Thought-Provoking Article about the Nature of Music Funding in This Country

http://www.canada.com/entertainment/band+versus+Canadian+music+funder/1824319/story.html

Having a Joel Plaskett-filled week

I don't think I've done much more this week besides work and listen to Plaskett. I thought I'd post the lyrics to one of my favourite songs from his new (and amazing) album Three.

ROLLIN’, ROLLIN’, ROLLIN’

Side of the road, in the ditch, you rust
A mouthful of mud from a fistful of dust
A heart full of hurt from a head full of wine
I’ll call you back some other time

No way I’m picking up my phone
I’m tired of talking, leave me alone
I can’t run and I can’t write
And I can’t make it home tonight

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Gathering no moss
I don’t know where I’m goin’
But I know what I’ve lost

Talk is cheap but music’s cheaper
Deep in debt and getting deeper
The price is steep and getting steeper
I’m yours to keep, won’t you keep me?
I’m a keeper

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
Gathering no moss
I don’t know where I’m goin’
But I know what it cost

Pretty people posing questions
(I don’t wanna answer you)
Where’d you go? D’you learn your lesson?
(I put on my dancing shoes)
Who’d you meet and what’d you buy?
(Couple strangers, pair of jeans)
Just leave ‘em hanging high and dry
Bye Bye

Rollin’, rollin’ rollin’
With my imaginary friends
Imagining I know’ em
Then it’s time to roll again

Why so blue, tired and true?
(Just like that Irma Thomas song)
I’m tired of myself, not tired of you
(You’ve been gone “Two Winters Long”)
They say that good things come to those you roll
(Back to the place where you belong)
Back to someone beautiful

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
It’s time to get me gone
The yellow lines are glowing
Oh, highway roll me home
(Blacktop highway)
Highway roll me home

Plaskett is one of the only songwriters I know that can take semi-cliches and turn them into fun, memorable lyrics. He's also the only guy I know that's released a flippin' triple album that didn't suck and wasn't a "best of" collection. Truthfully Truthfully, he's just great. I'm sad I keep missing his shows when he comes to St. John's, but I heard he'll be back in the fall...*crosses fingers*

I would write more tonight, but after going to Al Tuck (another great Halifax-based musician) at CBTGS last night til 2 am, working an eight-and-a-half hour shift today, and getting out for a long walk with Marley, I'm knackered. I do have to save my energy for a weekend hanging with fashionable people, doing questionable things, looking just like magazines.

August is in a Rush to get here

The summer's almost over and I still haven't gone to Gros Morne. I don't think I've shut up about going camping there since last summer when I went to a cabin about 40 minutes outside of town with a few friends. I said "Cabin? That's not camping, that's a fucking house in the woods. If I wanted to get drunk in a house in the woods I'd go to my dad's place. At least there I'm not paying for beer or board."

Regardless of my stubbornness, we had a time and I wouldn't mind going back to Rabbit Pond (?can't quite remember if that's the right name...), but I still felt like I was missing the fun that tenting includes. To me, camping is in tents....sorry couldn't resist that well-worn pun, Candice, heh. Don't get me wrong either, there's a time and a place for cabin-going, like May 24th weekend and the like...

I had hoped I'd be leaving St. John's in August for school (which looks now like it's definitely not happening...at least not this year). I was adamant I'd go to Gros Morne when I returned back from the UK and have spent the past few weeks bugging friends that we should go because we're missing out on so much on the Avalon Peninsula.  I haven't been there since I was seven and considering that the first of August is going to be my 20th anniversary of living in Canada, I wanted to do something quintessentially Canadian, heading out into the deep dark woods.

Hell, at this point I don't really care if I'm on the West Coast, I just want to get a tent, some food to barbeque, some other camping "essentials," and my best friends, get far enough away from the city, and just pray that it won't rain. Actually, after the classic Scottish rain that happened at Rockness, which took place at Loch Ness, I think I can handle a bit of Newfoundland rain. I might just embrace it.

To sum up the degree of soaked-ness: I was standing 25 feet in the air for eight hours on an Oxfam observation tower, got soaked through a cheapo rain poncho, my "175 quid tabard" (it was considered our security deposit, if we lost it we wouldn't get our money back) a leather coat, fleece liner, hoodie, t-shirt, tank top, rubber boots, my jeans, socks,  and underwear, then had to put almost all of it all on the next day because my backpack with my layers in it got drenched as well. There's not much more disgusting than having to put on rain damp muddy clothes. And yet it was still the best weekend EVER. Even though the streamers I caught at the Flaming Lips show got soaked in my backpack and I had to toss them because it just looked like wet toilet paper. And I nearly ruined my grandmother's cellphone when it got water-logged. Luckily it only really rained for half the weekend....I can't wait to go back!

Taken from my observation tower when it WASN'T a downpour. Lovely view of the main stage, the Loch, and the toilets.

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow, I'm supposed doing a few interviews for the Current's Folk Festival cover story in the evening. I haven't done any proper music writing since before I went on holiday, so I'm happy to get back into it. Once they're published, I'll start posting the articles on here again. I should rack my hard drive some day for old interviews to post, there's a few I really liked, especially the Weakerthans piece where I completely embarrassed myself for the sake of a funny article...:)

More rainy day projects to add to the list (like unpacking my room...guuh). Maybe if I put enough clothes on top of the boxes they'll go away. Maybe.

My Top Five CDs of late:

Florence and the Machine: Lungs 

Robin Pecknold: Live at Neumo's, Seattle WA, 2009-07-11 (only available as a bootleg online at the moment I think.. http://www.soundonthesound.com/2009/07/13/getting-drunk-for-the-kids-with-robin-pecknold/)

Bibio: Ambivalence Avenue

Matt & Kim: Grand

La Roux: La Roux

White Stripes Canadian concert film to debut in the fall

Considering Donna and I were front row, center at the St. John's show, I can't wait for this to come out!: http://www.whitestripes.com/film/film.html

See! I haven't fallen off the face of the earth!

I have pretty much been the biggest slackarse in the world with this blog. I started it as a way to document my travels and wrote about five entries when I was in the UK, most of them written late at night after exhaustive days of traveling, done so out of a weird feeling of "obligation" to myself and the meagre few who may have read it. I also blame all the wine my grandparents were giving me with supper, I drank more there than I do here! Wine and traveler's exhaustion do make it hard to focus on writing something that makes somewhat sense.

After realizing that I haven't posted on here in a month I do feel like a pretty lazy writer. I went on a mind-blowing trip where I did so many crazy things and didn't have the energy to write about it. I was also more concerned with posting pictures, I still have about 1000 to do and Facebook just doesn't want me to do it. 

I've been in St. John's for three weeks now and because of moving and working nonstop, I didn't really feel like I did anything worth writing about until this week past when the Wreckhouse Festival was taking place. There needs to be a music festival every week of the summer, although I think I'd probably die of exhaustion/suffer from a perma-hangover. I seriously need a week to recover from all the fun we had. Summer is so fucking great. Wreckhouse was great. Going to work an eight hour shift with three hours of sleep and still drunk, not so great...Longest...shift...ever.

The week was full of fantastic, well-selected music. Although it's really hard to pick, my favourite act at Wreckhouse was definitely the Shuffle Demons. 

I'm sad I missed the "flash mob" parade they started, but catching them at the Martini Bar that night was such a treat. More bands need to start sporadic parades at their shows and sing about "Cheese on Bread." I'm sure all the prissy girls waiting to get into the upstairs part of the bar thought it was noisy and ridiculous, but isn't that what a good show's about?

Gypsophilia was really fun too, I got an advance copy of their CD before it came out so I was really looking forward to that show. I told a few of the band members afterwards that I really liked the album and the two shows and they seemed genuinely thankful. It's so nice to see humble musicians, instead of some of the snots I've interviewed or met. I guess Josh Homme feels entitled to his ego, but maybe thats the reason he keeps getting pelted with shoes at his shows.

I feel like I got hit on the head with a bottle of vodka. I HAVE to go to sleep.

Here's a shot of Gypsophilia taken at the Martini Bar.

Living my trip, rather than writing about it...

I'm a crappy travel blogger, I admit it.

After I went to Rockness Music Festival last weekend I swore I'd log on and write a long entry about what I've been up to in Scotland....but obviously I haven't. My reasoning was that I would rather take the evenings I have free to post photos, as I know more people are looking at them rather than reading this...kind of foolish reasoning I know, but I also don't want to have to go home to NL and have to upload 3000 photos (I've already taken about 2000, and I haven't been to Liverpool yet!).

I'll summarize my stay in Scotland:

- I don't want to leave.

- Rockness was the best, most exhausting weekend of my life. 

- Since arriving here I have visited Edinburgh Castle, Scottish Parliament, Scotland's Secret Bunker, Falkland Palace, St. Andrews, Anstruther Fish n Chips (the "Best in Britain"-they've won the award several years running), Dundee and Glenrothes (for shopping), Loch Ness and Inverness, Peebles village....there's probably more and I can't think.

- Edinburgh is probably the most beautiful city I've ever visited, and the people are nice to boot.

- Shopping here is great...I know everyone says it's so expensive in the UK (and it can be), but because of finding Christian Louboutin Dillian Flower Pump lookalikes for 18 pounds (as opposed to 2800), I am ecstatic. If you heard me talking about these shoes for the past few months (Karen O wore them in Spin), you'll understand how important this is to me. I tried to replicate them with my graduation shoes, but it just wasn't the same... I've bought about five dresses since I arrived here and I don't think I've paid more than 15 pounds for any of them. I love that this place is about six months ahead of Canada in terms of fashion, I can buy something on the sale/clearance racks and still be ahead when I go home, haha. Neon has become HUGE here, I bought a pair of neon pink jelly gladiators, which are hilarious, awesome, and comfortable. I've wanted jelly shoes since I was a little girl, but couldn't find ones that fit my alien feet/were comfy. I can't even list the rest of the stuff I've bought, but I have to pack tonight and am semi-dreading it. 

- I'm going to need a vacation to recover from this vacation. Or at least a drunken, bbq-fueled Canada Day (the day I return:). Katie Jackson, do you hear me? hahaha