Month: November 2002

The best kind of song that a street musician can perform is one that the audience can sing along to, even if they’ve never heard it before. I tried this one last night, and it went over really well.

In fact, it went over so well that a guy gave me a crisp twenty-dollar bill for it.

He just paid for the ice for my birthday party. Thanks, dude! And thanks, Jay, Silent Bob and Afroman!

Because I Got High

by Afroman

from the albums “The Good Times” and “Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back soundtrack”

I was gonna clean my room until I got high

I gonna get up and find the broom but then I got high

My room is still messed up and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I was gonna go to class before I got high

I coulda cheated and I coulda passed but I got high

I am taking it next semester and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I was gonna go to work but then I got high

I just got a new promotion but I got high

Now I’m selling dope and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I was gonna go to court before I got high

I was gonna pay my child support but then I got high

They took my whole paycheque and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I wasnt gonna run from the cops but I was high

I was gonna pull right over and stop but I was high

Now I am a paraplegic and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I was gonna pay my car note until I got high

I wasn’t gonna gamble on the boat but then I got high

Now the tow truck is pulling away and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I was gonna make love to you but then I got high

I was gonna eat yo pussy too but then I got high

Now I’m jacking off and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I messed up my entire life because I got high

I lost my kids and wife because I got high

Now I’m sleeping on the sidewalk and I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

I’m gonna stop singing this song because I’m high

I’m singing this whole thing wrong because I’m high

And if I dont sell one copy I know why

Because I got high, because I got high, because I got high

Here are the chords — for each verse:

line 1: G C

line 2: D G

line 3: G C

line 4: G D G

The song’s extremely simple, having only a bass and a drum machine playing a TR-808-like kick and snare. There’s loads of room for embellishment; I play a lot of the chords as sevenths and throw in a solo just before the “I was gonna make love to you” verse.

If you have RealPlayer, you can see the video for Because I Got High online.

The Ontario Skeptics Society for Critical Inquiry may have an unwieldy name, but they’ve got a great little fair happening tomorrow. It’s the Psychic Unfair, their “response to the psychic fairs and expos that continually promote paranormal phenomena and charlatans in this part of the world”. Accordion City has a popular annual “Psychics, Mystics and Seers Fair” that’s taken place every year for the past while, but this is only the Psychic Unfair’s second such event.

There will be psychic demonstrations, experiments, games, books and lots of information about the skeptical consideration of faith healing, crop circles, cryptozoology, UFOs, alien abductions, ESP, therapeutic touch and other such phenomena. There’s also a $1000 challenge where “psychics” and the public are invited to identify three objects in sealed boxes to win cash.

The Unfair takes place at the Earth Sciences Centre at the University of Toronto tomorrow, Saturday November 2nd, between 1:00 and 6:00 p.m. Here are directions and a map if you’re interested.

Seeing as I live a five-minute bike ride away from U of T, I might drop by. I could use the cash, too.

About an hour or so ago, we had our first snowfall here in Accordion City. Here’s a shot taken twenty minutes into the snowfall, taken in the space between my house and my neighbours’:

It’s only fitting: yesterday was Day of the Deadbeat, today is Day of the Dead.

When the Philippines was a Spanish colony, a period that spanned three hundred years from the time of Magellan (whose punk ass we killed — circumnavigate this, colonialist beeyotch!) to 1898, many people from another Spanish colony, Mexico, were also transported there. The Day of the Dead, along with other bits of Mexican culture such as menudo (the dish, not the boy band) and hot chocolate and churros became part of Filipino culture. Unfortunately, while we picked up the visiting-your-dead-relatives’-graves thing, we never adopted the really cool parades of people dressed up as skeletons. For a country that goes all hardcore during Easter with guys actually getting crucified in Passion plays, you think we’d have embraced the skeleton parades.

Besides, I think I could come in handy at one of those parades: