G-Day Part Two - GREEN Day!

Tuesday:

So part two of my two awesome G-days, haha, was Tuesday, May 17th, when I got to go see Green Day play the brand spankin new MTS Centre.

MTS Centre.ca

I've been to quite a few concerts in recent years, but nothing like this. Most of the shows I go to aren't big rock/punk shows and this was one helluva big rock/punk show! I said it first, it was like a circus and that cute little loveable perv, Billie Joe was the ring master. He also was at times, like a little dictator up there.



(Photos care of: The MTS Centre Green Day story and there are more photos over there too!)

We were a pretty decent ways away, but could see perfectly...but still far enough away that it was pretty crazy to watch the whole rink and the going ons. The stage setting was awesome and tiny as he may be, Billie came out and just took over the crowd. Though it was very much a crowd that was begging to be lead. He had us doing the wave, singing along, pumping our fists in the air and booing George Dubya. "This is Tre Cool....this is Mike...and I, ladies and gentlemen am George W. Bush!!!" **BOOOOO** "No, no, really...my name is ASSHOLE!!!" Haha. True or not, it was still funny.



The stage set up was freakin awesome. If anyone has been to my Kilt-ed.com site or my Pant-ed-not.kilt-ed.com site...or in my bedroom (sadly not too many have been there, haha)...you know I seem to have an affinity for the red, black and white scheme. Well it was like I'd fuckin died and gone to Heaven at this concert. It was nothing BUT red, black and white (the colors of their new album, not unlike the new U2 album, I also have to add)...and I was appropriately dressed in my black capris, black flip flops, black, red and white "FREE NFLD" shirt, whore red painted toes and a red and black striped sweater. Hells yeah.



They did a great arrangement of mostly new stuff from American Idiot to begin with and then moved into some older classics and mixed it up with new and old. I won't claim to be a huge GD fan or anything, but I am a "fan" in the more general term and have been listening to them since I was in like grade 8, I think. (I just graduated University for those that don't know!) Don't own all their cds or anything though...so for me they played a really awesome array of new and old stuff, and prob only one song I didn't recognize. Really great.



One pretty awesome moment, and I hear it's the norm for GD shows, they got 3 guys out of the audience to play their instruments for them. First the drummer dude...who was pretty good....then the bass player guy who was pretty hot and seemed to actually know what he was doing (but hell, I could play bass...haha)...and was a bit too cocky for his own good as at one point he was (jokingly) told to "get the hell back [to the main stage]!!!" by Billie. Haha. Finally Billie pulled a lead guitarist out of the audience and the kid was like 15 I think...but he could play man, it was pretty wicked. Did a leap off the drum riser and then ran out along the sorta catwalk extension of the stage and slid on his knees. Then....and what I think is the fuckin coolest bit of it all...Billie rather uncermoniously told him to "get the fuck off the stage, you're making me look bad...." BUT..."nice guitar? Hell. Keep it." VERY COOL.

I'd never seen these guys live before and I think I'm glad I waited to see them on this tour. I liked them before but now I love them...they've matured and are really amazing now. They put on such an entertaining show that was awesome to hear and watch and fun to attend. Really made you feel like you had come there to be a part of something, not just attend something, which is something Great Big Sea has always done and it's one of the best parts of their shows. One of the funniest/weirdest moments of the show was when Billie came out for King For a Day wearing....yes, a crown. He's so little and the crown was so big, it was just fuckin hysterical. Later he also had a robe and everything too...so funny. King For a Day turned into "SHOUT" which ended up with Billie lying flat out on the stage face down singing "a little big softer now". And I say Billie the perv because at one point he had us all repeating whatever he said, which eventually turned into "uhs" and "ahs" and a hand down the pants. But I gotta say....it was pretty hot (and again, funny, haha). But he is a dirty little boy and you can't help but love him for it.



And now thanks to my awesome West Coast girlies, I get to see them again in September at GM Place when I move to Vancouver!!! AND we're on the FLOOR!!!!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!! Good work girls!!!!

To keep with the swearing that has come to be so prevalent in damn near any conversation I have at the moment since George Day and Green Day....

I CAN'T FUCKING WAIT!

G-Day is the BEST day!

Saturday:

After paying $3.75 for 2 hours of parking downtown, which isn't bad really I guess, I walked down Smith in the icy wind to the Ramada Marlborough. It really is true what they say about the corner of Portage and Main. I was a couple blocks from Main, but crossing Portage Avenue even on Smith was unbelievably windy. It's like the buildings there create an insane wind tunnel. It's unreal.

So I managed to not lose any ears, cause not only was it windy but it was a cold wind, and made it into the hotel. There was a large group of people there in the lobby and I was told that if I wanted to join the murder mystery I was welcome to, just go and sit down. Ah, no, thanks...I'm here to see George. A kind lady that was part of the historical tour of the city showed us (myself and this guy I met in the lobby that was also looking for George) that you had to use the 'special' elevator to get to the 9th floor, where the workshop was. Interesting.

We get to the 9th floor and are shown to the only room there, a small conference type room that had about 4 other people in it already. Tables and chairs and glasses set neatly on each table. Free coffee and donuts too. A main table set up at the front with microphones and everything special like that, felt like a press conference. I find a seat dead center, second table from the front. Yeah! The room slowly started to fill a bit more, but only ended up being maybe 25 people. Very small and cozy.

Right around noon George walks in with Bartley Kives from the Free Press who moderated and kept the discussion rolling. All very calm and cool, he walks up to the front and puts his coat on the chair. Quick test of the microphones and George decides the table is too far away and that we don't need the microphones. ("I paid $150 for those microphones!" LOL!) So he and Bartley pull up chairs right in front of the first table, say hello and off we go.

Way too much discussed to recount. But it was awesome. Bartley asked about George's life and his beginnings as a forklift operator, haha, and on to Humber and radio and tv. As we went along it was all very informal and questions were asked and we went off topic many a time. In the end we got to ask questions and have our say and hear George's and everyone else's. It was fantastic. He shared some insight into how music gets selected to be played on the radio and how videos got selected for play on MuchMusic...talked about what it meant to get your music played on the radio and if it even mattered any more. We spent quite awhile discussing internet radio and getting your music out there via various other sources than the main stream radio. Really interesting stuff. He was charming, candid, honest, insightful, hilarious and everything else you want in a boyfriend...I mean, host, speaker person. Ahem.

He was very genuine and friendly to talk to afterwards too and he didn't leave til he'd talk to everyone in that room that wanted to talk to him and even some that seemed too shy to approach him, he approached them. He was amazing. Myself and another chatty lady talked to him for awhile and she took my photo with him. Yeah! Now I have a slightly less retarded photo of myself with George! Haha. No, it is alot better than the other one, though I do still have a ridiculous grin on my face. He was very sweet and obliging. And just when you thought he couldn't be possibly more endearing, he tells me that after the show wraps on Thursdays he flies to another part of the country to do stuff like this, speak to people...for free. Just about always for free, he says. What a great guy.




It was a truly awesome day. He was such a great speaker and it felt so casual and intimate. It was an amazing experience. Dunno why he'd be reading this, but thanks George for your generosity, time and insight. And big thanks to MARIA for putting the workshop on.
Visit: http://www.manitobamusic.com

Don't forget to check out George on The Hour, Mon-Thurs on CBC Newsworld. http://www.cbc.ca/thehour

And as if that wasn't all awesome enough. What was supposed to be a 2 hour workshop ended up being 3 hours by the time we'd all finished asking questions and chatting with George...my parking had expired an hour before I actually got back to my car and I didn't get a ticket! There is a parking God!

G-Day Part Two - GREEN DAY! - coming soon!

Saturday & Tuesday...Other wise known as G-Day!

Both of them really.

Saturday is George Day! WOOHOO!

I get to go see George Stroumboulopoulos speak for a MARIA Workshop at the Ramada. Oooh. A hotel. No seriously...haha....should be awesome. It's a two hour workshop with George about the music industry, put on by...the music industry. Well, the Manitoba Music industry, so it should be wicked. I've met George once before, but it was retarded. It was in 2003 when 3 of us met up in Toronto on holiday/to see Great Big Sea play at the Molsen Amphitheatre. It also happened to be the same weekend that the MuchMusic Video Music Awards were on...we really wanted to meet George too (well 2 of us did, haha)...didn't really know it'd be that easy though! It was craziness out on the street, a few bands were doing sound check and the VJs were doing the same/practicing. George was out and about so we held up a (crappy) sign that just said "Hi George!" and he waved to us and everything, then we managed to go over and "talk" to him VERY briefly and I got my picture taken with him. (I look like a moron.) I totally couldn't understand what he was saying and I felt like a 'tard. So it's redemption time! LOL I'm really interested to hear what he has to say about everything right now. I've always appreciated his views on the music industry and you just don't get to hear enough of it any more on his new show. Politics, politics, politics! He's compelling anyway, but I love hearing him talk about music the most. Should be great!



Then Tuesday is Green Day!!

YEAH ME! That's going to be so awesome. It's the sold out American Idiot tour at the MTS Centre. We got to go to the Juno Awards at the MTS Centre and we were waaaaay far away, but it was still so fuckin wicked. We are much closer this time around so it's just going to be so great. I've been a fan for awhile, but I'm really enjoying this new album. I think the guys will put on a great show!

Then on top of that...C and K get us FLOOR tix to see Green Day AGAIN at GM Place when I get to Vancouver in the fall!! OMG!!! That is going to fuckin rock!!!! Great job girls!!



But now...I must go attend to my....ehm.......well I'm sure there's something to do.

I was informed that I need to update

Apparently I need to add to this thing...I hope this doesn't turn into the ramble I think it might.

So I've been thinking alot about when I move to Vancouver and how it will be great to meet some new people and how it'd be awesome to meet a guy out there. The only thing that concerns me is that it means I won't want to come back, haha. I think that's one of my biggest fears though, that I'll have no reason to come home. I never planned on moving to Vancouver for forever, but at the same time...aside from family and my animals (which I will miss soooo incredibly much), I don't know what real reason I have to be here any more. I love the job I have right now, it's fun and great experience, but not the sort of thing I want/could do much longer. The entertainment industry here is growing, but I just can't see the sort of photography I want to do being that easy to do here. Though it would help if I had a clearer idea of what I actually wanted to do, I suppose...

But back to the point or what may have been the point at one point. Ahem.

I think that's my Mom's biggest 'fear' too, is that I'll go and meet someone from Vancouver and then not want to come back. Ya never know though I guess...maybe he'll be up for moving! Who knows.

What I do know though is that I don't have much time left here right now...I plan on heading West around the middle/end of September after my brother and his wife have their baby in August. I didn't want to miss that for anything. But my time here is limited and it's just one of those things...like now would be when I'd meet some guy and not be able to have a relationship because I'm leaving. It's something that would happen to me though. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so excited or if it's some sort of defense against that happen, but I seem to tell guys I meet lately, like within the first 10 minutes of talking to them, that I'm moving, haha.

I keep thinking of this guy though that has been coming in and out of my life for the past 6 years now basically. It drives me nuts! I've always liked him, since the moment I met him...but it has just never worked. We've been friends though, off and on. It's been a strange trip, I have to say. Finally I'm to that stage where I just don't want to like him any more and I thought I'd managed that...then I fall for it all over again. What's up with that? It seems to happen to me alot though...it's happened with others. Those I've always gotten over in the end though and don't think about them much any more...except one. But he's another story, haha. But this one...right now I think it's pure attraction, not really thinking about a future or anything. I see him and he's gorgeous and nothing else matters at that moment...I look at him and it feels like he's looking at me differently than he has in the past and my stomach flutters even though I've told myself 3000 times I can't think of him like that any more.

Really.

It's not fair what one look can do to you.