Ron Gone

Ron McClean has left the CBC. No more Hockey Night In Canada, Coaches Corner, Olympics…. this sucks.

You Can’t Beat That With A Stick

Great phrase. I will endeavour to use it as much in conversation as humanly possible.

Home Star Runner

np – Sloan / Twice Removed

Legal Man

Got an unexpected call this evening from Will, now located in the tropical hinterland of Saskatoon attending law school. Will hadn’t actually wanted to be a lawyer, this is the guy who finished his engineering law exam after 15 minutes not because he knew all the answers but because he knew that it was impossible to fail the course without setting fire to the professor’s suit whilst peeing on his shoes. And now he is in law school, hiding from the real world under the cover of academia for another few years. File under : irony.

Watched Robert Altman’s Gosford Park. Enjoyable ensemble period piece filled with fine actors with accents. Keeping up with all the plot threads wasn’t easy but I think I did pretty well. I caught all the main ones, anyway.

Folks on the FDP are chatting up Superdrag. I’m feeling impressionable, I should find some more of their stuff – I only have Regretfully Yours.

np – Elf Power / The Winter Is Coming

Fixing A Hole

Feeling all domestic today. I’ve vacuumed my room, washed all my sheets and remade the bed and cleared the drain in my tub. It appears that even short hair can clog a drain if left long enough. The accumulated crud that I had to remove is best left undescribed. But that nastiness is behind me and the tub drains the way it did when it first left the bathtub nursery. Huzzah.

Watched the Jays close out the 2002 season this afternoon (on television – I’d intended to go to the game but it was a 1pm start and in my typical plodding Sunday morning style, I wasn’t anywhere near ready to face the world by the time thie first pitch was thrown). Good game – Halladay gets his 19th win (a shutout) and becomes the AL leader in innings pitched, Hinske drives in the winning (and only) run. I am guardedly optimistic for the future – I haven’t looked forward to Spring Training in many years, but the Jays have got a good thing going right now. Fingers crossed!

The Leafs, on the other hand… Ed Belfour = feeble.

np – Elf Power / Creatures

Having returned from Interpol’s Toronto debut, I can offer the following observations:

1) DAMN they are tight! The bass and drums lock in so seamlessly I couldn’t tell where the bass guitar ended and the bass drum began. Very impressive – the production on the album tends to wash out the rhythm section some, but live? It’s like getting kicked in the chest repeatedly. In a good way..

2) It took Paul Banks a couple songs to get his voice warmed up – initially he couldn’t come close to nailing his falsetto and the vocals were somewhat thin overall. By mid-set however, he had some serious oomph behind him and sounded great.

3) Mix was very good, but overall a little loud. Guitars and vocals were distorted coming through the PA.

4) They use a lot of Boss pedals. Guitars were Rickenbacker 360 (fireglo) and a Les Paul Deluxe (goldtop with mini buckers) both through Twin Reverbs (one blackface, probably RI, one silverface).

5) Song arrangements were very close to the album – maybe a little more jamming in places, but hardly reiventing the material. The band was chattier than past show reviews had led me to expect. Mayhap they were a little surprised (pleasantly so) by the enthusiastic response of the Toronto punters.

6) A very packed and satisfied crowd has gone home from the Horseshoe tonight. Interpol will be back next year sometime, but the snob in me already knows that show won’t be as good as this one was.

On a sort-of related note, MY FEET AND LEGS ARE KILLING ME. I expect a grand muscle spasm sometime this evening. It will be spectacular.

np – the ringing in my ears.