...hug and roll....

.... if you are of a certain age you have for shizz seen this clip....

It was a not-so-elegant to the age old question "but what about me?" when it comes to sleep and your special someone....

now, I do not have this problem at the moment.... (oh that how to accomodate a guy was my problem... i have enough trouble meeting one I even want to bring home) .... but a twitter exchange with Flashpunk this morning brought the longstanding problem up... and if i am being honest... i have some thoughts on the matter....

Its not that I don't enjoy a good cuddle... I like it as much as the next girl (well, maybe not as much... but i like it just fine, thank you very much). But I reserve it for naps, rainy afternoons or the afterglow (that lasts about 30 minutes tops....)

As far as sleeping goes.... I do it alone... I am the Lone Dreamer.... you can be my Tonto... but you need your own saddle. Maybe its because I move around in my sleep.... Maybe its because on occasion I have been known to unconsciously fart in the night (and no one wants you pressed up against that).... maybe its because on vacations as a kid my sister and I had to share a bed, and that girl is a KICKER!

But whatever the reasons... I don't see why you should go to all that trouble to sleep uncomfortably... because it always is... no matter whether its spooning, the shoulder roll,  the hug'n'roll or the superman... its never as comfortable as whatever position you end up in on your own... known as the pragmatic approach at the end of this video.

I have to say love one you're with... but there is no need to invest in the Love Mattress.... no matter how cool a design idea it may be....

... modern day barter system...

... I have a job, really... Its tough, in the modern day recesion, the age of salary freezes and position cuts, where cost of living increases have gone the way of the dinosaurs. I love my job, but the paycheque covers the essentials (read: rent and loan payments) but doesn't leave many dollars for much else.

But a resourceful girl as always I have found my way to circumvent. You know how they say a penny for your thoughts? Well, you can have mine for concert tickets, movie passes or free books.

The internet has created a multitude of sites that are open to content and willing to give you the experience if you are willing to share it with the masses. All you need is a basic grasp of grammar (very basic), a point of view and a little wit

.... Lennon LIVE(s)....

... Of course the legendary spirit of John Lennon, as well as his contribution to music, political and cultural history will never be forgotten.

And lately it has been hard for me to avoid... My new landlord is a Beatlemaniac.... The common area of my new house is covered with Beatles original tour posters in Italian and framed photos of John Lennon. When he told my postal code... it went like this.... McCartney 6 Harrison, 2 Yoko 8.... Its awesome... I can never remember my postal code... now I can't forget it.

And on April 23 there will be one more item to add to the collection. Shout Factory will be releasing a DVD of the concert John Lennon gave with the Plastic Ono Band in 1969.

For Those of you who don't know about the Plastic Ono band, you should start by reading the wikipedia entry. Basically, you know they say Yoko Ono broke up the Beatles... it was basically through the Plastic Ono Band that this was accomplished.

The "band" was formed PBB (Pre Beatles Break-up) to refer to the artists that would collaborate with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on their various musical endeavours. With names like Eric Clapton, Alan White, Klaus Voorman and so many more (including two of the beatles Geaorge and Ringo). And with the musical buffet set before him... the fate of the "rigid" structure imposed by the Beatles was sealed....

Anyway, in 1969, at the very last moment John, Yoko, Clapton, Voorman and White jumped a plane to Toronto to take part in the Toronto Rock'n'Roll Revival, a concert Rolling Stone has called only second in importance to woodstock....

And it all happened at Varsity Arena!!! Let me assure you, the coolest thing I have ever been to at Varsity Arena is a Club Monaco Sample Sale... and it wasn't that great.....

I am gonna have to start to do some digging around about this event... because it combines so many of my favourite things: pop culture, celebrity, music, the 60s and Toronto!

I am definitely gonna start by pre-ordering the Shout Factory DVD and giving it a watch next week.....

UPDATE: The 39 Jesses

URDB has recognized my efforts and i currently hold the record for most Jesses on a screen grab!

...39 Jesses....

Ever heard of Universal Record Database? It is the site that records all human achievement....

Well someone created a record by showing 17 images of Uncle Jesse from Full House on a computer screen at once....

As a manic Full House fan... I felt it was my duty to beat it... and I did...

Presenting the 39 jesses....

...Jane Austen on the art of woo....

...i may be on my way to becoming one of those crazy Austen-ites.... I have never really read any before. I saw Jane Eyre as a play at Shaw Festival once... oh, and i heckled proudly at the TIFF Gala screening of the Jane Austen Book Club (neglecting, of course, to actually read the book for my own book club)...

But I just started Pride and Prejudice, because I have had, of late, one of those cosmic twisters which has put the Jane Austen on my doorstep, (kinda like the Wicked Witch of the East for Dorothy)... my roommate seems to own and love all things Austen, and I trust her literary tastes... It seems to be some sort of Jane Austen-a-thon month on TV, there have been four different Austen flicks on TV in the last week... And as constant as ever is my love for all things Brit....

Anyway, I think I love her for all the same reasons everyone else does... I love the headstrong free will of her protagonists, but the civility and gentility of the society in which they operate... Everyone wants to be an 'individual' but there is something so novel and fun about the thought of being an individual in a society that is not overrun with the MTV credo of being different, yet the same.

Its the same way everyone loves Anne of Green Gables...

Anyway, I knew it was solidified when I read the following:

"I have been used to consider poetry as the food of love," said Darcy

"Of a fine, stout Healthy love it may. Everything nourishes what is strong already. But if it be only a slight, thin sort of inclination, I am convinced that one good sonnet will starve it entirely"

-Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice

It reminds me of a certain something I said about WATT in a recent post... Just with a lot more civility, and a lot fewer references to the actual act of coitus...

Now to get four cats, a really expensive teapot and a lot of new cardigans... this Austenite is BORN!

... Woodbridge and Tunnel...

.... my friend Alex made it up... It's my new FAVOURITE saying....

It refers to the Friday night infestation of he 905 into the 416... Alex and Santiago came up with it on Friday when they tried to go out on Ossington. They hit the Ossington, Baby Huey's, PaintedLady, Communist's Daughter... all to no avail...

Each and every bar was packed with boys in chains and girls in shockingly innapropriate footwear and "barely there" shirts. Puking in gutters and making out in the middle of the bar.... (c'mon people, if you have to do it, at least don't block the path to the bartender)

I love it... it so perfectly reimagines a tried and true saying for the EXACT SAME THING, just geographically distinct from the great home of Toronto to which it now refers.....

Woodbridge and Tunnel baby! Save Ossington!

... ahoy mateys! springward ho!!!....

...I used to sail... Or, to be more accurate, i used to be crew on my dads boat... We all were first mates to Captain Daddy... And each sprintime would have us back in the marina, aboard the seaworthy vessel Bananas (it had a yellow mainsail... Get it)... And every year, that first weekend that is sunny and crisp and breezy has me pining for the sea... Well, the lake.

You can live in Toronto for years and forget that its on the water... Unlike Vancouver, or Venice, Paris, London Dublin, or New York, toronto is a city that chooses to forget its roots as a trade route hub and harbour for weary travellers.

But i love Lake Ontario. Over the years i have had a friend who lived on Wards Island, and even had a great apartment whose roof deck looked over the ex to the lake (it was a nightmare during Caribana and Toronto FC, but whatevs...)

I came down to the lake today, just to sit by the waters edge and watch the sun dance on the water, and remember the wide open feeling of being out on the water. Luckily there are a lot of things that bring back that feeling: the sound of gulls, paper chains, the voice of baseball announcers on the radio, k-ways... But the best is a sunny day by the water.

Its like my own personal version of an ipod dock... Recharging the battery from the source, getting myself ready to go back into the world again.

Cheesy. Yes. Fantastic anyway... Hells yeah!

I would give anything to go back out on the water, rocking and moving so fast, sun in my face and wind in my hair. My dad at the wheel, my sister at the bow (she's'the original 'King of the World').

I should rent a boat. Who wants to be the captain?

....flashback....

... I went to a show last night.... and ended up in a time machine to my years in university.

You see. I went to see Birds of Wales. They were a band an ex-boyfriend turned me on to waaaaay way back in the day, that had fallen off my radar til I recently rediscovered them on twitter (which, by the way, has become somewhat of an obsession, but that's fodder for another post). I had seen some rocking shows of theirs in the past and was totally pumped to see them at Tattoo. Especially since the whole thing was in support of a great organization supporting and educating on Darfur.

So I was a little disappointed when I showed up an hour after the doors open to find 30 college kids sitting around the periphery of the bar. It was a full on college flashback, and my friend had not even showed up yet.... what was a girl to do... I needed a night out... i needed a drink, and I had already arrived... So I bought myself a corona and settled in to watch girls who had seen eachother just hours previously shriek and hug like soldiers returning home, and eavesdrop on the conversation at the next table about the "mondo paper that was actually due yesterday, but that I will hand in tomorrow because I told my prof I got crabs and was too traumatized to write it over the weekend"

Actually, after beers number 2,3,4 and 5... it was kind of a warm fuzzy feeling of being cocooned in the best and most carefree years in my life... Everything I did back then was SOOOOO important, and i was ready to take on the world.

This feeling was only extended when the opening act, We Are The Take, took the stage. In my years I have seen a LOT of shows. Huge stadiums, open amphitheatres, packed bars and, like this, empty rooms where the band can't help but acknowledge you... personally... since you are the only ne there. I remember in college, going to Le Swimming (oh how i miss you, and how future generations are going to suffer your absence) and seeing bands like Bedouin Soundclash and Plain White T's play in front of a crowd of no more than ten people. It is a totally different way to experience music. And it can be crappy if the band has ego complexes and are just disappointed that no one came to see them... But it can also be awesome. If you are one of those people that really loves the live music experience for the energy that flows back and forth between a band and their audience... its almost like a drug.

And We ARe The Take started with a double dose of it... Their high-octane guitar jams, heavy drumming and revved lyrics made me want to dance all over the floor.... I was the only one though. I made Chris dance with me... and it helped that we were the only people over 20 in the bar that wasn't related to the band... because we didn't give a shit... Slowly the girlies started to join us and sway in what I can only imagine were intended as seductive dances to allure the band (I can't really blame them... all four members of WATT are duh-REE-mee....)

The bands only flaw was the construction of the set list... starting and finishing with awesome rock dance tunes... and filling the middle with emo-to-the-max ballads. It lost the crowd (at least this crowd of one) and had everyone migrating to the bar and away from the energy of the dance floor. Not to say there wasn't talent there. They did an acoustic harmonized number with a trumpet (I loves me some good horn) that was awesome.... but it the set list should have remained at a higher energy level to the end, then they could have brought out the ballads for the panty-moistening moments for the ladies (which are vital... obviously, no denying it here, its my only excuse for loving Jimmy Eat World so much when I was 19)

There was something about WATT's slower jams that made me think of them as the really cheesy dudes that would look at you earnestly in the middle of sex and ask you if you are ok... those guys always make me want to laugh... (to be honest, if my answer is yes - in the middle of sex - you are doing it wrong)

But for a band where they are all under 25, and only been together two years I give them props.

Birds of Wales were as great as I can remember.... alt-folk rock with cute lyrics and a good energy... I have less to say because i was less critical... having more fun on the dance floor... and of course, already processing beers 6, 7, and 8.

All in all it was a fun night.... I was chatting with the friend I went with on the way home about our mutual time warp back to third year... and we decided we would both LOVE to be as committed to anything in our lives as we were to our extracurriculars in University....

... how can I get back there?....