Movember: It's A Shame to Waste A Good Beard

About two weeks ago I made a post about Movember coming up and how I would be participating, and convincing other bro's to don the Moustache.

Well today is Halloween, which means that tomorrow a new month is beginning, a month which according to this weekend will be greeted with cold weather, snow and beardless bro's.

For the first time I five years I am now 100% beardless. And for you fine folks I've taken the liberty of taking some photos of my mug with my previous gen crap-phone, however I expect some people I know might try to take actual decent looking pics of me, since according to someone this is a milestone moment. But I'll leave that up to them, after all I'm not very photogenic, with only a handful of pictures of me in the past 5 years, literally.

Damn you Mother Nature.

It also has to be some kind of bad mojo, that or Mother Nature has a grudge against me, for it to fucking snow on the weekend I get rid of my beard, because now I have no facial protection from bursts of wintery goodness.

In the past two weeks I've also managed to convince a handful of my friends to join in on the cause and support the face of Men's Health by shaving down (if necessary) and preparing to rock the moustache for the month of Movember.

So here's to the next 30 days. Fear not friends, the beard will be back, with a vengeance.

And of course, as I've previously mentioned, you can learn more about Movember by visiting the official Movember Canada website at http://ca.movember.com/.

P.S. A Movember bro without a Mo is not a true bro.

- J

Dimmu Borgir: Review

And finally Review number 3/3 of Review Round-up Edition One.

Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

Grade: 4.0 - Putting the emphasis on Symphonic
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
Release Date: October 12, 2010
Site(s): http://site.dimmu-borgir.com/ | http://www.myspace.com/dimmuborgir

High Points: High budget, high quality orchestrations.
Low Point: Beyond ridiculous wardrobe choices and no Simen (Vortex) backing vocals.

Shagrath and Silenoz, the two mainstay and remaining original members of Dimmu Borgir have returned, once again with Galder (Old Man's Child) in tow for they're first album release in three years. Abrahadabra is also the first album released by the band since the departure of former bassist and clean vocalist Simen Hestnæs (ICS Vortex).

To give a bit of historical perspective, Dimmu Borgir has been recording albums since the early 90's and Abrahadabra is in fact their ninth studio album. Despite always being a Symphonic Black Metal band, this album also represents the greatest leap forward that the band has made in years, if you take the symphonic aspect into focus. Shagrath has indicated that the choice of using a single word title for the album, rather than their previous standard of three word titles, was a decision used to emphasize the changes they have gone through and a step towards the future.

I used to listen to Dimmu Borgir in high school and was familiar enough with their last three releases, however many have been quick to judge that those three albums showed little growth within the band, in between each as a whole, despite being overall solid pieces of work.

Dimmu Borgir's former keyboardist, Mustis, left the group a year ago alongside Vortex. He claims his main reason for leaving the group was because he did not receive the credit he deserved, since he claimed to have written all the music in the group. Whether you actually believe that claim or not is one thing, but if you compare their last three releases (Puritannical Euprhoric Misanthropia, Death Cult Armageddon and In Sorte Diaboli) versus Abrahadabra, you can definitely see many differences. But these are all for the better.

Why? Despite former orchestrations sounding pretty well done, Dimmu Borgir has hired a professional orchestra and choir to record the orchestral sections of their album, a member tally nearing 100 members in total. This fact, which may seem like a moot point to some - they are after all Symphonic metal - is really what makes or breaks this album. And I can tell you, it definitely makes it.

The orchestrations and vocals throughout the album are for lack of a better word, stellar. Songs like Gateways, Dimmu Borgir, and Endings and Continuations truly shine in that regard. Galder's riffage is also kicking ass and taking names, per usual, as he does often with Old Man's Child.

So what's not so great? People used to the old school style of Dimmu Borgir will be, a bit surprised with the changes, especially if your favorite Dimmu happens to be very early in their career. Vocally the album sounds like the Dimmu of old, with Shagrath at the helm, however any real fan can tell you it's missing the clean vocals of Vortex, which would truly put it one notch higher. No criticism to the clean vocals on the album however, the female clean vocals on Gateway in particular are extremely well done.

Dimmu Borgir will be beginning their North American tour on November 5th with Enslaved, Blood Red Throne and Dawn of Ashes. For the locals, the tour will be passing through Toronto and Montreal on December 12th and 13th respectively.

- J

Bring Me the Horizon: Review

Bring Me the Horizon - There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It, There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret

Grade: 3.5 - Putting the emphasis on Symphonic
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
Release Date: October 4, 2010
Site(s): http://www.myspace.com/bmth

High Points: Big musical improvement, LIGHTS providing guest clean vocals.
Low Point: Oliver Sykes is still really annoying.

Bring Me the Horizon recently released their third album and once again, their sound has changed, quite a bit.

Their first album, Count Your Blessings, was by all accounts a bread and butter Deathcore album and nothing to special. Their sophomore album, Suicide Season, saw a change to a more straight Metalcore sound and approach, with a larger and improved focus on meaty riffs and chunky breakdowns.

Their newest release, which I'll just refer to as Heaven and Hell, follows suit with their change of pace but kicks it up a notch musically. This album has a weird personality, to put it plainly. Songs which make you want to get up and break something often find themselves being followed by ones which are very melodic and at times 'mellow', in a partial sense. The easiest example I can give is the difference in between the tracks Fuck and Don't Go, the latter featuring guest vocals by LIGHTS, which honestly surprised the crap out of me - in a good way, she has a stellar voice, plus she's Canadian.

Bring Me the Horizon chose the song It Never Ends to be their first single, releasing a video for the song as well, a couple weeks prior to the album's release. Listen to a couple tracks from Suicide Season and then listen to this song and you'll see what I'm talking about when I mention musical progression. But don't take this negatively, the musical progression of the band is huge and I actually enjoy the majority of the album quite a bit.

So if you actually really kinda like this album, why the 3.5 and not a 4.0? Well, this is where I'll be blunt and honest, although I pointed it out at the beginning of the review: Oliver Sykes annoys the crap out of me, 85% of the time. I've heard vocals from a wide range of vocalists and in every genre known in the Milky Way, but there's just something about Oliver that, well, nails on chalk board - not all the time, but it's a deal breaker at times.

If you've never listened to BMTH before, I would suggest you check out a few of their older tracks, such as Chelsea Smile and The Comedown and then venture into this record.

Or you can throw that suggestion aside and listen to this record first, since it definitely is their best.

Bring Me the Horizon is headlining this Fall's AP Tour alongside August Burns Red and will be in Toronto and Montreal on November 21st and 22nd respectively. I would definitely go to that show purely to see ABR, but with this amount of musical improvement, I'd now consider seeing BMTH as being a decent bonus.

- J

Conducting From the Grave: Review

Conducting From the Grave - Revenants

Grade: 4.0 - Another staple in Sumerian's superb stable of bands
Label: Sumerian Records

Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore
Release Date: October 26, 2010
Site(s): http://www.myspace.com/conductingfromthegrave

High Points: Excellent vocals and the final two-part track.
Low Point: Realizing they're not on tour in Canada.

I first came across Conducting From the Grave when they released their debut album (When Legends Become Dust) through Sumerian Records back in 2009 and needless to say they piqued my interest.

Conducting From the Grave weave elements of melodic death metal, thrash and hardcore together to create, not necessarily a unique metal experience, but rather and most importantly, an enjoyable one. The vocals of Mikey Powell in particular are excellent and flow seamlessly with both the hard charging nature of their tracks, but also with the excellent melodic sections.

The final tracks of the album, What Monsters We Have Become Part 1 & 2 do the greatest justice to this, blending both main elements of their style with a skill that befits them. The breakdown featured in Part 1 and the guitar solo in Part 2 are most definitely, fused together, the highest point of the album, providing a great send off to their sophomore album.

Sumerian is probably my favorite record label at this specific moment in time. Their list of signed bands counts some of the best bands of their respective genres, including names such as: Born of Osiris, Periphery, Veil of Maya, After the Burial and The Faceless. Conducting From the Grave, has now deservedly earned themselves a place amongst them, proving once again just how huge the depth of talent extends into Sumerian's roster.

Conducting From the Grave are on tour in the US, until December, in support of Arsis, alongside another excellent band in Powerglove.

If you're a fan of Sumerian's signed artists, you should do yourself a favor and check them out, post haste. And even if you aren't, you shan't be disappointed.

- J

Review Round-up Edition 1: Music for the Win

It's been a while since I talked about one of my favorite things: Music. Likewise, it's been a while since I've thrown up any info and/or reviews on recent albums that have dropped from the sky.

Well today is the day to remedy that, seeing as how I've had time to fly through some recent material - and some old favorites all at the same time. I'll have more details on my nostalgia moment later in the weekend, in the first installation of what I'll be entitling Blast From the Past.

In the meantime, while I actually write-up these reviews I've been mentioning, I should probably take the time to actually setup some fashion of a rating system. I've only literally reviewed one album previously on the Blaarg and I'm not sure using Brutalisks from Starcraft will serve as useful grading mechanism, except in certain cases.

So for future reference here's how my Reviews will go down, and I even made an example for you fine folks:

E.g.

4.5 Ishmael's

Mastodon - Leviathan

Grade: 4.5 - The quintessential prog metal adaptation of Moby Dick
Label: Relapse
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Site(s): http://www.mastodonrocks.com/ | http://www.myspace.com/mastodon
High Point: All 13m 40s of Hearts Alive.
Low Point: It actually ends.

[Insert Clearly Amazing Review text here]

And here's how the album grading system is going to work:

Jay's Official Album Review Grading System of Doom 

5.0 - Best thing since sliced bread (Perfect)

4.5 - Instant Classic (Excellent)
4.0 - Groovy! (Great)
3.5 - Well Played (Very Good)
3.0 - I Can Dig It (Good)
2.5 - Alright (Average)
2.0 - Meh (Disappointing)
1.5 - Uninspiring (Bad)
1.0 - Are They Even Trying? (Embarrassing)
0.5 - Flaming Heap (Generally Awful)
0.0 - Musical Abortion (Absolute Garbage)

I'll tag the grading system on the side of the blog for easy reference and when I get around to it add a Reviews page, which will catalog any reviews I make appear.

It's like, Magic. OK, time to write these reviews for real.

- J

Toasters: Sometimes Things Don't Go As Planned

It was just under a month ago that I was mentioning the return of the second half of the first season of Caprica, which is basically Battlestar Galactica's prequel (and bastard child). Despite the fact that I somewhat enjoy the series, it was pretty clear from the beginning that it would be an uphill battle for this show.

Despite some superb casting and an intriguing start, the series soon took a spin, far beyond the types experienced in season 4 of it's predecessor.

A lot of BSG fans were left with a sour taste in their mouths following the finale of the series, compared to people who watched Lost, for example, BSG's ending left a lot of viewers split. This reason alone caused a lot of people to not even give the series a chance.

Caprica also has an immense focus on the Drama aspect of the series, and much less on the sci-fi, which put off a lot of viewers of Battlestar. Plot twists and 'quoi de fuck?' moments pop up in nearly every episode of Caprica, and that as well was a bit much for a lot of viewers.

One sad toaster.

Add together enough negatives this early into the 'return' of a series and you end up with what I've been slowly expecting for the past couple weeks. Except the announcement came a lot sooner and a lot more directly.

Syfy announced today that because of ratings (and other reasons) that they would be pulling Caprica off the air, effective immediately.

In a nut shell, there's still five episodes remaining to be aired in the second half of the first season. But SyFy has decided they won't be airing these episodes until 2011, which already has viewers of the series sort of perplexed.

I mean I can understand canceling the series, but pulling it from that time slot and not airing the final episodes for another 6+ months? Anyone who's watched BSG knows how long waits can be between seasons (or second halves of seasons), but why put off the dying episodes of a series for so long? Seems slightly pointless to me.

R.I.P. Caprica.

Adios: Lex Luthor Has Left the Building

Yesterday the mayoral elections for Ottawa took place and the end result was in a word (or two), pretty obvious.

Jim Watson walked away the new Mayor-elect, along with 23 city councillors, 10 of which are freshmen to the city council.

But as one of my friends put it, the most interesting part of all of this is that Lex Luthor is no longer the Mayor of Ottawa.

So congrats Jim, and bon voyage Larry.

I would say you'll be missed, but then I'd just be a big fat liar now wouldn't I.

P.S. - It's been brought to my attention that I haven't been posting enough lately (except about Hockey, which apparently angers everyone). There's new content to come in the next few days, including some album reviews, a potential rant and something to do with the word Derp.

Hockey: Week Two Review

Par for the course with last week, here's a quick review of the highlights and low-lights of the second week of the 2010-2011 NHL hockey season.

I'll stick mainly with the same format as last week also, emphasizing on some of the surprises and disappointments, and a quick focus on who's Hot and who's Not.

Surprises

Rick Rypien an enforcer for the Vancouver Canucks was suspended indefinitely earlier in the week, following a game with the Minnesota Wild where he received a game misconduct and grabbed a fan while being escorted off the ice. On Friday the league suspended Rypien for six games, in what many would consider as setting an example, and also fined the Canucks 25,000$, per league policy.

Holy Hat Tricks Batman! Hat tricks are not a rarity in the NHL, but it always seems that when one of them takes place, a chain reaction soon follows. This Friday night alone saw 3 of 5 scheduled games feature a trick, with Rene Bourque of the Flames tallying three, Daniel Alfredsson doing the same and also scoring his 1,000th career point, and Steven Stamkos rounding out the trio, with a four point night against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Despite my somewhat early doomsaying, a fire must have been lit under the asses of the Anaheim Ducks, whom after nearly starting the season on a 4 game deficit, finally started to see their stars put pucks into the back of the net.

Disappointments

There are still a few teams with high potential who are trying to catch a break. The Buffalo Sabres, despite having some bright flashes in week one, have lost 6 of their last 7 games, including a 5 game losing streak where most games were decided by one goal. Likewise, the New Jersey Devils are having trouble falling into a groove, although Martin Brodeur managed to nab two shutouts, including a decisive one Thursday night in Montreal.

Who's Hot

Teams:
Pittsburgh Penguins - (5-3-0) - 4 Game W Streak
Boston Bruins - (4-1-0) - 4 Game W Streak
Tampa Bay Lightning - (5-1-1)
Dallas Stars - (5-1-0) 
Toronto Maple Leafs - (4-1-1)
Chicago Blackhawks - (5-3-1) - After a bit of a slow start, the Hawks have picked up steam with an early season hot streak by Marian Hossa and some clutch scoring by Patrick Sharp who racked up 3 game winners in a row.

Players:
Steven Stamkos, C (TBL) - 8G 6A +6 - A 4 point night Friday, including a Hat Trick has Stammer on course for what is sure to be a repeat and surpassing of his breakout sophomore season last year.

Marian Hossa, RW (CHI) - 7G 4A +4
Brad Richards, D (DAL) - 2G 8A +9
Daniel Sedin, LW (VAN) - 7G 4A +2
Henrik Sedin, C (VAN) - 10A +1

Tim Thomas, G (BOS) - 4W, 1 Shutout, Save% .978, GAA 0.75 - Thomas has started all four games following the Bruins opening game loss and has been a force, as per usual. 
Kari Lehtonen, G (DAL) - 5W, 1L, Save% .927, GAA 2.60

Who's Not

Teams:
Buffalo Sabres - (2-5-1)
Edmonton Oilers - (2-3-0) - After a breakout start to the season with a 4-0 win over Calgary and a close win against Florida, the Oilers are now on a 3 game skid, which is enough to scare any Oilers fan with memories of last season.

Players:
Simon Gagne, LW (TBL) - No points, -4 in 6 games
Kimmo Timmonen and Chris Pronger, D (PHI) - No points, -4 combined
Tyler Myers, D (BUF) - 1G 1A -9 - Sabres are in a slump and their sophomore defenseman ranks worst in the league on the +/- right now and is not showing an early season strength shown in his Calder nominated Rookie season.

Here's to hopefully another interesting week in NHL hockey.

Movember: Jay Unmasked!

On November 1st men worldwide will join together to change their daily appearance, but most importantly, to change the face of Men's Health, by creating awareness and raising funds for prostate cancer research as they grow a moustache for Movember.

The moustache becomes the symbol for men's health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for prostate cancer. 

Think of it like the commitment to run or walk for charity, instead Mo-bro's commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.

The rules of Movember are pretty simple.

1) Mo-bro's start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month.

2) For the entire month of Movember each Mo-bro must grow and groom a moustache according to the following rules:

• There is to be no joining the Mo to the sideburns; that's a beard.
• There is to be no joining of the handlebars on the chin; that's a goatee.
• A small complementary growth under the bottom lip is allowed

Admittedly I didn't start last year off according to Rule #1, as I began with beard and finished (and continued throughout the winter months) with a full beard. This year however I will begin Movember by adhering strictly to the rules of the cause.

This means that I will be beardless for the first time since 2005.

A beardless Jay, that's kind of a big deal, seeing as how I haven't been without some fashion of beardage for 5 years.

It also happens to mean that I haven't seen my true face in just as many years. And what's funnier to think of, is most of the friends I've made in the past years haven't seen me sans-beard, ever! Which means come Movember 2nd I might have less friends than I started with on Movember 1st.

I'm not a very photogenic person. Hell the standard picture I use of myself is at least three years old by now.

I suppose the challenge then, will be for my friends to try and catch photographs of a beardless Jay in the wild, perish the thought.

While Movember only officially kicks off in two weeks, I wholeheartedly encourage my fellow bro's to join in on the cause and brandish your best attempt at an homage to Tom Selleck and other moustachioed men who have rocked the Mo with pride and awesomeness in the past.

The Canadian campaign, last year, was the second largest in the world with Mo Bros and Mo Sistas coming together to raise $7.8 million for Prostate Cancer Canada.

You can learn more about Movember by visiting the official Movember Canada website at http://ca.movember.com/.

Here's a short promo video that was made last year that sums up the heart of what Movember is all about:



- J

Hockey: Wheelin' and Dealin'

11:59:59 PM of Friday October 15th has come on and gone, which signifies the locking of my current hockey pools player selections.

As I've mentioned before, our hockey pool follows an odd set of rules and processes in order to accommodate players, and groups of players with different levels of experience and knowledge of hockey pools and hockey in general.

The player selection process of our pool is half draft and half open - I know, it sounds ridiculous but works well enough when put into practice. It operates specifically as follows:

1st - 2nd Round: Open Draft - (Any position)
3rd - 4th Round: Draft - (Center only)
5th - 6th Round: Draft - (Left Wing only)
7th - 8th Round: Draft - (Right Wing only)
9th - 10th Round: Draft - (Defensemen only)
11th Round: Draft - (Goaltenders only)
12th - 20th Rounds: Open Player Selections

To put it plainly: Drafted players are locked from the get-go and can only be traded, since a drafted player is owned solely by that participant/team. Players selected in open rounds are up for grabs for anyone and you had a week to finalize those choices - or make trades for drafted players, etc.

During the player draft, there was a bit of wheelin' and dealin' by poolies trying to score some draft positions, despite some protesting. This past week also saw a bit of the same as we had a week to finalize our player selections before the rest of our rosters were locked. Final rosters consist of 12 Forwards (4 C/LW/RW), 5 Defensemen and 3 Goalies - weird I know.

I haven't seen the final rosters for some of the other teams yet but I've heard some interesting things. It's hard to make a decision on a group of players after only one week, since that week can be a poor representation of the next 75+ games that are left in the season. When it came down to the wire I only swapped a couple of names out of my open selections.

My group of drafted players was actually, pretty surprising considering my draft position(s), and the choices people actually made during the draft rounds. I did get shafted by a few people who targeted some of my personal most wanted players right out of the gate, but I'm definitely not complaining about who I did get to draft first because of it. I also traded my 4th round pick for an extra 11th round draft choice, since a lot of Centers were getting taken early on, so I took a gamble on who would be left - but it worked out.

Here's my pool roster with the selections made during our October 2nd draft, before the regular season kicked off:

Team 6 - The Djentlemen

Round 1: Steven Stamkos (TBL)
Round 2: Marian Hossa (CHI)
Round 3: Mikko Koivu (MIN)
Round 4: Traded for Round 11
Round 5: Henrik Zetterberg (DET)
Round 6: Thomas Vanek (BUF)
Round 7: Phil Kessel (TOR)
Round 8: Johan Franzen (DET)
Round 9: Drew Doughty (LAK)
Round 10: Tyler Myers (BUF)
Round 11: Jimmy Howard (DET) & Johnathan Quick (LAK)
Round 12: Jack Johnson (LAK)
Round 13: Derek Roy (BUF)
Round 14: Travis Zajac (NJD)
Round 15: Claude Giroux (PHI)
Round 16: Kristian Huselius (CBJ)
Round 17: Tyler Ennis (BUF)
Round 18: John Carlson (WSH)
Round 19: Pavel Kubina (TBL)
Round 20: Cam Ward (CAR)

Obviously I'm quite happy with a lot of the choices I had available to me in the draft rounds, especially getting to snag Steven Stamkos in the first round, much to my surprise.

Some of my friends organized their choices and trades to be very team centric, or by gunning for a specific list of players. I've gone a little bit all over the board but with a focus on some of my favorite teams and players that have proven themselves to be good choices in the past.

The results overall for the first week of the season have been more than good given this group of players. Except for the fact that Johan Franzen is out indefinitely. Of course we're only an average of 4 games per team, into the season so there's plenty that can change between now and April.

Personally I just want to see last years' winner lose to his girlfriend again, like he did during our playoff pool. Good times.

TesseracT: Music for the Win

I haven't been home in a couple days, and as such haven't had a chance to get my hands on something that I've been eagerly awaiting for the better part of a year.

This past Tuesday, October 12th, TesseracT released their Concealing Fate EP.

The UK based group have captivated the likes of the Djent circuit and metal fans in general with their blend of Experimental/Progressive/Ambient and just plain Amazing metal, over the past couple of years.

Their debut album which was originally set to be released this year was pushed back to 2011, which left a lot of people slightly disappointed. However news shortly broke loose of the release of an EP featuring their six part masterpiece, Concealing Fate, of which only parts 1 and 2 were previously seen in the wild.

When I put the first track of the EP on play I instantly recognized the opening I was familiar with from the earlier version of the song. Cleaner and slightly different (very slightly) from the original I had heard, the first track of this EP instantly draws you in, letting you know you're in for a good bit of aural pleasure for the next 27 minutes.

TesseracT's debut album One is still scheduled to be released in 2011 through Century Media. If this EP has done anything it's just left every one of their fans eager for more, especially considering many of them have been waiting for the release of One for, quite some time.

Regardless, Concealing Fate has proven itself to be one of the better releases in the genre, in 2010.

The Track listing for the Concealing Fate EP is as follows:

1. Acceptance: Concealing Fate Part One - 8:33 
2. Deception: Concealing Fate Part Two - 5:22
3. The Impossible: Concealing Fate Part Three - 4:50
4. Perfection: Concealing Fate Part Four - 2:38
5. Epiphany: Concealing Fate Part Five - 1:29
6. Origin: Concealing Fate Part Six - 4:43

TesseracT just recently kicked off a tour in the US and Canada in support of Devin Townsend - of which I would probably do many nasty, unmentionable things, in order to go to Montreal and see on November 2nd.

You can check out TesseracT by visiting their website at: http://www.tesseractband.co.uk.

If you haven't heard of these guys yet, do yourself a favor and give them a go, you shan't be disappointed.

Hockey: Finalizing Picks and Week One Review

Last Friday I took the time to do a more or less quick write-up of the beginning of the 2010-11 NHL hockey season, including short outlooks on some of the teams and plays that were in the spotlight (or limelight) for the beginning of week one.

I also alluded to the fact that I rejoined one of my old hockey pools, so needless to say for the past week I've been tracking some of the games, keeping an eye on early stats and getting a feel for what changes (if any) that I would need to make to the picks in this particular pool.

The pool itself follows most of the standard rules you'll find in any hockey pool or fantasy hockey league but with it's own tweaks and spins that make it more enjoyable for first time participants, and even allows groups of people to fill slots in the pool roster.

Friday is the deadline to finalize your picks for the season, leaving some moments throughout the year for potential swaps and changes. After all, injuries do happen. But this Friday remains the last chance to give your initial picks (aside from drafted players - they're locked) a bit of a makeover.

As such I've decided I'm going to do a sort of Week in Review of what's gone down in the NHL, including surprises, disappointments and my take on who's Hot and who's Not.

Since this is the first week there's not too much to go on, as for who's really Hot or Cold, give it another week and we'll see who's really sleeping on the job.

Suprises

The Toronto Maple Leafs started last season 0-8 and notched only 2 wins in their first 11 games. In a complete 180 degree turnaround the Leafs have opened up this season at 3-0, including a lashing of the Ottawa Senators and their latest victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight.

Mr. Lady Byng, Pavel Datsyuk, who won the Lady Byng Memorial trophy 4 years in a row (prior to last season) got into a scrap with Corey Perry during their opening game against the Anaheim Ducks, marking Datsyuk's first regular season fight in nearly 10 years in the NHL.

The Lady Byng trophy is given to the player judged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.

Disappointments

The Anaheim Ducks are off to a disastrous start, currently sitting 0-3 and currently facing Vancouver as I write this. In 4 games, the Ducks have scored only three goals and allowed a whopping 15, though I wouldn't blame Jonas Hiller for that (see below). The Ducks blue line is obviously reeling from the loss of Scott Niedermayer and need to get their act together if they hope to get things back on course early in the season.

I hate Sidney Crosby and the Penguins but luckily this falls under disappointments, which is fine with me. The Kid and his partner in crime, Evgeni Malkin haven't started off the season with much of a spark, having each only 1 goal and an assist in 4 games. Hardly tragic, considering this is only the first week - but like I said, I hate those guys, so good riddance.

The New Jersey Devils began the season with a streak of bad luck, including blowing a lead in their opening game and a blowout against Washington which saw Martin Brodeur surrender 7 goals. They notched their first win tonight in OT thanks to Ilya Kovalchuk's first goal. Their front line has the potential to go on a tear, so I don't expect them to sit in this category for long.

Who's Hot

Teams:
Toronto Maple Leafs - (3-0-0) 

Washington Capitals - (3-1-0)

Players: 
Alex Ovechkin, LW (WAS) - 4G 3A +3
Steven Stamkos, C (TB) - 3G 2A +1 (only two games played) 
Marian Hossa, RW (CHI) - 3G 3A +5
Derek Roy, C (BUF) - 4G 1A +1
John-Michael Liles, D (COL) - 5A +4

Johnathan Quick, G (LA) - 2W Save% .964, GAA 0.96
Nikolai Khabibulin, G (EDM) - 2W, 1 Shutout, Save% .969, GAA 1.00
Jimmy Howard, G (DET) - 1W 1OTL, 1 Shutout, Save% .932, GAA 1.94 

Who's Not

Teams:
Anaheim Ducks - (0-3-0)
Ottawa Senators - (0-2-1)

Players:
Anaheim Ducks, except Jonas Hiller - faced 39/43 and 45/49 shots in his first two games before being pulled before the end of the second period of their third game, after already having faced 35 shots in as many minutes.

Like I mentioned before, it's still very early in the season, but it's definitely off to an interesting start.

Rant: Your Copies Are Not Ready

Considering today is the 12th of October, that means classes at the University of Ottawa have been in session for just over a month, leaving plenty of time for people to get organized. So you can certainly understand my annoyance when the people who haven't managed to get their shit together yet happen to be professors.

One class in particular has been - for lack of a better descriptor - a disaster so far, and things are not looking up. Here's a shortlist of what I (and many more) have had to put up with, just in the first month.

1) In one short month we've covered about half of the material we were supposed to cover, up to date and the presentation has been mildly comprehensible, at best.

2) The professor has canceled class, at the last minute, despite knowing she was going to be out of commission days in advance.

3) The Professor doesn't seem to enjoy questions, unless it happens to be a question that she can easily run off on a tangent with. One such case ran on for nearly 10 minutes until someone plainly asked if the question had anything to do with what we had to learn - which it didn't - and asked to get back on subject, since we were already well behind. 

4) During the first class we were informed of course packs that we would have to go buy with the required readings for the class. Very par for the course, no problem there. That was September 8th. When did the course packs first become available? Nearly a month later on October 4th.

5) These magic course packs of course weren't actually ready. They consisted of solely the first section (of which there are three) of the course. And when I went to pick up my 'prepared' copy, despite being one of first dozen, I had to wait 20 minutes - because they had to make more.

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th was supposed to be our first mid-term exam. Note how I said was. I woke up Tuesday morning and checked my university email to find the following particular gem:

"I've just been advised that your exams will not be printed in time for tomorrow, therefore your exam will be next Monday instead." 

Well that's just fucking fantastic, seriously.

It's bad enough our course packs were nearly a month late but now our first exam is delayed because of, what I assume, is the same fuck up - using the same place to print the exams, as you did with the course packs.

I'm not sure if the Professor is in cahoots with the owner of this place but I know for a fact that if my course packs were nearly a month overdue for printing, that I sure as shit wouldn't go back to get anything else printed there in the future.

 

So my suggestion to this Prof is: In the future, use a reliable printing service with a good track record. I'm pretty sure there's one available in the University itself, and there just happens to be about a dozen within walking distance around the campus. Professors get their course packs done there for a reason - because it's what they do and they know what they're doing.  

This class in particular is a first year course, containing a blend of university nubiles and veterans looking for another three credit write-off. For the noobs, news of a canceled exam usually equates to good news and a happy dance.

For veteran students and especially students in their last year, a canceled exam is more akin to cause a headache than a happy dance. 

Wasted time studying aside, you have to move that canceled exam ahead into your schedule, which can often leave you with a result that includes: 2 Mid-terms and a Quiz on the same day that a major Written Assignment is also due.

Let get this fucking party started.

Turkey Day: Gobble Gobble

In honor of the decimation of the world wide turkey population that is in progress, I would like to wish everyone a happy Turkey Day weekend.

A time to give thanks for - well, ridiculously ginormous home cooked meals that are filled with awesomeness. 

Here's to a week of leftovers and to remembering why you only have it twice a year: because you know you find turkey way to dry to eat more than two days in succession.

Even if it does sometimes come in delicious sandwich form.

Hockey: Keep Your Stick On The Ice

The 2010-2011 NHL hockey season officially kicked off yesterday afternoon and so far the games we've been given have been pretty interesting, in some cases quite close and others ridiculously surprising.

I've opted to rejoin one of my old hockey pools, for a bit of nostalgia - and the hope that I can swindle some noobs out of their rupees.

A lot of teams and players have a lot to prove this coming season. Whether it be for a rebound year, a second chance at glory or for bittersweet redemption, each and every team in the league has something to prove this year.

It's hard to ignore that at the beginning of every season eyes are almost guaranteed to be locked on the leagues biggest stars and success stories from the past.

The Washington Capitals and the likes of players such as Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin and Mike Green will have a lot to prove this coming season. After blowing away the competition during the regular season last year and claiming the Presidents Trophy they ended up blowing a tire in the first round of the playoffs, when they were eliminated in game 7 by the Montreal Canadiens.

The Pittsburgh Penguins equally will have many eyes on them, and their new fancy arena, after also succumbing in the second round to the Habs, during their Stanley Cup defense run last season. Their fan-dangled new arena didn't get the inauguration they were hoping for today however, as the Pens lost 3-2 to last years Eastern Conference champs, the Philadelphia Flyers.

Speaking of the Flyers, they'll have a lot to prove this season, as they hope to show that their success down the stretch last season wasn't just a fluke. From my perspective, they should have ample opportunity to prove it wasn't, as they now tout one of, if not the, strongest defenses in the league, and the talent up front to get the job done. So long as their 'high flyers' don't fall into any slumps.

Last years Stanley Cup champs, the Chicago Blackhawks equally have a lot to prove. After shipping away a large portion of their former roster during the post-season, many people are doubting the Hawks' ability to repeat. They do still possess a strong forward core with Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Patrick Sharp, and of course the rock solid defensive tandem of Brent Seabrook and Duncan Keith.

Jiri Hudler is back from the KHL and ready to have a breakout season with the Detroit Red Wings. Detroit has long been one of my favorite clubs and should rarely be counted out, especially with players of the caliber of Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Holmstrom, Franzen, Lidstrom and Kronwall.

The Edmonton Oilers are most likely the most hopeful team in the league, wishing for a complete 180 of a season, following last years ludicrous disaster. First round draft pick Taylor Hall and fellow rookie Magnus Paarjavi will hope to flourish. Things are off to a good start for them, as they shutout the Calgary Flames today 4-0, in a great season opener.

Steve Yzerman has given the Tampa Bay Lightning a new breathe of life. Despite a disappointing run last year, the 2004 Stanley Cup champs still managed to wow the hockey world with Steven Stamkos' breakout 51 goal sophomore season. Continued support from Martin St. Louis and a resurgence by Vincent Lecavalier could give the Bolts just the charge they need to make it back into the playoff picture.


You could go on and list almost every team and what questions they will have to face, and obstacles they'll have to surmount - but I'm way too lazy for that.

Other teams to keep an eye on this year:

• Phoenix Coyotes
• Los Angeles Kings & their Ice Girls
• New Jersey Devils
• Montreal Canadiens 

You would think I'd be saying to keep an eye on the Ottawa Senators, seeing as how they're technically the 'Home Team'. But I gave up on them years ago.

The only thing the Sens ever did right was win me 150$ when they lost in the Stanley Cup finals to Anaheim back in 2007.

Here's to a sure fire kickass hockey season.

Toasters: They Still Have Plans

This coming Tuesday is October 5th.

October 5th also happens to be the date for the premiere of season 1.5 of Caprica, the love child and prequel to one of my favorite and simply put, one of the greatest television series ever, Battlestar Galactica.

I spent some downtime over the past week - when I had the chance - and went back through the original 9 episodes of the first season.

Caprica obviously has a completely different feel to it from it's predecessor, which makes sense considering the setting. But it's something that has worked considerably in the favor of the show.

Casting has always been a one of the major drawing points of the series, looking back at the cast from BSG's romp through space provided for many memorable performances and helped put the names of some of the younger actors firmly onto the map.

Capica continues this tradition by filling the roles of its protagonists (and antagonists) with experienced and talented actors. For example, it certainly didn't take long for Sasha Roiz (Sam Adama) to put down his name as the new resident badass for the franchise.

Casting aside, the drama that has always been the center point of the series, despite what the surrounding issues may be. But you know either way that you're going to get a full plate of the word Frak and the looming, distant threat of a Toaster Armageddon.

The season premiere of season 1.5 of Caprica airs at 10PM EST on Space or Syfy or whatever other channel/medium you'll be choosing to watch it on.

Frakkin' toasters.

Tour De Force: UPDATE - Live Footage From AILD/ATR/Unearth

A quick update to my post earlier recapping the AILD, ATR, Unearth + Carnifex show at the Capital Music Hall on September 28th.

Here's some live footage taken from the show, courtesy of user QcWoopAss on Youtube.

Unearth



All That Remains



As I Lay Dying

Tour De Force: Claiming Metal Show Virgins T-Shirts

So my crazy long week has finally come to an end. This is the only the second time I set foot inside my own house in the past 6 days also, so there's a few updates inbound for the next couple days - unless I get too lazy to write.

So as promised a few days ago, here's my little ditty on this past Tuesdays amazing show at the Capital Music Hall featuring As I Lay Dying, All That Remains, Unearth and Carnifex.

I would apologize for the longevity of this post - but then again I don't care, people will either read it or they won't.

The evening started out with me and my comrades meeting up for some food and drinks prior to lining up for the show. By the time we ventured over to line up we were a group of five and still had three other friends that were going to be showing up shortly after the doors opened.

We actually arrived at the perfect time, seeing as how we were near the front of the line, as the doors only ended up opening after 7:00PM and the line started to stretch easily around the lot. Many jokes took place, including a hilarious situation involving a Korean drivers license and the holder trying to prove he was over 19 years old.

The doors slowly started to open and people were filing it, just after Carnifex had finished doing a sound check. We knew it was Carnifex because as one of the side doors would swing open, from time to time, you could hear the brutal screaming and pounding, meaty riffage that made them a stand out from the other three bands set to hit the stage.

A half hour passed, people packed themselves into the venue and it was time to get this party started.

Carnifex hit the stage first. As I mentioned before, this was the second time I got to see them live, in as many months - having seen them at Summer Slaughter, early in August. Their set list was similar to the one I had heard in Montreal and that was absolutely fine with me.

Not to make this sound like a shot at the band, in any way, but Carnifex has the quality of being a band that performs and sounds much better live, than on some of their recordings, which are equally as brutal - and considering the genre of music, that's a big plus.

Carnifex played through the majority of their most recognizable tracks and their best work, including: In Coalesce with Filth and Faith, The Diseased and the Poisoned, Lie to My Face, Sorrowspell and Hell Chose Me, from their most recent LP.

Unearth was the second band to hit the stage. This was the second time I've seen Unearth as well, though the first time I had seen them was prior to their most recent album release, in 2007, when they opened for Slayer.

When they opened for Slayer three years ago, they put on an awesome performance at Scotiabank Place. This past week at the CMH they simply stole the fucking show. And I stand by that fact.

Their performance this past Tuesday was 10x greater than the first time I had seen them, and in a small club environment, you really get to feel and hear the whole the music to a greater level, enhancing the experience as a whole.

Out of all the bands, save for Carnifex, Unearth's set brought with it that ground shaking, ear drum pounding, experience that you've come to love from the band, if you're at all a fan. Unearth brought out the beast inside the Capital Music Hall and left no mosher or headbanger unscathed.

Even more so for one of my friends brothers, who was at his first Metal Show and got so into it that he ripped apart his t-shirt like Hulk Hogan trying to stir up a crowd of Hulkamaniacs.

Their set list provided equal amounts of crushing breakdowns, finger shredding guitar solos and crowd gathering chants as they flew through their repertoire of songs, including mainstays such as: The Great Dividers, My Will Be Done, Crow Killer, This Lying World, Endless, This Glorious Nightmare, One Step Away and Black Hearts Now Reign.

All That Remains took the stage third and provided some nostalgia by playing some of their most recognizable works, including Six, very early into their set. I haven't listened to the band in particular in recent years so they were the band out of the four that I was able to associate to songs with the least.

However their performance was pretty good overall, despite some of the things I had recently heard about their live sets.

As I Lay Dying has been on tour promoting their most recent release, The Powerless Rise for this past summer on a number of tours. I'm admittedly more familiar with their earlier work and particularly liked the albums Frail Worlds Collapse and Shadows Are Security. So the fact they opened their set with the song 94 Hours was a good hit of nostalgia to get me into their set.

Their set included a good amount of old, but a particular focus on the new - after all this was the tour showcasing their newest release after all. Their set included tracks including: 94 Hours, An Ocean Between Us, Anodyne Sea, Within Destruction and Confined.

On the whole I enjoyed their set, but I found it lacked a bit of 'pizazz' that they almost tried make up with, in the use of lighting effects and enough smoke to choke a city block.

Although Jordan Mancino's drum solo was ridiculously awesome and great change of pace in the middle of their set.

I'll also give them props for inspiring a wall of death during the final song of the night, it doesn't always work so well indoors, but they pulled it off.

The tickets to the show read: As I Lay Dying, All That Remains AND GUESTS.

I knew who the guests were and to be honest was most looking forward to Unearth and Carnifex, than the back half of the show - and my expectations were met, and somewhat exceeded, seeing as how Unearth and Carnifex delivered one of better openings to a show I've been to in quite some time.

Next show on my radar is most likely to be Despised Icon's final trip through Ottawa on their farewell tour, October 14th.

Other shows that could figure on the Tour De Force include:

Oct. 5th - The Black Dahlia Murder, Goatwhore + Arkaic @ Ritual
Oct. 11th - We Came As Romans, In Fear and Faith, Upon A Burning Body @ Maverick's

We'll just have to wait and see what's next.