Cutest Thing Ever....

I swear to god, this is so cute I'm going to be sick!





It's Knut - the German baby polar bear!

The Libertines Bound Together

So, for the past few days I have been reading The Libertines - Bound Together by Anthony Thornton and Roger Sargent. This is the story of the rise and fall and the rise and fall of the band the Libertines and the subsequent stories of the two key figures in the band, Pete Doherty and Carl Barat. The best part of the book is the great photographs, and there are tons. The story itself is pretty sad - the band wrote really awesome songs, had a great image and huge potential, were doing things really differently, and were essentially ruined by Pete Doherty's drug use. I just got to the point in the book where Doherty is released from jail after being incarcerated for three months for burgling Barat's apartment, the two have reunited for a drunken gig, everything is going amazingly, and you just know something very bad is going to happen. The funny thing is that I prefer Doherty's post-Libertines band Babyshambles to Barat's Dirty Pretty Things (although they are good too). I have basically been listening to the Babyshambles Blinding EP non-stop for the past week. That, and the Killer's song Read My Mind... over and over again. Yes, I am gay.

I watched about ten minutes of the Good Charlotte live at muchmusic thing tonight, just to see what's up with pop punk these days, and noticed that Joel Madden:

is starting to remind me a bit of Fred Flintstone. Is it just me?

My Crush of the Day: Adam Beach

Last September I heard an interview with actor Adam Beach on CBC Radio's Sounds Like Canada. He had great stories, a great voice and sounded fun. A few weeks later I googled him and found out that he was also very cute and has appeared in a ton of movies and tv shows.
Recently he was the star of the Clint Eastwood film Flags of Our Fathers (which I haven't watched yet, but will), and is now appearing as a regular on Law & Order: SVU, which unfortunately seems to be in reruns at the moment. His life story is pretty interesting too - you can read about it at the wikipedia link above.

He is hosting Canada's Aboriginal Achievement Awards this week on Global Television and the frequent commercials are what reminded me to post this little blurb.

Mika at the Mod Club

Last night I went to see Mika at the Mod Club. First of all, I have to say that the Mod Club is probably my favourite venue to see live bands. It's actually a really nice club with good lights and sound and a great staff. You are guaranteed not to be treated like cattle like you are at the always over-crowded Lee's Palace or the staffed-by-thugs Guvernment/Koolhaus. And they always have amazing bands.
Anyways, Mika was fantastic! I had taken my friend Laura with me at the last minute, so she went into the show with no expectations and had a great time. There were clowns! Guys on stilts! Balloon animals! And during the encore the entire band was dressed in goofy animal costumes and bubbles poured down from the ceiling. Very fun!

Adam Sandler Hosts Letterman - Andrea Going to Mod Club

Last night Adam Sandler appeared as the host on The Late Show With David Letterman. Before interviewing any of the guests, he brought out his dog Matzo Ball for a practice interview. His dog looked something like this (this is actually Adam Sandler's now deceased dog Meatball):

I am a fan of Adam Sandler and I thought he was pretty funny as a host, even if the whole show did end up having a sort of Saturday Night Live feel to it. I just hope that this doesn't signify the beginning of a Carson-esque phasing out of David Letterman. I don't know if I am capable of falling asleep without listening to Dave's sarcastic rants...

Tonight I am going to the Mod Club to see MIKA. This is an all ages show, so I will probably be roughly twice as old as the next oldest person there (besides Mark Holmes, that is). Should be fun.

The Taming of the Shrew

On Saturday I went to see the ballet The Taming of the Shrew at the new Four Season's Centre for the Performing Arts - a gorgeous building which is fun to go and visit in and of itself. This is the second ballet that I have seen there, the first was the Nutcracker last December. The Taming of the Shrew wasn't as awe inspiring as the Nutcracker, but it was still good and pretty funny in parts. The lead male dancer, Guillaume Cote, was AMAZING as Petruchio. He is young, hot, talented, and apparently straight...who would have thought?! Prima Ballerina and Artistic Director of the National Ballet Karen Kain was sitting behind us. She found the whole thing hilarious and was laughing throughout. She looks great for someone who is about to turn 56. Here's a picture of her in a 1980 performance of Swan Lake:

Why I Love Ultragrrrl - a Girl I Have Never Met

I first read about Ultragrrrl - 27 year old Sarah Lewitinn - in New York Magazine about a year ago. She appeared on their list of Influentials - influential New Yorkers in different areas of New York City culture. She sounded interesting so I googled her, found her myspace page, "befriended" her, and began reading her blog. Yes, sometimes I get bored at work.

Ultragrrrl worked as an intern and later a columnist at Spin magazine in the early-2000s. Since then she has been a commentator on those horrible/addictive VH1 countdown shows, managed bands, dj-ed various NYC nights and parties, and blogged prolifically about the bands she loves (and sometimes her personal life). She is credited with "discovering" the Killers and My Chemical Romance - who she managed before they became famous. She is currently the head honcho of record label Stolen Transmission, which is part of Island-Def Jam Records.

Reading the archives of her blog is what inspired me to start my blog. What I liked best about it was that she didn't really care what she was writing about, or who she was writing for, she just wrote for the sake of getting her thoughts out there. The blog entries have been a bit sporadic lately, but it's still fun to read the archives.

This week's Village Voice cover story is about Ultragrrrl - "In Defense of Ultragrrrl". The article describes her path to success in the music industry (to the point where she now sits in meetings at the Island-Def Jam conference table with Jay Z...Jay Z!!!), as well as the backlash that has taken place against her (even on her own blog some of the commentary can be brutal, including jabs at her bad taste or how fat she is...she isn't, by the way). The writer pins most of the blame for this backlash on music and blogging nerds who are jealous of her professional success. You know the type: the guy who knows EVERYTHING about EVERY obscure band from whatever currently hip place their favourite obscure online music magazine is chattering about. The guy who scoffs at anything remotely popular or any band (or person, for that matter) who is remotely successful. Ugh.

What I always love about her is her complete enthusiasm about the bands that she is into. She would go to see some new band, come home at 1am and freak out writing about them. Also, let's face it, I enjoy hearing her embarassing tales of public drunkenness, her crushes on unattainable boys in bands, her obsessions with reality tv, etc. etc. I also love the fact that she seems to be someone who jumps into things feet first, something I could definitely do more of.

Anyways, that's why I love Ultragrrrl, a girl I have never met.

A Million Little Pieces

For the past few days I have been devouring the book A Million Little Pieces. This is the memoir of James Frey, describing his experiences after checking into rehab to treat severe and advanced drug and alcohol addiction. According to his doctor, Frey, who was only 23 at the time, would be dead if he were to drink or do any more drugs, his physical deterioration was that bad. In addition to the internal damage he had caused, Frey was admitted to rehab after falling down a fire escape in the midst of an alcohol & crack blackout. His front four teeth were broken, he had a hole in his cheek and lower lip, and a broken nose. He had to endure major dental surgery and the re-breaking and setting of his nose without anesthetic or painkillers. Very gruesome!


You might remember the controversy surrounding this book about a year ago. When it was first published in 2003 Oprah selected it as one of her book club choices. Of course this led to it becoming a runaway hit, selling millions of copies. Early in 2006 the website The Smoking Gun published evidence that the author's accounts weren't entirely true, particularly those describing his criminal activity prior to checking into rehab. Oprah ended up confronting the author on her show, telling him she felt duped by him, and asking him to defend himself. Frey claimed that he had elaborated on his own experiences for dramatic effect. Apparently there was even an episode of South Park based on this controversy.

None of this, for me, detracts from how great this book is (not even that fact that it was endorsed by Oprah). I literally haven't been able to put it down. It really gives you insight into the mind of an addict. I remember years ago reading the book And I Don't Want to Live this Life which was the story of Nancy Spungen (Sid & Nancy) written by her mother. Her early years remind me a lot of Frey's - she was a bright child from a good family, who wouldn't stop screaming for the first few years of her life, was anti-social and would get into fights in her pre-teen years, and became addicted to drugs and alcohol as a young teenager.

Anyway, I have added the follow up to A Million Little Pieces, My Friend Leonard, to my amazon wishlist.

Babel & The Departed, Rome & Carnivale

Over the weekend I watched a couple of new movies including Best Picture contenders The Departed and Babel. Of the two I preferred Babel. Not that The Departed was a bad movie, but it definitely is not the best of Scorcese's films. I think that it's kind of silly that he finally managed to win Best Director for this one, and not one of his better films (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or even Gangs of New York would have been higher on my list), but I guess that's how these things go. Babel tells four different stories that are eventually tied together - two story lines takes place in Morrocco, one in Japan, and one in America and Mexico and for the most part, this movie is subtitled. This is yet another great film by a Mexican writer/director (Alejandro González Iñárritu). The other two that have stood out for me this year were Pan's Labyrinth and Y Tu Mama Tambien (that came out in 2001, but I only saw a couple of weeks ago).
Rotten Tomatoes has some good "best of" lists posted right now, including a Best Reviewed Best Picture list that shows the Best Picture winners from the past 79 years, and ranks them based on the reviews they have received. The Godfather is the Best Reviewed Best Picture on the list.
I also watched some more of the series Rome, which is pretty good, and Carnivale, that seems pretty cool. Let's face it, it's too freakin' cold to do much else besides hibernate and watch tv and movies at home. Hopefully that will change soon.

Wonder Boys

Earlier this week I picked up my rather large Amazon order and began reading Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon. Michael Chabon is the author of one of my favourite books ever - The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - a book that won the Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Wonder Boys is far less ambitious than Kavalier & Clay - it's shorter and more straightforward, but still very good. One Amazon reviewer summarizes the book as follows "Chabon focuses 'Wonder Boys' on a single weekend in the life of shambling, dissolute English professor Grady Tripp. Over the course of that weekend we meet his wife (a Korean adoptee), his editor (a homosexual recreational drug user), his student (an insecure liar), his roommate (a voluptuous Utahan), his lover (dean of the college), his lover's husband (a high end memoribilia collector), his wife's Jewish-Korean family, a transvestite, a tuba and an unfortunate dog."

Wonder Boys was also one of the best movies that nobody ever saw in 2000 - winner of a best song Oscar and many other best actor/best screenplay nominations/wins. The movie starred Michael Douglas, who I normally don't like but who was great in role of Grady Tripp; Robert Downey Jr., who I always love - and this was no exception, in the role of the "homosexual drug user"; Tobey Maguire "insecure liar" and Frances McDormand "dean of the college". If I remember the story properly, the movie was released early in 2000 to huge critical acclaim, but no one went to see it. It was released again in late-2000 with a new and improved marketing scheme, and still no one went to see it. I think that I finally rented it a few years ago, and loved it, and saw it again last year on tv.