Thursday, October 09, 2003
There's very few places in Banff that play good music. For a short time there was a dive of a bar called Outabounds that played punk rock on Wednesday Nights, but they replaced that with a weekly Wet T-Shirt Contest.
Outabounds was sort of like your best friend's basement in high school if their parents were away, the liquor cabinet was unlocked, and everyone's IQ dropped 20 points. Most of the guys try to pick up most of the girls by bragging about how they're snowboard instructors at one of the hills (Dude everyone is a snowboard instructor). Once when I went to the bathroom I came back to find my girlfriend and her friend being chatted up by two young gentlemen who completely ignored me when I returned to the table. I obnoxiously extended my hand to them and introduced myself. I then proceeded to lean over and motion towards my girlfriend and say "sometimes I kiss her on the lips". After that they wouldn't stop talking to me.
Last night we went to La Palette for what I thought would be 'just a beer', I guess that rarely is the case though. And by my third Big Rock Traditional Ale (they have really bad names for their beer out west, my other favourite is Alberta Genuine Draft...accept no substitutes), I was pretty blitzed.
The DJ at first just kept mixing new wave songs together and then he'd play a few dance hits from the early 90's (P.M. Dawn and EMF), it was really, well I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't very good.
He then started to play some hip hop, DeLaSoul, KRS ONE, Public Enemy and then it became pretty awesome. I get quite verbose and nostalgic when I drink and all I could think of was how awesome it was when I was playing little league to get picked up by a brother playing hip hop and punk on our station wagon's stereo.
I'm sure there's lots of stories about people who were awful at sports and felt alienated because of it. I don't want to sound like someone who still cares about that or who still dwells on high school alienation. I'd like to think I'm not like that. Well I'd certainly hope to think I'm not like that. Suck it up, everyone hates high school, noone has a monopoly on teen angst.
I remember in little league being afraid of fastballs, like really afraid. I'm not sure why, but I guess I just really wanted to avoid bruising and I didn't feel like 'taking one for the team'. I would move away from the plate when a fastball looked like it was coming too close to me. Apparently my coach thought that it'd be a brilliant idea to make me stand in the batter's box and throw directly at me. I remember leaving practice that day with a huge bruise on my thumb. I didn't feel hurt, so much as I just thought the coach was lame.
Long story, short, my brother picked me up and I heard 'You Must Learn' by KRS ONE for the first time and I thought that right there I had been intiated into some sort of inner circle of cool.
"Just like I told you you must learn
It's calm yet wild the style that I speak
Just filled with facts and you will never get weak in the heart
In fact you'll start to illuminate knowledge to others in a song
Let me demonstrate the force of knowledge
knowledge reigns supreme"
From Cape Breton all the way to Banff, I'm really not sure what I'm getting at, but as Andrew W.K. said once (I swear he did) "Isn't music awesome?"
Outabounds was sort of like your best friend's basement in high school if their parents were away, the liquor cabinet was unlocked, and everyone's IQ dropped 20 points. Most of the guys try to pick up most of the girls by bragging about how they're snowboard instructors at one of the hills (Dude everyone is a snowboard instructor). Once when I went to the bathroom I came back to find my girlfriend and her friend being chatted up by two young gentlemen who completely ignored me when I returned to the table. I obnoxiously extended my hand to them and introduced myself. I then proceeded to lean over and motion towards my girlfriend and say "sometimes I kiss her on the lips". After that they wouldn't stop talking to me.
Last night we went to La Palette for what I thought would be 'just a beer', I guess that rarely is the case though. And by my third Big Rock Traditional Ale (they have really bad names for their beer out west, my other favourite is Alberta Genuine Draft...accept no substitutes), I was pretty blitzed.
The DJ at first just kept mixing new wave songs together and then he'd play a few dance hits from the early 90's (P.M. Dawn and EMF), it was really, well I'm not sure what it was, but it wasn't very good.
He then started to play some hip hop, DeLaSoul, KRS ONE, Public Enemy and then it became pretty awesome. I get quite verbose and nostalgic when I drink and all I could think of was how awesome it was when I was playing little league to get picked up by a brother playing hip hop and punk on our station wagon's stereo.
I'm sure there's lots of stories about people who were awful at sports and felt alienated because of it. I don't want to sound like someone who still cares about that or who still dwells on high school alienation. I'd like to think I'm not like that. Well I'd certainly hope to think I'm not like that. Suck it up, everyone hates high school, noone has a monopoly on teen angst.
I remember in little league being afraid of fastballs, like really afraid. I'm not sure why, but I guess I just really wanted to avoid bruising and I didn't feel like 'taking one for the team'. I would move away from the plate when a fastball looked like it was coming too close to me. Apparently my coach thought that it'd be a brilliant idea to make me stand in the batter's box and throw directly at me. I remember leaving practice that day with a huge bruise on my thumb. I didn't feel hurt, so much as I just thought the coach was lame.
Long story, short, my brother picked me up and I heard 'You Must Learn' by KRS ONE for the first time and I thought that right there I had been intiated into some sort of inner circle of cool.
"Just like I told you you must learn
It's calm yet wild the style that I speak
Just filled with facts and you will never get weak in the heart
In fact you'll start to illuminate knowledge to others in a song
Let me demonstrate the force of knowledge
knowledge reigns supreme"
From Cape Breton all the way to Banff, I'm really not sure what I'm getting at, but as Andrew W.K. said once (I swear he did) "Isn't music awesome?"
