Inspired by the postings by the Gizmodo writers explaining their first album purchases, I figured I would chime in.

I remember picking up Bush X’s Sixteen Stone on cassette after seeing the video for “Glycerine” on MuchMusic. “Glycerine” was, astoundingly, the 4th single from Sixteen Stone following “Everything Zen”, “Little Things”, and “Comedown” and preceded “Machinehead”. I can remember throwing this my Panasonic Shockwave walkmen and piping it through the Shockwave headphones, feeling badass because I could listen to it with the volume turned all the way up. Perhaps I regret this now when I can barely hear someone across the table, or when I find myself shouting to be heard in a quiet room or car. In retrospect I have more to blame than my Shockwave headphones for my lack of hearing abilities.

I’ve been using Gmail for years and foresee using it for years to come. I’ve just recently become obsessed with getting my Gmail contacts up to date with correct email addresses, phone numbers and addresses. I know people still use actual address books, but they’re bulky, usually left at home, and harder to update. Plus, for those of us with smartphones, Google Sync handles the task of getting your Gmail contacts into your smartphone and syncing them back and forth when changes are made. Google Contacts is now even its own stand-alone page instead of having to be accessed through Gmail.

There are a few things however that Google seems to be missing the boat on when it comes to their contacts, and judging from their competitions address books, they are glaring omissions. You can add your own custom fields for the options below, however custom fields do not sync to your mobile device.

1. Birthdays and Anniversaries – Google Contacts does not have a native field for these important dates. This would be especially handy if it created its own “Birthdays & Anniversaries” calendar in Google Calendar.
2. Websites – The masters of the internet omitted a section for personal and/or work website. Considering this is an option in basically every smartphone’s address book, it seems only logical to have a native field for this.
3. Photo – The option to add a photo to each contact (or grab the photo a person has already added themselves if they’re using Gmail) is great but it is not exported nor synced to your smartphone. This would be especially handy on an iPhone or Blackberry as the photo is displayed to identify a caller.

I found another blog post by Joseph Scott here that brings up similar points. Let’s hope Google hears our cries and gets these features under development. I hope one day Google releases an Outlook type application with Gmail, Calendar, Contacts, and Gmail Tasks integrated. That would be heavenly because as great as it is to create Application shortcuts for each using Google Chrome, it would still be nice to keep them all in one desktop app.

As a side note, I attempted using Outlook’s “Home Page” feature to make Outlook open the Google applications instead of the built-in ones, but it just wasn’t the same.

The NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs have finally arrived. Despite the fact that my beloved Oilers failed to make the post-season for the third straight season this is still the best time to watch hockey. Every game is a battle to the bitter end. Rarely is there a boring game. This is a time where heroes are made, such as Fernando Pisani in the 2006 playoffs when he scored 14 goals including the first two goals in the game 6 comeback against Detroit (witness that here as I often do) and the shorthanded OT winner in Game 5 of the final against Carolina (again, you can see the highlights from that game here).

So I’ve decided to make predictions by round this year as well as predict who, from the remaining teams, I think will win the Stanley Cup. Here we go:

Eastern Conference

#1 BOSTON vs #8 MONTREAL
PREDICTION: BOSTON BRUINS in 5 games.
Boston is just far too strong for this Montreal team. I predicted a Detroit/Montreal Final at the beginning of the season however this is as far as Carey Price, Alex Kovalev and the rest of the Canadiens are going to make it this year.

#2 WASHINGTON vs #7 NEW YORK RANGERS
PREDICTION: WASHINGTON CAPITALS in 7 games.
Washington’s offense is far too deep and their third and fourth lines are big. They will wear down the Rangers defense and not even King Henrik will be able to stop Alex the Great & co.

#3 NEW JERSEY vs #6 CAROLINA
PREDICTION: CAROLINA HURRICANES in 7 games.
This is a tough series to call with New Jersey not playing well down the stretch and Carolina on an absolute tear coming into the playoffs. I just don’t think New Jersey has what it takes to beat this team. Brodeur hasn’t exactly been himself in the playoffs the past few years.

#4 PITTSBURGH vs #5 PHILADELPHIA
PREDICTION: PHILADELPHIA FLYERS in 6 games.
Another tough one to call when the stats on these two teams are so similar. I think Philadelphia will have learned from their experience last season and they have a more balanced attack than Pittsburgh. If the Flyers can shut down the dyanmic duo of Crosby and Malkin they should have this series.

Western Conference

#1 SAN JOSE vs #8 ANAHEIM
PREDICTION: SAN JOSE SHARKS in 5 games.
San Jose is just far too good and Anaheim was far too mediocre this season. Anaheim, despite their all-star defense corps of Pronger, Niedermayer, Whitney and Beauchemin, won’t be able to handle the Sharks offense.

#2 DETROIT vs #7 COLUMBUS
PREDICTION: DETROIT RED WINGS in 5 games.
As much as I want Columbus to be this year’s Cinderella story, it’s just not going to happen against this Detroit team who looks every bit as good as the team who won the cup last year. The only question mark for Detroit this year is in goal, and despite Steve Mason and his 10 shutouts during the regular season, it won’t be enough to propel the club’s first post-season appearance into their first series win.

#3 VANCOUVER vs #6 ST. LOUIS
PREDICTION: ST. LOUIS BLUES in 7 games.
Maybe it’s just because I dislike the Canucks but I really feel this St. Louis team could give the Canucks a run for their money and sneak away with the series. Granted, it could be in the same fashion as Dallas’ series victory over Vancouver a few years ago.

#4 CHICAGO vs #5 CALGARY
PREDICTION: CHICAGO BLACKHAWKS in 5 games.
Again, maybe it’s the Oilers fan in me coming out, but Chicago has owned Calgary all season, winning all 4 games. It’s Nikolai Khabibulin’s first playoff appearance since he won the cup with Tampa Bay and despite Calgary having a distinct advantage in playoff experience, it won’t be enough to overcome their injuries.

Stanley Cup Prediction

BOSTON vs SAN JOSE

STANLEY CUP WINNER: BOSTON BRUINS

I know I’m going out on a big limb to say that it will be the top team in the East vs the top team in the West, but it’s the most likely outcome as I see it. I’ve been known to be wrong on more than one occasion so I won’t accept any responsibility if you use my predictions in your betting.

In a couple of weeks I’ll be back with my second round picks.

Let’s face it: I was a teenager once and I was huge into punk rock (perhaps the topic of a future mixtape?). Everything from the local punk rock acts to those featured on Fat Wreck Chords and Epitaph Records (to name a few). I covered my electric guitar in punk rock stickers, bought a t-shirt at every show from practically every band.

Times, however, they have changed. My love of punk rock came to include “emo” and “screamo” bands, screamo led to a few hardcore acts (tame by most standards but hardcore for me). Somehow this led to a short stint of obsession with “ambient” music, bands like Sigur Ròs, God Is An Astronaut, Port-Royal, Yndi Halda, and a few others, and while I still quite enjoy listening to that from time to time, I find myself moving back towards the “rock”.

I can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, perhaps it happened when I picked up Broken Social Scene’s You Forgot It In People but I started listening to a lot of “indie” rock. Stuff that wasn’t “punk”, it wasn’t “mainstream”, but simply great music. It introduced me to a whole slew of new bands, and a lot of them, surprisingly, are Canadian. I can tell you exactly why most of them are Canadian: CBC Radio 3 podcasts. Most notably the R3-30, a weekly countdown of the top 30 Canadian Indie songs, and to a lesser extent the CBC Radio 3 Podcast with Grant Lawrence. I haven’t listened to it in quite some time, mostly just because I never seem to find the time and I prefer the R3-30.

Through the R3-30 I’ve been introduced to Arkells, Jason Collett, Kathleen Edwards, Land of Talk, Woodhands, Plants and Animals, Said The Whale, Sunparlour Players, Will Currie & The Country French, Hawksley Workman, and many others, and the hosts, Craig Norris and Pedro Mendes, are an absolute riot to listen to.

But there are certainly more indie artists I listen to than just Canadian ones, and in this volume of Bergtrax 4000 I’m going to mix it up and create a playlist of bands from all over. I know I already introduced you to 5 Canadian indie artists in Bergtrax 4000 Vol. 01: Canadiana, so this mixtape will introduce you to different Canadian artists and their brethren from the States and beyond. Here’s the playlist:

1. Frightened Rabbit – The Modern Leper (Glasgow, Scotland)
2. Land of Talk – Some Are Lakes (Montreal, QC)
3. Arkells – Pullin’ Punches (Hamilton, ON)
4. Jason Collett – Out of Time (Toronto, ON)
5. Stars – Undertow (Montreal, QC)
6. Ra Ra Riot – Can You Tell (Syracuse, NY)
7. Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal (Seattle, WA)
8. Jane Vain & The Dark Matter – C’mon Baby Say Bang Bang (Calgary, AB)
9. The Stills – Being Here (Montreal, QC)
10. Woodhands – Dancer (Toronto, ON)

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