In music the passions enjoy themselves.

As in the words of Tegan and Sara You Wouldn't Like Me (if you met me); Most people probably wouldn't like my music if they met it. However that is the beauty of music. Everyone has their own tastes, yet I have never met someone who claimed to dislike music. This is something that has become ever increasingly evident with my weeks spent north. Amongst the different trades and people I have worked with, the taste in music is as varied as the weather. With country music a favourite for pipe-fitters and welders, 90s alt-rock the chosen for insulators and the majority of electricians preferring techno or death metal.

As the days are long and repetitive work is the definition of monotony. I decided I need to come up with a list of music/aritsts that I have really learned to enjoy over the last ten years.

My favourite artist and performer is most certainly Hawksley Workman. Somewhat eccentric but always a blast to see in concert, Hawksley is a master of lyric and music. Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off, When These Mountains Were the Seashore, When You Gonna Flower and Fatty Wants to Dance are all great examples of an artist who loves the music. This is a musician who isn't afraid to mix up sounds, no two songs really ever sound the same.

Metric. A great Canadian band that has been around for over ten years, but just recently exploded into the mainstream. Their music turned up, in what I must assume is a record number of movies. Grow Up and Blow Away was the bands first release in 2001 and still one of my favourite songs. Combat Baby, Monster Hospital and Stadium Love are must hear, upbeat, get you pumping songs. Not to mention Emily Haines is Succexy in her own right. Hopefully this band will keep producing some great music over the next ten years.

Lastly on this list, for now, is the New Pornographers. Another band that formed at the start of 2000 and has some varied success.  Letter From an Occupant is still my favourite song from this band. The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism another great song, that for a while, really seemed like more of a theme song for myself. My Rights Versus Yours another brilliant piece. This band has some amazing sounds and continues to amaze.

Well I am out of time, I was hoping to get a bigger list than this. Feel free to visit my playlist if you want some more music.

Never Trust a Robot!

Sounds like good advice to me. Those apathetic, monolithic creatures have only one desire and in the words of Bender, that is "Kill all humans!".

I recently stumbled on this post found at Berkely Place and I love it. It is a mixed up, mashed up bunch of music that follows a robot theme. You have to listen to it. Well you don't have to. However with songs like: We’re In Business (Never Trust Robots), Addicted to Love (Robert Palmer cover) by Florence and the Machine, Robot Music Forever by Appolo Zero, and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by Flaming Lips VS. Not Like it Was by Snoop Dogg, it is definately worth the listen.


If you want to waste some time or just listen to music while at your computer; Head to the link and check it out.

http://www.berkeleyplaceblog.com/2010/10/06/robot-music/

And here is my contribution to his list.

Eoin Isaac Houle (29 Jan 2007 - 27 May 2009)

It is such an odd thing to consider an aniversary of anyones death. Of course lives are counted, for the most part, in years; But for what purpose does counting the empty space after their death serve? Regardless, today is the aniversary of my first born's death. The time has gone by so fast, and yet I have missed him everyday he has not been here.

The space between has been filled by his younger brother Eli. He doesn't replace our Eoin, but he has definately given us reason to keep enjoying life, where reason was needed. Of course the anti-depressants, numerous councelling sessions and group therapy have also helped. It is an acceptance of the life we have, and trying to make the best of what we can.

The name Eoin was my choice. For months and months during Angie's pregnancy, we mulled over hundreds of different names. Isaac was one of our final choices and so was Owen. It was while searching Gaelic names that I came across Eoin, and immediately thought, "what a cool name!". Of course I had to research how to pronounce it, and even still Angela had serious doubts as he would likely be called Ian or worse E-oy-an! Eventually I won out, fully prepared to take any blame on the confussion the name would cause.

Even though I was 30 when Eoin was born, I still felt way too young to be a parent. The first time I held him in that Lloydminster delivery room, I choked back tears. It was a strange feeling, carrying so much responsibility and yet feeling so much pride. I was scared, but I was also excited to take on this new life. For the most part we were so lucky. Eoin was an amazingly cute baby, and I don't say this lightly. I know parents overinflate their children's worth, but Eoin had such amazing blue eyes, and the most infectious smile you can imagine. Of course there where days, fueled by an incessant lack of sleep, where I would have gladly pulled out my hair, had there been any to pull out. However, it was all part of the package.

Thinking back to those days, it seems like a different life now. At the very least, it seems like someone else's life. Eoin was a happy child, so much full of life. He was smart and learned words fairly quickly, He was cruising the house by the time he was a year old. I know I suspected fairly early though, that Eoin's health was not quite what it should be. The colds and the flus that seemed to be ever present. We seeked out medical attention on numerous occasions, only to have our belief of being overcautious parents confirmed by various doctors. I think at some point, when his health began to deteriorate, I even entered a state of denial. Sure he was tired, sure he was pale, it was just an illness, the doctors even said so.

When Eoin was finally diagnosed, or given a preliminary diagnosis, I intially felt relief. There was something wrong, but the doctors would fix it. As things progressed, it soon became apparent as to how truly ill our boy was. Even before chemotherapy could be started, which at the time was my biggest concern for him, Eoin took a turn for the worse. Though I didn't realize at that point, we had nearly lost him to a stroke, caused by his clotting leukemic blood. The information coming from doctors was always mixed but optimistic. Anecdotal tales of a child who had an almost identical situation, and was now playing football for his highschool brought us hope.

The hope continued after Eoin's first round of chemo. It was hard to watch him suffer through it, by far, emotionally, it was the hardest thing I have ever endured. However, it brought us a chance for a cure. Of course it didn't last, it was shortly after moving to Calgary when things took a downward turn. For us Calgary was a consolidation measure, it was an attempt to damn up things before they got worse. It was a way to deal with a sick child and a wife's third trimester. Calgary had options that Edmonton didn't in case Eoin's treatment went bad. So that was where we were. In a new city, living as nearly as homeless as can be, when it was learned that further measures would be needed to give Eoin a chance for a cure.

So there we were, having left Edmonton with all this hope that things would get better, when suddenly reality came crashing down. Children died here, one after another. Families that had been there slowly and quietly went their own way, taking their burden of emptiness with them. Death was such a reality at this point, it was personified in the pain on doctors and nurses faces, showing itself, telling me that it was eventually coming for our child.

We fought it, we tried as much as we could bare. We knew however there was only so much that could be done. When the last treatment failed, Angela and I braced ourselves. We told each other we would get through this. We spent our final week with Eoin, emotionally and physically drained. In his final days, it seemed as though Eoin knew he was about to pass, he hugged everyone he could. He was smiling up until he went to sleep for the final time.

I miss you buddy.

Love dad.

Does Anyone Remember ...

Mr. X? He was a brilliantly created pseudonym by one Homer Simpson. During the 12th season of "The Simpsons" episode 6, "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes", Homer pays an abhorrent 5,000$ for his first computer, so that he can receive email. The episode carries on from there, in the tumultuous fashion that the Simpsons use to use to tell an irrelevant story to an attention deprived audience. Homer eventually takes on the Mr. X persona, that inevitably leads to his Pulitzer Prize and eventual downfall. (All within the span of 22 minutes).

Simpsons Eposode - The Computer Wore Menace Shoes

The part of this show that I never really quite understood, but simply passed off as an allusion to "The Avengers", was its bizarre conclusion. Homer gets drugged and dragged off to a mysterious island; Where him and a cast of characters who 'know too much', are doomed to spend the rest of their lives. The truth of this allusion however was only brought to light for the first time this weekend.

On Friday, I was reading the weekend entertainment insert to the Calgary Herald called "The Verve". There was mention of a cult classic BBC show called "The Prisoner", in which they briefly compared it to "The Avengers". The Verve article had piqued my interest with its comparison to shows like Dr.Who, so I figured it would be worth checking out. Of course it came as quite a surprise when it came to my attention that the show had already been parodied by the Simpsons. It was even more comical once you realize that Homer steals the protagonist's, number6's, long methodically planned method of escape. The show was British and it had aired in the late 60's. Like most everything from that era, it carried a solid camp quality. I guess that is mainly why it achieved its comparison to Dr.Who and The Avengers.

So if anything can be taken away from this, I guess it is the amazing lengths that The Simpsons used to go to, in order to parody nearly everything. After watching one episode of "The Prisoner", I have to say it is not a show for everyone. Not that it is a bad show, just a little strange. It achieves an eerie, strange world feeling, something that shows like Lost try to mimic. The kind of story that plays on the paranoia that people tend to have; Of the world being controlled by forces greater and unknown (in this case a secret agency).

I have attached a short clip below that doesn't really tell you much of the story, or even give you a proper feel for what the show is about. It is however the opening scene and just fun to watch for the feeling of the era.

Happy Father's/Summer Solstice Day!

Well after my first week of work, I can say one thing for certain; Weekends are much more enjoyable when you work all week. Life is slowly becoming more normal again, although I feel about ten years older and time still keeps moving forward. The house is slowly coming together and is becoming quite comfortable. My office is a complete disaster at the moment however, and I hope to get it a little better organized as my next task.

A couple of weeks back I gave blood for the first time. The wife and I have decided it would be our part to at the very least return the contribution of donated blood that Eoin used in his treatments. I think we calculated that it will take us close to five years of donations. You can only give blood every other month, and sadly I am not even sure if my last donation was even usable. Kind of embarrassing, but about a minute after they put the needle in me, I felt like I was going to be sick. It was the weirdest feeling, I can only relate it to the feeling of having blood squeezed out of me. On the bright side, apparently I am quite the bleeder, as in that short period they had almost a half of a bag, which may or may not be enough to use. I just need to get back into shape, and hopefully that will make donating a little easier.

Now that I have my computer up and running again, I am going to try and get a few more posts in. I think I will make a goal of at least one post per week. Maybe I will try and come up with some interesting topics. Well at least things more interesting than what is happening in my life. Currently I have been watching a BBC show called "Time" by Michio Kaku. It is quite interesting and I will see if I can give it a proper revue when I am done (I still have two episodes to watch).

Well that is all for the moment, I will leave you with this commercial that made me laugh.

Let It Snow.

One of the benefits of living in Calgary is getting to see all four seasons in one day. Today was just one of those days. As Eli stayed with his grandma last night, we woke up this morning to sunlight streaming through the window. Thinking that perhaps the weather had changed from miserable yesterday, my wife was quite anxious to investigate. However as she pulled back the blinds, she emitted a loud gasp, as about three inches of snow had accumulated overnight. The trees looked quite deformed under the weight of the sopping snow and we were both left dumbstruck at the sight of snow in June.


Not wanting to pass up the free time that was allotted to us today, we decided to catch a movie before picking up Eli. So we headed across town and watched the weather slowly get warmer and warmer. We arrived at the movie theater and opted to see "Drag Me To Hell". It was a nice quiet noon show, with only about a dozen people in the theater. As the show was about to start, a mother and daughter walked in and sat down a few rows in front of us. It was quite the sight, as the daughter looked like a miniature version of her overweight, glasses wearing, slovenly dressed mother. However, this girl could of only been ten at the oldest. Let me just say, I remember being about nine or ten and watching "Goonies" in the theater; It terrified the living shit out of me. After the first five minutes into the show, a Mexican kid is shown being attacked and then dragged down to hell by a demon. Needless to say, we hear a kid crying and telling their parents she wants to go home. However this is coming from behind us, not in front. Anyway, to carry on with the story, the movie ends with a pretty disturbing death scene. The lights come up, this girl and her mother calmly stand up and walk out of the theater. Not even a fucking peep, out of the kid. All I can think is "Wow, what a weird kid!".

So we head over to Chapters, buy a couple books, grab a quick bite to eat, head over to grandmas, pick up Eli and then continue our drive home. On the way we experience crazy hail, then rain. Get home and find almost all the snow is gone, except for a small spattering in the yard. And that was pretty much my whole Saturday.

Oh yeah, before I forget, I was also offered a job. As I said before, I would jump at the chance now, and so I will. I start on the 15th, wish me luck.

Baghead

Last night the wife and I sat down to watch this movie after a long day of unpacking. It was an interesting movie, with a lot of subtle little qualities that made it very enjoyable to watch.

A low budget independent film, Baghead was created by the Duplas brothers. It started off making me think that I would most likely regret ever picking it up. It is by far one of the strangest beginnings, as it really seemed to have no bearing on a thriller type movie. As well the characters initially come off as awkward and difficult to grasp. However, quickly the characters start to actually develop and the actors start to seem more comfortable in their roles.

Without delving too far into the movie, I have to give credit to the creators. They really pull off some good scenes that feel genuinely scary. One of the bigest credits of this film is how it eventually feels "real". The creators seemed to put a lot of effort into making a movie that I feel that most of the audience can probably empathize with. Although, the target audience is most likely the type that would enjoy independant film. (An early scene in the show, of the group of friend's driving to the cabin, seems to be an allusion to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead)

Perhaps I am giving the movie too much credit. It could be that I just like to see the independant win out over the multi million dollar crap that holywood tends to churn out. Anyway, I just thought I would recommend this show to anyone looking for something to watch this week. It might not be your cup of tea, but I don't think it will disapoint. Well at least not too much.