Author: gfox (old content)

Insistent Dresser

Cats are crazy. This does include our cat Aphro. Yesterday morning she provided more evidence of this. At 5 am I was awoken by a loud scratching noise followed by a thump. I was groggy, and confused so I listened for it again.

It happened again, but this time the scratching was more insistent, and the thump louder. I bolted upright, in time to hear the scratching again, and see the cats head appear behind my dresser. The face disappeared, and the thump followed!

My dresser sits at an angle in a corner. Somehow the cat got herself trapped behind it, and was trying to get out. She was knocking stuff off my dresser, and making a lot of noise. I jumped out of bed, ran to the dresser, just as she leapt one more time, got to the top, and sunk her claws into my nice oak dresser Sad.

I gave her a shove which sent her flailing back to the floor. I moved the dresser away from the wall, she bolted out of the bedroom, and I was left wondering about how my cat got behind the dresser.

Not a very nice way to wake up is it?

Extraneous Disbelief

My first movie review ever. Woohoo.

I will be reviewing Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, so if you are planning on seeing it, but haven’t yet, do not read any further.

Is Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle all that it is cracked up to be? I would have to say depends. I enjoyed the movie, but I didn’t think it was as good as the first one. The stunts in this one were good, and it is evident that someone put a lot of thought behind them, but they were so over the top, that I had problems suspending disbelief (something I usually have no problems with).

Some of the chase scenes were good, and as with the first moive, there was lots of skin, good humour, and dancing to old 80’s tunes.

Character development was pretty sketchy this time. I knew that Bosley (Bill Murray) was now Bosley (Bernie Mac), but they never gave a good clear description of how or why the change occurred. I thought Bernie’s role was horrible. Bring back Murray!!!!! There were a few characters that were given too much screen time, were totally extraneous, and took away from the movie. Some of the subplots were difficult to follow, and distracted too much from what was happening. One key event in the movie was something that I never picked up on until after I left the theatre. I think it was supposed to be noticed by everyone, but it was far too subtle.

I was quite taken aback by how much Prodigy they used for background music. Makes me want to go buy that album again (my first copy was stolen a while back).

In all, I would say this movie was alright, and maybe worth seeing in the theatre if you have some money to spend. If you are penny pinching, save your money.

The final note was that I felt the volume in the theatre was a little too high. Picky I know, but when I spend that much money to see a movie, I want my money’s worth.

Electric Spoon Instruments

Next post today is my review of Artis.

In a word: WOW! If you have a chance to see him perform, I would recommend it. I arrived a little late to Centennial Square, and he had already started. He is a master of the spoons. He was jumping, dancing, crouching, switching between “instruments”, and in general just going off. The sounds from his instruments was complex, rythmic, and just plain beautiful. Truly a treat.

Besides playing the spoons, he also recited some poetry he had written, entertained with songs, played with string figures (including this incredbile series of figures that accompanied a story).

He also played the electric spoons. He said that ever since he started playing spoons, he wanted to play the electric spoons, so he invented how. Don’t ask me how it works. I saw that his spoons had one wrie coming from each, and these went into a yellow control box. He sat on a stool, and with some background effects already going, he began to play. He worked a couple of pedals while whe was strumming along, and got some pretty intense sounds going. Very amazing!

He also played along with a Satriani song.

In all I really enjoyed his performance. His poetry, and songs are very in your face, and dealt with current topics (one being the war in Iraq, but also violence in general). He is a very interesting and unique individual and is not afraid to speak his views. It would be a treat to sit and have coffee with him and just chat.

There aren’t many professional spoon players any more.

I apologize for my pictures. I tried my best with everything I know about photography, but the stage was a pain to shoot. I was sitting in sun, Artis was in shade, but behind him was a sunny backdrop. These were all I could salvage.

Superunknown Festival

I just found out today that tomorrow, Artis the Spoonman is playing at the Folk Festival here in Victoria.

For those that don’t know, Soundgarden did a song about him on their album Superunknown. They even took him on tour in support of that album.

I am going to try and get out to that show. Tomorrow 1pm at Centennial Square.

On a side note, the festival’s website has a few issues with the year. Evidently someone wasn’t paying attention when the site was uploaded.

Considerable Vegging

I am back. Back at work. Hmm, it seems to me that when going away for the weekend, I always need an extra day to destress from travelling. Anyone else feel that?

It was a good weekend though. Friday I took half the day off to get the final prep done for the trip. I picked up Sue’s friend Holly, and we made our way to the campground. Leaving Victoria, the traffic was a bit of a nightmare, but, once past Goldstream it quickly thinned out.

We got to the campsite, started to unload, and I quickly cracked an ice cold beer. Mmmm, camping and beer is such a wicked combination. After setting up camp it was time to sit by the fire (and have a couple more beer).

Our camping group consisted of about 14 adults, 6 kids, 5 dogs, and 2 salmon (which were later barbequed), all spread across 4 campsites. Lots of legs running about the whole weekend.

Saturday was a scorcher. After relaxing around camp for half the day, a bunch of us headed down to the river. Jason and I each went for a dip, and Digger and Yoshi each spent considerable time in the water.

Saturday night after eating dinner (the salmon cooked over a fire), Sue and I prepared for Sunday. After prepping, doing dishes, and some campsite cleaning, it was time to relax and sit by the fire (and drink some beer). Sunday morning we had to get up, tear down camp, and be on the road by 8:45. I am proud to day, that we did it with no major hiccups! Amazing.

Sunday was Sue’s race, and she did great! She had an excellent swim (I saw her pass everyone in her lane except for one person), her bike was decent, but her run was pretty fast. To top it off this was her first triathlon where she placed in the top 50% of her race category. Congratulations Sue!

After the triathlon we had lunch in Qualicum Beach at Lefty’s, then it was time to drive home to Victoria. After arriving home I unloaded the truck, dumping bags any place I found room, then spent some quality time vegging on the couch. It was good to be home!

Alarm Maintenance

logsI started today off nicely. I set the alarm for 6:30, got up, made some coffee, then took Yoshi down to the local park for an off leash romp before work. It was a beautiful morning. The sun was already up, perfect blue sky, air warm enough to only wear a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. A half hour walk before doing anything else is quite nice. I don’t think I want to do it every day, but it certainly is a nice treat once in a while.

Tomorrow I head up island to go camping. Yippee! Unfortunately I still have a ton (or is that tonne) of things to do before I can leave. The least of which is take my truck in for its 90,000 km maintenance. I have groceries to buy, dog supplies to buy, a bike to retrieve from the shop, and the truck to pack.

Have I ever mentioned that I love packing my truck with stuff. I like the challenge of taking a large pile of objects, and trying to get them all into a limited amount of space. I like to think that I am good at it too. Enough blabbering for now. I need to get some work done, then do some running around at lunch preparing for the trip.

Camping Triathlon

falls!This weekend is my first time camping this year! Woohoo! Sue is heading up to Qualicum to do the Qualicum Beach Triathlon, so we are camping at Englishman River Falls. This place is one of my most favorite on this earth. The river is so amazing.

There is a ton of things to get done this week before we leave. Unfortunately Sue is also heading to Vancouver for a requirements training course. Hmm, that leaves me and Yoshi to play the roles of bachelor for a few days! Party time!