Foxymoron

Much birthday? Much Forgotten

Wouldn't it suck if you were turning 20-years-old and no one noticed. That's what happened to MuchMusic. Remember our nation's music station? Apparently it's out of the teenage years and into the twenties. But the only one celebrating is MuchMusic itself.

But as their own on-air celebrations came on the screen, all the happiness and ego-boosting comments referred to what I think of as the good ole days of MuchMusic. The days before Much in Your Space, Fandemonium, Newlyweds and those other shows that have barely anything to do with music. Back in the day it was Steve Anthony, Erica Ehm, Michael Williams, Sook-Yin Lee and Master T who were keeping it real. Back then Much was good because it wasn't like MTV. It was live and the VJs were doing real interviews with musicians. The programming and the personalities were true to music. Now, it's the opposite. MM is almost a carbon copy of MTV and with the bland personalities of its VJs (minus George), I can't tell if Much has become crappy or if I've just outgrown it.

I secretly hope that MM's current state is one of those teenage phases. Perhaps MuchMusic will do some maturing in its twenties and come into its own.

Links:
"Master T Explains His Success" — an article I wrote a long time ago right before Master T left MuchMusic.

Gmail

Announced way back on April 1st, Gmail has been the topic of webgeek conversations for months now. I don't really know what I wanted one so badly since I have numerous e-mail accounts to begin with. However, does your Hotmail account have 1,000 megabytes of storage space? I didn't think so. Besides, who would you trust more: Microsoft or Google?

I finally got invited to the cool club of Gmail users today. Since andreachiu at gmail dot com was already taken, I had to settle for andreachiu80 at gmail dot com. You can find me there, but all "professional" matters should be directed to andrea at foxymoron dot org.

As soon as I sent my first e-mail from the Gmail account, I got six invitations to send out. So for anyone reading this send me an e-mail at my Gmail account if you would like one of these invitations. First come first served! See, there are perks to reading this blog.

Toronto music weekend

Is it terribly un-cool and un-Toronto to be perfectly happy spending the second Saturday in a row, home in bed watching a movie? I don't care. I'm content and exhausted so I am avoiding the Hidden Cameras show even though it would have been wonderful to hear them with the background of rain falling.

My aging body is incapable of absorbing more than three live shows in one week anyway. Last night it was Broken Social Scene at Harbourfront. It seemed any Torontonian remotely interested in music was present, thanks to Sarah Liss' NOW cover story about this show = final show. Forever. Half of Toronto can now say they were there to see it end, (psst, I don't think it's the end). Anyway, it was a party on stage and BSS were awesome — what I saw of them anyway.

On Thursday I found myself inside a packed Mod Club Theatre for the subject of Eye's cover story, the lovely Miss Ivana Santilli. Unfortunately, this CD release party for Corduroy Boogie was nothing compared to her Lava Lounge performance in July. We were surrounded by stoic non-clappers — no one bobbed their head. Not even once. The only thing worse than an unenthusiastic audience member is an industry audience member. It's easy to pick them out. He's the one holding a drink and talking very loudly about how far the performer has come from when he first met her. Throughout the entire set. Yes, tall bald asshole in the red shirt, I'm glaring at you.

All angst is gone now. I'm looking forward to my afternoon tea with LL at "Tequila Mockingbird" and the sweet sounds of King Cobb Steelie. I am crossing my fingers for a Tamara Williamson appearance during their set. I still get chills thinking about the first time I saw her on the stage of C'est What (R.I.P.) with all those fancy pedals.

And if the weekend of wonderful live (and mostly free) music isn't enough for you (and why should it be?), Sarah Slean is back on the scene. After her emergence from the woods and her performance at the Rivoli, I was slightly worried that she returned to the melodramatic sounds of Universe and earlier work. But swing over to her website and listen to the title track of her upcoming CD, Day One and you'll hear that she has the pop hooks ready for battle. Then watch her video for the lead single, "Lucky Me."

That's enough about the Toronto music weekend. It's time to watch some gay French film.

The Ron McLean Fan Club

Over a week into the Olympics and I haven't written a single thing about the games. This doesn't mean I haven't been paying attention. In fact, I have spent many hours glued to the CBC. Yesterday, was no exception.

I thought, I hoped it was going to be Golden Tuesday, as soon as Lori Ann Muenzer advanced to the gold medal cycling match. There was Alexandre Despatie who was in first place going into his springboard final, the baseball team was playing the Cubans for a birth in the gold medal game, and of course, Canada's track and field sweetheart, Perdita Felicien was to run for gold in the 100 m final.

But we all know how that turned out.

I watched it live. A shocking horror of flailing limbs from the one person we thought of all people, would bring athletic glory to Canada. Then, within a twenty minute timespan, not only did Perdita fall, but Despatie missed a dive and the baseball team gave up six runs. Everything came undone.

It had to be a historic hour for Canadian sports and thank God it was Ron McLean at the helm, guiding us in and out of the sports. Although sometimes unpredictable, and frustratingly without a concrete schedule, CBC has impressed me with their programming. McLean did a wonderful job of interviewing Felicien this morning.

She is a class act and I really wanted her to win. But like all true class acts take things in stride, she may be right, it just wasn't her night. Perhaps we'll meet in Beijing. She the 28-year-old gold medal hurdler, and I the 28-year-old journalist reporting for the CBC. Hey, we all have our dreams.

Links: Aaron Wherry writes "Why TV is best served live: CBC brought home the gold, the silver and the gasp" in today's National Post.

Murmur in the city

[Murmur], the focus of my magazine feature last year, launched in the Annex this week. Eye has the details in its latest edition. The [Murmur] website has also been updated with a new map of where you can find its signs in that neighbourhood. The website also has audio clips of the stories but the real experience occurs on the streets.

If you haven't heard about this cool project, it's basically a collection of audio stories on the street. Throughout Kensington Market and now the Annex, you might come across small green signs posted on lamp posts. These signs have a telephone number. When you dial it, enter the code from the sign and treat your ears to personal stories that happened at that location.

The sights and sounds highlighted by [Murmur] reminds me of the romanticism of walking around the city. Last month, I walked around Queen West's alleyways to find a secret swing. I'm envious of people who live downtown surrounded by these underground stories and random treasures everyday. I could easily slip into a rant about suburbia, but shall refrain. Instead, read [Murmur] co-creator and self-described Toronto flaneur, Shawn Micallef's article in Spacing magazine, "Get Lost in the City." When you're done, go out for a walk in your neighbourhood.

Under a Darkened Sky: a Sarah McLachlan concert experience

Far beyond the glaring street lights, Sarah McLachlan was mesmerizing last night. She was gorgeous on the enchanted forest stage, an elegant beauty in a black dress and long wavy hair.

I often think of Sarah as the older sister I never had. The one who guided me through difficult teenage years. But as we've both grown older, my need for her wisdom and music has faded. I don't like Afterglow much. Except for the music in "Train Wreck" (especially the beginning) and the strings on "Stupid," I think of the album as generally...unimpressive. Not bad, just nothing really striking or edgy. And so, Sarah worried me as she started the evening with mostly new material from that album and — for the lack of a better word — bored me. But then there was a pause and she and her band, assembled themselves on what might be interpreted as the mountain part of the stage. She picked her guitar to make sure it was in tune and as soon as I heard the familiar notes, I knew everything would be OK. It was a return to the music I first fell in love with.

HELP

Suburbia sucks the spirit out of me. And it cannot be saved by all the Tim Hortons in the world, nor the safety of subdivisions or gas stations on every corner. And especially not another oversized meal served by a teenager at Jack Astors/Montanas/Kelsey's/East Side Marios.

Don't even get me started on SUVs and Wal-Mart.

No, my heart knows this won't save the vulnerable spirit of a 24-year-old. She wants exposed brick walls — on the inside. She wants hardwood floors — that creak with old wisdom. She wants a lively patio with beer — a five minute walk from her front door on College St.

But my heart also wants a backpacked adventure on the beaches of Thailand, Great Wall of China, in Hanoi and at a roasted chestnut stand on the streets of Hong Kong.

It's one or the other and I'm weighing the options.

Happy things that happened this week

- I stopped trying to exclude coffee from my daily routine
- wine with ECS on College
- playing air guitar and dancing by myself to Franz and Hot Hot Heat
- delicious pasta with white wine sauce with TF
- reading The Curious Incident of the Dog at Night-time
- the twins on The Amazing Race
- took the GO train to work today
- new Tegan and Sara tracks
- working a lot
- finally met Andy Berry who randomly came into work and was very nice to me

So yes, things are much better today than how I was feeling earlier this week. Never underestimate the power of good friends and good food. Tomorrow: more celebrations!

Be there or be square...like this [].

Metro News

Today's Metro is the best Metro ever!

1) My friend Kristy Radford is profiled in an article her awesome job as Matthew Good's merch girl. I wish we got the picture of KR and MG together, but I'll post it here if I get the chance. I may or may not have written this particular piece.

2) There is an article about my co-worker, the lovely Laurie Lambert who is featured as a lady with a cool job at the National Film Board Mediateque.

3) Some dude I went to school with, Ryan Carr, is also profiled for his job as a treeplanter.

Passion of the Chiu

...is missing.

Something happened to me over the past week. Besides turning 24-years-old last Thursday, I find myself staring off distracted by nothing. My thoughts have been vapid and besides the sweet moments of Saturday's wedding, I feel more impartial to things than usual. Kind of like I'm emotionless. There are many reasons for this, I think. One of which is...

Inspiration is dissipating.

This feels strange coming out of my fingers and through the keyboard when normally, I think everything is enlightening and emotional. The last I can remember feeling really consiously emotionally inspired was the first time I heard Feist's "Let It Die" weeks ago. I was taken aback by memories of break ups — or any dissapointment — and the recognition of the feeling that "the hardest part of a broken heart / isn't the ending so much as the start / the tragedy starts from the very first spark / losing your mind for the sake of your heart."

The strange thing is, unlike this song, I'm generally happy. There isn't much to complain about in any aspect of my life and so...this is all a mystery to me.

I think I need a big kick in the ass.

Link of the day:
Discusfr — this site has awesome ringtones (and some not-so-good) online, all with free previews. Co-worker and I played our own game of "name that ringtone" this evening and it was awesome. There is even a Feist ringtone for "Mushaboom"! But my favourites are the Muppets theme song and "Funky Town."