2005-05-30 - 0:24

Two times stronger

It seems that I am ages behind on the journal, so let's see if I can recap. The big push at work continued for a while; but I managed to get far enough ahead that I got the Friday off before the long weekend. That worked out well, since I was off to Montreal on Thursday and my parents were showing up on Friday.

The Montreal trip was another Bright Eyes excursion. After being fairly impressed with the last Bright Eyes concert, which was in support of I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, I was disappointed with the follow-up, in support of the other half of the double album, Digital Ash in a Digital Urn. Conor Oberst was definitely drunk, which I'm told is not uncommon, and it killed the show.

His vocals were off all night, lacking passion; and he ended the encore by crawling over the stage set-up, at one point falling off an amp. The backing band--ranging from seven to nine pieces, depending on whether the string section was present--carried the show; but it was definitely a weak effort from the frontman, which is a slap in the face to the fans.

The visit from the folks was cool, albeit brief, even if the weather failed to make much of a departure from the perpetual overcast that we seem to be under. We ended up sending a fair bit of time at the house, including the obligatory steak barbecue and a few games (Ticket to Ride and Around the World in 80 Days). We also got out to see the last of the Tulip Festival.

The folks left on Sunday, so Monday became another barbecue/games night, with several folks popping over. After eating the biggest steak that the butchery had to offer on Friday, I had to tone it down for this one.

Also in that mix, Laurie and I celebrated our two year anniversary. Yay! We picked up a very cool silk embroidery piece at the Tulip Festival, which seems to mean that art is our method of choice for marking anniversaries. We also went out to the Korea Garden this past weekend to mark the occasion.

Hopefully, some sunshine will roll in soon. Laurie has done quite a bit with the gardens recently, so it'll be fun to see what does well this year.

Now that work has levelled off, it shouldn't be too bad to get through this week, which leads in to the Toronto trip for the Spoon concert. In the meantime, I need to get busy on my pending recaps. I finished off my Moby/Buck 65 and Stars reviews; but I still have four in the queue.

J.