Arcade Fire - Rococo (Unstaged)

Crescendo... Breathtaking...

This Band is so good it makes me mad...

Upcoming European tour... I think I may have to go...

Kanye West Ft. Jay-Z & Swizz Beatz - Power (Remix/Download)

I don't care if Kanye's a Richard Nixon (that's a History/Politics joke) He get's a Pass for being a lyrical genius and this generation's best producer.

And he straight Murders Jay-z on this track. Maybe Jay should start writing down some ideas next time.

*Explicit Lyrics*

(Sorry Mom) :(

A Maple Leaf by any other name...

So early on I decided not to be Andrew here. Seeing as no one knows me as anything but Elder McLeish I could go with what I want. (Who am I kidding, nobody even remembered me. I could have told them I'm the new Canadian Ambassador.) So I wanted to go with Andres, in a nod to Carlos and especially Matt, who's calls me that all the time, but kind of settled on Andrea in the end, that being the most Albanian way of translating Andrew. The reason? I hate (HATE) the way Albanians pronounce Andrew. Hate It! First off, they can't get the American "A" right. Now I know it's not the Continent's fault English had a big vowel shift in the second half of the last millennium, and that the North Americans further butchered our vowels to the point of indistinction in some cases, but there are very few people who can get me name right. And it bugs the crap out of me. The worst is when, after a while, or adding me on facebook, find out its not Andrea, then they really lean into the Andrew. The end of sounding like three yr. olds trying to sound out a new word. (can three yr. olds read? Five yr. olds?)

Een-drr00

They do an "An" like in An-gel. They can't do a "DR" dipthong, so it's a very distinct D-R with a roll or two of the tongue on the R, and lastly a pronounced "OO" sound instead of a proper N. American flat "Ugh"

Some people say it and I swear it curls my spine.

And of course there's different translations, each more incorrect than the last. The worst part is when they find out my real name, every time the see me they're like school kids saying the only English they know, "Oh Endru, How are you, How are you?" Grown men making fools of themselves.

Which leads me to my next rant. I hate(HATE) it when people speak to me in English. Hate It! again, people can usually tell I'm foreign, and everyone here knows some English, ranging from a few phrases, to fluency. Fine congrats, I'm not impressed. The problem is the think I will be impressed. Early on in any relationship/interaction with an Albanian I decide, does this person know English better than I know Albanian. 95% of the time, the answers no, and I ignore English comments and speak Albanian.

Example story = I was buying a new phone card, and wanted to know about the plan I was gonna purchase. Nice cute counter girl, sees that I'm foreign, thinks to herself I'm gonna get to practice my English I've worked so hard to learn. Fine. The problem is I've learned Albanian better than she speaks English. I ask her, in not perfect, but completely understandable Albanian, can you explain the features of this plan. She responds in Enlgish "Oh y-you wan't with buy a telefon kart? I half smile, and continue in Albanian, "yes specifically I'd like to know how your mobile internet prices work. " She valiantly tries a second time, "You want know a-about Internet." I sigh, grimace, and then in an even normal tone respond in English, "Fine, what can you tell me about the mobile internet rates for your company." She squints at me a little, looking perplexed and responds, "C-can you repeat p-please question mor slowly? At which point I repeat it, in Albanian, she gives up on the English, and in the end proved quite helpful. In fact she made the sale. But it bugged the crap out of me?

Now I hear you saying "But Andrew, isn't that exactly the same as you going to Mexico and brutalizing their language ordering Cassidillas and Pina Coladas even though they speak way better English than you speak Spanish? No! It's not the same! And do you know why? Cause I was in Mexico! Now if I was working the counter at Wendys, and a person of obvious Latin decent came up to my till ordered a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger in fine passable English and I started into my " uhh te qiere, uh coca-cola con tu uh berger?" that would be the same! That would be rude as hell! And if he punched me in the face, I wouldn't blame him. But Albanians don't get this. Cause they have no experience dealing with foreigners. Which is why I haven't punched anyone out yet. I've got this giant target on my back because everyone sees me as a chance to practice their crappy English. And in some cases their French. Or strangely enough Italian. And I'm losing patience. I'm not a missionary any more, I'm not morally obligated to stand there grinning like an idiot while grown men try and show of their English skills for their buddies cause they spent two years in London (illegally of course.)

Sigh...

Pearl Jam - Dock of the Bay (Murfreesboro '94)

Otis Redding...
Pearl Jam...
Enough Said...

No country for ballers; and other random complaints.

So I'm sitting here waiting to play some basketball. There's people playing but I'm gonna wait for the good players to show. Which us pretty ironic cause I'm basically at the Ruckers Park (look it up) of Tirana and I'm one of the hardcore "good" types. Ironic because, well, I'm not that good at basketball. But I decided with all my free time I'd get better this summer. I went out, bought a ball, decided I was gonna spend my afternoons shooting around, possibly with my shirt off working on my tan. What followed was two extremely depressing afternoons walking around the city, shoes in bag, ball in hands (too hard to dribble cause the sidewalk is so uneven. If there is a sidewalk,) asking strangers where I can play some basketball. First off, either everyone I talked to was visiting from the villages that day, or no one really knows the city that well. They'd send me one way, say 200 meters, I'd walk 200 meters, ask someone else, and promptly get sent in the opposite direction. Next, whenever I did find a place, the rim was ripped down, or it was locked up. Now this is what ticked me off the most. It seems to me that when they got rid of communism, Albanians devolved into this infantile form of super capitalism. They went from owning nothing to trying to seize upon anything they could get their hands on and monetizing it. If they couldn't monetize it, make sure no one else can enjoy it. You got a property? Wall it up. Want a bigger courtyard? Block the road. You want a store? Build it on the sidewalk. You want to extend your balcony over the street but there's a streetlight in the way? Build it around the pole. The point being, everybody's out to get theirs. After communism, previously empty streets turned to open air markets. Everyone with a basement apartment won the lottery, cause now you have a store front. Knock down the wall, put your knick knacks behind glass. And to the locals this seems to be the pinnacle of capitalism. Seeing a successful store, deciding to copy them, hanging a shingle, wait for customers. A really see little in the way of industry. Nothing much gets produced. Everyone just wants to buy a pencil for a dollar and turn around and sell it to his neighbor for a buck ten. So I found the one set of basketball courts that are open to the public. I show up and they're padlocked. I ask around, people tell me that the guy who runs them should be around. He wasn't. I called the phone number which was written there, guy says he won't show up till 5pm when it's less hot. I'm at my peak of frustration now for a couple of reasons.
1. Of course the courts were pay to play.
2. All the time walking around this place made me realize there is zero city planing. None. Outside the center of town, there's no public parks, fields, courts, wading pools, jungle gyms. Nothing. Private monetized? Sure. Public, no. Kids play in gravel roads and alleys.
3. Albanians are lazy, don't do their jobs, and are petrafied of getting to hot or cold. Can't possibly play ball in the afternoon.

So of course, I'm a jerk. The old guy shows up and he's in a wheelchair. Turns out he was a good player back in the day, got in an accident, and someone at City hall decided to let him run the
courts. And they're only fifty cents an hour.
...
...
...
Well I still stand by my first two points though.

Red Hot Chili Peppers- I could have lied

As much as I love all the guys in RHCP, Frusciante is the soul of this band. I respect that John wants to go off and do his own thing, and I'm sure that the new guitarist is great and all, but they essentially just became a cover band in my eyes. And their new album is just gonna be another Red Hot Minute poop-kabob that will have an asterisk next to it in their catalog, when John gets tired of his latest extensional quest/solo career and rejoins the band. Which I think is inevitable. And Anthony, Flea, and Chad should be supportive friends, who pester him incessantly to come back already.

One of the great guitar players of my generation. Way too underrated.