birthday weekend.

It’s my birthday. 
What’s strange is that I don’t even feel like it is. Not that I do not know it is, but it’s not like when you are younger and your birthday is the most important day of the year. It’s just another day. I am getting closer to 30 and that gives me a bit of a chill. Still had a celebratory rockabilly night with close friends on Saturday night matched with a show by The Mahones. What else can you ask for?

The rest of the weekend was spent shopping for an outfit paid for by the hubby (and I made sure I chose something voluptuous that would turn him on. I’m nice like that), and running the regular errands (laundry, groceries, apartment fixings, etc). The weather was great and made both days off a joy. Too bad it has to rain today…

Here’s something that got me emotional. I usally don’t care much for these kind of shows; there are too many of them and I find it to be a big salad of reheated talent. But I love stories of  ’the unlikely’  making it to the top. It warms my heart. For all the bad news we get every day, this actually put a smile on my face.

Ok, more bad news on the airline front: an aircraft from Canjet was hijacked. A good friend of mine is a flight attendant for this company and I just hope she wasn’t on that plane! My heart goes out to all of them. I can only imagine the stress of going through that.  It’s staggering.

I just can’t believe people’s idiocy.  I question the right to parenthood for some when I read about incidents like this one. What were they thinking ?! Don’t wear your seatbelt if you don’t want to, but you should be responsible for your kids at all time!  For fuck’s sake.

Because it’s my birthday. I indulge in a little treat.  You should too.

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high heels and a cadillac.

As promised I want to write a bit more about Canadian Musicfest (CMW) because I think it is such a fun festival and surely is one that was well worth the trip when I still lived in Montreal. I always encourage people to go out and support Canadian bands as we need need art to be part of our culture to evolve.

So even after partying like mad on Friday, I still went out and checked out a few bands on Saturday. This time, we chose to stay at the same venue all night: The Cadillac Lounge.  I love that place and its leopard decor because it is pretty much as close as you get to a rockabilly venue in Toronto.

The lineup for the night was promising.  Here is what I thought of the shows.

Familiar Looking Strangers at 10 pm. Acclaimed rock ‘n roll band from Liverpool, UK, I had seen the video for one of their songs before the show and was looking forward to hearing them play. They delivered a good performance although much more folk-ey that I had expected. Still a band to check out! They are good lads.

George Westerholm and the Rowdymen at 11 pm. George Westerholm started this project and recruited his musicians along the way. The melodies are great; a rockabilly sound that reminds me of Nashville. George even has the oufit going for him. The lyrics are another story. As much as I wanted to groove to the tunes, the bad song-writing just kept me on my seat. Better luck next time maybe.

Hey Negrita at midnight. Another band from the UK.  And you can tell by the way they dress too. A bit funky, a bit traditional, this band knows how to entertain. I even forgot I wasn’t actually in a pub in London for a moment. I was sold the moment I saw the accordion and banjo. Those instruments don’t lie! It was great to see them live; I truly enjoyed myself and would certainly recommend them, even if just to watch Captain Bliss  -the harmonica player-  deliver with so much passion…and barefoot no less!  As they said themselves: “Hey Negrita, it goes with beer!”.

The Von Drats at 1 am. This band looks like they were just pulled from an old black and white movie. All dressed in matching striped shirts they played a mix of mostly instrumental surf and garage rock that had the whole dance floor packed with people. Dano and Dave were my favourites as there was something almost macabre about them, their demeanor. And what can I say about the beautiful ‘pinup’ dancing on the stage in a white flapper-style dress (probably one of the guys’ girlfriend, well worth showing off). She made it all that much more entertaining visually, if that was even possible. Not necessarily the best in their genre but definitely a great Toronto band.

Needless to say, I had a wonderful time that night.  That is what CMW is all about after all. Enjoying yourself.

Now time to recover.

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sunny spells and scattered showers.

 

Ok. I lied. Montreal is still fabulous. Usually, by day two of visiting I can’t wait to get back home; this time I could have stayed much longer.  I didn’t do anything extravagant, spent some much overdue quality time with my sister and other family members I hadn’t seen in about 3 years and enjoyed the nice weather. It was great to be back in an environment that I know and is very meaningful to me and to do it now as a married woman with my husband by my side.

I love Toronto, but no matter how hard I try to convince myself that it is a fun city it will never be like Montreal. There is nothing wrong with Toronto per se, but it lacks the energy that Montreal has. It is focused on business whereas Montreal prioritizes ‘good living’.  It is beautiful and laid-back and I think as I am getting older that is what I look for more and more. I know I can’t move back there just yet, since my career does not permit it, but some day je reviendrai.

On another note, this week is the Canadian Musicfest (formerly known as CMW). I am excited to see a few bands this year. I haven’t completely made up my mind yet on where I will be each night as the price of the wristbands has gone up considerably and I am not certain that my budget can handle it right now…I know for sure that I will be at The Cadillac Lounge on Saturday for a rockabilly-alt-country-surf-americana filled night. That should be grounds for a great time. As for the rest of my week, I will have to see if any specific venue has more than 2 bands worth seeing so that I can only buy tickets and save a little bit of money.

All in all, I doubt there will be much sleep.

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