Monday, September 29, 2003

Audio Update: Metric @ The Horseshoe

Carly and I did end up going to see Metric on the 27th. Graph Nobel and her band opened the night. [Do I say it? I can feel the feminist eye rolls already...] Nobel is small. Like, my kind of small, minus 13lbs. But the sound that she can produce is huge. Sometime in between songs an url was mentioned, but I didn't hear it. I googled "Graph Nobel" but found only a few blathery, generally uninformative pages. So I really don't know anything about the woman or the band. Just that the group had a surprising level (why?) of tightness; their sound is a little corporate-fm at times, but they seem to have a lot of grit and promise up their sleeves. Nobel and her back up singer blast a whalloping aural expression for certain. Plus they have fun, 'haha we tricked you' rythym turn arounds.

Second to play was Boy. One of them, on lead guitar, front & centre, is from the Yukon, apparently. I was there to see Metric. Boy was boring. Very boring. I got up and bought a $7.50 pint of Caffrey's. Not sure how much I usually pay for a pint of beer, but $7.50 seemed a bit much. I should pay more attention to these things. But, in any case, Caffrey's is an extremely enjoyable Irish ale. You see, it has a thick head that you can savour, and a very short taste registry time span. So the taste is there, and then it's not. There -- mmm -- then not. Brief, mild, and politely bold. No after taste, really, just an ever so subtle nutty lingering. Please go and learn more about this dependable brew at The Beer Belly. And, my dears, that is all I have to say for Boy's performance at the Horseshoe on Saturday.

Now Metric, on the other hand, was fun. A great deal of fun. Everybody on stage had energentic, intelligent personality, and singer/keyboardist Emily Haines is a fantastic voice for the band. There was a song played that I hadn't heard before...something about flame blue eyes? Anyway, I liked it a lot. Once upon a time, I posted a number of links to articles describing her voice. Go look for them. [HINT: The stamp was "Thu Jun 05, 09:02:03 PM". I believe in you and your ability to find this entry. I'm clapping for you, Peter. I swear I'm clapping.] One of those guys who always shows up to shows with his fucking digicam posted a bunch of pictures from the show on his site. ..So we shall not abhor him this time.

Audio Update: Metric @ The Horseshoe

Carly and I did end up going to see Metric on the 27th. Graph Nobel and her band opened the night. [Do I say it? I can feel the feminist eye rolls already...] Nobel is small. Like, my kind of small, minus 13lbs. But the sound that she can produce is huge. Sometime in between songs an url was mentioned, but I didn't hear it. I googled "Graph Nobel" but found only a few blathery, generally uninformative pages. So I really don't know anything about the woman or the band. Just that the group had a surprising level (why?) of tightness; their sound is a little corporate-fm at times, but they seem to have a lot of grit and promise up their sleeves. Nobel and her back up singer blast a whalloping aural expression for certain. Plus they have fun, 'haha we tricked you' rythym turn arounds.
Second to play was Boy. One of them, on lead guitar, front & centre, is from the Yukon, apparently. I was there to see Metric. Boy was boring. Very boring. I got up and bought a $7.50 pint of Caffrey's. Not sure how much I usually pay for a pint of beer, but $7.50 seemed a bit much. I should pay more attention to these things. But, in any case, Caffrey's is an extremely enjoyable Irish ale. You see, it has a thick head that you can savour, and a very short taste registry time span. So the taste is there, and then it's not. There -- mmm -- then not. Brief, mild, and politely bold. No after taste, really, just an ever so subtle nutty lingering. Please go and learn more about this dependable brew at The Beer Belly. And, my dears, that is all I have to say for Boy's performance at the Horseshoe on Saturday.
Now Metric, on the other hand, was fun. A great deal of fun. Everybody on stage had energentic, intelligent personality, and singer/keyboardist Emily Haines is a fantastic voice for the band. There was a song played that I hadn't heard before...something about flame blue eyes? Anyway, I liked it a lot. Once upon a time, I posted a number of links to articles describing her voice. Go look for them. [HINT: The stamp was "Thu Jun 05, 09:02:03 PM". I believe in you and your ability to find this entry. I'm clapping for you, Peter. I swear I'm clapping.] One of those guys who always shows up to shows with his fucking digicam posted a bunch of pictures from the show on his site. ..So we shall not abhor him this time.

Friday, September 26, 2003

CBC Radio3

I adore CBC Radio 3. The website, the program. Both. I must buy another cassette so that I can record the show on Saturday night. I can't use the tape from last week because I haven't had a chance to listen to the entire thing again yet, let alone figure out the names of the tracks I liked the most. I have now signed myself up to get the playlist on Fridays for the next day's show. But as for last week, I hope I can find out who created those standout songs... I should email somebody about it. Returning for a moment to the Internet question (which is quickly becoming less of a question); I don't think that I'll be able to access the Radio3 site with dial-up. Poopy. Not when I'm at my place in London anyway.

Audio News
Metric @ The Horseshoe

Carly and I are meeting tonight somewhere downtown since I'm back in Toronto for the weekend. We're going to see about getting tickets for tomorrow night's show at the Horseshoe: METRIC is playing! Hooleydooleystelley-oh! I really hope it's not sold out.

CBC Radio3

Thursday, September 25, 2003

HERE'S TO FACTORY LIVING

AN UNAPOLAGETIC ABSENCE ENDING;
OR
HERE'S TO FACTORY LIVING

My new London address is 330 Clarence St. Once upon a time, the building was a shoe factory. The cobbling machines, blue collar workers, and steam whistles (i like to think of there being whistles at one time) are gone. The workers are probably sweating it out these days somewhere deep within the smelly fortress that is the Labatt's brewery, the building has been gutted and gussied up. Even the poor old freight elevator has been faux-wood-pannelled. But the windows are still tall, the ceilings get to stretch more than those in your average living space, and some of the duct work remains exposed. I think that my favourite feature is the dark, slightly wider than what I grew up with, easy to clean, and nice to walk on, hardwood flooring.

I got the keys to this first apartment of mine after spending two nights sleeping on Hasdeep (et al.)'s couch, and two months in Algonquin contending with premonitions of various degrees of homelessness. Luckily, I won't be needing to hoard any cardboard boxes (to call home) this term.

The state of technological gadgetry at my place is positively sparse. It's pretty much limited to my laptop, a printer, and a radio. I have proclaimed my apartment a t.v. free zone, and am only at the beginning of what I hope will be a long running, far reaching personal promotion of public radio. But I am having a little trouble deciding what to do about the Internet at home.

Should I bring the web to my breakfast table? or should I continue using campus and public library computers for Internet access? It's no longer a matter of financial (dis)ability since my father has agreed to pay the bill for a 15 dollar/month dial-up plan. Will I use it excessively? To the point where I'm just floating around on some mindless system of links and idle quandries? If I do get hooked up, which I probably will, sooner rather than later, I'll have to set limits for myself. Maybe being back to dial-up will help me keep a focus. Broadband can be very distracting; and you certainly don't need it in order to view acedemic papers, type out email, or use IM apps. So maybe. Probably. I'll be online at home again soon. But using it like long distance phone calls - with focus and ending the session with a sense of accomplishment.

AN UNAPOLAGETIC ABSENCE ENDING;