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Concert Reviews

Review: Our Lady Peace in Toronto – Nov 2005

Let’s recap:
I won two tickets to a win-to-get-in OLP concert at Massey Hall, along with a bus ride which we didn’t bother taking and a night at the Bond Place Hotel.

On Sunday, November 6, Vero and I awoke and went to watch Dwayne’s kids swim in the public pool which was fun. Aidan is fun to watch as the kid never has a frown on his face. The world is his oyster.

We drove downtown Toronto to go pick up our tickets to the show and ended up with some Rogers swag (mugs, satchel bag!!!) and a sweet $50 in cash for spending money. YEAH!

We then met up with Ryan and Robyn as seen in the previous entry about Body Worlds 2.

We get to the concert hall and find ourselves in the left balcony pretty well in front of the stage. Not too shabby seats. It was an interesting birds eye view of the stage. I thought the floor may have been better but I really enjoyed this view.

Setlist:

Picture
Starseed
Innocent
Angels/Losing/Sleep
Clumsy
Wipe That Smile Off Your Face
In Repair
Car Crash
Where Are You
Is Anybody Home?
Al Genina (Leave the Light On)
Waited
Walking in Circles
Thief
Boy
Will the Future Blame Us
Superman’s Dead

4am
The World on a String
Apology
Somewhere Out There
Naveed

Highlights of the night:
– Entire concert being filmed for what we thought would be a live DVD, but turns out to be a Rogers-on-Demand concert (still great! I’ll have to download it when it comes out!)
– Raine Maida climbing the speaker stack to go into the right balcony during Will the Future Blame Us. AMAZING! I was telling Vero earlier of how Eddie Vedder did this sort of thing in concert halls and then balcony-dove into the crowd. Nuts. Turns out that a few people from Ottawa U (friends of Vero) were actually RIGHT THERE in the right balcony where he was. Insane. Wish it would have been us.
– New acoustic intro to Clumsy
– Rant of George W. Bush during Wipe That Smile Off Your Face. “This is war, now.” Amazing.

All in all, I would have to say it’s probably the best OLP concert I’ve been to (surprisingly since I was in seats). I felt that they’ve hit a stride with their new album which I hope they run with.

iplaying: One [Live in Montreal – 2001-10-12 – That’s the concert I was at!] – U2. Bono is going on about meeting with Paul Martin about abolishing the African debt at the next G8 Summit. Interesting to see what has happened in 2005 and what was spoken about in 2001.

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An Apology


I’m going to send out an apology right now to everyone who I’ve been meaning to have over to my place, but just haven’t had over yet.

I live a nomadic life nowadays, where I either spend my time over at Vero’s or at class, or at work, or travelling through all of that. I would say that I am at my house a total of 10 hours a week (not including sleep time).

I find it ironic that as soon as I buy a house, I am no longer at it. I do not regret this as I want to focus my energies on education (and the new relationship of course. Props out to Vero!)

In order to ensure our security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first GALACTIC EMPIRE…wait a second, where did that come from?

What I meant to say is that the first annual Palmer Christmas Bash shall be forthcoming in December. I’ll check my exam schedule and I also suggest you let me know what Saturday’s are good for you. I’m assuming the 10th/17th are the ideal choice for people.

Also, hokey Christmas sweaters are definitely mandatory. You have enough time to knit one.

I can forsee this to be a grand event involving decorating Palmer’s pad for the holidays…we shall string popcorn, put up a tree, hang mistletoe around…dip into the eggnog and apple cider!

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Surreal Feeling

As I walk on the Ottawa U campus, I look around at the falling leaves, feel the chill in the air and see my girlfriend’s photo on a poster.

What?

Vero is quite the photogenic person. She appears on a billboard on the campus that has been there for a few years, and now she is the poster child for the Winter Challenge.

It’s strange just waiting for an elevator and looking at a poster with your girlfriend on it. It’s cool though…she should get royalties.

But imagine yourselves looking at someone you know on posters plastered all over your building.

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Payola

Contractor guy comes to me the first week I move in and says “Hey, I’m building the mini-mall in the back of you and need to use some electricity to recharge the batteries in my scissor-lifts”. Being a good samaritan I say ‘No Problem’ and he says he’ll give me $10/day.

I’m thinking that is a good deal. I swear most of the people who talked to me was saying “Oh my God Ryan, you’re going to get screwed when you get your bill! You don’t know how much electricity he’s using!”

They have a point, but I’m thinking there’s no way that he’ll go above $10/day. I mean…electricity bills are under $150 for 2 months usually (at least they are for me).

Got a cool $100 from the guy a few weeks ago.
Got my bill yesterday.
Verdict?
My electricity bill came out to $70 for the last two months.

Booya. I just got someone to pay for my bill plus have enough to buy a case of beer.

Lesson Learned: Don’t think everyone in the world is out to scam you. Sometimes you get rewarded for helping others.

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Where the heck are those TPS Reports?

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=18325

An excellent review of Office Space: Special Edition. I was tempted to pick this up at Wal-Mart yesterday.

Speaking of Wal-Mart, no bonus DVD with copies of Revenge of the Sith at Canadian Wal-Marts! Booo!

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Review: Saw II

We’re going to see Saw 2 tonight at SilverCity if anyone wants to join. We’re also meeting up at Moxie’s at 5:30. Need a reservation so if you want in, let us know so we can up the reservation number.

Heck, why make a new entry when I can just edit this one?

Alright, so Joe, Trish and I went to Moxie’s for some great grub. I recommend the Shanghai Fat Noodles. They were tres fat. AND THE WASHROOMS! My Lord! I now want a urinal with a tv in front of it. This washroom had tvs, a fireplace and I’m pretty sure that dude would have wiped my ass if I asked him to. It was great.

Shopped around Future Shop and Chapters and then headed to the movie. Picked up the new Star Wars Insider. I must get the Star Wars Fan Club membership instead of picking up these magazines at the newstand. I think the membership costs $50, and six magazines a year cost $60. You do the math. PLUS, I get access to the archives on their website. Sweet.

What can I say about Saw II? Throughout the movie I felt that it wasn’t holding my interest quite as it did as the first movie. It was decent, but not what I was expecting for a sequel.

Until the end! In true Saw-fashion, the ending kicked ass and I left the movie satisfied.

I recommend this movie to only those not of the faint of heart. I don’t think Trish particularly cared for it. I think Saw was pretty gruesome, but I think Saw II got pretty crazy at the end. Don’t know if the kids would care for it.

Question of the night: Does the ending of a movie make the movie? Let’s analyze…did I care for the entire movie up until the end? It was decent. Not the best, but decent. Nothing really happened. A few crazy scenes here and there, but nothing over the top. What the heck am I saying? It was all over the top…but in between the crazy scenes it didn’t really engage me. But here I am saying to go see this movie because I thought overall it was great, but the ending may be telling me to say that.

So, can you think of movies you’ve seen where you thought the film was mediocre, but the ending made up for it?

I can think of one. My fave Matrix movie – The Matrix Reloaded. I am more satisfied if I just cut to the scene where they visit the Merovingian. That’s where the movie takes off for the last hour. Non-stop action. Maybe this is a bad example considering an entire hour of a movie can’t be considered an ending.

nowplaying: Pennies by The Smashing Pumpkins (Billy’s Gravity Demos I)

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Misanthropic Misenchanted Youth

So every time I get a question pertaining to my life from an e-mail (mostly from Robyn) I figure, I may as well write about it in my blog to update everyone.

School: So far, so good. Great actually. Just got a mid-term back…70%. Not the best in the world, but I felt better after the Professor said the average was 65% and that is consistent with every year he teaches.

Query: Why the heck wouldn’t he just make it a tad more easier so students can get a better mark? Shouldn’t he try and make the tests so someone can potentially get in the 90s?

Received my essay back from the other class and received a cool 78%. Nice. I’m on a roll. Next up, must sign up for two other classes for the Winter term. Vero kept saying I should sign up before they all fill up in which I just procrastinated. Now I don’t know if I’ll get the section I want. D’oh! I’ll see if Vero can work her Ottawa U magic like last time. This time around, I want to take classes on Monday and Tuesday. I found that Tuesday and Thursdays broke up my week too much and that I haven’t had much stability in the social/housing/getting groceries department. We’ll see how back-to-back classes treats me.

Next up: A research essay that I think I’m going to swing for both classes. Two birds, one stone, right?


Star Wars: Where would this blog be without Star Wars? Episode III came out on DVD yesterday. I am very excited to check out the documentaries and deleted scenes. I, myself did not purchase it as I am holding out for a great box set in the future. However, I did manage to find a great bootleg copy on Somerset St. for $10. That will hold me over for the time being.

Got the Art of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith book yesterday in the mail. It’s my first ‘Art of’ book…looks pretty cool! I am enjoying seeing how a design morphs into a final product. There is also a screenplay inside that I will take a look at since it has some extra scenes (such as Qui-Gon talking with Yoda about living on through the Force.)

Other than that, go check out the wild Hallowe’en costumes on the photo gallery!

nowplaying: Jackboot by the Smashing Pumpkins (Billy’s Gravity Demos I)

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Lancelot

If anyone would care to go to Medievel Times in Toronto this coming Saturday, November 5th at 7:30, let me know! Vero and I will be in Toronto to see OLP on the Sunday. Tix come out to $75.

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Fourth Horseman

This was my Hallowe’en costume which was a great hit. Surprisingly, it did not stink and if you put a t-shirt inside as padding, you can wear it for a good five hours.

You can see some pictures from Hallowe’en up on my picture gallery. Unfortunately, I left them uploading as I came to work and it stopped during upload. I have this problem with bittorrent where my Internet connection crashes. If anyone knows the solution, contact me. I’ll get the rest of them up tonight.

Last Night (October 31st): I decided to wear this costume outside in my driveway while sitting on a rocking chair to hand out candy. I had some great comments and unfortuntately met some neighbours for the first time this way. I say unfortunately because the first kid to come to my place was a child from two doors down and then he started crying. Ah well. I also had a kid run up my driveway but bailed as soon as she saw me. I think I gave out candy to 85 kids (rough estimate) which was great. I found that the peak time is 6:00 – 7:00. There were literally no kids after 7:00 (except for Ryley who adored the Star Wars comics Joe and I picked up for him). Is there a by-law which says “No Trick or Treating after 7:00?”. I got cold after 1 1/2 hours of sitting outside and went in for the rest of the night where Eric, Annie and Trish hung out for awhile. Eric and Annie said they ran out of candy and had to bail from their house because they felt bad.

The pumpkin finally met it’s demise as I bowled it down the lawn and it hit the tree and smashed.

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DTS Ahoy

Last night, Eric dropped by to watch the uncut version of American Psycho. I love the satire in this movie and I think Eric enjoyed it also. The ending gets a little wonky but whatever. Christian Bale is the man.

Anyhow, I was commenting on how the stereo seemed all wonky (as in the vocals were coming through the rear channels) and so we toyed around with the entire setup for a good 45 minutes.

The ultimate test was when I popped in All That Could Have Been – NIN Live. But the DTS didn’t work at all! That took awhile to figure out but as soon as it was discovered we sat there in bliss at the sound. I really can say that I feel that I’m at the concert while watching this thing. Amazing.

I am now pumped to see NIN with Matt in a few weekends. Hopefully we can exchange our tickets to get floor seats.

Thanks to Eric for making my audio experience life changing.