So my boss has confirmed my air ticket back to NB from Korea. I leave Seoul Incheon airport around 6 PM on Aug 25 and get to St John airport around 18 hours later... on Aug 25. The joys of shifting time zones. + anticipating jet lag. It's so soon my glands nearly begin to ooze with nervousness + the typical thoughts you'd have after being away for more than a year: why am I leaving the 3d biggest city in the world + my wife behind to go live by myself in the woods in a bachelor apartment + study to become that most reprehensible of species: the public high school teacher? What will the town look like? Will there be a new store? Will they have put up a new traffic light somewhere? Will the folks back home have new hair cuts, children or houses? Or other freaky shit? It will be max-freaky simply understanding what nearly everybody is saying in stores (there're two in Fred, unless a new one's been built in the past year) or the food court + whatnot. The correct response to this massive influx of traumatizing small-town-ness + surge in ratio of background English will be to lock myself in my new (undoubtedly overpriced) bachelor or one bedroom apartment, draw the blinds, crack a bottle of soju, cook some rice + throw one of the following Compact Discs on the Compact Disc Player:The Evens: "The Evens" and "Get the Evens". 10$ US each, fr. DisCord Records. More awesomeness from Ian MacKaye. It is nothing short of tragic they played Fred before I could get back. I heard this gig was so awesome it broke the awesome-meter. + Indeed the samples on the Dischord website practically scream "buy this shit now". And so I did. And while I was at it, I'll also take...Fugazi: "Red Medicine". Over the years I've managed to pick up nearly every Fugazi album... on vynl. Now my record player's broken. That shit is sad, sad, sad. I need to fix that someday. In the meantime to fix my jones for heavy-as-fuck barely-linear punk rock I pick this up + reminisce how rad it was hearing it for the first time in grade eleven. On cassette.Joel Plasket: "La De Da", "Truthfully, Truthfully". Maplemusic. 16$ each. Goddamn. Joel's only a couple of years older than me + a successful, internationally touring recording artist. He also writes some of the best songs going. If you can't relate to that shit somehow, it is sad. My justfication for dropping nearly fifty dollars after tax? Dude's playing the UNB SUB Sept 7 + I want to be able to sing along to all the songs. Sad, sad, sad.The Hold Steady: "Boys and Girls in America" 15$ US. Vagrant Records. Shitty name for an album + the cover art is all confetti + puke pink. OK, fine. Everything I've heard by the HS gets stuck in my head for days and weeks. "Separation Sunday" kills so hard. They've been touring this record all over the world for the past year. I don't imagine they'll get to Fred. Still, you can always hope.Ryan Adams: "Rock n' Roll". 17$ US. Lost Highway. Generally this over-prolific poser gets on my nerves like nobody's business. He's barely 30 + has 9 solo records out, at least 3 with Whiskeytown, + a box set of 5 unreleased records coming out in the winter. Where is the fucking quality control, dude? What's that? Oh. You say you get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each month to sit around with your friends, drink, some dope + play guitar? Oh yeah?... Well I uh... teach English. And make tens of thousands of dollars. Per year. And my life is very... meaningful for this. Yup. Out of all those variously crappy records (I assume they're crappy)I have to say that every song on "Demolition" is just-fuckin-great. I understand this is supposed to be Brian's best new-wave album since "Cuts Like a Knife". I mean "Reckless". I mean a... oh whatever. "So Alive" is a cool song too. I nearly dropped another twenty bucks to buy Sloan's "A-Sides Win" comp ( a comp being the only Sloan you need, but as far as that goes it is absolutely essential) but I figure I got to save something for when I get home. Some of these other records have got to suck sufficiently as to be trade in quality at BackStreet. So I'll get it then. Preferably used. Take it easy.