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  • Review: Sex and the City

    sex-and-the-city-movie-poster.jpgOn Thursday and Friday I went to a Business Process Notation course which was actually quite interesting.  It deals with mapping out business processes (as in, the steps used to accomplish a task.  This could be as simple as the business of brushing your teeth (take brush, apply toothpaste) which are quite complex in a larger setting (such as the application of a passport for example).  The notation used is fairly common and I was there to learn the actual notation used in mapping these out.  It was quite enjoyable and one of the first times at work that I didn’t mind going on a training course as I felt I gained some knowledge from it.

    Friday evening, because of the late hour I escaped the building, I spent some time with Krista on the bus as it chugged slowly down the core of Ottawa.  I was not impressed with how slow the buses took at 5PM.  I decided to head over to Vero’s to escape this dungeon on four wheels.  We had dinner and then headed back to Orleans so I could buy some picture frames.

    Buying frames has been a quest all last week as I stumbled across a 50% coupon from Michael’s craft store that I could use each day.  I recruited Mike, Eric, Annie and Vero to accompany me in buying some frames and giving them each a coupon.  I had quite a few concert related items to frame.  In fact, it is quite shameful to realize that it’s been two years since the last thing that has been put up!  I am quite the procrastinator (Dad of course knows this from the dent which is still in my car door.  Luckily, I am inquiring about this now.) and I had a few reviews that had accumulated.  Unfortunately, I realized that I had grown lax in cutting out reviews from newspapers and I think there are quite a few that I missed over the years.  I will go to the public library with Vero one weekend and scour the archives and print some out.

    After Vero and I picked up some picture frames, we headed to Blockbuster to see if we could rent Fame as Vero wants to see this musical but thought it would be good to see the film also.  Unfortunately, Blockbuster does not carry this hit (praises!) and we bought a few films instead.

    We hunkered down at home with some popcorn and watched the Sex and the City film.  I actually quite enjoy the series but have never seen the whole thing (which doesn’t take away from the show).  It follows loose plot lines over it’s span of five years and now they have returned to continue where they left off.  It was an extended cut so the film was 2.5 hours long.  Being cozy on a cold night beckoned a little scotch to be brought out of the cupboard so I had a few of those.  The film was decent.  I thought the plot line about Steve went against his established character in the series, but I guess they needed something to build the movie out of.  I also found that the characters were out of their regular element and I thought this is a great thing to do in a film setting.  If they were just doing the same old things that they did in the television series, it wouldn’t have been a great film.  It would feel like an extended tv show.  But with them put into bigger, crazier situations that seem out of place, it made it stand out more.

  • Halloween with Ryley and Jenna



    HPIM6891 (2), originally uploaded by palm0014.

  • Charities Not Liking the Quebec

    I work in the province of Quebec yet live in Ontario.  I phoned to order a Cancer Society lottery ticket today and the person on the other end of the line said she was unable to process my order because I did not have a phone number which resided in Ontario.  I did explain that I did live in Ontario and wondered if I could still order the ticket but alas, this was not the case.

    Now, call me crazy, but as a charity, wouldn’t you want to accept anyone’s credit card as sufficient information to process a ticket purchase?

    Strange.  Hey, I just noticed it was for the Canadian Cancer Society, not the Ontario Cancer Society!  What gives?

  • Useful Tip – French Wikipedia

    If your search for French bands isn’t producing any results in Wikipedia, be sure to realize that there’s a French version as well.

    This should be made into a fortune cookie.

    iplaying: Inspirez – Noir Silence (Immortellement Célèbre)

  • One Sick Weekend

    The weekend was quite the bust as Vero came down with my cold so we dragged our asses around on Saturday.  I spent most of the day editing Samantha and Marc-Andre’s wedding video (which is actually coming along super fast considering…I’m down to the last hour!) and learning some new tricks from Vero in the editing suite.

    I was thinking about going to the James Street Feed Diner originally to see Joe and Danielle but Mike and Melissa won tickets to a horse show on the Saturday night and asked if we wished to join them.  Who can say no to a horse show?  We mustered up our strength and headed out to the Scotiabank Place, not knowing what to expect.  Dave also mentioned to snag a ticket which was great.

    The five of us entered the virtually empty hockey arena and proceeded to the box that Mike’s work owns.  I have never been in box seats before at the arena so it was quite the treat.  They had a washroom, tv and comfy seats for us to hang out in.  We did have to go down and get our own drinks but he said that this was not usual.

    The horse show turned out to be the ‘World Famous’ Lipizzaner Stallions show.

    http://www.lipizzaner.com/

    It consisted of the stallions performing routines like trotting together in a synchronized fashion and other neat things like jumping up onto two legs.  The announcer explained the history of the Lipizzaner Stallions which are a highly sought after breed of horses who were used in royal circles for both it’s elegancy off the battle field and it’s ferocity on the battlefield.  Pretty neat.

    We were amused watching the horses prance around for us but overall, I personally wasn’t entirely amazed by the whole ordeal.  But we realized later that it’s all a matter of perspective.  To a fan of equestria…(?)…making a horse trot around or kick out its back legs may be SUPER hard to do and is a sight to see.  But for the uninitiated like ourselves, it didn’t seem out of the question for the horses to be doing this easily.  I compared it to a guitarist.  A non-guitarist can see Jimmy Page bust out a wicked solo and say “That’s cool, I like the sound of that.” whereas a guitarist would proceed to marvelling at the technical mastery he has over the instrument and bow to him like the guitar God that he is.

    Let me note that during the show my eye was really bothering me and I assumed it was some allergic reaction to a sweater I pulled out from the archives (the closet).  It was getting really bad by the end of the show.  Vero wasn’t feeling all too hot either which was unfortunate.  We all headed to Moxie’s for a dessert along with Colin and Becky but Mike was nice enough to drive me back home and get my car so I could leave with Vero immediately after dessert.  I’m glad I did as she was feeling dizzy and out of it.  Poor girl!  I wasn’t faring too well myself as I watched a bit of Greys Anatomy on TV but I couldn’t keep my one eye open.  I went to bed and in the night I kept waking up to find I couldn’t open my eye!  Pink eye struck me!  Argh.  What more can go wrong?

    Sunday morning I couldn’t sleep anymore so I got up around 7AM and watched a bunch of Greys Anatomy and Heroes episodes to catch up.  I also then edited a little more video for the remainder of the day.  All in all, it was a pretty subdued weekend for both Vero and I other than heading out to the horse show.  I didn’t end up going to see Spamalot either.  No tickets were to be found easily.  Ah well.

    Special thanks to Mike and Mel for inviting us to partake in the Stallion show!  “Show us the corvette!”

  • Babysitting Philippe

    On Friday night Vero and I headed over to Eric and Annie’s to babysit Philippe since they were (gasp!) going to the Celine Dion concert.  Eric commented that the concert wasn’t TOO bad as there were cool choreographed dancing going on.

    Babysitting Philippe started out with myself going to St. Hubert to pick up dinner.  Let it be noted that 99% of the time the restaurant is super quick to pick up the take out orders.  The 1% of the time when it is not is on a Friday night around 6PM.  I waited around 20 minutes for the dinner and headed back.  Let it be noted that Vero must be the woman for me because she lets me have the chicken breast from the Econo meal (that’s the meal where you can get two quarter chicken meals but one of them has to be the leg).  That’s a match made in (chicken) heaven right there people.

    I wasn’t feeling all too hot while babysitting and he was pretty quiet for most of the night so it didn’t go too bad.  It’s strange to realize how much I don’t know about children, but that’s not really a surprise considering I don’t exactly have an opportunity to understand the little details.  For example, I didn’t realize that Philippe would tell me what snack he would like.  Coolness!  Where did he learn these abilities?  He is a smart kid.  I also found it strange to see him move from the crib to a kids bed!  Was I in a giant bed where I took up 10% of the space?  I guess I can’t remember.

    He didn’t take kindly to me hopping into his bed to read him a bedtime story.  Of course, Vero prevailed and got to read him the story while I watched TV downstairs.  I wonder how children minds work.  Sure, he knows that we are not his parents so maybe he’s a little scared.  But what frightens him about me reading the bedtime story?  Is it due to patterns in that when he usually has a story read to him, there’s no one in his bed but himself and his parents are sitting outside the bed reading?

    I talked to Eric to confirm my theory and yes indeed, no one is usually in his bed when reading a book to him.  Clearly I was messing with the child’s patterns and I freaked him out.  Heck, I would be freaked out if some giant of a good looking man jumped into my bed with a good book and started reading it out loud!

    After he went to bed, Vero and I watched Stepbrothers which stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly.  It was quite the over the top hilarity and our favourite part is when one of them is sitting in bed with a Chewbacca mask on, reading a book.  Funny stuff.

    In the end, Philippe never climbed out the window so clearly we were successful in babysitting.

  • Changing Object’s Colour in Photoshop

    Buh.  I’ve been feeling pretty rough over the past few days.  The sore throat isn’t going away, whatsoever.  I have a feeling there’s a tinge of strep throat in my system.  Must counteract these forces!

    Last night in Multimedia class we learned some great colour correction options in Photoshop.  THIS is the stuff that’s useful.  The tools that I can use to touch up personal photographs!  I had to provide three examples of photos I wanted to transform so I took a bunch of shots from trips to Paris and New York.  One of the cooler features was the ability to change the colour of something.  For example, I switched the colour of a car:

    The Professor challenged me to figure out a way to make sure the reflection in the other car was also red.  That was tough to figure out but eventually it worked out.  The thing isn’t perfect but it’s pretty neat what you can do in Photoshop.  Honestly, the tools that I was taught in class tonight literally took 20 minutes to play around with.

    iplaying: Appelle-moi – Noir Silence (Immortellement Célèbre)

  • Review: Smashing Pumpkins at Massey Hall (Night 2)

    IMG_7776, originally uploaded by Evdawg.

    “If I were to notice my nose or ears bleeding at the concert, it wouldn’t have come to me as a surprise as I surely thought my brain had melted a little.” – my description of Night 2 to a colleague.

    After another day of work, I headed downtown to an election party at some pub. Dawn (who I curled with a few nights prior) had organized a grand gala for the US elections and so Katie and I decided to show up (as well as take advantage of their cheap chicken wings!). I got to see Sarah, Dawn and Nathan one last time before heading out of Toronto but missed Paul as he was ordering some shoes online (brave sole!). I then trekked down to Massey Hall and got there around 7:50 with no free posters in sight. I headed downstairs to the bar (which was the first time I realized there was a bar in this place) and got a water as I wasn’t feeling too well. I figured some hydration may help out. I then found my trusty old Row R, Seat 42 chair and plopped down around different people. I noticed familiar faces in the hall…some had moved towards the stage, some backwards. Either way, I closed my eyes until the lights dimmed and the same introduction music came over the PA.

    I shall go more in depth on the review this time around to capture all my thoughts of the two nights. I thought a neat addition to the stage was a sole lit-up pumpkin on one of the amplifiers. I also liked how the violinist had a spot next to Lisa on keys and that the horn section had a spot in behind Ginger (bass). It was a good setup of the small stage.

    I make specific comments to songs below so I’ll sum up overall feelings of the night here. All in all, Night 2 BLEW my expectations away. When I bought tickets to the 20th Anniversary tour, it was in hopes of hearing some rare songs. I didn’t expect any new songs, I didn’t expect any ‘never before played’ songs, I didn’t expect some returns of old jam songs. I got all of this and more. It was quite a surprise and it perked me out of my feeling sick. It was amazing. There was not one moment that I didn’t enjoy. The new songs are rocking! I really can’t wait to hear the bootleg to this night! It’s on order. Who knows when it will show up. Night 2 was by far the better of the two nights but I’m glad I went to both.

    Comments on the entire 20th Anniversary Tour – Black Sunshine and White Crosses. 48 different songs played over the span of two nights. 5 hours of Pumpkins music. White Crosses definitely not the ‘acoustic’ session that I thought it would become. I must admit that I almost enjoyed being alone at the concert as I didn’t have to think about anyone else who may not enjoy the Pumpkins as much as I do. I could exist in the moment of the heavy 20 minute jam sessions and love every moment of them. I could marvel in the fact that they are playing new songs for us tonight. I enjoyed Night 2 more than Night 1 and I can’t figure out if it’s because I already had heard Night 1 earlier in the summer via a bootleg. I think by looking at the song content, I would have preferred Night 2 anyhow…with its rarities and new songs being played. But the whole experience was the best Pumpkins experience I’ve had in my life. I’ve seen the Pumpkins in ’96, ’00 and ’07 and this is them at the top of their game. Twenty years in and they aren’t letting up!

    Epilogue – In the encore, Billy came out and made reference to President Obama and how proud they were of their country right now. Everyone cheered. When I left Massey Hall I walked up Yonge Street and there were people dancing in the streets. There were bongos being drummed, there were songs being changed in Dundas Square. To confirm that Obama did in fact win, I asked the first person I met. “Who won?” I asked. He smiled and said “Obama.”

    I don’t know if it was because Barack Obama seemed to be a popular candidate in Canadian eyes, or if it was because it was finally the end of an…interesting eight years with George W. Either way it felt like this great weight had been lifted off the shoulders of the world that evening.

    I couldn’t have asked for a better ending of my stay in Toronto.

    Special thanks go out to a few people in making this possible – Bruce, Louise and Maureen for those gift certificates to Ticketmaster from last Christmas. Most of the concerts in Ottawa are through another ticket chain so I was glad to put those gift cards to the ultimate use. Thank you very much! Thanks to my old manager Sue and the crew at the regional headquarters in Toronto for allowing me to work from Toronto for a few days. Last but not least, thanks to Katie for having me over for a few nights. I’m glad I had the opportunity to fix her computer, fix her iPod and make brownies during my way with her!

    Love live the Pumpkins.

    Setlist:
    Ava Adore – Billy in black get up (on White Crosses night. Nice) carrying a jack-o-lantern and dumping the glittery contents on part of the audience during the song.
    Cupid de Locke – !!! Hasn’t been played in a decade. Jimmy came out on the marching drum and Billy led him around the stage.
    1979 – Fairly standard fare.
    99 Floors – A new song which debuted at the Residencies last year. Acoustic/harmonica folk song.
    Owata – New song. Pretty cool!
    Sunkissed – I really enjoyed the addition of the horns on this one.
    Soma – AS IF. SOMA is being played. At this point in the night, I realized that Night 2 would blow Night 1 one away from the sheer choice of songs they played.
    Cherub Rock – I laughed after remembering last night’s comments about this tune.
    Zero – Ah yes! Hasn’t been played in awhile. One of my faves from Mellon Collie. Jeff was pretty wild on the solo.
    Bodies – Honestly, are they kidding me? This has surely not been played in over a decade and is constantly requested. It was visceral. It was amazing. Billy screaming “Love is Suicide!”. Beautiful. At this point, this is where I thought of the brain melting comment above.
    Crestfallen – Always a favourite from Adore.
    I of the Mourning – A welcome surprise and I love the end.
    A Song for a Son – New song, quite rocking. I’m enjoying the direction of the new songs and look forward to their proper introduction.
    Landslide – Jeff and Billy, solo on guitar. Beautiful! It was really great to hear him sing Landslide and he even had us sing at one point.
    Disarm – Good violin/horn section.
    Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness – Ok, so I really didn’t know what this was for awhile. For the longest time I just thought it was the horn/violin section playing an instrumental jam. Then I tuned into a melody I recognized. It really took me five good minutes to pinpoint it…it was the instrumental introduction to my favourite album! Very different and very amazing. Once I tuned it, it put a smile on my face.
    Galapogos – Honestly, a dream come true. “Too late to turn back now, I’m running out of sound!”. At first I thought they were playing Porcelina.
    Gossamer – At this point in the show, my brain truly must have been damaged somehow as I started to not be able to pinpoint what they were playing. The rolling bassline and the drums hearkened a memory in me and then I realized they were playing the ‘live-only’ song Gossamer which is one of my all time faves. This is quite the long song (some versions capping at 35 minutes). I believe this one stopped around the 20 minute mark and they had a new outro section which was great. It took the intro section and slowed it down.
    As Rome Burns – New song which ROCKED. The haunting feel of the keys, the sense-searing guitar…ahhh, it’s going to be a fave!
    The Sounds of Silence – I found out this is a Simon and Garfunkel cover. I didn’t know it until after the show. I think it’s at this point in the night where Billy tripped backwards and fell on his back and he waved off the guitar tech guy and got up himself. Must be hard enough when he’s dressed up in a dress!
    The March Hare – New song. Honestly, these songs segueway into one another easily that I couldn’t really tell where one ended and where one began. I believe this one is where he started ranting about Little Red Riding Hood. It had a very calyspo beat and Billy was traipsing around the stage with a tambourine and genuinely having a great time.
    Suffer – Segueway into Suffer which I didn’t recognize at first as it was a calypso version. Very cool!
    Age of Innocence – Ending the show with a great ending tune from Machina!
    Encore
    That’s the Way (My Love Is) – Acoustic.
    I Am One – Part 2 – For the longest time, this space jam seemed familiar (lyrically only) to me and I really couldn’t put my finger on it. When I searched through some old Gish tunes the next day, I still couldn’t place the lyrics. I then found out that this was a pre-Gish tune that they brought out of the vault! AWESOME! Never played before live! Beautiful! I think this was the ultimate nod to the hardcore fans like myself who may have recognized it from a simple 2 minute version we have in our collection somewhere. Musically, it’s definitely changed though.

  • Thoughts on Toronto, from an Ottawan – Part 2

    • The buses are insane here.  I felt like I was being thrown into a can of sardines getting onto the morning bus which brought us down to the subway station.
    • I really enjoy the subway.  It’s quite fast and the signs make it simple navigate.  Mind you, I pride myself on the ability to navigate any area so some other people may find it intimidating.
    • Katie is amazing.  I’ve been sick over the past day and she’s been very accomodating.
    • There are stores for everything.  For example, I went into a record shop that could very well be my bedroom.  It had vinyl, it had used CDs, it had cool books relating to music, movies and random pop culture elements.  Later on, Katie brought me to The Cookbook Store.  Yes, there is a store with cookbooks as their only merchandise.  I couldn’t imagine that a place like that could stay in business, but sure enough, there are quite a few cooks here in the GTA.

  • Review: Smashing Pumpkins at Massey Hall

    Tonight Tonight, originally uploaded by pumpkinsmediamilitia.

    Last night I met up with Sarah, Paul, Katie and we headed to a great Thai food restaurant which was close to Massey Hall. We chatted and ate for awhile and then I headed down the block in search for the legendary Hall. I had only been there once before with Vero at an Our Lady Peace concert and I remember it being quite the venue.

    The crowds around the Hall were exhuding an electricity in the air. Tonight was the debut night of the ‘Black Sunshine’ show whereas tomorrow will hold the ‘White Crosses’ shows. There was excited voices talking about how great the concert will be. The excitement overtook me as I walked into the hall and found my seat (which was two rows shy of being right at the back of the hall (Row R), but you know what? It was still closer than I was when I saw them in Montreal in a big crowd of people. I guess there is really no bad spot in this venue.)

    I then headed downstairs to the merchandise booth and picked up a 20th anniversary poster as well as a t-shirt which had a cool logo on it with the tour dates on the back. I wasn’t going to pick up the t-shirt but they had another poster with the cool logo and I figured I may as well just pick up the t-shirt and I will always have the logo no matter what.

    When I got back to my seat I noticed a few guys holding oversized posters and I asked where they got them. Supposedly they were giving out free posters outside promoting the new DVD that is coming out next week. I headed out but couldn’t find any free posters.

    8PM was the time listed on the ticket and the band eventually started around 8:20. The lights came down and they had some eerie intro music over the speakers (alas, it was no Mellon Collie theme!) and then Jimmy came out and rocked us with a drum solo. At the point I realized that I should not be putting off getting a mild prescription of eyeglasses for driving. This would be another good use of them as I couldn’t pick out fine details up on the stage from that far back.

    The band then came out and Billy came out in this crazy getup which consisted of a wedding dress and some giant head-dress. It’s interesting to think that he is one of the only musicians out there that still dress up in theatre garb for the concert.

    The setlist consisted of rock, acoutic, then more rock. The band was accompanied by flutes, horns and violins which was nice on such songs like Tonight, Tonight. The band seemed really into it at times and Billy gave it his all with his customary snarl.

    The encore was quite fun as the band came out with kazoos and Billy had a giant commentary for us…”We rock more than 90% of the bands out there.”, “We will be here for awhile yet.” “To the guy yelling for Cherub Rock, Cherub Rock, Cherub Rock…God, it’s like a bad acid trip!”. He spoke for a good 15 minutes while interjecting with everyone singing “Everything is Beautiful”.

    The night was amazing. The setlist mimicked the August tour they just had but I didn’t care. I was grateful to see them even though I had heard bootlegs. I am looking extremely forward to seeing the ‘White Crosses’ show tonight as I am thinking there will be quite a few surprises coming at us. Will they play my favourite tune, ‘Thru the Eyes of Ruby’? One can hope. I also wonder if they will provide us with any updates on the US election or if they even care really?

    My only complaint is that yesterday I came down with something…my throat was killing me, my bones ached and I felt cold at all times. When I got back to Katie’s I wrapped myself up in blankets hoping that the moment would be pass by morning. I must admit that this morning I felt no better but I feel quite a bit better this afternoon after my third Vitamin C filled drink.

    Setlist:
    Roctopus (Jimmy Drum Solo)
    Everybody Come Clap
    Tarantula
    G.L.O.W.
    Siva
    Mayonaise
    Tonight, Tonight
    Speed Kills
    Transformer
    Superchrist
    United States

    Once Upon A Time
    The Crux
    The Rose March

    Today
    Bullet with Butterfly Wings
    The Beginning is the End is the Beginning
    Heavy Metal Machine
    Glass’ Theme
    Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Pink Floyd)

    We Only Come Out at Night
    Everything is Beautiful