"How do you document real life?"

All things change

2011-01-19T22:53:00.000-08:00

Please visit How do you document real life? at it's new home on tumblr. I'm going to leave this version up for now, but all new content will be on the tumblr site from now on. See ya there!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

2010-06-01T16:58:00.000-07:00

The summer music season is here, wooo!!! Official summer show #1: the Weakerthans at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Toronto. I had to navigate a relay run fundraiser that was just about to begin as I got there, but once I finally did I was met with fabulous spicy salmon sushi and mini spring rolls that were being given out in the line while we waited for the slightly delayed doors. I've been to a lot of shows, but that was definitely a pretty cool first and I don't think I'd complain if it happened again=).

Once inside we snagged two seats on the end of the front row, which almost seemed as though they'd been reserved for us, and in keeping with the unconventionality of the evening, unlike with most venues who insist that I either sit in the "wheelchair" seating and or put my scooter outside in the hallway to allow for clear emergency access, security actually encouraged me to park my scooter right by my seat, not only blocking the end of the row, but the end of the isle as well=p.

The security guard was awesome! Not only did he make sure I had a totally clear sightline at all times (totally unprompted!) he thanked me throughout the show and then finally at the end by getting me a setlist from the stage, for making his job "easier."

The show was opened by Bahamas, which was just a random guy who was backed by the Weakerthans drummer=p. I was a bit conflicted about him. He was good musically(for some reason he reminded me of Danny Michel, despite his being nothing like Danny Michel) and his stage banter (very important for me!) was really engaging at the beginning but then just started to get a bit cocky and annoying. I think I'd probably check him out again though. He definitely had his moments so I'm on the fence.

The Weakerthans were of course their usual fabulous selves (also, the sunflower guitar strap still lives, yay!!) and right now I can't really decide if the fact that I don't really have much to write here is a good or a bad thing. I was talking to a couple of people before the show about how they're always so consistently good and some said they're getting boring, but like me, others thought reliability is always a good thing! That being said though, I thought they were touring in support of a new studio album and was kind of excited for some fresh material. It turns out the new album is a live album with no new songs on it...

Coming up: next: June 5th Krupke's CD release at the El Mocambo and then June 15th RUFUS! RUFUS! RUFUS!!!!!

Happy Spring!

2010-03-22T10:29:00.000-07:00

I was reminded by a friend of mine today that this blog still existed=p. I thought I'd give it a bit of a revamp for spring. Happy Spring everyone! Don't let this crummy weather get you down. Those beautiful sunny days will be back before we know it... I hope.

Justice!

2009-09-15T08:25:00.000-07:00

The minute Abercrombie & Fitch opened in the Eaton Centre here in Toronto everything about it has irked me. Why it's necessary to carry around a shopping bag with a half naked man on it, or be asphyxiated by cheap perfume that is just as strong on the corridor outside as it is inside the store to buy jeans I will never understand. Not only that, but the perfumed air is rank with discrimination. From the sizes that you need to be a size 2 to wear, to the obvious requirement that you have to look like a model that has just come from a day at the beach to work there, the demographic is drastically reduced to the "beautiful people". But, now they've really done it!

My friend told me about this case the other day and ever since I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. First because it is absolutely horrifying, but also because I've experienced similar situations:

When trying on clothes in stores, which despite my shopaholic tendencies, I don't do very often because stores never make it very easy, it is much, much easier for me if the store has a wheelchair accessible change room. More and more stores have them these days, but because customers who use wheelchairs are of the minority, stores often use the "extra" space of the accessible change room to store boxes and merchandise. I've managed to get salespersons to clear out change rooms in some situations, which is a waste of both of our time and a bit of an embarrassing spectacle, but the odd time I'm completely turned away with the excuse that the space is being used as a stock room.

One situation in particular comes to mind. I was in a store that refused to let me use their accessible change room because there was some boxes in it. When I discovered however that despite the boxes being there, there was still plenty of room for me to go in and try on my potential purchases. I closed the door and proceeded to undress. A salesperson promptly noticed and proceeded to stand outside the door and hound me, insisting that I come out immediately because I couldn't be in there with the merchandise.

First of all I wasn't about to come out until I'd gotten dressed, and second of all, the merchandise was in tightly sealed boxes, which I would've needed a box cutter to open and probably would've had to have made quite a production to steal.

It's all just ridiculous! People with disabilities have money just like everybody else and if stores would just follow the most basic human rights practices, maybe they'd spend it in that store! Needless to say for more reasons than one, I'm thrilled that Abercrombie got what they deserved.

Way to Go Murray!

2009-07-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

"He is Able Who Thinks He is Able" - Buddha

2009-04-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

When disability is a daily reality it's difficult to check your inner advocate and activist at the door and look beyond the stereotypical 'triumph over adversity' story. Perhaps we have just all become too jaded...

I'm told that for someone who's supposed to be up-to-date on all things disability, I'm behind on this one, but while reading this week's installment of THIS Magazine's ThisAbility Blog, I discovered where I'll be eating next time I'm looking for somewhere to have a special dinner.

I don't find myself being inspired by the stories of disabled people very often these days, but Pascal Ribreau is an exception.

A Sunny Hat for Sunny Days

2009-04-21T19:12:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I sent my friend Kyla some yarn to make me a hat to go with my all-things-sunflower habit. This picture doesn't do it justice, but here is the fabulous finished product:).

WTF?

2009-04-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

Thank Goodness for Jeremy Fisher *hehe*

If You lived here, you'd be home now

2009-04-09T23:01:00.000-07:00

Big news! I'm a homeowner!

In a little less than three weeks I'll be moving to my VERY OWN loft space in the Merchandise Building. I'm so excited! Not only because I'll have a fabulous new apartment, but because the building is essentially right on campus, so I'll never have to travel to school ever again, woot!

I got a new couch yesterday. Crazy colour I know (it's actually a bit more lime green in person) but I'm kind of in love with it=) Now I just need to figure out a colour to paint the walls that won't totally clash...

Late Night Ramblings

2008-09-21T20:56:00.000-07:00

It's horribly late and on top of that I've been feeling beyond tired for the past couple of days... I really should be getting to bed. But, instead of hitting the hay, and instead of trying to channel my last bit of energy into finishing my query letter (that is now overdue, oops!!) I have the urge to write here for the first time in almost three months...

I'm back in school, full time, YAY!!! I couldn't help but be a little bit bitter about having to repeat classes and such, and of course I was nervous about having to get used to a whole new group of people, but so far things are going really well. I'm really enjoying my new group of classmates and apart from a few classes that I knew I was going to hate anyway, Ethics *cough*, this new start has been kind of refreshing.

Unfortunately my efforts to resurrect my Q piece didn't amount to anything, but instead I'm working on a piece for the Ryerson Review of Journalism that unexpectedly is turning out to be kind of interesting subject-matter. We'll see how I feel by January though, heh. I've also landed the position of Co-director of Circulation and Advertising for the magazine, which should be really interesting once we get started. And of course, as of Friday officially, I'm back at RyeCCESS as Student Advocacy Coordinator. Despite the tensions of the past few months (a few of you will know what I mean, but I won't be discussing it here) I really missed working there and I think my ideas combined with those of my new coworker will make for a good year. There seems to be a lot more structure being enforced on the part of our supervisors this year, which I haven't decided if I like yet, but we'll see. I haven't even been there for two days yet.

Okay, words are barely coming to me now, time for bed! More later, I promise! I want to try and use this as an outlet to flex my writing muscles, keep them nice and limber for the many feature pieces I've got to write soon... *groan*...No wait, I mean... Yay?

Platelets, Streetcars...If I had $1,000,000 I'd buy you some cocaine

2008-07-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

Lots today...

First, something that really should've gotten it's very own post, but oh well! On Monday (July 14th) I passed the one month transfusion-free mark and am officially into the second month with NO TRANSFUSIONS, woo!!!!!! I had to laugh today. I was reading a book this morning and they were talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and how it would be nice if she could find a boyfriend that "didn't have to drink platelets" *hehe* not blood, platelets!

I'm also able to FINALLY get to escape this city for a while, so I'm cashing in my Christmas present at long last and taking off to New York in August. I CAN"T WAIT!!!!

Second, I just found out about THIS. I knew it was too good to be true. I know it's not really the TTC's fault, but typical TTC, I swear UGH!! I wonder if I'l ever get to ride a streetcar in Toronto in my lifetime. 2025 huh? Yeah right! Like I've said all along AODA Committee, I'll believe it when I see it!!

And lastly, I know this has already been talked about to death everywhere else, but I can't help but touch on it too. I'm sad, what is with Steve Page man? Sure, lots of people are sticking by him, including the rest of the band apparently, and I know there's always two sides to every story, but wtf? I mean he's Steve Page, frontman for Barenaked Ladies of all things. They're the wholesomest, Canadian, family men I can think of. Or so I thought. I mean they just put out a kids album for God sakes!! I hope he can kick it...

Oh how I love GBS!

2008-07-13T13:17:00.000-07:00

Okay so obviously I knew I liked them or else I wouldn't have gone to the show, but I forgot just how MUCH I LOVE Great Big Sea live! I waited till the last minute to get tickets because save for a couple of songs, I'm really not super impressed with their new album, Fortunes Favour. But, just as I suspected, the new songs redeemed themselves live and the night turned out to be the perfect mix of old classics and new ditties. Even the miserable weather cleared up by the time they went on. And I got my Alan Doyle fix. Many don't understand it...I don't really understand it completely myself=p, but I'm a total Alan girl, through and through=). And of course Mur-man, who Alan introduced: "He sings the bass, he plays the bass, he is the bass." I've never thought about it, but it's very true. I like it!=) And that verse of Scolding Wife...gotta love that! They're apparently going on this Fortune's Favour tour until May '09, so hopefully they'll be back through town again soon. I'm really kicking myself now for not at least trying to get into their "secret" Toronto show the other night. Oh well!

Joel Plaskett opened the show and I feel a bit bad about it, but after a couple of songs I opted to go on a food/bathroom run rather than sit and listen. I don't know what it was. He's been awesome the other 3 times I've seen him, but then he's been the headliner in a small club and the energy has been very different. Somehow he just wasn't making it for me in the huge venue=(. I suppose it had a lot to do with the fact that very few people were actually listening because they were milling around trying to find their seats and or deciding what kind of $10 beer they were going to get. I really do hate Molson Ampitheatre=p.

The best part of the show was perhaps the most random part though. Strangely enough Hawksley Workman produced GBS' new album. I saw him in the crowd earlier on in the show and figured it made sense that he was there. But they brought him up on stage during the encore and he did his own song Safe and Sound, which was AWESOME since I haven't seen him live in forever because the last time I was supposed to see him live, the God of Winter decided to snow us all in=(. The other guys sang backup, which was kind of surreal because I still can't help but think they're a really weird pairing, but somehow it just made it that much more awesome=p. I love randomness...

Click!

2008-06-22T18:02:00.000-07:00

I got a new camera last week, a green Casio EXILIM and apart from Small Sins' NXNE show in Dundas Square last Saturday, I haven't really had a chance to use it much. It was a beautiful day today and after a lovely Sunday afternoon, coffee catch-up with a friend of mine I didn't feel like heading straight home. So I decided to play shutterbug tourist in my own neighbourhood and take some shots of some of the random, crazy, beautiful things that I enjoy on my regular comings and goings...

One of the weird headlight-head guys. No idea what these are about, but at one point they were everywhere. Could be some kind of art, probably is some ad for a Vespa company or something=p. either way I find them mildly intriguing.

The roses in the Queen Elizabeth Rose Garden in Grange Park are in full bloom. So pretty!!

The view up John St. on a Sunday afternoon--. Starbucks, CityTV and the CN Tower. I just thought it was very Toronto.

My favourite circuit box and one of my fave pieces of Toronto street art/"graffitti"=). I have a piece by this artist in my kitchen and several buttons that sport some of his other little monster guys. Unfortunately I don't know his name but he's local and can sometimes be found selling his stuff around Queen and Spadina.

This statue(s) is on Peter St. in front of the M5V condo presentation centre. My dad has christened it "I'm going to touch you."=p. They're slightly grim, but there's something friendly about them just the same. I wonder where they'll go when all the condos are sold?

Yes, I'll admit that taking pictures of FIDO ads is kind of lame, but these guys are just so silly and cute that I couldn't not include them in the things that make me happy in my neighbourhood right now=).

P.S: I have to apologize for the photos that are horizontal that obviously shouldn't be. I have no idea why the won't turn so you'll just have to crane your neck ever so slightly. The formatting is a little off too, but that's Blogger's fault, boo!

Canada Needs You Volume 2

2008-06-21T11:48:00.000-07:00

A while ago I promised to talk about a show that I went to last month (May 31st to be exact) and I'm embarrassed to admit that it's taken me so long to get to it. Since it's been so long there's not much point in going into too much detail except to say Mike Ford + Hugh's Room + a fabulous new CD = AWESOME!! This will only mean something to a select few, but even Dusty Fosterboard made an appearance with a little Admiral Trafalgar *hehe*.

Bottom line. Check this out!

I'm particularly partial to tracks: In Winnipeg, Tea Party, Maurice Richard and of course, Expo '67...

A bit of a Face-Lift

2008-06-21T11:16:00.000-07:00

I decided this blog needed an update. I normally go for more of a sleek, modern look, but I've been on a major green kick lately so I figured why not extend it onto here=). I did a major revamp of my links and I have to say I'm really loving Blogger's new Blog List feature.--Be sure to check out my Blog picks!

Also...

I started working at the Access Centre on Tuesday as the second Student Networking Ambassador (a bit of an absurd title I know) and things are going alright. Slightly slower than I'd like I must admit. I'm a bit afraid that it doesn't take two people to do the job and having come in after my coworker has already been doing the job for a month or more, I'm a bit of the odd one out. However, I know as well as anyone that you need to make things your own. So apart from helping out with our several upcoming events, I'm starting to try and think of various additional projects that I might be able to take on. My supervisor pointed out to me that the Access Centre brochure is sadly in need of a redo, so I'm excited about possibly taking that on.

It's very different from RyeACCESS and just as I suspected the transition s already turning out to be hard. But, I'll get to make sure that the bond between the two groups continues to strengthen, which is good...

The Latest...

2008-06-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, so much to tell. This is going to be a bit of a jumble....

Today was a bit bittersweet. I got to skip another transfusion because my platelets were 24, YES!!! So instead of laying around in a hospital bed and staring at the wall for a good chunk of the day I was out by noon and spent the day in the salon getting my hair highlighted and my eyebrows cleaned up for summer=). However, today my fellow j-skoolers dawned the Ryerson colours for the last time and graduated on to bigger and better things. As this was supposed to be my grad day too, I can't help but feel a little bit bitter, but my time will come, just not soon enough=p. Either way it brought some of my best friends back from far away (if only for a short time) and it was really great to get to catch up with them a bit.

In more exciting news, I FINALLY managed to get a job for the summer, woo-hoo! With a little help from my friends I was able to find out that the Work Study fund isn't the *only* one that exists to pay summer students for doing on-campus jobs. So, I've been hired at the Ryerson Access Centre as one of the "Student Networking Ambassadors" (I think that's what my title is=p. I can never remember it completely) and I sign my life away on Thursday=). It's still within the field that I wanted, which is GREAT, but it'll be different from what I've been doing for the last four years so it's going to take some getting used to. That said it will be nice to have a change too.

Also, somewhat connected to that, it looks like I might be getting more involved with a disability advocacy group called Citizen's with Disabilities Ontario I guess I won't have to worry about not having enough disability-related activities to put on my resume when I reapply for Disability Studies next year afterall. I was reading the disability chapter in the textbook for my Feminism and Society class last night and finding out about all of the amazing organizations around the world. It really made me realize how anxious I am to get back in the game=).

Teddy Thompson was in town at the Horseshoe last Thursday so after MUCH too long I finally got a real taste of his music, and boy is it GREAT! Years ago he opened for Rufus Wainwright at Convocation Hall here in Toronto, but being a lot younger then and not knowing yet that some of my favourite musicians would come from seeing opening acts, my friend and I opted to go buy T-shirts instead=(. But as my fandom (or as some might put it obsession=p) with Rufus Wainwright has progressed over time I've gotten little snippets of Teddy here and there, most recently from their duet of King of the Road that appeared on the Brokeback Mountain Soundtrack. I've been wanting to really see him live for a while now so I was really excited when I heard he was coming. BUT, when the night came I was really dumb and got lazy and opted to hang out with a friend of mine instead. Luckily I came to my senses and decided to stop by the venue on my way home to try and catch he last bit though. And luckily the doorman made me go in when I was waffling because it was almost over when I got there=). I only caught about three or four songs, plus the encore but wow, So good! He has a style very similar to Rufus', which is likely why I like him so much=p and to my relief, the strong country sound that he claims to have is much more of a contemporary folk sound. I picked up his album Separate Ways as well as his new acoustic EP Blunderbuss, which are both fantastic and haven't left my CD player in a week=p, and I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of his first, self-titled album as well as the more recent Upfront and Down Low from Amazon. New album on the 17th too, yay! I love discovering new music.

He's also really nice and signed my CDs for me. Though he didn't seem very impressed when I told him I'd missed most of his set. Oops!

I went to another AWESOME show last week but that one deserves a post all its own so I'll try and get to that soon.

And finally, I just went to the Apple.ca site and the official news has arrived: iPhone in Canada July 11!!!!! I'm going to miss my little green PEBL but iPhone, yay!!!!! They've been selling them out of the little independent computer store in my building for the better part of a month now, but for over $600. Sorry, no can do! Gotta wait for the cheap-o price that comes with signing my soul over to FIDO for another three years=p.

Higher and Higher

2008-05-28T19:27:00.000-07:00

Platelets of 30k today (best they've been in a year or more!!!) and got to skip another transfusion, woo!!! I'm trying not to get too, too excited because its so soon, but we're moving on up baby!! My goal after one month of positive results (knock on wood!) is to FINALLY get back to New York City for a much needed vacation! So, keep doing those platelet dances everyone. They're working!! =)

Positive Randomness

2008-05-26T18:47:00.000-07:00

I'm not a superstitious person but I like to believe that sometimes the universe sends us signs to believe in.

On Wednesday my pre-transfusion test results came back with a platelet count of 11, and then on Friday they were 23 and I was sent me home without a transfusion for the first time in months! It was an EXTREMELY positive thing and I got through five symptom-free, platelet transfusion-free days this week,which was something that even last week I wouldn't have even been able to fathom. Even today I don't even think I really needed a transfusion.

I knew my counts had dropped, but I was still hoping they were still in a good range. So when they came back at 1 again it was really disheartening and frustrating to have to go through another transfusion. There was a problem in the lab and they apparently had to do the test twice to get a conclusive result. My doctor was a bit puzzled because he said he would've expected my counts to have stayed high, especially when I was symptom-free. So with the strangeness in the lab he thought they're might have been a mistake with the test. The lab technician said not though. I'm not sure what to think. Either way I hate being launched right back into the abyss of uncertainty again.

When this all started months ago we tried to contact my childhood doctor in hopes that he might have some insight into the situation. But, he's unfortunately retired now and though he still does a bit of administrative work at Sick Kids he just happened to be leaving the country for over a month at that time. I haven't seen him for a good 6-7 years and short of a couple of E-mails back and forth we didn't really end up having any contact with him this time around. But leaving the hospital today, we ran into him on the street, which after today's setback, I can't help but think was one of those random signs. He was my doctor from birth minute to the age of 18 and he got me through A LOT of hard times. In more ways than one I wouldn't be here today without him. He says I got through it once and I'll get through it again, which meant a lot coming from him.

We also passed by Rick Mercer on the street and if that's not a positive sign I don't know what is! *hehe*

Spiraling in and Spiraling Out

2008-05-26T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Spiral Garden planting day. Summer is officially here!!!

Photos courtesy of Tara McWatters

The site is sadly still just a shadow of it's former twenty-five year-old self, a fledgling garden whose carefully groomed paths scream for the colourful randomness that some of us so fondly remember. But the incredible energy that doesn't exist anywhere else is there and always will be. We couldn't have asked for better weather and it was wonderful to see everyone and perhaps the best part, to have kids from the Centre come out and join us for the first time in years, yay!! There are lots of changes coming this summer, some that will take some getting used to, but a lot that are really cool that really excite me. I'm really considering volunteering for a session or two this summer...

A new love for my city

2008-05-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

Okay so Nat, this one's for you=). I'm actually intrigued by Toronto today!

More often than not I can't wait to escape the monotony of the city that I've spent the better part of my life in. But today I visited a couple of the sites on the Open Doors Toronto tour and discovered a bit of some of Toronto's best kept secrets.-- George Brown's House, Coach House Press and Queen's Park.

First we went to George Brown's house, a grand Victorian-style house on Beverly Street that once housed the man who started the Globe and Mail newspaper, or as I prefer to call it, "the Old and Mail". He died from complications from a shotgun wound inflicted by a Globe and Mail employee, a bit of info that I can't help but love because I can't say the stresses of Journalism haven't made me want to shoot someone in the leg once in a while.=p. The house's library includes over 2,000 books, which I was surprised to find are restored by Toronto Parks (an unlikely pairing I thought) and apparently his daughters were among the first women to graduate from the University of Toronto.--The accomplishments of strong women are always interesting to me but I guess it struck a chord at this particular time because I've spent the last few weeks in my Feminism an Society class studying First Wave Feminism and the actions taken by women to gain equal opportunity to education. Go Brown ladies!

Next we went to Coach House Press, a small independent book publisher and printer that is literally stuffed into a small coach house hidden in a back lot on the UofT campus. I'd heard a lot about some of the book launch events that they often hold and I've purchased quite a few of their titles at Word on the Street or smaller bookstores like Pages. They tend to favour quirky urban fiction stories, which I LOVE, so needless to say I was really excited to finally get to see the real thing. However, unfortunately the Toronto Star's rating of a partial 'D' was quite inaccurate because I'm not sure I'd even begin to categorize it as "partially accessible". Not only did the large numbers of people come to find out how a printing press works, make it virtually impossible to navigate the machines and carts piled high with dusty books and papers, the four inch step down at the front door wasn't letting me in anytime soon. I poked my head in to see as much of the printing process as I could from the top of the step but luckily I managed to get in the back door with the help of a board to see the binding and glueing process. Very cool!! I was amazed to find out how much manual labour they use to make each book.--All book covers are folded by hand and all printing and binding is personally supervised by someone. Every book!! They publish the popular UTOpia series and I was shocked to find someone folding each cover by hand. It's a very widely distributed series (today they were working on the fourth run). I've seen it at big chain book stores like Chapters. That's a lot of hand folded book covers!

I picked up 'Nellcott is my Darling' by Goulda Fried, 'Social Acupuncture' by Darren O'Donnell and 'Miss Lamp' by Chris Ewart. Now just to finish this course so I have time to read them...

Last we went to Queen's Park, which I didn't expect to be very exciting but was pleasantly surprised. First there was the unnaturally friendly security guard we met just inside the accessible entrance who showed us where the "LG" as he called him, David Onley leaves his scooter in the basement *heh* (possibly my favourite part) and then we went on the tour that took us through the Legislature, the Speaker's Apartment (I didn't know anyone actually lived in Queen's Park!) and the wing that once burned down because of careless maintenance workers, which has a beautiful mosaic floor that is made up of millions of hand cut, hand laid tiles. WOW!! The portraits of all the past speakers were cool too. Apparently at the end of their term each one is allowed to choose the artist to paint their picture. Most of them were fairly conservative but there were a couple of more modern, flamboyant ones that didn't quite fit in=). I was also interested to find that the major media outlets (CBC, Globe and Mail etc.) all have offices there too.

The coolest part was he legislature though. There are several random faces carved into the intricate patterns that adorn the perimeter of the room. Not carvings of past Prime Ministers or MPPS, but carvings of the artist's faces. They apparently weren't allowed to sign their work so they left their faces behind instead=). The best face though is a small, kind of shriveled-looking face that the tour guide described as looking like a tomato. It's supposed to be a joke likeness of Queen's Park's namesake Queen Victoria. Good thing she died before she could come and see it. *Hehe*

We wanted to try and make it to the Toronto Labyrinth (which I hadn't heard of before this year's Open Doors) and the CBC, but sadly 5:00 came too quickly and we didn't get a chance to make any of the other sites. I won't have time to get to go anywhere else this weekend but I really look forward to next year. Though next year I would like to plan to write an article critiquing the level of accessibility that the Toronto Star's map indicates for each site. I'm curious to know how they developed their accessibility criteria in the first place. I'm feeling my next pitch to Abilities. How 'bout you?

Working woes

2008-05-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

I had a job interview yesterday for the summer position at RyeACCESS, the group that I worked at for four years. For reasons that I probably shouldn't discuss here (yet anyway) I knew I wasn't going to get it. But I guess working there for so long I couldn't help but be a bit over-confident. I guess I have to practice not putting all my eggs in one basket because I was seriously shocked when they called and turned me down. And I have to say, it's really going to sting for a while yet. I think the job represented a sense of normalcy in my really uncertain life, one more thing that I was hoping to get back after everything that's happened. But everything happens for a reason right? I hope so...

I also applied for a couple of other jobs on campus earlier this month and I'm pretty sure was as good as hired for both of them. Unfortunately they were workstudy jobs though and so because I wasn't in classes last semester they wouldn't give me the funding. But it's not like I just took the semester off for fun. I was in the hospital! I'm hoping I can appeal the decision soon and grab one of the positions before it's too late.

Blargh I hate job hunting!

Sister Suffragettes

2008-05-10T08:49:00.000-07:00

I'm finally back in the halls of academia, yay! I survived my first week of my Feminism in Society class and so far it's going pretty well. I was kind of bummed to find out at the last minute that my friend who was supposed to take the class with me couldn't get funding and so couldn't take it. But that was quickly remedied by my friend Melissa unexpectedly being in the class instead. It's fine taking summer classes by yourself but it's so much more fun taking it with someone you know=).

Now I just wish I didn't have so much reading to catch up on...

Elevate me darn it!

2008-05-04T21:02:00.000-07:00

So last week I was rejoicing just as much as the next guy over being able to hop the subway again. But it was too good to be true...for me anyway. I probably should make more of a point of calling the TTC hotline to make sure elevators are working. But I don't, for the same reason I boycott Wheeltrans. I enjoy my freedom and right to be spontaneous gosh darn it! So, as I've been doing three days a week since January, I got on the subway at Union station, rode it up the University line and got off at Queen's Park Station. Everything was fine until I discovered the elevator was broken, GAH!!! Luckily I wasn't alone because otherwise I'd have to get back on the train going in the opposite direction and get off a few stops back at Osgoode Station and then drive my scooter all the way up University Ave. Anyway, so I had to walk up the 5 trillion stairs while my dad took my scooter up the escalator. I used to do it all the time, but boy am I out of shape. It nearly killed me!! And that wasn't the only obstacle, to add insult to injury, the key fell out of my scooter and got stuck in the escalator AAA!!! Other than being willing to eventually push the button to turn off the escalator, the TTC guy refused to help. Fresh off the strike...figures=p. So my dad had to unscrew part of the escalator with a Loonie and try and retrieve my keys. Two broke and my Moxy Fruvous keychain is now in need of a new key ring part (luckily not too worse for wear otherwise though. Wouldn't want to waste all those Frumiles!) but he was miraculously able to get one out intact. I'm not sure what we would've done otherwise, oops! Now I only have one key that I'm treating like gold. I tried to get some more cut the other day but it was too specialized so they wouldn't do it. I'm going to have to order some more from the scooter company. What a hassle!!

The most annoying part is that while I was waiting I noticed at least ten boxes stacked in the corner that were full of elevator parts. They knew it was broken and they didn't even bother to put a sign on the door, ARG!!

The elevator was broken at Union Station a few days later and when we told the guy in the booth about it all he did was vaguely respond with a dumb "again?" Blah, drives me up the wall! I hardly ever meet broken elevators, and now two in the same week. What's going on?

Back!...Hopefully for good this time!

2008-05-01T20:50:00.000-07:00

I know I promised way back in November that I'd update this blog more regularly and I apologize for not doing so. But I had a legitimate reason...I promise!

I'll try and spare you most of the gruesome details. But a long story short, around Christmastime the health problems that I'd been dealing with for the better part of the year caused me to have to make a few trips to the Emergency room for platelet transfusions. In January things took a turn for the worst and I was rushed to hospital and was admitted for almost a month. Since then I've been having out-patient treatments (platelet transfusions three times a week) and have tried a number of other drugs in hopes that something will do the trick. They're not quite sure what's wrong but the doctor thinks it's likely an ITP-type disorder where basically the immune system becomes overactive and attacks platelets as if they are foreign cells. They think this was likely caused by the bad flu that I got in September and they're confident that it's just a waiting game with an ending that's impossible to predict.

I unfortunately had to drop out of school after Christmas. But, despite the fact that I'm still having transfusions three times a week and am on enough medication to kill a horse=p, I'm starting summer classes this Tuesday and will be back on the road to graduation (take 2!) in September. From the ages of 6-18 I had weekly platelet transfusions and though it was *mostly* easier than my current situation, I think it prepared me for what's going on now. I think if I hadn't already experienced this in some capacity, I wouldn't now how to deal with it. I've gotten into a bit of a routine now and the doctors and nurses are all really great. So though it sucks, it's not so bad now. I just wish I could get more than one day between transfusions.--I'm dying to travel! But for now I'll do my best to document my summer 2008 adventures in the T-dot. Now if we could just get the nice weather back!

I Want Book 5!!

2008-05-01T19:04:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually a big chick lit person and not only that, I'm not really a fantasy person either. But that all changed when just before I left to go spend some time in New York City at NYU, my friend Dyan suggested a book called

Enchanted Inc. that her friend Shanna Swendson had just put out. I was skeptical at best because it looked like it really couldn't get more chick lit if it tried and it was a fantasy to boot. However, the fact that the story was based in New york City hooked me because as most of you know, I can't get enough of NYC...

"ENCHANTED INC. is a magical story featuring Katie Chandler, a 20something, small-town girl who finds that being average in New York City is anything but.

Katie is still adjusting to life in the big city while working for a nightmare boss when she gets a fantastic offer to work for a mysterious company, MSI, Inc. Through her new job and the magical folk she meets, Katie comes to find out she isn't quite as average as she thought; and the fairy tale she has longed for begins to come true in surprising ways.

Katie doesn't realize how rare and important being ordinary can be. In fact, it is ordinary characteristics that make her the perfect secret weapon for MSI, Inc. Now she has magicians and faries meddling in her attempted romances, a secret life she needs to keep hidden from her non-magical friends, not to mention that dangerous pull she feels for Owen, an attractive but shy wizard who might be the most powerful man since Merlin."www.shannaswendson.com

I read it while I was away and apart from being one of the cutest page-turners I'd read in a long time, it was a lot of fun to read while actually visiting the New Yor sites descibed in the book, imagining fairies and gargoyles riding the subway and hannging out in Central Park.

Since then Shanna has written three more books in the Katie Chandler Series: Once Upon Stillettos Damsel Under Stress and the newest book that just came out on Tuesday (April 29th) DON"T HEX WITH TEXAS:

"Katie Chandler has fled fast-paced Manhattan and returned home to a simpler life, working at her family's feed-and-seed store in Cobb, Texas. Leaving the sexy wizard Owen Palmer to battle his demons in the magical realm may have been a selfless gesture--after all, Katie seemed to attract evil which only made Owen's job a lot harder--but now it seems like trouble has followed her home. And despite the fact that Merlin, Katie's old boss at Magic, Spells, and Illusions Inc., has assured her that Cobb is free of enchantment, magically speaking, Katie begins to notice curious phenomena.

Son Cobb is being plagued by a series of unexplainable petty crimes and other devilish mischief, and after her experiences in Mahattan, Katie knows "unauthorized" magic when she sees it. As this new dark magic strikes deep in the heart of Texas, Owen appears (literally) to investigate. Now Katie's friends and family must show the bad guys why it's bad luck to hex with Texas, while Katie and Owen combine their strengths like never before to uncover a sinister plot before evil takes root in the lone star state."www.shannaswendson.com

Each book is better then the next and let me tell you, once you get into the Katie and Owen drama, you won't be able to get enough! I'm about three quarters of the way through Hex (love it!) and I already can't wait to read book 5. There's just one problem...

Despite the success of the other three books (Enchanted Inc. has even been optioned by Jennifer Aniston's production company for a film!) the publisher, Ballentine Books, has declined the 5th book. They say that if Don't Hex with Texas sells enough copies they'll consider the 5th book. But until then we're flat outta luck!

If you haven't read the Enchanted Inc. series yet, make it your summer reading and most importantly go out and get Don't Hex with Texas. Support Shanna Swendson and help the series end the way it's supposed to. You won't be disappointed. I promise!

Long time no see!

2007-11-25T13:06:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't written here in almost a year! I'm supposed to be a writer (for the next little while anyway) so I decided it's time to bring this blog back to the land of the living.

Fourth year has finally arrived and the end of my journalistic pursuit is finally in sight. What comes next I'm not entirely sure, but I can't wait to find out! Unfortunately due to some health problems that couldn't possibly have come at a more inopportune time I've decided to take a few more months and graduate in October rather than June. But either way, the year's half over already and the Spring and Summer 2008 issues of the Ryerson Review of Journalism are starting to take shape. Can you believe it? It seems like just yesterday that we were little first years struggling through our first streeters and hearing rumors of the 2500 words and 40 interviews that were just three short years away. But they tell us we're professionals now and despite being PAINFULLY behind it's been a really great experience for me so far. I've gotten to meet some new people and get a chance to really get to know the rest of my classmates. I guess that's what being stuck in a computer lab with a group of people for days on end will do=). I'm also learning the ways of Scrabulous and other procrastinaton devices that exist to keep us sane. Though I still don't understand the appeal of Guitar Hero.

I was given the Director of Marketing position on the Spring masthead, which is basically Publicity Director with a little extra. Along with a great publicity team I had a hand in putting together our first RRJ fundraiser "Lies For the Liars: Old Boys to Blair and Glass," which took place at the Social November 6th and was a great success! After Christmas I'll be helping out with circulation for the magazine, the 25th anniversary special projects committee (Oh yeah, did I mention we're the 25th year? So cool!) and finally in April, the 2008 launch party. That'll be a good day!

I'm also still working at RyeACCESS as the Student Advocacy Coordinator.--My fourth year there too. Oh how time flies! I'm working with a great new team and we just had our second annual Disability Awareness Week, which featured events like: Deaf Culture Day, Know Your Rights: Disability in the Workplace and a Mental Health Film Festival. We're just about to put together our midterm report about how successful it was, so great! Next semester proves to be just as good, if not better. I can't wait!

Now that you're all up-to-date I promise to visit here more often so stay tuned! I'm off to get through this week's addition to the mountain of readings assigned by Tim Falconer.

I wrote a paper too...make me a teacher!!

2007-01-26T18:13:00.000-08:00

So tell me, why is it that to teach Kindergarten to Grade 12 you have to go through years of teachers college and be specially approved before you're allowed to start teaching, but to teach in a University where everyone is paying $400+ to take your class you don't need any teaching experience at all? What is that about? Honestly, as far as I'm concerned, just because you've earned the title of doctor doesn't mean you can teach a class! I say this because of the number of highly underqualified professors that I've encountered this semester. One who clearly can't distinguish a University student from a Kindergarten kid, another who doesn't seem to understand that regurgitating the textbook IS NOT TEACHING and another who never has notes and can't keep her train of thought for more than five minutes!! Honestly, if you actually feel the need to let your class out more than an hour early and utter the sentence (more than once I might add) "maybe two classes on Anne of Green Gables was too ambitious", get the hell out of the classroom honey!!

It was just announced that compared to several other Canadian Universities, the number of applicants to Ryerson is greatly increasing. But the sad thing is that all those kids don't have a clue what they're getting into. A classmate of mine told me that I should make a point of checking ratemyprofessor.com before I apply to classes. Perhaps she's right, but maybe Ryerson's Master Plan should also incude revamping its teaching staff in addition to its signage!

Things That Make Me Happy

2006-11-13T20:28:00.000-08:00

This week is RyeACCESS' Ryerson Disability Awareness Week and we did our annual barrier labelling campaign today. We only had time to cover the newer buildings on campus and in doing so we got to tour the brand new Ryerson Business building. It's not perfect but I was seriously impressed with the standard of accessibility. All floors had a private, accessible washroom with an automatic door button, an automatic lock and an intercom in case you need assistance. All of the major lecture halls have automatic doors and designated wheelchair seating with special tables and the building has not one, but three elevators! I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is a HUGE difference from the accessibility of the other buildings on campus. Even the Engineering building, which is only three years older is littered with accessibility flaws. I'm really interested to know why they suddenly seem to be paying so much more atrention to accessibility issues. I think I might try and do a bit of research. It gives us hope, but it's hard to know if it's a standard that the University is planning to continue with. Is it simply that the particular developer is more attentive, or does it have something to do with the extra money that they got from sharing the space with Best Buy and Canadian Tire (yup, you heard me right...don't ask!) either way I'm seriously considering becoming a business major *hehe*.

While I was procrastinating against my Soc essay tonight (oops!) I discovered that Anthony Rapp has a new website complete with blog, appearances, merch(which doesn't have anything in it yet) and it seems ALBINOKid will also have a website soon, yay! For now if you click the link you can watch a short video of Anthony and the band. I saw the paperback version of Without You in the bookstore the other day...=). Yeah, yeah, I'm a dork, I know. But so exciting!

We made a Facebook profile for RyeACCESS the other day so I decided to make one for myself too. I thought Facebook was kind of boring before I signed up but the last couple of days I've been a little bit obsessed with it. Pathetic I know, but it's really cool to see all the people that you know somehow--and people respond so quickly!

And the last thing that makes me happy right now is that I got tickets today to see Gordon Lightfoot on Friday. It should be a GREAT show. I'll finally get to hear the original version of Early Morning Rain live and yeah, we all know Gord's Gold will be stuck in the back of my mind the whole time. =p.

It was too good to be true!

2006-11-03T21:29:00.000-08:00

The McGarrigle Christmas tour has been cancelled! What's with that? Which McGarrigle had to go and get sick? Okay, so I don't wish sickness on Kate or Anna...or God forbid, Martha *snicker*, but honestly, was canceling the whole tour really necessary? To add insult to injury the NY Carnegie Hall show on Dec 13 is the only date that's still a go, but it's now become "the *Wainwright* Family and Friends Christmas." That probably means that it will include Loudon, which the other show did not. Gah, I've said it before and I'll say it again, Why don't I live in New York?! I guess all I can say now is either bring Judy to T.O or finish that album faster boy! I need a little fabulousness in my life!

While we're on the subject of Rufus, (for those of you who haven't already figured it out, it's not exactly his family that I'm upset about missing) but while I was Googling the appropriate photo to go with my MSN screenname I came across this:

I was not unaware of our boy's Lumberjack tendencies, but that doesn't mean I understand them...

Bleary-eyed and achey...but one wristband richer!

2006-09-14T16:04:00.000-07:00

Ryerson has decided to rent space in their new business building to Best Buy and Canadian Tire. Not exactly educational, in fact, quite unpleasant. As if our campus wasn't corporate enough already. But I guess they had to pay for the building somehow. The Best Buy store is a big deal it seems and they're having a weekend of grand opening celebrations in Dundas Square, which include a free show by Beyonce tonight (skipping that) and John Mayer on Saturday. I took my fangirlishness to a new level this morning and got up at 5:00 A.M. to lineup at Best Buy to get a VIP wristband for Saturday (first 250 people in line were promised wristbands)--I think I'm officially on a John Mayer kick. I was sure I'd get there and there would be a million people in line but when I arrived at 6:30 I was #29. They kept telling us that despite the ad's promise of wristbands before noon they were going to wait until there were 250 people in line no matter how long it took. By 8:00 there was still only about 60 people in line and by the time they gave the wristbands out at 10:00 there had to only have been a little over 150...they took pity on us out in the cold and didn't make us wait any longer. I couldn't figure the low turn out! All I could think of was that people just assumed that there would be a lot of people there and didn't bother. It was very weird...I totally didn't need to get up so early, ARG! It worked out perfectly though. I had a class at 10:00 and I was worried they'd go over after all of the conflicting information we got about times. But they gave the wristbands out at exactly 10:00 and was able to make it to class in the alotted 10 minutes, yay! It was kind of an important class so I couldn't really miss it. But after waiting in line for 4 hours and having a guaranteed wristband, it would've been pretty tough to leave without getting it. But I didn't have to=).

Two John Mayer shows in less than a month woo!! It should be a lot of fun...even if I did get up at 5:00! I haven't listened to the new album yet. I'm saving it for the trip to school tomorrow.

They're back!

2006-09-02T10:01:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time a group of Fruheads gathered in Toronto's Opera House for the dreaded "last" show. Little did they know that they were about to discover a little band called The Supers, who would quickly make their way on to many of their favourite band lists....

They took us through the powerpoppy sounds of their first album "Spklanng" and later the quieter tunes of "Mystery on Pop Mountain" and then...the music stopped...

After several awesome live shows in the years after the infamous Opera House show Maury, Graham, Mark and Tim all took alternative projects respectively and joined the ranks of Jann Arden Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Harmer, k-os, Jason Plumb, Sho Mo & The Monkey Bunch, Danny Michel Starling, Great Atomic Power and the like, putting their Supers endeavors on the back burner. BUT...after 3 years, last night they came back!! Last night at the Rivoli they released their long awaited third album "Rearrange". Sadly it seems that Tim has been permanently kidnapped by Ron Sexsmith and didn't return. However, we got a pretty good replacement...the album's producer, Ian Lafeuvre of Starling, Major Maker etc. And so The Supers are once again a full-on rock band! They've got a bunch of pretty new guitars and Maury's even traded the upright for a snazzy white and blue electric bass. That's going to take a little while to get used to after so many years of his uber-cool upright though. Unfortunately the sound in the Riv last night was iffy at best. It's not really the best venue for loud rock shows and "The science of the Rivoli" as Danny Michel has dubbed the guitar buzz was very evident and the bass was way too loud. Oh well, It was still a great show. We can't exactly criticize too much on their first real show back. I'm sure they'll iron out the glitches. I can't help but add a little criticism though. Were *2* openers really necessary guys? Dustin Bentall's twangy countryish sound was pretty cool and the fact that he's Ridley Bent's Roommate made him even cooler. But though Valery Gore's Sarah Slean-like vocals might've held my attention on a Sunday afternoon or something, at 11:00 when I just wanted to see The Supers and go home, she wasn't makin' it. Her extream nervousness and constant mention of the fact that her clothes were too tight was just annoying. Why would anyone wear two pairs of nylons anyway?

The highlight of the night was Graham's antics though. It wouldn't be far fetched to mistake him for being on something, the pointless ramblings went on so long. At one point they included him wondering if Maury and Mark were standing behind him checking out his butt while he was singing, which turned into several minutes of a Graham butt show. SO funny! I can never tell if the stiffness of Maury's banter is intentional or not, but that's quite funny too.

For some reason they skipped two songs that they had set for an encore, but they did Turn!!! Aw man Spklanng is a good album! I've just come to the last song on "Rearrange"and after hearing them play through it live last night and then listening to it straight through today, I can honestly say that it has it's very strong moments but they still haven't managed to top Spklanng....it's kind of a sound that's a mixture of "Spklanng" and "Mystery on Pop Mountain. I particularly like "Tin Man", "All About You", "Man in the Alley" , "Something about You", "Can't Stop", "Any Idiot", and "Hometown". Don't get me wrong. Spklanng is going to be a really hard one to top in my books. Rearrange is pretty darn good.

Oh, did I mention that I couldn't help noticing that Maury was sporting a new piece of bling? Yes, it's true, after 16 years, Maury and Shoshauna officially tied the knot in June. SO COOL! Next thing we know there'll be a little monkey bunch to follow...aww=).

You've got to be kidding me!

2006-08-30T17:08:00.000-07:00

Is John Mayer really dating Jessica Simpson? Of all people, come on?!!! He just seems so much cooler than that....EEEWWW!!! Is it a Southern thing? http://www.showbuzz.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/08/30/people/main1949290.shtml All I can say is they better not start doing duets together!

It's not an indie rock show unless there's at least one half naked guy in a skirt!

2006-08-27T23:19:00.000-07:00

I really should go to bed but it's just one of those nights that despite the fact that it's 2:15, I'm wide awake. It seems most of my posts are written late at night anyway so I guess this is as good a time as any. This weekend was an unexpected delight.--I FINALLY discovered some new music for a change. Harbourfront was hosting the IndieUNLIMITED festival and as many of the bands had been reccommended by Mr. Radio, J-Gho himself, I decided to go down and join the hipsters. I'd seen a couple of the members of the Hidden Cameras (billed as the entire band for some reason) at the Andy Kim Christmas show of all places and...though they had potential, I couldn't quite figure out what all the hype was about. Even though we were forced by the rather large crowd, to stand extreme stage right where all we could see was the back of the band and where the vocals were muffled, they were still an act totally worth writing home about. Clearly the flaw before was the fact that there were only two members. Similar to a group like Broken Social Scene they had several members (like possibly 10+...I didn't actually count) with several glockenspeils, violin, viola, piano, bass, guitar, drums, keyboard, cello etc. They've been dubbed "Gay Church Folk Music". I'm not exactly sure what that means but whatever it is, it's good. Kind of a mixture of power-pop and mellow folky I guess? Their new album 'AWOO', which I highly recommend might be more helpful when trying to define their genre. Bottom line, their set made me realize that I don't go to enough fun indie rock shows anymore. The days of Carnations shows and indie rock boys seemed so far away all of a sudden. Sure I still catch the ocasional Meligrove Band and Cuff the Duke shows, and those Carnations boys aren't exactly out of my life. Far from it in fact. It's just that Small Sins shows seem subdued in comparison. Last night just made me realize that there just aren't enough shows in my life where in a wink of an eye there's a full on dance party on stage with members of almost every hipster band from here to Montreal. Oh yeah, it's just not an indie rock show unless there's at least one half naked guy in a skirt.=)

Afterwards I headed over to the Lakeside Terrace, the "after hours" area I guess you could say, to see Spiral Beach. I've seen these kids a few times now and they're always a lot of fun. But after their behaviour at the MIT-City show that they played (let's just say the fact that they're 15 shone through like a beacon) it's getting harder and harder to overlook their age for their talent. They've been getting a TON of critical acclaim in the past year or so and it seems everyone who's in tune with the Toronto indie scene has heard of them by now. You'd think they'd have gotten some sort of stage banter perfected as a result but, hmm...nope! At first the fact that the stuff they talked about on stage was (juvinile to say the least) was kind of endearing. But now it's just annoying! Granted most people go to their shows to dance and are probably too drunk to care what their talking about. I'll admit that it's pretty hard to stand still when they're playing but hey, some of us actually come for the show. So if they're planning on really following in their big shot parents' footsteps, the fact that they can put together a snappy powerpop tune isn't going to hold up forever. Grow up I say! What has to be pointed out as most obsurd though, was that while nobody in the line escaped being carded the 15-year-old band-members were openly drinking on stage. Oy, does being an indie hipster even give you leagal priviledges?

This afternoon was a little more mellow.--The Hylozoists, a purely instrumental medley, again on the larger side, made up of members of Cuff the Duke, The Weakerthans, and just about every Canadian indie band there is. They are the Ultimate! They also have a cool philosophy "Traditionally, hylozoism is the belief that all matter holds life. Evidently, these Hylozoists believe every available minute bears opportunity," I like that. I'm not really into the instrumental thing but this is an exception for sure. I'll let you all read and listen for yourselves on the link above but, they're just...really cool! Nothing like funky instrumentals and Wayne Petti on a Sunday afternoon. Did I mention that there will be some CD shopping happening tomorrow?

I also spent most of the afternoon on Saturday finishing off the first season of Veronica Mars. Okay, you've got me. I'm hooked! Kat, you were right, it's totally about the characters! Though I was eagerly watching it about half way through, it was the last 4 or 5 episodes that really drew me in. I'm a sucker for love stories, what can I say=). I won't go into detail in case anyone else dcides to go the Mars route too, but wow, the last little bit was SO good! I watched the first and second episodes of the second season tonight and I can't say I'm exactly thrilled about the way her love life is headed but we'll see...I might warm up to this one.

My name in print!

2006-08-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

My article is finally out. We got our delivery of the new issue at work today and there it was on pg.41-42. Getting to see it in print was a little anti-climactic after such a long time, especially after already getting to see the layout, but I'm officially a published journalist...woo! I can provide a few copies to those who are interested since we have quite a few at work. But it's generally available on most newsstands. Chapters/Indigo I know for sure.

Back to the Grindstone

2006-08-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Just a quickie to say that I'm once again employed...well, for the next five weeks anyway. After that it's up to the powers that be and this year's available funding to decide if RyeACCESS is in the cards for me for a third year in a row. But for now I get to play Orientation Coordinator.--Wear my RSU T-shirt with pride and promote my cause to the newbies and the unaware. So far (6 hours) it's been fun...minus the broken desk drawer and the malfunctioning FileMaker Pro database. My four partners in crime I either know already, which is nice, or seem pretty cool and I'm liking Alex (My supervisor) in this new role I think. I'm going to give it a bit more time before I make my professional decision. It's only the first day afterall. I'm trying not to let myself get overwhelmed just yet but the sudden thrust into productivity after over a month of doing next to nothing is a bit of a shock to my system. I've apparently got two days to attend 4 info sessions, complete all of the office tasks that need doing, prepare all of my promotional materials and tabling stuff for next week's FROSH activities, and provide all of the Student Services with printed material. Not to mention the fact that I was already let in on a meeting with the ACCESS Centre and asked to speak at their event next Wednesday...My head a splode!!

The good news is that aside from a few early mornings and a lot of setting up of tables, next week will just be a lot of volunteer recruitment in the Quad, which usually doesn't require too much energy. It also looks like the events that are printed on our postcard this year might actually happen since the person who planned them is still there...woo! My biggest surprise though is that they've FINALLY managed to secure an accessible desk! After two years it's finally coming! Don't get me wrong mind you, I'll believe it when I see it. But the fact that it's supposedly on it's way is super exciting.

...I'm also in the handbook and the pamphlet again. Looking significantly better than last year I might add!

John Mayer, MOD Club 8/21/2006

2006-08-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

As promised here are the pics from last night's John Mayer concert. I decided I didn't want to wait till I could get my hands on another copy of my camera driver software. I wanted to see these pics on a larger scale than my camera's LCD screen will allow so I decided to just get Black's to stick them on a CD for me. Unfortunately it seems that I can only post so many pics per Blog entry so I picked my favourites...

....I see London, I see France, I see Johnny's underpants!

...If I had any doubts that last night actually happened, I don't now. On my way out the door this morning I looked down and lying on my scooter was one of John's guitar picks!! One of the roadies tossed a few of the extras into the audience before he started breaking down the gear. The girl beside me said she thought one had fallen into my basket, but we couldn't find it. I guess it just fell through the basket and we couldn't see the black on black in the dark. I'm amazed that it stayed there all the way home. Unfortunately it's not one of the ones that John threw personally but it's pretty darn cool.--It says John on one side and has a portrait of him on the other=).

....

His Body is a Wonderland...OH BABY!!

2006-08-21T20:54:00.000-07:00

CAUTION: Being less than a foot away from John Mayer for two hours will turn you into a puddle of goo!

...They say the third time's a charm but in this case it was the fourth....A few weeks ago they announced that John Mayer was doing a Toronto show, which was very exciting. However, not long after I found out that it was an exclusive fanclub show. I have a big problem with having to pay money to be considered somebody's fan. So unfortunately I didn't have the "priviledge" of buying tickets to this particular show. But, when I found out that it was at the MOD Club instead of the usual HUGE venues that he plays (Molson Ampitheatre, the ACC or the Kool Haus) I REALLY wanted to be there! So I went down to the MOD Club tonight only to find out that there were no tickets at all.--Nobody had any extras and the waiting list for any tickets that John's VIPs weren't using, was already overflowing. I put my name on the list anyway but only four tickets for 30+ people were released. I was about to leave when one of the girls who was handling the list flagged me down saying that her mom had an extra ticket! She could've sold it to anyone but once again my pitty-points came through in my favour. Yeah disability perks!

About half an hour before doors I asked if I could use the bathroom inside the venue. Not only could I hear the soundcheck (AWESOME!) I came out just as they were finished, so they let me in early and I proceeded to plunk myself right smack in front of John's mic. I was expecting his fans to be really annoying teenyboppers but I actually met some really cool people. Most people were cool except for the psych girl towards the end that is. During the last couple of songs this crazy girl roughly pushed her way up to the front and proceeded to stand right in front of the girls who had been there for the whole set and with a crazy look on her face numerously gave John the finger! It was so bizarre...and creepy!! Luckily she went back to where she came from after a while.

Unfortunately they were about half an hour late starting the show but when they did...OMG!!! I honestly think it was by far the best show I've seen all summer...quite possibly one of my favourites ever! I've seen him 3 other times but somehow being close enough to touch him made the music so much more intense. Being close enough to just sit there and watch him play guitar is just incredible! You can see him entering into another state and jamming. He can seriously play like nobody's business! And he's just SO pretty! Oy, let me tell ya, it wasn't just the lights that were makin' me sweat! The undulating...oh my the undulating...and the FACE MELTING SOLOS!!!

He was quite quiet as far as banter tonight, I remember him being more vocal in the past. "I've learned not to talk when tuning" he told us. But he did have a couple of cute exchanges with loudmouth audience members.

Loud Guy: "John play wheel so I can die happy!"

John: Who's dying?"

LG: "I will if you don't play Wheel"

JM: "What kind of incentive is that for me to play a song?"

LG: "Okay, I won't die!"

JM: "Then I won't play it. Ha! I gotcha!"

....You kind of had to be there but it was funny=).

...He still hasn't filled in the last square on the T-shirt tattoo yet=).

I'm really excited for the new album. He did the single "Waiting on the World to Change" and a few others. I think it's going to be a really good mixed album, with a nice combination of the Room for Squares pop and the new more bluesy stuff. The new material is really good but they did mostly old stuff, which was great..."Clarity", "Daughters","Something's Missing", "Why Georgia", "My Stupid Mouth", "Not Myself" etc.

It was my lucky day! Best $50 I ever spent! GFan Club shmanclub. In your face, I found a loophole!The only thing that sucked about the night was that he only signed posters for the people on the other side of the stage...grr!

I got some great pictures. I'll post them as soon as I can get my camera software up and running again. I'm working on it!

2006-08-20T14:38:00.000-07:00

Sadly, Soraya Jackson passed away in the early morning on Thursday August 17th. She is said to have passed peacefully after her long battle. The benefit will still take place to celebrate her young life and help ease the family's financial burden. Be there if you can!

...Condolences to Luther and his family

Fruvous lives!

2006-08-17T21:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, maybe we haven't seen more than 3 of them together in one room for over 5 years...and even I'm beginning to use a past tense when talking about our beloved foursome...but I couldn't resist a quick mention of the fact that I was just informed that "I Will Hold On" was being played in the framing section at IKEA yesterday. I was excited when the Drake was playing a little Bargainville in the summer of first year (the last time I was treated to anything radio-like related to Fruvous) but the Drake is a hipster Queen West Hotel that probably has a few employees who would be old enough to remember the good old days...hardly a big box store. I'd like to think it's a sign. But for now I'll stick to getting used to past tense. Especially since, despite my noticing the fact that IKEA definitely has a soundtrack that's on the cooler side, there was no Fruvous at IKEA during my shelving shopping-spree a mere two days before.

2006-08-17T20:02:00.000-07:00

Out of sheer boredom I jumped on the Veronica Mars bandwagon tonight. A couple of my friends have been raving about it since it started...in fact, there hasn't been a time yet where it hasn't come up in conversation when we've all been together. They burned season 1 for me to take with me to NYU last summer, but there just wasn't enough lonely dorm room nights to start watching it. I'm not sure why I've neglected to start watching it since. I've caught a few minutes here and there on TV and wasn't really impressed. But perhaps I should give it the benefit of the doubt...beyond a few minutes.

I watched episodes 1 and 2 tonight and I didn't hate it. I don't see where the popularity comes from yet but maybe that comes later. I can't quite get past the fact that it has an uncanny resemblance to all of the bad teenybopper "dramas" on YTV or the family channel...that, except that in the first episode they were already tackling the *adult* subjects that only come up in the night-time favourites. Perhaps that's what gives the show it's appeal? The quirky flip-flop between highschool and adulthood. It has a certain Dawson's Creek charm to it I guess. Thank goodness we get to escape the same level of academic-speak that came from 30 year-olds who were unsuccessfully trying to pull off characters half their age but at the same time that unrealistic highschool ideal is painfully apparent. It's safe to say that that's TV Land for ya though.

Despite my misgivings I'm strangely intrigued. I think I'm going to give it a few more episodes....

On a completely unrelated note...Luther Creek (Roger in the Canadian cast of Rent and Mark in the touring cast) along with several other past and present Rent castmembers and members of the Broadway community are putting on a benefit for Luther Creek's nine-year-old niece Soraya Jackson who has been battling brain cancer for the past year. Please visit www.myspace.com/songsforsoraya for more information and if any of you are in the New York area and can drop by the Cutting Room on August 27th, $25 is not a lot if it will do anything to help a sick child and her family. I'm not sure if there is anything that those of us who can't make it to the benefit can do to help but people have been commenting on the site asking where they can send donations and such so hopefully they will let us know. But if nothing else, kind words speak volumes so leave a comment on the site if you feel so inclined. I haven't yet but I think I might sidestep my usual aversion to leaving comments for celebrities and do so.

As a handful of my friends know, there is a special place for Luther Creek in this little Renthead's heart. It's slightly tacky to be promoting this event in this case, I know. But I stumbled upon the sad news by accident the other day and maybe it's the fangirlish memories of waiting outside the stage door at the Royal Alex way back in the days of grade 8 for a certain blonde rollerblader that make my feelings all the more apparent but it's hard not to feel for Luther and his family. It has to be said...this is why we have to remember "No day but today!" I really do hope Soraya can beat it!

2006-08-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Boo, I'm lapsing into a pattern of infrequent posts again. Truthfully it's really been due to the lack of things to post about...I am SO looking forward to going back to school! This summer has suddenly started to feel VERY long. But I got an E-mail the other day asking me to apply again to be orientation coordinator for RyeACCESS. The application deadline is supposed to be August 17th. So I'm hoping to hear about it fairly soon. Unfortunately it's only a 5 week contract but it generally leads to the full-year position, and either way it will be nice to have an income again.

My article should be out any day now. They never did give me a specific date beyond "sometime at the end of August" but they've already sent out the topic for the next issues, so I'm assuming it'll be out soon. I'd like to pitch to the next issue, but they've only allowed about 5 days before the deadline (this publication is EXTREMELY disorganized if I haven't mentioned it already) and I know very little about adaptive technology so coming up with a story in such a short time might be close to impossible.

Against my better judgment I skipped Kevin Hearn's CD release on Wednesday to go check out Chris Brown & Kate Fenner. My friend Elyse is absolutely obsessed and as she's been raving about them for years, I decided it was time to go see them. It was a good excuse to see Elyse too (it had been WAY too long). Unfortunately it wasn't as fun as it could've been though. First of all the doors ended up being more than an hour later then we thought so my friend that I was with decided that the $15 cover was too expensive for the short amount of time that she could then be at the show. So she ended up leaving and I reluctantly paid the $15, which I regretted slightly later on. It was nice to see Elyse but she was with a bunch of her friends that I didn't know, and a noisy club isn't exactly the easiest place to get to know people. So most of the night was more anti-social than anything, which was a shame, and I'm sorry to have to report that I REALLY didn't like Chris Brown & Kate Fenner. I wanted to, I really did! They are very talented musicians but I just didn't find anything particularly special about them. There were a couple of political tunes that were pretty good but Chris Brown was mostly pretty dull and though Kate Fenner has a good voice, it was kind of shrill on the high notes. She's also scarrily skinny, which I found a little hard to watch. I find it really hard to believe that she just had a baby. Elyse has a huge crush on her...to each his own I guess=p. The funny thing was that Elyse's friend told me that she's been dragged to see them a million times but she doesn't really get them either. Apparently Elyse saw them years ago at some festival and totally fell in love, but all of her friends were puzzled as to why. I totally understand the love for a band that people don't get, so I guess I shouldn't talk. But, I don't get it! Elyse has a tattoo of some of their song lyrics so after the show she showed it to them and they apparently serenaded her acoustically. A huge highlight obviously...she was all giggly for the rest of the night *hehe*.

Went to Major Maker's CD release on Friday night. They get better and better each time I see them. Lindy has even almost gotten the scary falsettos under control=). I was also quite pleased to find that Lindy is actually on the ball, and that my copy of the CD (sent by some guy with bad writing and a LONG Icelandic name *hehe*) was waiting in my mailbox. There was also multitudes of free buttons on each table, which we took advantage of. It was a very strange show though. Usually the band that is having the CD release plays last. But in this case Major Maker played second...very weird, so we ended up just leaving after their set...without stories of Tommy-boy's tour...boo=p. The first band that was on was called Stirling and in the dark the frontman had quite a resemblance to Thom. He was wearing a suit, which should've been our first clue. But we spent a good 10 or 15 minutes going, "Why is Thom wearing a suit? Is that Thom? It is him! Wait, no it's not." The guy was also too tall and his nose was too big but he does a mean hair-flip that definitely rivals Thom's=). Sterling was boring but the frontnan was pretty so it was okay *hehe*.

BTW, can anyone think of guy's names that start with 'K'? ;)

The sounds of summer

2006-07-30T20:32:00.000-07:00

Well, thus concludes my three nights of awesome music at Harbourfront. Thursday night I didn't have anything planned so I picked up a last minute ticket to see Sarah Harmer. It turned out to be an absolutely beautiful night and since it was a ticketed event everything was very mellow and orderly, which isn't usually the case in the bandshell there.--It was packed but didn't feel so...it was very nice. She had shimmery fabric draped from the roof and twinkle lights all over the place. Since we were down by the water she kept a pretty consistant water/nature theme and the lights guy projected wave-like images on the back of the stage. Though I do love her, for some reason Sarah Harmer isn't someone that I can see over and over again. But I think enough time had gone by that I was ready to see her again. She was very laid back and happy, did all the hits, and a few I'd never heard before believe it or not. I haven't heard her new CD yet (I picked it up that night) so I think they must have been from that. However, I don't think she played Basement Apartment or Hideout=(. I suppose she can't play them everytime, but I thought they were pretty solid staples at this point. She might've played them when I was in the bathroom, TWICE...teach me to drink beer, blah! but I don't think so.

...Did anyone else know she could drum? At one point during the set she went and sat down in the back and at first I didn't see the small drum kit and wondered why she was just sitting there. But then she started to drum while singing and made jokes about the drummer from the opening band waiting in the wings in case she messed up. But I thought she was pretty impressive.

The only weird thing about the night was for the first time I didn't recognize anyone in her band...or anyone in the hipster audience either.

***

Friday night was the beginning of the "From the Peg!" Festival, which featured several artists from Winnipeg. We went down to see The Duhks, who I hadn't heard of but were guaranteed by Kyla to be good. They definitely didn't disappoint. They're kind of tradional folk (fiddles, banjo, drums guitar) fused with a contemporary sound. They kind of reminded me of The Paperboys without the Spanish stuff. They did a lot of covers (Sting & Tracy Chapman) a few that were written for them (one by the Mammals) and then several interesting instrumental pieces that seemed to be arranged by the fiddle player. I was particuarly impressed with the guitarist...not only was he cute *hehe* but he was an extremely strong guitar player. Nothing particularly fancy per se, he just struck me as very good. My only real criticism was that the lead singer was clearly fronting the band but each time they did an instrumental piece she left the stage. It was weird, it sort of wrecked the continuity of the set I found.

For some reason there were people giving out paper Burton Cummings masks too. It was very bizarre. I mean yeah, the Guess Who are from Winnipeg...but it's not like they were there or anything=p.

***

Saturday night topped them all though. Sarah Harmer was nice and all. But she was still $35! Now, you just can't top a two hour FREE Weakerthans set with a 7 song encore. SOO GOOD!!!! If it wasn't for the stupid indie kids it would've been flawless. We got there three hours early and secured a great spot in the front row, but as soon as the Waking Eyes went on at 8 all the oblivious, inconsiderate losers started filling the miniscule space between the seats and the barrier and stood right in front of us...OY, SO RUDE!! Luckily we didn't mind just listening to the Waking Eyes but when more little idiots tried to cram themselves into the space before the Weakerthans went on, that's where we drew the line. We reamed a couple guys out who jumped over the benches from like 5 rows back back to try and cram themselves into the already non-existent space...which had gotten even smaller when everyone crowded under during the brief downpour. Eventually we just got security to let me parallel park right up against the barrier. My friends had to stand, which sucked after waiting for 3 hours, but we had a great view anyway. Needless to say we were extremely unimpressed with the lack of crowd control...geeze! It made no sense cuz the seats were hardly jam packed and there is a perfect view from the back of the venue. There was no reason for them to allow that.

It was a seriously awesome show though. They did EVERYTHING but the best part was that they opened their "From the Peg!" set with One Great City. It was so much fun to yell out "I HATE WINNIPEG!" after hearing everybody gush about how great it was for two days.=) I'm still not quite up to snuff with all the words to every song yet and I don't know all the titles either, but, wow! They did almost everything off of Reconstruction Site, including Plea for a Cat Named Virtue, yay!! and a few older ones that I didn't really know. John did a very cool Propaghandi cover that I would love to hear the original of. It had excellent lyrics. I'm always so impressed by the Weakerthans lyrics...they're really phenomenal. Poetic, with a contemporary twist.

They said something about October as they were leaving the stage but I didn't hear if it was an album or a tour. Hopefully both.

...I got a T-shirt with the Cat Named Virtue on it...cute!=).

***

...On a bit of a random note, what is with toddlers with squeaky feet? Is it some sort of new incentive to get your children to learn to walk or something. Today I saw the second child that I've seen with shoes that were kind of like squeaky toys. Everytime she took a step it sounded like she stepped on the dog's chew toy. I don't know about you, but I think I'd find that kind of annoying if nothing else.

I went for a picnic with my dad in the wildlife sanctuary over by the Humber Bay where he lives. I had no idea there was so much country in the city there. We sat by the water and watched the boats, fed the many different types of birds...ducks (including a mother duck and her 5 cute babies), geese, starlings, swans, gulls etc. Most of the time you can't see anything but water and wildflowers...not a trace of the city, even though it's only over the trees. The best part though was that on the way back we saw a white heron and a BEAVER!!! There is a HUGE beaver dam in the river and we saw the beaver having a lovely old time swimming around and chewing on a stick. I've seen many a beaver dam up at the cottage, but I don't think I've ever seen a real live beaver. I never thought I'd see one right smack in the middle of the city.

There was also this really funny older man wearing a speedo, with his cell phone clipped to it who was literally strutting up and down the shore. It was very funny=p...and very weird.

By, Saburah Murdoch

2006-07-27T22:02:00.000-07:00

I was asked to look over the layout of my article for Abilities Magazine tonight. It's official, it's done!

Except...I'm feeling that weird feeling that I get when things that I write are edited to death. Mind you, saying that this was edited to death is a bit strong I guess, but I definitely noticed some changes from the final draft that I sent in. I know that's to be expected, especially at this early stage in my journalistic writing. But whether it's my profs, my friends, or in this case a real editor changing my words I can never help but feel like a little bit of my vision is being taken away. I'd better get used to it, I know...especially in this business of angles and "styles". It's just hard to send my work off into the oblivion of E-mail and have it return appearing different. I kind of hate the sub-titles the broke it up into too--"Pizza & Politics"...oy! I know that's something that I'm definitely going to learn to surrender cuz generally writers don't have any involvement with headlines or the like. Granted I'm not very good at them anyway but I was hoping I would escape a bad one this time.

I think what's really throwing me off though is the personal twist that I was asked to take it to in the end. They wanted me to end it with a student quote. But as those (especially ones coming from students with disabilities) are rather hard to come by in the summer, I decided to use a personal anecdote. Rather then ending with that though, they decided to expand on it and put it in the sidebar with my picture. I was sort of leaving out the detail about my working for RyeACCESS to avoid any bias issues, but once my picture was going to be included, I kind of had to tell them. So then that info was added too (except that they kind of mixed it up and I hope they'll take my corrections) and the few lines that I originally provided became this big story. I hate mushy exaggerations that turn people's experiences into sob stories...so I couldn't help but suggest a few word changes to avoid bordering on that. But the bottom line is that the full medical term for my disability is prominently placed and I'm being painted in the light of "disability". I don't know, I suppose I could've said no, but at the time it seemed okay...it still is okay...it just doesn't necessarily feel like me. It's not that I deny that I have a disability, or want to hide it, on the contrary. I just don't necessarily make it who I am...I just feel a bit medicalized. I think I wanted my first published experience to be a little less personal and a little more anonymous, for lack of a better term.

Oh well, I generally write about things that are close to home for me and this was no different. I suppose it might've been expected. C'est la vie!

On a side note, I was in the bookstore the other day and I happened to come accross Kyle Maynard's new autobiography. For those of you who don't know him, he's definitely someone to check out. He was born a congenital amputee, meaning that he was born with no legs below the knees and no arms below the elbows. However, despite his disability he went on to compete against able-bodied athletes on his highschool football team and has since become a champion wrestler, beating able-bodied oponants right and left. My mom saw him on Larry King Live a couple of years ago and I saw him on an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition. I read about half the book today and there is no doubt that he's a very inspiring guy... and despite the slightly iffy writing-style of a 19 year-old boy, it's an interesting book. But writing about disability, and then writing a bit about my own experiences this book gave me a bit of a different perspective. Kyle's book is called No Excuses and his no excuses philosophy, which acts as his motivater, runs throughout. It's a good philosophy but I can't help but find it slightly problematic somehow. The obstacle that I've always faced with disability advocacy and with working for RyeACCESS in my own life, is the idea that by pointing out the fact that people with disabilities are equal within society, we are segregating ourselves slightly. Like I said, this could just be related to the inexperienced writing style of a 19 year-old, but Kyle has written his story in a very fluffy way. It has that Easter Seals quality to it that I notice is generally present in most disability writings. Now I know Kyle didn't intend it to be this way, as he is clearly talking about overcoming and succeeding. But, and as with the way they edited my personal blurb in my article, he talks about his obstacles in terms of an able-centric view, about wanting to be normal. By comparing disability to ability are we not creating a divide by default? By presenting stories of triumph and inspirsation is that not putting your differences out there even more?

Either way, check out Kyle's book. I don't agree entirely with the way he's being "marketed" but he's pretty cool. I can only hope that my writing (or something) will get me as far as his athletics.

Mr. Jones and me, telling each other fairytales...Except that we're not, because they didn't play it!

2006-07-25T13:16:00.000-07:00

I can finally cross seeing Counting Crows live off of my to-do list. August and and Everything After was the first album I ever bought...way back in the day of the cassette tape. Geeze I'm old=). They're one of those bands that rarely comes to Canada and when they do they're opening for some serious heavy-weight and so the tickets are $100+. So, needless to say the opportunity to pounce on $30 tickets seemed very lucky. It was a strange double bill with the Goo Goo Dolls so despite CC being the headliner they only played for about an hour. I really only know a couple of Goo Goo Dolls songs so we opted to skip their set. We caught the tail end...BORING. I'm not exactly disappointed that we missed them, despite my friend's assurances that my missing them was sacrelidge.

I'm still not entirely sure what I thought of Counting Crows set. It was just...good. not fantastic, but...good. I've always felt that it says a lot about a band when they sound exactly like they do on the CD. Adam sounded great but he didn't sing any of the songs the way they normally sound. They were kind of delving into a bit of a jammy thing, which got slightly annoying after a while. I mean, they did an 8 minute version of 'Round Here' for gosh sakes! My friend said she thought it was kind of interesting that they were playing around with the sound. But I think there's something to be said about being able to sing-along the way you're used to...not to mention being able to sing-along to the hits.--They barely played any of their really well-known songs. By all means play the more obscure ones, but with a band that has so many hits, it's just not fair not to play them. Not playing 'Mr. Jones just doesn't make sense! Especially since it was playing on the radio everywhere I was throughout the day. I wanted to hear it live damn it! We did get 'Omaha', 'Round Here', Long December', 'Mrs. Potter's lullaby' and 'Hangin' Around' so it's not like the night was completely free of my favourites....even if they didn't sound the same.

We actually really got our $30 worth. by the time we got there the place was packed and everyone was standing up. I didn't want to pay the $65 for wheelchair seats so I just got regular ones. But even if I could get through all the people to the seats, there was still nowhere to park my scooter. So we found a really nice security guard who took us to guest services and convinced them to move us from the 400 section to the $65 wheelchair seats in the 200 section. They're sort of raised above the crowd so even though everyone was standing the whole time we could still see perfectly. I did it again! I might as well use this disability thing to my advantage...why not?

I must say that the highlight for me was getting to know Adam's political side. I didn't know about The Counting Crows Outreach Project but I was really impressed with the initiative...and with the fact that Adam spent a good chunk of the show explaining it and urging people to support local organizations and make a difference. I *think* a portion of the ticket proceeds was donated to several Toronto organiations too. An incredibly admirable thing for such a big band. It makes me feel much better about paying Molson Ampitheatre prices. Adam also pointed out the fact that this is an election year in the US and encouraged any Americans in the crowd to take responsibility and VOTE. To any Americans who might be reading this, I'm extending the message. Step up! Help to change the situation in the US.

I don't visit http://www.countingcrows.com very often but I wanted to check it out after the show last night. I still maintain that they are one of the coolest, and most socially aware bands that I've seen, but I lost a bit of respect for them when I saw their site. A good part of it it restricted to Fan Club Members. A lot of bands have a Members-only section but when you have to pay to view something as simple as photos, there's something wrong! Make people pay for concert tickets and T-shirts (people like me *hehe* Hey, it's a really cool shirt!) not your website!

Free-thinkers unite!

2006-07-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Slacker? Uninformed? Don't Care? Lazy?

Maybe...

It's easy to say that the reason I'm the journalist that doesn't keep up with "hard news" is because of similar words like the ones above. But, I just had a realization... Is it possible that the reason really is that I want to keep my reality to a minimum?

I've been listening to Sounds Like Canada pretty much every morning now and so I've been catching the CBC hourly newsbreaks. If I pay attention to the news at all, the last thing that I care about is business news. But today it brought quite a shocker. Apparently my career as a journalist is possibly even more at risk of becoming part of the likes of Rupert Murdoch and his pals. The big business story today is that Bell Globemedia is rumored to be buying CHUM Ltd, which includes Toronto's City-tv. It's not to say that City is really independent by a of the busineny meanss but I think it's safe to say that it is still thought of as one of the last groovey stations where you might still be able to apply any sort of artistic expression. As a culture junkie I personally consider even the possibility of this take-over to be a real tragedy. The word independent is quickly losing its meaning. Is the opportunity to be free-thinking disappearing?

http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2006/07/12/chum-bell.html

"These are my peeps!"

2006-07-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

Kyla and I went to see Great Big Sea last night. You can't really go wrong with them. They're just one of those bands that's guaranteed to get you up on your feet...even me! *hehe* I think I need a little time before I see them again though because we just saw them a few months ago so this show wasn't exactly a new experience. Alan cut his hair, which made his signature hair flip less exciting. But who am I kidding? Doyle is just Doyle...always totally delicious, yet we're not quite sure why=p. His parents were there too...aww! Bob and Sean on the other hand just look dirtier each time I see them. They're both sporting these long, kind of truckdriver doos that are just horrible! Remember when Sean used to be the cute one? Not anymore! not to mention the fact that he's playing up his stupid falsetto harmonies more and more, which just drives me up the wall. It was the last show of the tour so they did a good variety of new and old...(Charlie Horse and a few others from The Hard and The Easy, Sea of no Cares and then all the old faves...Rant and Roar, Old Black Rum, Consequence Free, Mari Mac etc.) my only real complaint was that they seem to be playing around with things too much. I say if it aint broke, don't fix it. They've been doing kind of an acoustic version of Sea of No Cares for a while that is just boring and they're playing a few others as electric numbers now. Alan just put down the lelectric guitar. Sean's comment about having to call him Alan Van Halen was funny but that's about it.

It's kind of become our game to watch the dynamics between Alan and Murray.--They can be quite hilarious sometimes. Alan's always coming up and teasing Murray somehow or making a silly gesture. Last time the highlight was Alan saying "Way to Go Murray" and this time when Alan introduced Murray he mentioned he was from Toronto. Everyone cheered...Yay! and then Murray said "Yeah, these are my peeps, my people!" Murray's People return woo! He spoke!!! 10 lashes with a wet fish Foster!!! Alan once said at the beginning of Murray's stint with them that you had to be in the band for 7 years before you got to talk.=) I'd just like to know what is with the T-shirts? When he's back in T.O the Murray shirts kind of come back but at a GBS show, without fail Murray will wear a T-shirt. Weird! Oh, Alan promoted http://www.murraythebastard.com Where did it come from? It just kind of appeared one day...obviously Murray's friends playing a joke. But it seems to get more serious all the time...hmm.

I bought a T-shirt with the fish head lady on it. It's cute but it's slightly ill-fitting. I suppose it's fine for the few times I'll wear it to a show or something but it makes me mad that for $30 I didn't get something that I can really wear. Strange thing....I decided I wanted to wear it last night so I went into the bathroom to change and I put the shirt down for a minute but it fell on the floor and I didn't notice. I took my other shirt off and went to grab the new one only to find it wasn't there. I looked EVERYWHERE and I couldn't figure out what had happened. Finally I went to see if I'd dropped it outside and as soon as I stepped out of the stall some cleaning woman who didn't really speak English handed me my shirt. When it fell on the floor she evidently grabbed it from underneath and didn't say anything.

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean The Dead Man's Chest tonight. Kyla and I attempted to see it twice this weekend but both times things came up and I couldn't make it...boo! But I was out with my friend Emily tonight so we just decided to go. Definitely not one to see if you're looking for a good thick plotline but all-in-all a good summer action flick. Johnny Depp I found slightly lacking this time around. Some of his sharp wit that was in the first one just didn't come off as well. But he was still fabulously flambouant. I think I've finally jumped on the Orlando Bloom bandwagon. He's SO hot! For a while I couldn't get over his gay elf days but in this pirates movie he's taken on a more masculine persona...excellent! this movie is worth seeing for the makeup and effects if nothing else. The giant squid and the pirate sea creature people are really cool. I wanted Orlando and Kiera to get married in the end. But I guess we have to wait for the third one...I just heard Kieth Richards may or may not be in it...weird!

Oy, if I hear another honking horn or race car as long as I live it will be too soon. This weeekend there was a million things going on in the city.--Festivals galore! But one of the events was the Molson Grad Prix car race. I unfortunately live right by the lakeshore and aside from the fact that watching a car go round and round all day is the LAST thing I'd want to spend my time doing, it's sounded like giant bees have been attacking the city all weekend. It also made getting to the GBS show(and anywhere else in that area for that matter) extremely hard because there was a detour every two feet...gah! Toronto also has a large Italian population so going anywhere outside tonight meant getting your head blown off by constant honking horns. Okay, I know it's insanely popular but I'm totally not into it. What I really can't understand is the honking and the waving of the flags out car windows. I mean what? Do they just sit at home watching TV with the car at the ready in case they win? Either way I'll be glad to finally have some peace and quiet now that both things are done.

Andy Warhol is a Scream. I hang him on my Wahahahahahal

2006-07-07T19:30:00.000-07:00

Little known fact: Campbell's Soup wasn't just a random image for Andy Warhol. He had Campbell's Tomato soup for lunch every day of his life!

I went to see director David Cronenberg lecture about Andy Warhol at the AGO tonight. It was a complete fluke that I got in at all actually. Being the HUGE Warhol enthusiast that I am I've been waiting anxiously for the opening of the AGO's Andy Warhol: Supernova show (opening tomorrow) and my friend Abi, who's a member of the gallery got an E-mail about Cronenberg's lecture. I of course was dying to attend, but just my luck it was sold out. I put my name on a waiting list but I still hadn't heard anything by this afternoon. So I went over to the gallery to check it out. Turns out I was number 25 on the list but they said there was very little likelihood of anyone getting last minute tickets. However they said I could try and come back just before it started and try my luck.

The whole thing seemed to be handled really badly. I mean, it's Cronenberg and Andy Warhol. Did they not think people weren't going to come?! They had it in a space that was far too small and then they didn't even fill it with chairs. They claimed that they couldn't add anymore seats because the space was being used during the day by the art camp and they needed the extra space to store their supplies. But from what I could see that was a totally messed up excuse. ANYWAY, I was out with a friend all afternoon and I didn't look at the time until I was already late. But I got there and had only missed about 5 minutes. I asked if there was any possibility of me just squeezing myself into the back.-- Especially since I brought my own seat *hehe*. But of course the people at the door were all skeptical..."Oh, it's sold out. I don't have the authority to allow that, blah, blah." So they sent me down to the actual lecture hall and since it had already started the guy didn't care and he just let me watch from the upper balcony area. Unfortunately I found it difficult to see a lot of the projections from that far away and at times I couldn't hear everything Cronenberg was saying, but it was really interesting. I mean, what was on everybody's minds was why a movie director was curating an art show in the first place. But Cronenberg is extremely well spoken and he talked a lot about the parallels between film and visual art and the parallels between Warhol's paintings and his films...why they chose to include his films in the show/pair them with certain paintings etc. What particularly interested me though was how he went into detail about Warhol's personality and his fascination with the celebrity and how that was very connected with the idea of death.

I've never really been able to fully explain why I like Andy Warhol so much...and I still don't think I can. But it was really refreshing to hear someone not only justify Pop Art and Warhol's "style" but go into detail about the deeper complexities that the works have...that you don't see upon first glance. He was so passionate and descriptive when describing each piece rather than the regular dismissal of low art.

A couple of other people without tickets came in after me and just stood and watched.Then when it was all over we we looked at each other and said "Did you pay? " "No, did you pay?" The ticket guy disappeared so we ended up seeing the lecture for free. I guess we were meant to be there!

I didn't get to see the actual show because today was a members-only preview and Abi backed out when she thought we weren't going to get into the lecture. But I can't wait to see it! It's open to the public tomorrow but I think I'm going to wait for a couple of weeks and see it with my aunt when she's in town. I bought the special Cronenberg audio guide but I think I should probably wait to see the show before I listen to it.

It's the little things that give me joy

2006-07-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Great Atomic Power played a free "lunchtime" show in Yonge & Dundas Square yesterday and though I really should've stayed home and tried to make a dent in my work, I couldn't resist going. For those who don't know, Great Atomic Power is a fairly new musical endeavour by Tory Cassis, David Matheson, Murray Foster, Mark Mariash and Jason LaParde. It started when the guys were asked to play a fundraiser for a local Toronto church last year. They put together a collection of covers of their favourite (as the guy put it yesterday in his introduction "old-timey music") and a few of their own original tunes. They probobably didn't expect to play again but since then they've played 4 more times and it looks like when they're all not off galavanting in their "regular" gigs we might hear a lot more from them. Everyone was in full form yesterday (especially Dave-o it seemed) they definitely get better everytime we see them. I just saw them about a month ago but this time there was significant improvement.

Obviously the music brings me immense joy in itself but yesterday's tunes were acommpanied by a rare event. Those of us who go to all of the various "perpetual hiatus" Fruvous "spinoff" and solo projects know that unless it's one of those rare times when a couple of the guys are actually playing together (like yesterday) the different members of Fruvous rarely go to see each other's solo projects. Yesterday however, Fordy stopped by the square to catch the show and before sitting down he went up to the stage to say hi to Dave and Murray.--And there it was, three quarters of Fruvous... in the same place! I can't even remember the last time that happened. As usual Jian is on the other side of the country so there was no chance of all four...wtg J-Gho! But just the same there was something about the scene that gave me that warm fuzzy feeling. They all seemed so happy to see each other and even though this little sighting had nothing to do with Fruvous' music it was the guys! Fruvous may remain a fabulous memory in the back of our subconscious musical catalogue but I think no matter what they're doing seeing those particular men together will always give me joy. I was on a great high for the rest of the day after that.

Did I mention Dave looks good in baseball caps and western shirts? *Hehe*

The War on...fun?

2006-07-04T20:12:00.000-07:00

I had to be up at a half-decent hour this morning so I turned on Sounds Like Canada...for the first time this summer...oops! Anyway, I had to laugh because given the recently passed Canada Day, and it being the 4th of July, the show was about nationalism. True to character good ol' Ji-Lo was challenging his interviewee to his usual down home, Canadian mom 'n'pop business argument. He was on his regular winning track until the other guy made the point tthat regardless of how grassroots the business is, they no doubt get their products and or produce from elsewhere...i.e. our "evil" neighbours to the South, therefore there is no way of completely consuming and supporting only Canadian content. Jian cut him off when he started on the advantages of Wall Mart (can't say I blame him), but the other guy was making some pretty convincing arguments that totally burned Mr. Starbucks...bad!

I only had time to listen to a couple of segments but the second one was an interview with Western Standard editor Ezra Levant about his new book The War on Fun. Yikes! Right-wingers freak me out! I must say this guy was so over the top that I am slightly tempted to actually read his book however. Without reading his book (not that I'm sure I'll be convinced afterwards either) he came off as a bit of a quack. But basically the premise of the book is explained here--Keep in mind that this is a review that is obviously in favour of the book, so it's biases will be clear. Once I read the book I'll let you know if I'm my leftest tendencies are swayed to the right and I'm led to believe that my SUV and fast food liberties are being denied. Quite a far-fetched idea in any case. To say the least, a guy who was admittedly sitting in his Hummer, ranting about how the environmental concerns about SUVs are just an attempt to trample our rights to the car of our choice, was good for a laugh. Needless to say the comment that was made shortly after summed it all up..."Gee, a right-wing thinker from Alberta...What a surprise!"

Television nostalgia is the best kind

2006-07-03T18:37:00.000-07:00

If you're part of my generation chances are you were watching Beverly Hills 90210 in the early 90's. At that point (along with my cousin, everyone I knew, and even my Uncle!) I was engrossed in Spelling-mania. Despite it's incredibly high cheese factor, Bev Hills was one of the most popular dramas on TV for over 10 years. Now why pre-tell has every other flash in the pan come out on dvd and the adventures of Brandon, Brenda, Kelly, Donna, Dylan, Steve, David and Andrea remain mere television memories? I honestly don't get the logic. Aaron Spelling, the legendary king of trashy TV dramas died the other day, so perhaps that will trigger a release of his "works" or something. I just think it's silly that they haven't at least started reruns in the ten some odd years it's been off the air. Until now...

PRIME (Channel 54 on Canadian Cable) recently changed it's name to TVtropolis and started showing a number of old TV hits, including 90210. Unfortunately it's on at 3:00 in the afternoons on weekdays and 10:00 on Saturday mornings, which is not exactly convenient for those of us who work or go to school. But Bev Hills is back, woo! The best part is that on this lovely holiday Monday they've been showing a Bev Hills marathon, ALL DAY!!! I attempted to tape all 11 episodes but sadly the old tapes that I had weren't as long as I thought. Oh well...I guess I'll just have to wait until those bigshots in TV Land come to their senses and put the series out on dvd.--My only complaint about this marathon is that (though I see their logic) instead of running consecutive episodes they're running a selection of favourites. It kind of sucks though because for those who haven't seen the show before, or those of us who can't quite remember all the details, all of the juicy references to episodes that they're not showing, not to mention some major cliff-hangers at the end are just too much of a tease!

It is actually pretty amazing how much I remember from episodes that I haven't seen in years. I suppose that's one of the qualities that makes a good show though right? In any case, I can't help but notice that the show that in third grade seemed so racy and full of forbidden "adult" subjects seems so dated...still fabulous...but dated. I guess I'm all grown up. *Hehe* NOT!

139 and stronger than ever! Happy Canada Day!

2006-07-01T17:42:00.000-07:00

Ooh, I can see the fireworks out my window...pretty lights!

I don't think I've done anything particularly exciting for Canada Day in a while. Today was very nice though. My friend Kyla and I went out to Toronto Island armed with a picnic.--Almost missed the ferry but luckily the holiday crowds kept it behind schedule.

I always find that Centre Island is too touristy so we walked over to Ward's and ate our picnic under a tree in the soccer/baseball field...very nice. We had huge sandwiches and multiple helpings of salad followed by brownies, which we decided to pair with ice cream from the snack bar, espresso flake...YUM! After lunch we met a really cool artist guy who was selling handpainted t-shirts, the majority of which were sunflower paintings (which of course is what attracted me.) At first I thought he said they were $14 so I was really considering buying one of the really large ones to make a pillow out of. But it turns out he really said $40...I wasn't about to pay that obviously. We ended up talking to him while we were waiting for the ferry. He's an Island resident so he was totally into everything...very enthusiastic! He told us about a really cool theatre production that's going on in August that I'd really like to go to. Apparently each scene takes the audience to a different part of the Island...neat! He was so much fun that despite my attempts to be frugal (who am I kidding huh? We all know I'm no good at that!) I couldn't resist buying something from him. He had a kids shirt that was only $20 with a sunflower on it so I went for that. It'll probably be too small and it's not as nice as the bigger ones. But it's cute and if it doesn't fit I'll make it into a pillow...I thought I could make a cool petal-like boarder to make it really nice.

When we got back to the city side we headed over to Harbourfront to meet our friend Dyan and catch Mike Ford's set on the "Canada stage". Perfect thing to do on Canada Day! Why sit at home when you can learn a little Canadian history and have fun doing it? *hehe* The silly woman who introduced him introduced him as "perhaps best known as one fourth of the ecclectically successful vaudville group Moxy Fru*vouse*." Now how exactly do you gain ecclectic success?

The kids (young and old) were getting a kick out of him. It was a lot of fun. He seemed slightly nervous and looked a little hot and stuffy in his all black stage outfit. I mean, when it's 30 degrees outside we'll all understand if your couteur doesn't come off as totally suave Fordy! He did The Seaway, Les Voyageurs, Louis & Gabriel, I'm Gonna Roam, Crossroads, a song that I hadn't heard before that is apparently by "a great Canadian musician", The Arrogant Worms' We Are the Beaver, I've Been Everywhere and one of the new ones that is set to appear on the upcoming Canada Needs You vol 2. We totally failed in the trivia department though. Fordy likes to ask random Canadiana-based trivia questions and today he asked the one about Diefenbaker's dog again and neither of us could remember the answer...blah, bad history students! Then he prefaced "We Are the Beaver" by asking "It's Canada Day and we are the...?" We figured out the Arrogrant Worms part but the rest was just a big DUH! I'm sure the question was directed at us too...oops! In all fairness the Worms do have a lot of songs about Canada.

I wore my "I Love Canadian Boys" Fruvous shirt, both as a joke...and because it really is my only Canadian-themed garment. When we were talking to Fordy afterwards he looked at my shirt and said "hey, I forgot about that shirt! I lobbyed pretty hard against it." *Heh* I probably would've too if I were him...but how ironic! He did comment on his fine handiwork though *hehe*.

Poor Dyan had to hightail it outta there shortly after the show because as usual she has a million things on the go that she is behind in. Hopefully she'll see the light at the end of the tunnel soon. But Kyla and I walked around and looked at all the pretty things that were for sale.--Kind of a painful practice when you're totally broke, but we both ended up getting a pair of earrings. I got a pair that are large pieces of white shell with red birds painted on them. They're kind of tackey but I really like them.

I was supposed to head out to North York tonight to catch Cuff the Duke at Mel Lastman Square with my friend Tara. But when I came home to change around 6:30 the sky got black and it started to pour rain. Tara said it was even worse out there so sadly, we decided to forget it. I had a feeling that it would clear up (and I was right!) but by the time it did it was too late to get all the way out there in time. Boo...now I've missed Wayne twice in two weeks! I suppose it's just as well cuz I was out in the hot sun for almost 8 hours today and I'm SOOOO tired! I really did want to see CTD though...grr, stupid rain!

*Heh* before I left today I grabbed a pair of red earrings out of my beading box so that they would be all Canada-themed and match the red in my shirt. On my way to the ferry I thought one of them had fallen out of my ear, so as not to look silly wearing just one earring I took out the "remaining" one and put it in my bag. I just went to scratch my ear and it turns out the earring was just caught in my hair a bit and I didn't feel it earlier. So I spent the day in an A-semetrical earring situation anyway!

The Doucets are gaining a daughter, the McClellands are gaining a son...but we're losing our favourite indie couple!

2006-06-30T22:47:00.000-07:00

Did anyone else know we were losing Luke and Melissa after the honeymoon? According to this they're planning on moving to Nashville. It's not like Luke is a Toronto native or anything, but c'mon, Toronto just got him! They article claims that they both plan to continue to be active in the Canadian music scene...but I was enjoying having them both play fairly frequently in t-dot.

They were both on Sounds Like Canada talking to Jian this morning. Sadly I was too lazy to get up before 10...sad I know! I wish I'd gotten out of bed though...clearly details like joining the country ranks go unnoticed when you don't get up in the morning. In any case, as Jian puts it, "the royal indie wedding" took place last Saturday. Congrats Luke and Melissa! May there never be another bitter breakup album again!!

I lost Taylor and he punctured my can!

2006-06-30T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well after having my set of awesome MIT-City buttons for all of 24 hours I've gone and lost Taylor...BOO!! The pin (wherever it went) punctured my unopened can of Coke as it was disconnecting itself from my bag, causing the sticky liquid to spray like a small pressure hose all over my scooter and my feet. Thanks a lot Taylor...geeze! *hehe*

Lamp posts aren't supposed to fall over right? Not since the last time I checked anyway. I was enjoying the gorgeous weather, going along listening to my iPOD when I heard a crash behind me. I looked back and a huge concete lampost had fallen right over...hmm, City of Toronto not doing their job. Luckily nobody was hurt, but...dude!

Oh yeah, it's not exactly important, but I forgot to mention that when I was on my way to the MIT-City show on Wednesday night I passed by the MuchMusic parking lot and Billy Talent was playing. First of all they were completely inaudible and incohearent (not exactly a surprise, I know)...I couldn't help but laugh at their rediculous screaming. But I just thought it was kind of ironic that aside from the people who had wristbands, there wasn't really anyone watching them. Usually if someone who is even remotely popular is anywhere near the exterior of Much Queen St. is packed. Granted it was about to pour rain, but I found the scene enjoyable somehow. I guess you kind of had to be there.

Crazy teenagers!

2006-06-29T20:07:00.000-07:00

I went to see MIT-City w/ Spiral Beach Money Money and Riley last night. Awesome show! Spiral Beach is always fun.--Power poppy tunes that are sure to keep you bouncing. I discovered them a few months ago when I saw them play as one of the opening bands at the MOD Club. They're incredibly talented, and the thing is...they're only 16! Don't you hate it when kids a fraction of your age have more talent in their little finger then you have in your whole body? I've seen them a couple times since and they seemed like nice kids. (Their claim to fame is that they're the offspring of various Torontonian folkie heavyweights) But last night it seemed as if even in their ripe teenage state, they've become too big for their britches. They didn't put together a guestlist for their band (slightly unprofessional to begin with) and their friends kept showing up wanting to get in for free. Needless to say this didn't exactly please my friend Mike's mom who was doing doors. One of these "friends" turned out to be fellow folk child (son of Brent Titcomb) Liam Titcomb who showed up with no cash. Mike's mom wasn't letting him in so one of the Spiral Beach kids came up and said right in front of her..."Just say you're with the band!" Here's a tip...when you're trying to sneak someone in, be discreet! Oy! Mike's mom can be kind of intense in general but that kind of crap didn't sit well with her. So apparently she and Liam Titcomb got into a screaming match. I was outside, but boy would I have loved to have seen that! *hehe*. He got in either way and spent the duration of Spiral Beach's set dancing up a storm up front. That was definitely a sight to see=). Did I mention his hair grew back abnormally fast? It was like he never cut it! Yeah, yeah, I'm a creepy dork. Anyway, right after they fiished their set Spiral Beach and they're entourage of younggans abruptly left. Apparently they were being annoying from the moment they arrived and then they didn't even have the courtesy to hang around for even part of MIT-City's set. Geeze! I mean, Mike did arrange for the show to be all-ages for their benefit afterall. Clearly they need to get their heads out of the clouds. They've got plenty of time to be jaded.--And Liam, aren't you supposed to be a big rockstar now? You should know better then to leave the house without cash! =p

MIT-City was great! They've gone through a bit of a transition in the last few months with the introduction of two new members...Taylor on keyboards and Ben on drums. It's a bit of a different sound from the former duet stylings of Jesse and Mike but I'm definitely down with it. It's a much fuller sound...as Mike put it, "it's like a real band!" They've been practicing constantly and you can really tell. Their dynamics are tighter each time I see them. They're newest song (that has a rediculously long tittle that I can't remember at the moment) about terrorist activities and crazy governments is awesome! They made buttons too! Buttons always make the merch table festive...yay buttons!

Riley was a keyboarding chick singer duo. They were good, but got kind of boring after a while. Money Money on the other hand made me question the music business. They were the only band on the bill that had a real record deal and a MuchMusic video etc. etc. and they really sucked! The ironic thing was that they were the only ones who were guaranteed door proceeds and they had the smallest audience by the time they went on. Ha ha! Mike said it best: "It was a good show...this is just the after party."

On my way home some guys stopped me saying "Hey, you were at the Money Money show!" To which I replied: "Um...I'm friends with MIT-City!"

The deprivation is over...Thank God!!!

2006-06-26T19:35:00.000-07:00

Apparently I haven't been taking care of my computer...and as a result it got viruses up the wazoo and stopped running the Internet. Well I learned the hard way that a computer really is just a big paperweight without the Net. Thank goodness msn was still functional, so not all of my cyber-communication was cut. But not being able to check my E-mail was pure torture! I had things I wanted to write here too...grr! Crisis averted thanks to some local computer geeks. Oh and Peter C. Newman was in the store getting his computer fixed too....kind of excited the budding journalist in me...if there really is one.

I went to see The Meligrove Band on Thursday night but unfortunately we missed the much anticipated solo-stylings of Cuff the Duke frontman, Wayne Petti...BOO!!! I was expecting to have class till 9:30 and my friend Emily had pre-concert plans so we agreed to meet at 10:00 thinking we wouldn't miss much with 3 bands and a DJ on the bill. Unfortunately Wayne's name just doesn't cut it without its Cuff The Duke backing cuz they slotted him first and we missed him by about half an hour. Had I known I totally could have been there cuz my class got out an hour early, grr! I WILL catch his solo set one day damn it! The Meligroves were fun as usual but it wasn't they're best show ever. It could have been the fact that it was BOILING in Lee's Palace...or that it was late and we were tired. But they were just, okay. Their mini brass section is always a highlight. Either way I could've done without the drummer's vulgar commentary. First of all there's just something disconcerting about a backing drummer who is that vocal, but I mean dude, we're not all drunk! Blowjob jokes get old fast!

I visited my grandma on saturday and my mom's second cousin Tannis and her husband Peter and their friends Hal and Rachel and their daughter Ellie were hanging out by the pool. Turns out Hal is Hal Niedzviecki, fiction editor for uber-cool underground culture magazine Broken Pencil. Yeah...he was kind of your typical yuppy, cynical culture critic. But it was cool to get the chance to chat with an alternative journalist for a change.--Not to mention bash the corporate nature of the Ryerson journalism program. I think I might pitch to them once I get more familiar with their style...might be kind of fun. Once I'm done this Abilities article that is. I think I'm finally approaching the home stretch with it. I got my edits back on Friday and they were fairly happy with it. They just want me to add in a few more details by next Thursday. I'm hoping to pull everything together and make up for my breakdown last week...and make it feel a bit more like my piece again after my dad's edit. First I have to get my midterm out of the way tomorrow night. My midterm, which I *should* be studying for right now come to think of it=p. But that's what tomorrow is for! Also, if anyone noticed, I had to take down the pre-edit post of my article. It didn't even occur the me that Abilities owns the piece and that posting it here might possibly infringe on that. My go-to-guy of journalism, Aaron pointed out my error the other day so I decided to just take it down before I ran into any problems...if any.

...And for a little bit of dork, Jian ...or rather the "talented web-savvy mammals who know about these things" have changed up his site. I like it. It's kind of yuppy/chic...could possibly get annoying. But it's a lot more simplified than the last site so it presents the info rather then the flashy narcissistic pics=p...He changed his bio! I never thought we'd ever see the end of the "Jian is proud of his Iranian heritage" bio. It also looks like his letters (or "Jian-speak" as he's now calling them) are back. I enjoy them.--But just the same...God save us all from the ramblings!!! What I find sad is the lack of music in this version though. The old site had a jukebox player that played songs from Ji's solo album, "The First Six songs" and yeah, this site has a music section, but no player. Is this a sign...are they the first...and the last six songs? Did the CBC kill the music?

Protesting the wrong issue completely...

2006-06-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

To the shock and dismay of Gay rights activists and much of the Ryerson community, Ryerson University gave an honorary degree to renowned McGill Ethics Professor Margaret Somerville on Monday morning. Somerville expresses strong homophobic, anti-same-sex marriage viewpoints and extreme opinions that artificial insemination for lesbian women is wrong. She maintains the stance that children have the right to a mother and a father (preferably their biological parents) and therefore same-sex couples are unfit parents. Somerville says that by allowing same-sex marriage we are "eroding the role marriage plays in child-bearing." Despite the protest and a petition, which as far as I'm concerned, carried more than enough signatures to sway the decision she was given the honor anyway.
Ryerson is supposed to be one of the most inclusive and progressive institutions (in the city anyway) and having them go ahead with this action is really disappointing Especially after all the work Ryerson and RyePride have done to push for an anti-oppression model and break down homophobia and to promote exceptance of same-sex marriage. The University claims that they didn't know of Somerville's position upon making the decision and may have thought twice if they had. I think that's kind of weak but I do like President Sheldon Levy's quotes that appeared in MACLEAN'S Magazine:
Ryerson president Sheldon Levy said the university stands by its decision to honor Somerville, whom he called a "wonderful recipient."
"Even though there are many that will disagree with Prof. Somerville, myself included, it doesn't mean that she isn't welcome back," Levy said.
"She will hear our views as well as she will express her views. That's what the university is about."
Levy said the university does not support Somerville's views, but in fact supports and celebrates diversity, equality, and the legal right to live free of discrimination.
Or, as Levy quoted Voltaire as saying: "'I might disagree with you, but I would go to death to defend your right to be able to say it."

I still think that by going through with the honor, Ryerson has presented a position that is greatly misrepresentative of it's community and extremely contradictory to its so-called values. Unfortunately in doing so, not only have they tainted all of our degrees to a certain point, they have presented themselves (despite individual disagreement and however indirectly) in solidarity with her. It's really too bad...and the fact that they did it on the first day of Pride week, is just bad taste!

However, I respect Levy's position, afterall it is the corporate Board of Governors who are ultimately making the decisions, not him. It is true, free speech, no matter how controversial it is, is important. As a journalist I have to agree with Levy's quote.

I feel really stupid for not going to the protest though. In the end are we really entitled to an opinion of we don't fully act upon it? I was really conflicted about it. I really wanted to go and show my support for RyePride etc. but I was under the impression that convocation was going to be disrupted and I thought...'Would I want my grad to be screwed up after I worked my ass off for 4 years just because my school fucked up? Probably not!' I didn't really have time to go anyway. But my ultimate decision was to respect my schoolmates right to the celebration of their accomplishments. I talked to someone from the Students' Union today though and it turns out they didn't disrupt anything and that it was an extremely tasteful and peaceful protest. In retrospect I think I was concerned about the wrong issue. Are equal rights not more important than one convocation? Oops! In any case my heart is in the right place. I do not support any of Somerville's points of view and I fully support our LGBTQ community. MY RYERSON INCLUDES EQUAL RIGHTS!!!!

The Good Ship Algoville

2006-06-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

Did you ever think you could sit and listen while two guys talked about a boat for 2 hours?

Neither did I. But it is definitely possible. Last June two of Canada's most fabulous musicians, Mike Ford and David Francey, sailed from Montreal to Thunder Bay on a laker, The Algoville. Well, they had a fabulous time and came back with countless stories to tell and a few new songs under their belts. Using Mike's Canada in Song connections, the two then visited grade 6 classrooms in 5 port cities to sing these songs for the kids and teach them a little bit about the important (and virtually unknown) jobs that Canada's seamen have...and then encourage the kids to write songs of their own. After that the guys set out on a little mini tour, performing their new and old seaway songs in each city for the public.

And that's what my friend Kyla and I did on Thursday night. The event was held in the Edward Day Gallery on Queen W. (a very cool place I might add...very nice owner!) and Mike and David did a presentation of pictures from their trip sprinkled with musical interludes. I didn't know boats were so cool! It was a fantastic presentation. Living in the big city you really take a lot of things for granted...like where we get the grain for our pasta, how far it has to come and all the work that goes into getting it here, wow! There are so many things to know about lakers too. I was just baffled by the end of it. Sometimes dorky Canadiana is just SO COOL! It was kind of like one of those educational video segements of Sesame Sreet...but for grown-ups. Of course it helped that the guys were extremely entertaining, despite the fact that Fordy said he thought they were boring cuz he was so tired...

I'd forgotten just how fantastic David Francey is too. His voice is so beautiful, and he's a great songwriter. I've only ever seen him live one other time and I've had so many chances to go see him at Hugh's Room but I've never gone. He's playing there again on July 24th but of course I'm going to see Counting Crows that night...grr! That was awkward having to tell Dvid and Fordy.--Yes two men who are the epitome of fabulous grassroots Canadian folk music. I can't come and see you at Hugh's Room because I'm paying tons of money to go and see a big American rock band! *hehe* Apparently Fordy likes their bass player though, so it's okay=p.

Why do good things always have to end so soon?

2006-06-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

Well as do many...I've been catching up on my TV shows during these lazy summer days. I got into the WB show Everwood last year but I only really watched it on and off. I got into it seriously about mid-season this year and I'm seriously hooked now. I bought the complete 1st season on DVD the other day because I wanted to start getting caught up on the 3 seasons that I missed and I must say, it was a fabulous watch=). I was all set to go out and get the second season only to find that it was never released ARG! That's what I get for not falling in line with the masses.--Apparently the 1st season didn't sell well enough for anymore to be released. I've been trying unsuccessfully to make the only available torrent of the second season download, but it just won't cooperate. I just bid on the 3rd season on Ebay (cross your fingers!) but I can't find anyone who's trying to sell the other one. To top it all off, just as I'm getting into it they've cancelled it! My friend Kyla kept trying to tell me that the new WB merger didn't pick it up for a 5th season, but I hadn't heard anything about a "series" finale so I refused to believe her. It turns out she was right. I just saw the commercial for Monday night's two hour series finale. Grr, why now?! I have so few fave TV shows these days as it is.

Accepted on the first try, go me!

2006-05-26T08:11:00.000-07:00

So as you know, I've been wondering about whether or not Abilities Magazine was going to accept my pitch. It had been a while since I sent it in and and as I didn't know if they were the type of publication that informs you of rejection, I was getting a little worried that I hadn't heard anything. My friend Aaron also pitched for this issue so I decided that if he hadn't heard anything either, they were underway and I'd been rejected. Sure enough he hadn't heard anything and was convinced that at such a late date, it was a sure sign of rejection. So, I was a little disappointed, but not exactly surprised. I mean it was my first pitch ever so it's not like the odds were in my favour. Anyway, after I finished talking to Aaron I checked my E-mail...and sure enough, there was the E-mail from Abilities.

They've accepted my idea for publication--1500 WD article with a deadline of June 19th (Yikes, a little sooner than I thought) but the best part is that upon publication I get $250! Woo, I will officially be a paid journalist! ...Now I just need to pull it off.

Oh, so I got a response to the E-mail that I sent to the organizers of the Douglas Coupland event. There was definitely a defensive undertone, which is definitely expected in cases like these. But the guy generally understood my arguments...and *almost* validated my feelings. To "smooth" everything over...or to cover their asses more like=p, Pages is giving me a $50 gift certificate. I feel kind of bad cuz it's really not necessary, but why look a gift horse in the mouth right? I guess being a shit disturber pays off sometimes.

"I fucking hate Google"- Douglas Coupland, JPod

2006-05-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

Writer extraordinaire, genius in every way, Douglas Coupland was in town yesterday promoting his new book JPod--The sort of sequel to Microserfs...or the Microserfs for the Google generation, as the book jacket says. The man is seriously my hero. He's way too insane not to be, honestly! I mean, anyone who can go from an innocent survey about American Idol to reading an excerpt about forcing Ronald Macdonald to strip at gunpoint just has to be cool by default...in a twisted sort of way of course. He covered everything from American Idol, to the Simpsons, to the Sopranos, his new art show in Newfoundland...and finally, the book. If he never got to the book it really would've been okay because getting to sit and listen to him ramble is a treat in itself. SO funny! He never ceases to make me laugh=). I found a comment he made about Google to be particularely interesting. He was talking about the eerie experience of Googling yourself, which everyone has done at least once on a lark. He pointed out the fact that because in this point in time he is more of a celebrity than your average person, he has more results. But in 15 years we will all have as many results and it will have nothing to do with celebrity. He's probably right. We're living in the Internet age. It's become such a norm that we ignore it. Though...computers control us!

First he warmed up by reading one of the random E-mails and strange additions that are scattered throughout the book, like entire pages of number sequences, which he describes as Warhol inspired and then said "God this is so boring! I actually put this in print?" *hehe* then he read an excerpt featuring a conversation between the main character Ethan and himself...then of course the freaky Ronald Macdonald thing. I probably wouldn't have ended on that note but, somehow the dark humor worked. It's hard to describe Douglas Coupland, his books are generally a pretty good indication, but he's somewhere in the vein of extremely intelligent, possibly mildly autistic...kind of like those ADHD kids that you just want to smack sometimes to get them to shut up for two seconds, but know they're going to grow up to discover society's next important cultural or technological advancement.

I'm also very excited to find that Coupland's documentary Souvenir of Canada, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival (and which I missed) is making it's commercial debut at Canada Square on Friday. I'm finally going to get the chance to see it. I thought it was just one of those obscure film fest things that show once and then are never seen again. I guess I take Coupland's popularity for granted sometimes. I like to think I'm reading some quirky Canadian indie book but he's actually hugely popular. I guess it's not exactly surprising that the film is getting a wider release.

The annoying thing about the night was the signing half though. They held the event in a lecture hall at UofT that was completely not wheelchair accessible. Luckily I was able to transfer into a seat. Though not without the risk of pitching myself down to my death-- Someone who wasn't able to get out of their chair would've had to put themselves in a percarious position at the top of the stairs...So not safe! Anyway, to add insult to injury, they decided to have the signing on the stage. at the BOTTOM of the stairs. Meaning that of course I couldn't participate. So, my friend went and talked to one of the presenters to see if there was an alternate way to get to the stage and he was really nice and said that he would just save us the trouble and send Coupland up to us. Full marks to Douglas Coupland who stopped the signing while he still had TONS of people in line and came up specially to sign my book. Nobody does that...so nice! The only problem was that instead of discreetly telling DC the situation, the guy totally singled me out and made this big loud announcement about "the girl in the wheelchair" at the back. --Not to mention introducing my friend as my "helper". Oy, what is with people?! I sent the organizers an E-mail talking about the inaccessibility of the event and pointing out the fact that the guy could've been a little more discreet. Hopefully it'll make them think. Coupland was really nice though and he commented on my name again.=)

I'll write about the film when I see it.

On an unrelated note. I noticed that my complete lack of comments has all of a sudden turned into at least 1-4 comments per post. There was one real one from ^Kat^ but the rest were all pretty much the same comment from "Anonymous" and were completely unrelated to anything...weird!

The future is bleak...

2006-05-20T17:14:00.000-07:00

Oh how true is is:

“Every journalist who is not too stupid or too full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on people's vanity, ignorance or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.” — Janet Malcolm, American journalist and author (b. 1934), in The Journalist and the Murderer

What's wrong with this picture?

2006-05-18T21:00:00.000-07:00

I decided to check my E-mail one more time before going to bed (I'm anxiously awaiting the reply from ABILITIES) and it seems my online prof has FINALLY sent me my individual mark for my contribution to our site. The course ended almost a month ago and we got our final marks almost two weeks ago. The other class got their marks long ago so I'd pretty much just written Vinita off as not caring enough to give us our marks past a certain date. I must say, she hasn't exactly shown that she would do otherwise. But, I suppose I have to give her some credit.--She did come through in the end...AND she liked it. I won't turn my nose up at an 83%. Either way, mark a little faster next time Vinita! Either that or don't tell us we'll have the mark in a week=p.

Also, is it weird that I'm excited about MySpace comments from Kurt Swinghammer? Would I be excited about comments from any other random person? Perhaps it is just the sad state that I am still in.--Not being able to get past the "celebrity" factor. Based on the number of shows I've gone to, most of the Toronto muscians that I know shouldn't really be in that category anymore. But, I guess they are a little. I guess it's not such a bad thing...excitement is fun. If they were just ordinary, would going to shows be as much fun? Let's just say accomplished...I admire their accomplishments. There ya go! I like that.

My friend Natalia added Swinghammer to her MySpace 'friends' a while ago and apparently he started up an online conversation with her right way, which she thought was uber cool. Well, I've decided she's right. Not that he wasn't before (all T.O musicians are uber cool) he definitely is now. Despite the dorky forum that is MySpace, any musician who obvioiously takes the time to read profiles--and sends nice comments based on them is definitely cool=). Yay Swinghammer! Continue to rid MySpace of its creepy impersonal nature.

I need to get out to one of his gigs again one of these days. Too bad the Cameron dates are over. I feel bad that we didn't go to more of those.

The Job Hunt Continues...Slowly

2006-05-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

I keep telling myself that the job hunt is harder for me, and so it's okay if I don't find employment right away. But as my friends start new jobs and go on interviews right and left, it is getting harder and harder to ignore my restless brain and...as Roger would say, "Zoom in on my empty wallet!" I sent off a bunch of the 'Summer Work Experience' apps that I've been putting together this week. So we'll see if anything comes of that. But as today's Thursday, I eagerly checked the NOW Magazine classifieds to see if anything interesting had materialized over the last week. I was pleased to find that the UofT Access Center was hiring butI was slightly surprised however because my friend Emily told me about the position weeks ago, and as neither of us got any kind of response when we inquired, I just assumed the position had been filled. Well, talk about leading a person on! I got all excited at the prospect of a job in my preferred field, updated my cover letter and sent it off. Only to get an E-mail back from the coordinator a few minutes later saying that she had no idea how, or why the position ended up in NOW, and that the position had been filled!--COME ON! The Gods are seriously toying with me...geeze!

I noticed that a few more ArtsMarketing campaigns are hiring. Let me tell you, I'm almost to the point of going back to the TSO...though my friend Dawn's eerily accurate description of the position being "soul-sucking" still rings true in my ears...

Though, the good news is that if ABILITIES does end up taking my story, I won't have to worry about biases.=P I suppose every cloud has a silver lining.

Rappfest is Sooo in the works!

2006-05-16T16:29:00.000-07:00

Since the RENT movie came out on DVD my friend Dyan and I have wanted to get together and have an all out Anthony Rapp fest. But, alas, school got in the way every time. In any case we were trying to figure out how we were going to get our hands on the rare indie films David Searching and Open House, which are definitely essential to a Rappfest, and VERY hard to find. So, after we went to see RENT on Saturday we were in HMV and I broke down and just ordered David Searching. Open House wasn't even in their system, so I was outta luck there. DS was apparently going to take forever to arrive and it was $32, which I wasn't thrilled about. So tonight I looked around on the ever wonderful Amazon.com and managed to get David Searching, Open House, Adventures and Babysitting and Dazed and Confused for $71. I'm thinkin' that's not too bad for pretty much every movie Anthony's ever starred in...most of which are usually really expensive imports-- Yes, I know, I'm a shopaholic, scary fangirl. What are ya gonna do=) So, as soon as Dyan presents her paper next week we'll be set for whenever the flicks turn up in the mail. Yay!

I also got the new Ron Sexsmith album Time Being today, which I haven't listened to yet and, by recommendation of my friend Tara, I got Jack White of the White Stripes new band The Raconteurs' new album Boken Boy Soldiers. I'm not a big fan of the White Stripes so I'm really surprised that I like this. But it's really good! All the songs have a different feel to them too, which is a rarity on albums featuring just one artist. It's kind of a 60's pop/rock/blues sound reminiscent of the Birds...maybe a little Dylanesque too...with an infusion of some contemporary electronic beats here and there. I would've liked a different album cover, but I guess the bruised, scraped faces do say thieves from the sewer f that's what they're going for.

How much do I love Chuck Klosterman?

2006-05-15T20:23:00.000-07:00

In all my MySpace days I've only ever recieved two comments from people. One from Jade and Tara's friend Mark...and then today I got one from none other than Chuck Klosterman! The guy is great. Anyone who leaves a comment like this is nothing but awesome=). Whatever Chuck, I don't care if it made you feel awkward, and me embarassed when I said it to your face. You DO inspire me to be a journalist! OMG I'm asking Chuck Klosterman to friend me everyday!

May 15, 2006 8:15 AM
Chuck

"For reasons that cannot be explained, cats can suddenly read at atwelfth-grade level. They can't talk and they can't write, but theycan read silently and understand the text. Many cats love this newskill, because they now have something to do all day while they layaround the house; however a few cats become depressed, because readingforces them to realize the limitations of their existence (not tomention the utter frustration of being unable to express themselves).This being the case, do you think the average cat would enjoyGarfield, or would cats find this cartoon to be an insultingcaricature?"

Magazines and Books!

2006-05-15T16:31:00.000-07:00

I've known for a while that I got into the Magazine stream at Ryerson but I got the official "You're In" E-mail today. So, until I can penetrate the walls of NYU, I'm Ryerson Magazine-Class of 2008...sounds impressive! However, despite my A in feature writing, it wasn't quite the accomplishment that I'd hoped for. There were all kinds of stories about the magazine stream having the least amount of space and being so hard to get into. But this year there was some kind of magical statistical rarity and everyone applied for the exact amount of spaces, and got their first choice. Well, whatever gets you in the door I guess...I'm not exactly complaining. It should be fun. I've heard a lot of cool things about Ivor Shapiro (the stream director) and the few times I've talked to him I've really liked him. Good looking masthead too. See Ashley, you had nothing to worry about. You're in...and you didn't even need me to go to NYU! *Heh*

In other news... I love summer because all my fave authors start releasing new books! I bought two much anticipated novels that I'm absolutely DYING to dig into! Not a moment too soon either. I was feeling kind of lost after I finished Gregory Maguire's Son of A Witch. I hate finishing good books!
On the weekend my friend Dyan told me that her friend Shanna Swendson had finally released the sequel to last year's fabulous Enchanted Inc, called Once Upon Stilettos. For anyone who likes Chic-lit, Fantasy and New York (ME) these are the books for you. I bought the first book when I was in NYC last summer so it was a lot of fun to read it in the city where the story is set. I can't do that this time around, but I'm sure it won't disappoint just the same. I'm SO excited to finally get the continuation of Katie and Owen's story. Will they get together THIS time? Check out: www.shannaswendson.com for more details.

I also bought the new Douglas Coupland book, JPod I went to hear him read from his book Eleanor Rigby last year and he read an excerpt from JPod too and it was fantastic--The 7 Letters to Ronald Macdonald! Ever since I've been really excited to read it. I won't give anything away for those of you who are as excited as I am but it definitely looks like a fabulous piece of Coupland-style urban fiction...yay! I have tickets to the book launch/reading on the 23rd. I didn't think it came out till then but I was in Pages today and there it was! I was going to wait and buy it at the event cuz the guy said there would be no tax, but I get the student discount, which is better so I splurged and got it today. www.coupland.com

"No Day But Today"

2006-05-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

So yesterday totally proved to be as awesome as anticipated. RENT was fabulous! I was afraid the touring cast wouldn't be very good.-- I've seen a couple of iffy ones in places like Hamilton, but, I was actually pretty impressed with this cast. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't without its weak points. I didn't hate Mark (Jed Resnick) but I dunno...he hasn't *quite* grown into the role yet. It was kind of weird to see a brown-haired Mark too, though I suppose it was bound to happen at some point. Mimi (Arianda Fernandez) was definitely the weakest link. She had classic Mimi qualities, which gave her potential, but her voice was SO lacking. She could barely hit the notes during "Light My Candle" and "Out Tonight" wasn't great either. She somehow pulled it off when she was singing in the group numbers, so we figure she's just not so good at her solo bits yet. Benny(Michael Ifill) seemed slightly disinterested in his lines so he didn't come across as strongly as he could've. I liked Joanne (Chante Carmel Frierson) her voice was good and I liked the idea of a Joanne who was "bigger"it made the parallel between Joanne and Maureen more interesting. I liked Maureen Tracy McDowell) for the most part but her "Over the Moon" needs a little bit of work still. Roger(Bryce Ryness) on the other hand made my favourite Roger list, along with Luther Creek, Adam Pascal and Carey Shields. He's a little too tall but he kind of resembles Luther Creek, which made me happy *hehe*. He totally had the Roger moves down...and he did the handcuffs=). His guitar skills need to be improved slightly, but that's okay. He was so cute when he was sitting onstage watching "Over the Moon". He wasn't hiding his delight at all...very nice smile=). Collins (Warren G. Nolan, Jr.) was great too, I like the idea of Collins with dreads...it works. I definitely approved of Angel (Ano Okera) the most though. He made my feminine quota and then some. I hate butch Angels...even Wilson was slightly borderline for me.

We were laughing at Bryce Ryness' bio in the programme. He lists his acting credits (some of which are very impressive) and then gives the URL to his myspace site: www.myspace.com/bryceryness *hehe*. He also thanks a bunch of people and in the middle of the list was Jesus. Because of the placement we thought it had to be his Spanish buddy Jesus=p. But after reading his myspace profile and judging by his involvement with the Christian Crusades and Bible Study, I'm pretty sure it's the "take a closer walk with thee" Jesus. Hmm...don't ya wanna thank your savior *before* your fellow actors Bryce? He's a *little* creepy about his wife too. They seem to be the classic pretty, young Christian couple. Not that there's anything wrong with that I suppose. Their lives are just..."interesting". In any case I love the fact that he seems to be so into RENT, living the philosophy to the fullest. He updates his myspace blog with all the highlights from the show everytime they're in a new city (such a cute newbie keener) and RENT has inspired him to get involved with an organization called Invisible Children that helps kids affected by AIDS in the Sudan. He might've been a cool person to interview for my feature. My friend and I wanted to see how long it would take him to friend me. He added me in less than 12 hours...aww!

My friend Dyan and I REALLY wanted to try for the rush line today and see it one last time before it goes on to Philly, but she has Mother's Day obligations. Oh well!

Fordy's show last night was FANTASTIC too. He had a full band for some songs, which gave everything a great little punch. Murray played bass...he had a pretty black and white bass. Clearly a new toy *hehe*. It's such a rarity these days to see him without Daryl's acoustic and OMG, Dusty Fosterboard and The Cocksure Lads came too!!! Holy Crap, Admiral Trafalgar *hehehe* SOOOOO Funny!!! Mark Mariash played drums, Mike's friend Jesse played fiddle, his other friend Jennifer Bush sang a bunch...she can really sing, and Mike's brother John has recently taken up the Steel Pans, which sounded AWESOME. Apparently Canada Needs You: Vol 2 is in the works so he debuted a bunch of songs frim that. I really liked most of them...some of the ones inspired by his trip on the boat last summer were great! I gotta say though, I want to say that the highlight was the new songs but, "Heatseeker Boy" with a full band again...YES!!!

Mike did his crazy Canada-themed trivia sessions again too. The prizes were so Canadian they were hilarious! Oh, and yes, the evening did not go by without about a million mentions of the Oatmeal Stout of course=p.When we talked to him afterwards he actually asked me about my article! Yikes! I feel SO bad that I never sent that to him. I HAVE to get on it now. He's playing again in 2 weeks so I'm going to aim to at least have another draft by then.

All in all, excellent day! I even replaced my RENT T-shirt. Though, I'd forgotten how expensive Hugh's Room is, Yikes! I had to borrow a bunch of money from everyone to pay the bill cuz I was short. Next time I'm just going for an appetizer or something. That's my plan for The Great Atomic Power show on June 7th.

Juno Nomination?! How did we not know?

2006-05-12T08:40:00.000-07:00

I'm going to see Mike Ford (Fordy to his friends and familiars) tomorrow night at Hugh's Room and since he hasn't yet sent out a newsletter, I thought I'd check to see if there was anything new and exciting on his website. http://www.mikeford.ca Well, apparently I have to pay more attention to what I read cuz I check his site fairly regularly and I've never noticed the Juno post at the bottom of the page.-- Mike's second album Canada Needs You: Volume One was nominated for a Juno this year for Best Children's Album of 2005. Yay! WTG Fordy!!! I wish I'd known at the time cuz I totally would've sent him a congratulatory E-mail. I will definitely mention it tomorrow in any case. Blah, stupid Junos not televising half the awards. I'm sure I miss out on tons of great stuff every year.

I wrote a profile of Mike for my newsreporting class last year and I was supposed to edit it and send it to him but I never did *sheepish look*. Well, it's now over a year overdue. But I'm thinking of pitching it to THIS Magazine so I'm going to attempt to make the first edits today so I can at least give it to him and talk about revamping it for publication.

Carnations songs, men with no pants and inspirational lectures

2006-05-11T23:22:00.000-07:00

I went to see Small Sins (formerly The Ladies and Gentlemen if anyone's confused) tonight, which is always fun, but tonight was particularely eventful. It started out as usual, 5 cute indie boys in white, Thom not yet drunk enough to have broken out of his "shy" demeanor and getting sweatier by the second, Steve's "Steve" bling glittering at his waist. They played through most of the regular L&G/SS songs, including the 'She's The Source' remix and then they launched into a familiar, yet different song. Wait a minute! The day had finally come, Thom had finally broken down and was playing a Carnations song! They did 'Your Love Comes in Waves' and it was SAWEEET! Definitely a treat for the hometown fans. Though apparently according to Thom, my friend Emily and I ARE the Carnations/SS crossover so that was for us. Awww! He said we've been to more shows than anyone else. Even girls he's dated! Hmm, I'm not so sure if that's a good thing *hehe*. The encore consisted of 'We Won't Last The Winter' and this weird kind of improv song that required someone with a one-syllable name with exabitionist tendancies=p. So this kind of creepy dude in the front row named Gord volunteered and the song went something along the lines of Gord take off your pants because there's three fine ladies from the T-dot that deserve it.=p. So after a few verses this Gord guy started to do back flips, which was pretty impressive and then took off his pants and danced rather crudely on stage for a while.--Quite funny=).

Afterwards we talked to Nathan (former Carnations bandmember) who was in the audience...hadn't seen him in a while, and then said hi to Thom who as usual was glad yo see us. Except that he hugged me and my face kind of got squished into his neck and it sort of turned into me involuntarily kissing his neck. AWKWARD! Luckily he didn't seem to notice...I hope! We got a taste of "philosopher" Thom too. They're going on their first US tour this summer and so I mentioned that I had tried to get into NYU but wasn't successful. So Thom gave me this big inspirational lecture about the stats section in the book Freakanomics (which he apparently listened to on tape cuz that's what he does when he's on tour...weird!) and something about kids who tried to change their lives and were successful and kids who tried to change their lives and were not. But they were both successful because wanting to make a change is as good as being allowed to make one. I dunno, the moral of the story was it was okay that I didn't get into NYU. It was nice, and random=p. See Mike, Thom's not a prick!

I was also very impressed to see that they've gotten their act together for this name change. They had all new merch that even had new artwork! The drums still say L&G and I'm sure the van does too but hey, pretty darn good. I had no money tonight but I will definitely get a T-shirt next time. I got a button...very cool.

Oy, coffee at 11:15 was a bad idea. I'm wired!

Sunny Days!

2006-05-10T20:05:00.000-07:00

The weather has been so beautiful lately. I'm loving the fact that sandals and skirts can be worn regularly. I actually got a sunburn yesterday!--Whoopee it's summer!!! I passed by the theatre where RENT is currently playing and there was a rush line! It's a regular occurrance in New York and it wasn't long ago that I was there standing in it. But, there was just something so joyous about a rush line in Toronto again.--That's not just any group of scruffy-looking youth. Those are hardcore Rentheads baby! I seriously toyed with the idea of tryinging for rush seats tomorrow but I think I'm going to save my $20 for Saturday and buy a T-shirt or something. I don't REALLLY need to see it twice in 3 days=p.

I'm sending off applicaton packages to the Summer Work Experience Program tomorrow. The jobs are minimum wage, which sucks but they sound like fairly interesting positions. At least it would be something to do. Though what I really should be doing is starting to sort through the chapters for my soc course. I have a midterm in less than two weeks and a paper due fairly soon too. Oy, who said an accellerated course was a good idea again? I got my final grades for the winter semester back today though. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. A in Feature Writing, A- in Online Journalism, B+ in Soc and B- in English. I could've done with a higher English mark but seeing as I was expecting it to be lower, I'm okay with it. The B range is never all bad afterall=p.

No NYU for me

2006-05-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

Well, the verdict is in. No, NYU for me. I still haven't gotten the official letter yet but I spoke to the director of admissions and she said "I can tell you that you have not been given admission." Apparently my grades weren't high enough, gah! they are now (I'll know for sure on Wednesday) but that doesn't help me unless I decide to reapply next year.

A friend of our family is the President of the Global Security Council and his letterhead includes names like Jane Goodall and the Dalai Lama to name a few. He wrote me an AWESOME reference letter but unfortunately he didn't finish it until Friday night. He was going to fax it first thing this morning but when I called for the fax number they told me my application had already been processed. They said that unless the letter was from a professor it wouldn't change anything. It's an amazing letter, so I told him it was up to him as to whether or not he wanted to still send it. So, we'll see.

I can't help but think that that fiasco with the transcript was a sign of the inevitable. But I also can't help but wonder if all of the application materials had just fallen in line right away and NYU administration had been more organized in the transcript department, if it would have made a difference. Oh well, what's done is done right? Maybe it wasn't meant to be.

For now, Rye-High it is!

A+ baby!

2006-05-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

Here's my final feature story that I wrote for my feature writing class this year. I'm told I should publish it so if anyone can think of an appropriate place to pitch it, send your suggestions my way.

No Day But Today: The Phenomenon of the Musical RENT

Broadway has played host to many unexpected successes over the years. Against all odds, Cats and Phantom of the Opera gained “longest running musical” status, and many other musicals have triumphed on the Broadway stage. Jonathan Larson’s RENT, is one of the rare long-shots that made it, and is still going strong with no signs of stopping. You never know when something is going to be a smash hit, and RENT was no exception. Now, a decade after its Broadway debut, after winning the Pulitzer Prize, the 1996 Tony, and becoming a major motion picture, casts are still touring the world with the show and the New York production is still performing to a sold out audience at the Nederlander Theatre every night. RENT has been called the work that has changed the face of the American musical, it has received copious accolades and critical acclaim, acquiring a cult-like following of fans known as Rentheads—whose numbers have multiplied with the new exposure from the 2005 film-version, which was released on DVD in February.

Based on Puccini’s La Boheme, RENT is the story of eight friends living in New York’s Alphabet City in the late eighties, struggling to find themselves while dealing with serious issues like friendship, life, death, love, loss, sexuality and most notably AIDS. It is both a contemporary adaptation of a classic Italian Opera and an autobiographical tribute to the friends that Larson lost to AIDS. It began as a small production that was never meant to last longer than a few weeks at the New York Theatre Workshop in New York’s East Village. But it wasn’t long before it was selling out every night. RENT soon moved to Broadway where it took over the slightly run-down Nederlander Theatre at 41st and Broadway. The curtain was set to go up on the beginning of the Broadway run but that night Jonathan Larson died of an aortic aneurism. After finally gaining the success that he worked all his life to achieve, Larson was never able to experience the full extent of what he’d created; leaving the show with a tragic overhang.

Some believe RENT would have never reached the heights that it has, had it not been for the tragedy of the death of its playwright. However, those who have been directly associated with the production, or devoted fans who return to see RENT over and over again, have a different view. “I would beg to differ that RENT ’s success is related to Larson’s death. In fact I think it couldn’t be further from the truth,” Says Dean Armstrong, who played two of Rent’s main characters, Roger Davis and Mark Cohen on Broadway for two years. “If you go to the Nederlander Theatre there’s not a plaque, there’s not a picture, there’s not a summary, there’s not a life story of Jonathan at all,” he says. Those who have paid attention to RENT’s evolution know that the show’s achievement happened before Larson’s death, and has lasted long after. Toronto Star theatre critic Richard Ouzounian agrees with Armstrong but says that RENT’s triumph is not completely unrelated to Larson’s end, “Larson's death made the show's theme ("No Day but Today") seem almost eerily pertinent. His demise gave the show added publicity which made it the media event that it proved to be, but it still would have succeeded even if he had lived, only not as quickly, and perhaps not as massively,” He says.

“The show's strength is the way the elements weave together. The music and lyrics serve philosophy which is illuminated through the story. That complex synergy is what attracts Rent fans,” Says Ouzounian.

Rent’s story fuels a strong word-of-mouth reaction that keeps people coming and coming back. Perhaps it is the theme, hardship and triumph that allow viewers to connect, to see a piece of themselves in the show. Perhaps it is being personally inspired by the “No Day but Today” philosophy . “For many young audience members RENT spoke to concerns that touched them deeply and did so through the accessible format of musical theatre. That struck profound chords in many people,” Ouzounian says.

“If you’re feeling bad you can just put on ‘What you Own’ or Light My Candle’ and you just feel better,” says 20-year-old Renthead Samantha Buck. “Everybody can relate to loss, everybody can relate to friendship...and that’s what RENT is. Everyone has their own stories,” she says. “It has been described to me like this: if you have 20 different people on Broadway you have 20 different stories. I think that applies to Rentheads because there are a million different fans with a million different stories. They’re all going to come away with something different.”

18 year-old Renthead, Evan Feist also sees RENT’s appeal as universal. “It has a spark of realism in it so that no matter who you are, no matter where you are, no matter what part of society you’re from, no matter how old you are, you can relate to the story and the eight characters in some way. What I draw from it can be completely different from the person beside me,” he says. “It’s timeless. It’s a story about life, love and friendship, and everyone can relate to that.

RENT’s fan phenomenon is not unique because it has attracted countless amounts of people and involved a devoted following. These are aspects that fall in line with theatre fan-culture in general. Richard Ouzounian points out, “There is always a desire to belong to a group and participate in some sort of secular ceremony. There were also "Hair" groupies, "Rocky Horror Show" fans, and other show groupies. Rentheads were just one more manifestation of this phenomenon,” he says. What really makes RENT different from its cultural predecessors though is that for the first time serious issues such as AIDS, death, homosexuality and race were being brought into the mainstream musical theatre context. Though theatre audiences were not unfamiliar with these issues on the stage, musical theatre was characteristically a light-hearted forum and by changing these “guidelines, RENT was breaking new ground. During RENT’s time (the 80’s) these subjects were extremely socially important (and translate now because they still are.) However, these subjects were taboo, and considered inappropriate for something as mainstream as Broadway. Though, despite negativity RENT has received from such outlets as fundamentalist Christian groups, this “controversial” subject-matter is what made the Renthead phenomenon different. Despite the obvious social need to “belong”, by making weighty subject-matter such as death and disease accessible through a mainstream format, it allowed minorities and those personally dealing with such issues, to relate and feel they were part of a bigger social picture. As someone with a disability who has faced death, there is a reason I have seen RENT 12 times. Granted, some of it lies in the music and the theatrical entertainment, but every time I see RENT I am inspired by the “No Day but Today” philosophy and I’m reminded that when I get frustrated by my limitations, I have to keep going because I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. It is this type of reality that sets Rentheads apart from the more superficial fandom that comes with other fantastical shows. You don’t usually go to the theatre to gain any sort of spiritual enlightenment, but it can be said that this is what Rentheads are getting with their personal connection to the show, and though it might not be the case for all, this form of spirituality is what sets RENT fans apart.

Along side the show’s exceptional social themes is RENT’s unique structural style.
With RENT Larson brought together many different aspects and took a chance on bringing in a whole new style, which was destined to transform musicals forever. “RENT is based on a very historically interesting piece. Taking La Boheme and making it relevant to contemporary issues and taking a very similar story and telling it in a contemporary sense reinvents the idea of musical theatre, which I think is very revolutionary,” says Armstrong. In a musical theatre world dominated by spectacle and corporate commercialism, Jonathan Larson’s piece stood out from the ubiquitous Andrew Lloyd-Webber-style creations. Compared to the sumptuous spectacles that made up the theatre arena, RENT took a fresh, down-to-earth approach, which included simple, stripped-down sets, scenes that didn’t include large, over-the-top dance numbers and the thing that possibly made the show’s structure most unique, a five-piece rock band in place of a large-scale orchestra. Led by director Michael Grief, playwright Jonathan Larson and the rest of the original Broadway cast took a huge risk, but in the end succeeded in breathing new life into American theatre. “RENT really reinvented what we as an audience would generally associate with musical theatre,” says Armstrong. “It provided something that was new, something that was cutting edge. I think structurally, the show implicating rock music in the context of the musical theatre world was revolutionary. Very specific choices were made about the actual staging of the show as well, which created more of a concert feel,” He says. RENT used a very minimalist approach that focused on presenting itself as a raw, gritty piece that showcased the characters’ stories, and brought forth the music, compared to typical musicals, which sensationalized their content to draw in audiences. RENT is first and foremost a rock opera. It’s score, rather than music made up of a show-tune majority brought the music into the forefront, and made it more accessible to those who wouldn’t normally appreciate musical theatre format.

My parents took me to see Rent in Toronto in 1997 and since then I have seen the show 11 more times in Toronto, Hamilton and New York, and I have tickets to see it again in May in Toronto.

I will neglect this no more

2006-05-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, until I can find some awesome camera-savvy propellerhead to figure out my photographic/computorial issues I won't be uploading any photos anytime soon. So, my big plan to update with a bang by adding a bunch of cool photos of Anythony Rapp must be put on hold once again. But, I have left this blog idol for far too long. So, I must use my newfound summertime hours to be a blogger in the real sense.--FREQUENTLY! I'll do my best to post more often, I promise!

So, I finished my winter semester classes and exams about two weeks ago. I started my first summer class (SOC104 Intro to Sociology) last monday and wow, 6 hours a week, so not enough to keep me busy. I NEED to find a job.--I'm bored out of my skull! I'm applying to a bunch of positions that are being offered through the Ontario Government. Positions at different Universities, AGO, The ROM, The Science Centre etc. Cross your fingers cuz otherwise I think I'm going back to telemarketing *shudder*. Luckily I'm still high off of my final feature mark. A+ baby yeah! Don't ask me how I did it, but I did the rewrite and managed to pull my mark up by more than a whole letter grade. Im a genius! Take THAT Anthony Rapp and Victoria Leacock! I didn't need ya afterall!

Still anxiously awaiting word from NYU. Last I heard they said I'm supposed to get something by early-mid May. So, soon!!! Cross all crossables until then! Up until now I've been too busy to think much about it. But now that's basically all I can do.

I went to see the CanStage production of Hair today. I really enjoyed it but the lack of story-line was a bit tedious at times. The music was catchy and wow, acid trips are pretty to look at *hehe*=). That and the pretty people.--The naked people.=). Even when your expecting it, full-frontal nudity is always a bit of a shock. We had to switch our seats because our original ones were down too many stairs. They ended up putting us in a box, which was not only a better view, but I think the second row would've been too close for comfort if you know what I mean=).
RENT is due in T-6 Days. The Countdown is on!

Mit-CITY Microwaving their friends, and an evening with Great Big Sea

2006-03-18T20:19:00.000-08:00

I had two fun, show-filled nights on Wednesday and Thursday last week. On Wednesday I FINALLY made it to my first Mit-CITY show. It's a long story but basically I've known about them for years and I'm ashamed to say that it's come to my friend Emily dating the singer (Mike) to get me to go to a show. I am definitely hooked now though. The show was a lot of fun. They're a very innovative, creative duo who even when they are about to pass out with sickness still don't disappoint. They're a piano/guitar duo who mix pop/rock and folk with a sort of vaudvillian flair. Mike's strong vocal stylings and Jesse's talent on the piano combined with comedic, satirical lyrics that put them in a category with Barenaked Ladies and Moxy Fruvous make them a must-see. Besides, any band who has a six-foot microwave on stage is cool by default. Mike wrote a song about microwaving his friends and so he called up his parents and got them to build him a giant microwave for their big finish...How many parents do you know that would build their son a six-foot microwave on 2 days notice?--It didn't quite work out as they'd envisioned but it was very funny just the same=). Check out: www.mit-city.com

On Thursday we went to see Great Big Sea at the Carlu, which was AWESOME! They are touring right now to support their new traditional album The Hard and the Easy and so they're playing special shows in smaller venues. The Carlu is an old ballroom that was closed for 50 years and then restored and recently reopened. They basically set up chairs in rows in front of the stage so it was a very intimate situation. The staff was really helpful too, they brought us in early and moved the entire row down a few seats so that I could park my scooter at the end of the row and still be able to see when everyone stood up, which is definitely a rarity at a GBS show.

There was no opener so they did two sets with an intermission in between. They did a softer, more traditional set first and then the second set was a full-on rock-out with all the hits. There was absolutely no security either so we ended up just leaving our seats and going and standing right up front in the aisle. It was really fun. It was really good to see that our fave newfie boys emerged from their bus fiasco virtually unscathed. Doyle is as sexy as ever, and our nice clean-cut Toronto boy hasn't changed a bit, but Bob and Sean have crazy long hair that is horrible! What are they thinking? Especially Bob=p. They were all in such goofy moods. Sean seemed set on making Alan laugh and even Murray joined in on the antics. Did I mention that Alan made a little Toronto inside joke by exclaiming "Way to go Murray!" when he introduced Murray? It was HILARIOUS! I totally wanted to go back again the next night. Darn expensive tickets! Alan says they'll be back in July though, yay! For now I have my Alan Doyle guitar pick to keep me going until then=).

Oh yeah, my friend and I were talking about Liam Titcomb's album and then as we were leaving he popped out of the crowd. He's been at a lot of the shows I've been at recently...*hehe*. He saw me and smiled awkwardly. Way too many musicians know me now...is that a bad thing, or a good thing?

Random stuff

2006-03-18T19:43:00.000-08:00

I started writing a post about my trip to NYC in February but sadly that has had to be postponed a little longer. I promise you will get all the juicy details about my rendezvous with Anthony Rapp, who definitely didn't disappoint btw, but that will have to wait until I can remedy my camera issues. My computer has somehow erased the camera software and since I can't find the disc that poses a bit if a problem. My friend Kevin has the sam camera so I was getting him to upload my pics for me. But unfortunately his computer crashed over the break and he doesn't have the disc either! grr! So, once I have pictures to go with words you will get all the dirt on NYC.

Right now I am fighting extremely detrimental procrastination. I have never felt so unmotivated in my life. Crunch time has snuck up on me so suddenly that I can't help but be a tad worried=p. I have two feature articles and two essays to get done by the end of the month. I have no doubt that it will happen in some way or other but, blah! I have been putting so much energy into my NYU application and working at RyeACCESS that finding time to do homework has been difficult. However, the NYU app is ALMOST done, yay!!! I think I've finally got an essay that I'm happy with and there are just a few minor things to finish up on the application itself before I can send it off. I'm just waiting now for NYU to mail me my transcript from last summer. They said 5-10 business days so I'm hoping it'll get here in time. It was SUCH a hassle to work that out. I had forgotten that they had spelled my name wrong on my student card in the summer so I was in the NYU system as Saburah "Mardoch". Nobody could figure out why they couldn't find me, which as quite worrisome for a while. Eventually they found me though, not lost...just misplaced=p.

I have to start my Magazine stream application for Ryerson too--just in case I don't get into NYU=p. I've been feverishly thinking of interesting magazines that I can list to make me stand out.

Well, I haven't done any work all day, which was a big mistake since I promised to go to Peterborough to visit my grandparents tomorrow and probably won't get very much work done. I'm going to try and at least do some reading so that I don't feel like my brain is turning completely to mush=p.

Is it a sign?=p

2006-02-12T15:37:00.000-08:00

The other day I was playing around on the time-sucker that is MySpace and I decided to put in a request for Anthony Rapp to add me to his "friends." He didn't, because he has a life unlike the rest of us MySpace frequenters=p. Well, that is to say he didn't add me until yesterday. I just discovered so a few minutes ago and so was able to read his latest post:

My Email Address:

Hey everyone, I have been extremely busy and I dont Have time to always check my myspace, but I do check my email. So instead of posting comments and messages. Could you please email me at anthonyrapp111@yahoo.com And if you email me I will add you to my contact list, so when Ever I get a new acting job or a new gig I can email you. And if you emial me I will anwser any questions that you want

Sincerly Anthony

Well the question I want to know is if he will do an interview with me for my piece. I *probably* should just follow his booking agent's advice and ask him for a few minutes in person but hey, having him practically hand me his contact info has got to be a sign right? I figured I'd save us both a little anxiety and just go ahead and make my request in advance. It's sent! So here goes nuthin...

New York City Baby!

2006-02-12T13:35:00.000-08:00

Next week is reading week and despite my looming deadlines, I'm taking off to NYC for five days. I was planning to go for my birthday at the end of January but that didn't work out. However...I'm leaving on Saturday--woot! I found out at the last minute that my friends Chris, Jill and Gella are hosting a We're About 9 http://www.circanine.com/ house concert at their apartment in Brooklyn and so I'm going to go to that and then spend the night there with many of my favourite Fruheads. Frucon NYC this year people! Unfortunately I'll be missing Frucon here (if it actually happens) but I can't say I'm all that crushed. If last year is any indication it's probably going to be uneventful to say the least. This is going to be SO much more fun yay!

My most exciting plans are on the 21st though. Anthony Rapp, Mark in the Original Broadway cast of Rent and the Rent Movie, and author of Without You: AMemoir of Love, Loss and the Musical Rent is doing a book signing and apparently will read an excerpt from his book and then sing TWO songs from Rent.-- I gotta tell ya, this is pretty much this little Renthead's dream come true. The book is INCREDIBLE. It's one of the most honest and revealing memoirs I've ever read. At the risk of sounding cliche- It'll make you laugh, it'll make you cry! I found out from my friend Dyan that Anthony is also playing a show after the signing with his band Albino Kid at the Cutting Roomhttp://www.thecuttingroomnyc.com/...SO excited!!! EEEEE!!! But that's not all. Since I've got my final feature due for my magazine class soon I've decided to do a piece on the cultural phenomenon of Rent i.e. Rentheads etc. So, I'm going to inteview some of the people in the line at the signing, maybe some of the people in the Rush line at the Nederlander Theatre, AND I *might* even get to interview Anthony himself! I E-mailed his booking agent and he said that I'll have to ask him for a few minutes when I'm there at the signing because he's too busy for requests in advance. Oy, cross your fingers that I can pull off my professional journalist hat and leave the fangirl one at home=p. I hope it all goes well. It's the perfect time to be doing it--It's the 10th anniversary of Rent on Broadway, the movie comes out on DVD on the 21st and Anthony's just put out his book.

Otherwise I'm probably going to take in a few museums see a few more friends. I want to maybe see Sweeny Todd, and or Stomp and, of course I can't be in New York without seeing Rent. Especially since it's probably not coming to Toronto in May afterall=(. Apparently some genius put the date up on the site without checking to see if the Canon Theatre was free first=p. They're rumored to be shopping around for another venue...I hope so!

Lots of stories and pics when I get back!

It's "Warren's World"...we're just living in it

2006-02-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't know, this is Warren Rupnarain. He's a 4th year social work student at Ryerson University and he's taken on an initiative that's TOTALLY AWESOME--he's a complete inspiration. After securing a placement position at The March of Dimes, Warren began a project, which has come to be called "Warren's World". Basically before the Federal Election he went to all of the candidates campaign offices to see how accessible they were to people with disabilities, and to find out what their position on a Canadians with Disabilities Act. He was met with a lot of "interesting" obstacles...and of course a bunch of lame excuses, but also a lot of people who were willing to support his cause. Warren found that about 95% of the candidates offices had some way of getting in in a wheelchair...pretty good, but not perfect! Warren is an amazing activist who is still tirelessly working to create a more accessible Canada--to break down both physical and attitudinal barriers. His journey has been video documented all the way and can be viewed on his website http://www.warrensworld.ca/ along with all of the other publicity and praise that Warren has been recieving lately. I highly recommend you check it out!

Warren was good enough to join us at RyeACCESS yesterday for a post-election review. He took us all the way through his adventure and showed us clips from his new Warren's World DVD. Getting to hear him speak was a great experience and once again RyeACCESS has scored another victory in the successful event department. Not only did we bring in members of the Ryerson Access Centre staff, I think a lot of eyes were opened to the world of disability issues. Journalism professor Peter Bakeogeorge brought his first-year newsreporting class (about 30 students) to cover the event for an assignment. So, not only did they get an interesting thing to cover, I think they were exposed to issues that they might not have been exposed to otherwise. I was really excited that RyeACCESS was able to raise awareness on such a large scale....Thanks Warren!

There will also be a podcast of the event on Warren's site featuring short interviews from myself, my coworker Aaron Broverman and RSU VP of Education Nora Loreto. Check it out!

Rent is due--Here in T.O!!!

2006-01-28T17:21:00.000-08:00

Yes friends, it's what we've all been waiting for. For the first time (okay second...but that one doesn't count because I had exams and couldn't go) since 1997/'98 , Jonathan Larson's rock opera-masterpiece RENT is FINALLY returning to Toronto. After having to make 2 trips to Hamilton because it's the closest it has come to T.O in 9 years...woo-hoo, T.O Rentheads unite! May 9th-14th at the Canon Theatre. I'll be there(maybe multiple times *hehe*) will you? It won't be the same without Luther, but we'll make do=).

P.S: The Rent movie is due out on DVD on February 21st Yay! If you, like me, were wondering why Anthony Rapp isn't releasing his book until then...now we know! 2 awesome Rent items at the same time. SO excited!!

Sometimes a little padding is a good thing...

2006-01-27T18:45:00.000-08:00

Okay, so tonight I got sucked into the Hollister machine...I'll admit it, my shopaholic tendencies are stronger than my moralistic ones. Despite my morals I've been admiring the Hollister jeans that a girl in my class has so I decided to bite the bullet and go and buy some. I was all ready to come back and write about what a hipocrite I was, how ashamed I was for falling victim to the teeny-bopper fad-- That was before I tried them on.

It's true that I'm due to lose a few pounds but I can generally find a pants that fit. I consider myself to be a pretty average size but clearly not "average Hollister size." First of all the largest size they make is an 11 (I'm usually a 10 and let me tell you, these were no 11s)--Forget about buttoning them...I couldn't even pull them up! The sales girl did warn me that they fit small and that most people have to buy a size bigger than they usually do. My first clue should've been the stick figure telling me that she usually takes a size 3, but at Hollister she's a 5. So, tonight my Hollister experience has left me $92 poorer, and feeling fat. The good news is though...in exchange for my extra pounds I get my morals back...and my money.

I've definitely learned my lesson, and I've got another con to add to my Hollister list. WTF? who's bright idea was it to have the biggest size be an 11? Props to Old Navy for their size 20!!

I prefer my stores to not promote a lifestyle thankyou!

2006-01-24T19:42:00.000-08:00

Since when do stores put lifestyle before product? I'm not saying that us little ole Canadians are immune to the corporate promotion of a "feeling" (yes, I mean you Starbucks) but never in my life have I been so bombarded with a store's "ideal" during my shopping experience. I am referring to the Toronto Eaton Centre's newest addition, Canada's first Hollister store. http://www.hollisterco.com/hol/homepage.html We were all intrigued by the elaborate facade before the store opened, but from the second the shirtless, buff, male mannequins appeared-- flanking the door to the cabana-style store, we knew something was a bit off.

Hollister calls themselves "the newest Southern Cali lifestyle retailer geared towards energetic guys and girls". Not only do they admit to their blatant attempt to market and brand kids by sucking them into their "lifestyle" ideology, once you walk into the store it is shockingly apparent that it exists only to act as a shameless marketing ploy. From the moment you set foot inside it is like being thrown into an episode of a WB drama like the OC. Loud music featuring bands that appeal to the young masses (All American Rejects, Bright Eyes, Sum 41 to name a few) plays over the loudspeakers, simulating some kind of a party feel and the interior, which is surprisingly huge for an Eaton Centre store, is made up of dark wood panels, decadent leather furniture, carpets and lush plants. To say the least Hollister is nothing like the brightly lit, somewhat sterile environments that most mall outlets offer. With the lights dimmed to create the illusion of a relaxed oasis in the middle of Toronto's busiest shopping spot, it can be said that the store provides an environment that is far nicer than any of our own livingrooms.

...On the surface anyway. Upon second look it is hard to notice the looming photographs of scantily clad couples making out on the beach, or the flat screen TV's bringing in live feeds of some of California's best surfing spots. Oh, did I mention that not one member of the flip-flop-wearing sales staff is less than perfect? Clearly retail sales experience wasn't the only thing on the Hollister hiring team's minds. In fact, unlike any store I've ever seen, a computerized copy of the Hollister job application stands at the ready for any young beauties who wish to sign their souls on over. Okay, so I'm being a bit harsh, I know everyone needs a job, and sometimes evil corporations are the only way to go, but honestly Hollister, just try to be a bit more subtle. I mean whatever happened to discreetly asking for a job application at the front counter?

The fact that every third person in downtown Toronto right now, is carrying a Hollister bag just proves that unfortunately, Hollister co. has nothing but an ingenious marketing scheme in their back pockets. It works so well that nobody seems to notice that they are paying exorbinant prices for badly made, low quality garments that are designed for people who live in Southern California. There's the flaw in the logic...no matter how convinced you get that the beach life is the way to go...we live in Canada remember? It's cold here!

NOTE: I would like to add that in no way am I criticizing Hollister Employees. As I said, I recognize the need for a job. These comments are completely directed at the Hollister company and the people who put together its ideologies, nobody else.

I'm older than I've ever been and now I'm even older, and as was pointed out to me -"I, I Palindrome"

2006-01-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

Well that's it! I think I'm officially an adult. Whether or not I feel like one is another matter completely...but I've passed all of the milestones. At 18 I could vote...and buy porn (not that I have of course=p), 19 I could legally drink in Canada and FINALLY get into club shows without lying through my teeth, 20 I was no longer a teenager, 21 I could drink in the States, but 22? Hrm...time to pull up my socks I think. No doubt I'm still going to maintain my Neverland complex but here I am on my first day of adulthood. It's the beginning of my 23nd year...let's see what's in store.

Look, look, I'm published!!!

2006-01-12T21:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it's finally happened, I've finally written something that I've had the courage to put out there for everyone to read! My friend Natalia is involved with a website called All Tomorrow's Concerts and she asked me to write some reviews of the albums that were my picks for best of 2005. Check out http://music.tron09.com/bestof.html for my reviews of The Ladies and Gentlemen's Small Sins and Luke Doucet's Broken and Other Rogue States. If all goes well this weekend and I can get my mountains of reading out of the way, I'll be polishing up my review of Andy Stochansky's 100 and adding it in as well...stay tuned!

What does your family look like on Christmas morning?

2006-01-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

I know it's a bit late to be talking about Christmas but I just had to share this picture that my cousin took on Christmas morning...thanx Lana! My mom went to Morocco just before Christmas and brought everyone these traditional Bedouin robes. Your family might wear Christmas sweaters but not mine! Auntie Shelagh, Uncle Ian, Grandma and my mom...the first members of the Royce Christmas cult *hehe*.

What is journalism?

2006-01-11T18:27:00.000-08:00

Well, apparently my creating a blog to improve my journalistic skills is pointless...because blogs aren't journalism. This is according to my online journalism professor anyway. We had our first class lecture tonight and she stated quite clearly that she thought blogs weren't journalism. Unfortunately she never did explain her point and so I am left with a foggy idea of what her feelings really are. In fact, she seemed to contradict herself quite a bit. First she said blogs weren't journalism but merely were someone's personal opinion. Then she said that journalism today often stems from online blogs as they are constantly bringing events into the forefront and or feeding the media new information. She also went on to say that journalists are always having to stay current and fresh, so therefore they no longer simply report on certain events but insert opinion etc. as well. I don't know, I am really impressed with this prof otherwise so I think if she had just explained herself a little bit more we would've understood why blogging should not be considered journalism. As of now though, I think I disagree. To me this sounds like a professional journalist creating an argument that is similar to the "high" and "low" culture debate. I may be new to the scene but last time I checked personal viewpoints and opinion was a huge part of journalism. Why is something that is written in the New York Times journalism and something that is written in a blog not? True there is a difference between musings and a carefully crafted article but can we not just put them in different categories of journalism? Say that one is approprite for one type of audience and the other appropriate for another? Is journalism not just words and ideas put together to form a story? Why do we bother to have different journalistic categories at all if something as important and current as blogging is just going to be unjustly dismissed? I think it is very irresponsible to think this way--Isn't it a bit presumptuous to assume you know what the root of journalism really is anyway?

Getting back into the swing of things...FINALLY!

2006-01-06T20:52:00.001-08:00

We had our first coordinator meeting at work today. It was really good to see everyone again. I love how our meetings always end up being more like pizza parties than work, with everyone laughing all the way through. I think this semester is going to be really good. I'm really excited to start getting things underway and I'm really glad to have Kevin and Sabreen (our new coordinators) onboard. There's already so much to do. I still have to write our letter sabout the malfunctioning elevator in the Student Campus Centre and we dcided that all of the Community Service Groups are going to create a small campaign to try and encourage students to vote in the upcoming Federal Election. RyeACCESS is preparing a list of accessible polling stations and covering all of the parties positions on disability issues. It should be interesting, I look forward to reading all of the information that everyone pulls together. We're also screening the documentary Murderball at some point soon so we've got to start booking rooms and postering for that too. Oy, I hope I'm still standing by the end of this semester. I'm taking 7 classes AND working 15 hrs a week. This holiday definitely started to drag towards the end and I'm looking forward to having something to do again. Most of my classes look pretty good too. I'll let you know how I feel at the end of the week.

A little help from my friends

2006-01-06T18:06:00.000-08:00

Well, here goes nuthin'. My friends have been telling me for ages that I should keep an online blog...to practice. See, I'm an aspiring journalist (second year in the journalism program at Ryerson University) but other than school assignments, I very rarely write anything. I really need to start getting used to writing in a public forum so I've decided to listen to my friends. For the first little while this will be a very casual thing, an online journal, a what's-going-on in Sab's life sort of thing. I might post a few of my fave articles here and there, I don't know! It's all up in the air at this point. I'm just going to leave it all up to chance.

Maybe I should tell a little bit about myself. I'll be 22 in a little less than a month (scary thought, I can hardly believe it!) I've lived in Toronto all my life but my dream is to live in New York City. I've always loved it there but after spending a good part of this past summer there I know its my future home. Like I said, I'm currently studying journalism (minoring in Sociology) at Ryerson University here in T.O and I work for the Ryerson Students' Union at one of its community service groups called RyeACCESS. RyeACCESS is the student-run community service group that deals with the non-academic needs of students with disabilities. This is my second year working there, last year I was Events Coordinator and this year I'm working as Student Advocacy Coordinator. It has it's challenges but it's rewarding more often than not. Along with my fellow coordinators I am working to break down both physical and attitudinal barriers on campus and helping to make Ryerson a more inclusive place. My education and employment at Ryerson has taught me a lot and helped me to meet a lot of great people. However, I'm applying to transfer to NYU in the fall...cross your fingers that I get in! Either way I'll find a way to get to NYC but going to school there would definitely help. My major pastime is going to concerts. I'm a total sucker for live music. I can't even count how many I go to a year. Yes, it definitely lightens my wallet but what can I say? I'm obsessed! I hope one day to turn it into a career and review concerts for a living. I have pretty ecclectic tastes, mostly indie-Canadian kinda stuff but I'm usually up for anything,except rap and hip-hop. I also love musical theatre and I'm a huge Renthead. I've seen Rent 12 times (5 in Toronto, 3 in Hamilton and 4 in New York) and I've already seen the movie twice! My other major fandom situation (though some will say that there are many more) is my involvement with Fruheads,meaning I'm a big fan of the Canadian band Moxy Fruvous. This takes up less and less of my time as the band has been on "hiatus" for 5 years but the friendships I've made are still going strong and we try to catch the boys' solo projects whenever possible--Mike Ford @ Hugh's Room May 13th 2006 everyone! I'm a great lover of art...specifically modern and pop art and I LOVE Andy Warhol,Roy Lichtenstein and Jean-Michel Basquiat. I collect their prints but I really enjoy visiting museums to view the real thing. I love to read but I have a tendency to buy more books than I could possibly get through. This is due to the fact that I'm a total shopaholic...what can ya do? I also make jewellery...mostly earrings and necklaces though I experiment with woven stuff. I've been doing it for years but I've just recently started to sell some of my work. I'd like to get involved in some craft sales in the future.

*For those of you who view my myspace profile I aplogize for the cut and paste but hey, it's a start!