High School Confidential

So I felt the need to share some love for my high school today. I was having a conversation with an acquaintance about choosing a high school for her daughter and how it was such an important decision that will play a huge role in who she inevitably becomes in her later life.

On to the love . . . to everyone (staff and students - in particular to those who like me, lived in the music hall) at Etobicoke School of the Arts who taught me, helped me, listened to me, encouraged me, supported me, challenged me, and most of all - let me be myself, I am humbly indebted to you all for life.

There have been very few places in my life that I felt at home and like the people around me truly "got" me and ESA is definitely the winner for making me feel the most comfortable in my own skin. I acknowledge that I am indeed a freak, however, never before or since have I felt so 'normal' in my abnormality - my undying gratitude and love to everyone who had a part in that. You all resuscitated my soul.

On a related note, to North Toronto Collegiate Institute, a big huge fuck you for doing exactly the opposite and killing my spirit in the first place.

So to all those making such daunting choices for themselves or their children - I urge you to think carefully - because being OK with who you are is a powerful feeling not to be underestimated. Do your research, it's time well spent.

And finally, the thing I must thank ESA for the most is introducing me to the person who truly has been and will be my best friend for life. I could not get through a single day without her - and I thank ESA for every day that I will never have to try.

Stars & Sons (& clouds)

So this has been a very weird week so far for me. I have been working out of the same office for 7 years and recently got a promotion that has me moving to a new office tomorrow. It's not that I am not pumped about the new position and the new projects I will be involved in, but the issue is that I in fact abhore change with a passion and do everything in my power to make sure that nothing in my life is unplanned or 'out of control'. So that is where my head has been at for the past couple of weeks and with the move actually happening tomorrow afternoon, I think I may actually be having palpitations.

Having now gone into detail about my hatred for all events unplanned or unexpected, and in conjunction with the fact that though I will admit change is my number one nemesis, number two is other people being late for things, followed closely by precipitation of any variety, I had a rather wonderful, however unexpected experience as I came home today. I was walking home listening to BSS (shocking, I know) and I got caught in the rain.

For about 15 seconds, I was the Queen of all annoyed and pissed off, until all of a sudden my mood entirely changed. I was about to make a run for the nearest bus shelter when the song on my iPod changed and I was then listening to Stars & Sons (from Olympic Island 2006 - and yes, it does matter)and I stopped running and started walking again, getting totally soaked and not giving a shit, in fact, I think I started laughing. Then, I got about a minute and a half into the song (if you've ever seen them perform the song live you know what I am talking about) and I actually stopped walking all together and I stood still until the song was over. I've said it before and I'll say it again until I take my last breath - music is magical, live music is transporting.


For the uneducated . . .





Now I will go and sit on a wet and muddy lawn to listen to more fabulous live music. The things I do for music . . .

Reasons to love summer in Toronto

Most of the year, I am ambivilent at best about the city that I live in. I could really care less about it (except for the obvvious perk that I see more BSS than most people)and find that it has very few redeeming qualities. That all changes in June every year. These are just a few of the reasons that in the summer I actually love the city where I live.

10 reasons to love summer in Toronto:

1. The best thing about Toronto at any time of year is the Olympic Island Concert (though this years pales in comaprrison to past incarnations that have included BSS)
2. Beaches Jazz Festival
3. Kensington Pedestrian Sundays
4. Harbourfront Centre World Routes
5. The Dream in High Park
6. Luminato
7. The Fringe Festival
8. Caribana
9. Patios
10.Downtown Jazz Festival



Sadly, for the first time in years I will be missing what is possibly the best weekend in the city of Toronto - Caribana. But it is for a good cause - I will be off revisiting my childhood with my sister in Cape Cod and most importantly - seeing whales!!!

Road Trip reflections 08

So this past long weekend, I took what now looks like it will be an annual event - a road trip to New York. I have to say, locked on a bus with 51 people, some of whom I know, some I did not - makes for an interesting ride and handfull of stories that will keep me laughing well into my 90's.

I did this road trip last year and if I can find my old blog about it I will repost it sometime, but last year I found the soundtrack of the journey to be pretty much exclusively The Band.

This year, after making what turned out to be the hardest bet I have ever won in my life NOT TO LISTEN TO ANY ARTS AND CRAFTS ARTISTS ALL WEEKEND (painful), the soundtrack of my trip was Classic Grunge. Mind you - I did win, because, well, I am in fact more stubborn than death - quite literally.

At the time of it's original appearance on the scene (early-mid 90's), the mystique and significance of Grunge escaped me. At that point, I was pretty much only listening to Queen and could not be convinced there was anything else worthy of my time. It has only been over the last few years that I have really come to understand the whole movement and get it's social significance as well as truly appreciate how awesome some of the music was/is. Here is MY definitive Grunge playlist:
Evenflow
Everlong
Testify
Heart Shaped Box
Glycerine
Bullet with Butterfly Wings
Plush
In September
Lithium
Bulls on Parade
Tonight Tonight
Crazy Mary
I Alone
Today
Better Man
Come As You Are
Bad as They Seem
Guerilla Radio
Comedown
All Over You
Ava Adore
Creep
Alive
The Man Who Sold the World
1979
In Bloom
Machinehead
Black Hole Sun
Jeremy
Zero
All Apologies
No Rain

A few musings resulting from looping said list:
1. Eddie Vedder is a genius. Pearl Jam in general are a unique and fantastic example of what a gift music truly is.
2. Billy Corgan WAS a genius (let's face it people - comparitively, Zeitgeist sucks ass).
3. Everyone should drive into New York City to the sound of Testify at sunrise - perfection.
4. I have another reason to hate Gwen Stefani (didn't need another one what with her shitty music and all, but I got one anyway) - what the fuck did she do to Gavin Rossdale? He was wicked.
5. I like Nirvana, I LOVE Dave Grohl.
6. I am burning everyone I know a copy of Mental Jewelry tonight.
7. Desser needs to tune back down. That shit was hot.

So there you go. Lock me on a bus for around 25 hours over 3 days and this is what you get.

Mental health weekend

So why does it always seem at this time in the school year that time speeds up and the amount of 'stuff' I have to do in a day multiplies exponentially? Somehow, magically, we are once again poised at the precipice of the end of yet another school year and I am yet again, wishing that this time of year didn't fly by so quickly (between being bogged down with report cards, staff evals, admin to close out this year and start a new year . . .) so that I could really appreciate how far we have really come since back in September. I was struck today as I stepped out of my office into the yard with the children and watched as their relationships and interactions unfolded around me - such different people than the ones I met just 9 months ago. When and why is it that we stop learning and growing at such an alarming speed? It really is remarkable to watch - and on a side note, I was also reminded why I much prefer children to adults as I saw a 3 year old go and slide on our 'old' slide (much smaller and far less exciting than our 'new' slide) because she thought it looked sad and lonely. Nine times out of ten I would rather talk to a 3 year old than anyone else on the planet. The simple facts are; they are smarter than all of us combined, they are nicer than most of us, they are happier than - well, let's face it - all of us, and they are far more honest than any of us have been since we stopped measuring how old we are in half or three-quarter years.
Who tells little girls it’s not OK to pull their dress up over their head anymore? Who tells little boys to stop jumping on the spot for fun? If anyone out there knows who the person is who makes children stop being children – send them my way, we're gonna throw down.
So on the heels of my afternoon observations and the disturbing fact that this year and these children have once again whizzed by me at warp speed, I bid a fond farewell to the Big Smoke for the weekend to head for the Big Apple. Hey, I'm a girl and I love shoes. I have a feeling that poor Roy (our once and former tour guide soon to reprise his role) will immediately run screaming into the street and retire once he sees that we are back and this time there are not 7 of us, but there are 42 of us. Yup, now I get to go make someone else feel slammed at work the way I am poised to be for the next 4 weeks. Hey - gotta balance it out.

On the previous journey to the Big Apple, I found The Band to be the perfect soundtrack to driving through upstate New York on a sunny day, so . . .






P.S. Levon is the man.

How the hell . . .?

OK, so in a follow up to my last post, how the hell did I not know that BSS were playing a last minute show at the Dakota last week? Given the amount of time that I spend on the inernet and all the blogs I read and updates I get, how did I not hear of this until a week after the fact? People are supposed to tell me about this shit!! I would have skipped all of my other shows to see that. Are you allowed to have a temper tantrum at age 33? If you are, this is me havin one :(

A week in the life of a Canadian music-aholic

Sometimes I find my addiction to music (particularly Canadian music) hard to handle. Why is it that all of the artists that I love are in the city in the same week? I am far too old to handle 7 shows in a week and a half, but I have no choice unless I skip someone, which I cannot bring myself to do. So to The Constantines, Peter Katz, The Trews, Bill Priddle, Sweet Thing, Chilly and Feist I issue a challenge: next time, can we try and space it out?? I'll be the one trying very hard not to look old and tired and begging lots of children to keep it down over the next week! But, the reality is, I find weeks like this very inspiring and ridiculously fun, even though they suck the life outa me.