music

This one is going to be all Leica and once again all Tri-X +1.

I don’t eat out so often as any time when Kevin is visiting.

You kind of have to set aside a budget for it all together.

Once again beauty is known entirely only in its defeat.

Man plays thing, waits for bus.

Battles at Richards on Richards, September 2008.

One evening I was relaxing at home when I received a text message from Norm. He said come down to Richards and see this band called Battles, I think you’d like it. I spent about 28 seconds consulting the internet and left immediately because it was already close to show time and I had to reach downtown. As you can see it was pretty full when I got there and it is about as close as I got to the stage. But he was right, I did like it.

I remember at one point Craig came around to bring beers amongst his colleages. He had several bottles in his hands/arms and he was trying to offer an item to me but I didn’t know which one he meant to give so when I reached out I used both hands. I wanted to make sure that nothing was going to be dropped in this exchange but I quickly felt awkward as I imagined he was going to think that I was trying to take more than 1 of his offered beers. I felt pretty terrible and it was so loud at the time I couldn’t explain this to him properly. Still I never brought it up afterwards. Thank you for that beer, Craig. It was a bittersweet moment for me.

Mogwai played at the Commodore soon after.

Sometimes when you want intensely to make a photograph you will make your best effort with all of your knowledge and experience behind you but you will still fail. If you choose to show your failure anyway there will be people that say it is still good no matter what. Be glad that someone liked it but don’t listen to them because they are both wrong and right at the same time and how can you trust people like that?

I just spent half an hour looking for it without success but I read a review for this show somewhere which gave it a pretty bad rap. The author even went on to say that as he looked around the venue his sense of disappointment was mirrored in the faces of his peers! Well isn’t it pleasant when your feelings are justified by insignificant strangers.

One of my favourite moments was during the song Tracy which featured also the telephone samples like on the record and I think a couple members were caught by surprise as it almost seemed like they thought a mistake was going through the speakers for just a few seconds before they realized what it was. I couldn’t fight off the smile a lot of us shared in that moment.

At the end of the show the stage lost power and confusion began to spread. It was clear that the band wanted to play one more song. In the end they got everything running again and I was incredibly glad because as encore they played ithica 27 o 9 which sounded just amazing.

This is what Vancouvers olympic village looked like a year ago today as seen from Main St station. McDonalds in the foreground and city hall in the very distant background.

When my father decided to buy this car we assembled the following day in the back yard to stare at it but also to bolt a seat belt in the passenger side to drive more with the comfort of modern safety features.

I drove it later to the train station and it was the first time I ever drove something so powerful without power steering and I felt like an uncoordinated weakling.

Some guys opened for Grady at the Plaza on Granville street. It was evident that they came from the suburbs, perhaps because they still had passion.

There was no real way to get a nice exposure here. Maybe my next Leica will have HDR.

God, I love that epic double-neck.

Y U So Shady, Grady?

Towards the end of the evening, in response to an article in the weekly Georgia Strait which challenged the condition of hair hidden underneath that southern hat (Mr. Johnson defected to Texas from Canada lately), Gordy lifted his hat from his head triumphantly to demonstrate a full head of healthy grown hair and then launched into another blues-rock anthem. It is actually funny I come to this roll now because I have been listening to a lot of Grady lately. There is just no substitute for those greasy fingers.