If you asked a bunch of random Sasquatch-goers what the most memorable events were for them, you’d find quite a few who had Bassnectar‘s set on their list.  I was pretty excited before the set, and I had an inkling of what was coming, but even so I was completely unprepared.

Bassnectar opened with Teleport Massive, and something truly magical happened at the first bass drop.

This is the best video I’ve found so far (no, I didn’t take the video) of the start of his set.  If you look you’ll see me off to the right from time to time (I’m wearing the glowing yellow cowboy hat).

Literally thousands of glow sticks were thrown during the hour-long set, with I’d guess about 50% of them during the span of that video.  It was indescribable.

And I know there were thousands of glow sticks because I brought 1,000 on my own, and in the area around me I saw another 6,000 or so between a number of different people.  Of course, we were all handing them out prior to the start of the set to anyone who wanted them.  Sheer madness.  And I can’t possibly forget being there.

Old 97′s
Which I had problems getting into, but really they weren’t that bad.  Despite being quite tired physically, I downed some more water and headed into the fray for

Chromeo
Which was far and away the sexiest dance party of the entire weekend.  Such a blast, and a good way to get energized for the rest of the day.  The inflatables were fun too.  For the next while there wasn’t a lot that interested me so I caught my first and only comedy act of the weekend,

The Scott Aukerman & Paul F. Tompkins Show
which was the Worst. Comedy. Act. Ever.  Guided by Voices would have been infinitely more fun.  But It was a good excuse to lie in the shade for an hour and rest before

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Which were the most surprising act of the weekend for me, and my favorite “never heard them before” artist.  Sharon is a total diva, and she knows exactly what she’s doing on stage.  At one point, a guy managed to slip over the barrier and start to climb the stage.  Security pulled him down, but Sharon told them to let him go, and he got up on stage.  She totally rocked out with the guy who was clearly having the time of his life.  Such an awesome performer.  I’ve never really given soul / funk much of a thought until now.  Stand up and take notice, ladies and gentlemen.  This is how it’s done.

Rodrigo y Gabriela
Were another act I hadn’t really heard much about, but I knew I had to see them.  It was just 2 people and 2 acoustic guitars, but they managed such a display of musical prowess that I was once again blown away.  They reminded me somewhat of Jesse Cook, and that’s not a bad thing at all.  I think I danced for about 1/2 of their set up on the hill which probably made me look pretty silly, but I was definitely enjoying myself.  Which is maybe part of why

Skrillex
was such a huge disappoinment (second only to the Flaming Lips).  I enjoy his recorded music, but he just isn’t very good live.  Lots of people in the dance tent were having a good time, but I quite honestly wasn’t.  Maybe it’s because I was surrounded by sweaty, smelly kids who were obviously extremely high and dancing like they were being attacked by a pack of rabid wolves.  Skrillex’ poor performance live coupled with the crowd completely ruined it.  I gave it 20 minutes before heading back to the hill for

The Decemberists
Who I enjoyed immensely.  I did not however stick around to see

Wilco
as a storm was rolling in and I was completely exhausted.  I simply left, and slept hard.

I arrived in time to catch most of

The Drums
Which was better than I expected, but the real reason I was down in the pit was for

Fitz and the Tantrums
who I was really looking forward to seeing.  They definitely didn’t disappoint, and it was a pretty good dance party right up front.  At this point in my day, things started to go a bit astray though: I got an ear plug stuck in my right ear such that I wasn’t able to remove it.  So instead of sticking around to see

Tokyo Police Club
I went to the medical tent to get the earplug removed.  Astonishingly, the medical tent didn’t have any tweezers (!), so they ended up digging the earplug out with a needle.  With that taken care of, I went to see the last half of

Sam Roberts Band
They played the only song of theirs I know during the part I caught, which was nice.  The rest of their stuff was so-so.

City and Color
Was interesting.  I wasn’t super impressed by the music, but the lead singer has an incredible voice.  Additionally, I had an ice cream bar special delivered (long story) which totally made my afternoon.  After that I got situated up on the hill to watch

Flogging Molly
and the insane dance party I knew that would result.  I didn’t want to be in the dance party in this case, just wanted to watch from afar.  It was quite a lot of fun, even as a spectator.  I then moved to a different spot on the hill to watch the sunset and

The Flaming Lips
Which turned out to be my biggest disappointment of the weekend.  They started out strong, but Wayne kept blabbing on and on at random in between songs, and even in between verses of songs, which completely ruined the flow of the show.  I wish he would have just shut up and played some music.  I think they managed only 8 songs in a 90 minute set.  Yuck.  The sunset was pretty though.

Modest Mouse
Prompted a trip down to the floor to get somewhere warmer as well as some flat space to dance.  They completely made up for the Flaming Lips and I had a fantastic time at the show.  Another highlight of the weekend for sure.  I was tired, so didn’t stick around for any of the late night stuff.

Saturday was the first full day at the festival, and I learned a few important lessons from the previous day:

1. Pack your bag for the festival early and carefully.  Don’t bring too much, but bring at least 2 or 3 layers.
2. Plan on the walk and security / admission taking at least 30-40 minutes if not longer, assuming you are already close to the edge of the campground.
3. The lines for filling water bottles can get long, so bring a couple of empties to reduce the number of times you have to fill up

Throughout the day I saw numerous fun costumes, and they got better as the weekend went on.  I also saw lots of guys wearing neon baseball caps, and I realize I need to get one before the next festival I do – it’s so hard to find people even when you know where they are.

With no further ado… my day started off with

Local Natives
Which really surprised me by how good they were.  I really enjoyed the set, and the completely random dance party on the hill was fun to watch.

Wolf Parade
Came on next, and they were solid too.  I left a few minutes early to head to another stage to watch

Jenny & Johnny
Who totally rocked it.  Jenny was wearing a sassy red number which you could have seen from miles away.  On my way to get more water and catch part of

Pink Martini
I hit a wall of people and realized that

Wye Oak
were causing quite a stir.  I stayed and watched them and had a blast, although I do regret missing Pink Martini completely.   I grabbed a bite and chilled for part of

Iron & Wine
who I just couldn’t get into really.  They had a few moments, but I left partway through to go see

Matt & Kim
Who had me up and dancing for most of their set.  They blew me away. I also got the cowboy hat prepared before I went to

The Glitch Mob
where the hat made its official debut near the front of the dance tent.  I enjoyed their set but it lacked the energy of some of the later stuff in the weekend, like

Robyn
who had a late start, but she was easily one of the highlights of the weekend.  I danced for her entire set, start to finish.  Because her set ended late, I missed

Sleigh Bells
who would have been fun but I am still glad I saw all of Robyn.

Death Cab for Cutie
was an act I was going to skip entirely until the schedule got re-jigged.  As it was, the music kinda sucked, but it was good to relax on the lawn and get my glow sticks cracked and ready for

Bassnectar
who blew away every other electronic / dance music act of the weekend.   I had 1000 glow sticks with me, and others had brought similar numbers.  I’ve never seen that many glow sticks all thrown in the air at once (we dubbed it the glowpocalypse for a reason), and it was pretty amazing.  The cowboy hat was rocking the entire set.  And if you were there, you’ll understand exactly what I mean by “pink elephants”.  Holy crap.

I arrived at the gorge about 12:00pm on Friday after getting a bit of a later start than I had hoped from Seattle.  The line getting into the campground took about 30 minutes, and I wound up camping relatively close to the entrance to the festival (just over the fence from premier camping) next to a whole bunch of really awesome strangers.  I managed to score enough space for my tent and the 14′ by 14′ shelter which everyone nearby wound up sharing.

By chance, two other Calgary groups I knew were camped relatively close as well (within a 5 minute walk).  Given how big the campground is, I was quite surprised.

After getting the lay of the land and getting set up, I headed in for what I thought was 4:45 to catch the start of Biffy Clyro.  I underestimated the walk, wait at security, etc and arrived promptly at… 5:10.

Biffy Clyro
Sucked pretty bad, but I was able to wander around and get my bearings (and a beer) before things got super crowded.

Bob Mould
Caught the last part of the set, enjoyed it a fair bit.  This is what got me into the Sasquatch mood.

After this, I wandered around and got some sort of chili covered hotdog thing that looked about as awful as it tasted, but I was starving so I ate it anyways.  Man can’t live on beer alone.  I caught a bit of

The Bronx
which didn’t do much for me.

Death From Above 1979
I watched from the hill and it was a great warm up for…

Foo Fighters
Totally rocked.  This was the highlight of the night for sure. I took many photos and almost none of them turned out.  It’s hard to hold a camera steady when you’re dancing.

I wasn’t ready to go to sleep yet, so I found a random dance party in the campground for a bit, then froze my butt off walking back to my tent.

Three words: electroluminescent wire cowboy.

I’ve already acquired some of the stuff I’ll need, and the el wire is being shipped.  Yes, it’s been done before, although I’ve been avoiding looking at the various videos floating around on the internet since I wanted to make sure I had my own unique take on the theme.  The few videos I have seen don’t look quite the same as what I have in mind, so I think I’m safe.

I’m doing a hat, yes, but there’s more to the costume than just that.  Once everything has arrived and the costume is assembled, I’ll be sure to post some pictures.

I had ambitious plans this Halloween. It turns out that as I originally envisioned my costume, blowing my budget was unavoidable. Like most creative processes, though, the additional constraint forced me to get even more creative and explore other possibilities.

My new concept is in the same vein as my original idea, but is both more fun (in my mind) and I found a way to cut the cost down to something more acceptable. As a bonus, I also gain more confidence that the costume will work for more than a single use this Halloween season (so far: 3 planned uses).

I don’t really want to spill the beans, but this will be a lot of fun as a costume and I’ve never seen anything quite like it in the past.

I really hope that shipment from Toronto gets here soon so I can finish building the costume. It shipped a week ago so will hopefully be here tomorrow.

First up is my Halloween costume.  I have some lofty ideas and I’m not sure how (or if) it will all turn out.  I may have to revise my budget somewhat.  Without being too specific, it involves my largest Photoshop document ever (36″ by 80″ when printed) which is a challenge in and of itself.  Once that’s done and printed, I have to build and buy the remainder of the costume.  This will involve at least one trip to Home Depot, one to Cat’s Eye, and quite possibly some time with the sewing machine.   So far it’s a fun project.  I’m really excited to see how it comes together.

Next up are some writing projects.  I posted a short story last month in the form of a letter, and I’ll probably get around to recording the audio version of it later this fall.  I haven’t done much with my audio gear in a while, and I’m getting excitied to do more work now that I can do it on the laptop as well as my main computer.  Recording will be easier since I can be more portable.

The other writing project I have on the go is an RPG scenario for Call of Cthulhu.  I have a lot of notes already written, and I’m going to give some new writing software a try.  The software is called Scrivener, and so far I like it.  It works well with my existing writing workflow in MindManager and I like the ability to work with my research materials alongside my own text within the same application.  I think I’m going to wind up purchasing it – the RPG scenario is a test to see how it goes.  The free trial is very generous (30 days of actual use, not consecutive days) so I’ll be able to know for sure that i like the software before I buy it.  Very unusual, and very cool.

Beyond these projects, who knows.  I’ve got lots of ideas.

This year seemed a bit more laid back than last year, but I still had a great time, and Sunday was pretty high-activity for me. Probably the highlight for me was getting out on the lake in a kayak again, even though it was only for a short while. I also met some new people who live only four blocks away from me in Calgary (small world).

Now all I have to do is catch up on my sleep before this coming weekend…

In any case, it was a fun evening. A total of about 20 people showed up during the course of things, and somehow I managed to end up with more liquor than I started with. Funny how that happens.

The evening started rather routinely. Collin was already here, and Jason dropped by around 5:30 so we could get a bite to eat. My choice of a black tank top proved to be very poor given the stifling heat. I nearly melted by the time we got to Thai Thai, and it’s only a few blocks away. The bubble tea helped to cool me down a bit, and after we got back to the condo, I set about doing last-minute preparations (mostly dealing with food). Dave called at about 7:30 to say he would be late, then showed up at the door at about 7:50, which was technically 10 minutes early (the party officially started at 8:00). I had just gotten out of the shower, and Jason and Collin were playing Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation while I finished up with the food prep. Dave started playing against Collin after that, and they finally put the games away only when about 12 or so people had shown up.

The majority of folks showed up fashionably late around 9:00 or 9:30 (as I expected), and by 10:00 the place was pretty full. For my part, I spent the evening showing people my place, trying to keep tabs on food (thanks Collin and Jason for doing this), and trying to socialize with everyone. I invited a number of different groups of friends, many of whom had never met each other before, and it was interesting to see how people mixed.

A few things about the party stand out in my mind still:

1. We went through nearly 1kg of trail mix,. Some people (I’m looking at you, Michael) were picking out the Smarties and leaving the rest. Others ate only the cashews. So at the end of the night I was left with 200g of peanuts, raisins, and almonds.
2. Almost nobody ate the veggie dip, but the veggies themselves went quickly.
3. Coffee flavoured beer is disgusting (yes, Brian, it really is).
4. A new cocktail was born. Kristi has dubbed it “Blue Steel”. I have to say it was quite tasty.

Thanks to everyone who came by and shared in the fun.

In addition to shutting down the city for a week or so, the Calgary Stampede also has a negative impact on my commute to work. Normally, I ride my bicycle clear through the middle of the Stampede grounds. My last ride through there was yesterday, where the carnies were finishing up with their preparations for the masses. Now, that route is closed to me for just over a week, forcing me to take 11th Ave / 12th Ave to Macdonald ave. This normally wouldn’t add a large amount of time to my commute, but given the extra traffic on those routes during stampede, it makes the ride both a lot slower and more frustrating.

I guess it’s only a week. And the Stampede is a good thing in many respects. It just makes traffic hell for everyone downtown. Including me.

Though the schedule hasn’t been posted yet, there are some special events listed that I would like to attend this year, depending on the timing. It’s likely that I’ll pick one of the two days based on the schedule, which means I’ll miss some things, but that’s the way it goes. I find it tough to devote two whole days to Otafest, but I also find it hard to skip entirely.

Hopefully this year there won’t be as many schedule conflicts as there were last year. In 2006, it seemed like every time something interesting was scheduled, there are about 3 other interesting things scheduled as well. It’s the nature of the beast with any convention / festival, I guess.

Have no fear, though; I’m not madly stitching the last few sequins onto my costume. Really, I’m not.

I’ve posted a number of my photos (but far from all of them) online.

The flight left Calgary at a rather ungodly hour of the morning on January 1. Suffice to say I had very little sleep before leaving for the airport at 4:20am (and I do mean very little), and to make things worse, I was so excited about the trip that I found it impossible to sleep on the flight. Finally, after about 9 hours (including a stop in Vancouver), I arrived in Costa Rica, threw my bag on the bus, and travelled the 20 minutes or so to the Fiesta Premier resort, which I would be calling home for two weeks.

The other 16 people who attended the wedding had already arrived on December 30, and I ran into most of them at supper after I had unpacked a bit and showered. I confirmed that we were booked for the canopy tour the next morning, which meant being ready to leave before 8:00am. I slept surprisingly well and wasn’t tired the following morning. My lack of sleep took about 5 days to catch up with me, in fact.

The canopy tour was a lot of fun, though we didn’t really get to see as much stuff as I had hoped. After that, I went snorkelling for the first time of the trip – I would go about 12 more times in the next two weeks, and on every trip I saw something new. I managed to see all of the following on the various snorkelling trips:

• Lots of angel fish
• Spiny puffer fish
• Spotted puffer fish
• Sea stars
• Sea spiders
• Octopus
• Jellyfish
• Reef sharks
• Sea turtles
• Guitar rays
• Moray eels
• Nosefish (several types)
• Sea cucumbers
• Sea urchins

And many other ocean critters that I can’t put names to.
The following day, the whole wedding group had a sunset cruise booked which was quite nice. We also got some snorkelling in.

The morning of the wedding, most of the guys went out on an ATV tour which was a lot of fun. The brakes on my ATV weren’t working all that well, which I discovered at exactly the wrong moment – I almost ended up sliding into a ravine, but fortunately I managed to keep the ATV more or less on the trail. While on the trip, we saw lots of howler monkeys, some lizards, and a few interesting farms.

The wedding itself took place at sunset on the beach at the resort. It was absolutely gorgeous, though I can’t even begin to imagine how warm Tara must have been in her dress (though she looked even more stunning than usual, for sure).

After the wedding was over, most of the group only had a couple of days left, but since I still had more than a week left of my stay, I pretty much just spent the days relaxing and snorkelling.

The following Tuesday was easily the most memorable day of the entire trip. A few days earlier, I had met a couple were from just north of Manchester, England who had come to Costa Rica to do some birdwatching. I was looking for some hiking, but our interests lined up enough that we decided to hire a private guide for a day (along with two other friends of mine, Bob and Deb) and head to Parque Nacional Rincón de la Vieja for a day of hiking and birdwatching. It was nothing short of incredible. While I never really intended on doing any birdwatching in Costa Rica, I’m very glad I did. We spent seven hours hiking through the park, and saw lots of things besides just birds. I arrived back at the resort tired but very satisfied at the end of the day.

The other two day trips I took were a river float down the Rio Corobici and a shopping trip to the nearest major city, Liberia. The river float was very relaxing and there was a lot of wildlife to see. Liberia was a really interesting city, and wasn’t at all what I expected. I’m not quite sure how to describe it, but I enjoyed the chance to see a little bit of the city and do some solo exploring.

Though I’m home now and happy to be back, I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, and I would love to return to Costa Rica someday.

Ask and ye shall receive.

And now before you ask, “But where are the rest of them?” rest assured they’re coming. Sometime after the rest of the new furniture. So probably sometime in November. Sigh.

As for the housewarming, I keep waffling on that one. At this point I’m thinking I may do a combination birthday / housewarming party, a sort of Happy Birthday Warming if you will. This means I would have to stay in Calgary for my birthday, breaking with the norm, and I’m not sure just yet. I have time to figure it out, thankfully, since my birthday isn’t for a few months yet.

All shall be revealed in time. Once I figure it out myself, that is.

I spent the Heritage Day long weekend at a friend’s cottage on Okanagan Lake in B.C. The weather was hot (above 30°C every day) and sunny, the water was warm, and I had an absolute blast.

Things kicked off early Saturday morning – I picked up my friend Billy at 6:00am, and we got the heck out of the city as fast as possible (obeying local speed limits, of course). The CD player in my car is busted, and we were travelling through the mountains for most of the trip, so the radio options are very limited. We were left with conversation as a source of entertainment. Billy and I had a blast, though. We were about 10km from Field when I realized that we had already passed Lake Louise. I saw the exit and a lot of cars taking it, but didn’t realize it was the Lake Louise exit at the time. We were really enjoying the trip.

After the requisite bio breaks in Golden and Sicamous, we headed South to Vernon to stock up on provisions for the weekend. We had packed a cooler and a bunch of other food, but decided that our junk food ratio was a little low, so the Vernon Superstore filled the bill without being too far out of the way.

Then we backtracked to Hwy 97, and turned south on to Westside Road. Note to self – if you think you’ve gone too far down Westside road, you’re wrong. It’s a long ways south to the turn onto Fintry Delta Road. The scenery was beautiful, though, and we managed to arrive at the cottage just before 12:00 despite missing the turn the first time around.

The balance of Saturday was spent out on the boat, swimming in the lake, playing Bocce, cooking up some skewers for supper, and relaxing in the sun.

Sunday was a busy day of hiking, swimming, floating on the lake, and similar activities. Supper was a greek affair, and the group of us consumed several bottles of wine which pretty much wiped me out. Another early night for the group of us – We were in bed before midnight for the second day running.

Monday was another early morning – things got hot early. It was over 25°C before 10:00am. So we hit the lake early to cool off. I tried kayaking for the first time, and really enjoyed it once I got the hang of it. The lake was calm, so it was great for learning the ropes. After kayaking, there was more floating and swimming since things kept getting hotter.

Billy and I headed out around 3:00pm, though neither of us really wanted to leave. We both had to work Tuesday, so we had no choice. The 7 hour drive back seemed to take longer than the drive out, and traffic was a lot heavier. Still, once we got past the predictable crunches near Golden, things moved pretty quick. By the time I got home around 11:00, I was definitely tired, but I had a smile on my face.

It was a great weekend, and just what I needed as a break from things.