"Brothers & sisters keep messin’ up, why does it have to be so goddamned tough?"


Empty promises of better & more frequent posts continue…& the hits just keep on comin’ kiddies! So yeah, another week & a half-ish have come & gone…i’m no more enlightened, but I am…ugh….vingt-cinq.

I’ve been whirling around what can be at times a Survivor-esque character composite @ work, trying to reconnect with TO peeps that I’ve fallen out of touch with (the new New Year’s Resolution is getting all philosophic on you ass when the Reaper delivers a candle-lit cupcake). I would just fess up now & for-never hold my peace that I am unabashedly undergoing a lameo quarter-century crisis. It was even tough packing up my gear & headin’er to campus this aft to post this & e-mail…knowing FULL WELL that there was an introspection & personal growth doc/seminar on PBS during their juggernaut pledge drive week (but I did catch Robert Goulet’s Broadway highlight special…wish I was kidding). Fak. At this rate, I am going to be practising Feng Shui renos in an MPP’s office in a couple’a weeks & telling him to align his chakras before Question Period. Career councillors always say ‘make yourself indispensible,’ riight? - Doesn’t Spirit Guide count for something?? Beats droppin’ trou a la Lewinsky.

Kidding aside…all aforementioned events from the last post went swimmingly. The Pickups launch was very well attended & I had a blast working the door with Alana. Pretty sure that we scammed some no-necks into paying cover for a gig they had no intention of watching while they played pool upstairs. & the shirts were a huge hit by Sara’s cousin - i just couldn’t help myself, so I got one (but didn’t put it on - I have seen PCU far too many times to make that mistake). Merch tables are my kryptonite, working’em or not…I am just helpless against spending cash on band t’s & pins & the like….The Acid Mothers gig got kiboshed with strange VISA apps for the Japanese musicians & such…we balked at spending another $10 on getting in & roamed clubland as an athropological exercise instead….

& of course, the b-day weekend wouldn’t be complete without me pimping out the minivan to do a grocery run, have random hometown furniture & (un)necessities delivered to our ever-evolving apt. The Beau bonded with Pa assembling wood-ish items while Mom & I gabbed. It was great to have’em here on good terms & especially with a boss kitchen island in tow. We had an interesting visit with my Dad’s bud JImmy. Major highlight was the exclusive private screening of his interview of Leafs TV…which might be accessed by how many subscribers, less than a McGuinty-capped-classroom? Digital TV still boggles my mind…considering that this aft I was fighting with the bunny ears to make sure that Goulet had indeed 2 eyebrows.

Well, I thank God that I got well aquainted with my iBook because it’s saving my ass with music archives (10 days & growning) all the afterhours & transportable work I’ve been doing of lates…Multi-tasking Sponsorship Committee stuff & Churchill Society Silent Auction docs in the nicest of the UofT libraries, Munk…right now I’ve tapped into a shared file on iTunes that has the entire Arrested Development album, & some Aretha & Beatles (did anyone ever notice the mood-setting crickets effects on Sun King before? I need to invest in some serious headphones before the year is through) that I’ve been too lazy to put on my iTunes! Grade 7 flashbacks are waving over me bigtime.  

Last night, after crashing Rach&Karim’s wine & cheese McGill Alumni fete, I went to a very trippy flashbacky party @ my bud, Waub’s house…ran into a guy that I haven’t talked to in about 5 years…fak, how bizarre is it to say that….then I got all contemplative about how shitty I am for keeping in touch with people (like after Rach’s funeral)…seems to be the theme of the 25th year…

Spend all yesterday wallowing in a mire of Rufus worship. Now I understand why men obsess over pornography….I think. Well, that’s as close as I’ll ever get to it, I guess. There’s some studio footage where he’s at the piano & conjures up the long-lost puppydog eyed spirit of Macca playing ‘Hey Jude’ from the Let it Be doc, absolute spitting image & I just melt into the couch as if I’d injested a ’special edition’ brownie 10 minutes prior. I’ve been re-screening the DVD that was included in Want II, marathon-ing it with the new DVD obsessively, all the extras, figuring out the chord progressions for the songs & following along with the studio & concert footage - FAG-HAG NERDDOM all hail your Queen!

Big P.S. & Bigups: Frank is rising again like Jesus on Easter weekend (was there an egg hunt?)
http://efrank.ca/

Whiplash…..Two Weeks, WTF????


Uh, yeah. I dunno where or when to begin. Big tings, big tings.

The last waning days of my ‘time off’ were spent wandering this fair city with the Beau, enjoying more of Kensington Market & Chinatown than other ‘hoods & generally lazing, hazing, maxing & relaxing as much as possible before…..

OLIP started. Yeah, it’s everyting & nothing that I expected it to be. My colleagues are amazing, patient, sweet, cool, funny, well-rounded and a joy to spend countless hours with. We have met a ton of (who I think) are mad interesting people - journos, high ranking security personnel, auditors, ombudsmen & commissioners, oh my! MPPs, of course…but our office-seeking interviews don’t start until the house sits in October…so don’t ask, cause I dunno who I’m working for this year & my short list is as top secret as preferences get.

Last week I caught Cuff the Duke for their CD Release @ Lee’s & thoroughly enjoyed the gig….
Non-musical highlight: When I walked out my bud Rachel ’round 12 there was an Archie-comic-ish scene a la Betty vs. Veronica with this indie chick trying to pull her boyf into Lee’s while the huskier &
sassier door chick was pulling this dude out of the at-capacity venue. Mayhem ensued!  Eventually he (& Rach) got out of there….I love watching stuff like that go down. Actually, it was more entertaining than the last 2 of 3 encores (is that really necessary anymore ??- I am so SICK of encores where they
walk off all procedurally-like & just waltz back within 2 mins. - extend your set list & do one merited & requested encore, gentlemen!).
Runner up: Running into a SXSW bud & (briefly) catching up & plugging the Pickups party on Sat & for possible future booking on the campus circuit….THEN into ex-UC residence buds who tipped me off to a newly minted hot spot in Parkdale run by a friend-of-a-friend & DJ’ed by the latter of the hypenated friends.
Musically: It was a surprisingly tight gig for such a twangly & jangly & ‘loose’ band (Tho I haven’t seen’em since 2 NXNE’s ago & they’ve toured hardcore with hayden & Blue Rodeo since then) .
(FYI: Hotspot’s called Dragonfly @ 1279 Queen Street W., 416 858 5851 in the former B-Sweet. It’s officially launching next month)

This week brings Mo&Geo to the GTA to deliver my ‘Christ, I’m old’ b-day present via IKEA - a kitchen island. Wow. I am such a lame-o, but I’ll save my frivolous present-picking choices for a couple of months when I’m taking QP bribes (JOKING). So yeah, I’ve only told a certain handful of peeps the ‘when’ of my quarter-century crisis ribbon-cutting.

In more interesting news, response to my Run of the Cure account has been overwhelming. I am so surprised by the generosity & support that I have received from friends & fam. A big-ass public thanks for everyone’s contribution to this cause, this means more to me than any b-day bulls#*t. If anyone is still considering running themselves, get run locations @ www.cbcf.org .

To donate to the ‘Fueled by Nibs’ Run for the Cure a la Meegs: https://www.cibcrunforthecure.com/html/p.asp?t=1192615&l=1

Out of steam & time - better updates to come…soon (?)
meegs