Man Down! Man Down!

Sasquatch is over, I'm back in town and no worse for wear. Man, was it fun, though. Thursday night we were lucky to catch the oilers game in Creston, BC, near the border. Then we ended up joining up with the other group of three we knew were going to the concert and all six of us piled into pinner's van for the jaunt to the Gorge. At first it might not have seemed like a good idea to join up, what with the table being broken right away and the overall lack of room. But we made it work and it turned out to be for the best. We had a few roadblocks along the way friday and ended up missing trail of dead and tv on the radio. That kind of sucked but what can you do. Friday's shows (H.I.M., Bauhaus and NIN) were alright but we were looking forward to saturday and sunday more.

So me and Mike went a little earlier than the rest of the crew saturday to check out Rogue Wave and Sufjan Stevens which were well worth the price of admission. We then took a nap on the grass while listening to Architecture in Helsinki on the small stage. Then the fun began. It looked like it was going to rain so me and Mike made our way to the rockstar lounge to get some shelter. But, for the second day in a row, Red forgot his ID and we were pooched. Little did we know how grave of a mistake that would be. So, it started raining and we sought out shelter under the eaves of a rooftop while listening to the constantines who were rocking pretty hard on the second stage. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, it started pooring harder then switched to hail. And I mean heavy marble sized hail that was relentlessly pelting us and anyone in its path for what seemed like a good 1/2 hour. It finally tapered off and for the most part i was dry because I had a poncho to cover me up. But my feet were soaked to the bone, though (damn Chuck Taylors!). So, since my feet were soaked and I was wearing shorts, I was shivering for the next four hours. I felt like I had hypothermia but we kept on trucking. Next was the Hip who i would rather not even speak about because they sucked and I long ago forgot about them anyway. The Shins were really good after that. The lead singer's voice is really distinctive and it translates well into a live show. Supposed to be on the same time as The Shins on the small stage was Sam Roberts. I didn't really care to see him anyway but I learned later his and every other set left on the small stage was cancelled because the soundboard had been fried by the storm. Even the big stage was shut down for an hour and Neko Case's set was shortened to two songs.
Just before the flaming lips were about to come on they announced that ben harper would be going on instead then the flaming lips. That bugged me because I wanted to see the flaming lips. Well, anywayz me and mike watched a few ben harper songs then, being cold and miserable, headed back to the campsite. That whole day we didn't see the other guys. We did end up seeing my friend Pam and her friends a couple of times but that's it. It turned out the oilers game was on in one of the bars on site and we found out they won 2-1. SWEET!

Sunday began early like saturday. We had planned to all go together later in the day so we had some serious morning and afternoon partying time on our hands. Before we went to the the show that day there probably wasn't one minute where I wasn't eating something or drinking beer, energy drinks, water, rye Etc. It was a blast. We went to the show a little late and missed the arctic monkeys which was kind of a bummer but I was too drunk to notice. My only worry was finding some mix for my rye. We ended up losing mike and jay pretty early. So it was just four of us. We caught Matisyahu which was actually pretty cool and different. Then we moved further into the pit to check out Queens of the Stone Age which rocked (other than a screw up on "No one knows"). Soon after I realized my camera went kaput so there were no sunday evening pictures. I'm gonna have to depend on Plaizier B for those. We moved a little further back and checked out Death Cab after that. They were really good as well. I happened to meet a chick from Austin, TX that was pretty cool and hung out with her the most of the rest of the night. Just my luck, at a concert where American's seemed to be in the minority, I meet a chick from TEXAS! Anywayz, Beck set to finish off the night was a little uneven but, ultimately, pretty satisfying. So, that night I met that chick at her campsite, hung out for a bit with her and her camping mates, exchanged e-mails - which I ended up forgetting - and parted ways. I'm getting the feeling she forgot my e-mail too but oh well.

I got a solid three hours of sack time and then we were on the road monday morning. Travelling home went without a hitch, as it usually does.

I learned a few things this weekend:
Derelickt has no problems showing brain to perfect strangers at any time or any place
Plaizier B really likes the Flaming Lips
Barnfather needs to lay off the rye
Mike should carry ID
And pinner deosn't take kindly to certain mom jokes and eye gouging in the heat of battle

More from sasquatch tommorow...(including the signifigence of the title of this post)

Been kind of busy lately, so no time to chat including now. I'm off to Sasquatch Beeeachs!!! Check out the lineup at www.sasquatchfestival.com.

Want to send a special good luck to my sis, who's is running a marathon this sunday. When the tough gets going, I'll be right there with you to push you on.

Later, Y'all.

The Gang w/ Amanda - CVO (seems like a good trade-off)

It's two days from Mark's wedding and I just want to dedicate this post to him. I've known Markus since he was a young pup and now I'm like a proud father (sorry Peter), letting him spread his wings and take on that world. But seriously, I've known Mark for probably 20 years and it's good to see him make the BIG step. Some of the grove boys have to. We are slowly dropping like flies. Pinner will surely be the next one to go as me and CVO have a lot of catching up to do. Good luck Mark and Amanda!

I went for a walk yesterday and saw a dude playing accordian on a porch. It was the coolest thing ever! If he was a busker, I probably would have laid a $20 bill on him. I'm used to seeing guys with acoustic guitars or even flutes but seeing this guy mellowly playing away with not a care in the world was awesome (it helped that he was good, too). I guess you had to be there.

Go Oilers!!!!

The Oil have done it! Can you believe it? There might be a reason to call us the city of champions again what with the eskies winning last year and the amazing playoff run of the oil. Probably shoudn't get too far ahead of ourselves, though. There's still a lot of hockey to be played. They definitely couldn't have done it without guys like Smyth, Rollie and Horcoff.

Moving on, I forgot to review The Strokes show I saw on monday. That's probably because it was pretty forgettable. Not that it was bad, i just had a rough night in general. I couldn't get rid of two extra tickets I had and I missed the first twenty minutes. What I did see was good although some of us agreed, Julian's voice did tail off towards the end. I thought the sound was really good and they also had an amazing light show and backdrop. They were a little more personable than I thought they would be, too. Julian did say the usual "you guys are amazing" and the equally cliched "I'm gonna tell everybody about Edmonton" as if we live on the moon or something. I think most people from the U.S. really are that ignorant, so it does not surprise me. I have to say I would have had a better time if the circumstances were better. As of now, no complaints (Sasquatch is almost a week away!!! Yeah!!!).


Here's a special photo of Ethan Moreau holding Dudley Dawson's new CD. Good on you guys, that's awesome! (The photo is above rollie's head but looks like it didn't work - computers and me are like oil and water sometimes). Check it out at www.dudleydawson.ca if you can't see it here.

Here's some photos from Markus Crampbell's pre-stag and stag shenanigans. Friday was an amazing start to the weekend and it just continued rolling from there. All in all, mark was a good sport throughout. I wanna thank the oilers for winning on friday and making everything one hundred times better. Looks like Femes has finally made the big time, his ass is on the net for all to see. Roman candle fights, definitely one of the highlights
Clayton taking a breather from the festivities
The man of the hour, looking somewhat cool
Me, of course, looking much cooler
gettin wet
Mark drinking from his ginormous tim horton's beer cup. The pic just deosn't do it justice.
Voll has me where he wants me
That's what you get for dozing off mofo
getting frisky
turning the partee up a notch
Who's that handsome devil on the left
mark after violation
Dude getting the business again for sleeping (who is this guy anyway, does anybody know?)
Markus taking advantage of a helpless doll
violation continued
and some more, can u say sexual assault

The mighty Oil have once again made believers out of us all. They severely outplayed the sharks last night and definitely deserved to win. Roloson might not have been the better of the two goaltenders but he made the key saves when he had to. Including that huge glove save in the second ot. This is now the only series worth watching as all the others are at 3-0. Keep it up boys!!

This weekend is going to be crazy. I got molson house with free beer and food, not to mention the game, on friday, my buddy markus' stag on saturday and then mother's day on sunday. Not to mention having to work in between all that.

Another event on saturday is the Dudley Dawson cd release party at the velvet underground below the starlite room. Dudley d is a local band I know that has been plugging away for awhile. They've been through a lot of adversity - including having all their gear stolen - but have come back stronger than ever. Their new cd, 'Zero Hour', just backs up that fact. Sadly I may not make it to this show but I'm still their biggest fan. If you wanna learn more about them or pick up their cd you can go to www.dudleydawson.ca. Check out the show, if you can. It'll be a guaranteed good time.


On a completely different topic, did you know that pennies cost 1.4 cents to produce. I guess it's the zinc in them that makes it more costly. Is there anything else in this world that costs 1.5 x it's worth to produce yet nobody wants it. I don't think so. Pennies should become obsolete in my mind. That would mean all these retailers could change their retarded prices and give us normal ones (like say $1.00 instead of $0.99). But, maybe it's just me.

Oh, and one more thing..Here's a review of the chilli peppers 'stadium arcadium'. It's not exactly favorable.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/r/red-hot-chili-peppers/stadium-arcadium.shtml

Alright, it's between periods in the hockey game and I've got another gripe. How hard is it for CBC to put a time clock up for penalties, not to mention just normal running time. When the oilers had a two-man advantage there was no clock telling anything so you had no clue how much time was left. At one point in the game the clock was just stopped while the play was obviously going on. How is it that a publicly funded conglomerate such as this can't handle the simplest of tasks, showing the time. It's such a joke, are they trying to show how it was during the original six era. Argggghhhhhhhhh!!!!

It's been a little while since i said anything here. I'm sure my two readers have been waiting with baited breath. Sitting on pins and needles as it were. It's late and I can't sleep so i'll try and please the masses.

Well, i went rollerblading with my new blades today. They're really good and I can really fly. I've been used to my crappy bauers for so long that I didn't know how the other side lived. So, I went for about a half hour and I was getting weird looks towards the end. I thought it was just because I was shredding so much, leaving bikers, runners and fellow bladers in my wake. But I got to my car and took a quick look in the mirror and saw that it looked like I was foaming at the mouth. My lips were all white and it looked like I just had a seizure. I guess that's what those looks were for. I'll have to make sure I use my trusty chapstick next time.

I have a gripe today. It's long song titles and the crappy bands that use them. Case in point: pretty much all of Fall Out Boy's album 'under the cork tree' (eg. "Our lawyers made us change the name of this song so we wouldn't get sued"). And also their offspring - which sound remarkably alike sounding to fall out - Panic! at the Disco with their tune "The only difference between martydrom and suicide is press coverage". It should be "The only difference between you and a big steaming pile of dung is nothing". Try singing that chorus. I like a good short song title, say a word or two. Not this self-important bullshit. It just makes me hate them even more.

A new album I recently heard before it will be released this week was Snow Patrol's 'Eyes Open'. I was expecting big things as their first album was one of my favorites of last year. After one listen, I gotta say It's a little slow for my liking. It sounds like dude got dumped for cheating or something. Practically every song talks about the good times in the past (with his old woman). Try moving on, man, or get some counseling. Or just bang some groupies. That should get your mind off things. And it's a good thing the album title has 'Eyes' in it because I'm pretty sure he mentions eyes in every single song. It's kind of annoying. I'll have to give it another listen to come up with a final conclusion.

Don't ask me about the arrow. I couldn't get rid of it.


While you're at it, don't ask me about the oilers either.
Oh well, there's always tommorow.

I've been getting a lot of flack for my Samsonov comments but I stand by them. Points aren't the true test to how someone's playing. Look at Ethan Moreau. He's usually the hardest working guy on the ice but he doesn't score a lot of points. I will admit that Samsonov, along with Ales Hemsky, did step it up in game 6. Jaro Spacek, on the other hand, was playing like his skates were made of lead. He looked awful! He caused at least one goal and could have caused a couple more. What was Mac T thinking switching up his defense pairings? I mean, put Spacek back with Pronger and take Dicky T as far away from Bergeron as possible. That pairing is just an accident waiting to happen.

Whyte ave was quite the sight after the game on monday. I've never given so many high-fives in my life. It got a litttle crazy once the traffic lights came down and people started overturning cars, but...No, just kidding it was actually pretty peaceful and festive. And I found $100 in the bank machine so that made it that much better. Karma this, beeeach!

Anyway, the oilers faithful rocks and after we dispose of the Flames, Calgary will see the true meaning of hardcore fans.


Go oilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Went to a brunch bouffet at the sawmill on sunday. Don't worry, it's spelt right. Bouffet's are wrong on so many levels but oh so right when you are actually eating at one. This one was crazy, probably more food than i've ever seen laid out at one time. The problem with it was that some of the food really sucked. I think if they focused on one area more than trying to please everyone it would be much better. It's still worth checking out.

Saw the Stills play saturday night. It pretty much blew goats. Ok, not totally but their new stuff really licks. It's almost like they are going the direction of Sam Roberts, canadiana-style straight ahead rock n' roll. Which wouldn't be bad if they actually had some good new songs. They must have been hanging with Sam, smoking the gonga and losing all ambition to put out a decent record. I'm not saying I'm giving up on them but pretty close. Well, my music tastes do tend to change like the wind so don't feel so bad guys.

An album worth listening to this week - Editors - The Back Room.
Of all the interpol wannabes they seem to be the best of the bunch. Definitely could mop up the shittiness that is She Wants Revenge. Man, those guys try way too hard. If there was an award for sucking ass it would be unanimously theirs. In terms of The Editors, it's not that they are wholly original but every song is decent and you don't find that a lot these days. I really think they are cloning Paul Banks (interpol's lead singer) in some factory somewhere. Or else he's a really busy guy with a time machine.

It's hard to say anything bad about the oilers right now but I really think Sergei Samsonov needs to step it up. During the regular season he was an electric dynamo for the oil but in the post-season, not so much. I'll be a little scared if the oilers win tonight. My car might not make it through the night, the so-called copper kilometre's - what a retarded name - gonna be out of control. I'm thinking of moving my wheels to an undisclosed location so it's still intacked in the morning.

Go Oilers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!