TOUR-onto

Saturday was good - I finally managed to take notes on chapters 5 and 6 for psych, which I had been “working on” for a month. Then I popped them onto my Kindle and chapter 6 turned out really well - no conversion errors at all. Sweet.

        Sunday morning, I get up at 5 am. Have breakfast, brush my teeth, get dressed, wake up my mom. Then we drive to the bus station, buy the ticket, and I sit down to read psych notes.

        Get on the bus at 7 am, read psych notes for a few hours. Finish Voltaire’s Candide, read The Art of Manliness guide to Building Your Resiliency - highly recommended, in fact moreso than anything else I’ve read lately. Continue reading psych notes. Get stuck in a detour trying to get to the bus station - turns out sunday was the Santa Claus parade. So we spent half an hour getting to the bus station, when it was like right over there.

        So anyway then I walk from my bus station over to Union Station and meet Lily, after many texts of “I am at this place, where are you” and “ok wait I’ll go where you are.” Our plan for the day was as follows: Get hot-chocolate at some place called Soma and go to Honest Ed’s, then go to Kool Haus (not a horrific carnival fun house, luckily) at 5 pm for the show. By “the show” I mean Bring Me The Horizon (eh) and August Burns Red (yeah) playing with Polar Bear Club (woo!), This is Hell (??), and Emarosa (?). Which is something I was planning on seeing with Lily for a couple of months but it turns out I didn’t mention it to anyone. So yeah! I did that!

        So we got a map inside Union Station and walked on over to The Distillery District, which was a wonderful little place and I hope to find somewhere similar closer to home. You know how the little villages were in FF VII, with little brick houses and pipes and metal stuff for decoration? I mean, they were kinda like that. At least the place Cid lived was like that.

        If you don’t know what I mean, think 19th century village. Brick houses. Metal pipes. That’s the defining features. They had metal sculptures and “art” here and there - a “Christmas tree” made out of pipes with light bulbs in the ends, two ends of a bridge that don’t connect, stuff like that. There were people with fancy cameras everywhere, so I assume it was a cool place to be.

        It was also an expensive place to be! We were there for a few hours, went into two? places, and I spent like… $35 or something. First we went into the chocolatiers place, which is to say they make chocolate and sometimes turn it into a drink, and got some Mayan hot chocolate. Which had a pretty strong after taste that burned your mouth. $4.19 for that. I also got four tiny chocolates, which were $9 total. So that was all well and good and we hung out there for a bit to chat while drinking hot chocolate.

        Then we go off to find something to eat - I got a chicken club sandwhich (pretty good, $7 or something) and an Italian cookie/bread thing with almonds in it that was dipped in chocolate - $3. After sitting there for, hmm, an hour/hour and a half, I also got some caramel cheesecake for $3.50. So $15 for lunch.

        After checking the time and checking the map, we decided we didn’t have time to go to Honest Ed’s and decided to go see Kool Haus to scout out the area. This was around 3:30 PM and there were already people in line - like hell I’m going to wait outside on a cold day for an hour and a half. There was a market area nearby so we went there, but it was just flea market stuff because it was sunday and the parade was going by there. We worked our way back to Union Station and got food from a dude in a cart for $4 (each-ish). Worked our way back to Kool Haus not long before 5 PM and listened to increasingly desperate scalpers try to sell tickets.

        On the way in, there was a bag check - I had my pockets full of electronics and maps, Lily’s bag was full of books, the security girl was o.0. Drop off our coats for $2.50, go out into the main room - surprisingly big, actually. Huge crowds around the Bring Me the Horizon and August Burns Red booths, proving who the cool bands are, and absolutely no one over by the other three booths. I got a Polar Bear Club hoodie ($40) and a tour shirt ($10) and they’re pretty sweet.

        At 6 PM, the first band comes on, doesn’t announce themselves until a few songs into their set. Their singer was not that great, their guitarist (or bassist? I can’t tell by look) was a better singer and the best part of the band. He would jump into the air and fling his legs out in opposite directions. I got Lily onto my shoulders (with some help from the bar) so she could see but we were too slow and he didn’t do it again.

        But all was not lost! For Polar Bear Club was up next and that should have been great. Except their singer was as bad live as I have heard. I caught, maybe, one piece of each song they played - except their last song, Living Saints, which was recognizable. Hell, even when they announced the songs I had a hard time knowing what was going on. Barring the occasional signal from the music, I was essentially lost, and I knew most of the songs by heart. They played Light of Local Eyes (which I wrote my mock valedictorian speech about), Our Ballads, Boxes, something, and Living Saints. There may have been one more song, but in that case, they played two songs where I stood there for five minutes and had no clue what I was listening to.

        Interest was relatively low for them. Sad, but when they play that way… It wasn’t really their scene anyway, but even so.

        Emarosa comes on, they’ve got a keyboard, I’m like oh no… But it wasn’t actually that bad. I was bummed out after Polar Bear Club but I’ve filed them away to check out later.

        Up until now, each of the bands was getting set up in 15 minutes and playing half hour sets. Opening bands and stuff. August Burns Red also got set up in 15 minutes, and played for an hour. While waiting for them to get set up, I was kinda falling asleep.

        That didn’t last for long.

        The first three bands were all pretty restrained, jumping around and stuff but mainly playing in the middle of the stage and thus being invisible to Lily. August Burns Red were not like that. They brought out a bunch of boxes to put over the speakers and spent most of their time up there and encouraging the crowd. Not only were they more interesting to watch than the previous bands, they also played really, really well. The polar opposite of the other bands, if you will. Everything sounded right, and that was great, because I knew them well enough to recognize a few songs, if only by the chorus.

        So August Burns Red was a highlight of the day. Then we wait for half an hour for their royal highnesses Bring Me The Horizon to get their shit set up. I was pretty apathetic about them from the start, but to give you an idea of what we’re dealing with… Half the people there had already seen the band seven times. I heard it from a chick talking to a fat dude. At least she was there for her eighth time, and as one of the two people I eavesdropped on, that is half of everyone.

        They also had a *SURPRISE* GUEST SINGER OMG! Some girl comes out in the middle of one of their songs and everybody screams “OH MY GOD THERE SHE IS AAAAAAH” and I’m like oh, ok. Now it all makes sense. Yep.

        So she sings for a few minutes and takes off. Wikipedia doesn’t say they’ve ever had a girl in the band or in the credits of any of their albums, so I have no idea who she was. Attractive, probably the one doing all the female electronica stuff in their songs, but if she’s not credited with anything…

        So after their half hour set up Bring Me The Horizon played for 45 minutes, then tossed their shit out into the crowd and left. A brief chant for encore died when it became clear that they were thoroughly done with us. Cue the stampede for the doors.

        We go back to Union Station, I buy a vanilla hot chocolate and a cookie from Second Cup (the first time I’ve ever gotten anything there, actually) which were pretty good. I drop Lily off at her bus stop place, then go off to my own bus stop (around 11:45 PM) and get in line for my bus - which was leaving at 12:30 AM. I popped some ear plugs in and slept for pretty much five hours straight, which was pretty nice.

        So that’s what I did! And now I want to find a place with cafes and dumb art to go with a friend, except that it isn’t five hours away from where I live. Vael, we’re going to find one of those places, and enjoy it immensely in the summer.

Revenge of the Introvert

You know those magazine things that are all going out of business because nobody buys them and they make little to no money from the ads on their websites? I’ve started seeing a lot of them lying around in various bookstores or bus stop convenience stores here in The Big City. Used to be I’d never see actual, physical magazines. At any rate, I posted about something from the cover of Wired not long ago, and now I’ve got another sensational magazine cover to share with you.

        This time it’s Psychology Today, with a cover promoting the “Revenge of the Introvert.” Sounds interesting, but once again, I ran home to look the article up online rather than drop cash on a magazine. Sorry, guys. At any rate, the article is wonderful, and there are too many great quotes for me to actually single any out. If I did, I’d have to pick out all of the good ones, and this post would rival the length of the original. But please do read the article itself, as you’ll get some good value out of it whether you’re introverted or not. Maybe you’re severely extroverted, but in that case, you’ll learn how not to bulldoze over the introverts in your life. If you’re introverted, I’m sure this will give you plenty to think about.

        So go read it!

        I’m going to assume everyone reads that. You’d better, because I won’t have any incredibly lengthy posts to keep you busy today.

        There’s also the… “interesting” (and I write it that way for emphasis of it’s questionable value) Highly Sensitive Introvert Survival Guide. I didn’t know there were introverts and Highly Sensitive (abbreviated HSP…? Highly Sensitive Person, perhaps? Highly Sensitive Perhaps?) Introverts. But if you’re beyond regular introversion, maybe you qualify. I do know what she means by hating people getting in my space and ruining my planned relaxation time. Her suggestions are pretty good, though: get noise cancelling headphones, enjoy your alone time as much as possible. Go for a run if things get too hectic. This isn’t even on the required reading scale, so it’s just bonus material if you want. You won’t be tested on this one.

        Did I mention there would be a test on all the awesome things I link to? Because there will be. So I hope your interests coincide perfectly with mine and you read absolutely everything I put up.

———————————————————————

        Listened to Hollow Place by Polar Bear Club (not the song my tumblr’s title comes from, but a favourite nonetheless) while writing this post, and went to check out their myspace to see if I could catch them live now that I live in a real place. Turns out they’re playing in Toronto on November 21st and Quebec City on the 22nd. Both of those are very possible. Tickets are a little under $30, which is not bad at all, though transportation costs will be where the real expenses lie. They’re also playing with August Burns Red, who I do listen to, and a few other names I recognize but can’t remember liking. It’s possible I hate them. At any rate, there’s also Bring Me The Horizon, Emarosa, and This Is Hell.

        The moral of the story is I might make plans to go to one of those shows. November 21st is a sunday, so I could do a weekend trip. That means the 22nd is a monday, which is a day I have two classes (and a tutorial) so that wouldn’t be possible would be a bad idea.

        I guess I like living near interesting things.

So now I climb that mountain, to see what I can see…

Today was pretty good day. I felt better this morning, after yesterday stopped existing, and even got to sleep in a little. When I got out of bed, I had sausages and a bagel and it was pretty good. Then I had some pizza and leftover cake (from someone else’s party, even) for lunch and that was pretty good too. Then I played some more Scott Pilgrim with my brother, or occasionally without him because I was able to pwn everything by myself. That was pretty good.

        Shortly after four, I left home to get to the club (or bar? how do we distinguish between the two?) where I’d be seeing The Holly Springs Disaster along with Architects and Structures. I was led to believe the doors opened at 5 pm, so I arrived around 4:30 pm. There was a small group of people waiting outside, but they were clearly not getting in soon. So I sat outside for an hour, before deciding I should probably get in line. It had doubled in size at this point, but that wasn’t saying much. I proceeded to wait in line for another hour and a half, until they started letting people in a bit before 7 pm. That was pretty not good, actually, but apparently things were going according to schedule so I just had the wrong schedule. In the end, the line stretched around the corner and down a fair ways on the next street, so it was pretty good that I got there when I did.

        Once inside, I waited for half an hour while Structures got their stuff together. They’re from Toronto, so I’m willing to bet most of the people in the building had seen them six times before, and nobody was all that excited just yet. They played, oh, four or five songs before leaving the stage. Less than half an hour in total. They tried to encourage a circle pit at one point, but that was quickly ruined by hardcore dancers. There were plenty of people already wearing their shirts, but that didn’t equate to interest I guess. Their vocalist was pretty ok live.

        Another half hour of setup before Architects started to play. Hailing from Brighton, UK, their vocalist was pretty good live. Many people were excited for them, so I guess they’re decently well known. So in their little British accent, they encouraged everyone to sing along and get excited. And they did. At one point, the entire basement of the place was shaking from the music and everyone jumping almost magically in unison. Again, they called for a circle pit, which once again quickly dissolved under the assault of windmilling arms and floor punches. While they also only played for a little over half an hour, it was still pretty good.

        Shortly before 9 pm, The Holly Springs Disaster began their setup. Everyone chanted their name, and because we’re Canadian, we said “eh” instead of “oi” to space things out a little. This was pretty good. When they started to play, the crowd took over singing duties and this was pretty good. I ended up beside a huge guy with enough enthusiasm to match his size, and he basically used up all the space available. If someone was in front of him, he’d lean backwards to headbang and pump his fists over the shoulder of whichever random person was unfortunate enough to be ahead of him. But this was still pretty good. They basically played every song they ever wrote, if you count a medley of their original EP as multiple songs. They did a cover of My Hero by Foo Fighters, a couple more songs, and then pretended to leave the stage. The crowd called for one more song, so they finished the night with Up In Smoke, which I’m pretty sure was literally the only other song they had to play. They did play one of their unreleased songs, Godzilla, which may once have been named King Kong, or could be something entirely different. But the moral of the story is that it was pretty damn good.

        I bought shirts for Structures and Architects that are pretty good.

        Pretty good kind of day.