Whaaaaaaaaaa?

Headline stolen from Calgary Grit. According to Ann Coulter, Bill Clinton is gay because he likes to have sex with lots of women. Indeed. Does that make me anorexic for all the poutine I've been eating?

Outside the box, alright...

My boss just shut off the lights in the office declaring it was "getting too hot." Apparently fluorescent office lights let off a lot of heat. Now I must open my blinds to let in the SUN. That'll keep things nice and cool.

Geekimus Prime

I interrupt all this posting about music and camping to remind you that I am, in fact, a giant dork. It has just been revealed that Peter Cullen, who did the vocie of Optimus Prime in the 1980s cartoon will once again be doing the voice for the upcoming live-action Transformers movie (You did know they were making one, right?). Woo hoo! Carry on.

Camping in Ontario

I'll get around to updating the last 2 Bluesfest posts I swear. But for now, i'm going city-crazy, so Barb and I are going camping at Canisbay Lake in Algonquin Park for the weekend. It's our first Ontario camping adventure.

Bluesfest: Day 8 - I'm a rocker. I rock out.

Didn't pay much attention during Wintersleep last night, but they seemed good. Holy Fuck was awesome. Picture a bunch of guys on stage with drums, guitar, and bass plus an array of Casio keyboards, effects boards, mixers etc. mimicking 'electronic' music (no vocals). It's like half video game music, half rock. It sounds like that might be good, but it's great. They don't take themselves too seriously, so it's fun, fun music. I checked out their tour schedule and they seem to be doing a lot of festivals, which is odd, as I'd love to catch them in a club where people are feeling more dancey.

Fiery Furnaces were all kinds of 'meh.' Pretentious New York hipsters playing amazingly bland and repetitive rock. Not bad, but nothing special at all. Wintersleep and Holy Fuck played really short sets, and I don't understand how Fiery Furnaces got higher billing on the tour. Theories put forward by acquaintances were that they have New York 'cred' and the lead singer is a woman.

I've never seen Metric before, and they put on a great show. It's great synth rock, and it rocks out in a way that I enjoy more than the Montreal sound of BSS, etc. Emily's voice is so perfect for the sound, it just melts you when she's singing. I used to hate any electronica in rock, but Metric is so good at it. The band didn't interact with the crowd very much, which was good and bad. Normally I want more interaction, but the one time Emily spoke she sounded pretty stupid, frankly. Let's hope she was toasted or something.

Barb missed a lot last night as she slinked off to watch some of her boys-with-acoustic-guitars music. Speaking of that, I'll probably catch Danny Michel today. Rosanne Cash and Wilco are playing tonight, but I don't know what I'll go to in between there.

Bluesfest: Day 7 - Truant

Well, I ruined my Bluesfest streak. I would have loved to see Etta James yesterday, but I needed a break. I went home and napped and vegged all night. It was wonderful, except for the heat. Up until now we've hactually had a fairly decent summer. It's been hot, but cooling down at night. We've barely needed to use the AC. Yesterday evening was hot and humid, however, and everyone chez nous was melting. It is so hot and muggy on the top storey of our house that it's crazy. AC was going all night yesterday.

Today looks to be another hot one, but it'll be a great day at Bluesfest with Wintersleep, Holy Fuck, Fiery Furnaces, and Metric.

Bluesfest: Day 6 - Wading through crowds

I caught a bit of Nelly Furtado and the Hackensaw Boys last night, but not much, as Barb had me wading through crowds. Cant' really give a review, but I saw Nelly a few years ago and I don't know why she insists on performing with awful, awful backup dancers.

Live was surprisingly good. They put on a good show and I knew way more songs than I expected. I cringed though, when they started playing I Alone and a guy next to me was like "Oh man, grade four!" Grade four? Seriously? Yikes...

I'm undecided about tonight. I think I might need a break from all this festivaling.

Primal urges

So, we were with a group of friends the other night and there was a busker spitting fire outside our patio (not an unusual occurrence in the market). Mike did not understand the allure of it and asked if it had something to do with the guy's "control over the fire." I said that that was probably part of it (and the fact that fire is cool, duh) and I brought up one of Freud's crap-theories (irony intentional) from Civilization and Its Discontents that said an important contributor of the beginnings of civilization was related to man's ability to control his desire to control nature, i.e. men being able to extinguish fire through urination. Mike said that was weird and asked who would ever pee on a fire. I was shocked that Mike has never peed on a fire. What guy has not peed on a fire?

Joanna seems to think it quite normal that guys would not pee on a fire. She listed people who she thought would not. I disagreed. Thus far I am right. I have not found a single guy, save for Mikey, who has not peed on a fire. Freudian or not, I mean it's part of being a guy, like writing your name in the snow. So, loyal readers, I want to know if any of you males have not peed on a fire, and if not - why? Heck, I know at least one girl who has done it...

Bluesfest: Day 5 - Blue Rodeo and the aftermath

Blue Rodeo was great. Unfortunately I believe I may be a poorer music journalist than a sports journalist, and that's saying something. Seriously, all I seem to be able to come up with is rating these shows on a great, awesome, really good, good... scale. Oh well, you's the suckers that gotta deal with it.

Seriously though, I love Blue Rodeo. I don't think I've ever met anyone who dislikes Blue Rodeo. Whenever I hear them on the radio or hear about them coming to town I feel guilty because I've never bought a Blue Rodeo album or even downloaded Blue Rodeo songs. Why not? I love how universal their music is - it appeals to so many different people and different ages - without being watered down or boring. I once was lucky enough to catch them at a small club [The (new) Den, believe it or not] and it was amazing. Last night was a great show, but they really do need to be experienced in a small club atmosphere. They played at Max Cafe earlier in my university life, but I unfortunately missed it.

Tonight Mobile, Nelly Furtado, and Live are playing the main stage. I'm not excited about any of them, especially the new "promiscuous" Nelly, but some friends are going, so maybe I'll check it out or hit some of the smaller stages.

New Mac ads

Bluesfest: Day 4 - Bring the rain

Last night was good Canadian rock. The Stills were a great opener. Matt Mays & El Torpedo performed really well, but they're a little soft for my liking. Sam Roberts rocked a huge crowd. I'm a big Sam Roberts fan and he didn't disappoint, impressing the non-fans as well. Oh yeah, i rocked out. In my raincoat...

Bluesfest: Day 3 - Turn that mutha out

Being tired we went a bit late to Bluesfest on Sunday. We wandered around the stages and caught some of Elmer Ferrer's set of rocking electric guitar blues. We caught a few songs from Ani DiFranco's set. It was, well, Ani DiFranco, if you like that sort of thing. We decided to forego Michael Franti and check out Solomon Burke, which was our best decision so far. It was unreal. The "king of rock and soul," a large black man, came out in a sparkling black 3-piece suit and proceeded to sit on the throne where he performed the rest of the night. This was real, genuine blues from a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee. And what a performance. He made his band hand roses to "all the ladies" in the crowd, randomly called out for someone to "pass the chicken" mid-song, and performed "Proud Mary" with the Detroit Women. An amazingly entertaining show.

Bluesfest: Day 2 - Lesbians love the Blues

Elvis Perkins was good Dylan-esque music. Matt Costa was really good. A little hard to pin down. A bit folky, a bit bluesy, a bit indie rock (you can hear some samples here. Barb bought a CD, and apparently finds him dreamy. Jason Collett was pretty good, I would have preferred a bit more energy, but I guess that's not really his style. Jo bought a CD and went to giggle at him. I enjoyed Feist. Chaotic arts & crafts stuff with instruments everywhere but a little more mainstream. Her voice is absolutely amazing, man she can sing. Jo bowed out early to catch some of Bell Orchestre which she enjoyed.

Rip Van Laskey

Almost 4pm, Jo stil not awake yet. Babz and I heading to Bluesfest.

Bluesfest: Day 1

Got to Bluesfest last night in time to see some opening bands on the main stage. They were pretty good - Barb wanted to buy a CD but they were really expensive $20+ for an independent musician? Not a good promotional strategy. We were mostly front and centre for Corb Lund. He did a fantastic set, he really is an awesome musician (even if he is an Oilers fan). The crowd loved him and it was great he was able to be on the main stage - a good portion of the crowd was there waiting for Great Big Sea, but still seemed to enjoy the set. A while later Barb and I grabbed a couple of CDs and spoke to Lund. He said he's playing the Coca-Cola Stage at the Stampede, so Calgarians should go check him out.

We stuck around for a few songs from Great Big Sea. They were good, but I expected more crowd interaction. I think they're a great band, but certainly don't think they're the greatest thing to happen to music like the rabid fans that were huddled near the front.

We headed over to meet Jo and Genevieve at Broken Social Scene, and I would not recommend anyone doing this. Trying to move mid-set is an easy way to piss off the thousand people you have to squish through. BSS was pretty good. I'm still not sold on that genre, which is pretty much the only thing Jo and my boss listen to, and I think the musical "collective" idea is a little pretencious. That being said I did enjoy the show and the band seemed to be having a good time.


Today we'll probably hit the MBNA stage and see Elvis Perkins, Matt Costa, Jason Collett, and Feist. Costa is recommended by Barb's friend Kelly and Collett and Feist are more Arts & Crafts fare. All the headliners tonight are great. It sucks that I'll have to miss Bonnie Raitt, Bell Orchestre, and Cuban Dance Party. Especially odd that Feist and Bell Orchestre are playing at the same time.

If you actually care about any of this Bluesfest stuff check out Simon's blog.

Hurtin' Albertan

Off to see Corb Lund

Hurtin Albertan, nothin' left to lose
Too much oil money, not enough booze

Lightfooted

New Johnny Cash CD, American V: A Hundred Highways, is out with songs he was working on before he passed away. Haven't had a chance to listen to the whole thing yet, but his cover of Gordon Lightfoot's If You Could Read my Mind is un-f***ing-believable. Also need to take a listen to Personal File.

Yee-haw?

Today is the first day of Stampede. I wish I was in Calgary, but I can't complain too much, as I was there last year. At least two of my friends here, including Rob South, are going back though.

There is good news though! Today is the first day of Bluesfest in Ottawa. Don't let the name fool you, Bluesfest is basically a popular music festival with some blues thrown in. Barb and Jo and I all bought full festival passes, so it's nine days of music for us. You can see the full schedule here (warning, PDF). Tonight presents some tough choices. I'm going to go see Corb Lund at 7:30. He's a great semi-alternative-country singer from Calgary. If you haven't heard him, he really is awesome, none of that modern country garbage. I'd love to see Seu Jorge (the Brazilian Bowie-covering guy from Life Aquatic), but it conflicts. Broken Social Scene is on at 9:00. A lot of my friends are into them, so I'll probably go. Great Big Sea is also playing then, and they're more 'fun' so I might do that also. I'll try and blog about the shows, so I hope your ready for Toby's music blog.

Mourning

It's been a year now that my mom passed away. There's not really much that I can say here. It's still an incredibly painful thing to think about. In some ways it seems like just yesterday, but at the same time it's been a long, dificult year. It was hard to not be with any family today, but I am grateful that I've been able to go to Calgary twice in the past few months, especialy being able to see Elodie.

New Template

What do you think? I've been dawdling on getting a custom one, so for now a Blogger template will have to do. I'll try and get comments working soon. I suppose it's hard for you to answer the "what do you think" question without a comments section...

Oh Canada...

I have a lot to blog about. I don't have time right now to get into the details of my Canada Day, but it can be summed up in what happened to start the day. Barb, Michelle, and I were walking to Rob South's for his second annual Canada Day Stampede Pancake Breakfast. As we were crossing a busy intersection a panicked dog ran in front of us, followed by the even-more panicked owner of said dog, who was trying to rescue his pet from traffic. The dog did not seem to want to be rescued. I tried unsuccessfully to catch him. As he darted away the owner yelled out "Toby, come back here!" Of course.