My Ding A Ling Birthday Party!

I celebrated my birthday a little over a week ago. I would have updated sooner, but I wrote this great entry and pressed the "publish post" button and it was gone. All that work for nothing. If that happens again with this entry, I might just give up blogging, so wish me luck!
Anyway, I celebrated my birthday the best ways: seeing Beauty Day at Hot Docs film festival, drinking IPA beer at Burger Bar's Canadian, IPA beer festival and doing karaoke with a retired wrestling legend, Sweet Daddy Siki. Unfortunately, I didn't capture everything from my birthday weekend with my camera, but I did take quite a few photos, so I'm going to let them tell the story.

Here's Ralph Zavadill, star of the documentary, Beauty Day.  He handed out popcorn in this big, hairy bag while we waited in line for the movie. Maybe I'm biased because of my Niagara connection to this film, but it's one of the best Canadian documentaries I've ever seen.

My incredibly talented sister, Erin, and brother-in-law, Nuno made me this amazing Gumby birthday cake. Erin did the baking and Nuno did the building. Yes, I agree, they need to go into the cake business.

Elvis, John Wayne, Mouth, me and Count Von Count!

Paul, Shawn and Jess.

Nuno and Erin.

Me and Gumby.

Gumby's not made out of clay!

This picture is from when I sang "Tequila" - the funnest and easiest karaoke song to sing! I also sang Chuck Berry's "My Ding A Ling" - with lyrics just as pervy as the title.

Here's the host of karaoke, Sweet Daddy Siki with me. Incase you don't recognize him...

Here he is at the peak of his wrestling career.

Since I couldn't take the leftover cake home with me, I took one last bite of Gumby's head.

It was such a wicked, fun birthday. Thanks to all my friends who came out!

The Land of Sarnia

This past Easter weekend I visited Sarnia, Ontario (the hometown of my Mom and where my Grandparents still live). I have many amazing memories of this town while growing up since I spent many holidays and summers there. Going to visit again always makes me nostalgic, but it also feels great to create new memories in Sarnia and this weekend we certainly did just that! It would be far to lengthy (not to mention boring for those who didn't participate) if I wrote about all the reasons why it was memorable, so I'm just going to tell you about the few things I took pictures of.

I drove from Toronto to Sarnia with my cousin Jess and her boyfriend Shawn. We arrived just in time to take part in the egg colouring that my cousin's Sam and Joel were doing. 

Then we met up with the rest of the family at my Grandparent's house for Easter dinner and got to meet my cousin Dylan's boxer puppy, Miles. Very cute!!

This is probably the first picture us cousins took together since we posed at the Dollar Store with Ticker's in 1995. 

My nephew Owen brings a new source of fun in Sarnia. Here he is very interested in the lemon angel food cake my grandma was baking.

Sadly, since we arrived in Sarnia late Saturday afternoon I missed out on Owen's trip to Canatara Park and the animal farm. At least I get to feel like I was there from this picture my sister Erin took. Owen loved the slides and learned to go down them by himself. Note: awesome E.T. shirt from his Aunt Katie. I wish I could find him a Mac and Me shirt. (I think I should just make him one since there's no chance anyone other than myself would make one).

No Sarnia trip would be complete without a trip to Coffee Lodge (BEST COFFEE IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!) and fries from the under the bridge (preferably Albert's, where there is a hose to spray on your vinegar). I bought 3 pounds of coffee at Coffee Lodge to bring back: Dark Roast (the classic), snickerdoodle ("tastes like Snicker's bar" - random, uninformed, teenage employee) and tiramisu. What a way to indulge. Not to mention all the yummy easter chocolates. Good thing the weather is getting warmer and I'll be walking/riding my bike more.

Some major events are happening next week: The Royal Wedding (Wills & Kate), UFC in Toronto for the first time, the federal election...oh, and my birthday! Hmm, what could my next entry be about?

West of Zanzibar and Video Game Wrestling

I haven't updated in a couple weeks. Not because I've lost interest in my blog already. I've just been very busy. All my net time has been taken up by something else, which I will update about in a later entry. For now, let's just talk about last weekend. 

It was a Toronto Underground Cinema weekend. Of course, I still attended Trash Palace (as I pretty much always do on Friday), but Saturday night I went to see Tod Browning's, West of Zanibar at the theatre. 

The 1928 silent film had a live score by Toronto punk rock band, Fucked Up. I knew absolutely nothing about this band going to see this screening, so I was incredibly surprised by the almost (if not) sold out theatre. It was pretty obvious that Fucked Up brought the audience, since everyone looked pretty hipster and would a Tod Browning film really attract that many in the city? 

But I'm glad I went in with no knowledge and little expectations. At some points it felt like it does when I put on an old, crazy movie, mute it and play it to my own music. Then some parts really added to the film. For me, their interpretation was hit and miss, but regardless, it was a really neat event to attend.

The next night was also a very unique event. Video game character wrestling!

Disclaimer: I like video games, but I don't like wrestling. This is somewhat ironic because my boyfriend doesn't like video games, but LOVES wrestling. So really it was the video game element that brought me to see Wrestle Crisis Deluxe. Oh, and my boyfriend was the mc and gave me free tickets.

I don't know what to say about this event, other than it was hilarious. Most of the costumes were pretty shitty (the masks kept on slipping and I felt horrible for the wrestlers inside who couldn't see what they were doing). Regardless of costumes, the wrestling was impressive. But the best thing about the show were the fans who got so into it by cheering, chanting and heckling the wrestlers.

My favourite part was when Elmo wrestled Darth Vader (Uh, what video game was Elmo ever in?!). Everyone cheered for Elmo to win, but I was the opposite. I had a blast booing Elmo. Man, Super Grover would totally kick all of their asses.

Holiday Surprise

 

I had a wonderful end to my March Break vacation by attending the Elephant Six reunion (Holiday Surprise tour) both Friday night in Toronto and Saturday night in Buffalo. It's very rare I attend concerts, let alone two of the same, two nights in a row. For me, the Elephant Six reunion was worth it.

I developed a love for Elephant Six bands in high school, starting with the Apples in Stereo and Olivia Tremor Control. It's because of this music, I became friends with Jordan. Jordan, a boy in my grade, hung out with a completely different circle of friends than mine, but it didn't matter because our love for Elephant Six bands made us friends. We would chat in the hallways about the new Dressy Bessy or Beulah albums and use our older sibling's fake ID's to get into every Elephant Six show that toured our way. This continued into early university years, when I hosted a radio show at the campus I attended and would drop by Soundscapes and Rotate This in Toronto on a weekly basis. It made it much easier to access more of the rare Elephant Six bands, like Pipes You See Pipes You Don't, the Gerbils, Frosted Ambassador, the Music Tapes, the Late B.P. Helium, and the list goes on. Jordan and I continued going to Elephant Six shows, where we stood in crowds of 30 people. Sadly, in 2002, the Elephant Six Collective called it quits. The Elephant Six side projects started to slowdown and Jordan and I lost touch, with us not attending E6 shows anymore.

So, imagine my surprise when Jordan contacted me, asking if I bought my tickets for the Elephant Six reunion. And I was further surprised to find out the show (moved from the Horseshoe to Lee's Palace) was almost completely sold out (here I was planning to buy tickets at the door)! 

After going to three different locations, I got my tickets in time. When Jordan and I met up for the first time in 8 years, we questioned what happened over the course those years to make an Elephant Six show sell out?!

I guess like many things, when something is great, it doesn't reach it's peak of success until after it's gone. And lucky for those who missed it the first time, or those (like Jordan and I) who wish to see it again, there are reunion tours.

But unlike some reunion tours, there was no sense they're trying to profit financially from it. To quote my roommate, who I brought along with me to the show, "It's obvious these guys aren't doing it for the money. They're just talented people who love what they do."

Since I'm not entirely sure how the Elephant Six became so popular within the past decade, I'm also unsure of how familiar the crowd was with the music. Especially since the bands pulled out some very rare songs from the Gerbils, Pipes You See Pipes You Don't, Elf Power, etc. For Jordan and I, we felt an overwhelming sense of awe and kept commenting on how incredibly surreal this experience was. We had seen the majority of these performers on separate stages, but never imaged a decade later we would see them all perform together....and they would sound so good!

I was lucky enough that my sister (also an E6 fan) wanted to go to the show in Buffalo the next night, so I got to experience this twice in one weekend. Both shows were very similar, but they did pull out some different material and each show had it's own uniqueness. At one point in the show, they let an audience member choose any song in the history of songs (with the exception of their own) for them to play as a cover. I would love to just follow the musicians around on tour for this segment alone.

The entire weekend was incredibly nostalgic and enjoyable, even if the shows weren't as intimate as the ones we once attended. The crowd really just made me proud their talents are being recognized.

Anyway, I'm going to leave you to watch a video clip of a Music Tapes song played at the Lee's Palace show I found on youtube. :)

Bedroom "After"

 As you can see, I did it! This was my first time ever painting a room, so I feel like it's quite an accomplishment (now I can't wait to paint the rest of the apartment). I have to thank my cousin-friend, Jess.  Jess is the ultimate handy woman. She's been a major help since I've moved. Just for this project, Jess helped me fill the holes in the walls and taught me how to paint. Thank you Jess! She also wants to help me make curtains, which will complete the Gumby-inspired design.

I was excited to realize my Mr. Sardonicus poster goes great with the new wall colour. I bought this poster and had it framed last Fall. I've really started to take an interest in collecting original movie posters. Most of the movies I love have less than 200 original poster prints and you can imagine many of them have been destroyed over the years. I feel like I have a bit of movie history and by framing it, I'm protecting and preserving it.

Anyway, there you have it. I've shared my bedroom on the net for all to see!

This weekend is exciting because I'm going to attend the Elephant Six reunion in both Toronto and Buffalo, AND Pee-Wee's new HBO special airs on Saturday night. You can expect full reviews of these events on here shortly.

Bedroom "Before"

I'm on March Break, so I've decided to spend the week doing things I just need done and one major thing is paint my bedroom. As you can see by these pictures, it's just a neutral "blaaaaaah" colour. Boring! 

 

I was watching Gumby and I was inspired by the colour scheme of his 1950's kitchen (don't worry, it's not Gumby green colour). That was my inspiration. "After" pictures coming in next blog post!

The Monster at the End of this Book

Lately I've been finding and reading a lot of old school Sesame Street books to my class (none of that new age Elmo crap for my kids). Mouth was telling me his favourite is The Monster at the End of this Book, published in 1971. In this book Grover, in his hilarious spazzy way, tries to get you to stop turning the pages of the book because he is scared of the supposed monster at the end. The art is similar style to a comic book and it's pretty unique because it's very self-aware that it's a book.

I don't remember this book from my own childhood, so I went to the net for more information. I found myself on youtube where I made a very interesting discovery. Apparently Mouth isn't the only one who loves Monster at the End of this Book. In fact, there are many people reading this book aloud for the world to hear and I find many of them very humorous. So here's my top 5 youtube readings of Monster at the End of this Book:

1) Nonny reading to Camden
2) Little Keelin's turn to read
3) Did this guy just escape from prison?
4) This kid acts out his own version of the story
5) This girl DOES NOT want you to turn the page!!!!!!

If anyone can find me a copy of this book for my classroom, I promise I will record my own amusing youtube reading. And I mean the original, not the cheesy remake with Elmo published in 2000. No Elmo allowed in my classroom!!

Forest Hill Peeping Tom

Tuesday morning I woke up and turned on CP24 to check the highways for my morning commute to work. Quickly I glanced back and forth, between images of the 404 and the headlines just left of the screen. After six months of living in Toronto and having this morning routine, my neighbourhood finally made it into the headlines! "Police are investigating a possible sexual offender operating in the Bathurst Street and St. Clair Avenue West area."

I wanted to cheer for my neighbourhood, but then I thought, "Uh...this headline isn't good." I went to google news to get the story. Turns out there's a peeping tom targeting female homes in my area. One woman living in a ground floor apartment just down my street had her window screen cut open by the dude.

This is particularly disconcerting because: 1) I live pretty much sandwiched between the location of both incidents. 2) I live with a female friend. 3) We share a ground floor apartment.

But after some thought, I realized how silly it is to worry myself over a headline from CP24. Besides getting traffic reports every morning, I enjoy making fun of about 90% of their headlines. Why should this be any different? So, to ease my worries, I've already started making jokes about the peeping tom. (Mostly based on his description fitting people I know).

Speaking of making fun - everyone who visits my new home has made fun of the four different types of locks I have on the door to my bedroom patio. Who's laughing now?!

Machete Maidens and Waffle Making

This weekend the Bloor Cinema was showing Machete Maidens Unleashed, a documentary about the b-movies filmed in the Philippines in the 70's and 80's. These movies feature lots of blood, beasts and boobs. The only ones I've seen are Mad Doctor of Blood Island and Black Mama, White Mama, but Machete Maidens Unleashed convinced me there are way more I need to see! Especially the ones starring midget spy, Weng Weng. But I need to give this documentary another viewing. After a long day, including shopping, previewing classroom films and doing karaoke, I fell asleep a couple of times. Oops!

 

The reason for previewing classroom films on Saturday (besides it just being fun) was in preparation for this coming Friday's "Classroom Film Night" at Trash Palace. I know I'll be showing "Our Wonderful Eyes and Their Care", a classic, 50's Coronet film, but I'm looking to show one or two more. The picture above is from a few weeks back, when I showed the Larry Buchanan feature, Creature of Destruction. A Trash Palace regular brought Cupcakes of Destruction, which was awesome so I wanted to show them off on my new blog.

 

I also want to show off my weekend tradition of waffle making. Ever since Mouth got his G5, George Foreman Grill with waffle plates, I've been making waffles for us every weekend. Today we had strawberry banana waffles. This was my second time experimenting with banana in waffles and it turned out much better today because the banana was a week old instead of newly bought from the grocery store. Much like making banana bread, it helps having them older for stronger banana flavour. Delicious! I also like to have my waffles with maple mocha coffee imported from Sarnia's Coffee Lodge. It pairs wonderfully with the waffle's syrup and episodes of Davey and Goliath.

The Ventures

Last Friday, Mouth, a couple of friends and myself took the drive to Casino Rama in Orillia to see the Ventures. If you think you don't know who the Ventures are, believe me, you do. Their surf rock music can be found everywhere. "Wipe Out", "Hawaii Five-0", "Walk Don't Run", and their list of hits goes on and on. 

Anyway, I was somewhat surprised when they took the stage. I was kind of expecting them to look like this:

Oh yeah, I forgot, 50 years have passed. These guys are well into their seventies. But I think, like with wine or cheese, their age has only made them better. I was in amazement through the whole show how these men have wildly played guitars all these years and their fingers aren't suffering from arthritis. 

The only younger member was the drummer, Leon Taylor, the son of now deceased original drummer, Mel Taylor. The last song they played had the most fantastic drum solo I've ever seen performed live. 

I think one of the biggest highlights of the show wasn't just the Ventures performance. It was the audience. You know the fans must be big ones if they're willing to drive to Orillia (a very boring 2 hour drive outside Toronto). Most of the audience was made up of people close in age to the band itself. 

Two much older asian ladies sitting in front of me looked like teenage girls seeing the Beatles. The Ventures were HUGE in Japan and I can imagine these women growing up there in Venture mania. Each new song the Ventures played made these ladies jump around in their seats with the biggest smiles. I thought they were going to lose it when Don Wilson announced there was going to be a signing.

And the signing had a line of close to 500 people waiting after the show. 

I'm thrilled I had the opportunity to see these surf legends live. Based on their ages, it's difficult to say if I'll get the opportunity again. On the other hand, based on their performance, they're in great enough shape to last much longer.

Here's some clips of the Ventures playing live:

Wipe Out

Hawaii Five-0

Caravan (1965)

Tequila

Induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame

I'm Roosevelt Franklin, ya ya ya!

 

To celebrate Black History Month, I've been listening to the Roosevelt Franklin record on repeat during my drives to and from work. Roosevelt Franklin was a puppet on Sesame Street during it's very early years. He lasted from 1970 to around 1975. Roosevelt Franklin was pulled off Sesame Street because he was said to represent a negative stereotype of black people. Geesh, first of all, Roosevelt Franklin is PURPLE. Secondly, Roosevelt Franklin is COOL (he talks in scat and rhymes and sings with a whole lotta soul). Thirdly, he's SMART!

In his album, "My Name is Roosevelt Franklin" he teaches kids important things like the alphabet, the days of the week, sharing, and most importantly, to not judge others based on the colour of their skin.

Anyway, I love this album so much, I wanna make Roosevelt Franklin puppets (including Baby Ray, Mary Francis, ABCito, etc) and perform the entire album!

Some other things I've done in this month to celebrate Black History Month:

• Watch the black exorcist (or blaxorcist), Abby. Best blaxploitation horror movie I've ever seen!! Seriously, just watch this youtube clip of Abby and you'll understand what I'm talking about.

• Drank the Obama blend coffee at the Obama Cafe on the Danforth.

Happy last day of Black History Month everyone!!