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
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