so, now i know how to do this - i get a prepaid credit card. everybody seems to accept that.
show tickets purchased. greyhound tickets purchased. and, i'm going to la dispute in toronto, a city i've transited through many times but never really explored.
now, what if the show is over late and i can't get to the bus before it leaves?
i don't expect this to be an issue for this particular show, which will almost certainly be done before midnight due to bylaws. it might even be done at 11:00. further, there's a short city bus ride back to the station, so i don't really need to catch the bus until around 12:30. that would be an issue that is more likely to arise in a smaller bar, in a less central location. if i make the trip, though, it's likely to eventually happen, and i'll want to make sure i plan accordingly when it does. i would simply need to plan ahead to take the morning bus, and figure out something to do for a few hours.
if it's at all tight, i'll make sure not to take a chance next time. but, i don't expect the weather to be particularly good, and that's a big factor in planning on an all-nighter in a strange city two weeks in advance.
i'll be there early, so i'll be able to get to nexus if i have to. i won't be stopping in london on this trip, though - it's express in both directions. next time...
but, now i need to call nexus.
i also picked up a 64 gb usb 3.0 card for $15 cdn. well, who wants a 64 gb flash card when they have 256 gb cards on the market? as absurd as this is, that solves the storage issue on the chrome book; it's going to be a long time before i fill up a 64 gb card, given that it's a secondary storage device. and, with that, the machine is built to any reasonable standard, and just about ready to travel with. i just need to set that blog up, and enter it into the rebuild process.
it's going to be nice this weekend, but i don't see anything happening in town. so i should be able to get back to what i was doing.
Friday, April 5, 2019
i will admit that, having never been to toronto, i am not aware of where the house parties and small shows are happening.
that said, i think i did a fairly detailed survey of the medium sized venues in the city, and i'm left to conclude that it's not just that detroit is getting skipped - the music scene right now seems to be legitimately boring across the spectrum.
i did the math for you; it may actually be cheaper for me to spend 8 hours busing back and forth from toronto than it is to amuse myself overnight in detroit, while i wait for the shuttle bus to start running. but, it seems unreasonable to go to toronto to check something out on a whim, which i was doing frequently in detroit up until last spring. that said, i'm aware that i'm a little out of the loop and need to take some chances. so, i may end up psyching myself up to get to toronto to see some things.
well, the only thing i've got penciled in is the la dispute. i'm surely going to want to get out of the house more frequently than that.
speaking of which, i need to get a prepaid mastercard in order for this plan to be feasible. i both have to buy tickets at least a week in advance to keep the cost down, and need to make sure i can actually get into the show before i buy tickets. so, that's my task this morning.
let's compare the costs for these shows directly. as they are also playing pontiac, which is a good ways north of detroit. what are the costs of seeing them in pontiac?
1) i have to take the shuttle bus back and forth over the border. that's $10. cdn.
2) i'll need to take the city bus there and back, which is going to be about $6. usd. and, it's a good ways out, that's not expensive.
3) let's assume that the cost of the show is equivalent and i spend the same amount on beer at the show.
4 ) i will not be getting back from pontiac at that time of night, so i will need to hang out in the dance club next door, or the gay bar down the street. that's an extra $10 minimum. usd.
5) i will buy a few drinks after the show. let's say $10, minimum. usd.
6) i will then need to buy something to eat in order to sit in an open restaurant. $10, minimum. usd.
7) as i'm going to be spending hours drinking with strangers, i'm going to need to buy a pack of cigrattes, or otherwise throw bills at people to bum them. $7.00. usd.
$10 + (6 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 7)*4/3 = $67.33
the cost of the bus tickets is $61, and while i may buy a pre-roll before the show, i won't be drinking on the bus. rather, i'll be typing up the review on the way home.
$61 + $10 = $71.
i suppose i could sit by myself in pontiac until the morning without buying anything, drinking or smoking, but that would be pretty boring.
the pontiac trip is probably a better story, in the long run. but, my hands are tied for a few months, and the same thing is going to be true of any other show that comes up.
so, if i were to go to see some obscure math band on a whim in hamtramck in mid-may, it would end up costing me $100, anyways. why not go to toronto, then?
as an aside, i believe it's going to be until the middle of the year before i can legally buy pre-rolls in detroit, and it could be years before i can buy anything in windsor.
that said, i think i did a fairly detailed survey of the medium sized venues in the city, and i'm left to conclude that it's not just that detroit is getting skipped - the music scene right now seems to be legitimately boring across the spectrum.
i did the math for you; it may actually be cheaper for me to spend 8 hours busing back and forth from toronto than it is to amuse myself overnight in detroit, while i wait for the shuttle bus to start running. but, it seems unreasonable to go to toronto to check something out on a whim, which i was doing frequently in detroit up until last spring. that said, i'm aware that i'm a little out of the loop and need to take some chances. so, i may end up psyching myself up to get to toronto to see some things.
well, the only thing i've got penciled in is the la dispute. i'm surely going to want to get out of the house more frequently than that.
speaking of which, i need to get a prepaid mastercard in order for this plan to be feasible. i both have to buy tickets at least a week in advance to keep the cost down, and need to make sure i can actually get into the show before i buy tickets. so, that's my task this morning.
let's compare the costs for these shows directly. as they are also playing pontiac, which is a good ways north of detroit. what are the costs of seeing them in pontiac?
1) i have to take the shuttle bus back and forth over the border. that's $10. cdn.
2) i'll need to take the city bus there and back, which is going to be about $6. usd. and, it's a good ways out, that's not expensive.
3) let's assume that the cost of the show is equivalent and i spend the same amount on beer at the show.
4 ) i will not be getting back from pontiac at that time of night, so i will need to hang out in the dance club next door, or the gay bar down the street. that's an extra $10 minimum. usd.
5) i will buy a few drinks after the show. let's say $10, minimum. usd.
6) i will then need to buy something to eat in order to sit in an open restaurant. $10, minimum. usd.
7) as i'm going to be spending hours drinking with strangers, i'm going to need to buy a pack of cigrattes, or otherwise throw bills at people to bum them. $7.00. usd.
$10 + (6 + 10 + 10 + 10 + 7)*4/3 = $67.33
the cost of the bus tickets is $61, and while i may buy a pre-roll before the show, i won't be drinking on the bus. rather, i'll be typing up the review on the way home.
$61 + $10 = $71.
i suppose i could sit by myself in pontiac until the morning without buying anything, drinking or smoking, but that would be pretty boring.
the pontiac trip is probably a better story, in the long run. but, my hands are tied for a few months, and the same thing is going to be true of any other show that comes up.
so, if i were to go to see some obscure math band on a whim in hamtramck in mid-may, it would end up costing me $100, anyways. why not go to toronto, then?
as an aside, i believe it's going to be until the middle of the year before i can legally buy pre-rolls in detroit, and it could be years before i can buy anything in windsor.
at
08:43
la dispute is a very vocal-driven act, so the value of the music is unlikely to reveal itself on immediate listen. these types of records consequently don't lend themselves to first impression reviews. these are the kinds of songs that you come back to at random places, that reveal themselves to you at the least expected....
you could hear the power of a line like "we are but hopeless lovers, we are the last of our kind, and if we let our hearts move outward we will never die." more or less immediately, but it took time - years - for the story to unfold itself, and the climax to actually present itself as such. the second record was certainly less ridiculous, all around; i wouldn't have guessed on first listen that it would be the clever language in harder harmonies that comes off as the high point on the record, i had to live it and digest it and experience it first. and, while i didn't spend very much time with the third record, i'm sure that somebody else has some similar stories about it. so, i'm not going to pretend i've digested this over a handful of listens - i haven't, and i don't know what's going to click over time, or if anything is going to click at all.
but, that third record. it seemed like a death blow; i didn't think there would be a fourth one. i saw them do a little acoustic set at the masonic temple in detroit, and they just came off like a third rate rem knockoff. i am a gigantic rem fan, and the singer, at least, has some obvious lyrical ability, so i wasn't opposed to the direction, but it just didn't execute. the record itself seemed flat and just kind of boring, and i want to take a minute to explore the point because the contrast here is what's most exciting about the new record...
i'm sure that a lot of their fans recoiled at the record by claiming it was "soft", or something. my tastes are too diverse for anything that gauche - i like "soft" music as much, if not more, than i like "heavy" music, whether it is hard or easy. these are qualitative terms, but they don't speak to the quality of the art. so, yeah. the record was kind of "soft". so what? a more poignant critique is that the band seemed like a fish out of water; they toned down too far too fast and in the process lost the plot, just kind of meandering on without much of a musical point. the record needed some kind of foil to itself, but the correct idea is not that it needed "heavier" outbursts, but some kind of tension and, when you use the right language, it's all of a sudden easy to understand why so many of their fans got kind of scared away by a la dispute record that had no tension in it - as the band is all about tension.
i can actually make the argument that i love la dispute for the same reason that i love rachmaninov. but, i'll spare you that.
but, what they needed here was not to bring back the heavy but to bring back the tension and they have actually done that. so, this is a return to form, in that sense.
however, the band is also clearly in the process of completely altering it's sound, and if you need the heavy rather than merely the tension then maybe you might want to check out something else.
is this going to work out in the long run, after all? well, michael stipe was a huge ian mackaye fan boy, you know. it just might.
https://ladispute.bandcamp.com/album/panorama
you could hear the power of a line like "we are but hopeless lovers, we are the last of our kind, and if we let our hearts move outward we will never die." more or less immediately, but it took time - years - for the story to unfold itself, and the climax to actually present itself as such. the second record was certainly less ridiculous, all around; i wouldn't have guessed on first listen that it would be the clever language in harder harmonies that comes off as the high point on the record, i had to live it and digest it and experience it first. and, while i didn't spend very much time with the third record, i'm sure that somebody else has some similar stories about it. so, i'm not going to pretend i've digested this over a handful of listens - i haven't, and i don't know what's going to click over time, or if anything is going to click at all.
but, that third record. it seemed like a death blow; i didn't think there would be a fourth one. i saw them do a little acoustic set at the masonic temple in detroit, and they just came off like a third rate rem knockoff. i am a gigantic rem fan, and the singer, at least, has some obvious lyrical ability, so i wasn't opposed to the direction, but it just didn't execute. the record itself seemed flat and just kind of boring, and i want to take a minute to explore the point because the contrast here is what's most exciting about the new record...
i'm sure that a lot of their fans recoiled at the record by claiming it was "soft", or something. my tastes are too diverse for anything that gauche - i like "soft" music as much, if not more, than i like "heavy" music, whether it is hard or easy. these are qualitative terms, but they don't speak to the quality of the art. so, yeah. the record was kind of "soft". so what? a more poignant critique is that the band seemed like a fish out of water; they toned down too far too fast and in the process lost the plot, just kind of meandering on without much of a musical point. the record needed some kind of foil to itself, but the correct idea is not that it needed "heavier" outbursts, but some kind of tension and, when you use the right language, it's all of a sudden easy to understand why so many of their fans got kind of scared away by a la dispute record that had no tension in it - as the band is all about tension.
i can actually make the argument that i love la dispute for the same reason that i love rachmaninov. but, i'll spare you that.
but, what they needed here was not to bring back the heavy but to bring back the tension and they have actually done that. so, this is a return to form, in that sense.
however, the band is also clearly in the process of completely altering it's sound, and if you need the heavy rather than merely the tension then maybe you might want to check out something else.
is this going to work out in the long run, after all? well, michael stipe was a huge ian mackaye fan boy, you know. it just might.
https://ladispute.bandcamp.com/album/panorama
at
05:41
that was another sleepy afternoon.
i couldn't get through to the privacy commissioner, either. everybody wants to play phone tag, but i don't have the gear.
i hope to get a response on a hearing date tomorrow, and will need to call nexus about faxing documents.
i wasn't up until close to 21:00; ate, showered, and have been browsing since.
if i'm stuck in canada for the next six months, i may have to plan around transiting to toronto for shows. if i plan ahead, it's about $60 back and forth - expensive, but these nights out in detroit often end up being $100 when you factor in multiple covers, drinks, food and exchange rates. further, i'm often out all night. if the show is under $30, and i can get home before the sun comes up, it's actually comparable. and, indeed, there's a 1:00 am express bus back.
this is counter-intuitive, but let's say i get out of a show in detroit at 1:30. i'm usually going to want to find a party or after hours club (shhh), otherwise i'm sitting at the diner for hours. cover is going to be at least $10, probably closer to $20, and i'm going to buy a few drinks when i'm there. i'll get out of there in the morning, and have an hour or two to wait for the shuttle bus, meaning i'm going to want to at least get a coffee, but probably something to eat (and i've probably been drinking and smoking , and maybe dancing, since 19:00 last night). so, i'm looking at spending $30-50 because i can't get home. usd. if i can catch the express bus out of toronto at 1:00 am, instead, and get home for 5:00, i'm probably actually spending less money. plus, there's wifi access on the greyhound; i might find it flies right by. so, it's the time and cost of the bus ride there that is the added expense, not the cost or time of the bus ride back. i'm going to need to wait for the new bridge to open to get 24 hour access across the border without a car.
if i book ahead, that's $30. worse is that i'm going to need to get there for 1:30 pm. well, that was like the ann arbour show - i had to leave early. it's an adventure. in reality, the bus is always late. and, i'll need to buy tickets and things when i get there...
obviously, that is going to cut the number of shows down for the rest of the spring, but if the schedule is weak and the weather is bad, it may be less of a functional difference than you might think. i'm looking through the concert listings in detroit, and while i've demonstrated interest in a large number of shows, i don't think i'd actually intend to go to most of them. again: i haven't gone anywhere in almost a year, and i don't feel like i'm missing out on much because it doesn't seem like much is actually happening.
i actually have roughly $200/month budgeted for concerts, remember - and a bit of cash put away because i haven't gone anywhere in months. i can't do this daily, but i could make the trip once or twice a month, just to get to the stuff i'm most interested in, until the issue resolves itself. detroit is getting skipped all of the time, right now; toronto never gets skipped.
i would have certainly tried to get to the la dispute show in pontiac on the 15th. so, i'm going to spend the night listening to the new record to figure out if it's worth the voyage to toronto or not, as i scour the listings in the city for events that are within walking distance of the bus station.
https://ladispute.bandcamp.com/album/panorama
i couldn't get through to the privacy commissioner, either. everybody wants to play phone tag, but i don't have the gear.
i hope to get a response on a hearing date tomorrow, and will need to call nexus about faxing documents.
i wasn't up until close to 21:00; ate, showered, and have been browsing since.
if i'm stuck in canada for the next six months, i may have to plan around transiting to toronto for shows. if i plan ahead, it's about $60 back and forth - expensive, but these nights out in detroit often end up being $100 when you factor in multiple covers, drinks, food and exchange rates. further, i'm often out all night. if the show is under $30, and i can get home before the sun comes up, it's actually comparable. and, indeed, there's a 1:00 am express bus back.
this is counter-intuitive, but let's say i get out of a show in detroit at 1:30. i'm usually going to want to find a party or after hours club (shhh), otherwise i'm sitting at the diner for hours. cover is going to be at least $10, probably closer to $20, and i'm going to buy a few drinks when i'm there. i'll get out of there in the morning, and have an hour or two to wait for the shuttle bus, meaning i'm going to want to at least get a coffee, but probably something to eat (and i've probably been drinking and smoking , and maybe dancing, since 19:00 last night). so, i'm looking at spending $30-50 because i can't get home. usd. if i can catch the express bus out of toronto at 1:00 am, instead, and get home for 5:00, i'm probably actually spending less money. plus, there's wifi access on the greyhound; i might find it flies right by. so, it's the time and cost of the bus ride there that is the added expense, not the cost or time of the bus ride back. i'm going to need to wait for the new bridge to open to get 24 hour access across the border without a car.
if i book ahead, that's $30. worse is that i'm going to need to get there for 1:30 pm. well, that was like the ann arbour show - i had to leave early. it's an adventure. in reality, the bus is always late. and, i'll need to buy tickets and things when i get there...
obviously, that is going to cut the number of shows down for the rest of the spring, but if the schedule is weak and the weather is bad, it may be less of a functional difference than you might think. i'm looking through the concert listings in detroit, and while i've demonstrated interest in a large number of shows, i don't think i'd actually intend to go to most of them. again: i haven't gone anywhere in almost a year, and i don't feel like i'm missing out on much because it doesn't seem like much is actually happening.
i actually have roughly $200/month budgeted for concerts, remember - and a bit of cash put away because i haven't gone anywhere in months. i can't do this daily, but i could make the trip once or twice a month, just to get to the stuff i'm most interested in, until the issue resolves itself. detroit is getting skipped all of the time, right now; toronto never gets skipped.
i would have certainly tried to get to the la dispute show in pontiac on the 15th. so, i'm going to spend the night listening to the new record to figure out if it's worth the voyage to toronto or not, as i scour the listings in the city for events that are within walking distance of the bus station.
https://ladispute.bandcamp.com/album/panorama
at
02:43
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