ShaneWilson.net

The Wind

I just bought Warren Zevon's new CD, The Wind. I was fortunate enough to see him at the 2002 Edmonton Folk Music Festival, just a few weeks before he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and I've been a big fan ever since.

When he was diagnosed with Lung Cancer in late August, 2002, he was initially given three months to live. In a press release he said, "I'm ok with it, but it'll be a drag if I don't make it until the next James Bond movie comes out."

Zevon immediately started writing songs and recording this great album. Many of the songs deal with his mortality making this a very emotional CD.

The first song is called "Dirty Life and Times", with lyrics such as "Get's a little lonely folks, if you know what I mean. I'm looking for a woman with low self esteem, to lay me out and ease my worried mind, while I'm winding down my Dirty Life and Times."

The last song on the CD is a really beautifull song called "Keep me in your heart for a while". In it he sings: "Shadows are falling and I'm running out of breath, keep me in your heart for a while. If I leave you it doesn't mean I love you any less, keep me in your heart for a while. "

There is also a great cover of Knocking on Heavens Door. Not all of the songs are depressing though, there's some good rockin tunes like "Disorder in the House" and "Rub me raw".

The album features guest appearances by the likes of Ry Cooder, Don Henley, Billy Bob Thorton, Dwight Yoakam, Bruce Springsteen, David Lindley, T-Bone Burnett, Tom Petty, and Emmylou Harris.

I read a quote recently by Warren Zevon, I think it was from the early nineties. I don't remember the exact quote, but basically he said that in the music business you're lucky if you recognitoin for something you did early in your career and for something you do just before you die. I hope he gets some recognition for this great album.

Web hosting woes

I've been having major problems with my web hosing company. All of my index.html files are no longer being recognized as .html files and IE for Windows wants to download a file instead of load a page, although my sites work fine for mac users.

The only solution I have been able to get from my hosting company is to change all of my index.html files to index.shtml. This works and is fine for this site, but for my other site, http://www.everythingalberta.com, it is a huge hassle. Anyway, if this is not fixed by tommorow, it looks like I will be switching to Lunarpages.

A History of Man

I'm reading a book by L. Ron Hubbard, called A History of Man.

The foreword of the book starts out with: "This is a cold-blooded and factual account of your last sixty trillion years". He then goes on to say "This is usefull knowlege. With it the blind see again, the lame walk, the ill recover, the insane become sane and the sane become saner".

So what is this usefull knowledge? Among many other gems, check out this excerpt from Chapter 8:

"At death the theta being leaves the body and goes to the between-lives area. Here he "reports in", is given a strong forgetter implant and is then shot down to a body just before it is born. At least this is the way the old invader in the Earth area was operating." ... "The report area for most has been Mars. Some women report to stations elsewhere in the solar system. There are occasional incidents about Earth report stations. The report stations are protected by screens. The last Martian report station on Earth was established in the Pyrenees."

This book also contains the reason that some critics of Scientology have been known to refer to Scientologists as Clams. In chapter 4, Hubbard writes:

"As soon as the hinges are formed in a clam, we have our first efforts to be completely contrary and internaly at war. The solution occurs when one hinge goes into apathy and the other assumes complete control.

The hinge epicentres later becomes the hinges of the human jaw. Should you desire to confim this, describe to some uninitiated person the death of a clam without saying what you are describing. 'Can you imagine a clam sitting on a beach, opening and closing it shell very rapidly?' (Make a motion with your thumb and forfinger of rapid opening and closing). The victim may grip his jaws with his hand and feel quite upset. He may even have to have a few teeth pulled."

He also writes:

"By the way, if you cannot take a warning, your discussion of these incidents with the uninitiated in Scientology can produce havoc. Should you discuss 'the clam' to someone, you may restimulate it in him to the extent of causing severe jaw hinge pain. One such victim, after hearing about a clam death could not use his jaws for three days. Another had to have two molars extracted because of the resulting ache. The clam and all these incidents are very much present in the GE and can be restimulated easily. So do not be sadistic with your describing them to people - unless of course they belligerantly claim that man has no past memory for his evolution. In that event, describe away."

Yes folks, people actually believe this crap!

My First Tattoo

I just had my first tattoo done about an hour ago. The reason I chose a wolf has to do with one of my favorite books, Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse. Here is a quote from it:

..He called himself the Steppenwolf, and this too estranged and disturbed me a little. What an expression! However, custom did not only reconcile me to it, but soon I never thought of him by any other name; nor could I today hit on a better description of him. A wolf of the steppes that had lost its way and strayed into the towns and the life of the herd, a more striking image could not be found for his shy loneliness, his savagery, his restlessness, his homesickness, his homelessness.

The pain wasn't too bad - about what I expected. I think I will probably get a few more tattoos in the near future.

Folk Festival

The Edmonton Folk Music Festival was awsome as usual. The Volunteer Party's were amazing, especially on the last night, featuring Dervish (pictured above) from Ireland, and Bembeya Jazz from Africa. The music didn't stop till 5:00 AM. Other highlights of the festival included The Funk Brothers, Norah Jones, Bruce Cockburn, Nanci Griffith, Taj mahal, Solomon Burke, Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo, and many more.

I have posted more pictures here

First Night of the Folk Fest

Just got back a little while ago from the first night of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, and it was a great time as usual. After putting in a four hour shift volunteering, I caught two excelent sets by Daniel Lanois (pictured above) and Jim Cuddy, of Blue Rodeo

I need a vacation!

post 2, blah, blah, blahAaaarrgg... work is really starting to stress me out. I do inbound customer support for AT&T Wireless customers. Actually, it would be bareable if everything worked as it's supposed to. But of all the systems we use, a day when all of them work is rare! Today we were completely without computers for about an hour. Thanks for calling AT&T Wireless, sorry I can't help you - call back later!

Well, at least I just worked my last shift for 11 days - vacation time. I'm not going anywhere, but I'll be spending four days volunteering for the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. It will be my eighth consecutive year volunteering there, and it's my four favorite days of the year.

Let me introduce myself...

Welcome to my thoughts, ideas, and my life. My name is Shane. I am 31 years old, and live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. I am single and live alone except for my cat.

I work full-time in an inbound call center, which kind of sucks. I also do a bit of web design - I have been running http//www.everythingalberta.com since 1999.

I don't intend to use this as a diary so much, my life isn't interesting enough for that. But its a place where I can write down my thoughts, ideas, and opionions - and who knows, somebody might even read it! At some point I'll probably complain about my job, post movie and book reviews, opionions on current events, my experiences with the criminal cult Scientology. and whatever else comes to mind.

Feel free to comment on anything I write here, and if you know me, feel free to leave a comment just to let me know you stopped by.