Getting Rad

Snowboarding Two Days Ago:
I have been snowboarding since 1991 and somehow managed to ride the funnest frontside turn that I have ever done in my life! Amazing frontside slasher on this double overhead windlip! Riding under the chair lift we will often get cheered for different jumps or dropping cliffs and such...but never for simply doing a turn on the snow. This turn was different: the whole chair lift was cheering and yelling and I rode the rest of the run down with my hands on my head in the shape of horns and yelling. I obviously snowboard for the glory.

Snowboarding Yesterday:
Imagine that there is so much snow falling that, on one of the resort runs, a ski patrol skidoo is stuck! Crazy amounts of snow.
Anyhow, my brother Jabin and I spent the day riding fresh pow, pillaging chutes, dropping some decent size cliffs, and just generally getting rad. Third last run of the day we dropped into this steep untouched face (in the dark) that was pretty unstable. I led and as I made my first turn the snow about 30 feet above me fractured and slabbed down sweeping Jabin, who was behind me, down the slope. He yelled and, as I turned around to see what was going on, I was hit with a wall of snow that carried me until the all the snow stopped moving. Crazy experience! We were both buried nearly to our waist, were safe, and were all smiles! A good reminder to for us to respect the mountains.

-Jer

Music is Everywhere.

So, in case you were at all wondering, I did get the free guitar that I was searching out. My thanks to Josh Hyslop and The Road Less Travelled for the hook up...I even got a free pick out of the deal!

I've been faithfully guitaring for three weeks now and, as a new guitarer, have come to the realization that all of the music that has and ever will be played on the guitar is already there in the neck and strings. I just have to find it.

That was a pretty freeing thought actually. I'm not learning music, I'm finding it. And then I started thinking that, if I knew how to find it, there just might be music in everything.
-e.d.

Life is About Rhythm.

I had an idea. It took us on a trip.

Once arriving on VanIsle there was a 4 hour drive north followed by another couple of hours of bumping and rattling along on rutted out logging roads. At the end of the road and at the edge of civilization is where we left our van and set out on the 90minute hike through BC’s ancient rainforest which, to our total enjoyment, deposited us on a massive sand beach pounded by the cold Pacific surf. The next piece of land from there? Japan. Or so I liked to imagine.

The beach, world class and empty – except for two girls, stretched out for a couple of km’s littered with drift wood, fishing boat salvage, gorgeous sunsets, and plenty of room to think and write. No TV. No cell phones. No laptops. No music. No distraction. I sat for hours – literally – just simply watching the tides.

The surf and the tides, like a fire on a summer night, are mesmerizing. There seems to be a certain rhythm and flow of the waves as they crash in against the beach that draws you in and hardly lets you go. That spell on me was interrupted as a lone surfer walked across the beach towards the water at high tide…the surfer, fully clothed, was mostly the silhouette of a girl that I watched paddle out to enjoy life and live at only the momentum of the ocean. No faster. No slower. Simply in rhythm.
-e.d.

Evangelicals in The News Again...

The news has been abuzz with controversy surrounding the allegations that leading evangelical pastor Ted Haggard had a three-year homosexual relationship with a male prostitute that included drug use. Haggard is pastor of a 14,000-member church in Colorado, president of the National Association of Evangelicals that has some 30 million members, friend of men like George Bush, and outspoken opponent of homosexuality and gay marriage.

Read more here in the Globe and Mail.

Read Mark Driscol's thoughts on the matter here.
-e.d.

tags: Ted Haggard

A Def'n of Foo:

November 17th is the day that you can go and pick up my longtime favorites NEW CD. The most amazing thing is that today...that's right...today, you can go and listen to the whole thing on their myspace acount. It's called Skin and Bones by the mighty mighty Foo Fighters.
Oh my.

On another note; I am looking for free or cheap (in that order) an accoustic guitar.
-Jer

Great quote from one of my favorite authors,

Particles of raw inspiration sleet through the universe all
the time. Every once in a while one of them hits a receptive mind, which then
invents DNA or the flute sonata form or a way of making light bulbs wear out in
half the time. But most of them miss. Most people go through their whole lives
without being hit by even one.

Some people are even more
unfortunate. They get them all.

-Terry Pratchet

Your Right - It is Ludicrous.

Tonight, on The Hour, George Stroumboulopolos interviews Ludacris and asks an interesting question:

George: “You thank God all the time but your lyrics and video’s are not what God and the pastors want to hear. Why is that?”
Ludacris: “He who is without sin, cast the first stone.”

Find the whole interview here.
Interesting. Now go shake your moneymaker!
-Jer

Hazmat Leftovers

The rock opera of the year finally landed in stores last week Tuesday and has enjoyed phenomenal success; the third and much anticipated release of My Chemical Romance was every bit of theatrical emo/punk as the hype leading up to the release claimed it would be! Lead singer Gerard Way and his cast of supporting characters have outdone themselves in creating an experimental album that forces you to listen more then just once. The sounds and progressions of this album reminds me a lot of Green Day’s American Idiot album (same producer) mixed with the clever poetry brought to you by Ben Gibbard and Death Cab for Cutie. If you’ve seen the Black Parade video you can expect more of the same throughout the album’s dark review of life. What’s captivating isn’t so much the dark themes that surround it, but rather the passion, commitment, and craftsmanship that went into this record. The searing emotions, arena style sounds, and storytelling of this album makes it a keeper. Go get it!
-Jer
tags: My Chemical Romance, rock opera

postalpedia

According to postalpedia, the word ‘qualitify’ represents the idea of ‘measuring imagined quality.’ It is the distinctive characteristics that everyone knows are there but can’t quite see because they are feeling based, conceptual, and live only in the realm of imagination. It is very hard to give standard measurements to anything that is qualitified.
We now return to regular programing.
-e.d.

How Much Iron is in Your Diet?

Ok - so here is something interesting; Iron Maiden - Iron Freaking Maiden - their new album debuted at number 1...read that again just to make you feel good. Old timer stadium rockers who gave preachers plenty to preach against in 80's and 90's debuted their newest album at number 1 on the INDIE charts! INDIE?! What the heck! Who runs these things? Unfreakinbelievable! Iron Maiden is not indie....
Run to the hills!
tags: Iron Maiden