That chair is reserved for me. This is my where my mind is, and the only thing preventing me from exploding with boredom.

Two more months of school.

Three weeks of South East Asia (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam).

One or two weeks in Japan.

A month in China.

And then home again. Nothing will be the same, though. New job, new place to live, new car (maybe), new life. I've been contemplating the future a lot these days. My application for grad school is difficult and slow going, and i kinda expect that it's yet to cause some great stress.

"If there were no reward to reap/No loving embrace to see me through/This tedious path I've chosen here/I certainly would have walked away by now/and I still may..."

I'd be lying if I said that time was crawling along. It's not, it's flying by faster than I can blink. I am preparing for the small funeral that is our new old-life in the coming months where we once again liquidate most of our possessions, close all of our relationships (or at least put them on hiatus), and wish our home away. Our feet to be swept up into the river and over that new waterfall. The current is definitely picking up.

Looking forward to a good jam session again. I have an album to finish recording/mixing, and who knows what will come after that. Really, I just wanna plug in, crank the volume and squeal distorted feedback for an hour or two to remind me of why i picked up the guitar to begin with.

Oh, and pizza, delicious, O'Hanlon's pizza...with a pint of beer...Stella, or Keith's on tap...mmm...maybe i crave that more than a beach in Thailand, I don't know.

See you soon.

well, it's been a while since i've posted about music. what's kind of funny is that since i've been over in korea, i've been exposed to a much greater number of new bands and new albums than i ever had in canada. perhaps because i'm meeting a greater number of people with different origins, and different music tastes. or perhaps it's got something to do with the fact i have so much more time on my hands, i can listen to more music, and check out more bands. so i thought i'd spend some time talking and demonstrating some of the more bands i've recently been listening to.

mother mother

this is the band i've probably listened to the most in the last year. I thank my friend matt kincaide for introducing me to them. they are a smaller indie band out of vancouver that's fairly new, with two albums under their belt. they've played numerous shows around saskatchewan, for all of which i've been absent. i really dig the layered vocals, with three part harmonies for much of the time. two female vocalists and a male vocalist make for a really rounded out sound. i also really dig the lyrics, good imagery and metaphor.




silversun pickups

A newer band, don't know much about it. Reminds me a bit of the old mid-90s post-grungers, although many people will accuse it of being indie :). Their one single has over two bazillion hits on youtube.com so it has to be pretty popular somewhere anyway. Though I like the song 3 seed better. Decent band, mediocre album with some real gems in the rough. The album I'm referring to is Carnavas from 2006.





muse - the resistance

wicked new album. buy it, love it. this track is groovy as hell, catches you right from the outset. kinda like crossing queen with rage against the machine. yes, as blasphemous as it is, i said it.



the bull north

some home-grown talent. these guys have been around since linger's early days and released their first album only shortly after we did. hard to pin the genre on this one, definitely rock, and maybe some country influence. i don't have anything that i can stream, so i'll point you over to their Myspace to have a listen. I'd suggest listening to When I Come Down or The Pines.


them crooked vultures

the bombshell of 2009. josh homme, dave grohl, john paul jones, and some other guy. the first single is awesome, and you can get a free track off of itunes. it's not even out yet, and i'm pumped for it.



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other notables are old timers, the new pearl jam album's pretty good, as is the new alice in chains. however, weezer's new album raditude is just...nothing special. i love the band, but the formulaic and cheesy hooks have lost me entirely.

anyhow, i didn't really have swine flu, that was my Halloween costume, although there were still some people that night who wouldn't get too close to me because of katherine's convincing make-up. it was a blast, our friend Simon rented a condo at O2 resort in Taebaek, and we ripped it up.

counting down the days and months now otherwise. we have less than four months left of our contract, less than two months left of teaching (realistically only about 40 teaching days), and five months to the day that we'll be back in canada. i'm working my ass off getting my masters' application finished, even though i'm not totally decided that it will be my path.

until next time
keep fit and have fun.