After nearly a year I've finally got back into the nerdly realm of swing dance workshops! I've had some really horrible swing nights lately, where I've had some bloody awful dances (when I wasn't standing on the sidelines feeling like a total goob, that is!), so I admit it was kind of trial by fire! I forced myself to go to Cat's Corner last night, but was so pleasantly surprised to have a great night - I asked lots of people to dance, I got asked lots, laughed when I buggered up and let myself have a lot of fun (for once - I suck at that!).

So this afternoon I went along to a five hour Intermediate-Advanced Technique workshop with Aiden and Syvia at Studio 88 - god damn, I forgot how you come away from these things feeling like you've been hit by a truck! My legs are aching like hell and my dogs are barking, man! So the group was a bit of a mix of standards, but it was nice to see that I stacked up pretty well (if I do say so myself *groan*). There was nothing too challenging concept-wise, but Sylwia and Aiden are amazing dancers and have an approach that turned on some serious lightbulbs for me personally. They are cool. Yeeeeeah. I'm getting into swing again - oh the humanity!

Copper is drawn by a guy called Kazu - the website is www.boltcity.com. Check out Clive and Cabbage, too!

Well, if all goes to plan, in 4 hours time I should be skankin' in the pit to Reel Big Fish!! Woot! The show is on at the Montreal Spectrum tonight and should be a cracka!! They're the only band I have every one for their albums (oh yeah, except for Royal Crown Revue) and i've never seen 'em live - oh man am I excited! Will check back later with a report and hopefully some pix. Rawk!

BEST. SHOW. EVAH!!!

OMG what a great gig! For starters the venue was great - loads of tables, a huge pit and a great view of the stage from every seat, not to mention a plethora of clean and fragrant dunnies (always a vital part of every band-going experience). There was no mention anywhere of support bands, so happy was I discover there were two montreal bands on before the RBF. First up, this group of shabby-looking student types shuffles on stage, and I must confess I wasn't optimistic. Well, quelle surprise - they fucking rocked! I didn't find out til later their name is The Couch Addiction and they're a ska-punk band from right here in Quebec. I ran out to the lobby and bought their CD, and bugger me if it doesn't rock my world! What are the odds? The next band by contrast sucked copious amounts of ass. They're called General Rudie, and my advice is if you see them coming - run away. They stink. The lead singer was all like 'yo wassup bitches' and 'we 'bout to rawk the mutherfukin house' etc and did nothing so much as make me want to rush the stage and stick his saxophone in a very uncomfortable place (no, not in the back of a volkswagon). 'Nuff said.

Anyhoo, finally RBF took the stage, and suffice to say they rocked. Hard. Okay, so I have all their albums and know all their songs, but to see 'em live was a thing of beauty. They can all REALLY play, and they have stage presence out the wazoo. I rocked out in my chair throughout the whole show (much to Ian's embarrassment, I'm sure), but couldn't contain myself for the last few songs and hit the pit for some moshy goodness to end the night. I came out sweaty, bruised and happy as a clam. What a kick ass night. *sigh*

Me being an idiot at the show.

Blurry crap photo of the band.

Another blurry crap photo of the band (but, hey, it could be anyone at that distance!)

Natalie Dee draws funny pitchers. Love eet.

What. The. Hell. These disturbing figurines were displayed in the checkout area of our local Metro supermarket, between the magazines and the organic corn chips. What a piece of inspired marketing! The ideal checkout impulse item - a figurine of an escaped mental patient in a chef's hat displaying his testicles on the outside of his pants. Genius.

I guess it's time for another update in The Blog That Nobody Reads^TM.

Still working at Grandma Emilys as a granola wench. A new guy has just started in my area, so my life is a lot easier there now. But I don't really wanna talk about it. It's work, hard physical work, and it sucks. But it's money, so there you go. Geez, bitter much? :D

On the plus side, I've been going to the gym like 4 times a week, and I've just signed up for a social softball league for the spring and summer, which should be sweet fun. I'm going to buy a glove next week - yay! Wow, I hope I don't suck. Unfortunately I'm still eating bad food, so they kinda cancel each other out.

So I'm on a huge bubble tea kick at the moment - there's this sweet place we go to in Chinatown called L2. They have the hugest bubble tea menu, great food and loads of games you can sit around for hours and play. Nerdly heaven.

Last Saturday night I went to a fundraiser at an oldschool montreal swing venue called the Swing Ring. They basically had a recreation of a typical 1998-9 swing event, complete with crappy fake vintage wear and neo-swing tunes galore. It was a total sellout - the place was overcrowded and swelteringly hot. I left fairly early after gaining lots of swing related injuries and only 5 dances. But it was a big night nonetheless!

I find so many great cartoons every week, so I thought I'd start posting my favourites. This one's by Ben Hatke. Love eeet!

Well. After a sweet sweet week off work (okay, so I was horribly sick for most of it, but still...) I'm sadly back to granola tomorrow morning. It's been a pretty productive week, though - I've really got back into practice, spent some serious quality time with Ian, played way too much Final Fantasy 6 and eaten like a total pig. Okay, so maybe not so productive...

In other news, I hear the pope died. Buh. Although the cross on top of Mount Royal, which we can see from our window, has been lit up with red lights (the only time it changes from white is when a pope dies. So safe to say it won't be changing again for a little while). It's really creepy, actually. *guh*

It's like that, but red. Ooooohhhh boogy boogy!!

Just found the cutest things - this girl in the US is making duct tape handbags and accessories! Her website's Sticky Hearts.

Sweetness!