Peg Life Vol. 11

I had a pretty shitty day on Monday. It started before the sun was even risen. I wake up a little after 5:30 and walked down the street to the University of Winnipeg, as I do most Mondays, to co-host the Hangover Cure with Gavin on CKUW. I get there around 5:45 and Gavin isn't there yet. At this point I'm not really concerned because I'm usually there before he is. So I wait around for twenty minutes and still no one has shown up. I take a walk around the building and then decide to head back home, eager to grab some extra sleep. After I get home I get undressed and crawl into bed. I'm under the covers for less than half an hour when the phone rings and it's Gavin saying his alarm got fucked up and he'll be at the station in five minutes and blah blah blah. I sigh and say I'll meet him there. I go back to the university and we do the show minus forty-five minutes. During the show we cut my beard off on the air. It wasn't as entertaining as I had hoped it could have been, but for the next few hours the shittiness remits. After my post-show nap I get up, get showered, shaved, and all that shit. Then I get ready to go out and run some errands. My intention is to go pay a couple of MTS bills and take out some cash to pay rent. I run into the first snag when I go outside and find that my car is gone. My first thought is "Fuck," then I think "Fuck," and third I think "Ah, fuck." There's not a whole lot I can do so I walk down to pay the bills and that goes fine. Then I stop at the bank machine to get some money. Rent at my apartment is $405 so I punch $420 into the machine and wait for it to process. Moments later I'm reading a message on the screen saying I have exceeded my daily withdrawal limit and can't have that much cash. So I think "Fuck," and then I think "Fuck," and finally I think "Fuck it, I'm going to the police station to find out what the fuck happened to my car." I go there, talk to the cop at the counter, he looks up my license plate in the computer. He tells me that it's not stolen. Worse. It's been towed. Now I've got to spend $80 to get it out of impound and on top of that I've got a $35 ticket. At least if it was stolen I might have gotten some insurance money and I wouldn't have to pay to renew my Autopac. I end up taking the bus down to the impound lot, getting my car and driving home. I decide to write about how shitty my day was for Vol. 11. I write about halfway to this point and take a break to go to the bathroom. When I get back I find the computer is frozen and I haven't saved anything. I think "Fuck" a few more times then make my way down to Hooligan's to get drunk. I'm disappointed to find Maggie not hosting, but fortunately that's the last bad news of the evening as I play a few good games of pool and sing some cool songs. And that was Monday. On a different note, this issue brings Peg Life into a tie with Words from B.C. for Most Emails in a Series Written By Me. Words from B.C. still holds the titles of Longest Running Email Series Written By Me (eleven weeks) and Most Words in an Email Series Written By Me (approximately 75,000). If anyone has not (and would care to) read it, I have attached a Word document containing the Second through Eleventh Words from B.C. I leave it to each of your own devices to do with what you will. Potemkin City Limits is the fourth full length album release from Propagandhi, not counting the collection of rarities, live tracks, and covers entitled Where Quantity is Job #1. On first listen I was admittedly a bit skeptical. It was obvious from the very beginning that it followed the same progression in sound that began with Today's Empires Tomorrow's Ashes four years ago. In fact, when considered chronologically, their albums make readily apparent the linear path in the evolution of their sound. The latest album draws more from the hardcore and metal aspects that coloured Today's Empires, and while this takes it further from the poppier (though no less intelligent) sound of Less Talk, More Rock, it is a natural step forward. The harsher sound also complements the grim vision of the album perfectly. One almost feels as much sadness for those performing the music as for the subject matter they handle. Like Today's Empires, I found Potemkin City Limits to be slightly off-putting at first, but growing better and better with each listen. I highly recommend it. Next time, if I'm still really into it, I'll rave about Editors' album The Back Room. Until then.

Tony Hawkins having so much sepsis distracts