Rocky Horror Picture Show (Halloween Style)

So yesterday (yeah, yesterday was a busy day), I made my way at 11pm to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, at the Plaza in Kensington. This was a special Halloween showing, so instead of the usual burlesque show (a very PG-13 burlesque show) at the beginning there were costume contests! That means all of the Frank, Rocky, Riff-Raff, Magenta, Columbia, Eddy, Dr. Scott, Criminologist would come to the stage in pairs (ex. Frank, Rocky) and they would pick the best three out of all of them, and judge the winner on the amount of cheers. I was Columbia-in-pyjamas, a.k.a Mickey (or Minnie in my case) Mouse Columbia, a.k.a Columbia and Magenta in the bedroom Columbia. So I thought it would be okay if I came up with all the Columbias and Eddies. There were only three Eddies and three Columbias there, so they went straight to the cheering contest. When it was our turn, I was up against blue jacket Columbia (who had previously came up thinking she was Magenta) and green face Columbia (why did she paint her face green?). And yay! Minnie Mouse Columbia got the most cheers! I was probably the youngest winner of costume prizes, but oh well. So, because I won the best Columbia, I got a fabulous prize like everyone else. Most of them were gifts from the sponsers, some stores in Kensington that have makeup, clothes etc. I got a fake, pink, but very realistic looking severed hand. And a cool Halloween poster. Yay.

After, the show was the same as usual, with the fun and vulgar backlines, and rice raining down on all of us. I got pelted with rice, hit with toast, I had toilet paper to the head and a card landed in my lap, etc., etc. And I did the time warp on stage twice. Great fun as always and this time I wasn't a virgin (hope anyone didn't interpret that as something else).

Pictures

Here are some pictures from the Career Show, of George Stroumboulopoulos' presentation.

George and I, after the presentation.

Strombo, during the presentation.

Strombo in Calgary!

So today, as many of y'all know, I was at the Calgary Career Fair explaining to people how to become a roughneck etc...

But that's not it!
There's a twist!
Our friend George Stroumboulopoulos was giving a speech on this very day! At that very career fair. Now, I've seen George a couple times before, it's always a pleasure to hear him speak, and say hi. I was at the Career Fair around 10:30, to help my parents. I hung around, tried to help some people, checked out my camera, realized it had no batteries. No batteries! And there wasn't a AA in the entire place. So we took the c-train downtown, where there's plenty of convenience stores. East downtown Calgary is unfortunatly a place where a lot of poverty occurs, and unfortunatly somewhere far away from a reflection on the rearview mirror of an expensive Corvette belonging to someone very wealthy. This economic inequality disturbs me, especially since a lot of people aren't aware situations like this are going on. Maybe it's hypocritical, but I'm certainly not a bazillionare and I do care and I want people to care. Calgary is a very polarized city right now, what's happening to the happy middle?

So I got my batteries, and we headed back on the c-train (though we caught the wrong train so we had to go back downtown). When we were finally back at the show, I was able to catch the entire career-fashion show thing... not my type of affair, but I got excellent seats for George. So George comes on, being friendly with everyone etc., etc... And he does his talky thing about himself, which is always interesting to me. Then people asked the questions. I've seen him speak 3 times (including the Hour), and this time was the one that I could really relate to (maybe because it was a career show, and people asked questions about kids). He was funny too, and it was interesting to hear his opinions on the media around the world, especially from an insider. Kinda like a show George said he watched... Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Kay, never watched it. Partly cause I had a bad experience with Matthew Perry, hey I'll tell you about that one time. One thing unique to hearing George speak, is that you get his true opinions, which makes listening to him very real, it also seems like he's really comfortable talking to us, but he's not bullshiting anyone or wanting to impress anyone. I asked if George, Jian and Rick hang out, have bridge nights on Wednesdays etc... I always have very random questions for people. Soon the presentations were over, and people were lined up.

I'm a pretty outgoing person, I enjoy talking to people and I like hearing from people. But I really appreciate how George spent all the time after the show, talking to each person who wanted to be talked to, letting him know that he cared. For a kid like me, (and I know there were others out there) it's so cool to get a chance to have a discussion with someone you look up to, and someone so down to earth. I chatted with George for a bit, introduced him to my twin, got a picture, got him to sign my postcard. Like I've said before blahblahblah, he was nice, real, friendly, etc., etc..

I let him know that my parents had a booth at the career show, and after he dropped by to say hi to us, which was really nice. George met my mum, and talked to us a bit, I told him I was really happy that he mentioned Martha Wainwright when he was talking about Canadian music, and we chatted about Wainwrights and the Leonard Cohen movie. I think my mum was trying to recruit him to talk about rig technicians on the Hour, heehee. I told him about my dad (who wasn't there right then), and how he was the one who inspired me to love music. Then my dad comes up and shakes his and and asks him if he wanted to be a roughneck. I'm not sure George was to keen on being a roughneck, but we talked more about music and politics (two things that interest both me and my dad). George looked at my iPod, I was listening to "Eli the Barrow Boy" (yay, Decemberists!) and checked out my bling case. Yah, it's a bling case. I talked a bit about the blogs, and asked if he reads them or not, etc. It was cool to talk to him, especially cause my whole family got a chance to meet him.

The thing about George, is that after a while it just felt like I was talking to a person who interested me, someone who had views on things that engaged me. Which is exactly who George is. I forgot that he really was someone in the public eye, until he said something like "yeah, that Beck interview was the best I've had with him". George is great at interacting with the people. It's probably the most important thing for someone in the media today to do.

ps. Rocky Horror tonight! I'm digging all of my Rocky Horror stuff out of the bag I got at the "Time Warp, Music Store and More" in Moose Jaw. To bad it shut down on my way back from Ontario. And... yet again, I'm Columbia-in-pyjamas.

Career Fair

Yesterday I took the c-train to the Calgary Career Fair, where my mum was managing a booth. It's at the Round-up centre so I didn't have to walk far at all, this also means it's a huugee deal. There are a multitude of different booths, some with candy, some with popcorn. We had starburst and skittles. By the time I had arrived at 4:30pm my mum had been there since 10, with hardly a break. So I let her walk a round while I managed the booth. I wasn't the best at explaining people the trade. But that's okay.

Today I'm leaving soon for the Career Fair, to help my mum out again. But this time, there is a treat. At 1:00, there will be a presentation by George Stroumboulopoulos. I've seen him 2 times before, and I'm excited to catch him. If anybody else is coming round, let me know and maybe I can say hi.

I hate technology.

My grade 4 teacher used to say that alll the time, when we went into the little computer lab in the library and the kids couldn't work "Kidz Pix" or the computers didn't start up. My grade 4 self always wondered why she bothered with computers if she hated them that much. Did she really need them? So now that my 14 year old self has an iPod, lots of homework, blogs, etc... I can kinda understand why she bothered with something she hated so much. I hate computers. Especially mine. Don't get toshiba laptops. They are evil. First, my computer start short-circuiting or something, and zapping itself into shutdown. Then the button broke. Then the fan broke, so it overheats all the time. Usually when I'm uploading music. Like the new Decemberists cd. That my dad and I roamed this fair city (not really, we went to Megatunes) to get. And my new Beck cd. But I kinda figure that I've already had my fun with the Beck cd, because I spent about an hour putting those cute stickers on it, it looks very nice. Anyways. I've started up my computer about 10 times, and I'm only finished with "O Valencia!".

Somebody up there must really dislike me.

Hair!

Here's my unnaturally red hair. And also... a sneak peak of the room.

You notice the red walls at the bottom of the door, and my red record player.

More coming soon...

In French Class (Nikki Is Rad)

I'm typing this in french class, I probably should be shutting my computer down soon, or taking notes in french on soccer...

Today's been pretty good. I got a new hair dryer, as opposed to my mum's 30year old one. My hair is showing significant improvement. I also finished presenting my monologue in Performing Arts, from the beginning of a book called "A Complicated Kindness". I don't like how people refuse to give you a comment that doesn't have something negative in it. It always needs to include something negative. I swear, I didn't hear one purely positive comment from anyone's monologue. People said I was grumbly, and strung my sentences together too much. And that there wasn't enough action. Well. Next time I'll try to include more action into a monologue where the person is explaining how they feel, and no, not about fighter jets or ninjas. And my performing arts teacher doesn't really understand 14yearolds yet. Our previous teacher, who was great, is on maternity leave so we get someone who hasn't taught drama to kids older than 7... no offense. And he doesn't really know how to discipline us either. You know, those teachers who are really strict but never seem to have a handle on class? Why, you ask me? Probably because they've treated the students with no respect, and they don't get any respect back. Oh well, I hope he'll learn, as most new teachers do.

PS. The most cool girl in my French class told me to write that as a title. =)
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(This wasn't written in French class)
I just dyed my hair, reaally red. So red it looks unnatural. Although, it doesn't look bad, because it isn't faded or inconsistent. It'll be fun for a couple weeks before it fades to orange. I promise (kinda promise), to post pictures of the new hair, and perhaps even my room, if blogger would be cooperative. I still haven't completly got the finishing touches on the room though...

And, I'm swamped by Humanities homework. We're supposed to make a web that defines a Utopia, with a number of different ideas... sounds easy enough. Unfortunatly, I can't get a grasp on it, and I've been procrastinating until today (it's due tomorrow). Hopefully I can get some creative inspiration, if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear 'em (Okay... so I probably shouldn't be using my blog for homework purposes, that would make it horribly boring). Then there's the math... I hate geometry. I know the ideas, but somehow I always make one simple mistake, or round my way into a wrong answer. Enough of school, it's so boring.

I hope everyone is having a nice Tuesday. Not my favourite day of the week, but it has to happen some time.

Utopia = No long term Humanities assignments

So we have a huge longterm assignment in Humanities about Utopias. I swear we spend half a year on the damn things, which I don't think could even exist. I don't think that studying Utopias is a bad thing, there are lots of great books you can read, lots of interesting theories. But for the whole month, till December! Arrr. So we had an hour long discussion in class about Utopias. I think I contribute too much... We had to choose from a society built on control of peoples choice, or complete freedom to make your own choices. I chose the freedom, most people did. It's interesting how all the people in our class prefer anarchy over totalitarianism. I don't think that either could work without becoming a dystopia. Utopias, pah. I like our world, it's interesting. What would your perfect world be? Or are you happy now? Do you think finishing a whole bunch related of webs and essays over 9 weeks is fun? That's one thing I'm certainly not certain about.

And in other news (probably not Utopia related), Season 3 of the Hour. Watched it on the main network at 11. Different set, a little shinier, scribbly black-and-white format (looks pretty cool), same George (I'm pretty sure). It was entertaining as always. Interesting guests, some Belinda (she sounded more articulate than I thought, sorry Belinda), umm that guy who directs Monty Python and weird crime scene guy who talks about getting saved from wolf-death. My mum had to look away during the crime scene thing. Me, I love bloody intestines and rotting corpses. Just kidding! Speaking of the Hour, I would like to make a comment about the website. I really like the writing of the person who writes on the pictures. It is rad. I hope it's not a font, I'd like to meet the person who does it. I wish I could write like that, on a computer. Good for you, writing-manorwoman!

That's some cool writing.

This Is Belinda Stronach Doing An Interview.

Now tonight I will watch Rick Mercer dive naked into chilly lakes with a Liberal Leadership hopeful.

I swear Pete Townshend smiled at me

Like 5 times!!
Well, I thought he did, but I'm sure everyone else in the first 5 rows did too. Seriously though, he was 30 feet away from me. That's the distance from me to... the staircase or something. We were in fourth row, far right. In Pete's corner of the stage. I've never been that close to a musician, in my life. The whole annoying Saddledome thing was lost to us. Nobody was frisking, we walked straight in. It didn't even smell that bad. I got in before everyone else in our group and went to check the seats. I couldn't believe it, after the floor I just kept walking and walking... until I hit the fourth row. All my other 'dome dates I have been about a bazillion times farther than I was now. So everyone got seated, and the first band played their set. They were called Inward Eye, from Winnipeg, I liked them. You could tell they really wanted to put on a good show, for the sake of opening with the Who. At intermission I went up to get myself some merchandise. I never buy into merchandise, ever, the lines are horribly long, the people don't understand you, the "womens" shirts barely have sleeves and the mens shirt are huge. Did I mention it's usually unreasonably expensive? But, we figured we'd do it this time, they had some nice shirts and I was really excited. I went up and managed to scrounge a medium men's ringer t-shirt. So it was kinda big. Oh well, it's a nice looking shirt and it'll remind me of this concert. As soon as my shirt was bought, the Who decided it would be right to start playing. So I kinda ran back down to the floor. When I got to my seat I realized that I was staring at Pete Townshend, and he was pretty damn close. Okay. So he wasn't like the Pete Townshend of his youth, but he is a living legend. Pete seemed to be the more talkative of the two, recalling the gigs in Calgary of the sixties, before getting into another one of the songs. They played 12 new songs, a lot. Something that wasn't particularly great for me, but I don't blame them for wanting something new after ages of the same stuff. I could see Roger Daltrey, a bit farther down the stage, but I was closest to Pete, watching him still rock at guitar through a couple of chubby drunk guys.

Best old song: My Generation (Okay, so the "I hope I die before I get old" is a bit hypocritical, but they didn't sound that old to me) and Won't Get Fooled Again (A lot of Roger Daltrey screaming, great guitar and peace signs) were great, but in the end, the best for me was "Baba O' Riley". That keyboard intro, and anticipation of the Daltrey's first loud vocals, plus when Pete steps up to the mic with "Don't cry, don't raise your eye, it's only teeenage wastelaand", did it for me.

Best new song: I wasn't crazy about all the new songs, but the one that stood out most for me was "Man In A Purple Dress". I'm assuming this one was about the pope.

Best old person moment: When Roger tells the annoying pot smokers around us, that he'd love to smoke with them, but he's allergic to pot. So please get stoned outside and then come back in. The guys behind us smoking pot yelled something like "HEY I'LL HAVE A SMOKE WITH YA" or something moronic like that, but put the weed away.

Best not old person moment: Pete and Rogers still kinda rebellious antics. Pete does his windmill thing, quite a bit and jumps up and down. Roger swings the mic. Pete chucks his guitar in the corner when it displeases him. He didn't smash it, but chucking was good enough.

Coolest audience appreciation: Before the encore, we start to hear a low murmer of "Who, who, who, who" in the stands, until it gets louder and louder. It was a really weird noise. I also really liked looking up at the stands during "Behind Blue Eyes" and seeing all the pretty lighters, that looked like stars.

Cutest Daltrey and Townshend moment: When they hugged an old man hug at the end. Pete with his acoustic guitar, and Daltrey with a cup of tea. Awwww.

Favourite band member: Ringo's look-alike moppy haired son, Zak Starkey proved himself a Who-worthy replacement for Keith Moon. Bassist Pino Paladino was great, he looks like my English teacher.

Song everyone in our group wish they'd played: Substitute was on my mum's mind, maybe cause we were listening to it in the car on the way there. But I love the lyrics "I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth". I also missed Kids Are Alright.

Best time when I thought Pete was smiling at me: There was one time he was playing the guitar and singing, and I swear he looked directly at me so I smiled at him, and he was smiling too. Okay, so maybe he wasn't smiling back. But still! Who couldn't resist to smile at a scruffy-haired fourteen year old with a black London Calling t-shirt. I'm pretty sure he smiled at me some other times too... and once I gave him a thumbs-up, after he said something, and I'm sure he smiled at me then. =).

Overall: Even if they're old, they still put on a great show. It was awesome seeing them so close, and this was a fun experience.

New Who

I say "New Who", because of the lack of similarity two mild-mannered fella's in their 60's have with the loudest pop band in the world. Datedness aside, I'm still really looking forward to having a fourth row glimpse at the Two Who's. Saddledomeness aside, I'm betting on a fun time. I've never been closer to the stage than like... a step below the nosebleeds and I'm hoping the experience will be different. Maybe more old people and less pot-smoking beer-drinking mid-20's guys. Oh I hope.

Wish me luck.

I'm pretty convinced

My mum brought me this photocopied section of the Calgary "Career Show" brochure home. This is enough to pretty much convince me Strombo will be at the show. It's very odd that they didn't put this on their website...

Anyways. I haven't posted in a while, sorry. I have no excuses. Yesterday my mum and I went to the film fest (with the tickets she won off CBC). Volver was sold out, so we went to a comedy/shorts thing, which was pretty funny.