Author: admin

(I actually will send this one in to the organizers)

Hello,

I started off my Blues fest with a great concert by Bob Dylan and I have to thank you ahead of time for what looks like a killer lineup this year!

While on the concert grounds last night, there was a minor irritation that I thought I would offer a solution to.

It is very difficult for all parties involved to navigate through the concert grounds when people have their lawn chairs set up. It is inconvenient on both sides of the equation – we are irritated that it takes us so long to move anywhere remotely close to the stage from Gate 1 and the persons bringing their lawn chairs are irritated by us trying to move through them.

I remember last year’s Blues fest had an amazing setup where persons with lawn chairs had their own section set up. This made everybody happy – we didn’t have to worry about tripping over a lawn chair, and they didn’t have to worry about some people pushing their way through all night long.

If there is any way the organizers of Blues fest 2007 can quickly fix this problem (perhaps creating a section for standing room only and lawn chairs only) before the week is over, I assure you that everyone involved will have a better experience. I have heard the same comment on the radio stations for the past two days and many people at work have said the same thing.

That being said, I understand that organizing an event of this high caliber is difficult and you cannot foresee every possible outcome. I just wanted to pass on a suggestion and say that so far everything else looks great!

Palmer

Don’t.

Signed – Palmer

Hi, I believe we met face to face last year. You know, during the Sam Roberts Band concert at Bluesfest when everyone was having a great time and the band was rocking and we were getting poured on but it was still a good time. Remember that night? Yes, I remember it well.

I remember it because about 20 feet in front of me, there you were, with your acoustic guitar held up high in front of a bunch of us and we couldn’t see a good portion of the stage. Yes, yes, I understand it’s not that wide of an item but depending on how far you are from the stage, it becomes a wall.

I know you remember me because I finally made my way through the crowd to tap you on the shoulder and we had that polite conversation about how the people behind you would appreciate it if you left your guitar down and you proclaimed “Hey man, I’m just here having a great time with my guitar.” and I felt your pain because as a guitarist myself, I like to rock. But I reasoned with you and said “That’s fine and all, but at the same time you are preventing others to rock.” At this point, my reasoning hit home and you lowered your guitar to let us all have a good time. I thank you for that. Let’s also note that because of you, I felt like a God for 7 seconds as the people behind you cheered for my actions. It was a beautiful moment and no one could tell because of the rain on my face, but I shed a tear.

Now…fast forward a year from that point and I’m standing at the Bob Dylan concert last night and lo and behold, 50 meters in front of me I see your acoustic guitar being raised from the crowd in front of the stage. Here I thought this was a random occurrence, but now I realize this is your ‘thing’ at concerts!

The following questions popped into my head while listening to some excellent Dylan tunes:

1) What is the purpose of the guitar being held up? Do you wish for the band to acknowledge that there is a fellow guitarist out there in the crowd? Off-note: To the band who acknowledged this chap at a concert years ago, look what you have created.

2) If you are going to hold up your guitar so that the band can see it, don’t you think it’s a good idea if you’re a little closer to the stage? You’re still at least 200 feet from the stage from what I can see. Considering the Bob Dylan show doesn’t have any pyrotechnics and the lighthing is pretty sparse, the best the boys on the stage can see is about 10 feet from the stage. That’s probably to the security barrier (or the row of lawn chairs forming a security barrier – many of which I stumbled into last night)! Let’s not point out that their eyesight is probably failing also and it’s pretty hard to look at the instruments on their own stage.

3) Perhaps you’re just an avid guitarist who lugs his guitar around with him everywhere which is awesome. But then we get back into the whole ‘You’re blocking my view.” Now, last night you were too far to affect me, but I’m sure the people behind you didn’t appreciate 10 minutes of it being raised in the air right in the line of view of Bob Dylan. This also goes for those people insisting on bringing umbrellas to a concert. My colleague reported that the Nickelback concert last night requested ‘No Umbrellas’ which was amazing. She said there were so many umbrellas in the trash cans that she could have made a fortune. But at Bluesfest last year, the umbrellas were quite the pain. In fact, I remember Mike pulling on an umbrella to piss the guy off so much that he finally left. Or did he? I forget. Nonetheless, if you have something obstructing the view of others, that isn’t cool. This doesn’t apply to tall people in front of short people. You can’t help being tall, you can blame your parents for that. If you’re nice enough, you’ll let the short person in front of you.

Now, if none of these above questions apply, then I’ll have to assume that the only reason that you bring the acoustic guitar to hoist it up in the air, is for the sole reason of being unique. Well good sir, while you are unique and you have me now writing you a letter, you still are upsetting some people directly behind you. Heck, this open letter also goes out to the person(s) holding the sign up at the U2 concert back in November 2005. I’ll let you both know that I think it’s fine to hold up something for a maximum of 5-10 seconds. But holding a large item up for an entire song is uncalled for.

Am I old and cranky? No. But I understand how the crowd needs to be a collective in terms of having a good time. Sometimes you gotta give up something so someone else can have a good time. However, I am also at fault for not really giving a damn and just wishing to rock. I expect an open letter being written about me in someone’s blog around the Net which I will never read because I just don’t know who they are and they don’t know me.

Keep on rocking!

Palmer

Recollecting my thoughts to July 1st…

I awoke to a haze of disarray as I realized that Vero was leaving today. Uh…this sucks. But at the same time, a relief since we managed to score a couple of nights at a hostel.

I think Vero and Brad left with these romantic notions of Europe and thought they would backpack across Europe and camp everywhere. While this is an awesome idea, sometimes it can’t be the case unless you either a) Camp outside of the city or b) Sleep in a city park. 😉

Who am I kidding, I had these same notions before going to Europe. In our culture, Europe is hyped up to be some magical wonderland. I’m not saying it isn’t cool, it is! But it’s just like everything else in a way – it still has cities, there’s still maps to follow and you still pay to get around.

ANYHOW, I spent the better part of the day listening to the new Pumpkins album which had leaked that day on ‘The Net’. EXCITEMENT! 7 years since their last album…it is killer.

Vero came over and we watched the bungee jumping video and did some errands before picking up some St. Hubert before heading to the airport.

The airport was pretty well dead and we hung out there for an hour before she decided to go to the security checkpoint. Random memory – someone taking a picture of their friend in front of the checkpoint and the security guy coming out and telling them to leave. Woops!

Seeing Vero was hard but it wasn’t until she actually went through the checkpoint and I couldn’t see her that it kinda hit home for me. I think all along while she was leaving I was putting up this reassuring exterior to myself so that she wouldn’t freak out too much. I would be freaking out if I were in her shoes…so I just put on my ‘It’s going to be alright” hat for the time being. But as soon as she was gone all her fears kind of set in upon my mind and I was thinking “Holy mackerel! She’s going to Europe!”

It wasn’t until I got an email from her a few days later saying she was alright that everything settled back down in my mind. Now all I’m thinking about is how I’m sitting in an office all day, going to school at night, while she gets to explore a different country. JEALOUS!

After the airport, I headed over to Carrie’s where a game of Family Feud was going on. We then headed out to the karaoke bar which ended up being CLOSED (on Canada Day!) so we headed over to Local Heroe’s where we played a few games of pool (where we all won by default. We suck) and I had a decent montreal smoked meat sandwich. Highlight of the night included me dropping the cue on the edge of the table and it smacked me right in the nose. The guys had a good laugh at that!

After that, we cabbed it home once again and the next day we moseyed around the house until Eric showed up and we filmed my school project all day long. We said goodbye to the guests around 3PM as the caravan brought all our vehicles back from Carrie’s place. We managed to finish up filming around 8PM that night. I’d like to send a shout out to Mike, Annie and Eric for helping out during the day of filming. So far, I’m would say I’m 80% done done the project which is pretty good since it’s due in a week from now. All I need is a few academic narratives and think about the need for a soundtrack.

Alright, listen up. July 1 was probably one of the coolest days out there, not in terms of the weather, but in terms of the fact that the new Smashing Pumpkins album Zeitgeist was leaked to the Internet. Awww yeah!

What does this mean? Did my hesitation of downloading music prevent me from nabbing it?

Heck no. I’m still going to buy the album so who cares when I get to hear it? That’s my view on these things. Plus, it may have been a deliberate move on the band’s part as they opened the floodgates the day after the leak and it’s available in streaming format at AOL now.

Anyhow, I want to have a few more listens before giving you a proper review but on the first 10 listens, I have to say this.

It is GOOD.

It’s REALLY GOOD.

I think it’s their best work since Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Hmm…Machina II was pretty kickass though.

Anyhow, the real reason I’m writing here is to talk about their new music video for the song Tarantula.

I’ve enjoyed their music videos in the past. There have been some duds, but for the most part, they have been epic (think Tonight, Tonight and Stand Inside Your Love).

So I take a look at it yesterday morning.

This video is so retarded it is funny. Think of those movies you’ve seen that are so insanely stupid that they become a mockery of themselves and in turn, become one of the greatest things you’ve ever witnessed.

This is what the Tarantula music video is. They have the band members in front of green screen for the entire video and they throw a slew of other band members in the mix – randoms, celebs, etc. All playing instruments.

But the piece du resistance is when Billy Corgan shoots lazers from his eyes.

Uhh…what?

You heard it here. My brain exploded from the sheer absurdity of the lazer beams. I felt like I was watching a bad Austin Powers moment. It is sheer good times. Watch it. Laugh. Watch it again.

iplaying: Not for You – Pearl Jam (Live at the Gorge 2005)

When I first went to Europe, Matt suggested I open a blog and I told him “No Matt, I’m fine with emailing everyone.” until I realized how amazingly simple a blog is. (I always deny a suggestion from Matt right away but in the end, most of the times it’s a decent suggestion.)

So we set up a blog for Vero’s Eurotrip. You can follow along with her adventures for the next month at the following spot:

http://verovacance.blogspot.com

I would say it’s about 3 hours before dropping her off at the airport today. Craziness!

May I also point out that I had originally posted this accidentally into Vero’s EuroTrip blog. Doh! I’ll have to keep a close eye on which blog to post to.

So after rearranging some cars and heading back to Carrie’s, I went upstairs to hang out with some folks I haven’t seen in awhile – namely the lovely Simpson couple, Holly, Alex and Alex’s friend Tom.

Good times were had as we had a few drinks before heading out downtown for the main event. Holly had made some chicken cordon bleu which was awesome (I only took a bite but the taste was in my mouth all night long!) and it looked like all was good on Holly’s birthday. Her Mom (hi Mrs. Pelky!) made an excellent picture slideshow for Holly’s 30th and it was pretty swell – mainly because I ended up in one of the slides.

An embarrassing moment happened in the evening when Alex got a phone call whom I asked if it was Matt on the phone. As soon as I got an affirmative from someone in the room, I grabbed the phone as whoever was on the other line was asking where we were and why we weren’t there. This is how my conversation went:

“Listen buddy. If you can’t enjoy some time with your lady friend at the pub, then there is something wrong with this picture. Enjoy your time with her and don’t think about us. We’ll be there when we get there and if you’re having an awful time with her, then maybe you should reconsider her!”

So the guy on the other end is saying “Uh…ok.” Then I start talking about Karilee (who is the new ladyfriend of Matt) and the guy says “Who?!”.

At this point I stop talking, ask Alex who I’m talking to, to which he replies “Dan.”

Doh!

As everyone is laughing I have to apologize to him saying that I thought it was Matt on the phone all the time. He had a good laugh about it and we all did, but I must admit it was an embarrassing move on my part!

Let’s talk now about the amazing friends we have – Ferda and James who managed to give us a great ride downtown while previewing some great tracks by the band Staylefish. They were decent. After scouring the area for a parking spot, we were let out so we can get in line and lo and behold, the unfathomable had occurred.

There was cover charge at the Heart and Crown.

Never in my life had this occurred! As I grumbled while laying out my five dollar bill, I recollected how many times I had been there without paying cover so I shouldn’t complain too much. However, if they start making this a habit, there may be changes in my pub of choice.

Shaydid was an amazing band as always and it was their last weekend with their keyboardist (which is a shame). Every opening chord he plays sounds like Jump by Van Halen. Even when we started singing O Canada at midnight I thought we were singing Jump!

The singer was quite drunk after the first set but she could still perform well (a mark of a seasoned performer). I got her to say Happy Birthday to Mike as there was five minutes left in the night of his birthday. He had a smile a mile long! She then sang the song ‘Crazy Bitch’ and mentioned afterwards that the song wasn’t ALL about him. 😉

The night descended into the usual Heart and Crown madness and all was good in the world other than the fact that we were right next to the speaker and I think I lost 90% of my hearing. Must remember to bring earplugs.

We did enjoy meeting up with some awesome guys who were dressed in some fab Canadian gear (in picture above). Next day we found a picture of Adrianna kissing the guy with the nice moustache and harmonica! *gasp*

We hopped into a cab after the night was done and watched some old videos when we got home. It was a good night and a great birthday party for Holly and Mike.

iplaying: Broken – Lifehouse (Who We Are)

After Mike was able to move a little the next day, we headed out to Carrie’s place to have a game of bocce ball, frisbee and soccer in the field across from her place. It was all fun and games and gave us some much needed rest time before heading back out downtown for Mike and Holly’s birthday party at the Heart and Crown.

Man I love Canada Day. You can smell the energy in the air at this point with flags on people’s houses and the mass crowds entering the area. Closer to home, it’s nice to have friends come up and visit. Philipp brought his friend Chris (who is an excellent time) to Ottawa for the festivities as he has never been here for them. A true treat for a Brit.

iplaying: Tarantula – The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)