John, I want to sign up for the 'Maeve Bi-Weekly Inner-Lesbian Album Club' where new music just arrives on my computer. Don't we all!
[9:21:06 PM] []

Oh. And I need a decent name for this blog. Brad's Midnight Inferno, Tracy's is Mayhaps, Rafi's is Shaitaani, and Nick's is Succaland. I need something hip and cool and less ego-centric then Matt Goyer.com. Suggestions welcome.
[4:53:44 PM] []

Speaking of intendend audience. Natalie thinks I should refer to her as 'Natalie' and not 'my girlfriend' because I'm writing for friends and family right? :) Sure Natalie, whatever you want. I of course thought she'd be upset if I 'danced around' the fact that Natalie = Girlfriend. I write for the hell of it. Nothing more. Nothing less.
[4:46:41 PM] []

Ah! I was blogging and Internet Explorer crashed and I just lost everything! I HATE MICROSOFT.

So time to recreate what I was writing hmmmm.. This has happened to me before in a different context. Once when I was in Calcutta, India I had a bag stolen. It was a bag which had a journal that I filled with 4 months of writings. I was VERY upset and still am about that. I tried actually re-wrote most of it. The re-creation and the 2 months after it are sitting on a bookshelf back home. Hopefully safe and sound.

Well I started the 'lost entry' off with a reflection on Rafi's thoughts that he blogs for himself. I thought I did too then reflected and realized that I blog for not only myself, but also my family in Winnipeg, my friends in Waterloo like Langeman, my girlfriend and my 31 one other daily visitors. Feel free to drop me a line (matt@mattgoyer.com) and let me know who you are because my multi-national research firm is getting pretty costly for these small studies.

AH I'm still mad I lost what I had before.

So yesterday was Ani. Being the one in the apartment with a flexible schedule (people somehow assume that if you work from home then you don't really work) I was assigned the duty of lining up early so that we would have a prime position. Being the dutiful roommate that I am I lined up at 1:15 at Historic Fort York in the middle of an industrial wasteland. Upon arriving I was concerned I might be at the wrong spot since there was no line to be seen. There were some other people there and they re-assured me that they had just been instructed to start the line exactly where we were standing. Over the next half hour people emerge from cars and mini-vans to form the beginning of the line. I was 8th in line when everything shaked out.

In line I meet Jen, Jen, and Lindsay there with tickets that Jen's parents had given them for her birthday. They had skipped school to line up. I almost meet a couple hard core groupies. One girl who was seventeen had already seen Ani 9 times this year! These were the people who showed up at 7am or camped over in their mini-van ensuring they were there before the security detail arrived.

Not much to say about waiting in line. We talked, played cards, I read, and we even ordered pizza. Maeve arrived at 3pm, and Natalie somewhere around 4pm and John and Jen I think around 6pm. By the time the gates opened at 6pm what had once been seven people in front of me had ballooned to upwards of 20.

Random tid-bit. We were just standing around and I swear Tyler Stewart of the Barenaked Ladies (he's the one standing in the photo) biked out of 'the compound' and said hey to me as he passed. That makes him the second 'lady' we've spotted in TO.

Once in Natalie secured us a spot just off center in the front row. A prime position. Of course there was still two hours of waiting, which meant two more hours of brutal exposure to the unrelentless sun. Lots of water and an advil later I was doing okay.

The opening act was Sekou Sundiata whose guitar guy had a cell phone on his belt. What need is there for a cell phone when you're in the middle of a concert!?

At 9 was the moment we had all been waiting for (me of course waiting the longest). With our prime front row position Ani was truely amazing. Of course our complaint was that her setlist (warning: not yet posted at that link) was remarkably similar to her Guelph setlist. Even though it was a different tour it seemed to be the same as the last.

We all agree that we'd like her to play more of her old stuff but the theory is that since the addition of Julie the keyboardist she's unable to do as much 'girl and a guitar' material. Of course now she was two horn guys, a bass, a drummer, and Julie.

But we can't complain. We love Ani. She even had this great rant about the big Hyundai billboard that glowed in the background. Turns out she used to have a Hyundai and the reverse broke.

After the show we suffered through our post-Ani depression at 'The Green Room' an 'underground' bar.
[4:09:06 PM] []