Blossom Phish

Phun Ahead
Originally uploaded by mrjackstraw

Just got back from a weekend road trip down into America's Rust Belt chasing the fun that is Phish. It was a quick over and back this time for one show only. I was accompanied my my sister, a veteran of 8 shows now and 2 Phirst Timers. The boys did not disappoint.

We followed that up with a trip to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on Sunday. In between and on the way there was eating and drinking and laughing and smiling and so forth. I will have a more detailed write-up posted shortly.

I've posted a few pics HERE.

Sorry for the lack of any writing and "Death Theme" the last few posts have carried. This isn't an Obit column God Damn It!

Coventry In Pics & Video

So I was cleaning up some Flickr stuff and I put together a Coventry Set from the last Phish Fest.


Our All-Star Team right before the first set of the Final Show.



Gordon, Me, Pete & My Sis.


Little did we know the Bass Bombs dropped from Gordo's guitar would ignite one of the most epic Glow Wars in Phishtory. Here a clip....




The video doesn't do it justice. I always forget about the dudes shooting firework beside us :)

I Phelt the Pheeling I Phorgot - Part II

Part I

After a nice long drive through mostly cloudy skies & rain and arriving at Burgettestown just outside of Pittsburgh only to have the sun shining down it just couldn't have been better. The show was great, the people were great and it was just great overall. I was grinning the whole time and that's why I go.

After the Burgettestown encore I made my way back to my car. Luckily I was right off the lane heading out and wasn't too deep in the lot. I figured if I could get out quickly I would be able to put 100 clicks behind me before crashing at a rest area. I headed south down the twisting and foggy Hwy 18 until I hit the I-70 which would take me pretty much all the way to my next destination, Noblesville, IN just ourside of Indianapolis.

I ended up crashing at the first rest stop in Ohio. I actually crossed through that thin slice of West Virgina that shoots up and was going to stop there, but I was carrying a bit of Michigan gear and though better of it. I was in a hatchback so with a bit of shifting I had myself a nice little bed in the back with lots of padding & two pillows. Yes sir!

I crashed out pretty quickly & woke the next morning around 7:30. A bunch of tour heads also crashed at the rest stop and the washroom smelled like dirty hippies. I washed up and hit the road. Rain was a factor during the first part of my drive along with some huge thunder & lightening. The mid-west summer weather would play a memorable roll as the day moved on.

I didn't stop to eat or gas until I reached the outskirts of Columbus, OH. I saw a sign for a Waffle House and made a b-line for the exit. It has been a while since I've had the opportunity to dine at this fine establishment and I wasn't about to pass this up.


Notice the Timmy's in the background

I was making great time so I grabbed a USA Today & went in for one of those leisurely breakfasts. I had a nice big waffle with butter and syrup, a couple of sausage patties and some coffee. The menu had changed a bit since the last time I was there. They seem to be moving towards the higher end of greasy spoon restaurants if that makes any sense. Friendly staff and fat customers. Great choice by me.

On my way through Columbus I saw a Budweiser 18 wheeler flipped over. It wasn't on our side of there road. I need to always have my camera ready. You just never know. Once the rain stopped it got hot. Thick and hot. It was over 30C which I think would be in the 90's F. As soon as I crossed into Indiana I deviated from my Google Maps print out and hit some back roads. My thinking was to avoid Indy and any potential construction, traffic jams, etc. I was ahead of the game on time and I like to get off the Interstate from time to time to really see some things not just fly by them. I saw a lot of fields and a lot of random churches. Churches everywhere. According to most of their signs, it looks like I'm going to Hell. I've accepted this fate, but if you don't want the same for yourself it looks like you can be saved by joining a congregation and signing over percentages of your paycheck to the church. It's just that easy.

I ended up getting lost on the back roads around Noblesville. I don't know how really. There's not much out there and all I had to do I figured was get to the area and look for the vehicles with stickers indicating they were a part of the traveling circus that is Phish's mobile entourage. It wasn't quite that easy, but I managed to get there without asking one single person for directions. Huge.

It was so hot when I got into the lot & parked at around 3pm. I hit the beer quickly and figured I would slowly wane down consumption as the day/night went on. I was also able to purchase 2 goo-balls right away. I wanted to eat one straight off to ensure its quality. This would give me time to look for the guy or other options if they turned out to be bad. Luckily they weren't :)

I parked beside a group of Mikes from Pittsburgh. One of the was wearing a Penguins hat and I commented that I just couldn't get away from Pens fans on this trip as I held my beer in a Red Wing cozy. We ended up getting on good and talk hockey for a good while along with some other sports stuff and the Canadian health care system.


The Mikes

The boys cooked me up some nice fat chicken breasts smothered in an amazing BBQ sauce. They cooked with proper charcoal. I added some cherry tomatoes to the mix. They have been one of my favorite snacks lately especially after a little hooch. I'd trade for them over a bag of chips any day.

I headed in at around 7:30. I was in the reserved seating section under the pavilion which I had made a point to get based on the weather forecast. Thunder & lightening with rain. I grabbed a huge can of Coors Light (only choice) and milled about. My seat was on Page's side.

A lot of firsts for me at this show, my 18th. Some were new songs that hadn't been played before this tour and others were just because Phish has such a huge catelogue that there are quite a few rarities. The new songs at this show I hadn't heard before were Backwards Down the Number Line, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan (great tune), and Ocelot. I still consider all songs from Phish's Undermind album to be brand new since they were not given any time to develop in the last shows before the band broke up in 2004. They played The Connection for the first time live and I was very happy to hear A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing, a song I thought had incredible live potential but didn't have any time to develop. Now it does.

It surprised me that I had not heard Water in the Sky live before, but my stats indicate that I hadn't before this show. Other first for me included Fluffhead, Let Me Lie, Sleeping Monkey and Suzy Greenburg. It's hard to believe I missed Suzy for 17 straight shows, but that wasn't my biggest snub. I left Coventry thinking I would never see a Tweezer live. I don't know how I got this far into my Phish career without one. I said to myself right before the house lights dropped, "This is your Tweezer show Darren."

This show was filled with greatness. In the first set The Moma Dance had the place bouncing & grooving, Lawn Boy was classic Page, The first ever live The Connection, Stealing Time was great & Fluffhead was superbly played. The 2nd set began after a one hour weather delay. Horizontal lightening filled the sky. When they did start again around 11pm it was monstrous. A water theme early, a nicely placed slow tune and then the TWEEZER>2001>Suzy!!!! Incredible. Possum was a great set closer and the Sleeping Monkey in the encore was unexpected and perfect and was ofcourse followed by Tweeprise with Trey doing his chicken dance.





06/19/09 Verizon Wireless Music Center, Noblesville, IN

Set I: Backwards Down The Number Line, AC/DC Bag, Limb By Limb, The Moma Dance, Water in the Sky, Split Open and Melt, Lawn Boy, The Wedge, Stealing Time From The Faulty Plan, The Connection1, Ocelot, Fluffhead

Set II: A Song I Heard The Ocean Sing> Drowned> Twist, Let Me Lie, Tweezer> Also Sprach Zarathustra> Suzy Greenberg, Possum

Encore: Sleeping Monkey, Tweezer Reprise

1 First Time Played

As soon as the show ended the skies opened up. By the time I got to the car I was completely soaked. Getting out was fucked too because they had idiots parking cars earlier in the day. I was completely bagged after this show and crashed at the first rest stop I came to as I headed north on I-69 towards Detroit.

I was on the road by 7:30am the next day. It was a nice sunny day. I listened to a fairly hard core conservative religious station for a while. When in Rome... Yeah. Anyways. I put in The Dead's Without a Net and just cruised north. I hit Detroit at around noon and even though I was coming back the next day for a Tiger game I wanted to stop by what was left of Tiger Stadium and take in a bit of urban plight. It's a sad situation in Detroit, but I think an opportunity too. Here's my last look at The Corner. Two days later it would be gone completely.



I got back across the border with no hassles. I took the tunnel and made it to my dad's place before 2pm. I was actually the first to arrive which didn't really surprise me as the other vehicle was filled with all girls. I'm not trying to stereotype, just saying...

I relaxed for the rest of the day. Had some beers, watched the US Open & BBQ'd. We were on the road to Detroit by 10:30am and were in our seats for the 1:06pm first pitch. Like the trip itself, the game turned out good.



-mrjackstraw

I Phelt the Pheeling I Phorgot

I set out early Thursday morning to meet Phish face-to-face for the first time since Coventry. We had unfinished business, especially after The Curtain (With). This was a last minute trip with plans made in haste on that fateful night when the Pittsburgh Penguins stole my our Cup. Emotions were running high. Thoughts were spoken. Justifications made and pieces just fell into place. I went traveled alone to Burgettestown, PA (Pittsburgh) and Noblesville, IN (Indianapolis), but I could not have pulled it off alone. Especially for what it cost me. Peanuts compared to others making similar journeys. Nice as that is, it is unimportant now. I would have paid more.

Explaining to a US Border Guard why I am going to not one, but two concerts by myself was not easy. Some of my closest family and friend don't understand why I see Phish, let alone why I see them night after night. This was the first time I had ever been asked point blank, "Do you have any drugs with you?" Has anyone ever answered "Yes" to that question? Regardless, I did not. We went through our dance and I was eventually told to have a good time, and so I did.

It had been a long time since I had been able to hop in a vehicle and just hit the road. I had with me an ample supply of Phish, some live Grateful Dead, Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Day for Night & We Are the Same by The Tragically Hip, some Beatles and a few others. It rained off and on until I got fairly close to Pittsburgh where the sun started shining through. This was going to be my first show at the Post-Gazette Pavilion and I was excited. Phish has a good record here and the limited lawn space was proof that the fans paid attention to this fact.

I arrived at a little after 4pm and festivities were well under way in the lot. I cracked a beer and took a stroll noting the closest port-o-potties, entrance and section letter where I was parked. I stood by the fence of the venue and listened to the sound check. From what I could make out they played Nelly Kane, Funky Bitch and I thought I heard at least the music to Friday.

I had brought down some artwork that my friend Andrew did. I wanted to help him get some exposure for his site and make a little cash for gas at the same time. With three hours to kill I brought my chair, a few beers and the prints over to a high traffic area and plopped down. The prints included a couple of solo Treys, Phish, Dave & Trey acoustic and a Jerry Garcia. You can check those and many others over at www.andrusartprints.com. I sold a few, but mostly it was just chit-chat. I had a sign advertising my need for a Deer Creek ticket the next night and did manage to score a pavilion seat. The forecast was calling for rain and I didn't mind paying face for that luxury. This would turn out to be huge...

After about an hour of hawking prints I made my way back to the car and fired up the grill. Cheddar sausages, corn on the cob, cherry tomatoes and a big, fat ganja goo-ball for dessert. Yes sir! I had lawn seats so I made my way into the venue at around 7:15. I found a spot about 15 feet up dead centre. The lawn was quite thick and wet from the day's rain so sitting was not an option for me at least. I had grabbed a bottle of water on my way in, so that along with the goo-ball was what I was working with.

The boys took the stage close to 8 O'clock and hit the crowd with an unexpected opener, Golgi Apparatus. Ticket stubs were raised high. I love the energy of the Phish crowd. I've seen enough bands in my day to safely say it is unmatched. I had made friends with a group from Cleveland and this was the first show for most of them since Coventry. We had a good time discussing the trials and tribulations we all went through in northern Vermont as I'm sure many others had. There was one girl in the group, Barb, the wife of Mike and though they had both seen Phish many times prior, this was their first show together. She kept high-fiving me.

Chalkdust Torture, Bouncing Around the Room, Wolfman's Brother and The Divided Sky followed. Welcome fuckin' back! Holy shit did they ever come out like gangbusters. For me, seeing Phish for the first time in 5 years, it couldn't have started off any better. I've never been one to really judge Phish's prowess up there on stage though I can tell when I've just heard a masterful version of a song versus a complete bomb, but the disclaimer here is that to say I wasn't looking at things through rose coloured glasses would be a lie. I was SO happy just to be standing in front of this band again with all my phriends.

The first set also included a bust out of Walk Away with that last coming pre-first hiatus, Wilson, Tube!, Alaska & David Bowie. I enjoyed Alaska and I think it's going to have some legs with this band. Bowie was the hit and miss song of the night for me. I think there was a flub or two in there. That being said, they played it better than anybody else could have.

Set break tip: If you can manage to go in the exit of the washroom, time is saved. Also there's always more urinals in the very back. People just don't pick up on this. I was drug free though, so I may have had an advantage. Ha ha.



Don't you just love when Mike slaps those first few notes of DWD? They didn't come back to the riff, but dropped nicely into Free. People seemed to like that. Guyute, one of my favorites, followed next and then Piper. Los Lobos' When the Circus Comes to Town was perfectly placed. I have always loved that song and it always reminds me of the traveling Phish fans.

Harry. HOOD! Harry. HOOD! Well played and to be honest this could have been the set closer for me. You want to go ahead and throw a Squirming Coil & YEM on top of that? Well, be my guest boys. I am not here to stand in anybody's way. The Vocal jam out of YEM shut down the second set. Thank you very much.

The encore brought out the personality that I think endears the band to many of their fans. Page blew the wrong key and their acapella version of Grind was not great. They tried to make up for that by doing Hello My Baby, but Fish kept laughing. Trey said if Fish messed up again he'd sing Bike. So we got a HYHU>Bike>HYHU with Trey on drums & Fish on the vacuum cleaner. That kinda looked like that was it until they reformed and dropped into Loving Cup. Cause they're good like that.

Great first show back for me. On paper it looks epic, but I think Deer Creek was the better show. I will cover that in my next post.


06/18/09 Post Gazette Pavilion, Burgettstown, PA

Set I: Golgi Apparatus, Chalkdust Torture, Bouncing Around the Room, Wolfman's Brother, The Divided Sky, Heavy Things, Walk Away1, Wilson, Tube, Alaska, David Bowie

Set II: Down With Disease> Free, Guyute, Piper> When the Circus Comes to Town, Harry Hood, The Squirming Coil, You Enjoy Myself

Encore: Grind, Hello My Baby2, HYHU> Bike3> HYHU, Loving Cup

1 Last Played 10/5/2000 (80 Shows)
2 incomplete; there were two false starts; after the first, Trey said that if they
messed up again, Fish would sing Bike
3 Last Played 9/12/2000 (95 Shows); Fishman banter included him saying "welcome to the trainwreck portion of the show"


-mrjackstraw

Part II

I'm Going to Phish

I did it. I just bought a ticket to Star Lake, got the time off work, procured a vehicle through my generous sister, and was blessed with the understanding of my lovey girlfriend.

My plan is to take off Thursday morning, grab some supplies once I'm in the US and make it down to Burgettestown, PA by mid-afternoon. I am hoping to help a friend out by selling some of his artwork and earning enough commission to cover at least my gas.

Since we are heading to Chatham, ON for Father's Day I can meet the others there and just do a loop through the Rust Belt. After the Burgettestown show they are playing Friday night just north of Indianapolis (Noblesville, IN) so I will hit that up. I will need to find a ticket to that one though, but I'm not too worried.

This is all going to happen fast so I've put together a list of the basics and will go from there. Hotels are not in the equation. I am bringing a tent, but will most likely just sleep in the car. I'll bring a small cooler to keep meat, fruit and drinks. I'll have a few beers, but this is going to be a completely sober experience for me. One that I'm quite looking forward to actually. I will probably give into a balloon or two. Ha ha.

Weather.com is calling for scattered thunderstorms each day at each venue. Hopefully they scatter somewhere that's not over us. That would put a damper on things, but I'd most likely be well rested.

I'll post some of the artwork soon.

-mrjackstraw

A Sunday Show > NS Bows Out > Hampton Pics

Another fine Sunday here in the T-dot. So, what shall we discuss...

First a wonderful Grateful Dead show courtesy of the archive. This is a March 15, 1990 show from the Capital Center in Landover, MD. The spring tour of 1990 will always make deadheads wonder what might have been if Brent wouldn't have OD'd that August taking away the finest singing voice that band has ever had. Highlights from this show include the Jack Straw, Sugaree opening combo, Althea and a superb Terrapin Station. The link above will take you where you need to be. Spark one up and enjoy!

This whole tour raged with highlights being the Copps Coliseum back-to-backs from Hamilton, ON (one of the best Scarlet/Fire's), but the real gem happened on this writer's birthday, March 29, 1990 @ the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island where Brantford Marsalis joined the Dead for the first time adding his improvisational saxophone skills that worked magically on Bird Song, Dark Star and Eyes of the World (Without a Net version).

The Brier - The final is set. Kevin Martin and his Alberta rink will be playing at home tonight vs Jeff Stoughton's Manitoba rink. Manitoba got by Ontario last night and Stoughton probably managed to give them all a cold in turn. If a bunch of you Ontarians come down with something this week, just look left to Manitoba and give 'em one of these:




As for Kris Granchelli, Lead stone thrower for next year's host province Nova Scotia, well let's just say that we're awfully proud of him. I don't curl, but I do know some things. First, Canada is the best at this sport. Period. The Brier is filled with past champions, World Champions and Olympic Champions, some of them multiple winners of these titles. I know Kris and his teammates were looking for a better record than the 2-9 they finished at, but we/they should keep things in perspective. It's been a great experience for the entire team to play on this stage. If you haven't done it before it can be tough with the crowd sizes, TV cameras & lights, expectations from back home, etc. Now I know Dacey has been there and done that, but this is a team game and successful teams need to grow. Besides, curlers seem to age gracefully. This isn't the NBA. I think we'll see Mr. Granchelli on TV again.

Kris Granchelli Tim Horton's Brier Final Stats:

Overall: 83% (Ranked 10/12 for Leads)
Best Game: 91%
Worst Game: 76%
Positional +/-: -1 (Ranked 7/12 for Leads)



The teams is pictured from left to right: Mark Dacey, Bruce Lohnes, Andrew Gibson, and Kris Granchelli. You wouldn't know it, but Kris probably shaved less than 2 hours before that photo was taken.

All kidding aside this has been a great accomplishment for Kris. He has talked about this for a long time and to be honest, I was never sure if he was serious or just full of shit. I couldn't be happier that he was able to straighten me out on that. Will I now have to hear about this forever? It's a Shore Thing!!

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I just entered a poker tourney of Party. The results have just not been there for me lately. I've been able to build some nice stacks early, but the wheels seem to fall off as I approach the money or just get into it. It has actually happened a lot with AQ lately and I think I need to take a harder look at how I play this hand, especially vs someone that can bounce me. Last night I called a re-raise with AQ sooooted right before the money bubble. I had between 15-20 BBs left at the time and didn't have to go it's just that the raise came from a steal spot and I was SB. I really didn't want to play the hand out of position. The thing is there are not many hands besides a bluff that I am ahead of. No pairs. Versus AK & AA I am was dominated.

Just got bounced. I'm in BB with 20+ BBs in my stack. I got QQ. There are 3 callers before it gets back to me so I pop it to $600 hoping to get it 1-on-1. This happens when I get re-popped and now have to call an all-in for my stack. I don't put him on AA or KK or even AK because at this level I think he would have bumped it up first time around. I call pretty confident I'm ahead, hoping to see JJ or TT. He flips over KJo (what?) and of course spikes a K on the turn. GG mrjackstraw. See ya next time. Fuck.

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In case you don't know what Phish does, here's a peek into that wonderful little world:




Skills to Pay the Bills

Happiness is...

You Enjoy Myself

Mothership Command Center

Blast off!

Trey is a Jedi


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Looks like I'm going into my fantasy hockey playoffs with the #1 or #2 seed which gets me a 1st round bye and directly into the top 4 where 3/4 get paid. I like it. I've also just got Brodeur and Vanek back from injury so I enter the playoffs with a fairly healthy team front to back. Not turning my goaltending depth into a top flight centre may come back to haunt me. I tried. Finding a dance partner is hard sometimes. Deadhead Express is gonna roll!!!!!!!


Althea just came on. Love that tune. This space is getting hot!!!

JJ's coming by today for a little Tiger Woods golf on the Wii. Should be a blast. Fuck I love Sunday's!

-mrjackstraw

Hampton Phish > Granchelli > Plastics

Friday March 6, 2009 saw the return of Phish in Hampton, VA and holy shit what a first show. I listened to it today as Live Phish is giving away free downloads of all three shows from this weekend. If your music collection needs a boost, it's all right there for you. I urge any and all to TAKE ADVANTAGE of this generous offer from the Phish.

I am seriously considering making a run down to Burgettstown, PA to catch at least one show this tour. Between the Dead and The Hip it all seems to come at once. The prices for Phish are just off the charts and I hate to pay a scalper for anything, but fuck, they were smoking!

Here's the setlist:

Set I: Fluffhead, Divided Sky, Chalkdust Torture, Sample in a Jar, Stash, I Didn't Know*, Oh Kee Pa > Suzy Greenberg, Farmhouse, NICU, Horn, Rift, Train Song, Water in the Sky, Squirming Coil, David Bowie

Set II: Backwards Down The Number Line, Tweezer, Taste, Possum, Theme from the Bottom, First Tube, Harry Hood, Waste, You Enjoy Myself (with a false start/joke)

Encore: Grind (acapella), Bouncin**, Loving Cup

* with Fishman vac solo and Trey on drums
** with balloon drop

Here's a link to a great review with some amazing photos and video...Hampton

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I caught my first glimpse of Mr. Kris Granchelli in HD on TSN and let me say, he cleans up well. His Nova Scotia rink lost 8-3 to Manitoba. There's some nice team pictures on the Tim Horton's Brier website if you are interested. He's currently on the ice as I type now verses PEI so I'll let ya know how the second draw goes.

UPDATE 11:59PM March 7, 2009

Nova Scotia is on the board after kicking the shit out of PEI 8-5. This reminds me of a little road trip Kris and I took to PEI...another story for another time. He threw for 79% and 60 PTS. Earlier today during Draw 1 he threw 82% for 59 PTS. I'm not sure what these numbers mean or if they are good, bad or average, but I am looking into it. The vicious beating handed down to the islanders improves Nova Scotia's record to 1-1 and puts them middle of the pack. Congrats on your first Brier win Chico!

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Random sports news...Hello Buffalo!!! Terrell Owens is a Bill. I guess sports radio in western New York has something to talk about.

Canada lost to the US 6-5 in its first game at the World Baseball Classic. The game was played right here at the Skydome in Toronto. I would have liked to have gone, but had to drop the little lady at the airport. She's off to San Francisco for a couple of weeks and I left to live as a bachelor.

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Public Service Announcement: Remove any plastics before preheating the oven. Just saying...

Hip, Phish, Ball Caps

Still alive. Just been busy.

The Tragically Hip just announced their 2009 tour plans. All shows are to be 2 set affairs (the way it should be). Check out my Tragically Hip Blog. I did manage to score 8th row at Massey Hall for the opening night of that run.

Phish also kicks off their return this weekend in Hampton, VA. They are offering free downloads of the entire weekend to all their fans who were shut out on tickets (me). For more information on that have a look at my Phish Tour Blog.

And now a random list....

Last 5 Ball Caps I've Seen on the Toronto Subway

Note: They have to be in the same subway car as me.

1. Toronto Blue Jays (Black - The T)
2. Atlanta Falcons
3. Boston Celtics
4. Buffalo Bills
5. Team Canada Hockey

The hockey hat was the only one with a curve in the brim.

Maybe I'll try to keep an ongoing score.

Back from Washington, DC

I just got back from a long weekend in DC. I will post the entire trip as I remember it once it's together. We had a really good time and it's a great city to see if you ever get the chance.

The Raptors traded Jermaine O'Neal for Shawn Marion while I was gone. This move is all about flexibility going forward. The thing is, getting rid of O'Neal takes them out of any kind of 2010 run at the mega stars. I am starting to think that moving Bosh, while painful for the city, could return some huge rewards down the road. If you build for the future you should build for a long and prosperous one. I feel the same way about the Blue Jays and Doc. He would garner at least two blue chip prospects this year being as that he is still signed through next year at a sick rate for a guy of his talents. The Jays have to face facts...now is not the time. It's time to do it Oakland style. Develop solid major leaguers and turn them over into multiple prospects. Keep doing this to build a deep & cheap team that at least has a hope of competing with the Red Sox and Yankees.

Phish is less than a month away and I'm starting to get a little jealous. I'm working on a Phish Blog that will document their tour this year and beyond. If I can't be there I might as well do something, eh?

Play Dead > Play Crashed Ice

Andy, Sameer & I scored tickets to see The Dead in April in Albany. We wanted to do a Friday in Albany and Saturday in Worcester, MA. Alas, the scalpers jumped all over the MA tickets for the Saturday night. Boy do they have a surprise coming. At the prices The Dead are charging for this tour ($100 WTF) I can't see many people forking over $150+ to see a band who hasn't played a lot together and is without one Jerry Garcia. So we will be in Worcester, MA on the Saturday ready to grab those extras on the cheap. There is a Buffalo show on April 18th. From Toronto it's the closest, but being during the week we would actually have to take more time off work for it than to travel. So it's a trip down the I-90 for us.

Phish tickets go on sale next Friday and I am really wanting to score some Jones Beach seats. They are going to be tough and may cost a bit extra, but I would like to take my girl to NYC and tie it all in. Since they are dealing with Live Nation and not TicketBastard (no link sorry), I have found out that Blockbuster Video Stores are now ticket outlets. I am hoping this is not just an American thing, but that tickets can also be purchased for US shows here in Canada at out Blockbuster Video stores. We'll see. Check out my Phish 2009 Tour Blog.

REDBULL CRASHED ICE

Have you heard of this? It's on TSN tonight starting at 8 or 830pm. Not sure which. Basically races are done in groups of four. Each racer is dressed in full hockey gear and a track has been created through Old Quebec City.





There's twists and turns, drops and jumps with about 100,000 people there to party and watch the races. It looks absolutely crazy. This year is also the first year that women will be involved. So it's four person heats (20 runners for the women, 64 runners for the men) with the top two from each heat advancing until a winner is declared.

Here is last year's final, also from Quebec City, Canada:



I had a nice run on Party Poker last night taking 2 first place finishes and 1 second place finish in the three events I entered. A nice bankroll boost that hopefully I can use to my advantage. Time will tell, but I am feeling very confident right now about my game and the decisions I am making. That's three solid positive sessions in a row for me so hopefully this is just the start of a nice little run. I have really made an effort to protect my final chip while focusing on small pot poker, striking when I am the dominant hand on pots I have then been able to build.

It's -17C here in Toronto at this very moment. I'm really wishing I had bought more beer last night so I wouldn't need to re-stock before CRASHED ICE starts. Oh well. Don't forget about the NHL Skills Competition. I don't know when it starts. It's nowhere to be found on the NHL's home page, where it should be, along with network info for both Canada and the US. More NHL Marketing 101. How's that going?

Later.

Phish Summer Tour 2009

Holy shit! Two comebacks in one year. Phish and the Dead. Thanks for spreading it out boys. Ha ha! Ah well. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do. See y'all on the road. Too bad they're gonna be festival bitches now. More on that later.

-mrjackstraw