I Really Need To Go To Work? Wah!

Oh, morning, you cruel bitch. Heh. Nothing like a work morning after getting to bed a little after 2.

I'm on the second cup of coffee, but it's not helping yet. Looks like the heat wave is back for one valiant last kick at the can, so shorts are my attire of the day for work.

I need to swing by the Robson Law Courts to formally lodge a dispute against my ticket this morning, too. Ugh. I should have done it Monday, but if I had, I wouldn't have gotten all my accomplishments done this week.

The weekend just kicked my ass. I normally cope well in heat waves, but this one this time just killed me, so my eager plans to conquer the world turned into the happiness of sloth. But that's all right.

I spent much of Monday and Tuesday scrubbing. Scrubbing the bathroom tiles, the bathroom floor, the kitchen floor and counters. I mean, my apartment's 56 years old and, I shit you not, I think the kitchen floor is original. I scrubbed that thing like you wouldn't believe, and the amount of dirt that came off... wow, I think I returned my floors to early '80s pristine, man!

The Real Canadian Superstore has come out with a great line of "green" products and they have this new super-concentrated "scrubbing compound" that appears to be a baking soda paste, and the stuff's unbelievable. Just unbelievably strong and good.

I'm an untidy person, but I clean often, so I hate it when stuff I clean stays dirty, like my floor. But I got down and scrubbed with that paste for about 45 minutes, and my floor's now about 5 or 6 shades lighter than it was. GayBoy scoffed in disbelief when he looked at it yesterday. "Looks like I'll be doing mine soon," he says.

My shower walls look like new now, too. The great thing about this scrubbing compound is, it never bothered my lungs one bit and I was in close contact with it for two whole days. Not even my hands got irritated from exposure. Hell, my skin didn't even dry out.

I used to have a lot of reasons to hate the Superstore, but the more they change to this green-inspired corporate outlook and they keep bringing in new healthy "Blue Menu" items, the less I have to justify what used to fuel me against them. Besides, they're cheaper than anyone else.

***

Music: I have now copied more than 74 days and 10 gigs of compact discs to my computer.

I still have 50 more CDs on the shelf, and some 100+ left in this binder of mine. Good lord. Then, when I'm done all this copying, I'll need to gut all my remaining CDs and buy 3 to 4 more of these binders and transfer everything over. I've already set the bar high for that... this first binder of mine is completely alphabetical.

I'm not getting crazy and organizing by genre. I'll just put world, classical, and "other" less prominent genres in another binder and keep the main part of my collection all together.

Plus, I still have about1,500-2,000 songs on my laptop to copy over. God. Teehee. I'm gonna need a bigger iPOD after all. Oh well. Christmas isn't too far off now. Sadly.

***
Concert: Kenny Wayne Shepherd puts on one hell of a show.

Playing well is one thing. Playing hard is another thing. Playing a long time is still another. Not taking breaks is even bigger.

Check all of the above for Kenny Wayne Shepherd.

I've never really listened to him, just because his music's not really the sort of thing I listen to around the house, you know? But he's in that very select group of artists I appreciate and I have noted under "SEE LIVE SOMETIME" because you just know they're going to deliver.

Ben Harper, for instance, was in that crowd. Carlos Santana. A little-known group called The Dirty Three (some of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds defected for a trio of standing bass, violin, and drums... unbelievable live, but loses much in the translation on CD for me, but still worth checking out in every format).

Kenny Wayne makes the cut, though. He really does. So, no, I didn't know all the songs other than Slow Ride, True Lies, etc, but fuck, that boy can PLAY.

Here's the kicker, okay? For more than 2 hours they played, non-stop. Kenny just went from one riff into another into another and into another. GayBoy felt like Kenny could channel a little Stevie Ray here and there, and the kid seemed to. He just fucking WENT from start to finish last night.

He was wearing two shirts layered, a long-sleeved jersey under a black t-shirt, and he played for two and a half hours, never changed his shirt, and never EVER sweated. Didn't have sweat pouring off his face, no hair matting to his face, no sweat stains under his arms. Not a drop.

And he fucking worked it out the whole show. I couldn't believe he wasn't sweating. The kid's a machine. That's the only answer, he's a machine. But a machine who plays some seriously great licks. We were all grateful when it ended, 'cos he just went full-on the whole time that I think we were all pretty knackered.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, when it comes to seeing music live, you know who sees it as a job and who sees it as their life. For Kenny Wayne Shepherd, it's obviously just like breathing and it's a part of his life. For that reason, you get 2.5 hours with him.

I still won't listen to him around the house. But I'll see him again any time he wants to visit. That was a great show. Another one off the to-do list. :)

(Shaun Verrault, the front guy for Wide Mouth Mason opened, and it's the fourth time, at least, maybe fifth, I've seen him. Shaun's growing up. He's lost his arrogance and dickheadedness that turned me off the second time I saw him, and now he's found his sense of humour. I really enjoyed last night's performance, and it's good to see that Shaun's really becoming a workhorse on the Canadian scene. I think his new song he tried on us last night about fuckhead friends who come over and do careless shit to your house is going to be a hit. It's fucking hilarious. So's his "Everything I Do For You (Is Because of the Shit I Get From You)" or whatever it's called. He's really starting to appeal more to me now that his "real" side's coming out on stage more. Good going, Shaun.)