Corner of Bourbon & Division

I have a song named after me! This is too awesome for words. :D

The gig rocked. Invisible, as usual, was awesome. They've come leaps and bounds from where they were last year, and they were pretty great then to begin with. My throat is sore from all the screaming and cheering, and there isn't a single muscle in my body that doesn't hurt from all the dancing and all the jumping up and down.

Random Colour's own set went well but was plagued with technical difficulties from the get-go. The saxophone had two keys stick, one of the monitors crapped out halfway through the set, and the pedal came off my high hat in our last song.

Perry, our sound guy, was a marvel. He bullied, berated, yelled at, and chivvied us into sounding better than we've ever sounded before. I learned more about drumming in the couple of hours we spent with him than I have in the past two years of teaching myself how to play.

Perry could play our instruments better than we could. It was a humbling experience, to put it mildly. He lectured gmarc and I on our drumming techniques, showed us how to tune the drum kit, and explained how to "break" the new skins on the drums. He also told me that my drumming technique was completely wrong, and explained how I should be doing it (causing me to freak out just a bit because it was less than two hours before I was supposed to perform on stage). Perry further berated sandman7 for not having patchcords, remonstrated with baronscartop for not having his bass amp, and told chibipunkdemon that the harmonics on his guitar were off. He used words we'd never heard before, cracked jokes, made lewd comments, and proudly told us that he carried a handgun in the trunk of his car (and was evasive when I asked him if he had a restricted PAL for that thing ;) ).

Perry made us look bad, but he made us sound terrific. He was wonderful to work with.

I can't believe how many people turned up! It was fabulous! I was a little sad that three-quarters of the audience left during our set (half before, one-quarter during), because it sort of killed the energy, but it was still one of our better performances.

The best part of our set was hearing the audience freak right the hell out when they heard the opening riff to "Enter Sandman." Suddenly I got a surge of adrenaline, and we played that song faster than we've ever played it before. Everyone kept up, and it was freaking magic. People howled when sandman7 came on stage to join karine on the vocals halfway through the set. That song rocked hardcore.

By the end of the set I was exhausted. By the end of "Bad Reputation" I had no energy left except for adrenaline, and I lost my beat at the end. So I compensated by hitting the cymbals as hard as I could and hoping no one would notice. ;)

In short, the night was great. Thanks to everyone who made it out! It wouldn't have been the same without you.

Apart from mostly living under a rock this week, things got pretty stressful at work, albeit in a strictly work-related way, and not in an interpersonal-suck kind of way, if that makes any sense. Things also worked themselves out in the end.

Thursday we got a frantic call from a client who said his suicidal wife was missing, along with their car. We immediately went into high gear —human lives on the line tend to do that. We had that sucker tracked within twenty minutes, and found the car parked in a strip mall parking lot. Ten minutes later the police were on the scene, but there was no sign of the woman. A few more minutes' searching found her having her hair done at a local salon. So much for "suicidal and out of control." Our client appeared on the scene not too long after, and as the policewoman on the scene put it, it was pretty obvious that he should have been the one on medication and not his wife. I would say all's well that ends well, except that our tracker told us, when he came back to the central, that he was pretty sure that poor woman was going to get the crap beaten out of her that night when they got home. So, not a really happy ending. An okay ending, because we didn't have to prevent a suicide, but it was still of the suck for the poor woman who has to deal with her controlling husband.

Call number two came last night, from a big trucking company (name omitted so I don't get fired) who told us, and I quote, that their truck full of copper had been hijacked. There are two magic words in that sentence: "copper" and "hijacked." Any theft involving metals sends people into high gear, and hijacking a truck is a very serious offense. So I had the trackers' supervisor hanging over my shoulder (he happened to be in the central when we got the call) while I called Bell Mobility for updates every three minutes.

As the supervisor put it, we could smell blood in the water: the Boomerang unit was answering beautifully (always iffy on trailers, because the unit only has its own tiny independent battery, unlike other vehicles where it's hooked up directly to the main battery), and it was cruising down the 417 at a pretty decent clip. We weren't sure for a while whether it was going to turn north and stay in Ontario, or whether it was going to continue east and into Quebec. We had a police report number from the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) who were standing by if it stayed in the province, and we quickly got the SQ (Sureté du Québec) on the line and had them set up a roadblock at the border.

So the trailer crosses over into Québec, and the SQ take the guy down. Pull the guy out of the truck at gunpoint, shove him face first into the asphalt, cuff him and put him in a cruiser, only to find out that, umm, he's the driver.

Yeah.

So there was a little miscommunication. The client lost contact with the driver, and in his mind that automatically translated into "hijacking." >_< The SQ was understandably pissed off, but it was in no way our fault. So we told the client that he'd better give his driver an early Christmas present, and explained that they'd be getting a bill from us. Oh, and that he might want to apologize to the SQ for wasting their time.

It was just that kind of week.

Today went really well, OTOH. Got up at a decent time, had breakfast with the Parental Units, and then had a kickass practice with Random Colour, after a month's hiatus. We beat "Enter Sandman" into submission, did some great work on "First We Take Manhattan," and made tremendous progress on "The Bonny Swans." The latter especially felt good by the end: we've definitely got a good idea of where that song is heading now, which we didn't have before.

After band practice I walked to Archambault, where I replaced my Cat Stevens album that was eaten by my tape recorder a few years ago, and bought "Surrealistic Pillow," which I'd been meaning to get for a while. They were both half-price, so I actually stayed within my budget. Yay! I then walked over to Chapters and spent all my gift cards on books. I got a new Charles Todd and an Ellis Peters that I didn't have before, and I have started collecting the Amelia Peabody mysteries, so that I can read them anytime I please. :D

Then I went off for dinner with the Parental Units, where I found out that the alarming rattling sound I was hearing when I drove the car (which my father generously offered to check out for me today) was the ball bearing on the rear left wheel coming apart. It was only a matter of time before I lost my wheel going down Autorout 15 on the way to work (or coming home), it seems. So the car is now back at the garage, and I'll be getting it back on Monday if all goes well.

owldaughter lent me the second season of "Slings & Arrows," which I am now off to go watch. I've already watched the first episode, and it looks just as awesome as the first season, but in a completely different way. Yay!

Oh, look: it's Saturday afternoon and I have a migraine.

It's just the mild beginning of a migraine, so I'm going to kill it with Excedrin and a nap. However, this confirms my theory that something at the rehearsal space is triggering my migraines. I suspect it's either the quality of the air (not very good) or the pervasive smell of hopps from the brewery next door that's doing it. I've always been hypersensitive to smells, especially chemical ones, and usually any kind of cheap perfume will set me off, so it's not really a surprise after all.

Bleh.

Well, forewarned is forearmed, right? Next week I'll see what I can do to take preventive measures beforehand.

Maybe I'll go to bed early tonight. Will see how things work out.

Mark your calendars, folks, because it's time for another gig featuring everyone's favourite undefinable bands, Random Colour and Invisible.

For those of you just tuning in, I am the drummer for Random Colour. Yes, Virginia, I do hit things with sticks.

Anyway, April 22nd, that is exactly three weeks from tonight, the two bands will be performing back-to-back at the Paradoxe theatre, which is where we always do these things. Curtain goes up at eight.

If you need directions, ping me and I shall email them to you.

Admission is free, as always. Bring your friends and your own booze! Booze is always welcome. Bring people —the more the merrier, and so forth.

So I just called the nice lady at Collège Montmorency, and she said there's still room available in the dispatcher course that I mentioned in this post.

So now I have to scrape together $250 and register.

The question is, of course, which course do I want to take? There's one in February, which means fewer scheduling problems but less time to scrape together the money. Money is definitely a consideration since Capricornucopia is in three weeks (official announcement to come sometime today), and that costs money too. It would be on the 18th and 19th as well as the 25th and 26th of the month.

The same dates apply to March, which would mean more time to scrape together the money I need to register, but it also directly conflicts with the next gig date for Invisible and Random Colour. Granted, the class lasts from 8am to 4:30pm, and so in theory I would be in time for the gig, but it also means no morning practice that day, which is a Bad Thing(TM).

Taking the course in March also has the advantage of being closer to the time when the next set of courses would start, namely the ones in which I'm supposed to specialise. Less chance of forgetting everything I know before taking another course.

Gah.

I hate it when Big Important Life Stuff conflicts with other Important Life Stuff.

I slept until 11am. I only got up because I had to phone foi_nefaste to coordinate Bubble Tea tonight. Otherwise, I might just as easily have slept another hour or five.

The migraine, thanks be to all the gods, seems finally to be gone. Excedrin and lots of sleep seem to have killed it.

I continued re-reading A Clash of Kings for a while, then spent half an hour just sitting with the cats on my lap. Really, there's nothing like having three purring cats draped over you, just being quiet. George was off wreaking havoc somewhere else. He's not especially cuddly, although he's very friendly.

Sometime this week I shall go in search of A Feast for Crows. I have heard very different reviews coming from everywhere, so I have decided to see for myself. Not that I wouldn't have read it anyway, but generally speaking I know what to expect from my friends' opinions. This time, I am in the dark. It'll be a surprise.

Today I shall attain my projected wordcount of 50,000 words. I have four and a half hours before I see foi_nefaste, so I figure that's enough time to finish, if I stop procrastinating. ;)

To my great surprise and joy, I found a shiny green bag waiting for me outside this morning, hanging on my mailbox. It is to squee! See, I've been using a green sparkly paper bag to carry my drumsticks and other percussion-related paraphernalia, but the bag was getting, well, a little battered. So it seems that karine got inspired and actually sewed me a bag yesterday! How exciting is that? w00t!

I also caved and bought new drum skins for the bass and the snare on Saturday. The bass got torn since the last gig, we're not sure how but we suspect it was a moving-related mishap aggravated by temperature changes, and the snare has been looking much the worse for wear for a while now. I shall be bringing both with me to practice on Tuesday, and then I get to figure out how to replace skins on a drum. Woo!

That's it for now, I think. Now I shall go make something to eat, and then think about writing those missing 2,000-odd words for NaNoWriMo.

I have spent the day doing nothing but post to Bluebook and sleeping. Sleeping is good. Sleeping is my friend.

The concert rocked hardcore. If you didn't come, you missed something really fun.

Invisible played first, opening with their hit single "Little Black Plane," and rocking out throughout the set after that. Highlights were

1- talyesin on backup vocals, which I had never seen in performance before. He made me choke on my water during "My Girlfriend's Girlfriend," and was generally awesome.

2- gmarc on drums. Watching the bass drum and the high hat bounce away from each other over the stage was hilarious. The high-hat grab and the "Oh shit I lost a drumstick! Oh well, I'll just improvise with one!" was awe-inspiring.

3- sandman7, the "Great Old One of Good Clean Fun," as a backup vocalist was great too. He does have a really nice voice. :)

4- baronscartop working the hair. I'd never seen him do it before, and I was very impressed. He has rock star hair and a pink bass named Honey. What more do you need?

5- The lead guitarist. I mean, that guy is hot.

"My Girlfriend's Girlfriend" is my favourite song of their set.


Random Colour kicked ass and took names. Not only that, but we did it amidst a plethora of technical difficulties. We covered "A, D, E" by Invisible, and our guitarist broke a string.

"A, D, E" was a last-minute addition to the set list. We decided to try it out last week, and ended up doing it in walz time, to the great pleasure of our audience. Of course, the joke was even better because Invisible performed that song just before we did it. :)

We got very nice feedback on "Do You Get High?" which I appreciated because it's our weakest song and I always feel as though I'm butchering it. It was good to hear from an outside perspective what we actually sound like when playing that song.

Then one of the soundboards went wonky during "Julia," because none of us could hear the right notes coming out of the cello. That worked out well in the end, and the song went really well after that. I didn't screw up the tempo either on that or on "Stutter," which I'd been doing all the night before, and I didn't even really need my metronome, although I took it onstage with me just in case.

And, of course, the final insult was karine's microphone falling apart at a crucial moment during "Bad Reputation," although to her credit she picked it up, put it back together and kept going almost without missing a beat, and the rest of us followed suit, and the song continued almost as though nothing had happened.

Naturally, our encore song was a big hit with Invisible. We'd tried to keep it a secret for as long as possible, but two of them figured it out. Still, doing "Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio?" was a great deal of fun, and chews the hell out of my drumsticks.


So it was a night of triumphs, with a couple of frustrations to keep things interesting. I' d like to take this opportunity to say how much my friends rock. You guys are all awesome. You keep me on my toes, you keep me creative, you keep me from stagnating. I'm am very proud to count you all friends. Here's to many more years of rocking out.

And, today, I rest.

Rock on.

Before I forget again, I have an announcement to make:

Next Saturday, October 22nd, at Paradoxe, Invisible and Random Colour will be performing live.

Concert starts at eight, and all friends of both bands are invited, as well as any guests said friends may wish to bring.

Please contact me or any other band member you know for directions to Paradoxe.

1)Tea makes just about any office environment more palatable. Just sayin’.

2)I have a name for another manager at the office. The PAM. Perfume-Abusing Manager. Seriously, it’s a nice perfume, but must she marinate in it? Going into her office means Instant!Migraine. Bleh.

3)Actually, I have two acronyms. The second one is the TMIM. Too Much Information Manager. She’s the one who feels compelled to give me all the sordid details of her life, such as it is, complete with gastro-intestinal workings and how much she paid for the new carpet in her living room, and her anxiety about whether she should sell her house.

I am Jack’s complete lack of empathy. :P

4)I got myself a nifty new notebook at work. It’s six inches by four inches, and I have my to-do list in it. To-do lists, I have discovered, are incredibly useful when one is a scatterbrained flake like yours truly. I am sure no one will be shocked when I reveal that to-do lists help one to be organised. Mind you, I’ve tried using them at home, and they never work because I forget to look at them. At work, the list is always right to hand, and I’m slowly becoming accustomed to checking it regularly (read: obsessively).

5)Speaking of new notebooks, I have liberated a three-ring green binder from the office as well as a label, so now I have an actual workbook for all my random_colour stuff. Go me!

6)I am really, really tired. I stayed up far too late last night making Firefly icons. It’s all talyesin’s fault for linking to screen caps. I have many more to make tonight, and then I’ll post them. Whee! Icons!

7)I am slowly but surely getting back into the swing of things with Bluebook. I’m going to try to write at least two posts over my lunch break, one for Sam and one for Adrina. Poor Adry’s been neglected of late, but since she’s the geologist and we’re talking earthquakes, I should probably post something. I’m more excited about Sam, since a post for him heralds the (almost) beginning of an exciting new story arc for the base staff, which we’ve not done before.

All in all, good stuff. I have a sort of existential-crisis-post lurking in the back of my head, but I think it'll wait.