October 2007 Archives

I hope you all had a nice weekend. Mine was certainly forgettable, but I did happen to find a new way to waste time and I wanted to share it with you. It's a bit like someone took Tetris, and combined it with Halflife, to come up with an interesting new game. I'm not sure about that description, so I'll let the creators speak for themselves. Take a look at the clever trailer, here.

As another bit of diversion, check out this YouTube video of a band I've been enjoying for the past few months, called 'Battles'. They put this video together and fair warning, it's almost 8 minutes, but it's well worth the watch, for good music. The song is called 'Tonto'.

This is the first weekend, that I've been able to enjoy in the city, without having to hang a door, patch some walls or do some other bit of repair to the apartment. It's nice, being able to do whatever I want, which this weekend meant going over to friends' houses for dinner, going on walks and riding all over the city. It didn't hurt that it was 25 degrees, either.

People in this country are getting more and more familiar with the title and it's because this is the last time the Canadian and U.S. dollar were at parity.

I got my first pleasant dose of the new reality, when I bought an album online, from the U.S. branch of Amazon. It may sound silly, but there's something sweetly satisfying about buying an item for $15USD and actually paying $14.30CDN. Considering it's never happened in my lifetime, I think I have the right to be just a little bit giddy. It feels a bit like I'm sticking it to some faceless entity (I don't know who, but boy do I feel like I'm going to make them suffer) and you can't beat that.

I'm tired, no doubt about it. After working from 8am to 9:30pm last night, I'm about ready to call it a week. At the end of today, I'm going to go home and sleep for three days.

I just took a look at upcoming shows and it looks like Broken Social Scene is playing with Kevin 'I can't headline a show by myself' Drew, in December. I may just see the show, since Kevin 'I shamelessly used a popular groups' name in the title of my debut album' Drew, is playing with BSC and they always put on a good show. Seriously though, I guess it's nice that his mates are helping him launch his new album and I should turn down the ass dial just a bit. It also helps that the album is well done.

Seems that after my experience at 'The National', going to a concert alone isn't all that bad, so I might just do that again, since I'm an alone kind of guy.

 Enjoy your weekend.

So I saw a movie on Sunday night, by the name of 'Michael Clayton'. I needed to distract myself from a long and forgettable day, so I made an impromptu decision to hop on the subway and catch the 10:10 at the Varsity. There were many favourite parts for me, but one in particular, was when the end credits started to roll. No, it wasn't because I disliked the movie (far from it), but the way they did it was really nice. The story meanders a bit, but overall, enjoyable. George Clooney will generate a lot of buzz for this. He really was on his game and even in places where the movie might not have been as compelling, his mere presence made it so, with the performance. Naturally, all other movies released this week, stank. Ben Affleck is making his comeback this Friday, when Gone Baby Gone comes out and with all the 'positive' surrounding it, I think I'll take a look.

Last night, I finally listened to the new Radiohead album, 'In Rainbows' and I really love it. Some people have stated that it's simply Thom Yorke's 'Eraser', with the rest of the band and may I point out that these people are either deaf, or haven't actually listened to 'Eraser' (and uh... no offense to any of you that may have shared that sentiment?).

As I briefly mentioned a couple of entires ago, I recently decided to take a year off of school and move to the city. It's been an interesting three years and I simply needed a break, so I'll be living on the west end of Toronto, until next September.

Unfotunately, I haven't been able to take advantage of the city so far, since I've had to do a considerable about of work to fix my place up. I didn't it until I moved in, as my housemate had picked it out and I had a bit of a rude awakening when I saw it. Anyway, I've managed to turn it into something I can call home and I'm just now getting into the routine of living and working here.

On the topic of work, I was able to find a job with a not-for-profit organization, whose purpose is to test doctors educated abroad, to see if they're qualified to practice in Ontario. I've met some nice people and discovered how different the style of patient care is, in other countries, as compared to here.

Although things are generally peaceful in my neighbourhood, that's all about to change, as apparently Ridley Scott is building one of the larget soundstages in North America, right across the street. First they're going to demolish a 16 story building and then I presume make a lot of noise for a lot of months, until it's ready. I wake up at 7:30 in the morning and get home at 5, so I don't think it will affect me, but I feel bad for all the other tennants, as I've lived next to a construction site before and know what those suckers are in for.

During my month in the WWWilderness, I had the pleasure of attending a couple of weddings.

First up were Nina and Deepak, who had a Hindu wedding, complete with the groom riding up to the ceremony, on a white horse.

Two weeks later, I saw Kristen and Chad walk down the aisle and as you'll soon see, people seemed to have a great time at the reception.

Head over to the phlog and catch the photos here.

First things first, my apologies for the month-long absence, although I don't know that many of you were very torn about it. I haven't had internet since my move to the city, which is a problem when you host your own site.

Anyway, I'm back and what better way to return, than with The National. I saw them on Thanksgiving (Cdn) Monday and it was quite a show. The best one I've seen in three years, in fact. I ended up arriving 30 minutes before doors opened, but that was okay, as it allowed me to get the best spot in the house, that being front and centre. I was also able to meet a lovely couple that actually drove 8 hours from Timmins, to catch the show.

Doveman opened, which was their two members, plus three members from The National helping out. In my mind, if the opening band is even okay, this exceeds my expectations. They were really quite good, so I felt like I saw three exceptional performances, for the price of one (I'll get to the third, later).

To make a long story short, The National were amazing and they put on a fantastic show. They played 18 songs over about 90 minutes and the crowd was totally into it, quite audibly singing along to every song. It was especially exciting to actually be right in front, even with the swinging mic stands, cords and boots, coming at me.

During the encore, we got our third great performance, when the band invited Hayden, to take the stage, for the second-last song. If I remember correctly (and I'm not sure I do), he chose 'Don't Get Down' and it was absolutely amazing.

Anyway, enough typing. Head over to the phlog section, to see the pictures.