Thursday, June 10th, 2004

Bartering Lines

(ring ring)

“Hello?”

“Hello?”

“Can I speak to Jamal?”

“Sorry, you’ve got the wrong number.”

“Wrong number?”

“Wrong number.”

“Are you Turkish?”

“Nope.”

“No?”

“No.”

“Oh, okay. Bye.”

NOW’s NXNE minisite has schedules, critics picks, artist profiles and daily updates for the music festival kicking off in earnest tonight. For everything that’s going on, I’m still only planning on going to the Rainbow Quartz showcase at Healey’s tomorrow night ($8 at the door). Maybe I’ll try to get into the Feist show at the Mod Club on Saturday. I dunno.

Speaking of Feist, she is this week’s eye cover girl as well as the main feature in The Toronto Star’s “What’s On” section.

To everyone who thought Ryan Adams was off his nut when he shut down his website in honour of Friends’ finale – there may have been a method to his madness. Freshly recovered from mourning Ross and Rachel and Joey and company, Adams has put an album’s worth of demos up on his website. The material has been circulating amongst traders as a bootleg entitled Exile On Franklin Street and comprises all-new material except for versions of “Come Pick Me Up” off of Heartbreaker and “Rescue Blues” from Gold. I’ve only listened to a few tracks but it sounds good – all very stripped-down and simple-like, sort of how Ryan sounded before he turned up the suck. It’s all in a Flash player so you can’t easily save it down, but it’s surely all available on your favourite P2P network as we speak. I’m not so much surprised that he’s done this, but that he did it without mouthing off about it to anyone within earshot. NME has some more info.

Franz Ferdinand will do an autograph session at the HMV on Queen W at 6pm on Monday June 14 before heading down to the Kool Haus for their sold-out show. For my part, I think I’ve just sold my ticket for the concert. The idea of getting my ass from rehearsal down to the venue and then back home afterwards all on a Monday night is not very appealing at all. And anyway, I saw them earlier this year at the Horseshoe and I doubt this show will better it. The Toronto Star has a piece on the band.

There will be no advance tickets for the Sea Ray show at the Rivoli June 21 – just $10 at the door. Just in case you were waiting for ticket info. Like I was. But aren’t anymore. Ahem.

Okay, so this Orkut thing – it’s different from Friendster how, exactly? Beats me, but I have a profile now. Actually I have two, accidentally. If you’re there too, hit me up.

I had been working a pretty good no-wedding streak since last Summer. Since about March of 1998, I’ve had at least one wedding on the calendar through till August 2003 when the last one came and went – I think there were in total nine or ten in that five year span. Now I don’t mind going to weddings – the food is usually quite good and it’s fun to celebrate the nuptials of friends and family, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved to not have to worry about the whole rigamarole of gifts, cards, travel, tying a tie, etc. I’m lazy, y’see. Anyway, that streak is now technically broken – I got an invitation yesterday for the wedding of a girl I knew in high school this August. I haven’t decided if I’m going yet – we weren’t especially close and while it’s reasonably local (ceremony in Hamilton, reception up by the airport), the logistics of it all don’t have me real excited. I’ll ponder it for a while. This wedding is noteworthy, however, for being the first one for any of my friends from high school. Ten years out from graduation and no one else is married yet. That’s kinda weird.

np – Calexico / Hot Rail

By : Frank Yang at 8:24 am
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. Eva says:

    I found your orkut profile and added the one with more than one people in it. You can find several more Toronto bloggers through my profile. It’s oh so networky.

    Incidently, there is also someone else with your name in California on Orkut. And nobody has photos, so it all requires reading and thinking. Very difficult.

  2. merckeda says:

    Go to Feist. It’s part of your blogging duty. Since she’s getting a ton of press, it’s up to you to reveal if the hype is worth it!

    …Or something like that. FEISTFEISTFEIST GOGOGO.