Are You An English Major?

If you are, I'd like to ask you a few questions:

1) Do you read the required novels on time, every time?

2) If so, do you enjoy that?

3) Are you both critical and creative in your essays?

4) Do you find symbolic meaning in every word you see?

5) Do you get 80s on most essays?

6) Do you feel like an incompetent, illiterate fool if you don't?

I am an English Major at the University of Toronto, and today I came to the realization:

I hate studying English at U of T. I hate writing essays. I am neither argumentative nor creative.

I have no passion or interest for dwelling on the meaning of certain words nor the placement of particular commas.


I cannot tell you why I Majored in English. I truly can't.

What is the "Harlem Shake"?

It's everywhere. Within milliseconds the globe has been bombarded with these damn video clips. First it was Kony then it was the escapist Ikea monkey and now it's the Harlem Shake.

According to Wikipedia, my internet friend who has never led me astray, the Harlem Shake is, in fact, a meme! Except, this internet meme comes in the form of a video. The innovators of this infectious meme were five teenagers from Queensland, Australia. On YouTube they go by the name of TheSunnyCoastSkate. On February 2nd the teens uploaded their video which was soon proceeded by YouTube vlogging sensation Filthy Frank's own version.

Here, first listen to the original track.






 Now watch the video that gave the Harlem Shake trend its kickstart:

 



Now for Filthy Frank's version:

 


 And if you haven't had enough here are some U of T produced, which I think are fucking great.



St. Michael's College REPRESENT:

 




 U of T's Faculty of Music!!

 




U of T's Con Hall!!!!





I'm sure you have heard enough Harlem Shake for the rest of your life. I will never download this song onto my iPod. Never.





I'm so sorry to do this to you, but you need to see this one. It's by far the most chaotic piece of incredibility I have seen thus far. Wilfred Laurier University's Harlem Shake. Even staff got involved. Take this in:







:)

How to Choose a Summer Music Festival: Toronto

It seems that within the past couple years music festivals in Canada have been popping up all over the place. Our neighbours down south are used to the privilege of summer music festivals, what with Coachella, Lollapalooza, and The Governor's Ball to mention a few.

Coachella, L.A. 2012

But last year Toronto was bestowed with the great honor of hosting several summer concerts performed by world renound DJs and bands. NXNE, Toronto Jazz Festival, Digital Dreams, VELD, and the Identity Fest at Echo Beach were some of the lot hosted in T.O. From The Flaming Lips to Steve Aoki, Toronto was bumping and shakingn all summer long to the beat of some fantastic jams.

VELD, Toronto 2012

That was last year. The bar has been raised. The ante is up. What kind of musical festivals can we look forward to this summer?

Well,

• VELD is coming back along with Digital Dreams, and although the lineups have not been disclosed, it can be guaranteed that after the success of last years' events, they will be rolling in bigger and badder.

• The Canadian Music Festival featuring over 800 new local and international artists is being  showcased in 55 venues throughout Toronto's city centre (April)

• Waterfront Blues is back for round eight in its celebration of blues, jazz and R&B (June)

• NXNE, in it's 16th year is back for the killing - rock, indy, grunge, you want to hear it and they'll deliver. (June)

• Osheaga is being hosted in Montreal once again for the vagabonds and wanderous souls who love to travel and explore the vast realms and fellow cities within Canada. (August)

For complete lists of Canadian music festivals check this out:

www.musicfestivaljunkies.com

For events tending more to families, skim through this:

www.hotoronto.com/festivals


Now, on to choosing one, or some, for those who have the pocket change.

1. Decipher your chosen genre of music. Jazz? Soca? Reggae? House and Techno? Rock?
2. Give yourself an expenditure limit. These festivals do not come cheap. Be prepared to dish out $80 minimum. Depending on the length of the festival (some last up to 3 days) and the number of popular headliners will alter the cost of tickets/wristbands.
3. Browse through the links I have posted. Check out the individual websites for each music festival. On them the lineups will be released as well as the starting dates.
4. Lineups, lineups, lineups. Check them out and figure out where your favourite bands or DJs are performing!
5. Consider accomodations, commute time and accessibility.
6. GET. EXCITED.

This might just make your summer the most memorable one yet. Good luck choosing. Sometimes it becomes excrutiatingly difficult trying to decide between two or three festivals because several of your favourite artists are performing at each. Don't forget, there is always next summer!

Peace. Love.

Summer 2011

My sincerest of apologies for the current lack of the written word on my blog. I've been busy taking advantage of my summer holiday which, sadly, is over in about two weeks. Yes. Two weeks.

Where did it go? What did I do with my time? I will now attempt, to the best of my abilities, to recall how I spent my summer. For no other reason, really, than for my personal satisfaction, and to remember.

May-June 2011

- Summer School: Contemporary Poety (did marginally well...)
- spent time with an old friend, recently-turned-mother
- watched some Hot Doc productions
- found places to hang out at night with great views of the city
- went out to Century Room with some friends
- attended the launch of In Toronto Magazine at Roosevelt Room
- attended the UTICA gala
- attended Pero Expo at VoX International party
- attended cousins' First Communion...spoken entirely in Hungarian...
- went to good friend's house party for her boyfriend's birthday
- landed new job working at psychological centre...for a month.
- BierMarkt for friend's going away party... although she never did end up leaving...
- spent the day at Cherry Beach with the girlfriends
- continued my piano lessons!
- smoked the green and ordered a pizza to the top of a parking lot then headed over to the dirty Brunny (sweet random night)
- LEVENDES FC SAGAPO POLI!
- bike trip from home down to Lakeshore Blvd!
- Kensington Market with the bestie
- lunch at Vivoli's with the ladies!
- Brunny night...and green, oh the green.
- Gullo's birthday at This is London
- read under a tree all day at Trinity Bellwood's Park
- Prostate Cancer Walk for Papa Silva!
- Bike ride to Centre Island with the Bestie
- more casual baby visiting
- Visited the Nonna in Windsor for a week...joy.
- my special broke his wrist and I truly couldn't believe it

July-August 2011

- Dave and Buster's night...now that was some really awesome fun
- Oro Beach for Angela's birthday
- Drove the sister to the airport so as to begin her trip to Halifax...and never finish it
- "A Midnight in Paris"
- attempt number one in making Fettucini Alfredo...#hugefail
- K.O. after Century Room with the girls. The night ended way too late, or is 5:30 am considered early?
- Vivid's Pizzeria with my special (arguably best pizzeria in Toronto)
- Salsa on St.Clair with baby mama & Co.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt.2 !!!!!!!
- house party at Cheech's
- Breaking Bad. Seriously got into Breaking Bad. So much Breaking Bad.
- last night before the Greek boys headed off to Greece
- Skybar/The Guvernment
- Katrina's annual Taste of the Danforth Party (I got him back...best time spent all summer)
- My special gets a cleat in the knee and loses a chunk of it. Six stiches later and no summer championship he lost but was undefeated
- St. Lawrence Market with my special!
- Swimming with my special :)
- The CNE with friends and my special
- The Paramount
- The Brunny
- SMC Frosh Leader Retreat 2011
- Ana gets her wisdom teeth removed...again
- 'Pasta and Pizza' and Chinatown with my special!!

And there is it. The most sequentially accurate recollection of my summer's events. I mean, hey, I might've not had the most extravagent summer, but I spent it with him. And I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Famiglia di Weston

What do you know about the Westons? My own knowledge of the family is very limited, which might seem embarrassing seeing as I work for them. Don't get excited. I'm not their maid or their gardener. I work at Loblaws, and today I served Mr. Weston's butler and personal chef. He purchased $545 worth of Loblaws foodstuffs.

"No big deal."

So I decided to chat with Mr. Weston's butler about how he came about this job and what working for the family is like. He comes from the West part of France and has worked for several families all over the world. He had just come from the Caribbean where he waited on a very wealthy family. When I asked him how he felt about leaving his family behind constantly he was impartial. He enjoyed the time to himself.

He said the entire Weston family does not live under the same roof as they have homes all over the world. (Had to hold my breath here. Holy magnanimous wealth!!) They are apparently very friendly and he has greatly enjoyed working for them for the past month. He plans to continue working for the Weston's for just about over a year.

So I did some research. Here are some basic facts:

- Galen Weston is worth around $7.1 billion (GASPING FOR AIR)
- He was ranked by Forbes as the second wealthiest man in Canada...
- ...and 133rd in the world (CAN. NOT. BREATHE.)
- The Weston family maintains control over:
- Loblaws Companies Ltd.
- Holt Renfrew (Mme. Hilary Weston is the deputy chair)
- Selfridges in the U.K.
- Brown Thomas in Ireland
- and the De Bijenkorf department store chain in the Netherlands

I mean, wow. Incredible, really. This family is rolling around in green and have their hands in so many successful industrial and commercial pockets all over the world. They're also very involved in charitable business and founded the Garfield Weston Foundation which has raised almost $200 million dollars in the past ten years.

And I was the lucky cashier that served his butler and personal chef.

What to do on a Tuesday in Toronto...

It might not be an ideal way to spend your Tuesday, but this is how I spent mine:

So around 10am I arose from my bed and proceeded to prepare for the day--took a shower, ate, brushed my teeth, covered my naked self...

...awkward.

After that, I met up with a very, very special person at Dundas Square. Like most days, Dundas Square was bursting with live entertainment, loads of people swarming the square, hotdog vendors waiting for their next victim, etc.

We then made our way into the Eaton Centre where we decided to take a look around the infamous H&M. Unfortunately we came out unsuccessful, but not discouraged!

Afterwards we mosied on down towards Queen St. where our real adventure started. Queen St. is filled with so much to see. If you are a sushi fan, Queen St. West is the street for you, as a sushi restaurant can be found every ten stores down or so. Indian food tickle your tastebuds? They got those too. We however stopped at "The Footie Restaurant" just south of Queen and ordered ourselves some poutine and a piri piri chicken sandwich. I ordered myself a Corona, and boy, did it hit the spot.

After we finished eating we decided to check out the Farmer's Market at Trinity Bellwood's Park. The park was full of people soaking up the sun, playing tennis, riding their bikes, tossing around a frisbee, enjoying a picnic in the shade, chasing dogs...it was quite the popular attraction apparently.

We decided to take it easy and parked ourselves under a maple tree. It was relaxing and wonderful.


That was my Tuesday afternoon in Toronto. If you enjoy discovering new hidden boutiques or tasting new foods or trying on clothing you wouldn't find in a commercial shopping mall, I think a similar sort of day would suit you just fine.




-e

GET READY, TORONTO!

TWO DAY FESTIVAL. BIG. BAD. INSANE. IT IS COMING.

LABOUR OF LOVE @ THE GUVERNMENT

Line-up includes:

BENNY BENASSI
AVICII
BLOODY BEETROOTS DEATH CREW 77
DUBFIRE
CROOKERS
GARETH EMERY
TOMMY LEE
DJ AERO
VICTOR CALDERONE
LOCO DICE...
GUTI

Now, if you love house music, dubstep, euro...you need to be at this event. I am not a promoter by any means, but I'm going because it's going to be phenomenal. And because I know how mind-blowing it's going to be, I encourage the rest of you to get out there and buy your tickets as soon as possible.

YESSSSSSSSSSSS



Get your tickets at www.theguvernment.com

Move, Eat

How many of us would absolutely adore to experience what these three guys did? I couldn't count the number. Now, if only we all had the means to do so...

MOVE from Rick Mereki on Vimeo.

And the best part of travelling the world? The food. Ahhh yes, the food.



Live it up!!

Happy Earth Day, Folks

Happy Earth Day to all those who care...

We have dumped and excreted and demolished and industrialized and adapted and accomodated to a point now, where the damage done is far from irreversible.

Although this point has been reiterated a forgetful number of times in the last decade, there are still those who remain unaware of this fact:

The United States of America, the country second only to China in greatest carbon emitters, signed, but did not ratify the Kyoto Accord. 160 countries did. The USA, did not.

Interesting.

Canada places seventh on the list of countries with the largest carbon emissions.

Check out this website to update yourself with the latest and most current discoveries regarding our planet and the damage it undergoes tis very moment:

Daily Climate

Listen to David Suzuki speak about climate change...four years ago:


This is no joke, folks.

So you say, 'We get it. We get this is a global issue that needs to be fixed. Stop preaching and tell us how we can start to fix it.'

I say, start with the basics:

- turn your lights off as you exit rooms (at home, at the office, at school, etc.)

- close the tap once you've finished using water, as doing so saves energy

- recyle all the time, everydays

- install solar panels at home (not do they minimize your monthly electric bill, they increase home value...score!)

-find out what your carbon footprint is and what you can do to minimize it:

Find out your Carbon Footprint

- drive less--walk, take advantage of your transit system, ride a bike to work, etc.

- avoid purchasing packages with excessive and unnecessary packaging

- adjust your thermostat (if you're chilled, put on an extra sweater, don't turn the heat up--this will save you money and reduce your energy waste)


- stay informed


Also, check out this great website to find out how Canada is taking action, and how else you should help out in your community to help fixing our global problem one person at a time: Today is Earth Day