The National: Love At First Sound

The National: Matt Berninger, Aaron & Bryce Dessner, Scott & Bryan Devendorf

The National are an "indie" rock band you can feel good about loving and sharing. Sometimes I feel like a pretentious music snob when I talk about indie artists. I can't stand those hipsters who hate on their favourite bands once they achieve mainstream success. When I talk about The National I feel far removed from that scene. Whether music snobs like it or not The National's music is meant to move the masses.

I remember the first time I heard Ohio Bloodbuzz. The first ten seconds of drums was enough to make me instantly purchase the album.   The band was doing on interview on CBC radio the day after performing their second sold out show at Massey Hall.

How had I not heard of them before? Ohio Bloodbuzz was the first single off their fifth studio album High Violet.  It seems I'm not alone in this, because as successful as The National have become they still have a cult like indie fan base. I don't think I've ever heard them on a mainstream music station. That's not to say that the CBC isn't mainstream, but nobody listen's to CBC Radio 1 for it's music content. I even introduced my indie rock loving friends to them. A serious first.

I was hoping and preying that they would be on the bill at Bonarroo this year. They're not. I can't remember the last time I felt so desperate to see a band live. This is the problem with discovering an artist right after they've performed in your city.

My pathetic desperation led me to check out their website 
http://www.americanmary.com/ in hopes that maybe they'd be playing anywhere within driving distance. My dreams of seeing them live anytime soon are fading buy my respect for them is growing.

Near the end of an excellent and fairly long official biography, lead singer and lyricist Matt Berninge says something truly amazing."I prefer misquotes to the actual lyrics. It gives the songs more dimensions when people hear something else."

The National are about making music that matters not just to them but to their consumers, their fans - the people who really matter. As a music fan I often misquote lyrics and then become disappointed to discover I had a key word wrong. One word can change the entire meaning of a song. Matt's lack of ego and self importance as a lyricist allows everyone to find true connection to the band and their songs in there own unique way. His baritone voice can literally swallow your soul if you let it.

Sometimes I Like To Relive This Memory

I filmed this on September 16th 2009. U2 was performing Until The End of The World (and then Stay) at the Roger's Centre when Bono decided to take a tumble and lay down on the stage right infront of Steph and I. Clearly, I couldn't contain myself as you can tell from my screaming.

Amazing day. Amazing concert. I took those pictures of the CN Tower that day.

Next show I'm dancing on stage with Bono. You can count on it.

Heat Wave In The Middle of Winter.

http://www.bikramyogavacations.com/images/p3260358_klein.jpg

January is about the time of year when I start thinking "get me the fuck out of this country."

Toronto's a dark, snowy, slushy, salty mess. The past few days I've been part daydreaming, part planning, part hallucinating about going somewhere warm and buying a house and never coming back. Alright, I'd come back for the summer, because who am I kidding, even in paradise I would miss the CN Tower.

Running away to a tropical beach isn't always in the cards. There's work, money, feasible travel dates and actually having a passport to consider. But, that doesn't mean you can't work up a sweat just by laying around in Toronto.

A few days ago I took my first Bikram Yoga class in two years. It's an hour and a half class in a room that's almost 40 degree Celsius. The only condition upon taking the class is that  you have to stay in the room the full 90 minutes. Even if you can't complete the poses and just lay there. Trust me, if you've never tried this type of yoga before you will be laying down for much of your first class.

While you're laying there feeling like you're going to suffocate you will long for the cold, crisp and fresh winter air.  A new appreciation for winter will be found.

It's a great way to escape the winter blues, turn off your mind and get that blast of warmth you crave. It's also a reminder that summer heat has it's flaws too. Especially, when you don't have air conditioning and need to take 3 showers a day just to attempt to stay cool.

It's the Canadian predisposition to complain about the weather in all circumstances. Sorry Mother Nature, I guess you're out of luck, eh.

Winter Time Is Here

On Saturday morning for just a brief few hours snow fell on city of Toronto. Throughout the day the ground was dusted in white. It provide for some nice pictures in Grange Park. Later in the day we also took some pictures in the beautiful Distillery District.

Russell Peters Entertains The Grads

Here’s a portrait of your standard graduation ceremony:

Pomp and Circumstance.
Boring introductions.
Boring academic charging of the graduates.
Bad public address by the honourary graduate.
Awards that I never win.
The granting of the degrees/diplomas/certificate.
Joyous relief that you can leave the room.

Simply put 2-3 hours of torture so you can spend two seconds walking across the stage and take a million photographs of yourself in an unflattering cap in gown.

A few months ago I received an email with a date of the ceremony and one other small minor detail.

Lots of very talented performers come from the Greater Toronto Area so it should not have been a surprise that one of them was chosen to receive an honourary degree at my graduation from Humber College.

Russell Peters would be there.

At first I thought he wouldn’t come. I was sure that my professional fandom luck wasn’t that good.

But there he was on the stage providing the comic relief as only he could.

Being from Brampton and getting kicked out of college after a month, I guess it was quiet a special thing for him to receive a degree for doing absolutely no academic work.

His message to us was stereotypical yet inspiring in its unique delivery.

“Never do anything only to make money, do it because you love it.”

And as the graduates of the Comedic Performance Program received there diplomas Russell stood and shook the hand of every one of them.

Some random other graduates stopped to greet him as they walked across the stage and I had planned to do the same.

I do describe myself as a professional crazed fan. How could I pass up this golden opportunity to be meet a celebrity without being a total creeper?

Well, the truth of the matter is I chickened out. As the girl before me walked across the stage a voice from the audience yelled “THAT’S MY SISTER” and under his breath Russell said “why don’t you get your sisters name then” in a annoyed tone.

My nerve was gone. He was probably itching to get off that stage, and we were only half way through the graduates.

I settled for some solid eye contact and a smile from Russell. I made my way across the stage and back to my seat just thankful that the comic didn’t find something to make fun of me about.

I regretted my decision as soon as every one of the PR grads got a hug from him. A HUG. Suddenly, a handshake didn’t seem like such an inconvenience.

I made the right decision. He was on stage with 20 other people who I felt no need to interact with. Russell Peters may be a world famous comedian, but for those few hours he was just another Humber graduate. I’m glad that I treated him as such.

I'm not so good at this blogging thing.

Alright Blog, I admit it, I suck.

I've outright failed at my attempt to blog on a consistent basis.

but when one fails you must pick yourself up, dust yourself off and try again.

So here I ago. with an attempt to blog more often.

In September I nabbed a six month internship funded by the CCCO (otherwise known as Work in Culture).

Little did I know that another Intern at Canada's National Ballet School would have the bright idea to host a little conference to get all us interns and mentors together.

Yesterday we all gathered at the beautiful NBS on Jarvis and I was fortunate to meet some pretty cool people.

One being Karen Whaley, who inspired me to start blogging again by talking about her own blogs http://www.sayitwithpie.com/ and http://www.bemoreblog.com/ the latter which is about her personal training journey. I will be reading it with interest since I've also recently started on that journey. I'm sure we'll share some laughs.

To networking and forming meaningful connections (Margaret would be proud).

Perez Hilton One Night In Toronto

I won tickets for Perez Hilton One Night in Toronto. 


GREAT, except I don't really like any of the acts and only really want to go because it's free.


Problem is it's Sunday night. So aside from having to leave the family fathers day get together early, I'd also have to go to work hung over in the morning.


Is it worth going? 


I can't decide.

MUTEMATH for Music Monday

If it's good enough for twitter it's good enough for Defining Smaller. I hereby declare all Mondays to be Music Mondays. I promise I will try to keep the U2 down. I do have other musical interest, although so far they haven't come out much.

Do you listen to New Rock or Alt Rock? Have you heard of MUTEMATH? If you haven't, check them out.

I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing them preform at VFEST Ontario last year. They were on the same bill as Nine Inch Nails and played a short mid afternoon set. In fact, I think that they only played four songs. I'd never heard of them before that day, but that set ended up being on of my favourite performances of the whole festival. 20 minutes was enough to convince me to buy both their self titled debut album and their follow up Armistice.

Of course, I listened to the albums a few times and never really got into either of them. Plus, the new rock station in Toronto doesn't play their music so I kind of forgot about them. (Yo, Alan Cross - I know you know who they are. Play them on The Edge).

Fast forward a few months. My father purchases a new car and with that comes a free subscription to satellite radio - What's this? MUTEMATH is all over the alternative stations. I guess they are kind of popular. And they should be.

I started listening to Armistice again. Articulated on it is the anger and devastation that all New Oreleans residents are feeling post Katrina.  It's a beautiful, interesting and engaging album that leaves you wanting to replay it over and over again. If you a twihard you'll recognize Spotlight from the first twilight soundtrack.

Tracks by them you should check out include: Spotlight,  Typical and The Nerve.

I Have A Professional Athlete Addiction

Growing up I was always playing or watching sports.  Baseball, in particular has been a main stay in my life for as long as I can remember. It was how I bonded with my dad. We'd watch Blue Jays games at home and if I was lucky he would get tickets from a client, and we'd make the hour trip to the SkyDome to see them in action. I would not change those memories for anything.

As a child my favourite players were always picked by who was the "best" on the team or who my dad like. However, as I got older this began to change.

Being female it didn't take me long to realize that professional athletes tend to be, ummm, rather attractive. My interest in sports suddenly was very swayed by this fact. In fact, I became obsessed with a new sport when I was 14 - Basketball.

Yup, the raptors suddenly became my centre of my universe, because Morris Peterson, became the centre of my crazy fantasy love life. I LOVED LOVED LOVED Morris Peterson and everyone knew it. I was devastated when he left for New Orleans as a free agent in 2007.

But, I quickly got over it.

My fantasy love life switched back the Blue Jays as Troy Glaus, followed by Alex Rios became the objects of my unrealistic desires. But then they both left and now all I'm left with is outdated jerseys and memories of my crazy fandom.

My problem is I feel no particular attraction to any of the current Blue Jays or Raptors. But the Raptors seem to get around 7 new players every year, so there is hope. And I think Travis Snider shows promise on the Jays side. Plus we're the same age - hello not so completely unrealistic fantasy.

So with the World Cup starting today, don't be surprised if my allegiance switches from Germany to which ever team has the hottest player. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a cute smile, hot body and millions of dollars.

A Rant about the G20 Summit

Last time I checked over 3 million people lived in Toronto. However, During the last weekend in June the thoughts, feelings and plans of these people matter less to the City of Toronto and the Canadian Government then the bug Steven Harper squashed as he walked into work this morning.

Why, why, why would any city choose to host the G20 Summit? It feels more like a punishment then a privilege.

• Those who live downtown need security passes just to get into their homes. 
• $2 million spent on security fences.
• Cell phone jammers.
• We can't fly kites.
• The Art Gallery of Ontario is shutting down for the weekend.
• The CN Tower is closing.
• Traveling out of Union station will be a nightmare.
• The lack of insurance coverage for riot damage.
• The Bluejays had to move their games to the opposing team field denying fans the chance to see Roy Halladay pitch in the SkyDome again.
• The $57,000.00 fake lake. ummmm will the real Lake Ontario please stand up?

Can't you world leaders just meet on Skype and save everyone a lot of time and money?

I would protest, but the delegates won't notice. However, the rest of the world will see Toronto look more like a war zone than the city I love. No marketing pavilion will fix that.

My Personal Brand is U2

One of the first people learn about me is my deep love for U2. The music created by Adam, Bono, Edge and Larry inspires, comforts and defines my life on a daily basis.

Defining Smaller is a perfect example. The main picture of the CN Tower was taken at the U2 concert on September 16th 2009. You can see the edge of stage on the left hand side of the picture. Moreover, I've already mentioned Bono a bunch of time and this is only my tenth post. 

I'm proud of my wealth of knowledge about the band and the things I've accomplished because of their inspiration. It's easy for me to talk about and allows for easy conversation when talking with relative strangers.

When a new connection finds out about U2 and I it sparks a range of questions that allow for easy engagement:

Why U2?

Honestly I don't know. It started in high school because I loved the songs Beautiful Day and Elevation. I stole my sisters Best of 1990-2000 and The Joshua Tree and the rest is history

Favourite song?

In A Little While 

Favourite Album?

Achtung Baby!

Favourite member?

Adam Clayton

How many times have you seen them live? twice in 2005 and twice in 2009.

Even if the person I'm talking to hate U2 or hates Bono it allows me to 

engage in easy and interesting conversation. Normally, I ask why and listen to them with interest. I don't expect everyone to love what I do and respect their opinions (unless they Bono bash without a decent reason).

Most of the time people I talk to have the same passion for another artist. If that passion is there, it's easy to make a meangiful and memorable connect with someone that could transform into a great friendship. 

How To Destroy Nine Inch Nails

I have nothing but love and respect for Trent Reznor. The music he's created with Nine Inch Nails changed, saved and defines some very key moments in my life.

                                                                                                            

When he announced last summer that Nine Inch Nails would be touring for the last time I was lucky enough to see them twice in three months. At their very last Canadian date at VFest on August 30th 2009 I stood from 8:30am till 11:30pm just to be in the front row. Trust me it was worth it.

As NIN drew to a close many fans wondered what would become of the band and the man that created the music that mattered so much to them. We knew he wouldn't disappear forever, and of course he didn't.

It seems that Trent has finally grown up completely. He married former West Indian Girl front woman Mariqueen Maandig and together with Atticus Ross they formed a new band How To Destroy Angels.

First thought. What a lame name, but I guess this really doesn't matter. It's all about the music right?

Then came the first sample of their music:


Right of the bat, I'm not impressed. The last thing I want to see is one of my favourite musicians dead on floor while his wife whines about how hard it is to be famous. I acknowledge fame is tough, but it's a choice to live in the lime light, don't complain.

You can get the rest of the album Here. It's free and you if you have any interest in NIN's music you will probably like like it.

As for myself, I don't exactly hate the EP but I don't really like it either. It's basically a Nine Inch Nails album with a different singer. It would have been nice to see Trent step out of his comfort zone a little and create an album that departed more from The Slip (which you can also get for free Here).

The Slip had to grow on me and I think maybe the first EP from How To Destroy Angles will too. Either way I'm happy that Trent is still creating music.

Everyone Wants To Be A Writer

All right. I will admit I’m a little late to this blogging thing.

That is not to say I haven’t attempted to start a blog before.

I have. I had zero followers. I wrote two posts, then I quit.

That trend ends here!

It’s time for some self-reflection in my life. It’s time to share my thoughts with the vast world of the Internet.

It’s time to start developing my personal brand.

My goal is to post an entry here every day for the next month. I would say year… but who am I kidding? Setting goals you can meet are essential for developing confidence. I know this because I am a goal oriented person. I have never set a realistic goal that I haven’t met.

Have you heard of Robert Kiyosaki? He’s the author of Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!. A book that I’ve recently read and it has changed the way I think about life and money.

Robert says you shouldn’t work for money; money should work for you. So in your profession you work for money, but in your business money works for you.

In my case, my profession is Fundraiser.

My business? Well that’s less defined. I want my business to revolve around the entertainment industry (music and sports). I figure a good way to start making this my business is to write about it. Hell, I spend most of my days talking about entertainment anyway.

Now all that's left to do is sit back and enjoy the ride...