"I won't regret saying this, This thing that I'm saying..."

Another wicked shot from the Greenday concert...I have decided it should be my job to go to concerts full time. Where do I apply?
I have also decided that trains should not be allowed to run during rush hour...period. Or at lunch time.

Sonic just announced a huge concert at Northlands for Sept 5th...hosted by this dude, who --until just this second --was "last nameless" to me...he's always just "Jay" or more to the point will always be to me - "JayandsilentBob". I am so excited to get my tickets tomorrow! Leave it to Sonic to bring us some sweet modern rockness.

Song Du Jour: Call it off by Tegan and Sarah

"The rage and love, the story of my life, The Jesus of suburbia is a lie..."

Concert hangover for sure today. F'n hell Green Day play a sweet show. I won tickets from Sonic and got VIP passes to the soundcheck---a once in life time chance to see them up close with just 18 other fans. Sadly I only have the snapshots in my mind to remember...no cameras allowed.


The Sound check (nutshell): So we arrived outside at Wayner's statue and hung out with Sarah from sonic who is awesome by the way-- and we chit chat and wait for the punk rock stars to organize themselves.


There were some "winners" who were complaining about the wait, but not me...ummm they are Greenday you morons!
We get escorted indoors....wait a bit...go downstairs...wait a bit by the giant oilers locker room door. A large man who resembled Mussolini, so we nicknamed him 'Moose', came out and told us when we hear music we can come out and he'll show us where to sit. We wait a bit. We mill around sad the bar is not open. There were 20 of us in total and it was pretty big range...young-uns to mid thirties, mostly chicks--except for the 15 year olds "always making out couple". ugh.


Then we hear a drum beat. We all looked for Moose, but no, that was not "music".

We move closer to the entrance to the arena....excitedly we wait a bit. We hear a guitar squeal...we all look around anxiously...we heard music...can we go? Can we go? We wait a bit. More sounds of music blasts in. Moose comes and gets us and out we walk...onto the Visitors Bench...and there they are...pocket sized punk rock stars; BJ is in a toque wearing all black.


They are all in their spots (just like later at the concert) running through some 21st century breakdown...We awkwardly stand on the visiting players bench...awed by seeing them and hearing them, but somewhat self conscious voyeurs.


They acknowledge our group and Billie Joe claps his hands, wants us to clap, (indicative of the upper body work out to come later) we clap with him, we woo hoo! The band motion for Moose to let us come out on to the floor. They herd us out... I pretend to knock the whole group over rushing past them to the front---others hang back not sure where to stand in all this space---I bust up and park right in front to the left of the ramp out into the auduence at centre stage. I imagine the feel of the crush of people that will be there in mere hours--I take a mental snapshot of them with the american flag up in the rafters above them while they play. The band works on getting American Eulogy worked out... The Dude and I try to mosh (hilarious to us, we are being silly)...we jokingly slam dance into each other. We figure 20 people is just not enough. We laugh and I look up to meet the eyes of Tre Cool at the drums he laughs with/at us too. He's drinking a Miller Light. not sure what to think of that.


Billy Joe stops...the roadie gets him the the TP launcher (the one he used between Brain Stew and Jaded at the concert) and BJ tp's us from the stage. They sing BLVD...or more the work on the transitions between it and Minority...Mike Dirnt looks up at one point right near the end and points out to the band, "uh oh---We're in Oil Untry"....noting the broken sign in the rafters...they all chuckle. The saxophone dude plays King for a day...they bust out the accordion. We all cheer...they tell us we have to go...we say bye and float out. One of the girls shouts out a mandatory "We love you!"


In 3 words...Awkward yet amazing. Thanks Sonic 102.9 for the fun times...I will never forget it.


The concert you ask? Brilliant. It was filled to the brim with punk rock goodness. I waved my arms (like I just don't care), I pumped my fist in the air and Hey Ho'd...I sang " are we we are the waaaaiiiting, unknown" at the top of my lungs. It was bliss *with pyrotechnics. Here is the setlist.





Song du Jour: Jesus of Suburbia by Green Day, of course. (my fav of the night-that link is to video of them live in Vancity 05.07.09)

"You left the sweetest taste in my mouth, You're a silver lining the clouds"

I am still a bit elevated from the concert last night. Honestly...it ended at 11 p.m. and I floated for about an hour...Coldplay certainly delivers an emotionally packed show. It was top notch. I have heard people compare it to the Elevation tour and that it is on that level and I would have to agree. They have the u2 like rock anthems--songs you can sing along too and that just made the whole experience so amazing. I love it when I can sing at the top of my lungs. My favorite parts were Lost, Yellow, The Scientist...Lovers in Japan was....in a word, amazing.




When Chris and Will performed "the hardest part" I cried, it was so lovely....what a beautiful song. Yellow just about tore the ceiling off Rexall place. They had all these yellow balls...coool!
Then they moved to the other end and did Green eyes and daydream believer.


My photos are so blurry. Stupid camera.
Snow patrol was phenomenal. I loved them, they were engaging and funny and they sang all my fav's! They said we were a gorgeous crowd...only irish men can call a crowd gorgeous. LOL! I felt like they'd be awesome to have a pint with, I wished it could have gone on forever. Here are shots of SP..they did Hands Open:




Crack the shutters, chasing cars
And finished with You're all I have. I loved it...what an awesome concert. But still can't nudge U2 out for best live performance. I thought it was the closest I have seen though and that is saying something. Hope you like the photos.

Song Du Jour: Strawberry Swing by Coldplay
I never really loved it until I saw it live...it was such a perfect day!

"Out with the cold, in with the woo" ~ E. Marshall

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain





Do you feel it too? The first of the pussy willows have arrived, I had to take this photo as proof of Spring. Yup, it has been that tough a winter...







Song Du Jour: Help I'm Alive by Metric

Nature smiled.....

Every time we walk along a beach some ancient urge disturbs us so that we find ourselves shedding shoes and garments or scavenging among seaweed and whitened timbers like the homesick refugees of a long war. ~Loren Eiseley

Your boyfriend's passed out at the Sev again.....

This dude was passed out cold in front of the 7-11...it was Sunday night at 7:40. Classy. I thought he was dead. The store clerks seemed completely indifferent....totally not concerned in the least.

Song Du Jour: Zero by The Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Recess! Yaaa..ummm booo?

Well, shocker...GG Jean granted the PM his early recess to prolong the inevitable. I am disappointed, I think if the government loses the confidence of the house it's done. There should be no time out, no time to get their fear machine fired up and scare us all to death with a lie about this being a unity issue. On the other hand I don't agree with bailing out the car manufacturers so on that issue I don't support the proposed coalition either. Hm, what to do?

I will be writing the leaders of the Liberals and NDP and requesting they call an election and not shoot themselves in the foot (or the leg ala Plaxico Burress) with this coalition. Am I the only one who thinks the coalition partners (save Gilles Duceppe who wins either way) will end up worse off in the end? As far as I can tell Harper might be done but this will only help the Conservatives in the long run, especially given the reaction from the Canadian people. I am not sure that most Canadians realize that Harps really brought this on himself. You have until January 26th to get your letters in to tell them what you think should happen. And only those of you who got off your lazy asses and went and voted should bother to spout forth your opinion.
Next time go vote and maybe this kind of shit would not happen. Lesson learned?

Please keep in mind:

"The coalition sprang up after the Tories released an economic statement that was lambasted by the opposition parties. They accused Harper of doing nothing to address the current economic crisis and slammed what they saw as ideologically driven measures such as the proposed elimination of subsidies for political parties, a three-year ban on the right of civil servants to strike and limits on the ability of women to sue for pay equity.
Yes, Harper has since backed down on those contentious issues, but the opposition has pushed forward with the coalition.
The coalition — which would have a 24-member cabinet composed of six NDP and 18 Liberal MPs (all legally elected members) — has vowed to make an economic stimulus package a priority, proposing a multibillion-dollar plan that would include help for the auto and forestry sectors.
With 77 Liberal MPs and 37 New Democrats, plus the support of 49 Bloc members, the three parties have more seats than the 143 held by the Tories." This is being touted as a 62% majority in the press.

Song Du Jour: Use Somebody by Kings of Leon (best song of 2007 IMHO)

Am I the only one loving the spectacle?

There is no precident for what is happening up in the bubble, ummm I mean Ottawa.

And yes I worry about the "crisis" and it's impact, I'm not oblivious to that bit...but personally it is like watching one of those disaster movies like Deep Impact or Twister...you just know disaster is coming and you can't look away when the deadly effects finally come crashing through!

The amount of misinformation is amazing, holy rhetoric batman...and the blame game is hilarious...Harps did it! It's Dion, he's to blame! No it's Gilles he's the antichrist! Puh-lease. Pull your heads out of your asses dudes and get it together. I love the reaction of the uber conservatives here in the blue province, they are equal to none in pure entertainment value! Stop freaking out and making it seem like Conservatives had a majority in the first place. This might be a minority governments worse nightmare but for a nerd like me...I love just watching it unfold, what jackhole manoeuvre will our political parties pull next? I have to admit I have been watching CPAC every night; with popcorn.

I have to say the best "blurb" I have read so far (that kinda matches my opinion)comes from Todd Babiak:

He notes in the Edmonton Journal that the Alberta capital has been largely ignored by the Harper Tories and finds no reason to fear the coalition. “Attempting to cripple the opposition [by proposing to revoke campaign subsidies], and therefore debate and criticism, is a much more profound assault against democracy. As the national portrait gallery debacle demonstrated so fluently, conditions have not improved for Edmonton since 2006, when the Conservatives swept Alberta and took control of Ottawa. Why would they? According to the Conservative war room, we’re a strategic void.”

This one just made me giggle:

"The Calgary Sun’s Rick Bell says it’s one thing to hate the idea of a crippled téphane Dion and inexperienced Jack Layton teaming up to govern the country while relying on the Bloc Québécois to act as a crutch. It’s just not all that useful right now: “We know everything is spinning out of control. Premier Ed yesterday urges all parties to ‘put Canada first and stop the nonsense’ and deal with a financial meltdown he calls ‘the biggest elephant in the room.’ Unfortunately, it’s tough to hunt an elephant when you’ve got the guns squarely pointed at each other.”"

What will the GG do? Oh how I would love to be in her shoes! What a cool time to be in her position! There is no reason (I can think of, no precedence anyhoo) why she would say "no" to the Prime Minister if he asks for recess so I imagine they will get an early Christmas, but I don't think Harps will survive this. Stick a fork in him peeps.

Sad way for him to end it all...I really do mean that. I imagine the Conservatives 3 weeks ago sitting about, like villans rubbing their hands and grinning, evily, and saying, "I know lets revoke campaign subsidies just to fuck them!" and then they all laughed and laughed...

I wonder if any Conservative could have imagined that little jab at the other political parties would have had such an detrimental effect. I bet the wish they had a "takeback".

Song Du Jour: I'm a Pretty Lady by Pinback

"...If the letter is found, please set it on fire, It will ease this pain, end this thing..."

A song for the Conservatives

Livre Du Jour: Holidays on Ice - David Sedaris

There are now 33 million people living with HIV worldwide

World Aids Day is December 1st ~ Click here for Information

(RED)Wire is (RED)'s latest initiative: a digital music magazine that allows you to discover new music while providing medicine to those in Africa who need it. For $5 a month, every Wednesday you will get two DRM-free songs (one will be "exclusive" from a major artist), an extra (video, slideshow, or something similar) that is "inspiring," and updates about those receiving the medicine you're paying for. Subscribers will receive their new music via the (RED)WIRE player, which also puts each song into the iTunes media player. $2.50 goes directly to The Global Fund, an organization that buys and administers medicine to women and children affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa.

Song Du Jour: U2 - If God Will Send His Angels

Intelligence is relative

So I went to see the movie Burn After Reading and God love the Coen Brothers. At least you can rely on them to throw you a curve ball. Totally unpredictable....you never know what will happen next...horrific and hilarious. I was laughing so hard...the only thing is that I don't think other people in the theatre thought it was as fricking funny as I did. I love that they gave Margie a big shout out from Fargo and in the end I wish William H Macy had played the role that was so William H. Macy.

It is hard for me to believe that they wrote the screenplay for this whilst writing the screenplay for No Country For Old Balls. They say they alternated every other day between scripts. I can't even imagine that.

All of the previews before the movie looked abysmal and the lights kept coming on during the show...which was pretty funny...thanks the volunteers who got up and went and told the 70 year old lady taking tickets to figure out the light situation.
I can't wait to see what the Coen Bros. come up with next:

Suburbicon (2009) (in production) (writer)
Gambit (2009) (announced) (screenplay)
Hail Caesar (2009) (pre-production) (writer)
A Serious Man (2009) (filming) (writer)

Song Du Jour: Sometime Around Midnight by The Airborne Toxic Event