happy monday(s).

I've worked for 14 days in a row. I'm tired. I don't even know what to write about... is it WORTH it to update you all? do you even care?

Leah and I have been playing house. We're house-sitting in the north end, being all domestic-like. We share a car, a bike, a skateboard (I must say I'm particularly impressed by her seemingly-natural skateboarding skills), dog-walking duties and dinner making. We tolerate eachother's music (though I have yet to reveal my secret love of Malefaction. In due time.) It's nice. I've tried living with girlfriends before, with mixed results...this feels good though, like it's something...I could get used to. This house is nice - friends of ours live here, and are vacationing in the Domincan. It feels well lived in, built up how they like, with fine lines between shared spaces and personal; even the dog has its own areas.

The point is, I like it.

holy crap.

Jesse Sherburne gets mad props.

Mods VS. Rockers By Jesse Sherburne.


Ah, that's what this can be. A props blog.

Props to...the Ladytron kids, Mira & Reuben, who were super cool and nice and fun to hang out with yesterday afternoon. They played good...songs. I'll leave it at that. And how about props to Keith Muthafuckin King, who I miss, but is making my day today with funny multiblogs. Talking about Keith is reminding me of this art show:

We went to go see it at this toy store called Magic Pony. Here's a couple of pieces from the show...



cool huh?
Y'know what else is gets props?

This great BLOG.
These amazing SCULPTURES.
This crazy ARTICLE.
This insane VISION OF THE FUTURE.
This fascinating FLICKR SEARCH THINGY!
and finally...
This amazing BAND.
thanks for tuning in.

bite the tounge, stop the fingers

regret is a bitter pill.

eat it for breakfast.

ok..first, this is a repost from my Myspace Blog.

I'm here to tell you about 4 albums/artists that are currently tearing my head apart. These are discs I can't get enough of, and I'm warning you now - this shit is addictive.


Black Moth Super Rainbow : Start a People
Site.

Whoah. Imagine, if you will, that Acid Mothers Temple lived in a hash factory and only listened to Boards of Canada and woke up one morning with a vocoder in their pants, and were like, "hey man...let's, y'know...rock n shit." Then they called up the ghosts of Frank Zappa & Mary Hansen (stereolab) and got all hippy jammin'. This album is surreal, uplifiting, briliiant and then some. They have a new split CD coming out with The Octopus Project, which should be NUTZ.



Mates of State : Bring it Back
Site.

Kori Gardner and Jason Hammel are married. and hot. and make the most sweet, uplifting, harmonic and delicious pop this side of Belle & Sebastien. I've been a big fan of the 'Mates for years, and thought they would have trouble emerging from a sound they built from their first record and solidified with "Team Boo", a crashy & cacaphonous pop attack...but they've cleaned it up, put the vocals through weird 'can' filters and discovered the use of..gasp! STEREO. get it. soon. You won't regret it.


Drosstik Records / DJ C64
Label site

Now, I know people's taste for breakcore is limited at best - people think of Venetian Snares or Hrvatski or early Kid606 and get thrown off...too noisy, too brash, too loud, too violent. Hate the haters, I suppose.
But then there is DJ C64, a kid from Toronto with MAD FUCKING SKILLS. Click HERE for a set of live mixes...might i reccomend the first mix, live in Bristol last year...at about 40:00 minutes, he drops a massively sped-up version of "Chittagong Chill" by State Of Bengal...IN-fucking-SANE.


TV On The Radio : Untitled
Band Blog. Band Site.

OK, I admit it. I have a copy of the unreleased, untitled, unmastered, NEW TV On The Radio album. It's brilliant, and David Bowie is on it. Since the last disc, Tunde Adebimpe and friends have been working with Prefuse 73, producing for Celebration and generally working on growing more, awesome hair. The new record is more...focused and dark than their previous effort, "Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babies"...less oompah, more oomph. Less goofy, more...thoughtful. It's good. When it comes out, get it...


...and that's it. Thanks for your attention span. if you love these too, holla!

Eulogy

Kitski Klein-Barnes-MacKay
November 1993 - April 17, 2006




The dog I spent most of my teenage years with died yesterday. She woke up yesterday after losing 10 pounds in 10 days. She hadn't eaten in a week, and was unable to stand. The vet said a tumor was growing inside of her, and she was likely in a lot of pain. My parents made the call, and let me know last night. She was VERY old for her breed - she was a Samoyed/Wolf Shepard cross, neither of which live beyond 8 or 9 years - Kitski was 12, and lived a full, fun and energetic life. My stepdad was the closest to her, walking her almost every single night for those 12 years, but I had a special closeness to her, after teaching her many tricks, including hi-5s with all 4 paws, and a patience game where I'd balance a cookie on her nose, and she'd wait for me to say it was ok to drop it and eat it.

She was a good dog. I'll miss her. She's being cremated, and my parents and I are going to Cougar Creek in Canmore, where the above photo was taken, to spread her ashes. I'm bummed out by this all, but I knew it was coming. Atleast there is no more pain.

click here to win.

Phone rings:

me: hello?

automated female voice, after long pause: congratulations! you've won a trip for two on Carnival Cruiselines in the Caribbean! Press '9' now, to claim your prize!

me: (presses 9)

long series of clicks and pops, followed by silence.
I press 9 again, then 0, then # and *.

long pause.

it starts to ring.

stoned, american frat boy drawl: TCI Vacations. This is Pablo Escobar speaking. How can I help you?

me: I dunno, you called me. I won a cruise. Can I get more details?

him: no. (hangs up)



weird, huh? I guess I'll keep dreaming.

Tracheotomy, please.

My last 24 hours started as I slept fitfully during the night before last, and woke up at 8:30 unable to go back to sleep. I got to work around 10, and had to go to the venue for 1pm to be the runner/production assistant on a show at the Starlite, for this band called 30 Seconds To Mars. Haven't heard of them? I'm not surprised. Maybe this will jog your memory:


On the right...Jared Leto.


To say the least...this show was high fucking maitnence. Little things were made into big things...soundcheck took no less than 6.5 hours (no shit, it normally takes an hour at the most), and while the actual band was finally checking, none of the bartenders who needed to set up were "allowed to LOOK at the band".

fucking retarded.

so...3 quick stories. My 5 minutes with Jared Leto were brief - I drove him to the gym up the street, and we talked about music videos, and I recommended that he look up Pleix, a french video/art collective who made one of my favorite videos EVER, "Birds" by Vitalic...then I dropped him off, and that was our chat. He never looked me in the eye once, and gave me the limpest handshake ever when I tried to introduce myself. Lame.

story #2 I will leave to my lovely ladymate Leah, who came to visit me halfway through the night, and we went to Tim Horton's to get 'after-show food', which is what it sounds like - fresh food delivered to the band's bus for eating after the show...she tells it like it is... right here, in a little tale of woe called "11 sandwiches".

story #3 is a little...crazy. I felt a little crazy afterwards. I'm side stage, waiting for the band to hit the stage, and the guitar tech and I notice this drunk guy in front of the stage who is grabbing onto the mic stand, shaking it, making the (very expensive) wireless mic come loose, and all these people around him are yelling at him, and us, to get the fuck out. The tech agrees with them, and I grab a security guy to go in and grab him to kick him out of the show...I watch as this rookie kid goes in, and immediately is confronted with drunk guy's drunk girlfriend, which leads me to think that this kid needs help.

A quick caveat: I'm the opposite of a violent person. I don't get into fights, I actually avoid them like the fucking plague. I don't know what pushed me to go into the maw and get in this guys face, but I was pissed off and just wanted the show to start.

so...imagine this if you can..these two (drunk/guard) are coming towards me, with the guard on his right arm...I reach for his left bicep to pull him forward, and he reaches up and out of nowhere suddenly has a drumstick in his hand, which he thrusts at me, jabbing me in the windpipe with it. I choke, and can't breathe, and I'm suddenly filled with adrenaline, and I grab at the stick and try to twist it out of his hand, while stumbling backwards, people scrambling to get out of our way. I can feel myself start to trip over this plastic chain separating the monitor deck and the crowd, and as I fall I look up and this drunk is about to land his fist into my face...and suddenly, he's gone. I'm on the ground, and he is being carried out by the bar manager and a security guard, and by the time I'm back on my feet, he's up against a wall in the hallway behind the dressing room. I take a second to catch my breath, and I, in short, lose my fucking mind. Drumstick in hand, I storm towards the guy, screaming "WHO THE FFFUUUCCCKKKK do you think you ARE?!" I was so ready to hit this dude, but the girlfriend starts beaking off to me, saying, "LEAVE HIM ALONE! IT WAS ME WHO HIT THAT STUPID BITCH!"...this is news to me, that anyone got hit at all, so I point to her, and a guard, and say simply, "this chick, gone. now."...she gets dragged out, the guy gets dragged out, and I walk back into the venue to a round of cheers from the crowd who watched the whole thing go down. I felt like a wee bit of a hero...I even gave the drumstick in question to some girl who looked particularly impressed.

Anyways, the show went off how it should: loud, bright, screaming girls baring their breasts (I srsly fail to understand that) - Leto had this bizarre zombie/priest getup going, and his fake-goth band did their job as 'rockstars'.

My throat still kinda hurts. I'm tired. I'm whining.

I'm excited for Minus The Bear this weekend...I'm going to Calgary to work the show there too. I'm glad that my job is allowing me to travel, but it's getting a little tiring never being around on the weekend, including always missing my radio show.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I've been loving all the nice comments and visits from people on the ye olde blogtron7000. Keep 'em coming!

In exchange, a present for you, a track I just can't get enough of, "Never Be Alone", by Simian Mobile Disco (Justice rmx). Simply slammin'. Enjoy your weekend.

God bless this mess.

socio/logic

Hi!
sorry if my sad mood this week spooked y'alls. I'm just fine.

Last night was fun. I worked day and night at the Metric show @ Shaw that we were putting on. I don't wanna talk about work though.


photo by Ira Lee Anderson

My inner sociologist was freaking the fuck out last night to see this new generation of music fan/concert goer...it's fascinating to me to consider the implications of the new musical revolution. Where a 15-year old kid doesn't remember ever owning a casette, or can't imagine what the world was like without the internet. These are kids who listen to Sonic, exclusively - a radio station forming a mould for others to follow it. These are kids growing up without a reliance on the regurgitations of the major labels, but embracing the entire concept of "indie" as MEANING something, as in, NOT corporate, NOT overexposed pop-tarts, but musicians with integrity, selling a product (let's not forget, this IS capitalism) which is packaged in an incredibly positive light...that of togetherness, rebellion and a true sense of INDEPENDENCE

Being at CMW in Toronto taught me that the tide is turning towards an embrace of these notions - and the industry is scared. Their old forumlas are melting down. Their 'demographics' are failing them. Where they could expect to succeed, they are failing...

At the same time, as I walked up the stairs to flyer the lineup I observed several things...I don't want to overblow the impact of these new bands and radio stations - teenagers ARE teenagers - they take what they can get. These are kids with the same makeup and tight jeans and slowly excreting sexuality (not to mention zits, bad hair and awkward senses of self)...but it's in the argyl sweaters and skinny ties and nice shoes and hip hair. The dirty capitalist in me sees these kids as my new market - those to tap, those to sell to, those to train to BUY BUY BUY, as long as it's from me.

is that wrong? I'm back to having trouble reconciling the fun, progressive parts of my work with the cold(cash) reality of it all.

Either way, I'm taking a 4-day week to leave for the mountains today. I need the clean air. I need to see some family, and meet Leah's parents. I'm excited and nervous. I hope my jewness can live up to jewdad's standards.

love to love you.
eli

anniversary.

My father died 12 years ago today. I was 13 at the time, and he passed suddenly of a brain anneurysm. I won't go into it here, but today is kind of hard.

But I did something this morning that I'd never done before - I googled him...I figured there wouldn't be much, considering the lack of internet back in the early 90s, but I found something that I'd forgotten about...an annual award given out by his alma mater (Studio 58 Theatre School, Vancouver) in his honor.


EARL KLEIN MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP is for 4th, 5th or 6th term Theatre Arts students who demonstrates generosity with peers and a contribution to the ensemble, freedom of creative expression, interest in increasing knowledge in all aspects of theatre, commitment and determination, and financial need.


Reading this has made me think about the man I've become, and I'm forced to play the 'what if' game (which I normally hate)...what would he think of my life, goals, and achievments? Would I have done anything different? Would I be HERE, NOW? I wonder sometimes about the path my life would have taken if I hadn't made certain decisions and done certain things. When I turned 18, I received an insurance settlement that ended up paying for 2 trips to Europe, 5 years of university, 4 years of rent and then some...what would my life be like if that HADN'T happened?

I hate the 'what if' game because I'm afraid of my answers.

And in the same way, I'm also afraid of my grandparents. I don't call them ever, because I'm scared it will be the last time I do so. But, seeing as though today is the day I SHOULD, I did. I called my dad's mother, and she was delighted to hear from me, and I feel better having called her (first time since last summer, I think.)...but sad that it takes a day of emotional upheaval to give me the impetus to do it.

I don't know where this is going, or really what my point is.
I'm taking 2 of my sisters to the graveyard this afternoon.
Maybe I'll have a better sense of clarity tomorrow.

ciao, friends.