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You too can see U2


Monday morning. Studying for a mid-term. My throat is itchy on the bus. Can the day start off any worse?

Get to work. My cell phone rings. There’s only one reason why it would do that in the morning.

Joelle: CALL BOBFM! WE JUST WON THE U2 TICKETS! I’M RUNNING RIGHT NOW!!!
Translation: I can only imagine that Joelle was either on her way to work to get to a phone, or on duty (she works as a teacher).
Joelle entered into a contest to the local radio station, BobFM so that we can win U2 tickets. Supply the radio station with two names and then once a day they will call out those two names. If the two people call within 9 minutes, they win tickets to see U2 at the Corel Centre as well as a pre-party called the Bono-Bash with free drinks and food. Also, on Friday, they were giving these tickets out every hour from 8 until 6 in which Trish GRACIOUSLY accepted the duty of listening to the radio all day long in case my name was called. I was in a meeting for most of the morning and was unable to listen to BobFM. Let it be stated here for her valiant efforts, she shall be rewarded with a supper at St. Hubert’s.

Background: U2 is coming to town. I was on Ticketmaster at 10:00 AM the day of the sale. Three hours later, never got through the system and never got tickets. I was not impressed.

Back to the Present:
I call BobFM. I’m so frantic that I misdial the number 4 times. Take a breath dude.
BobFM: Good morning, BobFM!
Me: Hi, this is Palmer calling in for the U2 contest.
BFM: What’s your phone number?
Me: 555-5555 (for all the Internet folk reading this blog)
BFM: Hold on.

(listening)
BFM: Alright, we have someone on the line for the U2 contest. Joelle are you there?
Joelle: Yes! I’m so excited!
BFM: Great. So we’re still waiting to hear from Palmer. Do you know where he is?
Joelle: No, I just called him. Maybe he’s on his cellphone?
BFM: Maybe it dropped the connection or something.
Me: WHAT THE HECK MAN!? I AM RIGHT HERE! HELLO, CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!

At this moment I grab the other phone to call in, maybe they don’t know that I’m on the line.
Turns out they were just fooling around with Joelle.
BFM: Hey look who it is! Palmer!
Me: Hey, how’s it going?

All the ramblings of congrats go on about this and they ask what our fave U2 songs are where I’m totally drawing a blank and say ‘Elevation’ which is a crappy tune, but oh well, what can I do? I’m on edge here. For the record, Streets is the best song ever.

So there you have it. On November 25th, Joelle and I are hitting up a pre-party with food and drinks, and then watching the U2 CONCERT!!!! I AM PUMPED!

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Concert Reviews

What Being a Boyfriend *Really* Involves

A weekend recap for those interested in what I actually do with my free time, and not just interested in my random rants du jour.

Friday: Went to Barrymore’s with Mike and Joe to see Comfortably Numb – Canada’s own Pink Floyd cover band. They played The Wall in its entirety, as well as a retrospective of other delights from Dark Side of the Moon, Division Bell, and classic cuts. I was very impressed with them. If you shut your eyes, it was like being in the room with Floyd. I belive I read they are actually endorsed by Floyd as one of the premiere cover bands out there. I figured out that they played for 3 1/2 hours. Insane.

Saturday: Roamed around town with Joe which brought us to Cam Kong eventually (I can see Holly exclaiming “Cam Kong!? Where was I?) and then we ended up at Rob’s place for dinner. We worked on my Hallowe’en costume which worked out fine. For the people whom haven’t heard what I’ll be dressing as, I may as well keep it a secret until next Saturday when we hit up Duncan’s place for the big party.

Went to Melissa’s for Mike’s birthday which was a great time full of jello shooters and good eats. Unfortunately, we had to leave to go to another birthday party. Vero’s friend Chantelle was having people over and then heading out to Patty Boland’s.

What can I say about this party we went to? Vero told me that everyone had to dress up in 80s/90s clothing. Considering all my clothes are still from the 90s, I figured ‘No Problem!’ and wore a nice AC/DC t-shirt. However, Vero had other plans. As you can tell from the picture, I was decked out in a nice Bahamas muscle shirt along with sweat bands and some leggings (not seen in the picture unfortunately). Vero is lucky for the following reasons:

  • I’m a good sport
  • I’m a little crazy
  • I had quite a bit of alcohol in my system at this point

We arrive at Chantelle’s party to find no one else has dressed up, not even the hostess. Ah well, not a big deal. I’m in no mood to go change. The highlight of the night was when they wanted to take a swing at a pinata (sp?) and Chantelle’s brother takes a stick in full swing (we’re talking with all the force in the world) and misses the pinata but clocks Chantelle right in the kisser. Beautiful. In my life, I have never seen an event such as this. She turned out alright and only had a bloody nose.

Went to Patty Boland’s with Vero and we managed to skip the lineup since we were decked out in these great costumes of ours. However, once we got inside, someone passed us the message that the rest of the gang has decided to go back home and watch a movie. We decide to stay and rock out for the rest of the night. The common ‘Happy Hallowe’en’ phrase was used when people commented on our outfits in which they responded “Hallowe’en is next week” in which I would reply “Good one buddy. Do you really think we would be dressed like this if it wasn’t Hallowe’en?”.

Quite the crazy night. I highly recommend everyone dresses up for Hallowe’en on a random day and see what people say.

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Our Lady Peace in Toronto!!!

Guess who just won a trip package to go see an exclusive show in Toronto?!

Awww yeah! On November 6, I’ll be taking a bus down to Toronto along with Vero, catching a show of Our Lady Peace at Massey Hall and staying at the Bond Hotel! I’m so pumped! Our Lady Peace haven’t even toured Canada yet in support of their new album.

AWESOME.

I can’t believe my luck with OLP in the past…so far, I’ve got to see them at a soundcheck thanks to Amanda, do a concert review for the official website (which included tix to the show) and I believe I may have won tix to another show that I remember.

AWESOME!

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Reviews

Review: One Thing Remains by Default


I picked up the new album from Default the other week. Default is one of those bands that aren’t on the top of my list, but don’t piss me off either.

However, I’ve found through the years that I tend to like it when a band changes their style from time to time. Their second album ‘Elocation’ was more of the same. I thought that maybe the third one would be different. Nope. More of the same.

Is more of the same a bad thing? Let’s take AC/DC for example. They’ve spent years and years and years figuring their ULTIMATE RAWK FORMULA and now that they’ve found it, they stick to it. Is this a bad thing? Depends on who you ask. On one hand, if people like adventure movies, they’ll keep watching adventure movies. So, if I like the AC/DC formula, I’ll keep buying their albums. Will I say that they are revolutionary and “YOU HAVE TO GET THIS ALBUM!!!” to everyone I see? Probably not. So, as long as Default sticks to their formula and doesn’t release a shitty album, I’ll keep buying. The only band I ever stopped buying albums from were the Cranberries. After their album “Bury The Hatchet” I realized it was a message to me to stop buying their music because that album was really really REALLY bad.

Miscellneous Ramblings/Updates/Questions:
– watched ‘What The Bleep Do We Know?‘ at Ben’s last night. Decent documentary on how humans and interactions and reality, and basically…quantum physics.
– My friend is in search of a Pumpkin costume. To not ruin the surprise, I won’t let you know who is looking for it. Let me know if you have one.
– Any takers on that iPod Photo I’m selling? It’s a steal baby. Christmas is coming up. Buy your loved one something.
– Leave some comments if you would like! I tend to check out James/Ferda’s blog as well as Matt’s every day and we leave each other our own little community notes. You should check out their blogs because they give you a snapshot of their (exciting?) lives.
– School is going well. I handed in my first essay a few weeks ago so if it comes back with a fail grade, I’m dropping out now! I can’t hack it! 😉

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No More Tea

From ChartAttack

Well, more accurately, it appears Jeff Martin is calling it quits. According to a statement, Martin is working on finishing a solo record and will tour in support of the finished product. The singer is ready to shift his focus to himself.”

I must admit I’m a saddened by this news. I’ve followed The Tea Party ever since Edges of Twilight.

The article makes it sound like Jeff Martin is going to just do his own thing…maybe there is hope that The Tea Party will come back together eventually (and not end up like David Usher and Moist).

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Uh…what?


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This Goes out to the Eye of the Tiger Himself – Paul Duffy

Picture Yourself…leaving work. Walking down the escalator. Your music in your ears. Then you see some people start to run. You know what it means. There’s a bus about to leave!

I squint my eyes to see what number bus is leaving. Yep, it’s the 27. The one I want after a hard day of work. I take a couple steps down the escalator but then realize it is futile.

But something stirs in me. It’s the music. What’s the ONE SONG in the universe that can move a man to do more than he thinks he can?

Eye of the Tiger. Coming from my iPod magically.

I start to sprint. I run. I dodge people left and right with my goal in sight. Then the guitars come into the song.

DUHN. DUHN DUHN DUHN.

I make it to the bus. I DID IT!

I laugh at myself at the absurdity of it all, but in my mind I can only envision one person.

Paul Duffy doing pushups every time he hears this song. Whether it’s at a wedding, a dance, a funeral. He will do the pushups.

I never had respect for Paul Duffy. Until now.

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Need a Pen?

Me: Hello?
Them: Hi, is Mrs. X there? (Mrs. X is the person who sat here before I moved two weeks ago.)
Me: No, she moved offices. I can give you her new number if you would like.
Them: Yeah, sure. Do you have her new number?
Me: Yes I do. Are you ready for it?
Them: Yes.
Me: 555-
Them: Wait, hold on, I need a pen.

Why is it that when people say they are ready to absorb a simple 7 digit number, they aren’t really and as soon as you ramble off three numbers they freak out and think “Dang, I gotta get a pen.”

Let’s be honest…I know I’m not smart enough to remember a phone number so I write it down. However, I bet if someone offered me some cash to remember a number, it would be engrained into my memory like Hurley from Lost.

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Concert Reviews

Review: Collective Soul at Ottawa U

This picture of Dean Roland goes out to the ladies who were swooning over him on Friday night.

Collective Soul concert…what can I say? I missed out when they were in town this past year because I was in Europe. Very pumped to see them again.

The event was a win-to-get-in-and-rock-your-heart-out event in which Vero scored tickets to. Awwww yeah! You’re the best babe!

Inside the Ottawa U Rec Complex, they had the place set up for free massages, free beer, free candy, free CONCERT! It was wild. Boy opened up for CSoul which was great. They have a few rocking tunes and the singer reminded me of Mick Jagger.

CSoul was amazing. Odd to see Ed Roland have a music stand with lyrics on it. The memory must be slipping on him. All in all, I got to hear all the songs I wanted to hear, along with an emphasis of stuff from Youth. Two devil hands up on this concert.

Songs Played That I Can Remember:

  • Shine (of course)
  • Better Now
  • Precious Declaration
  • Home
  • How Do You Love?
  • Counting The Days
  • Under Heaven’s Skies (currently my fave CSoul song)
  • Heavy
  • Run
  • Compliment
  • Why Pt. 2
  • Gel
  • The World I Know
  • December
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Mysterious Fax Machines

Sometimes I wonder if I’m actually in a sitcom involving office antics. An example: Friday, I was off due to the exam so I had asked a co-worker to get a room reservation contract signed and faxed over. Come Monday morning, I get a phone call from the Holiday Inn saying they received one contract signed, but not another one. Strange. Alright, I’ll just go ask my colleague about it. Ooops…she’s sick. So I ask a few people to get to the bottom of it.

In the meantime, I’m working on something else and lo and behold, someone walks by and passes me a contract they found at the fax machine. Hey, it’s the missing contract! Why is it our fax machine and not the one at Holiday Inn?

That’s right, someone here faxed it to a machine which was 10 meters away.

Classic. I’m having a good laugh right now and I’m sure they will too when they get back tomorrow.

update: I’m not allowed to laugh at this anymore. I did the exact same thing yesterday.

what’splayingrightnow: Ladylike – Big Wreck. I found a SLEW of miscellaneous MP3s that I never bothered throwing onto the iPod. With a lot of downtime this weekend, I managed to throw them all onto it. I’m a music machine right now.