after following leisha hailey's music career since the early days of the murmurs, i've finally seen her live. we drove to montreal last night to see her new band, uh huh her. it was awesome. after the show i did the geeky thing and got her to sign my cds. she was super cute. we also drove back last night/early this morning and now i'm at work which means i'm extremely tired.

note to cornfusion: we did not have enough time for poutine.

a little late but as per indigokare's request, these are my top ten favourite albums, in no particular order, released in 2007:

• Brandi Carlile - The Story
  
• The Cliks - Snakehouse
  
• Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
  
• Feist - The Reminder
  
• Tegan and Sara - The Con
  
• Girl In A Coma - Both Before I'm Gone
  
• Talib Kweli - Eardrum
  
• Jim Bryson - Where Bungalows Roam
  
• The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
  
• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Some Loud Thunder
  

this techinically wasn't a 2007 release but i bought it in 2007 and has consistently been in my "top played" list on my ipod:

• CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy
  

and I know this doesn't really count cause it's not an official release/single but my favourite songs of the year, hands down, are:

• Amy Ray - Sugar Tongue
  
• Amy Ray - Ghost of the Gang
  

:)

...even though i won't be able to vote...

91% Mike Gravel
91% Dennis Kucinich
81% John Edwards
77% Barack Obama
76% Chris Dodd
75% Joe Biden
74% Hillary Clinton
68% Bill Richardson
32% Rudy Giuliani
25% Ron Paul
19% John McCain
16% Mitt Romney
15% Mike Huckabee
14% Tom Tancredo
5% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

snow was fun as a kid. snow is not fun when you have to shovel it.
this is the result from 24 hours of snowfall:

i'm 3/4 through our local queer film festival. since thursday, we've been going to our national library and screening a whole bunch of queer films and shorts. and i think tonight had one of the best films so far. if y'all haven't see small town gay bar, you must run out and rent it or buy it. it's a canadian-made documentary about, you guessed it, small town gay bars. it's basically about two gay bars in two small towns is mississippi. one with a population of, i think, 1,600 and the other, 39,000. i'm amazed at the people in the film. being gay and living in a small town is one thing but being gay and living in a small town in the bible belt is another. although the film shows us that fear and hatred still exist (complete with appearance by fred phelps) it is also full strength, optimism and acts of selflessness. like king corn, the movie i mention in my previous post, this is an important documentary that everyone should see. tomorrow is the last day of the film fest, two more movies to go....

i just saw an excellent documentary called king corn. it's important that everyone go see it.

since my last entry, lots of fun things have taken place. september started out with a trip to my gfs cottage which of course involves lots of eating, then i got the best haircut of my life, then had a nice low key birthday, got an 80GB ipod, then went on a five day long trip to NYC which i like to call "the ultimate cupcake vacay" namely cause i ate two to three cupcakes a day. having sampled so many cupcakes i have concluded the best cupcake i've ever had was from the cupcake cafe. it was good enough that we had to make a stop at the cafe before we left town so i could bring some home. i believe this photo says it all:




NYC always drains all the energy out of you. i mean that in a good way. we really spent every single day from eight or nine in the morning to eleven or midnight walking, eating, walking, eating and more walking. good thing there's a lot of walking cause it balances out all the food intake. i swear my appetite triples or quadruples when i'm in that city. although eating was what really dictated where we went in the city, we also managed to do some shopping, go to some galleries, and attend margaret cho's burlesque show, a sensuous woman, which was super awesome and funny as hell. we stayed at the westside YMCA which we highly recommend. it's quiet and clean and a block away from central park and two blocks away from the wholefoods, which to those who know us, know that that is very important.

october thus far has also been good times. the day after we got back from NYC my macbookpro showed up! i ordered it back in september taking advantage of the student deal, i know i'm not a student but that's besides the point. the deal saved me money on the laptop itself, the applecare and is how i got the 80GB ipod for 100$. the MPB is awesome. i love it. everyone should get mac. look, i'm already brainwashed.

this past weekend we went to my friend's wedding where alot of firsts happened. first time we actually had a good time at a wedding. i mean, you usually have an okay time but this time it was fun. the food was excellent. and my gf could actually eat everything that was served which is shocking cause she's got a long list of food sensitivities. and i finally wore something to a wedding where i felt comfortable. if you know me, you know i hate dressing up, mainly cause i always associated dressing up with something frilly, ugly and really girly. and i look like i'm in drag when i'm in anything too girly. i was decked out in theory (think ellen degeneres) complete with labbit in my pocket and my gf made up for the lack of girlyness by wearing a skirt, which she normally doesn't do. i think we looked quite nice if i don't say so myself. i mean everyone looked nice but apparently we clean up quite well too.

the day after the wedding we roadtripped to burlington, vermont to see brandi carlile. en route, fortuitously, we came upon a local festival going on called applefest in south hero, vt. we stopped for a couple hours were we saw some cows, sheep, goats and donkeys and gorged ourselves on apples, cider, donuts, popcorn, cotton candy and fries. and before the show we stopped at a friends friend restaurant in waterbury, vt. which has loads of southern style food. so i had a meal complete with grits, coleslaw and fried okra and my gf had bbq chicken. while in line we met up with M&S from MD which is and always good fun. i always wish our ig/music friends lived closer. normally i don't like lining up for anything but i really do enjoy the lining up you have to do before a show (with the exception of days with extreme weather). it's part of the excitement. whether it be 10 hrs or 2 hrs i still find it quite amusing. the show itself was excellent. we were FRAS aka audience left.


 


the opener, a fine frenzy, was enjoyable. the setlist was good and long, there was lots of chatter from brandi and phil and josh were sporting these hilarious 70s style moustaches. i'm told during hallelujah someone passed out behind us. apparently i didn't notice. i never look behind me during a show. i'm too busy focusing on the stage. oh, and unlike the roxy in atlanta, kyle was allowed in the venue. the security guard even gave him a pat on the head. at the end of the show i was wishing we were going to toronto the following night but alas the lack of funds and work keeps us away. plus, i think following one band around occupies enough time and money.


so that sums up the past six weeks or so. and as for the rest of october, we've got plenty of things lined up. we're going to see melissa ferrick next week. we've never seen her live (well, besides random guest appearances during closer to fine) and we're curious to see what all the fuss is about. plus it's 12$ and at one of our favourite venues. indigokare, we'll be sure to give you a concert call. ;) we're also seeing the cliks the following week. and in between we're going to the writers festival and the three day long queer film festival.

some links to pix, have a peak if you feel like it....
NYC vacay pix can be seen HERE
Vermont vacay pix can be seen HERE
Brandi pix can be seen HERE

it was ottawa pride this past week. i know it's late in the summer. i think it's so it doesn't collide with toronto pride which is in june and montreal pride which is in july. i didn't realize it was prideweek till midweek. good thing cause i found out The Cliks were going to be there. and i would've been pissed if i had missed them.

so, on sunday, we spent a good part of the day doing pride festivities which, well is really just milling about, eating and drinking till the band you want to see comes on. ottawa pride is quite low key compared to the other prides i've been to (toronto, atlanta) which is fine by me. it was good to just hang out and relax. all in all it was good times. it was just really really loud. my ears are still ringing from the hours on end of music (which included a horrible cover of closer to fine). without effort we were able to get FRAS..uh...i mean, front row when the Cliks came on. they were most excellent. the more i see them live, the more i like them. i think everyone who was with me would tend to agree. if any of you reading this haven't heard of them check them out: the cliks or www.myspace.com/thecliks

photos of YOW pride can be found here

since kyle's birthday much has happened...

july 26-31 - went to atlanta for the botanical garden and roxy shows. the highlight was the roxy show. i've never been so hot, sweaty and tired during a show. it was great! i also managed to fit in a trip to the aquarium, the new coke world (yes complete propoganda but i wanted to see the building), the annie lebovitz exhibit at the high museum of art, a show at eddie's attic and numerous trips to watershed and the flying biscuit. and the prefered method of transportation during this trip was a prius! for 10$ more a day, i was able to get us a prius. i can't believe how much gas you save with that thing.

august 3-6 - went to my gf's grandparents cottage with my gf, cornfusion and her gf and spend the majority of the time eating. the rest of the time was spent in the lake, in front of the fire, getting tasty monk cheese and talking about poo. it was a nice and relaxing weekend except for the hot water tank not working and i having to bathe with a giant pot of hot water. i'm not fussy about too many things but one thing i like is real plumbing and a hot shower. which is why i could never attend the michigan womyn's festival. that and bugs and well, many other reasons. anyways, i digress...

august 12-19 - went on the family vacation to chicago, cleveland, central valley (NY), kittery (ME), ogunquit (ME), freeport (ME) and north conway (NH). i somehow convinced my folks that it would be a good idea to take the 17.5 hour detour from chicago to maine so i could go to the freeport show. and in doing that and with the help of cornfusion we were able to surprise the hell out of indigokare for her bday. i don't think i've ever heard indigokare scream so loud. i wish i would've captured it on film. it was also exciting to see selar_ whom i haven't seen since the east coast amy ray prom tour and the rest of the east coast gang. that was probably the highlight of the vacay but i also enjoyed the rest of it thoroughly. chicago was excellent. it's an architecturally stunning city. it was my first time there and i fully intend on going back.

now for the visual portion of all the above:
- ATLANTA SHOWS
- ATLANTA
- COTTAGE
- FREEPORT SHOW
- CHICAGO/CLEVELAND/MAINE

today is kyle's first birthday :)

he's had a very exciting year. he's travelled to two provinces, five states, seen fourteen indigo girls shows and has had his picture taken with both amy and emily. and in just over a week and a half he will be boarding a plane for the second time to fly to atlanta where he will be stuffing himself silly with yummy southern food and attending three more IG shows.

come be his friend: myspace.com/kylethegiraffe
or check out his new flickr album: www.flickr.com/photos/kylethegiraffe

*kyle was actually a gift from my grandma who was on vacation and picked him up from a discovery store in san francisco.