bone in sub

i just listened to sibelius and brahms for 2 hours while drinking classy things. then i put on some david bowie really loud, it blew my mind

winter break: spent a ton of time with my family and worked a lot. got a bathroom scale and pull-up bar and some clothes and money, which is basically everything i wanted.

i’m excited about and also not looking forward to my last (16th!) semester of school. there are some easy classes (guitar, music recording), a class i have no idea how i’m doing (film), i have to practice a TON, and i’m going to spend more time downtown than at home.

i intended to do my christmas shopping on tuesday the 23rd, but i ended up watching the entire first season of 30rock. i can’t believe i didn’t start watching this show earlier. as a result i had to do all my shopping on christmas eve, a day i was working. on my 1-hour lunch break i ran to the eaton centre and bought everybody presents, and got back right on time, incredible!

i keep making meals that require 20-40 minutes of unattended cooking and stand up to go back to the kitchen right when the timer goes off. uncanny…

for the unknownth year in a row i’m leaving christmas shopping until the 24th. it’s so much fun being in a store/mall/city full of angry people and be relaxed and enjoying it. the only thing is i’m working all day tomorrow, so i have an hour in the middle of the day to both eat lunch and buy all my gifts. maybe some time at the end of the day if i have a ‘layover’ before i have to catch the train.

google web alerts and blog alerts email me whenever there’s a new hit for my name, and this morning this is in my inbox. i didn’t know about this until i read the email. sweet

and last night i got an email finalizing another gig…playing roy thompson hall with evelyn glennie and the TSO next month. also sweet.

30 rock is really, really funny.

fun weekend at work. saturday night we stayed after we closed, ordered pizza and drank beer, and then went out to karaoke. different karaoke place than i usually go to, in dragon city mall. 90% of their songs were in chinese and it was really hard to find any good english songs, but we found some good ones. someone in our party knew the owner of the place so everything was free, amazing.

we left at around 2am and i had taken the subway (which was now closed) so i figured i might as well stay downtown and get into trouble so a few of us went tobogganing in the middle of a sweet snowstorm. riverdale has the sweetest hill and plasticor makes the sweetest sleds.

during actual work hours this weekend was funny too:

• kind of strung-out looking guy comes in and immediately starts telling us that the tooth fairy and santa claus don’t exist. he buys some paint and when comes up to the front he smells extremely strongly of diapers. washed my hands after that.
• folks with accents (not sure where from) come in and ask “you sell calling cards, right?”. we sell easels, canvas, paint, brushes, all stuff in that category. i make sure i heard them right and then tell them no, and they’re surprised: “7-11 said you did.” WHAT?!
• immediately after this, guy comes in, walks down an aisle (seeing things like markers and paint) and walks back up and loudly asks “HEY, YOU GUYS HAVE TOASTERS??” WHAT?!?
• homeless guy with a giant backpack and sheets of cardboard comes in, stares at me for like 20 seconds while i stare back, and then goes “what time you guys close.” i answer him and he waits a minute, then goes “you guys are creepy.” and leaves.

i just watched independence day for the first time in at least 10 years. what a great (bad) movie, really fun to watch and also to make fun of.
“is mommy sleeping?”
“yeah….mommy’s…..sleeping….

i recorded bluegrass-style string bass overdubs today for about 9 hours – 8 songs total. the degree to which “1, 5, 1, 5, 5, 2, 5, 2,” (with slaps in between) is stuck in my head is MINDBLOWING. i will be thinking rudimentary cadences for weeks. this is insane.

a few of the songs are decidedly set in the southern US during the summer. listening to them over and over while watching a mild blizzard out the window was quite the trip.

i like working in the studio, but the aftereffects are devastating. well not devastating, but honestly this is off-the-charts levels of ‘stuck in head’.

right now i’m sending my mom more episodes of “True Blood” which is especially funny to me.

i’m making radio edits of mixtapes so i can play them at work tomorrow. i’m particularly excited about the avalanches’ “when i met you“. i did this with two fabriclive albums (dj yoda and spank rock) last month, totally worth it. the problem with making radio edits is…i spend so much time with the music that it’s not as cool when i play it in the store all day.

i’ve been getting a huge amount of wrong numbers lately, like twice a day. i love it, especially when people are definitely expecting a different language or gender and call back right away and i go “nope, sorry, still wrong number) when i pick up. they either hang up right away or laugh really awkwardly. i bet someone that hates me put some fake ad on craigslist or something.

tons of snow, snowmageddon, bla bla bla. i like the wicked drift that FILLED my doorway though:

i also love the stupid camaraderie between cyclists when the weather’s crazy inclement, today some old hippie riding the other way on bloor st. gave me a big “YEE-HAW!!!!” when i passed him (only other person on a bike i saw all day). i really do like it when it snows a lot even though my feet get wet and i have to take the subway, mainly because everyone gets even grumpier while i stay quite content. people in general are just whiny.

i blew my nose yesterday and it was just a big explosion of blood. whoa

my sleeping went back to normal last week and it’s “weird”. i know this is the way people are supposed to be, but after 2 months of the most insane sleeping habits it feels strange sitting here, awake, at 11am. i had a strong feeling of “ughh i’m going to feel so crazy today” a couple minutes ago until i realized that 1) i had NOT been awake all night, and so i wouldn’t feel crazy when i went to school/work/whatever and 2) i don’t have any school/work/whatever to go to today! awesome.

every episode of cops has three segments. these segments fall into one of five categories:

* evading: someone running from police, either on foot or in a car. they always end up having felony warrants or a gun or a bunch of drugs. pretty boring, but the cameraman has such a wicked job.

* domestic: trashy couples arguing, usually obese or methheads. i skip these, yeugh

* public disturbances: prostitutes in vegas or drunk homeless people

* traffic stops: if it doesn’t turn into an evading, it might be someone with contraband or warrants, or maybe they eat a bunch of drugs (funny), or sometimes they have awesome stories about where they just came from.

*awesome things: finding a body, cops getting in fights, undercover busts, serving subpoenas, scary guys on PCP

i pick up and say hello:

“hi…uhhh…excuse me, one moment”
i’m put on hold
“ah, hello, i’m not even sure who i’m talking to. hmm, ok, you called for tree removal this morning?” no “well this is 647-869-9830?” yes, that is my phone number “then you are a spanish interpreter?” no. “ok well, thank you!”

amazing. i finally have money again after 3 weeks of buying food on my credit card, and i’ve been relaxing all week. FEELS GOOD!

i am soooo excited for terminator 4! somehow the batcycle survived judgement day and batman is still alive to ride it away from terminators?

i watched deadwood this summer and enjoyed it. three shows i’m watching and enjoying right now have main characters from deadwood. this is awesome:

frances walcott becomes

cromartie (terminator tv)

eb farnum becomes

sheriff dearborne (true blood)

cy tolliver becomes

noah daniels (24)

i thought my film exams were going to be on thursday/friday. imagine my surprise when i get an email from TA on monday night reminding everyone they’re going to be on tuesday and thursday! i didn’t even try to watch the 18 movies that i was supposed to, but i feel like i did pretty well for never having seen any of the movies i wrote essays about.

on tuesday morning i was riding to school, and i had left early for once so i rode slowly. i wasn’t doing any work and wasn’t sweating when i got there, but it felt like 10 minutes. the slower i go the faster the ride seems?

couple classes and a concert and it’s winter break! i’m going to work out as much as i can and get started on my recital rep.