I am DONE with Loblaws

Alrite, it is decided, I'm going to quit my job at Loblaws, and I'm probably going to do it within the next few weeks. I am just sick of getting treated like crap by both staff and management. Mind you, not all management, my dept managers have been some of the coolest, nicest people I have met. However, there are some managers, especially in the upper echelons of the store, that simply do not care about there employees.

I could write a list of things that have contributed to this decision, but that would take too long. Needless to say, I'm sick of being a bitch to the whims of the store management, only going in when they call me, and doing every thinkable shitty job they can throw at me. And then, they have the nerve to give me flak when I have to leave because I'm sick.

Fuck 'Em

The Show, and other things

Lauren's Super Set:

The Killers: On Top
The Killers: Change Your Mind
Coldplay: Green Eyes
Coldplay: God Put a Smile Upon Your Face

Hope you liked it!

Weekend, and Tommorow's Show

Wow! This was a fun weekend, no doubt about that. How do I know.....I got absolutely NOTHING accomplished school work wise!

I guess the chaos kinda started on Thursday, when I got called in to work a 5:30 to Close shift on about an hour's notice. At the same time, my brother was running halfway across the city to get tix to see AVA at the Phoenix in May. So I worked the night, missed CSI (which thank god wasnt new), and then went home and crashed.

Friday, I had a lovely French test, which was perhaps the most difficult thing Ive had to do for school all year. It was pretty insane. After that, I hung out at the station for a few hours, yelling randomly in the background of Josh's show. Everything is kind of drawing to a close at the station, which is wierd, as I'll have been there seven months this week, and yet I feel like I've just started. Ill write more about tommorow's show later.

I spent Saturday morning catching up on the sleep I had missed over the course of the week. Then I headed up to Orangeville to visit some random family members I really dont like, and have very little in common with. The practical upshot of this is that I spent over 3 hours in transit to and from Orangeville, which meant plenty of time to listen to some new CD's. On Friday I found a Gordon Lightfoot tribute album that Borealis sent the station a little while back, and I gave that a listen to.

I got back from Orangeville around 8:30, and immediately met up with Lauren and headed down to the Cat's Eye at UofT St. George to see Now Yr Taken and the Postage Stamps. I dont know who the guy was that opened, but he was kinda funny. He was one of those indie kids that was just trying too hard, and wound up looking goofy...just be yourself dude. Plus like half the people who were there got up and left when he was finished, which totally sucked because they missed two awesome bands.

Mikey then took the stage, and I thought it was bloody awesome. He had two drummers and a violinist with him, and it added a whole new level of depth to it. I caught up with him after the set, and he felt that he had blown it, despite how awesome it was. I guess you perceive your own art at a whole other level that most cant understand. Then the Stamps took the stage, and played til about 1230, and were as awesome as always. I think that their coolness is expounded by the fact that they live up the street from me.

Anyway, so Lauren and I cabbed it back to Scarberia, and I got home around 130. I felt totally exhausted, and slept til 11 this morning. Then I went with my mom down to the TRL to get some info for a history essay shes working on.

So now Im here, and I should be talking about tommorow's show. I again dont have a real plan, but I can definately promise some more Shane Phillips and Screwtape Lewis. I'm also going to be spattering in some stuff from the Killers for the remainder of the season, as a sort of shout out to the two coolest Laurens in the world ;p. Also, expect something from U2's Achtung Baby, I havent decided what yet, most likely the Fly or Wild Horses, but that album has been played a lot in my CD player lately.

Radio!

Alrite, here's my plan for tommorow's show. As always, everything is tentative, and I can, and most likely will, change my mind sometime between now and 3pm tommorow.

I will be featuring a number of local independant acts, including something from Now Yr Taken's Butterfly Wings EP, as well as new music from Shane Phillips, Screwtape Lewis and the Feminists. Expect a splash of U2, and possibly System of a Down for my own sanity.

The link for the Stream is http://shoutcast.esoteric.ca:8000/listen.pls

Tune in from 3-4 pm Tommorow

Cheers

Joe

Musical Experimentings

I don't know what has come over me, but ever since I had NYT in on Friday, I've hardly been able to put my guitar down. The practical upshot of this is that over the past 4 days, I've experemented with a lot, and learned a lot.

Right now I'm focusing on my own version of U2's Vertigo. I'm using a tab that came in Guitar World a couple months back, and I really like how it's turning out. For the legato slides in the intro and pre-verses, I put a bit more swing into it than the original recording has. The result is something that sounds a bit more surf rocky, but in a good way. The verses have that really cool scratching in them, which sounds awesome with my neck bucker and the tone turned about halfway down. I'm keeping the choruses as true to the original as possible, with a more straight up legato slide and no swinging to it.

Effects wise, I have my Japanese DS-1 with the Distortion dialed down to about 20%, and my Ibanez CF-7 with some heavy chorus over the scratching. Overall I'm pretty pleased, I'm not muting anything on the slides, which is a big improvement from even 2 months ago. If everything goes well, maybe I can throw it into Logic Audio this weekend.

Whoooooo!

I don't even know why I started this, I'm not even that interested in my own thoughts, nevermind forcing other people to read them.

So, what's good.... Now Yr Taken is good. Now Yr Taken is a One-Man guitar orchestra based here in Toronto. Go to myspace.com/nowyrtaken for samples, blogs, show times and dates, etc.

Ok, here's a rambling. What the hell is with H&M only selling men's clothing at some locations? It makes my life all that much more difficult to have to go to a different mall then the one Im at to get clothes because the H&M there doesn't carry men's clothing. Someone at thier headoffice needs to do some rethinkin if you ask me.