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

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!

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!

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!!!

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Protesting the wrong issue completely...

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

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?

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!

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

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...

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?

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

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!

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?

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!

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"

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?

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

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!

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

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!