Month: October 2007

Veronique did a segment for the Rogers Television show “RegArts”, which is a French arts and culture show which runs for 30 minutes.

I just saw it and it was fabulous!

It re-airs a few times in the future so if you were interested in seeing it, it is on the French local Rogers Television station – Channel 23 here in Ottawa.

I am not sure if people outside of Ottawa can see it via satellite dish…I am unsure of how that stuff works. If you do get the Ottawa Rogers channels, it’s the French one. Look for the program called RegArts. She comes on about 10 minutes into the show and it lasts five minutes.

Here are the future airdates:
Sunday October 14 – 12:30
Monday October 15 – 9.30, 12.30, 3.30, 6.30

Hope you get the chance to tune in!

Years ago, my friend Andrea pointed out that the fall was the best time to listen to Radiohead. It just has a feel of the autumn in its music. Ever since then, I always find myself walking outside or staring out the bus window while listening to them. I don’t have many albums so I picked up their Amnesiac album yesterday as well as a Damien Rice album from the past. I find I have this problem where if I am introduced to a band by a newer album, I rarely appreciate their older works. It must be because they usually are worse because with each new album a musician advances in music. Anyhow, while waiting for the Smashing Pumpkins to come on state at the Osheaga Festival, I enjoyed what I heard from the Damien Rice so I figured I would give him a chance. So far, so good.

Last night I caught up with a few episodes of Grey’s Anatomy. I didn’t care for the season premiere this year, but the subsequent episodes made me a fan once again. I’m liking some of the new dynamics they’ve introduced within the cast. I also watched Journeyman – the tale of a guy who time travels unwillingly. Think – Quantum Leap. I enjoyed the first episode and will continue watching for a few episodes to see if it’s worth my time or not.

We also had a feed of moose meat last night (thanks to Sam and Marc-Andre for that!) which was excellent as always. I was joking that there wasn’t enough salt in it, but this hearkens back to awhile ago where I messed up the recipe and the moose meat was saturated in salt! Vero was not impressed at all as we had guests over and they had to choke it down. Ah well. Nothing like a good salt lick for supper!

The weekend is looking up to be a bust for me. I have to study for a few midterms AND I just got word that I have a written exam for a PM-05 position at work on Thursday. So…I have three tests next week. Gak! I also want to attempt to fix my eavestrough before the weather gets cold, but we’ll see how that goes…

iplaying: Amie – Damien Rice (O)

I have had a few requests on the status of the Led Zeppelin tickets and whether or not I purchased them.

In the end, even though I found a flight for $500 round trip (heck yeah! Zoom Airlines…who knew? Thanks to Katie and Lianna for both pointing out this airline to me), I figured the event would have cost me $1000 which is $1000 I don’t have to spend right now.

Anyhow, here’s an interesting point to the story. While it was impossible (or is it really?) to give your password to someone and let them buy tickets, someone was a genius, bought two tickets legitimately and sold his extra seat next to him for $12,000. So in hindsight, I should have picked up two tickets and sold the other one as “An Evening with the Palmer and Led Zeppelin.” Ah well, I guess I don’t have that much business sense!

Upon research (let’s be honest here…my main friend The Dish), I have determined that a good way to reduce cholesterol is to eat oatmeal.

So it’s Day 3 on eating oatmeal in the morning. So far, so good. I can’t say it’s amazing, but it’s not bad either. I think I shall try the apple flavour kind next.

My main issue with the oatmeal is the fact that I have to slot in some extra time to eat it in the morning. If you don’t know the Palmer’s morning habits, it consists of waking up at 6:10, showering, getting dressed, eating breakfast and making lunch…all in time to get out the door by 6:45. I like to consider myself a machine. There is no room for error in my morning lifestyle.

So now I have to wake up at 6:00 to accommodate the prep/eating of the oatmeal. Am I whining about this? Well, 10 minutes a day is a little thing to bicker about when I’m talking about my health. So I suppose I don’t mind TOO much. I’ve come to discover the A-Channel Morning Show which is quite enjoyable for 10 minutes.

I also figure I should prepare myself for the eventual introduction of children in my home (warning: not for a long time!) and the fact that no matter how much I love to have a morning process, it just won’t happen somedays so I better get used to it. 😉

Is this a poll? Heck yeah it is!

What’s your favourite Beatles album and why? Let me know in the comments section.

As I am trying to become a more proficient songwriter, I have looked back to the classics – The Beatles. More specifically, their older stuff as they were just starting out themselves. I can see the simplicity in some of their songs coupled with the fact that a simple song can still be an amazing one.

Onto the favourite Beatles album…I asked Sara and Krista this the other day and it’s interesting to see people’s responses. Sara replied with The White Album whereas Krista responded with With The Beatles…an interesting choice but she mentions how she constantly played this album that her Mom owned over and over again.

My favourite album would have to be Abbey Road. Right off the bat, I’ve realized that I enjoy the later Beatles than the older Beatles. I don’t know if ‘later’ Beatles accounts for anything considering I really enjoy anything from Rubber Soul onwards…I know that everyone fell in love with the band with the old songs which revolved around the concepts of love…but I enjoyed it when they started entering different territory.

Fast forward to their last recorded album, Abbey Road. I love it all. I am a sucker for medleys and that’s what really hits it home for me. I enjoy how the last half of the album have recurring themes of music and lyrics that intertwine once in awhile. Very smart on their end. Then you have the instant classics like Come Together, Here Comes the Sun (!!!), Something, She’s So Heavy….what a haunting guitar riff. I can’t get enough of The End and listening to everyone’s guitar (and drum!) solo. Do yourself a favour and put this album on for a listen right now if you can and see what I mean.

There you have it. My favourite Beatles album. Are there certain albums that I haven’t given a fair judgement? Sure. I really haven’t listened a whole lot to their older albums like Please Please Me. The White Album is still this hodgepodge of music for me. It’s an incredible album but I find it’s sometimes hard to get into. It’s almost like a compilation of tunes rather than a flow of an album. I shouldn’t pass too much judgement on The White Album yet. Give me another year to really get into it.

So…what’s yer fave?

Waking up in Meaford was pretty killer and there was a little storm brewing in my head. After saying goodbye to everyone, I hightailed it out of Meaford along a very scenic route recommended by Carol (thanks Carol!). I dropped by Tim Horton’s for a bowl of soup which hit the spot and I continued down the roads to Ajax.

I must admit that once I hit Highway 400, I was feeling like I could use a good nap. I wasn’t passing out, but I just felt like a zombie going through the motions of passing people, staying in my lane, watching the trees go by.

FINALLY, I made it into Ajax, strolled into Aunt Dinah’s house, said hello to everyone and immediately hit the sack. Everyone had a good laugh. After managing to rest my weary soul for a bit, I awoke, jammed a bit with Troy with my new guitar (it’s a beaut), learned a few new songs and then went to mingle with the crowd. It was good to see everyone, especially Aunt Lana and company as I haven’t seen them in awhile. Everyone was looking great (especially my cousin Rocky. It was like looking at a new man!) and we had a great spread of food, watched the hockey game and then proceeded to rock our socks off with the lovely sounds of guitar, voices and Palmer, Palmer and Sullivan.

Let it be noted that Uncle Richard is once again ‘the man’ for making up a good pot of chili for us. While one must wonder why he brings this deadly concoction into the Palmer household, but Troy and I aren’t complaining.

I then went to Burlington with Mom and Dad to visit Nanny and Tom which was fun. I haven’t been to their house in awhile. We had a great lunch, I showed off my new guitar which I bought with some money Nanny gave me for my birthday, played them a tune, looked at some old records (hey, I found an old James Bond album!) and then we headed out to Melanie’s place for a few hours before heading back into Ajax.

Let it be known that Aunt Dinah has officially won the best aunt ever award this year as she wasn’t serving Thanksgiving dinner until Monday and I would have been gone so she made up a plate for myself and Vero to munch on upon my return to Ottawa. While I feel bad that I inadvertently guilt tripped her into this, Vero and I thought the meal was fabulous and we send some great thank you’s to Aunt Dinah.

All in all, a decent Thanksgiving weekend was had and the weather was fabulous. We are talking about 30 degrees in the shade!

As I grow older, I must look younger. My proof is that many people card me nowadays versus the low number who carded me in yesteryears.

I headed up to Meaford Ontario with Mike to visit his brother and Carol on Friday. I figured a jaunt over there wouldn’t hurt me too much considering I was heading to Ajax the next day to see the family.

Mike ended up finding the craziest route to Meaford that there ever was…I believe it intersected 14 different highways. In the end, it only was 500 kms long (excellent), but still took us 7 hours (not so excellent). I didn’t mind it though. I was cruising through some beautiful vistas along with some good tunes.

We showed up in Meaford around 1:30 and proceeded to hang out with Danny, tour Meaford for a bit and returned home to have a few beer. We ended up picking up the new version of a Bubba, but in a Heineken form. Unfortunately for us, the beer was flat inside (whereas, the whole concept of this new-age mini-keg is that it keeps itself pressurized for awhile). Dinner was had, guitar was played and we headed out to the Legion for the night.

All I know is that upon entering the building, some woman grabs me by the shoulder and loudly proclaims:

“I am the female bouncer here! You don’t look to be of the age of 25 so I’ll have to see some ID.”

Of course, I didn’t say a word, showed her my ID and we all had a good laugh at the ludicrous statements. Such as:

1. “I am the female bouncer here.” – Well, that’s fine and all, but we can all very well see that you are female, why bother announcing the fact?
2. “…the age of 25…” – Last time I checked, you have to be 19 to enter a drinking establishment in the province of Ontario.

Anyhow, I’m nitpicking here…I really didn’t care if she carded me, but we did have a good laugh at the way she was presenting herself.

The Legion was in full force that night during karoke night. I played some games of pool with some guys from Trinidad and listened to the awful, AWFUL karaoke from some guy. He didn’t even know where he was in the song half the time!

We then headed for a midnight snack and called it a night. I must say that I had a little headache in the morning and was in some dire need of some extra sleep.

I had a good laugh when Carol mentioned in the morning where she got up and checked to see if my car had a sunroof open (as there was a nasty thunderstorm) and I pointed out that while I appreciated her efforts, she should have checked out her own car also! Unfortunately, the car was soaked inside.

Thanks to Danny and Carol for the lovely hospitality and the good times.

Mark this day down as the first day I went for a physical at the doctor’s. I didn’t really know what to expect other than the horror stories about some guy’s finger in my ass. Hey, that’s the truth people, they do that here in Canada!

Anyhow, I guess it went well. Although when the nurse threw me into an empty room with the instructions to put on a hospital gown, I must admit that I was perplexed by this paper mache gown that I had to figure out. After looking at every nook and cranny, I figured out where my head went in and realized that it’s better for my ass to be hanging out rather than my twig and berries.

That room was pretty cold while I was waiting around for the Doc. In the end, he came in, went through the motions (hey, no fingers entered any orifices! Beauty!) and the only thing that was wrong with me was my cholesterol was very high. Oh oh. What the heck? How did that happen?

In the end, the only thing he suggested to me was to start eating fish three times a week. I must admit I was a little perplexed that the ONLY way to bring my cholesterol down was to eat more fish. So I’m hoping that this will do the trick, otherwise, the doctor’s fears will be confirmed and the high cholesterol will be due to a little thing we like to call genetics. Gak.