Three concerts and a wedding (with a concert)

Wow. I am going to see three concerts in four days. First up, Philson and I are going to Dartmouth's Alderney Landing Theatre to see Joel Plaskett Emergency with openers: Peter Elkas and the Elkaholics (great name!) whom I read about in Exclaim! -- I picked up the magazine for Joel and learned about Peter too. Check out his website!, local Jenn Grant, and ex-Big Sugar's Gordie Johnson. What a start!

After my eardrums recover from that, Cheryl and I are attending Dave and Jenn Finlayson's wedding reception. They got married today, but Saturday is the big bash at Pier 21. They are having a local band named Big Fish who are a favourite of Sigs since they performed at a few Sweetheart dances (sorry, I can't call them Sweetheart Balls). They mostly do cover tunes but they mix it up and put their own stank on them!

On Sunday, Cheryl and I are going to the Halifax Metro Centre to see Burton Cummings and Randy Bachman, the two creative forces behind The Guess Who and BTO. We have floor seats in the "Gold Circle." Oooooh! I saw these guys at the Sarsfest concert on TV a few years back. At that time, I thought, "I should really go see these guys if I ever get the chance." Originally, I was planning to head up to Toronto on Sunday night to see the next concert, but it was almost $400 cheaper to fly up on Monday, so I decided to do that and spend part of the money I saved on these concert tickets for Cheryl and myself. I am looking forward to this show because I hope they talk about their inspirations behind writing the songs that they perform.

Monday morning sees Philson and me jetting off to T-Dot to see The Police!!! This was one band that I never even thought about going to see since they had already broken up by the time I was of concert-going age, not to mention the fact that they never came close to Halifax. Now that I am older and have discretionary income, I have taken the opportunity to see one of my all-time favourite bands perform live (perform live -- is that redundant?). As I mentioned to a friend a few weeks back, this concert will be better than most since The Police broke up when they were at their best, with only strong material behind them, no unfortunate creative lapses or disappointing albums here, so the songs should all be fantastic.

Philson and I will be in T.O. until Wednesday. On Tuesday, we are going to see a Blue Jays game and I am going to the Skydome Hard Rock Cafe to add another shot glass to my collection. We have no other plans for the 48 hours we are there, but I am sure some adventure will present itself.

Originally, Alistair was supposed to attend the show with Dave Dawood, Dean and me, but Alistair got double-booked by work and I took the opportunity to bring my oldest son to see a band that I am not sure he really likes, but it is the chance of a lifetime. Alistair's loss is Philson's gain, although Alistair has the chance to see The Police elsewhere and I hope he does. Plus, I think Alistair likes the idea that Philson is getting this chance and that he was part of it.

So four concerts and a wedding reception! I think I will be tired next week...

Some mornings arrive too early

Before the photos get posted on Alistair's site, let me say this: I had fun last night.

Dinner, drinks, cigars and conversation with two of my closest friends and I met Tony Schellinck, one of Alistair's friends who was his prof at Dal.

We started with dinner prepared by Alistair, including his handmade pasta. Then Tony showed us the deep space photos he took using a Canon SLR camera, a tripod for extended exposure time, a telescope and a webcam. Pretty cool, really. Who knew Orion had a scabbard under his belt? These are not Tony's photos, but you get the idea.

Then it was cigars on the beach while sitting on Alistair's Beachcombers log. We knew it was time to go back inside when the conversation turned into pirate jokes.

We continued the evening with more conversation and drinks until Tony left around 11 PM. Then it was on to Guitar Hero, a PS2 game that Alistair had been selling me on all week. I have to say, I don't know why I doubted Alistair. I am sure Alistair is reading this, saying, "Why do you ever doubt me, Phil?". The game was really fun and I think it helps if you are familiar with the songs and/or have some background with a musical instrument. Alistair wants Philson and me to come over this weekend so we can play it. I think I will take him up on that invitation.

After playing the video game, Alistair, Dave and I had a serious conversation about Sig and how to solve its problems. Solving the world's problems will have to wait until another night, I suppose.

The alarm went off at 7:30 this morning. I think some mornings arrive too early.

In Hoc Signo Vinces, my brothers!

ROXANNE...

You don't have to put on the red light.

Possibly the most recognizable opening lines in late 70's rock, as well as the most interesting backing vocals in a hit song. Take a listen again to hear what I am saying.

I bought 4 tickets to The Police's second show in Toronto, happening at the Air Canada Centre on July 23. My three closest friends are joining me: Alistair, Dean and Dave D. I tried calling the Air Canada Centre at 11 AM on Saturday, got a busy signal time after time and about 10 minutes into it, thought I should look for an online box office. I found it at Ticketmaster.ca and bought 4 tickets. It was a pretty easy experience and I would recommend it. I tried buying tickets for the first and what was the only show at the time, but it was sold out basically right away. Then I looked at all of the various pre-sale sales and I realized that people were able to buy tickets as early as Tuesday. No wonder it was sold out! I am glad I took the time to get the tickets when I did because I heard on the radio this morning that all of their shows sold out in a matter of hours (I am guessing minutes).

We are planning to meet in T-dot for the show, with Dean hosting (right, Dean?) Dave is scheduled to be in Brockville, visiting his inlaws with his wife Lauren and their to-be 2 kids, Oliver (Cheryl's and my godson) and Baby to be named later when s/he arrives in the next week or so. Alistair will fly in from wherever he happens to be at the time, and I will use Air Miles to go up from Hali.

I bought upper bowl seats for $95 - plus about $17 in various charges per ticket!! - rather than the lower bowl for $225. I am somewhat torn by it because in the long run an extra $130 would probably be worth it, but on the other hand if you are not on the floor near the front, it is much different? Would it be worth 2.5 times? I don't think so. anyway, just being in the arena will be the thrill, although there were $60 tickets available but I wonder if they are nosebleed seats or standing room tickets, dunno.

I saw The Police on TV the other night when they opened the Grammys. I thought they looked happy and healthy and ready to tour, so I am looking forward to the show.

Online and ready to rumble

OK, so after my most techie friend Alistair told me "You should start a blog" a couple of times and I saw that even my friend Ingo has a blog, complete with his magazine cover, here goes.

As the title says, I figure what I say on here will eventually come back to bite me in the ass. Just when you thought no one cares what you have to say, my political viability will go out the window once this blog is uncovered among the Brazilians of blogs out there.

I suspect this is more for my self-gratification, although maybe someone will read it if I add an RSS link, whatever that is.

Get ready for Christmas, only 4 more sleeps!