Free Electric

I was looking around on the Adbusters website, checking out a few articles and whatnot. I ended up in their Campaigns section, where they talk about Buy Nothing day and several others that I am familiar with. I noticed one that I hadn't seen before in their magazines; Mental Detox week, which asks us to abandon all of our electronic devices for seven whole days. No TV, Ipod, Xbox, Playstation, computers, Blackberry's... no electronics whatsoever.

This idea intrigued me. I wondered what it would be like to take something like that on. A week without the luxuries of all my crackling toys and gizmos? Not too long of a time to give anything up, really, but then it dawned on me that it would be next to impossible for me to accomplish. I work with computers, faxes, and I always have a cell phone nearby (though I have never had a land line since I have been out on my own). How could I explain to my boss that I was taking a week off for "Mental Detox", without him thinking I am lunatic? And then, what to do with all of that time off? Too easy to pick up a controller or fire up the Mac in my bedroom, the standard diversions.

I would have to be in a secluded location, I suppose, in order to ever have a real Mental Detox. A place devoid of any wireless signals, or hydro actually, where I wouldn't have the means to utilize a game platform or aimlessly browse on a Blackberry even if I wanted to, because I know that I would find a way to make it work.

If you think that you can go through with this, let me know how it goes. I am going to keep an eye out for articles or stories from Adbusters talking about people's Mental Detox experiences.

Snuffed Out

I just finished reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Snuff", a gritty gross look into the porn industry. The novel was a quick read, told through the eyes of four separate characters, all of them persons present at a marathon porn shoot. The story follows three men who have signed up to partake in a porno where the lead actress couples with 600 partners in one sitting. The fourth character is the "talent wrangler" at the event, a cold women who takes bribes from the haplessly eager slobs waiting in the basement of some studio for their number to be called.
The story was full of Chuck's usual sick realism. His ability to tear open the veil that covers all of the things we pretend we don't want to know about, but actually secretly yearn to learn move. All of the characters have their own motivations for being involved with such a twisted situation, which lets the reader get into the story from a number of angles.
This was a good read, but as with most of Palahniuk's writing, you might want to have a solid stomach before taking this one on.

How was Rancid?

Well, for Father's Day this year my lovely wife bought me three tickets to Rancid, one of my all time favorite bands. I decided that I would invite one of my oldest best pals to come, and we even hooked our other buddy in too. The show was at the Kool Haus in Toronto, and we had an easy drive into the city. This was my first concert in years so I had pretty high expectations. I felt a nervous intensity as the three of us met up with our fourth, who lives in the city.
It was hot as Hell that day, and not one of us was looking forward to being packed in the venue. Now, I'm always up for a good circle pit, but for some reason I wasn't looking forward to the smell of stale mohawks, old leather, and punk juice. We got in damned early, even after waiting in line to get our tickets at the door. The only thing to do: Drink time.
After several vodkas I felt settled.
The opening acts were better than expected, Sick of it All and someone else? Who was that? Oh well. I didn't really care either way. Finally, Rancid!
They kicked off with "Fall Back Down" which has never been one of my preferred songs, but they moved on to some old faves like "Quite Alright" and "Blood Clot". The pit was a mess, and it was almost impossible to get up for a surf, but I managed to make it up several times, though on my one I hit a deadspot and almost went under.
My main complaint was the lousy sound. Kool Haus is notorious for it's shitty acoustics I hear. It was hard to hear the lyrics, and I think my wife's ears are still ringing.
At any rate, not a bad show, and of course it was great to get out with the boys.
Now I have to choose between Iced Earth and Method Man + Redman....
Tough call...

The Summer, or Something Like it...

As a kid nothing seemed to cause such excitability as the onset of summer vacation. I remember that feeling I used to get when the last days of school were winding down and any semblance of order or educational methodology went on hiatus, the only thing left in your teachers lesson plan were cheesy class parties and their own vacation plans...

Those sure were the days? Weren't they?

Perhaps I am being a tad whimsical, but can you blame me? This year, summer has blurred itself into a background of days. The work week blurs into the weekend, and vice versa. I always have such high expectations for my time off, but when I get it, where does it go? Why just a couple of years ago the summer still held so many possibilities, but what about now?

I look at my friend's Facebook profiles and I see photo albums packed to the nines, event planning, invitations galore. The ones I do get I have to turn down for the most part. Still, I have managed to make it out a few times, enough to let my wife and I know that we are still in, still cool. It's too bad that we are so tired from running a household to appreciate it.

Another weekend on the way! Here's hoping!