You were right about the stars

Phew...

Last night. Where to even begin? I am tired just thinking about it.

I may have to do this in two parts... (lame I know)

PART 1-Wilco Concert

The night had a rocking start. We went and saw Wilco perform at L'Olympia downtown. The venue was awesome. Just check out their pictures on their website! We got there early enough to see the opening act, The Bahamas.  I wasn't completely sold on them, but was glad we got there in time to get a good spot to view the real reason we were there.

WILCO!!!

I feel kinda silly saying this, but the show was a "real rock concert". There was lights, fog machines and just general rocking out by the band and audience. They played a really full set (and surprisingly long encore) with so much energy.  It was impressive! Especially since they aren't just young fellows anymore. One of the band members had a pretty bad ass grey beard!!!

The second song they played this gem: (this video doesn't do it justice, but you can get the point some what)



Another highlight was when they played Jesus, Etc. I love this song! It was the first Wilco song I had ever heard and was waiting for this moment ever since I bought my concert ticket a month ago.  They did it as an audience sing-a-long, and it was pretty amazing - one of those goosebump inducing moments.  The whole place seemed to know the words and sang practically the whole song with no help from the lead singer Jeff Tweedy!!  The space was filled with the love for the song and for that moment in time.




The rest of the show included various rock outs to songs I wasn't fully familiar with and a handful of other songs that I knew (sorry to admit that I am not that up to speed with my Wilco listening!).  That said it was definitely an enjoyable concert and one that I think I will appreciate going to for years to come.

The show ended at 11:30 pm, which was just in time for my Nuit Blanche Festivities to start.

To be continued when I can keep my eyelids from not drooping.

Bonne Nuit

A few things to watch:

This makes me want to learn french even more:




Hand clapping AND foot stomping, this is a band I want to see live:



This video is done by Julie Morstad. She has the same style as the print I bought at the craft fair here. It must be a popular style of art as I have a friend in Kelowna who made similar drawings/paintings.

Tonight on the Agenda...

I AM GOING TO THE OPERA!!!!!

lllaaaalaaa laaa laaa laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

UPDATE: I hate to say, but this didn't actually go down. My friend who was supposed to take me had to finish up a project for school. Another time perhaps...

Some things are better left alone

Last night I had a true Montreal food experience.

POUTINE!!! And not just your fries with regular gravy and cheese curds.

I went to this place called Banquise up in the Plateau that is known for it's large menu of poutine. I think they tout 17 different varieties. I ordered the "Poutine Mexicanne". It had hot peppers, tomatoes, black olives and the regular standbys of cheese and gravy. I was almost tempted to get the Hawaiian  Poutine, which had ham, pineapple and barbeque sauce.... but thankfully I came to the conclusion that those things are probably better left on pizza.

(Speaking of pizza. You can order pizza with poutine as a side dish here. Talk about gluttony.)

At any rate, next time I won't be fooled by the allure of silly things on your french fries. It is called "Poutine Classique" for a reason.

After feasting on poutine, we walked up to a swanky little bar, where I tried something that is probably going to make me sound a little bit like a hippocrate. I ordered a  rye and ginger made their way... and it was so good! A twist on a classic done right! It was rye, soda water and pickeled ginger (ya know that stuff you put on sushi).  It was yummy and cleansed the pallet, which was especially needed after the previously mentioned dining experience. I will for sure be back to give that drink another taste test.

Muffins=best distraction ever

 Well... cupcakes would be even better.

TIME MANAGEMENT SKILLS

They were pretty yummy. I would love to beef them up some how. (please note: this is not my picture but the one from the website I found the recipe on)

Also, I now have a huge container of molasses in my possession. Any recipe ideas?

Since my parents read this...

I won't do a weekend update on what I did this weekend. Not that is was scandalous or anything, but I don't think it would be appropriate to talk about all the fun things I did after my Concordia application post...

Mom, Dad.
I have excellent time management skills.
Don't worry.

On a side note:

Ditto to you Devendra.....

Frick Frack!

Why OH WHY do I do this to myself?

I am in the midst of applying to Concordia Communications Department for the Fall term and have come across some various road blocks... that I won't get into... I'll spare the anonymous internet viewers the annoying details...

I had all the time in the world to finish my application this winter. So why did I leave it to the last month, three weeks, two weeks....

 

ONE WEEK UNTIL THE DEADLINE!!!!!!

Not to be an ageist but...

I always forget that the legal drinking age here in Montreal is 18. That is 7 years younger than I am... That is A LOT.

To put it into perspective, last night we went out dancing at this place called Corova. It was a pretty sweet bar and they were playing great old Motown tunes. Should have been a good time right?! Maybe if the bar wasn't full of little teeny-boppers!!!

It was the worst when I was standing in line waiting to use the washroom and this girl was chatting to me about studying at McGill and then she mentioned she was from the States. Then she said "It just feels so liberating to be here and being able to go out drinking". She was only 18!!! Ahhhh!

I felt so terribly old at that moment (even though in the grand scheme of things I am totally not), especially since the girls that we went out were making comments on how they felt old, and they are only 21! I am not used to hanging out with younger people. Most of my friends have always been older. 

I feel real nervous about going back to school as a "mature student".  It makes me wonder if different universities have different ranges in age? Or if some schools are known for having more mature students? It feels weird to have to think about something like age, but I can't help it. Being 18 and 25 are two completely different worlds.

Where'd it go?

So... last night I attended my first ever Drag Show and I have to say it was pretty amazing. It goes with out saying that the music, makeup and costumes were beyond over the top, but that is what made it so awesome. Everyone was having a good time and enjoying the performance.

The first song all the women came on stage to the song that goes "I'm coming out. I want the world to know, going to let it show". It was hilarious! They all looked so good! Most of them had pretty hot bods, very sculpted legs that I was envious of. (BTW I don't know if "women" is the correct term to call men in drag, but they looked like gorgeous women last night so I am calling them women).


There was probably about 10-15 different songs that they did acts too. Some were more risque then others... the most risque had to have been when the one woman flashed the audience all his/her bits... but the only thing was, there were no bits... Either they were really well tucked back or he didn't have any bits anymore? It was an interesting surprise nontheless.

I think I would definitely go back. The energy was super positive and it was really neat to see people doing what they want to do.  Everyone was just enjoying themselves and having fun. I didn't realize that Montreal had such a huge gay population either. Apparently 10% of Montreal's population says they are not heterosexual. It is second only to San Francisco in North America for the highest proportion of not straight people. Just some random fun facts for ya.

Heart 2 Heart Bazaar

 

On Saturday I stumbled upon a little craft show up in the Mile End. It was Valentines Day themed (sorta) and there was lots of neat little things and cupcakes.  I bought the print shown above. It made me laugh when I saw it so I knew I needed to have it. I love her get up.  I just need to find a frame for it! I feel badly, but I can't remember the name of the woman I bought it from! Sorry!!

There were also these really cute felted animal heads mounted on circles of wood. They had donkeys, moose, deers and cows. They were pretty amazing!!!  I wish in retrospect that I had bought one, but they were $40 and I wasn't 100% sure if I could justify that expense. The guy doesn't have a website, but I grabbed one of his cards for me to remember: "Felt Factory" Sabine Alpers, feltfactory@yahoo.com.

After the craft fair, we were craving a bagel so we walked a block down the street to:

It is one of the best/most famous places in town to get bagels. We walked in and both realized that we didn't have any cash, and so the guy behind the counter was super generous and gave us 4 fresh, sesame bagels for FREE!  He was totally hitting on us (too bad we both weren't interested) but it was worth it. They were so warm, perfectly crisp on the outside and soft on the inside... hmmm, nothing is better then a fresh bagels!!!!!  They had just come out of the big oven!

What a good day... craft fairs and free food?!! How can you go wrong?

Cinema Politica-Earth Keepers

Tonight I went to Concordia's Cinema Politica to watch Earth Keepers. You can view the trailer at the site at the Earth Keepers site on NFB.ca
 

It was a really good documentary. Instead of being a doom and gloom type film about how we are destroying the earth, they tried to show us that we should have hope. They packed a lot of cool interviews with people into 83 minutes. I learned a lot.


Most intriguingly that Sweden has cities that are called "Eco Villages". They showed an example of one place where the McDonalds had a "green" roof and some how the used the grease from the fryers to supply energy for the Ford garage next door! It was pretty neat. Also in Sweden, at one of their Universities, they have a Masters Program that is made specifically to teach people how to become leaders in Sustainability. In the class they showed in the film, there are students from 20 different countries. It was inspiring to see that young people, all around the world are interested in the same thing.

Another thing that was pretty interesting was the question of if overpopulation is the cause of all the problems we have right now. They showed a graph of fertility versus quality of life. When quality of life was low, fertility was the highest and when quality of life was high, fertility was low. Someone suggested that if the rich people/countries started to try and help improve the lives of those with a low quality of life they would be helping out drastically with the amount of children being born.


There was so much information that I have to digest...


The main point that I could take away from this film is that we have to work together. We have to join up with like minded people to make changes in our local environment for it to spill out into the world in general. Multiple people in the film stated that my generation will be the ones to make this happen and that the years 2010-2020 are going to be important years for this change. We have to find ways to move forward to make a sustainable future.


"We need to enlighten people to live by their own means"


"Change happens when there is a balance between despair and hope"

We gave away our hearts before we knew what they were

I just have to post about the Basia Bulat show I went and saw on Friday night. It was amazing. I love love love her voice! She played so many good songs from both her new and old albums. She closed the evening off with this really amazing old folk song where she stomps AND claps her hands. I had seen her perform this a few times at Dawson City Music Festival, but it never ceases to impress me. The whole place was dead silent, just completely captivated by her voice. Unfortunately we missed the opening act, Leif Vollebekk. Apparently he is a really good Montreal Artist who is just making it big. I guess I will just have to hope to see him another time.


The venue, L'Astral, was also a really beautiful place. It is right in the area where all the big theaters and museums are.

Young man, there's no need to feel down

Today I had a hard time getting out of bed.... and it is not even like I have a comfortable bed to stay in all day. Maybe it was from the over consumption of MSG last night?

I made it out of bed in time to have some coffee and toast before heading to the gym. I just started going to the YMCA downtown. It is apparently one of the first YMCA's in Canada. It is a pretty nice place. At first I was overwhelmed by it business, but I have gotten used to it now and really like going. Today I attended a noon hour toning class. Even though you just use light weights, it was hard work. Towards the end of the class my arms were shaking!!!

After the class, I walked to H&M to meet my room mate. I have to say that store is pretty terrible. Everything is such poor quality and unbelievable trendy. Sequins, shoulder pads and stripes seem to be HUGE right now. I didn't see anything I would like to buy. It doesn't help that I am consciously trying not to buy anything brand new and so far I have been pretty successful.

My new pre-loved winter ensemble is as follows: (PHOTO TO FOLLOW)

• Green Winter Parka ($7.50 from Frixe Prix)
• Blue Scarf ($2.50 from a different Frixe Prix)
• Winter Boots ($9.95 from Villages des Valeurs)
• Burgundy Satchel ($2.00 from this random 2nd hand furniture store nearby)

All that for under $25!!! I am pretty excited about this new goal of not buying anything new. My next attempt is to try and find a pair of second hand jeans.... I have never EVER waded into the pants section. I always just seem to pull out one hideous pair and give up hope.  But the mission is now officially on.

Your Smile is Your Greatest Asset (in bed)

Instead of celebrating Valentine's Day today, I celebrated Chinese New Year. I guess that is what one does when they have no one to share their love with on the overly commercialized Valentine's Day. Find another reason to go out... Since I hadn't been to the Chinatown in Montreal it seemed like I could kill two birds with one stone (in case you need a recap, the first bird was wading in self pity).

A friend of mine invited me out for dinner with her and a crew of nine people. We had a hard time finding a place to accommodate us since we didn't make a reservation.  When we did finally find a place, we had to wait a few minutes for them to "set our table".  The next thing we know, the host is rolling a huge circular table top down the stairs to make one of the tables bigger. I guess they quite literally meant they had to set our table!

We shared a decent meal and good conversation.  My favorite dish of the night was the fried pea leaves for sure. It probably was the only item we ordered that didn't include any meat. I have to mention that our server was a pro. He seriously cleaned up all our dishes in one go. I have no idea how he could balance all those dishes!! It was nerve racking to watch.  After we finished dinner we went to a Chinese bakery and ordered a whole cake to share. It was a nice finish, to a nice night.

Happy New Year... err, Happy Valentine's Day!!!