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  • Congrats to Alex and Holly!

    Breaking Rock News here…looks like Alex and Holly shall be getting married in Jamaica next year!  Congrats to the both of you.

    What can I say about this lovely couple.  I swear they are like some couple from television…where one of them nags the other but in the end, they just love each other deeply.  Yes…that sums them up perfectly!

    All kidding aside, I’m very excited to see the new life Holly and Alex shall have when they get married.  I foresee Holly buying Alex a bigger boat (which is every man’s dream).

  • Review: Bluesfest Day 1

    Alas, the bank account couldn’t afford an all access pass this year considering there were car brakes to fix, property tax to pay, tuition to front…but Vero’s sister was gracious enough to purchase a day pass to Day 1 of Bluesfest for the two of us.  This was a surprise to me as I only found out about it a few days before when she surprised us with them!

    The morning wasn’t looking good.  It was raining.  It was awful.  I was dismayed.  But there was a spark of hope in the fact that the weather network said it would be clear that night.

    In the end, the weather network was correct and Trish, Vero and I headed down to the grounds on an amazingly sunny evening!  The setup for Bluesfest has improved this year.  You can bring beer ANYWHERE on the grounds (not like last year where we got dinged going to the River Stage and had to wait and drink our beer before crossing the street.
    Also, the Rogers stage is angled this year instead of being straight across from the main Bank of America stage.  I have not yet decided if this is a better set up as it creates a bottleneck of traffic at a main point in the area.

    Either way, the setup has vastly improved and the only scorn I delivered was to the people with the lawn chairs.

    We grabbed a beer and settled in front of the Rogers stage to see Matt Mays + El Torpedo.  I was excited to see them as they always deliver high decibels of rock riffs AND they had a new album out next week so I was hoping to hear a few new tunes.  They did not disappoint.  It was killer loud and I think my heart was pumping with the bass drum.  The new songs were AMAZING and I love how Matt Mays has excelled in his songwriting craft.  There was this one song which just had this great refrain which I’ll have to post when I get the album tomorrow and actually remember what they were saying.  We were all impressed with the show and it was a good kickoff to the Bluesfest.

    While waiting for Matt Mays to get on stage, I answered a survey and one of the questions was to identify any corporate sponsors for the show.  Oddly enough, none of us remembered Cisco Systems and they are the main sponsors.  Actually, Bluesfest in Ottawa is actually called “Cisco Systems Bluesfest”.  I don’t know what that tells you about marketing but maybe they should look into how much effect their name is getting if we end up chopping it off anyhow!

    By this point, we had Krista and Mike show up and we meandered to the food area for Mike to get some fish and chips and then we headed to the Roots stage where the Fiftymen were playing.  They were a good country time.  They seemed to be a bluegrass/country band from the sounds of it and they had a good banjo/fiddle player on stage with them.  May I also point out that we saw our old friend Roy who is an 80 year old gentlemen who frequents the Heart and Crown a lot.  We had a good laugh at the fact that we always see him at the same events and he’s still rocking out.  Tonight he had on his famous red shirt with the word “Lure” on it!  The Fiftymen were decent and I enjoyed the short time we had watching them.

    We headed back to the Rogers stage to catch TV on the Radio which has been recommended to me by Tyler and Sara.  I had already heard their latest album and really couldn’t get into it all that much.  However, I thought maybe they would shine on their live show.  While they did put on an energetic show, I really wasn’t into the music all that much.  I guess I’m starting to get out of touch with some veins of new music?  No one else in our group really cared for it either.

    Before the end of their set, we decided to head to the main stage to see The Tragically Hip.  We decided on our old meeting spot.  Stage left, on the path in line with the third tree.  This was a great spot to see the stage and not get crushed AND a good spot to direct people if we were meeting them later.  However, it failed us this time around as we ended up in line with the first tree and Krista, Julie and Ryan couldn’t find us but it turns out that they were ten feet our left for the entire concert.  Woops!

    I was excited to see the Hip as I had started to really get into their music in the past year.  I have never been a uber-fan however, and I also remember seeing them at the Corel Center in 1999 and came out not feeling impressed.  However, this night changed it all for me and I was really into the show and the wild antics by singer Gord Downie who I swear has epilepsy sometimes for his frantic theatrical performance.  One moment he’s singing into the mic, the other he’s breaking the mic stand in half and giving it to the audience, or using the mic stand as a paddle and making it look like he’s canoeing across the stage.  He also had hand towels thrown to him every 20 seconds which he used to wipe his head with and then he would throw them out to the crowd.

    Since the day I’ve seen them years ago, the show doesn’t really change.  Rhythm guitar on the left, bass and lead on the right, drums in the back.  They hold their own and do their own thing and really, you would think it wouldn’t be that exciting of a stage show.  But Gord is OVER THE TOP and makes the show entertaining to all who are mesmerized by this movements.  He’s spastic on stage.

    They ended up playing a great set as I think it was more geared towards the festival crowd.  They had played a few weeks before in Belleville and it seemed to be a ‘new album’ heavy setlist but this time around, it was more of a greatest hits.  I really enjoyed the concert and it made me hope that one day I can also become a quintessential songwriter who writes stories about his great nation.

    Bob Rock even came out for the encore with them!  I was excited to see him play guitar as I’ve only heard of the legend through his production of Motley Crue, Metallica, Tea Party and countless other band’s albums.  He had recently produced the Hip’s World Container album and is in Kingston helping them out in the studio at the moment.  I was witness to a moment of rockdom!

    All in all, Bluesfest Day 1 was a great success and I thank Anne-Marie for giving me a ticket for the night.

    01: In View
    02: My Music At Work
    03: Grace, Too
    04: The Lonely End Of The Rink
    05: It’s A Good Life If You Don’t Weaken
    06: Ahead By A Century
    07: Gift Shop
    08: Courage
    09: Wheat Kings
    10: Poets
    11: Springtime In Vienna
    12: Bobcaygeon
    13: Fireworks
    14: Fully Completely
    15: Family Band
    16: New Orleans Is Sinking

    Encore
    17: Yer Not The Ocean (with Bob Rock on guitar)
    18: COVER: Queen Bitch by David Bowie (with Bob Rock on guitar)

  • Wedding Wonders

    I found this to be an entertaining refresher article on the inner workings of a wedding during this summer season.  Surprisingly, it looks like I only have one wedding to attend this summer and it’s for one of Vero’s friend.  Finally the onslaught of my friends getting married has ended.  Or, has taken a break seeing that next year I know of a few couples already getting married.

    Read the article here.

    Here’s some comments on the article:

    – “If you’re invited to the wedding, you’re obligated to give a gift even if you’re not going.” I guess I have always done that anyhow, but I didn’t know it was a rule.  Interesting.  So does the gift lower in price point seeing that you are not attending?
    – Whether or not you go, RSVP. Send the little note back in the mail, and do it right away, Ms. Elliott suggests. “Before it gets buried underneath all the other mail.” Seriously folks, I have been horrible in the past for not RSVPing.  Learn a lesson from me and get to that RSVP ASAP.
    – Gift cards typically reflect a little more consideration, but cash is popular with couples who are paying for their own wedding – an average of at least $30,000 these days. While once it was considered tacky, more couples are now hoping for cash to offset those costs. “Generally people just say, ‘Look, we want cash. How do we tell people?’” Ms. Elliott says. I still am very against this principle.  As far as I recall, I thought part of the gift of a wedding is to help the couple start their new life together.  It isn’t my problem if they’ve already established a life together and they want to spend $30,000 on a wedding.  Am I old and cranky?  Perhaps.  Perhaps I’m also thinking it’s time for a wedding revolution and that people start thinking ‘outside the box’ instead of getting pigeonholed into paying stupid amounts of money because as soon as someone hears the word ‘wedding’, they jack up the price on the poor couple.  I bet if you disguised your rental of the room at the golf course as an actual golf tournament, it would probably be cheaper.  I digress.  What was my point?  Oh yes, money equals little creativity.  Get with it and buy them something cool.  But let me go back to my other point and say I think it’s horrible that if a couple wants one of those classic typical weddings, the cake alone will cost $29,500.  Stop the capitalizing on the unfortunate!

    – “Most weddings are open-bar,” Ms. Elliott says. “And open-bar does not mean keg party.”  Oh man, someone should have told us that at Dwayne and Wendy’s wedding.

  • A Lovely Time Had By All

    Seeing that Vero wasn’t going skydiving anymore on Wednesday, we took this advantage to head over to Lynn and Sue’s place as my cousin Shawn was in town from BC for a couple of weeks and I haven’t seen him (or Lynn and Sue!) for quite some time.

    They have this amazing house which I love and I always drop the hints that I would love to purchase it one day.  This was the recurring theme throughout the night as they are well on their way of thinking of finally selling it within the next few years.  Only time will tell if I end up living in this house.  I kept pointing out the amazing things about it to Vero so I can convince her that this is a sweet pad.

    Supper was great as we started out with some chicken wing appetizers and we had a few beer in the back deck while I caught up with all the news.  Shawn is enjoying his job out in Castlegar, BC but is wondering if the area is meant for him.  He is more of a city kind of guy.  That’s the problem with working in the radio industry…there’s just not that much selection around the nation.

    Can I say I love visiting the Mullin-Sams?  They make me feel right at home.  I love chatting about all things with them…Shawn and I share a passion for music and movies and Lynn and Sue have this great old vinyl collection that I want to take a look at in the future.  For years I have kind of shyed away from going over to see them if my parents weren’t there.  Surprise, surprise, I am somewhat of a shy type sometimes.  But no more!  I realize that we love seeing each other and my next trip to see them will be their cottage that they have invited me to.  Then I have the opportunity to see that vinyl collection again!

    We had an amazing supper in the backyard and finished off with some great cake and toured the house a little to show Vero what could be hers in the future.  She was very accomodating but at the same time, we know that until she obtains permanent employment of any sort, she is not in the position to be thinking of buying a house!  But it’s nice to dream a little.

    Thanks to the Mullin-Sams for the great supper and we look forward to the next time.

  • Canada Day 2008

    Canada Day ended up being a quiet day for the first time in…MANY years.  I lazed around the house in the morning and watched some episodes of 24.  Mike was feeling a little rough so I saw him come and go from his bedroom between taking some naps.  Vero and Anne-Marie eventually awoke and they had some breakfast while I had some sausages off the BBQ considering it was close to lunchtime and anytime I can avoid breakfast is fine by me.

    In the afternoon I hauled out the bicycles for Vero and her sister and got them ready for them to bike down to Petrie Island for the afternoon.  I continued to laze around the house for awhile waiting for anyone to show up for the Canada Day BBQ that I sent an invite out for.  I never heard of anyone actually planning to attend but I wanted to be there just in case.

    Unfortunately, Anne-Marie had to leave town when they got back from Petrie Island as there was a death in her husband’s family.  It is too bad that this had to happen during her trip down to Ottawa as they still had plans for the remainder of the week (Canada Day fireworks, skydiving, Bluesfest) but alas, we cannot control these things.  I hope she and Steve are doing well during this time.  It was great to see Anne-Marie for the better part of the week and she is more than welcome to come back anytime for some fun times in Ottawa!

    Considering the mood of the day took a downturn after Anne-Marie left, Vero and I didn’t really feel like going down to the fireworks that night.  In the end, we just hung out in the backyard waiting for people to show up.  Vero’s friend Marie-Eve (sp?) showed up around supper time and we hung out in the backyard for awhile.  Eric also showed up for a drink and once the killer june bugs came out, Mike, Eric and I had a jam session for an hour for our Canada Day concert as I like to call it.  We pulled out some old hits (old being those from OUR music formation years…the 90s).  We then watched an episode of Flight of the Conchords which everyone loved.

    After that, we called it a night.  This was the first time that Canada Day had been quite the non-event.  I would like to think that it was the fact that I was out of town for a couple of week prior that I couldn’t put my feelers out and find us a party (or give ample time to people to attend my own BBQ) but secretly, I believe that we are entering the area that I hate to call “My Old-Person Years” and I will simply enjoy my time hanging out in my backyard.

  • Perce Rock – Restricted

    P1050229, originally uploaded by palm0014.

    *I know I have a lot to write about…I truly do not care to fall behind in my writings as I want this to be a document of my life, fully and completely. Mental note: Write about BC, write about London, write about Iron Man, write about St-Jacques de Leeds.*

    Read article here.

    Turns out that access to Percé Rock, Quebec is being restricted to guided tours now. A rock fell on the head of a tourist back in 2003 and there’s a lawsuit going on and in the end, the park officials of the area have decided to restrict access.

    While I guess I can’t blame them, it does sadden me that we won’t have a free-will adventure at Percé Rock any longer. I have fond memories of last year’s expedition with Vero to try and make it to the hole in the rock (which I have never done to this day, and maybe won’t be able to now?) and it ended up being a crazy day with no sandals on and hurting our feet and me finally falling into the water. The sun was hot but the wind was fierce and we braved the elements until we could not go any longer. It was a fun time and I will miss the opportunity to just have a fun time with people going to the Rock instead of following a guided tour.

  • Mike’s Birthday

    Monday was a quiet day at work considering every sane person with vacation time made their weekend into a four day one.  I, on the other hand, need all the vacation days I can get so I came into work which was like working at the Kapuskasing Cemetery.

    The highlight of the night was to be Mike’s birthday party that evening at the Heart and Crown.  Trish managed to reserve a table for twenty but they could only guarantee it if we showed up by 4PM and no one else wanted it if we didn’t have our full army of people there.

    Luckily, enough people showed up by 4:30PM to ensure we had our table for the night.  I showed up to see Mike sipping his beer.  I brought some party hats and said “I know you won’t put one on now, but I assure you by night’s end, you’ll have enough peer pressure and maybe a little beer pressure in you to put it on.”  Little did I know, this would become the catalyst of a turn of events later on in the night.

    The crew showed up and fun times were had by all.  It had been awhile since I had seen a few people as school and a trip out West had gotten the best of me.  I heard interesting news bits about Holly and Alex, Duncan and an old roommate of mine.  Of course, I have no idea if the news I heard is to be public so you’ll have to go talk to them if you want to know anything about them.

    Vero’s cousin Melissa showed up with no Vero or Anne-Marie in sight so she was relieved to see me sitting at the table as she knew no one else.  Vero and Anne-Marie eventually showed up looking more beautiful than ever and they ordered some dinner.  Unfortunately for me, I was unaware that they had ordered dinner already and I had been waiting for them to order my meal so when there’s came I noticed a nice piece of fish on Mike’s plate that I ate.  I also nabbed some fries from Vero’s plate and Carrie supplied me with some Thai noodles.  In the end, that filled me up enough for the night!

    Poor Mike had to deal with the onslaught of shots being bought for him on his birthday.  I personally cannot stand shots but I think he takes them in stride.  He didn’t appreciate the one with tequila though!

    Good times were had by all and by 9PM we were asked to move our table out of the way of the dance floor where a U2 cover band would be playing that night.  Where did the bands of yesteryear go to?  Where was Fortune’s Hand or Shaydid?  I found it an odd choice of a band for the night for their Pre-Canada Day Bash.  They were a good band but to only play U2 songs was an odd mix for people out wanting to hear a variety of songs.  I also had this fear that the singer would go into a Bono-ized political rant and Trish and Mike would have left the place.

    Unfortunately, for me, I have this tendency to be very generous with my money at the bar when a few beer have hit me.  I ended up spending all my money on getting drinks for others and I really have to look at myself and stop myself from doing it.  It’s fine to be nice to a friend and buy them a beer, but that doesn’t have to happen all night long.

    Also unfortunately for me, I was wearing a party hat.  We managed to convince Mike to wear one later on in the night and there were a bunch of us with them on.  After the first set of the U2 cover band I was coming off the dance floor and the bouncer comes up to me and says “We’re going to have to ask you to leave.”  I was confused by this considering I had had my fair share of beer but wasn’t inebriated to the point where I was a nuisance to anyone.  Not wanting to make a scene after asking him “Why?” I simply said “Very well.” and told Mike that I was being asked to leave.  Mike had a chat with him and it turns out that he specifically said that “our party hats made us a target for getting kicked out.”  So I don’t really know what this entirely means…does this mean that if we would have not worn the party hats for Mike’s birthday, we would have been fine to stay?  Either way, Mike was so pissed off at this guy that we killed the party there and we all got up and left.  May I also point out that being the most peaceful guy on Earth here, I didn’t really put up much of a fuss and the bouncer even said to me “You’re too calm with me kicking you out to NOT be drunk.”  I don’t know what he was expecting with a comment like that.  Did he just want me to retaliate so he can flex some muscle and have a real good reason to kick us out?  I don’t know.  Everyone we spoke to found it a little odd that we were being asked to leave.  Ah well.  In the end, I’m sure our heads thanked us for leaving the party at the hour we did.  Vero drove us home and we sat up and watched some TV and then retired for the night.

    Mike had a great time until then and that’s what counts.  But in the end, we shouldn’t have worn those party hats!  They were cursed from the beginning.

  • Weekend Update: St-Jacques de Leeds

    On Friday night after going to the gym, I headed over to Vero’s place where we waited for her sister Anne-Marie to show up.  She was coming down for a week of fun and we were excited for the festivities.

    She arrived, we had some excellent stew made by the lovely Vero and then we hung out on the balcony for the rest of the night.  Judging that a storm front was coming our way for the entire weekend, they decided to reschedule their skydiving plans from the Saturday until Wednesday.  It was a smart move on their part considering the monsoon that hit us.

    We decided to head out into deep Quebec to visit their grandmother and family.  We hit the road around 10:30AM and even though we were running a little late, nothing could stop what would be a great impromptu road trip.

    In Alfred we stopped in a yard sale and I scored an entire box of comic books for $15.  I was perusing the box and picking out a few Wolverine comics that caught my eye and after ten minutes this guy comes up and says “Tu veux un ‘deal’?”  I asked him how much and he said $15 for the whole box.  Steal of a deal!  There are quite a bit of older Uncle Scrooge, Flintstones and Yogi Bear type comic books that I’m not OVERLY interested in reading but you never know if someone will be.  I did get a good pile of Wolverine comics and a few Spider-Man comics as well.

    We then kept trucking along, hitting some traffic in Montreal and stopped into A&W for a taste of poutine (not recommended).  The trip went by fast as we played Highway Hypotheticals for most of the trip and around Quebec City we got NAILED with monsoon rain for a good half hour.  It was insane.

    We took a wrong turn off the highway but it was a blessing in disguise as we stumbled upon a life size replica of Johnny 5!  What a coincidence that we had been talking about it the week before!  Vero jumped out of the car and got a picture with the only robot she will associate herself with.

    After readjusting our navigation, we rolled into St-Jacques de Leeds to find her grandmother in good spirits.  I ended up taking a nap before Vero’s cousin Valerie showed up with her baby Gabriel.  We then had supper along with Valerie’s boyfriend Stephane who is always a good time.  After a few drinks and watching some wedding videos we let their Grandmother sleep and we headed over to Valerie and Stephane’s place for a night cap and watched their great video from Cuba.  It was quite the miserable night outside due to the weather so I was fine with hanging out inside for most of the night.

    The next morning we awoke to find that their grandmother was still asleep even though she had told everyone breakfast would be on at 9AM!  I perused my comic book finds and then Vero and I took a drive around the country which turned out to be a little longer than we had planned but we didn’t have a map with us and got misdirected.  I really love this area of Quebec as there are rolling hills and forests all around for miles.  It’s quite nice.

    We arrived home and we started helping out with breakfast when Vero’s aunt, uncle and cousin showed up for breakfast.  It was a good feed and we chatted for awhile and then around 1PM we figured we better hit the road soon enough as it’s a five hour drive back to Ottawa.  Along the way, we stopped into Alfred to get a poutine and Vero ended up buying this amazing leather biker jacket at a yard sale!

    It was a fast impromptu road trip but it was nice to go see her family again.

  • Review: Eric Clapton’s Biography

    31re2j9oxl_sl500_aa240_.jpgI have about 20 pages left in this book to read so I figure I can review it faithfully (unless it turns out that Eric Clapton was a woman all along and I don’t find it out until the last page).

    Eric Clapton, guitar extraordinaire decides to tell us about his life up until this point.  Like most biographies, it starts with some pretty dull stuff about growing up as a kid and hunting for frogs.  The real meat of the book comes in the earlier chapters where he starts playing guitar in clubs with various bands and having a good time.  It’s written very innocently, in that in my eyes, jamming with the Stones is awe-inspiring, when he talks about it, it’s not that big of a deal, and I guess it wouldn’t be as they are just buddies.

    You don’t really get a feel of his greatness until he mentions offhand that one day he noticed the words “Clapton is God” on a side of a building.  He is very humbling and doesn’t think of himself in that way.  Meanwhile, I realize that all this talk about playing in clubs and having a good time is actually the moment where outsiders of Clapton’s mind are literally making Clapton into a guitar god-like figure and that he’s making his mark on the world.  I found it strange to be reading the autobiography and not getting a true sense of his mark on the world.  I guess anyone wouldn’t feel that they contributing to something big until later on.  So it was just a matter of fact to him at the time.  He was simply playing guitar.

    The book is pretty amazing with the stories of playing guitar with George Harrison, BB King, others…I thoroughly enjoyed the points where he is in the Yardbirds, Cream, Derek and The Dominos.  The story about him falling in love with Pattie Boyd is an interesting one but I must admit he’s a little frustrating to take considering he pretty well gives up on Pattie as soon as he gets her.

    The later half of the book deals with his realization that he has a drinking problem and then it talks about his time in rehab and his eventual return to grace.  At sixty years old, he seems to have things in order with a new wife, three kids and a sober life.  I personally didn’t find the later half of the book TOO interesting but it is what it is.

    All in all, I didn’t know much about Eric Clapton before reading his book.  I think I would have preferred to read a biography instead of an autobiography at this point and then follow up with the autobiography.  I would receive both viewpoints then.  However, the book is chock full of ‘WHOA!’ moments when you see he is jamming with some of my rock idols or simply having a good time with them.  If you are an Eric Clapton fan, pick it up, otherwise, I guess you can get by with reading the first half of the book for some awesome classic rock stories.

  • Finish a (Good) Book

    books.gifLast night I was showing Trish my new collection of rock related books to read that I received from Troy and Mike mentioned that he’s interested in reading the Tom Petty biography.  I made the comment “Just another one to add to the pile.” meaning that I’ve lent Mike a few books over the past years that I’ve noticed he never finishes.

    He then explained the reason that he never finished a variety of them is that it just didn’t hold his interest so he didn’t feel like finishing them.  Both Trish and I realized that we don’t operate in this manner.  We finish a book even if it is a hard read or loses my interest.  I don’t know why Trish does this, but I guess I do it because I wonder if it will end up becoming mindblowingly amazing once I’m done it.  I liken it to the first time I saw 12 Monkeys in the theatre and I thought the movie was so boring that I was ready to leave the theatre TWICE.  But in the end, the movie was actually very clever and I’m glad I sat through it.

    Granted, reading a book should be more of an investment than watching a 2 hour flick, but anyhow, that’s how I roll.  I read the entire book.

    So Friday’s poll is this: Do you finish every book you read, or do you give it a try and if it’s not keeping your interest, you set it aside?

    iplaying: Life’s Been Good – Joe Walsh (But Seriously Folks…)