to tie up loose ends and point in the direction of another sequel. I was not impressed. Oh well. Maybe next week's Star Trek movie will fare better.

Swine Flu Boo Hoo

Am I the only one who thinks the concerns about swine flu are a bit unfounded? The Toronto Star had today a screaming headline about four cases in the GTA today. And the deal is, they're only mild cases.

I don't want to sound like I'm trivializing something that's fairly serious, in certain cases. Yes, I know people have died from this disease. Yes, I know it's a threat mainly to babies and the elderly. But doesn't the media have something better to report than every mild case that comes across the border? Cripes. They're now talking about raising the status of this to pandemic levels. I think there's a bit too much paranoia and hype surrounding this. It's only the flu, for crying out loud. They have a vaccine to combat the thing. You'd think this is another SARS or something -- now that's truly scary. The return of SARS would be cause for a pause. But not the flu. Most of those who've got it will probably recover. This is not 1918 over again, which the media would have you believe.

Bea Arthur RIP

So Bea Arthur passed away on the weekend. Not really big news as in every interview I saw her in recently she looked old and frail. I wasn't a big fan of hers, not on Maude nor on The Golden Girls, but I can admit that she was talented at what she did. I think she even won a Tony.

But the strange thing is, in none of the obituaries that I've read on her passing do they mention her role in the notorious Star Wars Holiday Special. You know, that awful Star Wars thing they did for TV in 1978. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube though, you can see her performance in said special right here. She even sings! Gotta love her. At least, she was a good sport.

St. Lawrence Market Sundays II

So I just came back with a real vinyl haul from the St. Lawrence Antiques Market on King at Jarvis. I must have picked up something in the order of 18 records. Some of them real finds.

For instance, I'm listening to Cat Power's Moon Pix as you read this. I never expected to find an indie rock record littered in the flotsam and jetsam of the market, but there is it. Despite not having an inner album liner, it's in pretty good shape. Some dirt and some surface noise, but I expect that I can clean that off.

I also found, like, three Johnny Cash records, including his Greatest Hits and At San Quentin, one of his notorious live records from the late '60s. Not sure how playable they will be as the live album has a small crack in it, and some chalk-like dirt that wouldn't come off.

While I didn't find The Muppet Movie soundtrack, I did find the next best thing, a compilation of favourite tracks that's a double disc set. It does have "The Rainbow Connection" and "Movin' Right Along", though I could probably do without the theme song to Muppet Babies.

I also found some records by Bruce Springsteen, The Who, Van Halen and Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, which is probably the only half-way decent thing he did, and where my collection of his stuff will begin and end). I also picked up Rush's Exit ... Stage Left, and also found Morrisey's Viva Hate. I also found another Gordon Lightfoot Greatest Hits-like album. So I guess I've got lots to listen to this week.

Favourite Songs of the '60s on YouTube

God bless YouTube. You can pretty much see anything you want, from old episodes of Read All About It! to videos by The Lonely Island. People are also posting videos of really cool songs from the '60s by videotaping their turntables going at it. It's a cool way to get to songs that have been nearly lost to the dustbin of history.

Take this video of The Innocence's "There's Got To Be A Word!" from 1966. I have the 45 rpm in question, thanks to my dad's record collection. It's pretty atypical of what my dad was listening to at the time (namely, anything having to do with The Byrds), but this was one is a gorgeous song nevertheless.

I also have the 45 of the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renee", which you can view a fanmade video of here. It's a lovely song, and, rightfully so, landed in Rolling Stone magazine's Top 500 Songs Of All Time. The follow-up, "Pretty Ballerina" is also posted as a video of a song playing on someone's turntable here.

Then, there's the Syndicate of Sound's "Little Girl" which, yep, someone has taped playing on their turntable here. I have that on 45, along with the Critters "Younger Girl" (on a related note) which you can view here.

Lots of stuff on that YouTube.

Grunge Is Dead: Popmatters Review

So my review of Grunge Is Dead went live today on Popmatters.com. You can read it by clicking here. It was a bit of a tough book to review, as it is an oral history, meaning that the book is made up of nothing but quotes from various hangers-on in the music scene. I'm pretty happy with the result, though, and think it is one of the better book reviews that I've turned in. I gave it a 7 out of 10. Overall, a pretty good read, though I've since given up the book for my parent's next yard sale when I did my spring cleaning.

Not much else is new here. Picked up two Robert Pollard albums on vinyl. Will let you know what I think of them, perhaps, in a future post.

5 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 30

Pitchfork Media is running a reoccurring feature called 5 - 10 - 15 - 20, in which they ask their favourite indie artists to talk about their favourite records at the ages of 5, 10, 15, 20 and so on. I figured I'd get on top of the meme, and contribute my own formative soundtrack to my early years.

5 - "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"

My aunt, whom I assume reads this blog, had a K-Tel record called Goofy Greats, in which this song figured prominently. I don't know who sung it, as I'm too lazy to go into my closet to look it up. (I now own the record.) But I assume I must have nearly worn out the grooves of this album playing it. I recall sitting out on the back porch of my grandparent's house in Barry's Bay when I was about 5, playing the song non-stop. I think my grandma asked me to quit playing it so often. Nothing like a song about a girl afraid to go into the water to stir the heart and imagination as a young child.

There are some notable runners-up. There's the aforementioned (on this blog, anyhow) Muppet Movie Soundtrack, which I wore out the grooves of. I was big into movie soundtracks at this time, as I had the soundtrack to the Jungle Book and somehow managed to punch a hole in the middle of the record. I forget how it happened, but I figured it happened when I was playing it at one of my birthday parties. Then, there was something called Mickey Mouse Disco, which I recall really liking because none of the songs sounded like kiddie songs -- instead, it had the "adult" feel of a disco record. (I haven't been able to find it in the stack of records my parents most recently gave me.) I was also into "Red Rubber Ball" by the Cyrkle. That was another favourite of mine from those years. I was pleasantly surprised to find the 45 rpm that my dad had, and it is remarkably scratch-free. "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago figures in there somehow, as we had both the 45 and a concert band recording of the song on a long-player put out by my high school circa 1975.

10 - Hunting High and Low by a-ha

I was big into trashy Euro-pop when I was about 10 or so. I was really big into "Take On Me" and, particularly, the video when I was this age. I thought it was, like, the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I recall being into the follow-up album even more, that'd be Scoundrel Days, despite some silly songs being on there, like "We're Looking For The Whales". But that came a bit later, probably when I was about 12 or so.

Honourable mentions would have to go to the Ghostbusters soundtrack, which was the first thing I owned on cassette tape, along with Tears For Fears' Songs From The Big Chair (which I now own on vinyl).

15 - A Farewell To Kings by Rush

When I was in my mid-teens, I voraciously ate up everything by Canadian power trio Rush. I recall getting Chronicles on tape from the public library and just having my world blown open. A Farewell was the very first CD that I owned, which I purged myself when I was about 22 or so when I thought I was too cool for Rush, and I rabidly started to own every Rush album that I could get my hands on. For a time, there was nothing more that I owned but Rush CDs. Farewell still is my sentimental favourite, and to this day think that "Cygnus X-1" still rocks, and remember being profoundly being disappointed by the sequel, a side-long epic on Hemispheres, the follow-up. Strangely enough, I had been previously introduced to "Subdivisions" on a K-Tel cassette compilation called Rock '83, but thought nothing of it at the time. I guess I needed a few years for the high-school angst of Rush to grow on me.

I was pretty big into Wang Chung at this time too. I think I wore out my cassette copy of The Warmer Side of Cool, a lost classic I'm hoping to find on vinyl.

20 - Warehouse: Songs and Stories by Husker Du

When I was in my late teens, I got into hardcore punk in a pretty big way. I was all over the grunge scene in Seattle, and linked the linage back to this group from Minneapolis. Warehouse doesn't get much love these days, even though it got a five-star review in Rolling Stone at the time. But it is still among my very favourite albums of all time. It is one of my desert island discs, for sure. I recall listening to this in the tourist booth that I used to work in back in the day almost non-stop. I was blown away by the bombast and the tenderness of the album, and the fact that it didn't sound like anything I'd ever heard before. "No Reservations", "She Floated Away", "Turn It Around", "It's Not Peculiar", and on it goes. The whole record, a double, has a natural progression to it. It is one of the few records out there that actually has a climax.

I also call this record the Rosetta Stone of pop music, because it's all there: power-pop, punk, psychedelia, and on it goes. I once got rid of the CD when I was going through a tough time a few years ago, because it was just so emotionally raw. I wisely bought it back a year ago, and whenever I go on vacation somewhere, this is the disc I usually bring with me as a traveling companion.

I was disappointed when I saw ex-band leader Bob Mould last year live in that he never played any songs off this record, but otherwise touched on much of his back catalogue. I think I still have a CD-R somewhere of a 1987 Huskers show where they played the entire album start to finish live.

25 - Bee Thousand by Guided by Voices

I don't know what to say about Bee Thousand by GbV that hasn't been said before. This is simply a low-fi pop masterpiece that, sure, has its share of filler, but the filler is actually there to bolster the incredible songs (and make them better) that are "Smothered In Hugs", "Echos Myron", "Tracker Rape Chain", etc. etc. Band leader Robert Pollard had a profound effect on my writing at the time; I just marvelled at the way that the guy could knock off classic songs in the space of time that it takes most people to eat dinner. We all know what became of Pollard: a little bit too self-indulgent for his own good, he now releases records at a rate of nearly a bajillion a year. (Seriously.) But this album was the pure distillation of his talents. Alien Lanes is nearly as good, but I didn't get into that one until I was closer to 30.

As a side note, I think it was just after this time that I got into alt-country in a pretty big way. Wilco, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, and Sparklehorse (along with Golden Smog) were getting plays on my CD player just shortly after this time. Nothing much more to say about that except it's strange I didn't get into Gram Parsons until much more recently.

How could I also forget that I got into Steely Dan at this point in my life. I used to be a big fan of Aja, but these days I'm more of a Katy Lied kind of guy. I love the Dan, for their weird lyrics and smooth '70s rock stylings. I wish contemporary radio would play something other than "Do It Again" or "Reeling In The Years" because they have an impressive back catalogue that goes beyond those hits. Not too fond of their newer stuff, but it's good to see them working and touring again. I wish I'd still been in Ottawa to see them play BluesFest last year.

30 - Something/Anything? by Todd Rundgren

This one is another desert island disc for me. I got into Rundgren in a big way when I heard "It Wouldn't Have Made Any Difference" from this record on the soundtrack to Almost Famous. (There's those soundtrack albums again.) Naturally, I have since hunted down nearly everything the guy has put on vinyl, even the self-indulgent messes that made up part of early Utopia. I just love this record. There is hardly a bad track to be found, and it's a double album. The guy played nearly every instrument and sang on it too, except for the band concept stuff that he did on Side 4. It really is a power-pop classic, and one that I find myself taking off the shelf often as I slide out of my Christ year. It has really stood the test of time. There's even a song about my mom on it: "Marlene". A true power-pop gem. What more can I say?

As a final side-note, I picked up the jewel of my vinyl collection around this time: Radio City by Big Star. It's a mint condition record from the original pressing that came out back in 1972. It set me back about $30. I play this one often too. A friend of mine dubbed it the premier example of a genre known as "cottage rock". I have to agree. It's just solid from start to finish. I guess you can say that between Big Star and Rundgren, I was big into power pop at this time of my life.

St. Lawrence Market Sundays

A bit of a ritual for me is going to the St. Lawrence Antiques Market on Sunday mornings to get my vinyl fixings. This morning was no different, and I came back with three slabs of vinyl (well, four, because one of them was a double), that cost me a measly 14 bucks.

First up, and what I'm listening to right now, is Gordon Lightfoot's Gord's Gold. There were a few Lightfoot albums in the pile of vinyl that my parents brought up, and the album I got today is notable for having re-recordings of songs that Gord thought weren't up to snuff in the mid-'70s. I also picked up The Best of Blondie, which I had on vinyl once upon a time, but it had a skip in it, so I threw it out. I also picked up Chicago's 16, which is from their somewhat dismal '80s period when they were being produced by David "King of Sap" Foster, but I'm a bit of a completist, I guess. I love their older stuff. "25 or 6 to 4" was one of my favourite songs growing up, and I must have worn out the grooves on the 45 rpm record that my parents had (which has been bequeathed to me, but I have yet to listen to it.)

I'm going to watch the Jays game later this afternoon, and I'm happy to see them up 9-4 in the standings. Maybe they will have a good run this year at the championships if they can keep this up, and win the rubber match against the A's this afternoon. I should really buy a ticket to one of the games soon, as they're pretty cheap in the cheap seats. ($7 I think.) After that, I guess I will be hitting the gym for some running on the treadmill. Pretty quiet evening after that.

I'm a little aprehensive about tomorrow. I'm going to call up the MSN lady either tomorrow or Tuesday (to give her some bearings after being on vacation a week). Truth be told, I'm not sure if I made a good first impression, as I first of all indicated that I was interested in an editing job, as that kind of job is a full-time permenant gig, unlike the writing gigs, which seem to be all freelance. Hopefully, I'll be able to win her over.

How I Spent My Friday Afternoon

So I finally gave in and bought myself a copy of the new Bob Barker memoir, Priceless Memories. It cost me a measly $12.04 after I cashed in all of my Shoppers Drug Mart Optimum points. Can say that it was one of my better purchases recently. I spent the whole afternoon reading it from cover to cover. It took me about three and a half hours to do so. It's kind of a short book.

I have to say that I have more respect for the guy since reading the book. The best bits of the book didn't even have to do with his hosting The Price Is Right, or Truth or Consequences. I didn't know this until I read the book, but he was involved with the Air Force during World War II, and he grew up on an Indian reservation. Of course, he also goes into great detail about his love for animals and his work in that regard. Fascinating read.

I've also rented The Spirit and the remake of The Day The Earth Stood Still. Probably won't get around to either of them until tomorrow, as I have Wheel of Jeopardy! (as I like to call them) tonight, and then there's the hockey game on. At least, it'll give me something to do on the weekend.

The Price Is Right

So Bob Barker showed up on national television to shill his new book, Priceless Memories, which is available for sale at my local Shoppers Drug Mart. (I might just pick it up. It's 25 % off.) Time has not been kind to the guy, that's for sure. His left lip wasn't moving, as though he just had a stroke of some sort. He was totally sucking up to Drew Carey on The Price Is Right today, too, during the Showcase section, which is where he was shilling the book. He kind of crept up behind Drew at one point, to offer up a prize that was offered in the Showcase. Time is sure catching up to the guy, who has to be somewhere around 85. It was probably a good thing that he retired when he did.

In other news, I might be tapped for a freelance IA project, courtesy of an old colleague of mine. Things are starting to look up. I applied for a Communications Coordinator job, and someone at Sears has contacted me about IA jobs that are available. I'm not sure about the IA work, as noted before, but it beats doing nothing.

Going to go to the gym to train today. Not sure if I'm looking forward to it, as I'm feeling a bit bushed today. Looking forward to tonight, though, as both the Jays baseball game and hockey game will be on. I've taken to watching sporting events lately, even though I can't play worth a hoot. I'm glad to see the Jays doing as well as they are. Let's hope they can keep the momentum going for the rest of the season.

Another Post

I was going to post a humourous article about who Lindsay Lohan could date now that she's single and making the rounds in an Internet video personal ad. (It's a joke, I think, backed by Comedy Central.) I decided not to, mainly because I was lazy and mainly because I didn't really want this blog to become a repository for cheap gags. So, sorry folks. Maybe next time.

I'm a bit excited over here as it turns out that Bob Barker will be making an appearance on tomorrow's The Price Is Right. Ostensibly to promote his new memoir of his years on the show. It should be a hoot. I'm looking forward to it.

In other news, I twisted my left foot today. It hurts a bit when I go to walk on it. It made working out at the gym today a little interesting.

I'm listening to Close Up the Honky Tonks by The Flying Burrito Bros on vinyl right now. It's an out-of-print album that contains a number of unreleased tracks that have since not seen the light of day. I'm surprised at how good condition it's in -- surprising since it is another album poached from my parents record collection -- so I guess I just wasn't into country as a kid, which meant that I wasn't around to scratch this record up, I guess.

Not much else is new. Pretty lazy day for me. That's the way it's been going lately.

Smurfing Sing Song and Other Stuff

One of the records in my recently acquired collection is an old Smurfs record dating back to at least 1979 or 1980 entitled Smurfing Sing Song. This was before the Smurfs found fame as a TV cartoon in the 1980s, and, boy, is my vinyl of the album ever scratched up. It's barely playable.

However, thanks to the wonder and the mysteries of the Internet, I was able to track down a digital download of the album here. Boy, I have to say that listening to it (I've been only able to tolerate about two songs off of it) sure makes my teeth hurt. I can only wonder about my taste in music as a kid, because, boy, was it sure crappy. There's even a reference in one of the songs to Smurf beer. That's right. Beer. Those Smurfs sure were drunken alcoholics before they went into rehab and came out as a cartoon for kids. I have to wonder if the creators were targeting adults with the reference. Who knows?

The Price Is Wrong

Since I'm unemployed these days, I get to spend a lot of time with my TV. I usually spend my mornings engaged with The Price Is Right, which is a little bit annoying considering all of the advertisments during the show for a career college that OMNI 2 shows that I'll never attend.

I have to say that I misss Bob Barker a little bit. No more sexual harrassment suits. No charm and charisma. New host Drew Carey is a bit of a wet towel compared to Barker. He certainly lacks emotion, and I don't really like it when he gets the constestants to go Alacazam and ask them to say hi to their friends and family on the Showcase Showdown part of the show. It's a little cheesy.

What irks me is this clip of Drew Carey not getting excited during the Showcase section when a contestant got a price right on the nose. C'mon. The guy bid the exact price. Show some enthusiasm. This was probably one of the greatest moments in game show history.

Still, I'll keep watching Price. I've got nothing better to do with my time, for one. It's become a bit of a ritual for me. God knows what will happen if I ever get a real job again and have to go to work at that time just like any regular Joe.

Lazy Sunday

So, not much new to report here. Doing my laundry and listening to an old Linda Ronstadt record that my dad brought up. My mom left some treats for me in the top drawer of my dresser: a vanilla bunny (which made my teeth hurt), some Easter eggs, and some treats for my cat Dot, which she eagerly ate up. (It's good that she liked them, as Dot can be a bit of a fussy eater.)

I went out and bought the newly re-released Red Red Meat album from 1995, Bunny Gets Paid, along with a Red House Painters album that was used, Songs for a Blue Guitar. I like both, and have nothing of import to say about either of them than that, aside from maybe I had a hankering for the colour red yesterday.

I might head out to the gym later on today. My training sessions are going to be lopped in half starting tomorrow, so I'm kind of interested to see how that goes. I'm also hoping to call up a contact for Microsoft Canada and see if I can do some entertainment reporting work for them on a freelance basis. All in all, it might ship up to be a busy week.

I've got to take the record off now and go rescue my clothes. I think in celebration of Easter, I might just put on Patti Smith's Easter record.

Old Records

So my parents came up to my place for the Easter weekend. We had a good time, and did some spring cleaning. Got rid of some old books (and new) that were festering on my bookshelf. But the really cool thing about the weekend is that my dad bequeathed his vinyl record to me, which included some of my old records that I had as a child. Two milk cartons worth of records.

Some of them were in pretty bad shape, like the Muppet Movie Soundtrack that I played the heck out of when I was a kid. (I've love to find a mint copy of that. eBay, maybe?) But some of them were in great condition. My copy of the Rescuers Soundtrack was in nearly mint condition. Strange, considering that I must have played the heck out of it as a child. That was the jewel of the collection, something I got with a Radio Shack gift certificate that I won for submitting a question to the local science teacher who had his own column in the local community newspaper. I treasure it quite strongly.

I just finished playing something called Yankee Doodle Mickey, which is about as patriotic and America a record for kids that you can get. Strangely, the back cover of the record lists one of the child back-up singers as being Molly Ringwald. (!) Could it be that Molly Ringwald, of Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink fame? Dunno, but if so, she sure sounds young. Now, that's a find. (Note: Wikipedia does confirm it's her on the recording.)

Also sprinkled in the collection was some old Byrds stuff, which was pretty scratched up and in beat-up condition, which is a given considering the records are about 40 years old now. But there was some cool Gram Parsons stuff in the mix, which was a great find. All sorts of stuff. My mom even had a record by Elvis Presley called Moody Blue, which is apparently rare because it was pressed on black vinyl, when most of the records that came out were on blue vinyl. Supposedly.

All in all, I'm happy to have my parents and my old records finally back in my grubby little hands. You'll have to excuse me now. I'm off to put on some Bruce Cockburn. Or maybe some Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Welcome to my first post

Hi all:

Here is my very first post of my new blog, where I will muse about things from music to TV to video games and just life in general. Hope you like it.