Broken City - Ideas, Thoughts, and Feelings

Ramblin' Ambassdors w/ James T Kirks & The Ostrich

2007-07-26T01:37:00.000-06:00

» Thursday July 26 «
Ramblin' Ambassdors
w/ James T Kirks & The Ostrich

There is happy news to report from the Broken City maintenance department. Our leaky ceiling is now fixed, with no thanks to The Ostrich who totally tore the roof off the sucka with their insane show last time they graced our stage. Apparently, they've added a keyboard/miscellaneous insanity player to the fray. Can one of Calgary's best bands in years get better? I'm just glad the roofers double-reinforced the ceiling. Speaking of rock and roll maelstroms, The James T. Kirks are for all intents and purposes, the Hanson Brothers of instrumental music. With bloodshot eyes and extra-large panties wrapped around the headstocks of their guitars, these lovable Edmonton low-lifes have eluded the cops, creditors and white supremacists (ask Ted about that one!) while all the time thundering out monster jam after monster jam for years now. Catch this rare Calgary show from these cats.

Who will be on my guestlist tonight?
The first to write me at johnhuh@shaw.ca will be on my guest list for this rockin' show.
Because we all can't fit on Prince's Island Park tonight.

Woof woof woof

2007-07-26T01:34:00.000-06:00

AHWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

» Thursday July 19 «

2007-07-15T22:36:00.000-06:00

» Thursday July 19 «
Cody The Catch
w/ Guy Woods / Jeff Spec / Eydol and DJ Butta

The night may belong to mixtape legend DJ Butta but Western Canada’s going to warm ‘em up. Guy Woods from Sooke BC, Jeff Spec from East Van and Calgary boys Cody the Catch and Eydol will show you why Calgary truly is becoming a haven for underground hip hop.

DJ Butta may be one of the bigger names in DJing to come through town in awhile. A Miami heavyweight and NYC mover; if DJ Butta isn’t a household name now, he soon will be. DJ Butta has gone from selling custom tapes at school in Miami in the early 90’s to being named one of the top five DJs in the scene by Def Jam Records. Expect cuts from just released Volume 5 Makaveli 7 Deadly Sins series as well as Volume 18 of his highly acclaimed hip-hop series, which includes appearances from Jadakiss, Jim Jones of Dipset, and Peedi Crakk of State Property.

Sooo, who wants to be on my guest list?
Leave comment stating why you should be on my guest list, and maybe you will be.
Don't be a suckuh!

Love,
John Huh
BCSC Bookong Assistant/Promoter

Rockabilly Hall of Famer Art Adams and Ronnie Hayward

2007-07-13T04:26:00.000-06:00

» Friday July 13 «
Rockabilly Hall of Famer Art Adams
w/ Ronnie Hayward

What happens when you have a de facto, first generation rockabilly artist playing in the middle of the Stampede with one of the best contemporary practitioners and true keepers of the flame of the genre? If you answered a street-sweeping, goofy-footed, piston-screaming, knock'em down party, you'd be right. If you miss this show of shows, feel free to kick yourself over it.

If any of you greasers are reading this: Please be advised that the first two of you to leave a comment AND email me (booking@brokencity.ca) will be on my guest list +1. Offer expires Friday, July 13, 2007 @ 17:00hr
OR feel free to kick yourself twice.

Some conditions may apply.
Not valid in Alaska, Nebraska or the maritimes.
Brush your teeth!!

Thanks for listening,
John Huh
BCSC Booking Assistant/Promoter

Okay, stop reading. Leave a comment and then e-mail me!!
booking@brokencity.ca

Are you still here?

Over the Bush and Through the Hills: Benefit for Breast Cancer Research

2007-07-13T02:34:00.000-06:00

Congratulations Christine Berger, on being eligible for the 60km walk for Cancer Research!!
Hooray!!

Over the Bush and Through the Hills: Benefit for Breast Cancer Research was a huge success!

Ask for these quality do gooders by name!:
Agnostic Mountain Choir
Burlesque Collective (Rebecca)
Hurricane Felix and the Southern Twisters
Burlesque Collective (Carissa)
Darcy Whiteside and the Hillbilly Jamboree
DJ Jenn B

Extra special cudos to Enzo for borrowing a CD player from the Underground and saving the Burlesque portions of the night.
The evening would not have been the same without the Burlesque Collective. God bless those sexy do gooders.

Extra double scoop thanks to all of you who came and filled the Broken City with phun and good times to celebrate this hopeful and worthy cause. Thank you for your generosity of wealth and spirit. Where have you been all my life?

I hope we can do it all again some day.
Walk Christine, walk like the wind...

Thanks for the mammaries, etc...

Peace,
John Huh
Booking Assistant/Promoter

Kieran Hebden of Four Tet and Steve Reid

2007-07-04T10:03:00.000-06:00

Dear Citzens,

How's it going?

Kieran Hebden of Four Tet and Steve Reid weave a sonic tapestry of rhythm and electronic threads. Brought together by an English music Promoter as musical experiment, these two had such a great time, they just stayed playing together and now are on tour.

It was really great to see all you sophisticated cats out to see this very unusual Monday show. Although we could have fit more of you, the room was nicely full for this dynamic duo. It was a pleasure to host these musical giants, and I hope to see them again someday.

Remember this blurb from the Broken City Social Club Writing Collective? It is all true:
Musical history comes crashing down in a monumental swell with Four Tet’s Kieran Hebden and legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid.
Broken City audiences may be more familiar with the name Kieran Hebden; the man behind folktronica group Four Tet, the post rock collective Fridge and the much sought after remix master for Radiohead, Bloc Party, Aphex Twin, Bonobo and Madvillain.
His latest collaboration is possibly his most mind blowing and though most may not know his name, drummer Steve Reid is the closest Calgary may ever come to James Brown again. Having gotten his start in 1964 at the age of nineteen playing drums for Martha Reeves & the Vandellas' on 'Dancing In The Street', Reid laid down an amazing career with numerous Motown sessions and lengthy tenures with the Sun Ra Arkestra, Miles Davis, Fela Kuti and James Brown.
Context aside, the night will likely be nothing Broken City has ever seen or heard. A little backbeat, a little downbeat all wrapped up in a mind melting free jazz odyssey.- There will be a $20.00 cover for this event.

Thank you Steve Fletcher, KLM for setting us up with the drum kit with the jazz cymbals.

Please have a Skookum day.

Peace,
John Huh
Booking Assistant, BCSC

Sled Island to Solid Gold Beaver

2007-07-04T09:15:00.000-06:00

Dear Citizens,

How's it going eh?

It is an amazing string of great musical acts coming through the Broken City.
Thank you Sled Island for bringing all those great bands and much thanks to all the bands: Curtis Santiago, Racoon, The Petites, Consonant C, Lions, Tigers and Bears, Sudden Infant Dance Syndrome, Bigfoot Rocketship, The Ostrich, The Adam Brown, Jay Crocker and the Electric Apes. Sled Island is a raging success! Extra special thanks to Johanna Schwartz, Sled Island Volunteer Coordinator, and all of you do gooder volunteers, because this festival or any festival could not run without the hard work and dilligence of volunteers. Thank you Zak for having a dream!

We owe much thanks also to the bands who played at Solid Gold Beaver Canada Day Celebration. Special thanks to Amy Darling, Mistress of Ceremonies (SGB), who hosted the whole day. I suspect we will be seeing more of Amy Darling, and her costume changes, and observational comic stylings. ALSO: If you missed the BCSC staff band: SNOW AXE, you better have been having sex instead, because sex is pretty much the only substitute for SNOW AXE!! I'll tell you what! All of the bands kicked ass with classic Canadian songs.

All proceeds donated to the Calgary Emergency Women's Shelter.

The night went something like this:
6:00 - Kenna Burima with Daren Powell and January Glass
6:20 - It's Rocketaco
7:40 - Mercury Audio
8:00 - Black Hole
8:20 - Ricca Razor Sharp
8:40 - Tall Mark and Handsome
9:00 - Hardcore Cardboard
9:20 - Fallout Frequency
9:40 - Bogart
10:00 - INTERMISSION
10:40 - LINT
11:00 - Lucid 44 to Hell
11:20 - Snow Axe (BCSC Staff band: Solange McAlister, Adam Kamis, Steve Richter, John Huh, Jen Skabar)
11:40 - Patroller
12:00 - Gaye Rage
12:20 - MFO
12:40 - Life Like Cobra
1:00 - Kenna Burima with Daren Powell and January Glass
1:20 - Unscheduled Blues exporation jam

Check the Broken City Calendar for upcoming bands: www.brokencity.ca/calendar.html

And that's Rock and Roll.

Peace,
John Huh
Booking Assistant/Promoter/Lover
Broken City Social Club

This Monday! NO COVER

2007-06-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

» Monday June 11 «
Wax Mannequin
w/ The World Provider
& Jenny Omnichord

It’s going to be one weird Monday. It’s the night for “outsiders” with cheeky Casio keyboards, lofty omnichords and bizarre on-stage antics. The evening begins with wacky multi-instrumentalist Jenny Omnichord; the solo side-project of 22 year-old Jenny Mitchell of Guelph’s favourite indie band The Barmitzvah Brothers. The last time I saw an omnichord on the Broken City stage was when BossHoss brought the house down with Britney Spears’ “Toxic”. Missed that show? For god sakes people! It was a Monday! Who doesn’t love Mondays?
Things just keep on getting stranger with the cheeky electro-synth pop sounds of The World Provider. What started out as a one-man band in Toronto has now blossomed into a Fully-Loaded-Casio-Rock-Band whose love affair with the soft rock melodies of Hall & Oates, Steely Dan and Fleetwood Mac has created some of the most entertaining and infectious kitschy house-beats this side of the 80’s. Wax Mannequin needs no introduction really. Bizarre, alluring, grandiose, primordial psych-pop all delivered with dangerous on stage antics. Full band or solo his own programmed beats, automated bass and angry electric guitar, Wax Mannequin is a force to be reckoned with. Audience beware.

(PJ and Dan) + (Party and Coyoteman) = dance

Sled Island

2007-05-15T09:11:00.000-06:00

Sled Island: June 27, 28, 29
Multi venue
Legions of Indie musicians from across the contintent!

Keep an eye on the Broken City website calendar of events for updates.

Please feel free to leave a comment.

Thanks,
John Huh

No Cover Mondays

2007-04-24T02:31:00.000-06:00

Mondays are the new Wednesdays.
Wednesdays are the new Fridays.
Thursdays are the new Fridays.
Fridays are the new Saturdays.
Saturdays are still Saturdays at Broken City.
And you have two. Count them. Two Fridays.
And almost forgot......Two Saturdays.
Stay with me now.
Which means that Tuesdays are the new Sundays.
And Sundays are the new Tuesdays.

Come to Broken City on No Cover Mondays.
live band classic DJs PJ and Dan
Because Monday only comes once a week.

Broken City Posters

2007-04-21T14:21:00.000-06:00

Dear Citizens,

How's it going?

Your enthusiasm for the Broken City posters is much appreciated.
They are nifty, eh? I notice some of you like to take the posters off the walls.
Well my friends, this must end. Putting up posters is not as fun as it looks.
If you are interested in owning one of these poster gems please let bar staff know.
I have extras in the back that are in way better condition than the floor models.

Just sayin',
John Huh
Booking Assistant
Broken City Social Club

No Cover Mondays

2007-04-17T13:31:00.000-06:00

Dear Citizens,
Mondays can be pretty awesome sometimes.
The Heady Ideas are a whirlwind of young ladies who organized a forum called, “Alberta and Kyoto like Oil and Water?” to discuss environmental issues global and local. The forum specifically covered Alberta's role in protecting the environment. Subjects such as wind as a resource were extensively discussed. Moderated by CJSW's Chad Saunders, with a panel of four experts on Kyoto initiatives.The event was broadcast live on CJSW to an audience beyond the BCSC walls. The attentive attendees were very cooperative of sharing booths and tables. Broken City is proud to have participated in this socially significant event. Go Heady Ideas, go and change that world into a better place!!

Later, there was a full house to receive Erin Ross and her band.
They played 2 sets of 40 minutes of top drawer country blues tunes.
They employ my flavourite telecaster plus lapsteel combo.
Easy going drum and bass. Sweet girly vocals. It sure went down easy.

Every Monday, Broken City presents a No Cover show of world-class musicianship.
No Cover Mondays start early, so you can rock out and still get up to go to work on Tuesday.
DJ PJ and Dan spin classic rock tunes on into the night.

Also, Andrew WK and DJ Glenn Alderson was a huge New York Dance/Karaoke party.
A positively positive experience. Special thanks to Kenna Burima who hooked us up with Chris Neville who lent Andrew WK his own 88 key keyboard for the show on very short notice. Thanks Chris Neville and your mom for teaching you how to share.

Please have a beautiful day in the City.

John Huh
Booking Assistant
Broken City Social Club

TRANS AM ticket Available NOW!

2007-04-11T15:19:00.000-06:00

Dudes!

Broken City Presents:
TRANS AM LIVE at the Warehouse: April 26, 2007!

TRANS AM tickets are available at the usual places:
Megatunes
Sloth
Melodiya
Broken City Social Club

Get 'em while you can!

Peace,
John Huh
Booking Assistant
BCSC

April 11, 2007

2007-04-11T14:29:00.000-06:00

Dear Citizens,

First thing's first!
Thankyou for logging onto this blog.

It is finally a beautiful day. Check us out for some patio action.
The forecast is favourable to outdoor drinking.

I have noticed that our FREE Monday rock shows and DJ PJ and Dan nights seem to still be a secret.
It don't get better than free! Andrew Neville and the Poor Choices were a blast this Monday! There were only about 25 of you here, but your applause for this Winnipeg import sounded like a hundred. Thanks for coming and stay out so late on a school night!

In other news:
Unfortunately, the Rocky Fortune have cancelled their appearance on Thursday, May 12, 2007 (aka: tomorrow).
We still have a great rockin' lineup: City Streets, THe JR's, and Michael, Bernard Fitzgerald.
See you there.

You maggots better come down to BCSC for the first annual Metal Fest!
Firday 13. We lined up 8 fine Metal bands from around the western hesiphere.
This show starts ealry 7:30pm (see calendar for details). It's going to be epic so bring a change of underwear.

We have the technology to project Calgary Flames hockey on the stage screen. You know, the one we show Broken Reels movies on? I leave you now with a question: Does hockey belong at Broken City?

Don't worry hockey fans. Broken City administration has already authorized hockey on the big screen.
This is your chance to say something about it if you are not a fan of hockey.

Please feel free to make comments.

Now go outside and play!

Ask for me by name,
John Huh
Booking Assistant
Broken City Social Club

New Guy!

2007-02-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

Hi, I'm back,. But not for long. The inimitable (–adjective. incapable of being imitated or copied; surpassing imitation; matchless.) John Huh is the new voice of BC. He'll be keeping regular...

busy times

2006-11-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

It's been a very fun, very busy month. The bar has had some amazingly nice people stopping in and playing shows, and it just keeps on going. I just tried to list everything but there's too much and too many amazing people. Thanks everyone who checked out some of the shows this month.

We've got new tables and chairs now, a new seating area in the back, some new house speakers and a new front area ceiling is on the way.

November is crazy

2006-11-09T16:54:00.000-07:00

We just added an early show with Bughouse Five on Wednesday Nov 22nd. Really there's a lot going on this month. Come check it out! I have some thoughts to share soon too. Mostly some questions for people..... I just need some time!!!! Look at our listings- they are all up to date. December is coming soon too. Please sign up for our newsletter (really just a monthly booking email) if you'd like. There's a link on the 'news' page, and soon it will be on the 'contact' page.

BA Johnson

2006-10-26T14:20:00.000-06:00

I think I had one of the better show nights at the bar that I've had in a while. It was a nice quiet crowd and B.A. Johnson was amazing. He almost had a heart attack I think, or maybe got electricuted. Mr Plow was great, The Disposable Cars were better even, and Bil Heatherington played an amazing solo set. He's very good solo. Very different from the Neckers stuff. I'm hoping we can do the CD release here at the bar when he's ready. It's going to be good. Scott Burman plays on it so it'd be nice to see him on stage again.

Novmeber (!)

2006-10-11T09:22:00.000-06:00

In the next few days we'll be announcing our November listings and it's gonna be good. Real good. Check the calendar page.

For all those who came down to Oktoberfest thanks! It was amaing. I think I really did have the best day of my life with the heartburn to match.

Ch ch ch ch changes

2006-09-22T09:31:00.000-06:00

As always there's a lot going on here at the bar. In the next month or so we will have a slightly new look that I'm very excited about. It's sort of happening already. You'll notice it. It all started with a vendetta against wobbly tables and some genius sugesstions that finally permiated my brain.

Then there's the shows. November listings will be out next week and they include touring bands like Kid Koala, Tokyo Police Club, Mr.Lif, The Electric Six, Ghosts of Modern Man, Annata, and Dr.Octagon. And great local bands as well. It's going to be a very fun, very busy, month.

But I am most excited about Oktoberfest. It's hapening on Sept 30th (it's more in line with when the Germans do it) and it's going to be crazy fun. $35 gets you in to the event and pays for all the food you can eat while you're here (12pm- 9pm are the official hours of this event, but that's crazy. Just drop by whenever. The prime hours of entertainment will be 2-5pm) and stien that you can take home, four drink tickets good for pints (or stien fulls) and rad funny music and events. I think it'll be pretty fun.

More updates to come.......

Brian Jonestown Massacre

2006-08-08T09:31:00.000-06:00

Just to make sure there is no confusion- the Brian Jonestown Massacre are playing the Warehouse as far as I can tell. More environmental initiatives to come.....

bahhh!

2006-08-03T12:51:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't really feel that way. I'm pretty happy really. So far the environmental initiatives are chugging along. Calgary dollars should be accepted at full value in the near future and green power is on the horizon. Pembina doens't seem very organized or even good really- but something will get sorted out. The person I spoke to was certainly nice..... we'll see what happens.

Brian Jonestown Massacre might well happen, but it's new to us.

tickets for shows

2006-06-14T17:27:00.000-06:00

Things are looking good for the next few months here at the bar. It's very busy. We got the air exchange fixed up, so packed nights should be a little less muggy. And the various events coming up seem to be getting sorted out. The food is always a fun adventure but it's coming back like a beautiful pheonix.

Mostly I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that if you buy a ticket for a show you will always be let in. We had a challenge for that one show a couple months back, but the policy stands that ticket holders are always let in. Sorry about the mix up.

I have to run, I'll update again soon though.

Solid Gold Beaver

2006-06-05T13:53:00.000-06:00

Ok, now for some more suggestions. We've got Solid Gold Beaver coming up this Canada Day. So far we have a pretty solid line up, but we have room for more. Please contact spencer@booking@brokencity.ca except just email it to the last part without spencer@.

I would like to hear from anyone who has some ideas or suggestions of what would make this a good event. Last year was really fun so we'll probably follow that theme. Some trivia, some contests, prizes, some BBQ snacks and maybe if R2D2 is still around I might break out the Canadian tux and sell some sweet cans of Big Rock. We also may have a patio DJ this year (and we will make sure that said DJ will play many Loverboy tunes). We have a good roster of guy DJs to choose from, but there don't seem to be too many female DJs that play in bars around town. We had one or two here before but it just didn't seem to work out. Any other women out there want to give it a go? Maybe some with some radio experience? (yes Adele, Jane, Kenna and Tasha I mean you!).

And then what else.....

Let us know some good ideas and maybe we can put you on the guest list or something.

Plus we're hard at work planning for Octoberfest. I'm pretty excited about this one.

Also, thanks to everyone who commented online, and to some of the ladies who have left various positive and negative comments in the washrooms. Always nice to be thought of!

posts

2006-05-23T18:56:00.000-06:00

Ok, I like the ideas but please keep them coming. I just got back from a trip abroad so I will get on these suggestions soon, but I want more and some new ideas. I can't stop people from smoking single handedly and I'm not really looking for ways to regulate people's lives. I would love to see a non smoking bylaw passed but it's not my place to do it alone. Plus I smoke.

Book exchange is in the works.......

Please keep ideas coming, there's lot's that can be done.

things to do

2006-05-03T20:15:00.000-06:00

I read a book by Jane Jacobs called 'Dark age coming' the other day and it made me want to do more with the Broken City. I part dissliked the book and was also part touched by it. I'd really like to read another book of her's called 'the life and death of great american cities'. Anyways I learned a lot (like why public transportation in LA was so bad and who is responsible for that) and it seems like Jane Jacobs would have been a nice lady to know. She died a week ago.

If 'Dark Age Coming' was slightly overstated and overextended, it made me feel like trying to possibly overextend some efforts at community building in Calgary.

I figured I would maybe put it out there for people who might have some well thought out ideas- What would be some things that the staff and ownership of the Broken City can do to help encourage a community spirit in Calgary?

I have a few ideas to start with, but I would really like some other people to help with ideas and possibly with organization as well. The bar is a very good tool for doing something to help motivate people, and to make some changes in the city. So I'd like to explore some ideas of positive things we can do with bar to support and motivate people in Calgary.

We've had some candidates forums at the bar and they have been good events, and I think the bar is a good contributor in other ways, but as I said I'd like to try and figure out what else we can do because I know there's a lot that can be done.

Here are some early ideas I've had.

I was thinking of trying to host some debate nights, possibly weekly, with a good moderator, where we have interesting topics and guests and after the debate the floor is open to anyone who has something to say. Its an idea that is doing well in Dublin right now and is reviving a sense of interest and engagment in politics for the drinkers of that city. I guess after the debate is done in many of these places the discussions continue on far after the moderator turns the mics off.

I also thought of trying to have a book exchange. I don't know exactly how it would be done, but the very first thought I had was that the bar would buy a bunch of books and then sell them to people for three or four dollars (or substantially less than we paid for them). We would also encourage people to bring in books that they were done with that other people could take for free amd would be asked to bring back when they were done. We don't have a lot of extra room at the bar but we could sort something out.

Then there's the environmental side. I think there are lots of things we could do on that front so if anyone out there has some thoughts on this, or if you know someone who you think might, please get them to post a comment. You don't need to be a member to post a comment, just post it anonymously and then put your name on it if you'd like.

Thanks. I hope that some people are into some of these ideas and mostly I hope that people have some good suggestions and things they would like to see. People can get fairly jaded about life sometimes and it seems like that semi-hopless take on things maybe hits the youth of Calgary a bit more than in some other cities.

I think music is quite good, but there is more that we can do so I'm offering the bar up for suggestions.

patio

2006-04-19T16:19:00.000-06:00

So one of my friends called me the other day and asked if I wanted to party, and I was like, for sure bra I'm partying right now on the Brokenback City partio. He laughed and thought it was totally hilarious. So rad. This summer is going to rule!

ahemn.

I've been meaning to write something about a show we had here the other day. It was the Bieja Flor show. I only stuck around for one song because I had to go, but it was a damn good song. I think those guys are on to something. I don't know where they're playing next but it's worth checking them out.

Thats all.

Thank you.

and now for some insults

2006-04-17T12:57:00.000-06:00

So I keep getting these crappy emails from ADvice marketing. (They send me CDs, some of them quite good ones, but they want me to send back forms filled out with questions like "Does the Bloc Party rock your world? How many times a day do you play it at your place of work?". So yes, free CDs are nice, but being a marketing aid doesn't make it worth it, it just makes me hate VICE) ) So- there have clearly been enough people who caught up in VICE that it's crossed over the credibility boundry. Like Altamont or whatever that festival was where Mick Jagger shot a black man, or no, a black man may have tried to shoot Mick Jagger and was stabbed by the Hells Angels. Either way, Mick Jagger is horrible and anything good that may have come from the hippie movement was destroyed with Altamont. It was the 'nail in coffin'. The hippies had become fashion and once it was the in thing for people you had a bunch of assholes who just wanted to do drugs and rape women who actually started to believe that they were hippies too. And they were actually because being a hippie had become a fashion statement of 'fitting in'. So Advice can be the Altamont of whatever Vice may have done to sort of liberate people who were flooded with media representations of themselves provided by the same fuckers who get Mick Jagger to be the half time show at the Superbowl.

That should sort of make sense. Someone wanted the bar to start doing these Advice parties and part of me thought "oh great I can be part of that cool world of people with good fashion sense who live in New York" but then actually I just thought that they wanted some free marketing. So I said no. They drop off magazines at the bar now, and that's pretty good because the magazine is still interesting. It's lazy, smart and blunt so it can be pretty funny. The sad thing though is that Vice is 'geared to 18-25 year olds'. Just like NewAd media claims to be. So because of that companies can buy you through your loyalty to VICE. In the last email I got there was a link to this:

http://www.viceland.com/kokanee/

Go look at it. All those really very nice smart people doing their best to try and be like the VICE Dos section while actually being in a 'rad person' party ad for Kokanee. It makes me want to cry. But in the end with Vice buying and selling youth culture it gives people another opportunity to find something else. It's sad to see the juggranaut fall though becuase I think I might be too old now to know what that new thing will be so all I'm left with is horrible horrible adVICE.

Vice wanted to have a Franz Ferdinand CD release party at the bar too, but all they did was send us one advance CD of Franz Ferdinand a bunch of Franz Ferdinand stickers and little indie rocker stupid fucking buttons, that are only stupid because now a major label is using them to sell more Fraz Ferdinand shit. Ah fuck. I'm sure it makes sense. It's frustrating to see marketing at work and it makes me like things less. Like the South Park where the kids are into Pokemon, but actually it's a Japanese plot to take over the world. The parents eventually figure out that the only way to make the kids not like Pokemon is to like it themselves. I don't know what deal vice worked out and what they're getting paid for doing this, but they are ruining my love of Pokemon and I find it very sad becuase I kind of wanted to love the people with the little buttons who listened to Fraz Ferdinand, but now I can see the end is near and that there is nothing left to it but the fashion of fitting in. Well, maybe the end is not too near. I think it will be about a year or two before the 'indie scene' realises that they've become hippies. Maybe Franz Ferdinand can play a festival where security is provided by Advice who have collected enough personal information about everyone to know who might a threat, and during the show some kid will gladly decide to do an ad for Kokanee while Gavin Mcinnis from Vice gets a blow job from an 18 year old A and R intern for Sony. Oh, maybe that already happened.

new whatup

2006-04-16T23:33:00.000-06:00

Ok so sometimes I try to write for a bit of a cover up when I think I may have pissed someone off. Anyhow. Kid Koala tickets have sold out. If only all you people knew how good Enon or the Dirtbombs are/were..... But it's kind of good that we just had some intimate shows for them because they were amazing. The Stills go on sale on the 18th.

Ok friends and such.... the bar is doing well, the patio is as always free and a nice place to hang out and have a pint or two. And we've got the heaters up there. By all accounts Vinyl night is a hit so if you want check that out on a Monday night for some cheep dinner and wine and a chance to play your favorites or hear your favorite DJs playing songs they really like then come down. Mostly so far its been a nice DJ mostly night where we get guys from around town who kind of are sick of their nights and are just playing stuff they really like. I like that.

back home

2006-04-10T01:01:00.000-06:00

In my home movie machine I have the movie soundrack going to what may be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I rented it from the Barry at Bird Dog. In fairness to him I picked it (he hadn't seen it) and he usually rents out some very solid picks. This movie had Al Pacino, Bridget Fonda and John Cusak. It is called 'City Hall' and sucks some serious balls.

I've been a bit ranty these days. I got real mad at my mom VIA email the other day, and I have also been mad at a band, and that was mostly related to another club owner in town how sometimes strikes me a as a bit of an opportunist. I look that way too sometimes. Or a pirate or something. The Night Gallery did some very good things in this city. I had a lot of fun there many times. I felt like a little peon mostly when I did it, and I was. But I remember Arlo, Sean, Ian, and Christine buying me the occasional drink and that was a nice feeling.

Ah, the bar business. A wierd undertaking for a 23 year old, which I was when this started. My 26th birthday is coming up and the bar is doing pretty well. So far finances are still difficult and there are other problems but it keeps getting busier and busier. I guess it is the 'problem machine' I knew it would be. Something to always have providing some work and drama.

Our patio is now open assuming good weather. I think we'll have a good year up there. Its fun to see it full and its always free to go there, even when we have shows, so I think that helps get it filled up. You can come see the 'climate' of the room and decide if you want to support the bands by paying cover (if its a band night).

This year we're going to have plants up there. I've been getting into gardening a bit and Julia seems to know her way around the garden as well. Last year I got pretty interested in tomatoes. I had four large plants last year and this year I have sixeen. Julia and I got them pretty early though so I am a bit worried about frost. I think tomatoes from the grocery store (even expensive ones from Community) tend to be not so good- but they're not hard plants to grow. I think gardening is an excellent thing. Today after a full day in the sun, rain, and dirt planting things I had a shower and felt like a kid again when I turned the water on. I was reminded of being at my dad's house when I was five.

I wonder why I'm writing this. Cue Doogie Howser music. Maybe this a plee to anyone who might want to put out a cigarette on our planters, or rip plants out, or dump beer in them, to understand that it kind of sucks when people do things like that. I guess it kind of just happens sometimes, but it sure would be nice if people would chill out about doing things like that. There are way too many agro fuckers in the world and if you're one of them, please find a way to understand that you won't make more of a difference in life by being more of a dick.

There is more heart put into things than I used to think. Sometimes in the past I have kind of loosely gone around tossing insults out at places like Melrose, and I guess I kind of still do. But as things go on here I realize more and more that even when places seem really phoney and like they're doing anything to make a buck off people they often actually have a lot of heart put into them. It was much easier for me to be ignorant of that a few years ago. Maybe I was smarter then. Bah?!

As far as shows go, things are pretty good these days. The Dirtbombs were great, and we have Kid Koala and the Stills coming up soon. Get your tickets at Sloth, Megatunes and the bar itself (woot!). Check the damn listings for details.

yesterday

2006-03-30T13:53:00.001-07:00

And now for yesterday.

The train system here is limited, but pretty good. Two transfers to get to Compton. No one really seems to use the train though except for me and Julia. Yesterday, Wednesday, we took a train to downtown and the main terminal. The terminal is quite an excellent building. Big ceilings, nice old leather chairs, it’s very clean and seems like a god place to spend the day. But we didn’t. We wanted to get to an area called little Tokyo for some sushi. The Lonely Planet has come in pretty handy and it listed Oomasa as the best spot.

On our walk from the train to Little Tokyo we went past the Walt Disney Concert Hall (http://www.architectureweek.com/2003/1217/design_1-1.html). It’s a very impressive building. Big, shiny, and kind of crazy looking. We also passed a place called the Million Dollar Pharmacy. It was full of relics, Jesus statues, potions, things to ward off bad spirits, candles shaped like penises, mystical healing books and other mainly Spanish witch doctor stuff. It was set up like a Shoppers Drug Mart though and even had a pharmacy sign out front. It looked like a ‘Boots’ pharmacy. Across the street was the Bradbury building which can also probably found on line somewhere (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_Building). Ah, I’ll get the links and go paste them in.

Ok, so then we walked past a bar called Bar 107. It is in my top ten bars in the World. I just looked around, but we came back to it.

I figured that I would take us the long route to Little Tokyo from the bar so I decided to head south. The signs said ‘Toy District’ and it had kind of a welcome feel to it. There were taco stands, lots of stores selling a bunch of crap that looked stolen and, oh this is getting weird, an increasing amount of people passed out in the middle of the sidewalk. More and more raving, cracked-out lunatics. Oh a big line up of angry or crazy looking people. Now some young black guys behind me are saying “look at these niggers, it’s time to go hunting”. So I’ve seen way too many crime-drama TV shows to feel very comfortable at that point. Julia was pretty sketched out as well and we headed north as soon as we could. I couldn’t stop thinking about how many guns there might have been in that area. Guns freak me out. Fuck the NRA.

I guess we were at a place known as Skid Row. It was pretty surreal. Kind of like the St Louis hotel and the area out front of it, only on a much bigger scale and with the likelyhood of guns thrown into the mix. The strangest thing is how just a few blocks north in Little Tokyo it’s so calm, clean and peaceful. It was a beautiful area. In fact, I should quit writing about it and get down there again…..

I’ll finish up. We had some sushi and looked at some galleries and then headed back to bar 107 for a beer. The bartender was from Chicago and knew a surprising amount about Canadian music. He liked the Dears and the Unicorns. Montreal bands mostly. The bar was wonderful though. It would definitely be my place of choice if I lived here, which I would consider if the sun didn’t feel like it was melting my eyes and if the air wasn’t so bad that you can wash it off your hands at the end of the day.

I’d like to write more about Bar 107, but maybe you’ll just have to go see it. The Abbey in New Orleans is pretty good too.

We got home and went out to give Wolfgang Puck a second chance. I’ve heard people on TV talk about Spagos a lot, and you can buy soup with Wolfgang Pucks face on it, so I wanted to see the spectacle of it all. I don’t know if he reads my blog or what but actually came to our table and shook everyone’s hands and asked us how things were going. It was a nice gesture. The table we sat at was wobbly and had gum under it, but this time the food was excellent. Not the best, but excellent. It was a very good meal.

After the diner we all (Rosa, Paul, Julia and myself) decided to go for a drink. We drove up to Santa Monica blvd. and I looked in the guide book and it had a bunch of bars marked off. I had noticed a lot of rainbows and figured we were in a bit of a mixed district. Paul knew of a place called Dan Tannas that he had heard was good. So we just picked a bar on that street. Paul dropped us off and went to find parking and decided he would meet us a place called Mickeys. We went to the front and paid cover. I noticed a poster for a new Rob Zombie album. The music coming form inside seemed pretty normal. Julia went in while I paid and then quickly turned around and came back out with a really funny expression. I looked inside the club and there were half naked men everywhere. Strippers, a shower, customers were naked, sex acts were being preformed, and man in a kilt was waving his massive penis around to an audience of onlookers. It was very intensely gay. The gayest thing I’ve ever seen. We went out to the patio to wait for Paul. He was a good sport about it. He laughed because at the place he went into to buy a pack of smokes (Tanks) just down the street someone called him sweetie as he left. I bet it’s been a while since anyone called him that.

We finished our drinks and headed down to Dan Tannas. I need to go back to that place. I bet the food there is better than Spagos. We had one of the best bartenders I’ve ever met. An old Slavic guy who was pure class. LA has had quite a few spectacular bartenders. Most of them old guys. You don’t see too many old guy bartenders in Calgary. Except Stu I guess.

as best as for now about today

2006-03-30T04:41:00.000-07:00

So from the last update….

On Monday we just sort of stayed in. Paul and Rosa live near San Raphiel, a street with some crazy huge houses, including the one the old Batman was filmed in. So we walked around and got lost looking at the houses. That was about it. We had dinner at the house and went to the grocery store for a bit and bought a coconut and some tomatoes.

Tuesday was a bit intense. Julia and I got up at 7 am and got a cab to Burbank. I thought the Strokes were playing that night with Rob Schnieder as a guest so I thought it would be ok to go see and we lined up and got tickets to the show. The cab driver was pretty nice. I think he may have thought that had an audition because he took us to the studio doors.

We got our tickets and then went to Universal Studios theme park. We had breakfast first in the cowboy bar outside (with three foot wide plates of food). The park didn’t open until 10am. It was raining and I felt like the guy from National Lampoons. We had really weird over friendly but kind of angry service and we had to listen to loud crappy music like Meatloaf and Limp Biscuit. It was all this music that was so in your face and trying to be everything to everyone. Businesses hide behind music, but none like Universal Studios. We eventually got in and got on some rides. It was very rainy so we were both quite wet. The rides were short but ok.

Then we got a cab back to Burbank. As always the driver asked us how to get there. We went to a bar that was near NBC studios for some lunch. We went to line up for the show at about 2:30. The taping was at 4:30. There was a 100 person line up already. Out side the studio on Ontario St. was a place called Weinerschnizle or something and I think it must be what tubby dog is loosely based on. It was an all hotdog fast food chain that was red and yellow. I didn’t go in thought because I was in line.

It turned out I had gotten the day wrong the guests were actually Billy Crystal, Dame Edna and some band I hadn’t heard of. I’m pretty sure that it was because were are young and Julia is very god looking that once we were finally going into the theater we were picked to sit in the front row, even though we were pretty far back in line. The show was kind of phony. Jay Leno’s stand up was crap and kind of seemed a bit sad. I got to go give him a high five at the start of the show though and I guess I was on TV. Billy Crystal was quite funny and Dame Edna was interesting to see live. We were about ten feet away from the desk Leno sits at. They were good seats. The band was pretty good too except way too fashionable. They definitely had stylists.

After the show we went back to the house and had dinner with one of Paul’s friends from London who does something with lazers and was just in Iran doing something.

Then we went to see Steroelab at a place called the Musicbox that was at the Henry Fonda Theater. Good band. There was a restaurant attached to the venue and I went in the check it out and an insane server accused Julia and I of walking out on a bill. Julia almost punched her. It was a strange feeling to be falsely accused. She insisted it was us.

We went home and talked to Paul for a bit.

The next day, today I guess, we got up and went to downtown LA. I might write about this tomorrow because I’m too tired but there’s some interesting shit to write about. I’ll point form it so I remember.

-main terminal
-Walt Disney concert hall
-million dollar pharmacy
-bar 107
-skid row accidentally
-little Tokyo
-Spagos (Wolfgand redemtion)
-Mickeys (gayest bar in the world)
-Italian restaurant/bar that Gretzky and Sakic love. Excellent bartender.

my trip to LA so far

2006-03-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

Sunday the 26th.

So in another kind of random and spontaneous trip Julia and I decided to head down to Los Angeles for her week off work. Thank you airmiles. Anyways, LA is not at all as plastic and crappy as I heard it was. So far people seem pretty reasonable and for the most part really nice. Canadians always have this complex that we’re the nicest people in the world, but we’re actually not. From what I’ve seen Canadians tend to treat Americans like shit. Ha I’m listening to Gwen Stephani and it’s sneaking into my writing. Ha ha. Ok, so I was saying that I’m think we need to not hate Americans so much. How about we all just agree to dislike rural people? I think that’s a better way to go about it.

B a n an as. Ha ha.

There’s something pretty nice about a tuba.

So last night JW and I went down to what might be LA’s closest place to the Broken City, The Soledad Brothers were playing at a place called Spaceland. The room is kind of set up a bit better for shows, they’ve got a coat check, small box office, a proper stage and a couple of bars, but it’s pretty tacky, kind of uncomfortable and the sound isn’t as good as ours. The Soledad Brothers were all right, but not enough better than the Hip City Blues Combo to merit the attention disparity between those two bands. I guess the Soledad Brothers might be better at not getting drunk and breaking guitars over each other’s heads, and I suppose that does make for a better show if you’re there to see music and not wrestling.

Amoeba records was pretty amazing for an indie record store. It was insanely vast. I didn’t buy anything. Too crazy. There seems to be a pretty good emphasis on poster art down here. They had some great posters for sale at Amoeba and also at a place I stopped in at called Giant Robot.

We also went to a very interesting place called the Tiki Ti. It was a little room that was jammed full of Hawianish memorabilia and they made big rummy drinks. It was packed full of people. Then we went to 4100 bar. Their jukebox was better than the Broken City one and the doorman claimed to be John Goodman’s little brother. He did look like him.

Today we’re off to Venice beach to try and find some crazy people. And eat ice cream.

Monday the 27th at 6am.

Today JW and I went to the Kodak Theater and the main touristy Hollywood area after a nice breakfast at Paul (my second cousin) and Rosa’s (his wife) house. I got us a reservation at Spago’s in Beverly Hills for Wednesday and some tickets to a Phillip Glass/ John Adams show at the Disney Concert Hall on Friday. We got a cab to the train and rode it into Hollywood. We saw some things there (like the people outside the Kodak theater who dress up like movie characters) and tried to get a cab. Then we tried to catch a bus. LA is really bad for public transit. We eventually caught a cab while waiting for a bus. As has happened most times with cabs here the guy not only asked us where we wanted to go but how we wanted to get there. In any other city cabbies take pride in knowing where they’re going, here they really have no fucking clue. I asked the guy to take us to Venice beach but to first take us up to Mulholland drive. I saw that film three or four times in theaters. I loved it. This stupid cab driver should have been in the film. He was really strange and a bad driver.

The views from up there were amazing and the drive was crazy. It was just like the movie but I wasn’t screaming and hanging out of a sunroof and our car didn’t hit a limo with Laura Harring in it. That would have been weird hey?

$64 later we got to Venice beach. I wanted to have a big boom box on my shoulder with the Baywatch theme blaring because that’s exactly where we were. I was the same as all those TV shows only not quite so montage-ish. There were drum circles and old guys dancing in hip hop rollerskating sessions. Lots but not so much as I might have thought. Venice beach is where Jim Morrison lived and where the guys in Blow started their business.

We walked up the beach and stopped in for a drink at some old nautical bar called Chez Jay. Nice bartender and a good ruk and cocke.

I’m so tired I can’t spell anymore,..

……………

I had just spelled ruk and cocke trying to write rum and coke. I was a little bit tired this morning at 6am. Let me try and sumerize…

We

-made some plans and bought some tickets.
-took a cab to the train
-went to see the Hollywood stuff
-got a scary cab through the Hollywood Hills and all along Mulholland Drive then to Venice beach
-walked up the beach to Chez Jay

That covers it to that point but without any interesting details. Just think about a bunch of hippies in a giant drum circle on the beach from Baywatch and some people with snakes as well as old crazy men dancing to hip hop while black dudes are dancing around in rollerblades and some guy who did a front flip over ten people who were all lined up. I tried to write about it last night but I really was too tired to spell.

So I left off at Chez Jay. Julia and I walked up into Santa Monica, her with Sheryl Crow in her head and me with Theory of a Dead man. Kind of like the ‘his and hers’ luggage of having horrible music in your head. I’ve had that new Weezer song too a bit and some other crap like the Doors. Fucking ‘the Doors’.

The sunset in Santa Monica was quite amazing with the big pink sky and palm trees. It was a lot like the cover of one of the Grand Theft Auto games. Its strange to be where so much of our popular culture comes from. As we walked around Santa Monica I kept feeling like Larry David would bump into me and we would get into some argument about whether I bumped into him or he bumped into me. It would have seemed normal.

I don’t really like writing “we” all the time so from now on I’m just going to write I even though it was Julia and me doing all this stuff. Writing we makes me feel like I should wear matching clothes or something.

So I walked though what they call the 3rd street prominade, which is a lot like Stephen Ave but maybe even whiter than Stephen Ave, and down to a bar called the Library Alehouse where I had a beer while I waited for diner. Now writing I feels like a lie because it wasn’t just me. Maybe today I’ll go out by myself.

We had a beer and then went for dinner at ‘Chinois on Main’. Wolfgang Puck Wolfgang sucks. This was one of his restaurants and there were shi shi people and some sense of hoopla but the food was not very good. It was ok but not excellent at all. Kind of like high-end food for idiots or people who think they like good food but actually just love eating Doritos. It was disappointing. The restaurant, as the name implies, is supposed to be Chinese/French fusion. If it’s possible for a restaurant to be an ignorant and condescending, bordering on racist, asshole, then that’s what this loud-mouthed arrogant piece of crap was. Our chopsticks were flimsy and plastic feeling. They were short and very light weight. The menu was more Japanese than anything and the portions were ridiculously too big. I think people here must only eat once every couple of days. We had some nice wine though. I think a lot of people here drink Pinot Noir now because of Sideways.

Looking back on what I’m writing I seem a bit ranty and mad, but I’m not. I actually really like this city and the people here. I’m just sort of keying in on some of the crappy parts. So far they are cab drivers who don’t know where they’re going, bad public transit, Wolfgang Puck, and insecure people who want to be famous and wont drink Merlot anymore.

The people where I’ve been so far are pretty normal looking too. There have been a few pretty people but it’s not at all out of control. As Julia pointed out yesterday the Broken City on a Wednesday night has better looking people than we’ve seen in bars here.

After diner we went to one last bar for a drink. It was called Circle, or something and it’s a bit of a meat market but was pretty funny. Kind of Euro and actually a lot like a bar in the other Venice.
We left the bar at 10:30pm and got a cab, who’s driver didn’t know where he was going, to a bus stop. We got back to Passedena at 1:00am. I could have driven myself from Calgary to Edmonton in the time it took to get a bus from Santa Monica to Passedena. I met a very good man named Chester on the bus and we talked for a long time. He used to work in New York a lot before he retired. He worked for IBM. Now he manages a building and with transit included spends 16 hours a day doing his job. He told me “and I gotta sleep some time”. Doesn’t sound like the best retirement.

I’m going to sleep right now I think.

First, a few more people we met. Outside the bus on one of our transfers I met a hilarious guys who wanted some change and told me jokes like “Why is Micheal Jackson like caviar? They both come on little white crackers- eieio”. He finished every joke with e-i-e-i-o. I gave him a couple smokes. He was interesting though because he was totally with it actually. When he asked me “What does the Pilsbury doughboy see when he bends over” (doughnuts- e-i-e-i-o) I at first didn’t get it, but he showed how smart and patient he was when he explained it. I met some other people on the bus, got into Passedena and called a cab from a bar that was still open. I ended up making friends with a couple who were both artists and were interested in learning about the Canadian health care system. They ended up driving us home.

When I got home I stayed up and had a beer or two with Paul who was in the middle of making plans for the Millenium Dome in London. His company bought it and I think he was just sorting out details for the digital sky. Sounds like it will be a fairly ambitious project. A biggest in the world type project. Puts the bar into perspective.

Now for some sleep and then tonight I might go see a show at ‘Echo’ near Echo Park. The sound guy from Spaceland said it was a good spot. He thought especially for me when I told him I had Stereolab tickets. He told me I would like Echo and then said "oh, you have Strereolab tickets- yeah you'll like echo" like it had turned into an insult. Then he insisted he wans't an indie rock guy. Fucking sound guys.

2006-03-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

So on Saturday (from what Will says) or maybe last night (Monday, from what I think) our subs got blown. That means the big speakers that make the bass noise were damaged by being played too loud by the bar's DJs. It probably means that some peoples ears also were hurt. But Monday supposedly was pretty fun and busy and Saturday was very busy and even Twyla was positive about it and usually she only says nice things about Pat and also the Drum. So there we were, me and Will, talking about it all and he was pretty peeved, let me tell you, about how things went down. I don't know, it sucks that things break all the time, especially when its guys from Veritas or the Cape May who break stuff (although this time that wasn't the case), but I guess it just happens all the time and its something to get used to. So I was thinking of trying to get Will into the idea of 'faith healing' our sound gear. That gear shit gets pricey, but as far as I know faith is free so if he might just be willing to faith heal it it might not be such a problem how people seem to find find ways to break it all all the time. And alas, I heard Will's uncle was a snake charmer so I think it must be a dormant skill in Will this faith healing business. I supose only time and prayer will tell.

Now then, I'd like to try and get us all behind a few ideas.

The first idea is one that I've been stewing over for quite some time, and I've recently heard that my idea may just have some glimmer of hope to it. I have heard that the Clagary Tower is indeed on the market. I think that if we all just might know a couple of people to whom we might be able to take an idea and 'pass it on' to, we just be be able to do something miraculous. I figure that if 100,000 of us could get together $200 each we would all be able to equally own the building that Spinoza once called "the greatest fullfillment of mans hope for dreams- from man, to him or her self". Yes, the Clagary Tower- God's plan to reuinte his love for mankind with his love for mans kindness. And it could be ours. I don't think I can explain enough how great the Calgary tower really is.

My other idea is a march from Calgary to Edmonton on foot. I would like any amount of people to come on a walk where we just walk along the highway and then I guess sleep on the side of the road, or in a town if we're near one and go all the way on foot from Calgary to Edmonton to try and get media attention to our cause of building a high speed train between both cities. Randy and Matt have something to do with this, but also it's just something that I want. There may or may not be any greater good here- I just want to go to Edmonton in an hour. Downtown to downtown. So if anyone else out there is in to this please let me know and we'll get something together. I don't really need anyone else here though but it might be fun. Dangers will include being eaten by animals while we sleep, being hit by cars, being hit by garbage or hubcaps coming from cars, dying of thirst or hunger if we don't plan very well and massive fatigue. The payoff is a rad train trip in one hour that gets us from downtown to downtown.

horizons

2006-03-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

So in the end Tricky Woo decided not to take me on tour with them.

I wanted to take this time to talk about Monday nights and get any feedback that people might have. Mondays are a difficult night to get people out. That might be a good thing, but also there might be some people who don't go out on other nights who may want to go out on a Monday. Eraz Cohen, known from years working at Recordland and for his involvement with Beatroute Magazine, will begin 'I don't like' Mondays, at the Brokencity ultrapub this coming Monday. The idea so far is that people will be able to bring records down to the club and have a chance to play them. I think at least for the beginning Eraz is looking for an anything goes approach. So if your aunt, or in my case me, has a huge Nana Muskouri record collection (that I don't actually know where it came from) , and has been wanting to play some of those records some night, or if you have some interesting old records that you've been wanting to hear on a nice sound system, then go for it.

Two things, I made up that name 'I don't like' Mondays and it isn't really the name of the night and I'm sure it's the name of eight hundred other Monday nights around town, and we're not really an ultra-pub at all. More of an uberpub. Or intrapub.

We will have a food and drink special for Monday nights. Any ideas? We have some but more always help.

This Friday is St.Patricks day. I'm planning to get there early and then go home early, but the Luther Wright show should be excellent. During the day we have the Micks (Brent Gough, Bobby McAlister and Chris Vail) and then before Luther Wright and the Shiftless Rounders we'll have a new very good alt countryish band called Cowpuncher. I think the weather will be nice so we'll have the patio open.

Lastly I'm looking at starting a theater company. I'm not really too sure how far past the title of our first feature I'll be getting for this one, so I might as well the cat out of the bag. The working title is "Unbound Fulfillment: the Richard Grecco story. Inspired by a Canadian film about Tommy Douglas". I know it doesn't seem that punchy, but we all have to start somewhere. I'm thinking of working in a Jamacan themed characted who always says "that's disguuusting" in a thick accent. I'm hoping to play the part of Grecco, and if anyone out there can do a sweet Jamacan accent just let me know.

coming up

2006-03-06T16:02:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say that the Buttless Chaps are going to join Prince.... err... Bob Wiseman on Tuesday (with Remote Kid too). And tonight its a CJSW live broadcast of the Akron Family with Feild and Stream and Red Not Evil......

Tricky Woo is $12, and we will have ticketed shows coming up- they will be posted on the calendar page within one day, I promise.

Killer. All other things on the web page are accurate as far as any of us know. That doesn't accurately betray my confidence in this process......

some bad ideas

2006-02-28T10:29:00.000-07:00

Late night TV is currently selling something I think they call the pastamatic, or instapasta. I have not yet seen the whole ad for this product, but from what I can tell the pastamatic is actually a tube with a lid. They're claiming that it cooks pasta quickly and you just add water. I'm pretty sure that they want you to add boiling water though, so really your pasta just cooks because the water you added was really hot. There's also an ad for the "worlds greatest vitamin" (I bet it's vitamin D) that I think is pretty clearly a pyramid scheme. I would say even blatantly a pyramid scheme. But those are too easy, even comical, to hate. My latest product of scorn is satelite radio. I shorted shares of XMSR. To everyone who just bought themselves a lazerdisk player, errr I mean a third party subscription email service, err no I mean a satelite radio receiver- well, you people just bought yourselves a pastamatic. It actually makes me angry that people are trying to sell subscription radio. This is radio, an old technology. How many people out there are really still going nuts for radio? Gathering around the subscription radio box on a Friday night to listen to half an hour of Oprah. People listen to radio when they have to; when there's nothing else and no one can agree to a CD. That's when people listen to radio. Within the options of radio there will soon be many free possibilities and satellite radio is maybe six months to a year ahead of the free streaming radio we'll likely all be able to get when we all own ipods. Basically people are paying $160 US dollars a year for 'cable radio' right now when they buy in to Sirius or XM. But we have plenety of free radio and its only going to get better. There are advertising dollars available and the technology is there to make free radio viable. Nothing will shake that. Except consumer stupidity.

hockey, boo

2006-02-23T11:50:00.000-07:00

I guess there will be no Gold Medal game shown at the bar. As Simon Cowel said "who wants to see Nowegans win gold medals" (the women did win though, and I was there to watch it). We were going to have a free breakfast and a bunch of other stuff. I guess we'll just have to wait four years. Bummer. Now for some other news- we have a new pinball game on the way, and we found a guy who can fix our machine. I can't really give a good time frame for that, but hopefully soon. The jukebox has been promised for this Sunday. We will have the show listings out for March in the next few days, and we have a new Beatroute ad designer. Tim was excellent, but maybe too excellent as he's gotten himself pretty busy with a variety of amazing things. He'll still be doing a poster or two......

womens games

2006-02-13T21:12:00.002-07:00

I think we should show them too, good idea commentor- thank you.

holy crap

2006-02-10T00:37:00.000-07:00

I just saw the video for 'number of the beast'. Am I too old to have just learned that I might be a huge Iron Maiden fan? I think they are probably five times better than ACDC and that's saying a lot I think. Holy crap.

Anyways, we're getting a jukebox at the bar and there are some pretty good CDs that I got today that are going to go into it. I saw that one at Tubby Dog and knew that that was the right idea. I think a 'bands playing this month' section might be a good thing to have in it too. Just wait for Brew Brothers to re-open and get themselves a jukebox with a bands playing this month section. And hot dogs. Err, wait, I think Brew Brothers has actually finally gone out of business and it looks like some reasonable people might be moving in next door. Horrah!

stuff coming up

2006-02-07T16:13:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let everyone know the hockey schedual. If you don't like hockey don't be at the bar for the games. We're going to show them on the full big screen and our live show sound system. We're just working out some sort of promotion for it too. Cheep drinks or something. Maybe we'll give out tickets with players names and then if that player scores you win a prize of some kind. We'll work it out.

Here's the schedual:

Wed. Feb 15: CANADA vs. ITALY 5am

Thurs. Feb 16: CANADA vs. GERMANY 12pm

Sun. Feb 19: CANADA vs. FINLAND 1pm

Tues. Feb 21: CANADA vs. CZECH REP. 8:30am

Wed. Feb 22: quarter finals CANADA plays at 9:30am OR 10:30 am

Fri. Feb 24: semi finals CANADA would play at 9:30am OR 1 pm

Sat. Feb 25: Bronze medal game 1:30pm

Sun. Feb 26: Gold Medal game 6am

I should also let everyone know that we're having a Valentines party with Rob Faust. Some kind of pajama pillow fight/ slow dance. Do you remember junior high? Girls hands on boys shoulders, boys hands on girls hips. Might as well show up because this unit gets you %100 for participation. I think Hugh Hefner might be there too. Just think, you could be his 8th! $8 without pillow and pjs, $7 with.

2006-01-29T19:22:00.000-07:00

I remeber how fun I used to find that game telephone. When one person says something to the next person and then they pass it all along and the lesson is supposed to be how gossip is bad. I alway thought it was really funny to completely disstort the message. Someone would whisper "the grey dog barks" to me and I would pass along "elephant zebra mango yougurt" but I would be laughing hysterically so the person I was talking to would usually not really be able to make out what I was saying anyways. I think I must have found this game so funny because, in theory, you couldn't really get in trouble for totally screwing it up. The teachers were trying to make a display of how we weren't able to pass along the information without it getting distorted so they couldn't really get mad if you helped that happen. How dissapointing would it be for them, and really for us aswell, if we got the whole thing right every time.

So anyways, I think that with the blog there may have been a bit of telephone happening. I looked into hackmechanic's complaints a bit more, and tried to more carefully consider the reasons that we have gotten a bit of the "we made you" vibe from a few people. I don't think it's totally justified, but I also don't mean to seem dismissive of it.

There's this kind of chi chi bar in Vancouver called 'Fiction' near my mothers house and I would ocasionally stop in for a drink when I was in town. The first time I went they had a very nice Australian girl bartending. The service was good, the drinks were good and they seemed to do things quite well, even though it was in the Kits area and had a bit of a glencoe club clientel. I went a back a few more times and would sometimes end up meeting some people and talking about funny usless things like the Canucks. In a town where I didn't know anyone it was an ok place to get out of the house for bit. I've alway been just a little bit less judgemental of the chi chi places in other cities than I am of the ones in Calgary. Maybe I'll try to figure that out later.

A couple years after I first went in to Fiction I went in and sat down and I waited for 15 minutes or so for someone to approach me. When neither of the two server/batenders would end their inane conversation I walked up to the bar. One of the servers somewhat angrily came over to me from beind the bar and told me to sit down and that someone would be over in a minute. Then she went back to her conversation. I got up, left, and never went back.

I have to admit that my feelings were kind of hurt by the whole thing. It's amazing that a server in a resturant has such an ability to make a customer feel like crap. I guess it's because you need to ask them for things and if they want to they can take that power dynamic and turn it on you.

Looking back years later at Fiction I kind of feel bad because I know that the owner of that business doesn't hate his or her customers, they just hired the wrong people and weren't there to monitor what was going on. In the situation with the Broken City, I think that the staff we have are excellent, and when I hear these general complaints it seems like craziness. Then when I hear specific stories I can see that yes, some not very good things sometimes happen at the bar and it's clear that managment from me down hasn't really been rock solid. I can make many excuses, we're a young business, prior to this I had no experience- in fact Ming wouldn't even consider promoting me to kitchen manager (of a two person kitchen!) because they felt I wasn't capable of doing the job. So going from that to having a staff of over 30, accounting, booking shows, figuring out promotions and whatever else I have done over the past couple years, it has been hard and I am by no means an expert. I am glad to be held accountable by people though and I'm very glad that hackmechanic and anyone else who may want to is willing to express frustration.

I think if Fiction had had a message board of some sort I would have written the same type of thing, and maybe it would have given managment a chance to fix the problem I experienced instead of losing me as a customer.

I don't really want anything to be a tell on so and so gustapo thing though, and generally I try to stay positive about the whole thing, so that may mean that I will continually look slightly delusional about it all. I think the best thing is for me and the bar management to have more regular meetings with staff to discuss policies, and also for our customers to feel comfortable letting us know when something could be done better. Although I don't really want to micro manage, running around like a crazy person trying to fix everything possible whenever anyone complains about something, I do think I could be a better at working with the current bar management at getting the big picture stuff working more solidly.

I really do think that if your job is to serve people food and drinks and you live off their kindness in the tips they leave you, you damn well better be willing to nice to them. If I walk into a place, and especially if I've been there before, I excpect to be greeted and offered a drink within one minute. If it's my first beer then you get that to me as fast as possible so I am not made to sit and wait for your attention while you take care of something else. These are the basics. I hope that this is what our customers experience as well. Not a cheezy earls style "hi I'm Sandy and I'll be your server tonight" kneel down at the table and call grown men sweetie bullshit approach to it, but just some honest kindness and appreciation of customers. I guess its tough because they kind of give servers work to do, so service staff may not always put together that if they don't get given work they don't make money, and that work is a really good thing. Bah! All I can say is that I think people at the bar generally excpect this, and that we try to provide it but I acknowledge that we have to improve as well.

I do think that the food is on it's way back into good form and believe me it' a lot of work for everyone, but we're trying to get it sorted and I think it has been better.

So, if the food has been something that has pissed you off in the past please feel free to share your thoughts as this is our opportunity to change some things and there isn't much time before we finalize the recent changes.

ps- it was funny to me that the day before the post about croutons I saw a ceasar salad go out without them and asked what was going on. They should be back permanently now..... if you get a salad without them, or anything else you feel isn't exactly how you want it, by all means send it back.

blog crazy

2006-01-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm glad I've got the writing bug back. I was having trouble for a while but now I can ramble on and on and on. So excellent then. I wanted to start by letting people know something gross. In this neighborhood public pooping is seriously on the rise. I don't mean to gross you out, well maybe I do. I just felt like I had to let someone know. It seems every week some else sees someone taking a public poop. I saw a pooper just the other day. It's sad I guess and it would be good if there were some more public washrooms because the people who are pooing in our streets are definitely down and out. I guess it's a difficult problem. I'm pretty sure there are some places they could use....

Well. Now I don't feel like writing anything else. There's no real way to segue out of that.

Nope, I will say though that the Enon show was really good. I think everyone who came had a very good time. I heard some loudness about the ticket price. I think it was actually quite reasonable when one considers that they were flown into the country for one show. It was a higher price than we usually charge, but it's on line with some of the bigger venues in town and personally I prefer seeing a good band in a small club. For ease of explaining say you could see the Rolling Stones at the Saddledome for $125 a ticket. I think if you saw them at the Liberty Lounge paying that price or more even would make sense. So yes, the Liberty Lounge is a small venue and they don't usually charge so much, but it's not like the Saddledome has better sight lines or sound. Just more expensive beer and lineups.

I also think that in a city where people spend $27 for three drinks at most martini bars, $27 to see an excellent band is not so bad. But I'm not upset that it didn't sell out or anything. It was actually I think the perfect amount of people. I just don't want people to think that we have contempt for them because we had to charge a bit more for this show, and I want to get a sense out there that it's ok to pay a bit more sometimes because it will make it more possible to bring other very good, but sometimes expensive shows to town. Say we wanted a band like the Blues Explosion to play here. We would have to charge a ticket price that was more similar to ticket prices you see at Mac Hall shows, but really I think it would be pretty fun to see John Spencer at this club, and if you'd be willing to shell out $30 to see him play there, I think $34 to see him play here wouldn't be such an offensive thing to suggest.

I also was at Magatunes today and I was looking at the tickets they have for sale. Ministry 46.50, Philosopher Kings 32.00, Stars 24.00, Buddy Guy 50.00, Taste of Chaos 47.75 and Sonata Artica 29.50. I think Enon for 27.00 fits in pretty reasonably. But I certainly did hear a lot of complaints about it so I just need to see if we should do that type of show again. If we take a loss on a show, but also need to charge more than our usual $10-$15 because it's a more expensive show, it's frustrating when that backfires and instead of people understanding and just being pretty happy that a cool band is playing a really good gig in what I think is an excellent sounding room, they get mad and think you're trying to trick them out of their money.

I'm just a bit sensitive about it. Last night I was talking to someone who was all mad that the tickets were $27, and she said something along the lines of "I would never pay that much to see a band at the Broken City". It seemed like weird logic because if you pay that much to see a band at the Saddledome and line up for crappy $7 beer from a plastic cup and sit 500 feet away from the band then why not pay the same amount at a better and, I think this is a positive, smaller venue.

Ok, I'll write more in a bit I guess.

back in town

2006-01-10T14:50:00.000-07:00

... ha. That was a fun trip and it's very good to be back. Looks like things have gone well. Good New Years, Wednesdays, Saturdays and few good karaokes. I think we'll be slowly building our collection until we have one billion excellent songs to sing for Martin and Neils' Karaoke Sundays. Might be slightly sparse for the first part of our quest for the billion mark, but we have some good ones.

On a personal note, I've been reading the Hiram Key. Weird book about Freemasons. If anyone wants to talk about Freemasons I think it's very interesting and you can come meet me at the bar. Ha haha. That's ridiculous to say isn't it.

Ok then, well yes as some have pointed out I may have gotten ahead of myself with the food. I expect in the next few days that it'll all be better. Food is kind of a pain. It's very difficult to organize everything. But the new menu does look good and I have faith in it. I kind of have to I guess.

One thing that is funny is how threatening people can be though. Like the guy who posted about the food. And then the myspace people who were mad about that fight that happened a couple of months ago. It's good that people are empowered consumers, but being on the other end can be disconcerting. "We made this fucking place and we can take it away...yadda yadda yadda.... I'm mad at you and you should feel like crap because I MADE YOU!!!! buwhahhahaha!!!!". Or it just comes across as that sometimes. I'm ok with it guess because maybe it's a result of trying to be a bit more empowering and some people go a little bonkers with that.

Like in the airport in London, they have these sectioned off seats where you can only sit if you bought your food from the store who I guess must rent that area from the airport. Anyways, these things are managed impeccably. From a previous experience I knew that I would have to be careful if trying to sit, so I made sure to befriend the worker and ask him if it was alright if I sat in the section. He seemed to take pity on me and was just really kind and let me sit in the Pannini places section (I had bought a contraband bagel) as long as I sat in the corner hidden behind the garbage.

Within about two minutes a pannini lady was there telling me to leave. She could not see me, the pannini place was lined up busy, I had made it past their first level of security, and there were vacant seats in the section but still this intrepid employee was right on the case. I ignored her and continued eating in awe of the job dedication.

away

2005-12-28T16:10:00.000-07:00

So I'm in Belfast right now, but thinking of the bar quite a bit. I miss all the staff and cusomers as well as our city. Balfast is nice, more like Calgary, and anywhere else, than I might think. I watched Theo Fleury play a game for the Giants tonight. He was good good but seemeed a bit sad on the ice. He made great passes all night. This keyboard is in a bar and is sticky. I don't have much time so I can't really edit. Might be some bad spelling here.

New Years will be good for me in Edinburgh, but I think the bar's might be quite good as well. I hope all who go have a good time. The magic fire show is happening tonight I think so have a good time at that too.

I've learned a lot about Irish history today. I visited Derry, the site of the second, most known bloody Sunday. Lot's of sad looking people there as well actually. But very interesting to learn of 'the troubles' more in depth.

I should go check my hockey pool because time is running out on me. Take care and I'll try to post again before the trip is done.

Holiday Fervor

2005-12-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

Hello. It's been kind of a struggle getting the postings on track, so sorry to those who like to read them. I've had many ideas but I'm finding it difficult to keep them in my brain long enough to get to the computer.....

There are some good things happening here though. Last night was the CUPS and One World Pre-School toy drive/fundraiser. By all accounts it was a very good night. Thanks to the banjo-man Chris Vail, Chad VanGaalan, and the sparkly Ms. Kara Keith we were able to raise a lot of money for a very good cause (all those kids who hang out at Coconut Joes all day).

We have what so far looks like the best New Years party in town lined up. Dance Mofo, and Rocksteady DJs doing a house party kind of feel. It'll be $15 in advance and you can buy tickets here at the bar for that one. We'll have the usual treats and whatnot and some more original stuff too. I'm thinking midnight lucky cans or something, but as always we're open to suggestions.

The new menu is in the works it'll be toned down a fair but, but should make for better quality faster food that's more fun to eat. You know, nicer bowls, chop sticks, noodles and such. Actually I'll post a preview of the new menu and you can leave comments on that too if you'd like.

Broken City Menu

Appetizers

veggie spring rolls with 2 dipping sauces $5.61
Nachos $9.81 (add chicken or beef $1.87)
Caveman wings (hot, honey garlic, teriyaki) $6.54
Veggies and tzatziki $7.48

Standards

All sandwiches served with hand cut fries or house salad. Add $0.94 for Caesar salad, sweet potato fries or soup.

Bowl of soup w/ baguette $5.61
Thai Chicken salad w/rice noodles, carrots, lettuce, cilantro and chilies $9.81
Greek Salad. Authentic Greek salad with giant Kalamata olives $9.81
AAA top sirloin Steak Sandwich $8.88
House Burger $6.54
Chicken Mushroom Melt $7.48

Noodle Bowls

Served on your choice of steamed noodles or rice
Choose from the following for $6.54

Tofu and vegetables
Cashew chicken
Beef and snow peas
Lemongrass shrimp

$5 Lunch Special Menu (11:30am-2:00 pm Mon-Fri)

Homemade Stew w/baking powder biscuit
Vietnamese sub (chicken or veg), w/soup or salad
Daily curry w/steamed rice
Perogies w/soup

Breakfast Menu (11am-5pm Sat-Sun)

2 eggs any style w/toast, bacon and hash browns $4.67
AAA top sirloin Steak and eggs w/toast and hash browns $9.81
Waffles with your choice of blueberry or strawberry topping $6.54

So that's that. I think we'll go with that, but if public outcry is huge we can still make changes.

We also have one of the best shows that we'll ever have coming up at the bar. A special fly-in show with Enon and the Summerlad on Jan10 . Tickets for that we be on sale at Sloth Megatunes and Melodyia in the next couple of days.

We've got Old Mill on tap here too now for $4.25 a pint and that's a pretty good deal I think. I bought an $8.50 pint of Guinness the other day so I figured if we could have a pint that cost half that we'd be doing to world a wonderful service. Ah, Felice Navidad everybody..... Felice Navidad.

an attack ad for our food

2005-11-22T13:27:00.000-07:00

So I know that the negative stuff doesn't really do much for anyone- but I have to say that I think Calgary is, for the most part, culinarily retarded (It's ok to say that now right? I think it's in some song that I gets played everywhere). I was in co-op hoping that my friend Glenn might be there working, but he wasn't. So I decided I might get lunch. I tried to get a vegetarian sandwich but they only had meaty, meaty sandwiches. The first person I asked said he could not make me a sandwich, but recommended that I try 'the bistro', which is in the same cafeteria line, just a few feet down. 'The bistro' features what they call a 'woodstone oven', made of stainless steel. I asked someone from that area if he could make a sandwich and he at first lamented that he didn't have many vegetables, but eventually decided he could make me a good sandwich anyways. It was nice of him, going outside of the box for me and all, but he suggested making a sandwich with roasted peppers, caramelized onions, feta and pineapple. And mustard. So I asked him for no pineapple and went with it. He threw it into the 'woodstone' oven and continued on with some conversation about chef skills he was having with a co-worker. They were talking about some other chef and his great credentials, but as though they were contempories of his or something. I know this sounds snobby, but it just all seemed so stupid as I waited for what I feared would be a really bad sandwich. I walked a little bit down the line and noticed that although they had no vegetarian sandwiches, or for that matter vegetables other than pizza toppings, three of the four soups were proudly vegetarian. They had big 'vegetarian' signs on them. Like they were mocking me- "eat soup you fucking vegetarian". This probably shouldn't have seemed strange as this co-op seems to be all about the signage. One of the weirdest is the "No alcoholic beverages in the elevator" sign. How many Canadian grocery stores have one of those? They also have the sign nowhere near the elevator, like they know it seems crazy and kind of want to enforce that by hiding it in with the grapefruits. Anyways, I got up close to the soup and found that 'the bistro' and their 'chefs' were serving up Lipton canned soup. How hard is it to make some soup? They have access to an entire produce department! They have eight or nine so called chefs running around, in a grocery store, right beside a produce section, and they're serving Lipton fucking soup. So I ladled myself a bowl of soup and waited for my 'sandwich'. 'ugh'. I think I'm madder now that I'm writing this than I actually was then. It was all sort of just another surreal day in Calgary as it was happening.

The thing I wanted to get at about this story is that it cost a lot and took a long time. From getting into the store to getting out it was about an hour. And it was busy. I got there early but by the time I was done I noticed that a lot of people had been through. It even got lined up. A big line up. The people of Calgary were out in droves for this experience. There were many people who were evidently regulars. I was watching this thinking about the bar. We have a $5 lunch special every day. The food is (now more than ever as we have new, excellent, cook) made in house, from scratch. We get buns from the rustic sourdough bakery. Our feta and olives come from Kalamata grocery. You know, we kind of care about things. A full pint of pop is $2.00, juice is $2.75. So your whole lunch would be $7.75. The $5 lunch comes with a side. It might be, say, a roasted vegetable sandwich (with roasted peppers, roasted eggplant, roasted zucchini, authentic Greek feta and garlic aioli- not mustard), a bowl of homemade soup, and a juice, and it would be $7.75. The prices include GST. When I got to the cash register at Co-Op I paid $11.04. My sandwich was a **value plus sale item, so I saved $1 on it. This means on any other given day my lunch would have been $12.04. I had to stand in line in a cafeteria setting while being lied to about the oven that made my pizza topping sandwich and I would normally be charged $12.04 for it. I had a drink for $2.99, and sandwich that was on sale for $4.99, and a Lipton soup for $2.29, with GST it was $11.04.

I sat there and looked at the people in line and wondered why they came. Was it the comfort the big sign out front provided them? I don't know ecxcatly why but I think people find big signs really comforting. Like it's the store's way of showing that its making an effort. Sometimes I think people have the false belief that the kitchen of a 'national' is cleaner than that of an independent. Its the people who work at a place that keep it clean, not the people who market it. Anyways. That was my lunch.

dress codes

2005-11-10T13:03:00.000-07:00

So I've been checking out some other bars in town because if I'm going to try and conquer the PV empire I figured I better get a sense of what the masses are into. Turns out they won't let me into other bars. I don't think I dress that badly or anything, I do cut my own hair sometimes and although it looks ok from the front I've been told its a little choppy elsewhere- but my clothes aren't that bad. I guess it must be the shoes. I've got this heel splinter or something and those square toed black shoes just don't feel very good on my feet. There was one bar on Stephen Ave I tried to take some friends to because it reminds me of a gym. Its like a high school gym with a pretty good live Spanish band playing. Even they had meat head bouncer who wouldn't let me in. Luckily the Bear and Kilt was nearby. That place is good.

The Damo Suzuki CDs are almost done. It sounds a lot better than I thought it would, and from what I heard the most impressive thing is how good Damo was that night. I think we were pretty lucky to have his tour stop by the club.

Chicks on Speed are coming. Enon is coming. Please check the calendar page for more (Snailhouse! Elliot Brood! Rouge Wave! The Buttless Chaps! The Spitfires!). At the bottom of that page the past performers link is pretty good although kind of hard to find.

Damo

2005-10-26T19:41:00.000-06:00

So first things first. The TV is up and will never be spoken of again. Except to say that it will only show Flames games and only when there is no band playing. And it looks amazing.

Now for some bands.... no confirmation but there a few really good shows in the works. We have our New Years lined up with a great new local and the reformation of a classic Calgary stand by. Exciting. We also have a fly in in the works with a great band (tba in a few weeks), and some other pretty big shows. We are Wolves with Forbidden Dimension for Halloween Saturday should be quite good. The Riff Randels. My favorite band the Cripple Creek Faries are having a CD release pretty soon. Really there's lots. We'll post them as the get confirmed. Look for The Buttless Chaps, Snailhouse, Chicks on Speed, Elliot Brood, Caribou, the High Dials, D.O.A., and many other great bands in the next couple of months.

But now for some past shows. Christopher Richards (Ris Paul Ric) from Q and not U played here this Monday and was exceptional. The night before was very interesting with Damo Suzuki from the band Can. He played with something like 22 local musicians. It was wierd. The sound ended up being very tense and agressive, but got a lot better as night went on. It was an interesting expirement and we hope to post some audio clips on the Broken City web page pretty soon. It was something that might be interesting to try and do regularly in some capacity of another. The Ronnie Hayward Sunday afternoon residency is going swimmingly and so is the Dudes Tuesday night residency. Things all around are good. The patio heaters are in so we'll keep the patio open an Wednesday nights and any other busy show or event that we have. Solange and co are hard at work for Halloween too. Should be pretty funny and excellent. I think Halloween is Christmas for jaded bar staffers.

Please call 403-220-3999 and give as much as you can to our friends at CJSW who do such wonderful things for this city. They'll take your pledges untill Friday so get busy and get your friends and family on it too.

tv update

2005-10-06T15:32:00.000-06:00

We're still working on getting the tv up so I guess no controversy yet. It won't be on unless there's a game. I think it will work out, but if it makes anyone mad you can let us know and we'll see what works best. I think it will be pretty fun. Other than that things here are still moving along nicely, we're going to have our new lights up pretty soon. They look good and as long as people don't try to climb them they should be pretty sturdy. More posts to come!

tv controversy

2005-08-22T12:36:00.000-06:00

Hello everybody. It seems like responses have been muted and maybe I need to bring up more controversial issues.... so here's the biggest controversy since Elvis.

I bought a TV for the bar. I think the bar (management, staff, regulars) kind of prided itself on not having a tv and I always liked that too. I don't really like going out and getting mesmerised by the moving colors and I think tvs have a manipulative calming effect. I remember when the Saddledome renovated and basically filled the building with a billion tvs like that somehow made it a great place to be. Anyways I've tried to make the bar welcoming by making it as un-manipulative as possible, knowing full well that that in itself kind of feels like manipulation to some people (I call them 'haters').

This is getting confusing. Maybe another stream of consciousness will help. I saw this movie last night called 'the Aristocrats'. It was interesting to see just how academic people can get about one specific thing- a joke in the case of the movie. I think I'm just doing that with the bar here.

So where was I...... I think that there are places that I go, or have gone to, where I feel manipulated by the whole thing. I think the psychology of an Earls menu is kind of crazy or how people seem to think Boston Pizza has good inexpensive food. I think it's scary almost and it seems like a lot of people are kind of brainwashed because if you go out to Boston Pizza for dinner and a few pints with friends I guarantee you that your bill will be higher than if you have a nice, good tasting dinner at most local, independent restaurants. So when I go into a place with tvs I kind of think it's all part of the same psychological mind fuck. Something to distract you and pleasantly fill the awkward silences with mindless images. So I tried to avoid tvs.

The thing is, I love tv. I like to watch the food network, Survivorman is a new show that's pretty interesting. The Daily Show. There's lots really- but mostly I love watching hockey. Especially watching hockey in bars. It's a nice kind of community feel- you can get some dinner that someone else cooks and cleans up after, you can have a couple pints and maybe some friends can drop by and you won't need to clean up after them either. And mostly it's people all into the same thing and cheering and whatnot. I used to go to the Watchmans for almost every game when lived on 18th ave. The Watchmans had this one spot that I would try and get there early for. It was an L booth with a good view of the tv right by the bar as you walk in.

This year for the Flames I was pretty excited about the season and three other friends and myself got 2 seasons tickets that we're going to share. I was thinking about where we might go to watch away games or for home games that two of us aren't going to. It kind of hit me that being that I own a bar I could probably set up some area almost as good as that L booth at the Watchmans with not too much effort. But then I kind of went all out. I got a 37 inch SHARP LCD tv with an HD cable subscription. I want to make every effort to not turn the Broken City into a sports bar, but I also just really love watching hockey and wanted to set up a good place that I would enjoy watching a game at. We're just working on the install and we're trying to find a good spot where the tv will be out the way and only visible to people who sit in the certain area where we're going to show games. I have to admit that I'm pretty excited about it all.

I also like poker and chicks and deep fried food sometimes, but I swear I'm not really a mook. We'll keep it toned down and we'll only listen to ACDC after the games if the Flames win. No hockey- no tv, I promise.

Here's some heavy manipulation: come out for the Matt Masters 100th Alberta show on Monday August 29th. Or listen on CJSW from 9 unill midnight. It's going to be wicked. Justin Rutledge is going to play too. The whole next week looks pretty good actually. The Wet Secrets are playing the 25th with Dream Machine and the Dojo work horse and if you miss the Wet Secrets you are a fool. I missed them last time and was told that it was the best show of the year. And they're a Supergroup.

correction

2005-08-10T21:32:00.000-06:00

Looks like I was a bit wrong. The 9th is going to be the Cape May, Remote Kid (a good new local), and Columbus. John K Samson and Christine Fellows will be the 13th. When name dropping I forgot to mention Ray Lyota was here hitting on the lovely Kortnay for the most recent Atomic 7 show as well. Yikes! Who wouldn't?

I would still love any feedback.... except "you suck" or "your bar sucks" cause that just doesn't help anybody.

Nawlins'

2005-08-09T17:08:00.000-06:00

Those of you who read the latest 'dirty laundry' version the FFWD ads may have guessed that personally it's been a bit of a tough time, but things are getting better and the bar has been doing great. The staff has been telling me stories of K-OS getting tipsy here on a Wednesday indie rock DAN*EMO*HE*FU*KER, and the Constantines and Weakerthans having dueling karaoke until late into the night one Sunday a few months ago. We've got some solid shows booked, including John K. Samson of the Weakerthans with his wife Christine Fellows, and the Cape May as well as a new band from Edmonton called Columbus who have some EMI guys coming to see them- that show is happening September 9th. There's Matt Masters 100th Alberta show, which will be broadcast on CJSW Monday August 29th, and a bunch of other good shows that you'll have to wait for announcements on. The regular nights are getting busier as people get more comfortable with the club. Karaoke Sundays are starting to take off, but mostly it's Wednesday that has become our most crazy night. One half of the Wednesday night combo also DJs here on Monday with DJ DJewell in a night that I think I'd like to try and work in some kind of Louisiana fish fry feel to. I'd be glad to look at feedback about that idea. The other half of the Wednesday nights now plays records here on a new Saturday night that we're just developing. I was kind of thinking a slow dance party complete with streamers, semi formal wear and of course lots of Journey tunes might be fun. Anyways, if you have any ideas please feel free to leave comments.....

oh- and I got back New Orleans the other day. That place is crazy good. I'd like to try and write something about it, but maybe I'll just say this: people smile at each other there and say hi- it's like a big hug everywhere you go.

PR

2005-07-15T15:51:00.000-06:00

I've been working on some public relations......

....... Located deep in the heart of Calgary's premier yoga district the Broken City Social Club, a division of Space Lab Industries ltd., is nestled between the legendary Calgary establishments the Barfly and Brew Brothers tap house. Together with these true companions the Broken City is working to plug back in the storied "Electric Avenue" area, but this time without the harsh neon glow of our 80s predecessors. Instead we hope to radiate the soft shelter of a New Orleans table lamp on a humid summer night, the subtle film-noir illumination of a boudoir peace rally. We seek to drive a stake peppered with love into the chest cavity of our corporate capital of wheat, beef and oil. With nights ranging from our Wednesday night Dan*eMoth*rf*c*er indie rock dance parties, to the live shows we've had on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays featuring just about every local band and out of town groups like Polmo Popo, Fly Pan Am, Carolyn Mark, the Atomic 7, Solvent, Frog Eyes, Black Mountain, Pink Mountaintops, the Wet Secrets, the Horrorpops, LAL, the Deadcats, Caribou, The Russian Futurists, The Junior Boys, Whitey Houston, Sea Ray, the Vertical Struts, Xiu Xiu, Novillero, Belle Orchestre, the Grey, Why?, Corb Lund and countless others, to the typically industry supported karaoke sh*t show Sundays and our new and exciting top secret Saturday nights with Marco Primo- yes, our goal is to keep the kids in Calgary. No longer must our ACAD grads pack up their pencils in search of Montreal, we'd like to give a not so slick alternative to the polished club scene that dominates our community and drives away some of our most talented citizens. As soon as we can afford to we plan on building planters for our newly christened "best roof top patio in Calgary" where on a hot day you may find Zak, the bar's owner, selling cans of beer from an R2D2 replica. Some day we may change our name to O’Malley’s, but until then we are the Broken City.

Canada Day (solid gold beaver)

2005-07-02T10:51:00.000-06:00

After last night it is even more clear to me that Calgary has an incredible music scene. 16 local bands played and they all, from what I heard, were amazing. Well done bands! Through their efforts the bands helped the Broken City raise $4240 for the Mustard Seed street Ministry and have given Solid Gold Beaver an ideal beggining. If you're in a band and want to start planning for next year now, email Craig at solidgoldbeaver@hotmail.com!

updates

2005-06-21T09:04:00.000-06:00

So far it looks like 18 bands have signed up for Solid Gold Beaver, our charity has been picked (the Mustard Seed) and sponsors are in place. I’ll be working on the press release today and I’ll post it up on the news page when it’s done. It’s looking like it’s going to be quite the day. It’s all happening on July 1st starting at 11am and going all day. The Road Pops will be doing their show at the bar from 4-7pm and some bands should be playing during their show, as well as a lot of bands throughout the night. Big Rock is going to help out as will FFWD and CJSW. Thrilling.

The weekend was great with lots of good shows. The Xiu Xiu hating SIDS opened for Vailhalen on Saturday amidst rumors it was their last show. I don’t really believe that but do I think they should change their name. Maybe Sudden Instant Dance Syndrome would be a little more subtle.
Also- I’ve decided that the Broken City is now an “ultra-pub”.

recently found online

2005-06-06T13:59:00.000-06:00

* [ My elementary time ]: Who or the time when it will start an initially operation will have the many difficult field. This notice board that is the space where it looks back a difficult elementary time.
Writing it raises this with the 3622nd,
Time it reads
There is not information which is stored.
Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server error '80040}e{14'
It will decrease 1: where '=' The old story of the vicinity went wrong.

I think computers are planning to takeover- who knew they had feelings?

Summer, Monday- Sunny.

2005-05-30T14:28:00.000-06:00

Novillero was fantastic on Saturday, so thanks to all those who came out. So far the early weekday shows have been a sucess as well. Most bands have been happy to go on early and crowds seem to be getting here sooner as well so keep that in mind please if you come down for a Tuesday or Thursday show.

Today Kim and I are working on framing some of Tim Huesken's posters to hang on the walls up to the patio. I hope they stay put. We've had a lot of stuff ripped off the walls here. There's some pretty cool stuff so I can see why people would want to steal it, but it's as good on the wall here for eveyone as it is on the wall at your house I think. Someone stole 'the David'. That was a pretty important peice to me so I was a little hurt. I guess he lives on in our minds.....

A Flock Of Seagulls are coming to play the Brokencity July 7th- tickets are on sale now through ticketmaster. Vailhalen is doing the opening spots ans although it's a little pricey I think it'll be a great show. Bring your mom, AND your girlfriend.

presssure

2005-05-27T14:59:00.000-06:00

I’ve been waiting for inspiration to write some more in this blog but I don’t have too much and I’m not sure we’ll have the best quality entry…. I’d like to just mention some of the amazing shows we’ve had of late. Why?, Black Mountain, Pink Mountaintops, Shout out out out out, the Floor, The Vertical Struts, the Fake Cops and on and on. We’ve had some really good live nights here. Really- the type of shows that might get cover stories maybe if they were at other clubs, or if they were in other cities. I don’t know- Caribou is getting National press, you’d think they might get a bit more local. It will be a great show though. Please just imagine it was on the cover of all the locals because it should be, especially considering its Caribou with the Junior Boys and Russian Futurists.

Tonight as well, for any of you who read this in time, should be a great show. Polmo Popo is playing with Venus and Fergus and I expect it to be excellent.

ideas, thoughts, and feelings

2005-05-04T16:27:00.000-06:00

After a great time in London I got back to Calgary and headed straight to work. It was Monday afternoon and I had gained 8 hours on London time over the nine hour flight. So when I landed it was just an hour after I took off. The patio wasn't as finished as I had hoped it would be- but it was lovely. Eight pints of Guiness later I was at my house, in my suit and tie, face down on the couch sleeping like a baby. The next day I got up and got ready for the madness. I worked from 11 til 11 getting ready for the horrorpops show, picking up tickets and cheques from record stores, banking, boring shit, fun shit lots of different things. It was nice to be back. The patio has basically been finished now- they're just putting the draught lines in today so we should have pints by tonight if the dishwasher gets up and running. I'm quite happy with the place. Our patio reminds of the best parts of the old Embassy patio- but without the thumpy thumpy dance music and macheesmos. It's kind of a relaxing place and I can't wait to work the odd bartending shift up there on a Saturday afternoon.

Ideas, thoughts and feelings

2005-04-27T12:32:00.000-06:00

This entry has to be a bit rushed, but that sort of what it's about.

In London, rock shows are done by 11pm. No one questions it. There's no scene chicken played out by bands waiting to play until the audience shows up and audiences waiting to show up until they can stroll in midway through the night. People in London show up on time, expect a good show and get out early- with enough time to get to bed if they have to work the next day. It makes for more shows that are better attended. Less late night drinks and possibly less bar sales- but more people paying to see live music.

I'm pretty sure it was a few of the people at CJSW who told me that this is what I should strive for with show times at the Broken City. I have been trying but failing. I've been finding that some bands can be pretty demanding little rock stars. For every five bands that are great to work with there's one that just doesn't get it. Whether it's complaining about the way the show was promoted (not by them!), mercilessly arguing split points with seeming abandon for basic math, or as in this case refusing to play until everyone who might have paid is ready, waiting, and getting frustrated, and people who may have paid if they heard any music when they came in have left for somewhere where something is actually going on.

When I get back to town the new policy for for weekday shows will be that bands must start playing by 9pm. I'll do my best to enforce it. The best thing that you, as an audience member, can do is to come early.

PS- London is great. Tonight I'm going to choose between seeing Momus or Money Mark. LCD Soundsystem on Saturday, Cat Power Friday.........

Wednesday April 20, 9:24 am in London.

2005-04-20T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'm in London England right now and my distance from the bar has motivated me to follow through on plans for a Broken City blog. The long term pupose for the blog is to let people know what's been going on at the bar on a nightly basis, but being that it's my absence from the place that's making me want to write I can't really do that. Instead I'll take the oportunity over the next two weeks of my vacation to to describe some of the concepts and values that made me want to open the Broken City. In the end I know it's just a bar, but I do have some ideas that I like to ramble on a bit about sometimes.

The name of the blog "Ideas, thoughts, and feelings" is taken from a series of childrens records that deal with basic ideas of how to function in society- how to avoid gettting molested, how to cross the street, thinking about things that make you feel good and things that make you feel bad.

Although I get a lot of questions about the name 'the Broken City' I don't want to get into that quite yet.

I left Calgary on Monday and woke up this morning wondering how it went so I'll start by trying to explain 'Tantric Sex Monday'. It started as a DJ night with Andrew Wedderburn playing music he likes. Mowtown, the Stones, early punk- just a lot of quality music. No image really at all. It worked out that Andy Sparacino started bartending that night regualrly. So that was it and people seemed to have a good time. Then I decided it might be good to give the night an image, but I also hated the idea of giving the night an image so I was more looking for an anti image. An image that was hidden in the joke of a bigger image. Andy came up with the name 'Tantric Sex Monday' and it was perfect. Sort of. All I can say is that I think Andy's jokes make people better humans. And they can be pretty hard to get sometimes, and sometimes too easy. It's a wierd funny line that that man dances around. I blame him.

Lately the night has had a bit of a hard time bouncing back from the approach. You can see the print ad we ran on our 'news' page if you click on Monday. I get the feeling that gay people may have thought we were making fun of them and straight people didn't really get that the ad was a joke that made fun of a certain other approach to nightlife in Calgary, one that uses blatent, not so sexy sexuality to try and draw big crowds of our repressed masses. So we ended up with everyone feeling a little alienated- I think even Andy and Andrew. But then alienation is kind of a Broken City thing that we just can't really help in these early years- it is a pretty wierd and wonderful place.

One of the reasons I opened another 'alternative venue' in Calgary was because I felt personally responsible for my home town having so many crappy clubs. When I was growning up I assumed that other cities didn't have the same 'frat boy to stockbroker' clubs that so grossly manipulate their clientel into thinking that they're having a good time. Now I know better. Montreal, Halifax and Vancouver all have the same shitty places that we do. And we have always had a few good places here. But the hatred I sometimes have for those places and my embarassment with the city, and social circles, I grew up in still hide out in me and sometimes push me toward thinking that things like 'Tantric Sex Monday' are hilarious.

In the end it's a very nice quiet night. People don't look, talk, act, dress, consume and smell the same as each other. It's just kind of low key. The music is good and drinks are cheep, I think it will eventually catch on.

-- Zak Pashak