So I’m here in the Las Vegas airport, waiting for my flight to Dallas and from there, back to Toronto. How’s the weather? This little terminal is kinda like a laptop, which is as hard to type on as the one yesterday. And don’t even get me started on the touchpad mouse.

Just saying hi. I’m ready to go home home now. Vegas was nice but home will be better. Unless it’s buried in snow.

But I did catch 24 last night. I don’t remember enough to offer commentary, but I realize I did just open myself up to scorn for watching television instead of gambling. Well bully for me.

Anyway, I’m going now. Bye.

The above is one of the ads that the Bally’s casino is running in their big pixelboard. I thought it was fascinating.

Okay, so I figured I should make at least ONE post from Sin City, so this is it. And it’ll be brief because internet access costs by the minute and this keyboard is kinda sticky. Yeah. Don’t ask.

I have been stuck on east coast time the whole while so don’t expect to hear crazy stories about being here – I’ve been wiped out by like 10:00 local time, so… yeah. LAME. But anyway, this place is fascinating. I’ll post a full writeup after I get home. Which should be late tomorrow. But sufficed to say I’ve at least had a good time and a relaxing time. And yes, I’ve lost money gambling like every good tourist should.

I am heading back out onto the Strip now, going to brave the gauntlet of guys handing out handbills and catalogs (yes, catalogs) of hookers. What a place.

Hey look, a blackjack table…

np – Vegas, baby.

Funny how I’m going away at the exact time I need a vacation, but really don’t want one… if that makes any sense. Recent happenings have left me mildly useless at work, but I feel guilty taking off. I went to visit my friend at the hospital last night, and he’s doing about as well as can be hoped right now. He’s breathing on his own, and they’ll take some of the equipment out of his lungs helping him out tomorrow. Most of the concern is about his neurological condition, which they can’t comment on till they ease up the painkillers.

Man. Something like this, it’s sobering beyond words.

And now I’m going to Las Vegas.

Cheers to Jeff Birgbauer for finally setting up worthy websites in honour of My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive. They’ve been woefully underrepresented on the web for far too long. And to kick things off, he’s got details on the long-rumoured MBV box set.

The eye music critics poll gathers lists and commentary on the year that was from a wide range of Canadian music writers. The lists aren’t so interesting, but the short cuts make good reading.

The Canadian Music Week conference and festival will be taking place between March 3 and 6 of this year in Toronto and the festivities will include the 4th Annual Canadian Independent Music Awards, or “Indies” for short. Voting is open to the hoi polloi, starts January 26 and runs till the 15th of February. Yeah, awards by their very nature are pointless, but there’s a bunch of deserving artists up for consideration and they’re worth your time to support.

Hey Ya, Charlie Brown! From Chachacha.

Subpop takes a good-natured shot at Pitchfork. From LHB.

Gary sent me this link to MusicPlasma, which aspires to be a visually stimulating “If you like this artist, you might like these artists” guide. It’s neat, but I’m assuming their database is still being populated – no other way to explain why Ivy has a galaxy of decent recommendations while Wilco nets you… David Wilcox. Do the bearcat indeed.

Ryan Adams fell off a stage and apparently broke his wrist during a show in Liverpool last night. Witnesses say they say Jim DeRogatis fleeing the venue shortly afterwards, twirling his moustache evilly.

A couple new Toronto shows of interest have been announced: Stereolab will be at the Phoenix on April 10 with Clearlake as support. Tickets are $20 and this is an early show – 6pm. Also, The Delgados continue to tour Hate and will be at Lee’s Palace with Malcolm Middleton of Arab Strap and Sluts Of Trust on March 22. $15 gets you in the doors. Tickets for both shows on sale next Thursday.

A bit of a personal aside now – A close friend of mine was in a car crash Wednesday night, and is in intensive care in pretty rough shape. It’s been heavy, to say the least. Initial reports were pretty dire, but recent info has been a little more encouraging. I don’t want to get into some sappy homily about the fragility of life and all that, but if anyone’s inclined to go and hug someone they care about… I sure wouldn’t say it’s a bad idea.

np – Cracker / Kerosene Hat

Today is the Chinese New Year, which reminds me that I should call my mom. Though born in the year of the rabbit, myself, I’ve always had an affinity for the simian sign. Happy year of the monkey to all – may your feces fly true and your nits be plump and tasty.

Splendid has an interview with Broken Social Scene, complete with panoramic photos of the whole band. Or some of them, at least.

Centro-Matic are going to be in Buffalo on February 19 at Mohawk Place with The Pale, but aren’t taking that final step across the border. Um, let’s hold a little contest – first person to email me, gets to pick me up, drive me to the show and bring me back home! And as a bonus, you can even pay my cover! These rock’n’roll road trip candidates always seem to fall on weekdays, and at points in my life in which I don’t have a car. Centro-Matic’s Flashes And Cables EP is out February 3.

You can grab the new Mountain Goats single, “Palmcorder Yanja”, from 4AD. We Shall All Be Healed is out February 3.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are back February 27th at The Phoenix. $20 will get you in the door, tickets already on sale at Rotate.

Batting practice with penguins! My top score so far is 321. From Geekent.

Starsky And Hutch… the trailer. Ben Stiller certainly has perfected that one character of his.

A lovely evening of technical difficulties. Net outcome – all my bookmarks were erased (will copy from work), chunks of code in my blog were erased (backed up, thankfully) and the cable went out for an hour and a half (no internet OR television…). Computers suck. And then I forgot to turn my alarm on this morning, and overslept by about an hour and a half. But on the plus side, I’m well-rested.

np – Golden Smog / Weird Tales