You Did What?!

Here’s something that I’m sure will shock the hell out of pretty much anybody who knows anything about me, and maybe even disappoint a few people, likely the ones with poor taste in entertainment.

After doing quite a bit of thinking, I’ve decided to give up my radio show. I hadn’t been completely happy with the way things were going at the station for quite a while, and after taking some time away over the summer to take care of the move, visit friends and family and to try to cure the radio burnout I was having, I’ve realized that things being the way they are, I’ve accomplished everything I can possibly accomplish there.

I’m sure that doesn’t make sense to some of you, but I’ll do my best to explain it.

Recording interviews in advance. Producing commercials or public service announcements for the station. Reporting on live events. Creating pre-taped bits to use on shows. Picking music for shows without hours, sometimes days of extra effort. Keeping logs of everything because by law we have to or we’ll lose our broadcasting license. Taking requests. These are all things that I am currently unable to do without help. there might be more, but those are the ones that spring immediately to mind. Since the first day I walked through the door there, I’ve been asking for and offering to do whatever I could to help with getting systems put in place so that I could do some, if not all of those things. and in the 4 years that I’ve been there, absolutely 0 progress has been made on any of those fronts. So essentially I’ve been stuck doing the same thing since day 1 and even though it’s been fun for the most part, there’s only so much you can do with 1 thing before you run out of creative things to do with it. My job is to entertain people, give them a laugh, do my best to make sure that while they’re listening to the radio that they’re having fun. and I think for the most part I did that. but I’ve gotten to the point where I’m no longer having a good time, and if I stayed on, I know that it would only be a matter of time before that started to show through in my work, and now that I think about it, I think it had already started to do that to some extent.

As for why I don’t just get help with all of this stuff and quit my bitching, I can explain that too. I’ve gotten as much help as I can reasonably expect to get, and I thank each and every person who ever took the time to give me a hand. But with such a high turnover around there, good help is hard to keep. Just when I’d start settling into a groove with somebody, life would get in the way and that person would be gone, leaving me to start all over again with somebody else. there’s only so many times you can rebuild everything from the ground up before it starts to wear on you, and I think I’ve reached my limit. Besides, a lot of the things I mentioned above are one person jobs, and there’s only so much I can do to make it look like the other guy isn’t doing all the work while I stand around like an idiot.

So all of that being said, as hard as it is, I know in my heart that it’s time for me to move on and find other ways to use the skills and talents that I know I have, the ones that aren’t being taken full advantage of the way that I’d hoped they would be. It wouldn’t surprise me if some day I found myself back there, whether it’s doing something steady again or even just popping in now and then if they need an extra body, but for the time being, the station and I need to see other people.

I don’t want to leave you all thinking that I didn’t enjoy doing what I did for the last 4 years, because that’s far from the case. It was nowhere near being all bad. I got to work and interact with some fantastic people, I have a lot of great memories to keep with me, and most of all, I got to live out my life’s biggest dream. Not everybody gets to say they’ve done that, so in that sense I consider myself lucky. Lucky and extremely greatful for being given the chance.

More Morons from the Morons’ Club

Here’s another letter to the editor about the spray-painting incident. I don’t know why the stream of letters on the subject interests me so much. Maybe I should stop posting them, because they’re probably boring everyone else to tears. At least this guy makes some sense, unlike that other pile of crap that was sent in by that other girl. Let’s break it down, shall we? My comments are in bold.

Man made out to be someone he is not

CHRIS YANG

(Aug 9, 2006)

Dear Editor – Re: ‘Local activist accused of spray-painting downtown wall’
(Guelph Mercury, Aug. 3).

One would think that such a headline would yield a small, perhaps one paragraph article, as this is a simple instance of vandalism.

One would think so, except for what he was spray-painting sounds eerily similar to what other people who like to set fires around the city might spray-paint. Would someone spray-painting “Long Live Osama Bin Laden” in New York shortly after the attacks on September 11 get a short story? Nope. Didn’t think so. They’d probably get a few stories and a media circus. If you don’t want attention, don’t draw it to yourself!

The article, containing Matthew Soltys’ photo, is much more than a paragraph, and it certainly gives him cause to worry that others will associate him with other actions for which he has not been charged.

If he was so worried about that, maybe he should have thought a little longer before pointing his spray can at the wall.

The piece describes the history of the word ‘eco-terrorism.’

This is because of a quote given by him. I know people can be misquoted, *gag* I have been misquoted myself, but he had to have decided they needed a history lesson about eco-terrorism for them to get the roots of the quote they got.

This word is the only non-link to the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental organization that is also discussed in the article.

There was also a mention of an environmental radio show that our spray-painting buddy runs. Is this guy trying to say it’s linked to ELF too? Uh-oh. I think he’s doing more harm than good.

Guelph Police Sgt. Dave Elloway seems to think the public should know the suspect in this vandalism case was carrying a word, ‘eco-terrorist,’ while he was spray-painting. This is disgusting.
What’s more disgusting is that the reporter agrees with him.

Why is this so disgusting? With all the grafiti accompanying fires, it’s not a stretch to think this is an important detail.

The article clearly states there is no evidence to link Soltys to the Earth Liberation Front arsons, but serves to be the biggest link between the two.

Wrong again. The word our buddy was found with is the biggest link between the two.

By providing a photo and information completely unrelated to spray-paint, this article has made Soltys out to be what he is not.

Dude, did you read the article? At all? Your friend who you make out to be a poor hapless little victim of the media provided that information himself.

It is disgraceful to print a photo of Soltys in association with information about eco-terrorism.

I ask again, why? He associated himself with the word by being found with it on him while he was merrily defacing property. If it was somehow planted on him and he had no idea it was there, then maybe I can feel sorry for him. Otherwise, he chose to be associated with it.

This serves to link someone with something they did not do for no other reason than the alleged possession of a word.

Something tells me he wouldn’t need much help from the newspaper to link him to those things. Maybe he should have thought more carefully about whether what he was doing was a good idea.

The newspaper may as well have written eco-terrorist across Soltys’ photo and spent the rest of the article offhandedly mentioning that he is not one. Shame on you.

Now now, let’s be fair. Before we heap all the criticism on a reporter, I suggest this guy direct a little bit of shame towards his vandalizing friend too. Through this whole thing, he hasn’t made him take any blame at all.

Chris Yang

Guelph

I think I’m done ranting about this, until someone writes something else stupid, that is.

Stupid Day couldn’t be a Better Name!

Thordora came up with a good name for today. Stupid Day. It must be if a mother will let her children play in the *parking* lot and entrance of the apartment building where I live without thinking this was a bad idea or considering relocating their games to a giant park nearby. Seriously, I got a ride home from a meetting, and my friend said one kid was laying down in the parking lot while some woman watched over the kids. Um, hello? Do you think maybe now’s the time to teach Little Johnny that a parking lot is not a playground? Well, I guess if she doesn’t, natural selection will take over and kids like Little Johnny will be prevented from contributing to the creation of anniversaries of this sad day.

And Now It’s Time For Today’s Story That Makes Steve Seriously Consider Throwing Himself Over His Balcony

We, as a people, have now reached the point where we feel it necessary to
cut the smoking scenes out of classic cartoons to prevent children from being exposed to unacceptable negative messages.

If you just read that and either A don’t see a problem with it or B think it’s a good idea, I’d like you to do the following: Stop reading, log off of the internet, walk into your kitchen and stick your head in the oven. You have nothing positive left to offer the world and honestly, we could do with a few million less of you.

I said to Carin the other day that I’m glad that we grew up when we did, because there’s no way we could grow up in this era of rampant retardedness and still become the people we are now. I have no idea where everything went wrong, but I’m convinced that at some point many years ago some kind of mystical forces put their heads together and decided that no matter what it took, they would eventually succeed in their quest to turn each and every one of our children and a sizeable number of adults for that matter into non-thinking, non-questioning, inactive piles of fucking idiot flavoured Jello Pudding who would be more than happy to swallow anything they tell them to swallow with no concern about how bad it might taste or how hard it might be to keep down. That has to be what’s going on here. Why else would we be changing history to make it more “suitable” for students, or worse yet, not teaching history at all? Why else would we stop requiring students to read classic novels because we don’t want them running across words or ideas that we don’t like anymore? And why else would we remove all of the fun stuff from playgrounds and ban activities like tag or even running around fast so that the kids don’t get hurt? It’s because people with knowledge and imagination can think for themselves, and that makes them a lot harder to control.

I’m sure that to some of you I probably seem like a total nutcase right now, and that’s fine. But before you write me off, do me one small favour. Look around. I mean really look around. Read the news. Read the archives here. Spend some time talking to some kids and teenagers. Listen to some community radio. Spend some time in a city, preferably a university town, and listen to the conversations that other people are having. Better yet, try to have a few conversations with some people yourself. If you can do all of that and you’re still convinced that the world’s future is A ok, fine, we’ll have to agree to disagree I guess. But more likely than not, you’ll come to find out that something is horribly, horribly wrong with the world and that some how, some way, we need to do something. what exactly that something is I’m not entirely certain, but it sure as hell doesn’t involve letting those bastards mess with Tom and Jerry.

Somebody Needs a New Brain!

I’m amazed by some of the letters to the editor I see in the newspaper. I know there are always weird letters to the editor in every paper, but at least some of them look like they were written by someone intelligent. You may not agree with the writer and think he’s kind of out there, but you don’t finish the letter and shake your head.

This letter, on the other hand is just odd. This was sent after the paper published stories about a guy getting charged with vandalism after spray-painting messages on bridges and buildings downtown. So, take it away, ditzy!

Spray-painting sparks discussion in the city

ANDREA K. BENNETT

(Aug 8, 2006)

Dear Editor – Re: ‘Local activist accused of spray-painting downtown wall’
(Guelph Mercury, Aug. 3).

Shock, shock, horror, horror. Free speech finds its avenue via spray paint.

When the newspaper persists in writing these irresponsible articles, linking local activists both implicitly and explicitly — without real cause — to serious crimes that have been committed in the area, it’s no wonder that some folks take to more direct forms of expression.

In context, the two stencils make perfect satirical sense. I like the stencils and spray-painting that show up around town; they spark discussion and they’re often esthetically pleasing. This in marked contrast to the grey- and blue-striped wall now located at the top of Northumberland Street.

In short: living in this town with our overstaffed police force and undernewsed daily newspaper gets more restrictive and frustrating day to day.

Andrea K. Bennett

Guelph

Ok, I think I can pick my jaw up off the floor. Irresponsible articles? They were, um, printing the news. A guy got charged with vandalism, they wrote about it. That’s what a *newspaper* is supposed to do. They didn’t dream up his name and theorize about what he might have done. They said, “Hey folks, here’s the guy who police have charged with spray-painting those messages downtown.”

Next, there’s this whole bullshit about linking activists to serious crimes around the city. I don’t think the author of the article had to say one word. Our friendly neighbourhood graphic artist did it all himself. He wrote the words “eco-terrorist” which had also been written by other people who, months before, had set fire to some stuff. Isn’t it amazing how good the mind is at playing connect the dots?

And who gives a rat’s ass whether she thinks it’s asthetically pleasing? Those walls aren’t her property to spray-paint! If she likes the stensils so much, she can paint them on her own door. Then, and only then, would she have a right to cry if they arrested her for it.

Finally, she thinks this town is restrictive? I dare her to go to Singapore and spice up their downtown with beautiful stensils and see what kind of response she’d get. I know that’s extreme, but I doubt she’d find a city that’s cool with people vandalizing property. There are few places that have grafiti walls available for people’s messages. The city’s downtown isn’t a big grafiti wall. He put grafiti on it, so he was wrong. That’s the whole story, and all these people’s whining and moaning about the newspaper’s coverage is making it into a bigger story than the paper did.

Warriors Of The World

Good Morning, Friends

So it’s been a while since I’ve had to rant on these losers – but here it is. I’m sooo tired of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I believe I said on this very site like year fucking years ago that it was time for these guys to hang it up, but here we, subjected to another round of playing the latest single in to the ground. Dani California was on 3 different stations on my way to work this morning – it’s only a 20 minute drive. Figures it would be on the one day I forget my iPod. But it’s a bad song. As I said back then, they haven’t had a good one since whenever Californication came out. I don’t know what rule it is in radio that just because a band used to rule, we need to play everything they put out until the day they die. And we’ve already begun with bashing the new single in to the ground. So this isn’t going away anytime soon.

On a similar note – the new Tom Petty song. It doesn’t annoy me as much and isn’t terrible – but is a song released in 2006 really classic Rock just because the guy is old? No. It’s not. So it’s either good enough to make it on main stream rock stations – or it’s not but it has no business on Q107 or stations like it.

On a positive note – the song “Warriors of the World United” by Manowar is pretty fun. It’s kind of an old school metal balid. The band will never ammount to anything and the song itself is a few years old, but I’ve just rediscovered it. It’s worth a listen.

Also anything by Tsunami Bomb who I found on Warped Tour a few years ago. They’ve put some good stuff lately if you’re in to chick punk – or at least a chick lead singer.

Enjoy

The Poster Hunt Continues

So here’s an update on the most boring of topics – but don’t worry – there’s a reason for it.

Steve’s suggestion of InterPunk was a bit of a bust. They had some alright stuff – but not enough. So I went to A-F Records website (Anti-Flag’s label, and we all know how I feel about Anti-Flag) and checked their merch section. You could get 5 posters, plus a tube to save them from crinkling in the USPS for about 15 bucks. So I did that. I got some cool ones. I’m going to check out Epitaph’s website next. If I can get my walls covered with only 2 shipping/handling charges, I’ll consider my mission a successful one. And Epitaph is loaded with good bands – we’ll just have to see if their loaded with posters for those bands. Anywho…

On the A-F website there was some pretty neat ones and one that disturbed my cousin and I pretty badly.

Not many are farmiliar with the band Pipedown I’m sure – but they’re a pretty solid punk band that sing about all kinds of politics and religion and peace and such things and actually have some pretty good tunes. I’d definitely recommend them. But this poster was pretty out there. It takes you a second to figure out exactly what you’re looking at. But as your eyes begin to focus, you realize you’re staring at a cross. As your continue to be able to focus on this you realize you’re staring at a cross built up of… corpses. That’s right. Just a huge stack of dead bodies forming up the Holy Cross.

Now I’m not one to get offended by this kinda stuff, and to be honest, I totally dig the symbolism – but the brutality of this thing was absolutely crazy. While I like the band, and thought the concept was neat, I didn’t buy the poster. Not that I have that many hardcore Christian friends (go figure eh?) but I do have enough respect for people who worship in their own way to not be hanging this in a room where I may be entertaining at some point.

Still, though, I thought it worth mentioning. The stuff people can come up with. Crazy.

It’s Just So Pink

Good Sunday Afternoon Kids,

Before we start. Regarding what Steve posted about my e-mail not working on the comment board. I e-mailed you asking for you to send me something to see if it had been rectified and have received nothing. So either my outgoing e-mail isn’t working either or you did and my account is still fucked up. There is the off chance that you’re a record sized douche and chose not to help a guy out – but I’m hoping that one’s not the case.

Onwards!

I’m 2 weeks away from moving in to my new house with some friends. I’m pretty excited. They’ve already lived there for a year and 2 people moved out at the end of last school year opening two rooms. One was not a real bedroom. It used to be the dining room (but let’s face it, we’re not going to use that) so it was turned in to a bedroom with a little drywall closing off the opening from it to the living room. So it’s not a true wall and keeps NO sound out at all when the party is in the living room. So I passed on that one and took the other, slightly smaller room. Dilemma. It’s walls are pink.

It’s not like a bright florescent pink that glows or anything – but pink nonetheless. Jokes all around I’m sure, but it beats not being able to sleep while people are watching TV and such.

So I plan to absolutely paste this room with posters. It won’t hide all the pink, but may at least draw some attention away from it – and if nothing else – keep me sane.

So I already have a few posters of bands that I like that either were handed out at concerts or came in the CD’s or that I saw when out and about. But I’m in to alot of underground stuff and it’s very hard to find posters for the bands I like.

My friend went nuts with posters in his room and recommended AllPosters.com. It’s not terrible for sports and mainstream music and stuff. But very little punk. Unless you consider Good Charlotte and the like to be punk. Unfortunately, I don’t.

So there is the option of going to each individual band’s websites and ordering them individually and paying out the ass for shipping and stuff – but that’s not a great option.

So I figured I’d throw this up on the off chance that someone here knows of a good site for punk rock posters. Stuff like Anti-Flag, Rancid, Pennywise, Bad Religion and things like that.

This is almost certainly a futile attempt – but one that had to made. It’s pink people. Help me out here.