aaron schwab

i just got in from my 14-hour trek to Windsor with Kingdoms, during which i played the role of photographer, roadie and half-assed merch guy. i’m astounded that i’m still lucid, considering the amount of sleep i haven’t gotten lately, but i’ll recap the past couple of days right now so i don’t forget what i’ve been up to anyways.

yesterday was a bright and early day for me, as i joined Joe at Krug to help him unload gear and set up for a day of product shooting. it’s amazing how much i learn about light and tonal subtleties when i sit in on a product shoot, and it equally amazed me to find out exactly how ridiculously sharp Nikon’s newest 24-70mm f/2.8 is, but tech talk is neither here nor there at the moment.

after assisting with some fine tuning of the set and lighting, i headed home for a quick nap before bolting out the door for the university, where i did the AHS student exec photos for the class of 2009. it was uneventful, more or less — it felt like an abridged and simplified version of shooting band promos, if said band had nine people (no Slipknot references, thanks.)

this morning, i woke up bright and early at Cagney’s place after some more tossing and turning, brushed my teeth and was off to meet Joe at his place in New Hamburg for just after nine o’clock. it’s kind of a strangely good feeling when you’re literally too busy in a day to be tired, but so it goes. anyways, i got together with Joe for our long-awaited “camera bag packing party,” as he affectionately called it. basically, we got together all of the gear that we use for photographing grads, events and whatever else pops up and organized it into concise, battery- and slave-laden kits.

speaking of slaves, i was delighted and excited to finally pick up my four radio slaves from Joe. now that i have a way to remotely trip my light heads, i can put my new light kit to use, and believe me; i’ve been conjuring up ideas for shoots and lighting schemes in an almost daydream-like fashion.

after receiving a semi-sentimental, semi-practical gift of a Coolpix 3100 point-and-shoot camera from Joe, complete with 8- and 16-megabyte CF cards (no, i didn’t mistype “gigabyte”), i motored on back to KW to pick up Chris and Anthony from Chris’ place so that we could meet Hutton at his place to hop in the Kingdoms band van so that the four of us, along with tour manager Doug, could be off to Windsor.

Kingdoms’ set at the Chubby Pickle was the best of the handful i’ve seen the band play, in spite of Hutton’s voice-debilitating illness, and i daresay my photos of their set are some of the best band photos i’ve done in awhile (but i’ll wait until after i’m completely done the editing process to determine that for sure, though i’m pretty confident in them.)

loading out after the show happened fairly quickly and we were all on the road in good time, but a stopoff for 24-hour breakfast plates at a Fifth Wheel truck stop slowed us down some, as well as filled me with pancakes at 1:30 in the morning. Doug and Hutton’s fixation with an arcade game that will probably haunt their dreams forever (see video on my Facebook profile) didn’t help speed up the process of getting home, but we got home nonetheless.

and now, i’m off to bed. i’ll worry about uploading and blogging recent photos another time — this weekend is looking to be a busy one as well, with a trip to Stratford for Cagney and i in the cards.

April is quickly approaching and there’s much to be done in preparation of mine and Cagney’s new apartment, and it looks like some tenancies are going to get shuffled around a little at the jamhall as well.

as it turns out, Kyle’s main commitment is taking off for a period of several weeks this summer for a cross-Canada tour. after deliberating over whether or not Kyle is able and wanting to remain a part of the band Anuj and i are starting up, the three of us decided it would be financially beneficial for us to move into the jamspace directly next to the one we’re currently renting half of from Kingdoms. it just makes sense for the two bands Kyle jams with to be in the same room so he doesn’t have to pay two jamspaces’ rent each month, plus it’ll curb the extra rent charges incurred for Anuj and i if we end up having to find a different drummer due to Kyle’s schedule (along with Broadcast Zero, we’ll also be sharing the new space with The Rotten, and eight other people will be financially easier to split rent with than the five in Kingdoms.) since it’s only a couple days away from being March right now, i’ve told Chris that, if indeed Anuj and i move into our new drummer’s space, we’ll still cover March’s rent so that Kingdoms has until April 1 to find a new band to sublet to.

all in all, this should work out nicely — between Anuj, Kyle, myself and the other bands’ members that will be using that particular room, rent will be about $45 per person per month, which is what we would’ve been paying to Kingdoms after finding a new singer; that $45 per month will go down even more per member once we do find one to bring into the new room. we even talked today about a timeline for recording instrumental demo tracks for the purpose of auditioning a vocalist, and it doesn’t seem like we’re too far off from being able to do so, so i’m excited to see where things go. as for Kyle’s commitment in Broadcast Zero and their coast-to-coast tour over May, June and July, i think i might take that time to take some bass lessons so i feel more musically in shape and ready to roll once Kyle comes back to town.

as for my evening, i’m taking a night in to readjust my sleep schedule, which, with a few days off of work behind me, has quickly become atrocious — i have to be awake and at Krug to assist Joe with setup for a product shoot before heading off to the university to do the AHS student exec shots. should be fun!

aside from apparently being a pretty superstitious number (according to a movie i’ve never seen,) my 23rd birthday weekend went very well.

i picked Cagney up from work Saturday evening, where she surprised me in her salon’s lobby with a birthday cake, and by “birthday cake,” i mean “New Orleans pepperoni pizza with a Mini Egg heart on it and Fizz candy, pepperettes and a chocolate rose taped to the box.” no, really.

i’ve received a few kind-hearted gestures involving cake in the past, including a delicious chocolate cake from my dad this weekend, but Cagney’s birthday “cake,” well … takes the cake. what a thoughtful girl i have; all of my favourite things in or on one box! the pizza was surprisingly delicious, even when consumed with Mini Eggs still attached.

after our royal feast, Cagney and i split a bottle of red wine and then headed to Starlight with Chris and Candice. Paul and Taylor ended up coming by to say hello, too, and we ran into James Brown (whose full name i feel compelled to use in reference to him) and Victoria by chance. Vicki was sweet enough to buy me a birthday shot of Jäger, to boot.

after waking up on Sunday, Cagney and i shelved our plans to visit Stratford for the day due to allegedly inclement weather on the highway out of town, so we went shopping instead before stopping by my place. this normally wouldn’t qualify as noteworthy, but Cagney surprised me by buying me a pair of birthday sneakers that i found myself gushing over over in Winners:

i’ve wanted a white pair of Chuck Taylors for awhile now, and i feel as though i struck gold by finding these limited edition gems in my size on the shelf. they were designed for Converse by John Varvatos, who is apparently a high-end fashion designer i’ve never heard of. still, the rubberized canvas, leather laces, pinstripe interior walls and All-Star logo under clear soles caught my eye far moreso than the designer’s name.

Sunday night was moreso my official birthday shitshow, if you will. i’m not much of a drinker at all, so i surprised myself in being able to remain standing and coherent after sixteen drinks, the first of which came from James Brown and Victoria yet again as i stepped into Phil’s, and continued with a shot and mixed drink from Carrie’s new roommate over a game of pool on the most hilariously disfigured and stained pool table i’ve ever played on. after that, it was “here, Aaron, drink this” and “here, Aaron, let’s do a shot” from several people i’m proud to call friends. i was also positively elated to discover — at 23 years of age, no less — that drinking only serves to amplify my tendency to laugh all the time and hug everyone. i think it’s safe to say that, if i’m ever drunk around you, i’ll probably tell you how wonderful you are. as Tim and Anuj pointed out to me today, however, they were confused as to whether that particular behaviour of mine was alcohol-fueled or if i was just doing what i regularly do. either way, i had a great time and totally appreciate the efforts of everyone who came out, whether it was for a few minutes to say hi or to join me in a few drinks.

after rolling out of bed this afternoon, Chris and Candice came by to give me the sweetest birthday card conceivable (picture coming soon,) and this evening, Cagney and i ended up watching an old favourite of mine before i headed home for the night. the rest of the week looks to be peppered with things to do for me; band practice for the first time in what feels like too long on Wednesday; the AHS student exec photos at the university; and my road trip to Windsor on Friday with Kingdoms to assume photo duties for their live set. all of the above should be a blast!

i just got home from this week’s installment of the ARC battle preliminary rounds, and i’m absolutely freezing; i’m amazed my hands are dexterous enough to type right now. congratulations to Extinct Or Alive for taking the victory at the battle tonight!

the past couple of days have been nice. yesterday in particular was pleasantly and unusually chill — Tim called me early on in the day to hang out, so Chris and i went over to his place to slay zombies for awhile after i ran to Waterloo to run the exhilerating errand of buying a new mouse and keyboard (i bought corded ones because my wireless desktop set crapped out on me and i’m sick of using up AA batteries.) after discovering that Mickey isn’t really a shoulder cat — and being quick enough on the draw with my cell phone camera to get a shot of him in mid leap off of my shoulder, conveniently placing cat butt in my face — Chris and headed out and, after some cheap downtown pizza, i went home to bathe before meeting up with Cagney.

the two of us ended up going to Winners to look around some, and i ran into a lovely Obey hoodie, which i justified buying by calling it my only birthday present to myself. it’s button-up and wooly, and has plaid on the inside — and who am i to say no to Obey that’s marked at less than half the brand’s suggested retail price? (mind you, that still makes for an expensive hoodie, but i have an unspoken Obey weakness. i own precious little of it for the very reason of its usual cost.)

other than that, as well as the ARC battle from tonight, it’s been a lot of pyjama-clad working from home, mowing through my most recent batch of proofs to burn to CD for the end of the weekend. the weekend itself, however, should be awesome, as Sunday is my birthday! i decided to up the ante on last year’s celebration by taking not one, but two bar nights. after supper tomorrow night, which i believe is going to be Indian cuisine, Cagney and myself and whoever else can make it out are hitting up Starlight. Sunday night will be an outing to Phil’s for myself and Cagney again, and whoever couldn’t make it out on Saturday night for whatever reason — with any luck, both evenings will hopefully have some repeat celebrators.

as has become a tradition of mine, i tend to hoist of concert tickets i receive in the mail above my head so i can take a picture of them to post on here. seeing as it’s the wee hours of the morning and i didn’t feel like turning any lights on or attaching a flash to my camera, i made do with a Mac monitor (you can see me in Photo Booth on the monitor, gloriously burnt to shit from contrast adjustment.)

this will be my second time seeing Underøath and first seeing Norma Jean, and i believe Cagney’s first for both. i first saw UØ almost four years ago at The Phoenix in Toronto, at a show that The Chariot completely tore the face off of. UØ’s set that night marked my first time stagediving and crowdsurfing as well, which i achieved via the help of a generous bouncer who was pulling people from the front row up onto the stage. methinks i need to brush up on UØ’s newest album, as well as Norma Jean’s whole catalogue, before the show date arrives.

it seems i’ve done it again, though, and stayed up long past what anyone would consider a reasonable bedtime (for someone who’s been home since one o’clock and walked through the door sober, mind you.) i have tomorrow off, with no concrete plans, nowhere to be and no workday to leave the house for and, besides get ahead on my most recent looming batch of work from home, i have no idea what i’ll do with myself all day. i might as well use the time to finally finish my book so i can move on to a new one and maybe get some movies that i’ve been meaning to watch out of the way. that is, if i can peel myself away from playing Scramble on Facebook. word games lose me a tonne of sleep, it seems!

Cagney and i had quite the Valentine’s Day adventure yesterday; it was my first time in the driver’s seat on the way to Toronto and we made it there with minimal casualties, despite my atrocious navigational skills. after much searching, we found a parking spot near Queen and Bathurst, then we set off on foot down Queen Street. our first destination on our mission to furnish our to-be new apartment in style was a vintage/thrift shop called Morba. after realizing that the “thrift” aspect didn’t apply to their $1500 vintage home furniture, we perused the knickknacks and found a new set of salt and pepper shakers for the kitchen. our trip to Urban Outfitters yielded a few dishtowels, too.

after popping our heads into every second shop on Queen, we made our way to the Ho Su Bistro at Queen and John for some badly-needed sushi. the food was excellent — Cagney and i downed 28 maki rolls between us — but the service kind of stank. i’d visit again, but as i expected, the place fails to match up to Kitchener’s own Taka, which has set the bar for sushi joints very high for me, in almost every way.

on our way back from filling our faces with spicy rolls, we checked out a shop called Peach Berserk, which sells clothing and decorations, the likes of which are sewn and silkscreened entirely in-store, which i found to be very cool. there was even a cat who was supposedly born without a tail hanging out on the front table. her name is Chewie and i played with and photographed her while Cagney browsed through racks of clothing.

my only regret about checking this store out was not buying the custom-screened Obama oven mitts.

all in all, it was a great day, and it’s good to know that i can cart us back and forth from Toronto with relative ease, now that i’ve managed to do so without killing us in the process. road maps are key.

i should get back to sorting grad photos, though; i’ll be heading back to Cagney’s tonight before we check out (and i photograph) Gran Casino’s set at Maxwell’s, which will be followed up nicely by a jaunt into Phil’s.

ah, another post about my job.

the past couple days at work have been especially taxing; each day had a little over a dozen sessions, meaning it was too slow for Mary to come in, but busy enough for me to feel the strain while working solo. this godforsaken throat issue i’ve had for however long now hasn’t been helping. i’m hoping my doctor can figure out what the problem is when i see him next week, but i essentially have the constant urge to clear my throat or cough, and neither action clears up the feeling — the fact that i talk and repeat myself all day at work doesn’t make it feel any better (lest we forget the fact that i have this habit of holding my breath in between photos while shooting so, after 120 photos of someone, i tend to be out of breath, which leads to a somewhat sore chest by the end of the day. at least when Mary’s with me, i get chunks of time in which i can be tight-lipped and catch my breath.) and, to add the icing to my complaining cake, my posture sucks at work, and in general, and i’m totally jonesing for a good back-kneading. fortunately, Mary’s joining me for work tomorrow to finish off the week, and it’s a good thing, too; the schedule for tomorrow is almost completely full, but i’d rather do a full day of shooting with Mary than a half day alone.

i’ll get a chance to relax and have some fun after tomorrow, though; as has become a recent tradition, i’ll be judging a bunch of bands at the Schwaben Club tomorrow night before heading to Cagney’s for the night. if all goes according to plan and we wake up early enough on Saturday morning, we’ll be heading to Toronto for some thrift store furniture shopping for Valentine’s Day! fingers crossed that we find a gem or two, and that i can get us there and back without getting hopelessly lost.

after work today, i raced to Cagney’s building to meet up with her so the two of us could tour the apartment we’ve been wanting to look at. we met up with the building’s superintendent and she took us up to the seventh floor so we could check the place out. it’s a little smaller than Cagney’s current digs, but both Cagney and myself love it — we did some paperwork for it and, provided that a couple more pieces get filled out and submitted soon, it’ll be ours as of April 1st! i’m excited to move in with Cagney and organize the place and decorate and get our furniture and things in. it’ll be an adventure, i’m sure, and i’ll likely have heaps of stories to tell.

after that was said and done and excited hugs were exchanged, Cagney went off to her preparotory class for the ABAs and i went home before band practice, the likes of which didn’t include Kyle, whom i’m assuming got the memo too late to know we’d intended to practice tonight. nevertheless, Anuj and i worked on rewriting and improving some material before diddling around with the pre-programmed beats and percussion effects on a keyboard that Tim left at the hall. suffice to say it was amusing enough to spark the idea to record our improvisational beat-making and make a MySpace page for it (i don’t know if Anuj was joking when we talked about doing that, but i certainly intend to.)

also, Joe gave me a photograph last week — i don’t know when he took it — of an orchid, and it’s been tucked inside the front cover of my book for the past few days. i found it today, so i thought i’d share. he made it on Polaroid sheet film on a 4″x5″ large format camera with a pinhole aperture. the image is a five-minute exposure, taken at the equivalent of f/548.5.

this is only a photograph of the image, but i intend to get it scanned as soon as i can. goodnight!

i think i’ve gotten more sleep in the past two days than i got over the entire past work week. it’s a plus and a negative, really — i can’t really complain about catching up on sorely-needed sleep, but i hate sleeping through half of my day. if only i’d go to bed earlier; it’s hard being both a nightowl and a morning person.

last night, Taylor had her warming party. i’d call it her housewarming, but some red tape at her new place prevented a get together there, so the festivities were transplanted to Paul’s place, way out in the boonies of Kitchener. there were only seven people in total there (discluding the feline population, Bananas and Isis), but it was a nice, refreshing low-key chill. board games, meatballs, pizza and chips and salsa were had by all, as well as heaps of laughter and love. as is the usual case with events i attend, there are photos.

i began today with a bit of a start, being woken up by a phone call from Cagney to inform me that i’d better kick it into high gear if i intended to make it to the theatre in time to join herself and Gwyneth to see Taken, which i rather enjoyed. it features Liam Neeson as a retired “protector” who worked for the government who sets out to France to rescue his Euro-tripping daughter from the clutches of a kidnapping and prostitution racket. i won’t spoil anything else, but don’t expect an action flick with dramatic negotiations; do expect an action flick in which the protagonist defies reality and projectiles and goes straight for the jugular of whoever happens to be in his way. Taken borrows the “merciless action” page from Crank’s playbook, although Liam Neeson isn’t quite the berzerking rhinoceros that Jason Statham is — to be fair, no one is. Taken also provides the third example i’ve been able to think of — alongside GoldenEye and X3 — that proves Famke Janssen’s innate ability to be a huge bitch while in character.

after all was said and done at the theatre, and lunch was had by myself, Cagney, Gwyneth and their folks at Moose Winooski’s (amazing chicken wings, by the way), Cagney and i headed back to her place and promptly became lazy for the rest of the evening. at one point, we happened to switch on the Grammys, which only served to solidify my opinion that most current mainstream music is utter, utter shit. Katy Perry the most lauded one-trick pony in recent memory was given a chance to perform, which she did gloriously and consistently off-key. interestingly enough, Blink-182 announced their official reunion before presenting an award, and they couldn’t have done so in a more lackluster fashion — it almost sounded like a forced statement coming from Mark Hoppus’ mouth, and Travis and Tom seemed equally disinterested. i really shouldn’t rant about this year’s Grammys much more, as my memories of it are clouded by my blind rage from them.

tomorrow should be an exciting day; not only am i well on my way to depriving myself of sleep before work, but Cagney and i get to check out that one-bedroom apartment in her building. fingers crossed that we’re able to take it when it becomes available on April 1!

today has been quite the mindjob in terms of new information, the likes of which i’m sure i have yet to absorb entirely.

the first piece of news requires a little backstory, which i’ll be brief with: Cagney is essentially planning to move out of her apartment, leaving the lease entirely with her roommate. the two have had some disputes and agree that continuing to live in the same apartment is detrimental to the both of them. fast forward to the notion of Cagney and i getting a place together, then fast forward today still to me talking with the landlady of her building. it looks like we’ve got a unit that’ll be free as of April 1 to sightsee on Monday!

i know it sounds like i’m conveying all of this information rather flippantly, but rest assured, i’m incredibly stoked at the now very realistic and imminent notion of living with Cagney. i went a while without mentioning any of this on here for fear of having to retract details, as most of said details were unknown up until recently. and, if the unit is up to par and it’s realstically liveable in for Cagney and myself, i’ll be hauling our gear into there come April Fool’s Day! (the likes of which better have no serious impact upon our moving plans. i’ll go knock on some wood, now.)

in other monumental news, i got a Facebook message today, quite literally out of the blue, from a Gina Schwab. for those of you just tuning in, this particular 18-year-old girl is my father’s daughter and his youngest child.

she is my half sister. my half sister who i’ve never met.

… my half sister, who i’ve never met and have only seen one photograph from 1994 of, messaged me on Facebook today, telling me that she hopes i’m the right Aaron Schwab, as she needs to find the half brother she’s never spoken to or met. goddammit, Mark Zuckerberg, you have made the entire world small enough to fit inside my pocket.

this blew my mind, and i’m still without the proper vocabulary to convey how shocked i am. to finally have contact with her is amazing, though. i’m very much looking forward to talking to her more (we’ve already exchanged volleys of Facebook and text messages) and learning about her life and experiences with that side of my family, from which i’m so far removed that it barely bears mention in any given snippet of my personal history. and i’m going to meet her, someday, be it here or with me traveling to Alberta.

but far be it from me to get all teary-eyed over this turn of events — if anything, i feel like jumping for joy. i have a (half) sister that i get to meet and learn about! this is unreal and i feel overjoyed to finally be talking to her instead of having to wonder in the back of my mind where this long-lost relative of mine is.

anyways, on a more immediate yet equally epic note, Kyle didn’t end up showing to band practice tonight on account of his workplace pulling a fast one on him, so Anuj and i puttered around the hall for a bit. Chris ended up coming by before the rest of his band (they were gathering for a last-minute practice and to pack up in preparation of their performance at the FU Awards tomorrow night), so he jammed on the drums for a little while with us and gave us some song structure pointers. himself and Anuj both seem determined to give me an impromptu crash course on music theory, and i’ll welcome it when it comes.

but i’ve cheated myself out of sleep again. it’s nearly two in the morning, and i’ll surely max out at six hours of sleep tonight. oh well; the texting back and forth with Gina has been fascinating enough, and i’m sure i’ll be fine at work! taking grad photos has become a reflex to me by this point.