Living For The City

New Doomriders! The cover art, created by Thomas Hooper, looks pretty incredible and the two tracks that they are previewing here do not disappoint in the slightest! So jazzed!

We had another horribly rainy weekend here in the city which worked out ok because I had a stacked schedule of home renovation hell to contend with so it’s not like I’d have been out enjoying my summer, anyway.

My countertops finally went in on Friday so I’m probably about a week away from having a really fantastic kitchen to work with. My dietary habits will improve tenfold again once this bad boy is complete…

On Saturday my buddy Taylor did me the most enormous of solids and took me out to his shop in Scarberia so we could work on the amazing millwork that Steph designed (like everything else in the house!) for my front entryway. My contractors were originally supposed to build it but they somehow mistook “Millwork with upper and lower storage units built from 3/4″ MDF” for “Shelf & Rod” so we had to take matters into our own hands.

As one would expect in any self-respecting woodshop; the Sunshine Girls are well represented.

We’ve got the bench / shoe storage and the upper basket storage units built and ready to be installed, primed & painted. Taylor is going to stain a nice piece of oak to match the hardwood and slap that puppy on there. She’s gonna be a beaut!

If anyone needs any custom furniture built; I can’t speak highly enough of Taylor both as a craftsman and as a person. He’s got a lot of years of fantastic work ahead of him and I can’t wait to see the stuff that this guy is going to turn out in the years to come.

Saturday night at the dog fights…

This is what I came home to on Sunday morning… It may not look like much but trust me, that amount of water in an area that was supposed to be carpeted on Friday is extremely disheartening. I think that there were a bunch of storm drain backups as a result of the torrential downpour we had which caused basement flooding all over the city. No fun.

Update: Another couple thousand buckers – another couple weeks to fix this mess. Booya!

I bought myself a new sander on Friday which worked out perfectly because I had a buttload of sanding to do on Sunday.

I spent the bulk of the day sanding / priming / priming / painting the stairs and getting them ready to have the runners wrapped in carpet. They were in the roughest of rough shape and they look kinda pretty now – can’t wait for the carpet to go down.

My good friend Jason Raine just moved back from a stint in Australia and he brought his pup Shadow, who just liberated herself by chewing through her leash, with him so we’ve got even more buds in the office to buddy up with.

Speaking of Australia; I got a package this morning all the way from the land of Aus which was an unfortunate lovechild of my last drunk eBayin’ session a few weeks ago.

The shipping was twice the cost of the switches and I don’t even know what I’m going to do with them. Oi vey!

PS Taylor; here’s lookin’ at you kid!

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The Doublenauts were kind enough to let me tag along with them on their annual pilgrimage to Chicago for the Pitchfork Music Festival, more specifically the Flatstock poster show series. I didn’t really care much for any of the bands playing (save for Fucked Up & Pharaohe Monch) but It’s been a while since I got out on the road so how could I not go and do my best to cramp the F out of their S?!

Day One

I can’t wait to get my phone bill – between GPS & text messaging I’m screwed!

Ballin’ outta control.

Sorry boys.

Day Two

Beachball on the head is the new two hats is the new one hat.

I ate, like, 10 of these. Seriously.

Andrew is seriously impressed with text messaging. Seriously.

Ladies, you’re going to need one of these mirrors so you can remember just how beautiful you are.

Novelty cowboy hat is the new beachball on the head.

Day Three

Budai kept selling out so he started drawing…

…then he started selling those.

Ladies, rub on your titties. Yeah I said it, rub on your titties!

I also ate, like, 10 of these.

She don’t use jelly.

Not gay… Not gay at all.

Day Fo

Apparently I really like bridges.

It was really nice to spend some quality time with some really close friends, make some new ones, see some of what looks like an amazing city – I’m going to try to go back in the fall and bringing my bike next time!

Big shout outs to Budai, Beth & Mark from Hero Design & Sound, Allison & Craig from Strawberry Luna, Billy & Jason from Delicious Design League & Jackie & Riley who rolled out from Wisconsin with The Small Stakes.

Big thanks to Chicago Diner, Chicago SoyDiary, Pick Me Up, Handlebar & Budweiser for keeping me nourished over the course of the weekend.

Biggest thanks ever to the boys for taking me with you!

Despite the massive amounts of pretty pictures I managed to keep my purchasing down and only walked away with a Small Stakes designed Constantines jammer, a Hero designed Black Angels / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club hoohaw, a Strawberry Luna designed alphabet print for my nephew and a cardboard Budai 1 of 1. Grand total… $20 for the Cons print. I don’t like to pay for things; thank you all for your generosity!

Last night Andrew also brought over this here Magnolia Electric Co. print that I fell in love with in Chicago. It’s got some really lovely details that you don’t see until you look up close – just the way I like it.

Oh yeah! I just found these in my bag – vegan marshmallows! I hadn’t had a marshmallow in almost 15 years. Thanks Chicago!

Speaking of new stuff, because I like stuff; the night before I left I got a mail drop from Transient…

…and this here vintage gas light.

I don’t know much about it other than it was converted to electricity sometime in the 70s and hung in a hollywood studio ever since. I need to extend the cord on it so I can’t hang it yet but it’s going to make a pretty serious addition to my living room!

Weekend theme song: Double Up, playa!

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On a much more serious note; shout out to my man Mitch who was apparently hit by a cab on Friday night and suffered an epidural hematoma, underwent emergency surgery and is apparently now recovering.

The entire cycling community is in complete shock! Cabbies NEVER run down cyclists, there must be some mistake…

Heal well, friend.

This is what summer is all about.

In the height of our laziness, we ordered food to the park…

Despite the “no eggs” text and accompanying illustration the dish most definitely had eggs.

Round two; this time they forgot the tofu. And yet I’ll continue to order from there…

Recognizing that we were the brightest bunch in the park… or after every other bunch refused, Robert and I gave interviews for the news about Bellwoods becoming a potential dump site if the garbage strike continues much longer.

Maybeline got her 15 seconds of fame as well!

We all know what The Rennick likes, don’t we?

We spent the rest of the night at Oddfellows hammin’ it up in the Winnebego!

I think I got home around 5am. This is how the rest of the night looked. I’m old.

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Saturday was a bit of a write-off but I made my way out to Smithfits where Colohan, Wade & Pesci were DJing… Super fun time made up of good friends (old and new), pretty young thangs (not an MJ reference, I promise) and uncomfortable conversations… No pictures, other than this little dasie that somehow survived the ride home, sorry.

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On Sunday Killen and I took a nice little rip out to the beaches to help keep our legs moving and guts from getting too out of control and stopped in for a little visit at Telegramme.

I wanted to thank Ian for hooking up those Tavis Coburn prints that Sparky so thoughtfully got for me last year. My heart still warms when I see those guys, I get a little choked up. Budz.

Ian showed us some of the others and talked a little on Tavis’ process – pretty impressive.

Got back to the west end, had coffee with a friend and went home to blast out a Ben Dussault workout… All in all, the weekend was about a perfect as a guy like me could ask for. I did, unfortunately miss Nick‘s garage sale and Ben‘s birthday BBQ – sorry boys. Happy birthday, bahd!

Spark was kind enough to lend me the new Stacey Peralta documentary Crips & Bloods: Made In America and I had a free moment to sit down and lay my peepers on it last night. Well shot, edited and incredibly interesting; the doc delves into the roots of LA gang culture, extending well beyond the formation of the gangs themselves in a way I hadn’t seen on film before. Well worth watching…

With that in mind; I’m going to have to make sure that my Mom doesn’t cross Loyalist drive into Crip territory with this bad boy on. She really wanted blue but unfortunately Lee Valley only carries red. Sheeeeit.

Fortunately for me, I wear mine where no one can see so I’m safe everywhere I go…

I do have to watch out for the universally feared witches hat gang, though. The last thing I want is to have a fattening, balding, alcoholic, nervous wreck spell cast upon me…

Ghost tires FTL!

Fortunately for Hammy, he’s got friends who’ll ride across the city with a spare and then post really flattering pictures of him on the interweebz.

My kitchen is finally starting to look like something – I can’t wait to be able to actually use it!

The basement, as well…

My roof, on the other hand… Would you be pissed if this is how your brand new roof looked after a rainfall? Yeah, me too. SLOPE, dudes!

EDIT: It is being fixed. Nice.

I don’t know what’s funnier; the fact that someone (Chris? Jon?) got a hold of my phone while I wasn’t looking and this is what they came up with…

…or that it was normal enough that Robbie didn’t react to it at all.

Let’s just call it like it is; I’m in pretty rough shape. I haven’t been on the bike enough, I definitely don’t sleep enough, I drink too much and I haven’t been eating anywhere near as well as I should. I’ve been under a tremendous amount of pressure and, like it or not, I’m a bit of stress eater / drinker / masturbater… wait… shit. My friends are pretty good and cutting me off when they see me acting too foolishly but I’ll definitely go home and sneak a tub of Soy Delicious to myself. C’est la vie.

Fortunately, even beyond my friends just mocking and shaming me into better habits – I’ve got a few friends that know a thing or two about a thing or two and last night A Death For Every Sin Final Word Throwdown Matheson / Madball drummer, potential lesbian baby factory and personal trainer extraordinaire Ben Dussault came over and wrote a program for me to help me get back into fightin’ lovin’ shape over the summer.

He leaves for tour on Monday and while he’s gone I’ll do some work on his bike and he’ll do some work on my bod. Pause… Check Madball’s tour schedule and if he’s playing in a town near you be sure to check ‘em out and say what’s up to my boy! For the locals (read: 99.9% of the people reading this) check out Matheson this Saturday night @ Sneaky Dee’s!

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Hey Sean, remember that time you randomly decided to put a hot BBQ lighter on my leg?

The modern primitives would be so proud!

Welcome to the club, buddy.

Yesterday was Canada Day and being the true patriot that I am, I took the day off to reflect on what a wonderful place we live. What am I even writing? Jesus… Anyway, the weather was supposed to be sucky so I’d be looking forward to a day of accounting and catching up on things ’round the house but unfortunately the weather was perfect and I had to spend the day outdoors with a bunch of hosers, it’s a tough life, eh?

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On an unrelated note; I ordered a new phone from Rogers a couple of weeks ago. It was to arrive within 3-5 days, after 3-5 days when it didn’t arrive I called at which point they told me that it’s out of stock and they don’t know when they’ll get any more… well, sheeeeeit, I really hope it comes soon because this is what I’m currently using.