Bombay Duck

Steely Dan: a review

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:41:09 -0400

The Steely Dan concert was tonight, not last night. We just got back a little while ago.

It was an amazing show. Donald Fagan looks more and more like what would happen if Lurch and Richard Belzer made a baby together. Becker was his usual laid back, sardonic self. Nothing about their music sounds dated or MOR--the arrangements were really fresh and current. The band was unbelievably tight. They played for 90 minutes straight with no intermission. And the weather tonight was perfect, not too hot, not chilly, with what Becker at one point called a "Moroccan moon" hanging in the sky. Fantastic.Mr BA got some great pics; I'll try to post them tomorrow.

On the downside: the dude standing next to me who smelled like pee. Also, the people in our vicinity who were smoking really shitty pot. I mean, dried catnip and oregano would have smelled less harsh than that shit. The high-as-a-kite skanky chick who kept screaming at Mr BA to take her picture. And worst of all, all the lame-asses who drag their stupid lawn chairs to all these outdoor music festivals, plonk them down to "save" the best spots all day, then complain if you are standing in front of them to dance. I'm sorry, if you want to watch Steely Dan sitting down in a comfy chair, just stay in your living room and watch their DVD. Ottawa is notorious for the ongoing feud between the "sitters" and the "standers." I've been to concerts where the artists are literally yelling at the audience to get their asses out of their lawn chairs and dance. Pathetic.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Bonne fête/Happy Birthday, Québec!

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:15:10 -0400

Today was the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City by Samuel de Champlain.

Tens of thousands--tourists and locals--are whooping it up in this beautiful city tonight. And the party is going to go on all summer long. It's about a 5-6 hour drive from here; but Mr BA and I are going to try to get up there one weekend. It's one of the most beautiful cities in North America.

Quebec City

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Old skool still roolz

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:35:18 -0400

Slick Rick - Hey Young World

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Guess what else I plan to do on my staycation?

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:18:29 -0400

Wrath of Khan

Cranky totally made me want to go see it, and I just found out it's opening at the local rep cinema this weekend, w00t! All yurt, all the time, baby!

I also want to check out Before the Rains, about a married British tea plantation owner who seduces his Indian house servant and then tries to cover it up.

Wet sari contest

And although reviews have not been great, I wouldn't mind checking out The Children of Huang-Shi, because it has the yummy Jonathan Rhys-Myers in it, as well as the amazing Chow Yun Fat and Michelle Yeoh. How bad can it be?

Huang Shi

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Great News!

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:45:21 -0400

Mr BA got a job! It's a contract to design a communications strategy. It starts Monday and is only until the end of August, but it pays well and buys him more time to find something permanent--w00t!

Boston is still up in the air at this point. Not sure he'll be able to get the time off for us to drive. Still, I have enough airmiles for a ticket, if I can find a reward flight that works with my dates...

In other news--my staycation officially starts tomorrow. I was off Tuesday for Canada Day. Off Wednesday too--although I caved and checked my email, only because I knew some weird shit was going down. Today I had to be up early for a professional-development "retreat". But it was fun and informative, I can get that vacation day back at a later time, it was over by 4. I've been sitting out on our second-story deck, drinking dessert wine and reading a very good biography of Julius Caesar, surrounded by our lovely herb and tomato planters--everything is growing prodigiously after all the rain we've had. We have 4 kinds of basil, 5 kinds of tomato, sage, Greek oregano, thyme, parsley, rosemary, cilantro and mint. Mr BA built all the planters himself out of fragrant cedar He likes to grow vegetables. He planted a clematis vine too, but it isn't doing very well. No flowers and it's barely grown any shoots. we got a hibiscus too, and it's looking lovely. I'm sure it will get more flowers now that the sun has returned (we only had three days without rain in June).

Tomorrow I have to get up extra-early again. I have an appointment with an eye specialist at 8 a.m. (blech). But I plan on spending the rest of the day doing nothing. Oh, except getting a hot stone massage and hanging out at the baths here:

Le nordik

And tomorrow evening, ZOMG-- it's the Steely Dan concert at the Ottawa Blues Festival. Yay!

Deacon Blues

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Look out, pussies!

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 10:59:12 -0400

Seen at Grumblebunny's. Cranky, next time the raccoons give you trouble, you can see that I'm perfectly qualified to save you.

See how you rate here.

Brought To You By Adult Toy Parties

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Happy Canada Day!

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:22 -0400

Fireworks 01 copy

Mr BA and I just got back from watching the fireworks from a prime viewing spot down the street from our place. They were spectacular! Mr BA took some great shots.

For those of you who don't know, we live in Ottawa. The nation's capital. Our house is a 5-minute walk from Parliament Hill, where all the festivities take place. Imagine living a couple of blocks from the Mall in DC on the 4th of July. Yes, that's what our neighbourhood has been like all day. But it's all fun. People are loud and inebriated, but generally not disruptive. Although one morning after July 1, we did awake to find footprints all over our car, where some jackass had walked on it in the middle of the night. As long as they don't pee or puke in my front garden or on my stoop, I'm cool.

Best part of Canada Day: Seeing all kinds of people showing their Canadian pride: women in saris with little maple leaf flags painted on their cheeks. Somali girls wearing read and white headscarves. Asian kids hanging out with Black kids, Lebanese kids, ~~Honkey~~ Caucasian kids, Tamil kids, waving flags and setting off firecrackers. I'm not saying there aren't racial tensions in Canada; just that in most cities, the vast majority of people all just get along with no issues at all.
Worst part: the racist redneck asshole and his chain-smoking, spandex-clad white-trash wife behind me in line at the chip wagon: "This chip wagon is the best; it's run by a local [meaning white]guy. All those other chip wagons, just look at them: they're all Chinese." WTF? I totally would have confronted him, but Mr BA was literally restraining me.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Vox Hunt: Oh Canada!

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:29:30 -0400

In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.

Yeah, yeah, we know. We amuse you Americans no end. We apparently say "oot and aboot" You like our beer (that's ok, you can have all the crappy Labatt Blue and Molson Ex you want. We keep the good microbrewery stuff for ourselves). We stick the letter "u" in words like colour and famous. We gave you Celine Dion (sorry), Bryan Adams, Sarah McLaughlan, Feist, and Alanis "yes, it's another album about another fuckwad ex-boyfriend" Morissette (how this woman, with her record of public revenge, is ever going to get another date is beyond me. But I digress).

Anyway, here's a list of some of my favourite fellow Canadians. Like Redzilla, I'll start with my peeps, who I hope are all enjoying their day off.

Bobavid
Laurie
arbed
Morgat
Toe-Knee
Ian in Hamburg

And here are some of my favourite Canadians. You may have heard of some of them:

William Shatner (the Student Union building at McGill University is named after him)
Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best (discovered insulin)
Glenn Gould
Oscar Peterson
Stephen Leacock (turn of the last century humourist and author, kind of our Mark Twain)
Jacques Plante (legendary Montreal Canadians goaltender in the 50s ; first NHL goalie to wear a mask, his own invention)
Mary Pickford
Martin Short
Mike Myers (Mr BA went to high school with him)
Nellie McClung (feminist and women's rights leader; she led a movement that led to Manitoba becoming the first province in Canada to give women the vote. The country followed a year later.)
Henrietta Edwards (founder of the Victorian Order of Nurses, one of the longest-standing and most respected volunteer organizations in Canada. She was one of the "Famous Five", a quintet of women who, in 1927, successfully argued before the Supreme Court of Canada that women were indeed "persons under the law", and therefore entitled to sit in the Senate.)
Russell Peters (Indo-Canadian comic. Like me, he looks brown but has a white name. And he's fucking hilarious. Every thing that comes out of his mouth concerning Indian FOB (fresh off the boat) families is true. )

Russell Peters - Beating Your Kids

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Has anybody noticed...

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:40:00 -0400

Based on the previews for that wretched-looking "Dave" movie with Eddie Murphy, Eddie appears to have adopted the same bizarro Nigerian-Oxford accent he used in "Coming to America"?

Meet Dave - Trailer #1 (TROO-HD)

Coming To America trailer

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Yeah, that would be me :P

nobody@vox.com(brownamazon) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:32:06 -0400

Seen at arbed's and SnoringKatz's.

You Are a Flashy Red Bra!

Outgoing, friendly, and fascinating.

You're a charmer, with your pick of the men.

But you want a man who's as magnetic as you are.

You need someone who can keep up with your all night gab fests!

What Kind of Bra Are You?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend