Well, my account expires September 14th. With how it has been going and the recent treatment of the photographers, I don't think I will be renewing. To those that have chatted with me on here over the years, thanks

Take care everyone. Hope things get better.

All I can say is, GO GIANTS!!

Damn it feels good to be a gangster.

Last night was kind of a surreal night. My wife and I went to the Mountain Winery in Saratoga to see the Swell Season play a concert. At about 10pm, the show came to an immediate halt as something fell onto the stage. At first glance you assumed it was a light from above the stage but it quickly became evident that it was a person that had jumped off the roof of the building and committed suicide. It was a very tragic end to an otherwise nice night out with the wife.

I feel sorry for the friends and family of the person that killed themselves as well as all of those at the show that were traumatized by this including the artists and especially the lead singer Glen Hansard who was only a few feet from where the man crashed down. Lots of people brought kids to the show and were seated near the front of the stage. I can't image what they must have been feeling.

Earlier in the concert, Glen Hansard took a moment to tell a story from a few months back when he was in Chicago. He was riding the elevator in his hotel and there was an older lady from New York in it with him. He said her face was kind of hidden but he made a comment that she had a nice coat. The lady thanked him and went on to explain that she saw the coat in a store window and decided to just buy it and it changed her life. She had a son that went to work September 11th the day the World Trade Center was attacked. He didn't need to go into work that day as he had just finished a project but wanted to tie up some loose ends. She said she had a bad feeling but never said anything to him. He ended up dying in the attack. She ended up becoming a recluse for a few years. She stayed inside and just watched TV all day. She went out one day and saw the coat and decided to buy it, go out and move on with her life. She appreciated the comment on it he made because she said so few people say what they think anymore. She wished she had said something to her son that day.

You never know what tomorrow will bring. Witnessing something like this really brings things into perspective and reminds you to tell the ones you love that you love them. If you see that person on the street and you like their hair, coat, shoes etc., pay them the complement, it will make your day better and theirs too. Who knows that may be someone that was close to the edge and makes them realize life is still worth living. I am certainly glad for my life, my wife my daughter and all my family and friends. While things may not be perfect everyday, I guess in the end, things could be so much worse.

Is happy to be home in Toronto and Ottawa visiting with friends and family. It's been far to long since i've been home.

Here are some songs that I have some across lately. I listen to just about everything so enlighten me. I'm always looking for new stuff to listen to, so what have you been listening to lately?

Lissie


Girl in a Coma


Richard Walters

Damn time flies,

Life has been going great, being a dad is an amazing experience. Fiona is doing great and is growing so fast. She has almost doubled in size since being born.





We have just kinda gone on living our lives as normally as possible. Fiona is the most easy going baby you could ever imagine. Sleeps through anything and just goes everywhere with us no problem. We have already taken her to a Giants game, on the cable cars, to both Napa and Livermore wine country and about everywhere else we go.

We got a night to ourselves in May to go to the City to see Kate Nash. While I love her and her music, I have to say we were disappointed by the concert. A bunch of her newer stuff she just kind of screams in a lot and she didn't play some of her best songs off her first album. While it was cool to see her at a really small venue we definitely left disappointed.

My Dad and step mom came to visit for the Memorial day weekend and got to meet Fiona for the first time. It was a great weekend spending time with them and our friends.

We are going to Canada June 23rd to July 4th so Fiona can meet the rest of my family. It will be my wife's first chance to experience Canada day as well so we are totally looking forward to the trip home to Toronto and Ottawa and getting to see friends and family.

So I am a week in to being a dad. My wife had Fiona around noon last Thursday. Being born 6 weeks early, she is still in the ICU. Fiona is working on regulating her own temperature, getting her appetite up an a couple other small things but all in all is doing great and was way ahead of what most 34 week babys are. Hopefully we will be able to bring her home in about a week or so. With work and trying to get to the hospital it has been crazy hectic and not left for much down time. It's all so worth it in the end though.

Hope all are doing well in SG land.

Became a dad today. My Wife gave birth to our first child and daughter Fiona Quinn. Definately one of the best day in my life.

I went to Seattle for the first time last week. I left Monday and returned Wednesday night. Seattle was such a cool city.



On your first day, we checked into our hotel and then walked down to Pikes Market to see them tossing fish and look around. Down below we also found the gum wall. It's stupid but I was wondering how something like that starts. I have to think initially, someone cleaned the gum off the wall and then it just became to common that they got tired of cleaning it and it eventually got so gross that people became compelled to stick gum on the wall to help make it epically gross.







After walking around and grabbing a pint and half the bars we walked past, we went to the first of two Matthew Good concerts. The venue was the Triple Door. It was similar to Yoshi's here in the Bay Area as it was a seated venue with dinner served etc. Pretty cool place with great acoustics. This is one of my videos from the first nights show.



We wandered around looking for a good bar but came up empty. The fact that it was Monday didn't help matters but nothing around the downtown area quite felt like Seattle birthplace of grunge.

On our second day we decided to just hop on buses and see where we end up with only 1 planed stop along the way. I had seen a thing for this local place called Paseo that makes Cuban sandwiches. It’s this little hole in the wall place that has no sign outside and just closes when they run out of food for the day. The short bus ride was well worth the trip as it was probably the best sandwich I’ve ever had.





After lunch we just hoped back on the bus and found more bars to have a pint in.



As the afternoon turned into evening, we headed back towards downtown for the second night of Matthew Good. The second show had almost a completely different set list. Here is a video from the second night and is also one of my favorite songs of his new album.







After the show we went to the Capitol Hill area of Seattle. This was more the bar scene we were looking for the night before. We ended up at a dive bar called The Comet that had some local bands playing. The acts ranged from dj/keyboard/electronic/guitar playing one man band to hard rock to metal. It was definitely cool to experience the diversity here.



Seattle was amazing and I rounded out the week with a 3rd Matt Good show at the GAMH in SF. Now I get to go into serious withdrawals.