13-12-20. days go by(e).

We're here 347 days into the year. This also happens to be 274 days of being a parent alongside my wife. Therefore it's been 272 days since coronavirus really started making some debilitating steam here in Alberta. The 1st 3 of the 274 days were a manner of turning off from the outside world while we nervously awaited our bundle of joy to join us on this place called earth, and carefully driving him home from the Grey Nuns while the hospital set their 1st version of sanitation/capacity regulations in place. The 2nd and 3rd 3-day periods of those 1st 274 days had us sleeping very little, but loving life very VERY much. We were able to safely interact in the world to a very limited extent with 1 trip to the drug store. It wasn't for maybe 290 days into 2020 when we dared to take our son to a very limited and socially-responsible visit to his 1 remaining set of grandparents. All those days seem very very long ago. Like well over 200 days one might say. That's a lot of cribbage. Right. Crib. My paternity leave allowed for 35 consecutive days of "down time" where my wife and I started refining our cribbage playing skills. Before you know it, it turned into just a regular routine of passing our days together while the rest of the world was keeping away from each other, and my wife, my son, and myself were keeping away from the rest of the world!  One of the parts I am most thankful for were the 239 days that came after my 34 days of paternity, where I had the opportunity to work from home. And now with 19 days left in the year, I am for 1, not too too disappointed in 2020. 

At the end of it, I ended up counting every social experience my wife and I had. I did not count the time or days I spent with my Uncle Norm (see previous post), though we all always wish it could have been more. I can tell you I went into West Edmonton Mall 1 time for the purposes of purchasing Animal Crossing at London Drugs, as many of the other stores were sold out of it, largely thanks to people quarantining. It's been especially weird this year not going into WEM, or any malls really, for that matter! I've never done so much online shopping in my life! We did spend a little time and a little money finding some special  bits & bobs in a few shops for our little dude however!

A lot of people did say that these past 9 months allowed for a lot of streaming and binging and game-playing. When our son was sleeping, we didn't really have too much else to do usually other than just that. The gaming consisted of mostly Animal Crossing New Horizon, as it allowed for a good way of decompressing as well as socially-interacting with buds online. My "house" kinda sucks, but I am happy enough to have it situated on a beach on my wife's beautiful island of "Windfall". Personally, I would rather be enhancing my Mario Kart skills, but it's all pretty fun. We continued to watch some of our favourite shows this year, but found some new ones this year too. Due to having a baby --- err --- due to Covid-19, movies were generally a bust for our family (and the rest of the world). That said, we did manage to stream a handful of movies on Netflix, Amazon Prime, or Disney+. Right now I just happen to be watching Bigmouth Season 4 and drinking beer. My wife isn't too impressed, but is increasingly more interested in the characters! 

2020 allowed for way too many bands to release music. I counted 47 full lengths (by mostly all punkrock bands), and another 11 acoustic renditions of both recent and not-so-recent releases. I counted 15 EPs, 10 covers/compilations albums, and 6 singles (including 2 tributes to SNFU). Just too much. Especially when a person spends most of their time listening to...

Podcasts! For podcasts this year, the Rad Dads Podcast was something I really got behind from the early days - and Kristian continues to put out good episodes even now. My wife and I are getting through an episode featuring Caspar Underpants. This podcast has given me something to think about the way I have/will approach fatherhood, and give me more insight to what can be ahead. Thanks Kristian! I am continuing to work through the SYSK back catalogue, and up-to-date on their new releases. I made it too the Christmas 2013 special, so that means only 4 more years of back catalogue to be all caught up! I have been putting Daniel & Jorge Explain the Universe on the backburner, mostly cuz I can't keep up with this as well as all the other media. But only 15 or so episodes behind so that's not terrible either, when they've released more than 200. It would be easier if the Propagandhi Podcast didn't also start this year. I was a few months behind (about 18 episodes), and even now I can't seem to get caught up to more than 2 behind. They are long episodes, but as a fan of the band, I've enjoyed these dudes going into a little more depth of each and every song, 1 episode at a time! Our Couch Potatoes podcast is something my wife and I continue too get a few chuckles out of, even if the Winnipeg podcast moguls are a couple of MVU-loving goofs! They've also given some pretty great pointers in the world of TV and movies. For me, they go back wayyy before the days of podcasting, about 11 or 12 years, where I'd listen to them with my Mom on 630 CHED on Sunday mornings. Wild to think about now... This year, the Couch Potatoes couldn't come up with an official Best Movies of the Year List, but that didn't stop me from making a list of some pretty decent ones I watched with my wife, right from the comfort of our own home! 

Indeed. A lot of staying home. In the early days of parenthood/ The Pandemic, touring artists streamed songs for bored fans on Instagram or wherever. DKM always does a big St. Paddy's day show, but I remember thinking it was pretty cool they were going to do a virtual show for the fans. We didn't watch it. We did watch LIGHTS perform on some of those IG Live feeds, and that was weird and OK! In November she streamed a live show out of Joshua Tree with a DJ friend of hers that would die only a few months later. Kayla and I thought this was a good show though. I paid $$ to my "long time favourite band ever" Death By Stereo to have access to their Album Release show, and have them mail a (signed) CD. Not a bad way to support artists, but it was nothing compared to the Best Show of the year for me...  

Kayla, Hannah, Chantel, and Matt all were able to come together 2 weeks before my son was born, and celebrate my 36th Birthday at the Buckingham for Seth Anderson's album release show. That automatically was likely going to rate as one of the best shows of the year. A unique festival of sorts was booked for the Fall, with about 6 or 8 rad bands, including The Mad Caddies, Choke, Belvedere ... to name a few. Cancelled. Along with countless others - so many I don't know where to even begin. Death By Stereo cancelled but ended up performing my 2nd favourite "live" show of the year. They released an album and provided us fans to safely rage on at home, which I happily did. Definitely not anywhere near as fun as any other Death By Stereo or concert I have ever been to though! 

2020 was amazing for us for mostly 1 reason. For countless others though, we acknowledge how shitty it's been. This largely related to economic downturns and opportunities, but even moreso - the effect of isolation and infection has had on the health far too many. Aside from Covid, 2020 saw Trump in the whitehouse for the bulk of the year which sucked (though thankfully he lost the election). And 2020 saw the loss of several beloved artists and entertainers, not to mention uncles. Aside from Uncle Norm, this year saw the passing of more than I can probably list. 

I don't know if I can really get excited over any "accomplishments" per se.  I did the Ride to Conquer Cancer for 75 or so kilometres 1 Saturday in August all by myself. I believe this was the 8th time participating. This is always rewarding and also gives me a full day dedicated to those whose lives have been cut short by or continue to fight cancer. I did a handful of fundraising for it too, which is also an important especially given the way that this past year has gone. My other accomplishment has been being proud of the time I've been able to spend with my wife and baby. I have done that more than many dads ever get to in the first 9 months of their child's life... I suppose I am more grateful than anything for this. 

There we have it.  Another year in the books. I look forward to see what's up next!

2020 Blog Post #3.

2020 Blog Post #3.

With great sadness, we announce that Norman (Norm) Hale passed away peacefully in his home Monday morning surrounded by family. To Norman, family was more than blood relatives, as he spent 30 years working as a foster parent with his wife of 48 years, Marlene. Together Norman and his wife provided a loving and welcoming home to all who entered it.

Norman made countless friendships that lasted decades through his several ties through the figure skating community. These relationships extended throughout the Edmonton & Sherwood Park areas, to all parts of western Canada. Norman would love spending his time camping, cooking, and creating, with his very thoughtful ways of making sure everybody would be having the best of time. He would be comfortable sharing stories with his friends and family and being involved with finding fun things to do for his kids and grandkids.

Norman is predeceased by his parents, Ruby and Joe Hale, and daughter Shantell; and is survived by his son Darcy and wife Marlene. He will be dearly missed by them, as well as his extensive foster family including Valerie (Bryan) Loucks, Cynthia Maksymiuk, Chris (Misty) Bitternose, Dominic Bitternose, D'arcy (Sam) Clark-Malloy; as well as six brothers and sisters, and several nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

A celebration of the life of this beloved husband, dad, grandpa, uncle, and friend has been tentatively set for June 19th at 2:00 PM at Glenwood Memorial Gardens, where all will be welcome. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Cross Cancer Institute or a charity of your choosing.

RIP Uncle Norm. 13-09-50 - 07-12-20

What A Time To Be Alive.

I lost my the first draft attempt at writing this blog post close to 4 months ago. I won't blame that on the coronavirus,  or anything at all, but rather I'll stick to being gracious for the time that I've had to digest the world we are living in today. It amounts to a little more than appreciating the fact that my family is happy and healthy and relatively self-sufficient in this time of uncertainty, and a little less than being to the point where we can work on the plans we had on the back burner for our little family.

This post began on Day 17 of being a father.  At this time, the mother of my child is chilling with her feet up, and our dear son is stretched out in his bassinet with his hands up by his head. We 3 have been especially close -- maybe even moreso than new families in January or February, as government officials from around the world have been urging people to stay home and keep social distance stave off the spread of infection. 

Needless to say, we have the interest of our son at heart, so we do not need much convincing. 

Before any of this stuff had any steam, Kayla and I were enjoying her pregnancy, living our lives as normally as possible. This included hitting some of our favourite restaurants, going to a couple of concerts, checking out some movies in theatres, watching the Golden Bears play hockey, studying for an RN exam, and working. We had already accepted the a whole bunch of the whacky stuff in the world, like the fact that Trump would likely be the POTUS when our son is born (despite attempts from US congress to have him impeached). We watched with sadness as major world events like Australia's forest fires devastating millions of species across the globe and 82 Canadians dying when commercial flight AF752 was shot down in Iran, killing all 176 people aboard. We also watched with passive interest as a place in the middle of China saw cases of this coronavirus continue to climb through December and January.

It seems like forever ago when we watched with joy as friends came to our home to celebrate my wife finishing her RN program while incorporating a lovely baby shower for her.....We celebrated when good  friends emigrated 12 thousand kilometres across the globe to start new lives in Auckland. We enjoyed spending time at The Buckingham watching good bands and getting to know good friends' girlfriends just a little bit better. It seems like forever ago when I took my wife out to The Rec Room to watch Teenage Bottlerocket and eat pretzels and wander completely carefree to yummy places like Whyte Ave's Continental Treat, or make last minute trips to watch Saoirse Ronin star in Little Women at the Princess Theater, since we knew that when our child was here it would be just a little bit more challenging to do these things.

We never knew it would be quite like this though.

Man o man. In May, government officials began talking about tentative phasing plans to get things "back to normal", despite no real confidence that these plans might work. After all: the world has never seen anything quite like this before. People talk about the Spanish Flu from a hundred years ago. Well today wikipedia describes the 4 waves ranging between 1918 and 1920. The only thing that people ever really know are that there indeed are vulnerable populations, and that there are sure-fire ways of avoiding contracting and transmitting the novel coronavirus. This has become acknowledged as especially important as carriers are frequently asymptomatic. Having a newborn being brought into a world in the state it's currently in makes it a little bit sad, it's true. These aren't the 1980s where our parents mostly had to worry about the recession, or the 90s where our parents mostly had to worry about whether those Michael Jackson allegations might be true or not. Us kids born before the internet  that are having kids now have a slightly more complicated, competitive world. The sheer #s of people striving for a place on the path to success is nothing we could have ever imagined. We can only hope to be as cautious and thoughtful about the best way to achieve that for our progeny in this dog-eat-dog world! Not only that, but guess what: people all around us - including some dear friends - are continuing to have babies too, so there is at least some thought that hope remains... 

So here we are. August. At home, isolated. Quarantined. Safe. Together.  

We will be continuing to do our part in keeping safe and minimizing risk, as there is nothing more important to my wife and me in the universe than the health, safety, and happiness of our little boy. It may indeed all go back to normal, though perhaps not until a time where  COVID-19 cases drop to nearly non-existent levels or a guaranteed 100% effective vaccine is found. Until then, it will likely remain  a relatively solitary life for my little family. And I will continue to love every single minute of it.

For the sake of my son and countless other, let us pray for the wisdom of the scientists and government officials that the right decisions are being made and the resources are  being made available to give us all a chance to live in the world we all once loved.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_coronavirus_pandemic#Diagrams 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgQseZ4-40 

What Was 2019

2019 was a lot of things. It was learning that an uncle like a father likely has esophageal cancer, it was learning that a friend from junior high school took his own life, it was learning that the most passionate friend from engineers without borders succumb to brain cancer.

It was spending my 6th Christmas with my wife. It was getting not 1 new car but 2! It was traveling to Arizona and expanding our pickleball knowledge and skill level. It was finishing our house renovations and hosting a hoard of friends for the first time in the time I've lived here. It was hosting that same hoard to celebrate my wife's finishing of her degree -- oh, did I mention that they came over for the baby shower at the same time? That's right: 2019 was the year I got my wife pregnant. Pulled the trigger! Bam! Job done. That was a damn' pretty big part of 2019, and the 2nd half of the year was a pretty good time planning our future together as a party of 3. Or should I say six? Well, 3 fur animals will always be a big part of our family as well.

So yes, I opened this blog with some very tragic and dismal things that remind us how nothing in life is ever for certain. At the same time, I am motivated to continue to try and live the best life with my wife (and child). Short of that, the best I can do is to summarize some of the "bests" -- maybe a few of the other lows of the year in list form. Here's what that looks like:

The Best (well -- all) Concerts of 2019:
1 - Suicide Helpline, Territories, Fire Next Time
2 - Worst Days Down / Seth Anderson
3 - PUP with Brass @ Starlite Room
4 - Satanic Surfers with Belvedere and Wolfrik in Calgary
5 - Satanic Surfers with Belvedere and Wolfrik in Edmonton
6 - Roadside Bombs, The Foul English (but missed Trashed Ambulance)
7 - Downway w/ Grizzly Trail, A Gentleman's Pact, and Nicholas Rage
8 - Ten Foot Pole @ the Aviary
9 - LIGHTS at the VOGUE in VAN
10 - The Weekend Kids w/ Audio/Rocketry, James Renton and The Old Wives
11 - No Fun At All with Wolfrik, Last In Line, and The Unwashed
12 - Off With Their Heads w/ The Nielsens and Slingshot Dakota
13 - Teenage Bottlerocket with The Isotopes and Suicide Helpline
14 - Grizzly Trail, The Morons, Western Frontline, and Sessions
15 - Mobina Galore with The Ripperz and Broken Yolks
16 - Mistaken Point at the Buck (Blake's new hxc band)

My wife was happy to come out to more than half of these, and I applaud her for that!
Best Albums. The 30 Best Punk Rock Full lengths were these:

And some live albums that were release this year include:
Slick Shoes - Broadcasting Live

Face to Face - Live in a Dive

Authority Zero - Live at the Rebel Lounge

SNFU - And Yet Another Lost Pair of Suspenders 

Casualties - Until Death

They are fine.


I did binge on a lot of Netflix this past year, with only The Dark Crystal, Sex Education, and Derry Girls being the highlights of 2019. Others might have premiered before 2019, but the following are my list of the Best TV shows of the decade include the aforementioned, and 27 others:

#30	Love
#29	Stranger Things
#28	FUBAR: Age of the Computer
#27	Arrested Development
#26	Better Call Saul
#25	Master of None
#24	Community
#23	Parenthood
#22	Fresh off the Boat
#21	Sex Education
#20	Big Mouth
#19	This Is Us
#18	The Good Wife
#17	The Good Place
#16	Orange Is The New Black
#15	Marketplace
#14	Derry Girls
#13	The Goldbergs
#12	The Dark Crystal
#11	Late Show
#10	Late Late Show
#9	Veep
#8	Aggretsuko
#7	The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
#6	Downton Abbey
#5	Trapped
#4	Broadchurch
#3	GOT
#2	Breaking Bad
#1	Coronation street

   

With honourable mentions to:

Refresh Man.

The Best Movies.

It appears that I watched a total of 24 2019 movies either at theaters or at home, most with my wife. If there was a 25th movie we watched, I certainly don't remember it. I assigned the movies I watched letter grades...

Coming up with the best movies of the decade would require quite a bit more time and reflection and time spent on wikipedia, so we will leave that one alone. I did, however, come up with a list of the 10 best punk rock albums of the decade:

2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Bad Religion - The Dissent of Man	The Rebel Spell - It's A Beautiful Future	Propagandhi - Failed States	A Wilhelm Scream - Partycrasher	Lagwagon - Hang
2015	2016	2017	2018	2019
Good Riddance - Peace in Our Time	Mute - Remember Death	88 Fingers Louie - Thank You For Being A Friend	No Fun At All - Grit	Mobina Galore - Don't Worry

Not to mention - The Decade's Best Concerts:

Worst News

Andrew Thomson (2010)

Danny Howard (2019)

Chris Salacki (2019)

Mom (2014)

Other sad, bad things have happened in the past decade, but those ones are the saddest.

Let's hope the next decade sees fewer sad, sad things.

Happy New Years Friends.

Guilty of Being White, Sentenced to Work on Enjoying the Best Life I Can (in a Pretty Messed Up World)

What a clumsy blog post title. I must be out of practice. 

So I am bringing a child into this world. Well, technically my wife is, but I am a part of that happening, and will be a large part of the time (25-55 years) that follows. Honestly, I am a very very excited man, who is joining his wife for her first scan tomorrow.

This is all happening to 2 young, white, professional Canadians in a developed city that has access to emergency services, clean drinking water, heated insulated homes, toothpaste, free-ish medical care, and high speed internet. You know: the basics.

Despite all of our favourite alarmist documentaries, non-fiction books, movies /TV shows released over recent years such as: Watermark, Anthropocene: The Human Epoch, Manufactured Landscapes  featuring the photography of Edward Burtynsky, No Impact Man, The Cove, Earthlings, George Monbiot's "Heat", The Handmaid's Tale, plus the podcast series The End of the World with Josh Clark, and, well, countless others, I am excited.

Despite Trump being the POTUS and Canadians being almost (not quite) as politically divided, and Albertans coming up with stupid ideas like "Wexit" and my own City's mismanagement of funds, inability to plan, and having sold basic infrastructure utilities like power, water, and drainage being run by for-profit companies: I am excited!
The economic demands of the world and the methods of achieving it through exploitation can be very disheartening for even young parents-to-be. These past few months I have become especially weary of  the ads for depression in men, as well as real-life sad stories related to peoples' mental & physical health. The media (social and mainstream) certainly don't make things any easier. I have previously maintained that all them tree-loving hippies are out of touch with what the world needs, and that rather a "punk" anti-establishment burn-it-all-to-the ground philosophy is the mentality - if not the approach that we needed to have in any hope for a better world. Now that I am going to be a father though, I have come up with a couple of necessary secrets to happiness --- no, not "ignorance is bliss" but rather:

Accept things for what they are, 

and

Minimize my own individual negative impact that I am placing on this world in the short time I'm here.

The name of this blog is called eternalhappyness, with that being an underlying theme since its inception. The pragmatic parent-to-be/engineer in me has come to realize that I can likely be most happy AND take care of my family the best if I do a few things:

1 - Acknowledge that we are indeed living on a planet that is beyond repair, effectively putting us into the start of the Sixth Great Extinction.

2 - Surround myself and my family in the healthiest environment (biophysically speaking) that can be afforded

3 - Give myself and my family the opportunity for self-reflection to facilitate each of our mental and spiritual health and growth. Spiritual, in a sense, that we are organic entities in a physical world, and we can all seek to understand our place in that. 

4 - Be gracious and respect my privilege and opportunity, with whatever it is that I already have or may happen to go.
 

SO many people have lived the most wasted lives and worked for all the wrong things. This includes religion, money, and power. It still miffs me how I wrote a whole blog post about Pascal's Wager, which (obviously) was already a well-defined philosophical idea.  It miffs me more how the most powerful people seem to be assholes and exploiters. Sure, I want increased income  - but mostly so that I can comfortably provide for those dearest to me and support  those who have less than me. I want freedom and independence where I am not holden to anything except for my family. Perhaps this is a big ask in such a jaded world, but I do want these things, and will continue to work towards getting them as best as I can.

Minor Threat, 1984

One Post A Year, OK?

2018 had a post. Good job. Now it's 2019. So I better make another post. About 2018. ...But there's just so many other things I ought to be doing rather than blogging! Life always gets busy. I know there's ways of freeing up more time -- only if I ever used that will power to commit to it. Accomplish more. New Year's Resolutions, yes, and just all the other day-to-day crap that would make my life easier if I purged the needless crap from it. But sometimes a guy needs to just decompress. Get that "cerebral scrub" -- as I am sure that I have written about in this blog previously. Just: something.

But like I said, I wanted to write a little about 2018. Just over a year ago, I posted about all the ways that 2017 wasn't all that bad, and now I am here intending to do the same. 

Some of the highlights included hanging out with my wife: it doesn't matter if it were watching Netflix or going to the movies, or walking the dog, or decluttering & minimal-izing, or skiing in the mountains, or hiking around rain forests on Vancouver Island.  We got to see our friends in Falher and we got to share food & drink with other good friends all through the year. We did a couple fun things like seeing Book of Mormon and Craig Ferguson's stand-up show. We went to a Murder Mystery party, where we had some pretty great costumes. We went to a handful of Bears' games and the occasional Improv. Mostly though, my favourite 3 (non-concert) experiences of the entire year included our ski trip to Panorama/Radium/Fernie, which included a half meter of fresh snow when we skiied Fernie, eating blackberries off the bush and visiting the hole in the wall on our trip to Port Alberni, annnddd: finishing our basement. Well, more or less. Touch-ups remain, but on the whole, it's been a great space for us to watch our shows and play our games.

In 2018, Netflix really has exploded. Their movies are now eligible for Academy Award nominations. That said, I've certainly enjoyed watching "lesser" things on there, like FUBAR with Deaner & Terry or Big Mouth.  Thankfully, Netflix picks up network shows so my wife & I can binge-watch This Is Us and Gilmore Girls repeats as well. We really liked the series Broadchurch — even Season 3 with Hailie from Coronation Street was good! We watched the 1st half of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Season 4 in May, as the 2nd half was just released this past weekend. It's pretty great tho! Sadly, I didn't check out Gore's An Inconvenient Sequel, until 2019 (and apparently it was released in 2017). It was a pretty environmentalism documentary though.

Some of those network shows have been ok too. We continue to loveThe Goldbergs and Fresh Off the Boat especially.  Crazy Rich Asians starred FotB's Constance Wu! She's just great. In anticipation of the final season of Game of Thrones, we’ve been re-watching it all from the beginning. It’s probably even better the second time — maybe even better than Gilmore Girls and This Is Us.

A few other notable movies we caught together at the theatre included Wreck-It Ralph 2, The Incredibles 2, Dead Pool 2, Jurassic World 2, The tragic Infinity War, Ready Player One, Isle of Dogs, Black Panther and Small Foot. Out of all these, Crazy Rich Asians was my fave.
 


Last year included a bunch of concerts.  There were a crapload more that we didn't get to, but the ones we did were pretty memorable experiences. These included having a VIP Lights experience at the Winspear Centre in March, then seeing her again on a nice, small stage @ the Station on Jasper Avenue a few months later. Dear Rouge opened one of those shows, and played their own headlining shows later that year also. Future Islands was a rad show at Union Hall. That guy can dance. Last year we also got to see A Vulture Wake open for Good Riddance, Propagandhi play with La Armada & Mobina Galore,  Strung Out play with The Bombpops and Counterpunch, Rise Against play with AFI and Anti-Flag.  The slightly smaller shows included Belvedere with Downway, A Wilhelm Scream with Daggermouth, The Resignators with Fire Next Time, Joey Cape with Brian Wahlstrom, Seth Anderson, and Ben Sir,  The Bronx, 88 Fingers Louie, Ignite, Worst Days Down, Dave Hause, Jesse LeBourdais, and Mandible Klaw were all great too.

Top Shows of 2018

When I wasn't watching things, I was listening to things.  Sure, music (see below), but also since June 2018, I have burned through more than 200 episodes of the Stuff You Should Know podcast. It's just really well produced, and gives some insight into things that I am happy to know (more - or anything) about. I spent half the year following the new releases, I have been catching up on older ones they release via SYSK "selects", and I have been working backwards through the episodes and am almost done all of their 2017 releases. I tried making a list of my favourite episodes from 2018, though many are just as good as these:

1. How hand gliding works, 2. How Trickle Down Economics Works, 3. What Are False Positives?, 4. The Unabomber: Misguided To Say The Least., 5. North Korea: What's the Deal?, 6. How Drowning Works, 7. A List of Games You Would Surly Lose to a Computer, 8. How Occam's Razor Works. 9. Roundabouts: The Problem Is You. 10. Can Anarchism Work? 11. Skyscrapers: 'Scuse Me While I Kiss the Sky. 12. The Disappearance of the Yuba County 5, 13. The Dylatov Pass Mystery, 14. Seriously: What is Dark Matter? 15. Recycling: How's it Going?

There's a small handful of other podcasts like PunkAnormal, Mable Syndrome, Anxious & Angry, and Daniel & Jorge Explain the Universe, which consumed some of my 2018 as well.

Another way that any year doesn't especially suck is if a close friend or family member passes away. Otherwise, we mourn the losses of other significant contributors to our planet, who typically happen to be artists, or occasionally scientists - and rarely - politicians. A friend of a friend named Chad O'Quinn died this past year at far too young an age. Otherwise some significant losses in 2018 included the likes of Stan Lee, Aretha Franklin, Burt Reynolds, John Mahoney, Dolores O'Riordan, Steve Soto, and Stephen Hawking. A few others including Anthony Bourdain and Kate Spade reminded us the importance of addressing mental health.

2018 had some pretty big news stories. Some of these included BC forest fires, the Canadian government buying the TransCanada pipeline, continual cross-nation environmental/ pipeline protests, the legalization of pot in Canada, troubles in Syria & Yemen, and the Humboldt, SK bus crash. The Oilers were not news. The fact that I played summer hockey in an organized league for the first time in 16 years is news. It's a lot of work, but hockey's great. It's a great motivator and good way to balance out my life. Especially if I have as much time as I do for the time being.

I did a couple more lists for the best music from 2018 too. They are summarized in picture-form here.

     

Top 10 Non Punk Releases of 2018 and Top 9 EPs of 2018.

Top 25 Punk Releases of 2018.

(the top 5 are satanic surfers, pennywise, turnspit, no fun at all, and a vulture wake)

As you can see, the energy I've put into blogging has been minimized and translated into a visual depiction of varying amounts of interesting goings-on in the form of instagram posts. 442 posts, actually. Maybe I'll do a bunch less in 2019.

k bye see you next year

A Top 10 List cuz 5's are for Fighting.

This was going to be a Top 5 List only but after just having watched a preview of an upcoming Letterman special on Netflix, I was inspired to add the 2nd half of it, just like all those Late Show Top 10 Lists we all grew to love so much.

I breezed over a handful of solid releases from 2017 in the previous post, which more or less re-emphasized everybody else's favourite releases of the year. But it has taken me 10 days into the new year of reflecting on all of what I've been listening to this past year and true story: a lot of it isn't stuff that was released in 2017. Hell, a lot of it was released in 1997! Or 2004 or 2016 or 1991 sometimes, too. And a lot of that I am only learning about now for the first time. Case in point: Thought Riot.

That said...

I am going to go ahead and say that 2017 was more or less a wash for Favourite Albums 6 through 10, with none being all too overly outstanding than the other. Beyond these 5, I would consider giving honourable mentions to Dave Hause,  Hot Water Music, Authority Zero, and Badcop/ Badcop, with none being all much more outstanding than the other.  If I must choose, I would say that my Top 10 List would have to look something like this.

10) Jesse LeBourdais. The guy from Cambridge knows how to write songs.
9) LIGHTS. I like catchy pop music with pretty female leads. She plays a Rancid cover.
8) The Bombpops. I like catchy pop punk with pretty female leads. >Badcop/Badcop frshur.
7) Comeback Kid - Outsider. I like Canadian hardcore with stinky old guys.
6) The Bronx - V. I like American hardcore. Not sure if they are quite as stinky.

here     
          are
  some
1997       
   releases...

5) The Menzingers - After the Party.  Mostly for the songs writing, but a great (1st) live show might have influenced that. Not sure who the lead singer is though! Which one's Tom?! #nobodycares


4) Worst Days Down - Elsewhere. We all have our favourite local/regional bands that continue to release new music. WDD is one of Edmonton's best. Can't wait to see where these guys go next!


3) Propagandhi - Victory Lap. Great Propagandhi record. It just so happens that it's not my favourite of theirs, and not my favourite of 2017. Love it though!


2) Frenzal Rhomb - Hi Vis High Tea. Super fun record that got more play this year than most other records released in 2017 frshur. Love every track.


1) 88 Fingers Louie - Thank You For Being A Friend. This much anticipated record was such received by ALL with so much love and admiration -- maybe because it was 17 or 18 years since their previous release. Oh. And their 2015 Punk Rock Bowling performance proved to me that they can do a rad job live too.


The Others:
As per my previous post,. I haven't listened to the new Flag On Fire, Dearly Divided, or Strike Twelve albums nearly enough, and I have only been listening to Iron Chic since December, and Nothington since last year. What I've heard I really like though! Straightline, Allout Helter, and Mobina Galore are the 3 bands that I will be looking forward to listening to more.  Apparently F.O.D. , Bear, and SLED, are neat bands with new records I should probably check out some time, too. Maybe after I finish a podcast -- or better yet -- a book!

2017 Was A Joyous Year, Too

Wow I reviewed my blog and indeed 1 year ago, I posted about how 2016 was reckoned by many to be The Worst Year Ever  Or Whatever. Nothing's changed. 2017, I admit, was a doozie - BUT - sometimes I feel it's just the nature of human beings (or media?) to identify with the shittiest of things in order to boost their outlooks of their own personal lives. Yes. Trump became president. An endless list of male dirtbag Hollywood stars, members of the media, and politicians of all rankings across the globe were called out for being disgusting, specifically in a way that abuses and exploits their female counterparts. Prominent media person Brittney Rudyck brought awareness to these shitty things on a local level, as an Edmonton venue ended up closing its doors after allegations and investigations of sexual misconduct of its owners were made. Personally, I feel that the #metoo movement is a direct result of having elected a fucking POTUS that is guilty of displaying masochistic behaviour all his life. I am thankful that women at least got a voice this year for the shit that they've been having to put up with for ever.  What else happened. Mary Tyler Moore died. So did Leonard Cohen, Della Reese, AC/DCs Malcolm Young, Bill Paxton, Tom Petty, Chris Cornell, Linkin Park's Chester Benington, Adam West, Prodigy, and - one that brought a tear to every Canadian's eye: Gord Downie. Also: hundreds of others. Cynics say: "well, all people die". But nevertheless it is still very sad.

Aside from the deaths and the dirtbags, one might argue that the world is in a pretty fragile state as of December 2017: talk of nuclear war, millions displaced in Syria/ the middle east, "Russia Problems", a more divided America than ever, the realization of the effects of climate change (I haven't seen this little snow at Christmas in Edmonton in years).

Are you miserable yet?

2017 wasn't all bad though. So if you  can't get beyond that Schadenfreude attitude, you can fuck right off. I am going to say I liked 2017 for the following reasons:

Kayla. The love of my life makes it easier to swallow all the BS listed above.

My family. It's been great to see my family grow by marriage, and also having reached out to others near and far. Also my cats & dog.

The music. I am not closed-minded and therefore enjoyed new music from bands like The National, Worst Days Down, LIGHTS, 88 Fingers Louie, The Shins, Mobina Galore, Jay-Z, Nothington, Body Count, Future Islands, The Menzingers, Dave Hause, The Flatliners, Jesse LeBourdais, Hot Water Music, Frenzal Rhomb, Comeback Kid, The Bronx, The Bombpops, Badcop/Badcop, Authority Zero, Dropkick Murphys, Rancid, others... 

The concerts.
belvedere at the needle,

worst days down album release at QA hall,

against me and descendents @ union

said the whale at starlight room, 
the wheat pool at the needle,

murder by death + tiger army, the ranch,

forester w/ klusterfunk and abandin all hope, grizzly trail (needle),

jesse lebourdais from that super awesome band cambridge, BUCK

comeback kid sitting down upstairs, 

menzingers a week later,

iron chic with that owth band that i think is kinda neat.
+ those 25 rockfest bands i saw in QC in june (namely: mute, ignite, PUP, bad religion, killswitch engage, face to face, AWS, good riddance, afi, pennywise, and masked intruder)

There were probably a few others mixed in there throughout the year too, but those were definitely the highlights. One of the other great "shows" we saw this year was Phantom of the Opera at the Jubilee Auditorium. Can't go wrong with a little Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The movies. I'd be hard-pressed to list all of them but off the top of my memory: Beauty and The Beast starring Hermione Granger (preceded with a date night to The Melting Pot). Moana. Coco. Another Pirates of the Caribbean & Guardians of the Galaxy & Despicable Me & John Wick & Lego movie, Wonderwoman, The Justice League, Japan's Your Name, The Big Sick... From home, we loved zombie flick Train To Busan. Also: Game of Thrones, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Master of None, and Orange Is The New Black. Star Wars Episode VIII was released last week (I guess Rogue One is a 9th movie). We will hopefully check that out before January.

The trips. Kay & I haven't bought into the whole traditional wedding customs, albeit we had that beautiful outdoor ceremony surrounded by family and friend. Therefore, we never really planned that out-dated constraint of needing to go on a honeymoon. Rather, we are very excited to travel with each other as much as we can wherever we can. It just so happens that 2 months after our wedding we ended up in DisneyLand. That was a great time: Halloween Time was happening and the parks were done up accordingly. The rides were as good as ever and the snacks were even better. In total, I've done DisneyLand in 1988, 1994, 2008, 2013 and 2017. In 1998 I did DisneyWorld and in December 2014. We'll be good for Disney for a while. We will see where we get to next, but with the wedding this year, we were happy enough just to do this short trip and have a couple of ski trips. I was pretty lucky to be able to do this trip this year too...

The job. Oh I got a job in 2017. That's kind of a big deal.  Especially if you want to go on trips. Or eat.

Her work/school. She's doing a great job balancing all that and accomplishing loads always. Super-proud of her.

The house. I've been here 16 years now. It's been good to me and now us. I am loving what we are getting figured around the house. I hope to have more friends around more often in 2018.

The instagram: #mdotmilo fml. Also, other hashtags. Eek. (say: #ryz2017pt1, #ryz2017pt2, #ryz2017pt3, #ryz2017pt4, #ryzstagvacay, #vidzbyry, #go2thesho, #nofuckingfilterEH, #ryansgettingmarriedEH,  #kaymarriesry, and #ryangotmarriedEH). #mdotkaykay, #fuzzbombfelix, and #mdotjdog are OK too. #ryanspunkrockmusic and #legovignettesbyryan and countless others are in there, too. As I say: fml.

So yeah. It's been a good time. Despite the world and all of its atrocities, there have been some wonders, too. (i.e the description of ths blog)

kbye.