Song of the Day: Forest City Lovers - Song for Morrie

What an end to a rather relaxing vacation. This past week I was away enjoying the vast Canadian wilderness in a sunny northern town of Restoule. Having a week out of the year nestled into some of the most beautiful untouched landscape really helps take the edge off the daily urban grind. I think the for 6 days I was there, it only precipitated once and to be honest, it wasn't too bad. I even experienced my first sunburn! Drinking, swimming, and laying on the dock really takes its tole on you to the point where it renders you sleep! To add to the amazing weather, old friends and great BBQ contributed to an overall enjoyable summer vacation.

One of the highlights to the vacation was hearing one of my close friends play a couple of his penned songs. My buddy has gone through a very trying period of two years where nothing was really stable. There were some moments throughout the last couple of years where I haven't seen him this happy ever. So when things went into a further nosedive, he turned to crafting some very personal songs. And to my glee, these songs were amazing. The lyrics and strumming was so beautifully intertwined that he was successful in painting picture of his tough times. I would really like to see him shares these songs in some way. I would really encourage him to play at coffee houses and whatnot. They are too good to not be heard.

While having time to mull things over without any additional issues, I've realized that life is one large collection of personal pain. Sure, everyone has there problems, but what they learn from it, or deal with it makes them that much better. It was good to see a friend able to block and jab his way out of his personal struggles. Though pain may not be fully healed (it may never be fully recovered) it was good to see alternate interpretations of coping with the heavy heart. The outcome of time alone resulted in this conclusion that life as I know it can really suck, but I might as well enjoy it as it reveals itself to me. xend transmissionx

Labels: vacation

Song of the Day: Built to Spill - Goin' Against Your Mind

I guess I haven't really blogged about the holidays, so I guess this is no better time to do so. I love hearing what everyone else did, so I'll present my synopsis of events.

Firstly, the holidays started off with a brief visit from Sir Glenn from the Left coast. It was like Tourism BC personally came to my door and recruited me to leave my situation/inhabitance. I'm still thinking about it... Anyways, it was great to be able to catch up. Partying definitely ensued (obviously) and drinks were spilled, which equates to awesome times (Glenn + party = awesome). Mike also contributed by prancing around the dance floor like a ballerina for our entertainment. He gave us some samples of the latest rendition of the 'Shoulder Shrug' (It's like magnum, but more refined). It would have been epic if we could have squeezed in a session at Boston Pizza for some BCS action and a few schooners of Fosters to boot. Next time, schedule a better vacation man!

Next, it was off to the homeland. Time was mostly spent in the Forest City wrestling my little cousins and asking them if they had boyfriends and whether so and so likes them. I think I even attempted to fold the perfect origami Fortune Teller (thanks to Eric). Mom was stoked I was back straight chillin' with her. Of course, it was a fest of feasts. I miss mom's cooking, but she churns out enough food for like an army. It's getting a bit out of hand. As a surprise to me, my little cousins bought me a really sentimental Christmas present. I was really impressed that they remembered.

Some time was spent in Saint Terrible - about 12 hours or so. I Christened the newly opened Boston Pizza with a team pitcher and played some poker with the boys. Most of the time is spent smack-talking and catching up with each other. That town has changed so much that it really scares me. I hardly see the remnants of my town from eight years ago. All of the guys from home have done really well for themselves, so I visited their homes and checked out their new toys. I think Johny gets the nod for craziest toy though. It's unfortunate that not everyone was around due to family obligations. I can't wait to hear the rest of the stories from Montreal NYE 2006!

Any lastly, New Years... Henry was kind enough to include me in his plans. Pad Thai was really good and the beverages were more than filling. We ended up going to Club Absinthe in the slums of Hamilton for a night of dancing, consuming liquids, and head-banging. The setup was pretty cool. Dance music filled the basement along with flailing dresses and arms, while sweaty fist pumping and guitar shredding filled the air in the main room of the upstairs lounge. So if you were bored of tired of either situation, a different environment was a mere stairwell away.
Special guest performing upstairs was local favourite, Party Tank. As for the dancefloor, I know I've mentioned this on numerous ocassions, but the DJs for Club Absinthe (especially on Saturday nights and NYE) were amazing (If you ever get a chance, go check out I say Disco, You Say Punk every Saturday night at Club Absinthe). I'm pretty picky as to what gets me moving and I must say that these two dudes pump out some of the grooviest tunes that are akin to my earbuds. However, there was a lull in the music where I think someone else was DJing for a while where 8 out of 12 tracks were of Jay-Z and the Black album. Granted, that album is great, but if I wanted to listen to Jay-Z most of the night, I could have stayed at home and popped it into my Cd and jammed at home. Horrible set by whoever it was. We basically left soon after.

Even though my holidays were over and I had already returned to work, some of my friends were still in town visiting. Over the past weekend, I got to party with the ever so fun Timmy Tim (Duvall) and hand a lovely dinner with Ms. Nguyen.

Anyways, how was every else's holidays and NYE?

Edit: this just in... My good friend Tim (St. Titties) gave me his holiday update. His band was on tour over the holidays spanning across the Eastern US and this photo summarizes the whole trip. I still can't believe Tim met him! The story that goes with this is just as amazing! Unreal

And no, he's not Jack Black's co-worker from the movie High Fidelity.

Labels: vacation

Song of the Day: Mew - The Zookeeper's Boy

This one goes out the Google personalized trends. So far there has been 8 days that have passed in 2007 and yet I can sense trends already formulating, some at an alarming rate. Firstly, I've already accumulated two infractions with the law. Coincidently, both have been a mire footsteps from my old and new places of inhabitance. Up to this point, I don't think I've really had multiple offenses pile up like this before, so it's kinda strange. I used to sit in front of my reality television starting out through the huge window panes. I would giggle at the fools who would speed by as the police clock them for speeding. I guess what comes around comes around eh Mike and Glenn?!?!

xend transmissionx

Labels: miscellaneous, vacation