Against my better wishes to see the Pumpkins play in a proper venue on their own tour, I’ve realized that this probably won’t happen in the near future and I may end up missing them on their Zeitgeist tour.
That being said, I’m pretty well going to go to the Saturday show of the Osheaga Festival on September 8, 2007. If anyone is interested in going with me, let me know!
Other acts are playing on the Saturday including Peter, Bjorn and John!
I suppose the death of Princess Diana was the equivalent to other major moments in history (like the assassination of JFK) where everyone can pinpoint exactly where they were at that moment in time.
As soon as I heard it was the ten year anniversary of her death this morning it hit me like a ton of bricks…not because of Princess Diana, but because it reminded me of where I was when I heard.
Flashback Ten Years Ago. A few pounds lighter, probably a similar haircut and fresh into school after leaving Kapuskasing. After the first few days in school I decided to take the bus down to Oshawa to visit Carol who had also started college. Let me tell you what bus NOT to take when traveling from Oshawa to Ottawa – the milk run bus. I didn’t know…I was new to the bus system. Turns out that the milk run bus takes 6.5 hours to get to Oshawa because it stops at every little stop along the way, whereas it’s a lot faster to take the express bus to Toronto and catch the GO-Train back. I laugh at this now because years later Carol would come up to visit (and get a ride back home for Christmas) and I forgot to tell her not to take the milk run bus and she ended up next to some crazy person.
Anyhow, there I was with Carol in her new residence building in Oshawa becoming jealous by the minute considering Algonquin College had nothing of the kind to offer me. We were in some room (perhaps her own?) having a few drinks with people when someone ran into the room and proclaimed “Princess Diana just died in a car accident!” and then he ran off.
That was odd. Why would anyone say that of all things?
Turns out it was true after we consulted the television set. So here was a bunch of drunk new college students watching the television for up to date news. I don’t remember watching too much of it because I didn’t really know much about Princess Diana.
It’s amazing how vividly I can picture this memory in my mind’s eye. I’m sure Carol can add a bunch of other thoughts (probably who came in and told us and whatever else she can remember from that night).
Anyhow, on another note, holy mackerel, I’ve been in Ottawa ten years now. That is crazy. In that time I’ve completed school, started a job and went back to school. Full circle mes amis?
iplaying: Persuasion of You – Collective Soul (Afterwords)
I just found out that Rob’s grandfather Earl passed away last Sunday. Unfortunately I was on the road at that time or else I would have headed down to Paisley in this time of need.
I met Grandpa Earl 9 years ago (Lord, has it been that long?!) and he was a kind old man. He sure liked to play cards! I remember first playing cards with him in his kitchen along with a few others and noticed that he was dealing from the bottom of the deck! I didn’t want to call him on it in his own kitchen but he sure was sneaky! 😉 I think I let him know about it at Rob’s wedding but he feigned ignorance.
Through the years I spent some interesting weekends with the Beech Clan, like our Thankgiving trip to Marmora where Grandpa Earl had a good laugh when Rob’s mom dressed Rob and I up in a pig and dog outfit and we went to a party on the campground. Let it be known that we aren’t talking about us being kids here…I was probably 23 at this time! We toured around in that RV for the entire day and we all had a splendid time.
I grew to take a liking to this great man as he welcomed me into his life of having fun and playing a good game of euchre. I never got to know my own grandfathers and I always thought of Grandpa Earl as an honorary grandfather. My thoughts go out to the Beech Clan at this time and I know you’re out there having a grand old time playing cards Grandpa Earl.
I’m starting to update my blog with the East Coast Trip but I’ve noticed that the previous entries have pushed past the page limit.
So for those of you who are not familiar as to how you can access past entries, just look on the right hand menu column at a spot called Archives. There you can click on a certain month and it will show you every entry for that given month. Hence, if you wish to see all of the entries for this month of August 2007, then just click and read away!
I’ve updated a bunch of blog entries but I like to keep them in chronological order for future archival purposes. While you’re at it, have some fun and read previous entries! That’s what this website is always about – documenting my daily life for the future to peruse.
The long anticipated fifth album by Silverchair does not disappoint. Silverchair have come so far from the alternative band on teenagers (has it already been a decade with them?!). Their last album Diorama was an amazing piece of work – one where you can tell Daniel Johns was learning piano which I find to be a major turning point in the style of music that a band writes (compared to guitar-based only). It introduced different elements and more complex themes into their music.
After a hiatus of 5 years, they have returned with Young Modern which does not disappoint. At first listen there were a few standout tracks but I must admit that I kept coming back for more and more and more during my holidays. I really enjoy this album. It isn’t a heavy hitting album but I almost find that some of their tracks remind me of the psychedelic times of The Beatles. There are some songs which just go against the norm that you can’t help but fall in love with them. There are some straight out rockers, and some soft tunes as well.
It’s a minimalist album which offers a maximum of enjoyment. Pick it up and you won’t be disappointed (unless you’re stuck in the 90s and don’t have an open mind to what Silverchair should be, or become. They are definitely not the band who sings on Frogstomp.)
iplaying: Mindreader – Silverchair (Young Modern)
I may as well speak about the memories of the summer vacation. I was starting to write up stuff about this year’s vacation but then a flood of memories came back and I thought I should document them for my grandkids who are reading this one day.
They were long days in the car. I remember my sister and I not getting along too well sometimes and also remember suggesting (or at least having thoughts of) installing a cardboard wall between the two of us in the backseat! I remember sleeping a lot because I would get motion sickness a lot. Ugh, the Gravol! I remember that’s what knocked me out usually…that icky yellow pasty stuff you had to swallow so it killed off motion sickness.
Most vacations consisted of heading to Toronto for awhile to visit Aunt Dinah and Uncle Richard and also heading to Gaspe to visit Aunt Lana and Uncle Tony. I must admit that I never really cared for Gaspe when I was a kid but now I have learned to appreciate it. Perhaps it is because when you are a kid, you pretty well are stuck in a place and can only have so much leverage as to what you can do. This involved hanging out with my cousin 
Rocky who I didn’t see eye to eye with while growing up. 😉 I guess we were from two different worlds. We are fine nowadays but you know how kids are when they don’t get along. I also remember going across the street to swim a lot in some lady’s pool. There was also a convenience store down the road that we must have gone to quite a bit for the odd things (like candy). I remember Pal-o-Mine chocolate bars which we couldn’t get in Ontario but was a staple Quebec item.
I have random scattered memories of Gaspe – Aunt Lana doing the laundry in some machine that came out in the kitchen, lobster dinners, my birthdays usually being held there (as it was the time of the year), playing Nintendo in the later years and people wondering why I loved the video games so much instead of going outdoors, a bat flying around in the house one time, the Snorkels wallpaper in Jason’s bedroom, going over to Charles’ place across the street and seeing his Coleco-Vision video game system before I even knew what video games were, the hyenas (scratch that…they were coyotes. After hearing a phone message from my Dad laughing at the fact that I had written hyenas, I realized that I racking my brain this afternoon searching for the word…I thought hyenas was the wrong word but then thought it must have been it…clearly I was wrong!) crying down from the mountains and one time attac
king the dog from what I remember, going to visit Aunt Eunice and Uncle Hally – I feel that when you are a kid you don’t really appreciate these meetings with older people because everyone just talks about older stuff but now I appreciate the memories of visiting these people. I always remember Uncle Hally sitting in his recliner and Maureen and I hanging out in the sun porch reading something (Archie comics perhaps?). I also remember visiting Great GrandDad’s place and thinking it was the oldest house in the world. I never understood why someone would want to live in something like that. I also have this vague memory of Maureen going up to see Great-Grandad and he was in his underwear putting his pants on. At least I think that’s what happened? Someone can refresh my memory on that one.
Toronto was always a marvel for me as I loved the city. I remember going to the Bridlewood Mall with Nanny (or Mom?) a lot. I also remember when I got older Dad would bring me to Toys R Us or some comic shops. Visiting Aunt Dinah was always a treat (it still is!) as she always
offered me something to eat. I remember not really hanging out with my cousins as they were older than me. It’s funny when you get older that there is a bridge which is gapped. Now I see Rick at least once a year at Winterlude and I have a newfound friendship with Troy which has grown over the years of playing guitar and more recently, realizing that we are into a lot of the same things in life.
I also remember going to Burlington to visit my other Nanny and I always remember her bringing us to a movie. From what I can recall, it was always a Disney flick of sorts. I also remember her old apartment which had this hardwood floor which came apart in little pieces near the balcony and I would spend time taking this section apart and putting it back together. I can only imagine if someone was doing that at my house right now!
Clearly this post isn’t meant for everyone but it’s more of a documentation of my memories of a time and place long gone but still very vivid in my mind. When I lose my memory in years to come, at least I’ll have this as a documentation.
iplaying: Tarantula – The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)
As a follow-up to this posting: http://palmer.grumpster.com/2007/07/agree-or-disagree-wifi-in-campgrounds.html
I can now weigh in on the wifi in campgrounds debate. I brought my laptop with me during our trip a few weeks ago. I’ll speak more on the point of having a laptop on a trip (excellent idea!) in my writeup of the actual trip, but in terms of having it on the campground, I don’t think it’s a bad idea.
In fact, I didn’t even use the WiFi (costs $2 for 24 hours in some places, which is a fine price if you have to connect to the Net for some reason), but I did watch some episodes of Jekyll in the comfort of our tent. All in all, I think that if someone wants to surf the Net or check their email during their holidays, then that’s their own thing (while I must admit it’s a little strange that you would want to go camping just to surf the net!). But it’s a great tool if you need to map out the next leg of your journey or get in touch with work for something major.
Considering I had an entire day to myself upon returning home from my trip (and Katie talking about how great the ending of the book was) I decided to set myself down and finish The Time Travelers Wife.
Other than reading some books for school (by the way, got a B+ in my Comm class this summer. Not too shabby.), I don’t get a chance to read too much outside of my staple Star Wars books and (recently) some old school sci-fi and biographies.
So when I was on Pajiba and they recommended this book, I asked around and found out that Eric and Annie had a copy and they loved it (and they graciously lent it to me during my holidays).
The story revolves around Henry who is a time traveler. But not in the Delorean type of way, but in a way where he has a genetic disorder which can have him time travel at a given moment (usually when he gets stressed out over something) and then he shows up in another time, naked (clothing can’t go through time, you didn’t know that?!). So he has to deal with the consequences of this random time traveling – sometimes he has to steal clothes and money, sometimes he gets into fights because of this, etc.
Meanwhile, the entire book is really a love story as he meets Clare at six years old, but he has to form a relationship with her at this age as she will become his wife in the future. So, imagine yourself meeting your partner when they are six, and you are forty and you have to form a relationship with them. Meanwhile, you time travel on a moment’s notice so you don’t really control this thing.
In the end, the story jumps between the present-day Clare/Henry – where Clare actually meets Henry in present time and tells him how he travels back in time to meet her and then it jumps back and forwards in time to show us their meetings.
The characters are charismatic and believable. I felt that I could relate to a lot of the characters – whether it be their everyday mannerisms, or the crazy conversations about nothing they would have. The writing is uber-modern…it felt strange reading a modern book as it was explicit in language as well as descriptions of their sexual acts in some parts of the book. This is why I would have to put the caveat that I don’t know if Nanny would care for this book.
What can I say about the book on a whole? It blew me away. I was engrossed in this like I am with a Harry Potter novel (yes, yes, I do enjoy a good Harry Potter book). At some points in my vacation I just wanted to pull the car over to keep reading. The relationship of Henry and Clare grew together in an awkward way (which happens when one of you time travel) but the love they had…heck, I’ll admit it. I’m a romantic at heart so this story hit me. It was an amazing story of their good times, their bad, the craziness surrounding time travel…well written novel and the references of the time periods (the music at the time, the restaurants in the Chicago area, BEAUTIFUL!) made this novel exceptional.
Watch out for the film with Rachel McAdams coming sometime next year.
Highly recommended. Really, it is.
I have a new love in my life.
The morning came way too early and I hopped out of bed and went to get the car from the parking garage. They weren’t too impressed that I didn’t call ahead the night before to let them know that I was coming in around 5:30 to pick up the car, but no worries, I go there, paid the bill and picked up the car.
We packed up the car and hit the road. It definitely wasn’t hard to get out of the city into New Jersey. After asking Vero to navigate, I let Vero sleep for awhile as I knew I would want to catch some shut-eye eventually. We stopped for breakfast at one point and kept driving.
Along the way I decided that I would purchase the Takamine guitar in Syracuse, NY. I had checked if there was a Guitar Center in Syracuse and sure enough there was. So when I got closer to Syracuse, I pulled off to the side of the road, broke out the trusty laptop and found directions to Guitar Center. Vero was clearly excited that I was going to bite the bullet. Hey, I had to! I wanted my grandmother’s gift money to go towards something special…not just paying down debt.
I walked in there like I owned the place, picked up the guitar, went to town playing and surprised the gentleman working there by saying “Yes, I’m interested in buying this guitar today.” when he asked if I needed any help. 😉
In the end, I got an excellent deal on the guitar and case after indicating the price Chazz was going to give me down in Boston. We had to search for an appropriate case as the guitar is a jumbo body (something I’ve fell in love with ever since the purchase of my Epiphone). I don’t really care for the case personally, but it’s what’s inside that counts!
We headed for the border, had no problems crossing it (read: no one confiscated any meat products!) and headed towards the nearest truck stop for a bite to eat. Along the way we passed 1000 Islands which looked amazing and I mentally noted that we should go visit it sometime.
We hit familiar highways along the 401 and I let Vero drive the rest of the way and I awoke when we hit Ottawa. I dropped Vero off, headed home, and unpacked the car and just sat there regaling in my memories of the past 17 days.
There you have it. Nearly three weeks on the road. One of the better trips I’ve been on. I enjoyed camping along the way as it was cheap and I am cheap. Frugal may be the better term.
I am very glad that traveling with Vero turned out well. I really did wonder if I would get on her nerves along the trip but we seem to complement each other well on travels.
I changed a lot of my ways of traveling and just had various destinations in mind with a very relaxed time line to follow. I found I actually enjoyed it more and plan to do more trips like it. You have a little more freedom when you can just head somewhere and say “You know what? I’m having a great time here, let’s just stay!”
New York City was definitely an amazing opportunity for the both of us and we enjoyed it immensely. I would return again just to explore the city. I enjoy exploring more than hitting up tourist attractions at this point in my life…but I try and have a balance as I’m sure the tourist attractions became attractions for a reason.
That being said, I’m writing this entry a month after we got back and it seems like so long ago. However, the next year will be action packed as we already have a trip to the Dominican Republic, British Columbia, and potentially Gaspe planned. Yikes! Start saving that money!