do you love me now?

Just back from Calgary, or, rather, just back a couple hours ago from Calgary. I'd booked this trip ages ago for Sled Island, well before the full lineup was announced. It really didn't matter who was playing; I just wanted to get out of town for a few days.

Anyone from Calgary will find this offensive, but I suspect, under non-festival circumstances, Calgary is pretty dull. I have no proof of this, other than having very little to do during the non-festival hours. I barely passed people in the street when I walked to and from the downtown area on the weekend. It's weird to not see anyone for 12 or 13 blocks; I'm not used to that sort of isolation anymore.

There was a lot of musical stuff to be excited about, though.

The highlight for me was watching/listening to the Breeders do "Do You Love Me Now?" in the park. When I got the "Safari" single on vinyl all those years ago I wore down the grooves on that song because it struck a cord (even then I had fucked up relationship crap going on). Now it hits extremely close to my heart; not enough to bleed it but just a slight graze, just enough to scratch the surface and leave a permanent scar. I kind of love that the Deal twins are so self-deprecating and seemingly normal despite their crazy backgrounds. Darcy said Kim looks like his aunt; Kelly mentioned that she smelled something in the air that she wasn't supposed to have and told the crowd they'd have to put out their smokes, then laughed and said, "Nah, I'm just kidding. Can you imagine? 'Um... everyone, could you stop smoking, please?' As if I'd do that!"

The biggest night was Thursday night, which was spent almost entirely at the #1 Legion. The Legion is always the night ending spot where "surprise guests" play (usually one of the headliners or a bigger band from out of town), but on that particular night there were some stellar bands playing. Japanther kicked ass, totally causing a frenzy and spawning a number of man-crushes with their Ramones-esqueness. Japandroids were awesome and I stared for long periods of time at the drummer and then shook myself out of it; they were mesmerizing. We heard a bit of King Khan & BBQ, but the small upstairs room was packed literally to the rafters and steam was floating out of the room. I couldn't get within 10 feet of the doorway, let alone inside to see the stage. Andrew WK played a "surprise" set, but it was largely the same as the karaoke show we saw the night before, so we bolted after a few songs. Holy Fuck was excellent in the park, totally killing their set. I managed to see King Khan & BBQ play Friday night and it was mind blowingly good. These Arms Are Snakes played the Friday secret show (we were hoping to catch the Obits, but they were completely late so TAAS went on first) and were a nice surprise. Last night I caught Women, Githead (Colin Newman from Wire's latest band, which didn't really grab me as I'd hoped) and the Obits before admitting defeat. All in all, a more than satisfactory outing.

A few things that I feel I must comment on:

1) I'm sick of young men wearing slim-fitting jeans that are slightly too big for them with belts, yet not cinching the belts enough to keep the jeans up at an appropriate level. Seriously, do you remember that scene in "Clueless" when she talks about how dirty high school boys are with their saggy jeans, the waistlines falling right below the curve of the male bum? They're STILL wearing them that way. It's just sad, that's all. Also, it looks lame.

2) Since I've known my friend Joe, he's had a big thick beard. Last month he shaved the beard off, citing the "douchebags" around town that are now sporting beards and not wanting to align himself with them. I found myself scowling at beards over the last few days and now realise Joe was right: beards have overtaken the music scene and it is just too much. There is no good reason for all that facial hair. Don't even get me started on the ironic gay moustaches I saw; that's a whole other rant.

3) Travelling alone blows. I don't mean the actual being somewhere else vacation part of it; I mean the transporting part of it. Today it felt like every couple on earth was in the airport and that there was a massive neon sign above me as I walked around that pointed out I was not travelling with someone else. It would be nice to go somewhere with someone else. I haven't travelled like that for a long time and I miss it.

I'm totally beat. This morning I was up until 3:30am, then couldn't fall asleep, then was startled by my friend's friend showing up at 4:30am after assuming he'd ditched out on staying over (which would have totally sucked since he was supposed to drive me to the airport today because Calgary has no shuttle service into the city and transit takes between 70 and 90 minutes, assuming all connections are made). I woke up at 8:30 and haven't slept since, so maybe it's time to go to bed, especially since I start my contract tomorrow.

Oh, I also finished dress #3 and, while I like the fabric, I'm not sure how much I like the actual dress. I probably have to redo the hem to make it fall a bit smoother, but that will have to wait until I actually feel like putting more work into the hem, which may never happen. A bad hem is still a hem.