Girl Talk

Those of you who know me, know that my musical taste is pretty conservative, in a typical middle class urbanite kinda way. I like bands who play straight up rock/pop music: usually four or five piece bands composed of cute/skinny 25 year old guys. To me the Strokes are a great band, the Killers, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie, Tokyo Police Club, etc. etc. I also like angsty singer/songwriters like Jeff Buckley and Elliot Smith (both so angsty that they are both now dead); some straight up commercial pop music like Destiny's Child or Christina Aguilera, who appeal to my inner gay guy; and of course, tons of older bands - everything from 60s classic rock like Led Zeppelin and the Doors, 70s punk music, New Wave, goth, and so on.
Last week Erin on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown introduced me to the pageblank blog in her excellent post about summer songs. pageblank belongs to a guy named Matthew in Toronto who writes about the same kind of stuff I do, but in a much more interesting and insightful way. I spent most of Friday scanning through his archives (I was hungover, of course). Last October he wrote about an artist called Girl Talk who had played a show at that time at the Spin Gallery here in Toronto. Girl Talk is Pittsburgh dj Greg Gillis who uses a laptop to create these really awesome music collages out of pop music samples from all eras. He would sort of get lumped into the mash up genre, but I was never a huge fan of mash ups, and I love his stuff. He has a few of his songs posted on his myspace, and there are others available to download on other sites. Pitchfork did a great interview about him here last August, and he just played a set at Coachella this spring, so I am probably a little late to this party, but if you haven't heard his stuff, it's definitely worth checking it out. Anyway, could this mean that I am becoming a person who is into dj's and "dance" music? Probably not.
Finally, here are some pics of Scarlett Johansson from the new Louis Vuitton campaign that I found on the Perez Hilton blog. The shoes....the bag.....argh.....why couldn't I have been born with money? And how amazing does she look? Great photos.

Almost the Long Weekend....

The long weekend is almost here and I have never needed a break more than I do now. I will be spending it on Manitoulin Island with the roommate and the roommate's romantic device. I love roadtrips and I love lazing around a lake, so this should be fun.
Jerry Falwell is dead....one right wing bigot down....

Here is an exerpt from Anderson Cooper's interview with Christopher Hitchens on CNN last night:

COOPER: Christopher, I'm not sure if you believe in heaven, but, if you do, do you think Jerry Falwell is in it?

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "VANITY FAIR": No. And I think it's a pity there isn't a hell for him to go to.

COOPER: What is it about him that brings up such vitriol?

HITCHENS: The empty life of this ugly little charlatan proves only one thing, that you can get away with the most extraordinary offenses to morality and to truth in this country if you will just get yourself called reverend. Who would, even at your network, have invited on such a little toad to tell us that the attacks of September the 11th were the result of our sinfulness and were God's punishment if they hadn't got some kind of clerical qualification?
People like that should be out in the street, shouting and hollering with a cardboard sign and selling pencils from a cup. The whole consideration of this -- of this horrible little person is offensive to very, very many of us who have some regard for truth and for morality, and who think that ethics do not require that lies be told to children by evil old men, that we're -- we're not told that people who believe like Falwell will be snatched up into heaven, where I'm glad to see he skipped the rapture, just found on the floor of his office, while the rest of us go to hell.

It's Cannes Film Festival season again. There is a neat looking Canadian animated (with marionettes) film called Madame Tutli-Putli being screened this year. It looks very beautiful and strange.












And finally, I just started reading Crime and Punishment, of all things. Usually I find books this old (mid-1800s) very difficult to get through, but this is amazing!
Have a great weekend my friends! More next week....

Another Amy Winehouse Post

Sorry about the constant posts about Amy Winehouse, but I just walked past her on Queen Street, so I felt compelled to blog about it. She seemed to be window shopping with her boyfriend around Queen and Spadina as I was making my way home from work. Her boyfriend must be along for the ride this tour because I have seen his picture on the celebrity blogs that I read which is how I recognized him. Anyways, I didn't say anything to them, but my heart did begin to race and my eyes almost popped out of my head. Pretty much the same reaction as when I saw Chris Martin from Coldplay in the Market a year or two ago. Other than that, I was cool!! (yeah, I know, I'm a total geek!)

Amy Winehouse

Amy Winehouse is on the cover of Now Magazine this week looking positively fabulous. She is in Toronto this week for a couple of sold out shows at the Mod Club. I tried to get tickets for this months ago and found that it was impossible. Sigh. Hopefully she'll come back soon and play a somewhat larger venue.

I am in the mood for a good concert. I missed the Killers last week unfortunately. I just heard that Interpol will be back in Toronto this summer, so I may try to check that out. Also, the White Stripes are playing the Molson Ampitheatre. And look at this listing: cyndi lauper, erasure, debbie harry, dresden dolls, the gossip and the cliks True Colors benefit, Molson Amphitheatre (955 Lakeshore West), 6 pm, $42.50-$95.50. How awesome is that lineup?! Cyndi Lauper was my first concert ever when I was ten! I went with my dad and little brother.

Celebrity Gossip, etc.

As much as I hate to comment on celebrity gossip I have to say this - holy crap, Paris Hilton is going to jail! Crazy! Apparently she has been sentenced for 45 days for driving while her license was suspended for a DUI. The judge seemed to be especially unimpressed by her "play dumb" strategy in court. Let's see if she actually serves her sentence - somehow I doubt it. Also, a "Cocaine Kate" style video has been released showing a blurry Lindsay Lohan doing coke. Has the world gone mad?!!!
This weekend le roommate and I went to a costume party dressed in drag. I was David Bowie and he was Annie Lennox. I will try to post some pictures when I get them. I didn't make a very good Bowie to be honest, but Tyler insisted that I made for a hot guy!!!
On Sunday we watched the movie The Queen. It seemed like the kind of movie that you would have to be sixty years old to enjoy, but actually I thought it was pretty good.
I just finished the Augusten Burroughs book Sellevision which was pretty funny. This was his first book of fiction I have read. Now I am working on The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. I am a fan of her aritcles that appear regularly in the New York Review of Books, but I have never read any of her books. This is a memoir about her husband's death, which took place at the same time as her daughter was in a coma in the hospital. This is also something that I would have thought would appeal to older readers, but it had been recommended by so many people that I decided to give it a try. So far it's really good.

Ok, I'm back now!

Hey kids....sorry about the shortage of posts for the past couple of weeks. For a variety of reasons, I haven't really been inspired to write very much lately. But I'm back, I think!
For the first time in ages, the music blog/record label buddyhead has updated here: http://buddyhead.com/gossip/
Now even the guys at buddyhead are the first to admit that buddyhead is so 1999, but I still find it amusing. It's not as good as it was back in the day (when they would publish Fred Durst's home phone number and encourage people to call him and tell him what a douchebag he is, and many other zany hijinks) but it's still pretty funny and they still have pretty good taste in bands.
What's everybody up to this summer? I am planning a little trip with the roommate and friend to Manitoulin Island for the May 24 weekend. And really, what could be more Canadian than that? Also, I have an overwhelming urge to visit New York City, especially appealing since the American dollar is practically on par with the Canadian dollar these days. How fun would that be?
Let's see.....the blonde girls in Amazing Race are in the top three, hurray! I am also caught up in Survivor (totally lame, but it's a force of habit), America's Next Top Model, and Project Catwalk (British Project Runway). Yes, I still have an unnatural and unhealthy love of reality tv.
Anywho, that's about it for now. I will try to think of something more interesting to post about soon.
xxx andrea

Nothing to see here. Please move along.

Sorry for the lack of posting lately....last week was super busy for me at work. I laughed when I reread my last post which started out "First of all...." and then ended abruptly. There was no second of all, not even an attempt at a second of all - I guess I lost my train of thought!
I still don't have much to blog about. I finally finished One Hundred Years of Solitude which was a chore, but ultimately worth it. This is the masterpiece novel by Latin American writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez who won the Nobel Prize for literature. It is literally a 100 year family history of the Buendia family and the mythical Latin American town of Macondo - the generations of Buendias are supposed to be parallel to various stages of Columbian history. Now I am reading the second part to A Million Little Pieces, called My Friend Leonard. This is a much easier read and I am already about 1/4 of the way through it.
Am I the only person on this planet rooting for the Beauty Queens on Amazing Race? For that matter, am I the only person who still watches Amazing Race? I say, go blonde girls!
Other than that, I have been watching Weeds episodes that I download on my computer and listening to a lot of Placebo and Jesus and Mary Chain. And enjoying the totally beautiful weather this weekend. I hope you had a great weekend too, my loyal readers (all three of you!)

Placebo

First of all, if you haven't picked up or downloaded Placebo's newest album "Meds", you really should. I liked Placebo when I first became aware of them back in 1998 and even saw them live around Christmas of that year, but kind of lost interest in them soon after that. The new album is amazing - I love the song Drag, and Meds is great too. I also heard a cover they did of Kate Bush's "Running up that Hill" which is really good. They have some of these songs posted at their myspace page at the moment if you want to check it out.

Introducing My Newest "Friend" - Alan McGee

This post is probably going to sound a bit like my Ultragrrrl post from back in March, and I realize that my anti-social computer nerdishness is becoming more pronounced in my old age, but here's another post about someone I discovered on myspace about whom I will enthusiastically blather for a paragraph or two.

I found Alan McGee by way of the Dirty Pretty Things myspace page and became his "friend" on Monday. Immediately I started to receive his myspace bulletins, and unlike the usual fodder (who wants to get drunk tonight? lame surveys, etc.), McGee's bulletins were actually blog posts about fun and interesting music industry stuff. Last night, while waiting for a very good rerun of SVU to come on, I googled Alan McGee and discovered some interesting things about the man, namely that he is a record industry "mogul" (while managing to retain his indie cred) and the bands that he has worked with over the years read like a who's who of every band I have ever loved. He started indie record label Creation in the early-80s, at the same time managing the Jesus and Mary Chain. Creation went on to release albums for Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, and Oasis (ca-ching!), among others. The label was folded/absorbed by Sony in the late-1990s, but McGee continued to manage The Libertines, and now The Charlatans and Dirty Pretty Things. His new label Poptones is responsible for the Hives' albums that we know and love. In addition to running the label and management company, he also hosts/dj-s several nights in London, and tours around the world dj-ing.

He's another person who I like for their complete love of bands and music. His blog is posted on the Guardian web site and includes lots of interesting information about the music industry, the decline of major labels, copyright issues, bands, shows, myspace, etc. etc. It's good stuff.

Here's a very rock n roll picture of the lovely Carl Barat from Dirty Pretty Things to illustrate my Alan McGee post:

(photo by Roger Sargent)

The Next US Presidential Election

About midway through George W. Bush's first term as president, I was talking to a friend about the sorry state of American politics: the stolen election, the surging Christian conservative movement, the looming war in Iraq, etc. etc. At that time I said that I hoped George W. would win the 2004 election, legitimately or otherwise, because after eight years of having that clod in power the American public would be looking for someone completely different to lead them. I hoped that by 2008 they could accept the idea of a female president, Hillary Clinton could win the election, and Hillary and Bill could return to the White House. What could be better than four more years of Clinton hijinks, with the added bonus of having a woman as president?
Last night Barack Obama was a guest on Letterman, and over the course of the interview I became convinced that he should be the next president. I have been interested in him since first reading about him in an Al Franken book (Al Franken is now running for senator - yay!), but had a hard time getting a handle on him, plus I think I was still biased in favour of Hillary and was hoping that she would have a shot. Hillary has not really done anything to impress me since becoming senator, and my opinion of Obama keeps improving. He's young, attractive, and articulate, and really seems to have some good progressive ideas. What I'm trying to say is that he is basically the opposite of George W. So, for now my money is on Barack Obama, at least until he proves me wrong, or until Hillary goes out on a limb and does something exceptional.

New Digital Camera

I realize that no one ever looks at my photo blog (www.kodakgallery.com/raggedy_andrea) but, for anyone who does, you may have noticed that I haven't posted any of my own pictures since November 2006. This is because my camera died somewhere around that time. I made a half-hearted attempt to have it fixed, but was informed that it would be cheaper just to buy a new camera. Of course this began my obsessive Internet research of digital cameras and I still can't decide what I want. Also, I can't afford anything good...boohoo. So, if anyone has any camera advice (or spare cash), let me know! I would really appreciate it.

Fox Hole at the Gladstone

It must be spring, or something like that, because I have ants in my pants. On Friday I went to Urban Outfitters and spent the better part of my paycheque on new clothes. Of course I can't afford this, but decided to go into debt in the name of starting fresh. On Saturday night I broke with tradition and actually went out, in public, to somewhere that is not Squirley's. I went to the newly reno'd Gladstone Hotel for gay dance party "The Fox Hole" with my roommate and his love interest. The dj for this night is the lovely Shane MacKinnon who I first met back in the day at Buddies in Bad Times where he was working the bar....I think...I was always pretty drunk in those days. The Gladstone is way improved compared to the old days - the bar staff are actually competent and it doesn't take twenty minutes to get a drink anymore. I had a really good time. Which brings us to Sunday, my hangover day, where I paid for the abundance of beer and wine and dancing. I ended up sleeping until 1pm, still felt like crap, took a sleeping pill, and slept until 6pm. Of course then I couldn't fall asleep at bedtime on Sunday and ended up awake until the wee hours of the morning. Today I am paying for it in the form of something that feels like post-traumatic stress disorder. That'll teach me. No, it probably won't.

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.

What I did this Weekend...

Oscar weekend has come and gone. I managed to half-watch most of the show -- I was reading my book during the "boring" awards, and missed the first 45 minutes of the show because I was watching the Amazing Race (All Stars, ugh, but more on that later). Otherwise I saw most of the 4+ hour long show. The highlight for me was Jerry Seinfeld's mini-monologue before he presented the award for Best Documentary. He was very funny, much funnier than Ellen (I just don't like Ellen in safe, daytime television mode). I thought that Cate Blanchett looked great, and I thought the video clip that Ricky Gervais (creator of the original Office series) sent to Kate Winslett on the red carpet was pretty funny. I enjoyed that Al Gore figured prominently throughout the night, including his win for An Inconvenient Truth as best doc., and, as hard as I try, I can't help but like Leonardo DiCaprio. He's just so perfectly Hollywood. Not too many surprises awards-wise, except that I was SHOCKED that Pan's Labyrinth didn't win Best Foreign Language film. It was one of my favourite films of last year.

On to Amazing Race All Stars...this has to be one of the most irritating "all star" casts ever assembled. You know things are bad when you are actually rooting for professional reality show contestants Rob and Amber (you also know that something's wrong when you google "Rob and Amber" and their homepage is the top search result). Last night the grumpy/physically-challenged bald guys were given the boot, which was a relief. I was getting annoyed with seeing the taller one fall every time he stepped out of the car. I am hoping that next week will be the end of the line for Mirna and Shmirna, or whatever their names are. What I can't stand about these two isn't their terrible, miserable attitudes, but the fact that every time they speak to a foreigner, they speak in English, but with a horrible "foreign" accent. I'm really not sure why they think that the Spanish speaking people in Chile will understand them better if they are spoken to in English with a horrible accent.....anyways, enough about that.

I finally got around to watching Y Tu Mama Tambien starring the always appealing Gael Garcia Bernal (who I discovered in The Motorcycle Diaries, another great film) and Diego Luna, who will be appearing in the upcoming Harmony Korine film Mister Lonely. Y Tu Mama Tambien was great - I would really recommend it. It is very sexually explicit, and on the surface is a film about the lives of two guys in their late-teens, coming of age sexually, blah, blah, blah. On the other hand there is a nice subtle portrayal of Mexican society, politics, class, and culture. It was really fantastic.

New Arcade Fire, Breathless, etc.

I'm just listening to the new Arcade Fire (not sure how long that link will last) on the radio and have to say that the first single ("Intervention") is fan-tiggity-tastic! I swear to god, the hard drive on my new computer is going to be filled with mp3s in no time at all!


I woke up at 7am today to go to the dreaded Passport Office. I arrived at 7:55, five minutes before opening time, and was number 56 in line!!! No shit. Anyhow, I finally got out of there at 9:30, and can expect my passport in about a month. That's some service.


I finally saw the film Breathless over the weekend. I loved it, it was amazing. It's one of those movies that makes you want to time travel back to that time and place and meet the characters - in this case Paris in 1960.



I also watched The Illusionist, which I thought was pretty drab, with a lame "plot twist" kind of ending. I really can't get into Jessica Biel - she's bland, and the fake Austrian(?) accents were throwing me off the entire time.

I have started in on the dvd tv series Weeds. I'm enjoying it, but not LOVING it the way I did Dead Like Me. Tyler and I have been trying to rent the series Rome, but it's always out. Hoping to catch the film Jesus Camp in the next day or so.

And I guess it's Oscar weekend in a few days, so I have that to look forward to....or not. It seems kind of boring this year.

And there you have my pop-culture dominated life in a nutshell. More soon.

Amy Winehouse - The Female Pete Doherty?

Just discovered the fabulousness of Amy Winehouse last night. She is a British singer who sounds like a modern and raunchy Motown-era star. Check out a recent performance of her song "Rehab" at the 2007 Brit Awards (where she just won Best British Female) here:



She won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Song and was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize for Best Album in 2004, and her new album (already out in the UK) is scheduled for release in North America this March. She has great backstory too, being a legendary & self-destructive drinker. There is a good article about this, her raging talent and her recent show in New York City, in the Washington Post HERE.

Night of Law & Order

I just finished watching two hours of Law & Order spin-offs and I have a few thoughts. First of all, Criminal Intent: I have never watched CSI (Las Vegas, Miami, or New York), I have no interest in CSI, but I can't help but feel that the producers of Criminal Intent are trying to turn the show into CSI. Last time I watched Criminal Intent it started out with an over-dramatic Civil War reenactment set to "Under Pressure" by Queen. I really wasn't even sure that I was watching CI at that point (but was sure that I wasn't watching CSI due to the absence of The Who in the soundtrack). Tonight's Criminal Intent was based on a Tupac/Biggie-esque hip hop star assassination. The opening sequence was a CSI-style montage cut with still images set to rap music referencing Tupac and Biggie, in case we missed the point. Duh. CI doesn't have to be cool. Leave CI to the politics nerds like me and the science geeks can have CSI (and their over-dramatic montages...cut with stills of the crime scene).

On to SVU. Oh forget it, I don't really have enough energy to think about that (but read the Mariska Hargitay link, it's interesting) I also watched American Idol tonight, but I think it's too soon to call, so I'll leave that for later.

As you can see, I have an over-active social life at the moment, so I might have to leave my Oscar Season Roman Polanski rant for a later date. No, seriously, it's coming.

But Why Britney?

I am a regular reader of The Superficial, as some of you might know. It is my #1 source for celebrity gossip (something I pretend not to be interested in!) It was at the Superficial that I found these wonderful pictures.

Now I know that I have commented on this before, but WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO BRITNEY SPEARS? I am one of the least photogenic people on the planet so I am not about to criticize her for looking heavy, or bloated, or having bad hair, or whatever. It's her clothes that worry me - she looks like a bag lady, or worse. And what's the deal with never wearing a bra? You have boobs Britney, for the love of god, put on a bra!

Is this some sort of backlash against her Pop Princess persona or what? It's like she is intentionally trying to look horrible. Does anyone have an explanation for this???

G r a ce Ke ll y by M**i**k**a

Here's a new video I just saw on muchmusic. It's the first new thing that I have seen in awhile that I actually like. Very Rufus Wainwright meets Queen meets the Scissor Sisters. Fun.

Ann Coulter - One of America's Top Public Intellectuals?

Last night's episode of Law and Order was about the botched shooting of a rabid conservative political pundit - a sexy blonde, clearly based on real life political commentator Ann Coulter. Knowing very little about Coulter, except for the obvious feeling that I would not agree with most of her opinions, I decided to google her name and landed on her official homepage: AnnCoulter.com

Coulter is the author of five New York Times bestsellers (including Treason: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism and Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right)......sounds about right.....she makes frequent appearances on various high profile news shows....true.....she has a background in law, having practiced law privately and in the public realm....sure.....

Here's the part of her bio that made me think 'can this possibly be true?': Coulter "was named one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals by federal judge Richard Posner in 2001".

Intelligent and controversial she may be, but one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals? What does that even mean?

I googled "Richard Posner" and "100 Public Intellectuals" only to find that she had failed to mention the context of this endorsement. Posner's book is actually called Public Intellectuals: A Study of Decline

It turns out that Posner had defined "public intellectual" as "the intellectual, nowadays usually a professor, who opines in the media on matters of current interest", matters outside of their area of specialty. He based this list on the number of times the public commentator's name appeared in the media. As the Yale Review of Books noted "Posner is quick to point out that ‘prominent’ is not a synonym for ‘best,’ or even for ‘good.’”

What amazed me about this wasn't the fact that she was being deliberately misleading, but rather that in such a short biography (less than 500 words) she would use such an easily refuted "endorsement". Amazing, though after scanning through her archives, not surprising. This is a woman who clearly thrives on this sort of uncomfortable controversy - the kind that makes you feel like a twelve year old if you even bother to argue.

The article published on her homepage "Free the Fitgerald One!" includes such choice statements as "Who told you Wilson was sent to Niger by his wife? Who told you a bipartisan Senate panel concluded that Joe Wilson was lying when he denied that his wife had sent him to Niger? While we're at it, who was the first person to correct you on your pronunciation of "Niger"?"...ummmm wow.

And she is still railing on and on about the Bill Clinton/Monica Lewinsky thing....like constantly.....

Amazing.

More Trade Mark Party Stuff

I have been tracking down some photos and articles about the Trade Mark party the other night. I have come up with a couple so far, and will keep them coming:

http://www.weeklycouture.com/couture/node/300/print

Toronto Street Fashion Blog

Toronto Photobugs Flickr Page for January 30, 2007 (first three pics)

Joe Fuda Pics

A little blurb at Carolyn's blog (scroll down a bit)

The Hot Ticket by Enza Supermodel (just one pic of Tyler and me)

Some Pictures By Paula Wilson on My Kodak Gallery

(picture by Joe Fuda)

Trade Mark Launch Party

This post goes out to Jen Beaudry - my second confirmed blog-reader (I know I was supposed to mention you in this blog for some drunken reason...)

Last night was the Trade Mark Artists launch party that we held at the swanky tattoo shop Black Line Studio

It turned out pretty fabulously - the fashion show rocked and the crowd seemed pretty happy. We were even visited and photographed by former mayoral candidate/entertainment columnist Enza (supermodel) Anderson.

I will post some pics when they become available.

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

Recently my friend Erin told me that she was reading the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt. This book tells the story of the murder of Danny Hansford by his lover/employer Jim Williams, a wealthy socialite/art dealer, and the subsequent trial. The story takes place in Savannah, Georgia.
I decided to rent the movie and was totally amazed by the scenes of Savannah: the cool buildings, parks, Bonaventure Cemetery, and the weirdo characters that were portrayed. I found a gallery of Savannah pictures at this link, to give you some idea. Also, some great pictures of the cemetery can be seen at flickr.


Next I will have to read the book.

Strangers With Candy & Robert Pickton

Watched the movie Strangers With Candy on dvd this weekend. My verdict on this one: it was hilarious, but I guess you have to be a fan of low brow humour, as I am. For some reason I wasn't at all interested in it when I started seeing the previews and promos several months ago. The fact that it was written by Stephen Colbert should have told me that it would be at least a little bit good, but I think I was turned off by the revolting-looking main character.
Today is the beginning of the Robert Pickton trial, and I think it's going to be bizarre, if any information can get out (I'm not sure what the status of the publication ban is). Pickton is the British Columbia pig farmer who has been accused of murdering 26 women, although I think this trial is only concerning the murder of 6. Apparently the DNA of 39 missing women has been found on his property. Stevie Cameron, who has written many Canadian "true crime" books, including "On the Take" about former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, is supposed to be in the process of writing a book about Pickton called "The Pig Farmer".

Andrea and the Internet

I recently bought a computer for my room at home, after years of being computer-less outside of work. One of the best things I've discovered is streaming video. Last weekend I watched three Robert Greenwald documentaries: Iraq for Sale; Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism; and Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price. Of those, the Iraq doc. was the best - the usual mind-blowing stories about war-profiteering by American corporations, and the close ties these companies have to American politicians/policy-makers. I also watched a film of the Ryerson University Kodak Lecture Series where Bruce Labruce interviews Harmony Korine. It's pretty long (over two hours) and gets off to a bumpy start, but is eventually really interesting with lots of classic/hilarious Harmony Korine stories.

the bunny boy - gummo

High School Musical

So, another one of my guilty pleasures is the Disney movie High School Musical. It seems to play at least once a week on the Family network, and me and my roommate never miss a chance to watch it. Actually, now we want to buy the dvd. This morning Tyler found the most awesome video on youtube - two 18 year old boys lip-synching one of the songs from the movie. It's freakin' hilarious. Enjoy!!

High School Musical follow up: Just found this item in Gawker about High School Musical that perfectly explains/describes my High School Musical obsession...

High School Musical, like most musicals, is about a boy and a girl (Troy and Gabriella) who are destined to be together. They are also destined to be cast as the leads in the high school musical, but first they must surmount some obstacles. These obstacles are named Sharpay and Ryan and they are the best part of the movie. Drama queen and king of East High, respectively, they blow their American-idol-reject competition out of the water at the musical auditions, which are held by a drama teacher who pronounces it "musiCALE" and seems to be channeling Meryl Streep channeling Anna Wintour. Anyway, Sharpay (who is blonde and sparkly and a huge bitchy queen bee a la Paige from Degrassi) and Ryan (who bears an eerie resemblance to Richie Rich and who we only later in the movie find out is Sharpay's brother -- ha!!) belt out a song and dance number that brings the house down. Awesome!

Then Troy and Gabriella sing the same song in a soulful and sweet and super boring way. They don't immediately get cast as the leads in the musical, though, because then there would be no movie. Instead we watch as Troy struggles to reconcile his desire to sing show tunes with his role as captain of the basketball team. This is funny in and of itself; it gets funnier when the basketball team does a super homosexual dance number about how Troy needs to "get his head in the game." Another dance number born of Troy's inner turmoil is the awesome 'Stick To The Staus Quo,' in which students in the cafeteria confess to their secret passions (a fat nerd likes hip hop! A stoner plays cello!) The rest of the movie is okay too; we did stay awake for it but we don't remember it super clearly. Lots of romantic duets btwn Troy and Gabriella, we think. Sharpay is awesome. And Ryan wears a different gay hat in every scene he's in. Anyway, don't pretend to be too cool for High School Musical because you are only cheating yourself.

Daily Dose of Imagery

Here is a neat photo blog called "Daily Dose of Imagery" that you will probably enjoy. Lots of neat Toronto/World scenes.

4 Days Into the New Year....

....and so far so good. I spent a very low key NYE with Tyler at home, watching movies and eating Chinese food - a plan that we have every year, but never actually go through with. We re-watched Gladiator and watched Gangs of New York for the first time. The costumes in Gangs of New York were really, really cool. Also saw something called Strings which was a Scandinavian puppet movie that was pretty cool.



gangs of new york

I got the dvd series of Twitch City which was a Canadian sitcom (I know, an oxymoron) from the late-1990s, starring Don McKellar and Molly Parker. It's pretty funny and reminds me of the good ol' days, living in crappy, low-rent apartments with too many (crazy) roommates!

I am reading the newest Al Franken book "The Truth, With Jokes" which is not only pretty funny, but also a little scary. It's amazing how corrupt the Bush administration really is. The chapter on Jack Abramoff and Tom Delay was mind-boggling.

Anyhoo, that's about it for now. Hope everyone is having a good year so far.

Kiva and Happy New Year!

As a brief departure from my usual babble about television, rockstars, and bands, I have decided to write about an organization I heard about this morning (on television!) called Kiva. Kiva is a not-for-profit organization that arranges micro-loans for small businesses in developing countries. The way it works is that you go to their web site (www.kiva.org) and look at profiles of people in the developing world who are looking for small business loans. You can choose a person/business and donate as little as $25.00 toward their total loan (the total loan amount is usually about $1000). Later on they will post journal entries describing what is going on with their business, and eventually you are supposed to get paid back. I find it interesting in that it seems "hands on" and it is also a little voyeuristic. There is a New York Times article about Kiva here: New York Times Article about KIVA

Anyways, Happy New Year everyone. See you in 2007!

Best Songs of the Year & Merry Christmas!!!

NME has listed their "Top 50 songs of 2006". You can find the list at this link: Stereogum Post of NME Top 50 songs and here's the top ten:

10 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – "Cheated Hearts"
09 The View – "Wasted Little DJ's"
08 The Horrors – "Sheena Is A Parasite"
07 Amy Whinehouse – "Rehab"
06 CSS – "Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above"
05 Gnarls Barkley – "Crazy"
04 Muse – "Supermassive Black Hole"
03 The Gossip – "Standing In The Way Of Control"
02 Peter Bjorn and John ft. Victoria Bergsmen – "Young Folks"
01 Hot Chip – "Over and Over"

I have to admit that I have never heard of Hot Chip, nor do I think it would be possible for me to like a band called Hot Chip. I did try to download a bunch of the songs on the list to see if I could find some new bands to like.

Rolling Stone published a top 100 list which is also pretty good but includes way too much cheesey stuff - Chamillionaire is in the top 10.

They also have an interview with Sufjan Stevens (Sufjan Stevens article in Rolling Stone) who has released a 5 EP Christmas album recently. I love Sufjan Stevens. I think Illinois was one of my favourite albums of 2006...even though it was released in 2005.

On that note, Merry Christmas everyone!

P.S. Has everyone by now seen the SNL/Justin Timberlake "Dick in a Box" sketch?

You can find the uncensored version here for now: Justin Timberlake on SNL
Too funny!

Augusten Burroughs - Dry

I just bought the memoir "Dry" by Augusten Burroughs and I am loving it. This is the follow up to Running With Scissors, which I have mentioned before. The story begins with Augusten as a 24 year old Advertising guy with a serious alcohol problem:

"When I was thirteen, my crazy mother gave me away to her lunatic psychiatrist, who adopted me. I then lived a life of squalor, pedophiles, no school and free pills. When I finally escaped, I presented myself to advertising agencies as a self-educated, slightly eccentric youth, filled with passion, bursting with ideas. I left out the fact that I didn't know how to spell or that I had been giving blow jobs since I was thirteen."

(You can read an excerpt on amazon.com here: http://www.amazon.com/Dry-A-Memoir-Augusten-Burroughs/dp/0312423799 )

I was laughing out loud on the streetcar this morning reading this and really recommend it.

Hey, I think that this is my first non-television related post in ages!

Party of Five

As much as I would like this not to be a post in my blog, I have to comment on my current tv obsession: my new Party of Five dvds. While I'm willing to admit that Beverly Hills 90210-Season 1 was a little tedious, I have to say that I am...obsessed?....with this tv series.

In other tv/dvd news, I thought my next obsession would be Northern Exposure, but I just discovered that they are replaying that series on omni tv at about 1am. Perfect for insomniac me. Maybe I will try 24 instead? The Sopranos? Lost?

Since the high point of my social life for the past week has involved me going to Ikea on Friday night, I don't have much else to report.

Britney Spears - Ouch!

A lot has been said about Britney Spears in the tabloids lately... Apparently she has been on a bender with Paris Hilton, sleeping in cars, smoking, clubbing, flashing her naughty bits to the paparazzi, etc. etc. Now I'm the last person to moralize about bad behaviour, but someone should really help her out with her wardrobe, or at least get her to put on a bra and a clean wife-beater. Scary.
In not at all related news, I heard Neko Case on Definitely Not the Opera on Saturday and was pretty impressed.

Harmony Korine - Mister Lonely

One of my favourite characters is director/writer Harmony Korine. He wrote the film Kids back when he was about 18 years old, and wrote and directed Gummo shortly after. His next film project is called Mister Lonely. The story, they say, is of "a young American man lost in Paris. He scratches out a living as a Michael Jackson look-alike, dancing on the streets, public parks, tourist spots and trade shows. Different from everyone else - he feels as if he is floating between two worlds. During a car show Michael Jackson meets Marilyn Monroe. Haunted by her angelic beauty he follows her to a commune in the Highlands, joining her husband Charlie Chaplin and her daughter Shirley Temple. A place where everyone is famous and no-one gets old. Here, The Pope, The Queen of England, Madonna, James Dean and other impersonators build a stage in the hope that the world will visit and watch them perform. Nuns fall out of airplanes and children ride pigs. Everything is beautiful. Until the world shifts, and reality intrudes on their utopian dream." (from harmony-korine.com)

Korine: I have a novel coming out called, "A Crackup at the Race Riots." It's about a race war, and it happens in Florida, and the Jewish people sit in trees, and the black people - the blacks are run by M.C. Hammer and the whites are run by Vanilla Ice. It takes place in Florida.

Dead Like Me

On Sunday Tyler and I rented Season 1 of Dead Like Me and ended up watching all 14 episodes of Season 1, and part of Season 2 by Tuesday night. There are only two seasons, so I'm not sure what we are going to do with all of our spare time when we're finished. I had heard good things about this show before, but never really got into it. I think the thing is that you have to watch the episodes chronologically to really understand the point and like the characters. Once you get into it it's really funny, and thoughtful, and good.

Finally saw Borat this weekend. I loved it, of course, I nearly died laughing, I swear.

I bought the book Running With Scissors on Monday night and I am about 100 pages into that. It's much more revealing than the movie. He gets way more into his relationship with the 33 year old schizophrenic man (when he was 13), and the dynamics of the Finch family are more complex than they appeared in the movie. That being said, I would recommend both the book and the movie.

Beverly Hills 90210

I started watching my new Beverly Hills 90210 dvd this week and have a few observations. First of all, the first few episodes were a little lame. The writers were trying to work the "fish out of water" angle with Brenda and Brandon. The problem was that they didn't want them to be total misfits, or for the Beverly Hills natives to be complete aliens, so the premise was pretty weak. If I am remembering things properly, the second half of season 1 is when the writer's decided to "tackle issues" such as safe sex and HIV. I think the show really hits it's stride in later seasons when they abandoned this entirely and just went full-tilt soap opera.



A quick note about 90210 Season 1 fashion: I can handle the mullets, the giant eyebrows, the humungous t-shirts, lycra-spandex outfits, and the 16-inch-long-zipper jeans...but I can not handle the 4 or 5 inches of scrunched down socks that every girl character seemed to have to wear at some point, no matter what they were wearing. Jeans - check. Spandex bike shorts and matching spandex top - check. Short cotton dress?? Come on!! I spent about 20 minutes on the net looking for a picture of this look, but have discovered that all photographic evidence has been destroyed. The picture above gives you an idea of the jeans and t-shirts to which I refer - apparently there was a sale!

I finally saw Running With Scissors. In spite of the bad reviews, I actually thought it was pretty good. The story was interesting, I liked the main character (Augusten Burroughs) a lot, and Annette Bening was amazing as the crazy mom. Now I want to read the book, which is on sale at amazon right now for $5.49. Unfortunately, I am too poor to buy things these days...probably because I keep spending all my money on lame tv show dvds....

A Suburbo-tastic Adventure

I took the Go Train to Pickering this weekend to visit my friend Erin's new home and sample the local culture.
First of all, the Go Train I was on was delayed by about 20 minutes and the platform at Union was packed with little kids. I thought it was odd, I had never noticed that many kids on the Go Train before, until I realized that there had been a Wiggles concert at the Skydome. Erin informs me that the Wiggles have outsold practically every other major Australian musical act combined. It was madness! (I find the Wiggles really creepy and am always fascinated by this phenomenon)
We stopped off at her place for a couple of glasses of wine and then headed out to the Whitby Megaplex to see Marie Antoinette . The theatre was insanely busy. I have never seen anything like that in my life - literally hordes of people trying to buy tickets. I enjoyed the film. I guess the main criticism is that it is style over substance, but that's what I liked about it. Kirsten Dunst was pretty good, and I liked Asia Argento as the whore. The soundtrack was pretty neat too.


Asia Argento and Rip Torn in Marie Antoinette

After that we returned to the homestead to drink more wine and eat Chinese food. Apparently "IT'S CONFIRMED" that Chef Yan is the best Chinese chef in all of Pickering, or something like that.
We missed going to the cougar bar "The Harp and the Crown", which Erin says is full of cougars and trannies. I have never understood suburban trannie culture, but apparently Hamilton is the same way. We also missed out on big box shopping and dining (Casey's - my favourite veggie burger ever). Next time!

Hallowe'en Pictures

Tyler and Andrea


Wendy and Dan

As usual, we spent so much time getting ready that we missed the party we were going to (the Vice magazine party at the Bates and Dodds Funeral Home). We ended up just heading over to the Beaver where we ended up getting pretty loaded. Hurray for liquid cocaine shots!

There are more pictures on my photo gallery at: www.kodakgallery.com/raggedy_andrea

Tonight I am supposed to be going to an art show at a tattoo studio at King and Portland, but will probably just stay in and watch Survivor instead. These are lazy days....