Tagged: black

Dave Stieb

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This morning I listened to this on the bus and started laughing to myself and I scared the Asian lady sitting next to me.

She gave me these weird looks which said

"why are you cackling on mass transit what's happening"

because she didn't realize that back in the day I dated a guy from Ontario who was really into punk rock

and he would always go on about this band

called Sewing With Nancie

that he fucking loved

and Canada is such a small place that one of the dudes from that band is now living in Winnipeg and is one of my best friends

who, over wings and too much food after Connect Festival last weekend

in this awful Chili's in Saskatchewan filled with families and cooing babies trying to have fake Mexican-themed lunches

where we said FUCK and SHIT and talked about drugs

and basically made asses out of ourselves

he talked about how people LOVED Sewing With Nancie back in the day which he thought was great because

"we had two, TWO, fucking songs about the Toronto Blue Jays!"

and I remembered my Ontario boyfriend always going on about one of them when we would drive around in his car

which is what led to me listening to Dave Stieb on the bus this morning

and freaking out that nice Asian lady

because she just didn't get how ridiculous my life is.
 

Hot chocolate with lunch

- by admin

I know you're thinking:

Alyson it's July wtf are you drinking HC for?

it's because when I moved into my new office at work there was (is) a bookshelf with a bunch of random stuff on it and our HR lady said "if you want these hot chocolate packets you can have them" which was nice I guess.

Problem is instead of the soothing 'aah' feeling I was hoping for I'm reminded of winter and skating and hidden bottles of Southern Comfort.

Which isn't what I should be thinking about in July, I know.

I should be thinking about how in a few short hours I'll be in a car blasting Cake or listening to "Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls" on our way to BC and once we get there I'll camp and listen to music and eat Fatty Arbuckle's and party with some of my favourite people on the planet and then go soak in a hot spring before coming home to normal life for a few days before another adventure.

I'm a lucky girl with exciting adventures ahead and instead all I'm doing is thinking about that time we took Adrian skating for the first time and got tipsy on ice.

Which made for a cool photo op, but really.
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Throwback Thursday: Winnipeg is the best place to be from

- by admin

which is something you don't hear often
not even from people from winnipeg
but it's true.

we're a big city still trying to be a small town
stuck being a small town with big-city problems
with shitty weather half the year
and a seething inferiority complex
in the middle of nowhere
(literally)
and we spend more time slamming
our sketchy mayor
our shitty transit system
and our winters
than saying good things about anything.

but our little frozen hovel
stuck out in the prairie
like a defiant 'fuck you' to common sense
breeds
amazing artists, writers, and most of all musicians
and a complex, intricate love/hate relationship
with the place we call 'home'.

this town makes you nicer
you smile and say 'hello' and make small talk in line at tim horton's
help out your neighbours or that guy
whose car got snowed in up the block
not because you want someone to reward you for doing it
but because it's the nice thing to do, dammit.

being stuck in the middle of the country
makes us much more appreciative
of what other cities have
oh you have efficient mass transit?
oh your skyline has buildings in it?
and up until a few weeks ago
oh you have an IKEA?

its size makes us all connected
everyone's had too much to drink at the king's head
gone to osborne village on canada day
seen a show at the west end
had a greasy burger at blondie's
been harassed the twoonie lady downtown
and we've all suffered from
missing a bus that came thirty seconds too early
or getting stuck outside waiting for a bus that came twenty minutes late
trying to strike a balance between two options
which are never in your favour.

living here makes you hard
we're sarcastic and cynical and critical
of everything
especially ourselves
and especially our hometown
which is why when someone else makes fun of it
they can fuck off
because that's our job
and unless you've spent your life
shovelling snow and dealing with overnight parking bans
hanging out at the toad people-watching on the weekends
driving to grand beach during the summer
and
complaining about all the things you could do if only
you were somewhere else
you haven't earned the right to bash winnipeg.

because you don't love it like we do
especially not as as much as when we say

"I fucking hate this town".

** thanks to @nicolebarry204 for reminding me that this post existed -it's still true!


 

Almost time for Folk Fest

- by admin


I've been listening to this song (my Folk Fest jam) nonstop.

I've made a million lists in the past few days.

Packed and re-packed my stuff because I'm cray.

I have all the essentials: emerald green fleece cloak for nighttime. Face paint for daytime. Beer. Snacks.

I also volunteer with a few friends which is radder than it sounds. In exchange for getting up early and walking around for a few hours for three days of the festival I get to camp, see all the shows, and eat as much amazing food as I want. I'll share the food later if I remember. It's that good that I want to brag about being able to eat it 'fo free.

Tonight after work I'm biking my fine ass home and then Ty's driving me out to Bird's Hill where I'll meet up with the handful of friends who are already there and I have a whole night/day/night to party before I have to be responsible for my volunteer shift.



I'm stoked about this because last year I didn't have that extra day to hang. I mean, it was great and all, but having a day to myself will be the bee's knees.

Oh also all of these people are playing and I'm gonna see 'em (plus more):

Holy shit this weekend's gonna be good.
 

Saw Abstract Artform at Le Garage last night

- by admin

Untitled


Which was amazing. Duh.

I had g&ts and a whiskey sour and some beers and sat at a high table with Colin, Nicole, John, Tyrone and Kat (who doesn't do the twitters) and had the pleasure of seeing Kendra and John who I haven't seen in ages.

When I got there I was going to the bathroom and this chick wearing a tank top that said
CUM ON ME
or
LETS MAKE OUT
or
FUCK ME
or something like that was coming out and wiping her face all weird and she was definitely fucked up and it was cray.

I kept my eye on her all night and several times she came out of the bathroom and was wiping her mouth and nose area with both hands like she had just puked or done a boatload of drugs or something.

She was still there when we left n she was getting progressively more wasted the whole time.

I hope she's ok.

Also later while I was in the bathroom this happened:

Untitled

Anyway Tiffany Ponce was a great opening act (also, nice meeting you in person, finally!) and Abstract Artform killed it.

That guy is so talented it's stupid.

If you weren't there you kinda missed out. Sorry to say.
 

Obligatory 4th of July post

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Upstream Color

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is a movie by Shane Carruth who is the same guy who did Primer (which is the best time travel movie ever) and is one of the most moving and challenging films I've seen recently.

It's like a dream. Half of the movie you spend watching short vignettes which originally don't seem to make sense or be related at all but eventually come together in a quietly unsettling and oddly touching story about two people who meet, fall in love, and have to deal with the consequences of being with each other.

Besides not wanting to ruin the plot for anyone who might want to see it and hasn't let me explain why I'm not going to:

To explain the plot of this movie will make it sound stupid.

It's like explaining Eternal Sunshine for the Spotless Mind to someone. It's all over the place and weird and makes sense when you're watching it but sounds awful and ridiculous when you describe it to someone else.

Except the film isn't like that. It's like poetry.

For instance. The scenes which depict the evolution of the relationship between the two main characters is so perfectly shot and cut together that it seems like the same conversation over and over again, which is really what most relationships are, but they convey the passage of time in a way that doesn't feel like a cheap montage conveying the passage of time.

But it's scary. As the story progresses and begins to unfold it becomes this thing more complex and questioning than just a romance, or just a speculative fiction film. It ends with more questions than when it started and watching it makes you feel there's something beneath the surface that you missed.

Which is why I liked it. Upstream Color wasn't just a blockbuster movie about love or humanity or fate, it was a work of art which pushed the boundaries of what it means to make a film that questions the world and our place in it.

Now I'm really excited to see what happens with The Modern Ocean
Tags: Black

 

This band isn't even very good

- by admin



but this song has been stuck in my head all day

which is weird because I haven't listened to it in years.

And it's not that I'm feeling sad

or down

or even particularly bad

like I did yesterday.

In fact today I feel great.

Sometimes though

when I'm really happy

I get this song stuck in my head.

Which is weird I know.

But I didn't say this post was going to make sense.
 

Yes we are eating popcorn in bed

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photo (14)

One of the great things about being an adult is getting to do what you want.

What I want at the end of most nights is to sit around in my underpants with the laptop in bed with my significant other and maybe the cats and usually tea and sometimes a snack.

Tonight for instance we are eating popcorn with sour cream n onion seasoning.

Which is wonderful for me because I was working on university stuff all night and forgot to have dinner and didn't realize till we were halfway through our evening when my tummy was all

wtf put food in me you dummy

and I was like

shit. I'd better get on that.

So here I am writing this drinking tea and eating popcorn with my significant other which is crazy to me because a few years ago I was dating someone who picked a fight with me over this very thing.

I've only ever really seriously cohabited with one person and pretty early on after moving in together I was reading a book having a snack in bed and he flipped out.

I was all

It's not big deal. Just some cheese n crackers and I'm holding the plate.

But he flipped the heck out and we had this big crazy fight and it boggled my mind because who doesn't have a lazy snack in their own bed once and a while?

The reason I thought of that was because as we were both reaching for more popcorn my hand hit Tyrone's and some popcorn got on the bed and instead of flipping out we cleaned it like it was no biggie

which it wasn't.

So now I'm sitting here blogging about it and he's reading and we're about to go turn the lights down

and I'm thinking about how funny it is that people can be so different

and how I really want some cheese n crackers.
 

When I was younger I knew a boy

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back when we were both in that weird stage in between adolescence and adulthood when you don't want to be around home because you live with your parents, but you're too broke and not established enough to get a place of your own.

We hung out at his place a lot because his mom was never really home between work and her boyfriend and as a result we spent a lot of time alone together hanging out.

Most of the time I'd go over and one of us would have picked up some meagre groceries with our minimum-wage job money; lettuce and meat and sometimes bread if he didn't have any, and would make huge sandwiches with big slices of cheese and mayonnaise smeared on and would watch episodes of Smallville or Rescue Me on the old couch in his basement.

Once when I was heartbroken we sat on the mattress on the floor in his bedroom and I cried and he held me and I realized that he liked me. Maybe loved me even.

I didn't know what to do so I didn't do anything.

I just let him hold me while I sniffled and shed tears over someone who didn't deserve them.

One time his house was so dirty that I came over and cleaned it while he sat on the kitchen counter talking to me and playing old records that his dad had left behind when he moved out.

He told me that I didn't have to clean and I said that I did. That I was over often enough that I'd made enough of the mess to warrant helping out and besides which his mom hadn't been home since Sunday (it was Wednesday) and it wasn't like he was going to clean, anyway.

He said okay and I vacuumed and dusted and scrubbed and we talked and after I let the dog out I turned around and he was standing behind me.


He kissed me and for some reason I kissed him back.

I realized that this had been a long time coming and I figured "whatever" and went with it when he picked me up and pushed me against the wall as he kissed me.

But when he put me down and my feet touched the hardwood floor it was like reality came back to me and I suddenly didn't know what the fuck I was doing.

I left.

Ten minutes later while I stood shivering in the snow waiting for my bus he came back and took my hand and said he'd drive me home because it was February goddamnit and I let him.

I really didn't know how to leave well enough alone.
 

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