Palmer's World

I suppose I should write that I'm on Day 6 of vacation considering I already took a week off to go fishing up North.

I'm updating this from my backyard where the sun is shining. I must admit that it's a little hard to see the screen in the sunlight. Must be a drawback from having a glossy screen on the MacBook.

Friday night was spent heading over to Amelia and Ward's place to see the newest addition to their family - Baby Ella. She's pretty cool. Amelia and Ward are doing well and adjusting to the new bundle of joy. We had some good laughs and ordered some excellent pizza for supper.

Krista and I then bailed on going to see Planet of the Apes at the Westboro Beach because we thought it was going to storm something fierce. However, the storm must have hit somewhere else in Ottawa because we never saw it and Matt told us that the Westboro Beach only got a few drops of rain. DISAPPOINTMENT!

So we headed to the bowling lanes in Orleans (I suck!) and then played a game of pool in which I gave Krista a few pointers along the way. Always good to impart my knowledge of the game onto others.

Saturday was devoted to Jason's bachelor party...I suppose that can be saved for an entire post altogether so I'll wait to speak about that one. All I have to say is it was probably the most fun bachelor party I've ever been part of. Jason had a great time also which is what counts.

Sunday had me waking up and jumping up out of bed with this excruciating pain in my right pectoral. I have no idea how this happened as I was reading in bed for awhile before that and didn't feel any pain. But as soon as I get out bed, argh! I think it may be a nerve pinch or something. This Monday morning, the pain is still there which is disappointing as I thought it may have left after a good sleep. I don't think it's as bad though...

I suppose it didn't help that I went out to Kanata to help Rob move a fridge out of his grandparents basement and then bring it into his basement of his house. ;-) I thought maybe some physical activity would help out the situation! We managed to get the fridge out and into his house but with relative difficulty. It's hard to get a grip on those things. We also brought in a few wall units into his house. I think another move or two and Rob and I will be certified 'professional movers'.

Some good news comes Rob and Janice's way as Janice gave birth to a baby girl (Jenna) on Saturday night. 45 minutes shy of being born on Sunday which is Rob's birthday. She was 6 pounds...15 ounces? Something like that. It was a surprise as Jan was scheduled to go into the hospital on Monday and they were at a wedding (where Janice was part of the wedding party) when she had to go to the hospital. I was joking to Janice awhile ago that this would happen to her just like my friend Annie last year. Same exact scenario happened with people decked out in tuxedos and nice dresses entering the hospital. The nurses must have felt they were experiencing deja vu.

Anyhow, the baby and Janice are fine. Jenna is beautiful. At this point in the night, I could hardly move my entire right side of my body due to whatever was pinched (?) and I was thinking of paying the emergency room a visit. ;-)

Got home and watched Smokey and the Bandit which I've never seen. Did you know that it was the second most grossing film in 1977 next to Star Wars? That must have been a pretty popular movie! It was a good time and chock full of laughs. The car chase scenes were pretty great also.

So here I sit in my backyard, listening to some tunes and wonder what I should do with the day. I was going to start the day off painting the garage door but I am considering bailing on that option to see if I should just relax my body to get rid of this muscle pain.

Vero comes back home tomorrow afternoon which is AMAZING! Man, I miss her. So her adventure in Europe will have ended, but she still has the rest of the summer to enjoy here.

iplaying: Someone Great - LCD Soundsystem (Sound of Silver)

Hmm...I have no pictures from the bachelor party. Mental note, hunt some down.

So Saturday morning I picked up Duncan and Matt and we headed over to Jason's place. A last minute changeover in ride situations put me in the drivers seat for the afternoon which was fine with me.

The bachelor party consisted of a car rally which can be described as a form of scavenger hunt. I had heard rumours that we would have to go to Montreal at one point so I packed the car full of all needed provisions - beer, food and swimming trunks. I figured that would get us anywhere.

Turns out that this was not the case and we ended up staying in town with various (timed) checkpoints along the way.

Essentially, there were four cars of four guys and we were all armed with a video camera to document our escapades. We then had a list of things that would gain us points - the more challenging/embarassing received more points. For example, getting a McDonalds' Happy Meal Toy got us 5 points whereas if we snuck into Lansdowne Park and kicked a field goal, then we would receive 400 points (which was done by two teams, but not ours).

The hunt ran from noon until 7PM with various checkpoints along the way so we could get back together, have a challenge and then be on our way. Let it be known that you got bonus points for pulling pranks on other teams which I must admit Duncan successfully accomplished as he snuck out of the house while we were listening to the instructions to let the air out of my car tire! I was not impressed but luckily I had an air compressor in my trunk. In hindsight, it was a brilliant move and I admire his ingenuity. But at the moment, I was pissed!

We then raced back to the house around 7PM, had a BBQ and settled in to watch every teams videos. I am proud to say that our team managed to only lose by 15 points...we had 3000+ points and we didn't manage to get the two giant bonus items (400 points each) whereas the winning team managed to kick the field goal. So essentially our team (consisting of James, Matt, Fred and at one point, the bachelor himself as he switched cars at every checkpoint) pretty well obliterated the competition if it weren't for the field goal that put us behind. To everyone's defense, I think we got a slew of bonus points along the way also as we had some funny moments that had everyone cracking up.

I suppose I should write down a variety of things we did during the day:

Before First Checkpoint:

• Do a 1/4 mile race and win: Well, the way we did this one was to pit my car against Fred and James along a 1/4 mile. The car won.
• Build a fort in a store - Home Depot it was and we accomplished this one easily. God Bless insulation.
• Order some paint to be mixed but then walk away without telling anyone - Done.
• Sit on a toilet in a department store for one minute while reading a book - I was disappointed to see that we missed the part where we got bonus points if we made funny noises!
• Order 6 cents of gas and get a receipt - My personal fave of the morning. Here's the conversation:
• James: (hands the attendant 6 cents) Can I get a receipt for that?
• Attendant: You want a receipt?
• James: Yes.
• Me: James, can you get some gum?
• James: Ah, no way man! I'm flat broke now!
• James: (gets receipt) Thanks man, this will get us to the South side of Kanata now

After First Checkpoint:

• Went for a swim in a public fountain
• Go tobogganing down some stairs
• Jump in the Ottawa Canal (ew! Good going James!)
• We did a bonus activity here by each getting into a recycling bin and jumping out. When I jumped out, I tipped the thing over and gave myself a faceplant. Thanks to Matt for not actually having the video camera recording for that part and we had to do it all over again. ;-)
• Went to Future Shop with a load of dirty laundry, threw it into a laundry machine and ask the guy working there why it wasn't working. You should have seen this guys' face.

After Second Checkpoint:

• At this point we nabbed the bachelor for our car which helped us out immensely as people are more apt to helping guys out with scavenger items when there is a guy dressed in a wedding veil. We headed to the mall to conduct our activities which included...
• Running on a treadmill for 2 minutes.
• Conducting an aerobics class inside the mall and ask for volunteers. 2 minutes needed.
• Ask a girl to model underwear in La Senza for our girlfriends. We got bonus points for also getting her phone number.
• Ask someone to compete in a hula hoop contest inside a store. My favourite part was walking through trying to find the boys and I heard this guy say "I bet this video will end up on Youtube." Sure enough, it was the guy who they challenged to the hula hoop contest. Ha ha!
  
• Special Note: James discovered Darth Vader on his Imperial Chopper. This is a must have for our toy collection.
• We headed to Burger King where the bachelor walked in and proclaimed himself to be the Burger King. We ended up getting a crown which was great!
• The bachelor shaved one of his armpits. Ouch.

After the third checkpoint:

• At this point, Fred had to leave us which was disappointing. Fred, if you're reading this, you did us proud! We also ditched the bachelor because at this point, he would have slowed us down. We only had 2 hours now!
• We headed to Parliament Hill where we suntanned for 5 minutes.
• My other personal fave event happened when we talked to the RCMP officer on Parliament Hill and managed to get him to handcuff James and I together and he threw us in the back of the vehicle. He was having a good laugh at us when we tried to get out of the back seat.

We then headed back to home base where Matt called ahead to the bachelor's Mom so she could put out a sign saying if you jumped into the pool with your clothes on, you get bonus points. We had a good laugh when a few guys did it (although they said it didn't count as it was after 7PM. It was still funny.)

After watching the videos we headed out to Top Karting in Hull (as it was full during the afternoon when we attempted to go beforehand) but it was still full.

All in all, it was probably the most fun I've ever had at a bachelor party and I highly recommend taking part in a car rally if you have the chance! Jason had a great time and that's what counts at the bachelor party. Gone are the days where they tar and feather your best mate. It's all about making sure the guy has a good time.

iplaying: Hummer - Live at Asheville NC (2007.07.23) - The Smashing Pumpkins

For the life of me, I can't seem to find any article confirming this but…

So Rob was sitting somewhere reading an article about how there is a surplus on mini-vans right now in the Ottawa area due to leases being renewed or rental companies having a surplus, hence there are some sweet deals on them right now.

Case in point, Rob picked one up on a whim which had excellent mileage, low year count and a steal of a deal.

If you've ever thought about a mini-van, take a look around Ottawa right now!

Last night I caught most of the Rene Levesque mini-series on CBC. I'm going to assume it's a rerun as it's the middle of the summer, but who knows?

I feel that I've become more interested in Canadian history in my later years and I enjoy it when a good mini-series comes out on the CBC to pique my curiosity - like Trudeau, or the documentary on the October Crisis.

Anyhow, the Rene Levesque mini-series started off well and I'm interested in seeing the other two parts. It shows how Mr. Levesque wins the election in his riding against L'Union Nationaliste and all the dirty tricks the other side tried to pull along the way. In the end, he not only won in his riding, but the Quebec Liberal Party wins the right to govern the province and Rene finds himself as a Minister. Great day eh?

I enjoy the actors although…I must admit I find it strange watching what we all know should be a French show, but they have the actors speaking in English with a French accent. Now, I haven't done any research so maybe they are all actually French actors to begin with, hence the French accent. But I think I would have rather have it as a French mini-series with subtitles to be true to the situation.

However, I guess that doesn't make for a good film either. Imagine all the the movies you've seen which should have been in German but are mysteriously in English. ;-)

Anyhow, I recommend watching this if you are remotely interested in Rene Levesque's rise to power, or Canadian history in general.

I'm heading to Jason's bachelor party this weekend which seems like it will be a good time. I guess I can't go into details right now as he may actually be reading this and doesn't know what's going on.

Thinking about bachelor parties, it reminded me of this excellent bachelor party story that I think Rob told me. Or someone near Paisley, Ontario.

So the story goes that a bunch of guys get onto a bus from Paisley (or around there) and have a good time while heading down to London Ontario for the night.

After a night of debauchery and fun, everyone is in fine form when they load back onto the bus and head home continuing the party.

When they arrive at the destination point (some parking lot of sorts), the wife-to-be is there to greet her drunken fiancée after the bachelor party.

Unfortunately, everyone is so drunk that they never realized that the guy never made it onto the bus!

Turns out that the cops threw him in the slammer for the night (at this point, my memory evades me and I don't know for what reasons) and the next day he has to get a cab from London to Paisley which would be a good 200 kms at least.

I always laugh when I hear that story. I am now wondering if that actually happened or if it's an urban legend.

Oh, here's another great story I heard from Mike...actually, if you have a good bachelor party story, share it in the comments section!

So, this guy's bachelor party occurs fairly close to his wedding day...maybe even the night before. As all good bachelor parties work, the groom is beyond comprehension of reality. While in this drunken state, his buddy's get a cast put over his entire leg.

When he awakes the next morning, his buddies tell him that he fell and broke his leg and had to get a cast on his entire leg. This, of course, sucks as he has to get in a tuxedo and go to his own wedding with a broken leg.

Now, I am a fan of the practical joke (what makes it practical anyhow?) and these guys went all out. They let the guy go through his wedding with the thing on AND they let him go on his honeymoon with it on! In fact, according to Mike, I don't think the guy even knows that it was never broken TO THIS DAY.

Incroyable.

This post is dedicated to Jason, the bachelor for one week longer. Who knows what will happen to him this weekend? (evil laugh)

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/crowdfarm-0725.html

MIT Rules. This article is an interesting read about how two students developed a model to capture energy expended from people walking, or sitting on a stool.

The concept is that in large public spaces where there are hundreds of people walking through it (like a shopping mall), the floor would depress with each step which would somehow generate electricity to power the building. Fascinating.

They also go into other uses, like how it could measure the amount of energy of the crowd at a rock concert, depending on how much shuffling around there is on the floor. I can just imagine it being the equivalent to the audio meter you see where people yell as loud as they can and the meter rises. Do those things even work? Or is there just someone who brings up it slowly and on the final yell he cranks it?

Give it a read. Very interesting.

iplaying: Make this Go on Forever - Snow Patrol (Eyes Open)

I had a random dream last night...

So I'm in Montreal for some reason and in a pawn shop. Upon walking out, I look to my left and there is Robert Plant (circa 70s Robert Plant) signing autographs! So I scour the pawn shop for an old Zeppelin album for him to sign but cannot find one. Then I realize that the pawn shop has just given random items for him to sign in case we don't have something for him to sign. So I stand there and he looks at me, then looks behind me where there is a guy dressed like Chuck Berry. Robert Plant yells at Chuck Berry to get out of the store, which he does. Plant then goes onto sign a pair of shoes for me and I say thanks. He signed it "I heart Johnny B. Goode." and also "I heart Palmer."

RANDOM.

...I'm going to re-read this guy's article!

http://www.yourmomsbasement.com/archives/2007/07/post_2.html

One of my friends is scheduled to have her baby delivered next Monday.

I find this an odd concept - scheduling a baby's birth. Sure, I know that it can be done, but it just sounds funny (different?) to me.

"Bob, I need the day off on Monday. Wazat? Oh, well my daughter is arriving around 2PM."

Ha ha. Anyhow, just another instance of how our world is changing. Perhaps all children shall arrive in this fashion?

This is an incredible photo of Vero taking the plunge! Thanks to Matt for the amazing shot!

As soon as I heard there was a Transformers movie coming out my first reaction was "Uh oh." I had fear that somehow Hollywood would really mess up the story that we all love and try and make it more of a human story instead of a kickass robots fighting robots story.

Even when the trailers came out, I didn't really care to see them. I had no anticipation whatsoever for this film. Sure, I love a good Michael Bay film because he throws over the top action at you, but I still had this fear.

The fear is that he wouldn't get the spirit of Transformers into the film. The fear was that he hadn't even watched a Transformers cartoon before signing up to do the film (What the heck?)

But then the reviews started trickling in. We're not talking proper reviews. We're talking about the reviews that really mean something. We're talking about your friends coming up to you and saying "Palmer, you NEED to see this film." It really hit home when Krista's roommate (who I didn't peg as a Transformers fan) said it was the greatest movie ever (paraphrase).

On Friday night, amidst the chaos which was the Silvercity full of wizards and Muggles (everyone was there watching the Harry Potter film), the lies were burned off of my soul.

It was incredible.

I think there was a single tear that came down my face at the end of the movie…not because I was choked up from an emotional scene…moreso because it hit me with this onslaught for 2 1/2 hours and never let up and once it did my body couldn't take it.

I don't even know where to begin…Michael Bay NAILED the Transformers. Everything that they are as a cartoon was there. Robots fighting robots, the Autobots out there not wanting to hurt humans, OPTIMUS FREAKING PRIME!!!! Oh my God Optimus was amazing. Megatron didn't turn into a lame handgun! Starscream gets berated by Megatron!

What else can I say? Go see it now. I don't care if you are in the middle of class reading this because you are bored. Get up, go out and watch this film.

Five billion thumbs up.

http://www.simpsonizeme.com/

Hee hee.

http://www.nme.com/news/prince/29759

Of note:

Prince is also set to give the album away to fans attending one of his 21 concerts at London's O2 Arena next month.


I like how bands are trying different ways to distribute their music. While I can see someone like Prince making tons of cash from a tour ANYHOW, I don't know if this model of distribution would work for a band just starting out.

However, I love the concept of the album being given away at the concert. I would definitely be enticed to go to a concert of one of my fave artists, spend 'x' amount of dollars, if I knew it was the only place to get the album.

But that's just me because I'm scared one day our hard drives will crash and we'll need backups of all the MP3s on our computers. ;-)

Considering Bluesfest ended and we needed some more rock, it was a good thing that we picked up tickets to see John Fogerty when he came into town!

From Wikipedia:
John Cameron Fogerty (born May 28, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, best known for his time with the swamp rock or roots rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival.

That's right, we went to see the main man from CCR! I was stoked. Out of all the old greats out there - Zeppelin, Floyd, the Stones, I would have to say that CCR is my fave.

Mike's parents came down for the event and we headed out to the Scotiabank Place after a good BBQ. When we got into the Place, we showed his parents to their section 106 (as they had picked up tickets at a different time than we did) and Mike and I headed down to the floor.

We had Row 5 seats and in my mind I thought "Hey, that's pretty close." but it wasn't until Mike kept walking, and walking and WALKING up to the stage that my mind imploded with the sheer distance to the stage. When we got down there the Jim Cuddy Band was in full force getting into a little Five Days in May with a wicked violin solo. Back to Row 5 talk here, Row 5 was so close. I could take 3 giant steps and be at the stage. I was in awe. Mike was in awe. We have never been this close. Jim Cuddy's sweat was hitting me.

We only got to see 20 minutes of Jim Cuddy before he left the stage. I recommend his solo work as well as the Blue Rodeo stuff.

We then headed to get another beer and found out that in Section 106, there were two other groups from Kapuskasing that both took a pilot's course with Mike's dad! Talk about a small world! This reminds me of the time we went to see Pearl Jam and there were three separate groups from Kapuskasing in the same section. We are talking about an arena of 15,000 people!

I was concerned with the fact that ONCE AGAIN, Mike and I would be the only people standing up in the crowd, but those fears were laid to rest when we sat next to some guys who declared they would stand up for the entire show. PLUS, they rushed the stage when Fogerty got up there. Security was so relaxed at this concert. There were so many people who rushed the stage. THIS is what a rock concert is about!

John Fogerty and band came to the stage in what must be his official tour outfit - a plaid shirt and a red handkerchief (they were also selling this outfit for $60 at the merchandise booth). He ripped right into Travelin' Band and I knew it was going to be the most amazing night ever. The setlist was enormous but that's what you get from a guy who can write the catchiest tune in under 2 minutes.

The hits didn't stop coming. Here's the setlist:

Setlist:
Travelin' Band
Green River
Who'll Stop The Rain
It Came Out Of The Sky
Born On The Bayou
Lookin' Out My Backdoor
Lodi
I Will Walk With You
Ramble Tamble
Midnight Special
Bootleg
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Have You Ever Seen The Rain
Don't You Wish It Was True
Keep On Chooglin'
Down On The Corner (with Shane & Tyler Fogerty)
Rock And Roll Girls
Centerfield
Good Golly Miss Molly
Old Man Down The Road
Up Around The Bend
Fortunate Son
Bad Moon Rising
Proud Mary
Blue Suede Shoes
Long Tall Sally

The night became a blur filled with rocking tunes and beer. Mike and I were in awe of the performance the entire night. For a sixty-one year old, this guy has more energy than you and I combined. I would definitely have to say that this was THE concert to see in the past year in Ottawa.

Highlights:
- Midnight Special. Man, I dig that tune.
- I think he came out for a second encore that usually doesn't happen (as seen from other setlists) and he played some Blue Suede Shoes and Long Tall Sally. Sweet!
- Considering the distance from the stage, I got some pretty good performance videos. I was always pre-emptively hitting the start button in fear that I would miss the beginning of Fortunate Son (only the best CCR tune ever, natch). I ended up getting that plus a few others.
- Either his kids or his grandkids were on the stage with him during Down on the Corner. It was funny watching them play guitar as they did not seem phased at all playing in front of a huge crowd. In fact, they looked bored. I suppose that's what happens if you've seen your Dad/Grandpa play all the time.
- I like how I was going up to the stage to get a picture but some guy thought I wanted a picture with him instead. He was a cool guy so I graced him with my presence (although he was probably thinking the same thing)

Sigh…that will probably go down in history as one of the better concerts I've seen. I wish everyone could have been there. If you have a chance to see John Fogerty live, do it now.

****

That night when we got home, we had a couple pieces of pie and I swear that made me hallucinate during the night. I couldn't fall asleep for the longest time and when I awoke at one point I had this hallucination that I wasn't in my own bedroom! I thought I was in some craft of sorts with some portholes and I felt my wall and it felt like steel. I closed my eyes for a few moments and when I opened them I still saw the portholes but then I realized that they were just my windows and I was sleeping on a different angle on my bed. So instead of my body laying top to bottom, I was laying side to side which must have messed up my brain. Whew! No one kidnapped me after the concert!

My thoughts on Bluesfest after three days of integrating back into the real world…I can't say I left it completely; we still went to work (well most of us did) and we still managed to function at 80% which is more than anyone can ask from us; but now we are back into it fully. We are still feeling the aftermath of Bluesfest and the need to drink beer out of plastic cups. In fact, Karilee has just sent an invitation for a plastic beer cup party next Monday. Beautiful idea, beautiful.

Bluesfest was pretty well what I expected. I went in there not knowing a lot of bands fully so my expectations were low. I came out from every show amazed at the tunes I had just heard and the memories I walked away with. I did not have one bad concert experience other than the fact of not being able to see Buddy Guy that much because we had to finish our beer before going over to the River Stage. Gripe #1.

Gripe #2 is as always, the ever longing lawn chair debate. Bluesfest organizers, you did the best you could, and in the end, the people standing up won the battle. I feel empowered. Next year, make a separate section off to the side for the people with the lawn chairs. We'll both be happy.

My top four shows:
- Steve Miller Band
- Sam Roberts Band
- The White Stripes
- George Thorogood and the Destroyers

This was my first year that I bought a full pass to Bluesfest and I did not regret it. If the lineup is worthy next year, I shall do the same. I enjoy the time I spent with my friends on the festival grounds and the music we heard.

Here's some stats from an article about Bluesfest. In fact, go visit this site for a lot of information: www.ottawacitizen.com/blues

- Number of people attending Bluesfest - 300,000
- Cups of beer sold: 250,000
- Litres of wine: 62,000

One litre of wine equals roughly 3 beer, therefore
62,000 * 3 = 186,000 beers

- TOTAL Cups of beer sold: 436,000

Roughly 1.45 cups of beer sold per person attending Bluesfest 2007.

Not too shabby.

We left the festival grounds on Sunday and headed to McDonalds as it was our safe place from the real world - a world full of going to the gym, watching what we eat and drink, and conducting ourselves responsibly. You see, we escaped the real world for 10 days and we just needed a few fries and a burger to soak up all the good times. Going to McDonalds was a rite of passage back into the real world, one where we wouldn't be touching beer every day, or staying up until the wee hours of the night, or having a burger from the greasy spoon.

It's good to be back, but damn…it was a good ride while it lasted.

iplaying: Pinned Together, Falling Apart - The Dears (No Cities Left)

***originally posted for a Sam Roberts message board...may be a little too much for people to read***

***all photos taken from .COBRASNATCH's Flickr site***

Heading out to Bluesfest's last night had a sad effect on me as I had been through the gauntlet and survived, but realized that I wished every night of the summer could be like this. Music all summer long. A man can dream.

We got there with time to spare so we grabbed a few beer and got a prime location to stand for the set. On my way over, I was mentioning to my roommate how I've finally come down off of my Sam Roberts Band high. Maybe it's because they are well into the Chemical City tour…maybe it's because the shows have an air of predictability to them…whatever it was, I wasn't as pumped as I used to be for a SRB show. Hopefully this feeling would go away soon!

As soon as the opening keyboard chords of The Gate arose into the air I felt the excitement creep back into me. Perhaps all I needed was a kick in the ass of full out rock? The band was getting into the groove of things once With A Bullet was over and done with. The Resistance opened it wide open - crowds clapping, Sam sauntering around, Dave swinging his hair…it was all coming together. Forget what I said before - my love of the Sam Roberts Band came back fast and it was full throttle after three songs into the set.

Hard Road followed and then it happened. Paranoia. Out of all the times I've seen the band, they have never played my fave tune live. The night became magic. I will throw out one gripe though (and this has nothing to do with their performance). I enjoyed the jam at the end of Paranoia on their We Were Born in a Flame tour more than the Chemical City tour. From listening to the bootlegs from that era, I can hear some similarities between the jam of Paranoia and what became Mind Flood. So…I have this theory that they felt it was just too similar so when Mind Flood started playing in the Chemical City tour, they figured they had to change the jam at the end of Paranoia. That being said, I loved Paranoia, but I prefer the old jam better. However, I do like a band who shakes things up.

Fixed to Ruin hit everyone (which premiered in Ottawa at the Panda Festival back in the spring) and I have to admit the crowd was loving the new tune. You know you have a hit song when no one knows it but it can move the crowd.

As stated before, Brother Down, you can see Sam having the biggest grin on his face. He just can't stop smiling at someone in the crowd.

At the end of the song he announces that his daughter is down in the crowd in the pit at her first rock concert. You can see it touches him.

I'm going to make a fairly obvious assumption that she was their with her mother considering I don't think Sam's daughter is even walking yet. Pretty cool to think that they went into the pit instead of hanging out on the side.

Also around this time, Dave takes the microphone and announces that he wants to wish his cousin a Happy 16th Birthday and that the next tune is for him. I thought that was awesome. He must have made his cousin's night.

Let's talk about Dave for a moment here. I don't know if it was because he had family in the crowd, or if he was playing a hometown show (well, relatively close to home that is), but whatever it was, he was on fire. My roommate commented that he has never seen Dave rocking so much. He was pulling out some excellent leads as well as sheer rocking movements - my fave being the holding the guitar up high and strumming away. Classic guitar move right there people. Practice it if you own a guitar.

Other fan faves like Draft Dodger, Bridge to Nowhere and Where Have All the Good People Gone? Were excellent as always. Mind Flood blew me away once again (as always) and I am hoping there is a bootleg of this show floating out there (although Ottawa is rare on the bootleg scene unfortunately) as the song was one of the more blistering versions I've heard.

They came out for the encore of Eileen but then promptly left the stage as another band was taking stage across the festival grounds. I was disappointed that they couldn't hang out any longer, but the festival rules are there to be followed I suppose.

All in all, my love for the Sam Roberts Band is back and I'm anxiously awaiting them setting up in their studio for awhile and throwing out a new album. Other than that, I'll just revel in the excellent bootlegs that are popping up lately (thanks Chris and others!) as well as contemplate heading to Montreal for Osheaga.


Setlist:
The Gate
With A Bullet
The Resistance
Hard Road
Paranoia
Fixed to Ruin
Brother Down
An American Draft Dodger in Thunder Bay
Bridge To Nowhere
Where Have All The Good People Gone?
Mind Flood

Encore
Don't Walk Away Eileen

----

After the Sam Roberts Band, we headed over to the River Stage for what would be our last Bluesfest concert of the year. There we found alexisonfire in full assault and at this point, I just wanted to hang back and take the entire week in. I grabbed a few beer, talked with some people and laughed with Krista about the absurd things we did the day before at HOPE Volleyball. alexisonfire put on an intense show. They were frantic all over the stage. So much energy being outputted from the stage. I can't say I know much alexisonfire tunes so I'll stop there with the review. I'm glad the Bluesfest ended on a high rock note with both bands.

iplaying: The Second Part - The Dears (No Cities Left)

Do yourselves a favour, don't go out of your way for some cheaper gas.

This morning I drove by the gas station and it was PACKED! 6:45 in the morning and it's packed?! What's going on here?

The answer dawned on me when I saw the sign - 98.2 cents a litre.

Not bad, not bad at all.

But then I thought about the people taking time out of their morning commute to WAIT in a lineup. Why not just go when there is no one there?

I will admit that in the past, I would have been there with them. But now I think about what society has thrown in to my brain in terms of consuming.

So, some stats.

Let's imagine you have a 40 litre gas tank inside your car.

Let's also say that the day before, gas was at 105 cents per litre, but now it's at a super low price of 98 cents per litre.

Filling up the 40 litre tank = 40*105 = $42
Filling up the 40 litre tank with the cheaper gas = 40*98 = $39.20

Difference = $2.80

Of course, this difference would be greatly different if you had a larger gas tank:

75 litre = 75*105 = 78.75
Or = 75*98 = 73.50

Difference = $5.25

This is ALSO assuming that the Gods are with you and your tank is pretty well near empty when you roll into the station at the cheaper price.

Case in point - I'm not trying to tell you what you should or should not do. Just inform yourselves. Personally, my time (and getting my parking spot at the park and ride) is worth more than the $2.80 that I would be saving by waiting in line for 15 minutes.

iplaying: Lodi - CCR (Chronicle Vol 1)

Waking up bright and early on Saturday morning, I was the first to hop in the shower to get me in the spirit of HOPE Volleyball Summerfest!

"HOPE is a volunteer-driven, not-for-profit events management organization that raises funds for community-based charities. Inspired by Terry Fox's run across Canada, in 1981 a group of friends in Ottawa founded HOPE to make a difference in their community."

We try and put a couple of teams in every year to take part in this charitable (and fun!) event. I would have to say that the HOPE Volleyball tournament is my favourite part of the summer. They have the 4 Bs - beaches, bikinis, beer and bands. What more could I ask for?

We headed over but showed up to our court just in time for them to call the end of the game! We got stuck in a security lineup on the way in which made us miss our first game. The games only run 12 minutes (or up to 21 points, whichever comes first) so it doesn't equal a large amount of time.

We meandered around a few other courts…there are literally hundreds of courts out on the beach and lawn area. After losing our second game, we decided it was due time to check out the beer gardens. There was a lot of confusion getting to the beer garden. First of all, we stood in this MASSIVE lineup until I thought "I should check with someone official to see if this is the right lineup." Sure enough, we were in the wrong lineup as we were heading into a small beer garden managed by the local radio station. This was NOT the beer garden we were looking for, but it was close to the volleyball area, hence the reason for confusion.

Then on our way there, we saw another lineup which had a sign up stating Beer Stamps and Wristbands. Well…we already had our wristbands but we didn't have a stamp on our hand to get into the beer garden. We thought this was odd as it was nowhere near the beer garden. After waiting in line for a bit, I ran out to ask if we could just get a stamp at the beer garden. Success! PLUS, there was no lineup when we got to the garden. Suckas. Case in point - it pays to go to the beginning of the line to see what's REALLY going on.

After eating some awful awful burgers and hot dogs (courtesy of the festival), we watched Donkeypunch and LoudLove and then headed back for another game (which I think we won? I can't really recall now…I know we lost two and won two.)

The weather was not co-operating with us yesterday as it was always cloudy and near the end of the day it started raining on us. Everyone was in a good mood though and some of us escaped with a mild sunburn.

I got to see most of Mobile's set, the first song from Matty Mays + El Torpedo's set and Finger Eleven's set. I was very excited to see Mobile as I dig them. Their first album - Tomorrow Starts Today - has been in my car for the past two years. It has a lot of staying power. They remind me of U2.

We then ended the day by heading back to Carrie's place where I crashed for a few hours, woke up to find everyone heading to bed, so I headed back to bed also. An excellent time for HOPE Volleyball and I hope all the new people (Krista, Amy, Marcus, Chris) enjoyed it so much that they return next year!

Highlights:

• Sven 'Germanating' everyone in sight. This involves painting the German flag on people's faces (or other parts of the body)
• Krista's first time inside an unruly rock crowd. I had never realized she had never been in there before. I ended up getting a kick to th head by some guy crowd-surfing and she had the look on her face as if to say "What are we inside?!". We quickly left after that as I would rather keep my head than to fight up some mob.
• Wearing my Kapuskasing District High School 'Kolts' t-shirt AND having it recognized! Turns out that some guys from Timmins were there. I promptly told them that I wouldn't talk to them anymore as they were clearly not from the superior community.
• Rolling down the hill at the end of the day
• Dude in Speedo. 'Nuff Said.

iplaying: I Heard It Through the Grapevine - CCR (Chronicle Vol. 1)

I have discovered that I can't really be a music critic for the sole fact that I don't have enough adjectives in my vocabulary. Which means that music critics must use their thesaurus all the time. Yes, that's the answer.

Friday night brought us the weekend of fun and sun. Not really sun, but a lot of fun.

After an intense match of Rad Racer with Krista and Jill, we headed to Krista's where she made the most amazing drink which we dubbed the 'Blues on the Rocks'. It was followed up by the worst drink in the world which can only be compared to the caesar Donna made me for me one time where she used clamato juice which had been opened, and left in the cupboard for a year. Gak.

After disposing of that drink, we went back to some B.o.t.R. and headed down to the festival grounds. We missed Built to Spill, but no matter, INXS was coming up and we were excited. I was overly excited because the crowd was navigatable for the first time in the week! We managed to get a great spot close to the stage AND have enough room to dance around and come and go for refills as we please. Excellent!

INXS were pretty darn good. They started off the set with Suicide Blond and never let up. Ah, the horn section was amazing! I loved the guy's moustache also. Top notch facial hair actually. I don’t know much INXS but the only thing I did know is that they have a new singer to replace Michael Hutchence - a Canadian chap called JD Fortune. I was impressed with his showmanship (as well as the rest of the band also who have been around for ages). Bright lights, soaring guitar lines (although Mike stated that half of the solos and saxophone bits were so lame that he could have pulled them off).

I am glad I went to see INXS and not Metric. Although I bet Metric would have put on a better show, I know that they'll be around for awhile longer so I have a chance to see them in the future (as opposed to INXS which is a rare chance to see the band).

You can't go wrong with us ending the night off with some McDonalds. I haven't had McDonalds since Krista convinced me to go carb-free (or low carb, whatever you want to call it) and the quarter pounder was calling my name.

May I point out some excellent highlights of Friday night other than the show:

1) Someone texting Trish to the Cognos tent. Trish, you KNOW it must have been a hot man calling you out!
2) Krista realizing she lost her house keys which had us detour to wherever her roomate was. Upon getting home, Krista heard the jingle jangle of her keys when she threw her jacket off and realized that they were zipped up inside her pocket. No alcohol was consumed this night, whatsoever.
3) Getting to Carrie's house where I was sleeping over as we were all heading out to a volleyball tournament the next day and seeing her priceless expression when she opened up her birthday gift from me. Yes, that's right. Carrie's birthday is in March. I suck at giving gifts on time.

iplaying: How Can You Do It Alone - The Who (Face Dances)

Read this article here.

Let's get some thoughts on this.

Do you feel that wireless Internet should be available within camping grounds?

I had class on Thursday night so I didn't up at Bluesfest for much of anything…I caught the tail end of the Robert Cray Band (who I saw at the Eric Clapton concert back in the fall). Trish and Mike said they were top notch.

We then headed into the crowd to catch Blue Rodeo. There was definitely a big crowd there for the event and I must admit I was a little excited to see them as this would be the first time in doing so. Like every other act on the bill, I don't own their album, but am familiar with their hits. Blue Rodeo is no exception although a lot of their songs have been introduced to me after playing them with Troy on the guitar.

Planted in spot with my beer, I peered around and realized it was yet another beautiful night out there. A little cold I must admit and it didn't help that I had the t-shirt on, but no matter, rock would warm my soul.

Blue Rodeo was better than I had expected. I had these expectations of a country-esque night, but this is not true. They still know how to put on a rock show! The sing-alongs, the guitar jams, the slide guitar (yowza!)…it had it all. Who doesn't love having the entire crowd singing Hasn't Hit Me Yet? Try and Bad Timing were also two faves as I've played it with Troy quite a few times. Hearing them live made me pick up the guitar the next day and hash out a few of their tunes.

I just found out that the Jim Cuddy Band is opening for John Fogerty this Wednesday which means I'll get a taste of Blue Rodeo once again (however, I am unfamiliar with his sound and perhaps it is severely different from Blue Rodeo.)

I remember gazing up at the stars during a few songs and just thinking "It's good to be here, right here, right now." Bluesfest has become quite the event for me this year and I'm slowly coming off of the high that music for 11 days straight gives to a person.

Blue Rodeo stated "As long as there is a Bluesfest here, we'll be here."

Awesome.

iplaying: Death from Above - The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)

I’m trying to recollect my memory of Wednesday night now that it's nearly a week past that point. A lot of work on the video got in the way of updates…

We showed up for a good time from the Steve Miller Band and we were NOT disappointed. This also turned into a night of impromptu partying which was fine for the majority of us. The Steve Miller Band started with a little Fly Like an Eagle which resulted in a 15 jam session along with a rapper. They could have ended right there and we would have been fine. But they just kept coming with the hits. Take The Money and Run, Jet Airliner…they never stopped! I was moving to and from our spot to get some more beer and when I returned Mike pointed out the unthinkable.

Gordie Johnson was up on stage jamming to Crossroads.

Gordie Johnson.

Gordie Johnson is best known for his work in Big Sugar which disbanded a few years back. I have always wanted to see Big Sugar live as Gordie Johnson is a loud guitar player. I knew he was around the area as I heard a rumour that he subbed into the Joel Plaskett Emergency when their guitarist couldn't show up.

But I didn't realize that his new band Grady were the opening act the night of Steve Miller! I was pretty upset the next day when I realized this. It was at their show that Steve Miller's ears perked up and said "Boy, I like the sound of that." and so an invitation for a few songs was granted to Gordie to come jam with the Steve Miller Band. Awesome. This is what festivals are all about.

All in all, one of the better concerts seen at Bluesfest! Do NOT miss the chance to see Steve Miller if you can!

*update* How could I forget the moment of the evening? As I was trying to get a picture of the dude with a mullet and a Whitesnake jean jacket, we run into an old co-worker of Krista's. After chatting, this conversation takes place:

Him: So, my wife is leaving...
Krista: (interrupts) Oh, for another mountain excursion? COOL!
Him: No, me.
Krista and I: (awkward silence)

Classic.

*photo taken from the Ottawa Sun*
iplaying: Starz (The Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist)

This is the video I created for my New Media class. Special thanks to Vero, Eric, Annie, Philippe and Mike for their help on this project!

There's something weird going on with the first frame of the video after uploading but the rest is fine.

***update*** Got an A on this video! His only comments were to avoid reading from a script. I couldn't agree more! I think I shall redo this video one day.

We started off the night right by hitting up Bluesfest for some fish and chips for dinner. Let's be honest...when you enter the gauntlet which is Bluesfest (10 days of rocking), you slowly run out of groceries at home and it's a lot easier to eat out. But this is a bad thing people! Palmer's advice - Pick up some groceries!

Met Vero's friend Chantal at the Jonny Lang concert and we were hanging with Karilee, Krista, Mike and Trish. Jonny Lang has been around for the past decade and he's still young! He was entertaining but the cream of the crop was the guy manning the tambourine and one song brought him out in the spotlight with his spot-on impression of a train conductor (pulls the cable, Woo-Woo!). There was also this excellent dancer across the field who was into the music.

So, back to Jonny...he was a great guitar player. He had the greatest face while pulling off his licks. Krista referred to it as his 'sex' face. I would hate to think that this is actually the face he has while having sex. I found there were a few too many ballads coming out of his set, but this is a premature analysis considering I thought he was only one for one hour and I think he played for 2 hours and I only caught 45 minutes of their set.

Why did I only catch 45 minutes of the show? Because it was time to head out to Buddy Guy at the River Stage! We headed to the beer tent to stock up on beer. Please refer to a future entry which will be the latest in my Open Letter series to Bluesfest. Let's just say that whatever happened to us is more atrocious than the lawnchair people.

(insert the future entry on the Open Letter of the Transition between the Rogers Stage and the River Stage.)

We show up to the River Stage and I can hear the sweet tones of Buddy Guy eminating from the stage. We couldn't see too well as we were very far from the stage and in front of many tall individuals. This was unfortunate. But the sounds...the SOUNDS!

Let's talk about Buddy Guy for a moment. Yet another artist whom I don't know anything about. All we know about him is that he's 73 years old and can still rock. He taught Hendrix, Clapton, Jeff Beck and Stevie Ray Vaughn everything they know about the stage performance and guitar playing. Who invented playing the guitar with their teeth? Buddy Guy. That's right.

The fascinating aspect of Buddy Guy is that he was very erratic with his show. He would be in the middle of a song, get bored of it, yell out "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute!", end the song, talk about how he taught some guitar player a song, then rip into some Hendrix for us. Then he would get tired of it and move onto something else. At least he made it seamless and the band knew he was like this. It is almost like it was planned.

There was also a moment where he left the stage and kept playing. I had read about this and realized that he was probably going to get a drink or go to the washroom! Sure enough, he stops playing for 90 seconds and then starts up again and shows up on the stage about 4 minutes later! Ha ha! I had these visions of him walking back to the porta-potty, doing his business and then heading back to the stage.

The abrupt nature of the show didn't stop as he started a song and as soon as he was done the first verse he abruptly left the stage and that was the show! Very odd! But it didn't matter. We were witness to a legend. This man could play. REALLY PLAY. He didn't slow down at all and he was a great showman. I am definitely going to open up my knowledge of music to include Buddy Guy. If you have the opportunity to check him out, do so. Two enthusiastic thumbs up.

I've had this album for the past 10 days which allows me to give its proper review.

The last time The Smashing Pumpkin offered up an album was in 2000 with their release of Machina II - The Friends and Enemies of Modern Music. This was a very limited vinyl only release (25 copies made) with instructions to rip it and release it for free on the web. This was definitely a better album than Machina - The Machines of God but in the end, it didn't matter because the Pumpkins broke up in 2000.

Enter seven years later with the Pumpkins reformed (with Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlain) and they have released their new album - Zeitgeist - today.

Zeitgeist is a return to form of hard hitting tunes. Reminiscent of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (which is an excellent move) but it seems more modern. Billy's tricks of the trade from Adore to The Future Embrace are scattered around the album. There are definitely some heavy hitters for the first half of the album and then the more laid back Future Embrace style rockers.

At first listen, I was thrown aback by the layering of vocals done of the majority of the album. It took away from the rawness of the tracks, which I witnessed while listening to several bootlegs from the Europe tour for the past month. After awhile, the vocal layering grows on me although there are a few tracks where I would prefer it not to appear.

In the end, the album is killer. A true return to form for the Pumpkins. If Mellon Collie was a fork in the road which created Adore and Machina, then Zeitgeist is a return to that fork in the road and taking the other path. I am enjoying this path so far and look forward to the next few years with this album.

Fave tracks at the Moment: Bleeding the Orchid, Tarantula, Starz, United States

Sunday night we headed down to see The White Stripes. We got there a bit early and didn't feel like checking out the other acts so we just found a great spot to stand around in which wasn't too far off from our spot where we watched George Thorogood.

There was this small fellow in front of me taking pictures with his nice Nikon camera. He was getting some good shots during the night. At one point this one guy offered to get him up on his back to get a better view so I hoisted the guy up and held him up on this guy's back while he snapped some shots. I should have asked him to send me some!

I don't know much about The White Stripes. All I know is that Jack and Meg White consist of the band so I wondered how amazing that would be. I also don't own any albums.

They put on one of the more energetic shows that I've seen! Jack White can wail on that guitar and Meg pounds the drums like a human metronome. I enjoy their stage decor also - the white and red theme plays well in a stage setting. They had a red cloth draped from the top to the bottom and they had multiple microphones positioned around the stage which made it interesting to watch. I especially liked when Jack sauntered up some steps to an upper platform and performed his Godzilla walk. The shadows played well throughout the set also. Very well thought out.

Even though I didn't know any of their songs, I was impressed by the sheer rock of the show. Two thumbs up.

iplaying: Neverlost - The Smashing Pumpkins (Zeitgeist)

Saturday Morning we picked up Duncan and Krista and headed out to Deep River to visit Shannon and Maureen. It is only 2 hours away from Ottawa but I never managed to get some time to visit them. Unfortunately I could only slot one day in as I had to work on my mid-term project, but one day is fine as it's only a quick jaunt.

After some an amusing game of Highway Hypotheticals (in which Duncan thought that we should market this idea), we arrived to find everyone arising from their slumber. Nichelle, Adam, John and Margaret had driven up the night before from Sault Ste. Marie.

We headed down to the local watering hole and ordered some food and drink. Not bad, not bad at all! At the pub, we had some great news from a good friend. This is where the mystery sets in and it's up to you to figure out what the heck happened as I won't be the one to come out and say it.

The fries were delish! Then we toured the main strip of Deep River which was nice enough. Loading up on food and drinks for the evening, we headed back into the house and loaded up the boat. Shannon brought us for a tour of the river and headed out towards Chalk River where he showed us where he works. It was interesting to find out that the nuclear reactors had been around since the late 1950s. I never knew that nuclear reactors have been around for that long. Let me also point out that Shannon has a sweet view outside his office.

During the trip, Adam was trying to spray me with water so I grabbed the bailer bucket and launched it at him. However, I mis-shot and ended up getting the majority of it on Melissa's friend Sabrina! Woops! She wasn't too impressed but she was good natured about it. Although she did spew out some legal talk on me about misplaced malice (never do anything bad to a lawyer!)

We then retired to the homestead where we played some excelelnt games of euchre (Krista and I won 2-1 through the entire night), some bocce ball and cooked up some steaks. There was a nice campfire and fireworks to watch also and once the rain started pouring, we headed inside where Adam managed to spray Shannon with the hose so Shannon retaliated with a pitcher of water of his head. Beautiful.

I have no idea how long we stayed up playing euchre but it was good times and we passed out in Shannon's living room for the night. We had a great time and it was good to see everyone! Deep River is a pretty nice spot to live....right on the river, lots of privacy. I think to be ideal, it would have to be the size of Kapuskasing, but that's a minor point. Very nice spot!

After Bela Fleck and the Flecktones left the stage we headed over to the beer and refresher stations. We managed to become masters of the peeing relay race. We had Sara, Krista, Matt, Mike and myself all with beer in our hands. Not wanting to bring it into the porta-potty, we managed to send Mike and Sara into the porta-pottys while we held onto the other beer. Because they weren't out by the time a stall became open, we let one of the guys (who was complaining about his bladder bursting five minutes before) go ahead of us. He was so ecstatic that he ran into Sara's stall and we heard a yelp! We all had a good laugh at that. Mike emerged and grabbed some beer and we got Krista into the washroom. It was a great example of logistics at a festival.

May I point out that the beer lines were stellar this evening but the washrooms weren't not as good. May I also point out that some guy gave us a great deal (unknowingly) on beer…2 for $6 instead of 2 for $11! Mike and I both walked away with this great deal with smiles on our faces.

We managed to follow the crowd in and find an excellent spot to check out George Thorogood. It's all about going with the flow of the crowd. When we settled in, we noticed that the big screen had a ticker tape running on the bottom of it so that you can text message a message onto the screen. Knowing this, I borrowed Krista's cellphone and text messaged "Mike, will you marry me? - Ryan" and it showed up 20 minutes later! It was hilarious. I am hoping that someone in the crowd read that and knew Mike.

I must admit that I found the text messaging to be highly distracting though. Half the time you want to watch the stage and see what's going on but there is this carrot dangling in front of you called 'text messages' and you are always interested in seeing what's going to be displayed.

Once again (as with most of the Bluesfest 2007 artists), I don't really know a lot of George Thorogood's music. But they put on a rockin' good time. Mike mentioned to me that there were a lot of songs he recognized but never knew it was George Thorogood who played it. We had some Bad to the Bone, Who Do You Love and the classic - One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer. Great sing along tune.

At the end, George pretended to pass out from the sheer crowd noise and his band had to revive him. They then ended the night with O Canada playing with some videos of flags waving. Oh George, how patriotic art thou?

All in all, they put a good time and everyone came out of there happy for the good Friday night of rock.

We then decided to head out to the new Heart and Crown up on Preston Street for a beer. I jogged ahead to Sara's place to find Chris and his buddy hanging out. Later on, Krista was complaining about her shoulder being sore so I was demonstrating that she should swing it like Pete Townshend plays his guitar - like a windmill. So I rev up my arm into windmill swinging action but fail to realize that there is a doorway directly above me. My arm swings once, twice, CRACK! Oh man, I busted up my hand pretty good. My thumb is pretty good three days later but it was hard on me for the first bit! Mental note in life - While performing any Pete Townshend impressions, be aware of your surroudings!

We then headed out to the Heart and Crown and I saw a rockshaw, a rickshaw with a booming sound system and crazy lights.

The new Heart and Crown was decent. The service there was a little insane and we found out from Mike's friend who works there that they were severely understaffed that night - no bouncers, no waiters, etc. I even had to grab a broom from the backroom and clean up some broken glass in the washroom (Palmer did not break any glass. It was there when I got there.) So at first glance I would say that the new Heart and Crown has some potential to be a great place, but I would have to say I prefer the original so far.

Update: Judging from the comments section a few posts below this one, a 'Kim' said she was at the show. The only Kim I know is my cousin Kim and I am shocked that you were in town and didn't hook up with the Palmer. Here's an open notice to anyone coming into town for a good time - you're always welcome at my home, and I always accept a Bluesfest beer.

We headed back down to Bluesfest on Friday night to check out Bela Fleck and the Flecktones on the Rogers Stage. All I know about them is that Mike loves these guys and he plays a mean banjo. With that information in hand, we headed out, found an excellent spot in front of the stage (look more room over at the Rogers stage!) and settled in.

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones were amazing. I definitely had them as the best show of the Bluesfest (and it's only the second night!) after watching them. They had Bela who is this amazing banjo player…then they have Victor Wooten who plays a mean bass.

The cream of the crop is Future Man who plays his own invention - the Synthaxe Drumitar which is a MIDI controller shaped like a guitar. It was amazing! The fact that he came out in a pirate outfit doesn't hurt either. Actually, I am having a good laugh now after reading Wikipedia for this information and find out the guy's name is Future Man.

Let's not forget Jeff Coffin on horns, more specifically playing two saxaphones at the same time!

Honestly, they put on an amazing show of their talents. Mostly instrumental, it kept me grooving all night long.

Onto some important stuff...like the actual show!

I don't know much Bob Dylan songs...just the hits really. We all were pretty worried about the set as we had heard he tends to mumble and doesn't have much stage presence at all.

After navigating the gauntlet which was the crowd of lawn chairs, we ended up losing the entire crew and Karilee and I made our way through the crowd. This required some ingenuity on our part - her leading the pack as I had my giant backpack with me and when I got to a point where people wouldn't let me go by, I would just point her out and said that she was my girlfriend. A little fib here and there brings me a long way through a crowd.

On my way there, there was a taller fellow who had stopped in front of me and we were trying to figure out how to get a little further.

Lady with her lawn chair (to the tall guy): Hey! I've been here 5 hours and now you're blocking my perfectly good view!
Tall Guy: Sorry! We'll be on our way.

Because there was a holdup of people in front of us, we couldn't walk ahead yet...

Lady with the lawn chair: Hey, come on! I paid good money for these tickets! Get the hell out of my view!
Tall Guy (who was trying to be polite and finally lost it): Hey lady! Guess what? You've been here 5 hours but I showed up 30 minutes ago and look who has the better view!

I had a good laugh at this and at that point the crowd got moving again so we could go on our merry way.

We ended in the middle of the crowd after 45 minutes of navigating through the crowd. It was a nice spot we found - one with some room to move around in (surprisingly).

I was impressed with the show. Whoever said anything bad about Bob Dylan was wrong. He sang clearly but there wasn't much stage banter going on. I recognized the classics - Like a Rolling Stone, Masters of War (!!!) and All Along the Watchtower as the closing track.

Setlist: (taken from this site):

Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
Watching The River Flow
It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Girl of the North Country
Rollin' and Tumblin'
When The Deal Goes Down
Honest With Me
Spirit on the Water
Tangled Up in Blue
Masters of War
Highway 61 Revisited
Like a Rolling Stone
----
Thunder on the Mountain
All Along The Watchtower

(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.