You can sign up for their newsletter here. It requires a postal code, which makes me wonder if it might be limited to Toronto locals, but I’m not sure.

It streams in Windows Media Player format, which is unfortunate, but it’s still a lot of music for free.

(Also, I’ve upgraded to WordPress 2.5 recently. Please let me know if you notice anything unusual.)

I just posted my 1993 Paradigm 7se Mk II speakers to Craigslist. I’ve been thinking about selling them for a while because they’re just a bit too big now that I don’t really do “sit with a score on my lap” listening anymore. Kind of sad to see them go, though, they’re just good.

Of course, as soon as they’re gone I’m going to turn around and buy a pair of the bookshelf equivalents, the Mini Monitors.

Anyhow, if you’d be interested in some awesome (and locally-made!) floorstanding speakers, lemme know.

Also here’s some Irish pipes to round things off, probably from the same era. Seamus Ennis. Someday remind me to explain the Irish pipes, they’re a great instrument.

This is a good thing to do with a Stick. This is also a good thing to do with a Stick:

However, for whatever reason, this is sort of the typical Stick player. Do not do.

Thank you.

As I and a crowd exited the bus I gave her the devil’s horns. She laughed and returned same.

In that post I linked, I wrote

I thought that turning 30 would feel weird, like a loss of freedom or the extra weight of adult responsibility, but while I do sort of feel that I’ve lost an excuse, things feel alright.

And it’s completely obvious in retrospect, but when that happens, it doesn’t happen instantly, and I’m realizing that I’ve been a bit of a boiling frog for some time now, and that it’s no coincidence that things got difficult in the last couple of years.

I was a happy-go-lucky indiepop-loving playstation-playing geeky hipster that got paid for playing with computers in my late 20s, and now I’m preparing to maximize shareholder value and I haven’t been excited about an album release in a year (I’m not even running my bittorrent client these days!) and spending — or I would be spending were I not where I am — an entire year’s time and lost salary on business school. And while I acknowledge that there probably are people out there for whom that’s a perfectly natural progression it doesn’t seem like one for me.

Woops.

When I was doing the NEO-IP personality test the other day two questions caught my eye. In case you haven’t done the test, it’s phrased as statements which you then choose a level of accuracy from “Very inaccurate” through “Neither accurate nor inaccurate” to “Very accurate”. Anyhow, the first one said “I fear that my life lacks direction.” And well, that’s certainly accurate. But if I were to rephrase it a bit to “I believe my life needs direction”… well, that’s a lot harder to answer. It’s only when I assume that direction is a given that I find myself worrying about my lack thereof.

The other one asked “I like a leisurely lifestyle.” And I do! I think of it as a Montreal pace. And there isn’t exactly much overlap between “leisurely lifestyle” and “MBA”, you know? I need to find that happy medium, where I have a job that challenges me but doesn’t occupy my existence, where I can control the pace of things and stop to do things I enjoy, and so on. I don’t have to be an outstanding success, I have to be happy. And Candice certainly saw this already: one thing about massage therapy is that it does let you live a leisurely lifestyle. There’s no promotions, no 60-hour weeks. And that’s been right in front of me this whole time.

You know, the timing of (and only the timing of!) our wedding might have been involved too; if 30 doesn’t turn you respectable, then 30-and-married sure does! And yes, a lot of people do sort of “leave their youth behind” after that, but there’s no reason that I (or we!) have to, especially without kids. But more than ever I realize that we’re not going to be your typical suburban nuclear family, and that I don’t need to put on a suit and show up at my downtown office everyday to feel like I’ve made it.

I need to just be geeky old me again.

Because we’re grownups now, and it’s our turn to decide what that means.

When Bluesfest kicked off at Lebreton Flats on July 4, organizers allocated space for people who brought their own chairs and wanted to stay seated.

But on Sunday, during the White Stripes performance, the area was flooded with boogying fans, and organizers realized police would be needed to keep the area lawn-chairs-only throughout the festival, which runs until July 15.

Never mind that there weren’t even any signs about a lawn-chair area on Sunday. But boogying fans? Someone at the CBC decided that “dancing” wasn’t good enough and that’s all they could come up with?

However these people at the Jimmy Vaughan show on Thursday are clearly not boogying:

Background on the lawnchair problem here. Photo by Jessica — enlarge to see how stupid the lawnchair situation was at the beginning of the festival.

(Photo by Mike Bouchard)

The great part about George Clinton is that it’s so unrehearsed. Everyone on stage — and there’s a lot of them — is just up there playing (or perhaps strutting around in a pimp outfit, but it’s P-Funk). I think Ottawa is probably the whitest city I’ve ever watched funk in, though. Easily two-thirds of the crowd was hardly moving at all, and I think Clinton got annoyed a couple times after trying to get the crowd screaming and dancing.

(And about that screen: You can send SMS messages to a short code to have them appear on a ticker at the bottom of the video screen beside the stage, and I’ve been entertaining myself by trying to get Internet memes from a certain place up there to see if anyone else in the audience returns with related ones. I tried but could not get SO I HERD U LIEK MUDKIPS last night, but I did get a LOL WUT, a POOL’S CLOSED DUE TO FUNK, and a SHOE ON HEAD! up, the latter of which inspired a DO A BARREL ROLL and a A CAT IS FINE TOO from someone else in the crowd. I am determined to get MUDKIPS up there by week’s end.)

As a study in contrasts, tonight we’re seeing Cat Power on the smaller Rogers stage at 8. It’s always easy to get right up to the Rogers stage so that should be a good show providing she decides to perform at all, which is always a question with Cat Power, although she’s apparently much better about it now than earlier in her career.

(Speaking of contrasts, immediately before George Clinton was Randy Newman, who I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to see but who was fun to listen to anyhow. When he wasn’t playing tunes that scream “Randy Newman”, he actually reminded me a bit of Dr. John, which is always a good thing.)

I saw a newspaper article yesterday — “Are the White Stripes bluesy enough to headline Bluesfest?” Someone must be colour blind! – Jack White, mid-set last night

(photo by Sarah Naegels)

Bluesfest is in full swing! I had been meaning to post every day about what we’ve seen, but things have just been too busy, with work and cat-pilling and Bluesfest itself. So I’ll work backwards:

Last night was the highlight of the festival for me, and I think for Candice too: the White Stripes! Jack and Meg played a blistering hour-and-a-half show with only a five-minute break in the middle. The White Stripes have always had their blues roots but I think Jack turned it up a little last night. Fantastic playing, great music, and a blast to watch — not so much moves but just awesome stage presence, and a nice mix of material from Icky Thump and from earlier albums. We were about 150 feet from the stage and it still felt intimate, and the lawn chair problem decided to take a night off. I’m an awful music writer, though, so you can read a full review of the show from the Citizen if you’re interested.

Before the White Stripes we caught half of Leahy’s set. They were late getting on and they’re a bit too Rankin-Family-ish for my tastes (and a bit heavy on the fiddle), but it was still fun to watch a bit of. For a band whose gimmick is step-dancing there wasn’t very much step-dancing.

Saturday we took off because Candice and I were celebrating our first anniversary! Hard to believe it’s been a year. We had dinner at the Courtyard Restaurant, the same one we got married at. Candice wrote about the menu on ‘foodies.

Friday night we passed on the headliner, George Thoroughgood, because we’re under 40. Instead we caught Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, who I’ve seen before at the Montreal Jazz Festival. Honestly I go to see Victor Wooten play bass, and he didn’t disappoint. I should really get playing again. After Bela Fleck was Kid Koala, a DJ from Montreal, who spun a fun set.

Thursday night I saw Jimmy Vaughan while Candice was at work. Lots of good, solid blues guitar but I know of Jimmy only because of Stevie Ray and the show was a bit reserved for my tastes. After that was Bob Dylan who is really just a Bob Dylan cover band these days. Now I can tell people I’ve seen Bob Dylan live, but that’s about all I got out of that show other than some yelling matches with idiots in lawnchairs.

Tonight is Buddy Guy but I’m pretty tired from the weekend and it’s from 9 to 11 and it’s raining, so there’s probably a good chance I might take a day off to make sure I’m rested up for George Clinton tomorrow night!