Tuesday, August 29, 2006

i feel pretty.. oh so pretty...

there is nothing like spending two hours with your gay hairstylist to make a gal feel pretty...:)

makes me forget all about the woman that tried to butt in front of me at starbucks. the clerk was cool tho. he saw what she had done and put her in her place. behind me. ha ha. so i gave him a big tip. he reminded me of the coffee guy on the old ellen show which i have been watching recently. it's funny watching her character re-act with her dates. i like ellen but i don't think she is a very good actress. at least on that show. or at that point in time. she just seems uncomfortable with any of the dating stuff. and i don't think that's just because she's gay. i don't have the same problem watching amanda bearse portray marcy on married with children. and although i have not seen her in action, my friends who have, say that there is not that problem with portia de rossi.

so, i get home from the beauty parlor (ha ha.. that phrase keeps crackin' me up), check my blog and i'm like holy crap! what up with all these hits? i had noticed i got a few more hits than usual the nite before, but i figured out that was because of the mention of kiefer sutherland. and there was a few people out blog surfing. but i was sure that it wasn't because of that. once i started looking in on it, i found out that i made cbc's the hour blog tracker. at first, all i felt was panic. did i say anything insanely goofy? made any horrendous spelling mistakes? misquote or misrepresent or misinform? after i read my blog entry again, i calmed down a little. and then it was like.. hey, cool. and then i wanted to share it with someone and i couldn't figure out who. so i took the dog out for a walk instead.

i forgot to mention the other point i liked about the strombo show this week. mr. stroumboulopoulos mentioned my favourite part of the whole mel gibson insanity that nobody ever talks about. except me to my friends. he said to a female cop "what do you think you're looking at, sugar tits?" . i guess it's no big deal to insult female authority. whatever.

today's mood is good. i have great hair, a blog mention on cbc's website and i get to go to calgary this weekend for the tattoo festival. i just have to figure out what to pack. i've been cleaning out my closet and have realized with some horror and amusement that somewhere somehow i became a girlie girl. where did all these clothes come from? who do these shoes belong to? and what is with all this makeup?

Monday, August 28, 2006

let's hear it for the boy..

well that should really be boys.

yesterday was a good media day for me. the strombo show was back on live for the full two hours and with bob... yah! and the show rocked last nite. almost made me forgive them for being away so long.

what i remember from the show. i think there is a new opening. but i can't be sure as i have not been listening since the beginning. nor do i listen every week. i wish they would get the podcast or something up and running. i wonder if standard broadcasting is holding up podcasts as they are partners in puretracks. which is trying to compete with itunes. off hand, i couldn't find any standard stations that offer podcasts. but in fairness, i did not try very hard. and i do have issues with standard so i would like to find a way to blame them. anyways, back to the original point. which was that i think there is a new spoken word humour bit about bad language.

they talked about LA, and learning to like/love L.A. good points were brought up. i love la but as i tell my friends, the first thing you have to do when you go to LA is leave all of your ideas of a city behind and just embrace it for what it is. LA is totally plastic. but if you accept that, then you can enjoy it, and learn to love it. but then my friends say that you love every city you go to. which isn't true as i absolutely hate milan. the last time i was there, i refused to go out of the train station and sat there for hours until our train arrived.

they talked about their love for tom cruise during the top five which pretty much made me want to throw up. i have pretty much hated tom cruise for his entire celebrity life so my slagging him off is not based on his recent train wreck of a public life. enhanced yes, but based on, no. i reluctantly have to agree with one point that was made. and that was how tom cruise does not complain about public life. i hate it when celebrities do that. i do agree that media is way too intrusive but the majority of people who become public figures should know what they are getting into.

i enjoyed the stories from the road. i wish there were more. mr. stroumboulopoulos did say to contact him if you wanted to hear more. haha so not going to happen at this point. i'd be more likely to send him a cd as he once encouraged people to do.

they played 'helpless' by sugar. mr. stroumboulopoulos seemed surprised that it was recognized or asked about.

the emails and myspace went well.

but my favourite moment came at the end of the show, when they were doing their favourite things. bob starting talking about fame and how he like the movie and the tv show. when he started to talk about how he wanted to be bruno as a kid, i lost it. i laughed so hard, i spat my water out. i think bob may become my new non-romantic crush.

after the show, i tuned into the emmys which were just starting as my other boy, kiefer sutherland was scheduled to appear. it turned out to be a good nite there as well, as my boy not only appeared, looking as suave as ever (i offer up the following for visual proof... http://www.wireimage.com/Celebrities/Kiefer-Sutherland), but earned his first emmy on either his seventh or eighth try.

my other emmy memories...

i was dissapointed that gregory itzin didn't win. i thought he was awesome on 24. and i also really like jean smart as well.

i was glad to see jon stewart and the daily show win again. and he and colbert were so funny presenting the reality award, especially when they brought up losing to barry manilow.

i loved greg garcia's speech about who he didn't want to thank.

all in all, a fine day in media for me.

Sunday, August 27, 2006

radio is cleaning up the nation

ok, the strombo show better be on tonight. it wouldn't be so bad if jim richards was hosting, but i am not a fan of whoever this ryan guy is that has taken his place the past few weeks. i need a fix of mr. stroumboulopoulos. and i miss bob.

at least i have the emmys tonight to look forward to. i am only going to watch the 24 parts. i do love seeing kiefer sutherland all dressed up.

Saturday, August 26, 2006

i woke up in love this morning...

made the annual trek to the pne this week. i love the pne. it's all about eating, animals, shopping and hanging out with my girls.

as always, we say we are going to get there early but always end up running late. this year, we went on a monday because david cassidy was playing. going on a monday rocks! much less people and less lineups for the washrooms..:)

our first major event was the motorcross boys. damn, those boys are fit! apart from enjoying watching the sport as is, it is a bonus at the end watching them strip off their shirts... i am definately going to hell...:) sitting on those benches sure does make me miss the demolition derby tho.

then it was off to the showmart (do they still call it that?) to look at all the crazy as seen on tv stuff. my favourite cleaner man was there for the first time. i have named him banana man because he sells cleaner made from banana oil. and i was glad i chose to buy mr. stickey (although it has a new name this year) at stampede as they did not make it out to the pne this year. i am still fascinated by the plastic air tight containers but alas, they are too expensive for me to try.

next up, superdogs. i was hoping that my friends would get the same surprise i did at stampede but i was dissapointed. the regular host who retired last year did not appear. his partner chase was the host instead. which is what we thought might happen. i guess i was lucky in calgary that the old host did the show there. chase was ok, but he needs to camp it up a bit. and jesus christ, the sound was loud. they really need to mic the show differently when it is barely 1/2 full. we all had our ears covered for most of the show, and we were not the only ones. i felt sorry for the dogs. it must have been sonically loud for them. my favourite new dog at the show was a young boxer named hambone.

off to the barns. saw horses, cows, llamas, bunnies, sheep. made friends with a goat in the petting zoo. i love goats.

and then, time for david cassidy. we got there about 1/2 hour early and managed to find some space on a sidewalk to sit. the crowd was pretty excited. lots of older females but lots of males as well. david cassidy opened with a cover of deep purple's 'hush'. at that moment, i knew that this was not going to be a sad oldies show(like the time we attempted to sit thru the platters) but a fine ole' time. he even had a chick drummer! he looked as if he was throughly enjoying himself, touched all his fans up front and even signed some comic book on him that he had never seen before. he was funny, swore a lot and even got a little political at one point. at first, we were worried because he sounded like he was going to come off as a "bush/harper" lover but it turned out to be the opposite. whoo hooo.. you go david! i could even handle his choice of beatles covers ("no reply" and "you've got to hide your love away") as i don't hear them that often. he did do "all you need is love" which normally would make me puke but it was spontaneous and just after he did his political rant. and he closed with 'i woke up in love this morning' and "i think i love you".

after that, it was a walk round the midway in an attempt to play a game. all the prizes sucked this year. they were all that annoying thing from the ringtone commerical. and they changed skee ball! plastic balls instead of wood? what's up with that?

foodwise, i did ok this year. wiggly fries, some bbq chicken and of course, mini donuts. i decided that if i was 16 years old, i would want to work at the bbq chicken stand as all the boys there were hot hot hot.. in more ways than one.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

yummy yummy yummy i got love in my tummy

well, not anymore but yesterday my tummy was full of chocolatey goodness. finally went and did the chocoholic buffet at sutton place hotel. i've been wanting to try this out since i tried out death by chocolate at the fairmont in calgary. i have to say, the sutton place one was way better. i enjoyed death by chocolate but afterwards, i didn't have a huge desire to go again. the selection just didn't do it for me.

however, the selection at the sutton was amazing. our favourites were the bread pudding made with chocolate croissants! with no raisins! and the crepes. the crepes were particularly good as we found that it was actually better to eat them without chocolate and instead use the fresh lemons or oranges as it kinda gave your system a break.

there was tons of different kinds of cakes, profiteroles, and this yummy chocolate ganache with lots of fruit for dipping.

we all stuffed ourselves and i would definately do this again. but not for a long while...:) it's going to take me awhile to recover.

the only negative thing i can say about it, is the service isn't the best in the world. and considering the prices, it really should be much better. the host/hostesses were all great (they actually made us giggle as we came in, they were like.. you smell nice), and the crepe lady was awesome. but the people who actually took care of our table, it was like they gave up on us. i tried to order a drink but nobody wanted to take my drink order. and they kept taking away our napkins. umm, i am eating a lot of gooey chocolate right now, i kinda need my napkin. so we kept having to steal the napkins off the table next to us.

Friday, August 18, 2006

girls, all I really want is girls...

not so much, but i couldn't figure out another title..

why are girls so mean? i've just come back from a bbq at a friend's and something happened there that...
a. made me leave early
b. made me ponder all the way home.

what is it that makes girls so catty to one another? we were all sitting around drinking and chatting, all very nice and one girl got up and left the gazebo to make a phone call. immediately another girl starts bad mouthing her. a couple of girls agreed but i was like... what the hell are you doing? one, the girl is still here and two, i just thought it was incredibly rude as she is a friend of the hostess and so obviously she likes her. i had no idea what to do as it was not my party. if i was in a public place, i would have felt better about putting her in her place but as i was at a friend's house, i had no idea what to do. so i just left.

as i was driving home, i keep thinking about it. i have seen this situation time and time again. but only with females. i can't imagine boys doing this. do they? and what is the exact point of this? to feel superior? is it jealousy? to cover up their own low self esteem?

and just what is the proper response to this?

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

you say it's your birthday...

so, today is quite the day of events. it is mr. stroumboulopoulos' birthday. to who i of course wish a happy birthday to. according to articles i've read, he was thinking of spending the day visiting the graves of robert johnson and elvis presley. this makes me jealous on so many levels.

besides mr. stroumboulopoulos, here is a small sample of things that happened today in history.

it is a day of deaths. elvis. robert johnson. nusrat fateh ali khan. bela lugosi. idi amin.

it is a day of births. madonna. ll cool j. belinda carlisle. maria mckee. charles bukowski.

and it is a day of firsts. the ramones played their first concert at CBGB's. it may have been their first concert ever but i am reading conflicting information on this.

and it is a good friend of mine's birthday as well. which is why a lot of these facts came up.

Saturday, August 12, 2006

another one bites the dust...

just read where sleeman's brewery is the lastest canadian brewery to be sold to international interests. molson's is owned by the yanks, and labatts is owned by a belgian country. and now sleeman's is owned by the japanese. the bay is now owned by an american.

i find it sad, watching our canadian companies being gobbled up by international interests. on one hand, i guess it is better than watching them fall by the wayside (ie.. eatons) but on the other hand.. it's not just because i feel like these companies aren't canadian anymore. i also look at it as money and jobs going out of the country. i'm also tired of watching big business gobble up small ones. of companies contracting out jobs instead of hiring workers just to save a few bucks. and it's not just sending jobs out of the country, it's also sending jobs out of the province. i mean icbc pays someone in ontario to ask how a car repair in bc goes? i get called asking my opinion on vancouver radio stations from someone in alberta? who, although very pleasant, keeps having to check his list everytime i mention a station. because of course, he hasn't heard of any of them.

the thing with all these businesses swallowing each other up, is that it is so hard to keep loyal or disloyal. i buy a cell phone with clearnet, specifically so that i won't have to deal with telus. then they up and sell to telus. my defination of hell is trying to deal with telus customer service. or lack thereof. and they keep fucking calling me to try and get me to switch my internet to them! and everytime i tell them. because of your crappy customer service, i have no desire to give you anymore business than i have to. and if i wasn't tied into a contract with your mobility unit, i would pull that business out as well.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

one is the loneliest number..

it's inevitable. if you decide to run down to the mall just to grab a few things and are looking pretty rough, you will run into someone you know and have not seen in a very long time. i went down to the store to pick up my dog's medication and ran into this guy i went to school with. i was not looking my best. definately not my best.

i can't help but glance at the magazines in the stores. i love magazines. maybe it's because they are all bright and shiny. i notice that one of the tv weeklies has this headline.. sexiest canadians on tv (or something like that). i am intrigued already when i see that on the cover is mr. stroumboulopoulos' picture as best export. which then reminds me that i really should blog my thoughts down on the cancellation of the one. i buy the magazine and quickly look and he has been named sexiest newsman. i remember when newsmen weren't so sexy. i know a few people who would object to him being chosen. they would be casting their vote for ian hanomansing..or as we call him ian handsomemansing. who i just found out was born in trinidad. whooo hooo! maybe i'll object too!

speaking of mr. handsomemansing, i got the funniest thing from the cbc last year. it is an ian handsomemansing baseball card.

i've had a few discussions with friends over the cancellation of the one. what i found interesting was that although everyone had heard of the show (which surprised me actually), no one had heard it got cancelled. i am not surprised to see it cancelled, the ratings were too much of an embarrassment (ok, i had to look up the spelling for this and the definition amused me...embarrassment is an unpleasant emotional state) for abc to continue with the show. however, it's too bad they couldn't at least wrap the show up and declare a winner and let one of the beautiful karaoke people win.

i think what really bugged me about the show was the poor production values. i understand the show is live but there were rehearsals. was somebody not paying attention to makeup? or sound? this isn't some local cable station but a major american network. and why on earth would you schedule this opposite rockstar supernova?! everyone i know that might have watched the show, was watching supernova. which is basically the same idea, but with more talented people.

i was listening to the strombo show after the cancellation and something was said that i have to coment on. mr. stroumboulopoulos mentioned that the one got better ratings than the daily show. i am sorry but that is such a bad comparision. the one is on a channel that americans get for free and the daily show is on a channel that they have to pay for. not to mention that fact that the daily show runs at a time when a good deal of people are asleep. sorry, that comparison does not impress me.

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

you're the devil in disguise

and not in a good way. i see my favourite demon "steve" (if bush can call him that, i can call him that) harper is at it again. don't even get me started right now on the way he's fucked up the israel/lebanon situation. and then not showing up at the world outgames. and now, to not even bother to go international aids conference? how insulting is that? even given his opinion of homosexuals, does he not understand that aids is not a gay issue anymore? to me, it just seems like if you are not one of him (ie..white, male, suburban businessman), he just doesn't care about you. the man makes me so angry that i can not even discuss him rationally. when i started this rant, i was all like.. ok, think clearly, try and bring up some intelligent points and discuss things in a reasonable manner. and now, i'm all like.. you suck. i hate you. grrrrrr.... i probably should delete this but i'll post it anyway.

i was at dinner the other day and we were discussing our favourite crazy conspiracy theories. here were some of the favourites.

1. the holmes/cruise baby does not exist.
2. if it does exist, it is an alien.
3. the fbi does not exist.
4. if it does exist, it is basically a two man operation just for show.
5. stephen harper is a robot.

i'll tell you one thing that really bugs me about stephen harper. this may sound like a dumb, petty thing but i think certain things that are small can show more about a situation than big things. and i tend to believe nothing in the public eye is an accident. that every action is done for a reason. could stephen harper please get a decent suit that fits him?! and a colour that flatters him? if i see him in a brown improperly fitted suit one more time, i am going to scream. you are the prime minister of canada and as much as i hate it, you represent us. you are a very rich man and you can afford it. it bugged me during the election as it just seemed like a ploy to get him to look more like he was one of "us", the working class. ok, but now you are elected, please dress properly.

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

substitute me for him...

so i've been following (and blogging a little) on another blog about music lately. this has been causing me to get itchy palms and go into new music withdrawal. so i decide to break down and pick up the new new york dolls cd. i head out into the metrotown area as there is both a future shop and an a & b sound there.

first off, future shop. i walk in, forgetting that i have a bunch of stuff in my bag from the library. so i set off all the security alarms. so i go to the till and tell them and the check out girl is like ok i'll just de-magnetize them. and i'm like no, you can't. it's the library's security system. and she's like so?...this is the same response i get when i cut thru wal-mart and the same thing happens. i reply.. the library will have to replace them. she's like and? do these people not understand that these tags cost money and libraries aren't some huge corporation that can easily absorb these costs. am i just expecting too much intelligence from these people? i was a retail whore for longer than i care to remember so maybe i'm judging too harshly. i don't suffer fools easily.

i head over to the music/dvd section and start looking around. one of the many things i dislike about future shop is the product isn't always physically priced correctly. there is this stack of the clash's rude boy dvd but none of them are priced, nor is there a sign letting me know the price. i have to find a staff member and ask him and he's says.. it's in front. and i'm like.. no it's not. i'm not an idiot. (ok, i can be, but not in this case).

future shop only had one copy of the new york dolls in and it sold. at least they carried it. because they don't online. which i find so bizarre. i would have expected it to be the other way.

i head over to a & b and head to the punk section to find the cd. i can't see the new one which surprises me as they had a big ad for it this week. there is a staff member working right beside me so i ask her if they have it. not only does she look for it in the section, she goes and checks into the computer to double check that they are sold out. i ask if they can give a rain check and she says no, but if i special order it, i would get the same price. which i thought was pretty cool of her. i decided see if i could pick it up at another location and she was all happy to call and get them to put it aside.

i ended up buying outlaw country (haggard and hank III) instead of punk rock. but i'm happy to have my new cd's. i picked up the first hank III and i haven't had a chance to listen to it but i have to say.. the packaging is awesome! the photos are just amazing.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

don't step on my blue suede shoes

i am so happy. i found these awesome blue suede converse shoes at the bay. they were insanely cheap to begin with and then they were an additional 30% off. the bay rocks for sales.

the seattle trip went fantastic. apart from both of us being a little hung over from friday nite. i bought us some good karma at the gas station at the start of the trip. a man came up to me begging. he didn't want money, just food. so we bought him some food and all trip long we had good luck.

the only thing that sucked was we couldn't get a cheap room in seattle. there was way too much happening in town.. sea fest, some fish fest in ballard, and the capital hill block party, which was what we went down for. i have to remember that sea fest and the fish fest in ballard are the same day. this is the second time i've been caught out by it. although i always get a great photo there. last time it was nuns and nail polish. this year it was vikings and accordions.

we were able to hit hattie's for breakfast and heinies (great toast!) , and archie mcphee's for toys. then it was off to capital hill, where we scored awesome cheap parking and headed to the party. the lineups were huge and there was, of course, freaks drumming. who likes this? i almost gave them ten bucks to stop. instead we walked around the corner and went in a different entrance with no lineup.

the place was packed, and it was obvious that everyone was there for the big reunion of the murder city devils. we found the stage, which was right outside the comet tavern. we headed in and not only did we make happy hour, we managed to score seats upstairs (who know they had an upstairs). we stayed in and listened to minus the bear from there. i like minus the bear but i didn't feel the need to be right up front to see them. the night went on. more bands. the crowd got bigger and bigger and we looked at each other, and saw that we could see quite a bit of the stage from our seats and decided to stay in, grab some kosher franks and watch the show from inside. it was a good choice. being a person that lacks height, i'd never have seen anything outside. unless i went straight into the pit, and i am so over that now.

then it was a couple of sugar free red bulls and it was trouble free all the way home.