Huzzah!

Last night was fun. Grand Analog put on a good show, and I really dug what he played. Hip hop is so much fun to dance too, I almost forgot.

I got way too drunk, and was almost passing out on the patio, then I went inside the bathroom to get sick, then I was OK, and drank some water, then went back to drinking booze again. Haha.

I had a great time with Jocelyn, we just sat around and talked about various things for a few hours it seemed. It was awesome. We mostly talked about music, and disusing certain words. I totally would like to see Hawksley Workman again.

Tonight is Subcity Dwellers, that promises to be a good fun time. I hear more and more people I know are coming, so that should be awesomeness. Saturday TV on the Radio is playing at the Burt. I would really like to go see them. I only know one song by them, and it's really killer, and they seem like they would be amazing live.

There's just so many awesome shows coming up in the next little bit. I'm really excited and looking forward too them. My mom just called, she forgot to call me yesterday. She's getting me a laptop for my birthday. Huzzah!!!

There was a lady who approached us on the patio, last night, and asked me for a cigarette, she then told us this heart breaking story. I hope she's safe and is/was able to get where she needs to go. I can't remember her name (I was ridiculously drunk), I wish I could. I've experienced some of the things she was going through. I could understand where she was coming from, and I really wanted to help her. I just really hope and pray she made it to her destination safely.

24

Today I am now 24. Came to work, and am currently still at work. I think the plan for tonight is me and a friend are going to see Grand Analog and stick out like sore thumbs at a hip hop show. But it should be fun.

Monday we went to the grand re-opening of the West End Cultural Centre. It was awesome, Hawksley Workman was hilarious. He's an egomaniac (in the best possible use of the word), but incredibly entertaining. It was super cool, it was just him with his guitar and Mr. Lonely on piano. Very intimate, between songs, he would do what seemed to be a stand-up comedy routine. Like I said very entertaining. He has amazing vocal abilities. I would definitely go see him again. I could see how every show he does is a different experience from the last. The way he would strut across the stage was awesome and amazing.

Greg MacPherson was cool. I love his songwriting style, it's very storytellerish. I totally love song writers who tell stories with their lyrics and melodies. It was just him on stage with his guitar, he switched between an acoustic and two electrics. It was sort of empowering/inspiring to see him on stage just himself and his guitar. It's like you don't necessarily need a band, just you and your guitar, and that's it.

So that sort of got me into a songwriting mood. After the show, and started penning a country tune for a friend. I wrote my own lonesome country tune a week or so ago, and coincidentally my friend's life is like a soap opera. Based on her experiences over the past week and a bit, the song practically wrote itself. It's like the Simpsons when Homer writes Baby on Board, there was a moment when I was writing and was like "hey this song practically writes itself".

I need to practice guitar as I often say. But I can rarely get the focus I need, or the patience. I'm very easily distracted, at least with writing it's purging and getting everything out. But practicing guitar is a very different thing. I hate when I get an awesome lyric or line in my head and I'm driving, and it's just not possible for me to pull over to start writing, otherwise I'd be on the side of the highway for hours. When I finally get to my destination the line is now gone. It's such a peevish quality of mine.

But Grand Analog should be fun tonight, and should be a low key event. Tomorrow night is Subcity Dwellers, the Farrell Bros' and The Magnificent 7's. That also promises to be a good fun time.

Improvement

I did the radio show for the first time on my own on Sunday. It was scary and nerve racking. I needed to talk louder, and I blanked a few times. I totally forgot what I wanted to say at some moments. My music I had well prepared in advance. The music part of the show went off without a hitch. It was the talking part that did me in. Next time I won't wing it, I think I'll bring along notes with my play list that way I know what I want to touch on. As one of my friends said, at least it leaves room for improvement.

I'm always up for improvement. At least I got my first show out of the way, and that's good. I have plenty of room to improve, and hopefully I can learn to speak louder and be not so nervous on air. The "umms" really got to me. I'm super stoked though for taking over the show in the summer.

I'll really need a laptop or something. Some sort of internet that I can access whenever I choose. That's why a laptop would be my best option. Here's hoping someone is kind enough to buy me one, because god knows I'm not going to buy my own.

In exactly one week I turn 24. I'm unsure about how I feel about this event in my life. I don't really have any concrete plans for my birthday, but I've never really been one to have plans, or to celebrate, etc. For myself, I'm going back to a simpler time of being a vegetarian. That is my birthday present to myself.

Monday night me and a few friends are going to see Hawksley Workman open up the West End Cultural Centre. I'm totally excited and stoked. Next Wednesday Grand Analog is having a CD release party that happens to fall on the day of my birthday. Which is totally exciting. I'm half tempted to go, but part of me also wants to do nothing on my birthday. On the Thursday after Subcity Dwellers are also playing at the West End Cultural Centre. I got tickets for that, so I'm most definitely going to that.

A lot of dancing will be had next week. I'm totally looking forward to it. There's a band playing tomorrow night I really wanna check out, however I'm broke until Friday. This sucks. I knew over the weekend I wanted to save some money. But no I didn't, because I don't like to think ahead, and I was hoping the show was Saturday rather than Thursday.

I want to do something that I love. Something I can do with passion. Being a clerk is really getting to me. I do it to pay the bills, but I'd love to get paid to do something I love, like talk, be on the radio, playing music, and things like that. Hopefully over the summer the right person will be listening to my show. There's very little passion in my life right now. My passions are for music and writing. I'm having a difficult time focusing.

I was watching or listening to something the other day where it had such a "wow" moment for me. But I can't really remember what that was all about. It'll come back to me in time I'm sure, because it was such a wow moment. I just wish I could remember the concretes of that moment, and what it was all about.

Only Cowards Sing At Night

Here's the play list for the show of Sunday, May 17th.

1. Wab Kinew - Live by the Drum
2. Devendra Banhart - Lover
3. Little Joy - The Next Time Around
4. CKY - Attached at the Hip
5. Subcity Dwellers - Sweeya
6. Shout Out Out Out Out - Dude You Feel Electrical
7. Desert Sessions - Crawl Home
8. Buck 65 - Corrugated Tin Facade
9. Beck - Think I'm In Love
10. The Real McKenzies - Guy On Stage
11. Chris Carmichael - Gone
12. Grand Analog - Let's Make Love
13. Propagandhi - Without Love
14. Nizlopi - Wash Away
15. The Sea and Cake - Afternoon Speaker
16. Romi Mayes - Givin Is Gone
17. Megapuss - Crop Circle Jerk '94
18. Bunky Echo-Hawk - Decolonization is Sexy
19. Wab Kinew - Last Word

I also played Don't Watch Me Dancing by Little Joy, I don't recall when exactly I played it. It was towards the end of the show. Sometime after Nizlopi and before Megapuss.