Pioneer on the Internet – Sean Gursky

Back in August I did an interview with The Nerve Magazine, located out in Vancouver. The editor got my name from a White Stripes recording I had done a few weeks prior. He was putting together an article about bootlegging and wanted to ask me a few questions about it. Always one to help the cause I obliged and we conducted an interview via e-mail.

After the article was delayed in going out in the October edition, it was printed in the November issue. Today the copies of the magazine arrived and I will have a copy scanned up tomorrow for you all, so check back soon.

Image Update:

When he refers to Andrew Gursky, just pretend he meant Sean. Although I do like the name Andrew, perhaps it will be my bootlegging alias.

I seem to be doing a “one day on – one day off” thing here. Well I will make it up to you all, I promise*. I would like to say I have been busy, but it’s been my weekend and like any good weekend I have little to show for it.

On Tuesday Jenna and I ran our own Holiday Marathon. We spent five hours at West Edmonton Mall. Crossing one phase to another, getting gift ideas, spending cash and becoming frustrated along the way. It was everything you would expect from holiday shopping. The crowds were small so that made the experience better. I haven’t gotten tired of Christmas music yet, although I have been fortunate enough to have minimal exposure. I guess one thing about waiting until the end to shop is that you’re in the mall for less time? Does that logic make any sense at all?

And today, or what I refer to as New-Sunday I caught up on some TV. I watched the Survivor finale (go Danni) as well as the second last Apprentice (go Randal) and four episodes of Lost. I was only going to watch two, but after I made it to the third I had to find out what happened. I now have three episodes until I am caught up with the rest of the world and then I will be going through withdrawls like Charlie.

Also today I went skiing. I dusted off the Head TR20″s and went to Rabbit Hill. It’s a modest hill, but two hours of night skiing for $11 can’t be beat. Especially when the hill is quiet and the weather is good. I usually go skiing once a year but when I make multiple trips to the mountains this year I wanted to be prepared. Something occured to me though, there are two things I can do without on a ski hill: ice and snowboarders. And incidently, one is caused from the other. Huh, fancy that.

That should be all for now Internet, it’s been swell.

* actual promise may not contain anything real or of value

We go to the voting polls in January and I have been trying to educate myself more on the policies and stances of the different parties. I feel like I have been coasting as a Canadian in the last five years so want to correct that in 2006.

In all honesty, politics bores me. The process on how items get taken care of is lost on me and usually forget which building in Ottawa takes care of what. A lot of dirty laundry gets cleaned on Parliament Hill and that’s all I know.

One hot topic for me is our connection to the Crown. My concern is the the needless spending that past Governor General Adrienne Clarkson did on her $5 million plane ride to three countries, or $90,000 rug in Riddeau Hall or how her spending doubled from $10 million in 1999 to over $20 million in 2003. But that isn’t one of the topics in this years election so I will quietly wait until the Queen passes on or a party actively takes this up as well.

Foreign aid, gun control, taxes and health care are all big topics this year; just as they were last election. Some things never change. When I took this quiz I realized how much each party is very similar on those topics. Take one view, and skew it just enough times to make it seem different for each of the four main parties. That’s the way it feels when you look at the parties on a whole.

I think the important facts in the Gomery Report are being overlooked by these “hot” topics when we still have a party in charge that was responsible for the sponsorship mess. And in the last week their popularity has gone up, of all things. I’m sure the government was always in a messy state but it’s not until you educate yourself about it do you realize that putting this country back together will be about as successful as rebuilding a Jenga stack in the dark.

Well, I got that out of my system. Now for something we hope you really enjoy. Once I have become a rich, rich man off of my famous Pancake House I think I will go into desserts. Jenna’s family knows of a recipe that uses Ritz Crackers and Skor Bar pieces with the perfect delicious blend of chocolate and salt. I want to further investigate the dessert qualities of Ritz Crackers. Perhaps offer it as a nice option, order a 10″ pancake and receive a mystery Ritz dessert? Order the 12″ pancake and receive two mystery desserts? This will require a few years of market research, but it’s for the greater culinary good.

With December nearing to a close I thought I’d reflect on 2005 A Year In Concerts. It has been a pretty succesful year with the chance to see a wide range of bands, and some that may never come back to Edmonton. There was also two trips to Vancouver for concerts, which is something I will be doing more of in the future (travelling to other cities). Without future adieu, here is how I spent my year:

• February: Tegan and Sara
• March: Velvet Revolver
• April: Death From Above 1979, U2
• May: Jakalope, Green Day
• July: Thornley, Matthew Good
• August: White Stripes (x2)
• September: Pearl Jam
• October: Arcade Fire, Matthew Good (x3)
• November: Bad Religion

I’ve seen Matthew Good perform sixteen times, and he always puts on a great show. DFA1979 was raw and powerful, Arcade Fire was a display of pure talent and Bad Religion flat out rocked. But this years best concert is between U2 and White Stripes.

U2 is a very spiritual experience, and one I feel honored to be a part of. While in Vancouver for the U2 concert Jenna and I were able to be extras in the City of Blinding Lights video shoot where I was subsequently bodychecked by Bono in the last take of the song.

The U2 concert was also a great finish to an amazing week in Vancouver but I think the best show has to go to Jack and Meg White. Jack White is one of my guitar idols and to see him perform live was a thing of glory. There is no setlist when they take the stage so it’s all done on a whim which creates a genuine feeling, unlike U2 which is very rehersed. From beginning to end, Jack’s hands are on fire as he rips through songs and the chemistry between him and Meg is simple and honest.

It’s a tough battle, U2 vs. White Stripes for but the duo from Detroit wins by a small margine. With that said, in 2006 if either band come near the Canadian border (or even northern USA) I’m going.

NBC will bring back the comedy Scrubs on Jan. 3 at 9:00 p.m., scheduling two original episodes back-to-back each week.

That is an hour of Scrubs each week all in an attempt to end the season on time and make up for the three month hiatus. In other good news, it looks like season three will be released on DVD in February so “tis the season of Scrubs.

A few days have passed and no crazy game show schemes or restaurant ideas have come to mind so I guess that leaves you all wondering what have I done with my time? Today is Wednesday for most of you, but for me it’s New-Sunday and what’s Thursday tomorrow is my New-Monday. I spent my weekend watching Lost (I’m up to episode three on season two’such a great show), shoveling snow and getting the Jetta tinted up.

During the first of two drives back from Edmonton today I realized that I enjoy winter driving. It’s chaotic, life threatening, and probably the worst conditions you can face as a driver but I find a sick pleasure in it. When you aim your car down a path cleared for each tire, you have no idea if you’re on or over any line or close to the edge of the road’I find some humor in that. It is probably the diesel fumes or the racer inside of me dormant for the winter months that enjoys the risks but I like it. Of course when you find out that Whitemud Drive is a parking lot because of another mess on Quesnell Bridge and you don’t have to go to work today I don’t mind staying at home either.

I have eighteen days until Christmas and I haven’t done any shopping yet. While I enjoy winter driving, I dislike the holiday crowds. Good thing New-Saturday is a Tuesday so it should be a little quieter when I attempt to tackle the malls.

P.S. : For those keeping track, I watched the entire first season of Lost in less than a week; I started on November 30th and finished December 6th.

On my way home from work yesterday I saw something magical happen. You ever have those moments when you’re driving and some other driver does something so ignorant or plain stupid that you wish a police officer was there to catch them? Well yesterday my wish was answered.

I was about five minutes outside of Millet doing a healthy 105km/h when this truck pulls out from behind the row of cars and does a power pass on four vehicles. He was going pretty quick when he passed me (I was the second car in of the four he passed) and carried on his way passing the two others infront of me.

He reached the front of the line when he realized that he was passing an RCMP cruiser doing over 120km/h and on a solid line to boot. He stuck the pass and not a minute later the lights came on and he was pulled over. Pure joy I tell you.

In further adventures of Jetta and I, our luck of missing accidents seems to be going full strength. The roads were a mess, vehicles fish tailing this way and that but ‘ol gray and I were strong. I was going west bound on Whitemud but the east bound traffic had problems everywhere. There was an accident about a kilometer past Quesnell Bridge and there was another one before the bridge. You think you made it around one mess and there is another one waiting to greet you a minute later. Jetta and I had no problems on our path.

Although, I guess by having such great fortunes in the Jetta I was bound to payback sometime. I received my first rock chip in the window shortly after seeing the second accident on Whitemud Drive. Perhaps it was karma, or maybe stupid luck but the smallest of dots in my window is all I see now when I am driving.

Not a whole lot to report. I’ve been working and am almost heading home. Friday at 9PM by West Edmonton Mall is scary, there’s a lot of traffic. It’s almost like my mini-rush hour. The weather has created a few accidents but fortunately the mighty Jetta and I are always going in the opposite direction.

Did you know that in MySQL a TINYINT has a size limit of 127? Yeah, it certainly is a tiny integer compared to its integer brother which has a limit of’well, I’m not sure, it’s large. Anyhoo that created some headaches about twenty minutes ago but we’re all good.

My craving for more Lost has come to its climax as I was going to stop off at Future Shop tomorrow and pick up season one so I could resume watching it where I left off. But, Gord has come through and will supply me my fix as we were able to get our schedules in line. On my way home to Millet this evening I’m stopping by his place to get all remaining episodes, including what has been aired of season two. I won’t have another marathon on my days off, but I plan on going through six or so on Tuesday, and maybe more Wednesday evening. By the sounds of it I think I’m gearing up for another marathon.

There are three words floating around in my head right now’chocolate, banana and caffeine. Reaching a road block in programming right now and I’m not really all there. So I share this thought with you.

I filled up the Jetta this morning with diesel. I expected someone to come rushing out yelling that I was insane or my car is supposed to take gas, not diesel. Fortunately the Jetta does accept diesel and no one stopped me. I didn’t fill it right up, but got over the “F” mark on the gauge. Well, I guess in the Jetta it’s a 1/1 mark, but you know what I mean.

The diesel prices were still high, it was 96.8 or something at the Petro Canada in Millet. I didn’t take a picture of the Jetta getting it’s first fill-up, but I will take a picture of the receipt or something equally tacky.

On the way into work this morning I listened to Silverchair’s Neon Ballroom and what a trip through memory lane. Everyone loved Anthem for the Year 2000 but there were so many solid tracks on that record. I actually forgot how good the CD was. I think I’ll do that for the next few weeks. I will select a CD that I would usually skip and experience it all over again.

“chocolate, banana, caffeine”