NXNE DAY 1: I Mama Earth + Oops, I Did It Again + Quiet First Nite + Sony PSP

Stirling // The Mahones // Hugh Cornwell // The Novaks // Brian Bryne
04.09.06.05 @ Lee's Palace (529 Bloor St W - 416.532.1598)

6:52pm: Lee's Palace Back Again
Amanda dropped me off at the venue, i was carrying so much stuff including my overnight luggage, banners, ballot box, SOCAN guides, my purse and cash bag. I informed Josee (stage manager) upon my arrival and met Alanna, Drew & Chris (stagehands) and requested assistant for putting up the banners later on. i set up the ballot area as the Red Bull street team came in, so i tried one for the first time. (Okay, lie. I had one yesterday at the Chart Party with Jagermeister)

8pm: Brian, not David, Bryne
Okay that's who it was! I thought the name sounded familiar and he looked familiar but i couldn't figure out where he was from! So i met him when he was asking me question about guestlisting.. ho ho ho! His set was okay, at least he didn't play any i mama earth songs. However, he did covered a Police song! heh!

10pm: Newfie Rock - The Novaks
Ewan Exall came by and sat down for a chat, it was kinda odd, it made me a bit nervous actually since i was working at cash and he was managing the show. I swear he still doesn't know my name. We talked about shows he was planning to see during the festival, Red Bull, Vancouver and (International) Noise Conspiracy. Lori came by so i introduced her to Ewan, she was there for The Novaks, a straight up rock band from St. John's, Newfoundland. Guess it made a Newfie double-act eh! I didn't pay much attention, but they sounded alright. There seemed to be a number of people there for them..

11pm: Oops, I did it Again! I Pulled Another Andy Rourke - My meeting with Hugh Cornwell
I had the honour to meet Andy Rourke during his tour with Badly Drawn Boy. He told me he liked my Fred Perry zip-up, i told him i liked his too then he introduced himself to me as Andy. I was like "oh, hi.." i haven't any clue until later that he was THE Andy Rourke!! So tonight, I thought Hugh Cornwell sounded familiar and his face looked familiar as well (again!) we even chatted a bit before the show, i had no idea who he was until much later. No wonder he's sooo good! He is the original guitarist, singer and main songwriter for The Stranglers!! But i was strangely surprised, the show didn't sold out. Oops! Now i wish i took back all the stupid things i've said (it's Red Bull! it's the Red Bull!!) or shoulda asked better questions! Hopefully he doesn't remember me! teeheee!

Midnight: Breaking the Curse - The Mahones
Okay, i feel real ignorant for not knowing all these bands showcasing at my venue. Apparently The Mahones are quite popular Celtic Punk band from Kingston, Ontario. They've trailled bad luck since May 1999 when bassist passed away of food allergy then a month later, another former member died from a camping accident. They were alright, lots of people seemed to enjoy their set.

1AM: Stirling - Toronto's "Britpop" Darling
It was more quiet than my other times working at Lee's Palace during the festival. I don't think this band live up to their hype, Eileen and I saw them couple months ago, they were good but just not "wow". I didn't get to see much of this set then Mary & Greg came pick me up.

1:40AM: Cashing Out
It seemed straight forward but i wasn't sure what i was doing, forgive me, it was my first time doing the "Cash-Out"... Why doesn't any of these sheets balanced?!??! HELP??

2:25AM: PSP Time!
After Eileen and I cabbed back to the apartment, we played Sony PSP for a while and we watched part of Spiderman II on the PSP, it's amazing how great the quality of that little screen is, it makes our telly looks like crap! Not only it can play games, it can also plays movies, mp3s, store games and photos! I want one of these!!

NXNE Kickoff + Chart Schmuck Party

Was another busy day at work today, my client Eric still drove me up the wall! ARGH! It's that time of the year again, it was NXNE's final cashier meeting today at 6pm, it's the same thing again, yadda yadda.. but this year i got to use the Ticketmonster beeper! wheee! I'm working at Lee's Palace again this year. I don't think i'll work the Saturday show, so hopefully i can go bar hopping, i really want to go to Xpace and see ddmmyyyy These are the bands:

04.09.06.05 - Chart Magazine Presents

Stirling	1 AM
The Mahones	12 AM
Hugh Cornwell	11 PM
The Novaks	10 PM
Brian Byrne	9 PM

05.10.06.05 - Bedlam Society Presents

Bedouin Soundclash	12 AM
City And Colour	11 PM
The Junction	10 PM
The Fullblast	9 PM

8:20PM: Chart Schmucks-Ahoy Party at Berkeley Church
After the meeting Eileen and i killed sometime before we headed to Berkeley Church (315 Queen St E - 416.361.9666). We checked in with guestlist and drink tickets and we went into the venue. It's the cutest little place, well it is a church, much look like Palais Royale (1601 Lake Shore Blvd W - 416.533.3553) only with a balcony and an alter. It has the cutest bathroom, French sage green with Victorian mirrors. It was pretty packed and there were lots of "industry" people. When we first enter, we spotted Jesse from Death From Above taking photos at the Chart booth. They were giving out samples of Jagermeister shots with Red Bull, the most disgusting combination ever -- cough syrup! The food was not bad: somosas, pitas, wraps, mini shrimp dumplings, pot-stickers, steamed buns, pineapple, watermelon, puff-pastry mini things, phyllo triangles with cheese and spinach (ours were MUCH BETTER). The so-called "cool" and "fashionable" chicks are the big joke of the night, first off, they're not very young, second, they're still going for that 80s Electrotrash look, c'mon, soooo last year! Even if the outfit was "decent" they ruined it by wearing ugly uncomfortable platform shoes (so 90s!) and what's up with all these girls with grossly long painted toenails?! That's the most disgusting thing EVER! Bahhh.. we spoke to a few people, had a beer, took the swag bags (it's not even that great this year, 3 old issues of Chart (not even the new one, you have to grab that from their booth), a full size of STIFF hair puddy (not bad), Charles Worthington Shine Spray (that i like), Gillette razor, Caesar sticker and BenQ flashlight.. bahh!) and we quietly left the party. Schmuck smoozing is not for us!

Gig 45: There's a Coral on the Lakeshore + BBQ + Hott in Herre

6:50PM: Hott in Herre!!!!
What a busy day at work! Eric was driving me absolutely nuts about the national advert this week! I wanted to kill him! During break I went to vent off and so I went over to Black Market (319 Queen St W - 416.591.7945) and bought some stuff. It has been soo hott in Toronto! Silly me had the idea of walking to A&E after work, it wasn't by all means far but man.. SOO HOTT!! On route, i bumped into Jay who were on his way home from Rotate, i passed by the busy Bellwoods Park and took the above picture, then i saw Kate and Tyler on the patio at Fresh, i said hi quickly and head to A&E...


7:23PM: A&E BBQ
Finally arrived! Romi and Deddy were already there, we chatted a bit and picture above is what we've had. it was yummy!! Romi and Deddy are leaving for Isreal on Thursday but they might stay since Deddy was offered a job at Interscope but it's not confirmed. I hope they'll stay. Toronto is lovely to be living in (though i am tired of it at the moment, but it'll always be my home!)

9:23PM: We better go! Romi actually left her window open and her keys inside the unlocked car! We drove to the venue and she has the sudden craving for ice cream, we didn't like the first place we stopped at, we decided to hop over to The Big Chill (367 Manning Ave + College - 416.540.9040) but the line up was massive so we went back to the venue.. On the way, we bumped into Nick and his British "mates".. one of them said to Nick "Do you know these birds?" ... Death stare, hello? Would he talk to us if he doesn't know us or vice versa? "No, we just flew from the sky!" I answered... DUH!


The Coral // The Meligrove Band
02.07.06.05 @ The Mod Club (722 College St - 416.588.4663)
Eileen + Elsie + Deddy + Romi

9:54PM: There's a Coral on the Lakeshore
The last time I saw The Coral was in March 2003 with Supergrass at The Koolhaus, so it's been a while. I was surprised to see the crowd turned out, more people than i expected. I spotted MasiaOne was working at merchandise, so i went over and chatted with her, caught up on things and told her i bumped into Karen in Vancouver. The band was great, though they didn't look as "ned" this time around though the singer James and drummer were both wearing Adidas trackpants! haha! James' singer was incredible, although he has slight problem with the feedback. The band played a 65 minutes of old and new mix, many of the olds in fact. The percussion was amazing: bongo & drums! What a great show!

11:40PM: Romi and Deddy gave me a lift to the subway station, we detoured to The Big Chill to get a couple scoops! Yay! Romi's mission finally accomplished! I got a scoop of Dulce de Leche, she got a double scoop of espresso and funky chunky chocolate! Yummmm.. Gah it's 2am i gotta sleep, tomorrow NXNE meeting then Chat Magazine party!

This Week 30 May - 05 June: Birthdays + Dinners + Eating Greens + Being Bad

01.30.05.05: Amy's Birthday
11:50pm: After Kaiser Cheifs, I had this cunning idea of going to Dominion and get mini vanilla cupcakes to surprise Amy for her birthday. She was glad and wished for something silly. hehe The mini cupcakes were very cute!

6:57pm: I *finally* made it to EAST (240 Queen St W - 416.351.EAST) to meet up with the girls for Amy's birthday dinner. It was basically same as the other Spring Rolls, only EAST has a bit more dim-sum like items. I had tofu green curry with rice, Eileen ordered a sea bass dish, Amy had mango chicken with rice and Nina ordered the General Tao chicken with rice. We all shared the mango creme brulee, Amy was surprised again to see our waitress presented the dessert with a lite candle. She got a second wish, hope she wisely wish for something else this time.. hehehe.

10pm: We went to Communist's Daughter (1149 Dundas St W - 647.435.0103) for a drink after dinner. The cozy little bar was located around the corner of where Amy and Eileen live now. It has an excellent jukebox! We spinned like 20 songs on the jukebox, i played some Rolling Stones, Gary Numan, Neutral Milk Hotel, Feist and TV on the Radio. The bartender, Michael, was very friendly.. There was a Run Chico Run sticker on the wall behind our table, i freaked. We played Hott Dice and i rolled 1-2-3-4-5! We left shortly after midnight.

02.31.05.05: Another Sushi Adventure with Mike
7pm: I've been looking forward to this! I haven't been to Sushi on Bloor (515 Bloor St W - 416.516.3456) for a while, so i'm very excited about this! And it didn't rain tonight.. hehe. We shared a spicy sushi pizza, a tempura appetizer, dynamic roll and crunchy roll. They looked so little but there was so much food! We had a good chat as usual, it was almost surreal that we were in Vancouver last week and there we are in Toronto. I kinda felt bad because there were heaps of people waiting outside and we were there for 2 hours. Even it was for a short time, it was great seeing him again.


Henri Faberge + The Adorables @ The Embassy

03.01.06.05: Niall's Fucking Birthdaaaay + Henri Faberge & The Adorables @ The Embassy
8pm - Pre-drinks & Dinner at A&E: Somehow i still haven't grasped the concept of havinig "Pre-Drinks" at A&E because Amy doesn't even drink and all of a sudden they have an entire bar of alcohol selection! haha! I arrived at A&E, Amy was making us some brown rice bowl with raw veggies on top and some vegan tahini dressing. Eileen was like "screw this, i'm having ramen!" hehe I thought it was tasty!

10 something pm: We arrived at The Embassy (223 Augusta Ave - 416.591.1132) at around 10-10:30pm, Bredan was by the door so I stopped and said hello, most of the seats were filled already. Ben, Emily and Renata were at the back, so we cut through whilst Thick Hawk was still playing and sat by the bar. The "stage" area was decorated with streamers and yellow balloons it was cute. The Township Expansion sounded much better this time, even though i'm sure Niall was very drunk, he kept saying "It's my fucking birthdaaaayyyy!!!" or changed part of the lyrics to that. haha so funny. Then Henri presented him a chocolate cake, we all sang "Happy Birthday", then they got into a cake fight! Henri Faberge + The Adorables were awesome as usual! Pete was dancing all night (and doing jumping jacks), with 2 additional waredrobe changes! They covered Donovan's Happy Together and Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Map. Oh the fun times!!! The fun times repeat next month..

04.02.06.05: Oh Janet!
I bumped into Janet a few days ago on the bus, it was odd, i was napping and someone tabbed on my shoulder hahaha I haven't seen her for a long time, since she was busy with getting into school and I was on all these mini roadtrips. We made plans to have dinner tonight. We met at Yonge & Eglington, our only time hanging out in that area. We went and checked out Accessorize (2614 Yonge St - 416.483.4992) which apparently was an UK chainstore, i was just at one of their Vancouver location on Robson last week! We went to dinner at Pickle Barrel, since i've missed her birthday celebration, i treated her for dinner. Then we wandered to the 24hr Shoppers Drug Mart for some old time makeup/product talk fun.. hehe aww i miss hanging out with Janet!



06.04.06.03: NXNE + Wedding Dress Hunt + Ate My Greens
2:30PM: Blah Blah Blah.. It's that time of the year again,
NXNE is next week! It was kinda awkward stepping into El Mocombo post-20hz.ca incident. There were 20hz.ca posters plastered all over, when i was on route getting there, i was thinking that maybe i should get one of those Dylan headbands that says "stillepost.ca".. haha! It's the same every year at these volunteer meetings, i know it all too well, this will be my third year as cashier for the festival. But this year i've been nominated by "upper level" to do the "Count-Out" at the end of the night. I was kinda furious at first since i didn't want to stay behind and deal with all these money counting business.. but i guess it's an honoured to be nominated as well. we'll seee...

4PM: Eileen and I met up with Nina and Amy after our meeting at Pho Hung (St Andrews + Spadina), we had some Pho and spring rolls, as the other girls went to grocery shopping in Kensington Market. We met up with them after. I went to Courage My Love (14 Kensington Ave - 416.979.1992), one of my favourite store, and i unintentially found this very cute mint-sage vintage dress for $14, it would be PERFECT to wear for my cousin's summer wedding! (HAHA fooled ya! I guess the heading was misleading, Dress for a Wedding not Wedding Dress, certainly not MY wedding! My cousin Bonnie went to Xinjiang, China to teach English and met a guy from England a year ago, now they're getting married!! She's only 24!). Ironically, Amy was looking for a dress for her cousin's wedding as well, she intended to spend $20 but ended up spending $120 on it.. haha! We shopped around for a bit, we went for a sundae, then we went to Sunshine Deli (895 Dundas St W - 416.364.8832), where i bought a cute red vintage skirt with multi coloured butterflies for $22. Then we went to Clandestino (249 Crawford St - 647.436.4761) to check out some shoes.

8PM & 12:20AM: We dropped off our shopping, Amy made us this pesto pasta with shrimp.. then we headed off to Neutral (349 A College at Augusta in Kensington)for Eat Your Greens (Trevor and Duncan's new night after their years at Blow Up). The space was in a basement, but it's a cute space, it's nice. But it got really hott in there, so we spend most of our night outside by the steps. It was good music though, we danced and danced and danced the night away..

07.05.06.05: The Good Daughter but Feeling Bad
Finally i get to spend the day with my mother. I haven't been home for the past 3 weekends.. My sister is also back for now from Montreal. We chatted a bit this morning, she told me some stuff about Paris and how she might be moving to England next year. *Sigh* Mom and I went to Town Centre (our ritual every Sunday minus the DimSum this week). I felt kinda bleh today and i felt like being bad and spending... I bought couple tank tops and a pleasant skirt. I was going to buy more lingerie, but i've already spend $60 on lingerie on Friday.. which is kinda ridiculous really because i'm the one who sees myself in them! HA! I made veggie rice roll tonite.. it was yummy!!

Gig 44: I Predict a Riot, I Predict a Riot!!

Kaiser Chiefs // OK GO!
07.29.05.05 @ The Mod Club (722 College St - 416.588.4663)
Eileen + Elsie

A bigger venue this time, couple months ago Eileen and I saw them at El Mocombo with The Golden Dogs, Uncut and The High Dials. OKGO! was alright as usual we've seen that a few times before. The highlight of the night was when after their show they came back out and did a choreographed dance!! Brilliant! Kaiser Chiefs hailed the stage at around 11pm. They put on a high energetic show apparently it was also recorded by CBC Radio 3. Apparently our crowd was better than previous night (they played a free show the night before as Edge's Next Big Thing at same venue) and Montreal's. They were good, but being the indie snobs like we are, they're on their way out on our list.. too bad!

Film: Star Wars - Episode III: Revenge of The Sith

*** 1/4 USA. 140 min. Colour 2005. Written & Directed by George Lucas. Cast: Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Lee.

07.29.05.05 @ 3 pm Rainbow Cinema on Front St E with Eileen.

Eileen scored a pair of free movie passes for any films at Rainbow Cinema, we were meaning to go see Constantine but our schedule never worked out. We had to use them by the end of the month, since i'm staying at her place this weekend, and we have time to muck around before Kaiser Chiefs tonight.. so we've decided to see Star Wars.

This episode unfolds of how Anakin became Darth Vader. I almost forgot where the last film left off but it was an easy pick up. Of course the special effect for the film is excellent! Especially the CGI animation of Yoda. Apparently Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen had two months training in fencing and fitness in preperation for their fight sequences for the film. I was slightly disappointed at the fight sequence choreography, I recall it was lot more exciting for the other films. This instalment of the series was better than the previous two. Natalie Portman was horrible in this film, she was good in Closer but this one she was just reading the lines, she wasn't feeling it at all.