of the beach and clothes

the other day was september 11th. a date that i couldn’t wait to arrive, courtesy of david usher and the intimate acoustic performance he did at rw&co. a store, by the way, that i’d never heard of before, but when i heard about the contest, i promptly joined their mailing list and entered the contest. in a shocking turn of events (in my life at least), i won! for my trouble i received 2 passes (whoo hoo) and a $50.00 gift certificate to the store! yey me. however, after checking out the boring clothes on the walls and racks – i’m not sure what i’ll spend my gift certificate on…. after spending the summer at the gym – i do need new pants though!but more important than the clothes, obviously – was the acoustic performance itself. as always, the performance was incredible. in such a small venue with so little other instrumentation i was able to lose myself in the texture and strength of david’s voice and marvel at what sounded like new keyboard arrangements on old favourites like ‘push’. it really was special and i consider myself fortunate to have been there.

my pictures are really blurry (no flash allowed, please and thank you) and none of them really turned out with the exception of this one :

while going through my camera, i also found some more bad pictures i took at david’s beachfest 2007 show. the guy moves so damned fast on stage that i often just end up with a blur where a person should be. this one is a little atmospheric, a little not.

Read Full Post »

he doesn’t look a thing like jesus

my kitten artemis is spending her second night at the vet’s. i miss her. she was spayed this morning and my fabu vet sent me a picture of her in “recovery” immediately post-surgery. now that’s a good vet! it’s almost like she wanted to prove that they still had the kitten. then again, considering the fact that 2 of my three cats had to be put to sleep in that clinic…. maybe they weren’t so far off the mark to send me the picture.

and in exciting ‘fuck you’ news – turns out that a european court has determined that the song bmg merger should not have been authorized to proceed when it did. apparently they needed to provide more information before the merge was to be green-lit. then again – perhaps the merge would of never happened.

*le sigh* and then i’d still be working at the best job in the whole freakin’ world. but instead i’m working at a crappy job for crappy pay. don’t think i’m not looking for something that lets me plug my brain in a bit more. don’t think it for a moment. regardless, seems like good news for the peeps at warner and emi. this court finding may just delay their proposed merger (once again).

still reeling over the purchase of chum tv by bell globemedia. i was going to go snooping around for a job on the chum tv side of things. i almost think it’s not worth it right now. even if i did get a job there, who wants to go through a merger again, even if it is a “friendly” takeover bid. friendly… almost makes it sound like there will be face-painters and balloon animals and lollipops.

at long last there is new the killers music out! i love the song – but am not sure about it as a first single. you can have it rampage madly through your own brain by going to their myspace or hitting their website. yey for the killers! i miss the fun brandan flowers bitchery in the media.

and to kick off a fun weekend with the downstairs neighbours – the bastard nsf’d a cheque on me. urgh. he owed me 2 months of rent on the garage he’s renting from me (it came with my apartment and i don’t need it, yey for me!) and he freaking bounced the cheque. adding to the fun – my bank charged me $7.00 for the pleasure. it’s a good thing for him that i don’t have his phone number on hand. he would of gotten a slightly pissy and fairly condescending message from me. i’ll remember to play nice when i go knocking on his door looking for cash.

[music | the killers, “when you were young”]

Read Full Post »

swollen head

after fleeing work late in the afternoon yesterday, actually, it wasn’t fleeing so much as lurching, i ended up staying at home today. i can’t afford to take all these days off – but really, am i going to drag myself to work with a bad flu/cold/whatever in the pouring rain?

then i find that chum ltd (home to citytv and the much music family) is being bought out by Bell Globemedia (CTV, MTV Canada, TSN and others). wow. this is a giant move in broadcasting. on on a personal note – all of a sudden not getting an interview for the job at MTV that i would of been perfect for doesn’t matter anymore. who needs another merger mess right now? not me.

can you imagine it? a world without much music? they may have been swarmy and missed the point more than three-quarters of the time, but at least they weren’t from the land of dorks (CTV, in case you’re wondering). i hope that we don’t lose city tv here in toronto though – i’d miss my cp24 for quick local news. chum hasn’t commented yet – so this might still be speculation – then again, no one to be the one taken over.

last night was the 2nd installment of the live show for rockstar : supernova. and even though i could barely raise my head off of the back of the sofa, here are my thoughs – for what it’s worth.

magni – my generation
interacted with the house band, less ego-driven gimmicks and better audience relations. he looked and sounded better than he did last week. but i don’t think the band digs him.

jenny galt – tainted love
i actually *heart* this song and was really curious to see what she was going to do with it. she sang well her voice was not nearly as timid as it was last week. i think the performance was still a little dull, she needs to find a way to deliver a performance for this show. and what a strange comment by tommy lee at the end – telling her to go eat because she looked hungry.

jill gioia – violet
holy fuck. are you kidding me? are you going to apply for an impersonator job when you get booted. her performance was way too faithful to courtney love. and the band called her out on it. poor jill. this may just spell her doom.

zayra alvarez – you really got me
i can not say enough about this girl. she is an amazing performer who so far has delivered two very different and phenomenal performances, but i just don’t know WHY she’s on this show. she needs to find a producer to work with on her strange and quirky neo-gothic debut.

chris – take me out
he seemed to yell in the same tone constantly. i don’t know if there’s enough depth there. i found this performance boring and unfortunately, so did the supernova-ites.

dilanah – ring of fire
this woman is still the obvious winner, in my opinion. she took this powerful song and switched it up completely and made something all together new. looking like the high priestess of the hellfire club she delivered her song in a way that left no room for criticism. it was like a gothic wet dream meeting a snake charmer.

josh – arms wide open
stop smiling! just stop it! i have been known to hate-on creed and scott stapp before, but this performance made me wish i was listening to creed’s version. for those that know me – that says all i need to say.

phil ritchie – eyes wide open
the band is all over this guy. they lurve him. and i don’t know why. i think he’s a generic radio singer – but then again, if he’s a generic singer guy, he should garner some play for supernova, especially in the states. me – i just don’t get it.

storm large – surrender
great energy and a very strong voice. i think dave navarro gave her some great advice when he told her she needed to have character, not be a character. hopefully she takes this to heart.

patrice pike – heart shaped box
seeing her sit in the stands, i honestly didn’t know who she was. did her look change from last week? or was she that forgettable? i seem to recall that last week gilby clarke told her that she seemed to be the only one who really wanted the job. regardless, her performance this week did not connect for me.

lukas rossi – don’t panic
not being a coldplay person, i had no idea what this song was going to be, but was sure i’d recognize it when it started. not only did i not recognize it, but i actually think i’d buy lukas’ version of this song. i think the band put another coldplay song in the list this week just to see who’d be dumb enough to take it after their lesson of “song choice is king”. in someone else’s hands this could of been certain doom. for lukas, it was like icing on the cake left over from last week.

ryan star – jumpin’ jack flash
seeing him standing in the wings and hearing brooke burke say he was going to sing ‘jumpin jack flash’ i said aloud, “it’s gonna be like a wedding.” and it was. urgh. and he was dull and awkward on stage to boot.

dana – born to be wild
this girl has a fucking amazing voice, so incredible. but, watching her this week was painful. it was hard to watch her mince about like a sex-kitten. she needs to figure it out – but i think with some guidance – she will.

toby – somebody told me
someone did this song last season and just sucked. this guy did not suck and actually was able to pull it off. but i kept wishing that he’d done more of an industrial feel to his arrangement. it would of been killer with his voice.

the result show runs tonight. from their comments – i think supernova is leading the audience to put chris in the bottom three again and i think he’ll be heading home – unless someone does some bone-head move like duran duran again, or wears another wedding dress.

[music | pink floyd, “wish you were here”]

Read Full Post »