blistering heat and feet

we’ve had several days of hideous hot and humid weather here in toronto. if the sun isn’t beating down on you, you feel as though you are wading through hot butter. urgh. oh, did you want to sleep comfortably at night? not so fast, you great un-air conditioned masses.

and most alarming of all – last friday i heard the summer’s first cicada. normally those suckers don’t come out until the august long weekend. just goes to show that nature thinks it’s pretty freakin’ hot too.

but what is amazing about the hot weather is that you can wear girly skirts and beautiful shoes. after getting over my summer cold, i decided it was time to christen the new gorgeous shoes i’d picked up on an end-of-season sale just before the plague hit me. are these not just amazing? so so pretty! and they made me so tall and feminine. when you’re 5’4″ it’s nice to pretend you’re 5″8. ack! that’s right, 4″ heels.

as i left the apartment, i had a vision of me placing a pair of comfortable shoes in a bag and bringing those along – just in case. you never know how new shoes are going to treat you (normally not well). throwing caution to the wind (“i’m tall! i’m wearing a flirty skirt! look at my shoes!”) i left without the sensible gear.

what a mistake. by the time i got off of the subway downtown i was feeling like i was walking a bit like one of the chinese women who’d been through a deforming foot binding. as i clomped my way through the underground i could hear a definite change in my gait. where previously i was tap-tap-tapping along, now i was whap-tap-whap-tapping along. and wondering if i’d ever seen the grocery store selling flip-flops. the answer, in case you were wondering, was”no”. but being a somewhat/sometimes bright girl, i picked up a box of band-aids (55 & assorted sizes).

regardless, men held doors open for me twice as i made my way to work. i like to think it was because i was tall and wearing a flirty skirt and had empowering shoes on – but in retrospect, it may just of been because they saw me trying not to limp through doorways. they could very well of been thinking, “poor poor girl, why’d she go out without her cane?”.

i walk the 10 minutes to work and at this point just dying to sit at my desk and take of my shoes and plaster my feet with band-aids. which i do. which is a good plan, until i need to use the washroom. which meant i needed to put the evil shoes back on. i do my best and wander on over to the loo and a gay co-worker sees me and says, “work it girl! you look amazing today!”. i smile, thank him and then lean against the door and say i’m about to cry. immediately understanding the look in my eye in the way only a gay man or another female would, he looked down at my feet and said, “ooh, new shoes. ouch. if it’s any consolation, you look great.”

i could go on in a similar vein, but i think we all get the picture. i ended up having to cancel a lunch with another co-worker. i had to tell her why i needed to postpone our club monaco trip. being an amazing person, on her way back from lunch, she went to a dollar store and picked up a pair of flip flops for me to wear the rest of the day. prior to the gift of comfortable shoes, i was convinced i’d need to take a cab home. the cab would of cost about $25.00. washing out the point of buying those death-trap shoes on sale.

so there i am wearing an orange skirt and new cheap PINK flip flops. there was some orange on the sole of the shoes (in a vague attempt to match, i guess) but let’s not be fooled. they were bubble-gum pink. quite a bit less fabulous than the enzo angiolini’s i was wearing earlier in the day. i’m sorry, let me revise – i wasn’t so much as wearing them as having my feet turned into minute steaks in them.

regardless – i wore those flip flops home, the pretty new shoes in a bag by my side. and trust me – i did my level best to muster all the glamour of a fashion forward five-year-old as i walked back down the street.

[music david usher, “the music”]

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he doesn’t look a thing like jesus

my kitten artemis is spending her second night at the vet’s. i miss her. she was spayed this morning and my fabu vet sent me a picture of her in “recovery” immediately post-surgery. now that’s a good vet! it’s almost like she wanted to prove that they still had the kitten. then again, considering the fact that 2 of my three cats had to be put to sleep in that clinic…. maybe they weren’t so far off the mark to send me the picture.

and in exciting ‘fuck you’ news – turns out that a european court has determined that the song bmg merger should not have been authorized to proceed when it did. apparently they needed to provide more information before the merge was to be green-lit. then again – perhaps the merge would of never happened.

*le sigh* and then i’d still be working at the best job in the whole freakin’ world. but instead i’m working at a crappy job for crappy pay. don’t think i’m not looking for something that lets me plug my brain in a bit more. don’t think it for a moment. regardless, seems like good news for the peeps at warner and emi. this court finding may just delay their proposed merger (once again).

still reeling over the purchase of chum tv by bell globemedia. i was going to go snooping around for a job on the chum tv side of things. i almost think it’s not worth it right now. even if i did get a job there, who wants to go through a merger again, even if it is a “friendly” takeover bid. friendly… almost makes it sound like there will be face-painters and balloon animals and lollipops.

at long last there is new the killers music out! i love the song – but am not sure about it as a first single. you can have it rampage madly through your own brain by going to their myspace or hitting their website. yey for the killers! i miss the fun brandan flowers bitchery in the media.

and to kick off a fun weekend with the downstairs neighbours – the bastard nsf’d a cheque on me. urgh. he owed me 2 months of rent on the garage he’s renting from me (it came with my apartment and i don’t need it, yey for me!) and he freaking bounced the cheque. adding to the fun – my bank charged me $7.00 for the pleasure. it’s a good thing for him that i don’t have his phone number on hand. he would of gotten a slightly pissy and fairly condescending message from me. i’ll remember to play nice when i go knocking on his door looking for cash.

[music | the killers, “when you were young”]

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swollen head

after fleeing work late in the afternoon yesterday, actually, it wasn’t fleeing so much as lurching, i ended up staying at home today. i can’t afford to take all these days off – but really, am i going to drag myself to work with a bad flu/cold/whatever in the pouring rain?

then i find that chum ltd (home to citytv and the much music family) is being bought out by Bell Globemedia (CTV, MTV Canada, TSN and others). wow. this is a giant move in broadcasting. on on a personal note – all of a sudden not getting an interview for the job at MTV that i would of been perfect for doesn’t matter anymore. who needs another merger mess right now? not me.

can you imagine it? a world without much music? they may have been swarmy and missed the point more than three-quarters of the time, but at least they weren’t from the land of dorks (CTV, in case you’re wondering). i hope that we don’t lose city tv here in toronto though – i’d miss my cp24 for quick local news. chum hasn’t commented yet – so this might still be speculation – then again, no one to be the one taken over.

last night was the 2nd installment of the live show for rockstar : supernova. and even though i could barely raise my head off of the back of the sofa, here are my thoughs – for what it’s worth.

magni – my generation
interacted with the house band, less ego-driven gimmicks and better audience relations. he looked and sounded better than he did last week. but i don’t think the band digs him.

jenny galt – tainted love
i actually *heart* this song and was really curious to see what she was going to do with it. she sang well her voice was not nearly as timid as it was last week. i think the performance was still a little dull, she needs to find a way to deliver a performance for this show. and what a strange comment by tommy lee at the end – telling her to go eat because she looked hungry.

jill gioia – violet
holy fuck. are you kidding me? are you going to apply for an impersonator job when you get booted. her performance was way too faithful to courtney love. and the band called her out on it. poor jill. this may just spell her doom.

zayra alvarez – you really got me
i can not say enough about this girl. she is an amazing performer who so far has delivered two very different and phenomenal performances, but i just don’t know WHY she’s on this show. she needs to find a producer to work with on her strange and quirky neo-gothic debut.

chris – take me out
he seemed to yell in the same tone constantly. i don’t know if there’s enough depth there. i found this performance boring and unfortunately, so did the supernova-ites.

dilanah – ring of fire
this woman is still the obvious winner, in my opinion. she took this powerful song and switched it up completely and made something all together new. looking like the high priestess of the hellfire club she delivered her song in a way that left no room for criticism. it was like a gothic wet dream meeting a snake charmer.

josh – arms wide open
stop smiling! just stop it! i have been known to hate-on creed and scott stapp before, but this performance made me wish i was listening to creed’s version. for those that know me – that says all i need to say.

phil ritchie – eyes wide open
the band is all over this guy. they lurve him. and i don’t know why. i think he’s a generic radio singer – but then again, if he’s a generic singer guy, he should garner some play for supernova, especially in the states. me – i just don’t get it.

storm large – surrender
great energy and a very strong voice. i think dave navarro gave her some great advice when he told her she needed to have character, not be a character. hopefully she takes this to heart.

patrice pike – heart shaped box
seeing her sit in the stands, i honestly didn’t know who she was. did her look change from last week? or was she that forgettable? i seem to recall that last week gilby clarke told her that she seemed to be the only one who really wanted the job. regardless, her performance this week did not connect for me.

lukas rossi – don’t panic
not being a coldplay person, i had no idea what this song was going to be, but was sure i’d recognize it when it started. not only did i not recognize it, but i actually think i’d buy lukas’ version of this song. i think the band put another coldplay song in the list this week just to see who’d be dumb enough to take it after their lesson of “song choice is king”. in someone else’s hands this could of been certain doom. for lukas, it was like icing on the cake left over from last week.

ryan star – jumpin’ jack flash
seeing him standing in the wings and hearing brooke burke say he was going to sing ‘jumpin jack flash’ i said aloud, “it’s gonna be like a wedding.” and it was. urgh. and he was dull and awkward on stage to boot.

dana – born to be wild
this girl has a fucking amazing voice, so incredible. but, watching her this week was painful. it was hard to watch her mince about like a sex-kitten. she needs to figure it out – but i think with some guidance – she will.

toby – somebody told me
someone did this song last season and just sucked. this guy did not suck and actually was able to pull it off. but i kept wishing that he’d done more of an industrial feel to his arrangement. it would of been killer with his voice.

the result show runs tonight. from their comments – i think supernova is leading the audience to put chris in the bottom three again and i think he’ll be heading home – unless someone does some bone-head move like duran duran again, or wears another wedding dress.

[music | pink floyd, “wish you were here”]

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tempt not yon hell-cat

i woke up on the weekend only to discover that i have a somehow caught the dreaded summer cold. it began with with razor blade swallowing, moved on to congestion and aching kidneys/gums and is now settling nicely into the ‘plugged ears’ portion of our game.

needless to say, work seems to be taking an eternity to get through. in honour of this – i thought i’d post a few little distractions.

a friend of mine sent this to me ages ago – but am just now getting around posting it. someone has taken clips from various george w. speaches and made him sing u2’s “sunday bloody sunday”. it’s nothing short of brilliant. watch and be amazed.

and of course – this is just too hideous for words. almost too hideous for the eyes too. the one (and thankfully only) huff.

bringing me to the end of my lunch hour – please be entertained by making fiends. it’s several short flash cartoons about a girl named charolotte and a girl named vendetta. vendetta makes fiends…. you have to watch them to understand. it’s made by the same person who did my beloved muffinfilms several years ago. long live creativity.

[music | keane, “is it any wonder?”]

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cubical hell

i honestly swear that this was done by someone in my office. it is nearly a perfect description of my current employment situation.

[music | the killers, “andy you’re a star”]

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