After a holiday season filled with overindulgence, I’m sure this little video is something we can all relate to.

As we approach the end of year, the final numbers are slowly trickling in for things like crime rate. Did you know crime has dropped in our city by 9% this year? I guess we owe the Edmonton Police Service a shout out.

Murders on the other hand, are up. 34 this year, compared with 33 murders last year. So the murder rate is basically unchanged. The OTHER crime however, is down.

So murderers are still doing their thing, but last year while they may have jay-walked across the street to the getaway car, now they use the cross-walk. Instead of speeding away, those same murderers are driving away within the designated speed limit, even paying particular attention not to “rip through construction zones”.

As much as I may joke about it, our police in this city have a tough, tough job and a 9% reduction is HUGE. That’s 3,000 less crimes this year compared to last, the bulk of which are property crimes; people breaking into your truck and stealing your tools. A 9 percent reduction – it’s not only impressive, it’s the third year in a row we’ve seen a decline. 

Coldplay has  released a special remix of Viva la Vida as a free download until January 5th. Click on the picture to link to the page.

Know how I know YOU’RE gay?

As the title of this blog entry may have indicated, here are my top 10 albums of this year. I welcome you to post your picks below. I realize that tastes vary and may differ from mine. However, if you find this is the case, your choices are not only wrong but stupid.

#1. Offspring – Rise & Fall, Rage & Grace
It’s Offspring… DUH!

#2. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
I don’t even typically LIKE a lot of the dance rock. I’m as surprised as you are!

#3. Kings of Leon – Only by the Night
People like Noel Gallagher from Oasis have accused Kings of selling out with this album. That
either makes me a sheep following the modern-rocky herd or Noel’s an ass. You decide.

#4. Rise Against – Appeal to Reason
There’s a reason their shows sell out everytime they’re in Edmonton. Plus, they’re nice guys. A
lot of times when they’re in the city, they’ll pop by the Youth Emergency Shelter or invite
some of the kids to their show. First class.

#5. Scars on Broadway - Scars on Broadway
Cancelling shows is just plain tacky. I wanna hate them… but they’re just too good.

#6. Coldplay – Viva la Vida or Death and all his Friends
Pretty solid record.

#7. Shiny Toy Guns – Season of Poison
Switching singers is usually career suicide for a band. Despite the stripper-esk name, Sisely
Treasure is a welcome replacement that will leave most Shiny Toy Guns fans asking… Carah
Faye who?

#8. Weezer – The Red Album
At one time, I would have considered myself among this band’s biggest fans. Not anymore. The
album is good, and still one of the best of the year, but I find myself continually disappointed
by the stuff this band is turning out. What happened to the fun acoustic parts in songs like My
Name is Jonas, The World Has Turned, etc?

#9. City & Colour – Bring me Your Love
Being a gay man, by definition is “a man who likes other men”. I am “a man”, so I guess that
technically makes me half-gay, which explains not only my incredible fashion sense, but my
appreciation of this CD.

#10. Kaiser Chiefs – Off with their Heads
It certainly didn’t grab me on the first listen, or even the second. By the third listen however, I
was hooked. It’s not their best work, but it’s pretty damn good.

The Countdown to Jingle Bell Rock is finally over!  We’ll be broadcasting today’s show from the Shaw Conference Center. Listen through the afternoon for conversations with Dave & Graham from Tokyo Police Club and maybe even Emily Haines from Metric should the mood strike. Here are the tentative set times for tonight’s show:

6:00 PM DOORS
6:30 - MIKE RELM
7:00 - SEBASTIEN GRAINGER
7:30 - MIKE RELM
7:50 - THE DEARS
8:25 - MIKE RELM
8:50 - TOKYO POLICE CLUB
9:40 - MIKE RELM
10:10 - METRIC

I had the pleasure of hosting the SONiC Christmas Party AFTER party. A pretty chill affair; BYOB and some snackies:  

Short bread cookies, gingerbread, chocolates, candy canes, jelly beans, potato chips, tortilla chips & salsa, spinach dip, 2 or three kinds of meat, 3 or 4 kinds of cheese and some Ryvita crackers, these whole grain, low-fat, low-salt crackers.

The next morning, I was cleaning up and I looked at the table. Every crumb of food was gone – as it should be after a party. Every crumb… except the Ryvita crackers. They are usually a pretty popular snack. I often see people eating them in the lunchroom. But the one healthy thing on the table and it was completely untouched.

For some reason when people are drinking the only food that will do, is junk food. I’m something of a health food nut and I didn’t even touch ‘em. I’m quite confident, had the party gone on for weeks, some of the guests might have actually starved to death before these crackers would have been eaten?

What is it with being drunk and eating junk?

In tough economic times, we cut corners any way we can. Is the Christmas gift budget an acceptable area to trim some of the proverbial fat? Here’s what you said during our SONiC Street Survey when asked:

Is it okay to give someone a USED Christmas gift?

We got to talking the other day on the show about how old people are inexplicably fascinated by the weather. So we slipped into our white lab coats and cumbersome safety goggles to conduct, what I’m going to humbly refer to as, the most important social experiment of our generation.

Joe Satriani is suing Coldplay, alleging they ripped off the melody and chord progression for Viva la Vida from a song he released 18 years ago. The similarities are unmistakable.

I was talking with Music Director Adam Thompson about this and he made a good point: When you get a tune in your head, it’s impossible to know whether or not it’s completely original. Likewise, it isn’t practical to go through every piece of recorded music in history to determine whether or not your composition is entirely original.

Do I think Coldplay’s tune is a rip off? Yes. Do I think the band owes Joe Satriani damages? Absolutely NOT. If the original was SO good, why didn’t the tune hit it big the first time? Regardless of how similar the two sound, the song was missing something. The song was popularized by Coldplay and thus the changes they made, albeit small ones were obviously important ones.

Tomorrow is my 30^th birthday. Anytime you roll over that second digit on the odometer; it’s a big deal.

• 30 is the age where instead of having a crush on Christina Ricci, you have a forehead like her.

• 30 is the age where instead of long flowing hair on your head, you have long flowing hair in your ears.

• 30 is the age where instead of tying one on, you’re wear ties.

• 30 is the age where instead of spending Saturday nights looking for grass, you’re yelling at kids to get OFF your grass.

• 30 is the age where instead of wondering where you left your briefs last night, you wonder where you left your brief CASE, this morning.

• 30 is the age where instead of voting on Canadian Idol, you’re voting in the Canadian Election (you still hate most of the contestants).