Its not you, its me . . .

Dear Edmonton,

You and I have been together a long time now and as much as I enjoy spending time with you I feel that I have come to a point in my life where I need to move on. To greener pastures I guess you could say. Much, much greener.

You see, I've met a place recently and I feel a real connection. In fact I think I'm in love. I really feel like this is a place I could spend the rest of my life with. Her name is Vancouver Island and she's wonderful. Green and warm in the winter, sunny and full of life in the summer. She's perfect.

It's not that there is anything wrong with you, its just that you've been so busy recently. You've grown so much and have been so occupied with road construction and such that it makes it terribly hard for us to spend any quality time together.

I will always have fond memories of the time we shared and I hope that if we can't be together then we can at least be friends.

Take care of yourself,

-John Straathof

Drivers these days

I found this sign posted on an electrical box on the south side. The original warning had been worn off and replaced with a far more urgent and pressing matter to aware of: Edmonton drivers.

"TSX index off more than 400 points"

Ok, one more quote. I stole this one right off the Google.

"There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it's only a hundred billion. It's less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers."

- Richard Feynman

Actually while I'm ripping off Quote of the Day I'll include this gem:

"Frisbeetarianism is the belief that when you die, your soul goes up on the roof and gets stuck."

- George Carlin

Now I'm done.

Brilliant

From cracked.com:

"And what’s the presidency if not a glorified drive thru window? You take the orders of America, misinterpret them due to a broken and convoluted communications system, then give them what you thought they wanted and charge them for it anyway."

Awesome. Read the article here

End of Days

I'm not going to call myself a Christian as this can be misconstrued in all of the wrong ways. I do however have a great interest in the bible. I won't preach to you but I would like to highlight a few things concerning the end of the age:

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."

Sound familiar? I have made plans to leave Edmonton and that passage really explains one of the reasons I have decided to do so. All though there are great people here the general population shows these traits in great abundance.

A little further on:

"For the time will come when they will no longer endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires."

*cough* cough* SCIENTOLOGY *cough*cough*

What about our seemingly endless environmental issues?

"Lift up yours eyes to the sky, the look to the Earth beneath; for the sky will vanish like smoke, and the Earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants will die in a like manner."

Maybe I am preaching, whatever. These things really got me thinking and I thought I would share them. I'll go back to talk about other things when I'm a little less freaked out.

Viva La Vida

Though I had a lot of respect for Coldplay it wasn't until an ex's influence that I started to really get into their music and become a fan. It was the 2003 live DVD that eventually won me over and then the release of X&Y which sealed the deal. Therefore I just wanted to take this moment to declare my undying love for Viva La Vida, an absolutely brilliant album on every conceivable scale.

Book of Corporate Life

I don't usually like to post things that have been forwarded to me, however this one was too good to pass up. Plus I forwarded it to myself anyways (Off a friends computer)


Today's reading is from the Book of Corporate Life,
Chapter 11, verses 1-15:

1. In the beginning was the Plan.
2. And then came the Assumptions.
3. And the Assumptions were without form.
4. And the Plan was without Substance.
5. And darkness was upon the face of the Workers.
6. And the Workers spoke among themselves saying, "It is a crock of shit and it stinks."
7. And the Workers went unto their Supervisors and said, "It is a crock of dung and we cannot live with the smell."
8. And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying, "It is a container of organic waste, and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it."
9. And the Managers went unto their Directors, saying, "It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength."
10. And the Directors spoke among themselves, saying to one another; "It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong."
11. And the directors went to the Vice Presidents, saying unto them, "It promotes growth, and it is very powerful."
12. And the Vice Presidents went to the President, saying unto him "It has very powerful effects."
13. And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.
14. And the Plan became Policy.
15. And that is how Shit Happens.


Thanks Dellbo!

Electric Nightmares

As with most of my inspirations, I was struck in middle of the night when I should have been sleeping. Thank God it wasn't a work night. It started with a deep bassline that soon had a melody and then an entire song structure before long. I knew I'd regret it if I didn't get out of bed and get some of it recorded. I'm glad I did.
I'm very pleased with how this song turned out and I can't wait to find out how it works live. Again I've disabled the downloads while I look for a label release.
Enjoy!
-John
myspace.com/djstraathof
youtube.com/djstraathof

Tay Zonday

Not only did Tay Zonday (of Chocolate Rain fame) write another incredible song but very graciously posted the vocal track for all to play with. How could I resist? Check it out:

The Original: (Explode)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ca9GJ6mMxLw

My Remix: (J5 Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cEWIvh1GtM

Support your local dj!

Hancock

Very few movies can ever be described as perfect. I you really wanted to, a person could take apart any movie and judge it to death. Critics make a living doing this. I guess its part of the job description; to not like anything. Ever. Hancock got a lot of poor and mediocre reviews and none of them were justified. It isn't a perfect movie but it certainly is so much better then what its made out to be. Its a fantastic movie with a fantastic story. I'd recommend it to anybody. Geez, what did Will Smith ever do to you guys?

Boom.

You know those people who add to the noise pollution in the city with their overpowered subs which rattle their cars to pieces and disrupt the lives of everyone around them? Yeah, I guess I'm one of those people now. This is my very first set up and though it is a fairly modest one, it does its job and it does it well. What a way to start the summer.

Industrial Acid

After investing many hours at my computer (following up on an inspiration I had one afternoon) I've finally completed what is certainly my strongest song yet. Its entitled "Industrial Acid" and I like to call it my very first label contender. As with all my other songs you can check it out on my myspace page. I've disabled the download options as I pimp this one out to some of my favourite labels. However if you buy me icecream I'm more likely to share it with you.
Support Your Local DJ!
http://www.myspace.com/djstraathof

Thats new . . .

Thanks to all the uncertainty and stress in my life I've managed to develop rather severe panic attacks. I now realize that a lot of people struggle with it but this is all very new to me. I will say one thing concerning such episodes: If you don't know whats going, that shit is seriously traumatizing.

The first time I ended up being taken away in an ambulance. The second time my father brought me in to the hospital and the third time I had to call another ambulance, this time from work. Even though I knew what was going on by then, I still couldnt get control of it. It took me four solid hours to recover enough to walk under my own power from that particular episode. I've since learned how to cope with it and even have some medication to back me up in case things go really bad again. The annoying part about it all is that it won't go away easy and will appear without warning. Even if I'm relaxing or having a good time.

The surprising thing about panic attacks is that it is not only a mental condition but a very very overwhelming and rather debilitating physical one as well. Half the struggle is handling the fear of it though. I'd recommend for anyone who puts up with a lot of stress and anxiety in their lives and doesnt have a clue about panic attacks to read up on it.

Start Here.

Happy New Years!

William Joseph

Your not going to see too many pictures of me, however this is one with pianist William Joseph (The considerably taller one). He played recently at the Winspear where he put on one of the most incredible performances I've ever seen. I have to thank my sister as I'd never even heard of this guy until she invited me out. If you have any appreciation for the piano I highly recommend catching one of his performances. However make sure you are seated where you are able to see his hands or you will be missing half the show. Trust me. My sister had the fantastic idea of bring along a pair of binoculars. This guy gave me a renewed urge to continue with my theory lessons and practice my scales.