sweet deal

me, and my bro and sister sat down and had a xmas gift xchange tonite, a few nights after xmas, and it looks like u2 was the common theme, i gave my bro the vertigo single with all the remixes and her girlfreind who really enjoyed seeing "child" earlier this month the one with vertigo (studio) and are you gonna wait forever?"

and i got........drummroll.........Vertigo tour live from chicago DVD, sweet!!!

thats all..

to all that really care about my songs you might be happy to know that iuve revamped my "alone" song, it sounds much better, the begiining sounds like pink floyd's wish you were here sorta...

anyways if i could find a place to record id do it and show ya...till then just think of how it must start

have youreselves a happy new year and im trying to send my mom and dad to another elevation concert...gave them the message about when you guys are in town....

btw, i love the alt version of SYCMOYO is he just singing along with himself??

Congrats Rumsy

got this message last night in the email and im eccstaic i never thought theyd get engaged, that goes for 2-3 people from the same high school grade getting married...theres still quite alot but its always us elliots that never get engaged or married....dang...
-----------------------

"just wanted everyone to know....i asked emelie to marry me on saturday...she said yes...so we are engaged!!!

we havent decided any further plans but we will let you know!!!!

love

brian rumble"

Happy Holidays from Banff!!

Its that time of year when we all have family gatherings, and feasts of turkey. Some of us reflect on the year that has past and talk about whats ahead in the future.

This year its kind of different for me, as you can see im 3,000 miles away from home, i have none of my parents to wake up on xmas day so i guess i open presents by myself then?? anyways i guess a banff xmas cant be that bad can it...with hopefully mild temperatures (i say hopefully cause i cant stand another -45 degree day anymore, ive had enough of walking to work and getting mild frostbite because its dam cold out....a -5 to -10 would be appropriate...

Work at safeway is going good, im actually breaking all my current job records, ive been with safeway longer than ive been with any other job...wooo hooo!!!

ive been skiing 3-4 times in the past 2 weeks, 1 beautiful day at sunshine followed by another at lake louise.

quick fact: you may hear me say on my blog "the quay" "the shine" and "the lake" what i mean by that is "the quay" means Norquay, the shine means sunshine, and the lake, well you can figure it out.

my songwriting thing has gone down the tubes...i need a break from it to enjoy what ive got here..

 

Merry Holidays...

 

mellisa's was packed last night

so im hanging around with brynn and his budies watvching the EDM vs VAN hockey game. And we decided after the game that wed go to mellisa's and hang around, have a few drinks and leave because mpost guys are working today. So we get there and its packed....ive never seen mellisa's bar that packed, it should be more like an empty creamery...

but as we got there, somebody played like 6 u2 songs for some reason so i was obviously into it cause you know i love U2!

Saw my bro there last night and introduced my brother to some of my roomates and even jess was there. jess is my bros g-friend. Shes from like 20 mins out of where Marc from here live in thr UK!! how cool is that!!

Mery Xmas everyone, and id like to thank dawn, elevation, child, and last but all not least my parents for helping me get my ass out here, thanks for all of such a good year!!!

feeling out of place...

i thought i knew everything, i thought i had it made and had what i wanted but thats just the way i felt through high school, but now im living on my own 2,000 miles from home, and i feel as out of place as i did before i went into high school. Im getting feelings and thoughts i thought i had removed or put in the back of my head come back recently, images in my mind of being so selfless, i just really want to be forgotten and too i want to be out of the spotlight.

at the BSH?

looks like my mom will be getting a few more days out here because her flight is cancelled because of the storm raging in ontario!!

hope she gets back soon, but for now shes staying at the Banff springs hotel...

im going to be heading up there soon!!

where have i been?

parents dropped in and i havent been able to check my email addy and post updates, skied sunshine and skied louise sunday monday!!

back at it today...

 

trying to find their site...

Last thursday i went to see the premier of WM's Higher Ground. I remember that there was a small little band that played before the start of it called "The Touques" and they were from vancouver. I am trying to track down thir site. It has it on thier banner unfortunately i cant rember it...all i can find on google is one from the UK.

I still havent heard the song levitate yet. Thought i had it but infortunately its just some ad i downloaded. Fuckin hell..

"its cold out there, it gets so hot in here"-u2

later

 

having a hard time finding your fav song on Limewire?

You asked, i can help.

Tonite i was looking to make a good cd with lost of acoustic and u2 shit...and one of the songs i love the most is "deep in the heart". I looked all around for it on there. Untill i just searched it by title and left the name out whe i got was alot of BS because it was all "deep in the heart of texas" and such but then in the artist area and theres all like patsy cline and stuff and i scroll down the list and theres U2 and im like sweeeeeeet!!!

its a mix of maren ord and u2....its good

some tips on shovelling wooden walkways,

i wish i had photos of what im describing but if you have a wooden walkway that needs shovelling is to 1st shove all the top layer of snow away and then to get closer to the surface shovel everything to either side by anging your strokes with the shovel...you should by now have a walkable trail through the snow...

play with other variables in that same way and youll have everyone envying you and asking you to do thir laneway, stairs...

later

at the shine today...

Quite cold, holy shit was it cold!!

Got there round 1:30 so we didnt get there at a good time but still for 1st time on skiis in nearly a year and a half. On 1st turn i noticed i cant ski anymore but after a few turns hey i was on my way and doing some gs runs shortly after which explains that once you learn how to ski you never forget how to.

Thanks to dawn from retarded rugrat for being the only one who activly visits my blog ANNNND...post comments....thanks a bunch dawn....keep warm...

whats the overall thought of my blog, does it look good? should it change..what way....?

 Ok back to mormal blog stuff. "Child" Rocked my night last night...even though i tried to stay away from emulating a band thats simulating omne of the best bands out there but hey sometimes i feel that urge during with or without you.

Didnt play alot of good ones but looking at their repitoir they dont play a lot of good songs...they did play discotheque. Which i like, but havent heard since the middle of high school.Still its a good song.

still trying to find a way to play "ground beneath her feet..." with the Fm7 chord...is there any other variation??

nite

 

wednesday night...

open mic night!!

i might play...who knows!!

 

im still alive, a much needed update....

Hi guys,

I, darren elliott am still alive. I have not died, nor have i in the mental world.

Im here in snowy banff to give you guys at least a hankerin of an idea of what things are like here in banff.

Well, things are going good. I love it out here but i can only love it enough, for my old hometown still carries a spot in my soul that can never be taken away. Yes i admit i miss the good ole stone(d)town but im in love with my surroundings out here.

Its snowing as i write, falling gently to the ground...and uh, so hows the weather back home? hell you could giver a good snomobillin' and theres enugh snow left over.

Ive started to look for xmas gifts out here. Its so nice to have 95% of the town as gift shops that have so many souvenirs with the words "BANFF" or "Banff Canada" on them. Shirts, sweaters have the unified banff name on them making them great gift ideas, now who wants one??

Witnessed the Banff Santy Claws Parade the other night. I was pissed off, no DCVI Float? what were they thinking.....oh um...ya i guess im in b--an-fff...(slow talking...) right...well in that case its no wonder there was no DCVI float...im 3000 miles from there....HELP!!

Musical upldate....

No songs written in the past 2 weeks working on u2, Jack johnson material,etc...etc...

but i am getting better at naturaly playing bar chords, and moving up and down the fretboard, but im having a hard time learnng Fm7 which is supposed to be real hard i take it...

that is all of the update i will try to update ya as much as possible, tho i dont want to harras...you all know how much more hur that could do? right!!

i cant take any more of this

i have had it with these people showing up at safeway that look exactly like elevation. It startted off with this produce guy named pascal houde, that looked like kevin, then now theres a new guy who shops here and he looks like shawn brady, and the other day a guy walked in that looked like mick....what next the real john johnstone walk right into safeway...

i think ill move out and go home!!!

later

 

wow...

what a day. I got up about 1:30pm and just made it in time for the train, no i did not get on it i was there to take a few photos of it, too bad it was coming in the direction of my back intead of mny front but oh well it made a good couple of shots... I now have a few good cd's burned with a bit of johnny, and a bit of U2.

oh its a good day!!!

im out tiday takin photos of banff lookin like a tourist, oh well you gotta be actin like a tourist sooner or later.

movie wa ok last night....went to see harry potter...havent seen any ones before this one but i like the one i saw

what a chilly day!!

Oh man is it ever cold here. Not as cold as you would expect banff to be but its been a little nippy!!

The other day on bolt i was looking at stuff i had written and sometimes i cant believe that i wrote what i did. Stuff like "i want to die" and stuff like that. It was so depressing to read this stuff i had written round 2003 but then again every year since 2000 i have consistantly been depressed except for this year, because this year it all changed.

I love banff because it only took me like 3 months to know connections to every partof this town than it took of 15 years of living and enjoying st marys.

Local Celebrities i have met:

Eddie Hunter

Candis Zell

Guy that reviews movies in the craig..

etc...

not much...

Kinda just chillin here at the place!!

what the fuck?

Acess Tv, you guys are fricken stupid. As much as you are a great channel
for watching informative shows you lagg behind in the presentation of tv
movies.

A bunch of us were watching phone booth but were ransaked so to say because
it went to commercial then neve came back!!

are we idiots or what??

Good News/Bad News

Short and Sweet.

Good News

A thank you goes out the guy who brought 2 carts dragging behid his bike
back to safeway. And the lady who took a cart from starbuks back to safeway.
How kind hearted of you.

However the bad news is.

Its is a very disgrace to see 2 ladies walk in tonite with poppies inside
out and in their mouth like lip gloss. Are they trying to prove a fucking
point? That it means nothing that like 700, 000 people lost thier lives just
for some gilrs to mock it and not give a shit??

If i was a manager of the store i would have sent them out immediately
because i dont see the reaon. Sure its funny but do the people not able to
speak not able to talk enjoying that in their graves fighting for their
country. No fricken way!!

It hurts me even more because i had someone who was related to my dad who
fley as a bomber in WWII. He, like others has never been seen since the
1940's. The olane they were fighting was shot at and fell to the ground.

Well hey maybe if the dead veterans can say it maybe the living ones can. So
they went to a far away land almost died and all they get to see is people
mocking what they stand for? makes no sence to me.

These are my pick for the losers of the week..

more photos

Ryan and Griffin

new photos...

5 Easy Tips to help restore Self Confidence

1. Get a job-the absolute 1st thing a mentally Handy capped person
can do. But its 100% productive in removing thoughts and personal
stuff, I work so hard I hardly have time to think about her.

2.Meet people- go out to a bar, get to know some locals (i go to a
place in Banff called Bruno's and although i dont know alot of people
its a small place so...)

3. "You cant start loving anyone until you LOVE YOURSELF!!!"

4. Be Creative-95% of the world is creative, but not all of them know
it yet. I used to say I wasn't creative but who said guitar playing,
writing songs and the odd time drawing to remove bad emoticons,
wasnt creative?

5. Give up- I know it sounds stupid but sooner or later you have to
give up the fixation. Give up on things that are not worth the risk but keep with the stuff you know and love. 

It can be very hard. You may never move on. But think about it. Wouldn't you rather be enjoying your life??

You have to work hard and one day you will wake up saying holy cow I
can enjoy myself!! just like I am today, I moved 3,000 miles away to
start a fresh new life..!!!

That's it!!

 

open mic last night....

i dont know what it was but i left it feeling really really good!!

i liked all of the singers that played last night!!

ah i love banff!!

Usually theres not much to do during the day but at night it really gets going. Not alot of gift stores are open during the night only the bars and night clubs. The best one is aurora. The hoodoo is more of a young guy/girl hang out and has more of the grunge/alt rock music going on. Most of the time when you walk in there, you might hear 50 cent rapping about his candy shop or something else.

But aurora is like stratford's classics. Its more of one id like to go to often but not before a day of work!!

I might head over to the banff ave inn, in about 20 mins....

other than that nothing else is up...

 

long day at work today....

it was so funny this am there was no people in the store or not too many at the checkouts. But as the day progressed it went faster.

I have monday and  wednesday off this upcoming week.

until then i work all weekend!!

happy halloween

 

flight 558,

Was a nice flight this am. We left early and arrived early, so if i fly next time and they are late then they call it even!!!

I spent like 2.5 hours in the CYYC airport trying to do things while waiting for my sky shuttle to arrive. They have one leaving at like 12pm then like ever 2 hrs or so.

Its snowing in banff!!

I got a free hot chocolate from evelyns cofee shop from chantel. Thanks!!

"and its you when i look in the mirror..."

had a nice jam session today with kelly. We really hit it with SYCMIOYO. And
man i have more power in my voice. She sometimes says that i maybe i dont
need voice lessons cause im doing just fine. But when i needed lessons years
ago, im sure shed have more to help me with...

shes a beautiful lady and she invited me to a performance tonite in
stratford but with me not having a car/licence i have no way to get
there....

oh well

booked a flight next thursday and i work the next day and holy i cant
believe im so lucky to have a boss like sean and john. They sya yes to
everything i do. I feel blessed to have them!!

"stateless, weightless, hey bliss"-u2

Lately ive been listenin to stateless, the song that was on the Million
Dollar Hotel album/single. I realy like it. I listen ro it and i think, was
bono sad and depressed when he wrote it? Just from the sound of bonos voice
its sounds like he has no energy to sing the song.It sounds different to the
song ive heard from him. But then again this album came out around the pop
album era.

In other things. Ive been removing alot of files of my computer just to give
it some memory space!!

Im in an uploading frenzy

later

my medical condition....mostly all my life

I dont think many people know this and are into medical contitions, but
since i was a little baby i have been growth hormone deficient. Which means
i needed injections every day just to keep me alive, well and young. It
wasnt till i was in my early 20's that i stopped taking them and my body
didnt need it as it had enough to keep me growing. But no matter what i
couldnt grow past 5 foot 11 inches.

Im also hypoglycemic, which means if i dont eat right my blood sugar goes
way down then comes up sor something. As you can tell i can sometimes never
understand whats wrong with me..

And also i have a medic alert bracelet that has the long words of
"Hypopituitarism" whish means i just have an over active pituitary gland. We
all know the size of the thing. Its about the size of a pea.

I am finally getting to know what everything means and how much it can save
my life.

later

Iain Campbell, (pictured) is sitting on the back porch saying no i dont want a photo but it almost looks as if hes sayin speak to the hand!!

I knew iain for a while, he was a really good roomy, i got to know him then all of a sudden he left to go home, back to St Andrews, in the UK. He is a good guitar player. I can recount many times sitting on the back porch and hearing him play some godsmack or something good.

I still hear from him the odd time, i try not to bug him so much by email so i email him whenever i get new photos from the "house".

Later

This car is a 60's Ford Fairlane/Galaxy

update

i am alive and well...

sippin' on a froster...

In the past ive had Dr Pepper + Sour Apple and i go mixing and sometimes
matching. I love frosters. They hit the spot and the smallest one is only
$.89cents.

thats all have a good day..

Heres a good photo, (From left to right) Phil, Me, Chris 2, and Dave.

Ok so focus in on this photo, im looking stoned, phils on happy drugs or summthin, chris is staring right at daves blunt, anticipating the moment he will be "hittin" that thing!!...

oops, a mistake...

so im walking around town in and out of a internet cafe thinking tonites
open mike tonite, it wasnt untill i got to the caribou st almost making it
to bruno's before forgetting that its tuesday and open mikes not till
tomorrow nite...oh well for now you can read the latest on bear 66's last
cub alive in the Crag and Canyon link to the right.

misc

I can feel you near me again with the the thoughts on my mind i cant comprehend I feel your beauty again youre perfume is what i can smell ---------- Chorus-G D Am I really wish you were here I wouldnt have to cry tears you make my world clear C D G Yes you make my world clear ------- I dont know if i can forget the one who holds my heart 5 years since ive seen you im sorry for all the things ive done to you (Chorus) Things dont always work out hurts so much i want to shout i dont really know what to do all i know is that i want you. The End (for now) you should have seen darcy playing my song on the keyboard....

day 1 after eating a red hot chilli pepper

man those things are hot. They were very small and i was sure they would pack a punch and they did. Im just glad its not burning my mouth anymore.

I am havind a good afternoon on my day off. Yesterday was my sisters 31st b-day. Good to see her, its been a while, but we are in the same town!!

Most of the mountains are covered in snow very briskly, not alot of it. Probably will melt in next 2-3 days. It will go back to being snow covered when it rains again which could be anytime this week.

Attention safeway shoppers, if you went to the vending machines, last week and selected a coke and get a rootbeer, my apologies. I ran out of space to put RB while refilling and put a few in the coke one. I am truly sorry.

Current Mood:Delightful
Current Music:Writing my own!!

just hopin people are reading...

its 12:05 in the am. I dont have to work tomorrow.

Ill get some more photos uploaded soon.

That is all.

I cried tonite, 1st time in nearly 6 months!!


I am tired, not going out drinking...sleep is my issue and lots of it...

gnite

rock on!!

nice photos eh?

this is my bike

Banffites....

I dont want to waste anyones time here but if you shop at safeway and you ride your bike. Please do not leave them in our shopping cart corrals. They are for shopping carts and maybe they might be empty but once and a while a certain someone  has to use them to store carts at least 90% of the time and with bikes bein in the way its hard to move around them!!

That is all

Mustang ID

can anyone ID this mustang??

Long Day Today

Long day at safeway today, lots of thoughts as to what my week is going to be like, since i have no idea what my shedule is missing from the board. So ill be in tomorrow at 10 am no matter if its scheduled that im off (but if it states im off, im out the door).

Burned a good edition of Boy, without "the ocean" but with North and south of the River and a few other slow and quiet ones. I like some of the slower songs by U2. Boy has such good shit, man. I mean songs like twilght get me rollin.I cant believe I will follow is on that album. I dont rember it being on that album. Its been on countless ablum. The other song i love is "A Day without Me". So materielistic of those days. I dont listen to "Another Time Another Place" that much. So there are limited songs on boy i actually like.

I have to post more photos on here.

Later

couple topics

Friday night i had an incredible night, had lots to drink had fun dancing, tho when we came back to this ladys place it was nearing 4 30 am or so. We talked for a long time. I had started to drift off now and then and the one thing im confused about is there was a girl looked like she was pointing at me. I dont really know who she was!!

im taking my mind thru that night to see if i can figure out what was going on. Now i know a few guys that work at kellers and were the compitition to kellers. Totally.

I burned a cd of u2's Boy album with all songs except for The Ocean. Oh well. Ive got stateless and walk to the water and north and south of the river added on to the end!!

"i builds a fire, fire"

Its kinda chilly here today but being the 1st week of september i can come to expect that. I am so ready for the winter season, not much for expecting -34 degree weather. Its not nice because ive walked to my siters place once (123 Otter) from mc donalds with a coke in my left hand and my right hand in my pocket and every 5 mins i would switch, thats how cold it was!!

But im feeling good!!!

"When im calling over,i builds a fire fire, im going home!!"-bono, from october album

This is an overhead view of banff!!! (hey ma i can see my place from here!!)

its a beautiful day...dont let it get away!!

oh god is it a beautiful day today or what??

i did some cool errands today. went to maria's sewing shop then went over to the bear st mall to get my sunglasses re-adjusted and now im here at cyberweb cafe just chillin and updatin my blog!!

there is only like 3 clouds in the sky, thats it....blue blue blue sky all around!!

thats it...

just thoughts

Ok tonites blog is going to be good. Ive gotten a day off so i have been thinking about things today. Still havent found out what kind of car that is on wolf st near otter.

Since dodge finally decided to re-release the charger, i think they should do the same thing with the coronet. I think it would be massively liked by all. I mean the new charger looks like a neon but revved up but it sounds and moves like any sport compact. This car should have muscle, cause its a charger and its quiet? what the...

Jame Ramsley once told me "someday you'll be charming some girl" meaning its kinda like the wedding singer when he plays guitar and sings for her. But things changed today when i came home from walking around town and heard a beautiful voice singing and playing guitar, i thought "who could that be and whos guita--and before i could say anything i saw it was one of the roomy's of the house singing and playing on my guitar. So i was charmed. Totally full circle!! And news is shes getting a guitar of her own and maybe some day in the next few months well sit down and jam or write songs or something. Shes a nice girl.

Youll notice on the right that there are 2 categorys for links, banff and Abroad. if you have any ideas please email them to me and i will add them. Make sure you let me know if they are banff based or Calgary & Abroad. Thanks.

I sent out a letter to my guitar instructor from ontario, darcy thompson. It came back the last time cause i missed putting in ON for ontario. Hope it makes it there this week. Its sunday, hell get it before next sunday. I wish i could track it...but its just a regular letter.

American Dad is such a bad show. It totally copies off family guy (fav show btw). It has no plot line (as far as i can see) and just totally a rip off from FG.Thats it...AD =0 FG =1. IMHO tho..

Im meeting some great ppl here in this house. Chris is a great guy. Very quiet when he speaks but still enjoyable. Phil is probablly heartbroken because " the girls" that he used to hang out with all the time just left him. They werent mad just their time was up. I think they moved to montreal or something.

Ive got to write a song sometime soon or my songwriting mind will just run dry then i cant write songs.

Blogging Tip of the Night:

If you are stuck, like totally shit out of luck on ideas. Think of something that has made you mad or frustrated and thinbk in your mind this phrase "and thats the thing" and go with that and im sure youre bloggers block will be cured!!

Def'n:Mental Hangover

I dont know if this has been patented but think of when you awake from a dream about...um like something you dont want to dream about any more and you get sort of a mind headache, theres no pain but it feels weird and you can feel it all thru the day thats a mental hangover. If this sounds strange thing of how you feel on a real hangover. Point Proved!!

Message to Tim McGraw,

Hello Mr McGraw, you recently visited my new hometown of banff alberta and somehow went up on stage at a local bar and grill and performed. I had heard that you performed in Calgary Alberta during the stampede but could not believe that a big country star such as yourself would play in such a town as this. I had not heard of the performance untill the next week when i picked up the paper and noticed your picture on the front. I was stunned.

The reason im writing this is because ive been waiting to tell you that you inspired me and you still inspire me when i write songs. When i first heard the song "something like that" i was really touched because it was like my own life, but not 100 percent. I had heard the song just when i had begun to play guitar and write my own origional songs about life and other things.

The song had helped me put the first few words in the first song i had written, but i couldnt just copy all of your words, after all its supposed to be my work. So i took the main idea in the chorus and somehow had to change the words to fit my life so i wrote..

"a heart never.." and i had to figure out what to use instead of your words so i said its this girls voice that i cant forget. so i continued the line with "..forgets a voice" and once i got that done i just kept going and going and going and now every person ive played it to picks that song as the better of the 10-15 songs ive written because it has heart.

I know the odds of Tim McGraw actually reading this are slim. I had to write this because it was getting on my nerves,i had been thinking about this for quite some time.

Thanks Mr McGraw for somehow inspiring me. Though I know i may get most of it from that one song i heard but i had always thought it was my inner instinct but it was mr mcgraws song that did it for me

Thanks

--------------------

That would be a cool letter to send him, i think itd be cool if he read it here but those odds are un beatable.

Later

They say in love....

definition of love: it takes 2 minutes to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to fall in love with them, but an entire lifetime to forget them.

its so true