ELFtastic!

Starting last week until christmas, my role at work has been to be the 'Week Day Elf'. No not THIS kind of Elf (although that would be wicked!):



but think more of the lines of:



My job is to go around the whole store, wearing a hat with bells and a red apron, talking to customers and trying to help them find what they want. So far when I great a customer (especially from behind) I get two different responses, either:

1. A suprised, joyous look, followed by a friendly comment on my hat, which comes accross as "Wow, isn't that cute... he's got a hat and all"

or

2. A confused/disgusted look, which comes accross as "What the fuck is THAT! Get away from me you crazy hippy"

Aside from just talking to people, I was given a polaroid camera to take photos of litle kids. Monday I'm walking around and see a little girl (about 4 or 5) in a stroller and she seemed happy to see my hat and apron so I smiled back and said "I have a suprise for you!" and pulled out the camera. As soon as I did that, she started to FREAK OUT! She started screaming and covering her face and turned the other way. Shows how good I am with kids. Here mother wasn't too happy after that...

On another occasion I knocked a prop off the wall (a giant present) and it nearly fell on top of a woman who threatend to sue me.

Thankfully only a couple of more days and I'll get to retire as an elf!

Old Navy Dinner Party

Last saturday I went out for dinner with my fellow Old Navy co-workers. We went to Le Perle Schezuan restaurant for ALL YOU CAN EAT chinese! The food was SO good!
For a few random pics of the night, you can click here

Hate to say Goodbye...

For the past few years, the improv group I'm active with (McGill Improv) have been a pretty tight group. Unfotunately, 3 more of us are departing - Dan and his cousin Monica, and Dustin. There was a farewell party last night. Fun was had by all:





























Best of luck to all of you in the future! It was great knowing you all (yes, even you Dan).

Now Thats Some Good Quality Improv2O

Last night, I managed to convince my parents to let me have the car and drive downtown.

The reason for my sudden interest to drive downtown was to allow me to attend an Improv show by my buddies Without Annette. Their set was about an hour long and they did a long-form game they call Uno. They start off with an ask for, which is then followed by a spoken monologue by one of the perfomers. Then, several small skits are done whose themes are inspired by the monologue. It was hilarious and I quite enjoyed it. My friend Nadine came as well and at some points almost fell out of her seat laughing. They did two 30 minute sets.

The first one revolved around Gil's monologue about music, spawning skits about a band's direction of music, lost homework, harry potter audio tape recordings and an allmusic.com interview.

The second half revolved around Brian's monologue about stairs, spawning skits of a mother on a date with her baby sitter, two brothers taking advantage of an empty apartment, working out at the gym and a spiral staircase to heaven.

The show was at Theatre St. Catherines and only 6 bucks! As far as I know, they'll be doing it every saturday night at 11pm. I highly recommend you check it out! (Yes, I'm talking to YOU!)

One Way Ticket To Hell And Back!

Ladies and Gentlemen. We've all been waiting for this day to happen and it finally did on Tuesday. The Darkness have released their SECOND album, One Way Ticket To Hell... And Back. It's the follow up to their smash hit Permission to Land which included EVERYBODY'S FAVORITE song I Believe In A Thing Called Love.

Now for those that don't know about th espiritual connection I have with this band, let me entice you with a quick story. When the Darkness first hit the scene, one of my good buddies, Mr. Sam Sewall, fell instantly in love with them. he made it his destiny to preach the name of The Darkness to all of those in need of ROCK in their lives. He then convinced me to join him at their concert in the summer of 2004 when they played in Montreal. The show ROCKED! AFter the show, Sam, myself and my othe good buddy, Glen all purchased concert T-shirts. The very next day I was sporting my new T-shirt. Later that evening I would run into a bunch of drunken Irish chicks, who's curiosity of the how the show went, would spawn our friendship. That friendship led me to learn about SWAP, an organization that brings travellers to Canada as well as send Canadians to other countries. The VERY same organization that I chose to affiliate with in order to go to Australia to embark on the trip that changed my life! So in short I owe all of this to THE DARKNESS! And now they have returned to bring ROCK back to everyone, again!

Unfortunately, the album isn't as good as the first one. Their first single One Way Ticket is nice and catchy but at first listen I felt that the songs were not as rcok'ish as their first album and are rather slow and a couple, bland. However, to celebrate the release of the album, Sam, myself and Sam's buddy, Patrick, were all at Patrick's with our own copy of the album in our hands listening to what the band came up with. It's the reactions that the two guys had to the album that really made me appreciate it more. Sam kept saying stuff like "Oh my god! That's like the BEST drum sound I've ever heard!" So hilarious!

If you like The Darkness, I suggest you pick up this CD but bewares it's different from their old stuff. However, there are some really good songs which include "One Way Ticket", "Is It Just Me?", "Dinner Lady Arms" and the classic rock sounding ballad "Seemed Like a Good Idea At The Time"