welcome to the city that shoves you back

here are a couple photos i took in philly while attending 'this is hardcore'.


that was hardcore.


blacklisted.


grey area.


kid dynamite.


beemer.


mike ski.

bad scene(fest), everyone's fault.

i caught a ride with my bro's cancer bats to st catherines to attend the annual 'SCENE festival'







one of my highlights of the day was seeing my friend peter and his new band teenage kicks! you should check out their blog or head over to juicebox.com to download their new 7" for free!

this is birthday

i celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday in philadelphia at 'this is hardcore'.
if you missed it, feel free to live vicariously through this video.

apathetic apologies (aka "sorry for slacking")

happy new year!
i've really fallen behind on this whole "end of year" blogging business.
i really promise that i will have a few year and decade end lists to post before the end of the month.

for now, here are a couple random photos from when shane and i drove down to detroit to see frank turner open for the gaslight anthem at saint andrews hall.
definitely one of the top ten shows i attended in 2009 (complete list coming soon).

i'll walk up to her when she's caught the bouquet

So my pal Kyle Sloan got married!
Holy crap!

I went to Nashville for the weekend back in September to be there. We built a shed, had a time, Ben and Aileen were there, I explained why I'm vegan about 15 different times, and Kyle and Mandy are now married!

CLICK HERE FOR THE PHOTOS!

they say "i'll see you at the top, boy"

Earlier this summer I took a spontaneous last minute bus trip to New York City. I decided at about 7pm one Friday evening, on my way to see the Blue Jays lose, that I'd take the red eye bus over night to the big apple. My only real plans or intentions were to see Paint It Black play a couple shows, but I hadn't really given myself time to plan anything. I took a ton of photos, and have been neglecting to post them on account of the fact I started writing an up to the minute diary of how the weekend went. This was first spoiled when I got to the first show and forgot to write about things as they happened, so I did my best to recount them the next day on the train. The whole thing got blown when I got to providence and hung out with my friend Karl and some of the dudes from Soul Control. Jim talked me into getting this great program called "Quick Pull", and when I tried it out, I forgot to save the notes I had typed on the bus that day, sooooo I lost everything since I had saved last. Anyways, here's the most of it. oh, and don't forget to look at the photos >>>HERE<<<


11:48pm
- Driving out of toronto past the skydome. The jays blew it tonight the second that I left the game to get home and pack.
- just ate an urb herb sweet potato muffin
- working away at my 2L tropicana orange juice (lots of pulp). Already starting to get warm and sick of OJ
- listening to silversun pickups new record "swoon"
- texting and bbming away
- stoked on the power outlet, my phone was dying when I got on the bus

12:35am
- in oakville I think
- using my flannel and jacket as a pillow against the window
- listening to camera obscura - my maudlin career

2:35am
- slept a bit so far, already feeling cramped
- arriving at the border
- threw out the OJ

3:00 am
- leaving border
- listening to attack in black - years
- when I got back on the bus, a woman was in my seat. (I assumed that everyone would sit back in their same seats) and now my new seat seems to wobble a bit and sitting behind a dude with an overwhelming aftershave smell- hate that

3:13 am
- buffalo terminal
- switched over to my US sim card
- smelly dude moved forward one seat, and so did I. no more wobbles, and this seat has an outlet

8:27 am
- just woke up, the bus is stopped at some sort of highway side services for a courtesy stop
- I see a sign for burger king and contemplate 'waking up with the king' but refrain

11:06 am
- still driving, somewhere in the new jersey outskirts of NYC
- listening to Frank Turner
- really could use a bathroom right about now

3:51 pm
- sitting in the subway station at houston and 2nd ave with claire
- went to curly's for brunch on the recomendation of andy pib
- had tofu scram, pancakes, curly fries and fried marinated tofu
- walked through street market towards houston
- stopped at joe strummer mural
- went to supreme and bought pat a hat
- watched a basketball game in the park

4:40 pm
- just leaving penn station on the LIRR to lindenhurst
- claire parted ways and headed home to the bronx
- eating red bamboo crispy soul chicken nuggets
- listening to polar bear club

6:56 pm
- standing in line out front of the moose lodge hall in lindenhurst (long island) new york
- got off the train and found a super market to use the atm and bathroom
- bought a bottle of water, naked smoothie, and 2 bags of peanut chews
- took a cab to the venue and chatted with the eclectic female driver who really liked talking about her 71 bonneville

Notable events from the show and the rest of saturday night
- the show was being run by over precautious suburban long island mom & pop security, who gave me a hard time about my bag and couldn't understand my canadian license or passport
- spent most of the show hanging with andy and some of his friends at the merch table
- sold merch for paint it black for a while after andy almost punched a security dad who told him he couldn't eat pizza in the venue, which he ordered on account of the fact the food provided by the venue was all meat oriented.
Quote:
"You gotta get that out of here, no outside food or drink!" - SD
"Our whole band is vegetarian and we can't eat any of the food here so ordering pizza was our only option" - andy
"I don't care what you are, get that outta here!" - SD
*me holding andy back from hitting the dude*
Many speeches, insults, jokes and song dedications followed both on and off stage
- talked to dan while he wrote setlists and tried not to fan out on him too hard
- met fellow canadians ally and claire (from st catherines) who know my pal andrea, who told me they'd be at the show as well. I tried to talk them into coming to providence and driving me home and they seemed to be somewhat down
- saw this girl named heather, friend of my dear friend stacy smallwood, who's couch I slept on when I flew to nyc for the first hwm reunion show weekend, but didn't know if it was her with drastically blonde hair. Luckily it was her, I said hi, she's a babe.
- ceremony played and kids lost their shit, which led to security turning the lights on and emerging into the pit. The singer encouraged kids to get up front and sing along and the show went on
- paint it black ripped, great crowd reaction
- I caught a falling PA speaker at one point
- crime in stereo were awesome too, glad I got to see them on long island. Kids went nuts and security got pissed a few times
- chatted with a photographer after the show, hoping she's got some good photos from this show that I can post here after
- saw LIHC vet, PMA enthusiast anthony race and chatted a bit
- randomly saw my old friend cameron, who has been living in england since quitting the sleeping, just happened to be home visiting family in long island
- chatted with the crime in stereo bassist after the show about numerous failed attempts to tour together and hopeful future opportunities
- got a ride to brooklyn with canadian girls for secret late night paint it black show in a punk loft
- arrived in brooklyn before the bands did, so decided to head over to foodswing for bbq drumsticks and "punk fries" (fries with vegan cheese and bacon bits, ranch dressing to dip)
- randomly ran into canetti at foodswings, who was working some brand new radio session recording around the corner

1am
- got back to the punk loft just as PIB started. Most punk show I've probably ever experienced. Took pics and video.
- andy introduced me to this dude ian, who seems to be the nyc "punk boss" who runs all the diy shows and this loft living community
2:30 am
- took a shuttle bus to the L train subway back to manhatan to meet up with katiebrown and sleep on her couch

Sunday morning notable events
- woke up around 1030
- decided to book a train from boston to nyc monday morning, and a porter airlines flight from newark to toronto island tuesday morning, which meant an extra day in nyc, seeing aileen, and 4 hours on a plush train and an hour and a half flight instead of 16 hours on a bus, at only about $50 more cost.
- walked over to kate's cafe for brunch with katie/perry
- had french toast with caramelized apples, coffee and oj
- walked over to the subway and headed uptown to port authority to take a bus to providence
- decided to pay $10 more for the direct bus trip that left later and arrived earlier
- walked over to times square to take photos
- got a jamba juice back at port authority before getting on my bus

3:54 pm
- on the bus to providence
- listening to jets to brazil - perfecting loneliness
- just read "pretty mouth and green my eyes" from salinger's 'nine stories'
- loving peanut chews

5:02 pm
- just got a call from stacy
- listening to wilco (the album)
- reading "little things" by jeffrey brown

From this point, I met up with Karl at the bar that sells strawberry beer, and then met up with Andy a couple other dudes for dinner. The show in Providence ruled, and I ran into Joe Sauce. After the show we went to Nice Slice and ate the shit out of a vegan pizza, then I headed to boston with Karl to stay for the night. The next morning I took a train from Boston back to New York, had a sweet nap, got not-dating dumped, hung out with Katie/Perry some more, and went to see Aileen and the T's at Irving Plaza. I flew home to Toronto Island the next morning on my new favourite airline, Porter.

A Nice Day to Staaaaaaaaart Agaaaaaaainnnnnn

I had a great weekend in Nashville celebrating my good friend Kyle Sloan's wedding.
Here's a pic of Kyle and I in the photobooth.

and a great shot with Nana Sloan (my favourite new lady of the weekend, so friendly and Scottish!)

It was great to make it down for the weekend and see Kyle, Ben & Aileen Fretz, Ben Reynolds, Aaron Mason and Pete and many others! Thanks so much to Kyle, Mandy & the entire Sloan family for putting me up / putting up with me! And of course to PMR for filling in for me slappin' da bass.
More photos to come!

UP THE PUNX

PAINT IT BLACK @ 538 Johnson Loft in Brooklyn
Look for my Blue Jays hat at the end!

all the way to grandma's house

so last friday night i was booked to DJ that party at blue mountain. heading up to blue mountain meant passing through collingwood, which is where my mother was born and raised, and where my grandmother lives. i hadn't been up to collingwood in close to three years, since my grandfathers funeral. it's a pretty special town for me, for a number of reasons: i spent a lot of quality time in collingwood as a kid, and even lived there for the most of a year when my parents split up, my grandpa was born there, worked several notable jobs, including a number of years as the towns mayor. it's hard to turn a corner in collingwood without having some sort of memory or story pop into my mind.

friday afternoon was beautiful in toronto, extremely mild and sunny, and the drive north was much the same, until i got off the 400 in barrie and headed along highway 26 through the beach. it was like i had entered some sort of black hole (white hole?) of a snowy wind tunnel. i could barely see the ground or car in front of me, and most of the cars were driving with their emergency flashers on to help guide the pack. i thought it would be a good idea to compromise my driving to take this photo.

here's a shot of the parking lot in the village at the bottom of blue mountain. it was certainly pretty to see the mountain all lit up at night with the frosty snow blowing furiously.

my offer to DJ included paid accommodations for the evening at the lovely blue mountain resort, located right in the village at the bottom of the hill, practically next door to the club i was DJing at. they set me up in a gorgeous suite in the mosaic building, which featured a large kitchen, dining room, and living room, a fireplace, a den tucked in the back, 2 couches, 3 tv's, an extremely comfortable bed, and a massive bathroom with 2 sinks and doors from either side. here are some photos of the layout.

i was completely blown away by this hotel room, and the hospitality that the resort and the event organizers had shown me. this was probably one of the nicest hotels i've ever stayed in out of hundreds of hotels in dozens of countries world wide. i was certainly impressed, and immediately thought to myself "i need to get into Djing more often". the one slight bummer or let down was that i had planned to bring a special ladyfriend up with me for the evening, which fell through on account of the fact she had to work. so, i tried my best to enjoy the night on my own, but was mostly just bummed out on a failed romantic date opportunity.

here are some shots from the outside of the resort in the morning.

trapped under snow.

i headed down the mountain back into collingwood, en route to visit my grandma who i hadn't seen since my sisters wedding over two years ago.

like i mentioned before, collingwood is a very sentimental place for me, and it was both nice and hard for me to drive through what in my mind is "my grandpa's town" and be overwhelmed with memories. it was the first time being in collingwood without seeing grandpa, and it was pretty discouraging to see the town go further and further consumed by ski tourism. however, the little scratches the my grandpa has left are certainly still immanent on the town's walls.

seeing grandma was tough, she's getting old and has lost most of her organization of memories, along with a large amount of weight, the majority of her mobility, not to mention the love of her life. i certainly look a bit different than i did the last time i saw her, but she seemed to know that it was me, while going in and out of jogged memories. at one point she even said "well, isn't this quite the life" and kind of threw up her hands. it was certainly disheartening to see that she has reached the end of her road, where there isn't much left in this life that makes her happy, and it's hard for her to properly remember the things that do. what she wouldn't do to just get up, walk to the kitchen and bake an apple pie, or be sitting on the beach with her husband, i don't know. i'm glad i got up to see her though, as it had being weighing on me for quite some time to make the trip. it's certainly eye opening and served as a reminder to appreciate the little things in life, the opportunities you have to live and experience the world, and to embrace and cherish the ones you love.

i made a point to swing by a few places packed with memories and grab some photos while i had my camera with me. the first stop was right around the corner from my grandma's nursing home; the canadian legion hall. we played a show in collingwood back in january of 2003, here at the legion, and i walked over to visit my grandparents for tea and cake with josh and paul. grandpa used to take my brother and i here and tell us stories about the air force, and we'd climb up onto the big tank and gaze up at the fighter jet in wonder.

my next stop was towards the mountain to the shipyards to snag a photo of the grain elevators. my grandpa started working at the shipyards straight out of highschool, served many years as an employee and worked his way up to personnel and safety manager.

when i got closer, i noticed that the grain elevators are all that's left of the historic shipyards. it seems that the neighbouring land has been sold and will make way for condominium real estate.

next i headed back through the downtown strip on hurontario street to grab a photo of the town hall, where grandpa served as mayor back in the 60's, at the young age of 29. i was in a bit of a rush to get back to the studio, otherwise i would've peaked my nose into the town hall to see if they'd let me grab a photo of the town council conference "braniff room", named after gramps.

i also grabbed this shot of the canadian federal government building down the road from town hall.

next stop was through the old number/wood streets over to braniff court. i tried calling my mom to get the exact address of the house she grew up in on sixth street, but she wasn't picking up at the time.

then i headed south into nottawa where my grandparents spent most of the 90's after selling the cottages at wasaga beach. when my parents first split in '91 (i think?) we moved up to live in my grandparents house while they were vacationing in florida for the winter months. my first stop in nottawa was past the little school that i attended for a few months of second grade. it's all borded up now, but i was completely blown away by how small it actually is.

next i made a quick turn down mckeen blvd. to swing by the nottawa house, where i awkwardly approached the current owner of the house and had a quick little chat with him while asking permission to take a photo. he was nice, and seemed interested in the history of the house, although i wasn't really sure what he wanted to hear, and just told him that my brother and i shared the large room in the basement, and that there used to be a large snooker table on the other side of the main room downstairs.

the drive home was clear and sunny, and i decided to take the sideroads through duntroon, singhampton, shelburne, orangeville and caledon as opposed to highway 400, as this was the way we alwasy drove up when i was young.

but the wind blew me back, via chicago

i drove to chicago two weekends ago, went to see a couple hot water music shows, met up with linney, stayed with behm, ate tons of amazing food, hung out with jason, sarah, jordan, stephanie, abby, (the following not photographed) rick, tichey, jonah, scott & aubrey. here are some photos!

vegan beef 'n' cheddar at chicago diner! (it tasted just like arby's!)

linney got some sort of grilled mock chicken sandwich.

a warm brownie with vegan cookie dough ice cream!

getting mean with a pal on his birthday.

behm and nich.

behm at pick me up cafe. (round two!)

jordan, jason and sarah at delilah's.

stephanie!

city streets.

east coast roast at soul veg!

the best french fries i've had in years!

the remains of my inhaled bbq east coast roast.

soft serve strawberry vegan ice cream!

sweet potato pie.

the birth of the cool.

90/94.

skyline.

be a winner.

reckless records.

this is where the outdoor scenes of the record store in 'high fidelity' were filmed. linney is saying "charlie! you fucking bitch, let's work it out!"

abby and stephanie at american apparel.

intelligentsia coffee: downtown location.

clover pressed intelligentsia! (i think it was some sort of kenya blend that tasted like cherries and chocolate)

linney at intelligentsia.

mugmugmug!

chicago sign downtown.

kuma burger menu, the "metal" burger bar with burgers named after metal bands.

pig destroyer sandwich?! brutal in so many different ways!

aside from burgers named after metal bands, and tons of strange micro brewed beers, they also have inspiring quotes on the menus.

i got this neat micro brew rootbeer!

nothing was vegan except for these waffle fries, not even the veggie burger! it's a good thing these fries were delicious.

linney meals.

sunday brunch at chicago dinner, tempeh hash and tofu scram for me.

oh! i also got these vegan biscuits with sausage gravy, mmmmm.

linney got this vegan monte cristo (a french toast sandwich with cheese and ham inside) and i ate half of it on the way home in the parking lot of the esso service station on the 401.

glasses.

drake hotel on lakeshore blvd.

i think this is a museum.