Update from FL

Christmas was awesome... After Christmas sales were (are!) great! Hanging out with friends. Eating good food. Enjoying the sunshine (even if it is a little bit chilly out). All around good times!
Here's a shot of a bunch of us hanging out the other night at New World Brewery in Ybor.



There's a whole bunch of pics up here: Flickr.

But the real point of this announcement is that I, with a few friends, have decided to take on Project 365 for 2010!
Beginning on January 1, 2010, I will take (at least) one photo every day.
I'll make up a special album on Flickr for the project, and I haven't decided if I'll post the photo on here, or at a tumblr blog. I will contemplate, and let you all know.

Anyone ever done this? Want to join in for this year? Have any thoughts on the best way to chronicle the year?

Merry Christmas from the Sunshine State!

I guess I haven't mentioned that I'm back in Florida ;)



I already opened one of my Christmas presents from my aunts & grandmother... and the only reason I mention this is because you will surely see the product of it on this blog. They bought me a Lensbaby! Here's a few of the first pics with the new lens (and there's a few more up here:




Merry Christmas to one and all!

Mouthparts+Wings presents The Christmas Show (review)

It's no real big secret that I've been a bit out of the loop of the concert scene lately. But when think that I would have almost missed out on such a fantastic show if it hadn't been for my BFF coming home from Montreal for a visit and looking through the weekly papers to see what was going on, it makes me realize that I should really pay more attention!

The show is an annual Christmas concert presented by Mouthparts+Wings. It featured some of my favourite artists, including Hawksley Workman, Luke Doucet & Melissa McClelland, and some new folks that I hadn't heard before, but I must investigate: Justin Rutledge, Paul Linkletter, and John Southworth, just to name a few.

The evening, hosted by Mia Sheard started out with an a cappella choral song, sung by four of the ladies that would be appearing later in the show. One by one, artists were brought out to sing a Christmas song (with only a few exceptions). It was fantastic - especially since last week at the Andy Kim show, my only complaint was that the artists didn't play very many Christmas songs. They played a mix of original Christmas songs and traditional ones, in various arrangements.

The last performer of the night was one of my favourites - Hawksley Workman. A few years ago, he released a Christmas album called Almost A Full Moon that immediately became one of my favourite Christmas albums ever. He played two selections from the album last night - "A House Or Maybe A Boat" and "Merry Christmas (I Love You)" (which always makes me think of my grandfather, and how much I miss him, along with another one of his tunes from that same album, "Three Generations").

After Hawksley, all of the performers came out for one last song - a group sing-a-long to "Deck The Halls" - it was super fun!

I'm so glad an impromptu plan for a night out turned out to be one of the most festive things I've done all year. I'll have to keep this show on my radar again for next December.

Happy Holidays to all! For more photos, visit my flickr.

Andy Kim Christmas Show 2009

The Andy Kim Christmas Show is a newish tradition for me during the holidays. Five years ago, Andy Kim (who has written songs such as Sugar Sugar and Rock Me Gently) began putting on this show at the Mod Club in Toronto. I have gone to every show since then.

As mentioned last year - I was probably the youngest person in the audience that knew all the words to Andy Kim's songs... but that doesn't bother me much!

The acts this year were:

• The Beauties - They are a GREAT alt/rock band. They played a song of their own, plus, a fantastic version of Fairytale of New York, up on youtube here.
  
• Broken Social Scene - I liked them better than last year... the first song they played was a new one that reminded me a bit of Kings of Leon. I liked that one. The other ones, I didn't care for terribly, but they were tolerable.
  
• Kim Mitchell - always amazing to see a legend on stage - I only wish he had played Patio Lanterns, but I bet he's probably sick of playing that song!
  
• Gentleman Reg - he was okay. Not my favourite, but not bad either. I don't have much to say on this one...
  

Divine Brown was supposed to play, but she got sick at the last minute so there was an extra set by Andy Kim, which was great for me, since I mostly go to the shows to hear Andy's songs.

The only disappointing thing was that most of the bands on this years' show didn't bother to learn a Christmas song. It doesn't make much of a Christmas show if you're not playing a Christmas tune! Hopefully next year, the acts will bring it back to the feeling of the first Andy Kim Christmas Show (which was still my favourite one ever).

Photos from the show are up here!