Random ramblings

Summer is here and mother nature finally decided to catch up with the calendar bringing a heat wave this week.

It would have been nice if my air conditioning at home was fixed before that happened.

I went so see No Doubt and Paramore at the ACC last week and it was awesome. I bow down to Ms. Stefani's abs and stamina. And was impressed that she actually sang live for the entire show (I'm looking at you Madonna). Paramore became one of my favourite bands last year and got a visibility boost by being included in the Twilight sountrack (as with everything involved in that franchise) and were great live, especially when you consider what babies they still all are.

Lainey's annual Smut Soiree was this week and while still enjoyable, the lack of air conditioning, lousy sound set up and continued talking of other folks over the panel's discussion led to a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully the swag bag delivered. And warm gooey cookies with shot glasses of milk are a fantastic idea.

Alan Sepinwall (great TV reviews/recaps) started doing a rewind a few weeks ago and recapping episodes of my beloved Sports Night which lead to me rewatching the entire first season in a flurry. So it's entirely his fault that I've now found myself sucked in to a Sorkinthon and have begun watching The West Wing from the beginning. I forgot how much I adored that show and couldn't wait until Wednesday evenings when it aired. And it's filling the gap as the summer show pickings are slim.

Though True Blood is back and I'm thoroughly enjoying the second season, even as I can't help comparing little details to what happened in the books. Speaking of which, the latest is on it's way to my library for me to pick up according to the Toronto Public Library website...yay.

It's my birthday on Monday and I'm having a bit of a hard time believing I'm turning 33. I moved to the city 10 freaking years ago...where the heck did the time go? On the plus side, I got asked for my ID when buying beer a few weeks ago so at least there's that.

I had one of those sort of perfect quiet moments this weekend when I was at the cottage. Nothing major, just standing on the deck at dusk looking out at the water. My parents and grandparents were inside having cocktails and getting ready for dinner and my dad was about to light the BBQ. And I'm generally not one for a lot of introspection but in that instant as I just stood there I realized how genuinely lucky I am. So thank you to all the people in my life who make me feel that way.

Hey there...what up?

So I've clearly managed to be very lazy and haven't posted anything in a while (for the 4 of you reading :-) ) Here's what's been going on in my life for the past few months...

- I have a nephew. He's adorable. And my brother and sister-in-law seem to be adjusting to the parenting thing pretty well. It was a fun Christmas with the family with a new little one around. I've made the trip back home more in the past three months than I have in the last couple of years it seems to see him.

- Speaking of babies, I have 5 friends who have either just had or are about to have a baby in the next few months. Good thing I love to play Auntie.

- I had a great vacation on the 'Ships & Dip' cruise for the third year seeing fantastic music and great all around entertainment. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as accomodating but at least there were a lot of great distractions. This year's "find" is Butterfly Boucher, an artist from Australia...you should totally check her out.

- I'm thinking i need to go on another vacation soon.

- I can't believe it's already March.

- I am really, really enjoying the third season of Friday Night Lights (why aren't more people watching this show??). I want a man like Coach Taylor.

- Am also enjoying the ride on 'Lost'. Please, please J.J. don't disappoint me with the wrap up. If you do, I'm going to hear "I told you so" from a few naysayers who insist you're making it up as you go along.

- I fall a little more in love with Jon Stewart every week.

- I'm looking forward to seeing Spring Awakening on it's pass through Toronto. Saw it on Broadway a few years ago and loved it. It remains to be seen whether I'll get there more than once while it's in town.

The Killers....well...killed

I've been to a number of concerts in the past few months and they've all been pretty great. But The Killers at Massey Hall on Tuesday were absolutely fantastic.

First of all, Massey Hall is one of my favourite venues to see a concert. It's relatively small (capacity is under 3000) and feels intimate, the acoustics are great and I just love walking into the old building. Mind you, I've been fortunate to have floor seats for most of my events which undoubtably improves on the experience. The wooden gallery seats offer little in the way of comfort or leg room and practically require hiring a sherpa to make the climb up the stairs...though still offer a better concert experience than the 300 level at the ACC or other large venue.

Now, the only thing that Massey Hall doesn't have going for it is that the crowds are often on the "polite" side. I have spent pretty much entire concerts sitting in my seat (which I decided to stick to after an unfortunate incident involving gum being thrown in my hair for having the audacity to actually be on my feet at a concert). That was not an issue on Tuesday. About 95% of the crowd were on their feet from the moment the band took the stage until the final bow.

The Killers new album (Day & Age) hits the shelves next week and world tour kicks off in the new year. In preparation for the tour, the band has played a number of smaller venues in a few major cities around the world, likely to work out the kinks performing the new material. From where I was standing, I really didn't see any. And I had a pretty good vantage point. Fourth row tickets on the aisle became 2nd row centre about 2/3 of the way through the concert when security detail managed to efficiently and quietly shuffle people around to fill in the area in front of the stage. The show itself was paced well combining the new material with better known hits (and they really have more of them than I had catalogued in my mind before the show) and Flowers is an endearingly dorky rock star with an impressive live voice.

They're back in Toronto to play the ACC in January and I'd recommend going if you were on the fence. As for me? As tempted as I am to see them again, I know that there's no way I'm going to top this experience so I'm better off with my memories....and all the vidoes on YouTube...

Vacation(s) aftermath

So now what?? I've travelled from sea to ski in the past two weeks and now it's back to the real world with seemingly nothing else to look forward to.

Ah, but let's relive the memories shall we??

Ships & Dip III was truly fantastically fun. We arrived in Miami at about 1:00am on Saturday and checked into our airport motel (just couldn't justify spending the money to stay on the beach when we were heading out on a cruise). And while we had some thoughts of heading to the beach or doing some shopping on Saturday we ended up spending the day having cocktails around the pool and enjoying the sun. Am almost (almost) embarrassed to admit we ate both lunch and dinner in the hotel bar. But sticking around proved to be the first of many good decisions on the trip as we connected with Fin to get the shuttle schedule for the morning, got to say hello to Alan and Sean (of GBS) as they arrived and promptly copied our mojito order and reconnected with a bunch of people we had met on last year's cruise over appetizer dinners in the lounge.

Sunday's boarding was quick and uneventful. After strolling the ship and trying to get our bearings (trust me, this was much more difficult than it sounds, I ended up as the group navigator for the week and managed to get us pointed in the wrong direction only a couple of times) we got ourselves a beer and waited for our luggage to arrive. See, when you go on a cruise you tag your luggage and have to leave it with the porters as you arrive and then wait for it to be delivered to your cabin. It's like checking in at the aiport with the added anxiety of getting stuck on a ship with nothing to wear for the duration of your stay if your luggage goes astray. My little suitcase was there within about an hour and I was able to unpack and get organized pretty quickly. Mom's got dropped off sometime during the sail away concert so she could finally relax ;-). The mandatory muster drill (punchline: where's the ketchup) brings up thoughts of Titanic as you report to your station with your life jacket and hear about what would happen in the event of an actual on board emergency. And then we were off! 5 days of music and partying on the ocean.

I'm not sure I will never be able to enjoy a 'standard' cruise after the party that Sixthman puts on. In 5 days I think we saw 20 concerts and about 5 comedy sets, with full days in Grand Cayman and Jamaica in the middle there somewhere. I knew that the BNL and Great Big Sea shows would be great (and they were!) but all of the artists put on a great show. I enjoyed the smaller, more intimate sets by Jason Collett, Brian MacMillan, Joe Pisapia, Lori Cullen and Jason Plumb. And after missing them last year, I got to a Guster and Thinbuckle show. Mostly, it was just really cool to see really talented people jump up on stage and perform with each other spontaneously.

So to share a bit of the cruise, here are my two new fav GBS songs

Walk on the Moon...Thurs night Lido deck



Straight to Hell...Songwriters panel


And my other "new" find on the cruise was Boothby Graffoe who I managed to catch 1 1/2 times while on the boat. Funny, funny, comedian/singer/songwriter from the UK...and I'm not just saying that because we shared a seat on the shuttle back to the airport in Miami and I felt like I got my own personal 30 minute set ;-)



I've got to say, there's no way the John Mayercraft Carrier (which was getting ready to take off on the same boat on the day we got back) could have been half as much fun.

Mom and I also managed to make our way off the boat for a very fun excursion in Grand Cayman. We got to SeaDoo 4 miles out into the ocean to Stingray City, where we fed and held giant stingrays. Having never driven a personal watercraft on the ocean I was a bit unsure what to expect, only that it would likely be much different than taking off on our mostly calm lake. I think I got the hang of it after a while and developed a technique where I tried to ride through the waves like ski moguls but I also felt like I got a complimentary sea salt facial with the ride. The next day we spent a day on a beach in Jamaica drinking Red Stripe beer. And somewhere in all of that we managed to catch a few hours of sleep ;-).

We flew back into Toronto in the midst of a snowstorm, which was a reality slap in the face. Thankfully managed to get in with only a couple of hours delay. I feel like I'm tempting fate by even saying this but I've had nothing but good airline experiences recently.

And then I spent a whole 5 days back in the real world before heading out west for the weekend with some friends for what was supposed to be a ski outing. Not for me, of course, cause I may be the most inept person on the planet on a ski hill. My plan was to join them at Lake Louise, do some skating or just walking in the morning and spend the afternoon at the spa. Well, the best laid plans and all that...

Calgary/Canmore/Banff was cold this weekend. Seriously freeze your eyeballs cold.

Here's what Lake Louise can look like in the winter




Here's what it looked like when we were there

Not quite what we had planned :-). But we had a fun long weekend of relaxing, eating good food and drinking great wine. And at least managed to take the road trip to see Banff and Lake Louise...though I'll clearly have to go back and see it at it's best.

And that's what I've been up to for the last few weeks!