vintage

Because I like doing ridiculous things with absolutely no point to them (except maybe self-torture, by the end), I’ve taken a dare from my roommate to listen to the Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense once a day until I can’t do it anymore. It’s been four days so far. With most other albums I’d already be sick of the whole adventure, but this one’s holding up spectacularly. It helps that it’s only 9 songs long* and one of the best live recordings ever.

Continuing on that theme, here’s the video of “Life During Wartime” from Stop Making Sense. David Byrne is one of the most awesome people on this planet.

* I’m listening to the LP version, which is five songs on one side and four on the other. There’s a few different releases, and one of the CD versions has sixteen songs on it .. but I’m just sticking with the recording I had on when this whole thing started.

I have moved again. I am now living in a house with an actual internet connection. I don’t want to jinx it, but maybe now I can ACTUALLY POST, seeing as the WordPress dashboard loads when I open it. Amazing. It’s the little things.

Anyway, too much has come and gone for me to recap most of it, but I do want to briefly mention the Elvis Costello show at Massey Hall last week. Three words: a, ma, zing. I was thoroughly impressed with his latest incarnation, which is pretty solidly country/bluegrass. His backing band, the Sugarcanes, features formidable talents like Jim Lauderdale and Jerry Douglas — and all of that that ended up meaning two and a half hours (!) of total glee on my part. Yeah, I’m easy to please: a little twang and we’re off to the races. Seriously, though, it was one of the best things I’ve seen all year.

He reworked a lot of old classics like “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” and “Mystery Dance” to be bluegrassier, and the new stuff fit in perfectly; a few unexpected covers came our way too, like “Friend of the Devil” and (thrillingly) “Not Fade Away”. I would have seen that show three times in a row at least — he’s an amazing live performer and obviously is having the time of his life on stage. There’s a very good reason why Costello hasn’t yet faded away himself.

I was going to continue this post with a nice long list of Stuff I’ve Learned As An Usher, but my actual Massey-versary is coming up in two weeks or something, so I’ll save it for then. I’d like to instead comment on the broken air conditioner at my other place of work: Starbucks. It breaks A LOT — it’s been down three times this summer. Still, everyone comes in and brilliantly asks the same question: “Aren’t you guys hot?” No. It’s 33 degrees Celsius in here, I’m standing in front of an OVEN, and I’m making you hot coffee. I’m feeling great. Bring me some tea. Seriously?

Every other exchange goes like this.

Customer: Holy cow, it’s hot in here. Why is it so hot in here?
Barista: Yeah, I’m really sorry — our air conditioner’s broken down.
Customer: Jeez. Shouldn’t you keep the doors open or something? It’s so hot.
Barista: We’ve tried that. We had a serious wasp problem, so we had to close them.
Customer: I’d rather that than be this hot! No one’s going to want to come in!

(Then leave!) Etc, etc, etc. I’ve been yelled at — because it’s clearly my fault the thing is broken and it’s 92 Fahrenheit inside — and chastised and informed, a thousand times over, that it’s really hot in here, haven’t you noticed? Can’t you see that people are uncomfortable? I just want to pick people up and place them in front of the oven, where we stand when we speak to them, and then see how the conversation progresses. I’m sure it would at least end a lot faster.

My favourite so far (“favourite”) is the customer who yelled that the heat was “retarded” — their words, not mine — and continued on in frustration to say they weren’t coming back until it was fixed for good. Well, we thought it was fixed for good last time, and the time before that, too … whatever.

It’ll be a relief when it gets fixed just so we don’t have to have this conversation with every single person who walks through the door, really. And so I don’t sweat through my shirt three times a day, but you win some, you lose some.

Oh yeah, and the new Massey Hall season is out. Go here to see what it is! You can also browse the calendar for Roy Thomson Hall (including the full Toronto Symphony Orchestra season) and the Glenn Gould Studio on the aforementioned link, as well as some dates at the RCM’s new Koerner Hall. Extra exciting. Massey highlights for the rest of 2009 include:

Ornette Coleman — September 24
Van Morrison — September 30 & October 2
Wilco — October 14 & 15
Metric — October 20 & 21
Frankie Valli (!) — November 6
Lyle Lovett & His Large Band — November 13
Downchild Blues Band ft. Dan Aykroyd — November 14
Gordon Lightfoot — November 18 through 21

And so much other stuff. Hope to see some of you there.
More fun things on the way! Hello Internet, I have missed you.