Snail

I agree about Song Bird. Excellent store, I used to live about 3 doors down from them, still not too far away. I always go there to buy strings and most of the time it ends up that the guy at the counter is someone I know but haven't seen in 10 years. Bought my daughter a drum kit there a x-mas and they helped me make a decent decision. They just didn't seem to have a great selection of basses at the time. I've known for years that Steve's sucks but they had what I wanted, at a good price and I mistakenly thought they'd treat me well since I was buying more than a pack of strings. Apparently not. Next time I'll trust my instincts. If they treat you like crap when you want a $7 pack of strings they don't deserve my business.

I'm also off on Duke's Bicycle's on Queen for similar reasons. I've never spent more than $20 at a time there and they always manage to screw me around somehow!

Dr. Evil don't worry about the $100 deposit. I'll get a case with that money (they can't screw that up can they?) And if there's anything left I'll get a pack or two of strings for my six string.

We have a few mice up at my cabin. They think it there place except when we get up there. One time I went in and I guess I scared one of them. It tried to run through a hole in a rafter that was maybe 3/8" in diameter. It got it's head stuck in the hole and died apparently immediately. I found it shortly and tried to remove it. It was really stuck, the tail came off in my hand while pulling. I tried to push it back through from the other direction with a stick, that got really gross very quickly (blood cover stick, sickly sounds). Eventually I had to give up. I let it de-compose for a couple of weeks until next time we came up figuring that it would shrink a bit as it "aged". Sure enough I was able to pull it out quite easily the next trip.

I wanted to buy a bass. (I posted this a few weeks ago). I asked around, searched the web got some recommendations. I decided I wanted the Yamaha BB414. Looks like here in Toronto I could only get it a Long and MacQuade or Steve's. L&M didn't have the colour I wanted Steve's did (and it's 5 block from my work) so I went to Steve's. By the time I got there the colour I wanted had been sold, no problem they insisted "we will order it in Yamaha's our good friend and close by it'll be here in a week or two". Ok I say, put $100 down and go home. When I get home I check the bill of sale, they ordered the wrong colour, I call them back "no problem we will just update the order don't worry". 4 weeks go by (I'm way to patient for my own good sometimes) no word from Steve's, Amanda (my S.O.) gives them a call and talks to the manager. Turns out that my bass had come in and been sold to someone else 'cause the clerk didn't update the order properly, another 2 weeks to get in another one. 2 weeks go by we call them again, "no info" they say "we'll call you back on Saturday with an update". Saturday comes and goes with no call from them, we call back on Tuesday get lost in phone hell, give up. Amanda gets through today, "bad news" they tell her "it won't be in until the middle of July and we won't refund your deposit money".

She calls Long & McQuade, they don't have any in stock but they promise to check their other stores. They call back 10 minutes later, "we've got one, brand new still in the box and we'll get it shipped to the TO store for Monday and match Steve's price".

So I don't have it yet but looks like Long & McQuade 100 points Steve's Music -1000000000000 points.

I've always been a little shy of Steve's cause they make you feel like a criminal when you want a $8 pack of strings (fill out this form, stand over here, pay this person, take this triplicate form back to the counter, turn head, cough and finally get strings). I think now it's not the customers they don't trust it's their own staff

I saw him 10 years ago at one of those Molson Park Canada Day weekends. He was absolutely mesmorizing. Kick ass band, great singing, great tunes. Unfortunately the audience was there to see the Tragically Hip and I actually saw some @sshole throw a half-full water bottle and hit one of the band members in the head. He did play on like the pro he is. I've never been so impressed and disgusted at the same time.

Unfortunately I won't be able to make it to the show this weekend.

Anyone know if a Canadian province/territory (or even a city) could legalize independantly from the federal gov? Or would the offending province just be trumped by the feds like the US?

Either way vote NDP since Jack Layton has already stated that he's for legalization.

Elora Gorge is a good bet. I was there last summer with my family around the August 1 weekend and there was so many yahoos staying up all night partying that we couldn't get any sleep. So if you want to be a up-all-night-yahoo this could be just the ticket. They also have a great group camping area kind of secluded from the main campground that has huge sites. Be really nice for drum circles!

Bear in mind that they are managed by the GRCA who are the same people that also run Guelph lake and hence the Hillside festival hosts and the GRCA police are famous for bothering yahoos at that festival.

Check their website GRCA you can even reserve spots online there.

Interesting Tim. I came across a web site a couple of weeks ago that mentioned the sale of the "Big Pink" to somebody for some ridiculously low figure ($50000 or so), then apparently the sale fell through. Maybe it "fell through" 'cause Levon was able to re-finance the house somehow.

I read this a couple of months ago. Great story! Really opened my eyes to how much hard work these guys put into their music especially in the early years.

I just picked up another book called "Across the Great Divide : the Band and America". Just barely cracked this one but it promises to be more in-depth on the background the whole band not just Levon. Also seems to be a lot more Robbie friendly than Levon's book which gets pretty angry towards Robbie.

I have a cabin a little NE of Parry Sound. We had the pleasure of taking a trip to the local dump last time I was there.

That wouldn't happen to be the Dunchurch mall would it? (hehehe)

Last summer I had a black bear run out about 20 feet in front of my bike on the Seguin trail. Thankfully it kept going.

In the same neck of the woods. We turn off Hwy 124 just before Waubamik (15Km W of Dunchurch) and head down the "Bunny Trail" for a 1/2 hour.

Near Ardbeg then. The "Bunny Trail" is a beautiful drive in the fall.

We're about half along the "Bunny Trail" between 124 and Ardbeg. Near where the Shawanaga river goes under the road in the "Unincorporated Township of Boakview".

Absolutely beautiful place to be in the fall though you gotta watch out for hunting season, I find my moose hat it not appropriate

I have a cabin a little NE of Parry Sound. We had the pleasure of taking a trip to the local dump last time I was there.

That wouldn't happen to be the Dunchurch mall would it? (hehehe)

Last summer I had a black bear run out about 20 feet in front of my bike on the Seguin trail. Thankfully it kept going.

In the same neck of the woods. We turn off Hwy 124 just before Waubamik (15Km W of Dunchurch) and head down the "Bunny Trail" for a 1/2 hour.

How's this:

I have a cabin a little NE of Parry Sound. We had the pleasure of taking a trip to the local dump last time I was there. I heard rumours about bears at the dump but never seen them in person. We got there, there were 3 bears climbing around the garbage looking for treats. When you throw a bag of garbage they come running over and rip it apart to see what you are giving them. They were amazingly brazen, all three of them came within 15 feet of us. I got the feeling that if you didn't give the garbage a good toss quickly they'd come and help you get the stuff out of your car.

Not quite as scary as Stone Mtns story 'cause they appeared quit tame and I half expected to see them but still they were bears and they were big. They probably smelt pretty bad too but due to all the festering garbage that wasn't really an issue.

Mark specifically asked me to make him one at one point but I need someone who can make an .avi into an animated .gif. Anyone?

Willy or Mark if you can send me a copy of said avi I'll make it my life's work to change it into an animated gif.

It just doesn't seem right that Mark has no avatatar

I had a hemp waffle for breakfast this morning and it obviously did not do it for me since this thread is making me hungry. Maybe that hemp waffle is giving me the munchies Seems to defeat the purpose of that hempy goodness if I'm craving one of those greasy looking heart-attack specials a couple of hours later.

I use a program called FreeRip to go directly from CD to mp3. Never tried from WAV to mp3 but it says it can do it. As far as shn or flac to mp3 try googling. There are also input plugins out there for winamp the allow you to play flac or shn and there are output plugins that allow you to encode mp3. You should be able to install all these plugins and have winamp read in flac/shn and output mp3. I can't confirm this now since I don't have windows box handy but it should work.

Anyone seen this guy Busking heavy metal at queen & university in downtown TO. Cracks me up. There's all the uptight Bay St. crowd heading home after a tough day at the office, cars all in such a big hurry to go wherever and then there's this long haired guy play continuous metal solo's right in the middle of it all. Always brings a smile to my face

Nice change from the usual Bongo banging Neil Young playing types found further W. down the street (nothing personal to all us bongo banging Neil Young playing types).

Anyone else got a favourite Busker?

Seems like I'm already known in Guantanamo :crazy:

Hmmm...

It does seem strange that these "pilots" where released without charges so quickly. I would have thought that the FBI and SS would be still crawling around inside there a$$es for a few more days. People have got in more trouble for mentioning the word bomb on an internet forum....I'll be disappearing now...

as TomFoolery says one of the nicest thing about TO is the mom and pop stores all over the place. That is one of the reason I've been here for 15 years.....really nice to be able to walk across the street and buy 1 potatoe from your friendly corner store. That said TO has changed in these last few years with more and more moving to the surrounding areas and the Mom and Pop stores are slowly being gobbled up by the conglomerates. Whenever a funky old neighbourhood starts to get too much attention the big guys move in...just look at Queen St. between University and Spadina, used to be small book/clothing/art stores with the occasional coffee shop. Now it's the Gap, Le Chateau, Starbucks and Second Cups.

Wal-Mart has got to be the worst of the bunch, they really have an ability to kill an entire downtown core. They have just opened one up in Parry Sound (where I spend quite a bit of time) and I'm really nervous to see what's going to happen to the downtown core there.

I have shopped at the Wal-Mart here and the crap they sell seems so appealing until you leave the store, I think they must be using smell-O-rama to cloud your mind.

Ain't it the truth. I remember Phil Lesh giving a lot of concrete foundations a good run for their money.

I have some good memories of Phil somehow find the resonance frequency of an entire stadium and getting the place to sound like a giant wine glass that someone was doing that trick with the finger circling the rim except at 20Hz Powerful stuff.....

What I can recommend is listening to a lot of Motown. I suggest you listen to James Jamerson's innovative basslines copy them and absorb his technique as much as possible. Many of the bass figuers and techniques used in popular music today spring directly from his playing.

I came across some James Jamerson's transcript on Bass Player magazines website. Very funky stuff. I've never been a real fan of Mowtown music but there seems to be a lot to be learned there. Some real interesting stuff about taking the main groove and then sliding it ahead or behind a 16th note for a couple of bars. Definately not your typical speed metal root note pounding.

Those piano lessons as a kid have left me with the ability to read the bass clef which I'd completely forgotten about...a little rusty but it will come

I think the first album I ever bought was ELO "Out of the Blue" then the Beatles best ofs the "Red" and the "Blue", Meatloaf "Bat Out Of Hell" was a gift from a bunch of my friends when I turned 12 for some reason I bought a 45 of Toto's "Hold the Line" and of course the Stone's "She's so Cold".

I had a friend down the street who had a brother that was 10 years older than us and I distinctly remember listening to some pretty heavy 70's rock: Frank Zappa, Alice Cooper, Kiss etc.. he even had some Cheech and Chong that I can still quote parts of today ("Bob.. for 100 keys what is your name")

I've just bought my first bass. Any recommondations for a good self-teaching manual (or website for that matter). I've been play guitar for 20+ years so I have a reasonable understanding of the instrument and I even played bass in a band for a while. What I'm looking for is some good bass rudiments particularily right hand finger stuff since that seems to be the area where I have the most trouble after being primarily a flat-picker on guitar.

Hmmmmm... Maybe Santana can come and entertain the troops while they're on break from the Jehad

The American car economy reminds me of a bunch of lemmings all marching towards that inevitable cliff.

I wonder what's going to happen when they finally use up all that oil and get to the edge of that cliff!