Posted in ...this is your father speaking, tagged Baby babble, Madelyn, MixCloud, radio, The Zone @ 91-3 on July 15, 2010| 2 Comments »
My daughter Madelyn Oh Yeah came to visit me during my radio show onhttp://thezone.fm/jeremy .
She then proceeded to push EVERY button and BROKE the radio. The worst part… the worst part, she wouldn’t even apologize on the radio to everyone. That baby!
Listen >> Maddy Oh Yeah broke the radio
Go with yourself.
Posted in ...this is your father speaking on July 9, 2010| 2 Comments »
Posted in ...this is your father speaking, Wedding, tagged Aqua, Backstreet Boys, Father's Day, Lamb of God, Maddy and Daddy, N-Sync, The National, Tool, Victoria Wedding DJ, Wedding DJ on June 20, 2010| 4 Comments »
Today is Father’s Day… and when I woke up this morning; I was alone. Maddy had spent the night at Nana’s and Coral was in Coquitlam. So I got the greatest Father’s Day gift of all, peace in the morning. With no one snoring or kicking me or poking me to “wake up Daddy!” I was able to sleep till 11AM! That hasn’t happened since the winter of ’08.
After a morning that involved working the email for wedding leads and washing my Jeep… it was off to Nana’s cottage house to hang out and watch my sick baby play (she has a cold). I’ve been feeling sick the past week too… so it was a sick Father’s Day for us. We didn’t get up to much, but what we did do, will live on forever as a streaming piece of internet audio. Have a listen.
Mixcloud >> Maddy and Daddy 02
Its Father’s Day 2010 and I thought it would be as good a time as any to catch up with my favourite interview subject, Miss Madelyn Oh Yeah! She wishes me a “Happy Father’s Day” (with my prompting) then we talk about being sick, going to Nana’s, our failed trip to Tim Horton’s and ordering pizza.
The music at the beginning is Tool’s “Eulogy” and the end is The National’s “Daughters of the Soho Riots.”
***
My first paid wedding gig was last night and it was really fun. I think I’ll enjoy this line of work. Its great being my own boss (and super stressful) and I like the performance aspect. I have some grand ideas for my stage set-up after last nights party. I had a good light set up for the wedding last night, but I want a great one! (and I want to find an alternative to the traditional fog machine. Haze is awesome, but the fog machine ‘smoke’ sucks hard)
I also learned a few things, chiefly I need more 90s pop songs. Real terrible stuff that I never listened to but today’s brides all lapped up; N*Sync, Backstreet Boys, Aqua… yeesh. I should have anticipated that… but flaked. I still delivered a good set, but I did have to dodge a couple requests because I had zero Aqua songs on the hard drive. That said, we did jam out some jems and ended the night with a cut from Lamb of God!
Th first wedding worked out great and I learned a ton. Can’t wait to apply the knowledge and make the next one even better!
Go with yourself.
Posted in ...this is your father speaking, life or something like it, music, neat-O gang, tagged Alan Cross, Best Coast, Dominique Young Unique, Fang Island, Interpol, Mountain Equipment Co-Op, Sasquatch Music Festival, Stone Temple Pilots on March 22, 2010| 4 Comments »
Walked into the Zone today. Seeing as it was so nice and Coral and I didn’t have a chance to do our weekend hike. On ym way in, i rocked my one armed backpack which is quickly becoming my second fave purchase (the hiking shoes being number 1!).
I using this backpack for all sorts of stuff, lunch kit seems to be the best use. But it is also my handy dandy diaper bag when out with Madelyn. Diaper bags are the most emasculating invention ever. Its bad enough its a purse type bag. If it were filled with gun powder and musket balls, then I could at least handle it… but then its filled with baby powder and diapers. No fun central.
This handy little bag, way smaller, out of the way, frees my hands. Plus I think it’ll be a godsend at the Sasquatch Festival this year (If I can get there!).
If there is one thing I hate, its being encumbered with stuff. I want to be free. The flip is, free equals cold, or hungry or thirsty.
This year, I’ll have a little pack, outta the way. Next, I’ll need some hipster pants that let me zip off the legs during the day to make shorts, then at night, zip them back on. Plus some sort of sweater that can be tucked into this pack and pulled out when I when Coral gets cold at night.
This year I applied for a proper media pass. I hope to get a chance to record the shenanigans for a kickass podcast. My little pack might be big enough for an audio recorder too. I’ll let the photog haul around the visual apparatus.
With the laptop and the motor home, I can produce up a show every night for broadcast. Go technology!
***
Stone Temple Pilots s/t album cover
The Stone Temple Pilots record cover looks pretty groovy… man.
The new record is supposed to have a 60s vibe. really? I’d believe that.
We all go through a classic rock phase at some point, I am glad that Scott and the rest of the boys are going through theirs.
STP released their first new single since… 2003? on Friday night. Pretty weird, but the stunt worked. According Alan Cross over at Explore Music, the single was spun over 500 times in a 60 hour period across North America. Not bad.
Now if you really want to dive into some syrupy, 60’s acid rock from California, get involved with this band, Best Coast. The song “When I’m With You” is rad (scroll down to the bottom of the player). “When I’m with you I have fun.” Oh very lo-fi a dirty. Looks like the jumping off point for this week’s mix. Plus I’ll tuck into some “Best New” tracks and music from Pitchfork and a couple other faves. We’ll see what plays out. Its hard to say before I am in pajamas standing in front of the blinking lights of my rig. I kinda want to play “Show My Ass” (MP3) but uh, yeah that might not be my style. Coming at you tonight or tomorrow.
Go with yourself.
Posted in ...this is your father speaking on February 25, 2010| 3 Comments »
We made it home last night from a fun and relaxing (yet also chaotic) trip to Vancouver/Coquitlam.
While in Coquitlam, Madelyn turned two-years-old!
Happy Birthday little monster.
***
It feels good to be back at work after a few days off. I like being on the Zone, it is a fun job, but I did enjoy unplugging for awhile. No blogs, twitter, facebook… any of that stuff.
I come back to work today feeling nostalgic for the simpler time and read a crazy article about the human voice and recorded sound. The author posted some examples and one was a clip of the first ever known recording featuring a human voice. Wow.
Posted in ...this is your father speaking on January 20, 2010| 3 Comments »
Posted in ...this is your father speaking, tagged Esquimalt, Madelyn, puddles, rain on December 24, 2009| 1 Comment »
Posted in ...this is your father speaking, playlist, tagged BC Day, Cage the Elephant, Foals, Friendly Fires, Hadoukan!, Jeep, Lake Cowichan, Phoenix, Plants and Animals, playlist, The Rural Alberta Advantage, Yeah yeah Yeah's on August 4, 2009| 5 Comments »
I have this Plants and Animals t-shirt that I love love love. Whenever I wear it out in public, people always come up to me and say, “Plant Sand Animals… ha ha, nice.” I just nod and smile, its not worth correcting them.
I had one of those magical weekends filled with family, friends, sun and lakes.
On Sunday, Coral and I packed Mads, her Mom and sister up in the Jeep and headed to her Uncle and Aunt’s place on the beach of Lake Cowichan.
Lake Cowichan reminds me so much of summer’s at Bob’s cabin at Christina Lake. For the hour and a bit drive from the city to Cowichan I quickly crafted a playlist. Here are some selected faves from the list.
Off to Cowichan
01) Phoenix – “Love Like a Sunset Part 1”
02) Phoenix – “Love Like a Sunset Part 2”
03) Phoenix – “1901”
04) Yeah Yeah Yeah’s – “Zero”
05) The Rural Alberta Advantage – “The Ballad of the RAA”
06) The Rural Alberta Advantage – “Four Night Rider”
07) Cage the Elephant – “Ain’t No Rest for The Wicked”
08) Foals – “Balloons”
09) Friendly Fires – “Jump in The Pool”
10) Hadoukan! – “Declaration of War (Whip Remix)”
The first ten tracks are a great illustration of what I’ve been feeling lately.
Phoenix have this epic instrumental cut on track 4 of their album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I always thought it would have sounded for more promising as the opening of the record, but hey, I’m not a French rock star. Its a very pretty slow jam and I think it lends itself well to the radio hit, “1901.”
“1901” is where we pick this show up and the design was, we’d be just climbing into the Jeep during our opening track, adjusting volumes, doling out the McDonald’s breakfast and getting the A/C set… by the time we were on the highway and feeling good, “1901” would be firing up and the drive could really begin.
After picking up Alyx we b-lined for the Douglas and headed north. Coral’s current obsession is the YYY’s “Zero.” She can’t hear it enough so it had to come with us.
I have the Rural Alberta Advantage in my head most days lately… I thought I better add a couple. I love to sing along to RAA at the top of my lungs and really strain to find the emotion in the songs.
Cage the Elephant is one of Coral’s Mom’s fave son the radio right now, neat.
Foals have that fine dancey rock beat going on, this would be a great example of something I’d fire up at The Clubhouse on a Thursday. Then some chick would fly upstairs because she can’t dance to it. I laugh (on the inside) apologize for have the audacity to play something interesting and quickly find something retarded that everyone knows the words to and the cycle continues. Whatever, its a small victory if I can get a few punchy ones in before the request for Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” comes in.
Friendly Fires and Hadoukan! are also what I call alternative dance songs… I think, if /when I become a better vinyl/serato DJ and look the part, you know… I’ll belt my jeans just below my bum and wear some sort of 80’s neon either on a t-shirt of fanny pack… I’ll be able to pull off spinning this music in a nightclub and not be bothered about it.
As it stands now, thou Hadoukan! should change any young lovers dancing world, it does not. To be honest, I didn’t get it the first couple listens either, but now the song “Declaration of War” lives in my brain. This song might make a gnarly workout track for you kids that actually… you know, work out.
I guess I better hit The Patch to find me something ironic to wear and practice my DJing.
This video is not the Whip remix, but a groovy video still.
Go with yourself.
Posted in ...this is your father speaking, life or something like it, tagged 16 and Pregnant, Children, Elaine Lui, ewoks, Lainey Gossip, MacLeans, parenting, serfs on July 27, 2009| 1 Comment »
“I know what’s going on here Amanda. You’re racist to ewoks! And I’m an ewok.” – some dude high on mushrooms
***
“The serf worked harder than the others, and was the worst fed and paid (…)” – Wikipedia entry on Serfdom
***
Coral and I were in Vancouver this past weekend to attend my cousin Monica’s wedding. It was a great party held way up high on Grouse Mountain.
After the reception, it was time to hop on the boat and return to Victoria for another week of work and life. I wanted to grab a magazine to read to while away the time and a MacLean’s magazine caught my eye.
“A new manifesto argues that parenting is bad for your career, your marriage, your bank book, and your love life.”
That’s all MacLeans could come up with? Shit man, the list is a lot longer than that. Coral said I shouldn’t bother getting the magazine because we already have a child so what’s the point. But I figured it would be full of all sorts of research explaining exactly how bad kids are for society… then with some clever reverse engineering I could at least be aware or best case, combat the “effects” of being a parent.
Turns out there was little of that in the article. The piece was basically a wah-wah-wah from couples trying to justify why they don’t want kids. The poster child for a child free world was introduced as Elaine Lui, aka Laineygossip aka that chick from eTalk Daily. Her argument is; “my life is so fabulous, why would I muck it up with kids?”
I hear ya sista, hope Johnny Handsome in the picture wraps it up each and every time. She says on her blog:
I was interviewed for the piece because, as you know, my womb is frozen like Nicole Kidman’s forehead. By choice. And it’s the choice that’s the crux of it. Because while I applaud and admire you for making the choice to have babies, the same respect is not afforded those who choose not to, and oftentimes they’re made to feel that somehow their lives and their experiences are not as valued or as meaningful as motherhood.
uh, what respect? You should be respected because you chose a life of spontaneous vacations and an overflowing bank account? Don’t worry about it so much. Raising kids is hard, week long all-inclusives in Mexico are awesome… settle down. If you feel like breeders (or minivans as she refers to, I guess people like me… even though I rock a Jeep but whatever, stereotypes are fun, I get it) are giving you a hard time, don’t worry about it. You have perky tits and no crayon marks all over your couch. Her best point is, its the year 2009 and women are free to do whatever they like and society shouldn’t judge. I’d argue, um we’re not. The childless (or child free as they’d liked to be called) make the best aunts and uncles!
From there the article quotes a variety of satirists and PHDers trying to explain why they are happy without kids and debunks the myths that they’ll be unhappy in old age or lonely.
Nothing too new is explained in the article. Kids are expensive and you’ll have a harder time fucking around. For that sacrifice, you can look forward to one day having your kids grow up and disappoint you. (you mean its possible that Madelyn will not live up to my expectation of being a doctor on a spaceship?).
Kids are a lot of work and anyone with one would tell you that… so what does MacLean’s add to the discussion? Well I found a couple points that made me go hmmm.
Number One
The higher a woman’s education the less likely she is to have children. Uh oh, the best women out there are not procreating… Looks like we have a few more seasons of MTV’s “16 and Pregnant” to look forward. Oi that sucks. Your local family doctor is not making any more families, but the Duggers can’t be stopped.
Number Two
Many parents use having kids as an excuse to give up on their own lives and dreams.
whoa…
MacLean’s had no “facts” to back that up, but the line made me pause to ponder. An interesting thought to dwell on and think about. Having kids will sap your money and ladies… its gunna kick your body’s ass to birth a living mammal creature… that we know and can manage, but trying to keep the fire alive and burning AND raise up a productive future tax payer is the real challenge. Can the two be reconciled? I guess I’ll let you know when I write my memoirs as an old man.
I’ll say this, babies are cute as hell and (generally) smell great.
Go with yourself.
Posted in ...this is your father speaking on July 22, 2009| 2 Comments »
The Morning After 
