My new favourite song

Don't you love when you stumble across new music that you love? The type of music that gets you singing loud, dancing in your seat (I'm driving in this imaginative situation) and hitting the repeat button?

A couple weeks ago I was listening to CBC Radio 3 (http://www.cbcradio3.ca/) and they played a song by Scott Dunbar (http://scottdunbar.wordpress.com/). I can't remember which song it was, but I immediately went over to his artist page on Radio3 and started listening. Love at first listen.

I've since downloaded his albums and they're getting a lot of airtime on Jake (my iPod). I strongly strongly suggest that you not only listen to some of his stuff, but check out some video's on YouTube. He's killer to watch perform.

One song really strikes me as being super duper awesome. It's got a killer beat, his voice is super awesome, and best of all, the lyrics rock. These three things make up the perfect music. Anyways, below are the lyrics to "Ain't Mama" (directly from Scott Dunbar's MySpace blog about his lyrics):

Is there a warning sign in the sky overhead?
Well the politicians think we’d rather be fed
Some folks say come 2012 we’ll all be dead
Psychologists say that its all in my head

And ain’t Mama Proud…

United Nations say that we should be ashamed
But the corporations keep on just the same
I got my little white headphones plugged into my brain
Telling me that I should be confused
Man that’s so lame
Cause me and them we’re just the same
But they got me dancin like a pawn in their game
Singin if I only had a brain

And ain’t Mama proud

They kill our prophets one by one
We go to ..Cancun.. and play in the sun
That is just what we Romans do
We build an overpass and drive straight through

And ain’t Mama proud

Now, I have to note that these are not the lyrics in the version of "Ain't Mama" that's on my iPod, which I bought directly off his webpage, so I wonder why he left out some of my favourite lines from the song....? I suppose they are semi-controversial but he doesn't seem the type to censor his music. Guess you'll just have to listen to the song to get the full affect.... because there are some great lines missing from the lyrics above.

Go listen. Go listen now!!

Movember: From the view of a mo-wife

In the event you've been living under a rock for the past 24 days, let's start with what all this "Movember" stuff is all about.
For the real deal check: http://ca.movember.com/
According to Wikipedia...

Movember (a portmanteau of the words 'moustache' and 'November') is an annual month-long event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November. The event was conceived in 1999 by a group of Australian men from Adelaide.

Since 2004, the Movember Foundation charity has run Movember events to raise awareness and funds for men's health issues, such as prostate cancer and depression, in Australia and New Zealand. In 2007, events were launched in Ireland, Canada, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

In 2010 it merged with the testicular cancer event Tacheback.

Alright, now we're all satisfied with what the deal is, right. Okay. Second thing to cover: I love facial hair. I think it's pretty fucking hot. For reals. This is a relatively new thing in my life, but I'm happy about the development. However, I don't believe this fact should really matter that much with what I have to say below since, although I love a nice beard or goatee, moustache's don't really turn my crank.

Here comes the real "blog"....
What the fuck is with people complaining about Movember? Complaining about "Movember" is similar to complaining about all the people wearing purple on Spirit Day (October 20) or the people driving around with a pink ribbon on their car in honour of breast cancer. Can you really complain about a charitable event??

There are the people complaining about it going on in general, in which case I have to say, what the hell do you really care if there are more people with moustaches for one month of the year? Is it really effecting your life? Does it some how alter your entire world?? No?? Then I don't see the problem that you have.

Then there are the people who are complaining because someone in their immediate life is growing a moustache this month. On the radio this morning one guy actually said that he didn't think his wife would "let" him grow a moustache for Movember. Let him??? For real?

I am happy and proud that my husband has chosen to (try and) grow a moustache this November. Does it look good? No, not really. Do I care if he looks silly for one month while drawing awareness to prostate cancer and raising money for research on it? Hell no.

Quite frankly, there isn't much I wouldn't "let" my husband do. If he wanted to shave his head for charity, go ahead. If he wanted to wear the same shirt for a month for charity, go ahead. If he wanted to do just about anything he wanted for charity, I'm pretty sure my answer would be "go ahead".

Movember is to bring about awareness about prostate cancer. Here's some awareness for you (straight from http://www.prostatecancer.ca/):

• The most common cancer among Canadian men - it will afflict 1 in 6 men and is a greater threat for those with a family history of the disease
• Often without symptoms in its earliest, most curable stage – making annual testing ever more important
• 24,600 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer this year alone (2010) (in Canada)
• 4,300 men will die of the disease this year (in Canada)
• Rates of prostate cancer in men are comparable to rates of breast cancer in women
• The disease has no symptoms in its earliest, most curable stage

Ladies (and gentleman), before you bitch again about moustaches and Movember, I have to wonder: would you rather see clean shaven guys this month or see your husband, boyfriend, dad, brother, friend or son having a harder battling against prostate cancer because they were less aware and there was less research being funded through charity? Perhaps we should all be a little bit more supportive of the "battle" they're fighting this Movember instead.

Oh man is a giddy thing...

Saturday was the day I had been waiting for.
Saturday November 13, 2010.
The day that I would see Mumford & Sons in concert.

I heard Mumford & Sons for the very first time on a Saturday in June (the 26th if we want to get exact). I was getting ready to go out for the night, had FM96 on (yes I know, shocking - they at one point in time played Mumford & Sons on FM96... I think it was a one time thing) and "Little Lion Man" came on the radio. I made a mental note to look this band up later in my life and went along my evening.

Which involved a play, a bar and a tad bit of drinking (some friends may remember this night in particular as the night when they may have found me wondering around on Richmond Street muttering that "I wannnna go home.... I don't feel well"). Needless to say, I heard probably about 50 or so other songs that night.

The next day all I could remember was some band that was had a family word in it, but I was stuck on "Mom" or "Mother" being in it (perhaps due to "Mumford"). But I also had some song stuck in my head that I didn't really know, but just the one line ".... I really fucked it up this time, didn't I my dear?....". Where did that leave me?

Google.

I love Google.

Up popped "Mumford & Sons". A quick trip over to iTunes provided me the album and my love was born. No really, I love them. Like, a lot. Like, right up there with Pearl Jam and The Futureheads.

Anyways, fast foward two months and tickets are going on sale for their November 13, 2010 show at The Sound Academy in Toronto.

I scoop up two, not thinking much of it. While they're play on 102.1 The Edge has increased, I didn't think they'd reach the popularity that they ended up reaching.

Fast forward another two month... tickets are going on Kijiji for $200+ each.

And finally, November 13, 2010.

Mumford & Sons.

While waiting in line to get in the concert (yes yes, I actually did this for the first time since I was about..... oh, 18), freezing my butt off but being kept slightly warmer by my 'always warmer than a normal human being' husband, we actually heard that tickets were going for about $600 a pop. Ouch.

This is starting to drag on, isn't it? Well, let me just say this. Mumford & Sons did not disappoint. I was slightly worried as I had been looking soooooo forward to the show and had been getting misty eyed on the way there listening to them, but they rocked it. Rocked it, rocked it, rocked it.

The Sound Academy was somewhat of a crap venue as the acoustics kind of sucked and you could reallllly hear the crowd over the band singing and then talking and making noise too, which kind of sucked. But I couldn't say one bad thing about Mumford & Sons.

Friday Mornings.

Yesterday was a bad morning. I woke up, encountered a massive bug in the kitchen, cat messes in the living room and then realized I had forgotten my tea at home once I got to work.

This morning was a wonderfully different story.

It was Friday morning.

I love Friday mornings. First off, my office is generally much quieter on a Friday since the bosses seem to stay away and people are travelling. I like this because it gives me the opportunity to get work done in peace and quiet and finish up the lose ends on many things. Plus it's nice to not be micro-managed for a day.

Second, getting up on a Friday is awesome because it is the last time that you need to get up for work for the week. The weekend is right at your finger tips and there's just nine office hours standing in your way.

This morning was no different. I was up early, had a nice warm shower, did my hair and made it look semi-decent during this awkward growing out stage, had a delicious breakfast, watched some Oprah, left the house early so I wasn't rushing. Perfect morning.

The other thing I love about Friday mornings is how peaceful it is downtown. I got to work a bit early so there was no one else in the office yet. I then was watching out the window as London slowly woke up. Traffic was quiet, there were barely any people around, the sun was rising. A perfect peaceful Friday morning. And tomorrow is Saturday. That's why I love Friday.

Blog Topic Generator: Affordable guitar starter kits

I feel like I've had lots to blog about but don't feel like actually putting any brain power into blogging at 9:34pm on a Monday night. I couldn't even think of anything half decent to blog about. Thank god for my favourite website in the whole wide world: Google.

When I Googled "Random Blog Topic" a "Random Topic Generator" arrived. I hit 'Generate Topic' and was given "Affordable guitar starter kits".

Alright, so about a month or so ago, my friend, let's call her "Nicole" to keep this anonymous, and I headed to the mall with the old guitars that we found in our respective homes to see if we could get the workable so we could learn to play guitar and become super duper amazing rock stars.

Seriously, that was our plan.

We headed off to the mall, let's call it "Masionville Mall" to keep this anonymous, and went to the music store there. The guys working there were awesome because they were:
1) total music nerds
2) not at all pretentious
3) very nice to deal with

After they finished making fun of my guitar (no really, they did) then said that "Nicole"'s was at least workable but mine was essentially a piece of trash. This is where my first experience with "Affordable guitar starter kits" took place.

On the spot, I decided to buy a new guitar. They had a nice little sale/kit thing going where I would get a guitar, a super awesome guitar bag and a digital tuner for the low low price of $209 plus tax. I bought this. But let's keep in mind here that:
1) I don't really have money to blow
2) I have much better things to spend $209 + tax on (a new screen door, the hydro bill, etc., etc)
3) I don't know how to play guitar

Well, what was a girl to do when she didn't have a guitar and was going to become a super duper awesome rock star?!

I've played it about three times.

I can do one scale and two chords.

I think my hands are too small to actually properly play a guitar. And I pretty much enjoy playing the piano.

My thoughts on "Affordable guitar starter kits" - they may be affordable, but likely unneeded and therefore probably a waste of cash.