aaron schwab

i got home from what turned out to be a four-hour band practice a little while ago, and are my ears ever ringing. i have to stop forgetting to bring earplugs to band practice (and to shows i photograph, for that matter.) we made some awesome progress tonight though, doing more writing for and solidifying of the four songs — tentatively titled Song 1, Song 2, Song 3 and Song 4 — we have on the go. we spent a chunk of time at the end of jamming going through key items on Anuj’s iPod for the sake of comparing notes and weighing opinions, too, which is always a nice way to unwind after practicing, plus it’s a good time to bring up and illustrate song ideas.

even though Anuj and i have only jammed with Kyle a handful of times, i’m really stoked at how things are shaping up; the poppy stuff sounds poppier than anything a band i’ve been in has written or played before and the heavier stuff sounds heavier. as trite as it is to insinuate that one’s band is taking every one of their angles and pushing it to further extremes, it’s very true in this case, and it feels great. the short-term goal at the moment is to further solidify the four songs we’ve got on the go then record instrumental demos of them to audition singers with. fingers crossed on the prospect of finding someone who can actually sing, lest we have to hogtie Tim and bring him in for studio sessions (we might just enlist his piano and violin services if he’s up for it come EP recording time, speaking of that.)

it’s not even two in the morning, but i think i’m going to hit the hay soon, anyways — having the next day off tends to exacerbate the problem of my horrendous sleep schedule the evening before, but i don’t want to fall asleep during my dental appointment tomorrow, the likes of which i’m clearly looking forward to with an eager anticipation. (come to think of it, falling asleep mid-cleaning would be a blessing.)

also, anyone reading this should check out Loyalist, Mike from Play Oliver’s new band. i can’t stop listening to You Can’t Mean It Twice. Mike has incredible songwriting abilities, as both his old band and this new song attest to — this is the kind of pop sensibility i aspire to in many ways, and that i wish i’d hear more of from emerging area bands.

i’m not really in the mood to compose an eloquent speech right now, so i’ll just say, flat out, what’s been on my mind all evening — Tim quit.

i’d say he quit the band, but there’s no proper band in place to speak of at the moment; instead, he talked to me on the phone tonight about how myself, Anuj and Kyle — who has yet to be formerly inducted into whatever form of a band we become — seem to posess commitment and a desire to be in a fulltime band that far outweigh his own, and thus he feels it unfair to continue on under the premise that he shares our dedication. he’s decided to duck out of forming a band with us, and i feel similar to how i felt when Tim, Anuj and i spoke with Matt when the situation with him was brought out into the open — i don’t feel as though i’ve lost anything in Tim as far as our friendship goes, but it sucks that he won’t be a part of whatever musical project that ends up coming to fruition. nonetheless, there’s a sense of relief in knowing that Tim is being honest with the rest of us, and in knowing that we can progress without feeling held back by an errant member and without feeling like we’re forcing someone along for a ride they’re not completely stoked on being on.

i fully intend to see Tim just as much as — if not more than — before. the two of us and our ladies should do more things more often, i think.

my day started off with a kick; after forcing myself out of bed, i headed to the university to tear down gear and, upon Joe’s arrival, pack it up so that we can haul it over to the applied health sciences building to wrap up photographing their graduating class of 2009 on Friday. after that, i met Cagney at one of the two Voila salons in Waterloo for a chemical relaxation and trim. apparently, whatever Cagney did to my hair today will help it lay flatter and eliminate a lot of my daily frizz, which will help heaps, even though i was becoming somewhat fond of having hair that looked like a winged Chia pet.

after all was said, done, washed, cut and dried, we made our way down to Cagney’s old hair school (also a Voila establishment) to meet up with Christine so Cagney could evaluate her hair for hair model purposes. if things go according to plan, i’ll be accompanying the two of them to Toronto at the end of March so Cagney can show off the handiwork she does on Christine’s head between now and then (and i’ll be up front with camera in hand, lest there be some means in place that forbids me from doing so — and even those can be worked around, right?)

after the additional class at the school that Cagney picked up had let out tonight, i ended up heading back to her place with her. i’ll spare the details for the sake of our privacy and your attention span, but suffice to say we had a couple of really good talks today and this evening, and i feel great about a lot of things in general, from the band to my photography to things with Cagney herself. that girl is quite a gem, and i’m lucky to have her to talk to and to be with — and to eat sushi with, which is quickly becoming a weakness for both of us (either that, or it was a preexisting weakness that we’ve recently been offering little resistance to. in any case, raw fish is the best.)

as per my usual terrible sleep habits, i should’ve been in bed a long time ago — i’ve got promotional photos to shoot for The Action Potential, after which i need to get my license renewed and my oil changed. such a thrilling life i lead on my days off!

today went by at a lazy pace, for the most part. i got the rare blessing and curse of an opportunity to sleep in then wake up and burn CDs from home in my pyjamas. (tangent: as alluring as the notion of sleeping in as long as possible is, i always feel groggy and beaten down on days that i do. i almost seem to thrive on being consistently underslept, with the odd evening of a solid eight hours every now and then, just for balance.)

before heading up to the university to drop off a box of proof CDs, i started watching a film called Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, which features Ben Stein as the host. the film’s aim is to shed like on the supposed conspiracy the scientific community has against the notion of intelligent design and features interview clips from disenfranchised university professors in the US who have been fired and stripped of their credibility for even bothering to make reference to intelligent design.

surely, such censorship of free speech is a stain on the scientific community’s sacred right to question everything, but then again, this film is absolutely rife with propaganda, and i’m not just saying that because i don’t believe in divine creation, am a fan of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and think intelligent design is a crock of shit. no; i say it because of Mr. Stein’s overwhelming ignorance towards heavily-substantiated scientific theory. on more than one occasion throughout Expelled, he oversimplifies or greatly misconstrues and misinterprets scientific theories that are told to him, and continuously defaults to the possibility of everything having been designed by an intelligent force.

“but isn’t every scientific theory merely a theory, much like intelligent design?” well, technically, yes. scientific theory is also only accepted as fact when substantial evidence has been provided in its favour as proof of its truth. nothing can technically be presented as an objective truth because each person experiences reality subjectively, but it still stands that something like evolution has overwhelming evidence in its favour and intelligent design has none — none that can be substantiated scientifically, anyway.

but i don’t want to rant forever, because i’m sure i’ll get myself into waters too advanced for my breadth of knowledge. i’ll end by saying that i think Expelled should be viewed, as with everything else, with an open mind — hopefully the overwhelming aura of propaganda (c’mon; black and white footage of World War II? are you serious?) will make itself apparent to others besides myself.

the ARC battle felt sub-par tonight, largely because the room was almost empty; it’s as if people forgot about it this week. accolades should be directed towards The Rotten for taking tonight’s top spot. it was awesome to hear music that can be liegitimately called punk rock (what with the chainsmoker vocals and all) amongst a seemingly neverending sea of mediocre metalcore bands. it’s not that i dislike metalcore as a whole or anything, but it seems like it’s seldom done well enough to pay attention to. aside from The Rotten, my highlights of the night include having an in-depth conversation with Hutton and Alex about the perils of being unable to grow a full beard and being repeatedly fondled by Andrew Thorpe (but that’s hardly news.)

i’ve peeled myself away from the solo play mode of Scramble on Facebook (think digital Boggle) to catch up on this thing, after all of two days of saying nothing on it.

yesterday was mine and Cagney’s first anniversary of dating, and the day couldn’t have started off better — i did wake up next to her, after all! we didn’t do anything extravagant due to financial reasons (we both have some serious expenses in the near future) but i wish i could’ve done something elaborate for her. even still, it felt great to be with her for the day exactly one year after we first kissed. i know i gush, but what can i say; i dig her!

after waking up to no particular alarm or set schedule, we made our way to Stratford in time to catch the tail end of brunch, courtesy of Cagney’s brother, Jasson. the guy makes a mean plate of monkey bread (the likes of which i already forget the contents of, but was it ever delicious.) after stuffing ourselves with homemade Egg McMuffins and the aforementioned pastry, we kicked back and indulged in Blade II before heading back to KW to join Tim and Katie at the Princess Cinema for a Swedish vampire movie called Let The Right One In (which will probably get completely butchered by the upcoming American remake, which i’ll see for the sake of comparing notes, but i’m making the preemptive call right now that the original will remain superior.)

i know vampires in books and film feel really overdone right now, and i’m blaming that entirely on Stephenie Meyer — as far as teen love flicks go, Twilight was okay. it was laden with cheese, sap and predictability, but it was a passable teen drama, albeit a little on the dark side when held next to 10 Things I Hate About You. Twilight shouldn’t be looked at as a true vampire movie, though, as it fails on almost all counts — “vegetarian” vampires who sparkle under sunlight instead of burst into flames like they’re supposd to? please scroll to item #31 on this list for a more eloquent response than i care to muster at the moment. the woman’s official site doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy about her, either, largely because she’s apparently incapable of hiring a web designer from anywhere but her local grade 10 programming class.

but, i digress.

Let The Right One In is truly is unlike any horror film i’ve seen, and it differs from American horror in many key ways. i saw it 16 hours ago and i still have chillls from how disturbing it is.

American horror films tend to behave in a very ADD-ridden manner; quick camera cuts, ultra-tight shots and angles, loud noises, screaming — anything to make the frightening situation at hand seem over-the-top. Let The Right One In did just the opposite by portraying the scenery and characters along a more realistic frame of time and action. scenes of dreary landscapes or pained expressions were left to linger onscreen, undisturbed, for an uncomfortable length of time, for example, which i feel created the bulk of the movie’s tension. in a faster-paced horror film, suspense tends to ramp up very quickly, climax and then die down to incite a feeling of release in the viewer after the initial shock. on the contrary, Let The Right One In builds tension throughout the movie with no quick fix scare scene to resolve it; shit just keeps happening and getting weirder and scenes remain dark and drawn out and gloomy until you’re positive that something simply must jump out of the shadows to relieve you of all this pent-up, uncomfortable anticipation, but no; the scene simply changes from, say, a nighttime scene at the townhouse complex to a gray, overcast mid-afternoon scene, with Eli and Oskar just sitting there on the jungle gym, not speaking, seemingly basking in the very awkward silence that grates on the viewer’s nerves for the better part of two hours.

the movie isn’t without its freaky scenes and disturbing methods of resolution, however; blood is shed and fed upon and people get hacked up and disfigured and what have you, but it’s all portrayed in such a grim and toned-down way, that it only furthers feelings of unease instead of allowing for a sigh of relief — although Oskar’s first strike against his bane of schoolyard bullies did make me want to leap out of my seat and throw a mock one-two punch into the air in support of his actions.

i also feel inclined to say that Eli is portrayed as a vampire in a more realistic sense than what might have been recently thrust upon us. she adheres to the tenets of traditional vampiric folklore that Stephenie Meyer and her clans of Ziggy Stardust wannabes have somehow exempted themselves from — she’s vulnerable to sunlight in the burst-into-flames sort of way; she requires blood to survive; cats hate her with the fire of a thousand suns; and — as per the movie’s title — she cannot enter a dwelling unless formally invited in, lest she start bleeding from every pore.

i really shant say more. watch the trailer, look up local showtimes, bring a friend or two and go see it.

after a brief but intense noon-to-five workday today, i headed home and eagerly unloaded my new lighting kit from my van, which i picked up from Joe’s place en route back to KW from Stratford yesterday. i’ll do a detailed account of what it all contains soon, as i haven’t poked through every bag and box yet, but i did find, among a new reflector and battery pack, a new backpack camera case (as you can see, it fits my camera body, lenses and flashes perfectly!) a new case was certainly in order for me, and the backpack-style of this one will help heaps when i’m out atop my bike in the summertime. suffice to say i’m incredibly stoked and incredibly thankful that i have a boss whose main concern is putting into my hands the tools to make all the great photographs i’m striving to make.

i should get to bed now, though — i’ve got a day of CD burning and finding a new turn signal bulb for my van ahead of me!

work this week was pretty uneventful, i must say — even after a number of weeks away from photographing grads, a couple days back at it is more than enough to get back into the full swing of the routine. the fact that Mary joined me for yesterday’s and today’s sessions helped make the week rather breezy, as the schedule was lax enough for the first three days of the week for me to work solo. heading to the Schwaben Club tonight to judge round two of the ARC preliminaries made for a nice bookend to a good work week — congrats to tonight’s winners, Unscathed, as well.

after work yesterday, though, i packed up quickly and made my way downtown to Kava Bean Commons to catch the tail end of an acoustic set of covers, played by Matt and his brother Josh. they were on from 3:00 until 6:00 in the evening, and i got there in time to catch their last three songs. it almost seems fruitless for me to have even bothered, but i hadn’t seen Matt in a while, so it was good to run into him again (plus i was eager for the chance to disclose some recent exciting revelations to both Matt and Tim in person, the likes of which i’ll explain as more details of it become known to me — chances are that, if you’re a regular reader of my illustrious blog, you probably already know.)

other than that, i’ve had my eye glued to the back of my camera as often as possible lately, just for the jow of peering out through my new 50 1.4. it’s seriously an absolute joy to use and i can’t wait to use it towards completing a couple of photography projects i’ll get underway once the current weather warms up enough to drive away the Wampas that have been wandering about.

speaking of photography, i’m honestly seeing less and less reason to continue using my Flickr account, which is sad — it’s a fantastic website for displaying photos and discovering quality work (on a side note while on the topic of quality photography, everyone should check out and bookmark 1x.com) but i find it kind of silly to set up my portfolio there, especially when the factors i use to determine what i put on Flickr and what i put on Facebook are essentially totally arbitrary, and my Facebook gets more traffic than my Flickr, anyways. i often find myself uploading photos to Flickr based on bulk and not quality, and i think my own web domain might make more sense in terms of portfolio display options and whatnot. not to say that i’ve achieved professional photographer status, but having my own website would look a lot sharper than having an account on what amounts to a photo-centric social networking site (albeit a damn good one.)

tomorrow and Sunday should be awesome — another band practice with Kyle behind the drums tomorrow is something i’m excited about, as it’s excellent to hear the songs we’ve been writing together with drum parts behind them. and Sunday is mine and Cagney’s first anniversary, if you can believe it’s been that long (and even if you can’t believe it)!

but, off to bed i go so i’m not too aloof at the jamhall tomorrow. i’ll leave you with some photos i took at the café last night during Matt and Josh’s performance (50mm at f/1.4 and ISO 1600 under crappy available light, for those of you who are dying to know. also, i love how i’ve written this paragraph as though i have throngs of regular readers. maybe one day, when i do something extraordinary enough to merit that kind of reader traffic, like platypus juggling or something.)

it was back to work for me yesterday (and by work, i mean my default job and not a temp one) — it still feels the same as always and it didn’t take me many sessions to revert back into autopilot mode, even after a month and change of no shooting. the first half of this week has been and likely will remain pretty slow, with Mary coming in on Thursday and Friday to help me out. then, it’s another week off (well, a week of burning) next week. woo!

Tim, Anuj and i finally tried out a new drummer at band practice last night — his name is Kyle and his other two bands jam in the room next to ours (when he told us that he’s down to only one band due to ATOA experiencing downtime due to a lost member, i noted that we’d be up to one band if he were to join for good.) jamming with Kyle felt really nice — not only is he an awesome drummer, but it was great to hear drums played to what material we have written so far. if all goes according to plan, he’ll be back to jam with us again on Saturday. fingers crossed!

after practice was over and Tim, Anuj and Kyle had left, Chris — who had sat in on our jam — stuck around and talked for a while. on our way out, however, we started playing with the giant icicles that were hanging from the side of the hall, and had the brilliant idea to use my D300 with 50 1.4 to take burst-fire photos of each other smashing them on lampposts and the like. said photos have been made into animated GIFs and will be posted later!

in other news, i’ve recently rediscovered (i say “rediscovered” because i’d seen it before but forgotten about it) Garfield Minus Garfield. it’s a collection of Garfield strips with the comic’s namesake edited out, leaving only Jon Arbuckle to interact with himself or no one. it’s no surprise to anyone that’s read Garfield that Jon is a lonesome and chronically depressed individual, but leaving him as the only subject in the comics only makes that realization that much more stark. Garfield Minus Garfield is actually moreso a piece of social and psychological commentary, showing Jon as the epitome of depression he is. but the header on the website explains it a little more eloquently.

the brand new portrait lens i’ve been waiting on finally came in!

it’s Nikon’s new 50mm f/1.4 AF-S lens, which i traded in my 50mm AF-D for. i call it a portrait lens because it’ll be ideal for headshots, but realistically, this lens will kick ass for general use, especially in low light without a flash. it’s probably what i’ll throw on my camera when i don’t feel like carrying my bag of lenses with me.

but that’s enough camera tech talk for now! preliminary round one of ten of the ARC battle last night was a blast, and i really enjoyed my judging duties — it’s kind of weird to be part of the panel that sends bands on to the semifinals (or not) but it feels nice to have that influence. and with this being the first of the five years the ARC battle has taken place that i’m not in a band that’s ready to participate, it’s cool to be involved in the way of being on the other side of the judges’ table for once. what surprised me most, however, was a band member’s father at the side of the stage taking pictures of his kid’s band with a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8 IS during their set (okay, now i’m done with camera talk.)

today looks like it’s going to consist of editing photos from two evenings ago before going to Phil’s for Anuj’s birthday tonight. should be a rolicking good time!

i sometimes think my camera gets more mileage than my van (which is tonnes.) i headed to Guelph today to meet up with Joschka’s sister Katrin to do some promotional photos for her new music Myspace. we ended up coming across a building by her University of Guelph residence with an old-school fire escape, so we climbed to the top of it and used the late afternoon sun to our advantage before it slipped below the horizon. we ended up doing a few photos in her residence building, too, during which she made me privy to a couple songs. it was a lot of fun overall and i can’t wait to get the photos edited and done!

after finishing up photos with Katrin, i headed to the Vinyl in time to catch Gracefield, Lifestory:Monologue and Sydney. it was the first show of Sydney’s farewell tour, which is a shame — they’re awesome and i hate to see them upholding last year’s trend of good bands breaking up. photos from the show will be up in good time.

and speaking of this blog’s title, i’ve been asked to be a judge in this year’s annual ARC battle of the bands. i’ll be judging every Friday evening until the first week of February, so if you’re in one of the bands that’s playing in the first five weeks, know that i’ll be donning robes and swinging a gavel in accordance with your performance (robes and gavel pending, that is)!

the new year’s been great so far, although not much out of the ordinary has happened — i went back to work at my mother’s workplace for the week and it’s been nice and easy so far, just as before. however, that ends when we start shooting grad portraits at the university again next week, which will make for a nice change of pace in the sense of going from a job i can turn my brain off during to a mentally taxing one. still, i love my job, and we’re only shooting for a two-week stretch, after which i have a week off to do work from home and follow through on promo photo appointments before another two weeks in a different department. i think the continuous on-off tendency of my job schedule helps keep it fresh for me.

tonight was an interesting one — i went to Guelph right after work to pick up a used elliptical trainer from a couple who found my want ad on craigslist then brought it to Cagney’s place afterwards. i’m so stoked that it actually fit into her apartment and that the two of us were able to get it carried in and set up ourselves (which is something i was somewhat dreading, considering the trouble myself and the couple selling it had getting it into my van. these things are bigger than i would’ve thought.)

anyways, that’s my out-of-blogging-duty update. if all pans out, i’ll be shooting promotional photos in Guelph on Thursday for Joschka’s sister Katrin, so hopefully i’ll have more to say by then!

2008 was a happening year for me; many things in my life changed, many of which were for the better. 2009 will hopefully be a year of “onward and upward” for me, though, and i hope it turns out to be my best year yet.

before getting into the details of my 2009 resolutions, here’s a quick recap on the ones i made for myself for 2008. i kind of cheated on them in a sense by not aiming terribly high, but i suppose that made them all the more easy to attain.

dance more: i don’t know how i fared in this regard compared to 2007, but frequent trips to Phil’s, Club Vinyl and the Starlight definitely helped.

get tattooed more: this technically happened with the completion of my half sleeve in May, but i didn’t get any tattoo work beyond that done last year.

graduate college: damn the grade point average; i passed, and that’s what counts!

re-do my bedroom: i finally put that can of green paint to use, rearranged and cleaned up a little. aside from the colour of the walls, not much has changed, but it’s a little nicer, nonetheless.

get my G: leave it to me to leave this to the last possible minute, but i finally got it on December 4th.

send more snail mail: aside from mine and Cagney’s Christmas cards, this is the one thing i didn’t carry through on very well. i think i like the notion of sitting down and writing someone a letter by hand, but at no point throughout last year did it seem practical. it’s more of a romantic notion than anything, but maybe i’ll do it this year for that specific reason.

as for my 2009 goals, i hope i haven’t made them too lofty:

exercise more: if only i had the time to sign up at a gym, but i honestly can’t see myself slotting that into my schedule. i basically want to have a little nighttime/morning routine of crunches and light weightlifting for myself, just for the sake of toning up a little. of course, more walking and, when summertime rolls around, biking will help the cause.

get tattooed more: a continuation of last year’s goal. this time, it’s to stretch my half sleeve into a full one.

a band: i’m rather tired of not being in a functional band, and i’d love to see whatever this new project ends up being playing regularly, recording and possibly planning to tour.

take a road trip with Cagney: the goal for the spring or summer is Montréal in a rental car, and it’s completely doable.

photo projects: aside from the overall goal of becoming a better, more competant photographer, there are at least two specific projects (one that i was asked to work on by a friend and one of my own) i’d like to see come to fruition. 2009 will also be my first year shooting weddings, so i’m excited to see how i fare in those as-of-yet unknown waters.

and, last but not least on the list, is read more: i’ve been working on the same book for far too long, and my pile of books to read is growing ever larger. by year’s end — or much sooner, hopefully — i want to get through:

Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White (Cagney lent it to me a few days ago and told me it’s something i need to have read.)

On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony (i’ll get this back to you soon, Matt!)

Riel by Janet Rodenstock and Dennis Adair (this is a BookCrossing book that i found at Conestoga Mall in the summer.)

The Crying Of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (i’ve tried to read this before but put it down partway through because i got hopelessly lost)

The Tenth Man by Graham Greene (Morgaine — if you’re reading this, i’ll get this book back to you as soon as i can. you let me borrow it in the spring of 2005 and i swear i’m almost halfway through it.)

Dog Days by Daniel Lyons (speaking of loaner books, this has been sitting at my place since late 2004. i think the person who lent it to me is named Dan, but i haven’t seen him since then. so, thanks for the book, Dan! i promise i’ll actually read it this year.)

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk (i suppose i should make a note to pick up a copy of Choke this year, too.)

With Or Without God by Gretta Vosper

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah (this was a Christmas 2008 present from my mom, and i’m excited to read it, so it might be next on the chopping block for me.)

Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

Darwin’s Black Box by Michael J. Beale

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (same deal as The Crying Of Lot 49)

update, January 7: two more books i had on order have come in. woo!

No Logo by Naomi Klein

The Coproration by Joel Bakan

my to-read list might be my loftiest goal of the year, but i think i can do it if i force myself to block off time in which to sit and read and do nothing else. it’s the motivating myself to read that i find easy to put off, but the reading itself is really enjoyable once i get into it. and for someone who never makes a habit of watching TV, i really should have no excuse!

to everyone who’s read my 2009 resolutions — feel free to hold me to them in a year from now. i dare you!