Monday, February 16, 2009

absu...


got an email a few days ago from my cousin paul, who i haven't seen in close to 15 years:

"Hey man what's going on ? How ya been doing ?

I actually lucked out and got a part in a pretty well established metal band called Absu as the new singer/bassist. Well I do most of the vocals the drummer does some. Anyways I feel pretty lucky and humbled.

But to get to the point were going to be up in Canada this summer and I would be totally stoked beyond belief if any of you and your friends want to pop in to the gigs. I can put as many people on the guest list as you want and I know their will be tons of free booze. Maybe you can tell your brothers to if they are around ? I understand if you guy's can't make it it's a long way off and I know how life is but just thought I would shoot the invite because it would be pretty cool . Bring the ear plugs !

Here's the dates and venues ...

Jun 12 2009 8:00P
The Underground Calgary, Alberta

Jun 13 2009 8:00P
The Exchange Regina, Saskatchewan

Jun 14 2009 8:00P
Royal Albert Arms Winnipeg, Manitoba

Jun 15 2009 8:00P
Wreck Room Toronto, Ontario

Jun 19 2009 8:00P
Petit Campus Montreal, Quebec

And I think the silver paint thing is hilarious. The drummer has been doing it for a while now and I had to do it up for the promo shots. I told him about how the only other time I have seen it done was my cousin hahah. Funny cooincidences.

Later man hope you have a good birthday, a kick ass year, and that shit is going well !

-Paul"

i'm going to go to the gig, despite my fears, it'll be good to see the cuz doing his thing. check the vid:

the numb3rs...


you ever see that show numb3rs? i've caught the odd episode. judd hirsch plays the father of two boys who - if i remember correctly - are investigators for some government agency (fbi or cia or something). and one of them happens to be a math genius. there's a quote from one of the shows, where the math guy is trying to explain something to everyone else, and is having a difficult time finding the words, and says something to the effect of "it's almost impossible to explain, because, in my head, it just is what it is, you know?"

well, sometimes i feel like that. i'm sure we all do.

anyway, lately i've been thinking about some numbers...

33: years old last week. (as my buddy paul says: "l'age du christ.")
21: days in a row of hot yoga.
8: pounds lost so far.
5: days without smoking (thank you allen carr).

i can't remember exactly, but if i had to pick an age, i'd say i started really smoking around 16 years old. sure, i'd had a few puffs here and there before that, experimenting with my friends in the playground with a found pack of cigarettes, but at 16, well, that's probably when i started buying them and smoking regularly. i moved out of the family home when i was 16, stayed at a friend's place for a while, and shortly after my 17th birthday, i moved into my first apartment.

what scared me, last year, when i turned 32, was thinking that, well, if i started smoking at 16, and was now 32, well, i'd been smoking exactly half my life.

freaked me right out.

nobody ever starts smoking and thinks they're going to be a lifelong smoker.

when you're a kid, it's a social thing, something you do with your friends on weekends, when you're sneaking beers out of your dad's fridge in the garage and hanging out at the firepit down by the river or at the house of whoever's parents are away that weekend. it makes you feel rebellious, or grown up, or like a character in a movie. it's a prop. part of the role. "hey, i'm a teenager..."

and then, shit, you're hooked.

and then, even bigger shit, you wake up one day and it's your 32nd birthday and you've been smoking half your life and your promise yourself you will quit for good this year, because, god forbid you turn 33 and you're still smoking, because at that point it will be for MORE THAN HALF OF YOUR LIFE and then your goose is really cooked. it's like you've given up. and you're a slave.

so here i was, at the start of 2009, smoking, drinking regularly, eating shit food, 20 pounds heavier than i should be, and deciding it was TIME.

so, i joined a yoga studio. signed up for a 30-day challenge right off the bat. didn't think i'd have a snowball's chance in hell of actually completing the thing.

but here i am, 21 days in, and i KNOW i'm going to finish it. planning everything else in my life around it. matter of fact, everything else has pretty much disappeared in the last 20 days.

i also told myself that at some point during the 30-day challenge i would have to quit smoking. for real this time. i had gotten myself down to 3-4 sticks a day, but i needed to make that final leap of faith across the chasm of withdrawal. so i started reading allen carr (again). brilliant man. i think i actually GET IT this time. (lord, i hope so!)

and then, last wednesday, it was my birthday. 33. ("l'age du christ.") i woke up, and it was TIME. "i don't smoke anymore," i said to myself, and i haven't since.

something about it, this time, at this age, i just feel like it's the biggest battle of my life, and that i've crossed a certain line that, i just CAN'T do it anymore. it feels bigger than me.

anyway, that's my story, for now.

i remember when i quit two years ago (why oh why did i ever start again!), and somebody asked me how difficult it was and i said: "it was the hardest thing i've ever done in my life, but it wasn't nearly as hard as i thought it was going to be."

so now, back to some numbers...

33: you know, i feel pretty good at 33, at this point, i'm just happy to be here.
21: days in, and i am FEELING the benefits. i can feel/see a different in my body, and my mind is calmer, and, well, i am just more aware of my body and breath. i'm taller too. no joke. about a half inch. yoga really stretches out your spine.
8: this is the start. my goal was to get down at least 20. maybe 25. or even 30. basically, start with 20, and see how i feel from there. i'm stoked about this.
5: shit, that was yesterday, i'm on day 6 now. almost a week. and i feel GREAT. seriously, i recommend reading the easy way if you want to quit. instead of "oh god how will i survive without smoking?" this dude changes your mindspace into "oh god i feel FREE, how the fuck did i ever smoke?" and it's almost instant, the change. he just gets inside your head and moves everything around until you see it for what it really is. wish me luck, and i'll do the same for you...

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

just say nope...



the nope. i first met psy and moka (dave and dan, respectively) somewhere around the same time. oh, ten years or so ago. (has it really been that long?) living in toronto, writing the rap column for vice magazine, my path crossed with both of theirs, back in the day when dudes were hustling tapes. i love tapes. ape nuts. awkward why. durable mammals, both of these cats. good guys too.

a decade later, we've all gone on to experience our share of the rap life's ups and downs. from selling cassettes out of the backpack, to sipping champagne in the vip section, to pushing mp3's on myspace, and taking it back to the people at the underground clubs. the rap game done changed, but the strong remained the same. stayed gold. or got gold again. and that's when it starts to get gooder.

from his early days riding trains up and down the west coast, to winning juno awards with swollen members, to making the best beats of his career, moka only is a canadian legend. he was already a legend in his own mind before the rest of us caught on. this is a good thing. psy, for his part, has been putting it down forever as part of the oddities crew, tightening his flow with multiple releases, writing the kind of lyrics that make rappers wanna hate on him. don't hate. coagulate.

the nope. well, the nope, i guess it's like the opposite of the yup. or the yep. yes. that's exactly what it is. what it isn't. and it isn't what you might think it's gonna be. it's not what you see on tv. it's not trying to be something it isn't, which is exactly what it shouldn't be, which it isn't, which is, again, a good thing.

good things happen to people who are good. good people, good at what they do, being good. more than the sum of it's parts, this is what makes it great. and greatness, well, greatness is what happens to goodness when it ages. ripens. matures. loses itself to find itself again and realizes that it already was what it always wanted to be.

psy and moke.

just say nope.

-fritz tha cat, aug. 2007