Tuesday, June 29, 2010

The end of an era

Hey everyone,

I've been doing a lot of thinking about these challenges and the blog in general. It has definitely been a fun eight weeks, but I feel like I might have moved on. When I started this, I was in need of something different, but now I'm getting busier with work and with various classes that I'm taking and there doesn't seem to be a place for this blog anymore. I don't want this to turn into something I don't enjoy doing and it has been starting to go down that road lately, so I think I'm going to call it quits for a bit. I might do the odd challenge here and there, but this isn't going to be a weekly blog anymore.

Thank you so much for following over the past few weeks! It was really fun to share this with you.

Love you all!

Friday, June 25, 2010

Being nice really pays

And by pays, I mean gives you free stuff. I was in the vegan grocery store, Panacea on Bloor today and I ended up talking to the owner for like 20 minutes. She was super nice and gave me a free Chocolate Amaranth Bar, which I happen to love! It's not like I was being nice so that I would get free stuff, but I know for a fact that if I wasn't just as nice to her as she was to me, I would not currently be eating the delicious combination of chocolate and Amaranth!

Yay kindess!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

L-A-Z-Y

Hey everyone,

Sorry for my laziness this week. I guess No Internet Week got me out of blogging mode.

Speaking of last week, I can't figure out my scanner, so I've taken pictures of last week's posts. Here they are!



So Kindness Week is going full force. I'm busting out my best Prairie niceness this week. I don't want to toot my proverbial horn, so I won't regale you all with the niceties of this week, haha. Much too awkward. I'll just say that lots of doors have been opened for people, several directions have been given, and I've smiled at A LOT of strangers.

**CONTEST TIME**

Tell me something nice/helpful you did this week. The person with the nicest story wins! I haven't decided on a prize, but you win!

Ta ta!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Back online!

Hey everyone,

I'm back!! It was a great week in many ways, but I am very glad to be back. I wrote my blog by hand this week, so I'll try to figure out my scanner and post those later today. If I can't figure it out (very likely) I'll take a picture or something, haha. Stay tuned!

On to this week. It's getting increasingly harder to come up with new challenges. If you think of anything that would be good for a challenge, please let me know! The past few challenges have been focused solely on me, so this week I want to do focus my challenge on other people. It's going to be a week of going out of my way to help or do something nice for other people. Whether that's helping someone who is lost on the street or helping someone move or anything else. I don't really know how this week is going to play out. Everyday will be different, but that's a good thing.

Any suggestions? Feel free to comment on this post.

Pip pip cheerio!

Monday, June 14, 2010

I'm too old for this

Concert week is over. It's been great, but man am I tired. I've had late nights every night of this week. I'm going to bed at nine tomorrow, ha.

This afternoon was the Bloor Street Festival where Bloor Street, from Bathurst to Spadina, was filled with performers and local vendors selling food and an assortment of other things. I watched a great band from Mexico. They were from Veracruz, where I visited with Up With People. It was a really fun show. I was transported back to Veracruz, minus the humidity.

Tonight, I saw the band Peggy Sue at Sneaky Dee's. I wasn't too keen on going at first because I was tired and had already seen a concert today, but I'm so glad I did. They're from London, England. There is no one named Peggy Sue in the band. They are Katy Young, Rosa Slade, and Olly Joyce. It was a fabulous show. I'm too tired to articulate my thoughts about the concert, other than that I really enjoyed it. Check them out!



This has been a great week. I love live music! This was a very social week, but I feel like next week will be quite different. It's No Internet Week. Drop me a line so I'm not too bored. I'm going to write my blog on paper and then scan them to post next Monday. Don't miss me too much!

Love you!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Such a good week!

Hey everyone,

Sorry for not blogging this week. My mind has just recovered from being blown by all of the amazing concerts this week. This has been such a great week!

On Thursday, I saw the Choir of St. Chad's College from Durham, England. Oh how I love choral music. I forgot how much I love it. They sounded great. Actually I think it would be hard to sound bad with the amazing acoustics at the Metropolitan United Church, so then they sounded especially good. I learned that there are free concerts at the Met every Thursday at noon, so I will likely be taking advantage of that. It was a nice little break in the middle of the day. I was really glad to have an afternoon show because I was already getting tired from going out the past three nights and I knew I had three more to go.

On Friday, I went with some friends to see a band from our very own York University, The East End Lovelies. It's funk/hip hop/pop (according to their Myspace) and really energetic. It was quite a fun show!

And then came last night. One of the best musical nights of my life. I went to see one of my all time favorite bands, First Aid Kit. I'll start with their opening acts and leave the glory that is First Aid Kit for last.

The first act was a girl whose name I never did catch, so this is kind of a pointless review. She had a bit of a rocky start; there were some problems with the sound, but she ended up recovering and gave a great show.

The next act was Samantha Crain and her band from Oklahoma. They were a pleasant surprise. Samantha had such a beautiful, unique voice and they were such a treat to watch/hear. I would definitely see them again if I had the chance! One song had a kazoo. Clearly amazing. As I said in my first concert post, I love discovering new bands when they open for bands I already love. Here are some videos of Samantha Crain. Enjoy!





Now onto First Aid Kit. I'm borderline obsessed with them, ha. They were so great live. They are just lovely people. They're Swedish and it's already common knowledge that I love Sweden. Klara and Johanna Söderberg are a sister act from Stockholm. They have created some of the most beautiful and complexly simple harmonies I have ever heard. They have been gathering fans for the past few years mainly from their videos on Youtube and are currently on their first American (and Canadian) tour. A few months ago, I never would have thought I'd be seeing them live, so I'm very happy I got the chance to see them.

Here are a few of their videos. Check them out. Love them. Enjoy!







One more concert tonight! I'll post it when I get home, because starting tomorrow, it's No Internet Week! Scary!

Love ya!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Three cheers for live music!

Hey everyone,

Yes I know, I'm behind by a day. Cool your jets. I've just been so busy seeing shows..

On Tuesday, I went to the Rex with Iris to hear some great jazz. I think the band was called the Chris Gale Quartet. We didn't catch all of them, but after their set was over, there was a jam where anyone could come up and play. That was really cool. This girl who was maybe 18 came up and started singing Bye Bye Blackbird with the most perfect jazz voice ever. I recorded it, but I can't upload it for some reason. Dammit Internet, you fail me again. Just imagine it.


Last night was a real treat. I got to see She & Him at the Sound Academy with a bunch of friends. For those of you who are behind on the times, She & Him is a duo of Zooey Deschanel (She) and M. Ward (Him). You might know Zooey Deschanel from the movie 500 Days of Summer where she starred as Summer. And you might know M. Ward from just being amazing. (M. stands for Matthew, by the way. We were trying to guess this all night.)

They were wonderful. They sounded great live and had tons of energy. I did, however, get a touch of a diva-vibe from them. They made us check our cameras at the door and only talked to us like three times. The first was to ask how to pronounce Toronto, the second was to tell people not to use flash, and the third was to talk about the weather. Their energy and music made up for it.

The opening act was a bit awkward. They were the Chapin Sisters. I wanted to like them. They sang interesting songs with interesting harmonies, which usually I really like and find very ... interesting, but I don't think they achieved it as well as they maybe could. One really weird thing was that Zooey came out and sang back up on one of their songs. I've never seen the main act sing back up for the opening. But it was kind of cute because they sang back up for She & Him.

It was really crowded and super loud, but we were under the speakers for most of it, which didn't help. We somehow managed to get right to the front of the stage. By the end, we were second from the front. I'm impressed that we weaseled our way all the way up there.

Overall, it was a really fun concert and I'm really glad I went. I don't have any documentation of the concert because they checked my camera, but I'll post a few of their music videos. Enjoy!

Melissa