dance music for old people

There's a party tonight and my mother, so generously, offered my services as provider of music (I won't say DJ because you can hardly call it that). It's not easy to throw together a playlist last minute that will please all generations of music lovers. However, if you would like to feel like you're partying with us in roberts Creek tonight, it'll sound a little something like this (not in this particular order, and I had to throw some things in there specifically for the young folks. Each song is its own link unfortunately. Too lazy to change it.):

dance music for old people

· Reverend run & the christmas all stars
· Snoop Dogg - Santa Claus Goes Straight To The Ghetto
· Stevie Wonder - Higher Ground
· Sam Cooke-(Don't fight it) Feel it.
· Why Don't We Do It In The Road - The Beatles
· Talking Heads - Swamp
· Michael Jackson - Bad
· TOM WAITS "Going Out West"
· The Rolling Stones - She's So Cold (HQ Audio)
· The English Beat - Mirror in the Bathroom
· Vampire Weekend - "Mansard Roof"
· The Specials - monkey man
· Sly&The Family Stone (I Wanna Take You Higher)
· Tom Tom Club - The Man With The Four Way Hips (Extended)
· Baby Please Don't Go
· I Ain't Got You - Yardbirds
· Christmas Is - Run D.M.C. (HQ Audio)
· James Brown Santa Claus Go Straight To the Ghetto
· Stevie Wonder - Living for the City
· Stevie Wonder ~ Superstition
· James Brown - Get Up Offa That Thing
· Michael Jackson - Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough
· AL GREEN-Take Me To The River
· Paul Simon I know what I know
· MGMT - Electric Feel
· Vampire Weekend - "Cousins" (Official Music Video)
· Kid Cudi - Make Her Say (feat. Kanye West & Common)
· Kid Cudi - Pursuit of Happiness ft. MGMT, Ratatat
· Biggie smalls - Party and bullshit ( Ratatat Remix )
· The Beatles - Come Together
· R. Kelly-Ignition (remix)
· Step in the Name of Love
· Unknown Sixties Blues Rock Tune! - Goin' Down - ?
· Ike & Tina Turner - Proud Mary
· A Tribe Called Quest - Da Booty
· Lucy Pearl - Don't Mess With My Man
· Slick Rick-Teacher Teacher
· ladytron-seventeen
· buddy holly - bo diddley - 1963
· "Empire State of Mind" Jay-Z Alicia Keys [OFFICIAL VIDEO]
· Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
· Over and Over
· Bo Diddley - Road Runner
· The Rolling Stones-Miss You
· Otis Redding - Hard To Handle
· The Specials : A Message To You Rudy
· Jimmy Cliff - Wonderful World, Beautiful People
· Bob Marley & the Wailers - Roots Rock Reggae
· All Night
· Go Power At Christmas Time - James Brown

christmas miracles

two sets of congratulations are in order.

Rachel and Brent welcomed their son Aidan on Christmas Eve and Matt and Lindsay welcomed Holly (?) more fondly known as Bun, 15 days early, at 5am today (Dec 26th).

Heres to Christmas babies!!!

merry christmas y'all

exploding dog

my front porch

"Christmas Eve Eve” is a term I learned fromGeorgia when we were in grade four. I remember it clearly. She called me to hang out (or “play” as you were still allowed to call it when you were nine) and her dad dropped her off on our front porch. I can only remember our front porch ever being used for two purposes; if my parents were having a dinner party, and if Georgia came a calling. Also when Jehovah’s Witnesses came to spread the word, they would come to this door, but it was rarely opened and therefore not used. The use of our front porch for some reason had a kind of formal significance to it. We have innumerable photos of my parent’s friends arriving for various events and dinner parties, standing in the doorway, in costume or with a basket filled with exotic food. Georgia coming over was not necessarily an occasion to be marked, but I always remember her walking up the stairs to the glass door with Pete instead of coming through the basement. I feel, though it is probably a fabrication, that I could probably count on one hand the number of times I myself used the front door over the basement. Let’s just say, they are few and far between.

On this particular day, Pete dropped Georgia off, and I can picture clearly myself standing in the living room, while Georgia took her shoes off in the front hall, and Pete closed the door behind himself before descending the stares to his vehicle which was idling in the driveway. As she bent down to remove her sneakers, Georgia looked at me and said, Hey, did you know that today is Christmas Eve Eve? And thus marked a new holiday.

Christmas Eve Eve has come to bear more significance as I’ve gotten older. In high school, Georgia’s family began throwing their annual Christmas party on this day which came to be known fondly as, “Fam Jam”. “Fam Jam” was us Creeker kid’s first real opportunity to party with our parents and friends alike, no strings attached. (“Fam Jam” was, unfortunately, laid to rest two years ago after it gained popularity up and down the coast. Too much popularity which caused the uninvited to appear at this most sacred of events and ruin it for the rest of us. It was devastating for those of us who looked forward to it every year. Some are still known to cross themselves and mutter RIP Fam Jam under their breath when it is brought up in conversation.)

Now, as I’m older still (a quarter of a century next month), Christmas Eve Eve holds a different meaning, as the day I come home for the holidays every year. For the past three years (today included), on December 23rd, I have lugged my ‘required’ belongings to wherever I call work that year, and waited anxiously for the end of my shift so I can haul my ass to the bus and make the trek to the place where I grew up. The bus and ferry are unfailingly teeming with holiday goers, locals and tourists alike, and I instantly plug myself into my ipod and gaze out the window so as to avoid eye contact with that girl I haven’t seen since graduation day almost seven years ago. The journey is noisy, and crowded and it is the one day a year I can convince my dad to come pick me up from the ferry. We drive home usually listening to the CBC and dad tells me there will be dinner waiting for me when we get home. I will come in through the basement door not the front porch but I always picture Georgia taking her shoes off when I walk past the front hall and think to myself Oh yeah. It's Christmas Eve Eve.

Today, when I arrived home, our house was more festive than I ever remember it being. My parents have found a new spot for our Christmas tree and my mum has found a new method of hanging decorations which involves vintage clothe belts. They even splurged and finally caved to my requests of getting a live tree. Quinn arrives tomorrow. This year will be different than most though. We usually have a multitude of multi family events to attend to including Christmas Eve games night with three other families, "Fam Jam", and another party of some sort none of which are happening . We’ve had Christmas dinner with Johanna’s family at Johanna’s house for the past eight years or so but this year, Johannas in Ottawa and mum decided things have to change sometime!, and so, we’re having dinner at our place, sans Johanna and sans turkey. Jo's family will still be there though and we’re having beef wellington. How's that for breaking tradition? (I don’t care for turkey though, so no love loss).

I suspect there will be no white Christmas either.

Sigh.

Change is hard when it comes to tradition.

We have friends coming by on Christmas afternoon though, which could open doors for a new ritual, and we still are having friends to dinner on the big day.

Change is tough, but I think I can manage.

And when those friends come, I'm willing to lay money on which door they come to.

Merry Christmas

spitting image

Allie: "I like Sex and the city. I don't like Sarah Jessica Parker though; she looks like a foot."

choreography at its finest

in the news

Kid Cudi ends a Friday Vancouver show by punching a fan in the face after he attempted to return the fan's wallet when it was thrown on stage hitting Kid Cudi. The wallet aparently did not belong to the fan, and so he threw it back on stage. Kid Cudi took to this offensively, and, ripping out his ear peice and tossing down his microphone, attacked the fan. The fan is not pressing charges.

Good thing I was at the back.

i got hair on my chest, i look good without a shirt...

Okay. No I don't.
But this is my favourite line in a song and it just so happens that this is my favourite song of the day. An oldie but a goody.
Take it away Tom

fuck healing, lets dance

My first thought when I woke up at 6:30 this morning was, "I feel like dancing". I don't know if it was the remnants of a dream I had been having before I was jolted awake by my alarm or if it was just natural instinct, but all I wanted to do was shake my groove thang. I wanted to sway my hips, hump my rump, booby shake and bite my lower lip in the style of what Jeff fondly refers to as "the white man's overbite". I'm not talking a bar star top of the pops type deal. I'm talking Elvis Costello blaring, hair shaking, pajama clad, and probably a hair brush marauding as a microphone, all in front of my double wide closet door mirror. I'd be throwing down some serious mum moves because I know I dance like your mother and I'm proud of it. What's not to be proud of? If your mum is anything like mine (who can't dance to save her life, but doesn't give a shit), she cut a rug at some of the sickest concerts that will ever grace a stage: Led Zeppelin ("was it three, or four times? My brain has gone foggy."), the first ever Reading Festival ("I hate to admit it, but, I was so stoned the entire weekend, I don't remember a thing. Except that we bought paper sleeping bags.") and Blind Faith ("I saw Ginger Baker do a forty five minute drum solo!") just to name a few. I'd be laying out the snaps like nobody's business and probably some claps and I'd sing along, loud and proud.

If I could have it my way, I'd start every day in this fashion. Or I'd at least like to wake up feeling like that is how I'd like my morning to kick off. It'd be a fool proof set up for a killer day. Or so you'd think. The feeling is only fleeting on a work day though (as I learned this morning) for as soon as your alarm goes of for the second or third time, reality kicks in, and you realise that if you do not get out of bed this instant, you're going to be late for work and that, no, you do not have time to reenact TC's most famous scene from Risky Business before you brush your teeth. You, in fact, do not even have time enough to consider the sub zero temperatures outside your front door, and so without thinking, you wear your Christmas party dress that has been burning a hole in your closet since you first wore it (last week was much too soon for a second sighting) with naught but tights and boots, a sweatshirt and trench type coat to keep you 'warm' on your walk to the office. By the time you arrive, you can see the colour of your legs through your tights; they are crimson. You may as well have been wearing shorts. Your ipod also died a quarter of the way there, as you knew it would, and so you had nothing to keep your ears warm. Cold, colder, COLDEST!! This still does not seem to frost your mood though until an uncalled for, unprofessional freak out by a coworker is thrown your direction and your cheery disposition goes out with the bathwater (not the best analogy as you're at work by this point, so your bathwater has probably been thrown out hours ago...unless you saved it for your room mate, which is old fashioned and gross). That's when you think, "Shit! What a let down. If only I'd woken up this morning feeling like I'd just been dumped...then things could've only gotten better!".

So, on second thought, lets leave those mornings for weekends. The mornings you wake up feeling ambitious, or energised, or with the need to dance. Because, let's face it, when you wake up feeling like you need to dance, you need to dance otherwise you're going to be thinking about it all day, and then there's nowhere to go but down.

burger meister meister burger

Last night, Tara and Nevada came over and we made Christmas cards and watched Christmas cartoons (Santa Clause is Coming to Town) and also movies we watched when we were kids even when it wasn't Christmas (The Santa Clause). I was a little apprehensive at first when it came to the cards as I usually am in most creative endeavors, lacking confidence in my artistic ability, but I soon got into the swing of things and couldn't put down the pencil crayons, construction paper, or glitter. "It's smells like grade school in here!" I exclaimed, getting high off the fumes being expelled from the glue gun beside me. It was exhilarating. I haven't done arts and crafts in years. I managed to produce a few gems including the cliched golden trumpet blowing angel (hand drawn of course), a candy cane wielding penguin, a cat pulled sleigh and this one, that I'm planning on giving to Allie-san. I have great faith that she does not read my blog and if she happens to see it, well then serves her right for deciding to support her bff! It will then go to the next deserving pal o mine.

MERRY CHRIST-BASS!

catchy tune

Married to the sea

hey hoodlum, get up to no good!!!

Drake has a new artist. A protege if you will. His name is P Reign and he sounds like every other 22 year old on the pop charts. He'll probably make it big.

When my buddy (lets call him Paul so as not to complicate him) lived in Toronto, he went to (elementary-middle-high) school with P Reign. P Reign's real name is Avery. Paul used to call him Ovary and P Reign would freak out. Paul was a bully.

According to Paul, he used to hang out with Avery all the time but then when Paul's family moved to Edmonton, Avery turned into (in Paul's words) "a straight up G". He and some other hoodlums started a Toronto Crip street gang called "Galloway Boys" and a bunch of them are still in jail for killing a couple (innocent, non-connected) dudes. (Avery wasn't involved). Paul was definitely the glue. Soon as he moved, things fell apart.

If Paul called him Ovary now, P Reign would probably pop a cap in his ass.

That is how you win at life.

wittle wabbit

I would like to throw out a congratulations to Jessica and Graham Turner (Tara Hare's sister and brother in law) on the birth of their son at around 4am this morning (December 4th, 2009). Good work momma. I can't wait to meet the little guy.

an apology.

Woah. I don't know what happened to me last night. Sorry for being all emo and shit.

To make up for it, here is the cutest kitten in the wooooooooorrrrld!

stab stab stab

What do you do when you have feelings for someone?
You have feelings for them, and you're almost certain that they return those feelings.
All the signs are there.
Or so you think.
Then they decide you should just be friends and you have no choice but to agree; after all, in the immortal words of Bonnie Raitt, "you can't make your heart feel something it won't".
You think that being friends might be okay.
You enjoy each other's company and have the same sense of humour, but you can't stop feelings and secretly hope that maybe, just maybe there might still be a chance.

Then, WHAM, you learn that they've started seeing someone else.
Maybe even before they decided to make your relationship platonic.

What do you do then?
Your insides hurt.
You feel as though you've been punched in the gut.
Your head spins and all you can think about is what they might be doing at this moment and why it isn't you.
You think it's stupid to feel this way because you haven't known them for that long but, again, you can't help feelings.

What do you do, when all you want is to act like a crazy person; write angry emails; show up on their corner; sabbotage this new person and do other things that make you wonder who you are?

As if this may make them see the light.
Do you sit back and pretend like everything is okay?
Do you take it like a (man)?
Do you tell them how you feel?
Or do you distance yourself for a while to be fair to yourself and also because you value thier friendship?

I'm not entirely sure why I'm asking advice. Or who I'm asking advice from.
Is anybody even out there?

Besides, I already know what I'm going to do.

So, if you read this (you know who you are), then you understand why I'm being distant and maybe a little weird. Give it time and we'll be sending each other quirky message soon enough and maybe hitting the pow but until then, I just need a little time and a little Bonnie Raitt.

once in a blue moon

Tonight is the first of two full moons this month; the second falls on New Years eve.

This is called a blue moom and it won't happen again for another 18 years (hence the term "once in a blue moon").
This should make for an interesting December.

Have fun, stay safe, and watch out for werewolves.

Especially if they look like Taylor Lautner.

...

In which case you should also (probably) keep your eye out for cougars.

Daaaaiiiimmmmm!