Up All Night's Journal

3:07pm: Why today is a good day

1) I found a $5 bill in my pocket leftover from the weekend!

2) I got "punk'd" hard in The (Fake) Journal and it was actually really funny.

3) Queen's Apprentice tonight!

4) Two days left till St. Patrick's Day!

edit: 5)I got paid a bundle of cash to dj for an hour and a half.

2:38pm: It's so tacky when people talk about how much money they make.
It's worse than when you meet someone for the first time and they immdediately ask "So, what do you do?"

8:33pm: Why Montreal is the best city ever. Reason # 587739
Where else can I eat a slice of pizza so good I thought I was going to come only to walk down the street to the best record store and run into Tiga, who is also buying records. He's making a record with the Scissor Sisters and yet he still has mortgage payments to worry about in the 'adult life'? Crazy... The weirdest part was that like 15 minutes earlier I was listening to a mix of his on my iPod.

Rock N' Roll High School at The Jupiter Room tonight! Go scene, go! Fuck SPIN mag/ NY Times!

6:55pm:

Like the old adage goes, "When one door closes another one opens," and while I may not have gotten a chance to DJ at the His N Hers Fake Prom last week due to the place getting evacuated faster than the fall of Saigon circa 1975, I AM DJing this weekend at a loft party at 167 (and a half) Wellington Street. Some of you might know this place as the crazy three story apartment building next to that weird old diner restaurant (on the other side of Princess from the Scherzo). It's also the former dwelling place of many a Kingston band from yester-year. Sarah Harmer and Weeping Tile used to live there. It's a neat place with a lot of history so it should make for a good party. $2 beers help as well. Come out and rock out, as I will be spinning all through the night. Hopefully by the end of it, you'll be spinning too ;)

Oh yeah- and fuckin' Alfie's canned our CFRC DJing on Friday nights because, suprise suprise, they are switching to an all Top 40 format. These are the same people that offered me $100 and drinks to DJ two Fridays ago. Pffffffffffftttt. I am sure the place will be packed.

3:34pm: Not a machine - I'm still a human being!

My interview with Sebastien Grainger from Death From Above 1979 came out alright despite massive technical failures. Thank god it was for print and not radio. I'd post the link but The Journal always updates their website like, 2 days after an issue has hit newsstands. It's like "Yesterday's News, Tomorrow!"

I DJed last night at Alfie's for some Commerce faculty sponsored event that was part of their annual marketing conference. Normally DJing at Alfie's is a great way to make some extra cash. The only downside is the incredible amount of bad song requests I get. 

 Last night was no exception.

"Can you play some, you know, like, Top 40?"

"Everyone wants to hear more hip hop."

"Do you have any old school Snoop Dogg? I'm not feeling this stuff you're playing."

"How come you don't have the new Christina Aguilera? What kind of DJ are you?"

The best though was this one retard who came up and almost knocked a pint of coca-cola into the DJ mixer and asked to hear that Usher song called "Yeah" (featuring Lil' Jon). When I told him that I was sorry and that I didn't have it on me, he was like "Well can you at least play 'Love Shack' by the B-52s?" Man, I'd love to see what that guy's record collection looks like, lol.

It was kind of shitty because the manager told me to play "exactly what I was playing last Friday night" which I totally did. At the time people were feeling it and there was some serious dancing going down in the latter half of the night. The crowd last night was a bird of a different feather. They were just there to get shitfaced in their semi-formal business and make sloppy passes at each other. All under the guise of "networking" I'd assume.

They want me to DJ again tonight but I've got to be at the Grad Club for our CFRC show. It's tempting though; they offered to pay pay me significantly more that I normally get. Still, it's not everyday that I get to see Death From Above 1979 play live.

Man, this new Daft Punk song is sooooo good....it makes me want to change my major to "Synthesizer Studies" with a minor in "Robot Disco Musical Theory".

11:33pm: Sunday nights are the worst. I've never felt so lonely and down. What do people do on Sunday nights? Honestly...

9:27pm: Let's have a contest to see who can find the creepiest photo of Vincent Gallo

I'll start.

1:02pm: The people who write junk mail just aren't trying anymore...

brîght mârrïêd dämês need-men.com ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: need-men com/t6 ->qúìt :::::::::::::::::::::::::::

I beg that you will state your business; sir; said I; my time is of side cylinders.

An examination showed that one of the india-rubber bands It is not worth your while to wait; she went on. You can pass through!

3:44pm: I was at this birthday party last night for a friend from high school. A lot of people who went to my highschool are insanely wealthy and very mainstream. For instance, they had never heard of the concept of "blogs" before and looked at me like I was some super internet hacker when I was describing what a blog is, and how it is both a noun and a verb.

5:50pm: For those who's ears are still ringing from last night's full blown sonic assault, check out a Controller.Controller session they recently did for the CBC. It has some of the new songs that they played last night.

Clicky clicky.

10:27pm: We're not going to make it
Went to a movie premiere tonight for "Blade Trinity" (free tickets via CFRC) and despite it sucking in ways I thought a movie never could, it had the most blatant product placement for Apple, Nokia and GMC. It was so shameless and obvious. At one point Jessica Biel is going to hunt vampires and beforehand it shows her making an iTunes playlist to load into her iPod and Ryan Reynolds goes "She likes to make mp3 playlists when she's hunting. Trip hop, metal- whatever the kids are listening to these days." Then it shows her loading up mp3s (note: when hunting vampires, be like the pros and listen to Jurassic 5 on your 40gig iPod). This is followed by a slow motion shot of Jessica Biel putting the infamous white ear plugs into her ears, presumably to get herself in the mood for slaying vampires. You would think you'd need your full range of senses when doing something like that, but no.

So between the endless posters and ads in the lobby and outside the theatre, the commericals they play before the previews, the previews (super extend-o commercials), and now the movie itself, you are really just going to see commercials designed to sell you more shit.

"Hey guys, let's go see some commercials tonight!" Can't a movie just be a movie anymore?! Fuck! Screening room from now on, seriously...free tickets be damned. There's always a hidden cost (as I search Futureshop.ca for current iPod prices...).

I sort of wish I hadn't skipped out on my AMS Managers X-mas dinner at the greek restaurant. A free kebab meal would really slay the munchie monster that lives in my belly right about now.

3:16am: I'm not really one for public self-reflection but it's been some time since I've written anything of note or interest. That being said, I've had a pretty great past few months.

All the hard work we put in at CFRC over the summer has really paid off this fall. For so long, I thought it was going to be impossible for us to pass our student fee when it went to referendum in early November. With that, I knew we had to do everything we could possibly do, so we could look back and say "We didn't get the student fee- but hey, at least we did EVERYTHING we could!" We were asking for a lot ($3.75 mandatory) from a very conservative student population. We faced a ton of resistance every step of the way and some jerks even had the audacity to launch a "Vote No" campaign against us. In the end, we mobilized out volunteers, spread the word to anyone who would listen, called in some favours, and even stood outside of Stauffer Library playing music, talking to people and passing our flyers in sub-zero temperatures the day before the election.

It was close, but in the end we got just barely enough votes to pass the largest mandatory fee in recent memory and came out like the underdog champs that we are. CFRC ain't going nowhere but up from here, folks.

I think the key to getting people to support CFRC was finding other ways to be accountable and relevant to the student population beyond simply putting on some top-shelf news and cultural programming. In the age of iPods and personally customized mp3 playlists, it's harder for radio to attract listeners. We may offer some of the best new music that you just CAN'T hear on any other station, but students today are more savvy than we give them credit for. People know where to look to find the stuff we play, and it's become fairly easy to download. That being said, we have had to offer people more than just what they can hear should they happen to tune into 101.9 on their FM dial. That's why I feel it's so important for us to get out there and DJ at the campus bars, host a morning show from the campus coffee shop, build partnerships with different campus/community clubs and organizations and put on the best damn concert series in this town (Dance To The Underground, like you didn't already know). I think by showing people that we have been doing more than just having a kickass radio station to listen to (if that alone wasn't enough) we can win over their hearts and minds by being involved in a lot of other great things.

Speaking of Dance To The Underground, our little indie night has grown wings and taken off with great aplomb! What started as a weekly night for a dozen indie kids to get together and listen to cool tunes has morphed into this amazing spectacle of sound and vision! I remember all the nights last winter, carrying my record crates down to Wellington Street and setting up my turntables to play tunes for the small rag-tag group of scenesters who would come out week after week. In those days. we'd be stoked to get like 25 people out. Week after week, our efforts really started to wear us out. By scaling back to a monthly event, we have a lot more time to book better acts, promote, and get the word out and generally it makes for a bigger show and a better time. I'll never forget the way it was before: drunk girls knocking the record needle out of the groove, getting up to no good in the alley outisde the Scherzo, and barely having enough cash from the door to pay for a cab home. Those were some fun times, but it's been really rewarding to see something so small grow into this awesome event that everyone looks forward to every month.

Last month, I booked, promoted and ran Dance To The Underground entirely on my own for the first time ever. I started back in early October by just emailing some bands and DJs, making them an offer of a minimum cash gurantee for showing up and playing, looking for a venue to host us, and making sure there wasn't some other big show happening on the same night that we'd be competing against. Soon enough, things started coming together and I'd secured the talent, locked down the venue, got my friend Ben to design the best poster of his career so far, and printed up tickets to sell at a variety of record stores downtown. I also made a radio ad, got The Journal to ran a preview/interview with the Kids On TV the day of the gig, postered like crazy all over town and campus, and passed out a million flyers that I photoshopped like, 4 days before the show. I made sure to spread the word in a variety of different circles besides my immediate group of friends, and voila! Show magnifique!

Up until the doors opened at Clark Hall Pub I was shitting myself worried that no one would show up. I'd pre-sold only about 28 tickets and I'd need at least 65 people to make enough to pay the band and DJs the $400 I had already promised them. All that worrying for nought! In the end we packed the bar with over 130 people and everyone stayed and danced till almost 3am. All said, it felt great to relax and see the results of all the preparations I had made come together. It was one of the greatest nights of fun and debauchery I have had in a long time and people are still coming up to me and asking when those crazy DJs are going to come back and play again. (The answer: soon.) I was able to give the band and DJs some extra dough for their travel expenses and pocket a bit for myself that covered the expenses I put into promoting the show. The bar staff was happy that their establishment was packed with legions of warm-bodied, booze-sucking dance freaks and even were nice enough to provide us with some complimentary refreshments for the bands, myself and my volunteers. The bands were totally happy with the event. Kids On TV called it one of the best dance parties they have ever had and even invited me to come up to Toronto and DJ at their shows in the coming months.

Working with some of the coolest people in the music scene here in town has been a tremendous inspiration as well. You got someone like Chris from Rock Crew Productions who has devoted his entire life to making sure that Kingston stays on the map as a great place for bands to come and play. He's out there 4 nights a week putting on shows! Sometimes he strikes gold and the place is packed, other nights he'll leave with $10 bucks after he's paid the bands. Regardless, seeing him put together killer events was a strong inspiration for getting Dance To The Underground together this fall. We're going to be doing more stuff together and he's even got KID FUCKING KOALA lined up to play DTTU in February. Virginia from the Grad Club has been awesome too. It's great to have someone as excited about bands like Controller.Controller and Death From Above 1979 as I am booking shows for DTTU and being an all around cheerleader for CFRC.

Things are winding down for us here at the station for the term. Our major goal of the past few months has been reached and we're using this slow time to plan the next blag. Stay tuned for ANOTHER REFERENDUM in February. Yes, that's right - we still gotta hit up those Grad students for a student fee. All in all, I've had a good few months. I've even got to see a lot of Meredith which is always the highlight of any month...but she'll be gone soon so I'll have to wait till the 28th to see her again. It's not too long a time but it's the longest we've gone without seeing each other in about 6 or 7 months. My office is pretty cold and it's getting late in the day. My boss's dog is running around the station so I better go make sure he doesn't get into the control room and bark on the air.

12:30am: Amateur Model Screen Tests
This stuff is too funny...

Kids today...

Why does he blink so slowly?

Watch as he transforms right before your very eyes!

I like to hurt myself...It's a lot of fun- you should try it sometime!'

I'm off my rocker!" And how.

"I think I'm Picasso but I'm really PIG-asso."

"...and VOLA! You get up everyday and it's a new experience! Yaaaaaa........" And....CUT.

"Remember-you're a man!" And you're insane.

Lady, you're scaring us kids.

I went to your website and it wasn't funny.

Say what?

Buddy, you just made MY day.

What a productive year you had! Pfft...You can tell this guy is probably unemployed.

What the hell are you talking about?

1:07am: I'm in Ottawa and as it happens, there are 2 shows on Saturday night that are currently competing for my attendence. Vanessa, please feel free to weigh in with your thoughts as I believe you have seen The Killers live in the not-so-distant past.

The Killers @ Capital Music Hall

Pros
- good venue
- I like some of their songs well enough

Cons
- "Somebody Told Me" became the cringe-worthy song of the summer for me
- crowd will probably suck
- it's the obvious scenester choice

Chromeo @ Helsinki

Pros
- funk-a-delic sex jams are always fun
- they're Can-con
- danceable
- smaller crowd, intimate club
- my new favourite DJs are opening up
- chance to scout talent to book for Kingston shows


Cons
- their live show may not be as good as their album
- possibly might regret not going to see the Killers if this sucks


Thoughts?

12:32am: I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you all to this Kingston based LJ community that I stumbled upon recently. I think it has the potential to be a hot bed for community discussion, the sharing of ideas, and immature name calling/mudslinging.

Ta da! Kingston Drama!

5:44pm: So yeah, I was away on vacation for awhile and I didn't do my radio show for the past two weeks. I also neglected to give away a bunch of free tickets to some upcoming shows here in Kingston (Golden Dogs tomorrow night and Death From Above 1979 on Saturday). I am back at work here at the station now so I have all these tickets on my hands. If you tune in tonight to Fever Pitch from 12-2am, it's going to be a ticket giveaway extravaganza. Our request line is 533-CFRC so tune in and win.

5:48am: Wow thanks everyone! That was a really fun birthday yesterday...I'll sing Another One Bites The Dust For You all anytime you want...it doesn't have to be just a 'special occaison' thing.

5:27pm: Fever Pitch
Air - Brakes On
Belle and Sebastien - Your Cover's Blown
Peaches - Lovertits
Whitey - Just Another Animal
Cut Copy - Bright Neon Paphone
Cut Copy - Future
Cut Copy - Going Nowhere
Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
Phoenix - Too Young
The Unicorns - 2014
BS 2000 - Better, Better
Bumblebeez 81 - Vila Attack
!!! - Dear Can
Felix Da Housecat - What She Wants
Hott Beat - Ramones
Duran Duran - My Own Way
The Faint - The Conductor (Thin White Duke mix)
PiL - This Is Not A Love Song
Franz Ferdinand - Van Tango
New Ordert - Everything's Gone Green
Miss Kittin & The Hacker - 1982
Covenant - Bullet (Remixed by Ellen Allien)
New Order - Ceremony (personal fav)

10:33am: happy birthday to me
I'm at the station right now preparing for my radio show. At this point in time it seems like the only task I am capable of...I should be working on my essay but I am just too exhausted. I ran about a million + 1 errands today and all I can say is "thank god I have a bicycle!". I don't know how I got along without one for the greater part of this summer.

Anyways, tonight I will try and maintain a up to the minute tracklist of all the songs I am playing on my radio show. Tune in to CFRC from 12-2am and watch this space for tracklisty action.

p.s. Tommorrow Katie and I were thinking we'd start the evening off with some backyard grilling and drinking (anytime after 6pm). If you guys want to grill meat on our fabulousy powerful BBQ, by all means go to town (to buy meat, to bring to the BBQ). Also, if someone happens to make it to the beer store, pick me up something and I'll pay you back.

2:51am: Tonight on Fever Pitch:

To make up for last weeks wack show I went out and found some cool new music from Interpol, the Unicorns, Franz Ferdinand (daft punk remix of 'Take Me Out'), Cut Copy, Whitey, The Fever, Gabe Knox, Ben Nelson, Peaches, Rank Sinatra, Junior Boys, Chromeo, The Pixies and more...

Tune into CFRC from 12-2am.

10:18pm: Winamp vs. iTunes ?

Everyone seems to be all about the latter, but I'm still not sold. Enlighten me as to the virtues of not having a "Stop" button for when you don't want to hear music anymore. Anyone?

2:09am: I get far too much of a kick out of these...

5:25am: After spending the last 3 days on a train I feel like a shadow of my former-self, but I am back and headed straight for a hot shower followed by a long sleep....No more "semi-reclining chairs with metal armrests/pillows" for this tired hack...It's off to the world of down feather pillowcases and 200 thread-count sheets....but first, some notes:

-the National Campus/Community Radio Conference was absolutely enthralling and filled with far too many highlights to mention here (more on this later)

- CKXU FM (straight outta Lethbridge, Alberta) is my new favourite "little radio station that could". I'll admit that before this conference, I didn't even know that Lethbridge had a University, let alone a radio station. However, after making friends with both their program manager and their music director, I must admit that I am hopelessly in love with this radio station. Their program manager also hosts a show that eerily mirrors exactly what my radio show sounds like...Anyways, yeaaaaahhhhhh new frieeeenddzzz! (1.send me the pictures from your digicam if you are reading this, 2. your mother)

- My new favourite band is a combination of Kraftwerk, New Order and !!!. I saw Dietzche V & the Abominable Snowman perform for a crowd of about 20 people on a boat that sails up and down the North Saskatchewan River, which runs through Edmonton. These guys were all about tight jeans, synthy beats and live drums. I love how when you are in a synth-pop band, you start a new song by putting a floppy diskette into a keyboard and pressing a few buttons. All they needed was a "Key-tar" (yes, a keyboard-guitar) and they would have been perfect. Although they may just be a self-described "vanity side project" of another local band, they seriously rocked. Lots of fun...need mp3s....

-meeting Patti Schmidt, host of the fabulous "Brave New Waves" on CBC Radio 2. Watching her speak was truly memorable. Her speech was rendered all the more timely by the fact that it was the day after the election, which the Conservatives narrowly lost...Schmidt was grateful (as were many other CBC employees) because Conservative leader Stephen Harper has taken a rather questionable stance on matters Canadian culture and public broadcasting.

-Dancing to Franz Ferdinand with new radio friends at the Mod Club.

-Attending Edmonton's own version of Dance to The Underground. It's called NRMLS WLCM(Normals Welcome) and it's put together by this local dude named Nik Kozub who reminds me a lot of "Richie Tennenbaum". This guy is a local musician/DJ/ Graphic designer and is seriously a man-about-town. After first seeing him at the concert on the river boat, it honestly became a challenge not to run into him everywhere we went for the rest of my trip. Anyways, "NRMLS WLCM" was a good night out and it got my excited to re-launch our CFRC alternative music night again in September. Click here to read an article about the Edmonton scene.

- My computer speakers have gone from stereo to mono. Yet another fuckup that is signalling the imminent demise of my beloved nerd machine. FONOHELP!!!!

-more later, I suppose

12:04pm: cause i'm leaving on a shit train...
Preparations are well underway for my incredibly last minute conference trip that will see me away from Kingston and off to Edmonton from June 26th till July 6th. I was born in Edmonton so this will be a strange homecoming of sorts. I am going to a conference that is organized by the NCRA which is basically an organization to which all other campus/community radio stations across Canada belong. This is the first time in a long time that our station has been a part of this organization so this will be our grand debut, of sorts. It seems like a pretty action packed conference, a careful blend of both business and pleasure. The days are devoted to information sessions relating to all sorts of topics that affect us as broadcasters. They cover everything from advertising ethics to creating quality news programming. (website is here: http://www.cjsr.com/ncrc )

The entertainment lineup for this conference looks pretty top shelf as well, with a bunch of industry parties. In addition to some bands I haven't heard before, I will get to see both Manitoba and Bullfrog. I hope Bullrog is better than they were when I saw them last time. That would mean that their MC and DJ play a more prominent role in the band and Marc Robertson hopefully won't be hogging the mic with his mediocre half-baked funk jams. Other than that, I plan on stalking Patti Schmidt (host of CBC Radio 3's "Brave New Waves").

Oh also, I am taking the train to Edmonton. It will take 2 days. (Not a word of a lie). I leave 5:30 am on Saturday and arrive in Edmonton on Monday morning. I plan on taking the following items with me to make the trip as bearable as possible:

-ear plugs
-3 novels (The Great Shark Hunt, Prisoner of Azkaban, & Porno)
-liquor (on my father's advice)
-readings and homework for school
-gravol (in lieu of serious prescription sleeping pills)
-a disposable camera
-somethings to eat (train food is a rip off and thoroughly gross)
-discman with the latest CDs I just finished burning from the station's music library (although it turns out the new Beastie Boys record is J-U-N-K)

Other than that, I will be gone till July 5th. If anyone needs to reach me I will have my cellphone which should work in Edmonton.

I'll try and make an update or two from the conference.

Bye.

6:27pm: Can somebody shed light on the subject?
Did anybody read Pitchfork today? What was up with that major retraction on the front page? Did anybody read the article in question? I'll post the retraction as it appeared today in the space below, as it is unlikely that it will remain on the front page of Pitchfork for much longer.

RETRACTION

Last Tuesday, June 15th, Pitchfork published a review of the Beastie Boys' To the 5 Boroughs by Brent DiCrescenzo, a frequent and trusted contributor. In his review, Brent detailed experiences with the Beastie Boys' public relations firm Nasty Little Man, and its president Steve Martin, over the course of several years. Pitchfork has since determined that a number of DiCrescenzo's assertions were false, based on corroborated statements from the two parties he claimed were participating in the chain of events referred to in the review. With apologies to Steve Martin and Nasty Little Man, we have retracted the original review in its entirety, and would like to make the following known publicly, to correct any and all falsities perpetrated by Brent's review:

1) Radiohead were never in Milan in June 1999.

2) Radiohead never moved a concert from Villa Reale in Milan to Monza in 1999, 2000 or otherwise.

3) Steve Martin never "forgot to tell" Brent that the concert was moved, as it was not.

4) Neither Steve Martin, nor anyone working for Nasty Little Man, ever confirmed a Radiohead interview with Brent DiCrescenzo or Pitchfork.

5) Brent DiCrescenzo's declaration that Steve Martin had not gotten back to him or Mean magazine about a possible Beastie Boys interview after six weeks is untrue: Martin was in constant contact with Mean publisher Kashy Khaledi and editor Andy Hunter throughout that period.

6) Mean magazine never "delayed their publication to accomodate [Martin's] procrastination." Kashy Khaledi did so of his own volition in order to keep the Beastie Boys cover story Martin had confirmed and saw through with him every step of the way.

7) Steve Martin has never, to Brent DiCrescenzo's knowledge, "dangled [his] major artists... like carrots to the media in an attempt to blackmail press for features" on less established artists or bands.

Sincerely,
Pitchfork Media