lnd pics

just a quickie

here is a link to some pics from my most recent london trip

click here

here is a one shot preview!

Foo Fighter'd

Last night i went to see the Foo Fighters with Al. The show was pretty awesome and it was a great arena rock show. I couldnt remember the last time I had seen a show at the coliseum. it must of been years...like 10 ten years! I just checked. The last show that i saw there was Pearl Jam in 1998. Holy that was a long time ago.


anyways back to my review of the show. we didnt see the openers, i didnt really care to though. the show was big, loud and full of arena rock! it is was you would expect from the foo fighters. dave grohl is a great front man. he talks a little too much but you can tell he really likes what he is doing and has a great time doing it.


the stage was different than most too. there was the normal part and then it had a long runway that dave would run down every once and a while. then about an hour in this giant circular disc decsended from the ceiling to the floor and they played an acoustic set on there. it was something to see. kinda felt that it took the energy low and the crowd never really recovered!


but all in all i am glad that i went to the show and had a great time sitting on the left of the stage in row 2 of the lower bow right next to the speakers! so deaf this morning!!!


if i can find a set list, i will post...here are some pics!





edit: here is a set list from edmonton but it seems very close

1. Let It Die
2. Pretender
3. Times Like These
4. Breakout
5. Learn to Fly
6. Cheer Up Boys, Your Makeup’s Running
7. This Is a Call
8. The One
9. Stacked Actors with a long drum solo from Taylor Hawkins

Acoustic Set on Smaller Stage In-the-Round

10. Skin & Bones
11. Marigold
12. My Hero
13. Cold Day in the Sun (ft. Taylor Hawkins on drums & vocals)
14. But, Honestly
15. Everlong

End Acoustic Set

16. Monkey Wrench
17. All My Life

Encore

18. Big Me (feat. Jessy Green)
19. Long Road to Ruin
20. Best of You

Photogs

I am have made it back from the LND. It was a long flight home with the loudest two year old girl in the history of man kind! she was crying ever so loud and i wanted to scream back. TEN HOURS!!! thats how long the flight and the crying was!

anyways made it back, started teaching again!

here are some pics from the show!

pictures click here

hopefully that works...short one today...tired after hockey and then a run...i am bagged!

check this blog out too

pretty much amazing. i like it

ai ai and goodbye

One Last Time

So its the last night in London. What have we done since the last time I wrote on here?

We saw...well on friday we didnt do much. We went to one pub in Fulham and then went to another one just around the corner from pete's place. it was a good lazy day. then we watched the extra's, a comedy from here. very funny stuff.

saturday was a last day to try and get around to see some stuff. We saw the national gallery, which is located near trafalger square. we saw some crazy art there. rembrandt, van gogh, da vinci...its was very good. i liked being able to see art that was hundreds of years old.

we also saw westinster abbey but it was closed but still impressive. Tower of London and London bridge was next. pretty much it was a day filled with all of the touristy kinda things that were still on our list.

today...allison did her own thing...going to the natural history museum and seeing a easter service in westminster abbey. i went paul's houe ( a dude from van that i know) and watched soccer all day long. it was a very pimp setup. 60 inch plasma tv and the arsenal chelsea game was in hd. it was pretty awesome but the game turned out really shitty.

well...that is the end of our adventure. we ship out tomorrow and head back home.

see you when i see you

Under The Bridge

Yesterday we went to see St. Paul's Cathedral. It was an amazing experience. You cant really explain it. It is something you just have to see for yourself. As a non-secular type of person, I still found it profound and moving and beyond any expectations that I could of ever had. So I could only imagine what it would be like for someone you was Anglican or of any christian faith. If you ever get over here to London, it is the one thing that you should go and see, even if its the only thing.

Okay, so you are wondering what under the bridge means. Well we went to this lounge called, Under the Westway/Westbourne Studios. It is these artist studio/offices that are directly under the freeway out of London.It is if we were to build a building right under the Cambie street bridge. Anyways, amazing place, it was packed yet with lots of space. It inside was...imagine Emily Carr but wider, longer and with bars in place. I dont know if that makes any sense! It was a good place, loads of fun and we even saw some other people from vancouver who now live in london.

pc...till the next adventure!

The V & A and Les Mes

Just got in from Les Mes at Queens Theatre in the Soho district. From a production value, it was incredible. Vancouver has nothing like it. From a talent level, it was amazing. I think that these were top level talent from around the world. It was pretty sweet. I do have to say that Allison was enjoying it more than me, but I did think it was good.

After we walked around a part of China town too. It was interesting. It is in a much nicer area of town than our chinatown but looks very similar. Lots of restaurants were open for late night eats after theatre shows. Good stuff, but not hungry to try it out.

Earlier in the day we went to probably the most amazing gallery here in London. It is known as the Victoria and Albert Gallery(i think). Anyways dude it was awesome. They had all kinds of stuff from all periods of time. The most mind blowing was seeing cast replicas of tombs dating back 1300's. I couldnt believe what i was seeing. amazing. i cant really do it justice! they also had this china design now exhibition. thank god for my ubc card for a cheaper admission! interesting to see how china is slowly becoming more modern especially in the wake of the olympics coming later this year! amazing gallery and we only saw half of it.

okay...i am tired...canucks gotta win in regulation time...please!

thx

Arsenal again

Yesterday a and i checked out an arsenal stadium tour. it was pretty cool. we got to sit in the directors box. that is where the filthy rich owners of arsenal and their cronies get to sit. very posh. then we saw the changeroom, the pressroom, where the press is kept, the dugout and the pitch, which was pretty crazy looking. we couldnt go on it but it looked like carpet.

then we hit up the camden markets. p said that is there the whole doc martin thing started. it looked like similar the a part of granville street, where the rock shop is.

came home and then went to angel(the kits area) for dinner and a few drinks. we went to a turkish place. excellent dinner, great atmosphere. then we went to some bar for drinks. it was a really nice place that had character. we lamented on the fact that their was really nothing like it in vancouver!

next up was home, a conference call with al and then crashed...pretty long day...now we are going to start again with another adventure in store!

ns

Tate Modern with a little Saint Pauls on the side

Today we embarked on a rather ambisious mission of going to the Tate Modern gallery in London. I have to say that it was a rather impressive site around the gallery. We road along the District line after finding out how to save money on the tube by buying an Osyter pass. It is a week long pass that allows to ride the rail and buses. Anyways...we got off at Blackfriars station and headed out.

Once we got out, we happened to see a massive chapel. Uhm yah it was St. Pauls Catherdral. holy shit it was an awesome site. you would not believe how big it was. but we couldnt go in because it was closed, too late.

Before we checked that out, we checked out the Tate. it was massive, grand and overwhelming for a non art person. But still even i could appreciate what it had to offer. We took some pics. maybe i will be able to get them up once we get home!

Now it looks like we are going to head to the Royal Albert Hall to see some world table tennis tournament! no shit, that is what we are going to do...

edit: we have made it back from the table tennis. the royal albert hall is quite the thing to see. it dates back from 1836? (i think) and it is grand. as for the table tennis, we saw an amazing couple of matches. but first lets talk about how we got in. we didnt have tickets and the box office was closed. pete saw some people leaving and asked for their tickets. the obliged and we got into 4 row centre court tickets. it was quite the spectacle. anyways its was a good show...good little adventure!

tomorrow Arsenal stadium tour and Camden markets...

pc

edit: yesterday, we went to Spitlesfield markets. It was like going to portabello west but on a larger scale. think of a main street type market. we had fun, loads of great things to see, lots of inspiration for Allison! we even picked up a few local created items! also we checked out niketown. man it was pretty awesome, you have never seen so many crazy colour combinations for shoes! also i got my first look at the jordan 23. it is a great looking shoe..maybe i will have to add it to my collection! brief post...

1-1 Arsenal

Today I finally made it to an Arsenal game. It was v Middlesbrough. The game itself was filled with some ups and downs. The ref was not having a good day. I think that most of the 60,000 other people in the game would agree with me. I am glad that Arsenal scored with about 10 minutes left courtesy of a Kolo Toure header.

My seat was in the upper deck row 7 section 113 seat 628. It was about middle of the park facing the benches. Great view, great seats. I arrived about half hour before game time and watched the teams warm up. As Arsenal took the field, the whole stadium applauded them. Once the game started, there were cheers and chants and yelling and screaming. it was such a great experience and i am glad that i had the opportunity to go.

After the game imagine 60,000 people trying to go and use the tube/underground to get home. it took me about 1.5 hours just to get into the underground and only 20 minutes to actually ride the tube home!

I would say that all in all it was worth the 100 pounds the ticket cost me and i would do it again in a heartbeat!

Great time...AR-SENAL!

Pemberton Music Festival

Uhm...has everyone heard about this music festival? This has to be the biggest festival to ever hit Canada. I think that we should go...yah you whoever you are reading this!

Please...its 240 for the three day festival...sounds like a lot but think of how many bands you will see!

check this out:


www.pembertonfestival.com


coldplay
tom petty
nine inch nails
jay z
tragically hip
flaming lips
death cab for cutie
sia (my personal fav)
interpol
my morning jacket
mgmt
mstrkrft
sam roberts
black mountain
metric
dj shadow w/ cut chemist
the crystal method
chromeo
junkie xl
vampire weekend
plus more that i havent even heard of!

3 stages, 3 days, a shit lot of bands...lets do it!


pc

London

Well, well, well, well, well...what do we have here?

its looks like i have finally made it back to london england. the last time i was here was for a brief visit while on a high school rugby tour. we were staying in bristol and bused into town. we stayed for an afternoon and when we had to leave, for those who remember, Jed G. was missing. ' jed is dead in london'. well didnt actually die, but it made for a fun song on the way home!

this time around hopefully none of that happens this time! we started out arriving at the airport with 2 huge school groups. one was a rugby team from cloverdale and another was a boys and girls soccer team from victoria. i figured that it was going to be a interesting flight. i have to say that the high schoolers where fairly well behaved. we even had 3 movies, 'dan in real life', ' the italian job' and 'juno'. i guess that they had to edit juno because the funniest lines where not in it. we left at 7pm and arrived at 4am vancouver time. it is currently 6pm london time, 11am vancouver time.

we are lucky enough to e able to stay with pete, who has a 2 bedroom flat in west london or chelsea. we took the tube to earls court and were basically a 5 minute walk to his place. it is in a really posh area and his flat is really posh.

today has consisted of taking off, flying, not sleeping, landing, tubing, walking, flating, showering, wondering, eating, grocery shopping and now blogging and soon lounging. I am knackered! but tomorrow has an ARSENAL game on tap. i wouldnt believe how excited i am for it...

pc...from LND

Spring Forward into A Much Needed Break

So what is going on? Lets re-cap what has been going on with my life...

the canucks are on a rollercoaster of a ride right now. the people downstairs must think that i am slightly crazy. pretty much you can tell how the game is going by my two phrases. 'SHIT' means we got scored on. 'YEEEESSSS' means that we just scored. But i do yell other things during the coarse of the game as well...its not my fault...call it hockey turrets. also get rick rypien out of the lineup. he does nothing of worthwhile. put trevor back in. at least he contributes.

I just got my hands on the new portishead album. now i have only listened to it once through but i have to say that it is seriously dark music. like really dark as in i hate everyone and everything. i will try to give it another listen and see if i can find more light in it! here is the new album cover and a song. give it a listen.


Portishead-Machine Gun

I also stumbled upon this. Its a live bootleg from my favorite guitar player of all time, Stevie Ray Vaughn. His playing so full of soul and passion. You can hear it ooze from him while he plays. The quality of this boot is very good, its actually from the soundboard. thats means excellent quality.

here is a link if it interest you

stevie ray vaughn - voodoo chile

finally, while i was checking on the hype machine, my favorite place to find music, i found this feist track featuring kanye west. nevermind...its was a bogus track...i was wondering why there wasnt more hype about that.

later

ps...quote of the day..."i need this like i need a growth on my ass"- some home flipper guy on tv

A Fist for a Douche Bag

Last Night or the night before...i cant remember now...we watched 'the king of kong: a fist full of quarters' it has to be one of the best movies i have seen in a long time. it was interesting, engaging and full of twists and turns. its set modern day with a school teacher who is trying to become the highest scorer in king kong history. he is trying to defeat a douche bag named billy. can you tell how i feel about the characters? man, you should really go and rent this film. its a good one to watch. i dont know if i do a real good write up here but really...if i can bother to put it on the blog, then it must be worth it!



what else is going on?

my canucks are stumbling...c'mon, you're killing me!

a great new song

rodrigo y gabriela - stairway to heaven

check it out. its great flamenco version of the song...lots of crazy guitar playing and passion...

okay...thats it for now...