Friday, August 31, 2007

Goodnight York, Goodnight Moon



Tomorrow I move to Toronto. But tonight I sleep in York.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Wheeee!

A new fascination has taken over my free time. It is: Nintendo Wii.

My family got one (of all people, my Mother was the one behind the aquisition) and I feel that it may be the world's greatest invention. Forget medical science and communications, I can swing a Baseball bat with my remote control!


Anyways, that is my excuse for taking so long to post photos from Stratford. Now it turns out that my computer is posting photos VERY VERY slowly. So without further adieu, I present you:

The Complete Stratford Trip (abridged)

"This is the short and long of it"



"And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind."





"How poor are they that have not patience!"





"When shall we three meet again, in thunder lightening or in rain?"



"If music be the food of love, play on!"



"Come, come, good wine is a good familiar creature if it be well used"
(Alright, admitedly I had to do a google of Othello quotes to find that one)



and finally...

"Exit, pursued by a bear"

Friday, August 24, 2007

The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained

This weekend I venture to Stratford Ontario to see The Merchant of Venice, To Kill A Mockingbird and Not I. With a weekend this theatrey life is good. Another thing that makes life good: being able to put videos on blogger with relative ease! I shall have to make some sort of film celebrating this on the weekend.

In the meantime:

Monday, August 20, 2007

Friday, August 17, 2007

"Hamilton to Sudbury One Final Time" A 3 Disc set

On my roadtrip to Sudbury I am taking with me (in a sort of particular order):

Elvis Presley
Phish
The Doors
The Who
CCR
The Beatles
The Clash
Jimi Hendrix
Janis Joplin
Joni Mitchell
Simon and Garfunkl
Don Maclean
Jefferson Airplane
The Velvet Underground
Nick Drake
The Ramones
Neil Young
Bob Dylan
Coldplay
The Eels
The Shins
The Flaming Lips
Greenday
Stars
Fiona Apple
Iron and Wine
The Dresden Dolls
Feist
Tegan and Sara
Metric
The Arcade Fire
Johnny Cash
June Carter
Wolf Parade
Dave Matthews
Tim Reynolds
The Dears
You Say Party We Say Die
The Dixie Chicks
the rest of The Dave Matthews Band
Ani DiFranco
The Decemberists
The White Stripes
Gnarls Barkley
Cat Power
Joanna Newsom
The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Modest Mouse
They Might Be Giants

Mmmmmmm mix CDs.

See you on a Sudbury Saturday night!

Sunday, August 12, 2007

I can still remember how that music used to make me smile



Ah the Festival of Friends; Hamilton's annual time travel to the 1960s/70s. This year my family made our annual trip, this time to see one concert in particular:



The small figure in the dark that you can't make out is Don Maclean. He's one of, what I call, the "Trip to Virginia Artists". Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Don Maclean make up an elite lot whose music I memorized on long car trips with my family. He played all of the songs I'm most fond of ("Castles Made of Sand", "Vincent" and his cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying") and some other big long song that I guess is sort of famous :P

I tried to add a sound clip, but as my luck would have it, it's not working. Blah. I will share it when I figure out how.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

This one time at camp...

Famous Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Tim Horton once said "They pay me to practice. I play for free". I adapted this saying during my days at Lakewood to "They pay me for pre-camp. I'm a counselor for free". Well I finally followed through and volunteered at Woodeden Easter Seal Camp for the Teen Session. I can't think of a better way to have spent the past 12 days.

Camp regulations prevent me from posting a number of photographs, but since Elliot's no longer a camper...



I used to have to be the one that bent down to hug in our picutres! The fairy wings are a gift from him for my role as "Hang time floater fairy".

Best moments of the camp:

1) Camper Codey telling me in broken-up speech that he won't come back next summer if I don't.
2) Camper Harry and I protesting Verbal Communication with a silent sit-in. It might have been my idea, but I think Harry was all for it.
3) This one is for Mike and Elliot: "You may have won this round Cerebral Palsy, but next time you won't be so lucky, mwa ha ha ha!". Mike in the midst of a spasm cried out "Damn you CP" I consequently turned this into a daily ritual of trying to smite CP with various schemes but being thwarted time and time again with cries of "Damn you Cerebral Palsy!"
4) Having the campers in Cabin Orange set up a "Liz duty" to guard me from stealing the tidy cabin flag.
5) Being trapped half-way across the zip line on the ropes course (suspended 50ish feet in the air) with my campers laughing hysterically at me.

More stories to follow (brace yourselves).
Hope everyone had a good week and a bit. It feels like it's been longer. That's camp for you! "The bubble convinces us that there was nothing before and nothing after."



*****************

OK, so uncamp-related. I had to add this. It's from a Facebook group called "The Mrs Weasley Appreciation Group". DO NOT join this group if you haven't finished reading book 7. It will spoil a big part of it for you. Just enjoy this picture, which can be appreciated by all: