I have to share this with you. Things heard by NBC broadcasters during their 2008 Olympic coverage:

1. Weightlifting commentator: 'This is Gregoriava from Bulgaria. I saw her snatch this morning during her warm up and it was amazing.'

2. Dressage commentator: 'This is really a lovely horse and I speak from personal experience since I once mounted her mother.'

3. Paul Hamm, Gymnast: 'I owe a lot to my parents, especially my mother and father.'

4. Boxing Analyst: 'Sure there have been injuries, and even some deaths in boxing, but none of them really that serious.'

5. Softball announcer: 'If history repeats itself, I should think we can expect the same thing again.'

6. Basketball analyst: 'He dribbles a lot and the opposition doesn't like it. In fact you can see it all over their faces.'

7. At the rowing medal ceremony: 'Ah, isn't that nice, the wife of the IOC president is hugging the cox of the British crew.'

8. Soccer commentator: 'Julian Dicks is everywhere. It's like they've got eleven Dicks on the field.'

9. Tennis commentator: 'One of the reasons Andy is playing so well is that, before the final round, his wife takes out his balls and kisses them... Oh my God, what have I just said?

 

Alright, It's been long enough... Time for another Random Playlist. This one is even more eclectic than I would have imagined. Where else would you have found the Black Metal stalwarts Emperor on the same playlist as Portishead? You may have noticed Serj Tankian on the list. My question to you who raved about Elect The Dead so much, have you listened to it lately? And if so, are you still digging it? It let me down.  Enjoy Stars of The Lid. They are strange but definitely unique. And yes, I'm still listening to Silversun Pickups. I really enjoy Carnavas. Hope the have some new material out soon. Thanks again to Schmitty for introducing me to the likes of Unwed Sailor on one of his podcasts.  Without further Adieu, I bring you Numero 10:  

• Thus Spake The Nightspirit - Emperor (Anthems To The Welkin At Dusk)
• Elect The Dead - Serj Tankian (Elect The Dead)
• Dopamine Clouds Over Craven Cottage - Stars Of The Lid (And Their Refinement Of The Decline)
• Our Life is Not a Movie or Maybe - Okkervil River (The Stage Names)
• Three Seed - Silversun Pickups (Carnavas)
• Copper Islands - Unwed Sailor (Little Wars)
• In A Mirror - Born Ruffians (Red, Yellow And Blue)
• Trouble's Braids - Tom Waits (Swordfishtrombones )
• Wherever I Go - The Album Leaf (Into The Blue Again)
• It Could Be Sweet - Portishead (Dummy)

Time for another list from Dennis.  This one turned out to have some things that don't normally show up. First off, a track from the wonderful Fabriclive series. Sadly I haven't been keeping up with this great DJ collection but 32 is as good as any of them. Tayo takes on DJ duty. Some heavier stuff like Torche, Pearls & Brass, and Coalese showed up this time. And then then a wonderful classic, John Fahey's collection Return of the Repressed gets a track brought in. Also if you have heard Ojos De Brujo you need to check out this latin act. Very good.

• Ahead Of My Time - Teddybears (Soft Machine)       
• Anti War Dub Ft. Spen G - Digital Mystikz  (Fabriclive 32)
• Fuck Addict - Torche (Torche)           
• Highway Sermon - Pearls & Brass (Self Titled)
• No Time For Sense - June (Make It Blur)    
• Supernaut - Coalesce (There Is Nothing New Under The Sun)           
• On the Sunny Side of the Ocean  - John Fahey (Return of the Repressed)          
• Modern Timing - Roisin Murphy (Overpowered)           
• Sultanas de merkaillo - Ojos de brujo  (Techari)             
• Start Parking - The Narrator (All That to the Wall)               

Another one, seeing the theme of my podcast this week was a random playlist, I thought I would keep it going. This one isn't quite as impressive as past ones but it did get me to listen to a couple things I hadn't heard in a while.

1. Silver Ponds - Figurines (Skeleton)        
2. Bratislava - Beirut (Gulag Orkestar)
3. Gorification - Brain Drill (Apocalyptic Feasting)      
4. Dog Shelter - Burial (Untrue)     
5. Upstairs In My House - Men At Work (Cargo)
6. Stay - Saves the Day (Under The Boards)
7. Raw - Saul Williams (The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!)     
8. Another Attack  - Zox (Line In The Sand)      
9. You Oughta Know - The Killing Moon (Punk Goes 90's)          
10. Kicking Your Crosses Down - Circa Survive (On Letting Go)       

I still love Men At Work. I do. Just seems like some timeless music to me. 

Ah, remember Soundgarden? Those were the days. 

 

This video was shot live in Calgary and yes, yours truly was there moshing his head off. That was one of the best shows Calgary had ever seen. Tool at Mac Hall was pretty cool too but this Soundgarden show was unreal. The band was so tight and these guys just had such chemistry and energy going.

Thanks to Trismus' blog for making me check in with Soundgarden once again. I do miss these guys.

Pull a live show out of the past. One that really left an impression on you. What would it be? I've 

I find it always best to write these things right after a show while everything is still fresh in your head.

First up on the Progressive Nation bill was the band I wanted to see most, 3. Not to spoil any surprises or anything but they were my favorite as well. The guys in the band were having a great time. It is totally apparent that 3 is really Joey Eppard's baby. He just ruled the stage. There was this one song where he got all flamenco on his Ovation guitar. Utterly amazing musicianship. The guy that was adding some of the percussion and some keyboards was entertaining to watch as well.

I had a chance to talk to Joey after their set. He seems like a very, humble and down to earth person. Thanks for putting on a great show Joey! Watch for an upcoming podcast featuring 3.

Next up was Between The Buried and Me. Their set consisted of like 2 songs. It was kinda like a Mars Volta show only in the fact that they stretched the songs out for ages. These guys weren't bad but their live show didn't really do it for me.

The mighty Swedes, Opeth were up. Their show was very impressive as well. They played a new song from their upcoming album, Watershed, which was amazing. I believe it was "Heir Apparent". Their dynamics come off quite nicely live and Mikael Åkerfeldt is quite entertaining between songs. "This song is about the Devil! No, not really. Just saying it to be cool." The band proved why they are into their second decade.

Finally, the Prog Rockers themselves, Dream Theater hit the stage. While they seemed to have the crowd entranced, I found that their antics got a little boring after a while. John Petrucci proved himself as a worthy guitarist, hell, the whole band are worth musicians. The songs just ended up a little too drawn out for me. The one song they did from the album I'm most familiar with, Images and Words, seemed quite cheesy. Even my friend that I went with was quite turned off with this. James Lebrie is a good vocalist but seemed a little bored. 

After I went to the Protest The Hero, Fall Of Troy, and Chiodos a couple weeks back and then this one tonight, I am wishing that promoters would mix up the bands a little more. Fall Of Troy would have added a nice youthfulness to the Progressive Nation tour and wouldn't have taken any merit away. I'm surprised that this stop warranted two nights at the large MacEwan Hall venue.

 

It's been a while since I posted a random playlist so here goes:

 

1. Stand And Feel Your Worth - Thrice (Vheissu)
2. Femme Fatale - Owen (At Home With Owen)
3. What I've Become - Lamb Of God (Ashes Of The Wake)
4. Todo tiende - Ojos de brujo (Techari)
5. It Runs In The Family - The Red Chord (Prey For Eyes)
6. $20 - M.I.A. (Kala)
7. Checkout Time In Vegas - DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS (Brighter Than Creation's Dark)
8. Die Die Die - Dr. Dog (We All Belong)
9. Hatched Upon the Age - Comets on Fire 07/08/07 3:25 PM Avatar
10. As Makeshift As We Are - The Tragically Hip (In Between Evolution) 

Now it is a little ironic that a Thrice track from Vheissu showed up as the first track on this playlist. I promised a few people on the site that I would revisit that album after they all declared that Vheissu was the best Thrice output. Anyway, I guess it's someone telling me that I need to check it out. This playlist is a little heavier than most but still damn good. I'm always amazed at how good my tastes are. lol If any of you are into world music at all, do check out Ojos de Brujo. They are a great Spanish fusion band. Seriously amazing.

 

As some of you may have seen from a forum post I am indeed sporting a new 8GB iPhone. And it's fantastic! I thought I would run through some of the cooler apps and webapps (web apps meaning ones that you have to be connected via Wi-Fi or Edge network, apps meaning native on the iPhone).

 

1. Fring - First and foremost is Fring. A native application that allows you to use various IM clients, AIM, ICQ, MSN and Yahoo. That alone is cool but there is one other component to Fring. You can use Skype. This is good for saving money on your phone bills. Crazy!
2. NetVibes - Netvibes is like an RSS aggregator but so much more. I use this for all of my daily newsfeeds, review feeds, keeping up with Music Emissions via the RSS feeds as well as many other cool components. They have ported the site quite nicely over to a very useful web interface that fits perfectly on the iPhone.
3. iFlickr - iFlickr is another cool native application that allows you to take a picture and instantly deliver it to your Flickr account. 
4. Facebook - Everyone's favorite social network site (besides Music Emissions). Facebook has also ported a lovely interface over to the iPhone. Easy to keep up with your friends.
5. Google - Everyone loves google maps. But Google has a wonderful interface for ALL of their apps including Reader, Gmail, Calendar and all their other personal apps.
6. Wikipedia - Another nifty port over to iPhone. Wikipedia is quickly becoming one of my most visited websites.
7. Pianist - This one just shows off the cool touch interface. It shows piano keys and you can play chords and such. You can record your songs. Not super practical but cool for showing off your phone. There was a guitar one as well but totally not practical. I just saw they have a drum app too that looks pretty fun.
8. Labyrinth - There are a lot of games coming out that make use of the iPhone's accelerometer, the thing that senses if you tip your phone. This is the best I've found so far. Just like the old classic wooden box with the silver ball and the holes.
9. Mahjong - Yup, Mahjong fits on the interface, well not quite but you can flick the board around. A fun and mind expanding game.
10. Gemlogic - Everyone's favorite Bejeweled especially for the iPhone. I have a couple problems with this one only because you are allowed to make moves that don't get rid of gems.

I highly recommend the iPhone. Sure, they aren't "totally" supported in Canada but it is getting so easy to hack these with an application called ZiPhone. Just be careful on the stupid Rogers network with your dataplan. I've heard you could rack up over $1000 in one month. I don't use the Edge network stuff. I only use it on Wi-Fi hotspots.

Seeing today is Earth Day I thought I would post my efforts to make this world a greener one. Here are some of the things my family and I have done today (and during every day) to try and help out.

 

1. Super short, luke warm shower not letting the water run for more than 5 minutes
2. Hang dry our cloth diapers
3. Use our home made environmentally friendly washing detergent in cold wash
4. Kept the heat down this morning and threw on a hoodie instead (it's friggin' cold here in Calgary right now too, for April)
5. Walk to work (do this every day)
6. Unplugged the cable so kids couldn't have the TV on today.
7. Used less of our lights today. Found that we could actually have breakfast without the dining room light on.
8. Switch one more light to a CFL light
9. Ate as a vegetarian for the day, no meat
10. Got our recycling ready for drop off
11. Took my travel mug for coffee (do this every day, multiple times a day)
12. Brought my lunch to work

That's about it. Let me know if you've thought of other great ways to join in today.

 

As my previous post stated, I was off to see Fall of Troy, Protest The Hero, and Chiodos at the University here in Calgary last night. It was a good show but I did have a couple complaints. First off, I was a little disappointed I missed half of Fall of Troy's set. What I saw was quite impressive and in hindsight, it may have been good that I only caught 4 songs. Protest the Hero was amazing BUT their "Orville Shreddenbacher" skills tend to wear after about 4-5 songs. All the songs start sounding the same. There was not enough diversity in the songs to provide a good show. And when I think about it, I don't think I have gotten through Fortress all in one listen. I will attempt to with my upcoming review. And Chiodos was too much for me. Craig Owens was a little too... Ah, flamboyant? I don't know what the word is. He is decent showman but his schtick started to wear as well. Chiodos' songs sounded too similar in a live setting as well. In the end, I'm glad I had the opportunity to see all three of these bands. 

Fall Of TroyProtest The HeroProtest The HeroChiodos