Derek Burt's Weblog - Music category

How I spent my summer vacation

Mon, 18 Sep 2006 15:46:00 GMT

It's been a long time, sweetie ...

Okay, okay, a very long time. Not only that, but I still don't feel like writing complete thoughts, so here's a bunch of point-form about the summer and what I've been up to:

Summer means Big Brother in the Burt household, and I've watching every season for almost seven years now. My lady Jedi Janie almost made it to the end, so I'm content with the way things went down. I really wish there was a Canadian version of this show, because I would seriously own it.
The 8th Annual GREAT CANADIAN CABIN PARTY was another success. The new hot tub at the cabin was a fantastic addition! Everyone was pretty lame, with most folks going to bed and getting up early, but at least I had an excuse - I found out later that I had a throat infection. This year I stayed at the cabin almost an extra week afterwards, but it was a brutal time because I spent most of the time in bed or eating ice cream.
As I mentioned earlier, I made the switch to Linux on each and every computer I use at work and at home, and I haven't looked back. Windows sucks.
I got a new laptop with gobs of RAM at work and it's pretty awesome. It has a huge battery and seemingly lasts forever. I do have one problem, though - the screen resolution is incredibly high (1400x1050). It gives me a new appreciation for web design, because lots of sites either look bad or are hard to read, and they are sometimes both.
The word of the summer was wedding.
- I MC'd my buddy Janson's wedding, and it went like clockwork. We had a blast for the remainder of the reception as well. Good times.
- Sofi and I drove all the way to Sundre, AB for my friend Christine's wedding. It was also good times. I went up early to Banff to meet up with Colby and Shannon and then later picked up Sofi at the airport in Calgary and we all had a great weekend in Sundre. It was super awesome to visit with lots of folks from Assiniboia and surrounding area that made it up for the wedding. I'm looking forward to our 10 year high school reunion next year!
- We drove down to the Boodlini wedding in Carlyle in August and stayed at my sister's in Redvers in between the festivities. Not only was it quite possibly the coolest wedding I have ever been to, but we had a great time to match. How many weddings can you think of that involve gorilla suits, cookies, Angel Sombrutski, rave music, baseball games, hay rides, and mandatory shots at the receiving line. I can't begin to describe how fantastic every minute of it was - just perfect and a perfect reflection of the happy couple. I also got to ride in a combine for the first time in my life at my sister's b/f Clayton's farm. Small town Saskatchewan rules.
- I just got back from an amazing week in Toronto that culminated in Nick's wedding to Allison. I am very proud to say that Nick asked me to be a member of his wedding party, and I accepted. He is a true friend, unlike some others that come to mind. I won't get into all the debauchery over the week, but sufficed to say, it was a good way to cap off the summer. I would, however, be remiss if I didn't mention a few vague keywords and highlights:
  - "What makes you think I won't cut you?" - fun with weapons
  - ...at Degrassi High!
  - Tryin'a catch me ridin' dirty!
  - "What's 'homer-red' mean?"
  - The glass floor
  - The Grey Goat
  - Boodlini pizza
  - Gibson's Finest
  - Hojo Aurora
  - Lunch with Candace in Greektown ... "Do you want to have Greek or ... Greek?"
  - The theme from "The Golden Girls"
I spent a lot of my spare time this summer work on a new website for CIPS Regina. It turned out okay and I'm pretty impressed with the CMS system we got going on the backend.
I bought a set of golf clubs and immediately improved my game by about twenty strokes. Too bad I likely won't improve much further ;)
I had an omnipresent feeling of unease all summer, and I'm not sure why. I think I'm over it now, though. The good news is that for me, unlike Blair, if something bad does happen to me, something twice as good will happen shortly thereafter. Speaking of Blair, his website is back up and running - you should have a look and leave him a nasty comment ... it's really fun.
I received my professional designation this summer, so I am now officially Derek Burt, I.S.P.
This summer was a pretty active one for me. I started running outdoors pretty seriously and was racking up some decent daily and weekly distance until I put my program on hold for holidays. I am getting X-rays soon for a possible stress fracture in my leg, but it hasn't stopped me running, playing soccer in the park, or playing slo-pitch with my work team. We had a great season weather-wise and I made the most of it.
Over the last four months or so I've had the opportunity to watch some decent movie movies:
- Brilliant
  - Ghandi
- Great
- Fun
- Whatever
- Boooooooooo !!!
  - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
"Interestingly, frequent Internet use is associated with a decline in local knowledge and interest in living in the local area." - I'll say. This summer I finally admitted to myself deep down inside that living in this province is starting to eat me up inside. I've lived in this province my entire life, and the grass keeps getting greener and greener everywhere else. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think to myself that I live in a socialist wasteland of sloth and selfishness. Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic place to live, but the economic, social, and physical safety we enjoy comes at a big price - our future. Hundreds of thousands of people have left this province, why haven't I?
I finally broke down and switched almost all my banking to PC Financial. It just got to the point where I couldn't take any more fees. The moment I switched I immediately saved $150 a year and they even gave me $10 just for setting up a payroll deposit. They also pay obscene amounts of interest. I used to be the biggest advocate of credit unions in the world, but now Conexus is so big they couldn't give a flying fuck about me or any other of their customers. It's amazing that after decades of loyalty they would treat me worse than most banks would if I just walked off the street. I still have my mortgage and car loan there, but eventually they will be gone, too. Why put up with impersonal service from them when I can go to a bank and get impersonal service for less?
My hair is way too long. It's insane.

P.S. - I might not have come back from the dead if it weren't for the many folks I ran into over the course of the summer, some I hadn't seen in literally years, who told me they keep up with me via this site, even if it's only once in a while. To you I say this: I write here because you don't call.

Pop quiz

Tue, 25 Oct 2005 04:49:16 GMT

Which one is the Messiah?

(hat tip for photo to U2log.com)

U2 on Conan O’Brien this Thursday

Wed, 05 Oct 2005 05:45:03 GMT

From U2log.com:

U2 will appear on Late Night with Conan O’Brien on NBC this Thursday, October 6, and on your preferred p2p client soon after. The band will be on the full hour (12:35-1:35 am) and will perform multiple songs.

It is the first time Conan has devoted an entire show to one guest. Sorry, four guests.

D’ya think they’ll open and end with Vertigo?

(But I Like It)

Tue, 28 Jun 2005 22:44:36 GMT

I just drove by the Sevens Club today and noticed that "Hells Bells" (an AC/DC tribute band) is playing there this Friday. Me and Tyler saw them at the Owl many moons ago and had an amazing time. They are virtually identical to seeing AC/DC (the world's greatest band) live! I will be out of town so I will not be able to attend :( If you are in Regina on July 1 and don't go to see them play, you're pretty much stupid.

Go tuck yourself in, San Diego

Sun, 27 Mar 2005 22:25:46 GMT

I am at the hotel here in San Diego after an uneventful (except for the beginning) flight down ...

I finally fell asleep last night around 2PM, and I had to be up at 3:30AM to get ready and get to the airport on time. I had two alarms set. One alarm went off and I turned it off, and then ... nothing. I groggily opened my eyes and looked at the clock ... 5:10AM, and my flight left at 5:45AM! Visions of Tyler laughing at me for sleeping in and missing my flight raced through my head - the ultimate comeuppance for me and Blair ragging on him about our vacations on Friday night. Luckily, my clock was 20 mins fast, but that still meant I had zero time to make it there. I threw on some clothes and grabbed my (heavy) suitcase and flew down the stairs (of all the weekends for the elevator to be broken) with my cell phone in one hand calling the cab company. The only problem was, they didn't pick up. I was on hold for what seemed like hours before I just gave up and hauled my suitcase back up the stairs and went to the parking garage to get my car (P.S. - FUCK YOU Regina Cabs). I raced out of my garage (literally) and ran every red light and stop sign and broke every speeding law on the books and managed to get checked in with time to spare. Props to my family for waking up early and going through a lot of hassle to bring my car back to my condo :)

Anyways, the rest of the day was fine - all my flights were empty so there was lots of room to stretch out and I found out that Delta is a member of the SkyTeam alliance so my Worldperks Silver Elite status works with them, too :)

There is a review of the dress rehearsal up on @U2 so check it out and picture me watching that show tomorrow night and you doing the opposite. If it makes you feel better, looks like there will be a random drawing for access inside the stage, so unless I'm super lucky I won't get to watch the show from there.

Oh, and to make you feel really better, here's a few rumoured U2 tour dates for the fall:

Sept. 29, 2005 @ Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome
Sept. 30, 2005 @ Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome

Western Alienation

Wed, 16 Mar 2005 21:26:33 GMT

I seriously considered writing this letter and cc:'ing it to the Leader-Post:

Dear Paul Martin:

Great job on yet another example of how oblivious you and every other politician from the East are to Western Canadian concerns.

U2 played concerts in the prairies on both of their last two tours, in Winnipeg in 1997 and two shows in Calgary in 2001. This year, they won't be playing anywhere near the prairie provinces - thanks to you. Instead of letting the market decide, you had to call Bono directly and ask them to play in Ottawa instead, when there are already numerous concerts being played within a 5-hour (or less!) drive from the city. The rest of us here out West will have to drive 16+ hours to see the best band in the world (except for AC/DC, of course) play, meaning most won't see them at all.

Did Ottawa really need that concert? Certainly not any more than we need Ottawa, so please enjoy the show and then promptly fuck right off!

Sincerely,

ME

There is something you can do - sign the petition and bring U2 to Winnipeg. It'll probably be as effective as protesting (hat-tip to all the idiot hippies out there), but you gotta make a statement somehow :)

What more can I say?

Fri, 11 Feb 2005 16:27:37 GMT

The best album of 2004 was one that you may not have even heard of. You won't see its videos on TV and you can't buy it in stores, but you can download it online!

Here's a summary from DJ Danger Mouse's website:

Danger Mouse raised the bar on hip hop experimentalism by dropping the infamous Grey Album, which used the full vocal content of Jay-Z's Black Album, recorded over new beats and production created using the Beatles White Album as its sole source material. The resulting record is a unique hybrid of work, a re-interpretation being touted as the one of greatest remix albums of all time. With one million downloads in a week and ensuing battle between major record companies, the media, Internet and copyright advocates, the release of the Grey Album has been nothing less than a watershed moment for music.

I got exposed to this CD about six months or so ago and for the last couple months especially I have been listening to it on a regular basis. In short, it is absolutely brilliant. Forget about those other "remixes" you might have downloaded from the Internet - this thing is from scratch using the highest quality source material. In fact, remix just doesn't do it justice; a better word would be re-imagination. Eminem isn't kidding when he says that he's better than 99% of rappers out there, because records of quality can be few and far between in the land of hip-hop. If you're looking for that other 1%, you've found it in the Grey Album.

So, while Nick and I are living it up this weekend in Washington, D.C. on someone else's tab, why not take a break from your pathetic life and download it today?