My trip to Victoria/Vancouver, part 1

What up fam. This is ya boy writing to you from Ocean Island Backpackers Inn in beautiful Victoria. I'll give y'all a brief recap of what happened on Saturday. I spent most of the day at SF Internat'l airport. I volunteered to give up my seat for the 8:10 AM flight in exchange for "executive class" on a later flight and a $200 voucher. I lounged and napped in the exective lounge most of the morning and afternoon. It was great. On the plane, I had plenty of leg room, complementary beverages and meal, and a seat that massaged my lower lumbar region.

I arrived in Victoria at around 7:30 in the evening, checked into the hostel, went to the room for a nap, and slept for 11 hours. I awoken at 11:30 pm by the explosion of fireworks. July 1st is Canada Day. Other than that, my sleep was sound.

Today I woke up early and caught a bus to Swartz Harbor, where I caught a ferry and two more busses to Vancouver. I met up with Tony, this cat I know from Hands on Bay Area, and his sister and friend, "Magic" Dave. I took in a Shakespeare play, Measure for Measure. We dined at a fusion/Indian restaurant and I took the rest of the day getting back to Victoria. It takes, like, 4 hours one-way. Time well spent? Aeh.

Old fashioned lovin'

On the hi-fi: "Old Fashion Love" by Commodores

That's right, I want some old fashioned lovin' tonight! You know, some passionate hand-holding. That's probably not going to happen, however, but stay tuned for more great boggin' from ya boy. I'm about to take a trip to Victoria, BC for an extended weekend. Details to follow...

Silicon Valley Reads

If you haven't heard of Silicon Valley Reads, it's an area-wide book club put on annually by the Santa Clara County Office of Education to promote reading in the South Bay. This year's selections are When the Emperor was Divine by Julie Otsuka and The Souvenir by some lady whose name I can't recall at the moment. Buy them and read them.

Lightheaded

In the deck: Lightheaded / Wrong Way / Tres Records

Okay, where were we? Oh yes, Saturday night, JR and I went to Lightheaded's album release party in Oakland. I also had tix which I won from KZSU Stanford to see Slick Rick perform with a live band in SF. It was a fun little show. The venue is called 2232 MLK. It's one of those upstairs venues, so it took a while to find to locate this hole in the wall. Talking to the guys from LH was mad cool. Braille seemed a bit preoccupied with his two-way however.

For those who are unaware of the Lightheaded crew, it consists of three MC's from the Pacific Northwest; Braille, Othello, and Ohmega Watts. Their sound is funky and positive with crafty samples and some lurical acrobatics. Definitely an exercise in listening.

A RealPlayer for ya...

In the deck: Live from Planet X / MF Doom / Nature Sounds Recordings

Ha hah! Those suckers at Real.com aren't aware that they're selling a full-length live album by MF Doom in their Music Store for 99¢! That's right, y'all. you can buy Live from Planet X for ninety-nine centavos. It costs $9.99 if you purchase it at the iTunes Music Store.

The entire album is one long track consisting of a live set recorded at the DNA Lounge in SF. I'm guessing it was recorded some time in late 2003 or early 2004. Songs include a few of my favorites such as "Rhymes Like Dimes," "Places, People, Things," "Fine Print," and "One Beer." I recently caught Doom's show at the Independent last month. He definitely caught wreck and I became a fan that evening (I was there to see Pigeon John and Count Bass D (who was a no-show, by the way)).

The only drawback is that the sound file is encoded only to play on RealPlayer v10 (for PC's only). My challenge was to convert this .rax file to .mp3 without purchasing their stupid premium version of RealPlayer to do the job. Done. Here's how... Simply use RealPlayer to burn the .rax audio file to a disc, and then use iTunes (or whatever) to convert the song from CD to MP3. Easy!

A Feast of Rest

In the deck: Why Hip Hop? / Various Artists / Cross Movement Records

Wow, what a weekend. I'll tell you what I saw and did because only YOU are privy to such information. Ready? Here goes...

Friday night was a blast. JR and I went to 24 Hour Fitness. Usually I go to Gold's Gym, and I was somewhat biased toward 24 Hour because of all the things that I had heard about it (e.g. "It's a meat market in there." "They're [staff] like used car salemen.") It wasn't really all that bad though, just different. Then we watched "The Fantastic Four" film that came out last summer. I was in the mood for a little mindless entertainment and it definitely filled the bill.

Saturday brought a rain storm and a new roommate, Tim, moved into my house. In the afternoon, JR and I went to cheer on the Cardinal women's basketball team as they crushed the California Bears. Then it was on to Oaktown to have dinner with longtime friends, The Dluzaks. Joining us were my good friend Jeremy and his fiancée, Jackie (more on them in a subsequent blog). We ate curried chicken and played games like Guestures and Who? What? Where?, which I particularly enjoyed. I drew a picture of Fred Flinstone breakdancing in a volcano which I am very proud of. I should have saved it, so that I could share it with you.

Sunday, in the words of Saint Therésè, is a feast of rest. And what a feast! I slept in until noon, and then joined a friend for a discussion of Zane's Book Club® January selection, Story of a Soul, by none other than Saint Thérèse of Lisieux! Truly a beautiful piece of work written by a beautiful soul.

Then it off to mass at Saint Athanasius to celebrate the Eucharist. Well, not really, because I'm Presbyterian. I will conclude by saying that this weekend a fun time was had by all.

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Let us give thanks.

Okay, this is the second day out for The GTC Web log. You may wondering, "Just who is the Give Thanks Crew?" Well, right now, the Crew consists of me, myself, and I, but we will be accepting applications for new members shortly. Why the name Give Thanks? Well, that's what we do. We give thanks for the blessings that we breath in moment by moment, day by day, year by year. But seriously, if you'd like to join this blog ring and be down with the Give Thanks Crew, just shoot me an e-mail.

I hung out with dear old Mom yesterday evening. We took in the film Memoirs of a Geisha. It was a visually enticing film that gave me insight into Japanese culture, pre and post WWII. Then, we followed up the film by eating sushi at Sushiko in Los Altos. Wow, what a meal. Very hospitable service, too, might I add. My only complaint is that it was a tad chilly in the restaurant.

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