Merits

Congrats to Dan the Man for taking home the Verge Award!

See you October 16th!

What a line-up for the award show, I wish I could've went--but my dear momma has dropped in from Vancouver for a surprise visit and we spent a nice night in, catching mice and whatnot (sad). Also, despite the general speculation among friends for Chad VanGaalen to win the Polaris Music Award, it went to Fucked Up, and I'm by no means disappointed. I hear the gala was a hoot. MuchMusic is televising it on Saturday (lol wut?) so I guess I'm staying in on Saturday night too...

Now back to regular scheduled programming, ie. employment law and Shakespeare readings.

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.

6 days to go

I saw my 33rd apartment today. Between July 23rd and August 25th, I saw 33 apartments and called over 50 places. I still don't have a place for September. FAIL.

Not all of them are horrible dumps where the landlord is looking to bully yet another student tenant, but fuck, it makes me feel like an octopus on a rock that must choose between staying ashore or going into the water. I want to do neither. Life of an octopus is rather a hard one, it seems. Oh, and dear landlords of Toronto, please stop rejecting me because I'm a student. If I was black or disabled or purple or had an extra finger, would you reject me for that? If you answered yes, plz throw yourselves into a pit of fire.

Where are my parents when I need them? I'd move back into my old room in a second. Oh right, they moved to Vancouver. I guess I'll be seeing you, West Coast.

(ETA: after all this effort, the slightest bit of hope remains that I will, indeed, find a place that I love before the time comes for me to pitch a tent in a bush.)

Musique en plus

Found this on my computer today:

And there's my talking voice.