Snow

Yes. Snow. In October. Gah.

Sigh.

I haven’t even got my bloody gloves and snow hat in readiness for the winter, and it’s snowing already. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love the snow, but that is a distinctly English love of snow, for in England, the alternative to a bit of snow is days of endless grey, dreary rain. And when it snows, it’s pretty light stuff, and over pretty soon. Wasn’t always the case, but you know, that global warming shizz that they go on about… it ain’t bollocks. Anyway, digressing. In Canada, I fear that the snow may be less of a welcome distraction and when it snows, it’s probably going to SNOW.

Life is going pretty well here. Some observations:

1. In the area I live, people are remarkably friendly and I get a smile and a ‘hello’ often. Note, however, that these are the older ones – the younger the peeps, the more indifferent they are. It’s a very pleasant walk to the supermarket through a residential area with lots of greenery. I walk a lot. Except when it’s snowing.

2. There is a fish & chip shop, a delicatessen, and a Japanese restaurant near my house. Bizarre, but true. And oh, there’s a local convenience store which typically is run by a family of Sri Lankans.

3. I can cook broccoli now.

4. I teach two hours a week, and have just handed the runts back their first piece of work with no great alarms. My own courses go well though it took some time to get used to the idea of attending classes, making comments, reading and writing papers.

5. I am going to do one of my research papers on the Political Economy of Estonia. Yes, the Political Economy of Estonia.

6. Fast internets is a bit of a revelation. I have downloaded much music and the only competition for music is from TV shows. At the moment, I have the following on the go or queued: 24, seasons 5 and 6; Prison Break, season 3; Dexter, season 2; Veronica Mars, season 3; The Wire, season 1; Battlestar Galactica, season 3, and Firefly. And I am also keeping track of Heroes and Fringe. Such a hard life.

7. I have imbibed twelve different types of Canadian beers. I won’t bore you with the names.

8. I procured a land line!

9. Oh, did I mention it’s snowing today?

10. You can watch concerts here:

From JJ72 to Stars, via YSP! WSD! and Beast

Despite the snow, after my classes today, I manage to brave the weather (sans gloves, sans snow hat) to make it to the campus graduate bar, buy my ticket for the Stars concert in November, guzzle a beer, and have time to take out my laptop and do some research on varieties of capitalism in Estonia. I am multi-talented.

I’m looking forward to Stars, as they are so good that I took one of their albums to a desert island with me. This won’t be my first concert in Canada. I caught You Say Party! We Say Die! the other week. It was pretty good. It was a small venue and quite intimate. I had plenty of beers too. I enjoyed the opening act – Beast – greatly too. A band from Montreal, they are releasing their debut album in November. The lead singer, Betty Bonifassi, has a unique voice. This is one of their songs, Mr. Hurricane:

Thanks to here.

I like them so much that you can have a second video, this one called Out of Control, performed live in Toronto:

Thanks to here.

Incidentally, the first concert I ever attended was by an Irish band named JJ72. They are now long gone, but ironically their third single was appropriately named Snow:

Thanks to here.

But Stars are likely the biggest band that I will have seen in concert and not at a festival. Their new album – the third – was pretty damned good too. Tough to pick a favourite but how about Bitches in Tokyo:

From here.

Enjoy. Mayhap if I can get organized in time, I shall take a few photographs or even video of the concert itself.