Sunday, May 31, 2009

Drawing

Went to a life drawing class yesterday afternoon. Considering I have never drawn anything in my life and just went for the hot guy, I don't think they're too bad! Well, he kind of looks like Hitler in the last one, but faces are hard.




My phone and internet were shut off today. Moving tomorrow, wish me luck!

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Bust

Went to a play at Buddies, Eternal Hydra, tonight.

On the way down it rained and then once inside the theatre, as I was soaked, I noticed it was 100 degrees.

The play was dry and after about an hour of drying not to nod off, I realized I hadn't eaten yet today. My attention span, always relatively short, is shorter lately due to my impending move on Monday. Well, that and McDonalds Rolo iced coffee, which I drink about 7 of a day.

The play ended abruptly and at 9:30 as I left, the usher said "Intermission is 15 minutes" and I ran for my life.

I stopped by Woody's for the launch of the photo-novella "Guys Like You". It was the launch party tonight and they had a huge sign on the front of the bar. Once inside, 10 people in total and no copies of the magazine. Perhaps everyone rushed in at 9, got their copy and then ran home to read it?

Overall a bust.

Tomorrow a dance show hosted by Keith Cole for $10. Should be much better.

Gays are idiots

Buddies in Bad Times, the Toronto gay theatre company, announced their new season recently.

There are a couple of problems with this.

#1 - The season is entirely women (lesbian) driven.
#2 - We're in a recession.
#3 - A large percentage of season subscribers are men. How large? I would guess over 95%.
#4 - They snuck in the new Sky Gilbert show, saying it was a "guest" production. He founded the theatre. How is he a guest?
#5 - Most gays don't support gay plays. Which comes to my "gays are idiots" comment. What percentage of my gay friends listen to Proud FM, Toronto's gay radio station? Zero. What percentage of my gay friends subscribe to the gay theatre? Zero. There's so many reasons, they're not into theatre, they saw one bad show there 20 years ago, they have too many other shows to go to. Fact is a season pass costs $60 and if you want to keep seeing your stories presented, you have to go.
# 6 - Of course the above comment is irrelevant as the only theatre company in Toronto that would present gay stories has chosen to take the year off.

I want to start my own theatre company. First show: Bare. Second show: La Cage Aux Folles. Third show: Beautiful Thing. Fourth show: Cabaret nights, hosted by Keith Cole.

People would run to sign up.

I'm looking for 3 million dollars and a venue. Any takers?

Kids on TV show - Wednesday May 20, 2009












Cut out early from the Peaches show to see the long-lost Kids on TV do an amazing show. The night ended with voguing. To all indie rockers: More voguing please.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Shopping

I need some stuff, a few thousand things really, for my new appartment, so I thought I'd do a list.

A bed.
This IKEA one looks nice.



SULTAN HJARTDAL $699.00

Key features
  • A 2" thick layer of memory foam in the integrated pillowtop molds to your body, improving blood circulation to both muscles and skin and enabling your body to relax more fully.

  • Pocket springs provide precise support for your body.

  • 5 comfort zones relieve pressure on your shoulders and hips.

  • Lyocell in the cover transports moisture away and gives a very pleasant sleeping climate with an even temperature.

  • Stretch fabrics on the top side of the mattress ensures more precise support for your body.

  • The spring construction allows air to flow through the mattress so it stays fresh.

  • Integrated pillowtop with removable, machine washable cover.
Then also the frame ($109), I don't think I need a headboard and footboard, I doubt I'll fall out, and the slats ($80):


Then the desk:



2MORROW Main Desk $349

Features-powder-coated finish provides long lasting, uniform colour-metal construction gives strength and durability-tempered frosted glass is strong and safe, and reduces fingerprint marks

-retractable key board tray makes efficient use of space

-accommodates up to a 17" CRT monitor

-flat-packed item is easy to assemble


I haven't found the perfect sofa yet.
I'll be stealing my dad's TV (it will have to be dark...) and I saw some laptops with HDMI hookup to the TV and 500 GB harddrives for around $700.

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Doors Open

Went to Doors Open yesterday and today.
Yesterday was the Toronto Archives with a booth for the CLGA.

Today went to the Don Jail but couldn't get in. Then to St. James church and cemetery.

The jail was shut but I bought future tickets for the regular and ghost tours.

A grave to commemorate all the kids who died while in the care of the Children's Aid Society.


Me knocking on Paul Kane's grave. No answer.

"Toy" of "Grand and Toy":

Grave for everyone who donated their body to science. I want to do this, it's marked on my driver's license.

Memorial for the Irish.

The Chapel over the crematorium.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Hotel Reviews

I really love to read bad hotel reviews, like the one I just read about a hotel in New York City where the roof blew off and "people were running for their lives".

The best hotel reviews I've found are from Detroit.

Like the Viking Motel:
"When we pulled up i wanted to puke, it looks like a crack house.
Run for your life from this place. Within 5 min we were solicited for prostitution and cocaine by a hotel worker."

Or the Comfort Inn:
"Blood on the bedding..."

"The door on the first room I was given was damaged from being kicked in and would not stay closed."
"we have stayed in $30 hotels that looked like the shangri la compared to this!!!!!!!!!"

The Corktown Inn:
"Charged my card for two extra nights, when we weren't there. An attempted break in of our room at 4am. Phones didn't work to call for help. Trapped inside while lunatic banged on the door for an hour...."
"The woman (I use the term loosely) who met us at the desk behind bulletproof glass after we had to get buzzed in at 2 am had no idea that we had a reservation. The guy behind us in line was checking in with a wad of condoms and told us he was about to "get nasty.""

The Leland:
"In the less than 2 hours we were gone, our room was robbed of everything we had in it, from empty beer cans to 3 digital cameras and iPods. The hotel refuses to help me in any way and they originally told me that we had "robbed ourselves" in order to get paid."
"we had been out all day at the festival. When we came back we found the main entrance blocked off and a hazmat crew was there. Someone had been stabbed right in front of the doors to the hotel and there was a huge puddle of blood on the ground."
"Lovely view:


"State of the art heating:

"it hasn't been redecorated since FDR was president."
"I suppose we could have gone to the industrial Goth club in the basement of the Leland, but we did not pack out Pleather and artificial fangs."
"a TV that only got one channel and no way to adjust the volume (no remote)"
"There were no towels in the bathroom, that was because they were on the floor next to the bed, used. When we asked for more towels, the attendant said we already had them and that there wouldn't be enough for the rest of the 'guests'. The toilet paper was soaked with some mysterious orange liquid."
"one towel in the bathroom for 4 adults when we asked for more the desk clerk said "we'll see"."
"this is not a good hotel for families with small children because they might need phsycological help when they get home and also not a good choice for fans of teams other than Detroit to stay either, because you'll probablly get mugged or killed."
"Even if you are curious DO NOT go into the club because there is a chance you will run into the devil himself."
"Thank god we had bought the boys 2 mini baseball bats at the game, we might have had to use them."
"At about 12:00 at night, we heard a woman in the room next to us screaming and yelling for her life. We assume she was being raped but we will never know. We barcaded the door and got whatever items in the room we could find to use for weapons in case he was coming to our room next."
"The first person we saw looked like an inbred on crack cocaine. The second lot were a husband and wife team who were looking for a tasty treat out of the rubbish bin."
"The elevator doors slammed my brothers wheelchair, nearly decapitating him upon going up to our rooms."
" I beg of anyone reading this to tell friends, relatives, and even enemies to stay clear of this dump."
"Every person we spoke to in elevators was there for the sex show/rave taking place in the hotel ballroom"
"a Detroit policeman asked me where I was going. He said that I must be one crazy lady to be walking in that area and staying in that place! I told myself, "Legs don't fail me now!""
"The closet door was completely off the hinges, and there was a fresh stain 2 foot square on the floor. I shudder to think what it could have been."
"The facilities looked like an old warehouse, I drove past it twice thinking it was an abandoned building."
"Someone supposedly got stabbed on the roof while we were there and my friend rich got put in detention by hotel security but luckily they let him go after a few questions"



"It is about a five minute walk between the hotel & Comerica Park but you will probably find yourself running instead of walking."
"Our room was a couple of doors down from an ice machine that would make a rock concert seem like a library."

I think I know my next vacation destination!

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Mom arrives with cake

I think this is one of the funniest things I've ever seen

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Good times

Well my best friend is "livid" at me for my Tamil comments and CIBC just called and ripped me a new one over the phone to the point that I'm shaking.

Good times!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Scared

This Tamal thing makes me so mad, I have to stop writing about it and thinking about it so I can move on with my day.

It's scary to me. A terrorist organization. You don't get that title easily, it's not from jaywalking. Terrorists are plotting within our city to use children as human shields to hurt our infrastructure. This is I think the worst situation this city has ever been in.

Where will these people stop? The lives of their own children are up for grabs.

Will we see bombs going off in the city of Toronto? What's next?

And when I talk about the fear, I get "Oh yeah, why don't you go back to where you came from?" as a comment. I think the time for child's name calling has passed.

What exactly is our police force doing to protect us?

A Solution


UPDATE: Someone made a comment calling this post racist garbage. I need clarification as I don't see anywhere below a racist statement.
FACT: These people are from a terrorist organization
FACT: These people protested illegally
FACT: These people put the lives of woman and children in severe danger
I don't really see where they have a leg to stand on.

Tamil Tigers, a listed terrorist organization in Canada and the US, shut down the Gardiner for 6 hours last night, using women and children as human shields. Small children walked onto the 5 lane highway in Toronto to protest a civil war in Sri Lanka.

When these people come here from Sri Lanka, they have nothing. They claim their families are being killed and they plea for refuge status. Then once here they shut down St Clair or the Gardiner, sending children first so the police will be less likely to use tear gas, and break the law to protest a war the Canadian government has absolutely no part in.

Politicians today did not mix words. Mayor David Miller this morning said "[there is a] right way and a wrong way to protest" and "I'm certainly happy to speak to people", causing a ripple of fear in the Tamil community.

The head of the Liberal party of Canada, Michael Ignatieff, echoed these words, saying "I urge Canadian Tamils to continue raising this issue publicly, and to give it the attention it deserves." His words also drove the spike of fear into the Tamils, proving once and for all these illegal protests will not be tolerated.

As I write this helicopters are flying over my house.

Round all these people up, put them on the next plane to Sri Lanka, remove their Canadian citizenship and let them protest over there.

What other city in the world permits a known terrorist organization to shut down their major highways for 6 hours at a time?

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Walk Out

I think I have walked out of one movie my whole life.

Tonight made it two.

I had seen a movie previously about women in prison and it talked about their life and what got them there and I thought this would be a similar kind of movie. I remember I really enjoyed the other movie as it talks about a way of life I knew nothing about and bad things happening to good people is a story we can all relate to.

This movie was basically interviews with people who had been in jail for long periods. It was basically divided into three sections, the first being asking all the people to relate their stories of their time in jail. And really, no expense was spared. I can see the director asking "Can you elaborate more? When you talk about knifing him in the kidney, can you describe more graphically how his kidney looked when it was hanging outside of his body?" Disgusting.

Part two was where the people describe their crimes. Now no one seemed to show remorse for any of these crimes, at one point the director asked "Did you ever think of the victim?" and the woman laughed and laughed, saying no, she hadn't. Again the most vivid, lose-your-lunch detail you can manage.

Then part three, which lasted about 30 minutes before I left, was for the people to tell everything bad that had ever happened to them in their childhood. And it was so disgusting I had to leave.

A few of the people in the film talked about how they found Jesus when in prison and the movie kind of reminded me about when I was at the hostel in Amsterdam and the woman got up during dinner to sell us Jesus. It was the same kind of thing where she tried to be as graphic and gruesome as possible, laying it on as thick as she could. All about how her life was out of control and she was on drugs and suicidal and a prostitute.

And I was thinking when I was cycling home, what the heck? Here I am on vacation in Amsterdam, my life is good. If your life was a puddle of crap, it seems it's not now, and good for you, but mine is fine. Why are you trying to bring me down? It does clearly sound like you needed something in your life but I don't, so why are you trying to push this on me?

It seems like there's a point where you come to terms with your past, who you are, your life, or you don't and you wallow in the filth for the rest of your existence. Sure this woman claims to have found Jesus, but by reliving being drugged and suicidal 5 times a week for a live audience, how can she claim to have moved on, to be in a better place?

This kind of dinner theatre, where people trot out the dog and pony show of every hurt they're experienced in their lives, *now with each story more violent than the last!*, I can do without.

Friday, May 8, 2009

The Golden Girls - Lesbian Lovers of Miami

One of the best moments ever from the series. Tina Fey recently wrote how amazing it was that Bea Arthur could get a laugh without speaking, without even moving, and I think this is a great example of that.

Sleeping Beauty

Yikes. I sleep a lot.

My boss was telling me with concern that she went to bed at 8 pm last night. I went to bed at 5:04 pm and got up at 8 am.

I think some people eat when under stress and I don't, I just sleep. I got a cheque from work and now have enough money to close my house which just got me thinking about all the work left to do and all the things that have to go right and I just didn't want to think about it. I didn't want to be awake at that moment, so I went to bed.

But more than that it was like every time I thought about it I just couldn't stay awake.

I sleep a lot. Two or three days a week I'll sleep for 15 hours or more.

In other news, my #1 hottie Daniel Radcliffe is dating a drag queen named Our Lady J. I assume he's working his way up to me.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Contact

Went to the contact photo show.

Love this guy's stuff. Photo is called "Greyhound in Red Deer".