oh, what a feeling...

before i get into my post, i'd just like to state...it's freakin' snowing here. huge flakes.

ok, on with my post.

as some of you may or may not know, i am in the process of listening to every single one of my cds (in reverse chronological order, sorta). i'm living the year 1996 right now. on my recent solo drive down to the states, i decided to listen to a four cd box set of canadian music.

here is what i learnt.

1. four cds, 77 record company picked songs is too much can con to listen to in a row.
2. some songs get funnier as time goes by. loverboy never does.
3. i own 'new orleans is sinking' by the tragically hip and 'try' by blue rodeo. two songs that have been on my wish list for ages.

in the country...

i can’t remember the last time i posted a strombo recap. i think it was last year sometime. more than ever, this is my version of the events. :)

last week was live, and the holy trinity returned. minus the holy part.

mr. stroumboulopoulos said it was nice to be on the air and not wanting to barf. last week, he was suffering from strep throat. he had a 102 degree fever. when he was doing interviews, it was like he could see the words come out of their mouths and disappear. people were telling him how good he looked, all rosy cheeked. bob laughed because he thought mr. stroumboulopoulos looked so bad. mr. stroumboulopoulos was sleeping on his couch and liz from 'the hour' texted him, go to the effing doctor. he hadn’t eaten in a day and a half. he went to the doctor in toronto and was asked how long he had been feeling like this. he felt like he was melting, his throat was killing him. the doctor told him he should have come in earlier. guys are idiots. bob wants to know why guys can’t admit they are sick. mr. stroumboulopoulos thought he would just fight it out. he takes the medication and flies to england. his body knows when it is not on the air and can fall apart. the medication ends up working.

bob says that when the show is on the road, people are unhappy. everything is hard to do as everyone is not in the same place. bob and mr. stroumboulopoulos have had no conversation about england until the show. bob is part of the audience for this one.

the various myspace teams are mentioned. bob thinks the fact that his icon is fries with his team name spelt out in ketchup is effing fabulous. alex has posted the pictures of bob with his fries on his myspace account.

radio clash – the clash

country house – blur

damon albarn’s bad interview is mentioned. bob thinks country house sounds like a song from a broadway musical. mr. stroumboulopoulos hates broadway musicals. he doesn’t like the stupid dancing. bob thinks mr. stroumboulopoulos is an anglo snob, that everything english is good. mr. stroumboulopoulos wants to stick a pin in bob’s neck for not liking blur. mr. stroumboulopoulos has ripped into bob before for liking broadway shows. alex doesn’t mind them, there are some good songs. he thinks rent has a good song. mr. stroumboulopoulos says no. bob brings up “ol man river’. this is an agreed upon good song. alex says sure, bob is a boob, but he wants to bring it back to mr. stroumboulopoulos riding bob about his opinion. bob says mr. stroumboulopoulos berated him for about ten minutes. mr. stroumboulopoulos says it is because he cares about bob. alex wants to know how is it bad for bob? bob suggests mr. stroumboulopoulos is a hypocrite. alex declares it’s just music. mr. stroumboulopoulos concedes that he likes some musicials. like tommy.

they talk about amy winehouse. alex isn’t interested. bob says that’s tough but fair. (i love it when he says this). mr. stroumboulopoulos says that he likes a lot of artists but rarely is he really into someone. he is into amy winehouse. he was on the red carpet at the brits. lots of celebs. kelly osbourne, cool. amy basically arrived wearing a belt as a skirt. mr. stroumboulopoulos says he doesn’t do the typical red carpet talk ie. what are you wearing? bob says more like what she wasn’t wearing. mr. stroumboulopoulos says he was well aware of that. he asked her about her year and she said it was pretty cool and that she was able to play a lot of pool. mr. stroumboulopoulos says dude, i stopped. he had no idea. he looked into her eyes. the camera was on his face. he was like a deer in headlights. he was stunned. he loved her even more because of that. alex says that it sounds like someone who hasn’t any interest in talking to you. mr. stroumboulopoulos says no she’s nice.

the talk turns to taking muffins from strangers. alex says don’t take food from strangers. bob says twelve years ago when he and mr. stroumboulopoulos started, that’s how they ate. mr. stroumboulopoulos says that alex is paid good money so he doesn’t have to eat from strangers and he is welcome. alex says whatever. don’t eat food from strangers.

a discussion about bob having a shaved head. bob thinks that he would look awesome. alex described bob’s current look as take a football, put it on it’s side. two eyes, nose, dirt around the mouth. that’s bob’s head right now.

stuff – bob has a topic this week. he and his wife were thinking of going tobogganing and they start to wonder… is tobogganing insane? mr. stroumboulopoulos says yes. alex says no, everyone does it. it’s stupid to think that there is something wrong with it. shut up. bob brings up the fact that we have tried to make things as safe as possible. alex interjects, that’s not true. alex says it’s about having fun. mr. stroumboulopoulos says that an ambulance attendant told him that the number one calls they get are from adult tobogganers. you forget how fast you go. bob thinks you can’t do it if you are not sober. alex has a scar from tobogganing, he almost went blind. he went tobogganing right after as he is not a baby.

against me is played. one of mr. stroumboulopoulos’ favourite bands.

mr. stroumboulopoulos mentions he used to be bald. (haha.. so, not going there)

someone complains about snow pants. alex says that’s the best part! crazy carpets are mentioned by name. (which i think is different from tobogganing but i think they are saying it is the same.) alex says it’s a marketing ploy. they aren’t that crazy. bob (perhaps) says they should be mediocre carpets. .

richard krause (?) is on. a discussion of the oscars.

a caller calls in and mentions spraying silicion on truck inner tubes. mr. stroumboulopoulos calls it pimpin’ your tube. the caller also mentions britney spears shaving her head to match her crotch. bob admires the fact that he waiting 30 minutes to say that.

a caller calls in and says that he used to get strep throat all the time until he changed his diet. he gave up dairy. mr. stroumboulopoulos says he doesn’t drink milk, but does cheese on a cheeseburger count? god forbid, i will get it non-stop.

next question about stuff.. are bored people boring? bob says yes. alex isn’t a big fan of the question. he says that bob would be wrong. it’s a dumb question and isn’t it a song lyric? mr. stroumboulopoulos agrees with alex. we are overstimulated and it is good to be bored. bob says there is a difference between being at peace and bored.

this week in bob.

monday – bad. alex was really really busy because someone had this great idea, oooh, let’s go to london. it was hard, and not in a good way like a boiled egg. it wasn’t hard because alex can’t do his job. it was that someone decided to mess up his day.

tues/weds – skipped. same reason as monday. alex emphatically states that he was busy, he had work to do.

thurs – alex says he is glad you asked. george, you will be interested in this. he walked into the writers room. he uses air quotes around the writer’s room because they have their meeting in the kitchenette. he needed to microwave his lunch. he doesn't remember what he was having. they were having their meeting, however, from what he can tell, the meeting was about crossword puzzles. they were having a lengthy discussion on how to finish them, what their favourite clues were, etc. he was going out of his freakin’ mind and these effing guys are going on about crosswords? mr. stroumboulopoulos tells bob he has to wait until the end. alex figures there must be a good reason for this. bob wouldn’t do this to us.

friday – nothing happened.

it is assumed alex is finished. but he says wait, wait i have to finish.

sunday - alex didn’t think he would have anything but bob decided to open his mouth. i don’t believe in bosses. what the hell is that? like boring people? that’s just dumb, they exist.

bob’s rebuttal – when someone interrupts the meeting, the meeting stops. alex says that’s your fault for having it in the kitchen. bob’s favourite clue, four letters what is buried in the studio…(hee hee)

hüsker dü

someone sends a message, i would do anything for a moment of boredom. mr. stroumboulopoulos says he is with you there.

noel gallagher cancels, no explanation. next day, they get him. bryan ferry. you are kinda over, you should show up when you are booked. the driver they sent to pick him up calls and says i don’t think he’s coming. they call his manager. his manager says he is very sorry, he is violently ill. we’ve called the doctor. this is said with a pouncy british accent. mr. stroumboulopoulos calls him a jackass. and that it turned out to be a better show in the end. a discussion on doctor house calls and mr. stroumboulopoulos says he has had a doctor make a house call for him.

bob calls 24 a republican travesty. they talk about can you be funny if you are right wing? about how dennis miller lost his humour once he went right wing. they discuss how funny he used to be. mr. stroumboulopoulos calls him possibly the best anchor snl has ever had. bob is very conservative in his views, but funny is funny. jim richards sends in kathleen madigan as a funny right wing comic.

things they like.

when alex tries to get more time, mr. stroumboulopoulos tells him he had a week to come up with something he liked.

mr. stroumboulopoulos discuss english tv and how it is superior in the writing. how it is far and away better than anything else in the world. the production values are awful tho. canada looks like the superbowl compared to them. he likes nathan barley.

bob talks about how he is a technophobe luddite. he doesn’t get into technology, he doesn’t understand it. but bob is into blogging. he has been adding to 'the hour' blog. he loves blogging. he thought it was wanking, but the idea that you can share your thoughts with others. now, he doesn’t not write as much in his diary. alex says, you have a diary? are you a thirteen year old girl? it’s perfect that you have one. does it start with dear diary? bob says dear diary, you can’t believe how mean alex is.

mr. stroumboulopoulos suggests that the man in the yellow hat is a pedophile. or is into bestiality. bob says that’s pretty dark dude. mr. stroumboulopoulos suggests he used the monkey to lure kids.

bob suggests he might try out more technology and give updates on strombo.com. the weightlifter pants experiment is brought up.

bob also thinks 24 sucks this year. bob is down on tv. however, american idol is even better this year. mr. stroumboulopoulos says bob is out of his freakin’ mind.

alex rented extras and thought it was all right. he stoled the bionic bit from that (which would you choose bionic arm or leg? mr. stroumboulopoulos chose leg)

bob blogging is discussed more. alex says that people would like to know what is going on in bob’s head. bob loves the comments in blogging. alex says that bob is a pretty sensitive person, and is surprised. bob finds it fascinating. alex thinks it is because it is more attention being given to bob.

the fact that bindi irwin is booked for the hour is brought up. mr. stroumboulopoulos doesn’t feel comfortable booking her. (perhaps this should have been brought up before she was booked)

the end.

ps. i originally declared this sunday's broadcast to be fancy shoe day, in homage to bob. however, i will be attending a five year old's birthday party and will not be around for the show this week. fancy shoes next week!

i am counting on my pals to keep me updated .. (evelyne, toccata..)

take care y'all.

here i come to save the day...

it's friday, and time for random top ten.

1. rocket scientist – bob newhart
2. illustrated bible stories for children – the weakerthans
3. black eye – the grapes of wrath
4. space – mira
5. secrets don't make friends – from first to last
6. strangers – portishead
7. skunk - the jon spencer blues explosion
8. mighty mouse theme (here i come to save the day) – the sandpipers
9. and now for something completely similar – nofx
10. the yeah yeah yeah song – the flaming lips

to me this list says, my mp3 player was truly random today. and i listen to a lot of different music. or that i'm insane. :)

rubber ducky, you're the one...

i went to seattle yesterday to pick up a friend from the airport.

i left an hour late, and among other things, my travelling companion jammed out too late for me to find anyone else to go down with. i forgot my birth certificate and the alpha male teenager at the border was not pleased. i wanted to scream out, just send me home to get it. i don't care. just stop being such a bastard. but i didn't. he let me thru after telling me it was my final warning. i wanted to add and my first, but didn't. and then it was like we both of us decided we needed to end the conversation on a nice note. i mentioned something about different id nicely, and he jumped all over that (nicely), offering suggestions.

i only had a few hours to spend in the states. my first destination was archie mcphee .

(yes, that is a pink flamingo in the tree)


it's this awesome toy/novelty shop. it's in ballard, a cool little district of seattle. it was founded by scandanavian fisherman or something like that. they have this big fish festival every year. ballard has a lot of funky little shops and restaurants/bars. one of my favourites is hattie's hat. i like to eat breakfast there. even if it's four in the afternoon. :)

i was good this trip. i spent less than ten bucks. but i couldn't resist picking up ninja duck.

here he is at home with his new pal, hot rod duck.


then it was time to go to tacoma. i got stuck in massive traffic, meaning that i didn't have as much time as i thought i would. but i did pick up a pair of shoes (#44). now, i know i am supposed to be on a shoe ban, but when i said that, i did say that did not include a pair of heels. i don't have any shoes with heels, and i wanted one pair. Pair #44 were under $15 and have heels.

plus they will go so nice with my new tights with the red velvet skulls on them.















then it was off to the airport. but first, why don't we sit in traffic for awhile? that seems like fun. :(

finally get to the airport, over an hour late. pick up my friend and we are both hungry, but all i want to do is get out of seattle and all the traffic. we breeze thru seattle, no problem. we hit everett, and bam! the worst traffic yet. it doesn't clear up properly until marysville. which of course, means nothing to anyone unless they are familar with the i-5. but believe me, it was a long time.

we finally end up being able to stop for food somewhere near burlington. we went to bob's burgers & brews. i pass this restaurant chain all the time, but have never gone in before. the food was pretty good, but the portions were enormous. next time i go, i will split the meal with a friend. the prices are pretty cheap, considering the amount of food they give you. i was happy because the soup of the day was baked potato which i love. what did not make me happy is the fact we had to sit next to a table with two families. they thought it was perfectly acceptable to allow their children to run around, crawl on the floor, and generally yell a lot. i secretly hoped the waitress bump into them and spill something on them. alas, it was not to be. :)

these are pictures of the bridge that was behind bob's.

for i toss and turn i can't sleep at night ...

i kept waking up last night, and when i finally did get to sleep, my alarm sounded. stupid garbage day.

here is my friday random top ten.

1. tainted love – marilyn manson
2. helicopter - cliff martinez
3. are you gonna move it for me – the donnas
4. all this weight – sarah borges
5. park avenue - girls against boys
6. steady, as she goes – the raconteurs (weird, i was wikipediaing them as this song played)
7. we're all in love – new york dolls
8. start me up – rolling stones (i have stones songs? especially this one?)
9. failure - king missile
10. thaeter – marilyn manson (two marilyn songs? i don't even like them that much)

happy friday everyone.

somebody's watching you...

i found this post i wrote ages ago in my drafts. i thought it was kinda suitable for today being that it is the evil 'v' day.

i have a myspace dilemma. i may have created a situation where some guy on myspace thinks i'm some kind of potential stalker. or at the very least some kind of freak. maybe even a myspace whore. but all i really wanted to do was tell him that i liked his songs.

here is what happened. i got the link to a myspace page awhile back. it's a music account, not a personal account. i started listening to this guy's music, and i ended up listening to it a lot when i was job searching online. one night i was listening to it and i started to think, i wish i could just download these songs so i could listen to them on mp3 player. well, actually, first i wondered if this guy had a cd out, which turned out to be no so then i wanted to download the songs. anyways, i thought i would leave a comment on the guy's page and tell him that i enjoyed his work. if i am on myspace, and i like someone's work, i usually like to leave a comment so that other people can see it. i think that it helps the bands, having those comments public.

however, i couldn't comment so i ended up sending him an email. he emailed me back and it was then that i realized that when i had contacted him, i wasn't signed on to my 'real' account, but my blogging account. at first, i thought, no big deal. we communicated a bit, and he wanted to send me his mp3's but he started asking a lot of questions that i was unable to answer. i can't answer off my blogging account and i can't have him connect the dots back to my 'real' account. among other reasons, we don't have a lot of degrees of separation between us, and there are some potential 'issues' there.

i am pretty sure he thinks i'm some kind of freak. and i still don't have his mp3's.

three is a magic number...

i got this quiz/survey from both toccata and mellowlee. sometimes i do them, and sometimes i don't. so today, i decided to do it. of course, i got this ages ago. :)

the original number was four. as i have expressed before, i dislike the number four. so i have changed it to three. five was too much. :)

oh, and a side note about three. if you want to know if a number divides by three, you add up all the digits and if they divide by three, then the number divides by three. i learnt that when i was a little kid from marilu henner. and it has proven most useful in my life.

three jobs

1. busperson
2. chambermaid
3. record store clerk

three movies i would watch over and over: (just three?)

1. animal house
2. all about eve
3. high fidelity

added bonus question... three movies you can't pay me to watch again.

1. pretty woman
2. the shipping news
3. cocktail

three places i have been on vacation:

1. toronto
2. trinidad
3. corfu

three tv shows i love to watch:

1. 24
2. the mercer report
3. the daily show (sorry 'the hour', normally you would be here, but alas, i am not impressed lately)

three places i have lived:

1. vancouver, bc
2. jasper, ab
3. london, uk

three of my favourite drinks:

1. diet coke
2. beer
3. tea

three things i do just for me

1. nap
2. art
3. music

the earth says hello....

so, among many other things i did last sunday, i went to the media club to see serena ryder. ( or here.)

opening was joel kroeker . someone i've always meant to check out but haven't got around to it. i would put him in the singer/songwrite category, a little folk/country. it was enjoyable, and i would probably check him out some more. the one thing that we all decided was that he seemed really sincere on stage. sadly, i have nothing else to say about him. not because he wasn't good, but too much happened after his set.

ok, here's my small bitch about the show. because, really, what a blog entry be from me with out a bitch session. :) we were hanging out up front, and my new friend who we met in line goes to the bar to get a drink. now, we've been talking off and on during the set break and she even offered to get us beers as well. which we decline at this point. i mention this because to anyone around us, it looks like we are all together. anyways, she comes back and the girl that is behind us tries to refuse to let her back in. i had to tell the girl she was with us. and then she was all like, yah, but i'm short. well then, perhaps you should have gotten to the show earlier like we all did to get a good place up front. i'm sorry, i didn't realize being short allowed you to be rude and selfish. plus it's not like any of us are giants.

now, i'll be honest here. before the show, i wasn't all that familar with serena ryder's work. what i've heard, i really like. but i don't own any of her albums so i what i knew was kinda limited. besides wanting to go just to see her, we also went because it was cheap and it was at the media club. the media club is a great venue. the sound is always good and it is a very small club. i think the capacity is around 150.

i'm going to start off with ...the girl can sing! such a big voice out of such a wee lass. she started off solo, and acappella. she played a few songs solo, and then brought out her band. i really enjoyed how much fun they all seemed to be having and really seemed to enjoy playing together. serena ryder seemed not only happy to be performing for us, but genuinely appreciative of any audience acclaim.

now, because i didn't really know song names or even songs for that matter, the cover versions tend to stick out. i thought she did a great version of 'sisters of mercy'. and i loved 'good morning sunshine' as i have loved that song since i saw 'hair' the movie.

of the originals, the ones that i know the names of that stood out were 'my heart cries for you', 'out of the blue' and 'weak in the knees'. but the song that blew me away the most was called 'sing sing'. just her voice singing, her feet stomping and her hands clapping was so powerful.

she was incredibly charismatic. she told stories of playing the legion the other nite in tofino, and how 'drunken jeff' called her 'big ears'. another story was about how she had lost her voice, and was on the ferry. she wanted to get a coffee and was trying to write down her order. the waitress got impatient with her and left. a second waitress saw her with her notepad and chastised the first one with.. "she can't hear you! that's why she didn't answer you."

here she is covering 'morning dew'. she made us laugh because she said she couldn't sing, dance and play tambourine at the same time. she did just fine. :)

she totally blew me away. i will be going out and picking up her cds as soon as i can. and 'good morning sunshine' is my new song obsession.

i've been bad, i've been bad...

a little metric for you. :)

ok, i've been such a bad blogger lately but i am actually looking at ten days with nothing scheduled apart from spending one of them, hanging out at the passport office. i'm going to blog my little heart out. and more importantly, i'm going to try and catch up with all my blog reading.

here's friday random top. it's rockin' this week.


1. precious - the dalai lamas
2. pretty noose – soundgarden
3. stay with you – the goo goo dolls
4. well, well, well – the hives
5. broken face – pixies
6. reach for the sky – social distortion
7. know - system of a down
8. field trip - squirtgun
9. i don't love you – the dishrags
10. black [brendan o'brien remix] – pearl jam

its just a brief smile crossing your face...

here's my friday random top ten. played friday. posted saturday. :)

apparently my mp3 player thinks it is still december.

1. intro – gorillaz
2. power – aduck
3. ridin' on the eight ball – the scramblers
4. speed trials - elliott smith
5. blue christmas – ricky van shelton
6. bird in hand - dan macdonald/molly parker
7. welcome to the terrordome – public enemy
8. fashion bleeds - archers of loaf
9. the christmas song - the raveonettes
10. intro – outkast

i won't be around tomorrow for the strombo show (i will be at serena ryder), so please keep me posted on this "month" ( as barbara w put it) in bob. :)