Regina here we come!

WOOHOO!!!

So in less than a week my good friend, D & I will be taking a little roadtrip to good ole Regina, Saskatchewan to seeeee.....



.............these guys!




Yeah!!! So excited!!!! We haven't seen them since October! Well, that's not entirely true...D and I got to see Alan perform at the Songwriter's Circle for the Juno Awards that were held here in Winnipeg in April. That was friggin awesome. We also got to see Alan and Sean play hockey! And well, we got to see Bob walk the red carpet...it was good times. But no Murray. No Kris. There's just nothing like a Great Big Sea concert, so I can't friggin wait! It's part of Regina's Canada Day celebrations and supposedly its going to be televised or at least partly, so that will be wicked!

The roadtrip part of it will be fun too. We've never done a roadtrip just the two of us, so I think that'll be awesome. It's 6 hours there...so 12 hours roundtrip. We're staying over night though (we're not that insane!)...so it'll be fun. Pretty easy road to Regina too, half of it I've already driven quite a few times, so it'll be fine. Got my Mom's car cause it's wayyyy nicer than mine. It'll be so great to see the b'ys again. Hopefully some debautchery will ensue...though nothing will top the debautchery that was Winnipeg October 2004. A meeting of the minds, as it were. Teehee. But it'll be a great sorta last hurrah for us Prairie girls before this Prairie girl joins the West Coast sector and becomes and Ocean girl! Yeah!

After we get back from Regina it's toss the bags and grab some new clothes and fresh digs, drop off D and pick up R so we can take a mini roadtrip to Winnipeg Beach to see my favorite boys in Kilts! Kilts on the beach, that will be wicked! Then we're going to cruise on over to my Aunt's cabin in Gimli and crash there for the night...supposing of course that I can actually get us there, as I have YET to drive to Gimli by myself, much less find my Aunt's/Uncle's cabin in the dark! It's one of the original ones too and not one of the newer monstrosities that have taken over the island out there, so it's sorta tricky to find. We'll find it though, I'm sure! Or I'll just drive all the way to the end of the island to my cousin's house and ask him to tell me how the hell to get to his Dad's cabin, haha. Then spend the better part of the next day in Gimli....cause I loooves da Gimli...hopefully I'll still have room on my camera, which I only just thought of and that could be interesting. Hmmmmm....crap. Cause I presume there will be plenty 'o photo taken in Regina. Dammit. How can 1G of memory not be enough??? I have the 32mb card too though, so hopefully I won't run out of room for the weekend. I managed to make it through almost a week in Van and ran out of space on just the last day. But that was because we didn't go see GBS and C also had a camera! I imagine there will be some video taking as well and that takes up alot of room. I'll do my best not to get carried away. Haven't seen MIK for awhile and I'd like to take some pics there, so I better leave SOME room. And did I mention I LOVE Gimli?? So definetely will need room for pics there. D will have her camera in Regina though, so we can take silly pics with it. Yeah!

And on entirely sort of different note...

I read in the Tab the other day (local entertainment section in the paper that comes only on Thursdays) how this local band was jamming one night at one of the guy's place and after they'd all gone to sleep some people broke in and stole like 9 instruments! What kind of bs is that??? How awful! The band that it happened too is really great too. During the Juno weekend here MIK played CBC radio and R & I went to check that out and this band, The D. Rangers, were on before MIK. They play this crazy bluegrass sorta I dunno what sorta roots/hick music, haha. I seriously don't know how to describe it. Mainly bluegrass, I guess. One of the guys plays the saw and one of the other guys plays the muck bucket as an upright bass. It's insane. But they were so awesome! So when I read that about them getting their instruments stolen I felt so bad! What a fuckin shitty thing to do. Perhaps they should've locked their doors better, haha, but still...no one has the right to come steal your shit whether you leave it lying on the front lawn or locked in a safe! So to help the band out, the Times Change(d) club on Main is making the D. Rangers show a fundraiser/benefit show for them this coming Wednesday. (Apparently they still have some instruments left to do a show with!) It's a $10 cover charge basically and they are donating not only that 10 bucks but all the drink sales from the nite to the band. I thought that was awesome. I really hope to go, but not sure if it'll work out...too many other things to coordinate this week! But if you're from the Peg and you're reading this...I highly recommend you go and help the guys out, they are a great band and deserve some help.

Cheers.

Hehe

My kitty is sooo going to kick George's kitty's ass!

Biebe Tucker

Can you say "AWWWWW"?

Cause George is just too damn cute...

Saw this on his show just now (wednesday night edition of The Hour)...he said he's a sucker for animals but he doesn't have a life style that works for having a dog any more (I know he said before he used to have a pitbull)...but he said he was working on his car out front of his house one day and this little white kitty came up to him and wouldn't leave him alone and then followed him to the house so he kept him. He named him (I think it's a him) Snake because he acts like a snake George once had, haha. Then he decided Snake was lonely so he went to the shelter to get him a friend and got this little kitten that would flop around like a fish so he called him Minnow. (So cute!) Sooo...all of this story because of this website...

http://www.kittenwars.com

So funny and cute!! It's totally pointless and a good time waster, but it's SO cute!

And of course...George entered Minnow....hehe...how cute is he??

Minnow

I have soooooooooo many pics of my new baby kitty, Biebe, on my camera right now. And he is seriously the cutest thing going, hehe, so once I get them downloaded I'm TOTALLY entering him! I know he'll kick some major ass. Wa hahahaha. There is also:

http://www.puppywars.com

And I have some VERY cute pics of Maverick I could post too. My camera is so full of cute animals pics right now! Going to d/l them and burn them to a cd tomorrow when I get to my Aunt's better computer. Yeah! Then I'll share some and totally enter them in kitty and puppy wars. Hehe. If you don't go to the site, then you won't know what it's really about and just saying "kitty wars" sounds bad, haha. They don't fight or anything!!! LOL Check it out! MAJOR "AWWWW" factor!

Who??

K, I don't get it.

I thought Mariah Carey was a JOKE. She went all looney not long ago and everyone thought she was off her rocker. Granted, losing your mind maybe isn't a nice/good reason to not like someone's music any more...but her music was crap (though in my opinion it always was). Now she's all over the place again and everyone is swooning saying how wonderful she is and her album killed Fiddy the week it was released...now she's the #1 chart topping woman of all time? (Something like 14 #1 singles or something...) WTF???

I don't get it. I officially announce that I just don't fucking get it. Who buys her albums? Who requests her music? There are seriously that many little girls out there that really love her so completely that she can be at the top again just like "that"?? I officially have no clue how the World works. Either someone has a helluva lot of money and is paying someone off or doing something to boost her career (which I don't doubt could be happening at all)...or the world is off IT'S rocker and the listening public are the ones who have gone totally looney.

When I went to see George a few weeks ago he mentioned interviewing Mariah, but it was about another topic, about his interviewing style and about not asking personal questions...about going for the kill and when not to. (He was saying he interviewed her right when she was cracking and he could see her about to cry so he just stopped the interview. He's a good man. He said it was just insane, he wasn't about to interview someone and make an ass out of them or make them cry when they were obviously going through some problems.) But my actual point of interest in this instance is another discussion he had that was about the singer/songwriter types (he didn't mention names, but I presume he means the likes of John Mayer, etc, as that's who I attach "singer/songwriter" to anyway) and how they were big because record companies biggest drive is to aim for the 20-34 female audience. While I love George's opinion, I find that hard to believe. Granted, John and many of the so called singer-songwriter types have done well and there was soon an over abundance of such S-S, most of which were/are horribly untalented and no where near John's league...maybe that group BUYS more or something, but it seems the even younger girls would be more the prime subject of media hype. The 13-18 age group. Maybe it's been worked out in the figures they actually don't buy as much....but I'm sure that's the age group that made the likes of Britney, NSync, The BSB, Mariah (the first time around), Christina and all those successful and I'm sure its the next generation of that age group that is buying Mariah's stuff now. Mainly because I don't know who the hell else would be buying it. I'm in the 20-34 age group that George mentioned and quite obviously the singer-songwriter type works in that age group, haha, cause I know alot of us love him...but there's no way any one of us would be caught dead with a Mariah Carey cd. It would just never happen. So maybe we go to more concerts because we can do what we want supposedly because we are self-sustaining...but I still don't believe that. Those young kids are crazy...they buy more into the CRAP that Mariah can sell...I don't just mean her music (haha) I mean allllll the merch. And I'm sure their parents buy them alot of that crap and send them to just as many (if not more) concerts than us working class students and young adults can afford to go to. We're too busy trying to figure out how to make it to the $60 U2 or Green Day concert that comes up every 5 years, haha. Ok, so I bought some $5 stickers, but I don't think they can sustain themselves on sticker sales alone. So George, I love you...but I don't believe you. (This time, lol.)

If someone can find me 5 people who bought this new Mariah Carey album that are over the age of 20, I will be VERY amazed. (Then I may go shoot myself.)

And on a less bitchy note, haha....watching tv and U2 were just on talking about various things but the interviewer asked them about iPods and gave them the U2 themed iPod. SO funny. He was like...do you guys even know how to work it?? LMAO. Bono took it and started mocking him by poking it randomly and yelling at it "uhhh do you hit this? or this? Maybe this?" (in a really stupid "hick" voice) and Edge grabbed it away from him and held it up to his ear like a cell phone and was like "helllooo? Are you in there? I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!!" Haha. So funny! Bono looked at it for a bit though and decided that "it was the sexiest thing since the electric guitar"......sadly...I'd have to agree. How a little silver (in my case anyway) electronic box can be "sexy" is beyond me...yet...it is. Hehe. Mine's only the iPod mini, but I like it more than the bigger ones. Which only proves one of my friend's greatest points (he full of ridiculous ones too, like how he smokes Player's because his Dad looks likes the Player's guy and always smoked them himself, haha).............

** To make something cuter, just make a smaller version of it. **

SO TRUE! Case in point...babies. Puppies, bunnies, kittens, calves, baby goats...any babies are just damn cute. Tiny purses....tiny shoes...baby carrots...mini skirts....(ahem)...really....if you want to make it cuter, just make it smaller. Ok....so maybe that's not ALWAYS true, haha. Cough. Ahem. ;) Bigger can be better in instances, there is always the exception to any rule. But I think the majority is true here, smaller = cuter.

So that post started out in left field and ended up in the parking lot. Sorry bout that.

Just to keep it real though....check out the latest from BNL co-frontman, Steven Page, a side project...

www.thevanityproject.com

The first single, if there is one and you want to call it that, Wilted Rose is currently the weeks free download at iTunes Canada and I got it the other day. Definitely enjoying that one alot. Which reminds me...speaking of insanity in the world of music. Now I'm not a huge Coldplay fan, but they are decent...I read that the latest Coldplay single got booted from the top of the charts in the UK by a song inspired by a RING TONE. A song that was nothing, made from crap-ass ringtone??? The sky is falling.

Which also reminds me...check out Zach Braff's blog....love the boy, but he can't find anything to do in Montreal?? I've never been, but I hear it most certainly has no shortage of things to do. But his blog his hysterical. And I say "that reminds me" because I believe Zach is linked to the new Chicken Little movie...or maybe he's just looking forward to it, haha.

But aren't we all?

This week...

So first, well I guess it was actually last week...I get to see Russell Crowe put on the most amazing performance as Depression Era boxer James J. Braddock in Cinderella Man...



Brilliant performance. More on that later...

Then I get to see him do this...



Yep. Get arrested.

I love the man dearly, I've been a huge fan for about 4 or 5 years now. I think he is an amazing actor and truly a genuinely good hearted man. But man is he stupid sometimes, haha. Once you've read a bit about him and seen some of interviews it doesn't take long to see that he's actually a great guy and not at all who the media portrays him to be. He's funny and charming and sweet. But he has made some dumb moves in the past and this seems to be the last straw as it landed him in a Manhattan jail. I won't go in to detail, but he had arrived after a whirlwind trip to Manchester, UK and back and was trying to call his wife and son in Australia and the phones weren't working and hadn't been all week, I guess. So he took the phone from his room down to the desk clerk in the lobby and threw it against a wall, which resulted in the clerk also getting hit. The police were called and RC was hauled off to the slammer for the night, only to be released to a feeding frenzy of media in the morning. Oh it was fun. Russ has since apologized for his unbelievably foolish behaviour and it's quite clear it was never his intention to hurt anyone, he was just frustrated. (No excuse for losing it like that, but still.)

Personally I think it's kinda funny. I mean of all the stupid things to get arrested for...throwing a phone?? Haha. But someone got hurt, so I suppose it's not something that should be made light of. Whatever. It sure was an uncessary chink in the armor though, especially since this current press tour he's been on for CM was going so well and was so far very entertaining and funny. Luckily, leave it to Conan, he was on Late Night tonight and Conan and he had a good laugh and it seems his humor has returned. Hopefully he can forgive himself for his assinine behaviour, move on, settle this thing with the hotel clerk and go home so his wife can kick his ass.

The one cute thing about it all is this guy...



...who has been with RC since the L.A Premiere. It has been some what of a dream partnership that one of my favorite musicians, Alan Doyle (of Great Big Sea) and my favorite actor got together to make such a fantastic album. www.myhandmyheart.com Alan, being the sweet little innocent Canadian boy that he is has prob had quite the eye opener of a tour of duty with Rusty on this trek across the countryside to promote the movie...but I can't even imagine what it's been like since RC got arrested. Wow. But it seems Alan has hung in there cause he went with him to Letterman the other night when RC spoke for the first time about the incident. Good on him for being a great new friend for Russell and hopefully a voice of reason and calm now.

So on to the film...



The film is awesome. One of Russell's best and so it's sad that it may get over shadowed by the arrest hype. Hopefully it can win people over because it is fantastic and so great I think I'll prob end up seeing it again in the theatre. Something I have only ever done once before...I saw Austin Powers 3 in the theatre twice, but the second time was really mostly because it was cheap and not too many other options...and it is a damn funny movie. I would definitely pay full price again to go see this movie though. It's that good. Russell is so amazing in it, Paul Giamatti plays his manager/coach and Renne Zellwegger plays his wife. The whole thing is just fantastic, I highly recommend it. If you're not big on the boxing...there is quite alot of boxing in it, but its more about how the man overcame the serious downfalls he and his family suffered during the depression after having been so successful and having it all. It's inspiring and heartwrenching. It's the epitomy of the "you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll cheer" movie. It's all that and so much more.

Now if Russ would just stop throwing phones at people, he'd do alright.