Back From THE STREET with 10 Things I Love
First things first - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, valueofaloonie! I wish you cowboys with tattoos, if you'd like them, or cowboys without tattoos if you prefer, even though last time I checked, you had your own personal rodeo cowboy (I'm not sure if he's with or without tattoos, hee!) and may not need more! Listen to some Keith Urban (?) or Rascal Flatts, because they (he?) are/is SICK (HEE!), and laff at us Ontarians who love hobo music that makes no sense to you good Albertans. (Is good Albertans an oxymoron? I suppose not, since Kurt Browning is an Albertan and so are you guys. Heh!)
On an entirely unrelated note, I'm back from THE STREET! Basically, the trip was kind of shady and taught me that going on a trip with my father and my little ghetto brother and trying to accomplish any serious shopping or anything remotely cultured is not a good idea. I did manage to do some decent shopping, but I didn't get a chance to visit my two loves, NYC Sephora and Target, which saddens me. However, I did visit a magical C.O. Bigelow shop, and OMG, it was beautiful! I only had five or six minutes in the store because my loser male relatives have no patience, but EEEEE, it was lovely! S-Money, we could've had a Capitalism Fest III in that one store alone, and it wasn't even the real C.O. Bigelow (the flagship story in the Manhattan) - it was just a fairly big outpost of the chain in a mall. Other than that, we visited my cousins and went to the Most Boring Wedding Ever, and on the way home we went to the Niagara Falls outlet mall so LGB could stock up on Polo Ralph Lauren shirts in XL and XXL. Heh.
We did have time to make a quick trip to THE STREET, and it was an amusing twenty minutes which culminated in success for my main goal (the gang knows what I am speaking of!), but when I tried to buy du rags, LGB got into a bargaining match with a vendor over a fake Rolex, and I had to pretend I had no cash so he could get the watch cheap. I then realized that I couldn't exactly buy du rags if I had just told the guy I had no cash, so I'll have to buy the du rags in T.O. and pretend they're from THE STREET.
If you read my last update, you will know that the night before we left for THE STREET, at around 2:00 a.m., my iPod randomly got erased. Well, I attempted a massive rescue mission that very night because I knew I couldn't survive without music for the next few days, and got 218 songs back onto the damn thing before I left. Sure, it meant that I didn't sleep until almost 5:00 a.m., but the essentials were there. (Clearly, I had to get all my Stars stuff back onto it immediately, first and foremost, because I knew that even if I got NOTHING else on it, Torqamy's voices would be a comfort for me in my hard times!)
Okay, so now that I've started randomly rambling about nothing in particular, I'm going to share with you ten random things that I really love at this point in time.
On an entirely unrelated note, I'm back from THE STREET! Basically, the trip was kind of shady and taught me that going on a trip with my father and my little ghetto brother and trying to accomplish any serious shopping or anything remotely cultured is not a good idea. I did manage to do some decent shopping, but I didn't get a chance to visit my two loves, NYC Sephora and Target, which saddens me. However, I did visit a magical C.O. Bigelow shop, and OMG, it was beautiful! I only had five or six minutes in the store because my loser male relatives have no patience, but EEEEE, it was lovely! S-Money, we could've had a Capitalism Fest III in that one store alone, and it wasn't even the real C.O. Bigelow (the flagship story in the Manhattan) - it was just a fairly big outpost of the chain in a mall. Other than that, we visited my cousins and went to the Most Boring Wedding Ever, and on the way home we went to the Niagara Falls outlet mall so LGB could stock up on Polo Ralph Lauren shirts in XL and XXL. Heh.
We did have time to make a quick trip to THE STREET, and it was an amusing twenty minutes which culminated in success for my main goal (the gang knows what I am speaking of!), but when I tried to buy du rags, LGB got into a bargaining match with a vendor over a fake Rolex, and I had to pretend I had no cash so he could get the watch cheap. I then realized that I couldn't exactly buy du rags if I had just told the guy I had no cash, so I'll have to buy the du rags in T.O. and pretend they're from THE STREET.
If you read my last update, you will know that the night before we left for THE STREET, at around 2:00 a.m., my iPod randomly got erased. Well, I attempted a massive rescue mission that very night because I knew I couldn't survive without music for the next few days, and got 218 songs back onto the damn thing before I left. Sure, it meant that I didn't sleep until almost 5:00 a.m., but the essentials were there. (Clearly, I had to get all my Stars stuff back onto it immediately, first and foremost, because I knew that even if I got NOTHING else on it, Torqamy's voices would be a comfort for me in my hard times!)
Okay, so now that I've started randomly rambling about nothing in particular, I'm going to share with you ten random things that I really love at this point in time.
- Canada - I always appreciate this country more when I've been away and come home again. I felt very strange being away from home on Canada Day and don't think I'll try it again if it can be avoided. There are definitely parts of America that are beautiful and there are lots of things to love about NYC, but man, America is pretty shady! Why is there such a lack of street lights in the U.S.??? We drove through four states and stayed in two on this trip alone and driving around at night is SCARY! I've noticed this even in parts of the U.S. I love, like Boston and its suburbs. Once you cross the border back into Canada, everything immediately looks way less shady because there are actually lights on the streets and the highways. I could also start talking about hick-y shadiness, but I took some pretty classy pictures of that kind of stuff and will let the pictures do the talking once I upload them. Anyhow, all comparisons aside, even, I love my country and am glad to be home.
- Toronto - On the same note, I adore my city and every time I leave, I know I could never live anywhere else. NYC is cultured and lovely in spots and has a thriving arts scene and great shopping, and pretty much anything a city girl could ask for, but I don't think I could live there. Toronto is... it's just right. It's crowded enough to be exciting and big enough to get lost in, but not crowded enough to be annoying or big enough to get thoroughly frustrated and confused in. The arts scene is vibrant enough to be excited by, but not sprawling enough to not be able to keep track of it. It's relatively safe and relatively clean and... I don't know... it's beautiful to me. T.O. will always be the Centre of My Universe.
- Danny Michel's Valhalla - Danny's latest album is as quirky and charming as he is, and I can't stop listening to it. It's a little bit power pop and a little bit of eccentric, crunchier folkiness, and the mixture is intriguing and adorable. While I can't help wishing, sometimes, that Danny would let someone else produce his records and record the tracks in somewhere other than his basement, part of me is glad he doesn't. In the hands of the wrong producer, his work could easily be reduced to glossy radio hits, and he's worth more than that - so much more. That being said, "Midnight Train" is an awesome leadoff single, and for his sake, I'm glad it's been getting radio play around these parts.
- Stars' "Tonight" - The combination of limited choice on my newly reloaded iPod and a very long car journey has led to me rediscovering my love of Stars' Nightsongs, and this song in particular. I think I must've listened to it about fifty times in the last few days, and I'm not tired of it yet. Seriously, I know my Torquil does a lot of talk-singing these days, but the boy can really sing, and this song is proof. Gah, it just makes me go "EEEEE!" in the depths of my soul and then my insides turn to mush and I think, "Man, if I had a guy who could write and sing a song like this, I don't care what he did, I'd forgive him in two seconds." Also, the vocal music geek in me wants to gush over how beautifully crisp Torq's consonants are in the album version of the song. Every time he hits the "t" on the end of the word "tonight", it's shiver-worthily perfect. kjdklajdklsjfl!! LOVE. I annoyed LGB plenty by practicing some old vocal techniques by singing this song in the car, repeatedly. I also sang the "Who needs a house out in Hackensack?" line of Saucy's version of "Movin' Out" every time we passed the Hackensack highway sign, and that annoyed him even more! Hahaha!
- BSS Perform "Fire-Eye'd Boy" on Letterman - Another good thing about being home is that I can watch and rewatch the video of this performance 390483 times, and think about things like why Amy possibly chose to wear that outfit, and why I have no time of day for Crossingham, and why Whitey is making seductive arms at Paul Shaffer (sp?). And then I can get excited for more hobotastic awesomeness and EEEEE!
- Text Messaging - I discovered the joys of text messaging while at Worlds in Calgary, and realized it is very helpful when travelling out of the country, because I have a North American text messaging plan and don't get charged ridiculous roaming charges if I text instead of call! Also, text messaging is hugely helpful in passing the time when you are really, really bored.
- New Shoes - I got the cutest shoes in NYC! I can't find pics of any of them online, but one pair are Kenzie peep-toe heels in a kind of grey-brown fabric with a pink, cream and pale green painted floral pattern and pink ribbon tracing the outline of the foot, the second pair is an awesome pair of white K-Swiss sneakers with thin velcro strips in varying shades of red/pink up the shoe, and the third pair are these, which I've totally wanted since I saw them in Lucky mag a few months ago. And all three pairs were super-cheap, too!
- Toronto Fringe Theatre Festival - I adore the annual Fringe of Toronto Theatre Festival, because for a week, the city is full of plays in venues scattered throughout the downtown area, and I can see two, sometimes even three plays a day! Sometimes the plays are super-pretentious and sometimes they're super-lame, but occasionally, a hit is born at the Fringe. Two examples of plays from last year's Fringe that made it to full-scale productions are Boygroove, the hilarious boyband spoof that recently won the Audience's Choice award at the Doras, and SARSical: The Musical, which was recently remounted at the Factory Theatre. The best part of the Fringe is that for the last few years, I've managed to get a Fringe pass without paying a cent, which is always a good thing.
- JPod by Douglas Coupland - Weirdest book EVER, what with people-smugglers, ballroom dancing, interactive globes, pages of nothing but prime numbers, and pop culture references galore, but perfectly Coupland and perfectly awesome.
- Hobos and Hobotastic Times - Because the buzz from the island show still hasn't worn off, and because hobos are the new skating. (More on this theory at another time, when I'm not as tired and can maybe try to explain it.)