(20) MSW- Mainstream Wrestling
Well i first went to an MSW (Mainstream Wrestling) card in i believe either the summer of 2001 or 2002 and it was actually in the Kingston Arena of all places. I've gone to MSW shows every summer since, i really like the shows that they have done at the War Memorial in Windsor, i wish they would come back to Middleton, they haven't been here since the summer of 2006.
(19) The Halifax Forum
Ahhh the good ol Forum...many an AHL game as a kid, junior and college hockey and of course Grand Prix Wrestling and WWF shows. I was recently there watching the Bruins Oldtimers. Good memories of sitting behind a post and watching a game, getting told off by all the bad guy wrestlers..good times.
(18) Keiths
Ahhh...my favorite all time beer...its too bad that it seems to be only an Eastern Canada thing...like donairs and garlic fingers.. oh man all those times i was overseas in Japan and in S Korea and craving a Keiths...i remember going to the Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon which is an hour or so away from Seoul and walking in, not a Korean in sight except for the waitresses and Hockey Night in Canada on the tv and all these North Americans in the place...i felt at home..poutine on the menu, Canadians like the Trailer Park Boys and Bob and Doug on the walls...only thing missing was a nice cold Keiths...
(17) KISS
I actually had a friend said that he does not understand Kiss...i think he was born 20 yrs too late to understand the cultural phenomenon that this band was when i was a kid growing up in the 70s... dolls..pinball machines..lunch boxes, Kiss knew how to market themselves and still do to this day..its too bad it took some 19 yrs for them to come back to Halifax after cancelling in 1990... the above pic is with Dressed2Kill and they do an excellent recreation of the Kiss concert experience.
(16) Guns N' Roses
The above pic is of the recent GnR concert in Hfx... many refer to them as Axl's Roses now, but i guess i was one of the few who enjoyed Chinese Democracy..well it did take some 7 or 8 times listening to it for me to full enjoy it. Back in grade nine in the Passage there was no bigger band in the land than GnR and their debut Appitite For Destruction..they were such a mix of metal, glam metal and punk rock attitude.. as funny as it sounds there were no ballads on their debut at all..they were young, snotty and pissed off at the world...yet years later they are known for slow songs and zillion dollar recording budgets and Axl's flip outs...wonder how much $$$ is needed for a reunion?
(15) Alice Cooper
Two of my favorite people- Alice and Jason pictured above...i remember getting Alice's comeback album Constrictor in the 8th grade.. poor Alice had boozed so bad that he could not remember recoding Zipper Catches Skin and the excellent DaDa.. plus he contributed to the Friday The 13th Part VI soundtrack and that made him even cooler in my young eyes, doing a music video with Jason!!! Then he came to Halifax some five times in the past twenty-five yrs or so...whatta show!!! Glad to see Alice still has the snake and the gullotine going strong in 2010...
(14) West Kings
Yeah...that school i went to starting in 1990... moved here and i was fed up..wanted out and into the world..well twenty years later and im still spouting off about the world and everything in it... it was a much needed change for young Robert Hawley and there were some good times...some bad times especially my second year where i went through this childish rebellion, skipping all the time and thinking what am i doing here? Thank god i graduated the next year is all that i can say...
(13) NOVA
The late NOVA was to be the start of Robb's teaching career and it was...for about six months, now i will admit that i wasn't ready, but man i got behind the eight ball there, was sick as a dog during my teacher training and i felt for six months all i was doing was playing catch-up...students would complain about me talking too fast and i would get the memo from staff...one month or so later...i was never so happy to come home...and never so happy to hear some four months later that NOVA was gone and no more...felt bad for the teachers that were stranded and left behind, but glad my NOVA days were over...
(12) The Beach Boys
Always been a Beach Boys fan...went though a phase where i bought most of their back catalogue...some good stuff like Pet Sounds, Sunflower and Surf's Up...some real duds like Summer in Paradise.. it is so weird to see them on stage today with just Mike Lover and Bruce Johnston and knowing that Carl and Dennis Wilson are gone and Al Jardine and Brian Wilson are not participating..next year is the 50th anniversary of the Beach Boys...i think it would be nice if the surviving Beach Boys buried the hatchet and did a few shows..Wouldn't it Be Nice?
(11) STFX
An entry like a few coming up...by default, enemy of Robb's Axemen... i remember going to see the above mentioned Beach Boys at STFX in the summer of 2005 and i went to the box office to pick up my ticket and the dude working had no idea that the Beach Boys were coming to town...some people eh?
(10) Dad
My here and idol...god only knows i could sit here all night and write a book about my Father, but i like to think of what things would be like if Dad was here and healthy today.. would some people be the way that they are? Would i have taken that sabbatical from Acadia for almost four years? What would our lives be like today with Dad as a part of it? I'll never know, but it would be sweet just to see it.. Always missing you bud...
(9) Passage
My home for most of my young life was in Eastern Passage and i went to Eastern Passage Junior High from grade 6-9... like later schools there were good times and bad times, but it was a time of innocence...an innocence that was robbed for some people.. me? I was lucky and perhaps too happy go-lucky as it was ...it was at the Passage that i first discovered my love of metal and females as well.. played lacrosse and was on the wrestling team, student council in grade 8 and the trip to Quebec in grade 9... other than that, hanging with friends, hockey games in the tennis court..causing havoc whereever we went...a world where we used our imagination and we didn't text or have internet and or babble on cell phones all day and video games were the Atari 2600 and it was played on rainy days... simpler times...
(8) Tower
I'll tell anyone that will listen that the best five years of my life was spent living in that building right there... my family arrived in the Valley in 1990-91 and i remember walking across the campus and thinking i would like to go here someday, too bad i never will... and off i went...then during 1997-98..years later i would take a course at Acadia just to see if i would like it and lo and behold i did...come Sept of 1998 i was a frosh and living in Tower...lots of friends and crazy nights ...and i graduated too...something MANY people didn't think would happen...and it did.. :)
(7) SMU
Another sworn enemy of Robb's Axemen... how i long for wins over SMU... football, hockey...any sport..but especially those two..i mean they have been so powerful for so long and it is hard to forget and forgive i will remember last years beating of my Axemen in the hockey playoffs for awhile..mind you SMU got themselves an NHL player in the middle of the season..i think the Axemen should have been allowed to add an NHL player to their roster as well...all is fair in love and war and sports..is it not? Oh well a new season be starting in the Fall...can't wait...
(6) Habs
I've been a Habs fan since an early age.. look at those royal red and blue uniforms...the history, the Stanley Cup..the blue rouge et blue.. the last Cup in 1992-93 was one of my favorites...why? Because everyone was on the Maple Leafs bandwagon, Wendel, Dougie and the great Pat Burns (Who should have gone to the Hall of Fame this year) was all people at WK could talk about and go on about...and what happened? The HABS won the cup against Gretzky and the Kings...it kinda makes me wish that Gretzky and the Kings had decided not to get hot in game 7 against the Leafs and that the Maple Laughs would have won.....why? Because that would have made the Habs Cup win that much frickin sweeter..esp if they had beaten Toronto...ahhhh well...
(5) Ramones
I remember seeing the Ramones as a kid in record stores and in pictures and thinking now there is a strange looking bunch...then in 1989 for some odd reason that summer Much Music when they used to play music had a Ramones spotlight and i watched and taped it and i was hooked! Off to the ol Sam The Record Man in Halifax (RIP) and i was home with End of the Century, then the next week the Rock and Roll High School Soundtrack...then every week turned into buy another Ramones tape (Yes i said TAPES!!!) until over time i had them all and NONE of my friends or anyone else wanted to hear them...to them it was just noise...now the group is no more and Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee are gone (RIP) and now there are Ramones t-shirts all over the place... i couldn't even find a Ramones t-shirt as a kid!!! Is something deemed cool once something else is gone away...i think so... i just wish the band was around to enjoy the fruits of their labour...
(4) Japan
To be honest i would love to go back to Japan again, if i was to teach ESL at a decent school. There were many things and attractions that i did not make it out to due to me being a hermit like my first three months there and so when i went to S Korea in 2008 i made a promise to myself to see as much as possible since i did not do so in Japan...so Japan still piques my interest to this day and would jump at the chance to go back under different circumstances.
(3) Mount A
Another enemy of the Axemen but with a twist! Old Man Robb actually went there in 2003-04...i was graduating and wondering where to go...one look inside MacLeans Magazine and there it was! Well i went and while the academics were not what i was used to...at all...i made quite a few friendships while living there in residence at Harper Hall and Assume The Position was back on the airwaves on CHMA and it made Friday and Saturday nights fun as heck!!! Let me just say that if the classes had been more up to par with what i had at Acadia U, there is no doubt that i would have stayed another year at Mount A...and on a side note i gave someone a chance for a great story comparing an Acadia students year away at another university but the dumbass turned it down saying it would be just tearing another school apart...whatta fricking hack eh? However hacks are those who always get those positions kids...cause they know how to kiss ass...something Old Man Robb don't like to do and i thinks it costs him sometimes...oh well got to be real and have some morals i guess.
(2) Acadia
What can i say? My home away from home for many moons and it was again this past year...oh yes i hear the naysayers everytime and my god it feels great to prove people wrong...not only did i come back to Acadia U...but my average for 2009 was also a 4.0!!?!?!?!??!!? When are people going to learn that there is more to Old Man Robb than his funny looks and his knack for doing silly things? I had to prove to myself back in 1998 that i was no dummy and i graduated...now this year i had to prove that the education department had made a mistake by not admitting me to the program in 2008-09 and lo and behold i think without a shadow of a doubt i proved that i could hang and make those marks... the naysayers are always going to chuck crap at me...feels good to chuck some of that back though...hehehe
(1) Axemen
#1 and it is easy to see why...at least for me that is... one of my favorite times of year is Fall and that is because Axemen football is starting up.. ever since 1990 when we moved here and i went to Raymond Field to catch a game i was hooked and along with another walk around the campus convinced me i should be at Acadia U...mind you that dream did not happen for another 7 and a half years, but it did and even when i was attending other academic institutions, my heart was at Acadia U.. why am i attending here? I should be there...mind you i bitch about little things like wishing there was tailgating outside, wishing the beer tent sold Keiths and that more people went to the hockey games..esp the kids who can go to the games for free with their ID... oh well i know another 70 some days and it is football season again at Acadia U....can't wait...
