hilary m.

halloween with bright eyes.

2007-11-01T16:15:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-10-22T17:28:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-09-11T16:36:00.001-06:00

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)

2007-07-30T10:56:00.001-06:00

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.

2007-07-21T20:28:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-06-05T18:26:00.001-06:00

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!!!!!

2007-05-17T18:41:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-14T19:40:00.000-06:00

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

2007-05-05T15:15:00.001-06:00

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

lazy, lazy

2007-05-03T19:01:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-04-16T22:41:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-12T16:57:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-02T19:55:00.000-06:00

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

2007-03-21T21:10:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-03-11T20:44:00.000-06:00

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.

2007-03-04T20:51:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-02-23T20:08:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-13T22:13:00.000-07:00

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

2007-02-08T23:16:00.000-07:00

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

2007-01-26T14:56:00.000-07:00

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..

2007-01-23T23:17:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-01-17T18:03:00.000-07:00

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

2007-01-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

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)

2007-01-02T10:23:00.000-07:00

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.
=)

2006-12-23T09:56:00.002-07:00

Yay, holidays!
Finally!
Well, I wish everyone an amazing happy christmas and relaxing holidays, etc. I'm leaving for three weeks today. I'll ski, visit family and I get a chance to stop in Vancouver for a couple days. It'll be quite nice.

Watched the taped version of the Colbert Report last night (along with a 3 hour Ali G Marathon). Quite funny, Chris Funk did a very good job. He impressed my metal-loving brother (quote: that was good for an indie rocker). You can check out Funk's performance and Colbert "performance" at http://www.colbertnation.com.

And here is a cute, weird, Sufjan Stevensy video for the holidays.

The Decemberists vs. Colbert

2006-12-14T22:34:00.000-07:00

That's one battle I would really like to see.
So Stephen Colbert had a video of him light-sabering Star Wars style with a green screen and he challenged fans to back it up with something. This is before, my pals the Decemberists decided they would get their fans to back up their performance with a green screen for the song "O Valencia". I personally really like this song and the Decemberists and I wouldn't want to see them being accused of something like... riding on Stephen Colbert's coattails! Which is what Colbert did... well, one thing led to another and now (via Pitchforkmedia) the Decemberists have challenged Colbert to something like a guitar solo contest on the 20th. My brother showed me all of this on YouTube (he's a internet video genius). Here's what Colbert had to say...

And here's one of the video entries...

2006-12-10T18:50:00.000-07:00

Hello and sorry for the lack of blogging, it's been pretty busy lately.
School works kinda slowing down, though I still can't wait for the break. I'm getting very tired of some classes and I can't wait for a break from them. Take french. I really dislike going to French class everyday. This is odd, I like learning french and I also like french... but I don't like what we're doing in french, or how the teacher treats the assignments and us. It's sad because it can turn something that used to be interesting to something that's rather boring. I'm also getting really bored in Performing Arts, a subject with the potential of being the least boring. Strangely, I'd rather miss either of these classes then a class like Math, which isn't boring. Hopefully after the break things will become fresh as daises.

Santa Claus is coming! Hear the banjo strumming!!

2006-12-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

You know who's anticipating Christmas when you hear that...
Sufjan Stevens!
Whilst at Megatunes the other day, I decided to buy the Christmas CD from your favourite state-obsessed, christian, with the breathy-indietastic voice. By the way, I didn't just say indietastic. It is entitled Sufjan Stevens songs for Christmas (singalong!). I originally bought it because a). Yay, stickers! b). Yay, Christmas cd! c). Yay, indietastic! and it is fitting its purpose for me quite nicely. Basically you have a bunch of Sufjan written Christmas related stuff and traditional christmas related stuff. Some of it is pretty mediocre, but there's a lot of good songs. It's pretty flexible too, there's some cool songs about Christmas, some Jesus-y songs about Christmas, some traditional Jesus-y songs about Christmas and this all means that it's fun for the whole family! A couple other bonuses are the awesome cartoon about how Sufjan Stevens saved Christmas, the songbook with all the chords and lyrics, the cute stickers, the cute pictures, the cute story, etc... So kids, if you like cute and holidays and funny and indietastic! than I suggest you should buy this CD, and if you don't want to buy it because you think this review is silly, just go to www.pitchforkmedia.com, and you'll get an intelligent, non-biased (winkwink), wholesome and most of all indietastic! review!

ps. I'm using the exclamation mark in the middle of the sentence because Panic! At The Disco can.
pps. I used indietastic 5 times.
ppps. One song's called "Get Behind Me, Santa". Yay!

Politically Correct Elf

2006-12-02T17:24:00.000-07:00

Today I spent 6 hours outside, walking. It doesn't sound very appealing, but it wasn't bad. I was walking and talking to people and I was in Kensington. Today I was an elf, for "Christmas in Kensington". Basically you spread cheer on the streets and in stores by greeting people and giving them candy canes on behalf of the Kensington Businesses Association. You also are supposed to plug any meters that are below 20 minutes and pay for parking. I gave a out a lot of candy canes and saved a lot of people from tickets. Mostly we walked up to people and said "Happy Holidays" (some guy asked us if we were trying to be politically correct, which had never really occured to me) and asked them if they wanted a candy cane. Typical responses were "Okay..", "How much do I need to give you" and "I'm on a diet, no" or people ignored us. But most of them were really nice, and we had people honking horns and waving from their cars. There were a couple interesting occurances though. One time I asked a man if he wanted a candy cane and he started running away from me, an old man gave me a dollar and refused to give it back, some guy started mumbling weird things at me, a lot of old women told my friend and I we were "really cute". There were also some very good carollers and a band with trombones and trumpets and stuff. Next Saturday, you should seriously come to Kensington, you'll be put in the holiday spirit! And someone might fill up your meter for you...

The Vending Machine

2006-11-29T19:17:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately I didn't post something for the blog, but I will post something I wrote for another purpose. It's probably too long for one post, I'll chop it in half to add suspense and intensity (not). I had to hand in a piece of writing that related to Utopia. So I wrote this story and handed it in. It's not very good, but it's more interesting than an essay:

Mr. Hall was quite an ordinary man. He lived with his wife on the outskirts of the city in a small lemon coloured house. He had a neat white picket fence along a tidy green lawn and a small dog that often barked at the shifting laundry on top of the lawn. Mr. Hall was a husband, and a father of two well-mannered children. He wore tiny, smooth glasses above his nose and his well-kept brown moustache. He was a thin man who was perhaps a little less than six feet tall in height. He wore plain cotton shirts and long beige slacks.

Here was a man who lived a very ordinary life, not ordinary in a monotonous repetitive sort of way, but there was nothing particularly exceptional about Mr. Hall. Although, perhaps one might notice that Mr. Hall had a very interesting occupation. You see he was a specialist; Mr. Hall spent most of his adult life restocking vending machines. When he left school and became an adult he decided to get a job that didn’t require a lot of effort, but gave him a consistent salary. This is the reason why Mr. Hall began his long career of restocking the vending machines. Employed by the refreshment businesses his job was to drive his truck to a list of various establishments, schools, hospitals and offices. He visited each institution every workday and saw the same, faceless people who acknowledged him with a mild look of familiarity and boredom. Sometimes the children at the school would ask him if he enjoyed his job, if he ate any of the candy from the back of the truck. Mr. Hall would just shake his head, no. Although they might dream of being around candy all day, his life was much too tedious for the shock of sweetness.

Each day Mr. Hall would wake up at five forty-five in the morning to prepare for the day ahead. He would shower, put on a clean uniform, brush his tidy, thinning hair and eat his breakfast. He ate the same breakfast every day, a piece of unbuttered toast, black coffee and two hard-boiled eggs. After he was finished he would put on his little cap, and make his way to the factory that supplied the refreshments. This factory was his home base and everything began there. He would find his truck at the factory and stock it with the candies. When he finished loading the plain cardboard boxes inside his truck, he would drive past the cold metal gates and out into a world that needed him.

Mr. Hall’s first stop was a school; every morning he would enter this dull parking lot. He grabbed his cardboard box full of bright candy and headed toward the cafeteria with its blinding fluorescent lights and dirty, speckled floor. He arrived at this school very early; he wouldn’t have to take the chattering and questions of the students. Days happened like this, they just came and went so repetitively they faded into a single blur. He moved through red doors and stairways, cafeterias and waiting rooms, walking through his entire way with a fast pace that never changed. He didn’t notice his day was over until he reached the last name on his list, the name of a school in the middle of the town. Mr. Hall had never cared for the schools, but they were an important part of his occupation. He made his way into the school cafeteria, the same as all the others with white cinderblock squares, brown tables and the bright glow of the vending machines. Vending machines like big aliens, out of place in this dirty and dull cafeteria. He moved from one bright glow to another, blue, red, yellow. They were all different, candies, cola, juices. There was one that sold different flavours of milk. Banana flavoured milk was a very odd concept to him. Mr. Hall had memorized each product, each row, each of these machines. This was not because he particularly enjoyed the products but because they had been repeating in his view since he began this job. He moved to each vending machine quickly and with all the skill one can acquire after years of doing his job. He finally reached the last vending machine and he was looking forward to coming home and resting. The last vending machine was a standard brown one, with a clear front so the bright candies it sold were visible. He was finishing the last row of candies, neatly placing chocolate bars on the rack. Mr. Hall was pushing the cold metal rack back into the heart of the machine when he felt a tremor run through his hand. He looked around for any indication of what caused it. Then, without a second to think he found himself lying on the floor, in intense pain with bright lights blurring above his head. He came to his senses with an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia, the pain and the brightness was clouding his senses. He realized now that he was stuck, his legs trapped beneath the heavy machine, his face inches away from the metal racks and their bright candies. Amazingly, the racks hadn’t severed his body and left room to spare for his arms. Perhaps this was because he was so thin, he wondered if he was that lucky to be spared.

Weekends are speedy devils

2006-11-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

My weekend went by a little too fast. I haven't even caught up enough to finish my math homework. Yesterday I recall waking up late and seeing my friends school play. Then... I believe I spent the rest of the night watching TV. What a dreadful, horrible thing to do. Oh well, first I watched One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest on APTN. APTN is Aboriginal Peoples Television Network, and I watch this once and a while because if a movie features someone who is aboriginal or partially aboriginal they'll play it. Like Cher movies, they play Cher movies. But last night they were playing Cuckoo's Nest because "Chief" is in it, that is Chief Bromden. I have never seen the movie before, but I just finished the book so it was appropriate timing. This movie was number 1 on my to-see list. Number 2 is My Beautiful Laundrette, does anyone know where I can attain this? Anyways, the movies a bit different from the book. In the book Chief is the narrator and everything that goes on is from his eyes, which makes it very interesting because Chief sees a lot. The book was very good though, it took me a couple days to get through which is a good sign. The movie was also amazing, Jack Nicholson was excellent. The theme of the book crossed over really well into the movie. I never cry in books, and rarely in movies, but for some reason I was really sad at the end when Chief's talking to McMurphy about leaving. I'm going to try to use this book as a base for one of my utopia projects coming up, about "Planned Societies".

After the amazingness that was One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest I watched TLC for about 4 hours. It's a horrible channel, but it's always somewhat interesting. I watched a bit of W too, they had some sort of Johnny Depp theme, with Benny and Joon+Don Juan de Marco but I've seen them both. So then I watched about 2 hours worth of "Little People, Big World" which is easily the most pointless show on TV. If they want to promote tolerance of people who are different, why is there a show about the fact they're dwarfs? But for some reason I kept watching it, maybe it's addictive or something. Remind me never to watch it again, once I was in Vancouver with my mum, and I watched a five episode marathon until 12 o'clock. I worry about myself once and a while. I also am worrying about finishing my math homework (I hate this entire unit), who needs to know about Rational numbers?

Fake Fire

2006-11-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

So a while ago, I talked about a movie being filmed a couple blocks down the street. Well, a couple nights ago they finished filming. This was interesting because, they finished with a fake fire. From my bedroom window I could see the spotlights, and we walked down to the set to see what was going on. There was a pretty big crowd off on one end of the sidewalk, and we joined them. About 20 minutes later, there was a flame that came out of one of the windows, then died out. Then they had to take the shot again, this time the flame lasted longer, and there were fire fighters running into the building. The final time there was a flame was after many people left, and this time it lasted longer, with a huge explosion in the middle. It was a pretty interesting experience. I'm excited to see the movie, not because it's a made-for-TV adaptation of a romance novel, but because my neighbourhood's posing as little Italy in it. Very cool.

And to an unrelated subject, I was in the car today, listening to my Satellite radio and I decided I would listen to "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'", from Scissor Sister's latest album. I turned up the volume and was soaking in the dancingness of this song, until I had to go into the "Midtown Market" CO-OP. So I was in CO-OP, getting some milk and as soon as I opened the freezer door, this very song was playing behind the freezer. I stopped for a second and listened to it, before closing the door becuase I realized people were staring at me. It was very cool. So here's a Scissor Sister's song that makes me happy whenever I listen to it.

Left-handed with scissors

2006-11-17T12:19:00.000-07:00

Today I tried to cut my first hairs. My brother, who has icky shoulder-length head-banging hair. My mum and I were sick of it, so we persuaded (I don't know how) him to let us cut it. So I got the scissors and started cutting the back of it. Meanwhile, I'm not doing very well, and my mum's totally exaggerating how bad I'm doing. Then James starts to get scared, and we're laughing at him because his hair is lopsided. Finally, it's finished (My mum took up cutting after that). He didn't like it very much, and it wasn't exactly fabulous... but at least it's not past his shoulders. So it's a bit of a bowl cut, but his bangs are kind of... stylish? Well probably not, but at least we tried. *Update: We took him to the hair dresser's and now all the long greasiness is gone! I can actually see his face, wow. It's about 5 inches shorter though, so he'll take a while to get used to it.

Parent teacher interviews went well last night. My parents spent time talking to James' teachers too, so I hung out with my friends for a lot of the time. There was a used book sale going on in the lobby, and I went to look at the books they had for sale. 75% of them were cheap romance novels, so I understood why they weren't doing very well. But they were fun to read, and my friend and I were reading them out loud, cause they were so corny. I bought one, to support the food bank or something... It's called "Inadmissible Passion". I haven't read it yet, and I don't think I will. But it would make for an interesting conversation piece.

2006-11-16T13:17:00.000-07:00

Just finished a quick conversation with a certain Mr. Ghomeshi, for something coming up on CBC. I hope I was satisfactory... gotta represent the "hilary m". I gave him a hard time again, poor guy, getting picked on by a 14-year old. The people at CBC are always really nice, they told me I did well.

Tonight though, I have parent-teacher interviews. I don't know why, but I always have kinda liked parent-teacher interviews. Maybe I'm afraid that if I don't go my teacher's will talk behind my back. Or maybe I just like to show my parents around to the classrooms, and see some of my friends. Going to P/T interviews is probably one of the nerdiest things I do. Oh well, I don't have a lot of homework this weekend so that's good. =)

Contest

2006-11-12T17:23:00.000-07:00

When I was a young boy/My father took me into the city/To see a marching band/He said, "Son when you grow up/would you be the savior of the broken/the beaten and the damned?/He said "Will you defeat them/your demons, and all the non-believers/the plans that they have made?"/"Because one day I'll leave you/A phantom to lead you in the summer/To join The Black Parade."

I'm going to have a contest

Explain these lyrics to this song (Welcome To The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance)

1. Clearly

2. Rationally

3. Creatively

4. So I can understand

I will post all of your suggestions, and the best will win... umm. Pride and the knowledge that they definitely have superior intelligence. I'm not participating cause I have no clue what the hell they mean.

Remembrance Day

2006-11-11T11:46:00.000-07:00

We are reminded that Remembrance Day is nearing because of the red and black poppies that are on shirts, in stores and on the newspaper. I also was reminded of Remembrance Day because of the Remembrance Day assembly we had last Thursday. I remember the assemblies we had in elementary, they were pretty lovely. We carried candles, and sang songs and somebodies grandpa came in and told us stories about the war. It's very different in high school. We are filed down to the gym (a lot of kids just skip the assembly and leave) and we get in the fold out seats that were set up earlier (this is one of the only times in a year when more than 3 grades are in the gym together). The president of student council usually does the talking. We sing "Oh Canada", some kid from drama recites "In Flanders Fields" with umm.. gusto. Than some guy wearing a uniform tells us about the importance of remembering and if we don't remember then the souls of dead soldiers will come back from the graves and cause havoc on our brains. Well, not exactly the last part. But pretty much. Then we get some more war propaganda, and then we watch the worst music video in the world. Some old bearded guy is seeing about how we have to remember and if we don't little girls with big eyes will give us sad looks, and the ghosts of dead soldiers will march through the supermarkets and make everyone sad.

Don't think I'm anti-Remembrance Day. I think Remembrance Day is important. But I believe that we should be able to remember in any way we want. And we're remembering how horrible these wars were, how sad it must've been for the people who participated in them, their friends and relatives. Then we can reflect on our own lives, how we should try to preserve peace and how important peace is for everyone in the world. This isn't a time to force teenagers to do anything, they are allowed to reflect on this on their own way. It's great if you attend a remembrance day ceremony, but you don't have to. You just need to remember, in your own way. Today I stopped for a coffee in Kensington with my parents, and the store employees reminded us that there was a moment of silence in 10 minutes, at 11:00. At when it came to the moment of silence, the employees just turned the machines off and stood in a circle, silent. Soon everybody realized what was happening, and stopped talking. I thought it was cool that they didn't have an announcement, order anyone around or anything. A man walked in, during the moment of silence and he must've been very surprised. No music, or talking, or coffee machines. But he clued in, and stood in the middle of the floor, silent. I thought it was good, how remembrance day should be. There were no parades, or wreaths, or propaganda. Just people remembering in their own way, silent, thinking about what's important to them.

Walking into the middle of a movie set

2006-11-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

This morning, as I left for school I got a call from my parents, telling me that there were trailers all down the street by our house. So I left a bit early, to check it out. I looked down the street, a block away and there was a line-up of trailers and trucks. I kinda thought it was the city at first, fixing some pipes or something. But as I walked I noticed catering trucks... I figured city workers don't do catering. When I reached the cafe on the corner, I turned and saw a whole bunch of people milling about the tent. I didn't know if I was permitted to walk past the pylons and people, so I kinda of stood there looking confused. Soon after, a man saw me and said I could continue walking. So I walked even further into the crowd, and there were a couple cameras pointing at me. I saw those little director chairs, and people were giving instructions to the actors. It kinda clicked that I was in the middle of a movie set.

There used to be an old corner store that sold candy down that street, and they tried to sell it unsuccessfully for a long time. A couple weeks ago, we saw the building it was in painted from an ugly blue, to a classy aubergine colour. And an italian family restaurant plus a "panna fresco" bakery came up in about a week. This was just a little suspicious... but I was informed last night that it actually was a movie set. The cameras and actors etc., definitely explain this. But it's cool that a movie is being filmed in my neighbourhood. Last time it was a Matthew Perry movie at the school. I'll try to post pictures later though, because I'm writing this in Humanities class.

November snow brings... lots of homework?

2006-11-04T11:49:00.000-07:00

Our report card marks for term 1 had to be filled out 2 days ago, which is probably the reason that school's been so intense the past two weeks. We're still doing the Utopia stuff in Humanities, our deadlines are independently made. Unfortunatly I've had to hand some work in late, a day after my own deadline. Err. And we had a unit final in science recently, as well as a whole bunch of quizzes in Math. Oh well, at least I'm not that bored. We've got plenty of books to read for Humanities, that I'm actually interested in reading. And I'm playing guitar again, which is nice.

I went to see Borat with a bunch of friends yesterday. It was at the really big theatre, which I'm not used to. And we were late so we got those seats that are a couple feet from the huuuge screen. I could still see the movie though, it wasn't too bad. It did mean being really close to the huge, hirsute and very naked obese man when that scene came. So you might be automatically turned off from Borat once I've said that, but don't be. If you're like me and you can take incredible politically-incorrectness and laugh really hard at it, then you'll like this movie. It's kinda brilliant, like South Park but smarter in my opinion (and I like South Park). The movies basically making fun off how crazy the values of people (in this case Americans) can be. And some people are pretty ridiculous. One of my favourite parts is when Borat's in the huge warehouse-like Penticostal church, and they "save" him, by grabbing him and speaking tongues and yelling things about the Lord, etc. It was very funny. I laughed harder than I have laughed at a movie for a very long time. Because a lot of the comedies today are crap; gross, stupid and through all that money and effort they still don't manage to make me laugh. Hopefully nobody actually takes Borats racism and sexism seriously, although as this movie shows, amazingly a lot of people are already just as bad

I have an interesting question for you guys. If you could have a little 10 minute radio segment on something, once a week or so, what would you do?

Rocky Horror Picture Show (Halloween Style)

2006-10-29T15:08:00.000-07:00

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

2006-10-29T11:35:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-10-28T17:44:00.000-06:00

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

2006-10-28T09:30:00.000-06:00

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.

2006-10-22T14:00:00.000-06:00

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!

2006-10-17T17:01:00.000-06:00

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)

2006-10-11T15:27:00.001-06:00

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. =)
------

(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

2006-10-10T17:10:00.000-06:00

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

2006-10-06T10:38:00.000-06:00

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

2006-10-05T17:32:00.000-06:00

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

2006-10-02T18:18:00.000-06:00

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.

My Meeting With Tommy Chong - Reasons Not To Smoke That Much Marijuana

2006-09-26T20:20:00.000-06:00

So today I was dragged down to the bookstore on behalf of my twin brother, by James' two friends. I don't usually have to be dragged to the bookstore, and they probably aren't used to dragging people. This was because Tommy Chong (of the infamous stoner duo Cheech and Chong) was doing a signing. Right now, Cheech is singing for the amazing reality TV singing spinoff, Celebrity Duets. This features some D-listers, and washed-up celebs trying to sing with desperate for money credible legends like Smokey Robinson, and crappy popsters, like that female country singer I can't remember the name of. And there's Little Richard too!!! Chong is signing his autobiography at independent bookstores in Calgary. That, kids is why you base your career around being young and smoking pot. You will be sure to go far.

So James' friend bought the 30$ book, probably'll help the old guy with his retirement. We walked up the stares, and the excitement brewed as we saw a pleasant looking old man with a slow voice, who could be anyones grandpa. Now we get in the two person line, and wait to get Chong to sign the book. Behind us are these punks who smell like pot and have dreads and leather jackets. We look like a couple of nervous teenagers. So Chong signs the book, he's very nice to us teenagers, asks us our names and is good when James' friend asks him to sign it for all of us. He can't spell the last three letters of my name, and he doesn't understand when I say I'm there on behalf of my brother cause he's at drumming. Oh well. He was very sweet though, and he didn't snipe at us like some adults do. I came out of the book store grinning, washed up celebrity encounters put a smile on my face. Hey, but I gotta give the man credit. He's not on a crappy D-list show, and he wrote a book about prison after spending years smoking pot. I'd rather him be my grandpa then a 65-year old version of one of those punks behind us.

What a couple of QT's.

Everybody Knows

2006-09-24T18:26:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm not sure what Everybody Knows, but I'm listening to this specific song right now (at least the Rufus Wainwright cover) and I figured it might be a good title, because I quite enjoy titles and I can't think of anything else to write as a title. I suppose this song is kinda relevant. This song has I kind of rich get richer, poor get poorer feel to it. Which fits appropriately with my topic of Starbucks. It's not about how I never go to Starbucks because I think it's immoral (that's a dead lie) or how a love Starbucks, think it's great and go there every day (not a huge lie, but it's definitely untrue). If you hate the fact I go to Starbucks sometimes once a week, just don't read this.

Anyways, I sometimes I go to Starbucks once a week, sometimes more, sometimes less. Point is, I go to the exact same Starbucks and I'm pretty familiar with the Barista's. One of them has blonde hair, one played the Smiths for me once, and there's one with short hair and stubble and a round face. So my mom was there the other day, and Mr. Shorthair starts talking to her, something like this.

B: So is your daughter back to school?
M: Uh..yeah?
B: What grade is she?
M: She's in grade 9.
B: Oh really, I thought she was in grade 10 or 11, she's so mature.
M: Nope, grade 9.
B: So, what does she like to do?
M: She loves music, she likes art and current events and stuff
(Where my mum tries to tell Barista-man about Sounds Like Canada or at least Jian Ghomeshi, obr something about me being interviewed on CBC)
B: Wow, sounds really cool.
M: Thanks for the tall decaf.

I actually didn't remember which Barista this was until I went today on a quest with my friend, to find the Barista who knows me. And he was there! Yay. I remember him now. Come to think of it, he's the one I thought was gay. Anyways. He's always been really nice, I don't know how he connected me to my mum. He was sweeping up some spilt cheerios, when I asked him if we could sit on the chairs. So Barista man's like:

B: Yep, they're all yours!
H: Oh, thanks.
B: Yah, I wanna put a sign on the door that says "no kids under 5".
H: Haha, yeah, did little kids make the mess?
B: Yes, they had cheerios.
H: Oh. I didn't know they had cheerios at Starbucks!
B: No they don't, they brought 'em.

Yay! I accomplished the mission of meeting the barista who I didn't think I knew but who talked to my mum. Now if only I could finish up my Humanities and Math homework. Is anyone really good at factoring special quadratics?

And here is my song, the campy, quirky Rufus Wainwright version of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows". You'll probably love it or hate, or it might just make you dizzy.

P.S. I only have the URL cause I'm ignorant at posting sound clips from Bolt. Click if you want to:
http://www.bolt.com/hilarym/audio/2279373

If This Is FO-SHO I'm Really Excited...

2006-09-20T16:32:00.000-06:00

So my mum is going to a career fair, for her work. This is from October 27-28. She just phoned me about this, and said that her brochure advertised one of the main presenters as being a Mr. George Stroumboulopoulos, someone you are all probably very familiar with. I'm hoping she read this right... and maybe Strombo's coming to Calgary... if it's true I doubt he'd bring the Hour with him... Cause it's on a Saturday. My mum read me the brochure on the phone, it sounded like he was going to be at the career fair. I'm not getting all riled up, cause this could be a misread, I mean it doesn't say anything about it on the career show site (http://www.thecareershow.ca). But if it's true, it would be very awesome. I get free tickets cause my mum's there too. I definitely can't confirm this, can anyone else?

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Update:

The 2006 Seminars list is coming soon, so my mum's brochure could be hot off the press, or it could be something for insiders. I'm not sure, but there still is hope.

I can write some mediocre propaganda

2006-09-18T21:30:00.000-06:00

*pssst* this isn't actually my opinion, sorry to disappoint everyone. I did write it though.

The Canadian military entered Afghanistan to assist the efforts of those rebuilding the country, after the destructive reign of the Taliban. Canada is playing a major part in Afghanistan by collecting and decommissioning thousands of heavy weapons, as well as millions of land mines, helping Afghanistan become a safer place for its people.

Our troops have bravely taken a role in Kandahar, and they are are helping to make the southern countryside more controlled and less violent and dangerous. Before the international forces came to these areas, the land and the people were torn by violence and abuse.

The Canadian troops in Afghanistan are working hard to make the country more safe for the people. If international forces were not in Afghanistan, war could very quickly break out. We are already seeing signs of freedom, women attending school, people voting for a leader. The part Canada has taken in the war is helping Afghanistan along on the road to reconstruction. This is important to Canadians as global citizens, and it is very important to the many innocent people living in Afghanistan.

If Canadian troops continue what they are doing in Afghanistan, continue saving lives and fighting against those who want to destroy the lives of innocent people, Afghanistan will continue to get closer on the road to safety and reconstruction. We need to keep up the support for our troops, both from the people of Canada and the government of Canada.

Yeah, whatever Hilary.

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PS. Final Fantasy (aka Owen Pallet, aka that major cutie gay boy who plays the violin or fiddle or whatever the damn thing is called) just won the Polaris prize. Who woulda thought. Maybe I should have gone to the concert after all. And... Billy Bragg sold out before I could bother my dad to get us tickets. Errr. That's the worst type of procrastination.

Don't you just want to give him a hug!!???

My room = Sooooo being painted right now

2006-09-15T15:42:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to get my yellow-cream/excess dirt coloured walls painted for a while now, and it is finally happening! I moved out of my room, and my laptop is currently residing on the dinner table. So I might not be on as much. But, the room is gonna be bright red, with a high-gloss grey in my nook, and maybe one wall that is mottled red and other colours. I came in this afternoon, and it was pink. Thankfully, this was just the primer. But I didn't mind the pink that much. I'm really excited about the painting though, and possible redecorating too!! That's one of the more girly things about me.

In other news, school is as busy as ever. It's weird, but one of my favourite classes right now (besides Humanities) is math. I think it's because we have a good teacher, but it's actually kinda fun solving all the cute little problems. I've never had that much fun in Polynomials! I'm having some trouble and procrastinating a bit in Humanities though. We're doing a lot of stuff that interests me. But a lot that doesn't. Of course, I'll have my work finished up and stuff by Monday... but still. In Science, I switched back into Science 9, because I'd rather focus on my other subjects and not have to do a whole bunch of extra work in science, which isn't my fav. My science 9 teacher is pretty awesome though. He wears glasses and plaid shirts, but he also really likes punk rock... We had him last year too, although this year he's claiming to make us work harder. So far it's been pretty easy though. Last night was "meet the teachers". I love these things, cause I can guide my parents around and see what teachers think of me, and check if they are fake in front of my parents. First we came to my humanities teacher, who my parents really like. He seems not to really mind the fact I raise my hand a lot. Then we saw my science teacher, but my brother's science teacher was in the same room, so I came in and talked to him while my parents were talking to my brother's teacher. Problem is, when they were finished with James' teacher they didn't have a lot to talk about with my science teacher, cause I already talked to him. After that we saw my math teacher, my parents were nervous about me going into the room because my brother's math teacher (who I had last year) was in there too. They didn't want her to know I was his sister, in fear of soiling his reputation. I still went in and talked to my math teacher, who my parents have met before. I think I tired them out in the end though. Oh well, I still love "meet the teachers".

Tomorrow I'm going to the Chili Pepper's concert with a friend. I'm looking forward to it, though I feel like a bit of a concert poser, for not having any of their CD's. Oh well, it'll still be fun.

Leonard Cohen and Church

2006-09-10T21:30:00.000-06:00

Err!! I've tried to do this for the tenth time today before my stupid computer overheats and zaps away.

Yesterday my mum and I had a lovely night out (the last night before my brother came back), Indian + movie. We went to a really good east Indian place by the theatre. First we shared a coconut calamari that was realllly good, I was embarrassingly trying to pick up the rest of the sauce with my fork when the waiter came. Then I had coconut curry with prawns for an entree. The sauce was basically the same as the calamari which was really cool with me. We also had a side of garlic naan... mmmm. Anyways, really good meal, not too big which is sometimes a problem I have at some restaurants when the food is in outrageously large quantities. After we walked down the block to the movie at 6:40.

We saw Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man or I'm Your Man: Leonard Cohen or whatever. The movie was a bit of a tribute to Leonard Cohen, with different artists performing his songs, flashbacks to his life and an interview with the Man himself. This film got pretty good reviews, it was kinda trashed by the Globe and Mail, which I thought was a bit unfair. I really enjoyed the performances by the different artists, although I'm a little biased because I was not unfamiliar with the cast. That would be Wainwright/McGarrigle clan, Beth Orton, Antony Hegarty etc... I thought for the most part the performances were really refreshing. I really liked Martha Wainwright's rendition of "The Traitor", Nick Cave's "I'm Your Man", Rufus and "Chelsea Hotel No. 2", Anthony's "If It Be Your Will", Beth Orton and "Sisters Of Mercy", most of the performances actually. Really the most engaging points where when Leonard Cohen talked about his life and his songs, between the performances. He said the performances "brought his songs to life", which is so true because Leonard Cohen song's aren't living, but immortal and spiritual. The only part I kinda hated was when Bono talked. Because he sounded silly with his sunglasses and pretentiousness and stuff... not very Leonard Cohen at all.

Speaking of spiritual, this morning I attended church for the first time since... probably when I was five and went to church once with my granny. We walked to the nice old inner-city United Church, and despite the fact it was an inner-city United Church and the pastor was like 30 and there was a little gay rainbow on the sign I still came in there a little cautious. Turns out it was really interesting, not at all "hell-fire and brimstoney" but very tolerant and cool. The two main subjects I recall were wine and casinos. The reverend talked about visiting the Naramada vineyards this summer (which my parents visited and loved last summer), and specifically the story behind one of the labels "Blasted Church". I won't go into the story because it's 10:00 and I've already typed too much. But he said thought he would really like this to be a "Blasted Church", because of a couple reasons, all very interesting and relevant. Then he talked about how Bishop Henry's (outspoken and very annoying, intolerant Calgary religious leader, in my opinion) thing on banning casinos from fundraising, and how it was the only thing he'd ever agreed with Bishop Henry on. My mum was at a casino for an organization she works with on Friday night. She really hated it, the smoke and the sad people, but it did help the organization. The reverend was talking about how wealthy people will go to a casino to get 50 dollars off for their kids hockey even though their rich and they wear their worst clothes because of the smoke, and make comments about the less-fortunate people at the tables. I agree with him about that being really wasteful, and I think it's stupid that their work is definitely not benefiting the poor people who are gambling. This is a really two-sided issue though, because casinos are something that really helps out schools. Personally I think the government should be helping out Alberta schools more, but that's okay. It was a really interesting service, and I'm glad that there are some sensible, tolerant religious people in the world. It made me change my mind a bit about organized religion.

The Falling Man

2006-09-07T18:27:00.000-06:00

I remember September 11th, as a nine-year old waking up in the morning, hearing about a tragedy in the United States. It was a tragedy amongst other things in the world, heartbreaking because it was an act caused by humans. After I first heard about the planes and the people, I would hear much more at school. I remember a fuzzy school TV turned to the news, my teacher writing “Palestinians” and “Terrorists” on the board, as possible causes of this horrible occurrence. She told us how she remembered what she was wearing the day Kennedy was shot, and to this day I recall wearing light flower-embroidered jeans and a white jacket. I recall this so vividly because to my nine-year old self it seemed so close to me, the buildings and the people in a city not completely different from my city. The days that past we saw the pictures of the firefighters and the rubble, we heard the explanation, that as a young child I only somewhat understood. Slowly the event faded to the back of my young mind. There were other tragedies, other social issues, some close and some far, some that were immense and almost intangible, some that seemed closer but still very large.

Every year in September we remember 9/11, it was something that brought death closer to us. But for a long while I have only briefly thought of that day, as the memory of it becomes a discussion for the media. In school this morning, my English teacher showed us a cream-coloured paper with a painting on it that his young son had drawn on September 11th five years ago. It had three different symbols, one big picture, or whatever someone might have seen it as. We saw a simple blue and black plane, broken and jagged with a yellow flame on the wing and a red cockpit. I might be describing this so harshly, because I’m aware of the context, but this was a serious airplane. The next one was just a person, alone in the middle of the page. With a circle head and an oval body with long legs and no arms. Standing between the two cold structures. Beside the person to the right was a big blue building, with a black, yellow and red explosion of heat below it. The top of the building had a streak of red, vertical toward the bottom.

We were told to talk about these pictures until we finally ran out of words. I contributed to the conversation, sometimes I think I raise my hand too much in class and this particularly made me want to talk. I thought the plane looked “harsh and fast” by the colours and the way it was painted. People commented that it looked “broken” and they mentioned the burning wing. We heard that the person was “hollow”, how they might be facing the fire, how they had no arms, I thought the person looked very alone in the middle of this painting. After this we talked about the building. Some mentioned the black shape surrounded by red and black could be an explosion. There was fire, and the building also looked “broken”. I thought the building looked a bit like it was bleeding, and the warm colours of the explosion really contrasted with the blue in the building. This made me think more about 9/11, and for the first time in 5 years I really thought a lot about the tragedy that happened when I was just nine years old.
Tonight on TV I watched a documentary on CBC’s “The Passionate Eye”, a program I’m not unfamiliar with. The feature documentary was called “The Falling Man” and it was about the people who jumped from the building, particularly a man caught in a graceful position, with his head to earth in what appears to be a serene moment during this plunge. This documentary told a story that we haven’t often heard, the one of the jumpers. This picture captured not only the chaos and intensity of the moment but the serenity in someone’s last seconds on earth. The falling man represents to us someone struck by tragedy, just a simple person who felt the pressure to jump for freedom from the smoke and hopelessness of the building. He is just one of the many people who perished in the towers but he is the face of all those who died. Staring at death and making the final decision, and trying to escape from the heat of the building to freedom. Now that I’ve heard about this, I think back to that person in the middle of the painting. It doesn’t have a race or religion; it isn’t a man or a woman. It is someone who is affected by a tragedy, who feels heartbreak; it could be anyone on earth. Horrible things happen, and all of us could be affected. The falling man and the person in the picture share common positions; they are both in the middle of everything. They are both connected to that tragedy, and represent something to us, something that is definitely human.

Tomorrow Morning I Will Wake Up At 7:30

2006-09-04T19:57:00.000-06:00

Because, tomorrow morning is the start of a new school year. I probably won't wake up at 7:30 though, more like 7:50. I'm not exactly an early riser. And I'm not as excited about school as I was last year, there are certain aspects that are very positive for me and there are parts that aren't. But that's life. I know the first week will be a lot of fun, it usually is. The excitement will die down, and I'll get into my regular routine of procrastination and uhh... homework too. They don't go hand in hand well, but I manage to make it work. Nahh... I don't procrastinate too much, or at least I don't want to.

This year's pretty important for me, even though I have no clue about my future. Which gets me talking about careers and stuff, and how people change their career's and the future is (definitely) unwritten (the poster on my wall says this). When I was five I wanted to be a veteranarian. But now I'm not to keen on science, and I think I'm allergic to cats. Grade 3 it was the Prime Minister of Canada. I think I've read the news enough to know that that's a shitty job. Grade 6 it was a lawyer (I don't know what I was thinking). Currently, I enjoy reading, writing and learning about things. I'm interested in music and entertainment, politics and the world. I'm not too shabby at English, and I'm interested in Social. I like writing, creative writing and telling stories. Research projects are interesting, but I need to learn how to take notes and reference better. I somewhat enjoy math, although I'd never think of it as a career. I'm not too good at science, though some of it's interesting. I'm pretty creative, and I'm not bad at art. I like performing arts, although I'm not brilliant at it. I like talking to people, meeting people and people. I'm pretty opinionated which can be good and bad. I love to read. I'm not sure what that could lead to, but it doesn't matter because I'm not old enough to care that much.

In other news, we went to BC this weekend which was plenty fun. Spent a lot of time walking, lounging, swimming, talking and messing up my hair to look like Ryan Adams' (you know, really messy and a couple inches above shoulder length). Thought of a really cool idea on the way there. If I have nothing to do during the school year, I could start up another blog with video and audio stuff. Basically I would pick a topic every 2 weeks or something that has to do with current events or everyday life and put together a video or audio clip about the topic. I could interview people in this little city who somewhat have a connection to this topic, or ask people on the street. I could research it up and add my own commentary. I would need some more equipment, but I think it might be really fun. But it depends on the amount of time I have and if I can get the equipment and a lot of things.

ohh.. plus++++

Things that scare me: Metal music, breaking expensive things, death
People who make me laugh: Morrissey, my brother, Barry Manilow, Sabrina Jalees
Things I hate the most: Intolerance, horrible music, brussel sprouts
Things I don't understand: Intolerance, the stock market, Stephen Harper's wife
Things I'm doing right now: Looking at a screen, listening to the clothes dryer, breathing
Things I want to do before I die: Have a successful career, move somewhere else, go to university, travel somewhere very different
Things I can do: Talk, write, curl my tongue, ski
Ways to describe my personality: Outgoing, silly, inquisitive, a little cynical
Things I can't do: Watch TV for more than 2 hours, not finish something, sing Rufus Wainwright while playing guitar, sleep in the car
Things I think you should listen to: People who care, music you like, The Clash
Things you should never listen to: Judgmental people, nails on a chalkboard, Mel Gibson
Things I'd like to do: Find a new band to like, Learn both english and french, get good grades
Favourite foods: Indian food (curries and Shrimp Korma), fetuccini alfredo, seafood, chocolate
Beverages I drink regularly: Chai tea, water, orange juice, milk
Shows I watched as a kid: Sesame Street, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Arthur

But I still am a kid.
=)

You Guys Probably Won't Be Seeing Me Post Anymore About Ulysses (And That's A Good Thing)

2006-08-29T18:00:00.001-06:00

So guess what!
Last night I finished Ulysses!
It's finished!
My task is completed!

I kinda feel guilty for reading it this fast, but hey, I had a lot of spare time. Anyways, right now I'm too tired of that damn book to write more than a paragraph about it, so maybe I'll analyze it in a couple years. I thought it was interesting though, certainly not like anything I've read before. It's definitely something that I can think about after I've read it.

*Warning, this paragraph contains opinions. If you don't agree with me, let me know, but don't expect me to change my opinion.
I've heard of people that believe because I'm 14 I shouldn't be reading a book like Ulysses. I assume, because of the sexual content. I certainly did not skip the "mature" parts of the book, and I honestly don't think I've been harmed in doing so. How do their parents expect teens to learn about sexuality, if they don't talk to them about it. I don't think that ignorance will help with anything. I'm not suggesting that little kids should be reading Ulysses, if you're not mature enough to understand the book, you probably aren't mature enough to read the sexual parts. I think people should use their best judgment when dealing with this. Is it really fair to wait until your kid gets pregnant, or impregnates someone else to teach them what birth control is. Anyways, that issue is a lot more complicated. But my point is exposure to some things like Ulysses won't harm someone like me, who wants to learn, and who might not benefit from ignorance. But really, it's not just black and white.

Anyways.
Enough errpinions. I strongly suggest checking out the opener of SLC on Thursday. Cause it might even feature your favourite 14 year old Ulysses reader. I don't guarantee it, but you never know.

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Update: They didn't play any of moi today (I probably sound pitifully along with Peter Mansbridge, Anne Maria Tremonti, Paul Henderson and Jian's Dad) but they might have something on Friday. Again, I don't guarantee it...

Little Miss Sunshine

2006-08-28T12:20:00.000-06:00

Last night we decided to go to the movies. There isn't a lot out, but the one movie I (and the rest of my family) wanted to see was Little Miss Sunshine. About a dysfunctional family on their way to a beauty pageant. So we drove downtown to the theatre, and arrived to a substantial line-up to see the movie. I was glad there was a whole bunch of different people coming to see it, usually that theatre isn't very lined up (with the exception of Brokeback Mountain, which had huge line-ups). I was totally sporting the 80's look, leggings, green Clash t-shirt with belt, sequined flats. It's not really that important that I was sporting the 80's look, but it sounds cool to say. I think I'm going to try and do a review of the movie with important points about the characters a in bold, because I've realized it's a fairly effective way of getting my point across if you don't want to read the whole thing.

The movie opened with little snap-shots of what the family was like. It started with the mum bringing her suicidal brother home from the hospital, to live with her family. Family which is:

The father, Richard (Greg Kinnear). You want to hate him, but you also kinda pity him. He basically has one of those weird, winner's and loser's self-help theories. But the irony is that he's a loser and needs help.
The grandfather (Alan Arkin). He got kicked out of his seniors home for smoking heroin, and says "Fuck" like teenage girls say "like". But you can tell he really does care for his family.
The son, Dwayne (Paul Dano). He has taken a vow of silence, hates his family and reveres Nietzsche. He's a pretty typical teenager. He's also kinda cute. In a pale, adolescent way.
The mother, Sheryl (Toni Collette). She's a bit frantic and crazy, a little overworked, but overall she has a good heart.
Her brother, Frank (Steve Carell). He fell in love with a guy who didn't love him back, lost his job and attempted suicide which is how he ends up with his sisters family. He's one of the most sane of the family, he's also very sincere and caring.
The daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin). You can't help love her, she's sweet to everyone, caring and down-to-earth. And really cute. She contrasts amazingly to all the other girls in the beauty pageant.

When Olive gets a chance to compete in the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant, the whole family takes a road trip to California. We follow them from their home in New Mexico, and the trip is anything but uneventful. The movie has a sweet tone, but it's definitely the funniest movie I've seen this year. Although, I do have to warn you the beauty pageant scene is very, very terrifying. The movie had an instrumental soundtrack, that really went well along with the scenes. It had Sufjan Steven's "Chicago" which is a favourite of mine, and also another Sufjan track at the end. This was an interesting, hilarious and sweet movie, I would definitely recommend it.

Back to...

2006-08-26T10:01:00.000-06:00

Summer's been so awesome, I don't want to even think of back to school shopping. Usually there's always some positive thing associated with school in September. This year, I don't want summer to be over! I guess I'm excited to see my classes and teachers, and all my friends (of course). But I also hate to leave the freedom of summer. Which is silly, because coming back to school is inevitable. I mean, life can't be one long summer break (unless you're a rock star, and still...).

We went clothes shopping yesterday, and it was quite successful. I got a pair of jean capri's, one pair of jeans, a striped shirt (although there are a lot of them nowadays), two pairs of leggings-one polka dot and one brown (Hey, they were super cute and there was a sale), one pair of really cute (but small) flats with rainbow sequins (god bless Winners), and a pair of pretty cheap multicoloured converse. This was all very fun, but reminded me school's coming around the corner. I am having some trouble accepting that I have only a couple weeks of summer ahead of me. I'm also having trouble accepting that Sounds Like Canada (in the summer) will be over soon, and I have less than a week to finish Ulysses. But I'm pretty sure I can. I have about 230 pages to go. I think I'll do it. Maybe even I can finish it on Monday. You never know.

Speaking of Ulysses, I have some more Ulysses related pictures for everyone. "Ulysses by the Poolside".

I'm thinking of getting a part-time job for the rest of the summer, and after school. I'm thinking of working at a coffee shop, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Ulysses Sleepover

2006-08-24T11:52:00.000-06:00

Possibly not the coolest kinda of sleepover.
So after we went to a movie, Snakes On A Plane. Snakes was surprisingly better than I thought, in a cute, B-movie kind of way. Not excellent. But it was okay. There were some funny parts and some very gory parts. I liked when the huge Anaconda tried to swallow the snotty english dude (English people are generally given bad roles in American movies) and when the bodyguard piloted the plane to safety with his PS2 knowledge.

Then, Jenn decided to stay over, and bring Ulysses with her. We got home, watched a movie (Before Night Falls) which was about a Cuban writer who was jailed and stuff, and exiled cause he was gay. Johnny Depp appeared to be in this movie, but really didn't have a huge part as the transvestite/weird lieutenant dude. In the end of the movie he gets exiled to New York, and after living there he dies of AIDS. It was a depressing movie. After that I read about 20 pages of Ulysses, which brings me to 550. Jenn read Ulysses too.

Jenn=Left w/ long hair Hilary=Right w/short hair

Then this morning, we heard Sounds Like Canada. I'd like to thank the dude who wrote in, grateful of my Jefferson Airplane selection. Not everyone listens to only Frank and Nancy Sinatra from 1967. I was also astonished at being called a "14year old wonder girl". Thanks Jian, my mum's laughing at me now. I hope everyone liked my message (and Jenn's also), and I meant no offense to those over 39, because you guys are as fresh as daisies. "Old man" just has a nice ring to it.

Fireworks! (and everyone's favourite 14year old Ulysses reader)

2006-08-23T11:07:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, I was invited to a birthday celebration which involved the International Fireworks Competition, part of Globalfest. After some not-very-entertaining jazz band finally finished, we had speeches from the MP, MLA and Alderman. And to be honest, Diane Ablonzy reading us a letter from Stephen Harper made me very anxious for the fireworks to begin. So they took a while to begin, but the fireworks were great! I've never seen such interesting fireworks, although I usually experience little green roman candles echoing across our lake. It was pretty amazing what some of the fireworks did. My digital camera has a "Firework" setting, which basically just takes a long time to expose, and it shows the entire trail of the firework. Which is pretty cool. Here are some pictures I took:

By the way, tomorrow you might want to give Sounds Like Canada a listen. You never know who might call in. And if you listened today you might have heard, Jian read a letter from a woman who was inspired by my interview to continue reading. And my progress, fortunatly is not a clever ruse. Although it did take a lot of guts and patience not to lose... hope that is.

"Has the perrier gone straight to my head? Or is life sick and cruel, instead?"

2006-08-21T11:30:00.000-06:00

I would like to take the cue from Barbara B., and include a cynical, beverage-related Smiths' quote to introduce my post.

I'm on page 490 of Ulysses, which is past the halfway mark! I've been doing a lot of reading lately, because I have a lot of time to spare. Sometimes I read to much in a day, and acquire "Ulysses Exposure Syndrome" or UES, which makes me quit for the day. I also feel like I'm understanding it a bit better. It really feels awesome to understand parts of that book. So, my goal for the week is to get past or to page 650. And hopefully, to catch up with Jian. My friend Jenn has also begun reading. I hope she didn't feel any pressure for being told to on national radio. She's around page 200 or so. I think I've proved that teenagers are capable of reading books like this, if they put their mind to it. I'm pretty confident in myself right now. I'll be able to get through this, as long as the Perrier I'm drinking doesn't get to my head. I am drinking Perrier. But I usually mix it with juice. I like Perrier, because it makes lime-flavoured bubbly water sound sophisticated.

But for now, I was listening to the 80's station in the car when they started to play a Smith's song called "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side". I know all the words to this song, so I entertained my mum and brother with my Morrissey voice and Morrissey dance moves. Note the waggly eyebrows, and Johnny Marr's heart-melting gaze.

Interview

2006-08-17T09:39:00.000-06:00

Here's the interview with me. I hope I'm not breaking any laws. I made it as a video, because I'm not tech savvy enough to do anything else. The bonus is the "interesting" visuals.
btw. It probably takes a millenia to load. Have fun.

http://www.bolt.com/hilarym/video/1981762

My Interview With Jian Ghomeshi (A Success, In My Honest Opinion)

2006-08-16T13:43:00.000-06:00

I'm surprised that I'm not too excited to blog. Just got back from my interview with Jian Ghomeshi for Sounds Like Canada.

My dad drove me there, after I'd had a tea and tryed not to be nervous. We got to the CBC parking lot, took a couple pictures and went in. We were a couple minutes late, and we got escorted by a producer to the studio where the interview took place. My dad and the producer sat down in the studio, while I went to the recording place. Jian was a couple minutes late, but once he got there he just talked a bit about the Song Of The Day with me, which made me a lot less nervous. It was probably about the easiest conversation I'd had with someone I didn't really know.

So then we went on air, and I waited while he concluded the Song Of The Day, and introduced the Ulysses bit. Then the interview started. I'm not going to say much, but it was a blast. Jian is completly easy to talk to. I kinda felt bad though, cause I was a bit hard on him for being old. My friend Jenn will be ecstatic, because I mentioned her. So then I introduced the song, and it was over. I was talking with the producer and my dad, when Jian asked if I was still there and I made it over to the mic to talk with him a bit more. After that we made our way down the hallway and they gave me a couple of "The One" posters, with a big George Stroumboulopoulos on them, whose birthday is today. Happy Birthday George!

It was an awesome experience. And from now on, I will definitely refer to Jian as "dude" instead of "adult". Cause he is one cool dude. Seriously. (Even if I was a bit mean to him on air).

So everyone. Tune in tomorrow (Thursday). 10:00-11:30. CBC. My part will air around 11:10, after the Song Of The Day.

Pretty Bird

2006-08-15T09:38:00.000-06:00

So this Friday, my brother's friend's bird was dropped off at our house. Her name is Wally, and she's a green and yellow budgie. I've been taking care of her since then, because my brother wasn't here this weekend. I've never actually taken care of a bird. Or really met a bird for that matter. She's really social, and she loves music. When I play my guitar (no matter how bad I am) she'll chirp along, and move back and forth. And since her owner is a huge metal fan, she excitedly moves back and forth to Iron Maiden and chirps along. I never thought of birds being very interesting, but she's very interactive. She's also quite a handful, but I'm pretty good at taking care of that. My whole family really likes her, my dad comes to see her every morning before he's off to work. So I guess she's quite a star. You always think of birds as those carefree things that fly around outside, who don't seem very sentient. But this budgie's just like a cat or a dog. Except littler. And less furry.

Blue Monday

2006-08-13T13:21:00.000-06:00

Just an update regarding my last post. My dad owns a 12 inch 45 of "Blue Monday" by New Order, which was referred to in the film "24-Hour Party People". So we decided to play it this morning on my dad's super hi-fi record player and speakers. At really high volume. I was kind of surprised New Order wasn't playing in my basement, or I wasn't actually standing in the Hacienda at a live concert. It was amazing, although my nieghbours are probably a little confused about the loud bass noise wafting through the nieghbourhood. We also listened to a Pretenders 12 inch 45 and "Bela Lugosi is Dead" by Bauhaus on a 12 inch 45. It's amazing how much you miss when just listening to music on an iPod or on the radio.

Mad-chester

2006-08-12T10:34:00.000-06:00

So last night was movie night. My dad and went to the video store, (the snobby, bald dude was there) and spent a very long time looking for movies. The new realeases we haven't seen were all crap in my opinion, so after looking though them we went to the older movie section. My dad wanted to get a movie that was released around 4 years ago, about Manchester and Factory records, called 24-Hour Party People . Surprisingly, it was there. I got Moonstruck and Rain Man. Probably the most random couple of movies ever. But they were both on the Academy Awards rack, and I hadn't seen 'em. Plus, Cher makes me giggle. Haven't watch them yet, I might today. And when I went to pay for the movies, I didn't get the snobby bald guy but a girl who was really nice.

Anyways, so we watched 24-Hour Party People. The narrator kind of character, is Tony Wilson who created Factory Records and managed bands like Joy Division (and after New Order) and the Happy Mondays. It took place between 1976 and 1992. Pete Coogan does an excellent job as the cheeky, somewhat sleazy Tony Wilson who has a TV show introducing bands like the Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Stranglers and Sex Pistols to Manchester. After the first Sex Pistols gig in Manchester he's inspired to open a bar and get some good bands to play. This is were we are introduced to Joy Division. Wilson creates a label "Factory Records" and signs Joy Division. The rest is history, and the rest of the movie follows the transformation of Factory records and Tony Wilson from the horrible death of Ian Curtis, the opening of the Hacienda and the beginning of the Happy Mondays and finally, the closing of the Hacienda and the fall of Factory records. In the last scene, Tony Wilson sees god, who tells him that he did well but it was a pity he didn't sign the Smiths. This is a great movie if you're interested in the Manchester scene from the late 70's to the early 90's. It's very funny and interesting, and tells a great story.

A scene from the movie, when New Order ruthlessly poisons the pigeons.

2006-08-10T22:08:00.000-06:00

I had quite a boring day today, except for a few exceptions. I think I'm going to do them in bullet points, because I think bullet points are quite amazing, actually. I'm also going to bold the words I think are super-special.

Sounds Like Canada this morning featured "Poses" by Rufus Wainwright as the must music song of the day. I knew Jian would play it someday. I recorded some of what he said about it on my computer, and I'll brag about it to my mum when she gets home.
My neighbours cat let me pet it, for the first time in 8 years. Then it hissed at me.
My friend and I were having a discussion about CDs at Starbucks (yeah I'm a sucker for Starbucks, you can disapprove). I told her the most CDs I have bought from one artist are probably the Smiths, and the little dude who's always there was standing right by. So while we're drinking are fraputhingys, "William, It Was Really Nothing" starts playing. My theory is the little dude overheard, maybe it's just pure coincidence. It would've made my day except Jian Ghomeshi already did.
We couldn't rent our Cher movie at the video store, because the snobby, bald, loser wasn't excepting a name and phone number and I forgot the card. I hate when people are totally taciturn toward teenagers. That was a sweet alliteration!
I bought Ulysses at Chapters. Along with a magazine with Thom Yorke on the cover. There were about 4 of them. I bought the cheapest. I got Ulysses not because I actually believe I'm going to read almost 1000 pages of it by Labour Day. But because I think we need a copy of Ulysses in the house. I've read 4 pages so far. I optimistically hope to reach page 20 by the end of the night.
It rained. A lot.

That's it. My entire day, drained into a couple interesting points. The rest was me on the computer, or me walking around, or me doing the dishes and helping with supper.

2006-08-09T11:09:00.000-06:00

Ok Go-Here It Goes Again

Here's a video I heard about on Sounds Like Canada this morning. It's incredibly amusing when you're bored. And the songs not bad either.

2006-08-09T09:51:00.000-06:00

Here are some carefully selected photos of my vacation, to make you think I had fun. Ah, just kidding I had a blast, I hope you'll enjoy them. I might post some more from our fishing trip, cause those are currently on my dad's camera.

The big tree. I forget if it's before Brandon or after Brandon. Well, it's in Manitoba.

Taking the "Nestea Plunge" at a grocery store in Portage La Prairie.

Entering One Great City...

The Marina where our boat is parked.

A fabulous sunset against the pines of our nieghbouring island.

Fireworks one night on the rock.

My brother, catching a pike.

The "World's Biggest Teepee" in Medicine Hat.

Strathmoore. My favourite town in the world.

And we're back home.

Catching Up.

2006-08-07T19:00:00.000-06:00

For today I'll update everyone one what's happened since the time that I last posted in the cyber cafe. My cousins arrived, which was really fun. It's always good to catch up with family. We went on a fishing trip, and "acquired" eight fish. Acquired because we caught three, and were "gifted" five. Oh well, it made for good supper anyways.

I had been devoutly listening to Sounds Like Canada the entire time, and managed to send an email when I had the advantage of a cyber cafe. Jian had Justin Trudeau on a week ago or so, and was joking about himself being the "persian Justin Trudeau". I sent an email that said something like, "Don't worry Jian, my mum thinks you're the persian Justin Trudeau. Best Wishes, hilary m.". My mother and I were sitting down on the dock when it was read that Thursday, and it gave us a chuckle. She did in fact say that she thought Jian could definitely be the persian Justin Trudeau, for intelligence, and of course charming good looks. Unfortunatly, they didn't reply to our offer about 4th row Who seats.

Soon after, we left for home, stopping in Moose Jaw at the spa. I'm not really a huge fan of riding in cars. Especially since the scenery from Winnipeg to Calgary isn't horribly extravagant. I had a good Madeliene L'Engle book (which I finished when we got to Regina), and my iPod. I suppose it was okay. We also were listening to the Satellite Radio. Which is kinda interesting, it really depends. I love Moose Jaw though, it's great for a little town in Saskatchewan. Staying there is a pleasure. On our way to the cottage I stopped at Moose Jaw and acquired a shirt from a music store called "Time Warp" that had the store logo and said "I got WARPED in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan", it's priceless. So now I'm back in Calgary, trying to catch up with everything. Which is kinda tricky.

My computer is being horrible. So I've decided to post a blog with pictures in the near future. Stay calm... be brave... and wait for the signs.

My brother would like to post On Why I Have a Blog/Our Fishing Excursion

2006-07-31T17:46:00.000-06:00

"I'm Hilary and I have a blog"(Thats a fancy term for weblog). That's my impression of Hilary(get it?). I asked her why she has a blog. She tells me she doesn't know. I'm not a very good investigative reporter ;(. I guess I'm forced to make my own deductions.

So it's like this: Hilary has a blog and I like cutting fish open. Or not. I'm not very good at this. I guess thats why she has a blog and I don't. She wants me to say "we are in ontario and having fun". Which is no fun. No one would want to read a blog like that. At least I wouldn't. I would rather burn my own flesh than read crap like that. Anyways I'm in Ontario and having fun.

Peace, James (M.)

-------------

Sometimes visiting a cyber cafe is quite refreshing. Other times it's rather boring, after having spent the day doing interesting stuff you would do at a cottage. I feel a bit of pity for James, because I've spent the time here blogging and sending emails, while he watches. So I let him write something down. Maybe it was a bad idea. I'm not quite sure.

It's surprisingly hard to write about a vacation, especially when you're at a cottage because you're having a lot of fun but nothing really significant or interesting happens. We went on a "fishing" excursion yesterday. It was more of a "ing" excursion, because there weren't any fish involved. The fish we were catching are pickerel, or "Walleye". We weren't really catching them though, because as I mentioned previously there were no fish, therefore no catching. We spent a couple hours in the hot sun, before we came back to the island. After this we went swimming, which was very refreshing because of the heat. I decided to look under the dock with some goggles. I was looking around under there, at the weeds and stuff when I turn to the side and there's a fish staring at me, a few inches from my fish. So I go out with a rod and minnow and catch a Walleye under the dock, in less than thirty seconds. Soon I have another. And there's our supper. Walleye are probably the most tasty freshwater fish in my opinion. I'm a vegetarion. But I'm also a fisheatin' vegetarian, because I can't live without seafood. So we had fish for dinner that night. It was delicious. I caught another one under the dock today, so there's more dinner. This might sound utterly unimportant, but it was actually quite exciting. The moral of the story is: "Don't spend two hours fishing in the blistering heat when you can catch a bunch of perfectly nice Walleye's under the dock".

There we go.
I hope that I'll be able to post some pictures soon, Unfortunatly I haven't got the chance so far.

hilary m.

-------------

Hilary left out a detail. The only reason they were perfectly fine fish is because I'm such a master at filleting them. Actually not really. Too bad she couldn't do any of that work due to an unfortunate emotional attachment to "Sparky" and "Spanky". However, it was a good experience. I got to wack a fish on the head till it was dead (enough), and then cut a big piece of juicy meat off of the side. I swear it didn't make me gag or anything. Actually, if anything it made me hungry.

Peace.

Lack of technology never felt this good!

2006-07-28T17:07:00.000-06:00

You might be wondering about the title, considering I'm typing on a computer and I seem to be communicating using this wonderous piece of technology. Really I'm just utilizing the wireless internet at a cyber cafe, so it's all good. I've been spending the past couple of weeks on my lovely little island, in the middle of a lake in Northwestern Ontario.

It's great to spend time totally away from-dare I say it-technology. And in a lovely setting. I can swim every day, listen to music, read or just kind of sit there savouring the precious amount of time I am free to spend. The only connection with the "real" world is the radio, which is on quite a lot. My dad bought Sirius, which is even cooler than I realized. There's a very nice, eclectic variety of stations we get. A lot of them are really good. Unlike this crap that's coming from the speakers in the cyber cafe. Oh, and of course we have our CBC.

I have a morning routine going on now. Wake up at 9. Have a bowl of Froot-Loops (yumyum). Turn Thunder Bay CBC on at 10. Listen to Sounds Like Canada and wish that I had a computer to send numerous emails to Jian Ghomeshi. I spend the rest of the day either lounging or swimming, or a combination of both.

So last week on SLC, I heard that Jian was a big Who fan and wanted to go to one of the concerts on their latest tour. Next time I called my dad, I persuaded him to offer Jian two of the fourth row Who tickets we very luckily scored. He hasn't responded yet! I sent an email to Chris Murphy aka Dr. Shrugs that asked if he could help me with my grief associated with Jian snubbing our offer. I'll be pretty sad if he doesn't reply to that also!

Hope everyone is having a good summer, and listening to music a lot better than this country crap that I have to bear. And I hope no one else is getting rudely ignored by Jian Ghomeshi (I understand he gets myriads of emails, but geee).

hilary m.

My summer so far

2006-07-15T09:17:00.000-06:00

I left for camp two weeks ago, and I'm very sure a lot has happened to me since then.
The first week was basically learning to climb and belay well, and to river canoe well. We spent two days at Wasooch and Heart Creek rock climbing. It was something I'd never experienced before and I really liked it. I have to admit that I was a bit afraid of heights so I was kinda scared to get lowered down off the huge rock wall. After that we went on our canoe trip, from Ghost Dam to Cochrane. I love river canoeinng, so this was a lot of fun. We got to stop at a lagoon-y area, with cliffs to jump off. Once we found our camping spot, there was a huge hail storm and I found myself hiding under a drooping tarp with everyone else in my group. Five minutes later the sky was sunny and beautiful, ahh Alberta weather. Here's some pictures from the first week.

The next week we went on our four day hike, which basically was carrying a huge backpack up a mountain pass, and yelling "YO BEAR" every ten seconds. There was a really cool cabin on the second day of our hike, that was abandoned and adopted by the hikers and horseback riders. It had a couple bunks and a whole bunch of old food, that you were free to take. We wrote our names down in the guest book. We walked by a horse ranch the third day, called "Anchor D". I found their website! www.anchord.com. The ranch and the cabin were the only civilization we saw, until we reached the campground on the third night. Which had composting toilets and old people. It was a fun hike though. Unfortunatly, my camera broke *weeps softly* before I left, so I didn't get any pictures at all. I'm crossing my fingers it's fixable. I have such bad luck with camera's.

Tomorrow I'm heading off to my cabin. It's a 15 hour car ride. I'll probably be staying in Moose Jaw tomorrow night, instead of Moosimin at the Bates Hotel. Okay. So it wasn't the Bates Hotel. But it smelt bad. Then we'll drive to Winnipeg, get groceries and stuff you can get in Winnipeg. Then three and a half hours and I'm there! I'll be at my cabin for 3 weeks. I love it there. We have our own island (It's very small, and it's been in the family for years) 1 kilometre from the town. I love the privacy of it. It's not necessarily as outdoors as camp, but we only have electricity at night. Which means no phone, TV, computer..microwave. Our water comes from the lake, and our drinking water comes in bottles. It's not like I'm that much of an outdoors person, but after the stress of the school year it's great to get outside and just be away from everything. I'm really looking forward to it.

Camp Songs

2006-07-08T11:46:00.000-06:00

I'm back from camp!

Well, only for today. I have to attend my grannies funeral, she passed away last Sunday. I'll be speaking, so wish me luck!

I've had a lot of fun at camp so far, canoeing, rock climbing, swimming. It's been awesome. Here are some songs I wish I could listen to whilst participating in those activities, at camp:

Hallelujah-Performed by Rufus Wainwright (This was playing in the van on the way back from river canoeing, I was about to cry)
Power Out-Arcade Fire (Appropriatly named)
Blackbird-The Beatles
Redemption Song-Joe Strummer & Johnny Cash
American Pie-Don Mclean (Cliche, but it really does well in a camp environment)
Is It Really So Strange?-The Smiths (This is a funny sing-along, if you're weird like me. I even can do actions)
I Want You-Bob Dylan
Complainte Pour St. Catherine-Kate and Anna McGarrigle (One of my counsellors is from Montreal, so I figured this is appropriate since my french is improving a little)
The Mariner's Revenge-The Decemberists
Music When The Lights Go Out-The Libertines
Reconstruction Site-The Weakerthans

There we go, I have a playlist but no iPod.

best wishes,

hilary m.

Bye for now

2006-07-02T08:34:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm heading off to camp for two weeks. So in less I find a sanctuary of beautiful computers, I'm not gonna be blogging anything. Or listening to any music. Listen to some music for me, will ya?

I'm pretty excited about it, meeting new friends and going on trips and stuff. At least I have some books to read. I have some book about a kid in a psychiatric ward in New York, my boating license manuel thingy and 1984. I'll probably start with the kid-in-NY book, then maybe my boating license. 1984 is just an extra that I'll probably read at home or my cottage. I just read a Brave New World, so this is the summer of prophetic, depressing books about the future. So, I'll seeya guess in a couple weeks or so.

much love,

hilary.

Lost in time, Lost in space

2006-07-01T10:06:00.000-06:00

LIKE YOUR NECK.

Rocky Horror last night was very excellent, and I have a feeling that this is gonna be another blog with pictures.

I was Columbia-in-pajamas and my friend was Magenta. I basically wore lotsa cosmetics, managed to straighten my hair, had flannel pj's and mouse ears for the final touch. I was pretty proud of my costume.

We compiled all of our participation items that afternoon, and we were ready (pretty much) for whatever hit us. This was the first time either of us had attended, so we weren't able to say any lines, besides yelling "ASSHOLE and SLUT" when we heard Brad Majors or Janet Weiss and making a few cracks at the criminologist's neck, or lack thereof. Some of the people in the audience were very experienced in back lines. Participating in the movie was super fun. Why would you not want to throw toast and toilet paper in a movie theatre? By the end I had toast around my feet, confetti on my lap, rice in my hair and toilet paper and cards all around me. And I think I might've lost my rubber gloves.

During the song "Eddie" I lent the shadowcast Columbia my ears. I think she was pretty grateful. Hilary: "Have my ears" Columbia: "Ohhhh thanks" (wears ears for Eddie song) Columbia: "Thanks Babe" Hilary: "Uhh..Thankyou?". I'm pretty lame. But I was good enough to go up to the stage during the Time Warp and dance, which was awesome. Overall, it was just a great experience and I'd love to go again!

My letter was published!

2006-06-30T17:38:00.000-06:00

I sent a letter to the Herald a couple days ago, because I was angry about an article they had published. The title seemed fairly objective "Same-sex Marraige Battle Shifts to Children", but in my belief the article was full of judgmental conclusions, by people who really didn't have a lot of evidence. I can't imagine how awful it would be to face criticisms like this on a daily basis, just because of your sexual orientation. This intolerance should not be acceptable, and that prompted me to write the letter. I like the title, "Judge Not".

There we go, my first letter to the editor. And in other news, to add to the fun of the short hair I died it red!! Well, it's pretty temporary but I love the colour. You see, I'm going to Rocky Horror tonight as Columbia in PJ's, so I figured that dying my hair would add the extra touch. I'm pretty excited.

I'm getting pretty good at the one-handed self-portraits.

I feel so much lighter.

2006-06-27T17:12:00.000-06:00

Exams are done!!!
Yippeeeee!!!
I always hate having to go into school after school is over, and the stress of studying. So when school ended I didn't really think of it as the ending. More like the beginning of cramming, stress, and cafeteria's full of 150 agitated eighth graders. I think I did pretty good on my exams. The English exam was stupid, way too subjective. Social was long and trivial. Math was pretty easy, I'm confident about Pure 10 next year. Science, which I took today was OK. I'm not sure how I'll do. We go into school once more for our report cards and an assembly. I got some letter in the mail about a "special award" or something. I seriously hope it's not too embarrassing. All in all, it's a huge weight lifted of my back.

And I got an email from the Herald today, asking for parental permission to publish the letter I sent. Yah, it's getting published in the paper. Which makes me nervous, because it's a really lame letter. Oh well. I'm gonna be checking for it tomorrow or the day after.

Literally, I feel a lot lighter because I just got half my hair chopped off. I went to the hairdresser's, and just kinda asked my hairdresser Greg if he'd cut it down a whole bunch. And now a lot of it is gone. He's really good, and I like it a lot. Here is a before and after picture.

Before:

I look really grumpy...

After:

It looks quite a bit longer than it actually is, probably the angle. Well, it feels a lot lighter and it will definitely be good for summer.

Poor Worm.

2006-06-24T16:23:00.000-06:00

I'll entertain everyone with yet another video clip. Sorry, I have been posting a lot of them lately. Maybe because I'm lazy, or just cause I've found some interesting things to capture. This is what happens when a worm gets in my flowers:

by the way, does anybody know why they always but "For Better Or For Worse" comics in every single English exam? It's super annoying. Also. Has anyone read the comic, "Girls and Sports"? It's probably the worst excuse for writing I've ever seen. Yuck.

Clouds Scare Me

2006-06-21T21:29:00.001-06:00

This afternoon was lovely. Clear blue skies with cute little white puffy clouds. It was a good day too, perfect weather for the last day of school. Today, we basically just watched movies. Like Harry Potter. Which is the only movie we watch at school. Seriously. Well, in humanities we were watching Stand By Me, which is excellent times one trillion. I love Stand By Me. Did anyone notice how hot Kiefer Sutherland was when he was younger? He had that blonde, bad boy image. In Lost Boys too. Too bad he got old. Anyways. It was a fun day. Although it's not really the end of school, we have to come in for four exams. So, I had a nice walk home with my friend after much yearbook signing, and we stopped at the coffee shop for a smoothie (because of the heat).

After I came home, I decided to come with my mum to the farmers market. While we were buying our Kettle Korn and Tzatziki, we noticed the already dark, looming clouds were spiraling super fast. After chatting with the helium-balloon filler (I got a red one) about tornadoes, we were ready to leave. I had a huge phobia of tornadoes when I was really little, I remember getting scared at the slightest bit of wind. My mother sometimes had to come in my room at 4am and reassure me that there was no tornado. I'm definitely past that, but if I was at that stage I would've been bawling. I don't think it was a tornado, but when there are dark clouds (apparently they're supposed to be greenish) spiraling directly above you, it makes you feel like going inside. So we went back home. Just as soon as we got there, it began to rain. The clouds were still moving pretty fast outside. Then it got harder and harder. Really, really hard. After a while, the rain turned into hail. It was some pretty scary weather. I have a video clip to show the progression, unfortunately it's really bad quality. You don't have to watch the entire clip, cause it's kind of boring but take note of how fast the weather changes. I've sped it up double, so don't watch it if you get dizzy easily.

By the way, the song is "Oh" by Sleater-Kinney. And YouTube always picks the worst part of the movie to display at the beginning.

I'm Still Young!

2006-06-19T17:04:00.000-06:00

Check this out:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/rowdies-buzz-off-as-the-mosquito-bites/2005/11/29/1133026467657.html

And... listen to this:

http://graphics.nytimes.com/packages/audio/nyregion/20060610_RINGTONE.mp3

I can hear it, can you?

You might want to turn the volume down, it's quite an annoying sound.

Also, our classes got a chance to go to the zoo last week, which was a blast. They basically let us loose for three hours of the day. Here is a clip of a memorable moment:

(I'm the one with the stripes, whos bum sticks into the camera halfway through).

and... Does anyone know how to embed YouTube videos? I'm completely hopeless and ignorant at it.

Good Morning!

2006-06-15T08:28:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone.
What a beautiful morning. It's raining cats and dogs. I woke up at one last night because my nieghbours were screaming their heads off, really respectful people. And my brother and his friend are in his room, planning out how to do their own version of the numa numa dance. This is my twin brother...

Bon Matin.

hilary m.

Due to excess studies and awful dreams..

2006-06-13T20:09:00.000-06:00

I haven't been posting a lot lately, mostly cause of exams and assignments and whatnot. I still have to finish my math to get into Math10pure next year which is very problematic. I had a dream that my teacher was making out with Robert Smith of the Cure.

Is anyone willing to pay for 10 years of counselling, and delete all my Cure songs?
Please.

Bright Eyes

2006-06-09T15:12:00.001-06:00

Last night was the Bright Eyes concert at Mac Hall. I really enjoyed the latest album "I'm Wide Awake It's Morning", and I have another album also. I figured it would be worth the stand. I always felt Bright Eyes had some brilliant songwriting, and who can resist that voice of Conor Oberst's?

So I lined up with my friend, and we got into Mac Hall a little bit before Gruff Rhys' set. If you've never been to Mac Hall, its kind of an industrial looking area, with concrete floors and metal beams. We stood at the back of the area that would be known as the mosh pit if it wasn't a Bright Eyes concert. It wasn't too packed at the time. Gruff Rhys kinda was interesting, he sang a couple songs in some welsh dialect, and some in english. I enjoyed him, a little different from Bright Eyes but still very good, he had a nice voice.

After this was a quick break, and we moved forward a bit. By this time it was pretty packed ahead and behind us. We still had a good view of the stage. So Bright Eyes comes on, and Conor's in the middle looking thin as hell with this tight grey emo hoodie (hood up of course). It was excellent. They sang the first song, and he took off his hood. Which might've been the best part, cause of his pretty face and his shaggy brown hair. Conor Oberst is one attractive young man. I'll go through the highlights now though.

Highlights
-Ship in A Bottle
-When Conor stopped at the beginning of "First Day of My Life" and said "You guys make me nervous, hearing all your pretty voices against my alley cat noise".
-First Day of My Life
-Someone told Conor to chug his beer and he replied into the mike "I take baby sips, baby sips"
-Another Travellin' Song. Conor changed the lyrics a bit.
-When Conor told us you really needed a good education to get a good job these days, because we were at U 0f C. "It really doesn't matter if you like your job, you just need a nice house and a nice car"
-Whenever Conor talked
-When Conor dedicated one of his songs to Colin Wilson, who wrote the Outsiders "a long boring book". And another one to his bassist Dan, who was the only one who'd drink with him at 4 o' clock in the afternoon. "Cause the rest of my friends are at work, and the others aren't crazy"
-Poison Oak
-The encore with Gruff Rhys

Lowlights
-People were smoking skunk weed during Poison Oak. It smelt awful.
-The annoying girls who'd yell "I LOVE YOU CONOR"
-The only guy pumping his fist in the mosh pit.

Bright Eyes is a great live band, and Conor Oberst is sexier in person. He is a great songwriter. With a pretty voice.

This entire ordeal prompted me to spell out "C0NOR O. = HAWT" in my locker.

Poison Oak

2006-06-09T08:53:00.000-06:00

Bright Eyes!!!!

It was great.

Slayer and Chocolate Milk

2006-06-06T16:08:00.000-06:00

Slayer and Chocolate Milk. Everyone craves it at one time or another.

So, it's 6/6/06. I'm in no way superstitious or religious about this day, it just makes me laugh. It's also a great time to discuss evil, the devil etc. Personally, I don't believe the devil exists. If there is a god, would they really have time to sort people into heaven and hell? Nahh. That's just my opinion though.

Anyways, nothing out of order happened to me today. There was no huge crack in the ground, or hellfire or lava or anything. That would've been really bad because I'm behind on my math and I needed to finish a test today. Nobody really talked about it actually. Well. Some people did.

Because it was so nice out today, all the students ate thier lunches in the field. After I was finished, I walked up to talk to my friend. After that I noticed beside me there was a small circle of boys in Iron Maiden t-shirts with long hair beside me. Well, I knew a couple of them so I went over to check what was up. They were all in a circle, with a little portable stereo beside one of them, and a huge chocolate milk carton in the middle. Now, I'm not really educated in metalhead culture, so I was wondering what was going on (half of them were drinking chocolate milk too). Was the milk some kind of omen? I found out from the guy I knew that they had bought the chocolate milk at Husky, and it wasn't a religious symbol or anything (thank goodness). And apparently, the music they were listening to was Slayer.

Sitting in a circle listening to Slayer and drinking chocolate milk.
Very satanic.

George Stroumboulopoulos likes Slayer, I wonder if he's every heard of this chocolate milk thing. I thought that the Hour today was quite appropriate. Funny, and there was only a little god-talk. But what could 6/6/06 be without god-talk?

Anybody else experience some satanic rituals today? (Especially if they involve chocolate milk)

For all you bloggers

2006-06-05T16:40:00.000-06:00

This made me smile. =)

I reorganized my dads record collection..

2006-06-04T10:17:00.000-06:00

And lived to tell the tale!!
yikes, sometimes I question my sanity. Yesterday it happened numerous times. It was the day I decided to do the 30 hour famine. So I wasn't eating the entire day. During that time, I decided to have a "fun" little activity that diverted me from the fact I hadn't ate for 20 hours. I'm not sure it was the best diversion, because after about an hour it seemed like slave labor. So it seemed pretty easy. I had an awesome plan, that I thought was quite efficient.

1. Make sheets of paper with every letter of the alphabet, plus "soundtrack" and "compilation" .
2. Build piles of records for each sheet, until all the records are sorted alphabetically on the floor.
3. Sort the artists alphabetically within their letter.
4. Put it up on the shelves.

The plan basically went through, just took 4 hours more than I expected. I think that walking around the room with a huge stack of records, depositing them into piles was even more exercise than lifting weight whilst on the treadmill. Well, it seemed that way to me. I don't think the next step was that beneficial to my future, because now I'm going to have a bad back. Basically, you sit on the floor with one record and put the rest of the pile around it alphabetically, according to that record. It requires a lot of reaching. I also participated in this whilst watching a movie, so I think that I was focussing more on Springsteen, The Smiths, Spirit of the West, Sly and the Family Stone than Transamerica. In the morning, we put them on the shelves. Which was a feat, considering that all we'd had to eat in 40 hours was a bag of green apple flavoured licorices. Finally the task was completed and my friend left, probably never to come back again. It was quite the experience, but definitely worth it. And now I have a better knowledge of my dads music taste.

Partway through the stacking process. I'm in the middle with Meat is Murder.

More partway through the stacking process. And that GIGANTIC TV my dad bought.

Help Me!!!

2006-06-03T15:12:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm reorginizing my dad's record collection and I have 2 shelves done, 8 to go plus I've been doing it for like 2 hours and I don't think I'll ever finish and I'm doing the 30 hour famine so my blood sugars probably dropped like a million from running around and my friends coming over soon and we're supposed to make a trailer for a film adaption of Kite Runner and I have to be Amir and does anybody know young boy actors from the middle east?

Way Too Weird.

2006-05-31T17:47:00.000-06:00

Okay. So a day or two ago I was sitting lazily in the hall way against an orange graffiti'd locker. Probably talking to my friends or so. Maybe drinking a juice box or something. And this guy, who was in my class last year walks up to us and says "hi". So I look down. And he's wearing orange crocs. But CROCS WITH SOCKS. I kind of laughed at him, because I found this a little weird. I didn't think anyone else in the world wore orange crocs on a daily basis. I feel really bad right now, because I just looked on the Hour website. There seems to be a large picture of a man wearing ORANGE CROCS. He's barefooted, but that basically completely ruins my theory that nobody actually wears orange crocs around.

So George Stroumboulopoulos interviewed Ricky Williams yesterday on the Hour which explains the crocs. But still. If anyone else around here wears orange crocs, and even with socks please let me know.

If Someone Can Pretend to be George Stroumboulopoulos Can I be Chuck Norris!?

2006-05-30T21:30:00.000-06:00

You know those silly Chuck Norris jokes going 'round lately. "Chuck Norris doesn't sleep - He waits". Well, obviously to todays culture Chuck Norris is a pretty superior human being.

So on the Hour, George was talking about how some person was pretending to be him on Myspace, and they had a semi-accurate and detailed page. I bet that happens quite frequently, and I bet some people do believe it. Well, if someone can pretend to be Todd Bridges, and diss Gary Coleman I wonder if I can pretend to be Chuck Norris and gain his superhuman powers and recognition? Cause I want the bogeyman to check his closet for me every night. Every night!!!

Does anybody think that this might work? Any other suggestions?

Value Village Produces Lovely Photo Opportunities

2006-05-29T17:03:00.000-06:00

So, once a month I go shopping at Value Village with my friend. Now, it's not really about getting anything it's more about "The Value Village Experience". For example, the last trip produced:

6 Crappy Metal Bracelets (Bright colours): $0.69
1 incense tin with snake design: $0.69
1 Pair of hexagonal Elton John Sunglasses: $1.49
Bringing a camera and a friend to Value Village: Priceless

Sorry, I had to add the last one cause it makes me smile (I fall for incredibly corny commercials). We did a couple laps around the building checking out the most importants: Toys, Women, Kids, Shoes. My friend and I both enjoy picture taking and that day I was quite camera-happy. I'm not quite sure how Value Village would feel if they knew we were using thier store as a prop, but at that present moment it didn't seem to concern me. It's a very interesting place. You get a mix of college kids looking for costumes, people who can't afford to buy elsewhere, crazy eccentrics and hipsters. Oh yes, and some very ordinary people. Previously, at the Value Village in Victoria we had a man approaching us talking about how the stock becomes better at the end of the month because the homeless people get thier paychecks. Okay. Last time I went there was a woman with metallic golden lipstick, leopard print shirt with an overflowing cart. I wonder where you can buy golden lipstick? Now I should get to the pictures, because I need to do my science notes. I despise the end of the year. Especially in science and math. Apparently I have "two weeks" to finish my math units if I want in 10 pure. I have a couple units to go. But that's what happens when you forget to do math homework all year.
Anyways:

A lovely orange number.

I'm not sure if I'd work as the reluctant bride. Plus, there was probably lice in the veil.

The hexagonal shades, and I look like a guppy.

Bert and Ernie on the Doll Wall

Rocking the shoulder-pads and sequins.

Never did buy that shirt.

My friend and I looking deathly serious.

Value Village is excellent for those photo ops.

La de da de da dedadedade-da.

2006-05-25T21:03:00.000-06:00

These past couple days have been days of love at first sight.
It all started out by picking up the Decemberist's "Picaresque". Or rather, having a listen on my iPod. You see, my pop culture savvy father bought it a while ago, and I didn't get a chance to listen to it until I went to Victoria. I loved it!! I think I had some of the songs on repeat for a bit, just to listen to them again. It's kind of witty, modern, tongue-in-cheek folk songishness. But I'm no expert. Anyhow, I love them. I had a couple favourite songs.. umm. "Sixteen Military Wives", "From My Own True Love", "Eli, the Barrow Boy", "The Mariner's Revenge Song", and "Engine Driver", I swear the start of this song is a variation of the opening chords to "Half A Person" by the Smiths. Anyways. I'm head over heels in love.

Nextnextnext. A movie. The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Which is kind of like an experience, everyone should probably see it. Well I hadn't, so I rented it from Roger's and watched it with my friend and dear brother. Now, I know people will argue about the value of musicals, and how they suck, but I thought it was just fabulous. Just a fun, great movie to see. Tim Curry was the most hilarious 'sweet transvestite' I have ever seen, and the entire supporting cast was fab too. Though I despise Meat Loaf, his appearance was awesome. My friend loved it too. Now we both want to go to the Plaza (which is minutes from my house) to see it in theatre. But I think the last showing was tonight, so ohh well. Maybe next time. It was a great change from the string of dark and depressing movies I had seen (The Weatherman, Match Point, The Squid and The Whale, Art School Confidential). They were all good, but not really uplifting.

byebye for now.
hilarym.

Victoria on the Victoria Day Long Weekend!?

2006-05-24T13:15:00.000-06:00

So this lovely weekend I went to that mild climated town on the coast we call "Victoria". It definitely lived up to my expectations of being funky, sweet, old, nostalgic and mild. I adore being by the ocean, the smell and the waves and the sand. Naturally, Victoria is a great place for me to be on the Victoria Day Long Weekend. We went to Victoria partly because my Dad spent 6 years of high school there, and attended UVic (Political Science). Also because it's a lovely time. We spent a lot of time seeing my dads old friends, shopping downtown in the markets and stores and eating at excellent restaurants and cafes.

Victoria has a wonderful downtown. Old brick buildings with funky shops, and some really old buildings that pre-dated the brick. We walked around quite a bit, usually down Government street, or on the Harbour. There's some lovely markets down Government near the Harbour. Just walking around the old buildings and funky shops in front of the ocean was great. The Empress Hotel is a wonderful building. My dad had worked thier as a bus boy and waiter, serving tea.. etc. It has vines growing and crawling all over the building, parts of it are reminiscent of a giant, detailed tree sculpture. The parliament buildings are magnificent. They are regal and ancient, elaborate and wide.

A couple days in, we decided to drive up to Point-no-Point, a little teahouse and resortish thing north of Sooke. We had some lovely tea, over-looking the green, bold hills that dipped into the ocean. We went for a walk down to the beach. It was raining and grey, and I managed to get some good pictures. There were black rocks along the sea, and you could see hills in the distance. It was absolutly beautiful. Complete magic.

It was a wonderful trip, overall. I fully recommend Victoria as a great Canadian travel destination.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

A lovely bench, I captured and photoshopped.

Black rocks on the point-no-point beach.

Victoria Parliament buildings.

My brother on the breakwater.

Some silly bagpipers in full costume, after the rainy "Victoria Day Parade"

Trees and ferns at point-no-point.

The Empress Hotel.

Track Meet

2006-05-16T15:33:00.000-06:00

Yikes, today was the track meet, and I was in girls 600m. This event is otherwise known as "why the hell did I sign up for this" or "is it really worth it". So I took the bus to Foothills at 8:50. My event was at 1:10. I kind of sat around in the shade, listened to.. MY BRAND NEW 30G iPOD!!.. and talked to my friends. The race was quite tiring in the sun, on the hottest day yet this year. I placed 10th.. but I think I placed 9th, because the grumpy lady at the end didn't like me. You see, the theory of the 600m is.. "fast running at the start, jogging till the end, sprint at the end" I completed the following minus the sprint. Therefore, I suck. : ). So after that, I poured water on myself, bought a Texas Donut to share with my friend and stood in the sun. When it was over, we went to the busses. Our school had one bus. There were enough kids to comfortably fit in three busses. So we piled in that bus, than left the rest of us to sit in the sun. It was old, creaky and smelt of cheese. That's usually what you get when you go to public school, though I couldn't love my school any more. Well, now I have a nasty looking sunburn. All this to miss a day of school.

hilary.

Birthdayss.

2006-05-13T10:42:00.001-06:00

So, this morning I woke up at 6. I always wake up at 6 on May 13th. It's weird, without an alarm or anything I just wake up. But it's always been lovely at 6 o'clock on the morning of May 13th. So I'm thinking about going to sleep again, when my lovely brother enters the room. "Hah" he says triumphantly, "I am 14 and you are not" (I'm not sure why he would like to be triumphant about this fact, but he's a competitive kid). So, I glance at the clock. 6:06. That's the exact time my lovely brother was born, on May 13th. Ugghh, I'm going to have to spend the next seven minutes under my brothers triumphant gaze. I put the blankets on top of my head. The clock finally turns to 6:13, after what seems to be an hour. I yell "burnage" at him, which makes me sound really geeky, but at least he's no longer triumphant. I am 14 now, phewwf.

Eeh. I love my birthday, I love May and spring. So today is very good. Veryyy. After this, I sit around in the living room with a cup of coffee, waiting to open presents. I got some lovely gifts. I got a k.d lang cd from my mum, that was mainly bought because it looked like the cover of "London Calling" and "Elvis Presely" and because my mum will end up listening to it. But a nice gift. Then I got a special addition mojo magazine about Morrissey and the Manchester scene from my brother. Next I got a dvd, unfortunatly, it wasn't CRAZY, but my mummy said she couldn't find it to buy, but it was just as great. It's called "The Smiths, the complete picture" and has a bunch of live Smiths footage from the 80's. My dad bought it for me in Texas on business. Then, I got a really funky, cool, awesome ring from Rubayait from my parents and my granny. Unfortunatly, it's an ounce too small and I'm getting a bigger, similar one. Eeeh. The last present was a wonderful acoustic guitar made in Quebec, from my parents. It's gorgeous! Now I feel very spoilt.

Tonight, I'm going to a movie at the Plaza with my friendlings. It should be very nice. I am in a very great mood right now, so don't ask me for money..

eeehh!!

How I'm Awful At Soccer.

2006-05-11T16:37:00.000-06:00

I'm very bad at soccer.

Seriously.

So I try to be a goalie, during gym. But then my team gets angry at me, because I seem to let in the "goals". Why do they call it a goalie, if you're not supposed to let in goals!? The worst part about soccer, is my silly twin brother. Today we were divided up into two teams, the team that competes, and the "leisure" team. Otherwise known as.. the people who suck. My brother decided he would be on the liesure team, as did I. Except, he was constantly competing throughout the whole game, showing off and kicking the ball really hard at me. And making fun of me. Sometime I think twins should be illegal.
Phewwf. That was a good rant.

Well, it's very hot and the mosquitos have decided to make thier unwelcome presence on my arms. It's not very fun, though I'm good at slapping them. Though, I slap pretty hard, and I end up with red marks on my arms from slapping. Oh the not-so-joys of springtime.

I'm going to Victoria in a week, I'm very happy about that. And I'll be at Knox United the night before, for some Billy Cowsill memorial. I didn't listen to Billy Cowsill, but my parents are big fans, and his band used to play at my mum's fundraisers, so it's a big deal for them. I've never been inside the church, so I'm excited about that. Yikes, May is a busy month.

How I Love Spring Despite Running into Fences.

2006-05-08T18:41:00.000-06:00

I've decided spring is my favourite season. Seriously. I even say that during spring. You know how people usually think thier favourite season is winter during summer... Yeah. I love the freshness and (semi) humidity of May. I love the birds, and the sun and the rain. I adore the fact this all is after winter, where everthing is cold and dead. I love being outside and walking during spring. Anyways, I'm pretty passionate about this season.

The only thing I don't like about spring, is when it gets too hot. Or running into fences. Which I accidently did today, because I'm not very intelligent when it comes to fences. And it hurt. I fell on the ground. So I've decided not to run into any more fences, if I do I will probably die before I hit 30. I also hate being inside whilst the weather is nice.

Another thing I've decided. When I turn 19 I will go on Much VJ Search (c'mon, you know the show) and I will go into that hotel with a bunch of other silly people. I've always wondered what it would like to be on a reality show. I could interview celebrities and go on challenges, and talk about my house-mates behind thier back (on live TV!). It would be an absolute blast! And maybe if I win, I can have thousands of screaming fans of my own!! I need a good plan for an audition though. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. It's never too early to prepare.

Also. My birthday is in like... 6 days!! I'm going to be able to get my learners. And even more important to my parents, my boating license! Oh, the joys of age and brightly coloured flotation devices.

much love,
hilary m.

(cherrie blossoms in Vancouver, where spring occured 2 months ago)