Mall

Hello developing fan base.

Today I woke up late, did some messenger and e-mail, and then went to the Market Mall about 25 or 30 minutes' walk away. It was my natural instinct to explore that drove me... and that a friend who has been here before advised it as there is a store selling british stuff, like marmite, which I may like to check out. I actually can get marmite at the co-op three minutes away but nevertheless, it was a nice day and I wanted to do some walking.

I hate malls. With a deep passion. There is no deeper cesspool of western materialism than the mall. This one was little different. Crammed with most of Calgary's rudest and least appealing filths, and overpriced sweatshop-produced clothing. The british store wasn't bad, but there was a distinct lack of proper McVities digs. I did acquire my long-time favourite milky bar buttons, which are basically unavailable anywhere other than Britain and this store. While wandering around and generally hating all of it I caved and also bought three cds and a cheap video game. I figured that as much as I hate malls, it is rather convenient to have this stuff in the same place.

The cds aren't bad. I bought eMotive, by A Perfect Circle... but it has significant copy lock technologies on it and I can't transfer it to my ipod, at least not without messing about on the net trying to find the right cd crack. I also bought "I" by Meshuggah, which I heard a bit of through my bro back home. This stuff is madness. It is very heavy and the timing is simply excellent. There is just one song on the cd, 21 minutes long, and there is a section where for about three minutes the drummer does 11/8 timing between the snare and high hat, respectively. This is of the most extreme difficulty. Ever tried to do 3/2 timing? Or 4/3, or 5/4? These timings are typically regarded as challenging and especially difficult to keep up during a busy song. 11/8 is unheard of and it took me quite some time to differentiate it from 5/4 since there is only one more hit in two bars. But it's done flawlessly, and not by computer. Meshuggah have amazingly random moments and they remind me of Dillinger Escape Plan. Not available through limewire so far as I've found though. Oh well I'm not against supporting fledgling Swedish math-metal artists with my dollars.

Stay tuned for more tomorrow. Or perhaps Monday. Depends how I feel about you all.

Cheers.