Wrath of Lamb August 31/10

So, the city is now making the move to ban camping on boulevards... in an effort to stop all those folks from hanging out and living in the middle of Pandora Avenue. It's gonna take an amendment to their streets and traffic bylaw. Okay, then why didn't they do this before? I don't know if you've driven down the 900-block of Pandora lately, but it resembles something like a refugee camp. It's one of those sticky situations, because if they remove them from Pandora, then they will most certainly set up somewhere else. And who knows where that might be.

At least with Pandora, there is a certain containment... the police know where they are, and the good folks of Victoria know which street to avoid. The problem is, there are people who live and work down in that area, and it's no fault of their own that they have to walk through that mess every day. It's interesting to note, that to deal with the camping problem, the city opened up 85 more shelter beds this summer, but they remain only half full. Which means the people camping on Pandora are not there out of necessity... they're there because it's a place to hang out with complete freedom. Kind of hard to garner a lot of sympathy there. I'll guarantee when the weather turns wet and cold, those shelter beds will be full. Being homeless and addicted to drugs must be awful, and everything must be done to help these folks clean up and get off the street. But when those same people shun help, and would rather party in the middle of our downtown streets, it's time to put the foot down.

Wrath of Lamb August 27/10

I found out last week that I might have been at a somewhat historic gig here in Victoria, back in the day. Jeremy Baker had started a thread on Facebook about the time Pearl Jam played at Harpos in the early 90s, and then someone brought up the time Nirvana played the Forge, in like 1991. The Forge was where Element, or Club 9-1-9 is now. A guy named Darren, who used to run with my little crew back in the day, piped up and said 'Jason, I have a photo somewhere of you at the Nirvana gig'.

Wow. I have no recollection of being at that show, but it is most certainly a possiblity.

You see, back then I went to many many gigs, and I don't remember most of them, for various reasons. Seeing Nirvana back then would not have meant anything at the time, as noone knew who they were. But it's cool to think that maybe I was there. I hope I was. And I hope Darren can find that photo.

Wrath of Lamb August 26/10

I just wanted to get the word out to some people out there who may not know. Heckler's, the comedy club that I work at on the weekends, has started doing amatuer comedy nights. They happen every second Sunday... we just had one last week, so the next one is on September 5th. We've done seven of them now, and it's amazing how much local talent we have in this city. Last week was probably the best show so far... everybody had a good set. And for the first time, we had a female comic on the bill... her name was Teresa and she was hilarious. We've had several women sign up in the past, but they've all bailed out at the last minute. I encourage you to check out amateur night sometime. And hey, if you ever thought you'd like to give stand-up comedy a try, find the Hecklers amateur night Facebook page and sign up. And maybe I'll see you on stage!

Wrath of Lamb August 25/10

I found out yesterday that FUBAR 2 is coming out soon. This makes me unbelievably happy. FUBAR was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen in my life. I saw it in the theatre with my wife and a friend, and they were concerned because I was laughing so hard, I could barely breathe. Only a few movies have caused me to laugh hysterically and uncontrollably.... the Monty Python movies, Austin Powers, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Borat.

I think what I connected to most with FUBAR is that those two guys are a lot like the guys I went camping with back in the day. And some of them are still like that. I recommended FUBAR to my friend Steve, who was exactly like that... still is to certain extent. He watched it and then called me up... 'Dude, that movie was hilarious! But holy crap, man, I mean that guy DIED in the river!! I can't believe they showed that'. I said 'Steve, you know the movie was fake, right? Not a real documentary'.'Oh'.

Steve thought it was real.

I'm gonna make it my mission to get the FUBAR guys on the morning show. If you haven't seen FUBAR, run out and get it now. Then join me in the line to see FUBAR 2.

Wrath of Lamb August 24/10

So, Tiger Woods is now officially divorced from his wife Elin. It was nine months ago that Tiger crashed his SUV into a tree, and everything quickly unravelled from there. We all found out that he had been unfaithful to his wife, with potentially dozens of women of varying degrees of skankiness. He took a long break from golf, and then started up again.... but he hasn't won a tournament since, and in fact has played worse than ever before in his career. It seems practically impossible for that to be a coincidence.

So, the question is.... was it the love of his wife that was the secret to his game, or the multiple sex partners on the side? Or perhaps he just can't get over the shock of getting caught, and the public pressure that came along with it. Either way, Tiger Woods needs to get back on his game... and fast. Otherwise, he will soon lose his reign as the best golfer in the world.

He better hope Phil Mickelson doesn't start cheating on his wife.

Wrath of Lamb August 23/10

Happy Birthday to Keith Moon. He was the drummer for The Who, and in my opinion, the ultimate rock star. He was the first one to trash a hotel room, drive his car into a swimming pool and smash his drums to pieces on stage. He earned the nickname 'Moon the Loon' for his antics. Animal from the Muppets was based on Keith

He was a drug addict and an alcoholic, and he was damn proud of it, at least for most of his life. This was before rehab became all the rage. Keith died in 1978... about 2 weeks after his 31st birthday. He had overdosed on pills he was taking to control his alcoholism. You don't get a better rock star death than that.

I've always loved Keith Moon, because he represented the ultimate abandon... sex drugs and rock n roll... and you'll never another one like him. Plus, he was an amazing drummer. Happy birthday Keith Moon.

Wrath of Lamb August 20/10

I took my little guy to Beacon Hill Park yesterday. During the summer, I try to take him there about least once a week or so. It truly is a beautiful park, and is nice sanctuary of fresh air and nature in Victoria. There's so much to do with a little kid... the petting zoo is of course number one, but there's also all the ducks, squirrels, flowers, lots of room to run around, and the playground, too.

We were at the playground... and here's a rule that I think should be fairly obvious... if you've gone through puberty, and your voice has changed... maybe you're too old to be playing at the playground. There were two kids, I think they were brothers, and they were running around, up and down the slides, over the monkey bars, barreling over little kids... 'Tag, you're it'. Too old.

Then I was walking through a nice grassy field with Martin, when we came up to an old lady in a wheelchair, just sitting there by herself. I thought 'Oh, I bet she'd be delighted to see a cute little kid'... so I whispered to Martin 'Go up to the nice lady and say hi'. He walked up to her and said 'Hi! It's a great day!'. She said 'Hi!'  Then I noticed she was trying to hide something in her hand... she was nervously talking to my boy, and when I looked closer, I saw she was holding a crack pipe. We had interrupted this little old lady's afternoon coke fix.

Aaaah... fresh air and nature.