It's the least I could do

Today, my floor hockey team, The Eulers, had our last game of the term. In honour of Patrick Roy, I was the goaltender. In honour of Wendel Clark, I allowed 17 goals.

Another Great Concert

Last Sunday, a friend of mine invited a group of people, including myself, to watch a concert by "Hey Rosetta." To be honest, I have never heard of them before, but I'm pretty much always up for going out with friends for live music.

The band is from Newfoundland, and as a typical Torontonian, I made the mistake of assuming that we would be hearing maritimer folk music. Well ... I am an idiot. Instead, I got to see one of the best live Rock n' Roll shows that I have ever seen.

The show was at the "Pawn Shop," a bar/club on Whyte Avenue. The "Pawn Shop" is equipped with a dance floor which was packed with about 75-100 people, whenever there was a band on stage. I was actually surprised at how busy the place was considering it was a Sunday night, and the headlining act didn't actually start until abou 11:30pm. Admittedly, university students had the next day off, but this is still Edmonton, and I find most places close really early on Sundays in this city.

I'm not exactly a music critic, but I knows what I likes, and I likes this. They used a variety of instruments on top of the standard drum, guitar, bass, and vocal setup - including the prominent use of the violin. Again, I can't really ask for more from a concert than hearing great music, seeing the band enjoying themselves up on stage, and having most of the bar rocking out with them.

Due to my lack of tact, I had a nice little moment when I went up to the merchandise table near the end of the "Hey Rosetta" set. I was hoping to beat the lineup which was clearly going to build as soon as they were done playing, so I sneaked up near the end of their set. The table was still close enough to the stage and dance floor that I could still see what was going on. What I didn't realize at the time was that each band was selling their own merchandise, and so I would have to wait until after "Hey Rosetta" was done in order to get a CD.

Anyways, I foolishly go up to the two guys sitting at the table and am told that I have to wait. At this point I recognize the two as members of "Two Hours in Traffic," a solid pop rock band from PEI. Me, being the super-smooth guy that I am, went with the following response:

"Oh ... Sorry about that ... yeah ... Anyways, nice set guys ... ummmm .. real good job ... yeah, that was great ... thanks anyways." I then scurried away as quickly as possible. Yup, accidentally implying that I'd rather spend my money on another band right to the face of a few musicians (of which I actually enjoyed) - all in a day's work for me.

Halloween in the City of Champions

Being a suburb kid most of my life, this year marked only my second Halloween in the downtown area of a city.

Most families with children live outside the city so there isn't any trick-or-treating inside Edmonton. The fact that most people who actually live in the downtown area, do so in apartment buildings and condos further dissuades this act. Instead, the bars and clubs step forward as the main driving force behind the celebration. Each venue is decked out in very standard Halloween paraphernalia in order to host a Halloween bash aimed at eighteen to twenty-something year olds - mainly by promising the involvement of women with revealing costumes.

People simply use the day as another reason to party and celebrate, and there is certainly nothing wrong with that. But if you are into transforming your natural habitat into something more gruesome with the aim of terrifying children into an appreciation for the dark, creepy, and unknown, away from the city is where you want to be.