a broken lull.

oh god. here's a late-ass post that just suddenly spiraled out of control (i swear i'm going to bed after this). so U2 were in Montreal for two shows this weekend. i don't care because i don't care that much about U2 anymore. if they do a good album, i'll come back. but for the time being, they're bland. so they're in Montreal for two shows and Arcade Fire have agreed to open for them on these two dates only (the album-writing process prevailing over a real tour). first thing i hear about the trip is that Bono has indeed arrived in the city. woo.. what do you think would've happened? the mainstream media is going temporarily nuts for U2 and Bono. apparently, Bono and Adam have been seen eating at a fancy restaurant and hanging out with Cirque du Soleil founder, and friend, Guy Laliberté. that's cool. i didn't know they knew each other. fine. but then Egotastic reports a cool rumour. i think it's a bit premature, but it would be fun if it ended up being about a big show they were planning. then i stumble upon an article about Daniel Lanois getting a satellite shoutout directly from U2's Atlanta show last week for his Lifetime Achievement Award given to him at his hometown of Hamilton. oh, but that's not all, my friends. no, it's not. the shocker, the thing that, on top of Arcade Fire opening for them (and exchanging intro songs), made me regret (a little) underestimating the band was that they had the balls to bring Lanois on-stage with them for a fucking jam. for fuck's sake! why aren't they interesting enough anymore so that i would have gone and seen them?? shit. that was Saturday night. the second show is... tonight! monday! fuck. how many more tricks do they have up their sleeves?? things can't get more intense than this. (but you just know they have some more.)

Posted by Anonymous | 12:22 AM |

ps. this is where you let me know how you feel about the new music banner up top. i used to put the albums i listened to on the right but i thought this might be interesting. now that i've done it, and fucked around with it for a while, i have no idea. this is where you come in and be my guide :) thanks, and goodnight.

6:23 PM

oh god, what a waste of a beautiful day. but despite not being able to do what i'd set out to today, i feel quite alright, thank you very much :) my first mistake was going to bed at 5:30 this morning because i was looking at funny videos online. but i set my alarm for 11 this morning (i'm still feeling fine, btw). i didn't run my errands like i wanted to but i did end up taking a long walk with the ex around the city lake late this afternoon. that was nice. after that i ran a few errands i'd missed out on earlier. and i did buy some music :) it feels like it's been a long time since i bought a cd from a "real" store. the prices were right so every felt great. here's what i got:

Martha Wainwright - I Will Internalize ep
CONTROLLER.CONTROLLER - x-amounts
CONTROLLER.CONTROLLER - HISTORY ep

Posted by Anonymous | 3:38 AM |

NHL
Montreal 3 Toronto 4 (OT)
MTL Game #24 of 82, 14-6-4

oh. my. god. the Canadiens played an atrocious first period, it seems. glad i only caught the last 5 minutes of it. it seemed like they were destined to suck again tonight. but then, the second period happened. and they were on fire! and the Leafs were actually asleep. even without Kovalev, we were passing them by and weaving the puck around the big guys. Koivu was magnificient. and Ribeiro too. come to think of it, Ryder was also kind of a quarterback for the team. everyone seemed to give it every they had right into the third period. it was some damn good hockey we saw tonight. for both teams and their fans. but it must always come to an end, and as is the case when Toronto plays the Habs, they seem to be able to do anything they want when they get their asses kicked for a while. they got the overtime goal and that was it. i'm tired of the Canadiens losing -- actually, they didn't lose; they got a point because they tied the actual game. seems we've been doing so for the past couple of weeks now. but the force with which we fought after that first period was definitely inspiring. but bring Kovalev back quickly. Koivu looked mightily alone out there.

Next game: Tuesday, November 29, 2005, against the Ottawa Senators (OTT).

Posted by Anonymous | 2:54 AM |

Nick & Jessica. RIP.
just wanted to put it out there :)

the MPAA reached an agreement with Bittorrent.com to remove its links to movie torrents. hmm. i dunno what to think of this. a) it's damn frustrating seeing the MPAA rear it's ugly head in this manner, b) thanks to Bram Cohen for caving in; i'm sure there was a tremendous amount of pressure put on him but, if he'd wanted to, legally, he could've fought them longer, but finally, this tops it off -- check out this hilarious quote:

The agreement requires 30-year-old software designer Bram Cohen to remove links to pirated versions of movies from his Web site, bittorrent.com, effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films.

uh... "effectively frustrating people who search for illegal copies of films"?? okay...if you say so :)

Alias is cancelled...
i've only watched Season 1 so i have no idea what the latter seasons were like, and i know Jennifer was leaving, but they did seem to have figured out a good plan for the coming seasons. i'm not used to seeing great shows -that actually get huge ratings- get cancelled like that. i guess ABC, or maybe JJ Abrams, do have some dignity. at the very least, it's nice to see some people in Hollywood still have some respect.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:32 AM |

NHL
Atlanta 2 Montreal 3 (SO)
MTL Game #22 of 82, 14-5-3

FINALLY A WIN !! that feels damn good after the string of bad losses or near losses this past week. the game was tied 2-2 and they went into overtime but no one scored. so a shootout was gonna be the way to decide a winner. Dagenais (somehow) scored and, from what i heard last night at work, the Trashers' Marian Hossa was fricking stolen by José Théodore. that's the play right there in the article. nice pic. can't wait to see it in highlights today. whew!! finally.

Next game: Friday, November 25, 2005, against the Buffalo Sabres (BUF).

Posted by Anonymous | 10:06 AM |

a new week starts today. work week, anyway. i got up early this morning because i've got an appointment this afternoon for an oil change and to get my winter tires on. that cuts into my already-short day so i had to make up some time by going to bed earlier than usual last night.

hmm. so yesterday i see a report about new 24 castmembers. of course i don't click on the link because it's more fun not knowing what's coming (the only thing i knew was the cool addition of a hobbit). but Frank chromewaves spilled the beans this morning. go check it out if you're into that sort of thing. too bad i know now but the news was shocking and really good. they keep pulling these great castings out of their asses, i swear. never saw that coming.

oh, for fuck's sake. just when i thought no one could top this morning's casting news, here goes a mindblowing one. David Bowie might appear in a new movie entitled The Prestige alongside -get this- Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale and Michael Caine!!! i had to check out who the director was. wanna know? Christopher Nolan...! :P (i can't believe i've already forgotten about the Batman Begins fiasco (that's right, i said it).)

Posted by Anonymous | 9:45 AM |

NHL
Washington 5 Montreal 1
MTL Game #21 of 82, 13-5-3

wow. they're starting to ring up some losses, aren't they? and a 5-1 beating? come on. at least Ryder scored again. he's consistent. and the Habs are too. too bad it's at sucking right now. once again - get it together. caoch Julien is gonna wip their asses in game shape this week.

Next game: Tuesday, November 22, 2005, against the Atlanta Trashers (MTL).

Posted by Anonymous | 2:20 PM |

NHL
Montreal 3 Detroit 5
MTL Game #20 of 82, 13-4-3

the game was 4-3 Detroit when they scored in an empty net. so that 5-3 thing isn't as bad as it looks. and at least one thing made me happy - seeing Ryder's attempt to score with a pass from, i think, Zednik, he quickly swirled around with the puck right in front of Brodeur. that was a great play. hopefully the team can take control of the game tonight.

Next game: Saturday, November 19, 2005, against the Washington Capitals (MTL).

Posted by Anonymous | 10:29 AM |

a noble effort - Save Arrested Development!
Amy's Robot:

it's still snowing this morning. i hadn't counted on that. i just called my mechanic to have my winter tires put on next monday, which i was planning on doing next week anyway, but let's just say this snowfall (a few inches) kinda kicked my ass into action :) the streets aren't fully covered by snow, so it's half wet, but it's still more snow than i'd expected :)

Posted by Anonymous | 10:54 AM |

NHL
Florida 3 Montreal 4 (OT)
MTL Game #19 of 82, 13-3-3

didn't see the game but heard about it. winning with 4 seconds to go in overtime when you had a lead of 3-0 during the actual game is not fun. get your shit together. on the good side, it seems like the Habs have gotten really good at having outstanding first periods lately. hey, would look at that - Montreal has separated itself from the herd and taken the #1 spot in the Eastern Conference, and a second place overall!! that hasn't happened in a long time. very good. now if they could just get their shit under control (which coach Julien is likely to make them do now), all will be good in the hearts of Habs fans everywhere.

Next game: Friday, November 18, 2005, against the New Jersey Devils (NJ).

Posted by Anonymous | 12:39 PM |

SAW II
Darren Lynn Bousman (USA 2005)

8.5
if you haven't seen the first Saw, go watch that now. you're missing out on some fine, bold filmmaking. it's a rare and twisted mix of tension, and, most surprisingly, intellect, that's simply lacking in today's american films - espcially horror. as for the sequel, like all the reviews have stated, they were simply able to take what was working for the first one and built on top of that to craft another clever piece of exciting joyride. it is definitely not repetitive and works on its own. it's simply, and effortlessly, another brilliant work of intellectual cat and mouse game, with shocking results. that doesn't mean that it's perfect. there are a shitload of plot holes, which i can't go into here because i'd be spoiling half the story, but the brilliance and fun of the film make you gladly overlook them. Saw II is simply a great and wonderful piece of entertainment. a rare thing nowadays. run to it.

Posted by Anonymous | 10:21 AM |

NHL
Toronto 5 Montreal 4 (OT)
MTL Game #18 of 82, 12-3-3

god. alright. i'm happy we got a point for the tie. and i'm actually really glad the Canadiens rallied back from losing 2-0 in the second and came back from behind, i think, twice in the game. and we did control the entire first period and Toronto lost it thanks to an enormous amount of penalties. the Habs lost in overtime seconds after a penalty was issued. big wup. i think we played incredibly solid hockey tonight. we just couldn't hold off the Leafs luck against us (they can score in a matter of seconds with us). but at the end of the night, we did play some outstanding hockey, and i'm happy about that. [ btw, that was some class act retiring Dickie Moore's and Yvan Cournoyer's #12 sweaters tonight. i wasn't even around when they played for the Habs but even i was touched by it. ]

Next game: Tuesday, November 15, 2005, against the Florida Panthers (MTL).

ps. Elisha has actually posted again!! nice. (speaking of which, the Bell ExpressVU told me ABC had an episode of 24 playing tonight. did i read that right? and the plot made it sound like the first season. i have no idea if this is true or not, nor do i have the motivation to look it up, but i thought it was, at the very least, intriguing.)

i gotta go to bed. we're going to Montreal tomorrow :)

Posted by Anonymous | 11:57 PM |

SNL = Jason Lee (and the foo fighters). tonight.
gotta tape it. the guys are right on the money. Lee will brighten things up in there. gotta watch.

11:37 PM

<< ALERT!! >>

...what the fuck's happening...? come on, Fox. don't make it so...
they've gotta be kidding me. pulling the show from the November sweeps to make way for Prison Break, i can understand that. but cutting the season back to 13 episodes? if true, that could be devastating. did they decide to put Prison Break in its place for 2006? that show has been doing well (i think) but come on. choose another show to crap on if that's the case. arrested Development has been beloved since its inception and the love hasn't stopped since. do not pull the plug. there's gonna be such a massive backlash if that happens. i think the Family Guy fiasco wasn't nearly as big as this. in the meantime, we can only hope and hear something concrete soon (they'll have to comment on this sometime soon).
chromewaves.net:

Posted by Anonymous | 1:10 AM |

NHL
Pittsburgh 3 Montreal 2 (SO)
MTL Game #17 of 82, 12-3-2

Sidney Crosby scored in the shoot-out. i've got nothing more to say except that Montreal came back from a 2-1 score, once again, with 15 minutes to go in the game. and i'm just happy about that.

Next game: Saturday, November 12, 2005, against the Toronto Maple Leafs (MTL).

Elisha Cuthbert is blogging on NHL.com!!
holy shit. it feels nice to have a celebrity blogger who actually knows what she's talking about. did she get season tickets for the Kings? probably. hopefully this blogging thing on NHL.com isn't a one-off thing. i would love to hear her talk more specifically about the games. that would be fun.

has anybody seen Junebug? the ex and i are planning on driving down to Montreal this sunday and a trip to the movie theater to catch something we don't have over here is always a plus, but it feels like there's not much to see right now. but Junebug might be interesting enough to warrant spending a couple of hours sitting in a dark movie theater. either this or Álex de la Iglesia's Ferpect Crime, which looks intriguing. there's always Saw II, which looks like one of those rare sequels that actually knows what it's doing, but i don't know if that's a movie theater kind of film.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:33 AM |

Fuck. The White Stripes - Denial Twist. another little Michel Gondry masterpiece. one of the coolest, most surreal 3 minutes of video i've seen recently. (do people still put any effort in their videos? this guy sure does.)

Posted by Anonymous | 10:32 AM |

NHL
Tampa Bay 2 Montreal 3
MTL Game #16 of 82, 12-3-1

do you see that record?? i mean -- do you see that record?? fuck yeah! 12 wins in 16 games. that's outstanding. they're not winning the Stanley Cup, they're not even close to nabbing it, but, as the start of a season, this is one mighty fine record to be proud of. of course i was at work tonight and was only able to learn of the score at midnight, so i can't even comment on the game (i saw a game replay where they were losing 2-1 with 15 minutes to go to the game; and only heard Theo was stopping everything, keeping them in the game), but i keep getting surprised by my lovely little team :) things seem to be working fine, and more importantly, they're being steady. something they haven't been in years. there's a real team here. for the first time in a long while.

Next game: November 10, 2005, against the Pittsburgh Penguins (PIT).

Posted by Anonymous | 12:26 AM |

boy, that Transformers movie is going down in flames FAST (okay, Michael Bay, a self-confessed non-fan, coming on-board was the first good sign this wasn't such a hot idea; but they booted him off. good, but it still left a weird taste in our collective mouths. this one, though, even if you had an ounce of hope left, just sinks it with its ineptitude. enjoy).

3:03 PM

CTV has The Colbert Report !!!!!!!!!

Posted by Anonymous | 2:37 PM |

Super Mario's alive!!!

Dude. Come on.

"Dude, it hurts real bad." yeah, no shit, Sherlock. Owned. by the fucking sun.

1:52 PM

seriously. i don't think this was the point of the clip, and i don't even like Tara Reid, but the paparazzis are seriously callous and heartless, aren't they? they're treating people like they're not even normal human beings. there's nothing exclusive about this clip but seeing an unedited video of them repulsingly chasing Tara around as she walks to a club just really drove home the point.

Posted by Anonymous | 12:48 AM |

NHL
Buffalo 2 Montreal 3
MTL Game #15 of 82, 11-3-1

despite the roommate supposedly renting a movie with his girlfriend, i was actually able to watch the whole game tonight. and what a treat it was! this was definitely the most exciting Canadiens game i've seen all season. and in the third period, we saw a shot of Koivu's face after a play - you just knew the game was on! it felt like they could turn it on whenevew they wanted to. this team is actually gelling quite well incredibly early in the year. and it seems to be sticking where in previous seasons it would go out for a couple of frustratingly dry weeks. we're definitely back to fun hockey for us Montreal fans.

Next game: November 8, 2005, against the Tampa Bay Lightning (MTL).

ps. i've been meaning to go to bed early tonight but, alas, iTunes seems to have had some other, more devious, plan for me. (i'm running iTunes 4.9, btw, not the dreaded 5 or 6.) anyway. i'd been happily encoding a few Garbage singles tonight when iTunes froze up. i had to force quit iTunes and couldn't get the drive to open up after that, nor could i try to import the songs with another program. so the drive froze. i had to manually reboot and re-try it. to no fucking avail. been doing this for a couple of hours now. i've just given but i'm hoping a kind soul will know a solution to this. btw, iTunes (or my drive) started encoding only 6 seconds of the first song of each batch. it started when i didn't select track 1 but i could go around it by selecting it again afterwards. but after a while it started going downhill. can anyone help me out? i'd love you forever :) DVD DRive - Samsung SD-616E. oh, both of my drives do this now, you see. so i don't think it's the drives that are responsible (the other one's a NEC). i've upgraded the firmwares using the Upgrade button in the System pop-up. -- hey, i'm using Windows Media Player and it seems to be ripping the files just fine!! will see tomorrow if i can't get iTunes to work again but i'm scared it'll freeze up again. lol. but -- i'd still love to hear from someone who's had the same experience and found a solution :) thanks.

oh, btw, what are your iTunes settings to import/encode songs? mine are 192 kbps (stereo), VBR (Highest Quality), 48,000 kHz. but i was wondering if i should take them up a notch to 224 kbps, and if so, what do i set the VBR to? lemme know :)

Sunday, 11:18 AM

and now iTunes is working fine. fuck. maybe i tired it out last night by encoding too many cd's? hmm. weird. anyone ever have that happen to them?

Posted by Anonymous | 11:42 PM |

NHL
Montreal 3 Buffalo 2
MTL Game #14 of 82, 10-3-1

it's funny how much out of it you are when you're working on gamenight. once again i was at work and only learned of the game around 10 pm. the last update had Buffalo leading 2-1. i think. at the end of our shift someone asked who'd won and someone mentioned Montreal in overtime. that was all i needed. tonight, i think the roommate and his girlfriend are gonna be here so i'm expect them to take the living room. i'll try to get my cheap-but-trustworthy tv antenae hooked up to the roommate's tv (that's been steadily gathering dust) in the computer room to watch the game. should be fun.

Next game: November 5, 2005, vs the Buffalo Sabres (MTL)

btw, i had a fun evening at work tonight - despite feeling incredibly exhausted (so thankful it was friday night). but since i changed departments at work, i'm now able to listen to my iPod while working for a few hours a night. and it is fun :) i've been checking out artists i'd been curious about, getting up-to-date with my favorite Podcasts (i'd stopped running these past few weeks, thanks to the cooler weather - running was my main source of Podcast-enjoyment), and encoding a few more of my albums. it's been good. really good.

Posted by Anonymous | 2:12 AM |

David Byrne is the coolest.
goldenfiddle |

Posted by Anonymous | 2:31 PM |

NHL
Florida 4 Montreal 5 (OT)
MTL Game #13 of 82, 9-3-1

Michael Ryder scores in ovetime!!! it's starting to be repetitive, but we like it :) Begin scored the tying goal with 8 seconds to go in the game. that was such a big fucking relief! Montreal played great first and second periods, but then they just lost their momentum in the third and began, for the next twenty minutes, to get into the frustrating habit of taking idiotic penalties which resulted in the Panthers coming back in the game -- and almost stealing it right from under the Habs and their very disappointed and angry fans. but thank god for Begin and Ryder. and Koivu and Zednik and Kovalev. everyone chipped in. even Souray was invisible tonight thanks to his good playing. i think the guys learned a lesson in not letting go of a game until the full 60 minutes are up. and hey, this was a home win too! we don't have too many of those :)

and hey, because i called in sick today (which i should have done yesterday but since i was still exhausted when i got up this morning i decided i'd take today off and rest up) i was able to catch the whole game :) always a big plus to see it for myself. scoresheets rarely tell the story of the game. i hope you had a great day too :)

Next game: November 4, 2005, vs the Buffalo Sabres (BUF)

Posted by Anonymous | 12:36 AM |

NHL
Montreal 4 New York Rangers 1
MTL Game #12 of 82, 8-3-1

what the fuck happened???! whoa-- i come home from work, having heard nothing of the game, and very hesitantly check out my favorite Habs site to see tonight's score. a 4-1 win?? over the Rangers who blew us away 5-2 only saturday night?? hell yeah. i'll take that. the site doesn't have their game article up yet [ update: they do now. ] so i have no clue how the game played out (although, reading the forum does make it sound like it was another spottily boring Rangers game). Game #13 is tonight/tuesday against Florida. hey, i might actually be calling sick to work. it has nothing to do with the game, i really should have taken tonight off. we'll see how i feel when i wake up tomorrow morning.

Next game: November 1, 2005, vs the Florida Panthers (MTL)

Posted by Anonymous | 12:54 AM |