So this is my first post on here, so bare with me. I’d like to take a few moments to  talk about how much skateboarding has changed and grown since we were all kids. With the growing popularity of the MTV stars like Rob Dyrdek, it seems that skateboarding has got it’s “second wind” in this decade. Although, it’s also taken a step back to the 80′s as well. It’s great to see the youth taking such a charge at the pro skate scene, but these skinny jeans and neon clothes have got to go! But, on a more interesting note, the new alien workshop video kicked a pile of ass with awards this including best video and best video part going to Anthony Van Engelen! Too bad Josh Kalis left after the video hit it big!

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Moar Bass?

Quick links for some of the best internet streaming audio stations out there. Click the links and they should either open inside your media player and commence grooving.

• Sonic Universe – Eclectic takes on traditional jazz.
• PopTron! – Electropop and indie dance rock with sparkle and pop.
• Groove Salad – A nicely chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves.
• Radio Caroline – Amazing mix of classic rock.
• Folk Alley – The greatest folk station on the internets.
• KEXP Live – Nice mix of assorted genres. (Uncompressed audio, great quality but requires a very fast net connection)

Check out Soma FM for more sweet streaming tunes.

When thinking of hard work and the impossibility and shear weight of our accumulative quotidian engagements, I have long conjured the image of a hefty Russian woman at the butcher shop with Popeye forearms and a cigarette dangling from her smeared, snarling mouth, pounding ground beef into little tiny bun-sized meat patties. Today I learned that hard work involves making ends MEET, and that hamburgers have absolutely nothing to do with survival.

I like my version so much more.

Seen any good movies lately?

Lots of great movies have been coming out in the last year or two, and a few not so great. I’d like to take this time to throw out some recommendations and talk about some of the flicks I’ve seen lately. If you’re like me and tend to avoid the theatres, you may have missed a few of the newer movies, but of course, that’s what the internets are for! Let’s get right to it and talk about some favourites from the past year, and maybe a stinker or two.

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A personal favorite

Inspired by the high-standard to which Mr. Gray and Mr. Ennis have raised this blog, I am hauling out my snootiest guns. This is the first in a series of installments on wine. Further entries on this topic will build from this introduction. I make no claims to be a sommelier (professional wine taster – there is only one in Newfoundland to my knowledge) or any sort of trained expert.

What I know is what I have picked up by selling wine for the last few years for the NLC and the LCBO. Knowing wine is good cultural capital but it can be intimidating. I offer what I know to ease the learning process.

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Left to Right: Paddy, Josh, Jonny & Matt

For anyone who has grown up or spent any amount of time in Grand Falls-Windsor, it is more than apparent that there is an abundance of musical talent that hails from this town. Many of these musicians/artists have moved on to other places in order to make good on their desires; to be something more than the usual weekend warriors in our small town.

Of all of those who have made the attempt, I’d like to point out some of these talented individuals in this blog. A lil home town pride can go a long way! You never know who you’ll see on here; maybe a former classmate, an old friend from girl guides or boy scouts, that weird little kid who grew up next door… who knows! I just hope I find enough artists to make this a regular post… (sighs)

The first group I’d like to introduce: Matthew Hornell and The Diamond Minds, a four-piece that’s putting their mark all over the St. John’s circuit. So much so that they’re opening for the Novaks this evening… while I sit hear greasy faced, drinking cold tea and listening to my parents howl at the newest episode of “Just for Laughs” in the background.

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Ian smash!

Frustrating. The quick willingness with which people will categorize the others. You know the others? The stupid ones that don’t have your history, english or philosophy degree? Those idiots that lack your specialized knowledge of computers or nutrition. Taste my sarcasm here. A whole world split between the knowledgeable few who know what you know and the rest of us.

I think this is a problem of associating with too many like-minded people. Its too easy to self-congratulate when you are surrounded by people who benefit their own egos by sharing in your belief, your superior moral code, your high class taste, your intellectualism.

Of course, this brings me ‘round to my own all-too-obvious hypocrisy. I rant because I know better, I surround myself with people who know better. You know, the superior few, not those ‘others’.