Bring on the Musics!!!

Looks like Jerry and I are in the same boat. After my camping trip I have no less than ten albums to review for the illustrious Phantom Tollbooth. Here's the list:

1. Close Your Eyes - S/T EP
2. Child Bite - Fantastic Gusts of Blood
3. David Crowder Band - Remedy Club Tour Live
4. Generation Letter - EP
5. Javelins - Heavy Meadows
6. MissionSix - Superhero
7. NYpoleon - The Warm Up
8. Radio Radio - Alarm 1 Alarm 2
9. West Coast Revival - S/T
10. Ayiesha Woods - Love Like This

As with Jer, I'll try to get AT LEAST one in a day.

smooch

I guess Jerry was right, I will still write here, though I may change servers eventually. Just some updates... Jerry's wedding was great, went off without a hitch, and just like at my wedding we just missed the rain. Everyone had fun, cleanup was fast, it all was just really nice. Congrats to Jelly Bananas, and his wife, the newly christened Stewed Bananas. 

Sunday was also great, as Rach and I visited Andy, Misty and Annie in Toronto, attending the Waterfront Festival. We had a coconut (surprisingly bad), and also went  to the usual shopping spots. (Sonic Boom / The Beguiling / etc.)

Picked up some killer tunes, a couple CDs for me, a couple for Rach:

Mortification - Mortification (Limited Edition Reissue) Making their classic debut easier to find, but not for long as it is limited to 1000 copies. This is raw deathrash.

Caedmon's Call- Share the Well The steal of the day at $4.95. This is a great pseudo-concept record about the Dalit in India

Roadside Monument- Eight Hours Away From Being A Man Finally snagged this classic Math Rock on CD. One of the best and most challenging records ever on Tooth & Nail.

Kiss Kiss- Reality Vs. The Optimist Rach got me hooked on this. Eccentric pop with some Avant Garde leanings. Sounds like... a less polished Mika jamming with Sixteen Horsepower and John Zorn, with obscure arty lyrics. Fun.

Gah... we need a new CD rack... 

yeah and stuff

Hello. I have been engaged in an interview process with Minacs. The next step is to actually have an in person interview, and I am awaiting their reply. Please pray that I get this interview, and God willing, this job.

In other news, I have been spending a lot of my time reading and enjoying music. Reading is fun now because whatever I read is my choice, and is read at my own pace. I love it. And music is always good. Here is a list of what I have been enjoying lately.

[READING:]

I am reading Thomas Pynchon's V. This is a fun, complicated book. Pynchon is a great author, I'm surprised that I never encountered him in University. Read this book, as well as Gravity's Rainbow, both are considered masterworks.

I am also reading lots of Manga. I blame this on Rach and on going to Anime North. I picked up a couple classics, including Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira, the first Manga translated into English. Also Masamune Shirow's cyber-punk Ghost in the Shell. I have also been reading some more recent Mangas such as Kohta Hirano's Hellsing and Hideyuki Kurata's Read or Die, both highly recommended.

[LISTENING:]

Lots of good stuff, however some recent stuff I've been enjoying:

Thrice- The Alchemy Index [all four volumes are excellent, progressive, and spiritual. Beautiful music.]

Kevin Max- The Blood [a collection of spiritual songs from Kevin, aka K-Max, aka the only member of DC Talk to do something worthwhile in his solo career (oh! snap!)  This is great for personal reflection, worship, and various other activities...]

The Human Flight Committee- Oh, When the Animals Unionize [received this from the Tollbooth for review. It is quite enjoyable, been listening nonstop for a couple days. Progressive punky goodness, obvious mewithoutYou influences, but more poppy with a flair for some Anberlin or Emery styled sections.]

I have also been enjoying espresso from my awesome new Breville Espresso Machine c/o Steve Hayes. It is awesome, just like him.

And Rach just made delicious chocolate chip cookies. Cookies and milk time. Oh yes.

all moved in

listening to: Thrice, perpetually. The Alchemy Index is awesome, all four EPs-though I wish they released it as a standard double album with four parts, because flipping between four 20-minute discs sucks. Also note the last song on each CD is a traditional Shakespearian style sonnet.

All moved in now, Apartment looks pretty. Got CD and book racks from Misty and Erin- now all cds and books on display looking very pretty, and we also have all of our copious video game systems hooked up... and also Carcassonne, Illuminati and poker in close reach... basically a hardcore entertainment set up.

Rach is schooling and working and I've been handing out le resumes... hopefully I will be getting a job at Minacs because I can work with Macs and it pays pretty well. I have heard people complain that the customers can get rude but I'm used to Tim Horton's so I should be able to deal with it. Other prospects include Price Chopper and Brant Office Supply... basically I am interested in anything except fast food for this next year.

Close friends will soon be invited over to check out the place and have freshly brewed coffee and/or espresso. Rach and I should be more visible soon as we have now got stuff in order. Be on the lookout for the newlyweds out and about. 

Jelly Bananas

My best man is a wonderful guy. He made a curiously long speech at my wedding. I am looking forward to his wedding.

He has done cool things like introduce me to eternal security and Thrice. Three cheers, and Jelly Bananas

...with bells

Good evening. Things are fairly busy. Almost the end of March, in the next week I need to pack up my entire room and, along with Rach, put the finishing touches on the wedding plans. Saturday is going to be "buying suits day" for Jer and me, with Rach and Steph dutifully helping out (read: picking the suits for us).

I also need to complete a resume and portfolio for my exit conference as well as find a job. I will specifically be looking into the field of technical writing & editing, but I will also apply to "lesser positions"... because basically, I need a job to pay rent and afford to eat. Food before dignity I says!!!

And by the way, for the past seven weeks I have survived on a solid diet of Miles Davis and Underworld. Accordingly, my belated birthday present from my Dad consisted of Miles Davis' classic In A Silent Way and Underworld's latest Oblivion with Bells. As a fairly obsessed and consistent fan, I tend to look more favorably on it than many of the reviews, although I agree that some of the unadorned vocals are fairly bad. Some are good though too, and there are at least 3-4 songs to add to the regular live canon. Tis good, not great, but to a fan like myself quite nice to hear.

Also there is a rumor afoot that Underworld will be the opening act on the North American leg of Radiohead's In Rainbows tour. If that is the case it promises to be amazing. They'll be in Toronto sometime in August. Rach and I are there like shareware!

This is the voice of the Mysterons

Oh. It has been a while since I posted anything. I've been busy, teaching, plotting, writing, and rocking. Right now I am nickin' someone's wireless at my dad's friend's apartment. We're hanging out because I can't see him before Christmas because I'll be at Rach's... it is nice to spend some time with him and have dinner and stuff, and following this I'll be heading to Rach's for some chats and study time.

He got me quite a nice Christmas gift... the remastered 2-disc version of Pulp's "This is Hardcore" imported from the UK. Quite nice, includes liner notes from Jarvis Cocker and a bunch of b-sides and rarities including 8 previously unreleased songs.

Also, this is the exciting part, I just received an e-mail from Daniel Peterson, aka Otto Nobot, aka the former lead singer of Blaster  the Rocketman, and current singer of Voice of the Mysterons. I just finished a review of VotM's first record, which is amazing. I am gonna do an e-mail interview with him which will be published on the Tollbooth sometime in February. So Excite!

The weather here is insane, we've had at least a foot of snow already and it's still falling, I have a feeling it may result in the field trip / school being cancelled tomorrow, but hopefully not. Have a merry Christmas if I don't see you.

when Hollywood runs out of Indians only the Indians will know

Well, I am in Peterborough still, and yes, I do exist. I've just been keeping myself very busy. Here's a breakdown:

Work/School: Yeah, for ONE class I prep at least 2 hours a night, and that's on top of traveling time and such craziness, this eats most of my time.

Wedding: Planning a wedding / maintaining sanity within my relationship with Rachel eats up the majority of the rest of my time. It's first in importance though.

You: You being the rest of my friends. I'd like to see you / I have seen you, but it takes time!

And while doing most of those things, chances are I am listening to way, way too much Radiohead.

Anyway, back to marking and lesson planning.

affectionately titled

Listening to: August Burns Red- Your Little Suburbia Is In Ruins the first time I heard the drumming on this song my jaw literally dropped to the floor (ask Jer!) The drumming alone sold this record to me, but the rest is fun too. Standard, but high quality metalcore. They ain't gonna break down no doors, but they sure are pummeling me!

What? It's October 1st... really, its been that long? Wow!

Well, uh, last weekend Rach came to Kingston and make me sick! Whatta girl! It was lotsa fun to see her though. I also appreciate that I will be going home in 5 days! A whole lot of work to do this week though before I can go home.

Recently I made purchase of a wonderful beard trimmer. That's right. A beard trimmer. That means it ain't going anywhere. The Beard trimmer is pretty swank though. Phillips Phillishave system... nine preset lengths that go from perma-stubble to a bushy two centimeters. Oh yeah. And it even has a vacuum function that successfully sucks up 95% of the hair, so almost no mess! I am way to excited about this.

Uh, not much else for now.

road trippin'

This past weekend was a magical celebration of love, the great North, bad food, Maurice who changes oil, and of course, fish.

Rachel's cousin was gettin' hitched so Rach and I were invited to hit it up. That we did, with the aid of two wonderful friends & gentlemen, namely, Todd Anderson at the wheel and Jerry Bolton at the camera. Lots of fun was had by all, as well as much consumption of poor quality fast foods, and of course, some rather strange and inane conversation:

J= Jer, T= Todd, N= Noah, R= Rach

J: Dude, the guy in your riding is called Rapin!
N: RAPIN! You could have a lot of fun with that... Rapin' the economy, rapin' the environment
R: Rapin' the other team!
J: [insert bad Quebecois accent] John Rapin! I will beat you avec my poisson
R: with your fish?
T: Avec! Avec! Avec!
N: [insert bad Southern US drawl] Hi, I'm Maurice. I will change your oil.
J CHANGE YOUR OIL AVEC MY POISSON!!

[and so on, for 15 hours...]

All in all, lots of fun, especially seeing Rachel... who I also get to see this weekend for fun and havoc in Kingston! Yay!

Oh, we also listened to a lot of As Cities Burn, and I must say their new record is awesome, and it has rekindled my love of their first record as well. Lovin' it!

I am not safer than a bank

Listening to: Fear Before the March of Flames- Drowning the Old Hag Got into these guys after seeing them live with Underoath and The Chariot. They are pretty schizophrenic musically; each album changes and progresses in a healthy manner. The Always Open Mouth is easily their best both lyrically and musically, not to mention it has probably the best album design I have ever seen. Looking forward to lots more from these guys.

Well, it has been almost two full weeks since I arrived in Kingston, and I can safely say I have "settled in" whatever that means. It could mean that I am now used to cooking all my meals for myself... or that the opening of my morning is comfortably Jim and Joe instead of Mom... or that I am used to missing my closest friends and my fiancee... or perhaps it just feels like "home" now.

Living, for all intents and purposes, alone and as a bachelor is bittersweet. The excitement of the freedom is palpable, as is the feeling of being alone and somewhat insignificant. However I am finding a growing significance in my work. I am excited about teaching again... but more than that I can now see it as something worthy of my life's devotion. Shaping the next generation is a privilege that is important, humbling, subversive, and above all that something Godly, something that can impact souls as well as minds... and to think that I can do this with Shakespeare and World War II.

I have also become more thoughtful than I have been in a long time... I have much more time to think, and I have devoted more time into pursuing specifically God's will, be it a burden or a featherweight. But conviction seems to burden as a featherweight, but one that is always present, always demanding, always significant.... "I smell a change with horizons..."

To bring some levity, I am also sporting a rather rocking beard... as beards are quickly becoming something only the rocking attempt to possess. I enjoy it greatly, I definitely feel as though it holds some significance at the moment, a symbol of change, of moving on, of growing up perhaps? Wait, where's the levity? I think it looks bad ass. Bad. Ass.



Maybe that is all for now. Make your mamma proud.

More updating

So it turns out that there is a coffee shop that is near the church that has free wireless internets!!! So I went to Bethel Tabernacle... turns out it happens to be the church that Caroline Cuthbert attends... also turns out the preaching was awesome so I think I'll be going there regularly. Today I need to get in contact with Sybil somehow... kind of hoping she gets her internet going or that it is not too expensive to phone her on a pay phone... the reason being I'm already downtown and I don't want to walk the hour back home to phone her then walk an hour back downtown to meet her for the movie.... argh

Anyway, Kingston is being good to me so far, and God is certainly faithful. I don't take it as a coincidence that the church that Jim pointed out to me is also the church that Caroline goes to... I will choose to take this as a hint from God that he wants me there, after all, I don't believe in coincidences.

Another interesting thing: I received an e-mail today from a woman that I haven't heard from in a while... she is one of the people who helped lead me to Christ over six years ago at Alpha in Norwood... apparently she reads my blog! It's funny what the internet can do.

That's all for now, I have to do some reading for my essay that is due on the second day of class. I guess this whole grad school thing isn't a party after all, byes.

I am in Kingston now

First of all, Kingston is freaking beautiful. The population is similar to Peterborough but it is very spread out. There are tons of trees and greenery, cliffs, and of course, Lake Ontario visible from my classrooms and a massive river running through town. Absolutely breathtaking.

The man I'm living with is named Jim McTavish and he is certainly a blessing from God. On my first night he drove me all around Kingston to show me where everything is, and he even took me out for dinner to a spicy, spicy thai restaurant (and he paid too!) Much better than a dorm for sure! I am thankful for his kindness.

Also he is the first true "Liberal Christian" I have ever met. He rejects pretty much the entirety of scripture as authority, but he reads theology and goes to a couple different church meetings. He also recommended a church that fits "my spiritual needs"... an associated gospel church called Bethal Tabernacle. They are reformed but as far as I can see also charismatic to some extent and apparently they have some rockin' worship, I'll be checking them out this Sunday.

The Kingston downtown also makes me happy. With 2 colleges and 1 university it is entirely aimed at young folks. The main street has a bunch of indie record shops and even an American Apparel (yes!) and to appease my homesickness, the sister Chumleigh's is located in downtown Kingston... lol I just need to not become as regular a customer as I am at home because I don't have a job anymore!

That's all for now, any Kingston folks better give me some love soon before I get lonely!

last post before Kingston

Well, it is 2:31 am and I have just finished packing all the stuff that I am taking with me to Kingston (including a nice going away present from Steve: a six-pack of St. Ambroise Apricot Wheat Ale, sweet!) Tomorrow at 9:00 am I'll be leaving for Kingston with my parents.

I'm apprehensive... I have never set foot in Kingston before and now it is going to be where I live?! Oh well, at least I have Syb to show me around. We'll be catching the new Halloween on Monday and she's gonna show me around downtown.

I'm also excited, first time away from home and all... long overdue! We'll see how this Noah by his lonesome thing goes for a few months.

Thanks to Jer, Steve and Syb who made my final time in Peterborough fun... miss you Rach, see you as soon as possible. And all you who are in Kingston I expect a ring! See ya there!

recap of the weekend

Listening to: Daft Punk- Human After All Remix EP This notably includes remixes by big names such as Justice and SebastiAn, but the best part is that each remix is so unique and different from the original song that I can listen to over 30 minutes of "Human After All" without getting bored. Cool!

This weekend saw a rather short trip to Dundas to visit Rachel's fam and go to the annual Cactus Festival. Since I had to work till 11 I went up on Saturday morning, catching the ungodly 4:10 am bus. I didn't bother sleeping for the approximately 4 hours between my shift and the bus, instead using the time to pack and get clean, as well as spend some quality time with Steve and Michael Hayes who providentially stepped into my Tim Horton's 5 minutes before the end of my shift, and they didn't plan it. Michael lent me the extent of his Daft Punk collection which I have safely placed upon my computer's hard drive to enjoy until a later time when I can obtain more legal copies at the right price. Steve and I also had a rather metaphysical conversation about film, music and the nature of Daft Punk's record Human After All (do we sense a theme here maybe?)

Anyway fast forward a few hours and I arrive in Toronto at 5:45 am. And my bus to Hamilton doesn't leave until 8:45. That's right, three whole hours in Toronto. This is not something I would normally complain about, especially considering that the flagship HMV and World's Largest Bookstore are both within a block from the bus terminal. The only problem is that even in Toronto, nothing except coffee shops are open until 9:00am, annoyingly 15 minutes after I have to leave. So pretty much all I did was go for an early morning walk and then nestle into a corner of Starbucks with my double tall non-fat no foam latte and my bible for some good reading of Philippians.

Finally I get on the bus and at 10 am I arrive in Dundas. I talk with Rachel's family for a while before Rachel gets home after buying her wedding dress (which I obviously was not allowed to see). Eventually I decide to have a nap, which stretches out to 4 hours before Rach wakes me up. We then walked around the main street of Dundas for the Cactus Festival. This is an annual event that is rather popular among the locals and tourists alike. Dundas used to have the province's largest Cactus store, and therefore defined itself as the "Cactus Capital of Ontario," and inaugurating the festival because of it. Since then the store has gone out of business and the Cactus Fest has very little to do with Cacti. Instead it is an opportunity for all the stores on the main street to have sales, a bunch of vendors to set up sidewalk sales, and some live music and an overpriced midway. Pretend the Peterborough Ex were to take place on George Street with the Midway in the park and the vendors lining the Street and you get the idea... except on a much smaller scale because Dundas is rather small.

Eventually we had supper at a local pub with a bunch of Rachel's friends. The food was great, but the service was the worst I have ever had. They actually forgot about my meal entirely and we had to remind the waitress about it about ten minutes after everyone else was eating. Then when Rachel's friend Brian asked for some water it took at least 20 minutes for him to receive it, and this pub isn't very big either.

On Sunday we went to see the movie "Superbad" with Misty and one of her friends. This was the most vile, disgusting, perverted and immature movie I have ever seen, and that's only based on the first 10 minutes. I almost walked out of it and I feel like I should have. Don't go see it, the title describes it perfectly. After the movie we had dinner with Rachel's family and then took the long ride home and stayed up chatting until about 1:30 am... then I decided to leave considering Rachel had to be at work for 8am this morning... ick...

Of course, as a side note, I also forgot my plastic bag which contained all my toiletries, so today I have to stop off at Shopper's Drug Mart before work to procure such staples as Deodorant, Sunscreen, and hair wax. So Now I must go get ready in order to do this... sigh, well that's all for now, hope you had a good weekend as well.

Oliver is dead and other items

In what appears to be part of a series of unfortunate pet events this week, my beautiful exotic shorthair Oliver (aka Ollie, aka "Smashface" due to his breed's unique flat facial features) is now dead. His death was sudden and unexpected. We noticed that he was having trouble urinating, and that he was passing blood. We assumed a urinary tract infection and took him to the vet to get checked out. They wanted to keep him overnight for testing, but before they could do it he randomly had an intense seizure and then just stopped moving. The Vet assumes he had some sort of aneurysm.

Anyway, I'll miss the fella... he was one of my fav cats, wary of strangers but extremely affectionate to those he knew. He will be missed.

Tomorrow also promises to be the busiest day ever. Here's the lowdown:

1. Go downtown
2. Buy Greyhound ticket to Dundas
3. Get hair cut
4. Come home
5. Go to work 2:30-11
6. Come home
7. Have bath
8. Watch long movie to keep me awake
9. leave house at 3:30 am to catch 4:10am Greyhound to Dundas
10. Arrive in Dundas at 9:55am after lengthy stopover in Toronto
11. Sleep while Rachel goes wedding dress shopping
12. Spend all Saturday doing crazy stuff
13. eventually sleeping

There ya go. Have fun.

the good, the bad, and the absolutely disgusting

Wow! This weekend was a winner (and a loser!) There are about five things that happened that I'll never forget, and some nice things too.... let's move along with the story...

Le Saturday:

Started out harmless enough. Jer and I decide to drive to the dirty 'Shwa for some fun and frolic, c'mon, we've done this a million times what could possibly go wrong on this routine road trip?!

Well, our brake lines could break.
Check.

That's right, our brake lines. Those are the things that stop the car's momentum safely and stop us from, say, rear-ending the angry man in front of us...

Well, we did our thing in the 'Shwa, no longer road trippin' but stranded instead, until Jer's dad came and picked us up. We then went to the Simpson's Movie to blow off some steam. Some shopping was also accomplished in the 'Shwa, but unfortunately Jer found nothing except his car's broken brake lines! Oh well, interesting day.

Le Sunday:

Went to see Daft Punk with Steve and his bro Michael. The concert was amazing and really loud. At one point a girl handed me a glow stick and then encouraged me to wave it in the air, which was rather interesting in that it is absolutely against my personality but was rather fun.

There are a few negatives to the otherwise great evening however. First of all there were lots of drugs. I mean, when I saw Phish life there was actually less pot at that show. We were surrounded by people smoking pot and it made me feel sick. Also there were a lot of scantily clad girls, fortunately no nude ones though! Thirdly and worst of all, when the show was over an obviously intoxicated girl puked on me. Full fledged vomit. Fortunately (well, for me only I guess) the only thing this girl had in her stomach was vodka, and lots of it, so her projectile vomit resembled water, smelly water, but at least water.

Oh, and when I got home just now I accidentally washed my pocket watch in the laundry, and at the moment it doesn't work at all... hopefully tomorrow morning it'll be okay once it dries up, but only time will tell.

Mostly a good weekend, but I have a feeling that the more challenging and annoying things will be more memorable than the "good" things... but then again remaining calm after being puked on builds more character than just positive happy stuff, so I'll take it. At least she said sorry.

Cooking with Noah

Something you may not know about me is that I enjoy cooking. Here's a little recipe I dreamed up for Rachel and I the other day, quick, easy, tasty, and it looks nice too! Warning, it's spicy!

Ingredients:

2 Boneless Skinless Chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)
Dash of Cajun Spice
Dash of Salt
1 tbsp Canola Oil
3 cloves Garlic (minced)
1 Sweet Green Pepper (diced and seeded)
1 Sweet Yellow Pepper (diced and seeded)
2 Jalapeno Peppers (chopped)
1 Tomato (diced)
1 can regular pasta sauce
1 bag whole wheat rotini
Tabasco sauce to taste

Directions:

1. Dredge chicken pieces in Cajun spice until coated
2. Using Canola oil, sear chicken, peppers, and garlic in a saucepan on medium heat
3. When chicken is white, add tomato and pasta sauce. Turn to low heat and let simmer for 10 minutes, stirring often. Add Tabasco sauce to taste.
4. Cook pasta in boiling water with salt until it reaches desired tenderness
5. Drain pasta, serve in bowls with sauce mixture on top. Add more Tabasco sauce to taste.

Serves 4. For less heat reduce amount of Tabasco sauce and/or remove 1 Jalapeno pepper

Crazy times

Get ready for a long post.... this one will be what we did this weekend/why Queen's sucks/life lessons etc.... so sit back and relax.

first the run down of the weekend:

Friday

• leave at 5:45pm after working til 3:30pm, cutting it super close
• 7:45, arrive in Toronto, buy bus pass, head to Rotate This, a great indie record store. They were closing about ten seconds after we arrived so I just told the guys what I was looking for and they happily helped me find it before they closed.
• around 10-ish we get to my Dad's and hang out for a while before going to sleep

Saturday

• Go downtown around 12pm, go shopping on Queen for clothes etc. Hang out at Chapters. Lose bus pass. Cuss out losing bus pass. Buy new bus pass.
• We then went to the Delta Chelsea for the wedding and pulled the getting changed in the bathrooms.
• The wedding was great... I've decided that the most romantic thing an engaged couple can do is go to someone else's wedding... it's a way to prepare/take it in... it means more now that it will be happening in our lives as well.
• Eat food and drink alcohol. Briefly evangelize a man at our table, following lead from another brother who we had never met before.
• Best beef tenderloin ever
• Rachel's friends are awesome people

Sunday

• Hang out with James, an old friend who is now a professional graphic designer. It's great to see him again. We indulged in a bit of nostalgia with the consumption of Saint Cinnamon buns. Mmmm....
• Took dad out for late fathers day at Swiss Chalet, also got him a cd, a family love affair!
• Went back to dad's, got hair cut (and how!) ate supper
• Back to the station to come home.
• 11:00pm arrive home

Some observations:

• Dad and Geannie are quite fun, although our schedule was packed I feel we had a lot of time to hang out, perhaps it's that I'm more comfortable now, but it was also just really fun too!
• Losing track of people sucks
• Weddings are awesome
• Rachel is awesome, and I am even more thankful for her now
• Good music is just good music

Loot list:

• 2 American Apparel fine jersey buttoned leisure style shirts (for the purposes of looking professional and feeling comfortable at Con Ed placements
• Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness (volume 3 in the hilarious alt-rock/anime digest comic by Bryan Lee O'Malley, funny and up to par with his older stuff)
• Bible Doodles (a weird little stapled chapbook of sorts by Craig Thompson. It contains about 40 pages of short graphic stories based on the bible from his non-believing but raised in the church perspective. Never heard of it before but I love his stuff a lot. Probably a collector's item of sorts)

CDs:

(this is more than I've bought in a while, although following this I'm going to cut back again... I think this time I should go at least a month without buying any records at all. After all, soon enough I will have to buy essential items, like food, rent, etc. instead of just buying music... I do love it but recognize that I can be too gung ho about it. With that in mind, the last cds for a while:)

Aphex Twin- On (British EP) [this was a find! Rare-ish 1993 EP, the original British version. None of the 4 songs were ever released on anything again and it has become quite rare now. "On" was the first extremely successful single by Aphex Twin. Jarvis Cocker of Pulp directed the music video too!]

Aphex Twin- Richard D. James Album [self-titled I guess?! Often critically considered as his best work, and it is quite good stuff, Jungle style beats over ambient piano and samples... creates a very unique atmosphere.]

The Appleseed Cast- Low Level Owl Volume 2 [Unfortunately couldn't find vol 1, this album is mostly instrumental, it is great chill out music]

The Appleseed Cast- Two Conversations [a lot of people love it and it contains their best known song, I haven't really heard it yet though]

Bear Vs. Shark- Right Now, You're In The Best Of Hands... [first of only two bvs albums, not as classic as Terrorhawk but songs like "Ma Jolie" are among the best. A great record.]

Neutral Milk Hotel- On Avery Island [similar to bvs this band had only two records, a great debut followed by an absolute classic. This is the debut, what I've heard is good, very different feel from their second and better record though]

PART II: Why Queen's Sucks

They put my placement in Bowmanville... How on earth am I going to get to Bowmanville everyday for 6 months, hmmm? ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Holds back urge to cuss out Queen's)

Well anyway, it's late and I should sleep, been awake too long and I have lots of laundry to do tomorrow. Took some fun pics that should make it up on facebook soonish, keep your eyes open for those!

Toronto

Well Rach and I are off to TO for a wedding... and for some sweet shopping action! See you all next week!