Viva Coldplay!!

I'm back in the city after a couple of weeks away...just in time for the Coldplay concert at the Air Canada Centre last night.

If you're expecting a concert review, you've come to the wrong place. There is no way I could write an unbiased review so if you want to read about the concert, you can read a review here.

There are not many artists who will get me to the ACC (for those who don't know - it's a 15000 seating capacity arena). Coldplay is one of those that I would go anywhere to see.

I prefer to see bands when they are not as well known and are playing smaller venues. Fortunately, my favourite bands are British so although they play arenas in England, most are not as well known in North America so they will play 500-2000 capacity venues here. There's nothing like getting up close and personal with your favourite artists:


James Blunt at the Mod Club in 2005


Keane performing part of Fly To Me and Leaving So Soon at Kool Haus in 2007 (he comes closer to where I am)

At small venues, you can really feel the music...see the singer's emotions, the guitarist's skill, the keyboardist's fingers or the drummer's efforts. You can see the sweat pour from their bodies. You can see the interaction between the band members and between the band and the audience. It can give you a new appreciation for the songs. You really feel like they are playing for you.

As great as small venues can be, there is something to be said for arena shows.

My first concert at the Air Canada Centre was U2 from the second last row (almost behind the stage). Being so far away gives you an appreciation for the spectacle and the crowd, but it's not ideal (especially sound wise).


U2 ACC Sept 2005 (not my photo - but basically my view)

I saw Coldplay in 2006 from the lower bowl across from the stage at the ACC. The sound was much better. The view was great because we're elevated but they are so far away. I thought this would be my last Air Canada Centre concert.



But then, when I managed to get 3rd row floor seats for James Blunt, I couldn't resist.


I Really Want You performed at Air Canada Centre 2006.

Last night I was 30th row on the floors. It felt like a small venue because everyone was standing up from beginning to end. The confetti also fell on the floor crowd, which was a bonus. The seats are closer together on the floor (rather than in the stands) so you feel more part of the audience but having rows means that you're that much further from the stage (as compared with a small venue). In the stands, the row ahead of you is lower (as well as the stage) so your view of the stage is better.

Last night, I loved hearing the crowd sing and seeing people dancing. I did capture a few short moments.


Fix You Air Canada Centre July 30th, 2008



The beginning of Viva La Vida. I had hoped to record more for my son (as it's now his favourite song), but (to his chagrin) I decided to enjoy the moment and dance instead (perhaps in hindsight I would have preferred to get a bit more, but oh well...I really loved it last night and will remember that).

There is a fine line between getting enough footage (photos/videos) to preserve the memory and being too busy trying to capture the moment that you actually miss the live moment.

Unfortunately, in order to get a great photo, you do have to take a few. I am learning with experience when the chances are better to get a great photo (depending on the lighting). There were many songs I was able to fully appreciate last night because I knew there was no way to capture them well. So I completely enjoyed those songs. When the lighting was better, I snapped away and managed to get better photos than I expected from my location.






I was trying to decide if last night's concert was my best concert ever. It's difficult to compare them. Coldplay at the Kool Haus was so intimate, but it did not have the production of their arena shows. X&Y wasn't released yet for the intimate gig. Many of the songs were not known to the audience so the audience participation wasn't as great. The crowd participation definitely adds to the concert experience. Screaming women don't help the James Blunt concerts. Keane don't get the widespread audience participation that Coldplay get (yet). I haven't been close enough to U2 to have them be my best concert ever.

I love seeing the different perspective from different venues and different views. There are positives and negatives to all of them. It's difficult to choose just one concert as my favourite, but this one definitely is up there. Floor seats at an arena combines the intimacy of a small venue with the spectacle of an arena show. Perfect combination.

A quintessential city moment

Just got back to the city minutes ago after being away for 13 days.

A quick walk over to Yonge Street to pick up some sushi takeout for a late dinner for my daughter and I and bumped into neighbourhood friends returning with Thai takeout !

It's good to be back.

A Northern vacation (part 2)

A great break away from city life. Chances to pass the time looking at the clouds or the night sky; enjoying a cold beer or a glass of wine close to the water; reading, doing puzzles and playing board games. And hearing your children's laughter in the background ! We'll be back in the city in about 5 hours with lots of bug bites and 900 photos (new camera experimentation - to be trimmed down) to remind us of our vacation for a little while.

A Northern vacation

On the way home now - should result in about 4,000 kms driving (3 1/2 days). Northern Minnesota and Ontario were the major destinations, but we found some beautiful spots in between including the Lake Superior coast of Minnesota and North-Western Ontario landscapes around Nipigon. Lots of animal sightings (much) to my daughter's delight, incl loons, eagles, turtles, and deer. More later.

Tour de France

I'm watching the Tour de France this morning. They just made the summit of Col d'Aspin on Stage 9 and now charging downhill at speeds in excess of 80km/h to the finish. I watch a little bit of the race every year, and I've found that you don't have to necessarily watch every km to appreciate the race, but paying attention to the expert commentary over a few different days is just enough to appreciate this fantastic sporting event. During the climb this morning I was trying to explain to the kids how difficult the climb was - the steepness of the climb, the distance etc, but I just said - just look at their faces. These guys are arguably some of the best athletes in the world, and if they're struggling to peddle uphill, you begin to appreciate the extreme efforts required to be a professional cyclist. You've got to remind yourself sometimes that you've watched perhaps a half hour or so, but they doing about 200 kms per day (over 5 1/2 hours today), for 23 days ! Phil Ligget just said that some of the leaders are not in contention today because they're saving themselves for the one of the big climbs tomorrow in the Pyrenees - I thought this was a big climb ! The stage just finished, even for this mountain stage, they averaged over 40km/h. Stage winner today was the Italian, Riccardo Ricco, overall it's still Kim Kirchen from Luxembourg. Brilliant stuff, must-see-sports-TV ! Now over to my cyclist bro for some colour commentary.

Just can't get enough

Lots of buzz all around on footy transfers with 38 days to go until the start of the 08/09 season. Hopefully we'll be seeing lots more fun video teasers like this one...

John Mayer

I saw John Mayer perform at the outdoor Molson Amphitheatre on Monday night. I'm not embarrassed to say I've liked John Mayer for years, even when his live CD's are drowned out by screaming girls. I really liked the show and as I reported on Facebook...I really enjoyed his warm summer blues sounds. My wife just shared a review article that sums up the concert so well, I couldn't have said it better.

Pic from mayerecho's Flickr photostream.

John Mayer

I saw John Mayer perform at the outdoor Molson Amphitheatre on Monday night. I'm not embarrassed to say I've liked John Mayer for years, even when his live CD's are drowned out by screaming girls. I really liked the show and as I reported on Facebook...I really enjoyed his warm summer blues sounds. My wife just shared a review article that sums up the concert so well, I couldn't have said it better.

Pic from mayerecho's Flickr photostream.

Lotsa updates

Tech & toys: I'm keeping the 40GB PS3, a lot less noisy than the 80GB version and loving the free demo downloads and just narrowing down game (MGS4 and Burnout Paradise) and Blue-Ray (Planet Earth) starter choices. We also bought a new Digital SLR last week, a Nikon D80 (allowing us to use our older Nikon lenses). Still doing all the testing, but liking it's fast response, quick access to picture tweaks and great quality images. Still debating whether to post using Flickr or Picasa.

Music: Coldplay hold on to number one, just. Great sophomore album from the Fratellis almost edging them out. Great single pick: Gabriella Cilmi - "Sweet about me". Looking like I'm heading to the Virgin Festival in September (Sunday w/ Oasis), seeing John Mayer at outdoor venue tonight.

Sport: silly season in footy with lotsa trade rumours, will Ronny leave ManU or Russian super striker Andrei Arshavin swapped into Arsenal for Adebayor. Brilliant international sports on the weekend with the marathon Wimbledon final, a Brit winning the British GP and the start of the Tour de France. Toronto FC looking average, but support still good and strong and coach Carver getting creative. Raptors make interesting trade. Ultimate going well, but away from the action for a few weeks. PJMixer's golf game gone missing, hoping to find it before next week's game at Smuggler's Glen.

Politics and the Economy: still a little confused on Middle East good guy / bad guy alignment after watching The Kingdom the other night. Is it ok to support Arsenal and wear a jersey that says Fly Emirates ? I'm not very optimistic for African aid and the environment going into the G8 meeting today. My wife has a great summary of top topics in her blog today. Trying not to think about mammoth gasoline bill for summer vacation driving of 2,400 kms, not to mention gas for ski boat. How does oil prices jive against global aid and butter-on-a-hot-summer-day-soft US banking sector versus military funding ? Big questions, sorry if you think you're going to get the answers here !

A common thread

There is the common thread of topics that I share with old friends and new. Everyone has a set of their own common interests, while the number and variety is probably directly proportional to the the size and depth of their circle of friends. I'd like to think I have quite a broad selection that allows me to easily strike up a conversation with new acquaintances as well as re-energize and keep old friendships healthy (there's also an overlap here to the In Joke post as well). I'm not saying all my good mates share all these interests, but many can shift quickly and knowledgeably between many common topics of interest. I'm also not saying that I dislike or avoid time spent learning about new subjects or hearing about friend's interesting professions and pursuits, although I'm not exactly certain if I'd call myself a neophile (is there a difference to a neophite?). Taking a small tangent here - perhaps it's a sign of the times and how full people's lives are that I don't seem to come across many neophiles these days. e.g I don't recall the last time someone asked me to explain the difference between computer RAM and disk space. So for me, I know I'm in the company of friends that share similar threads of interest when time just flies by and we're already talking about the next time to get together. My shortlist:

Music: Modern, mostly Brit based with nostalgic historic connections to past rock, new wave and punk years
Sports: football (soccer); Toronto Raptors; F1
Sports activities: ultimate; golf; football (soccer)
Social activities: having a pint or a glass of wine and talking about the topics in this list
Movies: the more the better - a walking imdb
Technology - from IT, thru blogging to HD
Children - note that this topic is highly dependent on the narrow band of age characteristics
Appreciation for the arts - from photography to theatre
International travel - I love listening to peoples views and stories of foreign places and people

This theory was put to the test recently, where I met a neighbour where we instantly hit it off because we both loved football. This week we got together to watch the Euro final and found out we also shared a love of photography. We ended up spending a lovely afternoon and an impromptu pizza dinner with our new friends...and there's another common thread..."the impromptu get-together" - much better than having to schedule visits months in advance.

I don't think my life is that complicated.

Spain victorious in Europe

Just quick post to wrap up Euro 2008. I'm really pleased Spain won it all yesterday. I felt they were fell deserved champions with quality contributions from all their players, entertaining football and the passion and pride for their country. I was a little disappointed with Fabragas' performance (especially after the semi final game), but it was good to see Torres finally make a big statement. I'm also a little bummed and embarassed to say I missed making my final pick in my ESPN fantasy pool - thanks to all that played. The final game was another example of a closely fought battle with lots of scoring chances, high quality touches and a good amount of drama that we've witnessed in many games throughout the tournament. Olé España.

Skateboarding: old passions and new appreciation

I just came across info about a gallery reception (tonight) for a virtual live blog by [skateboarding] photographer Patrick O'Dell. From the blogTO article, I found the embedded video about boarder Andrew Reynolds pretty interesting stuff. Not only is he a great freestyle boarder, but his OCD is a great sub-plot. I used to skateboard a lot when I was a kid, from the early days of polyurethane to pool riding on wider decks. I think I gave it up during the dry spell of the 80's and 90's and since passing the 30 and 40 year old marks, I'm a little hesitant to strap the pads back on, find my old board and hunt out the newer parks (of which there seem to be a lot around these dayz). Although I did a lot of slalom when I was younger, I always had a preference for the snake runs, ramps and pools you'd find in specially designed skateboard parks. (For a little skate down the nostalgia run, check out these vintage Skateboarder magazine covers - I think I had about half of those !). So I haven't been that fond of all the street freestyle boarding that is the modern practice in the sport. This isn't just because I've never mastered a simple kick flip, but because I never found it that attractive (as in elegant, smooth or beautiful). However, I must say the moves from Andrew Reynolds have given me a new appreciation for the art of the street boarder, he simply is a beautiful, natural skater. But you've got to keep in mind that just like other spectacular sports videos, it takes painfully many falls and scraps to perfect the great trick - just hope your buddy catches it on film !

The not so beautiful noises of the city

What a racket this morning. Woke to the jarring crashes of a house demolition 4 doors away. Next up, structural renovation metallic banging from next door. Mix that with summer holiday children already getting the max of TV and Playstation time and more than usual heavy truck traffic in the neighbourhood. Poor Paul Weller was struggling to be heard on my iPod on the walk to the subway. I'm heading to the office for some peace and quiet, wind down quarter end business, and dream of a quiet water's edge somewhere (and maybe that Blu-Ray Hawaii or Serenity sampler will come in handy later tonight).

Olé España

Great football game. I have been cheering for Spain since the beginning of the Euro and they didn't disappoint with a fantastic win over the Russian's today. I chose to cheer for Spain primarily because a few of their players play in England, incl. Cesc Fabragas who plays for my favourite team, Arsenal and pretty boy Fernando Torres and Xabi Alonso of Liverpool. I really enjoy watching Fabragas' control of the mid field, his precise passing and fantastic thru-balls. Today, he set up two of Spain's goals with creative subtle touches and precision passing. A few days ago, his sure fire penalty kick secured the win over Italy. I just found this brilliant comment on BBC. Way to go amigo.

I must say I've really enjoyed the Euro thus far and Sunday's final between Germany and Spain hopefully will live up to the billing. Beautiful passionate latin tiki-tika touches versus strong, cool German engineering.

As per previous mention, I'm glad to report I didn't see a lot of fake dives and exaggerated injuries in today's game and the referee really let the game flow.

Great gaming experience but fan noise delays ultimate PS3 review

Part 2 of the PS3 story (part 1 was a few weeks ago)...

I've returned the 80GB PS3 MGS4 Bundle.

The console was fantastic, but for one thing - the fan noise. I ran quite a few tests and it looks like the fan kicks in as soon as the console warms up (about 10 minutes). The fan apparently has a number of different speeds (and matching noise levels), but even at it's lowest level the noise is quite distracting when watching quiet scenes in movies and during quiet game scenes. This issue was not a surprise to me as I'd done quite a lot of research and seen tons of forum discussions on the topic. I don't think the unit was faulty, I just think the extra software onboard (perhaps for PS2 backward compatibility or 1080p upconversion) plus a larger disk and likely different cooling components, make the unit run quite a lot hotter than other models.

Luckily for me, the bundle I purchased was a limited release and quite a "hot" item in the market. So when I mentioned to one of the Best Buy customer service people I was thinking of returning the unit, he said "really, great, I've got a customer waiting for one" ! He also reassured me that there was not going to be any problem returning the bundled, but open, MGS4 game (so I could get a full refund). So, I packed up the unit and returned it the next day and exchanged it for the 40GB version (which reportedly has far fewer issues with fan noise). I just set it up last night (seems quieter for now) and will be testing it out over the next few days.

But there's a funny sidenote to this customer service story. the day previous to when I returned the console (when I had the convo the customer service person), I returned a PS3 Blu-Ray remote control (game controller works just fine) and the Sony PS3 packaged HDMI (and USB) cable, $70. In my head, was the thought that if this machine wasn't my ideal Blu-Ray player, then I could probably get away with a cheaper HDMI cable. So when I did the console exchange the next day, another sales person overheard my conversation and asked if I needed an HDMI cable, I said sure, but I was looking for a cheaper one, at which point he says "I've got an opened package in the back I can sell you at a discount". Of course, I'm thinking - I bet it's the one I returned yesterday. Sure enough it was. I actually explained the situation because I found it quite comical, but they were fine with following store policy and I bought the package back that I had returned for half the price. Nice loop hole eh ?

So I'm missing out on the great bundle price of the 80GB version, but hoping a quieter console will be just what I'm looking for. That MGS4 game was quite addictive and looked spectacular, so I may have to buy it again (now I've invested over 4 hours playing time).

What all the fuss was about

Repaired ankle gets to chase young punks at BMO Field

The ankle has been feeling pretty good over the last few weeks and I'm almost back at full speed. The only big restriction is jumping off my right foot, still need some work there. Our [ultimate] team Oxygen Hazard had a match-up last night at BMO Field (yeeha) against the hot, cocky junior team D.I.R.T. These kids (max age 18) have all the moves, fast legs, great athletism and some oversized egos. However, they don't have the experience and can easily get a little flustered when the defensive pressure is on or a quick turnover occurs. We've picked up some solid players this year and it all came together last night for a classic game of veteren experience versus young guns. We won 15-11 on the Toronto FC football pitch (sweet). Yours truly had some memorable plays including a zippy break-force hammer into the end zone for a score. I love this game, too bad I'm missing the next 5-6 games with all kinds of summer vacation and weekend plans. Looking forward to joining back up with the team in August and the run to September playoffs.



Sidenote: I'm proud to say I was the co-designer of the TUC logo above many years ago - the colouring keeps changing, but I'm just happy my artwork is still being used, I should have copyrighted it !

Are these football players just a bunch of big pansies ?

What I'm referring to is the constant grounding of a football player caused by:

1. An overly aggressive tackle from an opposing player - a foul
2. A minor touch from an opposing player that causes the "victim" to exaggerate impact and dive acrobatically to the ground
3. No contact whatsoever, but one which may be close enough to fool the referee with a fake dive.

However, it's not just the fall, it's the level of pain and agony expressed by the fallen player that comes into play, such as:

1. Player grips ankle, leg or foot and writhes around in surely the worst pain of the lives
2. Player's neck snaps back as if Mohamed Ali has just delivered a right hook and broken the player's nose - what, no blood ?
3. The player legitimately looks like he's in some pain from a twist and severe impact with hard parts of another player.
4. The player knocks heads with another player - ouch that hurts !

There are of course lots of permutations and combinations of the examples above and the issue is rather complex, but the majority of incidents do appear to be grossly exaggerated by today's professional football players. I've heard some explain the phenomena as like fighting in hockey, it's an unfortunate part of the game, but one that's perhaps rather tricky to eliminate and one we unfortunately tolerate. I know, I know hockey fans, the two phenomena are very different, but as a sports fan, I can see how the basic comparison may be valid. That is, we don't like to see a player dive or a fight break out, but we tolerate it because we love the sport so much and we can overlook their imperfections. As the old saying goes, I'm not going to cut my nose off to spite my face. I love football, so I'll put up with the silliness.

I would like to say however, that having played a little footy in my time and been involved with a few other contact sports, if you're kicked or kneed or otherwise poked by an 'ard body part, it bloody hurts. Keep in mind that there is very little protection worn by a football player. With the slow motion, close-up replays these days, you can tell that some of the hits are quite severe and perhaps warrant the victim's reaction. On the other hand, the same replay shows just how ridiculous some of the faking and exaggeration is as well.

So, the fans have just finished watching the Euro quarter finals and are eagerly awaiting the mid week semis. I would say the refereeing has been quite good and I believe a fair number of yellow cards have been issued for diving. This seems to be a good practice these days and if used more regularly could help reduce the problem.

As for the quality of the footy when players are on their feet - I think it's been marvellous. I think there's really only been a few dull games and most have been close contests with action right up to the last seconds of play. There have been a fair number of upsets, but you can't argue that the 4 teams remaining are worthy contestants.

Well who's it going to be:

The solid, strong and well organized Germans with lots of finishing fire power.
The passionate and driven Turks who never give up.
The fast and powerful finishing of the Russians.
The delightfully skilled possession game of the Spanish.

And let's hope that the players show us their real skills rather than their play acting.

Black Watch

Theatre review from the subway: I just saw Black Watch at the Luminato festival. It is the tragic tale of the noble causes of a powerful military regiment brought to humble and worthless ends. It lived up to the hype but was a little different to what I expected. It was a tremendous blend of drama, political commentary, history lesson, humour, music and dance. Yes the language was very profane (I don't think I've heard the C word said that many times in my whole life). But the violence was not as much as I anticipated and offset with lots of lad's laffs. Wonderful, energetic performances from the whole cast. Passionate and personal acting. Fantastic. Thanks to Jessica for the great recommendation.

He's just a big kid

Currently waiting for Best Buy to open to buy a PS3.

I guess I'm a little embarrassed to say this is a luxury purchase for me, nothing to do with the kids and one with no solid educational, environmental, or social worth. Its just a new toy for a big kid. A tech treat just in time for Father's Day.

As some may know I value top notch quality and strive for a rich existence. This includes my AV entertainment and to some degree the new world (for me) of video gaming.

So when I bought my Sony Bravia 1080p LCD last spring I was hoping it wouldn't be too long a wait to experience the very best in home video quality - high definition movies. Luckily since then, the HD DVD vs Blu-ray war has been settled. So what's brought me to this latest purchase decision ?

As it turns out, the Sony Playstation 3 (PS3) is not only (arguably) the best video game console on the market, but its also a very good Blu-ray disc (BD) player. I've actually been asking a lot of Sony experts and sure enough the BD technology in the PS3 is exactly the same as Sony's standalone BD players. Furthermore, the PS3 is priced very close to entry level, single purpose BD players on the market today. But why today ?

Today is the world release of an exclusive PS3 game called MetalGearSolid 4 (which definitely looks cool). The clever clogs have bundled this game with the hard to find 80gb version of the PS3. Hold on, it now gets a bit complicated...the dirty secret is that to be backwardly compatible with PS2 games (which my son has many) you need the 80gb version not the cheaper 40gb version. Plus this version will upconvert the video quality of those games to 1080p. One extra small bonus is the bundle comes with new version of the controller.

So now there's about 10 of of us in line and rumour has it there's somewhere between 5 and 30 in stock.

Stay tuned.

Ankle update

Its been 5 months today since my surgery to repair my broken ankle. Last night I played ultimate and it felt the best in has in 5 months. I was actually able to sprint and make a few decent cuts in the second half (although I was still a big defensive liability in the first half). On the hottest June on record (33.1 c, 41 c humidex) we ended up losing 17-15 as the steam / fog was drifting onto the field around 9pm. Maybe the heat loosened me up ! It was very soar afterwards and bugging me a little this morning, but it's put me in a great mood ! Now if only the subway was only running this morning (reporting live from Starbucks with latte in hand waiting for the situation to clear).