Blog Question Of The Day:

Are you supposed to call it a motor or an engine?

This one is for all you haters of metal music!

Wait and Bleed

They blew a 3-0 lead in what was, for them, a sudden death game.

Hey Blades management, listen up!

You just saw the reason no one comes out to Blades games anymore!!!

I try to pay attention.
Your words just disappear.

So I speak to you in riddles,
'Cause my words get in my way.

'Cause I can't take anymore of this,
I wanna come apart.

But I know I'll do the right thing
If the right thing is revealed.

'Cause it's always raining in my head
Forget all the things I should have said.

I am just a worthless liar.
I am just an imbecile.
I will only complicate you.
Trust in me and fall as well.
I will find a center in you.
I will chew it up and leave,
I will work to elevate you
just enough to bring you down

Why can't we not be sober?
I Just want to start this over.
Ah, why can't we sleep forever?
I just want to start this over.

Amazing! Its like I drew this.

I like how you'll be using a Mac, a new one from 2009 or equal, complete with the most modern version of the operating system (OS X 10.5) and sometimes, not very often at all but very, very occasionally, you'll make it do something that slows the whole thing down and Mac breaks out the old school 'wristwatch' icon to show that its busy, like it did back in the 1980's. :-)

Check it. Learn it. Live it.

Small my table, a-sets just two
Got so crowded, I can't make room
Oh, where did they come from? Stormed my room!
And you dare say it belongs to you - to you

This is not for you!
This is not for you!
This is not for you!

Bonehead Moment Of The Night:

Guy walks up to the bar. He purposefully stops, looks over my shoulder at the beer fridge. There is an obvious moment where he is surveying what is in the fridge (Great Western Light, Pilsner, Premium and Kokanee)

Guy looks at me and asks, 'Can I have a Coors Light?'

Doritos

How many nights you sit beside the phone?
What were the things you wanted for yourself
Teenage ambitions you'll remember well.

Time can never mend
The careless whispers of a good friend
To the heart and mind
Ignorance is kind
And there's no comfort in the truth
Pain is all you'll find

Spiderman, Spiderman,
Does whatever a spider can
Spins a web, any size,
Catches thieves just like flies
Look Out!
Here comes the Spiderman.

Is he strong?
Listen bud,
He's got radioactive blood.
Can he swing from a thread
Take a look overhead
Hey, there
There goes the Spiderman.

In the chill of night
At the scene of a crime
Like a streak of light
He arrives just in time.

Spiderman, Spiderman
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Wealth and fame
He's ingnored
Action is his reward.

To him, life is a great big bang up
Whenever there's a hang up
You'll find the Spider man.

'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
I don't know when I'll be back again

I must have dreamed a thousand dreams
Been haunted by a million screams

I remember long ago
When the sun was shining
And all the stars were bright all through the night
In the wake of this madness, as I held you tight
So long ago

And there's not much love to go round

I just want to be so much
And shake off the dust that turned me to rust

My favorite dreams of you still wash ashore
Scraping through my head 'till I don't want to sleep anymore

I just want something
I just want something I can never have

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real

When your tears are spent on your last pretense
And your tired eyes refuse to close and sleep in your defense
When it's in your spine like you've walked for miles
And the only thing you want is just to be still for a while

I am not alive if I’m lonely
So please don’t leave
Was it something I said or just my personality

I'm a fist of rage.

What the fuck is this world running to? You didn't leave a message. At least I coulda' heard your voice one last time.

I know someday you'll have a beautiful life, I know you'll be a star
In somebody else's sky, but why, why, why
Can't it be, can't it be mine?

Oops. I did it again.

Will Sidney Crosby be traded at the NHL deadline?

Stay tuned for further details . . .

Bloq Question Of The Day:

What would happen if you dissolved sugar into diet Coke?

So I did it.

I looked it up on the internet and it said that a regular Coke has 45 g of sugar in it. That didn’t sound like a horrifying number to me, but the web site I got it from seemed to think a person should fall down dying it.

Strange though, when I went to mix up the liquid. I figured that it would be best if I poured a liquid into a liquid, rather than try to dissolve sugar cubes into a cold Diet Coke. I did some math and a sugar cube is about 3.5 g each. So when you do the math, if you want 50 g in the solution, you need to dissolve 15 cubes. That’s a lot of sugar cubes!

I’m sure everyone knows that it’s easier to dissolve things with hot water, so I got 100 mL from the on-demand coffee maker thing we have here. Poured all the water into a pitcher (I used a graduated cylinder to measure the 100 mL) and then dumped in 15 sugar cubes. I was a little dubious about whether this was going to work because just sitting there, I didn’t see a lot of dissolving going on. But the internet said you could actually get 211 g into 100 mL of water, so I had some faith and starting swirling it around. Imagine my surprise when all the cubes disappeared!

Alright, I had 100 mL of sugar water, and I had a Diet Coke. I took a sample taste of each one, just for comparison reasons, and mixed them together. I tried my mixture. The warm sugar water made the mixture less than fridge cold, so I added a couple of ice cubes to make a tasty drink.

Honestly, it didn’t taste fully like a Coke, but it didn’t taste like Diet Coke anymore either. It was definitely not diet anymore. That metallic-like after-taste is completely gone. However, regular Coke tastes a bit syrupy and that element was missing from my concoction. It tastes like a less syrupy than usual Coke. I like it!

After less than exhaustive testing, I have decided that I prefer my orange drink un-carbonated.

I think its time to get serious about my plan to not be old anymore.

I remember seeing this:

Snowjob 96

After a day and a half of non-stop Metallica, from their album Death Magnetic, I have decided that my favorite song from the album is:

Metallica - All Nightmare Long

Now, I am become Grant, the destroyer of toilets.

Thus begins the tale of my red mittens . . .

I got an email from The Hudson Bay Company last week. I don't remember the exact text anymore but it was something to the effect of:

"Support your Olympic athletes! Go to Zellers and buy a pair of red Olympic mittens! Now only $10!"

It seemed like a good pitch to me. I like to be patriotic, Zellers is close to my house and $10 seemed like a good deal for mittens. I wasn't entirely convinced however so I thought I'd better consult my sister.

She said it was a good idea.

Thus began my quest for red mittens.

The weekend didn't go so well, with a headache crippling me on Saturday, and my Sunday consumed by a massive drafting project, and then the Super Bowl in the late afternoon to evening. Suffice it to say, there was no time for red mittens.

So Monday was my first real attempt to acquire my prized possession, the Olympic red mittens. However Monday did not follow my original plan either. When I left for work my windshield wiper went flying off. I needed a replacement, which had to come from Costco (accursed place) so it would match the one that stayed on. Long story short, I didn't drive for home until 6:00.

Unbeknownst to me, but apparently knownst to Zellers employees, the store now closes at 6:00 on Monday's and Tuesday's. Who's idea was that, and why wasn't I notified? Regardless of the specifics of the decision, the Olympic gear was on the north side of the door, and i was on the south, and a lock was preventing one from meeting the other.

So the goal of acquiring red Olympic mittens was delayed yet another day.

I knew what I was up against so I left work at 5:00 today, so I'd have ample time to shop for my mittens. I even got a good parking spot in front of Zellers so the walk through the wind chill was minor. The doors opened before me, and within seconds I was in the Olympic apparel section of Zellers, which was conveniently right in front of the door.

What was not conveniently in the Olympic apparel section of the Lawson Heights Zellers were any god damn red Olympic mittens! So a quest that had been consuming me for 5 days will continue on further. I am left with only one question.

Where can I find some red Olympic mittens!?!

This is an honest, from the heart statement I am about to make. Even though I'm sure it will sound like a joke. (something for which this blog is well renowned)

If anyone can get a message to Erin Carmody of Team PEI, please tell her that I am willing to marry her, despite having never met in person.

However, its disappointing when later she says:

Its gotta be full eight.

I love it when a woman screams:

Hurry Hard!!! Its a tight hole!!

The official music video for the song "Snuff" by Slipknot sucks HARD.

A few reflections on humanity after visiting Xel'Ha today:

Its really no wonder that the rest of the world has little use for white people. We are, in the greater preponderance of numbers, a race of: fat, stupid, lazy, ignorant bastards who will ignore nearly every rule and cultural nicety, and generally take a big dump on something that is pure, and beautiful.

If you are at ALL uncertain about whether you should be wearing a thong/bikini can you PLEASE ask someone who's opinion you value and trust about wearing it in public, before going out? I think I almost went blind seeing that.

And this one goes out to the particularly vain white women out there:
If you really think that breast implants are going to significantly enhance your appearance, can you at least have the common, god damn decency to wear a bikini that hides the bloody scars from surgery!?!

For Sale:

One iPod 64 GB edition

cheap

iTunes is a dirty, ditch licking whore.

My afternoon was crashing and burning but this totally brightened things up!!!

Vajazzling

Now these guys are hardcore!!

Hardcore Gamers

I have an idea . . .

Why don't we stop in the narrowest part of the upper concourse, where the width available is approximately 6 feet, and it has the happy coincidence of being right in front of the elevator? Why don't we just stop and have a completely banal conversation about absolutely NOTHING!!!!

Doesn't that sound like a good, god damn idea!?!

So I go to bed tonight, feeling rather sleepy. I've got absent thoughts on my mind but nothing of much consequence. I look at the clock when I decide its time to retire and it spoke back to me that it was 12:48 AM. That seems like a reasonable time to call it a night.

So I'm lying in bed, just thinking casual thoughts. To think of anything more than that would just keep me awake, and that is not my goal on this evening.

But I keep hearing this sound. And I'm not going to pretend that it sounded like anything else. It sounded like someone's boot crunching in the show.

At one point I hear this loud thump, and it really seems like the foundations of my house have been rumbled, by something strong, and deep and powerful. One of those moments like when a garbage truck rumbles down the street, or a snow plow pushes a big load of snow into a pile formed on something hard and concrete.

This sound just keeps going on and on. A few crunches of snow, or so it seems and then silence again. Crunch, crunch, crunch and then nothing. In my paranoia and my anxiety I become convinced that someone is stumbling around the front of my house, trying to decide the best way to break in.

Do I get up and put my fears to rest? Do I dismiss the thoughts as foolish and try to get to sleep?

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Finally I can no longer take it. Plus I had to go to the bathroom now. I get up. I go downstairs to the living room window and look for this snow crunching assailant that has ruined my night's sleep.

The time on the clock at my disposal reads a cool, crisp 1:21 AM. At first I see nothing, but that's because I'm looking in the bushes in front of my house, and there was never anyone there.

No, what has kept me up for going on towards 45 minutes now, is some ASSHOLE shovelling his bloody, god damn driveway at 1:30 in the blasted morning!!!

As I was driving away from the arena tonight, after Team Canada beat the Americans in over-time, and we all busted our asses to serve the crowd, I realized how I could have made a boat load of money.

There were 15,000+ people in that building tonight. Nearly all of them will have gotten to the game in a car. Those cars were spread across probably 100 acres, with temporary lots dotting the landscape all around.

As I was sitting, waiting for my frozen thunder-truck to reach some semblance of heated, I took note of the outside air temperature. It was being reported to me as -31 C.

I bet I could have sold rides to people's cars, in a warm cab, for $20 per trip easily.

Blog Question Of the Day:

Please disregard for a second that the girl in the picture is actually the TV/movie actress Hayden Panettiere.



How do I get a girl to look at me like that?

Blog Question Of The Day:

Why don't animated GIFs work on my Mac?

Anyone want/need a perfectly good (if dated) inkjet printer?

Star Wars on Christmas Eve is awesome!

I finally found the GOD DAMN Shake'n'Bake in Extra Foods!!!

Its time for the annual guessing game!

We are amending the rules this year to compensate for the World Junior Hockey Championships. Tips for 2009 ended with the Blades game on Dec. 16th. That was the last event I worked, in 2009, not counting the WJHC. Thus tips for the year are considered to have ended with that event.

The WJHC will have its own guessing game, after the last game on Jan. 5.

Here are your hints:

Some insipid entertainment news program just came on and described Tiger Woods' marriage as crumbling.

Crumbingl CRUMBLING!!! The dude banged 11 whores!!!

If Tiger Woods can rescue his marriage after banging 11 whores, and then admitting it, he truly IS the greatest athlete of all time.

Blog Quote Of The Day:

Life is nothing but a series of down moments.

Everyone bitches about the price of things. Everything is too much money, and no one ever wants to pay full price. It seems like everyone is waiting, waiting, waiting for a deal.

This afternoon I came up with a brilliant idea for how to lower the cost of vehicles.

Signal lights should be optional, and not standard equipment. Think about it. If they made signal lights optional, they'd obviously grossly over-price the option, so if you wanted them, it'd be like $1000. Voila, I just lowered the price of your new automobile by a grand.

Let's face it. None of you assholes are using the damn signal lights anymore, so why the hell even have them?

Blog Song of The Day:

Because The Night by:

1. 10,000 Maniacs - MTV Unplugged
2. Bruce Springsteen - Live from Verona '93
3. Patti Smith w/ Sarah McLachlan

And only listen to the Cascada version if you actually want to go out of your way to get a headache.

I think they need to come up with a better Viagra commercial. These cheesy one's are just getting on my nerves. They need to bring the female audience in as a potential source of new customers. Consequently I've come up with what I think is the perfect slogan for selling Viagra (or Cialis, or any other erectile dysfunction drug).

"Boners taste better with Viagra"

Blog Quote Of The Day:
(bonus points if you can name the movie)

"The whole world's against us dude, I swear to God"

I have decided that, until further notice, I am going to have a 'thing' for redheads.

That is all.

Blog Quote Of The Night:

I don't think the world even makes an effort to understand my insanity.

The weird thing about Facebook is that every time you get an alert, its about someone you know.

Blog Song Of The Day:

Slipknot - Snuff

Blog Song Of The Day (Friday):

Hedley - Cha-Ching

Blog Question Of The Day:

Can someone please explain to me why Slipknot wear those bloody masks?

Here's a video for everyone that likes blonde chicks and metal music . . .



Its definitely blonde

I need someone's help. Because I clearly do not understand what goes through some people's brains sometimes.

I'm driving home tonight. I get behind this mini-van that is in the second lane from the right edge. We're coming up to a set of traffic lights. I would estimate we were maybe 100 feet from the lights. Suddenly, and without warning there is a hard brake, and a brutal left lane change. Across two lanes of traffic, and into the left most lane.

How in the HELL do you get so mixed up that you don't realize where you're going until you're 100 feet from the bloody intersection where you want to turn? Christ, that was like being in the right turn lane and slapping your forehead and saying alone 'but I want a LEFT turn!'

God help us if road conditions were typical for November. That would have been a skid, and a slide and into the intersection on two wheel pointed in the wrong direction.

One of these days I'm mounting anti-tank weapons on my hood, I swear to Christ.

This was an absolutely sickening effort of football.

Our return game sucks. Why doesn't Armstead just fair catch it?

I can't decide whether having a root canal would be more or less painful than watching this debacle called a Rider football game.

How about some touchdowns?

The single, safety, 50 yard field goal approach to coming back in this game is not working.

Okay, we have to pull our quarterback. There is NO WAY he should have thrown that ball.

Something finally went the Riders way.

Its half-time.

17 NET YARDS OFFENSE!?! What the hell!?!?!

I don't like our defensive game plan here. They let Hamilton march it 70 yards then finally get it together and stop them at the 2. Where was that back at the 35?

Do we have any offense in this game at all? Two-and-out again. Even the Argos can get a bloody first down on a fluke.

This is a very weird way to mount a comeback. I support the defensive stand and getting a two-and-out but so far we have a punt single and a Hamilton safety for 3 points. Wouldn't scoring a few touchdowns be a better approach?

Way to go Riders. Take a turnover and follow it up with a run into the line and a sack. That's quality offensive play-calling.

I'm shocked. Recovering that fumble was the first worthwhile thing the Riders have done all day.

Hey look, we scored! 17 more punts and the game will be tied.

What the hell is going on here? Are the Argos wearing Rider jerseys today? is this some kind of cost cutting measure by the Riders? Don't travel east but just hire out the game to another team!?!

Blog Revelation Of The Day:

After extensive taste testing I've decided I like Pepsi more than Coke.

Blog Question Of The Day:

Do I want to make a Mac out of a Dell 10v?

Let's be clear about something.

No one looks good with a mohawk.

I find myself in a mode of re-evaluation again. I had something said to me that, was a conclusion which I could have come to on my own. However I had not, and the frankness with which it was presented was a little startling. Now I sit here in my chair, thinking about all the ways in which things are not right.

To anyone that knows me it will not come as a surprise to hear that I hate doctors. But I've gotten myself into a conundrum where I they have become absolutely vital to my continued survival, because continuing on the course which I am on will lead only to ruin. So while I hate them, I need them, so I went to another one today. This was a new one. I had never seen this guy before and before long my distaste for medicine spilled out and this guy called me on it.

He pointed out that my bitterness and contempt with doctors may be preventing me from getting the kind of compassionate care that I desperately crave.

This points me in an awkward frame of mind. It is not the first time in recent weeks that a commentary has been made on my general negative state of mind. In fact, it is becoming something of a running theme. But for an outside observer to comment that I have lousy attitude is a far easier thing to do than for me to realize it in myself and change it. Nonetheless I have noticed that I take a dim view on life these days but that realization alone is not enough to fix the problem.

I just find it perplexing that so many people around me can notice me drowning in, whatever it is that is attempting the swallow me, and yet I can't reach up for the surface. I just sink, further and further beneath the waves of it, until light ceases to penetrate the depths and there is only the inky blackness.

Okay, this needs saying.

If you're going to be a country artist, then you need to stay true to the damn genre. Don't pussy out and pepper your show with a bunch of rock cover songs. There is no doubt they are going to play better to the audience. At the root of it, no one really likes country and given the choice they will always gravitate to the rock music. That's why you're playing the damn rock songs. You know you suck, being a up-and-coming country star. So you sprinkle your show liberally with songs people will actually recognize and try to get some buzz from the audience.

But lay off the damn AC/DC! Some things are sacred.

I mean Christ, are we really supposed to fall for this shit? Okay, I get it. The chick has no recognizable hits of her own. Yes, you're a frustrated musician, stuck playing in a support band for a no-name female country singer from back water Saskatchewan. But Jesus H. Christ on a popsicle stick, don't offend my sensibilities by thinking this crazy broad is gonna do a cover of Thunderstruck!

Luckily cooler heads prevailed but my point still holds true. If you wanna be a country singer, then sing your stupid, god damn country music. Leave out the rock music and have some god damn integrity, for once in your pathetic career.

I can't watch the Indianapolis Colts without thinking about Batman

Relax.

Its just the flu.

You're not going to die.

Winnipeg's new name should be:

No Left Turns

Epilogue:

I will kill every filthy bastard that I catch camcordering the television. This is my solemn pledge.

And one more thing . . .

Don't post video of you pointing a camera at the television!!!

Its just stupid. If you can't do a proper video-capture of the feed, then don't post! Christ is that annoying!!!

I'm gonna be honest about something.

It took some work but I just watched the whole Kanye West/Taylor Swift fiasco on Youtube. Every jack knob and his dog seemed to have posted a video response to the bloody ordeal. This made finding actual footage from the VMA's hard to do. But I watched the coverage from the show and you know what?

I think it was staged.

Everything just played out a little bit too nicely. It was like a puzzle where all the pieces fit together and you had a nice picture of a potted sunflower at the end. We have an ogre-ish villian. There's a sweet, angelic, young princess. Standing in the wings is a flawless queen that can come in and save the day with her almost mystical perfection.

Everyone boos the villian. We all scream for the queen. It plays out like a perfect fairy tale. The story plays out to a much too neat conclusion.

I'm gonna be disappointed if I find out they did this on purpose.

For the record. . .

Facebook is a piece of cow dung tonight.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk to you today about a subject that is near and dear to my heart.

I HATE doctors!

They never do anything helpful for me. Almost without exception they have abandoned me to suffer misery and torment, cold and alone in the frozen wasteland. It was to the point where I simply wouldn't go to them at all. Not even if I suffered a major injury. Who all remembers the incident with the broken foot, and the three day wait before seeking treatment??

Cut to this year. I was suffering headaches on a daily basis. And I don't mean that as hyperbole. It was near to daily. I would say 5 days out of 7 at least. Its possible it was more. I wasn't keeping precise records. Many were multi-day events where the pain never stopped. It just continued from day to day. At one point it was so miserable that I had a sore neck for six weeks from this headache pain. Every morning I would wake up with an ache in my neck that would soon become a headache once I was ambulatory again.

So I gave up my long-standing policy of flipping the bird to the medical establishment and I finally found a 'family doctor' in Saskatoon. 17 years after I moved here and was told by my first psychiatrist that I needed one. I picked a guy with an English sounding name out of the list and went to see him.

First of all, I don't think a physical should take less than 5 minutes. That doesn't seem thorough to me. Granted, I didn't want his hand up my ass, but still it didn't seem like he really did that quality of a job of checking to seeing if I was dying. I described what my most immediate concerns were and as soon as I said 'headache' he immediately jumped on the migraine bandwagon and was enthusiastic about sending me to a neurologist.

Now I have no problem with going to the neurologist. I think its something that's been due for a long time. But my point is, he didn't really check anything on his own before he ran off in this direction. He gives me these migraine pills and it was only when I asked if they counter-acted with my current psychiatric drugs that he bothered to check if it was a problem. Isn't this something that should be a matter of course??

I'm delaying myself from my point.

I've been to the neurologist and they've given me some prophylactic drug for migraine treatment. I hate it. It makes my head feel all numb. Its a very similar feeling to the one you get in your foot when you sit on it for 20 minutes. I may have told this story before. But the reason I hate doctors, and the reason I bring this up again is, I am absolutely out of options to deal with this problem.

I can't go back to the ding-bat family doctor, because I've done that once and he doesn't listen to the problem. Plus its clear he's not qualified to diagnose these problems, or suggest a solution. You can tell by the fact that he doesn't listen to you when you talk to him. And it even more clear when he matter-of-factly suggests a stupid fucking solution that I could have instituted on my own, if I wasn't coming to him for a more informed god damn idea. Cut the dose in half. Nice diagnosis Dr. Killjoy!

I called the neurologist and she's not planning to talk to me until my four month wait period is up. If we're keeping score, my four month wait period is not up yet. So I'm fat out of luck getting to talk to her. Unless of course I up and DIE, in which case she might be able to squeeze me in.

I've explained my concerns to the psychiatrist. She is at least sympathetic but, and I can't really blame her for this, she doesn't feel adequate to make medication changes on migraine pills. I suppose I can accept that. But in the mean time I have a numb damn head every time my heart rate goes up, and I feel like I'm half-asleep all the time.

If any migraine specialists are reading this post right now, I would really appreciate a diagnosis at this point. I would dearly love to stop taking Topamax, but at the same time I can't concentrate if I have to have a headache every second day or so. I need the third option.

Blog Song Of The Day:

Ashley Tisdale - What If

Blog Poll Of The Day:

Am I old?

Yes ( )
No ( )

Please vote in the Comments

Blog Question Of The Day:

Would I be able to establish a VPN across the internet with key friends, using only commercially available internet packages?

Sticking with the AC/DC theme . . .

What's wrong with people that smoke?

Okay, I'm going to concede that we are outside. And the general consensus is that if you're going to pursue that unpleasant habit then it should take place outside. But I think you're missing the heart of why its supposed to be relegated to outside. The point is for it to be inoffensive to us, the greater majority, that think its gross.

That being said, when we're packed 16 people to a square meter, that is NOT a good time for you to fire up a Marlboro and enjoy a smoke!

I'm stuck in the middle of a T-shirt line. There's a least a 100 people on all sides of me, and I'm jammed into that pack much like cattle prodded towards the slaughter of the killing floor. I can't GO anywhere. There's nothing I can do to avoid your smoking. I can't move. I can't turn away. I can't stand somewhere else. I'm just STUCK there.

So don't fucking smoke! Why is this so god damn hard for you to comprehend!?! Its sick. Just stop. If you really must pursue this nauseating habit then go hide in some god damn corner and suck in your carcinogens alone. I don't need to die along side of you.

I was actually a little deaf when it was over. That caught me by surprise because the sound was great, but I didn't feel like it had been that loud. It goes to show that if the sound is good, it can be loud and you won't necessarily notice.

The concert had been great. That doesn't really even cover the experience, and how I felt about it, but they don't make a single word superlative that I could use at the end of that sentence. I felt happy and content with myself and the world around me. 40,000 people started streaming out of Taylor Field. While our seats had been painfully hard, and galactically far from the stage, one advantage was that we were low to the ground, and first to the concrete to head out on our way home.

While getting into the stadium had been an experience that appeared to rival the grim march into a concentration camp, the exit was relatively speedy. There were no hang-ups on getting out and for the most part people moved orderly. It was only a few minutes and we were spilled onto 9th Avenue. It was a quick walk back up the street to the make-shift bus stops. It was kind of surreal to do the walk in reverse. Everything that had taken half an hour was 30 seconds in reverse. Even the apartment building with the old guy in tattoos blaring the AC/DC from the patio.

We arrive at Albert Street and its relatively uncrowded. I suppose this shouldn't have been a surprise. We were one of the first one's to exit the stadium so getting to the bus stop first wasn't that unsurprising. I'm not entirely sure why I did this but I took note of the time. After some initial confusion about where to line up for the bus, we started waiting at 11:15.

And then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

The buses never came. This grand plan about getting people into and out of the concert site via bus, and saving all the hassle and confusion of thousands of cars was completely bolluxed up by the fact that

THEY DIDN'T SEND ANY BUSES!!!

We're standing there like fucking idiots and the buses never come. Five minutes because ten minutes and not a single bus arrives at the bus stop. Its marked, with a big sign on the post ouside the Humpty's 'Southland Mall' and the stupid bus never shows up. Not late, not in insufficient quantities, it just doesn't show up at all. AT ALL.

We're standing on the street, waiting for a bus, and it never shows up. Now thousands of other concert-goers are arriving behind us, but because we haven't gotten on a bus already, the mass of humanity just grows and grows. They've done nothing to diminish the numbers so it just becomes this giant mob of people. Keep in mind that most of them have been sampling from the beer stations at the concert so their manners are not at their best.

Bus after bus drives by on Albert Street, all headed (full) to the Victoria Mall and we're all standing at this Southland Mall stop waiting for a fucking bus that never shows up. Where at first there was maybe a 100 of us that wanted a bus ride, the numbers have now swell to easily more than a 1000. And no one is really in that pleasant of a mood anymore. We're miles from our vehicles, they've completely stranded us, and the damn buses are not showing up.

At 11:45 the first bus destined for the Southland Mall makes an appearance. It has to stop at a red light north of the actual bus stop and people that can read its destination mob it at the light. The driver opens the door so people that were late arriving to the bus stop are actually the first to get a ride. This does not go unnoticed.

The second bus to arrive at the Southland stop does not take passengers at the light, even though its mobbed. This driver goes passed the marked bus stop sign in front of Humpty's and starts taking passengers almost at the underpass. This also does not go unnoticed.

The next bus to arrive stops in the general vicinity of the actual bus stop in front of the Humpty's. For lack of a better word, it turns into a riot. There is pushing, and shoving, and a general melee to get onto the bus. I'm not kidding. People were fighting to get on the bus. We'd waited over half an hour for the bus to show up in the first place, watched the first one fill up with late comer's and patience for this horse shit was gone. Everyone wanted on the next bus, if it meant stepping on someone's grandma to do it.

I thought the T-shirt crowd had been rough but frankly, it was tighter in that fight to get into the bus. Thankfully it was quicker to get on the bus because I don't think I could have handled much more time in that mob. I wanted to punch someone and clear some personal space for myself. I was crushed on all sides by people wanting into the bus. I wanted in too but this was insanity.

After a great concert the whole experience was nearly ruined by the City of Regina's ill prepared plan to ferry people out of the concert site by bus.

Shame on you City of Regina!

Once I was on the grounds, the blood pressure came down a little. The intensity of the human contact came down a little. People spread out, moved in different directions and there was room to move.

We checked out the grounds. I took a couple of pictures. We scoped out our seats, noting that the knotty pine would make for a painful seating arrangement. The general consensus was that we were hungry like ass, so we checked out the food options.

Right behind the wooden stands was a Western Pizza truck that sold tasty pizza for $6 a slice, and sold bottled Coke that was semi-warm for $4. I have an issue with $4 for a warm Coke. That's just gross.

So we've had some food. We're drinking warm, highly expensive pop. We're walking around inside the walls, not really doing anything because its a LONG time before the show starts. There is a general mass of humanity in front of what we assume was the merchandise tent. We had 45 minutes before what we thought was the start of the show so why not see if we can get a T-shirt?

H-oly Sh-it was that a bad mother-fucking idea!!!



This is a view from the back of the line when we started. For some interminable period this view never changed. We just shuffled in place, wondering to ourselves, and to the people around us, if the line was ever going to move.

Truthfully, I think we made more forward progress when people gave up and left the line. I also think the very center of the pile, and the very edge of the pile, progress faster than the inner quadrants. We never seemed to move. There was almost a girl fight to our right when a young brunette, who frankly was a huge bitch, ended up ahead of a 40's era woman. The older woman looked ready to pop one but I think she was talked out of it.

Minutes turned into a half an hour. A half an hour turned into an hour. The opening band came on and frankly, we weren't appreciably closer to the merchandise tent. The opening band did not sound like a great, screaming hell and we were committed now. A greater crowd had formed behind us, so while we hadn't moved forward, leaving now would mean we'd given up considerable ground.

So we were in for the long haul. And a long haul it turned out to be.

The pace seemed to get more frantic as the opening band played. AC/DC was going on stage within the hour and all this pointless standing around on the tarmac was not going to satisfy the rabid lust that was building in the crowd. Not helping matters were the drunk bastards sneaking in around the corner of the tent and essentially cutting the line. Tempers were getting frayed and there was a lot of tension.

We finally got close enough to the front of the line to see what was the problem. But now the opening band was wrapping up their set so time was truly of the essence.

The problem appeared to be: they had no staff in the merchandise tent!!! I counted three people selling hats and T-shirts. That mob was being serviced by three people. Its not just crazy, its fucking nuts!!! Who's running this piss-poor operation.

Now that we're near the front, and time is running out, things are getting wild. People are just crushing into the tent, forcing the tables back. They are running out of all the T-shirt styles so there's frantic decision making being made. Tempers are high because people are coming in from the side, people are taking too long deciding, and simply, there isn't enough time.

People want to get out and they have to crush their way from within the crowd. Its harder to get out then get in because no one wants to give up an inch. We get to the front and its lightning fast decisions. What's left? Give me something black. Pay the money. Walk away.

Total time spent in line? 100 minutes. That is fucking bat-shit nuts!

So we step off the bus into the semi-blasted wasteland of central Regina and the first thing we encounter is a teeming horde of humanity. What the hell could this be? We're probably 5 blocks from the stadium, at the very least. Why are there so many people congregated at the bus drop?

It only took a few moments to discover that, we had to get in line for entry to the stadium grounds. A line that was approximately 5 block long! Every street and path and corridor to the stadium was blocked to traffic. The only way into or out of the site was on foot. But there was very little actual movement because everyone was grouped up in lines.

It seemed a little like the proverbial lambs to the slaughter. A twisted, crooked line extended back from the stadium, with people formed up in an unmarked line, waiting to get into the grounds. its actually a little amazing how (relatively) neat and orderly people are about standing in line to wait, when called upon. No one formed up the line, or pointed out where it should be, or corrected it for straightness. Nonetheless for 5 blocks or more it stretched up 9th Avenue, in two groups, to the East Gate and the North Gate.

It seems bizarre that we should have to go through this ordeal. And for what? To gain entry to a rock concert? I'm not sure if they gave up on security when the line got all the way to Albert Street, or if they were always that lax about it. However when I got to the front I was asked what was in my pocket. I could have had anything, and said "gum and a cell phone" and it appeared the guy would have believed me. So we wait for half an hour for zero security at all?

I got a bad feeling about how the night was going to go when we drove into the parking lot of the Southland Mall.

They absolutely hammer you on the radio and the media, take the bus to the big event! Save the hassle! Save the traffic! Just ride the bus. So you figure, I'll do the conscientious thing, stay out of everyone's way, and just take the bus. One less car near the stadium. One fewer person tying up traffic in what is sure to be a nightmare.

It was just past 5:00 when we pulled into the Southland Mall parking lot. We thought the concert started at 6:30. It actually didn't start until 7:45, so we were WAY early. Nonetheless when we got in line it was about 4 people wide, I'd estimate, and I would say at least 200 feet long.

This is 5:00.

So we waited for buses. There are literally hundreds of people waiting for the bus. One bus pulled up. 100 people run to the bus and jam it full in a manner of seconds. This still leaves hundreds behind. There's cause for concern. No other bus pulls up for the rest of us.

So we wait more. No bus. Time ticks by like the beads of sweat on the brow of a fat man in a jogging suit. No bus. Then another bus shows up. Jams full of people in seconds and pulls away. Same scenario as before. What the hell? Is this the bus loading plan they have for us?

Miraculously the next series of buses pulls up only a moment later, and its two in a row. So another mad scramble ensues to get on them. It wasn't an actual riot, but you could start to feel the rumblings of one coming due to the lack of buses. I was on the fourth so I didn't find out if they burned anything to the ground after I left. It was dark when we returned so I didn't notice anything but as far as I know, there was no riot.

But could the driver have taken a more serpentine path to the stadium? I'm not saying I'm an expert on Regina but we went through parts I never even imagined existed. Down residential streets, past mini-malls in the middle of suburbia. Roared by schools and people jogging past their houses. I know where Taylor Field is but Christ if we didn't go through Avonlea to get there.

Then we get to the site, going to the Lewvan just to come all the way back to Albert Street. That seemed like an excessively long path to take but then who am I? Surely the City of Regina and its bus drivers know routes better than me. The driver dumps us out at Albert and 9th Avenue, and like refugees dumped at the entrance to the evacuation camp, we stumbled up to the sea of humanity that was the entrance to Taylor Field on that night.

What follows will be be a series of posts about my experience at the AC/DC concert. One of these posts will include photos, just not this one because I forgot my flash drive at home this morning.


The Concert

I don't have a lot of experience with attending rock concerts. I've been to dozens, to hundreds, but I've always been in the back. I've always been an employee at these shows, and not a patron. Its not even the same experience. Yes, you still hear the music. Sure you still see the lights. But there's some intangible quality to being /in/ the crowd that changes it for you.

AC/DC is one of those bands that just transcends time. What are these guys, like 50 now? Yet they came on stage and in minutes they had the crowd. Just had us. I was into the show before the first song was done. I've been to a few shows as a patron and you had to warm into it a couple of songs. Not with this one. Bang! The show starts and you're connected with the music.

I wish I could rattle off from you the set list. I wish I could but frankly I don't have the memory for that. Its all just one melodic blur. I remember some of my favorites were played. The did 'Dirty Deeds' and 'Hells Bells'. They played 'Rock'n'Roll Train' early. Now that I think about it, I think it was first. Actually, a lot of the songs they did were from the new album. It was as if they mixed a new one with an old favorite, so you couldn't mark the difference from one's you knew by heard, from one's that weren't familiar yet.

I've never been to an open air concert. It was a little different. The sound was perfect. There wasn't a scratch to it at all. Sometimes a rock show is loud, and seems loud, and you know it. But this was loud but you didn't notice it. I wasn't even aware of how loud it was until they finally quit, and there was no more music, and I realized I was partially deaf!

It just flowed, and flowed and flowed. The whole show was seemless. Effortless. And you could tell that it was ending. All good things eventually do. But it kinda felt like the band was almost more reluctant to quit than the audience was to let them go. Before the actual encore, Angus did this guitar solo that had to have went on for 20 minutes at least. He played to the wings. He played down the center. He played onto a rising platform with strobe lights going off. It was crazy epic. Then he played to the centre of the stage, over the drums and you thought it might be over. You feared it might be over. Then a boom went off and they played more. I cheered and screamed and I had no conscious thought about doing it.

When it ended, and it had to end I guess, they let us go with a bang. We had fireworks and explosions and a fantastic send off to captivate the end of a phenomenal rock show. They'll talk about this one for awhile and I am one of the people that can say, I was there.