Oh Bronson Center, how I used to hate thee, and now I just realize that I’ve been watching the wrong concerts within your halls.
Turns out that a balls to the wall rock concert is not my favourite thing to see at the Bronson Center…but a concert like Kathleen Edward’s show last night…it was fantastic.
Flying solo to a concert is just something I have to do once in awhile, but I was very happy to find out that my colleague Dorin was going as well so he invited me along with his friends. We managed to snag an excellent seat in the middle of the floor, right in front of a row reserved for ‘Edwards’. It was interesting to hear some comments coming from behind me during the night as it sounded like there were uncles and aunts of Kathleen sitting there.
Hannah Georgas opened up and she was decent. I didn’t really connect with what she was singing about, but I enjoyed a few of her songs. It was an interesting duo.
The band came out in full force opening with a few tunes from her new Voyageur album. I really enjoy a band like this…electric, acoustic, bass, drums, organ and a backup singer! Fantastic!
The vibe was great inside. Kathleen ranges from some very introspective softer tunes, to some rocking ones. Either way, the crowd was appreciative of an Ottawa local taking the stage and sharing some stories about how she can still remember faces around Ottawa from the times she worked at Starbucks, or how she loves this town and what it gives to her in appreciation each time she returns.
At one point she said she would address the elephant in the room and someone yelled “Where’s Jim?” and she says “Yes! Where is Jim?” Jim Bryson has been with the band for quite a few years but was currently needed elsewhere with his two day old child! But he ended up coming out for a few songs during the night. I must admit that I don’t know much about Jim Bryson other than he is quite widely known throughout Canada from his solo work, his work with the Weakerthans and with Kathleen Edwards. It was great seeing him crank out the lead guitar work and it would have been great to see him tour around with them in the past. However, I must admit that I was equally impressed with Gord Tough on guitar.
A rare second encore of ‘Our Town’ was one of my favourites of the night when she returned with an acoustic guitar and ended the night on a perfect note.
I had a fantastic night at the Bronson Center and I will welcome a nice relaxing night there anytime in the National Capital Region. Kathleen Edwards is one of the better songwriters I’ve been introduced to in the past few years and I’m lucky to have seen her electric stage presence. Special thanks to Dorin, Tannis, Jason, Melissa and Sheila for letting me share in this amazing experience!
Setlist:
Empty Threat
Chameleon/Comedian
Asking For Flowers
Pink Champagne (where she talked about how it was not really a song about a wedding, but more about a time where she drank WAY too much pink champagne)
Goodnight California (one of the more rocking tunes of the night. I was loving the solos.)
In State
Mint
Hockey Skates (with Jim Bryson)
House Full of Empty Rooms (a story about how she fell in love with her house in Hamilton but when moving on with her life had to leave it behind)
Going To Hell (one of my faves off of Voyageur and the live version did not disappoint!)
Sidecar
Back To You (I love the driving rhythm of this song)
A Soft Place to Land
12 Bellevue (with Jim Bryson)
Change the Sheets
Encore:
Six O’clock News (with Jim Bryson)
September Gurls [Big Star] (with Hannah Georgas)
Krista, Vero and I went to the Mill Street Brewpub for another night of no disappointment. Loved the service, loved the food (I had the wings which were quite amazing) and the beers were as always…tasty!
We then headed to the Bronson Center. We originally found some seats near the back on the floor but then thought we should grab some seats upstairs. I was unsure of whether or not going upstairs would be a better situation, and as it turns out, I’m thinking…not? We ended up sitting for the entire rocking event, it was hot in the joint, and at one point, it’s just nice to be able to stand up and stretch!
Iconoclast from Ottawa opened up for them. Nothing much to say. They got the energy going! But not enough for me to pick up their free CD.
Theory of a Deadman took to the stage with some tunes from their new album and by the second song there was some good crowd interaction where they had a decibel meter trying to see if the left or right side of the Center was the better.
They had a great stage presence (as always), apologized for not making Bluesfest last year, and also had an acoustic set which they introduced as their MTV Unplugged portion of the show and then mentioned it was 20 years ago that MTV Unplugged played. They also teased some excellent tunes like Nutshell by Alice in Chains and Paradise City!
It was a good mix of songs from all their albums. My only complaint would be that Tyler just couldn’t hit the high notes and they only played a 90 minute set. With four albums under your belt and 10 years together, you would think you could stretch it out to a proper two hours! But that’s all nitpicking…it was a great show. Too bad it had to be at the Bronson Center. 😉 I have no realized that I don’t mind the Bronson Center if it’s a low key performer (like Dan Mangan) where I can sit and enjoy the music.
The only thing I can say about Theory is that I’m starting to fall out of love with them…they had some excellent albums in the past, but for the last two albums, I find I’m losing interest in the rock which caters to saying how much your girlfriend drives you nuts, or songs about fighting with your girlfriend. There’s definitely a crowd who enjoys that type of music, but I’m not one of them.
Setlist:
Gentlemen
Got It Made
All Or Nothing
So Happy
Bitch Came Back
Nothing Could Come Between Us (too bad we didn’t hear Invisible Man that night!)
Not Meant To Be
The Truth Is…(I Lied About Everything)
Easy To Love You (acoustic)
Out of My Head (acoustic)
Better Off (acoustic)
Lowlife
Santa Monica (with Nutshell intro – I was trying to text Mike but then I realized they weren’t going to play the actual song)
Cocaine [Cale]
Hate My Life
Hurricane
Paradise City [GNR] [snippet]
Bad Girlfriend
The fans have spoken and they want to see more blog entries!
Last night I was over at Andréane’s place with Véro for some excellent pad thai. I really love the view from her apartment overlooking the Queensway.
She passes me a 2007 iPod Touch which she claims does not work any longer and the girl who moved out just left it there and said she could have it if she ever got it working. I found out later that Andréane’s new roommate said something to the effect of “Ah, you wouldn’t want it anyway. It’s so old.”
What the heck. A 2007 iPod Touch being too old?! I couldn’t believe it when Vero told me that this morning.
I probably said similar things back when I was younger…but I had a good reason…electronics changed so much with each new iteration. Nowadays, there isn’t much that changes.
I ended up getting the iPod Touch working and the only difference I see is that they don’t have volume buttons on the side of it. That’s it, that’s all. It does everything else that I love about my iPod Touch…plays music, checks email, surfs the Net.
But I guess that’s not good enough for the young’uns. I guess I’m officially old. I’m fine with that!
By the way…how did I get it working? I plugged it into the wall and charged the battery. True story.
“I haven’t gone to bed at 6AM since college!” – Mike
The Christmas party was a resounding success once again. Lots of prep work takes over our lives the week before, but it pays off.
I even managed to stay relatively sober to witness the fruits of our labour!
We’re really liking the new house (is it new after 1.5 years?) for hosting Christmas parties. You have the kitchen/living room combo upstairs where the action is, the basement for the calmer party watching the hockey game and the garage to keep the beer cold. Coupled with some Christmas tunes playing in the background, a table full of amazing treats brought from everyone (thanks to everyone who brought treats. You are amazing.), and a leg lamp in the window.
Some of you readers may not have been to a Palmer/Cantin/Losier Christmas party so here’s the basic lay of the land:
7PM – Start time!
8PM – Trying to find room for everyone’s beer.
9PM – Trying to find room for everyone’s boots.
10PM – Christmas Trivia!
12AM – Ugly Sweater Winner – Steve and Isabelle took the prize this year! Well done!
12 – 1AM – Gift Exchange
Christmas trivia is a big hit. It consists of guys vs. girls trivia with the winning team taking home bragging rights and the trivia cup for the entire year. This year I think everyone can agree that the questions were a little too hard. In the end, out of 12 questions, I believe the guys got five right and the girls got one right. Krista made a good suggestion that for the harder questions, we should offer up multiple choice. I agree. It’s hard to gauge how hard to make the questions each year. Some may think that the questions should be easy…but with 25 people on each team, you have to think that there are 25 brains that may have a nugget of knowledge that will correctly answer the question. You have to make the questions hard. In the end, I am proud of the guys pulling through and answering five questions correctly!
Lately we have been coupling the question period with a few challenges. This year I must admit that I had a lot of fun creating the two of them.
Christmas Carol Snippet Trivia: Armed with a CD of 13 songs in 10 seconds snippets, I played the CD for everyone and the teams had to guess a) the Artist singing the song and b) the song name. One point for each correct answer with a total of 26 possible points. I had put some easy ones (Elvis – Blue Christmas) to obscure (Rob Thomas – A New York Christmas) and for the most part, ensured that at the very least, you could have an easy time identifying the artist or song title, but not the other. For example, Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins has a very distinctive voice, but it’s hard to know that the song he sings is called ‘Christmastime’. In the end, the guys squeaked by with 17 possible answers compared to the ladies 15! Well done guys! Special thanks to Trish, Benoit and Aaron who were good sports about being omitted from the challenge since I took a bunch of carols from Trish’s Christmas compilation!
Angry Birds: Everyone was looking forward to some turkey bowling (as per last year) but alas, there was no snow in the driveway, and besides, I don’t like to bring back a challenge for sheer popularity…it’s our mission to make an even greater challenge! Earlier in the week someone at the lunch table at work stumbled upon a grand idea…create a real-life Angry Birds with a flying turkey! The wheels starting churning and Vero and Mike got together to figure out how we would make this happen.
Vero had a great idea that we could use the hammock stand as a launching structure for the slingshot. We then coupled a couple of tie-downs along with an inner tube for bike tire. Mike found an old washing detergent jug that we cut up so it could act as the part where you place the turkey inside. Let’s be honest, there were a few concessions we had to make from the get-go. One being that it would never hold a full-sized turkey. So we settled on a small chicken.
We started the slingshot off with a baseball and gave it a tug. Unfortunately it just didn’t have enough force and the ball would dribble out a few feet. I was not impressed. However we then realized that we just needed more elasticity so we tied a few bungee cords to the pail and that definitely gave the slingshot it’s much needed power! The baseball was definitely launching it a good ten feet, but still without some much needed force to take down an entire target.
We decided to call it a night and sleep on it. Something would trigger in our brains.
In the end, nothing really popped into our brains so we spent the next evening making the contraption quite solid and less prone to error. We didn’t want something shooting and taking someone’s eye out like Ralphie in the Christmas Story! I was warning people at the party that we made our challenge quite safe but we would need some safety goggles. I got some interesting looks when I said that!
We brought the slingshot into the backyard and set up some empty boxes about 10 feet away. It was hard to settle on a structure that we liked so we decided to leave that choice to the night of the party. We had some floodlights and track lighting in the backyard and away we went in testing it. A few tries had the ball sailing into the trees (which Mike had a fun time fishing out!) but then we connected with the boxes. BLAMMO! Good solid hit and we had big smiles on our faces. This was going to work.
In the end, I would like to think that everyone had a great time with the Angry Birds game. Each box that hit the ground was worth one point. In the end, the girls ended up with 32 points and the guys had something like 24 points. We had the choice of a baseball or a turkey fillet! Mern tried the turkey fillet and actually made it work to the cheers of the crowds! I’m also happy that we had the campfire going to keep the masses warm while they waited to play.
In a skewed move on my part, I had allowed the trivia cup to be won by the team who had the biggest cummulative score (trivia points + challenges). This was an oversight on my part because in the end, we awarded the cup to the ladies but really, the guys had kicked their asses in the majority of the entire trivia cup challenge from their sheer awesome brain power. Interestingly enough, the trivia cup actually went missing by the time of awarding the prizes and to this day, I still believe that divine intervention made the cup disappear as it knew that the scoring was flawed and the guys should have won. I’m sticking with that theory!
The rest of the night brought the gift exchange were there were tons of great gifts this year…heck, Andre even got a griddle! Vero and I walked out with some excellent wooden coasters (that mysteriously look like pork chops).
The party was still going strong for quite awhile and in the end, it was Mike and I left on the couch watching National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation with a beer in our hand. I knew it was time to go to bed when I heard snoring next to me and there was Mike with beer in hand fast asleep. The clock said 5:30 when I hit the sack and Mike said he managed to wake up, finish his beer and hit the hay around 6AM. Excellent party indeed!
Thanks to everyone who showed up to the party and helped out. We always appreciate seeing everyone before everyone hightails it out to their respective Christmas events, and it’s amazing how many people come together and help out in any way they can.
Notes for future:
– Ensure more multiple choice
– Ensure scoring doesn’t allow one challenge to win the entire game!
– Food turnout was great. Continue to ask a few select people to bring in larger items (jambalaya, wings, chili, etc.)
– Apple cider was a big hit this year. Didn’t get around to Gluhwein. If we need to make it, do it before the trivia challenge.
– Stereo upstairs worked great. Used small speakers.
– Need to decorate a little downstairs.
– Campfire was great but unsure if it will work in the future if there is snow.
– Don’t forget to tell people there are lawn chairs! Had forgotten some that were set out near the garden so no one knew of them.
– Don’t forget the eggnog for Duncan in the fridge next year!
UPDATE:
Totally forgot the best part of the Christmas party. Rachel brought out the saxaphone during Angry Birds and played some Careless Whisper. Inspiration from this comes from this amazing video:
Originally I was going to write a review of the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson. But in the end, I can sum it up by saying it was an amazing read and if you have ANY interest in how one man changed so many technological aspects of our lives as we know it, then it’s an insightful read.
But let me get to another point altogether that I spoke about with Sue the other night.
I read this book on the iPad. That’s right…I took the plunge. I actually have the physical copy sitting on my favourite reading spot in the house, but I believe I only read the introduction of the book and that’s about it. That was on a Saturday.
What to do on the Monday morning when I’m leaving for work? I looked at this weighty tome and thought “Wow. I do NOT need to be carrying that onto the bus every day for the next few months.” What options are available to me?
Benoit had emailed me a digital copy of the book and I thought “There’s something sweet about reading a book about Steve Jobs on the very device of his that I love (the iPad).”
So I started my foray into e-reading. I had dabbled a little in the past. Comic books mostly…a Sherlock Holmes chapter here and there…I was familiar with some functionality.
But this was 1000 pages of intense reading…on the bus each day for a good solid 30 minutes each way.
And in the end…it wasn’t that bad at all.
Yes, I had cringed at the thought of reading a book on a technological device. What about the feel of a book in my hand? What about reading outside? Would that be a pain in the ass? What about bookmarks? Who wants bookmarks to become obsolete! 🙂
Here’s some points of discovery on my part:
Convenience: This is a no brainer. Did I want to lug a brick around every day with me for a few months, or did I want something a little more convenient? I already carry my iPad everywhere I go. Placing a book within it’s memory banks only takes up virtual space, not space in my man purse.
Reading Outside: I would be so engrossed in my book that I would read it from the bus station to my car. I had to crank up the brightness on the screen (I tend to have it very low to conserve battery power) but in the end, it was good to read. However, I wonder how it would be on a sunny day on the patio. Something tells me that the glare from the screen would get on my nerves. This is definitely one reason that people opt for either a regular book, or an e-ink reader such as the Kindle. But in the end, it really didn’t do harm to me as I read most of the book on the bus.
Dictionary: The most amazing feature (yet so simple!) while reading the book was the ability to click on a word and look it up in a dictionary! There were a few words that I had to use this feature on and I thought of how much simpler this would make my life if I could read a French book and have the French dictionary hooked up to it. I shall have to give it a try to see if it can work that way.
Adding Notes: I don’t know about you, but when I was younger and in school, I hated the thought of running a highlighter through my books, or writing notes. I did NOT want to harm the pages. But in the virtual world, not a problem for me! So if I saw a passage I found interesting, I highlighted it with my finger and added a little note. What’s neat is that the Table of Content has a neat feature that not only allows you to skip through chapters, but also look at all your notes or bookmarks that you’ve placed in the book.
In the end, I did not mind my experience with the iPad one bit. It really did not bother me. So what does this mean for the future? Unsure. I have a hard time believing that I would simply purchase an e-book. How could I lend that out to people? What would I do with my awesome bookshelves if there were no books on them? I think what books should do is offer up a free digital copy with the purchase of a hard copy. Comic books are starting to roll this feature out and I think it’s fantastic. I can read my book, put it into the box and if I am too lazy to pull it out of the box, I can just go read the e-version.
So if you have thought about reading a book on an iPad, I say go for it and see if you like it or not! Don’t just stick to one chapter…read an entire book! Report back!
I went to the Bronson Center to check out Mother Mother as well as my new favourite band…Whale Tooth! Whale Tooth is this amazing band that Andre knows from Belleville. I checked them out at Bluesfest and was blown, blown away. So my anticipation for seeing them again was very high. But would they deliver again?
A bunch of us went to the Heart and Crown for a bite to eat beforehand. It was good to go with a bunch of people this time around. Andre, Karilee, Mike, Rachel and her friend all headed to the Bronson Center for what was to be an excellent time!
We got there quite early in order to see Whale Tooth and there was quite a long lineup. Thank the maker that it isn’t really cold yet in the Capital so it was standing outside for awhile. When we entered Live 88.5 was handing out sampler CDs of their live sessions which was pretty awesome.
Whale Tooth once again blew me away. There is so much energy to this band and their melodies and hooks have me humming for days afterwards. It is a crime that more people do not know of this band yet! But I predict 2012 is the year they will explode. Their first album is coming out and I really think they are going to be the biggest thing in Canada for awhile. I even told my friends that I haven’t been this excited for a band since Sam Roberts came out. I had a good chuckle at the look of shock on their faces and they realized I meant it.
I saw Mother Mother at Bluesfest and they have an infectious live show, and this show did not disappoint either. I really enjoy the fact that they have three singers on stage and how they complement each other. They seem to pull from a variety of different styles that seem to harken back to some old school dance tunes from the 90s. But I must be dreaming but they rock way more than those bands!
Definitely check out Mother Mother and Whale Tooth whenever you get a chance!
So far, the PaLoLa Brewmeisters (pictured above) have obtained $2,071 collectively. That is a great, great achievement, but it’s shy of our goal of $2,500 for the entire team.
We’re in our final week which means that our ‘staches are in full force at this point (well, for most of us!). There have been some great events on my side of the world:
– The Mo’Sistas from work put on a bake sale for Movember. I believe the final tally is around the $80 mark. Thanks Mo’Sistas!
– The PaLoLa Brewmeisters held a fundraising party last Saturday (where the above picture was taken after a few beers consumed). It was a good turnout and we made a chunk of change. I personally had a great time making the ‘Famous Moustaches from History’ pictures that were around the house…pictures of Burt Reynolds, Ned Flanders and Tom Selleck were strewn about the house.
– This coming Saturday will be a fundraising concert at Aunt Dinah’s. Sorry – Invite only! But it should be a grand old time.
So with this being the final week, if you haven’t done so already and are planning to do so, please donate some hard-earned cash to the Movember campaign! Let’s make this a year to remember! I’m a little shy of my $1,000 donation goal so let’s make the final push!
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a bit of a geek.
Now the world will know how geeky I am. Benoit and I have started to assemble a full-on Stormtrooper outfit. Hopefully I’ll find a mannequin to put it onto and have in my basement. Perhaps it will hold my remote controls. Perhaps it will hang out and have a beer with me. Perhaps you’ll see him in the hot tub.
Either way, I was quite excited when the Stormtrooper helmets came in. I think it is great, hilarious, and all around a good time to own. Next up…our actual armour is coming in next week!
