Candidly Canadia

C'est trois frois.....

Goodness golly and gosh. Its already freezing me balls in the buckets of ice. and the wind it just howls through you like your flesh and bone have no substance. Is it particularly cold for the locale... no. Unfortunately I am just whingeing about low plus temperatures like 5 or 7 degrees Celcius!!!!!

The soles of the leaves are leaving in droves and are off to florida. They of course leave their mortal remains to clump and rot in the damp cool earth. We had Fiona's friend Fanny stay ffor the weekend which was really nice. We had a night on the town with food and drinks and running between shelters in the blistering rain. Good god! who really invented this climate called...winter [of course it is still officially just Autumn].

Our stuff finally came on friday.... it was soo weird to see it all. The last time was at Ryan street... and you guys were all round for dinner and drinks. Getting our stuff I think made me a bit more aware that we have really moved. But it was also great to see it again - it also means that I can get more info to NSCAD and so on....

Anyways apart from the weather and our stuff coming things do seem a little more manageable...mostly.

Canadia oh Canadia

Okay i just found these beautiful shots of Canadia and really i'm seeing if blogger will show it on the screen. Talk about cheesey, and the second shot is all squeezed, but there are some nice pics too. The squirrel is funny. Oh no, this isn't grumpy either. We can delete it, really.

ox mic

Cool Yuppies in a Canadian Mansion

Found this post from a couple of extremely cool and friendless bloggers also in Halifax / Melbourne;

Link: Cool With No Friends: we're yuppies now

i love the pictures of Paul and Fiona's new house, and hey Sasha looks so happy :)

By the way i am grumpy now. This time, not because Paul is a slack blogger, no it's great to have new stories about Apple Picking Adventures, from not quite freezing Halifax. Thanks Paul you are a champion blogger.

i am grumpy because i'm working too hard, and still packing my lungs with suffocating poisons.

Worked two days up in Marysville (which was incredibly beautiful), on a conference, taking photos and recording audio from the sessions. The trouble was i underquoted by about half what i should charge them. You know, thinking, "Oh, they're community sector etc." Came back incredibly friggin exhausted. Next time i'll know.

But the dancing was good. Friday's session opened with an invitation to delegates, asking if they wished to veto any of the Thursday evening photos. Of course they did. Even i wanted to veto the photos where i'm dancing with a tiara on. But no, in the public interest i left these images in the mix.

Friday night wandered down to Open Studio where Eloise was hosting a farewell for Jodey, celebrated Fringe Director (Source/Sauce received multiple awards). Just one bloody cigarette, plus major fatigue, and i woke up today feeling like hell on wheels. No, actually, hell without any wheels. Ugh, drug addiction sucks.

Grumpy and Out,
xo michael

Apple Picking on the Other side o' d Werld

Soo bloddy cheery. You feasting on the goodie of culture and we on a family excursion to the Annapolis Valley, NS, to go apple picking. Us with Sasha, his cousins Elie, Phoebe and Callum and Fiona's Sister Sarah and her hubby Phil - all packed into two cars and head North by North west in a glorious Autumn day for 'sum good' apples. [nova scotian expression - sum good]

Where is the grump in this. A beautiful day was had by all. All up about 100 lbs (50kilos??) of apples collected for distribution around the family.... but still I guess lots of pies, crumbles, slices, chutneys and sauces to be made for the winter ahead. The leaves are still grumley holding on for dear life to the trees and are al glorious Reds, Oranges and vivid yellows.

Fall is really a treat - kinda cold but nice, soft air and really beautiful soft colours... I can understand why Canadians rave about it. The other night was a real 'pea sooper' [English? expression] but an apt oneeverything felt like silk outisde. oooohhhh!.

The cold is not all that Canada is... to my relief at this stage. Although outside it is 5 degrees.\
Hope the feast continues in spring for youse,,

Northcote music feast: High Vibes

What a windy hell of a day. So cold we forgot it was springtime, so windy the outdoor sun-shelter blew off its groundings and hurled itself across the yard to shatter some pottery, just before Jude and Jody arrived for the pancake brunch. "What's that?" everyone else asked about the frame with no canvas, ".. your meditation dome?"

There's nothing like mango pancakes to kick off the windiest music festival this side of the Yarra, and we had a gorgeous spread. The best moment was when Tim flipped his pancake and it went behind the stove. No, wait the best moment was watching Tim use giant chopsticks to recover his pancake from behind the stove - no chance, it's gone!

Wind and rain and hail surprisingly made for a really good festival, because you had to be inside to survive, and inside was where the best music would be found. (oh, that's why i saw no music last year, i was drinking in the sun all day)

Describe Eliza were fun and funky at the Peacock. Toy Band (jazz plus lots of toys, balloons, streamers, on and around stage) and Tzigas (Russian Gypsy music - plenty of this around Northcote at the moment) at 303 were terrific.

The Town Bikes and Die Roten Punkte impressed the crowds no end at the new Ballroom venue (usually only Italian receptions, but they opened it up for the day), and finally Martin Martini at Open Studio (Eloise's bar) - wild gypsy funk with a gravelly and skeletal voice. i liked these guys so much i bought the CD on the spot.

The Open Studio crowd kept going of course, when Tegan came out from behind the bar with her clarinet to draw the musos together for one or two final sets. Dance dance dance. Baby.
Yeah.