Boston Trip

So the big trip for the grade eight students that year was to Boston Massachusetts. Surprisingly I was allowed to go on the trip considering I had more visits to the principals office that year than any other. If I remember correctly it was a close call though and somewhat of a last minute decision which resulted in me being grouped in a room with 5 other guys, 4 of which I couldn't fucking stand.

The bus trip was much more longer than the Quebec trip the previous year, and as always I had my trusted cassette Walkman with me. My Beasties/DMC tape was in effect as well as the newest "LL Cool J" release "B.A.D." otherwise known as "Bigger And Deffer". I'm almost certain the owner of the tape was an Asian kid named Thomas Chen. I mentioned him in anonymous fashion many posts back as the kid at the breakdancing display who had the most epic back spin ever. Thomas let me listen to the tape and that helped kill time, lost in my headphones visualizing the lyrical content in my ears.

B.A.D. cassette

When we finally arrived it must have been well into the evening but the sun was still up. Our hotel was almost a horseshoe shape which surrounded a pool, and every rooms balcony overlooked the pool. I dropped my bags in my room and stood on the balcony examining my female classmates in their bathing suits. We spent the rest of the night having wrestling matches in our hotel room, and yours truly, the biggest wrestling fan in the school, did not partake. Since I was grouped with guys I despised I did not want to interact with them whatsoever....except for the one guy I liked. I opted to listen to my Walkman. 

Our trip took us to all the Bean Town landmarks. The Boston Tea Party, The Green Monster, Cheers, and we also went whale watching as well as to some indoor marine park. The trip wasn't that enjoyable for me except when I was throwing lit firecrackers out or hote window at people, until one day when they took us to an outdoor market type place full of all kinds of different shops and vendors. I bought handcuffs and a butterfly knife. The next thing I knew a bunch of kids came running up to me excitedly, they were in such shock they couldn't even get their words out. They dragged me to the front entrance and pointed down the street where I saw none other than WWF giant Big John Studd leaving the market. My trip had meaning now.

Big John Studd

Unlike my Quebec trip I don't really need 3 blog posts. My memories are a bit vague of the Boston excursion as I didn't really have a great time there all in all. I was at the point in life where I had developed a sense of people, seeing them for what they are, or were, or weren't. At the time I was peering through the fake facades of all these popular kids and seeing the realness of the people they considered lower class or beneath them, like my computer buddies. I had attended their parties in the past and fulfilled them with amusement as "the crazy kid" but my days of being the court jester had come to an end.

Duane & I as  " the turbanators"

The Commodore Kid

As I mentioned in the previous post, a lot of my time in grade eight was spent wrestling or on the commodore 64. Today I was going to continue from my last post but I thought I'd delve into the c64 and keep the wrestling story on hold for the time being. Although neither of these subjects ate directly related to music I still decided to write about them, as I don't have much grade 8 material left. There are still a few stories to be told and I'm trying to stretch it out before I get into grade 9 and things really start to snowball.

So my friend Alex had the commodore 64 in grade six, and I was at his house every chance I could be. Al lived right across from the school so we'd play on lunch and I'd go over for sleepovers a lot, which consisted of watching movies like The Warriors, Friday the 13th, and the "Ninja" trilogy with Sho Kusagi....and of course we'd play games on the computer. I was amazed at how many cool games he had. Eventually my friend Duane got one, and he lived around the corner from me so I pretty much became a permanent fixture in his house. I had also had a falling out with Alex so this was now my only place to play c64 unless I was visiting my cousin Gord.

Duane and I fishing. A rare moment away from the computer.

So in grade 8 the school started using c64's and they actually established a "computer club" in the computer room on lunch. All you had to bring was yourself, and if you owned games you were allowed to bring your own discs in and play them. I had no games so I used koala pad a lot, it was illustration software that the school board had installed on all the computers. I got quite good with my creations and when I got bored I'd walk around and see what other kids were playing. 

Eventually my cousin Gord sold me his c64 and he had tons of floppy disks full of games! I was now bringing my own games to school with me. I also started trading games with other kids which brought my game collection to epic proportions. The majority of these kids were bookworms, nerds and loners, the kind of kids who generally would get picked on day to day. That wouldn't be happening anymore now that they were supplying me with all the newest games! If someone wanted to bully one of these kids they'd have to go through me first....and no one ever did!

A hero for the geeks & the nerds!

I became more and more into the commodore now that I owned one. I spent practically every waking minute in front of that thing when I was home. There were endless games and even programs to make your own games. Plus I was learning all the commands and coding in school so I could actually make my own choose your own adventure word games, similar to "Farmers Daughter" one of the commodores finest filthy masterpieces. 

The summer after grade eight I ended up meeting my old Asian friend Patrick, whom I hadn't seen since grade 5. We were going to the same highschool in September so we started hanging out again. One day Pat took me to his cousin Bernard's place to rock some games on the c64. Bernie had an accessory I had never heard of before that would introduce me to an entire new world via the c64....the accessory was called a modem.

Obsessed with wrestling

Apologies for missing yesterday's post, as per usual life was a little hectic, thankfully it's never in a bad way!

So grade 8 was great, asides from my rekindling with rap via the Beastie Boys and RUN DMC, I spent most of the year obsessed with wrestling and the commodore 64 computer. I had tons of wrestling VHS tapes as I used to tape matches every Saturday afternoon and the occasional Saturday night when SNME was on. I had started collecting wrestling magazines in grade 7 so by this time my collection had grown quite large. Wrestling figures were also in abundance inside my toy box and I'd virtually wrestle with whatever type of action figures I could get my hands on, be it G.I.Joe or He-Man.

My obsession with wrestling grew and grew, I knew everyone's stats, dates of historic title changes and so on. Things got to the point where I didn't even want to be a rock star anymore, I was determined to be a wrestler. Our school had a wrestling team so I decided to join, from there on I had a brief stint with the amateur wrestling team at school until I decided to use a vertical suplex one day and that was the end of my amateur wrestling career.

Not to be bested I decided to start my own wrestling promotion, the BWF. As far as I know the BWF could have possibly been the first ever backyard wrestling organization in Brampton. My friends and I made up the small roster and we had matches every day on lunch, created title belts, declared champions and kept stats. Wrestling was also influencing my artistic side, as all I was creating through grade 8 were wrestling comics or animated flip books of wrestling.



A good portion of the bwf roster


The BWF was getting bigger and we had a new kid who invited himself into our organization regardless of the fact that we blatantly didn't consider him apart of it. His involvement and annoyance would lead to an epic historical day close to the end of the school year.....a hair vs hair/ title vs title match between him and yours truly...

Fan Expo 2012

Current event time once again! On Friday I attended the Fan Expo in Toronto for my ninth consecutive year in a row. I attended the first expo back in 2004 and it has become a tradition to attend every year since. I always go with my best friend Jerry, one or two of his daughters, and of course my son Gabe who has been every year now since he was born.

Back in 2004 when I attended the first expo it was a very new world to me. There weren't many people there that year, no lines ups for autographs, and celebrities weren't charging much for pictures. The first year I went was the weekend before my ex wife and I's wedding so we didn't have much money to spend. We vowed the next year to go all out and we did, we brought $500+ with us to make up for the year before.
Every year since that I've usually brought anywhere from $200-$800 with me for spending money and I always came home with a lot of cool stuff. As the years went on I was buying more and more for my son and less for myself. The expo also rises in popularity annually which in turn brought more and more people each year. With more people comes more inflation! The price of admission seems to creep higher every summer and it seems celebrities are charging more and more money each year for fan meet and greets.

I started attending mainly for the horror aspect of the show and another saddening trend I've noticed is the horror section getting smaller and smaller each year, which is slightly disheartening. This year was no exception as I was majorly disappointed with the horror area. It seemed like there was less vendors than ever and a lot of big, useless displays taking up prime space for no apparent reason. My friend Steve from "The Devils Latex" was really the only saving grace, as well as a few other cool vendors, but I had no intention of buying any masks from Steve as I can do that any old time now, since we are friends and all.

My mask dealer Steve. Devilslatex.com

The show was well organized, which has been an issue in the past but they've really got their shit together the last two years. As always there was lots of cool free swag at a lot of booths, and of course no shortage of fans dressed in costume. I spent months working on my sons Toxic Avenger costume, which he started to dismantle after being there a mere 10 minutes, as he was way too hot. Gabe was also getting a bit bummed out at all the "dang people in his way" so I put him up on my shoulders, and buying him some awesome toys didn't hurt either. I only ended up getting a shirt for myself and the complete collection of Fangoria trading cards. I was actually shocked at the fact I had brought $700 to spend and came home with over $400 in my pocket still,there was just nothing really special that caught my eye this year.

toxie!!!

It was also a little upsetting to see Christopher Lloyd charging people $40 for a glossy 8x10 photo of him and an additional $40 to get his autograph on it. I remember my first year there getting an autographed 8x10 from Doug "Pinhead" Bradley and I only paid $5.00! You can easily judge the size of ego by the variance of prices the celebs are charging. Asides from my disappointments it was still a good day all in all and the tradition continues, I'm sure we'll be back again next August....or maybe even this Sunday!

Christopher lloyd.....will rape your wallet!!!

Legion Of Detroit

Before I start things off here I just wanted to bring a correction notice to your attention. In my blog post "the wall" I mentioned it was the summer before I went into grade 8, as per usual memories manifest as this story unfolds and I recently remembered it was actually the summer before I went into grade 7 that "the wall" transpired.

The summer before grade eight I actually went with my parents to Windsor to visit some relatives on the Greek side of the family. I remember this now as I was in the peak of my wrestling phase of the 80's, there was one thing on my mind during the course of that trip and it was our day trip shopping to Detroit. I was determined to find some cool wrestling toys that weren't available in Canada.

Hangin' with my cousin in Windsor. 1987.

I can vividly remember the images in my mind from crossing the border & driving down the gritty streets. Shoes hung on telephone wires, shady characters drinking on the stoops of there very humble abodes which made houses from the H section in Brampton look like posh mansions, litter and refuse filled the streets and alleys. We finally found what I believe was a K-Mart or woolworths if I remember correctly....or maybe it was woolco.....never the less we found somewhere to shop and thankfully a safe place to park, as my uncle had lost his hubcaps the last time we were here for a wedding.

When we got in the store I was very excited and naturally I headed right for the toy department. I was blown away to see some AWA (American Wrestling Association) action figures and wouldn't you know it they had my all time favorites....The Road Warriors! I quickly snatched up Hawk & Animal but then realized they needed some opponents.

 I really wanted The Fabulous Ones but they were sold out. The only other choices were Rick Martel and The Long Riders, two bikers who feuded with the Warriors on a regular basis. I couldn't stand the Riders and the choices were slim, so who better for the Warriors to beat up on? I picked up Wild Bill Irwin and Scott Hog Irwin. I was actually amazed that my parents bought all four of the toys for me. I don't remember how much they were but the molds they were made from were the same as the He-Man figures, which on average ran for about seven bucks a piece in Canada.

I was happy as could be and felt my trip was complete even though we would still be visiting a few days. I rented some WWF tapes from the local convenience store to pass most of my time there, it was great because they had all different volumes that we didn't have in Brampton. On the way home my dad told me I had to open my wrestlers and play with them in the car so he wouldn't have to pay duty at the border. I happily obliged....how could I not.

This post is not musically related in any way but it naturally unfolded as part of the story. When I started writing this post I didn't even know what it was going to be about. After the correction notice in regards to "the wall" the memories kept coming and the words kept flowing. I hope you've enjoyed today's "out of left field" blog post.

73' announcement

It's time once against for some current updates. I just briefly wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the progress of my newest pending release " 73' ".

As it stands the album is almost 100% complete. I am waiting on a friend of mine to help me with a collaboration on the one song that is unfinished. My goal was to have this thing wrapped up by December so it seems I'm 4 months ahead of schedule. So what does one do when they are ahead of schedule? Take the extra time to play video games? I don't think so. When I give myself a deadline on something I'm fully committed. That's why I've decided to take this release to the next level.

It's been very enjoyable for myself to be working on this project for the last 20 months. It has also been very rewarding hearing and reading all the positive feedback from friends and fans alike. I somewhat stepped out of the box for this record and it changed the typical formula I'd generally stick to when making music, perhaps for the better. I feel this is my best work to date and judging from the feedback I've been receiving a lot of you feel the same way.

I'd like to give huge props to my man Oliver "Artimetik" Corby as he is essentially the brainchild of this project. Back in 2004 or so we began collaborating and did a song called "Shame" over David Bowie's "Fame" which spawned an idea in his head to make his own record revolve around the sounds of the seventies. I donated Shame as the first track for his effort and later went onto produce two more songs for him using Queen's "fat bottomed girls" and The Guess Who's "These Eyes" Around 2009 or so I asked him what became of the project and the answer was simple....nothing! He had scrapped the project completely so I humbly asked if he would mind me taking his great idea to use for myself, and he agreed without hesitation. Although Shame was released almost a decade ago now, I feel it needed to be on this recording as it truly is the song that inspired this idea in the first place.

Since I feel this is my best work to date I feel the need to make it the best it can be. I have been in contact with my good old buddy Greg Dawson from BWC Studios, and I've expressed an idea to him that will take this recording to the next level. I've decided to book some studio time with him to make this masterpiece exactly that. Ideally I'd like to go through every song and assure the mixing levels are completely on point. I also want to re-record my vocals for every song. From there onto mastering. These final steps are only going to strengthen this musical effort and make this sound the best it possibly can.

In the meantime the rough copy of the record is available online for your listening pleasure, minus the one incomplete song which will hopefully be up soon enough. I will also be adding updated versions of each song over the course of the day. Please listen, share and enjoy these recordings for the time being as eventually they will be replaced with the new final FINAL cuts.

http://kabal.bandcamp.com/album/73

The Illest Video

I was somewhat of a mall rat as I got into my teenage years in grade eight having turned 13 that January. One of my most favorite things to do was frequent the record stores and look through all the wonderful records I wished I could own. I'd stare at the artwork, read the backs of the records, and browse through t-shirts, pins and other memorabilia.

Speaking of pins I've just unlocked another old memory from gradeschool. I used to make my own homemade rock pins by cutting out small record covers from ads in metal magazines, I'd carefully glue them to a square of cardboard I had cut out the same size, then wrap it in layers of scotch tape for a nice glossy finish. I'd also painstakingly apply very thin strips of tape through a safety pin, attaching it to the backside of the pin on the cardboard and voila! Custom pins! Back to the story...

Once in awhile my mom would bribe me with getting something from a record store so she could get me to go to the dentist, and I happily obliged. Since I hung out at the mall so much to begin with, I always caught the new items in the record stores before a lot of other people. My dentist was in the mall and on one particular day after a visit, my mom took me to Sam the record man to get a record or tape. At the time bands were starting to release VHS tapes of live concerts and their music videos. As I scanned the shelf a very familiar image caught my eye. It appeared to be a joint butted out in an ashtray but it was actually a plane crashed into the ground or a mountainside depending on which way you looked at it. If you don't know where I'm going with this perhaps you haven't been following the story, it was the cover art from the Beastie Boys "Licensed to Ill" only it was a home video!

I quickly snatched it up as it was the only copy there and my mother agreed to buy it. The entire car ride home I scanned it over, reading the track listing. There were 2 videos I had seen on tv before which were "Fight for your right" and "No sleep till Brooklyn" but other than that everything was new to me and I was super pumped! As soon as we got home I rushed down to the basement and popped the tape in the good ole trusty VCR. Asides from the 2 videos I had already seen, there were 4 other music videos. One of which was a song that wasn't on the album but was a song I had briefly heard in the film Krush Groove, She's on it! I was very ecstatic to finally hear the song in its entirety and it didn't disappoint one bit. After the videos there was some footage of the boys partying backstage with some groupies which was also cool to see. This tape was legend and I had scored gold once again!

I ended up loosing mine somewhere over the years and then acquired another one years later. I also went through the labour recently of downloading the video off the Internet so I could burn it to DVD and have it on my hard drive and it's still a classic. If you can get your hands on it somehow I strongly urge you too!