The Life and Times of Dan Edmunds

Check out these videos by Saman Keshavarz!

Cinnamon Chasers – Luv Deluxe (Music Video) from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo.

It looks like he’s going to make a movie out of several (all?) songs from a new Russ Chimes EP…

RUSS CHIMES Presents: Midnight Club EP (Trailer) from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo.

Here’s the first one!

Russ Chimes – MIDNIGHT CLUB EP (Part 1: Never Look Back) from Saman Keshavarz on Vimeo.

It such a neat idea to make a story that continues through a bunch of music videos, more artists should take note!

One thing you can say about Christian Bale is that he is definitely professional!

Where else can you go…

from this….

to this…

to this…

What a wicked way to advertise!!
Make sure to go back and see the deaths!

This year was the first year I’ve bought a festival pass for Bluesfest. When the lineup first came out I knew there were enough shows I wanted to see that it would be worth it so I bought a discounted festival pass through the club at work… man was it a fun two weeks! …tiring, but FUN!

Now that it’s over I can start getting to work on time and work on regaining my hearing!

I thought I would post all shows I was this year and any notes I thought would be worth mentioning.

July 6, 2010

Dream Theater
We caught the last couple songs, sounded pretty good!

Iron Maiden
They had sound problems at the start of the concert so that took away from it a little, you often couldn’t hear the main guitar so you would miss out on those bitchin’ riffs! Got to see 4 people pass out / about to pass out due to either (or both) too much alcohol or too much heat so that was exciting.

July 9, 2010

The Planet Smashers
Checked these guys out with my buddy Taylor. We managed to last through about 4 songs, they started off so fun and full of energy but (as I think most ska suffers from) all the songs seemed very much the same and predictable… up stroke, up stroke, up stoke, random trumpet/trombone riff, up stroke, up stroke…

John Butler Trio
We checked these guys out in between Planet Smashers and Gord Downy, the parts I heard were pretty amazing… the guy can really work a guitar!

Gord Downie and the Country of Miracles
Really great show! Kinda annoyed I had to cut my enjoyment short to go check out Hole but I figured I would get another chance to check out Gord Downy (or the Hip) but not get another chance to check out Hole so I left about 30 min in.

Hole
I grew up listening to Nirvana, Offspring and Hole (my friend’s older brother listened to it, so it was “cool”). I really enjoyed this concert. I went in expecting a Courtney Love to be a hot mess but she pulled off a great show, a good mix of old stuff and new stuff. Also it was her bday so that was cool!

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
We really wanted to hear My Reputation more than any of the other songs… she opened with it so we left to go check out Louis C.K.

Louis C.K.
We didn’t pay the extra amount of money to get tickets for this show, that’s right they were over and above the cost of the festival pass (WTF?!) so we couldn’t get in the tent to see this show. For other (free) shows they had a screen on the outside of the tent so you could still see… not so much for this show. The nice thing was that they had a speaker outside still so we sat on the hill and listened to the show for free. It was hilarious, I had seen Louis CK about 8 months prior and was worried that there would be very little new material… the show was about 90% new stuff! And the old stuff was reworked and changed a little (and funnier than before too!)

July 10, 2010

Metric
I was worried about this show since Tyler said that Metric sucks live and that they stormed off the stage at a concert he went to… yeah I’ll be ignoring his music reviews from now on. They put on an awesome show, sounded great and was full of energy!

Flaming Lips
THIS. SHOW. WAS. AMAZING. I mainly went to  see them on Seb’s suggestion, he said that they were one of the top 50 bands you needed to see live before you died. Man was I not disappointed, these guys know how to put on a show. They had confetti, balloons, streamers, crazy visuals, EVERYTHING! At the start of the show the main singer crowd surfed inside of a huge inflatable sphere! I love when concerts have visuals that go with the music and this one definitely did! I went to check out the songs I loved so much live after the show… the recorded versions weren’t as good as live with the crazy atmosphere!

July 11, 2010

RUSH
I’ve never been a big RUSH fan, I just don’t think I “get” it. I mean I don’t think it’s bad music or anything, I just don’t think it’s crazy amazing. I went to this show with Seb and some of his friends. This show definitely had the most chair jerks I’ve ever seen at Bluesfest. There were even people who had places way in the front who didn’t even get up during the show… why even sit so close?!?!? The show was split in two with an intermission in the middle, apparently the second part was WAY better than the first… I wouldn’t know because I left! My back was killing me from all the standing and I just wasn’t into the music (either of those on their own and I would have been able to stay… but both… not thanks!)

July 12, 2010

City and Colour
I was actually a little disappointed with this show. I love City and Colour but for a lot of the show Dallas changed up the pace and the music for the songs so just the lyrics were the same.. it made it really hard to sing along to! It was kinda of crazy at this show. It was a free show in the market and it was threatening thunder showers. There was a parking garage on next to the street the concert was on and people were all standing inside it at the different levels watching the show (that was cool) but then there were people up on the roof and the roof of a next door building, it seemed super dangerous!!

July 13, 2010

The Aggrolites
I mainly checked this show out because they were playing at the Hard Rock stage and there is a nice hill to sit on there. They were actually a really good blues band with an organ! They were all dressed in prison garb too.

Moneen
Checked these guys out at Tyler’s suggestion (see comment above)… yeah it sucked, just not my cup of tea I guess!

Alexisonfire
I’ve only recently started to like Alexisonfire, the screaming is more something I put up with for the rest of the music. I was the old guy at this concert for sure! There was a mosh pit that developed right next to us so I kept getting distracted watching the idiot kids fight. There was also a hilarious kid that tried (unsuccessfully) to crowd surf on three separate occasions, each time he got dropped from at least 6 feet on to the ground, it was pretty insane!

Arcade Fire
On my way into the grounds this day I actually walked through a photoshoot the Arcade Fire were doing… I didn’t recognize them (I don’t really listen to them!) so I kept walking by and only realized it was them when I saw them on stage. This is another band I just don’t “get”, I don’t see what the fuss is about! I only caught the last couple songs since Alexisonfire played for 2 hours.

July 14, 2010

The Rural Alberta Advantage
I guess this is something positive I can give Tyler credit for, he introduced me to this band around the time of the Olympics (I think they played a show or two for them?) Anyway I really liked them and they’ve been in rotation in my work mp3′s since then. I was really happy to see that they were coming to Bluesfest! I went to this show with Jess and had to run/jog/avoid idiots to get there on time so I was all sweaty during the show! They played a bunch of new stuff that was pretty good (I still like their old stuff more, maybe because it’s familiar). After this show Jess and I both bought their CD and got them signed, they seemed like really cool people!

Santana
Hard not to dance to this! Great show, really obvious that these guys were “pros”. I was expecting more shredding from Carlos Santana though!

July 15, 2010

Matt Good
Matthew Good looks soooo different from when I remember him from (probably like grade 8-9). He’s gained some weight and lost some hair but his voice hasn’t changed at all! At the start of the show I honestly thought we were at the wrong stage and mentioned it to Renee. It was only once he started singing that I knew we were in the right spot! He put on a great show and definitely got me back into his music, I’ve since bought one of his albums (Beautiful Midnight) and now listen to a bunch of other songs on youtube daily!

July 16, 2010

Random Comedy
We caught one act that wasn’t so great but the MC was hilarious, he lost the crowd by yelling at the audience when they were leaving to go to their shows so most people weren’t laughing. I thought he was hilarious, and the fact that he was dying on stage really just put the cherry on top! Best joke: “We can all agree that a dead monkey is sad right? Well picture that same dead monkey dressed in a little suit and in a coffin, funny again right? Now picture him in a denim suit… even funnier”.

Night of the Living Dead Live
This was fantastic! The basic idea is that they take Night of the Living Dead (the 1960-something movie) and totally remove the sound track, no voices, no sounds, no music. Then they do all of those things live, voice actors, an orchestra and hand made sound effects. It was amazing and I would recommend it for anyone once it comes back to the Mayfair Theatre.

Great Big Sea
I’ve never really been a huge Great Big Sea fan, probably because my experience with it was with people in high school who would tell me stories of just getting HAMMERED (emphasis) while listening to it in someone’s basement. I didn’t particularly like these people and their stories were always stupid so I think I sort of associated the music with that. We got there in time to catch the last 4-5 songs and the place reeked of stale beer and sweaty people, it didn’t help that there were fat drunk guys everywhere dancing either. The music was great but it didn’t help the association in my mind!

July 17, 2010

Weezer
Weezer put on a great show! Tons of energy and audience participation. It was a little short in my opinion but I’m not going to complain since I had a great time. Rivers was all over the place, we was climbing things, going to the edge of the stage and walking up the corridor in the middle of the audience. One of the funniest things was when Rivers got a garbage can and took the garbage bag out and went in it and then later took the garbage and threw it on the audience, after the song was done he apologized saying “hey guys, sorry for throwing trash on you… that was STUPID, I don’t know what I was thinking”. It was a good concert to end a great two weeks with!

I finally got my full M license after stretching the maximum allowed time for having my M2.  My M2 was technically expired but since I had a test booked they let you extend your license up to something like 90 days (a rule they’re getting rid of in September!!).

The main reason I’m writing this post is to provide tips and information for anyone else who might be going the internet research route (and now that my website is finally being indexed by Google this might actually happen!)

Some history…

I was supposed to get my license last year, I had signed up for the Ottawa Safety Council Motorcycle course, they give you a refresher safety course over a weekend and at the end administer the M2 exit test, and the thing with that is that if you fail you basically get to come back every week and redo it until you pass (or at least that’s how it was for the M1 exit test with them).  I decided to use my dad’s bike for this since I wasn’t convinced my bike would pass their safety inspection! So on the first day of their course they went over basic motorcycle skills and they had us do this one exercise where you control the bike at really low speed by revving (what I felt was really high) and just letting the clutch barely touch. They had us do that for about 20 min… my dad’s bike started getting a little unresponsive and weird feeling but I kept going, eventually it just stopped and i could switch gears and drop the clutch and nothing would happen. Yup I overheated and blew the clutch! After a $200 towing (it was a Sunday and I towed it from Kanata to Orleans, basically across all of Ottawa) and a $600 repair, I vowed that I would get my M without going through the stupid safety council!!  One thing that really pissed me off about the whole thing is that the mechanic told my dad that this was the third bike that season (which had just begun) that had a blown clutch from the stupid class!!!

Anyway so after getting my notice of license expiry in the mail this spring I’ve been trying to get out to practice my riding as much as possible on my dad’s bike but Bluesfest has really slowed that down! I settled for internet research and reading the test description in the back of the motorcycle instruction booklet from the MTO.

The day of…

I was really worried the day of the test because they were predicting sever thunder storms all day. I really hate driving on the highway and I would never normally do it in the rain so I was thinking is was going to be horrible. On my way to the testing facility the rain picked up (when I was on the highway no less!) so I started really worrying! Just as I pulled up to the testing facility the rain broke and I hoped it would hold off for the duration of my test!

Pre-test…

After I registered inside (and got my time bumped up by a half hour (I wanted to use the extra time to do some last minute studying!!)) I brought the bike around back in the designated area and waited for my testers to come meet me.

There were two testers, one to drive the car and one to do the testing. Once they came out they outfitted me with a walkie talkie and an ear piece. They explained the directions for the test… Every command is repeated twice, if I still needed to have it repeated I was supposed to tap the top of my helmet and they would repeat it again. If the radio died or had problems I would pull over where safe and they would give me a new one. I was to drive as if they weren’t following me, so to never do anything for their benefit; like waiting for a large spot to merge so they could follow closely behind. The tester also told me where the highway portion would take place and which exit we would be taking (Airport Expressway and first exit (Hunt Club)).  I was so relieved I wouldn’t have to drive on the “real” highway, I try to avoid that as much as possible. I just hate having to pay attention to so many things at once at such a high speed, I find it really takes the fun out of riding. Anyway after the speech we were off!

The test…

The test was extremely straight forward, they didn’t try to mess me up or trick me (people told me they do this but I honestly think that’s an urban legend). I never had any problems hearing things over the radio and they always gave me lots of warning before I was to perform a turn or maneuver.

I thought I would post my route for anyone interested…

The maneuvers they had me do…

1. Lane change on Walkley
2. Emergency stop on Paul Anka
3. Lane change on Hunt Club

Other than those it was all just normal driving, I made sure to move my head like crazy and always check my blind spot.

Once we got back the guy outlined all my mistakes… A couple “failed to observe hazard” – which I think are the bull crap default failures anyway, I’ve never seen anyone not get these, and one improper lane position where I stayed in the wrong part of the lane after doing a turn for too long, that’s it!

So now I have my full M license and won’t ever have to take another driving test unless I decide to start driving buses or semis!

Tips…

I thought I would also post some tips to anyone reading this studying for their exam. These are the things I tried to think about the most while doing the test since I developed some bad habits around them!

1. Move your head in an exaggerated way whenever checking traffic or your mirrors, the instructor can’t see your eyes!
2. At all stops do a left-right-left check before continuing.
3. Keep checking traffic when stopped at a light (move your head!)
4. Check your blind spot when doing a lane change or turning at an intersection.
5. Don’t drag your foot, plant it once when stopping.
6. Let your signal go for 2-3 seconds before doing a lane change.
7. Turn your signal on to merge as soon as you get on the on ramp to the highway portion.
8. Keep 2 second distance between you and the car in front of you.
9. Don’t ride in people’s blind spots.
10. Keep a motorcycle length between you and the car in front of you when stopped.
11. Make sure you cancel your signal!
12. Don’t change gears in an intersection, it sucks but stay in first through it.

Finally I’ll leave you with some reading I found very useful while studying for the test…

• The checklist the examiner evaluates you against:
  PDF – M2 Exit Checklist (I got this from Nate Meyer’s blog)
• The MTO Motorcycle booklet (especially the back that explains everything they may ask you to do during the test)

For anyone reading this before doing their test…
Good luck! Stay relaxed! It’s VERY easy if you’re comfortable on your bike.

A Spanish guy tries to argue with an Ibex… hilarity ensues.