i can leave for the east coast tomorrow..

Ok, so it's not exactly later last night but it'll have to do...I was busy making curry, it took longer than expected and didn't turn out right...despite having massive amounts of curry powder, it is flavourless. I'll have to fix it up when it comes time to reheating leftovers.

Wednesday, June 17th:
Kicked off the afternoon at work! Ya, working the Argos pre-season game.

Went to the Drake Hotel for NXNE Kick-off...to start, they played 4 short films (and by short, I mean 3 minutes or so each) about various bands/venues in Toronto, and the first one featured Danko Jones, talking about Maple Leaf Gardens. He and his bassist JC were at the venue to watch it, so I made sure to say hi. I heard about the secret Broken Social Scene show but I'm not a huge fan (or just, fan) and I just ended up going home afterwards.

Thursday, June 18th:
Thursday was a bit of a bigger day for me. I started the evening off at Melissa Auf Der Maur, playing at Dundas Square. As far as chick singers go, she was pretty good. She had pretty funny stage banter, and she's hawt to boot. some barely-legal boys in the crowd were likin' it but too drunk to remember her name, and I ended up giving them my hand-written evening schedule to copy into their cellphone. When i was leaving the square later, they saw me and said "Hey, it's that awesome girl. We Love You!". Haha.

I headed over to the Whippersnapper Gallery on College & Clinton to catch my first special guest of the festival. The band, No Age, were really good. I'm not a huge fan of 2-person bands, but they were tight, the drummer was a decent singer, and the guitarist can restring in 30 seconds flat.

I then headed over Clinton's on Bloor West to catch Great Bloomers, with whom I'm falling in love. Their songs are layered with slow and fast parts, easy to dance to, and one particular song, Honey Blanket is constantly being streamed on myspace (until I can afford their album!)

Following their set, I walked to Lee's Palace, just in time to see the Skydiggers, referred to me by a friend. While I don't think I could be a huge fan, they were enjoyable, the singer had awesome stories to tell in between songs, very Hawksley Workman-ish.

The Special Guests at Lee's were Elliot Brood...decent, but kinda boring so I returned home.

Friday, June 19th:
Started off the night at Jen's where H's other friend was staying as well. We watched a couple of very funny episodes of the Office (coming from a non-Office watcher)...seriously, if anyone sang Take a Chance on Me with backup singers on speaker phone I think I'd die of happiness. We then decided that we must try Ein-Stein's deep-fried pickles. Now, I'm also not a huge pickle fan, but these were delicious! I have no idea how they get the batter to stick to those suckers!

We tried to make it to Dundas Square to catch Wintersleep but we only caught the one-song encore, which is just as well because that song was slooooow movin', not really my style. I was really feelin' seeing Magneta Lane, who was next on my hand-written schedule, so I jumped on a train to come home, get my camera, freshen up, drink a beer, and head out again; this time, to Lee's Palace again.

Met a nice young man in line who I hung out with for the show...strange enough, my age, named Nick, and having a birthday one day before mine! We watched the end of No Age's set (glad to have seen them again), and then kinda stood there in shock/confusing at King Khan...I say, if you need a gimmick like crazy costumes on stage, you're not really that good.

The best part of the night was that Nick said he had an extra ticket to Edgefest the following day, and that if I wanted it, it was mine! I had mentioned I had a boyfriend, so hopefully there was no confusion.

Saturday, June 20th:
Woke up to rain, and more rain. Thank goodness I stopped at the dollar store by my house for a child's $1 poncho, because it really did come in handy! I wasn't allowed to bring my umbrella in (hid it in my backpack--they weren't checking) because it's considered dangerous, yet later found out that schick had a booth and was handing out free razors, many of which later littered the ground. Not a good thought, as I was walking around barefoot for much of the day: mud+flipflops=huge mess+stuck feet. Consideration for future years: those shoes you wear in the water so that rocks don't bother you.

I did enjoy walking barefoot in the mud: I got a bit of free exfoliation and it was really soothing! We (Nick, his friends, and I) spend the earlier part of the day walking around to the Beer Gardens, checking out merch, etc, but managed to hear/watch parts of K-OS, Metric, Cancer Bats, and Moneen. I was really only there to see the Waking Eyes, and the trip to Downsview Park was worth it once they started their set. They were just ON that night, the crowd really grew once Alexisonfire finished up on the main stage, and I even got a few people around me to do the Clap breakdown in the middle of All Empires Fall. Righteous.

After realizing how late it was getting, I decided to head back to civilization and get ready for another night of NXNE. My bottled water came in handy for washing most of the mud off my shoes, but my legs were still covered in mud for the public transit ride home...I got a few stares and a couple of "So, how was edgefest?" comments.

One half-shower, redressing, and feeding later, I was ready for that night. My schedule slated me to see Oh No Not Stereo, a band that got rave reviews at SXSW, but they were unable to cross the border, so I went to option #2 on my list, Novillero at El Mocambo, who are always a good time (man, can those guys tambo!)

I wanted to make sure I got into Bovine Sex Club to see Inward Eye, so I scooted down there, and awesomely got a prime viewing spot. The boys were fabulous as always, the new songs are sounding good and you always know you've come to a good rock show when the guitarist blows a fuse in the first song. Ha. When they were done, the folks behind me were talking to themselves and said "See, the best bands come from Winnipeg, it must be something in the water," and I turned around and said, "I know, I'm from there!" Struck up a conversation with them about Inward Eye.

I stuck around to watch part of The Dogs, from LA, but I'm not really into that style of Stooges/Detroit Rock, so I headed to the Horseshoe Tavern, where I caught the end of Jason Collett's set and half of Hot Panda's set...they were meh, so I left, as I didn't feel like missing the last subway simply to see a meh band.

Sunday, June 21st:
The last day of NXNE! My first stop was at El Mocambo to catch Regina's Rah Rah. They were great, and not just because they had Hula Hoops and streamers. They had a wonderful song about Regina, which should always bring respect.

The next two bands at El Mocambo cancelled out, so instead they had the Hank and Lily Show, which again was too gimmicky for me...Lily had antlers and a high-pitched, but interesting voice. Hank and bassist wore face masks and crazy goggles. I eventually left and headed over to Racho Relaxo and what a great idea it was! I caught only the last few songs of Dan Griffin, who is also a member of the Arkells (who I unfortunately missed at Edgefest; they played first). He was alone with an accoustic guitar and the last song he played, East Coast, was hauntingly beautiful: it brought tears to my eyes (which I later told him--in response, he asked for my name and shook my hand).

The next band at Rancho was Bellewoods, and they were decent, a good way to end the festival.

Today:
Returned some library books, make tacos for dinner, listened to some beautiful tunes on myspace, chatted with my lover, and just enjoyed the beautiful day.

This week:
Interview tomorrow, Haircut on Wednesday, Meg's Birthday on Friday, Parents visit (aka FamJam) on Saturday through Tuesday!