Weekend was spent having a great time at Matt’s cottage. Went out on the boat a few times (although I am stoked to get a ride in Alex’s new boat. This thing is huge.) This is the first time I’ve been up to the cottage where the weather was beautiful so I learned to appreciate it more. There wasn’t much to report other than we had a great time and there was plenty of beer, BBQ and boating. Plus a campfire and fireworks.
I also caught up on some TV watching as I just realized that a bunch of season finales are coming my way and I haven’t caught up on them. Of particular note is Lost which I hadn’t seen the last 5 episodes of. I am intrigued once again. I enjoy this show and where they take you.
I also went on an excellent bike ride with Vero around Orleans. We stopped and had some fries at the chip stand and continued up and down random streets that I had never been on. This is the way to explore a community! The best part was when we stumbled onto some trails through the woods. Very beautiful. I will end up going back there again to explore. I never realized how much of a wooded area there was in Orleans until now.
All in all, a great long weekend was had (especially since I took the Friday off also). I am looking forward to a few things that are coming up, such as the Evil Dead musical this coming weekend in Toronto. Woohoo!
I’d like to put a shout out to my sister who I heard makes a hell of lot more tips than I do at her new job back home. Man…I wish I had a tip jar.
By the way…what has been playing on my iPod for about 50 gazillion times this weekend?
Tarantula by the Smashing Pumpkins. The new single is amazing.
Whew! I caught up on all my things I wanted to talk to you about so I could get to the real juicy review of Spider-Man 3 which I saw last night with Chris, Sara and Krista.
We headed to the SilverCity to capture the magic which is Spider-Man. I love Spider-Man. He’s my favourite of them all. Sure, X-Men are cool also. I enjoy the stories more in X-Men (well, maybe not lately…actually I haven’t read a new X-Men story since 10 years ago but I heard it’s going awful), but Spider-Man is a character that I can relate with. He’s goofy, but cool at the same time. Enough about the character.
We had the entire theater to ourselves which was nice. This was the first time I had seen a Spidey movie with friends as I had seen it alone the other 2 times. Some people find that strange, but I say you don’t really talk during a movie so if you want to go see a flick and no one feels like going with you, go on your own anyhow!
***spoiler warning*** I will not be revealing anything that hasn’t been in the movie trailers. I will be speaking about various characters and how I felt about them in the movie, but I won’t give away any plot points. If you feel that me talking about the characters and the general story are too much for you, then you should stop reading now. I would also disregard the comments section as you never know when someone may write in “I can’t believe Darth Vader is Luke’s father!!!”
The film picks up with Peter Parker still in college but at least in this time period, everyone loves the Spider-Man. New York City embraces this cool superhero and there is Spidey merchandise everywhere (much like around our own world!). He is still with Mary-Jane Watson and life looks pretty good.
The story revolves around three main villains – Harry “Green Goblin” Osbourne, The Sandman and everyone’s fave…Venom! When hearing about three main villains I was assuming that Harry would enter the film early on and then somehow leave the film early on to make way for the other two new villains. I was also worried about having three main villains. Seemed a little extreme for me. This reminds me the old Batman films which got out of hand with two villains fighting for screen time.
My fears were fully realized when the film is pulled in too many directions with trying to follow all three villains stories, as well as following the Peter Parker story. I must admit that I thoroughly enjoyed the Peter/Harry storyline and it had a twist that left me satisfied (although it may not be satisfying to many others). I am glad that they had an emphasis on Harry Osbourne as I had fears that with Sandman and Venom showing up, he would take the back burner.
However, that being said, this took away from Sandman and Venom. Venom could have his own entire film dedicated to him – as should be! He is an excellent villain. Plus, he’s a fan favourite and rightly so! So I was disappointed in his screen time in the film. They should have just focussed on Sandman and Harry this time around. Sandman fell into the same bad scenario where he only had a little background story and then was all action. I loved how Spider-Man 2 really looked at Otto Octavius’s soul and really got into what the character was about. Sandman…not so much. However, maybe there’s really nothing to go on with Sandman…I can’t remember reading too many stories with him in it 10 years ago.
The other critique of the film was the whole ‘Superman 3’ vibe that was given. You know the film where Superman has an evil twin…god, it was a horrible film. Well, Peter Parker gets a mean streak in him during the movie and styles his hair differently and acts like an ass to everyone. It was too cheesy. It really was. He wasn’t a dark, twisted Peter Parker…he was the macho, suave, jock-like Parker which is the opposite of what he is. At this point in the film, I analyzed Sam Raimi’s other trilogy – The Evil Dead Trilogy, and realized that Spider-Man 3 was his Army of Darkness as it was very high in the cheese factor. VERY HIGH. Maybe he can’t hold it back once he hits the third movie stride? Anyhow, I found it really took away from the film. I like the little points of humour in the first two films. The wink and the nod if you will. But Spidey 3 really goes overboard to the point where you really are groaning at the things that are happening to Peter Parker.
Action was pretty cool for the film although as Krista pointed out, it’s sometimes impossible to focus on as it moves way too fast on the big screen and all you see is a blur. I can only imagine what it’s like on the IMAX. Are films supposed to overwhelm you? I suppose so.
My favourite part was when Sandman first is created and he tries to walk. It was a beautiful moment in both special effects and emotion. Very cool scene.
Wanna talk about Venom? Hmm…what to say. Not enough screen time. Was it meant to be this way? Was this a teaser for a film in the future? I’m sure they will eventually bring him back along with his cohort in crime – Carnage. But where is the Venom we love in the comics where he wants to protect the innocents and only wants to kill Spidey? That would have been a great take on Venom. Also, no offence to Topher Grace but it was hard watching the kid from That 70s Show play the coolest villain ever. They should have used an unknown actor and I now know why George Lucas does so in his Star Wars films. His origin was well told though as it would have been hard for Peter Parker to end up on another planet during the Secret Wars (lik in the comics).
The future is interesting for Spider-Man. There is still the possibility of The Lizard appearing as every film has some cameos by Doctor Curt Connors. I personally would like to see Mysterio show up sometime soon and maybe the Vulture? The Vulture is an old man though and isn’t the best villain. Doctor Octopus is my favourite Spidey villain and that was covered well in Spider-Man 2.
Final Verdict: Very high on the cheese factor, plus being pulled in too many directions makes this installment of Spider-Man the least appealing of the three of them. It’s still a decent flick though…heck, it’s Spider-Man. You have to remember that he IS cheesy in the comics. But it was just a little too much.
On Tuesday, I surprised Vero with a night at the National Arts Center for a play called 7 Important Things. I really didn’t know much about it other than it had to do with rebellious/counterculture elements which intrigued me after reading The Rebel Sell. Sara and Chris went to see it and they had a 50/50 split on liking/not liking it.
After getting a bowl of chili at Tim Horton’s (warning: this may not be a good idea on a date), we got to the NAC and stood in line for awhile and then found out a seat in the Theatrical Studio.
At first I thought the stage was extremely minimalist. A chair here, a podium there. But my thoughts changed throughout the course of the play.
The play follows the character of George and his life in becoming a hippie, to the destruction of hippie living and more responsible living (aka working) and then the punk movement of the 80s and then now. It follows his path through life and how he feels that he is searching for happiness through these movements, but in the end, he isn’t really that happy at all with the way his life has been lived.
The play bounces from the past and present at many points and uses first and third person narratives frequently. There is also the breaking of the fourth wall when they speak with the audience at various points. I loved the use of music – contemporary music; as well as the use of different forms of media; the lighting, the projectors with images from their past. I loved how if an image was being projected, one person moved the projector while the other held up a giant white placard and followed the image. Very cool. The set became a multi-purpose set as different areas were lit differently and represented different periods in George’s life.
There were also discussions on marketing and counterculture and the art of rebeling agasint something. Nothing new to hear but it was interesting to see it on stage.
I have now started to realize what sort of theatre I enjoy. After being cultured for the past two years, I feel that the modern/contemporary plays really hit the spot in my heart. I love the use of music and various other technologies and not just people on a stage using their emotions. Extreme uses of music and lighthing are a personal favourite of mine which has transitioned nicely over to the theatrical rock concerts that I’ve seen: Nine Inch Nails, Tool, U2…I enjoy a good spectacle. Don’t get me wrong, I love the music, but the visual is an equally important piece.
I would recommend going to see this play. I think it’s here for the remainder of the week here in Ottawa.
Krista lent me The Rebel Sell which lays out a critique on mass consumerism and counterculture which occurs in our society today. I really enjoyed this book as it touched upon a lot of thoughts I’ve had on society but have never been able to articulate in such a coherent matter.
It took a look at how life has changed since the 60s and how progress has affected our lives. It also takes a look at how culture can’t be jammed as the culture becomes the counterculture. Let me explain if you don’t understand what I’m talking about.
Ever see those funny advertisements that mock an organization? Let’s take the Nike picture posted above which I found on Google. This is an example of culture jamming. Where someone mocks something about our culture and misrepresents the original image of the organization. So I’m assuming that they are either talking about how we are slaves to buying Nike shoes just because of the brand name, or maybe they are talking about sweat shops that are used to create the shoe. I’m really grasping at that one as I don’t really have any information leading to whether or not that’s true. Anyhow, this isn’t the point. I’m trying to show you what culture jamming is.
So if you think about the original culture jammers, we’re looking at the hippies. They were against the way the world was. They wished to rebel. They grew their hair long (gasp!) and listened to awesome music. Let’s fast forward to the punk movement – wild hair, piercings here and there, mish-mash of clothing. This was the way to counter the culture which was upon us.
Thing is, culture then catches onto this underground movement and commodifies it. Instead of buying safety pins from your local pharmacy store which has been done since they were created, you can now buy a box of ‘PUNK STYLE SAFETY PINS!!!” or something to that effect. The punk style can now be bought at your local Wal-Mart. The concept of counter-culture has been turned on its head and now the counter-culture movement has to move elsewhere.
This is what Kurt Cobain had a problem with (amongst other things). Here was the underground alternative movement. We were tired of the glam which was the 80s. We wished for a simpler time where we could just haul on a pair of jeans and a plaid shirt over a t-shirt and that’s that. No glam, no fuss. Grow our hair long and that’s that. But then out of nowhere – whammo! It became popular culture. What the heck? How did that happen? Somehow in the middle of this, he (unfortunately) became the figurehead of a movement. The alternative movement. It killed him. It tore him up inside. He didn’t want to be this person that people looked up to. He just wanted to make music and have fun. Look at the album In Utero. Let’s all be honest…is this not a cry against the masses who loved Nevermind? I digress…
So there you have it. There’s a lot more to this book than just the counterculture movement. They have some fascinating looks at consumerism. Let’s take the free-range chickens. They are more expensive to buy but you get the peace of mind knowing that they had vast fields to roam inside of instead of being kept in cages. It was interesting to point out that on a nice warm day they would rather stay in the shade in a corner of the barn anyhow. So, why do we pay more? For peace of mind? Come on. So they take a look at a lot of these examples and infuse the book with amusing anecdotes about child life and good thought-provoking theories. I think Uncle Gerry would enjoy this book (if you’re reading this entry right now, pick up this book!)
I would highly recommend this book to anyone. It definitely is a thinking book and not your average Star Wars novel. There were a few chapters where I had to really hunker down to get through, but for the most part, it was a fascinating look at how we live our lives today and how we feed the machine which is our society.
Wow, I am really slow on playing catchup. I think it’s because I want these entries to be of a high caliber and catch the emotions, the fun times and the sheer insanity that can only be recreated in one of those cool machines from the movie Strange Days. You know, the ones where you can relive your old videotapes like YOU WERE ACTUALLY THERE. If you have not seen this movie, go nab it. I love it. Post-apocalyptic future and all of that jazz.
Sunday we awoke to clear heads all around and after hauling Philipp out of bed to get a bite to eat, we found a diner on the corner. I made the mistake of ordering the smoked meat sandwich with the free soup. Let me tell you, if you know there is a plate of fries and a sandwich coming your way anyhow, the soup is a little too much. That being said, I had to leave the entire plate of fries as the sandwich was the size of my head! Everyone was impressed at the sheer size of this monstrosity which I gazed at wondering if I could attempt such a feat. Heck, I was hitting the road home soon, so why not?
On our way back we said our goodbyes to Philipp and then popped into a geek store which had statues and action figures of your favourite comic book and movie heroes. Very cool, but very expensive. They even had a replica of the Terminator series robots for $9,000. That’s a pretty penny to spend, but it was life size!
Mike and I cruised home in the late afternoon…it was a beautiful drive through the countryside and it rejuvenated me after a hard weekend of late nights. I think I’m going to start taking alternate routes to places so I can admire the scenery.
I headed over to Vero’s place where she was unfortunately not there. She still doesn’t have a phone at her place so it’s a gamble whenever I head over there. Along the way, I picked up some form of tree at the Garden Center as a housewarming gift which I named Jacque Letrie. I left it on her porch and headed home. A few hours later she called from the mall and I headed back to see her and she had a good laugh when she saw Jacques sitting alone on the front porch! After hanging out in her pad for awhile (which hasn’t been organized yet due to the painters being late to paint the place (15 days late! Inexcusable!)) I then headed to the National Arts Center with tickets in hand to see the legendary B.B. King.
I arrived and checked out the merchandise booth which had some amazing deals! I especially like the limited edition lithograph of a painting of B.B. for $25. I passed on that purchase and picked up a sweet vintage tour poster for $10. When I say vintage, it had a vintage style to it but still listed the tour dates of the current tour. Very cool. Haven’t seen a $10 tour poster in a long time. Something tells me that the King of Blues doesn’t overcharge for merchandise like we see a lot of other bands do.
Benoit, Cinthia, Trish and Melissa found me and after waiting for Mike for awhile, we figured we should head into the auditorium as the show was starting in 5 minutes. Upon entering I told Trish how I really had to go to the washroom but she suggested I wait for the intermission or be locked out for the first half!
We found Mike already in his seat and we took our seats in the second row of the balcony area. While far away from the stage, I don’t know if I would like to have spent much more money to sit closer (they were expensive seats to begin with). The promoter of the show came out to tell us that we sold out the fastest on the entire tour and everyone was excited for the night! The backing band came out and did their thing for 15 minutes and then the King of Blues himself comes strutting out in a gold jacket! We gave him a standing ovation before he even got to his seat and you could see he was enjoying the attention.
At 81 years old, this man still has fun. I would say in the 2 hour concert, half of that time was spent telling us stories of his youth, or how ‘young’ his band members were (young being 60+ in age!) and how the world works in the eyes of the King.
Here’s some examples of some funny stories (for my memory bank of a blog) (all paraphrased of course!) B.B. King: Now, this next song sometimes gets the men in trouble. I want the men to sing the chorus ‘(ain’t it) Just Like a Woman.’ Now sometimes I’ve had men come to me and say they had a great time at the concert but after singing that chorus, their lady friend just wasn’t impressed with them! Then you go home after a good night out with a lady and she don’t make no supper. I’m not talking about the food either. 😉
B.B. King: Now, years ago, a man could go out and gamble a little and bring home $10 – $15 to his lady and she would accept it without a question and give you a kiss and say “Thank you B.B.”. Nowadays, you bring home $200-$300 and the first thing she says is “Where were you all night long B.B.? How do you have all that money? Were you GAMBLING? Unbelievable!” but then they take it anyway and there’s no kiss for B.B.
He also talked about how it was Mother’s Day and how we should all love our mothers, but also love the men who will eventually make the women in the room mothers. I would like to say that B.B. King put a special shout out to my own mother, but that never happened even though I passed him a lot of cash to do so. (Really Mom, I did!). At this moment I’d like to wish Mom a Happy Mother’s Day 5 days after the fact. I live by the credo ‘better late than never’. I would also like to point out that when I ordered flowers on the Monday morning, the lady at the flower shop said to me “Now, I was going to put away the Mother’s Day decorations this morning but I KNEW there would be someone like you giving me a call today!”
In the last 30 minutes there was less talk and a lot more jamming. This is the high point of the night for me. To see the King of Blues in action. He was having a great time that night. I don’t know how long his concerts usually go for but I had a feeling that he was only scheduled for 90 minutes but he ended up playing for 2 hours. He was very reluctant to be leaving the stage. He thrives on his audience (which was an excellent audience by the way…very respectful). At the end of the night, he stood up (with the help of friends) and threw out guitar picks and what appeared to be gold chains of sorts. I mentioned how it was ‘Bling from the King!’.
Let’s not forget that they were in the middle of When Love Came to Town and no one shouted out the chorus line so he stopped the entire band and gave us a lecture of how unbelievable it was not to know this song as U2 wrote it and how they are just as famous as B.B. Something tells me this is part of the humour in the show and they just play off of it as they did this a few times in the night.
The concert brought revelations of how blues in the past (if not the present which I don’t know about) was played and there was a lot of interaction and storytelling involved. It also makes me realize that I have to start checking out local artists and not the big names in town all the time. Sure, they are great because of who they are, but I’m sure there are a ton of local artists out there (here’s a shout out to my fave band from Ottawa – For The Mathematics who coincidentally have an interview posted at Chartattack.com today!).
Too bad that there was no intermission as my bladder exploded and had to be put back together again.
If anyone can afford to and has the opportunity to go see B.B. King in concert, do it. He is amazing. Everyone had a great time and it wasn’t your average concert.
Waking up to a head full of cobwebs is not the best way to start your Saturday in Montreal! We were all feeling a little rough (except for Philipp who probably had the help of the two schwarmas before heading to bed) so we took our sweet time getting ready to hit the road.
We ended up at Schwartz’s for a smoked meat sandwich which amazed me as there was no lineup and there was a table available for us! I was ecstatic! It was a good sandwich and I love the pickle I had to order on the side. Philipp was not impressed with his frankfurter as it was a weiner.
Carrie, Mike and I walked around downtown for awhile, hitting up Simons along the way where I got two pairs of jeans. Can’t go wrong. I dig Simons. It’s a trendy store and I always find good deals there. We then headed for Old Montreal where at the point in the day after three hours of walking we all decided it was time to get to a pub and have a beer. We ended up in my favourite watering hole down in Old Montreal called Les Deux Pirouettes and had some soup and beer. We were also next to the water which was nice. I would like to go at night one day as I have been told that there are a few live bands during the night.
After heading home and having a glorious pasta dish by Philipp, Carrie showed me FaceBook which is a pretty neat piece of web-ware. Mike and I then headed out to the Arcade Fire concert at the Maurice Richard Arena.
After hopping off the subway we entered this massive lineup which I quickly found out was the lineup for people who had to pick up their tix. Lucky for us, I got them mailed to us and we skipped the line. My excitement was building as I had only seen the band open for U2 in 2005 so I was interested in seeing their entire show.
Unfortunately we hit a snag. Mike showed the ticket person our tickets and she told us they weren’t floor tickets! I was dumbfounded as we walked up the stairs to the arena sitting section as we were holding general admission tickets. How is this possible? How could general admission not be the floor section?
Our answer appeared before us as the entire arena was a free-for-all. That’s right…finding two seats together was like finding a needle in a haystack. It was awful. I was really discouraged. We finally found a couple of seats near the back of the arena. On the positive side, it wasn’t a huge arena like the ScotiaBank Place or the Bell Centre…it was a local hockey rink so in the grand scheme of things, we weren’t too far away from the stage. But it was a pain when one of us had to stay with our seats at all times. Plus, they hard seats. I had to manage carrying four beer back to our seat which wasn’t accomplished without spilling a few drops on myself.
St-Vincent opened the show…it is fronted by Annie Clark who is also a member of The Polyphonic Spree and Sufjan Steven‘s touring band (info taken from their myspace site). While I was super impressed with her guitar playing, the arrangements of the songs were erratic and could have flowed better. All in all, I give her and then band a thumb up performance.
After checking out the merchandise booth and scoffing at the $30 tour poster which listed all the Canadian dates (I would only buy a $30 poster if it would just list the Montreal dates I think) I returned to the seats and waited for the lights to fall. (Edit: In the year 2021 when I re-read this post I had a good laugh because I just bought this poster from Ebay for $100 thinking “I wonder why I never bought that poster in the first place? Now I know! I was frugal.)
The concert started with five small round video screens showing us a woman going on a biblical tirade which fit into the whole Neon Bible theme of the album. The band (with ten members!) appeared on stage and got into Black Mirror which is a decent tune off of the new album. The crowd on the floor was pretty intense whereas the stands were pretty lackluster. No standing up whatsoever. Seeing that my state of mind was “I NEED SLEEP!!!” I didn’t bother standing up at all either.
The sound was pretty muddy throughout the arena and Mike commented that it wasn’t loud enough. This got me wondering if this is always the case when sitting so far away from the stage as it was the same when seeing The Who in Ottawa.
I was super impressed with the set list as they pretty well played most of both the Funeral and Neon Bible albums. This is a rarity on this tour as they tend to focus more on their new album. I also read that a few tunes made their first appearance on the tour at this show so we were in for a treat! I actually got a bootleg of the concert already so I am excited to take a listen to it.
While the two percussionists weren’t as wild as the first time around in Ottawa (with ski-doo helmets and drumsticks) the entire band was full of energy – always moving around the stage and rocking out hard.
We ended up standing up near the end once Power Out and Rebellion started playing. At this point, the night took the most amazing turn. The concert had ended and the crowd just cried for more as well as singing the last refrain of Rebellion until they came back out. I was amazed that it kept up but the Arcade Fire know how to create some memorable chants in their music catalogue. They ended with My Body Is A Cage and Keep the Car Running. They then left the stage again but were called back once more because the crowd demanded it (at this point I congratulate the Montreal crowd in giving them a warm welcome home. You could feel the magic in the air at this moment in the night!) and they ended with their anthematic tune Wake Up.
All in all, I give the show two thumbs up and would probably add a third thumb if we were on the floor and if they played Black Wave. 😉 But really, these are minor points and I’m glad that we experienced this grand event.
After the concert we hopped onto the subway which was hell as I messed up and when transferring we went the wrong direction! We then had to wait awhile in the muggy, humid, stinky subway station until we finally caught one back to Philipp’s place. After having a few drinks, Carrie managed to get us in the party spirit (it was 2 in the morning!) and we headed down the street to this amazing bar where the band was unfortunately done playing but they had these great tunes from the 50s-60s playing so Carrie and I danced the rest of the night away. I also spoke to the drummer of the band who thought B.B. King had passed away last year and was in awe that I was seeing him the next night in Ottawa. We also had a good laugh looking at the drunkest man alive – you know the guy – the one who at the end of the night is struggling to finish his last beer but can’t just put it down as he had paid good money for it. But then he stumbles out of there.
We also had another Quebec treat on the way home – a nice poutine from Rapido. Mmm boy it was great!
Setlist:
Black Mirror
No Cars Go
Haiti
Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
In The Backseat
Une Année Sans Lumière
The Well and The Lighthouse
Intervention
Ocean of Noise
Neighbourhood #1 (Tunnels)
(Antichrist Television Blues)
Neighbourhood #3 (Power Out) ->Rebellion (Lies)
Encore: My Body Is A Cage, Keep The Car Running, Wake Up
After traipsing around Ottawa on Friday afternoon running some errands, we finally hit the road to Montreal after picking Carrie up at the bus stop.
I love driving to Montreal down the 174. It’s a more relaxing and scenic drive. I would recommend it to anyone. My only beef is that I wish you could see the river at all times during the trek. That would be amazing.
We arrive at the soccer field with time to spare and eventually see Sven the Flagman doing his flag thing on the turf. Seeing that it’s getting cold out and the game is still on, we head into the sports bar and order a pitcher of beer. Philipp and Sven join us later to have some good laughs with Carrie’s remote controlled fart machine and we have a few more beer before heading out.
Let’s keep in mind that Mike has never really experience the city of Montreal yet so we’re doing our best to be tour guides during the drive home. I had to point out all the good spots for a smoked meat sandwich.
As soon as we find a parking space for the weekend (very hard to do sometimes), we unload the car, crack a beer and head to the roof where the party is already started. I meet Philipp’s roommate Jean who I assumed was French (due to his name) but it turns out he is from PEI! We have a great talk about music and I realize that his passion in life is also music. I love it when you meet someone who shares the passion with you and you talk about the little things like ‘What song do you really want to hear at the concert? Or “What’s your favourite track off of this album?”. That’s what music lovers are all about…talking about the little things.
It was good to see Morad again and he brought along a few workmates – Shane and Wayne. After hanging out for awhile we realize it’s midnight and decide its time to head out to the party. I have no idea whose party this was or where it was in Montreal but somehow Morad knew them. We walk in there and I think I’m getting strange looks as Sven had painted the German flag on my face at the soccer field. This also brings up a good story of how he did this to the famous Schwarma Nazi back in Ottawa and he cried out “I’ve been Germanized!!!”.
There were a good number of people at the party so we just found a spot in the hall to call our own and begun the mingling with the crowd and meeting people. I wasn’t around for this event but supposedly someone came up and asked the group if they were Anglophone and then walked away! Perhaps someone reading this can give me more specifics on this event as I wasn’t around for it.
Highlights of the night:
There was a CREEPY car out in the backyard. Looked like something that was lost in the woods and there is a dead body in it. Jean, Philipp and I were in fear mode walking near it. There was just something about it…no air in the tires, parked at this angle to the house which you feel could never get back out of. *shudder*.
Jean came up to me at one time in the night and says “I think some guy is trying to make a move on some girl who is passed out.” After he points this out to me, I suppose the guy did look strange hugging this girl who is passed out on a bed. But it’s a loud party, I can’t tell what’s really happening. To prevent anything from happening, I haul the guy off of her and tuck her into bed. Let’s point out that this isn’t an empty bedroom. There are at least a dozen other people partying in this bedroom so I doubt anything was going to happen. But you know how you get when you have a few beer in you. You don’t really think.
So then this girl grabs my arm and says she needs to go to the bathroom so we haul her to the bathroom and I leave Jean with her to look after her while I get another beer. When I come back, the original guy is there with her and Jean! “Jean!”, I cry. “I thought you were supposed to be looking after her!” He says “I was! But he just showed up!”
So we keep an eye on this individual and then when she saunters back to bed this guy is getting close to her and talking and whatnot so we have to intervene again but then the girl laughs and realizes what we are doing. She tells me the guy is her friend and it’s alright. While we all laughed at the situation and Jean and I pat each other on the back for a job well done. Hey, we didn’t know they were friends; this guy could have been a creep. In the end it all turned out alright. I can see Dad reading this entry right now and thinking “You are asking for a fight if you haul a guy off of a woman.” No worries, he was smaller and I had Jean as backup in case things turned rough!
There was this guy playing some great guitar and there were some good Francophone tunes being sung in the living room. It was a good way to end the night.
Let’s not forget how someone found this mask of either George Bush or Richard Nixon (someone said it was Trudeau!) and I put it on and walked around the kitchen. I was getting the craziest looks and I don’t think the women really appreciated the absurdity of the moment. Clearly these people were not up for a good time with random people they didn’t know!
After we left we went for this amazing schwarma at a place called ‘Sara’. It was so good that Philipp ended up eating two of them as I had picked one up for Mike (who was in a different cab) but he had grabbed some other food on the way home.
All in all, we had a great night and we would like to thank Morad for bringing us to this shindig, as well as Philipp and Jean for being excellent hosts that night!
Wayne: Are you on FaceBook? Me: No. Wayne: Me neither! But everyone is asking me if I am…like I’m their friend or something! Once I say ‘no’ they just leave me in the dust. Me: It’s like we are oppressed.
Saturday Night – Carrie on the computer Carrie: So it just keeps track of all your contacts and friend’s contacts and whatnot… Me: It is actually a pretty neat system.
Sunday Afternoon – Matt contacts me on MSN. Matt: Are you on FaceBook yet? Me: No. Matt: What’s your birth date? Me: (insert my birth date here.) You should know this Matt. (insert random other chats for the next few minutes until this appears) Matt: What would you say is your primary email address. Me: Primary email address? What the heck…Matt, are you signing me up for FaceBook?! Matt: Yeah, you see if I tag my pictures with your name, then I can click on it and it goes to your profile. Me: But I don’t want a profile. This is identity theft! Matt: Technically it’s not until I actually use your profile. Look, I’m sending it to your email. Just accept the profile and never look at it again but then I get to have cool tagged profiles on my pictures. Me: I have the upper hand. I have just deleted the email. Matt: What? No! Argh. Now I will have to actually go make a profile for you and use it. Me: Hence, the identity theft.
(this exchange is heavily paraphrased from memory)
Anyhow, there you have it. A piece of social networking software has infiltrated my life during each day of the weekend. And I don’t even use it.
I especially love how we were oppressed at the Friday night party. If you want to really network socially, be prepared to do it in person people. It was honestly the lamest thing I have ever seen when someone wouldn’t bother talking to us because we didn’t have a FaceBook profile.
Last night was starting off well. Got home from work and cooked a little supper before heading out for the concert. Mike and I were getting pumped up for the weekend.
We then separated ways as he went to pick up Krista and I dropped my car off at the Mazda service depot for some servicing. I perused the used cars while waiting for Mike and Krista. My car is being sold for $15K. Not too shabby right about now. Actually, that is pretty slick considering I only have under $10K to pay off mine. Does that mean I could sell mine for $15K and pocket an extra $5K? Mike pointed out the money I’ve spent over the years may be up to the $5K difference. It would be interesting to calculate it out.
While driving down to the concert, Mike cuts through a yellow light which he should or should not have done, but no worries. But then a cop throws his cherries on behind us and Mike is freaking out.
Then when he pulls over, the cop blows by him. Success! He wasn’t after us! At this point I recall my story on how I thought I got pulled over in Quebec in a speed trap but it wasn’t the case so I spent a whole pile of cash in Montreal considering it was now considered bonus money. You know the sort…you don’t have to use it to pay a ticket, so it’s yours to splurge!
Later on in the trip…
Me: “Do you guys smell something?
Mike & Krista: “No, what?”
Me: “I don’t know…something burning?”
When we come to an intersection I notice wisps of smoke coming from the passenger side of the truck.
We start moving again…
Me: “Mike, I don’t know but I think your truck is smoking.”
Mike: “What? Really? What’s going on?”
So I manage to hang myself out the window to peruse but no smoke is to be found. Mind you, we are traveling at this point. As soon as we pull up to another intersection a cloud of smoke envelops the truck as we realize it is definitely coming from our vehicle. At this point, let’s point out that a fire truck was passing by and kind of looked at us and we wondered if they would have to hose the vehicle down.
I get out to quickly check it (as we are in traffic) and realize it’s the brake that is smoking. We pull over in a safe spot and sure enough, the brake is seized. As if! So we’re standing there and a random jogger drops by and asks if she can help. Considering I didn’t see a cellular phone on her, I really don’t know what she could have done to help, but it was nice of her to stop.
So we analyzed the situation and realized that we have no tools in the truck and even if we did, there’s not much we could do. There was fear of the tire exploding as the rim was super-hot from the friction being caused. We then hightailed it to Canadian Tire and they said they would take a look at it that night and give us a call in the morning.
With that, we looked at our options and realized that we would call a cab and enjoy the rest of the night! We had a great cabbie on our trip out to the concert. Not too talkative. Just the way I like ’em. We arrive and we can hear the final notes of ‘Welcome to the Black Parade’. No worries…we’ve missed about half of ‘The Black Parade’ album as the concert started at 8PM instead of the usual 9PM. Remind me to write a letter to the venue…
We head down to the floor with a beer amidst a sea of teenagers. This is a decent thing as they are all short. We had a great view of the stage. The stage was amazing. I had heard rave reviews about The Black Parade tour as it was more of a theatrical spectacle than anything. Very much in the vein of The Wall or Ziggy Stardust. Dressed in marching band uniforms they performed in character while playing the entire album. The lighting, the visuals, the sound…all was amazing! I would definitely recommend anyone to go see the show if they have a chance. It’s a grand spectacle.
Highlights of the Concert:
The flames shooting out for a solid minute during the song Mama where they sing about going to Hell.
The thousands of screaming teenagers. I do enjoy that they are an enthusiastic crowd!
I enjoyed how the ended The Black Parade set but then came back out of performance outfits and ripped into their older hits. Very nice segueway. Although I was disappointed at how they are covering AC/DC’s For Those About To Rock but they ended it when it was getting good!
There was an amazing, amazing dancer in front of us at one point. I could not believe my eyes. She was doing a cross between the two-step and the hokey pokey. It was a beautiful. It was definitely worth the price of admission alone. She was flailing around so much that she got Mike right in the stomach! She was also wearing a fanny pack. Beautiful.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed The Black Parade set, but I must admit that the other half of the concert reminded me of the last time we saw them and I wasn’t overly impressed. The singer has a very hard time of hitting the vocal high notes as on the album. Perhaps it was due to it being at the end of the concert, but still. Kind of disappointing. But the first half was stellar.
After the concert we hightail it outside to discover there are no buses! We assumed they were coming later as the concerts are usually done at 11PM but this one finished at 9:30PM. We then scoured the area for a cab and lo and behold, our same cabbie was there! Excellent! We reveled in this occurrence and got dropped off at the closest bus station so we wouldn’t be paying $60 to get a cab into downtown.
We then headed to Krista’s to watch some Grey’s Anatomy. We also picked up an amazing panzerotti from the Pavorazzi Pizza joint. I’ve never been there before but the panzo was pretty darn good.
Krista gets extra kudos as she not only helped me get some work done at work so we could leave at a decent hour, but she also drove Mike and I home as we were vehicle-less.
Wait, where does the canola oil come into the story?! Well, it turns out that a few weeks back Mike did some repairs on his brakes himself and didn’t have any grease in the house so he used canola oil (aka cooking oil) to grease the parts. I had a good laugh when hearing this and I tormented him with this fact all night as I believed the canola oil to be the culprint the brakes seizing.
This was not the case as we found out this morning after calling Canadian Tire. Alas, they just seized and messed up the other front brake and the ordeal will cost $700. Ouch. But will that destroy Mike’s wild weekend in Montreal?
