Blythe Brunch + Nuit Blanche

Yesterday there was another Toronto Blythe Gathering, what fun! We met at Sweet Lulu and had the whole upstairs to ourselves, great spot! Magnolia got to meet another Prima Dolly Violet and many more spectacular dolls:


And last night was the 2nd annual Nuit Blanche. I didn't take many photos, but I saw lots of neat stuff. Better time management needed for next year, plus I should've taken an afternoon nap. But we managed to stay out 'til a little after 4am, after a picnic of Fresh take out in Trinity Bellwoods Park. Here are some of the pom poms at Knit Cafe, snipped in the wee hours:

There was so much branding from a certain bank you know, and some of my student loans are with them. Glad to see they're using the interest I'm paying to fund some artsy things!

Norwegian faux-queer death punk saved me

A spell was cast on me in June, I had the perfect rock show experience with epiphany-ous elements. I've seen about 60 bands since them, but none have really-really-really moved me. I apologize if anyone in any of the other bands saw me looking incredibly bored in the audience. Some of them were really great, like Stars and Eric's Trip! They just didn't get me in the zone. But Turbonegro broke the spell last night! The campy theatrics, the slutty, kitschy aggression and absolute love of the hard rock:



I have a soft spot for scrawny lead guitar players, this one with the added bonuses of being Scandinavian and wearing lipstick:




"Who shall receive this holy shroud of Turbonegro?" The guys had an endless supply of fresh white towels, and threw them to the audience when they were done sopping the sweat off their faces. Hank wiped his butt-crack and crotch with one one them, he's like that. Some of the towels had more makeup on them than others:


Retox is their new album, the opposite of "detox." I don't encourage or admire substance abuse, violence. military clothing or mean-spirited lyrics, but somehow I can dig it in the Turbonegro context. Can't explain it, what's gotten into me? (I still don't dig that they use animals on set for some of their videos though, tsk tsk.) It's like in You've Got Mail when Kathleen teases Frank for falling for a Republican, he says "I can't help myself."


Hey sailor. The fanboys were out in various hats, helmets and makeup, and especially sailor caps.

seeing stars

Happy 25th birthday today to the emoticon! Do you know who said "there is no emoticon for what I am feeling" ....? Hint: he's on The Simpsons.

:-) @(*-*)@ //o-o\\ >^..^<

I want to keep up my blog but I don't know what to post about anymore, so I'll just ramble. I work v. close to Roy Thompson Hall so I was in the thick of TIFF for awhile, but I didn't see any stars out and about. I went to a screening of The Stone Angel and some of the actors were in attendance, including the fabulous Ellen Burstyn!


But I saw other Stars *three* times that week! They played a welcome week show at UofT, then V-Fest, then I creeped out of work for a few hours to see them at MTV (Canada) Live. That was a good week for my seeing-bands statistics (22 in 5 days!).


The UofT show was so great, everyone was singing along and the band seemed to be having a nice time. It took me a few listens to get into the new album, but then I didn't like SYoF right away either and it turned out to be my favourite for a long time. The new album is a bit rock-ier. There's a non-Stars-like, but awesome lead guitar solo at the end of Window Bird. And I love the falsetto in The Ghost of Genova Heights! And the drumming! My Favourite Book is super-sweet and cheery. This new album doesn't have as much of the strings and the horns that SYoF does.


The CD is around at shows, and the tracks are on iTunes. The physical album is officially in stores on Sep 25. They're touring with the new album so watch for them (3 Toronto shows in November at the Phoenix).

And just for the sake of it, I took a picture of this sweet little doggie waiting for someone at Shopper's. Cutie!

let's go to the Ex (oh baby)

I didn't grow up in Toronto, so I don't have the strong feelings for the Canadian National Exhibition that some have, but it's tradition for the end of summer here. I've only gone twice ever. I thought there wouldn't be much for me to eat, but they have a Lick's counter in the Food Building so I got a Nature Burger!! (yes vegans think about food all the time!)

Lookie, The Princess Gates were in this version of The Soft City. There were lots of CNE spots in it, like ferris wheel and Tiny Tom donut stand.

Magnolia loved the Lego tower. It's 96 feet high and broke the World Record:

Someone's Bart was too tired to walk:

There were some nice vegetables on display:


Magnolia took a wee rest on the proposed new streetcars:

Labour Day is my vegetarian anniversary, today it makes 14 years!