Palmer's World

My East Coast trip has been fully documented with all the sordid details. Only took me a month. Whew!

Mental Note: If you have a laptop on the trip, you the thing to keep track of what you did during the day so you don't have to think about them a month later.

You can read all the entries by looking in the archives for August 2007.

The other night, I picked up the Pearl Jam film, Immagine in Cornice. I call this a film because it's definitely not your standard concert DVD with an entire medley of songs that pack two hours. This film is by Danny Clinch, who is a frequent photographer for Pearl Jam (as well as other big acts like Springsteen).

Upon starting the film, I admired the man's film style as he goes for abstract shots - like through the legs of a person, or a reflection in a puddle. Essentially, the film tracks Pearl Jam's five day stint in Italy and gives us both some great performances as well as some behind-the-scenes action, such as what they do in their downtime, how setlists are changed on the fly because of the feel of the crowd, and general band goodness.

At first I didn't know if I would enjoy this film as I thought I would prefer more of a concert film which captures the entire 3 hour concert, but I was pleasantly surprised that this film played out like U2's Rattle and Hum (one of the best band films in my opinion) and it's sense of style never left me disappointed.

The sound was incredible on the big stereo but the visuals, THE VISUALS! I swore I was watching HDTV! They filmed with both Super 8 (hee hee) and Hi-Definition cameras and it made quite the difference. It's probably the clearest DVD I've purchased.

I was disappointed to see that Betterman was cut, and I think Rocking in the Free World was also? Hard to tell…maybe the original performance missed a verse.

Here's a sense of the great style…during World Wide Suicide, he switches to different performances of the song over the five nights. It's really fascinating to see the change. He also does this at the end of the film and you see how every night ended. With a microphone dropped, or a guitar flying, or Eddie taking a flying leap off of a speaker stack. Very cool indeed.

I would have to say that this film is now in my Top 3 band films of all time. Hmm…what are my other choices? U2's Rattle and Hum is definitely there…I'll have to think about what my third one is.

If you are any sort of Pearl Jam fan, pick this up. You won't be disappointed (unless all you like about Pearl Jam is the music. In that case, you get about 40 minutes of it instead of 3 hours).

Recap: Frank Herbert wrote the sci-fi equivalent to Lord of the Rings in his stunning series called Dune. He wrote six novels in the series, which basically span…oh, 5000 years? Yes, it's insane. But very good books. I won't even get into what they are about. You can read Wikipedia just as well as anyone.

The seventh book in the series (meant to be the last) was never written because, alas, Frank Herbert passed away. Talk about a cliffhanger!

Fastfoward years into the future when Brian Herbert (his son) finds a safety deposit box of his outlines of Dune 7 as well as back stories galore. What does he do with this information?

Teams up with Kevin J. Anderson (yay!) who write a trilogy of prequels, a trilogy of prequel-prequels and have recently (in the last month) written Dune 7 (which basically have been split into two novels - Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune).

I picked up Hunters of Dune and was worried that I wouldn’t remember where the story left off from Chapterhouse: Dune but I found myself immersed into the story quickly. The authors realized that there were more extreme cases than myself (having read the book in the past few years) whereas some people haven't read Dune 6 in TWENTY years. So they wrote the prequels to get interest back into the Dune universe before unleashing the conclusion of the series (which, surprisingly has a lot of prequel information within it. Think Star Wars: Special Edition.)

I really enjoy the writing style of the both of them and find this novel highly engaging and was probably one of the more interesting Dune books out there from the main Dune series. One must wonder how much is really Frank Herbert's vision, but I trust his own son to be true to his father's plans.

I enjoyed the clashes between the Honored Matres and the New Sisterhood, as well as the Face Dancers taking a larger role (people who can shift their appearance? Always cool!) and the every mysterious Old Man and Woman who showed up in the last paragraph of Dune 6 and people have been wondering for 20 years who the heck they are. You find out in this book which is amazing. Never saw it coming.

In the end, this was just a tease to me because the book basically sets up the major story which will occur in the conclusion - Sandworms of Dune. In hindsight, I should have waited until Sandworms was out in paperback as I hate buying hardcover books. So now I'll have to wait a year to find out how the Dune saga ends. I'm excited to read it as I've invested myself fully in this universe and enjoy even more than the Lord of the Rings world.

I feel I can't even really talk about major plot lines in this story because one mention of them would ruin the story for potential fans…so if you have enjoyed the Dune series up until now, go out and grab this book. It's a page turner. But maybe you should wait until you can read Sandworms of Dune because I feel like a Harry Potter fan without his next novel. Helpless and upset.

iplaying: Society - Eddie Vedder - Into The Wild

Last night was super amazing (not only because I got to hang out with the best girl ever) but the cream of the crop was when Mike got home with his convertible Mustang that he had rented because his truck is in the shop. Awww yeah!

So when I asked if we could switch position of cars so I can leave easily in the morning, he just smiled and passed the keys to me and I realized the power was in my hand. We hopped into the brand spanking new Mustang and he instructed me to grab a hold of a handle on the ceiling and turn it. I didn't know why we were doing that until he flicked a switch and the roof collapsed behind us! I had forgotten he had picked up a convertible!

What an experience! I've never been in a convertible before and you feel so…free. We hit the road to freedom (aka, the highway) and I was amazed at how wide open and free I felt. The full moon was out last night and it was amazing to just drive and have this beautiful vista above you.

After tearing down the roads for a bit, we brought it back home as it was getting a little cold. The new Mustang is pretty nice…the speedomoter/tach has old style fonts which gives is the retro feel. The dash was simplistic also…nothing much to it which is fine with me.

Thanks to Mike for letting me take the ride of my life!

iplaying: Come Alive - Foo Fighters (Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace)

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2007/09/25/4526179-cp.html

Unfortunately, a twenty year old man died at a Smashing Pumpkins concert a few days ago in Vancouver. Very upsetting news. The cause isn't determined but they believe it to be from crowd-surfing, which could very well be the cause if no one catches the guy on the way down to the floor and he may have hit his neck.

Either way, it's a sad story to hear. I don't crowd-surf myself but I do help people get up above the crowd if they would like to.

Ugh...I must admit that I would hate to be the band right now. It can't be easy to think that your music which gives so many people happiness, was somehow related to someone accidentally dying also.

So the plans for our corn roast were a success and as far as I could tell, everyone had a great time.

The corn roast almost never happened as Eric told us that corn season ends near the end of September. Mike went to five different places before finding some corn at Sobey's. After picking up four dozen corn, our realization that this corn roast would happen were upon us. Success! We would have been pretty upset if we had to feed everyone some cream corn.

Mental Note: Have the corn roast a month earlier.

Saturday turned out to be the most beautiful day in September (that's right, I can see into the future) so Mike and I started out the day by jamming outside with a few beers until the patrons appeared.

A big bunch of people showed up and I would like to put a shout out to Chef Losier as he seemed to have everything under control. The corn was delish, the meat was great, and the drinks were fab. Let us not forget the great weather outside which had everyone in a good mood.

We ended up with 2 dozen extra corn which is fine with us. Mike just sliced it up and it's in the freezer now. Serves me right for not looking at the evite for the number of people showing up.

The night descended in groups hanging out and chatting, some Flight of the Conchords playing on TV, and an impromptu jam session when most of the people left for the night.

I also presented Rob, Joe and Matt with pictures I had from ten years ago when Rob and I first moved to Ottawa. Yes, it has been ten years ago since we appeared in the great Nation's capital and no one has been the same since. We had a good laugh at the photos and I'm glad to see that these guys have stuck with me throughout the time in Ottawa. There are quite a few people from Algonquin who turned out to be school buddies and that's about it. But I'm sure if you put us together, we would be like old friends.

I'm actually trying to hunt down some 'six degrees of seperation' software so I can see how I've met my friends throughout the years. If anyone knows of any, let me know!

Thanks to all who came out to the Corn Roast and we're looking forward to it next year!

Uh..I'm assuming if anyone is looking for pictures of the event, you can just go on Facebook as SO many people told me during the corn roast. Essentially, if you're not on Facebook, you're not a good enough friend to see pictures from your own event. :-(

iplaying: For Your Love - Djali Zwan

Months ago, Trent Reznor (of Nine Inch Nails fame) released his Year Zero album (which is a pretty great album).

Along with this, he released the multitrack audio files for each songs so fans could remix them at will. Multitracks: Well, in a regular song, there may be a track for vocals, a track for guitar, a track for bass guitar, a track for drums, etc. With Nine Inch Nails, there may be up to twenty tracks going into a song. In an unprecendented move, he released all the tracks for fan to rip apart and put back together in a new form (otherwise known as remixing).

Anyhow, a fansite 9inchnails.net went ahead and opened up a contest to build remixes and the results are compiled in a release called The Limitless Potential, a 2 CD set with 21 tracks which are remixed from all open-source multitrack files. 99% of them are from Year Zero but there are a few from their With Teeth album.

I'm listening to this album and so far it's really, really good (if you like remixes). NIN is notorious for releasing remix albums for all their albums (usually making their own or having others perform a new mix) and if they were smart, I think they should look to the fans remixes for an official release. I am intrigued with some of the creations out there and would like to try my hand at a few of my own using Garageband.

Anyhow, if you are a fan of NIN, I highly recommend you head out and download this album. It's download only - no tracks are available for purchase.

iplaying: Vessel (Losing Control Remix) - Pushing Reality - The Limitless Potential

For those who have no interest in technical talk, move onwards…

So I bought a 320GB external awhile ago which was an amazing purchase to accommodate my heavy television show downloading habits, as well as my live Smashing Pumpkins archive that I am building (which…may not be needed anymore now that the official archive.org project has begun allowing uploads? Hmm…maybe I should get rid of them…). I love the hard drive and the portability factor. I got this idea from Philipp since he had a laptop and I figured I would pick one up later on in life and would like a portable hard drive.

So I did end up picking up a MacBook last year which is great but I realized that I couldn’t write information to my hard drive for some reason.

After some research, I found out that the thing was formatted in NTFS which doesn't allow Mac's to write to the drive. They can read, but they can't write. So I realized I had to format the entire drive into FAT32.

This posed a problem because there was no easy way to take off 280GB of information off of my external hard drive considering I didn't have another drive handy.

Lo and behold, the heavens parted and Mike ended up picking up a 320GB hard drive WITH NETWORK CONNECTION (!!!) so I spent yesterday transferring the data, formatting the drive and transferring back. The entire process took about 12 hours I would figure.

So my issue is the fact that someone needs to get out there and make a new file system which is a global standard so we don't end up in these situations! It would be highly convenient if I didn't have to go through this process again!

Friday was a honey of an o day which made Krista and I decided to head to the Elephant and Castle for a few drinks after work. I enjoy the Elephant and Castle, mainly for it's excellent proximity to the Rideau Centre (aka, it's right there). After a few drinks and discussing life in general, I had to hightail it to Vero's place as she was making supper (awwww yeah!).

Let's backtrack to the crazy Friday afternoon I had and I couldn't really have the time to check out my emails. I quickly scanned one from Vero to Mike which had bus directions to her place. I recall seeing the 16 and the 3 bus going to her place. I discussed this with Krista and she mentioned that the 16 may go out near Vero's place but she wasn't sure.

Fast forward to me coming outside to the bus stop, looking for the map and lo and behold, the #16 bus was there and was about to take off! Rather than waiting 30 minutes for another one, I hopped on board. The time is 5:45PM. I am due at Vero's by 6PM.

As the bus snakes it's way through random neighbourhoods, I realize this must be the bus Vero was commenting was VERY SLOW in getting to her place. No worries, I had some music and a book to keep me company.

I look up when the bus driver yells out "Last stop!". What the heck? Last stop? I'm at the hospital somehow, nowhere near Vero's pad! I ask the bus driver what's happened and he says I had to get the #14, not the #16! Doh! Time: 6:20PM.

At this point, I had to hoof it back on two other buses to get to her place around 7PM. Talk about fashionably late! Vero, being the kindred spirit she is, was very nice about my ordeal on the bus and we sat down to have some amazing chili and veggies. YUM!

Case in point - No matter how much time you think you will save by taking a gamble on hopping onto a bus, it won't save you much time if it brings you an hour out of your way.

Anyhow, the night went well after that. We headed out to MIFO where we caught an Improv game where Vero's roommate was substituting for a team. It was a good time and I was surprised to see people drinking alcohol at the event! I had only gone to one match before and that was in the afternoon. This was a packed place on a Friday night. I find that Improv is a hit and miss. Sometimes you see some real hot teams and sometimes…not so much. I think you need a lot of practice together as a team to be really good at Improv.

I'm hoping that one day I'll get to see Vero substitute at a game which would be great!

iplaying: (Can't Stop) Me, I'm Not - Halo33 - The Limitless Potential

Well, it pays to do some research. I looked up my office building (Place du Portage) on Wikipedia as I had heard some grand rumours over the years like the entire complex holds 50,000+ employees, or it's the second largest Government building in the world next to the Pentagon.

If you've heard me spew out this garbage, let it be known that if Wikipedia is right, then I am wrong.

Turns out that the entire building houses 10,000 employees and my tower houses 3,500 employees. Surely not the sprawling metropolis I thought it was!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_du_Portage

Turns out that if your cell phone company is telling you that the System access fees they charge you ($7-$9) are due to some federal cellphone regulation, then they be plain lying to yo' face.

http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/258049

My favourite part is when they speak about how it is comparable to buying a radio for $100 and then having them charge an extra $10 JUST BECAUSE. It does make sense when you think about it. The System Access Fee is just more of the monthly cost. Stop running around the point and put it into the monthly fee directly!

I must admit I am jealous of the marketing that went into that one. Genius.

"Gentlemen, let's just take $7 off of the monthly price and tag it as a SYSTEM ACCESS FEE!"
(round of applause and an instant promotion to that guy who suggested it).

iplaying: Why Part Two - Collective Soul - Blender

While I must admit that Sophia Coppola was the worst thing to grace the screen in The Godfather III, she does make a decent film. The Virgin Suicides and Lost in Translation were all decent flicks in my opinion. She has a good grasp of music and imagery.

Enter Marie Antoinette, her latest film which Vero and I rented last night. Heck, I don't know much about history so we watched this to inform ourselves.

Once again, I was amazed with the imagery and the choice of music (switching from old school Baroque music to New Wave and Punk bands) was great. I like it when films incorporate new music into a historical context (think A Knight's Tale, but not overdone like it was).

What can I say about the film itself pertaining to Marie Antoinette? Well, I read about Marie Antoinette this morning on Wikipedia so I have a better understanding of where she came from and what her story was. The film does a good job of portraying her role within the French monarchy but if you're looking for some deep historical facts, shy away as the film focusses more on Madame Antoinette as a person, and one who is still young and growing into the woman she would become.

I wouldn't say that there was a dose of suspense or grand dramatic stories strewn about…it was a simple film portraying the life of a woman who had to give up her entire country and family to go to France and then hang out and do nothing much at all.

If you are interested in Marie Antoinette, then please rent this film!

Uncle Gerry is profiled in today's copy of the Toronto Star in their Canadians Abroad article. Excellent!

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/258089

(photo taken from the Star article, but something tells me it's property of Uncle Gerry anyhow unless The Star sent a photographer his way!)

I don't know if it's because I started running again or if it's the extra two flights of stairs I have to scale up in the morning, but I was quite out of breath once I hit the sixth floor! It's amazing what a difference two flights of stairs can make...I think it probably has something to do with how your body is accustomed to a certainty (like four flights of stairs) and then you throw it for a loop.

1) My buddy Duncan is looking for a roommate to live in the Bayshore area of Ottawa. I have lived in the house before and it's a sweet deal. Very good area. If you're interested, hook a brother up and give him a ring.

2) If you're interested in buying a crossbow, I heard that Ken is selling them. Get in touch with me if you're interested. I know nothing about crossbows but have heard that the pack he is selling is a great deal.

Saturday calls for another birthday in the life of Vero. Considering she is an old crow now, I had to go easy on her and not do anything too exciting.

In reality, the crappy weather canceled a great plan to go outdoors and do something, but we managed to go to Cora's for breakfast. Cora's is this amazing breakfast joint where they lay on the fruits like it's the Garden of Eden. Vero had a crepe full of fruits which was literally the size of my arm. I forget what Mike ate but it was huge as well! To top it all off, seeing that it was Vero's birthday, a treat was brought out in the form of an apple sculpture which looked like a bird swimming in whipped cream. We were stuffed but managed to chow down.

Afterwards we hit up the town looking for some boxes for my newly acquired comic books (I'm picking up comic books for cheap on ebay in hopes to sell at a profit. We shall see if that happens or not.) After a few hit and misses, we ended up on Bank Street and toured around for a bit before heading back home to watch a film and take a nap.

Let's talk about the film Hostel, shall we? I'm a horror movie fan. I dig them. But these new-age horror films are pushing the limits of good taste. Now all we seem to see in films are scenes of torture. I'm not going to get into the scenes, but let's just say I wouldn't recommend the film to anyone. There are some sick minds out there, let's just say that. I must point out that I loved the whole satirical viewpoint on the American capitalist system gone awry. Kudos to Eli Roth for that. Otherwise, you're just a sick person.

After a nap, we headed to Carleigh's pad for her housewarming party. Friends who live near me in Orleans has increased by one. She was a few blocks away and her place is fabulous. I especially like the front patio off her living room (which is on an upper level). We had a great time chatting it up with the regular crowd and watching people play Dance Dance Revolution (am I the only person out there who doesn't really care for this game? Give me Guitar Hero any day of the week!).

It probably wasn't the most exciting birthday for Vero, but she will be having an ice cream party in a few weeks which puts the sparkle in her eye! I hope you had a great birthday Vero. You're as beautiful as ever.

iplaying: What Would You Say - Dave Matthews Band (The Best of What's Around)

What do I love? I love the random events that spiral into a night of fun. Let's get to that in a moment…

Friday was my last day at work before I switched. I have been with this group for the past six years and they've essentially grown into a form of family for me. It's strange to think of work as a source of family, but it is! Unless you don't care for the people you work with that is. ;-)

Considering I had already packed up my office and finished 99% of the outstanding work, Friday was a relaxed affair. We ended up heading down to Milestones for lunch around 11PM. Everyone was excited to see what the Ultimate Bellini was all about as Krista, Maren and I have been raving about them. After a few of those and a great shanghai noodle dish (highly recommended!), we headed back to work and the day passed by. Considering I'm only moving a few floors away from them, I don't personally feel like it's a goodbye as I'll see them from time to time.

Krista, Mike, Vero and Sara decided to meet up at the Royal Oak for a few beers to celebrate my escape. Although I had a mean cold for the past few days, I couldn't pass this event up and it spiraled in a good afternoon of beers and nachos. We tried to play cards but a) Mike thought it was lame b)When we did pull them out, the wind whipped them clear across the patio. Not the best day to play! There was also a Human Society fund raiser going on so we threw them a few dollars and managed to get a few samplers in the process.

It's good to go out with Sara as much as we can as she is heading back to live in Newfoundland! It is sad to see a friend leave, but at the same time, great to think of the opportunity to return home to family and friends! If I could get a good paying job back home, I would seriously consider it. However, the lack of concerts may irritate me. ;-)

We split off from the pack and headed home. While on the bus, some younger girls were chatting away, oblivious to all around them when I heard what happens to Harry Potter in the final novel. Unfortunately for them, after a few beers, I proclaimed "Hey thanks a lot for ruining the end of Harry Potter for me!". They gave me the oddest look which was probably well deserved as they looked at the raving lunatic at the back of the bus. Vero and Mike howled in laughter. I suppose it serves me right as the media has been pretty good with not revealing the ending yet and I could have got a hold of the novel by now (Annie, I'm looking at you for a source of literature here!). We retired the night by watching Pirates of The Caribbean 2 (which I managed to get through an hour of before crashing).

iplaying: Ants Marching (Live) - Dave Matthews Band (The Best of What's Around)

Read it here.

You have to read this article. It is insane. Insane in a good way.

Essentially Colin Farrell helps out a homeless man by bringing him to a store, buying whatever he wants, gives him a wad of cash but (here's the clincher), rents out an apartment for him for the entire year.

This is amazing. It really hit home when they quoted the man saying how he can now change his life around.

I can't say I know a lot about people who are homeless. But I can only imagine that a permanent residence for awhile helps a lot more in the long run.

Anyhow, I thought this was a heart-tugging story.

Let's play catch up shall we?

- I've started class. One classroom is in the new Desmarais building which is amazing! Electrical outlets for all laptops, comfortable chairs…all it needs is a hot dog vendor and I'm set! Unfortunately my other class is the one placed right next door to Hell. Uncomfortable seating, bad teleconference setups and (gasp!), no wireless Internet connection. This wouldn't be a problem if the subject material wasn't so dry. I was thinking of gouging my eyeballs out in class.

- I ordered some stuff off of ebay awhile which I'm slowly starting to receive. Beauty. Included in that are some comic books which I want to start picking up for cheap and trying to sell at a profit. I'm not sure if this will work in my favour at all considering the fact that if I picked them up for cheap…wouldn't that mean that I can only sell for cheap?

- I downloaded an old show (circa 2000) called Undeclared. Has anyone seen this show before? It's a hilarious look at freshman year at college. I recently stumbled into it after looking at what the creator of the 40-Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up has created before. Turns out that he was the mastermind behind Freaks and Geeks (haven't seen that yet) and Undeclared. Unfortunately, Undeclared was only on for one season but whatever. It's hilarious. It's so good that Mike managed to watch 12 hours of it within a 24 hour period. That's how much he loves this thing.

- It's Vero's birthday this Saturday. Eek! What to get her, what to do, guh, the possibilities are endless! It does not help that I've come down with a cold and I feel like crap. I hate being sick. I want my mommy.

- The biggest news deserves the slot at the end - Led Zeppelin are reuniting for a show on November 26. Awww, heck yeah! Because they know they are the kings of rock, the only way to get tickets is via a ballot system. You enter your name and if you're chosen, you're good for two tickets. As far as I can tell, you'll be assigned a seat in the O2 Arena so that will be interesting. Did I mention the concert is in London, England? Mike and I were talking about the possibility of going over there to check it out if we are chosen. While I think I would rather sell the ticket at a massive profit (pay down debt, by that LCD computer monitor I've been eyeing up…), Mike is adamant that he will go if we win the tickets. That would be awesome.

iplaying: Bring it On Home - Led Zeppelin DVD

Here's a neat price comparison (which is no real surprise).

I came across a receipt for my portable hard drive:

320GB - 169.99

For that price now, I can get a 500GB.

I didn't really search for a crazy good deal. I just went onto Best Buy to take a look.

Interesting though.

I went to class last night (after eating some excellent tacos over at Krista's place) which was in the new building at University of Ottawa. It was pretty slick as they had comfortable seats and they had power outlets for all the students who have laptops (as opposed to some rooms where there are 20 people fighting for one outlet. I got in the habit of bringing a power bar into the room for us all to use.)

My Lord, there was one stinky gentleman who sat in front of me. I was wondering if it would be rude to raise my shirt over my nose.

I am going to be taking an Intro to Sociology course as well as the required "Critical Thinking" course. Last night's class was pretty dry, what with the overview of the class outline and whatnot.

The teacher mentioned how the first night should be used to gauge whether or not we wish to stay in the class, but I really can't say that I learned what the class was about. I will learn via my readings of the textbook this week I suppose.

If no one knows this already, I am also changing jobs next week and moving into the Technology Branch at my work. So it's with trepidation that I leave as I have been with the same group for the past six years and they feel like family to me. It will be quite different but am looking forward to it. Now, all I have to do is clean up my office!

Unfortunately, my great neighbour is moving.

The good news is, if you are looking for an excellent place to live, chances are, this is the spot you want! It's right next to Michael and I! Michael will also offer his services to shovel your driveway (if you are females. If you are male, suck it up and shovel.)

Anyhow, I thought I would send a note out in case someone was looking for a new place to live. I love the area - right behind a mini-mall with a good bar, Giant Tiger and The Works is opening soon.

(photo taken by the Dentyne Gum crew who snapped our photo and then gave us a card indicating where we can download it from. Cool!)

So after we packed the car up, we headed for Montreal. Let it be noted that in the future, if I arrange to pick up Vero from home, and then double back to pick up Carrie at the Schwarma Palace on Rideau Street, I should use my head beforehand and realize that Vero's office of work (which she just walked 20 minutes from) is RIGHT NEXT TO THE SCHWARMA PALACE!!! Vero was not impressed that he had to bust her ass all the way home for me to drive back to her office.

After munching on an excellent schwarma, we hit the road, stopped to grab some beer (hey did you know Rickard's has a wheat beer called Rickard's White? It's delish.) and kept moving.

Lucky for me, I thought about checking out craigslist.com to find some tickets to the Osheaga Festival instead of paying the $95 from the ticket booth. Sure enough, I found a guy selling his tickets at $50 a pop. BONUS!

We couldn't get in touch with him on the phone so I headed to his pad. I knocked, I rang the doorbell, I did that again and no answer. Dang it, he must have sold the tickets on me! However, my patience won out and the guy runs out of the washroom with a towel wrapped around him.

Now, I'm not gay, but this guy definitely had a physique I was jealous of. I was laughing to myself as I knew Carrie and Vero were missing out by sitting down the street in the car. I was contemplating going to get them while he changed into some clothes but whatever. They've all seen hot men wrapped in towels before (aka Philipp and I).

After picking up the tickets, we headed to Philipp's, hit the ground running with a few beer, contemplated how we could climb up to his rooftop patio considering it was under construction and the entrance was blocked, and then decided to head out into the town.

I love Montreal. It has a different vibe at night than Ottawa. We were walking down the street and I heard some excellent stand-up bass and we decided to walk over and enter a jazz club. This place was hopping with an excellent jazz band. Unfortunately for us, it was closing time and they only stayed for another song. After dancing to some oldies, we continued onto another bar called Miami (which supposedly is usually good to go to) but at that hour, there was no one so we headed out to some night club and danced the night away. Personal highlight from that evening was the guy who started dancing with us and then proceeds to throw water into his own face…along with the ice! After some good laughs, we headed home and crashed.

Man, it was a hot night in Montreal. I didn't get too much sleep which I had to counteract somehow for the next day. It's funny how the weather can change on a dime during September as the next night was cold.

On Saturday we got in touch with Matt and Karilee who were coming to the festival and we made plans to meet up around 5PM. After going to the Fameux Restaurant for some smoked meat sandwiches, we headed out down St. Denis to check out some vinyl record stores. Vero picked up some excellent choices, including a suggested Top Gun soundtrack!

We then headed out to H&M which was on the other side of town. After walking for awhile, we ended up in the mall, grabbed some much needed juice to replenish our strength and went into H&M. I was dismayed at first when I realized we came out all that way for nothing as it was a womens/children's clothing only shop! However, the cashier heard our dismay and informed us the mens shop was up one level. Vero and I headed out there in search of the brown corduroy jacket that I passed up in New York City. Unfortunately for me, anything associated with clothing and New York City has a curse on it and sure enough, they did not have a size that fit me. The one I tried on was snug but I did the 'bend over and tie your shoe' test and it wasn't happening.

Upset, we left and headed back home as it was getting late and I realized that I had forgotten the tickets in my car so there was no way we would make the 5PM deadline. Vero ended up heading ahead without me to meet up with Karilee, Ann and Matt.

We reached the festival grounds (which is on Parc Jean-Drapeau Island) which was home to Expo '67. Hey, that's forty years ago! Crazy. I saw the biosphere which was cool. The festival grounds had a slew of vendors and very cool artwork strewn about. The two main stages were set up right next to another so they didn't have any lag time between bands. I liked this setup more than the Bluesfest setup which had a stage on the opposite end of the field. This way, you could technically plant yourself between the two stages and have a great view of both.

We watched Stars play (Montreal band) who were alright. They picked up near the end. We then were watching Feist but decided to tour the grounds for some excitement and sat down for awhile. I was anxious to buy a Pumpkins t-shirt but we don’t live in a world of cheap tour shirts any longer and they were $45. I scoffed at the price and realized it wasn't for me.

After Feist, we headed to the Vice Magazine corn roast which didn't have any corn at all! I believe that it was held in the afternoon and this was the reason for no corn upon our arrival around 7PM but the others didn't seem to follow my line of thinking. We then stood in line forever for a steak sandwich and then headed back to find a good spot to watch the Pumpkins. We could see Damien Rice's set from where we were standing which I enjoyed instead of just hanging out for an hour without anything to do. Unfortunately, we misjudged the weather and a cold snap hit us and Vero was super cold. I think she ended up with a cold the next day. :-(

The Pumpkins rocked and then we left and headed back home where Philipp and I watched a hilarious Ali G video (must have been a compilation of his British show) while Carrie and Vero slept. The next day we toured around the area to get some poutine (22 different varieties! BEAUTY!) and checked out a few record shops. I found this great one around the block from Philipp's place although they didn't have any Pumpkins vinyl that I was in search for.

In the end, another great weekend was had in Montreal. I love that place. Thanks to Philipp and Jean for the great company.

(photo taken from the Montreal Gazette)

The Pumpkins were on fire tonight. I think I would put this concert at #2 in the three concerts that I've seen (#1 being held by the Mellon Collie tour of '96).

They had an amazing setlist which consisted of a lot of Zeitgeist material as well as some oldies/goodies. My favourite part about the Pumpkins is when they go into their random jam sessions or revamp some of their songs. Bullet With Butterfly Wings used to be like this back in the Adore/Machina touring days but has since made it back to its original incarnation. Heavy Metal Machine (Machina) was victim to the revamping and I thought it was a beautiful way to lose of my hearing. I'm kidding..actually, the concert wasn't that loud at all now that I think about it. No ringing of the ears afterwards. This may have to do with the fact that it's an outdoor festival.

The new light show is pretty swell also although Vero complained that it was in her eyes most of the time so she had a hard time seeing the stage and the people up there. I had no such problem although there were two tall guys in my line of vision for the concert.

While I would have liked to hear Starz and Zero (which made it onto the setlist of the next night's concert in Toronto), I was impressed with the choice of songs (catering to both the old and new fans) and the sheer power in the music that night. Billy was in a great mood that night…even laughing during a portion of United States. Speaking about United States, the PA system conked out for 10 seconds right when it builds up to the apex of eardrum splitting rock riffs…unfortunate, but at least it only lasted 10 seconds.

Setlist:
United States (with Star Spangled Banner AND O Canada being played!)
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
That's the Way (My Love Is) - New single…it'll be a hit for the pseudo-fans
Neverlost
Hummer
Stand Inside Your Love
Tonight Tonight
Tarantula - this track was awesome. I love everything about this tune. It is visceral. Vero said it was the highlight of her night.
Glass and The Ghost Children - A revamped tune (which I thought was Gossamer at first). I like this version better than the original.
By Starlight -> To Sheila (with full band as opposed to acoustic only)
1979 (solo acoustic)
Superchrist - A new song which probably stemmed from jam sessions to Gossamer. Very cool.
Doomsday Clock
Heavy Metal Machine (!!!)
Encore: Today

Mike managed to score the workprint of Rob Zombie's Halloween last night so we sat down to watch it. I was hunting around on the weekend for my original Halloween movie but cannot seem to find it. Does anyone out there have my copy? It's the one on VHS.

I didn't know really what to expect as I had heard some mixed reviews about the film and Halloween is by far my favourite horror series (next to Evil Dead of course!). Mike Myers instills fear into me like no other. He's just some guy walking towards you with a knife. Yikes!

The film has a LOT of back story to Michael Myers…pretty well the entire first half of the film is dedicated to showing what environment Michael grew up in and how it made him into a monster. While I enjoyed Mr. Zombie's portrayal of a twisted environment creating this crazy guy, I must admit that I preferred the mystique of just some random killer coming out of nowhere and attacking the town on Halloween night. I read a great review of the film at Ain't It Cool News and they hit the nail on the head when they were talking about how everything needs an explanation nowadays, including Star Wars and the prequels. It used to be enough to know that Darth Vader was a bad ass and no one really know how he became one. But then the prequels come along and you see him as a kid and see what he had to go through which transformed him. Meh. What am I saying? I like the prequels so I can't put them down, but let's get back to Halloween. I didn't care for the extended intro to the back story of Michael. While I think it was well done and I understand what Mr. Zombie was trying to do with his remake of Halloween, I think it would have been best if you left him as a killer with no story.

Onto the rest of the film…it pretty well is the original Halloween film and I must admit that I was on the edge of my seat for the entire time that Michael Myers is on his killing spree. It was a great feeling to once again have the fear in me while watching a Halloween film (which pretty well left me years ago…ugh…Halloween: Resurrection anyone? Michael Myers also had a new degree of viciousness to him which was brought to us by our main man Tyler Zane (who played Sabretooth in the X-Men films). It's like he moved a little quicker and little rougher than our lumbering friend from previous films. And I liked it.

Turns out that the work print version has a totally different ending than the theatrical cut so I suppose I'll have to rent the actual version when it comes out next year. I have read about both endings and think the theatrical one would probably be better.

Anyhoo…it was amazing and I'm glad Rob Zombie did a bang up job. It's definitely the best Halloween movie in awhile.

Saturday consisted of taking a bike ride around Orleans with Vero to pick up odds and ends. You just can't ignore a beautiful day.

We also whipped out the Grilling Cookbook (a book my parents gave to me years ago and I never opened it until today) to find something good to make for supper. After Vero warned me to be prepared for the costs of trying new recipes (read: spices cost quite a bit!), we headed to the grocery store to stock up.

We ended up making some stuffed pork chops (with onions, apple and bread crumbs) and BBQed some corn with some coriander/butter sauce.

On The Corn: It was a waste. I couldn't taste the butter and I had fear that this would happen considering I was applying it to the corn before BBQing. Wouldn't try it again. What I would try is mixing the butter up with the spices and applying AFTER it's done.

On The Pork Chops: We all know I'm not one with the kitchen. So I was amazed that I could actually slide open a pork chop and stuff items inside! It was like a giant pork pocket! I was impressed. These things were massive once Vero was done stuffing them. We marinated them, stuffed them, closed it with toothpicks and grilled them.

In the end, they were tasty but for future note - don't put too many bread crumbs inside as it made it pretty pasty.

Regaling in our amazing culinary skills, we retired to the living room to watch Cinderella Man. Cinderella Man is based on a true story about James Braddock; a boxer during the Depression who makes a comeback which basically saves his family from starvation. It was a touching tale and you can't go wrong with some boxing matches here and there. I really enjoyed Russell Crowe in this role, but Renee Zellwegger…meh, not so much. Highly entertaining film though and it gets the Palmer/Cantin stamp of approval.

After that we popped in an episode of Jekyll (which we love!). We started with Episode #4 and then onto #5 but I pretty well conked out as soon as #5 started up. I woke up to Vero screaming "I KNEW IT!" and here I am bewildered saying "Wha, what?". Turns out I missed a big revelation of the series. With that knowledge in mind, we stopped the episode so we could watch it another day.

Sunday had me go around the house doing some chores such as washing the car. Boy, is it ever hard to get the bugs off the front of the car! I still have to go and attack them again with a good hard arm.

I then brought Vero and Chantal out to a wedding in Metcalfe and on the way I discovered the greatest back roads to traverse across the city. Never again will I travel the main streets if I can avoid them! I ended up using the same back roads to get to Maren and Allan-Paul's place where I was kindly invited over to a family dinner along with guitar playing and some boccie ball. While Allan-Paul and I didn't win at boccie ball, the dinner was marvelous. Maren doesn't shy away from making extravagant meals - sausage, ribs, mac & cheese, coleslaw…was there salad? Probably. Corn on the cob, home made ice cream, cookies…it was indulgent! One day I shall invite the Danes over to dinner in Orleans but I must admit that I feel inadequate in my culinary skills department to match the sheer amazingness of these meals!

I jammed a bit with Mike and Johnny afterwards which was a good time. I then convinced Maren(or was it Maren convincing me?) to watch the Michael Jackson video 'Moonwalker' which documented his music videos and tours over the years. Maren is the biggest Michael Jackson fan there ever was and I must admit that you have to give him some credit for being a dominant force before the 90s hit and he just became weird in the public eye. 50 million albums sold is not an easy feat my friends.

On Monday, I started painting the garage door again (thanks to Mike for putting a few coats of paint on the door while I was away) and I think it only needs one more coat at this point. Mike also helped out with taping the front door and I primed it. Instead of letting my day waste away into a heap of painting, I decided to take the rest of the afternoon and relax. Mike and I ate an amazing meal that Maren prepared for us and then I spent the afternoon scanning a bunch of photos from my parents photo albums. Vero then came over that evening for a feed of pickerel and we watched the rest of the Jekyll mini-series.

The series is phenomenal and from what I can tell, it's going to be continued. Very cool storyline and I have found the television format brings a lot more to film than actual 2 hour films do. You have to cram a lot of information into a two hour period and with that, you must sacrifice a lot…including character development. With a mini-series, you essentially get a six hour movie which is fantastiche!

iplaying: Gravedancer - Velvet Revolver (Libertad)

A nice way to cap off the summer was to head to the Westboro Beach with a lawnchair, a few beers, and friends to catch the final movie night in which they played Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

What a great spot to watch a movie! Even though we were seated right next to the Parkway with cars driving by, the speakers were loud enough to allow us to hear every word, and the vista of the Ottawa River along with the sun going down behind the movie screen was amazing.

Now, everyone will laugh when they read this but before the film started, I noted that I wasn't sure if I've ever seen the beginning of Ferris Bueller before. Yes yes, I know it's on TBS every four hours but I think I had only caught bits and pieces of it throughout the years.

To my surprise I had actually missed out on a whole lot more than I thought! I figured I had never seen the first hour of the film. Imagine! After laughing at the film, I realized that this is the quintessential 80s comedy. Oh Ferris…where art thou now (fast fact, rumour of a sequel coming out. No joke.)

After the film, we headed to the Elgin Street Diner for some excellent poutine before heading home.

If they air more films at the Westboro Beach next year, I am in. It was such a good time.