chemicals in my cream / fatherhood

fresh cream. the idea of it connotes some kind of natural, pure state for me, clean and white, full of nutrition and rich fats to nurture a calf to maturity.

so was my naive state of mind when i reached for my neilson "fresh cream 10%" a minute ago and noticed it supposedly expired on oct 23, but its still good as new. so i looked at the ingredients. in addition to what you'd expect, you know, cream, water, milk, there were also sodium phosphate, sodium citrate, carrageenan, and dextrose. in cream! i hate to think what was in my jr. bacon cheeseburger yesterday. maybe its time to revert to vegetarianism and go organic. i don't want my baby being siphoned this crap!

yes, my baby! autumn is pregnant. due sometime late spring/early summer.

i just saw a UFO!

alright, so it was about 7am this morning and i was coming home from autumn's work after walking her there. was up crossing the train tracks by the greenwood cemetary on west st. and lo! in the sky, a few inches down from the cresent moon, really between the moon and the horizon where you could just see the sun's light blue influence spreading upwards, was this period-sized dot of brilliant yellow light! it was moving, and around a 35º fan of luminous gradient diffused out behind it into the sky, like a very large slice of pie. at first i thought it was a plane or helicopter with some kind of ultra-powerful floodlight attached to the front, but as i watched it, i realized it was moving in the reverse direction of the fanning light. i crossed the train tracks in case a freight caravan would come along, still keeping a close eye, and about 30 seconds later, this thing dimmed and then disappeared into what looked like a puff of smoke. the plume behind it wavered and drifted, and became a foggy cloud instead of a sharp-edged, well-lit angle.

either i just saw a spaceship go into romulan "cloak" mode, or that was one massive meteor. either way, it's given me a renewed sense of smallness in the face of the sky, and in the face of all i don't know about this world i live in. and i wish i'd taken a video so i could sell it to the national inquirer.

the ease and turn

finally, i'm out from under the shadow of that electoral reform paper; out from under the shadow of classes, campaigns, etc. just a couple exams, and i'm home free til january come banging in.

so i'm sitting at my desk, sipping some coffee with eggnog. cut myself an extra thick slice of raisin toast with butter. taking the time to wrap up little odds and ends i've put off for ages, plan maybe some nice times with autumn. that poor girl, i'm honestly needing to give her 1. a lot more credit and praise for her intelligence and patience and balance. and it's funny that those are a few things she thinks she lacks in, but she has so much more of all of them than i do. i couldn't have found a more perfect girl. i just hope i can keep it together and let things grow between us again. i've put her through a lot. i need to work on admitting that... especially to her. and to myself. i'm not sure what my problem is.

anyways, i'm the new CEO of the local green party association, which should be a bit of fun on the side, although i can't let it take too much time from me. i'm refocusing on these 4 things, in priority sequence, as my christmas holiday and new years thereafter priorities.

1. autumn
2. paying off debts.
3. school
4. music

speaking of music, my band, false heroics has an album out!: www.falseheroics.com. we're shipping worldwide!

Brantford Ward 5 election results

so, i came in a distant 4th in the municipal elections on monday night, 2 spots away from getting a seat. it was a hard battle. if i'd ran in a different ward i might've had a better chance, but as it were, it was not meant to be. but, on the plus side of the equation, i put together a mean ol' campaign, spread some words, made some friends, and gained some experiences. now it's back to the grind and gore of university, marriage, music, and generally trying to be an active member of society.

RESULTS FOR BRANTFORD CITY ELECTIONS 2006:
Ward 5 (elect 2)
MARGUERITE CESCHI-SMITH 3317 40.80%
JOHN BRADFORD 2148 26.42%
DWIGHT A. AYERHART 1602 19.71%
ADAM KING 774 9.52%
RUSSELL H. SKELTON 159 1.96%
DUANE LEEALLEN 129 1.59%

adam king for city councillor

so i'm running for brantford city council! this should be an interesting time! (i'm actually hoping to win this one.)

pure nard music

my little label pure nard has got a myspace now. aaron devries and false heroics, repruzant!

30 hours, 30 pages.

i am going to write 30 pages of footnoted, grade "A" mega-essay material in the next 30 hours. i'm going to need some major willpower on this so let's all say a prayer and hope i come through with my brain still a little more solid than alphabet soup.
time for the countdown and supplies overview:
coffee: check.
fruit: check.
mounds of electoral reform academia printouts: check.
wikipedia: check.
iron will: check.

this is going to be the worst time of my life.
3, 2, 1. die... i mean, dive!

back from southern sunbathing

so we got back from the dominican republic yesterday. it was a swelteringly good time, i'd say. i ate too much, drank too little, got too much sun, and too little exercise! highlights were it being my honeymoon, autumn being gorgeous, and pina coladas. beaches and beach buggies get honourable mentions.

downtown puerto plata was a nice place. rundown buildings looking all third-world and colonial and whatnot, but so much cleaner and less stinky than bangladesh!

the wedding last saturday, was an amazing experience. really pulled off nicely, though there were some hiccups in the ceremony (autumn didnt say a couple of the responses, jared forgot to tie the knot in our handfasting ceremony, etc.) but the day was awesome. weather held out, food and accomodations and people came together, and it topped off with a nice party at the ford plant with some friends for the night.

coffee at side, mess at feet

this basement is a wreckage site. i need to clean it up so my visiting friends have someplace to sleep. i'm getting married in 72 hours... actually 52 if you count the civil ceremony; i suppose that's the legally binding part. autumn and i got an apartment at 119 charlotte st. here in brantford; i have an all inclusive dominican package booked; and the weather forecasts are clearing up for the weekend. things seem to be falling into place.

this is a bit sad, i'm starting to feel like i'm leaving something behind. my life will always be tied to this girl from this week forward. i hope in the end that it's not imprisoning. i've never felt like this in the months leading up til now. i guess this is probably the kind of thing that runs through most people's heads before their wedding. it is unnerving; more than i thought it would be, anyways. still, the anticipation is insane! i can't wait...

school starts the week we get back, and i'm still not done that paper. i'm so disorganized and lazy with this project! i could have been done by now 5 times over!

our final tracks for the false heroics album are finally finished mixing... hopefully they're off to mastering now, although i haven't heard word from jeff wardell. we've been trying to choose a new band name but things just arent fitting together with that. not one name i've come up with has been able to satisfy each of the other 3 guys.

continental nights

i just returned from my 3rd 7pm-7am shift at s.c. johnson, a family company. and let me tell you, it is a family company! essentially everyone i worked with were kids of other workers there. of course, would they put the honest-to-allah, bonafide, full-benefit workers on nights if they could help it? i wouldn't want to have that shift if i was working there as a career. hm, actually i don't think i'd like working there as a career at all, full stop.

when autumn's brother skye heard i was working there, he blurted "how did you get a job there!" it is difficult to get in there though, and they get paid a lot of money to sit around and be bored on an incredibly inefficient production line. apparently skye'd drop any other job to work at s.c. johnson. oo, ah! the factory life!

thankfully, i'm finished there. no more scented candles for me, i'll go back to making websites, thanks. or maybe lifting/trimming playground equipment--that bel-air factory was alright.

i think that before going to bed i'm going to do a little apartment shopping. it appears autumn and i will be situating in brantford post-wedding, at least for a while.

wedding's a comin'!

i'm so sorry i don't post here. sorry cause i will have no record of my life. updates: 1. i'm back from treeplanting. perhaps i'll pen in a journal entry or two from that time in the future. 2. i'm in brantford, working temp factory stuff for kelly services, and parttime graphics freelancing. 3. i'm getting married soon!!! site: www.adamandautumn.info. party on!

also, chris george started up coed house, which is neat. fun in browntown (besides autumn and the fp)!

exams '06, essays en retard

monday morning i woke up around 10:23 with pleasant sunshine coming through my window, surrounded with blankets and... paper. notes. for my INTERNATIONAL LAW EXAM. THAT STARTED AT 9:00AM. made it to the campus by 11. had an hour to do the exam. man did that cabbie book it! 40$ down the tube. yikes. i guess i had dozed off while studying around 7am.

i'm not the keenest kid in class these days. stayed up all through monday night as well, with 1 hour of sleep before my int. peace, security, and human rights exam. i still havent finished either of my impending essays, and to boot i lost 200$ at the casino after band practice last week. stupid bassists, they lead me to ruin! at least that same bassist also is officiating my wedding in august, so i can't be mad. as if it were his fault i bet like an idiot in the first place. i think i'm still up on the system though. or maybe slightly down. either way, i dont think i'll be going to a casino any time soon.

wow, i'm a loser.

covers & walters & coffee

this saturday we're playing at a bar... for 3.5 hours. which means a lot of covers that i dont want to do. some of them will be fun. if it doesnt go horribly horribly. i guess we'll see at practice tonight. walters, a family we were good friends with in bangladesh, visited tuesday and yesterday, which was cool. they commented, as seems usual for americans coming through, on the high numbers of tim hortons they were encountering.

apparently some judge almost overruled tim hortons decision to ban a man from a tim hortons in fergus, ontario saying it was "uncanadian". give me a break! (EDIT: apparently the ban was for throwing water balloons outside the tims? awesome! i should be banned from a couple countries, in that case.)

in financial news, tim hortons IPO'd this week, i was thinking of buying some stock, but then i got my VISA bill. HooWEE! i guess financing our album to the tune of a couple grand was a bit shortsighted. well, perhaps not, i guess time will tell. but at least i won a free coffee today! rrroll up the rim: the evangelical-endorsed lottery.

recording is finished!

we finished recording the new false heroics album this weekend. added one last new song, which actually i think is going to turn out to be one of my favourites of the album. stayed in some awesome motels, ate out expensively (which i'm about to do again cause there's nothing to eat here), and now we wait for a few weeks for jeff to send us mixes, and i get back to work at my papers!

fh back in the saddle

so my band played tonight, for the first time since last may, before we even knew mike had cancer. it went ok. the first band, their majesties, was amazing, but after that it the bands became progressively less interesting, although they were all good. we ended up not playing til 12:30, which was kind of a bummer. most of the people who came to see us had left by that point. in a way i'm glad though, we really were not in top form. our show is so blase. we need some fun infusion, some creative expression, some audience emotional involvement. everyone was really kind and encouraging, but i just feel we need to do some more work.

trombones, oboe and timpany would be a start. maybe a puppet show and some olympic high jump. at least i played banjo for one song, not that you could hear it.

in other news, autumn and i went to a 'ball' at my school last night. in other words a bunch of students getting drunk and dancing like its a club unce unce unce unce yeah ashanti. it was fun though, despite my best efforts.

i swear our poodle just meowed in his sleep!

not pink, not green, not aquamarine

the elections are OVER, and it's time for new pursuits! things like school, band, band, band, french, toronto, hot girl autumn, hot girl autumn, and snowmen can now take precedence!

i put an $800 cheque into the wash. and lost a glove. what's happening to me????

c'est le jour de l'election!

the title is a link to a wikipedia article on brant, which should have our results from the election updated at some point in the future, and will i hope continue to be an active link for time to come. perhaps i should post a more actively updating site. hm.

anyways, it is election day! i'm going riding around to poor parts of town all day to round up any folks who want to vote! hopefully they'll vote for me!

last night autumn and i ran out of gas just outside town on paris rd. her mom had to get out of bed to come bring us gas. how utterly embarrassing... i can laugh at my own stupidity though, really.

campaign brochure

Anyone want to look at the Adam King Green Party Campaign brochure? It's a PDF, 1 meg. While it's hot!

peach schnapps & the oc

life's strange around the new year. i'm reminded that change is really the only constant in life. tomorrow i'm going to get up and propell myself headlong into this campaign, and ignore many other things that i would love to do. tonight i was sitting at home with autumn and i watched the oc and thought of how i wish time would just slow down to a crawl, how i could just freeze frames like the skip of a dvd might do. why doesn't life skip? sometimes it seems scuffed up enough. i guess real life's analog. haha, that seems almost like its supposed to be profound.

lying there once the dvd ended, i couldn't even just lie there and savour it. i had to get up and start trying to make the most of myself... typing emails, turning on an audiobook (c.s.lewis's 'the great divorce' actually! which is a GREAT book.) i wish i didn't feel this need to be productive, in a way. its like a constant pressure bearing down. it's not supposed to feel like this. i'm supposed to love work, not resent it for taking away the things i want.

if only i was either lazy, or had good enough time managment skills that i got things done in time to enjoy life.

i feel bad. i've been telling the jack kerouac knapsack guys that i'd have their site done for probably a month now. great advertisment for the business, i know.

merry christmas '06!

ahhhh its been a nice respite from the campaign, these last few days. autumn and family and fun (and fighting, after boxing day. but thats fixed now.)

very very soon it's going to be back to the grind though. man i'm starting to think i bit off more than i can chew with this. debates! canvassing! organizing! materials! boooyah! but i can pull through, and it'll be worth it! i only hope i can catch up in school afterwards.

pika-chu-res

Here are some photos of Autumn and I for your viewing pleasure. Please send me funny MSPainted-up graffiti versions of these if you are bored. Cordially yours as always in his grip of cheesy sayings, Adam.

campaignin' at christmas

So, Canada's 39th federal elections are on, and yours truly is running as the Green Party candidate for Brant! Maybe I'll post a couple newspaper articles if I get the chance or inclination to scan them. Leave a message if you'd like to see that happen, and maybe I'll work up the gumption or self-absorption to actually do it. Last year we got 5.1% of the vote here, I hope to triple that, we'll see though. View my campaign site, while it lasts: www.greenbrant.ca

It's weird seeing my name all over stuff. Kind of cool, but weird. It's almost Christmas, but my hands are full with managing my own campaign. Haven't even really had a chance to canvass very much as a result, which is too bad, but hopefully things are all set in place by the time things start up again.

This has meant yet another stall in the album recording, which is really too bad. I'd like to see that done and done and done but it won't be done until probably the end of February now. Alas...

Things are going well with Autumn, better than they have been for a couple months. I think we've been going through the process of working out some major kinks in the way we related to each other, and things seem good. I've just signed up for the "out of the cold" program that YesChurch is starting up, which will be nice to feel like I'm contributing to a church community again. It's been a while, and I kind of miss it.

We opened up my campaign offices at the ford plant this last weekend, which is sweet to have, although I havent used them much yet. I've joined their collective as well, and I'm lovin' that.

fifty-seventy pages?!?

so i've got to write a HUGE paper on electoral reform. 50-70 pages. and i'm just barely scratching the surface of all the reading i need to do for this.

i just thought i'd use this period of time to point out that procrastination is the force that makes me actually write on my blog. that and the drive to be productive. somehow things like blogs provide me with a middle-ground. i'm being productive (kind of) but still procrastinating! glory!

i'm getting grown up

For those of you who might for some reason be reading this, and still haven't heard - it's true, I'm engaged to this beautiful girl named Autumn Bowen. Anyways, we're not sure when we're going to do that though, and we're determined to never have a house with a white picket fence, so don't think I'm going all old-person on everyone.

In other news, I'm back in school in Toronto, got moved in to a pretty sweet place on Queen St. East with Yoani (one of my friends from Glendon) and a really cool couple, Ben and Anna. All is well in our household. Great people, cool house.

I'm back in Brantford a lot though, practicing with the band to go back to Barrie to record some more at the end of October, and as well, getting things moving on planning for the election campaign. Been trying to rope together a gang of Green Party supporters to rally behind me and make my job easier. It's a long way to go.

are you insensitive too?

some people say nice things when someone starts to confide in them. other people don't know what to say, and rather than just shutting up, go on self-righteous, pre-programmed rants.

how is it that if its someone i barely know, i can be empathetic and caring, but if its someone i care about, i deliver a sermon? how can i expect her to trust me... when if she even starts to, i get weird and do something dumb? i never realized i was so dysfunctional. people talk about how you learn a lot from being in a relationship, but i always thought they meant cool, fun stuff. i think maybe they meant that you learn about yourself and how you need to change. its like all my faults are just out in the open all the time, instead of nicely tucked away where i dont notice them.

i feel so dumb talking into a white text field on a computer. this is supposed to be cathartic i guess, it feels more like i'm just going to embarrass myself.

oh well, i'm humiliated already, and i feel like i need more. hallelu to sadism. hallelu to masochism.

why is sufjan stevens sold out? sadness. woe. anguish.

edit: um. so after this extremely melodramatic posting, the wondrous naomi wilson found me (and herself) tickets!!! and there was much rejoicing as adam joined the crowds in raising the roof in raptured applause as sujfan took to the front-and-center of that old church in downtown toronto.

and yet, the last show at lee's was better.

cancer of the germ cell

mike's losing his hair. its so crazy that he has cancer at 23. we were just about to start recording guitars for the album too. i guess maybe its better this way at least as far as the album is concerned. it really didnt feel like we had a clear enough vision of things. i dont want to come out with a brit-rock record that i can't stand. it makes me angry... why are we so stupid--people, that is. we sin in the garden, we propulgate disease, then in our search for comfort and convenience, we create this atmosphere full of toxins and free radicals and impurities in our air, water, food, dirt that poison our very bodies. progress?

green party nominee!

i'm the new green party nominee for brant! that means when the next election actually happens, i'll be running for federal parliament! crazy. zero chance i'd win, but it should be an interesting experience.

on a more personal note, i'm realizing i've got a long way to go towards being a person i can be proud of being. i'm rude and inconsiderate more often than i'd like to admit. i need to do some soul-searching over the next while. i wonder if there's any feeling more horrible than knowing you've let down someone you love.

a couple friends are off to russia as of yesterday, and my sister lisa has been in nicaragua for a few weeks now, having a blast apparently... i kind of wish i was going to nicaragua to learn spanish instead of going to quebec to learn french.

off to quebec soon

My friend Autumn is the prettiest, coolest, most amazing person I've ever met! There. I had to get that off my chest.

I've been working at Castleguard Health working on putting together their side business, Castle Body Health, Inc., into the e-retail limelight. Man, its challenging, knowing a company's profitability rests largely on your shoulders.

and i don't know where to start. maybe that's a start.

right now everything in my life seems certain and sure. and at the same time, completely frightening and fogged up, like i'm driving with a plastic zehrs bag over my head. i'm not sure how that makes sense.

here's something cool! i might run for member of parliament in the next elections for the green party in brant! now it looks like our spring elections wont be happening most likely, but who can say...

how embarrassing

at work this morning i was standing at the printer collecting some papers, when i noticed i was wearing one of my converse runners on my left foot, and one of my dad's leather loafers on my right! ah the humiliation! (oh, and i'm working in e-commerce and marketing for castleguard health for the summer: view my latest project for them: total trim dietary supplements. good bunch of people.)

ta da!

adam is being sued?

so i've been busy. a couple of people from school and i founded this group called "students for good governance" to ask the university to investigate some fishy things happening with our student union. we made up a petition, got a couple hundred people to sign it, and that was when things got weird.

the union offices were closed down by the university. a couple people tried to break in and were taken away by police. the union sued the university for $2.7million. we got more suspicious. so we dug. and found dirt. and told people about it.

and now the school pub is threatening to sue each of us that have been involved in trying to expose the dealings of our union executives! and they have zero grounds! its awesome. hopefully soon you'll be able to read about it at our website: www.sfgg.ca

invaders!

sweet waste of my time. my brother is the director of this organization. i'm an underling.

update on school

well, i'm meeting lots of cool people at glendon. i'm also almost failing french, i think. this is the first time i've ever gotten such low grades in my entire school career, i think. but, i'm now minister of communications for the political science association, so thats alright! man, i wish i knew french.

sour grapes

i find it fascinating how one variety of black grapes can be so much better than another.

people need to read this book.

Opera on the Subway

Subways are a microcosm of society. You're up close and personal with all those people you'd never see otherwise, and everyone is there.. from the businessman in his well-tailored suit to the thirteen year old punk girls giggling about nonsense.

Today an oriental man, looking to be in his late twenties, was sitting across from me in the subway car, chatting away in his native tongue at his reflection in the plastic window pane. Every once and a while it seemed like he was going to start yelling, but he always calmed back down. All the other people around us stared off at walls and ceilings, trying their best to ignore his 1st person conversation. He seemed so alone. I wonder if he was brought to the brink by moving to this strange place they call Toronto.. perhaps loneliness did it. Funny how people can feel so isolated when they're surrounded by so many other people who feel the same. Of course, maybe he just does it to pass the time, and gets a kick out of all the reactions people give him.

The other week a poor little european lady was afraid to get on the subway. The streetcar driver was trying to reassure her when another woman offered to accompany. The lady seemed so relieved. I wonder where she'd come from, where she lived that subways were such a scary thing to her.

Speaking of scary things in the subway though, last Thursday there was a man walking up and down the St. Clair subway station, emptying garbages and doing other janitorial duties. He came up to me, looked me in the eyes. He kept looking back and forth, as if he were searching for something in them. About five seconds later, he turned around and walked away, and about fifteen metres down the tunnel, he broke out in a bout of opera, serenading an unsuspecting girl, who was very much flattered, and perhaps slightly scared. He also serenaded an older oriental woman, who seemed quite taken and had him pose for a photo with her. I'd like to do that.. maybe someday I will.

Public transit is a pain.

"En Francais! Maintenant!"

My French class is incredibly difficult for me to be in. Not that the work is hard, because it isnt - it's all simple conjugations and such right now. It's just that I cannot understand what the teacher is saying! My comprehension is tres... poor.

I talked with Gerard, my Egyptian roommate, for 4 hours yesterday. We talked about everything, from schools to economy to religion to the meaning of life. Quite engaging. And then we got in trouble for talking too loud, too late. This is the downside of having a 52 year old yoga instructor named Lucy for a landlady/roommate.

home again home

We're back in Brantford! After the Fredericton show we drove straight to Montreal - a long, long drive - and then hung out there for the afternoon. We slept in Ottawa at the house of a kind girl named Jackie, and made our way to the Brampton show the next day. It's nice to have a bed to sleep in, to see my family and friends again... Yesterday Autumn and I went to the wedding of my Heritage College friends Jared Hissa and Katie Milmine, and that was, well, boring. But I was very happy for them! Jared's the craziest guitarist you'll ever meet. Great riffs, he's obsessed with prog/metal stuff though, which I'm not too keen on.

Saw Passion of the Christ tonight for the first time. Wasn't terribly impressed. It was somewhat impacting, I suppose, but it seemed too statuesque a lot of the time, as if they were trying to mimic renaissance paintings of the life of Christ. Some things were very well done in it though. I think "Miracle Maker" still holds my vote for best Jesus film though.

False Heroics/FTF Tour - Fredericton!

So things have taken a crazy turn. We've cancelled the Sydney and Halifax shows due to lack of funds, which I'm not too happy about, but that's how it rolls sometimes, I guess. Now we're just kicking around Fredericton. And by kicking I mean sleeping in a park. Actually Sunday night James, Jared and I slept on a table at the Fredericton Lawn Bowling Club, waking in the morning to the sound of mowing. We went out to the Bugaboo only to find out that they had no idea we were even playing on Wednesday! So, we decided to ditch our promoter who ditched us and put on the show ourselves! So I guess it's a good thing we came to town early. We made up posters and flyers and have started covering the town, we hit up the malls and some of the downtown yesterday. Last night we slept at the same park, only this time I slept at a gazebo with a guy named Craig, who's been on the streets for about 2 years now, on and off he says. In the morning after the park police kicked us out of the gazebo we went to a soup kitchen for some breakfast/lunch. Man, what a humbling experience.

False Heroics/FTF Tour - YARmouth, St. John!

I'm at the house of some incredibly nice people we met at a McDonalds in Quebec. They live in St. John and offered us showers and swim and food for today. man, a shower and a couch in a basement never felt so good. We're playing some video games with their boys (Dave barely beat me in Pod Racer, curse my vehicle's bad handling... uh yeah.)

We've played 4 shows in the last 2 days: an all ages show in Yarmouth, which maybe 20 people showed up for, and an amazing bar show right afterwards, which had incredible sound, apparently the best sound guy in the maritimes, and I wouldn't doubt it! Yarmouth is the ultimate pirate town. And the kids there all look like they're stuck back in the 90's, which is cool by me... Alan Benjamin was excellent, not what I was expecting at all. Really intense.. I'd call it "indie grunge" if I had to label it.. 1994's Seattle meets, well.. 2002's Seattle? Anyways, last night we played on the boardwalk in St. John, which was really cool, and then a late night bar show again. I was dead tired for the second show. We slept in our cars behind an arena last night, which was... exciting in the most uncomfortable way possible.

The rest of the tour is looking really sketchy... we're not sure if we can make it back to Halifax to play at Hell on Tuesday, and then our Fredericton show should be amazing, but Montreal looks like it's fallen through! Christine (who is former bongo player for Sam Roberts!) is trying to hook something up for us last minute, so hopefully she comes through. Seriously, though, the next tour we do, I'm going to spend a LOT more time booking. Everyone from Ontario-way should try to come out to our Brampton show though, it should be cool. I guess it's the same place Moneen had their CD release, but I'm just hoping that wasn't the CD release for their newest effort, cause that would be more of a bad omen than a good omen. It's cliched to say "I like their old stuff better" but honestly... "screw you and I hope you burn"? what were they thinking?

oh, I got an undercut the other night... or did i?
One of the 9-year-old kids here just told Jon, "In all honesty, I don't like your shirt."

False Heroics/FTF Tour - PEI!

Actually, we're in Halifax now, I'm at Trevor from Alan Benjamin's apartment, getting some sleep before we head out to play in Yarmouth tonight. We've had some incredible times since Ottawa. Our Montreal show got cancelled, so we went and hung out in Quebec City with some kids we met at a McDonald's on the other side of the river. Man, I love that city so much! I'd love to live there. We felt so inadequate with our low level French skills though. While we were there, we saw the Quebec parliament, which has got to be the best government building in all of Canada, and we went to this crazy nightclub with lasers and techno and $6.50 beers.. and of course, amid the underage girls (and consider that 18 is of age in Quebec) the token middle-aged Asian gay guy who hit on James and I. Poor guy got no action that night.

We drove most of the way to Fredericton that same night, and I woke up to see a dollar store in front of me, and a big river beside me. We were in Hartland, NB, home of the longest covered bridge in the world (a wonder, let me tell you!) Dave did some forced skinny-dipping and managed to slice his foot open somewhere in the water, poor guy, plus losing his digital camera, but the rest of us had a great time! The show in Fredericton was a small turnout, but really, really fun, and we drove to PEI and spent the night camped out in a school parking lot there. The show in PEI, man I won't go into details here, but it was crazy for so many reasons. Maybe I'll post about that later. Anyways, I've been up for a long time now, it'll be daylight soon and off to Yarmouth!

False Heroics/FTF Tour - Ottawa!

We are on the road! FTF got this amazing touring van, fully decked out in luxury with Xbox and DVD player. We watched Royal Tenenbaums on the way to Ottawa today, although most of the trip I spend asleep in Mike's car, since I got no sleep last night (finishing up the Meltdown! compilation design. See the cover.) Tonight we played in the basement of a church to about 70 kids with the average age of 15 I'd say. Our old friend Joanna from Brantford came out to the show, as did Chris Millward, so it was cool to see some familiar faces. It was a cool show, but I would have liked to have seen an Ottawa band playing with us.. and the show was over by 9ish! We went out for poutine and drinks with a bunch of people afterwards, and I got into a discussion about Catholic theology with a guy there, which was stimulating conversation. Well, for us anyways, everyone else was probably bored sick. Now Dave, Jared, Jon and I are spending the night at Millward's. Tomorrow's show in Montreal was canned, but at least that gives us a bit more of a sane schedule to work with for getting to Fredericton for Wednesday.

Brantford and Beyond!

My band's show at the Ford Plant in Brantford went pretty well last night, and tonight we play at a teen camp in Thamesford. Tomorrow Harriston, and then its off into the great beyond with our friends Fighting The Fall! Our complete tour itinerary can be found at falseheroics.com. Our new tshirts had errors on them from the screenprinting place, but the guy redid our shirts for free! I fully recommend Fab Print for all your screenprinting needs.

Bowel Movements and Chicken

I've been working a lot. Wiped a lot of crappy bums, and tomorrow i'm heading to KFC for a 9-2 shift cooking chicken, and then off to Lion's McInnes for another 4-12 of hanging out with the boys! Yesterday my rockin' and rollin' blind friend Marc did poo his pants ("Lg BM" as his records say,) and pretty much managed to get poo all over the apartment. Funny thing was, he was in a lot better mood yesterday than he was tonight. Tonight he was hitting and stubborn as a mule. Wouldn't even make his favourite chocolate chip cookies. I love those guys though. Hopefully the home takes me on as a casual worker when I go off to school, since I'll probably be back to Brantford on weekends, and certainly over Christmas holidays and such if need be. This thursday the band plays at the Ford Plant, and then our tour begins! We won't actually be totally leaving Brantford until Monday morning when we drive to Ottawa with our tourmates Fighting The Fall. Man, I'm so excited for this tour! It's going to be a blast! Too bad we don't have more time in Quebec. I'd like to see Montreal. I'm bringing French CD's with me for the drive. Pick up a little francais on the way. s'il vous plait. hey hey hey. how gay.

MCMF and the Aftermath

I went to most of the Murdered City Music Fest this weekend at the Ford Plant in Brantford. Man, what a good time! I was so, so tired for most of it, since I was working for most of it, but still amazing. I was particularily impressed by From Fiction, By Divine Right, Fembots, and of course my darling Bicycles. The whole weekend was chalk full of amazing artists though. I'm doing a show at The Ford Plant this week, with my band, Asher, and Fun Is Fun (Oh, I made their website.) That should be great, and then its off to tour the east coast! Booking hasn't come together as well as thought, but hopefully things still work out. Maybe we'll be playing some open mics and street corners. Ohhh, the life of a travelin' band!

Glendon grooving!

So, my school stuff is all sorted out. I've transferred into political sciences at Glendon College, the bilingual college of York University--yes, that means I'll be taking French. I've found an apartment set up for the fall too. It's pretty cool. The 4th storey living room of an old 1930's apartment near Casa Loma (a castle in Toronto, for those of you who don't know.) This place should be a lot better than that hole up in Vaughan I lived in last semester, I'd say. This week I drove to Toronto and back three times, getting everything sorted out. Monday I made the mistake of taking the TTC everywhere across the city, thinking I could get places faster by subway. Let me tell you--you can't. It was a very long day, and I ended up missing band practice back here in Brantford... much to my chagrin. And the rest of the band's.

Photo: Glendon Hall
Photo: York Hall

To School, Or Not To School

So, I'll be heading back to York Univ this fall, and I plan to switch from Social and Political Thought into Business and Society. The thing is, I hate the campus. Its so barren and cold, large and impersonal. No character. I'd like to go to the Glendon campus, but it's too late for a faculty transfer, not to mention its a bilingual campus, which means I'd take classes in French, and thus have to become very fluent, very quickly. Man, I'd love nothing more than to be bilingual, but they don't carry a ton of majors there. I'm pretty interested in the Linguistics degree, as well as the International Studies degree, but man... I'd have to wait another semester to really get into them. And that's another half a year, dinking around! I don't think I can take being in school until I'm 29! Not to mention my wallet can't take it. Maybe I should just get a trade and get out. Yeah right.

"I Can't Believe I'm Getting Paid..."

Today i worked at Lion's McInnes House, the blind/deaf home. We went out and set up for their camp, so I did some setting up tents, then lounged on a lawnchair for about an hour.. and making $11.54 for doing it! Man, this job is crazy lazy. If you don't mind wiping poop, that is. Tonight I made a seal for "Invaders," the coalition my brother (and I) is heavily involved in on NationStates, a country simulation game. I spliced a nazi crest with a russian revolutionary poster (the fist) to make wondrous things.

I Don't Know How To Book

i'm trying to book my band's east coast tour. its kind of frustrating because i've got no clue what i'm doing. i've still got to book shows for syndey, moncton, and halifax, and the tour's getting closer and closer. boo for not having a booking agent. curse our indie DIY attitude. i could call places up on friday, since i don't work that day, but apparently no one wants to book bands on a friday, they're too busy... you've got to call on a monday or tuesday. so i'm told by my good friend chris. so i guess i'm getting some help. damn you, learning curve!

well, its here...

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