Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.

Last Saturday night Robyn and I ventured to the movie theatre to spend some love-time together. We had decided upon seeing Across the Universe. All I knew about it was that it was a musical featuring Evan Rachel Wood and Bono.

About three songs in, Robyn and I caught on that it was a musical using all of The Beatle’s hits. Cool.

I’m not a devoted Beatle’s fan like some, but I do respect what they did for the musical world and how they changed it single-handedly. Even if Paul McCartney likes seals a little too much.

A psychedelic love story with talented actors and musicians, the whole thing was visually stunning. I kept saying to Robyn that we needed some LSD or acid or something because it felt like we were sitting in the sixties.

It was seriously the best movie I have seen in FOREVER. It definitely made it into my top five favourite movies of all time. As soon as I got home I downloaded the soundtrack, it’s still extraordinary, even without the moving pictures.

And if all that doesn’t make you want to go see it, finding out that Bono sings I am the Walrus should.

Commitment issues.

Last week I linked a website informing you that today was Blog Action Day. Basically it’s a day once a year where bloggers come together and put a post up on one topic. This year’s choice of theme: the environment. Since I am a blogger who likes the environment I thought I should do my part and contribute.

FACT: I did not learn how to spell the word “environment” until grade nine. I had always forgotten the “n” and was shocked when I received an assignment back with little red-circled “enviroments” everywhere. THANKS A LOT MR. GILLIS, YOU GOT YOURS.

Back to the story at hand.

When researching for this little post I came across this website where you can determine your “ecological footprint” by answering a few questions (this is where you go answer those questions and determine your score, I'll wait). Here are my results:


"If everyone lived like you, we would need 4.5 planets." Am I really that bad of a person? That mass consumer who destroys the earth, one car ride and iced cappuccino at a time?

To say the results of this arrogant internet quiz bothered me would be an understatement. It really got to me. So I set out into the Google deep, trying to find a solution to my eco-destroying ways.

I can’t give up my electricity. I already do the whole turning off the lights when you leave a room thing. And my television hasn’t even been plugged in since before Iqaluit.

I can’t give up my car. Mass transit is for, well, the masses. And biking in St. John’s in the winter? Do you have a death wish?

I already cut out bottled water.

I knit my own scarves.

That to me only left one viable solution: I had to change the way I eat.

My score if I cut out meats/eggs/dairy:


I was all prepared to come here today and tell you my BIG DECISION of becoming vegan. I was.

But I have two words for you: soy milk.

I had cut out all meat (Crispy Chicken and I shared a tearful goodbye a few days ago), eggs were au revoir and I had the dairy under control. EXCEPT. FOR. MILK. You guys all know my love infatuation with the 1%! And don’t even get me started on my torrid affair with cereal.

So now I’m at a loss. I guess I’ll claim vegetarianism until I can find a soy milk that works for me (Our Compliments low fat soy is not where it’s at).

I did however kick baking’s ass this weekend and made some scrumptious Vegan Cranberry Muffins.

Take me to the riot.

Ah, the Canadian music scene!

Sheena used to always make fun of my tastes in music. Where as some people like rock or rap, she branded my favourite genre as “miscellaneous Canadian artists”. It really couldn’t be any truer.

So tonight I’m offering up a review on the latest CD I purchased: In Our Bedroom after the War by one of my (if not the) most favourite Canadian groups: Stars.

I wasn’t sure what to expect. But once tearing off the outward cellophane I was greeted with one thing: magic.

First off there was a bonus DVD (I have yet to watch it, but anything that’s “BONUS” is instantly making the whole thing more fantastic).

Second, was the insert.

Always after popping in a new CD I look at the insert to see who the band thanks. I started doing this after looking at my first N’Sync CD (well not mine, I never actually owned one, my childhood best friend Deanna had that coveted possession) I saw that superstud Justin Timberlake had “first and foremost” thanked Jesus. Since then I’ve always needed to know who musicians accredit their fame too.

Anyway, I pulled out Stars' insert only discover it was one little sheet. A colourful blob on the back and lyrics to just one of their songs on the front. I thought it could have been some sort of collectors stunt (“buy 13 of our CDs to get all the lyrics!”). BUT NO. There were multiple insert-sized pages, one for each of their songs and one with a bizarre passage from author Daniel Handler.

Thinking about the colourful blob I turned them all around. A puzzle! The picture formed was the picture on their cover along with a group photo of the band.

You have to admit: WAY COOL.

Now to actual musical aspects of this lovely compact disc:

It’s mind blowing. I have to admit, I have a super big thing for bands with talented musicians, using weird instruments, being Canadian, having both genders represented in the vocals with truly mind-altering (because they remain unaltered) lyrics.

Confused yet? Click the Stars link above and it leads you to their Myspace where every single song on the CD is up in it’s full length. Personal favourites: Personal, The Night Starts Here, Window Bird and Midnight Coward (trying not to name the whole CD here).

Personal is absolutely wicked. I actually read the lyrics to it before I reached it on the CD and as soon as I had finished perusing them and going WTF I turned the song on. Jeez, way to make a general conversation into something moving and beautiful.

Moral of this review? Support Canadian musicians. Support Stars. Go have yourself a listen.

Friday love list.

It's Friday and you know what that means. . .

THINGS I'VE ENCOUNTERED THIS WEEK THAT I LOVE (A LOT)

Baking
Shopping with my Mom
Making BIG DECISIONS
Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize (as much as it was a double-edged sword)
The radio host in the movie Jesus Camp
New CDs
Canadian musicians
Flax seed
Etsy
THANKSGIVING DINNERS :)
Making BINGO plans
Making caroling plans
Making wedding shower plans (NOT actual showers)
Cranberries
Purple librarian lady sweaters
True love stories
The ability to stop global warming
Ugly Betty
Candles (like wow, fun to buy)
Hair dying
Being blonde

And as always, encouragement of others is placed [ here ]. Go doooo it! You'll feel better. You might even save a life!*



*You probably won't save a life

Bubble bath.

I went out with a guy this summer that I didn’t really like. We only went on two “dates” (I seriously hate that word) before I decided his mind was indeed as bad as his hair cut.

It didn’t take me two outings to figure this out. I went along with it at the time because he paid for all the drinks. Sad and mean spirited, yes, but at $7 a glass it made perfect sense to me.

I remember on the second. . . occasion. . . we were talking along the lines of how we deal with people/relationships and the like. Today while reading a book for my War and Aggression class, I remembered the analogy I used to describe to this guy how I go about dealing with the opposite sex.

It went something along the lines of:

“I’m the kind of person who deals with relationships like they deal with. . . a bath.”

“You soak them up?” (seriously that was about as witty as he got)

“Um, no. I mean like when you run a bath and it’s all super exciting at first and you just have to stick your foot in there and get in right away. But then you realize that the bath is not exciting, in fact it’s burning and overwhelming so you take your foot out as soon as you’ve put in there. You don’t give yourself time to acclimatize.”

At this point I’m looking at him for some reassurance that he at least partly understands what I’m saying. And in his Coor’s Light from a can (because Iqaluit doesn’t have glass bottles) induced haze he offers me this gem:

“Man, I don’t take baths, I shower.”

In the end I (my mind anyway) paid dearly for those few drinks.