hot soup on a hot day

Friday was the kick off to my ten day holiday and what a kick off it was.
I'm house sitting for Tuba Tara right now and other than the fact that her sister's cats peed on the couch, it seems to be going alright although I need to be there in about twenty minutes to hand over the keys to the next guard. No matter.

Friday after working quite late I went to a little barbecue at third beach with some friends. It was kind of spur of the moment and I showed up unprepared, ending up swimming in my clothes and eating other's food and drinking their beer. It's all good though. I'll hit them back when the occasion arises. After that, I ended up going to a house party near main street with a couple friends. I was a little nervous arriving, as I usually am when entering an unknown social situation, but after entry, I realised that I knew about half the people there, my anxiety subsided, and I had a great night after which, the three of us crashed at mine (Tara's). Then yesterday, we all went for a great little $3 breaky on the drive before we all went out separate directions.

My direction in particular was to work for a bit and then the sky train station, where I met up with some friends and headed out to Deer Lake Park for the Vancouver branch of the Rock the Bells tour. It was great. (Comp ticket provided by my friend Tim). We arrived just in time to see my personal fave Chali 2Na who rocked the house (or park). Slum Village was decent and I didn't really watch slaughterhouse. Common was good but I felt it was the same show I saw last summer. Rza sucked and he sucked hard. I wasn't that disappointed though because it wasn't that different from when I saw him last summer. The surprise guest was B-real from Cypress Hill which was pretty cool. Talib Kwelli showed up late, instilling the fear that he was not going to show. Eventually he did though, three acts late and then only playing for a disappointing fifteen minutes! The highlight for me was definitely Tech N9ne who killed it! He and fellow rapper Krizz Kaliko delivered a high energy, non-stop performance that left everyone in awe. The song of the day was definitely "I'm a playa" in which "I'm a playa I'm a playa, I'm a playa..." is sung to the tune of the German 80's pop song "Amadeus" by Falco. Brilliant. I'm not one for listening to too much tech n9ne but I would go see him again in an instant. Not surprisingly, Nas and Damian closed the night off with a bang. The children of two musical legends (Olu Dara and Bob Marley) who are two completely different artists from their fathers and making a musical mark in their own way. It was pretty amazing to be able to see the two of them on stage together and I look forward to the release of their collab album 'Distant Relatives'.

This evening or tomorrow morning I'm going to head to the coast with Tara's brother Dill. He recently spent a little time on the island hanging out with hippies and decided that's the life he wants to lead, and so he came back to the city and promptly quit his job. I told him that if he wants to be a hippy, Roberts Creek is the place to do it, and so he's going to join me there for a couple of days, after which, I'm planning on going somewhere with my mum. Either Galiano or up the coast a little ways. I've left it up to her to decide.

Now I've got to go and pay attention to some cats and hand over some keys.

It's pretty hot out (not as hot as last week thank goodness) and I just ate a bowl of piping hot udon. Typical.

Here's to ten days of no commitments!