The Simpson Blog

Amanda and I spent the weekend in beautiful Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia . We went there in the summer for part of our vacation, and Amanda rightly suggested we return for our "official" arbitrary anniversary in the fall. So ... we did! Ahhh ... two nights in the luxurious King George Inn , with a two-person jacuzzi tub, genuine artificial fireplace, antiques, a newly-installed king-sized bed, and the meticulous hospitality of Faith McStravick, the "pancake queen" innkeeper. Only problem was ... the town was pretty much closed. It's the off season. No farmer's market. Few shops. The Port Royal habitation across the bay was closed for the season. And to my extreme disappointment, the First Computermuseum of Nova Scotia does not even exist any more. That's right. Their web site doesn't say so, but the storefront housing the museum is completely empty and for sale. The museum wasn't open in the summer, either, but it was clearl

Hey, Haligonians. Sandra sent me a tip that her friend and coworker Alex Boyd is heading this way as part of an east coast tour. He's a real live poet from Toronto. Sandra's had great things to say about him over the years. I went out with 'er to see him at a reading one night in Toronto -- I don't remember if I was able to stay for his segment of the evening, as I was called out on a reporting assignment and had to scurry out into the snowy night. In any case, if you have the time, I bet he's well worth seeing. He and fellow poet and friend Dani Couture will be at: Mahone Bay, NS Thurs Oct 25, 8pm The Biscuit Eater Bookstore and Cafe , 16 Orchard St Halifax, NS Fri Oct 26, 12 Noon Spring Garden Road Memorial Public Library, 5381 Spring Garden Road Halifax, NS (Dani Couture only) Fri Oct 26, 8pm Venus Envy , 1598 Barrington Street I'd go see him, but we're off to Annapolis Royal that weekend for a romantic anniversary getaway. Go see A

Seriously, I'm not manic right now. I'm just feeling creative as heck and spending money and having trouble falling asleep. I just bought a bunch of new gear for the Big Ass Recording Studio: an audiophile sound card, a set of awesome studio monitor speakers, and a new mixing console. It ought to be great, once it all arrives and gets hooked up. And I was sitting here tonight thinking ... man, I should go get the guitar restrung and tuned up if I'm going to be doing a bunch of recording and mixing soon ... after all, Amanda got me a gift cert for the Halifax Folklore Centre so I can have that done ... but wouldn't it be awesome to upgrade the stock pickups in my Fender Fat Strat? Probably. I love the guitar, but I bet it could sound even more awesome if I had improved pickups. Y'know, I think it was partly inspired by overhearing some college kids talking about guitars on the ferry this morning. Anyway.... Problem is, I don't know a damned thing about guit

Okay, calm down. I didn't want to give my friends and family a heart attack -- just a little WTF? The headline refers to the August wedding of my friend and (recently departed from journalistm for a career in the music industry -- congrats!) coworker Laura Graham, and her man Scott Simpson, who I've blogged about in the past. Amanda and I were invited to their wedding in beautiful Judique, Cape Breton. The wedding was set to take place on Kintyre Farm, but weather forced a change of plans. Instead it was held indoors, and it was still phenomenal. A few of us ducked out after dinner to head back to the Troy Lodge Cottages for a few drinks before returning to the reception, but the weather turned from bad to horrible, and we were stuck inside, missing the dancing and live music. I hear it was magical. The night before the wedding is a story in itself. They planned a ceilidh (I hope I spelled that right) at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in Judique, and Laura said

Amanda and I joined a team this summer. The folks at work put together a slob-ball team to compete in the Halifax media league. We teamed up with the gang over at Rogers Wireless to get together on Sunday mornings in Dartmouth and take on some of the more established outfits in the area. Well, we lost a lot. In fact, we lost every game we played. It's not that we didn't have some good players -- we had some good players. We had some weak players (me) and some adequate players, and even some great players. But every other team had been around for quite some time, and really had their stuff together. My batting improved from useless to laughable; my catching improved from miserable to "nice try"; my throwing remained unpredictably bad. But I tried. And I kept my sense of humour. The team named me Most Improved Player. Amanda got better throughout the season, too, hitting farther and harder. The Rogers Rebels record, heading into the championship series, was 2 wins, 18 l

Hola, amigos. I know it's been a long time since I rapped at ya. But life's been busy for the past month or so. Lots to blog about, so let's get at 'er, starting with this wrapup of the big Big Ass Summer Tour 2007. Saturday, July 21, Amanda and I set out on a big drive, aiming to get to Riviere-du-Loup by sundown. First stop was Wendy's somewhere to try the new Baconator . Yes, two quarter-pound patties of fresh-never-frozen beef, six strips of bacon and two slices of cheese. The Baconator delivers. It's a little mushy, and the first half is best, 'cuz it's hot. It was a cloudy, rainy day heading through New Brunswick. But more distracting than the rain was the accumulation of bugs on the windshield. I used the gas station squeegee to wipe off the slime each time we stopped for gas, but we could barely keep ahead of the insect carnage. Arrived in Riviere du Loup and negotiated through the town courtesy of Mapquest's left-right-left-right-l

Sloan's from Halifax. I don't think they live here anymore. I've missed them playing here at least three times since getting the job out here. Friday night, they're playing a free show across the harbour in Dartmouth for Alexander Keith's birthday. Yeah, it's gonna be the buncha-drunken-fratboys experience, but what the hell -- it's Sloan, and it's free. Cappin' off a busy week, with Amanda's birthday funfest tonight (happy 29th, sweetheart!), and Laura G's farewell bash tomorrow night, the concert with J-White on Friday, and steak for dinner on Saturday. This YouTube video from a concert last year in Stratford, Ontario is an illustration of why Sloan is so cool. Oh, hey, I also went to see Reveen the Impossiblist recently at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium. If you watch Trailer Park Boys, you've seen folks making fun of Ricky by calling him Reveen. I had no idea who Reveen was 'til I moved out here. Turns out he is to the Maritim