Went for a long walk the other day. It was +11 in Edmonton in January, completely unheard of. If weather was like that here all winter I would have no problem living in Edmonton for the rest of my life, sadly I know it’s going to change. We have a couple more days of warm weather then it’s back to -20. Must enjoy the beautiful weather while it is here. I think that we need opposite snow days.

In most places if there is a blizzard, businesses and schools shut down for the day and every one takes a nice little snow day. Yah, we don’t get that here. If it’s negative 40 we still go to work. We still drive our cars, and keep on trekking. That’s why I think there should be a Sun Day. It should be mandatory to close businesses and schools if it is above +10 in January or February in Edmonton, and in all of Northern Canada for that matter.

Honestly, that would be freaking awesome. I bet you tons of people, including teachers and business owners would love to have something like that. When you get tons of snow all the time and rarely have a warm day where you can go outside without freezing your ass off it’s amazing to get a day where it’s as warm as it has been. We went from -35 to +11. 46 Degree difference.

I hereby declare Sun Day a new holiday. I think I’m going to start a new petition and petition the Canadian Government to make it a new law. Who’s with me?

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com

I haven’t been DJing much the last few months as the Wedding scene in Alberta has pretty much dried up… or should I say frozen over, haha, that’s a terrible joke. Anyway, DJing has been picking up a little bit here with all the Corporate Xmas parties going on, but beyond that it’s been slow. I guess the main reason why I’m writing about this is because usually, when ever I DJ, I have some down time during the beginning of the night to do some writing of my little rants and such. Lately, my time has been so filled with website work that I haven’t even had time to blog at all. Next week though, I’m going to Ft McMurray, Slave Lake, then back to Edmonton for the last day of DJing (3 in a row), so that should give me some time to do some writing.

One cool thing that I recently did while I was in Atlanta I had an opportunity to set up a project plan for the band, which is rather intense in as far as how deep it goes. It maps out what needs to be accomplished in order to get the band to where we want it and getting there will be no easy feat. For the new EP we’ve had our songs picked for the last 3 months and it’s so frustrating that we haven’t been able to rehearse them simply due to this whole space issue I have been going on and on about in previous blogs. In the mean time we’ve been trying to get together the visual elements and aspects of the new record with designers. I think next week Jay and I are going to re-work some lyrics and melody lines on our own, got to keep moving forward.

On a personal note, looks like I’ll be back on Van Isle come Xmas time and I look forward to seeing every one back home. I wish I had a new album to take with me, but I guess that will just have to wait til next time. I imagine some drunken debauchery will ensue, and this time I’m going to ensure that it does.

Jagger Bombs any one? Haha.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/

Well, what can I say? I felt pretty bad about leaving the band to go to Atlanta for 17 days and focus on work not music. Sadly it made no real difference what so ever because we’re still without a jam space. Like how the fuck are we supposed to work on music when we have no where to play? I’m practically waiting for the real estate aspect of the economy in Alberta to go into the shitter so there are places to rent. It’s gotten so pathetic now that I’m looking at buying a god damn house just so we can have a place to rehearse.

Since before the summer we’ve been trying to find a permanent rehearsal space, and we even found something that worked temporarily. It’s too bad that that place wasn’t heated, and that it was a pretty much condemned building. The basement in there felt like it used to be a freaking crematorium. Although I do wish that place would have worked out long term. I hear they’re now turning the space into rental apartments so there’s no chance that we’ll be playing there ever again.

So where does that leave us? Well after my three week ad in the See magazine got us nothing except for some random phone calls that never panned out, although it was pretty funny when people from other bands started calling me asking if I had heard anything cause they too were looking for a place to rehearse. It’s a sad scene for bands in the city that don’t own/rent a house or have their parents garage to jam in. I’ve called every one I know, emailed them, facebooked them, called places to rent office space, called warehouses. There is nothing affordable and available.

With that, I guess I’ll just put another ad in the See Magazine, one in the Vue Weekly and maybe even throw a classified ad in the Sun and the Journal. There has to be something or some one who has space that they can rent out. Hell we only need it on evenings and weekends, just like an unlimited local call cell phone plan. Common universe, help us out here.

If you know of any possibilities drop me a line shane@livingillusion.com.

Thanks for listening to me rant.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/

Today is my last day in Cleveland and it has been one helluva a trip. I wasn’t sure how it was gonna pan out when I first got here, but now I’m really glad that I came to town. My flight leaves in about 7 hours to head home and I still have one last place to go before then, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I’m pretty excited to go there (for obvious reasons) but so far the high light of the trip has definitely been going to the Cleveland Browns vs New York Giants NFL Game last night. It was utter insanity.

Seeing as I’m in Canada I never watch the NFL, or understand why every one down here is so into it, but god damn. I can compare last nights regular season NFL game to the final playoff round in the NHL when your city is in it. By that I mean that the fans are fucking nuts! I have never ever seen (until last night) a family of 4 with young children who are cheering for the away team be called assholes in massive chants by the home team fans for so long that they get up and leave the stadium. Just messed.

People here take there football very very seriously, it actually makes me want to go to another game… and seeing as I don’t have a “team” I think after tonights experience, I will be cheering for the home team no matter where I am, haha. Shit the cops even came in and threw out a guy wearing a Giants Jersey, it was most likely for his own safety as the Browns fans were going to eat him alive. It was just wacky all night long like that and besides the fans going nuts, it was actually a really good Football game.

For my first NFL experience, it was pretty freaking amazing. Every one (well other than Browns fans) were expecting the Giants to continue there 4 game winning streak and win last nights game, but to the predictions dismay, the Browns beat the Giants by almost 20 points. There was even an interception that turned into a 90 yard touch down for the Browns. It was a really good game and the Browns played their heart out. By far my favorite player on the Browns team is Cribbs, damn that guy can run (look him up online if your interested).

All in all, NFL Football is something that if you truly want to experience you have to go to a game. The TV does not do it justice at all. I’m really glad I went and hope it’s not the last game I get to see. On that note, I’ve gotta get my shit together and head over to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, I’ll blog about my other fun experiences when I get back to Edmonton, everything from seeing Joe Satriani Live at the House of Blues, to getting shit pissed in a bar called Cadillac Ranch… and yes they played that Nitty Gritty Dirt Band song, lol, felt like DJing a wedding all over again.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

Tonight I decided to sit down and set some goals for myself. In a matter of no time I wrote down over 40 goals that I have. I was quite surprised at how much I actually needed to write all that down and get it on paper and out of my head. It was everything from travel plans to music goals, to swimming with dolphins and hosting my own radio show. I wrote down short term goals, future goals, and lifetime goals.

When I started I was completely lost as to where to begin so I just essentially google’d “online goal setting” and found this really freaking cool website called http://www.8goals.com. It’s a wicked place where you can save, track, and easily set up all your goals and plans. I know this is kinda sounding like a pitch for 8goals.com, but honestly if you want to set goals then I highly suggest that site cause well, it’s free.

For fun here’s some of the music goals: Record EP, Redesign LI Look & Feel, Find Host Venue for the 2009 CD Release Party, Organize Western Canada Tour and last Open for Chevelle on a World Tour, hehe. Some personal ones that were kinda cool are: Try Scuba Diving, Meditate in India, Sail the Carribean, Host a Radio Show and Write a Book… that last one is an ongoing work in progress. Either way I’m so glad I wrote all these down!

Do you ever do any goal setting? Like 5 year plans? I think that’s what I’m going to work on next. Not really sure why I wrote this blog about it but hey, maybe you can relate, all I can say is that the future looks promising and that goal setting is good. If you’re not already doing it, then you should get on it. Haha, next I just need to start making a budget, Ugh.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

The Portal show was freaking awesome, and I have the swag to prove it! Even though we played on Friday at the Starlite Room, I think I was even more excited to watch Portal play at Jet Nightclub on Saturday; and let me tell you – they did not disappoint. It was such a fun and inspiring night, and now I’m even more stoked to be working with these guys on our new record!

So we got to Jet at around 9 (half way through Long Way Down‘s set) to join the crowd of an already pretty packed house. We grabbed some beers and made the rounds meeting up with lots of friends who had also come out. There were tons of people there, and it was really nice to see that so many other musicians in the city had also come.

When Portal hit the stage I was front and center. They played the whole Blood Red Tape album and I was rocking out like no tomorrow. I literally got my face rocked off, seriously it’s gone, that’s how good it was. The guitars were heavy, the bass was fat, the drums were incredible and the vocals were spot on. It was an awesome show, and I was so happy that I got my hands on the new album in advance; that way I could scream the lyrics out at Kenton while they played, it was fucking sweeet.

After their set was over we drank some more beers, got some swag signed, and chatted it up. The next band Fenix Foundation played a wicked set and when they finished I was starting to burn out so we called it a night. All I can say is, if you weren’t there you seriously fucking missed out and I highly suggest you get your ass out next time Portal plays, it was that good.

Until next time, “keep fit and have fun” (Fucking Body Break, hahaha)

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

This summer I have been to Devon, Spruce Grove, Viking, Cold Lake, Fort Mac, Calgary, Jasper, Kamloops, Parksville, Nanaimo, Vancouver, Delta, and Victoria; and I’m sure I missed a few others that I can’t remember right now. I put roughly 25,000km on the Focus I drive in less than 4 months… I feel like a god damn travelling sales men… except I get to go to those places and have a giant party each time. I guess that’s just my life as a DJ, well a wedding/corporate DJ, I don’t consider myself a real DJ, you know, I don’t have a cool name like DJ Lethal or anything (haha), I just assist people in having a great time.

It was kinda nice to be out of town lots this summer, it helped keep me busy, and I made good money. Plus when you’re on the road for hours on end all alone, you certainly get a lot of time for thinking, contemplating and devising new ways to grow as a person; the universe knows I’ve been doing a lot of that this summer. All in all my time over the last 4 months has been enlightening and incredible – a cornucopia of emotions, I’ve met and reconnected with some of the most wonderful people and have had some huge life changing experiences… to top it off, it doesn’t look like the momentum is going to run out…

Here’s the rundown: The band has a sweet gig at the Starlite Room in Edmonton this Friday the 19th of September, then we’re gonna be working at Beta Sound with Kevin Hoskin doing Pre-Production for the next record/EP (which we’re gonna have mixed by Bill Kennedy), after that I’m going to Cleveland for a conference in October, then by the time I get back we should be ready to go back into the studio to start laying down tracks for the record. All the while working full time and DJing the occasional weekend. The list just keeps going…

Haha, I just thought of more, cause during all that time we also have to do the design work for the new album, redesign the website and myspace, get a proper photoshoot done, and play any gigs worth playing… although we will be taking some time off when were in the studio Holy crap my life is gonna be busy. Needless to say, it’s a good thing I like to be doing things all the time and that I enjoy it, otherwise I would probably go crazy.

So in closing, to everyone that I had the pleasure of spending time with this summer (whether you read my blog or not ), Thank You for turning what could’ve been one of the most melancholy summers of my life into one of the most amazing. You guys are awesome and I don’t know where I would be without you all, so again Thank You, Thank You, Thank You (That includes you too Kels, you will be missed). I hope that you can all make it out to one of our shows some time soon, even if you do live in another city… then again maybe we’ll just have to come to you!

Make good choices

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

Last week at the ASHES dIVIDE show I had the pleasure of getting my hands on a pre-release copy of Portal’s new album entitled “Blood Red Tape”. For those of you who don’t know, Portal is a Progressive Hard Rock band from Edmonton, and in my opinion one of the best Prog Rock bands in Canada. They’ve been around for about 7 or 8 years and we actually had the honor of playing with them back in 2006, although it wasn’t until recently that we we’re formally introduced to one another.

I remember when I first moved to Edmonton in 2002, I picked up a copy of The SEE Magazine (I had no idea what it was at the time) and as I was reading through it I saw an Ad for a show that Portal was playing at RED’s. I was so removed from the scene at the time that I had no idea who they were, and I was so broke I couldn’t even go to the show. I did however manage to go online and hear some of their music. And from that moment, I was hooked to their unique style of aggressive intelligent music, and I was in awe to think that such a good band was from Edmonton.

All that aside, I have to say, “The New Portal Album is FUCKING AMAZING!” I can’t even begin to explain how well put together “Blood Red Tape” is. It has been years in the making, and it was worth every ounce of energy they put into it. It is some of the best production I have ever heard and it stands up to any signed acts recording production. I am still totally mesmerized from the production alone, the tunes themselves on top of it just add to the awesomeness of the record.

The songs are exactly what you would expect from the evolution of Portal. From 10 minute epics to straight up rock in your face tracks this album has everything a fan of hard rock could ask for. The album keeps you full of suspense and anticipation for whats to come while pounding you to the ground with fat guitar riffs, supreme vocals and amazingly heavy/complex drums, only to come full circle and show you the melodic style Portal has been known for.

By far my favorite aspect of the album is the replay factor. The songs are done in such a way that every time you listen to them you get to hear a little more within the songs that you didn’t catch the first time around, it makes you want to listen to the songs over and over and over. Needless to say, this is one of the best albums I have heard all year… And I don’t mean best album from an indie band, I mean best album all around. But shit, don’t just take my word for it, go take a listen yourself: http://www.bloodredtape.com/

And if you’re in Edmonton I highly suggest you come out to Portals “Blood Red Tape” CD Release Party on September 20th at the Jet Nightclub (the old Kings Knight Pub).

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

When I heard that Dream Theater was coming to Calgary on May 9th 2008, there was no hesitation in buying the tickets the moment they went on sale. A band that I have been listening to for years (even more so after their newer album Train of Thought came out, which I suggest everyone takes a listen to), it was surreal to finally see the amazing musicianship of DT rocking out less than 10 feet in front of my face. That’s right, I pushed my way through the masses up to the front of the pit… and it was freaking awesome.

The drive from Edmonton to Calgary was a breeze as always, pretty much a B-line, and the concert venue was super easy to find as it was at the University of Calgary Campus. I was pretty surprised at how small of a venue they chose to play considering Dream Theater has been around for so long and have garnered quite the following. Although, who am I to complain, this is like the first time they have ever played in a Canada city other than Vancouver, Toronto or Montreal.

The show itself was amazing and the guys in the band are insane when it comes to talent, I only dream of being as good as John Petrucci on guitar. The place was pretty packed and everyone at the front (including me) were literally crushed against each other, it was kind of nasty (haha). Closer to the end of the show I made it to the very front of the stage, I was stuck about 2 people back for the earlier part. Just as I got to the front they played “As I Am” off of Train of Thought. It fucking rocked.

After that I was pretty much exhausted and moved out of the sweat infested mess of people… I had to take my shirt off that’s how soaked it was. I guess the only complaint about the show I have is that I wish they would’ve played more of their heavy songs. They played a lot of their material from the 80′s that I’m really not all that into. Next time they come, they should let me pick their set list for the night, that would be sweet!

In closing, it was well worth the trip and I have now seen another band that I have been dying to see. Next up, Buckethead! Haha.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/

I just finished reading the book Hardcore Zen, and it was quite an enjoyable read. It’s the first book I’ve read in quite some time that I wasn’t able to put down. Albeit I was on planes a lot so there wasn’t much else to do, but it really has re-invigorated my desire to practice meditation. It’s always nice to read a book on Zen which discusses the modern aspects of life and how Zen practice can be integrated. Most books written on the subject that I have read we’re written hundreds of years ago, and even though the practical application of Zen still applies (the fundamentals of Zen Buddhism are still the same), it can be difficult at times to relate my experience of life to the authors (seeing as it was written so long ago). This, of course, was not the case in Hardcore Zen.

Written by an old school punk rocker this book was definitely up my ally. From growing up in a small town, to making Japanese monster movies, this book has it all. It’s like reading a light autobiography with gems of Zen scattered through out. From thoughts on Gene Simmons to rants about Ken Wilber (which I think was my favorite part of the book, not so much that he was ranting about Ken, but just my own internal realization of how it was pushing me out of my comfort zone to read it). Honestly, out of all the books I saw in the Zen section of Chapters this was the only one that truly stood out for me, and for good reason.

One other section worth mentioning is the chapter on drugs and spirituality, and I must admit, I don’t think I could agree with Brad (the author) more on the subject… It comes down to this. If you’re gonna do drugs, do them and have a good time, but be honest with yourself in as far as the fact that you are doing them to get fucked up. Don’t go running around using mushrooms or acid as an excuse to experience being one with the universe. I remember a group of friends of mine that would all drop “XTC” and run around talking about how they were experiencing “God” when they did drugs. I personally think that’s a crock a shit. So if you’re gonna do drugs, then do them for the real reason, don’t use the lie of spirituality and experiencing god as an excuse to have a good trip.

In a nutshell thats Hardcore Zen. Go pick up a copy of and take a read, its great for people just getting interested in Zen and for those who have been practicing and want a fresh outlook on modern day aspects of the tradition. If you really enjoy it you can join me in reading the follow up book called “Sit Down and Shut Up”. It takes off right where the last book finished (in as far as the autobiographical aspects) and it also includes a translation/editorial on the Shobogenzo (google it) through out the book.

Hope you enjoyed my little review.

Shane Lamotte
shane@livingillusion.com
http://www.livingillusion.com/wordpress/