Oct 30

I hate the steam train that whistles woozy my bird brain,

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I have indeed suffered from a nighttimesneezysnifflingcoughingacheyfeversoicanthinkatwork bird brain of lates. Yet another apropos excuse for my poor attendance record on this property leased from blogspot.com. Ahh boo - an apt digression this hell’o'ween’ish time of year, eh? I have a long-ass record of recent bail outs & embarrassing sneezy & blowey times in the QP gallery this week, but despite this, I’ll forge on & recount the low-lights & highlights of the weekery.

Firstly, the OLIP posse is recalibrating at a reasonable pace. Now that we’ve been farmed out to the various term one offices, it’s easier to enjoy our in cahoots time as non-press release & statement-writing time. Good times were had at Friday’s meetings & we had a quite civilized treat of a lunch after our off-site sponsor meeting….free food is our strongest binding agent it seems……

Secondly, the only real enduring weirdness is the fuzzing up between camaraderie off-hours/laffin pub times & admin roles….you know when at the end of a semester your seminar’s prof takes y’all out for a drink or two - it’s cool because they usually pack it in after picking up the tab for 2-ish rounds…riiight? Bio-nic-man colleague summed it up best describing oddy fuzzed (mis)interpretation with feelings of ‘pitiful surprise and insult.’ One big pirate YAR goes out to those struggling to balance niceness with brutal honesty - gets you in trouble at times, take it from a diplomacy school drop-out.

Thirdly, being sick sucks ass. I got serena ryder tix on the advice of a goodtasteinmusic bud & only lasted through openers Justin Rutledge & Junction Forty. Brutal! But I am just not socially sassy enough to pull off honking my schnozz @ The Mod Club Theatre. Other notable punk-outs include the aforementioned pub/alumni night, supercheap Tricky Woo gig/Pickups mindmeld time with Martin & my Churchill auction commitment, which I will pay for in bid sheet purgatory so I don’t feel too bad. La piece de la resistance of truancy is missing a chance to dress up for this year’s pagan prom, I even made a very special ValueVillage trip with R-dog earlier in the week with hopes high & an amazingly politically incorrect idea to bring to fruition. I guess my homage to Planned Parenthood’s revamping will have to wait until next year….

Speaking of big plans & big changes, my mucusmeltdown hasn’t kept me from scheming on big tings for the upcoming weeks. There is hope! Lights at the end of this week’s tunnel include: Spoon!, Badass youth outreach effort (that’s how it’s gonna read in my resume..) a.k.a. hosting a going away ‘zza party for the Pages (big boos on the narc teacher in attendance, made us kibosh the hash brownies - jokes), 3 big politico journo meets/greets/interviews, LEAF fundraiser breakfast that I’ve weaseled my feminist ass into, Vincent Vallieres gig @ Harbourfront & maybe some Sunday Aussie QT with Ben Lee?…Longterm big tings include getting a trip secured to the Ceeb thanks to O-town bud, Caitlin…& hey if things get somewhow mixed up & we don’t meet political peeps & end up attending a taping of Fuse with K’naan & Alexisonfire…then hey, what can you do???

Ever since that Furnaces gig, I have been in a hardcore Psychadelic Twangy mood - Satanic Magesty’s Request, Zappa, Calexico, FFurnaces, Frontier Index, The Sadies…& Deadly Snakes…Thank the dark lord for the recent Rogers connection & Marquee Video in our hood - just in time to keep me from spending all my cash on CDs….I visit Pages across from the MM HQ & drop a mint! Thankfully the new Sedaris & Munro tomes are in paperback, so that wasn’t too brutal…& the Beau has been amazing about indulging my crisp-weather taste-whetting for Burton flicks. Did you know that TB directed Pee Wee’s Big Adventure at 26? Jesus H. Christ…you are such a huge unoriginal failure - What are you doing with your life? Sorry, my internal monologue just squeaked out there.

& Speaking of Brutal - the dude that burned that word into our psyche, G-rant, is moving with The Sketchersons from the poor alex…to The BrunnY? WTF? Ozzy tells me that they’ve headed onto greener pastures (calm down, wait for it…) & in the MEANTIME they’re working out of the Brunny. The much hyped new Second City digs could be a nice fit? I will miss the stumbling distance of the Annex venue! Bigger & better for these hardworking troupers.

Notable downloads:
shout out out out
(not to be confused with equally boss shout out louds - still love summer hit ‘little by little’ for it’s cure-isms)
k’naan
new calexico/iron&wine ep - damn you (two) martin & karim….i’ll probably head’er out to the docks in december…foiled!
fiona w. brion/fiona w.out brion-produced tracks
neko - random live tracks
feist - ditto
animal collective - pure warm & fuzzy green tea goodness for my sick soul
the clientele
fiery furnaces - asst’d ep tracks
new fav mashup - gwen stefani vs. heart = baraccuda eats bananas

peace out & may you purell you & your loved ones into safety,
meegs

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Oct 23

what does it matter to ya, when you got a job to do, ya gotta do it well….

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Oh, so I have officially been crap at updating this beast, this is coming from a young lass that has been crowned ‘officially annoying’ this month, so I’ll take it all in stride & heap on the self-flagellating text for the next para or two. But I do have valid excuses….which are, of course, valid no more….

Now that the young-ish Rogers dude just popped by & ran an on-ramp to the information super-highway thru our apt. there shall be only work-related ’splainin’ for unreplies & non-postings. Finally some 3wk up in here! & yeah, bringing work home with me, hurrah! Files, & OLIP duties & flamewars, oh my! It has been a brutal trudge thru the social & work & ‘other’ departments since I’ve last posted.

For reals, there has been a nasty precipitation-spewing cloud hovering over this humble abode, keeping me from typing for non-linear one-one-one e-mails & business casuals….Like the much maligned Sabbath lyrics of yore, it seems like my prose has been subjected to some twisting & turning & reinterpretation that only Tipper Gore could be proud of….So there’s one blame-game reason why it’s been all quiet on the nerdery front.

So kids, feel free to spin this backwards & see what the dark lord compels you to do….I’ll take full responsibility for any & all malicious, vicious & litigious bile you dump into the universe….’Put it on me’, as Fat Joe was so generous to offer….I do regret not doing those 3 Turkey-weekend shows any justice, tho. The Coles Notes version is that Dan Behar’s Destroyer sucked lemons hardcore @ the new porno’s gig. Why is it that the songsmith that indienerds & critics alike cream themselves over has a completely vacant glazed-over, uncharismatic-drunk presence for not only his own opening act, but the songs he penned with TNP? I found it particularly off-putting that he would only be on stage for the songs that he was fronting….diva much?

Anywhoo, Firey Furnaces were the lysergic & blissful psych siblings that I have come to expect…Unfortunately the Beau wasn’t equipped with the necessary earplugs to truly enjoy the trippin organ wankery & lengthy melodic asides….Meegs rating = 10, Beau rating = 6.5 (if prompted…). Ah, it takes all kinds & there’s no accounting for taste…next time they’re in town, Imma probably drag my prog expert, Ruven….heads up, boi.

Last Monday was Feist-fest on the Danforth….Rob & I had every intention of indulging in a Feta-fest beforehand, but were tempted (in po’ass student stylee) to attend a swank ‘Dr. Days’ reception eat, drink, be schmoozey (a li’ too schmoozed by an MPP that fancies itself the Erin Brockovitch of the NPO-activist front…don’t y’all know that LiveStrong bracelets give you wrist cancer from faux-posturing karma?). Tho we weren’t treated to a solo Apostle of Hustle gig like the Tues.crew (I DID catch Andrew W. @ the FF show the week before & had the opportunity to give him props to holding steady as a one-man bossanova pro), we did get a half-set from New Buffalo (poor gal’s Bjork, IMHO) & Jason Collett (personality PLUS - will def check out his upcoming gig in Dec).

So work, yeah, since I’ve practically undergone a Skulls-ish oath of secrecy (of which I have certainly compromised within the first week, weakened by poofy pastry tartlettes filled with decadent cheeses & over-steamed veggies & less-than-stellar house wine), I’ll just keep that out of here….I’m happy where I ended up - gettin’ no facetime w. my MPP - which I expected, enjoying working with a non-trad PC employee (IMHO) & taking all the politico innuendo & ass in by osmosis. I can see how people do get hooked to this power-trippy lifestyle…but for now, I’ll continue to weasel my way into the hearts & minds of various NPOs & gvt’l relations pros & hope to get some low-totem’ed consideration in the near future….

For now,
Meegs

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Oct 20

I’m gonna learn how to fly….high!

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Who needs their name in lights???

Since y’all can’t wait until next Tuesday’s Star magazine release….An exclusive excerpt from October 19th, 2005 Hansard!

The Speaker (Hon. Michael A. Brown): With us today in the Speaker’s gallery are the 2005-06 Ontario legislative interns. We have Ana Curic, Jon Feairs, Nicole Goodman, Jacqueline Locke, Daniel O’Brien, Marc Peverini, Meghan Warby and Brian Wettlaufer. Welcome.

Mr. Gilles Bisson (Timmins-James Bay): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker: I wonder if you would indulge me that we have unanimous consent to double their wages.

The Speaker: Do we have unanimous consent? I heard a no.

http://www.olip.ontla.on.ca/information.htm

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Oct 09

Give us a call, we’ll talk, no big whoop….

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Coffe Talk it is - a cop-out slacker blog-post compiled from this week’s e-mail highlights, discuss…..:

So this is just pretty much turning into Sunday Report…which reminds me of the Ceeb’s lack of the Monday report, which reminds me of spotting a certain surprisingly SHORT CanuckComic @ a gig last night….

First things first, as for my Mom, things are looking up - or at least looking clearer. As many of my peeps know, she has had all of her appt’s continually postponed & bumped & switched.  She was here last week & we hung out before she went in for
the big biopsy thing.  Anyway, she was all wound up & non-committal about Thanksgiving plans (which is this week in CDA), but seemed way better after the appt.  I didn’t end up going home for Thanksgiving this weekend because there were 3 hella good shows on in TO & we had spent lots of time together as a fam when she was here for her appt.  

Not to be a total Scrooge for Fam-Time, the Beau & I are planning a non-holiday weekend to travel up there because of the brutal traffic & cottagers clogging the roads.  The big pisser is that even after meeting this ‘big city doctor’ she now has
to wait until Mar. to get this probably cancerous cell removed….They won’t know if it’s benign or cancerous until they remove it & get it tested….argh!  But I know lots of peeps - friends of friends - that have had’em removed & turn out okay.

Turns out that her other thyroid has been TCB’ing & working overtime, which means that she won’t have to take extra hormones (in addition to her loooong-term HRT stuff that her fam. doc keeps renewing….don’t get me started….).  Bleh.  I’m glad that the waiting is over & that we can just prepare for what is pretty much a no-brainer surgery in the spring.

i do regret bearing witness to the innumerable Turkey-Drops @ The Brunny this w/e….Post-HighSchooler hearts breaking when different Uni couples reunite only to duke it out at the dive bar of the Hoot….But I’m sure that the 705 will be hoppin’ whenever we go up there to visit my fav downtown biz owners (except ONE crazay litigious kook @ BLANK DEN)

Didn’t end up checking out Tangiers’ CD Release on Fri. night - the due date of the Sopranos Season 5 loomed & we had to play catch up for a mini-marathon to get through the DVDs…ah, life is hard…

Went to a benefit concert for Katrina-vctim musicians @ Silver Dollar last night w. Deadly Snakes/Hidden Cameras/Sadies - The Sadies’ amazing musicianship blows me away everytime…The are way more than Neko’s backing band & I strongly urge everyone to catch their rockabilly romp ASAP… Icing on the charity cake was Ron Sexsmith & Greg Keelor performing surprise impromptu guest spots…Speaking of guest spots & Monday Report…Mr. Mercer was there giving the sassy eye to Gentleman Reg the entire HC set! Christ, I have never been more gay-man jealous in all of my life…if Rufus was in on it this eye laser-ing & made it a threesome, I would have just imploded from frustrated, impossible sexual lusting…argh!

Tonight is the New Porno’s dinner-time gig @ Phoenix - jerk-clubowner-booty-music-worshippers have it booked for doors @ 6 - & they mean business unlike @ the H-shoe - since there are 2 openers - AC Newman’s neice’s band & Destroyer…I’m sure that the tunes will start around 6:30…argh - what an ackward hour!

Besides that, life is good - The beau is signing on @ the Y & we’re getting a family rate goan-on. I’ve bee framing posters & cleaning up around the house, having some chill downtime while he toils away on his work.

I think that I’ve narrowed down my potential MPP list - I’m hosting the OLIPpers @ the apt. on Thurs to duke it out…should be innerresting, as Shakey would say.

I’m already pumping masself up for Feist on the 17th - preceeded by eating a MASS of feta beforehand.

Shout outs of support & good vibes & barrister solidarity to a best bud’s non-litigious Dad as he endures a veritable Inherit the Wind small-town shitstorm…This Kangaroo Kourt Kase gets me pondering, should sue UO for quitting & say that they elbowed me out with their lame scheduling practises & whore-ish managerial staff…but I’ll assume any judge would laugh me out of court & say that I’m SOL for quitting in the first place!!! Sign this woman up for the Darwin Awards now for when she kills herself falling from a step ladder onto a box of Chinese-import porcupine-quilled tourist-taxing hoo-hahs in that patchooli-stinking Den of slack. ugh.

Anywhoo, I should get to progressing somewhat on my MPP recon-mission…..avoiding certain dudes (& libel suits) & trying to suss out the other philandering politicos….funtimes!

peace
meegs

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Oct 02

Sell me sell you, the porpoise said, dive down deep down deeper than you, I think you got the blues too.

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No rest for the wicked, eh? Just finished the Run this a.m. & had a blast alongside Robyn - gabbing & joking the entire time. It went by faster than any run I’ve ever done before. I couldn’t believe the amount of runners & walkers, a massive turnout of fundraisers representing the GTA force vs. breast cancer. Anyway, I would just like to give shout outs again & again to all those who supported the cause via my run account (& Robyn for runnning with me!):
Luc T
Martin C
Samantha F
Robert B
Joshua H
Maureen & George W
Caitlin C
Mary L
Madeleine T
Karim B
James & Jean D
Gilles T
Andrew A
Annie L
Keep an eye out in your inboxes for some smiley-before & lobster-red after pics!

Work’s been hectic-ish with a mass of scattered MPP interviews around the city, trying to gauge who’s a manageable boss for the next 4 months…funny being on this side of the decision-making process….Toughest is travelling a la Brat Pack in a set of 8 all over - I know that it won’t be for long & that with my usual grass-is-always-greener outlook, I’ll miss’em’all once I get my lonely cubicle & set into a work week of individualized drudgery. Thursday was especially badass with a mashup of OLIPpers, their buds & old-school UC res crew & the Beau imbibing @ Dragonfly….Once that kitchen opens, we’ll all tapas-it-up, until then it’s high-hops liquid dinners in Parkdale - hopefully a weekly tradition?

I have had some interesting responses to my quarter-century crisis outing….Firstly many older buds have thrown an epithet or two vs. my whiny ways…& y’all have a point…need to keep things in perspective & not worry so much about the aging process….

Bizarro run-ins this week - it’s been a nostalgia-fest ever since I went to Waub’s on Saturday last…Ran into a former HS colleague this a.m. @ the Run, another working @ Min. of Transport mid-week, & about two hours later, after another meeting, I ran into my first ‘real’ heart-breakin’ boy from ‘95 (ouch. this is some epic shiat, yours truly bought a never-worn prom dress fo’his ass…humbled & burned). I was all posh dressy & walking back to QP from a meeting in some office tower down University.  He was working on (literally) a neighbouring building & super happy & earning more coin than I could
ever imagine….which made me concurrently blissfully happy, wistful, regretful, nostalgic and sad.  You how those chance meetingsconjure up a stir-fry of emotions - what is up with high school heartbreakers???

I guess a simpler thought process would be ‘ha ha, you’re schlepping around on heavy equipment & facing the elements all day while I’m dressed up & having scheduled meetings’ - but I was just seriously conveting a functionable trade & ditching swipe passes.  

Here’s some boss new-baby-smellin’ Mp3s that need to be listened to long & loud from the Big Three. Did I mention that they’re cutting these @ Metalworks???

1. tension : www.thebigthree.ca/thebigthree_tension.mp3
2. oh my darling : www.thebigthree.ca/thebigthree_ohmydarling.mp3
3. slide in e : www.thebigthree.ca/thebigthree_slideine.mp3
 
This week’s “the newspaper” the rag formerly known as the “the independent weekly” has a tepid review of The Pick Ups Self-titled debut - Givin’ it a B- (WTF?)….:

The Pick Ups are a local homegrown band that sound like the lovechild of Neil Young and Stevie Nicks raised on a steady diet of Can-Con and long winters. It’s folkie indie rock that doesn’t rock too hard. The music is very 90s east-coast meets strings, and also has a front-porch guitar strum of blue-grass timelessness. The music would be contemplative and dreamy if it wasn’t for that Tim Horton’s reference which wakes me out of my reverie for another dose of reality, caffeine and late nights at Robarts. I’m not sure what counts for indie-cred anymore, but at least they didn’t say Starbucks.
–Vikki Bryskiewicz

Enough cobbled together blee blah’in….Time to catch up on e-mails & again, thanks to everyone that helped me out with the Run - I really appreciate it….

peace
meegs

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