Never mind the homework, here's the Vegan Teacher

I got called in for a Math assignment at a new high school this afternoon. I arrived to find that the teacher who called in sick decided to tough it out, saving me from certain doom (Math is trapped below the many layers of grey matter I’m not often able to access). So I sat around in the office while they looked for something I could do. Marking, maybe help a Phys Ed class… it wasn’t looking good then all of a sudden a Social Studies teacher had to take off. Reassigned!

2-80 minute Socials blocks. The first one was with a small class of grade 10’s. We watched a video on imperialism and I gave them a worksheet to complete. The worksheet was from last year and their teacher has yet to synch the pages up with the new text book so half of them couldn’t figure out how to find the corresponding chapter in the revised text. It was a chore; going back and fourth, telling them where to look, admitting that I had no idea where such-and-such picture was and so on. It was kind of a bummer too because I was excited to talk about the subject, but they were too confused and turned off by their outdated assignment. Oh well, at least I got to talk to one kid about Kyuss for a while.

The second block was grade 12’s. These classes can either be super fun (the student’s are the most mature, right?) or a total drag if they decide they don’t want to listen to the sub (of which they are experts). The class was twice as large as the one that proceeded it so I had to be on top of my game. First thing they had to do was read an introductory chapter in their text book. Right. How many grade 12 kids do you know would voluntarily read 25 pages in the last period for a sub? The best you can do in these situations is use it as an opportunity to get to know your students a bit so they’re less of a pain in the neck as class proceeds. Maybe 2 or 3 of them actually read, no matter. I cracked a few jokes and talked to those I knew would be likely to cause a ruckus during the video. I found that the class was pretty bright during this time and started to get stoked for the next part.

I told them we were going to watch a video from 1981 and they protested, wanting to watch youtube clips instead. I sold them on it by telling them I’d heard a lot about the film. It was called the Wave and was about an experiment that went down in a High School History class in the 60’s wherein the teacher successfully demonstrates to his students how easy brainwashing is, in response to a student questioning the rise of the Nazi party. (A fascinating experiment actually, check it out). The movie was a bit dated, and I worried that the class would be turned off by this. But they were the opposite and after settling, watched intently for 45 minutes. After the movie they were pretty stoked to talk about it which is what I enjoy most about the Grade 12’s. They gave some really intelligent opinions on influence, peer pressure and the parallels of the experiment to other fascist movements.

Tonight I have to help a friend with his radio show. It’s late and I don’t know if I’ll be working in the morning.

What does the loss of public drinking fountains have in common with the rise of public schools? Here’s a short essay written by another teacher that draws an interesting parallel.

First day back at it. The school was downtown in a lower SES area. These are always interesting days because the most important part is the kids actually showing up for school. If they do that, they’re ahead of the game. The next challenge is trying to get them to do work which, as a sub, can be next to impossible at times.

I had 7-9 Math and Science students today. Also a couple behaivior classes to round things out. Overall, the kids were pretty great. We talked about genes and DNA first period and the more inquisitive were curious about the reasons behind why, when you have surgery, you don’t physically change according to the amount of DNA you lose.

The next couple of classes were a gong-show but surprisingly, amongst all of the chaos, most of them finished their worksheets. One girl was compleining about her long walk home after school, 1.5hrs. I asked her where her bus pass was, she told me she sold it because she needed the dough for something.

I was getting really tired by the end of the day. Late night last night, and I’m trying to adjust to working hours again.

The book is done. 50 copies printed, cut and bound. I was shooting for 100 but time is not on my side. It’s cool, and I’m stoked because the end result looks fantastic. I did some press the other day too and hung up some posters for the launch. I’m curious to see if anyone comes out to this thing.

Lastly, Screeching Weasel are being flown into town for a one-off. I never thought I’d get to see those guys, they hardly tour and Ben Weasel is a bit of a looney toon. Gonna have to pick up some tickets for that one…

Things have been very busy down here at the Pattern Press. On Friday, the machine I was using to print copies of the book started giving me guff. It began with streaking, ended with several paper jams and I eventually accepted the fact that the machine was taking a day off. With a thousand pages left to go, I headed to the print centre at the University (a stop I planned on making anyways to burn off the covers). Those machines were not into it either and by the time printing was through, two of them ended up in a similar state as the original. But the printing was finished. The cost was to be born unto my Visa (“credit card does says yes!”), but those machines were also down. I had most of it in my bank account, which I withdrew, and the girl who helped me sort out all of my ridiculous printing challenges ended up lending me $5 to cover my shortfall.

Yesterday I trimmed all of the pages to the right size so that they wouldn’t give me a problem when it came time to bind them. Then I went to a football game and any more progress on the book ceased until I woke up this morning…

After I woke up and shook it off, it was time to bind! The cats kept me company as I used my roommates Atomic Binding Machine to fasten the pages to the cover. 2 Black Sabbath albums, countless youtube videos and 22 glue cartridges later, there’s only one thing left to do: trim the books down to size!

I’m stoked with my progress, and am glad that I was able to complete each step of the process myself but damn has it ever taken up a lot of time. I think the next pressing will probably involve some outsourcing as there’s no way I’ll be able to put this much  into it when I’m back to teaching full time.

Speaking of which, tomorrow is my first day back subbing! A freind from Ed called me in to fill in for his Jr. High Science class at a school I’ve never been to. Only thing is, I still have this ringing in my ears from the Bad Brains show. Dumb dumb dumb. You must always wear ear plugs to loud shows. The older you get, the longer the fuzzy ears stick around.

I spent the day at the publishing house printing up copies of the book. I’m picking up all kinds of subbing work for next week which is elating, and now the pressure is on to wrap this project up. The process takes a while. I would estimate that to print and bind one copy takes somewhere between 8-10 minutes, not counting other parts of the process like running around for supplies or to the other shop to deal with the cover. I’m sure if I did the calculations (and assuming people buy this thing), I will have made significantly less than a dollar an hour. It’s good though, sometimes you have to pay for experience and I work well with deadlines. I think the only time I get things done is when I’m under pressure.

Lastly, I have to post about something interesting I came accross the other day. Georges Laraque (an ex-Oiler) went vegan this summer. Check it! I love stories about people transcending stereotypes.

Another week away from writing and I’m starting to feel really behind on this thing.

First thing to talk about is spending a few days in Oregon over the weekend. Two friends and I have been putting money into a kitty for some time now and managed to raise enough dough through DJ sets and corndog sales to fund the trip. Gas, paid for. Food, mostly paid for. It was a nice subsidized getaway for three dudes looking for one last hurrah of the summer, and hurrah it was.

You know how these things go, I talk about them on here all the time. These trips are full of either music or food. This one, our annual exit to Portland, happens to merge both. Last year we saw bands like Flipper, Seaweed and Hot Water Music. This year, we’ve been watching the roster of bands scheduled grow for the past 3 months and once again, there were too many bands I couldn’t pass up watching.

After checking it with friends in Vancouver, we sailed south to Seattle where we ate some vegan doughnuts at a coffeeshop called Mighty-O’s. If you’re veg (even if you’re not) I highly reccommend! The doughnuts are fantastic and blow the poseurs from tim hortons and crispy creme out of the water. Arrived in Portland that evening where we went straight to a vegan bar that served us up some meatball subs (as well as dirt cheap pbr). From there we dropped off the car at a friends place and caught a ride downtown. This was the outline of the following three days.

Food. Music. Friends.

Vegan Food Consumed-Tofu Bennedict, pancakes, biscuts and gravy, french toast, raw pizza and poutine.

Bands who contributed to my ever increasing tinnitus-Explosions in the Sky, Sunny Day Real Estate, Dirty Three, Get Up Kids, Bad Brains, Mudhoney and Austin Lucas.

Anecdotes involving friends-Playing crib in the park with our pal who’s put us up the last few times we’re in town. GHK meeting a dude on the street who overhears the conversation he’s having about SNFU. “My old band played with SNFU”, the guy says. GHK asks what band was that? Oh just BAD RELIGION. Turns out Bobby Shayer (BR drummer circa 91-99) was at the Mudhoney show!

After the Dirty Three, I had a few too many wobbly pops and found myself backstage where I pestered Warren Ellis to bring Nick Cave’s project Grinderman to Canada. Not just Vancouver or Toronto either. No, I made Warren swear he would get Nick to “quit being dumb” and come to Alberta. He put up with me for a good while too, than eventually made his escape back with a “I’ll be right back!” We all get carried away when we meet our heroes.

Dirty Three

I also bought the new Pearl Jam LP from a dude who made me swear I wasn’t from the FCC as he was selling it to me before its release date. Yea! It’s really good too.

The drive home was hellish. 21 hours. I felt like I was floating for most of it. When I got home I only had a few hours to nap because the Hold Steady were playing last night? For real? Yes! How is it possible that the last 5 days of my life were so full of amazing food and the best bands? I do not know.

Anyways, now I am back. A freind of mine gave the manuscript one more look-through as I’m printing copies up tomorrow. 100 of them, we’ll see how she goes. Then the cover, then the binding. It should keep me busy until the end of the week. Thankfully I returned home to find that sub work has picked up. I’m back on the train starting Monday. This means that I won’t be paid until the end of October which is interesting and I have given myself a new challenge: I’m going to try to pay rent on book sales.

Let’s see how this one goes, shall we?

The launch of my book Lesson Plans, Touring Vans and How I Started Teaching has been booked at the Hydeaway here in Edmonton. The doors are at 7 on October 5th and comrades James Stewart (the Last Deal, Slates) and Nathan Setterlund (Fractal Pattern, Viking Fell) will be playing sets. Then I will probably read from it a little bit and show some pictures. I have a lot that I haven’t shared, but I feel it would be appropriate for the occasion.

I also realized the settings for this blog were messed up and every post from the first half of the month wasn’t showing up. I can’t believe it’s been like this for three years! Anyways, I fixed it and now the entire archive is unlocked for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

In other news, I’m fff to Portland for Music Fest North West and a vegetarian festival. Will report on it when I get back. Have a good week!

With regards to that video I posted the other day; it seems like it’s been stirring up quite the debate on a few other sites. The one I originally lifted it from polled people on whether or not they supported the practice. Of course the majority thinks the whole thing is very cruel, but a significant portion seems to not have a problem with it. Comments here, they are an interesting read.

There was a time when I was much more militant about veganism. I used to pamphlet at the circus, I was involved with the Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals group on campus and for a while even played in an all vegan band. Not that I think that much differently now and I am coming up on my 10 year veganniversary, but the discussion has changed as well have my tactics. I guess they’ve become less alienating as my scope has widened.

I used to have a friend who thought everyone should be vegan. We would get into fights all of the time, my argument being “what, you’re going to fly tofu into the First Nations people in northern communities?”. It was ridiculous. Context, context, context. I also realize how much of an effect income has on how passionate people are about their food, and how shitty food corporations capitalize on the lower brackets. It’s tragic, but it’s the way it is right now.

The important thing is realizing how we are connected to everything else around us. The affect our diet has on others and the environment is not debatable. Whatever you do after that is up to you. You have been programmed differently than I. We are probably not on the same page when it comes to how we both look at animals. But I do not think less of you by any means. In fact, I think you are very capable of being compassionate and you probably struggle with it the same way I struggle with things like money and beer. It’s ok, we’re all in this together and I’m reasonably certain we’ll get it right sooner or later.

I had to put that out there. It was either going on the internets or headed for my journal to never see the light of day.

In other news, it’s been a week since school started and I haven’t got called for a subbing gig yet. I’m managing fine but really excited to get back in. I love teaching and have heard from a couple friends who got new contracts which just got me more fired up. I guess I’ll just have to hold tight until H1N1 season starts up.

Until then I’ll keep picking up shifts at the restaurant. The crazy, crazy restaurant where I have started playing games with the staff. They all have a great sense of humor (for the most part) but some are not the most fluent english speakers. Maybe this is why I’m the only one giggling when I give the kitchen staff an order for Ass to Veg (assorted vegetables w/tofu). Dumb games with myself too like the how-many-cups-can-I-carry? game. Clearly I need to get back to work.

I’m also thinking about having my book reading at the end of the month. This if I can get the final edit completed and copies bound by then. It takes so long, this process, and I’m learning a lot of new things with respect to publishing and distribution. In some ways it’s similar to putting out a record and in others it’s very different. A friend has even suggested I do a book tour. One step at a time. But I’m definitely motivated by the fact that all the advanced copies are sold out though and I’ve been getting some great feedback.

Lastly, I’m really amped for the new Pearl Jam album. Yeah yeah yeah, I don’t care. They still blow away 99% of the bands out there both live and on record. Check out the rockin’ first single from the new record.

Well, the dough I had squirreled away for the summer lasted as long as I anticipated and now I get to play the waiting game. When will the subbing start? Not yesterday and apparently not today. This is fine, I have a bit of money coming my way this weekend and I can always find enough change on the driveway to buy some gas for the scooter (true story). But I’m pretty anxious to start working again. We’ve got the record coming out this month and I’ve got to throw some money at it to ensure that it comes out the way we want it to.

The old band is doing a one-off reunion show tonight. It should be a good time. I’m glad I have nothing scheduled for the morning because it will likely be the last hurrah as far as summer throwdowns go. Here’s the poster I put together for the occasion.

Once in a while I stumble upon a piece of news that I feel compelled to share. Tonight I found something that needs to be out there for two reasons: the first being because it literally made my jaw drop as I became sick to my stomach. The second because I know that the human race is completely capable of avoiding this type of stuff through compassionate behavior and choices, which at most times, simply begin at the grocery store.

I’m not trying to sound dramatic, nor coming down anyone for what they eat. But please think about all living beings at the dinner table because capitalist economics and the global food market place have clearly perverted the relationship that we have with our food and those who provide it.

In other news, one more day until I start subbing again and I’m super excited! I also spent the entire day promoting and soliciting my book “under the transom” as you might say. Turns out a couple places are interested in carrying it and the Education Students Association are even interested in getting me to do a book-reading on campus. Neat!

This story begins about four months ago, the day tickets went on sale. A friend and I were at our computers 20 minutes before their release, expecting to beat the masses to the best seats in the house and with an understanding that the first person to get their hands on them would call the other so we could celebrate.

9:40-Log on to ticketbastard website

9:45-Check to see if they’ve gone up early

9:50-Call Mike, make sure he’s on. Exchange credit card info

9:52-Open up 3 seperate Firefox screens, set them all to the ticket selection page

9:54-Take a wizz

9:56-Get ready, anticipate score

9:58-Check for ticket selection, still not up.

9:58:37-Check again, still not up

9:59:02-Check again, still nothing

9:59:47-Still nothing…

10:00:32-Log in, select as many tickets that will fit on credit card, hit enter. Prompted to a wait screen that anticipates a 9 minute wait, no a 15 minute wait, no an over 25 minute wait now. Uh oh, lots of people looking for these things. So we wait 15 minutes to get through and nothing, the website is totally crashing. Mike calls me up with bad news: he’s experiencing the same thing. It’s not happening. 60,000 people on the website at the same time. We know we must take action, there’s a ticketmaster outlet 10 blocks away. We head down in our pajammas, find a long lineup and a sign that reads “single seats only”. It’s only been 25 minutes and the show’s almost sold out!

We get to the kiosk and give the lady our order, “Eight tickets to AC/DC please!”. She says no problem and asks us how we’ll be paying. We pony up the credit card only to learn that their machine is down and they’re only accepting cash. I’m broke, Mike’s broke, there’s no way we can cough up that much dough. She tells us she can hold our tickets for a few hours and we spend the morning rolling pennies, collecting debts and trying to get the money together. At $115 a pop, only three of us are able to bum enough money off friends and family to pay for them.

Back to the kiosk. Pay for the tickets, turns out our single seats are between rows 6-12, right beside the stage turning us into the most stoked dudes we know.

4 months, 6000km and three bags of cat food later…

The day has finally come! Garrett and Mike show up around four. Once again, we’re all broke so Mike offers up the only thing he could find in his fridge: a single can of Boxer beer. We split it between the three of us and start getting wicked stoked again. I send the cat into the alley to scrouge for change and we amass enough for few more. Take the train to a friend’s place not too far from the coluseum, skip the first opening act and listen to her back-in-the-day stories.

Around 7:00 we depart for the venue. There’s a gigantic lineup and merch being sold outside includes ridiculously priced, plastic, battery-powered Angus horns. We make some wise-cracks to other fans in line. “Who’s playing tonight? The Stamps right?” and “AC/DC, are they a new band?” go down like Lead Zeppelins with dudes who have been waiting the 8 years since the group rolled through last.

We get in, find our seats, grab a couple over-priced bevvies, a soy burger and sit through the next opening act. At this point, the sky is an ominous grey and I swear I feel a few light drops of water falling from above. No matter, in one hour AC/DC are going to kill it. The openers finish and I leave my motley crue in search for a cola.

When I return, our assigned seats become invalid as we’ve managed to make three seats out of two. We look above to see a curious display of Canadian military as snowbirds and helocopters buzz overhead. Our smart-ass remarks go unnoticed by people who are not here to debate foreign policy, but to rock. Fair enough! Lights go down, the angus horns mark the position of approximately every 5th person, and the band takes the stage.

I must note that I’ve seen hundreds of shows and literally thousands of bands, but I think I’ve only ever seen one band that has rocked with the same amount of energy as these guys. In 2002, Hot Water Music came to town for the first time and played a small club show. In the middle of their set, the power gave out leaving only the bass player and the drummer in the PA. The band trudged through the song and delivered the most intense set I’d ever seen in my life. Iron Maiden was good, Pearl Jam has always ruled, SNFU-fantastic shows, Social D, Fugazi, Rocket, Propagandhi… but last night, 5 dudes aged 55-61 managed to top all of ‘em and I’ll tell you why.

Not only was the set incredible, at points managing to have nearly 10% of my city singing and fist pumping along, but it was an outdoor show and it ended up pissing rain halfway through. Now, there are a few possible outcomes to this and you are smart enough to not have me detail them to you. Yes, most of them involve the show being canceled and people going home. The dudes are pretty old after all, and with all the concern for public safety these days it is not hard to imagine what is in the promoters best interest.

But the show went on. Not only did the show go on, but with every crack of thunder and every bolt of lightning, the show raged harder and harder. Fans losing their minds in unison, the band using the opportunity to show their solidarity with everyone soaking body that filled a seat. A stream of water falling off Brian Johnson’s cap as he led the crowd through a Whole Lotta Rosie. Angus lying on his back, soloing in the middle of the crowd during Let There Be Rock, as I try to figure out how it’s even possible to play your guitar under water.

They tore it up. No one went home early. Nothing stopped the band from delivering the greatest rock and roll show I’m sure this town has ever seen. I probably sound like I’m blowing this whole thing out of proportion, but like I said; I’ve seen bands walk off stage in a huff, 25 year olds looking like they could give two shits about a thousand paying people being stoked on music they’ve wrote, I’ve seen bands literally cry about their place in the lineup! But having 5 dudes, almost seniors, keeping 60,000 cold and sopping wet bodies in their place while hollering along to TNT was a sight to behold. Hot damn!

In other news, I sold my first book to a good friend of mine. Thanks dude! I wish I could give these away for free, but I’m hella broke and it wasn’t cheap or easy to make. Also, in order to finance our upcoming trip to Portland, the brosnakes are having a fundraiser this saturday on the stoop. Corndogs, corndogs, corndogs! Get ‘em before the snowfalls!

And I’m outtahere!

A couple of weeks ago, a good friend of mine got the old heave-ho from his girl. This led to a few more nights out than I’m usually good for. Regardless, things even out and life returns to normal leaving me surprised at the amount of work I’m able to get done.

First up, the book. Lesson Plans, Touring Vans & How I Started Teaching is now available! First run limited to 20 copies, get em while they’re hot! 10 bones. Please email me if you’d like more info.

I was stoked to work at my friend’s shop there this week. He’s got a great print machine as well as an industrial paper cutter which makes the process unbelievably easier that what I used last winter that is; my inkjet and the Staples paper cutter. One of those green old school ones with the arm that only cuts about 30 pages at a time. Using that equipment it took me over 3 days to print, cut and bind 6. Using my pals stuff on the other hand allowed me to burn off 20 in just over a day. Rad dude that Raymond, whose philosophy is basically “if I can’t help you put it out, I’ll let you use whatever you need in my studio”. Much appreciated.

Also, helped a friend DJ at the university station last night. We had a fun time going through the gigantic record collection looking for rare stuff. I found a super-old SNFU 7″ and played a studio version of Beautiful, Unlike You and I on the air. I also saw the Chi Pig movie last night as well which I recommend to any fan of the band.

What else did I do, oh yes! I tried the KFC veggie burger. I had to. I know, I know. The vegan police would come down on me for that one but I justify it as follows: maybe the more people who try it, the more they will sell, advertise and in turn less chickens will be inhumanely killed by the awful chain. My review? It was gross. Fast food always is, I don’t know why I thought it would be any different. Even with my own supply of vegan mayo didn’t help, the bun was sugary, the thing went down in three bites and left me feeling greasy for hours. Blech.The people in there were a sight to behold as well and I didn’t know they had delivery! Sheeeeiit.

Anyways, I’m burning through this one because AC/DC is tonight and I have a ticket for row 10, right beside the stage. This means that I’m going to have to get some supplies and head down to the stoop fairly quickly. Expect a review tomorrow!

Give me another week or so and this will become a worthwhile read again. I’ve been very busy working on several projects that seem to eat away at all of my free time. I suppose this is simply a result of the last home stretch of the summer, where you try to pack everything in an 18 hour day and still don’t have enough time to get to everything. Maybe we’re all just too busy and need to take some time off, or maybe that’s just the human condition: love of work. I know I can’t turn it down. When somebody asks me for work, I gladly give it to them. When I’m sitting around, I need to make something. I need my hand in another pie. Cleaning my room and shaving goes by the wayside, there’s always another practice, another edit, another shift and another chore I need to get to.

Though I did get a haircut so when I start subbing in a week, the kids won’t call me a hippie.

So, continuing on with the complete lack of pedagogical-related posts up in here:

We received the test presses of the record! These are basically the audio proofs you order when doing a run of vinyl. Good thing we got ‘em too because there was a glitch somewhere in the transferring process, and the actual 12″ was warped. It’s really exciting nonetheless as the tunes sound HOT. I was surprised at the difference between the way the songs sound on the cd listening copy and the vinyl. All the warmth of the tape was lost when the album was digitized while completely retained on the record. By far, the  the most proud I’ve been of the results of a musical endeavor.

Next, the book is completely done and ready to be put together. A friend of mine has a publishing company and is going to let me use his equipment to print and bind the thing next week. (I’m going to start with a limited run of 25, if you’d like a copy of the first edition, let me know! 10 bux!) He’s also offered up his photoshop skills to help me put together a cover. This is huge as my attempts at designing one these past couple of weeks have yeilded nothing but garbage can aesthetic.  The other thing I’ve got to do is see if I can get some space in the Education building during the first week of classes so I can try to sell a few copies. I’m still deciding whether or not to do an official launch. I’ve got some ideas on the cook but the timing is not great since the fall is already shaping up to be super busy with music stuff.

Lastly (and I’m sure you’ve seen this coming) I’ve rekindled my love of the Dire Straits album Brothers in Arms but while searching through my records, I was surprised to find that I could not find my copy of it anywhere! I’ve had the tape for over twenty years but it must be packed away somewhere. So I hit the streets looking for some coffee when I pass by a sale behind a local book store. They’ve got a box of records they’re selling for fifty cents a piece and I get a feeling that leads me to one of the boxes. What’s the first record I flip through? You’d better believe it. I went home and listened to side A, full volume. Time machine set to 1986: red Datsun pickup, sister falls off bike, the Enchanted Forest and so on and so fourth.

oh god, running’s the worst.

I’ve been out and about lately. Since I’m only pulling a couple shifts a week at the restaurant, I’m left with a few days a week of free time. Last week, I decided that it would be a good use of summer to take a drive out to the coast. A friend of mine was looking for a ride out there so I offered one up for him and his bicycle. I got stoked on the idea of biking around by the ocean and decided to take my bike out there as well. The morning we were to leave, I went outside to put the bike in the back of my car and to my surprise, it had vanished! I took a quick look around the hood but we had to get going, so I resolved to deal with it upon my return.

I got back into town and slept all day, then I left the next day to see Pearl Jam in Calgary, then I returned again the next day (only to write the night off at a friend’s get-together) and woke up this morning feeling like trash (or sampa, as my Indonesian friend would say). Hung over (again) and no bike (again). I think I’ve had three stolen in the past 10 years. Not a bad ratio, but each was surely a result of my seemingly too trustworthy nature. Or maybe not, maybe it was the universe evening out some bad Karma. At any rate, I never buy the good locks and at once I even went a whole year without bothering to lock the thing up to begin with. Dumb dumb dumb.

So I peeled myself out of bed, drank some juice, had a multivitamin and got working on a missing bike poster. After several trips back and fourth from my desk to my bed, the coffee machine and the bathroom, I took the sign to Staples to get photocopied. The photocopiers do not take change there so I used my mastercard. Not a big deal, but when you’re in my condition these things are irritating enough to worsen the headache and cause more sweats. Figured out the photocopier and found packing tape with which to hang posters. Complain about how 6 rolls cost $5 but how one roll costs $4.50. I don’t want 6 rolls, I only need one. Out of principle, I got one roll though my mother will surely send me a follow up email “you should’ve got the 6 rolls dear”. I know I know.

So then I was off; first to pick up my Louis CK tickets, then to hang some posters. While pondering my route, I couldn’t help but thinking back on how fun last night was. How there was a good portion of the evening devoted to listening to Dad-rock (such as Dire Straits) as well as eating taryaki portobello mushrooms. This resulted in my trip around the hood being fueled by a continuous loop of the song Walk of Life. But not even the whole song, just the opening keyboard riffs. So anyways, I hung a bunch of posters up and ran into a guy who swore he saw my bike dumped into the bush behind his work. I asked him when he saw it and he told me it was the thursday night before I left on my trip. Hope!

It makes sense, whoever grabbed it wouldn’t have gotten far. Between being unfamiliar with riding a fixed gear bike and the seat (which had a fantastic ability to loosen up and strike my crotch at the most unexpected of times), any theif who’s not some sort of sadomasochist would’ve ditched it after a couple blocks. So anyways, that means it’s out there. Hopefully someone picked it up and will see my poster. In the meantime I’ve been riding around on an old yellow bike that I imported from Victoria. Props to Pops for flipping the bill, btw. I also found another frame for $30 that I might put some work into once some pay starts rolling back in. In the meantime, a nickel’s worth of free advice: don’t be dumb, use two locks!

Anyways, I’ve got to say that Pearl Jam still rip it up. Once I fought my way through the chongos reinacting mosh pits from 1992, I found myself right in front of Mike and Eddie surrounded by other dudes super stoked that the band finally made it back to the prairies. The set was excellent! Considering it was a festival setting and almost every other band playing was super lame (Billy Talent? Does anyone really listen to that bullshit?), they didn’t spare us any surprises! In fact, the second song they played (All Night) had never even been played live before! They also pulled out another super rarity: Brother. What a treat! Rats as well. For real? Oh yes, and a little Crazy Mary, at which point in time Eddie came down and passed around his bottle of wine. The bottle made it right beside me before some dumb-dumb dropped it on the ground, shattering my attempt to “take a bottle drink it down, pass it around”. Haha, I don’t think there’s another band I’m such a super fan for. I could write pages and pages about them. But I will not make you, dear reader, endure. It is funny though, there’s something about seeing them in the summer that seems to really complete the season. Here’s to another 18 years on my record player.

Lastly, tomorrow: I’m going to get back into running. I’ve been building up to it for the past couple weeks and if wasn’t for the righteous hangover, today would’ve been day one. No matter, tomorrow is the beginning of the end of the brosnake gut!

This week has been a good one. I’ve been productive and eating well as part of getting back on track after the roadtrip of beer and burritos. To keep busy during the day, I’ve found myself sketching and playing more guitar than usual. It’s a nice break, being able to get to all of the things that give way to 50 hour work weeks. Having the energy to be creative and exploring the city in the meantime etc.

The band is anxiously awaiting the test presses of the vinyl record we hope to put out within the next month or two. When I got back into town, the mastered recordings were waiting for me to check out online. They sound great and we’re all super stoked for this thing. Currently, we’re sorting out the artwork and tallying expenses. It’s going to be a doozy and we’ve all got to come up with about a grand to see this thing materialize. It’ll be worth it though, for me at least. Some people put their money into fashions, some people put it into their cars while I have no problem dropping mine on food and art. It’s good.

In other news, I’m going to head west for a few days to do some biking. In between my shifts at the restraurant I have nothing but time. As a seasonal man of leisure, I seem to be learning how to stay busy with nothing in the script.

I’ll have some photos to put up soon.

The cat is twitching in her sleep.

Jeeze, I guess it’s been a while since I’ve put a good post up on here. Figure a trip recap is probably due as well. Hmmm, many things to get to tonight.

I logged on to a bit of a surprise as well. One of the days while I was away, over 500 people visited this thing for some reason. I guess someone posted something somewhere, and a bunch of traffic was directed to something I addressed over a year ago. That thing about garbage island.

So I’m sitting outside, it’s hot as shit and there’s a man whizzing around the neighbourhood on this weird home-built scooter. It’s loud, but not as loud as the Indy cars and fighter planes that are getting people stoked downtown. It’s been a couple days since I’ve been back in town and I’m feeling pretty healthy after cleansing my body of road food and beers with a bunch of fresh fruit and veggies.

The trip was great, a friend’s 83 VW van took us to Dawson City YT and back in roughly 10 days. Well, it took us to Whitehorse anyways before a slight malfunction. No matter, leave it up to a Yukoner to get in there and get the engine drivable again.

Dawson City was a total riot as we got into it really good one night. At one point each of us even had a shot of whiskey with a human toe in it, thus becoming members of the Sourtoe Cocktail Club. No joke, check out this website for more information on the bizarre northern ritual. The actual music festival was ok; Luke Doucet played a wicked show in an old theatre and the Acorn were alright. The rest of the bands (I saw) were not really my thing, which was fine because just being there was a good enough time.

I’m pretty sure while I was up north, I drank my weight in Yukon beer. This is incredibly easy to do as the local brewery sells half gallon jugs, called growlers, which are refillable. Needless to say, it’s probably time to dry out for a while.

The food was tasty, I’m pretty sure I put down 6 burritos that weekend. The beers were all local and reasonably priced. We stayed in the back yard of on an old acquaintance of mine from high school. I hadn’t seen her in about 10 years and initially there was a funny atmosphere to the reunion. Good people though, and her husband helped us out with a tarp when it started pouring as you see, our duct tape repair job on the tent’s fly wasn’t really panning out.

The actual trip felt super long at times, but while the van traveled a little slower that just meant there was more time for listening to tunes. We made it through Guess Who records, Supertramp, Lucero, a ton of Hot Water Music and every Tragically Hip album in an effort to stay awake and avoid the countless number of animals running around. I think the final count was something like 70 bison, 20 bears, 15 caribou and a moose.

Now I’m home, and with 5 weeks of summer left. I have to figure out what to do with myself. I’ve never had so much time off before. I have a few plans; going to get back into reasonable shape, continue working on completing a few projects and this and that. I’ve also heard train tickets are super cheap right now, and I’ve always wanted to take the train somewhere so I’m going to check it out. But mostly, I’m thinking about how nice it will be to hang around, go pick some berries and ride my bike all over. Yup.

It’s summertime in town and much too beautiful to spend inside anywhere that’s not outside on my bike. This week I’m heading up to the Yukon with a few friends to check out the Dawson City Music Festival. I’m super-excited for a mid summer road trip and am looking forward to getting out of the city. I don’t have much more to say at this point. If you’re a new reader, check back in a few weeks. For now, I’m taking a sabbatical from computers and going offline!

It’s raining like crazy today so I’m staying in. If I leave, it will be to finally get my hands on some Hold Steady tickets, otherwise I’ve got some work to do. A few months ago I attempted starting a comic strip. It was rough in the beginning, but it’s starting to come along. My favorite strip growing up was, undeniably, Calvin and Hobbes. I always enjoyed how Bill Watterson was able to pack so much humor and insight into just a few panels, meanwhile my attempts to emulate the medium usually ended up crinkled in the trash.

15 years later I gave it another crack, this time drawing on such artists as Mitch Clem and Ben Snakepit who’ve both managed to d.i.y. non-fiction strips for a few years. For some reason I’m having a bit easier of a time this go around and am actually able to decently visualize what I’m trying to go for. Most of what I’ve come up with has been about dumb daily goings on in my life, but some have managed to turn out a-ok by my standards. So I started an offshoot to this blog and as soon as I’m able to get my favorites decently scanned, I will throw them up. With all this time on my hands this summer, two of my main goals are to finish the damn book and get it out, as well as draw a strip a day. My pipedream of course is being able to transfer some of these teaching anecdotes to illustrations. We’ll see what happens I guess.