me and my blog are now enemies.

i think in the next 3 months i will - or rather, am supposed to - read more than i have in the last 3 years. so much for part time school, im taking 3 classes (2 of which are seminars with an assload of reading), sitting in on and doing the reading for another class, and working on an undergraduate thesis, which for the first semester, means reading a small library’s worth. not that i’m complaining, because i love reading, and am fortunate enough to be studying extremely interesting material (to me at least). but sweet jesus, with 2 jobs and a healthy alcohol addiction, i have to be reading at every spare moment.

which meaaaaans…. i feel guilty when im ‘wasting’ time on this here blog o mine. i do like writing, especially the non-sensical irreverant writing of a blog, but its kind of at the bottom of my list of things to do now. i haven’t even played my guitar in like 3 weeks (apart from the drunken debut of your new favourite band, the friendly giants [me and trav], performing whilst hammered at open mic nite every tuesday nite at poachers arm).

also, i think i’d rather be writing for the gazette, our dear old western newspaper. my first article is here, though they got the wrong name in the web version. i swear i wrote that, i swear! it’s an article/interview with cuff the duke, which was pretty cool. i might even get to interview riot grrrl legends sleater-kinney next month.

anywho, i guess this is a warning my dear 3 readers… i’m afraid we can only e-interact occasionally now. tear.

white stripes - live @ molson ampitheatre - 9.16.2005

my first religious experience since i was in high school and thought i was having real religious experiences (ugh). i wish i could distinguish between my own obvious obsession with the white stripes and how good the show actually was from an objective standpoint. but since objectivity doesn’t exist, here goes my uber-fan gushing:

you know when you go to one of your favourite band’s concert and your hoping they play just one of your favourite songs? your happy to hear the big songs of course, the singles, the hits. but those album songs that are especially significant to you? they played all five of mine. which means i creamed in my jeans, not once, not twice, not thrice… but five whole times.

hello operator? yessss. ‘how you gonna get the money!? nobody to answer the phone!’ then jacky boy cracks out his beat up old beige guitar (which from being an over-the-top obsessive fan i know is tuned to open g and used for old blues songs and seven nation army), and im like uh-oh! death letter! then my personal hero proceeds to stare into the audience (i like to think he was staring straight at me… it was pretty close either way) and plays a ridiculous slide guitar intro without even looking at his guitar once. then boom, in-fuckin-credible version of death letter. which is an old son house cover, a song older than your grandma. i have a budding theory on the hyper-blues. this song exemplifies. here’s an unbelievable live version for ya from the unbelievable live ‘under blackpool lights’ dvd. then my all-time favourite line in a song (the union forever) / movie (citizen kane) :

well im sorry, but im not interested in gold mines, oil wells, shipping or real estate / what would i like to become? everything you hate.

the white stripes are intrinsically better live than they are on their studio albums, which is why a lot of people dont ‘get’ the white stripes. they have constructed such an obviously ridiculous celebrity appearance (red/white + brother/sister), because they know image is a waste of time. the whole music industry is a waste of time. the live act of music is all that is left. and every white stripes show is unique, by design. no setlists, all fly by the seat of jack’s insanely tight pants (meg too, hello camel toe).

first thing during ‘my’ show that rarely happens at a stripes show: my favourite blues song from last album - ball and biscuit - combined with my favourite blues song from their latest album - instinct blues. ‘and meg’s little dog gets it’. second remarkable unique moment: they covered a mother fuckin tegan and sara song! walk with a ghost, which if you are familiar with, is the perfect song to get the detroit blues garage rock treatment that only jacky white can provide. my doorbell, which i think will be the most classic of all stripes songs when we’re 50. seven nation army, the most iconic of stripes songs when we’re 50. jolene, the most telling example of an outright successful cover when we’re 50. amazing setlist. best concert i’ve ever been to, narrowly beating out the first stripes concert i went to 2 years ago.

im getting older, and fighting my way threw the pit sometimes seems like a chore. why dont i just avoid the drunken frat boys and sit back on the lawn to enjoy the show in comfort? no. because not only would i have missed all the little quirks meg and jack exhibit throughout the show (such as the little nods and signals to keep their improvised show going full tilt), but i would have missed the undeniably cute scene where meg is sitting on the stage cross-legged playing kettle drums for ‘ugly as i seem’, and midway, jack kneels beside her, sans microphone, and sings a verse just for her. no one else can hear, and you can see by the look in their eye, that the musical connection between meg and jack is something extraordinary. say what you will about meg’s lack of drumming ability, until you’ve seen them live and on fire, you just don’t know how powerful they are together. as jack says, the white stripes wouldn’t exist without meg.

when the stripes play a show they thoroughly enjoy (apparently toronto was the best audience according to jack since the legendary riot-inducing acoustic performance for the crowd who couldnt get in show in brazil), they finish their encore with ‘boll weevil’, an old traditional song. ‘well if anybody asks you people / who sang you this song / you tell em it’s jacky white / he’s done been here and gone’. a fitting epitaph.

sigur ros - live @ massey hall - 9.19.2005

my week long concert extravaganza (1. sam roberts 2. bloc party 3. white stripes) came to end with sigur ros. magnificently. the white stripes show was my all-time dream show, making this sit-down sigur ros theatre show the low-key concert of the week. to my surprise, this show was also my dream show, except in a different, weirdly literal way. sigur ros is my favourite band to take a nap too. i know all of their songs, but unconsciously. they have been the soundtrack to many midday dreams and delightful moments in between awake and sleep.

sigur ros is an icelandic band by the way, if you’re unfamiliar. they play crazy symphonic arrangements and sing in what equates to backwards gibberish. it’s drop dead beautiful, especially the vocals. here are me and jonny (thanks for the ticket broseph), with incredible just-off-center balcony seats, and the lights dim and a big white sheet covers the stage. glosoli starts (must download), and all you can see are constantly changing shadows of each member from different lights. the vocals kick in, and im waiting for the sheet to rise and this icelandic princess to be revealed (not to be confused with laura, my other icelandic princess who never updates her blog). having never seen a picture of the band, i had this vision of some weirdly european avante-garde boho commune led by this virginal princess with an amazing voice. sheet pulls back and it’s 4 indie dudes. whoops. 4 years of listening to them, totally thought it was a chick singing.

but even though i didnt know any song title names (sven ge englar or something?), how they made their music (a bow on an electric guitar?), what they were singing about (the plight of living with an improperly named country?), or apparently even what gender they were, nothing could take away from this entirely surreal experience. definitely one of those indescribable things. you just have to listen to sigur ros, then imagine how crazy it must be to make that kind of music, then witness 4 dudes (with 4 chicks on strings) actually create the music live, to know.

me and bacon got mad jumps yo.

that picture is probably the highlight of oweek, with bacon’s left nut slipping out during closing ceremonies coming a close second. more on that (oweek, not bacon’s left nut, well maybe more on bacon’s left nut) later, when i have a single solitary second to myself and im not running from class to job to getting drunk to reading to a bloc party concert to work to class to getting drunk to reading to - you get the idea.

kanichyawa bitches.