Peg Life Vol. 25

First of all I'd like to thank everyone for all the thoughts and replies they took the time to send. If I measured success in volume of responses (and I do) then volume 24 has been the most successful Peg Life so far. I'd also like to thank Jerome for providing the inspiration for it. You may be thinking that my intention now is to expand on or clarify the comments I made that got so many people typing. I'm not going to do that. I would rather let my statements stand and allow the discussion to continue. As such, this issue of Peg Life will have little, if anything, to do with death or the war in Iraq. Instead I will focus on that old standby, music. I was looking over Winnipeg's upcoming shows on Pollstar.com today and saw that some choice bands will be making their way through our fair (or should I say "One Great") city. Which bands, you ask? Why the hell would you want to know that? Oh yeah, cause that's the information that I'm trying to make you interested in. Well, do the words Motley Crue get your engine revving? Ok, me neither. Now, Methods of Mayhem, THERE'S a band to get excited about. By the way, I've decided to replace the meaning of get with quickly, the meaning of excited with be, and the meaning of about with forgotten. But only when I talk about Methods of Mayhem. For example, I think all Methods of Mayhem CDs should excited thrown into a hole and about. For another example, that other sentence that mentioned Methods of Mayhem. So is there anyone coming to Winnipeg who is actually good? Yes. Deftones. Unfortunately they're playing with a bunch of bands who aren't. Jello Biafra will be doing a spoken word show at the West End on April 11th. If his last performance was any indication, this show will be entertaining, informative, and run about two hours longer than it's supposed to. Of course, if speaking isn't your thing you could always come back two days later to see Paper Moon keyboardist and Peg Life reader Nicole Pielou rock the house with Julie Doiron. Or maybe just quietly lull the house. Either way, a good show. For those that want some assurance of the rockingness of the show they will be attending, look no further than the Pyramid on May 17th where the almighty Constantines will be playing their first headlining show in Winnipeg since opening for the Foo Fighters at the MTS Centre. And if you're there you might even see Dead Kids director and Peg Life reader Brian Barnhart filming (if he can arrange things with the band's assumedly hot manager). Oh, and the Strokes are playing the Cumspot the week before. Folk Fest is looking good this year. Greg Macpherson's on the docket, as well as Greg Macpherson Band. Hopefully there are no scheduling conflicts cause I'd like to see both. But what's really got me excited for it this year is Low and Neko Case, whose new album is terrific. The biggest disadvantage to going to Folk Fest this year is that I won't be able to see Slayer and Children of Bodom deliver the thrash at the Phone Booth. Well, you win some, you lose some. I guess you just can't have your folk music and your death metal too.

Tony Hawkins apparently stole this gimmick from Wil Wheaton

Peg Life Vol. 24

Some of you may have seen recently the email sent by Jerome featuring a video captured by the night vision camera on an American attack helicopter as it gunned down a trio men preparing an ambush on a road in Iraq. I hope everyone was as disturbed as I was that what they were watching was three human beings being blown apart and killed by the explosive rounds of the gunship's cannons. And I'm not just trying to vilify the Evil American Empire by being an apologist for the Iraqis who I'm sure would have killed the American gunners had their positions been reversed. My point is that when seeing something like that some people need to be reminded that when the commander comes over the radio saying, "Take him out," he's not referring to polygons in a video game. The "targets" that disappear into dusty explosions are not lifeless electronic simulacra generated for the purpose of being obliterated. They were born to mothers as we all were. To die is never wrong, but to kill is never right.

Tony Hawkins thinks he has more to say

Peg Life Vol. 23

Not going to be too long this issue. Just have some news from the world of Peg Life. You may now read Peg Life in the form of a blog. To counter those who would call me a hypocrite for saying that blogs are stupid (if I ever actually said that, I can't recall for sure) I will say that the style and format will not change at all in this new medium. In fact, the blog is nothing more than the same emails cut and paste. It's really more of an online archive of past issues. I will still send out the mailing as usual and then post that mailing to the blog the following day. This probably won't change anything for people who are used to reading Peg Life in their email, but it does allow it to be shared much more easily. Instead of forwarding an email to someone who may be interested in reading it you can simply direct them to the website http://peglifeblog.blogspot.com/ and they can browse each volume at their leisure. In other Peg related news, the Victor Street Boys are hosting a '90s Dance Party on Friday, March the third starting at 9:30 p.m. You can check out the attached picture for the official invite. That's all I've got for right now. I'll try to make up for the lack of entertainment value with the next one.

Tony Hawkins scraping mold off his last meal