Wow, can I touch you?

So, Gina and I had our last concert (well, maybe in Toronto, at least) before she heads out into the big wide world... and it was totally exciting! I'd never thought that I'd ever get to perform in a venue that cool! We even had our own labelled dressing room with the mirrors and lights - it was totally Dreamgirls styling! And we got free beer (courtesy, of course, of one of the major sponsors)! It was a terribly fun evening... even with our fan-groupies, and a few autograph signings... big kudos to the big talent that makes it all possible... sigh, it will be terribly anti-climactic to sing with anybody else... it's a bitter-sweet-sweet feeling, to realize that we're getting old.... don't, don't, don't, don't you forget me...

It must be Wednesday....

It sometimes is very difficult to balance the worldviews of vastly different cultures on what "suffering" entails... sometimes, when someone tells me that they have had one bout of diarrhea, or a cold, and they are "suffering terribly, too much, too much, it's too hard to go to work", I want to grab them and shake them, and yell at them, "Well, at least you're not living in Darfur, so you can watch your wife being raped in front of you before being hacked to pieces and then having your children slowly die from typhoid or malaria plaguing the refugee camp you've run to, while frantically worrying about where their next meal will come from" or " At least you're not living in a North Korean concentration camp" or "At least you have a roof over your head, food in your belly, and clothes on your back, and your family is alive and well, JERK!"
I sometimes feel like I live in culture shock everyday...

Footwear Fetish

I think I've been spoiled by Crocs and Birks, as I'm finding it increasingly difficult to tolerate 'normal' footwear, which is basically anything with a closed toe... of course, this may also be because I was convinced to walk downtown from home in a brand-new pair of shoes (OK, that part was my idea, which wasn't so smart). I mean, I've done it before, though not for a very long time, so I suppose it's really the shoes that did me in. Generally, I think it's a good idea not to go walking great distances without well-worn shoes. In the rain. Though, if I really had my choice, I suspect I would walk around barefoot, if it wasn't for all the dirt/garbage/doggy doo/etc that would cause problems, or if it wouldn't draw obvious comparisons to Britney Spears...

Mimicking MacKinnon

So, I would argue that the attempt to have a 100-mile dinner was quite well done, and was quite delicious and beautiful to look at! Nicely done with the locally made salad dressing (except for the peppercorns, of course)! And we ate aplenty! Certainly, it is much easier to be able to do this in August, when produce is at its peak, but we had a delightful afternoon... (I'm really sorry I forgot to bring my eggs along...)

Dreamland Lullabies

I was just asked the other day why it seemed that I slept all the time, which I thought was impertinent, really. Especially since I don't sleep all the time. However, I suppose if you add up a relatively recent chronicity of dreams and visions, four 24-hour shifts in one week, late night drives out to the 519 area code, open bars at weddings, and irritating roosters, I think one could be excused for being a bit fatigued in the day time, no?

Choose life! in order that you may live...

Do you suppose sometimes it's easier to live with apathy than with passion? I often wonder that, as it seems so often that we choose to live this way... I recognize living with passion every moment of every day gets pretty exhausting after a while, but it saddens me to think that we mainly choose to live in mediocre apathy most of the time... that we choose to stuff ourselves with banalities and celebrity (it's weird how I always catch up on my People reading and American Idol updates when I head outland) and ignore the greater issues at hand... especially when Jesus asks us to Think Bigger and Love Greater...

Harrowsmith observances

A few points from the countryside:
1. Went to the Keady Fair yesterday, which is a less insane, more authentic version of St Jacob's Market. I can't believe I get paid to eat kettle corn and assess livestock, ducks and various fruit preserves and beef jerky. By the way: I had forgotten just how yummy fresh kettle corn and fresh wild blueberries are.... mmmmmmm....
2. I can't emphasize this enough: When you are welding, WEAR A SAFETY MASK OR GOGGLES! I cannot emphasize this point enough. For some reason, I thought that would be a given - if you're working with potentially dangerous things, you'd take the proper safety precautions. Apparently, I am dead wrong. In four hours, I managed to see two guys with injuries to their faces and their eyes because they didn't protect them - AT ALL! Mutter, mutter: some of the dumbest and bone-headed things to do ever...

Finding Me-now...

When you think about which movie character or celebrity you might resemble most, who do you think of? It's been (re-)pointed out to me that I'm like Dory the fish. A fish. This is, of course, not the first time, nor even the second time, that the uncanny resemblance between myself and a blue fish has occurred. I would have to agree, however: in light of all the human, and humanoid, characters ever played on the silver screen, I think I am most like a very forgetful fish. I'm not convinced this is a sad or pathetic thing, but it is weird to be typecast...

Funny Face...

I notice that funny things tend to happen in threes...
Case in point: Yesterday, as I was coming downtown on the subway, it inexplicably stopped at Dufferin, with the doors open, green light on, with no explanation forthcoming as to why we were sitting there for five minutes. At about the five minute mark, the driver comes on the intercom saying, "Stay off the yellow stripe!", which didn't make a lot of sense, so everyone just looked at each other and shrugged, but OK.... two minutes later, she comes on again, this time saying, "Get back in the car, and let the police do their job!"... well, that did it - half of my car gets up and heads for the doors to see what's going on, which is totally understandable... I was sitting with some teens, and we were urging each other to go to the doors to find out what was going on, but as we were debating, the chimes came on, and the doors closed.... as we were on our way, the driver comes on again, and she says, "Ossington: You people are UNBELIEVABLE! Next station: OSSINGTON!!!" in the most annoyed manner... the entire car bursts out laughing!
Secondly, there was literally a fly in my soup at dinner, which was funny, as he was all semi-shriveled, though, I suspect, well-cooked, and landed me with a half-price dinner, which is always nice...
Thirdly, I think I saw the funniest movie that I've seen in a while, called Facing the Giants... I don't think they meant for me to find it funny, but I haven't giggled that hard at a movie for a while....

K005 or A007?

I think I've probably written about this before, but there is something inherently unsatisfying in 'slashing and burning' through a ton of work, just to get through to the other side. It almost seems like a survival tactic, just trying to get through, just trying to get to the end of another day, just trying to push on through to the other side.... there has to be a different way of doing this; there must be a different path...