The Rolling Stones played their second show in 3 nights on Sunday. The weather for the show was quite a bit cooler than the Friday night show. The average temperature had to be around 1 to 3 degrees celsius during the show. It looked as though they had some heaters up on the stage but you could tell they were feeling the cold. Ronnie even put some gloves on because his hands were freezing. The show was very entertaining with a lot of energy being given off by their performance. Seeing Mick move around on the stage made everyone warm up a little. Some of the other highlights were the neat lights, some good camera work, and the pyrotechnics. The one surprising element that I didn’t expect was the stage that rolled into the middle of the stadium. That was a very well done technique and really got the entire audience involved. Then the huge inflatable lips back on the stage appeared out of nowhere and added to the overall effect. The band really tried to get everyone in the audience involved by moving around on the enormous stage, sometimes running back and forth. People have been saying that the Sunday show was better although it was shorter. On Sunday they played Angie which wasn’t played on Friday. This was the biggest concert ever in Regina and I’m sure it will be for a very long time to come. Everyone in Regina should send a huge thank you to the Rolling Stones since they chose us over all the other possible locations they could have gone to. Best of luck to them on the rest of their Bigger Bang Tour.

Well the Rolling Stones were the highlight of the weekend on Sunday night, but it wasn’t all that I did.

On Saturday night, I watched the Japanese Formular One Grand Prix. It was the last race at the Suzuka track since next year they are moving to a different track in Japan. Michael Schumacher took the pole and Alonso was 5th. It looked like Michael was in a very good position to win his next championship. The race continued to look in his favour but Alonso had him down to about 4 or 5 seconds. Then completely out of nowhere, Michael’s Ferrari engine blows up with 17 laps remaining. You couldn’t have scripted it any better. Alonso then goes on to win the race, with Michael earning 0 points. So now, with one race left in Brazil, Alonso leads the mighty Schumacher by 10 points. The only way that Schumacher could win the title would be if he wins the race and Alonso doesn’t finish in the top 8. Here’s hoping for some Renault reliability.

Yesterday, Thanksgiving Monday, I watched the Riders game. Well if you call that a game. It was a thorough beating laid upon them by the hands of the Montreal Alouettes. The final score was 35 – 8. If I had to pick on a certain position or group, I’d say their offense let them down big time. They are having some real trouble with their quarterback right now. Rocky Butler started the game but left after making a tackle and suffering a concussion. Next in, is the almost always injured Kerry Joseph. He has been injured almost all season since he keeps being forced to play. I’m sure his injurys would have worsened by playing. Why they didn’t stick in Durrant when the game was way out of contention I don’t know. So next week, back in Regina it should be interesting to see who get the call to start, I doubt many hands will be going up.

Also on the weekend, there were a couple of Leaf games. They have been playing alright, not scoring goals seems to be a problem this season again. They are alright scoring on the powerplay but don’t seem to be as effective as last season. The highlight player of the year so far has to be Kyle Wellwood. He has been putting up the points and is currentyl leading the league in points. Not bad for a guy who is 23 years old and 5’10”. The Leafs record so far is 2 wins, 1 loss, and 1 overtime loss.

Starting tomorrow I will officially be on my Rolling Stones Long Weekend. In case you don’t know, the Rolling Stone are playing two shows in Regina; Friday and Sunday nights. I am going to the Sunday night show and I’m hoping the weather is nice. It should be interesting to see the unique stage setup and I wonder how the acoustics will sound. The music from the Rolling Stones shouldn’t have any problems with being recognizable by the audience, thus making it a great time. To go along with this Rolling Stones Long Weekend we also have Thanksgiving. Wait, shouldn’t this instead be called the Thanksgiving Long Weekend? Rolling Stones Vs. Thanksgiving … who will win, come back after the weekend and I’ll let you know!

Last week, on Friday night, I went to Taco Del Mar on Kramer Blvd. It’s a new mexican styled fast food place that has some really good food. I ordered a mondo burrito with ground beef. I haven’t ate mexican food in such a long time, and it tastes so good. I would definetly recommend going back there again. They are also opening a second Regina location up soon. I saw that they had the jobs posted for it. It is going to be on Quance on the east side (much more convenient for me). The interior of the restaurant is “baja” styled. As well, it seems like they have a liquor license because they have a cooler that you can buy beer from (seemed like only Mexican beer, namely Corona). It sounds like such a good idea, go out have a burrito or taco and enjoy a beer.

With the approaching weekend normally comes the .. “what am I going to do this weekend”! Well for a change, I know a little of what is going on. I know that I’m going down to Taylor Field. . no wait, I make that Mosaic Stadium to watch the Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the Edmonton Eskimos. It should be an awesome game, I am expecting for a really good turn out at the stadium and an overall great atmosphere. Other than that though, I don’t have much else going on. Maybe I’ll try to catch the Leafs preseason games.

It looks like starting October 1, 2006 I will be getting a pay increase of 2.6%. I believe this is to keep my wage on track with the CPI increase. I won’t be the only one though, as I believe everyone working for the government is receiving the same increased percentage. Now I can think of all the possibilities on how to spend this new found income… Too bad it wasn’t 26% then I would be able to take longer planning!

Last night I saw Huo Yuan Jia, aka Fearless. It was a very good movie. The story followed a very familiar pattern of a character who starts off greedy and ignorant then loses everything and his life spirals down. Then at his depths he soul searches and learns from his mistakes and changes. After this period of change he returns for the finale. The movie itself was very well filmed. The characters were deep and really grabbed the attention of the viewer. You really started to feel emotions for the well being of the characters. Jet Li’s performance, for his last martial arts film, was phenominal. I know that I will be buying this DVD as soon as it comes out.

Well it looks like the weekend is finally here. What am I saying, I only worked 3 days this week with my days off in the middle! Well anyway, I am not going to be working this weekend. On Saturday, there is going to be a CSSS games night, so I should probably make my way to that. Then, on Sunday, I am hoping I’ll watch the Riders play. I am probably going to watch the three Maple Leafs preseason games (Friday, Saturday, Sunday). Well that just about sums up my weekend. I found out that if you make less plans you actually end up doing more anyway.

That’s right! The Office is back. I have been waiting for so long to find out what is going to happen. The season ended on a cliff hanger and now I’m hoping that everything gets resolved. I want to know what happened with Roy + Pam and Jim, not to mention Michael with Jan… Stupid Michael. Is everything going to be ok with Dwight and Angela? Hmm, by the way I’m talking this seems more like a soap opera than a fake-documentary based show set in an office. The title of the season premiere is “Gay Witch Hunt”, I wonder if this has anything to do with Oscar? I’ll find out tonight at 6:30 (8:30 EST).

I just got back from the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert in Saskatoon at the Credit Union Center. You have to wonder why Regina doesn’t have a concert facility to attract concerts of this magnitude. By closely examining the highway both before and after the concert it wouldn’t take much to figure out that probably 80% of the people at the event were from Regina. With crowd support so high, artist would definitely take a look at Regina if a decent facility was in place. Nonetheless, the show must go on.

To start off the night, Mars Volta opened up, and again underwhelmed me with their whole act. The 9 person or so band didn’t seem to have any sort of cohesion that is needed to resemble music. The music felt unorganized and didn’t sound very good at all. At some points, it felt like the band wasn’t all playing the same song. So after an unpleasant hour of the noise, they got off the stage. The applause they were given was because they were done playing and not because they played well.

After a little break to remove all Mars Volta’s equipment, the Red Hot Chili Peppers took to the stage. They played really well, and put on a fabulous show. They had some very entertaining video being broadcast on four separate moving screens behind the stage. The video was actually from cameras that moved around the stage. The video was then dressed up in some special effects to create very entertaining videos. The music was very diverse, they played a bunch of songs off the new album, as well as some of their classics. Then it was time to leave, but it wasn’t over. After about 6 or so minutes of cheering they came back out and played 3 more songs. Then the jam session started up. Anthony Kiedis (lead singer) sat down and let Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (i think . .), from Mars Volta, come out and jam. They kept going on and on building off each other trying out different things, changing it up, always building. Very intense stuff, and surprising to hear. The jam session seemed to last 20 minutes or so. Anthony Kiedis had left after about 10 minutes when he had heard enough and left. During the jam session it looked like John Frusciante was having some problems with a monitor. He kept motioning to the roadies and pointing to his ear. He looked frustrated.

Another thing I should mention, Saskatoon has some of the worst security. Maybe it’s just because of the band that was playing, but they didn’t heavily search for cameras or anything. So many idiots were trying to take pictures in the concert using their flash from way back. Somebody has to tell them that the flash won’t help. Another security lapse was when some idiot got on to the stage and was being stupid. He touched the lead singer and looked like he was going to hug him, and after that he ran off the stage. The whole time, no security went up to take him out. The whole thing was very disapointing, and luckily, made Sasktoon look like a hick town.

Overall, it was a great show with a lot of enjoyable music. The band wasn’t afraid to improvise portions of songs, mixing it up, and thus freshening it up for everyone. The sound was clear and didn’t suffer any of the ill effect that Mars Volta seemed to have. I think it is official now though, after watching The Mars Volta open for two different bands, both times sucking, they officially suck. Red Hot Chili Peppers officially rock!