Blind Witness: Music for the Win

It had been a while since my last good Metal show - that is up until Tuesday night when Blind Witness rolled into Ottawa with the Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza in tow.

The massive bass drops, blast beats and face pounding breakdowns were very much welcomed. It's got me pretty excited for Summer Slaughter coming up in August.

Smuuuurgh? I think so.

Birthdays: Innuendo Extravaganza

So my 100% legitimate actual birthday night out - compared to my unbirthday from March - was this past Friday. All in all it was quite the interesting evening.

The Honest Lawyer is a cool place, except when a sewer main cracks open. While they call in for repairs they decide to not let anyone in, or anyone who may happen to wander out for a smoke, to come back in. Needless to say you can see where this is going. What began there, moved on to the near designated meeting spot: Patty Bolands for the remainder of the evening.

Since I decided to opt out of a specific drink - just because - I found myself with a lineup of shots that were intriguing and quite delicious. Not so surprising however that the few people choosing them happened to pick pretty much every single innuendo laden shot they could pull out of an iPhone app. Maybe someone was trying send me subtle hints - in an extremely unsubtle way.

Probably not, but you really never know.

Nonetheless, good times were had. But the bar was not raised. It seems 2010 will not be able to steal the crown of Epic hilarity from 2009. For that you would need:
- A Cougar
- A best friend, grinding and rocking Devil Horns with said Cougar
- A Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band
- All of your other friends watching and buying more drinks

Maybe next year.

Dear Spain: Lawl. That is all.

So the World Cup has been lacking some major upsets in the first round of games at the group stage, as the final two games of the first round went forward today. While there were some surprises and minor upsets in the opening week, there still wasn't a grand upset to make the World Cup feel like the World Cup.

Leave it up to Spain to take that privilege in the final first round game of the group stage. Before World Cup play began, Spain was touted by many to be THE team to beat, something which can be seen in nearly every world cup pool and betting circle.

Out of all the groups in the World Cup opener, Group H (Spain, Honduras, Chile and Switzerland) seemed to be a relatively simple challenge for a team like Spain. That is until they lost 1-0 today to Switzerland after a long and very entertaining game, especially in the second half. Despite out-shooting their opponents and having possession for over 60% of the game, they didn't manage to deliver on many a good opportunity.

Spanish football fans will have to hope they can get back on the ball - so to speak - seeing as how many believed Switzerland to be the 'simplest' opponent Spain would face in the Group stage.

Round two of Group stage play also opened today with South Africa meeting Uruguay, much to the eventual chagrin of the host nations fans. Eyes will be on many teams to see how they fare in round 2. Many will be focused on England Friday to see if they can get a strong foothold in Group C, and on Germany who hope to have another breakout performance against Serbia, after trampling the socceroos.

Other teams to watch closely: Ghana, Netherlands, France, Italy, Ivory Coast and Portugal.

Tuesday: It's Science

725,864,400 seconds. 12,097,740 minutes. 201624 Hours. 8401 days. 1196 weeks. 276 months.

23 years down the tubes and counting.

I don't feel older than yesterday. Or last week, or last month. Six or seven people have already told me that I'm older because today's my birthday.

I told them I'm only older because it's now Tuesday. And I'll be older again Wednesday, because it'll be tomorrow. It's science.

World Cup: England vs. USA

So World Cup play opened yesterday with an interesting match between South Africa and Mexico and real dud, as per usual from France who seem to never have a great first game in nearly every World Cup. While Uruguay held the line, they were also on their heels for nearly the last 10-15 minutes of play, which was almost painful to watch.

Day two saw some much more interesting play with a strong match between Argentina and Nigeria, that could have easily been a blowout if not for the great goaltending of the Nigerian team. The second match of the day had Korea meeting Greece in which Korea displayed why they're a favorite for exiting to the group stage.

However the third and final game of the second day is the first most anticipated game of the group stage and that's England vs. the USA. England played dominantly in World Cup qualification and look to be an early favorite, but the US team has a strong presence and the game should be interesting to watch.
English football fans will just have to hope that Wayne Rooney's trademark hotheadedness doesn't cost him a penalty in this game because he'll be a key player for England if they hope to have a successful run in this World Cup. My 'money' is on England in this one, we'll just have to wait and see.

Lord Stanley: Cha-Ching!

Well it's over. The Flyers lost, which I had expected but they pulled off one hell of a playoff run regardless. Congratulations to the Hawks are in order.

But despite the Flyers losing in game 6 and costing me points in my playoff pool - since I actually picked the Flyers following New Jersey's early exit in round one - thanks to my player picks (across nearly every round) and an overload of scoring and playmaking by these guys, I've another victory once again.


Mark, I'll be expecting my pool winnings by next week - I know where you live. Better luck next year, suckers!

Bruschetta: the Anti-Christ

When a friend comes back from across the pond, there's only one thing that you can and should do - that's go out and have a legendary night.

Location of choice for said box social? Pub Italia on Preston - and it was quite the epic evening. Despite some no shows, excuse givers and late arrivals, fun times were had by all. A wide variety of the worlds beers were consumed and there was even a guest appearance by the Raspberry Ballin', which is an amazing mixed drink - even though the name leaves something to be desired.

All in all the night went off without a hitch - until Bruschetta entered the picture. Oh Bruschetta... you turn me into everything I despise. Now I walk the walk of shame.

And just FYI: If you spend over a year in England, it's fine if you pick up the lingo and still use it when you're back home, you should just expect to have pennies thrown at you. But if you come back and you don't know who Wayne Rooney is - and you lived a stone's throw from Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United - you are a sad, sad individual.

Lord Stanley: About to Earn me 120$ - Again

In all fairness, the Stanley Cup isn't going to have me win my current playoff pool - which has been both odd in its creation and hilariously awesome in its working - its more thanks to a few key individuals and certain teams that I'm pretty much guaranteed the top spot come the next couple weeks.

While Mike Cammalleri did earn me more points overall in the second round than if Pitt had actually won, based on my pick in 6 games, I'll thank him, Jaroslav Halak and the Habs for their surprise run.

But when it comes to playoff pools, I tend to aim for the Dark Horse and my choice has payed off. If anyone's going to win me some free money (and beers) it's going to be this guy and his band of Merry Men:


Mike Richards has been leading the Philadelphia Flyers on an amazing playoff run, after a real up and down season. But despite the fact they had to fight down to a shootout to make the playoffs, they've been the Dark Horse of the entire field. Upsetting the New Jersey Devils in the first round was a pleasant surprise. But coming back from a 3 games to none deficit in game 7 - while trailing 3-0 in the 3rd period mind you - to take out the Bruins was nothing short of one of the greatest comebacks in playoff history. Following that up with eliminating the 'Cinderella' Habs, the Flyers haven't let up and they show no sign of sitting down against the Hawks now as they're about to tie the series 2-2 in game 4.

Despite the outcome of this Stanley Cup Final, I pretty much have my pool in the bag, thanks especially to some breakout performances and hard play by Mike Richards, Dany Brière, Claude Giroux, Ville Leino and Scott Hartnell. Not forgetting the minute consumption and shut down defense of Chris Pronger and Matt Carle, and the stellar goaltending of 'backup' Michael Leighton.

Russian Circles: Music for the Win

I love discovering new bands and over the past year I've come across a great many, which I'm sure I'll introduce on this page at some point or another.

Russian Circles is one of these bands. An instrumental band out of Chicago, they have a sound that can be calming, powerful and just plain awesome. Their most recent album Geneva definitely helped me clock a few hours at work while doing some grunt work at the office.

Here's the third song off the album, entitled Melee