hallelujah...

well, i finally found them. pancakes in calgary. they were a bit more fancy than i wanted but yummy none the less. these are at the avenue diner on stephen avenue. (http://www.avenuediner.com/index.html)

more calgary stories. after going back to my hotel room and resting for a bit, we decide to head out early to the palomino club and eat before the burlesque show/casino nite kicked in. bad idea. the palomino club was closed until the festivities kicked in at ten. it's now around 8, and we haven't eaten anything but 1/2 of a cookie since lunch. the doorman suggests a pub called 'the bear and kilt' just around the corner on stephen avenue. the pub is downstairs, and pretty empty. but they are playing cool alternative 90's bands like the lemonheads and sugar. and they have strongbow on tap which always makes me happy. we decide to split an appetizer so my friend convinces me to have perogies. they arrive in a lovely little skillet, with sour cream, sausages and the works, and my friend starts chowing down. i take a bite, and i'm like 'do these taste funny to you?'. she's like 'no'. and i'm looking at the inside of it, and it doesn't look like a perogy. plus it tastes kinda meaty. my friend eats some more and then she says 'these aren't perogies, these are dumplings." we had gotten gyozas dressed as perogies. when i told the bartender about the mixup, he was all 'that idiot. the order BEFORE yours was for dumplings. he must have gotten them mixed up." too funny.

we head back to the palomino club. all the waitresses were dressed in lingerie since it was burlesque nite. our was the most scantily dressed (or should that be undressed) in white little boy panties and a corset. she was most distracting. everytime she leaned over our table, we couldn't help staring down her cleavage. we had trouble ordering, i don't know how guys deal with it. :)

the food was awesome. we split a beef brisket sandwich that came with two sides. i chose garlic mashed potatoes and bacon wrapped corn. the potatoes were good but next time i am having the garlic fries. since we were sitting on the upper floor, near the open kitchen, we could smell them everytime someone ordered them. and they smelt incredible. the corn was fantastic.

overall i really liked the atmosphere at the palomino club. the waitresses were nice, they played outlaw country like hank III and merle haggard. however, we totally missed all but about a minute of the burlesque show that was downstairs. we got totally into playing poker and next thing you know, everything was shutting down.

we headed over to tubby dog's but the inside was shut. they had their walk up window open, so we bought some ice cream and walked back to my hotel.

the next day i checked out. i never did get to try out the pool but that was mainly because it was right off the lobby. we did manage to have some chocolate martinis poolside friday so close enough.

tattooed love boys part deux...

here are some pics from the tattoo festival...


this is work being done at the strange world tattoo booth. i believe the artist name is rick wilson.









this is one of the winners from the medium colour contest we watched. i think she said it was done locally in calgary but i'm not sure.











here is a shot from the enigma's show.

driving in my car...

i was driving home from a party last nite and i finally saw a billboard for the new season of 'the hour'. and i have to say, it had to be in the shittiest of locations. it's on the side of a building, but the building itself is not on a street corner. it's near the middle of the block and there is not much gap between it and the building in front of it. so, if you are driving (as i was), you can not see the billboard unless you are pretty much parallel to it and looking to the right. the only reason i saw it, was that i was switching lanes and turned to check over my shoulder. maybe you can see it by foot better, but then, it's not really in an area of town that has a lot of pedestrians. unless you are looking for a cheap hooker. and even then, it's a block or two away. i certainly hope the cbc got a deal on that location. a few blocks later, i saw another billboard for 'the hour' and it was in a better location. on a street corner with nothing in front of it.

today a friend said to me .. 'hey, have you seen the new commercial with your buddy?' at first, i didn't have any idea what she was talking about. then i realized that we were standing at the cbc booth and figured it out. it was a commerical for 'the hour' starring mr. stroumboulopoulos which has him mocking the nose ring thing and basically implying that he has changed it to a 'prince albert'. she said it was incredibly cheesy and i have to say her description of it certainly was. which just gets me more worried about the new season. (again please, please don't let it suck).

well, onto this week's strombo show.

alex was on for the entire show. he now works for the hour.

mr. stroumboulopoulos stated he was not bill welychka ex of much more music. he said he would explain later but of course never did. bob mentioned how they always have a ton of topics that they say they are going to talk about but never do.

bob was in a festive mood as he and his family celebrated thanksgiving that day. they did this because the hour's opening day is thanksgiving monday. they had all the traditional food and none of the drama. bob is all for surprise holidays now. mr. stroumboulopoulos says his baba takes a week and a half to cook thanksgiving dinner. alex calls mr. stroumboulopoulos a date nazi. bob wants to celebrate xmas in november. mr. stroumboulopoulos and his family celebrate xmas on xmas eve. everyone goes to midnight mass except him of course. sometimes his family talks about moving it to xmas day but he says no. xmas day is all about grand theft auto and movies. they mention how tough it is for kids with divorced parents that have to have two xmas's. mr. stroumboulopoulos says they should just be like him and only talk to one.

i was surprised that thanksgiving monday was the season opener of the hour. not only are they going against the daily show on the cbc. they will be going against turkey dinners on newsworld. at least out in the west. but of course, schedules are only for the east. :)

new band called hot one played (www.hot-one.org). this is emm gryner's new band.

bob apparently has phil spector hair. this made me laugh because i just finished re-reading ronnie spector's autobiography. and she talks about phil's hair, or lack of it quite a bit. what a freak (phil that is, not ronnie).

bob's rant against tv violence was brought up. he feels vindicated as grey's anatomy went up against csi in season openers and won by about three million. mr. stroumboulopoulos said he likes csi for reasons other than why most people do. alex's mom likes csi, he doesn't. and i have never seen csi. they talked about what artist was what tv show. csi = nickleback. mr. stroumboulopoulos likes nickleback. (eww). bob doesn't (yay). grey's anatomy is ally mcbeal. grey's anatomy = coldplay. the hour = radiohead. they all laugh. they wish. mr. stroumboulopoulos says csi = stp. but just the first two cd's. jag and alias = creed. law and order = pearl jam. qotsa = 24. big not too big, cool as hell, with an enigmatic front man. alex says the hour = mariah carey. they would willing take 11 number one hits. jackass= the minutemen.

then it's back to grey's anatomy vs. csi. this gets compared to the blur vs. oasis when blur won the singles battle but oasis came back a few weeks later with 'wonderwall'. bob will do the show in his underwear if grey's anatomy doesn't beat out csi again.

'gimme shelter' by the rolling stones is played. i hate the stones but i do love this song. mr. stroumboulopoulos calls it the greatest drum fill. a debate is going on via myspace/email over the mention of the who as arguebly the greatest rock band ever.

talk on steve-o urinating on the red carpet at the premiere of 'jackass 2'. bob tells a funny story of how when he was a producer at off the record. where apparently they had good cookies. which reminded me of the party the nite before. me and a guy there discussed how wonderful cake is. and how i wanted to do some kinda of documentary on cake. anyways, back to bob's story. three of the guys from jackass came rolling in drunk, still drinking and wrecking havoc. bob almost gets hits by projectile vomiting from one of the guys. steve-o decided to show bob what he learned in clown college and started balancing a ladder on his chin in a ball room, coming close to hitting an antique globe. bob stops it all by saying ' dude, let's go get a smoke'. as drunk as the guys were, they kept talking about contracts. the interview is unairable. three bozos.

the movie bon cop, bad cop was discussed. i do like the name of that film, even if i have no desire to see it. mr. stroumboulopoulos thought it was kinda funny. adam, the movie guy from eye weekly came on. he had the funniest quote about the movie. he said it was like celine dion. irritating in both official languages. mr. stroumboulopoulos has decided that he wants to like movies when he walks into them. adam's picks for movies were ' six figures' and 'manufactured landscapes'. 'the fountain' was discussed. is it the greatest film that won't be understood for another 25 years or is it the biggest piece of garbage?

apostle of hustle was played. this guy from broken social scene doesn't remember bob everytime they meet. it is not the same guy from last week who blew bob off.

clinton's appearance on fox news with chris wallace was discussed. i wish i had seen it. i'm going to have to youtube it. i saw clinton on the daily show and he was freakin' funny. especially when he was on the hot seat. (question: if hilary runs, how do you defeat her? answer: get more votes). clinton is one of bob's many non romantic crushes.

teen dating with myspace etc was discussed. alex called bob (not for the first time) the oldest man ever. bob thinks it should be ourspace not myspace. ourspace.com is a website for a consulting firm. mr. stroumboulopoulos wants to email them to find our how much it would cost to buy it.

paul thomas from standard (blech) broadcasting was on again during the advice portion. he was out on a date friday nite with a girl who will be called "bruce". he gave her a kiss on the lips in the cab and the cabbie slammed on the brakes and said 'hey!' and glared at him. he claims it was not over the top pda. mr. stroumboulopoulos said his mom would have made them get married but would not have yelled. bob said you were drunk, eating lebanese and in the back of a cab, if that's not romantic. someone called eva or ava called in and slammed paul in a totally funny way. another thought was perhaps that cab driver just didn't like him.

hüsker dü played again. :)

bob dances like goof. alex laughs.

barbara ex-of mtl from the stroumboulopouli gets her myspace read about the red hot chili peppers. alex takes back the idea that he likes people.

more advice about someone whose boyfriend is allergic to shrimp and were at a party where shrimp was served. they wanted to know if it rude to have left or should they have stayed. depending on the severity of the allergy i think they were right to leave. i know people who can't even use the same silverware if it touches seafood and also i know someone who is so allergic to oranges, they get ill off the smell. so in those cases, damn right leave. depending on the size of the party, i also think it could be rude to serve shrimp as well. the hosts knew he was allerigic. so if it's a small dinner party, that would be extremely rude. if it is a huge house party, well, that can't always be helped.

10.35 equals comedy played a bit from the daily show which i saw this week. freakin' funny. a little steve vs steve (carell and colbert). the daily show is ten this year. they talked on how if you work in tv, you work in the shadow of the daily show. alex feels sorry for anyone going against the daily show. the hour on the cbc main network will go against the daily show for the first 1/2 hour, and then the colbert report and letterman in the 2nd. good luck guys.

hilary on myspace sent in her math homework as an advice question. how awesome is that? mr. stroumboulopoulos at some points actually sounded like he knew what he was talking about. at least with the terminology and such. i thought perhaps he was just reading what hilary said but i believe i was wrong.

bob likes the tom greene online talk show. he wants mr. stroumboulopoulos to go on it next time he is in la. if bob is in la at the same time, he will go on it as fat zorro. bob also likes the republican party for standing up for bush in the wake of hugo chavez' devil comments.

things that were mentioned in the myspace bullentin that did not air. bob on being naked in front of strangers, mr. stroumboulopoulos on running into very drunk people. and although i loved the comedy bit they aired, they mentioned bob newhart in the bullentin. i love bob newhart.

and i'd like to say thanks for all those who asked me about how i post. it made me think of a better way to do this.

you be illin'...

actually i be illin'. i just bit into what i thought was going to be a yummy potatoe knish and it turns out there are raisins in it! who puts raisins in a knish?! i feel nauseous.

it's weird because just a few hours ago i was telling a friend the story of the time i accused a co-worker of trying to poison me. the assignment was to bring me back a plain bagel back from tim horton's. i was so hungry by the time it arrived and was excited because i could tell from the bag that it was fresh from the oven. i quickly broke off a piece and shoved it in my mouth and nearly threw up at my desk. it was not a plain bagel. it was an evil raisin bagel. i am still not convinced it was an accident....:)

as you can tell, raisins and me do not get along.

the final countdown...

i have decided to change my desktop background daily to 'the hour's' daily countdown to the new season.

i am not sure this is a good idea. it's confusing the hell out of me everytime i go to my computer.

plus, i think it is getting me overly excited for the new season. (please, please, please don't let it suck)

oh, btw it's 17 days until the opener. i'd post the picture but i don't want to get in trouble... :)

yo ho ho and a bottle of rum...

aye, today is talk like a pirate day, argh!

aye, yo ho ho and a bottle o' rum gar.

http://www.talklikeapirateday.com/wordpress/

tattooed love boys...

my last morgan's post is that i gave my beer to a guy named marcel who was eternally grateful. i was grateful that i did not have the option of finishing my beer. :)

i did not go to tubby dog's as planned as the thought of hot dogs was making me ill. however, as soon as i got back to my hotel room, i was so hungry and had to settle for greasy pizza from some corner store. the less said the better about that. my friends are now under orders to force me to eat before allowing me to return to my hotel room.

ok, the reason i went to calgary in the first place was to attend the 3rd annual tattoo convention. i went to the 2nd annual one in february 2005 by accident. i was staying at the westin and checked in super early on the saturday and the lobby was jam packed. i was totally confused until i found out that it was actually the line up to get into the tattoo festival, not to check in or out. and then i ran into the black halos in the lobby who played the nite before. it was cool being in the same place as the convention because it was sooo cold that day and it ended up snowing in the afternoon. not a big deal for calgary folk, but poor little ole west coast me wanted to stay indoors for awhile. i had never been to a tattoo convention before. i was impressed. tons of people getting work done and a lot of vendors selling cool shit. i do have a small problem with the constant sound of needles since it brings back visions of the dentist but i can deal. since it happened to be the weekend of a friend's birthday, i thought that it might make a good annual trek.

anyways, winter rolls around and i hadn't heard anything about the 2006 convention. turns out they moved it from february to labour day weekend. and instead of being at the westin, it moved to the roundhouse. even better. i always try and head out of town around that time. was always trying to avoid the indy. anyways, the more i read about the convention, the more excited i was getting. tons of bands, more artists, more vendors, casino nite, burlesque show, car show and even a celebrity guest. kat from miami ink. although i don't watch it (i'm an inked watcher instead).

a bunch of us make plans to go. we are going to go all vip and stay for the entire weekend. and then, slowly the plans fall apart. (how can a groom get the day he's getting married wrong?) . so, it's just me flying solo again. no big deal. i have a friend in calgary that wants to go so it's all good. it means coming back a day earlier, and no vip but i'll live.

so it's saturday morning and we head to the drum and monkey for lunch (it's official. i am obsessed with this place.) i have the monkey burger which was very very yummy. but i still think the mac and cheese is my favourite. and then it's off to the roundhouse for the convention.

we get there around 1 and the line up is huge! massive! it goes from the ticket wicket, all the way down to the ramps and then up the ramps. (note to self: next year, buy tickets in advance). the lineup moves surprisingly quickly. and before we know it, we are on the convention floor.

i can't get over how big the convention floor is! people getting tattooes everywhere. we see kat and there is this huge crowd around her. i read that not only is she solidly booked (of course) but there is a waiting list of over 200 people. i take a really bad photo of her for my friend who loves miami ink. it's bad because i can't even get anywhere close to her. you can't even see what she is working on, the crowd is so big. i went to another booth to see if an artist friend of mine was there yet, but alas, no.

we walk around, checking out the different artists and their work. we reach the other end of the floor and there are the cars. oh, and here is the stage. the enigma is out doing a meet and greet. we get some photos taken. he tells us his show is in twenty minutes. we decide to hang out and watch the tattoo contest that is on and then hang out for his show.

ok, major beef with the convention is that everything was running sooo late. and they kept announcing the old times. the contests seemed to be throwing everything off schedule. i think they maybe needed to gather up the contestants and keep them organized before it started. instead of calling their names and then waiting for them to show up. or maybe they had too many people enter? and once, the schedule started to be off by so much, i think they should have revised it so people weren't hanging about needlessly. anyways, we watched one contest. medium colour. and then it was time for the enigma's show (which i think was almost an hour overdue) . now, the enigma used to perform in jim rose's circus. he is covered in blue jigsaw puzzle pieces tattooes and does a lot of stuff like sword swallowing, drinking windex, fire breathing, using a chainsaw blindfolded, shoving tubes etc into places where a normal person does not want tubes shoved into. incredibly disgusting things. we stayed for the entire show. :)

went back to looking around the floor. watched more tattoo artists work. by the time we hit the vendor area, we were exhausted. and it turns out that wearing my new blue suede converse shoes was not exactly a wise move on my part. but they looked good! haha. plus i was limited in shoes because i somehow ended up packing one boot from two different pairs of boots. the same foot! luckily, at blame betty's booth, they were having a shoe sale and i found a sweet pair of red and black creepers. whoo hooo! oh and at plan b's booth, i met the woman who made what i like to call my skull engagement ring. i think she was dissapointed i wasn't wearing it. i told her i would have but i wore it to the bar last nite and it fell off. causing me to rummage around the floor of morgan's trying to find it. which i did. thank god. i spent way too much money on that little baby.

i could barely move by this point. and i still hadn't heard any bands yet. i tried to get some info on when they were due to perform but the information wasn't easy to get, nor was i sure of the accuracy of the times. is that the old times or the new times? we ended up giving up and heading back to my hotel to collapse in front of the tv for a few hours.

more later. and pics!

in your eyes...

aaaahhh, lloyd dobbler on his ghetto blaster. sigh. :)

well, i feel quite encouraged this morning. i have a few requests for my weekly review. and i'm still mentioned on the hour's website. even if my name doesn't look as cool shortened. haha.

in the myspace bullentin before the show, it is mentioned that soon podcasts will be available on strombo.com. haha. this i will believe when i see it. i think strombo. com has been in the works for over two years now.

last nite's show was the one year anniversary of the strombo show. bob didn't know. mr. stroumboulopoulos said he didn't know and didn't care when he was told. kinda like what he said after his last appearance on much music.

bob and mr. stroumboulopoulos talked about how they sound alike (which i tend not to necessarily agree with). it was mentioned that bob's mom gets confused and that mr. stroumboulopoulos' mom does not listen anymore since they used her for a bit. bob talked about perhaps getting mr. stroumboulopoulos into trouble with this fact by saying outrageous statements. mr. stroumboulopoulos said he has had the experience of people coming up to him the next day, and saying 'i can't believe what bob said last nite'. bob uttered the statement 'i hate children' as mr. stroumboulopoulos. mr. stroumboulopoulos then said ' i like mine. by that i mean my nephew. i have no children that i know of". (that quote is for a friend of mine. she will enjoy that.)

they talked about how the radio show got started. bob and mr. stroumboulopoulos had a radio show back about 11 years ago. they decided they wanted to do a show again. tried the cbc. didn't work. mr. stroumboulopoulos was in la and contacted the program director at cfrb and he said when do you want to start, next week? no, you're in la? ok, week after. and the show debuted september 18th, 2005.

there was a mention of sean penn on cnn. he was called ( i believe by mr. stroumboulopoulos) as the man that humour forgot. that made me laugh. i do like sean penn as an actor but he does take himself a tad bit serious.

'celebration' by kool and the gang was played despite bob's expressly stating no kool and the gang.

there was a spot on this day in history. this day was the day that the doors played the ed sullivan show and performed 'light my fire'. they were asked to change the line ' get much higher'. jim morrison agreed pre-show but performed the line as is on the live broadcast. that's true rock n' roll. not like that wimp mick jagger who changed the line from 'let's spend the night together' to 'let's spend some time together'. i'm glad that story was told. it makes me happy hearing stories that portray mick jagger in a bad way.

the shins 'new slang' from garden state was played. there was talk on movies you don't see ie.. mr. stroumboulopoulos refuses to see 'titanic'. but he did finally see 'garden state' on dvd. this brought on a discussion of zach braff. bob called him a slacker woody allen. mr. stroumboulopoulos called him geekishly good looking. bob not a fan of zach braff. mr. stroumboulopoulos defended him. say anything and lloyd dobbler were mentioned.

alex, who's been on the show before, joins the broadcast.

the sean penn smoking thing was discussed.

TIFF was discussed. mr. stroumboulopoulos talked about how his cats pissed at the bottom of the stairs because he had been gone so much and the kitty litter was not clean. he interviewed viggo mortensen for the upcoming season of the hour. he talked about the lotr and how he hasn't read the books (finally, someone else who hasn't) and doesn't care. he seemed more impressed with the fact that viggo's baby mamma is exene cervenka (i believe they were married as well...pause for quick imdb check..wow, according to that they were married for over ten years) and called her one of the most influential women in punk ( i think). and according to wikipedia, viggo's a huge habs fan. i wonder if they discussed that.

hmmm, i just noticed that they went to commerical break asking what u2, green day and natural disasters had in common but i don't recall them coming back with the answer. it is of course, the benefit song they will be recording for music rising, an organization that replaces instruments lost by musicians in the wake of hurricane katrina.

flip to myspace and some comments. i will quote one directly here from blueflamegirl666

my friends always say.. movie life - lloyd dobbler is the perfect boyfriend real life - lloyd dobbler is a potential stalker..

that got a good work comment and some jokes about the name. according to bob, it is the world's fastest car in the guiness book of world records. mr. stroumboulopoulos had some other gutter reference in mind.

alex apparently had a crush on bec from myspace.

more embarrassing moments from bob this week. he's a huge fan of broken social scene and he was talking to the drummer and mentioned the band he was in (glueleg). the drummer said 'yah, i wasn't in to them'. and then went on to say ' did i really blow you up when i said that?'. haha.. poor bob.

bob then told the story of how he fell asleep at the penelope cruz movie. i forget the name of it and since i don't like her, i chose not to look up the name of it. he was pinching his thigh, his wife was hammering him and he still kept falling asleep. i liked the part where he said when he woke up, he had that kind of panic, what did i do in my sleep thought?

and then he told the story of how he went to the borat re-screening and poured coffe down his chest and it was so hot it was like tobagganing on a gravel road. too freakin' funny.

jimi hendrix was brought up as sept. 18th is the anniversary of his death. mr. stroumboulopoulos told a story about how jimi hendrix was alive when the paramedics came and they sat him up, instead of lying him down, causing him to choke on his own vomit when he threw up.

some new stuff for the hour was discussed. the maple leafs are going to shoot pucks at mr. stroumboulopoulos in goal. there was some debate on whether or not that was supposed to be a surprise for the viewers or not. bob mentioned that in a meeting without mr. stroumboulopoulos' participation, that it was discussed how the leafs were not supposed to take it easy, but to really go for it. mr. stroumboulopoulos agreed that was how it should be. he also said he would dress in a habs uniform.

9.11 was discussed. speficially george bush's speech and how jon stewart tore it apart on the daily show. a little comedy bit was played as well.

they talked about how it was determined that the arcade fire's 'wake up' would appear on the show every week. it was after they saw u2 in montreal and the arcade fire opened up in front of the hometown crowd. afterwards, u2 came out onstage to 'wake up' . bob and mr. stroumboulopoulos' eyes welled up.

TV was brought up. there was a joke about it being transvestites. which brought up the term BFF. which made me laugh. they talked about tv being more violent according to some parental organization in the states. i did really appreciate the point that mr. stroumboulopoulos made about the brutalization of women and all the rape scenes on tv. bob is excited by grey's anatomy this year. mr. stroumboulopoulos has dated skanky women as per desperate housewives.

the advice calls were a girl whose boyfriend's mother had walked in on them, while her boyfriend was handcuffed to the bed. and she just left the breakfast there without making a scene. there was no problem here. mr. stroumboulopoulos said that his mother couldn't even comprend him having sex.

the other call was about someone going to meet their ex, drinking too much, passing out from hypoglycemia and having to be put in a cab by co-workers.

they talked to olivia from toronto life who is doing a piece on mr. stroumboulopoulos. it will apparently be a six or eight piece spread.

bob gets straight edge confused with malcom x and thinks mr. stroumboulopoulos doesn't eat pork.

comedy is russell peters. who makes me laugh. :)

surprise for bob is a phone in with k'naan who is about to go see a tribe called quest. i need to track down his album. also interesting was the fact that he might be putting out a poetry book.

bob likes a bank robber in greece who dresses as a ninja.

whew. the end.

i'm in pieces, bits and pieces...

i went to put my suitcase away from my calgary trip, found out i hadn't finished unpacking yet, and found my notes on my trip.

the picture i took is actually during 'way past sorry'. which is my 2nd favourite song on their new cd.

i can't believe i forgot to mention the cab ride down to morgan's. the cab driver was so insane i nearly threw up in his cab. he kept blaming it on how crazy 17th is to drive. well, yes, if you insist on driving like a maniac, i would imagine it would be crazy to drive. however, if you perhaps chose to obey any traffic rules, you might find it a bit less hectic. he also chose to do the non-meter route and then changed prices on us once we got there. in vancouver, i would have just walked out without paying (as that's what is posted in all the cabs) but my friend not only paid him but tipped him! crazy.

one of the cover tunes that one nine hundred did was nirvana's 'breed'. it reminded me of a conversation i had recently with my 'supernova' friend. i don't watch the show but she likes to give me updates to try and pull me in. she was telling me how one of them covered nirvana. and how it is extremly hard to pull off a nirvana cover. nirvana is too raw and real and personal for most people to pull off. most of the times, it just comes off sounding fake or insincere. however, one definite exception is steve earle's version of 'breed'. but then again, that man has lived. anyways, one nine hundred's cover was at least ok. i could live with it.

giving up the ghost...

ok, so this is my first attempt at adding photos to my blog. hopefully i can figure this all out and the pictures won't look like crap.

so, my first nite in calgary, we head to morgan's pub to watch a band called one nine hundred. for some reason, i really like morgan's. i am not sure why. because at first glance, it seems to be the kinda place i would hate. the music between sets is usually pretty good (can't say what they played that nite, but i have heard stuff like the raveonettes, kaiser chiefs, and the dead 60s - which i really enjoy because even though i own the cd, i rarely listen to it as these days i am mainly listening to music on my computer or mp3 player and my copy of the dead 60s has that content protection that caused all those problems last year. ) i've eaten there a few times. it's no palomino or drum and monkey but it's passable. basic pub food.. nachos, burgers, and club sandwiches (which took me four hours to eat. but that's a whole 'nother story)

anyways, back to the band. one nine hundred is the band which has the drummer (harvey warren) who filled in for tommy lee of motley crue one nite. i'd seen them once before last year at morgan's. i couldn't really judge them because they played they played mainly old hard rock/metal cover tunes. but since then they released a new cd, plus they had all that hoopla over the motley crue thing so i was hopin' for better things.

well, maybe it was because they were down a member (apparently the "cute" one), but they played even less original songs than last time. which was even more disappointing than the last time, as i have bought their two cds since and even have a 'favourite' which they did not play (hence the title of this blog). i think they only did four original songs in three sets. so i still don't know if i can judge the live show fairly. i will say that the singer (jd ?) and drummer (harvey) have a nice little repartee going, and as a cover band, they don't suck. but i hate cover bands and i always feel guilty supporting them. i understand that they probably have to do the covers in order to play but it doesn't mean i have to like it.

i took this picture during one of the original songs they did. i think it was 'make up x' but i've misplaced my notes.

they've signed to universal canada so hopefully one day i can see them do a 'real' show.

blah blah blah...

a few thoughts i forgot to mention from last week's strombo show.

my radio player kept listing the show as live audio wrestling. this amused me to no end.

i keep hearing the comments that people can't tell mr. stroumboulopoulos and bob apart. i can't relate to this at all. to me, mr. stroumboulopoulos is all hyperkinetic and bob is more laid back.

anyways, on to this week's show.

i thought bob was on fire this week. he had all these really funny quotes that just slayed me.

there was talk on cher and her skills as an actress. mr. stroumboulopoulos seemed to enjoy them while bob did not. they talked about poor marisa tomei. bob told a different version of her oscar win. he said that jack palance had said her name as a joke, but didn't get a chance to read the real name. i'd only heard the version that he had said the wrong name because he had misread it. i seem to recall mr. stroumboulopoulos not knowing a version of this at all. odd movie point #1 if i'm correct.

they talked about steve irwin's death. it's a very sad story but i also agreed with why surprised comment. i remember saying that to a friend after chris farley died. don't get me wrong, i'm not saying it's not sad, or that people deserve it, but when you live a certain lifestyle, there are risks and i'm just not surprised that tragedies occur.

they talked about dinner parties. the best room in bob's house is the bathroom. mr. stroumboulopoulos apparently remodelled his bathroom on bob's. bob managed to burn and undercook the veggies at the same time. i was dissapointed. i thought the horrible dinner party story would be worse.

the movie the ice storm was mentioned. i was surprised that mr. stroumboulopoulos has never seen it. (odd movie point #2)

they talked about sarah polley's movie 'away from her'. it sounds amazing. i can't wait to see it.

more talk on TIFF. shirley maclaine was mentioned along with the fact that warren beatty is her brother. i can't believe that mr. stroumboulopoulos did not know this fact. i thought everyone knew that. (odd movie point #3)

a rerun of the kevin smith interview from the hour.

paul thomas from standard broadcasting (blech!) was on, talking about his skateboard accident and how to avoid accidents.

talked about the debate on mr. stroumboulopoulos' myspace page about the seal hunt. debates have the seal (haha) of approval.

more talk on shirley maclaine. and the mention of movie 'the apartment'. i love her in that. not only do i enjoy the movie, and she's great in it, but she also looks awesome.

a rerun of the al gore interview from the hour.

advice this week was from someone looking for a rich, tall, successful man and should she become a lesbian if this is not possible and someone looking not to wear skinny jeans.

Comedy break was lewis black who had a great bit about time speeding up as you get older. i loved his interview with mr. stroumboulopoulos on the hour during the first season i think.

the upcoming alice cooper interview was mentioned. i saw the clip on 'the hour's' website the other day but it looks like it has come down. or at least it's gone from the main page. i'm not so keen on these intervews taping so much before airing. it was something that was more obvious during the second season and i didn't enjoy it. made the show seem much less live. more planned and less spontaneous.

things they liked. bob hates pets dressed up but likes the story on the cat with the hip hop grill on it's teeth. mr. stroumboulopoulos likes the new dylan. (how predictable)

looking back on this show and last week's show, i have only one thought. they both seemed like one big promo for the hour's new season. look, i'm as excited as the next person about the new season (even, if i am slightly afraid). but to keep playing clips from last season? especially when those clips are available on the web (quick, plug the website...again) . i just feel it's a tad overboard. maybe i wouldn't feel so bad if i could actually listen to the show on the radio, but since i am tied to staying at home and listening via computer, my disapointment feels bigger somehow. i think maybe i should have gone out for dinner. taken the dog out earlier. watched another episode of fame.. :) yes, i know i can just switch it off, but that's not the point. i want it to be so good that i don't want to turn it off. so i keep listening and hoping.

mama's don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys...

or people who work for the airporter shuttle express in calgary.

i went to to calgary for the 3rd annual tattoo festival on labour day weekend. thank you air canada for the flight sale. it's funny. everyone always says westjet is cheaper but whenever i need to fly anywhere, it's always cheaper via air canada. it was my first flight since the liquid ban. which in a way was a blessing. i ended up checking EVERYTHING which i never do and only had to worry about my little punk hello kitty messenger bag when i was on the plane. although i was so fuckin' dehydrated before i got on the plane and couldn't get enough water to make me happy. excuse me, stewardess? could you please leave the entire pitcher in front of me? :)

i arrive in calgary nice and early, having listened to outlaw country (dwight and hank III) all the way there. i always forget the flight is so short. i'm used to going to toronto and needing all this extra stuff. the flight to calgary is so short, i don't even have to use the plane toilets. even if i forget my book, it's no big deal.

i like the calgary airport. it doesn't take forever to walk from the plane to the baggage carousel. and i never have to wait very long for my luggage. usually i disembark, go to the bathroom and walk to the baggage claim and within minutes my luggage is there. but lately i've been leaving the calgary airport with bad thoughts which have nothing to do with the airport and everything to do with the airport shuttle. they used to be really good up until a year or so ago. maybe they got new owners or management. but their agents have absolutely no customer service skills any more. they barely acknowledge you at the counters, they can't wait to tell you they can't go where you want to go, and they never tell you what is going on. i needed to go to the hotel arts which i had already checked on the website and confirmed that that was one of the scheduled stops. the clerk was all ' i don't think we go there' and then proceeded to ignore me. what she was doing was trying to confirm that they don't go there. but since i couldn't hear her having a conversation with the guy in the back, i had no idea what was up. was i dismissed? do i need to get a cab? since she didn't ask me to leave, i assumed i should stick around. finally she gets back to me. 'yah, we go there but it's going to be 40 minutes. ' i'm like fine. then the guy is like well, you can catch a shuttle at 11 (about 1/2 hour away) to the palliser and walk two blocks. ok, i am not from calgary but i know that the hotel arts is more than two blocks from the palliser (i think it's like 5 blocks, which is a big deal if you have luggage to cart). plus i am not 100% sure where exactly the hotel arts is. i ask, but i can catch something direct in another ten minutes right? and she's like yah. so i said i would wait. the eleven o'clock shuttle comes and goes. the 11.30 shuttle comes and goes. finally at 11.42, i go back to the counter and ask about my shuttle. she again has a conversation i can't hear and does not bother to explain until she gets an answer. now, let me make this clear. this is not a 30 second wait until an answer comes. both times it was minutes later until she got back to me. is it to hard to let me know what you are doing? finally she says, yah, it's on it's way. umm, could you be a little more specific? on it's way from where? downtown? the parking lot? lethbridge? she said it would be five, ten minutes. i don't mind waiting but a) tell me how long i should wait because i've been up since 4am and if i had known it was going to be an 1 1/2 hour wait for a shuttle i would have gone for some food and b) could you at least offer an apology for the delay? is that too much to ask?

miraculously, the shuttle shows up in about ten minutes. the driver is not very pleasant and can't be bothered to call out our names, just destinations and grunts at us all. he apparently has gone to the non acknowledgement school of customer service as well. i slip mike ness on and try and go to a happy place. i am sitting next to some guy who reminds me of justin timberlake who has just got back from seeing journey and def leppard somewhere. shudder.

i arrived at the hotel arts and i have found my happy place. the lobby is funky, the staff are nice and i have gotten a free upgrade. my room is big and lovely and has a balcony. it is very brown. and it is 1/2 a block from the drum and monkey! which is where i had planned to have lunch. i unpack, walk down to the pub and order up a order of mac and cheese and spolumbo's sausage with a side of strongbow. calgary knows how to serve strongbow. not like bc. it's an english cider people! you do not serve it with ice and lime! i get tipsy off my pint of cider as i haven't eaten all day and it's after 1. the mac and cheese is even better than i remember.

life is good again.

this is radio clash...

man, am i tired today. still recovering from my weekend in calgary, i guess. barely made it thru the strombo show last nite but here are highlights according to me. i am not going to vouch for the order or be held responsible for a 100% accurancy on them due to my mental and physical exhaustion last nite.

the bit about the language on the show was not played.

bob told some story about bicycle polo to explain why he was dressed as a olde time newspaper boy. i liked the fact that he stayed in costume the entire day.

mr. stroumboulopoulos mentioned the fact that he went to the gym. and something about having issues with his feet/legs due to his motorcycling habit. which i have to remember to mention to a friend of mine. because she has stated her belief in this a few times. and everyone likes to be proven right.

mr. stroumboulopoulos's mom called him after last week's show and left him a message about god and motorcycles. reminded me of my grandma's talks. she loved to lecture me about god and jesus and the fact that i need to cook. and get a degree. when she was on a roll, she would be able to wrap all these facts in together and throw in the i need to get married speech as well. i do not want to get married but i love how older generations tend to lecture you on this. like you can just go out one day and get married.

mr. stroumboulopoulos' mom would like him to be a minister. and his grandma would like him to be a bus driver because you get to sit all day.

they talked about the pope abolishing the annual xmas pop concert that is held to raise funds for new churches.

there was talk on fundamentalists. mr. stroumboulopoulos called them not bright. this reminded me of my problem with the marijuana party. the problem with the people who are the public faces of this issue is that they smoke marijuana and also appear stoned whenever i see them in the public eye. i'm for you, but even i have a hard to supporting you when you can't conduct yourself rationally. what i think they need is public faces that do not use marijuna before speaking publicly.

they replayed the interview with the head of the church of satan that ran on the hour last season.

some guy from our lady peace came by and was on for a good portion of the show.

some chick (i am not sure if she was the same chick as last week) is now reading e-mails and myspace comments.

the advice was about phone sex, and long term relationship boredom. the interesting point was that one caller thought he knew the other one. plus hüsker dü's "don't want to know if you are lonely" was played.

cat power's cover of satisfaction was played. i liked the comment "now, that's how you do a cover". i've been accused of hating covers. which is untrue. i have huge issues with cover bands but i like covers. but i always think that when you do a cover, especially if it's as well know as satisfaction, you really need to add something to it. because if you are not, why bother doing it?

the comedy bit was the ricky gervais podcast about superpowers. fuckin' hysterical.

there was a comment from a girl on myspace about her parents not letting her play sports. mr. stroumboulopoulos went off strongly about how parents need to let their kids play sports if they want, and specifically mentioned girls. awesome. i don't understand why parents wouldn't let their kids play sports.

in the things they like portion, mr. stroumboulopoulos mentioned entourage. i was happy he mentioned it because he said that city tv is going to start airing it. i love jeremy piven. i just need to find out the when portion of that.

i was disappointed in last nite's show because in the myspace bullentin there was mention of a dinner party disaster. i wanted to hear about it.