Yesterday i was at the mall. I bought a shirt. And a sweater vest. And a light jacket. And a sweater tunic. And a funky bag. And 2 leather belts. I spent $46.91. Love it.
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Monthly Archives: October 2008
We went up to Edmonton this past weekend for the Rocky Mountain Wine & Food Show. It was my first Wine and Food show experience so i didn’t know what kind of expectations to have. But I figured i’d be a bit of a fish out of water seeing that my palate isn’t very sensitive to differentiating all the reds and whites that are out there. True enough. No matter how much i swirled and sniffed and smacked my tongue to the roof of my mouth, i couldn’t have the same appreciation for so many wines as others could (ie, Timmy boy). I, on the other hand, felt like a pretentious idiot…
Then there were samples of beers, vodka, tequila, so on and so forth. And even absinthe. Absinthe! I definitely stayed away from that one. Various restaurants and caterers showcased their goodies as well. Amaretto ice cream, anyone? Yes, please! This guy had a huge vat of ice cream that was kept frozen by liquid nitrogen but he amused the crowds by freezing random things at his booth.. e.g. roses. weird. My favorite of the night was this Chai Cream Liqueur. I’ve never heard of it before but it tastes pretty much like.. well, like chai tea but with liqueur! Party in my mouth.
We were talking about how being at a Wine and Food show is quite the elitist thing to do. No need to get into all that but it’s interesting to think about. I limited myself to spending $10 on samples since it cost $20 to get in but the crowds that were there were dropping good chunks of moola left and right. I probably won’t be going to another Wine and Food show anytime soon but an interesting experience nonetheless.
I don’t think i’ve used my blog to vent about anything before. But for this post i will. The consolation is that it’s only venting about a movie.. nothing of significance in real life.
Regretfully (understatement), I watched M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Happening” tonight and hands down, no exaggeration, completely and honestly, it was the worst movie i’ve EVER seen in my ENTIRE life. I’m not joking with the hyperbole AT ALL. What an utter tank.
The script is horrible and awkward and the plot is choppy and random. The acting is so bad that for a moment i thought it might be a parody, but it isn’t. Efforts for suspense is frustrating cos it’s so ridiculous and confusing. The intermittent gore succeeded in shock value but ultimately failed because those moments of extreme graphic violence did nothing to reel in an audience expecting intelligent suspense. The struggling marriage sub-plot is premature and nowhere near convincing. Close-up shots of Mark Wahlberg’s scrunched up face became redundant and painful. The pregnancy metaphor in the end is Cliche 101. The concept for a “Green” message with its pseudo-science basis only compels me to cut down trees (in fact, a whole forest) while facetiously singing “The Colors of the Wind” from the Pocahontas soundtrack. (You’d understand if you’ve already seen the film — but why waste your LIFE doing so?)
I thought that in the beginning the film would progress, develop, explain itself, and simply get better. It could ONLY get better, right?? But it didn’t. Ugh, i’ve never been so frustrated by how poorly made a movie could be. The only solace from it was the beauty of the Northeastern countryside. But even that, Shyamalan had to botch its tranquility and turn it into a vengeful, self-aware, tree-hugging mess.
If you haven’t noticed, i don’t read reviews before i watch movies. I read a bunch afterwards and my favorite review nailed it, ” It is an astonishment, so idiotic in conception and inept in execution…”
Tonight, my jacket fell into a large puddle of beer. It was so grossssss. We were at the Calgary Flames game (I like $20 tickets!). We originally tried getting Opening Night tickets against the Canucks but when the line finally got to us, there was only ONE ticket left.. boo. So we got tix for this game against the Capitals instead.
I was at a lost for what to do tonight… cheer for the enemy (Vancouver fan here)? But having no affiliation with the Caps, i was conflicted. It’s boring if you’re not rooting for anyone.
Flames won 2-1, best part of the night was Bourque pounding Tyler Sloan to the ground immediately after Sloan crushed Langkow with a massive (but legit) body check. And there i was screaming, “Fight! Fight!” Bourque got a 10 minute penalty for that, 10 minutes!!!
World Series starts today but with minimal excitement for a Rays-Phillies matchup..
I’m starting to really like the Genius feature on the new iTunes 8! If you’re not familiar with Genius, it basically reads your entire iTunes Library and will generate playlists for you by cross-referencing the info in your library (artists, genres, era, etc). Sometimes it could be predictable but that’s okay cos it’s still pretty convenient.
Apple says, “Genius playlists help you discover songs in your library you never knew you had — and rediscover forgotten favorites.” This is so true! I have about 3000 songs in my iTunes right now and that’s not even uploading all the CDs i could. Within my library, there are always albums and songs that easily get “lost” outside my regular rotations. I’ve found Genius has brought back to my attention lots of stuff that have fallen through the cracks. It’s put together some songs that i wouldn’t be bothered to manually throw together. And it’s sounding tres goooood.
As i’ve been writing this post, Genius put together a great mix for me with the Counting Crows, Ryan Adams, Coldplay, Jon Foreman, The Shins, John Mayer, David Gray, U2, Mat Kearney, Goo Goo Dolls, Gavin DeGraw, Oasis, Ben Folds and OneRepublic.
The improved Visualizer is sweet too. So many senses being stimulated…
Here’s a shameless confession: I like Jessica Simpson’s new music. What? I do! The country-crossover with her new album, Do You Know, is such a great idea! Thumbs up to the marketing guns behind that one. All jokes aside, Simpson’s got an incredible voice and I think the country genre does well to draw it out even more.
Okay, it’s taken me a while to blog about Brooke Fraser’s second show in Vancouver from a few weeks ago. Needless to say, it was SPECK TACK U LARRRR. She came back with a full band and boy, so much more incredible! I mean, i like acoustic sets but the songs come SO alive when you got a guy like Michael Chaves ripping it up with the electric geetar.. especially during C.S. Lewis Song… he went craaaaazy.. awesome.
So, Mel and I headed downtown, grabbed dinner and waited outside Richards’s on Richards before doors opened. The line outside was so long, i didn’t even think everyone could fit inside. Took forever to get in but once we did… loveliness. I didn’t try to do Merch this time but passed the word to Sarah and she ended up helping out with it. We saw her at the table and I snagged my second Brooke concert shirt. The cool part about shelling out $25 for this particular shirt is that it generated $40 to be given to help kids in Rwanda via a partnership with World Vision. Do the math on that one, hey? Brooke was able to bring World Vision info on tour with her this time around to give opportunities for people to sponsor kids at her shows, egg-cellent!
Matt Hires from Tampa, FL opened the night. He was kinda adorable.
And Brooke, she was funny as heck. It was a night full of this and that. Her whimsical storytelling brings joy to my heart! Let’s see, she talked about customs issues at the US/Canada border and oddities in various cartoons. She made self-deprecating comments about her first album (the “Bad Pants Album” as she likes to call it) and referenced her Future-Husband-of-the-past-to-her-Present-Husband-of-the-present. Confusing? Maybe. But not if you were there, you got it. I would expect nothing less than her long-winded (yet absolutely entertaining) commentary on all things random. We also took a vote on whether American or Canadian girls were hotter.. you can guess who won that one. And my personal FAVORITE was when she busted out some moves.. extending her arms into a wingspan, throwing her head back and rhythmically jiggling her arms and shoulders. SO HILARIOUS!, especially being front and center! If i had that on video, it would be minutes upon minutes upon forever of perpetual laughter.
Oh wait, i found a video that someone from the balcony uploaded on YouTube! It’s not the greatest quality, pretty blurry and a bit far away but you’ll get the idea.. it’s around mark 30 seconds into it.
Her set was of course similar to her last show but like i said, I enjoyed it heapsloads more with the full band. Here’s a pic of her prepared set but it didn’t turn out exactly that way. She didn’t end up playing “The Thief” or “Hymn” which is a bummer but she did play “Seeds” (my favorite on Albertine) this time!
Even though we were standing for more than 4 hours that night (albeit quite close to her), i loved it. And I ended up bumping into a lot of different people at this show as well.. way to bring the peoples together! (And thanks Liz for few pics) Hopefully Brooke will release a new album soon. Even though she’s just starting to promo Albertine in North America, it was released more than 2 years ago “down under.” I’m sure she’s got tons of new songs to be recorded. I cannot wait!
The actual set of the night:
Deciphering Me
Hosea’s Wife
Love, Where is Your Fire?
Love is Waiting
Seeds
Faithful
Sound of Silence (Simon and Garfunkel cover)
Albertine
Better
Day Old Blues (Kings of Leon cover)
Shadowfeet
Encore:
Arithmetic
C.S. Lewis Song
