Outdoor Concert Etiquette 101

So I just came back from an Infected Mushroom concert at Bluesfest. First time I saw the band (as I just discovered a couple of weeks before the line-up for this year was announced) and these guys are awesome. As for my experience at the concert in general, I'd rate it 4/5 and here's why:

For those who haven't been to an outdoor concert or some sort of music festival it's days of concerts (Bluesfest lasts about 12 days, other concerts vary) and more than one band is playing on each of those days with the headlining act of the day playing last on the main stage (there are other stages at the festival so more than one band plays at the same time). There's no assigned seating but some people bring lawn chairs and blankets to the concert and there are areas, which if you have more money, where there are chairs. The headlining act of the day Infected Mushroom came to play was Steve Miller Band.

You could tell who came to see what by the people who brought lawn chairs generally. Out of the people that came to see Steve Miller Band was a woman. As soon as Infected Mushroom came on the woman started bitching and complaining "this band is shit" and "how can you people listen to this crap?" (along the lines of that). That turned me off a bit from the concert experience. There were people who interacted her in a way (I'm usually passive when it comes to arguments, but I was on the edge of telling her to shut up) and I'd like to call them my saviours for telling her off.

So basically if you don't like the band that's playing, why are you even at the concert? Sure the band that's up next is awesome and you want to be front and centre but please have some decency and respect, not just for the band but the people around you who came to enjoy the other concerts that share the same stage?  For example I don't like Taylor Swift (there's a reason for that which I won't explain here due to it being irrelevant). If Taylor Swift was playing before a band or artist that I really liked I'd sit through her concert or whatever remained of it. I won't be a Kanye to her but I'd just be standing there thinking "when is this going to end" and not complain to others (there may be the off chance of groaning but not in an obnoxious way). Or if you'd like to be in the front row, maybe kindly ask someone to hold your spot for you since half the crowd leaves to go to other concerts or someplace else.

The lesson learned here is you are not the centre of the universe so let the others have fun and enjoy their concert.

And now some Infected Mushroom songs (taken from youtube) :

On aging and other things

Now that I turned 21 I'm pretty much legal to drink everywhere in the world except for some parts in India while I've pretty much been legal to do so for 3 years now. I could remember when I was 17 and hoping one day that the legal age limit would be lowered but when I approach 30 I have a feeling I'll still be carded anyway.

How do I feel? Well still the same, not any taller, weight constantly shifting, nothing amazing happened the moment I woke up, just another ordinary day. Just one more year older.

There are others like me who have birthdays around this time of the year and I personally can't speak for everyone (and I have no idea who comes here to read whatever babbling I put down). Personally there are hits and misses to having birthdays around a holiday:

• You can have your party on the same day you were born whereas if it's during the school year on a weekday you pretty have to schedule it for the weekend. The downside to this is your guests may not come because their family is visiting or they are visiting family and pretty much like the rest of the school kids the best idea is to schedule the party on another day. I had one of my first birthday parties at school because my mom wasn't sure who would come and kindergarten classes were pretty small.
• Mainly applies for those around Christmas (or on): double the presents from family and close friends. The downside is like Christmas it only comes once a year and it's at the end of the calendar year so when you're a kid it's pretty much a long wait (almost forever) but as one gets older time goes by so fast.
• Age limits: it's more of a miss (and sucks even more for those born on the 31st) as you have to be a certain age before you can legally purchase alcohol, smokes, lottery tickets or go to places that say <insert age> + only. While your best buddies are already going to places that have these restrictions you're still waiting for that day you can join them (unless somehow you've been using fake I.D.'s without getting caught or asking someone older to get things for you)

When I was young I couldn't wait to get older so I could do all the things the adults or older kids were doing but once reaching that certain age you kind of get told that you're too old to do something. How I see this: getting older may allow you to access pretty awesome things but gives you a certain time frame on how to act and to behave.

That's all for now.

Are they human? Or a machine that dials your number?

For about three weeks now I've been getting a phone call everyday at around the same time (+/- 11:00 A.M.) from some 1-800 number that belongs to some debt collector agency. The thing is my cell phone, which these people or the machine have been calling, is one of those pre-paid ones and the number is recycled.

I don't bother to answer as whether I make a call or receive one on my cell phone I get charged 25 cents per minute and toll free numbers aren't exempted. If I don't pick up or don't answer them due to not having my cell phone around me I'll get a voicemail message. I don't answer those either as answering voicemail costs +/- $1.35. This process repeats every day since I've been getting a call from this number.

So here's my two cents: When will these guys give up? I mean if there's no answer from the number you're trying to reach then stop calling. With a recycled phone number one never know who it came from (maybe a name or two if you answer calls for these people) or where it will end up. Heck it could end up on one of those firefly phones for kids. I mean how is an 8-year-old owing money to some company? Even if the number doesn't get recycled the person the debt collector is calling could be dead.

Every time I receive I missed call from these people I keep thinking the next time they call I'll tell them to f--k off. Yet again, is it worth it if it's a machine on the other end.

and now for some Weird Al

Kid Drawings

I'm not sure if anyone when they were in their last years of elementary school and maybe some high school too remembers this. There was always an assignment where you had to draw something like a title page for . . . let's say science class and the next topic being covered in class is the sound and light unit. Sure it's the easiest thing to do as all you do is doodle something and hand it in, but I actually hated doing it. I hated for either one of two reasons (maybe both at times):

• I have no idea what to draw
• I am a bad artist

I never knew the reason why title pages had to be done for science, gym class (this only happened in grade 7) and history class (again I think this only happened one time). I assume this was part of the visual component of the grade but wouldn't a simple model of something suffice?
The title pages are also evaluated. Drawing very little would get you somewhere between no mark to just made it mars. Meeting the minimum requirements no matter how good or bad you draw would get you average near complete marks. Creating something that has more than the minimum requirements as well as having some artistic ability on hand would get the full marks as well as a sticker. When I was in grade 4 there would be some sort of contest where everyone would vote on whose title page is the best and winner gets some sort of prize (either candy or a pencil, something of that sort). The winner was usually someone who had top notch artistic ability, even though it may not be the same person each time.

So even though the art assignments are easy getting good marks on them is not. Maybe the reason I'm ranting about this has to do with how I take criticism and with something that has to do with my childhood. Don't really remember what year it was but I think it might have been grade 2 or grade 3. I was colouring something like the sky or the ocean and the teacher goes to check on me and notices that I was colouring in different directions and tells me that I should colour in one direction. This makes me wonder why abstract artists make a lot of money for painting something like this while something that has more than just a line across the page (ex. trees, animals, a boat maybe) but tell me that I should colour something in one direction? (------ instead of -----||||||)

Then there is visual arts class from grades 7 and 8. I think I might have enjoyed it to some extent as even though the artwork you had to do in that class had to be reflective of something being taught in that class at least you had some creative control over it like the snakes picture below.

Just for fun, craptastic artwork form back in the day:

Grade 8 Heath assignment

This was done for grade 8 gym class for the health class component. The assignment was to create two magazine advertisements: 1 for showing the dangers of drugs and alcohol, and 1 ad targeting young people into smoking and drinking. This happens to be the latter. As you can see one arm is shorter than the other. The copyright 2003 at the bottom was mainly to give it the magazine ad look. Other than that it's a total kid drawing.

Grade 7 Snakes on a spider web assignment

The second one, which I really like, was done back in grade 7 art class. I'm thinking it was more of an activity than an actual assignment. The idea was to draw snakes on a spider web. I think it was originally supposed be snakes upon a zigzag spider web and it eventually became black and white banded snakes on a rainbow explosion. This was displayed as one of the student artworks for open house that year.

Grade 8 Art Class: Mythical Creature

And finally this one. One of the projects was to draw a mythical/imaginary creature. The art teacher wasn't clear if we had to make up the creature or not so I decided to go with the phoenix. Unlike the other two craptacular drawings which were done in coloured pencils, this was done in pastel. The flaming toupee (I'm not sure what to call it) was a suggestion by a classmate of mine (whom I haven't seen in ages). The wings are coloured kind of oddly but it was good enough for the teacher to say "Go find a spot on the wall if you can."




I'm not much of a visual artist and probably the only time I can be caught drawing something is during a lecture when I'm bored. Enjoy these old kid drawings.