Meme. MP3 (iPod) Shuffle

Yvette Tagged me with a meme. The rules: Turn on your MP3 player. (2) Go to SHUFFLE songs mode. (3) Write down the first 15 songs that come up--song title and artist--NO editing/cheating, please. (4) Choose some people to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about your musical tastes, or at least a random sampling thereof.

What fun! I have a 160G iPod so there's quite a bit to choose from (I think over 3600 songs), but I was very happy to see some of my 1980's favourites, as well the high proportion of Canadian content (even though I think it disproportionately represents what's on my iPod) -- including the music of three friends*!

1. The Triplets of Belleville - Ben Charest (Canadian!)
2. Crash – Electronic Dream Factory* (Canadian!)
3. Juliet – Whole Lotta Milka* (Canadian!)
4. Narcissus – Alanis Morissette (Canadian!)
5. Don’t! – Shania Twain (Canadian!)
6. Stand Up – Susan Aglukark (Canadian!)
7. Busting Surfboards – The Tornadoes
8. Surrealist Blues – Michael Occhipinti (Canadian!)
9. I Will Remember You – Sarah McLachlan (Canadian!)
10. I’m Glad – Jennifer Lopez
11. Reaping The Rich Harvest – Icicle Works
12. John Law Burned Down the Liquor Sto’ – Chris Thomas King
13. Fish Beach – Michael Nyman
14. Duo Boheme Music for Flute and Guitar Track 38 – Zachary Moss* and Christopher Malone (Canadian!)
15. Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) - David Bowie



Here's a picture of Zachary Moss at OCAD's 2009 Convocation last month...not only is he a friend, but he's my colleague and the principal of Moss Ensembles, his independent music company. As serendipity would have it, he played at OCAD's convocation ceremony for many years, before he worked there or I met him! I'm glad he came up on my shuffle for the meme.

Speaking of the meme, I'm going to break the rules...I know shocking...but I'm not going to tag anyone since most people I know have been tagged already. But feel free to play along via the comments.

Red Goose

I mentioned in the last post that I was inspired to make a special red and white Canada Day drink for our Canada Day get together. Thanks to Luciana P for sending these pics of the process and final result!







"Red Goose"
2 parts PAMA pomegranate liqueur
2 parts white cranberry juice
1 part pineapple juice
2-3 parts Canada Dry ginger ale

Mix the non-fizzy things together like mad with ice in a shaker, and then serve on the rocks in a tall glass (which I rimmed in vanilla sugar since that's what I had on hand) and fill to almost overflowing with the ginger ale. I served these up with a "liberated" grey goose pewter skewer, after having impaled a section of lime and a blackberry on it...Had to adlib the presentation a bit since the skewers didn't fit so well in these glasses and the blackberry was slipping off...

I toyed with adding a splash of Amaretto and/or Frangelico to bring out or at least punch up the berry flavour but wasn't sure if that would be a bad marriage and didn't have enough PAMA to test it out. Maybe grenadine would do the same thing, but I thought the Amaraetto or Frangelico would add a nice Italian touch to a Canadian drink given how many Italians live in Toronto (and whose house we were at!).

Happy Canada Day!

Attended a Canada Day BBQ and the star of the show was this delicious cake made by Double Dee. I was inspired to create a red and white Canada Day drink, so I made a "Red Goose" featuring Pomegranate liqueur, white cranberry juice, pineapple juice, Canada Dry ginger ale, topped with a slice of lime and a blackberry on a pewter Grey Goose skewer. Very tasty. Sadly ran out of PAMA far too soon.

Happy Canada Day! There's been very few fireworks in these parts do to the city strike, so all official gatherings were cancelled. What has been going off has been quite lame. Hopefully you are celebrating in better style wherever you are!

Rainy Rose Bush

It's been raining quite a bit the past few days. Everything always looks so lush and colourful right afterwards. I know it's not possible, but I like to think that this tree is where Mohair Silk Glitter by Artyarns comes from.

Koko, Lady Sleepsalot

Hi there,

It's been a while since many of you have seen me, so I thought I'd grace you with a picture from this weekend. See? I am alive, and doing fine. It's just I have a new hobby...



I've become obsessed with sleeping. I'm more dedicated to it than I ever was. I used to get up in the morning for a while when the missus got up and I'd stay up for a few hours doing my thing, but now I only get up for a few moments and then it's back to bed with the mister who seems to like sleeping just as much as I do.



Please excuse me. I meant to blog about some of the other things going on in my life, but it's sleepy-time!



Good night!

Birthday Greetings!

Happy 2nd birthday to Cecily from your pals in Toronto, both the visiting ones and the ones who call Toronto home!

Celebration Time

You may be wondering why there has not been so much blogging of late...well, in addition to all the usual excuses, there was a milestone birthday to be celebrated.


(Birthday cake by Amber)

Oh, and celebrated it was.


(Shannon and Kelly celebrate Thelma-and-Louise-in-Sideways style at Vinelands Estates)

When I recover, perhaps I will have the energy to tell you all about it!

Many, many thanks to everyone who made this special birthday so, well, special, by coming to one (or more) of the parties, or by sending best wishes in one form or another:

Adam, Alessandra, Amber, Andrea B, Andrea S, Angie, Antonella, Benny, Brenda, Brent, Bryn, Buddy, Cathy, Chook, Chris, Christine, Connie, Cristina, Dad, Debi, Deborah, Diana, Elayne, Elisabeth, Floppy P, Francis, Gerry C, Gerry K, Gillian, Haley, Hillary, Jane N, Jane TY, Jennifer, Jessica, Josephine, Karen, Kelly, Koko, Lance, Laura, Leslie, Lisa, Lorne, Luciana, Marguerite, Marlene, Matthew, Mauro, Michael, Michelle, Mom, Morley, Nadia, Natalie, Nicky, Paola, Pat, Peter, Ralph, Rebecca, Regina, Robert, Rory, Sarah M, Sarah Mc, Sean, Shannon, Susan, Susanne, Tania, Terri, Tim, Tom, Tracy, Vanessa, Vilma, Walter, Weldon, Yvette, Zack...