First things first...Pixies tour
confirmed with 11 dates in North America and how much do you want to bet that "North America" means "The U.S. plus Toronto." The ROC are all suckers!
Anyways, it's a bit of a shame that
Andrew and I are dragging down the mean here and have been taking to blog at the astounding rate of one per month. (Although Andrew is past due for his update... I'm still waiting for that monkey content! ;).
No monkeys here unfortunately, but maybe some notes on the last month:
Saw:
The Wrens last night. They're one of those bands that I've heard was really good and listened to some stuff and it was okay and thought I should go see them especially for a seven dollar ticket. And they surprised me. It was really excellent, powerful with a great beat and way more accessible live than I expected.
The Thrills at the beginning of the month. It was at the Opera house which is one of my favourite venues in Toronto, but also the farthest away. Why does that matter? Because it was approximately -50 outside. The opening band, some Irish singer, gave it a good shot but was overall pretty lame. The thrills were as expected, but somehow it wasn't enough, I think it was the effort it took in leaving the house compared to the reward. At -15C it would have been a winner.
The Triplets of Belleville. A certain type of animation has a way of freaking me out, a tendency I blame on the Will o' the Witch cartoon that was on before the Legend of the Green Forest (a show that for many years I assumed was about the mass slaughter of cute woodland animals). This movie certainly had that same sort of effect on me, that makes me queasy in some deep dark place in my brain. I liked it. It was so fanastically original and engaging that it was impossible not to. There's a breathtakingly beautiful sequence where the old woman and her fat dog steal a paddle boat, and paddle across the ocean following her kidnapped son. Not to mention the frog-sicles.
In America-I am a softy (see last post) and there are certain types of movies that press all my buttons. Whale Rider was one of those. In America was another. I found a clip of the first six minutes and I went to see it that night. Plus Samantha Morton is a hottie. Morven Callar is highly recommended as well.
Not seen:
Dizzee Rascal
Super Furry Animals
Anything with Aston Kutcher
Janet Jackson's breast
Life signed away:
To the University of Toronto. About two weeks before the Feb 1 deadline, I bit the bullet and applied for the PhD program thereby planning my life until September 2008. 2008-Shouldn't we be living on the moon or something by then. But, in the short term, what that has meant was a furious round of applications and reference getting and all other sorts of self-selling pleasures. My marks are pretty damn good, if I say so myself, so getting in may not be too bad, but getting someone to pay me to go is another story altogether and a tale still in progress.
Sanity saving escape:
Scottsdale, Arizona for a week to go to a conference. I'm presenting three papers there and I've may all sorts of pretty posters to highlight my aesthetic design mastery. I'm excited actually by the conference part. There should be some people there I haven't seen in a long time. There are a whole crowd going down from work and from the CIHR training program. So as long as I don't make a fool of myself, it should be good. I'm staying at a nice hotel which should be pleasant and I've got three days after the conference to do something...I think I'll rent a car a drive to Sedona or the Grand Canyon, take a few hikes and some pictures of desert and cacti. Should be good.
I'll send postcards ;)
