So this weekend was pretty awesome for me. On Saturday I went out for a swim at my friend’s (Mark and Arjun’s) place, and got drunk afterwards with the guys. On Sunday I went out on a massive pub crawl to 10 different bars (the only criteria: no cover charge). And on Monday, I partied backstage with Metric and The Stills at the University of Ottawa frosh week concert.

Yeah, you read that properly. I partied with Metric and The Stills.

The concert was being held at Confederation Park (at Elgin and Laurier, if you live in Ottawa. If you don’t, it doesn’t really matter) I went with Mark Wilson and his lovely girlfriend, Kate. As usual, I was late, so I met up with them at 3:45 instead of 3:30. We then lined up for the concert which was supposed to begin at 3 pm but actually started at 5. Upon entering the Park, we bought some food to support charity and met up with some friends. With our food in hand, we sat down on the lawn and waited for the other bands to finish their sets so we could see The Stills. There were five bands playing at the concert, but we only came for The Stills and Metric; the other bands were pretty good but nothing I’d listen to normally

After The Stills played their awesome set (their first time playing live in 9 months, which included new and awesome material), Metric came on stage. You could feel the energy in the crowd, with ended with their amazing song “Dead Disco.” The Stills of course played “Love and Death”, “Lola Stars and Stripes”, and “The Still in Love Song”, but they also played new songs like the brilliant “The Mountain,” and the sad “She’s Walking Out.” Metric’s new material blew me away. They still have the same power and rhythm behind their music, but it’s more raw (if that’s possible). Emily Haines tapped right into the crowd’s energy and gave us an unforgettable show. If you’ve never seen Metric live, I urge you to. Their show is so awesome that it’s hard for me to explain it properly here (and believe me, I tried).

When Metric finished their set, Mark, Kate, and I leaned against this fence near the “backstage” tents. We saw Emily go into Metric’s van and called her over to talk. After getting my philosophy book signed (Mark got his shoes signed, and Kate got her ticket signed), Emily said “Why are all the cool people on this side of the fence?” and helped us over. It was such a surreal experience, but we were “in.”

We made our way to The Stills’ tent, and struck up a conversation with The Stills and Metric. Apparently both bands are close friends and try and see each other whenever they can. I complimented Oliver from The Stills on his amazing bass playing on “The Still in Love Song” and Liam (the new keyboarder for the band) and I discussed several interesting points from Russell’s “The Problems of Philosophy.”

The headliner for the show were this band called “Les Cowboys Fringants.” I’ve never heard of them, but they’re really popular in Quebec. By the time that the Cowboys got to their final song, we all decided to run onto the stage and dance to their last song. This was probably the craziest thing that has happened to me EVER. Mark, Kate, and the other Kate, and I ran up onto the stage while some crazy French-Canadian rock band was playing their hit song to their crowd, and danced with Metric and The Stills.

So much more happened on that night, but I don’t feel like writing about it and its still kind of hard to believe that it happened. I’m not really star struck or anything, but things just moved so fast. Even now I’m listening to The Stills’ album and thinking “I was talking to Tim (the lead singer) about beer and other random stuff yesterday.”

Even though she won’t be reading this, I’d like to thank Emily for making all of this possible. She receives this week’s award for rawkingest person. I hope to share a beer with her and the rest of Metric again. I’ll be seeing The Stills (with Jason Collett) again in Peterborough in about a week.

Metric’s new album is coming out at the end of this month, and The Stills’ album should be out by February of ‘06. I urge you to check out both of these bands’ music. They’re good artists, as well as really good people.

So the news, eh. It never stops. I’ve never seen reruns of the news before on the television.

Anyway, the reason I’m talking to you this time is to draw your attention to Wonkette. If you’re a web jockey like me then you already know about the American (and mostly Washington oriented) news aggregator that goes by the aforementioned monicker. I won’t guarantee that you’ll be happy with the site, but there’s just so much good coverage of American politics coming from that site that it’s worth taking a look at even once.

If only they had one of these for Canadian politics…

Yesterday, just a day after arriving back in Canada, I moved back to Waterloo where I’ve settled into my new place. This time it’s an apartment…not quite as cozy as my old house but my room here is almost twice as big as my last one so I can’t complain. I’ll miss having the old family(Dave, Mariano, Mike, Tony) though, but I’ll be living with them(minus Mariano since he’s a don) again in 4 months so I guess I’ll look at it as a break so I can better appreciate how fun it is to live with them.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of one of the busiest weeks of my life. I’m going to be a frosh leader for both engineering frosh and village frosh. In other words, I will get 2 hours of sleep every night. Last year it felt insanely busy doing just engineering frosh leading so I can only imagine what it will be like with twice the workload. To top things off I’ll be staffing the big football game at the end of frosh week next Saturday. You may think I’m crazy, but this is only the beginning of a busy, busy term. I’m pumped.

I’m hoping that over the next few weeks I’ll be able to revisit my tour of Europe so I can share with you some of the stories and also use it as a means for myself to remember what exactly happened over those 2 crazy weeks so stay tuned for that.

I’m also working on reworking Pleasant Interruption. Technically speaking I’m gonna put it on its own server and moving away from the Blogger system.

A very interesting article concerning natural disaster funds in the United States, and is most likely why the hurricane help right now is VERY SLOW.

I recommend anyone who is remotely interested in the hurricane news to read this article. It’s kind of a shock, but not really surprising.

Apparently killing people in other countries is more important then saving people at home.

Woo, so summers gone eh?! That was fast.

Summer has been quite interesting with work, and some senseless evenings out and about doing random things. Random is awesome. Besides that, it has also been one of the most boring summers…Ever.

I’m done work finally I guess that’s a good thing, working at a thrift store isn’t as glam as it’s all cracked up to be…I have the scars and vintage t-shirts to prove it.

other things…

- Well because Nana does an awesome job with his band recommendations, I’m going recommend music, but on a much smaller scale, like what I am going to do right…Now!
Ok people…You should all try and get some Morrissey, his most recent album “You are the Quarry” is amazing, with some solid hits like “Irish Blood, English Heart”, and “First of the Gang to die”. So check it out if your interested…If not, completely disregard this section.

- The hurricane coverage has been quite overwhelming, but it is needed to bring attention, and let people see that these people need help, not tomorrow, but now. For some reason they aren’t getting enough, there is just too many reckless gangs out and about, looting, and not helping the situation, only making it worse.
I guess the only good thing about this disaster is that it takes everyone’s mind off IRAQ! Woah! We’re still there?!?! Iraq is a P.R.’s own personal hell, but the storm was a God send, in more ways then one. While on this topic of other news filtering through on top of 24/7 hurricane coverage, the good ol’ Al Qaida gang released a video saying exactly why they are attacking the British and US. Not because they want to take their freedoms and moral values away…NO WAY?! Its because of their policy towards many Middle Eastern countries, and their invasion of Iraq! Wow, clearly didn’t see that one coming. If you don’t believe me then here is the article, I had to look around to find it behind all the hurricane coverage, but it was more prominent at the BBC then with CNN. At CNN. And the BBC. The invasion just added towards the problem, and the Arab population in the Middle East are taking as a direct attack against the people, especially Muslims, are taking action. I don’t sympathize with the extremists or anything, so don’t get me wrong, nor do I support their actions. But itsn’t it common sense to attack those who attack you? You can’t just have a war on one front (In this case Iraq), and not expect to have it hit back at home right (IE. 9/11, and 7/7)? Its kind of obvious that war is never one sided, and that eventually, those people will find a way to return the favor. Unfortunately people conveniently forget why these enemies attack in the first place, and the cycle continues.

So anyways, back to the hurricane, It’s really sad to see all of this happening and like Nana posted before me, Please help out any way you can, a donation through the Red Cross would most likely be the most beneficial at this moment, till other major charities start opening up.
A few days ago, I was watching CNN, and an American who lived in an area away from the disaster area, began saying why other Americans should not have to pay more taxes to help out with the rebuilding and humanitarian effort for the disaster zone, because its THEIR fault they chose to live in a high risk area. This wasn’t the only sent in e-mail faulting the people, and saying that they shouldn’t be helped, there were quite a few more. Now I don’t know about you, but with a country that stresses all this Americanism/Patriotism…blah, blah, blah. To have people like this in their own country, not willing to help out, because it was their fault for living in High risk areas…Just pathetic, some of these people don’t have the means to even go far because a lot of them can not afford to move else where due to lack of jobs or even a proper education, so many people are basically stuck. Even though others are there by choice, It isn’t a time to talk about tax dollars, and who’s to blame. Why are the same people willing to spend billions of dollars each year to help out Iraqis, yet are so stuck playing the blame game, that they are unwilling to help their own country folk in times of great need? Shit happens, and we all need to band together, no matter which flag or religion you reside under, because in the end, we are all just…Human.

It’s September, which means that it’s time to get back into the school mentality. Readin’, ‘ritin’, and ‘rithmetic will abound, I am sure.

This is the first year taht I’ve been prepared for school before it has started. I think that’s a good omen.

I hope everyone has a good year, and if you aren’t in school then enjoy whatever else you’re doing.