www.aday.org

I recently took part in a worldwide photography collaboration on May 15th where the photographers made it possible to give people all over the globe an opportunity to have a glimpse at their daily (or not so daily) routine. Toronto was a hot 25 plus degrees that day, so I just brought my Nikon D5100 along and took whatever I could. Nothing too crazy, just what I saw or came across as interesting on that day. I'll post the link to my profile below but there are thousands of other profiles to browse from.....

http://www.aday.org/profile/28859

The Final Countdown....

Oh yes, Europe. Great band indeed. And in 9 days I'll be right back there again with a stop off in magnificent Iceland for five days (the most western part of Europe for all you North American hodophobes) and a quick tour of London (I feel I have to say, not Ontario) before hitting terra firma in the Peoples Republic of Cork. Going from one adopted home here in Toronto to another which looked after me for close on ten years, I couldn't say enough great things about that little city on the river. Y'know it's true for Tommy Tiernan, the best thing about being in Cork is, no matter where you are, you can say "This is Cork", because there's just no other place like it on earth, that I've been to anyway. So many stories. So many characters. And the pints in the Corner House. Jesus Christ. When I think of Cork I think of all the hours and all the money I spent in bars like The Quad, The Lobby, An Brog, The Hairy Lemon and all the great times I had in each and every one of them. I really do want to spend more than two days in the city if I can make the time up, maybe even get down to West Cork or something, but for now I'm taking whatever comes of it. 

I've got to admit that even though Canada is a fantastic country of opportunity for those who arrive in it for the first time, in my case, home is most definitely where the heart is. I guess you only realise this after living in any foreign land for so long and even though right now this is home, for two whole weeks in June it'll be good to see my parents and brother and whoever else cares to show up along the way.

So for just over three weeks it's out with incessant social media updates, Tim Hortons, sunshine, microbrewed beers, brunch and patios and in with breakfast rolls, beer gardens, potholes, shite overcast June weather, the odd knacker and fortunately in time for Irelands first game of their Euro 2012 group against Croatia. Ireland will be a complete and absolute mess that night, recession or no recession. The fine people of Ireland will be robbing their mothers just to have enough pints to forget about the night completely and wake up the next morning to talk about how great it all was. Just like how I remember it. Then it'll be forward march onto Dromcollogher. Bright lights, big city. Percy French wrote a rock song about it. The Chinese have invaded and I arrive at a time slot wedged between the May Fair and the annual Drom Carnival. No Wall of Death for me in 2012 I guess.

In preparation, the credit card is topped with the finest Irish pesos. My new Nikon DSLR is good to go and hopefully I can just use the holiday to relax, unwind and catch up with everything and everyone back home and have more than a few stories to bring back across the Atlantic with me. Maybe even get lucky enough to catch a few episodes of Irish Paint Magic instead of having to watch it on Youtube all the time. Oh the madness. Look out Ireland, I'm comin' home!!

Summer Is Here!

The first day of Summer was offcially today, I know this as after taking a 50km bike ride and my legs are sunburnt. That's how an Irish person know's it's the hot season. So todays trip took me on my first fair weather trip out beyond Balmy Beach and even beyond Scarborough Bluffs where I found myself a nice quiet beach and took a long dip in the lake.

I'm slowly running out of interesting places to bike to in the city and the less traffic on the route the better, this one in particular is ok but I need to keep an eye out for a different trail. Here's some shots from earlier taken with my battered Canon point and shoot...

Grunge Ain't Dead

So way back in the late 90's, I owned every single piece of Nirvana memorabilia you could possibly own at that time. Kurt Cobain had been dead a quite a few years at that stage in my life and every single LP, limited edition CD release, band biography, video recording and t-shirt (which is still boxed up at home in Ireland) sat on my shelf as I played Incesticide for the millionth time. Mother Love Bone and Alice in Chains had also been defunct for several years at this stage, thanks to the ravages of heroin on their bands lead singers so I never really thought I'd have the chance to glimpse at a man who lived through something as amazing as the Seattle grunge scene. 

Admittedly, I wasn't a huge fan of the latest offering from the Mark Lanegan Band and there was a little too much synth and drum loops in it for me. I much preferred the old stuff, the grittier, raw, stripped down Mark Lanegan but beggars can't be choosers in this life and considering he was playing a club 15 minutes away from my house, I realised that opportunity doesn't knock twice.

The opening act for the Tuesday night show, Sean Wheeler & Zander Schloss were unknown to me and even though sometimes I do wish I had never seen or heard some previous shows opening acts, tonight, this wasn't the case. Wheeler and Schloss came onstage looking like they'd just left an early house and blew the crowd away with their muddy roots and bluegrass style of sad country ballads and in my opinion set a great mood for the rest of the night. If you've not seen these guys play here, you can see them play live in the video below in what I think is one of the best songs ever played on a bouzouki. Ever.

After a quick soundcheck, The Mark Lanegan Band approached the stage with Lanegan supporting a noticeable limp, I'm still curious to know how he picked up the injury but there's not a single report of this anywhere online. No words were exchanged during the show other than a few sincere thank yous in between songs and the band tore through some of the best and oldest pf Marks material and taking in a few tracks from his Screaming Trees era. I was thankful they played some classics like One Hundred Days and Wedding Dress and ever more thankful when they ended the encore on Methamphetamine Blues. Official bootleg CD's from the earlier shows were onsale at the Merch desk in exchange for 20 fine Canadian dollars but I was happy enough to leave with the experience of seeing this guy play his back catalogue at a more or less sold out show down in College St's Little Italy. Set list for the night was as follows:

The Gravedigger’s Song
Sleep With Me
Hit the City
Wedding Dress
One Way Street
Resurrection Song
Gray Goes Black
Crawlspace (Screaming Trees)
Quiver Syndrome
One Hundred Days
Creeping Coastline of Lights
Black Rose Way (Screaming Trees)
Riot In My House
Ode To Sad Disco
St. Louis Elegy
Tiny Grain of Truth

ENCORE

Bleeding Muddy Water
Pendulum
Harborview Hospital
Methamphetamine Blues

7 Days Later....

So exactly one week after my bike accident, I'm still in bad shape and the haematoma on my left inner thigh has taken over most of my upper leg at this stage. The left side of my body is still pretty beat up, not much muscle movement improvement even with some regular stretching and there's still some rib/shoulder pain kicking around that makes sneezing and yawning a joy. The doctor reckons it'll be 2-4 weeks before this lovely sight clears up.

Moonlight over Lake Erie

Taken on Easter weekend at Rondeau Park, Ontario.

Futureheads - Rant

No, not a rant. Futureheads. Rant. Their new album. I remember seeing these guys play in The Savoy, Cork a few years back and all I remember thinking was how great their harmonies were for a bunch of regular down to earth lads from Newcastle. So, I guess they've decided to take a slightly weird direction after what I think was a poor last album and release an entire collection of acapella material. A far cry from their British indie post-punk days, this is going to make for some interesting tour, if they do decide to tour it that is.

Canadian Music Week: Rubberbandits Live at Sneaky Dees

At 1am last night, at the corner of Bathurst and College, Toronto, The Rubberbandits decided to show the cities hipsters what it's like to make real music, music from the mean streets of Limerick city. After the crowd endured a band that screamed for an hour and another band that had a jazz flute player as a stage ornament, the boys came out and blew the top off the music venue upstairs while people below stuffed their faces with nachos. Revealing along the way to the Canadians in the audience just who exactly is in the Irish Republican Army and how Willie O'Dea got his name, they played all the hits including 'Horse Outside', 'Wanna Fight Your Father', 'Bag of Glue' and my own favourite, 'Double Dropping Yokes with Eamonn DeValera'. Pure awkward, but 100% Irish.

Shotgun Jimmie, Wake Owl and John K Samson

Canadian Music Week time again. So after a long personal wait, I finally got to see Sackville, Nova Scotia's infamous Shotgun Jimmie...so as gigs go, I'm pretty happy with myself about this fact. He played a short set in support of the Weakerthans frontman, John K Samson but was also playing rythym guitar with Samson as part of The Provincial Band which was something was not aware of at the time I bought the tickets. Wedged between the two bands were a 5 piece from Vancouver by the name of Wake Owl who surprised everyone I think, although they were in keeping with the theme of the night which was a celebration of all things Canadiana. I brought along my crappy Nikon Coolpix for some front row action.

Tomorrow night, Limerick messiahs, the Rubberbandits.

So. What's New?

Here's whats's new.

Tonight kicks off the opening night of Orpha and Beatrice and the Alumnae Theatre directed by Taylor Marie Graham. I got the chance to snag some pics of the preview for this show (part of the New Ideas Festival)  last night and the show was pretty impressive.

Tomorrow night, Shotgun Jimmy and John Samson play The Great Hall (looking forward to that Eastcoast rock which kinda reminds me a little of Grandaddy, remember Summertime Kids?) and then on Saturday, it's time to double drop some yokes with Eamonn DeValera and the Rubberbandits as they take over Toronto for one night and show these Canadians how a real dance party goes down in Ireland. Yurt!

Happy Patricks Day

So after over 2 years in Canada, Paddys Day finally falls on a weekend, a Saturday to be exact which is even better. There's just over 2 months until the trip back home and I'm excited to be back in the old country again. In honour of the day, I went through Guinness' back catalog of advertising to find one of my favourites, featuring the song 'Hey Day' from sadly deceased, possible future of Irish music, Mic Christopher. Enjoy agus Slainte!!

YES! Rubberbandits at Sneaky Dees

It's official, after a sell out gig at the Mercury Lounge in NYC, they've pulled off another sell out gig at the best shit-Mexican food joint in Toronto, Sneaky Dees. Tickets were originally sold out but they they soon made some extra space available and 8 more tickets went up for grab. YOINK!! Hipsters be well wide.

Celebrity Facebooking #2

So I'm sitting at home, just looking at Facebook when I notice that 'Nikolai Kulemin' of the Toronto Maple Leafs has just commented on one of my little brothers friends Facebook posts. The content of the post was regarding the latest video to go viral on the net, the Kony 2012 video. I noticed that the alleged Kulemin has called replied with something a little more than questionable and as soon as I questioned it, he had deleted it. Thus spawned the trolling of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Nikolai Kulemin, although most of it was lighthearted.

Now the Internet being the Internet, I reserve judgement on the actual legitimacy of the left wingers Facebook Profile however if it is a spoof, the guy has gone to the trouble of adding 500+ people and can manage to use Google Translate to have a full blown conversation on Facebook with his Russian fans (without blowing his cover).

I guess some things are best left unanswered.

MS Canada NEEDS YOUR DONATION!!

So I've decided to take on the challenge of a 55km cycle on September 9th as part of the 2012 MS Canada Bike Tour. Since I first got back on the bike in 2011 I have cycled over 5000km in and around Toronto and I felt like it was time to put my practice to good use and do something for a good cause. My goal is to raise at least $250 to donate to the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada in September, hopefully with the help of my friends, family and work colleagues from Canada and back home in Ireland. So I'm asking if any of you can donate a few euros or dollars to this effort so I can achieve my target. You can donate securely online using the following link if you have a Credit Card and if not, I have a pledge sheet for people who want to donate any change they would like to unload.

http://mssoc.convio.net/site/TR/BikeTour/OntarioDivision?px=1481166&pg=personal&fr_id=1270

Also, if anyone is interested in doing the bike ride you can register for just $20 from the link below.

http://mssociety.ca/msbiketours

Please, please, PLEASE, donate what you can afford!

Elk. Love

Staying Positive

So in a bid to get residency status in Canada, I have hired a lawyer to represent me when it comes to submitting my case the CIO out East. For a very straight forward case, Canadians sure have a way of complicating things and in one sense I'm glad to have the representation but on the other hand I still have a lot of work to do yet. Right now, I've signed the contract with the firm and they are building up my profile to see if my case is valid, which I know is. So I'm expecting a call from them tomorrow or Tuesday as to whether all systems are go. Or not. Besides that, I'm looking forward to a number of things, most importantly of all is the fact that I get to go back to Ireland in June for a few weeks to see friends, family and relax for a while without all the stress and bullshit that comes with living in a city as big as Toronto. Even more importantly, I get to stop in Iceland for a week beforehand for a well needed holiday...as of yet I've no idea what do to there but I'll figure it out over the next few weeks.

I would also like to learn to swim this Summer. Better late than never as they saying goes. 

Hüsker Dü?

Because I do

Merle Allin and The Murder Junkies

I am currently engaged in a written correspondence with GG Allins brother, Merle and attempting to either purchase some artwork via GG's website, http://www.ggallin.com or to get my curious hands on some of his collectable written letters to some of Americans most famous inmates. He has even sent me a photo of him and his dog, Speck. Rock and roll.

Art School: Week 3

Still life with an Orange.

The FBI have started with shutting down sites like www.megaupload.com. Here's what I was faced with earlier when I went to the site. Thanks America.

Live music this year

Hoping to catch more of the smaller bands around town this year and trying to avoid the big $110+ stadium shows if I can, however I do have tickets to see Tool, Shotgun Jimmie (supporting that guy from The Weakerthans at The Great Hall) and Kasabian in March. I'll also probably miss NXNE this year due to travelling back home, whatever.

Bang - Death of a Country

My latest vinyl procurement, the previously unreleased album by one of the great cult American bands. On my first listen, it's definitely worth the $35 I just paid for it.

Schools Out

So I'm officially a part time night class student again as of yesterday. I've decided to ease myself back into some sort of extra curicular learning with something that's a amateur hobby of mine and still a little technically inclined. I've enrolled in the Avenue Road School of The Arts here in Toronto and will be taking a 2 hour class every week for the next 3 months, in the hope of developing my camera skills. Homework has already begun.

Completely random thought. This Life. What a great show from the 90's when I thought all I ever wanted to do was life a life like theirs. British TV dramas about 20-something law students was never so interesting. Egg was my favourite.

The Douglas Street Bookshop

The number one reason why Cork is one of the greatest cities in the world. Pure Cork.



Cork bookshop chat by Random Slim

Getting political with George Stroumboulopoulos