Canadia

This was the first of what is to be many days in the frozen Canadian north. My day began at 4:30 this morning at Canadian customs on the border. Good people. I am stoked. What could be interpreted as a look of fear on my face is merely disdain. I was in California last week, fleeing from big piles of snow just like this.

















I really hate snow at this point in my life. The only thing that I might hate more than snow is candy corn. It's a crime against food. Our bus driver, however, loves it.


















We did a show in Ottawa tonight, in a big hockey arena.

















The general problem with hockey arenas, other than the vast, impersonal feel of the place, is the fact that everything is built right on top of the ice. In case you are unfamiliar, ice is cold, and often wet.

















It was so cold all day, and raining as well. It was impossible to get warm, especially while working on an ice rink. Brutal. Everyone reached their breaking point by around 6 tonight. A freezing cold day filled with no sleep, lots of work and very little food can make the best of us a bit, well, unstable. The entire crew took to the football field outside of the arena with every intention of playing football. We didn't have anything that even resembled a ball, so we made do. I'd just like to say that I officially retract my previous statement about hating being around a bunch of guys all the time. Sometimes it's alright.










































I found this thing today. It's a six foot tall beaver carved from a single log. I won't go into detail about how hard I tried to roll the damn thing towards the bus. I really wanted to stick it in the corner of my non-existent new apartment.














The show went off without a hitch tonight. The one glaring exception was my failure to accurately capture myself with this guy who looked exactly like Vincent D'Onofrio. Ok, so maybe he doesn't look anything like Vincent D'Onofrio, but at the time it was very dark and something something.

















We've had Ted Leo out supporting us for these first few shows and it's been really great. This is the first time that I've been excited about an opening band in a long time. Cheers Ted.
















Here's how it looked from my house.

















































































Tomorrow I have a day off in a hotel in Toronto. Hopefully it will look something like this:






















I am going to go concentrate on growing a beard.