Ange's Blog

Its been a busy week...

2010-04-18T22:14:00.006-04:00

We have a visitor from our Australian office in town over the next week and a half and I've made sure to keep her busy. We had a games night in the office on Tuesday where I won a one on one Trivial Pursuit match...ya, its my game, try and beat me, I dare you! Then we played Acey Ducey, a card game where you turn 2 cards over and bet if the 3rd card is in between the first two...sound easy, well its all about luck..and money. I won that too!! Yay me. You're normally supposed to bet with nickels, quarters, loonies, but one smart-ass in our office dumped his pennies into the pot...and someone decided to play a joke on him

Then he decided to retaliate, on MY desk, sprinkling pennies everywhere, including taping them under my mice (which I laughed incredibly hard about!)

Wednesday was a Raptors game, final game of the season, We Want More CB4! I tried a Sleeman's Raspberry Cooler for the first time, dangerously delicious.

Thursday, dinner with old friends from the National Ballet, Derrick Paul Miller and Audrey, at the Queen Mother Cafe.

Friday was an awesome night on the town with the Aussie and Sarah from work. First dinner at Kalendar Cafe, otherwise known as the most romantic restaurant in the city. Then it was off to Hip Hop Karaoke at Revival...wow has it ever gotten popular! Then we wandered looking for a place to dance and saw the super cool Dave Murphy band at the Orbit Room, they do the best covers!

Saturday was the big screen-a-thon fundraiser for the InsideOut film festival. Last year we watched Camp-classics, this year the theme was the Diva! Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown - super melodramatic, but very well acted, a typical Pedro Almodovar movie. Body of Evidence...yes the horrid Madonna film, which wasn't as bad as I feared, I think the crowd enjoyed it because we could all laugh at it together. Then, oh lord, the Wiz! So terrible, so so so terrible. I think the major problem with the Wiz, other than Michael Jackson's terrible acting, was the super long musical pieces. Terribly drawn out and completely non-sensical and un-fun. Its too bad, because it has some great singers! Thankfully a really good drag Queen and her troop kept us entertained on the stage during the film, dramatically overacting Madonna, Diana Ross, and other painful scenes to a cheering and hysterical audience.

And today, oh glorious today, I met with T and her friend Jamie for brunch at the Swan Restaurant. I had some of the BEST COFFEE of my LIFE! So frothy and delicious, rich and flavourful...go, just for a cup, the frothiness is before you even add milk or cream! It was a beautiful, sunny today, perfect for wandering around the city. After brunch we made out way to the Drake for a 'market', that ended up being a couple of tables with nothing too interesting for sale; the workroom for a trunk show; a vintage shop with some really neat pieces; and then to the Paper Place where T got some goodies for a wedding show at the Drake coming up soon. You can see the wonderful photos T took here (I'm in the background of one of the pics, do you know which one?)

Things I Learned in Ireland

2010-02-07T12:33:00.004-05:00

I've been in Ireland for the past 5 days, its quite a beautiful and clean country. Lots of interesting little towns, green country sides, dilapidated old castles and abbeys sprinkling the countryside. The weather is quite damp, mostly cloudy and rainy but we had 1 full day of sun! I've learned much about Ireland during my time here, many frustrating things that I think ANYONE visiting this country should know:

1. Pubs do NOT serve food for dinner! Honest to god, they only serve lunch (if they serve food at all). You need to look for a sign that says Good Food on it so you know if the pub serves any food, I think some touristy places have food all day, but the bulk of them are without food at night.
2. Food is NOT served ANYWHERE (well except for rubbish takeaway places) between 3 and 5:30. If you're starving, tough luck. Even if the bloody restaurant is PACKED and looks like its might serve you, they turn you away.
3. Either the Irish have a great sense of direction or they have no idea where they are going. A traveller will get lost, many, many times, even when you have a bloody map. Signs are very hard to find and when you do find them they are impossible to read from far away. You are about to go straight through an intersection and notice at the last second you're supposed to turn right...so you have to go around the block again and again and again....and there are lots of one way streets.
4. Cork Ireland attracts the scariest teens I've ever seen in my life. All the boys wear their adidas pants and jackets and have shaved heads with a tuft of unique mohawk hair down the middle of their head. The girls wear too tight outfits with 5 tonnes of makeup on their face. They walk down alleyways in packs, hide behind pillars (seemingly doing drugs of some kind) and look like they just walked away from a fight....or 20. Their fathers walk around with scowls and huge tattoos on their necks and face....its a pretty tough place on a Saturday afternoon.
5. Cork, Ireland is also home to Murphy's bitter, the Guinness competitor. While in Cork its probably best to order a Murphy's instead of a Guinness to honour the county (especially if you don't want to get beat up!)
6. When you change the radio or TV station, don't be surprised if you find the same thing on many, many, many stations. For some reason instead of fuzz or white noise you'll find the same station on multiple channels. Its not you going mad...its the Irish media.
7. The Blarney Stone is at the absolute top of a castle. You need to travel up these horrible, wet, winding, tiny stairs to get to it. And once you start walking up you can't turn around, so make sure you're prepared (and not wearing slippy shoes like SOME people). And to kiss the Blarney stone, they turn you upside down, and hold you in this windy opening that looks straight down to the far-away ground. NO I DIDN'T KISS IT, ARE YOU CRAZY?!
8. Irish townhouses and row houses (rows of similar looking houses) are made unique by their painted doorways. And they look awesome, especially against the grey sky.
9. Dog poop is everywhere, especially on stone sidewalks. Keep your eyes open!
10. Gaelic is EXTREMELY popular here, which I had no idea! I learned Fáilte means Welcome, Nua means new, sin é looks like it means Goodbye but literally translates to That's It, Garda are the police (they are only referred to as the Garda). All the signs are written in both English and Gaelic (well most, some are just Gaelic) and there is a TV station that shows mostly Gaelic TV shows.

I'll be sure to write about my actual experiences when I return home tomorrow and of course I'll post pics!

Niagara on the Lake - a place for couples and the over 50 set

2010-01-19T20:42:00.004-05:00

My friend Aimee and I went to Niagara-on-the-Lake over the weekend. We found a great deal that included dinner, breakfast and a double occupancy room at a fabulous 'vintage' hotel called the Queens Landing (looks just like an old Southern mansion). We took the train down to celebrate the ice-wine festival....one week too early apparently.

Niagara-on-the-Lake is a lovely town in Southern Ontario that is pretty much the heart of wine country. Its surrounded by Lake Ontario, lovely wine valleys and great old architecture. Its a great place to go with a car or bike, but train doesn't really help you get around....and the actual town is pretty small, pretty very small, which you find out when you walk the main street many times over 2 days.

The thing about N-O-T-L is it caters to tourists, seemingly those over 50, and couples. Aimee and I, friends not a couple and still under 35, did not feel warmly welcomed in most of the places we visited. There is a famous, and delicious, jam store called Greaves that I took Aimee to. We ooohhhed and ahhhed over the jams, jellys and treats. I heard the proprietor talking to an over 50 couple up at the cash. She was asking if they came out for the festival, what are they doing in town, being nice and friendly. When I bought all my goods (a big haul) up to the cashier, she starred me down, watching me in silence as I put everything on the counter (thanks for all your HELP lady!) and then didn't say anything to me until she asked if I needed a bag. Now, I don't mind being ignored while shopping. I love shopping in silence. BUT if I know I am being ignored....on PURPOSE...that DRIVES ME CRAZY. One store, who cares, but we had the same attitude from almost everywhere over our two day mini-break. We were ignored at all the shops, given the up and down by all the store owners and employees. At a famous hat store, where Aimee and I entered wearing our own super cool hats, we weren't approached by anyone, though all these snooty Americans were fawned over. Hey jerkos, I am a hat FIEND, if you didn't ignore me I might have found something I would have bought! A jewelry/home-ware store, our saleslady sighed as we asked to see something up close. Honestly, disdain from many people, for no reason! Is my money not good enough for you or something?!?

We did have a couple of nice experiences. At a wine store we tried 6 ice-wines each (3 fullish glasses, 3 tastes of each others). Our wine expert was awesome and so helpful. The ice-wine was delightful, but 6 different tastes was really WAY too much sugar. We both loved the Cabernet Franc Ice-wine by Peller Estates. Its so smooth and rich, like caramel on your lips. I think it won some kind of award you nor I have ever heard of, but whatever it is, the award is worth it.

And Aimee and I had high-tea at the Prince of Wales 'vintage' hotel with a wonderful server. Actually I do recommend the tea, it was delightful; great sandwiches and desserts and the scones...mmm warm and delish. And it was proper clotted cream too! The tea, well I've had better, but the experience was awesome (be aware, the price, pretty scary).

The hotel is about a 3.5/5. The rooms are large and airy, with very warm duvets (a bit too heavy) and a comfy mattress. Small bathroom, BIG TV, cool chairs. Our dinner was really tasty, a 3 course meal with ANYTHING off the menu. I unfortunately overindulged too much with the wine and high-tea, so my dinner wasn't as pleasurable as it should have been, but I enjoyed what I tasted. We had a nice waitress, but she was couple crazy...oh these people just got MARRIED today, congratulations. Oh you're here because you're daughter/friend/sister is getting MARRIED. Oh are you having a lovely ROMANTIC weekend together? Ugh, sorry I'm here for a FUN weekend away with my FRIEND!

And the breakfast, ugh, so TERRIBLE! Over cooked eggs, bleech french toast, canned fruit! This is supposed to be a high(ish) end hotel, what's up with the generic, motel, continental breakfast?! Bleech! I can see why its included in the room cost, I would NEVER pay for a breakfast like we were forced to eat!

All in all, glad Aimee and I took a mini-break away together. Train worked nicely, if a bit inconvenient. N-O-T-L is better for an afternoon instead of a couple of days. And don't try 6 glasses of ice-wine, plus scones, plus mini-desserts all in a couple of hours of each other....ugh.

Oh, and P.S., the first weekend of the ice-wine festival is held mainly at the wineries, its the 2nd weekend that's held in town. Apparently we missed a HUGE ICE BAR down the main street! Oh well, maybe next time we'll drive down for the day or something.

Fav Quotes

2010-01-11T21:30:00.005-05:00

I'm a collector. I collect stamps, recipes, magazines, books, CDs, movies and quotes. I am one of those people who use quotes as my Facebook status. Like greeting cards a good quote can speak to you, someone else articulating your thoughts in a coherent, fun way.

Here are some of the quotes I've been collecting over the past couple of years....from songs, books, TV shows, old and new. Do you have any favs?

Terrible ideas…don’t you just love those? – Under the Tuscan Sun
trust me....I'm a mildly cautionary tale – Glee
that's the problem with wishes...in fairy tales they're nothing but trouble, magnifying the greed and vanity of the person for whom they're granted - David Sedaris
be yourself, everyone else is already taken - Oscar Wilde
you're wearing a striped tie with a striped shirt....the ladies ever tell you that you look like an f'ing optical illusion? – 25
if I had it my way I'd slit your throat with the knife you left in my back - Bring me the Horizon
Do me the favor of knowing when I'm demeaning you - Barbara Weston, August Osage County
full moon tonight, real boogeyman weather – Millhouse
This is what I like about children: complete attention to one detail and complete disregard of another - David Sedaris
Ah, yes. The "Bob Loblaw Law Blog". You, sir, are a mouthful. - Tobias Funke
Every time she laughs an Angel dies - Ron Swanson, Parks and Recreation
i just took a shower...a shower of vomit - Darryl Lee
just because you've been a slutty, irresponsible, slutty slut...that doesn't mean we can't be friends, right? - Andy, Weeds
I lost a tooth? I look like a nerd hillbilly!! - The Hangover
you're a big fat curly headed F*CK! - Will Ferrell
Passing Out?....cursing?...on St. Patrick's Day? Is nothing sacred? - Jack Donaghy
beer me dos long island ice teas s'il vous plait - Andy Bernard
The concierge in Winnipeg is the equivalent of a Geisha...they are here to pleasure you - Michael Scott
4 months ago I declared the Oval Office a Bummer Free Zone - Will Ferrell as Dubya
the only thing keeping you from being happy is the belief that you are alone - Mad Men
hi, my name is blah-dy blah, you like blue-dy blueing? Me too, let's be friends - Pushing Daisies
where's my golden shower Phylis? Michael Scott
I like having a cane, if someone comes too close I can wack them - My Grampy
I think marriage is a sacred institution between two unwilling teenagers - Tina Fey as Sarah Palin
I'm gonna dose the both of ya with a scoop of shut the fudge up - Pushing Daisies
"what the hell are you doing?" "I'm being Awesome!" – Heroes
I ain't sayin' you treated me unkind; you could've done better...You just kinda wasted my precious time - Bob Dylan
listen you cock juggling thunder c*nt - Doug Wilson
It's my nature to reward pushiness with inattention – Emerson Cod
Well, that idea might make a stupid idea feel better about itself. – Emerson Cod
Everyone wants stuff. We wake up everyday with a list of wishes a mile long and maybe we spend our lives trying to make those wishes come true, but just because we want them doesn't mean we need them to be happy. – Ned, Pushing Daisies
Olive: Yesterday, a ferrier named Lucas Shoemaker was found dead. Trampled.
--Emerson: Why should I care about a dude that sells fur coats?
--Olive: Not a furrier, a ferrier.
--Emerson: Fair-rier?
--Olive: It's a blacksmith. Puts shoes on horses.
--Emerson: Don't try to act like that's a word everybody knows.
My opinion is you need to take a coupon for this conversation and redeem it at another date. – Emerson Cod
We had any number of clocks surrounding us, and every one of them at one time or another exhibited a lively sense of humour— Joshua Ferris (Then We Came to the End)
...what a fascinating mix a hospital can be of people in a huge hurry and people too slow to get out of their way. - Josh Bazell (Beat the Reaper)
If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals – Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
It takes much bravery to stand up to our enemies but we need as much bravery to stand up to our friends. – Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone
It is the unknown we fear when we look upon death and darkness, nothing more. -Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
"The thing about growing up with Fred and George," said Ginny thoughtfully, "is that you sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve." - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
If trouble comes when you least expect it then maybe the thing to do is to always expect it. — Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
People who claim they're evil are usually no worse than the rest of us. It's people who claim that they're good, or any way better than the rest of us, that you have to be wary of. — Gregory Maguire (Wicked)
Nope, your fiance's gay. Look at him. Pure case of fruit blindness. – Liz Lemon
He alleges you tried to barter sex in exchange for professional consideration. In the HR world we refer to that as being a filthy prostitute. – 30 Rock
You shut up, mouth – Liz Lemon
Rich fifty is middle class thirty-eight. – Jack Donaghy
I don't drink hot liquids of any kind. That's the Devil's temperature! – Kenneth
Stop eating people's old French fries, pigeon! Have some self respect! Don't you know you can fly? – Tracy Morgan
Would I rather be feared or loved? Umm...easy, both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me. - Michael Scott
there are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from that old bread factory...-Dwight Schrute
Happy birthday Jesus. Sorry your party's so lame. - Michael Scott
walk around sugar britches - Lou Gossett Jr., The Officer and a Gentleman
The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental....Especially you Jenny Beckman....Bitch. - 500 Days of Summer
this is how it all ends, some weird guy comes in saying things that don't make no sense, by the time your head realizes, "hey, this weird guy don't make no sense" your guts are all over the window - Emerson Cod
What's a Christmas Gram? I want one!- Buddy the Elf
I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, fore-fleshing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog kissing, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey-shit he is! Hallelujah! - Clark Griswald
Dirty old man, I just got pinched in the elevator....look at that, I'm not even pretty!! - Jack Lemmon, Some Like it Hot
I like to whisper too - Buddy the Elf
Why are you wearing a tux? - Liz Lemon
--Lemon, it’s after six. What am I, a farmer?- Jack Donaghy
No, it's not. It's f*cking Sunday. And I've got to go to f*cking work in four f*cking hours 'cos every other f*cker in my f*cking department is f*cking ill! Now can you see why I'm SO F*CKING ANGRY? - Shaun of the Dead
Just look at the face: it's vacant, with a hint of sadness. Like a drunk who's lost a bet. - Shaun of the Dead
I'm not cryin'. It's just been raining... on my face. - Jemaine Clement
It's not going to work. You can't take the cool out of me. Look, pocket protector and I'm still full of pimp juice. - Wallace Fennel
When you leave a sleepover early, I'm supposed to put a trench coat over my pajamas and come pick you up. - Keith Mars
Did she sound Australian? Australian Accent - Bret
--Yes, Yes - Jemaine
--What did it sound like? - Bret
--Kind of like an evil version of our accent - Jemaine
I may not be old but I'm too old to have this much nothing - This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
speech should be like a woman's skirt: Long enough to cover the topic yet short enough to be interesting. - Winston Churchhill (quoted by This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper)
And my #1 - It’s a very dangerous time. The coalition for reason is extremely weak. - Oscar, the Office

Turn Key, Just TURN

2010-01-10T19:46:00.004-05:00

Isn't it strange how one super horrible day can turn into a marvelous one?

I started my Saturday by making my way over to my father's to check in on his house while he's in BC. Its a bit of a trek by public transit, especially when its super duper cold out (-20-25 with the wind chill). I always forget his front door is a bit hard to open, and of course that was a very important thing to remember on this particular day.

I put the key in, turned it, no click...put the key, turned it, no click. I basically went through this for...no I'm not exaggerating....20 minutes. You know when you think, there's something going on, I'm a smart person, I know I have the right key, how can I not open a front door? How is this ACTUALLY happening to me?! Turn, no click, turn, no click. After 20 minutes I decide to call my father's friends, who live relatively close and have been picking up his mail, for help. "Do you know if something is wrong with the door? Are you having problems opening it too?!" They give me a little pep talk along with a little advice, I hang up and try a couple more times, turn, no click, turn, no click. I call back "it won't open, please come help me!" - Now I know what you're thinking, your father and stepmother open the door all the time, do they have this much trouble? Well, no because they usually use the garage door, which is opened by the garage door opener...which I do not have.

Over comes Joe, he puts the key in, jiggles, turn, no click. He starts pulling on and hitting the door, jiggling around for about 3 minutes (thank god, if he got it the first try I'd have screamed) and the lock finally gave. Finally I get inside, to some warmth. Joe offers to stick around and help me lock up but I give him my heartfelt gratitude and let him return home. I check my poor legs out in the mirror and see they are all beet red, like horribly, horribly RED from the cold. I start thinking how I'll be able to leave the house with a locked door and figure I can try to lock the front door again or I can open the garage door, and run out a la Indiana Jones or Sydney Bristow, letting it close as I escape with the door closing behind me. I talk to my father on MSN letting him know my predicament and he recommends I use the garage door opener and drop it off somewhere for him to pick up when he returns...that's a pretty good idea but isn't necessary as the front door, now loosened, actually locks on the first turn.

I then make my way to the pastizzi place (one of my favourite foods) to get some ricotta pastizzi before I catch a bus back to the subway. I want to get the 11:39am bus...which give me 10 minutes to get pastizzi (which normally takes 2 or less to be served) and out to the bus. I order and am told, "oh we just ran out, can you wait 10 minutes?"...yes the very 10 minutes I need to get the bus...but I want the pastizzi, I need it, I'll go ballistic if I come all this way and don't get some! So I wait....when restaurants say 10 minutes they don't REALLY mean 10 minutes, do they? And I keep my eye on the road to see if the bus goes by....which I never see. Get the pastizzi, in about 12 minutes, make my way outside thinking the bus will probably arrive any second, and start stuffing my face in the bus shelter. Wait, wait, wait, hmmm, I swear I didn't see the bus go past while I waited for pastizzi...5 minutes, 10, 20, when do you give up? When do you say, I need to get home, whether I walk, take a cab, roll home, but honestly should I stand here waiting for this bus any longer?! But you know how it works, as soon as you start walking the bus is going to come. So I waited for an official 30 MINUTES (yes its still -20) and finally...ahhhhh...its the bus, and its warm.

I sit down and start rifling through my purse for my ipod, if I'm really frustrated its hard for me to listen to my glorious music device and I had stopped playing it back at my fathers door. Hmmm, I'm sure my ipod is in here somewhere...isn't it....here....s-o-m-e-w-h-e-r-e....ahhh yes, I remember, I took it out of my purse at my father's and LEFT IT!! I can't go back, I can't get stuck trying to open that door again....so I kept going....home.

On my ride I home I get off the subway at Bay station and stop by the Bay and Bloor liquor store to pick up some awesome Paddy's Red Irish beer that tastes just like Caffrey's....I then continue home, laid on the couch the rest of the day watching Kill Bill I and II. I then invented my own Tuna Cakes (my own version of Crab Cakes with a can of tuna), and then got ready for a night of cupcakes and dancing for Aimee's birthday. Phew, few things can cure what ails you (well me anyway) better then a night out with good friends and dancing....and today, even though I will be without my beloved ipod for the next week or so....I am cured of my horrible mood.

Best of 2009!

2010-01-02T17:46:00.011-05:00

You knew it was coming, I love lists, I have to make them, its one of my more annoying qualities, but its an obsession!

Here's my BEST of 2009 - I think I was so busy this year that I haven't completely caught up on all the latest and greatest things...I am WAY behind on books this year, but I have many of the other recommended Best of the year books sitting on a table waiting to be read.

Music
Songs
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - ZERO and Heads Will Roll
White Lies - DEATH
Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition - warning this song might change your life, its friggin BEAUTIFUL
David Byrne and Dirty Projectors - Knotty Pine
Bombay Bicycle Club - Always Like This and Evening/Morning
Phoenix - 1901 (yes this song is from a commercial, doesn't change the fact its amazing!) and Rome
Mumford & Sons - The Cave - magnificent and White Blank Page
Vampire Weekend - Cousins
Gossip - Heavy Cross - Beth Ditto KICKS!
Rifles - Science in Violence and She's Got Standards - this song is actually a couple years old, but its new to me
Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy and Kiss of Life- everyone else likes Paris, but I prefer Skeleton Boy and Kiss of Life
Dizzee Rascal - Bonkers
Karen O and the Kids - All is Love - the Mighty Karen is nominated for a Golden Globe for this excellent song!
Noah and the Whale - First Days of Spring - starts slow, be aware
Peter, Bjorn and John - Nothing to Worry About
The XX - Crystallised
Magistrates - Heartbreak - boo they've broken up!
La Roux - In for the Kill and Bulletproof
Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat and New In Town
The Brakes - Two Shocks
Slow Club - It Doesn't Have to be Beautiful - it doesn't, but this song sure is
Animal Collective - My Girls - very unusual but it works
The Gay Blades - O Shot - old school rock
Horrors - Sea within a Sea and Mirror's Image
Noisettes - Don't Upset the Rhythm and Beat of My Heart
Fanfarlo - Ghosts
Thom Yorke - Hearing Damage
Throw Me the Statue - Hi-Fun Goon - just a fun song
Julian Casablancas - 11th Dimension - get ready to DANCE
Franz Ferdinand - Lucid Dreams and Ulysses
Arctic Monkeys - Crying Lightening
Florence + the Machine - You've Got the Love (remake, but lovely) and Drumming Song
Doves - Kingdom of Rust

Albums
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Its Blitz - Such a magnificent album, seriously
Horrors - Primary Colours - really different, unique sound, 80s but super modern
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug - sounds good as entire album better then songs on their own
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight - fav band, of course I love the album!
Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - one of those albums that every person will love no matter what your music taste
Noisettes - Wild Young Hearts - old school R&B with a modern dance style
The Temper Trap - Conditions - ahhhhh so new, such perfection
Rifles - The Great Escape - like old style Britpop
Mumford & Sons - Sign No More - more country then I normally like, more just marvelous
The Doves - Kingdom of Rust

Bands
Bombay Bicycle Club - ultra new, first album still coming out, so good, SO GOOD
Florence and the Machine - everyone is like, oh listen to Florence and the machine, so good, so new, blah blah, but everyone is bloody right, she's magnificent! And she's got red hair
Dead Weather - Jack White and Alison M - I wanted to like them, I listened, hmmm, not sure if I could get on board but the more I listened the more I liked
White Denim - real rock and roll, raw and garage, fabulous
La Roux - she's got the look and the dancey sound and she ALSO has RED HAIR!
Temper Trap

Movies

Coraline - I don't usually like cartoons, but my two top movies of the year, they're both cartoons, Coraline is magical, shows what you can do with macabre puppets, and I always love strong female characters
the Fantastic Mr. Fox - Wes Anderson, fav director, directs a masterpiece. Stop Animation, old school, great actors with a great Wes Anderson story. George Clooney as the Fox who can't stop stealing chickens, Jason Schwartzman as his nerdy son, Meryl Streep as the loving wife. Just like the title, it was fantastic.
Secret in their Eyes - Fav film of the film festival, still love it, I wonder when its getting a real release so you can all see it too!
The Informant! - Matt Damon playing a geeky loser who lies at every turn as he tries to take down his Fortune 500 company. Loved it
500 Days of Summer - this is not a love story, its a story about love. True, hard and beautiful.
The Hangover - kept on laughing until the end photographs where I went into hysterics
Sherlock Holmes - You didn't like it? Why, its SO AMAZING, RDJ at his best, with a very strong foil in Rachel McAdams. Tons oh Fun.
Rough Aunties - a great documentary about these tough women working to save children of abuse and AIDS in South Africa
Prom Night in Mississippi - another documentary where Morgan Freeman gives money to a highschool in his town to host the first integrated prom its history.
The September Issue - documentary on Vogue magazine, but so much more then that, 2 female creative genius's working together on the greatest Fashion magazine in the world

-again seriously far behind on my movies, saw Up in the Air, which is was good but not really a best of the year....and just rented District 9 which was different and not different at the same time, again not one of my fav movies of the year. I haven't seen many of the other supposed 'best of the year' movies on other lists (Avatar, Precious, Hurt Locker)...what's wrong with me?!

TV
LOST - is there any doubt that season 5 was the best ever? Honestly, every episode in 2009 challenged your mind and was made for water cooler talk.

Parks and Recreation - what is wrong with everyone that you aren't watching this show?! It has become SO funny, honestly, gut-bustingly hilarious.

Mad Men - some slow episodes, but some super good ones too. A woman riding a lawnmower running over a guys foot? Classic. Seeing everyone effected by JFK's assassination, amazing. The last episode how their new agency is born, setting up some great television for 2010!

30 Rock and the Office - still going strong, still proving Thursday night is the best night in TV

Flight of the Conchords - sadly, my show and my guys will not be returning, even after creating this gem:

Glee - Don't Stop BELIEVING!

Friday Night Lights - one of the best shows on TV, totally

And I keep hearing Modern Family is really good, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up on it

Misc.
Best Plays - August Osage County and Nine Lives

Best Concerts -
The Gossip at the Opera House - One of the best performances I've ever seen, boy do they have stage presence
Yeah Yeah Yeahs at the Kool Haus - One of my all time fav bands live, they rocked the house, Karen O is magnificent
Bloc Party at the Kool Haus - always put on a kick ass show, with 2 encores! My Mercury is in retrograde
Vampire Weekend at the Horseshoe! Small venue, great band!
Virgin Festival in Sydney with MADNESS, Louis XIV, Kaiser Chiefs, Elbow AND the Killers

Best Live Event - FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS at Massey Hall, SO MUCH FUN!
Ricky Gervais at the film fest, he came out on stage, I nearly had a coronary

Best New Drink - Yellow Tail Rose Bubbles - at $14.95, excellent pink sparkling wine!

Best Sport - Rollerderby

Best Trip - obviously my Australia and New Zealand Trips!

Happy MMX everyone!!

A Year of New Things

2009-12-06T16:32:00.010-05:00

At the beginning of 2009 I decided, this year I'm going to make it my mission to try new things. However unusual or frightening, I just need to get over it and try it, once. And I think it was a very pleasing experience, so pleasing I'm going to continue it into the new decade. It wasn't just trying new things, I also wanted to say yes to any events I was invited to. I think that's the key to a happy life and also a way to keep busy. People stop asking you to do things if you always say no, you're much busier socially if you say yes all the time and guess what, most things that people ask you to are SUPER FUN!

Here's what I tried and how I felt about it:

Photo Blog
I actually really enjoyed having a photoblog, forcing yourself to take pictures opens your eyes to beautiful and interesting things found all around you. Themes help to focus your mind, and of course after your theme is done you see things that would make even better pictures. Unfortunately my photoblog partner needed to call things quit in the early summer, but I still see the beauty all around. Here are some of my favourite photo blog pictures:

Theme: Doors
Theme: Lights
Theme: In the Details

Sewing Class - this was a disastrous experience. I enjoy crafty things, buying them and using them, but making them, that's not my forte. And sewing class supported my belief that I haven't improved my crafty nature since home ec class in high school. I took a class at the workroom, a lovely little joint in Parkdale, with my friend T. The class itself was fun, lots of nice people, but it took me 45 minutes longer then everyone else to finish my project...I sweat, cursed and broke two machines. My pillow, the result of my hard work, is still stitched together and sits on a chair in my apartment. Even though my project is lovely, I don't think I'll sew anything again....probably ever.

Participating in a Cheesy Movie-a-thon
My 'honourary cousin', a cousin of my cousin, is on the board of the Inside Out Film Festival, a festival for gay, lesbian and transgendered films. Inside Out had a marvelous idea for a fundraiser, watch 3 of the cheesiest films in a row and have people sponsor you to watch them. The films were Xanadu, Can't Stop the Music and Spice World, each worse then the last. Watching them with a group of hooting and hollering gay men was a total blast! I hope to go out again in 2010...and as long as the movie-a-thon is around.

Australia and New Zealand

Of course my biggest and best adventure of 2009 was my trip to Australia and New Zealand. I flew out alone, met some family in Sydney, my best friend in Auckland and work colleagues in Melbourne. One of the best trips of my life I honestly can't wait to get out there again!
Best friend

Attended a Gala
Oh Hot Docs, how I love thee. My friend Tricia and I have a subscription to Doc Soup, where we see a monthly documentary film from October-April. Along with our subscription we got tickets to the opening Gala for the festival held at the Royal Ontario Museum. Tricia and I debated on how dressed up we should get, being that its (a) a Gala, (b) held at a very chi chi location and (c) it is Toronto, and they don't really get dressed up. I think we looked darn good, too good in fact considering the bulk of the guest were in jeans. The Gala wasn't exactly what I was expecting as it wasn't very 'Gala' like. Yes drinks were flowing, but there was no pretense, no extravaganza, which was disappointing actually. Of course Tricia and I had a blast but I don't think Gala's (well Toronto Galas) are my thing. If someone wants to take me to a big Gala where everyone else gets super dressed up, I'd try it again...else, well who am I kidding, any excuse to get free drinks in a fancy schmanzy location I'm there.

Auction at Windsor Arms
I have a couple of friends who are jewelry fanatics. I myself don't care about jewelry, of course a nice cheap pair earrings or necklace is always nice, but $5000 for a ring...not really my thing. But as I was trying new things this year I of course said yes when I was invited out to the Dupuis Auction at the fanciest hotel in Toronto, the Windsor Arms. Are you aware that auctions take like 10 hours to finish? And that many pieces, though expensive, are quite ugly? I am. Going was quite the experience, seeing paddles being raised, people out bidding each other over the phone and in person, seeing rich people in sweats and tacky clothing. I don't think I'd go out to another auction, at least not for longer then 2-3 hours. It would be more enjoyable if you could actually TALK to the people you go with...but of course that's not the reason people attend auctions is it?

Organized Wine Tour of Niagara
I'm not one for organized activities. I never pick up earphones at museums to 'hear about art', I never join tours of theatres or art galleries. I prefer to experience things at my own pace. My friend Aimee wanted to check out some wineries in Niagara on the Lake, and with neither of us driving we thought taking a train and joining a tour might be an interesting way to experience the region. And guess what, our tour was FANTASTIC! We had a great group of 8 with a fun tour guide. Our wineries were diverse and informative, and we had a great lunch. I saw how our tour could have went horribly wrong, as we met up with another group who had an attendee that was my worst nightmare (thought the whole tour was meant for just her), but thankfully my group made the experience wonderful.

Kung Fu
Oh Kung Fu. For those of you who know me, you know I am not athletic....in the slightest. I trip over my own feet constantly. I twist my ankle skiing. I just don't have that gene. I do want to be active....not desperately, but it would be nice. So my friend Shirley caught me with the whole "you said you'd try anything" and asked me to go with her to a Kung Fu class. I really, really, REALLY did not want to go, but I said I wanted to try new things. So we organized a time to drop into a class. Of course the night of the drop in I had to work late and didn't have work out clothes with me (my utter horror of actually going to Kung Fu didn't help me to bring any clothes with me to work, just in case). I sent her a message letting her know I couldn't go without the proper attire, but she graciously offered to bring me clothes of her own....dang. We made our way, and as we walked Shirley informed me that she really wanted to do the Kung Fu where they use sticks to fight. Ummm, WHAT? I hurt myself crossing the street, I can't use sticks for fighting! We got to the class, they had started already (thank god), and it didn't look too bad, everyone was doing Tai Chi to warm up...which I like, but Shirley does not....all in all, our trial didn't work out because they'd started, it wasn't what Shirley wanted and I would not, under ANY circumstances take a class where I used sticks to fight with another person. I made a go of it, but thankfully it didn't turn out.

A solo concert - Coldplay
I go to many concerts, most of them are in clubs or bars that are standing room only. Occasionally there is a big band I want to see, and they are the ones that play stadiums. I've seen Coldplay a few time before, including their "Rush of a Blood to the Head" days when Chris Martin was an unparalleled live performer. It seems the years have not been good to him, at least that's how it looks on TV when they perform at award shows. But I still love Coldplay, especially Viva La Vida. So when I heard they were coming I decided last minute to get myself a ticket and check the show out alone. I thought I would be too embarrassed to jump up and dance to songs I love alone...but ya, I have NO problem doing that, even when no one else around me jumps up (ahem, Politik, hello Toronto, its an AWESOME song!) I still need to try out a club show alone, especially one of those bands no one else likes, I'm working on it.

French Lessons
I've been dying to take French lessons for a long time. I LOVE France, and if everything goes as planned, I think it would be fantastic to retire there. Best to start taking lessons now, so I'm prepared. Well....that was the idea...my lessons were kind of a nightmare! I took them with Aimee, we had the same time slot but were in different classes, with a reputable organization. But my class...oh lord my class...they were horrible. I had a great teacher, she taught both Quebecois and France french, so we were prepared. Unfortunately she wasn't able to SPEAK much French (as she was supposed to) because my class just did not catch on....at all. Out of a class of 10, 2 dropped out early, 3 were trying to learn, and 5, yes 5, just could not learn French. They didn't listen, they didn't do their homework, they didn't pay attention....and these people are adults! PAYING for this class. And they ruined it. They ruined my French, language learning, experience. Maybe I'll try again in a few years....somewhere else....but for now, I am sadly off it.

A solo subscription to Canstage
I LOVE seeing plays, but haven't seen that many over the past few years. I decided to get me out of the house I should get myself a subscription to a theatre company. Then if anyone wants to come see a play with me I can get them a last minute ticket. You know what, I really enjoy seeing plays on my own. My seats are right on an aisle near a door, so I can make a quick getaway if I don't like the play. And if I hate the show I can leave at intermission. But if I like the play, I can do my favourite thing and tell EVERYONE I know about it to get them out to see the show too. Win, win!

The Fray and Kylie Minogue concerts
I saw some AWESOME bands for the first time this year, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Gossip, Bishop Allen, Vampire Weekend, Madness...I also saw some very un-Angela shows this year...got coerced into seeing them because of my pledge. One was the Fray, who remains an un-Angela band...sometimes you change your mind about a band after seeing them live...the Fray, I didn't change my mind, still don't like them. Nor am I crazy about the fans (preppy, non-musical types). But I went and did something outside my comfort zone.
Kylie Minogue was exactly the opposite. She is FANTASTIC live. Puts on one heck of a show, sings her heart out, has great dancers. Wow. I enjoyed the show so much I downloaded some of her songs after the show. Unfortunately her performing skills don't really translate to her recording so I'm still into listening to her music regular basis.

Rollerderby
The best, most enjoyable regular activity that came out of 2009 was Rollerderby!! I LOVE watching Rollerderby! After seeing Whip-It I thought it would be pretty cool to see a live game, and it is more then pretty cool, its WICKED AWESOME! I love seeing woman being all tough, showing how strong they can be. I love being part of a packed arena cheering them all on. Rollerderby is one of my new favourite live activities!

There you have it, maybe my list doesn't seem that out of the ordinary to you, but to me I certainly tested my comfort zone many times and I'm proud of myself for that! I hope I can continue for many years to come.

Fav Songs of the Decade

2009-11-24T21:04:00.008-05:00

Oh god, SO many songs, how am I ever going to do this?! My list is basically made up of songs that I love and that will hopefully continually rock my world for many years to come...I think I need to make a 100 song playlist to play for the next month or so (mixed in with xmas songs of course).

To spark my memory I looked up some online/magazine lists (as its hard to remember what song came out when, even my memory isn't that good.) To see the lists I used for inspiration take a look at nme.com, pitchfork.com and the most influential of all, my fav radio station, xfm.co.uk.

And now on to the list:

Top 10

Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand - my 2nd favourite song of all time, launched my love of Franz Ferdinand, my favourite band....so ya, its the best song of the decade in my opinion.
Fell in Love with a Girl - White Stripes. I remember going out dancing at the Dance Cave, this song would come on and I would jump, yell and sing at the top of my lungs. Amazing song...one of the White Stripes many amazing songs, but I think them at their best.
There Goes the Fear - Doves - an uplifting song that has dark, sad undertones. Musically lovely, by a fantastic live band. There Goes the Fear is one of many fabulous Dove songs...check them ALL out.
Crazy in Love - Beyonce - I went nuts when I first heard this song, the beat, loud and pounding, great to dance on the dance floor or in your seat. One of the all time great dance songs.
Date With the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeahs - modern punk at its best. Its pounding, earth shattering, guitar maniac fun.
Viva La Vida - Coldplay - hard to pick which Coldplay song...Yellow, their first is magnificent. Clocks, I know you all love it. But Viva La Veda is a keeper, and you can sing along REAL LOUD, and I like it loud.
Hard to Beat - Hard-Fi - I just LOVE THIS SONG, that is all.
Helicopter - Bloc Party - listen to the opening, the guitar, the drums...and the momentum does not stop. Kick Ass
One Day Like This - Elbow - one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. Tugs at your heart strings, tugs at your mind, you sit quietly and drink this song in.
Oh My God - Kaiser Chiefs - I love the Kaiser Chiefs, as you know. When I first heard Oh My God, I think I was changed....its a bit mod, a bit rock, starts off slow, then all of a sudden Ricky Wilson Yells out "OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, I'VE NEVER BEEN THIS FAR AWAY FROM HOME", and I think, I need to hear this song again, and again, and again. And live...there is no better way to hear this song sung.

And the rest, got to a list of 100, in no particular order (as for me that's pretty much impossible)

Never Miss a Beat - Kaiser Chiefs
Knights of Cydonia - Muse
Hysteria - Muse
Hate to Say I Told You So - the Hives
Hung Up - Madonna
Here It Goes Again - OK Go
I Turn My Camera On - Spoon
15 Step - Radiohead
Reckoner - Radiohead
All I Need - Radiohead
Goldigger - Kanye West
Sexy Back - Justin Timberlake
Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Babylon - David Gray
Once Around the Block - Badly Drawn Boy
Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor - Arctic Monkeys
Old Yellow Bricks - Arctic Monkeys
Chasing Pavements - Adele
Heartbeats - The Knife
Red Morning Light - Kings of Leon
I Believe In a Thing Called Love - Darkness
Dirty Harry - Gorillaz
Feel Good Inc - Gorrilaz
Take Your Mama - Scissor Sisters
Yellow - Coldplay
Clocks - Coldplay
Hurt - Johnny Cash
Great DJ - The Ting Tings
Standing in the Way of Control - the Gossip
Electric Feel - MGMT
I'm Not Going to Teach your Boyfriend How to Dance - Black Kids
Knots - Pete and the Pirates
A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
Hounds of Love - Futureheads
Broken Boy Solider - The Raconteurs
Hard To Explain - The Strokes
Spread Your Love - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Men's Needs - The Cribs
Honest Mistake - The Bravery
Run - Gnarl's Barkley
Nobody Move, Nobody Gets Hurt - We Are Scientists
Cash Machine - Hard-Fi
Golden Skans - Klaxons
Sway - Kooks
Apply Some Pressure - Maximo Park
Get Busy - Sean Paul
Powerless - Nelly Frutado
Fix Up, Look Sharp - Dizzee Rascal
Fit but you Know it - the Streets
Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
Knotty Pine - The Dirty Projectors and David Byrne
Bohemian Like You - Dandy Warhols
Munich - Editors
All These Things That I've Done - The Killers
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
Independent Woman - Destiny's Child
Chelsea Dagger - Fratellis
Banquet - Bloc Party
Weapon of Choice - Fat Boy Slim
Digital Love - Daft Punk
Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot
Out of Time - Blur
Reptilia - the Strokes
The Test - Chemical Brothers
Galvanize - Chemical Brothers
Ageless Beauty - Stars
Dead Disco - Metric
Beautiful Day - U2
A Little Less Conversation - Junkie XL
Hella Good - No Doubt
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
Get Free - Vines
Music is My Hot Hot Sex - CSS
Keep the Car Running - Arcade Fire
Rebellion (Lies) - Arcade Fire
Evil - Interpol
Shock of Lightening - Oasis
Empire - Kasabian
Zero - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
History Song - The Good, The Bad and the Queen
The Age of the Understatement - Last Shadow Puppets
Take Her Back - Pigeon Detectives
Love is Noise - Verve
5 Years Time - Noah and the Whale
Take a Chance - Magic Numbers
Finding out True Love is Blind - Louis XIV
Feels Just Like it Should - Jamiroquai
Touch the Sky - Kanye West
Lucid Dreams - Franz Ferdinand

Vampire Weekend - Cousins

2009-11-19T21:26:00.000-05:00

I think the new Vampire Weekend is going to be as good, if not better, then their first one! Super excited!!

Beaujolais Nouveau

2009-11-19T20:22:00.003-05:00

One of my favourite days of the year, Beaujolais Nouveau day!!! They say its one of the best vintages in 50 years....and you know what, the Georges DuBoeuf is SCRUMPTOUS!

The Plays the Thing

2009-11-17T20:58:00.003-05:00

I'm back into the theatre scene in Toronto, not as an usher but as a patron (much easier on the legs). I've seen two fantastic plays this season, which just began!

August Osage County
The first time I heard about August Osage County was on the Tony Awards a few years ago. I think the Tony's are a great vehicle for showcasing the big plays that will come out to the rest of North America, and luckily they show both Musicals and Plays. I can't exactly remember what I liked about August from the Tony performance, but the name stuck with me. When I saw Mirvish was bringing the play to Toronto I got the tickets!

The night of the show, I looked up the play on the Mirvish website (I like the prepare myself, length, double check start time, etc.) and I noticed, horror of horrors, its 3 1/2 hours long! Oh no! I terribly started convincing myself mentally that I wouldn't like the play and I could leave during one of the intermissions (the first or second). I don't know why I psych myself out like that, its just better to go and see a show without knowing anything! Yes if it was horrible I'd leave, but you don't know how you'll feel until you watch it!

And as usual, I was afraid for NO GOOD REASON! Its friggin BRILLIANT! August Osage County is about a super dysfunctional family, a mother and her 3 daughters, who gather at the Oklahoma homestead after their father disappears. Each daughter is messed up in their own way, the eldest is married with a daughter and has problems with her marriage and sees herself slowly turning into her mother; the middle daughter is single...or rather is in a secret relationship that is quite controversial; the youngest is engaged, living far away from the rest of the family, and falls for pretty much the biggest losers on the planet. Though the daughters are pretty messed up, their mother (played by Estelle Parsons, best known for her role as Roseanne's mother on Roseanne) is pretty much the most maladjusted, dysfunctional woman I've seen in pop culture in a long time. She's suffering from cancer of the mouth (both figuratively and literally) and has been addicted to drugs for most of her adult life.

The play has some great lines, the best biting and pretty bitchy (do me the honour of knowing when I'm demeaning you). There are major laughs, I found myself yelling out WHOA HOO twice, I couldn't contain myself, and the audience clapped spontaneously many times. The play certainly did not feel like it was 3 1/2 hours long, the time flew by, and the 2 intermissions were welcome only so we could all catch our breath for a moment before diving into the family drama again. Its one of the best plays I've ever seen. Unfortunately its left Toronto now, but a must see if its shown near you!

7 Stories

I have a subscription for Canstage this season. I didn't really enjoy the first play of the series (but I won't bore you with that) so I was a bit apprehensive about 7 Stories. I made sure I didn't read about it before hand, learning from my August Osage County experience, it really is better to go in with no expectations.

7 Stories is a Canadian play written and first performed in 1989. Its apparently been translated and performed around the world as it touches on many themes that are relevent in any country. Its written by Morris Panych, the same playwright behind the wonderful Overcoat adaptation. The play is a comedy (and its pretty darn funny) and its quite existential. Basically its about a man, dressed in a bowler hat and suit (a la Magritte) standing on a building ledge, seemingly about to kill himself.

The building has 7 windows, each window a portal into an apartment on the 7th floor, and 4 actors portray many different eccentric characters, such as a couple who seem to hate one another and get their kicks pretending to murder one another; a decorator and his client who've redone her apartment 18 times; a party filled with people who don't know each other; an old woman who is 100 years old and very wise. Although the play is very philosophical, its also easy to enjoy because its so funny and witty. And bonus, its 90 minutes with no intermission (the perfect play length in my opinion!), though it felt a little long at the end.

My favourite part of this production of 7 Stories is it stars one of my very favourite theatre actors, Damien Atkins. I had no idea he was in the show, and I gasped with delight seeing his name in the program! Seeing him play 3 distinct roles all in one night, what a joy.

So, who knows what else I'll be seeing this Toronto Theatre season....the not knowing is super exciting!

Listing the 2000s - Part I

2009-11-07T19:42:00.005-05:00

Phew, I think I've summed up my Part I list of best of the decade for Movies, TV, Albums, Books and Plays. Gosh, Songs and Actors (Pop Culture Icons, etc.) is going to be plenty difficult....so I'm leaving that for another day

Best Movies of the 2000-2009 decade
Top List
In America
Amelie
Man on a Wire
Gone Baby Gone
Little Miss Sunshine
Dirty Pretty Things
Royal Tenenbaums
Memento

For Fun
Moulin Rouge
Almost Famous
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Shaun of the Dead
Big Fish
Harry Potter - all 6 films
24 Hour Party People
About a Boy
Bridget Jone's Diary
Gosford Park
Napoleon Dynamite

Drama
Walk the Line
No Country for Old Men
Children of Men
Crash
Frida
25th Hour
Hotel Rwanda
The Departed
The Sea Inside
Chocolat
Motorcycle Diaries
Atonement
La Vie En Rose
Yesterday
City of God

Action
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Gladiator
Kill Bill
The Bourne Trilogy
Iron Man
Casino Royale
Pans Labyrinth
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Sympathy for Lady Vengeance
Old Boy
28 Days Later

Documentary
An Inconvenient Truth
No End in Sight
Wordplay
Jesus Camp
Spellbound
Born into Brothels
Super Size Me

Best TV of 2000-2009
The Office
Extras
LOST
Flight of the Conchords
Alias
Veronica Mars
Friday Night Lights
Six Feet Under
Entourage
Arrested Development
Pushing Daisies
Gilmore Girls
30 Rock
(because Buffy, SATC, Spaced and Freaks and Geeks ENDED in the 2000s, I'll include them here, but they really are 1990s shows....)

Best Albums of 2000-2009
Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
Hard-Fi - Hard-Fi
White Stripes - Elephant
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
the Strokes - Is this It
Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
Coldplay - Parachutes
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I am I'm Not
the Killers - Hot Fuss
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Badly Drawn Boy - the Hour of the Bewilderbeast
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C.
Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Editors - the Back Room
The Fratellis - Costello Music
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Kaiser Chiefs - Employment
Doves - The Last Broadcast
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
the Hives - Veni Vidi Vici
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
The Postal Service - Give Up
The Darkness - Permission to Land
Alicia Keys - The Diary of Alicia Keys
Raconteurs - Conselors of the Lonely
The Kooks - Konk
The Good, The Bad and the Queen - the Good, the Bad and the Queen
Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
Kaiser Chiefs - Off With Their Heads
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Its Blitz
Franz Ferdinand - Tonight
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of Understatement

Best Books of 2000-2009
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Beat the Reaper - Josh Bazell
The History of Love - Nicole Krauss
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Then We Came to the End - Joshua Ferris
Empire Falls - Richard Russo
the Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
A Brief History of the Dead - Kevin Brockmeier
The Life of Pi - Yann Martel
The Time Travellers Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Reading Lolita in Tehran - Azir
Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation - Lynne Truss
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
The Last Town on Earth - Thomas Mullen
Bridge of Sighs - Richard Russo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Blink - Malcolm Gladwell
The White Tiger - Aravind Adiga
The Monsters of Templeton - Lauren Groff
The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd
Good Grief - Lolly Winston
Three Junes - Julia Glass
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst
When We Were Orphans - Kazuo Ishiguro

Best Theatre 2000-2009
WICKED
August Osage County
Urinetown
Mamma Mia
the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Cookin at the Cookery
Fringe, a Love Story
Hairspray

Halloween - Pac Man Attacks!

2009-11-01T10:16:00.004-05:00

I got all gussied up for Halloween this year...found a vintage dress in Kensington Market that made me feel like a 1940s movie star. Dressed it up with a feather hat, white gloves and tons of costume jewelry. Its a bit long, floor sweeping, so I was taking my trippy life in my hands, but thankfully no accidents to speak of.

Went to the Retro Road Show for the first time....its a big monthly party where old DJs from the Joker, the Phoenix and Whiskey Saigon come out and play for retro lovers. Its a strange scene actually, as Aimee said its just like those Video Dance parties we'd have in high school. The road show is held at an old church that's converted into an event space with multiple floors. You walk in and honestly, it looks like a gymnasium! Paper cutouts on the wall, projectors hooked up and broadcasting on the walls, tables around the parameter. And of course as we arrived a bit early no one was on the dance floor yet, so it looked like that time at a high school dance where the boys stand on one side of the room and girls on the other. The feeling of, oh no, where are we, came over myself and 2 friends....but that was soon erased because you know what, who cares what it looks like, if you want to have a good time, just spin some old school new wave and you've got yourself a party!

The costumes were pretty incredible. Aimee made her own costume, a ladybug - oh so cute. Derek dressed up as my escort in a pinstripe suit and fedora. We saw Cruella Daville (who incorrectly thought poor Derek was dressed as a Jonas Brother and insisted on taking a picture with him), Moaning Murtle, Pamela Anderson (a man dressed up in a red bathing suit and HUGE fake breasts, it was quite frightening actually...), Borat, Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, Michael Cera from Juno (who looked JUST like him!) and Ali G. The best costume of all was best to look at but ended up being our nemesis! Pac Man.....

This guy made a HUGE Pac Man costume out of construction paper and I assume a huge box. He came in and all eyes were on him, it was very impressive. But you soon realize that someone wearing a huge box is not just cumbersome for them, its pretty cumbersome and incredibly annoying for everyone near them! Pac Man, quite rightly, won best costume of the night. After getting his award he decided to take over the dance floor in celebration. He would come up to all the ladies and pretend to eat them a la Pac Man, so he'd lean over you with the open 'mouth' and basically a woman's top half would be covered....and you're basically head to head with this young drunken fellow. It happened to me a couple of times....but I think my stinkface shows my aggravation pretty well because as soon as I was covered I was let free. Aimee was not so lucky....being that she's vertically challenged she was covered almost fully, and then she'd be kissed on the head by the drunken video game icon. Then as Pac Man let you free, he'd take over the entire area on one side of you by dancing and banging into you with his GINORMOUS back, bang, bang, bang. Aimee could not get a moment's peace! We'd move, he'd move with us, bang, bang, bang. The funniest moment of the night, to me, was when Pac Man took to the dance floor next to us and Derek looked at me with this combination look of horror, exasperation and a major stink face knowing our night of dancetastic fun was nearing an end.

Of course the second best moment of the night was when the projectors beamed the extended version of Thriller on all the walls, we all yelled in great appreciation....some of us tried to copy MJs moves (I stuck to the Time Warp myself), and we all squealed during the haunted house scene when MJs date was attacked by zombies. It was MJ's night all night with the Road Show playing Thriller, Billy Jean, Don't Stop Till You Get Enough and ABC....you gotta give people what they want!

I think next year I may have to step my costume up a bit....I'm thinking maybe Gilligan....or the Skipper too....the Millionaire and his Wife.....

Read Beat the Reaper

2009-10-28T20:51:00.003-04:00

I just finished Beat the Reaper, which I BLAZED through. Its just SO GOOD! I found it while clicking through reviews on amazon.com, it was listed as one of the best books of January 2009. I usually find a book I like, click through the list of 'Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought' and pick the books with the most interesting descriptions and reviews. Sometimes I get some stinkers....and other times I stumble upon a work of genius!

Beat the Reaper both darkly funny and very melancholy. Its a mob story that's on par of some of the greats, Goodfellas, Godfather, etc. Its not a sweeping epic, by any means, its crass, real, insane and a very cool ride. The story is about Peter Brown, a doctor at the worst hospital ever, in Manhattan. Peter became a doctor to atone for his time in the mafia as the hitman 'Bearclaw'. Of course his years in the 'service' give him a unique perspective on life and how to treat patients...its not very pretty but man is it entertaining.

The book is written both in the present; a day in the life of Peter as a first year resident at Manhattan Catholic, and in the past; Peter starting his life in the mafia after the death of his grandparents by a seemingly motiveless murder. Its very fast paced and you 'learn' a lot through medical and mafia speak....and seeing they really aren't that different...which is really freaky. I love the little footnotes throughout the book which give you little blurbs of info in case you really need to know why an EEG is different from an EKG.

My favourite line from the book "She's wearing...her usual facial expression, which would go well with her saying 'u took a shit on my shoes?"

Warning: I'm not lying when I say its just like a mafia movie. Its got violence, disgusting behaviour, lots and lots of drugs and sex. And its very well written, very hard to put down, and both you and the author are in on the joke....what a GREAT book!

ROLLERDERBY!!

2009-10-18T10:25:00.002-04:00

I went to a Roller derby last night and it was friggin awesome!! Ever since I saw Whip It (see Film Fest post) I wondered what a real Roller derby would be like. And this week, Breakfast Television did a piece on the Toronto Roller Derby who had a game on October 17th! So of course I rounded up some friends and we decided make our way out to see a live derby.

It's held in a 'Hangar' just north of the city. A really large warehouse space, the kind you see in mafia and drug deal movies, with large windows and concrete floors. The room was packed with the strangest mix of people you'd ever see. Men with mullets, women with short cropped hair, hipsters from downtown, families, lesbians, gay men; a diverse group just wanting to watch 2 teams of WICKED Women. There were some three level bleachers set up around the parameter of the building for most of us, and some people brought their own chairs, blankets and pillows...the hard core fans who sat in the 'suicide' seats, right on the side of the track. Because the game is on the violent side, you sort of take you life into your own hands when you sit too close. Women's arms, legs, helmets and roller skates come right at you constantly. Its so violent a few players came out in casts before the game even started!

The two teams participating were The Chicks Ahoy; with Furious George, G-Force and Tara Part vs. The Death Track Dolls; with Kung Fu Kitty, Audrey Hellborn and Downright Dirty Dawson. Basically you have 2 teams of super cool women with three blockers (defense), one pivot (last line of defense) and one jammer (scorer).
The blockers have to block the others teams jammers from getting through...and yes they use force. The jammers get points by how many people they pass on each go around the track. The jammers each have their own referee following them to mark their points and special helmet covers signifying who they are.

Roller derby is very exhilarating! Saturdays game was mostly one sided, the Chicks Ahoy were in the lead most of the game...then the injuries started. The paramedics, who sat on the sidelines for the game, were called in three times. Its horrible to see people getting hurt, but seeing these women who have such admiration for one another throwing themselves into the game is very impressive! Then, as The Chicks Ahoy had a couple players taken off by stretcher, The Death Track Dolls built some momentum and came back from behind, 91-69, to lose by 2 points, 92-90!! The audience was on their feet cheering!

I bought a Chicks Ahoy t-shirt (they have the coolest logo) and I will make sure to be at the Championship Finals on November 21st! A fan is born!! What's my roller derby name? I'm deciding between Angel the Antagonizer and Angel-A-Death...what's your pic? And what would your name be?

New Vampire Weekend - I LOVE IT

2009-10-05T22:29:00.001-04:00

TIFF 2009 - Days 8 and 9 and ROUND-UP

2009-09-20T13:57:00.006-04:00

Day 8

19. The movie I've been waiting to see since first watching the trailer, Whip It! Whip It is Drew Barrymore's directorial debut. It's such a great "I am Woman Hear Me Roar" film, you should take your daughter, your sister, your cousin, so they can experience the wonder of strong women playing roller derby!! A simple story with a familiar storyline that keeps you interested with plenty of surprises and great performances.

Ellen Page (of Juno fame) plays Bliss, a senior in small town Texas. Her mother is a pageant mom, putting both her daughters in all the pageants around the state. Bliss is more into rebelling against her mother and being her own person. One day, while on a shopping excursion in Austin, Bliss comes across a flyer advertising female roller derby. Bliss goes to check it out, falls in love and immediately signs up and becomes a member of the Hurl Guides, the worst team in the league. The movie has plenty of love and friendship, along with lots of music and lots of heart. A really fun movie.

20. Road, Movie - a celebration of the film industry in India. Road, Movie is a simple film about a directionless man who takes his Uncle's Van on a 6 day cross India trip where he's supposed to drop the van off at the end of his travels. The van has a makeshift movie theatre in back, complete with projector, large screen and large speakers. Along the way our hero picks up a young boy and old man both looking for a fair in the middle of the desert, and together they show films to wandering Gypsy's looking for water in the desert for days on end. The film had fun bits, was a bit boring, but definitely showed me a part of India I've never known.

The director came out and introduced the film along with a LARGE NUMBER of people who worked on the film including the editor, costume designer, 4 producers, director of photographer and 3 stars of the film. The director told us to experience the film in true Indian style by making sure we all leave our cell phone's on and have loud conversations with one another throughout the film....I think most people caught his sarcasm.

Day 9 - AN EXCELLENT day of films and the day my good friends Sandy and Darryl had their BABY BOY Mason Cooper!

21. Max Manus - a Norwegian film about the Resistance in Norway during World War II. It focuses on the legendary freedom fighter, Max Manus. The film was the biggest grossing film in Norway in the past 10 years. And man is it GOOD!

A simple story, a military man loves his homeland and hates the Nazi's. He bands together with some like minded people who work together to blow up huge Naval ships and cause other destruction to thwart their invaders. Its very well acted and has this particularly great scene with Max riding on bicycle shooting 6 or 7 Nazi's coming at him on a truck. Awesome.

22. Mother - a South Korean film that certainly doesn't believe in convention! And that is an AWESOME THING! A mother lives with her less than intelligent son. He's a nice young man but also pretty strange...and he gets very angry if you call him a retard. The mother is very protective of her son and her protection goes into overdrive when he is accused of murder. Because of the slim evidence against her son (a golf ball was found at the scene with his name on it) she decides to investigate the case on her own.

A funny, powerful film with many shocking reveals and lots of foreshadowing that all amount to something. It is near perfection until the bloody ending...it has those multiple endings where everything is wrapped into a pretty little bow, which it didn't need to do!! But in spite of its run on ending still a really good film.

And now for the list, my top films of the festival!

1. Secret in their Eyes - the only film that I'm rating, as I was so stunned, so taken aback by how much it spoke to me and how beautiful it was.

The others were:

Together
the Informant
Max Manus
Mother
Backyard
Invention of Lying
Whip It

And of course the best MOMENT of the film, seeing the great, awesome, hilarious, RICKY GERVAIS!!

TIFF 2009 - Days 6 and 7

2009-09-18T08:45:00.004-04:00

Day 6 - the longest day of the festival with FOUR movies! It wasn't too bad actually, thankfully I pretty much liked all of my films.

13. The Front Line - an Italian film about the tense conflict in Italy during the 1970s between the Fascists and Communists. The film focused on a Communist group known as the Prima Lina who started as a protest group and steadily grew into a terrorist organization. The Milan faction was run by the lead of the movie, though his reason for being a part of the group was never explained....nor was the conflict between the Fascists and Communists. Of course there was an underlying love story with another member of the Prima Lina. Their relationship culminated in a huge prison break near Venice that signalled the end of the group. Not a well written film but interesting enough to watch.

14. Youth in Revolt - the new Michael Cera film, as the director called him, Brampton's favourite son. Michael Cera did make an appearance, for 2 seconds. He came down to the front of the theatre, waved, and then the director said "enjoy the film" and they walked away. Very strange. As well the young female star of the film came to the front of the theatre and just as she approached the spotlight let out a HUGE sigh! It was very distracting!

The film also has Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Fred Willard and E. Emmett Walsh. The film was the standard fare, a youth in crisis who falls in love with a girl. He changes his life to get her to be his girlfriend and crazy high jinks ensue. It was funny, but a little strange. The best part of the film was getting to see Michael Cera play two rolls, one which is his usual role as the innocent, sweet guy; the second a wicked, self-assured, bad boy. I think its a renter.

15. L'Affaire Farewell - a wonderful French film. The film focuses on the end of the Cold War and how a French engineer falls into a career in spying and comes across the most important piece of espionage in the Cold War that basically brings about the end of the conflict between the US and USSR. Basically a high ranking Russian KGB official spent a 5 year stint in France where he was approached by the French spy agency to run counter-intelligence for them. His contact eventually becomes 'Farewell', a French engineer with no spy training who is stationed in Russia for work. They strike up a friendship and the film kind of goes from there, with the intelligence going from Russia to France and on to the CIA. Well acted, well directed, a very good film.

16. Bunny and the Bull - an English film, very, very indie. The director, who was so super cute and sweet when introducing the film, is behind a cult TV show called the Mighty Boosh. Bunny and the Bull has the BEST title sequence I think I've ever seen! And the film is so indie all of the sets are basically painted backdrops with newspaper covered props. It was super cool actually and really well done, particularly since the film was set 'throughout Europe'. Its a road movie about 2 friends, one who is very particular and anal retentive; and one who is very fly by the seat of his pants. The audience laughed A LOT....I laughed for about the first half, then I think my film fest tiredness overtook me and I kind of stopped watching. If you are a fan of the Mighty Boosh (which I've never seen) I think this film is definitely for you.

Day 7 - the day I saw the WORST film of the fest, and another that WOULD NOT END

17. Bad Lieutenant - a Werner Herzog film staring Nicholas Cage. Its a film set in New Orleans post Katrina about a lieutenant in the police force who is a good cop but a druggie jerkface. Its a B-movie with tons of overacting, and I HATED IT! I stayed for just under an hour and couldn't take it anymore....I HAD to leave. The film also stars Val Kilmer and Eva Mendes.

18. Baaria - an Italian film, with so much heart, but it just went SO WRONG. It's set in the beginning of the 20th Century in a town near Palermo, Sicily. The film follows the life of Peppino Torrenuova. We see him as a boy who works on a farm and gets in trouble with people in his hometown; he then grows up to be a member of the Communist party who's only dream is to become a member of parliament. We see him fall in love, get married and have kids while Italy is changing around him. Cars take over the streets, people stop working on farms, larger buildings are built throughout the town. But you just don't care....and the subtitles are IMPOSSIBLE to read, I think I only got 1/3 of the dialogue. Many people left, I thought something would happen by the end so I stayed....but it didn't, and I was pretty disappointed. Bad movie day, Day 7.

Tiff 2009 - Days 4 and 5 - with RICKY GERVAIS

2009-09-16T22:45:00.006-04:00

Phew, I'm exhausted, seeing 22 films in 8 days is very tiring! I'm officially past the half way point, only a 1/4 left, but I'll break up my posts for the past 3 days as I saw 4 movies today (on day 6)

Ok, Day 4 - saw 3 films, and was in the same room as the one, the only RICKY GERVAIS!!

7. Moloch Tropical - a French film set in Haiti. Very interesting and well done actually, especially since the entire film is set in one location over one day. The film is a dramatization of the life of a despotic leader who was originally elected by the people. Shakespearean and dark, you see how the leader insists that everything he does is approved of because he was elected. We learn about the workings of his inner circle, we learn that he is in power only because the Americans backed him as a leader, you see how he is going insane by the minute and refused to let his wife leave the country when its on the brink of civil war. The film starts innocently enough, a typical day in a 'kings' life, then his day quickly deteriorates showing how he needs to abdicate his 'throne' as its the only way his country will survive.

8. Together - a very emotional Swedish film about a family dealing with loss. A mother is killed after a fight with her husband when she gets out of the car on a busy highway and is hit by a truck. The father and 12 year old son have a strained relationship and aren't able to communicate and help one another deal with their grief. The father gets in bar fights and dulls his pain with alcohol, whereas the son is desperate for his father to take care of him. The father eventually turns to child welfare to help him as he's drowning, unable to take care of himself much less his son. Very powerful acting, a tough film to watch because it felt so real.

9. The Invention of Lying - YEP, the RICKY GERVAIS movie! I arrived a bit late for the line at the Elgin theatre to meet a co-worker in from Australia for the film. The whole street was in chaos, barriers up, people unable to cross, mobs taking photos. I never knew so many people loved Ricky as much as I do! We went in right after the actors arrived, I was SO close to Ricky giving an interview on the red carpet I could have reached out and touched him....I didn't....but I could have. All I wanted was for him to come out on stage and make me laugh, just once. Well he made me laugh over and over. He is just as funny as you'd think, able to spout out these quick one linera. He presented the film with his co-director, Matt Williamson, who stuck his foot in his mouth. Matt introduced some of the behind the scenes people involved in the film, then he says "Now Ricky, I'll let you introduce the beautiful people..." So terrible! The audience booed, but Ricky took control and said "You know what I think is beautiful, chubby balding men" and he stuck his belly out and posed ready for us to take his picture. He can take a bad situation and turn it around like that, the best! Oh and Jennifer Garner and Rob Lowe were the beautiful people Matt was referring too...they came out to enthusiastic response.

The movie itself was REALLY funny. It was a great audience who clapped a lot and laughed pretty much from beginning to end. Its one of those movies where jokes get lost because you're laughing so long after the first one. Its definitely not for the super religious, as it does poke a lot of fun at them, but the movie is just as it sounds. A world where no one lies (and they like to tell the painful truth, often) and Ricky invents lying one day to get himself out of a jam, learns that everyone believes him because they don't know what lying is, and of course takes it WAY too FAR. Very well done.

Day 5:
10. Balbio - An Australian film starring Anthony Lapaglia. Its a true story about these 5 Australian journalists sent to East Timor in the 1970s to cover its liberation from Portugal. What they find is Indonesian warships off the coast ready to invade the now free country. The 5 Australians disappear and Anthony is convinced to go to East Timor and find out what happened. Its an interesting film about an event I wasn't even aware of! Very well acted, certainly not a feel good film, but well done. A great surprise actor for those who watch the Australian show Underbelly (SO GOOD), the lead mobster in the later part of season 1 is one of the journalists. Distracting but cool to see him on the big screen.

11. 25 Carat - A Spanish film about the underbelly of Barcelona. The film includes a young lady and her father who are both con artists, a mob 'IRS' man who collects outstanding loans for his boss, the mob boss and his wife and a corrupt branch of the anti-robbery police force. The film was slow to start, but the end sequence where the young lady and loan collector worked together to pull off a big job worked really well.

12. Vengeance - I was surprised that this film was such a high-end B movie! Its a Hong Kong film by Johnny To starring the most popular and beloved French rock star in history, Johnny Hallyday. There was lots of clapping and laughing throughout the film, as everyone seemed to be big Johnny To fans, I found the film a fun experience but not really what I was hoping to see. Basically Vengeance is a mob movie about Johnny Hallyday's (Costello) daughter's family being killed in Macau. The daughter survives and asks her father to avenge her husband and children. Costello agrees and goes out to get a crew of men to help him find those involved in the murder and have them killed. There is a big twist that actually makes the film much more interesting then the typical revenge movie, but I won't ruin it for you. (and its not the obvious twist you see a mile away) The end revenge sequence was pretty awesome, worth sitting through the sort of schlock the first 3/4 brought....lots of fun to watch with a big, enthusiastic audience.

TIFF 2009 - Day 3

2009-09-13T22:44:00.003-04:00

2 super strange films today....didn't dislike them, but not too sure how I felt....

5. House of Branching Love - a Finnish film about a couple who have decided to divorce amicably and stay in the same house, she takes the top floor, he takes the bottom. They are of course under the misapprehension that they will get along splendidly as a divorced couple under the same roof...and soon find themselves bringing home a new partner each with the intention to make the other other jealous. There is a subplot of a prostitute accused of killing her friend and stealing $80,000 who is able to capitalize on the husband need of a beautiful woman to make his ex-wife jealous and becomes his paid companion to hide from the mobsters looking to collect. A strange comedy that is funny throughout but takes too long to get to the end, unfortunately. Many unneeded supporting characters, and a strange coincidence of a mother who abandoned her daughter 30 years ago who resurfaces just in the nick of time.

6. Last Days of Emma Blank - a Dutch film that was really and truly f'ed up...so strange. Basically this woman, Emma Blank, is dying of an unknown disease. We meet her as the madam in a large house with a small staff of butler, maid, cook, groundskeeper and a man acting like a dog...yep, you read that right, a man acting like a dog! We come to realize that everyone's role in the house is not a 'job' but a part in an elaborate ruse demanded by the lady of the house to fulfill her last wishes to be treated with respect in her home. Everyone play their parts admiringly well....particularly the man as a dog. Its soon uncovered how everyone is related to one another, and we are given undertones of incest, hatred, betrayal, adultery, and just plain lunacy. The film has moments of outrageous comedy but it becomes very macabre. Very strange, very original but wholly unsatisfying.

Tomorrow, its the day I get to see RICKY GERVAIS LIVE and IN THE FLESH!!!!!

TIFF 2009 - Day Two

2009-09-12T21:54:00.002-04:00

It happened...I saw the movie...you know, that movie that will stay with me...year after year, one I'll always remember...my new Dirty Pretty Things, In America, Gone Baby Gone....the movie is The Secret in Their Eyes...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

The first movie I saw today was the Informant! Ya, its as fun as the commercials make it out to be. You pretty much laugh from beginning to end at the absurdity of it all. Matt Damon plays the buffoon really well, with just the right mix of stupidity, innocence and secrets. Its simply a movie about a high-level executive at a Corn Processing Company (#44 in the Fortune 500) who stumbles into being an Informant on price fixing. Everything isn't as simple as you first think and it has plenty of twists, turns, lies and ridiculosity....I highly recommend.

And my second film, The Secret in Their Eyes an Argentinean film that's a throw back to the great movies of old. All the perfect elements are there; thriller, intrigue, romance, tragedy, political drama, great friendship and comedy. The film is set in two times, the late 90s and the mid 70s. The lead Benjamin Esposito, played by the friggin INCREDIBLE actor Ricardo Darin, is a law clerk haunted by a case from his past. He worked a case where a woman was murdered and many obstacles stand in his way as he tries to solve and close the case. All the right foreshadowing is there, you see something, put it to the back of your mind, and use it when the time is right. You're right there with Benjamin, figuring out the pieces of the puzzle, all the while experiencing the love, friendship and loss along with him. I can't begin to write how the movie will make you feel or how the solutions all cause you to question the actors choices....because the film is so powerfully and perfectly acted, exceptionally written, and superbly directed, you really need to see it for yourself. An outstanding A+. How will any other movie compare?!

Film Fest 2009 - Day 1

2009-09-11T23:28:00.002-04:00

You know when someone does something that for them its nothing special, but for you is the MOST AWESOME THING EVER!?! That happened to me this week. My number one celebrity du jour, Mr. Ricky Gervais, is showing a film at TIFF - The Invention of Lying. I tried to get tickets to the films opening night, but alas they were just out of reach. This guy that I work with, let's call him Rosie, his wife works for the festival and we made a pact that I would be nice to him for one month if his wife got me tickets. Well...he walked up to my desk on Thursday morning and very non-chalantly handed me THE TICKETS TO THE MOVIE!!!!!! I swear, I jumped up and a scream was about to come out of my mouth when he shushed me. Then I leaned over to hug him and he pushed me and said, "no public displays of affection", with no outlet it was very difficult to control my emotions....I sat down with my hand over my eyes trying to stop myself from crying! And now...I get to see Ricky Gervais....on stage....Monday night! I may actually bring a camera.

And on to the movies.

1. V.O.S. - a Spanish romantic comedy that was very confusing...a movie within a movie about a couple and 2 friends, a baby and an affair....forgettable but ok

2. Backyard - Its very difficult to express how this movie made me feel....it was tremendously upsetting, heart wrenching, thought-provoking, powerful and horrifying. Its a Mexican docudrama about the terrifying events that continue in Juárez, Mexico. You know, how woman are being murdered on a weekly basis and no one is doing ANYTHING ABOUT IT!?!? Well, the film captured the frustration and corruption of the police force. The demoralization of small town men and women looking for their fortune. The dignity of the woman who work the victims and survivors of abuse or kidnapping or near death experiences. Of course we're offered no answers, as there are no answers, but the story is told in a completely engaging way. Big, big recommendation....but its not a happy story, believe me. It stars Ana de la Reguera, last seen in, of all things, Nacho Libre, as a cop doing everything in her power to help the women of Juarez, and she's magnificent.

Its That Time of Year Again - Film Fest 2009!

2009-09-06T21:07:00.002-04:00

Film fest is upon me, I think I have a great selection this year, 21 films...might try and rush another 1 or 2. Starts this Thursday, so to prepare myself for my very favourite event of the year I thought I'd reflect on my all time favourite TIFF films and moments:

Films:
1. Love Actually - I saw this film before it was released to the general public in a super packed theatre with over 1000 people. Everyone got these commemorative booklets that look like a pink wrapped presents that outlines all the characters in the film. Everyone laughed, clapped, the energy and love the movie was stupendous...and of course it was a huge hit the minute it came out in general release

2. Crash - seeing Crash before it was even picked up for distribution, I remember the entire audience was sitting breathless, silent. We collectively gasped in horror, sighed and nearly everyone CRIED in RELIEF after that very powerful scene with the little girl and her invisible cloak...what an amazing experience.

3. Lost in Translation - I remember showing up kind of cranky that I had to see Lost in Translation. I would not have chosen it for myself, it came in a set package, and I thought it was going to be stupid. I had no idea that anyone could make a city like Tokyo with all its fluorescent and neon billboards so beautiful. Such a moving, powerful film

4. Sympathy for Lady Vengeance - The movie started violently, I couldn't watch it, I actually stood up to leave because it was so horrifying, but something told me to wait it out, to sit through the opening...man oh man am I glad I did because I witnessed one of the most gruesome revenge tales ever made into film and it was magnificent

5. Pans Labyrinth - What can one even say about Pans Labyrinth? Guillermo Del Toro came out to introduce the film, he was humorous and apologized for making Hellboy (which he then followed with a sequel, what gives?) The lights dimmed and the entire audience was transported to the strange and beautiful fairytale world of Ofelia, dark, haunting and one of the best movies of all time

6. The Sea Inside - A tour de force performance by Javier Bardem. I didn't know who he was at the time, he came out, waved, we all politely clapped. The film is about a Spanish quadriplegic man who fights for the right to commit suicide, but needs the help of friends and family to do it. I went with a friend and when we left she asked if we could take the subway home silently because she needed to digest the magnificent film we just watched

7. Walk the Line - Another gem that I didn't know would turn out the way that it did. Who knew Joaquin Phoenix could create his own persona of Johnny Cash, one that is both dangerous and innocent. Seeing that on screen with no preconceptions was such a great experience

8. The Green Butchers - The Green Butchers was the first film that introduced both Mads Mikkelson to me and my apparent love for Danish cinema. A crazy black comedy about a butcher who creates a special sauce to serve with his meat which takes his town by storm. But is it the sauce or something more sinister that keeps bringing people back to his shop?

9. El Bonaerense - another film that introduced me to my love a certain type of film, this time it was South American film and their neo-realistic style. The director, Pablo Trapero makes films in a documentary style, using many 'real' people in his films without the use of sets or beautiful lighting. El Bonarense is raw and hard to watch, an 'expose' of the police force in Argentina. I remember the colours of the film and how hard it was to look away. I also remember the film burning at the end of the screening and everyone frantically getting up trying to save the print!

10. State and Main - not that good a film, but it doesn't matter, it was my first real film festival movie. First time I saw a movie in a glorious old theatre in Toronto, first time I saw all the actors come out on stage (Sarah Jessica Parker was too shy to talk, kept shaking her head no when she was passed the microphone), first time I felt the film fests' energy which convinced me to be to be a part of it every year. Amazing experience.

Moments:
-Taking my friend Debbie to see Corpse Bride when Johnny Depp came out to surprise, shock and pretty much knock the audience into hysterics. I've never heard screaming like that before or since, amazing.

-Walking down the street after seeing Slumdog Millionaire and seeing Danny Boyle (the director) walking back to the theatre with a smug look on his face....he knew we loved it

-Keanu Reeves walking into the audience after being introduced at Thumbsucker, not realizing he didn't need to go into the audience (the rest of his cast members just walked off stage) and everyone yelling, 'sit here, sit here', ya, he's going to sit next to you and marry you sweetheart

-Ewan McGregor yelling a joke while standing off at the gala screening of his Woody Allen film, then him skipping out on stage with this HUGE, GENUINE smile on his face

-James McAvoy, on stage, in a suit with no tie, waving, oh so beautiful

-Seeing Joshua Jackson in my row at one of the worst screenings of my life, trying to hide him from my friends who were very embarrassing around celebrities. Luckily they didn't do anything, just sat there silently with frequent, quick glances thrown at his direction for the rest of the film

-The first few years of film fest where they showed silent films with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra playing along....Nosferatu....what an experience

-Seeing films in the old Uptown Theatre, a real classic cinema with a huge stage....people loved to sit in the front row so they could put their feet up without wrenching their necks, the line always went all the way around the block, but we always managed to fit

-seeing the film Fat Girl, an extremely controversial films that was banned in Ontario after the festival, and really not getting why people insisted on banning it....yes teenage sexuality....ok, what's the big deal about that?

-And of course, I need to name the 3 WORST films I've ever seen at the festival
1. Eros - 4 directors speaking on love....I think....made no sense, terrible, brutally bad, but I was FORCED to stay for the whole thing....UGH
2. The Saddest Music in the World - Canadian, nonsensical, loud, horrible, walked out
3. The Lady and the Duke - the film is described as using "digital imaging to recreate Paris throughout the film"....DIGITAL IMAGING, ya right, more like PAINTED BACKDROPS that looked RIDICULOUS! Painful, just the most painful, unbelievably boring and stupid film...made by a quote 'master' of cinema...please

Just 4 more days to go and the madness begins....can't wait!

Ode to a Wonderful Man

2009-07-06T01:52:00.002-04:00

My wonderful, very special stepfather passed away over a week ago. He came into my life when I was 3 years old after my mother and father divorced. Mark was a young, Polish guy from Montreal, a McGill graduate in Electrical Engineering. He loved music and traveling and great food. He helped shape the person I am today.

One of my favourite memories of Mark was when my friend Joey came over for lunch one day when I was about 11 or 12. We came in and my stepfather, who wasn't used to me having boys over, was in the kitchen. He heard us come in and came to meet us at the front door with a huge knife and knife sharpener in his hand. He made sure to make a big show of sharpening the knife as he welcomed Joey to our home and of course scared the living daylights out of him. Seeing a rather large, 6' 1'' man coming at you while sharpening a knife would do that to a person, and Joey proceeded to wolf down his sandwich at the front door and ran out after he swallowed.

Mark had the biggest heart of anyone I've ever known and never had an unkind thing to say about anyone. He had a huge circle of friends, these great people from all walks of life who came over to our house most every weekend when I was growing up. My mother and stepfather were very social and loved having a good time. If we weren't throwing a bash, like the infamous tacky party where 1 person came dressed in a wedding dress, or the lampshade party, where you guessed it people showed up wearing lampshades, or the huge Hallowe'en party where both the Pope and a giant tomato were in attendance, they were going to a party with our house as the meeting place. Apparently if you came into our house on a party night the frozen vodka was brought out for a mandatory shot.

Mark had the biggest collection of records of any parent I knew and had these huge homemade speakers that were quite the eyesore but man could they blast the tunes. He had Pink Floyd, Led Zepplin, the Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, WHAM, Peter Gabriel and pretty much every Beatles record. We had a huge collection of MIX Tapes that had every new song that came out in the 80s. Every birthday my mother and stepfather played Stevie Wonder's "Happy Birthday Baby" for me when I came downstairs for breakfast. We were the first people to have a CD player, I had the honour of having my own CD, the Pet Shop Boys 'Actually', that I was allowed to remove from its fancy CD case (hey that was a big deal in the late 80s). He was the best, craziest dancer who liked to dance on one leg, almost like the Elaine without the thumbs, and did a mean air guitar.

Mark introduced me to Chinese, Thai, Polish, Greek and most other different cuisines out there. He was the best cook, he didn't really cook veggies, but made a mean chicken, cabbage rolls, breaded pork chops, potato pancakes, among others. Mark taught me the little tricks of preparing the basics; I know now that when you cook a chicken you need to salt up the inside of the cavity after washing it. I know that scrambled eyes are extra delicious with onion and paprika, and served with potatoes that are fried and spiced similarly. I know that rye bread is the king of breads and when fresh you don't need to get it sliced, just rip off the crusty end and consume it in the car on the way home.

Every Easter growing up Mark, my mother and I would drive to Montreal. We'd go to Schwartz's deli (where I ate Frankfraters not smoked meat sandwiches, I'm so ashamed) and Bar-b-barns for rips and chicken. I'd help out at a family friend's corner store working the cash register. March break took us to Miami beach, to a house right on the ocean across from Gloria Estefan's home. Summer vacation we'd drive to Nova Scotia, South Carolina, Cape Cod, New York. My mother and Mark's honeymoon was spent traveling Europe; England, Italy and France, along with Poland and the Berlin Wall. These trips gave me the travel bug, made me want to see the world and experience different people, cultures and see all the great things of the world. Mark also passed on his love of Art, he especially loved Monet and Renoir. Our house had all these amazing paintings he collected over the years and I've made sure to see the great works of Art throughout my travels. He opened my eyes to the finer things in life, which I may not be able to afford but I still try to experience whenever I get the chance.

Mark was so full of life, he wanted to experience everything and was always up for something new. He was an outdoorsman, a photographer, computer repairman, classical music lover, art critic, traveler, manic driver, risk taker, animal lover and the worlds best hugger. He was one of a kind and one of the best people I've ever known. I will miss him dearly and thank him for loving me for being me and for being the kindest person I've ever known.

Friday June 19 - one strange evening

2009-06-21T21:36:00.002-04:00

I just experienced one of the strangest nights.

Friday June 19th was going to be an ordinary Friday. I had plans that were ruined by a common misunderstanding, so I fell into some events around the city with my work BFF Sarah. We went out for dinner while I waited to hear from the friend I originally had plans with. By 8 it was clear I wouldn't get a call on my cell or an email about my original plans so Sarah and I decided to go have a quick drink at the Horseshoe on our way home. The Horseshoe is a Toronto institution, a bar where the Rolling Stones practice or play every time they are in the city. We have the North by Northeast Festival (NXNE) going on in the city, so going and having a drink at the Horseshoe meant we got to hear some free, kickass music.

We sat at the bar, ordered our drinks, the music was pretty good. There was this gentleman who was alone and sitting next to Sarah on a bar stool. She found him a bit fetching but since we were planning on a short night she didn't plan on speaking to him. Of course it was a night where plans were going awry. Out of nowhere this sketchy man with a missing tooth squeezed in between Sarah and the man sitting alone. Toothless man had a bit of a belly that Sarah resisted the urge to rub (with my insistence) but his presence got Sarah and the lone man to catch one another's eye and of course start speaking. His name is Collin and he is in town from Philadelphia, staying at this TERRIBLE hotel above a jazz bar. We ended up talking and hearing a couple more bands. Then we thought hey, now that we're both planless let's show him around the neighbourhood a bit.

When the 3 of us left the Horseshoe we wandered down Queen Street, which is total madness this weekend! The Much Music Video Awards are on this Sunday and the streets are all narrowed with huge stages everywhere. As well with NXNE the sidewalks are filled with concert goers and their badges making their way from venue to venue. As we walked towards University Ave we ran into this 6 piece Mariachi band all dressed in their Mariachi out fits carrying guitars, I honestly thought they were going to serenade us (which would have been REALLY cool) but the unusual site of them walking along was still a bit of a shock. I lean into Collin and say, ya that's not a normal site in Toronto....just in case you were wondering.

We made our way to Sarah and my place of employment to pick up a couple of things before we went home. Got our things taken care of and went out the back way onto this small street lined with clubs. These 2 scraggly looking fellows walk towards us with this beautiful beagle. Sarah has a weakness for dogs and goes over to pet him and I notice one of the men has something on his arm....and IGUANA! I go, ummm Sarah, he has a lizard too! "Oh wow, cool". And the lizard owner goes, you want to see some more? Ummm no, we don't, please god, where are your other reptiles? The man gets his backpack, opens it and starts taking out some small reptiles. Horrible, we're honestly horrified, Sarah goes "bud, is that really a good idea, carrying your reptiles around like that?" And of course they say yes, the reptiles are their bread and butter, and ask us for money. I turn again to Collin and say "honestly, I have NEVER seen anything like this before!"

I don't know if its all the events going on in the city, the impending summer, or what, but what a strange night....and I just wanted to see Spinnerette at the Mod Club! Of course it was a blast but still really strange.

Things I Learned from Rich People - a Day at the Auction

2009-06-14T17:27:00.003-04:00

Went to an Auction at the Windsor Arms today...a very che che hotel in Toronto. It was a Jewelry auction comprised of antique and super expensive pieces, my friend Shirley had her eye on a couple of reasonably priced items and we ended up spending the better part of the day at the Auction and wandering around its neighbourhood, which is filled with the elite...well rich, snobby 'elite'. Here's what I learned:

1. If you are a chubby, rich, white man in your 40s or 50s you can commandeer a chair meant for an elderly person because you are clearly the most important person alive

2. If you're rich you can wear the same zebra print Manolo Blahnik shoes that Carrie wore in to a jewelry auction in the Sex and the City movie to a jewelry auction

3. If you're rich you can bump into and shove a pregnant woman, my friend no less, just because you have a Chanel purse

4. If you're rich and free hors d'oeuvres are served at a function you should make sure and take about 5-6 per tray, as you might starve waiting for the 8 hour auction to end

5. If you're rich you can talk really loudly into your phone so everyone around can hear what you're saying, and you can say some disgusting things like "Well its your fault for marrying into that race! You shouldn't be surprised...."

6. If you're rich you can have so much work done on your body; bad-ass extensions, collagen lips, breast implants, fake dark brown skin, that you don't have to suffer your real looks...and because you're rich no one will tell you how fake and bad you look!

7. If you're rich you can go to an auction at a che che hotel wearing flip flops and low rise jeans, or a mis-matched outfit that no self-respecting person would ever be caught wearing, and have frizzy, out of control hair, because when you're rich, who the hell cares what you look like, you're going to spend 100s of 1000s of dollars at an event, people are lucky you even left the house!

8. If you're rich make sure to bring a tightly clad, over jeweled. much younger woman with you to an auction. You'll be able to buy her many new jewels to cover any horribly exposed flesh she may have. Also make sure to keep bidding on an item as the cost goes higher and higher, its only worth it if you spend 100s of 1000s of dollars

Music Makes the Movie

2009-05-24T16:24:00.004-04:00

I just watched Pretty in Pink and every time I see Duckie dance to Otis Redding I think not only of how much I love the song, and the scene, but how the perfect song really does make the movie.

And with that, here is the blog post, top 15 songs and scenes from non-Musical movies! Of course if I was doing musicals I'd have to include Your Song from Moulin Rouge, any song from Romeo and Juliet, Grease, Saturday Night Fever, the Blues Brothers and Footloose. But since this is just scenes that are built with a specific song, I figure I'd leave musicals out. Some honourable mentions include Shout - Animal House, Johnny Be Goode from Back to the Future, Needle in the Hay and Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard from Royal Tenenbaums. I'm trying to keep most of the best dance sequences from a movie out of this post honestly, they need to be in their own post.

15.White Lines - Shaun of the Dead
I know, you weren't expecting Shaun of the Dead, but this song is just so brilliant in the movie, for the short time its on, and I love it, call me crazy...(this is just the beginning of the scene and some mash-ups, can't find the full scene anywhere!)
Shaun of The Dead -White Lines

14. Lust for Life - Trainspotting
Lust for Life defines the film

13. Say A Little Prayer - My Best Friend's Wedding
Ok, this isn't that great a movie, but come on, if you hear this song on the radio, what's the first thing that comes to mind?

14. You Sexy Thing - the Full Monty
This song makes the movie...fantastic

13. Babysitting Blues - Adventures in Babysitting
Oh dear, you can't get out of hear without singing the blues....and bringing the house down while you're at it!

12. Stuck in the Middle with You - Resevoir Dogs
Warning, disgusting footage, but this scene is so unbearable you need some kind of music to ease the pain. And now you hear Steelers Wheel and all you can think is, do we actually SEE the ear being cut off? I SWEAR I did....

11. Mirror in the Bathroom - Gross Pointe Blank
My favourite song, and one of my all time fav. movie scenes. John Cusack as a bad ass, love it!

8. Sweet Caroline, Beautiful Girls
Come on, you go to a bar, Neil Diamond comes on, you sing, end of story. They put it in a movie and you're like, hey, that's just like me!

7. Ain't Too Proud to Beg - The Big Chill
I've always loved this scene, friends hanging out, cleaning the kitchen, Kevin Kline as the perfect husband dancing his wife around.

6. My Sharona - Reality Bites
Ummm, the gas station scene defined the 90s. And now I know how to dance perfectly to this song, thank you Janeane Garofalo
Reality Bites - My Sharona

5. Please Please Please Let Me - Ferris Bueller's Day Off
I know everyone else's fav scene is Twist and Shout, but this haunting song with amazing art work...its always been my fav. Especially when poor Cameron is starring at the George Seurat painting and see's himself reflecting back at him as the boy.

via videosift.com

4. A Quick One While He's Away - Rushmore
I've posted this video before, and I may again, great song, great movie, GREAT scene

3. Try a Little Tenderness - Pretty in Pink
As mentioned above, quite possibly my love for funk and soul originated in seeing this seen in the movie theatre when I was a tween...I can't confirm it, but every time I see Duckie slide in Trax record store, I get ready to sing along.

2. Tiny Dancer - Almost Famous
Another great sing along song, being sung by the beautiful people, with Stillwater making up after a terrible fight. Elton in the 70s cures what ails you.

1. In Your Eyes - Say Anything --And of course, is there a better moment is a film, maybe ever? When John Cusack holds the boom box over his head, declaring his love to weird mouthed Ione Skye, every woman's heart pounds a little faster, and from that moment on, whenever you hear it you go back to that scene and can see it perfectly....
Say Anything

Heroes

2009-05-06T22:23:00.003-04:00

You know, in today's world there are a lot of numbskull's out there....lots of people you wonder what are they doing on the news, in magazines, singing, acting....lots of famous people who are famous for no reason. It seems to be getting more and more difficult to find real Heroes amongst all the fluff. Last night I was fortunate enough to see a documentary about 5 of the most amazing people out there.

The documentary is called "Rough Aunties" and its about these 5 ordinary women who are fighting against Child Abuse in South Africa. They all work for this organization Bobbi Bear...and honestly how they can get through the day and still be able to smile is beyond me. They deal with the very worst people in the universe, they experience things you can't even imagine someone would do to another human being, never mind a child.

Bobbi Bear was founded by Jackie Branfield. Jackie is this tough, feisty woman who tells women that they fought against Apartheid for her and their freedom South Africa and now they need to fight for their children and their right to live without fear. She has adopted many children, all colours and nationalities, because she has so much love to give....so many people need her help and she opens her heart to every one of them. She is friggin the greatest person ever....and she keeps fighting for children, her colleagues and South African women.

The other 4 women are all amazing in their own right too, they are surrounded by horror, they experience these terrible things in their own life, and yet they prevail. They go back to work after a child dies. They bring clean sheets from home to put on their son's hospital bed. They run after scary, disgusting men in sugar cane fields and tackle them to bring them to justice. And the film only documents 10 weeks in these women's life.

I gotta tell you, I wasn't looking for a Hero, I didn't think I needed one, but when your shown 5 women that have such spirit, guts, heart...you can't help but realize you not only need people you can look up to, you need to try and be heroic in your own life every day. You need to be kind to people and be there for your friends, not just in bad times but bloody well in good times too. Just taking care of people in your life is a step in the right direction. I wish I had the will to go to South Africa, live in terror, bring pigs to justice...I don't know if I have the strength, but I do have the strength to give my love to the people in my life...and maybe that's not life changing, but its something.....

Ok, maybe I'll donate some money to Bobbi Bear too....and stop complaining about how things suck when I have a bad day at work....that would be a step in the right direction too.

Ladyhawk(e)

2009-04-25T11:14:00.007-04:00

I had a disastrous concert experience this week...it was the first time anything like this has ever happened to me!

It all started with a fabulously busy past few weeks, returned from Australia and New Zealand, many fun things on my plate. Got to see Spring Awakening in Toronto, I love you Moritz! Then Seinfeld at Massey Hall, you've still got it Jerry but honestly the opener at the show, Tom Papa, was so friggin hilarious I thought my poor friend Aimee was going to have an aneurysm from laughing so hard! And then the amazingly awesome Flight of the Conchords, also at Massey Hall, Jemaine you can dance for me any day.

So obviously I was pretty happy with the choices I made to keep myself entertained. And luckily I have friends who are always up for checking out new and interesting things around the city. So when I told my friend K that I wanted to check out Ladyhawk at the Horseshoe, she was all over it and made sure to run out and get tickets for us. I was a little worried we waited too long to get our tickets because Ladyhawke is a pretty big singer right now in Europe. But K succeeded and we made plans to meet at the Horseshoe an hour before Ladyhawk's set was to begin.

I hadn't seen K for a while so it was nice to catch up, tell her all about my amazingly awesome trip, we didn't really notice the crowd or the opening act as we really wanted to take the hour to hang out before we put on our dancing shoes. Then at about 10:45pm the excitement started to build, I looked around and realized that it was a kind of grungy crowd, lots of plaid and bearded men...almost like the Bishop Allen crowd but a bit more 1990 Seattle if you know what I mean. Then 11pm comes, the band takes the stage, and I notice the singer with the long blond hair and I go "there she is, Ladyhawke!" And K goes, "ummm, that's a man"....hmmm, this is perplexing, Ladyhawke was set to come out at 11? Who is the strange band that looks like early Pearl Jam who haven't showered in a couple of weeks....why has the crowd all pushed up towards the stage as though this is the main act? Am I missing something?

K and I look at each other, she hopefully says "maybe the show is running late and this is the 2nd band...maybe Ladyhawke is coming out at midnight." I say, "maybe...but it's like people are behaving as though this is the main act...I don't get it." Then someone yells out "YA, LADYHAWK!" Even though this should have been the nail in the coffin, proving that this is the band we paid to see, I can't quite believe it, how can there be 2 Ladyhawk's? How can this grungy, Canadian, alt-rock-country band be the main act tonight? We kind of wait it out for a while, hoping the band would introduce themselves either proving or disproving who they really are....it never happens. And the music...oh the music, I did not enjoy AT ALL. But I try to hold out hope, hope that we are wrong, that this grungy band is opening for the fabulously dancey Ladyhawke.

Then K and I make the connection that I think you've already made, and we both made in the back of our minds when we got the tickets....this Ladyhawk has no 'E' on the end of their name....neither do our tickets, neither does the chalk board sign out front. Yet, the Ladyhawke we wanted to see, she's has an 'E' ending her name...but we searched online for her, and typing in Ladyhawk always brought her music up...is this some kind of cosmic joke?

We leave the show early, knowing in our hearts that this is the Ladyhawk everyone else came to see, everyone but us. When I got home I went onto youtube to prove to myself that Ladyhawk with no 'E' is an Alt-Rock-Country band from Vancouver, and lo and behold there they are, clips of their many shows from the Horseshoe over the past couple of years...Ladyhawk....with no 'E'

I don't know how I'm ever going to trust a show announcement again, I'll need to investigate the artist and venue and music clips to make sure whom I want to see is actually the act performing the night I expect....If there is another Franz Ferdinand (other then the famous archduke that started World War I of course) they had better not be playing the Kool Haus on May 4th or I think I'm going to lose it!

NZ Highlights

2009-04-13T20:58:00.009-04:00

1. Like Sydney, Auckland has many vibrant suburbs. Each has its own unique identity. There are tons of small Mountains in Auckland and many suburbs are built under them, Mt. Eden, Mt. Wellington. And many suburbs are built around beaches, St. Heliers Bay, Mission Bay. Some are just beautiful little cities, like Parnell. And others you get to by Ferry (or Bridge), like the sublimely wonderful Devonport.
Mission BayParnell

2. Devonport is this amazing little part of Auckland that brings a little bit of Europe to New Zealand. Lots of old hotels and homes line the main strip. Devonport has its own Mountain right in the centre of the burb. Going to Devonport feels like going back in time to a nicer place where people still smile. I can imagine myself retiring there, honestly its just that nice.

3. Passionfruit cupcakes...friggin AMAZZING....nuff said

4. New Zealand beer, holy cow, smooth and delicious. Monteith’s Golden Lager...that's some good stuff
5. Downtown Auckland has really interesting sidestreets, their wide and open for pedestrians only. They have restaurants, shopping, palm trees, fountains and benches, perfect for wandering around in blue skies.

6. The sun is hotter in NZ, 20C isn't really hot, but I could feel my face kind of sizzling when I walked around....
7. New Zealand is just nature's paradise, craters, 600 year old islands, volcano's, their own kind of xmas tree. No wonder they have such strict quarantine...they want to maintain their pristine beauty

8. Red Snapper Fish and Chips...none of that Cod business, I'm talking juicy, full bodied, tasty snapper in a thick, crispy batter...are you hungry yet?
9. And of course, most importantly, my very best friend in the WHOLE WORLD lives in New Zealand with his splendorous wife and beautiful son. I got to spend 5 whole days with him wandering the city, eating goodies and taking in the cities very unique beauty

OZ Highlights

2009-04-13T20:01:00.017-04:00

1. I got to meet my cousins for the very first time. My father's sister has 2 children, 1 who is a year younger than me, the other in her early 20s. My older cousin, Jo, opened her home to me for my entire Sydney stay. Jo and her husband Aaron were wonderful hosts who drove me around to all the little suburbs, to Hunter Valley, and everywhere they could think of that I needed to see. Aaron made these wonderful cappuccinos every morning we were together and I was treated like royalty. We got along splendidly and thanks to them I had the best trip. And Renee, the younger sister, came along happily to V-Fest with me, and we had a great time. She liked the Kaiser Chiefs! Honestly, how could you not?

2. I got to spend time with my beloved cousin John. He showed me the artist's view of Sydney, including this amazing exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art by Yayoi Kusama , an artist obsessed with dots.

3. Bondi Beach - lots of surfers all over, not a happening place in Fall, which is nice. Bondi is REALLY close to downtown, on the subway line, can you believe it?

4. V-Fest - concert in Centennial Park, starring Louis XIV, who rocked; Elbow, who were fantastically melodic; the Kaiser Chiefs, who ROCKED MY WORLD; the Killers, who surprisingly were fantastic, really, utterly fantastic; AND Madness who had the joint jumping!

5. The suburbs of Sydney are not like their American counter parts. They are vibrant, filled with cafes, cool shops, open air restaurants. Leichhardt, Parramatta, Paddington and Newtown
Paddington Market

6. Wine in Australia is bloody awesome! Took a trip to one of their valleys, called the Hunter Valley, went to 5 wineries, ALL of which gave free samples. And the sommelier at Tyrrell's is one hot Australian, who flirts like nobodies business. And the Australian white wine Verdelho is smooth and delicious
7. The architecture in Sydney is really unique, its like a combination of LA, Miami and London. Many houses have red stucco roofs, there are lots of trees everywhere, lots of purple flowered ones! And palm trees line the streets

8. The Rocks, the old part of Sydney, is really cool. The Rocks were founded in the late 1700s, so there are old buildings, winding alleys, pubs, cobblestone streets and the harbour bridge

9. The fish in Sydney is sublime. Barrimundi, Octopus, Prawns and Morton Bay bugs....wait, did you say BUGS? Yep, they're huge, and weird, but taste a lot like lobster

10. The big phrase that everyone says is 'Far Out', yep, you heard me, FAR OUT. That's the typical response to something exciting, interesting, new, different, etc.
11. The Royal Botanical Garden has trees filled with Bats, yes BATS! 100s of them, all hanging upside down in the trees, making these high pitched squeals as they slept. I did NOT enjoy, but I took some quick photos as I ran beneath them

12. The Bridge and Opera house are pretty awesome to see up close, and from the mainly angles you see them at....from the water, from Circular Key, from the North Shore at night. Just seeing them together makes you think, OH MY GOD, I'm on the other side of the world, in wicked awesome SYDNEY!

13. Melbourne can really not be seen in just 2 days. There have the old style trams running on the streets, they have cool pubs/bars with no names found in small alleyways, their sidestreets are filled with open air cafes and restaurants. They have shopping arcades like you find in London. And I really can't wait to go back to explore some more!

So all in all, the 2 biggest cities in OZ are really awesome. The weather was perfect, sun shining, warm fall weather. A country that prizes their cafes as much as OZ does will always hold a special place in my heart. I love Australia, every inch of Sydney, and I dream of what I missed in Melbourne. A trip that forced me to travel on 7 planes was totally worth it.

Australia - Day 1

2009-04-13T06:42:00.002-04:00

I wrote this post right when I arrived in Australia with my first impressions. Its about 3 weeks old, but I thought I'd post it as I didn't really have the internet while I was away. But tonight I'll write the BIG post hopefully telling you about everything I did!

Australia, Day 1 - the Journey

Wow, does it ever take a LOOONG time to get to Australia. Its quite daunting actually when you start thinking about the flight before you board. I went through Abu Dhabi so the first leg of my journey was 12 hours long. It was a good flight, nice attendants, I spoke with 1 about world literature, her favourite authors, she gave me lots of recommendations. Another heard me coughing and insisted that I drink hot water with honey and lemon. I sat in one of those pods, where the whole seat moved forwards and backwards, and I had my legs out in front of me. I stored my belongings in my own cubby, I didn't have a person sitting next to me, my chair massaged me. I had constant service, lots of Earl Grey teas, very comfortable, very nice, excellent food. It was quiet with a few rough turbulance patches.

Then I arrived in the Abu Dhabi airport. To be honest I was expecting something pretty spectacular, with everything you hear about the UAE and all. I guess Dubai is the one with all the flash. It was small, they still have the buses that pick you up from the plane and take you to the airport. The shopping wasn't that impressive, it was like La Guardia, you know a simple commutor airport. Because I was transferring I had to make my way to the other side of the airport, through gruff security that didn't really check anything. We weren't actually allowed to sit in our Gate's 'lounge' right away, which was the oddest thing. Maybe it was because I landed around 8am in the morning and they were still cleaning, maybe it was because they wanted extra security to check your ticket before you were allowed into the seating area, it was honestly the strangest thing. There were little smoking pods throughout the airport little 'sealed' clear rooms that people kept opening the doors too and jamming themselves inside, causing the rest of us to breathe in the smoke constantly. Strange experience which I hope I don't need to repeat for too long on the way back.

The flight to Sydney was very annoying. I saved up my sleeping for the 2nd leg of the journey but of course I was kicked into economy class, very sad. I walked to my seat and there was this baby sitting in my seat and all I could think was OH NO! The mother was telling me she was a really good flyer, but you know you never believe them. Luckily? a flight attendent came up and said once the plane was completely boarded I could move to another seat, I felt bad, but not too bad and moved. I sat in a 4 seater row, with an empty seat between me and this boy with a broken arm. He proceeded to be the world's most annoying seat companion in history! He laid down over the two seats, his head in his mother's lap, his feet periodically under my legs which he wiggled every once and a while. The flight attendents constantly needing to wake him to get his seat belt on him, or to get him to sit up. The other side of me was this other winner, a guy with a sinus infection who weezed and laughed loudly while watching his entertainment system. When he finally shut up and went to sleep he snored so loudly I think he kept shaking my seat. And in front of me was this elderly couple who kept calling the flight attendents over to ask for things throughout the flight, no one really able to understand what hte other was saying so it was super annoying, I felt the flight attendents really earned their pay on my flight, I couldn't have done their job with as much patience. And the baby? Guess who was a little angel the entire flight? Ya, nice.

Sydney!
I landed at about 7:30am Sydney time. My customs officer was like the nicest ever! How that's possible I have no idea. My beautiful cousins, Joanne and Renee, waited on the other side of the gate. I think we were all a bit nervous we wouldn't recognize each other since we've never met, but we did! Joanne is around my age and she's married to this really awesome guy, Aaron. Renee is the young one, early 20s, still in school, lots of life and really cool. She and I are going to the big V-Fest on Saturday to see the KAISER CHIEFS. I love the houses here, when we drove to Joanne's place from the airport we took more of a scenic route. It feels a bit Californian, thatched roofs, iron decorative bars on windows. Lots of palm trees and other trees lining the streets. Just beautiful. I'm staying in this suburb of Sydney which is very charming. Joanne's flat is in this lovely complex on the 2nd floor. She and Aaron left for work, and my Aunt and Uncle came over. The 4 of us, including Renee, went up the road for lunch. This isn't like an Ontario suburb, just up the road there is this spectacular biscuit factory that has been converted into a shopping and restaurant complex. Its so nice, lots of cobble stone and open air cafes and restaurants. Business people walking around all dressed up in the crazy 31C heat! Man was it hot, and bloody humid! Then took a loooong 4 hour nap, the cousins came back from work, we ate like kings an eggplant pasta, and gabbed all night. Aaron is a wine lover like myself, he loves Australian wine and knows it pretty well, which is AWESOME. We're going to the Hunter Valley on Monday, a big wine region an hour outside of the city, of course I am SUPER EXCITED.

Today I believe we're going to see the famous Bondi Beach, get some shopping in and check out a famous seafood restaurant, hurray! And I'll be seeing my cousin John who'll hopefully join us for drinks on the town tonight!

Camptastic Screen-a-Thon

2009-03-08T16:05:00.005-04:00

I know its been a while, I apologize. I've either been too busy to post or not doing anything interesting enough to write about, I'm not sure which. I've been diligent about my photo blogging, but that's been the extent of my cyberspace activity.

This weekend I came down with the strangest illness, out of no where, caused some havoc, but I'm turning around. Unfortunately I had to go out for the entire day yesterday, even though I wanted to/needed to stay in and get better. I had signed up to participate in a Screen-a-thon, an event where I was sponsored to watch 3 of the most CAMPY, RIDICULOUS movies of all time. Of course I had to go, and the event itself was very enjoyable though I felt pretty terrible during the whole thing.

The Screen-a-Thon was a fundraiser for the InsideOut Film Festival, a Gay and Lesbian film festival that takes place in Toronto in May. My honourary cousin is on the board, asked me to sponsor him and I was like, what, sponsor you, I want to come out and watch! We were sponsored to watch, get ready now these are REALLY CAMPY, Xanadu, Can't Stop the Music and Spice World. I'd never seen any of the films before, bits and pieces of Spice World on TV, but I could never force myself to sit through the entire thing. Our team, the Tarnished Screens, were awarded the biggest fundraisers of the event, we got crowns and everything! (I'll post the pics when they're on the website). And in keeping with the events theme they served grilled cheese sandwiches and ensured lots of alcohol was available to help you get through the films, I really wish I had felt better so I could have participated in the mind dulling, one really needed something.....

Xanadu, for those of you fortunate enough to have never heard of it, is quite a big stinker. I can't fully tell you what its about because it makes no sense at all. Olivia Newton John plays a rollerskating muse who pops into the life of this really annoying, pompous guy who's trying to be an artist. She comes to him to help him fulfill his dream, which one thinks is to become a great artist but it turns out his dream ends up being to open a roller disco with Gene Kelly. Yep, that's the movie. It was RIDICULOUS, horrible hairstyles, lots of rollerskating, no coherent story, but Gene Kelly had a couple of cool dance numbers. The highlight of the movie was when our MC, Fay Slift, came out with Daddy K and the Rhythm Method, a dance troop, and they performed the Xanadu number along with the movie.

Even worse than Xanadu was Can't Stop the Music. I hadn't even HEARD of the film before the event. Man oh man, what a STINKER. Its a film the chronicles one of the most 'important' cheese bands of all time, the Village People, in a fictional context....I think. Yes folks, you read that correctly, the Village People. The movie stars Steve Guttenberg, man was he terrible and he can't dance at ALL, Bruce Jenner, nice hair, I can see why he has so many children who have their own reality TV shows, and Valerie Perrine, known for her role as Lex Luthor's girlfriend in the Superman films. You know how sometimes camp can be fun...like Grease, Grease isn't the most brilliant films, it has some good acting but its a film that's all campy-goodness and so fun, well Can't Stop the Music isn't fun, at all, not one bit. Why does the dude dress in an Indian costume and run around Greenwich Village? Is the Construction Worker gay or not gay? Why does Valerie stop being a top NY model and start eating anything she wants? Was rollerskating really that popular in the 80s that both Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu put it at the forefront? I don't get it, I hope I never do! But again, we were treated to an excellent live performance of YMCA during the film, which the audience thoroughly enjoyed.

I was a bit disappointed with the audience actually, I think we might have all been a bit stunned because of the horrible films, but no one danced or clapped or really participated while we watched the movies. That's what I went for, to dance in my seat. Sure we all groaned together, and we all clapped loudly for the live entertainment, but that was it really....too bad, we could have kept the boredom away for longer if we banded together!

Before Spice World, oh god Spice World, we were treated to this great collection of clips that illustrated campy behaviour in pop-culture, such as this horrifying clip of Tyra Banks giving Vaseline to her audience, this is the most INSANE CLIP of ALL TIME, warning, warning, she goes totally mental:

and this clip of a poor weatherman who gets a surprise guest while reporting and shows his campy side:

So ya, Spice World...well what can I say, you know what its about, you know how terrible it is, you don't need me to tell you. The dance troop came out in full Spice Girls force during the movie, trying to keep the audience awake I think, and danced three whole numbers for us! They were really enjoyable and thank goodness for them else I don't think we could have standed it!

But you know what, that was the whole point of the fundraising initiative, to raise money for the Inside Out Festival, and for other people to PAY US to sit through these movies, and no matter how painful the films, or how crappy I felt, it was a really good time.

The Lykke Li Show

2009-02-08T22:40:00.004-05:00

If you saw my 2008 best ofs list you already know that I really enjoy the Lykke Li album. Listening to her album I thought she was a touch dancey, but on the mellow end of the spectrum. My stepfather asked that we go out to a concert to celebrate his birthday so I thought, perfect, Lykke Li is here the weekend of his birthday and she's mellow so it will be a nice show for us to take in together. Umm...she's a LOT different live.

The show was at the Phoenix. I thought he'd want to make our way to the balcony to sit throughout the show (which I never do, but thinking she was all mellow I thought sitting might be appropriate), but in full trooper mode he said, let's stand downstairs. We got to the show nice and early, mainly so we could GET seats if he wanted them and were therefore early enough to see the opening act. Normally I skip the opening act because I've seen so many really crap ones (and missed AMAZING ONES without even realizing it, like Cut Copy and the Futureheads!). But the Lykke Li show did not disappoint.

You know when a band starts and you're kind of listening, but not really listening because you don't know their music. The opening act was this Swedish duo called Wildbirds and Peacedrum. They started out mellow, smooth, nothing too jarring. Then all of a sudden these major DRUMS come out of no where. My breath slows, my ears perk up and a smile slowly creeps over my face. Wildbirds and Peacedrum are INCREDIBLE! They're an eclectic mix of mellow and dance, no real melody (as my sf was quick to mention) but they just blow you away with their strange, unique sound. I wasn't the only one drawn in either, the usually wooden Toronto crowd was hooting and clapping and whistling, quite the compliment for an unknown group! I'm not sure they'd translate that well un-live, meaning via mp3, CD, etc...its really the pounding drums, dancing, flashing lights, that makes them so riveting....

When the opening act finished their set I took a look around, seeing which crowd the lovely Lykke brings out. I was a bit surprised actually....lots of woman, which wasn't unexpected, a few lesbian couples, again not unexpected....but there were also many gay men, many wearing white t-shirts with black vests. I thought to myself, that's odd, I didn't realize she had such a large gay following. Well...its because her album played on my ipod or computer really doesn't illustrate how dancey she really is...because she is, very, VERY dancey. And just DAMN AWESOME!!! She kind of resembles, in looks only, a young, bleached Stevie Nicks, in a flowy garb as she saunters across the stage. Her music is a mix of pumping beats, banging drums, electric guitar, synthesizer and toy piano! The audience knew all the words to her songs (some of which I didn't know!), and everyone was jumping and dancing. It was infectious and loads oh fun.

I felt a little bad that I dragged sf to this show of all shows, he loves Rock above all, but he actually enjoyed himself, probably for the same reason I did, because the energy was so high, because she covered Kings of Leon, because her music brought the house down, or maybe its because she rapped (Tribe Called Quest, covering Lou Reed, covered by Lykke Li!)! I don't know, but she is really a must see....if you get your tickets early enough!

P.S. the pic above was taken by my friend Tricia, also in attendance at the show
P.P.S. did everyone see Radiohead on the Grammy's? Wasn't that the BEST PERFORMANCE of ALL TIME!?!

If you don't love Ricky Gervais already....

2009-02-02T21:26:00.004-05:00

I don't know where my love of Ricky Gervais came from. Maybe it was from his stint on the best radio station in the world,
XFM, where he used to be a DJ. I listened every weekend to him and Stephen Merchant with no concept of how huge they both would become. Maybe it was from the first time I ever heard his podcast on ITunes. Maybe it was when I saw a postcard at this great, now closed, bar in Toronto called Cobalt that had a shot of the famous Ricky Gervais dancing on the Office. I'm not sure when it happened, but I know my love for him is eternal.

He is finally reaching the North American masses with his insanely brilliant moments on Awards Shows where he loves to take the piss out of Hollywood. So I thought, with my self proclaimed status as Pop Culture Zombie Extraordinaire, I need to help spread the love for Ricky! Not only do you need to keep looking up his best of moments on youtube, or to become an avid reader of his blog, or subscribe to his outlandish and amazing podcast, you need to read his latest post that he wrote this week.... Maybe you shouldn't drink something when you read it, that would be dangerous:

An open letter to Barack Obama

Dear Mr President,

Firstly, congratulations on your historic win. I have never been so behind a candidate for what must be considered the boss of the world.

You seem to be a man of grace and integrity, who would never shirk responsibility in any way.

I'll get to the point.

As I'm sure you are aware, one of your flock has strayed. A Miss Paris Hilton, who is, I believe, a resident of Beverley Hills, is in England doing a reality game show for ITV2 called Paris Hilton's British Best Friend. Fine. I have no problem with that. I don't have to watch. But now it has come to my attention that she has bought a house in North London a few miles from me, and is out and about ingratiating herself with the Great British public.

Mr President. We are not stupid. This is clearly a retaliatory strike for Posh Spice moving to LA. I know it, and you know it, so let's cut the "it's a free country" nonsense and come to some agreement.

I propose an exchange.

This is how it would work. We call them both and tell them that we've found a giant "paparazzi nest", in New York say. (half way home for both of them already)

At first they may be confused that they'd never heard of such a thing before, but the thought of that many photographers in one place will be irresistible.

Once we get them there, while they are having their photos taken (we will have hire a few guys with cameras to make it look good) we will swap their limos around. It's fool proof.

This is a covert operation of which Mr Gordon Brown knows nothing. (I've got him working on finding a synthetic fur for The Queen's guards' bearskin hats.)

Have your people call my people. They may have to call a few times as my people are useless to be honest.

Thank you,

Ricky Gervais

Flight of the Conchords - Sugar Lumps

2009-01-27T22:28:00.000-05:00

Just when you think they can't get any funnier....they do it, big time....you guys are AWESOME! Jermaine I love you!

Gotta Be Start'in Somethin'

2009-01-24T20:55:00.007-05:00

And she's off, doing a whole bunch of new things this week.

First we have the ISC, Iress Supper Club (Iress is the name of my wonderful place of employment) where 5 of us went out for dinner in an attempt to create a monthly culinary trip around the world, in Toronto. This week we went to Hanoi 3 Seasons , a Vietnamese restaurant in Leslieville, the current hot spot for restos in the city. What a fabulous restaurant. It's decorated in greens and dark wood, with tons of Asian artifacts around the room. We had great service, I believe a member of the family that owns the restaurant came to take care of our table. He regaled us with stories of his family, Vietnam and the food he had the pleasure of eating while growing up. And with that came some wonderful recommendations. My ISC partners like their food spicy, REALLY spicy...I myself have a much blander palate and made sure to let our disappointed host know so. I got this wonderful garlic chicken and bok choy dish over Vermicelli noodles. Wouldn't you know, would have been perfect if I just let them add some spice! With wine, our shared apps and my delish main dish, the cost came to a cool $25! That was a wonderful surprise! I highly recommend, for those of you in the GTA of course.

Then today, oh lord today. Today was the dreaded class...sewing class. T and I signed up for a 3 hour tour...oh sorry...a 3 hour workshop on how to use a sewing machine and create an envelope pillowcase. My mother and grandmother are major quilters and they both sew a lot. I think I've always made my mother a little sad because I don't sew, especially since we've always had a sewing machine in our house. I've just never taken to it. In Home Ec way back when we had a project to create a pillowcase (yes another one) and I decided on an elephant pattern....a damn huge elephant that was WAY overstuffed. My mother took one look at my pathetic project and insisted on tightening it up, all over. I believe I got a good mark on the project, but I haven't attempting sewing since.

As I've mentioned many times on the blog I am trying to be open to new things in 2009. So when T told me she wanted to take the class I thought, why not, what harm will it do....well there was no harm per-se, but there was a lot of panic and sweating and self-doubt.

Our class begun at 11am. T and I aimed to meet for a quick breakfast at the swanky Drake hotel then we walked quickly through Parkdale (not the nicest of areas, but actually very interesting....during the day) to the workroom the workroom - our workshop location. The class was held in a store that had 8 sewing machines set-up along one wall, and the most beautiful fabric you've ever seen lining the other. The cutting tables were in the middle of the room, a little kitchen in the back and the cutest, sweetest dog wandered the store and peeked in all our bags throughout the workshop. Our instructor was the owner of the store and she was a very good teacher, except for the fact that she talked a lot about what we would be doing rather then showing us while we sat at the machines. You really needed to pay attention, and I tried, but it just wasn't sinking in, you know? I learned how to load up a bobbin (I still have no idea how much is enough) and thread the machine - ya it took me like 4 times, but I did it. I learned how to pin and cut along a pattern. And I learned, the most important thing of all, how to undo stitches - which you are seeing here:

I undid many, many stitches. I actually had to change machines because I caused one to squawk and squeak for reasons unknown. I had to undo and redo and undo and redo, over and over and over again. One of the other workshop participants, Michel, and I were in a competition to see if one of us would be the first people to ever fail the class. We both came close. I took around 45 minutes longer then everyone else to finish my project. I nearly broke my second machine. I almost gave up completely the entire thing, but I persevered, with lots of help and kind words from T. And you know what, when you flip your project right side out, you can't see any of your mistakes! All in all, I am incredibly exhausted from all the mental and physical stress, but I think its kinda cool that I made something....that hopefully won't unravel if I lay my head on it....voila the proof, my beautiful shimmery pillow.

Work Batteries Work!

2009-01-20T22:07:00.003-05:00

I bought a rechargeable battery charger with 4 batteries on Saturday. I thought, good for the environment, I shouldn’t run out of batteries anytime soon, all in all a smart thing to do. I especially needed them because of mine and T's photo blog, because of our weekday posting photo madness. I bought and opened the egg like package, took out the bit of plastic covering the batteries lengthwise and plugged it in. It didn't start charging. I pressed the on/off button, no charging. Hmmm I’m thinking, maybe the batteries already are charged. So I put them in my camera, no power. Hmmm. So I try another plug in my apartment, no charging. I start looking up info on the charger, maybe I’m missing something….no info to troubleshoot it. I am getting mad, I just bought this bloody charger and its not working at all! And its Energizer, I’m supposed to have batteries so I can start taking some pictures! Why would I buy other batteries when I can use these fancy rechargeable ones? I REFUSE!

I try one more plug, no charging. So Sunday, on my way to my friend Aimee’s, I go to the stupid Source store (I had a really annoying guy sell me the charger and I did not want to speak to him about the lack of working). There is this young cutie at the cash, I take out the charger and say, “I think something is wrong with the charger, I can’t get it to work and I tried it on 3 different plugs!”….I’m very nice about it, thinking still I might have done something wrong, what I don’t know. So the cutie is like, “weird, these are usually pretty good, let me take a look”, so he opens the charger, checks for connections, pops the batteries out….and guess what, unbeknownst to me, and not written on the packaging or instructions ANYWHERE, there is a slip of plastic in-between the top of the batteries and the charger! You can only see it when you pop the batteries all out. The cutie kind of laughed at me, but in a very polite way. And he plugged it in just to be sure that was the issue, and I’m all like, please don’t worry, I’m sure that’s the issue….which of course it was!

Then I go to Aimee’s, come home around 6 and plug in my batteries to charge. They are FINALLY good to go, and I was able to use the very last bit of juice in my old batteries to get the pics for last night. So there you have it, my painful battery story filled with lots oh idiocy. And the picture taking has been madness, lots of photos to choose from for posting on our blog with this weeks theme of Circles, Circles, Everywhere.

A Movie, a Movie, a Concert, a Cake

2009-01-18T20:57:00.004-05:00

Good week this week, lots of new and interesting things.

Tuesday - The Canadian Premiere of Inkheart. Ya, kid movie with a whole lotta nothing. Best thing was teaching children about literature, sort of, other than that its kind of a pass. The books the film is based on was written with Brendan Fraser in mind, so obviously he starred in the movie. It was a nice turn for him I suppose as he wasn't an action hero, he was the intelligent hero. He introduced the film very happily and spoke in a sweet way actually, well sweet for the kids....

Wednesday - Recipe for Disaster, a doc from my monthly Hot Docs subscription. FINALLY a good film after 2 stinkers in a row! Recipe for Disaster is a film starring the doc film-maker, a Finnish director, who decides with his wife and two young boys to go on an Oil Diet for a year. Basically their goal is to reduce their carbon footprint by using, where reasonable, the least amount of oil and plastic possible. It was fantastic! The wife was really interesting because she had doubt in the plan, doubt in their decisions but went ahead with pretty much everything. The changes they made were quite large, no car, no motor on their boat, no toilet paper wrapped in plastic, no plane rides, lots of strange looks from people. The film was very real because of the family dynamic, a really great husband and wife team with two adorable boys. And of course because the director no longer flies they needed to be inventive with his introduction of his film, and guess what...they brought him up on the screen via Skype! Poor guy was up at 1:30am his time, but was quite the good sport.

Thursday - my cousin Renee got us tix for V-Fest in city, the big Virgin music fest going on in Sydney when I'm there. Who's playing? The Kaiser Chiefs!!!! Whoa Hoa!!!

Friday - we had a blue iced plane shaped cake at work!

Saturday - had to get into work in the morning...it wasn't too bad, and I felt useful as we have a major change going in EARLY Monday morning and I helped test things, making sure they'll all work when traders get in for work...I'm not convinced but hey you can't prepare perfectly for any situation.

Saturday Night - the Bishop Allen concert! Bishop Allen are an indie band from Brooklyn, NY. You might know their 'biggest' song from their performance in Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist....Tricia and I went to the show at the El Mocambo on a major snowy night last night. As a music lover I've always been a bit embarrassed that I've never gone to the El Mo, as every major act in the 1970s and 80s played there...friggin U2 played there when they were just starting out! Unfortunately the venue has been revamped so I didn't see it in its glory days. But I enjoyed it, the exposed brick, the long bar, the hooks for your coats under ledges. And I also enjoyed how intimate it was....how intimate you ask? Well, Bishop Allen were to go on at 12am, with 2 bands prior, 1 at 10, 1 at 11. So Tricia and I positioned ourselves near the bar and hung out talking and checking out the other concert goers. This group of guys really caught our interest, 1 gentleman was in an interesting conversation with 2 young ladies that we were fascinated by, 1 gentleman looked like Jesus (more in Tricia's eyes then mine), 1 was a nerdy tall guy with side swiped hair...they were hanging out with one another, drinking, having a good time. And we had a good time coming up with the friends' back story, hey they were our neighbours for most of the night! Then 12am comes, Bishop Allen starts, Tricia looks up and says, oh my god Jesus is playing the drums on stage! Hey and the goofy tall guy is playing guitar! Our neighbours for basically the whole night was the band! How crazy insane is that! It would have been an even cooler story if we talked to them not knowing who they were, but still. And we chatted about lord knows what next to them all night, Tricia was like, do you think they heard when I said I don't know any songs by Bishop Allen? Why didn't we yell, we want the band? Anything...but hey, I still think its pretty awesome that we were right next to the band most of the night.

And now its time to start another week. I think I'm booking the Sydney flight and the Auckland flight this week....wicked!

The Year of Living Dangerously

2009-01-11T14:06:00.002-05:00

Well ok, not dangerously, but I am ready to start my social experiment of being, well, more social, to try new and interesting things. The first thing I'm taking part in is a photography experiment with T. We're attempting to create a photoblog called photoduet where we'll post a photo every week day as part of a weekly theme. This experiment, blog, whatever, begins tomorrow. You can see T's lovely post about my attempt to try new things on her regular blog.

The first attempt at something new coming about got me thinking about some of the disastrous attempts I've made over the years to do interesting things...and of course I have to share them with you.

In first year university our residence 'social convenor', an official title with little to no actual work done in first year, organized a paintball event at this major paint-balling building in industrial suburbia. We boarded the subway and a bus and made our way to this warehouse, me, Tut and all the boys (they may have been the reason we decided to try paintball, but I digress). Of course being that Tut and I went with a large group of guys, all older, and I am pretty much one of the most nonathletic and unstealthy people you'll ever encounter, it was a mess. I was shot in my calf, which gave me a HUGE bruise that lasted weeks. But worst then that, I was shot above my forehead, where basically my entire hair part was neon green for the rest of the day. Sure everyone was nice about it, in the pathetic pitiful way 20 year old men can me, but I was NOT happy (nor was I happy with the whole running around, hiding, crawling and general whole military vibe at the whole event). Thank god our social convenor was smart enough to book a bus for us, oh wait, he WASN'T, we had to take the subway back to residence, me with my neon plastered hair, looking like I survived a war, all the boys starring and snickering. Disaster.

Of course most of my attempts at athletic experiences end in the same way, laser tag - coming in last out of, oh I don't know, 30 people; skiing - spraining my ankle, on numerous occasions; dodgeball - making it on the court once, a battle ensued between our two teams causing me emotional harm; curling - how the heck do you sweep and move sideways at the same time...;rock climbing - ok, I went to watch, not really into plummeting to my death or scrapping up my hands and knees while using my non-existent arm strength to pull myself up a mountainside...

Its not just athletic trials that have banished me to months on the couch. There was the spring I tried sailing. I love to sail, well I liked sailing when my grandfather used to take the family out in my youth. I tried taking sailing lessons one spring with the ex. It was an introductory course, two days of a couple of hours. I believe the first day went well, as far as I remember. I learned what a jib was (well I used to know) and how to tie ropes and all that stuff. The second day was kind of a disaster. I love water but for some reason taking our itty bitty boat out on the water really freaked me out, I was sure that we were going to capsize. And you know how it is, you get an idea in your head and its damn near impossible to get rid of, so I wouldn't even get up to run around and try and move the sails or anything. Thankfully we didn't tip over, though we did sail a bit fast at one point almost tipped up with only one side of our boat in the water. I was breathing heavy, feeling ill, thinking bad thoughts of icy water and death....I think, as did the ex, that maybe learning on a larger boat (the next level of lessons) might have suited me better, but I never went back.

Then there was my numerous attempts at volunteer work. I have successfully volunteered for the World Wildlife Fund, so successful they hired me on as a part-time receptionist for a while. I also volunteered at Canstage (a Canadian Theatre Company) for a couple of years and at the Fringe Festival of Toronto where you meet the most interesting people who really LOVE theatre, so amazing. I've had many a bad volunteer experience as well. One was with a politician running for election in north Toronto. I used to be a card carrying member of the Liberal Party. I paid membership, got the newsletters, the whole deal. Then someone I used to work with knew I took politics at uni and he set up a volunteer opportunity for this major member of the Liberal Party in Ontario for me. One day I made my way up to the candidate's campaign office to do little odds and ends with a bunch of other Liberal keeners. Boy did I get a bad taste in my mouth after THAT experience. It wasn't that people weren't nice, or 'believers', but it was their thoughtless believing that really rubbed me the wrong way. We were to call and convince people in the riding to vote for our candidate, a typical volunteer job. The problem was no one could outline the candidates' values or positions on any issues, or why i should get people to vote for him, or anything other then the fact that he's a Liberal. I'm not one to take anything on face value, ever, I need to know WHY, why is he the candidate of Northern Toronto, why is he the person who will best represent the people, well...he just is....their strange smiles filled with belief in something they knew nothing about proved that volunteering for a political candidate wasn't my thing.

There was also the bad volunteering stints with the Sierra Club of Canada - they only wanted to recruit people like them, not the ordinary environmentalist with limited knowledge of issues like myself; a hospital in the burbs when I was a teenager - oh, we have plenty of volunteers, no need for anyone new, thanks for nothing; Word on the Street festival - a little office in the middle of nowhere with lots of work for you to do, but not organized at all, no planning, no way you know what the heck you are supposed to do!

With all the bad trials I've also had plenty of good ones, which I am drawing on in my mind to help push my to keep trying, keep looking out for new things to try, new places to do. The first time I went to the Toronto Film Festival, I was hooked. The first time my old Wine Club met and I learned that you only need to taste wine to know what's good and what isn't. The 5th attempt at a book club that's finally working. New music to listen to, new restaurants to try, authors and lectures to go listen to, maybe even new sports to try as well, maybe I'll finally take a stab at rowing...well I said maybe...

2009 - The Best is Yet to Come

2009-01-01T21:01:00.003-05:00

Ok, and now it's on to looking ahead, what things do I have to look forward to in the coming year (and what do you have to look forward to reading about?)

-A year with limited to NO Thyroid problems! Hurray!!
-Book Club continuing with many interesting discussions about tons of great books (any recommendations are greatly appreciated)
-The Bishop Allen concert at the El Mocambo on January 17th, I've never been to the El Mo before
-Lots of great docs at Doc Soup, those Hot Docs people have great taste in documentaries
-The IRESS Supper Club (a supper club just started at work where we'll hopefully be trying a new restaurant every month around the city)
-A new Franz Ferdinand album, drops the end of January!
-a new Doves album, coming soon!
-A new Yeah Yeah Yeahs album, YA YA!
-Blur reuniting, me having tickets to the Hyde Park show on July 3rd, possibly all 4 of my FAVOURITE BANDS playing together on the same day, rumoured to be joining Blur are Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and Hard-Fi, honestly those are my 4 favourite bands, no word of a lie! And I get to go to the concert with my two cousins, one of whom I haven't seen in over 10 years!
-Flight of the Conchords returns to TV!
-Joss Whedon has a new TV show, Dollhouse, I hope its good...
-Release of the Time Travellers Wife, sometime I hope, I have no idea when
-Harry Potter and the Half Blood Price, this July!!!!
-Toronto International Film Fest, my annual joyous event, coming September 2009
-and last, but not least, I am traveling to AUSTRALIA and NEW ZEALAND this coming March! I will be spending time with my cousins Renee, Joanne and John. I'll be seeing my friend Dianne. I'll get to spend hopefully around 5 days with my very BEST Friend, Imreboy, in Auckland. I'll see some other NZ peeps like Derryn and Amy (whom I've never met!) And I'll be traveling in business class (hopefully) on Etihad airlines! Can I get a what what!

So with all of the above 'planned' items, there will hopefully be many other things to look forward to, lots of dining in great Toronto restaurants, lots of dancing, new music I've not yet discovered, many books to read and enjoy (I was a pitiful reader in 2008, something I've vowed to fix this year), many movies that have yet to be announced. I'll be more daring and up for new experiences....have you noticed that I am more open to plans lately, I want to make sure I do lots of new things! I'll try and capture all my wonderful and exciting adventures here on my blog, with the least amount of moaning and groaning. Any suggestions for daring and new things are welcome, its a whole new year!

A Year in Review - 2008

2009-01-01T20:40:00.003-05:00

Ok, so 2008 has ended, finally. It was quite a tumultuous year with many craptastic things...but since its over how abouts I try and remember the positive?

The best movies (not too many I'm afraid):
Man on a Wire
Ironman!
Slumdog Millionaire
Un Conte du Noel
Burn After Reading
Trouble the Water
Empty Nest
Be Kind Rewind
Young @ Heart!

Best TV:
30 Rock
Pushing Daisies
Mad Men
LOST

Best Book:
The Road - if you haven't read it, do it, its really amazing

Best Moments in real life:
Driving through Colorado, what a beautiful state, from the flat lands to the mountains with deers hanging around by the road
Getting a new job that I really like and continue to enjoy going to on a daily basis, man do I work with a TON of amazing people!
Seeing the Kaiser Chiefs with some KC virgins, fantastic as always
Actually getting a Book Club going with my girlfriends, after many failed attempts over the years
Learning that my friends REALLY love me and are making sure I have plans all the time and don't get lonely, thanks ladies!
Being a bridesmaid in the beautiful afternoon wedding of my good friend T
Seeing Rocky Horror in the theatre, I didn't really enjoy it but I've finally done it!
Performing The Choice is Yours at Hip Hop Karaoke with Tricia, T&A rocked the house!
The Hives concert, finally Toronto understood them and danced along with great vigor!
Obama wins the US Presidential election!
Andy running backwards while playing badminton and falling in the garden, oh brother that was DAMN hilarious!

See, some good things DID happen, a few good films, TONS of great music and concerts, a few funny moments and me being daring, hopefully good moments will increase exponentially in 2009!

I can't even

2008-12-17T21:20:00.002-05:00

think of a title for this post, as I am just, I just heard the most beautiful cover, song, piece of music, I've ever heard.

You know how In Your Eyes is quite possibly the most heart-wrenching, gorgeous, love filled songs ever made? Well its clearly all because of Peter Gabriel and his haunting voice.

And you also know, by how I go on and on, that Vampire Weekend is like the band of the year, seriously if you haven't heard them what the ass is your problem?

Well, try listening to this remake of Vampire Weekend's magnificent Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, mixed by Hot Chip and sung by, you got it, Mr. Haunting and glorious himself, Peter Gabriel....oh man, its SO GOOD!

New Hot Chip & Peter Gabriel - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Vampire Weekend Cover) at JPs Blog

Best Ofs - Music

2008-12-12T23:44:00.004-05:00

Well its that time of year again, time to reflect on the year gone by....its been kind of a weird week. I had a Prairie Fire shot for the first time at a drunken work xmas party on a Thursday night. I went to see the newly renovated Art Gallery of Ontario which was pretty disappointing actually. I saw a kinda pointless documentary at the usually very reliable Doc Soup. I got my lunch DUMPED on me today by my boss...it was an accident but it was pretty darn shocking and my top, scarf and jeans are covered in tomato sauce.

And of course the best news of all news, the greatest band like ever, fronted by my NUMBER 1 man, Damon Albarn, BLUR is having a 'reunion' concert, the first time the 4 of them have been together since 2000, in Hyde Park in London, UK. Well I got an email with a special code to pre-purchase tickets...the tickets on sale Wednesday morning at 4am Toronto time. And I thought to myself, hey self, 2008 has been horrible, you have an opportunity to start making 2009 the best year ever, just wake up at 3:55am, buy some tickets, and worry about the details later. So, set the alarm, could hardly sleep, got up at 3:55am, logged into ticketmaster.co.uk and GOT 3 TICKETS TO SEE BLUR IN HYDE PARK on July 3rd!! How about THAT!

With this weird mix of new and old, good and bad, I thought, let's get started on my best of lists for this horrible 2008. And I thought, its been pretty hard thinking of good movies, so I'm putting that on hold and starting with the list of best music from 2008...and there is TONS of that!

Best new Bands
Vampire Weekend
Pete and The Pirates
Santogold
Bishop Allen
The Last Shadow Puppets
The Ting Tings
Lykke Li
Black Kids
The Kills
Cut Copy
Late of the Pier

Best Albums
In Rainbows - Radiohead
Off With Their Heads - Kaiser Chiefs
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
We Started Nothing - The Ting Tings
Consolers of the Lonely - The Raconteurs
Youth Novels - Lykke Li
The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley
Midnight Boom - The Kills
Little Death - Pete and the Pirates
Konk - the Kooks
In Ghost Colours - Cut Copy
Santogold - Santogold

Best Songs
SWAY - The Kooks
Electric Feel - MGMT
Kids - MGMT
Viva La Vida - Coldplay
I'm Good, I'm Gone- Lykke Li
Breakin Up- Lykke Li
I'm not Gonna Teach your Boyfriend how to Dance - Black Kids
Run- Gnarls Barkley
Salute your Solution - The Raconteurs
Sex on Fire - Kings of Leon
My Delirium - Ladyhawke
--Pains me to say this but--The Shock of Lighting- Oasis
Love is Noise - The Verve
Wire to Wire - Razorlight
Shut Up and Let Me Go - the Ting Tings
Great DJ - the Ting Tings
Shape of My Heart - Noah and the Whale
Strange Overtones - David Byrne and Brian Eno
Look at Me (When I Rock Wichoo) - Black Kids
Tape Song- The Kills
Last Day of Magic- The Kills
Lucid Dreams- Franz Ferdinand
Never Miss a Beat - Kaiser Chiefs
Ragged Wood - Fleet Foxes
L.E.S. Artistes- Santogold (I like Say Aha better, but no video!
A-Punk - Vampire Weekend (but really the WHOLE album!)
The Age of the Understatement - The Last Shadow Puppets (best video for a song this year!)
Chasing Pavements - Adele
Always Where I Need to Be - The Kooks
Oh! Vanity - The Charlatans
Good Days, Bad Days - Kaiser Chiefs
One Day Like This - Elbow
House of Cards - Radiohead
Lights and Music - Cut Copy
Hearts on Fire - Cut Copy
Talons - Bloc Party
Spit at Stars - Jack Penate
Little Bit of Feel Good - Jamie Liddell
Mr Understanding - Pete and the Pirates
Middle Management - Bishop Allen

If it Ain't Broke...

2008-11-30T22:13:00.003-05:00

Well the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) has decided to mess up transit in Toronto. They unleashed new hybrid buses on the city this week. Apparently there are more buses which means less wait time, and because they are hybrid buses they are better for the environment.

Ya, I agree with the concept of the hybrid bus. I believe our environment needs our help, and since buses shuffle around so many people its a move in the right direction to have more buses be environmentally friendly. But the reality is change takes time and usually inflicts MUCH pain on those going through it.

I take an express bus every morning to work. It costs a bit extra but picks me up outside my apartment and it drops me off about 2 minutes from my office. Monday-Wednesday nothing really changed in my riding schedule. The bus showed up as usual, 7:40am (there are only 4 buses in the morning, every HALF HOUR, you miss one, you need to trek to the subway). But Thursday we all waited...and waited...and waited...I draw the line at 15 minutes and had to make my way to the subway. Friday morning, again, we all stood around waiting and waiting. We're a sort of community, the 7:40am crew, I don't talk to anyone but know all their faces and stops. A bunch of my fellow riders were talking about how our 7:40am bus never showed on Thursday. The 8:10 did arrive on time, the driver having no idea that an earlier bus was supposed to come. Many of the usuals were plenty put out. And we're all wondering, this is the schedule, it hasn't changed, how can our drivers not know they are supposed to pick us up! Where is our trusty Scottish driver with his neat beard? He's always on time and smartly dressed. Are THESE the changes we can expect with the new buses, the new CONVENIENCE that we've been hearing about? Finally after waiting about 12 minutes I say, I can't wait any more, what if it never shows? I start my 15 minute walk to the subway, and see there in the distance the new honking hybrid bus. I rush back to my stop, "Its coming, finally, its coming" and see the wave of relief on everyone's face.

We all board the bus and I notice, as its my first time one of the fancy new buses, with a MUCH bigger then normal outside these new buses have less seats! LESS SEATS!! If you're trying to save the environment, wouldn't you want at least the EQUAL number of seats as other buses rather than less? Well....wouldn't you!?!

Then yesterday, Saturday, I went to my friend Tut's for American Thanksgiving. She lives relatively close to me but its best for me to take a bus as it lets me off right at the end of her street. So I wait and see a new honking bus rumbling towards me. Yep, still less seats but at least my trip seems to be going well. We make it up the big hill, up Yonge street (world's longest street don't you know), and one stop south of Tut's, the bus suddenly stops....and the lights go out....and the driver mumbles something that I don't really hear as I have my ipod earphones on. I figure oh we're early and he's just stopping to make up time (they do that here in Canada). About 5 minutes later I hear the driver turn the key and try to turn the engine over...and again....and again...yep readers, you've guessed it, our bus is stalled and won't turn on! This is a BRAND NEW BUS, possibly its first WEEK on the road...supposed to revolutionize transit in Toronto, and it has BROKEN DOWN!!! Lucky for me we're one stop south of my destination, but what about the other poor suckers!?

As I said, if it ain't broke, why go and have new drivers that don't know my bus schedule, have less seats and have buses that BREAK DOWN their first week! I have no idea what to expect tomorrow morning, especially in the 'snow storm' we're expecting.

**For an aside at the American Thanksgiving celebrations, we played Scattergories, have you ever played it? Basically you all have 3 minutes to write down 12 words that all begin with a letter that is chosen by the roll of a 20 sided letter dice. Everyone has a list of things such as boys name, city, things that have spots, and the most unique words get points. We were a bit tipsy from the wine we were all consuming so of course we had a couple of hilarious moments. One such moment was with the letter B. We all had to come up with a 4 letter word beginning with B...easy right, well one of Tut's good friends goes "I've got a 4 letter word," and proceeds to SPELL OUT, "B-I-T-C-H, bitches" and we all go, "THAT'S 5 letters!!!" And of course laughed hysterically.

Then my moment of shame, we all had to come up with a reptile that begins with the letter P. And I think, oh I've got a good one, and yell out, all confident and cocky, "Listen to this, PYLON, BOO YA!" And they all yell, "its PYTHON, not PYLON!"...of course I was shamed and refused to blurt out any other words for the rest of the night for fear that my Achilles heel of over confident intelligence might humiliate me again.

Never Miss a Beat Beat

2008-11-20T20:52:00.005-05:00

It was the KAISER CHIEFS show in Toronto this weekend. They played a smallish venue, the Mod Club, and I was pretty surprised they even agreed to play in such an intimate venue. But turns out the first time they ever played in Toronto was at the Mod Club, so it was a nostalgia thing.

What is it about the KC that I love, why are they the best live band I've ever seen? Well, let me tell you, its the energy, its the way they overtake even most the cynical audience (being that Toronto typically have the most cynical of all) and make everyone sing and jump and just participate in the most exuberant and fun way possible! Not only do they have the most catchy tunes of all time, but they play them like the album but different enough that you aren't like, oh my god that's just like the album, because honestly who wants to go to a concert and just hear the album EXACTLY as it sounds, live?! Not me!

Ricky Wilson, lead singer of KC, is the most energetic, the most charismatic and is the most rockin' rock star of all time. Not only did he jump off the stage and run THROUGH the audience to the back of the venue whilst singing; he also stage dove and crowd surfed while singing. And, the BEST story ever, realized he finished a bottle of beer, jumped into the audience, jumped ON the BAR and ran across it, jumped off, POURED HIMSELF A SHOT, jumped back on the bar and did the shot for all to see, motioned to the audience that it was time to go back to the stage, then dove BACK into the audience and crowd surfed back to the stage! It was incredible, so much fun to DANCE TO and SCREAM ALONG WITH! I was all raspy when I left, which is always the mark of a great show.

Then...well...my hot docs movie, the monthly doc....it was kinda, not good. Its an American Doc about a town in Alabama called Mobile which hosted the first ever Mardi Gras in the US. The film shows the racism that is still very prevalent in Mobile shown directly through the two Mardi Gras committee's, one which represents the White community and one which represents the Black community. It wasn't a very good documentary...the director is a white woman from Mobile who obviously has some major white guilt going on. Mobile has a really horrible past, a major player in the Slave trade, lots of segregation throughout its history, etc., etc.....obviously the topic is an important one, but it was so friggin biased I can't even tell you. The film really focused on the pageantry of the white community, how they still believe in cotillions and wine tasting and secret societies. But it doesn't interplay the black community's pageantry, which obviously exists as both the white and black Mardi Gras committees appoint their own King and Queen. Both committees are still segregated, the Whites say its because both groups like it that way, and the Black representatives talk about the need for integration.

I don't know...its all well and good to show how disgusting the secret societies are in their horrible masks, KKK much, and moon shine making, and how they don't give a black man in the hospital a moon pie, and how all the servants at the White balls are Black citizens in white gloves. But honestly, if its a film about Mardi Gras and its pageantry and how each community celebrates this obviously important annual event in the town, then friggin show that! Show both sides! Represent everyone in the town, not just ignorant Whites and the intellectual Blacks....show ignorant Blacks and the pro-integration Whites....honestly, I don't mind laughing at Southern 20 year olds hating the taste of wine they have to hold in their mouths....but I want to see Southern Blacks getting together at their events preparing for the big coronation. Bleech, any documentary that is SO obviously biased, for any side, is a disservice I think.

On a lighter note the Beaujolais Nouveau came out today. Only out once a year for a short period of time. I got THREE bottles! Mmmm, its a bit light for my liking but it has some nice flavours. Get it while you can, it will probably be gone by the end of the weekend.

100 things about me (that you may or may not know)

2008-11-13T21:53:00.009-05:00

Ok, stolen from Lexie, who stole it from another blogger. This is a companion piece to the things I want to do before I die...this is a list of what I've already done!

1. I was born at Grace Memorial hospital in Halifax, NS
2. I went to commercial school when I was a kid to learn to be an 'actress'
3. I went to the midnight launch for Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, and I'm proud of it!
4. I don't know how to drive, and don't really want to learn how, I think I'd have too much road rage
5. I can't pick which band is my absolute favourite as it changes all the time - I think its a toss up between Blur and Franz Ferdinand....but my friends might be right when they say its the Kaiser Chiefs
6. Gordon Lightfoot, the Canadian Icon, once bowed to me and said "Thank you Miss"
7. I saw Bernadette Peters in Gypsy on Broadway
8. The first movie I saw in a movie theatre was The Muppet Show
9. I've moved about 25 times in my life, if not more
10. I met the band the Odds (Canadian Indie band) during Frosh week at University, the lead singer called me his little sister because we both had red hair and blue eyes
11. Being touchy, feel-y, I pretty much touch people all the time, usually on the arm, and I only do it to people I like
12. If I have a crush on someone I stupidly avoid them, or will never, ever touch them, which I know makes no sense because I don't touch people I don't like or people I really, really like
13. I make no sense, at all, and I'm aware of it
14. I was a part-time receptionist at the World Wildlife Foundation one xmas
15. I've been on a helicopter
16. I worked in a glasses store in Piccadilly Circus
17. I was kind of a tom boy when I was in elementary school and the boys on my street used to knock on my door and ask me to play baseball with them
18. My first film festival film was State and Main staring Alec Baldwin and Sarah Jessica Parker
19. I've loved Irish Whiskey since I had for the first time one damp winter night at my favourite London pub, Waxy O'Connors
20. I sang at two of my closest friends weddings, one wedding I sang Your Song and the other I sang The Rose
21. I can no longer sing well, and it kind of makes me sad
22. I have always been a TV junkie and used to think life was supposed to be like a Cosby Show episode until my mom dashed my dreams and said, "that's just a TV show, no ones life is really like that"
23. I used to do 'this day in history' every day over the PA system in my last year of high school
24. The first concert I ever went to was Howard Jones and the Eurythemics
25. I spent the Millennium New Year's celebrations at a club in Ontario Place over the water, but didn't get to see the fireworks
26. My best Valentine's Day ever was a weekend in Brussels
27. I think real Belgium waffles in Brussels are WAY better then North American versions
28. The best dish I can cook is rosemary chicken and veggies
29. I also make a damn good meatloaf - which I now make as a Turkey Meatloaf
30. I am fiercely loyal
31. I've seen pretty much every AFI greatest movies of all time
32. I think old black and white movies are have more soul then new ones
33. I am pretty selfish
34. Though I am selfish I try and put my friends before myself whenever I can
35. I used to be a wallflower at school dances and dance clubs
36. I now will dance on an empty dance floor in a full club if I like a song
37. My first job was at Rock the Casbah, a store in Canada's Wonderland
38. I once organized a 'parade' on my street when I was 10 years old, it consisted of me and 2 of my closest friends, 1 person came, and all we did was walk up the street in costumes
39. My cousin and I won our dinner once by singing for it one summer when I was in PEI. We sang Going to the Chapel
40. My all time favourite movie is Four Weddings and a Funeral
41. I hate weddings, going to them and possibly having one
42. I don't like showers much either, baby or wedding
43. I don't like stagettes either
44. I will happily go to the wedding, shower or stag of a close friend just because I love them
45. I love traditions, like celebrating birthdays, or someone's yearly Thanksgiving dinner or annual parties which I can spend the year looking forward to
46. My worse fear is being abandoned
47. The thing I hate most is walking in a crowded mall, carrying many bags which fall off my shoulders, being behind someone who is walking slow, wearing a heavy coat and my earphones falling out of my ears - any combination of these things annoy me too
48. I do get scared walking home alone in the dark - so I walk really fast and dart my head around looking for strange people
49. My favourite meal is Thanksgiving; Turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, etc.
50. I had 4 days of celebrations for my 30th birthday
51. Day 1 of celebrations was going to the spa, getting my hair done, then dancing at my favourite place, the Dance Cave
52. Day 2 was eating all my favourite meals in one day - Maltese Pastizzi for breakfast, Licks for lunch and Le Select for dinner (duck confit!)
53. Day 3 was driving to Niagara on the lake to stay at the White Oaks Spa
54. Day 4 was hanging in Niagara on the Lake
55. My ex and I spent one New Years in NY for our 5th anniversary, he had flowers sent to our room to surprise me and they arrived right after we had a fight
56.I want to live in London forever
57. I want to retire in France in an old house with a nice plot of land
58. The thought of living in an old house in France scares the crap out of me
59. I wish I was smarter
60. I wish I had done more travelling by this point in my life
61. I sometimes pretend I know something when I really have no idea what I'm talking about to look like I'm smarter
62. I let people believe I am WAY braver then I am
63. I am a big, fat chicken
64. I don't know why people have always thought I do a good job wherever I work, I always think I do a terrible job and don't think I know what I am doing
65. I really do like learning things and wish people were more open to teaching me
66. I wish I was more patient so I would learn more things
67. I always wanted to learn another language or two, and am in awe of people who speak more then one (one of my cousins can speak 4!)
68. I wanted to take a Specialist Political Science degree in University but I thought I would fail stats so I just majored in it instead
69. I am a snob
70. I want someone to take care of me
71. I hate when someone tries to take care of me
72. I want both, but I think that its kind of impossible
73. I just really love being loved, and love loving people, but I don't really like people I don't know
74. I sing loudly whenever I can...that's why I like dancing near the speakers at the Dance Cave so I can sing along to all the songs I know and love and not hurt anyone's ears
75. I like being adventurous with food
76. I look up menus before I eat at a restaurant to make sure I like something before I agree to go there...because I'm not that adventurous with food
77. My favourite thing to do is go to a concert
78. My favourite thing to do is go see a play
79. My favourite thing to do is go see a movie
80. My favourite thing to do is go out to dinner
81. My favourite thing to do is hang out with friends
82. I have WAY too many favourite things to do
83. I am very indecisive
84. I want someone to decide things for me, but when they do I get upset because I hate being told what to do
85. I love organizing things, events with friends, parties you name it
86. I hate organizing things when no one shows up
87. I once planned an Oscar Party and not one person RSVPed
88. I get pretty lonely at times
89. I feel like I wouldn't do anything with anyone if I didn't plan it first
90. I like being invited to things, but sometimes get too nervous to go
91. I'm VERY weird
92. I know I'm a geek and that really doesn't bother me at all
93. My favourite book of all time is 1984
94. I wish I was more well read
95. I wish I had a better vocabulary and think I use words incorrectly and know people are too nice to correct me
96. I really do know almost every American movie ever made and have watched, or purposely have not watched, them all
97. I really don't like pop music
98. My face goes BEAT red when I'm embarrassed, which I wish it wouldn't because I try to play it cool and know its going very badly
99. I am aware that I am pretty loud and obnoxious, and I am ok with it, and really only want to be around people who are ok with it too
100. I'm pro-choice and was adopted from birth

Things to Do in Life Before You're Dead

2008-11-05T19:28:00.002-05:00

When I was in highschool Glamour Magazine had an article on the 100 things to do before you die. And with Obama all elected and everything (yay!) I thought there is no better time then the present to make a list of my own, of things I want to accomplish or try before I die.

I have done lots of great things in my life, picnic in Beaujolais, France in September, seen most of the Western Worlds biggest and best cities, flown in a helicopter, been to NY at New Years, seen a show in the London West End, had a drink in a famous London Pub, been on a gondola in Venice, thrown a coin into Rome's Trevi Fountain, had a ginormous beer in Munich, seen almost every film on the AFIs 100 list of all time great movies, been to the Colosseum and seen Greece's Acropolis, worked at the National Ballet of Canada and met Karen Kain and Rex Harrington (2 of Canada's most famous and beloved dancers) and I worked at the World Wildlife Fund of Canada....and on and on....but there are many more things to be done!

Travel to Russia and see the Hermitage Museum
Take Wine tour in France
Learn to cook Duck Confit
Learn to Garden
Learn to play the saxophone
Take a the through Northern Ontario Dreamcatcher Express
See the Northern Lights
Take the Tran-Siberian Railway from Russia through Asia
Learn how to curl my hair - ya I have no idea how
See every new and exciting Play to open on Broadway
Go to a Big Fancy Ball in a Big Fancy Ballgown
Own a really cool and fabulous Designer Piece - Zac Posen or Stella McCartney
Try a really old, really smooth Irish Whiskey
Try a real Vintage Chateau Margaux or one of the worlds best wines
Go to the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas
See a film at the Sundance Film Festival
Stay for a week or two in a seaside cottage in Cape Cod or Nantucket or similar
Walk on a Volcano
See the Great Wall
Take a Ride in a Hot Air Balloon
See Angel or Victoria Falls
Visit a great South American Pyramid
See the Great Pyramid in Egypt
Learn how to make stained glass
See Barack Obama speak in person
Go to a Masquerade Ball, preferably in Venice
See a show at Carnegie Hall
Go to the Olympics, see at least one live competition
Stay one night, at least, in a castle
Stay for a night or two or 50 in one of the worlds most luxurious hotels
Eat a Meal prepared by one of the worlds great chefs - Jamie Oliver, I'm talking to you!
Go for a ride on a Moped
Walk over tree tops on one of those super high bridges
Swim, or take a dip, in every Ocean, 2 down, 2 to go!
Take a trip on a Yacht
Stay in an Ice hotel
Learn to make Pasta from scratch
Try Dom Perignon
Stay a night in a tree top hotel room
Stay for a night in a hut on the beach
Watch the sun come up over the desert
Spend a day in Iceland during 24 hour sunlight
Learn CPR
See the Taj Mahal
Take a dip in the Dead Sea
Really do something worthwhile that actually helps a cause that I believe in...

Phew...now, where the heck do I even get started? What am I missing, what's on your list?

Trouble the Water

2008-10-29T21:33:00.003-04:00

Just in from seeing the Opening film of the Doc Soup program. Doc Soup is a subscription series that is a part of the Hot Docs Film Festival. Every month from October to April an extraordinary documentary film is shown at the Bloor Cinema. Last years subscription included the magnificent Young @ Heart , the thought provoking No End in Sight and the inspiring Autism the Musical.

Tonight's movie was Trouble the Water, the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance for best Documentary. It's a mix of camcorder footage and the traditional documentary style which told a personal story of Hurricane Katrina. The film centred around this young married couple, Kim Rivers Roberts and Scott Roberts, a black couple who lived in the 9th ward, one of the poor neighbourhoods of New Orleans, right near the broken levees. Kim had filmed the Hurricane on her own camcorder and ended up meeting the documentary filmmakers at a Red Cross Centre 2 weeks after the Katrina. The film then follows how Kim and Scott rebuild their lives through moving to Memphis, waiting for their FEMA money, moving back to New Orleans and helping out other members of their community.

I gotta tell you, a couple of people left during the beginning of the film, and it was easy to see why. Kim is very brash, she swore a lot in the film and it looked like she and Scott might have left their 2 dogs and cat outside during the Hurricane to die. It was hard to understand her narration as she spoke very loud and and used a lot of slang....but as you watched you were drawn into her magnetic energy, and you realized that she is one amazing woman.

Even more amazing then Kim was her husband Scott, oh Scott, when you see this guy, this ex-drug dealer and how he and Kim worked to save 30 people, 30 members of his community who had no one to help them, 30 people which included a handicapped woman, children and some elderly people. They were all turned away, with GUNS, by Naval officers guarding an EMPTY NAVAL base 3 blocks down the road! After being turned away by the base, Scott helped all his neighbours break into a highschool where they were able to stay a night or two. When he showed the filmmakers the room his group stayed in, moved some tables around to illustrate how he and his wife slept on 3 classroom desks, he placed the tables back exactly the way they were when he walked into the room, with such care...after everything he went through he was able to be a man of worth, a man who spoke kindly to those people who abandoned him and his wife in the worst moment of their lives. He still had deference to the Army personnel dispatched to New Orleans like a week after the hurricane. He is honestly one of the most inspiring and wonderful people I have ever had the honour to watch on film. Scott Roberts, you are one beautiful human being and deserve a medal for bravery.

We witness Kim and Scott taking it upon themselves to help their neighbours; they moved them to higher ground, got them 2-3 at a time in a boat to rescue them from rooftops, 'found' a truck to transport everyone 233 miles away from New Orleans, they were so awesome and asked for nothing in return. More amazing still was this guy Larry, this lone guy we only know through the lens of Kim's camcorder who documents Larry saving people from drowning by using a punching bag he found floating in the water . A PUNCHING BAG, like honestly, he used it to float people to saftey! Their courage and resilience...all of them...you cry so many times, you are so awestruck by the power of the human spirit and the utter corruption and disgusting lack of decency and compassion of the mofo US and Louisiana Gov't. How a government that is supposed to protect you can just leave you with nothing, its just the most despicable thing I've ever witnessed, honestly.

Less then one week to go and quite possibly the worst leader in North American history will be just that, history and a bad memory, Amen to that.

Who Do you Hate?

2008-10-28T19:55:00.003-04:00

On TV that is...

Entertainment Weekly just did this piece on TV characters
their readers hate , like really, really hate, who drive them crazy to have to watch every week, or even remember years later. And I thought, now THAT is a blog post.

I have watched many series over my short(ish) time on this earth, and believe me, I have hated many a character. So let's get to it:

Becky on Roseanne - what a snivilling, whiny, baby of a girl. "Mother!" I think she yelled that every single episode, with that pathetic look of constipation constantly plastered on her face. (hey I think this is going to be a very cathartic post!)

James on Twin Peaks - do you remember James, I remember James. I think I've fast forward every single scene he's in since buying the DVD (and tape) of the series. He just stands there with this really terrible puppy dog look on his face, oh Laura doesn't love me, oh Donna doesn't love me, oh I wear a leather jacket and think I am so cool but I'm not at all, BLEECH, I think James hits the top of my list of all time least favourite character on TV.

Dawn on Buffy - wow, I think there is a trend here, pathetic characters really get my goat. Dawn, what exactly is the point of your character? To annoy all of the viewers? To constantly throw a wrench into the wonderful chemistry of the 'Scooby' gang? To do nothing but say, why me, or call upon ghosts and demons to try and kill your sister or cause her to PLUNGE TO HER DEATH to SAVE YOUR STUPID LIFE! Every episode she was in took one moment of pleasure away from one of my all time favourite shows! The only good thing she EVER did was call on that singing demon who was the catalist for arguably one of the best episodes of TV in history, Once More with Feeling.

Mohinder on Heroes - No one who watches this show needs an explanation, does ANYONE like Mohinder? Sure the actor is kind of good looking, but he has the worst Indian/British accent in history, he can't act and is the most boring character ever. Sure they are trying to beef him up a little with his new bad guy role, but does anyone give a rats patootee?

Izzie on Greys Anatomy - Oh Izzie, you used to be an interesting character, one with empathy and depth, I used to care about you, about you suceeding. Remember when you were caught as a lingerie model and you proved to everyone that you had both brains and beauty? Ya, you are no longer like that, now you are whiny, and selfish, and keep mourning the love of your life, a guy you knew for like 2 months and you only knew through his stay in the hospital! You forced your best friend to break up with his wife so he could make out with you, and then you made his life hell! It doesn't help that I really don't like Katherine Heigl....she's kind of a bi-atch

Dan on Gossip Girl - Dan you judgment, arrogant, poor boy fool. I hate the way you enunciate things, I hate the way you talk really fast when you are trying to be intelligent, I hate that you think no one is as perfect as you, I hate that you finally got the perfect girl and you judged every single thing that she did without even talking to her. Why do guys do that? Why can't TV characters ever just be HONEST with one another! (Thank god for Pushing Daisies, a show where people are pretty much honest all the time)

Sarah on CSI - WHY do you walk that way?! Why do you sneer at everyone? Why do you have such a raspy voice? Why do you have that weird half smile on your face? Why do all the male characters love you when you are so bitchy? I don't get it, I don't like you!!!

Nate on Six Feet Under - I did love Nate, at one time, at least I think I did. But he became so self absorbed, his poor brother David had to do everything within the practice himself, even though Nate acted like he was the be all and end all as a funeral director. Then Nate married someone he said he loved, but treated like crap. Then he married the only person he ever really loved and cheated on her with this weird, quiet woman who brought him 'peace'. Did Nate ever do anything for anyone but himself? Ya, I don't think so! I get he was supposed to be an embodiment of the selfish eldest child who 'gave up' his life for the family and regretted it, but you know what, that doesn't make him any less pathetic!

Rudy on the Cosby Show - now the first thing you need to know is, I LOVE the Cosby Show, might be one of my all time favourite TV shows, every episode (with the exception of the last season) made me laugh hysterically, I watched them all with a great feeling of joy. The Cosbys felt like my family. Which is why, I suppose, the youngest child annoyed me the most. Remember the beginning of the series, when Rudy was cute, sweet and really funny. She sang 'Ba-bay! Ba-Bay!', and would have scenes sitting with Cliff as she showed her dimples? Ya, that all changed when she grew up, had to share a room with Olivia and was replaced. "Hey BUUD", ya, that lost its charm when you started going to HIGH SCHOOL! Get a role kid!

I think the annoying woman roles bother me most, because I WANT to like woman, I want to feel comraderie with them, I WANT woman to be successful and strong, and when they are pathetic and weak characters I am really disappointed! But its ok, thank goodness my love for the amazing female characters in TV history far outweighs my distaste for the whiny baby characters I hate. Clair Huxtable, Sydney Bristow, Buffy Summers, Veronica Mars, Tami Taylor, Lucille Bluth and Liz Lemon, you are all so amazing, thank god for you!

One Damn Good Weekend

2008-10-19T19:24:00.004-04:00

I had one of those weekends, one of those perfect weekends. A weekend where you get to see lots of friends, get out in the fresh air, drink some good wine, see a movie, all of those things I LOVE to do, all merged into 2 and 1/4 days.

Friday night I had a date with my friend Sandy, we did the typical North American date - dinner and a movie. First I dropped by her place, had some lovely deep red wine, a wine I wouldn't have bought on my own which made it even more special. We then made our way to my neighbourhood to this (former?) excellent Mexican restaurant called Chimichanga. I always get the New Yorkan burrito chimichanga-ed (i.e. dipped in hot oil and DEEP FRIED), usually every single bite is a dream, but for some reason this past visit was just, eh, ok I guess. The restaurant is doing pretty well, we waited like 20 minutes for a table, maybe they've started skimping on the cooking since they want to increase their profit margin or something (have I fooled you into believing I know something about finance?!). Of course it took forever to eat, so thought we were going to miss the movie...but we ran ans walked in 15 minutes late (we were those annoying people, I know). We saw Nick and Nora's Infinite Playlist, it was ok, lots of funny, but you know, an ok movie. It had lots of really good music, most of which I had on my ipod before even seeing the film, ya, I'm that cool....The neatest thing about the film was seeing many sites I've visited during trips to Debbieville; the Williamsburg bridge, Penn Station, Papaya King (which I never ate in, just walked past). Sorry to those people sitting behind me who heard me quietly yelp every time a landmark was shown on screen.

Saturday was a total city girl day, I had my hair done, went blonder, a touch shorter, with side bangs and had my hair set in BIG curls. The best part of getting my hair done is getting to spend 3 hours at Stillwater Spa in the Park Hyatt with my AMAZING stylist Ian. Being such a cheapo I only go about every 6 months or so, but I love spending time with him. He and I have wonderful chemistry, which I think is important with your hair stylist, and I laugh hysterically the entire time we're together. I'd tell you the things we talked about, but my grandfather reads this blog and I don't think he'd be too impressed with a couple of our topics...(they were risque but hilarious). Of course I'll show you pictures!

I then met up with my friend Jen for a late brunch in the Yorkville neighbourhood of Toronto. We were planning on going to the sublime Crepes a go go, but we stumbled upon this really neat looking, modern, white, restaurant called True. True is a niche restaurant which only serves organic food, I figure that means the bad food is still good for you, right? I had eggs, these delightful little home-fried potatoes, fruit, salad and toast for $9! Jen had a burger with brie, looked good, well for meat eaters I'm sure it would be....

Then as I made my way home I thought I'd make my way to the huge Toronto LCBO at Yonge and Summerhill. Its a really cool location which was once a train station that's been converted to a liquor store, that's huge and filled with vintage wines and beers of the world. I love the big liquor stores, I can wander around for a couple of hours touching bottles of wines, picking them up and reading their labels, checking out the little blurbs describing the leathery texture, or scent of barnyard (yep, one said that!). There were a couple of wines I was interested in buying but they made me a little nervous. Lucky me you could purchase a sample of them. One was a Chianti of some kind or another that had an interesting label, the other was the LCBO Wine of the Month from France. The sampling of the 2 wines was a cool $2.25 (which is amazing considering I got like 1/3 of a glass!), and boy was it ever money well spent, both were DISGUSTING! Ugh, I would have been super mad if I paid for them, opened them up, and tried them at home, I would have had to dump the whole bottle. Sampling is the way to go people. I ended up getting 2 'safe' bottles, one for a party that night and one for me to drink at home.

Saturday night I made my way to Aimee's place as we were going to one of her friend's places for a b-day party. We hung out and tried something special I picked up at the LCBO earlier that day...wait for it, wait for it......POMEGRANATE BEER, yep, you read that right. I've been on a strange beer kick lately that started with my love of strawberry beer, oh Fruli from Belgium, you have my heart. On Friday at work I brought in some harvest ale, otherwise known as Pumpkin Ale, for some of us to try...it was strange, really bitter and very spicy, it had lots of cloves. So I thought, well maybe I don't like fruit that is commonly used as a vegetable in beer, lets stay with regular fruits. Well Pomegranate beer isn't that fantastic either. It was really fruity, which is good, but it was a little, I don't know, strange, a bit of a strange aftertaste...you can try it if you like, but its still weird....

The party itself was in a house in a sort of scuzzy part of town, Landsdowne and Bloor. Walking through the neighbourhood was a bit spooky, over the train tracks even more so, but it certainly didn't help that Aimee started talking about this prison walk she did in Ottawa the weekend before....ya, she talked about getting lost on her way to the prison, solitary confinement, death row, basically anything you DON'T want to hear when you are in a sort of unsavory neighbourhood. I gave her the, can you tell me this story later, exclamation, and the rest of the walk, thankfully, was less scary.

Then Sunday, oh Sunday, how glorious. A perfect fall day, sunny, crisp, a touch of wind blowing leaves around. Fall how I love thee! I made some Pumpkin Waffles from a William Sonoma mix, ran some errands, came home and prepared for lovely afternoon tea with ML. We went to the outskirts of the city, to a Victorian Tea Room. It was in a strange location, a strip mall, and it was very Victorian with lots of older lady items, but really cute tables and settings. The tea was lovely, mmm Cream Earl Grey, as were our crustless sandwiches. Since we stuffed ourselves we decided to take advantage of the perfect weather and go for a walk in this AMAZINGLY BEA-TA-CIOUS park called St. James Park. Oh man, we were out for around an hour, just crunching through leaves, walking over little bridges, climbing rickety rock stairs to little Japanese gardens. What a great place to wander with such splendiferious weather.

I then made my way home, made some vegetarian chili, mmm, and now I'm writing this post. Ahh, I LOVE days spent with close friends.

Pumpkinheads Oh My

2008-10-15T21:43:00.013-04:00

I went to Halifax for the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend. I wanted to make sure I did as many fall events as possible, you know walks in the leaves, sitting in the sun, seeing lots of pumpkins and people riding around in the river in giant gourds...wait, what?

See in the Valley of Nova Scotia there is a town famous for its pumpkins. There was a man called Howard Dell who grew the largest pumpkin in the world. Since he grew the largest pumpkin he seemed to spread the knowledge to the other farmers of his town, Windsor, NS, and everyone started growing large pumpkins/gourds. And what does one do with large gourds? Why of course they CARVE them and use them as RAFTS to cross the RIVER in Windsor....if they don't fall apart and cause you to crash into the water.

Weird, I know. But when we arrived in Windsor it was crazy busy, there were so many people everywhere that the highway was filled with parked cars. All to see this great race. And you know, it was weird and kind of cool, but actually really boring. You couldn't see anything, they took over 30 minutes to introduce the race, and the mayor, and other 'celebrities'. And when the race started you couldn't bloody SEE anything! So sad.

But on our way to Windsor, we stopped off in a place called Kentville to see this town exhibit called Pumpkinheads. I didn't really know what to expect with all of these pumpkinheads everywhere, I thought maybe it would be scarecrows propped up with jack-o-lanterns, but actually its a REALLY awesome tradition. Someone commented on my photos that the town looked like it was involved in its own Twilight Zone, and you know what, it was.

The church, strip mall, grave yard, park, store fronts, houses and the local INN all had these 'beings' out front:

They were like scarecrows all in different outfits and had painted pumpkinheads adorning them. There was the political pumpkinhead:

There was the farmer pumpkinhead in overalls surrounded by pumpkin-pigs:

There was the pumpkinhead choir with 3 members all wearing robes, with mouths opened in an O carrying their hymn books.

There were the sheep, the crow and the little mouse pumpkinheads:

It was such a cool thing for a town to do, to almost have their own identities out for visitors to see, out representing their town 24 hours a day for a week or two. Of course there was no pumpkin pie being sold anywhere, I guess that would have been cannibalistic to serve in a town of Pumpkinheaded people....too bad, I love Pumpkin pie...mmmm

Nostalgia Through Song

2008-10-04T16:17:00.004-04:00

Time travel is possible, I do it all the time. I have a few super embarrassing, cheesy songs on my ipod that I will never remove because of the places they take me when they play. I know you have that same experience, where your walking or sitting in your car and that song from a summer 15 years ago comes on and you're right back on that beach, you can smell the sea in the air, hear the waves crashing on the sand, see the sand castles being constructed all around you. Here are some of those songs that transport me to times long ago....

There's U2's Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me; it takes me back to that summer when I worked at Canada's Wonderland. I worked in a store called Rock the Casbah that had Much Music playing on every TV set. That was the summer of Batman Returns, Kiss from a Rose by Seal, Waterfalls by TLC and of course U2. We had the closed caption turned on every TV so everyone working in the store sang along. It wasn't a great job, but it was a fun summer of new experiences.

Every time I hear Valerie Loves Me by Material Issue I'm transported to Tracey's basement where my group of friends in high school gathered most weekends. We'd play it to get people dancing, me taking up most of the basement floor, banging my head, hurting my poor neck in the excitement. When I hear Jump Around by House of Pain I see all the boys jumping in unison, seeing a few knocking their heads into the ceiling. Jump around, jump around, jump up jump up and get down! We also listened to Today by the Smashing Pumpkins, Shiny Happy People by REM, I see my best friend Imreboy closing his eyes doing his Michael Stipe impression swaying back and forth, Are you Gonna Go my Way by Lenny Kravitz (there's memories of basketball games on K's driveway with that one) and that super famous, biggest song of my generation, Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana (too many memories to even begin mentioning here go with that song).

There's Keep on Rockin' in the Free World by Neil Young, which takes me back to my later years in high school, riding around in friends' cars with Joey who'd sing Neil Young at the top of his lungs. We'd also play Brian Wilson by the Barenaked Ladies, one of the few songs I actually know the correct lyrics, and sing in the right order! There's Blind Melon's No Rain, which we'd all sing as we ran around our parked car, skipping as though we were in the bee costumes from the video, and Hole's Violet which us girls would sing with the appropriate angst a la Courtney Love (I still LOVE this song).

In University I had friends of many different musical tastes, this is where the bulk of the embarrassing songs with the best memories come from. There's Fat Boy by Max A Million. Hey Fat Boy! Tut and I came home to residence one night after a long weekend away, opened our door, and ALL of our FURNITURE was gone in our common room, all of it, our rug, TV, couch...all that was left was a burning candle in the middle of the floor. What did we do to retaliate against the thieves (obviously the boys on our floor, we were on a floor with 5 apartments, 2 of them were boys only, whom we battled with all year) we played FAT BOY at top volume over and over and over again, so many times the boys couldn't stand it, and stood outside our door banging for us to open, begging for us to turn it off.

Anytime I hear Fantasy by Mariah Carey (which thankfully is not often) I'm brought back to nights hanging out with my wonderful friend Debbie, my other roommate in uni. She is miss RnB and unfortunately used to blast Fantasy all the time from her room. She was the official make-up artist of our floor, and naturally when she did our make-up and hair before big events she was in charge of the music. We got to listen to Fantasy over and over again throughout the many years in her care. (FYI, though I love Debbie, I have many other things that help me think of her, and I do not have this song on my ipod.)

Then there is the pinnacle of all embarrassing songs, the one I DO have on my ipod, that plays every once in a while and though I hate that I like it, I smile the biggest smile of all when I hear it. Its Back for Good by Take That...yep, Take That. This song doesn't bring me back to any specific moment, it simply conjures a feeling of being in University, sitting on the couch in my spot depicted by my ass print and watching that melodramatic black and white video on TV; or of playing the top 30 countdown on Saturday mornings while we all cleaned together or I actually did my weeks worth of homework.

Oh memories...notice how I didn't mention any of the romantic songs...or any of those songs I would sing when I was in elementary school pretending I was performing a concert in my living room in front of the bay window? Maybe I'll talk about those another time.

What songs do you time travel with?

Karl Pilkington

2008-10-01T22:59:00.003-04:00

Ok, so Karl Pilkington was once a producer for a radio show that Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant did for XFM (my fav radio station). I've loved Ricky since he was on XFM, but I don't really recall Karl so much, I guess I didn't listen as much as I thought I did. I remember mainly Ricky saying, "Are you having a laugh", then laughing his wheezy, gaspy way.

Now Ricky has these amazing podcasts that he does with his writing/producing partner Stephen Merchant where they basically make fun of Karl Pilkington for 40 minutes. And they are FREAKING HILARIOUS! Sometimes you can download them for free, sometimes you have to pay for them. Ricky has a great blog on his website: Ricky's blog, occasionally writing as Karl. Karl's great contribution to Ricky and Stephen's comedy stylings are basically his views on life, and believe me they are as strange as they are insane as they are amazingly funny, and this diary that he keeps documenting his daily thoughts...on everything...which are really, really strange and awesome.

So I thought to myself today, hey, since Karl writes a diary that they read aloud on the podcasts, and Ricky occasionally writes a blog pretending to be Karl, does Karl have his own blog? And guess what, HE DOES, and its WICKED! Here is an except, its a bit disturbing, but in the best way possible: Hair Raising Stunt Post

Another Way to Die - Jack White and Alicia Keys

2008-09-30T22:44:00.005-04:00

I don't know how I feel about the song on its own necessarily, but the video and the song together, talk about SHIVERS! James Bond Theme = Jack White on guitar and drums, Alicia Keys on Piano, and singing together...ding ding ding

Birthday Week - James

2008-09-28T22:04:00.002-04:00

Saw the James concert on Tuesday, my actual birthday. Do you remember James? Its such a shame how many people have forgotten them, you all know their song Laid (of course its not even their best song), but they were sort of popular in the 90s. Went with Lex and ML, Lex and I saw them in the early 90s at the Forum, a theatre that has since been replaced at Ontario Place. ML and I used to listen to James super loud when we were roommates in our yellow basement apartment in university.

The stage was set with an incredible light box that looked like a massive light bright (in the best way of course). Each light was an light bulb that lit up per song, in really interesting ways, white lights that rained for Waterfall, flashing lights for Sometimes, swirling lights of rainbows for other songs, matching them perfectly. I LOVE a good light show with a concert, Coldplay and the Doves are like the masters (well apparently Pink Floyd have the best light show of all time, but I've never seen them live). But James, in the smallish venue of the Phoenix (in a crap part of town), not only had a great light show worked out but they sounded FANTASTIC. They played mainly their melodic songs, very enjoyable but a bit quiet, and they are a 7 piece band, with fiddles, an accordion, many guitars, a synthezier and drums, and lead singer Tim Booth the spastically sublime dancer. Of all their songs I have 2 tied for 1st place favs, one is Sit Down which myself and this Scottish bloke standing next to me kept calling out for and they NEVER PLAYED (ya, its a big song!), and the second is Sometimes. Sometimes is a magnificent song, its so big and bold, about a boy listening to the rain on his rooftop, you close your eyes and listen to the lyrics and can see everything Tim sings about and smile. I never realized people loved the song as much as I do until Tuesday night.

So everyone around me was singing and dancing along, loudly, with lots of heart. Then as the song ended everyone around us started clapping over their heads and repeating the end line - "Sometimes when I look in your eyes, I can see your soul", then as the band ended the song everyone kept clapping and singing, not unusual right, songs you love you sing on and on...but the audience kept going for 5 minutes, I don't even think I'm exaggerating, 5 minutes! Tim danced a little with us, but then just stood there, almost in awe, almost a little annoyed, listening to the audience. We felt each other out, how long are we going to go on for, when is the band going to stop us, ya, it didn't happen for quite some time...until finally the band just started playing Laid, the big one, to shut us up! I gotta tell you, I loved every minute of it!

The rest of my birthday week was filled with friends and dinners and a surprise subway shutdown which caused me and the entire city great inconvenience, it took me an hour and 40 minutes to get home!

My friends T and C had me over for dinner on Friday night, they made me a Jamie Oliver fish dish, which was delicious! We talked for 4 hours, about books and medicine and wine, all those very adult things that I actually enjoy talking about! T bought Canoli, my all time fav dessert, a wonderful accident that I very much enjoyed.

Then I woke up Saturday morning, 3 am, all like, what the hell, why am I feeling like this? Ya, a weekend disaster, sick! Not only did I have something like food poisoning (no, not related to the wonderful Friday dinner, I felt a bit ill while I was eating the feast prepared for me, so I couldn't eat too much of it unfortunately) but I ended up missing all of my weekend plans! I had book club in the burbs at the Steele cottage, where Jen was making a wonderful brunch, then dinner with friends and my stepfather. And this morning, Sunday, I woke up with a freaking migraine and missed an early Thanksgiving at my Uncles house! What's up with that, one illness to another, got it all out in one go I suppose.

And tomorrow, back to life as normal apparently. Luckily lots of good TV is back on to keep me occupied.

The Beginning

2008-09-22T21:15:00.002-04:00

So its my birthday tomorrow. Since its been such a crap year with the whole break-up, sickness (my own and those that I love), a death, bad news, blah blah, I figure my birthday will be the beginning, a whole new year, a new outlook on good things to come, changes and positivity? Right, RIGHT?!

I have this sort of diary, where every birthday I would have a glass of cognac, open up the diary and reflect on the year that passed and the year to come. I found it again when I moved into my smaller apartment earlier this year, I haven't written in it since I turned, oh god, 26! That was umpteen years ago (I've passed the 30 year mark, a few years ago). Let's see what words of wisdom I've told myself over the years.

22 - "I don't really mind not knowing where I'll be, as long as it doesn't last too long." (ya, I STILL have no idea)

23 - "I spent the day a top a hill with a picnic in the wine region of France...this birthday year begins in yet another apartment, this one with a view. Great for contemplation, maybe of all those things I retained from university." (ha! Do I remember things still...ya, that great Pol200 professor, Classical Roman history, Existentialism, Plato's Republic, the balance of power...hmm, not too shabby 10 years out!)

24 - "We move to England this year, begin my journey towards myself. Being the person which exists inside of me somewhere. I've done many things over the past year that I am proud of. But these things are merely the set-up for what is to come in the future. But that's okay. At least I am finally moving towards something."

25 - "I deserve to be great, I need to be great. The foundation has been laid. Now, I need to walk along it, without fear of it collapsing"

And then, apparently a great year, 26 = "What a great birthday this has been. Coldplay concert, 2 brunches, dinner at a swank restaurant...Life's been busy, filled with excitement and being fun, finally. So here's to an okay year and A GREAT BIRTHDAY!!"

Its interesting because I seem to always have the same questions that are never really answered...how to have a fulfilled life, how to do interesting things that challenge me and make me feel like I am a good person. I documented the year before I met the ex, the year we started dating, our move to England. Its interesting looking at that now, I don't think my thoughts on us ever changed much over the years, which is a nice thing I guess. And now this year is truly a year of starting over, 10 YEARS after I started documenting my birthdays, I guess now is as good a time as any to start it over again, maybe look back when I hit 40 at how unsure about the future I was, laughing because it all turned out so wonderfully? Well a girl needs to think positive.

who are you, little i
(five or six years old)
peering from some high
window; at the gold
of november sunset
(and feeling: that if
day has to become night
this is a beautiful way)
--e.e. cummings
--Dan Custer

Film Fest 2008 - Wrap Up

2008-09-14T20:58:00.002-04:00

I feel like I was more tired then normal this year, maybe its because I had a cold, maybe its because I felt like I was running late to most movies and ran up many stairs to each film, either way I was a bit tired, but I didn't fall asleep at ANY movie, yay me!

I ended up seeing 21 films in all, I had tickets for 22 films but ended up missing one, ack such is life, I buy the tickets I can choose whether to use them or not, that's my philosophy.

The coolest moment of the festival was seeing Danny Boyle on the street, striding calming as he was very late for his Q&A at the theatre.

My favourite moment of the festival was actually being able to see the People's Choice at the festival, my first time ever. This years pick was Slumdog Millionaire, the forementioned Danny Boyle's film.

My top picks from this years festival are:
Empty Nest
CHE
Un Conte Du Noel
Lions Den
Fear Me Not
Slumdog Millionaire
Country Wedding

Great Festival overall, glad I got to see so many international films, still love the South American and Scandinavian films, they have a lot of heart! And I think next year I won't be getting my Visa Screening Room pass, I'll just stick to choosing my own films since I left so many of my 6pm films in disappointment...

Now back to my regularly scheduled life....

Film Fest 2008 Day 8 - CHE all the WAY

2008-09-14T19:59:00.003-04:00

The film I was most excited to see this film festival was CHE. I screamed with joy when I found out I was sure to get all of my first picks for the festival, because I knew CHE was going to be the hardest film to get, and boy was it crowded in that theatre Friday morning. Che is split into two films, the first is 2 hours and 11 minutes and the second is also 2 hours and 11 minutes (fancy that). Friday morning I arrived to the Ryerson theatre with the knowledge that I would be there for over 4 hours. Thankfully they gave us an intermission, not that I went anywhere for the break, but my eyes needed a rest.

Part 1 - Guerrilla, it was SUPER FANTASTICALLY AWESOME. Why the critics aren't that favourable to it I have no idea. Every moment was exquisite. The film is shown in colour and black and white, flipping back and forth from the revolution in Cuba and a trip to NY where he is speaking at the UN and being interviewed by someone like Barbara Walters. The interplay between how Ernesto GHE Guevara grows from a doctor with true beliefs in the cause to the 'Guerilla' master who helps to create hospitals, schools and becomes the icon of Cuba, and the CHE who is the toast of NY, meets Senator McCarthy, speaks passionately at the UN with the support of many S. American countries is a very effective way to show his story. I don't know how much of the film is based on truth, I choose to believe its more true then not (I'm aware that's very naive) but CHE really seems like an amazing person that totally deserves the icon status he's reached.

Part II - The Argentine was enjoyable but it didn't have the same heart as the first part of the film. I think because Guerrilla has the two aspects to its story, along with a very hopeful ending, and the Argentine is about Che's failure to bring the revolution he so believes in to the rest of the peasants of South America. Che's one request when helping Fidel Castro bring Communism to Cuba was that the revolution should not stop in Cuba but should be brought to all of South America's disenfranchised people. The fall of Che is an incredible story, and his heart is always in the right place, seemingly, but the people of Bolivia don't believe in his cause, especially because he's an outsider. America wants to make sure Communism stops at Cuba so they mobilize a force and propaganda quickly and effectively in Bolivia which makes Che's cause dead before it even gets off the ground.

So ya, Che, worth every moment. In my opinion anyway.

I also had 2 other films on Day 8. White Night Wedding was a fabulous Icelandic film, a modern take on a Chekhov play. A man is married to a woman seems to have schizophrenia or depression. Their relationship is not going very well and the man strays outside his marriage with a much younger woman. Unfortunately the husband and wife just moved back to a very small island in the Arctic ocean, so small no cars are allowed on the island, and its so far north that they have the 24 hour sun in the summer. Everyone knows everyone else's business on the island. When his wife dies under mysterious circumstances, the husband starts dating and plans to marry the younger woman, everyone get involved in his life. Though my description doesn't sound like it, the film is comedic. Its really cool seeing Iceland in the summer with constant sunlight. I really had a good time watching White Night Wedding.

The 3rd film, well, it was an Indian film that had heart but it was pretty silly, I couldn't really take it so I left early....I think that means I shouldn't mention the title or talk about the film too much so I won't influence you in any way (you probably won't have a chance to see the film, but just in case...)

And that my blog readers is my film festival experience for 2008!

Film Fest Days 6 and 7

2008-09-11T22:35:00.003-04:00

I have finally seen my fav film of the festival. Its possible that I will love one on Friday or Saturday even more, at this point though my favourite film of the festival is Empty Nest (El Nido vacío). The poster really doesn't do it justice, its really not about the couple in the picture, its about the journey of the husband, how he deals with aging, his kids leaving home and generally having a midlife crisis. The director Daniel Burman is a new Woody Allen. Empty Nest calls to mind the original Woody Allen films, I felt like I was watching Annie Hall if Woody and Annie stayed together...my kind of film. But more on that later.

Ok, Day 6, saw 3 movies. Thankfully I enjoyed 2/3 a lot. The first film was Un Conte Du Noel, a fabulous French film. It was very French like the movie from the day before that I did not like, but it was the good kind of French rather then the bad. How do I differentiate...well a good French film is one which reveals bits about characters and their relationships without spelling it out to the audience, its the nuances and the quiet moments between members of the cast rather then the big, bold expressions that make it French. You are intimately involved in conversations and familial relationships without truly understanding them, but it doesn't lessen the feelings you get whilst experiencing them. The bad French is all of the above but you feel nothing while watching it, you are constantly questioning where the film is going, what does it mean, do I even care?

Un Conte De Noel stars the luminous Catherine Deneuve as a family matriarch who learns she has cancer. There has been a rift in her family between one of her sons and her only daughter who have not spoken in 6 years. Catherine asks the family to come together for the holidays so she can spend time with them, and see if any of her children or grandchildren are a match to be bone marrow donors and will be able to help her cope with her cancer. Catherine was fantastic, but the man who played her husband was so warm and genuine he holds a special place in my heart, Abel played by Jean-Paul Roussillon. The children of the family were played by Mathieu Amalric, the lead of last years Diving Bell and Butterfly, and the crazy son of the family, Anne Consigny, the daughter, and my new SUPER CRUSH
Melvil Poupaud as the youngest son. It was a warm, loving, dysfunctional, understated, confused, befuddled film that I enjoyed immensely.

The 2nd film is being called the possible People's Choice Winner of the festival, I've never actually seen the film that won the People's Choice award while the film was still showing at TIFF (I believe the award winner is announced tomorrow). The film was the new one by Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting, Millions, 28 Days Later and Sunshine. I LOVE Danny Boyle and he was so charming and eloquent while introducing his new film, Slumdog Millionaire. He got a great introduction, of course, and he said, 'wow, that's a lot of pressure, I'm sure I won't be able to meet it now, so let me just start by saying I'm sure you'll hate my movie, its just awful...let me introduce you to the screenwriter of this awful film, and our poor two lead actors' just hilarious. The film is based on a true story of a young Indian guy from the slums of Bombay who makes it on to Who Wants to be a Millionaire and wins the grand prize of 20million rupees. The host of the game show thinks Jamal, the lead, is cheating somehow and has him arrested. The police try and coerce Jamal, not very gently mind you, into admitting that he cheated, and Jamal's life story comes out through flashbacks, from growing up in the slums to now, working as an 'errand boy' for a telemarketing company. The story is touching, a bit over dramatic, tough to watch, hilarious and lots of fun. The music was GREAT, of course, and the colours of the film were brilliant, AND the credits roll over a huge Bollywood dance sequence at a train station! How perfect is that? As I left the theatre and was walking along Gerrard street, who did I see slowly sauntering back to the theatre, late, for his Q&A, yep Danny Boyle, not a care in the world. He's just that cool.

My 3rd film was a German film, it was based on this diary turned into great book, A Woman in Berlin. My stepmother bought me a copy of A Woman in Berlin a year or two ago and I really enjoyed reading it. A very hard read its a diary written by a woman living in Berlin right after the Soviet occupation at the end of World War II. Its very graphic about many rapes and how the citizens of Berlin, mainly women, all had to make compromises with the men of Soviet Army to make their lives bearable. The film took on its own interpretation of the book and seemed to focus too much on short scenes rather then the overall theme of the book. I was a bit disappointed with the movie as it didn't capture the essence of the diary...

Ok, now for my favourite film, Empty Nest. What can I say without spoiling it...you just have to see it, to laugh while you watch it. Its a comedy, a very funny one at that. A famous playwright in Buenos Aries begins to write a play. As he sits in his armchair he looks up, waiting for his daughter to come home from an all night party, he begins to write. He looks up, keys unlock the door and we see his wife, she is suddenly aged, it pans back to the lead and he has aged as well. We learn that all 3 of their children have left home and moved half way around the world, the wife is now taking classes at the university and is deeply committed to school, and our hero is trying to get by. He, Leonardo played by Oscar Martinez, is just brilliant, the escapades he gets into, his contempt for all the writers constantly asking him to read their work. Leonardo falls for his dentist and believes his wife is involved in an affair of her own. The entire film was a wonderful romp, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen, it was a true comedy, and it really was a great tribute to the original style of Woody Allen.

I had another film that I was supposed to see tonight, but after loving Empty Nest so much I couldn't do it, I didn't want to be disappointed. I will, however, awake early tomorrow, make my way down to the Ryerson for my 9am showing of Che, and prepare to sit in the theatre for 4 and a half hours!!!

Film Fest 2008 Day 5

2008-09-09T22:38:00.004-04:00

I'm not exactly sure why I got out of bed this morning. I really wanted to stay in bed, on my day off, because a cold came out of no where and I feel like ass, but I was like NO, I wait ALL YEAR for Film Festival, I need to get out of bed, make sure I see every film. I rushed out, with a half hour to make it 35 minutes away. As I ran down the street I was apparently being called by a friend of mine as I walked super fast with my ipod turned up really loud, I felt someone standing next to me in a bright orange shirt, and there was David A! Of course you only run into people you love seeing when you're rushing somewhere.

I made it into Film Number 1 after it had already started, Genova. Genova was JAM PACKED full, a Michael Winterbottom film starring Colin Firth, Catherine Keener and Willa Holland (Kaitlan from the OC). Its a serious film about a father with 2 daughters, recently widowed due to a car accident while the 2 daughters were in the car. The father, Colin Firth, moves his kids to Italy for a year while he teaches a university course. And so the film just kind of moves nowhere from there...good acting by all, but it was kind of boring...sadly. AND I was stuck next to this sighing woman who kept digging in her super loud purse, slurping her drink and crossing and uncrossing her legs in frustration. ARGH, its boring, I get it, just LEAVE THEN! I enjoyed it more then she did, but don't have too much to say about it.

Film Number 2, Flame & Citron, was supposed to be amazing, I had super high hopes. Its a film directed by Ole Christian Madsen, who directed one of my all time favourite TIFF films, Prague. Flame & Citron also stars one of my very FAV actors, who's name I look for in the film fest directory every year, the great, Mads Mikkelsen. Flame & Citron is based on a true story about these 2 Danish resistence fighters in world war II. The two men are tasked with killing Nazi supporters in Denmark. Flame, this amazing young actor, Thure Lindhardt, is a red headed fire cracker who believes 100% in his cause and is used by the Danish government to be a hero figure against the Nazi's. He is really great, him walking down the street with his black over coat flapping in the wind as he goes to shoot someone was pretty awesome. And Mads, oh my Mads, he is so magnificent, even with his super sweaty face. Why do they always make his face so sweaty? Did you see him as the bad guy in Casino Royale? SWEAT O RAMA! Flame & Citron had great possibilities, even while watching it, the film was shot beautifully, superbly acted, very well staged, but it fell flat somewhere. And the end, the ending came out of nowhere. It was the right time for it to end, but it kind of didn't match the film, and you're like, how did that happen, you're missing something, I don't get it! So sad.

My third film, lord oh lord, Un Barage Contre le Pacifique. I just didn't get it, I stuck it out as long as possible but I couldn't take it to the very end. Its a film set in Cambodia, by a Cambodian born director who was educated in France. Its VERY French, one of those movies that you watch and wonder, am I supposed to get it? I just don't get it! The lead has a plot of land in Cambodia, Indochine of the 1930s, where she farms rice. A Sea Wall (that's what the title means in English) bursts and floods the rice patties with salt water. The lead, a mother to a 19 boy and a 16 year old girl, needs to figure out a way to pay for her land and recoup her costs...the 16 year old daughter, Suzanne, is very fetching, and catches the eye of this super rich Chinese guy, Monsieur Jo, and the mom wants to marry Suzanne off to him and use his money. So there's prejudice and the brother, Joseph, is an ass with a terrible walk and a GREAT body, is the mothers obvious fav child. But I just don't get it, the mother and brother keep calling the daughter a slut, and they don't think M. Jo is good enough for Suzanne, and Suzanne likes him but she hates him but she likes him. I don't GET IT! I just looked the film up to try and get the mother's name and noticed the film was chosen by Piers Handling, like Atom Egoyan from my previous post, Piers and I don't get along. Yes, Piers founded the festival, and yes he is very important and beloved in cinema, blah blah, but I don't like his picks! They are too strange, give me laughter and tears, not utter confusion!

So that's it for today, I need to sleep, I have 3 more movies tomorrow and my eyes are burning...where is that magnificient film I've been waiting to see, better come in the next couple of days...

Film Fest 2008 Day 4 - PABLO TRAPERO

2008-09-08T23:33:00.003-04:00

I am going to break with tradition and talk about only one of the films that I saw today (I walked out of the other one, knowing I didn't want to see it and it was WORSE then I thought it would be, come on what teacher encourages her student to tell her class a FAKE story about how his FATHER BEING A TERROIST! And ACT LIKE ITS TRUE?! Atom Egoyan, I'm sorry even though you are one of Canada's most celebrated directors, we just don't get along...)

I am not a film critic, I know I act like one sometimes, as I watch a lot of movies and know a lot about pop culture, etc., etc. I'm afraid in this instance I need to act like I know what I'm talking about. Pablo Trapero is a great director, he is far too under appreciated. I've seen every one of his 4 films at TIFF. Every year I scan the film descriptions hoping to see his name. His first film was El Bonaerense, a gritty portrayal of the police force in Argentina, seeing that film changed my view on cinema, and I started becoming interested in the 'new wave, neo realist' South American films that are rarely shown outside of the film festival. Pablo doesn't pander to the audience, he doesn't judge his characters or their choices, he aims to show his films in the most realistic light, almost documentary style.

Leonera (Lion's Den), his latest film, is sublime. Words can't describe its brilliance...the lead actress was so magnificent, every facial expression, every sigh, every shrug, she just nailed it, you thought you were watching a documentary on this woman's life, it seemed like she was actually living it! The film is about a pregnant woman, Julia, sent to prison for murder. That's it, that's the film! I know, how exciting right. Just watching her struggles, her triumphs, the way she changes into this strong, tough mother made every moment of the film come alive. I actually felt physically sick by the end, it welled up inside me as I clenched my fists. I am always taken out of films by my surroundings, I just can't let a movie draw me in completely, but I was overtaken by Leonera. I felt like I was a mother in the prison. I felt like I lived their life and accomplished their triumphs and fought with them along side Julia. People actually yelled BRAVO as the credits rolled, which usually happens only the snooty galas.

I'm not sure his work appeals to everyone, he really is a hyper realistic director, so much so that his films can seem a bit slow if you aren't interested in the subject matter (others found his film Rolling Family slow moving, whereas I was entranced by it). But honestly, Leonera is film for film lovers. Hollywood actresses, why don't you get over yourselves and learn to act with the passion of Leonera's lead, Martina Gusman.

P.S. Pablo using the gorgeous Rodrigo Santoro as the 'bad guy' was a stroke of genius. I gasped when he appeared, and you never knew whether you could trust him, ever...

Film Fest 2008 Days 2 and 3

2008-09-08T00:31:00.002-04:00

In from 2 full days, which included 6 movies....3 being the Darkest films I've ever seen, of course they were all in a row.

First was Sauna, a Finnish film set in the 1500s. A war between Russia and Sweden has just ended, and a Swedish and Russian border team are traveling the 2 nations mapping out the new borders that were drawn during the war. Of course, its a friggin HORROR film, which I should have expected but I didn't at all....two brothers make up the Swedish team. One is a murdering fiend, the other is the bookish type. Of course one goes crazy when they come across this strange town in the middle of a swamp that is unmapped. Guess which brother goes crazy and starts killing people? Its dark, and has the most terrifying ending of like all time! I HATE Horror movies but it was good nonetheless.

Second was the new Deepa Mehta film called Heaven on Earth. The film was set in Brampton, a suburb of Toronto, and was a different kind of horror film, the kind set in reality. An Indian woman is sent to marry a Indian in Canada. He lives with his mother, father, sister and her unemployed husband and their two children. The father seems like he's a nice guy, but everyone else is totally rotten. The lead's new husband is the worst sort of person who beats up his wife, in front of his niece and nephew, every chance he gets. Ya, really disgusting. Very well done, but very hard to take. A few people left, I think they couldn't take it. There was a bit of imagination thrown in to help the audience get through it, but I'm not sure it helped THAT much.

The third film was a super cool Danish film, Fear me Not. Fear me Not stars this wonderful Danish actor from this movie I loved a few years ago, Adams Apple, his name is Ulrich Thomsen. Ulrich plays this ordinary man, Mikael, who seems to be having problems with day to day life and is taking a sabbatical from work for an indeterminate amount of time. Mikael enrolls himself in a clinical trial for a depression medication being run by his brother-in-law. The depression medication begins to change Mikael for the better, he seems more cheerful and alive. When others involved in the trial start to show violent tendencies the trial is ended. Mikael, however, thinks the medication is working miracles for him so he continues to take it. He starts to act stranger, and stranger, and becomes dangerous. Of course there is a twist, which is pure brilliance, and the film ends pretty much as dark as a film can get. The acting was wonderful, the story very smart. I liked it a lot, I just wish I didn't see two super dark movies before it.

My fourth film, thankfully, was a comedy, Horn of Plenty, a comedic film of epic proportions film which I really enjoyed. The Horn of Plenty is a Cuban film about a fortune that was left for a family line that was created in 1775. A number of people in a small town in Cuba claim to be members of the family line and need to prove their lineage in order to get part of the inheritance. Of course hilarity ensues; affairs, lying, marrying for money, spending all of their inheritance before they get it, etc., etc. A really fun romp where the whole cast is in on the joke the entire film. Very enjoyable.

My fifth film; I originally had tickets to see The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke and directed by Darren Aronofsky, which I really had no desire to see. Then I get a call from Sandy who got tickets to see the Gala presentation of the Duchess starring Ralph Fiennes and Kiera Knightley, a film I was humming and hahing over, but I thought that's better then watching a film that I'm dreading, so I said, sure I'll go see it with you. We've only seen one film festival movie together since she started working for TIFF, almost 4 years ago, how could I pass up the opportunity! As I've said over the years, I don't really enjoy the pomp of the Gala's, yes I know the Visa Screening Room is pretty much the same thing, but the energy in the crowd is different, the US vs THEM seating is so obvious at Roy Thomson Hall, the speeches are wooden and less emotion filled then the Visa Screening Room (I doubt Ed Harris would have cried at a Gala). Ralph Fiennes and Kiera rushed on stage, waved, and were hurried off (though Sandy and I did seem them leave their seats and they passed us in the hallway, up close and personal.) The film itself looked beautiful, the British scenery, the costumes, the sheer magnitude of the film. Ralph was amazing and stoic and containing of his emotions (as usual). Kiera was all joy and sadness, shown through her typical acting stylings of major facial expressions. She can mimic someone about to throw up in horror better then anyone in the business. The film was grande, a bit boring, but interesting. Dominic Cooper, her lover in the film, Mr. Grey, was all passion and brilliance, but ack, it was ok, really very ok. (Dominic also passed us in the hallway and ya, he's damn hot in real life, especially so close) Your mom's will love it.

And my sixth film, phew I'm tired just writing this, The Country Wedding, an Icelandic comedy. And by comedy I mean, complete, utter, crazy, hysterical, farcical, comedy. It was a completely improvised film about 2 families trying to find a red roofed church in a country location in Iceland as they travel in 2 buses, one bus is filled with the bride, her friends and family, the other with the groom, his friends and family. Can you imagine the hilarity that ensues? No, I don't think you can, its a must see, even though its filmed with a very shaky camera, and at times it makes no sense, and there are fights and yelling. It is so outlandish and the audience roared with laughter, just great fun, a good end after so much darkness.

Film Fest 2008 - Day 1

2008-09-05T22:56:00.003-04:00

I have a crush on Ed Harris, its a fleeting emotion I believe, but its pretty strong for the next 12 hours at least.

My first film was Appaloosa, screened at the 'beautiful and historic Elgin Theatre'...that's how each Visa Screening Room film is introduced at the Elgin. If you arrive early enough to the Elgin you get into the swanky lounge, drink some free coffee, eat some fancy chocolates, etc., etc. Today I arrived too late so I made my way to the Gold and Platinum Visa line (yes they separate us from the 'riff raff'), and as I stood in line, trying to hide my UTTER GLEE AT SEEING MY FIRST FILM OF THE FESTIVAL, I hear this Australian accent behind me, a bit muffled as I had my earphones on, saying, "they let anybody in this line don't they?" Its JMel, one of my favourite people from my work! I made sure to tell everyone in the office about my movies, but I guess I missed him and so we accidentally met one another in line and I actually had someone to talk to while I waited! Not only is he seeing many films at the festival (of course he doesn't remember which) but his girlfriend works for the festival, just like my friend Sandy! Got to ask her if they know each other. JMel and I discussed our other films, and Hot Docs films, and he loved my fav Hot Doc movie from this year, Man on a Wire! How super cool is that?

Oh sorry, I digress, back to the movie. So we were in the line for a while, got the ok to make our way early into the Elgin's lobby and stand around until the actual theatre opened. There were a bunch of crazy's standing RIGHT NEXT to the red carpet just hoping to get a close whiff of Viggo Mortensen. The poor TIFF red carpet dude is all like, "Once the doors open, move back from the red carpet, I won't ask you again, if you don't move back you will be PUSHED into the theatre!" Good for you red carpet dude. JMel and I separated as he worried about making his way to a good seat on the ground floor, I'm always in the balcony. I got my favourite seat, started reading and waited for the film.

The lights went dark, out came Piers Handling, gave his spiel, and introduced my new crush Ed Harris! Ed started reading Appaloosa while on vacation in Ireland, fell in love with the book, and decided to make the movie based on it. He got together with a bunch of producers, and asked his friend from the History of Violence, Viggo Mortensen, to star with him. The movie is about 2 peace-keeping cowboys in the 1880s. Its about their friendship, a town called Appaloosa that's overrun by a bandits gang, lead by the incomparable Jeremy Irons, and a woman who causes friction between the two friends, Renee Zellweger. While Ed was introducing those involved in the film, he said, "there is one actor that I particularly want to thank, someone who acts for the very first time in a film playing a judge" and he got all emotional, and sweet, and I am getting all teary as I write this, "my father". And Ed sort of walked away from the microphone for a moment...and pumped his arm in the air, "my father decided to come out and help us in a pivotal scene playing a judge, and he did such a good job, I'm so proud of him, stand up dad" and his dad stood up (apparently, I couldn't see him from my seat) and the audience went all mental. It was the sweetest thing I've ever seen! Then he introduced Jeremy Irons, Renee Zellweger and the manly Viggo! I unfortunately didn't get to see the end of the film, Ed talked for quite a long time, but what I saw was really good. The voices were a bit muffled in the theatre, the Elgin has never had the best sound for American films, but it was really funny and heartwarming, though it had a lot of strange things going on that I assume were rectified by the end.

I rushed out at 7:45pm to make my way to the AMC theatre at Yonge and Dundas, seeing a film there for the first time, The Paranoids, an Argentinian film. The seats are pretty comfortable, but boy was the theatre HOT! The Paranoids had a really interesting premise. It was billed as a film about this sort of strange young guy, who is afraid of getting an STD, being caught smoking weed but most of all he is scared of his doorman. I thought we would see his paranoid behaviour more, but a lot of it seemed pretty well founded! His doorman was crazy! The film was really more about this strange guy, Luciano, and his relationship with an old friend from school, Manuel, who created a hit TV show in Spain about Paranoid people...of course based on Luciano. Manuel introduces Luciano to his girlfriend Sofia. Luciano and Sofia start this unusual relationship, where they don't get along right away, but the chemistry is undeniable. There is a great dance sequence with just Luciano that seems like a throw away scene, but it makes total sense when you get to the end of the film which is all hot and amazing and makes so much sense, you're like AH! I heard people talking about the film as they left, the guys didn't really seem to get it, but I don't understand how they couldn't! Sofia really saw Luciano for who he was, whereas Manuel really used Luciano in every possible way and tried to make it look like he was a good friend....so I don't know if I LIKED the film, but I enjoyed it for the most part. I think that I like my weird films heavy on the weirdness though, and it wasn't weird enough...though the dancing was hot and made me think, yet again, all you men out there, we all want a man who LOVES TO DANCE!

P.S. my one regret is if I chose the 9pm visa screening room pass, I would have seen the amazing, hilarious, fabulous RICKY GERVAIS today! but I didn't, I chose the 6pm pass, alas....

Its the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2008-09-04T22:14:00.003-04:00

Its FILM FESTIVAL TIME!

Picture this, you wake up at 8am on a Saturday morning, "do I have to get up SO EARLY, its Saturday", wait, you have to rush off to the movies, to see a movie that is being shown possibly for the VERY FIRST time to the public. You get dressed in a hurry in layers, might be cool outside, will definitely be cool in the theatre. You try and look nice, but not too nice, hey Edward Norton is somewhere in the city! You rush out the door, into Starbucks. You have a very cheery disposition, "I'll take a pumpkin cream cheese muffin and a Grande sugar-free Vanilla Latte", mmm, you've waited ALL YEAR for this first bite, its all pumpkiny and nutmeggy and delicious.

You walk briskly to the subway, making sure you have the tickets in your purse, the tickets for your FULL DAY of movies. You plug your ipod into your ears, arrive to the theatre, stand in a line filled with murmurs of expert movie goers, "is this your first film of the festival", "how many have you seen so far?", "what films are the buzz of this years festival", you smile to yourself, then the line starts moving. You gulp down the last of your latte just in time to throw the cup in the garbage bag being held by the poor volunteer who was hoping to get a smile from Brad Pitt.

Into the theatre, survey, where is the best seat, where do you get the best view with the furthest proximity to a possible annoying chatterbox. You spot it, make your way down the aisle, plop down with a satisfied sigh, as you pull your book or magazine from your film fest bag.

The lights start to dim, the programmer makes their way to the stage. "Welcome to the Toronto International Film Festival, first I'd like to thank our sponsors...this film is a little arthouse film, a gem of a movie, a movie that represents the Latin American new wave movement, the film getting the Oscar Buzz 2 months before its release, a film dear to my heart...please welcome the director of this film...." and then it starts, sometimes with a little speech, sometimes with the actors being called to the stage one by one, sometimes with screaming fans of Indian Bollywood seeing their favourite actors in the flesh for the first time...however it starts, its starting tomorrow, my Toronto International Film Festival experience, which I've waited nearly 365 days for...doesn't it sound like the best?

Here are the films I'm seeing this year, blogging and my thoughts on each films will begin tomorrow night (possibly Saturday morning, whatever the time allows). There are a few Latin American films, a couple of Spanish films, MANY Scandinavian films, a couple blockbusters and hopefully what will become my top picks for films in 2008:

Appaloosa
Paranoids
Sauna
Heaven on Earth
Fear me Not
Horn of Plenty
Wrestler
Adoration
Lion's Den
Genova
Flame & Citron
Un Barage Contre
Un Conte du Noel
Slumdog Millionaire
A Woman in Berlin
Empty Nest
Me & Orson Wells
Che
White Night Wedding
Kanchivaram
The Ghost

Soap Opera Favs

2008-08-28T21:07:00.003-04:00

I was talking to Lexie today and we were talking about Soaps and their goings on...I don't watch them anymore, honestly, but I used to. I watched them in elementary school, highschool, university, for a long time...the memory of Soaps that prompted this post was watching Another World in first year university with Debbie, and it was the death of a favourite character, Ryan, the beautiful, perfect Ryan, and how we cried and cried, and one of our male neighbours came over and was all like, are you guys ok, and we were like, NO, Ryan just died! It really meant a lot to us, when you watch a show daily the characters start to mean a lot to you, they become a big part of your life. There are those moments, like Ryan's death, that always stick with you. The General Hospital yearly AIDS benefit, where the entire cast gets to showcase their singing and dancing talents, where the character of Robin is 'honoured' in a way for surviving another year with AIDS. There is the famous scene when Robin fainted all those years ago and needed to be carried off by Jason. There's the horrible rape story line of Lizzie on GH, when she crawls out of the bushes and is found by Lucky and their slow friendship and love affair begins. Bits of scenes that stick with you where you just remember the feeling of watching the love blossom between characters that have meant so much to you, like Jake and Vicky on Another World, they both had such varied story lines over the years, Vicky with her greatest love of Ryan, and Jake and Marley together on and off for so long, then they finally realize they are meant to be and it just feels so right. I thought I'd honour those characters, and couplings, from the Soaps I've watched over the years that have meant a lot to me:

Ryan Harrison, Another World - Paul Michael Valley - the dream man, so sweet
Cass Winthrop, Another World - Stephen Schnetzer - the sophisticated cad, love it
Mason Capwell, Santa Barbara - Lane Davies - the snotty, smart, argumentative type, my fav
Julia Wainwright, Santa Barbara - Nancy Lee Grahn - gave Mason a run for her money, super smart, dressed fabulously, all around great female role model
Brenda Barrett, General Hospital - Vanessa Marcil - started off all horrible, stealing men from friends, then redeemed herself and became everyone's fav character, on and off the show
Jonathan Randall, Guiding Light - Tom Pelphery - wow, really great actor, started off horribly, and showed as a character that love really can change you
Jack Deveraux, Days of Our Lives - Matthew Ashford - like Cass on AW, a cad who was intelligent, fell for the right girl, changed, and won my heart

Couples
Mason and Julia, Santa Barbara - all time fav couple, snappy, smart, perfect
Vicky and Ryan, Another World - aww, LOVE THEM
Cass and Frankie, Another world - smart, fun, great couple to emulate in real life
Jonathan and Tammy, Guiding Light - well, gross they were cousins, but the chemistry between the actors, HOLY!
Vicky and Jake, Another World - took the show forever to put them together, but when they did, it was pure magic
Stone and Robin, General Hospital - controversial, relevant, young love
Jack and Jennifer, Days of Our Lives - the sweet girl falls for the ass, he changes to win her heart, doesn't happen in real life, but its a SOAP OPERA!
Patch and Kayla, Days of Our Lives - guy from the wrong side of the tracks, meets the right girl at the right time, like a fairy tale
Brenda and Sonny, General Hospital - hmm, they were all wrong, he was this slime ball who ran strip clubs for like underage people or something, but the fireworks between the two of them, I was GLUED to the TV

Honourary coupling that was really just a brother and sister match-up
The old Emily and Jason as brother and sister on General Hospital - Amber Tamblin grew up on GH, seeing her and Jason supporting each other was so beautiful and joyful

Stay tuned, Toronto International Film Fest blogging starts in 1 week, I find out my movie picks this weekend!

T's Wedding

2008-08-25T12:51:00.003-04:00

I was a bridesmaid for the first time this weekend. A good friend of mine, who I met in high-school, around 15 years ago, eek, married this wonderful man yesterday in the most beautiful, intimate wedding. She and I became friends in our OAC year in highschool (Ontario used to have a 5th year of highschool so you could take some university type prep courses prior to starting your secondary education courses, a really good idea I think that they have since gotten rid of). We knew each other before OAC year, she, this beautiful goddess who walked with great confidence, me this skinny nerd who was very obnoxious, and she didn't like me much before we ended up having EVERY single period in the SAME CLASS in our 5th year. We became friends, members of the Twin Peaks fan club (yes I started it, I'm a nerd remember) and realized we were kindred spirits. Now we try and have brunch at a new place around the city every few months.

I’ve never been a bridesmaid before, though I have been involved in friends’ weddings, mainly using my LOUDNESS as a singer or an organizer type. When T asked me to be a bridesmaid I was honestly so very touched and pleased that I was able to share this day with her in such a ‘formal’ way. As a wedding guest typically you arrive to the ceremony, sit around, get shuffled to the reception, stand around, get moved to your table, sit around, eat, dance and go home. You never REALLY get to spend anytime with the person who is getting married, even if you are the singer as I have been in the past. But as a bridesmaid you get to spend the ENTIRE DAY with the bride or groom.

I arrived at 7:30AM to the school where the wedding/reception took place. The school is a private school where the groom’s father is the Headmaster. It’s in my neighbourhood, fancy that (even though a cab cost $11 to get there, what is up with that!) so it’s surrounded by beautiful, big old trees and greenery. The school has an old stone façade with blue shutters and looks more like an old mansion then a school, which is obviously why it was the perfect choice for the two lovebirds. We were put into this dressing room right next to the kitchen to sit around for the morning getting our hair and make-up done, basically able to hang out and be in close proximity to the weddings set up so we could run out and help with ripping rose pedals off fresh roses, dry off our bouquet bottoms, ensure the lanterns for the wedding aisle were laid out appropriately, etc.

It’s a strange experience sitting around watching the bride get ready. Videographers are wandering around, filming you in the before and after states, photographers take the dress out of the room and photograph it against an appropriate background, last minute details are anxiously taken care of knowing there is no time but now to make sure things are ready to go. There were 3 dress incidents prior to the wedding, one was the bride’s almost disaster, which you can read about here, one was another bridesmaid somehow tried her dress on the night before and her zipper broke, she had to run to a tailor and beg for them to fix it right away, at 6pm on a Saturday night, and of course, this being my worst year of all time, my dress had to have its own melt down, just as I was putting it on, to walk down the aisle. As I tried on my dress in the bathroom, I noticed a loose thread (what does your mom tell you, don’t pull on a loose thread, And ALWAYS CUT IT) which I thought belonged to my slip that had just been altered. So I pulled it, and snapped it off, then as I walked out of the bathroom, at 11:45am (just as we were making our way to the drawing room for our grand entrance) I looked in the mirror, and my hem was down, my ENTIRE HEM had come loose and was hanging down! I go, oh no, oh no, and of course the bride is like, Ange, What is it, with panic in her voice (like she needs more to worry about, I am so sorry I sounded so panicked myself) I’m like, the hem has come loose on my dress! And T’s mom, the like sweetest woman of all time, bends down on her knees, whips out some needle and thread and starts to sew up my hem! I’m like, please, don’t worry, let’s tape it, or pin it, we have to go, and the mother is still finishing her hair. No, no Angela, it will just take a minute. So she sewed it up (not the whole thing, just sections to keep it intact) and everyone finished getting ready, and off we went to the drawing room.

The ceremony was beautiful, lots of love, a few tears, and these horrible horseflies that kept landing on the bridesmaids and chopped at our legs. You try and be as couth as possible, but when you feel them bite you, you react by kicking your leg up to get the fly off you! Of course the groomsmen (the grooms 3 brothers) were like, what flies, they weren’t bothering us!

As we made our way to get the pictures taken of course my hem had come loose, and Chris’s mother, and 2 grandmothers approached me to let me know that I was undone, I was like, I know, I’ll hide somewhere in the pictures, it will be fine. The grandfathers were all gentleman and offered me their boutonnière pins to pin myself back up (one grandfather went to get the duct tape from the car to tape me up, oh Canadians, duct tape fixes everything), but T’s mom ran over with a safety pin, pinned me up again and I was saved.

At the reception I was lucky enough to be seated with this old ‘friend’ from high school. I say ‘friend’ because we weren’t actually friends, more acquaintances who laughed together and participated in the same activities at school like the school play (he dropped me while practicing at lift for West Side Story where I sprained my wrist, an event which I reminded him of yesterday). He was SO funny and enjoyable to sit with, the afternoon flew by. Of course, I did get to spend the whole day with T, though the reception to belonged to the bride, groom and everyone else. The food was very tasty, lots of fresh veggies and fruit, nothing fried or heart clogging, which I was very grateful for…there was no dancing, just eating, drinking and being merry. The groom welcomed everyone with a very beautiful speech thanking everyone for coming, and with a heartfelt thanks to his parents (I read this beautiful poem at the ceremony that T picked out, making the groom a little teary eyed, which sadly I enjoyed, its nice to see a man cry with joy, isn’t it). The best man gave a very funny, lighthearted speech, being a brother he could do that. He said “since everyone else has already said congratulations let me be the first to say Merry Xmas”, ha ha. And the maid of honour gave a short but emotional speech about her love for the bride, which was lovely.

And that was the day! Phew, I’m tired just writing this out, never mind still recovering from the actual wedding!

The Trip - the Final Days

2008-08-21T21:49:00.003-04:00

Unfortunately the trip across the USA ended with my least favourite parts, UTAH, Las Vegas and LA.

Utah was a strange state, there doesn't seem to be anyone living in it. When you leave Colorado and enter Utah you seem to hit a desolate desert, actually not seem, it is a desolate desert with the occasional sign that alerts you to a Ranch exit. There was an over 100mile stretch without any services. We were surrounded by mountains and sand and just oddness that is hard to describe. I think people live in Utah, somewhere, it seems really hot, and the mountains are interesting to look at because of their red clay, but the same desolation for 100s of miles makes for a very odd experience. We hit a couple of small suburban centres, places where communities sprung out of no where with their Walmarts, gas stations and McDonalds. Who chooses to live in these places? I'm not judging I just don't understand. You have nothing for miles upon miles around you, just your little town with a few amenities, a grocery store, a school, yes you might know your neighbours, but there are no parks, no lakes, no trees, just red mountains, sand, isolation...what's the attraction, is it cheaper to live in one of these places? I felt very strange going through Utah, I don't think I'd like to do it again, PS, the mullet, still lives, in the Utah Walmart...

I have always had great contempt for Las Vegas. I am not a flashy person. I don't like spending money on gambling, well no more then $5, any more and I feel like its a complete waste. I don't like spending large amounts of time in a location with no clearly marked exits or windows surrounded by smokers, no music and lots of alcohol, its just not my style. Concerts, even though they meet the aforementioned criteria they have music, loud, pulsating music performed by bands that I love, casinos, they do not. Casinos feel like they are filled with the hopeless, people lost, sitting at machines, that probably save up their money for a few days vacation a year so they can try and strike it rich. Sitting at a machine for 30 hours while your kids are babysat by a hotel TV set doesn't sound like the best family vacation. Sure Las Vegas has improved since I was 16, the only other time I went to Nevada, there are roller coasters in the hotels, the worlds best chefs have restaurants here, big shows like Cirque du Soliel, large creations of fake city facades, like Paris and New York. Why I ask you are all the tourists taking pictures of a fake Venetian canal and the 10 foot Empire State building, go to Venice, Rome, New York, see the Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn! Colin and I did have dinner at Emeril's restaurant at the MGM Grand, the food was phenomenal and the service was probably the best I've ever had out, but you know, Vegas was still this showy, ridiculous facade of a place that I hope to never set foot in again, ever.

After we awoke in our lovely hotel room in the New York New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and were able to find our way out of the cobble stoned casino floors resembling a hollywood set of a downtown NY street, we made our way to LA. A LA, what can I say about you? If I think Las Vegas is fake, I don't think I can even tell you how much I dislike LA. Granted there are elements of reality in LA, the amazing films that I have loved over the years that were created here, really good Mexican and seafood restaurants, palm trees, the ocean, beautiful architectural gems of houses, trees in full bloom...but you don't have a soul LA, you have people who live in a great climate who drive everywhere, people who don't run outside but in gyms with stale air, streets with boarded up shops right next to glamorous IT bars and clubs. I just don't understand LA, and I don't really want to. I did find a really spectacular hotel that cost a reasonable price (in LA standards) called Le Montrose. Its in West Hollywood, bordering Beverly Hills, on a residential street. Its located between Sunset and Santa Monica Blvd., and yes its pretentious (a 'producer type' came out of the hotel as we pulled up in our super packed car, pointed to us and said "you think they packed enough", like its any of your business lady, get away from the car!) but we got free cookies left in our room, a really nice shower with stone floors, a huge, comfy bed, a ginormous flat screen TV that had a game unit attached. Really great place for a good price, I highly recommend. We stayed the night, went out for our last meal as a couple, ate sushi, went to the Derby for a drink (they invented my fav. drink of all time the Whiskey Sour) but I changed my mind about the drink not wanting to associate my fav drink with our last night together, went back to the hotel to sleep early and then I was dropped off at the airport....

A bittersweet trip, with high points - Chicago, wind farms in Kansas, soybean farms in Illinois, the entire drive through Colorado, Le Montrose, Emerils; and low points - St. Louis's ghost town, Jesus loves you Kansas, Utah, Vegas, the end of us...but all in all, well that's it, all in all I'm home now and just need to start the next phase of my life...

Kansas and Colorado

2008-08-18T00:49:00.002-04:00

Drove through Kansas today, the WHOLE state, from Topeka to Kanorado (yes, where Colorado and Kansas meet). I had certain expectations on 'middle America' which I got from magazines, books, TV shows...and I was actually surprised in the beginning that they were not being met. We had some great service, expected, a cheap hotel that was clean and well taken care of, though pretty bland on service, expected, but where was the fervent religion and ra ra America that I hear about?

We saw these AMAZING windmill farms, which were so spectacularly beautiful, and a really good way to preserve American values through jobs and keeping energy 'American', which really benefits everyone (we saw soy bean farms throughout Michigan as well, to be used for biodiesel, which as an environmentalist warmed my heart, regardless of the rational behind them). Of course the religious ideology was just as prominently displayed as these windmills. I think the city part of Kansas, along with cities in general, are pretty 'liberal' places, mix of people, religions, ideas. When you hit anywhere rural, anywhere in the world, you met the stronger, one sided beliefs. There were signs on farmland that were positioned so everyone driving on the I70 could see that Abortion is wrong and Jesus is right, along with church addresses and 'self help' phone numbers for you to save your soul. Now, its your farm, of course you have every right to your beliefs, and to share them, this being America and all, I was just surprised that you really did display them so obviously, making sure you got the WIDEST audience possible.

Kansas does have a sense of humour about how boring it is to drive through, except for the signs that kept us entertained, you really only see field, cow, truck and some pretty nightmarish roadkill. You know that there isn't that much to look at, you have t-shirts printed up which say, yep, cow, wheat, cow, wheat, I've seen it all, next time I'll fly over Kansas. The only reason I say you should take a trip through Kansas, all you non-rural, religious folk that is, is so you can reach Colorado and see the view of this most AMAZING state from the Kansas state line.

Oh Colorado, every moment here (except for our hotel which smells like stale BO) has been an absolute dream. Arriving from Kansas you still have the rolling field vistas. But Colorado is more then just field, you see the horizon and these massive ranchlands filled with horses and cows. There are these ginormous houses on the ranch lands with glorious trees and ponds. The hills are multicoloured and just spectacular to look at, even though there is 'sparse' vegetation. Then you start to wonder, where are the mountains? I can see as far as the eye can see, apparently, but I can't see any mountains anywhere. Well, you know those gathered clouds in the distance? The ones you're driving towards, ya, those are them, and they are the most amazing things you will ever come across in your life. You start to climb higher and higher, all of a sudden really, without realizing you're coming into Denver. I kept saying to Colin, I thought it was the Mile High City, are they trying to be ironic? Where are the mountains? These 'hills' you're climbing, slowly, turn into larger hills, and larger, then in the distance a city pops out of nowhere, and in the clouds you see it, sunken, sitting there, Denver, and then, right behind them, the mountains.

Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to see Denver, Kansas took forever. Even Colorado part 1 took a while (with the 75m an hour speed limit!). And we had to drive through the mountains. But Denver looks really cool. The mountains, well no word can describe them. We've had some strange weather here today, it was raining in Kansas, then we hit the Colorado border and it stopped (no, I'm not exaggerating, it literally stopped when we hit the Welcome to Colorado sign). But the horizon had a darkened tinge to it, with the occassional lightening strike. Then when we hit the mountains we had sun, rain, and yes a bit of snow! The mountains are a bit scary to drive through with our SUPER packed car (Colin moving to LA and all), and we hit heights of 8000ft, 10000ft, etc). The towns nestled in the mountains all look amazing, like Whistler all throughout the Rockys, town after town, mining towns mixed with skiers, log cabins for rich people mixed with trailers, old town stores mixed with Walmarts and Targets. Really cool. The air was fresh and clean and smelled of pine. Then we hit Vail, of course we had to get out to stretch our legs, and it was just filled with life and excitement, and beauty, you could see why the rich vacation here, just to be in it for 10 minutes was amazing. The drive UP there meant it better be a good place to hand out, and thankfully it was.

Vail to Grand Junction gave us the most beautiful purple sunset I have ever seen, through the mountain peeks and valleys. We saw tonnes of deer, just by the road side eating, minding there own business (you know when you see those deer crossing signs, but never see deer, yep, they were there, at almost every sign, chopping away on something). The most beautiful and terryifing drive of my life (if Colin is scared, I'm REALLY scared, and he was gripping the steering wheel tightly, worried about the weight in the back of our car). You need to take a drive, with a sparsely loaded car, and see the Rocky Mountains for yourself.

Tomorrow, we're off to Vegas...bleech

Topeka

2008-08-17T01:32:00.002-04:00

Arrived late, too tired to write anything of major interest, a couple of bullet points
-Chicago ROCKS, wish we stayed longer
-Illinos drivers are much nicer then Michigan drivers, smooth sailing into Missouri
-drove for 5 hours to go to a specific restaurant in St. Louis which CLOSED half hour before our arrival
-St. Louis is a friggin ghost town from downtown to the University, what's up with that? The gateway arch is AMAZING
-the suburbs of St. Louis seem vibrant, but WHERE are ALL THE COFFEE SHOPS? We couldn't find ANY on our route from Illinos to St. Louis to Kansas!!
-Kansas City has a lot happening, well it looks like that from the highway
-Topeka is damn quiet, when you arrive at MIDNIGHT!!

CHI-TOWN

2008-08-16T01:11:00.002-04:00

So much happened today, not sure I can write about it all....made it to Chicago in one piece, a few wrong turns along the way, of course. We made it through the border OK, though we were a bit nervous about the whole thing. Colin was afraid he didn't have the right paperwork, and I was like you know what, we're less then 4 hours from home, worst thing we turn around and go back and you fly to LA in a couple of days. But we made it through, though we got that scary, pull over to the side please and made your way to that line of people. Eeek...some others were taken aside around us, we saw a dog going through someone's car and actually finding something, all in all we got VERY lucky and through in an hour and a half.

What is up with the drivers on this side of the border though, don't you Americans know how to use your blinkers, I am like gripping the arm rest every time someone comes up too close behind us or is next to us in the lane, I know you're just waiting for your moment to strike and pull in front of us with no notice!

We got a bit lost outside of Lansing, Michigan, apparently those Michiganites can't count because the exits went from 98 to 94, we thought we missed our exit, 97, so we got off the highway. The detour THROUGH Lansing was really nice, small town, big houses, I find small town Americans totally fascinating (Lex I saw ACTUAL Highschool football kids practicing on their field, in August, just like FNL, SO EXCITING!). Of course when we got BACK to the highway we saw the exit for 97, WAY after the 94, which obviously is not in numerical order...we won't make that mistake again. The detour took like 30 minutes off our time of arrival, as did the 1 hour and a half at the border.

Then our EXIT to the I90 was closed off, our fastest route to Chicago, so we took the I94, which still got us here but later then expected, and we got off at the wrong exit, again, this time we made our way through Chinatown Chicago, the END of Michigan Ave., by this point I was a bit grumpy (not at Colin, just in general) and just wanted dinner and our hotel, but Chicago from the end of Michigan Ave and the drive up to the 'Near North Side' was spectacular, well worth the mistake.

Our hotel is AWESOME, the Wyndam Chicago, with great service, a nice room, and the toletries are FANTASTIC (they gave us this SPA Soap from Bath and Body Works that has massaging grooves in them, SO AWESOME, guess what everyone is getting for xmas this year?). We had deep dish pizza for dinner (well Colin did, I had ravioli) and we wander the streets at 10:30PM. Such a beautiful city, well this part anyway, a perfect combo of London, NY and Toronto.

More to come from our Trip across the USofA, which us no more unplanned detours tomorrow!

Harry Potter Movie Delayed

2008-08-14T19:40:00.001-04:00

Until July 17, 2009!! Terrible, horrible, TOO LONG! ARGH