A festive message from my Granddad

All done shopping and wrapping!

Two GREAT Songs.

I find my self being drawn more and more to any kind of hip-hip that isn't the typical mongolid chest beating. I guess saying that sounds a little crass but there's very few topics I find less interesting than someone talking about how rich they are or how everyone else who makes music possess none of the skills they do. Over the past week I've heard two fantastic songs that really stood out to me, both of them have just a realistic quality in the lyrics and I thought I'd share them here. Even if you don't like hip-hop very much, try to keep an open mind, I really feel like these are fantastic songs.


Kendrick Lamar - Swimming Pools
I heard this song on NPR's listener picks of 2012 podcast and I had to pull over and start the podcast over again just so I could hear this song again. I guess the topic struck a chord with me.
I haven't had a chance to listen to the whole album yet but I'm sure if its anything like this song I'll love it.



Julian Malone - October 20th
A co-worker of mine gave me this album to listen to, the whole album is great but this song in paticular gets a rare 5 star rating. Just turn off the lights and listen to this song in the dark because this isn't sunny day music.
Another great song from this album that I really liked is called Graveyard, check that out too if you have the time.

Tiny Desk Concert - Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

Sometimes I try to think of what my Dream job would be if I could do anything in the world and its videos like this that make me wish I could have Bob Boilen's job. It'd be awesome to have a job that just lets me talk about music and talk to artist, even just working in the same office would be the experience of a life time.

(Edit, embedding the video doesn't seem to work well, you can view what I was talking about here)

The End of Movember.

So, this is it. This is the best I can muster.

Its been a hard month, its been an itchy month, but, I stuck through it and this, this is my Movember stash. This is as good as it gets.

Tonight....

At 12 am.........

..... I SHAVE

The Elwins - Forgetful Assistance

Wow, another great tune from Reddit. This one kinda reminded me of a lighter version of something that you'd expect from The Strokes, (or as the post from reddit points out, something from an Apple commercial.)

Movember!

Ok everyone, its the final week of Movember and dare I say, I feel I have grown a semi-formidible stash. To help sweeten the pot for donations I've decided that I'll be selling stash-sculpting rights to the highest donation from now until Thursday night. Basically the highest bitter gets to send me a style, I'll do my best to shave my stash into that shape and I'll email them pictures through-out the day on Friday. (I'll email/mms at least three of me out in public.)
So please! Do your worst! If you can't donate maybe give this post a share to help me spread the word?

Visit my mo-space here if you're interested! (and sorry for the copy-pasta from facebook if you're friends with me there!) 

TNGHT - Higher Ground

Better enjoyed with some decent earphones/speakers, laptop speakers and ear buds don't really do this song justice.

Frogs & the Smell of Dirt

When I was really young there were a few really awesome summers. They were right after the time in life when you always need to be supervised (lest you have a water-gun fight in the house,) but right before the time when you need to get a job. I remember one time Cody and I went for a walk on what was probably the hottest day of the year in Altona forest. We walked around the whole thing and when we got back we bought two bottles of Tahiti Treat and slammed them faster than I think I’ve ever drank a carbonated beverage. Typing it out doesn’t make it sound all that glamorous, but I don’t think any amount of description would be able to convey my fondness of that memory. There really is nothing I love more than feeling the sun on your face on a hot day, the smell of the earth and the smell of forests in southern Ontario. 

 Those were the summers of Halo-thons, feasts, neighbors bringing their Nieces from Europe and just a general feeling of near constant happiness. Those really were the good old days, but in retrospect, I’d never go back.

A few days ago I got home to my apartment after work and I thought to my self, “you know whats still pretty awesome? Living on my own.” I spend most of my money on food, rent and transportation but I’m not sure how I could describe how different I feel. (but then again maybe I’m just really bad at describing my feelings.) The feeling of walking in through your own door and sitting down in your own chair and eating a good meal that you prepared is so immensely gratifying. Moving out has fostered a strong sense of independence in me and I think it was something I really needed to be a happy person.

Sometimes it all still feels so surreal though, I’ve been living on my own for the better half of a year and things still feel so different, its like I left to go on a vacation got a really awesome hotel room and never came back. Its not just living on my own that makes things surreal either, its everything else that seems to be going on in my life. My sister is getting married next year and even I’m getting hyped up for the wedding (I’ve never in my life been excited by the prospect of a religious ceremony).  I’m also in a pretty serious relationship too, I wouldn’t say that I’m going to be getting hitched any time soon, but, I’m exactly where I want to be right now. 

When I was young I always just thought something was going to click in my mind and then I’d be like “Oh, I see that as of this moment I am an adult. What a splendid occurrence.” I guess were all just like frogs in hot water though, becoming aware a gradual change is so hard to detect. Being a kid was great but the freedom wasn’t really limitless. As I write this I’m ready to go out to a concert with my girlfriend and one of my best friends and tomorrow we’re just going to sleep in and watch TV, out of all the possibilities I could conjure, I’m not sure I could imagine a better way to spend my time.

Occasionally when I meet new people they will ask what I do, I think instead of telling them that I fix computers I’ll tell them that I’m just enjoying life.

Santa Claus Parade

Yesterday Charlie and I met up with some friends for brunch and then watched the Santa Claus parade and boy-howdy, say what you will about global climate change, it sure makes for nice parade weather! It was an absolutely gorgeous day, afterwards we went out for a pint and nachos. 

Good times. 

Blinky looks so down and depressed.

DAD! DAD! JIM PATTERSON! HEY DAD! DAD OVER HERE!

Where the hell is my McRib you son of a bitch?!

Help me Obiwan Kenobi...

Creepy cat guy...

Creepy monkey people...

New iPhone

So as part of a tradition I'm trying to start with myself, I bought my self a new phone because I of the new position I landed at Rogers. Dad and I were messing around with it on the way back to Toronto yesterday.

Niagara Falls.

The weekend before last Charlie and I decided to go up to Niagara on a whim and had a pretty good time, I wish I had time to get back to my place to grab my camera before hand but I figured doing so would ruin the spur of the moment feeling. I kinda had a running theme of taking stupid pictures of my self while I was there, but then again I always take pretty dumb pictures of my self.

What I plan on looking like at the end of Moveber

A view from the Sky Wheel

Music! (...returns to my blog)

I haven't been posting too much music here lately, partially because of laziness but also because I've been going through a bit of a good music dry spell. Despite of the drought, I've got a couple great items to share today and I hope you dig them as much as I do.


Greydon Square - Summer's Ending
Greydon is by far one of my favorite artists, I don't normally buy too much music but for this album and the last I was one of the first in line to shell out my cash. I'm not sure if this is my favorite track from this album but its the one that best suits my mood as I write this.


Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Starting Over - Jimmy Iovine 
I hate getting hyped up over new music because you never know when an artist is going to go off on a tangent you wish they didn't and leave you feeling disappointed and yearning for the older days, and alas, I found my self hyping up this album months before I actually got it. Thankfully I was rewarded with what is probably going to be one of my favorite albums on the year. I picked two songs from this album because the whole thing has such a wide range of emotions and you need at least two songs to get a taste of this album.





Grizzly Bear - Half Gate
I really only started listening to Grizzly Bear because hipster music blogs told me too and I'm glad that they did. this is my favorite song from their newest album, Shields. 


The Tragically Hip - Now For Plan A
My Girlfriend was in the UK for a few weeks and she came home on the weekend and we spent Sunday watching TNG, baking, being lazy, and listening to music, (pretty much my ideal weekend.) While we were waiting for the cake we made to cool down we were lying in the sun and listening to the Hip's new album and we both agreed it was great music to suit the mood. 
Its hard to describe how I feel sometimes, but I think I'm going to remember that Sunday for a really long time.



Patric Watson - Adventures In Your Own Backyard
I found this one on Reddit, I loved the music and the skill of the skater. Its like his dancing partner is the board itself. 

Picture from the walk home.

Last Tuesday I brought my camera and my sister's 50mm lens with me too the bar, the day after was pretty difficult but I discovered how great the lens was for taking shots at night. Not too bad for a bunch of drunk pics on the way home from the pub I think!

Cottage Trip

I went up to the cottage with Chrsitian and Dad on friday night to help with the winterization of the cottage, it got REALLY cold at night but between the fire and the scotch I was able to keep pretty warm. I tried taking some night time pictures again but most of them failed pretty hard, here's some of the better ones from the weekend. 

For those of you...

For those of you that doubt my ineffable love of Sriracha sauce, I sumbit to you proof of my love. 

Exhibit A: Generous application of sauce

Exhibit B: Blissfull/dopped up look on my face as sauce is being consumed. 

Exhibit C: Straight up just spraying into my mouth. 

Dress Well, Dance Silly.

For the last three years I’ve a bit of a personal yearly tradition, I pick a new song that came out between June and august and I name it as the summer song. Last year was Before, and the year before that was Like a G6. This summer was a bad summer for new music so because of that its taken me a log time to come to this decision, but after much pondering on the subject I think this years track is going to have to be PSY’s Gangnam Style.

I know. Don’t look at me that way. I know its total cheese, but common! Its hella catchy.     

One last picture from Montreal to share too, we did Saturday night Gangnam style. 



















Also, on a slightly related note...

Pictures from Montreal

This past weekend I went up to Montreal with a big group of friends, aside from a few minor traveling hiccups and a couple long lines, it was a pretty good weekend. Most of these pictures got posted to facebook already but I wanted to put a few of them here as well.

Made me think of a certain friend....

Thought for the day.

I was lying down last night with my girlfriend and we started talking about death, she said that she's not afraid to die and while I'm not either, I mentioned that I was sad that I'd probably miss the singularity and die before medical technology got to the point where no one needed to die anymore. She thought that by the time she got to 80 shed probably be tired and want to die anyways. I said I didn't want to live for ever but five hundred years would be nice. (Imagine what you could do in 500 years…)
I don't think she got me because we she didn't really have anything to say.
We fell asleep and I had a dream and I had a dream that spring was just a few weeks away

Things are good. I'm trying not to let the end of summer bum me out.

Faces of Montreal

Totally ripping off one of my Dad's ideas here :P

Cottage Weekend

Went up to the cottage this past weekend and had a pretty good time. I tried a bit of stelar photography but all my pictures came out pretty grainy, not quite sure what I was doing wrong. Still had a great time though.

Its normally around this time of year I start feeling the crippling pangs depression as summer slipps away but I'm feeling a bit more optimistic about it.