Kick At The Bieber 'Til He Bleeds Rainbows

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Making The Best Of It

Two east of Toronto girls showing how it's done.


The hockey card shot.


Who needs a helmet when you have hair like Steve's?


Jacques Plante wannabe.


Who says you can't be cold and sexy?

A Tale of a Daughter of the Empire

Once upon a this morning I was trying to have a nap after a restless night when my lovely roommate Ames come up to inform me that I had visitors. The lovely Linda and ravishing Richard where in my kitchen looking for an umbrella and possible company. They informed me that Prince Charles and Camilla were down at the HMCS Haida getting a tour and they were aiming to do some royal stalking. Obviously I wanted a piece of that action, so I threw on some outdoor protection and my United Empire Loyalist pin and took off with my friends. We got ourselves some great standing ground by the car we figured the couple would be taking. We had prime placement for watching Camilla get in the pretty black car, but Prince Charles did not get in with her.



He was shaking hands with the crowd. The crowd on our side. And, (fanfare please) he shook hands with me! Eeeee! I shook hands with Prince Charles! I'd say that was worth getting out of bed for.

Long, Beautiful...

I'm going to see the musical Hair tonight at Port Hope's Capitol Theatre. It promises to be a good time. Though maybe not if you're URC, or CanRef, or OCRC or FRC, 'cause there'll be wangs 'n titties in one scene. Though maybe if you are concervative reformed you never get to see those unless they're you're own. So you should prolly come. (I'm never going to be able to get landscaping or sodding done now...crap)

If you're conservative, live in the Northumberland County region and looking beyond musical wangs to broaden your horizons, I recommend the East Northumberland Secondary School, Drama Club production of Michel Trembley's Les Belles Soeurs. I'm sad I'll miss it.

We're On A Bridge Charlie

I was reminded of the fantasticness of this: http://www.filmcow.com/charlietheunicorn.html
Which then reminded me of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMUsXnHdGbA

#darkto

I woke up to reading about the power outage in the west end of Toronto. I also woke up to reading about how Twitter has been really helpful in communicating things during the outage.

• Twitter
• what's going on in T.O
  
• how twitter is helping

The hash tag (techie way of marking topics/conversations) the Toronto power outage is #darkto. People put that tag in their tweet (what its called when you post using Twitter) and then you can read allllll of the tweets that have that tag.

If you go to see all the #darkto tweets you can see how people are using this to keep each other updated. People are reporting when their power has come back on; others are talking about how the public transit is going (or not going); some are posting tips from the city on how and what to do about your water pipes.

I, of course wanted to get in on this action (from the comfort of my warm bedroom in London, still in my pjs). So I started reading the tags. I answered one guy's question about where the outage was because he thought the tag was vague. A little later a woman had read a tweet about the city having set up places where you could be to get warm. But there was no indication of where they were. So she asked where they were. I had read where they were in the CBC article about the outage, so I posted a reply to this woman. A good few minutes later someone else sort of tried to point her in the right direction. She replied with this:

MissHC: @conniecrosby Thanks, but I already got it from @Lstew gotta love #darkto! :)

Hooray, I got to help someone find shelter and be a part of the current most popular hash tag. I think I deserve 2 naps today for that.

Forgive Me Internet For I Have Sinned

A few weeks ago one of my roommates lost their phone. It sucked, he looked everywhere for it, vigorously retraced his steps and nothing, no phone. So he took the opportunity that life handed him to get an iPhone. It's been quite the event in the house to have it here. He's been downloading new apps every night and shares with great enthusiasm the slick features of each one. As you can imagine, I have been a wee be jealous and coveting this sweet piece of technology. He got it on Saturday and it wasn't until last night that I finally broke down and asked if I could play with it. Mmm. When he said I could play it with, he told me he wasn't responsible for puting temptation in my hands. I told him if I was going to make an expensive Apple purchase it would be of a Macbook pro, preloaded with Final Cut.

Here and There

Friday I am going to this with this.
Saturday I am going to this with this.

There is a Joni Mitchell quote that would apply here.

Why I Think Winter Is A Crock O' Nasty

I know its only November and it hasn't even got really snowy or really cold yet. But as the white begins to pile up here in London I am already reminded of why I think winter is dumb. Do I think there are some profoundly beautiful and awe inspiring parts of winter - yes. Do I think there are some fun things you can do in winter that you can't do at other times - yes. Those things are not the point of this ranting, griping, crank.

My main complaint with winter (aside from sub zero temperatures) is this: everything takes longer (I have composed many songs about this in my head). You could accuse me of western rushing attitudes and tell me that winter is God's way of making me slow down. You could do that, but you'd be wrong.

Let's compose a little list of things that take longer because of winter and all its accoutrement.

1. showers - no longer can I dash out apres shower, now everything must be moisterized lest it dry up and fall off or crack, itch and burn
2. getting dressed - just throw on a dress? heeeeck no! long johns, pants or tights ('cause dem hose just ain't gonna cut it), shirt, long sleeved shirt, sweater - layers, layers, layers - a person could die of skin suffication.
   
3. leaving the house - throw on flip flops, grab keys and go - oh, no. put on socks, put on boots, put on and zip up 20lbs coat, find hat, find mitts, begin sweating
4. using a car - fight polar bear on way to car, use mitts to dig way into car, start car, I said saaa-aaaart the car, turn up anything that makes heat and defrosts things, dig out scraper/brush, scraaaape scraaaaape scraaaaape, brush brush brush brush brush <-- repeat brush and scrape routine for 20 minutes, brush snow and ice off self, wring out now sopping wet mittens, get in car. oh, not so fast - silly, you forgot that you have to shovel the driveway in order to even get this freshly cleared car out. i hope it's not snowing heavily while you're shovelling 'cause all your hard brushing work is about to get undone
5. driving anywhere - main roads are plowed and salted? sweet! what's that? you don't live on the 401? oh, your house is on a purely residential street, oh and that won't get plowed until 4pm the day after it snowed like mad. ok, so it takes you 20 minutes to ram your way out to a main route (this is added to the 20 or so it took you to get your car ready to leave the driveway - and add to that the half an hour it took you to shovel) . now you're on that main route but traffic is moving at an astounding 36 km/h which should have you at work only 3 hours late (you have second thoughts about having won in the fight against the polar bear and wonder if just having let him eat you would have solved a lot more problems).

So by my count something (exiting the house and getting to a main route in a city) that would have taken you 5 minutes in June has now taken around an hour and a quarter. And there my friends is my just some of the fuel for my fire of thinking winter is dumb.

Because I Didn't Do The Dishes

For two entire school years, every supper (except both Aprils) before Church in the Box I ate supper with the same chore group of women. Now I can't just say that I ate with them, I need to say that I ate food that was generously supplied and prepared by them. It was a really good deal.

Here's how it would go:

• Laura comes in for CITB and is a big stress bag because there were always insane things going wrong
• Laura quickly loses years off her life
• around 5 or 5:30 things would calm down enough that Laura could escape
• Laura escapes to the dorm of said lovely women and

1. freaks out
2. tries to sleep
3. takes something for her headache
4. remembers that she doesn't have any pre-service music to play
5. gets her pre-service 'staff' devotion together
6. makes lots of terrible jokes
7. makes Natalie laugh until she is pretty much hyperventilating
   
8. eats
9. realizes the time, freaks out and leaves in a very big hurry for the school

So basically that's how things went. It was a pretty involved process. Now the reason I am writing this post is to give shout out to Steph. Steph is the unofficial mother among this women, not because she's older or has actual children of her own, but because she is responsible and has some great maternal instincts. She was the one that ensured food would be ready and usually that it was food that I love.

Last night we had a little reunion of these ladies at the dorm that Steph is now a Residence Advisor for (aka she is one step closer to being a real Mom) and once again her matronly field general skills delivered a great time of eating and socializing.

Go Steph.

Something You're Going To Want To Do

On November the 1st and 8th, I'm singing with Chorus London in some pretty fantastic concerts.

The concerts are basically the same actually - or at least the music being sung is the same - Orff's Carmina Burana - you can see the first/last movement here - and Ruth Watson Henderson's Voices of Earth. Both concerts will have Chorus London and the Amadeus Choir and a children's choir, along with orchestra.

On Novemeber 1 the concert happens in London at Centennial Hall. On Novermber 8 the concert happens in Toronto at York Minster Park Baptist Church.

A few of the differences will be: the childrens choirs will be different for each city, and I believe the pianists will be different as well. We were told a few weeks ago that Ruth Watson Henderson herself will be one of the pianists for the Toronto date.

I think these will be very hot concerts - 200 voices, amazing music, orchestra, hmmm yes. I'd never heard all of Carmina Burana before I entered the ensemble and it is one crazy b!tch goddess of a piece of music - the rhythm is crazy at times, it's sung in medieval Latin and German. There are even some yiddish words thrown in for good measure. The translations of the lyrics are pretty crazy too. Some highlights:

"If the world were all mine from the sea up to the Rhine, this I would willingly forgo to have the queen of England lie in my arms."

"Some gamble, some drink, some live without discretion. From those who spend their time in gambling, some are stripped bare, some win clothes, some are dressed in sacks; there no-one fears death, but for the wine they throw dice."

"May God grant, may the gods grant, what I have set myself to do, and that is, to unlock the bonds of her virginity."

Voices of Earth draws its lyrics from the Canticles of the Sun and poetry by Archibald Lampman. One of my favourite parts of singing it is the way the two choirs are written. There are many times when one choir is kind of singing the back up vox for the other choir. Sometimes this means that the lyrics get a little skewed. At one point our choir gets to sing "oo-ooooooo grass." And at another "a pool, a pooool, cool." Or another favourite "with joy for Captain fancy at the helm." I want to meet Capt. Fancy.

The V.O.E (as I've taken to calling it in my head because I don't have anyone to talk to such choral matters about) is something you'll want to take in for a variety of reasons

1. it's Canadian - the composer and the poetry (Archie L is from Morpeth, ON)
2. it's rarely performed due to the whole 2 choir, plus childrens choir, plus orchestra/double piano thing
3. you can't just go out and buy a cd of it - there are no commercial recordings available
4. it was written in 1991 - which means you can't be sick of it yet
5. it is a big challenge to sing - from the unfamiliarity with it, to the fact that it changes time signatures about 1,538 times, or the insane rhythms, or maybe the sharp text painting
   

Basically you need to come to this concert and you have 2 chances to do it. I've linked both choir's websites in the post - and you can get tickets from the 'home' choir for each date. I have a small mitt full of tickets for the London date. Let me know if you want one/some/all/a punch in the face.

Oh, yeah, siiiiigh and one last reason why you may want to come to this concert.... double sigh... this, cough, will... ugh... be (I can do this), my first, siiiiiiiiiigh, concert as... deep breath... a soprano (of the 2nd variety). There, I said it. So you'd better come.

(ps - if you call for tix in London, mention my name - i'm required to sell a certain number)

I Wanna Get Cultural, Cultural

Yesterday: The Taming of the Shrew at Stratford
Tonight: Choir rehearsal
Tuesday: cocktail reception for artists participating in London's "In Good Company" festival
Thursday: Jays vs Yankees
Friday: housewarming party for classy friends in London
Saturday: Fuente Ovejuna at Stratford
Middle of next week: The Pirates of Penzance at the Grand

Swine yes, uncultured, no.