halloween with bright eyes.

So Bright Eyes happened to hit town on the 31st, which made me anticipate perhaps a more festive performance than their visit last year.
The opener was a fellow Nebraskan, Simon Joiner. Him and his band (the same band that backs up Conor Oberst) played more of a folk/country set, but I still really enjoyed them. We were fortunate enough to be right in front of the mike in the second row, this really enhanced the experience. To add some Halloween factor, there was a couple jack-o-lanterns and a blow-up ghost placed on the stage. Conor joined Simon for a couple songs on keyboard, and Simon played a couple solo songs. During the intermission, some of the roadies threw out candy, supporting the "Halloween theme". Didn't manage to get any, can't say I really would've cared for a Reese's Piece at that time.

So Bright Eyes came out wearing orange t-shirts, with black sharpie drawings (ghost, fish, pumpkin, snake) I understand they were supposed to be Jack-o-Lanterns. I thought it was a valid effort at festivity, I appreciated it. They launched into "At The Bottom Of Everything" from I'm Wide Awake It's Morning which is the song I listen to when I'm on a plane that's taking off. Oberst was a good deal more exuberant than the last time I saw him, and his mood picked up as soon as he placed his wide-brimmed hat atop the blow-up ghost. There was a good deal of confrontation with the audience, but he used distortion on the mike (cause it's spooky) so you couldn't really here all of it. The audience confrontation included the tall guy throwing a pair of panties onstage, people (including me, oops I hit his guitar) throwing glowsticks onstage when he requested them, requests (Bowl of Oranges, No Lies Just Love) were pretty much ignored (he did respond when someone asked him to play a Christmas song), there was also the girl who told him that she loved him more than Holden Caulfield. In some ways, I can draw a comparison between Oberst and Caulfield. I'm not sure if this Calgary performance was better musically for Conor, but I was certain I could sense some charisma last night and it was much better standing closer to the stage. There was a long wait for an encore, but it was obvious they would open with a piano, and I wasn't surprised when the band broke into "Lover I Don't Have To Love". The end of the performance somewhat surprised me, although I could tell that that blow-up ghost and the jack-o-lanterns were asking for it. To the tune of a edgy rock and roll song, the keyboardist brought the ghost down, and Conor proceeded to slam it into the amp, the few jack-o-lanterns on the stage were smashed, and Conor opened a beer can on the floor, and stomped on it, hitting the first couple rows (including me). I was there for the music, but it was certainly interesting to observe.

so highlights and lowlights now.

+

• four winds
• poison oak
• when the brakeman turns my way
• at the bottom of everything
• the pedal steel guitar was pretty rad
• conor's voice was great
• I really enjoyed simon joiner, especially the last song they played
• the people in costume were interesting to observe (the joker, link from zelda)
• the jack-o-lantern shirts

-

• girls who talked during the show
• i always smell unpleasant-smelling weed during poison oak
• i would've been pleased to hear "first day of my life"
• mac hall ranges from really hot to really cold

Finally, the roadies handed out a couple set lists from the stage, and I managed to grab one. So here is what the list says:

1. AT THE BOTTOM
2. ANOTHER TRAVELLIN
3. FOUR WINDS
4. POISON OAK
5. CLASSIC CARS
6. YOU WILL
7. ARC OF TIME
8. METHOD ACTING
9. SPRING CLEANING
10. BRAKEMAN
11. HIT THE SWITCH
12. OLD SOUL SONG
13. SONG TO PASS TIME
-----------------------------
1.????????????????
2. WALLS
3. ROOSEVELT ROOM

final fantasy, basia bulat, oct 18. @ the warehouse.

So I figured I was too lazy to right a review of any sort. But I guess not!
I had been looking forward to this show for quite a while, after a great experience hearing Owen Pallett live at the folk fest this summer. I had his latest album and I liked a couple songs off it, so I was looking forward to seeing Final Fantasy live. After two workshops and two performances at the folk-fest, I (and others attending these events) were very impressed by Owen Pallett. His using of violin and looping was very effective and the songs he performed live were infectious, interesting and quite impressive.

So as my brother and I lined up (just before everyone started to arrive) at the doors of the Warehouse, we were definitely anticipating a good show. We managed to get pretty much front and centre, and were there when DJ Nifty (or Matt, formerly of Les Mouches) began his smaller set. His act was definitely interesting, his use of looping vocals and sounds to create his music was pretty ingenious. After Nifty, Basia Bulat (and a drummer, keyboardist, ukulele player and fiddle player) started their set. I really enjoyed their set, a fun indie/folk melange that kept the audience engaged, and clapping their hands.

Owen Pallett took the stage at around 9:30 (I wasn't particularly keeping track of time). An added bonus to the show, was the old school overhead project playing some amazing multicoloured slides to accompany the show. It was like the notes that we get in english class, but with less dissonance, caesuras, and more birthday candles! He seemed even more comfortable with the audience than the folk fest, which was just fine. It was a great set, so engaging I forgot I couldn't feel my toes through my suede pointy toed waay too flat boots and that the room was exceeding the temperature of the sauna at the Y (except bigger and with more cheerful indie-kids). At one point people began yelling out suggestions (Arctic Circle, etc.). I am not a suggest-yeller, but if I had more guts I probably would've pulled for Adventure.exe, if it's simple enough for me to play on guitar... hey! I also noticed Owen was wearing a Thunder Bay scarf, which made me glad to see some Northern Ontario representation. I won't give anymore detail, but I will make a list of some highlights and lowlights (in my opinion).

hi-lights

• The CN Tower Belongs To The Dead
• The colourful and just plain cool transparencies on the projector
• Basia Bulat's clapping songs.
• Basia Bulat's drummer brother, who was pretty cute.
• That many stringed instrument she played, that must be a bitch to tune.
• Owen Pallet and friends manning the merch table.
• Paris 1919 was amazing, eerie, fantastic.
• This Lamb Sells Condos and the switch from violin to piano
• Song Song Song!
• This Is The Dream of Win and Regine!
• Two Years To Win My Heart in the encore-ish thing.
• The audience seemed pretty cool in an un-pretentious way

lo-lights

• my brother and I didn't bring any money, so I couldn't buy any hard-to-find cd's
• I was kinda sad Owen didn't cover Fantasy or play Adventure.exe
• waiting outside the warehouse for a ride home in t-shirts in the cold.
• my brother didn't wear a cardigan.

i'm not dead.

Well, I haven't exactly posted in ages.
I am still alive, just to let everyone know.
It was a long and busy summer.
I dunno if I'm going to keep with up though. My first semester at school isn't exactly hard (English pre-AP, Film Studies, Gym, French) but I don't know if I have enough motivation to write anymore. I'll probably be getting a part time job, to learn some time management before my academic semester begins. I just don't really have anything interesting to write. I could probably find things, but I must admit, I'm a tad lazy.

I am, however, looking forward to some amazing concerts this fall. Seems like that's when all the good acts come around. I unfortunatly (really unfortunatly) am missing the Weakerthans at Mac Hall this October. But I will most likely be catching Final Fantasy, Bright Eyes and Stars as they come around.

folk festival (belated! I just got back from bc)

Well, I honestly can't believe it's over.

And all that I'm left with is some American Apparel clothing and an autographed shirt that says "Cleveland, you've got to be tough" on it. I guess I have a ton of memories too.

The festival gave me a chance to appreciate music and musicians (some musicians, that is) a lot more. The workshops that I went to this year were fantastic, it's amazing what can happen when so much talent comes together, no matter how different or the same. The volunteer experience was great, I worked with some very cool people. I gained a lot of insight from the job I was doing and the people who surrounded me. It was a great learning experience. I definitely have some highlights to go through.

the silly things I liked

-I loved being so busy all the time, walking around, trying to help
-the parties at the end where excellent people-watching occurred
-people-watching throughout the day, although the neo-bohemians are less abundant than at winnipeg
-getting great seats for everybody and everything
-the oddly therapeutic process of pricing cd's
-everyone's lackadaisical attitude
-seeing the audience change in seconds from one workshop to another (old folkies, to hipsters in tight jeans)

-I thought the volunteer shirts were cool
-adrienne young (from adrienne young & little sadie, I didn't get a chance to listen to them) giving us her jackets and short merchandise. so now I have nice new green american apparel shorts and a new brown american apparel jacket.

the real highlights

-enjoying something you wouldn't expect to like in the real world
-rufus wainwright never ceasing to amaze me in his lederhosen. being able to witness his sound check with a couple other people. I was kinda getting tired of him, but after his energetic and refreshing performance thursday night, I was full of rufus-love. we had the best seats in the house, in the front of the dance floor.
-hearing nathan play at lunch, it's hard not to fall in love with them. they're a pretty perfect folk fest band. I loved the idea of their workshop with tuvan throat singers and chumbawumba.
-jon rae and the river were amazing, I have heard them before, but they're incredible live. it's like a phenomenon!
-I saw all four of final fantasy's sets. owen pallett never failed to impress. I have no doubt that his performances made the black glasses-wearing-cool t-shirted-tight jeaned-indie-kids wonder if he actually did poo clouds. anyways I sat pretty-mezmerized in the front for his sets. it was not unlike tuvan throat-singing in that I couldn't fully comprehend how cool it sounded.
-I really like eleni mandell and the cape may, two-artists that I have heard of before, but not totally gotten into.

lowlights

-don mclean singing the chorus of american pie 93 times.

back.

hello everyone!

I am back from my not-so-brief bit o' laziness there.
Well, I suppose it wasn't all lazy. I finished up my ridiculously easy provincial exams, (as well as school) and I went to my cottage. I did cottage-y things like swim in the lake, fish for walleye, canoe, draw, paint, read. I actually did a fair bit of reading, I read about 7 Kurt Vonnegut books, and about 10 other books. On the long and annoying trip home, I read A Fine Balance, about the lives and experiences of four people living in India in the 70's. Poverty, death, violence, the brutality and oppression of the caste system. It was probably not the best book to read in two days, although it was well-written I found it a bit overwhelming. I dunno why there was a little "Oprah's Book Club" stamp on it, I thought Oprah recommended fabricated memoirs and lame-self help books. Anyways, it was a nice cottage vacation. I also managed to catch a day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, it was really a great experience.

Anyways, I'm back at home trying to get used to modern civilization and already very much used to long car trips. Tomorrow I'm heading to Nelson. So it goes.

And on Thursday the much anticipated event of the summer begins, the folk fest! I will try to give you updates on that.

hello!

So school is wrapping up, it's all very, very, busy. I'm getting very excited for summer, it's gotten to the time where I'm starting to really need a break. I'm not too worried about my exams, but I probably should study. Math 10 is going to be pretty difficult. I'm not worried at all about provincial exams, even if I cared I wouldn't worry about them that much.

There's a meeting tomorrow for my volunteer crew at the folk fest HQ, just to meet everyone, etc. It should be nice, I'm already very excited about this gig and perhaps seeing some artists I really like. Anyways, I'm going to take a break from blogging for now (like I already have, basically) and do some actually schoolwork minus the procrastination. Which I probably should be doing now. But, I will leave you guys with this, because I think it's as cute as a button:

calgary folk festival full line-up I am quite excited!!!!!

So I've snatched myself a gig as Record Tent-er at the Calgary folk fest this year. I am more than excited for that, but yesterday the full lineup was announced, and I'm about as excited as possible. There are some people on there that I've really wanted to see in concert, I really hope I'm able to catch them. Here is a list of artists I would love to catch:

-Rufus Wainwright, just released an album, has a few great albums in the past. I have had a major crush on this guy and his voice since I first heard him.
-Neko Case

-Final Fantasy

-Hawksley Workman

-The Sadies
-and much, much more including some that I don't know, but I'm very interested in hearing if I get a chance.

Now I totally need to do some Record Tent homework.

------

Speaking of the new Rufus Wainwright album, there is a song called "Tulsa" about Rufus meeting The Killers lead man, Brandon Flowers in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In the song he mentions both "a fat guy in a green t-shirt" and a "poor girl waiting in the rain to meet him". Oddly enough, both the fat guy in green and the poor girl turned up with picture of them and Rufus in Tulsa, Oklahoma on the Rufus Wainwright forum. The magic of the internet, I doubt they're disappointed about being immortalized in a Rufus Wainwright song.

fat guy in green t-shirt.

15 now

No, it doesn't feel any different to be fifteen, I kinda wish that you gained wisdom with each birthday, but I think not. I had a lovely party on Saturday with my friends and the next day I woke up at 6:00 (for some crazy reason, I always wake up 13 minutes before the minute of my birth, seems odd when I usually wake up at 8 on schooldays). It was also Mother's Day, I got my mum some soap and a watercolour I had painted. So for my birthday I got a new shirt, some new shoes and a pair of amazing sunglasses, as well as some money that will be going toward a bicycle. It was a nice day, I walked to Kensington twice, had indian food for supper and did not do any homework. I managed to find myself a nice twenty dollar pair of black jeans. So I have to wear a belt with them and they had to be sewed significantly tighter, but I appreciated the value. After this we watched old home videos, it's crazy to see how little and chubby and bald we were 14 years ago. My parents had a lot of video when we were 6 months to a year. A lot of it is pretty cute, but I guess after a while watching two 7 month old babies cry and jump and babble for a while it is a little tiresome. The family gathering are quite odd to watch, I'm never going to see some of the people there again, and everyone has changed so much. We also watched some video from when we were 6 or 7. There's this video where I'm pretending to be some kind of reporter, babbling about something I made up. It's taken by my brother, who sounds so completely different and he provides a bit of a commentary about my lack of sanity. I was a very odd child. Anyways, being 15 does sound a little different than 14, but it doesn't feel different. I was very appreciative of all the lovely facebook, etc. comments I got from my, that's an advantage of having one of those friend-networking sites.

And, fabulously, I have my iTunes back! In celebration here is something I intended to do a while ago.

Put your iTunes on shuffle.
Use the song title as the answer to the question
NO CHEATING

1. How does the world see me? "Shattered Faith" - Bad Religion
2. Will I have a happy life? "Ramshackle Day Parade" - Joe Strummer & the Mescalaros
3. What do my friends really think of me? "Rusholme Ruffians" - The Smiths
4. Do people secretly lust after me? "Girl" - Beck
5. How can I make myself happy? "Take It Easy (Love Nothing)" - Bright Eyes i'm not sure this is a great song to live by
6. What should I do with my life? "I Can't Be" - The Ramones
7. Will I ever have children? "Go Or Go Ahead" - Rufus Wainwright at least i have choice..
8. What is some good advice for me? "Break On Through" - The Doors not bad!
9. How will I be remembered? "My Generation" - The Who
10. What is my signature dancing song? "Weekend" - The Diodes
11. What do I think my current theme song is? "When The Day Is Short" - Martha Wainwright
12. What does everyone else think my current theme song is? "Still In Love Song" - The Shins
13. What song will play at my funeral? "Shine A Light" - Wolf Parade
14. What type of women/men do I like? "Too Much Too Young" - The Specials that doesn't sound great
15. What is my day going to be like? "First Day Day Of My Life" - Bright Eyes i love this one!
16. Will I ever have love again? "Hollywood Ending" - Sleater-Kinney nicee.
17. What type of sex life do I have? (Past Due) - The Weakerthans
18. What song would be the title of my own porno movie? "The Mariner's Revenge Song" - The Decemberists i can picture it now!

new template

I think that this calls for a new picture, what do you all think?

lazy, lazy

Hello, haven't posted in ages. Sorry about the negligence.

It rained today, I really love the rain. It was one of those soggy, crazy rains where the worms come out. I haven't seen worms in ages. I love those little guys, I know they're gross but they are so neat. It started in French class when I was looking out the window during some horrible french movie about horses. After this, I got in trouble for drawing when I was supposed to be watching the movie. It seems the only thing I can draw on the spot is a bunch of buildings on a horizon. I draw factories and then cities and cute little downtown neighbourhoods where I pick the apartment window I would live in. But I start with one building, like a little house or a huge factory building and then build some squares and rectangles around it. Then you give them detail and add detail to the picture. After that is basically just the smokestacks. These must be drawn with black pen or thin tip sharpie. The rain turned to snow in science, I think, but there is no windows and only one door in my science class so I can't tell for sure.

I've also been completely neglecting all of these new cd's I have. Modest Mouse, Bright Eyes, The Shins, Albert Hammond Jr., Kaiser Chiefs, Arcade Fire. But none of my media players are working all that well, so music-listening is down to a minimum. Anyways, I feel kind of sick. Probably a combination of staying up too late and waking up earlier than usual and an unpleasant experience at school yesterday. Did I mention that I hate violence? And most of all I hate when people buy into the stereotypes everyone creates for them.

And on a lighter note, I am excited for the new Rufus Wainwright album. The latest single sounds pretty good and I've heard good things about the album (which is out on May 15th I believe). Two days after my birthday, =(. By the way, all I want for my birthday is a pair of these (although not exactly these because they are pricey pricey), something that is able to allow me to put my own designs onto t-shirts and I am in need for a bicycle for transportation, maybe there's some cheap, cool, used ones out there.

violence.

When I heard about those shootings at Virginia Tech. after school today, I felt like I was going to throw up.

It makes me sick. It makes me sick how people can have access to firearms like this at all. I don't care about self-defence or revenge, this shouldn't happen and it seems to be getting worse and worse. It would be a bad decision to be paranoid about this, being a student in a high school. One of the teachers at our school covered all the windows in the doors of her classroom with newspaper, but I'd like to think that paranoia comes from mistrust and ignorance. I don't believe in living in fear for no reason. I'm not afraid but I am concerned. I'm concerned that violence is happening more and more often, that guns are becoming more and more acceptable.

It infuriates me even more when I hear people using this as an excuse to validate people carrying firearms for self-defence. This is not an arms race, if only these people had no access to weapons in the first place. People need to take something from this, certainly the Bush administration needs to extract something from it. Why are people becoming so isolated and depressed and violent that they are willing to take a gun and murder innocent people? As much as it's encouraging, I don't believe that praying will slow down a culture becoming more and more violent.

And when the president imagines God giving him advice, he must be imagining some crazy bullshit, because I know this is not the direction the United States should be going.

spring apparently has sprung

But in this city you never know...
Meanwhile, I've started jogging every day (haha yeah I'm not joking, I don't know how long this will keep up). I've been keeping it up for 6 days, which is somewhat impressive for me. The jog I do is only 5k, but it's relaxing. I figure after I stopped swimming and basketball I should make somewhat of an effort to get fit, and if I don't get exercise, I get pretty depressed.
Like on spring break!
Well the exercise I got on spring break was mainly walking around the +15's and anywhere else downtown. I spent a lot of time in Chinatown, art central, 17th, etc. And a lot of time on buses. There weren't a lot of people who were around, but it was kinda fun anyways. I got a shirt from Junk Star on 17th, and a cute hoodie from Chinatown. They also have some awesome shirts at carbonmedia in Art Central, and I have my eye on a couple. Maybe this weekend...

And in other news (this post is not going to be very deep, by the way) I dyed my hair "pomegranite" which is kind of a dark red, and got it cut with side, long-ish bangs. It's cool, I get bored with a cut easily so when I get a new short, red cut it's pretty good. It's odd how half the people I know don't know my natural hair colour, when I've known them before I dyed it... but I don't like telling them it was long and wavy and lame-o brown before.

So now I have to write a comic book featuring superheroes based on the Ottoman and the Soviet Union. I don't know the superheroes names yet. Maybe "The Otto Man", I can't figure out what to do for the Soviet Union, "Man of Steel" is taken by too many people.

it's just the beginning of spring and I'm started to wait for summer

So, the Calgary Folk Fest doesn't have many artists that interest me - yet, but while I am waiting for that full line-up I can always drool over the Winnipeg Folk Fest lineup. You see, this year, I hit a jackpot. I get to be here for all of the folk fest and I will be 2 hours away from the Winnipeg Folk Fest when it occurs. Which means, I might be able to see Final Fantasy, Corb Lund, Amy Millan, Joel Plaskett and more. Haha and Randy Newman's coming (my brother can do a mean Randy Newman impression). So I'd be really excited to catch at least one day. Hoorah! for Folk Fests.

And, did anybody watch the Juno's last night? If not, you didn't miss much. Nelly Furtado, a lot of Nelly Furtado, some Billy Talent and Hedley or whatever. k-os smashed his guitar. Not much else. How come once you dance around some colourful, expensive club setting and sing the same old generic pop shit you get famous and successful. Thank you for giving me hope for the future. Not. On another not, that guy with the achievement award, Bob Rock, who played with the Tragically Hip. He is a producer/musician, etc. and he is also the uncle of my dad's friend's kid. So anyways, not too excited for the Juno's, it's kind of obvious that they reflect record sales and not talent.

art class

I seem to be enjoying this class more than I thought I would. I can't say that I'm a great artist, but it's a relaxing and easy class. It's interesting how I can spend a day stressing out about so many different things and after doing something simple like sketching a picture, it seems to be a lot less of a worry than it was before. Maybe because it's easy and rewarding or uncomplicated. In other classes, it seems you have to motivate yourself to do homework or to study. In art, I seem a lot more motivated to just pick up the pencil and draw. I also like how you can talk to your friends thoughout the entire class, while still drawing (at least I can). My teacher doesn't mind me and the time seems to go very fast. I kind of regret leaving art of my timetable next year, (my options are Photography, C.A.L.M, French and Journalism) but hopefully I'm still motivated to pick it up outside of school.

I also just read Lullabies For Little Criminals, the latest book to win the top prize on CBC's "Canada Reads". It was a very interesting, and engaging read. It's also very tragic, one of those stories with adult characters who are not good role models (I've been reading a lot lately, ex. The Glass Castle). Definitely one of the best books I've picked up in a while.

buttons.

This weekend I went across the border to BC, and on the way back we stopped in a town called Nanton for lunch. If you live in Calgary, you'd know Nanton because of it's antiques. So I'm not exactly an antique shopper, but I appreciate the mystery of looking for something on a whim and the sense of discovery associated with this. We went into the candy store (having two teenage boys in the vehicle almost magnetically attracts us to candy stores), I got sour mango flavoured Altoids and also visited the little antique/weird stuff room in the back. They had some neat stuff, I wanted to get a Coca-Cola sign that would've gone well in my room but I already have enough signs and pictures. But there was a big pickle jar with 15 dollars worth of buttons in it (that's 70 buttons!), so it sounds kind of weird, but buttons are kinda neat. And very funny accessories when taken out of their original context. So I bought these buttons, and brought them home with me. At this point I'm beginning to sound like an old person who buys lots of weird things in old stores, but some of these buttons looked really cool. So I sorted them (good, bad or mediocre) and now I have some nice buttons to wear. If anyone wants free buttons feel free to have some from my bad pile. And if I really like you I could give you some free from the better pile!

ps. I filled out an application to volunteer for the folk fest. Finally I am here in the summer for it. Hopefully they'll be some good artists coming this way.

basketball, the oscars, patti smith and stuff like that.

Our basketball season just finished and we unfortunately lost the final game.
It's always so disappointing to lose something you've been so confident about, but even more important was the entire season and how well we did as a team.
Which sounds really corny.
But I really liked playing the games and cheering people on. I'm definitely more of a team sport
person. I enjoy that interaction aspect of it. I think basketball made me rethink gym class too. My mark went up around 8% from last reporting period, which probably means I'm trying harder. We did ping-pong last, which is always pretty fun. It's sounds like a pretty lame sport, but I find it engaging (probably cause I have a really horrible attention span, it keeps me interested I guess).

And the Oscars were a week ago. I love talking to people about them afterwards, it's my favourite part. Like who I thought deserved to win, what I thought of the host, the show itself, the speeches, the dresses. Everybody has a different opinion. I'm glad Scorsese won for best director (even though I haven't seen the Departed, I shouldn't judge it) but I think he should've won it before, in perhaps one of his more remarkable movies. Clint Eastwood sounded like he did a good job and Stephen Frears is always good too. Best picture made sense, although I really liked the Queen and Little Miss Sunshine (probably the funniest comedy I've seen in a long time, excluding Borat). I'm also one of those people who fills out the Oscar ballot with who they want to win (I always lose by two or three). I thought Ellen Degeneres was alright, but not that edgy, she should've poked more fun at the celebrity audience. She was a good facilitator though (as my mum puts it) and she got through it fine. I loved Cate Blanchett's dress, it was probably my fav. That and Penelope Cruz's (she always looks stunning, she was gorgeous in Volver). Gwenyth Paltrow had a very nice dress too.

So in school, we have this pretty worthless class called "Enrichment". It's something to do with Enriching our curriculm, I dunno to me it seems like a bunch of bullshit (although we have a couple weeks of health, which isn't completely worthless). For the past couple months we've had to work on this presentation about something we're passionate about. I thought it was lame, and I didn't really do anything. Why would you research something that's a huge part of your life? And then make it some boring power point presentation nobody listens to. So, I didn't do it (yeah okay, so I wasn't trying to be a rebel or anything, I just didn't want to waste my time). But I kinda wanted to get it over with. So the day it was supposed to be due, I got up, picked a random topic (punk rock) and took some kids guitar (he'd just finished guitar class). Then I made up an entire 7 minute presentation incorporating the guitar. I started talking about why this type of music started, and I mocked some lame 70's pop song on guitar, then I talked about people being pissed off at the music industry, so they made music of their own. Then I played some power chords (harder on acoustic guitar with no pick). I talked about Patti Smith and stuff in New York, then moved to England, then to what people think of punk rock today, because of crap like Good Charlotte and Simple Plan. So it wasn't exactly correct, but I made the time limit and the class were somewhat interested. I'm not sure the teacher was though, because I asked her how I did, and she said something like "excellent, you were very enthusiastic". It was loud, random and unconventional (I had to check with my friend to make sure I hadn't dropped any f-bombs), but at least I got it done. This is probably not a good lesson to people who actually want to work hard, but it made me laugh after it was all over.

Now I have to go and write a rubric/self evaluation for it.
farewell!

procrastinating.

So once I arrived to snow and dry at home, I couldn't help missing mexico a little bit.
That can't explain my laziness though.
We have a huge assignment on the Industrial Revolution due Monday. I haven't really chipped into that yet...
Then there's Science, I'm pretty behind on the workbooks we're doing.
and we have this assignment for enrichment (a worthless class) to present about something we're passionate about. It was due last week. I think... I'm still not sure about my topic.
I'll probably go to Kensington tomorrow and interview people on video about something, and present it to the class. It's an excuse to go to Kensington and talk to people.
Then of course I haven't posted for ages.
Ironically the only subject I'm ahead in is math (despite almost failing the last quiz).
Oh well, it's naturally to find yourself a bit behind after a couple days a way.
It's also natural for me to procrastinate.
I do get things done though...
Eventually.

Recuperar la entrada

That means "recover the post" by the way.
Blogger is in spanish, which means hilary m. is in Mexico.
I love it here, it's amazing.
But I have to go. When I have more time I will post more.
Buenas noches amigos!

I'm lazier than I thought

I just noticed that I took a huge break from blogging.. hopefully people don't start to think I'm dead.

I'm not though, I'm quite the opposite fortunately! School's picking up again after midterms, which means I'm busy. I got my course selections done (that's finally over) and I'm ready for a February and March of long weekends. Which has positive's and negative's because long weekends + a lot of homework does not always work. I have some trouble with time management during the weekend. I had a huge poetry anthology due on Monday, which 75% was completed on Sunday night at 12:30 or on Monday morning and at lunch. I still got a surprising 94%, but I could've done better.

Our basketball team lost our first game on Tuesday, which was too bad. It was a team who we'd already beat... But thankfully today we picked up with a very, very, close win. I was a bit late for the game (it involved a trip out to chinook value village on the c-train because we were dismissed early and a trip back arriving 3 minutes into the game). Otherwise it went well, most of our games have been not very interesting because we've won them. This one was geniunely close. But our coach made some weird decisions. He put me on in the last 4 minutes (we were tied) and I played wing which I haven't really for a year. I'm not exactly a scoring player, and I was the last person to pass to for a basket, but our team scored 2 points to put us ahead by one basket, then with 4 seconds left I scored one. It wasn't too bad actually, considering I'm definitely not used to game-securing baskets. My average per game is a measly 2 points. Well actually 2.2 probably cause I scored 4 today. I don't want to think about math though, I have some Simplifying, multiplying, dividing, adding rational expressions homework that is no fun. It combines my two favourite things in math, polynomials and fractions.

Anyways, I don't know how I've been able to not talk about this, I'm going to Puerta Vallarta in less than three days! I'm excited, I've never been, my aunt and uncle have a condo there for a month so we decided to go. I'm completley looking forward to hot weather and an exciting experience! So umm.. buenos dias for now! Have a good february!

lust for life

Iggy Pop and Peter Gzowski
Check this link out, from the CBC archives.
I watched this with my dad last night, it's incredibly interesting.
Iggy Pop is pretty damn smart, cheeky and rude.

One good thing about midterms..

Quality time after school with friends.
We get off at 11am, which gives us potential to hang around for quite a while.
Today we walked to Kensington and had a very nice time.
The weather was great and the stress of an essay in social was basically over, although when we checked our blood pressure in Shoppers Drug Mart it seemed a bit high. Mine was 121/60! (Well, 60 is pretty low). Shoppers Drug Mart is quite an interesting experience, ironically it happens to be one of the highlights of Kensington sometimes (sometimes). We bought a card for my friend who is moving to Dubai very soon. It's for someone's 50th birthday...
Then we headed to Livingstone & Cavell and played with their toys for a very long time. After that we marched down Kensington road to 10th Street, where we craved some Crave cupcakes, did some window shopping and inhaled both the Roasterie and Tandoori Hut. After that it was Vietnamese at "a Touch of Ginger". I had vegetarian spring rolls on rice vermicelli and a mango juice. It was very delicious! Then we headed down the street, and stopped at Trend (the clothing store). After perusing through the shoes, we headed down 10th street a bit more. We decided to go into Hot Wax records, somewhere I don't regularly go when in Kensington. It always does have good selection+good taste though, so I like going in even if I don't buy something. And I was thinking of asking about their policy for exchanging records, I have a whole bunch of my dad's doubles to cash in on. But this old guy and jean-jacket guy with very curly hair and Buddy Holly glasses were kinda looking at us like we were annoying pretentious teenagers so I decided that it was cool. They were probably pretty nice, but when someone is silent when 4 loud kids come into their shop, you have to wonder... I'll probably come back though to exchange my dad's records, seems like a great place. Then we went to Crave and had cupcakes. Then walked back to my house. It was a fun day though, it's interesting to discover new things about places you go to regularly. In celebration of this, I will make a list of my regular places in this neighborhood. People probably won't be interested because a). they live 10 hours away or b). there are many other nice places in this city besides Kensington. Anyways,

Clothing/Accessories:
Manana kind of across from the Plaza on Kensington road. All imported stuff. They have very nice smelling incense, and cool hats. The staff are friendly and the merchandise is very interesting.
Trend fashion on 10th street at the end by Memorial drive. Sometimes they have some really cute stuff, nice shoes and nice shirts.
The Rocket custom T-shirts are always nice.
if you want shirts with bands on them...
head down to Charisma it's kinda gothy, but I find they have an excellent selection of Clash t-shirts.
There's this place called Manhattan-something that my mum likes to go to. It has nice clothing..
Mission and the Source are good if you are into skate-boarding, snowboarding etc.

Food:
Tandoori Hut on the west side of 10th street, my personal fav. for Indian. Great for special occasion kinda things. Good food, good service. You can smell the deliciousness from the other side of the street. Maurya is also good for Indian food.
Charlie Chan's under Swimco on Kensington is good solid Chinese food.
Two good Vietnamese places. Vietnamese Fortune which is beside Chicken-On-The-Way on 14th and Kensington and A Touch Of Ginger on 10th.
Nellie's on Kensington Road is good for breakfast. Bernard Callebaut on Kensington road is always delicious for chocolates (I recommend the little heart things). As well as Crave cupcakes (the icing is so good you don't notice how bad it is for you). On the west end of Kensington road you have Charlie's Bakery with delicious pastries and breads and stuff and Janice Beaton cheese (great variety of cheeses, a lot of them are really good). If you're a wine-ish person there's the Kensington Wine Market in the same area.
Cafe's:
There's a Higher Ground, nice atmosphere, but the coffee isn't very good. Or Starbucks beside it (yeah okay I'm a horrible person). There's also the Roasterie on 1oth. There are more then this, but these are the ones I've been to more than once.

Entertainment:
The Plaza Theatre is a great place to go, (you can go see Borat right now). Usually have good picks and they put on a mean Rocky Horror Picture Show. I spend a lot of time playing and observing the toys at Livingstone and Cavell, they have some cool stuff. Shopper's Drug Mart is entertaining for the teenager in you. Page's bookstore has a great selection of books. I saw Tommy Chong there..

Miscellaneous:
If you are a church-like person, Hillhurst United is an engaging and tolerant church. Urban Barn is great for furniture. Beadworks has expensive but very pretty beads.
Disappointments:
There's a store on the corner of 10th and Kensington that always changes. But the point is, it's always a crappy generic coffee shop, don't go there. Chicken On the Way is a legend, but a gross tasting legend indeed.

Now I have to go to sleep, I have a science midterm in less than 9 hours.

We had that meeting at school today where you plan out what courses you take for high school. I dislike talking about the future, because I don't have a clue about mine. I'm staying at my school (it's a ten minute walk). I'll probably do Math 20 Pure, some level of Science 10 (I haven't made up my mind yet), English 10 AP/H and some level of Social 10. Then we need fifteen credits for optional courses. So that's French 10, some fine arts thing and maybe Journalism 15. I have no clue about careers, but I know what I don't want to do. Which is anything to do with math or science. I'm not horrible at either, but they've never interested me. So I took a career aptitude test, to see where that leads me. Some of it makes sense, some doesn't really.

1.
Actor (I like performing arts, but I can't really see this as a career)

2.
Desktop Publisher(Interesting, but not really)

3.
Cartoonist(I like some of those cartoons in the paper on Sunday...)

4.
Animator (I'm not that good at animating)

5.
Anthropologist (I'm not sure if I would excel in this...)

6.
Comedian(My friends might think so, but I'm not sure about that as a career)

7.
Print Journalist(I like writing, but it would be a hard way to make a living)

8.
Critic(I'd probably be a little too critical, but it'd be fun)

9.
Writer (It would be very interesting, but also a hard way to make a living)

10.
Composer(Is that like Beethoven? Do people still do that?)

11.
Musician(Hard to become successful, and I'm not that good at guitar)

12.
Translator (I have a very mediocre knowledge of french, but I don't mind learning it)

13.
Medical Illustrator(Very interesting, I wouldn't be good at that though)

14.
Activist(It's an amazing thing to devote your life to a good cause, but I don't know if I could accomplish anything)

15.
Artist(Art's fun, I'm not bad at it. But I'm no professional)

In Humanities right now, we have a poetry anthology. We need a them and my friend was doing "Life's simple pleasures", I told him that was the most cliche thing I'd ever heard. So I decided to do cynicism. There's definitely no lack of cynical poems. But I wrote a haiku about smoking.

Bars deny smoke ban

We're already sick to death

Have another smoke

MS Paint Contest

I just had a contest with my friend Nigel, to see who could draw the prettiest sunset in Paint. We had ten minutes. The two judges liked each one, so we tied. Then we got Rohil to be the tie-breaker but he couldn't decide. He picked Nigel in the end, after eeny-meeny-miny-mo.

back (momentarily)

I'm sitting in my house, although I'll be on the plane to Vancouver in less than 24 hours.
Christmas + New Years went well. I got some stuff. New pair of boots, pair of flat from Winners (my mum got a lot of presents at Winners), some books, soap. I also got an mp3 player to replace my iPod which was stolen at school (I was too heartbroken to write about it, I guess). Oh, and a shirt from my brother from Junk Star on 17th. James got a lot of drumming accessories, cowbell, double bass pedal, crash symbol. Not to keen on this, but he was pleased. New Years went well, we watched some movie about the President and the secret service and murder, I can't recall the name. Probably because I read some Adrian Mole book during the duration of the film. Adrian Mole always makes me laugh. Before that we were going to watch that Ben Stiller movie at the local theatre, but it was cancelled. We spent an hour or so wandering around the town listening to the Flames game on the radio. Extra Foods in BC closes very early. Then we watched Ryan Seacrest and Nick Lachey and his creepy girlfriend and My Chemical Romance count us down to the New Year. We tried to pop the champagne cork on the balcony of the condo, but it took my dad a minute or so to get it to open. Oh well, it ended up going pretty far. I couldn't really see where it went because there was two feet of snow on the ground. It was very snowy. Which was good, cause I had a good time skiing. We also went to this town, Kimberley and skiied there, but the hill kinda sucked and the town was really, really weird. It was this Bavarian village sort of thing, with all these authentic German restaurants and dollar store. We went to the German restaurant and I had Brie cheese and Indian mussels. So, like I said I'll be leaving for Vancouver very soon to see my family, and that will be very nice. I hope everyones Holidays are going well!

PS. I was reading George Stroumboulopoulos' blog on strombo.com when I came across the interesting idea of making a mix CD and putting it in random places where people will pick it up. So I made a playlist and started burning CD's. It's supposed to be about songs that inspired you or something. I think these songs have inspired me, whenever I hear them I automatically feel really good/cool.

First Day Of My Life - Bright Eyes
Them Belly Full (But We Hungry) - Bob Marley & The Wailers
London Calling - The Clash
White Riot - The Clash
10:15 Saturday Night - The Cure
China Girl - David Bowie
16 Military Wives - The Decemberists
Redemption Song - Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Warsaw - Joy Division
Tower Of Song - Martha Wainwright
Ohio - Neil Young
My Generation - Patti Smith
Chelsea Hotel No. 2 - Rufus Wainwright
Holidays In The Sun - Sex Pistols
Rollercoaster - Sleater-Kinney
How Soon Is Now? - The Smiths
Teen Age Riot - Sonic Youth
One Great City! - The Weakerthans
Substitute - The Who
Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Stepmother! - Sufjan Stevens
Music When The Lights Go Out - The Libertines

Yeah, the list is pretty extensive, but it fits on a CD-R. And yeah, I did include two Clash songs but I'm reading a very interesting book about them right now, and the Clash was the first band I was really into.
=)