How to age gracefully...or not.

It makes me cringe, but I had to post this. If you can hang in there til about 1:20 you'll be rewarded.

Ahhh, Bill. Those dance(?) moves.

And Joe, you're amazing.

One minute of Thomas

Be warned, nothing happens - this is one minute of your life you will never get back.

Christmas Belly

Christmas is over, many presents have been opened, and much food has been eaten. Though my brother tells me that eating turkey burns more calories than it contains. Which in theory would mean you could starve to death eating turkey. Then again, my brother once told me (ok not once, repeatedly) "Wild Horses" by the Stones was my favorite song, so it might be wise to take the turkey thing with a grain of salt or five.

Christmas always brings out the...something.... This year, we were unusually well behaved at the dinner table (no body parts were compared and measured, this year for once I couldn't tell you who has the biggest head or the longest nose. OK, that's a lie, I could, but the data is not that current). I missed an impromptu family dance party - to Bjork, instigated by my Dad - the weirdness of which can only be fully appreciated by people who know my family (and our general inability to dance).

Anyway, it was good. And just weird enough to be ours.

I am not willing to share my Christmas belly on the blog, so Thomas offered up his. He then tried to sniff the lens, which resulted in the closest cat shot I expect I will ever take. I like the way the flash made one nostril glow a bit.

Happy Boxing Day.

Sufjan Stevens - That Was The Worst Xmas Ever!

Sing along.
You know you want to.

Merry Christmas from someone else's cats....

I promise I will post something else soon, but quite honestly this is the best Christmas greeting I could possibly post, even if it doesn't involve my cats. If this doesn't bring a smile to your face or make you snort whatever you might be drinking through your nose, I'm not sure what would.

Happy Holidays.

And for more Winston and Rudy, check this out.

kitty teeth

So, Thom had to go for dental work - AGAIN. This year, it was sounding likely that he would need a couple of molars removed. Luckily, that wasn't the case. He has bad gums (OK, why is it that cats in the 1970s never had 'bad gums'??), but hopefully we can keep that in check.

He was pretty funny when I picked him up from the vet - slack jawed is the correct term I think, with tongue poking out and all. Funny thing is that he was very sprightly along with the slack jaw - truth be told I think he was having a fairly pleasant drug reaction and spent a fair bit of time and focus trying to catch shadows and lights, slack-jaw and all.

He's back to his inactive, tight-lipped self now.

All tree all the time

I decided to put aside my general not-all-that-celebratory attitude towards Christmas this year and (gasp) DECORATE. For years, I haven't really decorated at Christmas. There are a few different reasons - for years, I lived out of town and was always travelling back for the holidays - so why bother? And the one year that I stayed out of town and DID decorate was one of the worst Christmases in known history, so that scared me off a bit too. But this year, all year, I have been quietly sewing little things with plans for getting a tree to put them on.

My very first tree.

And I didn't want a big, bushy cultured mammoth tree - the bunkle is too small, and too modest for such...treeish grandiosity. So, when driving with my mum we found a tree lot that had "Charlie Brown Trees" (that's how they were labelled) - uncultured firs of some sort - which is just what I was looking for.

So here it is.

I admit, I have tree pride.











Cat reactions have been interesting. Maggie has a tendency to sit behind the tree and hide - if you can say that a 15 lb cat can hide behind a 2" trunk. Thomas has stolen a wooden reindeer from one of the branches, but seems more interested in the shadows the lights cast on the wall.

As for me, I will keep sewing little things, and will spend too much time looking for just the right branch on the just-right tree to hang them from.

If only all of Christmas was that simple.

I should also mention that I have been playing this to death, thanks to my pal A. - the perfect mix of traditional carols and soon-to-be Christmas standards like "Did I make you cry on Christmas Day? (Well you deserved it)".

Happy Holidays.

Kitty Interlude

It's about time I think.

Bathroom shot is Thomas trying to stare down a fly that was on the mirror. I eventually had to kill it for him.

He's a lover not a fighter.

And I'm not sure where the disembodied cat leg he is lying on came from. Haven't seen it since.

It's all in the 'stache...

As I was doing the post on Les Savy Fav, I kept on trying to figure out how to gracefully fit in a picture of the drummer from The Dodos. It didn't really fit in, the post was long enough already, so I didn't put it up.

As I thought about it more and more, I realized that I have a bit of a fascination with the drummer from The Dodos. I wasn't really sure why - heck, I don't think I could pick the guy out in a crowd really - but the more I thought, the more I realized...it's his moustache.

And the same could be said for Miles from Akron/Family. That boy is sporting a wicked chevron, and I've had a fascination with him as well. Go figure.


I don't know. It's not that I find it attractive per se, it is that I find it...compelling, if one can find facial hair compelling. I guess it is the very self conscious choice to sport something that is somehow so ... NOT cool ... that is making it cool. Or maybe that is just my misguided view of it.

I'm old enough to remember when the 'stache WAS cool, and when that love turned on it's head and made it the absolute worst choice one could make in facial hair. The choice to harken back to such icons of facial hair as Burt.

Or Derrek Smalls from Spinal Tap.

I'm not sure if the young guys sporting these things are doing it for the self consciously referential reasons I hope they are. I suspect not. But I don't really want to know for sure.

Naughtiness face-off

Went to see Guy Davis last night. Good voice, good playing, good song choices, good backup musicians. Very good sound. Questionable lighting (it's a bit stark in there - they really could work on warming their lighting up some, you feel a bit like you are watching a lecture not a concert). And an audience of middle aged North-Shore types, the same people you'd run into wearing their Tiva sandles at the Folk Fest. And they were in for a nice, enjoyable, fairly gentle night of music. A pretty big contrast from Les Savy Fav the night before - or was it? Take a listen to this one, and tell me what pushes your buttons the most - the lyrics to The Chocolate Man, or Tim Harrington putting a shaker ball down the front of his pants and retrieving it out the back? Ya, ok. Pretty weak comparison maybe. But give me another time and place and it might not be so clear. Ya, ok. Still pretty weak. But give me some points for trying to find the thread.

And as for performance - it was also an interesting contrast. Both of these guys know how to play an audience. With Guy Davis, he's got to find another way of engaging them and making them comfortable, as I'm guessing the middle aged North Shore folks aren't going to love watching him put a shaker ball down his pants (well, except me. I'd be up for that). Little stories, little jokes. A little smooth perhaps, but it works for what it is and for the audience he has. I prefer something a little less...contrived I guess...but that is splitting hairs. Maybe the shaker ball was contrived too, but somehow I don't think so. Don't get me wrong, I suspect many things have ended up in Tim Harrington's pants at concerts, but I imagine they aren't always shaker balls.

But back to Guy Davis. This is the only video I managed to take before the Cap College Concert Police (a mousy middle aged woman in this case) shut me down. I had hoped to record one of his banjo moments, which were highlights for me. I do love banjo. Next time, next time.

Rub my belly

Les Savy Fav at Richards last night. We showed up at our usual half hour before doors so we could score the old people seats - and no one was waiting at the door. We discussed the possibility that we might just be the only people going to the show on Vancouver's first seriously snowy night - and if you have seen Les Savy Fav, or watched them on youtube, you know that this is a band that relies on crowd craziness. Or rather, enough crowd to reflect Tim Harrington's craziness back at him. Thankfully, by show time the place was full. Not packed to the rafters, but pretty close.

The Dodos opened (as did another band which - sorry - I've forgotten the name of). I really like these guys. And they opened for Akron/Family last time, so this confirms the fact that they are being chosen by some pretty good acts. Great energy, great musicians.

And then Les Savy Fav. Tim Harrington came out in kind of a ... gnome outfit?.... well, at least a gray cape, plastic nose, furry mitt on his hand and who knows what else. Over the course of the show the nose - well, everything but the pants - came off. The man brings a new level of grace to being bald and bellied. Who says you have to look like Brad Pitt to get the ladies? or the men for that fact? The audience was all over him - rubbing what ever bit of sweaty flesh they could as he offered himself up to their adoring hands. Men kissed him (ok, he kissed one, then another hopped on stage to kiss him - but that's splitting hairs). People opened their mouths like baby birds to catch the water he was streaming from his mouth. The man is a force. There is no doubt about that.

I have uploaded a video (The Sweat Descends), and have posted a few more on YouTube for those brave enough (watch The Year before the Year 2000 and play "watch the ball"...). Hopefully I will also be able to post some more later, so if you like this kind of thing, check back.

And next time this band comes to town, GO. You might get wet, or sweaty, but you won't be disappointed.