I know what you’re thinking; “Jesse is such a sweet kid. He’s not an alcoholic!” I agree, I’m a sweet kid, but I have to disagree on the latter. Though I’m not the typical alcoholic (I don’t drink daily, sometimes not even weekly!), I have learned that binge drinking is another form of alcoholism.
For those that know me, I am no stranger to partying hard and blacking out. In fact, I black out most nights that I hit the drink.
It’s a scary thing to lose control and have no recollection of the night before. It has been the cause of many problems, embarrassment and financial problems; most recently, losing two pairs of glasses in two weeks.
So as of June 1, I have decided to break this hangover habit and limit my drinking.
I have tried quitting cold turkey in the past which has only resulted in me falling back into old ways on my first attempt back in the social drinking game.
These past attempts have foiled not due to lack of support, but due to my lack of motivation and willingness to quit the bottle.
After much deliberation I settled upon a 3 drink limit. This enables me to still go out, get loose and not feel like the odd man out.
I invite you along for the ride, through the highs and lows of this journey as I share this experience and some drunken stories from my past in an attempt to (finally) take control of this problem.
The Koreans have created a new exercise machine called Horse Riding Fitness Ace Power! The fact that I can’t understand a word they are saying makes it even that much better. Actually, there is one word I picked up on. Listen carefully at 2:55 in the video:
I can’t wait to see South Park’s parody of this piece of equipment. Here’s a look back on their Shake Weight commercial:
I should be asleep. I’m going to Canada’s Wonderland early in the morning, but have been glued to my computer screen spending the last 2-3 hours on Google and YouTube researching swing dancing.
I’m a big fan of old movies, mainly for the music and dance. The other day, I found a great oldies radio station named The UK 1940s Radio Station. It plays music and news from the 1920s-40s. I put the station on to fall asleep to but the music just makes me want to dance, hence my current state of insomnia.
I’ve learned that there are many types of dance that play a part in swing dancing like The Charleston, Lindy Hop, Jive, and Jazz.
There’s a Saturday Night Swing dance held weekly at the Dovercourt House near my place. Maybe I’ll check it out this week.
I’ll leave you with my favourite old and new video from the night, Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers from the movie Helzapoppin’, and Camp Jitterbug 2010 Lindy Hop Couples Finals. Such talent!
Well that was fun! Some Facebook creepin’ led me to Emo Picnic 7 hosted by Chris Cammarata from POPPUNKSNOTDEAD.NET. It’s a site that I frequent to find new music so it was great to meet Chris.
The weather man was calling for thunderstorms this afternoon but as luck would have it, the storms steered clear of Christie Pits Park.
We enjoyed some toys and games from the dollar store and some delicious cupcakes, sandwiches and pasta.
First up was Burlington’s Fire Away. Even though it was an acoustic set, the entire pop punk outfit made the trip to the city to hang out. Mike was even kind enough to buy me an Arizona from the corner store. I’m looking forward to seeing these guys again with Everyone Everywhere on June 26th at Sneaky Dee’s.
Next was Braden Barrie, better known by his stage name of SayWeCanFly. He looked so young but packed a punch with his powerful, clean vocals and intelligent lyrics that really hit home. For fans of Cute Is What We Aim For and The Rocket Summer.
Last to play was Like Pacific. I can’t help but compare this Toronto band to The Wonder Years. Catchy pop punk (with the odd hardcore breakdown) paired together with Soupy-esque lyrics that feel like you’re talking to a bro. Singer, Jordan, is even a ginger! Great stuff.
Thanks again to Chris for putting on the event and providing goodies for everyone, and thanks to the bands and new friends. See you around.
I’m at a bit of a crossroads in my life. I have recently quit my job and moved to a new city (again) to try to find opportunity and happiness. Since making the move, I have been experiencing anxiety and uncertainty. It’s not the first time I’ve experienced these emotions but it’s never a welcome feeling.
I’ve always been one to follow my gut and do what makes me happy, but as I get older (and have more talks with my family about my future) I worry more about what’s in store for me 5 or 10 years down the road. One thing that worries me is that I will turn out like my dad; over 50, unemployed and still living at home.
I have come to realize that every decision that I have made has led me to where I am today and I wonder, have I made the right decisions recently? Should I have waited until my lease was up before moving? What if I had not quit my job in Ottawa? What am I going to do about my debt?
Are these some of the same decisions my dad made when he was my age?
After watching the following Ted Talks video featuring psychologist Honey Langcaster James, I have been inspired to answer these questions and come up with a solution; a life solution to figure out what is most important to me and what I need to do to achieve these goals.
She presents a simple 7-step solution with a clever acronym: Begin with your happy ending Explore Look, listen and learn Invest Equip your environment Visualize Expect success
First off, I think it’s a waste of time to dwell on the past and hold onto regrets. I don’t regret moving. I don’t regret moving the first time either and studying a near-pointless subject in college (Ski Resort Operations and Management) that has led me to debt. It’s that program that brought me to Whistler and gave me some great opportunities during my four years there. It’s also the place where I met some of my best friends and made some great memories. Now living in Toronto, I just have to be patient to find a job and get a routine in place before I can shake off this anxiety; the same anxiety that I felt during that first move.
I will analyze my debt more closely and come up with a plan to reduce that debt. In order to do that, I need to find the right job(s) to pay the bills and live within my earnings (I like to think that I am older and wiser and have learned from my past mistakes) all while paying off debt first and saving second. I’m not sure what I’ll be saving for, but I’ve got some time to figure that out.
At the same time, I don’t want to overwork myself and need to make time for my hobbies; skateboarding, photography, and playing music. Of course, those cost money as well.
It seems I have a lot to think about.
Take the time to watch the video and really think about the 7 steps presented by Ms James. Maybe this will help to believe in yourself and figure out a life solution as well.
Feel free to share your goals and action plan in the comments.
I just got home from the skatepark at Dundas and Bathurst (for those who don’t know, I moved to Toronto) and started lurking on Facebook when I stumbled upon this video.
Although I neglected to complete a post for Day 3 of Pouzza Fest, I feel this will more than make up for my laziness.
Here is a mix tape of some of my favourite and newly discovered bands that performed at Pouzza Fest 2012. These 16 bands represent a small percentage of the 100+ bands that played this year. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to catch all of the acts, these are the ones that really stood out for me. Hopefully you’ll discover some new bands through this mix.
I decided to start the mix with my favourite newly discovered band of Pouzza Fest, Pentimento. Here’s the track listing:
It was tough to wake up in the morning but today had an exciting itinerary.
We started by going to sushi then hitting up Foufs by 3pm to catch Farler’s Fury, a punk rock group with bagpipes.
A couple of bands later was Saint Alvia. This is one of the bands I had been looking forward to watching at Pouzza Fest. Because of the short set, they opted to play only new songs. However, the new songs were great. I’m looking forward to their new album later this summer.
After reading on the Pouzza Fest Facebook page about some people’s bad experiences with the whole ticket to passes ratio and not being able to attend some concerts, me and Bailey quickly decided to wait in line at Club Soda in hopes to get inside to see Brixton Robbers, Cheap Girls, Tim Barry, The Lawrence Arms and Lagwagon.
We were in line almost 3 hours before the doors opened. I’m glad we went at that time because the line grew pretty quickly. It was apparent that many of the people waiting in line would not make it inside, but I knew we were safe.
We took turns going to the depanneur across the street to pick up 6-packs of beer. The lack of food, hot sun and beer made time go by pretty quickly. Some fans even brought guitars. We all sang along to this group playing American Slang by The Gaslight Anthem:
It was 6 o’clock, still one hour before the doors were set to open, so Bailey ran across to get this smoked meat poutine. This was his 5th poutine during Pouzza Fest (he ate his 6th later that night).
It was probably a dick move on our part, but we just couldn’t let Chris of The Flatliners wait at the back of the line. He texted me and found us in line about 20 minutes before the doors opened.
In case some of you didn’t know, I’ll be Chris’ new roommate in Toronto come the end of the month. He’ll be away on tour in Australia and Europe until mid July so it was great to have a chance to hang out and have a few beer together at the show.
Here’s a photo for other future roommate Bobbie. He wasn’t able to make it to Pouzza Fest this weekend and is a big fan of The Lawrence Arms.
I awoke in my hotel room to four texts and three missed calls from Bailey. It was 1am, the show had finished at Club Soda and Bailey was already at Frites Alors for the secret show. I left the hotel room and ran as fast as I could to the venue. I ran so fast that I didn’t hear the music and went four blocks past the venue. I backtracked and found the venue in time to watch the last half of Chris’ set.
Next up was Joey Cape of Lagwagon. He opened with my favourite Lagwagon song May 16 which was on repeat every time I played Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 on Playstation.
After the show we celebrated Bailey’s 25th birthday with a fresh, late night pouzza.
Next, we tackle the third and final day of Pouzza Fest.
Kicked off the morning with a coffee and picked up our passes. I got this fancy guy:
A quick trip to the deppaneur and we were back at the UQAM Residence to predrink with Dustin and friends. Me and Bailey got a good buzz going and we were getting hungry so naturally we decided to start things off with some pouzza.
We didn’t want to miss out on the bands at Foufs so we went about an hour before doors opened. We were pleasantly surprised by their beer specials; $4 tall cans of PBR and 4 bottles of Molson for $10.
Doors opened at 5pm and everybody funneled into the venue. We met up with a fellow friend from Ottawa, Jeff Seguin and caught the first few bands together. I should point out that The Hunters and Dig It Up are fucking rad. Much better than what I was expecting as opening bands. They will definitely be going on my post-Pouzza playlist.
The Menzingers took the stage after The Blacklist Royals. The Menzingers are one of my favourite bands and this being my first chance to see them in concert, I rushed up to the front of the stage. The first chord was strum and the crowd went nuts! My glasses were knocked off my face and were instantly lost in the sea of legs that surrounded me. Jeff lost his plugs during the same song and another unfortunate concert-goer that was next to me also lost his glasses. But that didn’t stop us from enjoying the music. People were like popcorn rushing up on stage to dive into the crowd, while others moshed and started to crowd surf.
I left near the end of their set to rush over to L’Absynthe to catch Dustin in Stay Home. Their set list was cut short by the sound guy due to the previous band finishing late but they still played a fun set of fast, catchy punk rock. Click their name above to check out their music.
I wanted to get back into Foufs to check out The Flatliners, Bouncing Souls and Hot Water Music but the venue was packed and there was no chance of getting back in. I guess these things happen for a reason. Next up after Stay Home was Pentimento from Buffalo, NY. This 4-piece rock outfit reminds me of Polar Bear Club and Against Me.
Apparently there are some student protests that have been happening over the past few months in Montreal. From what I gather, they’re protesting the rising cost of tuition in the province. It was amazing to step outside of the venue and run into this:
I’ve got some words and photos of the next two bands, The Snips and Junior Battles, but I’ll just let the videos do the talking. Great energy from the crowd. Amazing night.
The Snips. Can somebody please tell me what hit Ricky in the eye? I can’t tell from the video, but it definitely doesn’t look like the mic.
iamjessenelson.wordpress.com 