God I hate the Toronto Public Library’s website. Actually, as a rule I hate any site that makes extensive use of Java applets, but the TPL seems particuarly unstable. It crashes as many times as it works, seemingly right when I want to place a hold.

I was trying to find a copy of Things Hidden Since The Foundation Of The World, by Rene Girard. It’s a book about the origins of Christianity – I’ve come across some of his theories and such and am intrigued enough to want to learn more. Naturally, the library doesn’t have a copy. I’ll just have to put this one on my list of things to try and hunt down somewhere somehow. The library DID have a copy of Alan Moore’s V For Vendetta, but when I tried to place a hold, it crashed. Of course.

np – Longwave / Endsongs

So first rehearsals with Clay the drummer went well, I think. He seemed to take to the material and is coming out again on Thursday. I wish we (as in Brad, Seventeen and myself) were playing a little better – but in our defense, it had been months and months since we played the material, excepting the one time Pheobe came and played with us. To be honest, we, or at least me, stank up the joint. I had forgotten most everything, and wasn’t even ad-libbing well. Usually I can fake it alright, but tonight? Phoooo. Let’s hope Thursday goes better… but I think Clay understood that we had a fair bit of cobweb to shake off.

I got my Vox distortion booster in the mail today. Only got to play with it a little before rehearsal, but it seems to fit in my rig very nicely. It starts where the Valve Tone leaves off, and goes from light crunchy gain to full-on distortion. Very nice indeed.

Borrowed the Monsters Inc DVD from Scott today, finally! Didn’t get a chance to watch it, but since I have to have it back to him by Friday, I’ll get to it probably tomorrow evening. I already went through some of the bonus material on the second disc… Good stuff.

Won a copy of the Yo La Tengo Little Honda EP off eBay. I’ve meant to pick it up for ages – a whole disc, albeit only 8 tracks long – of Yo La Tengo doing covers is too good to not have. And now I do have it. Or will, when the mailman brings it to me. Though he still has to bring me my Scud Mountain Boys disc, which I won in December…

After gently chastising Ricky from Wheat for not coming up to Toronto on their next tour, he’s agreed to make the tour-only EP available to those on the Wheat mailing list. See? Sometimes being whiny and petulant can pay off. I’m kidding, I wasn’t really whiny or petulant. Much.

np – Echo & The Bunnymen / Echo & The Bunnymen

I cannot accept the fact that someone so utterly incompetent and incapable of articulating a coherent sentence is running the United States. I mean – the man has speechwriters, doesn’t he? Does he not only have to read what it says on the damned teleprompters? And yet. And yet and yet and yet. Go to The Complete Bushisms and weep for yourself.

And yet another tour bypasses Canada. Wheat are touring with Toad The Wet Sprocket to support their forthcoming Per Second Per Second Every Second, and are coming as close as Detroit. Dagnabbit.

Pete Townshend was arrested on child pornography charges today. I want very much to believe that there’s some way he can come out of this innocent, but I’m simply at a loss. So very disappointed.

np – Joe Pernice / Big Tobacco

According to my day-timer, today is Coming Of Age Day in Japan. I feel richer for knowing that. When I turned twenty, I got taken to lunch at my first co-op job, but it wasn’t for my birthday – it was a client meeting with some mooks from GM. The fact that it was my birthday was incidental.

So the idea of moving out on my own continues to percolate in my head. I’m not on any rushed timeframe, but it’s going to happen sooner or later, so I may as well begin the process of figuring out what I want, what it’ll cost me, and so forth. I go back and forth on whether or not I want to live alone or find roommates – the former gives me a degree of independence I’ve never really had, and it’s appealing. And to have space that’s mine and mine alone… On the other hand, roommates would potentially make for a less shut-in existance, and also helps out financially. But I never had very good luck with roommates in university, and this would be longer-term than just four months at a time. Not something to rush into lightly. What to do what to do. All I know is that I need more space than just what I have in my room, I need more furniture, I need a new bed. And I don’t think I’ll get any of it till I have a new place.

np – Bedhead / WhatFunLifeWas

Paul Thomas Anderson has always made big, dizzying films that are as polarizing as any contemporary filmmaker. Either you love his stuff and hold him up as genius, or you hate it and tear him down as the living embodiment of pretension. His latest Punch-Drunk Love, is a decidedly smaller film than his previous works. Instead of a broad cast of characters and stories, there’s only one storyline – but it’s still a perplexing one. In the hands of another director, it would probably have come out as a charming and heartwarming romantic comedy, but Anderson instead adds enough tension and peculiarity to keep the audience from getting too comfortable. And the periodic fits of rage by the protagonist help in that department, too.

Much ink has been spilled in heaping laurels on Adam Sandler’s performance. And it’s true – he’s exceptional in the role. I’ve always suspected that behind all raging idiot schtick there was a capable actor, and am happy to see I was right. Sandler perfectly captures the repressed, on-the-edge desperation of Barry Egan. Granted, it’s not an enormous stretch from some of his comedic roles, but where those were caricatures, this is a real and complex character. He makes Barry a deeply sympathic and a little bit frightening character. I for one felt great empathy for him, and could relate to how he realized Emily Watson was his probably his last, best hope for happiness. Bravo, Adam, and we’ll forgive you Eight Crazy Nights, but don’t mess up again.

I wish I could find a harmonium in the street.

In other news… I grabbed a copy of The American Analog Set’s Through The 90s compilation (sleepy droney hummmm) and Superdrag’s In The Valley Of The Dying Stars (rocka rocka rock). Good stuff!

Bettie Serveert will be coming to North America to tour their new album, Log 22 in March and April! There better be a Toronto date in there.

So apparently we’ve got a candidate for drummer coming down to rehearsal tomorrow night. He responded to an ad I put up on the Anti-Antenna message board, and sounds promising to me. But then, my criteria are pretty much, “Knows which end of the stick is which, will show up to rehearsals”. Not too demanding! Fingers crossed, anyway.

np – The American Analog Set / Through The 90s: Singles And Unreleased