March 31, 2012

the rewind button :: revolver


eek, late again!  sadly, even late with an album i am so familiar with already....sheesh...
in the spirit of this project i had to listen to the album again.  who knows, i may have heard something new that i hadn't discovered or perhaps something i had forgotten.  both of which, wasn't really the case. 

i'm starting this post with a wee bit of my introduction to the beatles music.  i very obviously wasn't able to follow along or get excited about any newly released beatles' albums. i mean, i was born after john lennon died, the wings had already come and gone and the traveling wilbury's were probably in talks about how to make popular 80's music stop sucking.  my dad was more of a stones/doors/the who fan and my mom, while a fan of the beatles usually gravitated to music of the current times.  mine and my sister's first real introduction to the beatles was when the anthologies were released on disc and when a.b.c. aired a weeks worth of concerts, movies and interviews back in the mid 90's.  i remembered that week so vividly though.  i stayed up late with my mom and sister watching movies like a hard day's night and help!  i saw the 1964 ed sullivan show appearance, screaming teens, and conspiracies about paul's death that coincided with the conspiracies around sgt peppers lonely hearts club band.  basically, the gamut of their lives, career and influence in music in a week.  that was the week i became so hypersensitive to all things beatles.  i had to own all of their movies.  i wanted to wear bell bottoms every day.  i would stare at the whole green apple and half green applefrom the anthology set in awe.  i remember the stack of beatles sheet music my aunt cindy had in her piano room and being so excited when my older cousins taught me how to play eleanor rigby that i memorized every word so i could sing along.

all of that to say, i was familiar with the beatles' music song by song rather then album by album.  i had a basic understanding of their work but it wasn't until i got older and began collecting albums that i started to realize which song fell to which album and the importance of that album in the career and evolution of the their music. 

so, here falls revolver.  revolver and the white album were the first beatles albums i bought that didn't link themselves directly with a movie.  gasp!  i know but this is how i started collecting their music.  we started with hard days night, then help!, then yellow submarine.  once i knew where revolver fell in the line-up of albums i remember feeling dumbfounded more then anything.  how did all of these songs that i love for totally different reasons like taxman, eleanor rigby, and your bird can sing, and the original release of yellow submarine all wind up on the same album?   and seriously, yellow submarine was released before yellow submarine? 

to quote another rewind button blogger, zachary stevenson perfectly: 
"Some people simplify the Beatles stylistically in two eras – pre-drug and post-drug.  If this is true, let’s say that Revolver is the gateway."

that is exactly how i felt about the beatles as i started to get more involved in knowing their music.  sgt. pepper's is from a very obvious time.  rubber soul you get a glimpse into where they are going but for the most part, it still relates to the pop/folk albums before it {outside of norwegian wood of course}. to me, revolver was that album that was the grey area right before the total departure.  i adore every song on this album and contribute taxman to me taking a liking to george the most {yes, i'm a george harrison fan above all the rest}.  I do still find myself wondering if they were unsure of how this album would have been received and then correct myself to thinking probably not.  in all seriousness,  could the beatles do any wrong in the 60's or ever for that matter?  i like to think not.


my tip for you:
 
*just sing along, you know all of these songs already
*colour the album cover something funky

for other great blogger takes on this album you can go:

next up:

March 28, 2012

happy birthday to me :: a face for 28


it's a bit shocking to me i am in my late 20's already!  not sure if i am good shocked or bad shocked yet, but  i am for sure shocked.  i will say, i am pretty excited for this year though. there are a lot of little things to look forward to!  for the first time in almost 5 years, i actually feel pretty comfortable in toronto.  it sure did take awhile for me to warm up to this city, but year after year i seem to be making closer friends, understanding transit a bit better, and can now confidently recommend awesome places to go in the city.  so that feels pretty good!

we had our little get together with friends on the weekend and then a simple little outing for just handsome and i last night, which ultimately ended with a deep fried Mars Bar {don't do it, trust me!}.  throughout the day i received some of the best birthday wishes i ever had before!  there were so many lovely notes, an extremely flattering birthday blog post on 2 girls2views2ronto, and countless other really creative ways to say happy birthday.  i loved them all so very much!!

i also finished up the last of what i need to mail in my citizenship application which is just another exciting thing happening in this awesome year!  stay tuned for more on that!

March 24, 2012

the prettiest girl in the world


tonight i skyped with my best friend and one of the prettiest people inside and out.  we skyped for close to 4 hours, desperately needing every minute of it.  it makes me so sad that we don't live close to each other anymore.  she was my room mate for years in LA and i can't think of one job we held where we didn't try to get the other one into.

she is on to my master plan to get her out here {a plan 4 years in the making} 
and tonight, she finally admitted she would consider it!!
heart, swoons

so here is my elevator pitch to you torontonians:  darby is an actor, an incredibly talented one at that, an oh!  did i mention she is the prettiest girl in the world?  i think that should do it! if you know great acting groups, films currently auditioning, or  an agency she can be apart of, let me know!  

we would make you cookies each month for the rest of your life if you are the reason she comes!

March 22, 2012

the rewind button :: pet sounds


you can't get more innocent then the beach boys.  okay well, you could, but still.  there is something incredibly uplifting, sweet, and void of complicated feelings about the beach boys in whole, specifically with this album that i sort of love.  

i find i have more personal connections with a song from pet sounds, rather then the album in its entirety.  handsome and i walked down the aisle to the instrumental of god only knows and danced our first dance to the song as well.  it was also the song he sang to me post birthday festivities when we first started dating.  i know, enough already, but i can't help but gush about the memories that song specifically holds for me.

also, we may or may not have used another song from this album in our wedding video.  cough, sneeze, wouldn't it be nice was the song.

for some reason, i usually see this album as a montage to the 1960's advertising world.  simple words with sunny lovey moments packed behind them makes me think of playful beach ads, young scout ads, smiling cigarette and ironing ads.

in short, this album makes me think this is the way the 60s sweethearts would like to be remembered, and the hopeless romantic in me sort of loves that no matter how unrealistic it may be.

a girl can dream right?

my tip for you: 
*clap along to the beat
*listen on a sunny patio with someone you love

for other great blogger takes on this album you can go:

next up:

March 20, 2012

louie + me


this weekend was such an awesome auntie moment for me!  i can only imagine what my sister-in-law must feel because i find myself looking at my nieces and nephew thinking "when the heck did you become a kid?"  i first met the doerksen family when my nephew was the only grandkid and just a tiny 2 years old.  after him came 3 cute little girls and many more fun auntie moments of all of them from babies to kiddos.

this sunday melted my heart so much when my niece not only ditched an offer by a few neighborhood kids to "play with her aunt", but also proclaimed me as "such an awesome aunt" in front of one of them!

it may seem silly but pushing her on the swing and watching how high she could climb the tree made this auntie  super happy on sunday. hearing her be so honest about wanting to hang out with me though, pretty much had me beaming for the rest of the day...oh, and still today!





March 19, 2012

the rewind button :: sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band

image via here

i recently started this awesome group blogging activity which i have sort of dubbed the digital book club for music lovers. 

our first album, sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band, is an album i think isn't just a common name in the beatles anthology, but a common name amongst most household playlists. so you can imagine my shock when i realized i didn't have it! i'm sure i do on cd somewhere {at least i hope that's the case} 

admittedly, this is not my favourite beatles album. with that said, it is their only album to make me dance around on my toes one song, and feel completely annoyed by the over mixing of studio sounds the next. seeing as it followed one of my favourite beatles albums, revolver, i do sort of love how it took the spirit of that album and just blew it out of park. i do find it impressive that the sounds from this album can transend into a lot of today's music and then usually find myself feeling resentment to a few lyrics. but one thing i can for sure decided on, is i have always adored this album's theatrical presence. 


my tip for you: 
*listen to this album on the go as it will instantly push rhythm into everything you do  
*dance to one or two songs on your toes and take a break when you hear the sitar 
{or skip to the next song to continue your dance party}

for other great blogger takes on this album you can go:

next up:

March 17, 2012

heart truth 2012 :: in photos

photos from last week's heart truth fashion show!

March 15, 2012

the rewind button


not too long ago i was approached by my friend reb to see if i wanted to participate in a group blogging activity inspired by her personal friend, rachel's, new years resolution plan.  the idea is, in one word: awesome!!  i think i even responded with a lot of these:
!!!!!
what is it you may ask?  it happens to be a bunch of bloggers going through the rolling stone's top 40 albums of all time week by week and writing our personal experience, thoughts, opinions, you name it!  the great part of it all is we will be listening to the same album each week and as many of us live in different areas and have never met, our takes on each album should offer up a lot of different thoughts.

currently i am already behind deadline, but will post soon!  we are kicking it off with an album i have listened to hundreds of times and definitely don't mind switching on again.  so expect my take on sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club band very soon!  i will also be sure to tag each post with "the rewind button" so you can follow along! if you want to participate, let me know!  in the meantime check out a few of the bloggers participating and some who have even posted already, eek!  they are:




March 11, 2012

a saturday meet up

:  :  :
a few weeks back i linked to some of my favourite bloggers on the right hand side of this page.  one blogger {ahem, sarah kelsey} suggested it would be fun if all of us could get together for a little blogger meet up; so yesterday, we did exactly that at terroni on queen!  most of these girls had never met before so i was super excited for the chance to have them all in the same room and see each of their lovely personalities mix with the others.  it was an awesome afternoon of getting to know each other better over food, wine and a few glasses of prosecco!  sad to say we were without reb {boo to the 427!} and carrie {boo to the distance!}, but both ladies were greatly missed!

if you would like, you can check out all of their super awesome blogs to the right!
happy reading!

March 09, 2012

heart truth


last night i had the honour sitting front row at the heart truth fashion show with the lovely ms christine lu!  i will admit we landed in the front row because of our generous client, swarovski, who was a sponsor of the fashion show and lent a few pieces of jewellery to the models.

the campaign itself is amazing and you can read all about it here.  i love this event for so many reasons like the message to raise awareness about heart disease and women, the amazing designers and celebrities that play a part in strutting the runway, and of course; the red dresses!   i actually got the chance to work part of it last year so it was pretty great to see the changes from year to year.   it was such a fun night, i mean front row, c'mon!  

one highlight of the night easily goes to when one model {we wont name names} accidentally knocked her swarovski earring into the crowd, and for show, took the other one off and tossed that into the crowd as well!  i'm sure you can imagine our faces when that happened "ah uh-oh!  oh....oh no...ohhh no."  we were however lucky enough to retrieve them both unharmed.  thank goodness one of them flew right in to the lap of the heart & stroke foundation's very own, bobbe wood!


more pictures to come, promise!
: : :

March 07, 2012

fuzzy muzzy memories


come september, we will be in europe!

handsome and i are starting the first leg with just the two of us visiting multiple cities in italy. then we will jump up to meet the big sister and the giant in germany where we will see some much missed family members along with a lot of sightseeing and beer tasting.  from there, the four of us will head to paris!  i have never been to europe {gasp, i know!} and i am beyond excited!  i always had good intentions to go but something usually came up that took priority.  it is happening this year though!  hear me?  it's happening!

last night, sister and i had planned a skype date to talk about travel dates, where we would meet up and which airports we would fly in and out of.  as it normally happens with most conversations we have, the seriousness of the topic quickly turned to her and i laughing a ton about nothing with the added bonus of a silly little sing-a-long trip down memory lane with muzzy; in french.  i always remember lindsay loving the french muzzy videos but who knew she still knows most of the words and can sing along? impressive right?!

me? i sort of loved princess sylvi on roller skates and the big green clock eating fluff himself: muzzy. 
here is the video big sister sang along to while i just laughed and laughed.
in france, i may rely on her to do most of the talking!


bonne nuit! 
{i google'd that}