Call Me Cupid.

   I was at Funky's last night cruising around looking for a place to sit because the band had finished up their set. The first available seat I saw was covered in booze and had a smashed pint glass at the foot of it. The second available seat I saw was at a table that had one guy sitting by himself, so I sat down next to him and told him I was his new friend. He seemed fine with this and we got to talking. He had an accent, but his English was good. When he asked me if I played Funky's last night I instantly liked the guy, and when he said, "when your band was playing I said to my girlfriend, that guy, he is good..." this made me like him even more. As much as a guy likes a little ego boosting I wanted to talk about him. His name was Jero and he was from Spain. He had been in Canada for 9 months, but sadly was unable to stay because he had no visa and was going to have to leave the country in October. 

   "But if you were to get married to a Canadian girl you could stay right?"

   "Oh yes, that is right."

   "Jero, we're gonna find you a wife." 

   "It would be nice to find someone who had a good job."

   "No Jero, we're gonna find you a wife tonight!"
   "Tonight?"
   "Yeah, tonight! And we're at Funky Winkerbeans so you can't be certain that anyone here even has a job, except for the bartender."

   After Jero went outside for a smoke and Nate and I went and stood in front of the stage to bang on the wooden barrier during Legion of Goons' set I had completely forgotten about the task at hand. And even after the band finished and the girl that was rocking out beside me for most of the set turned and struck up a conversation I still had forgotten about Jero. She said something about being in Squamish for 9 months and those words brought it all back. The first pause in the conversation I told her I had a question for her, then proceeded. 

   "Do you want to get married *dramatic pause* to my friend Jero. He has to leave the country in October if he doesn't find a wife."

   "Yeah I'd do that, for a thousand bucks."

   "Well I don't know if he has any money, but let's go meet your future husband." 

   We found him and left them to it. Nate and I went outside cracking up, but before this it seemed like they were totally hitting it off. Later Jero came outside and he was all smiles and thanking me. 

   "It's going to work out!" He said excitedly. "I'm going to totally text her tomorrow." 

   Once I heard the Golers fire up I headed inside and Jero said goodbye. He said he was supposed to be home by 11pm and it was now passed midnight. 

   "Hey man, you're already late, you might as well come in and check out three songs," was my reply. He looked at his watch and thought why not. 

    Every time I saw him after this he would yell, 'they are really good' into my ear. No kidding Jero, it's the motherfuckin' Golers. His future wife was still rocking out in front of the wooden barrier and I told him to go rock out with her. I was a regular cupid. And somehow at the end of the show I got stuck between them while they discussed details. For a while her price had gone up, but we got it back down to a thousand dollars. They wanted me to be present as a witness, and I told them to get married at Funky's and my band would play. Jero said something along the lines of how him getting a visa would be so amazing and she talked about how she could really use one thousand dollars. I thought of asking for a cut of the loot, but who am I to come between true love? It did come up that she had been seeing a guy for 4 months now, but he probably wouldn't mind, and Jero spoke of his girlfriend who was in the same predicament and have to be leaving Canada soon. So I piped up. 

   "Jero, I can find her a husband. Hell, maybe I'll even marry the bitch."   

Soundgarden get Super Deluxe in the unknown.

Soundgarden released the 20th Anniversary (Super Deluxe Edition) of Superunknown today.

Super Deluxe?!? What does this mean???

It means that there's 55 songs, 35 of which you probably don't even want to bother listening to.

But hey, when I was a kid I loved the shit out of that album and it's pretty cool reliving it 20 years later.

Makes me feel as old as a fuck, but what you gonna do?

When I was younger and used to visit Vancouver we'd always demand the car radio be tuned to the Fox. I laugh about it now because the Fox is a joke, but if you grew up in Vernon and listened to their radio you would understand why we got so pumped up about it. Instead of listening to the hits of Bobby Brown and Sinead O'Connor we were going to get nothing but rock! The idea of a rock station that played only rock was the greatest thing us kids could have ever asked for.

I think I started to figure out that the Fox was a bit of a joke even before I moved here because every time we tuned in, without fail, they played 'The Day I Tried To Live' by Soundgarden. Not that this is a horrible song or anything (definitely not, compared to the Nickelback they play now) but when I kept hearing the same song it seemed as if they weren't trying hard enough. Especially when that song became a few years old and they still insisted on playing it every time we tuned in. Maybe it was just a weird coincidence. Maybe they were trying to tell me something. Maybe every time I went to Vancouver it was the day I tried to live!

No connections have been made between me hearing this song on the radio every time I came to visit Vancouver and me living here now. Well none that I know of anyways.