in my effort to...

...help make richmond fontaine one of your favorite bands i bring you this (in hopes it will inspire you to give them a listen and willy a read...)...well, actually it came to me today...i bought one of the new richmond fontaine t-shirts and with it came a couple of postcards. one announcing that willy vlautin, fontaine's would-be leader and chief songwriter, has yet another new novel coming out, called 'lean on pete'...he's garnered some great praise with his first two novels and this one seems to be geting some notice as well. you can read about the new book here in an interview he just did.
one review says:

‘This is a heartfelt, despairing novel…there is a tenderness of execution and brief promise of flawed redemption, without which no Country &Western ballad would be complete. The musicality is not an accident: the novel comes with a low-key alt country CD, a perfect accompaniment to the quietly hopeless, never-ending horror of poor America.”

— Financial Times, UK

so there. i like willy.

g. xo

everyone...

...needs a salami in their wine fridge.

so i put one in there today.

g. zo

the new weber comes home

the weber comes home.

i went to the shop today and had a go at building my new weber bbq. this is a really nice bbq...i hope. the box was fucking huge and i decided rather than try and get it in the house as is, i'd build it at the shop and bring it home...the instructions are kinda odd but i figured it out and from the time i got to the shop, turned on some music - corie's xmas tunes - built it and had it in the car ready to bring here, just over two hours...pretty good. 'he who can not be named on the blog' helped me at this end with the getting it out of the element and in the front door...once in i fired it up and saw another piece of my deck puzzle fit into place...
so great...you'll see.

g. xo

number two! your tacos are ready!

ok...so topanga is closed until the 2nd of jan. but i do know this...the floor in the kitchen, more specifically the dish pit area, is, as the boys like to say at the old BOC, cock solid...a couple days ago andrew, topanga's head honcho lovingly referred to as 'Boss' by his staff, moved away all the stuff in the area to be repaired - with some help from me - and yesterday i went there in the morning and took a few measurements and got to work. we/i took out approx. an inch and a half of old flooring and with the aid of a skilsaw made a nice clean area and laid down some new plywood. a little 5/8" and a little 3/4"...i'll admit i was dreading the whole thing - really - but in the end it went very well...no swearing, no freaking out, no thoughts of me wishing i still smoked...(andrew helped me dash those thoughts as he smoked in the small confines of the kitchen while he and i, and later 'he who can not be named on the blog', looked lovingly at the new floor - which andrew will re-tile sometime today...)
good times.
i will be back there monday to mount some new metal to the wall behind the sink. more good times. but know this, the next time you're enjoying a burrito or 'chilada at topanga give just a little thanks to me for keeping the kitchen from falling through into the abyss.
a little later on today i'm gonna give the building of my new bbq a go. it's in a big box at the shop and is scaring me a little. should i build it here? there? get someone to build it...? i really want to get it done so i can do some winter bbqing..
ok.
i bought myself a very exciting boxing day present yesterday as well...a broom. i still need a new mop but i didn't want to over-extend myself too much on this boxing day. i also sold an element owner's manual for 15 bux...big day overall.

have fun today.

g. xo

some more xmas greetings...

i received today...one directly, one from a mutual friend of fawn's and mine..

g. xo

...........

g. xo

somethings never change...

...and why should they?
this morning i made my way down to the grove restaurant on denman st. and had a great breakfast with my good friend fawn. the grove breakfast started by accident around 1992 or '93, when i needed breakfast one xmas morning, and i was dating the lovely leeanne barr who happened to live a block or so away from the grove, and she suggested i go there and see if they were open...and they were, and i have been going there every xmas morning since. sometimes a few people show-up to join me in the tradition, sometimes it's one or just me...fawn has been a constant for most of it and this year i take my hat off to her and she drove all the way in from her new home in delta to join me...that's love. some who have been a part of the tradition include 'he who can not be named on the blog', muc belke, the shums, k-win and al, renee b., mel, the garbs has shown up after it's all over, marcy and maybe mishi....and i think of them all when i'm there eatting my once a year eggs florentine with a side of brown toast. nice.
another holiday tradition that i'm hoping is in the works for tomorrow is the pancakes at mishi and garbs...i'm just putting it out there...

g. xo

and johnny....

my second selection last night was public enemies with johhny depp. i like john. some depp from time to time can be good. and not that i didn't like, or don't like in this case because i haven't finished it yet...it's just kinda ok...johnny's in jail, he's outta jail, he's back in jail, he robs a bank, he's back in jail....

i'll finish it up tonight.

ok. off to the grove.

g. xo

um....

not funny.

just sayin'.

g. xo

dinner past and present

well..in case you were wondering - since i kinda left you hangin'...the beef brisket turned out very well. it was very tasty and with a little bbq sauce was a tasty treat...and on a bun even better. the yam and potato mash was pretty good as well and floyd's baked beans! the boys seemed pleased with it and that's my greatest reward...
yesterday i ran around getting- more - shit done, one of the things being a trip to tenderland meats on granville island to buy some pork for the pulled pork i was making for shauna and me later that night...more meat! it was a bust day i'll tell ya...a trip out to issy's to pick-up some crap that had come in to point roberts, a trip to the shop, home to rub the meat, pardon...and then off to meet one of the world's great guys - my pal marv newland - at moderne burger for a snack and great conversation. i love marv. i see him far less than i would like but it always feels like home when i do see him. then home to throw the pork in the oven...ater making the sauce it would bake in for the four hours...
during the cooking there was a couple trips to granvile island for supplies and visits with mishi and the garbs...nice.
shauna came over and brought along some egg nog and made us egg nog lattes...which i have to admit i had always avoided because it sounded so very wrong..but it was delicious...
the pork turned out great - and i'm having it tonight as well....and the visit with shauna was excellent as well...nice to have her come over and see the new place and get her take on things. she also brought along some cookies she had baked the night before - which i ate some of after he left...nice.
today was more errands, installation of a dimmer, organizing of a room in the new place, more errands and a trip to topanga to see the carnage that is the kitchen - andrew and i are going to be replacing part of the floor in the kitchen over the next couple of days (merry christmas to me....)
ok...i need to relax now...i have a couple of movies, some leftover puled pork and some sweets...damn, that sounds like xmas eve to me...

i love you. i miss you.

g. xo

in case you were wondering...

..what a melted toaster looks like...

g. xo

well...that's that....

so.
at night here, due to the, sometime, problem with little critters...darrell, our shop labourer, puts the toaster in the oven (see where this is going...?) and this morning i came in and did a pre-heat on the oven...

so. after an hour of that, the toaster was melted far beyond repair and, as far as i'm concerned, rendered the oven unusable. so, there will be no beef brisket today...or ever again. my cooking days at the shop are over. there will be floyd's baked beans. but there's not enough of those to feed an entire crew so...

this day didn't start well...and it's still not going well...

i'm hoping for a better afternoon.

g.

***edit***

the good guys here cleaned the oven out and we're back on track...i hope...there may be beef brisket after all.

beef brisket baby

tomorrow sees the return of the roast, or something like it, to the shop. beef brisket bbq sandwiches..or plain beef brisket if you like...and floyd's famous baked beans...


just in time for the holidays.

g. xo

i'll take 'don bull sent me' for 100 alex

senor bull sent me this little ditty today...i'm a little unsure as to what it is..but i like it..check it out here.

g. xo

the good, the bad and the "oh fuck..."

the view from the 37th floor woodward's.

yesterday started at 5:30 am because, as usual, my mind was racing with things i needed to get done...now. laundry, house cleaning, shelf making, trips to the trailer, to the shop, to north van to pay for my bbq, hockey game number one, granville island for a snack...(and this was all before noon...)....

game number one saw me get ejected - and rightly so for hitting a guy in the head with my stick (not on purpose...well, i meant to hit him just not in the head....)....gane number two saw the bombers play well as a team but, once again, penalties get us into trouble....5-2 loss.
last night was also jim and katherine's housewarming high atop the woodward's building - 37th floor - as well as the sucker punch wrap party at the vancouver aquarium...both pretty good...but as i had been up since 5:30 am i was home by eleven and in the sack shortly thereafter...
and then, this morning...



yup. i was welcomed to sunday by broken glass and a rummaged through car. nice. and i have to say, my reaction was almost stoic in its nature. as soon as i saw the glass i just knew what i was gonna find. and i did. a broken passenger window, glass everywhere, and shit thrown around. nothing, of course, of any value left in there....oh, well....life in the new 'hood.
the fawnz just came over and we had a nice little, short, get to see the new place visit...love that girl...she was a little tired as she was out with her pal the french fry last night having a few holiday beverages...
issy's coming over and we're gonna go to the hyatt for their sunday brunch. nice.

ok. back at it.

g. xo

cookin' with gas.

i took the plunge today and bought a new bbq. i had to, i really did. the old one at my gastown place was, well, a piece of shit. this baby is gonna grill. like a bastard.

g. xo

why the fuck?

do a lot of people spell my name with two T's? i don't get it. i send out e.mails that have my name at the bottom. garnet. that's it. g-a-r-n-e-t. one T. yet i get back e.mails from people and they spell it with two.

is it that fucking confusing? i know of only one person, that's popular enough that he may rock the boat and make people fuck up my name and that's kevin garnett, the basketball player.

idiots.

g.

green i can agree with

a lot of 'green' products are bullshit. it's the truth - and not that i'm against going green - most are just shitty, stupid, gregor robertson ideas.
but i can live with this...i may even look into trying one of these things, or really a variety of things...things just being stuff...

ok. back to my annie's 'kraft' dinner...super eco.

g. xo

larry makes the scene

the snow doesn't scare larry - not one bit. when the element went down saturday larry sprung into action and not for a second did i worry that the snow would make him fall short. sure, i got corie to drive to work tuesday just because i didn't want to abuse the old guy but, in the snow, larry's a champ.
the element is back and seems to be no worse for the wear...sure, it was a few clams to get it back and on the road - really, it's been ridden hard and put away wet more than a few times so, it was time for something major-ish to go.
the outdoor paralam table is coming along - thanks in large part to corie and brian who have been helping with the steel legs. we/i cut the steel last night (2 1/2" square tube) that will make the square frames, you'll see, that will form the bases/legs. some sanding last night as well as some drilling and tapping and next is the actual welding by either brian or corie - i may help a little in this regard but more the tacking, perhaps. maybe.
pretty good lookin' table...

have a great wednesday. mine will be interesting as i recently found out that the strata council at the gastown building, where i now have renters, has been ripping off the building and ripping off WCB by filing a false claim as to how our caretaker got injured - he's been off for seven months getting free money from the government. he told them he injured himself falling down some stairs when he was vacuuming one day - truth is he was having a few road pops and riding his bicycle and ran into a skateboarder...and at the time he was with two council members who told another on-looker, who is also a resident of the van horne building, to not say anything about it....

nice.

and the annual general meeting is tonight. could be good as WCB has been contacted about the fraud, the drunk caretaker has been asked to resign and other council memebers are gonna be called up to explain why they lied to WCB.

i'm looking forward to it.

g. xo

god bless her.

i know it's small and hard to read, but it's worth taking the time.

fawn's grandmother, her mom's mother, passed away a week or so ago and the obit was in the paper today.
i didn't know her but if she's anything like fawn or her mom, hellie, she'd have been super wicked.

god bless her.

g. xo

oh rosanne

my pal, and very good pal of the lovely marcy, rosanne bennett, has gotten herself a nice new web site. check it out.
great gal. nice art.

g. xo

postponed.

as i mentioned yesterday, the open house thing i was planning on having on the 20th may be cancelled due to, well, due to a lot of things...it has, indeed been canceled indefinitely.

g. xo

merry xmas to me

i just got a phone call from kingsway honda. the element is going to need a whole new ignition lock and such - which includes new keys, programming, etc...plus a new starter probably...say hello to a 1200.00 min bill...i guess i won't be buying a bbq afterall.

life's so awesome.

g. xo

more gold.

younger, yet, fatter...

my pal tammy sent me this after seeing the picture of the life after bed t-shirt (posted last week...) she was a listener and later on good friend of all of us at life after bed.

........

hey garn,

just read your blog about life after bed, and got to thinking about the first time i met you.

i had called in to the show to make a request, and we ended up talking all throughout the night- which serendipitously resulted in you & chris coming to my house in richmond at the ungodly hour of 3 a.m to meet me.

well, i took a photo of you guys sitting on the sofa in my room that night- and i'm sending it to you now. sorry for the quality- i don't have a scanner.

i really like this picture because it reminds me of when i was a completely nuts free spirited little punk rock girl who loved music & wanted to be a writer, and of all the cool people i met along the adventures (and catastrophes) of becoming me now at 43.

you were one of the coolest for sure. xo

tamara

gold.

as you may or may not know, i have been giving away things from my old apartment that i don't need or don't have room for at my new place. some have gotten plants, a typewriter found a new home, etc...one item i had trouble finding a home for was an EQ3 metal and wood slat bed frame thing that is used in platform beds. but, after some craigslist ads i found a dude who wanted it and he was going to give me a 24 pack of dos equis lager for it. nice. well, saturday rolled around, then it went, and he hadn't called me to come and pick it up...an e.mail came saying that he lived in surrey and couldn't get into town and could he pick it up sunday.

"sorry i couldn't make it today, I live in surrey, and was wondering if sunday morning works for you.

Todd."

ok. sure. no problem. shit happens. i get that. so i e.mailed him back and said sunday was fine.
sunday comes and goes and no word from old todd. until another e.mail late in the day.

"ahhh, sorry Garnet, my girlfriend reneged on lending me the $50 I needed to buy you the 24 of dos equis I needed to purchase this, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to waste your time.

Todd."

nice.

i have no retort.

have a great monday.

g. xo

losing it.

i'm losing my marbles. there's a very good chance i'm gonna start drinking very soon. and for a long time.

g.

if you can't say anything nice.

i'm trying. i really am.
this day is a shitshow as well. definately on par with yesterday.
i'm here to tell you that if you buy a pair of speakers, and they have a threaded insert on the back, don't look to the manufacturer to have on their web site what size bolt goes in that threaded insert. why would they bother? find out for yourself. which is a nightmare if you don't have the speaker with you. i wrestled with the internet for far too long today to come up empty on that front, instead, having to drive all the way home from the shop to ge the speaker.
i also can't seem to find the manual for my heating keypad so it's fucking freezing in here. i have no control over the heat..i will tell you this. it's cold. don't come over. speaking of not coming over, i may cancel the open house next sunday a: because it's a shitshow here - stuff is not where it should be and b: i don't know if my brain can take the stress of trying to get the palce half decent for those of you who may come over.
we'll see. stay tuned.
funny. i'm having a meltdown and it's freezing outside.

or not funny.

g. xo

oh...p.s. i have a set of psb alpha speakers i want to unload. they're good..and worth at least a case of stella...or dos equis lager. or....

man down.

well. car down. (more as this goes along...)
yesterday was a shit storm or activity i'll tell you right now.
my brian wouldn't let em sleep past 6 a.m. as i had a bunch of stuff i needed to get done - pronto. the table being one of the things high on my list, and that went very well all things considered. and i have been back again to sand and put on another coat and it seems as if all systems are go.
i also got a phone call from commercial electronics telling me that my amp was ready - i had also gotten a phone call from them the day before saying my centre channel speaker was in - so i was stoked to get those back up and running so i didn't have to keep listening to music through my laptop speakers. so wicked. those things in hand i carried on with my day thinking that things were going my way and i was really getting shit done and that come the end of the day my place was gonna be one step closer to being the 'east/west fourth' i wanted and needed it to be.
after a short trip down to granville island to drop-off some crap i was on my way to west van to drop-off some filters to my main man and bomber blair. he had given me the filters to see if i/we could fix them but we/i failed so i tought i should take them back. nice to see him. while i was over there it only seemed right that i should go by savary island pie and get some snacks. blair's lady friend, gi, was over there wiht her mom mowing down some lunch...it was nice to see her as well - although i suspect she's not a huge fan of mine...oh well. i like her.
pie in hand i headed to north van to drop-off some 'the games can blow me' t-shirts to a guy i met who works at the red robin on marine drive. i know.
north shore done i headed back to town with my mind set on looking at some bar stools at living space and then onward to sanitary electric to see chad and pick-up some stuff that had been mailed to me by the world famous bill baker. (he's started a club and i may be the only member that's not a tattooer. exciting.) this is here the shoe dropped.
after stopping in at living space - home of the 800 dollar bar stool (and they are very nice but...i dunno...) - i got back in my car and that was the end of the line for the element. without going into details, it's now at kingsway honda - which was only a block away - and hopefully but the end of monday it'll be all neat and tidy and i can drive it again. poor elephant.
so i had no choice but to call 'he who can not be named on the blog' and get a rifde home with my stereo gear, pie and a chair i had that was/is going in my den/office.
he came to the rescue and we were away. it wasn't a huge deal but i did, still, have things i needed to get done. i still had to move the last two items from my place in gastown as the kids were moving yesterday, i had to get nevada - jj bean big wheel, and drive her to her place from granville island as i was giving her something from my old place that she couldn't transport herself and then make my way out to the shop and put another coat on the table. this all in larry. or not.
after jump starting larry i hustled up nevada and away went to her house - with me leaving larry running outside her east van apartment while i carried her new acquisition up to her place. then it was off to the shop. after i put the new coat on the table i decided i needed a van and phoned paul and then went to his place in north van and got the keys to the van at the shop.
good times.
then it was back to the shop, and off to gastown in the van to get my cactus and bicycle and take them to 'east/west fourth'. and after a quick unload it was off to best buy to look at some speaker mounts - which in the end (i bought them) are shit and i'm taking them back today...
van returned to the shop and larry back in my hands it was time to go home. and start in on the wiring of my stereo - of which the amp had just been repaired at a decent cost. well...it kinda works. the part that was broken has been fixed. but another part now doesn't work. i'll be calling them tomorrow. also, the speaker i had ordered, is the wrong speaker. i'll be taking that back as well.
but in the end it's all ok. i have music here now. i can find some solace in that. for now.
ok. i'm off to the shop.

g. xo

the table, the weekend, the burrito kitchen.

well..that was a week to be sure. as fast as things change or have the potential to change, they change back. wham. the weeks have been moving along and it seems like just a short ]time ago we started this show - which was actually the end of june i believe - and here we are in dec. staring the xmas break square in the face. seven more work days and then it's blu-rays and staying up late. you should come over.
next sunday is my open house thing...if you didn't get an invite it's probably because i don't have your e.mail address or i'm scared of you.
i had the paralam table taken over to a great place on the north shore called oscar grann and they squared off both ends and gave it a thickness sand and i have to say, fuck, it looks great. i did a light sand on it this morning and have just put the first coat of spar varnish - or like it - on it. gives it a slightly golden color. i hope to get the legs welded up next week - the legs which, after some discussion with corie last night over drinks and enchiladas, may be steel now - bare steel - instead of the fancy aluminum legs i was gonna make...time will tell.
ok. i'm off to see what's happening at the gastown location as the kids who are renting it are moving some of their crap in today.

have a great saturday.

g. xo

oh jeez.

g. xo

one day at band camp.

years ago, shortly after i got out of high school, i started working at the university of british columbia radio station, citr 101.9 fm. the early days were hazy, really, but one of the things i do remember is a t-shirt i made that consisted of a photo a listener had sent in - a woman i never ever met or ever knew who she was - and typeset and designed by don bull. the show was called 'life after bed' and was the start of an, almost, 20 year run in radio that ended some years later at the cbc doing national shows - i was a somebody once. the shirts were a hot item being one of the first show t-shirts ever made there. it was a fun show and went on for many years with me at the helm with guido and barry and capt. ned as sidekicks.
one of the t-shirts was given to a girl i went to high school with and somehow ended-up being wore more by her little sister, michelle. i recently re-met michelle and she told me how much she loved that shirt. today she sent me a picture of her in the shirt. i believe she's in the neighbourhood of 13 years old here. she's 38 now.
i love it. the whole picture works for me. as a stamp of a period of time.

thanks michelle.

g. xo

who needs a ten ft. high shelf?

so it turns out my renters don't really want the ten foot shelf i have in my place...so.....now what? well, it's up for grabs. but beware - it has to be cut in half to be removed from my place. it was made in two pieces and then installed and biscuited and glued in place. it's a great shelf made from baltic birch ply.
tonight mishi helped me do some painting - thanks mishi! - and then we went and chowed down at topanga because that's what you do after painting an empty apartment.
a couple more visits there and it should be good to go for the kids who are moving in - who i think are great.

ok.

g. xo

just handy enough...

...or so i hope.
i bought a piece of paralam - which is an engineered wood product made from scraps - to make an outdoor table out of for my new place. i'm hoping to use my new deck a lot and eat outside - i know, me eating outside - and have folks over and have a nice table to sit at. so..on friday i chopped it into the length that i wanted and let it sit until today when i had time to devote to it and not be scrambling to get it done.
today i used a biscuit joiner - courtesy of my good pals at propellor - and took two of the pieces and put a few biscuits in and glued them together. (the piece of paralam was originally 15'5" long x 3 1/2" thick x 18" wide and i am making it into a table 36" wide x 3 1/2" x 6' long) i think it'll be great once it has it's sanded and finished and i have attached the legs i'm making/having made which will be out of aluminum square tube.
here are a few pics of the table in its first stages.

have a great sunday.

g. xo

stuff....

i went by my old place this morning and cleaned-out the fridge and started taking apart stuff...
here are a few things that are up for grabs. let me know if any of these things strike your fancy.

g. xo

an nice old typewriter..you need this.

some blue ikea tab curtins. **GONE**

framed poster from a show i saw in nyc at the moma.

stand-up shark steamer for doing floors. comes with all the goodies. **gone**

humidifer. **gone**

nice chrome trash can. **gone*