Genius

This weekend = best ever. No joke. I am too tired and worn out from happiness to write much of a post. But I will say that there are very few musical acts that I consider genius. And somehow, I saw two of the ones that I do consider genuis this weekend (the Pixies and Nine Inch Nails). Kim Deal’s voice must be what angels sound like, because no one else on earth can sing like that. Every song the Pixies played was catchy and energetic and perfect. There are no words for the Nine Inch Nails show. They ripped out rarities and old songs and new songs and played so much from the Broken EP. “Gave Up” was too much for me to handle, as were The Wretched and Wish.

Then. They played. “La Mer.”

I’m not sure I can express how fucking amazing that is. La Mer is an instrumental track from The Fragile (well, instrumental live. It has French lady vocals on the album.) It is one of the most gorgeous songs of all time and I never, ever, ever, ever thought I would hear them play it live. It’s all piano and beats and It’s not really the kind of song most bands pull out at a big festival. But Nine Inch Nails can pull it off. And they did. So much so that I thought I might cry, except I was dancing too much for that.

Packing Up

My instinct is often to hold onto things from the past that I don’t need anymore. If I’m lucky, if they’re lucky, I will put them in a box in the back of my closet. I might look at them once more in my life.

If I put them away haphazardly, on a shelf, in plain view, they won’t last as long. I will quickly realize how superfluous they are. They will get in my way. I will become annoyed with the lack of order and the messiness. Papers without a use, outdated technology, memories I don’t really need to remember.

And so, the more I look, the more I realize what needs to be culled. If I let them hang around, I will want them to go.

And so, I listen and think and pay close attention to the words and events at the outer edges of my mind. And suddenly, I know I won’t miss them anymore.

I clean house.

I say goodbye.

I start fresh with so much more space for lovely things.

Onwards.

How to be a passive-aggressive dickweed….

…starring the man across the street.

So today I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, after having fixed my computer issues and successfully altered the dress I bought, after the seamstress I went to said she couldn’t help me. (Well, the dress is almost done. A couple more stitches and it will be perfect.)

Then I decided to go change my bike tire. Changing a bike tire is not fun or easy. It’s difficult to pry off the rim. I had gotten the tire off and was in the process of replacing the tube, when I noticed that my neighbour from across the street had moved from watching me from his front porch, to standing on the sidewalk in front of me, staring at me. Then he says:

“Have you ever changed a tire before?”

WHAT THE FUCK? Did no one ever teach you manners? If you’re about to offer help, that’s not the way to do it. He might as well have said “You are a moron.” Except he wasn’t about to offer to help.

“Yep,” I replied. He stood there staring at me some more. I had nothing else to say to him. I thought he might explain himself.

“Well, you have a new technique.” He did not mean this in a nice way. He meant it in a sarcastic, belittling way. As in, “you’re doing it wrong.” Or “you are a moron.”

“Well, yeah, I’ve changed the tires on this bike before,” I said, pretty standoffishly. At this point, I wasn’t even trying to be polite. I don’t know if he thought I was going to ask for help, but I sure as hell was not. Mostly because I didn’t need it. Partly because of his attitude.

Eventually he wandered back over to his porch and continued to watch me from there, smirking. Which stressed me out and made me feel like I had a countdown clock on as I finished putting the tire back on. But I got it back, fairly quickly and efficiently. I’m not above asking for help when I need it, but I also like doing things for myself when I can. And I can change a bike tire, thanksverymuch.

Frig people make me mad sometimes.

Upcoming shows

Today I finally managed to write down all the shows I want to see in the next couple of months. (Thanks iPhone calendar! You’re so easy to use!) There were so many that I couldn’t keep track. I probably missed some. But this is a prelimary list of what’s coming up – if you’re planning on going to any of these, or would like to go, let me know. We can be concert buddies! Yay concerts!

August 29th and 30th – V-Fest + The Latency at the CNE
September 11 – Benga @ Mod Club
September 19 – Japandroids @ Horseshoe
September 23 – Miike Snow @ Wrongbar
September 27 – Skream @ Wrongbar (I am NOT missing him this time around.)
October 9 – Rusko @ Mod Club
October 14 – The Gossip @ The Opera House
October 18 – Shonen Knife @ the Horseshoe
October 26 – David Gray and Lisa Hannigan @ Massey Hall
October 27 – Mum @ the Opera House
November 4 – Modeselektor @ Mod Club

This is going to cost me a lot of money. Shit.

Bedtime story

I’m tired and my brain is getting lazy and my thoughts slip and I think

Tell me that story again. The remembrance of hearing it overwhelms me. Tell me that story again, that one that lets me know you’re so much like me. I had forgotten about that and I wish it had stayed that way.

I’m tired and my brain is getting lazy and my thoughts are slipping and I need to go to sleep so I don’t think

Organizational Skills and Thrills

It’s always surprising how happy little things can make you. It’s also interesting how much seemingly small ways of organizing yourself can impact your actions.

For instance, the other day I finally put my basket on my new bike. I had been putting it off for months because I was afraid of taking the front wheel off and then not being able to put it back on properly. Silly, I know. So I put my basket on my bike and rode to Kensington to get a whole bunch of fruits and veggies, instead of going to the No Frills around the corner like I normally would. Putting my basket on my bike has ushered in a new era of grocery shopping, which is, ironically, and old timey type of shopping – the kind where I go to a produce store for veggies, a bakery for bread, a cheese store for cheese… you get the idea.

And, a little while ago, I bought some CD shelves. FINALLY. They were cheap and we put them in Sydney’s car and drove them to my apartment. I got two, and they each have 14 compartments that fit about 20 CDs. 20×28 – that’s a lot of CDs. I took all of my CDs out of the CD binder they were in and put them back in their cases and on the shelves. So first, this situation facilitates putting everything in alphabetical order because you don’t have to move every CD one at a time when you want to add a new one, like with the binder. Second, it’s put all of my CDs out in the open, right beside my computer, so I can see everything I have at a glance. Maybe it was laziness on my part before, but now that they’re out there it’s amazing how much more I listen to my CDs than when they were hidden from view. It’s like a whole world of new old music has opened up!

So basically, I’m a nerd who gets excited about organizing things. We are who we are!

Back in the city

Yesterday I got back from my almost-a-staycation vacation. It was pretty rad. I love the city, but once in a while it’s nice to escape to the country. I just have to make sure the walk the fine line between ‘not long enough’ and ‘too long.’ (After so many days, I start to get a bit stir crazy from the lack of internet and awesome things to do.)

Last Saturday I flew to Ottawa. Porter is pretty much the best, with their super good downtown location and free tea and shortbread at the airport. They gave us cute little snack boxes on the plane which had Babybel cheese (yay!) and a turkey sandwich (boo). I still hate flying though. It terrifies me to no end. The convenience of getting places quickly will probably not trump my horrible fears in the future. Train for me.

That day Wilbur and I went to the Museum Of Civilization. There was an exhibit about Mythical Beasts which was pretty rad. Wilbur asked the girl at the counter if there were unicorn rides. She said no, much to our dismay. They also had a bunch of mini villages inside the museum, which were amazing. One of them featured the stone cottage of my dreams. I wanted to move right in. Wilbur said my tattoos would make the exhibit not very historically accurate.

The rest of the weekend I hung out with my sister and finally made it to the amazing Raw Sugar cafe on Somerset, which I’d been meaning to visit forever. Then I got on a train to Smiths Falls.

Smiths Falls is not very exciting, but I had a good time hanging out with my mom and dad and going to ASHLEY’S WEDDING!

Bronwyn and Megan and I got together in the morning to get ready for the wedding. I brought grape salad with feta and mint and tea biscuits with grape jelly for breakfast. Bronwyn also got grapes, and brough champage and OJ. There were a whole lot of grapes at that breakfast.

The wedding was rad. It was on the lawn and then we ate delicious food and came back at night for a campfire where we ate s’mores and chips and ice cream cake, and had a snowball dance for the first dance. It got a bit silly, which was so much fun.

Also, I watched Bring It On Again. Finally! I’ve seen the original a zillion times, but never any of the straight to DVD sequels. It was so bad that it was amazing. I lost my breathe due to laughter at some of the dialogue/events. Quality!

In conclusion, good summer vacation with lots of relaxing. Yes!