More News Items....

Today I heard the story of Genarlow Wilson, a Georgia teenager who was convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2005. The conviction came as a result of Wilson engaging in oral sex with a fifteen year old girl when he was seventeen years old. Though the (oral) sex was consensual, because the girl was only fifteen it was considered a felony. Because of this, Wilson has been sentenced to ten years in prison, followed by one year of probation, and he will have to be registered as a sex offender. He has already served more than two years of this (insane) sentence. "Had Wilson had intercourse with the 15-year-old and not received oral sex from her, he would have been subject to up to 12-month penalty (statutory rape), with no sex offender status, instead of the 10-year minimum term that the judge gave him." This bizarre law has since been modified, but not retroactively.

Meanwhile, this idiot, London Ontario man Robert Neil Robinson, aged 39, was sentenced yesterday for his SIXTH drunk driving conviction after having been pulled over while he was driving in the wrong direction on highway 401 with a Gatorade/Vodka cocktail at his feet and a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. His sentence is six months in prison, the maximum sentence allowable for this kind of judgement.

Has the world gone completely mad?

Some Politics.....

(driveway of Laurel Broten's home)

I'm usually not one to jump on the media-hysteria bandwagon when it comes to the shortcomings or misdeeds of various politicians, but a story in the Toronto Star today just struck me as too annoying not to comment on. The Ontario Environment Minister, (Liberal) Laurel Broten, is in trouble at the moment over her plans to construct a massive garage next to her house in south Etobicoke (near where I spent the first 12 years of my life). The garage will house her four SUVs - ok, so two of them are supposedly low emission hybrids, but still, why on earth would any family need four SUVs? Not to mention, is it really appropriate for our Environment Minister to have four SUVs? Did the family buy the two low emission SUVs after she became Environment Minister to mesh with her "environmentally conscious" job? Are they hoping to be featured on MTV Cribs? Brutal. Which brings us to the planned mega-garage that will probably result in the death of an old tree. Why would anyone need a 19 foot high, multi-level garage? Maybe if they really need all of that extra space, they should consider getting rid of some of their vehicles. Just a thought.

TV Links....or the reason why I never have to leave the apartment again

Last weekend was Gay Pride in Toronto - a yearly celebration of all things gay. Here is a picture of Pride that I found on flickr. It's from 2006, but really, they are all pretty much the same:

I went out on Friday and hagged it up at a few events starting with a drag queen beauty contest; then on to a private party at Wellesley and Jarvis where I knew no one but everyone was very nice as it turned out, it seemed to be a gathering of Air Canada (male) flight attendants for the most part...hot; then to the Delta Chelsea Hotel for a top 40 dance party in the hotel bar; then to a cocktail party upstairs with some boys who were going out to a club. When we were going up in the elevator in the hotel there was a very nice/well-dressed couple travelling with us. Tyler asked them if they were just visiting and it turned out that they were in Toronto to sing at Roy Thompson Hall as part of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Meanwhile there were leather clad men leading each other around on leashes in the lobby....Oh dear.....(!)

Later on Tyler and I had a nightcap at Squirley's (really, it isn't a night on the town in my life if it doesn't involve Squirley's - I should buy shares in the place) where we ran into Tyler's friend Leland. Leland recommended the best web site ever to me: http://www.tv-links.co.uk/ where you can stream all sorts of old and new television shows. Needless to say, I have barely left my apartment since then and have literally watched at least two seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which is addictive), some Law and Order SVU, some Weeds, etc. etc. I am going to try to watch Lost and 24 over the next few weeks.

On Sunday I skipped the usual drunk-fest in the Buddies in Bad Times park that I seem to do every year in celebration of Gay Pride. Instead, I took it easy and got my hair coloured at Coupe. I'm becoming so responsible and mature, it's sickening!

Gridskipper & New York City Stuff

This week I discovered a neat alternative travel website called Gridskipper ("the decadent urban travel guide - scouring the globe for chic hotels, hot restaurants, sweet nightlife, and pretty people")
They rely heavily on maps and lists for their travel stories, which appeals to me, and they have quite a lot of New York City stuff which is also cool. Stories such as Notorious New York Hotels , Cocaine is Everywhere (sorry, this one keeps crashing my computer so you may not want to click on that link) and Civilized & Broke in Manhattan
They did a story on an interesting sounding art exhibition called Get Lost: Portraits of Downtown where 21 artists created pieces, including many maps and an intereting typewritten manifesto about how to ride the bus, all about Lower Manhattan - my favourite part of Manhattan.

some cool pictures I found on the net today....

First some images from The Sanchez Brothers website that I found via daily dose of imagery. These are from an installation called Between Life and Death:





And this one I just found kind of funny and odd:




(from Idolator - apparently discarded cds are becoming a problem)

Celebrity Freakshows

Paris Hilton has been ordered back to jail, apparently. This has turned into such a freakshow, and what better timing than on my weekly day of hangover? It has been splashed all over the celebrity gossip-sphere, as well as having "Breaking News" status on all of the major news networks: Fox, CNN, etc. I am eating this shit up.

Meanwhile, Nicole Richie appeared on Letterman the other night to promote a new season of the Simple Life. She is looking a little bit less emaciated, and is starting to regain the attractiveness that she had in the first season of Simple Life. She proved, once again, that she is the comedic force behind the television series. Letterman grilled her about "young Hollywood" and the trend of rich/famous girls gone wild, including Nicole herself who may end up in jail over a DUI situation similar to Paris'. Dave and Nicole had some pretty choice exchanges, including:

Letterman: “It does beg the question, what has gone wrong with young Hollywood? Honest to God, just look around.”

Richie: “Are you saying what’s my problem?”

Letterman: “No No No no. Just generally, I mean a lot of young people are in a lot of trouble these days and many of our top stars are doing time.”

Richie: “Well I mean, I can’t speak for everyone else, but I mean, it just goes to show that, I don’t, it’s obviously not Hollywood. Everyone goes to jail. All over the world.”

Pretty funny stuff.

So You Think You Can Dance

Last week was the season premiere of one of my favourite reality shows - So You Think You Can Dance. The performers on this show are just so talented that it boggles my mind. Like, it would take me about ten years to learn one dance, and I would probably look ridiculous doing it. Right now they are in the open call stage of the auditions where they get to see the good, the bad, and the terrible a la American Idol. Last night's show took place in Atlanta, Georgia, and by far the two most entertaining performers were the "clogging" guy and the guy with scoliosis. The clogging guy was a geeky, skinny, southern kid, but once he started dancing he was totally transformed - amazing! The guy with scoliosis had a pretty severe spine curvature that affected his walk and posture, obviously, but he did this robot dance to Christina Aguilera's Ain't No Other Man that stole the show. He wasn't put through to the Vegas round, but he was offered a part in a movie that one of the judges is involved with. Very fun!
Next week is the season premiere of Hell's Kitchen (aka Angry Chef) which looks fun. More on that later.

R.I.P. Sam the Record Man

Yesterday I heard the news that Sam the Record Man would be closing it's doors at the end of June. Sam the Record Man, for those of you not familiar with it, is the cavernous record store in downtown Toronto, on Yonge Street at Gould. Because of Sam's giant "spinning records" facade, it has become something of a Toronto landmark.

This afternoon CBC radio had a call in show about the closing of Sam the Record Man with a bunch of nostalgic people telling their Sam the Record Man stories. I have two Sam the Record Man stories. My first was when I was 11 or 12 years old and stood in line in the alley behind Sam’s for three hours (in the hot sun surrounded by stinky garbage) to buy Corey Hart concert tickets, and somehow ended up with the crappiest seats in the whole CNE Grandstand! My other story was in 1985 when I went to the Sam's Boxing Day sale and bought Love and Rockets’ first single (Ball of Confusion) which INCLUDED A POSTER (for $0.99!) and a Falco “Rock Me Amadeus” 12 inch for $1.99. Precious memories!!


It reminds me of a blog entry that Alan McGee wrote about record stores in March – Do We Still Need Record Shops?

Also, right now Jian Ghomeshi is interviewing Terry McBride who is the head of Nettwerk Records, started the Lilith Fair with Sarah Mclachlan, and takes responsibility for Avril Lavigne’s career. He made the point (which is funny because it was something that I was thinking about this morning) that Avril Lavigne’s newest single has sold 5 million copies, compared to Arcade Fire, who have ~maybe~ sold 1 million copies of their last album. Mass-market pop crap still wins out, in spite of the huge amount of media and word of mouth about Arcade Fire. Like McGee, he is very much in favour of music downloading.

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.