Back in black

Three long weeks of not working have past, Friday the Chubby Pickle re-opened with a newly renovated ladies washroom. Yeah 4 stalls, 4! No more pissing in a hole in the ground! Moving on..

Friday night featured two headlining bands. Baptized in blood from London Ontario, and Fear before from Aurora, Colorado. The show wasn't overly busy but it was still a good time.

Fear Before had really sick lights, and the singer David wore a Zebra hat during the beginning of the set. Mid way through he climbed on top of the bar and then proceeded to roll around, knocking over straws and salt, but it was hilarious so I was pretty cool with it. At the end of the show, they let crazy techno music play for about 5 minutes and the entire band jumped off stage and started dancing around the bar, and running around with the fake plastic trees they brought as stage decorations.






After the show, I let Fear Before crash at my house. We drank 3 liters of wine and made pasta at 5 in the morning. They were probably the best house guests of all time, not only did they do their own dishes, they also fed my cat, and bought a case of beer in the morning! The next day we watched this really bizarre movie 'Dead Alive' If you're into Zombie movies look into watching it.

In other news, school has begun and I can officially drink in the USA, sup turning 21.

peace

Seeyuhh Shark Week

It will be another long wait until the next Shark Week but I’m okay with it, I have watched my fair share of the Discovery Channel for the past few days.

Wednesday

Dead and Divine and Straight Reads the Line played. I arrived at work early, thus had the pleasure of listening to Dead and Divines sound check. In which the vocalist said ‘booger dick’ about 768 times. It went something like this, “Check 1,2, booger dick. Booger dick. 1,2. Hey, hello, booger dick. Booger, dick. More in the monitors, booger dick, heyyy booger dicks. 1,2 booger dick.” Repeat. It was one of those things that was funny at first, then stopped being funny, and then started to be funny again because it went on for so long. Kind of like this . Also, they just released their album 'The Machines We Are' so if you are a Dead and Divine fan you should probably pick that up.


Moving on… Friday

Tyburn tree, a band from Essex Ontario, had their album release. A lot of people came out, and I’m pretty sure they sold quite a bit of cd’s and other merch. Congrats on the release boys of Tyburn Tree.

Saturdayyy

Inoke Errati+ The Eclectic Chair = as cool as a cucumber.

No really though, they had me dancing. It’s cool that I have a move to Inoke Errati’s ‘Jennifer’, my hand actions to the lyrics ‘pick up the phone yeah’ will justify that.




Furthermore (Susan), .
Bandanas. Ohh bandanas, after getting into a slight debacle about them, I’ve come to the conclusion that although there is more than one way to wear one, individuals wear them (I'm assuming) to pull a certain look together.

Example a) Axl Rose – the rocker

b) MGMT
‘indieeee’?

c) the ‘around the neck bandana’

Whatever, sometimes I do this too, except to myself. If I had a dog it would probably wear one too. I hope you all enjoyed the rant about bandanas, I know I did.


Funday, aka. Sunday

Michael Froh (ex- Holly springs front man) has a new solo sound. His set was absolutely f**@*!g stupendous! Check him out.


In other news, my sister brought home a cat today. My dad named he/she (we havn't figured that out yet) grapes. Grapes is a unisex name right?


The end,

Adios amigos

Upping your Punx

Remember the kids who wore torn up denim jackets, with NO FX patches and anarchy symbols on the back? They also had tall skinny multi coloured Mohawks and occasionally wore red plaid pants. Well I thought this breed of kid was gone forever, until I saw one at work last Wednesday. Sick.

All ages literally means ‘All Ages’

Before I start to babble about the weekend, I’d just like to say that I never thought I’d see an infant at a show, more or less in a bar. Well, I was wrong. Wednesday afternoon Blind Witness, a hardcore band from Montreal played. The show was an all ages show, so anyone could attend, and those who want to drink have to stand in a designated drinking pit. Anyways, in walks a woman with a stroller. Her son was in one of the opening bands. Sure enough she stands near the end of the bar, and pulls out a small child from the stroller, and the kid was no older than 3 months old. I was in pure shock, and worried that the noise would damage the little girls hearing. However, the mother had purchased special ear plugs for infants, and some sort of head band to keep them on. The kid didn’t even cry once. Most hardcore baby, EVER.



Now onto the weekend

I’m always trying to judge how busy the bar will be prior to going in. I usually have some idea, considering I usually look up who is playing and by now partially know the type of crowd the bands will attract. Three things however, can, for the most part predict a busy night.
1. A CD release: parents, siblings, friends, grandparents, and everyone in between who is a fan of the band usually comes out for their first cd release to show their support.
2. A bands final show: same deal as a cd release, everyone who is/was/wants to be a fan will come out to rock out one last time.

3. A reunion show: So the group breaks up, and you’re like ‘well that sucks, I never even made it out to their last show, I’ll never see them play EVER again.’ But then, months/ years later the group is like ‘man I miss back in the day, etc etc.. and BAM plan a reunion show’. These entail fans to go crazy nuts. Which leads me to Friday night….

Sewing With Nancie had a reunion tour and their last stop was in Windsor at the one and only Chubby Pickle. They upped everyones PUNX. Legit.. They also covered ‘Time After Time”- by Cyndi Lauper. Which lead my partner in crime/co-worker and I to dance behind the bar like the scallywags we are. We’re cool right? Sick.

Saturday and Sunday night were hardcore/metal nights featuring the likes of Bloodshoteye, Ion Dissonance, Kill List, Gunsmith and Assassinate the Following and more.

Stay tuned, Tuesday August 11th Ten Second Epic is playing with StereoGoesStellar, and Radio Adelaide (come check out their old drummer singing and new drummer- ex- Holloway Roberts drummer Gabe). For more information about up and coming shows Visit the Chubby Pickle facebook group, or click HERE to go there directly.



Do comment!
yarr

longboarding behind the bar

Thursday through Sunday made me realize how many different music scenes, or genres come through work.

Thursday night Richy Nix, a rock/ rapper-hip hop artist from Windsor played. The show was packed, and his fans were pretty intense. After talking to 'Richy" post show, I found out that this is only his third show with a band. Third! Also, their song 'In My Head", has been one of the top ten or twenty songs on the detroit alternative rock station 89x for quite some time now (today it was Number 5).

The Ontario Metal Alliance tour played Friday, featuring Blood Shot Eye, "Metal / Death Metal / Hardcore", as described on their myspace.. The vocalist, Jess, can scream better than most; if not all men. My co-worker and I created a shot after the band entitled the 'blood shot eye bomb'. Composed of Sole Gin, redbull, and grenadine. It's actually legit. Order one!


Saturday night featured Street Pharmacy, Rebel Emergency, and Windsor's Stereo Goes Stellar.
The first two were reggae/ska-ish/rock-ish. Rebel Emergency covered part of a USS (Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker) song- Hollow Point Sniper Hyperbole, it was superb!
Stereo Goes Stellar was amazing, as always. They are back playing at the Chubby PIckle August 11th with Ten Second Epic. Check that show out!

Also I would like to thank my two friends for letting a fellow co-worker and I test out the new flat bar mats via- longboard. The 'My name is Brian, and I like to stakeboard' dream joke finally became a reality.


Last night was another metal show, the two headliners were Odium and Aquila.
The singer from Odium has an epic voice, legit. Check out their music video ,(apparently the guitarist suffered from frost bite post-filming) that fact alone is worth watching it!
By the end of the night, the bar ran out of budweiser, I blame that on a certain band that played.





Adam, and Mark (Aquila) posing for a perfect photo op at the end of the night






Later skaters

Ceramic goose, was loose

Have you ever been out drinking, stop in a store for something and find your friend trying to purchase a small ceramic goose?

If not you clearly do not know how to have a good time.


Friday night at work was pretty interesting to say the least. This kid opened with a white- boy rap act. His stage name was Xander, and no sadly he does not have a myspace for your viewing pleasure.
New Stage Loop also played, who were also very entertaining and definitely a change from what I am used to hearing on a Friday night. Kudos to them for white boy rapping. Vanilla Ice would be jelous of these guys.

Lastly, Walk Off The Earth played. These guys had a legit reggae sound. The bass player wore a tee shirt on his head the entire night, and I am still not entirely sure why. I bought their album and have been listening to it all weekend. Their music is definitely something you could put on if you were hanging around outside by the pool, BBQ-ing, doing nothing, etc. Check them out!

peace out home fries

when you put salt in the fridge, it hardens

I'll begin with this video.


#25.. GUURRRLLL= the best thing ever. Well not ever, but its pretty hilarious by my standards.

Want to hear about interesting bands this weekend in Windsor? Read on!

Work this weekend was quite entertaining. A few bands that played had totally legit sets. Friday, Sights and Sounds, a band from the Toronto-ish area played. They were a lot softer than most that play at The Chubby Pickle. I really don't have a talent for describing music genres, thus check out the link, which leads to their myspace. Most, if not all of their full length is up and I dig it. The singer is the same singer from Comeback Kid. Anyways check out their stuff.

Saturday night was a CD release party for Aquila, a windsor metal band. CD releases are usually pretty busy, and this one followed the trend. My ears were ringing for two days after the show, which is pretty impressive (thanks guys). I'll probably be part deaf by the time I'm 25, and should probably wear some kind of ear plus at work, mehhh.. Overall, I thought their CD Imperium, was pretty flyy. Metal fans beware, Aquila is kicking off their summer East Coast-ish tour Friday.

In other news, my sister moved back home after a few months living out west, I am unimpressed as I can no longer use her room as an office... (for napping). Kidding Stephanie, welcome home trick tricky.

Like it or lump it

I’ve returned home now, well since Friday, and decided to keep this blog thing running. Mostly however, I’m thinking about dedicating most of the page to my thoughts and personal ratings about bands I hear at work, since I do spend a legitimate amount of time at The Chubby Pickle.

Saying that, I must also say that I am in no way a professional music critic ( and do not aim to be). I’m just writing my personal opinion about how I thought about individual bands. So in reality, if you don’t want to know what I think about you or your band then you simply can just avoid reading this. Cool? Alright!

To jump start this entire project I find it suiting to list three really cool nights I’ve worked.


3. Madball
The originators of the New York hardcore scene! Crazy almost sold out night. Every member of the band was huge and looked like they could tear down a house with their bare hands. P.s- they have been a band since 1988.

2. Theset
These guys were from B.C. and were all super sick. I ended up chatting with all of them and they spent the night in Windsor. It just happened to be a Sunday night, and Woody’s Outhouse (the bar next door) was giving away a Jager snowboard. I convinced them to go, and the one guy from the band actually won the Jager snowboard, they nearly shit themselves. He then turned around and sold it to some random bar dude for $300 I think, it was a ridiculous amout of money. After the bar closed I took them to the casino and they doubled the money. *ohh gambling. Apparently they no longer had to starve or eat like homeless people while finishing their tour. Needless to say they promised to come back and play in Windsor sometime in the future.

1. Blurt
Bury me in border town. Blurts last show. Dear lord. Words cannot, and will not describe this night. I don’t think it will be possible to ever witness a night that insane ever again. The amount of stage dives, crowd surfers, and just other intense jumping off everything and anything was psychotic (I even took a stage dive). The bar was completely packed and at times I questioned if anyone was going to die. To the best of my knowledge no one died, well except for Blurt. RIP!

Science is cool, and so are beavers

Stephanie playing on a ski simulator, and some pissed off kids waiting behind her for their turn




Trying to figure out what goes where, if only I had my trusty nursing friends with me. Oh, this one too.


Today was my last full day here. I went to the Vancouver science center with Stephanie. The place was full of school groups, aka field trip central, but we still had too much fun. Both of us felt like we were 12 years old again. One of the new exhibits was all about fear, and why we feel fear. Did you know the chances of getting bit by a snake are higher than getting into a plane crash? Yeah definitely learned that and a lot more today.

The last thing we did at the science center was watch an OMNIMAX movie about beavers, and let me tell you, beavers are really REALLY cool. Hit that for a preview of how awesome they actually are.



The theater was similar to an IMAX theatre, except it was shaped like a giant golf ball.

After we came back to Stephanie's place we played frisbee with her boyfriend John, in a field that, according to John had 'minimal junkies'. He was right, we only saw two. There was however, an asian couple playing basketball in a court close to us, the man said to the woman "Last person to score buy sushi tomorrow"... Funny? I think so.

yadda yadda yadda home slices

I'm on a boat, or I was. It ruled

Tired, half way up







I've been here almost a week now. The past few days have been excellent to say the least. My sister, her boyfriend, his roomate and I all bought tennis rackets. One of their friends willingly taught us how to play. The tennis guy was pretty sick, and he brought us back to his house after for drinks/ food. I plan on playing a lot more tennis when I come back.

Two days ago we went to the Capilano suspension bridge in Vancouver. Everyone who worked there was dressed up in clothes from around 100yrs ago. We still don't know why, but are assuming that they are trying to recreate the time of when the bridge was originally built( Really it just looked like a bunch of pissed off students working their summer jobs).

After the bridge we went to Grouse Mountain, and we were all determined to hike up it. The actual hike was called 'The Grouse Grind', and was probably one of the hardest things I've physically done ever in my life. It took just under two hours to do, but at the top of the mountain there was a bunch of things to do. We missed out on the lumberjack shows, but we did see a bear ( in an enclosed area), and a wild deer roaming around.

Yesterday we spent the entire day kayaking, which is much, muchh harder than it looks. We found a small island and hung out for a while. Stephanies boyfriend was about to attempt a cliff dive, but chickened out because he said 'the water was too cold'. pfft. The kayak back was really rough and at times I thought we were going to tip. Today we all have sweet life jacket tan lines.

Cheers homies

From plane to skytrain

Found that shirt in a vintage store, almost bought it for alex





Last night after I got in, we ate at 'Cactus Club" for lunch. It was similar to moxies, but to the power of 10. The patio was amazing, complete with a fountain water fall thing to look at. Last night we took a walk to get a slushie, (into the bad part of town) and saw about 10 crazy cracked out people. Apparently they all hang out on one street near a gas station.... Anyway

Today we went into Vancouver via the skytrain. Which was totally rad because there was a pretty sick view of mountains for the entire ride. We did some shopping. There was a bunch of used/ vintage / indie clothing stores. Also, I'm not entirely sure why but there are bird statues all over the city, Stephanie and I have started taking pictures in front of them. When we were really young we did the same kind of deal with giant decorated Mr. Potato heads in Rode Island. I think we have found around 9 so far, and are absolutely determined to find every single one! Later on we took the skytrain to the waterfront, saw a hippie reading, and a cruise boat from France.

Tonight we might go bowling

cheers

Plane, luggage, etc

Airport chill

So I decided to be a copy-cat, and steal Johns idea and blog about my trip. Currently I am sitting in the Vancouver airport bar area, drinking a cosmo and waiting for my sister to arrive to collect me. The plane ride was pretty legit. I slept mostly, using an adbusters as a pillow. It worked better than you think it would.  I also bought some twizzlers. That is all for now my friends. 

cheers 

Why Seniors frequent The Michigan Diner

Open Tuesday-Sunday, the Michigan Diner always seems to be packed full of seniors for dinner. Why all of the seniors of Tecumseh gather at this place for dinner seems to be a mystery for most,  however I have done a little research to uncover the secret. The Michigan diner has a menu catered towards seniors and can be found by clicking here . With liver and onions, meat loaf, and 2pc broasted chicken dinners all under $8.00 it soon becomes clear why so many are flocking to eat at this Tecumseh diner. Nonetheless, I was still clueless as to what 'broasted' chicken actually is. In my head I make the assumption that there is a 'broasting' setting on the oven and that is how the chicken is cooked. Having said that, I have again taken 30 seconds of my time to google 'broasted chicken', according to ochef.com, 

"The Broasting process makes chicken that has the taste of fried chicken, but is moister and less greasy.... Pressure fried chicken has up to 44% more moisture than the leading brand of open fried chicken, and 4-% to 70% less fat and fewer calories."

I'm going to assume that most seniors want to eat less fat to reduce blood pressure or any other health jazz that Nurse in training Alex would advocate for. Thus giving seniors another excuse to eat at The Michigan Diner.

the token Ouellette 4-way lights dbag

Ouellette st. Windsor, Ontario. By far one of the most frustrating streets to drive down, heading towards the downtown area. No matter what, there always seems to be someone stopped, randomly on the street with their 4-way lights on. Don't these '4-way lighters' realize that Ouellette is a busy street and requires the use of both lanes to avoid  obnoxious traffic jams. It's bad enough that a bus will stop every 16 seconds in front of you, now some 'dbag' who thinks they are important enough to have every car going down the street go around them. They think it is okay because their 4ways are on. Listen token 4 way Ouellette st. stopper, its NOT okay. You are annoying and most likely unimportant.I encourage everyone to give the stink eye to those stopped with their blinking lights, etc. Parking lots and driveways were created for a reason, use them.