My brother is getting married!
Now last I remembered… there was talk of it being on the beach in Mexico?
Posted in life or something like it | Tagged Caitlin, CJ, Mexico, Wedding | Leave a Comment »
Isn’t this neat. Last week or maybe a couple weeks ago, Coral emailed me a clip on Youtube to check out.
The video had just begun its odyssey to the top of the internet pops and had a very modest 100,000 something views. now it is 11 million!
But more interesting, Chris “I Hit Girls” Brown’s song “Forever” was featured and is seeing increased sales because of the popularity of the clip. That dude better be dreaming up a pretty epic wedding present for this hipster Minneapolis couple because they may have just saved his career!
While Chris Brown has certainly been receiving some bad publicity lately, it seems that a viral wedding video featuring his song “Forever” has given the song’s sales a boost. The YouTube hit, dubbed “JK Wedding Entrance,” featured the wedding party dancing down the aisle to “Forever.” Just five days after it was posted, the video was the most-cited clip, according to Nielsen’s BlogPulse, and has recently surpassed 10 million views. As a result, the song is now in the iTunes Top 10 and the video contains a link to purchase “Forever.”
Posted in neat-O gang | Tagged Chris Brown, FMQB, Forever, iTunes, JK Wedding Entrance Dance, Nielsen's BlogPulse, Wedding Entrance, youtube | 6 Comments »
“The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower becomes the lender’s slave.” – Proverbs 22:7
***
Whoa, I watching the National last night when they did a segment on biblical scripture being used for financial planning. Who could think I’d get inspiration from not only the Christian Church but also Americans for financial reform?
***
Its bloody hot out! Its all anyone talks about on their twitter feeds, or facebook or on the radio.
Whenever it gets this hot out, I always remember listening to Big Wreck’s “That Song” as a seventeen or eighteen-year-old kid. It was insanely hot that summer and the family stereo was in the living room of my parent’s place in Coquitlam, the hottest room of the house. I put the song on repeat and just lay on the floor jamming it out.
Now to this day, the song reminds me of summer… but the lazy, hazy late afternoon summer days. Hanging out at home, bored and waiting for something to happen, which is basically the best times as a teenager.
This hot weather reminds me how much I truly enjoy my scooter. It is just plain fun tooling around on that thing in the summer time.
The one issue we’re having at the Casa La CorJ is sleep (oh and lack of sex, Coral won’t let me touch her in this heat!).
I read about some neat innovations and I think I want to MacGyver something up tonight.
One method calls for filling a pan or bucket with ice, then placing the bucket in front of the fan, like a poor man’s air conditioner… and if there is one thing I am, its a poor man!
The article had more than a couple tips so I am sure I’ll find something that works.
Go with yourself.
Posted in life or something like it, WWJD? | Tagged Americans, bible, Big Wreck, CBC, Christianity, Coquitlam, finances, heat, Money, Proverbs, Scooters, sleep, sun, That Song, The National, tips | 6 Comments »
Please do the right thing, download: Capital Rock City #66
This crazy fun summertime is doing a number on my blog hits which I can only imagine is damaging my March to 1,000 weekly CRC downloads… that said, if you are one of the fine few finding this website when really you should be at the beach, thank you and maybe take a second to subscribe to the podcast on either iTunes or by RSS feed.
***
DJ Notes
01) The Paper Cranes – “Chivalry’s Dead”
02) Japandroids – “Crazy/Forever”
03) Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band – “Albatross, Albatross, Albatross”
04) Current Swell – “Red Shag Carpet”
No better way to get right to it, then to go to Paper Cranes female half, Miranda’s blog:
The gist of it: our label Unfamiliar Records has called out Factor for giving grant money to only successful bands who don’t “need” it. Large amounts of money going to groups like Nickleback and Metric.
While I agree with the sentiment and have been frustratingly rejected for multiple video and recording grants (written by professionals) we have also been approved for and relied on a couple travel grants in the past to play festivals.
I am a little worried that we will now never be able to get a grant as a result of this. It is pretty entertaining though…..
The letter has been picked up by thedailyswarm, exclaim news and the national post.
the national post
the original letter
response from metric’s manager
oh the dramz. i hope we have not been fully alienated.
I hope not either Miranda! But I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Grants are free money, if you get one, score, if not… then you do like countless others and work for yours. Ryan and you are hard workers that make great music.
Huzzah! Japandroids are making up the canceled show in Victoria. This mighty Vancouver fuzz rock group is playing Lucky Bar on Saturday, September 5th. And they’re bringing with them, Seattle group the Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band. I had a chance to see these guys (I think) at Sasquatch!
Finally on this weeks CRC, Zone Band of the Month, Current Swell. Some fine summer music that is perfect for the patio. CS is a great example of a band that makes music people like and work hard showing it. These guys don’t really “need” a band of the month showcase, but we’re happy non-the-less here at the Zone for the chance to share their fantastic music with our audience. The showcase tomorrow (July 30th) at Evolution Nightclub promises to be packed! So make sure you meet up with Pol early at 9PM.
That will do it for this week…. thank you for downloading my podcast and I hope you discovered some great new music.
Go with yourself.
Posted in Capital Rock City | Tagged Current Swell, Evolution Nightclub, iTunes, Japandroids, Lucky Bar, Metric, Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band, Nickelback, Podcast, Seattle, The Paper Cranes, Unfamiliar Records, Vancouver, Victoria, Zone Band of the Month | Leave a 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, life or something like it | Tagged 16 and Pregnant, Children, Elaine Lui, ewoks, Lainey Gossip, MacLeans, parenting, serfs | 1 Comment »
Posted in ...this is your father speaking | 2 Comments »
Back from my rip-roaring holiday in Edmonton and the first thing I did when I rolled into the radio was watch this fine Nirvana Mash-up. But then the second thing I did, was hop in the Capital Rock City studio to jam out this week’s CRC.
Download: Capital Rock City #65
I hope you enjoy the show as much as I loved making it. If you like the program, please share the link with a friend or on your social network. Every link counts on my march to 1,000 weekly downloads. Thank you.
***
DJ Notes
01) Vince Vaccaro – “Costa Rica”
02) Vince Vaccaro – “Heart and Hands”
03) Maurice – “Anticipation”
04) Maurice – “Unattainable”
Wow, if you remember last week, I was thinking out loud about the possibility of seeing Vince and Maurice on tour in Edmonton, well the stars aligned and on Friday night, I journeyed out to downtown Edmonton (1,300 km from downtown Victoria) with Coral, Alyx, Dave and Lacey to experience some fine Captial Rock in… uhhh… another Provincial Capital.
The venue was this hot, sweaty basement called Brixx Bar. The room was downtown on some numbered street (they all look the same to me) just off Jasper under the Starlight Room.
We walked in and Coral and I wanted to fire this night up right so we ordered two three (one for Alyx) double Gin and Tonics. $33! SWA? Edmonton what’s up? Okay, one round later and I was on to their finest, cheapest beer… Lucky.
I was watching two fine Victoria rockers drinking Lucky Beer in… Edmonton.
Maurice and Vince were tired. They had played Calgary the night before, bee-lined it north to Deadmonton, slept an hour or two then did Breakfast TV on CITY. Slept a few more hours then had sound check at Brixx, oh the life of a touring working band.
The boys treated me like a star, told some stories, drank some beers and then Maurice tucked into their set.
As always, Maurice translates so much better live than on record. The rock songs rock harder and far more furiously and the ballads are more passionate and desperate. On record, sometimes I find their songs get lost in the production. Coral was sold after their set and needed a t-shirt! Post Script, Coral sent me an email today:
And HEY! Your blog made it sound like Id never heard Maurice before “coral was sold after their set and bought a tshirt’
How about coral swooned. I was sold befooooore!
Being the long time Maurice admirer that I am, I was sad they did not play “High School Sweetheart.” Maybe they were drunk, I know I was… but I am pretty sure promises were made to record that song for Capital Rock City??? maybe??? Maybe JP?
Vince did his thing after, using most the boy in Maurice as his backing band. A very efficient way to do it. Too bad more people in Edmonton don’t go out on a Friday night, it was a sparse crowd. Any touring band might want to think about some more local support. They had some group open, then the touring acts headlined… next time, have a local open and one close the night out.
I grabbed a copy of Maurice’s ‘Young People With Faces’ and Vince’s s/t LP, the girls got t-shirts and it was off to enjoy the rest of our holiday… which included lots of driving.
Maurice’s record stayed in the player lots. “Anticipation” rose to the top for Coral and I. Another song that peaked my interest was the final song of the podcast, “Unattainable.” JP sings about Fernwood! and existentialism? ahhh, you had me at Fernwood.
Thank you for downloading this week’s show! Tell a friend about it.
Go with yourself.
Posted in Capital Rock City | Tagged Brixx Bar, Edmonton, indie rock, Lucky Beer, Maurice, Podcast, Victoria, Vince Vaccaro | 1 Comment »
Off to the City of Champions.
Talk at you next week. Thank you for reading my blog.
Go with yourself.
Posted in life or something like it | Tagged Edmonton | 1 Comment »
Hey Dan and Bianca….and James!
We’re just talking about blogging and what nots… and burgers.
I was up late night. Now I am tired and giving a TV interview… where’s the make-up person? I wanna look like Anderson Cooper!
Dan and I were chit-chatting about the wonderful world of podcasting. Now I’d love to post the video on Youtube, but that is not the Shaw style… so… watch channel 11 everyday, from now till… the distant future.
Posted in neat-O gang | 1 Comment »
