31/10/02(1125am)-"Behind the turntables is where he stands
Then there is the movement of his hands
So when asked who's the best, y'all should say:
Run-D.M.C and Jam Master Jay
Jam Master Jay is the one in charge
It's up to him to rock beats that are truly large
He is the master of the scratch and cut
So move your arms, so move your legs
So won't you move your butt
We're not talking ground, we're not talking sky
We're not talking low, we're not talking high
We're not talking big, we're not talking small
We want all of the people on off the wall
We're not talking night, we're not talking day
But we're talking 'bout Jam Master Jay
~run dmc
RIP Jason Mizell, aka JAM MASTER JAY- 1965-2002
(130am)-well today was a ho hum day. canadian history- cancelled cause prof went to a conference. so i slept in and got up for french presentations. good one by jessica- really got the class going. and im not being facetious. so we went to presse cafe for lunch, i then went to shatner lounge to read some of my book- bout 8 pages left. highly recommend. and if you havent seen bowling for columbine yet, do so. then i went home and on the way stopped at the word to see if they had the life of pi because they had like 10 copies in the window last night. no, they sold out like every place in the city. so we'll try agian tomorrow. then i saw nicole, invited her and everyone else to our party tomorrow night and then saw claire at the coffee shop. so i chatted with her, came back home. worked a little on the t-shirt design you see above. thats about it. we listened to lewis black. um...oh yeah and i think im gonna try to work on the trib music staff. i know ive been slacking on reviews here, but i used to do newspaper reviews a lot back in high school, i think id do a pretty good job on the music staff. im fairly knowledgeable on some alterna-underground stuff (not the extremist punk/ska whateverist underground) but also some mainstream at the same time. just dont let me review christina aguilera- i cant imagine what to say about that other than that shes nekkid on rolling stone this month. so yeah, maybe they'll let me on staff.
tomorrow (well today actually) is arab poltics in the morning (maghreb,whee!). then ill probably go scouting for the life of pi, giving a donation to ghetto shul towards membership and then coming home, straightening out my room and the likes, thats about it. then is the sigur ros concert. doors open at 730 and i hear its gonna be a packed show since i saw people looking for tickets on mcgill classifieds. lauren's writing an article for the trib on them, so shes gonna try and get to meet them. i said if she does, im following her. oh yeah, and claire's taking my extra ticket so thats good. then im coming back to our halloween party, which better still have some people because ive heard of some people just staying for a short period of time. i get its halloween and people go out after parties, but if they're going out before 11, something is wrong? my superman costume is cool. suffice to say it should be an interesting evening. im looking forward to the concert most of all. next to st. germain, coldplay, and rane (none of which are happening soon), this could be my next most wanted concert to see. the cd is fabulous. anyways, to bed i head, more later
30/10/02(1225pm)-i keep forgetting to change the date on the top of the page...just some thoughts on the israeli govt collapse. i would almost say its inevitable. it goes beyond just some money being spent on israeli settlements. it has to do a lot with the state of the israeli economy. first off, the israeli economy was doing fairly well until the start of the second intifada. once that and israel was living in fear of its own neighbours so much that schools were shut down, lines at the borders were hours long, and the military response was faster than the us aid that provided the tanks. while the israelis may have been "used to" the level of paranoia prevalent in post-intifada israel, no one should have to live in that fear period. no one should have to worry about a suicide bomber driving up to a bus and ripping it apart, killing almost 30. where is the money? its being spent on some israeli settlements that further agitate the palestinians. quite frankly, ive always been more of the mind that if arafat has to go, so does sharon. its sad, but even so far bacingk as when netanyahu left office- i thought shimon peres would be the one to keep rabin's legacy of peace alive. i think we're seeing the pendulum effect in israel again now and its starting first in the israeli knesset. the problem is, when israel was attacked in september 2000, the israelis believed that barak was doing a horrible job of providing internal security. so they elected sharon, a no-nonsense ex-military general, responsible for massacring thousands in 1982. of course, this was not much more a brilliant move than the palestinians keeping arafat in power, but democracy is democracy...the fact of the matter is, sharon was able to provide security. but in doing so, the economy crippled and the situation only worsened for both sides. now there are no gains for either side. personally, i think id like to see both arafat and sharon removed from executive power. neither side has ameliorated the problems and i would rather see two leaders working for peace than two leaders working for conflict. i guess only time will tell on that matter...
29/10/02(1005pm)-sunday night went to see the end of bowling for columbine with seth and claire. charleton heston is an asshole, thats all ive got to say. he may be president of the nra, and obviously he cant say anything against what his lobby believes in, so he said nothing at all. well, i guess it proves the point that even when you dont feel threatened and you live in a gated house with security, theres no reason to own a loaded ak-47 in your house. period.
yesterday i went to classes and then basically came home and read a bunch of moore's book, stupid white men. basically its about how the state of the us became fucked up since bush stole the office of the presidency. granted it was supposed to be out the week of 9/11, but publishers decided to can it until librarians got angry and demanded its release. so it doesnt include anything post 9/11, but everything else he says is great. he's hilarious and like lewis black, he uses deep social commentary and sarcasm to drive his point home. hes a bit too far left on some issues for democme, but i agree with the majority of what he's saying. im not done with it yet, but if you want a good read, i highly recommend.
the new thing im trying to do is convince my parents to let me switch from a regular phone line to a cell phone. considering my long distance rate with bell vs. what say, fido's offering- its not much difference and allows me to be able to call from wherever i am. basically this came after saturday evening's finding that montreal is lacking in payphones. so yeah. apparently theres some cockamamie thing that they just got 2 new phones to replace the old ones, their plans were revised or whatever, and they would get me one too under their plan- like the third phone would get x amount of free minutes too. which makes zero sense to me because they're under verizon and verizon doesnt exist in canada, not to mention how would i get a canadian number? but apparently talking about it isnt out of the realm of possibilities so... *shrug* they said we'll talk when they come up
today got up, went to arab politics, brynen lectured on saudi politics some more, talked about the maghreb some and that was it. woo. then went to hmv to pick up the new sigur rós release, ( ). excellent cd. *****. read my review here. (i know, its been a while since ive added any actual reviews to my page- ive just been getting more music than i have time to actually write reviews for. i still have a coldplay review pending and that album came out 2 months ago!) so i went back to shatner, ate lunch with david and seth, walked with david down to the old port and went to bureau en gros to buy iron on transfers so i can make a ranebrew shirt. hehehe. so we went to tim hortons on the way back from there. did the crossword, met zoya at roddick gates and we went to look for stuff for halloween costumes. im going as superman this year- should be pretty fucked. why fucked? well after searching around winners, the only red underwear i can find for my costume is a red panty. so sad. im wandering around the lingerie with her and she's refusing to hold the underwear for me, so im walking around the store with a red pair of socks and a red pair of panties. so so sad. so then we went to the fabric store and i bought some fabric for a cape. suffice to say, once i get the actual superman shirt from zoya, i'll actually have a convincing superman costume (even though its with tights and womens panties :P). so we went for dinner in the food court, then i came back and watched the habs game until it was time for the season premiere of 24.
my thoughts on the season premiere of 24- it wasnt as good as last seasons. all the critics are saying its gonna be a better season than last. maybe thats so. but, i didnt find the opener as high intensity as last seasons. who knows. ill say that im still impressed with elisha cuthbert- she looks good in underwear and she can act! (unlike some "stars" *ahem katie holmes*). montreal, represent! :-P anyways yeah, maybe it'll get better next episode. but whatever, the body count's already started. anyways. habs tied anaheim at 2. we might go shoot pool in a bit. tomorrow's more presentations during french, then some more exciting art of listening. after that? probably working, doing stuff for thursday's sigur ros concert/halloween party. that would be about it for now. nothing more to comment on for the moment. although, if you've got artwork that you want to submit for the picture above, im more than happy to accept. the radiohead one above is a recycled one from early last year, so i could use new material...
27/10/02(1015pm)-Words to live by: "[Chuck] Yeager said he considered it 'a waste of time' to be scared during any of his flights.
'If you can't do anything about the outcome of something, forget it,' he said. 'Instead you better concentrate on staying alive where you are.'"
i baked some cookies. they taste fine, but they dont look like cookies. back to the drawing boarD? last night we ended up going to sona. amanda knew the guy who was djing so he put us on the guest list and we averted at 35$ cover charge. plus beer was open bar til around 2, so we only had to tip. going to a club like sona for 5$ was pretty good (5$ being the beer i bought after 2). yeah it was pretty cool, not necessarily my element, but just dancing and shit was fun. although, we didnt stay that late. considering its an afterhours club open til around 7am, we left around 330 when the party was really getting started. suffice to say, i slept til around 230 today. my muscles are sorer today than yesterday. oh yeah and i decided to cancel the 24 marathon. just didnt feel like it. *sigh* claire's taking my extra sigur ros ticket so thats good. still have to get stuff for my halloween costume. yeah thats it i think? anyways. thats my update for now. maybe ill go to gerts or something?
25/10/02(1015pm)-news of the day is above. not much else to report other than the stripper bailed twice on my lapdance when me and the guys went to the supersexe lunch buffet this morning. suffice to say, life cant really get lower when the stripper bails out on your lapdance. ok, maybe sticking your head in the BK garbage can to puke maybe is, but still...i guess i just need a hot bath and a woman to relieve some sexual frustration. hah!
as for the rest of the day? well just some mise en commun in french, talking to lauren and jessica at al van houtes, redying my hair, then going to ghetto shul for services with david and indi. i was gonna go see bowling for columbine with my free pass cause i want to see the last 20-30 minutes, but i guess thats not happening tonight. maybe shoot pool at sharx? i dunno. in the words of nate: "me=fucking mesS?" tomorrow is laundry and whatever- probably work. then hopefully blockbuster can have the 24 dvds so i can do my 24 hrs of 24 marathon. *sign*
24/10/02(1115pm)-nothing major to report right now. updated my current cd list and the "my life" section of the page.
23/10/02(1125pm)-i was inspired by the jurassic 5 album to eliminate my bilingual answering machine message, and go for a freestyle message, with musical accompaniment written by myself. its pretty damn good if i dont put myself on a pedestal. jurassic 5's album is phenomenal. i might put on my top 10 of the year. and the song nelly furtado's on, "thin line". seems to be fairly personally relative but yeah. actually, what are my top 10 albums of the year so far? well, in no particular order:
1. Coldplay- A Rush of Blood to the Head
2. DJ Shadow- The Private Press
3. Red Hot Chili Peppers- By the Way
4. Beck- Sea Changes
5. Jurassic 5- Power in Numbers
6. Wilco- Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
7. Sigur Rós- ( )
8. Doves- The Last Broadcast
9. Super Furry Animals- Rings Around the World
10. The Hives- Veni Vidi Vicious
meanwhile, everything i got on the bownicity midi- ded. d-e-d. i tried fucking around with it to try and work it with my computer and ended up erasing all my work :'( anyways. hmv's music of the week for me was just the live bonnaroo dvd. 2 discs plus bonus enhanced cd footage of the upcoming dvd. im probably not gonna get the dvd, but the disc is really good and allowed me to get to hear some big jambands that id never heard- widespread panic, gov't mule, soulive, more moe., and even bob weir and phil lesh. the selection of songs is pretty decent although im not happy that particle was left off the album, and the jurassic 5 song was a fairly weak song selection. even string cheese coulda picked a better song. and what about trey's orchestration of the audience in a singsong? i heard that was a bonnaroo highlight. why isnt it on the cd. anyways, i was reading in the 48 pg liner notes how the idea for bonnaroo started and i was thinking about those jam concert promoters. all the big jam bands in the states get promoted by them, even ottawa-kitchner has promotion companies for the big canjam shows. but montreal doesnt have that. thus, the jam scene isnt existent here. what is the probability i could start something like that in this city? and how bad would my start-up costs be? hm...
so yesterday. after i did arts comp, i went to tonic spa for my massage appt. best thing i ever did, particularly after the weekend. i got to choose the oils, and it was my first time, but extremely relaxing. i was walking around all wobbly afterwards. but my lower back was sooo tense that she really couldnt work it. she said if she started using her thumbs on it like shiatsiu, that i woulda tensed so much that i woulda jumped off the table. yikes. after that, i dont remember what i did in the afternoon.
today, went to canadian history, got bored, went to lunch, went to french, didnt understand what the prof was talking about, but i got a b on my last test so that was cool. we were studying schumann and chopin in art of listening but everytime she plays the listening samples, i fall asleep. i dunno why. went to hmv, came back, did the xword, watched jeopardy, worked on an answering machine message. nothing too big today. oh, and this weekend is 24 hours of 24 marathon. im running a midnight to midnight marathon of the 24 season in prep for the new season. hopefully blockbuster can have them all for me. here's the scores for the quiz results so far: carrie/andrew cheat-100%, jon, lisa, margaret, zoya, andrew- 50%, sarah, sarah, katherine-40%, jenny-20%. if you did poorly (only one person passed :-P) dont feel bad. i made the questions pretty damn hard. here's how the answers go:
the answer to a multiple choice question is always'c.' oh sure i like all of rane's music, but it was 'niagara' that was the one that hooked me, and the one i'll always come back to. its been through such an evolution, i love it. the pool one- that would be sharx. last year i was at frappe, but that's kinda passed this year, especially since we dont know the bartender, nor the bouncer there anymore. plus sharx is a nice establishment that nick and i have membership to. my guitar model was really tough. but on the website here, i accidentally put the correct answer twice. its a black, epiphone les paul standard. straight as shit. canadians goalie? i owe patrick roy and chris frechette for my love of the habs, but as this is the habs' time and im here, josé is my man. album recommendation? coldplay. on my top 10 list, it is my number 1 album of the year. love it to death. prince arthur street east. 127. my address is in the signature to every email of mine, i dunno how you couldnt know it. how did i get home? air canada. i take the bus sometimes, but it takes 8-9 hrs, so flying 1.25 hrs is a lot quicker and gives me almost 2 extra actual vacation days. first concert? hootie with andrew 8.14.96 at the meadows. what a time. ill never forget getting slapped in the head by the drunkard at the urinal. "you're not my friend's son!" favourite colour? its often debated being a colour, but whenever i answer those survey things, i answer paisley. you just plain have to know me. speaking of... i havent seen surveys in a while now...anyways. thats it for the moment. peace ouuuuutttttt!!!
22/10/02(1100am)-ok, just turned in my arts computing assignment. its kinda a joke. find 5 links for resources for a course at mcgill and then write them in html as an email attachment. now. i have my own website coded in much more complexity than 5 hyperlinks. is that assignment impossible or what? :-P
i love banana chips.
yesterday was a leveling back out day. i went to canadian history, where we had a guest lecture from u of t on canadian revolts of 1839. suffice to say, he wasnt that interesting and i was nodding off about halfway through. met zoya and david for lunch at shatner. went to french class. more presentations. which im now kinda worried about mine since its on joual and i dont know what you talk about joual for for 15 minutes. anywhoosie. after lunch, i decided to skip art of listening, went to a.l. van houtte and chatted with jessica over some coffee. then went to archambault and found the piano music for kid a and blue. so now im noodling around with those. i'm also working on a midi file of bownicity, but i still cant dump my info from the keyboard to the computer so i can visually work with it. currently, i have the drum track, the bassline, and the marimbas, but its not all perfect since i played it live, so now i want to edit it up with some loops and make it sound good. besides, someone wanted a rane midi for a cell phone ringer. another highlight of the day: i got a picture of natalie portman in the mail from andrew. mail is fun.
wow. thats a big chip.
thats pretty much it. but... the new craze today is those AIM quizzes in the profiles. so without further ado, if you dont have AIM and want to take the quiz, here goes the questions. IM or email me with your answers and I'll send you the correct results back:
The correct answer to this question is
A
B
C
D
E
My favourite rane song is...
For Them
New England Song
Flutter
Bownicity
Niagara
Broca's Aphasia
Im going out to shoot pool tonight. Where am I most apt to go?
Sharx
Bifteck
Le Swimming
Frappe
Gert's
La Brasserie Cherrier
What model electric guitar do I own?
Gibson Les Paul Custom- Sunburst
Epiphone Les Paul Custom- Black
Epiphone Les Paul Standard- Black
Gibson Les Paul Diamond
Epiphone Les Paul Standard- Black
Fender Telecaster- Black
Which Montreal Canadiens goalie is my all-time favourite?
Jacques Plante
Patrick Roy
Ken Dryden
José Théodore
Saku Koivu
Guy Lafleur
Youre looking for a CD to buy at HMV this week. Whats my recommendation?
Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head
Radiohead's Amnesiac
The Tragically Hip's In Violet Light
Miles Davis' Kind of Blue
Chemical Brothers' Come With Us
Jean Leloup's Les Fourmis
Prince Arthur Street
North
South
East
West
Northsouth
Eastwest
Gone back home to CT. How did I get there?
Amtrak
Greyhound
Air Canada
Some yacht. Sounds good to me.
Zoyas got a car up here.
My first concert was?
rane with Scott
Third Eye Blind with Nicole
Creed with the Gang
Third Eye Blind with the gang
Travis with David
Hootie with Andrew
I music-ed all out. Most people would then turn to a book/movie/TV question. Whats my favourite colour?
Yellow. Hah
Black. Hah
Polka Dot. Hah
Blue. Hah
Paisley. Hah
Khaki. Hah
21/10/02(1100pm)-ive forgotten twice today that not only is it october, but its significantly into october. my parents and sister are coming up a month from this weekend. that should be cool. maybe ill elaborate more on my day later. back to the suck it up point. and introspection. or not. how bout psychobabble. or not. or ill get back to the midi file im working on sequencing on my keyboard for the time being. ooh yeah, and i found a plug-in program for msn that allows me to do an auto-response message when im away, similar to the one that aim already has. good stuff. cheers.
(140am)-its been a helluva weekend, im not gonna say too much more since i think ive said too much already as it is. basically about everything. letting your guard down is a tough thing to do. but somehow ive just gotta bite the bullet and refocus on school again before i get too distracted again. *sigh*
lets see, lets backtrack aside...friday i saw michael moore's bowling for columbine. fuckin hillarious. granted, the power at amc cut out around the last 15 min, but everything else was good. im lazy to type out some of the jokes, but basically he comes to the conclusion that only in america does society instill such xenophobia in daily life and culture and the media, and it drives people to go gun crazy. which makes sense because he makes the arguement that poverty, violence, etc.... its available in other countries also, but the US has the most gun-related deaths. take video games for example. the most violent video games in the world come from japan. and yet japan only had 63 gun-related deaths last year. granted, population is relative but per capita gun-ownership is probably the highest here...my favourite thing was the chris rock clip on how gun control is stupid and there should be bullet control instead. at 5000$ a bullet, you'd think twice about taking a shot. it'd be like, damn, he had to have done something bad. he's got 50,000$ of bullets in his head. hillarity. then came back, had gone somewhere around 9? i think. i cant remember what though :-/ maybe not, a lot of this weekend was a blur because of everything going on.
saturday i felt like doing not much. after yet another late night, i got up late also, went to see abandon at 3. worst movie ever. its about katie holmes at mcgill (but its supposed to just be a generic ivy league school). shes being stalked by an ex that disappeard. benjamin bratt plays the detective looking for the boyfriend and then they kinda fall for each other, the boyfriend comes back and disturbs her... it was really bad. no i dont do katie holmes movies, no i dont do dawsons creek. i purely went to see it since it was shot at mcgill. not worth it. hopefully the human stain is better. that has nicole kidman, gary sinise, anthony hopkins and ed harris. also filmed at mcgill and i met some people on the production crew. watching the abandon credits was hillarious because all the crew was french names. but i dont believe that was entirely the same with the human stain. went to hmv, got the beatles' revolver and interpol's turn on the bright lights,then started watching fight club back here, then went to jons to watch the habs-leafs game. ended in a 2-2 tie, but i was pleasantly surprised by hackett's goaltending. guess theres something left in the tanks after all. anyways. game home, and to make a long story short, had one of the most bizarrist conversations i think ive ever had. im just all over.
today, got up in time for my haircut appt. its cool cause i get to talk to my hairdresser in french. gives me good practice, and she corrects me and doesnt make fun of it being bad. and dammit, stop sending me junk mail you bastards! (sorry, the thing keeps popping up on msn that ive received more junk mail. what the hell am i paying for for them to allow junkmail in my inbox. FILTER THE DAMN JUNK MAIL HOTMAIL!) so anyways, after that i came home. was vegging on the couch after playing some music and then took a nap after watching star trek in french. i normally wouldnt just because of the dubbing, but it was the two parter where picard is captured by cardassians and then tortured and goes "THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" so i watched it and napped. went postering for nicks show, and then i was gonna go to the spa for a massage, but they were booked til tues so im going 1245 on tues for an hour. i figure i like the scalp massage when i get my haircut, a full body one might do wonders for my stress levels. so nick and i went flyering for his show and that was about it i believe. tonight was nicks bands show. still not a fan of the vocalist's voice, but they played really tightly to a small crowd at a nice venue. good times.
thats kinda reinspired my desire to open mic in montreal but nobody does around here. theres a lot of coffeeshops but no coffeehouses. brutopia has one, thats my best bet i think. or theres one at newsroom tomorrow that i might try. but the flyers in french and i think i interpreted it right. i asked the guy at newsroom, but he didnt seem to know much. still tyring to figure out what to play. and also i think im gonna go to the gym with david around 4-415ish tomorrow. i need to start working out if not to stay inshape (which id say im decently), but to release endorphins. i was given that suggestion by someone and well... anyways, who knows what the futures bringing right now. guess you cant predict it. and on that note, im fuckin tired. new and updated "my life" coming soon. i think what i need right now is a pet. puppy would be nice.
oh, and not to complain because i love it, but its october 21 and it snowed today.
20/10/02(220am)-anyone know where theres open mic this week? im itching to play for an audience already.
19/10/02(1130am)-When this just feels like spinning plates.
I'm living in cloud cuckoo land.
And this just feels like spinning plates
Our bodies floating down the muddy river
~radiohead
(320am)-well im back. somewhat drunk. but still typing. nick and i went to copacabana and had a pitcher. of course my tolerance is somewhat on the lower side, so im still buzzed. but i needed to get away and forget about what happened tonight, even though it really wasnt forgetting. we talked about everything from relationships vs. friendships vs. acquaintances, and what each level means to me, about fight clubs, about the wilco documentary, etc. and capped it off with a slice of giovan's pizza.
<<**rest of entry edited out. blame it on the booze :P**>>
(1230am)-well, apparently, the clouds come crashing down almost as quick as they rise. so im left with two options for the rest of the evening: go to sleep or drink myself silly. and so...i think im gonna go with the latter and refer back to my beatles lyrics from earlier in the week and pick up the pieces again. sometimes its just weird how the day can go from a 15 to a 1 in the span of 30 seconds. :-(
18/10/02(1045am)-im on cloud nine right now and hoping not to come down anytime soon...and now to shower and go to class...
(115am)-phew. i just got back from hockey and boy are my arms tired. *drumroll* :-P anyways, performance wasnt as spectacular as last week, but i made a couple of good plays with the puck in terms of breaking up the momentum. i mostly played defence, which was fine cause i think i do better at it. im not the fastest skater, so its easier to play back. on the other hand, i cant skate backwards at all, so thats no good either...plus i liked playing at mcconnell arena than the arena at collége brebeuf.
last night was a mediocre night. i cant quite remember what i did actually. i think after dinner...oh right right, now i remember. after dinnerish and later, i went to le swimming with david to see eavesdrop quartet and steak this thick. both were hip hop bands, though steak this thick did a lot of covers. from "this is how we do it" to "rappers delight" to "aeroplane." we stayed til around 130 and didnt realise it was that late (we're getting old for those 4am nights!). came home, went to bed.
woke up this am, went to arab politics. romano finished lecturing about kurdish nationalist groups. then went to henri henri, got myself a regular hat. like instead of the bowler hat, its a regular hat. then went to roddick gates to meet lauren at 330. we went to second cup on mcgill college to study for tomorrows french test. ok, but it ended up being more of us talking than studying. which wasnt at all bad cause i like talking to her. hm.. anyways, that was til about 6 and i came home, hung around about 20min, went to daves potluck. which was kinda small, but quaint. dave, dani, dani's swedish boyfriend stefan, zoya and devin for about 5 min. then rachel and julia came, and this other guy. then seth left and then me, blah. anyways, borrowed jon's helmet went to hockey around 1015 and thats back to where we are. i think im gonna switch up my answering machine message. i was impressed with last night's freestyling that maybe its time to switch up the bilingual message with rane in the background to something freestyley. just a thought.
16/10/02(700pm)-ok, i did update sunday night but i forgot to switch upload directories and it never replaced itself. d'oh. anyways after sunday night, i was a bit out of it but finally got my research paper proposal almost done, then crashed around 2 from the 7 hrs of cooking and woke up early to finish it, no sweat. tuesdays lecture was professor romano (whose team we beat at paintball) talking about iraqi politics while brynen is in the west bank/gaza til saturday. it was pretty interesting and after yesterdays election results, obviously timely. no one in the west wants saddam but he oddly holds the country together. hmm. i was just feeling pretty a pretty shitty mood so i came home and watched tv for a while. wasnt even really hungry. oh, but i did go to hmv, this weeks music, radiohead's the bends(*****), charles mingus' mingus ah um (*****), and beatles' abbey road (i wanted my own copy here). oh, and the raelian tried to talk to me when i went to get a blank poetry/lyric book. now that is hillarity. finally found one at librarie gallimard. they're pretty hard to find one thats not cheap but not expensive. i just wanted one to have so when i think of even couplets, i can write them on something other than a scrap paper. so i came home listened, played with them on my keyboard, watched tv, saw the habs get pathetically humiliated by the flyers. it was a ridiculous game and we played just as shitty as saturday night against buffalo. the irony is, im taking my dad to see the rematch on nov. 30. then we were gonna smoke up to willy wonka on dvd, but blockbuster was out of it, so i came back and we watched jay and silent bob again. then i talked to lauren online, that was about it.
today was nothing special. i woke up on the later side for me, so i decided to leave a little later to class and just rollerblade to campus. cut my time down from a 15-20 minute trip to about 5 minutes. just to find that canadian history was cancelled today. so i went to shatner, ended up talking to my next door neighbour in rez, tess, for about 45 minutes, ate lunch with david, and worked on my art of listening concert review. went to french, more presentations, went to art of listening, did beethoven's 5th. ah, memories of clockwork orange. speaking of, our halloween party's coming up soon :) superman, here i come. filled the first page of my poetry book. i decided to call it "agaetis byrjun" (a new beginning) after the sigur ros album title track. it just seemed appropriate even though i stole the idea i suppose. came home since it started to rain, and now its really shitty weather out. david and i might go to le swimming tonight to see kweku's band, steak this thick, play. we saw them at oap and they were pretty good, even if they were only playing covers back then.
ok, so im on this subject of willy wonka. roald dahl was tripping and thats gotta be why willy wonka is the perfect stoner movie. think this way: girl becomes blueberry. fat kid trapped in chocolate milk, girl gets sent to a trash compactor, the everlasting gobstopper, walls that you can lick, walls that shrink, OOMPAH LOOMPAHS, lots of colours, golden ticket, flying glass elevator. if that doesnt trip you out, how bout the books. the elevator is a space shuttle to a space station with aliens that want to attack people. then theres a giant peach that flys. and man-sized insects. not trippy? how about a first grader that needs an exorcist, or monsters that attack people in their dreams? genetic disposition of determining cows sexes? you name it, hes written about it for children. now that is almost as weird as the raelians.
14/10/02(1100pm)-cant say im having a good night after being fairly happy about 11 hours ago. so i feel like using the smalrus website forum for some venting right now. so after doing some errands running all day, i started cooking the turkey dinner around 3. here was the menu: turkey with gravy, stuffing, aunt ceil's jello mold, candied carrots, apple pie, and two pumpkin pies that i made from canned pumpkin and pie shells. so it was me, yin, seth, veronica, lauren came with two bottles of wine. then nick showed up, then claire and indi. and david was upstairs doing work on an essay. so it was a pretty good meal although i didnt actually get the pies. but they saved me a pumpkin one and its pretty damn good if i dont say so myself. but i do say so myself. anyways, aside from a good meal, im disappointed at myself for not doing things i should have done or vice versa. lets just say for the benefit of the fact that i dont always know who's looking at my page, that i really cant say too much more here. on that note, im just gonna work on my arab politics proposal and leave myself some inspirational beatles lyrics:
Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
Golden slumbers fill your eyes
Smiles awake you when you rise
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
Once there was a way to get back homeward
Once there was a way to get back home
Sleep pretty darling do not cry
And I will sing a lullaby
(1200pm)-thought i'd update now since ive got a little time that i should be working on my arab politics research paper proposal. im starting to lean the paper title as: "The Stability of Rentier Politics: Kuwaiti Reform in Saudi Arabia?" anyways. thursday was an okay day. most of it i spent reading my book on the mi'kmaqs. it was a half decent book, just that i didnt want to read it. so i did the workshop questions (what are we, in high school?) and then in class friday morning, i almost got into an argument with the prof because i couldnt get my point across to her. basically the point of the mi'kmaq book was that this guy got arrested for selling eels, because its illegal under federal law. but he claimed it was an aboriginal right of his to fish for eel. basically it came down to territorial claims of land by the british and the mi'kmaq and cultural differences. there was a couple paragraphs in the book about the connecticut mohegans and land cessions from the british back to the mohegans. so i was talking in workshop about how the american natives have it so much better in terms of federal treatment, because of the fact that reserved land allowed the pequots and mohegans to build two of the largest casinos per capita in the u.s. and she started arguing that the issue was casino regulations and natives, and i said- what difference does it make if its fishing eels or taking in on craps- the fundamental issue was livelihood. mi'kmaq cant fish eels, but mohegans can run slots. somethings off there, and its not casino regulations. because im sure mohegans could fish eels if they were in ct. anyways, i was hotheaded after that, because i could not drive my point through to her. so i left that, went to lunch for 2 hours at shatner, then went to french class to listen to our groups presentation on bilingualism. not too much happened after that. it was a pretty awful day, so i skipped art of listening, cause i knew id fall asleep and i could get the same info out of the text.
friday night, seth's friend from ny, sal, came up, so we went out. we were gonna go to supersexe, but cancelled that and went to bar des pins. this story ranks up with the guy who threw up in burger king and the pigeon story. theres always one old man at bars that university kids go to. and he's always drunk too. so we go to bar des pins and this guy is there playing pool. we're having a few beers and then go play pool after him. midway through our game, he grabs a cue and starts playing in. and it was like every third person that he'd play in. but he was really drunk and so i had the last shot of the game, he came over and started swordfighting me, or shaking my hand, or something. but we didnt know what the hell he was doing. so some other guys decided to play pool after us, and he started to try to play into their game, but the other guy was blocking the cue sticks from him. so we started calling him "the captain." and he just kept trying to play, but the two guys wouldnt let him. so one of the guys whacked him in the back of the leg and the captain started getting pissed off. so the bartender made him sit down, and then i had the cue and he started giving me the evil eye. oh yeah, he tried to pick up three girls who went up to the bar. anyways...it was a fun night. then i got home- somehow ended up with one of the porn channels unscrambled (i can see my hits counter zooming up from google.com on the phrase "porn channels unscrambled" perverts! i dont know how to unscramble porn, but i know where your IP address is from, you sick fuck). anyways, this was like at 3am, so im feeling like that episode of "friends," the one where they cant turn off the porn cause they didnt wanna be the guys who turned off free porn. and this wasnt our standard weekend fare of TQS soft-core- this was hard core. anyways. suffice to say, it was 3am and i was already drunk and in bed. so yes, i am the guy who turned off the free porn.
saturday i decided to make my dick around day. after going to bed late, i slept late and then didnt do much until the hockey game. i went to the habs home opener at the newly renamed bell centre (i miss the molson center :-( )/ let me say, considering we beat new york the night before 4-1, our 6-1 loss to buffalo was pathetic. and... we were the best in the league in preseason. so, hopefully we'll step up again. literally we played like shit. czerkawski's shots were all wide of the net (he had excellent opportunites), and brisebois (who scored the only goal for montreal) completely fucked up on defence. horrible. usually i dont leave sports games, even when my team is losing, especially during the opening game. but...it was so bad- i said to myself when it was 5-1 that if we scored again, we'd have a shot. buffalo scored just after i thought that, and with about 10.5 minutes left in the game, i left. so i came home, and bummed around trying to get a hold of lauren. she called back around midnight and we went to bar sainte elizabeth- which is a really cool bar. so we were there til around 2-215, i cabbed back to rvc with her and we were talking about israel and globalisation til about 245, at which point we were both zonked and i headed home.
yesterday i went to the library, got some books out for my research proposal. (gah 30 pages due in 39 days :-/ ) after that i went to pick up a turkey for today and that was about it sorta. we went out for dinner at peel pub and then came home. it was rather uneventful i guess.
today's thanksgiving and im cooking a turkey later on with stuffing, candied carrots, and jello mold. that should turn out fairly interesting but then again, i did a decent job when i cooked brisket for rosh hashanah last year, so i cant imagine my turkey will be that bad. lauren's coming over and some other people might be stopping by also. in the meantime though, i really should turn my attention back to rentier politics because my proposal is due in class tomorrow and i essentially need to get it done before i start cooking. so in light of thanksgiving, i'll put up a rather famous song and wish you all a happy thanksgiving. eat lots of turkey!
Love to eat turkey
'Cause it's good
Love to eat turkey
Like a good boy should
'Cause it's turkey to eat
So good
Turkey for me
Turkey for you
Let's eat the turkey
In my big brown shoe
Love to eat the turkey
At the table
I once saw a movie
With Betty Grable
Eat that turkey
All night long
Fifty million Elvis fans
Can't be wrong
Turkey lurkey doo and
Turkey lurkey dap
I eat that turkey
Then I take a nap
Thanksgiving is a special night
Jimmy Walker used to say Dynomite
That's right
Turkey with gravy and cranberry
Can't believe the Mets traded Darryl Strawberry
Turkey for you and
Turkey for me
Can't believe Tyson
Gave that girl V.D.
White meat, dark meat
You just can't lose
I fell off my moped
And I got a bruise
Turkey in the oven
And the buns in the toaster
I'll never take down
My Cheryl Tiegs poster
Wrap the turkey up
In aluminum foil
My brother likes to masturbate
With baby oil
Turkey and sweet potato pie
Sammy Davis Jr.
Only had one eye
Turkey for the girls and
Turkey for the boys
My favorite kind of pants
Are corduroys
Gobble gobble goo and
Gobble gobble gickel
I wish turkey
Only cost a nickel
Oh I love turkey on Thanksgiving
Happy Thanksgiving everybody!
09/10/02(1100pm)-ok tonight is opening night of hockey season. good row of games including dallas v. colorado- i was routing for colorado, but ive got players from both teams on my fantasy team. and right now, they're retiring gretzky's number. anywho... on with a little updating...
this weekend is thanksgiving, so im gonna do my arab politics paper proposal over the weekend. its probably gonna be on the benefits of political systems in rentier states such as saudi arabia and kuwait, and a comparison between the two polities. as for canadian history, ive gotta read this book for friday- mi'kmaq treaties on trial, which is about treaties between first nations peoples and the british colonists and how these treaties have been interpreted differently over the course of years and have ramifications that take place at the supreme court level today. sounds interesting, but by the end of this, ill know more about canadian first nations people than many americans know about the iroquois (who happened to live in canada as well). i already did my arts computing assignment due in like 3 weeks, so thats out of the way. nothing big in art of listening- just studying symphonies. and um nothing big in french although ive gotta do like, a précis for a member of my group on francophonism and its evolution. yippee again.
so not much has really been happening. on friday, i went to see the mcgill symphony orchestra for art of listening. it wasnt bad- sold out show and the orchestra played really well. came home, was gonna go out, but didnt. i think. no wait, we went out to frappe cause it was nicole's birthday and so most of my floor from first year molson was there. so it was good catching up. was also dre's birthday so his buddies were there too. came home fairly buzzed. end of day.
saturday morning, i woke up and did some rollerblading to olympic parc. did 15k in 70 min. not bad timing at all. and man im feeling the burn. its mainly footwork, but my abs are toning up pretty nicely. that and subway sandwiches are actually keeping me fairly trim considering we're not cooking for each other as much this year. saturday night i ended up going to la queue leu-leu brau haus with david and we met christine, her friend carrie from mississauga, and some people from her floor. thats the first time i was in the old port in a while and it was a pretty crazy place. first off, it was upstairs, which wasnt so bad, except it was relatively small and extremely crowded. they played club/dance music, but there was no real dance floor, just a mini stage where guys would come out at the top of the hour wearing lederhosen and then theyd have to chug a pitcher of beer or whatever. so because of the lack of space, everyone dances on the tables and benches. so thats what we did. it was a lot of fun though because of the kind of crowded yet party atmosphere. beer was expensive though! fucking 4.50 for a molson dry! so we ended up getting the 2.75 coors light, and i swore id never drink american pisswater beer, but for 4.50, i wasnt going broke drinking molson. so. i had my first american beer. anyways, it was a lot of fun anyways dancing and shit. end of day.
sunday morning i woke up pretty early and went to our last intramural soccer game of the regular, 4 game season. we played zoya's team, the myramidions or however you spell it. we beat them 1-0 and i busted up my knee cap and pulled my quads. so i was hurting pretty good, but i played about 3/4 of the game. fun though, and then a couple of us went to breakfast up by mont royal at dusty's, which was pretty good and good bonding time with the girls. not to mention i was hungry. so i came home, that was about it. i dunno what else i did.
monday was another normal day of classes, reading, etc...same with tuesday. tuesday i got the jurassic 5 cd (****), 30 seconds to mars cd (**1/2), and les cowboys fringants cd (***1/2). had lunch with zoya and david, and seth for part of the time. um, that was about it. oh, i played shinny hockey with these guys who are friends with jon's roommate, jeff. so we played in cote des neiges and it was a lot of fun, but ive got a lot of skating work to do this winter. im not sure-footed at all and i need to gain confidence in backward skating and crossovers. i need to fall more so im used to fucking up on skates and push my balance to the limit. thats the biggest part of playing hockey is skating, because doing laps around a rink is not the same as sprint skating up and down and up and down. i need to work on doing some suicides. so when the de bullion rink opens up down the street, im gonna head over there as much as i can fit it in. plus it'll get me in shape. suffice to say though, i got a goal and 3 assists on my second time out, so i was pretty happy.
nothing really to report today- same ol same ol. i went to see this movie, atanarjuat, the fast runner at parc. very interesting. very long. thing was, if it was shorter, it woulda been too simplified hollywood. so it needed to be the 3 hours, although at times i was wondering what else there was to be said. some of it was amazing though. the scenery is just arctic, but they're really living like inuits. and theres this part where atanarjuat is running from these other guys who are trying to kill him, and he's just running naked across the ice. like the temperature has to be -40 and he's running naked across the ice! you really get into the inuit culture, but it doesnt leave much in the way of suspense. yeah, that's tonight.
as for paintball, the story's gonna be somewhat abbreviated...ok we got there at 830, the bus didnt come til 1130. bus driver never woke up to get us. we got there, signed release forms, put on all the gear (camo coveralls, guns, ammo belts, masks, hats, etc...) and went out to the first course in the woods. they give you 20 minutes and its like capture the flag. but really hard because once you're shot, you're out of that game. so everyone was real tentative the first game, but i got a great shot at some guy's exposed hand. that was a memory, hearing it hit his hand, him not knowing where the shot was coming from, and going "owwww" and shaking his hand off. yeah. suffice to say, i spent most of the day as a sniper, and i got about 13 kills on the day, only getting out about 4 out of 8 games. it was a lot of fun and we got to bond with some of the class more and our prof. and we beat prof. romano's team in the last tiebreaking game with about 40 seconds left to spare. yeah, it was a lot of fun. and im anti-nra, but definitely having a paintball gun makes you feel like you've got power. better than laser tag.
one final comment- ive been thinking about resurrecting the word stormtrooper. thats right stormtrooper. originally back in the day, we called rane fans stormtroopers. kinda went along with rane storm, etc...but around the time when rane was dealing with the rane corporation (who does sound technology equipment) over trademark status, they asked the fans to stop referring to themselves as stormtroopers, fearing a legal battle by lucasarts, llc or whatever it is. rane (the band) won its claim to the name as is, and so they're now called rane. however, during the recording process of their second album, at war with the moon, they had some insert stuff printed with "raen" instead of "rane." while their case was pending. make a long story short, they never came up with a name for their fans. ranefans? raneheads? ranedrops? nothing was used. but...unlike with rane as a legal entity, stormtroopers is something unofficial. just as green bay packers fans call themselves cheeseheads, or phish phans, or whatever, that is fan initiated, ie, what fans call themselves, not what the band calls the fans. while "stormtroopers" is part of lucas, it is something unofficial, anymore than "cheesehead" is an unofficial name for a packers fan. this is unlike "rane" which would be used as an official name for a band. thus, ive decided to kinda resurrect the name "stormtrooper" as a means to describe rane fans and see if it catches back on. hopefully it might and we dont get the trouble that they originally got way back in '97. so yes, i am a stormtrooper.
(145am)-ok i fixed the coding so picture 19 works now.
08/10/02(1215am)-not too much doing. got an arab politics paper proposal to work on, canadian history to read, etc...should talk about my night at la queue leu-leu brau haus, but ill do it later, and then the meaning behind "stormtrooper." oh, and eventually ill get to paintball one day :-P.
in the meantime, keep yourself occupied with some new pictures.
03/10/02(1150pm)- 18:38:09 acb4e1cf.ipt.aol.com http://www.google.com/search?hl=fr&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=scat+josie+&lr= 172.180.225.207
yes, that was the person who got the 20,000th hit to The Smalrus Web Site. however, since he or she came in through a google search for "scat+josie," i have no idea who that person is. therefore, he or she does not get the 20,000th hit prize. because of that, i'll give the prize to the next regular that visits my website before it hits 20,020. otherwise, i give it to 19,999 (who was 18:16:20 beac828-0b01-dhcp180.bu.edu bookmark/direct 168.122.196.180).
anyways, i dont have time to elaborate too much on stuff now since ive been running a pretty decent ship of going to bed before 1ish. have to write a short french thing. arab politics been talking about egypt and jordan. saw the believer with zoya. really good and thought provoking movie. ill talk about paintball more later. got the flaming lips cd, yoshimi battles the pink robots. good concept album, *****. got hard days night dvd- will watch that at some point soon. went to see habs lose to leafs tonight, 5-3. art of listening midterm on wed wasnt too bad. went to sharx in the evening with the guys. need to think of a halloween costume. funniest thing ive heard today was the iraqi foreign minister challenging bush to a duel, arbitrated by kofi annan. tomorrow is class, services, and then i thought i was doing something after services but maybe im wrong. this weekend im going to see the mcgill symphony orchestra for art of listening. got some canadian history and arab politics reading to do. i dunno, im not getting into paintball yet cause that'll take a little time, but thats about it for now i think. i dunno what else to say. oh yeah, and i hooked up cable in my room, so now i can watch the hockey games on rds in my room if i want. um thats it for now. relatively quick update...
