Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

It’s small, but it’s right downtown with an easy to remember address. It’s super cheap too, at $21 per month, though it’s going to be a bitch moving in, as it’s less than one cubic foot in size.

We have a box setup at a downtown UPS Store / Mailboxes Etc. shop so that we can forward mail now.

Richard Murray or Tania Murray
Suite 438
2 Toronto Street
Toronto, Ontario
M5C 2B5

Send candy, money, cards, etc as you will.

Day after tomorrow we pick up the van.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

This is supposed to be funny or cute? I’d rather drag the couch single-handed out into the back parking lot, pour a can of gas on it and light it up than give it away to some fuckwit.

You’ve received the following reply to your “Big Burgundy Couch – Save $50 this weekend!” Ad on Kijiji:

From: colleenlively@gmail.com
hey i have no money where as i am moving tomorrow, and all my money is going towards a rental, but i’d love to take it off your hands for you tomorrow morning, if you’re willing to let it go for free. =D

Seriously though, should nobody see the worth in a $200 couch, then I have already found a couple registered charities that accept furniture and office equipment as gifts in kind. I’d rather that the ALS Society or a Food and Furniture Bank receive this than some anonymous kijiji beggar. I responded to say simply “If it goes for free, it will go to a worthwhile cause.”

I thought that would be the end of it, but in return I get a sob story.

A girl who has had a difficult life and is trying to get it better, and it seems like one thing after another keeps going wrong, like for example every truck available is rented out for this weekend so I have to get a Suv, and just one thing after another, I’ve lived in a horrid place all year and finally I’m getting out with a friend to a 2 bedroom apartment, and we’ve got nothing. No bed, no furniture, nothing, and I am trying. I’d love to have a couch so i can sit and read rather then sit on a floor it’d be something amazing and great and a dream come true. I am a good cause, I am an awesome, nice, sweet girl who is just trying to make life better. =D No matter what you choose, have a great life.

Fuck off, this isn’t Freecycle.

Besides, if all you can rent is an SUV, how would you propose that you move that couch to your new apartment? Life is hard!

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Putting up a couple of the robot images on Etsy, including one of my favorite “Friendly Monsters” coincidentally numbered 13. He’d be content to sit back, maybe watch a little Mork and Mindy on channel 57. Maybe kick back a cool Coors 16-ouncer. He’s good fine people, Stuart.

Sure, he looks like a horrible flesh-rending monster, but that just makes you a speciesist bastard if you let that stand in the way of just hanging out and getting to know someone who is just a bit different than you. I mean, if you cut him, does he not bleed? Well, okay, technically he doesn’t bleed. Okay, and his exoskeleten is made of a strange super-hard metal alloy that you’d be hard pressed to cut through, but I stand by the saying none the less.

HELLO PUNY EARTHLING, I HAVE BROUGHT YOU A PRESENT!

WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?

I ALSO HAVE CHEEZEY SNACK ITEMS AND CARBONATED BEVERAGES AND SCRABBLE!

WHY ARE YOU RUNNING AWAY?

BE MY FRIEND, PUNY EARTH HUMAN!

How can you say NO to that little face…

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Heavy Metal in Baghdad. I wasn’t sure about this film, especially with the Vice Magazine connection. I was a bit worried that this would be some sort of hipster bullshit ironic crap. I was pleasantly surprised by the film and the story it had to tell; metalheads are pretty much the same everywhere, but these guys had real problems. Their hopes and dreams were pretty simple and straight-forward too; not being blown up, keeping families safe, and maybe growing some long head-banging-friendly hair.

In 2003, the Iraqi heavy-metal band Acrassicauda were the subject of a Vice magazine article and with the magazine’s help were able to stage a sell-out show despite the recent ousting of Saddam Hussein in the summer of 2005. Filmakers from Vice returned to Iraq in 2006, to track down the band. Upon their return they discovered the multitude of death and destruction, including rehearsing studios destroyed by bombs.

There’s a scene with Faisal and Firas outside at the journalist’s hotel, sitting by the pool. They’re answering questions, and in the background, automatic weapon fire sounds, maybe a block away. Weapons discharge from the other direction. Faisal doesn’t even flinch, doesn’t even pause in his answer. He gets visibly nervous soon after, and they end the session.

These guys could be from nearly any American city, even in 2006 in this film. Three years later, in early 2009, they’ve been able to relocate to the US as refugees and even meet James Hetfield… well, three of them met Hetfield, Tony was out of town working on getting his family out of Iraq.

And on Sunday night, two days after the last of the band’s four members was resettled in the United States, they enjoyed what any metal fan would have to call heaven: bearhugs and “Wow, dude” heart-to-hearts backstage with Metallica at the Prudential Center in Newark. It probably wasn’t necessary for James Hetfield, Metallica’s lead singer, to surprise them after the show by handing over one of his guitars, a black ESP, and signing it “Welcome to America”; their minds were already blown.

Sure they’ve met Hetfield, but one of the dreams that Firas spoke of early on was that they can’t let their hair grow without being arrested or beaten. It looks like they’ve been focusing their efforts on

Update on the relocation to the US from the NY Times print on February 3, 2009, on page C1 of the New York edition. The NYT online piece has three songs for streaming; presumably the ones from the Syrian recording session. The sound quality isn’t phenomenal, but add in a producer and recording engineers who’ve recorded rock or metal before? The image at the top shows Faisal, Marwan and Firas with James Hetfield, and I didn’t see a credit, but I stole it from the NYT article, so likely some staff photographer or the band.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

I was looking at lastminutetravel.com and priceline.com and all the other cut-rate sites to find the cheapest place possible so that we could have a room for the weekend while we drive around looking for an apartment. Hopefully we’ll find a place with immediate availability so that we can sleep THERE on the night of the 12th (breath in… breathe out…) so that we don’t have to spend the rest of the month in hotel as well. There are some decent priced “holiday rentals” I’ve seen advertised for 5-700 per week, which would be a saving over the hotel.

Due to some issues on this end, I’m not going to be able to pay upfront for the hotel, so Priceline, etc are out; I have to reserve with the hotel directly and pay when we get there. Downside is that it’s going to run me $30 a night more I really wanted to pay, but they have a pet package;

Package Name: Purrrfect Place to Paws
When travelling [sic] with your pet on this package we will donate $5.00CDN to the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies. Rate includes a welcome amenity for your pet. All suites offer…

I was half thinking of boarding the dog for a couple days when we got to Toronto to allow us to stay in a cheaper, pet-hating hotel or even a hostel. The Super 8 package above, however, comes out about the same as the total cost of both the cheap pre-pay pet-hater hotel and the doggy overnight camp. Rather than a hotel that not only grudgingly accepts pets up to 10 pounds, I can go with one that seems perfectly happy ENCOURAGING pets. Sure Super 8 doesn’t scream style and service, but it’s right on Chinatown and I’m perfectly happy staying there. Besides, we’ll be taking the dog with us to meet potential landlords.

So, July 9-12, Toronto lodging secured.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

While I was flagging a couple spam messages in my gmail account today, I happened to actually see part of the image as it was spamifying the message. However, I thought I saw something that couldn’t possibly be true, and I actually hit the UNDO button to bring the spam back to my inbox.

Sure enough, I wasn’t losing my mind. This internet pharmacy was offering all the usual medications you’d expect, plus the ironically named erector Viagra Soft.

Did anyone in marketing not pass that name past a focus group? Wonder what slogans were turned down for Viagra Soft.

Now, watch the spam comment attempts on this post spike…

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Well, I’ve spent all of fifteen minutes upgrading from 2.7x to 2.8 on the server, including time to upgrade a handful of plugins that I’ve been putting off.

I like the new behind-the-scenes layout, though it’s a significant change that will take a bit of time to get used to. The plugin auto-upgrade feature is rather handy for those times when you just don’t feel like opening a term or can’t for technical reasons. I’d never enabled it in 2.7, so it’s new to me.

I was surprised that my layout and widgets all seem to be functional after the upgrade, and I was even more surprised when a long overdue update for the Livejournal Crossposter plugin showed up in my list of upgrades. Considering I’ve been limping along with a manually modified 1.x version of that from when the developer went AWOL…

Now that the electronic house is in order, back to packing and getting the real life one in order.

Update: One item with the LJ-XP upgrade; it uses a default hostname of www.livejournal.com, which then tosses a bogus error about not being able to get db master at /home/lj/cgi-bin/User.pm – this doesn’t appear to be documented anywhere… Do NOT use the default; remove the www. and use livejournal.com instead, and it works fine.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Nine of the music tracks (10 if you count Churchill’s lead-in to Aces High off the start) on this new 16 track (17 w/ Churchill) live album were released in the years before Live After Death. In fact, those same 9 tracks also appear on Live After Death.

Of the other seven tracks, the most recent is Hallowed Be Thy Name from 1993. There’s nothing from 2006’s A Matter of Life and Death, nothing from 2003’s Dance of Death… nothing from the most recent five studio albums, actually.

They sound sound fine, but I have to say it’s a bit disappointing to witness what sounds like little more than a nostalgia machine. The set list is just too… safe…

The soundtrack offers no surprises, here’s hoping that the film is worth watching.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Maybe we’ll have to find a NON-UNITED-VAN-LINES moving system of some sort. Ideally it would be a load-it-ourselves pod that could just find its way to our new location. Will keep looking.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

• Apple iPod 5th Gen. Black 80 GB Excellent Condition
• Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters series 1st print - VG
• PrimeFilm PF3600 PRO Film Scanner
• Box of “Copper Age” comics
• Yamaha RX-V496 Dolby / DSP / DTS AV Receiver + main speakers
• IKEA CD / DVD Shelves - Silver colour
• Large comfortable couch
• IKEA Corner Desk - Effectiv
• Lexmark Optra S 1625 - printer - B/W - laser
• Heavy Duty Extra Large Painter’s Easel

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

I’m listing things on ebay and kijiji and I’m trying to list fair, accurate postal information. So, I head over to canadapost.ca and fill in information on the expected size and weight of a package.

Length: 20cm
Width: 25cm
Height: 35cm
Weight: 2.6kg

It’s a tall thing that I’m shipping, so naturally I order the numbers the way they come show on the ruler as I measure the object. Seems perfectly reasonable, and I hit submit. I receive an error that says;

Improperly specified dimensions. Length, width, and height values must represent the longest, second longest and shortest values respectively.

I know I’m a computer, and sorting numbers is one of those things I do… but it’s not my passion. My passion is making you ape creatures DANCE FOR MY AMUSEMENT

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

So little time, so little cash… could stand to have an extra $1000, but isn’t that always the case?

Applied for an apartment on Wellesley / Parliament area of Toronto last night, and the managers already called back to say that they have a nice 1BR for $880, all util included for July 1. Hate overlapping the rentals here and there, but it might be the only way.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Andrew W.K. from the press release: “I’ve recorded my own cover versions of two classic Canadian punk tunes: The Leather Uppers Don’t Sell Hot Dogs Tonight, and Subhumans Oh Canaduh.’

On the flip side from Andrew’s tracks are two more songs performed by The Evaporators; an original The Bombs in My Pants and a cover of Montreal group Les Hou-Lops Oh Non from the 1960s.

I was pretty sure of what I’d be getting from The Evaporators in style and quality, but Andrew W.K.? A mostly unknown quantity. I enjoyed his album of party songs I Get Wet well enough, but covering Vancouver’s Subhumans? An American covering Oh Canaduh? Hmm…

The Evaporators tracks are about as I expected; solid and quick, good pop songs. The Andrew W.K. tracks are a pleasant surprise; Oh Canaduh brings in some needed guitars on top of the expected synth you’d expect. It’s a good update on a classic punk song, making it, if anything, much more darkly relevant than it was back in the late 70s.

How can you go wrong covering a Leather Uppers song? While I might have preferred Sugar Sandwich, Hot Dogs is a great little anthem, even without the benefit of a guitar and drum duo.

Oh Canaduh
Gerry Hannah
“Death to the Sickoids” b/w “Oh Canaduh”, 1978

Every new day the dollar goes down
The sea’s getting blacker, the sky’s turning brown
You ain’t got a job, you can’t pay the rent
And now you’re paying interest on all the money you’ve been lent

Oh Canaduh
What’s wrong with you
You better wake up
Now what you gonna do

The big companies are milking us dry
Our corporation nation is soon gonna die
And in the capitol they’re sipping their tea
They care about their paycheques but not about you and me

Oh Canaduh
What’s wrong with you
You better wake up
Now what you gonna do

You spent all your money on a lot of useless toys
You’re so fucking dumb you stupid cowboys
You ain’t got no jobs, you can’t pay the rent
And now we’re paying interest on all the money you’ve been lent

Oh Canaduh
What’s wrong with you
You better wake up
Now what you gonna do

White wasteland

• Andrew W.K.
• Evaporators
• Nardwuar
• Leather Uppers
• Subhumans
• Cover art on the 7″ by Mitch Clem, punk rock cartoonist
• Pre-order some vinyl or iTunes downloads (or order if it’s after June 23rd, 2009 when you see this)

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

I have no idea what the issue is with EMI, or if this is simply a novel marketing concept from Dangermouse and Lynch, but whatever it is, it seems to be working.

Check out the NPR story which includes the streaming audio player

Downloading mp3 files from NPR’s online stream of Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse’s ‘Dark Night Of The Soul’.

If you found this page you probably already know that due to a dispute between Danger Mouse and EMI it would seem likely that ‘Dark Night Of The Soul’ will never be officially released. :-(

However as you are also no doubt aware NPR currently have a stream of the entire album. This obviously got many people thinking (me included), if we could capture the stream we could download the album.

Before I start I should preface by saying, yes this album has already shown up on various file sharing networks. However, it is not clear what the quality of this recording is. Also depending on your own country’s laws it ‘MAY’ (note I said ‘may’ …. in full caps no less) actually be legal to download a copy from the NPR stream (ask a local lawyer if you are not sure!).

Here is the full list:

After downloading the files you will need to tag them. I would suggest tagging them as per the names on the NPR site as this is the only official source. Most users up to now have downloaded from the various file sharing networks, which are tagged incorrectly, e.g. removing David Lynch’s credits.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

Today, I’m pulling some of my recent history out of my twitter stream manually, and maybe editing them a bit for readability where required; adding spaces and vowels and context. I copied them out in reverse order, with the newest at the top. I wasn’t really thinking that through, and the work to reverse the order isn’t worth it, so understand that you’re going backwards in time if you read top-down.

1:10pm, May 15, 2009 — Doing a pre-screen hoop jumping today with a recruiter and heart’s just not in it… Can’t stop looking and interviewing without OFFER…

12:03pm, May 15, 2009 — @arnicare says “People are looking at Boiron Arnicare as a safer option for pain relief” - Safer because… IT’S WATER.

10:55am, May 15, 2009 — There are meetings booked for next friday in Toronto, travel plans to follow. Pantless telephone interviews may work, but not so in-person.

9:43pm, May 14, 2009 — The Sun, The Shuttle, The Satellite - very cool Transit: 0.8s. Alt: 600 km. Speed: 7 km/s (25000 km/h). Length of Atlantis: 35m, length of Hubble: 13m. Photographer’s site

9:05pm, May 14, 2009 — @jemmen beat the problem to death with the corpse of a developer?

8:24pm, May 14, 2009 — Thinking that we need to make a sign to correct the “You are now leaving Halifax” signs for when we leave. /Hali/Helli/

7:24pm, May 14, 2009 — @DrOttematic You doctors, judging the geeks with the drinking on the job thing, just because nobody lets you guys :)

11:05am, May 14, 2009 — @snfu apparently - I’ve seen posters up for the all-ages in Halifax finally. I’ll bring some old fishermen for Chi.

12:30am, May 14, 2009 — Said by the guy who released a BILLION remixes of “Closer” … RT: @trent_reznor You people are incredibly tedious. Goodnight.

9:01pm, May 13, 2009 — Hmm, next weekend @SNFU is in Halifax, and if things progress in Toronto, I might not be in Halifax to see them play…

3:12pm, May 13, 2009 — Another call from 3 interview position in Toronto. Talk of logistics on flights to go meet team… Not an OFFER but good sign..

12:11pm, May 13, 2009 — David Byrne / Brian Eno live EP as fund raiser for Amnesty International

11:04am, May 13, 2009 — Interesting note about RIM #7: MacBook Pro is an official, company-supplied computer on the cool teams.. even if it doesn’t work w/ BB Storm

10:03pm, May 12, 2009 — LAME. Pixies ‘new’ release “Minotaur” is merely an over-priced studio album re-issue with new artwork. CD:$150 VINYL:$450

7:10pm, May 12, 2009 — @trishussey If nothing else, raising 1 zone ride (on Vancouver’s buses and Skytrain) to $3.50 will convince people that cars aren’t so bad….

6:04pm, May 12, 2009 — That @CrystalMethod / @Matisyahu track off the new album passes a couple listens unscathed http://tr.im/l8tl

4:36pm, May 12, 2009 — Nice open letter to @oprah (Oprah Winfrey, of course) - Dear Oprah “Pull your support from @JennyFromMTV (Jenny McCarthy) and her platform of anti-vaccination.”

2:43pm, May 12, 2009 — I just saw a guy leave liquor store with case of Alpine beer on shoulder. He was wearing a sweater, tuque, and a scarf. Weather is okay today - is he just in character?

1:17pm, May 11, 2009 — New interview confirmed and some discussion about another one. Not sure if I want to see winters in Montreal though…

10:51pm, May 10, 2009 — @jemmen Butter Chicken Sausages. As God is my witness, I will have those one day.

2:50pm, May 09, 2009 — Angry hipsters upset that @trent_reznor made a comment about Weezer, question NIN relevancy while embracing Weezer’s? http://is.gd/y7nq

4:57pm, May 08, 2009 — @voteforharper @pmharper No. No no no no no. Never. Not now, not ever. No.

8:59pm, May 07, 2009 — @thesneeze it’ll soon be replaced by the Rabid Cougar Flu. It’s much much scarier, and involves leopard print spandex.

7:15pm, May 07, 2009 — @mercerch I met someone who claimed to be Tucker Max once. That guy was a pretentious dick, and while I have my doubts it was the guy…

3:50pm, May 06, 2009 — (Slate article on Oprah and Jenny) “A pediatrician is a person with a medical degree who takes care of children. Some of them are said to trust science more than celebrities when it comes to health care.”

For both of you unfamiliar with Twitter, the @ signifies a Twitter user name follows, and the initialism RT stands for “Retweet” where I’m quoting another user’s statement

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

“175 buildings of architectural, historic, cultural and/or social significance open their doors to the public. See the Buildings to visit page for our 10th Anniversary bigger and better 2009 roster! Admission is free.”

I’ve been poking around the Doors Open site to see what kind of places might be open next year. I’ve found some things that need to be investigated further; community gardens and kitchens, art and architecture, networking opportunities, etc. There are a lot of churches, mosques, and synagogues taking part in this event. There’s also the Riwoche Tibetan Buddhist temple and the Toronto East Masonic Temple.

An awful lot of city libraries are part of the event too, which seems almost counter-intuitive, as libraries are pretty much always open to the public. Some of the buildings are pretty impressive, and I think I’d like to visit the Thomas Fisher library sometime.

“The Stop’s Supper Solutions helps you get ready for another busy week by preparing five delicious, wholesome meals for a family of four without the hassle and mess. Spend just 2 hours in our commercial-grade kitchen to assemble quick, healthy dinners in a fun, social setting. And you’ll learn some helpful hints from Joshna, our professional chef. The cost per person is $150 and includes all the ingredients needed to prepare five dinners for a family of four.”

$7.5 per head for a week’s worth of dinners; and only two hours of time? Brilliant. I’d be interested in something like that happening weekly, but it seems like something of a monthly event.

Courtyard House is a project that has a small house built ‘inside out’ by western standards; with a central courtyard that all rooms look out on. It almost encourages you to work and live outside as much as you can, and when you can’t, it still brings the outside in.

The Courtyard House was inspired by an ancient form of architecture and a new form of North American urban thinking - infill housing as an alternative urban typology.

By converting a contractor warehouse in a mixed-use industrial neighborhood, the ambition was to create a modern, affordable home and studio for a family of four - one which could successfully adapt to a mid-block or laneway situation, where there is no typical front or back. The design of the house is generated by an emphasis on the views and activities of the interior courtyards, where all the windows look inwards.

“It is the courtyard house’s multivalence – to be urban yet introverted, open yet intimate – that reveals the rich potential of the project’s double readings.”

Toronto has what they claim is North America’s first urban-sited wind turbine; it’s at Exhibition Place, just west of downtown Toronto. Is it possible that Toronto is even more forward thinking than Vancouver?

The turbine production capacity helps displace up to 380 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually, which is the equivalent of taking 1,300 cars off the road or planting 30,000 trees each year.

The Krishnas have a big temple right downtown in Toronto as well, so there’s always the Sunday service and free vegetarian meal that they put on. Religious people intrigue me where religions do not.

Also, we might have to buy lifejackets and join the Westwood Sailing Club; learn to sail and then book the club boats.

I knew that there was a subway in downtown Toronto, which implied that there’d be some amount of tunnels, likely with some shops… but there’s this huge maze that runs under much of the downtown area. With some clever planning, winter exposure to the elements can be minimized. PATH’s Wikipedia page and their own web site with map.

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.

They pretty much insist that you use their amazing ResumeExpert system, which pulls the keywords out, and lets you pop up on employer and recruiter searches. I decide to give it a go, and upload my recently updated resume.

Good fucking luck.

I try uploading the new resume, and it spins and spins and spins, and then gives me an error that the file is too big. I check, and it’s 102KB. That’s too big? Do they specialize in resumes for people with teeny little one page resumes? I checked the page again for any warning about maximum size, and there’s nothing. What’s the max? Would I be okay with a file at 99KB?

Okay, fine, I’ll just copy the text and submit it in the hand text box that’s meant to allow you to copy and paste your resume… Or, so you’d think…

Hit the radio button for “Cut and paste your resume” and paste text in the box, and hit Next…

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at PostResumeView.SaveValues()

Oh yeah…

Does anyone human even try these job sites before they roll them out? Try hiring a QA team and maybe a UI designer for a change, people.

Oh look, now it’s logged me out. I wonder why I stopped using workopolis last time…

Originally published at bankrupt artist v.3. You can comment here or there.