Vancouver imagery

View at Burnaby Mountain Park

Simon Fraser University, some climb into the Trans-Canada Trail.
My aunt teaches here but I'd never visited the campus before.


Mintage on Commercial Drive. I got my (old) new favourite shirt here.

Lunch at Belgian Fries... it was probably the best poutine I've ever had.

SO MUCH OLYMPICS STUFF. Quatchi is definitely my favourite.

Gastown, of course. Nood is so awesome!

An uncle brought us a whole tuna, so we had to drop it off at a sushi restaurant to have it sashimi-fied for us. Soooooo good.

This one's from White Rock.

(Most of the pictures were taken by my sister Adelaide, who used to write a great blog (now retired), 's Stad, since my camera has a mind of its own.)

Opening tonight

If there is any excuse for my shotty posting over the past little while, here it is.

RTS presents

AS YOU LIKE IT

Written by William Shakespeare

Rehearsed with Ian Watson

Set and costume design by Esther Kim

Lighting design by Kai Masaoka

December 1 - 4 2009

Abrams Studio Theatre

Featuring Eva Barrie, Ayinde Blake, Laurie Campbell, Sean Casey, Cassandra Dang, Patrick Godin, Kira Guloien, Kate Handford, Kirsten Harvey, Madeleine Jullian, Andrew Lawrie, Anthony Rella, Ellis Rockburn, Katie Ryerson, Harveen Sandhu, Karen Slater, Noah Spitzer, Thomas Swayne, Philippe Van de Maele and Anna Wheeler

It's my design debut! It was a strange time in my life, but I am so excited for the show to open tonight, it's been a long time since I was really proud of my work of any sort being featured in a theatre, no matter how small. After a couple 90-hour weeks, I am ready to do this all over again (and I thank everyone involved for teaching me everything I know) and keep at it for once. But before I do anything again, there's the opening night party to attend to.

The sold-out run begins tonight!

ps. Happy December, and hope you enjoyed your snow-free November, Toronto!

Gratefulness

These guys won an Oscar last year for the best original song category for a little movie called Once. When they were in Toronto to promote the film over two years ago, I sang with Glen Hansard. Two weeks before that, their all-amazing tour manager, Howard, pulled a serious ninja move to let the then-underage yours truly into the vicious Phoenix concert theatre to see the band in concert.

Tonight they played a 9-song acoustic set in front of a handful of people, and I was lucky enough to witness it. I'm still not quite sure what I did to be have the privilege to be there, other than sending a desperate plea at age 18 to be let into a gig.

Over a year ago my sister and I gave them a set of paintings (the bottom half is by me), wrapped in newspaper tied with a piece of yarn from a scarf I was knitting at the time.

When I saw Glen tonight, he showed me that same piece of string, tied around his wrist, been there since the night I gave it to him on November 23rd of 2007. As I am after every night I see them, I'm full of good music and lack words of thanks. The honky-tonk piano, so out of tune, did just fine for the evening.

Next up: Chad VanGaalen! I'm really, really banking on him to win the Polaris Prize. And then Bruce Peninsula, and then the Gaslight Anthem, and then Dan Mangan, then the Swell Season (again), then the Rural Alberta Advantage, take me into winter. I'm in love.

Uno due

My Eurotrip in ten photos:

Trets-en-Provence, France; my home for 17 days

Nice, France

Florence, Italy

Corniglia, Italia

Manorola, Italy

Strasbourg, France

Bern, Switzerland

Antwerp, Belgium

Lille, France

Europa, I miss you so.

some absence

For the past few days I was realizing that I haven't posted anything at all in May, and so here I am. Toronto, student living and music seems to be the constant muses in my life so that's the path we shall travel once more.

I have moved into my temporary residence for the month of May, a lovely old house in the Annex with a confused landlady on the first floor and two sweet roommates. After living a year in a basement--the epitome of student living: white walls, tile floors, creeper looking through my window from the backyard (yes, indeed it's true)--it's strange to wake up to sunlight in the morning. Even on the cloudiest days I'm waking up thinking it's naught but sunshine outside. I imagine getting sunburnt, and it's an exciting notion, and there's definitely a deck on the third floor to do this on. I can see the CN Tower to the south and Casa Loma to the north.

I have 21 (!!!) big days left until I leave for Europe--I will also have to write about that one, and how planning the trip is the second best part after actually being there. I have lots that I'm leaving in Toronto though: Beirut, and a sunny house (despite its lack of a living room my roommates and I do fine in our common sitting nook) least of all; but I'm holding my breath. I do wish Toronto would stop in its tracks until I come back. I want to miss nothing.

It's definitely spring.

Albums that I've been listening to: Horn of Plenty, by Grizzly Bear; Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, by Wilco; For Emma, Forever ago, courtesy of Bon Iver (sounds of Wisconsin); Boxer, The National (I will be sorry to miss them this Thursday! But Timber Timbre at Over the Top Fest is no less of a substitute); Actor, the new one by St. Vincent (even better than the last). My ukulele wants to learn a song or two.

So I'll go do that. See you soon.

Canadian Music Binge

I am so CMW-ed out! Ten artists in three days (sixteen including those that were not a part of Canadian Music Fest) and fifteen hours of combined sleep. It was my first festival experience (don't even ask why I've never done CMW or NXNE before) and I'm happy to have made it alive.

I took this photo before I decided to me quasi-rude and start using flash, so I apologize for the blurriness. I'd heard of the $100 fame before, but it was my first time seeing the band, and Simone Fornow's voice is seriously something else. Listening to their myspace now, I have to say it was quite different in person, but in a good way. There's something rural about this band, rolled together with hardness. And I love steel guitars. It was such a good way to start the three days.

I should mention that I'd never seen the Horseshoe Tavern like this before. It's definitely one of my favourite venues, but it was packed, I felt like I was a croissant baking into golden perfection in the oven. Women, ironically made up of five dudes, was of a genre that I haven't yet familiarized myself with, so I reserve all judgement. I have a good gut feeling about them, though.

I love Reg Vermue! I think everyone in Toronto has a secret soft spot for Gentleman Reg that gets revealed once you see him perform. The sweet banter and constant good humour, backed by the danceable indie pop lines and his endearing voice, is enough to make him one of my favourite acts to see live (my fourth time and counting). Watch my video from the night of The Boyfriend Song.

CHAD VANGAALEN!!! If you remember this post I had named his 2008 album Soft Airplane as my favourite of the year. That opinion hasn't changed much, and seeing him live only encouraged my sentiment. I have this belief that the reverb/delay pedal was pretty much invented for his voice (I'm not a master of pedals, so don't quote me on what that pedal's called). He opened with Willow Tree (click for my video. A rhetorical question to the MFers who are talking through the first twenty-five seconds of the song about being rude: Irony?). When I listen to him I feel like I'm listening to every sound on the planet. Not sure where that feeling comes from, but it sure is amazing. I just learned yesterday that I'll have missed him by 2 days when I get to France in 12 weeks (!) and had a mini-heartbreak.

If there is one band in Toronto that I feel like I'm watching grow, it's Hooded Fang. My friend Sharmin (who has been my common-law wife for the CMW period, and has very good reviews on her blog as well) and I speculate that their name probably comes from Jacob Two-Two, just as I imagine these magical boys and girls of the indie-pop band would. They are exactly what to call indie-pop, and I love it. I saw one of their very first shows, and now they are polished--nothing complex, nothing too serious, just the things that they do so well, catchy lines and fun harmonies. Watch for yourself here.

These guys from Iceland gave us some good options for leaving the venue safely and arriving sound in our homes: Learn to say their band name, or buy an EP. I learned to say their Icelandic name from Snorri Helgason, the lead singer himself, how to say their name, and safely left the place (I thank him for his humble kindness that remained even after he found out that I wasn't playing the following band). They call themselves "Icelandic indie pop for the masses", and that's pretty much bang-on. It was hard not to pick up their energy and throw it around the room myself.

As a lover of indie music, I want to have nothing bad to say about indie bands. Unfortunately, I have nothing good to say about these guys. There is a fine line between showmanship and self-indulgence, and that line was crossed every which way.

Black Hat Brigade, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Definitely one of my favourites from the festival. I have a lot to thank them for, seeing as they are the band that prompted me to go out, look for and support indie music, back sometime now. They are so solid from any angle, carry the best energy and know how to hook you. Their new EP is coming out in May, titled "Fathers", look out for it.

They've already featured this video on their myspace, but they're so damn good I'm going to embed it right in here.

I'm dedicating this to Bryan, who fills up my Facebook inbox to keep the fans up-to-date.

I actually only caught one song by Herman Dune (his myspace sounds great), but this picture pretty much sums up the crowd at any CMW Showcase. Thanks for showing up.

I'm in love with this girl. She is as adorable as one can be, but with one of the biggest voices in Canadian music today. She's got those love songs and prayer songs, ukuleles and autoharps, and with the lacquer of violas and drums it's just got a permanent place in my heart. Watch Before I Knew here.

There, I'm done. Thanks for reading!

Sea of food

I started editing my Montréal photos and had to share these before anything else. First, um, the Best Brunch EVER. Capital Bs, and all-caps EVER.

Amuse-bouche sweet bread, fresh field greens salad, butter croissant with ham and chèvre cheese, salmon cake, "scrambled" egg, fruits, fresh-squeezed orange juice (included in your price!).

My sister's brunch: Sausage, ham, scrambled egg, baked beans, bacon, potatoes, French bread and fruits. And she ordered Mimosa. It was like, the best mimosa in the world. If you ever find yourself in Montréal, go down to Le Cartet at 106 Rue McGill down in Old Port Montréal on a weekend and treat yourself. I'm still dreaming about the day I'll get to go back to this brunch.


Chestnut purée crêpe with fresh whipped cream, companion to...


Buckwheat crêpe with chèvre cheese, chicken and spinach, at my favourite restaurant in the city, Juliette et Chocolat at St-Denis and Sherbrooke.


Yes, my friends, this is a menu for JUST poutines, at La Banquise at 994 Rue Rachel Est, up in the Plateau. Their "large" poutine is actually big enough to put your face in the bowl.


Some hilarious Québecois beer with a guy in distress on the label that my sister had at La Banquise. It was like, spiced with coriander, pretty weird and strangely good.


My Poutine B.O.M!!! Bacon, sautéed onions and some sausages that started with an M but I forgot what that stood for. Check out that grease.

I just got super hungry.

I miss...

...looking down.

Taken about two years ago today with my dad's film SLR, at my old apartment. I lived on the ninth floor then, and cursed having to take the elevator into the basement to do laundry. My unit was the at the end of the long hallway, and I was deathly afraid of the walk from the elevator to my door in the empty corridor, for some reason. Now I live in a basement and miss the sunlight like nothing else, but the laundry is right outside my door and I can leave it open while I load the washer, so I can still hear my music and not be scared like I used to be.

Irony?

Sincerely yours

Are you there, God? It's us, the waterlogged, frostbitten, vitamin D-deprived survivors of the worst goddamn (oops, sorry), the worst year of weather since you made Noah build an ark. A foot of snow in March (out like a lamb, my arse); not one but two freaking hailstorms in June; 193 record-breaking millimeters of rain in July. Plus a summer that started in, like, mid-August and ended before we could even contemplate the humiliations of bathing suit season. When it rains, it really pours with you, doesn't it? And don't give us the old "Every cloud has a silver lining" line. What we want to know is why. Was this your idea of global warming humour? Or are we being punished for our sins (our affinity for swingers' clubs, So You Think You Can Dance Canada, Rob Ford)? Whatever we did to frost your cookies so supremely, we feel we've suffered enough. Are we cool now (in the non-climactic sense)? Because we need another year like this like we need two freaking hailstorms in June.

Yours truly,
Toronto

(stolen from the Toronto Life magazine, sorely tempted by yet another snowfall/freezing rain happening outside at this very moment)

(foggy Yonge Street, taken some time in early 2008)