just me. and Iron Maiden.

i love to read. i love to listen to music.

i'm not sure i'm one of those people who'd go as far as reading

with headphones on

but last night i skipped the reading and sat with my headphones,

on the floor of my room cross-legged.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/iron-maiden/2012/scotiabank-saddledome-calgary-ab-canada-5bdc8374.html

^ ^ this setlist is from last night's mind-and-eardrum-blowing experience at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

it pains me to see that they performed Can I Play With Madness right off the top.

rather, it kills me that i missed this whole thing live but i've seen them before and that's what really counts. because if you're trying to figure out what the hell hard rock/metal is all about then you need to listen to this band.

you'll need to start with the title album of 1980 and continue until you get to 2000's Brave New World.

if you made it through all that then i know you're begging for more... so you should then continue on with the next three albums because once you've finished the band's discography there's a much bigger fish to fry.

Bruce

fucking

Dickinson.

lead vocalist from 1981-1993 and then back again in 1999 to continue his most perfect position as frontman of the greatest hard rock/metal band to ever appear in the British and International music scenes.

i've obviously never met any of the band members but because of his Metal-God capacity, i'm not entirely sure that i would survive meeting the man....the man!!

and i say this to make known his amazing capabilities.

he is a singer, songwriter, author, screenwriter, airline pilot, broadcaster, fencer, and actor.

he really is THE man!

and he is the bigger fish to fry...

when he left in '93 it was to pursue a solo career,

which gave us another five albums to sit and listen to.

he is truly what they mean when they refer to a lead-vocalist.

he is what makes people say, "holy mother of fuck on earth" when he opens his mouth.

he and his many talents and pursuits are what coined him,

a "living example of a polymath"

by the Winter edition of Intelligent Life.

and if i may say this again,

he really is THE MAN!

Iron Maiden has been rocking socks and melting faces for 37 years.

on Christmas Day in 1975, bassist and primary songwriter

Steve Harris,

inspired by the Alexandre Dumas novel-turned-film,

The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)

inspired by the Iron Maiden

(torture device)

gave birth to the band of which he is the only member to have remained since inception and, along with guitarist Dave Murray, to have appeared on all of their albums.

**[it was announced not even 10 days ago that Harris will bring us his debut solo album, British Lion in September]

Iron Maiden might not be metal's favourite band like it is mine but there's one thing you can't deny and that is the fact that Iron Maiden has gotten better with age. their first of three "Best Live Act" awards was earned 30 years into their career. the other two were awarded last year for Best Hard Rock Live Act and Best International Live Act. they were named Band of the Year in 2009 by Classic Rock (magazine) Roll of Honour Awards, and let's not forget their 2010 Juno for DVD Of The YEAR,

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009)

...need i not re-mention that Bruce (fucking) Dickinson was the pilot of Ed Force One for the concert-documentary?

i didn't think so.

so yeah...

i love to read. i love to listen to music.

i'm not sure i'm one of those people who'd go as far as reading

with headphones on

but last night i skipped the reading and sat with my headphones,

on the floor of my room cross-legged.

just me. and Iron Maiden.

in my... opinion.

at this point people are just time bombs.

tick!

tick!

tick!

waiting to go off on some subject or other.

they ask, "what happened to freedom of speech?"

they say, "we are the majority."

the thing is, nobody gives a shit about freedom of speech.

and if people really do care to hear what you have to say,

they'll ask you.

just because there's such thing as freedom of speech, doesn't mean there's such thing as a good listener.

but in any sense, you should all be a good listener at some point.

why?

because here on this planet we are all guests.  

we are all part of the minority and we are all part of the grand soul.

did you know there are over one million species of insects in the world?

and that number obviously doesn't reflect the more than 100 thousand species of arthropods.

so the next time you try and tell someone you're part of the majority,

i hope you think of the insects.

if you want to talk about opinion, let's talk about art.

now there's a subject inundated with opinion.

and not to say that opinion is different from fact, but we all know that there's a fine line between what people are willing to hear and what they're willing to believe.

Pablo Picasso said, "Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth."

so whether we get lost in art or whether we are found through it, we are only involved momentarily.

we are only as involved as we choose to be.

and we even know it's still as useless as our opinion of it.

we know that it's never really finished;

much like opinion.

it is completely true.

and beautiful, and absolutely

useless.

*Arthropod: an invertebrate animal having an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and jointed appendages.

haiku (ii)

how was your weekend?

it's just another Tuesday

passing through to ask.

haiku (i)

good coffee drinking 

can make you forget about

it being morning.

if you can, then you should.

the next time you think you're all that,

just remember that you and i and everyone came

screaming

out of

a vagina.

there are certain people in our lives that hardly ever get enough recognition. these are the kind of beautiful-inside-and-out people. these are the people who we walk past in the street and stand behind in lines. these are the girls who turned into women who turned into mothers. these are the lovers and fighters and believers and wishmakers. these are the housekeepers and homemakers and entrepreneurs. so when Beyonce asked,
"who run the world?" she wasn't kidding around.

people say, "boys will be boys."
but girls will be girls too.
and there's one type of girl who will always be, that girl.

that girl who fell.
that girl who got right back up.
that girl who went out and grabbed the world by the lapels.
that girl who became stronger by being brave.
that girl made of sugar and spice and everything nice.
that girl who put her life on hold.
that girl who gave you life.
Your Mother;
that girl.

can you tell her, thank you?
can you tell her she's everything you've ever wanted to look up to?
can you tell her that anywhere in this world would be lonely
without her?

hard to find, easy to lose.

i'm not talking about four-leaf clovers.

you can spend a long time trying to love yourself.

you can spend months, years, decades even.

I have two tickets to Iron Maiden, baby, come with me Thursday -

don't say maybe.

cold, like metal and hard, too.

if you think loving yourself is hard, try trust -

something just as easy to lose...just as hard to find.

if you think trusting yourself is hard, try love again

Always love -

hate will get you every time.

even though sometimes love can be so sweet there's something almost sour about it.

even though it takes away more than you think you can give.

I want to love you and treat you right -

I want to love you every day and every night. 

if you can trust yourself enough to love yourself...

it's worth it, even if it does take forever.

just another day. (perfect)

there is a light grey/mostly white blanket over the city today.

it says 16 degrees currently but i'm willing to bet that it feels like less.

when you spend a lot of time with yourself you begin to realize how much is around you -

besides the weather; which begins 90% of conversations -

there's just the sky and just the clouds and just the sound the wind makes through the leaves.

there's a lot more than a lot less and i think that's what people sometimes forget.

the flowers and the mosquitoes and the airplanes that cross our paths daily... sometimes we don't notice them at all. maybe because we can't always hear them happening around us; maybe because we've got better things to do.

but everybody's noticed the same thing at some point.

"it's a beautiful day!"

take; for example, your favourite place in the world.

put yourself there with an open mind and crossed legs.

take it all in.

the view; the company; the smell; the amount of light; the amount of darkness -

the beauty of it all.

remove nothing but the weather from your favourite place in the world.

paint the sky light grey/mostly whitish.

is it still your favourite place?

is it still beautiful?

a beautiful day cannot be defined by the weather.

the weather can only make something more or less perfect.

and if perfect is just getting to live another day,

then every one of the days is a beautiful one.

it wasn't an opinion.

today.

words, today.

they're all over my brain and slipping out my ears but they're not running from my fingertips quite as well as they usually do.

possibly because i am astonished. possibly because this particular topic of conversation is best served over ice on a patio with a breathtaking landscape in the background.

it completely astonishes me that one person can be so completely stunned.

I heard this once...

"you must be two people because not one person can be that stupid!"

with a wave of optimism, I will give her the benefit of the doubt because she has been a mother since she was sixteen years old and she has had more children since then.

her oldest daughter is not yet sixteen. she's beautiful and smart and she's throwing a lot of her life away for a boy she likes. she's spending nearly all of her time with him - probably in or around his bed; she's telling him that she loves him; she's bringing him to grandma and grandpa's house; she's sleeping in grandma's bed - with him; and she's allowed to do all of this because her mother is that stupid.

with a wave of realism, I will give her absolutely no benefit of the doubt because her own daughter doesn't have an example to know

any different.

some kind of celebration.

i think a lot of the time people have no idea what a birthday means.

it's another year of life, lived

it's a day to be around people who care to know

it's the 24 hours of sun before a 364 day winter

it's yours and mine and everybody's to have

anyone who makes it through one more year in this world deserves some kind of celebration.

surprise! ~~

you're another year older you son of a gun, you! 

you've been in love in lust in waiting in hurting in wanting in and out of lives.

surprise! ~~ surprise! ~~

there are so many people in this world waiting to be in love-

waiting to be wanted and waiting to be found...

you just never know when to expect them.

my birthday wishes so far always come true because my wishes

are for more birthdays.

let your own emotions be your guide and not the fears of others.

this life is too short to not love.

it was Happy Birthday, Canada

"everything was going great until i got kicked out of the forest."

it's all fun and games until somebody gets kicked out of nature...

that the worst.

Y.O.L.O.

why not make her birthday a surprise?

somebody at some point said it.

and even so, promises should be made with the intention of being kept.

impressions aren't everything but they are quite a bit of something

and so from three to five we went.

post-Ted there were brewskis for everyone,

a patio in the sun on the corner of the street.

three dollar pints of Heineken and cupcakes for Canada's birthday...

suddenly we got sucked in by Edmonton;

after another six blocks we were party rocking drinking smoking loving.

You Only Live Once.

DJ sounds, drinks, and BBQ smells

20 bucks for a walking stick that can't be bought

safety in numbers and laughter as loud as the noise limit.

looking for last call in the rain.

You Obviously Lack Originality.

fireworks from the balcony that stop and start like giant popcorn nearing the end of its time in a microwave.

the difference in volume from five to eight people is immense.

Kokanee and Canadian and wine for the girls.

coffee for the driver.

and the best way to get out of asking a girl for her number is to ask,

"what was that you said? did you want my number?"

the last time i checked, it was only in Edmonton.