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.