In two sleeps, my brother and I leave (finally) on our first camping expedition! OK, so it will be a one nighter along the Juan de Fuca trail…its something. My brother and I have been talking about backpack camping for YEARS. I dream about camping all the time. Finally… time + money- new baby, have equaled a brief weekend adventure. I’ve been hording equipment in small doses all summer. Got my hands on a backpack and sleeping bag last week. Today I purchased some odds and sods… Saturday morning, we’ll be on the trail. Can’t wait!
The song that will be ear-wormed into my brain might be this happy jam. John Welsh is a Fraser Valley performer performing a white-guy reggae style of music. My girl Taylor sent this over to me with the warning, “you’ll be humming this song after hearing it.” I am afraid she is right!
I had a busy but fun and rewarding weekend. Lots of DJing. First at Sugar in support of the Rage and Tool tribute bands at Sugar. A share of the profits were donated to Madelyn’s preschool… thank you for coming!
Sunday had Madelyn and I heading up to Merridale Estate Cidery. My friend Jess was looking for some wedding playlists just in-case a wedding party decided to not hire entertainment, or bring an iPod but THEN decide a party would be nice (apparently it happens)…so if you get married at Merridale this summer… there is a back-up!
Such a perfect afternoon for a brunch, then some exploration on the farm.
Toronto indie band The Wooden Sky play a soft, melodic brand of folk or alternative country. Very pretty and lush…but also sad. The music is sounding good on a rare bright November day in the Forest Kingdom with a cup of coffee as I get ready for my radio show. I’m going to post a few songs that I enjoy from their third album Every Child a Daughter, Every Moon a Sun. The Wooden Sky are back form a tour of the UK where Uncut magazine said, gentle melancholy & warm, minor key rapture on the opening track from the third album from Gavin Gardiner and his TO based bucolic rockers fast turning into one of Canada’s most impressive exports.” Impressive. The Wooden Sky are now back in North America (New York right now I think). They’ll rotate the tires, hit the duty free and start west. They visit Victoria on November 19th for a show at Club 9one9. Now the chewnes….
That song “Take Me Out” reminds me of the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance in Back to the Future. And I thought that…. then read the comments on the song and sure enough another bro thought that too. Rad.
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I got up to hiking adventures on the weekend in the rain. Saturday I hit Gowlland Tod and my wanderings took me to a spectacular waterfall. The walk was vigorous but doable for Madelyn… and with all those government ads saying, “kids need 60 minutes of play everyday,” I thought… Sunday Funday repeat with the family. It definitely pushed my four-year-old but she managed and walked the whole thing. We started the trek with a brief dry period, the rain fell half way along… then stopped again. We were all huffing and puffing by the time we hit the parking lot.
Started at the parking lot for the McKenzie Bight. Followed the road to the start of the Timberman Trail. Cut off at the Cascade Trail. (there are signs… you’ll hit a fork that is obvious. Take the trail that says “To McKenzie Bight”). You’ll start heading down and it’ll get steep. You’ll see a waterfall… then you’ll be at the beach. Take the McKenzie Bight Trail back up the other side of the creek. Its pretty much just an UP… and you’re back at your car.
Total adventure time (or TAT), with lots of breaks and a stop for lunch at the McKenzie Bight was about one hour and 30 minutes. You’ll get your stairs and vertical in with this little hike.
VancityRockGirl just got back from Turks & Caicos and her next adventure is to ITALY! (the food looks pretty awesome). Huckdoll did the Disneyland thing….which is on Coral and my list of things to get done. But after reading Huck’s blog, we might wait till Madelyn is a bit older. Which means… I am pretty close to talking Coral into Hawaii. She said Hawaii or Mexico might be fine if we can rally some cash.
She hasn’t been to either… I haven’t been to Mexico since 2006 and Hawaii since 1998! The problem we’ll run into is saving money. We are bad at it.
But I want to go to a coffee plantation and do a beach holiday so bad (or both).
Ah, we’ll see. Money, debt, time, work. Blah. MUSIC! Huzzah!
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Today I bring you a couple from Coral’s currents list.
Coral heard this track somewhere (maybe Sirius XMU… which has terrible presentation, but some decent tunes). The group is called How To Dress Well. Coral thought this song “&It Was U” might be pretty groovy during the lounge sets at Veneto.
Another jam getting some spins at home that Coral is digging is a song I first heard during Tea Time on The Zone (3PM Monday to Friday with #TeamJollyJon) is Django Django. This British group slow burns and swirls with some weirdo-pop.
What did Jon Williams say, “we made a lot of memories.” Rifflandia was something special. Team Zone was in full battle mode with our friends at Wolf/Sheep and Tectoria.(how is that for partners? an art collective and TECHNOLOGY!) Tindy and Allie worked with Wolf/Sheep to create the world of Zonelandia in the Royal Athletic Park… and I’ll tell ya, I have never seen a radio set up at an event anything like it, ever. It almost looked like an American theme park… we even had a RIDE! (or you know, a scissor lift). Thank you to Tindy and Allie for building the whole world of Zonelandia. The best country on the planet. And thank you to all the volunteers for helping to run Zonelandia and Rifflandia.
Laid a lot of high fives. Thank you to all the Zoners that made it down.
hmmmm…there must be more shout outs, perogy truck!, and…. right its time to get the music.
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My MP3 today comes from a Rifflandia discovery. I loved listening to Jinja Safari on Sunday. This Aussie band reminded me a whole lot like Vampire Weekend.
I had a very wonderful dream last night. Coral and I were in the desert for some reason… it had to do with work I guess. And it turned out to be my birthday… so Coral said, “well, we should drive to Las Vegas!”
We rolled into town and it was raining. We had enough money for a hotel room and $80 US cash. We went to that place on the strip that sells $1 Michalobes and $1 margaritas and bought $80 worth and then got really drunk and walked around in the rain.
Imagine Dragons put out a really solid EP. But the record leaves me feeling a little flat. Its basically the EP, so that is good… but the songs they added, do not improve the experience at all. One song… at first listen was very sappy. But it is also romantic and I thought it might make a good first dance song at a wedding if you wanted something a little different.
I bought a hat the other day. Actually I bought two. I went to the hat shop to get a vintage White Sox hat, but they didn’t have my size. So logically, it made sense to buy two different hats. The A’s as seen above and a Cardinals.
Ever since Moneyball, I’ve been jiving on the A’s. Also Coquitlam’s little league colours used to be A’s. Or it was back in the day when I was a little leaguer.
Cardinals is a hat I’ve had on my list for some time. Alyx got me a gift card at Christmas and I knew straight away I wanted a Cards hat. But they were always out so I settled on the Nationals. Sunday they had Cardinals hats in my size and a buy one, get one half price so i went… OK. Still need that White Sox cap, and an Orioles maybe.
Listen to me, jawing on about baseball hats. Hey, I just really like baseball hats. As a kid I always rocked a baseball hat. I wore them out! I remember having Expos, Cardinals, Dodgers… maybe a Mariners hat in the mix. Lately, they bring me joy. “Stuff’ is not a good way to bring joy, I know this, but these hats do for now.
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Divine Fits… new music from Spoon’s Britt Daniels with Dan Boeckner (Wolf Parade, Handsome Furs) and some other guy…Sam Brown! (New Bomb Turks).
Groovy stuff. Sounds like a weirdo Spoon record. And that is good to my ear.
And hey… they call this band “Canadian Content.” ORLY? The radio programmer in my just had a semi.
Divine Fits – “My Love Is Real”
I can really get into this. I love Spoon, Handsome Furs AND Wolf Parade. Dan Boeckner grew up in Lake Cowichan!
and yeah, Sam is from Ohio or something, good for him.
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Something kinda chillwave-ish… new Wild Nothings. Very pretty and easy listeningy. I’ll be adding this to the set list at Veneto. I do need to work on playing guitar. I’ve let that fall by the wayside. I am pretty sure if I ever make guitar music it will be fuzzy. But sometimes I listen to chillwave and think… awww, I like it so much I should try to learn to make that! Maaaaaannnn, I just got no skills at creating music, no matter how much I say I am going to try.
Coral follows the baby Followill Jared on twitter. Coral and her sister are fans of Kings of Leon (who am I kidding, I am too d’awwwww). Coral noticed that Jared was always getting up to hijinks with some dude in a band called MONA. They are friends. Neat. Fast forward to Thursday and Jon Williams is reading NME. Sees that Jared has created a solo project with…. the dude from MONA.
The song sounds good. but I never thought of the lyrics till I read that NME article. Now I am conflicted….the song has some tragic lyrics that give you the heebeejeebees coming from spoiled brat NYC rockstars. But I guess if you live in a world where women hand out BJs… and you subscribe to the mantra, write what you know… then I guess we got to forgive the guys.
Smoke and Jackal – “No Tell”
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I think if I learn how to use the maschine…my first cover song will be “No Tell.” But it will be really sad coming from me.
It was a weekend of ADVENTURE for me and Mads. I had the opportunity to DJ a wedding for Vancouverites Robin and Jon at a beautiful lake called Upper Campbell Lake. They got married at the stunning Strathcona Park Lodge… “off the grid” as the literature states. No cell, limited internet, intermittent power. We battled the comforts of civilization to play in one of Vancouver Island’s most spectacular settings. The dining room had a whale skeleton hanging on the wall to stare at (if you get tired of the pristine scenery). You sit on wooden chairs in a room that reminds you of camp as a kid but with better art. And the food is basic, and wholesome and healthy. Then down to the lake for a float. Amazing. I need to go back for a proper holiday because the place is laced and criss-crossed in hiking trails, zip lines, mountaineering… then the boating, campfires, lake…
Meanwhile…my brother CJ, his lady Caitlin, my sister Andrea and their friend Anders took Maddy camping with my folks. First at Englishmen River then to Rathtrevor… where I joined them.
The beach stretches forever and the water was warm. We played on the beach for a couple hours then hit Parksville. Great vibe…like a surf/beach town for people that grew up directly knowing the Beach Boys. Not their music, but actually lived in the 60s and KNEW them. Now they are retired but still living the Surf City dream.
Hitting the highways of Vancouver Island demands a soundtrack… and the Purple Tour-van only lets me do FM radio and CDs. The thing about CDs is that I’ve stopped buying them, so my collection of records that I LOVE kinda ends in the mid-ish 2000s (save for a small selection of bands that still send the odd CD to the radio station). No problem.
The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America MGMT – Oracular Spectacular Hot Wat Music – Caution Coheed and Cambria – In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star 4 (part 1) Blink 182 – Enema of the State Tool – Aenema Band of Horses – Everything All The Time
The Hold Steady record in particular I was feeling. Sounded so good cranked in the lake country. Many of the songs take me back to the first yet I met Coral and there is a special place in my heart for the whole record. No bad songs… one I have for you today is this jam which I send out to all people enjoying summer hard on Vancouver Island, the best Island.
I don’t have the statistics, but I’d reckon close to 93% of concert goers keeps some of their ticket stubs. That is totally made up science…but it does seem that most people that care about music, collect something, anything, that has to do with the experience.
I have a drawer in a hall closet. It used to be a drawer in my bedside table. I started filling this drawer with nic-naks at a young age. One of the things casually thrown in there was concert and sporting tickets. Not all of them… but many of them. I am glad I did that.
Over the years and moves… the drawer came and was added to. When Coral and I moved in together, my childhood bedside table when the way of the majestic Dodo Bird for something more grownup. The drawer lives, but now in a closet. And still the concert tickets stubs drifted there.
The nature of my work means I’ve been to a lot of shows. Many I did not get tickets stubs for. Many concerts were club shows. No ticket stub. Early in my life, my friend Chris’ Dad worked for the Pacific Coliseum and snuck us into Coliseum and Forum shows. No ticket stub. But I did find many great stubs. Like the above two. my first and third “big kid” rocks shows ever.
I found a ticket stub for the day I found out Coral was pregnant. Coral and I had only lived together for a couple months at our apartment on Yates. That night I was to host a group of radio winners in the Zone’s suit at the arena for the Monster Truck Spectacular!
After work I took the Zone car home and asked Coral to meet me on Yates as we’d have to head direct to the arena.
When I pulled up to Yates she was standing on the corner crying. I asked her what’s up? We have to go to Monster Trucks RIGHT NOW! She said, “I’m pregnant.”
Whoa.
Well… get your shit together, we got monster trucks to do. And we celebrated…at monster trucks. And that ticket stub is a pretty important important relic in the story of Madelyn’s life.
Now, what to do with all these stubs?
Coral’s sister Alyx stuck a bunch to a cork board and made a collage…off to Michaels and $50 late, I had a sweet shadow box.
I dug through all my piles of ticket stubs. Found a criminally small amount to frame and got all Pinterest. Here is my finished project. But I really could have made like 4 of them… so many GOOD stubs. The best part of the project was going through all the memories. It is a very personal project so however your frame turns out, it’ll be awesome and you’ll be happy with it.
I put a select few concert buttons there too…. a Rifflandia 3 wrist band… and because its a shadow box and there is a ledge, a Sasquatch 2009 schedule. Neat.
I also saw at Michaels a concert T-shirt frame? O RLY? hmmmm
The Morning After 