Tales of the Salty Bag

Given enough time, 7 Eleven ruins everything. I have always been a huge fan of nacho cheese that is dispensed from the little (usually) white heat boxes. You know the stuff, the viscous orange/yellow liquid that flows like lava, has a bit of a kick and fills your dreams with sunshine and rainbows. I was lucky enough to have a summer job at an ice cream parlor when I was in high school, and they had one of these fantastic little boxes. I'm not afraid to admit it, every once in a while I'd grab a spoon, press the button and consume a mouthful of my favourite chip adjacent salty goodness. Right around the time I was nearing the end of high school, I was introduced to the most amazing lifehack; as long as you purchase something at 7 Eleven you can cover it with as much nacho cheese and chili as you want. This wasn't just limited to hot dogs and nacho trays, you could get a bag of Doritos and go to town filling the bag to your hearts content. After trying out a few different c...

There are people under 35 that don't know what the Wu-Tang Clan is. That statement absolutely astounds me. It's not so much teenagers not recognizing their elders/classic albums that blows my mind; they were potentially born after the release of 36 Chambers/Wu-Tang Forever and therefore have an excuse..maybe they just don't like rap..or history. However, when I speak to a fellow human being that is in the 25 to 34 year old demographic, that grew up in North America and had access to Much Music/MTV/Radio/didn't live in a cave and doesn't have a clue who Wu Tang is, it blows my mind. Up until a couple years ago I actually didn't know people like this existed. There I was, at a wedding trading small talk with a 28ish year old girl that was sitting at my table, yadda yadda yadda..me, "Wu-Tang", girl, "What's that" *crash* [my jaw creating a softball size hole in the floor as it fell straight through it]. How the shit? Wu Tang was literally ...

I mention It's Alive Records a lot in my tales. It's a killer label (IMHO) and has released various LP's/7"s from two of my favourite bands; The Dopamines and The Copyrights . If you actively follow the current pop punk scene you may be familiar with these bands..if you don't know either of them..well, your loss I guess? I started listening to The Copyrights with their 2008 release Learn the Hard Way (Great album). Not long after Learn the Hard Way, The Copyrights were paired with The Dopamines (my introduction to this fantastic band) on a split 7" put out by It's Alive Records in 2009 titled Songs about Fucking Up . The album jacket for SAFU is light (almost lime) green with a cartoon face of a guy not having a good time (the album title and artwork is a tribute to the Big Black's Songs About Fucking). On this split EP, both bands dole out upbeat music with lyrics that are a little bitter and/or self-deprecating (hence the EP title). Everything eith...

Is the concept of 'hot wing' chips a new idea? No. Is that a bad thing? Shit no. Almost every major, and not so major, chip company has at least one hot wing chip flavour (some companies produce more than one option). I, for one, love this. Every company puts their own spin on it, some work out, some are duds. At the end of the day, variety IS the spice of life; whether it's on a micro or macro. A couple weeks ago I cracked a bag of President's Choice Kettle Cooked Spicy Wing chips. Original flavour, na, but I didn't buy them expecting that. I peered into the bag upon opening to view a medium thick ridged chip with visible seasoning. This wasn't my first time trying these chips, it was however my first time critically eating them, hah. I picked up a chip and to my surprise, for a kettle cooked chip, it wasn't overly greasy. With my mind sending a stat order to my hand I shoved the chip into my mouth, *crunch crunch* not bad *crunch* the seasoning is on th...

This past Easter Sunday there was an all ages show in Brandon. The opening bands consisted of Mobina Galore , The Bumpin' Uglies and Elder Abuse with The Isotopes headlining (who are just finishing up touring Canada in support of their new LP/cd Nuclear Strikezone ). I was pretty stoked for the show because this was a killer lineup and doors were at 1pm which allowed my daughter to go to her first punk rock show. The opening bands all slayed, this was my first time seeing The Bumpin' Uglies (somewhere between hXc, skatepunk and pop punk) and I was certainly impressed. Soon enough it was time for the headliner to take the floor. The turnout wasn't the greatest but that didn't stop The Isotopes from ripping through a dozen or so absolute burners. For those unfamiliar with The Isotopes, they're a Ramonescore band from Vancouver who's lyrical subject matter is solely rooted in or around baseball. Their set was straight forward punk rock, no fancy lighting or danc...

I recently went on a road trip with my wife (Teresa) and daughter. Covered thousands of km's..Saskatoon -> Fort McMurray -> Calgary -> Home. Throughout this trip we stopped in at 4 record stores, 1 British food import store (to grab some of them uk chips, one of the many flavours was mentioned in The Letter F ) and stayed with friends/family in each city. This trip also resulted in at least 2 gifts that become tales in this here blog in the paragraphs below. The first record store that we ventured into on this trip was the Vinyl Diner in Saskatoon. Whenever Teresa and I go to record stores she usually leaves me to my business and finds a store nearby to browse or just hangs out at the front while I get into the zone. This time however turned out to be different. A few days after we arrived home from Calgary, I found out that with this particular visit to the Vinyl Diner Teresa was doing her own browsing, with the stealthiness of a ninja, that went completely unnoticed b...

In the spring of 2010 I saw a notification that Brother Ali was to tour through the prairies. Since this was the first chance I had to see the black albino since I got into his music I jumped at the chance to see him perform. Initially I could find no mention of a Winnipeg show, there was however a Saskatoon date. My sister was living in Saskatoon at the time so what better excuse to visit than what I could only assume would be a stellar rap show. The opener for the tour was listed as Fashawn, I had never heard of him before but that wasn't overly surprising. I took it upon myself to check out Fashawn's myspace in the weeks leading up to the show so I would at least be familiar with a few of his songs. Upon first listen of Boy Meets World (his Oct 2009 debut album) I was hooked. The production (from Exile), lyrics, flow.. everything was absolutely top notch, dare I say flawless. Fast forward to April 6, 2010..Brother Ali, BK One and Fashawn blew me away. I was now hooked on Fa...