Vanz Kant Danz... but he'll steal your money

Last weekend was by far the busiest, but also the best, of the summer so far.

Friday night the whole 1 York posse (minus 3 guys) assembled up in Guelph for a party to celebrate Thompo and Devo's birthdays, but also the results of a big accounting exam a few of the boys had just written. A couple of the guys passed, but a couple failed, so I guess we drank the blues away and also drank to celebrate.

It was a memorable night. At least the parts I remember were memorable anyway. A few highlights were: Matty waking up of the train tracks with only one sandal on; Dale falling on me and Cersdawg, which resulted in a painful morning for me; a topless chick in the hottub back at Thompo's place after the bar; and me getting booted from a bar for being "too drunk". (I said too drunk is a relative term, but the bouncers didn't want to listen.)
Dale's note in the morning was pretty hilarious too. He left the following with a $20 bill on the kitchen table:


My old man came to town around noon to pick me up and head back to London for the rest of the weekend. I was ridiculously hung over all day, but I met up with Mike and we managed to get some stuff done for finding a place for the fall. I also did some running around with Arden, trying to find that damn Harry Potter book for less than $45.
My dad spent most of the day in the park where they had a music/craft festival thing going on. We saw Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, had some dinner, and then headed down to the JLC for the night's big event - John Fuckin Fogerty.

The opening band was pretty good, I think they were called The Payolas. It was a weird combo of a band, two old dudes and three younger guys. I think the old guys must be the originals, and the others were temporary fillers or new members (seeing as Matt Good's drummer Pat Steward was in the band.) They had one song that I knew, called Eyes of a Stranger, but the rest were pretty solid despite the fact that I'd never heard them before.

Then I heard one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard at a concert - the music being played between the sets. It was actually pretty good stuff for the most part, but 2 of the last 3 songs before Fogerty took the stage were fucking Fogerty songs! I couldn't believe it. The whole crowd was rockin' out to the recorded songs before the show even started. Very weird.


The man of the hour busted onto the stage with Travellin' Band wearing his patented blue plaid shirt, and he played the thing really fast. He did that with one or two other songs as well, and though my dad didn't like it much, I thought it was good cuz those songs were a little higher in energy. My dad also didn't like the kick drum that rocked our bodies for the whole two hour set, but that's probably just because he's getting old.
Speaking of old, the only time I've seen a more geriatric crowd was a few years back when he and I went to see Garnet Rogers and another dude in Toronto at some little dive of a venue.
But there was a good share of younger kids too. Fogerty songs aren't the kind that just fade away after a decade or two. I'm actually amazed that he wrote that many mint tunes in that short time when CCR was around. Legendary shit.

I'd say about three quarters of the songs were CCR material, which was pretty much what I was hoping for. But his solo stuff is pretty solid as well, don't get me wrong. For the classic song Centerfield he busted out the most ridiculous guitar in the shape of a an actual baseball bat. I have no idea how the stings are attached or manipulated, but it was pretty damn cool. This pic isn't from the London show, but at least you can see the thing:

I was amazed at how talented this guy was with the guitar. I've always thought of CCR songs as fairly simplistic, but you shoulda seen his fingers move as he did a solo intro into one songs - I swear they looked like they were made of some kinda goo or liquid rather than skin and bones. Amazing talent. Respect factor: 10 out of 10
I was also surprised at the length and energy of the set, considering this guy was in his prime in the 60s and 70s.

He's actually got a new record coming out soon, titled Revival. Not very creative really, but I'm sure it'll be pretty mint regardless of the title.

And after the encore, whadda ya know... they played another one of his tunes as the crowd filed out. Again, pretty damn weird!

After the show we met up with some friends at a couple of bars, and it took me about 3 beers just to get over my hangover. We were both pretty tired so we left and crashed by about 1 I guess.

The next day I dealt with more house stuff, found my cousin's wedding present at the festival, and hit the Beer Fest downtown with a couple of friends and my old man. And after another set of music in the park we went out for dinner and I fell asleep pretty early out of exhaustion.

I think I'm still recovering.
And this coming weekend is going to be even busier.

Words in print

I'd like to start off with a little opinion letter I read in the London Free Press the other day:

Pope’s fantasy world

Your front page article "Pope insists other churches not true" (July 11) blew my mind. Anyone who believes this kind of statement in 2007 is living in a fantasy world.
The only true church is the one that was practised by believers in the first century. Read about it in the Bible in The Acts of the Apostles. There were small groups of Christians who lived out this true faith through the centuries and a few who still do today. Many became martyrs then as well as today.
No church can claim the true path to salvation. Jesus Christ holds that distinction exclusively.

POSTED BY: Noel Paterson, London
POSTED ON: July 16, 2007

EDITORS NOTE: As published in The London Free Press on July 16, 2007.

"No church can claim the true path to salvation. Jesus Christ holds that distinction exclusively." And what of other religions? I guess they're all wrong because this guy says so?
Yet he's the one who thinks that everyone else is living in a fantasy world.
Ironic, sad, or disgustingly ignorant?
I say all of the above.


In other news, my boy Sid the Kid signed for another 5 years with my beloved Pittsburgh Penguins last week. Though he could've easily taken a deal for the league's maximum salary, he chose to take a few million less in order to help the organization build a stronger team. Good Canadian boy, you gotta love it.

Oh ya, and in more "news" the CBC has reported that "Canadians approaching retirement are now the fastest-growing demographic in the country"

I put the word news in quotations because unless you have been in a coma for the past 50 or 60 years, you'd likely say be inclined to say NO FUCKING SHIT!
This isn't news! This is the most predictable shift in our demographic EVER!

I also finished reading another book today - East, West by Salman Rushdie.
And upon concluding these tales, I'd like to punch Salman in the face and tell him "It's SALMON you jerkoff, there's no second "a" in there. It's a tasty fish, try some."
Then I'd like to kick the idiot publisher who thought this book worthy of printing.
Just brutal.
Vonnegut told us to learn how to write without using semicolons; Rushdie must've taken that to heart. The only problem is, he doesn't know what a fuckin period is either.
Learn to write!

(I realise I just used a semicolon, I did it to be ironic)

Oh... oh naggers. Of course... naggers. Right

MySpace flat out confuses the fuck out of me. I've only started to look into the workings of it, but goddamn is it difficult to manipulate so far. I'm mainly going to use it as a connection to bands via friend additions, but beyond that I think I'll stick with the better photo quality on Flickr, and the better reading frame of this blog for anything I write. And considering I have yet to learn how to play the old guitar very well, it'll be a few years before I offer up any master workings of musical art.

I'm not exactly a techno wiz, though I have managed to get about a 10% grasp on how to use this blog. And I think it's pretty decent, but I'm constantly annoyed by the layout, colours, etc. and whenever I try to fix it up properly I always get too damn frustrated to finish. (Incidentally, I just removed the backround picture to make the thing about a thousand times easier to read.) I've been debating whether or not to add a counter to the bottom of the page, but two problems arise. One, I have no fucking idea how to add a counter to this blog. Two, it's probably less depressing if I don't know how few people actually read my tripe. Not to say I'm writing any of this to draw the masses in, but you know what I mean.

I've been watching alot of South Park lately, so I decided to check out some stuff online. I came across that avatar creator here (I'm sure thousands of people would call this yesteryear's news, but shut up. It's new to me.) There are some damn funny combos you can come up with. Here's my self portrait, so to speak:


I've finally made some progress in the house hunt, but it seems like the pickin's are getting kinda slim. I've got a couple of places to look at tomorrow, and I hope they look good enough to live in for 8 months. If not I may have to become a squatter in my friend's laundry room.

Let's see, what else is new. I'm feeling kinda sick lately. Summer colds piss me off. My sleep has been erratic at best over the last few days, and I hope I can get it back to normal before the weekend is over.
I was actually supposed to go up to Welland for a party tonight, but the house thing has kept me in town. It's actually kinda nice to have a quiet weekend to get my shit together for once, and save some cash in the process. Though it is a pain in the ass I couldn't get up to the party.

I finished a Kurt Vonnegut book the other day during my lunch hour and breaks. Finished the whole damn thing in less than a day - miraculous. It was a great read, titled "A Man Without a Country", and it was basically a Carlin-esque look at the current state of affairs in the world through the eyes of a man who can joke about anything from the end of the world to Nazi death camps. Very entertaining.

Well I'm tired and I gotta get my sleep in order.

Night.

"If George Bush said we need men right now, I'd go"

It's amazing how neocons preach about how great and necessary the war in Iraq is, how honourable it is, how well it's going, how righteous America is, yadda yadda yadda...



but they never want to get their own hands dirty.

"Oh I love George Bush!"

Pathetic.

False Pretenses

This is a new video that's been released by the IAFF about Giuliani's responsibilities and failures when it came to 9/11.
Sure was an eye-opener for me.

Be the cat

I've been reading alot lately.
Novels and short stories and shit, and it's amazing how my online reading has dropped off.

I think there are two reasons for it -
#1 I have tons of spare time at work, and I need something to entertain my mind.
#2 my disappearance from the online world for a few weeks at the start of the summer. It really does wonders to ruin your sense of connectedness with the world outside, especially when you're used to keeping daily tabs on a site like Crooks and Liars.

I've also been watching a ton of movies and listening to tons of new albums as well as old LP's. The reason for this is simple enough too - I've got a house to myself, which means my personal taste and opinion runs the joint. Nobody complains, not even the girls who live below me when I've got the bass thumping at its loudest.

The summer is flying by, mainly because my weekends are always busy. I've only had one weekend in London without anything "going on" per say, and I hit the town with friends on both friday and saturday night. The weekend stuff is getting expensive though, and it's not about to stop anytime soon. With tuition due mid-August, it's about time to start shitting my pants.

The other day I was actually checking the BBC to see if anything positive was developing in the world - but as usual it's all going to hell in a handbasket. But one headline caught my eye and I laughed instantly: Terror fight "may take 15 years"

Is that not the most ridiculous fuckin thing? The arrogant bastard thinks that terrorism can be defeated! Bomb bomb bomb until all the terrorists are dead! And it won't even take two decades! I bet he also thinks that Saudi's fly planes into office towers without any logical precipitating cause.
Until the World Police realize that most of the world doesn't want them to be meddling in their affairs and bombing their babies, I think terrorism will remain pretty healthy. After all, children don't develop amnesia 15 years after a bomb has ruined their house and family.
Wake the fuck up.

In other news, I've got my schooling all sorted out for the coming year. Another full course load, even though I only really need a fraction of them.
It looks like 3 of us from the old place will be back, one will be gone to Ottawa for teacher's college, and the other two are Alberta-bound to work for a few months at least.
Now we just have to find a place to live and we're golden.

I also had a chat today with a friend of mine out east. We've laid down the groundowrk for a post-university move to Ausi-land to live and work for a time. Who knows how long it'll last, or when the idea is gonna get legs and walk, but I really do want to travel, and I love those sexy accents.

My friend Darrelle has committed herself to her music of late, and is doing a bunch of shows around the golden horseshoe. Ever since the first time I heard her play I thought she sounded amazing, and I'm glad to see that she's playing regularly.

Party boy is back from a year in Korea, and Sonya's off in South Africa for six months.
Bender and the boys are back from their multi-country European vacation, and my good friend Shannon is doing her Argentina/Bolivia thing right now, before a trip to the States and then a flight across to Europe to work in the fall.

See? Everyone's globe trotting, except poor old me. Haha.

Oh ya, Matt Good's new album is being streamed through his website, even though it's not due out until the end of the month. I gotta say, it's pretty solid. Despite the irritating intro to the first track, and the covers he recorded (in my eyes they're some of the weakest songs he's ever put on an album) it's pretty damn good. At first I though a few of the tracks sounded too similar, but once you hear them a few times they really differentiate themselves. Lyrically it's mighty impressive, and he's got a passion in this album that I kinda expected given the circumstances that led to his writings.

I guess it's gettin on bedtime. Lots of reading to do, movies to watch, and records to take in tomorrow, so I gotta get some sleep.