aaron schwab

I Mother Earth hit Sundays right on the nose, for the most part (well, except for the alien abduction thing.)

it’s been a simple and tired day (staying up until 4:30 in the morning will do the latter to you) — woke up, finished up my catsitting duties at Tim’s, came home and did some work from home, with liberal patches of procrastination. i’m anticipating tomorrow to be much of the same, except Joe wants me to meet him at the Lang one last time so i can get some photos of him skateboarding up his old cove wall before the end of the month. at least that’ll give me a chance to get out of the house for a bit, but then it’s back to the grindstone of burning grads’ proof CDs. it’s a bit of a daunting and tedious job, but the end is likely closer than i currently think, and besides, i have a lot of motivation to do this in working off my D300.

anyways, i think i’ll go burn off a few more proof CDs before tomorrow. cheers!

(no, not this kind.) i seem to have proven to be a useful pair of hands over the course of today, which has felt like three days stitched into one, simply because it seems i’ve done so much.

as he promised last night, Joe phoned me this morning at nine while on his way to come pick me up for work — he called me yesterday to ask if i could help with one final exodus of miscellany from the Lang, and i figured i’d be a good ol’ chap and lend a hand. five hours and a bunch of conduit, wood scraps, veneer, table tops, furniture pieces, PVC piping and fluorescent tubes later, i headed home with a back only slightly more sore than before (but far less sore than Joe’s — poor dude’s working himself too hard these days), grabbed a sandwich to fill the void that skipping breakfast had left in my stomach, and biked over to the apartment that is now formerly known as Cagney’s to help her do some last-minute packing before the arrival of her new roommate and the U-Haul truck.

it’s kind of strange; i’m going to — in an odd way — miss her old apartment. her new one is larger and is in a nicer part of a nicer town, but i have a few fond memories of the old one (which still has stuff that needs to be moved out, the process of which i’ll likely help with on Sunday), plus the fact that it’s closer than her new place. but it’s not like a car being available to me is much of a rarity. but hey, a six-klick bike ride won’t kill me any more than two if it comes to that!

after heading from her place to Tim’s to keep up with my catsitting duties, i went home for supper then grabbed a half-hour nap or so before heading to Waterloo to check out Cagney and her roommate Elaine’s new digs, and to set up their wireless internet connection (which took all of two seconds, but it helps when someone hands you a router that works the way it’s supposed to.) seeing as Cagney headed home with her dad this evening, i found myself in uptown Waterloo at ten o’clock with nothing to do and no desire to head home right away, so i rang up Anuj on impulse and chilled with him for a while.

for someone i’d consider a very close friend, i feel like i don’t see Anuj nearly enough, so i’m glad i decided to call him tonight. we ended up getting bubble tea at Sweet Dreams (where i ran into an old friend of mine, Josh Rhab, the likes of whom i haven’t seen in at least a year or two) then just chilling at his new apartment, where i showed him, via Youtube, a band that i think everyone should know about before having a few rounds of Diddy Kong Racing after dusting off his old N64.

all in all, a quality day/evening — work for a few hours, girlfriend, old buddy. the finer things in life, aye?

tomorrow is looking up as well. more catsitting at Tim’s place, a dip in the pool (possibility of rain aside) and Tasha’s birthday party at Phil’s with Tasha, Mike, Ashley and god knows who else. also, i need to make a point to start eating better, or at least eating total crap on a less regular basis. my intestines staged a medium-scale mutiny on me tonight, probably in retaliation for the slurpee, meat-laden pizza, Dorito and taquito cocktail i presented it with over the course of the day. ugh.

there are currently seven keys on my keychain, and only three pertain to me. one’s for the studio door at the Lang and two are for Cagney’s apartment building. as of Friday, however, i’ll likely never set foot into either space again — come Friday, both parties will have moved from their respective areas for which i’ve had keys bestowed upon me. Cagney’s moving into her new apartment with her new roommate in Waterloo, and Joseph is moving out of his studio at the Lang into … well, moving out and taking all his stuff home (much of which i packed onto carts today, including more laminate flooring and lumber than i care to count and 48 cinder blocks, which i’m just compulsive enough to have counted.) i don’t know what i’ll do with the three useless keys, however — maybe melt them together into a cool little sculpture or grind the teeth off and make them into a necklace. you know, because i can’t just straight up throw something out.

as i rolled up to my house on my bike after work, i noticed that Joe had beaten me there, and had dropped off a stack of collasped boxes on my porch. i relieved him of a few big ones he didn’t need so that i could bring them to Cagney’s tonight for pre-moving packing purposes. i thought at first that the box from a ten-inch Ryobi ripsaw would be too big for anything she’d need it for, but the girl’s got a lot of clothes. lots. (if you’re reading this, babe, i’m not saying that in a bad way — but we know it’s true!)

tomorrow and Friday should be slightly less strenuous workdays than today was (although i appreciate the burst of vigour that working hard for seven or eight hours gives) — i’ll be planted firmly in my computer chair, which is something i’m pretty used to, but i’ll be burning proof CDs for the last batch of engineering grads Dragan and i shot. i have a few hundred to motor through over the coming week or so, so i hope i’m faster than i think i’ll be at churning them out.

and hey, i’m sure Joe won’t mind if i take a break in my day to scoot downtown for some refreshments and sightseeing! such is a perk of working from home and being blessed with a working bicycle — which, considering my track record, can be considered a blessing without much hyperbole.

“it’s a small world after all,” ain’t it? it truly is. two separate incidents this evening proved that to me very clearly.

the first incident happened as i was biking home from work in the rain, neon green and blue oversized Nike windbreaker and all. somewhere on Frederick Street, i made an interesting find in the middle of the road — someone’s Nikon camera bag. being a bit of a photo buff as i am, my heart lept into my throat at the thought of someone having dropped a camera case that could be containing a camera. upside down. in the middle of a busy main road. in the rain. with as much friction as my wet braked could muster, i slid to a stop to pick it up. fortunately, the bag was empty, which means no cameras had been harmed. i took th ebag home and called the number that was written on the nametag inside and, after a couple tried, i got a hold of the owner, who was just beside himself with joy that i’d found his bag — turned out his wallet (ID, money, credit card) and medication were in the bag’s side pockets. and wouldn’t you know it, he came over to pick it up and realized that he’s known my dad for 35 years. of all people to lose a camera bag, and then for me to find it …

then earlier tonight, around 10:30, i hopped on my bike to head up to Tim Hortons, because i still haven’t shaken my taste for their bagels. i decided to take a scenic route home and i ran into Joschka just outside his house, whom i’ve known since grade four or so. we get on to chatting a little, and it turns out that his new band (up until recently) has been practicing in the Lang Tannery building where Joe’s studio is (“was” as of the end of this week.) i started thinking back to the beginning of my work day this morning, and i remembered Joe telling me that he talked ot a new band that’s been jamming in the Lang, and so i asked Joschka his new band’s name and wouldn’t you know it — Joe spoke with them yesterday and even gave them some cans of paint to use for their jam spot. as if an old school friend of mine ended up jamming in the building my boss works in and the two ended up talking, neither knowing that the other knows me. weird, i tell you.

1937-2007

it’s 3:30 in the morning on a Sunday (which i’m still considering a Saturday night) and i’m running on the least sleep i’ve actually managed to function on in quite some time.

last night was a bit of a spontaneous burst for me — i ended up going to Guelph for an LS:M show at Vinyl with Candice, who swung by my place to pick me up on her way back to Guelph from school. i ended up making this plan and getting ready to head out for the night with about five minutes of notice, even though i realistically had all damn day to prepare. but i work better under pressure, right? the show was fantastic as always — one of the better of the multiple Lifestory sets i’ve seen, and i walked away with a dope shirt, to boot.

after the show, the two of us plus Chris went back to Candice’s place for a bit, played with a local cat in the middle of the street then went back to the Vinyl for a legit bar night. it was kind of strange paying admission to the show and then paying cover for a bar night at the same establishment, but whatever! Candice and i (predictably) ended up dancing onstage for a little bit too, dead as the place was at the time.

post-Vinyl, we migrated — along with a few other bargoers and showgoers — to the house of a couple Lifestory band members for an afterparty. it didn’t hold a candle to the first LSM haus party i went to at Chris’, but it was a chill time, and some pizza bookended the evening for me.

actually, that’s not true; going back to Chris’ place to chill before going back to Candice’s to crash, but instead ending up crashing in Chris’ bed with him and Candice bookended the evening for me — the highlight of which involved Jon coming home, coming downstairs into Chris’ room, seeing us all in bed, saying “what, are we gettin’ naked, now?” and jumping into the bed sans pants to spoon with the lot of us. funny thing is that i pretty much predicted things to go that way, but it was still hella funny. it also lent a whole new meaning to the title of Lifestory’s newest EP, Hold Me in the Wind, My Friend.

after a whole hour or two of sleep, the three of us (Jon retired to his own bedroom shortly after pseudomolesting us) took our sweet time getting up and headed to Angel’s Diner for breakfast. three cheers for blueberries on pancakes! even though that breakfast was only 14 hours ago, it feels like last night and this morning happened last week. such is the case when you barely sleep, i suppose. though i really wish Cagney could’ve gotten off of work in time to partake in last night’s festivities alongside Chris, Candice and i, i still had a good time with two of my very best friends, and it was a nice change of pace.

after getting a lift home from Candice on her way to Cagney’s after breakfast (the both of whom went to Stratford tonight to party it up there), i just had time to shower before heading over to Mike and Tasha’s place to help Mike give Tasha her surprise birthday gift: an impromptu photoshoot, with me behind the lens and her in front! given her wardrobe items worn for the photos, i questioned whether this shoot was moreso a present for Mike than for Tash, but i’m more than available to pay him back in kind on her behalf should the situation arise, so no worries! i have yet to go through the photos i took of her and, while i’m sure i can sift through a few of them for gold, i’m really eager to get the both of them in front of a legitimate backdrop with proper lighting set up for portraits. even though Mike didn’t have to pay me for doing this, he somehow managed to anyways, and made me a kickass dinner. Mike and Tasha are good eggs and i can’t wait to have an evening of culinary delight with them again.

after moseying on home from their place and getting in my front door, i managed to grab a sorely-needed nap for a few hours before heading back to Waterloo to see them yet again at Phil’s. i’m at the point right now where my voice feels like it’s almost completely gone from a combination of the cold i’m coming out of and yelling over loud music at the show and bar nights. sounds like it’s about time for me to sleep well into tomorrow (well, technically today.) fingers crossed for having Monday off too before i work super late on Tuesday night!

tonight was a first for Cagney and myself: Phil’s on a thursday! actually, i’m halfway lying — i’ve been on three thursdays prior, but they were all back when thursday was Throwdown Thursday (metal night) and on these three particular instances, there were actually live bands playing. not that that has a thing to do with my/our first electro night, i’m just saying.

it was a semiplanned occasion — Steph (the one from college i’m going to dearly miss if i don’t club with her at least occasionally) was headed there for a friend’s moving away party, and knowing how often she frequents the Revolution Nightclub, there was no way i could pass up hanging out with her on my adopted stomping ground. and wouldn’t you know it, Cagney, Sara and i might’ve found a concertgoer to take my fourth Radiohead ticket for August 15th in Steph (fingers crossed that she can not only come with, but drive too!)

my afternoon was a random one in the truest sense of the word — on my way home from working at the studio (i’d decided to walk after missing my bus by two minutes), i ran into a dude named Graham, whom i’d only met once prior, at two in the morning at a hole-in-the-wall pizza place in downtown Kitchener. he’d just gotten off work, much like myself, and was interested in buying a copy of our EP, so he was kind enough to provide me company on the entire walk home so i could fetch one for him. nice dude!

anyways, it’s four in the morning and though i don’t have to work tomorrow (well, today), i know i’ll be dead on my feet the whole day if i don’t hit the hay now, and that won’t be good if i end up being able to make it to the Vinyl in Guelph tomorrow to see Lifestory:Monologue for the second time in a week’s time. never a such thing as too much LSM!

a Samsung SGH-a736. so clearly this is the first thing i do with it …

(well, second thing — the first thing was logging onto Facebook with it after i discovered that i have unlimited internet. god help me.)

the wonderful Stephanie Irvine at Rogers Wireless recommended and sold it to me — the same Stephanie that made my college career bearable (and helped me score ace marks on more than one group assignment, i’ll admit!) i might end up kicking back with her at Phil’s tomorrow night; though such an evening is a common activity for me, it’s a rarity for her, and she’s one of the ones i don’t want to lose touch with now that we’re in post-college mode, plus i have Friday off. so i might as well, eh? Phil’s on a Thursday will be a new thing for me, so we’ll see how that goes if indeed it goes down.

i feel like i’ve been doing nothing lately but taking pictures, which isn’t a bad thing. what is a bad thing, however, is how i woke up today aching all over, with a giant headache to ice the cake. must’ve slept standing on my head or something — at least that’s what it feels like!

anyways, i finally got off my frugal ass and dropped a little coin on a pro Flickr account, so all my photos that i deem presentable can now be seen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/schwabby519/sets/. i’ll soon be adding a page to my blog with a link that’ll appear alongside my Contact and PG links, just in case you forget. but please, visit it often! as a matter of fact, go there now and check out live photos from last Friday of Farewell to Freeway, Lifestory:Monologue and Playing the Victim. commentary on how great i am (or aren’t) is always appreciated.

last night was another shoot for me to do — this time, it was a final promo set for Of The First Born Son. they’re playing a final show on July 25, and Andy asked me to do some shots for the flyer and their Myspace, and i’m always glad to help these guys out. the notion of me trying out for Jamie and Rob’s new project is up in the air, as the project’s proposed drummer is still down and out with a knee injury.

for my time and trouble (which really was no trouble at all), the boys tossed me a free teeshirt and hoodie, to go along with the discount hoodie that Farewell to Freeway sold me on Friday for doing photos for them. here’s a lovely montage of my new hardcore swag. all items modeled by yours truly — except for one, which was graciously modeled by Cagney. try to guess which one she’s wearing!

i swear, i’m gonna end up deaf if i keep going to shows without earplugs, and even moreso if i keep standing up front or even on the stage to take photos.

that said, it was refreshing to finally shoot some photos again, and on new camera equipment to boot: this time, it was Farewell to Freeway, Lifestory:Monologue and Playing the Victim at the Gig in Kitchener. this was — i believe — my second time seeing PTV, and i’ve lost count of how many times i’ve seen FIIF and LSM (hooray for acronyms.) anyways, i’ll amend this post with a link once i figure out the best place to host my photos. view the results of tonight’s shooting here! Freeway was likely the best i’ve seen them to date on Friday night, and Lifestory can really do no wrong, and it was a nice touch to end the evening at Crabby Joe’s with Candice, Chris, Jon and LSM and some of their entourage. Freeway even gave me a cut on a white hoodie for doing photos for them. sweet!

Saturday night was another evening of shutterbuggery as i photographed the events of a friend of the family’s birthday. it was a nice evening overall i suppose, and it was nice to see people i rarely get to see (my godsisters, for one) but honestly, it was a bit of a dull night for me. i was tired and drained from a hearty band practice earlier in the day (this whole “play no shows and hole up to write songs” strategy is coming along very nicely) and it was basically the classic scenario where the grownups all hang out and the kids (well, me anyways) end up crashing on the couch for a while. still, it was nice, in spite of the fact that my attempt to make it to Phil’s after leaving failed.

this afternoon was the second time this weekend where i wished i’d had earplugs — i was sitting at home editing Friday night’s photos when i learned that Chris and Paul’s new band was having a practice at their jam space, so i packed up my camera again for kicks and headed over. it’s kind of unfair, really, or at least will be once they start playing shows — this band has one of the most talented musicians on each respective instrument in the 519 area. i know they’re going to totally school half the area’s other bands, and that’s saying nothing of the pedigrees of the members (which have included stints with Skylight Drama, Race Well Run, A Satellite Connecticut, Take Victory, Straight Reads the Line and Dead and Divine.)

a short while and a few casual photos later, i headed home after acquiring a ringing in my ears for the second time in three days and just bummed around, and now i’m off to bed. tomorrow is our last day at the University of Waterloo for shooting engineering grads, so it’ll be nice to have a break from that routine for a little while. i have Tuesday off before working on Wednesday doing tear-down work at the studio, so i’m likely going to use that day to get some business taken care of and possibly see Cagney at some point. keep an eye out for photos from Friday, as i’ll post links everywhere i can once i figure out the best place to display them. i’ll also have pictures up from Of The First Born Son’s final promo shoot, which i’m doing tomorrow, so look for those, too!