He looks a bit like my brother at that age

“Tuesday’s Gone”, Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Free Ride”, The Edgar Winter Group

“Rock And Roll All Night”, Kiss

“Space Truckin’”, Deep Purple

“Paranoid”, Sabbath

“Slow Ride”, Foghat

“Sweet Emotion”, Aerosmith

“Balinese”, ZZ Top

“Take The Money And Run”, Steve Miller Band

“Dazed And Confused”, Led Zeppelin

“Nassau/Baby I Love Your Way”, Peter Frampton

“Summer Breeze”, Seals and Crofts

“Lights”, Journey

The visceral glory of Bachmann Turner Overdrive as Wahlberg and his mustachioed buddies play low-income pickup games in the hubcap-covered vacant lot, covered in mud, puts an enormous grin on my face and makes me pretend that I can throw and/or catch things. [I can't, but it's a pleasant fantasy].  And of course, because it’s Superbowl Weekend, it was either this or a whole bunch of Idiot Rock, which admittedly is BRF’s stock in trade, but I thought it’d be time to use those Disney classic rock residuals for good rather than evil.  It took everything I had not to sneak “Crazy Train” in there.
“I Got A Name”, Jim Croce

Who knew HE'D be the Good Wahlberg?

“Let It Ride”, BTO

“I Just Want to Celebrate”, Rare Earth

“Stranglehold”, Ted Nugent [!]

“Feelin’ Alright [sic]“, Grand Funk Railroad

“Up Around The Bend’, CCR

“Do It Again”, Steely Dan

“How Long”, Ace

“Drift Away”, Dobie Gray

“Fooled Around and Fell In Love”, Elvin Bishop

“It’s Too Late”, Carole King

“Mandolin Wind”, Rod Stewart

“All Right Now”, Free

“Mississippi Queen”, Mountain

There's something about this I just love

“Tush”, ZZ Top

“My Head’s In Mississippi”, ZZ Top

“Born on the Bayou”, CCR

“Saturday Night Special”, Skynyrd

“Whipping Post”, Allman Bros. Band

“Shooting Star”, Bad Company

“Rocky Mountain Way”, Joe Walsh

“Tuesday’s Gone”, Skynyrd

“Long As I Can See The Light”, CCR

“Sweet Emotion”, Aerosmith

“Rock You Like a Hurricane”, Scorpions [!!!]

“C*m On Feel The Noize”, Quiet Riot [I shuddered just typing that]

"Troy, have you been using my shampoo?"

“Enter Sandman”, Metallica

“Paradise City”, GnR

“You Give Love a Bad Name”, Bon Jovi

“Here I Go Again”, Whitesnake [L0L0L0L]

“Come Together”, Aerosmith, who are in town tonight I believe!  COINCIDENCE!?!?!?  Yes, sort of.

“Angel”, Aerosmith

“Unforgiven”, Metallica

“Heaven”, Warrant

“Every Rose Has Its Thorn”, Bret Michaels, for God’s sake

“Beth”, KISS

“Listen To The Music”, Doobie Brothers

Like, just one rock?

“Up Around The Bend”, CCR

“Let It Ride”, BTO

“The Wizard”, Sabbath [grrrrr]

“Ain’t Talkin Bout Love”, Van Halen

“More Than A Feeling”, Boston [by way of Men Who Stare At Goats, M's new favourite movie]

“Good Times, Bad Times”, Zeppelin

“Have A Cigar”, Pink Floyd

“Feelin’ Alright [sic]“, Grand Funk Railroad

“Miss You”, Stones

“Ramble On”, Zeppelin

“Ohio”, Neil Young [yes, it's a bummer, but it's hard to find Neil Young songs that aren't]

“Wind Cries Mary”, Hendrix

“Mother Nature’s Son”, Beatles [this one's for Geordie]

“Sun King”, Beatles

We’ve been celebrating the holidays by bringing some old traditions back [Nanaimo bars and football] and welcoming some new traditions [family Rockband tours].  At first it seemed weird to be all hanging out in the living room getting ready to play Skynyrd, but in another way, it was so very right.  It helped me get fired up for the one-time only return of BRF:  The Revenge, and here’s what we grooved to:

“For Those About To Rock [We Salute You]“, AC/DC

“Eye Of The Tiger”, Survivor

“Jump”, Van Halen

THANK YOU ST. LOUIS! OR WHEREVER I AM!

“Don’t Stop Believing”, Journey

“Somebody”, Bryan Adams

“Always On The Run”, Lenny Kravitz and Slash

“Consolers of the Lonely”, The Raconteurs [Jack White came up several times in various conversations on New Years' Eve, which in my flaky way I considered a sign of a synchronicity vortex.  Also, the song is made of win.  It sounds sort of pointy and gristly which made it a perfect choice for binds and Tittbhasana.  Also we think that Jack White and Jack Black should TOTALLY get together and do some sort of arcane project.]

“Have You Ever Been [To Electric Ladyland]“, Hendrix

“All The Young Dudes”, Mott the Hooples

“Simple Man”, Lynyrd Skynyrd

“Thank You”, Led Zeppelin

“Wanted Dead Or Alive”, Bon Jovi

“Easy”, Faith No More [by way of the Commodores]

“More Than Words”, Extreme

“Across the Universe”, Beatles

“Heart of Gold”, Neil Young

I wish this was a real guitar. It would probably be super uncomfortable.

“Rock N Roll Duty”, Kim Mitchell

“Lovin’ Every Minute Of It”, Loverboy [HELLZ YEAH]

“You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”, BTO

“Fly By Night”, Rush

“We’re Here For A Good Time (Not A Long Time)”, Trooper

“Closer To The Heart”, Rush

“Cordelia”, Tragically Hip [If you ever wanted to hear the sound of the Sjanz' high school career, this is how far down it really was]

“You May Be Right”, The Grapes Of Wrath

“Wheat Kings”, Tragically Hip [So many band camp slow dances]

“Angel Eyes”, Jeff Healey [shout out to my brother and sister]

“Lost Together”, Blue Rodeo

“Fiddlers Green”, Tragically Hip

“Helpless”, Neil Young

“Summer Of ’69″, Bryan Adams

M in Parksville

“Raise A Little Hell”, Trooper

“I Believe In A Thing Called Love”, The Darkness

“Crosstown Traffic”, Jimi Hendrix

“Slow Ride”, Foghat [for as long as we can put up with that ridiculous outro]

“Listen To The Music”, The Doobie Brothers

“Rocky Mountain Way”, Joe Walsh

“Hot Fun In The Summertime”, Sly and the Family Stone

“Rough Boy”, ZZ Top

“Summer Breeze”, Seals and Crofts

“Voodoo Chile Blues”, Jimi Hendrix

“Dream Weaver”, Gary Wright

“Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”, Bob Dylan

“I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow [Instrumental]“, John Hartford

As Yuri says, WWWWWWOOOOOOWWWWW

I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited in my whole life:  my application for Anusara Certification has been accepted.  Please note this doesn’t mean I’m certified, merely that the formal process of certification can begin in earnest, but man:  does it ever feel good to be moving forward, and to be welcomed by the community and my teacher in this way.  My eyes shuttered open at 5:15 am, which is not the Sjanz’s style in any way, and that was it;  whatever weird combination of adrenalin and jacked-up brain waves makes kids not go to sleep on Christmas Eve is coursing through my veins, and this Summer Solstice is turning out to be running on all six cylinders.

I feel like jumping around in my pyjamas, so I’m gonna go do that for a while.  Hope to see you at 4!

Stupid blackberry pictures; it looks like leftovers. IT'S FRESH.

I wanted you guys to know that I made the quinoa salad up with barley ’cause I ran out of quinoa and it was actually great, maybe even better in terms of consistency, cause barley is such a toothy grain that it soaked up the dressing and extra liquid in the veggies in a most marvellous way.  Here’s a variation that includes black beans, some heirloom tomatoes, a bit of crumbled feta, wilted [on purpose!] kale, and half a shallot that I rescued from the fridge.

Also, some of you have expressed interest in a mala, and I’m happy to make one for you to your specifications [or just freestyle one], but I gotta be honest:  these stones weren’t cheap:  depending on what you want I’d love to hook you up but be prepared to set aside some coin for materials.  If you’re STILL interested in spite of my baleful fiscal caveat, please let me know in comments or email me at my first name backwards at gmail dot com.

OH AND!  I think for Mayday this year it’s time to bring back Big Rock Fridays.  And by “bring back” I mean going all the way back:  Big Rock Friday I, the jam that started it all, back when we only had 35 people in there instead of 229 [Note to building inspectors:  /sarcasm/].  My original intention was to create a set of wicked awesome playlists that we could play with every Friday and I think we have enough wicked awesomeness to proceed, don’t you?

This was far FAR too amazing not to link to.  This guy is…well, just watch the thing, would you?

Okay, now M’s watching Notorious, a bit better, although it’s worth noting that just in time for the return of BRF Classic, Slash will be the guest on American Idol next week.  COINCIDENCE??!?!?!?/1?!??!slashslash??one?!  I gave up believing in coincidences a long time ago, actually.