Cabin Country: Fundraiser Fun Fest

It's been a crazy as hell week, so far. Expect a write-up of the awesome show which took place last night at the Capital Music Hall. I'll have plenty to say.

But for the time being, I'd like to bring a small bit of attention to a particular little shindig going on this Friday which is being organized by a group of people including a friend of mine who shall remain nameless.

You can thank me later Mylène. Oops!

Friday night there will be a Fundraiser held at the Great Canadian Cabin, for Blood Cancer Research. Fun times have been promised, including drinks, BBQ and other assorted shenanigans. Plus it's all for a good cause.

Tickets to the event are being sold this week on the University of Ottawa Campus for 5$. If you're unable to purchase a ticket, don't go to the U of Hoe or otherwise, no worries. The door price will be a measly 7$.

Any and all are invited, so bring your friends and other shady characters and raise money for Blood Cancer research. And if you're a Metalhead and need more incentive, do it for Nergal, the frontman for Behemoth was recently diagnosed with Leukemia earlier this summer.

The event is geared to start at 9PM, so if you plan on being amazing, be sure to gatecrash at around 8:45 - just because you can.

I can't guarantee the state of affairs at the venue itself, since I've never been. I'm currently under the assumption that it's a Country Bar, though people keep pleading to me that only happens on Thursdays. Which only further increases my suspicion because just once a week is bad enough.

Regardless of the argument others may have, the freakin' place has its name spelled out in Logs.

It's definitely a Country Bar.

Come out and support a good cause or I'll find you.

Tour de Force: As Dying Carnifexes Unearth Remains

What's bound to be a long week starts about 12 hours from now. My regular week comprised of slow and long days will get its first taste of due assignments and exams, this week.

Normally that's not much of a problem, seeing as how both of these things are on the books for Wednesday. The problem therein lies in the preparation, which had to be done partially this weekend and will have to be finished late tomorrow night.

There'll be no room for finishing any work or preparing for tests on Tuesday night because As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, Unearth and Carnifex sail into our fair town, bringing with them a night sure to be filled with shenanigans, shin kicking and chug-chug-chugga-lug filled breakdowns.

This will be the first time I get to see AILD and ATR perform live, both of which I've listened to now and again throughout the years.

This will be the second time in as many months that I see Carnifex, seeing as how they performed on the Summer Slaughter Tour, back in August.

The last (and first) time I saw Unearth was in 2007, when they opened for Slayer at Scotiabank Place and put on one hell of a show. They were here in January of 2009, with Emmure, Born of Osiris and Impending Doom - which I unfortunately missed. So I'll be looking forward to getting the chance to see them again come Tuesday night.

Wednesday is bound to be interesting. Following this tour de force up with my 8AM to 8PM fun fest that ends with an exam should be quite a sight to behold indeed.

But it'll all be worth it.

Show starts at 7PM on Tuesday September 28th at the Capital Music Hall. Not sure if tickets are sold out, but if you're in the least interested, you've only got two days left to find out - so hop to it already!

Canned Chicken: The Other White Meat

The sheer amount of ridiculousness amounting from my ridiculously long days, each week, is beginning to reach excessive levels of ridiculous. But TGIF!

Thursdays are the final night in my string of super happy fun-time days that kick off my week. Usually my order of business is working from 9AM to anywhere before 7PM and then proceeding with my last class of the week from 7-10PM.

This week however I got to bolt out of said class early, following a quick group meeting and was able to mosey along - even in the rain, I still moseyed - to my next destination.

Rather than that being directly towards the location in which I find myself sleeping on a floor every Thursday night, it turned out to be Yuk Yuk's. Last night happened to be the birthday shindig of one of the owners of the floor I find myself sleeping on at least once a week.

The rest of my night consisted of a decent half of a stand-up lineup, a walk across town in the rain, funny stories, funnier people, Strongbow and some pretty badass cake.

One of the running gags of the evening involved someone's love affair with canned chicken - and someone else's displeasure of said canned chicken. Mainly with the fact that it smells like tuna when opened. Last night however I got to hear both sides of the story, whereas Wednesday I only got the flip side of the coin. The ensuing defense of what I now call "The Other White Meat", was pretty damned hilarious. But I have to give canned chicken the benefit of the doubt - at least for now.

Moral of the story: Someone is going to remind me to buy someone some fresh chicken to cook on a Thursday night in the near future.

The words Battlestar Galactica came up about 50,000 times as well last night, mainly because Caprica is about to start back up in two weeks. As people began to disperse for the evening we started to bust out some tunes, including the soundtracks from BSG. Anyone who has seen BSG knows Bear Mcreary's cover of All Along the Watchtower.

Well, I should say everyone except for one person last night, who had never even heard the cover by Jimi Hendrix, nor the original by Bob Dylan. Crazyness right? I know.

Needless to say this began the first of what most likely will become a series of musical education courses by yours truly. And inadvertent exposure to extreme genres like Grindcore, because band names with Bears involved tend to cause curiosity.

On top of prepping for my classes, exams and assignments next week, I now also have to come up with a course plan and listening material. It's serious business.

But that just means I get to listen to awesome shit - which I do all the time already, so I've pretty much got this down.

Mondays Suck: Ich liebe diesen Strudel!

When I woke up this Monday morning, I felt like just slamming my alarm clock and going back to sleep. But I knew I had four classes and a 10 hour day to start the week, so there was no choice but to wake up.

I ended up heading in really early today, seeing as how my first class started at 10AM. So from 8AM forward I sat around, listened to some tunes and did some reading.

At around 9AM I walked over to the Agora bookstore to pick up one of the last books I needed, which just came in. So I get there, pull on the door handle and: it's locked.

Who the fuck opens at 10AM? Is it just me or is that a really random hour for opening a store in the morning?

Either way, now having displaced myself needlessly I went back to campus and parked myself in class. Of course, by the time 10 o'clock rolled around everyone opened their laptops to find an email from the prof simply stating:

Your professor is sick, therefore there is no class today. Until Wednesday! 

My next class? 1PM. Amount of time I ended up wasting this morning? Five hours. And then of course I had class until 7PM.

The highlight of the day however came in my last class of the day, German.

Nearing the end of the session, it was time to go over what we'd learned in the past hour with partners/neighbors and so forth. That is until our professor decided to pick a pair of students to carry out a full on conversation in front of everyone. It looked something like this:

Frau Lyon: So, to put what we've learned into practice, we will have Caroline and, euhhh Jayme, converse with each other. 

Me: Scheiße.

I'm sure you can figure out the rest. Although it went pretty well. I was pretty tired and mixed up a couple verb tenses but the general conversation went well - and quite funnily. Considering our professor was trying to get me to score a phone number, whether fake or real.

Eventually it degenerated into me talking about how I love strudels. It's not my fault they're delicious. 

Tuesday cometh, meaning I have to work. Damn it.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Cloudkicker: Sending My Dreams Into A Talespin

I'm the type of person that gets an average of 5 hours of sleep per night, during the week. I don't really have a choice since I can't fall asleep unless it's well past 1AM and I usually have to wake up by 7AM if not earlier. I'm also the type of person who'll lay down to go to sleep and finds himself staring the at the ceiling, unable to drift off as planned - sometimes for quite a while.

Not this Cloudkicker.

My own personal remedy for this is picking up my iPod, plugging in my headphones and laying back to some jams, until I finally feel Mr. Sandman calling, or until I out right fall asleep, headphones on and all.

Last night was such a case, as I woke up this morning with my headphones hanging off the side of my bed and the cable twisted around my arm and head.

My music was trying to kill me in my sleep. Alright, maybe not, but the prospect of asphyxiating myself with my headphone cable is something I'll be sure to take into consideration before I fall asleep the next time.

My chosen sleeping aid for the past few days has been Beacons the newest LP released by Cloudkicker.

That's the one-man instrumental phenom Ben Sharp, not the character from Talespin.

Cloudkicker has released two LP's and three EP's in the past two years, each of which bringing it's own style and brand of asskickery.

Cloudkicker's repertoire includes everything from slow evocative melodies, to powerful progressive metal overtones and djent. The one thing that stands out above all else is the quality of the productions, seeing as how Cloudkicker produces all of his material by himself, mainly on his own laptop. Recording all guitar and bass tracks himself and using technical wizardry to fill out any other necessary rhythms.

Sharp has made all of his releases free to the public, using the pay-what-you-please system, beginning with his debut LP The Discovery, which was released in 2008.

Beacons, follows this tradition and is currently available for streaming and digital download via Cloudkicker's Bandcamp page.

For the first time, Sharp is also selling physical copies of Beacons for 10$, well worth it for the quality of music he consistently provides. One is soon to be sitting upon my mantle, framed in fucking platinum.

Be sure to check out Cloudkicker on MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/cloudkicker.

You'll also find his entire repertoire, as mentioned before, on his Bandcamp page.

And as always, a little taste for you schmucks (I'll look into finding a better quality upload, once one goes up):

Best Thing Since Sliced Bread: Music for the Win

It's been a while since I've thrown the old musicftw post title around and I figured now is as good a time as any.

Going into this final year of my bachelor's degree I decided I wanted to learn a new language. I had already considered the idea a few times before, but never really bothered with it. I figured Spanish would be the simple choice.

Luckily for me Spanish didn't fit in my schedule so I got to choose an actual kick ass language - German.

Germany is one of the first countries I plan on bringing my mobile escapades to, one day in the future - most likely when I'm done with school. It's always been a country that's intrigued me and possesses a culture and history both rich and vibrant but also dark and mysterious.

Now I'll get to the part of this wall of text that has to do with music. Germany has brought some awesome music down upon my ears over the years, including: Blind Guardian, Kreator, Rammstein, KMFDM, Megaherz and my homeboys, Wolfgang Amadeus, Ludwig Von and Johann Sebastian (Mozart, Beethoven and Bach, for you classical music noobs).

However it was about a year ago that I came across a band who classify themselves as Hot Deathpop. And if that wasn't enough they had to have the simplest and most awesome band name ever conceived: We Butter the Bread with Butter.

Originally a two-man band their first album, Das Monster aus dem Schrank, was released in 2008. Since then, they've added three new members and recently released their second album earlier this year, entitled Der Tag an dem die Welt Unterging.

They manage to string together the best parts of Death Metal (or Deathcore, if you want to fight it out) and Synth-Pop, creating a pretty unique experience. Add foreign language and you have something that makes them stand out.

And if you're a fan of Brie (yes, the cheese) you will adore this band.

One of the benefits of learning German is obviously getting a better understanding of the lyricism behind a lot of my favorite purely German bands.

But mainly it's because it provides me with a language in which I can express how angry I am, all the time.

You can check out WBTBWB on their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/wbtbwb.

And as a parting gift, a little bit of Brie:

Double Honesty: Not Quite Double Irony

Yesterday was our monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) wing night. Rather than visit our usual locale, we decided to hit up the Honest Lawyer, based on the fact that their wings are quite tasty and it happens to be extremely close to campus, which works well since I finish at 7PM and everyone usually shows up for around 6PM.

The Honest Lawyer has a buffet style system (after 8PM), with wristbands, for their AYCE (All You Can Eat) wing nights, which isn't a terrible idea. Except when one of your fryers isn't working and you barely have enough wings to satiate 20 people before you have to hold up the line for a solid 15 minutes. Add the fact you get 6 wings per trip and you're in for a long night.

It honestly seems like every time I go to the Honest Lawyer something explodes.

The last time was on my birthday and sewer main burst in the back of the establishment. They effectively prevented anyone from coming in - and anyone who left couldn't come back in. That particular point caused trouble for people who decided to get some air or were just showing up later in the evening - so we promptly GTFO'd.

To sum things up, my AYCE wing night turned into having six chicken wings and an order of perogies. Awesome.

Then of course my friends, who were dipping leisurely into the sauce, decided to start a 'Jayntervention'.

I forget what the actual purpose of the whole idea was, but it involved a number of female patrons rushing a certain sorority, Honesty and general cheesiness.

And how one my friends happens to be very geographically challenged when it comes to determining the distance between the African continent and India.

It's going to be a long week.

Floors: Ridiculously Comfortable Sleeping Surfaces

This Monday will mark the start to the first full week of classes at the University of Ottawa, as me and my fellow slaves invaded the halls of the campus on Wednesday of last week.

My first week was short, considering I have Tuesdays and Fridays off this fall. But my first day, last Wednesday, was quite fun indeed, as you may recall. Despite the fact I have no classes on Tuesday and Friday, I do still work all day, on each, so there's little solace in that fact.

On my scale of sort of long to ridiculously long days, my Mondays (10AM to 7PM) and Wednesdays (8AM to 8PM) aim to land right in the range of the annoyingly long variety.

Now we can't forget about Thursdays, in which I work my regular eight hours (7.5 if you want to be 'like that') and follow it up with a three hour lecture from 7-10PM.

But there's still hope! Thursdays I get to bask in the glory of that which is: sleeping on a floor.

Yup, a floor. A very comfortable floor, thank you very much, so set your glaring envy aside and get your own. I've been lucky enough to get loaned said floor on Thursday evenings, if necessary, by a few very classy individuals. They also loaned me an air mattress, that pretty much deflates until you're laying on the floor. So for all intents and purposes, I sleep on a floor.

It also gives me a chance to unwind after back-to-back long days, watch a couple of movies and almost fall asleep wearing my headphones while listening to Baroness at 1:30AM, because I'm a crazy person who stays up all night. Good times indeed.

On a side note, I got to re-watch Crash this past Thursday - while on the aforementioned floor. It's been a while since I last saw it and it remains a real triumph of cinematography and storytelling. The television series that was inspired by it - and is produced by the film's director Paul Haggis - is still currently hanging in the balance, as far as a third season is concerned. Mainly following the death of Dennis hopper, who was one of the main 'protagonists' of the series.

Here's to a week of long days, lots of potential swearing in German and sleeping on floors.

Keep it classy Bytown - derp, Ottawa.

University: Lack of Sleep and Overcrowded Buses

My average summer work week consisted of me getting about five hours of sleep on a weeknight and heading off to the grind for 7.5 hours. But when the prospect of getting only four hours of sleep leading into a 10+ hour day in the middle of the week comes around, you know undoubtedly what time it is.

It's that time of year again folks. University is back in session for the Fall and shit is already hitting the fan. My first day was a 12 hour annoyance fest, mainly plagued by the boredom I experienced when I actually had breaks in between classes. As if having class from 8AM to 8PM wasn't bad enough.

Have to hand it to the University though, the U-Pass is an amazing piece of work. And by amazing piece of work I mean it's slowly causing almost every bus in the city to be overcrowded, at pretty much every hour of the day - even the STO.

I can only imagine how pissed off the 30-40 people we zipped by on our way out of town felt like when they realized they'd have to wait another 30 minutes to an hour for the next bus to come by.

Let's just give 30,000 kids a piece of plastic that lets them take any bus they want, at anytime and not worry about the fact that the transit system will obviously need to increase the number of buses on the routes, to make up for the sudden influx.

Summer Insights: Crescent Moon, Shining Stars, Rising Sun

Labor Day weekend is usually the time when people take some of their final vacation time and say farewell to the Summer. The days start growing a bit shorter, the air gets a little crisper, the kids go back to school - the status quo resumes.

Sunday night was devoted to the end of summer party amongst our circle of friends. It was a time to kick back, relax, have some brew and say farewell to another short lived sunny season. A time to be among friends and to look forward to the months to come and shed the annoyances of the past - or at least bring them to light.

The night was fun, jokes were made, music was danced to (awkwardly) and people stepped in dog shit - all the makings of a swinging shindig.

There were however also some lower points. The kind involving shitty situations, a dash of self-loathing and a vehement need for venting. Luckily I was in a decent space for said venting, as friends have a tendency of being able to relate to your shenanigans and let you open your proverbial can of worms with some kind of fiery apocalypse breaking out.

At around 4:45AM I took a cab towards home, got out as a gas station, paid my fare and walked the remaining twenty minutes to my house. The street light outside my place was flickering on and off, and in the quasi-darkness the night sky was clear for the viewing. The stars were bright, the moon gleamed in the shape of a crescent and the sounds of Baroness' Blue Record resonated through my head.

There's something about sitting out on a cool night, looking up into the night sky, gazing up at the stars and listening to music that makes you feel, like nothing else really matters. Especially when you're doing so sitting up on the back of some random car that isn't yours - but that's beside the point.

I sat outside and stared up into space for over an hour, literally until the sun started to rise around 6:30AM, thinking about anything and everything under the sun (quite literally) - though mostly of the conversation points from earlier in the night.

Classes start back up in two days in what should be my last year as an undergrad and what will hopefully be a year that ushers in some much needed change in this life of mine - academically, socially and otherwise.

Change is what I want. Change is what I need. And the time for it might as well be now.

But those are just words and talk is cheap, so we'll just have to wait and see.

RE: The Fulcrum - Bits of Wisdom for University Noobs

Recently I was catching up on University oriented news and decided to turn an eye to the Fulcrum, the University of Ottawa's (English) student newspaper.

I was reading an article entitled Frosh: 40 things I wish I knew in first year by Mercedes Mueller, executive editor for Fulcrum. The list comprises 40 tips, common sense tidbits and less common pieces of information that most students embarking on their first year should keep in mind.

I've given sparing words of wisdom and tips to a few people through my journey at the U of O. I may not be the foremost expert on campus life, socializing or how to land straight A's, but that has never stopped me from providing university noobs with a few things to remember.

So here's my defacto shortlist of things you should know going into your first year:

25. The next four years will go by much faster than you realize - especially the summer months.

24. Fall Finals run until the 22nd of December - plan your vacations accordingly.

23. There is a 90% chance that you will have at least one Final on a Saturday or Sunday night from 7PM to 10PM - it's almost a rule.

22. The teachers pet in your classes will be just as, if not more annoying in four years than she is right now. Be prepared for that.

21. Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one - get used to it.

20. Night lectures can be more practical, informative and will lend more flexibility to your schedule than your standard two per week lectures. Embrace the night.

19. You're paying 500-600$ per class for an average five class semester. Every time you skip class you're wasting money.

18. You will miss a lot more than just a weeks worth of class if you skip a three hour lecture.

17. Do not skip class and expect people to help you or give you answers out of good will. Your fellow classmates, and especially your professors, were not born yesterday.

16. Use your notebook for taking notes, not surfing facebook and playing Starcraft.


15. If you get too easily distracted by Jen's status updates, write your notes by hand.


14. Make sure your notes make sense to you. Copying notes word for word from a PowerPoint slide won't help you when you can't remember what it's supposed to mean.

13. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. All play and no work makes Jack an effectively screwed boy. Balance is key.

12. Pay it forward. Common courtesy and respect can go a long way; don't be a prick.

11. You will have to do group work. Suck it up, be nice, do your part and be done with it.

10. If your lab/group partners don't pull their weight, bring proof and complain. It works, trust me.

9. Don't be lazy. This isn't high school and your friends won't carry you through to an A based on the fact that you're a cool dude.

8. A lot of people get easily annoyed by loud heavy metal music. But never turn it down unless they tell you it's bothering them. Ask and you shall receive.

7. Every professor is unique in their quirks, grading methods and teaching ability. Learn to improvise, adapt and overcome.

6. Do not be afraid to speak up or ask a question. Odds are high that you're not the only one.

5. The professors you respect the most will be more likely to give you help and advice, if you need it.

4. Do not wait until the fifth year of your four year program to admit to yourself that you need help.

3. Do not be afraid to use the services at your disposal, the Student Academic Success Service (SASS) can provide you with more help than you think.

2. You will not learn everything by memorizing a book, despite what some of your classes and professors may have you believe.

1. Pace yourself. Make sure you take the time to do things right and to be satisfied by your work.

---

I would add more, but most of them would be purely nonsensical and made purely for humors sake, kind of like #8.

In my near 6 years of roaming the halls of OttawaU, not one person has ever asked me to turn down my music - despite many a persons disgruntled face gestures and glaring in my general direction.

25 Random Posts: Time to Add Some Structure

Much to my surprise, people are actually reading my collection of random gibberish, ravings and even my post-script open letters. They're not only reading - they're coming back and reading more.

It's practically unheard of.

The Blaarg's description does clearly state that these are a few random days in my life - and my entries have been nothing short of random. In my first 25 posts I've covered topics such as:

• Metal;
• Hockey;
• World Cup soccer;
• Concerts/Shows;
• Birthdays;
• Bruschetta mix;
• Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters;
• Djent;
• Upcoming music tours;
• Video Game Villains and
• My lack of a future need of Bullshit

I'd qualify that as being a pretty random pile of topics for only covering the first 25 posts of Have You Met Jay.

For people the people who keep coming back, you never really know what to expect. So I figured that for my inaugural 25th post, I would provide some much needed structure to the Blaarg. So for my loyal (and most likely deranged) readers, here is the structure you require:

I first came across Structures while checking out bands for a show last March which was being opened by Rising City States, a local band of which one of my old childhood friends is the drummer. The show was being headlined by Periphery, a focal point I brought up in my Djent Forecast post from a couple weeks back.

They're a progressive metalcore unit that hails from Toronto - which just adds another name to the already deep talent pool that our fine country boasts on the Metal scene. They released their debut EP All of the Above shortly after that show, on April 6th.

The band was recently back in Ottawa at Ritual in support of the Holly Springs Disaster's farewell tour, along with Architects early this month. I imagine it won't be the last time we see these guys in town and I highly recommend checking them out on their next tour shot through Ottawa - or wherever you may find yourself, if you get the chance.

And there you have it folks, some much needed Structure(s) for the Blaarg, as promised.

You can check out Structures via their MySpace at: http://www.myspace.com/wearestructures.