cheryl santa maria

I have much love for Little Boots. For me, her music calls to mind fond memories of Jem dolls, lite brites and neon plastic jewellery.  Fun.

Here’s “Every Little Earthquake”, remixed by Yes Giantess.  Come to think of it, you should check them out too. I had the opportunity to interview YG’s lead singer last month and he was SUCH a nice guy.  I love when good people find success.  It’s truly inspiring, no?

Anyway, here’s Little Boots.  Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDjSCmGq8Xs]

Metric performed at Toronto’s historic Massey Hall last night and I was there, screaming like a madwoman.

Hands down, this was one of the best concerts I’ve been to in a long time and that’s saying a lot; I didn’t think anything could top the Underworld concert I saw back in August.

I will be posting a full-length review for Quiet Color later today but for now, here are my initial thoughts:

- The Stills opened the show. This was the second time I’ve seen them perform live. Lead singer Tim Fletcher appeared to be in a far better mood than he was at the Chill on The Hill show.  Julien Blais is an incredible drummer.

- Emily Haines is awesome.  Amazing, even.  She looked phenomenal last night.

- I don’t like Massey Hall as a concert venue - it’s too big to feel intimate and it’s too small to have the mystique of a stadium (yes, I think that stadium concerts have a certain “mystique” about them – what with the pot smoking kids and the smoke machines and all).  What’s more, the seats at Massey Hall are small and crammed together.  A plus side though: pretty much every seat in the house will give you a great view.

UPDATE: Here’s my review for Quiet Color.

On October 15, 2009 the media bombarded us with images of a curious-looking weather balloon drifting through the air. According to the headlines it had become untethered at a private home in Colorado and floated upwards of 7,000 feet before landing a few hours later. Inside the balloon, purportedly, was 6 year-old Falcon Heene.

What initially sparked fear and panic was later revealed to be a giant hoax. Falcon had never been anywhere near the weather balloon – he’d been hiding in a box in the attic the entire time, as instructed by his clearly-deranged father. It turns out that the Heenes are nothing more than a family of fame-mongerers, the masterminds behind a sick publicity stunt aimed at drawing attention to their upcoming reality TV show.

It’s been a week since the Balloon Boy incident and major news networks continue to prattle on about it. Online, people have debated the “newsworthiness” of the story, calling for an end to its coverage.

Yet it continues to make headlines.

Most, if not all, of us have extended this story’s fifteen minutes of fame in one way or another – including those of us who have lamented its coverage. News networks haven’t conspired against us to report solely on the ridiculous and the absurd – instead, they report what sells, and right now Balloon Boy is selling.

Competition is fierce among major news networks. Not only are they forced to contend with one another, but they must also find a way to stay relevant in the face of online social networking, the blogosphere and user-generated content websites like YouTube. The need to report a story first has become more important than anything else – more important than relevancy, more important than fact-checking, and certainly more important than journalistic integrity and we, as a public, seem to be eating it up.

We may collectively despise characters like John and Kate Gosselin, Octomom and the Heenes, but we can’t seem to turn away.

If you’re able to ignore the fame-hungry train wrecks that trapeze across our televisions on a daily basis, I applaud you.

I, obviously, am not that highly evolved.

Here we are less than two weeks into October and the shops have already begun shoveling Christmas down our throats. 

Fearing a less-than-fruitful holiday shopping season, major retailers like Wal-Mart are rolling out the Christmas trees ahead of schedule in hopes that their festive decorations and miniscule price cuts will get people back into stores, buying useless crap that will end up in a Goodwill donation bin in a few months’ time.

Speaking of useless crap, the Christmas toy of the season has been announced.  Allow me to introduce you to Zhu Zhu, the curious-looking toy hamster:

Zhu Zhus do just about everything a real hamster does – from scurrying through a hamster maze (sold separately for around $30.00) to running on a hamster wheel (sold separately for another $30.00) to sliding down a hamster slide (sold seperately for another – you guessed it – $30.00).

Apparently the shops are having trouble keeping Zhu Zhus on the shelf and it’s only a matter of time before they start fetching hundreds of dollars on ebay. At $20-$60 a pop for the hamster alone (sixty bucks will get you a “collector’s edition” Zhu Zhu) the cheapest Zhu Zhu is about four times more expensive than a living, breathing hamster - but perhaps it’s a good thing that Zhu Zhu enthusiasts aren’t buying the real deal. Anybody stupid enough drop over a hundred bucks on a Zhu Zhu plus accessories shouldn’t be trusted with a live animal (or a child for that matter, but I’ll save that rant for another day).

Once upon a time, Christmas was a joyous celebration (or so I’ve been told). Now, thanks to over-commercialization, layoffs,  extreme bullying and bone-crushing debt  have come to define the season above everything else.

Sigh.

Hold on to your reindeers, friends. Xmas 2009 is shaping up to be a looong and bumpy ride.

Finally!

My website is up and running! Click on the icon above to view it or you can access the site from the handy “Website” tab at the top of this blog. When you’re on the site, I strongly advise that you refrain from clicking on “View Source” as this will reveal the MESSIEST CODE EVER!!

If designing a website has taught me one thing, it’s that I’m a very bad coder.

Like, horrible.

Oh, well.  I’d appreciate your feedback, though. I’m still trying to work out the kinks and any broken links/formatting errors are in the process of being fixed.

Cheers!

[photo source]

… Aaaaaaaand here they are:

Mar 3/10 Victoria, BC Save On Foods Centre
Mar 5/10 Penticton, BC South Okanagan Events Centre
Mar 6/10 Kamloops, BC Interior Savings Centre
Mar 8/10 Prince George, BC CN Centre
Mar 9/10 Dawson Creek, BC EnCana Events Centre
Mar 11/10 Red Deer, AB Enmax Centrium
Mar 12/10 Medicine Hat, AB Medicine Hat Arena
Mar 13/10 Lethbridge, AB Enmax Centre
Mar 15/10 Edmonton, AB Rexall
Mar 16/10 Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
Mar 18/10 Regina, SK Brandt Centre @ Evrez Place
Mar 19/10 Saskatoon, SK Saskatoon Credit Union Centre
Mar 20/10 Winnipeg, MB MTS Centre
Mar 22/10 Sault Ste. Marie Essar Centre
Mar 23/10 Sudbury, ON Sudbury Arena
Mar 24/10 Montreal, QC Bell Centre
Mar 26/10 Ottawa, ON Scotiabank
Mar 27/10 London, ON John Labatt Centre
Mar 28/10 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol3zgrD-gV0]

I’ve compiled a handy 2010 Vancouver Olympics fact sheet. Since I’m too lazy to put together an entire list in one sitting, I’ll be updating this frequently.

Here’s what I have so far …

1. The Olympic torch looks like a joint.

2. Usain Bolt will NOT be joining the Jamaican bobsled team, so stop campaigning for him to do so.  He’s a runner, people. Not a bob-sledder.

3. The constuction of the Olympic village is a whopping $130 million over budget and, to make matters worse …

4. … Reports are suggesting that the costs may not be recouped, what with the recession and all.

5. The IOC on the other hand is faring quite well, having secured a record $3.8 billion in revenue from broadcasting rights for the 2010-2012 Olympic games.

6. If you ask me, the 2010 mascots are cute as hell, but I’m upset that MukMuk the Marmot has yet to achieve official mascot status.

7. A ticket to the opening ceremonies will set you back about $1500.00 (CAD).

8. Front row tickets to the closing ceremonies are now going for around $4071 (CAD) a pop.

9. According to CTV, Seventy-nine countries will be participating in the 2010 Olympics, while  Tourism Vancouver is saying that 80+countries will be taking part.  WikiAnswers, on the other hand, estimates that there will be 90 participating countries.

In short, nobody knows who is coming to the games.  Also: don’t trust the Internet.

10.  Many Vancouverites are planning on skipping town during the Olympics.  Apparently, the province has been less than enthusiastic about the impending games, sparking rage and disappointment from competing athletes.

11. Why, that looks like a T-rex wearing a pair of Vancouver 2010 Red Mittens!

Thanks to all of the lovely people who have signed up for my newsletter!!

Unfortunately September has been a slow month for me, writing-wise.  Right now I’m trying to assemble my own website, to which this blog will be linked.

Phew!

Designing and coding and arranging sure is hard work – even with the help of wonderful programs like Gimp.

I’m sad that writing has taken a bit of a back seat but I’m far too poor to hire someone to design my website for me - such is life, right?

My next newsletter is going to be a Sept./Oct. combo but, in case you were wondering, here’s what I scribbled down in the last 30 days (above and beyond what’s been posted to this blog).

Moby sounds great live. He puts on a very ecclectic show – definitely something there for everyone.

Plus, I was able to get a ton of cool photos, like this one: