Holy SHIT am I drunk.

Went out for drinks (obviously) with Sudeep, Kevin and Vic. Shot the shite about music, comic books and women. And a luverly time was had by all.

And you would not believe the number of typos I’ve made writing this entry.

MP3 of the week will be updated tomorrow morning. I’m in no shape to deal with that right now.

G’night.

There’s an interview with our very own 517 in today’s Toronto Star about his Alice Becomes A Queen art exhibit at the AWOL gallery through next week. Unfortunately, the online article lacks the photo of the artwork the interview refers to. And for the record, he said “patzer”, not “putz”.

The reality of moving in just over a week has begun to set in. I finally got off my ass today and took care of some stuff that I’d been putting off for a while – going through my shoeboxes of crap and files and throwing stuff out, getting a few boxes from the LCBO (I will still need more though), selling off a huge stack of old Select and Q magazines (my Britpop days are finally truly dead!) as well as a stack of CDs that didn’t deserve to be moved. This coming week I may finally get around to putting my old Telecaster on consignment at Capsule or Songbird. I also got my bike appraised for the purpose of sending in my bike lock warranty – they said $350. So it seems my ‘beater’ bike is worth more than my stolen new bike was. Fantastic.

I got the new issue of Magnet yesterday, which is always good grist for the blogging mill. This one is their 10th anniversary issue, so we get retrospectives and lists in lieu of proper articles, but that’s okay. We like lists. The centrepiece is the Top 60 albums of the past 10 years, of which I have 28, plus another 5 or 6 I used to have on cassette. Not a bad showing. Their top 5 are Belle & Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister, Radiohead’s OK Computer, Guided By Voices’ Alien Lanes, Nirvana’s In Utero and top album of the past decade belongs to Neutral Milk Hotel’s In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, which you know I’m not going to argue with.

np – The Shins / Oh, Inverted World

What a beautiful face

I have found in this place

That is circling all round the sun

What a beautiful dream

That could flash on the screen

In a blink of an eye and be gone from me

Soft and sweet

Let me hold it close and keep it here with me

And one day we will die

And our ashes will fly

From the aeroplane over the sea

But for now we are young

Let us lay in the sun

And count every beautiful thing we can see

Love to be

In the arms of all I’m keeping here with me

Anna’s ghost all around

Hear her voice as it’s rolling and ringing through me

Soft and sweet

How the notes all bend and reach above the trees

Now how I remember you

How I would push my fingers through

Your mouth to make those muscles move

That made your voice so smooth and sweet

And now we keep where we don’t know

All secrets sleep in winter clothes

With one you loved so long ago

Now he don’t even know his name

What a beautiful face

I have found in this place

That is circling all round the sun

And when we meet on a cloud

I’ll be laughing out loud

I’ll be laughing with everyone I see

Can’t believe how strange it is to be anything at all

– Jeff Mangum, “In The Aeroplane Over The Sea”

…No reason. Or some reason but not much of one. It’s sad and beautiful and mournful and transcendent, all at once.

Adbusters is going into the sneaker selling business, ostensibly to ‘take on Nike’. I don’t know about this, it seems naive at best, hypocritical at worst, but a curious course of action any way you slice it. From where I stand, Adbusters stands to gain very little, but lose a lot.

The Death Cab For Cutie/Nada Surf/Long Winters show is confirmed on the Barsuk website and will take place at the Opera House on October 16. And it’s all ages. It better be a damn good show, cause Lord knows I don’t love all ages shows or the Opera House, let alone both at once.

Excellent Online has links to a couple streamable tracks from the new Spiritualized album, Amazing Grace, out in a couple weeks. Go have a listen.

Still no word as to when the shotgun conservation efforts around the province can be reduced. Not to say waste is preferable to conservation, but work has been suffocatingly hot without A/C and home is better, but not great. The sword of Damocles dangling up above is getting mighty old.

np – Matthew Sweet / Altered Beast

I WANT ONE OF THESE. A pox on Largehearted Boy for introducing me to this marvel of modern technology and making my life feel so inadequate for want of this fantabulous contraption.

It’s a New York City double-shot on October 22 at Lee’s Palace, with Longwave and Calla.

JAM! has an interview with the Jayhawks, in town tonight to play with Blue Rodeo. I’m missing that show, but aren’t sure where I stand on their October 13 show at Massey Hall opening for Lucinda Williams. I’m not really over the moon with World Without Tears, but she apparently puts on a barnburning show and has a terrific catalog of material to draw on. Tickets aren’t cheap, though. Still – I’ve never seen either artist live, and would like to. Update: Okay, Kyle sweet-talked me into it. We’re going to see Lucinda.

The Weakerthans snag to cover of NOW, with accompanying interview. Don’t forget their free show at the ElMo on Tuesday! I can’t go but if you can make it, you should. They’re a lot of fun live.

Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka? Seems like it could happen. It’s got my thumbs up.

There are new posters for Return Of The King. This one really doesn’t need any commentary… “Oh, Sam!” “Oh, Frodo!”

I’ve been getting shitloads of hits from google searches on “Neil Gaiman“, “1602” and “boycott”. Something going on that I don’t know about?

np – Luna / Bewitched