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| 30 Sep 2005 01:53:14 pm |
 windstorms and homecoming charges... |
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 there was a crazy windstorm the other night ...i was up reading the davinci code well past 5am and heard all kinds of noise outside from the wind taking down tree branches and sirens from fire/police scurrying around the city blocking off roads with downed powerlines ...i went for a walk around the city to shoot the damage after the rain stopped in the early morning.
Quote : Reported by the Whig
Two of the more serious charges laid in connection with Saturday nights riot are against non-Queen's students who travelled to Kingston for the party from other universities.
Brent Von Hagen, 20, a Dalhousie student, was charged with mischief endangering life for allegedly attempting to set the stolen car on fire.
Daniel A. Gomez-Duran, 21, a student from a university in Ottawa, is charged with causing unnecessary harm to an animal after he allegedly struck one of the horses Kingston Police were using for crowd control.
WOOHOOO ... 2 of the more serious charges from this year's homecoming party were laid against students from other universities. the problem i see with ''well it's not just our students'' is that queen's students decided to hop on board with the hooligans and carry on the destruction instead of not tolerating such tomfoolery and assisting law enforcement and emergency services in ending the riotous party.
hitting a horse is pretty lame ... should have let the horse fight back.
my favorite pic of the weekend was the cover of the whig - the KC (highschool) student who caught standing on the overturned car partyin' like it was 1999. he's a local doctor's son. |
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 Comments[252] |
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| 26 Sep 2005 11:08:59 am |
| homecoming weekend... |
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 my friend dan came up on saturday so we decided to walk through the campus and check out the homecoming festivities. there were seas of people walking with beers (or red plastic cups full of beer), street meat stands were abound and the atomsphere was friendly (ppl stoping to pose for pics and chat). wandering down union we turned up division and onto william. aberdeen street already had a party in full swing with the cops keeping the sidewalks and roads clear ...seeming to allow residents to continue the party as long as they weren't drinking on the streets. an easy enough task for the daytime (only 4 cops and 3 cruisers on aberdeen at 2pm) we hung out shooting at the party for a while and then back towards university ave and home.
 it seems that the homecoming concert of strippers union / metric and billy talent was a flop (if it was an attempt to bypass the aberdeen street party that has festered the feathers of the local cottonheads for the last 4 years)...attracting fewer than 2000 students (compared to the 3000 on aberdeen at 10pm) and after the show finished most those ppl went up to aberdeen street too. a parked car was overturned and subsequently set ablaze, a young female student suffering from overconsumption was reportedly so packed into the crowd that emergency workers spent more than 15 minutes wrangling through the people to recover her. a photographer from the whig was also assaulted (beer dumped on him and another bottle hitting his shoulder) while shooting some students being arrested ''you're making us look bad!'' umm guys ...you did a good job of that yourself.
aren't queen's students supposed to be really smart? i mean ...i like a good party like every guy ... but c'mon ...a billy talent show has to be way more fun than setting a car on fire and delaying emergency service workers. that's behavior i'd expect to hear about in the heights, not in the ''student ghetto'' ...guess the shoe fits now.
cops keeping aberdeen st. clear in the afternoon
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Comments[262] |
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| 24 Sep 2005 10:57:30 am |
| the good ole hockey game... |
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weston's has season tickets to the kingston frontenacs so once or twice a year steph and i venture over to the delapitated old barn and brave ourselves through a hockey game.
it's sad to see this great city make its OHL team play in a substandard 50+ year old building ... at least maple leaf gardens had some renovations done to it over its lifespan. it's equally as pathetic that the memorial centre has been allowed to slip so dramatically over its history ...quite an insult to those veterans whose name is attached to the building and who continue to fight for its preservation (you see what i'm getting at here??).
the whole LVEC thing pisses me off (enter asshole mode) ... the city sat around for more than 25 years looking at block d and saying ''no highrise buildings will be built there'' (the railyards closed in 1971). council even went as far as saying no buildings taller than 4 stories would be built on that property at one point. 20 years later we have highrise buildings being built on the spot ... will we have to lose our hockey team and have no place for live entertainment beyond 1000 seats (aj's/grand) before the city does something??
most of the cottonheads here are upset about the placement of the LVEC near their half million dollar condos (the other half of the cities cottonheads are concerned about drunk university students peeing in their bushes) ...if they'd stop to think of the value of having PREMIUM QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT at the LVEC they'd realize that wayne newton might come back (the most pathetic flop of a concert ever in kingston aimed at the cottonheads) ...the LVEC will outlive most of the residents who will or will not be using it ...the question should be will people use the facility ..not if the neighbors like where it's located.
look at the attendance of the causeway show, the market is here for entertainment larger than aj's or the grand can fit. bands want to stop here, the ohl commissioner said kingston has the requirements for a memorial cup tournement already except the venue (we have hotels, media facilities, banquet facilities, a great commercial district) - how much additional revenue does that bring in to the city and residents? after a hockey game or show of any kind, downtown would be slammed with ppl wandering up and down the street wanting to eat/drink/be merry somewhere ...
i'm even willing to spend a bit more on tickets for events at the LVEC - saves gas / hotel / restaurant expenses i incurr while in other cities ...meaning i'd have more money to get liquored downtown after a show heheh ...you see what i'm getting at here??
kingston is one of the most historic cities in the country and yet we have an incredibly short tourist season because nothing attracts people here after september except post secondary education or a job in the modern sweatshop (call centre).
we had good seats though ... fronts lost 4-3 ('shwa scored @ 19:57)
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Comments[199] |
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| 23 Sep 2005 11:05:48 am |
| the end of summer... |
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it seemed that the heat would never end, the potholes would never be filled in and that road reconstruction would never be complete ... well ...the heat has passed, so i guess that's one sign that summer is over.
the other sign is the k-rock end of summer party cruise (the media has to tell me when the season changes or i might not know). we joined nancy and her boyfriend for a night of drunken debauchery on lake ontario. it was nice to run into some ppl i hadn't seen in a long time and share some drinks...
the only shot i managed to get tonight was this one of city hall from the upper deck of the boat as we pulled in.
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Comments[215] |
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| 22 Sep 2005 01:34:43 pm |
| ale house rock |
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aj's ale house (formerly aj's hangar) was the host for the hugh dillon redemption choir last night. the band rocked with a super energetic show and hugh dillon spitting and lighting people on fire ...ok so he didn't do that but he did find a way to draw energy out of a lethargic wednesday night crowd by engaging them face to face taking his micstand onto the floor and getting intimate with the relatively small crowd.
the armchair cynics were on first and i enjoyed the rock ... nothing really grabbed me and made me wanna throw my panties on stage but the singer had a great voice and they were pretty into what they were doing. props for playing like they meant it and not sounding like the average 604 band.
HDRC came on and light it up - derek was just smoking on drums with some blazing fast snaredrum work and a kickdrum that was stomping so hard everyone had to jump... taking into account the usual soundquality of the club, the band sounded really good and were really playing hard.
canadian, budweiser and coors light on tap ...wtf kind of ale house is that?
the bar is still the same festering pisshole it had become known as in the last few years, but with a fresh coat of paint (conveniently in queen's blue/gold with staff shirts that look like they were purchased at the UBS exchange and embroidered with an aj's logo instead of the univeristy) but the show was great.
hugh
hugh on the floor luring everyone to come up front
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Comments[267] |
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| 19 Sep 2005 07:51:02 am |
| sometimes things are just funny... |
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the angle on the sign as i walked by was rather funny ...
slater's probably gonna kill me:
shot as i walked into the kingston fair (click for larger size):
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Comments[240] |
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| 17 Sep 2005 06:20:34 pm |
| pearl jam rocked my ass off |
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it was great to see pearl jam last night ... despite really shitty weather and me ending up rather soaked after choosing to ''travel light'' (as cat called it ...taking only my camera - not my usual backpack with my keys/id/palm pilot/batteries and the frivolity of extra clothing) the entire trip rocked and the show was almost 3 hours of everything i wanted to hear by the band and some surprizes i didn't expect.
sleater-kinney opened the show and were most excellent ... i've always liked them and the live show was pretty good. as soon as pearl jam took the stage there was a whole new level of energy in the room.
highlights:
- boom (keys) and mike had a great solo trade off during the end of crazy mary, boom taunting mike to continue soloing in a friendly game of musical cat and mouse.
- the crowd singing along to black for nearly 2 minutes at the end 'doo doo dooo' part and then the band slowly leading into betterman was a great moment in the show.
- eddie's comparison of canadian highways to train travel was funny (it's like they built the highway 10-15 feet at a time and it feels like traintracks when you're driving) lead to a slight bash at haliburton which was was all the politics we heard (telling the crowd that the u.s. had a great company named haliburton that would love to come up and fix our roads for us).
Set list:
Wash - Go - Hail Hail - Animal - Brain of J. - Corduroy - Immortality - In Hiding - Don't Gimme No Lip - Even Flow - Green Disease - Insignificance - I Got Shit - Jeremy
Black - Better Man - Rearviewmirror
1st encore:
Bee Girl - I Believe in Miracles - Sleight of Hand - Small Town - Crazy Mary - Alive
2nd encore:
Given To Fly - Not For You/(Modern Girl by Sleater-Kinney) - Daughter - Harvest Moon w/SK - Leaving Here w/SK - Rockin' in the Free World w/ SK - Yellow Ledbetter (Over the Hills and Far Away teaser)
wide angle of the stage (first encore):
b/w of matt cameron:
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Comments[223] |
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| 16 Sep 2005 10:19:25 am |
| FUCK YEAH!!! it's pearl jam day! |
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my friend cat offered me her extra seat for the show about a year ago and i've been waiting with baited breath since...
i've been waiting to see pearl jam again since lollapalooza 92 (ahh good times ...rage became one of my favorites that night). steph and i had pearl jam tickets in 2000, but our friend (who picked them up for us) sold them to his roommate, the bastard.
hopefully i'll have some pics ... their forum says that nonprofessional cameras are allowed ...and someone got a canon a85 in so i should be able to get my a70 in.
cross yer fingers |
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Comments[225] |
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| 14 Sep 2005 02:12:01 pm |
| kurt vonnegut rocks |
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i was stoked to see kurt vonnegut on last night's daily show (i watched it today ...) he's got a way with words (duh)Quote : kurt vonnegut
''In a democracy, after 100 years you have to let your slaves go. after 150 years you have to let your women vote. At the beginning of democracy there is quite a bit of genocide, and ethnic cleansing is ok. that's what's going on now.'' seems like the best route to freedom to me.
britney and kevin had a baby boy ... no name yet though. |
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Comments[246] |
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| 13 Sep 2005 10:03:00 am |
| street photography and yo-yos |
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two different subjects coming from the same source. my old friend rex spawned my love of photography while we were playing in a band together and he just got himself a job as a yo yo demonstrator. i guess he'll be travelling around to schools doing yo yo tricks and selling yo yos. it reminds me of the simpsons episode where the yo yo team lived in a tiny van and their manager yelled at them constantly heheh. click [url=http://www.extremespin.org/tautonym/video/Sprx-01_tautonym(windowsmedia9).wmv]here[/url] to watch him in action (11mb wmv file). i'm so stoked ...it really is the perfect job for him!
i shot a human finally! with my camera that is. i've never really tried to shoot human subjects before (other than bands but that's different) and i was kinda spooked that i'd get yelled at for taking pics in public but no one really said anything to me (other than ''nice shoes'') ...i nabbed this one at the brock street bus stop across from the hospital ...he's one of my favorite downtown characters.
click for a larger image |
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Comments[187] |
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| 12 Sep 2005 07:22:02 am |
| ckws photo contest |
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ok - ckws has a photocontest happening and i'd like some help from everyone by asking you to vote for my picture ''sunrise @ shoal tower'' ..yes there probably are better photos than mine, but i want a new camera 
1 - click here
2 - find text ''sunrise @ shoal''
3 - vote for that picture every day (or clear your cookies and vote more often)
the webmaster has recompressed the colors in the image i submitted (reducing it from 160k to 60k) and misspelled my name (brampton) but that's ok ...it still looks almost as it should. |
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Comments[284] |
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| 11 Sep 2005 11:10:33 am |
| 4 years... |
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today is a day of sad memories for a lot of people - it's also the 4th anniversary of george w flushing the u.s. constitution down the toilet.
the official story is al queda was responsible for the attack ... but remember the official story is also that kennedy was shot by oswald and that oliver north couldn't recall who gave him orders to send arms to iran in exchange for hostages.
...nixon wasn't a crook either.
i did some street photography today ...still not brave enough to shoot humans
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Comments[272] |
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| 10 Sep 2005 04:16:04 pm |
| i love living downtown... |
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one of the best things about living close to downtown is the convenience of the market (the availability of beer on every block places very on the list also) ... people have gathered here to sell all kinds of produce and other things for more than 150 years.
i can't wait til the renovations of ''springer market square'' are complete ...the clarence street market is nice but the back of city hall makes for far more sceneic shopping.
corn was today's victim (click for larger size)
city hall with a nice blue sky (click for larger size)
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Comments[189] |
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| 09 Sep 2005 05:59:54 pm |
| way better than the other way... |
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i wonder if this mime karaoke could take off in north america and replace the ''usual'' method?
i dream foolish dreams ...i know. |
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Comments[284] |
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| 06 Sep 2005 07:36:04 pm |
| refreshing to know ... |
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it's refreshing to read that i'm not the only crazy asshole ... our lady peace is crazy and full of drama too! (and you all know my love of jeremy taggert and olp in general)
reading an article @ canoe about their new record raine talks about the band splitting up several times, bob rock (producer) being fired and also quitting another time ...and his own need for conflict in order to create.
Quote : According to Maida, who also talks about it on the accompanying Making of DVD, the band pulled the classic rock act of breaking up more than once and firing their producer all in the quest to make the perfect record. Only OLP and Rock know exactly how traumatic the process was, but it's clear that HIPT is the band's most far-reaching and conceptually sound album to date.
''We ended up with 45 songs, probably the band breaking up two or three times, Bob Rock being fired, Bob Rock quitting and lots of drama, but it was all in the search of really trying to start the next chapter for this band.'' guess it makes for good press heheh.
on another note: happy birthday to another of my favorite drummers yesterday, brad wilk (ratm/audioslave) |
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Comments[274] |
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| 03 Sep 2005 11:30:08 am |
| biggest disaster - smallest aid |
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listen here to the mayor of new orleans being interviewed by cbc yesterday discussing the lack of federal assistance after hurricane katrina.
the looting results from police being too busy saving lives to secure neighborhoods and stores - officers are turning in their badges because there's not enough support for them to ensure their own families will be safe - all while bush plays a round of golf.
the aid that the u.s. provides around the world looks pathetic when they can't help their own citizens... this is the largest disaster in u.s. history and VERY little is being done by their own government.
sad... |
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Comments[235] |
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| 01 Sep 2005 03:45:42 pm |
| childproof toys will be next |
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me: ...that's like cookie monster not eating cookies
diana: cookies are a sometimes food now for cookie monster
me: *disbelief* *shock* *a moment of sadness*
diana: yeah
cookie monster can't munch cookies at will anymore ...in effort to teach children more positive eating habits and self control using a more direct approach.
why does cookie monster have to pay the price for this obeseity outbreak? why can't ronald mcdonald be made to look like the clown from steven king's IT? they're probably a bit more to blame than the cookie monster.
i think if a parent is worried their children are learning bad eating habits from watching a muppet chow down a plate of cookies they should turn off their tv. let them play in traffic, run with scissors, pet stray dogs or even wrestle in the backyard on a mattress suported by a picnic table, anything so cookie monster can have a cookie and your children will have a better shot at outliving you. |
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