Benny is coming!!!!

I also totally go so wrapped up in the holidays I didn’t share a great piece of news with the world!  Benny is coming to Toronto on February 17.  I got the scoop from the fan club, and I even got my pre-sale tickets.  Yess!  I will get to see him on my turf for the third time, and it will be the third time I get to see Benny with Tiffany, and the second time with M.  Woo!

I’m preparing myself my giving several listens to his new album (the real version) which I finally picked up during the Yorkdale shopping spree (thanks M!).  I’m really digging it, especially the single featuring Regina Spektor.  Seriously.

I CAN’T WAIT!

DMB and me – the first encounter

Last night M and I headed over to the Ampitheatre at 6:00 to prepare for the Dave Matthews Band.  M is all over getting there early so you can camp out in a good spot – which worked out well because we ended up on the stage right side right at the front of the lawn.  As we were heading in, we caught up with Brad, who was unfortunately sans Jana because the new Mrs. L wasn’t feeling well.  No worries though, the concert must go on!  M went in, and Brad and I waited for Jana’s up beat replacement who goes by the name of Lisa.  We’d met her over the weekend at the wedding, so it was a fun reunion.  As soon as she came, we headed in.  Bully for me they noticed my camera when I went through security, so I had to check it!  Gah!  Oh well!  Soon after we got in and found M, the rest of the crew came – Josh, Jess, Matt and Jeanette.  Later we were joined by Gillian and Adam – more Queen’s Alumni. 

The concert was good overall!  It was my first experience, and I don’t know the music nearly as well as everyone else, so it was a bit strange – I’m used to going to concerts and singing along.  I held my own, did a little bit of wandering to visit friends (Shout out to Roshan and Steve!) and bought myself an awesome DMB shirt.  I’m glad I went to the show – it makes me feel like I need to listen to DMB a little more, now that I actually do listen to him.  (FYI – for a while I was opposed to listening to him, I think because it was a bad high school memory, but I’m cooler than that now). 

All in all a good evening.

Blondie: Brad&Jana: New TV

This past weekend/week beginning has been full of activities.  Yeesh.  It’s no wonder I’m feeling the need for coffee this morning.  (Starby’s, of course).  And now you can read all about it!

Friday, as announced, M and I travelled to Casino Rama after work to hit up the Blondie concert.  I’ve never been to Rama, let alone Orillia before – so it was a new adventure.  Rama was cool enough – lots of very gambling oriented stuff (obviously) and lots of grey hair.  That’s not meant in a mean way, just a truthful one.  We had dinner, then headed in to the seemingly empty theatre for the show.  Our seats were pretty decent, and we spent the pre-show prep time playing a game of “spot the people younger than us!”.  Then the show started at about 9:03 (on time!  WOW!) and we were launched in to the awesome vocal stylings of the amazing Deborah Harry.  I couldn’t believe it!  She’s 63, and she’s still looks like she just walked on to the stage at CBGB.  Too cool!  Her voice was fantastic – and the band was great too – some of the original members and some new young’uns.  The drummer was really good – the only complaint was that the one guitarist was a little loud (even for M, so that’s saying something!)  The other thing I was totally impressed with was how much of a show the crew put on!  Everyone was wanting to address the crowd, and well, they looked damn good!  But then again, I’ve always maintained that Debbie Harry is one of the sexiest and coolest women in rock and roll!  Seriously.

After the concert, M took driving duty and we headed to KW to crash at Mum’s place.  (I, as per usual, fell asleep in the car and was a terrible driving buddy).  We got in around 1:00, and got up early the next morning so we could get on the road to Leamington for Brad & Jana’s wedding.  We managed to get organized and get out the door around 10:00, which worked out well for the long drive.  We got to Leamington around 1:00 in the afternoon, and we glad to see the hotel let us check in early.  We also got a chance to relax a little before heading out into the very warm day for the ceremony.

The wedding overall was a beautiful, love-filled day!  The ceremony was very special – the couple was married by one of Jana’s best friends from UW, which was really sweet.  Every little detail in the church was covered, and it was just beautiful.  After that, they had all of the guest hang out in little groups so we could chat and get a nice candid picture with the bride and groom.  This was fun because M and I fit into the “School and Toronto friends” group – and seeing as he knows Jana from school, and I know Brad from school, and we have intermixed friends, meeting up with everyone and meeting new people was a breeze!  None of the awkward weird wedding feeling was present.  Definitely good. 

The reception was wonderful – it was in a giant tent in the back yard of Jana’s parents.  There was tons of food – each being served from a themed station (ie. Country Menonite, Greek) and the appetizers were spring rolls and edamame because it was the first thing Brad and Jana made together in the kitchen.  (So cute!)  The tables were family style, the wine flowed at a good rate, and it was all about having a good time.  The kissing game was particularly inventive as you had a choice to do one of two things: 1) act out a kissing scene froma movie and watch the couple perform it or 2) make a charitable donation and pick a theme for the couple to act out during their kiss.  M and I donated to ALS research and got them to do “awkward 7th grade first kiss where you’re braces get stuck together”.  Hilarious!    Dinner wrapped up and we got to enjoy the musical stylings of Franklin’s Fault who had a reunion for one night only.  We danced away and kept it going for as long as we could before we needed to get to sleep!

The next morning we all met back at the tent for a brunch to help eat up all the leftovers!  Super smart idea as there was still tons of delicious food to eat.  M and I headed out right after eating, as it’s a long drive home – which I admit I was awake for most of – and we got back in Toronto with enough time to relax a little before I headed to church and M headed back to work. 

Monday, we barely had time to recover!  After work we had dinner, then M and I headed to the new Future Shop at Dundas Square to get him something he’s been eyeing for a while – a new flat screen TV.  After much debate (even a rebate), we settled on a new Sharp Aquos which got set up last night.  It’s way cool and it’s going to be even more awesome when we have time to sit down and watch it.  Last night we spend a good chunk of the evening cleaning/organizing and buying a new TV stand from Ikea.

Tonight – Dave Matthews Band at the Ampitheatre (interestingly enough with Brad and Jana and some others).  More news to come!

It’s good to have a “life” back!

MuteMath

So, last night was a new experience for me. Not only did I see my very first show at the Opera House, but I had my very first experience of MuteMath live. And all I can say is WOW!

Before going to see the show, I really didn’t know much about the band at all – I was going solely on the recommendation of M. He said that he loved the band and it was one of the single best live acts he’s seen. I’m not going to lie, I was a little skeptical, mostly because I was totally not expecting anything to knock my Muse experience out of my #1 spot. Yet today I have to admit it. MuteMath wins hands down! They were simply outstanding! Their album does no justice to the experience of seeing them live.

Overall it was a pretty awesome night.

To start the evening, M and I went to meet some friends for dinner at the Real Jerk on Queen E. It was really good food, complete with a new adventure as I tried the curried goat. Ha! I still can’t believe that I did, but oh well, it was fun to try something new! Then we hurried over to the Opera House with more friends to get ready for the show. Luckily, yet another friend was holding out a sweet railing spot, and we squeezed into watch the opening bands – The Reason (from Hamilton) and The Cinematics (from Scotland). Both bands were pretty decent, but I was definately more into the second as they were just tighter and more interesting. Either way, it was a good way of priming the crowd.

Next we prepared for the main show – MUTEMATH! Really, from start to finish these guys were really tight and interesting to watch. They were all over the map – each member was playing all sorts of different instruments. For serious.

I can’t even tell you. So check out this clip. This is the exact show we saw. Wow.

Merry Christmas sans mices…

It has been a little while since I’ve written last on my blog. I’ve been keeping busy with work and play, mostly work, but that’s ok. Off work time has been mainly involving watching movies and wrapping prezzies so I would be ready for today (and she done good!)

However, there are a few highlights worth mentioning from the play side of things. The first was a evening of bands with my friend Shawn – we went to Supermarket to see a variety of bands, but mainly The Postage Stamps. The sound was great, though some of the bands weren’t really quite as prepared as they could be. All the same, it was fun to see some new bands. We were pleasantly surprised by a band called The Rest, so much so that we bought the CD. I really enjoy it. I’m really glad I went – I just felt really bad I couldn’t pay more attention to the Stamps though – by the time they came on it was almost 1 am, and we were tuckered out. Next time I promise to do better.

Secondly, I got to see Handel’s Messiah with FT again. This year it was especially cool because it was actually a different Messiah – yep, it was Mozart’s arrangement of Handel’s Messiah. Very cool. Apparently, it was very common for people to comission other artists to revamp another composer’s work to suit a different audience and what we heard was the product. It’s very similar, but more upbeat and it has a lot more choral parts which I, of course, am a big fan off. There were quite a few recognizable “Mozart moments” that I noticed, as it tended to follow a similar style to Mozart’s Missa Brevis that I used to sing with my choir in Kingston at Easter. Also, it was kinda neat because a girl I know from Queen’s was in the choir, and I could spot her. Maybe next year I should join! After the show we all went to Marche and ate food – it was great to sit with Robby J, Sue and Lisa again and to drink Manhattan. It was a NYC moment. Loved it all.

That Sunday, the 17th, was also a special FT celebration. We had a Love Feast. This is something that was done for years, but hasn’t happened in a while. Essentially, it’s a big feast where all the LRs create a plate of food and we all serve each other. We were even lucky enough this year to share the experience with Grace Church Toronto, as we used their new space. It was very cool. Lots of good food, and all three pastors prepared a little mini-sermon and it was just in the right vein for Christmas. I’m really glad this happened and it worked so well.

That night, however, I did have a small adventure in my own house. I was woken up at 3:30am by scrabbling noises. Now, I live alone, so noises of this sort are all the more frustrating and bothersome. So I get up. Turn out the mice I though that I had gotten rid of have found the food outside my cupboard and were chowing down near my kitchen door. YUCK! In fact, they were so enjoying themselves that were looking straight at me. They finally scampered away, and I set to the task of cleaning up mice poo and half-eaten pasta. Then I set out poison. About 30 min later I hopped back into bed with a chance of two more hours of sleep. But it goes without saying that I couldn’t fall asleep again. Sigh…but at least the mice were gone….right? Nope. Turn out they hit up my counter next because I’d left a couple of dirty pots there. Crap. Literally. But at least I didn’t discover this until the next day…I guess. Moral of the story: never again will there be a dirty dish left on my counter!

Last week was pretty good. I got to spend two days hanging out with MB at work which was nice, as I very rarely get to see him. We chatted about a few different things, and we had lunch together. Very cool guy. On Thursday, I got to Ryan and Kevin together – we went to see The Primordials, Shawn’s band, play at the Boat in Kensington. Very fun. Even rappa-loving-brotha Ry got to dancing. Friday night was spent in Oshawa with my girls, and Saturday I came to KW on the train. Serendipitously, I ended up having my friend Michelle who I have been trying to catch up with for months sit next to me, so we had a nice hour long chat. Very cool girl.

The rest of the week is Christmas. It’s been good. It’s nice to see family and to have some traditions, seeing as there has been a lot of change in my life as of late. The only downer is that Mum and Wends have been really sick, and now Dad’s getting a scratchy throat. That is one thing I do not want this Christmas…so, here’s hoping to staying well.

Oh, and Merry Christmas!

Now, I must depart, White Christmas is on TV, and well, it’s just not Christmas until I’ve watched a few of my fav numbers.

God bless everyone!

Clearly Toronto is a small world.

Tonight I went to see a rockin’ show at the Rivoli played by my pal Colin Munroe. It was a great show and both Colin’s band and the opening band were really tight. I was really glad I went. And on top of that, I ran into an old friend from school Anton and let me tell you exactly why it’s such a small world.

You see I met Anton at Queen’s through my good friend Shamus “Damn I’m” Fynes who was in Bye Bye Birdie with me and who was also in my acting class. All three of us were in Music 121 together (The Social History of Popular Music) and we would sometimes sit together. In the summer of 2004 at Summer Playaz (that Shamus was in), I met Anton’s best friend from home Daniel Roberts. Yes, the very same Dan that I ended up loving and dating for a while. As I was dating Dan I met his other best friend Cody very briefly. Cody went to OCAD and was in film and directed Dan in a movie that Dan told me about. Later it turned out that the other director for that movie was my good friend Karl (aka Wendel to them). I found this out about a year ago, and it was kinda strange to put things together with Karl and Dan. Weird.

Move forward to about 2 months ago – Colin was getting his band together and one of the guys in the band was Josh Lyon. Both of these boys got to FT with me and Karl. Josh is friends with another band member, Adam, and because of him spent a year living with Cody and Dan. I found this out because I had posted a pic of me and Dan on my Flickr site and Josh commented on it. I thought that was weird too. Then tonight I went to see Colin play and who is there but Anton and Cody to see their friend Adam play. Weird.

Small world, isn’t it?

And Ben Harper cried.

Last night, if things were crazy enough with the move – I got a call from my friend Melissa at around 7pm asking me if I wanted to brave the dismal rain to see Ben Harper play at the Molson Ampitheatre at about 8pm. Now, this is (almost) a tough call. On one hand we’ve got the curse of Ernesto – damn rain! On the other hand we’ve got a FREE concert to see an amazing performer. Hmm…

In this case Ben won. I got layered up – leggings, jeans, tank top, long sleeve, t-shirt, sweatshirt, vest and rain jacket. I packed some garbage bags and a winter hat for good measure. I even put plastic bags in my shoes to keep my feet more dry. Off I went – and trust me, it was worth it! Ben played for such a long time. Wow! I couldn’t believe it!

It was also funny how Melissa and I spent the entire time talking to two random guys from Barrie. They were both kinda young, and fun. One of them was a Newfie, so we bonded in that way. But what was especially weird, in some senses, was that the “sport” of chatting up random people at a concert had no appeal for me. Gone was the thrill linked to flirting or ever-so-slightly leading someone on by not pushing away their advances. Gone. I was much more into the music.

Just as well, seeing as Ben came on for two encores – both almost 35 minutes each – and he just rocked it. He dedicated a tune to us on the lawn, and when he was about to leave the stage he was so in the moment he looked like he was going to cry.

Now that was worth it.

MUSE!

Last night, I went to see the band Muse play at The Docks. Wow! Really, that’s about all I can say! At first it was tough, there was a long pause after the opening band The Cloud Room, and we were getting impatient, but after that, Muse got going….It was AMAZING! They are so good live! I went to the show with Karl, who is used to being in the concert groove (a.k.a. the mosh pit), and it was so fun because for the first time ever I ended up right up by the front! So worth the fight through the crowd, we got some ridiculous pictures, and were right up in the front for the seriously crazy encore – at one point the words of the song were scrolling across the stage. Love it! And Karl and I danced along and jumped, and enjoyed every moment of it.

Here are a few of the awesome shots Karl and I got of the band:

Broken Bloc Fiest Raising Woot!

Karl, you are officially my favourite person of the weekend. Yes, the weekend only.

Why?

Well, because on Friday after work I got a phone call that set me in a great mood. Karl called and told me he had a free ticket for me to go see the concert on Olympic Island on Saturday. Wow! Let me see…spend the day packing or got see Fiest, Bloc Party and Broken Social Scene…hmm…Yeah, no contest. (Please note this news came just before I got the internet back – uh, heck ya!)

So, as you can guess, Saturday turned out to be a very good day. I woke up in the morning, went to see an apartment, came home and organized getting my ticket from my friend Martine. That turned out really well, because I went just at brunch time, and we had pancakes, and spend a few minutes chatting, it was awesome. After I got my ticket and arranged the meeting time for the concert, I headed home and did a little bit of packing. It was good, fairly productive, though I realize now that I totally missed an afternoon BBQ I was supposed to go to…oops, nothing serious. Then the concert crew, consisting of myself, Martine, Lisa L. and Martine’s brother Phil and his gf Becca were off to the ferry so we could take in the concert. Karl was already over there seeing as he was filming the event (the whole reason the ticket was free) and we got to see him briefly before we found a great little niche to sit and watch Fiest. Very cool, very laid back. She sang beautifully seeing as she was complaining of having a terrible flu. Then we managed to score even better seats to watch Bloc Party and BSS on a slight incline. Bloc Party was great! We danced and enjoyed the summer sun. After a small food break, it was time for BSS! They were so good too. It’s my first time seeing them live, and it was sooo worth it. They played until almost 11! Wow! So good.

After the show was over, and we had the necessary bathroom run, we all headed over to the beach for a few minutes. Marty took some great photos of Lisa, Becca and I swinging, and such. It was so nice to have sand on our feet and to feel free of the business of Toronto. Then we got on the ferry, interestingly enough, right next to Amy Milan and the entire band/horn section. hehehe. Very cool again.

Overall, one of my better summer Toronto Saturdays. And all thanks to Karl.

(giggly voice) I like you, Karl, hehehe.

Rock this bitch

May 6th, 2006 has come and gone, and it was worth every minute. The road trip was fun, the concert was awesome, and all in all, it was a good day. It rocked this bitch!

Saturday started early for me – I woke up at 8:30, got showered and dressed and biked down to Kensington to meet my friend Lisa at Moonbean for coffee and to do some shopping in like cool Toronto hipsters for the Sunday adventure. We had a great time – we shared bagels and chatted over coffee, I even had a cup . (This is a big deal – I hardly ever drink coffee). Then running around looking at dressed and hats and gloves. So fun! We managed to get some really great outfits, and then I booted off to start my second adventure of the day: Road Trip to Niagara Falls, NY and the Ben Folds concert.

After some deliberation about the departure time, I finally met up with my rough and tumble concert crew (Tom, Karl, Jeff and Cindy) and we left the urban city of Toronto and headed towards Niagara Falls. It was a good car ride, some highlights included Jeff taking pictures of a little push pin he found stuck in the seat on Tom’s car – it was especially funny when he put in in Karl’s hair (“Just let it happen!”) and when Cindy and I worked together to get a picture of it next to Jeff’s mole (they’re cousins). Other highlights included Tom’s rather unsuccessful ventures trying to find a Tim Horton’s – at least it made for a nice detour through Grimsby and good ice cream stop.

After a venture looking at the Canadian falls (and all the tacky touristy crap around) we decided to head over the border. Of course that was an adventure in and of itself because Karl didn’t have any photo ID because it all got stolen. Luckily we weren’t stuck long, and after some quick fingerprinting and photo taking for Karl and little prayer by the rest of us, we were on our way again. Little did we know were heading into a rather sad and deserted looking town – half of the houses and shops in Niagara Falls, NY were boarded up and the roads were full of pot holes. We did, however, manage to find a gem of a place stop and eat – excellent sweet potato fries.

From there we headed over to the concert venue, which turned out to be quite small. I quickly found my friend Tiffany and her mom Bonnie a.k.a “Momma” Clayton and even my friend’s Steve and Bri. It was great. We got a nice seat on the bleachers with a direct view of Ben at the piano and we didn’t have to face the nasty crowd of super young college kids on the floor. Just as well because they all seemed so young that if you even looked at them you were jail bait! Ben was awesome! I swear he looked at me a couple of time, right Tiff? Highlight included a great rendition of Bitches Ain’t Sh*t and his improved version of Rock This Bitch – “Basketball is my favourite sport, I like to dribble up and down the court…” Love it!

The drive home was pretty quiet, we all just kinda chatted. Cindy and I had a really good talk. Sometimes it’s just nice to be around Christian friends. It’s pretty special when one minute you can be joking around at a concert together, and the next minute you can be talking about spiritual stuff. I didn’t have that for a long time, and it’s a true blessing. I tell ya though, by the time we got back to the city I was tired, and ready for bed.

Yep, we definitely rocked it!