an evening with Elvis Perkins in Dearland

I'd like to introduce you to someone special.
Grab a drink, sit in a comfy chair, and press play on the video below.



Stu and I had a long overdue date last night- with each other and with Elvis Perkins. I heard him on KEXP back in the Fall of 2007 and became very excited when I saw he was coming to Seattle soon...in March. I was crushed when I found out that the show listing was old...for March 2007 not 2008. I've been waiting anxiously since then for him to tour again.

Fast forward to March 2009- We drove to Seattle to see the start of his tour last night and our efforts were not wasted. We were both impressed by the obvious fact that Elvis Perkins is no prima donna. Throughout the show we got the sense that the band was a group of friends as well as equals. Elvis spoke very little at first deferring in-between song conversation to his band mates. His humour showed itself later when he mocked himself for starting the first song of the encore off key. And much to the frustration of my short legs he opted not to take a mic at center stage preferring the corner instead, which created an even distribution of players across the stage. Overall, we got a very human impression of the whole band.

If you haven't heard of him before now I encourage you to give a full listen to both Ash Wednesday and his new self-titled release. His lyricism and imagery are impressive and haunting throughout both albums. He paints a picture but doesn't spell everything out for you. His music conveys a sense of wistfulness but it's the equal sense of rising hope that gets me in the gut. This man has seen his fair share of loss and I find his subtle optimism encouraging. He's often compared to Leonard Cohen and, in my opinion, it's well-deserved praise.

Victory rootbeer! time

True I gotta spit it out but it still tastes like victory. Mmmmm.

why the celebration you ask?
well, i finally gave birth to a behemoth today. she weighs in at 123 pgs.

if you count references and appendices she tops out at 147p. Sweet baby jesus is right!
don't worry, it has lots of pretty pictures. and neither you or anyone else is likely to read it.

I sent her along to my supervisors for a final look-see and then she's off to the external.
Mark you calenders folks for my t0-be-confirmed academic divorce date: March 30th

I'm thinking bowling and Banditas! afterwards. stay tuned for details.

I look forward to many bike rides and actually hanging out with my friends in the near future.....For now though it's victory rootbeer and snuggle time before bed.
Much catching up on sleep and work to do.
nite.

So you wanna go to grad school?

Ever see those anti-meth billboards out west? you know, the 'Extreme Meth Makeover' ones that show a before/after photo to reinforce why doing meth is really, really fucking dumb idea. Or the 'I lost me to Meth' ones. I marvel at how does someone decide, 'Wow, looking that shitty looks like fun, let's go do some meth'.

I'm thinking we need anti-graduate school billboards. Sure grad school sounds like a good idea but does looking this haggard and shitty look like fun?


Does regularly not leaving your house for over 48 hours sound enticing? Or maybe 30 hrs without sleep? Realizing people don't even bother to call anymore because they know you can't come out and play. Here's my advice: Don't let a masters steal your life. You'll B. A ok without it, trust me.

strange days

Today's forecast is overwhelmingly hopeful although clouds continue to build on the horizon for my homeland. Meanwhile up here in Vancouver we're socked in with snakes. Some of them bear a strange 5-ring pattern on them.