Last night Carole and I went toThe Cobalt for Randomblind's CD release party because, well, because that's what friends do. Besides - it's good music.
Now I know I hyped the Cobalt a few months ago when Scarecrow Balcony played there, but something very strange must have happened since then...
I knew it was going to be a wacko night when we saw a guy smash a beer bottle over his own head on a dare from the freekin' bar staff, but I hardly expected the night to end with Carole and I being chased out of the parking lot by a girl with her pants down and a guy with his dink in his hand. Oh - trust me... those were the TAME parts of the night. In between, we saw two fights, saw a drunk get wheeled in the front door in a shopping cart and dumped on the floor in front of us, and saw some idiot get up on stage, strip naked, piss in a bottle, and then proceed to drink the whole damn thing. Yeah... did I mention I'm too old for this shit?
I'm still totally traumatized from last week's Skid Row show - I just don't need to keep seeing these freaks. I never needed to see these freaks. You know, I didn't even write anything about last weekend because it was just to troubling - but now it's just kinda fitting into the mix. I think there must have been a full moon all month...
Oh, alright - I'll share a little about the Skid Row show. It was all good until the very last song, when we witnessed and extreme act of senseless violence. Brutal. Though I myself was not hurt at all, and Carole and I were in no eminant danger, I was so stunned by what I saw that I actually went into shock. I felt like I was going to throw up after what I saw, so I tried to make my way to the door - I almost made it too - I was about 4 feet from the entrance when (no, I didn't throw up...) I just passed out. Droped right there in a cold sweat. Freakiest thing that has ever happened to me. The bouncer apparently pulled me up to my feet, but I was out cold and dropped right to the floor again. The next thing I knew, he had dragged me outside and left me on the sidewalk. Carole was asking 'what happened? what happened?' and all I could muster was "I think I'm in shock..." - which she heard as "I think I've been shot" and that seriously freaked her out. Anyway, I was fine. I got some air, cooled down and got us home. Barring a juicy bruise on my hip, a sore wrist and a bump on my head, I was no worse for wear... well, except for the damage to my psyche... I mean, it's a totally vulnerable and helpless feeling to realize that you have no control over your own body.
So that night I resolved that I was done with going to crappy bars with crappy patrons - except, we had these Randomblind tickets for the Cobalt... maybe one exception... we've been there a lot and there had never been incidents before...
Yeah. Whatever. These are not the memories I want to have. I was never old enough for that shit. Randomblind, you were great. Your new CD rocks and your show sounded stellar. I won't say that all that other crap was worth it, but I will say you were the highlight of the night.
Almost time to kick back and relax - only 5 hours to go before I'm, uh... well, I guess in five hours I'll be stuck in gridlock Friday rush hour traffic mumbling about how I should have been home an hour ago...
Okay, so just 6 hours to go, and then another relaxing weekend - yes-sir-ree, barely anything planned at all. Just going to see our friends Re:alliam and Rain Spider play a gig tonight, and of course we'll be slumming it in Surrey on Sunday, to see 'Skid Row' at Ozone (what an aptly chosen city for Skid Row, eh?) and I'll be spending Saturday completely overhauling the Scarecrow Balcony website, and then I'll be mastering some tracks that Scarecrow recorded earlier this week.
It's such a beautiful day today, I really hope I get to go outside sometime soon... it's great to see the sun rise on my way to work, that has been a long awaited pleasure, I can tell you.
Hmmm, what else can I catch everyone up on... I've only got a minute and then it's back to work... oh, we saw 'Lost in Translation' the other night - I wouldn't recomend it. It's not that it's a terrible movie or anything, it does have it's moments, but really... other than the fact that we get to see Bill Murray in a non-comedic role, it's actually pretty lame. I think all the awards were just to make the little rich girl feel good about her directorial debut - Hmmm... Sofia Coppola - you'd think SOME talent would've rubbed off on her. I suppose after her dramatic performance as the whiny little sister in Peggy Sue Got Married, she had enough sense to realize that she'd best stay 'behind' the camera, but geez - lady, writing and directing just ain't your bag, m'kay? Maybe you should set your sights a little lower to start out with, you know, like maybe 'grip' or 'best boy' or 'fluffer'. The movie (much like this blog entry) is a slow, rambling journey to nowhere. Unless you're interested in not-being-cracked-up-by-Bill-Murray, don't see this movie.
Ah, another eventful weekend. It's good to be back to work so I can wind down... well, until tonight anyway, when the band starts recording a new EP.
Thursday, instead of rehearsing with the cover band, Carole and I went to the Linkin Park concert - with guests Hoobastank, P.O.D., and Story of the Year. It was a great concert, at the Pacific Coliseum - we were definitely in the oldest one percent of attendants, but it was a good concert none the less.
Friday, I dodged our last Scarecorw Balcony rehearsal before recording (tonight) in order to go to Richards on Richards and see Stabilo and Pilate. Both good Canadian bands with songs on the radio.
Then there was Saturday - Valentines day. Carole and I first went for a great four course dinner at Port Moody's finest (yeah, sounds like an oxymoron doesn't it - but it was great!) - I had portabello stuffed philo, and shark - very good stuff.
Carole had a walnut and pesto chicken that was amazing. After dinner we headed back into town for the 3rd night in a row, this time to see the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum. They had a Valentine's tribute to Italian composers, and it was really a great night.
Sunday I took it easy - well, I worked all day, but it was for play. I started making liqueurs at about 11AM and by dusk I had made a bottle of strawberry cream liqueur, a bottle of tequilla, a bottle of whiskey, and a very special bottle of Absinthe for my good friend Sage, who has helped me out so much with the website and stickers and screen printing. It's a surprise though, so don't tell him!
Well, where to begin...
This weekend was chock-full of firsts for me. Ron and I found a nice place to startup a rehearsing/recording studio, and assuming our intended use is permitted, we should be in possession no later than April 1st.
I also made some whopper purchases this weekend - buying some of Carole's brothers recording studio equipment from his wife. I couldn't afford it, but I'm going to need it. I spent last night setting it all up in my home studio, but I suspect I'll be lugging it all to the new studio within a month or two...
Some heavy stuff in there, I tell ya - the Mackie 24x8x2 mixing console is 76 lbs by itself, and is about 4ft by 4ft big - not easy to bring down stairs alone!
So anyway, life changing purchases aside, the big event of the weekend was that I learned how much of a wimp I am. The story goes something like this:
Last week when I was setting up my screen printing burn, I was looking for a dark place to cure the emultion of the screens. I opted for under the stairs in the basement. When I was down there, I noticed what I thought might have been mouse poop. I still have no idea how a mouse would have got into my basement.. (especially in such a nice neighbourhood, my goodness!) BUT, there was evidence, so the next day I bought a couple mouse traps and some mouse poison. Yes, I know - how cruel... look, I would have gladly given the mouse $10 to leave instead of spending $10 to kill it, but hey... he wasn't interested in the offer.
So anyway, the next day I go down the check the traps. I notice one of the traps has been snapped, but nothing is in it. Virtually all of the little piles of rodent pellets have been disturbed, but no dead mice anywhere. But then, as I'm poking around in the corners, BAM! I'm face to face with a big ugly rat! A RAT! In MY house? How the hell did THAT happen? Anyway, this guy was ornery. I think the trap clipped his foot, and the mouse pellets were only enough to piss him off - and this freaked me out.
I tried in vain to trap him, even succeeding in throwing a garbage can lid over it once, but that ornery little varmint scurried right out from underneath it, and into the wall. I set the traps and poison again, right in front of the hole and waited over night again - not really able to sleep, as dreams of this half poisoned, foot dragging, rabid beast jumping on my face and chewing off my nose as I slept kept me tossing and turning all night. I was up about 7AM on Sunday to check the traps - one had been snapped, and the new pile of pellets was all askew. I searched everywhere but couldn't find him. I went up to check the internet to see how long rat poison takes to kill a rat... and wasn't too happy with the findings - if a full lethal dose is injested, two to five days??? This thing could be deep inside my walls rotting before I found it! I went down to reset the traps and add more poison, when I noticed a tail hanging out of the wall - Carole had followed me down at this point, and was none too pleased. I put on oven mits and grabbed a stick and poked it - maybe it had died? This would be easy... nope. it slipped back inside the wall. Argh! I poked and prodded, pulled out the shop-vac, sucked the hole dry, and still nothing.
Cut to about 8 hours later - I'm finished setting up my new equipment in my basement studio (yes, admittedly a little freaked out that there's a rat somewhere in the walls within 6 feet of me) and a sneak a peek into the closet where the rat hole was... still no sign anywhere. I grab a flashlight and look high and low... yikes! I guess I had been looking a lot more low than high, because right at face level about two feet from me is a huddled ball of fur with a tail, protruding from some exposed isulation! I'm totally freaked out for the 2nd time in 24 hours. Man, I'd hate to think of what I'd do if faced with a wolf or bear or crocodile! (all native to this region, LOL). Well, it was breathing pretty rapidly, so it's still alive... day three!
I just left it. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind again, like the shop-vac, the nail gun, hell, even ductape and spray-on-adhesive-glue came to mind! But the short and skinny of it is, I did'nt want to get anywhere near it... what if I screwed up and then ended up with this vengeful hell-beast on my face? Not a chance. Here's my new plan: Sheepishly peek into the room every day until I'm sure it has stopped breathing. Then wait a couple more days to be sure. Then poke it with a stick and run away. Look again a few hours later to see if it moved. Repeat the next day. If it still hasn't moved, utilized the BBQ tongs to get it into a bucket, then throw it over the fence into the 7-11 parking lot. Maybe it'll scare away some of the kids with the boom stereos that congregate there every night.
Oh and by the way - last week when I was reflecting on how busy I had been in January, I totally forgot to mention that I read two excellent Michael Moore books (Dude, where's my Country and Stupid White Men), downloaded at watched 4 Michael Moore movies (Canadian Bacon, Roger and Me, The Big One, Bowling for Columbine) ...yeah, I'm kinda on a Michael Moore kick right now - I really like that guy. Oh, and I also spent about 20 hours playing Uru: Agest Beyond Myst.
Um, yeah.
What did I have ... two entries in January? Lucky I got that many. I still don't have time, but I'm forcing myself to take ten minutes to write this morning - you know, for posterity. :-)
As you know, we slipped away to Vegas for a couple of days, but other than that, what have I been up to? I mean, other than rehearsing with two bands 5 nights a week and growing a beard? Well, I've been eating better, cooking wholesome food almost every night, and lost about 15 lbs since New Years, I also bought a screen printing kit and have been fevorishly burning, emulsing, and printing Scarecrow Balcony T-shirts ... not ready yet ... still working on the details...
I also am still doing the home brew (which should be ready tomorrow!) and the band has been trying out guitar players as we've decided to add a 2nd axe for a thicker sound. My company had been going through some emergency exercises for the first three weeks of the year, so I was putting in about 9 hours every day (but that's over now!) and the web hosting stuff I do from home has been taking a lot of time, now that I'm doing BACKUPS, and have implemented an online forum for Randomblind.
The latest and most exciting development is that Ron and I have been actively scouting industrial space and dealing with realtors, as we plan on leasing a building that we can turn into a real live rehearsal space 'business' in the Tri-Cities area. This includes a lot of reading through industrial bylaws and business practice/requirements/procedure/law/etc... this would be my first real venture into a serious business, so I'm triying to do it right.
I had four evenings off in January - Carole and I went to two movies - Cold Mountain and Paycheck (both really good) and on the other two nights I helped two friends fix their computers.
The next few weeks are going to be BUSY - Scarerow is rehearsing 6 songs over and over, as we're going to be recording them in a couple of weeks... however, the Vancouver Seeds 2004 sumbission deadline is in two weeks, so I'll probably be recording a hack 3 song demo myself, just to get something in to them. I'm majorly neglecting the cover band, as I haven't had time to learn a single new song in over a month, and I think they're starting to get a little miffed... but that's nothing compared to my wife, I think even the cover band has seen more of me in the last month than she has.
We ordered a new armoire to match our bed last week, so hopefully when it's delivered, it can keep her company - LOL.
Well, gotta run - work to do and bylaws to learn!
Hopefully I'll get back to the blog within the week!