Friday, June 29, 2012

Friday's Electric Jazzy Lunch Hour - Hiromi Edition



The Montreal Jazz Festival is now in full swing and yesterday I started the festivities in great fashion with piano goddess Hiromi Uehara and bassist Stanley Clarke. Parts of my brains are still splattered all over Theatre Jean-Duceppe; yep, this "quiet" acoustic show was all sorts of amazing.

Here is a slightly different setting for Hiromi, but she still plays her ass off.... it's the only way she knows how to play :)

Bon festival !!!

o7

Friday, June 22, 2012

We're not in Colorado anymore...

Oh no you're not. Bienvenue au Québec câlisse !!! :))




PS: Yes I shall post a pic of my Bass #5 as soon as I get one :)

Friday's Electric Video - St-Jean Edition






This weekend is the first of my national holidays, and this year it literally has a taste of revolution, Mix misguided students with corrupt politicians and you have the recipe for disaster. Oh well. This tune is about flying our flag at half-mast and removing the fucktards that govern us. Believe me, they need removing.

o7

Edit #1: found a MUCH better vid. Blame lack of coffee and lack of time for not having checked the first one.

Edit #2: Dammit can Blogger.com be stupid sometimes !!!

Friday, June 15, 2012

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Ziltoid Edition



Didn't know what to post this morning so here's a sure bet, Ziltoid The Omniscient in its entirety. As a bonus you get an EVE Online background.

Find that ultimate cup of coffee and bow to your Ziltoidian overlord !!!

o7

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Summer activities are go!

A text update? Sure, why not! I feel like writing about my summer stuff because as always in Montreal, the F1 Grand Prix weekend marks the true beginning of summer; I mean who needs a solstice when you have cold weather for over half the year? Once again the race was utterly spectacular, and for once weather did not play a part in the outcome, and neither was the presence of the safety car, which stayed parked for the entire length of the race. No, the action was on the track and in the pits in equal parts. Of course there was the matter of some student protests that have been tainting Montreal since early March; what started as a student strike is slowly turning into a political crisis, but I won't take a side here. Both sides have their faults. But I don't run a political blog so I'll shut the fuck up about this. So beautiful weekend, beautiful race, and a fresh podium with a seventh winner in seven races (an all-time F1 record), and two newcomers to the podium. Congratulations respectively to Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean and Sergio Perez!

Now that the F1 GP is done, the Montreal festival season is at full throttle. We are currently in the middle of the Francofolies, a music festival dedicated to francophone music which is basically a practice run of the installations before the real thing, the Montreal International Jazz Festival. It will start strong this year as my crazy music buddy André has invited me to an evening with Japanese piano goddess Hiromi, in an acoustical setting with some n00b bassist called Stanley Clarke (!). All kidding aside I can't think of a better way to start off the festivities. Dédé told me that there may be one or two other invitations, and I also have to check out the outdoor schedule, plus all the JazzFest related activities. This is usually a time when I try a ton of new instruments, mostly percussion and guitars. Quality Gibsons and Fenders are nice, but finely hand-crafted works of art that you can wail away on... pure awesomeness!

Speaking of musical instruments, the main part of my musical summer is about to get real interesting as the 2011 Blue Knights drums are set to arrive next week. Note to self: for the next rehearsal, bring ear plugs! I have already ordered my bass drum mallets; as I've told some people in the drumline, I haven't held bass mallets in over 30 years! So even though the drums may come with their mallets, I want my own pair so I can get a better feel for them faster. And by "faster" I mean I have to have four tunes memorized and on the dot ("sur la coche" as we say up here) by Saturday July 14th. Wishmaster and the Rockline drumline (yes, we have a name now ^_^) will be performing four tunes in Sherbrooke at a drum corps event as a teaser for the main October 20th event. If you're a Nightwish fan, the tunes we will be playing are (in the order we practiced 'em, not necessarily in order of the set list): Dark Chest of Wonders, Romanticide, Ghost Love Score and Scaretale. With only two official rehearsals left before that show, I have a lot of work to do!

On the cycling front, the better weather has finally allowed me to ride more and more, and it was about damn time. I'm still on track for my September tour, though I will probably tone down on the equipment I'll bring. I may even skip the trailer for this year because I have too many things on too many fronts. But I don't mind, it'll make the trip that much more hardcore and to me that much more enjoyable. But instead of the trailer, one thing I will be getting is the Topeak Bikamper tent; seriously, how fucking cool is this?! :))

And finally, I will announce it right away because I have to go through this entire summer before I do it. Sometimes I actually miss EVE Online, but with everything I have on my plate right now this is not the time to resub and start playing. I know my tiny patience level for ISK making and between the music, cycling, socializing, etc., I have no time to either grind ISK or get in fleets that can eat up hours of precious time. But I do have a vague semblance of a possible plan as Letrange would say: after the cycling trip will be a good time to re-activate the account and kick-start the training queue. I won't really have time for more than skill flipping at first because it will be crunch time for the October 20th Wishmaster event, but at least Cozmik will be awake for maybe a Rifter/Taranis run. After the show we will most likely take a break before we practice something else (though there may be gigs; Jacques does want to help pay up that sweet drumline!), so at that time I'll buy a GTC or two, turn 'em into PLEX's, and find a likely candidate who will shower me with ISK. After this I see only one perfect place for me: Red vs Blue. It will take some time to brush off the rust, as well as getting used to a completely new inventory system (I hear I will hate it... awesome!), but it will be great to fly around Empire as if the entire place was Null-sec. I do need to meet some new players because a lot of the older guard isn't playing anymore, or is into the sides of EVE that I can't stand.

And there you go. A busy summer ahead of me, but whatever happens it will never bore me :)

Fly dangerous

o7

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Friday's Electric... Super Mega Late Video - Mind Fission Edition



You may have a mind now, but you sure won't at the end of this tune. Thanks to one of my ancient buddies from Longueuil Quebec, Mr Patrick Sullivan, for digging this baby up :)

Shred hard

o7

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Blogging slow-down

You may have noticed that my blogging content has gone down quite a bit in the last few weeks. The reason is simple: there is only 24 hours in our planet's day cycle and I'm spreading myself pretty thin as it is. More drums and more cycling means less gaming and less blogging. In a way, this is a good cure for my heavy case of Bitter Old Vet Syndrome; I'm much happier banging away on a practice pad and getting fresh air.


I just felt like saying to my 1.7 readers sorry for not posting more, and I have appreciated each and every comment I've received over the years (damn, more than 4 already). I'll try my best to keep the BOVS at bay :)

Fly hard

o7

Monday, June 4, 2012

Monday Mourning Video - Sad Trollface Edition



The man known as "Trololo-man", Mr Eduard Khil, died at 77 year old from a cerebral stroke. Sad internet is sad. Some say he returned to his home planet in the TR-01010 constellation. All I know is that Mr Khil is proof that the internet can make somebody not only famous, but immortal!

T.I.P.* Eduard Khil (1934-2012)

*: Troll in peace

Friday, June 1, 2012