Strange dream...

Early this morning I woke up strangely calm after a terrifying dream.

I dreamt I was standing on a rugged coast of Newfoundland in front of a tall white lighthouse talking with Farley Mowat. Well, more like trying to talk with Farley Mowat. He wouldn't stop talking and I couldn't get a word in no matter how hard I tried. He wouldn't let me speak.

Behind him I could see a giant wave raising in the distance slowly getting higher, faster, closer. I could make out debris in the rising wall of water as it got closer and closer, dwarfing the lighthouse in size. Farley didn't notice the wave at all. No matter what I tried to say or do to get bring his attention to the wave I couldn't.

And suddenly we were hit by the water and were completely submerged. I could see Farley under water swimming up towards what I took to be the lighthouse light. I was swimming beneath him trying get up to the air as well. Neither of us seemed to get any closer to the surface despite our efforts. I saw Farley go limp as he gasped for air under water and started to black out myself.

Never once did I panic though. Even when I knew I couldn't breath I seemed to just embrace what was happening.

Then I woke up.

What the fuck was that?....

Google Street View camera car...

As I pulled into my driveway this morning I noticed the Google Camera Car going through my neighbourhood taking street level images for their Street View feature. I called my oldest son out and we both stood in front of our house as the car went by. So in a few weeks when looking up my address on Google maps I'll be a blurred out face on Google....

Yes, I'm bored today....

Abandoned house...

On Warden Avenue just up from Ravenshoe Road is this abandoned house. I've always liked abandoned buildings and as I happened to have my camera with me as I was driving by today with my youngest son, we decided to stop and get a few shots. Someone came along within minutes to tell us that they were rebuilding the place. They said it was OK for us to look around and take a few pictures. So here they are....

View from what was the driveway.

Some of the original lath & plaster from the gutted interior.

Interior 2nd floor.

Looking from the 2nd floor down into the basement.

Main floor studs.

Main floor kitchen area.

From the backyard looking towards the driveway with my son hanging out in the doorway.

I only had a zoom lens with me so I will be going back to get more interior shots with a proper lens and better lighting, especially for the basement - it's got a great atmosphere and I really want to get some better shots.

Think I'll start exploring/photographing other abandoned buildings in the Lake Simcoe area. There are tons of old, abandoned houses, barns, sheds. Some of them are even rumoured to be haunted. One can only hope....

All photos taken by me.

One tiny piece of paper...

"...only you, and a select few others,
contain the secret of the show."

The Trajectory of a Bullet - part I: A Man Screaming so Loud Colours are Coming Out of his Mouth...

Dark night.

 City lights,
       The distance hangs like thunder…

If this car would only go faster.

Concrete Jungle air, there's a difference, big difference.
      Real air excites your lungs,
      Concrete air insults (assaults) your lungs.

I can remember being paid a good wage to help me forget
I lived in a plaster box in the Jungle, in the sky. I remember dry
heaves in the morning. I remember trying hard to forget…

    LANE CHANGE

I haven't seen another car for hours/miles of wet ribbon road.

 My thoughts aren't as fast as the painted lines or as
 slow as the radio's liquid amnesia…

I could be dead.

    ACCELERATE

    CASSETTE TAPE

"Hellhound On My Trail"

I'm chasing a dream that's a nightmare chasing through my 
childhood/youth/adult life.
The windshield wipers beat it back with fluctuating rhythm…

    ROAD SIGN

Turn off to where-ever/when-ever

    DOWNSHIFT/CHILDHOOD

Brick walls and darkness…windshield

    Staring at myself staring, I still think I'm twenty years
too late but I'm driving to forget all that shit, driving to
forget why I remembered it in the first place.

    ANIMAL!

    BRAKES LOCKED

    TIRES SQUEAL

Rear end of car drifts slightly…
      Control feels powerful,
      like I'm in control

    ACCELERATE

Country roads like big city lust gone sweet…
      headlights piercing darkness
in surgical foreplay being folded over and over
until afterbirth is all that's left.

  "I keep one hand on the wheel
  and one hand on the shifter
  I keep one eye on the road
  And one eye on your sister"

Teenage sex is better on record than reality; clumsy and rushed
headlong into death

Teenage sex sung about by grown men remembering/wishing

  "How many guys out there over 30
  can still get 16 year old girls
  to go down on them?"

  "How many really want them to though?"

   RIGHT TURN
Full moon on the horizon
Full tank in the rear

I remember helping a stranded female motorist. I gave her a lift.
Her car broke down in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night
and I was on one of my nightly cruises into tomorrow…
She didn't like the handcuffs hanging from my rearview mirror.
She turned pale…
I dropped her off at the top of a street she said was hers…I wonder if
she remembers/thinks about me or my handcuffs.

    FLIP THE TAPE

When I was a child I thought that all the traffic in the world
is what made the planet rotate…

Farley Mowat...

Been on a bit of a Canadiana kick reading Farley Mowat's latest book Otherwise. An engrossing read detailing his youth, years in the military and time in northern Canada. I couldn't put it down. Made me want to visit the places described even though I know they would be nothing like they were some 60 years ago. The caribou migration sounds simply mind blowing. I would love to have witnessed that. With all the raw nature this man has seen it's understandable why he is somewhat bitter with what humankind has done to the planet and other life...

Now it's on to his 1984 book Sea Of Slaughter.

Nine Inch Nails - one more time...

The band I can't get enough of live in concert is packing it in (touring wise) and are on the last leg of their Wave Goodbye tour. But just this week Trent had this to say on the nin.com site:

"Getting right to the point, we're going to play a handful of shows in NYC, Chicago and LA starting August 22nd. They will be informal affairs in medium to small venues with longer set-lists, possible special guests, cool openers and other surprises. Upon reflection, the NIN/JA tour felt like we had to rush through sets due to a limited allotted set length and many shows were in daylight - it just didn't feel right to end NIN that way. An offer to headline a festival (being announced soon) set the idea in motion to play some FUN shows to end this up with. If we can get it together we'll film these shows, too."

The festival in question that NIN will be headlining is Toronto's Virgin Festival in August. He even confirmed it via Twitter yesterday:

Yes, I will be at the show which will be sometime in late August I'm presumming as the date & complete line-up has not been announced yet. Can't wait for NIN concert #7 for me.

Asshat of the Month = United Airlines...

Heard a great story about an East Coast musician who had his expensive acoustic guitar broken due to United Airlines baggage handlers being witnessed throwing the guitars on the tarmac and how United refused to pay for damages. So after nearly a year of run-a-rounds from United, Dave Carroll decided to approach things from the stand point of what would Michael Moore do if he were a song writer?

Dave vowed to write 3 songs and produce 3 videos about the events. The 1st of these, United Breaks Guitars, is available on youtube (embedded below) and is one of, if not the highest, downloaded music videos on youtube.

And United Airlines is beating a path to his door to make things right in the aftermath of the shitstorm of bad publicity that followed. Apparently even CNN's Wolf Blitzer featured the story and video on The Situation Room.

Good stuff...