my pants don't cut off my circulation anymore!

it's official! i've lost ten pounds since phil and i moved in together. okay, okay, it's been months so the number may not be impressive but i fucking love to eat (duh) so losing weight is pretty hard for me. phil, however, used to be a sport-o in high school and is the master of geting fit - fast. we've been rocking huge salads and lettuce wraps and from-scratch soups and simple, light vegetable dishes. i gotta say, i feel real good about myself after demolishing a bowl of colourful, clean and crisp veggies... that are only occasionally covered in cheese.

o! canada stands on guard.

i don't know what to write today. the past weekend was devastating and glorious at the same time. it's a really hard thing to revel in having the streets to myself (and my bicycle) because everyone has fled town to avoid protesters and police that are being bussed in from surrounding cities. riot squads attacked peaceful protesters in front of my old work while i happily (and safely) cruised through bike lanes not blocked by tourists and had a great night out with friends. i'm torn. here's a video that's been making the rounds.


the large yellow sign in the background that says "steve's" is my former work. originally, our owners wanted to remain open for the entire weekend. clearly, they had no idea how far these (out of town) protesters were going to push the police and how much harder they were going to push back. the summits are over now and pride celebrations are moving in this weekend. it's been an interesting time for toronto and i'm excited to see smiles on parade instead of police cruisers on fire, smashed storefronts and over-zealous cops posing in their riot gear like it's a fucking fashion shoot.



photo by phil babcock.

my elbow hurts and snooki's in town

toronto has been so busy lately. last weekend my fair city hosted a tattoo convention (first time i've ever been in a hilton), the muchmusic video awards (see paragraph two), nxne music festival (zola jesus was incredible, x was full of losers) and the government has been systematically fencing off parts of downtown in preparation for the g20 summit coming up. there are so many tourists everywhere.

thursday night i saw the aforementioned bands, bought some vinyl and met dee at the hilton where we partied with tattoo folk from out of town. on the way home i made the mistake (as i always do this time of year) of riding past muchmusic and narrowly avoiding the streetcar tracks attempting to avoid all the gates, stages and various hoopla. i got caught once, recovered and as i was reassuring stand-by overnight security guards i was okay, got caught again. i bailed pretty hard through the intersection, scraped my elbows and knees up and bruised my hip. before i could collect myself a stranger (who was riding behind me) had picked up my bike and was eagerly reattaching the chain. thanks, dude! (ps. the vinyl was okay... it was the first thing i checked!) the next day, i ate a giant croque monsieur from clafouti in an effort to cure my hangover and later, when i was trying to see my friend kai and his work was blocked by all the fans, i had to muscle through little girls watching miley cyrus soundcheck in 30 degree weather (that's hot here, americans). basically, it sucked. after i saw him, however, things brightened up! a sample guy tossed me a free box of smarties and i ate them after we finished recording the new guitar tracks for the spitfist tape! we're SO close now, i swear! a track by the end of the week - promise!



in other news, i'm still enjoying having my days off. (duh.) i rode bikes around high park (who knew it was that big?!) with beau and sat by the little man-made pond. there were fish just chilling by the top of the water. it blew my mind! i can't remember the last time i could see anything alive when looking into a natural body of water... i guess lake ontario is just gross?

today, i reorganized the living room to spite my computer. it hasn't felt like turning on for three days so i unplugged it and hid it in our room. i put the tv in it's place, moved the cameras around and got the records up off the floor. it looks great in here now so: FUCK YOU COMPUTER. see how you like not getting used in the tight new setup... ahem. excuse me, i take personal offence when my electronics disobey me. it might take me a few days to get it up and running again (unless some nice pc based computer distributer wants to sponser my blog and hook this bitch up with a laptop?) so, in the meantime, why not 'like' me on facebook? c'mon, you really like me, don't you?

yeah, sure, i'll rummage through your garbage

it's yard sale season! we tend to sleep in on weekends but managed to catch a couple yard sales recently. i found an old polaroid spectra camera for a buck and promptly snapped it up (i will buy ANY camera under five dollars... even if the film format no longer exists). when we sat down to brunch later (at starving artist where everything is made with waffles and they alternate frogs, broken social scene and tom waits records) and i pretended to take a picture - one popped out! this motherfucker had seven shots left! the film was mad expired (and almost completely unavailable now) so everything looks awesome. i haven't unpacked phil's scanner yet but i'll post the pics soon.

another cool thing we added to the living room was a little, vintage fan that phil grabbed for 5 bucks at the trinity bellwoods sale. we'd been looking for one for a while but they are always so outrageously expensive at the furniture shops around our place. phil cleaned it up, plugged it in and it works like a charm. we researched the name and found it was made in toronto in the 50s... that made us take quick stock of the stuff in our apartment. most of it was either locally made, repurposed garbage, or decade old hand-me-downs: quite the eclectic mish-mash of stuff, but it works. if only we could find that dream dining room table...

girls say the darndest things

recording went great! there were some snafus, clusterfucks and when it all fell to shit, (the drummer dee and i originally started jamming with two years ago) philmill stepped up and recorded us in his band's space. we played through the songs once and nailed them all first take. gangs vocals were especially hilarious. at one point philmill's guitarist walked in to five half drunk girls singing, "yum, yum, yum-yum-yum: chew my food for me!"

after recording we went back to dee and alicia's place and ordered tacos from el asador on bloor. it was my first time trying this place (which was adorable, by the way) so i ordered one of every thing. pupusa virginity: lost! we ate till we couldn't move and drank into the night. the girl's have got a picnic table in their backyard and it felt like camping to crush beers, smoke butts and gab about... uh, farting probably. tacos, taquitos, toots!

thank you for being a friend

unemployment is nice. i enjoy grocery shopping and going to the laundromat on weekdays. nobody is around: i can grab a coffee without putting makeup on. i've slept in, watched hours of the golden girls on cable (ps. blanche died today. she was only 76. real bummer, dude.), ate alphagetti, re-organized the living room, smoked a ton of weed and had dinner ready for phil when he gets home from work. what a happy fuckin homemaker i am!

in other news, spitfist is recording this weekend. a couple dudes from my old work are bringing over gear and beers and we're gonna try to bang out four songs. i hope the weather holds so we can hang out in the kiddie pool in dee's backyard between takes! i'm a little nervous because my previous recording experience was mostly guttural screaming between shots of scotch and cigarettes; this time i'm almost singing. there's like, harmonies and shit! i dunno. i'm sure it'll sound great on cassette. yeah, seriously... that's how we're releasing it. maybe you could snag a copy at our show on june 19th?

*update: this show has been cancelled. we will be playing a make-up show sometime in july. you'll be posted. sorry!

take this job and leave it empty

i quit my job. i gave my resignation and was offered severance an hour later. i left without saying any goodbyes; i didn't have to hug a single person. it was perfect. i've worked at this music store since 2007, in varying positions and had grown tired of it. same shit, day after day. i had been calling in sick pretty frequently and (according to the hi-lighted print-out) i'd been late 29 of 37 days. sure, i felt bad but i didn't care. the weight has been lifted, or maybe it was the fog? either way, i'm happy. s'long retail. i'm not sure what i'll do without you... but i'm eager to find out.