Raarh Chomp Chomp Chomp

I miss the good old days when I had time to write about things. (Granted, I can't seem to remember when said good old days actually were -- but I'm sure I had some!)

My work week consists of working the graveyard shift four days in a row, having one day off, working an afternoon shift, and then having one day off before repeating the process. The days off are on Tuesday and Thursday. So, as you can imagine, I never get to do anything -- and this extended far across the spectrum of Grey Cup activities that most other Winnipeg folk got to enjoy over last week. Rest assured that I sat and was bitter about this. Most notably, the 54-40 and Tom Cochrane concerts were scheduled on the same night at the same time -- and then I had to work that night, preventing me from seeing either if I'd even thought I could choose between them. That's low, fate! That's just dirty!

Hell, I was so tired that I stayed in bed on Sunday and slept through the actual Grey Cup game in its entirety; then again, from the sound of things, the game was kind of a yawner anyway. The only thing I did get to go out and see was the combination Grey Cup-Santa Claus parade on Saturday; I was at the tail end of it, which meant that the parade had neither the Grey Cup nor Santa Claus. Whoops.

Trusty antique digital camera in hand, I took quite a few pictures of the parade; I figured I'd get the chance at some point to write about the parade, and so I've been waiting since Saturday for any choice bit of time I could get my hands on. I'd also been meaning to write about the upcoming Tokyo Police Club show on November 26th (which, as I understand, may also feature Australian band The Grates -- who I adore, by the way), about Western Canadian alienation and disfranchisement vis a vis the current Federal Conservative government and the Canadian Wheat Board, about at least half a dozen different bands, and about how much I hate the Jumble printed in each Winnipeg Free Press. (Not to give too much of the future piece away, but here is a small teaser: I hate the Jumble a lot.)

Then my roommate bought an Xbox 360. And every waking moment of my free time has since been poured into a rental copy of Dead Rising, a marvellous video game extravaganza of zombies and improvised violence and faithful genre exercises.

So, for both those of you keeping track at home -- my best intentions and best laid plans are FOILED AGAIN. Foiled by digital zombies, of all things. (Note to self: start punk band immediately, name band 'Digital Zombies'. This plan cannot fail.)

Yes, I assure you (and myself), at some point I will get the opportunity to write up what I want; times like these make me yearn for a laptop, especially given the increasingly decrepit state of my five-year-old (!) eMachines (!!) desktop relic. In the meantime, allow me to pass along one of my favourite selections from the Dead Rising soundtrack:

Lifeseeker - Gone Guru [soundtrack does not exist for purchase -- go buy the game]

Ah, yeah, that's the stuff.

I'll grant that, yes, the guitar riff owes absolutely everything to Rush, and that yes, this song is about six years too late to take its rightful place as somebody's ECW entrance theme. Despite myself, I've been cheerily disregarding these very salient points; somehow the song completely grew on me while I was fighting through vast crowds of zombies in a picturesque mall park while escaped prison inmates tried to run my little guy over with an armed military vehicle. Sometimes songs just work, y'know? As far as I am concerned this is one of those times.



Oh, man, are my parade comments ever going to seem dated by the time I get around to writing them. Such are the pitfalls I face!